"What's up with all the balls and sticks?"
"Huh?" Ani eloquently replied.
They were walking down a vast - almost endless - flight of stairs. Stretched out beyond them was one of the bazillion hallways that seemed to make up the Temple. This one, however, was the biggest Emily had seen so far. The pillars stretched up so high, that the shafts of light that fell from above were entirely diffused by the time they reached the marble floors, giving the air a hushed, hazy feel, like the quiet of a sleepy late afternoon.
"The statues," Emily said, pointing to the massive carved figures that lined the sides of the main walkway. Each one was easily as tall as the Statue of Liberty, golden bronze and towering up until their heads were level with the raised platforms that stretched above. "Why do they all have sticks or balls in their hands? They playing fetch with some dogs we can't see?"
"I don't even know what that last sentence means," Ani said, giving her a puzzled look. "But the statues are of the Ancient Masters. They're either holding lightsabres or prophecy orbs, which shows if they were famous for being a warrior or a scholar."
"What if they were both a warrior and a scholar? What do they hold then?"
"I don't know," Ani said, with a shrug. "Maybe a lightsabre and an orb? I haven't really noticed."
"I'd have them swinging their lightsabres at the orbs like a baseball player," Emily said, laughing at the image it conjured.
"What's baseball?"
She was about to launch into an explanation - one which would likely be rather inaccurate given she'd never actually seen a baseball game - but was cut off by a low voice on her other side.
"Kenobi never teach you that it's rude to talk in a language not everyone speaks, Skywalker?"
Emily turned to look at Quinlan, who had been quiet since he'd intercepted them on the way to the Library, where she had another long morning lined up of trying to catalogue the entire history of Earth, to the frighteningly exacting standards of the iron-haired woman that seemed to be in charge of the place. Instead, he'd offered to whisk them away to something much more interesting, and given the thought of spending hours desperately trying to wrack her brain for what limited knowledge she had on dinosaurs that hadn't been taken wholesale from the Jurassic Park movies, Emily was easy to convince.
"Sorry Master Vos," Ani said in Basic. "Emily was just asking about the statues in the hall."
"Not wanting to know where I'm taking you?" he said, eyebrow raised.
"Would you tell me if I asked?" Emily replied.
"No point now," he said, shrugging his shoulders and smiling. "We're nearly there anyway." He nodded his head towards a huge set of bronze doors on the left wall of the hallway, flanked either side by two more statues, their sticks held high and crossing above the doors arch.
"The Council said that Emily's only allowed in the public areas," Ani said, looking at Quinlan with a frown.
"And here I'd heard that you weren't one for following Council orders."
"Well, the last time I didn't follow orders, I had to help clean out the Temples evacuation ducts. I couldn't get the smell out of my hair for a week," he replied with a groan, nose wrinkling at the memory.
Quinlan chuckled, dragging a hand over the dark stubble on his cheek. "Well, you don't need to worry about it; I'll take the heat for this one. Besides, all the public places are dull. What's the point of staying in the Temple if you don't get to see the cool stuff?"
It took them a good five minutes at a solid pace, to finally reach the doors. Their panelled centres had reliefs of flowers, trees and mountains carved into them. Unlike the other large hallway doors she'd passed through, these didn't automatically open on their approach. Quinlan paused at the threshold, a hand stretched out and tracing over the designs.
"You ready?" he asked. Emily craned her neck, looking up into the stoic faces of the statues as they stretched out protectively overhead. She nodded once.
Quinlan dropped his hand, just as the centre of the doorway cracked. The first thing that hit Emily was the sound; the thunderous rush of water. The doors slowly swung inwards, opening out onto a curved stone bridge. Great sheets of water fell to either side; their bubbling, glittering walls cascaded down through several tiered gardens below, each one lush with trees and coloured plants, dotted with statues and terraces and winding streams.
Quinlan stepped forward, crossing the slick walkway. He held out his arm, letting his hand run through the water, watching it split and ripple, catching on the beams of light from above and sending out a rainbow tinted spray. He stopped half way across, turning back to her and holding out a large tanned hand in her direction. Emily stepped out after him, cautiously at first, but the stonework had grip under her feet, even when wet. She looked up at the vault of the roof above, dizzyingly high and obscured by white mists. More walkways intersected the air, coming to rest on stone ledges, held up by sheer rock face, some natural and some carved and fluted in beautiful, twisting shapes. Small creatures flitted and dove around them, iridescent streaks of colour flashing through the air.
When she reached Quinlan, his large hand, rough and calloused, engulfed her own as he pulled her forward, towards a large gap in the pale rock wall ahead, its surface marbled in veins of blue and purple. Figures were carved into the sides, their long robes curled over with reaching vines and the bright splash of flowers, their faces turned to address each other, as though holding conversation for eternity.
"What is this?" Emily asked, finally finding her voice. Quinlan said something, but the water swallowed his words, washing them away.
"It's the Room of a Thousand Fountains," Ani said in English, his voice at her back. She turned to see him walking close behind her, bending the water with his hand, his skin glistening where the spray had caught him, glittering silver in his blonde hair and soaking dark patches into his tunic and sleeves. He smiled at her. "It's my favourite place in the Temple. When I was growing up, I couldn't have imagined this much water existing in the whole galaxy. It's beautiful."
"It is," she said, turning back just in time to be led through a yawning gap in the rockface. Crystals, in pale pastel hues, shone through the translucent stone, it's surface smoothed and shaped in curling forms by years of erosion. Vegetation, like algae and moss, wound their way through crevices in veins of bright green and radiant blue. Stairs were carved into the stone, pathways that twisted and looped until they ran out of sight. Quinlan seemed to be leading them up, past crashing waterfalls and across wide, treelined gorges.
Emily was breathing hard by the time they crested, coming out into a huge circular gap, like a natural amphitheatre built into the stone, the centre plummeting down hundreds of meters to a wide glittering aquamarine pool below. Water spilled out through wellsprings in the side, falling down to splatter and foam around the edges. The air was sweet and clear; trees clung to the side of the sheer rock, their twisted branches hung with glowing flowers the colour of dawn; golden pink blushing into pale blue. Natural pillars jutted up the sides, rising up in sheer steps around the perimeter.
"We want to get down there," Quinlan said, pointing to the gleaming water below. Emily peered from behind him, her stomach lurching at how far down it was.
"So we need to go back?" she asked, starting to step away from the edge. Quinlan pulled her back.
"Nah, I think we'll take the shortcut. Kid, you wanna go first?"
"Sure," Ani said, stepping out from behind them both. He turned back to give Emily a wide smile and then, without hesitation, leapt from the ledge. Knee-jerk reaction, honed from years of catching stumbling toddlers, had Emily reaching out to grab him before she even knew what she was doing.
"Nope, not yet," Quinlan said, tugging her back by the hand to stop her from lobbing herself over the edge after him. Not that she had any chance of catching him. Ani soared through the air, easily spanning the impossibly far distance to the first jutting rock ledge. He landed perfectly, like he'd just jumped a meter and not ten times that distance.
"Now it's your turn," Quinlan said, before he dropped her hand. Emily turned, still a little dazed from what she'd just seen, in time to catch his brown eyes and bright, almost feral smile before she felt him grab her by the waist. Then suddenly she was soaring, her body weightless as she flew through the air, wind whipping past her ears. Anakin grew in her vision, closer and closer, until she slammed into him, his arms coming around her as he caught her. The minute her feet hit solid ground, she dropped onto her knees and then flattened onto her back, gasping air in through the hammering of her heart. Ani knelt down over her, worry creasing his face.
"Are you alright?" he asked, while Emily covered her eyes with her arm to stop his face from swimming around in front of her. There was a quiet thud to her left.
"Never heard anyone scream that loud," Quinlan said, his voice coming from above her.
"I screamed?" Emily croaked out. She couldn't remember screaming; could only recall everything blurring past her as her heart tried to explode out her chest.
"Probably louder with the acoustics around here," he replied. Emily dropped her arm, the dark dreadlocks and rich golden-brown skin coalescing into the image of Quinlan looking down at her from above.
"Did you just toss me?" she gasped, her heart slowly returning to its normal rhythm.
"Yeah," he said, laughing. "Wanna do it again?"
"Sure."
They'd made it to the fourth pillar - each time with Quinlan throwing and Ani catching, as Emily soared through the air, screaming and laughing until her feet hit the ground - before they were interrupted.
"What in the blazes are you three doing?!" a familiar voice barked, echoing down to them from the platform above. Emily was just about to be lobbed for the fifth time, Quinlan's hands about her waist, when she looked up to see a very bearded - and very unhappy - face frowning down at them.
"Kenobi!" Quinlan shouted up. "Glad you could join us. Could use another person to help catch."
"I've been looking everywhere for you two," he said, ignoring Quinlan to scowl down at Ani. "Jocasta Nu contacted me to say that neither of you appeared in the Library this morning as arranged. She'd thought something had happened to you both."
"Ah, that would be my idea," Quinlan said, before Ani could form an answer. "I thought I'd show Emily some of the better parts of the Temple."
"Hold on a minute, I'm coming down so we can discuss this properly," Ben replied, and then he somersaulted off the platform, whipping across the huge chasm like an acrobat shot out of a cannon, spinning through the air until he landed, whisper soft, directly in front of Emily. She reached out, touching a hand to the creased robes across his chest, just to check and make sure it was actually him and not some magical illusion. He gave her a searching look, as if checking for injuries, before he turned to Quinlan.
"Emily is scheduled to be in the Library in the mornings," Ben said, his voice taking on its most disapproving tone. "She is also only allowed in public areas. So, imagine my surprise when, after I'm alerted to her going missing by Master Nu, I get another message from the Chief Agriculturalist who says that Emily sounds like she's being murdered in the Room of a Thousand Fountains - a place that is neither the Library nor accessible to the public?"
"Listen man," Quinlan said, leaning back against the stone wall with a shrug. "Old Nu will have her in there, taking down stuff till she withers and dies of boredom or old age. When does she get to do the fun stuff?"
"Is that what this is supposed to be?"
"It is pretty fun," Emily admitted. Ben gave her a look that screamed, 'I don't want to hear a word out of you'.
"Well, she's here now," Quinlan said. "And the only way is down. You might as well help out."
"Alright," Ben agreed, "but it will have to be done in a far quieter way. If any more screaming comes out of here, we'll have the Temple guards on us, and I won't be the one left to explain the situation to Master Drallig."
"Fine," Quinlan said, waving a hand. "Whatever."
Ben looked at Emily, and then took a brief glance around. "If I may?" he asked her, and Emily automatically nodded, opening her mouth to ask what he wanted to do. Her words died in her throat as he scooped her up into his arms, lifting her like she weighed less than a bag of flour. He pulled her close, one arm cradling her back, the other tucked under her knees, before giving her a smile. "You may want to hold on."
Then he hopped off the platform, everything blurring as they plummeted down until they landed on a rock ledge meters below, Emily's body barely jostled with the impact. Ben quickly took them down like that, leaping from platform to platform, everything rushing past, as she held on with a death-grip to his tunic. The air whistled in her ears as he made the last leap, falling past an endless curtain of silver water, before landing with a splash at the edge of the pool. A cavern stretched out all around them, pillars and statues holding up an arching stone roof beyond. Grass and flowering plants spread out across the ground, curling into the sand around the brilliant blue edge of the pool, drinking in the white spray of mist where the falling water kissed the ground. Ben gently set Emily onto her unsteady feet, water soaking into her little slippers.
"Okay?" he asked in English, looking down at her.
"Yeah," she said, surprised at the tremble in her voice. "Just wondering why there's so many stairs in this place, when you can all do that."
"Well, it's really not so good on the knees," Ben replied. Emily burst out in a shaky laugh, looking up to see him smirking back at her, blue eyes soft in the dim light from above them. His hands were still cupping her elbows, and she hadn't let up the white-knuckled grip on his chest. Emily honestly wasn't sure what had her still feeling so dizzy, the death-defying drop or the fact that his face was so close to hers, she could feel his breath against her lips. His scent, warm and rich, felt like it was surrounding her. Emily had no idea if it was something they only used when laundering his clothes, or if it was something he washed with, but the smell was achingly, mouth-wateringly good. She wanted to bury her face in it, wrap it around her, until she was completely cocooned.
"You two just planning to stand there all day?" a voice said, pulling Emily out of her daze. Quinlan reached down to scoop something up out of the water. Ben dropped his hands, stepping back as his tunic slipped from her grip. Quinlan pulled up beside her, gently lifting up her hand to nestle a damp pink stone in her palm.
"This is the Galaxy Pool," he said, nodding his head to indicate the room around them. It took a second for Emily to catch up with his words. "Scattered in the water here, is a stone from every planet, moon and piece of rock any Jedi has ever stepped on."
She looked down at the pink stone in her hand. It was smooth, the shade a bright fuchsia, and streaked through it were fine wavering lines of blue and green, refracting the light like cut gemstones.
"It's a pretty big thing now," Quinlan continued, "to find a place in this galaxy no Jedi has ever been to before. I don't think anyone has placed a new stone down in here for two-hundred years."
"I'm going to," Ani said, standing at the other side of the pool. He was looking back up, past the falling water shimmering down onto the pool's surface. In the light, he almost glowed, his hair and skin cast in gold. He looked like one of the statues lining the Temple halls. "I'm going to find a planet no-one has ever stepped on."
"You'll need to head out into the Unknown Regions, if you want to do that kid," Quinlan remarked, dropping her hand.
"Then I'll do that," he said, his voice filled with the absolute certainty of youth.
Emily placed the pink stone down at her feet, picking up another one that glinted up through the water. This one was a blue so dark, it was almost black. It felt smooth and cold, like glass that had been kept in the fridge. No matter how long she held it in her hand, it didn't warm.
"How many stones are here?" she asked, looking up.
"How many stars are there in the sky?" Ben said, coming up to pluck the stone out of her hand. He ran his fingers over the surface, before muttering, "Hoth" and putting the stone back in the water.
"Come on, we need to go back before Master Nu sends out a search party for us," Ben continued, his voice taking on the sharp edge of an order, as he looked around the room one last time. "This morning detour will have set back her schedule - something which she is never pleased with."
"Can't we stay a little while longer?" Emily asked. The pool and the garden and statues around it were beautiful, and she wanted to walk around the waters edge, picking up the stones that caught her eye.
"Not today," Ben said, placing a hand on her back as he started edging her towards one of the carved tunnels leading out of the cavern, "but perhaps, if there are no more unscheduled daytrips, I may be able to get you permission to visit here again."
"And if not, I'll just bring you back," Quinlan said, jumping up onto the base of a large plinth.
"Come along," Ben said, then waved a hand to catch Ani's eye. "You too Anakin. I expect you to apologise to Master Nu for today's interruption."
"But I…"
"I think I'm going to stay here a while longer," Quinlan said, stretching his legs out in front of him as he leaned back on the rock. "Give old Nu my best."
"Catch you later, Emily," she heard Quinlan say, his voice floating after them as Ben led her away from the glimmering pools and rushing waters, out to the now lifeless feeling hallways beyond their walls. If this had been hidden here, all this time, Emily wondered what else might be found in the Temple, and whether Quinlan would find another chance to sneak her out to explore them.