Star Wars_ The Old Republic_ Revan - Drew Karpyshyn [31]
“I was surprised by the assault droids.”
“And I’m surprised they gave you so much trouble.”
Scourge remained silent.
Nyriss stretched her dry, cracked lips into an unsettling grin that seemed to fill the entire lower half of her wrinkled face. Scourge endured the rictus without comment until it mercifully faded.
“I find it odd that someone with your reputation would be hard-pressed to defeat a single assault droid and a few patrol drones, yet you dispatched my mercenaries with ease.”
It was obvious she was getting at something, but Scourge had no idea what it might be. “I … I don’t understand,” he finally admitted.
“No, you don’t,” she agreed, briefly flashing another disconcerting smile. “Recite the Sith Code for me,” she instructed, sounding like one of the trainers at the Academy.
“Peace is a lie; there is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength.” The words came easily to Scourge; the mantra had been drilled into his brain during his training until it was second nature. “Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through victory my chains are broken.”
“You know the words, but you do not truly understand them,” Nyriss admonished. “The dark side draws on the most powerful emotions: anger, hatred, fear. We are taught to use our emotions to unlock our true potential and unleash the Force against our enemies.”
Scourge pushed down the impatience threatening to rise within him. She was saying nothing he hadn’t heard countless times during his apprenticeship, but she must have a reason he wasn’t yet seeing.
“The Force runs through every living being,” she went on. “When we fight an opponent of flesh and blood, we draw on their emotions, as well. All who follow the dark side instinctively do this on some level—it is so instinctive that most instructors feel it does not need to be taught.” She paused, and again he wondered where she was going with all this.
“I have studied your records from the Academy and observed your battle with the mercenaries in my courtyard,” she said at last. “You have a special gift. You do not just feed on the raw emotions of your foe; you gorge yourself on them. You feast on their primal fear. It amplifies your hate and anger. It fuels the power of the Force. It transforms you into an instrument of death and destruction.”
Scourge nodded. Battling a living foe was intoxicating; with each attack and counter he felt a rush of heat coursing through his veins, energizing and empowering him. Yet he had felt almost none of that at the UDM plant. “When I fought the security droid, there was nothing to grab on to. It was cold. Empty.”
“Precisely. You tried to feed off its nonexistent emotions, and in doing so only made yourself weaker. I wonder that this wasn’t observed in you; even the most powerful gift needs guiding to be used effectively.” She shook her head. “You are so used to using your gift that you neglect the most basic source of power: yourself. The next time you find yourself in a similar situation, you must turn your focus inward. Draw on your own emotions, and you will destroy your mechanical enemies as readily as you slaughter your organic ones.”
Scourge nodded. He did not like being lectured, but her observation was a good one: he realized that he had, indeed, learned to rely on the emotions of his enemies to feed his power, and he had not seen that such a gift could also be a weakness. But one that, with time and practice, could be overcome.
“A valuable lesson, my lord. One I will take to heart.”
“I have enough sycophants working for me,” she answered, brushing off his gratitude.
“But none can do what I do,” Scourge reminded her.
Nyriss spread her lips into another gruesome smile, and Scourge resisted the urge to shudder as a chill crawled down his spine.
“I hope your restored confidence will serve you well on your next mission,” she said. “The files Sechel recovered from UDM proved quite fruitful. He traced the payment for the custom droid sent to assassinate me back to a group of radical human separatists from Bosthirda dedicated