Coruscant
As Master of the Dantooine Council, Orrickos understood the powers, responsibilities, and above all, the sheer burden that came with having hundreds of Jedi Knights under his care. But all that paled in comparison to even the most junior member of the Jedi High Council; to have not just one Temple or planet, but the entirety of the Order, across the galaxy, be impacted by every choice you made.
It truly was a humbling experience; if Orrickos could have his way, he would make it a custom for any newly ascended Master, Council member, and definitely Council Master, to present themselves before the High Council as a reminder of their place.
"Thank you, Masters," Orrickos began, "I don't wish to take up too much of your time, so I will just come right out with my reason for this audience. My request is a simple one." Here's hoping they don't probe too much he thought as he made the leap: "I am formally requesting that the Council sanction an expedition to the planet Ilum for one of my Jedi Knights and his, Padawan."
He'd nearly stumbled on that last word, but felt it necessary to insert that title for formality purposes. He continued: "We recognize that Ilum continues to be a contested world between the Republic and Empire, which is why I felt the need to make this request formally, both as a deference to the Council's authority, as well as a gesture that this expedition is to be exclusively of interest to the Order, officially outside the purview of the Republic war effort."
The Grandmaster nodded slowly, taking in the request before responding: "And what, if we may ask, would be the nature of this excursion?" she asked.
Orrickos sighed subtly through his nose, not betraying himself. I guess it was too much to hope for an immediate "yes" straightaway.
"The, um… the Jedi Knight in question, who will be making this excursion… is my own former apprentice, Uriel Baylan."
That got the reaction that Orrickos had both hoped for but wished he hadn't needed. The Grandmaster, along with those few long-serving members who had likewise been on the Council when the Harbinger's existence was made known to them, exchanged quick glances—to the confusion of the younger, newer members—before all twelve resumed their united front.
She nodded to Orrickos in understanding. "Then, we are to presume that the Harbinger has finally come into play?"
"Yes, Master," Orrickos confirmed.
"And that the artifact's location has been ascertained to be on Ilum?"
Orrickos hesitated oh so slightly before clarifying. "Actually, Master…" he began, "The artifact is with us already, except… things didn't go as we'd envisioned. It wasn't Uriel who ended up holding it. It's his apprentice."
"How?" another Councilor interjected, "Correct me if I am mistaken, but was that not the whole point of Jedi Baylan?"
Orrickos couldn't help bristle at the his remark. He's more to us—more to me than just that. But he kept that thought respectfully locked away before answering.
"That may have been the initial design, yes, but clearly the Force had other plans. But what's done is done, and now that she has taken on that burden, Uriel has likewise risen to the duty of protecting and guiding her to the best of his ability."
"Forgive me, Master Orrickos," the Grandmaster said, hoping to steer the discussion back to the topic at hand, "but I'm not seeing how Ilum is figuring into all this then. If the Harbinger is found, why then the need for an expedition to the planet?"
Orrickos looked the Grandmaster dead in the eye. "Because it is the resting place of its counterpart."
A second time, momentary chaos rippled through the atmosphere of the chamber before reverting back to tranquility.
"There are two?" she asked, her tone carefully neutral.
"Three, actually."
"And this knowledge became privy to you when?"
"When Adrielle, the apprentice, came to be in possession of the one we found on Obroa-skai."
"Captain Jysed's present engagement," the other Councilor deduced, putting two and two together.
"Right," Orrickos confirmed, "Trust me, Masters, I returned to all the information that had been left to me to see if I'd overlooked something. Nothing. For the time being, it would be safe to assume that the Sith are none the wiser to the existence of the other two Harbingers, which is why the timeliness of this expedition is crucial. We've managed to stay ahead of them to this point, but I know Phagos. He'll have dedicated every resource, weapon, and waking hour to taking the Harbinger. He cannot be allowed to succeed, Masters."
The Grandmaster sighed and closed her eyes momentarily. Orrickos stood and took a couple careful breaths, expelling his anxieties to make way for patience.
She opened her eyes and looked upon Orrickos once more.
"You mentioned a third Harbinger. Where is it?"
. . .
Uriel's blade illuminated the path in front of them as he led the way through the cave.
"Stop that," he ordered.
"What?" Adrielle snapped her head back toward him.
"You keep turning from me to glance behind, don't think I can't sense your distraction."
"Sorry. It's just that—"
"The shadows."
"Yeah."
"That's the point. According to legend, Master Topal sculpted the rocks around in such a way that in themselves they have no shape, but the shadows they cast do. The idea being that it would teach his students to avoid overreliance on their physical sight. To learn to see the universe as it truly is through the Force, instead of merely seeing it as it appears to be like other sentient beings are limited to. And any student who was fooled by the shadows and looked behind them was considered to be found wanting."
"You know, one of my teachers once said, if it looks like a mynock, flies like a mynock and screeches like a mynock—"
"Could your teacher sense the Force?"
"… No."
"Then at least they had a valid reason. You don't. Now eyes forward."
They continued through the tunnels, Adrielle keeping her gaze firmly focused ahead of her, doing her best to not flinch or turn when it seemed like they were about to be attacked from behind.
"I'm surprised no Jedi or students have ever tried just destroying the rocks."
"Oh I'm sure many have tried," Uriel said drily, "You're not the first hopelessly gullible youth to walk these tunnels. But look closely. You'll see those rocks are different from the walls of the cave. It's phrik. Highly durable ore, even against lightsabers."
Finally, the tunnel opened up to a larger cavern. The ground and the outer walls were noticeably smoother with a distinct lack of stalagmites, matched by a lack of stalactites in the cavern ceiling. But most conspicuous, in the center of the cavern…
"What is that?" Adrielle gazed at what seemed like a humanoid shape, seemingly made entirely of stone.
Not stone…
"More phrik," Uriel said as he approached and inspected more closely. The statue stood at the center of a round platform, both hands in front of it, holding what looked to be an inert lightsaber. A blue light emitted from the bottom of the hilt, focused on a particular spot on the platform like a spotlight. He looked down at the platform, riddled with various markings in various areas—no doubt left behind by less disciplined students who made the trek in the past and felt some juvenile need to mark the experience—except where the light shone on. Perhaps those students weren't as far gone as he thought.
The idea came to him almost immediately.
"Lunan, the book," he prompted.
Adrielle jogged over to Uriel and produced the book and handed it to him.
"Guessing we dispelled the shadows of the cave by making it here," she said.
"And now to let the light of truth shine proudly," Uriel finished, taking the book. He placed it on the area beneath the statue's lightsaber, where the spotlight shone.
They both stood looking down at the jumbled map, hoping that the light would somehow make sense of it.
Instead, the light gradually diminished… followed by that all too familiar snap-hiss, as a blue blade emitted from the top of the statue's lightsaber hilt.
Uriel and Adrielle jumped back as the statue sprang to life. Moving with a fluidity that it frankly had no business having, it began flourishing its lightsaber and leapt in the air, descending to where they were. They dodged, the statue leaving a small crater upon its impact.
Recovering quickly, Uriel reached out his hand, intending to bring it to the ground with the Force. But as soon as he made contact with it, a strong burst of energy pulsated from it, overwhelming their ears and filling their heads with a piercing noise, stunning them.
The golem launched forward from one step toward Uriel, who dove out of the way to create distance again.
Okay, brute force it is then, Uriel thought, as Adrielle ran over to him. "Stay behind me!" he ordered as he ignited his lightsaber. "Keep your distance from that thing until I take it down." He glanced back to see Adrielle nod before rushing forward to close the distance.
Adrielle followed the first four or so strikes before losing track, as the two blue blades crashed into each other repeatedly.
Finally, Uriel's blade found its mark; a slightly better mark than he had expected. It's not pure phrik! he thought excitedly, Makes sense. Can't imagine a statue of this size being made purely of the stuff.
Uriel renewed his attack. Unfortunately, this time the golem won out and Uriel was forced to retreat before reassuming his stance and advancing again. This time the exchange was much shorter, as the golem's blade grazed Uriel's robe and he was forced back once more.
Realizing that simply standing and letting Uriel handle it was no longer a viable option, Adrielle took her place beside him and activated her electroblade. "Two swords are better than one, even if the other is borderline useless!"
Uriel gave a quick glance at her and nodded. "Assuming it's functioning on some archaic programming, we can try to take it off balance." He gestured at the golem. "I'll take point, you come in at any openings you see, but no more than two strikes, just enough to take it off its focus."
Adrielle nodded.
"Go!"
Uriel leapt forward to engage the golem. Adrielle made her way around to flank it, then ran forward and made a couple swings. As expected, her weapon bounced harmlessly off the phrik warrior, but it was still enough to get its attention.
Which Uriel capitalized on by putting his strength into his next few strikes. Nice! Three unanswered blows.
The golem quickly refocused on Uriel, who retreated several steps. Good; their plan seemed to work. Just a few more cycles and they could best it.
"Again!" Uriel called, as he advanced to engage again, employing the same sequence and hoping Adrielle could do a repeat performance and cut in at the right time.
"AGH!" Uriel cried out as he caught an elbow to the jaw from the golem. He immediately withdrew as it followed up with an upward slash right where he'd just been. "Wait!" he cried out to Adrielle.
Too late. She began her attack, only to have her second strike intercepted by the golem's blade, before it used its free hand to grab her and hurl her across the cavern. She slid across the ground a few meters.
"Lunan!" Uriel began running toward her, only to be blocked as the golem jumped and landed between them. Uriel reattempted his attack, which lasted even shorter and resulted a backhand that sent him sprawling. The golem raised its blade and sent it sailing down toward Uriel.
Only to be blocked by Adrielle's blade.
Uriel seized the opportunity and hacked at the golem's legs a few times before being sent flying by a hard kick to the midsection. As he watched midair, he silently thanked the Force that Adrielle was at least smart enough to retreat and start evading. It took him a few seconds to recover the breath that had been knocked out of him, then he ran to the golem to take its attention.
This time he employed a different sequence. The exchange lasted much longer than the last few times, during which Adrielle was able to land an impressive four blows before it switched focus, allowing Uriel to land a few more hits.
That's it, Uriel figured it out. It learns! It records attack patterns and creates a counterattack! I'll just need to mix up my sequences. He called out to Adrielle, "I know what to do, just keep distracting it!"
"Got it!" Adrielle acknowledged.
They continued their pattern; Uriel attacking with a sequence of strikes, Adrielle distracting, Uriel seizing the openings. But the unfortunate reality of phrik alloy, even impure, was that it took many strikes.
And Uriel was running out of sequences. He'd have to start reusing old ones, even though he knew doing so would just be asking for punishment. But there was no choice. He employed the sequence he used at the very opening.
"Uriel!" Adrielle screamed as she saw the golem's fist landed flush where the Jedi's ribs were. This time he only made it to one knee, still hunched over, his arms over his ribs.
Without thinking, Adrielle ran forward to engage the golem. Using one of the few sequences she'd memorized, she began her attack, culminating with a successful strike that unfortunately achieved little. She glanced over at Uriel, who was on his feet with one hand hovering over his chest. She looked at the golem again, determined to keep its attention. She advanced, ready.
"Wait, don't! He'll—"
Too late, as Adrielle employed the same sequence… and landed another hit.
Uriel stared dumbfounded. "But… but how? It should've adapted to the pattern of her—" he realized as soon as he'd verbalized the word. Pattern! She's still so raw and untrained, her sequences are still so inconsistent that the golem registers it as a different pattern each time!
He extinguished his blade. "LUNAN!" he shouted, getting her attention. "CATCH!" He tossed his lightsaber at her.
She dropped her electroblade and caught the lightsaber, ignited it, and continued the fight. Sure enough, the same sequence, but her inexperience and lack of proper form caused the golem to not recognize it. Another hit. The same sequence, but not according to the golem. Another hit.
A couple minutes later, the golem was barely functional, its movements and reactions slowed. It sluggishly raised its sword arm…
Only to fly back several meters, landing hard on its back.
That felt good, Uriel thought as he advanced, his arm still outstretched. He and Adrielle stood over the golem.
"Finish it," Uriel ordered.
Raising his lightsaber, Adrielle drove the blade right into where the golem's heart would've been if it had one. And the statue was a statue once more. She breathed a sigh of relief and exhaustion as she switched the weapon off and handed it back to Uriel.
"You okay?" Uriel asked; Adrielle nodded. "Wow," he continued with a dry laugh, "Never thought your lack of consistency with the saber would be a strength."
"So now what?" she asked, "We're alive, but still no closer to finding the path.
"Hold on." Uriel bent down to pick up the statue's lightsaber. He noticed that the blue spotlight was once again emitting from the other end. He inspected the hilt to look for the activator, but was baffled to find there was none. Nevertheless, he took the hilt back to the platform and shone the light on the book.
They looked down at the jumbled map. After a moment of nothing, suddenly some of the lines on the map began glowing blue. Revealing an actual valid route to travel.
"Got it!" Uriel exclaimed, "The light of truth shows the way."
"So can we finally leave?" Adrielle asked.
"Gladly," Uriel answered.
The Drowning Mermaid
"Want another one?" Reena offered.
Uriel pushed the shot glass toward her. "Damn piece of junk," he grumbled.
"Well, just be glad it didn't do more damage than it did," Orrickos said, his hand hovered over his former pupil's chest, which now had a bacta patch over the rib area, as he continued his healing technique.
"Well, I'd say it was worth it, yeah?" Adrielle said, "We know where to go now."
"And as far as we know, Phagos is still none the wiser," Orrickos said triumphantly.
"Oh yeah." Uriel almost forgot. "How was is with the Council?"
"Ahh… well…" Orrickos cleared his throat, as Uriel prepared for the worst. "Well, good news is the Council has granted their permission."
There was a cheer around the main hold, ceased immediately when the Jedi Master raised his hand.
"On the condition we accomplish a particular task first."
The bad feeling came back. "And dare I ask what it is?" Uriel asked.
"Well…" Orrickos took a breath; no use beating around the bush.
"We've been tasked with liberating Obroa-skai."
The cheer quickly gave way to a shocked silence, followed by…
"For karksake," Uriel groaned as he downed the shot Reena had just poured.
