emile fischer

Veckh: The Whispers

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[Planet Naos: -3640 BBY / 13 ATC]

"It must have started… almost 20 years ago, yes. At the beginning, we stood guard, we said to ourselves, 'They're animals, new predators, we have to defend ourselves.' , even during the day yes. Mh, we had no idea we had it all wrong.

It started with old Mishma, I think so… Like that, from day to day. We cried that one yes. Cried for three days. Then a year later, young Laddvi left. Was pregnant, poor thing. The village wept, again. But a few years later, it became more and more frequent. The Djaari family, the Verghs, the twins of the Hollmends, Liab's uncle, the… the Sreghs too, without forgetting the Nvaahts. Then the Fanreth children too, my sister's little neighbors. Always in the night, without warning… flown away. And the next day, there were people missing. We did send men out into the wild to find the source. Never came back. And it was broad daylight, them, yes.

It has been increasing for two years, and no one knows why. Not a sound, no blood. Just one less person, more and more often, at night. Last year it was my dear Bernisz's turn. Oh…

One day there were only six villagers left, me and five others. It was the end, we knew, yes. And I went to fetch water from the well. And on the way, I smelled the smell.

I walked alone into the bamboo forest, beyond the river, and the further I went, the worse it got. Coming out of the forest, I saw the black mountain in the middle of the parched plain. At his feet, something swarmed like insects. I should never have continued.

I'm stone deaf, and that's kind of what saved me. But as I approached, I heard them.

The whispers.

I go a little further, I go down the slope, I walk under the cruel sun, my feet cook on the ground. But I continue, I must, yes, to know. So I go up the hill… when I finally see them.

They are there. They are all there, like crazy insects. A whole crowd of men and women, children and old people, my friends… All the disappeared dig with their hands. All dig the foot of the Black Mountain, the giant mountain that fell from the sky. They dig the stone with their bleeding fingers. The oldest are dead, the others climb on them and take over. Like madmen, they are relentless… but also emaciated.

They are dry, desiccated yes, drained of their muscles, drained of their life. Blind, hungry, skeletons clad in putrid skin. Their fingers show their bones, they no longer have nails, and the black rock is stained with red… and scratches. Marks that sink slowly into the stone, by force, yes!

But above all, I see the glow. The terrible green glow, buzzing and murmuring in the rock.

They release him. They will get there. And it won't stop. Not until he's free. It doesn't matter how many fingers you lose to get there.

His time has come. Something horrible woke him up…yes.

Horrible."

The old man stopped talking and stared at the corner of the small, dark room. His livid gaze showed that his memories haunted him deeply. His frail arms had finally stopped shaking, his bald head was beading with sweat, his dry hand came to scratch his puny throat.

Around him, the four Imperial soldiers stood like statues. He looked at them, worried, and straightened up, clutching with both firm hands the chair on which he had been made to sit.

“My poor sir… Believe me I'm sorry for your village. This thing should never have crashed on your planet,” said a voice facing the man, from the darkness of the room. “However… you will be reassured to know that I have made the journey here to rid you of this burden once and for all. You have my word."

The skinny old man was once again rocking in his chair, staring blankly and distantly. He kept repeating the same word over and over again:

"Horrible…horrible…"

"All you have to do…" the pale witch said stepping out of the shadows. "…is to show me the way."

[Several years later….]

'May the force be with you'. All Jedi, as well as most believing Sith, use this expression. But no one really thinks about it. They use it as a simple wish for success, courage or fortune; sometimes even as a 'see you soon'. But no one dares to imagine that the Force can literally take sides. What if she wasn't with us? What if our one and only source of power... had already bet on our adversary?

When a being pursues a goal in this universe, it can be compared to a spider, weaving its web to descend from a branch of a tree. Its aim would be to reach the ground; the web that spins from his abdomen would be the path travelled. But in this crazy excursion, Destiny is the little breath of wind, which, in all fairness, will make this spider's adventure far different than she could have ever imagined.

When my sister troubled the Force when she was only five years old, she released a mystical wave through the galaxy's tide. The inhabitants of the entire planet felt the echo that day.

But far away, on a planet lost on the fringes of the Outer Rim, this disturbance awoke something that should never have woken up. Something dormant since the time of the Triumvirate. A mephitic and malignant artifact, endowed with a will of its own, and whose sole purpose is the universal cataclysm.

The holocron of Dathka Graush, former king of the Sith.

Years later, he was found by the most unlikely creature. A curious rattataki, a member of the Dark Council himself, had led an archaeological expedition into the Naos system. The holocron had fallen from the sky, into the heart of an asteroid that had come straight from the belt of Naos…the landmark of Graush's fortress. Thanks to his whispers, he had managed to take over a poor village.

And although it was transported to Tatooine, soon Fate instructed a fierce echania to seize the artefact for what she believed to be her own purposes... She thought she was saving the galaxy, he was going to put the fire. When his plans failed, and the echania disappeared into Makeb's lava, the holocron in turn awakened the ruthless Malak to take over. But once again the tide turned, and my sister and her allies won, according to the labile laws of Destiny.

Diverting the future is, it seems, as futile as diverging from what has been. Chase the natural, it comes back at a gallop, but chase Destiny, and it is under the chariot of the Norns that you will end up beaten by their irons.

I learned too late that, although the holocron's body was broken on Oricon, its heart had not stopped beating, its head was still singing. And this time, rather than playing snake in someone's mind, or waking up another monster from the graveyard...he did both at the same time.

He was picked up again by the young sith who had found him. The artifact's whispers, full of mystery and tantalizing promise, brought her a secret return to Tatooine, to the great fortress of the Ancient Lore Keeper. And as with the echania, he manipulated the rattataki.

Under the control of the holocron, and without her realizing it, Veckh sent a handful of guards to leave with a shuttle on a lost planet...

This planet is Aphris, the Force-eater.

Thus, the witch of Dathomir unknowingly awoke her darkest nightmare. She offered him a chance to escape from his prison.

A few days later, when she learned of the death of her Council colleagues, Veckh went into isolation to scream her rage. She thought she was promising them just revenge, whoever was responsible. This is the memory she kept. But in reality, his body, under the influence of Graush's holocron, was laughing out loud.

The Ogre's ambitions exceed the wildest dreams of the holocron. And this time, the destruction of this cursed artifact will not hinder the plans of the Ogre. She will only free the poor, unsuspecting witch. And, as always, I cannot intervene.

Now that he's back, I fear the Force might be with the Ogre. In fact, I'm afraid he enlisted her against her will. For during the battle on Hoth, my dear sister unwittingly unleashed a unique Force power, to which she alone held the key. A power, she quickly understood, contrary to the will of the Force: that of simultaneously removing the body and the soul of a living being… both from the world, and from the Force itself. A terrible anomaly, whose strings the Ogre foiled when he read in her about Norsova.

Yes… I fear that Fate, against all odds, decides that it is time for this universe to end. His precious Force has been violated. There will be no turning back. No forgiveness.

And if by some miracle the Ogre, along with Graush's holocron plans, were to fail, I tremble with dread of what would be to come. For the scales of Fate would be shattered again, and that...would spread my darkest nightmare in this world.

Xaash, I'm begging you… get ready.