CHAPTER 4
You're sitting in it right now…
Shivers ran through Rey. She quickly looked around her, seeing the small dwelling with new eyes. The scratches across the walls shimmered, and Rey realized it was actually intricate gold designs, in ancient script. They seemed to whisper. A Jedi temple. A place where the Force was so thick you could breathe it. The hairs on Rey's arms prickled.
Rey said the first thing that came to mind.
"It's...a really small temple."
R2-D2 gave a series of angry beeps and noises, apparently in agreement.
Luke Skywalker was laughing.
"All right, Artoo, calm down," he said, placing his hand on the droid's dome. The droid was still making a ruckus. "Calm down! Yes, I know it shouldn't have taken me this long to find answers. I know, I know. Yes, thirteen years is a long time. Can you let me talk a minute? I'll explain, I promise."
The droid finished with a short mmrpp.
"This," said Luke patiently, "is only the very top of the temple. The entrance of the temple."
Rey searched the small room for stairs. There were none. There was a small cot with crumpled bedding, a pile of old equipment, and beside that, at the back of the room, stood a very large basin full of water, the sort you'd wash up in. It was larger than the bed, actually. It might have even been considered a pool.
"The entire island is the temple," Luke was explaining. "That includes all the rock beneath sea level, as well. I estimate there are-oh-twelve levels, at least. That's my guess. I've been able to get down to the fourth. Before the tide comes in."
"Tide?" said Rey.
"Right. Right now we're at high-high tide. I have to wait for a lower tide for the pool to drain-" Luke motioned to the pool at the back of the room, "-to access the next level. Low-low tide can get us to the third level down."
Rey looked at him blankly.
"Tide?" she said again.
Luke examined Rey for a long moment. At last he said:
"Where are you from, Lady Rey?"
"Jakku," Rey muttered, a little embarrassed.
Master Luke gave a slow nod, then got to his feet. He walked past Rey and the droid, and stepped outside the entrance. He held the flap open for R2-D2 and Rey to follow.
"I'm from Tatooine," he said to her, not unkindly. "It's something I learned as well. Tides don't happen in sand."
Outside, at the top of the mountain-or was it a temple?-the Falcon stood, perched just by the top stair, rimmed pale colors in the moonlight. Chewbacca stood beside the boarding ramp, and he growled happily as they exited from Luke's home, and Rey gave him a quick hug.
Even though it was night, the moonlight cast a mesh of silver-pink-and-orange light. Rey saw she had multiple shadows, all pale and criss-crossing each other. She looked up at the sky over them, marveling at the orbs against the stars. One was orbiting so quickly she could actually see it moving. Rey could stare at this forever. R2-D2 gave a long, wistful beep. The sea stretched before them, an expanse of black glass, studded with the reflections of the numerous moons.
Luke Skywalker stood beside Rey, looking upward.
"They're beautiful," Rey breathed, following his gaze.
"They'll do," Luke agreed. He nodded at the fast-moving moon. "That one's Vel. Fast little devil. Five or six orbits in one night. And the striped one, Nida-Ha. That one, Wera, Rom, Rom II, BekaBek, Jou…"
Luke pointed out each moon with the alacrity of someone who had studied them for thirteen years. He named the moons they couldn't see, beneath the horizon, and he spoke about tides. Rey sat on the boarding ramp of the Falcon and pulled her knees to her chest, looking up at the sky as Luke spoke, and feeling both wistful and small. She felt like Jakku had stunted her knowledge of the universe.
Tides. The Jedi Master explained them patiently as they looked out in the seascape. Tides were what happened when a planet had water and any kind of moon. The gravity of the moon pulled the water away from the shore, and then sometimes brought the water higher. This was called high tide, or low tide.
Ahch-To, Luke explained, had a lot of moons, which-depending on how close or how large they were-wreaked havoc with the tides. There was high-high tide, and low-low tide, and when several the moons aligned (which happened once every two years or so), low-low-low tide, or high-high-high tide, in which the Jedi Master's home flooded and he had to set everything out to dry again and-Rey surmised from his tone of voice-that was annoying.
But at low-low-low tide...that's when Luke was able to reach the lower levels of the Jedi temple.
"Because of all the moons," Luke explained, "the tides are unpredictable. That's why I had you move the Falcon to higher ground. The last thing we needed was for all of us to get stranded. The tides come in fast, and wash out fast. Unfortunately, I learned that the hard way...when the tide washed away my X-Wing."
Guffaws filled the air as Chewbacca lifted his head upward.
Rey blinked. The wookiee was laughing. Laughing! At Luke! His laughter echoed across the cliffs.
"Ha-ha," said Luke, not amused at all. "That's right, it's very funny. Ha-ha. Watching my X-Wing float away off in the distance."
The Wookiee laughed even harder. The Jedi Master folded his arms and frowned at Chewbacca. R2-D2 began chirping along. Rey had to cover her mouth. Their laughter was infectious.
A smile tugged at Luke's lips.
"All right, all right," he admitted above the Wookie laughter. "It's a little funny now. Trust me, it wasn't funny then. Or the year after. Or the year after that. Or all the years after that."
The Wookie gave a jovial growl and pulled Luke into a big hug. Luke broke a smile. Rey was grinning, too. She looked up at the sky, the little moon Vel now almost to the horizon, and Luke followed her gaze.
"The Jedi Masters," he said, now in a quieter voice, "built this temple here on purpose. They meant it to be hidden by the tides."
Rey looked at him, confused. "Why?" she asked.
"Because temples are sacred. The Force is strong within them, and Jedi often have powerful spiritual experiences. They're not meant for just anyone."
Rey nodded slowly, feeling that same prickly feeling on her arms and the back of her neck. Jedi temples. Spiritual experiences. What did he mean by that? I have so much to learn, Rey thought.
"The deeper I go inside the temple," Luke said quietly, "the more answers I get, and the more sacred it feels. The more I'm one with the Force. It's-not something I can really explain. But I know that when I reach the lowest level, I'll finally know what I've lost, and know how to defeat Kylo Ren."
Rey rubbed her arms, and shivered.
"How will you get to that level?" she asked. "Can't you...use the Force to push all the water out of the way? The Force can push things, can't it?"
Luke gave a half-nod of assent. "You can. And I did. Water's difficult, you can't just push it away. It keeps coming. I'd focus so much on not drowning that I couldn't connect with the Force for anything else. After my fifth time nearly drowning...I decided to trust the ancient wisdom of the builders. Wait on the timing of the tides."
"So you have to wait for the low tide."
"Yes. The lowest Ahch-To can get. It only happens once every seventy years."
"Seventy years!" said Rey. R2-D2 gave an incredulous short beep.
Luke laughed.
"See for yourself, Artoo," he said. "Access the Ahch-To moon orbits."
The droid gave a mrrp, twisted its dome, beeped, and a bevy of blue-white orbs flickered from R2's holoprojector. The miniature Ahch-To moons circled around the large Ahch-To image, and Rey watched, fascinated.
"The twelve Ahch-To moons often cross paths," Luke explained, as the holo diagram zoomed in closer to the moons. "That can cause the very high or very low tides, because the moons' gravity is pulling together. But once every seventy years, all the moons align."
The moons in R2's hologram lined up, all at the same crescent. R2-D2 beeped.
"That's right, Artoo. That's when we'll have the lowest tide. It will pull the water entirely away from the temple for half a day. That should give me enough time to reach the lowest level. And then get back up when the tide comes in. It will be the highest tide...and will probably bury the entire island."
Rey let this all sink in. They would have to wait until lowest tide before Luke could go into the temple, learn what he needed to know, and finally come back with them. How many years would that be? Rey thought frantically.
"None," said Luke, as though reading her thoughts. A small smile on was on his lips. "You came at a good time. It's starting tomorrow."