Darth Zannah: The Art of Deception Chapter 14

Star Wars
Darth Zannah
The Art of Deception

By JAM4077

(Based on the Darth Bane Trilogy by Drew Karpyshyn.)

CHAPTER 14

The gatekeeper of Darth Nox's Holocron remained silent as Zannah explained her situation with the fragmented spirit of Darth Bane. Zannah left nothing out, starting from Bane's attempt to drive Zannah out of her own body and insert his spirit into it. She explained her use of Sith amulets to hold back the influence of the spirit and the effect it had on her body, only to have them destroyed by the deadly, amplified voice of a Jedi Master. Zannah also mentioned that Bane's spirit had attempted to throw the Holocron away once it was in Zannah's possession.

“The spirit of your former master has every right to fear the knowledge I possess,” said the gatekeeper with a chuckle. “But how was he was able to perceive my knowledge remains a mystery.”

"My master constructed a Holocron of his own before death," Zannah explained. "He spent a great deal of time studying their inner workings to the point he could pour his mind into a Holocron and take what he needed from it. The process must be easier for him now that he is a spirit."

"Never presume anything when it comes to ghosts of long-dead Sith," Nox warned. "They are capable of infinite possibilities, even killing. I have nearly experienced this first hand at the hands of the spirit of my ancestor, Lord Aloysius Kallig, and the spirit of Darth Andru, whom I bounded to my body with the Force Walk ritual, making his power my own."

“How were you able to perform such a feat, my Lord?” asked Zannah with genuine curiosity.

“The ritual to bind ghosts to a person of the living is an ancient art of Sith sorcery. It bends the aspects of life and death. Only those who have an innate gift for the art of Sith Sorcery can use it.”

"Can you believe that ramble?" Darth Bane's voice growled in Zannah's head. "Binding ghosts? It sounds like a false promise to me. Just destroy the Holocron, Zannah. You don't need what it has to offer. You have all that you need… thanks to me."

"Is that for my benefit or are you afraid?" Zannah said, which made Bane shut up for the moment.

“He’s quite the persistent little spirit, isn’t he?” Nox observed.

“Master Nox, will you teach me the art of Force Walk?” Zannah said. “I was trained in the ways of Sith sorcery and there hasn’t been a spell I couldn’t master.”

"We shall see, Darth Zannah. Before I can teach you the ritual, I need you to drink a vial of poison but don't worry. The poison won't kill you. This is the only method to teach the ritual."

“Where is this poison?”

"Within the chambers of this Holocron," explained the gatekeeper, just as the golden casing around the Holocron opened up. Hidden within the gold frames were several small, thin vials of the yellow-colored poison.

Approaching the many vile displayed in from her, Zannah mustered all of her might and will power to hold Bane back. She took a vile and emptied the contents of it down her throat.

“Good,” said Nox’s gatekeeper. “The poison will take effect quickly. Then, you will learn the ritual, if you survive, of course.”

The gatekeeper of the Holocron let out a burst of eerie laughter as Zannah could feel the poison taking effect. She could feel her windpipe closing up, depriving her of oxygen. Her hands reached for her throat. Bane's spirit took this chance to gain control of his former apprentice's body, but an unknown force stopped him. Zannah's vision darkened and her body fell to the floor. She was not dead but in a state of the deep unconscious. Her airways opened back up once she was out cold.

"Good. Now that you are unconscious, we may begin," Zannah heard Nox say once she was in the nether realm. Zannah recognized her surroundings all too well. This was the place where she and Bane held their battle of wills, the place where she emerged as the victor.

“The ritual has two parts,” Nox continued. “First is the pacification for an angry ghost cannot be tethered. The second part is the binding. A willing ghost is easier to bind, but by leaving the ghost its will, you draw less from its power. A pact may be formed to bind the ghost willingly, sealed with blood. Or the ritual of binding may be performed.”

Zannah took her time, absorbing each word that Nox spoke before putting them to practice. Nox was impressed with Zannah's will. It was strong indeed, despite the sense of uncertainty. Then, there was Zannah's master of Sith sorcery. It reminded Nox of her gift with art when she was alive.

“Good,” Nox praised when Zannah finally mastered the ritual. Zannah’s body was surrounded by an aura of purple, whose color varied between light and dark. Her eyes glowed in purple light, the brightness of which matched that of a lightsaber blade. “You’re quite the learner. Not even my apprentice, Xalek, picked up the ritual this fast.”

“I learned ritual, but I get the feeling that is some sort of catch to this,” Zannah said.

“You catch on quickly. Excellent. You might make it out of this alive. There is a test. You must bind me. Do this, you live and I see how the state of the galaxy and see how the Sith have changed. If you fail, you die. Oh, don’t bother trying to make a deal with me. I won’t go willingly.”

“I wasn’t even going to ask.”

Zannah's eyes snapped open and she got to her feet. The spirit of Darth Nox followed out of the Holocron, which had shut down since Zannah had fallen unconscious, and took form. Her eyes glowed and lightning cracked from her translucent form. Calling on the dark side of the Force, as if based on instinct, Zannah raised her hands and began the ritual of binding, bending the aspects of life and death to her will. Her hands glowed brightly as Nox's spirit became rigid and purple mist formed shackles on her limbs.

Then, in an instant, Nox's spirit exploded, leaving behind a dark red mist. This mist surrounded Zannah and penetrated every fiber of her being. The act of binding Nox's spirit to her caused Zannah to fall to her knees. It was not from exhaustion, but from immense power that her body just absorbed.

“You have passed the final test,” Zannah heard Nox speak. “My power is yours and I am your slave until death. I am bound to your life and you to my death. Use my strength to shield yourself from your foes and my knowledge to increase your power further.”

“I must admit, Zannah, this Force Walk has some potential,” Darth Bane said as his spirit emerged from Zannah’s body. “I can taste the power you now wield.”

“Too bad you won’t be able to exploit it,” Zannah said and she began the ritual once more. She couldn’t bind Bane straight away. She needed to ease his anger, at least to a certain degree to pull off any binding.

"No, no, no, no, NO," Bane protested as he felt himself becoming at peace moment by moment. Purple mist shackles began to form on Bane's limbs. Bane broke through the shackles, only to fight out of them once they formed again. The effort to break free was taking its toll on Bane and he knew it. "Don't do this to me, Zannah! ZANNAH!"

“I told you before, Bane, your time is over,” Zannah said. “Now I am the Master!”

Zannah’s hand glowed, the shackles captured their prey and Bane exploded in the same manner that Nox did. Zannah’s body absorbed Bane’s spirit. But absorbing Bane’s spirit had a different effect on Zannah’s body then it did when she absorbed Nox. Her body jerked and hoisted into the air, Sith lightning cracked from her body.


Outside the manor, a storm unlike any other was forming. The guards found it odd considering that Holonet forecasted a partly cloudy night. The storm appeared from out of nowhere and flashed with lightning. Then, the guards heard the sound of a woman screaming from inside the manor. Before they could respond to it, purple and blue lightning rained down upon them.

The guards moved as fast as they could to prevent themselves from getting electrocuted. But the lightning seemed to have a mind of its own. Every time a guard moved, a lightning bolt would strike at the spot where the guard stopped. One guard stopped near the window of the study before a bolt crisped him up and sent him through the wall into the study.

The guards stationed inside the manor ran into the study to investigate what had happened. The lightning storm put an end to their lives just as soon as they stepped through the door. The storm lasted a few moments after all the guards were dead when Zannah collapsed.


When Zannah came to, she found herself in her bed with her apprentice by her side. Zannah got up slowly, but she found it quite difficult. "What happened?" she finally asked.

“You killed all the guards,” Cognus explained. “You summoned a Force Storm the likes of which I have never seen and killed every single one of them. Once the storm passed, I went looking for you and found you in the hidden chamber.”

"The Holocrons? Are they damaged?"

“No. Nothing was destroyed. You just made one hell of a mess. What were you doing down there?”

Zannah explained everything, from the fragment of Darth Bane's spirit to Darth Nox's Holocron to learn the Force Walk ritual to Cognus as there was no way to hide it. She explained that after she bound Bane to her body that everything else happened. When she was finished, Cognus asked, "Did something went wrong with the binding?"

"There is only one person who knows," Zannah said, climbing out of bed with a newfound strength. "Lord Nox, if you can hear me, what the hell happened?"

After a moment, Darth Nox’s spirit appeared before Zannah and Cognus. Cognus nearly jumped out of her skin at the site of the ghost. The sight of her apprentice being scared by a ghost made both Zannah and Nox laugh, although Zannah attempted to hold her laughter back.

When she was done laughing her head off, Nox said, “There is one thing I forgot to mention about the Force binding: You shouldn’t bind more than one ghost at a time. Or else your body and mind will begin to break down. It’s a pain that I know all too well.

"Although, this development is happening much sooner than I expected. Your master was a powerful Sith Lord indeed if just a fragment of his spirit could cause this breakdown. It took 4 ghosts to get me at this state."

“Is there anything that can be done about?” Zannah asked.

“Nice to see you’ve got your priorities straight, apprentice,” Bane’s voice said. “After all, you’re living for three now.”

“Shut up, Bane. I wasn’t talking to you,” Zannah ordered. “Lord Nox, how do I deal with this?”

"First, you must restore your body and then cure your mind," Nox instructed. "There is a planet called Belsavis. In my time, it was a prison world for the Republic to house captured war criminals and Sith Lords. Deep within the prison is an ancient Rakata machine known as the Mother Machine or Ashaa. I used this machine to restore my body and prevent the further burden from the Force Walk ritual. If the machine is still active to this day, you can use it to restore your body.

"Once that is done, you will need to travel to the planet Voss. There you need to learn the dream-walking ritual to heal your mind and prevent me and Lord Bane from influencing you against your will. I will provide you whatever aide I can."

"Thank you, my lord," Zannah said before Nox's spirit vanished. "Cognus, prepare my ship to prepare for immediate take off."

“That’s going to be a problem, master,” Cognus said. “The Jedi Council is going to be testing you this coming morning.”

Zannah buried her face into the palm of her hand when she finally remembered. She was so excited about getting her hand on Darth Nox's Holocron and riding herself the annoyance from Darth Bane's spirit that she forgot.

“You better not screw this up, Zannah,” the voice of Darth Bane said. “Remember, the Sith are supposed to be extinct.”

“Thanks for the tip, Lord Obvious,” Zannah spat.


In mid-morning, Zannah found herself standing before some of the members that made up the Jedi Council. All those present for Zannah's testing except for Master Ti'Ana was transmitting by holo from Jedi Temple on Coruscant. Despite being light-years from Ciutric IV, each Jedi master of diverse species was seeing inside Zannah through the Force only to find an aura on neutrality.

Zannah had through of using her Sith sorcery to bath herself an aura of light but dismissed the idea quickly. While that spell helped her fool her way into the Jedi Temple, she doubts that it would a second time. Besides, anyone of these masters might recognize it and link her to the Sith the Jedi had destroyed 15 years earlier. Zannah had no intention of making the Jedi think otherwise.

The council members questioned Zannah about her past, at least the past that Zannah had provided to Ti'Ana and her former apprentice. Zannah answered all of their questions without any hesitation and giving off any hints that she was lying for the most part. After the questioning, Ti'Ana took over the next part of Zannah's testing. She held up a handheld screen to her green face and Zannah had to guess what image the screen was displaying. It was a child's play to Zannah, but she made it look as she was having a hard time.

Once the test was done, silence fell into the room and all eyes shifted to the male Hysalrian, who had his four dark eyes on Zannah. Zannah had to admit that the Hysalrian’s stare was unnerving to a certain extent.

“Stay calm, Zannah,” Darth Bane whispered in Zannah’s head. “One slip and it’s all over.”

Zannah ignored Bane's voice and remained composed in front of the Jedi Masters before her. The Hysalrian tilted his head a bit, as he was reacting to something. Something inside Zannah's being. Zannah wondered ever so slightly if the Hysalrian Jedi Master could sense the spirit of her former master inside of her. She didn't dismiss the idea. Lack of knowledge that Zannah had about the Jedi arts was a waste as the amount of Sith knowledge that was still lost to the known galaxy.

"How, feel you, Zannah?" the Hysalrian master said in a backward speech.

“I feel fine, Master Jedi,” Zannah responded.

“Afraid, are you?” the Hysalarian asked.

“No,” Zannah said.

"To lie, you don't need. See-through you, we can. I sense the worry in you. I sense a fear of loss."

This Jedi is a cautious one, Zannah thought. He likes to keep his cards close to his vest. What he has sensed?

“What is it that you think I fear to lose?” Zannah asked.

The Hysalarian smiled and said, “Your own life, perhaps. Those close around you, like Raven Lore.”

“You think I’m afraid of losing Jedi Knight Lore?” Zannah asked.

"Your actions during the Maladian attack says that you do," Ti'Ana said. "And that is dangerous. Fear of lost leads one down the path of the dark side of the Force."

“That’s no problem for you,” Bane’s voice said. “You’re already one with the dark side.”

“Are you say this for my benefit or is there an ulterior motive behind your words?” Zannah asked.

"That is something that you and I will discuss…in private," Ti'Ana said. Ti'Ana didn't add any more, even when given curious looks by her fellow council members. After a moment of silence, Zannah's test continued without taking any sidetracks.