Chapter Seven: A Vision of Blood and Bone
When Reyenna returned to Harkun's office, the overseer was nowhere to be found. Instead, a beautiful, pale-skinned blonde woman sat atop his desk. Her black robes were laced with crimson patterns, so that it almost looked as if blood was spilling from her slim form.
"Reyenna Desme?" the woman asked.
Her expression was genuinely friendly, but Reyenna sensed something of the predator about her, a glint of something hard in her translucent gray eyes. Whoever this woman was, she was much more dangerous than Harkun could ever hope to be.
"I am Darth Zash."
Reyenna immediately knelt and started to bow her head. The woman laughed – a melodic, tinkling sound.
"Oh, do get up. You won't be much of an apprentice if you spend all your time on your knees."
Reyenna stood. Zash's hand remained outstretched. She approached the Sith Lord, accepted her hand. Hoping that this was the correct response, that she wasn't expected to kiss her ring or somesuch.
Zash kept hold of her, her fingers exploring the calluses left by the months in the mines. "Such firmness," she observed. "Rough and strong – Not what anyone would expect from such a pretty slip of a girl."
She pulled Reyenna to her and sniffed her cheek. Reyenna drew back instinctively, breaking free.
Zash laughed delightedly. "Spirit, too!" she cried, echoing Spindrell's judgment from earlier. "Yes, I think you would serve well."
She slid off the desk, moved toward Reyenna. "You have recently tasted passion. I can smell it on you."
"I'm afraid I just got back," Reyenna said glibly. "I haven't had a chance to wash up."
She winced as the words left her mouth. Flippancy with Harkun was one thing, but Zash was already far less predictable. For all she knew, the Sith Lord might strike her down for impudence.
Zash's smile merely grew broader.
"I enjoy a clever tongue," she said. "Should you become my apprentice, we will fence verbally over the finest delicacies in the galaxy. Fail, and when Harkun kills you, I'll have him remove your tongue and deliver it to me as an hors d'oeuvres."
The threat was made worse by how friendly Zash's tone remained.
"Did you retrieve the holocron?" she asked.
Reyenna handed her the crystal. "I did have help," she confessed.
"Your passionate friend?" Zash shrugged. "Never apologize for using someone to achieve a goal. See those around you as tools. Use them for a purpose, discard them when their usefulness is done."
She tucked the holocron inside her robe. "You're wondering where Overseer Harkun has gone," she observed. "I sent him away. I wish to assign your next Trial personally." Zash's hand touched Reyenna's cheek. The acolyte shivered – the woman's pale skin was ice cold, her caress like fingers of ice moving across her face.
"This is not a traditional Trial," Zash told her, "but a ritual that has existed for ten thousand years. A rite of blood and bone. It is usually reserved for Dark Lords. The average acolyte would simply be consumed by its power. But if you are the apprentice I am looking for, then you will survive."
"And if I'm not?" Reyenna asked nervously.
The icy fingers dropped from her cheek. When Zash spoke, her tone remained light, but her eyes were as hard as flint.
"Well, that would mean you're useless to me. As I said - A useless tool should be discarded." She smiled brightly at Reyenna. "Shall we go, dear?"
Zash led her through a maze of corridors. Reyenna attempted to keep track of their route, but the labyrinthine twists and turns eventually became too much. Her safe return would be entirely at Darth Zash's discretion. Exactly as the Sith Lord intended, no doubt.
Eventually, they took a turn that ended at a plain stone wall.
"A dead end?" Reyenna was surprised. Zash's stride had been so confident, she hadn't even considered that the woman might actually become lost.
Zash winked at her, then raised both hands. She then blasted the wall with ice, then with fire. As the fire melted the ice, covering the wall in water, she gave it a final blast - lightning. The wall danced with electricity. There was a low rumble, and a portion of the stone slid away.
A hidden passage.
"Come along," Zash said, her voice sunny and happy. "Blood and bone await."
The passage led to a long, spiral staircase, which descended into pitch darkness. Zash insisted Reyenna go first, and absolutely forbade the use of light.
"The dark must become your ally," she instructed. "Besides, any kind of torch might attract… unwanted visitors." There were sounds – insect-like chittering. Reyenna guessed whatever made those noises would enjoy feasting on the flesh of an unwary acolyte; and that if that happened, Zash would not lift one finger to help.
Her entire world became darkness. Reyenna kept her focus was on her steps. One foot in front of the other, finding the next stair and being sure of it before putting weight. Repeating with the next step, and the next. She could feel Zash's breath on the back of her neck, and it was as cold as her touch had been. Another predator, Reyenna reflected, doubtless ready to strike if she sensed any hint of vulnerability.
Eventually, they reached the bottom. A motion from Zash, and a dull red light surrounded them.
In the crimson glow, Reyenna saw another set of stairs. Carved of stone, and leading down into a cave. Through the mouth of the cave, she saw a rectangular pool, filled with red liquid. Was the color just a reflection of Zash's light?
"The pool of blood," Zash announced, dispelling that thought. "You will go into that cave. Inside is an altar, holding the skulls of failed acolytes. Select a skull and bathe it in the pool."
"Then what?" Reyenna asked.
"You bring the skull, undamaged, back to me," Zash said. In the hellish glare that enveloped them, her skin looked as red as any Sith Pure Blood's, and her sunny smile was a picture of demonic malevolence.
"That sounds too easy," Reyenna replied.
Zash touched her cheek again. The feeling of ice chilled her very core.
"Oh, my dear," she whispered. "There will be nothing easy about it."
Zash's tongue touched the edge of her lips, almost like a reptile's tasting the air. Reyenna shivered involuntarily. She turned toward the cave.
"Leave your weapon," Zash ordered. "You may rely only on The Force in there."
Reyenna surrendered her practice blade to Zash. Then she descended the stone steps. They were old, probably thousands of years old, and time had worn many cracks into the rock. She took care not to stumble as she moved toward the chamber. She remembered Spindrell and recited the words of the Sith Code, as if to draw strength from it.
"Peace is a lie," she whispered. "There is only passion."
The altar was not hard to find. It was a simple platform, but made of pure bone – Doubtless the bones of failed acolytes. The altar was enormous. How many bones had been fused together to create it?
She continued her recitation.
"Through passion, I gain strength."
Skulls were stacked atop the platform. Some were old, dessicated. Others were recent, some with visible flesh clinging to them. One of the most recent skulls was a burned mass.
Kory.
"Through strength, I gain power."
She reached out to Kory's skull – more a complete head, given that the flesh had yet to be stripped away by scavengers. Reyenna couldn't say why, but completing this task with the hapless girl's head felt somehow right.
"Through power, I gain victory."
She walked Kory's head to the blood pool, dipped it into the crimson fluid. She felt the blood cover her fingers, the palms of her hands. Gorge rose in her stomach, which she forced down again.
"Through victory, my chains are broken," she whispered, steadying herself. "The Force shall free me."
A howl from within the pool. Reyenna almost dropped Kory's skull, but maintained her grip as she backed away. She registered that the burned flesh was now gone. All that remained was a bare skull, reflecting pure red glow Darth Zash had summoned.
A creature rose from within the pool. A giant, pulsing abomination. It opened its maw, and within were nightmare rings of razor-like teeth. The monster undulated toward her.
Reyenna held onto the skull with one hand and raised the other to the creature. She remembered Arkarix Krell's lesson, and willed lightning from her fingers to the fiend.
It cried out its agony, but continued to close in. She moved back to the cave mouth, discovered that an invisible wall trapped her inside. Apparently, the battle with the creature was part of her Trial. She was trapped until the fight had ended, one way or another.
The fiend rose up to its full height. Its body pulsed red with blood. It lived within a pool of blood; doubtless it fed on the substance to stay alive.
Reyenna dove in a somersault, taking care to protect the skull as she rolled. Zash had specified undamaged. She did not want to survive this battle only to be sacrificed to the Sith Lord's disappointment.
Lightning had caused it pain, but had not slowed it. This time, she tried fire. This was more effective. The creature shrieked and thrashed, its gyrations shaking the cave. It struck the bone altar, shattering it and sending the skulls flying in all directions.
Reyenna smelled the beast's flesh, cooking like a giant blood sausage. It was the most abhorrent scent she had ever experienced. Far worse than Kory's burning flesh. Worse even than when she had been assigned to dispose of the bodies in the Pit. It took all her will to keep the fire focused on the fiend.
The monster let out a final scream, its agony so absolute that it shredded Reyenna's soul. Then its body exploded.
Blood and burned flesh rained onto Reyenna's body. She closed her eyes and willed herself not to think about the substances covering her.
She returned to the cave mouth. The barrier had lowered. Zash stood at the top of the stairs, waiting expectantly.
"Well, you'll definitely need a wash now," Zash giggled as she took the skull. "You did well, my dear. To the best of my knowledge, which is extensive, you are the first acolyte to ever survive this ritual."
"What was that beast?" Reyenna asked.
"Blood fiend," the Sith Lord responded with a shrug. "A K'lor'slug modified with some genetic splicing and infused with Dark Side energy. Each time the ritual is completed successfully, some slaves are sent into the Tombs to collect a new specimen to modify."
"How often does this ritual take place?"
"All members of the Dark Council must pass this test," Zash said. "Occasionally, a scholar will attempt it for the sake of knowledge. Or Masters will send apprentices who have vexed them, which is generally a one-way journey for the apprentices. Now hush, dear. I must meditate on what you have brought me."
Zash sat cross-legged on the ground. She placed the skull directly in front of her. She gestured to Reyenna to sit opposite. "Touch the skull," she instructed.
Reyenna reached out, touched the palm of her hand to the top of Kory's skull. Zash's hand then covered her own, her frosty grip seeming to fuse Reyenna to the bone of the dead acolyte.
"Her name was Kory," Zash said softly.
"Yes." Reyenna was surprised.
"Meek, limited Force potential. She hoped for your aid. You were right not to give it - She was beyond any assistance you might have rendered."
"Yes." Reyenna was uncomfortable with the inquiry. "Does any of this matter?"
Zash grinned. "The choice of skull always matters. That you knew her, even in passing, makes the results far stronger than if you had simply chosen a random subject. The lesson of her weakness is fused to you. It will inform your path. Close your eyes."
Reyenna obeyed.
A vision surrounded her. She was in a world of red, wandering a corridor of bleeding walls. A staircase of blood-covered bone stood before her. She ascended the stairs, taking care not to slip in the pools of blood at her feet. To either side of her were broken bodies, all of them burning. Though the figures she saw could not possibly be alive, still they managed to scream.
She sat on a throne. Bone, covered with blood that congealed around her robes. A demonic beast stood at her side, grinning, its teeth the sharpest razors. The creature turned to her, spoke, its voice a rumble of Darkness incarnate.
"I have not yet sated my hunger. Who shall I devour next?"
Her mother's face, regarding her with sadness. "My baby girl." A razor sliced open her throat. The creature laughed.
A young woman, about Reyenna's age, approached. Cybernetic implants were visible on her forehead and over her left eye, but they had been carefully placed, acting almost as cosmetic accessories. The woman wore a fine silk robe, which became soaked as she knelt in the blood at Reyenna's feet. She stared up, and Reyenna was surprised to see not deference, but defiance, in her eyes.
"I will do whatever you demand, for the sake of my crew and my mission. But I refuse to be your victim, or your plaything."
Back in the Pit, screaming at the guards who had murdered her mother: "I am not your plaything!" Their forms were now skeletons that shattered as they became the focus of her fury.
Suddenly, she stood before a mirror, its frame bone, its surface a smooth sheen of blood. She became furious, hurling an object at the mirror. The blood surface broke exactly like glass, shattering into a thousand pieces. Her reflection stared back at her a thousand times through each of the crimson shards.
A female Togruta, eyes wide with shock. "What have I done?" A male Twi'lek in the body armor of a Republic Trooper, staring grimly at her.
Then her own voice, surrounding her:
"I understand now. It's so simple, really. I understand everything…"
The vision ended. She was back in the cave, sitting cross-legged on the floor with Lord Zash. Her heart raced. She opened her eyes, staring across Kory's skull at the beautiful Sith Lord.
"What did I see?" she breathed.
"Bits of the past, bits of the future," Zash said. "Hopelessly distorted, of course. I'm still deciphering the things I saw when I completed this ritual, and that was… some time ago. Still, everything you saw will come to pass. Minus all the blood and bone, for the most part – Those are just the physical vehicles for the vision."
The images whirled around Reyenna's mind again. The creature, the broken mirror, the bodies. She felt as if she might collapse.
Then she realized something, and started to laugh.
Zash frowned. "I hope the vision didn't shatter your mind. I have no use for a broken apprentice."
Reyenna shook her head, still laughing. "The future, don't you see?" she gasped.
"Oh." Zash nodded indulgently, smiled. "Yes, I understand."
She rose, extending a hand to help Reyenna to her feet. They looked up at the spiral staircase, as the red light dimmed.
Zash sighed. "It is a rather a lot of stairs. I know it goes against the whole notion of testing one's resolve, but I sometimes wish the ancient Sith had possessed more of penchant for elevators."
They began to ascend, again in absolute darkness. Reyenna took each step carefully, just as she had on the way down, but her heart felt light.
If everything in the vision came to pass, that meant she had a future. What she had beheld was bizarre, even horrifying – But Harkun's face had not even featured. She didn't know whether she would live for another year, or another century. But she knew that when her time came, Harkun would not be the one to kill her.
She would not die here.