Symmetry and Imperfection
Part 13
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The Sith were much for proverb and aphorism. So much wisdom could be conveyed with a simple sentence. One of the most repeated maxims of the Sith, pounded into every apprentice's stubborn head from before the time of Sadow was this:
"Be most careful in what you wish for; you might get it."
On the face of it, having one's desire granted could hardly be construed as a bad thing. However, the form in which said desires were fulfilled could be stunningly different from what the one doing the wishing had in mind.
An often-told tale was that of the apprentice who wished for rain and undertook to work the weather to fulfill his wish. Weather work was delicate and painstaking, requiring detailed knowledge of the area and of the elements. The apprentice's thumb-fingered handling of the elements caused a flood that wiped him, literally, off the map.
But he did get his rain.
Governor Wellan must feel a good deal like that hapless apprentice. On inspection, Vader was pleased to determine that the Kalini system was a likely candidate for Imperial scrutiny. It occupied a major jump point for light to medium-heavy classed vessels and was strategically located near mineral, metal and specialized tech worlds producing armaments, AI, and components used in kinetic-bleed shielding.
Eirad wondered aloud who had been paid to keep that off the strategist's table.
Vader had his list of candidates firmly in mind. Eirad came up with a few and some interesting motivations for each. Each list had names in common and Eirad had proposed a small wager.
The bet on Vader's part was the complete set of volumes of Erishgal's The Time Before: A Comprehensive History of the Pre-Republican Galaxy. Vader had naturally made backup copies, but he had a special attachment to the originals. He'd been reading as time permitted for the last decade and wasn't even halfway through.
If he lost, his Chief Archivist would likely have a fit and it would also likely take inordinate bribery to soothe her. Last time it had cost him a rare set of Tauri tribal icons to ease her temper and jolly her back to work. Sith Lord or not, Dark side or no, his Archivist was the only one in the complex who knew where everything was.
It was worth the occasional aggravation to keep her contented, not to mention alive.
The woman was pestering for more space, additional droids, and a larger budget, and she was getting irritable. Maybe a small moon could be found in Seized Properties. He'd have to look into it.
Eirad's half of the bet was an ancient text of a people called the Danu, who had died out some 1,000 years ago. Settled though a swath of wild space, a few of their vacant worlds now fell within Imperial purview. The text was engraved upon a diamond-crystal matrix as large as Vader's fist and represented enough information to fill a wing of the Imperial Library.
If Vader lost the bet, he'd buy it from the scholar, who confessed that the runeset of the Danui made no sense to him at all and he'd had no time to study. That battleship of an Archivist would likely let him slide over losing the Erishgal for an acquisition of this type.
All the same. Wellan, who a scant eight hours ago would have paid anything for Imperial intervention to rid him of Jedi, was probably watching a tactical readout and would likely pay anything to rid himself of Imperials.
Interdictor-class ships were stationed at all possible jump points. Even the ships fleeing the system like flocks of frightened birds had no sure escape, they would be decanted from hyperspace, corralled and inspected by troops aboard the corvettes and gunships with each interdiction group. In system, the Triumphant and two other destroyers were on approach to Kal Madedo. The Kalini system defense force had stood down the minute the trio had dropped out of hyperspace with weapons arrays at the ready.
Standard procedure dictated a slow approach to Kal Madedo, taking the battle group through each successive ring of defenses, occupying the installations with Imperial troops and moving progressively insystem. The Kalini – much to Imperial derision - generally threw up their hands and surrendered with no shots fired.
Vader turned off the tactical display in his private quarters. A newly-transferred lieutenant commander, Andries Piett by name, had arranged the garrison rotations so that the occupation was moving ahead twenty-five percent faster than it had previously. Vader stuck young Garza to the man in hopes that the youngster was still flexible enough to learn by example. He'd be keeping an eye on both. It was getting damned hard to find competent men mixed in with all the parade-dressed dolts being churned out of the Academy.
Three hours to Kal Madedo orbit, with Piett's accelerated schedule. It was time to see if he could snare young Abhaia.
In his meditation chamber, he spread his perception out, feeling the churning sparks of anger, fear, greed and hatred throughout the Kalini system. Here and there, some individual bonfires stood out – other Force-strong individuals letting anger and aggression flare about them as if a corona around an eclipse. Rogues, most likely.
Vader was looking for more stealthy prey; someone used to hiding, using misdirection and camouflage.
A barely perceptible eddy, a ripple of keenly-felt loss lapped his perception. Vader sank into utter stillness and schooled himself to wait.
Stronger. Pain singing through the Dark. Grief like a knife in the heart. The echoing emptiness of loss. Each surge increasing in strength.
Vader reached, tugging at the edges of these emotions. Finding Abhaia self-lost in the center of them, he flexed his strength within the Dark side, creating a current that drew her closer. She followed, still deep in introspection, unaware that she was drifting near enough that he could read her state of mind easily. Her soul roiled with darkness and light, love and grief... and hate for those who had caused such pain.
He exerted a little more strength, the current firmed about her now; holding her as much as carrying her. When she became aware, it was too late, his grip too strong. Not even one of her emotional barrages could break his hold. Vader squelched, neutralized, or simply ignored everything that she sent at him.
Though strong, determined and very adept, the gaps in her training were massive. Abhaia, to Vader's way of thinking was actually less than half trained. Now that he had her measure, the rest would be considerably easier.
Down to her last defense, the most basic shield that even a child could make, she trembled in his mental grip. The shield winked out of existence at the slightest pressure leaving Abhaia defenseless and exposed to scrutiny.
All though her being, the Healer's ability was manifest. Had she been trained by the Jedi, she would have been the one of the strongest Healers that had ever lived. As it was, she was exceptionally powerful with both Light and Dark working within her in a way that puzzled him.
Sith teaching held that Dark and Light would cancel each other out, that to become powerful in the Dark meant the exclusion of the Light. Perhaps the Healing ability, a Lightsider ability exclusively, was being reworked by Abhaia's repeated use of Dark energies.
She was drained, not just mentally, but physically, as if her body had undergone a great ordeal and not been given adaquate time to recover. Though Vader was certainly no Healer, he knew the signs of an enormous physical trial. Perhaps her flight and constant battling over months could produce this type of wear.
Vader turned his attention next to those areas in Abhai's self that emitted agony, probing at them gently he found old and new wounds. Anger. Betrayal. Mourning. Loss. The finality of death.
These he understood.
Drawing her within his shields, his mind pressed upon hers and traced her spirit with a cool touch.
::: Tell me, Abhaia. Tell me. :::
Nothing. She drew in tightly upon herself, denying him any response.
Vader sighed internally. They never made it easy. The most stubborn male was malleable compared to the equivalent female.
He selected and old, deep injury, one with heat still pulsing under time's protective scar and
The resulting backblast from Abhaia was galvanic. She went right for him with every intent to meet pain with pain and Vader became aware that he held a nexu by the tail.
He delivered a mental blow that stunned her to stillness once more.
:::'Tell me, young one.:::
She flung her response at him as if it were a missile. ::: Why? :::
::: 'Why' does not matter. Only that I wish to know and you will – eventually – tell me. :::
He made no threats. He did not need to. Instead he brought pressure to bear on the oldest injury until
Saberflash fighting angerfear NONONONO! thrust and counter and slash and block and parry her face calm, knowing that she could not hold him off much longer an enraged charge and full-body thrust through the chest Grammaaaaaa!
Vader reeled from the power of the memory and the emotions that stormed in its wake like hurricanes gone mad. He ruthlessly invoked memory after memory of broken bodies, shattered minds, torn lives until Abhaia lay all but flayed alive.
::: You have been given pain, Abhaia. All that you loved, valued and cared for is laid waste. ::: Vader whispered into her soul. ::: Healer, gentle Life-Giver, what do you do when a malignancy blooms? What can you do when a parasite sucks the life from all it meets? You hunt it down, you cut it out, you kill it.:::
With each word he sent her images of her kills, contrasting them with the images he took from her own mind. In time, she would learn to block him out, but for now rapport would come at his whim. Feeling some resistance, he reached for a newer, still raw injury.
and got a Force-projected kick that made his physical ears ring!
Well.
Abhaia fought back as if she had lost all sanity, warding that memory as if it were more precious to her than her soul.
This merited a closer look.
Swollen belly floating in warm waves a child's hand splayed against the inside of a warm noisy place in response to light pain and contraction after contraction a new life wailing out her first breath a mother's love and fierce protectiveness fear anger hunted running pursuit relentless, never-ending pursuit fear for the child overwhelming all other considerations pain grief loss, searing, agonizing loss and ending
There was only one thing that could cause that feeling of finality, like the stone door of a tomb sealing out the last light of the world of the living.
Death. Abhaia's child was dead.
Vader found himself blinking in shock, pity coloring the Darkness around them. Abhaia could have healed any illness or defect in the child, he knew that just from a glance. This woman could heal anything short of death itself.
Abhaia's mental presence was one keening wail of suffering. Vader let her howl until she was once again limp and quiescent. Ready to die.
Idly, almost absent-mindedly, he stroked the suffering captive spirit. Once, the man he had been before had thought to become powerful enough to keep people from dying. In the end, that man had lost all he loved. Now this woman burned with the same fire and Vader could see very easily what would be reborn from the ashes.
::: You have done well in your blood-hunt, youngling, ::: Vader murmured into the Dark. ::: But even now, more is being brought to bear on you than you can handle alone. You can feel the truth of this for yourself. You can still fight them, damage them, but in the end you will be outnumbered, and you will be killed. :::
Abhaia was listening with all of her attention.
::: I offer you a chance to avenge the deaths and the injustices done by these ' righteous' Jedi. You will have my protection, and the chance to fully pursue the path you have chosen. :::
::: What do you want of me? ::: Her response was guarded.
:::That you become my apprentice, bound by the ways of the Sith.:::
Utter shock echoed back to him, along with the image of Abhaia as the prize in a tug of war.
:::The Sith take none who are not willing, Abhaia. All who come to us come with eyes open, we have no need of fools. Come to me of your own free will.:::
If Vader knew the Jedi, the Council or whatever passed for it – probably had the lone Jedi by the balls and brainstem. He would need to report, and probably do that in utmost secrecy. Vader inserted a thought that would give her something to chew over until he arrived at Kal Madedo.
Just before he broke rapport, he planted the seed of doubt. ::: I am many things, Abhaia, but a liar is not one of them. Can your Jedi face you as I have? And where is he now? :::
Vader opened his eyes and smiled into the darkness.
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