Chapter 124: 124. Chapter

-From the perspective of Ahsoka-

We resumed our walk soon after the quick breakfast. The treasure hunter’s supplies were stretched thin, which was expected as the number of mouths to feed had essentially doubled since we found the rest of the girls.

I was still having a hard time coping with what had happened. To think that so many of our order have perished because of a cruel betrayal. I asked Nizzy a couple of names, belonging to the jedi masters who I know personally. Unfortunately, she didn’t know for sure if they were alive or among those who had lost their lives.

She said that the order was likely still trying to figure out the true extent of the damage they suffered. Because of that, there was no official publicized list of the deceased yet.

However, she was kind enough to tell me the names belonging to those she knew to be among the living.

It was a small reassurance, if nothing else.

From that point onwards, we have walked and climbed for several hours without a pause. Either by luck or the subtle guidings of Lily, there was nothing unexpected happening on the way out. Our only constant company was the endless series of dull-dark corridors following one another in a hypnotizing fashion.

I would have completely lost my sense of time without the help of my carriable holo-communicator attached to my wrist.

Kalifa, who was walking by my side, sighed heavily as she realized that after this long dry corridor instead of the awaited bright blue sky, what followed was just another similarly dull passage. I could understand what she felt. I was feeling a similar urge to get out of this cave system. This place seemed to become more and more oppressive with every second I spent underground.

I forced myself to stay calm, but I couldn’t help but wonder if the shadows surrounding have truly moved from time to time, or if it was only the work of my imagination.

As time continued to pass, I was beginning to lean towards the first possibility. This place, the overpowering darkness it held, was more than capable of playing tricks on my mind. That thought only seemed to solidify itself, as I observed the actions belonging to the rest of the team.

It was not just me, aside from Nizzal and Lily. It was plainly obvious that the rest were similarly affected, or even worse. They were throwing suspicious glances at one another, making nervous sudden movements while staring at a certain place in a shadowy corridor. Only to realize that there was nothing there.

Taking all of that into consideration, it should be no surprise to anyone that the latter half of our trip was unnecessarily tiring, filled with an over looming tension.

Still, after hours upon hours of constant walking, a faint light was finally noticed at the end of a corridor. The sight of natural light gave us an urge to hurry, to finally leave behind this cursed cave and never see it again. Our bodies felt revitalized and our legs moved with a refreshed spring. The goal was finally in sight.

If we walked any faster, then we were already moving, then we would have been running out of that damned cave. Alas, our sense of happiness was short-lived. As I stepped out into the blinding light, I felt the scorching heat of the sun assault me with all its unpleasantness.

Waves upon waves of dry-hot air filled with sand were sucked in by the drafts of wind around the entrance leading into the underground tomb. The wind from which you would normally expect some sort of relief in a summer day was nothing of the sort here. The air was too hot, pushing more of the sand filled boiling air into my face, creating a constant sense of suffocation.

We covered our faces with our hands or clothes and pushed forward to get away from the strong draft present at the cave’s entrance.

A few minutes later, when we were far enough from the small scale red sandstorm surrounding the cave's entrance, we stopped with the intention of regrouping and deciding which way we should proceed onwards.

In the meantime, I started looking around in barely hidden awe, as the red sea of sand dunes covering the still visible remains of a long destroyed civilization, surrounded us on all sides until the eye could see.

As I marveled at the sights, I felt an unexpected sense of peace flushing over me. It took me a few seconds to realize that it was not due to the sights I was enjoying, instead; it originated from Nizzy.

I looked at her with a solemn curiosity, as the peaceful, almost nostalgic emotions were threatening to overwhelm me.

I took in her form with careful observation and saw her eyes glinting with an unmistakable sense of familiarity and dread? As she watched the surrounding ruins, her eyes seemed to reflect with a series of strong emotions. It surprised me. I have never, ever seen the apathetic twi’lek show emotions quite as vivid as this was.

Not even in the face of death.

I turned back to the ruins and blinked, already lost in thought. I remembered what she told us about herself, that she was not what she looked like. A being older, much older than we would ever imagine her to be. Hidden under the disguise of a child.

I believed what she told me, as I was her friend. And those things she would have shown and taught me were more than enough to validate such claims. However, believing in her words and understanding them was quite different I realized.

This was the first time when that difference truly sank in.

Her hazy pink eyes were seeing a different Korriban, then ours were. One probably filled with life, even if it was in the form of the Sith Empire. An empire that was powerful and prosperous enough to create buildings that to this very day hold unbelievable amounts of treasure. Buildings that have stood the test of time, and laughed into its wrinkly face with a stubborn, decadent smile till the very last second.

Naturally, time was not something that could have been defeated so easily. In the end it will eventually disappear, molded back into the raw forms of rocks under the tireless hands of erosion, just like other civilizations did before, and will continue to do so in the future.

Eternity, as the human mind could understand, was nothing more than a tentative blink of time to the universe itself.

-Whatever we do has little meaning in the end? Isn’t that just the truth?

I felt my lips form a wry smile as if to hide the barren dread grasping my heart under the guise of  everyday casualness.

I could feel as a pair of pink eyes were suddenly seeking out my own blue ones. I submitted to the temptation and tentatively looked into those deep eyes, somewhat surprised to see a gray whirlpool in place of that lively pink I originally expected.

A strange sense of calmness and resolution radiated from those cloudy eyes. For a short second, I felt the world stilling around me, around us. I tried to look away from it, but I couldn't will my body to do so.

I felt myself pulled deeper into the whirlpool and soon there was a mixture of voices whispering inside my head.

Nizzal’s one among the many, but I recognized it right away. When the voices were loud enough, I listened to what they told me. Each word, sometimes each syllable told by a unique voice, in a different accent. Giving to the sentences a song like a mysterious attribute…

-If whatever you do has no real consequences, that would mean you are free to do whatever you want. A sound notion, but misguided none the less. Look at this place, young one. The denizens of this planet believed in what you spoke of. Their beliefs are still lingering over the skeletons of their abandoned constructions. Poisoning the minds of those who linger in their presence. Every action has a consequence if not in the present, then in the future… Just like your present actions are the consequences of yours or others’ past deeds. Nobody’s existence in this world is truly futile, even if they themselves don’t recognize that truth… Their actions, their presence somewhere sometime will eventually matter.

There was a contemplating silence left behind.

It was suddenly broken by a burst of wind, followed by a sense of floating that surrounded my body, and I could finally look away from her eyes. Only to realize that I was in the middle of an incredibly dense fog… Before I could start panicking the fog changed around me, it stretched out and condensed at seemingly random places, only to shock me a few seconds later as a familiar scene was drawn out by the fog itself.

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-Is this the place we were looking at just now?

I asked in awe, my eyes bulging at the sight. People in strange uniforms were walking in front of the ancient tombs, which were even then mostly covered by the tight embrace of sand.

The voices spoke in my mind again, lecturing, telling about an age long since past.

I was swept away by the flood of information, as the images flickered in and out of the fog, only to be replaced by a different story with distinct characters and events. Eventually my mind grew tired under the constant assault, and just like that, the images stopped coming.

-Now you know. This place is nothing more than a monument to human strife, stubbornness and self-denial. Beyond hatred, anger and injustice, there is only one emotion that can truly describe this place…

I waited while unconsciously withholding my breath, as the voices finished their sentences.

-Sadness.

I swallowed drily as the word echoed through my mind. I wasn't expecting something like that. Before I could speak up, I felt the mist disperse, and in a blink, I was back in the present, staring into a pair of pink, mirthless eyes coupled with the unusually pale contours of Nizzal's face.

Her thin lips moved in a whisper, and I read the words from her lips.

"Now you know."

I winced as I felt a slight wave of nausea. What… what was that just now? I wobbled a bit, making an effort to stay on my feet as an immense amount of information flooded my mind. My head pulsed with a dull pain, which was to my relief gradually weakening with every breath.

Still, at the end of the minute, I found myself grasping for air as new layers of perspiration formed on my skin.

A funny sensation was finding its place into my thoughts as I realized that I was likely knowing more of the Sith than anybody else alive in the Jedi order present.

My gaze wandered toward a nearby obelisk, casually looking at the hierographs carved along its side. My eyes running along the first rimic sentence in its path.

“In eternity shall they rule, seated upon the corpses of those beneath them.”

I felt a wave of surprise, which quickly morphed into shock, followed by a wave of disbelief and disgust. I blinked a few times, as I looked at the half buried obelisk once again. Staring at the unfamiliar yet familiar characters carved into its shaft.

I shouldn’t be able to read this… it was Sith writing, for god’s sake! Could it be… because…

I glanced at Nizzy anxiously, but she was showing her back towards me right now… Did she… did she teach an entire language to me in a few seconds? And who were those other voices speaking in my head?

I had so many questions… yet before I could walk up to her to ask a single one of them; I was brought out of my shocked state by a disgruntled and quite desperate shout.

The voice was belonging to one of the excavation members, more specifically to our leader, Ligo.

-For fuck’s sake! Stop joking with me, Qaghr… and tell me that it’s not that direction!

As I focused on the current happenings, I realized that the rest of the group was arguing about something while looking into the distance with worried expressions. The recently left behind sensation of tension was coming back with a redoubled force.

There was an alien voice speaking in an annoyed tone of voice, likely spouting curses at the other man. Eventually, his words changed to galactic standard.

-I am tell’n you it is! The sh’ip is that way!

Spoke the aqualish man with considerable effort. He was not very good at the language...

Suye, the other original female member of the excavation team, who was a pretty shy girl, only speaking when spoken to, but clearly enjoyed the excavation part of her work… I would know since I was helping them to look through the rooms in the renovated part of the tomb before running into the others…

Anyway, she had a terrified expression creeping onto her face now and I heard her shaking voice speak:

-It can’t be… what will we do now?

I finally decided toto walk up to them as they were standing on the upper part of the sand dune we were currently standing on. When I reached the top and stood next to the others, a complicated expression immediately settled on me as well.

There, behind a large rock outcropping about two to three kilometers from here, a large black cloud of smoke was emanating into the sky. I felt a sudden knot forming in my throat as I was gazing helplessly at the billowing cloud of smoke covering half of the horizon.

With a certain suspicious growing in my thoughts I sighed... It seems our way home was cut short before it could become an actual option.

At least that explained where the Sith disappeared so suddenly… especially after promising us a particularly gruesome end.

I thought sarcastically, trying to keep my plummeting emotions under control.

We were helplessly staring at the dark clouds, under the scorching heat of the sun, while a tight feeling was forming in each of our chests. Soon, without anything better to do, we started to walk towards the unmistakable signs of destruction.

As we descended on the other side of the red dune, we also descended into a deep silence that seemed to take us in its cold, ominous grasp.

In the deepest pit of my belly, a familiar feeling began to form. One that I felt quite often, even though I rarely admitted it…

Fear.

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