Crimson Eyes ~ Sequel to: The Valkyrie, An Obi-Wan Story (completed)

Chapter 51: The darkness within

Valeria.

My hands were placed on the cold glass, a fog surrounding my fingers, trying to reach out to the planet as it came into view. My breath fogged the mirror as I breathed out deeply, blurring my sight until it faded away with the next intake.

The planet hadn't changed a bit in the last 6 months I'd been away, as if it had halted in time and waited. Holding in its breath until it was whole again, until its queen had returned. As we ventured closer, I could feel it pulling at some invisible string that was bound between us. It seemed as if it called me back to life with every mile closer.

I closed my eyes to feel every single thing that followed. A shiver made its way down my spine, a tingling feeling then following at the tops of my fingers, like an itch that was awakening. Something ancient and powerful that finally came from its slumber. The flames within me spurted to life even against the effects of the drugs as if something was pulling at it and dragging it from the pits.

A draft wove over my skin as the warmth returned, welcoming me home. Smiling, I placed my forehead against the glass and breathed in deeply. It was as if I could already smell the nature laced with its exotic scents, feel the wind on my skin.

"I missed you." I whispered under my breath. Even though I wasn't even trying to, flames awakened at my fingertips, waving as if in greeting of the home they had missed. It was only then that I truly realised how much I'd missed the planet I called home. When footsteps sounded behind me I quickly doused them and straightened my back.

"The kingdom of the Vanir." Maul pondered as he halted next to me, his yellow eyes gliding over the green mountains and hills of the planet. He didn't see the warmth of the planet, the strength of the people, the life it held. All he saw was opportunity and power like all the other siths before him. He then glanced to his side, towards me, and examined me closely. "Welcome home, your majesty."

A deep-rooted anger rose within me at his tone. The flames seemed to pound against the fortress I had built around it, desperate to burn the one who'd dare to insult me and the kingdom.

He was infiltrating my planet, desecrating it with his every breath, with every moment he sought its power for his own good. A defensiveness awakened that I hadn't ever experienced before.

It was pure instinct, a primal need to defend my home against every foreign invader. After all, history had told me that sith existing on my planet never amounted to anything good. My eyes narrowed and I quickly diverted my gaze back to the nearing planet before I'd wrap my fingers around his neck and burn him.

"Borovia." I hissed through gritted teeth as we ventured not towards Eagle's Fall, my home, but towards the black castle laying amidst enormous mountains and cliffs. Its towering ruins contrasted against the nature surrounding it, the root-covered buildings reaching up to the clouds. Most of the ruins had collapsed after the fight between Arthas and me, but if I was right we wouldn't be entering the castle.

We would be entering the catacombs beneath. "It's where we'll find it." I concluded and clenched my jaw tightly. Without truly wanting to, my eyes darted to the courtyard of the castle as it came into view. To the place where I knew would lie an old, dried puddle of blood. The place where my adoptive father had died, killed by Arthas himself.

I didn't know how that made me feel. The past few months Arthas had been there in the darkest of times, but I still couldn't deny the fact that he'd been my mortal enemy before. That he'd killed countless innocent life's just so he could get the throne of Valeria. He hadn't even shown a bit of remorse.

Maul's gaze ventured towards me and even in the corner of my eyes I could see the pure satisfaction that appeared in his. "Commander Saxon." He called to his second without tearing his stare away.