‘We played one game of battle chess. It was only enough to get a taste of it and to get used to the game somewhat. To control the figurines with your voice, giving them orders as to where exactly should they move or which enemy unit should they attack.’
‘Ahsoka got the hang of it fast after that first game, which we didn’t even finish.’
‘Time passed quickly and soon we had to walk to the cantina picking up Rika on the way. When I saw that there was a special twi’lek traditional food on the menu. I immediately decided to choose that.’
‘It was Gruuvan Shaal Kebab, I loved it.’
‘Ahsoka was looking at me strangely. She said that it was basically grilled lizard meat and vegetables on wooden sticks. Nothing to be overjoyed about.’
‘She was right, but then, what of it? It was a dish from home, and I was delighted to find anything from Ryloth here.’
‘I remembered the times I smelled the mouth-watering taste of the grilled lizard meat while begging on the side of the street as a child. There was a vendor who took pity on me and gave me a portion once. I still vividly remember the taste of it.’
‘Even now, as my mind told me that this dish is far superior to the one I ate back then. The circumstances, desperation and gnawing hunger made up for the difference in taste tenfold.’
‘Regarding Ahsoka. She was most likely just annoyed that it was something she couldn’t eat as a togruta. Then again, there are things I couldn’t eat, but togruta could, so that’s just fair play as I see it.’
‘After we finished the food, the girls finally took me to the sewing droid that was responsible for the padawans clothes.’
‘It was a slight surprise that there was not really a need to create new clothes. I could choose from hundreds of already existing ones. Although the droid said that it would be delighted with a new, more sophisticated challenge instead of the usual boring stuff.’
‘I told it that, if possible, I would come back later and ask her for a more special design. It said that I could come by whenever I wanted, since droids never sleep.’
‘After we dropped my new clothes off in my room, we realized that there was not much else to do.’
‘A little aimless wandering later. The three of us ended up in the room of a thousand fountains, since we didn’t have much else to do, and Ahsoka was still forbidden to duel or practice lightsaber forms because of her concussion.’
‘It turned out that the temple’s rumor mill had already reached Rika. She heard that I put up a good fight against Anakin Skywalker. When I asked her if she wanted to duel with me, she paled and squeaked out an immediate no. I was joking in the first place, so I only smiled at her reaction.’
‘When we arrived at the hall, I could hardly disagree with the rumors that lingered around it.’
‘This place was truly awe-inspiring. The simplistic beauty of the fountains. Hundreds upon hundreds of fountains filling the crystal clear white room. The warmth of the nearby star streaming into the chamber through the tall windows while the gentle hum of flowing water filled the background. Like the rumbling of a distant waterfall echoing through the clear water surface of a lake.’
‘I have never seen something like this with my own eyes… Only through the memories. It was true that the memories were so detailed that I felt like I was there myself. Yet it was still not the same, being there in my body. It made the moment unique, as it belong to me first. It was my genuine experience, and that filled me with a sense of peace and happiness.’
‘As we took in the special atmosphere of the hall. On a sudden whim we decided to do a proper jedi thing, even if I wasn’t one.’
‘We sat down in a triangular formation while lightly touching our hands.’
‘It was a basic form of team meditation practice.’
‘Ahsoka, as the oldest of our little group, took the opportunity to play the boss and decided to be the one who led the meditation.’
‘I had no problem with it, so I silently accepted her offer while Rika seemed to be happy that nobody wanted her to lead it, so she also accepted it silently.’
‘Our first team meditation has officially begun.’
‘The true effects of this meditation room began to show around ten minutes into the process of silencing and slowing my flowing thoughts.’
‘In my case, it was usually about an hour of time to enter into the level of calm consciousness or even more.’
‘In this room, I have already begun to slip into a hyperaware state of calmness after barely ten minutes passed.’
‘To know and understand what I am speaking of. You should have at least once experience it yourself. However, to tell someone who never meditated, I can only describe the feeling as being on the brink of falling asleep.’
‘At that fragile state of mind, when an unnatural calmness takes over your body. You feel no fear, desire, or loss. It’s a sense of simple contentedness. The modest happiness of being.’
‘The only difference is that your mind is awake, but not in the general sense. In this state, you can sense the world around you, but your ego won’t control your every thought.’
‘Imagine a narrow mountain river with a powerful stream as you go down on the river, struggling against the drift in your canoe. The water rushes, bringing you along with great force. You become too occupied attempting to stay afloat, and won’t even notice the world beyond the canoe and its direct path.’
‘Now imagine a wide river cutting across a plain. Flowing with the age old foresight and timelessness belonging to the lifeless aspects of the universe we live in.’
‘If you paddle down on this river, you will focus more on the sights surrounding you than the canoe itself.’
‘You will notice the smallest of movements in your environment as your mind becomes freed from the convulsive effects of a strongly directing ego.’
'Suddenly, you see things in different colors, since your experiences with them are not that vivid anymore.’
‘Every emotion you feel is dull, less frightening, less exciting, and much closer to reality.’
‘There is a reason for that, which is the following.’
‘In short, our minds see the surrounding world in the contrast of our personal experiences. Those experiences change the final image of reality to our version of reality.’
‘In essence, we never truly see the world around us, but a version of the world our minds create based on our experiences held together by the mysterious thing that we call ego.’
‘A person, it doesn’t matter if it is human or twi’lek, never really sees the world for what it is. Except maybe when he or she is born and for the first time opens his or her eyes.’
‘Adults, or anyone who has a small segment of personality, cannot clearly see this raw information anymore.’
‘Because our mind already has enough experience to create a personality.’
‘Positive and negative experiences, even neutral ones. The most powerful experiences are the negative ones as they are a matter of survival.’
‘Our experiences overwrite the raw information that the eye receives. That is why, if someone once heavily burned his arm by splashing soup, or cafe on it. For his or her entire life, that memory will immediately appear when she or he smells or sees a cafe or soup, especially if it is the same type.’
‘This means that person cannot enjoy the soup or cafe anymore, not without the sense of subconscious fear and a reminder of the pain that was caused when the accident happened.’
‘This was why I actually liked to meditate sometimes.’
‘If you have about four thousand years of memories, you will have so much personal experience with the world around you that you will become tired from only looking at the things and remembering them.’
‘With an average lifespan you can accumulate so much memories that you have thousands of stories with almost any item around you. It is much more severe in my case. When I look around in the world, I constantly feel a giant tsunami of memories pressuring my mind. I have to repress them. If I didn’t do it, I would freeze up time and time again, literally drowning in the endless waves of memories.’
‘I needed these breathers, to refresh my mind; this is the only time when the weight lessens.’
‘I was thinking and enjoying the freeing experience of deep meditation, when a light brush of force reached my mind. It was coming from Ahsoka, ah. I see she also entered deep meditation. We were only waiting for Rika now.’
‘This room was fantastic. I was mostly skipping on meditation because it took me more than an hour of time to reached the ideal state.’
‘In this room, it was much faster. Ten minutes, maybe twelve. Ahsoka took about thirty minutes, and in the end Rika joined us at forty-five minutes.’
‘Ahsoka then gave us a request through the force. We were meant to rely on her in the meditation session.’
‘I reinforced the barriers around the memories that I inherited from my masters when I was sure that nothing could leak out that I hadn’t experienced or seen with this body; I finally relaxed.’
‘If something that was secretive came up, I could simply banish it with my will. It would ignite Ahsoka’s anger, and she would rant for a few minutes, but I could say that I was not allowed to disclose certain things from my order. That will make her eventually calm down.’
‘I finally joined into the continuous flow of force that the other girls were carefully creating and moving in a circular motion between us.’
‘My entrance gave a slight jolt through the force. Since I was the only missing part. Now, as we all were holding each other’s hands in a continuous circle, the flow began to stabilize.’
‘Ahsoka gave us another remainder through the force. She was getting irritated with our hesitation.’
‘Okay, fine, I relaxed my control over my presence even more and let Ahsoka handle it. We waited for Rika to do the same, then I felt as our force presences began to turn into a vortex. We felt as our astral bodies slowly began to sink into the bottom of this roaring whirlpool. When the bellowing storm dulled to a whispering background noise, I opened my eyes.’
‘We were at the bottom of a dark vortex, still holding hands. I looked upwards. The storm from this depth only seemed as a slowly turning black painting. It didn’t take a genius to realize that something was very wrong here.’
‘When Rika opened her eyes, I could sense her panic as if she recognize the spell at work, just like I did. Well, more likely she got simply scared and I am overthinking things. Yes, that’s definitely it.’
‘I felt that Ahsoka sent her a burst of reassuring feelings through our meditative bond. I was still very surprised from the outcome of this meditation.’
‘This force maelstrom was far from normal, especially in a Jedi Temple. I felt its presence yesterday, this thick suffocating darkness reaching out and engulfing the whole temple.’
‘I sensed that Ahsoka herself wasn’t comfortable with the outcome of our meditation. Therefore, I decided to take over the lead, asking her through the force if she would let me get us out of this situation. She only hesitated for a few seconds before suppressing her control of our shared force bond, while I slowly took over it.’
‘There was a sudden change in the flow when I took over the reins. Not in a good direction, sadly.’
‘The storm suddenly intensified, then it stopped completely and just as suddenly. We were looking around in the thick, silent darkness. Something was very wrong. I just knew.’
‘I felt the force trying to warn me of something, but it was constantly silenced by another outside interference. Only the years of experience that I gained from the ritual allowed me to still understand the small, innocuous warning signs.’
This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.
‘I peered into the suffocating darkness. Wait, it hadn’t really felt suffocating until now. Not for me, at least. The girls were not that lucky. What changed?’
‘On a whim, I reached out with my force presence, almost instantly a terrifying chill ran through my body, the icy dread physically shook me.’
‘I saw a firestorm, coiling around me fuelled by incredible heat and pressing at my body on all sides. The sensation of slowly being cooked while unable to do anything. Panic, raw undiluted panic, was threatening to overcome me.’
‘Then the vision subsided. I found myself back in the eye of the storm, covered in sweat, grasping for air with a thirst I never experienced before.’
‘There was a presence. An aura so dark that it was almost entirely invisible in the middle of this darkness. I wouldn’t sense it if I myself wasn’t a knowledgeable practitioner of the dark side.’
‘This dark, almost empty presence was so dense that it left an empty vacuum behind the much thinner dark energies of this place. That’s why I found it, but it also realized this...’
“Ohhh... what an unfortunate... surprise... he-h-h...”
‘I heard a sadistic voice coming from the dark mist around us. It was in a continuously changing tone. There was no way to identify it, not even its gender.’
“But, who? I wonder, who could have possibly found me?”
‘Peering into the darkness with a hitching breathing, I noticed the slowly appearing silhouette of a hooded black-robed figure materializing in the darkness.’
‘Everyone of us unmistakingly sensed the deadly presence. Raw power radiated from it in enormous waves. I felt as the girls’ hands trembled in mines. They were about to claw through my skin with their terrified grips.’
‘The sensation of sharp pain jolted me out of my shocked state. I quickly began to untie our connection, dismissing the meditation as fast as possible.’
‘The dark-robed figure suddenly stopped moving. Its head whipped in our direction, sensing my actions, no doubt.’
‘Before he could completely turn his face, I blasted apart our meditative connection through letting out a sizeable chunk of the dark side energy that I had gathered from the temple in these few days.’
‘I could only hope that I was quick enough, and he couldn’t take a good look at us.’
‘As I awoke from the horrible meditation, I realized that my body was visibly trembling. My heart beating like a drum, shaking my entire frame.’
‘The room of the many fountains surrounding us was partially engulfed in a blackish cloud. A residual manifestation of the swirling dark side energies mixing with my own. A phenomenon often seen in Korriban’s barren plains. There were even weak electrical discharges mixed in. I hastily began to disperse the residue, siphoning and cleaning most of it out.’
‘Terrified that the jedi might find even more things to put me in a disadvantaged position.’
‘I couldn’t think entirely straight at that moment, since I knew, I clearly knew what I saw.’
‘The deep gold color. It’s sickeningly radiating glint was an unmistakable sign of a true Darth Lord.’
‘One that was powerful enough to cause the appearance of death visions by its mere presence. I shivered from the vivid memory circulating through my thoughts.’
‘The jedi never bothered to realize this detail, but the shade and richness of yellow or gold in this case can be a very good indicator of the level of dark side energies contained by someone.’
‘For example, my eyes became yellow when I tapped deep into the dark side. Like now, as I tried to clean up this mess. It is far from the deep gold hue that guy possessed... but… Wa-wait...’
‘I suddenly realized my grave mistake.’
‘I looked to my left, from where I felt a spike of fear just now.’
‘Ahsoka was watching me with wide, betrayed eyes. The moment I saw her guarded form. I realized that there was no going back. She saw it. I turned to Rika, with slight hope, but she was actually knocked out from the sheer terror of sensing a Darth unmasked presence.’
‘Still, I was worried about her. The poor girl had enough on her plate as it is. I tried to reach towards her and help her with my force abilities.’
‘A suddenly appearing unfamiliar presence stopped me.’
‘A screaming force warning later, I was jumping backwards from my crouching position as fast as possible.’
‘A blue blade slashed into the upper layers of the floor where I was standing a mere second ago. I focused on the attacker with the seriousness the situation demanded. He just attempted to kill me. There was no question about this.’
‘I felt a sense of hurt, but I quickly shoved it aside. Exchanging the feeling with a cold, calculating logic.’
‘My yellow eyes bored into the person standing before me.’
‘A masked jedi, with an actually practical battle armor. A jedi shadow, no doubt... Damn it! I might be able to speak this out with Ahsoka, or even Obi-Wan, but these guys were typical fanatics of the Jedi Order. There is no talking this out with someone like that.’
‘He practically hissed at me.’
“Drop your weapon, traitor, and may the council judge you for your sins. For deceiving us and betraying our hospitality.”
‘I clicked my tongue at that.’
“You are mistaken. I am not a traitor. I was never a Jedi. How could I betray one ideal which I never possessed? Regarding your hospitality, you were the ones who dragged me here out of nowhere, so shut the fuck up! Alright?”
“Your lies have no more power here. Drop your weapon, or die holding onto it. It makes no difference to me.”
‘I blinked at him. Feeling flabbergasted.’
“You realize that you just tried to kill me and admitted that you don’t care if I live or die… right? Now, do you honestly expect anyone to surrender after that? The hypocrisy of your words, betray your true intent shadow. You don’t want me to surrender, do you?”
‘I saw as the man’s eyes narrowed hearing my words. He didn’t react to them and instead said monotonously.’
“Drop your weapon and raise your arms. This is your last warning.”
‘I sighed internally. Now he is acting as a goody two shoes, finally realizing that Ahsoka was a witness to our conversation. What a slime.’
‘I glanced at Ahsoka. She was hesitating, and her expression was pained, looking at me with so much hurt. Pleading through her gaze, asking me to follow the shadow’s instructions.’
‘She at least didn’t want to see me slaughtered, not yet anyway. That will change soon. I am afraid... I can’t let the jedi probe into my mind. That would likely end up killing both me and the fool who attempts such a notion. My mind is surrounded with layers upon layers of defensive mechanisms, nothing short of a Sith holocron.’
‘At first, it would only dissuade any invader, but if they push it too far and too long, it is more than capable of destroying my mind along with anyone’s connected to it at the moment. In a desperate attempt to contain our secrets.’
‘I believe at this point, sharing some of my memories is the only way I could ever convince them. I might be wrong, but the risk is too much to take. The jedi are too good with mind manipulation. We already learned this the hard way, right, Master Revan?’
‘I sighed heavily while I stood there, unmoving and pretty dejected.’
‘My eyes were closed, thinking over my chances... Even if they changed their methods, through the years, which I hardly doubt, seeing the shadow before me. With one Darth Lord, this powerful hiding so close to the Jedi Temple as if he usually walked the corridors of it.’
‘I had no intention to risk being captured and then assassinated, especially not after that vision just now. The pain was too real for it to be a simple illusion.’
‘If that Darth finds me in a helpless and bound state. Then I am as good as dead. I was pretty sure the foresight was warning me about this.’
‘I slowly raised up my face, and opened my eyes, looking at the form of the jedi shadow before me. Then I said with apparent acceptance in my voice.’
“So be it.”
‘He momentarily lowered his guard, surprised by this development.’
‘My eyelids shot up filled with the bright yellow hue, followed by a flick of my left hand and an ear splitting crackling thunder.’
‘Soon a painful scream joined in the chorus as a heavy body flew through the room, crashing into a particularly big fountain. The smell of ozone and burned hair immediately spread across the silent hall.’
‘I made a disgusted expression, feeling the wave of corrosive energies, feelings and thoughts washing over my mind and body. All from the sudden and explicit use of dark side energy.’
‘My body was used to the minor changes by now. I trained to use the dark side, just as the light, or even better. Therefore, the changes were accommodated easily, and will disappear just as easily with time given.’
‘The physical changes were one thing I hated about the dark side. Looking like an undead is nothing to be proud of… My skin shade is pale enough as it is. I didn’t need the sickly color with blackish veins. My left arm, which I used to unleash the lightning, got it worst.’
‘I felt as the muscles inside my arm began to twitch violently. What a mess...’
‘Even with trained adaptability, I can’t get away without injuring myself if I cast such power out of nowhere. I need to warm up with dark side powers like any normal athlete to get accustomed to it slowly.’
‘That’s not an option in a surprise attack, though.’
‘Do you know what is even more sad? That I have to cast a lot more dark side spells to even attempt an escape from this cursed temple. Not that I actually believe I have a chance… I will be most likely caught, but it’s not like me to go down without a fight. At least it will help me get rid of some accumulated frustration. It’s a shame that my skin will become or dried up again…’
‘Now, let’s create some havoc here. I was dying for a stretch. And that bastard deserved an enlightening swim in that fountain for his cheek. To think that he thought he can assassinate me with such a weak attempt.’
‘I throw a playful wink in Ahsoka’s direction, who was kneeling next to Rika with a stupefied expression. Then I began to erase my presence and cast a dark miasma cloud, as a small scale storm, that centered on me.’
‘I smirked. It was the same spell that the Darth used, only unmasked and more potent in its concentration. This will counter the jedi’s senses both visually and in the force.’
‘The last thing I had to do was to run. I didn’t hesitate anymore and began to run towards the closest temple gate I knew of. It was the seventeenth landing pad.’
‘I hoped to reach it, then simply jump off the edge of it. With the help of the force, I theoretically could slow my descent enough to not die. Let’s hope I will make it in one piece.’
Obi-Wan Kenobi was walking through the corridors of the temple with a thoughtful expression. He recently sensed a strange disturbance in the force, but it disappeared almost immediately. Thanks to that, he couldn’t effectively pinpoint the location. What he knew clearly was that it originated from the inside of the temple.
He had a strange premonition, one that unmistakably suggested that his presence was urgently required. And so he left whatever he was doing and went on a blind search for the cause of that disturbance.
As he walked, relying on his intuition, a black cloud of force energy appeared at the turn of the corridor around thirty meters from his current position. The cloud, or more like the person covered by the dark cloud, was followed by a huge ruckus of angry shouts and curses.
Seeing the ridiculous and utterly unbelievable sight spreading out in front of him in the middle of the always peaceful and serene Jedi Temple. Obi’Wan Kenobi froze, blinking rapidly at the phenomenon, unwilling to believe what he was seeing.
Then he sensed a powerful force wave unleashed not far beyond the escaping or from his perspective incoming black blob.
“…You are kidding me?” — Were his only words, as he saw the mysterious escapee picked up by the powerful force push along with a variety of invaluable historic items displayed in the jedi corridor.
The dark cloud of energy quickly accelerated, wildly thrown in his direction, crashing into him, releasing a pained girlish cry on impact. They both fell on the ground, tumbling all over each other.
Obi-Wan found himself spread out on the floor, completely disoriented like a rag-doll. The experience was comparable to being hit by a car. Without his last-minute force shields, the damage would have been a lot worser. Still, his body was aching all over. He might even get a slight concussion from this.
Feeling utterly humiliated by being caught up in such a disaster of an event, noticing the various broken vases and irreplaceable historical items wildly thrown around the corridor. Obi’Wan, for the first time in ages, struggled to contain his level-headed calmness.
“What in blazes is happening here?!” — He shouted his face getting red from the special mix of embarrassment and fluctuating anger.
He was angry at himself as much as the fools responsible for this disaster.
How did he not sense this? He questioned. The force didn’t warn him of an incoming danger of such magnitude? Why?
As he attempted to pull himself up, he realized that he was partially lying on someone. It must be the bastard who had just crashed into him with the force of a cannonball none the less!
From his half sitting half entangled position, he caught sight of the person’s clothes. They were typical padawan robes.
This information further inflamed his anger. Whoever’s padawan is this, he will give the rant of his life to her or his master. He only needs to copy Master Windu’s ranting skills to achieve such a result. It will finally pay off, listening to his tantrums all these years.
Suddenly, a series of footsteps appeared, surrounding him on all sides.
He attempted to look around, still clutching his head from the newly received injuries. A large lump had already begun to form on the back of his head.
When he actually looked up, the frustration in his eyes immediately changed into surprise and confusion.
There were three different jedi shadows standing around him with activated lightsabers.
One of them was especially grumpy and agitated; small smoke clouds were continuously billowing from his clothes, not even speaking of the fact that he was entirely drenched in water and looked like an utter fool.
Nothing less than he did right now, he imagined.
Obi-Wan Kenobi, the legendary jedi diplomat, probably for the first time in his life since he could remember, couldn’t find a drop of serenity inside him. After about half a minute of this awkward silence, he finally ran out of patience and shouted.
“What the hell is happening here?! Are you going to attack me in the middle of the Jedi Temple or what? Is this an insurrection against a council member? Answer me!”
The other three jedi, were completely shocked by the unforeseen change of events.
Obi-Wan, the calmest member of the jedi council, the model jedi, was currently sitting on the back of the suspected sith apprentice.
The girl was obviously unconscious and sprawled out on the ground like a bag of potatoes. While he was shouting at them with utter rage, accusing them of insurrection.
One of the Jedi shadows turned towards the other two with a most likely baffled expression that was hidden behind her mask. Then she asked hesitantly...
“... Is this some sort of Sith witchery?”
“...”
“...”
“...”
“Urgh...”
Hearing the painful moan, Obi-Wan finally remembered that he was lying on someone and jumped up from the ground, ignoring his injuries as if the floor have threatened to burn him alive.
What he saw only raised more questions instead of answereing them.
Not far from the Jedi Temple, a finely robed figure was walking in his richly designed apartment with a troubled expression.
He was surprised that someone had found his presence from the halfwit Jedi Temple, but that was not a reason for his worrying.
On the other hand, the real problem was the fact that he could not find out the identity of this person. That was much more troublesome. This meant one thing, that the person was able to cloud its presence with the use of the dark side.
To that realization, a sadistic half-smile appeared on his wrinkled face.
“A rival, it seems.”
His sickening smile only widened.
“I will teach you to never play with forces far beyond your narrow-minded understanding.”
He walked out of his room, while his bloodthirsty expression slowly formed into a warm grandfatherly smile. There was not even a drop of that sickening malice he showed a few seconds ago.
In a much calmer, even warm voice, he said.
“You will soon realize the full potential of the dark side, with your own pitiful body and soul.”
The voice and the expressions he wore while saying such threats were entirely different, almost succeeding in making his threats seem like a simple joke.