「to temper the blaze with the twist of a knife」
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A flock of ebony wings scattered with her approach, leaving strings of carrion strewn among the cobbled ground. Stilling reeling in the hours after the attack, the Holy City had only begun to bury their dead. Ash fell around the woman as she knelt beside one of the undisturbed corpses. The hilt of her blade turned the man into a position to examine his wounds. It was no clean kill. The wounds told a tale of volatility, chaos, and skill. The path of bodies seemed to stretch on a mile; the smoldering ruins framing them. A masterpiece of relentless destruction.
He had been here, then.
The knowledge of his fall had struck like lightning. It was certain, but a jolt to the system. His actions on Coruscant seemed only just. Just as sure as the trees would change, and the Sith would march forth onto the core, so too was the vision of her master turning from the light. His presence on Jedha confirmed nothing but the kind of battle she could expect. Rhis had died; and in his place stood a rabid dog in need of neutralizing. The hunter rose, turning back to the street, only to find a familiar face peering back at her.
"You're not really here, are you?" The words were almost a whisper.
"No." Her counterpart confirmed. "But I could sense your turmoil. Do you really think things would have been any different had you gone with him?"
The acknowledgment of guilt sent her gaze back to the corpse. She hadn't held the blade, but she may as well have put it in her master's hand.
"You're a fool, then, Xashe. He would have dragged you into the darkness, too."
The thought had crossed her mind. Even now, a ball of anger sat in the bottom of her gut, buried but ever present. The core was shadowed by all that had happened since - the abandonment of the only father she cared to know, the self imposed exile to avoid barash, the death of the hope that Rhis would hang on - but if you traced the corruption back to it's core, it laid at the feet of the New Jedi Order and their profane experimentations.
"Maybe."
Taku was the only one she'd ever make the admission to. He understood what it was to live just outside of Bogan's grasp. A booted foot kicked the corpse back over, as if escape the horror that had befallen the hapless individual.
"Guess we'll never know. The only thing that matters now is the future."
"What do you plan to do, then?"
There will be peace, but not for them. The teaching had been condemned in the years since they first met, but it did not cause them to faulter. Any mercy given left room for rot to develop. Light could only shine where darkness was smothered. Rhis would have expected no quarter, as he drilled into her for years. When she gathered up the resolve to face Takui again, her voice was determined, mind stalwart.
"What he would have wanted. What he would have done for me."
