Chapter Five
Maul and Savage Opress had just seen the witch Kycina run raving mad at the sight of them and retreat into her hut while screaming and beating her own breasts. Now, she was returning with a staff that had a burning green orb at the side pointed towards the brothers. Savage was about to activate his lightsaber and attack but Maul backhanded his face hard enough to throw him into a tree while Maul himself used his knowledge of martial arts to hold Kycina at bay by hand. "Kycina, we are not here to hurt you we just need your help!" Maul told her with assurance in his voice.
Maul could not nor would not deny that reassurance was his forte when it came to talking to someone unless it was reassurance he would kill them. Kycina must have seen that and thought that he intended to kill since she attacked him once more. Then he used the Force to wrench the staff from her and he watched as the green fire died when his hand touched the golden staff with a massive green emerald at its head. "No, no, you don't understand!" Kycina shouted randomly at him.
She retreated into her house, her back hunched, her hands twitching fiercely, and every breath shivered out as though it were cold when it was actually quite warm. "You don't understand anything," she whispered, repeating her earlier sentiment. She returned to stirring her stew around and Maul used the Force to snag the Madness herb's pouch off Savage's belt before emptying the contents before tossing the bag aside. Then slowly, he extended it out to Kycina and offered it as a missing ingredient to her stew.
"I thought I was missing something, tear the pedals off that and put them into the stew so I can smash them up, quickly!" Kycina ordered. Maul remembered that Talzin had told him the pedals on the herb were the only parts of the flower that had the curative effect but the rest of the plant could be used for extra nutrition in an extreme situation. He gladly obeyed and when he did, she smashed them into the stew then stirred it with the rest of her ingredients. What also made him glad was that Savage was still unconscious under the tree he had been thrown into because what she said after getting a bowl and pouring some of the stew into it surprised even him.
She turned to three dolls, one that had red and black stripes on its face like him, another that had stripes to match Savage, and another doll whose image Maul didn't recognize. He was confused by this but his suspicions were burning even deeper into his core. "Maul, Savage, Feral, come eat some of this stew with me!" Kycina called to them. The third one is named Feral, does Savage know who he is? Maul asked, confused and baffled but also curious.
Unfortunately, the names of the first two dolls all but confirmed his suspicion of any relationship he had to her. He was the child she had given to Sidious to save his life from Mother Talzin when he wasn't even a year old, Savage was indeed his brother, and Maul was exactly why Talzin wanted Kycina to return into her powerful fold. "Don't speak to me like that Savage, Feral needs his strength as he's weaker than you and Maul!" Kycina said though the Feral doll had said nothing to her. He watched as she tried to get the dolls of Maul and Savage to eat the stew in vain, even acting like a real mother and trying it herself and telling them how scrumptious it had tasted to her.
"Maul, please make Savage and Feral eat this, you all need your strength and they'll listen only to you! If you don't eat your food, Mother Talzin will get you," Kycina begged. Then she simply shrugged and warned them not to complain about getting enough to eat before chugging down the remaining stew along with all its chunks of rancor meat and the smashed up bits of the Madness herb. When she began to get drowsy and was about to fall to the floor, Maul stopped her fall and took her to the bed she had made for herself and even decided to fit the dolls into her arm so she had her bedmates with her as her mind healed from the ravages of time and isolation that he had known all too well.
It was then that Savage was finally up and about, wondering why the hell Maul hit him and threw him into a tree when Kycina attacked them. "There is a time and a place for killing Savage and this was neither the time nor the place although we are isolated out here. Besides, Talzin said she would be useful to us if anyone and we need her alive until we know if she can help us or not," Maul replied. "You sound like something else is on your mind, what is it my brother?" Savage inquired.
"Before she wakes up Savage, I want you to know something I suspected and had confirmed to me while you were unconscious. This is our mother and if you don't believe me, take a good look at the dolls she's holding in her arms and tell me you don't see a resemblance to anyone you know," Maul explained. Savage took a look and pointed out all three of the sons of Kycina almost immediately after looking at them. "So you do know who this Feral chap is?" Maul asked, raising a curious eyebrow at his brother.
"Feral was our youngest brother but was also the weakest of us. So weak in fact that though he could fight, I had to shelter him while we grew up on Dathomir. When that witch you met above Raydonia came, Feral and I were chosen for her Selection along with four other males who perished by her hand. Then I offered my life in exchange for her sparing Feral of any harm that could befall him," Savage explained.
"Go on," Maul urged when Savage paused for a moment. "I was brought before Mother Talzin and the Nightsisters then transformed into the beast you see before you. My first test after my transformation was simple: sever my ties with Feral by killing him with my own hands. I snapped his neck with a single hand and was then brought before Dooku to be his apprentice. It was after that that Ventress betrayed me and Talzin sent me in search for you," he concluded.
"I feel your pain brother for I was put through a similar test when I started my life as Lord Sidious' servant. He ordered me to kill a trio of human sisters who clung to each other as I cut them down, one at a time," Maul said, shivering and growling at the memory. "Should we leave Kycina alone until she awakens and hopefully tries not to attack us again?" Savage asked, justly changing the subject. Maul nodded and after perching Kycina's staff on the soft ground next to her, he and Savage both waited in the kitchen area where she had been cooking a stew for the dolls and herself before.
"Let's try some of this, I recall the smell from my days back at Dathomir," Savage said enthusiastically. Maul nodded and recalled that the smell reminded him of a stew Sidious used to either reward or heal him after his missions to different worlds as a young child. Both of them tried it and both of them confirmed the stew as being the one they both remembered from their earlier days in their very different lives. "Let's try not to eat all of it in case she needs something to eat when she wakes up," Maul told his brother after eating some of his.
Savage agreed, knowing that the stew would fill him up quickly in one bowl and knowing there was plenty to go around. Maul washed the bowls while Savage robbed his forehead from where Maul had hit him and noticed a purple swell over his left eye when given a mirror. "Sorry I hit you, it's just that your solution could have cost us her life and made her useless to our cause. We still need her knowledge of the ancient Sith magic and alchemy in order to find a way to harness the power of the souls trapped in the thought bomb orb on planet Ruusan," Maul said to which Savage nodded his acceptance of his brother's apology.
Talzin felt the presence of the Madness herb inside Kycina's sleeping mind and knew it was time to encourage her back into the light of the Nightsisters. She visited Kycina's dream form and waited for it to notice her. "You, what are you doing invading my mind once more? Can't you just leave me in peace!" she begged Talzin when she finally noticed her vestige.
"No Kycina, I am not the specter that usually haunts your dreams. I am the flesh and blood body of the woman who banished you here and I have come to you with a command. Come back to sanity and help your sons in their fight against the Jedi, it is the only way the Nightsisters will assert their true place in the galaxy," Talzin answered, her voice conniving but reassuring on the surface. "At what price, might I ask?" Kycina asked her, knowing full well that Talzin always had plans for her servants whether or not they failed her.
"I only need you to help Maul and Savage in their missions together should they need your knowledge of the ancient Sith magic to launch an attack upon the Jedi or Maul's former Master," Talzin said. "And why would Maul want revenge against his former master? What do you even mean by former master any how?" Kycina inquired. "Twelve years ago, Maul was apprentice to the Sith Lord Darth Sidious and was facing a Jedi Padawan named Obi-Wan Kenobi alongside his Master Qui-Gon Jinn," Talzin began.
"Get to the point," Kycina interrupted. "Though Maul was successful in killing Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan managed to slice him in half and send him tumbling down a reactor pit. Because his Master did not seek him out, Maul rightfully assumed that he had been forsaken and has since been trying to obtain his revenge against them both," Talzin finished, her story concluded and now all that remained was Kycina's consent to help her two sons. "I will help them but not for you, only for them, is that understood?" Kycina said at last.
Talzin nodded and cured Kycina's conscious mind of its madness as she had done to Maul when Savage brought him to her on Dathomir. In fact, she was even using the very same spell she had used when she brought him back to sanity nearly half a year before this very day. When she finished, she also gave her an outfit fitting of the rank she once had in the tribe: second most powerful sorceress after Talzin herself. And now, Kycina also had the additional knowledge of ancient Sith rituals and spells at her disposal thus making her a far more dangerous adversary than she had been when Talzin ordered her banished and causing Mother Talzin to begin treading a bit more carefully with her sister.
Maul and Savage were in for an incredible surprise when Kycina woke up once more. For a whole day, she had been sleeping as the Madness herb's effects took their toll. Now, they witnessed her arise and witness them sitting on two stools that her former insanity had her make for her dolls. Once again, she placed her staff with the burning emerald in front but Savage made no move to stop her this time.
Instead, Maul went for his lightsaber but did not ignite his blade so that he could see what she would do next. "Whoever you two are, you have done a good job looking as my sons would if they were about your exact age! Get out before I use the power of the Nightsisters to destroy you both," Kycina warned. "That's the thing though Kycina: we are your sons, Savage and Maul," Maul replied.
"If that is so, who were you given to and how old were you when you were given away?" Kycina inquired, raising an eyebrow. "I was not even a year old when I was given away to an influential human named Palpatine," Maul said. Kycina paused, thinking about that answer then nodding that Maul had answered just as she would intend her real son to answer that question. "And you, if you are Savage, what was the name of the brother I left you with?" Kycina asked Savage.
"His name was Feral and he was younger and weaker than I turned out to be. He was so much weaker than I that he had to be sheltered during his early years in order to survive into his adulthood," Savage answered. Kycina accepted that answer but asked what happened to Feral if what Savage said was true. When Savage told her he had been forced to kill Feral with his own hands by Mother Talzin's witches, Kycina mourned Feral briefly but remained unsurprised at what Talzin caused Savage to do; in fact, Feral's death had stirred a desire that had been thought dead for years on Kycina's part: revenge against Talzin.