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Vis felt numb.
It was a strangely good kind of numb as it kept her from the feelings of panic or fear that she was sure on a normal day that she would be full of. She was disappointed that this feeling of numbness was preventing her from showing her normal levels of excitement and enthusiasm, but the absence of fear and a clear mind made the loss worth it.
Why did she feel this way?
This experience was a strange one, sure, but she'd faced these things before. She'd met strange people through the Force (Soron's crew seemed somehow stranger than these people), AND she'd faced deadly situations (being shot at was probably just as traumatizing as falling off a cliff), but for some reason after all of this, her body felt like it was on shut down mode. And she felt bad for enjoying the sensation.
She'd found her people! The mysterious aliens her mother had never been able to tell her stories about! Now she could know anything and everything, but for the time being she felt just content to follow along…
A chill ran down her spine as she realized she had felt this way before, this numbness, she realized, was not connected to pleasant memories.
"You have faced death before and have experienced much loss." The alien creature guiding her into the caverns said, snapping Vis out of her thoughts.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
"Yeah… Why do you ask?" I responded.
"I wasn't asking, I was simply stating the facts of your song." She returned.
"You mean, the song I was singing with you all? You could hear that in it?" I asked hesitantly, suddenly scared of sounding foolish.
"Yes, we could hear these feelings of memories and more. Your thoughts were not complete in your music, but the concepts were there. Your family is dead, but there is a new life with a new beginning ahead of you through the Force, who seems to be the closest thing to family that you truly ever had." The angelic creature related back to me the summary of the song I'd sang in its whole.
It seemed like an understatement when it was put like that, but I still nodded.
"You said I was called here? Why was I called here?"
"You'll see," The creature smiled in an endearing way as she continued to lead me down the cavern cliffside. I felt the eyes of the others watching me, curious, as I descended down away from the kyber cave and into another cavernous tunnel.
The air was cool and dank but somehow felt lighter. Like I was walking through a greenhouse. The shadow of the cave in front of me loomed ahead. As we entered the darkness, Peniel's glowing form lit the way, but my guide directed my hand and I instinctively went to touch the tunnel's wall.
The wall began to alight beneath my fingers, again, very similar to the tunnel back at my temple home, but instead of veins, the light beneath the surface swirled in patterns, radiating what appeared not only to be words but also images. As we walked my eyes dashed to follow along with each pattern that grew outwards.
It was at this moment that the creature guiding me spoke,
"To the surface dwellers, we are called Angels and Demons," her words seemed to flow along in time to the light of the kyber messages, inscribing it for me, "Within our own ranks, we are known as the Diathim and the Maelibi. But above all other names, we are called The Gatherers."
The light exploded outwards at this and I watched in amazement as the light in the cave walls began to swirl along the walls in such a way that it seemed to live and breathe; the movement becoming animated.
"Long ago, in the beginnings of our galaxy, before the Age of Space Travel, and before the Days of War, the Diathim and the Maelibus were the prophets of the Force. Kyber crystal devices known as WayFinders were grown by the Maelibi, and the Force would direct Diathim messengers to ones Called. The Called were beings out of every species, planet, and tongue that had a specific purpose that the Force needed fulfilled and that could only be fulfilled through them. These ones were manifestations of the Force and the Diathim were charged with finding them and giving them over to the guiding force of the kyber."
The image that played out before me was that of the armored creatures I'd also seen in the cavern earlier, seeming to grow crystals out of the ground like crops in a field. The ones of them with wings would then take the kyber shards, and what appeared to be an orb, and head off of their planet to search for one called, and give them the kyber crystal forged for them.
I looked down in awe at the white crystalline orb in my hand as the story then continued.
"Those Called would go out with their mission. Some went on to invent great things that enabled space travel. Others gained a deeper understanding of problems or troubles in their world and devolved solutions peacefully, avoiding much bloodshed. And from the kyber that guided them, many learned to communicate with the Force, a skill once only found among our people. This went on for millennia. But then… Something changed."
The scene before me shifted, the colors changing from that of pure white light and shattering into that of deep reds and deep blues, dividing the scene into two sides.
"Despite all our efforts, the time for that of the Gatherers ended, and instead began the time of War. The ones once Called began to gather together and slowly, they learned that they could command that Force that once only served to guide them. Their new abilities and deeper understanding not only brought about peace, but also fueled conflict. And thus began the paradoxical situation the galaxy has found itself in for millennia. Kyber was made to fuel deadly weapons and despite the galaxy's newfound unity under planet-jumping technology, conflict was more abundant than ever before. The Force had no need for prophets anymore, and now was the time for knights. From that time, millennia have passed but the conflict continues…"
I recognized lightsabers of the Jedi and Sith locked in combat, the scene shifted away from them, but still, people fought in an eternal struggle. The reds and blues became muddled in the conflict and shifted from purple to yellow and green to orange, and finally the light faded, the story catching up with reality.
I shook my head and backed away from the wall, pulling my guide in around me.
"But… wasn't there conflict during the time of prophets too? Hasn't war always existed? The Jedi and Sith aren't completely responsible for all conflict! Even if all Jedi and all Sith were gone, wouldn't people still act crazy?" I asked quietly, "...Why would the Force put in so much effort to unite the galaxy if it would only serve to tear it apart?"
"Vis, let me ask you: what is the Force?"
"...They are the energy that binds the galaxy together. The Force that resides in all living things."
"Why do you call the Force a 'they'?"
"Um… I guess cause they're alive? Or make everything alive? It seems weird to call them an 'it'."
"The Force indeed resides within all living things and holds all living things together. It is not just that of the Ashla and the Bogen, the light and the dark, the Force is the life that binds it together: the Bendu."
"Bendu…" I tested the name in my mouth.
"As I'm sure you've felt before, the Force of the Bendu resides within all beings, the energy not only affects those beings, but they also affect that energy themselves. That tandem of the light and dark's relationship is the very thing that fuels individuality in all living things."
"...Like a spirit?" I asked, thinking back to some Jedi philosophy I'd read back in the temple.
"Yes. The Ashla and the Bogen, in turn, are spirits that formed in the collective of the Force through the imbalance of the Bendu within life itself. These spirits influence the ones "Called", now known as Force-sensitives and Force-wielders. But in turn, these Called ones influence the spirits. It is these beings that rule our galaxy along with their balanced middle, the Bendu, which binds them together."
In front of us, a mural glowed to life.
I gasped as it took form. I'd seen this mural in the temple before, it had been illustrated on old scrolls and stored within holocrons. To the right stood a human woman with long green hair, her hand placed delicately across her waist, and a convor bird sitting on her shoulder. To the left stood a Pau'an man. His white face had the characteristic red marking running along his eyes and head; his fist was clenched to his side. In the middle stood an elderly Cerean man, his hand outstretched and held aloft next to his face.
"Ashla, Bogen, and Bendu." I whispered to myself, "This is what they look like?"
"The images are manifestations for our understanding, purely metaphorical in form but nonetheless real."
"...What does this have to do with me?" I ask turning to face Peniel again.
"It doesn't really, but it shows you your place. You have been given a WayFinder. There was one made for every moon of Iego," her hand shifted over the wall and the scene again changed. I recognized the simple shapes of squares and triangles made in the light of the wall, "The WayFinders served as the inspiration for the Jedi and Sith holocrons, but where their kyber designs were made to hold memories and information, our devices are made to channel memories, and even futures within our own minds even of ones we've never met. There has not been one Called from our people in generations since the Time of Prophets."
"But why is this happening now? If the time for prophets ended, then why am I being Called?" I asked as I looked at the wall that had resumed playing the story that had been told earlier.
"It is not just you who have been Called."
My eyes widened in understanding, "Soron?"
"Not just him, the entirety of your new family has some part to play and the Jedi are gone. The ones of Ashla will not be reinstated until much later on. The time for knights has finally ended."
The mural suddenly shifted to a scene showing the Jedi turning to dust in the light of the kyber wall. My body went cold as I thought about what Soron and Cenden had said about the assassin that had attacked our ship, "But… That can't be true! There are still Sith out there! I'm pretty sure that the Emperor of the Empire is one! How can the knights be gone!? The Sith are evil! They have to be stopped!"
The Diathim shook its head, "The Sith serve one side and the Jedi serve another, but the existence of both only serves to fuel the conflict. The Force in neither one side or the other, the Force is the great in-between, and right now it just needs someone who will listen."
Their words took my mind back to what Soron had said had happened in his vision through the Force, "I'm looking for someone who will listen."
"So the time for War is over?" I asked.
They shrugged, "From what we've gathered, almost. This conflict is at a tipping point between this Rebellion and Imperial forces. Their existence also serves to fuel the conflict, but it is likely that the conflict will continue even after the Empire's defeat."
She said these things so casually as if she hadn't just claimed to know the end and victor of this newest war.
"So what am I supposed to do?" I said through clenched teeth, frustration from fear and exhaustion starting to wear me thin. This is too much.
Sensing my frustration, she knelt down and took my hands in her long, spindly fingers. The orb resting in my palms glowed slightly, and I felt something flutter in my heart as I looked into Peniel's eyes.
"Vis," Peniel spoke and tears suddenly came to my eyes. Her voice suddenly shifted, and she sounded just like her… mom.
"I know this is a lot right now. You've been through so much and you will live through so much more. You have an incredible heart, one that your guide has entrusted a mission to. As our people of the past once did, you must gather them. You are as one Called and as you are one Gathered. You will face hardship, but I will be with you. Okay?"
I took a deep breath and nodded as tears streamed down my face. Today had been exhausting.
"I'm sorry that all of this has been given to one so young but it seems that the time is right and Bendu cannot wait. We are at a tipping point, and loose ends must be tied up."
She said this as she guided me out of this particular cave connection and into another; I was barely listening. I was so tired but still, my guide pushed me on. The time for sleep would come later. I had a mission to accomplish.