Mortis; 44 ABY
The tunnel that led out of the lake of fire cooled rapidly. The pulse of the dark side slowed and subsided with every step that carried them away from it. Veins of ivory and gold lined the cavern pathway, veins of mineral wealth in the walls. It wasn't a particularly long walk, but the rapidly shifting atmosphere made them feel as though they'd walked further than they truly had,
"Is that water?" Ben asked, it echoed slightly.
Luke craned his neck to the side, to face one ear to the mouth ahead of them. "Sounds like it."
Much like the way the volcano opened drastically from their entrance, they emerged in a room quite the polar opposite. Soaring sculptures of carved ice sparkled in the light. The entire room was covered, white snow sprinkled down from the iced-over ceiling, only to melt to a soft mist before touching the ground. Vibrant viridian grass stood in stark contrast to the blue water, pouring down from on high, through orifices in the ice-carved mouths.
"Someone won the landscaping contest," Vestara crouched next to one of the free-standing marble columns, in the same white as the Pool of Knowledge had been. Spider-web cracks only served to give it an aged look.
Luke and Ben took in the lay of their little island. A small bridge of clear ice bridged the gap to a stair leading upwards, most likely to a building much like the one they'd first landed at. Around them, on the island itself were a number of ice-sculpted warriors, Jedi-like in garb and sabers of opaque frost made them look for all the world to be frozen in battle.
"As much as the volcano was soaked in darkness, I feel light here, life." Luke observed, making his way to one of the ice-men Jedi.
"Oh goody," Vestara did her best to sound downtrodden, in truth she didn't not like it. She came up behind Luke in his study of the sculptures. "Anything interesting?"
When she came within reach of it, the ice-Jedi moved. shaved frost falling off the joints, the Jedi attacked, utterly ignoring Luke.
Vestara back flipped before the speared tip could find its target, only to see the rest of the ice-Jedi moving after her, actually walking past a astonished Ben in the process. She drew her emerald saber and slashed at the closest glacier-man. She'd expected it to carve right through, but the ice-Jedi's saber blocked it. The melting frost revealing a pale silver lance underneath. She ducked another attack. "Little help, boys."
Luke and Ben were already moving, the initial surprise gone. The ice-Jedi made no move to stop them, falling without resistance to the pair of sapphire sabers. When they all lay in melting slivers on the ground, Vestara took a seat on a granite bench beside the water. "Any idea what that was?"
"If I had to venture a guess," Luke looked thoughtful, "a security system."
"But why attack only me?" Vestara wiped her forehead with the sleeve of her robe.
Ben joined her on the bench. "Maybe because this is a light side nexus?"
"Great," Vestara groaned.
"It might be best to move on before more of them show up," Luke suggested.
"More?" Ben frowned, they'd taken out all the ones they saw. To that, his father pointed to a floating iceberg coming towards their island, laden with a dozen more ice-Jedi. They hurried along the bridge and up the stairs without delay.
"We're not heading back that way, are we?" Vestara asked, eyeing the platoon of guardians floating in.
Luke gave a noncommittal shrug. "I suppose not. Why, what are you suggesting?"
Once they'd reached the first landing above the chamber below, Vestara telekinetically cracked the frozen steps mid-way. Nothing short of a Force-enhance jump could get up to the lowest rung of steps. "Just that. I'd rather not be running for my life while trying to search."
"Uh, Ves?" Ben trailed off the question in a way that made her heart sink, that was not a good tone.
She looked up sharply and found that this entire level was filled with more ice sculptures. Instead of Jedi, these were of various animals. The vaulted ceiling barely fit the mammoth ice-rancor that turned to face them. "I really hate this place."
Instead of trying to fight them all, the group continued up the stairs to the next floor, cracking the steps as they'd done before to prevent any of the statues from following them. They looked around to see crystal-clear walls of what appeared to be a maze. Luke ran his hand along the glass-like divider. "I suppose we can just cut through it."
He drew his lightsaber and cut a neat hole in the wall, which promptly collapsed, the frozen ceiling coming down with it. Ben and Vestara pulled him back in time to avoid being buried beneath the avalanche. Luke nodded his thanks. "They must be load bearing."
They wound their way through the maze slowly, the pathway was barely wide enough to compensate one person at a time. Luke took the lead with Vestara behind him and Ben taking up the rear. They wandered like that for some time, not making any progress, the clarity of the see-through walls mocking their progress with glimpses of things beyond.
It was difficult to judge the distance they'd actually traveled with all the turns and doubling back, but Luke was certain they were no longer above the entrance chamber that connected to the volcano. He was about to mention it with the flooring gave way. Luke fell off to one side, while Ben and Vestara went the other way. They dropped parallel on either side of the same clear-cut wall that had made up the maze.
Vestara and Ben landed in a heap, one that Ben might have appreciated if they weren't lying in a mound of snow. Vestara brushed off the white powder from her hair and turned to Ben. "What is it with you and falling?"
Ben rubbed the back of his head, he'd managed to take the bottom of the drop and landed on a rather hard section of flooring. "You fell too, you know."
"Just this once," she insisted.
"What about at the Pool?"
"I jumped in to save you."
"Sure, sure, you keep telling yourself—ouch!" Ben's snarky comment was cut off by a snowball finding its target: his nose.
They heard a soft tap from their left and saw Luke standing on the other side of the wall of ice knocking on it. "If you two are quite finished, it seems we're going to have to split up," he said, voice muffled by the partition. He definitely wasn't happy about leaving those two alone, but Vestara had gotten credit for her actions against the specter of her father. Besides, it's not like they had much of a choice now, cutting through the walls were not a good idea. "Let's try to meet on the surface."
Both Ben and Vestara agreed. The group broke and Luke turned to see his path ahead. It led further in the direction they'd been headed before. Sensing a power ahead, Luke drew his lightsaber and strode forward. Ice-like walls gave way to slate-grey stone. his path spilled out onto a cave much like the ones he knew to be on Ilum. Sprouts of Adegan crystals of size and splendor that Luke had not seen in all his travels made him pause.
A burnt-out campfire site was centered in a clearing, someone had used this area as a camp, the isolation of the cavern keeping it intact for untold years. Luke studied the ground around the site, for any clues to the people who'd stayed here, but time had worn away what little traces there had been.
The ash from the fire sparked, embers relit themselves. A flash of flame brought it roaring to life. Luke rounded on it with his saber lit. "Who's there?" He demanded.
Hovering over the flames was a man clad in Jedi robes of the old Order. Faintly translucent and glowing, he smiled to Luke. "Hello, Son."
"Do you have the feeling we're going in circles?" Ben asked, as he looked at a familiar crack in one of the ice walls.
"Figuratively or literally?" Vestara inquired from behind. The sooner they got out of this winter wonderland, the better.
"I could have sworn I've seen this wall before."
"They're all made of ice, Ben, they all look alike."
Their path took them perpendicular to the one they'd been on in the above maze, but it didn't seem to have a destination so much as endless hallways. They rounded a last corner and ran into a dead end. "Great," Vestara bemoaned, "We're trapped."
"We could try cutting it," Ben suggested, tapping the white wall with the pommel of his saber. "Looks solid."
"Or melt through it," she snapped her fingers and a little spark shimmered heat in the frozen alcove.
"I'm guessing it'd probably a better idea to not risk melting down this place with use in it—huh?"
While the two of them debated what they should do, the dead end had slowly dissolved away on its own accord. Ben poked his head around the new path and waved Vestara through. "Looks like we found another throne room.
The was far more expansive than the tower's had been. It was wide and low, scroll work lined the sides, a writing so archaic that it's calligraphy was like nothing they'd seen before. At the far end was an ice-carved settee atop three wide steps. Icicles jutted up from the ground, like spears through the floor. Atop each one was a teardrop-shaped diamond that hummed with a silvery light.
Ben and Vestara looked at one another before walking out to the cones of ice. Vestara suspected what the diamonds were, after all the obelisks suggested that whoever created the knowledge stones on Abeloth's planet hadn't stopped. She went up to one and tapped it lightly. "Ben?" She turned to see he'd already done it on his own, there seemed to be a calling for them to know, to unconsciously seek out the knowledge.
"Father?" Luke was much more wary after what he'd seen in the volcano, but this apparition merely nodded and smiled.
"You've come a long way, done what was asked of you." Anakin walked out of the fire. "I am so proud."
"Why are you here?" Luke asked, this world seemed to be a magnet for spirits.
"Because you are here, the site of another of my many failings," Anakin looked wistful. "How things may have been different if I'd stayed."
"Master Yoda told me."
"A second-hand account," Anakin shook his head. "I was here and it was because of me they all died."
"The Ones?"
Anakin strode around the fire, circling it. "But perhaps that failure is no longer eternal."
"What do you mean?" Luke frowned.
"You travel with two who can undo much of the damage I did here," Anakin turned to him, a hard look in his eyes. "Or they could cause more destruction than anyone could think possible."
"They think they have a destiny." Luke was unsure what to make of his father's hints, was he actually suggesting that Luke should let them go, let Ben go?
"We all have a destiny, Luke. Your son is the scion of a line of destiny-driven beings," Anakin gave a half-grin. "You, your sister, even I have shaped the galaxy for better or worse in our lives. Did you not think he would follow this path too?"
"And Vestara Khai?"
"The girl is . . . more complicated," Anakin rocked his head on his shoulders. "Chosen by chaos, but seeing order. Born to the Dark, but wanting to live with the Light. It's not always lineage that defines those who will do important things."
"She's a Sith."
"So was I, once. So, too, did the woman you married, serve the Sith," Anakin gave a sidelong glance. "That didn't change your feelings for her, or her you, in the end."
"Mara was never like that, she became a Jedi." Luke pointed out. "How can I trust Vestara when I know what she is?"
"I can't give you all the answers, Son. Sometimes, you just have to take fate on faith and do the best you can." Anakin started back toward the fire. "If it is their destiny, then nothing you do will stop them. Just remember how powerful love can be, how a single flame can light the darkest room."
Now standing in the flames he'd originally came from, Anakin stated to fade. "Father, wait!" Luke called, but the fire died and he was left alone in the crystal cave.
Looking around the now-empty cavern, Luke found himself wondering at his father's words, now able to think on what they'd said. It was harder to trust now, far harder than it had been when he was fresh off Tatooine. He'd seen the depths of darkness, and how corrupt it could be, but he knew that not all were without a spark of goodness. Was that what Vestara had, was Ben her spark? Still pondering what he would do when this was all over, Luke found the mouth of the cave.
He found himself in the bright of a high noon sun, had it really been an entire day? They'd seen the same thing when they'd entered the Monolith, but it had to have been several hours later at least.
Climbing a strong oak, Luke spied the distant palace of ice that Ben and Vestara would probably come out at. Even if they didn't, and emerged in a cave as he had, they'd go there first. After a short rest, Luke started making his way over the lush landscape and hopefully back to his son . . . and future daughter-in-law. It still felt strange to think that.
They'd made fast work of the room, taking in all they could. Vestara felt like an addict, moving from one fix to the next, even regretting not having the chance to find out what the obelisks held, even if she didn't want to actually use what dark abilities she would have learned from them.
"Curiosity can be a dangerous thing, young ones."
Ben and Vestara rounded to see a towering elderly man walking down from the plateau. He had to have been two-and-a-half meters tall, his conical headdress gave him the look of a holy man. White beard woven to a point and turquoise eyes glittering in the light, he approached the adolescent pair.
"Who are you?" Vestara asked, her had held over her lightsaber. Ben mimicked her stance.
"You should be asking who I was, Vestara Khai," the old man intoned, "for I am no longer among the living. My time in this realm long over."
"Fine. Who were you?" Vestara asked again.
"I was the Balance, that which kept my family together. I was also the cause of its destruction, by my own failings," he said. "You may call me Father."
"You were part of the Ones," Ben said. "You should be dead."
"I am, Ben Skywalker, hence the past tense of my existence and identity," the Father said. "I am here because of the two of you, because of what you hope to become."
"And that is?"
"Pale replacements for what my children were, what I was," the Father said bluntly. "You will never be Force Wielders, only ever striving to live up to an ideal you cannot reach."
Vestara felt her heckles rise at the patronizing tone of the Force ghost, but Ben laid a hand on her arm to stop her from saying something insulting.
"But perhaps that will be enough," the Father continued, blithely ignoring Vestara's reaction. "It has to be enough to stem the chaos that threatens your realm."
Ben, hand still on Vestara, decided to speak up. "We're looking for a—"
"—You seek the Dagger of Mortis," the Father finished. "To end the monster that was once my wife, I know."
"Where is it?" Vestara couldn't hold her tongue any longer. Why couldn't these Force ghosts just answer the question an leave, did they all have to give these riddle-filled diatribes first?
"It lies where last it was used, in my monastery."
"And where is that?"
"You will find it between this, my Daughter's stronghold, and that of my Son."
Ben cocked an eyebrow. "Why are you telling us this?"
The Father's eyes glazed over. "I saw the end of Balance, when I brought your grandfather here," he said, his eyes sharpening again. "I wanted to see the beginning of a new one, what I failed to do."
Towering above them, the Father walked back to the stair. "Take care, for anarchy comes in many forms, some more virulent than others." He started walking up, fading as he went.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Vestara called after him, but he'd vanished before the third step.
"Ben? Vestara?" They heard a voice calling from the icicle gates to the outside. Luke peered between the spires.
"We're here," Ben answered, pulling Vestara along. "We think we know where the Dagger is."