Ekkreth and the Lost Boy

Listen, children, here is a story.

One day Depur took a slave very young from his family and put him all alone in Depur's palace. Depur made the child to clean the palace and all of his belongings. And the child did what he was told because he had to.

The child felt a great and insurmountable sense of grief at the loss of his family. He wished that he had been killed instead of taken away. For he could not bear this grief.

The child felt a deep, aching loneliness that did not have a beginning or an end. For he did not have a family. He did not have a parent. All that he had was a Depur.

He grieved his family every second of every day and night. And it built and built and built up inside of him. Until he was left with a weight he could not even begin to try to carry.

All the while Depur grew rich and feasted off of the work that the slaves did. And Depur continued to build his wealth.

One day Depur took the small child and told him something,

"If you do all your work without complaint and you always do as I tell you to you will be a good child. And if you do not do what I want you to do then you will be bad. And so you must be a good boy and do what I say."

This child was a young child and wanted to impress the one adult person in his life. So he resolved to be good. He resolved to win what little approval he could from Depur.

And by doing this Depur was able to chip away at his very spirit. Depur was able to chip into the longings for freedom in his soul that is inherent to every slave, that every slave needs in order to endure.

And so this child was miserable, extremely miserable, and he had no distant lightning to guide him. And he was resigned to his lot in life and he tried, with everything they had, to be good.

He did his work into the night every day. Cleaning the floors and the walls and all of Depur's very many fine objects. He worked until his bones and flesh and mind and heart were overcome and still he worked more.

For on occasion Depur praised him and his young heart clung to that praise as if clinging to a lifeline. He did not see how it was eating him up inside. Parasitizing on his heart.

Ekkreth was going about the world, doing what Ekkreth does. They came to the palace of Depur late one night and heard the sound of the most mournful, melancholy song they had ever heard in their life. They had to know what was the source of this song. Who of the Mother's children was making such a mournful melody? What hardship did they go through to be singing this song?

Ekkreth took the form of a Kirik fly and flew through the bars on one of the windows in Depur's palace. They followed the sound down the long twisting hallways. There, in a supply closet not big enough to walk five paces, there was a child lying on the floor, huddled into themselves. The child was singing a mournful tune that made Ekkreth's heart bleed, and seeing their wretched state made Ekkreth's breath catch in their throat.

Ekkreth took the form of a Twi'lek and sat down beside the child.

"What is troubling you so?" Ekkreth asked the child, in a soft, gentle voice full of care and concern.

The child startled, and then sat up, looking at Ekkreth with wide eyes.

"I am not troubled," he lied to both himself and Ekkreth, "I am simply trying to sing myself to sleep."

Ekkreth knew then that this child didn't have a parent to sing him to sleep and thought that he must be mourning because he missed his family.

"Child, do you miss your family?"