Chapter 49 (Patreon)

Watching the Nightsisters depart, I let out a long, relieved breath. It wasn’t that I disliked them outright, but with ladies like these, you definitely had to keep your wits about you. They reminded me far too much of the drow women who worshipped Lolth, and Talzin was practically a perfect copy of the matriarch of one of their Houses. They, too, knew perfectly well how to smile charmingly while slipping a sacrificial knife between someone’s ribs.

Throughout our entire conversation, I couldn’t shake the feeling that she was planning to either kill me, abduct me, eat me outright, or lay me out on an altar. Good thing I’d taken care of my protective spells as soon as we landed. Despite Mother Talzin being pointedly friendly the whole time, unfailingly polite, and even apologizing for her former daughters, I still had the distinct sense that a hungry spider was watching me. Even in the emerald glow of her eyes, there was greed, hunger, desire.

So our lovely Nightsister neighbors, camped about a kilometer away from us for the entire week, kept us pretty damn tense, even though they behaved themselves well enough. The only one who graced me with her attention was Talzin, wearing the skin of one of her daughters.

To be fair, though, the lady was far from stupid. She was interesting to talk to, and her knowledge of her homeworld and of “Dathomiri sorcery” was impressive. And, oddly enough, she was better informed than I was about what was going on in the galaxy. Savages or not, would you look at that—they were up to date on all the latest news.

We also struck a couple of deals. The first was for the training of two of her daughters, whom Villie would bring over in time for the next intake of students. Talzin promised that both would be level-headed, motivated to study, and wouldn’t cause me any trouble by picking fights with Jedi. Both would receive amulets from me to conceal their Dark Side nature, and according to the witch, they would also be trained to hide themselves in the Force. In exchange, I would receive a copy of part of the archive held by the Nightsisters. Specifically, their methods for introductory training in shamanism and all the works of the Jedi Allya, who had been exiled to Dathomir.

The second deal wasn’t quite as interesting, but the result was sure to make Karray happy. In exchange for a dozen protective amulets, a couple of concealment rings, and a hundred charms, Talzin’s girls hauled in a whole pile of interesting specimens of local flora and fauna. Most of the creatures were deadly, as were some of the plants. In short, exactly the sort of thing my little girl loves. I can already picture her bouncing around the enclosures once we get back.

Hmm… what I can’t picture is what those critters will eventually turn into. My little “Kavvy” is smart, and she certainly isn’t short on imagination.

“Boss, if you decide to take her up on that offer, it’d be better to come visiting with a hundred Mando’ade,” Arvik’s voice cut into my thoughts, muffled by his helmet. The warrior was clearly just as relieved to see our guests finally head home.

“Exactly. Never thought I’d be this happy to see a bunch of half-naked girls leave my company,” Karr Vast agreed.

“What, you never even thought about getting into their shorts?” Despite Mlada’s latest jab being delivered in her usual carefree manner, there was weariness in the warrior’s voice, along with the last of the tension draining away.

“I’d sooner stick it up a Hutt’s ass,” her brother replied sincerely.

“Ewww…” Arvik and Mlada drawled in unison.

“Whole ship full of perverts, though,” Koit said sadly, shaking his head as his ears flapped comically. “Only me and you normal, Boss-sa.”

“Truth it is,” I nodded, stroking my beard. “Remind me to give you a bonus for chastity.”

“A bonus?” The commlink came alive with Romri’s voice. “Bonuses are good! Don’t forget about me, Boss!”

“What for?” our Gungan asked in surprise.

“For chastity, of course!” the pilot explained in a tone that said isn’t it obvious?

“You don’t qualify,” Arvik cut her off. “You have an unnatural love of credits.”

“And peggats,” Karr added with a chuckle.

“Moneyphilia, though,” Koit said, pulling a hilariously exaggerated face as he flapped his ears.

“You’re all just greedy cheapskates,” the commlink snorted haughtily before going silent to the quiet laughter of everyone gathered there.

“That’s all well and good, Boss, but what about the witches? You’re not planning to take all five for yourself, are you?”

“Mmm?” I glanced at the Mando in surprise. “You suggesting I hand some of them over to you? Sure, take your pick. Just not Talli, and not that… uh… basically, the most nondescript one.”

“No!” The warrior quickly raised both hands in denial. “Sith take that kind of joy. I just mean that five Nightsisters aboard one ship could stir up quite a bit of trouble.”

“Ahhh…” I waved a reassuring hand. “Don’t worry. In the end, I’m only taking two of them with me. The apprentice and that nondescript one. The rest, whoever survives, we’ll just dump on the nearest habitable planet afterward. They’re far too unstable, and I don’t want to bring people like that home.”

“Whoever survives?” Mlada asked in surprise, glancing toward the prisoners’ enclosure.

“Yeah, we’ll take them along for experiments,” I said, scratching my beard thoughtfully. “Talzin did something to her ‘former’ daughters. I’d rather not experiment on Talli—the girl has potential, and her values are close to mine and pleasing to Hecate. It’d be a shame to scramble her brains for good. And Little Miss Nondescript just isn’t suited to this whole Dark Side business. She simply has no motivation; she’s just drifting through life. But even a witch like that could still be useful, especially if we find her something worthwhile she actually enjoys doing…”

“Yeah, she’s got a nice ass…”

“Karr, enough,” Arvik cut his subordinate off. “So those other three…”

“Yeah. Whoever survives and keeps their sanity, we’ll let go.”

“On Korriban? Not that I’m against it, but that’d be pretty much a death sentence,” Mlada said, taking off her helmet, tucking it under one arm, and shaking out her mane of hair. “There are so many horrifying rumors about that world, it simply can’t be safe. Maybe we should just shoot them? Quick and humane.”

“So this is what Mando’ade mercy looks like,” I snorted. “We’ll see. It’s not like there’ll be a shortage of worlds along the way. Worst case, we set down somewhere for a day or two.”

“Dark witches turned loose on the galaxy…” Arvik drawled pointedly, taking off his helmet as well.

“Pff. The galaxy’s already got plenty of those. Three more, three less,” Karr disagreed. “Mlada and I shot some fallen Jedi about four years ago. So don’t make it sound worse than it is, Arvik.”

“It’s not exactly urgent either way,” I said, bringing the discussion to a close. “We’ll decide once I figure out what exactly Talzin shoved into the heads of our little ‘gifts.’”

“Gifts are something you give. That witch just threw her daughters away,” Arvik said, rubbing the stubble on his chin.

“Doesn’t really matter. Dark Side Force-sensitives are actually just what I need right now. You two,” I turned to the Vast siblings, “you mentioned that fallen Jedi. You wouldn’t happen to know any exiles, or anyone who left the Order, would you? I could use some Light Side ones too. For the sake of experimental purity.”

“Count Dooku?” Koit looked at me with wide, innocent eyes on their stalks.

I just snorted. “Count, would you mind taking part in a couple hundred experiments?” Yeah, sure. A man around whom sentients dissatisfied with the Republic’s policies were now gathering would obviously come running just to satisfy my curiosity. I wasn’t even counting on anything like that. We’d had a good conversation, of course, and the former Jedi had left quite a favorable impression, but first, the politician simply didn’t have that much time to spare, and second, I doubted Alto would be thrilled if the Count started regularly visiting Jabiim, or if I started flying off to Serenno.

Our world was currently trying to stay as far away from galactic politics as possible. Alto’s analysts believed that sooner or later, something in the galaxy was going to blow. And when it did, it would blow loudly and spectacularly. Too many sentients had grown dissatisfied with the current state of affairs. Even the Supreme Chancellor’s reforms weren’t so much fixing the situation as merely slowing down a process already underway.

“All right, pack up your things. Knock the witches out and keep them sedated. I’ll get the final readings from the analysis weaves, and then we can take off. We’ll stop by Raging River, pick up the rancors and the Quartermaster, then head for Korriban.”

“Hope the girls don’t take offense at the furball,” Arvik snorted.

“I compensated them in advance,” I waved it off, remembering the container of women’s underwear we’d delivered to the Raging River Clan. Even our fetishist hamster couldn’t chew through that much.

“They’re gone,” Mother Rashli sighed in relief, watching the sorcerer’s ship disappear into the distance.

“Thank the Force,” one of the senior shamans said, even spitting on the ground. “At least they took that rat with them.”

“Next time, let them make arrangements with some other clan. Singing Mountain, for example. Let Mother Rell have the headache,” Rashli agreed grimly with her daughter. “Three weeks of madness and chasing that panty-eater around wore me out more than any ‘diplomatic negotiations’ with Talzin ever did. Anything involving that red-assed Villie brings nothing but trouble, just like I thought. Sith-damned Devaronian…”

“Well, apprentice, how are you feeling?” Surprisingly, the sorcerer’s frightening smile stirred no negative emotions in her. Quite the opposite—young Talli was actually glad to see it.

They were in her cabin. Barely a couple of minutes had passed since Siith had worked some kind of spell, and with the twang of a snapping string, Talli felt the false thing that had taken root in her mind vanish. For half a minute she felt sick, the cabin walls and the smiling sorcerer spinning before her eyes, but once everything settled, the girl was flooded with the euphoria of freedom… which proved even harder to deal with than her stomach’s attempts to dump lunch onto Siith’s knees as he sat in the chair opposite her.

“Fine,” she muttered through clenched teeth. She was still a little nauseous, but the condition that had felt so much like schizophrenia had receded, and thoughts of Talzin no longer made the girl happily piss her panties. Figuratively speaking, of course.

“I don’t know whether you’ll be glad to hear it, but all your friends are alive. We did have to knock them out, though—they were that angry. The spirits planted in your minds have been successfully exorcised, I’ve performed the ‘farewell to the flesh’ ritual, so for the moment, all of you are independent sentients and can decide for yourselves.”

Siith looked pleased as he took another sip from his trademark oversized mug, this time filled with yet another kind of hot drink. For a second, Talli felt like doing something nasty to him, but she quickly pushed the foolish thought aside. Strangely enough, her usual simmering hostility toward everyone around her was nowhere to be found.

To be honest, it had disappeared quite some time ago. Talli had simply chalked it up to the comfortable conditions aboard the Rung and having her personal needs met. It was only after Talzin had worked on her that, while thinking over her situation, the young witch suddenly realized that something in her had changed.

And it wasn’t the effect of that bitch Talzin’s “motherly love,” either. It was something else, something that had happened before that. The emotional whiplash that would have practically guaranteed Talli a breakdown once Mother released her wasn’t doing any serious harm. Yes, the real Talli was furious. Yes, waves of despair still washed over her. And yes, the fake Talli’s bouts of adoration for the old bitch were unbelievably irritating. But the witch didn’t feel as though her mind were plunging into the abyss of Darkness.

No, she hadn’t suddenly become nice, nor had she felt any overwhelming urge to find harmony with the universe. But the Dark Side had stopped being… the most important thing, perhaps? Talli no longer sensed any mortal danger from it. And she’d adapted to her condition surprisingly quickly.

That sorcery—the spirits Talzin had planted inside her, as the sorcerer put it—was vile, but tolerable. As long as she didn’t think about the fact that the old bitch had simply enslaved Talli’s mind. Everything would be normal until any thought of disobeying Mother, or any anger toward her, knocked the rational part of the girl down into the depths of that false, saccharine love for Talzin, and the fake Talli came to the forefront instead, like a puppy desperate to do everything exactly as Mother wished. It felt as though she’d been violated in the filthiest way possible. Though she’d honestly rather have been raped for real than subjected to this… Disgusting…

The girl’s thoughts stumbled for a moment. That wasn’t true. Or rather, not entirely true. On some level, it had genuinely felt good. And that only made her feel even more disgusting.

A twisted pleasure in emotions that had been forced on her—emotions she had never felt before, but, as it turned out, had desperately craved. Only after experiencing that adoration for Talzin, artificial though it was, did the young witch understand what she had been deprived of.

She remembered her earliest childhood, when, as a little snot-nosed brat, she had tried to reach out to the adults around her. How they had toyed with her, offering false affection only to hurt her badly in the end, shoving her into an abyss of shattered hopes and expectations. How the little girl’s trust had been betrayed again and again, how ugly faces twisted into mocking grins as they laughed cruelly, savoring her despair and tears.

Raising her…

“I’m glad for them,” Talli lied evenly. Or did she? Hard to tell yet. A partial lie, maybe? Whatever she thought of her sisters, the witch wouldn’t wish THAT on them. Pain was better. At least the screams from torture were truly your own. Better to die than be trapped inside yourself.

“Mentalism… is a rather vile branch of the Art,” the sorcerer said, sliding a mug of fragrant, steaming drink toward her. “I’ll show you how to protect yourself from it. And I’ll give you an amulet, too.”

“Thanks.” She didn’t really feel like talking, but something inside her warmed a little. She liked this sort of treatment from a teacher. He didn’t pry into her soul, yet with just a couple of sentences he had both lifted her mood a little and calmed her down.

“Nothing to thank me for yet,” the red-eyed man said with another smile, and Talli somehow managed a toothy smile in return. “Tell me about Nondescript from your squad.”

“About Lara?” Talli remembered which of the witches the sorcerer had given that nickname to and snorted. It suited her surprisingly well. “There’s almost nothing to tell. She barely drags along behind everyone else, just managing not to cross the line where they’d kick her out of the clan—or simply kill her. The only things that stand out about her are her almost complete lack of ambition and a pretty face. Leave her alone and she’ll spend all day sitting on her ass, staring blankly at the clouds. That’s why she ended up on patrol in the first place. The elders figured it might give her some motivation. Or finally get rid of her. All she ever did in the squad was try to imitate the other idiots so they wouldn’t take things out on her. Didn’t work all that well, though.”

“So, in short, she won’t cause any trouble?”

“Definitely not.” Talli snorted contemptuously and took a sip of the brew. The hot drink didn’t dissolve the cold knot of hatred she felt toward Talzin and her darling daughters back on Dathomir, but breathing became a little easier. “Want her for yourself? I can talk to her. Give her even a fraction of what you’ve given me, and don’t treat her like complete shit, and she’ll become your obedient little toy. Though I doubt she has any experience with men at all. As far as I can remember, she was never once given a slave for the night.”

“Uh…” The witch almost laughed when her teacher stared at her in surprise. “That’s not really what I meant…”

“There’s nothing to be embarrassed about,” Talli said, shaking her head and doing her best to keep the smile on her face understanding rather than mocking. From what she’d learned, the sorcerer showed no interest in women beyond the purely aesthetic, and every attempt to seduce him bounced off his truly wooden obliviousness. In other words… Siith was a genuine, utterly impenetrable block of wood.

“It’s only natural for a man to be drawn to women. Lara is a little too passive for my taste, of course, but if Teacher prefers meek ones…”

“Right… I can see someone’s been spending a little too much time around a certain Mandalorian maiden, huh?” the sorcerer snorted and got up from his chair. “Rest today and tomorrow. By morning, ship’s time, we’ll be landing on Korriban. We’ll spend a day at the Commerce Guild complex, then get down to our own business. Talk to Lara; they’ll move her to a separate cell. I need one more witch for research. Promise her decent living conditions and good food. I’ll even pay her for her voluntary-compulsory assistance to such a generous and kind soul as me. Once I’m done studying Dathomiri Force-sensitives, she’ll be free.”

“Got it.” Talli nodded, wiping the smile from her face. The sorcerer was already on his way out when she finally called after him.

“Teacher!”

“Mmm?” His red-eyed gaze settled on her questioningly.

“Thank you.” The word came easily. It felt strangely as though, with it, some of the weight that had been pressing down on her soul finally lifted, easing the burden that still wouldn’t let her fully relax. She wasn’t thanking him for the cabin or the food. Not even for promising to teach her how to defend herself against mental attacks. That “thank you,” so sincere that it surprised even her, was for freeing her from the shit that old bitch Talzin had shoved into her head.

“You’re welcome.” A smile crept back onto her teacher’s face, only this time Talli couldn’t say she found it frightening or unpleasant.

“Whoa… Whoa, whoa, whoa!!!”

“What is it?” Knight Nema glanced over at the young sorceress, who was reading something on her datapad.

Today they had flown to the hospital in Choppah, Jabiim’s third-largest city. Every other day, the three chimerologists traveled from one hospital to another across the rainy world, honing their skills through practice and healing those in need. Initially, the internship had been confined to the capital, but their good results—and a flood of pleas from other medical facilities—had forced a change of plans.

Later, once they were more confident in their abilities, each of them would take shifts alone. But for now, Rig Nema was honest enough with herself to admit that neither she nor Knight Allie could handle truly difficult cases on their own. Simple injuries and wounds, sure—but ordinary med-droids and doctors could deal with those just as well.

“Daddy sent a message,” the girl explained with a giggle, wearing a rather alarming expression. “They caught tons of creatures on Dathomir. And almost all of them are interesting!!! They’re even bringing back artery worms! Once Dad gets back, we’ll have lots of specimens to study! I just hope they grabbed a terentatek from Moraband* too.”

“And I hope Master Dziha won’t be that reckless,” Knight Allie sighed. “And honestly, going to Korriban* at all was a bad idea. There’s nothing there but empty tombs, the pressure of the Dark Side, and deadly flora and fauna.”

“Ugh… Why are you all so boring? Every single critter is supposedly dangerous. You said the same thing about acklays and rancors! They’re adorable!”

“You know, Karray…” Stass hesitated for a moment. “I really don’t want to meet a creature that you don’t consider cute. I really, really don’t.”

A shiver ran down the green-skinned Jedi’s spine. Come to think of it… what kind of creature wouldn’t the young sorceress call cute? Or, for that matter, what would she actually consider dangerous? Karray treated practically every living thing as cute and interesting. And somehow, inexplicably, she always managed to find common ground with them.

“All right, break’s over,” the senior Jedi’s voice pulled her from her thoughts. “Let’s make one last round and head back to the Academy. Force forbid someone’s gone and put the Dead Man to rest again…”

Author’s Note:

Moraband and Korriban are two names for the same planet.