Private The Serpent and the Rainbow

[Starlin Rand]

Unable to see nor sense Tenn, the bocor was taken by complete surprise. The Padawan’s lightsaber ignited inside their chest, impaling them through the heart.

Their body stiffened, then disappeared, leaving behind only a pile of clothes. Starlin was abruptly released from their grip, collapsing in a heap in the dirt. He crawled out of the grave, tossing the worms still clinging to him back into the hole.

“Holy feth,” he sputtered, giddily sucking down fresh air. Bleary eyes searched the air before he remembered Tenn was invisible. The spell would wear off eventually. “I owe you one, man. Chit…”

He crawled cautiously over to the clothing of the bocor, reaching for their mask with a trembling hand. With no face left underneath it to identify, he and Tenn were left with many unanswered questions. Perhaps they could at least be satisfied knowing that the person who had terrorized the city of Lamont was dead?...

“Something’s wrong,” Starlin muttered. “The bocor became one with the Force, but I still feel like I have a damned chain around my neck…” Something binding him on a spiritual level.

Tenn Kalos​

 

[Tenn Kalos]

Tenn was nearly as surprised as the bocor to feel the heat of the blade spear through flesh. He fully expected some last minute counter to come into play, but it seemed the villain was well and truly unprepared for an invisible padawan to gut him right then and there. He disappeared in a poof, and Tenn's grip on his saber slacked. Even when his master spoke praises, the boy remained a bit stunned. Sure, the bocor probably had to die, but he hadn't killed anyone since…

“Something’s wrong,”

Tenn snapped out of his rumination, studying his master as if the answer would suddenly reveal itself, "What's happening?" He asked in a panic, "What do I do?" He may have killed the necromancer, but that didn't make him any more of an expert on the arcane.

Starlin Rand​

 

[Starlin Rand]

“I don’t know, that’s the problem!” Starlin replied. It came out a bit more snappish than intended. He was tired and frustrated, having just been buried alive, and he wanted nothing more than for all this to be over already.

So focused on his own pain was he, he hadn’t even thought to make sure his apprentice was all right. “Tenn, are you okay?” he asked, hearing the panic in the boy’s voice. “Breathe, man. We’ll figure this out.” He closed his eyes and focused on the chains, tracing their origin. It felt close by.

Tenn Kalos​

 

[Tenn Kalos]

In the midst of everything else going on, Tenn hardly picked up on Starlin's frustration. His expression did twitch at his master's attempts to ease the situation, however, "Am I okay?!" Tenn sputtered incredulously, "Aren't you the one getting your— Soul sucked out or whatever?" The padawan tried to focus, whistling to Shep to see if the dog could hunt down anything he could not.

"Is there another bocor? I don't understand."

Starlin Rand​

 

[Starlin Rand]

"Am I okay?!"

"Yeah, are ya?" Starlin persisted. "You just killed that motherfether, and now you're going—" Starlin took a guess at what Tenn's trembling, panicked movements looked like by waving his arms and frantically looking from side to side. "'Feth me, what do I do? What do I do?' So forgive me if I'm mildly concerned about my Padawan as he appears to be losing the last of his chits."

And just like that, Starlin was back to being his goofy, irreverent self. "I don't know about having my soul glucked, but I think the bocor tethered me somewhere else. It's like there's a cord connecting me to something... over there." He pointed to a marble mausoleum decorated with (presumably) the faces of the dead interred inside.

"C'mon, Tenn." Starlin staggered to his feet, shook himself, and slouched toward the mausoleum. "Guh, I definitely feel like a zombie..."

The door to the mausoleum was unlocked. Starlin pushed it open—and was greeted not by a crypt, but a stairwell leading down into the earth. "Te—oh chit, there you are." Starlin jumped as the invisibility spell spontaneously wore off, causing Tenn to spontaneously "appear" beside him. "Okay... I don't know what's down there, but I'm pretty sure the cord I'm feeling leads below." He heaved a sigh. "Wanna learn how to do that invisibility spell yourself?"

Tenn Kalos​

 

[Tenn Kalos]

Tenn raised a palm defiantly, "Ok, you're just making it worse," He sighed, slowly beginning to relax, "You made it seem like you were about to turn into a zombie or something." But now Starlin was being his typical self. Whatever threat loomed clearly wasn't imminent enough for him to spare any quips. He took a moment to trace the source of this curse, leading them towards a mausoleum, in which was a dark descent of stairs.

Tenn startled at his master's own startling, then looked down to realize that he had still been invisible until just now. Starlin brushed it off just as quick, offering to teach Tenn the spell proper, "Right now?" He glanced down at the ominous staricase, "I guess." Shep, meanwhile, began to sniff aggressively, and was the first to begin the descent.

Starlin Rand​

 

[Starlin Rand]

“No,” Starlin muttered. “I have a hunch this isn’t completely over, is all.”

He started down into the depths. His progress was slow and cautious, but consistent. With each step, he recited the words of the spell: "‘So that this problem I might rectify, Ashla, hide me from the Outer Eye.’ That one makes you invisible to the eyes. But Force Users can still sense you, so you’ve got to layer another spell over top of it: ‘Let my enemies pass me by; Ashla, hide me from the Inner Eye’...”

As the shadows began to close in, he conjured up a ball of light. By its glow were the hidden contents of the crypt revealed. The underground room was filled with shelves, each one stocked with glass jars. The outside of each container was decorated with strange items—pieces of cloth, jewelry, even locks of hair, so that each one was unique from the rest. All of them were sealed shut, though they appeared to be devoid of contents.

Through the eyes of the Force, it was a different story.

“Can you feel that?” Starlin whispered. “The jars. It’s like they have pieces of people’s souls in them.”

Stretching out his senses, Starlin followed the cord he had felt connecting him to one forlorn-looking receptacle. Swallowing, he picked it up. A piece of cloth torn from his shirt and a lock of his hair were attached to the outside, along with… his lightsaber crystal.

“Holy chit,” he whispered. “This one was made for me.” He felt sick just looking at it. With a sudden flash of vindictive anger toward his captor, he threw the jar at the wall. It shattered, releasing his soul with it. Exhaling in relief, he turned his wrath upon one of the shelves, knocking it over. He grabbed a piece of wood and smashed the jars which remained intact, making sure they were broken.

Turning to his apprentice, he held out the wooden plank for him to grab. “Batter up, Tenn.”

Tenn Kalos​