Maul: Legacy of Shadows

Chapter 17: A Foundation of Blood

***Year 3,958 BBY***

Bao-Dur could feel the power of the Dark Side flowing through his body, energizing every cell with raw emotion and passion.  Most of the villagers made it a focus to give him a wide berth, as his power resonated through their very cores, like a wild storm that at any moment could turn its focus on them.  Bao-Dur relished the feeling.  He had no idea that the Dark Side offered such depths, and he knew that he had only scratched the surface.  His lost connection to the Force was a maddening experience, and one that had even cost him his place among the Jedi with his master next to him.

For her part, Miraj knew her lover was far more dangerous than she wanted to admit.  In her peoples' attempt to rid themselves of a useless outsider, who had served the purpose their Mother had asked, they instead allowed for a threat unlike any they had ever faced to rise from the ashes.  Now, Miraj was trying to formulate a plan to somehow rid herself of this unfortunate turn of events, but her curiosity into her lover's power kept her from acting rashly.  The raw power he commanded was unlike that of the wild magics she wielded.  Looking at her newborn one of her handmaidens held, the blending of such power would cement her peoples' place in the galaxy for centuries.

There was one large problem, ever since that fateful day, the Jedi exile's demeanor had changed towards Miraj completely.  He was distant and cold, and rarely even bothered with his newborn son.  He was both there, and wasn't, as if some piece of him was traveling the galaxy searching for something.

"My dear, is something troubling you?" Miraj quietly asked, her handmaidens casting sharp looks at the exile who continued to stare up into the night sky.

"No," he replied coldly, and a shiver ran down Miraj's spine. "I will be leaving you soon, the Force is calling me back to the stars."

Miraj was surprised.  Not once since coming to their world did he ever mention leaving.  Now here he was claiming he would be immediately disembarking upon some personal journey that was calling to him.  In the end, there was nothing she could or even wanted to do to stop her lover.  Should he leave, the immediate threat of his presence would abate, and allow her time to train their son to be a worthy heir in the tribe.

Staying silent as he packed his belongings, Miraj intently watched as the Dark Side permeated even the air surrounding her former lover.  Her handmaidens each kept a hand on a dagger they had strapped on their right thighs, ready for any sign from their Mother to attack.

Bao-Dur ignored them.  He was fully aware of their intentions, and knew that if he wanted, he could raze the entire village to the ground.  Strapping his holster to his waist, he placed his blaster back into it, though it was nothing more than a tool for appearances.  Finally, he started to walk out of the hut, but stopped to coldly turn his head, one yellow sickly eye staring directly at Miraj.

"It would be wise to hope I never return," Bao-Dur replied, his voice dripping with hatred.

Miraj's blood instantly froze as the words reached her ears.  She knew that if he ever came back to their world her fate would be the same as her deceased handmaiden's. One of the handmaidens standing next to Miraj pulled her dagger, and without warning she was frozen in place.  Though Bao-Dur made no motion, his eye still firmly locked onto Miraj's.

"Stop please!" Miraj begged quietly, but her pleas fell on deaf ears.

She could only watch as bones began to snap in the body of her handmaiden, who was so paralyzed by the former Jedi's power that he refused to even allow her to scream in pain.  All of her extremities cried out in pain, and Miraj could hear the Force make its way through her handmaiden's body, bone after bone cracking and snapping as it flowed through her.  The second handmaiden covered her mouth as tears began to flow down her cheeks, watching the horror unfold before her.  Finally, Bao-Dur reached the end of his relentless assault, and he silently choked the life from her, refusing to disturb his newborn son who slept peacefully.  As her life finally ended, he released her body to collapse onto the floor, a few twitches of a dying nervous system was all that remained.

Miraj dared not say a word in protest.  Satisfied, Bao-Dur finally turned and looked back towards the village out of the door, looking at his ship which sat in the distance outside of the village.  The villagers all hid in their dwellings as he walked out of the village and entered his ship.  A few wayward critters using it as a temporary home quickly took the chance to escape before he started up the engines.  The turbines whined loudly from disuse, but after a few moments sprung back to life.  Bao-Dur closed his eyes as his ship ascended out of the planet's atmosphere, letting the Force guide his actions.  Punching in a set of coordinates into his navigational computer, his ship disappeared into the night sky.

***Elsewhere in the Galaxy***

On a distant world, far from the desolate sands and thick jungles of Dathomir, Surik could feel an ominous change rampaging across the stars.  It was nearly noon on the planet Cathar, but a darkness fell over Surik, and she felt ill as it washed over her.

"What is it Surik?" an aged Cathar Jedi asked her former pupil sitting across from her.

"I feel a strange disturbance, Master Sylvar," Surik replied rubbing her head from the unsettling feeling that throbbed like a headache.

It had been months since Surik was found by her former master, the Jedi hero Sylvar, who had fought against her former training partner Exar Kun and his Sith Empire.  After Surik and her apprentice and fellow Jedi Knight Bao-Dur had effectively ended the Mandalorian Wars at Malachor, the aging Jedi Master felt her student had shut herself off from the Force to survive the massive loss of life she had caused.  Sylvar was also no stranger to the Dark Side, having nearly fallen herself during the Great Sith War when she was forced to battle her life-mate, who had fallen to the Dark Side's poisonous influence.

Surik gripped her former apprentice's lightsaber, a parting gift that she treasured ever since they had parted ways.  Something had happened to Bao-Dur, and the former Jedi worried he was in pain, and that she wasn't there to help him.  Her former master had shown her how to let go of her past sins and reconnect with the Force, and secretly, Surik had hoped her friend had found his own path to reconnecting.  She missed him dearly, but now she was worried not being by his side had been a grave mistake.

"I can feel his pain, it courses through me like a virus.  No matter the distance, I have always been able to feel him in the periphery of my soul, even when I couldn't feel the Force.  For years he was all I cared to protect, and I know he felt the same of me.  I feel I have failed him," Surik said depressingly, tears beginning to form in her eyes.

Grasping her former apprentice's hand, which still gripped Bao-Dur's lightsaber, Sylvar gave Surik a soft look and small smile.  Her feline features displayed a wisdom of a thousand lifetimes, as she herself used to feel the same of her apprentice.

"Then go my child," Sylvar replied, lightly patting her former apprentice's hand.

"I'm afraid I'm too late, that when he looks at me, he won't recognize me anymore," Surik explained, trying to calm herself by breathing softly.

"Hiding from your destiny won't prevent it from coming to pass, you must face it head on as I had always taught you," the Cathar Jedi whispered.

Surik closed her eyes and nodded, accepting her destiny and the will of the Force as her guide. Sylvar handed her apprentice the starter codes for her aged starship, one that hadn't been used in decades, but would now be her final gift to her apprentice. Climbing aboard the small shuttle, Surik looked down and smiled at her master, who proceeded to nod in approval.

A small team of Cathar mechanics had kept the machine in pristine shape, and Surik had no trouble taking off from the planet.  Reaching out with the Force, she tried to connect on a subconscious level with her former apprentice, hoping to feel his presence.  Eventually she found it, a ripple of pain and anguish coursing through the galaxy.  Surik took a deep breath and activated the hyperdrive.