There were shadows on the floor and whispers coming from the walls. The air smelled recycled and stale, colder than it had any right to be. When Selene looked she saw only light of a thousand different brightnesses and hues. She saw galaxies. She saw stars. She saw shadows, whispering, the air, the cold...her head was heavy like a weight. Or an anchor. When she turned it she saw the warmth in her life. Jaslyn. Every instinct said to trust her. The longer she looked at the young Jedi, the more she saw. Instead of a universe of light she saw...shapes, heard sounds instead of an infinity of energy turned to sound. Words and the sentiment behind them. Selene's head tilted, as Je'daii welcomed Jaslyn. [i]Welcomed her home.[/i] It felt like a family reunion, but it didn't feel that way to Selene. It felt that way to Jaslyn, and Selene felt it through the Force. Through the very invisible tether that now seemed to bind them. [i]Sela![/i] Her head snapped the opposite direction at the sound of her sister's voice. There shadow of the ancient vessel was at once the blinding brightness of a bright hot summer's day. The world around her was less vibrant than any she had ever seen, the blue of the water a pale blue gray, the sky even closer to gray than the water below with it's thunderous waves crashing once, again, and again, and on and on. The expanse of coast appeared endless when she looked one way, and endless again when she turned to look back the other way--the direction that had been Jaslyn just moments before. Booted feet crunched sand underneath as she made an awkward step, and then another. Something moved across the horizon. Something large, something obscured by distant and grey cloud, but Selene knew it was there. Some vast shape that was moving. It got closer faster than anything had any right to, the sound coming secondary to the sight but it came unmistakable all the same. A sound she knew, a sound as deep as instinct to her ears. And more than her ears. Before she realized it she was no longer alone, a tribe of milk white skinned, tall and slender, humanoids gathering around her. A handful of them stepped even closer as whispered gossip ignited within the rest of the crowd, a group she felt before she even saw: Force users. The part of the crowd that just didn't hear the sound, that didn't know that the massive moving shape was no threat. It was Tho Yor. The sand of desert became desert sand, and Selene saw the same pattern again. A different group of Force users from a different species. The sand became snow upon a mountain valley, and a different group of Force users from a different species stepped forward. It happened time and time again, on every kind of planet she could imagine. Everyone was scared but the Force users among them. The Force users stepped forward as the Tho Yor touched down with a gentle softness that should have been impossible for such a large vessel. She saw their faces instantly: not the countless Force users stepping forward from countless groups they had led and lived with before to enter the Tho Yor. The blue scale serenity on the faces of those who had sent the massive shaped Tho Yors. They spoke a language she didn't know, but the Force was so strong and so balanced that it filled her ears with understanding. [i]Kwa.[/i] And then she heard pain, and her body froze in a gasp. The language that came next felt like tiny bolts of lightning striking with each point of emphasis and syllable spoken. This language she had heard before, even if she didn't understand it. [i]Rakatan.[/i] And the blood flowed. Once more, then again, and it never ended. The balance broken by one side or the other. She saw aliens attack aliens, she saw Force users disagree and fight. She saw steel flashed on Tho Yors as Force using pilgrims were strained to balance in order to survive in the enclosed massive shapes. Tython spoke to her in whispers, bringing her to the places where each Tho Yor rested. Neither cold, nor hot, the Force flowed through every sight that blinked in front of her. Moments became flashes of light that expanded and played in full in her mind. She saw the death of Balance as blades flashed under the Tython sky. It happened again. And again. And again. And again. An Order died, a new one reborn in it's shadow, marching forward in the flashes of light that time flew past her. It appeared crystalline and gossamer, every dim light stretching in every direction, her own body gone, her own eyes facing every direction, the distance of right before her the same as the distance of the farthest point imaginable. Birth and death weren't points, they were part of it, glowing in creation and destruction equally, swirling, but never growing. Stars were visible through it, cold points of light fixated in a distance that she found just as close and distant at once as every experience she now saw. Tython. Ossus. Dathomir. Rakata Prime. Ruusan. Genosis. Coruscant. Alderaan. Tatooine. Mustafar. Hoth. Bespin. Endor. Ahch-To. Crait. From names she knew, such as Sunrider and Shan, to names she did not, such as Skywalker and Solo. All the light, all the dark, everything that was, everything that was going to be, all their love, all their hate, all the joy, all the sadness...balanced before her in a way she couldn't see but felt, deep and distantly as the stars that shined as fixed points of cold light encircled all around her. Every time she died she was reborn again, into the same cycle, into the same infinity that lay flattened below and beyond her, time and space points in that cycle. It was all different things and the same thing in the same, depending on where and when she looked, both were strung below her in the same crystalline and gossamer infinity alive with it's own dim light. [i]Balance.[/i] Selene's head spun and her eyes slammed tightly shut, her body falling to knees as the cold floor of the Tho Yor rushed up to meet her. [i]When I am?[/i] her mind thought, her voice asking, "Where am I?" Panic started, as the infinite was snatched away from her as if it were no more than a dream she had been woken from. Her heart beat faster and stronger, harder until her mind felt battered and strained. [i]Find the stars...find the starlight...[/i] But when her eyes opened she found only darkness, both her body and mind slipping off into the blackness, her frame falling limp on the floor of the Tho Yor. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [sub][i](Jaslyn written by Almalthia)[/i][/sub] Jaslyn heard Selene’s voice faint and fluttery like a small bird in hand. Then felt a wave of panic that was cut short as the girl passed out. Jaslyn rushed over and checked Selene. “Selene? We’re on Tython. Selene? The Silent Desert do you remember that?” She grabbed a canteen that was still half full of water and unscrewed the lid. Jaslyn pulled out a piece of soft cloth and poured water on it. Then she wiped Selene’s forehead with the damp cloth. Selene’s upper body shot upward fast and hard--had Jaslyn been any closer their heads would have smacked together. And there Selene stayed for another moment until it stretched into another, time lingering for her in ways it didn’t even minutes before. [i]Were they minutes? Not months? Not years?[/i] Selene was deeply sad, having been placed back in her mind and body, limited, contained, disconnected...the Force was her only comfort. And the other emotions, the other feelings, and thoughts...the other person attached to her. To Jaslyn. Finally her eyes snapped to Jaslyn, and suddenly Selene recalled the world awaiting them outside. “Let’s go. I know how to get us out, now. They’re waiting for us...they’re all waiting for us.”