Intentions in Shadow

[Tsar Fire]

The landing claws grasped at empty sky as the Arbiter began its final approach to the enclave at Thyferra. Repulsorlifts hissed as the ship began dropping speed, dumping thin jets of burning plasma into the atmosphere to slow its descent.

It's long, sleek hull was scarred from battle, and the shade insignia, carefully worked into an Arkanian trade logo was faded from exposure to foreign suns. The sky was dark, as the night had recently fallen. The ship was a new constellation of bright stars, winking in and out of existence as the thrusters made final adjusments to course and alignment.

Docking arms lifted out of the hangar bay, to snag a ship of the Arbiter's size and snag her into the storage gantry, since the Arbiter was not meant to stay overlong on mere landing skids.

Guidance lights blinked on, new arrays of green and red, matching up docking hooks and gantries, fuel lines and supply ramps; a graceful dance of machinery and science. The machinery had been custom built on the funds of a man recently dead. A knight, recently dead. His ship was one of his few passions.

Rascha knew that well, as she had been the last to speak with him, before his death.

She stared out of the bridge viewports, at the stone walls of the hangar, now hidden from outside view, since the bay doors had closed. She wasn't even sure what she was doing here.

Taking the advice of a man she had known a mere three months? Who had suffered mortal injury in the course of destroying her entire world? Or perhaps, freeing her from her own personal hell...

Rascha gave her head a minute shake. She wasn't even sure what to think anymore, which was why she was here. There was too much she still needed to learn, about the galaxy, and about the force.

Hopefully, this place would provide answers, instead of more questions...

Hopefully, the sight of a dead shade knight's ship being brought in by someone else wouldn't get her killed...

Shaking the thought away, Rascha stood, and strode from the bridge, to the port entry hatch, reaching out with the force to lock the bridge controls. She wanted one way out, one asset that was hers alone. Her master's final words still wrung in her ears. "Trust nothing at face value. Not even the shade. Trust in the force, before all others."

Steeling herself, she keyed open the port hatch, and stepped out onto the walkway, to see this temple of Thyferra for herself.

 

[Emma Lou]

Shade Master Aleyn Julius stood at the entrance of the temple grounds, waiting for her new padawan. She had heard word that this young women would be making an appearance here after her former master had died. She would have his ship and his body and she must not be harmed.

Aleyn's blue robes swelled around her as she walked out to meet the ship, flanked by two of the medical personal. They would take Knight Derek Ekhar's body to prepare it for a proper burial.

The hatch of the ship opened and Aleyn stood at the bottom of the ramp.

"Welcome to Thyferra. These knights will take Knight Ekhar's body now and then you will come with me"

 

[Tsar Fire]

Rascha blinked in surprise at the sight of the shade master standing at the edge of the ramp; and at her words.

They'd known she was coming? They'd known everything? Had Derek somehow sent word?

But... when could he have? They'd been stranded in an obscure outpost the entire time...

She gave a faint shake of her head. Perhaps the shade had felt it in the force. The woman standing at the end of the walkway was certainly powerful enough.

She glowed in Rascha's vision, bending the world around her, as the flow of the force was altered by her presence... a weight pulling everything in...

Rascha reached up, to make sure the band over her eyes was pulled tight; she wanted to be sure her unnatural eyes were hidden. Then she brushed her red hair back and strode forwards.

She bowed, and asked. "What will happen to Derek? And where are we going?"

 

[Emma Lou]

"He will receive a proper burial, do not worry. We will be heading to get you settled in a room then begin your training. That is why you came, right?"

Aleyn knew it was. She also knew that this girl already had learned much from Knight Ekhar. Her training would be shorter than others if she chose it.

"I am Shade Master Aleyn Julius"

 

[Tsar Fire]

"but how did you know? I don't understand..."

Rascha suppressed her confusion. Derek had also known more than he should have. It seemed that shade were full of surprises; and had she heard right? Master?

This woman might be greater than Knight Ekhar? The idea was surprising to Rascha, since Derek had seemed unstoppable, a one man army, defeating an entire security force, especially one equipped with less than legal equipment...

still... she was here to learn.

"Yes, I'm ready to learn as soon as you are willing to teach me."

 

[Emma Lou]

"We sensed it"

She nodded to the medics and they boarded the ship to get the body. She motioned for the young women to follow her as she headed towards the temple.

"What is your name? How old are you? Tell me about yourself...what did Knight Ekhar teach you?"

 

[Tsar Fire]

"My name is Rascha. I think I'm 19."

She strode behind the older woman, her foosteps matching the rythym of the shade master.

"He taught me how to feel the force, how to see it flowing around me. He explained to me what my sight truly was." She sighed. It would have been wonderful to know that years and years before. It would have explained why she was different from the ones who experimented on her, why her sight was so important to them.

"He taught me to see things far away, and then how to move things with the force. How to sense what I shouldn't normally be able to see, even with my sight. When something is going to strike me, when I'm in danger..."

She gazed about her, taking in the stones of the hangar, with the advanced technology so cleverly worked into the original structure. It was an amazing place, nothing like the labs she used to live in.

She couldn't... this place would be different... no more tests... Derek had promised... She couldn't let them see her eyes... Nobody could stand her eyes. They'd have to do tests, or they'd turn her away...

 

[Emma Lou]

Aleyn nodded along as she listened to Rascha speak.

"Then it seems that you have already been taught much of what I would teach you. I would like for you to tell me about your past"

They walked through the entryway of the temple as Aleyn spoke. It was a beautiful sight that she never got tired of seeing. Now she made her way towards the dormitories.

 

[Tsar Fire]

Her past!? Rascha felt her pulse begin to speed up, and a panic clench her gut.

She tried to dispel it but... she couldn't let this life become like her last one. She wouldn't let it happen. Nobody could know about her eyes... they were just too strange... too unique. Science would demand investigation... for the good of her whole race... or something stupid like that...

Still, an answer was expected, and lying would be obvious to this woman...

"Well... I don't know where I was born, or what planet I'm actually from..." It was true, she had no idea.

"As long as I can remember, I've been in a lab. I've been a test subject for... a long time. There were other children, but they didn't survive all of the tests... I got out with this..." She motioned to the scar across her forhead.

"That was my life, until Derek found me... I saved his life, so he helped me escape, and then taught me what he could, until... he died from his wounds... After that, I came here..."
She didn't need to bore the woman with descriptions of the tests... they were either dull, or painful anyways...

 

[Emma Lou]

Aleyn nodded as she listened to this girls story. It was a sad life that she had had, but now it was time to change that and to become all that she could be.

"Do you know anything about the Shade?"

Aleyn had a feeling that she did not, but it was best to ask than to assume.

 

[Tsar Fire]

"Derek taught me a little."

Rascha stared at the stone halls, and then said, slowly.

"You don't believe in absolutes in the force, do you?" She wasn't sure, but she thought she knew what Derek had meant.

"You believe that extremism and fanaticism are dangerous... that it is best to walk in the middle, to avoid being dominated by one side of things..."

She ran a hand over the stone wall as they walked. She liked the feeling. It was cool, and helped to clear her head.

"You have a code, it goes something like this..."

She took a breath, and recited what she had been taught.

"My emotion makes me
My knowledge guides me
My passion drives me
My strength enables me
My harmony balances me
I walk the shaded path."

She looked to the woman, waiting to see her response. If she was pleased or displeased. She hoped to make a good start here... if she had offended her, or sounded arrogant... she didn't want to ruin things right from the start...

 

[Emma Lou]

"Excellent, now I want you to tell me what that code means to you, personally"

Aleyn smiled at the young girl. She deserved a chance at a better life and she was proud of Knight Ekhar for saving her.

 

[Tsar Fire]

"My emotions are what separate me from animals. I love, hurt, wish, hope like so many others, and I cannot ever forget that everyone else is a person, just like myself.
I act on what I know, and always seek more knowledge, so that I will never be unjust because of my ignorance.
I feel strongly. I must control my passion and make it serve me, instead of the other way around.
I have a power that others do not. I am gifted with abilities others don't have, and with that, comes opportunity.
I must be unbiased and fair. I should not be swayed in one direction or another.

I stand between light and dark. I must watch both, for I am the grey, and the shadow."

 

[Emma Lou]

"Very good. Now, I have a question that you may find odd and I apologize for it. Do you want to become a Shade Knight because it was Knight Ekhar's path or is it what you really want?"

 

[Tsar Fire]

Of course, at first glance, it was an odd question, but... it made sense.

Rascha stopped walking for a moment to think...

Why was she...

She blinked, and remembered... that's why. She smiled wanly, and replied.

"Of course I respect knight Ekhar... but I'm doing this for my own reasons. I have a power, a special gift, and I intend to use it."

She gestured at her forehead, and the scar left there, visible over the blindfold.

"I don't want this to ever happen again. To anyone. People aren't meant to be specimens... to be things."

 

[Emma Lou]

"Excellent to hear"

They entered the training room now and Aleyn walked over to a cabinet. She pulled out a metal sphere and walked back over to Rascha.

"I would like you to show me your Force Push and Pull on this sphere, please"

 

[Tsar Fire]

Rascha grinned, a lopsided smile.

"Okay."

With a feeling, kind of like blinking, she reached out to force, and felt the flow all around her, all around the sphere.

It was dead, but it still affected the flow of the force. She felt the weight it had on the galaxy, and the flows of life around it. Easy enough to move, really.

She raised a hand, for a focal point, and then began. She was going to be doing two quick techniques, and she wanted no mistakes, since she was trying to impress her new master.

She began by putting a slight block on the force around her hand, diverting it's flow with her mind, and holding up the pressure. Then, she turned her eyes to the sphere. She felt the power rush through her, and she pulled.

The sphere soared through the air towards her; smooth and graceful, as a moon in orbit.

Then, the moment before it touched her fingers, she let loose the power that had been building in her fingertips, becoming almost painful with it's strength. She made sure to aim up, but even she was a little surprised by the force of the push. She might have been too precise...

The sphere erupted from her hand like a cannonball, howling towards the ceiling, a weapon of mass destruction.

Rascha winced. She might have overdone it...

 

[Emma Lou]

Aleyn smiled at Aleyn and caught the sphere before it did anymore damage.

"I'd say practice the pushing a little more. Now show me what else he taught you, please"

 

[Tsar Fire]

Rascha nodded, and then closed her eyes.

She reached out, feeling the flows of the force, as they diverted and shifted, swirling around the lights that were other living creatures, before speaking.

"There are 7 birds roosting on the roof of this room."

She stretched out further.

"There are 4 other people training in the rooms adjacent to us..."

She couldn't have explained how she knew... only that she saw them... no... felt them...

Then... she couldn't see anything... She jerked in surprise... images flooded over her, and she knew, suddenly what was happening. It had happened when training with Derek...

She was seeing the future... or a possible future... or something happening now... or the past... she couldn't tell...

Hanging in deep space, she looked down upon a massive fleet of starships, engaged in battle, fire blossoming from their hulls, fighters erupting in sprays of metal and flame.

They were fighting around a massive space station, attached to a star by a stream of plasma.

The vision faded, and then she sighed.

"I just saw a vision master... I saw ships locked in battle around a foreign star... but... nothing looked familiar."

That was the problem with her sight. It was so hard to control, and so rarely useful...

Still, what else had she learned... oh yes... Reaching out with the force, she pulled the ball towards her, to hover in the air before her.

Concentrating the power in her hands, she focused it into her fingertips, and then released it in a single burst.

The air twisted and contorted around the sphere as the wave passed through it, and then the ball shattered, crumbling into shards, which she kept pressed in with the force, before letting them fall to the floor in a heap.

"That was the most frightening power he taught me..."

 

[Emma Lou]

"That is frightening indeed and I hope that you will not use it for bad but rather for the good of the Shade."

Aleyn thought about Rascha's visions and frowned. A space battle...probably the Hutts and Republic. Luckily they did not have to worry about fighting...for now at least.

"Tell me about your visions"