Star Wars
The Force Wars
The Flame In The Night
By
Christopher Cleveland
Prologue
Five years had passed since Cassandra had lost her mother, Arden Lyn, at the hands of a reborn Darth Sidious. Yet the memory of her mother's failed attempt to defend her was still as vivid as the rising sun of the fourth moon of Yavin. "It hasn't been easy for you without your mother, has it?" Leia, the woman who took her in alongside her own children, asked. Cassandra shook her head before looking down at the amulet that her mother had given her the day before the attack.
Her mother had said that if anything bad were to happen, this amulet would contain everything Arden knew of the history of the galaxy as well as her memories of the First Great Schism. "I understand how it feels: the family I had been raised by was vaporized in a beam that destroyed an entire planet. Under orders from the same man who killed your mother, I might add," Leia said. She wanted to add that her real father had been there to hold her captive as she helplessly watched.
However, Leia sensed that this wouldn't help Cassandra feel any better than she already did about her mother's demise. "Leia, if it's not too much to ask, may I have this day to myself? It's five years to the day that my mother was killed," Cassandra asked. "I take it you'll join us for dinner, right?
"You know you're always welcome in our family, so long as you need a home," Leia offered. "Thanks, I'll give it some thought while I figure out how this pendant on my amulet works. Something else my mother mentioned was her knowledge of Terras Kasi residing in this too," Cassandra replied. Leia nodded and hugged her, kissing her on her forehead before allowing her the peace and quiet she sought.
A little playing around with the pendant after Leia left and Cassandra soon found the key. However, upon pressing it, the pendant ripped itself out of her hands and took the chain around her neck with it. After that, a life-sized hologram of her mother rose from the center of the pendant as though it was trying to resurrect some vestige of the galaxy's oldest woman. "Hello my dearest Cassandra, if you're watching this recording then it means that the worst has happened.
"Emperor Palpatine has finally found and killed me but you are safe from his terrible grasp. Anyhow, as I promised during the last night we spent together, I have recorded the history of all I was taught before the First Schism. So listen closely and take what I have to teach you to heart, little one," the hologram stated. "Tell me what you have to tell me, mother," Cassandra said.
"Since you already know quite a bit about the Despot War, I think I'll begin with the Force Wars. The events surrounding that were surprisingly simple in their appearance and occurrence. During the days of the Infinite Empire, a Force Hound named Xesh found the Je'daii on Tython. But before he was exiled to the moon of Bogan and eventually killed after his escape, he left a little present. It was something that his Predor had hoped to reclaim before the fall of the Infinite Empire: a ring.
"A ring worn by Xesh yet so valuable to the Rakata that its loss meant their disconnection from the Force and the eventual fall of the Infinite Empire. Where my story starts is about how the ring was found and how its recovery provoked the Force Wars into occurring," the hologram replied. Cassandra sat, crossed her legs, and looked up in awe as her mother began the lecture she recorded just for her.