A Beginning (Quest for Ashla part 1)

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Mariella's ship exited hyperspace above Ossus as it neared the gravity well of Nerit. She had outright slept on the way to the planet, having been tired after her debate in the temple. Though her sleep had been plagued with dark dreams, she awoke rested at the prompting of her R-5 droid. Apparently a scan of the planet showed a caustic atmosphere.

As R-5 figured the details of landing at or near the old Jedi Academy, Mariella slipped out of her robes and into the standard atmospheric suit found under the seat of the ship. Her hand instinctively reached to make sure that her lightsaber was on her belt before she remembered that she had just destroyed it. Sighing heavily, she assumed the controls and followed the path that R-5 had charted.

Entry went easily, and soon the young Knight was on her way towards the location of the Jedi Academy and the library that she was searching for. Ossus was not particularly large, so it took only a few hours from exiting hyperspace to arrive at the temple. Mariella was not entirely surprised when she found that it looked deserted. Putting her ship down in the courtyard, she opened the cockpit and leapt out, immediately on her guard as she sensed something strange here.

Mariella felt unnatural in her hazard suit, and moved quickly to the door of the academy, with R-5 at her side, hoping that scans of the interior would reveal a breathable atmosphere.

"R-5, is it safe for me to breath in here?"

The droid responded in the negative. Mariella's first task would be to find and reactivate the air-scrubbers. Slowly and cautiously she headed toward the basement. Even though she did not sense any form of life around her, there was a definite menace to the Academy.

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Moving through the stillness with nothing but the sound of R-5's wheels in her ears, Mariella made her way to the basement of the compound, simply taking the first staircase down that she found. Having tried the elevator, Mariella noticed that the power in the entire installation was out. As she went deeper underground, the natural light that had filtered through the windows began to disappear, and she was forced to navigate with her force-enhanced senses while levitating R-5 down the stairs.

The going was slow, but then again she was in no hurry. To her it seemed as though she was the only life on the planet. The silence and stillness were more disturbing than any calm that she had ever felt, and she knew that it was not peace, but deadness that she was feeling.

Mariella was relieved as she reached the basement floor that most likely held the generator. Placing the droid down, Mariella instructed it to turn on its flashlight. As it obeyed, Mariella immediately wished that she had stayed in the dark. Littering the floor of the basement were at least a dozen skeletal figures, each wearing the traditional robes of a Jedi. Something terrible had happened here. Due to the harsh atmosphere the bodies were stripped to the bone, and Mariella was unable to tell how long the people here had been dead.

Resisting her urge to retch, Mariella proceeded cautiously, reaching the generator. After a few moments and a bit of help from her astromech droid, the young Knight activated the machine. After a few loud clangs a whirring sound came and the lights burst to life. Mariella breathed a relieved sigh.

"R-5, tell me as soon as it's safe to breathe."

The droid answered in the affirmative and Mariella looked around, taking in the scene with new eyes. Many of the bodies were dismembered, and her sharp eyes immediately picked out the work of a skilled lightsaber. The force granted her no more insight. Steeling herself for whatever else she might discover, Mariella took found the elevator and rode it back up to the main floor, which most likely held the library and archives that had become famous. It did pass through her mind that if the sword she sought were here that she might feel it, but then again there was just as strong a chance that it was nothing more than ordinary metal.

Pushing the distraction from her mind, Mariella navigated through the academy. She was nearly devastated by what she found. It seemed that in nearly every other room or hallway there was a body, mauled by a lightsaber. Here a youngling, there a body in the robes of a Master. Countless rooms and countless bodies, and yet the force would not tell here any of what had happened here.

After about an hour of exploring, Mariella more ghosted than walked, as though disembodied by the horror around her. A place so horrible that it seemed as though the force itself would not touch it. As Mariella entered the Rotunda of the archives, she shuddered and yelped as something did touch her.

Calling out to her from a corner of the room was something so familiar that she immediately recognized it. She had grown up seeing it, and nearly wept to find it here. Lying neatly against the foot of one of the shelves was a lightsaber. Garrus Cailan's lightsaber. Moving slowly to it and kneeling down, Mariella examined it without touching it. She dared not cast her eyes around to find its owner, though she knew that this chamber was his final resting place.

"Garrus..."

With a sigh to center herself, she reached down for the weapon, and it leapt to her hand. Instantly, Mariella's mind was flooded with bright and fast-moving visions. The life of the lightsaber's owner, it seemed. Finally, the vision settled on the library. Two men standing twenty feet away from each other. Garrus Cailan and an unknown man.

Garrus seemed a different man than the knight that Mariella had known in life. He still seemed strong and confident, but he had a weariness to him. It was apparent that life had taken its toll on him. The other man, in contrast, stood as the picture of vigor. He paced back and forth, red lightsaber in hand, and Mariella knew it to be the weapon that had taken so many lives here. Garrus' lightsaber flashed to life, the blue blade bright against the darkness that was drawing in around the vision. The duel was short. Garrus was disarmed and ended quickly.

The large man who had killed Garrus moved to the center of the room, placing a strange triangular object on the main computer of the library. Mariella recognized it as a holocron. As the man turned to leave, the insignia on his chest became visible. The Sith Academy at Korriban.

Mariella was brought from the vision by R-5's beeps and boops, indicating that the air-scrubbers had created an environment tolerable for breathing. Removing her helmet, Mariella clipped her old friend's lightsaber to her belt, turning to behold his body with tears in her eyes.

"R-5...I need you to get to work on removing the hard-drives from this library. Take all the time you need. I have other work to do."

R-5 answered in the affirmative, and Mariella also set to work. In her exploration of the temple she had come across a large kiln, most likely for the creation of lightsaber casings. Carefully lifting Garrus' body, she carried it there, placing it inside of the furnace. For the next few hours she repeated this process. 59 Jedi killed here, casualties of some unknown war. Turning the kiln into an impromptu crematorium, Mariella gave their remains the respect that they deserved.

Mariella returned to the library as night was falling to find that R-5 had been able to isolate 6 drives that contained the information of this library. She gathered them in a discarded cloak and placed her helmet back on her head. Still in the company of the unending silence, Mariella returned to her ship, taking off. She was unable to completely leave behind the pain that she had found on Ossus.

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"R-5...scans show substantial signs of life on that moon...Nerit. Find anything resembling civilization and put us down there."

The droid confirmed the order, and Mariella sat back. She was exhausted from her labors in the great library. Moving all of those bodies had taken considerable aid from the force, and now that its power did not flow through her so strongly fatigue began to set in. However, despite how tired she was, she had not dared stop to meditate or sleep in the stillness of Ossus, lest it creep into her and take hold.

Mariella opened her eyes at R-5's urging as her ship was landing in a small clearing. The droid indicated that the nearest signs of sentient life--buildings, etc.--could be found about three kilometers to the north. Thanking the droid, Mariella slipped from the cockpit and onto the furtile ground. This place stood in stark contrast to Ossus, and she removed her helmet, throwing it back into her seat. Nerit pulsed with life; life that Mariella could feel all around her, watching.

Proceeding carefully, the Knight began north, entering the tree-line. She held Garrus' lightsaber close to her chest, as her master had taught her to do. Though the brush was thick, it was not so thick as to make her progress very slow. She used the force to leap over the most treacherous obstacles. In the force, Mariella could sense that she was coming towards a village of some sort. The force was very strong here.

Her eyes hurt. They were moving too quickly. She could feel them. Her insides churned, and her blood dragged along inside of her arteries with every pulse of her heart. Muscles tensed and relaxed as tendons pulled and released them. The motion inside of her own head became dizzying. Mariella staggered and fell over, unable to catch herself and hitting the ground heavily. She tried to scramble to her feet, but her sense of balance was so far off that she could not. Releasing the contents of her stomach onto the ground, Mariella keeled to the side and passed out.

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Voices. There was nothing but voices. Voices and darkness.

Slowly, Mariella began to pull herself back towards consciousness. As she did so, the dizzy feeling that she had felt began to recede. The edges of her vision were blurred, but she could see that she was moving. Whatever was carrying her bobbed up and down slowly and was rather rough. In time she became conscious enough to realize that she was slung over somebody's shoulder, and her hands and feet were bound.

Mariella cast her eyes around groggily and took in what little she could see. The man...or rather, being...that carried her led the formation of three, while two others came behind, staying a few steps back. The group was actually moving rather quickly. One of them spoke in a language that she could not understand, but she could tell from his startled tone that he was speaking about her. Either the fact that she was conscious, or the fact that she was staring.

The young Knight could not pull her green eyes away. She had heard of the Neti people before, and known of Jedi Master Ood Bnar, but she had never actually seen them. They were something of a legend. Nearly myth after such a long time between sightings. Before she could speak or take action, Mariella felt the Neti carrying her stop. Quite unceremoniously, he dropped her from his shoulder and into the grass of the clearing that they had entered.

Her hands were behind her back, and her mind could just make out the presence of Garrus' lightsaber in the possession of the Neti who had spoken upon her awakening. Mariella looked around and saw that the men had all but disappeared, leaving her in front of a large tree. She tried to struggle to her feet, but she was bound at the knees and ankles by a thick vine-like plant. She was distracted from her struggle when a voice spoke to her in basic from somewhere very nearby.

"Don't fight...my brothers say that you recovered quickly...Tell me, are you a Jedi or a Sith? You carry a lightsaber. You were down on the larger planet."

The voice was calm and wise, and Mariella searched for it with her mind before beginning to feel dizzy again.

"Do not try to muster your senses...It will not end well for you."

Slumping to the ground and recovering for a few moments, Mariella looked around, still unable to deduce where the voice was coming from.

"I am a Jedi. I am of peace...have you drugged me? With gas, or a dart?"

Finally giving up, Mariella stayed on her side, trying her best to keep alert without reaching for the force, as she knew that the dizzy feeling stood between her and her better senses.

"If you are a friend as you say you are, all will be explained in time. Tell me...what were you doing on Ossus?"

The voice stayed level, but its distrust was unmistakable. Mariella chose to proceed cautiously.

"I am on a quest from the Jedi Temple on Ilum. I seek the sword Ashla. The Great Library at Ossus is one of the greatest sources of Jedi knowledge. I found the temple ruined and many Jedi slaughtered there, and I wondered if there would be any answer as to what had happened there on Nerit."

The Jedi spoke the complete truth, and was rather uncomfortable in the silence that followed. Finally, the voice spoke again.

"We feel truth in your words, Jedi...please, rise."

From an unknown location, branchy fingers reached out and untied the knots behind Mariella's back, ankles, and knees, setting her free. She rose slowly to her feet, also slowly bringing her mind back to the force. Feeling none of the resistance she had felt before, she delved in and was amazed at what she found.

The forest around her was absolutely bursting with the force, as though every tree were impregnated with it. She felt minds lurking in the tree-line, and her friend's lightsaber out there too. Most surprisingly, she felt a mind in the great tree in front of her, and realized that the voice had been emanating from it.

"I'm not dizzy anymore...what was that?"

"A technique within the force. Our guards used your own awareness and equilibrium against you, bringing every motion of your body into your mind. We apologize, but it was the only way to apprehend you without harming you. We could not take the risk of you being another Sith."

"Another Sith? The Sith from down there came for you?"

"The first...the one you know as Exar Kun...ignored us. The second visited, seeking more secrets--more knowledge--and killed several of our warriors."

"So, do you know exactly what he was after? I learned that he retrieved the information from the library. Do you know where the sword may have been taken?"

The voice was silent for a long while before answering.

"We know not what spurs the violence of the Sith. If there was a sword, it was gone before the arrival of the Dark Lord on Ossus, long ago when Master Bnar made his legendary sacrifice."

Mariella thought of the implications of that. If the sword had been with Exar Kun on Yavin, wouldn't Master Jeth have found it long ago? Perhaps he had not known what to look for.

"I am tired, and still quite weak from your arrest. Might I take shelter here for a day or two?"

More silence, and then something amazing. The tree began to shift and shrink before Mariella's eyes until it became a nearly humanoid form. The voice was now clearer and more direct.

"Yes, Jedi...you will meditate with us, and you will learn our ways, and when the time comes for you to leave we will ask only two things of you."

The old tree began walking towards the tree-line, but Mariella hesitated. He did not seem to notice. As a Jedi, she was very wary of making promises that she would be unable to keep.

"What would you ask of me?"

"We ask that you reveal our existence to none but the Jedi council, and that you take a child of ours with you to the temple."

"I...I promise, and I would be honored."

The tree sighed as he entered the forest and it seemed to part for him. Mariella realized that many of the trees were not trees at all, but other Neti who had gathered to watch. Each of them radiated with force-energy. The elder Neti then sat in place and extended his 'hand' to where Mariella was to rest.

"Please, return her belongings."

Seemingly from the forest itself, Mariella was handed her cloak and Garrus' lightsaber. She sat down beside the Elder.

"Meditate with me. Breathe as I breathe, and feel as I feel. You will feel yourself slipping away, but all will be well. You will awake when the time is right. Trust in the force."

Mariella did as she was told, and slipped into a deep trance.

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Mariella awoke two days later in slack-jawed wonder at what she had experienced. With eyes as green as the forest surrounding her, she saw the forest itself in a new light. Her mind and body were invigorated, and each motion of the world around her seemed more decisive, as though she had herself made it before.

When Mariella had opened her mind, the Elder Tree had entered, binding her mind to his, and to the next Neti and so forth. For two days they had communed in the same mind, sharing thought, peace, and the force. Now they awoke, as if from a pleasant dream, to a still morning.

"That was amazing...thank you."

The Elder Tree nodded. As he had promised, during the melding of minds and the hibernation trance Mariella had learned the histories and traditions of the Neti people. Their force traditions were simple, and not far divergent from much of the Jedi philosophy. The young Knight understood them on a much deeper level now. She had been one of them for the past two days. She had been all of them.

"The voice that you call the force told me to share our gifts with you, Mariella Map. I have kept my promise to you, and it is now time that honor your promise to me. Take one of our younglings, orphaned by the Sith. Present him to the Jedi."

Standing and bowing, Mariella reached out with her mind, easily feeling the Elder Tree's and which young Neti he was indicating. The child was scarcely a few years younger than Mariella, but still nearly an infant for the Neti. His name was Sdon.

"I will honor my promise. My path leads back to Ilum to deliver the knowledge of the Great Library. Sdon will be a Jedi."

The rest was said without words. The child moved to Mariella's side with a juvenile curiosity. Having already melded minds with him, Mariella felt as though she knew him better than she knew most other Jedi.

"Then it is with gratitude that I tell you it is not time that you took your leave of us, Mariella. Remember what we have taught you, and keep it alive in you that you may some day keep it alive in Sdon. As you Jedi say, may the force be with you."

"May the force be with you as well, Elder."

Bowing and laying a hand on Sdon's shoulder, Mariella led him towards her ship. The other Neti followed, singing a song that sounded deeply in Mariella's chest, as though she had heard it a thousand times before. It was with this feeling that she entered her cockpit, levitating R-5 into place. Sdon, using the curious abilities of the Neti, shrank down and placed himself in the Knight's lap. With one last wave, and knowing that it would be a long while before she returned if she ever did, Mariella took off, slipping into hyperspace and headed towards Ilum.