When the door fell to the side, blaster bolts peppered the opening, and Deva and Vernestra jumped to either side of it to avoid the incoming fire.

“I’ll go first,” Vernestra said, twisting the bezel on her lightsaber so the blade fell away in a glorious violet cascade. And then she got to work.

Vernestra had spent her time on Ibbe perfecting the use of her lightwhip. She’d always been enamored of a more defensive style of flow and dynamics, but she’d learned to channel her fierce desire to protect those she cared about into a more aggressive form. As she spun the whip around her body, deftly controlling the flexible plasma blade with the Force, Vernestra realized that she was better than she’d ever been. Just like Imri, she’d grown and changed in the year since Starlight fell. She was no longer the competent, dutiful Jedi who Master Stellan had trained.

She was a force all her own.

The blade of the lightwhip hummed as it repelled the blaster bolts that flew toward Vernestra, and she spun it around her, faster and faster, until her entire vision was tinged with purple. Then and only then did she strike.


Star Wars The High Republic Defy the Storm Chapter 33