Chapter 12
The Force! No! Not like Qel-Droma… All of a sudden, the princess could not feel the Force roaring in her head. Sil's thoughts wandered from one Jedi to another, and sometimes to the ordinary people that she had met or known about. She then saw flashes of her life. She saw Kodachi Cha slay with her amphistaff. Her cousin's greenhouse was next to appear. It was in ruins because Sil had pumped into it something called ethylene and sprayed the plants with the contents from a bottle labeled 'gibberellins'. At last she saw the handsome face of her dear Kyril, the only man she had truly loved. Force, why do you torment me? Is it not enough that Kyril became one with you?
Sil's thoughts and mental torment were disrupted when physical pain erupted throughout her body once again. She had landed with a thud on something hard. Her painful attempts to move told of injuries to major bones.
After a struggle, the ex-Jedi woman opened her eyes and saw a magnificent figure approach. Even without the aid of the Force, she could feel the man's overbearing presence. The figure sank sharp fangs into her neck and drained every last drop of the woman's blood.
How good it felt to the tormented soul. Or rather, how good it was to be rendered soulless and free from the trivial, mortal things like love and morals, not that she truly had her morals when she was alive.
Sil felt a coldness that she had never felt before spread through her body and welcomed it. Wherever the dark coldness touched, changes occurred. The first were in her teeth. Beautiful and straight rows of white became pointed, yellow-tinted, predatory fangs. Her gray eyes became reflections of the moon's color. When her transformation was complete, the woman looked at herself in awe. The magic bite had healed every last bit of damage done to the body and exaggerated some of her better features.
Realizing that she was still sprawled on the ground, the woman pushed herself halfway up. A conversation with the mysterious stranger revealed his name to be RavenBlack. When the man asked her what her name was, a whisper stopped any attempt from the woman to give her real name.
Long will be your days in the darkness, where you will gain strength and discover many new worlds. Not today, but you will one day take your father's name, for you shall be alone for all eternity. The distant voice of someone once familiar, but forgotten to the new vampire, echoed in Sil's head.
"I'm Solo. Master Solo." Sil finally responded and fulfilled part of the prophecy.
After warning Master Solo to stay out of the sun, RavenBlack disappeared into the night, not to be seen again by his childer for more than a thousand years.
The new vampire picked herself up walked down the stone passageway on which she landed with a thud. The scent of fresh blood flowed into her nostrils and the vampire's instincts led her to follow the inviting odor to its source.
The new vampire found a field strewn with dead men wearing metal. Her body's screams for blood evolved from instincts and gut feelings to conscious thoughts. She walked toward a man with a sword stuck in his side and drew out the bloody blade. Master Solo then spotted a sheath and put the sword in it. She clipped the sheathed weapon to her belt and removed the man's metal armor and shirt.
The vampire removed the metal gear with surprising ease. The woman was never as strong physically as her mother and sister and made up for her weakness in Force-power, but now, the metal felt like paper. Neat. She thought.
The woman drew the sword from its casing and used it to remove the man's heart. She instinctively placed her mouth at the hole she made in the man's chest and drained as much blood as she could through the main blood vessels. When the man was as dry as he was dead, the vampire rose with a smile upon her bloody lips. With each gulp of blood the vampire felt stronger and more content.
As the power surged through her undead body, the ex-Jedi reached out once again with her Force abilities. She found her strong Force presence almost diminished to zero.
As she looked down at the man she had drained, she snickered. Foolish humans. She thought. A small voice within the vampire cried for her to repent for the drinking of blood and report her doings to the Jedi Council somehow, but the vampire silenced it and eternally banished its source. The Jedi were foolish and the powers of what they called the Dark Side were far more enticing than what they had taught. Sil doubted that the Jedi even had the slightest idea how much of a pleasure it was to taste blood and to drive that lightsaber blade through the body of every man who was suspected of involvement in Kyril's death.
End of vision
"Sil, Sil, don't take it!" Murra muttered wildly as her vision began to fade. Crystalline droplets of sweat formed on her face as the woman contorted and thrashed wildly. Murra hoped that all she was shown was a mere dream and that Sil was the sister she had always remembered, but her feelings told her otherwise. It was like Sil to enjoy all power she could get her hands on, but Murra did not want to believe. She did not want to believe that Sil chose the dark side, even though the other sister had constantly argued with the Jedi Council over the appropriate uses of the Force and the regulation on the alcohol allotted to Jedi.
No, I already accepted what I saw. This isn't the Sil I thought I knew when I was just a young, naïve child. Murra forced herself to think. The woman pressed her palms against the near-freezing metal floor and pushed herself up. She must have slept for hours, for she found herself refreshed. The hours on the floor were not a rejuvenating as a normal night, but for the moment, Murra was content with the amount of vigor that she recharged. A growl from the Jedi Master's stomach told her that sleep was only half the rest, for a six-hour fight demanded at least a normal breakfast to recharge the energy, especially when the woman was almost all muscle and no fat.
Murra felt slightly faint and could see stars spinning around her head as she wandered down the corridors of her escort ship. After she examined room after room without coming across the mess hall, she struggled to withhold strings of curses. She tried to increase her odds by touching the Force, but, much to her despair, her luck only worsened. She knew she felt angry and frustrated, however, it never crossed her mind that emotions were clouding her thoughts.
"That's the princess, Ghachg!" A hushed voice whispered excitedly.
"Make certain." Growled a low voice. The hair on Murra's neck raised themselves on instincts call and heartbeat, already rapid from the emotions streaming in her blood, quickened to almost an unhealthy pace.
Every time I oversleep, I end up paranoid. Calm does it. There's nothing dangerous here. Murra took a deep breath and focused on reducing her heartbeat and bringing warmth back into her sweaty fingertips.
"She is the princess." The first voice murmured. "She has the muscles and she dresses like a princess. Take her."
All of Murra's work on her body and discipline was undone as the second voice landed on her sensitive ears. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a rising shadow. When she lunged, the Jedi Master found herself surrounded by a race that she recognized but hoped to never face.