A Darkened Gathering - Part Six

CW: Character death.

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Q’taran’s knees collapsed, and he fell to the ground, blood already seeping from the hundreds of puncture wounds in his skin. His red eyes kept staring at Katyra as she watched him die, not moving to help him.

He deserved it. He attacked first.

Did he, though? Katyra felt herself at war, and sighed heavily, closing her eyes. The anger, the fear, the pain… the Darkness seemed to feed on them, but the way it seemed to only remain for that sadness made her even angrier.

“The Force is a tool,” she said aloud, “Mine to call upon when I need it, mine to command when I need it. And mine to banish when its task is done.”

But you are so much stronger with this Darkness.

“I am,” Katyra reluctantly itted. “I have the strength I need, the power I want. But I will not let it control me. My suffering is my own, and not for this thing to feed on.”

Voicing it out loud seemed to help her make sense of what was happening within her own mind, and Katyra felt a strange sense of peace come over her. Mentally, she envisioned the Force – dark and light – as a tool. She had used it to break the ice wall, and she had used it to protect herself. For now, with no threats or danger or problems, she had no real use of it. So, in her mind, she set the Force-tool aside.

Katyra stood up, looking around as the hall darkened rapidly, the window high above showing as the sky turned a dark red. The light that she saw filled the room, almost pulsating in her vision. Katyra closed her eyes, letting that calm return to her as the redness seemed to colour everything, blurring it all into one shade.

That was when she became aware of the hard rock against her side, and the sharp pain in her head.

Katyra groaned, feeling the pain all over her side. She moved to sit up, but her head was pounding sharply and the motion made her feel nauseous. Instead, she allowed herself to rest for a few more moments.

She should have known it was some sort of dream or apparition. There was no way that this spiralling tunnel had led her back to the beginning of the Caves, and there was no way Q’taran would ever draw his lightsaber on an unarmed child, no matter how supposedly “evil” that child was. Katyra waited, figuring that the pulsating red glow burning through her eyelids was just remnants of the apparition.

Slowly, she opened her eyes.

A crystal lay on the ground, directly in front of her, pulsating with a red glow that seemed to cover everything else within the small space. Katyra sat up slowly, staring at the crystal as it seemed to beckon to her.

It’s yours.

“It can’t be,” Katyra shook her head, “It’s red. I’m supposed to be a Jedi. I’m not meant to have a red crystal. Jedi don’t get red crystals.”

But it’s there for you.

Katyra stared at the small stone, before slowly reaching out and picking it up. It felt warm to the touch, and as she held it, the pulsating glow dimmed slightly. This couldn’t possibly be her stone, could it?

Not if she decided it wasn’t.

Katyra dropped the stone, before standing up. She was unsteady on her feet, and clutched at the wall for . The space was bathed in the reddish glow of the crystal, and Katyra could clearly see a wider pathway leading out of the space. She shook her head at the vision, and started for the tunnel, before pausing and turning back to the crystal. Its glow was bright enough to provide light, which was more than she would have otherwise. Huffing softly, she walked back and picked up the crystal.

“Fine, but only until I find my real crystal,” she told it. The pulsating light didn’t dim this time, as if it understood her, and she set off.

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