Hunter had just entered the hall outside the statue room when Vythia, who had been sitting quietly on the stairs, got to her feet. "I wish to examine those runes a bit longer," she said, rotating the gold mask absently between her hands.

"What runes?"

"Those on Lord Lothal's cloak."

Hunter looked over his shoulder at the silent statue room and the hole that led to the vault. "I'm . . . not so sure that's a good idea."

"Trust me, Hunter; I do not intend to go anywhere near the vault." She looked down at the mask again. "You and the others may start upstairs, if you wish. I won't be long."

He shook his head. "We'll wait for you. We shouldn't split up – not with the way doors keep closing behind us."

"Hm . . . Yes, that is probably best," she agreed after a moment. "Wait here, then."

He stepped aside to let her pass, then went on to the stairs. His squad mates and Quinlan followed silently. They still seemed a bit shaken by the incident with the ebony statues, especially the Jedi. Well . . . if Hunter were honest with himself, he was a bit shaken himself. There was something very unsettling about the neutral silence with which the statues had attacked. They must have been a defense mechanism, set to go off if the mask were ever removed from its case. Maybe it was some sort of pressure sensor?

He should ask Tech. His youngest squad mate probably had several explanations he could give that were more scientifically valid than 'the statues knew we were here'. Resting a foot on the lowest step, Hunter leaned back against the wall and fidgeted with his knife, sliding it in and out of his vambrace sheath. He couldn't escape the feeling that the golden-eyed statues had somehow known the team was present – and, possibly, still knew the team was present. Despite the fact that his back was to a wall, he kept wanting to turn and make sure nothing was watching him.

The others were equally restless. Wrecker looked up the stairs, then back towards the statue room, then moved a few feet to one side before repeating the motions. Crosshair lounged against the wall, the ever-present toothpick in one corner of his mouth, but his sharp gaze flitted constantly in all directions, and he was gripping his rifle tightly. Tech, oddly enough, was not using his datapad – he'd clipped it to his belt and was walking back and forth, chin resting thoughtfully in one hand as he moved. Quinlan was also pacing with his arms folded, somehow managing to avoid both Wrecker and Tech despite the fact that he was staring unseeingly at the floor.

Hunter eyed the stairway. "Any ideas on how we get back to the mansion?"

His four teammates looked sharply at him, as though startled by his words, and didn't answer right away.

"Uh . . ." said Quinlan at last.

Hunter gave him an unimpressed look and Crosshair smirked.

Wrecker shoved his helmet back on his head. "If we go back to the chasm, you mean?"

"Yeah."

"I could throw a charge across and blow the door," Wrecker said dubiously.

Crosshair bit thoughtfully down on his toothpick. "At that distance?"

"Well – I dunno if I can get it to stick right, but it's the only idea I've got."

The Jedi tapped his knuckles against his chin. "Of course, we could always try – Uh, no, never mind."

Hunter stopped playing with his knife and glanced at him. "Never mind what?"

"I was thinking about having Wrecker throw me across, but I value my life a little more highly than that."

"Yeah!" Wrecker grinned, completely unoffended. "I'd probably throw you right through the wall. That wouldn't work!"

"Nope." Quinlan shrugged. "Hm. As far as getting back to the labyrinth goes, I guess we'll have to cross that bridge – I mean, the lack thereof – when we get to it."

Tech shook his head in pretended exasperation, but Hunter could tell his mind wasn't really in the present. A few seconds later, Tech hummed and lifted a finger, as though he were about to make a statement on something interesting. Instead of talking, though, he tiptoed to the statue room doorway, leaned back against the wall, and glanced in carefully.

The others watched him watch Vythia without comment, but Tech didn't move or say anything. After a few seconds, Hunter left him to spy on the Nautolan and returned to sheathing and unsheathing his knife. If Tech saw something interesting, he'd mention it.

It had been several minutes when Hunter became suddenly aware of a staticky web of energy far above him. A storm, similar to that of the previous night . . . Or perhaps it was the same one. Stepping away from the stairway, he closed his eyes in an attempt to feel more clearly. The storm was only just building, gathering almost directly overhead, but already it was stronger than last night's storm had been.

Just what we need, Hunter thought, opening his eyes again. The half-standing cavern walls around the city should keep the group sheltered from the driving ash as they made their way back to the Marauder and the Phoenix, but there was no need to take chances. "We should get Vythia and leave," he said to Quinlan in an undertone. "A storm's building."

The Jedi didn't answer, or even seem to hear him. He was focused on Tech, who was gazing into the statue room with one hand on the doorframe. Wrecker shifted, looking as though he were about to ask a question, and Hunter lifted a hand to silence him. Whatever it was Tech was so intent on, Quinlan seemed to think it was important.

A very faint click of metal on stone came from the next room, and Tech leaned farther forward. A few seconds passed, and then Tech jumped and stepped back, eyes wide in disbelief.

As Hunter took a step toward him, Tech moved back again, spun, and ran quietly to join the others near the stairs. Quick footsteps followed after him, and Tech had just reached Hunter and taken out his datapad when Vythia appeared in the doorway. She slipped the mask into her satchel, eyes flickering over the group as though to ensure they were all present.

When a few seconds had passed, Hunter straightened from his pretended bored slouch. "You finished with the runes?"

"Yes . . ." said Vythia. Her eyes narrowed briefly as she gazed at him.

Hunter kept his face even, though he was wondering what Tech had seen. "Then let's get back to the top."

Tech tripped twice on the way up the winding staircase, because his mind was not in the present. He was trying to explain to himself what he had seen only a few minutes ago. He couldn't. The third time he stumbled, Crosshair – who was last in line – tapped his arm with the stock of his rifle and whispered, "Focus."

Tech was focusing. Just – not on his surroundings. He wanted to ask Crosshair if he had ever thought he had seen something, and then turned out to be wrong. It was possibly an odd trick of the light from Vythia's lantern, bouncing off the gold metal of the mask. After all, Tech had not had a chance to scan the mask and determine the material. Maybe it wasn't gold at all, but some metal compound with unusual properties.

He stumbled again, since he'd been expecting to feel another step beneath his foot, but had already reached the top of the stairs. The others were ten meters ahead, except for Crosshair, and Tech hurried to catch up. It wouldn't be good if Vythia started suspecting him of having spied on her. She'd looked a little surprised, so Tech thought he hadn't actually been seeing things after all – then again, Vythia hadn't looked all that startled. Maybe she was expecting it. Maybe she also thought she'd just seen something, though not to the same extent . . . Maybe she'd realized quicker than Tech that she was just seeing a reflection. . .

When a hand caught his elbow, Tech jolted back to the present. He'd been walking so fast that he'd now passed everyone except Vythia and Wrecker, and it was Hunter who was holding him back.

Tech looked questioningly up at him. Hunter shot a cautious glance in Vythia's direction, released him, and kept walking. Then Quinlan raised a hand, as though to get the others' attention, and ran a few steps to catch up with Wrecker.

"Hey," he said, a bit louder than normal. "Wrecker, how good a chance do we have of blowing up that sealed door across the chasm?"

Wrecker answered, but Tech didn't pay attention to his words, because the moment Wrecker started talking, Hunter whispered, "What happened?"

"It . . . I thought I saw something," Tech answered. "But it was probably nothing."

"Didn't look like nothing," Hunter commented, giving him a warning look. He didn't like it when Tech evaded his questions.

But Tech didn't like giving incomplete answers. He paused, trying to reword his thought, but before he could speak, Quinlan turned. "Hey, Hunter – what do you think about using this second tunnel?"

Hunter hesitated, then went to join Vythia and the Jedi where they stood fifteen meters away at the division in the passageway. One fork led back towards the chasm and the mansion, while the other led toward the riverbed.

Tech stopped walking and fidgeted with his datapad instead. He ran a few unnecessary scans on the tunnel they were currently in, not really listening to the discussion the others were having, and didn't notice that Crosshair was still nearby until the sniper flicked him in the back of the head.

At that, Tech glanced up in mild irritation. "What?"

"What is it you saw?" Crosshair asked, his gaze focused on the others.

"I'm still not sure I actually saw anything."

Crosshair tilted his head back, rolling his eyes. "Then what did you think you saw? And don't say 'nothing'. Hunter might've fallen for that, but I won't."

"Hunter did not fall for anything," Tech argued, folding his arms. "And I was going to tell him –"

"After he dragged it out of you," said Crosshair. He quirked his lips, switching his toothpick from one side of his mouth to the other without using his fingers. "So."

Tech sighed, more than a little irked at his older brother's nagging, and checked that Vythia was still occupied with the others' conversation before answering. "I thought I saw Lord Lothal's eyes glow red. But that is impossible. I ran thorough scans on that statue when we were in that room, and the statue itself was nothing but stone."

When Crosshair hadn't replied, even after a good ten seconds, Tech began to feel irked. Then he registered that, once again, Crosshair had his helmet clipped to his belt instead of on his head where it belonged. Giving him an irritated look, Tech said, "Shouldn't you be wearing your helmet?"

Crosshair had narrowed his eyes as though he were thinking, and he didn't change expression at Tech's words. After a few seconds, he removed the toothpick and held it contemplatively between two fingers, but continued to utterly ignore Tech's valid criticism.

Well. Nothing new there, but Tech still found himself increasingly annoyed. Hunter and Crosshair had a habit of removing their helmets frequently during missions, which bothered Tech possibly more than it should. At least Wrecker left his helmet on, more or less . . .

At that instant, Wrecker stumped over to them – with his helmet tilted back on his head.

Tech huffed and frowned. He rarely became irritated, and recognizing that he was exasperated over the others' habit made him annoyed at his own lack of logic. After all, his teammates constantly took their helmets off during missions. He didn't like it, but he should be used to it. It certainly shouldn't be aggravating him to the point that he wanted to smack Wrecker's helmet down on his head and order him to keep it there.

This level of annoyance was strange, and Tech decided he didn't like that at all.

"We're gonna try the second tunnel," Wrecker said, giving him an odd look. "Hey, Tech, everything okay there?"

Tech narrowed his eyes in displeasure, and didn't answer.

Looking preoccupied, Crosshair threw his toothpick across the room. "Techie's got something on his mind," he said distractedly. "Tech, maybe you should ask –"

"Don't call me that," snapped Tech.

Crosshair blinked and then observed him more sharply than usual, but Tech ignored his surprise. He'd told Crosshair dozens of times that he didn't like being called that, and if the sniper couldn't remember – well, there was no way he couldn't. Crosshair remembered everything.

When a hand landed on his shoulder, Tech jolted, startled to see that Hunter stood beside him. "What?"

"We're moving out." Hunter nodded after Quinlan and Vythia. Then a look of vague concern crossed his face, and he said, "Is something wrong?"

"If something were wrong, I would tell you," Tech replied sharply, tired of all the hovering. Jerking his datapad off his belt, he marched after the Jedi. He did not immediately hear his teammates following, and a glance down at his sensors confirmed this. They were probably staring after him, looking confused and, in Hunter's case, concerned.

Tech huffed again. He should be able to get annoyed without everyone acting as though his behavior was completely irregular. It wasn't as though he hadn't gotten angry before. And even if he had never been angry before, no one acted surprised when anyone else got angry. No one was surprised when Wrecker got mad and yelled, or when Crosshair was in a bad mood and spoke snappishly to everyone, constantly, or even when Hunter lost his temper and raised his voice.

Moving quickly, Tech caught up to the Jedi and fell into step beside him. At least he wasn't annoyed at Quinlan . . . yet. The technician drummed the fingers of one hand against his datapad and considered his irritation – which was proving to be an odd and unhelpful emotion. He was probably annoyed because he didn't like this place, and was therefore taking it out on his teammates. Crosshair calling him 'Techie' had always been irritating, even when the sniper was teasing. Surely, that was no reason to act like a cadet.

Tech was mildly alarmed when he realized that he actually felt annoyed. Something was not quite right. He needed to focus, clear his head, and reorder his thoughts. Of course, that would be easier if his mind would stop focusing on the strange image of Lord Lothal's glowing red eyes. It really was impossible for stone to glow red, in and of itself . . .

Ahead of him, Vythia let out a soft hum and broke into a run, moving swiftly down the tunnel toward a distant, pale shaft of daylight. Wrecker hurried to catch up with her as the rest of his squad reached Tech and Quinlan.

"Okay," said Hunter. "Tech. . ."

Tech sighed – again – and stopped walking. Then, with a final glance at Wrecker and Vythia, he turned. "Yes?"

Crosshair was giving him an obnoxious, knowing look that practically said, 'bet you aren't going to tell him that you were seeing things'.

Pulling off his helmet, Tech ignored the sniper and focused on Hunter and Quinlan. "I thought that I saw Lord Lothal's eyes glow red."

"You mean the statue?" Hunter checked.

"Of course the statue," Tech said, irritated all over again. "Unless you know of another Lord Lothal?"

Hunter tilted his head, but before he could speak, Quinlan said, "Any idea why they were glowing?"

He sounded nervous, but not disbelieving. That was good.

"No definite knowledge, no," said Tech. "I did realize afterwards that perhaps the lantern light was reflecting off Vythia's kyber crystal and striking the mask, but that is only a conjecture, so –"

"Wait a minute." The Jedi lifted a hand, his face more uncertain than ever. "I thought you said the statue's eyes were glowing red?"

"That is correct," said Tech.

"Then – what does the mask have to do with anything?"

"It was on the statue," said Tech, belatedly realizing he'd never actually mentioned that fact. He thought back, then told them everything in order. "Vythia put the mask on Lord Lothal's face. It fit perfectly, and stayed on its own. A few seconds later, Lothal's eyes glowed, though only briefly, and then Vythia lowered the lantern as the eyes stopped glowing. That is why I thought that the glowing eyes had to do with the kyber crystal."

"I . . . hope you're right about that." Quinlan bit his lip.

He didn't seem to think that there was any possibility that Tech had merely been seeing things. Truthfully, Tech hadn't thought that there was any possibility either, though he strongly disliked not having a definite explanation.

"What else would it be?" Tech asked, though he didn't particularly want a different answer. And that was also odd.

"I honestly don't know," the Jedi answered. He started walking again. "Ugh – blast this place, anyway."

"Too bad we can't," Crosshair mumbled behind them.

"Yeah. The sooner we get out of here, the better," Hunter said. "Come on – we can worry about the mask later."

Worry about it? Tech wondered. Why? It has to have been the lighting . . . The stone could not simply have started glowing by itself. Even with a direct power source, causing stone to glow would have other physical changes associated with it. Especially since the statue was not composed of a stone with special properties. It is incredibly hard, and for it to glow would require intense heat.

At the very least, the statue's features would change as a result of that heat, and I certainly observed no such change – and there was no heat. My helmet scanners would have picked up such a temperature change at one hundred times the distance I was standing from the statue . . . Even if my helmet scanners weren't working – which they definitely are – I myself would have felt so severe a temperature change, and I did not.

He was still pondering it when he and his companions drew close to Wrecker and Vythia.

"Hey!" Wrecker shouted and waved. "Quit studying rocks and get over here!"

"Studying rocks?" Tech repeated, confused.

"That was our cover story," whispered Quinlan. "I didn't want Vythia to ask what was so interesting that we couldn't say it in front of her."

". . . Ah." Tech was a bit surprised he hadn't considered a cover story earlier. He should have. Of course Vythia would get suspicious if he kept hanging back to talk to the others. He broke into a quick trot and drew even with Wrecker, who had one hand on the top edge of yet another tunnel entrance.

Tech had not observed the existence of this corridor on his scanners, so he pulled out his datapad and began compiling a three-dimensional rendition of the surrounding area. His sensors were not functioning well, but the general layout would suffice for the moment.

"Hm," he said as the results began to show on his screen. "The tunnel we are currently in appears to run parallel to the river for a few hundred meters before turning sharply and opening into the riverbed itself."

"That's kind of weird," said Quinlan into the silence. "Unless you randomly want to drown yourself or a few dozen servants or something, why have a tunnel leading straight into the river?"

Vythia gave him a wry smile. "I doubt that is what this tunnel is for. There are far easier ways to kill people than tunneling for half a mile. If need be, the occupants could merely walk to the bank and throw themselves or their servants in."

"That . . ." Quinlan rubbed the bridge of his nose, then raised his eyebrows in consideration. "I mean – you've definitely got a point, but . . ."

"I do understand your meaning," she added, continuing to walk. "But I think the existence of this tunnel fits in with what Wrecker said earlier."

Wrecker eyed her with consternation. "What'd I say?"

"You thought that perhaps the tunnel – or the chasm, at least – was in case the river flooded. I think you are correct." She continued walking swiftly, trailing one hand along the rock above her head as she moved.

"Oh!" said Wrecker, understanding dawning in his eyes. "Yeah, I'd been thinkin' about that earlier. The river's really close to the city, and when Lothal was built, the cave was still intact."

Tech raised an eyebrow, his irritation fading as he considered Wrecker's words. He had observed both of those facts, of course – the cave roof having crushed half the buildings in the town was excellent proof that it had fallen well after the city's construction – but he hadn't thought to really imagine what the city had been like when it was filled with people.

"Huh," said Quinlan. "Good point, Wrecker. I didn't actually think of that."

"Yeah, well." Wrecker ducked under a stalactite. "The ground here's pretty low, and there's no way out of the cave on the surface, so if the river flooded, the water wouldn't have anywhere to go. The cave would probably get filled to the top."

"No way out," repeated Crosshair. "Wait . . . That doesn't sound right. Why wouldn't they have a way to get out? How'd they get in here in the first place? I mean, we took the riverbed, but we didn't find any other tunnels leading out of the cave, did we?"

There was a brief pause.

"Hmm," said Vythia, sounding intrigued. "We flew in, so we never thought about how the original builders got in."

"Does it really matter?" Hunter asked, glancing back. He'd taken the lead again and was moving faster. He seemed in a hurry to get out, and once again Tech remembered that Hunter had mentioned a storm. The sergeant probably didn't want to be trapped in Lothal overnight – a sentiment Tech could understand, though the team and their ships would be more protected in the cave than they had been the night previous. The ash would be blocked on all sides by the cave, and though it would come through the top, the wind itself shouldn't be powerful enough to cause much difficulty in walking.

"To us personally?" Vythia mused, nearly a quarter of a minute after Hunter had spoken. "I suppose not."

"It's interesting to think about, though," Quinlan said into the following silence. "If Wrecker's right, that means these tunnels – or at least the ones up to the chasm, coming from this end – were probably always filled with water."

Tech felt as though he were missing something obvious, and he didn't like that at all.

"Wonder where the chasm leads," Crosshair muttered.

"Nowhere, I expect," Vythia answered. "Maybe it connects to an underground river that flows elsewhere. Whatever the case, I do not think the Sith used it for anything."

"No – that can't be right," Quinlan said. "We dropped a flare, and didn't see any tunnel openings leading out anywhere, not even at the base."

The sudden feeling of missing something had become so strong that Tech almost stopped walking, but he couldn't for the life of him think why anything connected with the chasm would matter. They were getting out of these tunnels into what was now a perfectly dry riverbed. No trouble there. The river, when it was full, would have flowed past the city, blocking off the entrance his team had used to get in, and the overflow would have spilled into the tunnels and the chasm, which was probably . . .

He did stop, now, as he calculated. The chasm was approximately twenty meters across, which meant that the lateral area was approximately one thousand, two hundred and fifty six meters . . . which meant that the chasm itself could contain approximately one hundred and twenty-five thousand, six hundred cubic meters. But that was nowhere near enough space to protect a city such as Lothal from a flooding river of that size . . . unless . . .

Whipping out his datapad, Tech pulled up the three-dimensional map he'd compiled of the city itself. The riverbed . . . there. It was not particularly deep as rivers went, though there were stretches in the cave itself that were seven meters below surface level. If the river usually flowed below the banks, a severe flood would submerge the entire town in a matter of hours. Unless there was a far more complex system of tunnels beneath the city than those he had seen so far – and he didn't think there was – then there could not have been severe floods, in this area, in the entire time Lothal existed. Perhaps it was a new town, and there hadn't been time for there to be a flood before its destruction.

On the other hand, Crosshair's comment about the citizens not having had a way out . . . again, it went back to the tunnels. The others may not have searched specifically for them, but Tech always looked for the general structure of a place when he visited it, and there were definitely no tunnels leading out of the cave. If there were, they were hundreds of meters below the surface, and didn't connect directly to any of the town's tunnels – again, something that did not make sense.

"Tech?" Hunter said.

Tech narrowed his eyes, his train of thought drowning out whatever response he'd intended to make.

If there were no tunnels leading out of the city, and the cave roof had been undamaged when Lothal was built, then that meant that the only remaining way in or out of the cave system was the river itself. And, given that the shallowest areas of the river, directly near the cave walls – assuming those walls were undamaged – were an average of two meters in depth, then that meant that the citizens' way in and out of the city was the river, and that the river . . . had to have been empty.

"Tech," Hunter said, a little more demandingly this time. The rest of the team was watching him, Vythia and Wrecker curiously, and Quinlan and Hunter and Crosshair looking concerned.

Tech hummed impatiently and continued in his current line of reasoning. If the river was so continuously empty that the citizens of Lothal were assured of a way in and out of the city; and if the tunnel and the chasm really were to deal with flooding, then that meant that the floods that did come were infrequent – perhaps seasonal – fast enough that they overflowed the riverbed's capacity, and yet over quickly enough that the tunnels and chasm were ample protection against them.

"Tech!"

Tech didn't look up from his datapad, as he was busy rapidly accessing the Marauder's systems. Sensors – calibrate for meteorological data – input – transfer . . . Tech stared at the crawling red storm that was building high over their heads. Worse than that, though, was the heavy precipitation which was already falling, some miles upstream; and which, from the looks of it, had been falling for some hours. And even worse than that was the topographical overlay which he'd added instinctively to the display commands.

"TECH!" Hunter shouted, right next to his ear.

Turning to face him, Tech held out his datapad. "Flash floods," he said blankly. "This area of Malachor is – Lothal is very nearly the lowest point on the entire continent, and we are directly downstream from a massive rainstorm."