A muffled curse echoed in the cabin as Ami lifted her face off the pillow with a start. She flipped tangled red hair out of her eyes and looked around muzzily for whatever was bothering her. Next to her, Cahaya rolled over in her sleep, sheets pulling free to expose her naked torso.
No, that wasn’t it, Ami thought, looking around again. She heard it once more, a chime from the floor somewhere.
It was only two and a half hours since they’d crawled into bed, and she was in no mood to deal with this at the moment. Still, her communicator was programmed to only disturb her for a few select people when she was asleep, so it was probably pretty important.
Unless someone is dead, She thought, they’re going to wish they were. She lurched off the bed and fumbled for the communications device in their rumpled clothing.
Her newfound, and hard won, serenity did not properly function at 03:30 hours in the morning. “What,” she snapped into the portable comms unit.
No one responded. Pulling herself back onto the bed, she looked at it blankly while her brain tried to wake up and figure out what to do. Finally, she poked the comms device into a slot on her night table which dutifully displayed a holographic projection.
//If you receive this that means I'm in danger
and my astromech droid did as I programed him
to send this during distress.
This message should be accompanied
with my latest-known coordinate .
-Vorinthia//
Ami surged to her feet again, this time waking Cahaya.
“Whatsa matter,” she mumbled as Ami started sorting through the trails of clothing they’d left strewn across the floor.
Ami pointed distractedly at the text displayed from her night table and pulled a undershirt over her head. She crossed quickly to her desk and adjusted the camera to only show her head and shoulders. After fussing with her hair for a moment and deciding it was a lost cause, she activated the unit as Cahaya started gathering their things.
“Comms, Crewman Hurely.”
“Mister Hurely,” Ami said as the man on the other end sat up straighter in his chair.”Please put me through to the watch commander.”
“Aye, ma’am, hold one,” came the reply and the screen changed to show a young Lieutenant.
“How can I help you this morning my Lady,” she asked Ami.
“What is the status of our supply offload to the civilians?”
The lieutenant looked off screen for a moment and then back. “We’re about forty percent done unloading the supplies to them ma’am.”
Ami sat back in frustration. “That’s not enough for them to be able to manufacture their own supplies if I had to order Huntress out of the system is it?”
The lieutenant shook her head, “No ma’am, not nearly enough.”
“Damn,” Ami replied, and then sat forward once more. “Please call my personal cutter and have an emergency preflight done. I need to leave within the next half hour.”
The lieutenant looked away from the camera, snapping her fingers to get someone’s attention. “Scramble third watch alpha crew over to the Lady’s cutter and have them do a crash startup.”
“Should I notify the Captain,” she asked looking back at Ami through her screen.
“No, there is no need to wake him, there is nothing he can do. I’ll be in the hangar before the top of the hour.”
“Yes my Lady, is that all” the watch commander asked.
Ami nodded and clicked off the unit, standing to look around the room.
“Not that it’s not pretty hot to see you half naked, but you’re going to need to finish dressing,” Cahaya said throwing some clean undergarments at Ami. She knew, could feel, the tension in Ami even though her face was a mask of calm.
Ami smiled, Cahaya knew how to break past her defenses and how to get her focused on the right things. Ami began dressing, running through her mind the tasks she needed to do. Neither of the women knew what to expect, but they knew her cutter would have most of the supplies they needed, for a short time at least, so once they finished dressing, they clipped on their sabers and made their way to the lifts that would deposit them in Huntress’ hangar bay. Anything they were missing could be found later, the essentials were aboard.
Making their way to the cockpit, Ami strode to the navigator’s station. “I need a least time course plotted to this system,” she said handing him the coordinates Vori’s droid had passed along. She looked at the pilot running the preflight check lists, “Captain, I need to be there as quickly as you can make it happen.”
“Yes my Lady,” the pilot responded, flipping switches and activating various systems without stopping. “Comms and navigation online,” she said to her people as Ami left the compartment.
Comms, Ami thought, and turned to the holoprojector. She punched up Darth Severous’ frequency and waited until word was passed to him. She’d give him until Captain Alorin got her cutter underway to respond, or just leave without telling him where she was headed until he could be bothered to comm her back. Her people were very capable of managing the digs until she returned, and he hadn’t given her particular orders as yet either. No emergency was holding her here now.
She sat tiredly on the couch and waited for Severous’ reply. Cahaya flopped down next to her and lay her head against Ami’s shoulder.
“Gonna be alright girl,” She said.
Ami leaned her cheek against Cahaya’s head and closed her eyes. Waiting.
Vori & Ami's Master-Apprentice Relationship in A Nutshell
Ami'lee: *argues that young, inexperienced Cathar friend should come with them on a dangerous mission*
Vorin: That Cathar is a beautiful cinnamon bun, too pure for this world. YOU WILL NOT TAKE HER.
Ami'lee: *takes Vori's hand* This isn't your fight. You have done enough already.
Vorin: But you're still my apprentice. I'm not going to sit at home burying my face in a good man's beard, no matter how I like that, while you're off killing a filthy Sith.
Ami'lee: And taking her assets.
Vorin: And that.
Ami'lee: I had thought of leveraging you to get ships for support from our mutual ally.
Vorin: How do you mean leveraging me?
Ami'lee: I've seen the way he looks at you with such longing.
Vorin: Were you going to set a bloody thing up for him because he likes me!? I am NOT going to sleep with him.
Ami'lee: *dies of laughter*
Ami'lee: You should arrange for your boyfriend to give you a "parting gift".
Vorin: Honestly I don't think I can keep up with that much shagging. I'll save it for when we have to part for a long stretch of time.
Ami'lee: You can't keep up? Lies.
Vorin: He does it the way I did when I was seventeen.
Vorinthia’s gentle fingers brushed Ami’lee’s radiant red hair. She pulled a blanket over her. The energy coming off from the sleeping girl felt like a serene hum through The Force. She preferred her apprentice this way, sleeping peacefully instead of constantly watching her back. The redhead had been ceaselessly fending herself against bounty hunters and paid assassins for weeks. Vorinthia has noticed the increasing paranoia and, factoring the safety of Penumbral and Ami’s volatile nature, she couldn’t justify forcing the girl to stay within The Ascendant over long periods of time. But this smaller ship provided some safety, at least for Ami if not for them both. It was smaller than The Ascendant, manned by less crew, but certainly more hospitable than the cold planet Tantra which Ami preferred over The Ascendant or Meris V.
There was only one downside, a rather huge one: the Gage-class transport belonged to a Dark Lord of the Sith. To make waters even murkier, this Darth Severous happened to be the same one who owned another ship which she boarded and damaged months ago when she demanded her daughter, at the time the Sith’s most-prized experiment subject, be released. Vorinthia could feel eyes watching her and her apprentice as they stayed inside the Rising Epsis’ guest room. The women wouldn’t have been there If it wasn’t for the truce that resulted after the Sith offered his resources to intercept those hunting Ami in exchange for assistance on a relic excavation.
If anything could excite the master-apprentice duo, it was the promise of a powerful Rakatan relic and the access to Rakata Prime’s coordinate which Darth Severous --and probably only a handful of people in the galaxy-- possessed. The coordinate would be useful in the future, not only for her personal use but also for Penumbral.
The platinum-haired woman pulled at the heavy fabric of her Sith robe. She chose to don the old purplish robe instead of her armor as a gesture of good faith for the Dark Lord. The guest room had a tall mirror and memories washed over her when the robe’s appearance was reflected in it. The attire accompanied her when she lived among Darths and acolytes on Korriban. She wore it the first time her feet set upon Paradise Lost’s bridge and she didn’t abandon it until she trusted Penumbral. Now, the very same robe would be her armor and tool of deception against Darth Severous and his Imperial-uniformed crews.
The dress alone was not enough, however. Vorinthia has lived within a Sith powerbase before and has witnessed numerous treacheries and in-fighting. She knew the best way to conduct oneself around a powerful Darth and still get what you want is by carefully cultivating one’s presence: be powerful but not enough to be a threat that the Sith might want to rid later on. Now that the Rising Epsis has jumped into hyperspace towards Rakata Prime, there was no turning back. That visage had to be sculpted immediately, despite her drowsiness.
_____
In his office, Darth Severous was thoroughly enjoying reading the dossiers on Ms. Ami’lee Cava and Vorinthia Snowrend. His agents and servants all over the Galaxy have worked days and nights to compile the dossier, which was handed to him months before he even began concocting the bait to lure the former Jedi out from the safety of Penumbral and the nebula housing it. It was perhaps the dozenth time he went over the dossiers, remembering every known bit of information, every dot and line he could manipulate to move events and people the way he wanted.
The Pureblood’s hands moved sporadically, picking up datapads and papers strewn about his desk and looking over interesting paragraphs contained within them. One physical copy of an archaeological journal titled "Architectural Findings and History of the Voss, and Its Influence in The Natives' Force Sensitivity" written in ATC 10 by Snowrend was laid out in one corner of the desk. That one has informed Severous of Vorinthia’s interest and study in archaeology, an important ingredient for his bait. One particular datapad detailed the resources of Ami’lee’s excavation crew and their most recent dig sites, another datapad had sparse accounts regarding a group of Jedi Shadows hunting a relic in Vorinthia’s possession. He took a short glance over personal notes of observations his agents have written about the two women. One word stood out to describe them both: curious.
The Dark Lord has lured and converted numerous Jedi into allies and tools of the Empire. He formed the saying himsef, “Curiousity felled the Jedi”. It’s a fickle thing, curiosity. It has to be maintained carefully. Give them too much knowledge, and once the curiosity is fulfilled they’d lose interest. Give them too little, and they wouldn’t take risks. Manipulating just the right amount is an art and Severous was an artisan.
The most interesting piece of intel he possessed was the holo recording tied to a bounty on Corellia for one “Snowriver”. The Pureblood made a devious grin and rubbed his facial tendrils as he watched Vorinthia’s familiar figure in the holo, walking behind a man among dozens of bodies clad in CorSec uniform. Funny, he thought, how she told the Sith to include the title “Master” when addressing her. Clearly it was the woman’s form of power play or deception. The Dark Lord pondered just how much of a Jedi Vorinthia actually was.
When the holorecording ended, Severous picked up the datapad closest to him. This intel was written and sent to him in ATC 0. The man rubbed the metallic casing of that particular datapad fondly, a feeling of omnipotence sparked within him. If only she knew.
“My Lord, Lieutenant Yashko requesting permission to enter,” the silence in the office was suddenly broken
“Allowed.” The Pureblood put the datapad down and began organizing them to be stored.
The tall, lanky Lieutenant entered the office and bowed for Severous. “Reporting surveillance, My Lord. The woman and her apprentice has shown no suspicious activity and have made no communication to anyone outside our vessel with their personal transponder.”
Severous waved a hand, gesturing for one of his servants to take the datapads away. “And what are they doing now? Sleeping?” He could tell that Ami’lee was, from her quiet energy emanating from the guest bedroom, but Vorinthia’s energy was so subtle that he couldn’t tell for sure.
“The apprentice is, My Lord. The Jedi appears to be...meditating.”
How quaint, Severous thought. He rose from his chair and started making his way to the security room, feeling the need to look for himself.
“My Lord...there’s also a small matter…” The Lieutenant followed behind, walking a few paces away, allowing the Sith’s cape to billow without interruption.
“Hmm?”
“Drax has been wandering around Habitation Deck, shall we have him moved so he...wouldn’t disturb the guests?”
Severous chuckled in amusement. “No. Let him be. Drax shall go wherever he pleases on this ship, as always.”
Tempered in Blood - Part I: The Damage We All Carry
(co-written with Ami'lee)
Voss | 12:35
Being planet-side on Voss with Ami'lee for the past few days has given Vorinthia some of the peace she came to find. The simple fact that she was there with another living being who has shown her affection and support during a low moment in her life was made more significant with the exchange of trust between them. Vorinthia was determined to try her best to help Ami’lee with the tasks the young girl’s master has placed upon her, to be able to feel and use The Force again without relying on anger. In a sense, both of them were looking for the same peace, albeit for different purposes.
As the two women rode their speeders, Vorinthia felt the flow of The Force in her surroundings. Leaves were dancing and a strange calmness beckoned her from the direction of the lake that was now within visible distance. If contentment were alcohol, she would be drowned drunk by it that instant. However, when she glanced at Ami’lee and felt how the redhead couldn’t grasp The Force in this state, Vorinthia’s sense of contentment was incomplete.
“What is this place?” Ami’lee asked as they both parked their speeders near a tree.
“It’s a lake, don’t worry this area is safe. I checked with the locals, no Gormaks have been seen patrolling this area.”
“I guess I just didn’t expect to find such a peaceful place here. We’re kind of close to the fighting.”
Vorinthia smiled, “There are peaceful places everywhere if we make the effort to look closely.” She stopped at a clearing between where the tree line stopped and the lake. “Alright, your first task…” Vorinthia made a serious expression at Ami’lee to playfully give a sense of foreboding, “...is to find me a nice spot, warmly-lit but not too hot, preferable one that’d be comfy for sunbathing.”
The redhead smiled in return and began her task. She walked about where they were standing, moved closer to the water, and asked for Vorinthia’s approval on several spots. Finally, the older woman agreed on a spot under a big, shady tree, not too far from the water. She placed down her backpack and took two objects from inside it. One of the them was a large piece of cloth which she promptly spread to cover the ground. Her action made the trip looked more like a picnic than a Force training.
The second object, curiously, was an urn. It was an ordinary earthenware urn about thirty centimeters tall, clearly made on Voss judging from its style and coloration. Upon closer inspection, one would find a sizeable hole surrounded by cracks on the lower part of the object.
“This is your main task,” Vorinthia handed the urn to Ami, “You have to fill this urn with water.”
Ami’lee took the urn and looked at it carefully. She arched her eyebrow at her temporary master. “It has a hole in it, I guess that’s the test?”
The short-haired girl received a nod. “You must not change the urn in any way. When you’ve managed to fill it with water, call me. I’ll be here, relaxing my butt off.” With that, Vorinthia began to undress her outermost layer of clothing and took a pair of shades from her backpack. She casually wore it over her eyes.
“When you say fill it, you mean using the Force, or just normally - like a logic puzzle?”
“Don’t use The Force.”
“Okay.”
“Ami, remember. Don’t break the urn.” Her voice was firm, as though that part of the test was of the utmost importance.
Vorinthia was expecting to have at least a few minutes of sun-bathing before Ami’lee could figure out the puzzle. However, Ami’lee walked into the water’s edge and dunked the urn underwater. “It’s full, what now?” Ami said as she stood up. The whole process took under two minutes and Vorinthia broke into gleeful laughter as she laid on the cloth-covered ground.
“Very good! That was fast. I’m impressed. I didn’t even get the chance to tan myself.” Vorinthia took off her shade.
Sensing an opportunity for amusement, Ami grabbed the urn and picked it up from the water. “Oops, it’s empty again. This might take a while, relax again,” She smiled.
“It’s alright, return it to the water.” Vorinthia beckoned for Ami to come closer. The girl approached her, full of attention. “Ami, would you say that urn is broken?”
“From a certain point of view. Yes, it’s broken. But, overall it’s still an urn - it could hold something else, just not water.”
Her wisdom seemed to please Vorinthia, who observed both the urn and Ami’lee with her eyes. “That urn is you, Ami, and the water...think of it as The Force. I know you think you’re crippled but consider that perhaps you can’t feel The Force under certain circumstances because of the way you think.”
Ami’lee pondered at her words. “Okay, I can see the point you’re trying to make. But how does it help?”
“I think you’ll only be able to feel The Force again when you surrender yourself to it, when you stop seeing it as something that wish to harm you, when you…” She took a moment to draw a deep breath, “...stop seeing calmness, peace, and mercy as weaknesses.”
“I...I don’t understand. I don’t think I see them as weakness,” Ami’lee looked at Vorinthia in confusion.
“But you did...have you fully accepted that they are strengths?”
Ami frowned. “I...but they are just emotions. They are not strength or weakness. Everyone has them.”
Vorinthia paced towards the edge of the water. “They are what you define them, what you wish them to be. For me, they are strengths because I’m able to live this long, after the terrible things that happened to me, because I’m still capable of finding peace and showing mercy,” She turned around to looked at Ami’lee, as if searching something within her eyes. “And for you...you’re already familiar with using rage and other strong emotions as a source of strength.”
“Right, that’s the way my power first manifested, and the academy at Korriban reinforced that training,” Ami’lee recalled the story she told Vori the previous day, how she drew upon the Dark Side to kill the people who tormented her. Her expression slowly changed, she was beginning to understand.
“I never underwent the strict Sith doctrine, but I infiltrated a Powerbase once and I knew what they teach. Even then, there’s room for mercy as a source of strength in the Sith’s way, sadly most Sith do not see or agree with it.”
“I’ve let plenty of enemies go, I don’t think I see mercy as a weakness. And I certainly don’t subscribe to the Sith doctrine.”
Vori smiled at the redhead’s determined voice. “Even if you do, it would not matter to me. The Force is around you and inside you, if grasping for it isn’t working, perhaps you simply need to believe that it will come to you, like the water that fills the urn. I want you to remember this in future meditation.”
“So you’re saying that on some level I am seeing weakness in being calm, and The Force as my enemy. I guess I can see that, but how do I correct this if I don’t realize I’m doing it?”
“No, no...if you say you don’t see calmness and mercy as a weakness anymore, then you’re good on that aspect. However, that mindset of yours that view The Force as something that leads to your death...you need to make peace with that, change your view.”
Ami’lee pondered again, not speaking for a few moments. “I will try. That is a big shift in the way I see things. It won’t come easily.”
“Nothing does,” Vori stared off into the lake, “I spent years finding and making peace with others, with myself, with The Force… I went into solitude, immersed myself in studies, and it was a slow process.”
“It seems to me you’re saying I have to be okay with The Force trying to kill me and I need to let it do so while staying calm about it. That’s a tall order. I don’t have years, Fleet missions require I be functional now.”
“No, Ami...you need to see that The Force isn’t trying to kill you,” She stressed her voice. “In the mean time, until you see The Force in that light, you will use your emotions to draw The Force.”
“Okay, but Saru wanted me to learn to use The Force without emotions. You’re saying that will come in time?”
Vorinthia closed her eyes and drew another deep breath. Her mind, working by itself, called upon her memory. “A man taught me...passion and serenity exist hand in hand. When you are not fighting in the battlefield, try to find The Force in the living things around you, we have time to do that now. We’ll meditate again, right here. This time, I want you not to remember the things that raise your emotions. Simply observe the living things around you, the grasses and leaves being moved by the wind. Reflect on the living organisms and everything you can sense with your being. Simply remember that The Force exists, moves, and lives in all of them and in you.”
“Okay. I will try,” Ami’lee nodded firmly.
Vorinthia shook off the memory that began to flood her thoughts. She didn’t want it, and she distracted herself from it with a cheerful statement, “We can do it while sunbathing too!”
“Good idea!”
_____
Ami, can you hear me?"
The girl nods in response, deep in her meditation. A gentle breeze whispers through the long brown grass and sighs as it passes between the stone pillars of a rotten monument. Vorinthia's long hair plays with the breeze.
"Are you ready?" Vorinthia asks. They'd come to Voss ostensibly to dig for artifacts, but it is also a time of healing, for both of them.
Ami takes a slow deep breath and lets it out through pursed lips. Tension tightens her shoulders and neck, but she nods indicating her readiness. In her memory she goes back to the prison cell, and the dirty men grabbing her roughly and throwing her to the filthy stone floor. As they begin to fight among themselves for first rights to the young girl, anger floods into the memory.
The rage of helplessness and indignation becomes like a living thing, a viper writhing in her guts. She grabs it roughly, struggling to hold it. The Force suddenly blooms in her awareness and she grabs it as well, using her rage like insolated gloves to protect her from a live power conduit.
The Force sears and frenzies, trying to loop back and kill her. She wrestles in under control with force of will. It flows through her like molten copper, burning and scalding along the channels she's lain to guide it. Every time she takes it in, there is a little more damage done, but the alternative is unbearable. For Ami, it always comes down to using the power, or remaining the scared little girl on the prison room floor.
Vorinthia stares at the girl, watching the interplay in the her mind.
"This is what the Force is to me Vori," Ami says in a strained voice.
"It is not like a stream of water, as it is for you, it is a living thing seeking to kill me. I force it to do the work I want, just as I would for any other energy source. When I tap the Force, it is like powering the hyper-drive on my ship. I unlock enormous amount of raw energy. If I don't give it guidance, or I let my containment fail, then it will kill me. I use my rage to hold the Force, to keep it from burning me to a crisp from the inside out. If I am calm…" Ami says as she struggles to relax and let go her anger.
Vorinthia feels the Force fade from the girl. Ami tries desperately to hold it, but it eludes her grasp and is gone.
Ami looks up; one tear escapes her blue eyes. "I know you say I am not crippled, but it feels that way to me Vori. Imagine suddenly going blind when you are not meditating. That's what it feels like. I can't see! How am I supposed to get passed feeling like I am disabled?"
