Private Relics

[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

Wearing: Nathan's Robes

Armed With: Training Lightsaber

Kashyyyk...


Nathan was rushed into a local Hutt of Wookiee healers, bleeding profusely from a branch lodged in his side. His cheap, bloody robes were torn off quickly as the Healers went to examine the wound. Thick branch. Damaged liver.

He was shaking and pale, having lost a lot of blood already.

"Lysandra...Lysandra..." he had called out in his wounded delerium as they worked as fast as they could to save him, surgical tools carefully removing the branch in emergency surgery. It took hours.

"Nathan Arnold Bloodscrawl..." the Blood Sorceress called out to a young, blinded teenage boy too injured to fight, having fled into the undercrypt of his family's castle after the woman who would someday become The Battalion had laid waste to the upper levels, backed by a small Army of Ashlan soldiers and likeminded Jedi.

Nathan had watched his Jedi parents fall to her blade. With the amount of effort they were putting into destroying the Castle to get what they wanted...

He had gone down here in desperation, out of options and time, and come upon this Sorceress, trapped in a liquid state in a magical basin.

A Blood Sorceress...

"Are you ready to bargain?"

The young boy, barely 14, turned his head up at the living avatar of blood, fashioned in the crude likeness of an elderly woman, made of pure blood, standing atop the basin.

Nathan made his decision..

"I agree..." He snapped...


Present:

The Jedi Order had been contacted once Nathan had been recovered. There was no telling who they would send.

The Wookiee healers kept an eye on him all the same. He was stable, but only just barely, Traditional Wookiee medicine applied as much as Bacta as he rested.

But nothing the Healer's did could stop the jumbled nightmares in his breath as he lay unconscious, still calling out his dead wife's name.

Nathan Bloodscrawl, one of the oldest Padawans in the NJO, had no record of his existence prior to being taken to the Dagobah Temple for training by the Jedi Enclave there, and then later to the one on Coruscant...

Nathan, the one who had yet to find a true Master...

Nathan would twitch in the bed they gave him. He would shout things in his sleep from the PTSD. But he didn't wake, contorting in pain during his nightmares, forcing him to be completely restrained for his own good.

This was the miserable pile of secrets Dexar Randor would see when he arrived...

 

[Dexar Randor]

Nathan Bloodscrawl

Man, this was just a pain. Dexar was a librarian in the order, not one to do field work. Now, don't get it wrong, he has no issue going on assignments, he just prefers spending time in the library. But more than that, he wasn't even fully sure why he was going to Kashyyyk. All he was told is that they've been contacted by someone, and they never even bothered saying who.

So, here he was, on a ship to Kashyyyk, only knowing to meet up with some "Wookie Healers" who'll take him where he needs to go.

Eventually, he had landed and was escorted by the Wookies to one of their villages. One benefit of being on this planet: a chance to gather some first-hand knowledge from the Wookies. They took him to a hut where he could hear shouts of pain, even from outside. He looked at the nearby Wookies incredulously, wondering just what they hell they were doing. He didn't have to understand Shyriiwook (wookie language) to know they were telling him they weren't doing this.

He let out a sigh of annoyance as he entered the hut only to find the twitching body of what seemed to be a young man restrained to his bed, contorting with pain in his sleep. This was both an interesting yet painful sight to see. He sat next to the bed, looking over the the one in the bed as he placed his hand on the pained man's head.

"Easy, my young friend. You are in no danger. Please, calm yourself and rest easy."

 

[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

"He was very badly wounded when he staggered back into our territory..." the Healer Wookiee that had worked for hours to save his life explained via a translator module. "He had been delivering medical supplies to us when one of our scouts was attacked by a human female armed with a red lightsaber. He went to pursue the female. A day later he returned. He has lost a lot of blood.

Nathan writhed in pain in his unconscious state. As Dexar Randor focused his power on Nathan a link was formed.

"There is a price for survival. There always is..." The Blood Sorceress told Nathan.

"You must be rebuilt. From the ground up. As you are, you shall never survive..." the Blood Avatar spoke as though her voice issued from underwater. The blood her whole body was composed of rippled and shuddered on the surface.

Nathan activated the broken half of his temple guard pike, the yellow, Shoto length blade sliding out and he jammed the blade against the wards that kept her imprisoned withing the basin, the runes burning up. The Sorceress of Blood flowed out of the Basin.

"You have released me, so I shall keep my word, young Padawan..." the Sorceress proclaimed. "The Force is strong with you. A powerful weapon, you shall be..."

The Sorceress stretched out her hand, and droplets of blood fell from her crude limb and hit the ground, causing the spots they hit to smoulder and burn, the ground collapsed into a boiling liquid slurry of dirt and Force Spawn Blood .

"Your injuries are too severe to escape on your own. You shall surely be cut dead by the Ashlans." The Sorceress said, her body of blood warping violently a moment.

"This is your only chance to escape Ession alive. But Nathan Bloodscrawl must be left here. The one who leaves Ession must have a spirit of stone and the strength of a giant.

The Blind boy listened to this.

"Will I become like you?"

"Even were I a Dark Side User, I would not be so cruel as to inflict such a fate..." The Sorceress said. "But you will not be the same person coming out as when you went in."

Nathan started to take a step forward, the creaking and thuds above signalling how terrible the battle had been above.

The Sorceress flowed to his side as a blood puddle, reforming her crude blood avatar.

She put her hand on his shoulder.

"Think very carefully before you step into there. The consequences can never be undone."

"What choice do I have?" Nathan asked.

"You can choose to die. Not a happy ending. But you will go as yourself."

"I'll not dishonor the ones who died to buy me time..." Nathan said firmly, the pain in his insides worsening. He realized he had internal bleeding.

"As you wish..." The Sorceress said, withdrawing her hand.

Nathan took another step forward, refusing to go back up and join his parents.

He waded into the boiling put of dirt and blood, yet felt no pain.

The Sorceress raised her hands, and multiple arms formed from the pit, pulling him down swiftly and silently.

After a minute, a hand silently stretched out from the enchanted pit. The Sorceress ripped an old red banner from the wall, ripping a thick square off and tossed it to the hand.

The hand caught it and slowly sank into the pit.

(THIS plays)

The boy that stepped out of the pit had a stiff, mechanical walk, the blood and dirt sliding off his form as though it had never been there. The makeshift bandana he had formed from the torn family banner covering the lower half of his face, bloodied, scarred eyes healed, but left a sightless, milky white, messy dark hair made messier. He did not speak, his walk silent as he turned to face her.

The Sorceress had used her magic to alter the rest of the banner she had torn for him. Forming through her magic a long red gown from the material that her bloody mass flowed into, reforming into an elderly, human looking blonde woman .

She approached, touching his forehead.

"I am the Sorceress of Ossus, Fragment of Natalee, who herself was a Fragment of Ersethy. I extract a Life Debt from you forevermore, that you will not slay me. You are sworn to honor to never break this debt. You shall travel as a Padawan-Errant, and quell the dark heresies of the Sith. You are no longer Nathan Bloodscrawl. The Ashla commands me to name you Morris Crownwraithe."

A red Alliance Starbird appeared on his forehead, vanishing just as quickly.

"From this day forth, you shall be estranged from the Religion of Ession. You shall always regard it's soil as a curse to walk on. The enjoyment of wealth, of prosperity, shall be anathema to you. You shall obey the Force and the Jedi Code. I declare you a stranger to all else save the others who follow me. You shall live as a bane to those who would follow The Dark Side. You will sleep, but your only dream shall be to wake to do your duty You will eat, and drink, but derive no satisfaction. The sweetest air will be dust to your nostrils. The coldest water shall be tepid in your throat. The only language you speak will be the language of Toil. Even in death, your last thoughts shall be wishing you had one more life to live to serve the Force." She declared. "I appoint you my Deputy, and that all Enclaves that follow my teachings must open their doors to you. All libraries that hold my knowledge must reveal themselves to you. All Nexuses I created must empower you. All Sorceresses I associate with must also teach you when approached. Provided, of course, the Force should direct you to them..."

The Sorceress of Ossus gathered the broken chain of a ceiling candle holder and handed it to him.

"Your shoto, Morris."

Morris Crownwraithe nodded to the Sorceress and he picked up and handed the broken half of his temple guard pike that still worked over to her. She then dropped it into the Blood Pit he had just walked out of.

"Focus..." she commanded.

He held his hands limply over the pool, as if in supplication, and he concentrated on the broken fragments of his old life, the Sorceress guiding him telepathically.

The weapon sprung loose from the pit, clean and new, a Shoto attached to a chain .

"This is where we part. It will be a long time before I contact you. Prepare for hardship ahead..." she warned, escorting him to the long forgotten ancient escape route from the Castle.

She hissed strange words and the door cracked open.

"Go forth..." she said gently to Morris, placing her hands on his shoulder.

"Punish Heresy..."

Morris Crownwraithe left the undercrypt and into the black of the tunnel.

Slowly. Almost like a zombie.


Nathan's eyes shot open in a cold sweat, looking up at the one trying to calm him.

 

[Dexar Randor]

Nathan Bloodscrawl

Dexar jumped a little as the young-looking man, who'd just been writhing in pain suddenly shot awake in a cold sweat. He gave the man a small but reassuring smile.

"Hey, welcome back to the land of the living. I thought you were just going to sleep silently, not wake up fast enough you'd get whiplash."

Despite his attempt to sound like a 'proper' jedi, Dexar soon changed his tone of voice and way of speaking to a much more casual style. He figured it might be best to talk with the one in front of him calmly but normally to make him more comfortable. Although, he had to admit he was a bit on edge himself. It's not every day he calms someone down only to receive bits and pieces of information. Maybe for a Jedi who did this more often, but certainly not for him.

He decided not to push it onto the young-looking man seeing as how what he was a few seconds ago, so he decided to keep the subject to be light hearted.

"Well, how are you doing buddy? Are you calm?... ... Or, you know, as calm as can be? Because, if you are, do you want me to take off the restaints?"

 

[Nathan Bloodscrawl]

Nathan focused on Dexar Randor with laser like intensity, remaining silent as he welcomed him

"My dreams found new ways to motivate me..." Nathan muttered in response. "Restraints? What--"

He looked down, finding his arms affixed to the bed.

"Oh."

He had proven difficult to treat in his delerium, thrashing about and breaking stuff by accident due to his immense strength..

"Yes...I am myself again. I think it would be a good idea for you to remove them. And thank you for stilling my mind. My name is Nathan..." Nathan said to the Jedi.

"I was here on humanitarian efforts when I was ambushed. Got it right in the side. Lost a lot of blood. Not quite sure how I managed to reach help in time. It's pretty hazy on my end..." he admitted. "So who are you? Here on the same mission?"

 

[Dexar Randor]

Nathan Bloodscrawl

Dexar took a second to process what Nathan had just told him before giving a slight nod. He waved his hand and the restraints on the man's wrists came undone and clattered to the ground.

"Well, to answer your first question: I am Dexar Randor, Jedi Knight. A pleasure. To answer your second question, Nathan: No, I am not here on the same mission as you."

Honestly, whenever he's sent on missions he's never told anything. But, he had to admit that he was slightly glad they didn't this time, this was an interesting surprise.

"My mission was something much different than humanitarian efforts. I'm here because we were contacted to come pick someone up. When I first saw you, I thought you were just a random person I needed to get. But then I noticed the training saber. Then, I realised I had to pick up a padawan... which is weird since you look older than me. Are you a padawan?"