Despite the encroaching darkness, Nara pressed on, rejuvenated by the awakening that may or may not have been initiated by the spectral presence of the long dead Dark Lord of the Sith. The questions came in a tumultuous rush, but she deliberately destroyed every one of them, having no interest in picking apart any of the details of her enlightenment, because to her, they didn’t matter. Nara mattered now. Zannah had pointed that out, but she, herself, was the one responsible for destroying the veil as Zannah had put it, and despite the bleakness of the reality she had uncovered, she was undeniably at ease with her surroundings. What she knew she would have considered hideous, disgusting or even a blight not days ago was in fact a natural beauty she could not ignore. A result of the freedom she felt coursing through her? Perhaps, she thought, but really, did it matter?
The twin spires crowning the canyon walls stood as beacons in the dying light of Ambria’s sun, the deep red stone spiraling upwards, cresting at their points nearly one hundred meters above their keep like foundations. Whether from some natural secretion within the stone itself or simply an illusion caused by the waning light, they appeared to bleed to Nara’s eyes as she compared the sight to light reflecting off water, the effect not lost on her.
Her attention was drawn to the canyon itself, its entrance an open maw of unnatural darkness. She knew it would be wiser to camp here and trek forth at first daylight, yet she knew she needed to complete this right here and now. Nara had no idea how she knew, only that she did. She had pieced together that whatever the interaction between herself and Zannah meant had everything to do with learning particular lessons in some, yet unknown, order. Instinctively she pulled herself up short of taking the first steps into the inky blackness, not wanting to trade one master for another, even if that master was indeed herself in some charged notion of attaining the skills or knowledge she had come here for in the first place. Nara wanted nothing more than to be solely independent in her thoughts and actions but knew the lessons were the key to achieving just that. She had decided to take the first step forward as she felt Eerie shove her forward with the crown of her head.
Stumbling forward with a scattering of pebbles and loose dirt, Nara regained her footing and spun to scold the Thumper only to find both quickly sprinting in the opposite direction, back toward the lake and her ship. “Right.” Nara exclaimed out loud with a deep sigh. She turned her head to the side toward the feline who had remained at her side, head pointed deeper into the canyon. “So, compassion and courage betray me, yet fear remains.” She rocked her head skyward rolling her eyes as she spun slowly to face the same direction as the cat. “I am going to have to rely on you, I can’t see anything here.” She said to the feline as she brought a hand up to his height and absently patted the long hairs spanning its spine. Placing that hand firmly on his shoulder she felt the even breath and slow heartbeat of the animal and realized it was completely at ease. She closed her eyes slowly and just as slowly drew in the Force, ebbing it from everything unseen around her to flow into her. As before, the influx was at once overwhelming, almost causing her to stumble backward. A comingling of what she felt were eddies of both light and dark energies enveloped her in their combined embrace. The event was as before, her very bones seeping with raw Force energies, but she was ready for it this time and took a moment to describe the effects to herself. She could feel her blood flowing throughout her body, was acutely aware of every muscle within her primed and ready for whatever she needed them to do. Her mind was focused and clear, opening to the possibilities of what lay ahead instead of cowering in the face of the unknown. “Time to let our presence be known...Cat.” She said, opening her eyes and staring forward into the dark once more. “Cat….that won’t do, you’re going to need a name.” She said spreading her hand wide over his soft fur, thoughts of forming attachments at odds with her statement held her pause, a Jedi impulse she supposed, and how odd she found that thought now.
Nara could feel the presence of a multitude of beings before them, hear whispered mutterings between them as well as the sound of metal raking stone. Something else caught her attention, a sound muffled by the rest. Like dry leather scraping over loose stone, the sound was almost unidentifiable, but it was present in all directions, above her, to either side but predominantly forward. She knew she could utilize her abilities to estimate locations, but her vision was all but useless within the unnatural darkness. Nara pulled deeper within the rock and ground at her feet, leeching the Force from every outlet she could identify. Feeling it conflagrate to its breaking point, Nara released it in its entirety in a cone before her. The intense wave she created tore through everything before them, cleaving stone from stone and stripping flesh from bone. Screams of torment and agony ripped through the vast chasm echoing off the high walls combining with the crashing of boulders, resonate metallic clangs and the scampering of powerful legs. The calving of the high canyon walls splintering from their foundations brought Nara to her knees with ear splitting shatters. Unable to visually process the aftermath, she could only imagine the devastation she had unleashed as the carnage continued into the depths of the canyon beyond. As the din began to diminish she could hear a rhythmic orchestra of guttural shouts and pledges in primitive languages. Drumbeats Nara had not expected began echoing their way toward her, the shouts combining to both accentuate the percussion as well as to betray their numbers. The clanging of metal on metal began to add itself to the war song as each participant clashed their crude weapons together. Although she wasn’t afraid, she began to realize this lesson would be anything but simple.
“Annihilation is impressive, but that is the path of the Sith. Do you reclaim allegiance then?” Nara could hear Zannah whisper as her hearing returned to normal. It was indeed her voice, yet Nara could sense a change within it, an echo that hadn’t been there initially.
“I do not.” Nara replied.
“Seeking the quick or easy path can result in an exponentially larger threat in the long run.” Nara heard the echo again, deep and guttural, primal.
“It can yes, but it can also flesh out the sum of your adversaries.” Nara retorted, hearing her own thoughts presented through the gravelly voice of Sidious. She knew the reply sounded stupid and that this lesson had already proven it wrong although the resounding clatter from those before her spoke otherwise. “You are, or were, a Sith yourself Zannah, you know this.” She added, thinking through her strategy.
It was not Zannah at all this time, “the answers you seek lie before you young one. As you’ve learned the truth of yourself this day, you’ve only scratched the surface.” The voice belonged to the echo completely, no trace of the melodic tone Zannah brought to the conversation. Thick with an unidentifiable accent, she had a tough time deciphering the words at first and had to work them through her mind.
Nara understood enough of the message to come to terms with the lesson before her. Whatever it was, or wherever it was, that either Zannah or this other voice, perhaps both, had meant for her to locate was obviously through this canyon. She could not see, even through the Force. She let herself drop to the ground crossing her legs as she pondered her dilemma, feeling her companion at her side seating himself as well. Nara reached a hand absently for the shock of hair at his mane and began patting it softly, hearing but not listening to the clamor of the rhythmic drumbeats and the steady chant echoing off the stone walls. She stroked at the cat’s fur as she found herself slightly swaying to the thumping of the drums, clearing her mind of distraction, and meditating on her focus. Those before her were not advancing, that part she came to understand would be her part to play. She cast her head to the side toward the cat and began to wonder if the cat itself was the key to her progress, the key to this lesson. “Courage and compassion turn away. I am left with fear, but fear remains idle. I am not afraid and can proceed alone but fear will not leave my side. Fear itself is the key.” She spoke through her thoughts, feeling the cat turn its head toward her. It let loose a deep rumbling purr under her touch and forced its head into the palm of her hand. “Fear shows compassion and courage.” She said aloud, understanding why Eerie and Quin had headed in the other direction. “Eerie and Quin.” She said softly to herself. Nara rolled through the names a few more times and thought back to her experiences with both. She felt the answers within her grasp and suddenly shot from the ground, her eyes flying wide. “You have no name.” She said, turning fully to the cat. At once the drumbeats ceased returning the canyon to utter silence once the echoes faded to nothingness. “Mushi.” She said, calling out fear in Mirialan. Upon identifying the fear that had made itself her companion, her eyesight returned. Yet, it was not hers. She was seeing the canyon through the eyes of the cat at her side. The effect was both nauseating and discombobulating as she forced herself to adapt to the new perspective, every instinct directing her to pull away, release her bond to the altered view. Yet, she knew it was the key without doubt to proceeding. Instead of withdrawing from the experience she pushed it deeper into existence, forcing herself into the mind of the cat, into the mind of ‘Mushi.’ Nara slowly knelt on the hard ground, placing her hands gently upon her knees and furthering her link to ‘Mushi’s’ mind. She stretched out through the Force and felt each muscle within the cat’s frame, then pushed him to spring from his hind legs toward the closest figure. She found Mushi closing the ground between himself and the black clad humanoid faster than should have been possible. Nara didn’t even get a clear view of the target before Mushi’s massive paws extended their razor-sharp claws, decapitating the figure with a left swipe and gutting it with the right. Mushi didn’t waste time at the kill sight, setting his focus on the next, then the next and so forth, leaping from rock, canyon wall and mutilated body. Through his eyes, Nara could see the physical destruction she had caused with her Force wave, how the fallen stone provided launch points for Mushi to exact his carnal rampage through the canyon. She couldn’t help but think how the series of events were linked together, how her actions provided him with the path forward and how the two, now, were working in concert. Had Zannah, and her companion for that matter, known she would tap into her instincts before anything else? If so, was the action of simply avoiding the canyon even an option to them, something they would have accounted for. No, she knew, because she had never considered it one. Nara felt the weight of consistency pressing hard upon her, how she felt in control of herself here on Ambria versus the reality of what she was learning about herself, and even the Force.
Mushi lept up to a high ledge where three of the humanoid forms stood unmoving, Nara realizing how far the feline had traversed in the time she was victim to her own thoughts. He did not advance, seeming to wait for either her presence or her permission to finish his task, Nara wasn’t sure. She took a moment to inspect the humanoids this time, coaxing the cat mentally to remain idle. Whatever features they held were hidden under tattered rags and long ribbons of black cloth. They stood on two feet, heavily wrapped, each brandishing primitive blades in both hands that were crossed before their chests. Behind them, two more figures stood idle facing each other at the mouth of a cave entrance, small leather-bound drums rested before their chests. An eerie silence descended upon the scene and soon spread its way to her personal vantage point from just within the canyon walls. Nara knew she had to make her way to Mushi on her own but had no idea how and wanted no part in asking for assistance. She would figure this out on her own.
Nara thought through everything that had transpired since..well, from the beginning she decided. She pressed herself to remember the details of her dreams from the first night here on Ambria, how Unduli had presented herself as a shadow, similar in most ways to the figures that had fallen under Mushi’s claws. She replayed her former master’s actions, particularly the death of the Kaminoan and came to understand the meaning of it. Luminara Unduli was still trying to protect her, even in death. Despite the action transpiring in a dream state, she could not deny the power and symbolism of the spiritual link she had felt, and that continued even now. “There is more than just a link through memory.” She said aloud as she worked through her thoughts. The voice of Zannah was proof enough of that. The second voice, the primal deep resonating voice, although unrecognized, sounded as ancient as time itself, and neither were known to her prior to landing on Ambria. ‘The link was anything but cerebral,’ she thought, ‘it was spiritual,’ and then she understood why her Force wave was both effective and not. It tore through the physical yet would not stem the projection of a spiritual link nor hold to the physical realm. She knew, then, that the Dark side was all but useless to her here. The alternative seemed ludicrous to her but she could not stomp out the possibility of drawing upon the light. This now presented her with a new enigma. She was a clone.
“Your link to the Force has nothing to do with either philosophy young one.” Zannah interrupted Nara’s thoughts.
Nara had no idea how to respond to that.
“We feel your conflict Nara. It is time to understand the truth of yourself, and through that endeavor, the truth in all things.”
‘We?’ Nara thought, and more importantly, ‘what truth?’ Her confusion threatening to break her concentration, and with that, her link to Mushi.
“Barriss began her path basking in the light. Though her clone, that past also belongs to you.” Zannah answered her thoughts in part. “As to ‘we,’ all that have come and gone before you that had understood the truth the Force possesses.”
“Your speaking of a middle ground, utilizing both dark and light aspects.” Nara responded.
“By removing the extremes your only left with the middle.” The primal voice responded, surprising Nara.
“It is why, despite his numerous attempts to delve into Ambria’s secrets, Sidious has failed in every attempt.” Zannah added.
Nara was at the precipice of losing her connection to Mushi altogether. Her thoughts consumed by bafflement and outright hopeless confusion. “My Lady, I’ve read the manuscripts myself authored by Darth Cognus. You are Darth Zannah are you not? Whom she quoted to vanquish Darth Bane before her very eyes.” Nara managed to hold her tether to Mushi by a thread.
“The same. And the duel was not far from where you currently sit.” Zannah replied. “My story is better suited for another time in its entirety and one I will freely share, in the meantime, hear the words of Thon and bridge the connection.” She finished.
Nara heard the name before, or read it rather, through her diligent studies of ancient manuscripts. “The Tchuukthai.” Nara said softly.
The resonate voice began to laugh deeply, “The same Nara.” He exclaimed while exiting his laughter. The voice felt more than heard, it beat upon her chest in waves destined to call all attention to it. “You were correct Zannah. This one….this one we can teach.” Nara heard the words but realized they were solely for her benefit. She knew both were long dead, Thon by eons and that whatever link they had to her physical realm was spiritual by both definition and practice thereby moving deliberate speech into the realm of irrelevant. She could not help but think of how she had already succeeded in areas where Sidious had not and how a simple grasp of primal logic created the difference. How then to adapt that train of thought toward her progress in the now rushed into her mind. ‘Is the darkness simply a projection of my ignorance then?’ She asked herself, wondering how to shred this ‘veil’ if that were the case. Embracing the light within her seemed the logical step forward, however Thon had been a Jedi Grand Master, yet speaks now of a middle ground. Nara laughed to herself, a light chuckle that filled the silence before her as it softly echoed off the fallen stone. How in the depths of her Sith embrace she had learned of the Tchuukthai, hours spent in study of manuscripts cast off by her own master had led her to a deeper understanding of Darth Zannah and now how the two of them were conjoined here on Ambria, a desolate wasteland that had found itself in the very middle of her narrative. Nara had come to this planet in pursuit of something her own master did not possess, on his behalf and for his benefit. How that pursuit had evolved since landing, however, had been all about her.
“I am not a Sith.” Nara spoke the words as she was thinking through them. “I am not a Sith.” She said louder as she pushed herself up from the ground. “I am not a Sith!” She said again, nearing a shout with which she wasn’t satisfied. “I AM NOT A SITH!” She shouted into the reverberating echoes of her previous statements, the force of which sent cascades of dust and scree from the upper most crooks overlooking the canyon floor. “I AM NOT A SITH!!” She shouted a final time, lifting the veil of darkness as larger loose rocks and unfinished cracks resumed their falls and splits into finality. Nara was only mildly surprised when the inky darkness receded, concerned more with the weight of the Dark side lifting itself from her, revealing to her how deep that embrace truly had been. She felt a rush of Force energy, stronger than she had previously experienced either through memory or practice enter her. Nara knew it was Light side energies filling the vacated void and had the presence of mind to negate it embracing her fully. ‘Somewhere in the middle.’ She thought to herself, as the influx subsided. Through her own eyes she was able to survey the devastation of her Force wave, remembering again her encounter with Ahsoka on Mustafar and how she had been on the receiving end of that same effort. Her mind lingering on the thought of her old friend, if the Togruta would even entertain that idea anymore, and her own surprise that ‘friend’ was her first thought regarding the memories of her former colleague.
Nara examined herself in the metaphoric light she had created. Loose hair blowing gently about her shoulders in the Ambrian night air, clad in a simple black tunic. Scuffs, scrapes and dried blood caking her legs, her bare feet wrapped around fallen stone. “What a sight.” She said shaking her head yet felt completely at ease with the appearance as she strode forward to take up position aside her Mushi, her fear. Following the cat’s path over the broken stone she noticed the victims of his raking claws were nowhere to be seen. No fallen weapons lie nor shreds of torn cloth as she traversed the larger stones, only the occasional print left by the feline where the ground was soft with small pebbles and puddles of dust. It took less time than she had expected to ascend to Mushi’s rise, cresting the flat rock expecting to see the five figures. There was only the giant cat sitting respectfully before the cavernous entrance in her view as she pulled herself up and clear of the stone ledge. ‘Lesson learned Zannah.’ She said to herself understanding that she had only faced what she had brought with her. “It seems the lessons do not vary much between Jedi and Sith.” Nara said as she walked up to Mushi, patting the back of his head.
“In truth, they do not, only in the mind of the beholder as it were.” Thon responded.
In the back of her mind Nara felt a nagging tug of sorts that she could not explain. She admitted to herself that it brought itself to her subconscious attention when she had renounced her master, but now it was more pronounced and uniform. She quickly eliminated the possibility that it was a byproduct of what was at work before her, as it felt closer to an emotional bond that was at the summit of ceasing to be. She was not sure what it was she could have formed an emotional bond with before coming to Ambria that could hold such sway, only that it was inexplicable in her current state of being. No. There were two she corrected herself. One was easy and came to mind quickly in the form of resentment. Something she had said to Ahsoka within the encounter that remained fresh in her memory, or rather the reaction Ahsoka had spoken of concerning her attitude toward clones. In this moment she honestly wished she could replay that conversation, talk to Ahsoka again on a different level, one which included her more recent discoveries. She did understand, truly, what it meant to share an identity with another, many others in fact. The thoughts elicited an anger she wanted no part of in the moment. She did not want to rekindle a connection to her anger at all so closely timed with her extrication of the Dark side. Nara recentered her thoughts on Ahsoka as they, for reasons she couldn’t explain currently, helped root her to the immediacy of her focus.
“Good young one, you will need allies.” Zannah said, snapping Nara out of her thoughts for the moment. The comment swirled through her mind several times before resonating.
“Allies?” Nara hadn’t intended to ask. “Allies is a word only applied in concerns of conflict.” She found herself reciting passages written eons prior.
“Nara, we all stand before the greatest conflict this galaxy has faced since Thon’s time. Light, Dark, allegiances will matter little in the end.” Zannah responded in a more concerned voice than Nara had heard her use to this point.
“Zannah speaks the truth child.” Thon added, a gravely tone adding to its depth.
Mushi swiveled his head slowly to look into Nara’s eyes briefly before tilting his head to nudge her back, pushing her slightly forward and into the mouth of the cave.
Nara understood the gesture, “What’s in there?” She asked as she slowly walked forward.
“Truth.” Both Zannah and Thon responded together.
Nara stepped through the cave’s entrance feeling a genuine warmth she knew was unnatural, the stone walls only reflecting the source of the heat, not the source themselves. She felt a raw power flowing freely through the air she was breathing, and a sudden wave of wholeness consumed her. The darkness of Ambria outside was only amplified by the complete lack of light within, her hand reaching down for her primary saber hilt. Nara brought the weapon before her and ignited the blade, bathing what turned out to be a small chamber in its crimson glow. She had noted that Mushi hadn’t moved beyond the nudge he had encouraged her with as she turned around to see him at the cave’s mouth sitting as he was before, unmoved. She turned back to the small chamber noting the tooling marks adorning its walls as she scanned the stone surface with the light of her saber’s blade. She could see drawings, etchings, in various poses scratched into the walls and ceiling, ancient as they were time worn and hardly decipherable. One such scrawling depicted a quadruped, a hooved animal with a humanoid torso, its arms outstretched above its head. Another depicted a vast area of water with several humanoid forms falling. What they meant she could only guess as her view came upon the rear wall of the chamber, a fist sized hold carved...no, burned into it. ‘Of course.’ She said to herself as she lifted her left hand to the stone’s warm surface, brushing her fingertips over its surface before the opening in the rocky wall. Without thinking about her encroaching fear, she plunged her hand deep into the pocket, crunching her knuckles against the stone at the rear of it. A solid form rested under her open palm as she ground her teeth to keep from crying out in pain, something metallic and cylindrical. She gritted her teeth to prevent herself from biting her bottom lift and wrapping her hand around the object, pulled it out in one swift motion. Forgetting the pain, she brought her ignited saber closer to inspect her newfound item, finding no luster at all on its blackened surface. There was a small black button midway on the circumference of the tube and an opening at one end with a clear crystalline cap. Throwing caution to the wayside, she pointed the opening away from her toward one of the walls and hit the button. The item chirped once then whirred in her hand as a sputtering light illuminated the stone before her, a severe snap startling her as the floor shifted uncomfortably. Nara felt as if time stopped briefly as she focused on the emitting light, seeing movement within its blue hue just before the floor tilted away toward the rear of the chamber, delivering Nara into the blackness below.