Nora Lithos
Virologist
The room was almost as empty as if she had never been there. A pale hand propped itself against the nearby desk as Nora rose from the floor with a grunt of pain. The healers had said that she wasn’t supposed to be up and walking so soon after having been stabbed, but part of her was convinced that she had to do this. Hazel had been her friend, and now she was gone. Nora had gone through every single nook and cranny that she could think of within her former friend’s dormitory, but it was as if nobody had ever lived there. It was obvious from the disturbed shelves and cupboards that the Lotus Guard had already been here before. Nora followed their movements and looked through the shelves that looked disturbed despite their vacant surface being as clean as ever before she moved to inspect the cupboards and dresser that remained ever so half-heartedly open or closed. The guards who had passed through had felt very little more than as if they had been defeated, and perhaps in the end that was the best word to use when describing the room; defeat. The Sacred Lotus had lost its last leader and the future was looking anything but bright. Kismet had disappeared and Nora could only assume Sardun had set out on a quest to find her, and now Hazel was gone too.
A deep breath filled Nora’s lungs with air as she took a seat on the chair by the desk. Her chest rose until it hit the barrier where her wound would begin to stretch and cause her pain. A sharp exhale, a statement of pain, forced the air to part her lips as she let in a second more cautious inhale that would a mere second later seep into a slow but prolonged exhale or sigh. The pale hand that had been placed on the desk moved up to cover blank, hollow eyes before it dragged itself across her nose bridge to cover her mouth. There were no traces that Hazel had lived here. The hand balled up and pressed firm against her nose tip. Nora had been in this room more than once to talk about the things that had once worried her, and Hazel had always listened. Unlike what the room would seem to indicate, she knew that Hazel had been here yet no matter where she had thought to search for clues on her friend’s current whereabouts the room had not been left with a single trace. It was as if she had never been here, or as if these plans had been laid out for a very long time.
The thought crossed the Arkanian girl’s mind. Had she never truly known Hazel? A small but muted shriek echoed around the small room as she pushed herself out of her seat with her hand pressed against the desktop. She moved to cover her wound and press against it until she stood again. Heaving breaths seeped in and out as she struggled to kill the pain again. The hand that covered her stomach twisted to let her check for blood. Much like the last few times there was nothing there and the girl let out another thankful whisper under her breath. With one hand on her stomach and the other against the nearby console Nora opened the door to her mentor’s room with a well-practiced combination and stepped outside. A look to her left made it all the more obvious that nobody was coming her way, and a look to the right told her the path ahead was clear.
An uneven and unstable rhythm reverberated around the halls as her feet shuffled with one grunt after another. It was painful but she needed this walk, she needed to see the state of the Sacred Lotus with her own eyes once more. If only the resilient and stubborn remained, then Nora would consider herself honored to be one of them, even if they were still just a precious few. She had long since realized that the problem was that people were too focused on the now to see the future. It was something Nora’s father had always told her and warned her about, which she had always seen as somewhat ironic when one considered the fact that he was an archaeologist. People would often use the fear of today to kill tomorrow, and if the Sacred Lotus had taught Nora anything it was the validity of said statement. Though unlike many others before her she still believed that the order was able to lift itself up from its current troubles. It was just the question of leadership that remained an ever so daunting to most.
As if drawn to it by fate, the courtyard came into view. Nora took a left to avoid an oncoming duo of Lotus Guards. The courtyard was right there and a sense of hesitant curiosity filled her for a moment as she contemplated what to do. Part of her had no desire to revisit the scene, not just yet, but then there was the other part of her that still demanded answers for what had happened. Throwing yet another look over her shoulder to ensure that the guards were gone Nora continued to grunt her way into the courtyard arch as quietly as she could muster. Her free hand pressed against the stone arch that separated her from the scene while the other remained clutching onto her wound. Eyes peered down to check for blood again. She was still fine. Good. With great caution she would eventually begin to shuffle onto the scene of the crime with a greater sense of clarity of what had happened. The puddles from four days ago still remained as one of the most basic reminders of what had transpired. It made the scene look almost untouched. As if it had all happened just a few hours ago. It made the scene all the more easier to remember for what it was. From Hazel’s apathy to the way she had exploded into a ball of anger, hate and rage. Maybe in the end Nora hadn’t helped her friend as much as she had hoped, but it was too late for that now. She stood staring at the hole in the pillar where the lightsaber had pierced through her body and cut into its stony surface.
This was the spot where Hazel had shown her true colors, and the pain was as taxing on Nora physically as it was mentally. Nora’s own words echoed in her mind. Weak, pathetic, coward, there were many more words that Nora would have wanted to use despite the fact that they had lost their meaning. Friend, diligent, caring and competent came to mind, words which hadn’t lost meaning because they didn’t apply but rather because a majority of them felt as if they had become little more than wishful thinking at this point. Hazel had been Nora’s friend once, but she was fairly certain that was no more. There was also no real doubt that Hazel was still as diligent as ever, and very competent at what she did. The cleanliness of her room proved that much. In the end it was the word ‘caring’ that had Nora’s head spinning the most. Out of all the words that she had associated Hazel with it was the one that stung the most to have lost faith in.
Nora approached the pillar proper and let her hand rest against its surface as she eased herself down by the hole left behind by the lightsaber’s blade. The pain in her stomach creeped on her and got progressively worse for each time Nora forced it to withstand continued exertion. The charred hole where the yellow blade had struck it caused the the smell of burnt flesh to fill her mind. Nora let her fingers slide from the surface of the pillar until they seeped into the hole to inspect the damage. A sense of sorrow began to linger at the back of her mind as she remembered the numb pain she had felt when it happened.
“Nora.” A familiar voice called her name and the girl gasped. She spun on her knee to look with a terrified and surprised expression at the man who had called her name before her stomach caused her to shriek and in pain again and the man approached her with haste.
“Come on.” He muttered and leaned down to wrap her arm around his shoulder to help get her off the ground.
“Thank you, Karl.” She wheezed under her breath. Her hand patted against her stomach to check for bleeding; still nothing and Nora let out a sigh of relief.
“Nylea will murder me if she finds out I let you sneak out like this.” The man seemed far less laidback than usual. It was as if something in the way he spoke made everything seem far more worse than it had been for Nora.
“Nylea will understand.” She grunted as the two began to walk out of the courtyard.
“We still don’t understand why you refuse further healing.” Karl shook his head and continued to lead Nora in the direction of her medical bed.
“I made my choice.” Nora spoke through gritted teeth as she staved off the pain. “It’s for my own reasons.”
“We don’t have enough bacta.” Karl sighed as they approached the door to her room.
“No.” She said and stopped to unwrap her arm around his shoulder. “I am not done yet.”
“What?” Karl turned to look at her in surprise. Most people who were in pain would have wanted to get back to a state where they wouldn’t be in pain anymore, and yet Nora had repeatedly refused to let them take care of her.
“I need to-” She grunted in pain again. “I need you to gather the rest of the Lotus Guard.”
“Why?” Karl looked at the girl in disbelief. She needed to rest, what did she have in mind that couldn’t wait until later?
“Just do it, Karl.” Nora begged of him. “Please.”
The man shook his head in disbelief. “Fine. Just… Why? Where?”
“The courtyard, and you’ll see.” Nora tried to smile but the pain was too great. Her teeth gritted again as she began to halt her way back to the courtyard. Karl gave her a cautious look before setting off towards the Guard dorms in order to bring those that he could find to the courtyard as Nora had requested. On the way he would pick up others that he met or could think to remember, and by the time that they had all gathered Nora had begun to make peace with what she needed to say.
“Well, I got them here as you wished.” Karl looked at Nora in further confusion and disbelief. This was the scene where she had been stabbed, why were they gathering here? The girl merely gave him a smile and nodded her head before she turned to look at the others.
“Things are tough.” She said and took a deep breath to ready her nerves for what was to come. “We have lost Kismet, we have lost Sardun, and earlier this week we lost Zanteres as well.”
The people in the group looked at each other. The air reeked of a sense of defeat and it broke Nora’s heart. This place had been the very center of hope once, but now it was little more than a hollow husk of what it had once been as if everything had been twisted in the opposite of what it was meant to be. The Order of the Sacred Lotus had been a place where love, compassion and a greater vision for the future had taken front and center. It was a stark contrast to the Order that still persevered, at least from the few of them that remained, but there was still hope. Nora was certain of it.
“Our numbers are dwindling by the day as people seek greener pastures or give up hope, and I have seen first hand-” Nora pointed at the hole in the pillar where she had been stabbed as if to make a point. “-what happens when fear and apathy get the better of people.”
“Hazel was a dear friend to many of us. Kismet could have healed a whole galaxy if she had so desired, and all the while people like Sardun, a man who was as much a part of this order as you are right now, watched over her. The Order of the Sacred Lotus was built upon compassion, upon love and understanding of one another, and I am not going to let those ideals wither away when I know that we are all as capable of making the same changes as these three individuals were.”
Nora took a deep breath and pointed at Karl. “You. Karl, why did you join?”
The man was taken aback for a second. “Uh, to make a difference. Help people.”
Nora nodded his head with a small grunt of pain. “Exactly,” Then she snapped her finger and pointed at a woman in the crowd. “Uh, you, yes you, I don’t know your name, sorry. What’s your name and why did you join?”
The woman looked around at the others in confusion before she looked back at Nora again. “... To make a difference?” She hesitated for a second. “And uh, Anna. My name is Anna.”
“Exactly!” Nora exclaimed and gritted her teeth to stave off the pain once more before she looked around at the others again. “We all joined up to make a difference.”
“Where are you going with this, Nora?” Karl raised his arms and shoulders as if to beg for an answer as his confusion began to simmer into curiosity. “Why did you make me bring everyone out here?”
“Because I believe in you.” Nora’s voice shook with the emotion she had held back for so long. “We have lost our leaders, but that does not mean that we are unable to go on.”
“Karl, I have seen your abilities up close and personal. I know that you are more capable than you think. I want you to gather the apprentices tomorrow and set up a new training regiment. Group them three-by-three, and assign mentors accordingly. It will be a heavy workload at first, but we can ease that off of them as more people come back to us.”
“If they come back.” One voice called from the crowd.
“They will.” Nora assured them, her fingers starting to snap as she tried to remember the other woman’s name. “Uh… Anna! What do you do?”
“I’m a healer.” She too seemed as curious as Karl was at this point. “I worked with both Zanteres and Kismet when they were around.”
“Perfect!” Nora pumped her fist by her side, ignoring the pain it caused her before she pointed at Anna again. “Gather what remains of your colleagues tomorrow and get me a tally of your numbers. I want you to start getting the apprentices organized and ready to absorb all that knowledge you have like a sponge. Then I want you to work with Karl to create a new regiment of what they need to know to become the healers I know that they can be.”
“The rest of you, I want you to think about why you are here, where you can help out, and then get back to me.” Nora ordered them with a newfound courage and confidence. “I know that each and everyone of you here are amazing at what you do, and I want us to get back to what we all know in our hearts that we can be.”
“It’s going to be hard at first, but I know we can do this, so who is with me?” Nora looked around the crowd expectantly without a sign of wavering faith.
A few moments passed before, “I am.” Karl’s voice sounded with the optimism that Nora had come to know him for. He stepped up to Nora and turned around to face the rest of the crowd with her. “I think she’s right, and that we can make something of this again.”
“I am with her too too.” Said Anna and pushed her way to the front of the crowd and took a stand by Nora. “We are capable of anything together. We can make things right again.”
The courtyard that had once been deathly quiet began to buzz with life again, of hope and dreams. A small smile spread on the Arkanian girl’s lips at what she was both seeing and hearing, even as the pain from her stomach began to creep up on her again. The hand that had clutched at her stomach before would clutch to her stomach again. For one last time Nora would check for a bleeding, and yet once more she would find that it was all clear. Her shoulders rose with a single chuckle before she looked at the others.
“Then let’s get back to work.” Nora announced, her shoulders hunched once more for Karl to provide support again. The others slowly began to leave the area and once most of them were gone Nora would let out an exhausted sigh of relief.
“I am ready to go back to my bed now.” She told Karl with yet another pained chuckle. “We have a lot ahead of us.”
Their feet shuffled down the hallways that had found a new sense of hope for the future. There would be hiccups, but together there wouldn’t be anything to stop them from making a return. After all, once someone — or something — had found rock bottom there was nowhere else to go but up. The order would survive. That had never really been up for debate.
A deep breath filled Nora’s lungs with air as she took a seat on the chair by the desk. Her chest rose until it hit the barrier where her wound would begin to stretch and cause her pain. A sharp exhale, a statement of pain, forced the air to part her lips as she let in a second more cautious inhale that would a mere second later seep into a slow but prolonged exhale or sigh. The pale hand that had been placed on the desk moved up to cover blank, hollow eyes before it dragged itself across her nose bridge to cover her mouth. There were no traces that Hazel had lived here. The hand balled up and pressed firm against her nose tip. Nora had been in this room more than once to talk about the things that had once worried her, and Hazel had always listened. Unlike what the room would seem to indicate, she knew that Hazel had been here yet no matter where she had thought to search for clues on her friend’s current whereabouts the room had not been left with a single trace. It was as if she had never been here, or as if these plans had been laid out for a very long time.
The thought crossed the Arkanian girl’s mind. Had she never truly known Hazel? A small but muted shriek echoed around the small room as she pushed herself out of her seat with her hand pressed against the desktop. She moved to cover her wound and press against it until she stood again. Heaving breaths seeped in and out as she struggled to kill the pain again. The hand that covered her stomach twisted to let her check for blood. Much like the last few times there was nothing there and the girl let out another thankful whisper under her breath. With one hand on her stomach and the other against the nearby console Nora opened the door to her mentor’s room with a well-practiced combination and stepped outside. A look to her left made it all the more obvious that nobody was coming her way, and a look to the right told her the path ahead was clear.
An uneven and unstable rhythm reverberated around the halls as her feet shuffled with one grunt after another. It was painful but she needed this walk, she needed to see the state of the Sacred Lotus with her own eyes once more. If only the resilient and stubborn remained, then Nora would consider herself honored to be one of them, even if they were still just a precious few. She had long since realized that the problem was that people were too focused on the now to see the future. It was something Nora’s father had always told her and warned her about, which she had always seen as somewhat ironic when one considered the fact that he was an archaeologist. People would often use the fear of today to kill tomorrow, and if the Sacred Lotus had taught Nora anything it was the validity of said statement. Though unlike many others before her she still believed that the order was able to lift itself up from its current troubles. It was just the question of leadership that remained an ever so daunting to most.
As if drawn to it by fate, the courtyard came into view. Nora took a left to avoid an oncoming duo of Lotus Guards. The courtyard was right there and a sense of hesitant curiosity filled her for a moment as she contemplated what to do. Part of her had no desire to revisit the scene, not just yet, but then there was the other part of her that still demanded answers for what had happened. Throwing yet another look over her shoulder to ensure that the guards were gone Nora continued to grunt her way into the courtyard arch as quietly as she could muster. Her free hand pressed against the stone arch that separated her from the scene while the other remained clutching onto her wound. Eyes peered down to check for blood again. She was still fine. Good. With great caution she would eventually begin to shuffle onto the scene of the crime with a greater sense of clarity of what had happened. The puddles from four days ago still remained as one of the most basic reminders of what had transpired. It made the scene look almost untouched. As if it had all happened just a few hours ago. It made the scene all the more easier to remember for what it was. From Hazel’s apathy to the way she had exploded into a ball of anger, hate and rage. Maybe in the end Nora hadn’t helped her friend as much as she had hoped, but it was too late for that now. She stood staring at the hole in the pillar where the lightsaber had pierced through her body and cut into its stony surface.
This was the spot where Hazel had shown her true colors, and the pain was as taxing on Nora physically as it was mentally. Nora’s own words echoed in her mind. Weak, pathetic, coward, there were many more words that Nora would have wanted to use despite the fact that they had lost their meaning. Friend, diligent, caring and competent came to mind, words which hadn’t lost meaning because they didn’t apply but rather because a majority of them felt as if they had become little more than wishful thinking at this point. Hazel had been Nora’s friend once, but she was fairly certain that was no more. There was also no real doubt that Hazel was still as diligent as ever, and very competent at what she did. The cleanliness of her room proved that much. In the end it was the word ‘caring’ that had Nora’s head spinning the most. Out of all the words that she had associated Hazel with it was the one that stung the most to have lost faith in.
Nora approached the pillar proper and let her hand rest against its surface as she eased herself down by the hole left behind by the lightsaber’s blade. The pain in her stomach creeped on her and got progressively worse for each time Nora forced it to withstand continued exertion. The charred hole where the yellow blade had struck it caused the the smell of burnt flesh to fill her mind. Nora let her fingers slide from the surface of the pillar until they seeped into the hole to inspect the damage. A sense of sorrow began to linger at the back of her mind as she remembered the numb pain she had felt when it happened.
“Nora.” A familiar voice called her name and the girl gasped. She spun on her knee to look with a terrified and surprised expression at the man who had called her name before her stomach caused her to shriek and in pain again and the man approached her with haste.
“Come on.” He muttered and leaned down to wrap her arm around his shoulder to help get her off the ground.
“Thank you, Karl.” She wheezed under her breath. Her hand patted against her stomach to check for bleeding; still nothing and Nora let out a sigh of relief.
“Nylea will murder me if she finds out I let you sneak out like this.” The man seemed far less laidback than usual. It was as if something in the way he spoke made everything seem far more worse than it had been for Nora.
“Nylea will understand.” She grunted as the two began to walk out of the courtyard.
“We still don’t understand why you refuse further healing.” Karl shook his head and continued to lead Nora in the direction of her medical bed.
“I made my choice.” Nora spoke through gritted teeth as she staved off the pain. “It’s for my own reasons.”
“We don’t have enough bacta.” Karl sighed as they approached the door to her room.
“No.” She said and stopped to unwrap her arm around his shoulder. “I am not done yet.”
“What?” Karl turned to look at her in surprise. Most people who were in pain would have wanted to get back to a state where they wouldn’t be in pain anymore, and yet Nora had repeatedly refused to let them take care of her.
“I need to-” She grunted in pain again. “I need you to gather the rest of the Lotus Guard.”
“Why?” Karl looked at the girl in disbelief. She needed to rest, what did she have in mind that couldn’t wait until later?
“Just do it, Karl.” Nora begged of him. “Please.”
The man shook his head in disbelief. “Fine. Just… Why? Where?”
“The courtyard, and you’ll see.” Nora tried to smile but the pain was too great. Her teeth gritted again as she began to halt her way back to the courtyard. Karl gave her a cautious look before setting off towards the Guard dorms in order to bring those that he could find to the courtyard as Nora had requested. On the way he would pick up others that he met or could think to remember, and by the time that they had all gathered Nora had begun to make peace with what she needed to say.
“Well, I got them here as you wished.” Karl looked at Nora in further confusion and disbelief. This was the scene where she had been stabbed, why were they gathering here? The girl merely gave him a smile and nodded her head before she turned to look at the others.
“Things are tough.” She said and took a deep breath to ready her nerves for what was to come. “We have lost Kismet, we have lost Sardun, and earlier this week we lost Zanteres as well.”
The people in the group looked at each other. The air reeked of a sense of defeat and it broke Nora’s heart. This place had been the very center of hope once, but now it was little more than a hollow husk of what it had once been as if everything had been twisted in the opposite of what it was meant to be. The Order of the Sacred Lotus had been a place where love, compassion and a greater vision for the future had taken front and center. It was a stark contrast to the Order that still persevered, at least from the few of them that remained, but there was still hope. Nora was certain of it.
“Our numbers are dwindling by the day as people seek greener pastures or give up hope, and I have seen first hand-” Nora pointed at the hole in the pillar where she had been stabbed as if to make a point. “-what happens when fear and apathy get the better of people.”
“Hazel was a dear friend to many of us. Kismet could have healed a whole galaxy if she had so desired, and all the while people like Sardun, a man who was as much a part of this order as you are right now, watched over her. The Order of the Sacred Lotus was built upon compassion, upon love and understanding of one another, and I am not going to let those ideals wither away when I know that we are all as capable of making the same changes as these three individuals were.”
Nora took a deep breath and pointed at Karl. “You. Karl, why did you join?”
The man was taken aback for a second. “Uh, to make a difference. Help people.”
Nora nodded his head with a small grunt of pain. “Exactly,” Then she snapped her finger and pointed at a woman in the crowd. “Uh, you, yes you, I don’t know your name, sorry. What’s your name and why did you join?”
The woman looked around at the others in confusion before she looked back at Nora again. “... To make a difference?” She hesitated for a second. “And uh, Anna. My name is Anna.”
“Exactly!” Nora exclaimed and gritted her teeth to stave off the pain once more before she looked around at the others again. “We all joined up to make a difference.”
“Where are you going with this, Nora?” Karl raised his arms and shoulders as if to beg for an answer as his confusion began to simmer into curiosity. “Why did you make me bring everyone out here?”
“Because I believe in you.” Nora’s voice shook with the emotion she had held back for so long. “We have lost our leaders, but that does not mean that we are unable to go on.”
“Karl, I have seen your abilities up close and personal. I know that you are more capable than you think. I want you to gather the apprentices tomorrow and set up a new training regiment. Group them three-by-three, and assign mentors accordingly. It will be a heavy workload at first, but we can ease that off of them as more people come back to us.”
“If they come back.” One voice called from the crowd.
“They will.” Nora assured them, her fingers starting to snap as she tried to remember the other woman’s name. “Uh… Anna! What do you do?”
“I’m a healer.” She too seemed as curious as Karl was at this point. “I worked with both Zanteres and Kismet when they were around.”
“Perfect!” Nora pumped her fist by her side, ignoring the pain it caused her before she pointed at Anna again. “Gather what remains of your colleagues tomorrow and get me a tally of your numbers. I want you to start getting the apprentices organized and ready to absorb all that knowledge you have like a sponge. Then I want you to work with Karl to create a new regiment of what they need to know to become the healers I know that they can be.”
“The rest of you, I want you to think about why you are here, where you can help out, and then get back to me.” Nora ordered them with a newfound courage and confidence. “I know that each and everyone of you here are amazing at what you do, and I want us to get back to what we all know in our hearts that we can be.”
“It’s going to be hard at first, but I know we can do this, so who is with me?” Nora looked around the crowd expectantly without a sign of wavering faith.
A few moments passed before, “I am.” Karl’s voice sounded with the optimism that Nora had come to know him for. He stepped up to Nora and turned around to face the rest of the crowd with her. “I think she’s right, and that we can make something of this again.”
“I am with her too too.” Said Anna and pushed her way to the front of the crowd and took a stand by Nora. “We are capable of anything together. We can make things right again.”
The courtyard that had once been deathly quiet began to buzz with life again, of hope and dreams. A small smile spread on the Arkanian girl’s lips at what she was both seeing and hearing, even as the pain from her stomach began to creep up on her again. The hand that had clutched at her stomach before would clutch to her stomach again. For one last time Nora would check for a bleeding, and yet once more she would find that it was all clear. Her shoulders rose with a single chuckle before she looked at the others.
“Then let’s get back to work.” Nora announced, her shoulders hunched once more for Karl to provide support again. The others slowly began to leave the area and once most of them were gone Nora would let out an exhausted sigh of relief.
“I am ready to go back to my bed now.” She told Karl with yet another pained chuckle. “We have a lot ahead of us.”
Their feet shuffled down the hallways that had found a new sense of hope for the future. There would be hiccups, but together there wouldn’t be anything to stop them from making a return. After all, once someone — or something — had found rock bottom there was nowhere else to go but up. The order would survive. That had never really been up for debate.
