Utter relief washed over her and Rey realized that tears had formed in her eyes. She and Ben both ducked and she released the blaster bolts, which hit trees behind them. "You're Jedi," she said, her voice trembling more than she intended.

"No, we are not," said one of the men. "But we revere the Force and we mean you no harm."

"Come," the other man added. The remnant looked back and forth, one to the other, unsure what to do.

Poe, now disarmed, shrugged. "I guess we go in."

Rey moved first. Peace – incredible peace – was flowing through her; her heart was swelling with excitement and hope. She could also feel Finn's eyes upon her and she avoided his gaze. "Wait," she called. "He's hurt." She indicated Ben, who was still on his feet, but hunched and wincing with the effort. "Can you help him?"

"Of course," said the woman. Her voice was soft and kind, her eyes warm and concerned. Rey could feel each one of them; they seemed to glow. She was tall with long brown hair shot through with silver; her face was angular but her expression soft, and she had neither eyebrows nor eyelashes to define her. She might have been very beautiful on another planet. Rey had never met anyone who was so connected to the Force; Luke had cut himself off entirely but she had not known it until so much later, and Ben – Ben's lifeforce was forever complicated, not only by his use of the Darkside but by her feelings for him. Impossibly complicated.

"Do you know who that is?" Finn shouted. Rey wasn't sure if he was talking to her or to the woman. "It's Kylo Ren! He's the Supreme Leader of the First Order!"

"Kylo Ren you call yourself." Her voice was calm and deep. She kept her gaze upon him. "I am Moriah. Come."

Rey could not bring herself to look at the others as they filed into the pyramidal temple.

The remnant of the Resistance was led inside and into the main chamber of the temple. Tall within, with an open eye at the top of the ceiling. Rey watched as they took Ben away; in the pit of her chest rose to her throat as that which she'd been guarding disappeared down a corridor and into a separate chamber. Within Ben to fret over, how could she bear to be alone with the others? With Finn?

The woman Moriah took Rey's arm. "They'll all be fine. Will you give me your attention?"

More grateful to be away from the others, and ashamed of that realization, she dropped back.

"You've been keeping him alive using your own lifeforce," she observed. Rey nodded, barely. It was true: she'd gone without her rations. "Good work."

"You're not going to kill him?" she asked hesitantly."Even though he's …"

Moriah smiled wanly. "No. We do not bring destruction; only salvation."

Rey thought about that for a moment, her eyes downcast. Everything since she arrived here - everything since she'd left Jakku - was so overwhelming.

"Let me show you, you who call yourself Rey." They walked together, away from the others, through a darkened hallway and into an open atrium. Green plans hung lusciously from pots suspended against the walls, gathered around a simple pool in the center in which floated lily pads and flowers. Clear light streamed in through the open ceiling and filtered through the leaves. "We have been here for millennia, isolated, keeping the old ways."

She held up her hand and pointed toward an image, the figure meditating in black and white, mosaic on the wall. "You know them. You've read the texts."

Indeed she had. Every word, even the parts that seemed strange and too opaque to penetrate.

"The Jedi and the Sith kept a balance for some time, but each became too sure, too sure in their own way. They could not sustain."

"Why didn't you intervene?" Rey heard herself ask. "If you knew how to stop all that destruction?"

The Watcher smiled, like a mother with her beloved child, and squeezed Rey's hand. "We are not warriors here; we are Watchers. We are a beacon of hope, an example to follow when the time is right. And now it is right. The galaxy is turning, Rey, away from domination and toward balance." She glanced at the image, still hovering and glowing beside them. "He is darkness, with a light inside of him, and you are a light where darkness dwells."

Ben. Rey felt the mention of him like a sudden shudder.

"Darkness," she repeated.

The Watcher nodded. "Protecting him from your friends. That was brave, and selfish. Your motives were not pure."

The Watcher was right. Rey's decision had been to defend Ben because ... because she couldn't imagine not having him.

"Dvorah can be a beacon again, Rey; a symbol of balance."

"How?"

"I don't know. That's why you're here."