Part Ten: Divergent Concerns
"How did you come to decide on Illiana as my name, mother?"
"I'm not sure. I thought long about it for the first night after our reunion and I feared so much for your sanity that I thought it a variation of Illidan…the one who betrayed us all and also suffered from madness."
"But you don't think that any more? That I am mad like he was or that my name has the same meaning as that first night when you thought of it?"
"No. Since then we have spent a lot of time together and also Daneel saved you. Often have I wondered if another name would fit you better and yet I cannot think of a single one. I have meditated in the Force to understand this better…and the only answer I have is that somehow Illiana was always meant to be your name."
Illiana and Raeva discussing the origins of her name.
Valeria stood near the base of a mountain overlooking the valley ahead of her. Ten small wooden buildings sat nestled into the mountain crevice below with no signs of life. Holding the datapad and tracker in her hand, she perused the readings once more just to convince herself this was the path taken by the elven sith Narcissis. The readout showed a decayed signature from the subdermal device Drakus implanted in the abomination just days after the mother left her with him. The isotope left small amounts of radiation that while not harmful to the wearer was read perfectly by the datapad and scanner she carried. Narcissis had passed through this region. She deactivated the tracker and placed it back in its pouch on her belt. Drakus had instructed her to travel to the north and Crystalsong Forest to procure a lightsaber crystal, but Valeria chose instead to see where her nemesis had fled after her escape. Just a day earlier she found the cave where the elven sith slew the wendigo and following the mountain range, she arrived at this small village. Valeria knew she could not confront the other woman just yet, she wasn't powerful enough to face her nemesis but wanted to discover where the abomination traversed the continent and where she left hoping to find clues as to where she could find the woman once her training under the sith lord concluded. Her eyes scanned the area as she slowly walked towards the village. She ignored the cold winds that tried to bite at the exposed skin of her abdomen since she wore the same purple and black outfit as the day of her lesson in the fortress entrance. Her rage and connection to the dark side of the Force kept her warm. The scars had healed in the three months since Narcissis gave them to her, and even along the right side of her face feeling had returned. As she walked towards the largest building in the center of the village she thought back to the looks of the slaves and servants in the fortress. Even the humans she had known since a small child now refused to look at her when she walked past them in the hallways. If their revulsion was due to her scars or the hatred that emanated from her she would never know nor did she really care. What mattered to Valeria as she noticed the downward looks was that she could never enjoy the life she dreamt of as a girl. Admiration of the men as they gazed upon her body lusting for just a single night in her bed would never come to pass again since that day when her father was murdered. She knew some of the women felt sorry for her and what had happened to her once perfect body, but she loathed their pity. Vengeance was what she wanted and vengeance was what she would have once she faced Narcissis.
At the entrance to the main building of the village, Valeria reached out with her gloved right hand and pushed open the door. A musty odor assaulted her senses. Darkness filled her vision with sporadic shafts of light shining through holes in the patchy roof. The place was deserted for the people who once lived here abandoned it long ago. She retrieved the tracker from her waist and scanned the room. Narcissis had been here as well. She followed the readings to her right and found another room arranged like an office. Deactivating the tracker and placing it back at her waist, she walked around the desk in the center of the room and sat in the chair facing the door. Several leaflets lay scattered across the desktop and she picked one up. She was reading a manifest for inbound and outbound supplies from what she concluded must have been a mining colony. The last entry was written almost a year prior.
"This is not the direction I instructed you to travel," a booming voice said. She looked up from the parchment to see Drakus standing in the doorway. He wore red and black robes with gold trim. She never sensed him, heard him, nor expected him to follow her after he set her upon her trial. "I see you lack the discipline necessary to follow even my simplest of commands. Perhaps I should kill you where you sit and find another more worthy to become my successor."
"Master," she replied bowing her head.
"Just what do you hope to accomplish by following this trail? If you want to know where she has gone I could have told you that." She looked up at him in confusion. "Don't tell me you had not already figured it out? What do the elves chatter about in the lower levels? Quel'thalas…their home…that is where she fled and will still be once your training is complete. She sees herself as one of them…" his voice trailed off.
"I am sorry, Master," she said again lowering her head. "I should have asked…"
"You should have deduced such yourself," he bellowed interrupting her. She flinched causing a smirk to creep upon the dark lord's face. "Your hatred makes you powerful, but it also blinds you…"
"Yes, Master, you have said so before…"
"And yet you do not listen so it bears repeating!" He crossed his arms over his chest. "Beg for your life, Valeria! Tell me why I should keep you alive! Tell me why I should bother to even think you can be my successor!" She kept her head lowered as he stalked to the desk and slammed his right fist into the desktop. "I grow tired of this!"
"I am sorry…" she began again and fell back in the chair when suddenly he slashed the desk in two with his crimson bladed lightsaber.
She backed into the wall instinctively reaching for her single blade on her right hip. Purple arcs of lightning flowed along both lower arms of the sith as he stood on the other side of the wreckage with the weapon pointed to the ground in his left hand. He raised his right hand, and she ducked the bolts that struck the wall in the spot her head had just occupied. Holding her hilt in both hands she ignited the blade of her lightsaber and faced her master. Again without any signal he attacked, but not with weapon or lightning. She felt the air escape her lungs and then a powerful grip tightened around her throat. Black spots formed in her vision as she dropped her weapon and clawed at the invisible hand crushing her windpipe as she desperately gasped for any breath of air. Darkness overtook her.
Valeria woke in her bed. Every night for the past year the nightmare was the same. Pointing at the lamppost across the room from her a single bolt of Force lightning arced from her fingertip to ignite the wick of the candle. She repeated this for the remaining four lamps in her room until their flames provided enough illumination for her to see clearly the contents of her room. Drakus resisted killing her that day in the village, and the lesson he intended for her was finally learned. If she could not defeat him, and he could not defeat Narcissis, then her previous desire for an immediate encounter with the elven sith would have only resulted in her ruin and a vengeance unfulfilled. Fifteen months had passed since Narcissis escaped the mountain fortress and much had changed in Valeria. The art of lighting the candles as she just had was an impossibility for her when Drakus found her in the village. Other abilities were awakened in her as well in the past year, and yet she knew that her training would require many more intense sessions before she was ready to face her nemesis. The time to complete her studies and immersion into the dark side may take years, but now she possessed the patience necessary to ensure success when she finally stood face to face with the elven sith. When that day came she would finally realize her vengeance.
Illiana, formally known as Narcissis, sprinted across the grassy field in Eversong Woods. With the Force enhancing her speed, she raced towards the old hidden sith base Talisora had made her home. The myth surrounding the region, she learned, was started by the sith centuries ago when they constructed the facility within the mountain. Maktai had not outright lied about this, she learned from the old jedi, because as she described he had lived his life assuming many different personas and often suffered from distinguishing reality from fantasy. Shortly after the human departed for Dalaran, Talisora gave the elven sith a complete tour of the facility. Spanning the entire interior of the mountain, the base held provisions for an entire army. On the lower levels, each arranged with a single large communal room with three hallways branching out to smaller staterooms, housed the sith when they lived here. Upper levels near the peak of the mountain held storerooms filled with enough supplies to support an army for decades. Nullentropy containers kept them for indefinite periods of time and many still contained equipment, technology, artifacts, foodstuffs, and relics brought by the sith from their homeworld of Korriban. Next to the highest level, a hanger filled with speeders used by the sith to travel to different parts of the world quickly, held an array of computers more sophisticated than those in Drakus' fortress in Northrend. They could live their entire lives within the mountain and never starve, lack for entertainment, or suffer incursions from the outside world. However, as much as the place served as a haven, Illiana at times felt it more like a prison similar to Drakus' much larger fortress in the north.
The first thing she asked of the jedi was a new name. Narcissis was given to her by Drakus, this much he told her, and as far as she knew her parents never named her. She wanted to forget her past living under the sith lord and the first step was to lose the name he had given her, and so Talisora began calling her Illiana. The jedi informed her that the name derived from an ancient word referring to a precious tree with strong roots and since her life was changing for one firmly placed in the light; the new name would provide a foundation for her future as a jedi. The elven sith embraced the new name feeling it more akin to her true self than Narcissis had ever been. After a month studying under the old twi'lek, she met Langhaer. An elven mage and one of only three who knew the truth behind Talisora's home, he often visited with news for the jedi as well as bringing native supplies which she preferred over the old sith provisions. With a slim yet muscular build, blonde hair, and light blue glowing eyes, he captivated Illiana from their very first meeting. He reminded her so much of Herion. Soon afterwards their friendship blossomed into romance and after the birth of her child one of marriage. Unlike the elves of Silvermoon City that looked upon her with disgust, Langhaer was fascinated by her mixed heritage often commenting that her eyes were the most beautiful he had ever seen. His outlook towards her stemmed from the fact that his family was once enslaved by one of the original twelve dark lords called Nyrexia. The woman studied the dark arts once mastered by XoXaan millennia ago, and during Nyrexia's lifetime on Azeroth she delved into the mysteries of why so many different species rose to sentience on a single planet. Langhaer's family was strong in the arcane arts and remained at the center of the sith's studies on the reaction of the Force and the arcane and why they repelled each other. Many people of Azeroth's various races, elves particularly, were sacrificed by the dark sorceress as she tried to uncover the truth. Illiana asked the mage if Nyrexia ever found the answer before her death two centuries before to which he only stated he never knew. The mystery remained and discovery of the answer seemed an impossibility.
Talisora at first frowned upon the budding romance between the two elves. The jedi order believed that such feelings involved in a relationship as theirs often led to the dark side of the Force and she upheld this belief. She had known the mage since she liberated his family from Nyrexia, and although strong in the arcane the twi'lek taught the youth and two others in the ways of the jedi code. Because of this he served her for two hundred years acting as her liaison to the rest of the world. She knew of the wars between the humans and the orcs, some of the activities of the surviving sith, and especially the events transpiring in the region with the elves and all because of his dedication to her. Over time she looked upon Langhaer not only as an apprentice but as an adopted son, so when he told her of his feelings towards a still pregnant Illiana the jedi tried to dissuade him. Illiana had lived a tumultuous life and still harbored dark feelings towards the dark lord who held her captive. She feared that those could transfer to the mage, but as the elven sith neared the time of her child's birth her outlook on life changed drastically. Instead of looking to the past and what happened in Northrend during her youth, Illiana instead started dreaming about the future and a life with a child. Her impending motherhood brightened the woman's perception of the world around her as she often commented about how wonderful the air smelled, how the coloring of the trees made her feel more alive with each passing day, and how much she looked forward to showing her child a life full of joy the likes she never imagined possible. This positive outlook, Talisora realized, stemmed not only from the elven sith's new position in life but also because of Langhaer's influence. The old jedi began to embrace the couple's love for each other seeing their romance not as a path to darkness but a strengthening of the light within them, and when the day came when they told her of their desire to wed she gave them her blessing.
Now, fifteen months since her escape from the Northrend prison, Narcissis responded to the name Illiana without hesitation. When her son was born, she named him after his father. Little Herion arrived in the world with red skin and eyes like a sith, but the rest of his features remained elven. Because no other elves, or any of the races living on Azeroth for that matter, possessed red skin the child remained with Talisora at the hidden fortress. One reason for this arose from the fact that both the jedi and the elven sith wanted to keep the secret of the sith intact. Except for a very select few, the peoples of Azeroth knew nothing about their alien visitors. The more important reason stemmed from the elves' staunch prejudice against those not pure in bloodline. She suffered from their discrimination and the only discernable difference was her eyes. How much worse would their hatred be towards a red skinned child? Would they even allow him to live? Such thoughts frightened her despite the training she received from Talisora, and to keep Herion safe the best option was to leave him in the care of the jedi in her hidden fortress. Langhaer lived in a small village some twenty miles from the hidden fortress, and so Illiana lived with him after their marriage. The secret of this village was that most of the inhabitants were liberated from Nyrexia by Talisora. It was they who latched onto the old sith myth and spread it to the rest of Quel'thalas. When Illiana arrived with Langhaer, the villagers overlooked her eyes and impure bloodline and embraced her as another freed from sith tyranny. However, the couple kept Herion's existence a secret. The elves still remembered to many horrors from the hands of red skinned beings.
Illiana stopped at the base of the mountain once she spotted the old jedi and her son near the front entrance. Herion had just started walking, and the jedi often brought the child outdoors where the grass was more forgiving of his missteps than the hard stone floors of the base. A warm smile crept upon the elven sith's lips as she watched her firstborn take a step, then another, and then fall flat on his bottom with arms flailing in his failed attempt to maintain his balance. The boy giggled as he fell and then rolled to his side to pick himself up and stand preparing to make another attempt.
"He's growing up so fast," the elven sith said as she took a seat on an old fallen tree near the twi'lek. Herion took two steps still giggling as he walked towards his mother. "Do all children progress so quickly or is this because of his heritage?"
"I would say it's because he is as tenacious as his mother," the jedi said with a wink. "Like you he will not quit or surrender until he has conquered his obstacles."
Illiana picked up the boy when he neared. As she embraced him, he cooed and played with the thin golden necklace she wore. "I didn't realize he would be walking at eight months."
"Something to think about when the other one arrives," Talisora said as she looked out into the woods surrounding them. No paths led to the entrance of the hidden base, and only a small clearing existed where they sat. The rest of the area surrounding the base of the mountain consisted of dense forest. "I sense trouble in you, my padawan. You worry that Herion's sibling will also bear the red markings?"
"There must be a way to prevent that…or alter its appearance," the elven sith replied. "I figure my father must've done something to me while my mother was pregnant otherwise my skin would also be red like Herion's and not the pale complexion like Langhaer's or what I assume was also my mother's."
"Would it be so bad if the child also has red skin like the elder?"
"And live as an outcast for their entire life? Herion must suffer that existence because I didn't know better. I live that way because even the slight difference in my eyes is enough for others to shun me. Should I not want at least one member of our family to live a normal life?" she asked. Herion continued to play with her necklace. "While I live they will never be alone, but I will not live forever. After I am gone what kind of life can they lead? Elves, humans, I dare say even the orcs would fear them because of their red skin calling them demons without ever chancing to know the person inside. I know more now than I did when pregnant with Herion and if I can I must try to avoid his younger sibling suffering the same fate…I must."
"What you desire lies down a dark path, my padawan," Talisora said finally turning her gaze back to the Illiana. "I have sensed this turmoil within you for the past month. I would advise against such concerns and let life take its natural course. You cannot know for any certainty that the child you carry now will have the red skin of its sith heritage. Your fear clouds your judgment…makes you focus on the possible negative. Instead embrace the positive of the life growing within you…love the child regardless of what may or may not happen in the future."
"You say it leads to darkness…to want to spare my child from any form of suffering and discrimination…how can that be darkness or lead to darkness? I only want what is best for it."
"And if you learned something that could change Herion's skin color? Would you do so?" the jedi asked. Illiana looked down into the cherubic face of her son. He cooed with an infectious smile as he concentrated on her necklace oblivious to the concerns of his mother and the twi'lek. "Holding him now and seeing the joy in his life…would you change him? It is the slippery slope you aim to walk. A benign intent can lead to malicious results. The knowledge you seek is discouraged for that very reason and it alone should suffice," Talisora stated and then returned her gaze to the forest around them.
"No," the elven sith answered as she ran her fingers through the black hair on the boy's head. He giggled with her touch and reached up to caress her cheek. "For him the die is cast and his life ahead of him. I love him with all my heart just as he is, but the child I carry…its development is still very early…the sex not even determined…if I can change its fate I will…" her voice trailed off as she smiled at the boy in her arms.
With a heavy sigh the jedi looked back to Illiana. She could see the determination already set in the smiling eyes of her padawan. If she did not disclose the information to her then the woman would seek it on her own, that much was clear. Illiana had already learned more on her own than any padawan Talisora had ever known in her long life even before coming to Azeroth, so discovering the alchemy required to alter the appearance of the unborn was not an impossibility. "I can see you are determined to pursue this no matter what counsel I might give," she said softly. "Although this goes against my better judgment…I do know of a person who might know that which you seek. Your father, I must confess, was the true master of the dark arts and is why you appear as you do…of that I am certain. This other…"
"Did my father train this person?" Illiana asked as she looked up from Herion's face to Talisora's.
"No," came the response. "He learned under another. That dark lord still lives but is mad with grief. He would more likely subdue you in order to dissect you because you are a hybrid. No…the one I speak of lives amongst the humans in their kingdom of Lordaeron. Most believe him to be a crazy hermit who lives in the Alterac Mountains."
"Is he like Maktai?" Illiana asked as she moved her head. Herion had lost interest in her necklace and started pulling on her long locks.
"He was born on this world…a hybrid like you…and yet not since the humans of my galaxy and this world are so similar in appearance that he is easily accepted amongst them. Galen was trained by the sith leader, Varok, but about three centuries ago broke from the sith to live on his own. He was much too light-minded for the old sith's tastes. I believe the two might have actually dueled when Galen escaped much like you had with Drakus. An interesting parallel." She placed her hands in her lap. "I advise you to consider this carefully. I still counsel that you should not pursue this path, but I also will not stop you should you seek him out. Take the next couple of days to think this through thoroughly. If you return and still wish to learn this sort of alchemy to alter the appearance of your unborn child, then I will tell you how to find Galen."
Valeria stood over the elven slave as she writhed in agony on the stone floor. Arcs of purple lightning flowed along her arms to her shoulders. Her raven tresses tied into a bun, the human leered at her victim with eyes that contained red irises and a yellow ring around the pupil. The change from the natural green coloring of her eyes hinted at the depth of her immersion to the dark side of the Force. She wore a light gray tunic with a full length sleeve over her right arm but her left was bare. Black armoring over the shoulders ended at her bosom line and over the left shoulder extended a short and flat pauldron. Gray breeches covered her legs with black plasteel armor plates over her thighs and ended at black knee-high boots. The naked woman lying by her feet whimpered with scorch marks from repeated lightning attacks all over her body. The blood matted dark hair obscured her face from the sith acolyte, and a primal smile crept upon Valeria's lips. Behind her and sitting in his stone throne, the dark lord smiled at the improvement he felt in his apprentice. When she first began her training she killed her targets quickly, but she had learned to savor her victim's pain and anguish taking her time in torturing them over longer and longer periods of time. The elf that Valeria stood over now had been suffering for almost a week. Soon the human would tire of this one's groveling and end her life. Each elf chosen by the human resembled Narcissis in some fashion, and Drakus could feel the woman's hatred grow with every victim she practiced upon. Instead of blind rage as when the abomination first escaped, Valeria now held a controlled hatred for her nemesis. This development pleased Drakus greatly. Soon she would take the next step in her preparation to meet the elven sith…intense studies of the darkest arts of the sith. He would teach her how to bend another's will to hers, view shatterpoints through the Force thereby further increasing the victim's suffering, to instill fear so great in the mind of her opponent to make the other live a waking nightmare, and then finally he would instruct her in the ways to rip apart the very essence of the abomination and then binding the ghost for its power. Valeria reached down towards the elf lying on the floor. She grabbed her throat as the acolyte used the invisible hand of the Force to restrict her air passage. Drakus closed his eyes and inhaled deeply when the woman ceased breathing and expired. Like Valeria he also imagined that it was Narcissis who had just been slain.