Now you’re here, look and open your eyes…
Part 2
Still getting accustomed to something as mundane as sleeping outside, the once troubled spacer was slowly getting used to the concept. Yet to ease the process of resting in a non-climate controlled space, and also to reduce the chance of potential ambush a proper camp would be found in a shallow cavern hewn out by deep old tree roots. The first day passing relatively calmly, yet there was no calm or ease to be found in a venture that could take days to weeks. Perhaps longer.
And harder still, the Dosh knew, was getting her to settle and eat. He’d planned a few days worth of rations, but if such ran out there would be the need to fall back to his old skills of hunting to keep them sated. To many Kathea had unusual needs, but being especially cautious about her food was one he was typically capable of overcoming. He’d seen the changes by now, her willingness to come out of the shell he’d first found. Whether he knew how Solomon, Corbin, and Kairos had aided his own efforts in getting her to eat new things was hard to be certain of.
Even so the second day came and started to fade, already having to look for an additional shelter when the Warrior put her hand up demanding a sudden quiet. The location they found themselves in didn’t appear particularly remarkable, just a deep section of the maze as ever. Knowing himself and knowing her capabilities Nrrax needn’t worry, only pausing and waiting.
Striding along and finding a bit of softer loamy soil with longer grasses, with her saber drawn out already she’d soon silence it as she fell into a familiar meditative state. Allowing herself to feel the defiant heartbeat determined to survive, before calming and quieting to allow herself focus and expanding her awareness.
Slow breaths, deeper, this wasn’t a fight but instead a search. Straining to listen even as the threads were all over this area, unseen and entrapping. Perhaps this was a reason so many perished in this part of the world, hard to know.
Slowly but surely the world around faded and dulled, not completely out of sight, but out of color and out of touch. A greyscale haze eclipsed the space around her, the sounds all blotted out along with it. Not something that disturbed her though most often this was only ever in the sanctum of her mind and focus.
Yet it wouldn’t take long for the weaver of these little trails to make itself known. First climbing along on tiny legs barely out of sight, a surprised breath coming from herself as she felt the tickling embrace of each little foot pressing on the hairs of her arm. It was no bigger than a standard arachnid species, but she was wearing robes, padding, and yet she could truly feel this being walking along and approaching her. Tiny opal eyes gazing up as they regarded her trance state now peering back.
“You went away, now back again.”
A squint, she felt like she should know who this was. The voices shifted and overlapped, female and male, all speaking in a fervent hum. Alice once held such a tone, though her appearance was far different than this.
“So it seems you still haven’t answered the question you first came with. Remember it, now?”
Softly the teasing small feet seemed to apparated away into a swirling mist that resettled and reformed. What concerned her was the next form it appeared to take, settling down now seated on a larger protruding stone as someone she knew. Her destroyed master. Youthful features articulated in crystal, a sign of her first death and the last way she recognized the Lord-Inquisitor.
“Something about this one makes you quiet, makes you listen better. Threats of violence, yet you drank every drop. Never once did you turn away. But you weren’t doing so to prove yourself strong, you were a willing sacrifice. You wanted it all along.”
Mocking her, yes there was a suffering past, she’d hidden it away from everyone. And as if feeling through her own memories and reactions the next form would close in tightly. An oddly chilled set of fingers of considerable strength, yet delicate embrace gently brought her chin just a bit higher. Looking into the brilliant eyes of the shade of Solomon.
“You did all you could to hide it. Thinking that they’d believe it. Look what you made me go and do.”
Bitterness welled up in her chest. Playing through the moments that the news came through, how his disappearance and attack had rippled through those nearby. She nearly felt like she was the last to know. A wrath burning in her throat and threatening to close it with remorse. No emotion was allowed to be soaked in for long at all though, as that same touch shifted into something more feminine. This time her mother’s curly hair and smudged expression.
“Shhh- dear, you’ve already walked up and down that path hundreds of times by now. You already made up your mind about what you have to do in regards to her. And yes I know the prospect is terrifying, but when has that ever held you back before?”
A teasing and rising glee as the sharpened edge of failure and past gradually blunted into an acceptance. It was far too easy to fall backwards, climbing out of a pit only to be conquered by it and land at the bottom again. She could wrestle with it later as the mood of the moment shifted. No this moment was on the here, the now, perhaps even what was yet to come.
“Pay attention! Cease your tears, they cannot build you. The kindness you keep, the binds and bonds you maintain. How gentle you are, how kindly you are, you can’t release it now can you? It’s why the depths of the lake and waters keep drowning you. When will you learn to move through the unknown. You know how to trust and give in completely, regardless of the consequence to come…”
The tone fell into a wrathful depth, a fury matched and felt by her more aggressive focus. But this was not the same voice as it. The snapping and snarling beast of her primal rage and emotions was alongside her, bowing as it too processed alongside her. Everything experienced was contained within, from the depths of hate, to her desire for softness and love again. Yet now all was woven into one, a damning focal light on the whole of who she was, all other voices silenced just as it was in the trance. The irritation and frustration made manifest as the figure melted and melded into yet another guise, the effort of doing so in this instance causing it to shudder and struggle, a pain she could recognize.
Turning with a sudden stance and brisk aura, her clawing and mewling confusion was met with a show of something that silenced her harshly. Instead of being struck, what peered back shrewdly was her own figure. And yet she knew it instantly to be the doomed fate of a body falling apart. How many hours she’d lay in those hospital beds recovering from all manner of being put back together. How long would it take for the flesh to fail, to be faced with this shell of a body, a ruined form. A cage housing her mind as her humanity was left entirely behind. An onyx mask with a light indicating the remaining imprisoned sentience, a glare that could stun, a mind made for the kill.
Turning its back with this embedded now in her thoughts, it didn’t hesitate to simply begin its escape. That was the intention of it, how she knew this was more instinct, and with it came her concern. A deeper clawing fear, more than all the rest, more than losing herself. Rising up in the trance, leaving her body behind in a surge she thought nothing of it as she gave chase. And in doing so suddenly she felt the means to not only run, but to fly in pursuit of the vision. Realization surging and granting her strength and heights beyond her own understanding.
…I remember I needed to ask who it was I’m meant to be…
What was fear now ebbed into a need, a certainty, shedding the trappings of identity forged. Dropping the weight from her mind’s grasp, allowing them to hit the ground and shatter as clay masks that they were. She would leave behind the shattered images of a friend, a lover, a student, a timid little helpless being…
A surge in her breaths, she clawed and clung, even though her body scarcely moved in the waking realm. A stir in the underbrush as avian creatures scattered with sudden frantic cries causing Nrrax to immediately snap his honor-guard shock staff into life, a practiced flourish as he grimaced towards the shift and change. Under the guise of his helm his eye ridges sharpened in angle, they were not alone or unnoticed after all.
Chasing after the fading vision the surrounding appearances changed, from brush to stone, from stone to tiling and manmade pathways. All became smooth, sterile, and long, fused to ensure the hazards of the vacuum of space were kept well at bay. Rather than stopping to make sense of such she charged, chest swollen with breath as her steps felt hurried. Confused at once by the sudden realization there was a chorus of steps, yet she saw no others. It wasn’t a mere echo on the empty halls, but in that instance whatever she was charging towards now she seemed to be leading the pack.
Skidding to a frantic halt the mists parted as a figure stood in her pathway. The bridge familiar, but the angle now somehow wrong. An instinct to raise her saber now somehow already in her palm she was prepared to begin the fight with a bracing preparedness. Having become what she was, every day meant to train for the moment of battle, lest it be the last. Blood thrumming in her veins, a heightened awareness, the figure’s back was turned. Hapless, helpless, she howled in her anger as the burning reigned in her eyes.
“Who are you? What do you want from me!?”
As if time had stopped, the footfalls all drew silent save for the ones standing before her. A slow turn that showed no fear, not even a shred of concern for the violence that was befalling them.
The mist all at once thinning, parting. A chill running straight through her body to pierce her core. A final memory that came together like pieces of a broken mirror, the mask and identity impossible to forget. Words that were marked upon the bones of her soul resounded in a confidence she’d nearly forgotten, bringing her to her knees in a moment’s passing. The final words of the departed, something she might not have known the Force had held onto for her. Deep down the grief remained choking and holding her in utmost surrender, knowing worse still that the vision had only one ending.
Before the bright light surged, the body fading into the blinding mass into nothing, she heard him again.
"Remember… that you are the elite. The Chosen."
Her body sank in place, deflating slowly. Nrrax demanding to assess her awareness, “Kathea… Are you still with me? We have company.” Tongue flicking between tones he leveled his weapon with a seething hiss. To defend was his training, to protect her was his call.
The brush cracked and gave as something drew closer at a consistent hunter’s speed…
