Kenobi watched through the transparent wall of the elevator as they descended toward the solid ground into the greenish fog of Coruscant's depths. One could hardly believe this desolated scenery had anything to do with the galactic capital. All around lay what looked like the remains of a burnt down city. A thick layer of dust and some kind of moss invading the abandoned buildings had uniformly smothered traces of a previous life. People seldom ventured deep enough in the Lower City to see those ruined streets littered with air speeders carcasses, fallen there haphazardly over the years.

The elevator shuddered to a stop and Obi-Wan Kenobi took a step out. The dirt absorbed any sound and there was no smell of earth, no apparent activity. The usual urban din echoed very distantly above them.

There was the meeting point. He cast another wary look around him. Not a soul. It was so quiet he thought for a second he had got the direction wrong. He did not like this at all. From the corner of his eyes, he made sure Nila was safely standing behind him.

"They did not come," he muttered, urging the young woman back into the lift. "Let's not lager, we know not of what may be lurking here."

"Wait. It's the right place," Nila said, brushing past him. She took a few steps and seemed to stare at something on the other side of the street. He followed and discovered a niche in a half crumbled wall where an ancient, strange statue was displayed.

"Nuala," she murmured. "A divinity of the ancient religion. The Mob often uses her to scare away intruders."

"Oh. Superstition then?"

Nila threw a sidelong look at the effigy. "She's evil."

Kenobi felt a wave of discomfort coming from her and her palm was suddenly on his arm,covering the crescent shaped scar. An odd gesture. As if to warn him or maybe to seek reassurance…

He glanced down and saw she was embarrassed. He moved to pat her hand reassuringly but she had already taken it away. He cleared his throat, a bit self-conscious himself and started to draw nearer to the statue.

"Stay away from her!" shouted Nila so unexpectedly that the Jedi's stride faltered.

In front of him, two eyes made of black stone, which had lost none of their sharpness along the centuries, stared down at him fixedly. The only trace of colour among the emaciated features was the thin line of crude red painting the goddess' lips. The artisan's chisel had cut a faint smile into the wood that could have been labelled as sardonic or mysterious. The fine bridge of the nose parted hollow cheeks shadowed by high cheekbones…

"Obi-Wan!"

Nila was now right behind him. A surge of uneasiness coursed through him as he met again the statue's narrow slits of dark eyes. Their long shape stretched far toward the temples beneath the implacable arch of the eyebrows. It seemed to him that the air had grown slower and heavier for no particular reason…

His blood suddenly froze in his veins – a red tinge had just flickered in the goddess' stony gaze.

Laser sights!

He threw an arm around Nila's waist and plunged down behind a heap of junk a scant second before a shot smashed the statue to pieces. They landed roughly on the ground and he rolled immediately on the top, shielding her as the firing started to disintegrate the trash around them. A tad disoriented, Nila regained enough of her bearing to shove him off when she saw his face right above hers. She went very still as a ginger lock of his hair grazed her cheek.

"Are you hit?" he whispered.

Hey… his eyes were green…

Nila shook her head numbly, feeling like kicking herself. In a heart beat, he was up and whirling around accompanied by the hiss of his blade just in time to deflect the first blaster bolts piercing through the junk sheltering them. She scrambled up right after him and found herself hard-pressed to parry the blaster crossfire. The snipers were ingeniously placed forcing the two Jedi to make wide, tiring movements with their blade.

She cast a brief surveying look behind her and winced. A high wall stood but a few meters away from them, preventing any retreat -- if they did not find a solution quickly, they would be left completely exposed to the shots with no chance to escape.

Kenobi was assessing the situation as well. The snipers were posted up in the ruins; there was no visibility and they were too far to be neutralized. He took a few steps back and noticed they were shooting at regular intervals as though obeying a strictly rehearsed choreography. When Kenobi's shoulder brushed the wall behind him, he understood. They were not trying to kill them -- they were merely cornering them.

At the same moment, Nila felt the hard surface of the wall in her back and briefly closed her eyes. They popped open when she felt her support suddenly give way and a fist wrap into the back of her tunic, pulling her in. There was the quick image of Kenobi tumbling backward and the burn of a bolt grazing her cheek before darkness closed around them.

Everything had happened so quickly that Nila wondered briefly if she had lost consciousness. Everything around her was drowned in an inky shadow which strongly smelled of dust and mould. Her senses alerted her of her partner's presence nearby and...

"To your right!" barked Kenobi's voice.

She narrowly dodged the hand she visualized in her mind, snatched the wrist connected to it and twisted it sharply until her assailant was lying flat on the floor. A faint noise somewhere in the darkness informed her that Kenobi had disposed of another opponent. She tried to muffle the broken cries coming from the prone form beneath her but heavy footfalls were already running their way. Both knights stood ready, light sabres in hand.

Lights irrupted and revealed a dozen men aiming their blasters at them.

"Bastards," Nila growled, recognizing Santillian's men. "We had an arrangement!"

"Damn straight we had!" spat one of them.

"We had your word we could come unharmed. You are a disgrace to the Family!"

"Nila." Kenobi shot her a disapproving glance.

Her words had several men blanch with anger and the one who had spoke first—probably the leader of this squad-- replied hotly.

"You brought Thranton's men! You work with the RAID!"

"Certainly not!" cried out Nila, scandalized. "What are you taking us for?!"

"That'll do, Knight Sohal. It was an ambush," he explained with his best poker face. "They tried to make us think we betrayed each other. You know their ways."

"We know her ways," said the leader, jerking his head towards Nila who conspicuously secured her hold on her sabre's hilt. The man smirked.

"You know, it did not save your master last time."

Nila immediately reacted to the provocation but Kenobi threw a restrictive hand in front of her.

All of the sudden, a feminine voice was heard behind the henchmen. A tall woman draped in a dark green robe parted the tight row of men. She bore a high, noble brow and her mostly white hair was pulled back in an intricate bun. Nila turned toward her partner as his hold on her shoulder loosened. He seemed to be frozen on the spot.

"Let them go," the woman said.

"I think I won't, my lady," replied the man with stiff respect.

"They were invited by an Arda," she hissed. "Now take your men outside. Ten of them may stay for intern security."

The man opened his mouth to shoot some venomous reply but apparently decided against it and set his jaw tightly.

"Don't you know who she is, my lady?" he asked sombrely, gesturing toward Nila. "She—"

"Oh, enough!" A man dressed in an elegant set of tunics walked into the room and addressed the henchman with a cold, bored voice. "Your attitude will simply not do. Tell me, what kind of image do you give to our guests? That we have no manners? Hum?" The henchman flinched but remained silent.

The newcomerraised an annoyed eyebrow. "This is the second time I warn you. There will not be a third," he said, beckoning two guards who came to seize their mate and lead him out.

The newcomer looked back at the Jedi, bowing his head slightly. "My apologies for this disagreeable incident. I'm Jovan Dysaneth and I represent the Santillian clan here."

Just as he spoke a horrible cry muffled by the wall burst in the hall. Kenobi darted a look in the direction of the scream while Nila cringed: the henchman had just been shot in the knees. No one reacted in the crowd of mobsters.

"We will escort you to the reading room," Dysaneth announced with a rather cheerful smile given the circumstances.

The older woman stepped forth. "Would you please give your weapons to those gentlemen and follow me?"

The Jedi exchanged a grim look but disengaged their blade and unbuckled their utility belt. As the group trailed out the room behind the lady and Dysaneth, Nila moved to walk by Kenobi's side.

"What's going on with the RAID?"

"They actually are the reason why we're here tonight," he admitted in a low voice. He lowered his eyes a bit when she brusquely looked up at him. "The RAID was first on the Scroll's trail: they bugged the Families frequencies and found out its plausible location. The Council only heard of it after the search was launched. They had to go to the Chancellor to be allowed to have someone on the case, the Senate wouldn't let them."

Nila Sohal's face had lost all expression at the news.

"You were right about Thranton. The attack outside just proved he is trying to kill two birds with one stone," Kenobi continued. "He triggers a progressive winding up of our relationship with Santillian while he exploits old grudges within the Family. This way he will always be able to find someone willing to negotiate a reversal of alliance…"

"That will get him to the Scroll without any difficulty," she said coolly.

"He also seems to know exactly where to find us. This is the second time he does this to us. It means the RAID has a source of information…"

"Don't even dare to look at me, Kenobi," Nila ground out.

"I wasn't!" he protested. "Listen Nila, don't be angry…"

"You're not working with me." With that, she fell silent and Kenobi lost the opportunity to answer as they were urged to walk down a narrow metallic stair.

The Jedi discovered a large, non-descript space encased in thick duracrete walls and supported by a series of heavy pillars. Endless rows of data, lined up in large holoshelves and spread over three different levels, were neatly divided in sections according to their subject. Working desks with complete holo units were settled in front of each division. The light was dim and created a strange, confined atmosphere despite the volume of the place. In each corner, two men were sitting, both armed and looking intently at them.

It really existed then… Nila let her eyes wander over what represented years and years of smuggling and common vice. Ironically enough, it was almost as vast and as documented as the Jedi Archives themselves. The room was as large as a hangar or… or a blockhouse?

She smirked. Clever. The Mob had chosen the military forts dating back to the time when Coruscant's inhabitants lived on solid ground to hide their precious data. There were hundreds of them all around the City. A simple move from a fort to another at regular interval insured the secrecy of the location.

The lady left them at the bottom of the stairs followed by Dysaneth after he had ordered the men to see the Jedi settled.

"This way," a henchman said curtly. He stopped in a transversal alley by one of the study tables and handed Kenobi an electronic card. "This will allow you to log on. We will get it back as soon as you are finished."

With that, he went to grab a chair and sat a few meters away with the other guards. Kenobi turned around to find Nila already seated and typing the log in code. He shook his head slightly and settled to his task.

After hours of fruitless browsing, Nila felt her concentration slip. The access card only granted a very limited access to the archived files.

Time drew out and she could feel that their observers were getting restless. Nila morosely blew a lock of hair out of her face and rose to stretch her back unceremoniously. She strolled a bit in the alleys and paused at a reading table as though to look for a document while actually contemplating a way to reach the restricted part of the library situated just across the hall. She raised her eyes and nearly jumped out of her skin. Standing but a meter away from her was the gaunt form of a small being was watching her with big circled eyes.

A boy.

No.

A Child.

He brushed her fingers as he thrust a data pad in her hand and Nila almost stepped back in instinctive repulsion. She could see the bluish pattern of his veins under his pallid skin -- he already looked so irremediably burnt out. Progressive loss of sleep and appetite -- the unmistakable effects of solicaine.

Nila looked down at the terse message issued by Abenok. A date and an hour. She hastily entered the address Kenobi had selected for the meeting and handed the pad back to the boy.

Their gaze locked for a moment before the kid scampered off behind the closest holoshelf.

She inhaled deeply to shake off this irrational fear that years of training could not erase just as a raucous curse echoed behind her. Heavy footsteps were darting away probably chasing after the small intruder.

A diversion! Nila raced toward the restricted area and was in a scant second before the guard's return.

It took her eyes a few seconds to adjust to the semi obscurity and make out new rows of records neatly stored. She randomly picked a row and ran a finger over the spines of the holobooks, scanning the titles. As Nila crouched down to check the bottom shelf, a holobook appeared under her nose.

"I think that's what you're looking for."

The young knight raised her eyes to discover the tall woman looking down at her. Nila could not see much in the shadow of the room. All she could feel was the strong presence, grave and poised yet slightly tainted by anguish.

"There is no need to look so alarmed. This is what you look for, trust me," she insisted gently.

Nila reached out to take the holo and inspected it. "It has no label. What is it?"

The woman looked a bit bemused. "You'll see it for yourself." She glanced toward the exit and whispered urgently. "You can't stay here. Dysaneth will come back any minute."

Nila did not budge. "Who are you?"

"I'm the keeper of this lore."

Nila's body went rigid. The contents of the file she had discovered during Kenobi's introduction to the Mob went through her mind. The woman in front of her was Farah Panasana.

"Go now!"

Nila blinked but gathered her documents hurriedly and was out of the room.

When Nila made her way back to the study table clutching three sets of holovids, Obi-Wan Kenobi could tell that something was wrong.

"So you found something? Where did you get it?" he asked, rising from his seat to help her with her burden. But Nila impatiently dismissed him and started to finger the opening of a holobooks, clicking her tongue in annoyance when it resisted her efforts.

"We are expected tomorrow night at 10. I gave the address you chose," she answered tersely, her mind still on what had happened a few minutes before.

Kenobi eyed the disk she finally managed to extract from the transparent wrapping. "What is it?"

Nila leaned forward, lowering her voice. "Well, if you leave me enough time to actually read it I might give an answer to that question."

The Jedi Master managed a tight smile and turned toward his own terminal without further comments. He had not been very fair to her, letting aside the implication of the RAID and disclosing the meeting point at the very last minute. Although he had his reasons to do so, low profile certainly was his best option for the moment.

Nila plopped down in the chair, feeling momentarily sorry but she did not really want to deal with her partner at that point. She discreetly slipped Kenobi's disk out of her pocket and selected the file labelled Farah Panasana. She plugged her data pad to the terminal and downloaded the two addresses recorded among the data and quickly shoved both items in the depths of her pocket. She then inserted the holobook given by the keeper and started to browse the selection of documents. What she found had her frowning.

"Have you wondered," she whispered. "How we came to fight against each other without realizing who we were that night in the Archives?"

Kenobi shot her a curious glance.

"I've been unable to come up with a logical explanation," she carried on. "But I think we were not alone in the Archives that night. Nor have we been ever since."

He kept his eyes on the screen in front of him. "What are you talking about?"

"The presence I first felt was not human. And it wasn't alien either." She hesitated for a second before saying: "In fact it wasn't even alive."

This time, Kenobi turned around and looked straight in her eyes. A slow wry smile crept on his lips.

"Come now, I'm serious," she said, a little piqued.

"It was me." He returned to his reading.

"How come I've heard two people running that night?"

"Well, I may have an explanation but I doubt you'll like it."

Nila shot him a sour look. "We're Force-sensitive. We do not mistake our peers for our enemies. It's just not possible. We both sensed something for a moment and that's why you shielded from me -- you felt threatened by something and --"

"Sohal," he interrupted quietly. "I know all this so get to the point please."

She turned her screen toward him. "The lady we met earlier is the keeper of this lore and she seemed to know exactly what I was looking for. Remember the fragmentary text you were reading at the Temple Archives when I found you that night? Well, this is the missing part. Fully translated in Basic. It's some sort of diary dating back from three millennia ago, right after the destruction of Ossus when the survivors moved to Coruscant," she explained. "Something happened to its owner, a man called Sidès Meill."

"Who was he?"

"The captain of Queen Khisré's personal guard, the direct descendant of Queen Asalwa," she answered, summing up the document. "The queen apparently sent him on a most secret mission he was not allowed to mention even in his private papers but he describes here some strange facts that occurred. Among those is this unexplainable sensation of cold closing around him like a hand and freezing him from inside."

Her partner's eyes narrow perplexedly. "Oh. This is…"

"Familiar?" she prompted.

He shrugged lightly. "The date of the last entry corresponds exactly to the time the Holocron was spotted last and the year when Coruscant became a Republic. The end of the First Age then. Maybe the Holocron was actually found after the Great Cataclysm and reinitialised equilibrium between Ashla and Bogan before disappearing again. Now that the Second Age is about to end, the Scroll must be found again."

He suddenly reached his hand toward the screen. His finger traced the guard's name. "Sidès Meill is the anagram of Delemissei."

"How do you know?" Nila asked, a bit surprised.

He shrugged, puzzled. "I just do. There wasn't only one Delemissei but several of them. One for each passing of an Age. History repeats itself endlessly. "

Nila raised a contemplative eyebrow. "You're right. Sidès bore his name and now you bear the queen's emblem in turn."

The Jedi master remained quiet.

She quickly scrolled down.

"So, this text proves that the Elements have been incarnated several times since the prophecy was made. But as long as the three of them are not in contact, the scroll cannot be found. The question would be now: how are they brought together? And here is the answer I think. Here 'The Three Horsemen'."

Kenobi obligingly started to read aloud. "They are the guardians of the prophecy, a particular manifestation of the Force. There is one for each of the Three Runes' embodiments."

"I think I saw it when I spied on Beryl and that man," Nila abruptly said. "It looked like a silvery shape standing by them, showing me something, but I couldn't make out what it was…

What occurred to him is precisely what I feel anytime I shield. And I know you sensed it too during that fight with Cir'b, your skin was ice cold afterwards."

He sat back in his chair. "So if I understand correctly, the prophecy has been at rest for an Age, waiting for three appointed persons to be born and find each other to be lead to the Scroll and prevent some intergalactic catastrophe…"

"I don't mean to rub it in but I do remember saying it was stupid from the beginning."

He closed his eyes. "We've been searching for weeks, traded with the Mob, risked our lives to learn we must find someone impersonating a rune which could be any other person in this galaxy and trust ghoulish Force forms to take us to a Holocron that's part legend part symbolic…"

A muffled sound made him look up to find his partner leaning over her desk, her face hidden in her hands and her shoulders shaking.

Nila was laughing.

Kenobi watched her disbelievingly, they were pinned between the RAID and the Mob and she was laughing. "You're –"

"Atypical," she choked out.

A smile softened the Master's impatient face. "That's a polite way to put it."

"On a positive note," she said, wiping her eyes. "If, as I do believe now, the prophecy is already unfolding, it means Hanoch is someone close to us..."

At that moment, one of the guards rose from his seat and walked up to them. "Your time is up," he announced. "It is not prudent to stay here any longer."

Not prudent? Nila and Kenobi exchanged a glance. Eru had let them in unbeknownst to the other Clans.

The two Jedi were led through a succession of rooms toward another exit. A heavy door which slowly hissed open and they felt the acrid air from outside brush their face. Silently, the men handed them their utility belts where their light sabres hung.

"We checked the area. Take the first lift on your left toward the surface."

They stepped back inside and closed the entrance in the Jedi's face.

"That's all?" Nila asked to the closed door.

"Sohal! We don't have all day," barked Kenobi from the lift.

The lift slowed down and stopped long before reaching the upper level of Coruscant. His light sabre in hand, Kenobi cautiously stepped out, inspected their surroundings, probing the Force and stepped outside the cabin.

"All clear," he announced.

"Where are we?"

"Near the Court of the Lost," he said, pointing to a dark edifice. "I have some business to attend."

Nila walked out on the large platform supporting the imposing arches of the infamous Court. The shadow between the pillars was so thick that it gave the impression it had no end.

Kenobi beckoned her to follow him toward the edge of the platform. They crouched down noiselessly and Nila pointed to a small group of men gathered on the top of a building below them. The tall broad frame of Lieutenant Thranton was easily discernable.

"That's insulting," she ranted. "He's not even trying to hide."

"Why should they? They're always a step ahead of us."

They stared for a moment at the group and she nodded pensively "Means we'll need a way out tomorrow night. Just in case…"

"Precisely," Kenobi murmured before shaking his head and drawing away from the sill.

She glanced over her shoulder and saw he was busy typing a message on his data pad. Her gaze returned blandly to Thranton's silhouette. She felt cold and drew her cloak more tightly around her. Her body seemed to be progressively gained by numbness and she did not completely realize that her right hand had slid under her robes toward her holster. Then everything became clear. Nila pulled out her blaster.

"Nila?"

She closed one eye and aimed for the head of the tall figure parading among his men. A hand darted in her sights and knocked down the barrel.

"What the blast are you doing?"

She shook the hindrance off and took aim again just when Thranton turned around and without hesitation, looked right up at her. Nila's finger found the trigger and her whole body tightened under an unfamiliar pressure. It was only a heartbeat away…

Suddenly, strong hands griped hers over the blaster to divert the shot. A hoarse cry escaped her lips when she saw the bolt hit a pile of containers which fell on the squad. Throwing an arm across her chest, Kenobi dragged her out of sight. "Stop it. Drop your weapon."

The small wisps of hair dangling near her ear fluttered with his breath.

"Drop it." His grip on her right wrist tightened uncomfortably until pain vibrated in her articulations. His skin was as cold as hers and his hands were trembling too… Her body suddenly let go and the iciness disappeared. She vaguely sensed her legs giving way under her and the blaster falling into his hand.

Nila opened wide her eyes and drew a deep intake of air. Her cheek was pressed against the rough linen of a Jedi uniform and a solid grip around her waist was holding her up.

"Are you all right?" inquired her partner's voice from above her head.

"I missed, didn't I?" she mumbled.

"Missed?"

"The Horseman," she murmured, noting his skin was chilled.

A bit disconcerted, Kenobi adjusted his hold on her, feeling her weight in his arms, listening to her breath becoming progressively even. "I know, I felt it too."

"It wanted me to eliminate the threat, but you stopped me."

He considered her for a brief moment and detached her from him gently. "Nila," he said. "You stood there looking at Thranton for a while. You remember that, don't you? Then you dropped like a stone."

Puzzled, Nila turned her head toward Thranton's men to find them sitting exactly the way they had a few minutes before and her blaster secured in its holster. Her hands went to her temples to rub them but she stopped mid gesture realizing it had happed before. It was the second time those strange dreams or whatever it was, affected her.

"Do you dream, Obi-Wan?" she started.

Kenobi listened to her attentively without making any comment. "There is this dream I have at night," he eventually said. "I know it's always the same but I never remember more than a tight crowd around me saying things I cannot understand." He fell silent, trying to make sense of the situation. Truth to be told, he had now the disturbing feeling that the Horsemen had never quite left them since the night they had met, observing them and now manipulating their thoughts. Would they try to influence their actions as well?

Nila sat on the sill and glumly watched him put some distance between them. "Whatever it is, you must not let it control you, Nila. Killing a Republican officer can bring you no good."

The young woman settled for a non-committal shrug wondering how the Force she was supposed to do that. She could hardly tell reality from visions.

"Come now," he urged, reaching out a hand to help her up. "They won't be long to find us."

"Where are you going now?" She called after him as they darted toward the dark arches.

"Finding a way out for tomorrow night," he replied.

"Huh?"

"Just keep moving."

The shadows seemed to swallow them as soon as they stepped into the building. Nila observed their surroundings with uncertainty. The dark high pillars all around them created a maze of alleys leading nowhere. It was as though she was walking through one of those uncomfortable dreams where the line with nightmare could be crossed at any moment. Her eyes flickered over the arches and noticed that they were covered with whitish markings. Cabbalistic signs. Intrigued, she drew closer…

A wide crescent-like shape was scarring the centre of the closest pillar.

"Kenobi!" she called with a seemingly calm voice. "Do we really want to be here?"

"Yes, because no one else would."

"Can't blame them…"she muttered.

The building that the people of Coruscant called the 'Court of the Lost' was a dire reminder of a dark part of the planet's history everyone would rather forget. In the early stages of the Republic, the dignitaries of the Ancient Religion had quickly contested the new regime and had urged their congregations to follow their example. A huge movement of rebellion had spread mayhem in the city-planet for over a year. The laws were harsh at that time, almost as harsh as men were… A bloody episode had ensued -- the rebels had been massacred and their bodies buried in the pillars standing around the Jedi. A forest of troubled shadows… For centuries, seers had delivered their oracles there and all kinds of strange assemblies had occurred in the secrecy of the arches. Until eerie events had happened. Now a tacit, superstitious ban lay on the building.

"Admit it," Nila said. "We're lost,"

"We aren't. I know exactly where we are."

"Right."

Before any of them could react, a shadow sprung to life and seized Kenobi. In a second, Nila had her sabre ready in her hand and sprung forth. The huge four-armed creature gripping her partner froze when her blade found its way inches from its thick neck.

It was a Besalisk. Nila frowned.

A familiar Besalisk…