An extraordinary world…

[Corvus Raaf]

Lush grasses sprinkled with flowers of all colours and shapes graced the hilly meadow. Beyond its borders, shining waterfalls spilled into the lake, and from this spot, many other lakes could be seen about the distant hills, all the way to the horizon.

Puffballs floated by on the warm breeze, and puffy clouds drifted across the shining blue sky above. It was a place full of life, full of warmth and full of softness.

A herd of benevolent creatures called shaaks grazed contentedly nearby, seemingly oblivious to the two of them. They were curious-looking four-legged beasts, with huge, bloated bodies. Insects buzzed about in the air, too busy with the flowers to take any time to bother either Corvus or Connor.

She had promised him some time for many years now. Time where they weren’t debating Jedi philosophy or fighting Krayt Dragons, or risking life and limb facing down some Sith Lords. Simply Corvus and Connor time. And besides, there was something she needed to tell him and she owed him more than a message. A whole lot more.

Corvus sat on the grass, absently picking flowers, bringing them up to deeply inhale their scents. Every so often, she glanced over at Connor, but only briefly, almost afraid to let him notice. Wampas she could face. Difficult conversations she could not. She could see why her sister loved this place. The simple joys forcing her to see things as she had when she was younger – on Corellia – before the real world had pushed her to a place of responsibility. It surprised her that she could be so…?

She couldn't think of the word. Carefree? Joyous? Spirited? Some combination of the three?

Of course she knew why…and that was why she was here on Naboo today. To tell him of the reason. She hoped he’d be happy for her. She wanted him to be happy for her. But she was not entirely naïve. What was good for her was, potentially, bad for him.

Maybe she’d overreacted to previous conversations? Maybe she’d read too much into it. Maybe time had changed things? She needed to know. He needed to know. But for now the moment was too perfect to spoil.

So she picked up a blumfruit muffin from the small picnic spread they had before them and pulled off a piece. She popped it in her mouth and wrinkled her nose. Perfect moment or not, she needed to tell him.

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaSlgze43DA

There was something in the air, and it wasn’t just Puffballs.

Sitting on the other side of the spread Corvus has generously provided, it was a picturesque place she’d found on Naboo that Connor watched. The waterfalls, the waving grass, the clouds above, the strange creatures lumbering yards from them. It was peaceful, but alive, and something was most certainly in the air.

He turned his head, as he leant back on arms rooted to the ground as if soaking up sun – not that he was sunbathing, heaven forbid – and squinted in the light as she busied herself with flowers and muffins.

Connor smiled a little. Since last seeing her, only briefly, with the Coalition operation that Matsu Ike orchestrated, which still perplexed him as to her reasons, Corvus was different. A change in mood – a change in herself. Her emotion was a little more identifiable to him the last time, and it was again now. There was a hint of humanity about her he hadn’t really seen before. She’d touched on it at Tatooine and then on Mustafar, and seemed troubled by it on the salvage ship, but now? He wasn’t sure.

His eyes lazily drifted down to her necklace, a plain circular design, and wondered if…no. He could be right, perhaps? Maybe she…no.

He wanted to think…perhaps she wanted to talk about…feelings? Emotions? To explore something? To let Connor in? After all, he always said he would be there for her. Maybe now…?

Keep her calm; reassure her it’s still you and her – nothing else.

He looked up at her again and then turned to the strange beasts.

”Do you think you could ride one of those things?”

[member="Corvus Raaf"]

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus pulled off a second piece of muffin and smiled at Connor. “Not sure I’d want to. I mean, where’s the fun if they’re not trying to eat you?”

She glanced over at the creatures, her left hand protecting her eyes from the sun as she gazed at their slow and majestic journey. “Probably. If they’d take my weight.”

She popped the morsel of food in her mouth and slowly chewed it, giving her thinking time.

“Connor…we’ve known each other a long time right. And we’ve been through a lot. So we’re friends. And I don’t mean people that say hi to each other when they meet. I mean real friends. Ones that can tell each other stuff. That have each other’s backs. That are…honest with each other.”

Once more she was on the brink but couldn’t quite tip it over the edge.

“Taeli. You and her? I can’t read either of you without being invasive – and even the surface stuff. It’s confusing.”

She lay on her side now and propped her head up with one arm. “Explain what’s going on in your mind. Please.”

There was a tenderness and sincerity to the last word that was almost imploring. She needed to know.

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

The girl made sense. Compared to dragons, these things could be ridden in one’s sleep. He chuckled, a thousand memories of dangerous adventures coming back for a second. Connor reached over as she spoke, rather heartfelt, and helped himself to two small purple fruits and finished one without even thinking. They were good – too good.

He held an eye closed, squinting from the light as she was talking more openly than she had before. But, saying that, they always had something to do or something to find or somewhere to be. This down time was very much welcome for him with the one person who he’d die for.

And she touched upon Taeli. Sisters. They sure did talk didn’t they. But honesty was all he could give her.

”Don’t get all mushy on me now.”

He decided to mirror her, leaning on his elbow as he fingered the purple fruit around his hand, glancing up at her as he did. She really did shine in the natural light.

”That’s alright. Taeli and I. I don’t know. She’s a rock when I needed one, and still do, in more ways than one. She…she helped me at one point, pulling me back from the edge of a freefall into Hell itself. I think, I can’t tell if…” he was useless as this sort of thing, ”…I think she admires me a great deal, and I do her more than I probably let on.”

Don’t dig a grave, Connor.

He popped the fruit in his mouth.

”But, like my relationship with most, we pass in the night until the next time one of us needs help or a bit of muscle. She knows how to push my buttons that’s for sure and she’s certainly no Corvus Raaf that’s for sure, but she’s just as adorable in all sorts of ways. And stubborn. And annoying.”

A flash of the roguish smile ended that. He nodded his head up at her.

”What’s on YOUR mind then. What’s with these cracks I’m feeling from you anyway. You can be honest with me too y’know. It's me, remember.”

If he was closer, he’d have rested his hand on hers to remind her.

[member="Corvus Raaf"]

 

[Corvus Raaf]

He’d opened up. In a way that she wasn’t entirely sure she could see in, but he’d been honest at least.

Except…

Except he’d referenced her. Which was not what she wanted to hear.

She looked down at the muffin and picked at it with a fingernail. Biting her bottom lip, she drew in a sharp intake of breath and then looked into Connor’s eyes.

“I have so much to say. So much to tell you.”

She smiled. “You see, I now feel like a complete person. Remember my quandary? To be a Jedi and a woman. Well now I think I am Corvus…the whole article. And that includes me coming to terms with emotions.”

She gave a soft laugh. “Some of that means learning what they all are. There are so many!” She sounded genuinely surprised by the fact. “And so close together they overlap. It can be a struggle sometimes – but I’ve got twenty years of catching up to do.”

“Which is all good, I’m sure you’ll agree. But how I got there…” Suddenly her face was sombre. “Good for me. Great for me. Amazing for me, but…”

She sat up again, cross-legged, and pushed some errant strands of hair behind her ear. “There was an invasion. I faced a Sith Lord. Silara. Darth Vitium. She went by many names. We faced her on Prakith.”

She allowed the information to sink in for a few moments.

“And this is going to get confusing, so bear with me.”

“She had followed me for many years. Since I was a Padawan. From afar a lot of the time – but when our paths met? I admit I found her fascinating. I sensed pain in her. I wanted to redeem her. No…more. I wanted to hug her and drawn the pain right out of her and take it for myself. I can’t explain it any better than that.”

“Anyway, on Prakith she said she loved me and then laughed. Said it was a joke and she meant it for someone else. I put it down to Dun Möch but…deep down…it bothered me. But I buried it. Easy to do when you’re a cold-fish.” She laughed but it sounded hollow.

“Anyway…present day. I faced her again and we fought and then she got me to open up. To access my emotions. To this day I don’t know why or how. But she managed to press the right buttons. And the emotions were wonderful. And she told me she loved me – but not her. Not Silara. Braith. She was controlling Silara – at least some of the time.”

“We parted and she told me to meet her on the planet the Primeval were invading. I told her I was a Jedi and could never be anything else. She was accepting of it. I was…well…confused.”

“So we met again. Except she was dead by then. I buried her body in a manner of speaking but knew it was not over. I had to find this Braith.”

“It took five days in the Archives to find her. She was ten thousand years old. A myth? A goddess? Someone sealed for eternity in a tomb. And her former partner? She looked just like me!”

Corvus sighed audibly. “I went to Pax Insul and found her. Woke her I guess. Goddess or mortal? I don’t know. I don’t care.” Her face was still impassive but her eyes now lit up. “Would I hate her for manipulating Silara? For allowing her to die just because she’d served her purpose? I didn’t know, but I risked my life to find her. And when I saw her. Spoke to her. Well…” Suddenly Corvus’ cheeks flushed red.

“Connor…I have found true love.”

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Helping himself to more fruit, to one calm his growing nerves and two maintain his hunger, Connor relaxed a little and listened as Corvus began to talk.

One fruit in, still good, and she sat up, explaining an apparent awakening she’d had. So far, so good. He stayed on his elbow, enjoying listening to her story.

However, the mention of Prakith was a curious one. It had been a place both Connor and Corvus had met up to salvage a relic and encountered dark forces, and the name Silara brought that dark force back as one he nearly lost Corvus too. It seemed this Silara had been a problem from the start.

Connor shuffled, slowly forgetting the fruit and focusing more on each word passing by those perfect lips. Her focus was evident in getting each word right to help Connor understand whatever she was trying to paint. That horrible knot was forming in his gut.

Gradually it seemed to get worse, and confusing in equal measure – an ancient Sith spirit? Corvus allowed a spirit to help her open up? Why hadn’t she asked him for help?

And then it came – Corvus had found true love.

For a second, Connor went blank as the world drowned out around him.

Spoiler

”Right, ok,” he slurred.

He continued to look at her, but was confused. As she was, evidently. He sat up, the fruit now in his hand and the last thing he wanted right now.

”Ok, so you’re saying Silara, Braith, she’s had a control over you or something? Corvus, this is dangerous – she’s a power beyond what you or I could understand. Obviously she’s manipulating your emotion, feeding on…whatever you’ve found in there.”

A frown crossed his brow.

”I…w…why…I was trying to help you find your emotional release, remember? Why didn’t you contact me for help? Look what’s happened now, you’re not sure what you’re doing.”

Connor shuffled over, kneeling across to move beside Corvus, still looking thoughtful.

”It’s ok. Let me help you find what she wants, we can do that, I’ll help you. I remember Praktih and what she did to us.”

[member="Corvus Raaf"]

 

[Corvus Raaf]

She was oblivious of him by now – wrapped up in her own story. Until he spoke. She’d underestimated the effect clearly. And moreover, he’d gotten the wrong end of the stick – or had chosen to. Emotions do that it seemed.

So she allowed him to speak, to finish, to say everything he wanted to say. Then she paused and started over.

“Silara is dead. She was a Sith Lord I met back when I was a Padawan. We seemed to bump into each other. I presumed it was coincidence – not any more.”

“My connection to my emotions is mine and mine alone. Trust me. Taeli even checked me out. No Taint. No malevolent forces – other than that sliver of the Gatekeeper from that Holocron – which she removed. The only demons in my mind are of my own making. Which was a joke by the way. Bad joke, I know.” She held up her hands in mock surrender.

“If Braith has a hold over me, it’s no different to anyone in love.” She was earnest now. “Yes it’s about my emotions – but how is it any different to anyone else. You? Taeli? My sister told me we don’t choose who we fall in love with.”

“And this was never about help in that sense. I still don’t know why Silara was able to connect in that way, but one thing is for sure – I don’t regret it.”

“Braith is not a Sith. She pre-dates them. She is not Dark-sided. She uses the Force. And she uses it for good. And that’s all that matters to me.”

“I love her Connor. Can’t you understand?”

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Connor’s blue eyes bore into Corvus as he hung on every word – every syllable – she spoke, whether the looked at him or not, which she did once or twice, but was so wrapped up in her own story. He had to take it in again, this wasn’t right.

Every few seconds, his skin crawled with an icy shiver which gave was instantly to uncomfortable warmth in its place. He swallowed, piecing together this deluded array of bad joke and emotion she was telling him for the second time but it still didn’t make sense.

He was about to speak, and then she broke his heart in a micro-second like nobody else ever had.

I love her Connor. Can’t you understand?

The purple juice of the fruit dribbled through clenched fingers, the skin mushed into his palm.

He’d forgotten to breath for a few seconds, and slowly it came out through a slightly open mouth.

”You…you’re in love? You – with a figure pre-dating the SITH?”

Glancing away to pray he’d wake from this day-dream in the fields on Naboo, to come back from it with Corvus grinning at him and for them to share a lifetime together, he looked back and was still in the same nightmare.

I love her Connor....

He wanted to speak, but the words didn’t come; just collected in his dry throat with the logic all thrown out of the window.

”Corvus – how can, how can you love her when…she’s played your mind for years and wrapped you around her finger to own you completely?”

The knot tigetneed in his gut, moving to his chest.

”I’ve loved you from when you came to me on Voss via will of the Force. I’ve stood by you and helped you to become the Corvus you are today, and now you think you love a spirit who has toyed with your MIND? I would give you nothing but LOVE! You KNOW THAT!”

His voice was rising. This wasn’t right, she wasn’t thinking.

...can't you understand?


[member="Corvus Raaf"]

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus wasn’t so naive that she expected he’d taken the news well. Well..perhaps she did. But her feelings for [member=Braith] were too important to keep a secret and although she didn’t want to lose Connor as a friend, she needed him to know the truth.

“Yes,” she said slowly and deliberately. “I’m in love and yes…she’s ten thousand years old. But in truth she’s about my age. But that’s irrelevant.”

She held on to Connor’s hands now, ignoring the pulpy mess that was once a fruit.

“You are my friend. My good friend. My very good friend. And I want it to stay that way. But I love her. And why do we love anyone? She’s played on my mind for years, don’t forget that. If someone loves you enough to contact you via another from a catatonic state, I’d say they were serious.”

She was aware she was raising her voice now and paused.

“I love you Connor — but as a friend. You need to understand that. I will continue to stand by you and help you any way I can…but as a friend.”

She released her hands and stared into the distance. “It seems that those we love are always toying with our minds. Isn’t that what love is?”

“Maybe I should have said something sooner, but this was sudden and took me by surprise. But a wonderful surprise. If you can’t be happy for me, at least understand me. For I have never felt happier than I do now, and won’t jeopardise what I have for anyone.”

“I am still a Jedi and that can never change. But I am also Corvus the person now. As you once wished me to be. Please…keep wishing.”

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Even though she was holding his hand, something that at one point would have filled his stomach with tiny mynocks fluttering around, right now Corvus was talking and Connor had nothing but raging Wampas battering his insides. He'd never felt this much despair, as if everything he was fighting for was now steadily falling further and further away from his grasp.

And when things were nearly lost forever, one would go through three stages to claw anything back.

1: Fear

”Corvy, please, I...I understand what you're feeling as it's new and you've never had this before but... I can't lose you, I can't lose everything I've put my heart into. I've wanted nothing more than to be the one to show you everything.”

She was staring into the distance, and her heart was already decided.

2: Denial

He wrapped his hands back around hers, soft in his and feeling so tender and delicate. The fact he could be this close to her was a small compensation.

”Time. Time is all you need. I will be here for you when you see what she has done to you. She doesn't love you. She can't. She doesn't know you the way I do.”

3: Desperation

Connor was losing this battle. He knocked a plate over, not caring for the sugar-coating picnic Corvus has planned to try and cover this blow, as he moved in front of her to take her attention. He kept his voice low and as calm as possible.

”Please. Please....give me a chance.”

He looked into those beautiful violet eyes, nothing else on Naboo getting his attention right now.

”Please...”

The voice cracked and his eyes went moist. Closing them and praying for something, he pulled her hands to his lips and kissed them, holding them tight as if she was dying and he didn't want her body to leave him. She was his only hope, and the only light he saw in the dank, murky tunnel of life that he walked.

The final stage was something he hoped he didn't succumb to and she would say something to make it all better.

[member="Corvus Raaf"]

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus kept a cool head. Not for once – given this was her usual stance – but quite simply because the situation demanded it.

She knew it would be a balancing act, something she’d learned recently. Not a conflict – a precarious tight-rope that had to be walked.

She heard his words and gave a measured response to each. Too cold and she would appear unkind, unforgiving. Too emotional and she’d only make matters worse.

And there was no safety-net.

“Connor, we are best of friends. That was always what I offered you and nothing will change that. We can spend time together as friends in a way I never could before. That is more than we ever had. It may not be what you wanted. I know it’s not, but it’s what I can give. All I can give right now.”

And still he continued his relentless pursuit.

“Time is good, time is very good. If she doesn’t love me the way I love her then yes, I’d hope you’d be there for me. But she does love me – I believe that with all my heart. And if she doesn’t…that simply means I’d need a friend to help me overcome. But that would be all. Do you understand? It’s not about who knows me best Connor, it’s about how I feel, how she feels.”

Her voice was soft, barely above a whisper.

Now he was getting emotional and she had to be strong for both of them. She ignored the plate and saw he was determined to exhaust every logical argument in the book.

“What you say makes sense here…” She pointed to her head. “But not here,” she now put her hand over her heart. “Odd that I should be telling you this. You know the truth of my words better than I do.”

My word this was impossible. Not until now did she realise what unrequited love was. Perhaps, just perhaps she’d felt it herself, once before. And maybe it was a reason she kept up the cold-fish for as long as she did. For what Connor was going through she would not wish on her worst enemy. But she no longer had words to help. Her expertise was limited and new.

So his final plea would have been met with a flood of tears had she been open to emotions – but instead she was quite simply unsure what to do.

She allowed him to kiss her hands – as to wrestle them away felt wrong – but she kept a firm tension on them. As soon as his grip loosened she would pull away. Not dramatically or quickly, just firmly.

He needed to know the truth, as painful as it was, and get on with his life. She loved [member="Braith Achlys"] and that was not going to change – at least not from her perspective.

“I’m so sorry…” she finally uttered. Her naivety in expecting him to wish her well was so badly misplaced. The way he was going, she would be surprised if he didn’t end up hating her. This was most certainly not going according to plan.

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Picking out words to hear was easier said than done when most of the words being said were not when you wanted to hear at all. Friendship was something that mattered most to Connor, but this…thing she proclaimed was a true love? How could he be happy for her loving that? She didn’t know what love was, and only he would have shown her naturally, not without deception and lore and Sith poison.

With each word said, he was losing her. Her hands firmly came down through his and left his shell holding air. He hated his fragmented emotions, but since he had lost the light he wanted to keep as his own and show everything to in the galaxy, together, there was little a broken “sorry” could do. She wasn’t sorry. If she was, she wouldn’t have acted so stupidly. The Corvus Raaf hew knew wouldn’t have let a Sith spirit twist her feelings like this and reduce her to a fool.

With a sigh, Connor dropped his hands and wiped the tear streaks from his cheek. Auto-pilot came on, the carefree attitude when you have nothing left to give and have nothing else to win. He rested on bended knee and looked off into the distance at the raging waterfalls, not wanting to look at her.

”From the moment I met you, all those years ago on Voss, not a day has gone by when I haven't thought of you. The closer I got to you, the worse it felt. You were in my very soul, tormenting me every single day by being someone I would have done anything for.”

Now, he turned.

”I’m the one who’s sorry for wanting to give you everything I had without making sure even wanted it.”

So this is how unrequited love felt? A lifetime of hope – shattered in a heartbeat. His right arm began to shake, the body reacting to the feelings inside he didn’t know how to handle or rationalise. Looking past her at their ships, side by side across the meadow, his eyes fell to the grass – distant and cold. The silence seemed to hang for minutes, but it was more seconds. He could feel, and not for the first time, Corvus wanting to be somewhere else with her increased emotions raging up and down.

”You'd best go then. To her,” he looked up. ”To that.”

[member="Corvus Raaf"]

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Opening up to emotions was supposed to be wonderful. To allow you to feel the highs of the human spirit. But of course the tap that was feelings didn’t have a hot and cold setting. You could not select happy and not unhappy ones.

For now she was protected, she’d closed her mind down. But she suspected what she’d face the moment she opened up again. For she’d already felt them in small doses and currently Connor was giving her a heaped dessert-spoon-full.

You could not argue logic with emotions or vice versa. She knew that. And nor did she want to. He would have to work through his feelings himself. He’d come out the other side a friend she hoped. A good friend. But not now. She was naïve to believe that and she realised it suddenly.

The picnic to make the ambience amicable. She was better off telling him in a cold and draughty hangar and then jumping on a ship.
And she wanted to be angry with him, so it was a good idea her emotions were quelled. He could be as rude as he wanted to her. She’d suck it up and live with it. Why not? She’d faced worse from Sith Lords.

But to bad-mouth Braith? Even with her emotions in check, she found she was clenching her fists. Every second she was about to say something but bit her tongue. So she just took it, hoping he didn’t push her too far. She owed him that much.

If this was how he retained his dignity, she’d allow it. Welcome it. She loved him. Not in that way – but as a dear and close friend. And if she could suck the hate and pain out of him like a poison, she would.

But she knew she couldn’t.

And then he did it. He really went and did it. She gave him a stony stare. “Do not ever speak about her like that. Ever.” She spat the words out, even her logical brain was goading her into lowering her defences and allow her emotions free reign now.

And she did the best thing she could under the circumstances. She simply walked away…

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

This wasn't a pre-planned confrontation - which it now was, not a peaceful picnic - and he certainly wasn't trying to get the upperhand. Hell, he loved this woman. He had done since Voss. But she had extinguished his flame savagely, and all for some 10,000 year old spirit? It was ludicrous. SHE was ludicrous.

As she spat out her words, he shook his head softly. It was the first time he'd ever seen her attack him with true emotion behind words, in fact the first time he'd heard her do that at all, especially without a blade in her hand. Even then she was masked by the Jedi Code - this was raw Raaf. Connor stood as her violet eyes narrowed, and she walked away, the dishevelled picnic nothing but a trashed memory.

”You are WEAK, Corvus! You have allowed that spirit to twist you mind until now you proclaim to be in love with that very thing that represents what you swore to destroy.”

He took a few small steps following her, feeling now he was in control of the situation she was blind to. He could see it clearly now.

”I remember that day in the tomb - the lure of Silara who offered herself to me if I turned. All this time, I was stronger than you ever were to resist that witch. You're a disgrace to yourself and to the Jedi you serve.”

Biting on his tongue, he slowed down, sideways on, watching her go. He hated himself being honest, but she had to hear it. If he could shake this...this...delusion from her, he could help her find love in her own time, her own pace. Anything to stop this feeling of...hatred from her towards him. He could say these honest truths, because nobody else would, no matter how much they smiled at the pair. He was the expendable one to be what she needed - truth.

[member="Corvus Raaf"]

 

[Corvus Raaf]

As he called after her she slowed. She knew she should keep walking and would regret stopping and talking further. And the truth was she didn’t now if it was the logic or the emotion that made her stop now.

She kept her back to him however, and just listened.

“Those words were meant for me…” He wasn’t listening or didn’t want to. “She wanted me to hear them, but Silara managed to direct them at you.”

“She is not Silara and never was Silara. She is not a Sith and is not Dark-sided. And do not preach to me about being weak. I love Melori, she is a Sith. My love will endure but not cloud my judgement there. I can differentiate between her being my sister and a Sith. Just as I did with Taeli. And given Braith is not Dark-sided, the point is irrelevant.”

“But love and being in love are different things, I grant you. So heed my words. I love her because she is virtuous. If she ever turned evil, I would lay down my life to turn her back to the good. Do not believe that my desire to open up to emotions has in some way robbed me of logical thought. I know the Jedi Code and follow it to the letter. And I always shall.”

“Remember that…for one day we shall be friends again, and I won’t need to remind you.”

And she began to walk again.

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxFR0VIbmyE

She couldn’t even look at him which spoke volumes. Connor could hear her grasping at anything to convince herself she knew what love was – Silara hadn’t been speaking to Corvus at all, yet she had to believe she was. She’d effectively taken [member="Corvus Raaf"] away from him.

So be it.

Connor’s heart was thumping inside his chest and his fingers grated against the inside of his palm in fists. The girl he knew was tainted by this Braith creature, and Connor knew what he would have to do for her sake.

Everybody had something, but he had nothing. It would be easier that way; to be alone. It would hurt for a while, but they would find a way after he had taken Braith out of the equation – the sword to cut away the darkness, now infecting Corvus Raaf. He could already hear the screams.

His eyes narrowed, his hope slipping away with each step and anger seeping in to replace it.

The Grandmaster would probably not look at him again or even contact him; she’d get in her ship and fly back to the witch and fall into all sorts of delusional dreams and love.

LOVE?

Connor had to leave this place, where he lost it all in a heartbeat. Hope; love; faith. Taken away. But, watching her ship, he knew one day he would get Corvus back, saving her from the tendrils of this goddess.

He wouldn’t rest until he had.