Darth Cognus hadn’t spoken a word as she finally lowered herself to her knees to rest her aching legs and heels. The newly crowned Dark Lord of the Sith, however, remained on her feet, unmoving. Unwavering. She was a statue of outward indecision in the hours after the battle, never once shifting from her firm stance overlooking the darkened scene of her greatest victory—a victory she had earned.
Echoes reverberated through the rocky valleys and boulder-strewn canyons, mournful sounds of a clash Darth Cognus could never have imagined. Even hours later, they still rang powerfully. It was as if Ambria itself refused to accept the truth it held—a power exchange the galaxy hadn’t seen in ages. Still, Cognus wasn’t quite sure who the real victor was.
For hours, she had remained silent as Darth Zannah took several steps forward. Cognus, shifting her focus from the Master’s trembling hand to self-affirmations that Bane had been defeated, absorbed the silence. She heard whispers on the wind that wove between the echoes that wouldn’t cease. Overlapping conversations that felt ethereal, happening well outside of any physical presence.
Cognus shifted subtly, displacing her discomfort as she waited patiently for what came next—something she was quite unaccustomed to. She had always had the answers, even if mystical or unexplained, a plan of action where there should have been none. She craved only the promised power, the power the man who wasn’t sure he’d survive had unleashed, now wondering if that was what she would receive. And if this woman was the one to teach it.
Dawn began to break, slowly. A creeping purple that pulled the blackness from their surroundings, revealing broken and scorched stone bathed in a hue that would never fade. Cognus could still feel the heat from the battleground. A radiating but unnatural warmth that Ambria also refused to claim. It was the power of the destruction surrounding her that fueled her uncharacteristic patience. ‘If even the effects continue to resonate…’ Cognus thought to herself.
“They will never die,” Darth Zannah finally severed the silence between them. “And that is but a fraction of the power you will earn, apprentice.” The statement was a declaration—a pact. And Cognus knew it.
She wasn’t sure if she should speak, even though the Master had, probing the young relationship for its most basic foundations. However, Cognus would need to decipher the depths of this Master’s intrusive abilities sooner rather than later. “He was wrong to doubt you, Master.”
“He was wrong about a great many things, but that will never outweigh his usefulness…even now,” Zannah admitted after a long moment of deliberation. She turned slowly toward the Iktotchi, her first movements in hours, and lowered herself to a mirrored position only two meters away. “Understand that we are but the beginning of a legacy, Darth Cognus. His legacy.”
Cognus narrowed her deep crimson eyes, capturing the statement as the Huntress would a physical quarry. She remained silent for a moment before resting back on her heels, “He underestimated you.”
“No.” Zannah snapped suddenly, “He underestimated the unknown, allowing hubris far too much latitude.” She continued, the deep yellow in her eyes flaring a bright gold momentarily.
Cognus didn’t respond, willing the Master to divulge more without childish questions prompting it. But, it would not be. Perhaps a matter for her own intellect to decipher. A lesson then? The Master was steadfast in her silence, offering no outward sign that she would continue, even if the questions were asked.
Cognus had only the past, then, to navigate the meaning in Zannah’s proclamation. And she was certain, as time perpetuated, that was precisely the intent. She chuckled inwardly, still probing the tenuous relationship’s borders, as the Master had already infused wisdom into the exchange as effortlessly as one would breathe.
“You are aptly named, apprentice. But you will need to prove that you can study the past as well as you foresee coming events.” Zannah spoke softly, her calming tone sending shivers up the Iktotchi’s spine.
Cognus considered the comment permission enough to acknowledge her suspicions, and with that, relaxed the tension in her muscles. She closed her eyes through a concentrated effort to focus on what she had seen. Blurs of motion, crimson sabers moving so quickly they were streaks of unbroken light. Grunts heard that followed the action she could actually focus on, well out of sync. She was suddenly aware of her own teeth grinding together through concentration, sparking an unfamiliar fear of failure.
Then it dawned on her. At the precipice of surrender, Cognus remembered when the duel itself had shifted to something else entirely. “He underestimated your sorceries, Master.”
Zannah smiled lightly, her porcelain expression shifting to a satisfied smirk that expertly matched the eerily calming voice, “He underestimated all sorceries, apprentice.” She paused to let loose a victorious laugh, one that sounded soothing, of all things, in a place carved from destruction. “Even his own.”
Cognus knew the truth of it, had witnessed the gravitas of the tidal shift the moment the black tendrils were seen. Although she couldn’t understand his insistence to get closer to his prey, she knew it had everything to do with Zannah’s statement, and by extension, her will. “He meant to claim you. There was a moment when I sensed his presence despite him falling…”
“That plan succeeded, apprentice.” Zannah snickered again, a light chortle that stood contrary to the topic, “Just not in the way he imagined it would.”
“I don’t understand, Master.” Cognus replied quickly, sensing an electrifying fervor pump feverishly through her blood, “He intended to leave himself? You allowed it?” She wasn’t sure if the fervor was a reactive disinclination to entertain such things or if she had agreed to apprentice lunacy itself.
“He intended domination of mind and spirit because he lacked faith in his chosen apprentice, Cognus.” Zannah felt the brush of a slight breeze tickle her hair past her cheek, “That mistrust allowed me to accept what I needed and nothing more.”
Cognus expressed a quizzical gaze, shifting her head to the side somewhat as Ambria’s sun finally crested the distant peaks of the mountain range with no name. “He sought refuge within you then?”
“He sought a vessel to continue his legacy, no matter who owned it. That is far more egregious than any mistrust in me.” Zannah repressed personal anger sparked by her own statement, something she knew was warranted yet untimely. She shook off the emotion quickly, “He succumbed to the one thing he didn’t understand fully, apprentice.”
Cognus was catching on quickly, “Your sorceries…”
“Are far more than projections, consuming the mind despite the body.” Zannah replied immediately, leaving no room for any other interpretation, “He had no such gifts…fixated on power as he was in ways he understood it and nothing more.” She finished, then pushed herself up to her feet. She swiveled a full one hundred eighty degrees to consume the blackened devastation surrounding them.
“But you allowed…” Cognus began before Zannah snapped her gaze back toward the Iktotchi in an icy glare.
“Only what I needed, Darth Cognus. Only what I needed.” Zannah replied, allowing the twitching left hand inspection between the two of them as she lifted her arm.
“He continues to fight for survival?” Cognus asked out of sincere curiosity.
“He continues to fight the inevitable,” Zannah replied matter-of-factly as she renewed her inspections, realizing after a moment’s hesitation that her shuttle hadn’t escaped the effects of the previous night. Although a kilometer away, the long, thin trail of smoke bleeding into the fading twilight was a beacon that caught her attention, its sharply tilted angle accentuated by expanding puddles beneath it.
“Why not just be rid of him, Master?” Cognus felt foolish asking what she thought should be common sense.
Zannah did not answer right away, shifting her gaze slowly to take in Cognus over her shoulder in her periphery. She looked back toward the damaged shuttle briefly before returning the Iktotchi to her partial view, “Because I am not done with him.” She spat the words from her mouth like wretched bile, owning the statement with equal parts truth and hatred.
Darth Zannah let the words drift in the air between them until Ambria chose to take them away. Then, without saying a word, she turned from Cognus and walked toward the shuttle.
Cognus watched her leave, willing to follow but not quite yet. She needed time to understand what she had gotten herself into. Promises of power, even if proven visually, would mean nothing without a bond of trust. And a rule of two was meaningless if those who found it didn’t follow it. But then again, they had, hadn’t they? She wasn’t any more beholden to Bane than the weak fool Zannah had turned over to Doan. She and the Dark Jedi were just pawns in a grand game that had only been won through the meticulous plotting of the woman now walking away from her.
She had thought over the situation enough to allow herself to pursue the reward she had always desired. One that didn’t value fame, riches, or notoriety. No. Not when legacy was real. Not when legacy was earned. Cognus steadied herself and grasped Bane’s hilt firmly in her large, strong hands. She ignited the saber with a pulsating whoosh, keeping her excitement in check as the device whined like a hungry electronic wraith in her firm grip. She let it pass before her several times, allowing the alien Ambrian air to bake and sizzle in front of her eyes.
Cognus let the excitement fuel her as she extinguished the blade and tucked it into a hip pouch at her side. Despite her moniker, the future was an unwritten chapter she was eager to embrace. Recklessness be damned if she wouldn’t see it through as far as it would take her. The Iktotchi began to sprint to catch up with the advancing Master, relishing the power the woman radiated. A power that surged in wide arcs around each decisive step forward. Steps that dictated their pace, driven by a woman who commanded her future.
“Where is it we will go, Master?” Cognus asked between breaths, surprised how much distance Zannah had placed between the two in so short a time.
“Nal Hutta,” Zannah replied casually, immediately answering the unasked question of when, not how.
“Nal Hutta?” Cognus couldn’t stop the question until it was too late to try.
“I don’t like loose ends…”