Reaching Through Darkness

Ch 21
Karen

There was nothing to see in the opaque darkness of wherever I was. The air stank of something my foggy brain couldn’t begin to describe. By the echoing of the room caused by my quick, loud breathing, the room was rather vacant and large. There was no other sound than my breathing to indict someone else was here. My skin crawled and my mind reeled. I found my hands shaking uncontrollable along with the rest of my body. The silence, loneliness, and lack of light were terrifying, but nothing was worse than my served connection to the Force. To lose one’s connect to the Force was to go blind, dumb, and deaf, and have one’s arms and legs cute off all at once. The feeling was devastating.

I couldn’t sense. I couldn’t feel. I didn’t know where the walls were. I was scared to move because I didn’t know if I would walk into something. My closer to nine than eight years of training were useless in this situation. I had spent so much time and effort training and drilling into my mind not to pain because I had and could use the Force when all else failed me. I wanted to laugh at the proud voice telling me to breathe, relax and open myself to the powerful, luminous energy. As far as I could tell, curled up into a painful ball of fear, the force didn’t exist, yet strangely enough I did.

My mind whirled, looking for answer to questions that couldn’t be answered at that time. I calmed down my screaming mind enough to find the strength and courage to stand up and take one step forward. Immediately my foot hit something hard that made a lot of sound and I uttered several curses. At that exact moment the lights overhead came on, flooding my vision with agonizing, blinding multicolor whiteness. For a full minute I stood paralyzed, unable to center my scattered through from the whirl wind they had been thrown into. Through the white haze I saw a bare, black metal room. My gaze followed a half flight of narrow metal stairs to a darker platform with a single chair with its back turned towards me. With no where else to go I moved forwards to mount the stairs. The scene was entirely too much like the Emperor’s quarters, where Master Skywalker witness the death of the Emperor. Surely the Emperor under a different person wasn’t back? The chair slowly turned around, showing the owner.

The man before me was not the Emperor, but a middle build, shocking blond man. I guessed he was in his mid thirties. His ice blue eyes sent shivers down my spine. There was a chilling coolness about him. I couldn’t feel anything from him without my Force abilities, but I still knew how to read a person. The dark side, from what my experience taught me, flowed through him like freezing, deathly river, leaving a trail of cool steel determination. His voice, cool and smooth, made all the warmth and hope leave my body in a hurry.

“Welcome Karen Nightingstar. Do you like my reconstructed Emperor’s throne room?”

I did not like it at all, but that did not need to be said. I more wanted to know who he was and why I was here. His false smile grew at my silence.

“Why so quiet? You had so much to saw to my apprentice at the ball.”

I winced. I was pretty sure he was referring to his sith apprentice, thus making my romantic lover my enemy. Yet, Master Skywalker would have known about this sith, wouldn’t he?

“Oh you thought I didn’t know who you are. I’m afraid you are mistaken. Once you ran after one my spies pretending to be a pity theft it was not so hard to floor you and your master. Yes, when my spy reported finding a lightsaber, I knew right then, the two of you were Skywalker’s famous Jedi.”

I stood there shocked by what I was hear.

“Don’t stand there with that dumb expression my dear. It’s unbecoming of you.”

Who was this…sith? He was evil, but not in the same way I expected a dark lord to be. His smile vanished and he waved his hand as to shoo a jungle nat from his face.

“Enough with this trivial chatter. We have far more important matters to talk about. Let us begin with your training.”

Training? Whatever he had in mind, I wanted none of it. In fact, all I really wanted was to be able to think clearly. My mind and body begged for the Force. I also needed him to leave me alone so I cough figure out how to get our of this prison.

“There is no point in trying to escape my apprentice. No one will ever find you. Not ever your puny master. We are quite safe from the Jedi or anyone who could track you through the Force. I see the panic in your eyes. I see your body twitch. You can not use the Force can you? The withdraw experience is hard isn’t it?”

The smile of sweet power came back. Then man pressed a button on the arms of his great metal chair and from the floor raised a small table containing a cage. Inside the cage was a furred with scaled and beady eyes creature. I was given a good look before the blond man with his pale skin explained what it was.

“Admire the match of all Jedi, apprentice. This here is an ysalamiri, the living reason why you can’t touch your precious Force.”

The animal looked pitiful being trapped in a basic, cruel cage. My heart went for the creature who was in a situation much like mine. The man pressed the same button again and the caged reptile disappeared back into the floor.

“Your training will start without the use of the Force. We will start with the most important part: your start of being.”

I held up my hand to pause him in his boosting ego lecture. I demanded to know who he was and where was I at the galaxy.

“My identity means nothing to your training; nor does knowing your location. Do not interrupt me again.”

I asked him if I couldn’t escape what harm did it do to either of us for me to know. His cool smile got chiller with my question.

“Clever, but not clever enough. I am your mast and you are in your master’s room. Do not have me repeat myself again, apprentice. Now let us continue to discuss your mind.”

There was a hint of deadly anger in his eyes. Then it cleared as if it never existed. This scared me more than not having the Force. I was trapped with an evil man, possible a sith or dark Jedi.

“Your mind should be focused on me at all times. You will put forth you truest and deepest emotions to your conscious and study them in great detail.”

So far he sounded like one on my teachers back at the temple. Did sith teach this sort of stuff? I wasn’t sure. My search in the dark side’s thinking wasn’t much?

“You will notice how these emotions effect you in how you thin, talk, breathe, eat, and react to the world around you. You will notice how these emotions, these pity, weak feelings control you and your life. Do not let this happen. Mere feelings should have no control over you. Conquer them by recognizing them and then you can begin to focus your mind.”

This was not the teaching of the Jedi, but then again, not something I would expect from a sith. I decided to test his identity with a question of peace.

“Peace is a feeling. A feeling is chemicals being produced and reacting with others. The Jedi spent so much wasted time on letting peace control them. Do not waste time with me.”

Well he was not a fan of the Jedi for sure. I told him that peace lead to a focused mind, so why not be peaceful?

“Because the amount of effort to put into achieving a feeling is too much for the short lasted outcome. Have no emotion. Exist without feeling. Detachment is the key to the universe.”

Key to the universe, that almost sounded like key power to the universe, making him part of the dark side. I rubbed my head. There was a throbbing at the base of my skull due to the withdraw from the Force. If I could just feel the Force for one second I would think a lot clearer. I could see through the maze of words and hidden messages this creepy, slippery man was throwing me. He caught me thinking again and gave me another spine chilling smile.

“Listen, don’t think, my dear. Soon you will understand who I am as you keep trying to think about.”

Somehow that didn’t comfort me in the slightest. I thought about my master. He seemed so far away, lost in a sea of light and hope, while I drifted, blindly at the murky forgotten depths.