blockade.'
'Little comfort to those who gave their lives waiting for you to arrive,' Hoth shot back.
Farfalla glanced at the corpses scattered on the ground. Seeing Pernicar among them, his expression fell. He crouched down beside the body and whispered a few short words, then touched the fallen soldier once in the center of his brow before standing up once more.
'Pernicar was my friend, too,' he said, his tone softer now. 'His death pains me as much as it does you, General.'
'I doubt that,' Hoth muttered angrily. 'You weren't even here to see it.'
'Do not let your grief consume you,' Farfalla warned, the ice back in his voice. 'That path leads to the dark side.'
'Don't you dare speak to me of the dark side!' Hoth shouted, jabbing an angry finger in Farfalla's face. 'I'm the one who's been here battling Kaan's Brotherhood! I know its ways better than anyone! I've seen the pain and suffering it brings. And I know what it will take to defeat it. I need soldiers. Supplies. I need Jedi willing to fight the enemy with the same hatred they feel for us.' He let his finger drop and turned away. 'What I don't need is some prancing dandy lecturing me on the dangers of the dark side.'
'Pernicar's death is not your fault,' Farfalla said, coming forward to place a comforting hand on Hoth's shoulder. 'Let go of your guilt. There is no emotion. There is peace.'
Hoth wheeled around and slapped his hand away. 'Get away from me! Take your blasted reinforcements and run back to Coruscant like the mincing cowards you are! We don't need your kind here!'
Now it was Farfalla who turned away, stomping angrily back to his swoopbike while the rest of the group watched in silent shock and horror. He threw one long leg over the seat and fired up the engines.
'Maybe the other Jedi were right about you!' he said, shouting to be heard over the roar of his swoop. 'This war has consumed you. Driven you to madness. Madness that will lead you to the dark side!'
Hoth didn't bother to watch as Farfalla and the other swoops sped off into the distance. Instead he crouched down beside the body of his oldest friend and wept at his brutal, senseless end.
When Githany finally arrived, Kaan had to keep himself from snapping at her. She had already seen him with his guard down: uncertain, unsure. He had to be careful when dealing with her now, lest he lose her allegiance. And he needed her more than ever.
Instead he spoke in a casual tone that held only a hint of icy disapproval beneath its surface. 'I sent for you nearly three hours ago.'
She flashed him a fierce, savage smile. 'There was a sortie going out against one of the Jedi supply caravans. I decided to go with them.'
'I haven't heard the reports yet. What was the result?'
'It was glorious, Lord Kaan!' She laughed. 'Three more Masters, six Jedi Knights, a handful of Padawans… all dead!'
Kaan nodded his approval. The tide of battle was ever changing on Ruusan, and with the end of the rainy season the pendulum had swung back in favor of the Sith. Of course he knew it was more than a change of weather that had restored the morale of his troops and brought them a string of resounding victories.
The Army of Light was fractured. Their numbers on Ruusan were dwindling. Valenthyne Farfalla was orbiting the world with reinforcements, but Kaan's spies reported a rift between Hoth and Lord Farfalla that kept the newcomers from joining the fray. Without Master Pernicar to blunt their sharp animosity, the two Jedi Masters' mutual antipathy was crippling the Jedi war effort.
The irony of the situation was not lost on Kaan. For a change it was the Jedi who were split by infighting and rivalries, while the Brotherhood of Darkness remained united and strong. Part of him found the strange reversal troubling. In the long nights when he couldn't sleep, he'd often walk the floor of his tent wrestling with the seeming paradox.
Had the armies on Ruusan crossed a line where light and darkness meet? Had the endless conflict between the Army of Light and the Brotherhood of Darkness drawn them both into a void where the ideologies became hopelessly intertwined? Were they all now Force-users of the Twilight, caught between the two sides and belonging to neither?
However, the arrival of the morning sun would inevitably banish such thoughts with news of yet another Sith victory in the field. And only a fool questioned his methods when he was winning. Which was why he wasn't sure what to make of the message he had recently received from Darth Bane.
'Kas'im is dead,' he told Githany, getting directly to the matter at hand.
'Dead?' Her shocked reaction affirmed Kaan's decision not to share this news with the rest of the Brotherhood. He had been careful to keep the purpose of the Blademaster's departure secret until he knew the outcome of the confrontation. 'Was it the Jedi?' she asked.
'No,' He admitted, choosing his words carefully. 'I sent him to parlay with Lord Bane. Kas'im thought he could convince him to join us. Instead, Bane killed him.'
Githany's eyes narrowed. 'I warned you about him.'
Kaan nodded. 'You know him better than any of us. You understand him. That is why I need you now. Bane sent me a message.'
He reached over and flicked on the message drone sitting on the table. A tiny hologram of the heavily muscled Dark Lord materialized before them. Even though the details of his expression were difficult to make out at that size, it was clear he was troubled.
'Kas'im is dead. I. I killed him. But I've been thinking about what he said before… before he died.'
Githany gave Kaan a curious look. He shrugged and tilted his head toward the hologram as it continued to speak.
'I came here searching for something. I'm… I'm not even sure what it was. But I didn't find it. Just like I
