Star Wars: Brave Misdeeds

Chapter 8

"The being who confesses his inner evil is honest; that regrets that inner evil, is moral; that boldly proclaims that evil and embraces it, is a Sith."          —Daemen Irath <ELITE>

Anger still fuming on the surface, her tears spent, Kesi flexed her stiffened fingers and relaxed her grip on the swoop's accelerator. The sun was setting on the northern horizon. It would be night in an hour; a dangerous time to be caught in the wilds of Dantooine. She scolded herself for falling victim to her sorrow. Taking the southernmost exit from Phoenix Gate, she fled farther south into the unclaimed lands nearly six kilometers away from the ruins. The southern edge of Phoenix Gate and well beyond that boundary was an expanse of wild lands well known for it perils. The region was home to an indigenous population of graul.

During its halcyon days, Phoenix Gate entertained big-game hunters from across the galaxy. They came in packs to hunt, track, and do battle with the creatures. The immense beasts, whose size matched their volatile temperament, provided a fair portion of meat, a delicacy in Zabrak kitchens. Their toughened hides were invaluable to armorsmiths who employed them in the creation of certain armor polymers.

Memcha hunted the graul for their potent DNA and captured the offspring, selling them to circuses and collectors on distant planets. The Twi'lek once tracked a mythic graul marauder, the largest and fiercest of the species, for a pair of Dark Jedi. Erath and Galladel were their names. Though Memcha never mentioned the total amount they paid her, rumor stated they compensated her time for millions of credits. Afterward, the Sith met in the Phoenix Gate cantina for drinks to celebrate the hunt, parading the animal's pelt around on their backs for everyone to see.

Her sorrow thinned with those memories, Kesi checked her datapad for her location. She was approximately 15 kilometers from the Imperial garrison. It would be night before she reached the safety of its barricaded walls. In the distance, she saw a familiar structure—the mysterious Jedi shrine. The peculiar edifice was one of two rumored to be on the planet.

Even from a distance, the Jedi shrine was a massive structure with three towering stone monoliths supported on a raised dais carved from a similar stone. Two of the pillars were of equal height with the middle stone the being the tallest of the three. Intricately sculpted in black marble, a humanoid effigy stood with outstretched arms, casting a shadow over a broad stone table, which was situated in the center of the towering dais with stone steps leading up to the top. It was as gigantic in stature as it was ancient, with no discernible markings that might reveal its true age. Purple moss and grasses grew wild in sections of crumbling mortar or clung to the corners edges where the stones meshed tightly together, too firm to be invaded.

An audible thrum in the vicinity of the shrine rose as a vibration in the air, stirring the earth underfoot. It was a familiar tremor, not unlike when she poured water over the crystal that the Kunga spellweaver had given her. Lomm found the shrine quite by accident on a reconnaissance mission, but refused to take Kesi there because of the many dangers such a trip posed. Ever resourceful, Kesi downloaded the coordinate waypoints from Lomm's datapad that very night and went by herself in a defiant show of fortitude.

Allowing herself the chance to reminisce once more, Kesi shut down the swoop's reactor engines, then clicked the engine's ignition switch again when the low throb of her engines did not immediately die out. With horror, Kesi realized that her bike was deactivated, stalled out with her distraction. The sound she heard came from another swoop parked barely twenty paces away. It had purposely been hidden by a growth of brush and trees. The speed and angle of her approach made it nearly impossible to see; but now that she could, it was apparent that she was not alone.