Greetings! Here we are with chapter 2 of Twilight Blade!
Look, full stop, not sure what sort of bit I want to do here, so Ima just keep it simple and answer the reviews from last time, give the Discord password and get to work. So, here's the review responses:
FallenAssassin9: Why, thank you! There's gonna be a couple of small curveballs eventually, and... well... We'll get to Order 66 when we get to Order 66... poor dears...
Well, only the one review to start out with, but that's understandable. Only one chapter and crowded real-estate.
Well, with that out of the way, Discord password here: xtydzBf
And there we go! Now, allow me to proudly present chapter 2 of Star Wars: Twilight Blade!
Going into this, Arvos knew that the Gathering would be no simple task. His research on every facet of lightsaber history and study he could get his hands on had led him back to this particular rite of passage a few times, thus he knew the basics of it, as well as had a leg up regarding knowledge of Ilum regarding its climate and hazards. However, much of what he had read made very conscious avoidance of any information about what actually transpired during the Gathering, aside from that it was when prospective Jedi would travel to Ilum to harvest the crystals for their first true lightsaber. He wasn't sure why that was, but he could hazard a few guesses as to why that was, the chief of them being that whatever tests they faced during this trial couldn't be prepared for.
"I knew Ilum was cold, but this is ridiculous!"
It had only been ten minutes and Arvos already wanted to smack Tala upside the head because of her constant complaining about the cold, though he held himself back since he'd likely be hurting himself due to the crown of horns on her head. Besides, it wasn't like she was wrong. Even with the cold-weather gear, he was still feeling the cold. It was better without the howling wind outside, but it was still cold enough that the cold air hurt his lungs. Plus, the novelty of being able to see his breath had rapidly worn off.
However, it seemed that he could possibly be spared more of Tala's complaints about the cold, as they reached a chamber with several pathways.
"I guess we should split up…" Alvya muttered as she examined the pathways.
"Okay, how do we decide which pathway we… go… down…" Arvos asked before his voice faded as he slowly stepped towards one of the tunnels, now looking incredibly distracted.
"Arvos? Hey, Arvos!" Tala called out to him before removing one of her gloves to snap her fingers in his face before pulling it back on. It at least got the desired effect, even if Tala's complaints about the cold escalated for a brief moment.
"Sorry about that. There's just something strange about that tunnel." Arvos said as he peered down it.
"I think your path forward is pretty obvious then." Garo replied before he turned and started walking towards his own tunnel.
"And where are you going?" Tala asked him.
"Well, I have no clue where my crystal is, so I'm picking a direction and trusting in the Force to guide me to it." Garo replied candidly as kept walking into the tunnel, his voice echoing slightly as he kept walking deeper into the icy caverns.
"Well, I guess that's the best any of us can do. I'll take this one." Tala decided before picking a tunnel of her own and striding into it. Alvya sighed as she looked around. She'd been hoping that they'd at least try to stick together, given the inhospitable nature of their surroundings, but she supposed that in the end, the Force would guide them to their crystals and that the path forward wouldn't necessarily be what they wished for. After taking a few moments to center herself, Alvya chose a path of her own and set off. They were on the clock, and she had no intentions of being trapped behind an ice wall for nineteen days because she took too long.
The path through his chosen cavern had been pretty boring for Arvos so far. A little bit winding, but nothing really out of the ordinary. There hadn't even been so much as a glimmer or any other sign of a single crystal yet, and he'd been wandering around in the tunnels for some twenty minutes now, by his estimate.
"I'd comment on how boring this is, but somehow I think Ilum would take it as a challenge." Arvos muttered. It appeared that the planet or the Force had been listening anyway though, as Arvos suddenly stopped himself as he realized that he was a step away from plummeting into the misty depths of an icy ravine.
"What did I just say?!" Arvos exclaimed, his voice echoing about the ravine. After making sure he wasn't going to slip into the ravine, Arvos began looking around. There had to be a way forward. Sure enough, there was another path on the other side of the ravine, but it was too far for him to jump, and he couldn't see any good footholds he could use to make a series of jumps across.
"Alright, so how do I get there…" Arvos muttered as he kept looking. There was a ledge around the ravine that he could technically stand on, but he wasn't very confident in the structural integrity of the ice, nor in his boots' ability to grip it. Still, he couldn't find any other way to get across, so he steeled his nerves and began to slowly inch his way across the ravine. It was slow-going, and there were a few moments of panic when he nearly lost his footing, but he managed to catch himself and took a few more moments to re-enter himself before he pressed onward, eventually making it to the side of the ravine and taking a moment to appreciate just that.
"And I have to do it again on the way back…" Arvos muttered as he started walking again. The caverns had darkened this far in, but he could still see the path ahead perfectly fine. What he couldn't see was a crystal of any kind, and he was starting to wonder just what else he was going to be put through to retrieving the darn rock.
As it turned out, he could add climbing up about twenty feet of icy boulders, a feet that much like the ravine, would lead to his demise if he had an unfortunate misstep.
"Oh, come on… What's with death by ice and gravity?" Arvos complained to no one in particular as he began to carefully negotiate this latest obstacle.
"Wonder what other 'death by ice and gravity' traps Ilum's going to throw at me before the end of this." Arvos grunted as he carefully climbed up another boulder and started finding a good foothold so he could continue. At this point, he wasn't even terribly concerned about the lightsaber. By the time he'd reach the top of this pile of ice and rocks, he'd have risked falling to his death twice, and that wasn't even counting the possibility of death by cold. Success when the very planet seemingly wanted him dead would be a victory in and of itself, however petty. Arvos mentally slapped himself for that one. Thinking that way would just be asking Ilum to pull out all the stops. And he did not need that right now.
After he finally hauled himself up to the top of the pile of boulders, Arvos immediately fell on his backside and caught his breath for a minute or two. Feeling rested enough, Arvos got to his feet and stared down the tunnel. It was much darker, but he still could see perfectly fine.
"Alright, Ilum. Let's see what waits at the end of this path." Arvos muttered before he pressed on, following the pathway into the unknown.
"I hate the cold, I hate it I hate it I hate it…"
Tala had been repeating her distaste for subzero temperatures for quite some time now. She hadn't been keeping track of how long she'd been walking, but it had been a while. She'd passed by a few glittering spots that indicated the existence of a crystal, none of them really spoke to her. So, she kept walking, and complaining about the cold.
"Come on, where are you?" Tala muttered as she rounded a corner, looking for her crystal. She wasn't even really sure what she was looking for. She'd been told that she would know what crystal was meant for her, but how would she know? She supposed it could just be intuition, which she could get behind. It was part of what made her the best duelist among the group of four. Her Zabrak heritage probably helped as well.
Suddenly, she noticed that something was different. Looking up, she realized she'd reached a large chamber that for some reason was blanketed with mist. It also had what looked like old, broken vibroswords and other such weapons laying on the ground, some embedded in the ground by their blades, others just lying discarded. There was even some armor pieces scattered on the ground as well, but they weren't quite as numerous as the weapons.
"What are these doing here?" She wondered aloud as she walked over to one of the swords. It was definitely old, as it had been designed with a crossguard, which was unheard of among modern designs.
"How long have these been here for?" She muttered as her hand lightly brushed the hilt of the sword. Almost immediately something started happening. Somehow, wind began to blow, and the room began to shake! The armor began to float into the air, and she watched in awe and horror as what looked like mummified ghosts materialized within the armor, their ethereal limbs reached down and pulled the weapons from the ground before they all turned to look at her. If she had felt cold before, her spine was frozen as the hollow, sunken eyes of these phantoms slowly stalked towards her. Tala turned to run, be she was now faced with the passage she'd walked through just a few minutes ago was now conspicuously absent. It wasn't a cave in, she could tell that much. It was as if the wall had just materialized out of thin air. But it couldn't have, could it?
The hollow snarling from the specters reminded her that she was now caged in with an obvious enemy, and that she was also currently without means of defending herself. Currently…
Tala turned and grabbed the sword she'd been examining moments earlier and yanked it out of the ground, holding it in front of her in a well practiced stance.
"I can do this. I can do this." Tala muttered to herself as the first ghost swung at her with a vibro axe, which she nimbly sidestepped before stabbing the ghost in the chest with her own weapon, causing it to vanish in a puff of mist, the armor and axe clattering harmlessly to the ground. Emboldened by her success, Tala deflected the next strike away from her and delivered stabbed the specter through before rolling out of the way of the next swing before swinging her blade upwards, cutting through yet another one.
Now that she had some breathing room, she turned to face the rest of the advancing ghosts and flourished her borrowed blade before taking up a ready stance, blade held in both hands while held to the left side of her head. The nearest phantoms reared their weapons and lunged forward, with Tala rushing forward to meet them, blade flashing as it whistled through the air, biting into the phantoms and reducing them to yet more mist. However, as time wore on and Tala cut down yet more ghosts, Tala realized that she was facing a big problem. Namely, that no matter how many ghosts she cut down, their numbers didn't seem to be diminishing. In fact, there seemed to be even more of them than when she started.
Scratch that, there was definitely more. And she was surrounded.
Tala flourished her blade again and frowned as she waited for the ghosts to get close enough to strike. However, that didn't change the fact that her odds of winning were dwindling by the second, and she needed to figure out how to get out of this, she was going to become a youngling that didn't return from Ilum's caves.
Alvya was beginning to wonder if she should have picked the pathway she had. She had yet to see a single crystal or even a hint that she was on the right track and was beginning to seriously consider backtracking and thinking of a new approach for locating her crystal. It'd been quite some time now though, and she didn't want to just turn around again, considering the limited time they had to get this done. Turning back would mean wasting precious seconds that she needed to find her crystal before the exit from the frozen caverns iced over, trapping them there for nineteen days.
"What do I do…" Alvya wondered before she reached a circular chamber. Looking around, she couldn't see any crystals, but she could see another tunnel on the far side of this little pocket. However, as she started to cross it, a bone-chilling crack resounded through the air, echoing about the room. It had originated from the ground beneath her. She slowly looked down to see that the floor was cracking beneath her, which was an obvious signal to bolt for the other side. However, before she could even make it a few steps, the ground below her crumbled away and she began tumbling through the air, surrounded by chunks of ice. Luckily, she managed to right herself and landed on her feet, one hand used to help keep herself upright. She didn't have the misfortune of having any ice land on her, save for a few stray shards that she could barely feel through the thick clothing that warded off the cold.
Looking around, Alvya wanted to employ a few words she'd heard masters use when they were certain no one else was listening but knew that it would do her no good in this situation. As it was, she couldn't jump to the top of the pit, nor did she have any confidence that she could scale the walls of the pit. Too much ice and no holds that she could see. Well, that wasn't necessarily the case. There were a few outcroppings that ascended out of the pit, but they were small enough that she wouldn't be able to just leap to one and pause. Besides, after the floor had collapsed on her, she wasn't going to trust that those prospective footholds would be structurally sound for very long. She needed time to think, to plan a route out of this pit.
"If I were to leap to that one… then there… no, not that way, I need to jump to…" Alvya began muttering as she pointed at various ledges for her to use, but she was interrupted by a familiar sound. It was subtle this time, but it was definitely the ice cracking again. Looking down, she could see hairline fractures in the ice. They were small, but she could see them growing with each passing second, the low, almost imperceptible groan of the breaking ice causing her own blood to run cold.
If she didn't get out of there now, it was very much possible the next fall could be her end.
Alvya quickly ran a route through her head and took the first leap. She reached her intended target, then turned to spot her next, jumping once she saw it. However, this one wasn't as graceful. Her footing wasn't solid when she landed, thus when she tried to make the third jump she ended up right back where she started, and with the added consequence of her impact accelerating the rate at which the ice was cracking. As Alvya got to her feet, she did a quick check to make sure that nothing was injured, aside from the bruising from her botched landing. Luckily, she had every confidence that she could manage the actual jumping. Making the jumps though, she was much more concerned about. She was on the clock and every failed attempt would accelerate it. At the current rate the ice was cracking, she couldn't believe she had more than a single attempt remaining.
If she didn't make it in her next attempt, she would never leave Ilum.
"Where are you, where are you…" Garo muttered as he methodically examined his surroundings, searching for any sign of a saber crystal. He'd opted to take a slower approach to his search, seeing as he'd come across a few caverns that contained crystals. However, after examining them, he concluded that none of them were meant for him and moved on to the next area.
"I hope the others are having more success than me." He said aloud as he finished examining another cluster of crystals before moving on to the next chamber.
"Well, this is new." Garo remarked as he looked a head. This chamber was longer and had a narrow ice bridge in the middle of it, flanked on both sides by a misty chasm. On the far side looked to be a small alcove of some kind, with a shimmering star resting in it. Above it was a craggy tunnel of some kind. Garo could hear what vaguely sounded like wind blowing out from the tunnel. He could feel it too. It was still cold, but its temperature was much warmer than that of the surrounding air. It was probably a vent of some kind that carried warmer air from further underground.
However, Garo was less concerned with that than he was with the shining light at the end of the ice bridge. He couldn't quite explain it, but he felt like it was…calling to him. However, as he began to cross the bridge, the ground began to rumble and the air blowing from the tunnel suddenly became a roaring wind that was so powerful, he began skidding backwards across the ice bridge! After falling on his backside due to the sudden change from slippery ice to chilled stone, Garo got to his feet and frowned. The wind had died down once he had been forced off the bridge.
"That was… strange…" Garo muttered as he got to his feet and started slowly trying to cross the bridge again. The rumbling resumed and Garo braced himself as the rush of air began forcing him back again. Luckily, he managed to avoid falling over this time. Still, it was reasonable to assume that the wind was going to start blowing the moment he attempted to cross again, which meant that crossing the ice bridge wasn't going to work, so far as Garo could tell.
"Well, time for plan B." Garo decided as he extended his hand out towards the crystal, reaching out with the Force. If he couldn't get to the crystal, then bring the crystal to him. Sound in theory, but reality didn't seem to disagree. The crystal didn't budge, or even give any indication that he had a grasp of any kind on it. For all he could tell, Garo was 'grasping' at empty air. After relinquishing his non-existent hold, Garo began pacing as he tried to figure out what to do next.
"Okay, I can't use the Force to bring it to me, so that means I have to go to it. The question now becomes how I get across…?" Garo muttered to himself as he began to examine the room again. If he couldn't cross the bridge, he needed to find another way across. Unfortunately, he couldn't see another way across. The gap was too far to jump across, there were no additional platforms or proverbial checkpoints he could use to make it across the chasm. In fact, the only way that Garo could see to get across the chasm was across the ice bridge, but that wouldn't work since that vent would just unleash another gust of wind without fail, that would force him all the way back to the other side of the bridge.
All in all, it was a scenario that Garo could see no way to negotiate. Crossing the bridge was out, going around the bridge was out, and near as he could tell, crossing the chasm was the only way forward.
"What do I do…?" Garo wondered aloud, his voice laced with worry. There had to be a way forward. His crystal was on the other side of that chasm, he knew that. If he couldn't make it across, he'd be forced to either stay in Ilum's caves until he could retrieve it, or he'd have to return empty handed.
"What do I do?" He asked aloud once more. And still, he had no clue.
And that's where we'll leave it for now! Man, feels good to get back in the groove!
Creativity: No kidding! Bet that 'Duel' TV spot helped.
Author: Oh man, that music was GODLIKE! And then YouTube rose to the occasion and brought me a rendition of the trailer music by one Samuel Kim! Seriously, go check out that video, it is magic.
So, I'm about a week out from exam season resuming, so, hopefully I'll have a ton of stuff to throw your way by then. Might not mean much to you now, considering we're still a ways out from publishing, but I figured I'd include it anyway.
Well, that's enough from us for now! Thanks for reading, please review, hope to see you in Discord and we'll see you next time!