Obi-Wan's thoughts felt heavy. Everything was jumbled up in his head and seemed to move in slow motion. His vision was blurred, but from what he could tell there was nothing to see, just the walls of a small gray room. He became aware of a thick swelling against his right temple. Slowly he started to get up off the floor but stopped. A dull surprise settled in his fuzzy brain as he realized broken ribs were tightly bound. Slight movement made him acutely aware of the shifting ribs. Strangely, there was no pain. He breathed steadily, attempting to focus the Force on his injuries.
"He's awake," a gruff voice called from beyond the small room.
The door burst open and the two large men that had attacked him marched in. Obi-Wan stared up at the unfocused figures. He was in no position to offer them much of a fight even if he had the strength to get up. His thoughts swam and made little sense as he tried to focus and call out to Qui-Gon through their bond.
"Look at me," the first man growled as he kicked Obi-Wan's sore side.
There was no pain but he knew he should be feeling something. Slowly, the young Jedi brought his eyes up to his captor.
The man growled as he knelt before the boy. "Where are the negotiations being held?"
Obi-Wan stared at him silently. Something or someone was in his mind. He struggled to focus, to break free, but there was no clarity.
The large man yanked him forward and he let out a little sound before being tossed back into the cell corner. "I know you can talk. So answer."
Still Obi-Wan remained silent.
"Talk," the man threatened.
Silence.
"Don't you understand," he tried pleading with the youth. "We're doing this for Adamere's own good."
"That is what the negotiations are for," Obi-Wan said. "They are working for Adamere's best interests."
"I didn't know Jedi were so idealistic and naive."
Obi-Wan didn't answer, instead he allowed his thoughts to return to the strange static that was clouding his mind and cutting him off from the Force. Yes, that was it, that elusive feeling. His mind was so muddled from the blow to the head that he didn't even realize he had been disconnected from the ever-flowing energy source.
"Tell me, or you will regret it," the man warned. Not getting an answer the big man seemed to plead with the injured seventeen-year old. "I'm giving you a chance, you're not going to like it if we take the information forcefully."
Any other time, Obi-Wan would have felt that he could take on anything, but at the moment he knew whatever was messing with his mind was going to win.
The big man stood up and stepped away revealing a dark shrouded figure in the opposite corner. Instinctively Obi-Wan withdrew deeper into the corner.
"You know what I am," the voice spoke, seemingly everywhere and nowhere at once. "The Jedi saw to the death of my kind a thousand years ago. Still the fear is ingrained in you."
Gloved hands pulled the heavy hood back, revealing pale iridescent skin with rivers of blue lines coursing over it. Impossibly large, black eyes stared blindly out.
"Mind carver," Obi-Wan whispered as he backed deeper into the corner. The Masters had told the young initiates horror stories. Be good or the mind carver will come. They were just stories, he reminded himself but that all fell away facing the figure shrouded in a cloak of darkness.
He couldn't pull his gaze away from her eyes. Eyes as black as space.
She was in his head, severing him from the Force.
"Get out," he groaned.
A wave of pain from his injuries slammed into him, nearly making him ill from the sensation.
"You should be thankful for my help," the creature whispered, tightening her grip on the young man's mind and relieving him of the pain once again.
__________
The palace had begun to slip back into silence as Anakin paced at the entrance to the hall to Lady Halor's private apartments. He roughly pushed the front of his hood back out of his eyes, the material bothering him only as much as he wanted to be annoyed at the moment.
Occasionally Commander Sel would open the door to the apartment and glare out at him.
Anakin swiped at the air and tried to push the soft whisperings of the walls out of his head, but when they went away the throbbing headache his master often projected returned.
Frustration welled in him as he marched down the hall, the lights of the walls having little chance to keep up with his long stride.
He pressed his fingers to the tender flesh of his temples, in an attempt to push the pain away. But it wasn't his, so he could not will it out of existence.
He stormed around the corner and came to a sudden halt.
In the center of the hall stood three Dilurians chattering happily in their native tongue.
Anakin started to walk around the group when Te-hut stepped away from the other two. The small, robed Dilurian nodded behind his matching purple mask and bowed ever so slightly. "Greetings my young Jedi friend, how has your day in the palace been?"
"Frustrating," Anakin mumbled with half a mind to keep walking. "Actually everything has been very nice. If not a little strange."
"A little?" Te-hut asked with a chuckle as he played with the mask. "Are we speaking of the same Cath? The people are as eclectic as their religious practices. Turning temples into palaces," he uttered as if a curse
Anakin couldn't help the little smile the Dilurian brought him.
"The whole thing about the masks. I just don't see how everyone can walk around and never truly see each other's faces."
"Yet, I see that you wear a mask," Te-hut said staring up at the tall youth. "It makes you look happy, but I sense the turmoil in you. This is even more unhealthy than bosi fruit."
"There is just a lot going on," Anakin said softly.
"Don't try to fool me, my young friend. Jedi you may be, but around the galaxy I have been. I have seen things even a wise Jedi would be amazed by."
Anakin wanted to shift the conversation away from his problems for a little while and stared at the walls that lightly glowed. "Have you seen anything like this before?" he asked as he brushed his fingers over the smooth stone, lights flickering and fading under his touch.
"No." Te-hut drew a hand across the wall and the lights glowed with his touch. "This is a strange rarity." He laughed. "At least they like you. I hear some are not so fortunate."
"There was this woman," Anakin said, resting his hand on the wall and carefully pulling it away. He was a little disappointed that there was not a happy handprint left. "It was like they were afraid of her."
"The Lady Halor's pet," the Dilurian said wickedly. "Oh, yes, I too have seen that."
"Why?"
Te-hut stared over at Anakin. "Tell me you do not know what she is?"
Anakin shrugged and knelt down to be on the Dilurian's level. "Should I?"
Te-Hut leaned close, lowering his voice as he spoke. "Her kind are called Cere."
Not understanding, Anakin lightly shook his head.
"They are all but extinct. Powerful telepaths. Dangerous," he stressed. "Be smart my honored friend and stay far from her, she will destroy you."
Anakin just stared at the little man.
Te-hut laughed. "Of course, I'm sure your master told you all about them?"
The frown on Anakin's face spoke more than any words he could muster.
Te-Hut placed a hand on the wall and it glowed. "This has not always been a palace. It was the greatest of the Cath temples. They once worshipped the Cere. They insisted the Cath sacrifice all their Force-sensitives. Something about the ability to channel the Force threatened them. The bloodlines were so devastated there are no Force-sensitives left among the Cathians.
"Somewhere along the way, the Cere turned against the Cath. They truly believed they were gods. They laid siege to the planet and spread out through the Republic like a plague millennia ago. The Jedi were the only force capable of standing against them. The wars raged for decades until the Cere were killed or driven to the farthest reaches of the outer rim."
"In my studies on Jedi history I haven't read anything about them."
"They are often forgotten." Te-Hut played with the wall briefly. "Her kind are all but extinct," he said softly. "A curse on Jedi. She hates you because you follow the religion that destroyed the Cere. A religion that replaced them in the minds of the Cath. Your life will forever be altered if you end up in a confrontation with one."
"How?" Anakin asked, considering the consequences of going against a creature that made the imposing Commander Sel tremble.
"Non-Force-sensitives do not survive the encounter." He looked up sadly at the young Jedi. "A fate far worse than death awaits an unfortunate Jedi."
Anakin held onto the small man's words as the Dilurian continued to play with the lighted wall.
"They lose their minds," Te-Hut said finally.