Chapter Nineteen
Slightly smirking after Pina tossed her the Talisman back to her as he spoke his vow, she prepared herself to use the two-bladed technique that Xendor had taught her. Transforming her scabbard into a duplicate of her sword, she watched to see what he would do next. However, she was far from prepared when he mimicked her spell and seemed to hold two Swords of Ashla instead of one. "I have always yearned to understand the secret to this technique and why it was not only convenient but also very effective in its delivery of results.
"When I finally understood the mechanisms of it, I then had a difficult time finding an opportunity to use it in combat. Perhaps now, I can finally have the opportunity to use the skills I have honed for many years even if the adversary is one I do not wish to face?" Pina asked. "So be it," Arden answered. Then father and child were pitted against each other for the first time in the history of the Jedi Order, a conflict that would echo throughout the rest of time both before and after this duel.
For a time, Arden and Pina both maintained a steady of barrage of both defense and offense against one another. Sometimes, Arden Lyn's anger managed to provide her the strength to swat down most of Pina's defenses and force him to give ground to her. Other times, Pina's love for her and his reluctance to destroy her gave him the strength to kick her back over some of that ground. It was during those moments that Pina would quickly regain the lost ground and then do what he could to gain more.
He knew, as Arden did, that any advantage that they could get in terms of ground and their skills would give them the prevailing edge in this confrontation. Then, when they had about equal footing, Arden was surprised when Pina managed to knock both of her blades out of her hands. Fearing for her life, she immediately grabbed his wrists and applied pressure until he dropped his blades as well. Then she used the Force to conjure a small ball of Kinetite in order to throw him away from his weapons.
After that, she used telekinesis to throw them across such distance as to make any attempt to reach one of them a struggle and both of them virtually impossible. During this time, she observed the blade that had been in his left hand transforming into the scabbard while the right-hand one didn't. Smiling, she knew she had found the real blade in time to call her own back into her hands and press the attack on the unarmed Jedi. He managed to hold her off surprising well with his skills in Terras Kasi but she knew that this would not last forever.
She knew that he would need one of his weapons back in order to continue the duel but since she was closer to the scabbard than to the sword, she used the Force to bend and shatter it. "Now you will never again be able to use two swords against me," she vowed with a smile. "You just made a serious mistake, Arden Lyn: fighting with one sword is my specialty even more than my spear. When I recover my weapon, you will regret what you just did within moments of the recovery," he promised.
He continued to hold her off with his Terras Kasi by catching her blows at her wrists though he never grabbed then and threw them aside. Then he surprised her further when he placed a palm just under her chest and induced a spell of malacia upon her. As Arden lied temporarily nauseated by the Force power, Pina recovered the Sword of Ashla and prepared himself for further combat. "Last time I saw you sick, Arden, was when you were a year and a half old.
"How your mother used to panic whenever you started vomiting and oh, how I wished I could heal you with my power in those moments. Nonetheless, I was glad to have the memory of my presence and your mother's presence usually being enough to heal you in combination to your Force-attunement. Why can't things be as they were before?" Pina stated, thinking aloud. "Ironic that you would actually cause a sickness in me even if it would last for only a few moments," Arden agreed.
Chuckling and half-smiling under his shaggy white beard, Pina continued the duel with his newly acquired position in the duel. Unfortunately for Arden, the power of the Sword of Ashla combined with Pina's initial skills were proving him right about her regretting her earlier move against his second blade. "No, I will not be defeated; my destiny is to emerge victorious!" she screamed at one point. "Indeed Arden, indeed but for now you will need to remain on the verge of defeat," Pina replied calmly.
Then he developed yet another surprise when he applied enough power into a right horizontal slash from the Sword to send the duplicate of her sword flying against the wall to her left. She knew she would never be able to reach it in time and so she turned onto her own skills with a single blade. A couple times, she put him on edge when she used her sword to conjure sharp crescent energy shafts. However, he seemed to know how to conjure shafts of his own to deflect hers but as the fight continued she began to notice a change in him.
His old age meant that even if he had the initial strength of someone as young as her, he would need to give into Force Valor in order to keep it up. Realizing that she had not yet done that herself, she grinned wickedly and decided to take advantage of his blindness to his own power of Force Valor. Combining both Valor and Battlemind, Arden continued with an enhanced attack that she doubted he had ever seen in himself or his opponents in years long gone. "You know the Battlemind spell?" he asked before slowly beginning to warm up to his usage of Force Valor.
"Yes I do, Xendor taught it to me fairly early on in our marriage along with many powers that the Talisman granted him. However, in terms of natural ability, I bested Xendor in all the same abilities he taught me as well as the Force powers the Jedi Sentinel was required to learn," she answered. Whether she knew it or not, Arden had taken a joy to confessing that she was able to beat Xendor around with the Force and keep him on his toes in blade combat even if she couldn't beat him there. "You sound much like I was when I was your age only I was top of the class in bladework in addition to Force Power, hence my status as a Jedi Guardian," Pina admitted.
The duel continued after that and neither individual spoke, giving into their intense concentration on defeating and immobilizing or destroying the other. But finally, there was an instance where despite her combined use of Battlemind and Force Valor, Arden was being slowly defeated by Pina. No, how is this possible? she asked herself silently. Call upon my power, Mistress, and I shall help you finish him the Talisman answered in her head.
No, I will not resort to using your power until I am absolutely certain I have no other choice. I am not like Xendor and I hope I will never be like him in that regard, at least she said. Then she continued using her skills with two blades against his traditional combat skills and had to admit that while she still held her own, she would not have wanted to fight him when he was much younger. She knew that though she was undoubtedly placing more strain than he was used to his youthful identity would have had no problem dealing with this.
Then the worst happened when he managed to score a kick in the face and gain more ground than she could ever have wanted to lose. Call upon my power, Arden Lyn. Even with your application of Force Valor and Battlemind, you cannot defeat him without me the Talisman said. No, this will be a fair and honorable duel as much as possible but rest assured that your power will be used when absolutely necessary she hissed at it telepathically. "It's tempting you like it tempted him, isn't it?" Pina asked.
"How did you know?" she replied. "Because it once tried to get me to wear it and use its power. But when I placed it around Xendor's neck rather than my own, it vowed that I would one day pay for having denied it," he explained. That explains your eagerness to deal with him, doesn't it? she asked the Talisman.
In a nutshell, it does but there was a lot more detail to it than that. Why do you think I still respected him enough to grant his request? it replied. She didn't know what it meant nor did she really want to since she was in the middle of fighting for her life at present. However, as she continued to fight, she realized she would have the advantage if she continued to fight in open space.
She needed to wear him out, dodge around his most powerful attacks and deflect as many of his lesser ones as she could. Her offensive power would only need to be exerted to wear him down further than he already would be otherwise and she knew he sensed her aiming for this. "Clever girl," he said with a smile. Immediately after saying that, he unleashed a barrage of offensive power with his sword that had her constantly watching her step in order to avoid tripping and losing the duel.
However even that was enough when she tried to strike back but he had her further offended when he conjured power in his sword to deflect her blow and send her flying a couple meters away. "Hey, no fair: only I'm allowed to use that spell!" she mocked. "On the contrary, it is a far more universal spell of all the classes than you know," he countered.
After she rose up to try and stop another attack from him, he instead stopped short of actually crashing his blade upon her two blades and used telekinesis to rip both weapons from her. Transforming the duplicate sword back into the scabbard than sheathing the blade, he tossed it to the right of her. Since it was far beyond her reach, she decided to try and attack him with her full mastery of Terras Kasi rather than attempt to reach it. Despite that effort though, Pina grabbed her with another application of telekinesis and rapidly levitated her into the air.
When he did this, he added a face-down slam to the ground into his telekinetic attack and pulled her back up before slamming her back into the wall to the right of him. He concluded this barrage of telekinesis by bringing her within meters of him then Force-pushing her to the front of him. Arden tried her best to recover from the attack, even bringing storms of Force Lightning upon him. However, this was easily countered when he absorbed it with Tutaminis and shot it right back at her instead.
She did her best to deflect most of it with a barrier but some of it got past the rapidly-created wall of energy and caused immobilizing pain to her body. Panting to recover from the toll of the electrocution she saw Pina march up to her cautiously and point his blade ahead of himself. Now is the time Arden, use my power and strike down your father, as is your destiny! the Talisman ordered. Wait, just wait: he'll leave an opportunity for me to use your power before he tries to kill me and that's when we'll have him she reassured it.
"You are defeated and you have no means by which to counter me any further, Arden Lyn. Do you surrender or must I be forced to destroy you with the Sword of Ashla?" he asked. "You will not kill me and I will not surrender," she answered. "I warn you, I will destroy you," he stated.
"No... you won't," she said. "I will!" he insisted. "No you won't; I will transcend this duel and I shall be the one to destroy you, father!" she said in a fashion she never had before. Then from her throat came a Force-imbued scream, a power that neither individual had ever seen before in their lives.
The Force Scream, due to its newness, forced Pina to conjure a Force barrier with the sword which turned out to be his biggest mistake. Upon contacting the Sword of Ashla, the wave of Force energy shattered it and drove the pieces into his body before melting outside of him from the pressure. One piece, the last inch or so of the blade, ripped its way into Pina's heart before driving itself out and melting with the other pieces. Only a little less than half the blade remained after this attack and even Arden had to admit that she had not seen it coming.
Did you do that, Talisman? Arden asked. I gave you the power to conduct it but you already had the bedrock laid for its transmission already. Nonetheless, I have to admit that you were right to wait until it was absolutely hopeless to use my power it answered. Arden watched as the power of the Sword of Ashla began to fade from the blade as Pina's lifeforce ebbed away from him.
"No, father! I didn't... I don't know what I've done!" she screamed, hoping somehow that she could still save him. "Not another word Arden, it is better this way," he replied reassuringly. She simply looked at him in shock as she was kept at bay by his open hand telling her to stay where she was.
"What are you doing, daddy?" she asked. She didn't know why she went from calling him 'father' to 'daddy' but the transition felt natural to her. "I am saving you from the wrath of those who would seek to avenge my death by your hand," he said as he raised the remaining sword in front of her. With the blade's cutting edge facing her, Arden watched as he accumulated the last of its power for an attack she knew she might not be able to counter.
"In my use of the last of this sword's power, my dearest daughter, it is my hope that I spare your life from the grief, hatred, and despair of these days. May you find a way to lift the curse of the Ashes of Despair off you in another day, another time, another age," he stated. "What the hell are you talking about!?" she demanded frightenedly. "As your father, Arden Lyn, I sentence you to the morichro trance and you shall never awaken until the Talisman's light is brought upon your body by an outsider.
"Forgive me, my child but in doing this I am committing myself to the greatest act of fatherly love that I can think of," he said just in time for a lightning bolt to emanate from the sword. Arden tried to counter it with a barrier, knowing full-well the dangers of being in a morichro trance, to no avail. The power of the Sword of Ashla smashed its way through her barrier like paper and tapped her forehead. With such velocity did it impact her and shroud her body in its light-blue energy for several seconds that she was literally thrown to the ground by it.
Meanwhile, Pina sensed that the Sword of Ashla was completely drained of power which meant that it would only be a few weeks or so before it rusted and faded. He knew that he himself didn't have hours, never mind weeks, before he himself would pass on to the next dimension and he didn't mind. Patricia, Athena, I am so sorry for what I have done here. I knew no other way to save her from the wrath of the Jedi Order he thought to himself sadly.
As he limped away from the sight of the duel, he looked down at the abyss that lied beckoning below the bridge when he arrived there. However, instead of throwing himself in it, he threw the remnants of the Sword of Ashla and kept limping away. He relied on what remaining Force power he had to be channeled into Force Valor and keep himself alive long enough to leave this cave. After all, he needed some time to reflect on his sixty-six years of existence and what it had all amounted to.
Becoming an old man once again, he reflected on the greatest achievements and the greatest failures of his day and everything in between. He considered it to be his greatest achievement in his personal life when Arden Lyn was born and saving Xendor the greatest of his Jedi life. But as he pondered what he would consider his greatest failure, he was surprised the Dynasty didn't chime in. However, this was remedied when he realized that his greatest failure was having not been the father Arden had needed, wanted, and yearned to love.
Arriving to both of the ships, he used the last of his most expendable power to send both shuttles down the chasm whose edge they had been sitting on. After that, he sat down and slowly let his grip on Force Valor leaving him in the knowledge that it was best not to postpone Death's arrival. But before fully letting go of his strength, he took a finger and wrote 'Arden Lyn is no more' into the sand. True that it was a lie but a lie that would be used to allow Arden the time she needed in order to find the age where she would have her second chance at life.
It was right after finishing the message for any Jedi that would find him that he noticed teardrops falling from his eyes and barely missing the letters of his message. "I am so sorry to have brought this upon you, Arden. Sorry that I could not raise you myself, sorry that I didn't have the courage to defy the Council and the Order when you and Xendor left! I am so sorry for everything!" Pina shouted.
No one heard the old man's cries of pain nor was anyone there to comfort him as he began sobbing in defeat, for he had lost his greatest treasure forever and he knew it. "In another time, I have followed you anywhere you asked, my daughter. My little princess, my angel of the blissful life I knew I could never have," Pina said, thinking aloud some more. It was then that he saw the vision of his wife and concubine descend from the heavens in white, billowy robes, skin beautiful as ever it was on them.
"Have you returned to me from beyond, my loves?" Pina asked. Hush Awdrysta, you have been through so much pain that we have heard your cries. Yes we have come back but to take you with us to the realm of Ashla's eternal blessing answered Patricia. Though he knew her mouth was moving, he felt her speech in his head rather than his ear.
"Oh Force almighty, how I've longed for this day. Will Arden be safe, will she be alright?" Pina continued. For twenty-five thousand years, she shall remain undisturbed. The Priests of the Followers of Palawa will see to that personally replied Athena.
"Then, my duty as her father... is complete. Take me to the eternal kingdom of Ashla, in whose company I will not know shame or fear," Pina said. Let go of all your burdens and allow yourself to fly and you shall join us Patricia replied. Heaving slow sighs for what would undoubtedly be his last breaths of life, he extended a hand out for one of them to grab though both women took it.
With a final exertion of breath, Pina felt himself fade and closed his eyes in greeting of the eternal darkness that would eclipse his consciousness. Then at that moment, the great Awdrysta Pina's soul fluttered from his body and entered the afterlife of Ashla. The hollow, grief-stricken body left behind would be found six days later by Rhama Akela and given a proper funeral. Out of respect for who Pina was, executions for the Legionnaires that remained had been postponed for another two weeks.
After that, under the guidance of the Chancellor, Rhama made sure that Pina was remembered as the free-thinker that he was and an adventurous warrior who believed in the essentiality of Order. Within a century Pina's the only name anyone remembered from the Jedi Council of the time of the Schism, Tiberius and his supports being nameless faces that provoked Xendor and Arden into action. Danzigorro Potts' entries concerning what would be known as the First Great Schism were also kept in the records concerning the Schism. As the ripples of history continued to roll onward in the river of time, the Schism became a legend and the legend became myth.
Loki the Destroyer's descendants, despite no remembrance of their father was preserved either, would eventually evolve into the mighty Gorax species and their world would be named Endor. Rancors would disappear within centuries of the rise of the Gorax, replaced by the younger species on Endor. The wolves Loki had commanded in life would evolve into the pets of Goraxs in the future and their only true nemesis would rise in the form of the Ewoks. And as further time went on, many of the worlds and stars of Arden's days would fall victim to supernovas and other catastrophes that wiped them out.
Along the way, memory of the Kashi Mer would fade until at last, the knowledge of Xendor's relationship to it would be forgotten in the folds of time. The eons rolled by and the swords of Arden's days would eventually give birth to darksabers, the prototype of which would be stolen. However, this stolen weapon would be not lost but rather would slip its way into the hand of Mandalorian Pre Vizsla. In the meantime, the darksaber had given way to the protosaber which gave way for the perfected weapon: the lightsaber.
All these years went by and Arden still remained in her morichro, never released or even discovered by anyone. However, the immortal and indestructible Talisman always kept a watch on its pedestal. And like the predator eager for a night-meal, it waited for its next prey to arrive to its trap.