Finally getting to an point that I first brought up in the 4th chapter of Ashla Spectrum! Feel free to go back and read that to refresh your memory. I'll wait. *whistles*
So when I last posted I left Saw and Soniee alone together *wink wink*
We will pick up there. And I promise there won't be any Basilisks. I believe there are still a couple of bes'uliik war droids in the hold of Soniee's ship but that's not the same thing.
Turn down the light
Turn down the bed
Turn down these voices Inside my head
Lay down with me
Tell me no lies
Just hold me close
Don't patronize me
"'Fresher's down the hall. Should be a spare toothbrush above the sink."
"Thanks." On her way Soniee stopped in front of the door Saw had locked earlier. He said it led to the dormitories. She supposed she could leave if she felt like it but she'd sensed something in him, a reason for her to stay.
She found the 'fresher as he had instructed, and the spare toothbrush, and changed into the tunic he provided for her. It came down almost to her knees and she felt suitably covered in the soft fabric when she put it on. It smelled like him, clean yet masculine.
She passed the door again on the way back. There was something else behind it, some dark truth... She shook away the thought and continued on.
"Thought you might have gotten worried about what everyone was going to say and left." He tried to sound nonchalant but she could sense the relief in him that she had returned. She remembered what he had said about neither of them wanting to be alone. And that was really the reason she stayed. He needed company as much as she did.
Saw was already in bed in his pajamas and he pulled back the covers nodding the intention for her to join him.
She walked across the room toward him as carefree as she could manage but she was serious when she spoke. "Saw, if we ever really do become lovers it shouldn't be to... forget or... because of what anyone else thinks." She sat on the edge of the bed and looked at him questioningly.
Before he could answer her, Saw's eyes were drawn to the crystal that was hanging on the cord around her neck. She usually managed to keep it hidden under her shirt but she supposed she didn't mind if Saw knew.
"It's a kyber," she told him as he reached for the pendant and held it gently in his hand. "I've been told the Jedi used them to make their lightsabers. This one… called to me back home on Concord Dawn, like it wanted me to find it."
He swallowed and she thought he glanced toward the bedroom door before he smiled again let the crystal fall back against her chest. "Come on," he changed the subject. "Let's get more comfortable." He drew back the covers.
She laid down beside him and he pulled the covers up over them both. Then she snuggled closer with her back to him.
"I completely agree, you know?" He spooned around her holding her tight but not as if he wanted anything from her. She felt a little like a child's plush toy. "If it comes to our being lovers it should be because we're both honestly in love with each other."
She nodded but she could feel that he did already love her in a way. He just didn't need to express it physically, not now anyway. Just holding each other was what they both needed, not being alone, like he had said. And there was something else she wanted. "Saw, will you sing me to sleep?"
"Really?"
She sensed that he didn't think that much of his own singing but he would do it for her. "Mmmhmm."
"Alright." He gave a shrug that she could feel rather than see. "But nobody hears about this either."
"My lips are sealed." She smiled.
He may not have thought much of his voice but the Onderonian folk song he crooned softly against her ear was lovelier than almost anything she had ever heard on the net. It was the same love song he had sung at Shara's, that could have been directed at a romantic partner or a sibling or a child. She understood more of the lyrics now after her months of studying the language.
It made her think of her own child and silent tears ran down her cheeks, but Saw didn't stop or tell her to calm down, or that it would all be alright. He reached back and grabbed a tissue from the bedside table and handed it to her. He kept singing and let her have her tears. She fell asleep, weeping in his arms, and felt better than she had in weeks.
…
Sanya…
She woke, or maybe she was still dreaming. Someone had called her name.
Sanya Kira …
She rolled over, remembering where she was, and thinking it was Saw who had spoken. He was fast asleep but maybe he talked in his sleep. Then she heard it again…
Sanya Galia Kira …
That voice. It wasn't Saw and it wasn't coming from this room, but it was close.
She pushed back the covers and slipped silently out of the bed, careful not to wake Saw.
Sanya! The voice was excited now. Probably happy that she had decided to finally listen to it and follow its instructions. It was the voice that had been speaking to her all along, since she had first set foot on Onderon. It was the voice that felt like home.
She wasn't surprised that it seemed to lead her to the door Saw had locked. It was also no surprise that the locking mechanism fell open without her having to touch it and the door swung inward welcoming her to continue forward.
Sanya Galia Kira!
She answered in a whisper, "Grandfather?" She wasn't sure why she said it. It was something about the way the voice felt, like her old Ba'buir on Concord Dawn, or like the Chancellor on Coruscant, when he was deceiving her, trying to gain her favor. But there was no deception in this voice, danger, yes, and unspeakable power.
She could feel that the terrible violence that lay just under the surface was not directed at her. In fact when she uttered the title the voice seemed to laugh.
Give or take a few hundred generations. Come child, I've something to show you .
Anticipation lent speed to her steps. The corridors were familiar and welcoming as she took the stairs down to the lower levels two and three at a time. She was finally going to see, to know, to understand.
Then she made the last turn and found herself in a room facing a wall with a doorway at its center. She slowed her pace and swallowed, holding her hand up toward the stone that served as a door.
"I've been here before. I know this place." She whispered and trembled with trepidation as the stone panel began to rise.
But never inside. Come .
All her questions were about to be answered, the reason for all this! Soniee, Sanya Kira, crossed the threshold into the chamber and found it… empty.
There were some old round rocks in the corner but other than that, nothing.
"Hello?" her voice echoed around the ancient walls but there was no answer. The grandfatherly voice had gone silent and as she further surveyed her surroundings all she found was a dark stain in the middle of the floor. She didn't really want to go near it.
"You said you had something you wanted to show me?" Frustration began to creep into her mind and then fear. What if this was all a trap?
Soniee spun around expecting the door to slam down shut imprisoning her inside the chamber. But the door stayed open and no one jumped out to attack her. She took a step backwards and then another and when she reached the center of the room, everything went black.
…
"Am I dreaming?" Saw looked around the clearing. It was spring and the surrounding jungle had dressed itself in flowers.
Lux Bonteri was standing beside him, grinning. He gave Saw a friendly punch in the arm. "Nope, looks like the best man won."
Steela grabbed Lux's arm and spun him around to face her. "Hey! What am I, second prize?"
Saw left them laughing to their spat and turned in time to catch the eye of his bride across the clearing. She gave him a smile and then focused again on her father who was just bending to kiss her cheek. Uncle Brem choked up. "I'm so proud of you, Sanya."
She responded to him in Onderonian, "Thank you, Papa."
And then his own parents were congratulating her. Edda Gerrera hugged her tight and Geb's voice boomed out, "Welcome to the family, little one."
"We've waited a long time for this." Shara stood beside Saw smiling.
"Aunt Shara, where's Dalla?" He had just realized there were others that should be there as well. Surely Zal would want to attend their wedding, and Myat, and Dono…
But before she could answer there was another voice that made him look up. "There. That's just what was missing." Aunt Mel was placing a chain of red flowers around Sanya's neck. They sparkled like jewels and Saw was reminded of something that he couldn't quite place.
The two women looked more like sisters than mother and daughter. Melaana was just as young and beautiful as the last time he had seen her when he was a little boy.
Suddenly he knew that it had to be a dream. There was no way in the Galaxy that Melaana Rash and Sanya Kira could exist in the same time and space.
It was not a dream that he wanted to wake up from, though. Saw kept his eyes shut and held on to the image for as long as he could. There was one thing, he remembered, that was still right. Despite everything else in his life that had gone wrong, there was one person from that dream who was real and she had fallen asleep beside him.
Without opening his eyes, Saw reached out to draw her close to him again. She wasn't there.
"Sanya?" He was fully awake and out of bed in a moment. "Dara?" He called a little louder. It was okay, he tried to tell himself. She'd just gone to the 'fresher.
He paced back and forth waiting for her to return. He should just get back in bed and wait there. She would probably come round the corner any second and call him a di'kut for worrying. He looked at the bed and then he felt a chill. No. Something was wrong.
Saw burst out into the hall and he could see from his bedroom doorway that the 'fresher was open and empty. But there was another open door, one he was sure he had closed and locked earlier in the evening.
Okay. Worst case scenario: she had wanted to go back to the dorm and had decided to find her own way through the tunnels to get there. If that's what she had done, however, she had done it in just the sleep tunic he'd lent her. Her clothes were still in a neat pile on top of her shoes on a chair in his room.
"Kriff." He breathed. That wasn't it. He knew what she'd done, just as sure as he knew who she was the first time he laid eyes on her at the spaceport.
Without grabbing shoes or a shirt for himself, Saw rushed out into the tunnels and down toward the chamber door Zal had discovered months ago. If he had had any doubts about how she had found the place, they were swept away by the sight of the portal now standing open.
Sanya Kira, child of the prophecy that had been said over her father, had found the chamber, opened it, and was now sitting cross legged in the center of the empty floor. She was still as stone as if she was meditating. Saw feared for a moment that she had actually stopped breathing.
Then as if she sensed his arrival, she gave a little gasp and her eyes opened. "Saw."
She shivered and he was at her side in a moment wishing that he had thought to grab a blanket or something to wrap her up in. In his dream he had been holding a cloak to place around her shoulders and take her under his protection as a part of their wedding ceremony.
For lack of anything else he wrapped her in his arms. "I thought I'd lost you."
She patted his arm. "You've known who I am and that this place was here. You must have known I'd find my way here eventually." She didn't say it to blame him but it still stung.
He nodded and backed off a little. "So did you find anything? Was it what you expected?" Saw looked around. Now that he knew that she was alright, he remembered his own curiosity about the place.
"I didn't really know what to expect." She stood and looked very small in her borrowed sleep tunic and bare feet in the empty chamber. She went to the corner where the three round rocks lay covered in a layer of dust.
Saw just watched her. "You know, kriffing or not your dad is really going to kill me for letting you come down here."
She smiled with her back still to him and lifted one of the rocks carefully brushing the dust away. Then she did the same with the second and third and finally turned back to face him cradling all three.
"I'm sorry you didn't find…" he began but then his eyes grew wide with wonder. "Are those Drexl eggs?"
"I need to take them home."
"Home?"
She nodded as if this was perfectly reasonable.
"You mean their home, where they come from, on Dxun?"
"Well, obviously." She wouldn't quite meet his eye.
Saw shook his head. "No no no no! There is no way I'm letting you go to Dxun!"
He started to move toward her but she simply held up her free hand. Saw slid backward two meters and was held gently but firmly against the rough stone wall with the Force.
"Do you really think you could stop me?"
He wanted to stop her. He had to stop her but, she had a point. He attempted to release himself from his position and she raised her eyebrows at him.
Frustrated but beaten and genuinely worried for her safety, he huffed, "At least promise me you won't go in that." He nodded toward her attire.
She looked down at the tunic and blushed. "I promise."
