She curtsied before him, her long gown bunching up around her knees. She didn't bother to ask what it was he wanted of her, it was as if she already knew her assignment. She walked over to a wall and slowly pushed down on a lever, causing the lights in the chamber to dim. Both honor guards reaches for their weapons, but he waved them away with a swipe of his hand.
The girl, this "Pandora the Great" removed a small round object, about the size of a comlink, from her garment. She let it fall to the ground and almost instantly, a thich smoke filled up the chamber. It was an odorless fog, but so heavy that it was a labor to look through it to see ths fortune-teller. But she made herself known.
A bright light shot out of the dense fog and her white, colorless face appeared to him. "I see a complex life," she said in a low, silky voice. Instantly, the thick fog turned an optic white color. "I see light and hope, warmth, light, energy, light."
She lifted her arms, as if sculpting the smoke into the shapes of her imagination. "I see friendship and love," she continued, forming the smoke into the shape of a heart. He could have sworn that the moment she released her heart of fog, it turned a pale pink color.
In fact, the entire chamber of smoke began to take on various pastel hues. He heard voices coming in from all around him. They didn't seem to be saying anything that made sense, but he could still hear them. They were familiar too. The smuggler, the princess, the pirate, the ghosts, the father, all seemed to be whispering to him now. He could almost hear his name.
"But I see a fight, an epic battle, light and the darkness," she said, her voice turning cold and harsh. The entire room of smoke flashed a brilliant green, followed by a magnificent red, the color of fresh blood. From all around him, he heard screams knifing their way through the air. He was bombarded by sounds of anguish and terror. And amongst the din, it was as though he could hear his own voice adding to the horror.
"Darkness conquers all! Darkness reign supreme!" She was screaming now, throwing her head in all directions, moaning and flailing her arms. "Dash it out of his heart, rip it away, destroy the light! Destroy the heart!" she cried, molding the smoke into a column, then bursting her arms through it. "Fear! Anger! Hate!" she chanted at the top of her lungs, her blue eyes flashing out of the thick gray smog.
"Enough!" he shounted, unable to endure any more of the charade. Before she had time to cease, he had leapt from his throne and descended upon her. Without even thinking, as if on impulse, he snapped his arm up and struck her arcoss the face.
Instantly, the smoke and the sounds vanished. The girl fell to the cold, metal floor, holding her face in her hands. He looked at his gloved hand in a moment of curiousity. Smeared across his black leather glove was a streak of white powder which he imagined he had scraped off her face when he slapped her.
But there was something else. The girl was crying. He could hear it now, clearly. She lingered there on the floor, sobbing hysterically. It was not for "Pandora the Great" to cry over a fortune that she knew very well to be a part of the past. He finally understood.
He violently grabbed her arm, half pulling her up to her knees. He could see her face now. There was indeed a flash of flesh color where he had smeared off her make up, but even more importantly, he saw her tears. Her tears had taken on a bright blue color, unnatural for any species he had ever encountered in the known galaxy. He looked in her eyes. The artificial blue color was what mingled with her tears and ran down her face. Clearly now, with more clarity than he'd had in a long time, he looked at her eyes. Her silver eyes.
He released her violently and turned to his guards. "Arrest her and anyone else on this miserable barge," he commanded them. They immediately grabbed the girl on the floor, the phantom of his past that he now recognized with a certain understanding, and began to drag her off. Two more guards entered and passed through the chamber into the cockpit. From the other side of the door, he could hear screaming and protest, the same screams he had heard from the smoke-filled fortune. He smiled in satisfaction.