Sleep eluded her, just as it had ever since she had set foot on the planet. When she was able to snatch a few moments' rest, she had dreams so fraught with violent and terrifying images that it did not take her long to realize that she preferred the insomnia. She was mentally and physically exhausted but she had managed to do a pretty spectacular job of hiding this from Carth and Canderous. In truth, she was not really sure she was ready to face the final test but she knew she had to get off Korriban and she knew she had to do it soon. The insidious power of the dark side was working its way into her mind, whispering to her thoughts and trying its best to influence her actions. Resisting it had been a constant battle and all Brinna really wanted at this point was to get as far away from Korriban as she could, to be somewhere she could finally rest and meditate without fearing the images she might see.
Restlessly, Brinna turned onto her other side. Her imagination was running wild with thoughts of what the final test would entail and she raised her right hand to her forehead, rubbing vigorously as if that might dispel the images playing through her mind. She sighed loudly.
"Are you awake?" Carth asked softly, startling her.
"Yes," she admitted, turning to face him.
He studied her with concern. "Are you sure you're up for this?"
"Positive," she replied, smiling tiredly. "I just want to get it over with. It's the anticipation that's killing me. Once I get in there, I'll be able to handle whatever they throw at me." She spoke with a confidence that she didn't really feel because she didn't want him to worry about her any more than he was.
"I can only imagine," he said. He was sitting with his back to the far wall of her little alcove and he leaned his head back against the volcanic rock, closing his eyes. He looked drawn and tired and Brinna was concerned.
"Are you okay?" she asked, sitting up on her bunk and drawing her knees up to her chest. She rested her chin on her knees and her hair fell forward, sweeping across her cheek.
Carth opened his eyes and smiled when he saw how she was sitting. She smiled in response, glad that she was able to provoke such a positive reaction from him. His eyes followed her hand as she pushed a chunk of hair behind one ear.
"Looks like it's time for me to take the vibroblade to it again," she said, more to fill the silence than for any other reason.
"Don't do that," Carth said quietly. The tone of his voice gave her pause and quickened her heartbeat.
"Where's Canderous?" she asked, hoping her voice sounded casual.
"Off patrolling," Carth replied. "He couldn't sit still any longer. He's like a caged animal."
Brinna sighed deeply. "It's this place. It can't help but have an effect on everyone."
"It's strange… Ever since we got here I've been thinking about things that I haven't thought about in a long time," Carth told her. He looked suddenly conscious of his words and he closed his mouth with an almost audible snap.
"Anything you want to talk about?" Brinna asked gently.
"No. I shouldn't be keeping you awake. You need to rest for tomorrow."
"I'm not going to be doing any sleeping, Carth," Brinna admitted ruefully. "And I'd rather talk to you than lay staring at the walls like I was ten minutes ago."
"I guess I could try to entertain you for a while," he said with a weak smile.
They talked but Brinna could see that Carth's heart wasn't in it. The more she spoke, the more his eyes seemed to take on a far-away look. When she stopped speaking altogether, he didn't even flinch and she knew for certain that something was going on.
"Carth?" she said, a little loudly. He started and looked at her. "You seem like you're far away. Is something wrong?"
"Oh…it's nothing. Sorry," he said.
"It doesn't seem like nothing," she said gently. She pinned him with her gaze and he sighed and looked down, plucking absently at his trousers.
"I told you my wife died four years ago. I…I've just been trying to remember what she looked like. It shouldn't be so difficult. I can remember things about her…things she did. The way she smiled, what her hair smelled like, our last fight…just not her face. I try to hold it in my head but it's gone. Is…that strange? Maybe I shouldn't be talking to you about this," he said. The frustration he felt was evident in his voice and Brinna felt her heart going out to him. She understood what he was going through. She'd gone through it herself three times, one time for each family member she had lost. It was painful but it was an inevitable part of the recovery process.
"No, it's not strange, Carth. You remember the important things," she said quietly.
"But I should be able to remember her face. It's frustrating! I…feel like I'm losing her. I, uh…it must look really strange for me to be obsessing like this, still. You must think I'm incredibly stupid," he said.
The vulnerability in his voice made her heart hurt and she shook her head at him. "No, but I doubt your wife would want you to do this to yourself," she told him.
"I…suppose you're probably right. But I have to do it, anyway. The only thing that's kept me going since she died has been the need to find Saul and kill him. It's better to think about that than…anything else. If I can do that, then maybe I can let her go. Let it all go. If we encounter Saul…if we ever have the chance, promise me that I will be the one to kill him. I have to settle this…I need to."
The more he spoke, the more she could sense the intensity of his purpose and it made her heart sink. She closed her eyes and felt the sting of tears. She knew Carth and she cared about him. He was a good and decent man who had been driven almost to the brink of madness by the unspeakable atrocities that his former friend had committed. She knew that he was incapable of killing someone in cold blood and she was willing to bet that, deep down inside, he knew it too. She only wished that she could make him see this. He was so blinded by his pain, by his rage that he was driving himself to become something she knew he would despise being. Brinna was not about to let that happen to him.
"That's not going to help anything, Carth," she said, wishing she could say something more convincing but she knew it didn't matter. No matter what she said, she wouldn't be able to reach him. She would simply have to be there if and when Carth confronted Saul so that she could do all she could to prevent him from taking a flying leap over the edge.
"Whether it does or not, that's the way it has to be," Carth said, his voice taking on a slightly hard edge. "I…guess there's no need to discuss it until then."
Brinna let herself be dismissed. She had no intention of not discussing the issue further but now was not the time. Emotions were running too high and Korriban was a bad place for that to be happening. She knew she didn't have much time left before it would be morning and she would need to meet with Uthar and it was imperative that she do what she could to compose herself before then.
Canderous returned and eyed Brinna critically. "Shouldn't you be sleeping?"
"Shouldn't you?" she replied.
"I'm not the one who has to go face whatever sadistic test the Sith cooked up," he reminded her.
"Oh, yeah. I almost forgot," she said sarcastically. She rubbed her eyes, hoping it might do something to stop them from burning. It didn't. "I can't sleep."
"Are you finally confessing to having cracks in your armor?" Canderous asked, smiling arrogantly at her.
Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Carth shift out and she suspected he was annoyed with the turn Canderous's conversation had taken. Brinna, however, knew the Mandalorian well enough to understand that this was simply his way of communicating. He respected Brinna and had acknowledged as much. She knew that he was probably every bit as concerned about what might happen to her as Carth was. He simply had a different way of expressing his concern.
"Cracks! Wouldn't you like to think so?" she taunted him.
He smiled in response to the challenge. "I'll find your weakness one of these days."
"You just keep telling yourself that, Mandalorian. Maybe you'll actually start believing it." Brinna rose from her bunk and stretched, doing her best to work the kinks out of her muscles. "What time is it?"
"Almost 0600," Canderous told her. "When are you supposed to go meet that worthless Uthar?"
"0700," Brinna said, stifling a yawn. "I can hardly wait."
"I still don't like the idea of you going into that tomb alone," Canderous told her flatly.
She patted his arm. "I'll be just fine."
"I'm sure you will be. If you lose your lightsabers you can just beat things to death with that hard head of yours," he told her.
"Why, Canderous, what a lovely compliment!" Brinna said in a voice of exaggerated delight. "You sure know how to charm a lady."
"Yeah, well, I'm just glad I'm not dumb enough to underestimate you like those Sith do."
Brinna smiled broadly. "You are a clever one. It's fortunate that they're not. They'll rue the day they ever let me and my 'slaves' into this place."
"Just try to keep the rash acts to a minimum, will you? I plan on getting off this planet with my hide intact," Canderous said gruffly.
"I wouldn't have it any other way, my dear," she said.
She turned her attention to her gear, shuffling through it as she decided what to take along with her. She had already decided to leave her pack behind so she could only carry what would fit on her belt. Naturally, her lightsabers were coming with her and she examined them carefully before clipping them to the belt. Sorting through her things, she pulled out a couple of antidote kits and an assortment of medpacs and stowed them in her belt pouch. She briefly entertained the thought of bringing a few explosives along but decided that she wouldn't need them and that they'd just take up valuable space. Who knew what she might be asked to recover while she was in the tomb?
When she was finally ready, she, Carth, and Canderous made their way to the main room of the academy. Yuthura and Uthar were waiting for her and after assuring Uthar that she was ready, the Sith Master led her away from her friends. She cast one final look at them over her shoulder and saw that they were both studying her with undisguised concern.
Once in the tomb, Uthar announced that she would spend a day in preparation. This involved meditating and various and assorted other tasks. Brinna was anxious to begin the test and the delay annoyed her. She did her best to conceal her impatience as she went through the motions with Yuthura and Uthar.
It was probably the worst twenty-four hours she'd passed since her whole ordeal had begun. The tomb of Naga Sadow fairly pulsed with evil and fighting the dark side off was an exhausting task, especially for someone who had precious little energy left. In addition to this, her last conversation with Carth had left her very troubled and she found her thoughts turning to it at the most inopportune of moments. She only hoped she'd live long enough to straighten things out with him.
At last, Uthar looked at her and announced that it was time for her test to begin. "You have earned the right to see if you shall become one of us," he told her.
"Indeed you have," Yuthura chimed in.
"I dislike your tone, Yuthura," Uthar said suspiciously.
"What are you up to now?"
"Nothing of course, my master. I was merely agreeing with you. Should we not get on with the test?"
Brinna felt uneasy as Uthar turned his attention once more to explaining the final test. Yuthura had arched a brow and shot her a significant look as Uthar looked away and Brinna could feel dread settling in the pit of her stomach like so much plascrete. She forced herself to pay attention as Uthar told her that her task was the find the Star Map in the tomb and recover the lightsaber that had been hidden within it. When she was finished, she was to return to him for the final part of her test.
The final part of the test, she thought grouchily as she left him and Yuthura behind and proceeded through the north door of the tomb. As if this little gauntlet you're going to make me run isn't enough…
Her first surprise was waiting for her just through the door. As it closed behind her with a low thud, she saw that another corridor intersected the one in which she was currently standing. Even before her eyes caught sight of them, Brinna smelled the dry desert stench of the wraids that were waiting for her just before the intersection.
They noticed her at about the same time she noticed them and her eyes widened at their approach. For such huge, unwieldy-looking creatures, they certainly could move fast. She closed her eyes, called on the Force, and put two of them in stasis. The third was trapped behind the other two in the rather narrow corridor and she didn't worry about it until she had hacked her way through the first two. She was able to dodge the third wraid easily enough and it inflicted very little damage on her before she landed her death blow. She paused for a moment to catch her breath and to wipe some of the gore from her face.
Which way should I go? she mused, glancing left and then right. She opted to go right and jogged down the corridor toward the door at the end. She resisted the urge to proceed at a full blown run because it was important that she preserve her energy as much as possible. Brinna had a sneaking suspicion that stamina would prove to be an important asset during her test.
At the end of the corridor, she made a rather grisly discovery. Just before the door lay some not quite fully rotted remains and she turned her nose up at the smell. There was a datapad laying next to the remains and she swallowed the bile that rose in her throat with some difficulty as she picked it up.
Really, this shouldn't surprise me anymore, she thought as her gaze was inexorably drawn to what was left of what had once been a living, breathing being. You've run into so many corpses in these tombs that you should be expecting this by now.
Moving away from the body and taking a deep breath, Brinna scanned the datapad, discovering that it was the journal of another young potential Sith. It mentioned something about a pool of acid and Brinna could feel her eyebrows shooting all the way up to her hairline. Apparently, there were two obelisks somewhere within the tomb, one called the Pillar of Fire and another called the Pillar of Ice. From what she could gather, these pillars contained some sort of substance that she would need to bypass the acid pool. She agreed with the would-be Sith's assumption that fire did not sound like a good idea. Ice it was.
"Maybe freezing the pool would be safer," the journal's writer had mused. "Well…I'll worry about that once I bypass the terentatek beasts. If I can. I suppose it's now or never."
"Now or never indeed," Brinna said aloud, her voice sounding obnoxiously loud in the strange quiet of the tomb. She winced and tossed the datapad back down by the body.
Terentatek beasts. As in more than one, she thought, eyeing the door before her apprehensively. The wraids hadn't been too much of a challenge but she now had enough experience with terentateks to know how deadly serious of a threat they posed to a Jedi. And this time I don't have friend to help me.
Her stomach roiling, Brinna stepped through the door as quietly as she could. There was a small alcove just on the other side of the door and she peered around the wall into the large chamber. At the far end, two terentateks stood, moving restlessly, their claws on the stone floor making a noise that set Brinna's teeth on edge. She pulled her head back around the wall and tried the door. Just as she'd suspected, it was now locked.
Think, Warrim, she told herself as she leaned her head back against the door. For a moment she focused on breathing deeply and doing what she could to get her heart rate back to normal. Then she began to devise a strategy for dealing with the beasts.
She would have to take them on one at a time. That was a given. But how could she do that? Briefly, she entertained the idea of putting one in stasis while she attacked the other but she dismissed that plan entirely. Well did she know just how difficult it was to get the beasts to succumb to Force powers and she was not about to stand there and let them cut her to pieces while she tried fruitlessly to stasis one or the other of them. Wracking her brain, she glanced about her surroundings and then it hit her: she could lure one of them toward the alcove. She'd be pinned between the door and the beast, which was a very unpleasant thought, to say the least, but the space was too narrow to allow the second beast to reach her while the first was doing its best to eviscerate her.
"Here goes nothing," she muttered as she took a shuddering breath and stepped stealthily around the wall. She made just enough noise to rouse the beasts. Both of them turned to look at her and there was a heart-stopping pause while they froze at the sight of their prey. Then they both began charging toward her and she fled to what little safety the alcove could offer her.
Wait for it, she told herself as the beasts continued to charge. Her heart was pounding so loudly in her ears that it almost rivaled the sound the great beasts were making. Now.
Calling on the Force, she attempted to put the first beast in stasis, to no avail. She ducked out of the way of its razor-sharp claws and hissed as she felt them graze her left side. She called on the Force again and, again, failed to stop the beast. Trying her best not to give in to her growing sense of desperation, she took a swing at the beast with her lightsaber, landing a pretty good blow and causing it to bellow in rage. Concentrating with all her might, she called on the Force again and nearly went weak with relief when she saw the terentatek freeze.
Brinna wasted no time in calling on the Force to grant her extra speed and then she began raining blows down upon the terentatek. The stasis wore off before she could kill the beast and she cried out as its claws tore what felt to be a substantial chunk from her right leg. The pain nearly crippled her but she fought against the red haze of it and managed to strike the beast down.
She would have liked nothing better than to slump on the floor and burn through all of her medpacs but she still had the second beast to deal with. Her stomach heaved as the pain flared through her leg and her vision was blurred by tears.
Get a hold of yourself! she mentally screamed. You will die if you don't focus!
Her right hand shook as she held it out to the other terentatek, trying to put it in stasis but the pain made it difficult to concentrate and she was not surprised to see that her attempt had no effect whatsoever on the beast. She sluggishly attempted to dodge its blows but she was moving a little too slowly and she screamed as the terentatek's claws raked across her back.
Biting down on her tongue hard enough to bring tears to her eyes, Brinna forced herself to focus. She was coming dangerously close to exhausting her Force abilities and she knew she would have to make her next attempt count. She dodged as the beast took another swing at her and then yelled aloud as she called on the Force. Her attempt was successful and she found herself sobbing gratefully. Roughly, she dashed her sleeve across her eyes to clear her vision and then focused on killing the beast. She could feel herself sinking further into the red haze as her fury overtook her and she rained savage blows down upon the terentatek. When it fell dead at her feet, she spat on its body before collapsing.
She was now weeping openly and she indulged herself for a second and just sobbed. Her shaking fingers dug through the pouch on her belt and she pulled out three medpacs, rapidly injecting herself with one after the other. The pain receded somewhat and she struggled to regain control of herself. Her hands shook so violently that she could hardly manage to tear a strip from her robe and tie it tightly around her bleeding leg.
I let it get to me, she told herself as she studied the terentatek bodies with a shudder of fear and revulsion. For a second there, the dark side had a hold on me.
"Enough!" she said out loud, speaking through gritted teeth. "I will not sit here and cry like a baby. I am stronger than this! I will not let the dark side get the better of me!"
Determined, Brinna hauled herself up from the floor and used what was left of her Force abilities to heal herself. She was still bleeding and wounded but the pain was now a dull ache rather than a burning blaze. She stowed the rest of her medpacs in her pouch even though she was tempted to use them all up. They might be needed later and she couldn't run the risk of being without them if she was to have to face something like the terentateks again or she would die, plain and simple. Her Force powers would come back to her somewhat but without rest and meditation she would not be able to fully recover them. She was going to have to be very, very careful about how she used them from this point forward.
She moved into the chamber and found another corpse within. This one had a journal that had once belonged to Shaela, another of the Jedi sent on the Great Hunt, and a lightsaber crystal. The crystal was stowed securely in her pouch, the journal left behind.
Across the room was a door with a lever just before it. She proceeded carefully, scrutinizing the floor. She caught a glimpse of a mine just before the door and her heart sank again. Her skills with demolitions were far less than stellar and she did not know if she would be able to disable the mine, nor did she know if she would survive if the mine went off. Giving it her best shot, she attempted to disable it but only succeeded in setting it off. Fortunately for her, she was able to tumble out of the way of the cloud of toxins that rose from it and she crouched on the other side of the room until the cloud dissipated. When it was finally gone, she walked over to the lever and pulled it, hearing the sound of the lock in the door before her and the door behind her—the one leading out of this chamber of horrors—disengaging.
Brinna barreled through the door in front of her before apprehension could overcome her and was relieved to see that it held nary a creature, just the two pillars that had been mentioned in the Sith journal. She ignored the Pillar of Fire and moved over to the Pillar of Ice, taking the strange grenade that she found within. Then, without a backward glance, she hurried out of the chamber and back to the main intersection.
She paused for a brief second once there. To her left was the door leading out of the tomb. To her right was another door, straight ahead of her a third. She chose to proceed to the door ahead of her.
No creatures came rushing forward to assault her as she stepped through the doors and Brinna allowed herself a small sigh of relief. It was cut short by a bone jarring thud as the door closed and locked behind her. She stopped to process what she saw before her. A low, electrical hum filled the room. Four pillars stood within it and multi-colored bands of energy flashed around the far left pillar. There was also a console in the room and Brinna made her way over to it, giving the pillars a wide berth.
"Caution!" the console's panel read. "Some of the systems are very delicate and improper transfer of power can cause an electrical overload!"
"Well that's just great," Brinna said sarcastically. She continued to examine the panel and soon discovered that she would need to transfer all four rings to the far right pillar in order to unlock the door to her right.
Naturally, this task was not to be as easy as it sounded. The top band could be successfully transferred to any pillar without threat of overload. However, the second band down would cause an overload if transferred to a pillar on which the top band was active. The next band down could only be transferred to a pillar with no other active bands or to one with only the base band active. The base band could only be transferred to a blank pillar without any other active bands.
Though she found the puzzle rather annoying, Brinna had to admit that she was grateful for the respite. It gave her some time to let her heartbeat and breathing slow and her more relaxed state would help her to recover some of her Force abilities more quickly. She lost track of time as she concentrated fully on the task at hand, shuffling the energy bands around with a great deal of care until, at long last, she had managed to transfer all four to the right pillar. She felt a flash of victory as the doors' locks disengaged.
Three more wraids waited for her on the other side but they were a piece of cake in comparison to the terentateks and she was still in possession of most of her blood after the battle. There was a monument to Naga Sadow in the room and she saw a blade resting upon it. She grabbed it, clipping it carefully to her belt before leaving the chamber.
There was only one door left and Brinna moved toward it with a renewed sense of determination. She found the acid pool on the other side and she stopped for a moment to watch it bubble and hiss. The stench of it caused her to wrinkle her nose and she reached into her pouch and pulled out the ice grenade.
"Here goes nothing," she murmured as she lobbed it into the pool.
Within seconds, the bubbling pool had frozen over and Brinna moved forward, gingerly putting her weight on the surface of the ice. It remained intact with only the faintest of creaks and she crossed it as swiftly as she could, sliding slightly on the slippery surface.
Yet another door stood before her and she examined the floor with extreme care, soon finding exactly what she'd suspected would be there. Working very, very slowly, Brinna was able to disable the mine and she wasted no time in opening the door once she was finished.
She felt her breath catch in her throat as she saw the now familiar shape of the Star Map that stood in the center of the room. As she moved closer to it, it opened up and she pulled her datapad out, using it to fill some more of the blanks left by the first Star Map. On the other side of the Star Map was a statue and Brinna moved over to it, prodding it gently with her fingertips. She found a depression and when she carefully pressed down on it, a small door swung open to reveal a concealed compartment. Within the compartment was the lightsaber.
"Break time," she said, sinking wearily to the floor for a few moments. She was glad that she was done running through the maze that Uthar had devised for her but she could not forget that he had said that finding the Star Map and the lightsaber did not constitute the end of her task. She dreaded whatever it was he had waiting for her.
Reluctantly, she pulled herself up from the floor and gave her wounds a quick check. She had managed to staunch the flow of blood from her leg wound but she knew it would need some attention when the test was finally over. Her back still stung slightly but, of course, she couldn't see those wounds to assess them. The wound on her left side was now little more than a scratch and nothing to worry about.
I suppose this is as good as it gets, she thought with a sigh. I'd better save those last two medpacs for now.
Master Uthar and Yuthura were standing in the middle of the frozen acid pool when she stepped through the door. She could see Yuthura study her with an expression of some concern as her gaze flicked over Brinna's wounds.
"So you return to us with the lightsaber in hand, as I knew you would," Uthar said. He sounded pleased.
"The Force has served you well," Yuthura added.