Quinlan locked both hands behind his back and stretched them carefully upwards as he bounced up and down on his toes. Around him, the commandos stood quietly, all four of them watching Vythia as she paced the length of the building.

"What's she looking for?" Wrecker asked. "More of those glowing letter things?"

"Glyphs," said Tech. "And no, I do not think so. The door is right there, after all."

Quinlan turned to regard the empty doorway. "You mean the lack of door is right there."

With a faint smile, Tech stopped pointing at the door. "Well. Technically, I suppose, you are correct."

"Yeah." Wrecker folded his arms with a disgusted huff. "No explosives again? This is getting boring!"

"Not for long," said Hunter, removing his helmet. "Did you hear that?"

"No," said Crosshair and Wrecker, immediately on the alert.

". . . No?" Quinlan closed his eyes, then frowned and opened them. With a quick glance at Vythia, he added quietly, "I'm not sensing anything, either."

"Well, I'm definitely hearing something." Hunter paced a few steps away, turned in a slow circle, and shook his head. "I can't pinpoint it."

Dropping to the ground, he pressed one ear to the rock and shut his eyes.

Quinlan cast a questioning look at Tech. When Tech gestured for him to wait, the Jedi turned to observe his surroundings. The craggy cliff behind the academy blocked his view to the north, but he could see for at least a mile in all other directions. Nothing was in sight except for the rocky ground and the two shuttles, and he still couldn't sense any lifeforms, apart from his own and those of his companions. . . There was no threat in the Force – well, apart from the vague feeling of alarm he got whenever he reached too deeply into the Force here, but that was an all-encompassing threat.

Then Hunter got to his feet abruptly, brushing ash from his face as he pointed at the academy. "In there."

The other commandos gathered around him as Quinlan asked, "What is?"

"Footsteps," said Hunter.

"Human?"

"Too heavy."

"Well – that's just fantastic." Quinlan drew his knife. "Vythia!"

She looked over from where she stood at the building's corner, only a few meters from the door. Then, a heavy footstep sounded from just below them.

"We've got company!" Hunter snapped, drawing his knife.

A high, croaking shout echoed from the academy. All around Quinlan, thousands of particles of ash vibrated upward from the ground, settling only when the scream died.

Her eyes widening, Vythia leaped back and spun to face the entrance. Her whip snapped to life, crackling gold fire against the smoky earth.

"What was that?" Crosshair demanded, lifting his rifle into position.

"Vythia!" Hunter shouted. "Get over here!"

She took a step backward, then another, moving carefully towards the group.

In the shadows of the doorway, something shifted. A hulking, two-legged form with hunched shoulders squeezed its way through the door. The thing's green-scaled head was reptilian and strangely large. More to the point – Quinlan drew his blaster – it had long, plentiful teeth.

The creature turned black, intently malicious eyes toward Vythia; only then did Quinlan finally feel a threat in the Force. "Hunter . . .?" he said, raising an eyebrow. "Exactly how many of these things did you hear?"

"At least three," replied the sergeant tersely. He was holding his fire, most likely waiting until Vythia was out of range of the creature's anger.

"Vythia –" Tech began, both pistols raised.

Instead of backing away, the Nautolan woman took a step forward, her gaze holding the creature's for an instant before it struck with one clawed arm. Its blow went wide as she spun aside, and she whirled the whip around her head and lashed out. As the whip furled around the creature's neck, Vythia gave a single, hard jerk. The creature's head hit the ground, and the rest of it followed.

Quinlan eyed the whip, mildly concerned at how effective it was.

Deactivating her weapon, Vythia put one foot on the decapitated creature's shoulder and flipped it onto its back. "I have heard of these," she stated, almost casually. "They were bred in many of the academies before the Great Scourge. They are known as stormbeasts."

Hunter sheathed his knife and drew his rifle. "We've got two others in the room below."

"I will let you handle those," she replied with a smile, making an inviting gesture towards the door.

"Okay." Hunter sent a sideways glance at his teammates. "Who wants to play bait?"

"I will," offered Tech and Wrecker at the same time.

Quinlan blinked. "Uh, how about we –?"

"You're up, Wrecker," said Hunter.

Wrecker ran to the doorway, fired three times down the stairs, and shouted, "Come and get me!"

"Um." Quinlan checked his pistol's tibanna cartridge with an air of disinterest. "Rather straightforward, isn't he?"

Crosshair chuckled.

Another roar sounded, and again the ground vibrated. Tech put away one pistol and knelt to rest his hand on the rock. "Hunter, that roar of theirs seems to have a very similar effect to that of a sonic grenade's detonation."

"An excellent observation," Vythia said, standing beside him.

Before she could continue, another stormbeast forced its way through the door, nearly getting stuck as it twisted to look at the clones. Wrecker, who had the good sense not to kill it while it was still in the doorway, fired a few more shots into the ground in front of it. Turning to face him, the stormbeast roared.

Quinlan shook his head, resisting the urge to cover his ears at how piercing the sound was, but Wrecker staggered, almost falling to one knee before he recovered himself.

"Wrecker!" Hunter shouted. "Get some distance!"

Wrecker didn't seem to hear him, which was unsurprising after that roar; but he did move away from the doorway. Vythia watched interestedly, but stayed where she was.

The stormbeast made its way out, lowering its head as though preparing to lunge, and the other three commandos fired together. Quinlan took his shot half an instant later. His aim was not as good as it used to be – the laser hit the side of its face instead of its eyes.

Despite its injuries, the creature continued to move forward. As the second stormbeast edged through the doorway, Hunter hooked his rifle to his belt, drew his knife, and ran straight at the first one.

Before the sergeant could reach it, Crosshair braced an elbow on Tech's shoulder, steadied his aim, and fired a couple of shots straight through the stormbeast's left eye. It slammed back into the wall with a croak before collapsing.

Hunter swerved around the corpse, ducked beneath the second stormbeast's swipe, and jammed his vibroblade straight up beneath its sternum. Wrenching free, he kicked off, spun, and stabbed it again with a backhanded blow. The monster swayed and grabbed for him, but Wrecker's and Tech's shots took it down before it could reach him.

The sergeant dodged the crumpling beast and sheathed his knife without comment. He didn't look particularly concerned by the stormbeasts, or the fact that they existed.

Quinlan frowned absently at him. He himself was far less nonchalant about the whole matter – he hadn't expected living beings on Malachor, much less beings who didn't show up in the Force . . . Transferring his frown to the nearest dead stormbeast, he studied it as the group reconvened in front of the door.

"Wrecker, you okay?" Hunter said.

"Yeah. Just lost my balance when it roared."

Tech was kneeling beside the third stormbeast, running a scan, but he looked up as Wrecker spoke. "How much? Was it worse than a sonic detonator?"

"No. Least, it wasn't for me."

"Hmm," agreed Tech, looking back at his datapad. "You have not proven to be the most reliable test subject in the past."

"Not my fault," grumbled Wrecker. "I just don't feel certain things all that well."

"I know," Tech replied. "Vythia, do you know anything about these stormbeasts?"

"Beyond what I have already told you?" She shook her head. "Only that they do produce sonic blasts when they roar. The audible part of the sound is not what affects you."

"Nice," muttered Hunter. "That's gonna be a problem."

"Yes – if there were three near the doorway, there are probably many others scattered throughout the academy." Vythia didn't sound worried, but neither did she look pleased by this new discovery. "I do have records on the Phoenix pertaining to these creatures."

"Handy," commented Quinlan. "Maybe you should, ah, look at them before we head further in?"

"It would probably be best." She raised an eyebrow. "I deciphered many of the documents that involved Malachor and its general structure, but I assumed we would have no living creatures to deal with."

Quinlan wasn't so sure that those things were living – they certainly didn't show up in the Force – but he could hardly tell her that. He waited as she ran back to the Phoenix, then announced, "There's something seriously wrong with these stormbeasts."

"Really?" Crosshair snarked, nudging at one of the decapitated stormbeast's claws with the tip of his rifle. "What gave that away?"

"The way they went after Wrecker instead of you," he replied.

Wrecker laughed.

"No, seriously," Quinlan went on. "I didn't sense them at all."

"Is that unusual?" Hunter asked, with a slightly apologetic grimace. "You didn't sense Grakkus. . . or Dverik, when he attacked."

"I know." The Jedi nodded. "When it comes to Grakkus, I just assumed the vault was empty. Yeah, it was a stupid mistake, but if I'd looked for him, I'd have known he was there."

"And Dverik?"

"I did sense him coming. It was just – too fast. We got caught because we were dumb enough to stand in a narrow corridor and talk instead of retreating as fast as we could."

"Fair enough." Hunter folded his arms. "Okay. What's so different about these stormbeasts, then?"

"I tried to sense them, but I couldn't. It's like they're not alive, except they very obviously are. Were."

"And that tells us . . . what?" Hunter paced thoughtfully before turning towards him again. "We're not dealing with something like a hive mind, are we?"

"Uh, no." Quinlan rubbed his jaw. "At least, I doubt it. Those things went down too easily for that to be true. And do I even want to know where you guys could have come across a hive mind situation . . . ?"

"Nope," said Wrecker. "It was nasty. We just blew the whole place up and got out as fast as we could."

Hunter crouched beside the dead stormbeast and stared at it for a moment, then reached out and prodded one of the blaster wounds. "Well, I've never seen a dead thing bleed before, so I'd say they were definitely alive."

Tech sat back on his heels. "Yes, and my scanner is not picking up any further lifesigns that would indicate the presence of brainworms."

"Well . . ." Quinlan rubbed his forehead, a little disturbed by the suggestion of brainworms. Ugh, the squad must have stumbled onto an experimental lab or some such thing. "That's good, I guess? But if they weren't already dead, then why couldn't I sense them? It felt like they just weren't there."

Crosshair stopped wandering about and glanced over one shoulder. "Why does it matter?"

"Uh, well, let's think about that." Quinlan put a hand on his waist and gestured with the other. "One, if Hunter hadn't heard them and we'd just walked into the academy, we'd have been in trouble. Two, Vythia seems to think we'll have to deal with more of them. Kind of a problem if we don't know where they are."

"Well, yes," interrupted Tech. "But since you cannot sense them, does it matter why you cannot? Or is there a way you can fix it?"

"It matters because if I can't sense them, then there's something wrong," he replied, dragging the toe of his boot through the ash. "With me or with the stormbeasts, I mean. We caught these guys more or less off-guard, and sure, we took 'em down fast enough, but who knows what other abilities they have?"

Wrecker shoved his helmet back on his head. "Maybe they're like the, uh, the sall-uh-meer-ee things."

"Good thought, but no. I've seen a ysalamiri before, and I could sense even that by focusing." He spun on his heel, grinding the gritty ash even further. "I'm telling you, those things felt dead."

"Well, they couldn't have been," Crosshair said, gesturing at the barren area surrounding them.

"Yeah, yeah, I know; dead things don't bleed."

"Not just that," Crosshair said. "Unprotected corpses would never survive intact for four thousand years, even underground."

Quinlan spun in the other direction, considering. Crosshair raised a good point, and really there was no reason to think the stormbeasts had been animated by anything apart from their own souls, but that didn't change the fact that they felt as though they simply weren't there. He stared at the blank opening in the academy wall and decided that his opinion of Malachor had dropped even more.

"Yep," he said aloud, as Vythia approached. "This planet's pretty bad. I think Malachor definitely rates at a zero."

"Yeah?" The sergeant huffed a laugh. "Not saying much – Coruscant's Triple Zero."

Quinlan paused mid-spin, snorting with laughter at the awful pun. Wrecker also laughed, while Tech and Crosshair stared at their sergeant in silent condemnation.

"Really?" Vythia joined them, eyes glinting with amusement as she glanced briefly in Hunter's direction. "Triple Zero?"

He shrugged unapologetically.

"Malachor is certainly not the most hospitable place," she admitted. "But I found what we were looking for."

"The stormbeasts," prompted Quinlan.

"Yes. Originally, they were an indigenous species – dangerous, but not particularly fast or vicious. Over the centuries, the Sith captured and changed them. The methods were unclear, but it took the more famous Sith alchemists many, many years before they had changed the stormbeasts into what they wanted."

Tech shot Quinlan a quizzical look behind Vythia's back, but the Jedi couldn't have answered him, even if Vythia wasn't there. He knew next to nothing about Sith alchemy, and he didn't intend to learn, thanks all the same.

"So," he said conversationally. "Somehow the stormbeasts survived the Scourge."

"They lived far underground," she replied with a delicate shrug. "At least, that is my best guess as to how they survived."

"What about abilities?" Hunter asked. "Apart from the sonic blast, are they particularly dangerous?"

"They hunger," she said. "It was observed in the academies, shortly before the Jedi invaded. The stormbeasts do not need physical sustenance. They subsist entirely on the Dark Side, as the Sith intended, but – at least at the time, that had not changed their desire to hunt and devour."

So that's why I can't feel them. They are alive, but only in the loosest sense. Quinlan sighed. "In other words, they'll probably hunt us."

"Yes." Moving to the doorway, she glanced in.

"That settles it," the Jedi said with a decisive nod. "We're marking Malachor down to a negative one."

"We're keeping track?" Crosshair asked. "Better take off another point for the orbital graveyard."

"We'll take off five for that," agreed Quinlan. "And one for the general atmosphere, and one for all the ash."

"Negative eight," nodded Crosshair.

Quinlan smirked. "Who's keeping track now?"

"This rating will be highly subjective," said Tech before Crosshair could do more than frown. "Particularly if it is based on all of our opinions at once."

Hunter shot him a confused look. "And that . . . matters . . ."

Tech rolled his eyes and busied himself with checking the charges on his blaster.

"Hunter," said Vythia, apparently satisfied with whatever she had been looking for. "I think you should stay in the front, with me, so that you have a better chance of hearing these creatures."

"Right." Hunter started down the stairs without hesitation. "Any idea where this next artifact is, Vythia?"

"It is rumored that it was stored in the proving grounds," she said. "But that is all I know."

Oh, perfect, Quinlan griped to himself. This is going to take forever, isn't it?

Thirty slow minutes had passed by the time Vythia located the large door that she thought might lead to the proving grounds. Pulling his helmet off, Hunter leaned sideways against the cold stone. He couldn't hear anything – then again, it wasn't as though that meant a whole lot. Maybe stormbeasts were completely silent when they slept.

He stepped back. "I don't hear anything. Wrecker?"

Wrecker grabbed the metal ring and yanked the door open with a single pull. It glided open with barely a creak, and Hunter wondered how the academy had remained in such good condition over the last four thousand years. There was dust and ash everywhere, but no visible damage to the structure itself. The whole place was constructed out of stone and some form of bronze-colored metal.

When he raised his lantern in an attempt to see through the shadows at the far end of the massive room, the Jedi glanced at him. "Why don't you just use your helmet? Don't you have night vision or something?"

"Yeah, but I want to be able to hear those things if they show up again," Hunter replied, studying the carvings in the stone supports. "Hm . . . So, these are the proving grounds?"

"Yes," said Vythia. She walked into the room, planting both hands on her hips as she gazed around. "Here is where the apprentices could challenge their masters for superiority, if they so chose."

"It looks empty," Tech observed, pulling out his datapad. "Well. What we can see of it, at any rate."

"So I noticed." She took a couple steps forward. "Hunter?"

"I don't sense anything," he said. "Three groups, we'll check the perimeter."

When Quinlan glanced at him, Hunter jerked his chin toward Crosshair while Wrecker followed Vythia. He himself headed toward the far corner, aware that Tech was following closely. "Anything useful?" he muttered.

"No. The room is devoid of lifeforms," Tech said. "I am not picking up any anomalies in the wall structure, either."

"No secret compartment, then," said Hunter.

"Not unless it is shielded by something capable of confusing the sensors. Given the thickness of the walls themselves, I do not think that entirely unlikely."

Hunter slowed as they neared the wall, which was just as dull and grey and plain as the outside walls of the academy. "Okay. So what now?"

Tech didn't respond, except to glance at the Jedi, which meant that Quinlan was their best chance of finding the artifact – maybe even their only chance. Still, the others should probably at least try to look as though they were searching . . .

Hunter walked to the far corner, then turned to continue along the wall, keeping half his attention on the wall. The room itself was about twenty-five meters wide, from the door to the wall, and looked to be at least that long as well. Hunter and Tech paced the length of the room without seeing anything of consequence, then continued on to join Vythia and Wrecker, who were standing in the center of the adjacent wall.

"I do not see anything unusual," Vythia said. "Quinlan?"

"Nothing," he muttered. When the Nautolan tilted her head back to observe the ceiling, Quinlan shot Hunter a quick look and shook his head. Really nothing, then.

Vythia hummed. "The rumors may have been inaccurate. I should have thought of this before – after all, why would an artifact be stored in such a place?"

"Because it's a Sith building?" Quinlan guessed.

"Granted," she said. "But why keep the very thing the academy was named after in a scarcely-used room?"

"Perhaps as some form of inspiration," Tech suggested. "If it belonged to some famous Sith . . ."

Hunter, who found he couldn't care less about why or why not the artifact wasn't stored in this particular room, looked up in time to see Crosshair and Quinlan sharing an eyeroll over Tech's interested tone. He smirked his agreement.

"You may be right, Tech," Vythia said. "It may have been stored here initially, then hidden to prevent its theft by the Jedi when they invaded."

"Right," Crosshair scoffed. "Like the Jedi would want Sith artifacts."

"Oh, but they would," Vythia said seriously. "The Jedi are not fools. They may pretend to scorn power, but they often took things from the Sith that they themselves were too cowardly to make."

Quinlan's expression didn't change, but the brief flicker of disagreement in his eyes showed his own opinion all too clearly.

Fortunately, Vythia had already started toward the door. "We can use this room as a base later," she suggested. "A reconvening point, while we continue our search."

"We could, yeah. . ." Hunter followed her. "But wouldn't the shuttles do just as well?"

"No. It took us nearly half an hour to make our way through the first level. Traveling back and forth is an unnecessary risk, considering the stormbeasts."

Hunter frowned, not sure he liked the idea of staying down here between searching the different levels.

"Hey, Hunter?" the Jedi said.

"What?"

"She's got a point."

The sergeant cast him a mild glare. "Thanks, Vos. I'm not an idiot."

When Quinlan looked pleased with himself, Wrecker cleared his throat loudly. "Uh, Vythia – what is it we're looking for, anyway?"

"It is a shard of the blade from of one of the two battle-axes that belonged to Adas."

"How are we supposed to find something that small?" Crosshair asked. "It could be hidden anywhere."

"It is not exactly small," she said. "But it will most likely be hidden well. That is where Quinlan comes in."

"Uh." Overtaking her, Quinlan turned on his heel, walking backwards as he talked. "You think I can just – tell where this thing will be? Tracking a person is one thing, Vythia – but how am I supposed to track an object?"

"You can track people?" Tech asked.

Hunter almost raised an eyebrow at him – Vos had tracked Grakkus in the pipes, after all – before remembering that they weren't supposed to know much about him. The question was still unnecessary, though; Tech was probably taking the opportunity to learn more about psychometry.

"Yeah," said Quinlan. "Sometimes. But it's not like objects travel around."

Vythia inclined her head, as though agreeing with him, but didn't answer his question.

When Vythia said nothing about how Quinlan was supposed to locate the artifact using his psychometry, Tech remembered that he had some research to do. He joined Crosshair and Wrecker, slipping between them so that he could walk without having to watch where he was going.

In between checking his sensor readouts for lifesigns, he read through the article he'd saved to his datapad before leaving Nar Shaddaa. His research so far led him to conclude that psychometry was a difficult talent to define. Many Kiffar who were psychometric had only a slight ability to pick up on memories imprinted on objects. For example, they could sense the memory, but only describe what had happened. More powerful psychometrics could see or hear the memory, as though watching it through a fog. And the most powerful, which were comparatively rare, could be dragged right into a memory, so much so that they might forget where they really were. These psychometrics would, in a sense, become the person who had initially had the memory.

Tech scrolled farther down, reading carefully through the journal entry that had been written by one of the Guardians of Kiffu. It appeared that all strong psychometrics – and all Jedi psychometrics, regardless of their level of ability – were heavily discouraged from touching bodies, especially the bodies of those who had died violently. But there was nothing concrete in the way of evidence or facts, no records or listings of actual events that had transpired – nothing, in fact, except for an ominously-worded legend about a Jedi who had become catatonic after touching the body of 'the cursed man'.

How in the galaxy is this supposed to be useful? Tech groused to himself after finding no indication of who or what the cursed man may have been. I cannot believe that this is all the information available on psychometry.

Crosshair elbowed him, and Tech glanced up just before he would have walked into a narrow pillar. He edged around it and resumed walking, already back to thinking. If Quinlan was correct about his ability and the way in which it functioned, then how exactly did Vythia expect for him to find artifacts which were not even in sight? Perhaps she had a false understanding of how psychometry worked.

Ahead of him, the Jedi stopped short, then took a step back. "Wait," he said, sounding a bit concerned. "Vythia – what was it you said back in the warehouse?"

As one, the commandos stopped walking, and . Vythia turned to glance at Quinlan. "When we first met, you mean?"

"Yeah. You said something about that crystal of yours . . ." He gestured vaguely toward the red jewel, which glowed in the light of the lantern the Jedi carried. "You said I could feel it because it was touching my mind. Right?"

"Yes." She smiled a bit. "And these artifacts should do the same."

"And that's how you expect me to find them?"

The Nautolan woman stared at him for an unnervingly long moment.

Tech shifted, suddenly uneasy – if Quinlan was not careful, he would give himself away. He had been hired for this job, knowing that it was his psychometry that she needed, and yet only now was he asking how she expected him to do this. Surely that would make her suspicious. . . Tech turned to look at his squad mates, but Crosshair and Wrecker hadn't moved a muscle.

Before Vythia could speak, Hunter stepped between her and Quinlan. "Vos, would you just quit it?"

The Jedi cast him a sharp look.

His annoyance was most likely genuine, but Hunter ignored it. "We're stuck with you until we finish this quest, and I don't intend for us to stay on Malachor any longer than we have to. So stop with second-guessing the deal and pull it together!"

Quinlan frowned. "Stay out of this, Hunter."

"Quinlan," said Vythia, appearing not to notice the brief argument. "Why did you not ask me this before, if you knew you could not track objects?"

Hunter didn't visibly move, but Tech could tell he was on edge. Tech's tensed slightly as he considered that this situation had the potential to unravel everything –

"Wait," muttered Crosshair.

Tech subsided a bit.

"Because. . ." Quinlan folded his arms, expression slightly defensive. "I wanted to get the job."

"And you thought I wouldn't hire you if you weren't sure of your own abilities?"

Quinlan shrugged, glancing at the floor, and Tech noted that he had not actually answered her question.

"I see," Vythia said. "What did you plan to do if I discovered you were unable to fulfill your end of the bargain?"

"I'd fulfill it," Quinlan retorted.

"Oh, I am sure you would." Given the appearance of Nautolans' eyes, Tech was a bit surprised that Vythia was able to pull off an eye-roll so visibly. "Quinlan, do you truly think I am naïve enough to hire someone without judging their ability beforehand?"

"Look," said Quinlan, starting forward again. "There are psychometrics, and there are psychometrics with a lot of power – people who can track an item simply by touching the area where it's been."

"Yes," she agreed wryly. "And those are incredibly rare – perhaps only one Kiffar every thousand years possesses that power."

"You did your research, huh?"

"Oh, yes." She paused at the top of a stairway that traveled down on her left. "It would seem that I am more aware of your own abilities than you are. I knew that if my crystal could touch your mind, then so could the artifacts which I was seeking."

"Because . . .?"

She shrugged one shoulder. "They share some characteristics."

As he followed the others down the stairs, Tech moved ahead of Wrecker, trying to get a better look at Vythia's jewel. It looked like a normal gem – perhaps a deeper red than it had appeared in the warehouse, but then again, the light here was very uneven.

When Vythia stopped on the landing, Tech stopped beside her and checked his sensor display. Still nothing in sight – well, that was good. The stair wall cut off on his left, falling away into darkness. He turned on his night vision and glanced over the edge, but even with that he couldn't see where the drop-off ended. Flipping his visor back up, he prodded Wrecker, moving him towards the center of the landing.

"Now," Vythia said. "Quinlan, close your eyes and tell me what you feel in your mind."

The Jedi did not look in the least worried – in fact, he looked a bit annoyed – but he shut his eyes. "I don't feel anything."

She waited without replying. Tech looked over at Hunter, but then something – he wasn't sure what – caught the corner of his gaze. Strangely, when he turned to look, nothing was different. Vythia was just standing there, regarding Quinlan.

"What about now?" she asked.

Quinlan opened his eyes and took a step back. "I can feel the crystal . . . Vythia, what is that thing, anyway?"

"An artifact, of sorts." She smiled. "Are you certain that you cannot feel the presence of anything similar to it?"

"Positive. Why?"

"When we get within the general vicinity of the shard, you will be able to feel it in your mind," she said assuredly. "All we must do is continue to travel through the academy, until you sense its location."

"Sense . . ." He shook his head once. "Right. Guess I can do that."

Vythia continued down the next flight of stairs, trailing one hand on the wall and keeping well away from the edge that dropped off into a chasm. One by one, the others followed her, until only Quinlan and Tech were left.

The Jedi stared past Tech, out over the stairway and into what appeared to be a wide, open area, for a long moment. Only when he finally started to follow Hunter did he appear to notice Tech's presence. "Tech?" he said, pausing. "What is it?"

The commando gestured to Vythia, who was nearly out of sight, and lowered his voice to a whisper. "Do you think she knows?"

Quinlan tilted his head, then shook it decisively. "No. Not yet. And if we're careful, we'll keep it that way."

"But what about the shard?"

"I'll be able to find it – if it's darker than the rest of this place."

"And assuming that it is still here," Tech said, keeping pace with him as they hurried to catch up with the others. "If it is not, we might be forced to spend quite some time in this academy."

"Yeah," agreed the Jedi glumly. "And even if we do find it quickly, we've already been here a lot longer than I'm happy with."

Tech glanced at his chronometer. They hadn't been inside the Adas Academy for very long – only one hour, four minutes, and thirty seconds.

Quinlan nudged him, his tone a bit lighter as he said, "Don't even start. The moment we entered was long enough for me."

"I agree." Somewhat to his surprise, Tech realized that even he had no interest in exploring this academy any further.