Prologue

Footsteps. Steady, but unhurried.

In the absolute darkness of the ancient chamber, a sound echoed for the first time since it had been sealed, centuries before.

Amplified though the sounds were by the bareness of the subterranean shrine outside, the thick walls reduced the steps to little more than muffled shuffling inside the main chamber. But it was no matter; there was only one there to hear it. One who had been expecting company long before the footsteps betrayed its arrival.

After long minutes, the footsteps stopped on the other side of the chamber wall, pausing and then beginning again, following along the two walls that protruded out into the larger shrine, and then pacing back to the corner where they met and stopping once more. Silence prevailed. Were it not for the absence of retreating footsteps, the shrine might have seemed abandoned again. But its visitor was not so easily deterred. Something, not a sound, as such, but palpable, blossomed from the corner of the chamber. A moment later, the room shuddered, disturbing the accumulated layers of dust and sediment. With an earthen groan and a sharp crack, a splinter of light burst on the room as the walls separated. They continued to slide steadily apart, received into hidden recesses of the shrine, and as the light from the new doorway swelled, it framed the silhouette of a robed figure standing just outside, hand raised commandingly. The hand lowered as the walls ground to a stop.

The light shifted as the figure moved into the room, revealing a knee-high slab of rock apparently set into the red stone floor. The solitary shaft of light played across its pitted surface, as the figure slowly paced around it. The thick layer of dust gave it the impression of porous, bleached red bone. At the head of the slab was a simple square plinth, oriented with one corner pointing to the slab, and the opposite one pointing into the corner of the chamber. A four sided pyramid hardly larger than an average human palm projected up from its bare top.

The pilgrim stopped beside the plinth, hooded head looking briefly between it and the slab beside it. The hand extended again, over the plinth, and that same tangible power filled the room for a moment before dissipating like a gust of wind over the pillar, sweeping away the dust as though it were never there. The pyramid could now be seen for what it was; not a part of the pillar, but an artifact: a crystalline blue structure with finely etched symbols clad in a silvery metal frame. The metal also bore markings, though mostly straight intersecting lines, unlike the curving characters set in the crystal. The figure seemed to hesitate at the sight of it, and as if in response, it began to glow. Pale blue light welled up at its heart, dim, but bright enough to illuminate the head of the plinth where it sat. Something moved through the room, like a deep sigh, snapping the visitor's attention to the darkest corner. But there was nothing. All was still. The wait was over.

Turning back to the artifact, a small open-handed gesture sent it levitating upward, it's glow intensifying. Having risen almost to eye level with the hooded figure, it gave a small, mechanical click, and the tip split into four and folded back. A semitransparent projection materialized above the slab. It was a straight-backed figure clad in similar robes, though with the hood down, revealing the face of an elderly man of a darker, perhaps tanned, complexion with a smooth bald head and a silvery looking beard. He began to speak almost as soon as he appeared.

"Greetings. You hav-You hav-You hav-You hav-" The old man twitched each time, unable to finish his sentence before the projection would reset. The pilgrim looked back at the artifact, and it shook up and down in the air for a moment. "You have been led here by the Force," the projection finished this time, and the pyramid became still again as the visitor's attention returned to the old man.

"I believe this," he said quietly, "and not just because this chamber will have been sealed by barriers only the Force could open." The creases at the corners of his eyes became more pronounced as he squinted, as if actually seeing the hooded pilgrim. "The Force is a manifestation of destiny. And yours has brought you here. Compared to the Masters who came before, and the many who will surely come after, my experience feels but little. Yet it seems that I cannot have solace until I have recorded my journey and what wisdom it may offer for others. I must trust, then, that it will serve a greater purpose. So here I have waited for it to be fulfilled."

The hooded pilgrim sank into a seated position as the projection went on.

"In the beginning, I was known as Bor'om. What I shall be remembered as, I leave to you to decide. Like many, I learned of my connection to the Force as a child…"