[member="Keturah Sin"]
“No. Stay here.” he did not ask and he was not nice. It was a demand and it carried the weight of the force behind it.
Salvor entered the mouth of the great tree, following the voice that continued to call to him. He went in, ten feet, twenty, thirty, forty, but how? The tree was not this large from the outside, he should of reached the back by now. He turned around to leave and could no longer see the way he came in. the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.
Kark this. He thought and went to go back the way he came, when his name was called again. This time the voice was closer than it had even been, close enough to touch. He whipped around and headed deeper into the never ending tree. He walked until his foot caught on a root. As he reached down to pull it loose his arm was ensnared by a second root and a third and a fourth until he was caught suspended, spread eagle.
Fear, anger, helplessness all filled him. What was happening? It was a trap. Something called him here to kill him and like an idiot he came willingly. He was so busy cursing himself, he didn’t even see her appear. The most beautiful woman he had ever seen, a Zabrak like himself, gold skinned and all. She came to him naked as the day she was born and he wept at her radiance.
She placed a hand on his cheek and wiped away his tears. The moment their skin touched, Salvor was no longer filled with fear or hate or anger. It instead was replaced by sorrow and guilt.
“Who, are you?” he demanded from the woman before him.
“Child, do you truly not recognize me?” she asked with unnerving warmth and unwavering patience.
He did. But it was impossible. It could not be here and he knew it, but here she was.
“Mother?” he sounded every bit the child he was.
she smiled at him. It was beautiful and sad, the way she looked at him in this moment.
“You, are not my mother.” disappointment dripped from every word. She was his mother in every way. From her face, to the way she stood, to the way she spoke. Yet she was not her. Something strange was going on here.
“No, child. Your mother is dead.” the spirit or what ever it was spoke to him with such sympathy, such understanding Salvor could barely keep from crying. But he did, he was a man and a warrior and he would not cry from pity.
“Then who are you?” he spoke softly and unsure of himself.
“Your guide.”
“My guide to what?” he asked timidly.
“Toward the right path. Toward your future.” was it true? Was going finally be shown his path, by his dead mother no less?
“Show me.” He was no longer demanding. At this poin the was practically pleading.
She laid her hand upon his cheek once more and his eyes began to flutter.
The visions that flowed through his mind were vague at best and infuriatingly cryptic at their worst.
He saw his mother violated and killed, he saw Ravi’s bloody corpse,
A shadow that shifted into a humanoid shape with crown on it’s head before bursting into flame.
The flaming shadow placed a hand on Salvor’s chest and the young Zabrak burned from the inside out. Everything went dark, and all he could see were bright amber eyes.
When the visions were over and the inside of the tree and the spirit who looked like his mother was once again all he could see, he asked her, the question that he most wanted answered.
“Why? Why, do you look like her?”
She smiled again with the same warmth and sadness.
“Isn’t it obvious, child? This is who you most long to see, the thing which you wish hardest to have. The two weeks spent in the slaver’s ship, went spent crying for her. When Ravi died, you cried harder for her than you did for him. The moment you were freed, you were looking for her, though you know her fate. Every time you close your eyes and you see that girl, you wish you saw her. Look at me now Salvor Arnex and hear what I tell you. The galaxy is set to burn and you have two choices: burn with the rest of the kindling or become a blade forged from the flame, rising out stronger and more deadly than ever.”
