Private Paying the Piper

[Talisa Io]

"Probability of lie: One hundred percent. No Bloodscrawl survived Tear's Attack on this facility." The BX Droid rationalized. "We asked you for a truthful response. You have chosen to tell falsehood. This makes you another trespasser."

"One Bloodscrawl did survive the attack. His name was Nathan Bloodscrawl. Surely that name is in your databases. Surely you know that name couldn't possibly be common knowledge. It is as she said. We serve a single surviving descendant of Nathan Bloodscrawl." Talisa said softly.

Both the Commando and Lightsaber Droid paused. They talked to one another on a separate frequency.

"Probability of lie recalculated to Ninety Nine Percent." The Commando Droid said, releasing Talisa. "We will permit you limited access to this facility's interior under armed escort while we attempt to verify your claim. Do not attempt to escape us. Deal?" it asked Esmeralda Io . "Nathan was blinded in the attack by shrapnel. The odds of his escape without assistance were unlikely. We were cut off from him."

"Could someone have given him assistance?" Talisa asked.

"Possibly. He fled into the undercrypt, where the Blood Sorceress was imprisoned. Much of it's entrance collapsed from the Concussion Bombs. No known exits on the other end. We had always assumed he had died. We will show you the entrance, follow us..."

 

[Esmeralda Io]

Location: Bloodscrawl Castle, Nightingale Plains - Ession
Wearing: Echani Tunic
Equipment: Esmeralda’s SE-14r Light Repeating Blaster │ House Io Citizen Energy Sword │ Phase III “Force Avenger” Energy Shield
Tag: Talisa Io

Esmeralda could only take a relieved breath. Once more, Talisa had bailed her out of trouble and the Siren could only offer a grateful nod in response. In spite of the fact that the agreement established was tenuous and entirely based on a lie (Nathan Bloodscrawl was long dead, or so she believed!), the pair of ancient droid guardians hadn’t asked for their weapons and would allow them to proceed, albeit under armed escort.

“We won’t.” Esmeralda answered the commando droid—probably another lie.

However, Esmeralda found herself wanting to ask who the Blood Sorceress was, but dared not voice her question for fear of unwittingly revealing her ignorance and in doing so, casting doubt on her lies.

“The Blood Sorceress?! Wow. That’s…crazy.” She commented awkwardly.

 

[Talisa Io]

Talisa followed the damaged droids downward, told older, clearly more damaged sections of the castle the iconography of the Jedi became more primitive, almost hieroglyphic.

They finally reached the underground entrance to where this Sorceress had been imprisoned... The entrance had completely caved in. She examined it, digital mind calculating everything before she used her tractor organ in her palm to lift the debris carefully so as not to not trigger further damage or a cave in. Slowly but surely the debris was lifted away.

"Your design is impressive." The BX Droid spoke.

"I had a great designer." Talisa replied.

"Intelligent perhaps. But Greatness is earned." The BX Droid replied. "And Great can come with Good or Evil after that descriptor."

Talisa hid how much the Droid's reply disturbed her as she ventured into the Undercrypt, where past Bloodscrawls had been buried in alcoves dug from the rock itself. Bright Crimson Kyber Deposits could occasionally be seen. There were signs of vegetation and flowers.

Talisa went first noting how oddly peaceful it seemed. The old toppled Jedi statues had moss growing on them. The Undercrypt seemed almost maze like.

But then she found the central chamber, a raised pedestal that had a giant but empty basin that had Alkahest runes half faded and scratched by a Lightsaber that contained traces only of stagnant rainwater.

"Was this where the Sorceress was imprisoned?" Talisa asked. "What was her crime?"

"Being a Blood Sorceress." The IG Lightsaber Droid answered.

"There's no body..." The BX Droid noted, crouching down to pick up the rusted remains of a temple guard Lightsaber. One half of it was missing...

Talisa spied the inside and found a glowing yellow Kyber crystal, picking it up.

"The lack of Nathan Bloodscrawl's corpse seems to corroborate your story..." The BX Droid said to her and Esmeralda Io .

"Is there any recording sensor here that could tell us what happened?" Talisa asked.

The BX Droid shook there head. "No camera access was ever permitted down here..."

Talisa frowned. "Let's inspect this area for clues..."

 

[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

Home again, home again...

Nathan walked across the plains of his home world, until he came upon the ancient ruins.

He stared at it, and the old feelings came back. The guilt. The regret. The shame at his own weakness that day...

He proceeded forward and heard the sounds of fighting. How the Bloodscrawls had fought brutally that day to keep their secrets.

He took another step and heard the sound of his mother getting beheaded by Elaine Tear. Another step and his father fell.

Fragments. All fragments of a forgotten life and tradition. Nathan needed anything that may have still been left. Only here, only now, when it no longer truly mattered, did he have the chance to go back.

The ruins beckoned and he felt rattled as he stepped closer to one of the chief sources of pain within him...


Ession, Gulag Era.

Nathan hadn't been good enough. He hadn't been skilled enough.

The Castle burned around him, as other members of the Bloodscrawl family, and their loyalists fell. He had seen enough that he wished to see no more. The explosion had obliged him and now he stumbled about blindly, his mental conditioning failing him and giving way to blind fear and panic as he tried to get away from the fighting. He had watched his own parents die, cut down by the Zealot with puffy, curly dark hair. Elaine Tear. He had heard of her, of course. One of the Kaiserreich's biggest cheerleaders.

His parents had died. His older brother had died. His younger sister had as well. soon all the remaining Bloodscrawls would fall, and the Ashlans would scour the castle for the secrets to a prize that they would never find. He had no idea what to do. The fourteen-year-old Nathan, up to this point, had been training to fight Sith.

He had never imagined the blow would come from his own side. His sense of betrayal and shock coursed through him like venom as he stumbled about the burning castle, going wherever the sounds of fighting were not.

He tripped and fell down a steep incline, scrambled back up with his broken temple guard lightsaber pike and walked carefully, feeling out walls and surfaces as the sounds of fighting grew more distant.

The musty smell told him he was in the crypts. He had crossed into there once, only to be immediately ordered out by his Father, warning him to never go there.

He had no choice now. Everything hurt. Better to face the unknown than to face certain death.

He moved deeper and deeper, body and head and mind wracked with pain. Despair clawed at him.

He didn't realize how quiet it was until he heard his own rapid breathing with crystal clarity...

"Poor boy...betrayed by his own people...."

Nathan wheeled around.

"Who's there?" he called out, eyes bleeding down his face.

"Someone who has been trapped here a very long time boy. Far too long. Step closer..."

Nathan guarded with the only working end of his blade, its yellow light shining in the darkness, making his blood covered face take on an unearthly quality to it.

"Do not fear, boy. If I was one of the Ashlans, we wouldn't be talking...and unless we aid one another, then neither of us leave...the ones after you would surely kill me as well..."

"You say you are trapped. Trapped how? By whom?" he asked, trying to think and focus on the pain. But it was his nature to try and survive.

"Antony Bloodscrawl." the woman answered. "He bound me to this place, with ancient Jedi Sorcery."

"Then you are a Heretic." Nathan concluded. "And a dangerous one."

"Perhaps. But I am also your only way out."

"If you are released, there is nothing to stop you from simply killing me."

"You are going to die anyway..." she pointed out. "So therefore, you have nothing to lose in letting me go free."

Little did the owner of that voice know that the reasoning she had just given him would haunt him at the very end of his days with Lysandra...

Nathan snapped out of the memory as he got withing range of the old entrance. He would have more time to reminisce once he was actually inside...


Esmeralda Io