Author's Games: Star Wars

Sponsorship Task: Female Entries

2 Bounty Hunter Female Verita

It was the silence that woke her. Silence, true silence, had become something of a rarity for Verita. Back on Kalevala there was always the sound of people and animals, . On her ship, the humming of the engine had always lulled her to sleep. So this complete silence was unsettling, sending apprehension through her and waking her far more effectively than anything else could.

An uncomfortable feeling stirred in her gut, and Verita looked around her with confusion. The room she was in was small, brightly lit and sparse. There were no windows, and from the motion beneath her feet Verita instinctively knew she was on a ship, although it wasn't hers. Verita blinked, rubbing a hand on her forehead.

It was then that she realized her armor was gone. Panic flickered through her. Without her armor, she was weak, as vulnerable as if she'd lost a limb. But who had taken her? The last thing she remembered was talking to a woman who'd said she had known something of Jonak. Jonak. Before Verita could look further than the room around her, a woman stepped into view.

She was a Mirialan, with the typical black tattoos and green skin. But there was something familiar about the black markings stretching across her shoulder, the dark hair in careful cornrows. Verita knew the woman in front of her. Or, more accurately, she knew of the woman in front of her. Ezaye—bounty hunter and old acquaintance of her brother's. Jonak had introduced them once, many years ago. Verita had even gone to her after her brother's disappearance, asking for help in finding him. Ezaye had laughed at her request. Verita's lips parted, her eyes widening. Questions rose to the surface of her mind, but one in particular burned her throat.

"Where's my brother?"

Ezaye laughed, low and rough. Verita swallowed. She already knew the answer, but she had to hear it. "Even now, still searching for him. You didn't really think you were going to find him, did you?"

The tiny bubble of hope Verita had always held diminished and a crushing sense of disappointment filled her, eclipsing the fear. It was like she was a child again, and she had just found out that she wasn't getting the present she'd been promised.

"There was a woman. She said she had seen Jonak," she said hotly. He's alive. He has to be. The woman's words were proof of Jonak's existence.

Ezaye's features morphed into disdain, her eyes cold and distant. "An easy rumor to create. As I told you when you came to me, your brother is dead. Has been dead for years." She looked down at Verita, making Verita feel like a small child staring up at a giant. There was unhidden disgust in Ezaye's voice, and it made Verita's skin prickle with anger beneath the fear and uncertainty. Her hands curled into fists, her mind instantly rejecting the all too familiar words.

"No he's not. He's alive," she snarled.

"Then why haven't you found him yet?" Ezaye asked, her tone turning patronizing. "You're a bounty hunter; you find people for a living. And yet you can't even find your own brother."

Verita's lips curled into a snarl, baring her teeth. "I will find him." But the conviction normally so strong in her words had become an uncertainty.

Ezaye snorted, shaking her head. "No, you won't." Her lips pulled into a smile, and the sight sent something cold and foreboding down Verita's spine. "But there is someone else you might want to see." She snapped her fingers and another figure was escorted into the room.

Isaos.

All of the air in Verita's lungs seemed to freeze at the sight of him. He seemed unharmed, his skin unmarked with bruises or scars. But he was afraid. Of that, Verita was certain. It was there in the set of his shoulders, in the thin line of his lips.