Part 17: Angel of Death
"Crèche-mates, Yun-Shuno's incarnation has been captured! In order for her to free and redeem us, we must free her!" The speaker's voice was fraught with conviction as she roared from the podium.
"We must free her!" The crowd of Shamed Ones and others who dedicated themselves to their heretical cause echoed in unison, totally disregarding the possibility of Shimrra's followers eavesdropping on their meeting and disintegrating the gathering.
"So far, only one warrior has been sent to track and free her. Rapuung had a reputation for returning from the realm of the gods, but that was before Ganner closed the gate. We must send more warriors; he needs reinforcements." The Shamed woman continued when the cheers died down.
"Reinforcements! Reinforcements! Reinforcements!" Fists rose to match the rhythm of the cheers from the crowd as former warriors poured into the area before the speaker and volunteered.
Nom Anor carefully donned his ooglith masquer before emerging from the crowd of Shamed Ones and heretics. The expected shouts of 'Yu'Shaa' came almost instantly.
"He's alive!"
"Great Prophet, your return is timely. Yun-Shuno had been captured after our last gathering and we have not heard from the warrior we sent." The Shamed One on the podium told Nom Anor in a melancholy voice. Nom Anor read some distrust in the eyes of the speaker.
So they think Jysella Horn is Yun-Shuno. Nom Anor thought.
"Attacking the prison complex is foolish. We must attack the Place of Bones! Change will come, and we must work to stop Yun-Shuno from being sacrificed to one of her equals!" Nom Anor bellowed as he took the position that the woman had ceded to him. "Our redemption is at hand!"
"Yu'Shaa!" The woman who had apparently lead the Shamed Ones gasped at Nom Anor's words. She ten took a step back and added in third person. "Never mind. Taan yields."
Despite her words, Taan still wished to protest Yu'Shaa's words and decision. Only the danger of angering the masses drove the woman to acquiesce to the self-proclaimed prophet. The ooglith masquer and illogical plan had awakened a great amount of suspicion within the woman. Somehow, the masquer, the plan, and disappearance just don't add up. A dark blue finger curled around her chin as her lip twitched. Before the Prophet could notice, however, Taan had resumed her previous posture.
"I am the Prophet! Everybody follow me to freedom!" Nom Anor roared as he waved a staff that he had brought with him. He stole a glance at the Shamed woman beside him. Nom Anor did not trust others, but he felt that he needed to especially keep his eye on her.
Unable to draw any distinct conclusions, Taan narrowed her gaze and decided to merely observe in detail the Prophet's behavior. She was neither a shaper nor an expert in body language, but she was not completely ignorant, either, for she had learned from the Jeedai Jysella Horn.
Taan carefully kept her pace as she followed the bald Nom Anor exactly half a step behind him. She asked. "Prophet, how had you survived all these years without us knowing? I am Taan, priestess whom Yun-Shuno had hand picked." The words were half true, for decades ago, Taan had been a member of the priest caste.
Nom Anor gave Taan a look, but before she could process the information, he had disappeared into the maddened mob of Shamed Ones. Taan did not know why, but she was glad that the rogue shapers who joined the cause were not present to hear Yu'Shaa's speech. More strange behavior coming from that Prophet. The mystified Taan thought.
As Nom Anor swam anonymously through the crowd, he grinned maliciously. The Shamed Ones were charging into their deaths and he was proceeding to set traps out for those who would come to the planet's surface to attempt to rescue the princess. The heretics would think that they were freeing Jysella Horn, but they would be more than a standard week early and by the time of her sacrifice, these Shamed Ones would be dead. To both the unsuspecting heretics and any Jedi who would come, Nom Anor was like an angel of death.
-scene change-
"Princess, Kodachi Cha is gone. We will take you with us." Explained the intendant who spied for Nom Anor.
"What is going on?" Asked a puzzled Sil.
"We are rescuing you, and ourselves, from the mistress. If you don't want a disgraceful death by her amphistaff, you will come with us." The Yuuzhan Vong grinned, baring his fangs slightly as he did so.
"This is some rescue. You did not even bother to untie me." Sil muttered sarcastically as she twisted her neck so as to avert the Yuuzhan Vong man's gaze.
"The Master Shaper instructs you not to move, Princess." The intendant translated impassively. Using the finger that normally functioned as a microtome in the damuteks, Kwaad carefully cut away at the vines that bound Sil's ankles to the coral wall. The Master Shaper barked an order, and the young Adept removed the amphistaff that restrained the child around the midsection like a belt.
After several seemingly long minutes, Kwaad bisected the last of the vines and reached under his robes for a powder that he thought he would never touch. The princess hissed as the acid dissolved the blorash jelly that bound her wrists.
"Embrace the pain, child. Were you a Yuuzhan Vong, you would have taken your first trip to the Embrace a year ago." Sa'eth Kwaad could not stop the cold comment due to his training and background.
"Maybe you… Aaah!" Sil screamed in pain as she attempted to land on her feet but failed due to the deep cut on one leg from the kidnapper. She dropped to one knee before both hands smacked the coral floor. The effects of the sedative had worn off completely, for she could feel the spiking pain.
"You truly are a brat." Sighed the intendant as he reached under the tangle of sticky, waist-length hair and scooped up the fallen princess due to the lack of time. "I'll only carry you out this once, unless you truly do wish to stay here. I hear your father's domain has a famous habit of regenerating after we kill them."
"I am flattered that you mistake me for a Charuban fox-cat. Search for Anakin Solo, and you will prove yourselves wrong." Sil replied as the Yuuzhan Vong carried her out of the room. Curse it! The one time I don't try to act like a brat I end up insulting these people. I should have talked to Sheng or Tahiri more since I didn't find many files on the Yuuzhan Vong culture in the Hapan database. "Thank you for preserving the one life I do have."
"I stand slightly corrected." The Yuuzhan Vong scoffed as he carried off the princess. "Princess, you have spoken of your father's domain but not of your mother's other heirs. Out of curiosity, where are your closest crèche-mates?"
"There was one other born to my mother and his ashes were scattered over our ocean eleven years ago." Sil spat out in disgust.
The Yuuzhan Vong intendant wanted to question the teen's body language, but his knowledge of the Hapan culture stopped his mouth. The Hapans were a matriarchal people, and males who died young were not valued.
What are you talking about? I'm the only other child born to our mother. One, I'm not a boy and two, I'm still alive! Sil loosened her grip on the Yuuzhan Vong who transported her as her younger sister's voice took her by surprise. Somehow, despite the distance, Murra had heard her sister's lies. Sil frowned slightly as she realized that she had inadvertently touched her eleven-year-old sister when the question was asked.
If you want to stay alive, you will play along. Sil threatened her sister. She was not sure if the words came through, but Murra remained silent afterwards. The artificial light dimmed as the Yuuzhan Vong descended away from Kodachi Cha's 'playroom'. Sil tried to read the faces of the shapers and the intendant, but scars and unfamiliar facial structure returned no favorable answers.
"What is it this time, Princess?" The intendant snarled grumpily as Sil twitched wildly in his arm. She heard the words, and yet she did not, for the Force had slammed her just as it did Sheng Lah, Ben, and Jysella.
No! The child thought as she felt the robeskin twitch to lick the slash wound beneath her knee. Blood from the cut continued to trickle despite the fact that the robeskin was drinking as fast as it could. She had spent tens of hours healing the cut, or at least doing as much healing as she could while drugged, but the Force had undone all the work in less than one second.
As vision became increasingly difficult, Sil could not help but wonder if the 'rescue' was but a kidnapping plotted by a different agent. Just like the last attack on Queen Hikari… Her twin sister's followers took care of her attackers and carried her off. Even now nobody knows where she is. Anjdmort, if you're taking me to your world right now, I hope you do it fast. Left with no choice, the Jedi closed her eyes, trusted her fate to the Force and prayed to the Guardian of the Graveyard from Hapan mythology, for the time for her to draw her hidden weapon was far from the present.