Kerra Holt, lone Jedi Knight, may have let her personal mission bring disaster to a planet of innocents—and possibly the entire galaxy! With the truth behind her missing family almost revealed, Kerra scrambles to find some solution to what she has done. The battle between the three Sith armies continues to new heights, and one Sith lord has reached the dangerous relic that will enable him to draw insurmountable power from the misery of others...
The Jedi Knight Kerra Holt's quest to find her long-lost family leads her to the Odionate, the domain of the Sith Lord Odion. This quest brings her into contact with Odion's quest to recover the Helm of Ieldis, an ancient Sith artifact capable of driving sentient beings into a homocidal frenzy. With the "aid" of Kerra, Odion finds the Helm and uses it to destroy the rival Sith Lords Daiman and Malakite's armies on Skarpos. Following the events on Skarpos, the Calimondra family matriarch Vilia Calimondra successfully convinces her family to temporarily put aside their differences to stop the threat posed by Odion's nihilistic ambitions. In response, his rivals including Daiman and Arkadia Calimondra assembled their fleets, in an effort to prevent Odion from destroying the galaxy.
Savoring his successful demonstration on Skarpos, Odion now intended to launch the Helm of Ieldis on a massive scale by drawing dark side energy from the negative emotions of his child captives on Vanahame to cause the entire Grumani sector to collapse into a homicidal frenzy. Odion also planned to eliminate his other Sith family members, ending the stalemated Second Charge Matrica and then become ruler of the galaxy. By killing all other sentient beings with the Helm, Odion aimed to be the sole living being in the entire universe. For the first time, Odion ordered his staff to plunge the planet-sized orphanage into darkness, causing the inmates much fear and panic. Odion then used the Helm to convert their negative emotions into pure dark side energy which was then unleashed on the entire sector.
While unleashing his Helm on the galaxy, Odion had his enemy Kerra chained and also used the Helm to drive his Novitiates into a killing frenzy. However, Kerra managed to convince Odion's second-in-command Beld Yulan that life had a meaning and that the lives of the children on Vanahame mattered. Disillusioned with Odion's nihilistic doctrine and outlook, Yulan entered the Cloister's control room where he forced the crew to restore the light within the Cloister and release the children from their bubble prisons. Yulan's actions had the immediate effects of ending the children's anguish, which ended the Helm's homicidal killing-spree immediately. Meanwhile, Kerra managed to break free from her bonds and fight Wayman, one of Odion's recruiters who had brought her to the Odionate. Initially, Wayman held the upper hand and was about to kill Kerra when his master was overwhelmed by the sudden surge of positive feelings emanating from the relieved children. While Wayman was distracted, Kerra impales him with a lightsaber.
The surge of positive emotions caused the Helm to overload, causing Odion to burn to death. In his last moments, Odion attempted to get Kerra to spare his life by claiming that he could help her find her lost younger sibling. However, Kerra had come to the view that all the captive children were her true brothers and sisters and allowed Odion to die. With Odion's death, his realm descended into anarchy as his rivals including Daiman quickly carved up large chunks of territory from the former Odionate. With his humanity and love restored, a redeemed Yulan departed for Republic space with thousands of the former child inmates aboard a fleet of transports. Meanwhile, Kerra vowed to continue her fight to liberate the sector and the children's parents themselves from the Sith.
- Star Wars: Knight Errant Volume 3: Escape
- Star Wars Legends Epic Collection: The Old Republic Vol. 5