War had come to Tython and its reality was more vicious than any Force-vision could convey. The skies around Anil Kesh were filled with death, and through the walls of the temple Tasha Ryo could hear muffled explosions as Je'daii and Rakata battled for superiority above the Chasm. Every so often something would impact against Anil Kesh's armored exterior, rocking the structure violently, and more than once she'd thought the one of the temple's three arching legs might lose purchase and the whole thing would fall into the black rift.
Muffled sounds and trembling beneath her feet were all Tasha knew. She could no longer see the corridors of Anil Kesh around her, nor could she feel the Force. The latter was a small mercy right now; she was sure it was filled with the agony and anger of clashing armies.
Small mercy was no recompense for what she'd been robbed of. Before the fighting had come to Tython, she'd received an in intense Force-vision of a battle taking place around the Chasm's mouth. At that moment an agent of the Rakata had attacked her and, using methods unlike anything the Je'daii had ever known, the agent had left her physically undamaged but robbed her not only of sight, but of her ability to touch the Force. Tasha was doubly blinded, and it felt like all her fears of helplessness has been fulfilled, worse than she'd ever imagined possible. She was isolated within herself and angry. All during this invasion her desire to do more for the Je'daii had warred with her fear of dying and revulsion from combat. She'd felt like a coward before; now she felt like a failure.
Nonetheless, there might be one thing she could do. Tasha clutched the last hope for salvation in her hands. Eight smooth sides of Master A'nang's holocron were familiar beneath her fingers as she was led to a meditation room so deep inside Anil Kesh it might even block out the sounds of battle. The floor still trembled and the arm around her shoulder drew her a little closer.
"We're almost there, Tasha," said the voice of Ters Sendon. Though no seer, the Zabrak Je'daii had been one of her instructors in the early days, before war and terror overtook Tython. He was trying to comfort her, but she could hear the fear in his voice.
He guided her for a minute more before he took her shoulders in both hands, angled her body, and said, "You can sit now."
She folded her legs beneath her. Clutching the holocron to her chest, she felt her knees sink into a soft cushion.
"We can try now." Sendon's voice sounded directly ahead of her. "I can't promise I'll be able to unlock the holocron. Only you and a few other Masters have done it before…"
"Please, try," she said. "It may be our only hope."
If it was hope, it was a bitter one. A'nang's holocron had already warned them that they were most likely doomed. Not even the Kwa empire had been able to resist the Rakata's predations. She cupped the holocron's bottom pyramid in two hands and held it out. She felt Sendon's larger, rougher fingers interlock with hers as he also gripped the device.
Tasha waited. She tried to steady her breathing as she did when meditating, but it was difficult now, without the Force flowing easily through her. Anil Kesh rattled once more around them. Through the chamber's deep silence she heard a few more explosions.
Then she felt something else. A tingling ran through her body; it felt like numbness being chased away.
Sendon said, "I am channeling the Force through the holocron to you, Tasha. Can you sense anything?"
"Yes, Ters. Yes, a glimmer! It expands…" Her breath went away as she felt a familiar touch; not Sendon's, but the Force-energy that had been encoded into the holocron's circuits by its ancient Kwa architect.
A brittle voice said, "Peace. I am A'nang of the Kwa, the last of the Tython Kwa, master of this holocron. Ask, seeker, and I will guide you."
Sendon said, "Master A'nang, the Rakata have landed on Tython and are attacking! We seek your wisdom."
"The Rakata have arrived? Then the purpose of this holocron is at last fulfilled. It is time for Tho Yor to awaken."
Suddenly Tasha was bathed in the Force. It crackled up her arms and through her body, and in that instant she could feel both the mighty power locked within the holocron, the agony raging just outside Anil Kesh, the deep distortions looming in the Chasm below them, and something else, something she'd never felt before and couldn't compare to anything.
"Tasha!" Sendon shouted. He sounded afraid and far away, like he'd felt or seen something that had made him jump back.
But Tasha felt only calm. Her whole life she'd trained as a Je'daii seer, accepting the Force's revelations as they came. She felt that revelation now, and its absolute certainty. The unspeakable power was all around them, had been all around them all this time, but it had been slumbering. Now it was rising itself. She felt it like a surging tide, surrounding her, soon to swallow her whole. The thought of being consumed with power filled her with surprising joy.
"No, it's all right," she told Sendon. "I… I understand! Ters, I sense her now! Tython is awake!"
"Awake?" She could hear his gape. "What do you mean? We-"
"Tython is no ordinary world," said the holocron. "Otherwise, the Tho Yor would not have brought you here."
Mention of the black stone pyramids, one of which even now hung over Anil Kesh, stirred something within Tasha. She felt like she was on the verge of an even greater revelation, one that would overflow within her and burst out.
She struggled to find words. "Master A'nang, you said we were doomed if the Rakata came here. You told us all Je'daii would be destroyed."
"I also told you to stand firm together and be true to the Force." The Kwa's voice held gentle reprimand. "If you can do that in the face of despair, then the Je'daii will earn the right to survive."
Tasha whispered, "Tell us what to do."
"Your hope of survival lies within the infinity gate at the bottom of the Chasm. Even now the Rakata draw near. We must act quickly. Take me to the lowest levels of Anil Kesh, so we may look upon the Chasm."
Tasha held the holocron to her chest and told Sendon, "We must go immediately."
All hesitation seemed gone from him. He took her by the arm, raised her to standing, and said, "Hold tight. I'll guide the way."
Though her vision was still blinded, Tasha did not stumble once as Sendon hurried her through Anil Kesh's halls, down the lift that carried them to the observation port at the bottom of the temple's copula. It was here the Je'daii observers could peer straight down into the Chasm. A great beam of white energy plunged constantly into the gap, sampling what data could be gleaned for Je'daii scientists to pick apart in their quest to understand the anomaly.
Tasha knew when they reached the overlook. She could feel not only the rush of open air but the swarming Force energies reaching up from the black. They contained not only agony and war and maddening vision but something else too, something that could save Je'daii as well as break them.
Beside her, Sendon said, "Master A'nang, we have brought your holocron here as asked. Now please, we need to know why."
The Kwa's voice came out from between her hands. "The appearance of the Rakata on Tython has triggered a failsafe mechanism within my holocron. It is time to awaken the Tho Yor. For that awakening, I need a Je'daii seer."
Tasha's heart leapt, then retreated. Just when she should have been able to help, she was at her most helpless. "Master A'nang, I am no longer a seer… nor a Je'daii. The Rakata's agent blinded my eyes and blinded me to the Force."
"Blinded is not severed," said the holocron. "The Force flows through all living things and it flows through you still. You can be reunited with the Force so you can awaken the Tho Yor, but it will cost you your mortal shell."
Tasha felt a strange calm fall over her. The war against the Rakata had cost her vision and the Force, and she'd feared she would die a burden on her friends in their final moments. In dying she might even gain the transcendence she'd long sought. A'nang's words, though spoken with utter gravity, sparked the hope she needed.
Sendon, however, said, "No! There must be some other way! Use me!"
Tasha shook her head. "No, Ters, you are not a seer. If there was any other way I know A'nang would tell us." She took a deep breath. "This is our darkest hour. The Je'daii are fighting and dying to save Tython. All are doing was they've been called to do. How could I do any less?"
She heard him exhale as the simple truth of the situation became clear. Battle still raged outside. Down below, the Rakata neared the infinity gate. They had to act now. She had to act. It was what the Force had ordained for her; she knew that clearer than anything she'd ever received in a fractured Force visions. In the knowledge of destiny she felt free.
She felt Sendon's hands press on either shoulder. His breath brushed her face. "I will miss you, Tasha Ryo."
"In the Force, we Je'daii are never apart, Ters." She removed one hand from the holocron to feel his face. It would be the last one she ever touched and she felt a moment of hesitation for the thought of her mother and father, her uncle Hawk and all the other Je'daii she'd known.
She hoped that, whatever became of her and of them, they'd understand what she did her today.
She hoped she would understand.
A'nang's holocron whispered, "You know what to do. Do not fear."
"I believe you." She gathered courage and turned to the energy beam that plunged into the chasm. She could hear its hum and feel its heat. She knew from memory it was just a few meter's jump away.
"Act now!" said the holocron.
"Yes," Tasha whispered, took a deep breath, and leaped into her destiny.
Warmth enveloped her. Light chased away the dark of blindness. With destiny came understanding, the kind glimpsed through Force visions but always in tantalizing shards. Bathed with the light of Anil Kesh, falling toward the Chasm's infinity gate, Tasha knew it all and felt it all. It rushed her and overcame her and tore her body apart.
She knew it but didn't feel it. The luminous core of Tasha Ryo remained as Anil Kesh's energy spread her life-essence spread outward. It flew down the Chasm, piercing layers of madness as though it were nothing, and smashed into the infinity gate as Rakata crowded around their prize like scavenger birds. The Force's power was her own as Tasha cracked the ancient gate, shattered it, broke it beyond any hope of use by the Rakata.
Immense power escaped the gate as it broke and power overwhelmed her. It funneled upward into Anil Kesh and out of it. The ancient temple that had straddled the Chasm for millennia became a fountain of unleashed energy. Tasha rode with it, into the Tho Yor directly above and in arcs of light that vectored across Tython to the eight other black double-pyramids that had hovered silent for generations.
Tasha had no mouth but she cried out in joy, Ters! Can you feel it? A'nang spoke the truth! I am one with the Force again, one with the Tho Yor…
The energy carried Tasha Ryo to each Tho Yor and stirred it to life. All across the planet, the eight-spoked wheels carved into the stone pyramids began to glow. Though broken in nine pieces Tasha Ryo was one, and she felt it as raw energy burst out each Tho Yor and overwhelmed every Rakatan nearby, tearing each ship apart and wiping their darkness from existence.
The life force that was Tasha Ryo cleansed Tython of the invaders, but she barely noticed. The breaking of the infinity gate had unleashed even greater revelation, and it was all she could do to hold herself together before the truth pulled her apart.
Stars on stars, planets on planets. Infinity became her.
Vision came like it had never come before. Trapped in a mortal body she'd only ever been gifted with fragments, confusing and aggravating. By surrendering crude matter she'd opened herself to revelation her mortal brain could never process. The self that remained threatened to unravel and fray but she felt a presence- conscious, comforting, necessary- join hers and guide her through infinity. It was like the firm guiding hand of a father, in touch with the Force as hers had never been. This was a father who held the Force in perfect balance, within himself and without.
You have achieved what few beings ever have, the Father told her. You have traded the knowledge you have for greater knowing, the life you've lived for great living, and the ones you love for greater loving. To find a place more kind than home and vaster than the stars, you've surrendered space and time and joined the flow of all things.
Yours is a journey which never ends.
She now understood who created the Tho Yor and why. She understood why only the Je'daii had been selected to touch the Force, why it had retreated from the Kwa and Gree and why it was leaving the Rakata even now. The self that was left of her felt a twinge of pity for the Rakata; evil as they were, they were now driven by desperation and fear as they slowly lost touch with the Force. Without it they'd be nothing, and they knew it, and their fate was to crumble slowly.
Tasha understood all those things, and she understood as no Je'daii ever could the Whills that guided it all. It was awesome and terrifying and her mind should have dissolved before it but she held herself as one. Though her mortal shell was dissolved her inner light was bright.
Like the Whills who'd gone before her, Tasha Ryo was immortal in the Force.