IV
He decided to try the bars first. As the night advanced he was getting nowhere. He went in to the third joint of the night. Different from the others, more “upper” class; there was even a weapons sensor that went off as soon as he crossed the threshold. A recorded voice went off near his head. “Welcome to The White Pearl, please deposit your weapons in the bin, they will be well cared for”. Followed by a storage bin that opened up on a wall on his left. He placed his Death Hammer in it and got an electronic token in return. Good, the lightsaber was not scanned.
As he walked in to the place, he extended his senses, drawing from his emotions, he let himself go in to the myriad of emotions, thoughts and feelings. Almost every table was occupied, and he could sense thoughts of sadness, joy, celebration, concealment, deceit, and betrayal. Curiosly, in such a place, all emotions were somewhat dampened, slanted, and the patrons surely preented composed and calm faces to one another. He opened his eyes, dozens of beings moved about; the greatest concentration of species was around a sabacc table at the bak of the bar. The holographic dealer was explaining the house rules to about four players; and twenty odd onlookers. is gaze stopped there. He senses someone watching him intently from that area, and whoever it was, it was very shocked and surprised at his entrance. He had hit the jackpot.
He walked to the bar, and asked for mint liquor. Alema’s favourite. The drink made him somewhat nostalgic. He picked it up after paying for it and moved between small black tables made of something resembling carved wood. There was a band playing some tune rag time. He looked over to the musicians and spotted a humanoid with four arms going at a wooden piano completely enthralled by his own playing. He smiled and came closer to the sabacc table. As he neared it, the sense of that someone’s surprise and awe, turned in to terror and aggression, He could feel it directed at him. looking straight in to the holographic dealer, he scanned his front arc of vision for the face tht matched the feeling and could not make it out. The hatred directed at him became stronger.
“Yes Oreth, hate can be powerful, but also, love is equally strong” It’s dawn. They cannot see the sun on their westward window. On Coruscant, the sun rises on the east, funny enough. This is when they came together for the first time. She lies in bed next to him, the top half of her body lies leisurely uncovered, the white sheets loosely slip down to her stomach. Her naked skin resembles the peaceful seas in the bluish light of the coming morning. He turns and caresses her. He is drinking mint liquor; but her words are a far more fulfilling and potent draught, and he drinks from her by long desperate gulps. “They are the same heavy coin, the metal from which they are crafted is unbreakable; one face of the coin caresses and kisses with powerful force and energy” She turns to him and strokes his head tresses, then kisses his cheeks, his lips. “the other face bites, barks and mauls with the same relentless energy” She turns from him, gets up and starts to don her Jedi outfit.
Her under tunic slides gracefully, then her outer tunic. He gets up and takes her sash, helps her place it around her waist, seizing the moment to hold her one last time. “But master... Alema...“ He feels a tingling in his chest at using her fist name, “if they are the same energy, how can love conquer hate?” She smiles, “Now its not the time for that lesson, now focus Oreth“ she continues as her face grows darker, “remember today. Today, life is good. Drink the mint liquor, and look at its bluish colour. Look for the bluish colour Oreth, behind the veiled faces, the bluish colour of a pair of eyes.” He does not understand, he feels this is another of Alema’s teachings. Even now, after the moment they shared, she cannot help but to fall in to her role as the master. She steps away from him and walks to the balcony, “Oreth, you will die under the bright jewel if you do not learn to use the visions of the past.”
He raised his glass, the bluish colour of the liquor cast dancing figures in his eyes. The force was acting now, through her teachings through him and through their... love. A sudden commotion began in the bar, behind the sabacc table, at the far end from Oreth. He saw them then, a pair of ice blue eyes, looking at him intently, then those eyes were aware of his realization. Patrons started to move away. other ran. “No blasters!” some one shouted. But the warning came too late. In a desperately fast movement, faster than Oreth had seen on a non sensitive, the man with the ice coloured eyes drew and let off two bolts of red death. He was ready for him. He was unconsciously aware of him the whole time, and his lightsaber ignited in a green buzzing sound with the frenzy of battle at the hiss of the blade.
He stopped the first two bolts. The man began to run backwards and shot wildly at him. His lightsaber danced in wide arcs left and right, keeping the red blaster bolts from panicked patrons and sabacc players. The green blade then spun and moved forward; he ran after the man avoiding his very fast blaster shots. this man was definitely dangerous, fast and deadly. He had to get him away or put him down for good. A blaster bolt aimed at the front entrance activated a pair of security blaster emplacements that came down from the ceiling. This man definitely knew this place and its secrets. Oreth spun wildly, ducked and raised his green blade. He was a blur of brown flowing robes and green energy.
Drawing from the Force, He crushed the gun turrets by closing his hand in a fist. He caught a brief moment where the assailant was isolated from innocent standbys and drew his arm backwards, palm opened; he then thrust his hand forward and the Firce did the rest, it responded with an incredible energy that Oreth was not aware he possesed. He truly was being fuelled by Daneela’s memory, Alema’s love and his own betrayal to the order and what it stood for. The force push sent the man flying back in a blur of black clothes and wild blaster bolts. The guy kept firing his weapon as he flew to the nearest wall and smashed against it.
You don’t get to die on me!. He thought as he ran to the still body lying by the entrance weapon storage bins. By now, all patrons were darting to the exit, crowding it, and the storage bins spilled their contents. Oreth stood over the downed man. He was face down, still holding his blaster. An Aratech. He force moved the weapon away from the inert hand, crouched by the body and turned him.
At first he thought he was seeing some force vision. Even though Alema had helped him master and control them, she also repeated constantly that his eyes could betray him, and not to trust them. Well, now he was sure he could not. Tehe face of the unconscious shooter was that of a boy, not more than seventeen years of age, human. The boy opened his eyes a little; Oreth stood there watching unbelieving, at a set of brown eyes. “Wha... what happened...” said the boy. Oreth stood up immediately and surveyed the place around him over and over, choking a cry of rage and frustration. What HAD happened?
Humans and Rodians for the most part, with some of the other domiant races sprinkled here and there, were crowding the entrance, some were arguing about ownership of the blasters and weapons spilled on the floor from the storage bins. The back of the bar was empty. The sabacc table was overturned, its holographic dealer still bidding the next player to either up the ante or fold. The Oreth turned to the bar; the attending barmaid, a human in her middle aged years lay dead over the counter. a blaster bolt burning the flesh on her face. Behind her, a door to a kitchen and storage room stood broken out of its hinges, its locked burned off.
No, not burned off; as Oreth came close to the bar counter, he could clearly see the door had been sliced open. Lightsaber work.
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