Chapter Twenty
Arden, you are unable to speak directly but I know that you can still use telepathy the Talisman called to Arden despite her stasis. What the hell do you want? she mentally asked. Just a little bit of your time to fulfill the request of your father for after his death. He passed away not too long after reaching the entrance of these caverns as a result of grief and his wounds it said.
Show me what you have to show me then she told it. A few seconds of the darkness Arden knew would be her eternity passed before she saw the image of her father recreated once more. "Arden, before our duel I had the Talisman imprint my memories and my answers to the many questions you must surely have to your lineage. Firstly, your mother's name was Patricia Lyn and you have inherited her clan name from her as all daughters do," Pina began.
Patricia Lyn... yes, the name sounds familiar from what my aunt and uncle would tell me when I was growing up Arden said to herself quietly. "Eight years before I met her, I was tasked with the mission of hunting down the Amazonian tribes which were causing disruption to the Cathar. A code of honor existed in this matriarchal society that decreed only the strongest survived. And since my former concubine Athena was their Queen at that time, I challenged her on a single premise.
"That if she won, she was freed to raid the systems within four parsecs of her tribe as she wished. But if I won, then the Amazons were to disperse and never threaten any system again. After fourteen days of tracking down her location and fighting through her people, I beat her with ease. For five years, I was content to have her only as a concubine since her people normally allowed only death.
"That is, after Tiberius demanded that I reduce her to concubine status instead of being my first wife. She didn't mind but she did beg me to fulfill the debt and kill her for her failure to defeat me in single combat. Four months later, I was arranged to marry Patricia in respect to her lineage to Daegon Lok as well as her family's wealthy stature. Not to mention, her family were patrons of the Jedi Order and composed mostly of members of the Republic Senate and even the Courts.
"It was a bit of an insurance policy that would allow the Jedi and the Republic to remain allies. Though I didn't know why at the time, I understood that the Republic and the Jedi needed to keep good ties between each other in a galaxy fraught with danger. It was especially vital if Patricia and I wanted a galaxy where you could feel safe to be you and you alone. Unfortunately, I had to leave you and your mother shortly after you were conceived for a special mission: destroy the Kashi Mer Dynasty.
"It was a mission that lasted seven months and ended with Xendor, the Guardians of Breath, and the Royal Macheteros being the only ones who remained aside from the Talisman you bear. After spending a month and a half making arrangements for Xendor, I returned just in time for your birth. Your birth was the most beautiful thing that has ever happened to me in my entire life and you are the most beautiful result all my years of struggle. As a result, I had to leave you with your aunt and uncle when your mother died giving birth to a half-brother conceived by one of her clients from whoring.
"I could not allow you to die in the streets or to be kidnapped and held for ransom by bandits who would beat and rape you before you were through. But even when I knew you would be safe with them, the next seventeen years before our first true meeting were the most terrible on me. I hope you can forgive me for having abandoned you and that you may find a second chance when you awake. It's what I sacrificed my life to do after placing you in the morichro trance you're in," the shade explained.
So now I know just about everything from my family's past and what I know is more burdensome than I thought it would be. You needn't apologize for what you've done, daddy, I now understand you only did it to protect me from certain doom. I hope that we will one day be reunited and that we can amend the mistakes of the past together Arden replied. The shade smiled and then retreated before she even had a chance to say anything more to it despite her begging for him.
I'd like to keep up this shade for longer but unfortunately, I need as much of my power as possible to keep your stasis sustained until you're ready to be revived the Talisman explained. And how long will that be? Arden demanded. I don't know Arden, I just don't know. Only the will of the Force can dictate when that will happen it told her. Arden's hopelessness and fear crept back into her mind but the Talisman subdued her into docility once again.
Time ceased to be of essence to either one of them, the abandoned Kashi Mer fortress serving well as both a sanctuary and a prison. The bridge in the middle of the path and the deep abyss below it both served as good ways to pose a little risk unto someone daring to steal the treasures in this room. However, whether because Irkalla was already uninhabited or because people feared going there in case it was haunted, the only company Arden had were a few lizards. But because they could sense a pulse in her, they kept to themselves and looked around for other things to eat.
500 years after the First Schism...
Awakening from the ancient traditional trance of a true follower of Palawa, Zeus and his fellow Priests beheld the fortification of Irkalla in pity. After all, it was their Seconds falsely dictating their will that cost cost Arden and Xendor any hope of victory in the Great Schism. Since Arden was a Steel Hand of Palawa, it made things especially unforgivable to Zeus himself. "Prepare the mountains for their eruption, we need this chamber sealed as good and tight as possible," he ordered his Priests.
I am sorry Arden, it is the only way to make sure no settlers on Irkalla stumble upon you and awaken you prematurely Zeus thought to himself quietly. "Is this really wise, Zeus? If even this portion of the mountain range were to erupt, it would be catastrophic for settlement on Irkalla. We could potentially throw this world into a permanent winter," asked fellow Priest Nobunaga.
"Better that than not allowing Arden the chance to return and sentence us to pay the debt of our Seconds from the Great Schism. Besides, we will need to be in a very long trance after this and I don't want to miss her return in order to restore our honor," Zeus said. "Then let someone find her and use the Talisman to revive her, what's the matter with that?" Nobunaga demanded. "Who knows how long it will be before anyone does find her and when they find her, what will they do?" Zeus asked.
"We are ready to commence with the eruption whenever you are, the traps on the opposite end of the bridge have been set in case anyone digs out this tunnel," another Priest interjected. "Very good, begin the ceremony but do nothing except gather power until Nobunaga and I join you," Zeus ordered. The Priest bowed and levitated himself into the sky with his nine other brothers and sisters. Then Nobunaga joined the circle, followed very closely by Zeus who guided the ceremony.
Concentrating all their energies on applying pressure to accelerate the eruption time, Zeus felt as each volcano within proximity to the underground fortress did its best to resist it. All twelve priests channeled their power into applying the pressure until the volcanoes finally gave up and erupted. It was a process that took hours to conduct and would take another hour or so to contain. None of the locals were Force-sensitive so they would not sense the Palawan's hands in causing the eruptions to occur.
As the felsic lava belched out of its containment, ash settled in the skies and spread in a thin cloud across the entirety of the planet as Nobunaga had anticipated. By the time the Priests were done here, the clouds would be too thick for anything short of a semi-nuclear winter on Irkalla. It would take millennia for Irkalla to become habitable and even then it'd be little better than its icy cousin Hoth. However, there was one stream of lava that began making its way into the tunnel which fascinated all twelve of the Priests.
While six channeled the rest down the gorge next to the mountain range, Zeus and Nobunaga joined four others in channeling their stream of focus and powering a telekinetic barrier at the bridge. This barrier would not only hold the lava back from actually crossing the bridge and into the abyss but it would also act to cool down the first several meters which would give plenty of time for it all to follow. The power to cause eruptions was taking its toll on the Priests but channeling lava so that it did not vaporize the chamber or fill the abyss took an even greater price. By the time enough of the lava had cooled to trust it as a barrier against intruders, many had bloody noses and splitting headaches.
Zeus himself fell ill to nausea from guiding the group and Nobunaga exerted flu-like symptoms. However, Zeus looked back on what they had achieved and knew there was enough surface mass in the mountain to protect the chamber from lava dripping into it from above. Though the treasures inside the chamber, Talisman included, would sell for millions of credits it was Arden that was too valuable. Knowing his work was done and knowing that evacuations from the wrath of the artificial eruption would be beginning, Zeus ordered his Priests to do the best they could to make it to the shuttles.
However, he agreed to have their current seconds help them in case they couldn't make it on their own for the spell exerted much of their physical and mental strength. "What is your will now that you have insured that Arden will awaken to have us pay our debt at a more suitable time?" Soki asked. Nobunaga inquired in concurrence to his brother and Zeus chuckled in admission that he had not expected this to still be the focus of either one of them. Nonetheless, he was more than willing to answer their question with the final outlines of his plan to the younger Priests.
"The power to control and cause an eruption has taken a greater toll on our bodies and minds than anything we have done before. As such we will act when we go back into our Trance in a few days time by going into it again for twenty-thousand years rather than one thousand. There will be no Second nominations after these current ones and their lives, isolating us from the rest of the Palawa during it all. Once we awaken, we will remain so not for a week but for a month before then restoring our one thousand year time-span until Arden reawakens to seek revenge," Zeus explained.
"Twenty-thousand years? Not since the ancient days of Palawa itself has any such enormous Trance been attempted, never mind performed. Are you sure we will have the capability to do it for such an immense period of time?" Nobunaga asked. "I choose to believe that we will have the ability for we must: Arden must be the one to put an end to us and no one else," Zeus answered.
"But how do you know that she will ever be discovered by anyone now that we've done this?" Soki demanded. "There will be those, even tens of millennia down the road of time, who will seek the legendary power of the Talisman. As the technology to scan for places to dig up historical evidence develops, those who seek it will try again and again until one of them succeeds. And when they succeed, we will be ready to greet Arden upon her return into the realm of the living," Zeus replied.
Shortly thereafter, the Priests arrived on the first hyperdrive-engined ship that would take them back to their homeworld of Bunduki. There, Zeus would dictate the Will of which he had informed Nobunaga, Soki, and the ten other Priests with them. After that, they would fall to the Trance while their final Seconds would grow old and die in the duty of maintaining their chambers. It was a punishment for the Priests that would be but a small step to paying the debt left by the betrayal done to Arden Lyn.
In his heart, Zeus admitted that he was afraid of what a twenty-thousand-year-long Trance would mean for the Followers of Palawa but he doubted they would be severely affected. Much of their daily existence did not come with direct influence from the Priests and seeing them was a rare occasion. It would be a minor adjustment to be made in the grand scheme of things that would likely suit the will of the Force and the deities who themselves dictated its will unto mortals like Zeus and millions of others. Smiling, he was glad to see a mild reaction when he made his speech to the other Followers as well as only a little timidness on Nobunaga's part in addition to Soki's.
"Brothers, sisters, the treachery inflicted on Arden by the Seconds of the Great Schism is something to be regretted until the debt is repaid. Once it is repaid with our blood, only then can it be truly settled and our souls be allowed to return to the Great Valley of Palawa," Zeus said firmly. "Are you truly sure that Arden taking her revenge will satisfy the Great God Palawa?" Nobunaga asked. "No I am not sure but all I can do is hope it does and trust my instincts," Zeus answered with a smile.
Then gathered together on the peak of the spiral that served as their domain, they breathed the slow breaths that allowed them to slip back into the Trance they were required to hold. Twenty-thousand years... Hold on to her for at least that long, Talisman of the ancient and already-obscure Kashi Mer Dynasty. We will need her before the end of our long, unnatural mortal lives Zeus prayed to himself quietly. Then the Trance took over and the Priests of Palawa were once again out of touch with any that would call themselves a Follower of the Palawan vision.
Twenty-three thousand, nine-hundred eighty-eight years later...
Irkalla was not a fit place for any real settlement for life to inhabit in the same manner that Hoth was too cold to even support moss and lichen in a healthy ecosystem. Yet it never ceased to amuse Mitth'raw'nuruodo, known better by his Core Name Thrawn, how Hoth supported more life even so. For as long as he had remembered, Irkalla was no more greatly valued by the Chiss Ascendancy as either a great place for a penal colony or a great place for military training. Presently it served as a location for military training, another government fluctuation in its value to the people.
Hiking through the mountain range of Irkalla, Thrawn had to admit that he was impressed by the amount of brittle, crumbly felsic rock there was in the vast plain facing his right. Scanners had indicated that it was a very weak pumice that could be smashed through with ease. A great quantity of this, even so, would take years to dig through for anything valuable such as a historical artifact. With the forces that created all this pumice rock, I wouldn't hope to find anything here anyhow he thought silently.
Disappointment crept into his mind for he had volunteered himself and his resources to the Irkalla outpost because of the legends of the Kashi Mer Talisman being trapped here. Unfortunately he knew the legend all too well to know that even if he did find it, it would not be unguarded. For in the very same chamber that the artifact lied in rest on the pedestal, the ancient Arden Lyn also awaited. How is it possible for the Jedi to have placed this poor soul into a stasis that could last for so long with the simple intent of leaving her to rot? he asked pitifully.
So far, in his quest for artifacts of the past, he had found only a wall-portrait of the Legions of Lettow's primary General named Xendor. In the picture, Xendor was raising his sword to the sky in one hand and in the other, raising a flag that was undoubtedly bearing the Legion emblem. As he thought about all this, he continued to stare out at the pumice deposit and wonder how it had been made. "Sir, scanners are picking a hollow cavity in the mountain behind you.
"After about several hundred yards of the same pumice material that's in the gorge, there's a bridge overlooking a deep abyss. The bridge itself appears to be unbroken and could lead to somewhere of value, perhaps even to your favorite artifact," his lieutenant interjected. Thrawn asked himself quietly. "How long would it take for excavation to completely remove the rock?" he asked aloud.
"If we started next week, it would take about a decade or so to remove it all. We'd only need half that time to see if there's anything of value beyond the bridge," the lieutenant answered. "Then find the best archaeological teams we've got and have them get started by then," Thrawn ordered rapidly. "But sir, we don't even know if this is where the Talisman is; you could be just having another false hunch like any normal person would," the lieutenant warned.
"The only way to know for certain is if we dig at least enough to detect anything worth taking on the other side of the stuffed cavity in the mountain. Now do as I say soldier," Thrawn replied. The lieutenant bowed and marched back to the fortress to deliver Thrawn's orders to the entire outpost. Walking slowly up to the pumice in the cavity that the troop discovered, Thrawn gently rubbed a hand against it and felt as the grains of the outer layer gave way to his gentle push.
This is the only cavity in the entire mountain range that could possibly stand a chance of supporting the Talisman and Arden. I will not leave this thing alone until I know whether or not it is the one Thrawn vowed to himself. Smiling, he rubbed the last of the crumb-like grains of the pumice between his index finger and thumb. After that, he decided it was best to rejoin his lieutenant back at the outpost and personally supervise preparations for the dig.
When three days were up equipment and the people to use it had been gathered under his scrutinous eye and within the next week, operations on the rock were beginning. Some days, Thrawn came and watched the excavation personally to relish the possible success ahead. Other times, such as when the Outbound Flight Project came his way five years later, he simply stayed behind and imagined. The powers of a fallen god and the woman who last wielded it at my command, it would be a great weapon for disposing of the Ascendancy Council and dealing with Jedi he thought smugly.
Another five years would see to the completion of the excavation and the first crossing of the bridge for the first time in two years short of twenty-four thousand and five-hundred years. "Not since the First Great Schism has this bridge been used for any purpose. We are here, gentlemen," he said. The pride that spewed out of his voice at that point was more than enough to motivate several people to walk straight into the traps left behind on the other side.
If he could, he would have walked ahead himself but Chiss Ascendancy conduct forbid people of Thrawn's status from making those risks personally. Nonetheless, Thrawn had requested to be there with those who cracked the codes to diffusing the traps and permanently eliminating them as a threat. During this time, in Known Space, the Clone Wars had begun and would continue to ravage for another three years. It would have not concerned Thrawn much were it not for his exile by the Ascendancy and the arrival of two extraordinary young Zabraks attuned to the Force: Darth Maul and Savage Opress.
But their arrival would be marked with a streak of bad luck for a special event occurred while he was away: Arden Lyn had finally awakened from her morichro trance. At that point, it had just been a few minutes passed the exact time in which she was originally placed in it all those years ago. Smug in his success in finally awakening Arden and finding the Talisman, he hatched an idea for her and Maul. In exchange for an alliance, he decided to persuade him to bring her to him alive (if possible).
I have waited fifty-two years of my centuries-long life just for the occasion when I would meet Arden Lyn. Now that I have the beginnings of a vanguard into Known Space, perhaps I can see if I can add Arden and her resources to it. No harm in waiting a little longer to see what she makes of this alien universe that she has awakened into he thought quietly. "Let's see: now that Maul is on his way to collect my prize, let's see how I can help him form his vanguard," he said aloud.
"In Known Space, there are several terrorist and criminal organizations that have usable 'armies' of minions under the assumption that you want to call them that," his lieutenant interjected. "Name an organization that has a grudge against members of the Jedi Order off the top of your head," Thrawn asked him. "Only one that comes to mind is a Mandalorian terrorist group named Death Watch," the lieutenant answered. "Under the leadership of Clan Vizsla's present chief, Pre Vizsla, no doubt?" Thrawn inquired.
The lieutenant nodded and asked if he needed to make a list of anymore organizations. "Please do, Maul will need them upon his return from the trip to capture Arden," Thrawn replied with a smile.