Star Wars: Slave Of Darkness

Jedi.

Olia grit her teeth and clutched at her head. But it was useless.

Jedi.

That whisper. That damnable whisper. It had haunted her for years, even when she had been a child learning from Master Xhal. From the high rises of Corellia where she had been born to the innermost chambers of the Jedi Temple on Coruscant.

It had called to her from the wretched pits of Nar Shaddaa in her darkest moments and the bloodied sands of Korriban.

At first, it had just been a tickle at the ear every time she had doubted. It came with every flash of irritation, every moment of hypocrisy, every moment of short-lived anger. It tugged at her mind when she was cheered as a hero or derided as a failure.

But back then, a harmless whisper was all it had been, easily brushed off as a trick of the mind. It grew louder on Nar Shaddaa, but her anger and grief had washed it away.

As she stepped off the shuttle and back onto the sands of Korriban once again, the whisper had clawed at her mind relentlessly. Since coming to this world of the dead, the whispers had grown more powerful, pulling at her even in her dreams.

Jedi.

With one word, it accused and beaconed to her. A scornful teacher saying "come and see." When she had been in the tomb of Tulak Hord, it had called to her. In the tomb of great Marka Ragnos, it had overpowered the lingering strength of the dread Lord.

There was something out there, trying to draw her in. Waiting patiently for her to follow its clarion call.

Until now, she had ignored it as best she could. Everything on Korriban was potentially a trap, a monster hiding in the dark waiting for prey to stumble into their lairs. She had not survived to get where she was by being foolish.

But then, Olia had received the most recent news. The Spider had been put in solitary confinement a day ago. That alone was not noteworthy, but the reason he had been placed there most certainly was.

A training session gone wrong was a typical thing to see. But fifty droids all turning at once…Someone had obviously tried to kill him. But that had her less worried than the simple fact that he had survived it.

No, not just survived. The piles of scrap that had to be carted out of the training halls told a different story. He had crushed the assassination attempt under his heel.

A sliver of doubt was beginning to worm its way into her mind.

She was the strongest. These slaves…these wretches. They were beneath her. Weak and fumbling at a power they could barely comprehend, whereas she had been a Jedi from birth.

The Wookiee had posed the only real physical threat in her mind due to his potential age, but he was still just a brute all the same.

Even the Spider had just been a curiosity, a toy to play with, an amusing show to watch.

But she had been wrong and that surety was giving way to dread.

Though she had dismissed it at the time, the signs had shown themselves before. Lightsaber wounds were distinctive, even covered with syth-skin and machinery. The Spider had earned that scar barely a month into his training.

And then, a Sith Lord had died while he was nearby, killed in an "accident."

After that incident, she had watched, personally and through others, if only out of a new sense of caution. She had watched him in the archives, where he poured over tomes, day in and day out. She had watched him in the training halls, learning bladework.

And then Qiv had disappeared. Finally, she came to a realization.

The Spider was growing too strong, too quickly. And with that strength, he was growing more bold, more outgoing. With this realization came another: Her own training had stagnated in comparison.

Certainly, she maintained her skill, but it had not grown at the exponential rate that the Spider's had. At most, she had only learned a few new skills, content with mastering what skills she already had while she focused her efforts on the tombs.

While he wasn't there yet, the Spider might soon become an actual threat to her.

So she gave in to the whisper and followed it, bringing her once more to this hellish sea of red sand, hoping it would bring her some new revelation that would aid her against this upcoming threat.

The whine of the swoop bike's engine faded as she cut the power and dismounted, pushing her goggles onto her forehead as she observed the yawning maw of the cave before her. Nothing indicated that it was any different from the thousands of identical caves in the Valley. But the Force tugged on her, urging her to go inside.

Was it the dark side itself? Or was it something…different?

Frowning, she activated a glowrod and entered.

Yellow eyes swept the darkness as she kept a hand on the hilt of her sword, waiting for some monster to leap out from it. But it never came. The silence was only broken by the mournful howls of the wind outside and her own breathing. Her hair was ruffled by a light breeze pushing against her back, as though it were saying to move.

Taking a deep breath in, Olia started walking forward. Nothing was ever gained by standing still.

Soon, the natural cave gave way to worked stone and an ancient door barred her way. With a wave of a hand, the rusted mechanisms activated and screeched as they pulled it away.

The shadows clinging to every crack and crevice seemed to grow deeper the further she went.

Jedi.

The whisper was stronger here. Whatever she sought was close. Despite herself, she shivered. The cold that permeated this place seeped down into her bones through her robes.

On the walls around her were carvings and painted scenes. Some were of great battles, while others displayed figures prostrating themselves before a ruler on high. The former Jedi had seen many such artworks before in temples and tombs on other worlds.

A brief sensation of pain flickered in her heart as she remembered just who had been with her those times. But that sorrow swiftly gave way to fury.

Olia growled as she shoved it all aside. She needed no distractions.

At last, she came to the final chamber. The door was open, as though inviting her inside. In the center of the chamber was a sarcophagus, bearing the death mask of a beautiful humanoid woman. But Olia's attention was quickly grasped by the pedestal before it, which bore a small red pyramid. She paused only for a moment before entering the room.

Jedi.

As she crossed the threshold, the whispers spoke one last time before abruptly ceasing. The former Jedi ignored the sarcophagus in favor of slowly circling the pedestal. She knew quite well what this device was.

Olia continued to circle the holocron for several more moments, examining it from every angle without touching it. Was this what had called to her for so long, tormenting her even in her dreams? This small pyramid, barely the size of a human hand. A warm glow glimmered dimly in its depths, as though calling her to release it.

But despite its innocuous appearance, she was well aware of how dangerous it could be. As a Jedi Shadow, Master Xhal had often been called upon to hunt down and destroy such artifacts. On the rare occasions that she had been allowed to aid him, she had learned much at his side.

A Jedi holocron would often refuse to divulge knowledge to prevent it from falling into hands that weren't ready for it or those that would abuse it. Sith holocrons held no such compunctions, but they also would not care if the user harmed themselves in the process.

She remembered the wave of nausea that had hit her merely by looking at one, the dark side perverting even the air around it.

But now, that feeling was absent. Despite that, she still kept her distance.

Sith holocrons were dangerous and some were even capable of defending themselves with nearly the same strength as their creators. There was a reason the Jedi Order preferred to destroy them when they uncovered the devices, rather than lock them away.

Olia froze as that thought crossed her mind. Was her hesitation really stemming from her fear of the inherent danger of the holocron? Or was it because she was still thinking like a Jedi?

Rage began to bubble up in her stomach.

She came to this place for power. Now that it was sitting here in front of her, she was afraid because of their teachings? The lies they had forced her to believe?

Caution was swept aside by a swell of anger. She approached the holocron, kneeling before it in meditation as she channeled her power into it.

Inside of the red crystal walls, the glow began to brighten as the Force flowed into the device and it slowly rose off the pedestal.

A ghostly hand reached down, cupping her face with its spectral fingers. Though they weren't actually touching her, Olia tilted her head upwards as it directed her.

"Oh my dear, beautiful, stubborn child. At last you have come to me."

A woman's face greeted her, the same one from the sarcophagus' death mask. Her skin was unnaturally pale and her eyes a hollow gray.

Two geometric tear drops were tattooed beneath the gray orbs, accompanied by a pair of black lines that stretched from the corners of her mouth to her jawline. Underneath her lip was a large stud, piercing through pale ghostly flesh.

As the woman released her face, the former Jedi saw that each of her fingertips ended with a grotesque claw as long as a saber. She loomed over the young woman's head, floating several feet off the ground.

The gatekeeper continued speaking as she began to circle around Olia as she herself had done to the holocron not minutes before. The woman's wispy black hair flowed behind her, rippling as though underwater, joining her tattered, ribbon-like robes as she moved.

"There is such fire in your heart. Such righteous anger," She commented, her face sweeping in uncomfortably close, "It has been torn apart by grief and betrayal, and yet you still walk," The ethereal Sith smiled, "No, you have seen the emptiness of the Jedi laid bare and it left you broken. But you have come out all the stronger for it. You have grasped a portion of the truth, but you do not possess it all."

"Teach me then, so that I might know," Olia demanded, her own yellow eyes daringly meeting those of the long-dead Sith.

The Sith woman stood up to her full height, the top of her head nearly touching the ceiling of the chamber as she looked down at the acolyte. It started as a low chuckle, echoing darkly through the darkness. It rose in pitch and volume as she laughed harder.

"Of course, dear child, of course!" She cackled, "How could I deny so willing a student after I had waited so long for one such as you?"

Olia blinked, hesitating only for a moment before settling herself into a more comfortable sitting position as the woman started her first lesson.

"Listen closely and heed my wisdom. I am XoXaan. I was one of the first of the Sith Lords, one of those who abandoned the Jedi Order to seek a darker path to truth…"

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The first book has been completed on Patreon, you can look it up in the collection alongside the second book. You can visit Patreon if you want to read in Advance.

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