Fire and Brimestone Takes place in the Star Wars Universe owned by George Lucas. All Characters, with the exception of Quinlan Vos and Khaleen Hentz are original Characters that I own. The Story takes place around 35 ABY and and then into the Legacy Series. This is only the first installment
Uneasiness followed close in her wake as the young girl made her way through the dark winding halls of her lavish Corellian home. No one seemed to be home but Syal made each footfall softer than the previous. The house was Dark, too dark for that time of day. She knew that her parents and elder sister would not be back home for at least another 30 standard minutes but by now her Grandfather would certainly have turned on the synthetic lights to aid in the construction of the Old Republic Building models he'd taken such a fondness to building. The Vos-Beck household was never empty. Not anymore… Syal's mother was the famous Jedi Healer Leena Vos and worked almost round the clock at Coronet's largest Medical Center, having decided years earlier that she would take a leave of absence from the Jedi to rebuild the weak threads of her marriage to the skilled smuggler and pilot, Syal's father, Doran Beck. Her father's business kept him out at strange hours all the time so Syal wasn't counting on seeing him anytime soon and her older sister Asori was scheduled to be out catching up with friends until late.
But the house shouldn't have been empty. Syal's Grandfather on her mother's side, the great Jedi Master Quinlan Vos, had taken up residence within the Vos-Beck household after the death of his wife, Khaleen, six years earlier. At first the family was surprised by the Master's decision because Syal's Papa, had been nothing if always independent but of course the family had welcomed him with open arms. It was only after Quinlan stopped leaving the house and started to avoid the members of his family did the Vos-Beck's start to worry. He had never been a very forthcoming man but now he would sit for hours on end and stare out into Coronet's skyline, his eyes unfocused and unmoving other than the rise and fall of his chest and the slow movement of his thumb over a necklace that his wife used to wear. It was a heartbreaking sight. A tearful Syal had gone to her mother for explanation at 16 to which Leena Vos had stroked the girl's while hugging her youngest daughter and exclaimed, "It's just age my Heart, it will happen to us all. Be thankful he had the fulfilling life he did. All we can do is just be with him now." Her throat still grew tight when she thought about that conversation with her mother. At the time Syal could just not understand why the most skilled Healer in the Universe could not just wave her hand and fix her beloved Papa.
So now Quinlan Vos stayed home either sitting at that window with Khaleen's necklace or meticulously building model's from a world long forgotten by time.
But he wasn't o far gone that he would have forgotten to turn the lights on. Syal had to fight the urge to turn the lights on herself even though it was easy enough to move though the house without them, she had lived in this house for her entire life up until a few scattered years here and there. It was home. She could have walked it blindfolded without touching a single wall but something told her not to make her presence known. It was just a feeling she had growing in the pit of her stomach, that things where not right. So instead she walked as silently as she could down the hallway and toward her Grandfather's room.
The house might have been dark but it wasn't silent. As Syal neared her Papa's room she was almost surprised to hear noise coming from it, he was usually so quiet. Her heart quicken in pace and her left foot was caught mid air before landing on the next floorboard. Korto, Syal's twin brother, was there. Why was Korto there? He was supposed to be on Coruscant at he Jedi Temple training. He was scheduled to be Knighted soon. The entire family was going to Coruscant in the next week to watch the ceremony. Had he been able to come home for a little vacation before being a legidamate Jedi Knight? Her heart did a little summersault at the prospect. The two had grown apart since Syal had dropped out of the academy to pursue her dream of flying for Rogue Squadron, something that had just recently come to fruition. Korto viewed her decision to leave the academy as a failure on her part and couldn't comprehend why his twin sister had gone through so much trouble to shut the force out. But then again he hadn't been the one to wake up screaming and drenched in sweat from nightmares of people dying all over the galaxy as the Yuuzhan Vong War had raged. Where Korto had inherited the Kiffar's ability of psychometry, to see past events by touching inanimate objects, Syal's psychometry had manifested in a very rare form for Kiffars. Instead she was intensely empathic and could see through another's eyes if a person around her was experiencing extreme emotion or stress, as her brother was now. With a sudden thud Syal's suspended foot landed on the floorboard and her hands shot to her head as she was suddenly seeing her Grandfather's room through her twin's eyes.
As it always was with these visions it felt like Syal had fallen asleep on her feet but she could feel everything that Korto was feeling. She couldn't hear his thoughts but she could read his emotions loud and clear. Korto was the strangest mix was panic, calmness, and a sense of…euphoria. In one hand the antique lightsaber that belonged to their Grandfather, while the other one ran it's hand over a smooth brown fabric with what looked to be burn marks... and cooked flesh. The part of her mind still connected with her body screamed in horror as her vision extended to the dark form of her Grandfather's body, laying face down on the floor, a lightsaber gash running from the top of his left should and into his gut.
The power of her own emotions threw Syal violently back into her own body. Taking just a second for her feet to respond to her brain Syal scrambled forward, lunging herself that last few feet between her and the door.
"Korto!" She breathed in shock as her own eyes beheld the terrifying sight.