Star Wars: Heir to the Sith (Part 1) (#Wattys2018 shortlist)

Chapter 32: "It will be horrendous for her. And it will be because of you."

Assayer Neerada took a deep breath as she marched over to the frightened girl. All the time, her eyes scanned the trees nearby, searching for the single soldier she knew was still out there.

When she was next to the motionless girl, she discarded the blaster and knelt, close to her face.

"Can you feel it too?" she asked. She ran her hand along the girl's cheek and felt a strength burn inside of her at her captive's fear. That was good. That would encourage her. "The Dark Side. The power. The fear of a galaxy. That is what we–"

"Don't move!"

A man emerged from the shadows behind her, a heavy blaster levelled at her back.

Neerada stood, slowly. Her lightsaber hovered over the girl's throat, bathing her in its red glare.

"It would be unwise to kill me," she said. "Your charge would perish too. Tell me," she turned sideways to better view the soldier. "Have you seen what the heat of a lightsaber can do to flesh, even accidentally?"

"It is a better fate than what you would make her," the man replied.

That caught Neerada by surprise. Did this man know why she wanted her? Did he know the youth's potential?

She was intrigued.

"Drop your weapon," she said. She moved the lightsaber over to the girl's shoulder.

He hesitated.

So Neerada moved it closer.

The girl was incapable of movement, but the fear in her eyes was real, as was the scream that tried to break from her throat as she was unable to control the rising panic at her slow mutilation.

For her clothing was beginning to smoulder. The heat on her flesh would be searing.

"She cannot last more than a few seconds," Neerada said. "Her flesh will start to melt. It will be horrendous for her. And it will be because of you."

The man with the blaster took a step back.

"Okay," he said. "Okay. You win."

He lowered his blaster to the ground.

"I told you to drop it," Neerada said, the lightsaber unmoved, the girl at her feet shaking, her face streaked with tears.

She felt the hatred of the man and knew that he was beyond rational thought. Her attention fell to the cairn nearby, to the stones that had been piled up by unknown hands in some forgotten history of this planet. Far easier to manipulate inanimate objects than try to compel a sentient being, she knew.

He screamed suddenly and raised his weapon, but Neerada had already made the connections she needed, had already anticipated how close he was to his breaking point.

Her lightsaber swung up and intercepted the first of his blaster bolts. A second ricocheted off her blade and skimmed her shoulder, sending a shower of sparks cascading across her visor and a searing pain through her left arm.

But the cairn had been summoned. A barrage of loose earth and dark rock slammed into the man's side before he had time to fire again. He went down with a cry, his blaster askew, knocked from his grip.

Neerada charged forward with a cry of her own. She held her lightsaber with both hands and struck with a savage slash, aimed at severing the man's gun hand.

Instead, the man fell backward, his chest smouldering from the deep cut that the tip of her weapon had made. His gun hand fell beside him, the severed limb cauterised. The man's breathing was shallow.

She had unwittingly dealt him a mortal blow.

"Don't . . . don't take her. Please! The war's over. The Empire's gone. This . . . doesn't need to happen."

The Assayer turned back to the girl. She seemed so young. So helpless. Almost a disappointment.

"The Emperor and Vader are dead," the man wheezed. "Without them–Argh!"

Neerada drover her lightsaber straight through his body without any conscious thought. She held it there as his life left him, feeling his strength drop by the second, feeding her own anger and desire for revenge at his words that had shattered her existence.

Only when he was still did she withdraw it.

Then she turned her attention back to the girl. Her eyes were half-closed, her pupils unresponsive, her body still. She was slipping into unconsciousness. That suited the Assayer's needs for now.

"Soon," Neerada said. "Soon you will wake. And nothing in the galaxy will be the same again. For either of us."

=================

If you enjoyed this section, then please vote for it and leave a comment in the feedback section below.

This chapter reveals something of Neerada's history and motivation. It also touches on an aspect of the Force that was quite important in being established for world building purposes: that it is easier to manipulate inanimate objects with the Force rather than lifeforms. Each lifeform, to my way of thinking, would have some innate degree of the Force which would offer it some protection against the likes of the Jedi or Sith. So picking up a stone is far easier than trying to push a person of similar mass. It's important to establish these rules, as it makes for consistent use when you use them again and prevents anything too jarring for the readers to suddenly be confronted with later on.