Seven Years in the Manda (Yasha Mantis)

[Ember Rekali]

[member="Yasha Mantis"]

Time had always been the friend of the Rekalis. The Tyus Cluster, the Maw, the Netherworld, the Chiloon Rift, the Aing-Tii Monks - every strange place where time ran wrong had a place in the family story.

Seven subjective years or so passed between Yasha's entrance and exit at the Warlock's Gate. Ember Rekali didn't cause that. He did, however, facilitate and strengthen the effect for his own reasons. And at one point, some time after her entry and some time before she left, he saw fit to honor his promise.

The murk of Sinner's Rue cleared to reveal a road through a flat and hellish landscape. Maybe she'd stumbled on that road before. It led from the Rue to the Blood Wastes, stopping at the Oasis. Then it crossed a deadly river and entered the Field of Blades. Legions of dead Sith and Dark Jedi killed each other again and again with swords that arose from the hardback. On the middle of the plain, guarded by the same Dathomiri runes that warded the edges of the road, stood a sandstone fortress. You could see it from the road, reach it with a short but hazardous jaunt.

Anyone on the Field of Blades would tell you that castle belonged to Ember Rekali.

 

[Yasha Cadera]

The Netherworld was as curious a pace as Yasha remembered, yet her childhood experience in the Nether was tempered by a mother clawing to save some small innocence in her child.

This time, there was no innocence left. Aditya, when she found Kaden and Yasha, was not the lullaby humming young mother carrying her daughter on her back. She was a woman resigned to the hell she earned, and drove Yasha like a slavemaster to teach her all she could with what little time they had left. The young woman who took the offered road was an exhausted and driven daughter. She was the dependant and protector of both her mother and best friend, Kaden Mantis.

Across the Blood Wastes, after the balm of the Oasis and the dangerous routes of the desert, Yasha crossed that river and entered the Field of Blades. She left Kaden, Shia and her Mama at their camp, and travelled to the Castle alone.

Her path was neither easy nor was it without opposition. The Mandalorian youth battled, frothed and warred toward the Dathomiri sigils, until finally coming to the Gate.

Heaving breathlessly, Yasha Mantis placed her hand on the door of [member="Ember Rekali"]’s castle, and checked her six. Momentarily safe…

As she looked up at the structure, Yasha knew in her gut the only reason she wasn’t being attacked right now, was the power of the man, who agreed to teach her what she needed, and disappeared on Dathomir ages before.

“Alor Rekali… please let this be it. Please open this door.” Yasha rested her forehead against the stone, feeling a tingle through her skin, a buzz she’d never been cognizant of before. It was as if the hymn to Ember Rekali struck the Force Dead girl, a vibration she could almost feel.

 

[Ember Rekali]

[member="Yasha Mantis"]

The scarred iron double doors hinged outward. Inside, the air was barely cooler than the hardpack desert. Swords hung on the walls. The castle had no windows, both for security and because shade was precious around here. In the gloom at the far end of the entry hall, Ember sat on a black stone chair and watched Yasha enter.

"So you found your way here," he said. "Welcome to the family home."

Spirits flitted through the hall, transparent shades less present or substantive than the dead outside. An old woman, half a dozen younger souls, all with indigo Vahla eyes. They watched Yasha silently from the side passages - most with curiosity or sympathy, one or two with lust.

"My wife Kol, my sons - Rach, Certh, Faran - and my daughter Brenna." He introduced a few cousins too, people killed by Yasha's father and associates. "This is Yasha Mantis, the one I told you about."

The shades whispered greetings and faded away. Ember stood from the dark chair, and the door closed behind Yasha, leaving them in pitch blackness.

"Are you ready to learn?"

 

[Yasha Cadera]

Her arms flopped to her sides, muscles shaking. Booted feet skidded along the floor, barely the strength to pick up and step. She staggered to a stand and saluted as a faithful Mandalorian ought to one above her in honour and respect.

“Alor Rekali… thank you, Sir… thank you for letting me find it.” Stepping twice more forward, the young woman stopped and searched the shadow-spirits.

“H-hello… it’s good to meet y-ou.” Her stutter broke out of her lips, a penalty of fatigue. Yet, the young Mantis bowed her head to the family of [member="Ember Rekali"], and hazarded a timid smile as she walked further in. Their eyes enchanted her, so vibrant and colourful… nothing like her eyes, dark and drab. Yasha stopped and put a hand over her hair, trying to smooth it out, licking her dry lips.

“Thank you for allowing me in your ho-oohme?” As the shades faded, Yasha stepped back and blinked. Some things were still strange.

The black was not. Utterly within Rekali’s mercy, Yasha blinked and let her eyes shut in the dark.

“Yes. Yes, please Alor Rekali. I am ready.” Please let this be it, the moments passed a proof that Yasha could be entrusted with what Ember would say next. It was curious coming to a moment of change, as the blackness swathed her, the girl knew enough to realize this was a crux point in her entire life, both mortal and enduring. This moment, the next few, would shift her and the Mandalorian people for as long as she lived… and maybe longer, if the Netherworld was involved.

Resting in the silence, Yasha knew she had to but wait, humble and willing, for a man far wiser than she could ever be.

 

[Ember Rekali]

[member="Yasha Mantis"]

“You've paid the price, you've earned what we bargained for. It's why I lured you back through the gate. Now, I think, you might be ready.”

The room brightened courtesy of green light from the pages of an open book.

“I've collected every proven and experimental way to cheat death. The Field of Blades has plenty of knowledgeable souls. They're here because every method fails after a few decades or centuries - always. Usually Jedi are involved.”

He placed the book on a reading lectern where Yasha could see it.

“The most effective way is Transfer Essence. It's an apex Sith art. It can be used for yourself or another. The original body is generally destroyed. The new body is often a clone or a child strong in the Force. The technique's main weakness is that, if you go into another body and that body's original occupant is still home, there's a battle of wills involved. And spectacularly, if that body dies while the original soul is fighting you, they have a chance to drag you along with them destructively. It's how Palpatine was finally annihilated, by some accounts: he tried to transfer into a Skywalker child and wound up in a mortally wounded Jedi Knight.

“Carnifex, the Dark Lord, is a master of this technique. I could easily see him using it to move Ra Vizsla into a clone body. Any questions, or should we move on to another method?”

 

[Yasha Cadera]

“Felt like I was working for something… my friends followed me through… I promised to get them home, but they won’t leave until… was that part of what you meant, when you said a commander’s responsible for her people and what they do?” Yasha walked toward the green light, using it to decipher where [member="Ember Rekali"] was, and what he was doing.

There was a slim sense of accomplishment to the realization of his words. Lured into the Netherworld, Yasha was given the chance to earn her knowledge, or fail utterly and be lost. It was the sort of challenge the girl held close to her heart, an affirmation that she could be seen as worthy by others. Her years tempered her tongue, and more they gave her a perspective to question what she’d been taught about the Force, about the Mandalorians, and life itself.

“So… there is no true way to stop death totally? It’ll always win? Or is it just that the Jedi stop them from winning?” Jedi, Sith, Witches, the White Current… all were simply ‘dar’jetti’ to the thirteen year old who came to Rekali in her petulance. Eager to prove her capacity, she fought with a powder keg, and seven years later the young woman was paying for it.

Her eyes scanned the pages, seeing the words of Transfer Essence, listening to Rekali’s lecture on it. “So… Darth Carnifex could do this to anybody? Does he have to be with them when they’re dying, or can he somehow take a soul that’s already dead? After the transference, could the soul survive being in, like, a Ysalamiri field? Or would they have to be constantly entuned with the Force?”

Ra a clone? Was it possible? Would it have changed anything if he were? “I think that’s all my questions on that one.”

 

[Ember Rekali]

[member="Yasha Mantis"]

"These shades are what's left of my family. Most of what made them them has faded into the Force and become new life. Death always wins, but death, final death, is a transition. Someone like Kaine will become a dog's growl or an ugly stain, maybe. Nobody knows or controls what comes after this. Any part of the Netherworld is just a holding pattern. Eventually we all fade.

"I believe Carnifex could do it to anyone. It'd be easier if he was there when he died, but he could easily summon Ra's soul at a place of power, ideally near the spot where Ra died. Carnifex is a consummate ritualist and an expert on death.

"Once a soul is put in a body using Transfer Essence, it bonds with that body. Ysalamiri wouldn't do anything to them."

 

[Yasha Cadera]

Eventually we all fade.

Yasha turned her head back toward the vague direction of her mother’s ghost. [member="Aditya Mantis"]’ spirit would fade, just as Ember said. A moment of panic stole across Yasha’s face.

How could she stop it? How could she prevent her mother from moving on? There must have been…

… a way.

Her eyes stung as she pictured the day in her deceased mother’s workshop, when her father [member="Preliat Mantis"] crushed the artificial intelligence unit Aditya made to remain, in piecemeal, with her family. He’d said it was the hardest battle of his life, to walk over and crush it… but for himself, his daughter, he had to let Aditya pass on.

If even consummate Force hater Preliat Mantis prayed his wife became one with the Force in a peaceful transition, maybe his daughter could stop clinging to these few moments left with her Mom. Blinking back precipitation she refused to let fall, Yasha stared at the elder warlock’s face.

“How do you let them fade?” Her nose stung, but Yasha turned back to the green glowing book, clearing her throat in an attempt to recenter and learn. “If I'm some sort of force dead buffoon, how did I feel it, Alor? When I met Kaine, he spoke to me in my mother language, he was kind… but the more he spoke, the more I looked between them, the more they seemed… similarly connected. I can’t explain it… I don’t know how… you… said there were others? Other ways.”

There was still a chance, however slim, that Ra came back a less damning way… yet it was feeling slimmer the more she spoke with Rekali.

[member="Ember Rekali"]

 

[Ember Rekali]

“Force dead is a myth. All life is part of the Force. Your connection exists in, let's say, a lower frequency than I can sense or affect. It's much like how my eyes can't see radio waves. Apart from a few exceptions, most Force dead people got that way courtesy of Vong shaping or biots or infections. Vong exist in the Force, just a different part of the spectrum. A Jedi can bond with a living Lambent crystal and gain what's called Vongsense.” He grinned faintly in the dark. “Remind me to ship some Lambents to Manda’yaim and partially circumvent your regime's cure.”

He turned a page. The question about his family's shades went unanswered. The book depicted a tall witch with unique face paint.

“Mother Talzin, one of the first Nightsisters. Fascinating case. For one thing, she wasn't born Force-sensitive, but that's not directly relevant. By the end, I believe Talzin existed in a body she’d made largely of something called Water of Life. That's a much larger conversation. The bottom line: she relied on sentient sacrifice and Force machines. Stolen life energy kept her together. It's as dark a method as Transfer Essence, probably more. It's the one I use, incidentally.”

[member="Yasha Mantis"]

 

[Yasha Cadera]

Hearing that Force Death was a myth filled the youth with a strange relief. She stuttered and clutched the Rekr necklace Ra gave her, which still remained around her neck.

“I’m not a monster.” Yasha panted in a relieved whisper.

“I’m not Vong shaped… all I know is I was a normal baby, Mama and I were thrown in here during the Netherworld Crisis, and when I dragged Mama’s comatose body out of the Warlock Gate six or seven years later, something happened. I don’t remember, but… I got Mama out, and I’d changed.” Unbeknownst to the girl, her connection to the Force she was born with had been stripped, tossed and left behind by a malignant entity to linger ephemeral in the Netherworld’s great expanse.

“Ra said the Force was a sickness that made Mia Monroe go crazy, that it just kept turning good people bad and wasn’t worth it… said we’d be better off without it. I think it’s about time to make my own opinion, eh, Alor Rekali?” The girl truly had learned in her Purgatorio years. Instead of immediately rising to the potential threat of Lambent crystals and Jedi senses, the girl smirked. “So there are ways around it. I was wondering about that, too.”

The picture of Mother Talzin sent shivers down Yasha’s spine. “Water of…”

Her face reset as she yanked her eyes back up to [member="Ember Rekali"]. “Sentient sacrif-you suck the life out of people?! Like, willing people or little shebs who displease you?”

Oh Yasha, what dangerous places you go... maybe she shouldn't have gotten too close to Rekali... not that being in the man's castle was ever going to be far enough. “What’s a Force Machine? Is it like a bes’uliik? Or… some kind of perpetual force-energy motor?”

 

[Ember Rekali]

[member="Yasha Mantis"]

"Guess you're one of the exceptions, but there's ways to bounce back and live a normal life. Antidepressants and Ithorian priests are your best bet. Get fortunate with the latter and you probably won't need the former. The Ithorian force tradition has abilities you won't find anywhere else. Healing damaged Force connections is one.

"Incidentally, Ra Vizsla was half right. The Force tends to amplify emotion in a feedback loop, especially the Dark Side, but that wasn't what drove Monroe insane. A Sith Lord named Velok used her, against her will, as a dumping ground for memories. She had an alien mass murderer's mind in the back of hers.

"And as for the spare life energy, look at where you are, Yasha. The Field of Blades is full of Sith. Best one, hang his sword on the wall, throw his ghost in a machine I built. It's not the kind of thing you need to know about - but you'd recognize what it was if you saw it."

 

[Yasha Cadera]

“Anti- hah. Hah! I’ll make sure to fill out a prescription at the apothecary’s down the block.” Yasha stifled a meek laugh, which choked to an end as [member="Ember Rekali"] spoke further about the Ithorian priests. Her eyebrows pulled inward and down. Lips pursed. Ithorian Force Traditions had power to heal damage?

Was that how she’d been living, damaged? Realizing the daughter of the most damaged Mandalorian in recent history was asking if she too was damaged after living in Hell, and becoming a child soldier who fought and killed in a Civil War, Yasha blinked.

Maybe Mantis was another word for damaged. Maybe that should change.

“Ithorian priest. Right… a Mantis living a normal life… get ready for Winter, when that happens. Maybe you can pelt the Sith into submission with snowballs? Take a couple more of those swords?” Yeah, she’d have to see about looking up some Ithorians… possibly without shooting them. Definitely without shooting them. Maybe if she tried to play nice, she wouldn’t continue the Mandalorian reputation of short attention spanned brawn uga-buga-ing about.

“If the Force is so dangerous, why trust it? Could you imagine some of the Mandos with even more emotion? Manda above, below and between, that'd be insane.” Yasha winced and shifted from her heels to the balls of her feet and back. “That… that really sucks… no wonder Ra told me she was sick. Sorry if I asked too many questions, I’m trying to picture Ra, and think if I’ve seen anything like a Force Machine or… I don’t think that’s it. So far Carnifex and Transference is winning out, and that’s not making me jump for joy.”

 

[Ember Rekali]

[member="Yasha Mantis"]

"Why trust it? Yasha, where do you think we go when we fade? The Force is the Manda. Life creates it and it creates life. When we fade, it's not to oblivion, it's to become something new. When the Force guides my actions, that's my family and my ancestors leading me and steadying my hand. I'm luckier than most people: I can feel that at a conscious level, and I have a better sense of how to serve the balance. So when you see me throw things radically out of balance, past or future, know that I'm always rectifying an imbalance. Addressing something that's gone radically... wrong.”

He sat back down on the black chair, rubbing his knees, and left the book to Yasha. A page turned of its own accord.

“The Ssi-Ruuk species lives far past the First Order. The Force is weak with them - sensitivity is vanishingly rare. But they have a technology that lets them pull the life force out of someone, consciousness and all, and use it to power their ships and homes. It's called entechment, and every once in a while it shows up in the galaxy at large. Life as a droid, maybe a human replica droid, doesn't appeal to me - but this is the only way I know that Force-insensitives can beat death without help from a Sith.

“When you're done mulling that over, go take a shower and get some rest. There's a guest room for mortals down that hall. The shades won't trouble you; just don't bother Jasper [member="Ordo"] - he hasn't been sleeping well.”

 

[Yasha Cadera]

“I didn’t know… Mama was from Panatha, she wasn’t a Mandalorian. So the Manda everyone talks about is the Force, and life creates it, in this cyclical… thing and it guides you… ‘cause it’s like, life and death ends up in it, and… Is it… ” Yasha grunted and shut her eyes, rubbing a bloodstained back of her hand against the side of her face.

“No getting frustrated, Yash, stop and think, just like Baiko taught you…” Yasha heaved a sigh, breathing in and out in a technique taught, of all things, amongst the Fallanassi. Smashing her lips together, the girl looked back at the Witch Elder to try again.

“We die, we go ‘Hold the Line’, which from what I can gather is coming…. literal here, um, and eventually we fade, because nothing ever escapes death forever, which is really energy being redesigned to more life, and the only thing that is forever is the Force, which is the Manda, and now Ra, who was probably brought back to life by Transfer Essence and a wicked bunch of Zambrano voodoo wants to cure the Force from Mandalorians because people with the Force kept blowing us up… you know if I hadn’t lived most of that, I’d have a way harder time believing it.”

[member="Ember Rekali"] was a powerhouse of rectification. Standing helpless in the presence of true power reminded her of her father taking her to Dromund Kaas. [member="Preliat Mantis"] meant to teach his daughter about the fleeting nature of corporeal power, in his own way affirming what Rekali said about balance in all things.

How could such different men have the same conclusions? How could one come to such similar points, when their inner lives were so intensely divided? Was truth indomitable, like Beskar? Amber eyes watched Ember sit in his chair and rub his knees. Did aches and pains transcend corporeality?

“Ra… wasn’t enteched… he bled… was kind of the cause of him getting run through at one point… a Sith threw a building on me and… nevermind.” Yasha spent a great deal of time with the book, searching everything for one last thread, which would relieve her of the one fact she knew in the marrow of her bones.

The Sith Lord brought her beloved Guardian Ra Vizsla back to life.

“… Ba’buir Jasper is here?” Yasha whispered, with a gasp. Her father’s guilt flashed across her face, a horrified will that Cold Iron City turned out different. That Daddy didn’t kill the man who could have been his adopted Buir.

“I.. I won’t… I promise. Thank you, Alor Rekali, for reading the book and gosh, it’s going to feel like paradise to take a real shower, sleep in a place where I’m not going to get ganked in a Coruscanti minute.” The more she stared at the book, the more Yasha felt a settling in what remained of her fissured spirit.

'What could one girl do about it’? In the guest room, Yasha stripped beskar’gam off her body, modified as she grew by her mother’s hand. It lost much of its’ golden shine in the intervening years, dulled by the gore of the Netherworld. She pushed past injuries in various stages of healing, washed crusted crimson out of her hair. Dressing in a pair of pyjamas which appeared on the bed, Yasha sat in the arm chair, and began to clean her armour.

Daddy taught her, Ra taught her. It was her way of processing, correlating what Ember was teaching with what she knew, and thought she knew, of the world beyond.

How could she shift the patterns she was beginning to see so Ember Rekali or another force of nature didn’t have to ‘rebalance’ Mandalore? Was the elimination of the Force Mandalore’s rebalancing, after swinging too far the other way? Would Jasper Ordo sleep better tonight?

Could one girl stem the tide, and put Mandalore on the right path? What was that path? The third time Yasha dropped the brush, she stared at numb fingers and fell into bed. Warm, comforting covers barely registered in her luxuriating mind as sleep overwhelmed her.

A child, grown through her quest in the Netherworld, dreamed of Ithorians and Nannies of a White Current. She dreamed of Ra sitting, bandages wrapped around his barrel chest, by the fire at the Civil War’s conclusion, praying to the Manda for clarity. For why he was Undying. Did he know he prayed to the Force? Did he know his life was threaded on a string to what was likely a clone body, by a man, who on all accounts, was the embodiment of corporeal evil?

Did Force Dead girls dream at all?

The night and morning, as it were, passed without a rise from the Wolf’s daughter. Yasha slept for over twenty standard hours. So thorough was her sleep, that when she awoke, a peacefulness broke upon her stretching body. For a moment, she was back home beside the Sundari Palace. Yet, the diffused desert sun did not enter the room of stone. Her Daddy wasn't tapping on the door to tell her breakfast was ready.

Yasha blinked awake and sat up, rubbing her eyes and untangling her hair with her fingers. "Okay, Yash. Step one, get dressed. Step two, don't wake Jasper. Step three, figure out what to do with an intergalactic balance between the Manda, Force-Curing rabid Mandalorians and a Dathomiri Witch Elder, who just proved my childhood hero was a puppet of the Sith... no biggie?"

She fell backward onto the pillow and threw her arm over her eyes with a groan. "No biggie."

 

[Ember Rekali]

[member="Yasha Mantis"]

Morning here meant nothing; the Field of Blades had no sun, just pitiless light from nowhere. The castle's interior stayed dark regardless of the time. When Yasha woke twenty subjective hours later, she found the castle just as quiet as before. A few Clan Rekali ghosts flitted around in the corners of her vision. She would find the audience chamber empty except for the book on the lectern.

YASHA-

GONE HUNTING. READ PAGES 124-129.

The pages in question contained two lesser-known methods of cheating death. Illustrations depicted a Bith Sith and a human with a tiny pointy beard.

Method number one involved midi-chlorians, Force-linked symbionts that lived within all carbon-based cells. Jedi tradition indicated that midi-chlorians were the foundation of Force-sensitivity, and midi-chlorian count directly reflected potential. (How silicon-based lifeforms could be Force-sensitive was an open question. Ember's book poked other holes in midi-chlorian theory on general principle.) A Bith Sith Lord, his name lost to time so far as Ember knew, had alchemically altered midi-chlorians within his own body. He'd hoped to store his consciousness in them and transcend death. He'd wound up trapping himself for eternity, legend said, but his approach had potential. Some enterprising alchemist could easily have used that technique as a springboard for something new.

Method number two was a rare variation on Transfer Essence, with some similarities to the Talzin technique. Rather than jumping from body to body, the Sith Lord Karness Muur had bound his soul to a unique amulet, and possessed anyone who wore it. The apocryphal term was 'phylactery.' Ember's notes indicated that any object would do, with enough preparation. He also wrote that the possessed body could easily be a clone of the original.

 

[Yasha Cadera]

After cleaning her armour as best she could, Yasha dressed and clipped her buy’ce to her belt, braided her hair and stepped out of the guest room.

She tried to pitch up a conversation with a shade, and after a little effort, ended up back in the audience chamber standing before the book.

“Gone hunting... conquering more swords today, Alor Rekali?” Yasha said to nobody she could see. Gnawing on her cheek to stop her stomach from growling, Yasha turned the book to the aforementioned pages and began to read. Her finger chased the words, the girl muttered lines she needed to reconsider.

“Midichlorians... like Little forcie parasites. Blech... Alor Rekali doesn’t seem to like them much... am I detecting a sentiment that Jedi are chumps? Little? Little bit?” Yasha kept reading, enterprising alchemists, bonding midichlorians... was that it? Did Ra get alchemized alive?

“Phyla-Phyllis-fablecdobe... is that a word?” Screwing up her lips, Yasha stuck her finger beneath it and read it aloud. “Phy-lac-to-ry. A thing with a soul in it that possesses peo-oh.”

Her hand went to the Rekr Necklace around her very neck. Ra said it was all he had of his mother, a reminder that even the bravest warriors knew fear, and that fear itself was not almighty. “You better not be trying to possess me, Ra’s Mom... of all the chersilk-pickin’ things I never thought I’d say, that beats almost all of them.”

Staring down at the Wolf amulet, Yasha sighed. “You’re not a phyllisdactory, are you? If you were, I’d be one confused teenaged girl, big gurlanin Mand’alor stuck in this body... ah.. nope... but did Ra have something he always wore?”

Yasha wrung her fingers together, pacing the room.

“Okay. Ra always wore his armour, except when he didn’t. Um, he wore his mother’s necklace, and then took it off and gave it to me, but he was definitely him after he took it off... did he have a ring or something? A lucky pair of socks? Ew. That would not help... who would possess socks, Yash? Think... what fits?” She gulped and shut her eyes, slumping down on the ground to lean against the lectern. “Ra died. He definitely came back to life... but he didn’t know how he came back to life. He’d ask the Manda for clarity. Okay. So. Ra came back, without knowing how. That rules out a bunch. He wasn’t a forcie, either. But why would Kaine bring back a person who hates the Force? And what do I do with this? Think Yasha. I’ve got two hands, two feet and a mind of my own, if I don’t solve this and try to fix it, who will? Gee I wish I had some jerky left.”

[member="Ember Rekali"]

 

[Ember Rekali]

[member="Yasha Mantis"]

The next page was a map. Yasha might recognize the road she'd walked. The road extended maybe one-third across the map. Like the rest of the book, the waypoints on the road were in Ember’s handwriting.

SINNER’S RUE (DATHOMIR IN/OUT)
BLOOD WASTE (CSILLA NO EXIT)
OASIS
BRIDGE
FIELD OF BLADES (CORELLIA/LASHTU IN/OUT)

And far to the northwest, a river and several regions away, with no connection by road:

LABYRINTH - MOUNTAIN (NABOO - HEART OF THE UNIVERSE IN/OUT)

The door opened. Ember came through, dripping wet and steaming, with a flimsiplast bag of groceries. It had been raining on Corellia.

“Breakfast,” he said, as if that explained it. “I'll cook, you talk.”

 

[Yasha Cadera]

The girl’s brow furrowed as she peered into the map.

“There are other ways out?” She pursed her lips and trailed her finger along the map lines. “… there are other ways out… lab… lab… la-bee-rinth… heart of the universe…”

Yasha madly began scanning the map for landmarks she recognized, trying to hold it in her memory like water in a starving body. “There’s a gate to Corellia… is that the place with the whiskey Daddy likes?”

She startled as Ember came through with of all things, groceries. Her amber eyes stared stunned at the flimsiplast bag… groceries… she stuttered, turning from the book to the man and back again.

“Yes sir! Thank you, Sir!” Yasha snapped to attention and peered past the book to the place Ember went next. There was a kitchen in the Netherworld? “Where’d you get the groceries? I was joking about the apothecary down the block, but if there is one? I’d kill for some toothpaste… not really… maim, maybe… nevermind.”

Flipping back a few pages, Yasha took a deep breath and started in. “Ra didn’t have any fib-lacteries. He didn’t wear much that was always with him, except his mother’s necklace, which he gave to me… You don’t seem to like the mince-colorbians much… So far the only method that fits is Transfer Essence, which leads to an entirely too horrible image of Kaine Zambrano pulling Ra’s soul from the Netherworld… what’s the heart of the universe? Is it a literal beating heart, or a figurative place where people feel the love, or the geographical or philosophical centre of the universe or…”

Peeking toward [member="Ember Rekali"], Yasha tip toed closer at a shuffle. “If Carnifex went to that trouble, he had a reason. Is it wrong to want Zambrano’s reason be ‘the Mandalorians need a nice and happy ruler, who will solve their problems and everyone can live happy lives’? If Zambrano brought Ra back, was Ra autono-aut-…” Yasha balled up her fists, exhaling as she fought to control her stutter.

“Autonomous… or was Kaine controlling the Undying? Why would he send Ra on a crusade to cure the Force? It’s not like we’ve been going around hitting Jedi upside the head and letting Sith cackle maniacally on the side. We’ve been curing everybody… but now Ra’s gone. Leadership of Mandalore falls to our Warmaster, and the Cuir Rekr. Ramanar, my Dad [member="Preliat Mantis"], who I’m pretty sure has gone insane and his eyes keep changing colours, Shukalar, my shape changing Mama Bear Aunt [member="Malika Mantis"], Akaan, and me. Daddy and Vilaz would cleanse the universe of the Force with vehemence and bullets instead of needles if they could. Vivi’s got this… love for the Sith. I think he married off his son to a Zambrano…” Yasha shut her eyes, holding her forehead in her hands.

“The Force itself isn’t evil. It’s the Manda and didn’t cause Mandalore’s problems… didn’t help, but… I really want to shoot that Velok guy repeatedly in the head… okay… okay. Using the Force, Kaine brought Ra back, and may or may not have been oar-orchestrating Ra’s decisions on Mandalore. I have to figure this out, take control and fix this, before the Mando’ade become a schmear on the viewports of every major galactic power at the same time…”

The dawning realization sunk into the marrow of Yasha’s bones and spilled into her red blood cells, trailing through her cardiac system with each pump of her heart.

“… I need to grow up… I need an Ithorian Priest, don’t I? Or do I? Is my Force Deadness keeping me safe from possible manipulation or is it blinding me to the life that runs through the entire universe? Ra was wrong… the Force didn’t make Katlaydr sick… Velok did… If I let the Witches get cured, I won’t be making their lives easier, or making them better… but… what about the Sith you munch up? If you had the chance to cure the Dark Lord of the Sith… wouldn’t it be the right thing to do?”

 

[Ember Rekali]

[member="Yasha Mantis"]

“Breathe. Eat.”

As a longtime widower, Ember defined 'cook’ and 'meal’ in liberal ways. Today that meant a paper plate, a pre-made deli sandwich from a Corellian supermarket, and some lightning-reheated tuber wedges. He made only one plate, which he gave to Yasha.

“Forgive me if I only hit the high points.

“Why would Kaine want Ra back? Because Ra broke the Republic, by all accounts. Don't ever attribute altruism to Kaine. He takes delight in everything vicious. Could he control Ra? I doubt it. Influence his choice of targets? Absolutely, no question.

“Yes, there are other ways in and out of the Netherworld. The best and easiest to use are my gate on Dathomir and the Great Rift on Corellia - the endpoints of my road. The Heart of the Universe is just a hiking trail on Naboo, a summit that corresponds to a peak in the Labyrinth.

“Vilaz Munin knows deep down he's a follower, not a leader. Preliat Mantis is a creature of instinct and emotion, not rational thought. If they're your leaders…” Ember started chuckling and didn't stop anytime soon.

“And then there's you, and the leadership position you'll assume by notoriety and blood and force of will and sheer absence of options. That's your goal, and flow-walking - seeing the past or future - tells me it's inevitable.

“At that point, you endure or you fail. You're faced with an empire of angry people who take no initiative but hunger for conquest. Enemies everywhere, inside and out, largely of your own making. Schisms that will never heal. You'll be an adult soon, and you'll need to learn to press forward alone despite problems that have no answers.”

 

[Yasha Cadera]

Yasha took the plate with a curtsey, and a pleasant thank you. She took her first bite, and flopped down to sit on the floor, her shoulders shrugging in absolute delight. “Bread! I miss bread!”

It was the best sandwich she’d ever tasted.

“Kaine’s been nice to me. Course Daddy went apopoploptic, when he found out Ra took me to see him. Apepperleptic? Mad. Like… burn the universe mad.” The more she heard of [member="Darth Carnifex"], the more Yasha began to wonder. Evil was a visual in her mind, a monster, or until now the use of the Force. What if evil had other faces? What if it was a texture, a subtle manipulation? What if the safety of an offered smile and words in one’s mother tongue were as evil as burning down worlds? How then, did Yasha decipher evil from a simple kindness, like a sandwich and tuber wedges after years of slogging through hell? Was this what it was to grow up? An eternity of complications?

“Heeey.” Yasha said with a soft laughing smile, and a sharing of [member="Ember Rekali"]’s infectious chuckle. “That’s my Daddy. Instinct and emotion and being broken are are kind of his things. I promised to take care of him, he needs so much looking after.”

A child taking care of their parent… Yasha had no concept that it was supposed to be reversed. Yasha took another big bite out of her sandwich and chewed as she listened. “Hah. Go me, Mand’alor the ’Cause there’s nobody left. Huzzah… could make that my slogan, ‘you were so screwed I was your option’… actually, that’s a terrible idea.” The girl shook her head and laughed, proving that above all, the horrors of the Netherworld and wars had not shattered her spirit. She was not her father’s daughter.

She could still be a little girl, a little Lady ballerina on a stage. The call of Mand’alor thrummed in the background. The Mandalorians were on the edge of the smelting pot or the glorious hereafter and all they had to lead them was a follower and a broken beast of a man.

“If I can’t heal the s-schisms, how do I keep my people safe? And driven? Who do I trust if our legit only allies are the evil face of absolute evil?” There seemed to be a single moment of doubt in the girl. Could she do this? Would she be a colossal failure? She filled her inner musings with the eating of tuber wedges.

Mmm. Lightning made things roasty. “Alor Rekali? I wouldn’t have made it this far without Kaden or Shia. When I was alone in Sinner’s Rue… if I’d stayed alone, I’d still be trapped there. If I’m going to press forward, aren’t I stronger if they press forward with me? Or do I have to be alone, like Ra was alone? Is that what leadership is? I have to turn the collective bucketheads in the best direction I’ve got and let them plough forward? And somehow deal with the fact that Kaine Zambrano’s been subtly maneuvering our target patterns… awesome. Okay. Grow up seems to be the first step, ‘cause I don’t think the Mandos will like their Mand’alor much if I have to stand on a box… but am I wasting time? What if they needed me and I’ve been here the whole time? What if Daddy’s hopped up on stims all day like before and making terrible, terrible decisions? Wait… Okay… okay, it’s more important for me to figure things out then barrel in shooting at something that turns out to be a curtain in the breeze… if I asked you to come to Mandalore to advise me, would you do it?”