"Serana!" Mira called, sticking her head around the door. "Need to talk to you a moment."

Serana opened her eyes and stood. "What's this about?"

"The Jedi have sent an ambassador. Dad wants us to be there when they arrive."

"The Jedi are coming?" Ashla jerked upright. "Why? What's happening? What do they want?"

"I don't know. Come on, I've managed to get us a place at the Great Hall, we can watch."

The Great Hall was aptly named. Enormous pillars soared up to a roof almost a thousand feet above the ground. Balconies ran around the room. The floor was black marble, polished to a mirror finish. At one end of the room, a simple throne stood before a gigantic window. Sunlight pouring in would blind anybody standing before the throne. Perhaps that was the idea.

Mira had managed to get them a space on the balcony close to the throne. They'd be able to see and hear everything that happened. People started filling the room. Within half an hour, it was jam-packed.

The doors at the far end opened. A lone person in sandy robes strode down the hall. All conversation fell quiet, so that the only sounds were their footsteps against the marble. They wore their hood up, hiding their face.

"He comes," a herald called. Their voice echoed clearly through the room. "Istan of Clan Kryze, the Mand'alor, Emperor of the territories of Mandalore. She comes, Sara of Clan Wren, Protector of the Emperor and wielder of the Darksaber."

A ripple went through the room. A column of Mandalorian warriors marched into the room. At their head was a short man in blue-grey armour. Beside him, a taller woman, with vivid, intricately decorated and painted armour. A lightsaber hung on her belt. The fabled Darksaber of Mandalorian legend.

And she was so powerfully Force-sensitive that Serana could feel it from across the room. Her eyes narrowed. Even Ashla, with all of the power that she could command, hadn't felt like that. The solution was so obvious that Serana berated herself for not thinking of it immediately. The woman was a darksider.

The guards fanned out around them as the Emperor stood in front of the throne. He removed his helmet, revealing a handsome face with close-cut blonde hair. His eyes were wrong, though. They were harsh and cold, like chips of stone. They demanded obedience.

"You requested an audience," he said quietly. Everybody in the room strained to catch his words. "Speak."

"I come in search of criminals," the Jedi responded. "People who have committed crimes against the Jedi Order."

"You have no jurisdiction here," the Emperor said. "We stand apart, as we always have."

"The Jedi have jurisdiction everywhere," the Jedi said, raising their voice. "The galaxy is one under the Force, and we –"

"You have no jurisdiction here," the Emperor repeated quietly, cutting them off. "Guards. See them out."

"Serana Kol!" the Jedi called, ignoring the Emperor and turning to face the crowd. "Mira Ross. Terrel Ross. And the girl who calls herself Ashla. Anybody who turns them in will be richly rewarded." Two of the guards grabbed them. "Unhand me! I am a Jedi! You will show me respect."

"You are nothing here," the Emperor said. "Mandalore is not subject to the whims of your corrupt order. Take them back to their ship. If they continue to resist, kill them and bring me their head on a plate."

"Do you really think I came alone?" the Jedi demanded. "All systems are subject to the Jedi. You rebels will be dealt with."

People stepped forward from the crowd, drawing lightsabers. The Jedi pushed out. Two blast of power threw their guards away from them.

The Emperor raised an eyebrow. "You really want to try this?" He turned to the tall woman in the vivid armour. "Do it."

She raised her hands. A wave of lightning exploded through the crowd. Rather than the concentrated stream that Serana could produce, it was wild and branching, all over the place. It looked like it was barely under her control. The Jedi spasmed as the lightning hit them. She kept it up for a few seconds before cutting it off. The Jedi fell to the floor, unconscious, their robes smoking slightly.

"Shouldn't we do something?" Ashla asked.

Serana offered her a bucket of popcorn. "Just sit back and watch."

"Do you think me a fool?" the Emperor asked quietly. "You aren't the first to try something like this. You aren't even the hundredth. Did you really think that we'd fall so easily?"

The Jedi groaned as they pulled themselves into a kneeling position. "I have... a warship... in high orbit," the groaned. "Armed with... an arc pulse generator. One word, and I can wipe out every Mandalorian on this rock."

"You had a warship in high orbit," the Emperor corrected. "It was destroyed as soon as we detected it was carrying an arc pulse generator, in accordance with the Third Treaty of Krownest, which made the penalty for carrying them execution." The woman pulled the Darksaber from her belt and handed it to him. A blade of black light erupted from the hilt, making a high-pitched whining sound.

The Jedi raised an eyebrow. "Diplomatic immunity?"

"It's just been revoked." He slashed the Darksaber down. Their head bounced across the floor. "Kill the rest of them. Send word to the Jedi that their ambassadors have been executed for breaching diplomatic peace and carrying superweapons."

Serana shrugged, finishing off her popcorn. "And now it's done."

Ashla felt sick. "He... he just killed them. Right there, in front of everybody."

"They drew weapons at a diplomatic talk and they had a superweapon in orbit," Serana said. "What would you have done?"

"He didn't have to do it in front of everybody, though. They could have arrested them and executed them in private, or ransomed them back to the Jedi."

The walked in silence for a while. Eventually, Ashla spoke again.

"I need to go somewhere."

"Where?"

"I don't know. A temple, a world with two moons."

Serana stopped. "How do you know?"

"I had a vision. Last night, in my sleep. I didn't remember it until just now."

"Can you remember what it looked like?" Ashla nodded. "Show me."

An image flickered into being above her palm. The ruins of an ancient temple on top of a mountain. Two moons hung in the sky, one brilliant white and seeming to glow, the other deep and dark, pulling light in to it.

"Never seen it before," Serana said. "They might know where it is at the Great Library. Let's check it out."

The Great Library was an enormous, pyramid-shaped building of black glass. Serana left Ashla and went off looking for something. Ashla sat down at one of the computers.

What to search? She pulled up a star chart of the galaxy.

"Planets with two moons" pulled up a long list of results. She needed to narrow it down.

"Planets with a temple" didn't narrow it any further. Neither did "planets with ruins". She sat back, frowning.

She tried "planets with a Jedi temple".

That worked. She started trawling through the results.

She found what she was looking for, near the bottom of the list. She hurried to find Serana.

She found her peering at a computer, deep in the library. She didn't respond when Ashla called her name.

"Gah!" Serana jerked as Ashla tapped her on the shoulder.

"Sorry!" Ashla said quickly. "I found what I was looking for. It's on Tython."

Serana frowned. "In the Deep Core? Why would you need to go to Tython? That's a Jedi world."

"We're never going to find out if we don't go, are we?" She glanced at the computer Serana had been using. "Teleportation?"

"It's nothing," Serana said. "I – I was trying to figure out how you did it." She stood up. "We're not taking my ship."

"What? Why?"

"A feeling. Come on, let's go."