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« Reply #201 on: February 27, 2018, 10:37:47 PM » |
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Interlude: Tears of the Singer
I finished my warm-up stretching and grabbed my water bottle. Zearic was also finishing up, flowing through his own final warm-ups and I took a moment to look around the salle. Across the way I saw Talia Cam working out with one of the practice sabers, her activities guided by Koawan Tores, one of the saber instructors. The teacher in me noted that her Shii Cho techniques were looking very good but her flow was still a little mechanical. Before I could even be temped to say anything, though, I heard the same observation voiced by Tores.
Watching her, I was struck by the memory of her late husband, Illian, and his teacher Master Jothan. A wave of sadness overwhelmed me as it finally penetrated that Illian's death meant that the last member of the last remnant of the old Jedi Order had perished. The Jedi were truly dead. Intelligence reports indicated that a member of the Rebel Alliance, Commander Luke Skywalker, appeared to also be a Jedi and had perhaps been trained by Yoda or Obi Wan Kenobi, but all reports agreed that Kenobi had died on the first Death Star over Yavin IV and Yoda had perished in exile. If Skywalker were a Jedi, he was well and truly the last of his order in the universe. Vader had been far to efficient in the job the Emperor had given him. Only the mysterious, cryptic warning sent to them from Vyth had driven the the Mak'Tor far enough underground soon enough to avoid the same fate, and even now the remnants of the Inquisitorious were a constant threat and thorn in their side.
I sighed and let my thoughts turn inward momentarily. There were new disturbances in the force. Ripples in the song that bespoke destruction and sorrow. Not a total destruction or complete sorrow, but something very, very bad. It sounded very much like the song of the Unnamed One, the Dark Song that had nearly overwhelmed the Mak'Tor and subsumed the Spire when Dorian was guardian. It was one reason I had re-visited the cave, spoken with Morrigen, the "Unnamed One". To reassure myself that she was in fact still trapped in her puzzle-box.
She was. For now. But there was something coming. Something ... formless and elusive. Something dark and dangerous and deadly...
"Penny for your thoughts?" Zearic interjected. "You look like you're a thousand light years away my friend."
I shook my head and grinned wrily. "Just thinking about abscent friends." I tipped my head toward Talia, still working out across the gym.
Zearic followed my gaze and his own face turned briefly serious. "Yes." Shadows played briefly behind the big man's eyes as his own ghosts paraded past. "Unfortunately loss is a part of this life. Maker knows why."
"Yes, He does. Now, are you ready to lose?" I clapped him on the shoulder, grinning.
"Always." he stepped back into a ready stance and ignited his saber. "Fortunately, I won't have to exercise that readiness today."
"Oh, is that how it is?" I grinned and ignited my own saber, flourishing it briefly. The golden blade hummed through the air in satisfying harmony to the battle song I sang into existence around me. Even on the low-power "practice" setting there was something far more intimate about fighting with my own blade, in tune with my song.
Zearic was also using his primary blade, the brilliant blue also set at a low-power practice level that would still leave nasty welts and burns but wouldn't do any real damage to person or equipment. Still, the consequences of taking a strike were far higher than with the practice sabers we usually used to spar. But this kind of full-contact, full power sparring was the only way to really practice combat. We didn't do it often, but when we did...
Zearic struck first, moving like lightning, and I spun into the slightly modified Soresu dance that had become my primary form. As a Water Warrior, Zearic moved with fluid grace. I knew he'd been working with Kage Lo, who was a high ranking Water Warrior, but he'd also worked with the leading Masters of his own Order and his style, while stressing the agility and flexibility of the Water Warriors, was also infused with the physical power of his size. It was a formidable combination.
I did my best to flow with him, and something that the Kage had told me once echoed in my mind: The water warrior seeks to flow, to move like water. Water flows. It is graceful. It is powerful. It is relentless and unforgiving.
But it can be channeled.
As we moved, I followed the flow of Zearic's form. He's recently been promoted to "Master of Water" and his mastery showed. His movements were smooth and flowing, his patterns unpredictable and almost random. His attacks were lighting-fast and relentless. But there was a pattern: He was moving, flowing, always looking for the opening. Always primed to find the chink in his opponents form - and exploit it.
So we build the channel... I let a tiny break in my form slip in. It was almost invisible, a tiny flaw in the parry of one of his strikes. In a moment the opportunity was gone. We moved through more clashes, more orbits, and after a few moves I did it again.
And again.
And again.
Each time, the chink was tiny. A minuscule window where my left side could be opened up for a lighting-fast thrust, my blade just out of position to block.
And again...and this time Zearic seized the opportunity. His pattern shifted and with full commitment he thrust high inside my guard, drawing my blade high - before snapping back and snaking in toward my suddenly wide-open ribs. Because of the way my small form break caused me to rush the high parry I simply could not get the blade back down in time to block this strike.
But I could get my hilt in place ... just.
Unlike most sabers, I had shrouded my hilt with song-steel. It wouldn't take more than three or maybe four strikes, but it would take those three or four. Snapping back, I blocked Zearic's low strike with the pommel end of my hilt, adding a force push to the emitter to push his blade away and turn it back out. At the same time I spun, slamming my elbow into Zearic's sternum. I pulled the strike at the last second, stunning rather than debilitating, but the strike still drove the air out of the big man's lungs and froze his diaphram for a few seconds, depriving him of air. Again aided by a strong push from the force I hammered him backwards a step, still turning, and slammed my bladed left hand into the nerve plexus just inside Zearic's right elbow. This strike I did NOT pull, and Zearic's right hand went numb as the strike went home. He lost his grip on this saber and I finished my turn, my own blade retracted now, and slammed a punch into Zearic's chest. Zearic absorbed the hit and somersaulted backward, ending several paces away in a low front-stance, his hand already reaching for his back-up hilt.
I grinned at him. "Lose something?" I reached down and called his hilt to my left hand...
Darkness... I was in a cave, the light dim. And the song... The song was filled with pain. Betrayal. Defeat.
Death.
I stepped carefully, gripping my saber. The air reverberated with the back-wash of power. There were bodies everywhere, mangled, dismembered... Blood soaked the floor and spattered the walls, which were themselves scarred with burned-out tracks where plasma seemed to have played over the surface, charred lines connecting empty sockets where light-blue crystal shards winked. There was also technology in the room, a central dais with a holoprojector and communications array. Computers. Work stations. A massive divot of bent plating and shattered electronics marked the central projector, the cavity smeared with blood...
"I died there."
I whipped around, startled. "What? Who are you?"
The person standing before me was Twi'lek. He wore gray robes and the badge of the Mak'Tor Kage... "You know who I am."
"Master Odjina?" I felt the song rising. The joy and welcome of the opening phrases transitioning into the minor keys of suspicion and betrayal. "Master, I don't know how this is possible, but..."
"You must warn them. Warn Soryu. This ... imposter ... is no Jedi. Nor Sith. He is immensely powerful! Listen to the song! You will hear it. Then warn them!" The spectre was reaching out to me now, pleading with me. "You must! Before it is to late. Before Kimar makes his final, fatal mistake..."
The Song swelled, almost painful in its frenzy as it exploded into conflict. Back and forth, the melodies dueling, one light, one dark. Justice vs Vengence. Hope and Love vs Pain and Hatred. And as I listened, I could see them...
Odjina, locked in combat with another man... He wielded a green light saber and wore Jedi robes, but force lightning danced over his body, forming a personal shield and the pure amount of raw power he was pouring out was incredible! The Kage was matching him blow for blow, his own battle song augmented and attenuated by the crystals...
The crystals. I turned my back on the spectres as they battled and touched the cold, dead walls. The walls were covered in blackened, charred pockets with tiny crystal fragments...
I stepped back, merging with the projection, the memory of the song, and looked back at the walls. Walls filled not with empty pockets, but with hundreds of small, blue crystals, each one a frosty white-blue color, glowing with power in the walls of the cavern as Odjina used them to attenuate his song.
I turned again, looked at the warriors as they hammered away. Odjina's opponent was on the defensive now, blocking, moving...
No. Not defensive. Changing tactics... The song shifted, spiked, a frenzy of arpeggios as lightning again hammered out - this time aimed at the walls.
The dark warrior figured it out. Systematically he destroyed the crystals that Odjina was using to match his power. And slowly Odjina weakened, until he was no longer able to handle the force energies with his flesh alone. He stumbled. Was struck.
He fell.
The song descended into a song of death, of defeat, but there were under-currents. All was not lost... The warrior ended the fight. The song settled somewhat, but it was not over yet. Under it all there was a melody. I felt my eyes widen as I listened to it. Recognized it.
It was my song...
No. Not mine... One very like it. Odjina,his shade fading now, swirled into being next to me. "Yes, you hear it. Valens could not destroy it. Could not hear it. His ears were numb to the still, quiet melody that underpinned it all. Look ... and live."
I watched as a child crept out of the shadows, approached the dais, snatched up a saber. She ignited it, and I recognized its harmonies.
The Ancient One!
The warrior ... Valens? ... turned, moved, knelt before her. I could feel the conflict in him. The killer ... did not want to kill again.
"Are you going to fight me Ha’Ona’Mack?"
"You're a Sith, you're evil." She said, her voice trembling. Her eyes were stained with tears but they were steady now.
The warrior considered it. "Yes, yes I am." He said, but Karmack knew he was lying. Whatever he was, he was not simply a follower of Sith teachings. He looked human ... but he wasn't.
The warrior, the one Odjina's shade called Valens, gave instruction to the droid with Ha'Ona'Mack and allowed them to leave. With the Ancient One...
Odjina was there again, speaking again. "There. There is the key. The Song of this place, ALL of the songs of this place, are imprinted in the Ancient One. It speaks to you. You must unlock its secrets. Learn its ways. And warn them! Warn Kimar, he is playing with fire! It will burn him in the end..."
I turned and looked at Odjina. "Kage ... I..."
"Warn him!" The shade gripped my arm. "You must! Karmack! You must!
You must!
You must...
"Karm, you OK?"
I started and jumped back with a cry, flinching away from the hand on my arm. "What ... Where am I?"
Zearic stood still, his hands up and open to me. "Karm... You're in the training salle. We were in the middle of a duel. You pulled a really sweet move on me, picked up my saber and then just ... blanked out."
I blinked. Looked around the room. Looked down at Zearic's saber, still clutched in my left hand. "How long?"
Zearic shrugged. "Maybe thirty-fourty seconds? Long enough to notice."
I looked around the room. Duels had stopped. Koawan Tores had broken off his work with Talia and taken a few steps toward us. Others were looking at us ... no, at me, with looks of concern. I raised my hand and waved. "I'm fine. Just an ... unexpected reaction to a crystal. Please, go back to your workouts."
I glanced around, waited for everyone to turn away and go back to what they were doing. I could still hear it, the Song of Vyth, echoing from the crystal in Zearic's saber. Why now? Why not before?
Zearic stepped up close, his hand closing over mine. "Karm, what's going on?"
I looked down at him. "I wish I knew. I just had a very ... disturbing vision." I placed the saber in his hand. "Zearic, I want to know everything you can tell me about this crystal."
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