Burnt Bridges

[Shia Kryze]

[member="Ember Rekali"]

The chorus of ghosts was not unexpected even without Shia's words, the rage and the sadness affected her much less than it should, sloughing off her as if it shouldn't be part of her - even if she was due it. She let her hands trail lingeringly, in the vision, giving the dead the respect they were due with a combination of effort and some new automatic reflex.

Fire and blood. So many visions of the future ended in fire and blood. But that was, as Ember had stated, a surprise to absolutely no one. Conflict was inevitable - all the parts were in motion, it was simply how they collided that made a difference. The difference between a Mandalorian Empire 'allied' to the Sith astride a bloody galaxy, it's leaders little more than puppets, or between one that tore itself into shreds of war and almost everything in between.

But in the end, for Shia there were two real choices - both of them had a myriad different outcomes, but the crux point was not a choice between light and dark - it was a choice between leading, even if it was an advisor or a spiritualist, or a choice between walking away and taking her people somewhere else. The choice would come soon - it would probably be forced within the year, and in some versions of it she ended up 'force dead' by enforced 'cure' and in others she ended up actually dead at the hands of her allies.

Shia sighed, which was, she suddenly noticed, the first real physical sensation she'd felt in... some time. A light rain fell from the skies, coating the silent ashes of the village in natures slow blessing of cleansing and regrowth - only sentients have to force those two things, nature does it without thinking.

She winced as she stood, looked around, then set off to find Ember. This was exactly what she'd wanted when she saught him out, which didn't mean it was exactly pleasant.

 

[Ember Rekali]

As [member="Shia Kryze"] homed in on Ember, she found herself at the edge of the burnt village. The ashes trembled around her, and a cold wind stuttered through the trees like a blind dog hunting. She found Paecean glyphs carved in tree bark and stone, a perimeter around the village.

The huge gravesite trembled. Earth shifted, maybe even bedrock. Half-burnt houses and piles of ash slid into churning earth, and all the bones went with them. In a matter of a few minutes, all that remained of the village was a mound of black dirt and a memory.

Ember emerged from the carved trees, sliding a jagged knife back into a sheath. Half-dried blood painted the outside of his forearms, all the way from the fingertips to shallow cuts near the meat of his elbows.

"You won't be able to see that much on your own, not without time and training - but any Force-sensitive can catch a vision of the future. It's a practice I encourage."

 

[Shia Kryze]

Shia looked back at the mass gravesite, then pursed her lips and then walks back to the mound of dirt.

Now. What was it the woman had done and said, back there on that river?

She couldn't remember, she wasn't sure the words were... well... words.

A cold wind picked up, stirring the rain and plastering it across her and the mound. A faint, shimmering glow of silver light extended from her hand as she touched the top of the mound, then faded, nothing more dramatic or visible than that.

Unless your name was Ember Rekali, in which case it was a touch more dramatic, as Shia added her final touch to the ritual and somehow - presumably something about those ever pestering ferrypeople - gave a gentle but noticable shove to the souls of the dead, hurrying them to reward or through punishment that touch faster. It wasn't that much at all, really, except of course it was massive - depending on your perspective.

She coughed and stood up, wiping blood from her nose. She hadn't estimated the effort of the anger in the souls, or of the sheer number. She'd have been better to try with a single person. But that was not Shia Kryze, at all.

[member="Ember Rekali"]

 

[Ember Rekali]

"Well done, [member="Shia Kryze"]. Worth remembering."

If she turned, she'd find that he was gone.

 

[Shia Kryze]

"I am going to learn to do that. Telekinesis is frakking nonsense, I'd probably just spew Nether or something anyway."

Shia comments to the air.

"But that disappearing trick? I reckon I can pull that off somehow."

She paused, then shook her head.

"I need a vacation... on a tomb world."