Chapter 5: Entombed
Ash and flame. A weight pressed her to the ground. How long had she been asleep? No, not asleep, lost in a swirl of madness like dark twisted dreams. Screams in the distance. Where was she? How did she get here? What was holding her? down She tried to move. At first her body would not respond but slowly it came back. First, her fingers moved across dry ground and stone. Dirt gathered under her nails as she closed her fist. A faint red glow began to fill her vision. Dathomir. Her home. Dathomir, under attack! Suddenly, Merrin remembered: the ships that had come screaming into the atmosphere, the droids, the metal warrior with bright colorful blades who cut down her sisters.
No!
With a jerk she ripped her eyes open and tried pushing herself up but the weight was so much that she collapsed back down onto her elbows.
I must stop him. I must save my sisters!
She cried out, summoning all of her strength to force herself up. The things that held her down rolled off her back and landed on the ground with a soft thump. Finally she could see again, though she wished she could see anything else but what lay before her. Her sisters. Their bodies had landed on her in the explosions that knocked her unconscious. Now their sightless eyes stared up at her from the ground. She tore her eyes away from the glassy horror in theirs but in every direction, all that remained were ruined trees and lifeless bodies. Scattered amongst them were the corpses of her ancestors that had been resurrected to fight with them. Now they too lay still, their dry papery husks flapping softly in the wind and smoke. Their fall could mean only one thing, Old Daka was gone as well? They were all gone.
Ilyana
Merrin looked up. Domir was high in the sky but it had been night when the battle began. How long since she lost consciousness? Merrin had seen Ilyana's white hair shimmering in the light of the moons and explosions as she dashed from one injured sister to the next, binding wounds, healing as quickly as she could to get their warriors back on their feet. But where was she now? Where had she gone?
Domir was low on the horizon before Merrin reached Old Daka's Keep. The bodies of fallen Nightsisters remained where they fell, defending their treasured elders. Merrin stepped gingerly through the lost, careful to not disturb them till she saw what she had been dreading. Silver hair now streaked with the bright red of blood. Merrin fell to her knees and gathered Ilyana's broken form up in her arms and wept.
Forever ended so soon. All that remained was Merrin and the dead. She wept till her tears ran dry then exhaustion overtook her and she fell asleep amongst the cold bodies.
In the dark of night she rose once more. She gathered Ilyana in her arms and carried her back to the village where she did her best to construct a burial pod. In it she placed Ilyana, wrapped carefully in red cloth, her arms crossed in front of her. Merrin bent down, closed Ilyana's eyes for the last time then kissed her gently on the forehead.
"Goodbye," she whispered. She stood and stepped back to summon her magick to close and raise the pod but the magick would not come. She was empty, broken. The fire that had once burned so brightly within her, fed from the life and vitality of herself and her people had been extinguished with Ilyana. The more she tried to summon her fire the angrier she became. They had taken everything from her. Her people, Ilyana, her fire and now she was empty, alone.
A flicker slowly she began to fill again, this time
Merrin screamed with frustration and a flicker appeared in her again, not with the life and vitality as before, but now with anger and hatred and the resolve to grow ever stronger and bring vengeance to those that had destroyed her world.
Suddenly, the green flames billowed from her, threatening to consume all that surrounded her, but her determination was stronger than ever and she bent it to her will. She gathered the magicks to her and used them to close the burial pod, suspending her sister from one of the few remaining but broken trees of the Dathomir forest.
Over the next few days she buried as many others as she could, but there were too many for her alone and eventually she abandoned the task and retreated into her old village. There she practiced alone, drew on her anger and hate to become stronger and promised herself that one day she would avenge her sisters against the metal warrior with the bright swords, the lightsabers, the weapons of the Jedi, her new enemies.