Braze was more than willing to help. Kass was relieved that he seemed eager rather than reluctant to proceed with the plan.
Though it couldn’t penetrate the deepest darkness, his little ball of light revealed the shapes of stalactites hanging from the cavern ceiling and passages to places unknown. Saya’s presence remained obscure. Kass instead focused on tracking Oukranos, concerned as she was for his wellbeing.
"Master Kassogtha," he began hesitantly, "have you ever wondered how someone like Saya became... Well, the way she is? How do people end up embracing such darkness?"
“
I don’t know much about Saya,” Kass answered honestly. “
My research into her past didn’t uncover much. I did find some evidence that she was the student of another Sith…”
She screams, but no one can hear her. The forest is too remote, too isolated. The agony doesn’t stop. Force, why were they doing this? What was wrong with them?!—
“
... Someone whom Master Cthylla and I encountered many years ago.” As Kass spoke with one mouth, one of her many others nibbled nervously on the end of a tentacle. “
It can be hard to say what drives people to do what they do. It may be that this is all she has ever known.”
It was the kindest thing she could say about Darth Saya and her ilk. Her thoughts lingered on their first encounter. The Sith had never spoken a word to her. She only attacked, viciously and without remorse, like an animal. Worse than an animal—she
enjoyed inflicting pain.
A tugging in the Force brought her out of her musings. “
Braze—” she began, only to falter as the pull swiftly became an urgent
yank. “
He’s found her. This way, quickly!”
On the other side of the vast network of caverns, Oukranos had made his way up a steep, craggy tunnel. The sound of running water drew him until eventually he emerged in a hollow shell of bedrock behind a rushing waterfall.
His piercing blue eyes scanned the rock shelter, his feet stepping slowly across the smooth stone floor. On his right, the curtain of silvery water draped down the cliff like an old crone’s hair, misting the air he breathed and dampening his shirt. It was cold. He tried to control his shivering, calling upon the Force for warmth, but the Darkness answered with an aching bone-chill.
“
I knew you’d come for me.”
He turned, lightsaber igniting with a hiss as it burned through the moisture in the air. Before him was Darth Saya. By Pylantian standards she was beautiful. Her oily black hide was etched with scarlet ink and studded with dozens of citrine-yellow eyes, glittering in the red glow of her lightsaber. She gave him a malicious grin, lips pulling back over sharp teeth. “
You just can’t help yourself, can you?”
Her tone was abrasively suggestive, leaving him feeling naked and raw. “
You have committed a crime against the Alliance, the Jedi, and the Pylantian people,” Oukranos said, his tone of voice flat and unyielding even if his center was barely holding. “
Surrender now or be destroyed.”
She laughed in that awful, high-pitched shriek he recognized from his time in captivity. “
By the time I'm done with you, you'll be the one surrendering,” she jeered. "
Just like you begged my sisters for mercy while they took what they wanted from y—"
He speared toward her before she could finish her sentence. Dodging left, she narrowly avoided being impaled on his blade, instead deflecting the blow with her own weapon. "
Ooh!" She giggled gratingly, delighted at having triggered such a strong reaction. "
I like it when you're angry."
