Chapter Thirteen

Morgana was becoming fascinated by the kinds of political changes that Hyperion was making even as she focused on her plot to destroy him by first overthrowing Lord Mortis. She spent the next standard month or two finding dirt that she could use against him, using the resources Darth Nox allowed her as her apprentice. It took months of hacking that had to be cut short every session so that the hack would not be traced to her but she finally prevailed. Darth Mortis had a weakness she could exploit, a way she could draw him away from his power base and directly into a battle of her choosing.

Darth Mortis had a son of extraordinary power who had been diagnosed with Savant Syndrome. He had a gift in the Force that invigorated his father but was otherwise so severely mentally disadvantaged that he could barely even wipe his rectum without help from a nurse droid. The boy was not discovered to have autistic tendencies (which was consistent with a statistic of only half of all savants being autistic in any case) but what did it matter? Morgana had the perfect tool for the demise of Lord Mortis if she could expose him as weakened by compassion for his son. The fact that the boy's power had also kept Mortis invigorated past his prime was a further abomination to the Sith that would make him legally excisable by tradition.

More, if she exposed him for the weakling he was after killing his son, she could then challenge him for his seat where his denial of the challenge would confirm weakness. Better still, if Morgana exposed the story of the son to every member of the Dark Council, the only way they would allow Mortis to retain his seat after such scandal was if he conquered Morgana fairly. And since he was weak without his son's power to draw from, he would fall before Morgana's blade and she would be allowed to take his place on the Council. So it was that she had cut a deal with Lords of lesser power than herself: help her find a way to the boy and she would petition for their nominations to the Dark Council or positions loftier than their own underneath Nox.

Essentially she had offered to give them a chance of advancement, regardless of what strings she could pull with the Council, once the boy was dealt with and Mortis was destroyed with him. Three standard days ago, one of her new underlings came through for her and she was ready within hours to stage a coup against the savant boy. She waited until the guards were on rotation before she made her move then sped her way up to the boy's chambers before the guards completed their rotations. The witch was about three-quarters of the way up to the kid's chambers when the guards completed their shifts, a good sign for Morgana who had hoped to be at least halfway up before then. That was when she signaled her forces to provide the distraction needed to bypass the last of security by challenging the boy's guards to battle.

When she knew the guards would be spread too thinly to recognize that the threat that escaped them in time to save their prize, Morgana continued. This time, she was more brazen, preferring to make her approach known to the boy's mother in case she was any kind of challenge to Morgana's own might. By the time she arrived to the chambers, designed a meditation sphere that was connected to Mortis' own Force potential, she had encountered no guards and tripped enough alarms to where the boy's mother would be on the lookout for her. That is, if she valued the boy's life enough to save him from the threat Morgana posed though part of Morgana also wondered if the lady recognized Mortis' weakness as well. Cutting a square into the door with both lightsabers, she Force-pushed the sliced apparati aside and stepped in.

Her target was in a meditative trance, perhaps on the scheduled time that Morgana remembered reading about when she first discovered his existence. But she was startled by the sight before her: a boy of no more than seven or eight years old was feeding power to his father. She could see where he was doing it as well, watching him levitate in a glass tube that sucked the Force energy from him and channeled it in arcs of electricity that fueled Mortis' abilities. Mortis was relying on a kriffing child to fuel his reign past the norms of even long-lived Council members. "Lord Coeus?" Morgana asked into her comlink.

"Speaking, milady," was the answer from the other side.

"Begin releasing the information we've accumulated. Hack into the databanks of this computer and make sure it is revealed that Mortis has been relying on a child to keep his seat. Looks to be no more than eight years old from what I'm seeing and no younger than seven," she ordered.

"As you wish, milady. I only need you to plug your comlink into a nearby terminal and I can lock onto your coordinates to begin hacking," said the Twi'lek Sith Lord. Morgana obeyed, finding a terminal she could only guess was the center of all data in this fortress, including Mortis' darkest fears and most cherished secrets. Then, reigniting the lightsabers she had deactivated for this purpose, she turned her eyes to destroying the boy and his station. She decided to start by destroying the most integral wiring of the station by destroying areas in which she could sense currents of Force energy surging through.

Once she sensed a backlash that would leave the boy writhing in pain until she had destroyed him, she prepared to make her move. But just then, she heard another lightsaber hiss to life which she suspected was the boy's mother. Upon first sensing the woman's power, Morgana knew she would be somewhat of a challenge but not insurmountable by any means. Not unless she relied on her experience, her maternal instinct, and strategy in order to defeat her younger and more powerful opponent. "I knew you would come, you are Lady Nox's newest apprentice, aren't you?" asked the woman.

"You have permission to refer to me as Darth Minshuto before I destroy you," Morgana told her.

"Your permission? I am the consort of Darth Mortis, a fully-fledged member of the Dark Council. You are in no position to be permitting me to call you by anything except what you are: a coward attacking a little boy who is has no ability to oppose you!" said the elder woman.

"The Dark Side must have taken your wits along with your beauty. If your consort is relying on this boy's power in order to keep his seat than he deserves neither seat nor son. I will expose his weakness even if you should succeed in killing me though your choice in men leads me to believe I needn't fear that. Your death and your lover's destruction should legitimize my claim to the Darth title I have chosen for myself quite nicely," Morgana mocked. Then they battled with Morgana relying on a combination of Makashi, Niman, Juyo, Soresu, and Ataru whenever she fought traditionally.

When her second lightsaber was entered the fight, she used a combination of the more aggressive arcs and twirls of Jar'Kai as well as a variant of saberstaff combat (thanks to magnetic pommels) that allowed usage of Soresu with both sides. By contrast, her opponent seemed to specialize in a combination of Juyo and Ataru, a combination apt to wear her down much more quickly than her younger opponent would be. But this only helped heighten Morgana's suspicions that lightsaber combat wasn't this woman's strongest area of ability when she recognized the strength of her aura during their exchange of blows. Sure enough, once a few minutes or so had passed, the woman began to show signs of wearing down even with her passions and her devotion to her son strengthening her resolve. On a blow that would have diagonally bisected Morgana if it had landed, the younger witch used the Force to speed herself backwards, hoping to goad the older hag into error by threatening her son.

Sure enough, the old woman tried to conjure a storm of Force electricity that Morgana knew would weaken her if it landed on lightsaber blades or was redirected at her at all. So Morgana met the full assault with her best application of Tutaminis, the spell of absorption that Force Lightning seldom possessed the power to overcome. Not without its wielder being outlandishly superior to the applicant of Tutaminis which wasn't the case here. So when Morgana absorbed the full power of the elder woman's attack into her being, she used it to fuel a return attack of her own that was nearly twice as strong as the barrage sent against her. The elder woman was formidable but her lack of knowledge in absorbing and redirecting Force energy was apparent as soon as Morgana saw her try to throw a barrier around herself for protection.

Mortis' concubine caught some of it but it was too weak to prevent most of it from ripping through her and burning her until the life had left her body outright. She was dead before she had even rolled to the floor and sprawled her limbs in four directions. Then, victorious, Morgana turned to the boy who had recovered from the backlash of the power outage but was significantly less powerful as a price. "Please... please d-d-don't h-hurt me," stammered the boy. At once, his savantism became apparent to Morgana, who'd only ever seen it one other time in her life but remembered the impression it left her.

Morgana brought her lightsabers into a scissoring position across his neck and prepared to make the killing blow. "If your father cared for you, he would have siphoned your full potential from the start then drowned you when you outlived your usefulness. Now you beg for mercy you do not deserve? Pathetic," Morgana said. The child made one last pitiful scream, crying just before Morgana brought her blades across his neck and decapitated him.

"Let your father hear your cries through the Force as he will never hear them in life again," she hissed. Her work there done, she deactivated her blades and commed Lord Coeus for a progress report. She left with pride when he announced that he had everything she needed to proclaim a legitimate challenge to Lord Mortis before the Council at their next meeting. Everything was proceeding as she had planned, for once.

Chapter Fourteen

It didn't take more than a week for the Council to commence another meeting, specifically to discuss Mortis' future as a member of the Council. In the days following the death of his savant son and the boy's mother, Mortis was being chided by the Council for having used a child to prolong the inevitable decline of his strength. For them, it was a sign of weakness so pitifully obvious to even the most blind of all Sith that Mortis knew there was only one way out. Face his accuser in single combat and win, lest he be recognized as weak and his seat given to his challenger. Morgana, who had no intention of missing this chance to prove herself a stronger Sith witch than being Nox's apprentice, was early for the meeting just for that occasion.

So when Mortis saw her, he growled under his breath and approached the ring where the rest of the Council members could watch. "You're Lady Minshuto, aren't you? Nox's newest apprentice... she would take you in, even for a Sith, she had a propensity for surrounding herself with psychopaths," he said.

"Do you speak so grievously of me because I killed your child? That I was even willing to kill a young, intellectually disabled child for the sake of power? The greater crime was you keeping him alive to hold onto your seat on the Dark Council as long as you could," Morgana told him. There were nods of agreement to Morgana's words from some of the other Sith, indicating a promising career ahead of her if she should kill Mortis.

Morgana decided to fight traditionally, knowing there was no way Mortis could know of her skills with a lightsaber because his consort's surveillance cameras were blinded by Lord Coeus before Morgana moved in. They were also muted so that there was no way Mortis could use the sound to detect the presence of more than one lightsaber on Morgana's part. All he had was the confirmation that Morgana had killed the consort and his child, after she completed the deed. So Morgana, knowing this started with her skills of traditional combat to start with and then call upon her second blade if Mortis proved proficient enough with the magnetism that allowed her to use saberstaff combat next. She would use the combination of saberstaff, Jar'Kai, and Force powers dead last if he proved strong enough for that to be the case.

So it was that she surprised him with a combination of an offense combination of Makashi's jabs and slices, Niman's twirls and wide arcs, Ataru's acrobatics, and Juyo's ferocity. She would defend with a perfect application of Soresu, dodging blows from his own application of Makashi, the only form capable of truly countering Soresu, with a Force Dash. Whenever he tried the strikes of Ataru or Juyo, she would defend then counter with a gainer flip from Ataru and several of Juyo's characteristically vicious yet agile slicing maneuvers. Once, she even reversed the position of her blade was supposed to adopt in the first two slices of Shii-Cho to truly throw him off balance, performing the whirling of her body that followed the second stance in his confusion.

When he tried to slice her in two from the right flank, she countered with the famous diagonal parry of Soresu, which intercepted his blade at rib cage because hers was pointed to the ground. She then yanked her blade across, forming several circles with her blade in the air while Mortis was tagged along for the ride of the first circular slice Morgana performed. Morgana then followed this with several short slashes of Juyo designed to keep Mortis on the defensive long enough to then perform a successful Pushing Slash from Niman. She followed this with a leap into the air where she spun her body in fast and wide enough circles to bring her blade to what would have been his chest if he had not rolled out of the way in time.

Rather than give him a chance to rise up, she grasped his neck with the Force and brought him to hang him in the air for his death by choking. But Mortis still had more resolution to live than she had anticipated, indicated when he shot enough Force Lightning at her to make her drop him. Morgana intercepted with the horizontal block of Soresu, making sure that the lightning was attracted to her blade by bringing to chest level in defense of herself. "You have great skill, Morgana. In your time you would have been truly one of the greatest Sith Lords that ever lived, but your luck ends today," Mortis warned her.

"Oh now, Lord Mortis, you disappoint me. For decades, the Council held you in such high esteem and reverence. Surely you can do better than you have," Morgana mocked. The remarks elicited the very reaction she was looking for and she knew she had him where she wanted him. Lightsaber skill and Force abilities were no substitute for Dun Möch and the element of deception but they were handy tools in making those things easier to perform.

The duel then continued to resume that pace but it was clear to everyone watching that Mortis would tire faster than Morgana. He wasn't in his prime, in fact, he was nearly a century old which would render any living Human decrepit, the Dark Side only a crutch for the user at that point. The fact he held anywhere near as well as he did was nothing short of remarkable since Morgana was still in her prime. But Morgana knew that if she was going to accelerate things, she was going to need to somehow strike a blow into him and soon. She could play out the game if she wished but she coveted Mortis' seat on the Council, coveted the power she would have to undermine Hyperion and draw him out for her revenge against him.

She knew just how she was going to do it too, knew how she was going to undo all he had worked to gain before his very eyes then end him slowly too. And it all started by first defeating Lord Mortis and taking his seat on the Dark Council as Darth Minshuto. So when she received her next chance to successfully perform the Pushing Slash of Niman, she added one critical variation. Rather than Force-Pushing Mortis again, she used telekinesis to shoot her other lightsaber into her other hand, pressing the ignition button when it rubbed against her thumb. The result was another crimson red blade impaling Mortis' right shoulder bone.

She quickly yanked it out, making Mortis recoil from the blow and try to ready himself with a one-handed defensive stance that held his blade's tip to the ceiling. He snarled in derision at what Morgana had done to him, the fact that he had cried out when the initial wound was made being one of the last embarrassments the Council needed to witness. In his original peak, Mortis would never have allowed an opponent to get close to him, much less wound him in lightsaber combat. Morgana switched blades to jab with and even though Mortis was able to keep up with the jabs, Morgana had him on the ropes as soon as she switched to hacks and slashes, indicating a lack of Jar'Kai understanding as she suspected. So she toyed with him with both blades, wounding him in both thighs when she saw her next opening to do so.

Then, when she knew he was learning and countering her, she introduced the last segment of possible lightsaber combat. She began twirling and slashing with the saberstaff that she was able to form from her blades, truly wearing down Mortis with the effortless toil and twirl of her blade. His eyes crossed at one point, inducing a brief head rush that kept him momentarily dazed by the ruby red lights which flashed before his horizon. When she moved in for the kill, she flanked him with each blade first then knocked the pommel of her saberstaff to his face, dazing him even longer in time for her to whirl around and gut him like a fish. She detached one half then used the free blade to stab him in the chest, reclaiming the blade still in him with her free hand then deactivating them both so that he fell over to his back from the yank of them.

Mortis took a moment then recovered, trying to crawl away only to find himself crawling towards the feet of a disenchanted Darth Nox. "I'm sorry, Mortis," she said, snapping his neck and using the very words he had used when he finished of Lord Thanaton at her inauguration.

"It seems we have been purified of another weakling, how terrifically tragic that it should be a man once venerated for being one of our strongest in history. Perhaps, there is a lesson to be learned here but for now, I believe this young lady is due her seat?" said Vowrawn. Morgana played her part beautifully, pretending to be the honored new member of the Council when it was what she had wanted all along. She thanked the members of the Council for her nomination and took her place at Mortis' seat.

"You are the head Councilman of Law and Justice. As such, you will still have access to the Sphere of Knowledge for the sake of your continued collaboration with Lady Nox. But you are ultimately answerable only to our ultimate master provided you maintain the legalities of our Order and enforce our will upon those who'd break with them," Vowrawn declared. Morgana nodded in acceptance of her position and the Council ordered for slaves to carry Mortis' body to a funeral of Sith tradition, befitting his long tenure as a member of the Council.

Meanwhile, as the Emperor's Wrath, Hyperion watched the proceedings, observed Morgana in action, and made several critical notes about her fighting style, her demeanor, and even the intelligence she had revealed on Mortis before she destroyed him. He could tell that if she became a rival of his, he would be glad he decided to curry favor with Lord Jadus. Unlike this new contender, Jadus was powerful and cunning in addition to experienced: though far from his youth, he was not necessarily out of his prime just yet. More to the point, he had set in motion the kinds of political machinations that nearly brought the Empire down to its knees then had assisted its rejuvenation following the fall of Zakuul from prominence.

For his own sake, Hyperion hoped that his alliance with Jadus would have this newby matched for brains as he could only match her in lightsaber skills, military tactics, and perhaps the Force. But as she came closer to his proximity, he began to sense something... familiar about her, like he had met her years ago but couldn't remember where or when he had met her.