Tech landed the Marauder behind the Phoenix, within twenty meters of the academy's main entrance, and powered down the engines. Given the likelihood of there being stormbeasts or other alchemically altered monsters nearby, he took the precaution of setting proximity alerts and linking them directly to his datapad. Not that he had a particularly good idea yet when it came to keeping the monsters away from the ship. Until a situation occurred, he could not theorize as to the best response.

After a moment's thought, Tech brought the forward cannons online and locked them into position. He could not control their movement from his datapad – another thing to add to the list of repairs and upgrades he wanted to work on – but he could fire them if the need arose. Having secured the Marauder as best he could, Tech hopped up and hurried into the cargo hold to join the others. They appeared to be rechecking everything they'd already checked, but there wasn't much else to do while they waited for Vythia to comm, or to emerge from her own ship.

Quinlan was seated on a crate, repeatedly activating and deactivating his own lightsaber. Hunter eyed him questioningly, then went to join Wrecker at the ammunition crate.

The Jedi stopped fiddling with his lightsaber. He slipped it into his pack, which was much less bulky than those the commandos carried, then straightened and stood with his arms at his sides for a moment. With a quick movement, he snatched his lightsaber from the pack and ignited it, swung it into position, then shut it off and replaced it. In response to Tech's glance, Quinlan said, "I'm testing it."

"The – lightsaber?" Tech tilted his head, confused.

"No. I'm just making sure I can grab it fast enough if I end up needing it."

Hunter looked up from where he was reassembling his blaster rifle. "I could always let you carry the one I've got . . ."

"No, that's okay." The Jedi stretched and twisted, popping his spine. "There's no reason to make Vythia even more suspicious – but believe me, if the need arises, I'll have no problem snatching it from you."

"Okay." Hunter turned to the others. "Make sure you grabbed anything you'll need. We might return here in between searches – or we might not leave the academy until we've found whatever Vythia's after."

"Yeah." Wrecker sheathed his vibroblade. "Whatever that ends up being. I wonder what she thinks she'll find here. . . So far, she's got a mask and a scepter and a piece of a double-bladed axe."

"And a ceremonial dagger," Tech reminded him, examining his dual pistols. "If the results of my research are correct, that is. Even the dagger she carries with her may technically count as a Dark Side artifact, considering that it most likely belonged to a Sith."

"Well . . . yeah, technically I guess it could," said Quinlan. "But the dagger she carries around doesn't have a presence in the Force the same way as the other knife does. Neither does that whip."

"Wait." Crosshair, who had been sitting on a crate in one corner and checking every centimeter of his sniper rifle, hopped down and straightened. "A Dark Side artifact is simply something that belonged to a Sith?"

"Technically," said Quinlan and Tech together.

They exchanged faint smirks, and Hunter rolled his eyes.

Crosshair stood with his head tilted to one side, then said, "If Vythia wants artifacts so much, why didn't she get more items from Lothal? She didn't have us check any of the houses."

Quinlan's momentary humor vanished as he answered. "Because Vythia doesn't want just any artifacts. She wants only those with a significant Force presence. At least, that's what I've gathered from what she's gone after so far."

"And the scepter?" said Crosshair, slinging his rifle over one shoulder. "It isn't valuable that way."

"No . . . But it's also the one she said the Prince specifically wanted, because he was sure it was there." Quinlan raised an eyebrow. "We know she's not telling us everything, and I think she's got some personal goal beyond finding things to bring back to the Prince."

Hunter nodded. "Maybe she plans on giving him the worthless ones and selling the others behind his back."

"It would not surprise me if that were the case," Tech said, strapping on two extra power packs for his weapons. "She may have a much better idea of their monetary value than the Prince himself does."

"I don't think it's the money . . ." Quinlan slid his knife into its sheath and shook his head. "She said something to me when I met her that gave me the impression that money just isn't that important to her, but . . ." He trailed off, frowning, and wandered over to stand near the wall while the others remained silent.

Tech checked the Phoenix, which still had its door sealed, and opened the Marauder's door. "The air quality is sufficiently high, even without helmets," he reported, watching his datapad carefully. "There are trace amounts of dioxis, but nowhere near enough to cause trouble unless we decide to stand outside without protection for ten hours."

"How . . . specific of you," said Quinlan, joining him. He stared out at the front of the academy. "Of course, the main door is open. That might cause problems for us if we have to stay in there for ten hours."

"I suspect not," Tech replied. He pulled up the general schematics his scanners had generated and pointed to the frontmost edge. "The main doorway leads into a hall, and all of that air will, of course, be contaminated. However, dioxis is quite dense in composition, and unless it is acted upon by an outside force, it will accumulate below a height of two meters – which is why it is even visible above the vents. The moment we enter the second floor, the air quality should improve."

They went back to observing the academy. Tech glanced again at his schematics, hummed curiously, and pulled out his flashlight, which he shone on the front wall. The small beam of light did not illuminate the dark area well, but it was enough to affirm that there was not one main door, but nine. Only the centermost was open, though.

The map on his datapad, which was generating new images as the scans continued, showed eight other doors like this, evenly spaced across the front of the academy that was visible – the area covered by the bases of the curved pillars had no doors.

"Nine doors," Quinlan muttered, glancing over his shoulder. "And they're huge."

"Why are they so big?" Hunter asked from behind him.

"Perhaps to allow many people to enter or leave all at once," Tech said uncertainly, glancing up at the height of the academy again. "Or to allow something extremely large to enter or leave – though what could be large enough to warrant such a door while still fitting in the academy is beyond me at the moment."

"Let's hope it stays beyond you," said Hunter wryly. "How big are the doors, anyway?"

"Approximately twelve meters across and eight in height."

"And how big are the hallways?"

"Those leading from the doors are twelve point five meters across and eight point five meters in height . . ." Tech glanced up at Wrecker's bored sigh. "And the academy is twenty-four hundred meters in either direction."

"What about the height?" asked Crosshair.

"Twenty-one hundred meters. It would be higher if it did not have a flattened top."

"In other words," Quinlan said in a dull voice. "This thing is over a mile high."

"Yeah." Hunter frowned. "And about a mile and a half in either direction."

Crosshair stepped out onto the boarding ramp and looked both ways. Finally, he folded his arms and said, "Well. Finding this artifact is going to take a while."

"No kidding," said Hunter. "Quinlan, anything we need to know?"

"Probably." The Jedi stared at the building with dark eyes and reached for something in his tunic pocket. "But it's not like I can tell you anything, because I don't know anything. Not about this place."

Tech blinked at him, concerned by the tension in his voice. Before he could speak, though, the Phoenix's boarding ramp lowered and Vythia jumped lightly down.

As she locked her ship, Quinlan leaned back to mutter to Hunter. "We need to ask her if she knows anything before we even try entering."

"Got it." Hunter kept his voice low. "Want me to question her?"

"Yeah."

"Okay." Hunter gestured for Tech to seal the Marauder and moved to meet Vythia, halfway between the ships. The others followed him, Quinlan trailing in the back.

Tech retracted the boarding ramp and locked the doors, then hurried across the stony ground to the rest of the team.

"Vythia," Hunter was saying. "You know anything at all about this place?"

The Nautolan woman smiled and rested her right hand on her hip, then waved her left hand towards the academy. "As far as recorded history is concerned, Trayus is the single most renowned Sith academy in the entire galaxy. More artifacts were made here than anywhere else on Malachor – more discoveries were made, more alchemical secrets revealed . . . And, from within a year of its founding, there was not a single Sith of noble blood who did not study here."

"What about Adas Academy, then?" Tech asked curiously.

She tilted her head at him. "There were other academies, but for the most part only those less powerful in the Force – or less wealthy – attended them."

"Hmm." Hunter turned to face the main door. "Given what we found in Adas, I do not want to just walk into Trayus."

"Me either," Wrecker added fervently.

Vythia raised a mocking eyebrow. "Why, what do you expect to find? More stormbeasts? You handled those well enough."

"More stormbeasts are the least of my concerns," Hunter said firmly. "You said there were a lot of alchemical secrets revealed here. What's to say there aren't other, more dangerous, creatures wandering around inside?"

"Nothing, I suppose."

"Do you even have a map for this place?"

She shook her head. "I have only a general idea of the layout based on what scans I got as we landed."

"Same here." Hunter drummed the fingers of one hand against his greaves. "Okay, then what are we looking for?"

"Nothing as specific as in Adas," she said. "Trayus housed thousands of Sith, many of whom were occupied with making powerful amulets and weapons at the time of the Scourge."

Tech glanced up. "I thought the Jedi had captured Trayus before the activation of the superweapon."

"They had, but they pushed forward instead of bothering to hold it. It was several days later that Darth Tanis activated the superweapon. Many of the Sith who had scattered during the battle gathered back at the academy."

Wrecker squinted. "How do you know that?"

"There were some records." She touched the black and gold hilt of her dagger. "This dagger came from Trayus. I bought it from some fool of a bounty hunter who tried to loot the academy, but made it through only a few of the common rooms before fleeing in terror."

"Why?" asked Quinlan.

"He was a student of the Sith language, but a poor one." Vythia drew the dagger and held it towards them, pointing at a faintly etched rune on the silver blade. "This rune signifies death. It is a rune placed on most Sith weapons. But he thought he had brought down a curse on himself . . . especially after seeing a large number of people who had become statues."

Tech fixed the rune in his mind and thought that marking a weapon meant for killing with the symbol for death seemed rather arbitrary.

"Why didn't he get rid of it?" Crosshair asked.

She shrugged and sheathed the dagger. "He had some idea that selling or giving it to someone else would transfer the curse. The man was a coward. Nevertheless, the items he gathered even in those few rooms . . ."

Hunter nodded. "You think we could keep to the first few levels and still pick up a lot of valuables?"

"Assuredly." Her black eyes gleamed as she looked at the open door. "But I see no reason to keep to the lowest levels."

"I do," said Wrecker, with obvious trepidation. "That building's high."

Vythia smirked a bit. "We will be inside. As long as we are here, I would like to explore as much of the academy as possible."

With a quick smile that encompassed all of them, she turned and headed for the main entrance.

Hunter followed at the back of the group, allowing the sound of the others' footsteps to guide him as he focused his senses on his surroundings.

A gentle gust of wind whistled almost inaudibly between the curved pillars and the academy walls. The cool smell of rain-washed stone all but drowned out the underlying tang of dioxis, bitter as it was. There was no warning sensation nearby – the six of them seemed to be the only living beings in the entire sector.

Coming to a halt beside Wrecker, the sergeant stared up at the front of the academy, which loomed into the dusky sky. The sides were polished, looking almost metallic as they reflected faint gleams of green light from the field of dioxis vents to the south. The centermost door stood wide open – in fact, the door itself was nowhere in sight. Hunter squinted, trying to discern whether it had retracted into the ceiling or the floor, or whether it had just fallen inward.

Crosshair gestured with his rifle before he could reach a conclusion. "Looks like the door got blasted."

"Yes." Tech trotted up to the edge of the doorway and peered in. "This debris appears to be the remnants of what used to be a door."

"Handy for us," Wrecker commented. "At least we don't have to bust it ourselves."

"Hmmm." Vythia wandered through the entrance and peered around, then up. "I believe there are lanterns here."

"What kind?" Tech joined her, adjusting his goggles, and looked up at the lantern on the wall. "They do not appear to have a power source."

"Oh, yes, they have a power source." She stood on her toes and reached to adjust something. A greenish flame flickered to life inside the metal framework. It was bright, but the light it cast barely reached from wall to wall, and it became even more obvious just how vast the hall was.

"How did you do that?" Crosshair asked guardedly.

She pointed. "These are a common design. The crystal at the base needs to be pushed inward."

"Want us to light up the whole place?" Hunter asked, keeping his focus on the dark hall beyond.

"We may as well. Activating them will keep us from having to use our own lanterns, and from being caught off-guard, should something attack."

"Right . . ." Hunter gestured to Wrecker and Crosshair and pointed them to either side of the corridor.

As they clambered over the large chunks of stone that had once been a door, Hunter took the center and moved forward, Tech and Quinlan on his heels. Their boots crunched lightly on the sand and ash that coated the smooth floor. Green-tinged light flared to the right and left as the others located and activated the lanterns that hung every ten meters or so.

"Why green?" Quinlan grumbled softly.

Vythia, who was drawing ahead of the others, didn't seem to hear him.

Hunter shot him a curious glance. "Why the green light, you mean?"

"Yeah." The Jedi frowned. "Why green? Why not good old ordinary white, or yellow, or even orange? Seriously, Hunter – have we seen one normal thing in any of the Sith buildings we've visited?"

"Maybe it was normal for them," Hunter suggested.

Crosshair, who had just activated another of the lanterns, gave his head an irritated shake. Even with his helmet on, the odd hue of light was probably throwing him off.

"Normal," repeated Quinlan, with an absent-minded scoff. "Right. Like hanging skulls on the walls, and making weird statues that throw other statues, and mutating animals into monsters?"

". . . Yeah. Like that."

"Ugh." The Jedi actually shivered and wrapped his arms around himself, glancing uneasily around. "This place is –"

Hunter shot him a warning look, which probably wasn't visible due to his helmet, and gestured at Vythia, who had one hand on the edge of a narrow doorway.

Quinlan fell silent and straightened with a grimace.

"Is what?" Tech appeared beside him suddenly. "Negative . . . fifteen now?"

Both Hunter and Quinlan blinked at him for a moment, but then the Jedi's expression cleared. "Oh! Yeah, I forgot, I was gonna tell you to take off five points for that temple in Lothal."

"Five points?" Tech asked, sounding surprised. "Was it really that bad?"

"Yes," Crosshair answered from up ahead. "Add to that the chasm and those tunnels –"

"– and the vault," interrupted Hunter.

"And don't forget those four-armed statues!" Wrecker added loudly.

Vythia turned back to face them, looking amused. "Or the flood."

"Hm." Tech tilted his head, then pulled out his datapad. "Five for the temple, two for the vault, two for the statues, and one each for the chasm and the tunnels and the flood?"

"Yeah," said Hunter. "That sounds about right."

"That brings Malachor's rating to negative twenty-six. And that is not counting anything we have run into here."

Vythia, who was continuing down the hall, shot him a brief smile. "Perhaps you should just make it an even negative thirty. Between the dioxis and this difficult lighting and the general atmosphere –"

"Ah. Good idea." Tech made the adjustment and replaced his datapad, then flipped open his vambrace screen briefly. "I am compiling a map as we go. We have passed several large rooms so far."

"I know." Vythia paused near Wrecker as he activated another lantern, then peered ahead. "But those rooms are so close to the entrance – they are most likely common areas, or perhaps group meditation rooms."

"And what is it we're looking for?" Hunter asked.

She headed forward again, glancing to either side as she went. "Living quarters, laboratories – perhaps even tombs or shrines."

". . . Shrines?" Hunter asked warily. "As in, temples?"

"Similar, yes. Statues of the most accomplished Sith were frequently placed in academies as areas of recollection and meditation for the students. I see no reason why Trayus would be any different."

Crosshair, who had made his way to the front by now, turned to the others. "There's another hall here."

The rest of them caught up to him. The corridor continued in a straight line, but was bisected by a narrower hallway that ran west and east.

"There are a good many doors in this hallway," Tech said, shining his flashlight in either direction.

"Much smaller doors," noted Hunter. "You think these are living quarters?"

"Most likely." Vythia shot Quinlan an enigmatic glance. "Do you feel the presence of any artifacts?"

"Just your – crystal," he said hesitantly. "I thought you said that bounty hunter only looked through a few rooms."

"He did." She shrugged one shoulder. "I do not expect you to feel or sense most artifacts, though. Many of them – like the dagger I carry – are not powerful enough to be felt by a mere psychometric."

". . . Right."

"We will briefly check the rooms in this side of the hall," she decided. "Then, if there is nothing, we can move further into the academy before trying again. It is quite possible that all those who lived in the lowest quarters were the least important."

"What, like a literal hierarchy?" Quinlan said.

"Precisely." She turned the rusted handle of the first door and swung it cautiously inward. "This will go much more quickly if each of you takes a room . . . Just be careful."

Quinlan glanced at Hunter and nodded, and the sergeant signaled to his squad. "Go in order," he said. "Check the room you're in and the one directly opposite. If you see something that looks like an artifact, do not go inside without notifying us."

"Got it," said Wrecker, already opening the door next to Vythia's. He shone his flashlight inside, then shrugged. "Nothin' here but dust."

Good, thought Hunter, then raised a mental eyebrow at himself, because not finding anything wasn't necessarily good. If they were able to locate artifacts quickly, Vythia might be satisfied and agree to leave before having explored the entire academy. On the other hand, Hunter couldn't help but remember what Quinlan had told him about Sith artifacts being like direct attacks on his mental shields. All they needed was for him to get overwhelmed by the Dark Side and give himself away, or be unable to act should something happen.

Hunter checked the room to his left quickly, then moved to the room opposite. There was really nothing to do but to keep moving, and hope that at least they could return to the Marauder for the night.

"Nothing," he reported.

"Same here," Quinlan said.

None of the others had found anything, either, so they moved on to the next set of twelve doors, and then the next. And then the next. And the next.

Strangely, Hunter found himself losing patience by the eighth set. It took no more than a few seconds to check each room, but something about the anticipation of opening a door, only to find nothing but an empty room identical to the last, was starting to grate on his nerves.

If Wrecker's muttering and the way he was starting to slam doors was anything to go by, he felt the same way, but Hunter expected that from Wrecker – not from himself, not for this reason. Sure, he lost his patience frequently enough . . . but not over something as little as a slow start to a mission.

Hunter opened the seventeenth door and stared into the room. Empty. He jerked the door shut with a bang and turned. "Vythia, I'm pretty sure this hall is a waste of time."

She released the handle of her own door and gave him a nod. "Yes, I suspect you are right. Let us move on."

Two hours later, the team trudged down another hallway towards the center of the academy's first floor. They had not found a single artifact – then again, they'd only checked about three hundred of the small rooms, and left many, many more behind with their doors unopened. Hunter was thankful that the lanterns in all the hallways so far, with the exception of those in the main hallway, were a normal white. Even Sith must have been unable to function well with only emerald-tinged light to see by.

No one had spoken for nearly ten minutes. The fruitless search and unending blank grey of the stone hallways had dampened even Wrecker's spirits. Despite the rest they had gotten during the flight here, Hunter's teammates were dragging. No one else would have noticed it, maybe, but Hunter did.

Wrecker still moved steadily, but not with the energy he'd shown earlier. Tech had stopped glancing right and left every few seconds, and now looked mostly at his datapad or his wrist consol. He only looked up when they passed a new corridor, or when his lack of attention towards his surroundings made him walk into one of the others – usually Wrecker, since Tech was following him.

Crosshair wandered along after Vythia. He seemed alert, for the most part, though he didn't hold himself as upright as he usually did. Quinlan . . . Quinlan was keeping up with the sniper – barely – but he kept his eyes mostly on the ground, and his left hand moved constantly, clenching and unclenching. This place seemed to be wearing on all of them, and they'd only been here a few hours.

Hunter's wandering gaze landed on an open doorway, and he moved over to glance inside. Simple stone benches lined three walls, facing a crumbling mound of pulverized white rock. "Vythia," he said, his voice sounding loud after the silence. "Is this one of those statue meditation rooms you were talking about?"

She was at his elbow in an instant, peering past him. One of her black eyebrows lifted with mild intrigue. "I expect it was, before some zealous Jedi blasted the statue into rubble."

"Think it's worth sorting through?" Hunter gestured to the debris.

Vythia shook her head. "No. I am beginning to think that when the Jedi captured Trayus, they swept right through the entire first floor and destroyed all that they could."

"Which is why we're headed to the center?"

"Correct. It is the best place to search for stairways." She moved smoothly back to the front of the group.

Within two minutes, they had returned to the main corridor and Wrecker and Vythia went back to activating the green lights as they came to them.

Hunter resisted the impulse to shake his head in irritation at the strangely colored flames. Crosshair did not.

"We are approaching the center," Tech announced suddenly, and flipped his vambrace screen closed. "It is . . . quite large."

Crosshair stopped and flipped his rangefinder down over his visor. He said nothing for a long moment, then let out a quiet huff. "That's one way to put it."

Wrecker and Vythia, who had reached the barely visible entrance, lit the final two lanterns at the same moment. Instantly, a burst of white light flared up in the room beyond them, and the center of the academy appeared.

Hunter moved up next to Tech as he stared. The massive rectangular pillar in the exact center of the room had what appeared to be white flames running up its sides and into the ceiling, providing illumination nearly as bright as that of daylight – daylight on a habitable planet, not Malachor.

Tech's fingers tightened on his datapad. "That has no recognizable power source, either," he said softly. "How can it produce light?"

"I wish I knew, Tech." Vythia looked fascinated. "Most things here were fashioned or altered by powerful Sith, but their secrets – even those that they taught to others – have been lost to time."

Hunter stepped into the room. Staircases on all four sides disappeared through the ceiling, which was fully twice as high as that of the corridors so far. A grey statue, six meters in height, adorned each corner of the room. All four were identical, each wearing a hooded robe that hid their figures entirely as they knelt, facing the central pillar. Nothing about their features could be seen, either – their hands were clasped over their lowered faces as though in terror or awe.

Something about the sheer size of the bowing figures seemed almost to demand absolute silence. Hunter followed his teammates and Vythia as they approached the central pillar, then hesitated uncertainly.

Wrecker glanced at each of the four stairways, tapped Vythia on the shoulder, and whispered, "Which one?"

Vythia's black eyes shone so fiercely in the light from the pillar that Hunter almost expected her voice to be sharp, but it was perfectly normal when she spoke. "We will try the northern stairway first."

She led the way with certainty, and the others trailed after her, once again silent.

Tech and Crosshair and Wrecker mounted the stairs after Vythia, who moved quickly upward, without looking back – unlike the other three.

Quinlan, just ahead of Hunter, was about to follow when he stopped short with a faint, shuddering intake of breath. The next instant, he squinted and pressed the fingers of both hands hard against his forehead. "What the –?"

Wrecker glanced back, and Hunter waved for him to continue and cast a worried look up at Vythia, who had not noticed that the other two had fallen behind.

Quinlan wobbled sideways and leaned his elbows against the banister, jamming his fingers even harder against his head. "Augh . . ."

Putting a hand on his shoulder, Hunter jostled him lightly. "Hey, you with me?"

Quinlan groaned again, then gripped the stairway railing in both hands and shoved his forehead against it, gasping. "Wh-what the –"

The sergeant shot another look up the stairs at Vythia, who had just reached the level of the ceiling. "Quinlan," he said, trying to keep his voice low and still speak over the other's panting breaths. "What's wrong?"

The Kiffar's tense fingers went suddenly limp against the banister. He drew in a sharply relieved breath, then let it out slowly. ". . . Ow . . ." he mumbled into his sleeve.

"Quinlan." Hunter gave him another gentle shake to get his attention. "You okay? What was that all about?"

"Sorry. Just – a headache." Quinlan straightened carefully. The skin around his eyes and mouth was pale.

"Just a headache?" Hunter glanced after the others, then prodded him towards the stairway. "Are you sure?"

"Not like a normal headache." The Jedi mounted the stairs, moving normally, while Hunter stayed a couple steps behind, just in case.

"What does that mean?"

"I've never had one that severe before. But anyway, it's mostly gone now."

Hunter eyed him. "And you have no idea what caused it."

"No." As they started to catch up with the others, Quinlan slowed to give Hunter an apologetic smirk, though his eyes were still dark. "Hey, it's probably just a hemorrhage or something."