Epilogue
As Arden lied on the hotel room that would see her death, the seconds of the minutes before Master Skywalker's stab worked its effects on her, she reflected on her life. It all started with her memories as a little child and the good ones at that too. The vision of her past as it went by her continued in how she was raised to use Terras Kasi and all the training of a Jedi Sentinel. She remembered loving her master in the way that a daughter might have loved her father.
That was when she was hit with the memories of Xendor and their love-life together. How he had proposed to her under a bright, starlit sky and married her the following day. The oath they took upon being married and their honeymoon unions soon after the wedding ended gloriously. Their attempts at children with the closest being two or three stillbirths due to the shock and trauma of birth.
But also the memory of Loki the Destroyer and how he had gotten his revenge on Xendor for an earlier offense on Columus. How he had used his superior strength and power (he was three times the height of normal human men with nearly seven-hundred pounds of pure muscle) had won the day. She remembered how her father had reluctantly forced to face her at Irkalla, destroy her forces, and place her in the trance for twenty-five thousand years despite dying in the process. "I'm coming home daddy, I'm coming home at last," she said.
She also remembered that she would be meeting her mother for the first time now and she would also meet all her ancestors again. If she was additionally lucky, she would be reunited with Paris since she knew that she couldn't be reunited with Xendor. He had refused to recant his evil deeds before he died and as such, was likely being punished in the netherworld of Chaos for eternity. Admittedly, she was somewhat disappointed but she had to remember that he was a descendant of the same line that had created the Kashi Mer Talisman.
Not only that but they had given it power so immense that Arden feared it too much to keep it around after her fight with Onimi. But then she realized that the visions she had been given by the Talisman made sense now: they were visions of the events that led to her ultimate. They revealed the reasons why the Jedi had condemned Arden and Xendor and why her father fought her when he did. These revelations, cruel and evil as they were, now made sense and she could finally rest easy in the knowledge that these deeds were long faded.
True that Kadann and his Prophets had seen to the preservation of the memory of the events but that was all they were: a memory. "Thank you Kadann, thank you Paris, thank you Depa. And my dear daughter Cassandra, thank you for being the star of my life," she said to herself, whispering it. But the whisper meant more to her than anything else in the universe had meant to her before this day.
By the time guests in the hotel she lied in reported what had happened to her and requested a medic, it was already too late. Just as she could hear them slowly approaching, just as they were about to enter her room, she exhaled a breath of life for the last time. To the medics that were investigating, she was now officially dead but for the will of the Force... For the will of the Force, Arden Lyn had found a form of salvation from the deeds of her past after waited twenty-five long millenniums for it.
A/N: Hey guys, I just have to say that if I had to declare anything in writing this book especially emotional it would have to be the last three chapter, including this. Why? Because despite knowing I would have to kill her anyway, I had come to kind of love her by the time I did. Anyhow, I will be taking a break from writing for a bit but be sure to stay tuned for the final installment of the Arden Lyn Chronicles called Ashes of Despair, which goes back in time and explains Arden's early life and answering many questions at last. Thank so much!