Selene felt the Jedi’s hand, and locked her own hand around it with the kind of unbreakable grip that was closer to a physical promise to keep Jaslyn safe than it was to inflict any kind of pain. At speeds that were forcing the shuttles engines to whine from extreme exertion and turning the endless desert below into a blur, Selene brought the Jedi as close to her body as she could, and leapt.
The Jedi had to be close, close enough for Selene’s presence to eclipse her’s, otherwise Selene wasn’t sure how the creature would react. For as Selene’s worldview became blue sky and whipping winds...in seconds the wind stopped. Not the actual kinetic force of the wind snapping at their clothing and pushing their bodies as Tython’s gravity shot them towards the surface, but the very sound of it just died.
There simply ceased to be sound.
The fall from the shuttle to the surface would have been seconds. If you counted it they landed a few seconds early. Because they didn’t land on the surface. Selene landed firm and easy, the sheer amount of Force energy pulsating through her body from the crystal and the planet itself allowing Selene feats she never would have dreamed before. Like jumping from a runaway shuttle going far too fast and landing on a giant wyrm as it leapt up out of the sands, and kept it’s upper half exposed to the air in order to allow for passengers.
The wyrm’s mind was primal. It was going for what it thought and felt was food. In a way, the wyrm wasn’t wrong, Selene thought to herself as she felt the Jedi struggle with footing. In response to the Jedi’s struggle, Selene’s arm snaked around Jaslyn’s waist, her head turning to catch the grey eyes of the red haired Jedi.
No words were said because no sound was heard, only the rumble of the wyrm moving through the sand, and the faint up and down of their bodies as the creature’s breathing moved them ever-so-slightly every few moments. Selene pointed back, at the speeders and starfighters appearing at an impossible distance that she could see. The Jedi were hot behind them.
It wouldn’t matter.
Then her hand tugged at the Jedi’s hip, to get her attention, as Selene pointed ahead. There was a small sandstone mound on the horizon, getting bigger by the second. It was nearly little more than a rounded dome of sandstone, but a thousand years ago...it had been so much more than that. In a matter of heartbeats the sandstone got bigger, and bigger, the sand dunes around it shifting as the wyrm approached and a wild wind from the planet Tython pushed at their backs.
The weather was following Selene, leaving the Jedi to chase her in hurricane like conditions. Off in the distance, to the left of them, began a dust devil of a cyclone that grew up green-black clouds. The sun of the desert began to fade, as the green-black clouds began to close in with supernatural speed.
But that was the Jedi’s concern. Selene had kept a tight hold around Jaslyn’s waist, and used it in that moment to lift her like she were made of paper before leaping her own body in air, simply carrying the Jedi with her. When she landed she did so with Jaslyn in either arm, one of Selene’s arms under her shoulders, the other under her knees. They were a mere twenty yards from the sandstone dome when the wyrm shattered it, crashing right into where sand met sandstone.
Never was there a sound. Just vibration.
The whole it created went almost straight down. Selene ran for the edge, looked over the edge and peered down. A few moments of thought, and Selene felt her lips smile again. She could FEEL it. They were there. They had unlocked access to the Chambers of the Mind. And the one that she was told to find in particular by spirit and memory of those Je’daii that her great ancestor had left behind for dead.
Shadow murmured and Selene closed her eyes, spreading her arms out to either side with palms up. She laughed silently on the edge of the darkness and the fall. She felt the spirits below. She heard them. The Force itself called. She turned just in time to smile at the Jedi...before taking a step back to the edge of the massive hole caused by the wyrm, and let herself fall.
She fell for nearly 12 seconds. It was thousands of feet down, and the landing was made on polished stone. Without looking up she held her arms out, and caught the Jedi falling too fast to easily land with the same surge of Force energy like ran hot through Selene’s body and mind and spirit.
Letting the Jedi onto her feet, Selene quickly reached behind her and under her robes. Here there was sound, allowing for each
crack of the chemical light to echo through the ancient vaults they found themselves in. She threw them in every direction, six in all, and suddenly the large stone walls were alive in bright light that shined azure in the shadowy subterranean darkness.
“No living soul has been down here in over a millennia…” She sounded giddy, the excitement as plain on her face as it was in her voice. She’d been right. Every hard studied clue had led to another clue in what seemed a never-ending cycle of clues and no true treasure. Then Ramal had spoken to her, then she had paid a small fortune and ruined the career, and life, a Republic intelligence operative to find her way to Tython. And on Tython she learned Ramal to be anything but a liar, even if he’d hidden his role from her. The crystal’s shatter was enough to shatter Ramal’s lies, and let Selene walk her own path.
She picked the path of knowledge. Instantly she knew where to go and how to get in, the very reason for awakening the ancient wyrm. The wyrm that had exited through a hole in a wall far off in the distance of the black dark room illuminated only in small patches of bright blue light.
“Come on. We’re close.”
And they were. It was simply a matter of exiting the main hall they were in. The doors they found didn’t work, but Selene had enough energy to force them open, the small chant coming to the ears of both Dark Sider and Jedi.
Tho Yor, it sang.
Tho Yor, Tho Yor… calling out to both of them, urging them closer and closer. Past a stone door covered in runes that Selene recognized as early Je’daii, before they began to unify their language, when they were still a collection of aliens and outsiders.
“The giant ships were powered by…..we don’t know. The early Force Users didn’t know. These giant pyramids landed on your planet, your moon, your home...THO YOR, THO YOR, THO YOR...calling you, urging you, begging you closer. When you got close enough, the doors opened, and you went inside. You and every Force Sensitive where you were. Who sends automated ships all across the galaxy to collect Force Sensitives from pre-Republic worlds? What takes all those ships to this planet, and opens the doors to let them out so they can all mingle and mix and become what they’d be?...who is to blame for the Jedi and the Sith?”
The unnatural Jedi and Sith, the tone in her voice all but spoke aloud right after her words.
But they were there. The wall in front of them now wasn’t stone, and it wasn’t straight. It angled away from them, disappearing into sandstone. Doors nearly twenty feet in height and thirty wide stirred, ancient mechanisms and energy behind even Selene’s understanding creaking to life, sending a line of light from within the ancient vessel outward as the door began to open slowly.
Selene turned away from the door, and held out her hand again. And for the first time Selene heard her voice clear, sharp...but she hadn’t heard it with her ears and her mouth never moved. Her mind simply spoke to Jaslyn’s. As instinctive and easy as breathing.
Come with me. I want you to, I need you to. I’m so tired of being alone...Jaslyn felt Selene grip her hand firmly like a lifeline. Jaslyn raised her eyebrows as Selene pulled her close.
Trust a precious thing easily broken. Truth is more or less important? Looking over Selene’s shoulder Jaslyn almost smiled.
A leap of faith it is. Jaslyn allowed her body to relax just as they leapt out of the shuttle.
The rush of wind was deafening as they freefell. Jaslyn watched the shuttle fall away wind whipping her hair and cloak like a banner of green and copper reaching for the sky. Suddenly and unexpectedly the world went silent. The actual presence of the wind wasn’t gone just the sound.
Jaslyn looked down seeing the wyrm breaking the surface. She had just seen the wym and it was going to get a closer look from what she could tell. Jaslyn closed her eyes and dug deep remembering her Breath Control clearing her mind. She relaxed and felt the pulse of the Force running through Selene.Not Light, but not entirely Dark. Their landing was firm but not overly jarring. Which was unexpected.
Hunger. Overwhelming and unwavering hunger.Obedience.These emotions slammed through Jaslyn and she struggled to pull back. She stumbled and Selene’s arm came around her waist. Blue eyes held her grey ones and Jaslyn was able to at least pull back from the great wyrm’s emotions. The contact made it easier to shut out the wyrm but did not close off the empathic power riding Jaslyn entirely. Selene pointed behind them.
Speeders and starfighters an impossible distance bearing down on them. They were like gnats off in the distance. Gnats that were growing larger each passing second. Jaslyn felt the tug at her hip and looked over at Selene who pointed farther ahead.
Just there a small sandstone mound. Deceptively small. As it grew larger it was apparent that it was little more than a rounded dome blending into the dunes around it. As the wyrm’s moment and winds whipping around behind Jaslyn and Selene, following their progress it seemed, shifted the sands from their original placement the dome grew.
Jaslyn did not envy the rest of the Order that was in chase. The sky grew dark and a cyclone quickly grew and tore across the desert to their left. This storm was building faster than it had previously at the rift.
Without warning Selene lifted her without even a thought of effort and leapt off the wyrm. Selene had braced Jaslyn behind the shoulders and under her knees and Jaslyn looped an arm around the other woman’s shoulders. As they landed they had a front row seat for the wyrm’s dive into the sands. It’s obligation fulfilled from the looks of it.
The churning of the sands made no sound just a vibration that could be felt deep within. It seemed unnatural and yet at the same time just as natural and timeless as the silent shifting of the sands. The yawning mass was deep. Selene put Jaslyn down and ran for the edge some twenty feet away. Jaslyn didn’t like how close Selene got to the edge and slowly made her way over to Selene.
Selene who looked back at Jaslyn and smiled after a moment. Jaslyn had just reached Selene as she spread her arms wide and leaned back over the edge falling into nothing. Jaslyn’s eyes went wide as she tried to snatch Selene’s arm, shirt, anything that would stop the fall of the woman.
“SELENE!!!!!!!!!” The scream was silenced by the desert itself. No ear would hear the fear in Jaslyn’s voice. Her balance was thrown off reaching for Selene and Jaslyn tumbled in after her as the sand shifted just enough that Jaslyn lost her footing.
Much to Jaslyn’s surprise Selene caught her. Setting Jaslyn on her feet Selene began to fiddle with something and a
crack then another resounded as Selene cracked two chemical lights then a few more, six in all. The lights were dim but in the darkness they lit up the chamber in a bright azure light that reminded Jaslyn of a good number of the lightsabers that the other members of the Order had.
Thinking of the Order Jaslyn looked back up out the hole that had lead them both down here.
We need to keep moving or we’ll be in trouble. Jaslyn turned back toward Selene as she started talking.
She’s like a Youngling that just got their first lightsaber. I doubt that she’d like that analogy though. Jaslyn couldn’t help but smile.
“Jaslyn…There is no ignorance; there is knowledge.”Jaslyn turned her head.
I’m hearing things. That’s what I can expect after not hearing anything for a moment. Jaslyn was brought back to the moment by Selene telling her they were close.
Close to what though.“Jaslyn…There is no fear; there is power.”Jaslyn shook off the strange familiar way that voice sounded. Selene should be enjoying this since this is what she does. Finds things that are ancient. Following Selene she heard a chant.
Tho Yor, it sang.
Tho Yor, Tho Yor… calling out to both of them, urging them closer and closer. Past a stone door covered in runes that seemed vaguely familiar in ways that should not be possible.
“Jaslyn. LISTEN. I am the heart of the Force.”Jaslyn could barely think past the words. They were all consuming. She kept pushing them away but they came back again and again.
Selene was still talking about something intense and important. Jaslyn focused on her.
“The giant ships were powered by…..we don’t know. The early Force Users didn’t know. These giant pyramids landed on your planet, your moon, your home...THO YOR, THO YOR, THO YOR...calling you, urging you, begging you closer.”“I am the revealing fire of light.”[color=white]“When you got close enough, the doors opened, and you went inside. You and every Force Sensitive where you were. Who sends automated ships all across the galaxy to collect Force Sensitives from pre-Republic worlds?
“I am the mystery of darkness...”[color=white]“What takes all those ships to this planet, and opens the doors to let them out so they can all mingle and mix and become what they’d be?...who is to blame for the Jedi and the Sith?”
“In balance with chaos and harmony, Immortal in the Force."Selene stopped, they were there. The wall in front of them now wasn’t stone, and it wasn’t straight. It angled away from them, disappearing into sandstone. Doors nearly twenty feet in height and thirty wide stirred, ancient mechanisms and energy beyond even Selene’s understanding creaking to life, sending a line of light from within the ancient vessel outward as the door began to open slowly.
Selene turned away from the door, and held out her hand again. And for the first time Jaslyn could hear Selene’s voice clear, sharp...in her mind simply spoke to Jaslyn’s.
Come with me. I want you to, I need you to. I’m so tired of being alone...Jaslyn reached out and took Selene’s hand again. Sending the thought.
So be it. Never alone again. Jaslyn smiled and squeezed Selene’s hand that she had taken.
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