Fallen Empires -- An Old Republic Era adventure (Star Wars)

Avress

It is a Jedi's duty to aid those in need and Keel's sister — blundering around alone in this ruin — is very likely in far more danger than she knows. Certainly in more danger than a Knight, for all of your master's vague but ominous doubts about Amira Rist.

"Yes, we'll try to find your sister first," you tell him. "No one should be left alone in here."

Keel gives a genuine smile. "Right. Good. Thanks — are you sure your arm's fine?"

"It's a flesh wound. I'll go into a healing trance later." Or, you'll try to. You've had very mixed results at that technique in the past.

"Okay, fine," Keel allows. He jerks his head toward the stairwell, plainly ready to be on his way.

"Me first," you tell him, trying to sound fearless and coolly confident. Not at all intimidated by these dark ruins constructed by your Order's ancient, sworn enemy. With its walls adorned in a forgotten language, and its statues staring into your soul.

"Hey, sure," Keel says, stepping aside for you to get underway. "You're the one with the laser sword."

"It's a lightsaber," you correct him, taking a first, brave step down into the stairwell. Despite the harsh stone of your surroundings, the sound doesn't echo. Instead, it's merely swallowed up, somehow.

"Is this really something you want to be pedantic about, right now?" Keel asks.

The way he says it makes you feel unreasonable. Even though he's wrong — it's plasma, not lasers. So it's grudgingly that you swallow your annoyance and continue on your way.

You can't shake an image in your head as you descend: You at the top of a massive pyramid, only the tip above ground, delving further and further into the bowels of Tyrost. Every step takes you away from what may be the only exit.

"I never expected them to be so loud," Keel complains out of the blue

"... what to be so loud?" You look over your shoulder as you whisper it. You're both keeping your voices low, as you make you way down these winding staircases.

"Lightsabers. Doesn't that hum drive you crazy, down here?"

"No! It's... it's fine! I'm used to it!" Until this very moment, in which the sound has started to bother you too.

The stairs wind on and on, until they've carried you far enough down to reach another landing, much longer than it is wide. A hallway, you quickly realise, lined with more statues carved in an exact likeness of the Sith from the entrance. The Pureblood man, in each case, is unhelpfully pointing in a completely different direction. Ugh.

"Which way?" Keel asks.

You frown, glancing from side to side. It's admittedly a bit of an arbitrary decision — both directions look roughly the same. You find yourself locking eyes with one of the Sith statues, and become momentarily transfixed.

"Well, she was definitely here," Keel says, breaking your concentration. He's kneeling on the floor a pace or two away, examining what looks like a food wrapper. "Littering in an ancient ruin, sis? Classy."

"You're sure that was her?" you ask, leaning closer to see what he's found.

Keel holds the grey wrapping up where you can see it, illuminated in his handheld light. It's stamped with a red Imperial crest, the text beside it too crumpled to make out. "Imperial military ration bar," he says. "We picked up half a dozen crates on the cheap, a couple years back."

You look at the wrapping in mild horror. "That must be at nearly twenty years old!"

He shrugs. "At least that, yeah. They keep, though, and you can't do much to make the flavour worse."

You grimace, glancing in the direction the wrapper was lying in. "That's a start, then."

"Better than flipping a coin," Keel agrees.

The passageway goes on and on, statues broken up by darkened champers. Each one proves to be empty of life, and you think better of poking around at what artifacts there are. As you continue on, something else begins to bother you: The Dark Side is strong enough in this place that you don't notice at first. But the deeper you go into this structure, you increasingly feel a presence at the edge of your senses. Its own Darkness is hard to discern from the background radiation, hard to pinpoint, but you're more and more certain that something very bad is down here. Something worse than Sith relics.

Maybe that's what's held up Jedi Knight Rist.

You poke your head and your lightsaber into one of the side-chambers, expecting, as always, for it to be empty. Instead, the green glow illuminates a humanoid figure, evidently hiding in the dark, who cries out and covers its face at the sudden intrusion of the light source. "Who goes there?" you demand.

"... are you trying to blind me?" comes the hissing reply. The voice is deep, but feminine.

All at once, Keel shoves past you, although on the side opposite to the active plasma blade, at least. His own light brings the figure to clearer life — a Pantoran woman, squinting angrily at you through fingers clasped over her face. "Emperor's ghost, El, what are you doing hiding in the dark?"

"Conserving light," she says, submitting to the tight hug he drags her into. As he lets go, she looks at you more directly, taking in your lightsaber. "... and hiding. Where did you find another whole Jedi?"

"More like half a Jedi, I think," Keel corrects her. "What do you mea—"

"I," you cut in, "am a Padawan of the Jedi Order." A shameful part of you hopes that they don't know what that rank actually means. 'Half', though, honestly!

Elra grins in a harried sort of way, putting some distance between herself and Keel to sling a bag of supplies back over her shoulder. "As long as you know how to open the door, darling, I'll call you whatever you like." The family resemblance between the siblings is strong — similar height and graceful build, same blue complexion and yellow family tattoos. Her hair is cut shorter than his, though. You take in her features and can't help but notice that, from her roguish smile to the graceful swoop of her nose, to that jawline—

... are all things that a Jedi should not be thinking about.

"Someone else opened it, but she didn't make it in," Keel admits.

"This is true," you agree, stiffly.

"... Of course she didn't." Elra sighs explosively. "How do you even get yourself into these messes, Keel?"

"Me?" he demands.

"At any rate," you say, speaking up over the two of them, "we must find Jedi Knight Rist. We know she can open the door."

Elra looks suddenly pensive. "I... won't recommend that," she says.

You frown at her. "Why ever not?"

"Rist isn't... Well, she got weird pretty soon after coming in here," Elra explains. "I had to run."

"You're hiding from the Jedi?" Keel suddenly eyes you a little warily, as if you might at any moment lose your mind and attack them.

"Why?" you ask.

"Because lightsabers are pretty scary, when you don't have one," Keel says. Elra nods grimly.

"You're saying she actually threatened you?" you ask, fixing Elra with as piercing a look as you can manage.

"Yeah, she did." Elra shoots back a challenging look of her own. "I only got away because whatever she's after is further down. Don't ask me what, either. I don't know!"

That seems very strange to you. Surely, a Jedi Knight shouldn't be overcome by the evils of this place so easily. But, on the other hand, Amira Rist knew how to open this place to begin with. Your master has doubts about her he won't even explain to you: "Jedi Knight Rist was not... raised in the Order." And this shadowy presence you can't shake your awareness of...

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What do you make of this?

[ ] Elra is lying about something

[ ] This must have been a misunderstanding

[ ] Jedi Knight Rist is likely compromised and should be assumed dangerous