Restless Spirits

[Valae Heavenshield]

Zora Djo had returned to Silver Rest.

She had not come back as flesh and bone, but rather as restless energy – a ghost, you might say. The archivist had been nearly invisible in life, and she was utterly transparent now… quite literally. But, this sad fate seemed fitting somehow.

The young woman had pondered her death on numerous occasions but never had she ever thought that her end would come at the hands of an ancient Sith Lord. Never had she dreamed that her first ever adventure would end in death. Never…

But as the ghostly image of bespectacled Zora roamed the grounds of Silver Rest, she knew it to be true.

Yes, she had indeed returned from the journey to Mesharra Temple, but she had not come back alone. Poor Zora had returned haunted, her mind and body under the control of one, [member="Darth Immortus"]. The brief time she had spent in her quarters that night told little of her struggle, save perhaps for a dark, hand-drawn picture of the Temple – it was exact, but the lines were drawn in a desperate, frantic way.

Her presence had been so new at the temple that there were few to ever know she was there in the first place. It had taken her colleagues at least two days before they realized that Zora missing, perhaps due to the fact that she had blended in so well with the quiet of the archives. Days…

Little did they know that her bones had been left behind – far away from Silver territory.

Zora rested or rather did not rest, somewhere where there was sand. It was dark; it was old… that much she could recall. In life, her memory had been sharp as a tack, but now it was faded and missing pieces. Now she understood Darth Immortus, this place between life and death was awful. She only hoped that she would find peace one day, she did not want to linger this way.

At the present, there was no other option, but to fade into the still air… it was an odd sort of thing, to be something and nothing all at once.

[member="Cassius Droma"]

 

[Cassius Droma]

Since his training on Ando Prime, Cassius had taken more time out of his day to meditate. It was still something he struggled with, being completely still and settling his mind at ease. Things had been so hectic before, but he’d found that after clearing his plate, so to speak, relaxing became easier. He went where he wished, wherever the Force led him – this unburdened him in a way he didn’t think possible.

Some things still weighed on his mind, however. For one, the disappearance of Zora Djo, the young explorer who had been with him on Chalacta. She had vanished sometime either before or during his extending training period elsewhere, no one was really sure. A small pang of guilt had hit him when he heard the news that she hadn’t been at the Silver Rest for some time. Zora had accidentally grabbed the Sith holocron before him, and Cassius was beginning to wonder if it had affected her in some way.

As he sat there, trying to listen to the peaceful sound of wind and waves, a strange sense of familiarity came over him. Cassius had the very strong image of Zora in his head, of her in the cockpit of the Stardust Melody, asking if they had arrived at their destination yet. Now, why had that come to him? Opening his eyes, Cassius furrowed his brow. He had learned to try and follow his feelings, the visions that came to him in dreams and meditations.

Un-crossing his legs and standing, the young Jedi took in a deep breath and scanned the area. The image had been so strong, and there had been an urgency to it, as if it was a thread he needed to follow at that very moment. It was then that he saw her – or perhaps, the shape of her. He squinted to make sure that his vision wasn’t just affected by him having his eyes closed for so long. The visage didn’t go away either, as if it were some sort of trick of the mind.

Stepping closer, he called softly, “Zora?”

He wanted to make sure he wasn’t just having some sort of elaborate vision. If it wasn’t a vision… then why was she here, if she was supposed to be missing? And why did she look so transparent? It wasn’t a hologram, but more like an apparition. Zora wasn’t Force sensitive, as far as he knew, and the power to project oneself was incredibly difficult and rare to master.

“Zora?” he called again.

[member="Zora Djo"]