Breakdancing Banthas and Other Illusions!

[Dune Rhur]

[member="Matsu Ike"]

Dune nodded appreciatively at Matsu's resourcefulness. Using the enemy's power against them in an inverse and non-lethal way. The Bith approved of that greatly. His respect for the petite woman increased.

"Did you ever have a hand in training my Master?".

He asked with a smile because there was something of Matsu Ike in the Twi'lek Jedi's methods. Unorthodox and highly effective methods at that. In turn, he'd absorbed some of that mentality during his own apprenticeship. Hopefully his own learner could also benefit too.

"At any rate, I gather this grate is here to keep us out as much as hold something within. I also intuit we will be descending and perhaps meeting with this...," he gestured back towards the hallways full of statues "This guardian of the knowledge we're seeking."

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Dune Rhur"]

Matsu looked at him as she looked up at the hole she had descended down from the upper chamber several minutes ago. "Yes I trained Leina for a time, not as her official master but I trained a lot of padawans and knights in the order. My research was a great way for them t learn about worlds they were being sent to for missions." She said it with a grin while moving and illuminating the area to see over all of it. She was making her way towards the deeper sections seeing most of it change there to natural caverns showing crystals lined along the walls that pulsed with force energy in soft golden light.

 

[Dune Rhur]

[member="Matsu Ike"]

Dune too climbed down now, following Matsu further in. In these natural caverns, he took note of the beautiful shining crystals. Their energy was surprisingly uncorrupted by the surrounding influences. "Very beautiful," he said appreciatively "I suppose you're right after all about light in the darkness."

"Now this Temple's location makes perfect sense. These caverns are a conduit which must've enhanced their rituals here."

Reaching out through the Force, he sensed that many of these crystals could even serve as a focusing lens for a lightsaber. Non-synthetic ones were something of a rarity, especially in this concentration. Illum was most definitely an anomaly in that way.

"I suppose the Order knows about this place but...it's not exactly wholesome for a young apprentice."

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Dune Rhur"]

Matsu looked at him for a moment while she kept going and touched the crystals tapping it lightly while she thought about it. "I do nto know if the order know about it, we have several locations with a lot of crystals but records are tricky and not everyone uses them to find things. It is why I am mostly able to find normal things and it is seen as obscure or something amazing." She had found a jedi city with Corvus and more crystals there or the jedi expedition to the ancient prison where they found the map to more jedi locations. Her work going into some of the bigger things like ships to work on mapping the systems to find what they could for the locations.

 

[Dune Rhur]

[member="Matsu Ike"]

Dune would've blinked in surprise if he had any eyelids. Instead, he was silent for a moment.

"Jedi don't consult records?," he said with real incredulity "What happened to 'There is no ignorance, there is knowledge'?"

Shaking his head, he continued along with the Master down the length of the tunnel.

"I suppose those same Jedi consider the lightsaber both beginning and end to our role."

It wasn't that he disapproved of his more martially inclined brethren. But rather, too many of the younger ones seemed to place knowledge and wisdom second to their fighting skills. Knowing could entirely prevent the need for violence. Also, caches like these could be invaluable.

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Dune Rhur"]

"Not always but they are very selective. Knowledge gaiuned from people that aren't their friends they can discard and mock as weaker. It has happened and continues to happen." She had seen different jedi offer the same thing but the one who was a friend got credit for it and the other told it was already found or unimportant.... but someone was praised for finding the same thing. It was one of the things she disagreed with greatly and why she found every students discoveries regardless as important as the next. "Places like this are overlooked until someone acceptable finds them and then they are given the praise. It is one of the things I enjoyed about Corvus she liked sharing the credit for discoveries and didn't say she invested something others could do."

 

[Dune Rhur]

[member="Matsu Ike"]

He let out a sigh at the situation. More importantly at the dissapearance of the once Grandmaster. Her loss was still a sore one for any member of the Jedi. "A very sad state of affairs."

"At any rate, did my Master mark where we're headed. I can't imagine she didn't for something important."

It was fortunate that they'd yet to encounter any problems. Dune had a sneaking suspicion they would, however. Nothing ever went this easily around a Dark Side nexus. He reached and again but felt nothing especially askew and that made him frown.

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Dune Rhur"]

Matsu looked at him and gave a nod. "She did with a picture of a rainbow and where they had found the hlocron at the end of it." Which while funny didn't always answer the questions they were asking while she came into another chamber looking at the crystals. "And that end is here or..." She trailed off looking at it as the golden glow was soft and surprisingly warm dow here. Lots of hard work for all of their things before the sigil on her neck was resonating and glowing to match. "That is not what I was expecting." Matsu moved to the side and the smooth polished surface sitting there was more then enough for her as she tapped it and felt the energy. "I think it might be the Solari crystal... not one of the ones we can find but the original one of the ancient ones like the kaiburr or arknnes."

 

[Dune Rhur]

[member="Matsu Ike"]

Dune shook his head. A rainbow, how very like Leina. At least she'd marked the location accurately as they could have hoped. Exactly to scale too, he noted. No, in spite of appearance, quite capable as you would wish for in a Jedi. Nothing was as you'd imagine with her but that was perfectly fine, he had come to find during their time as teacher and student. She was still a great friend to this day, he thought fondly.

"Well...." Dune said taken aback when he saw the crystal himself. The energy positively radiated from it as it pulsed slowly and steadily. "Not a holocron after all." The other crystals in the caverns had merely reacted to his own energies. This one created it, though come to think of it, maybe it caused a reflection among the crystals. It was most definitely strong enough for that.

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Dune Rhur"]

Matsu was looking at him. "Yes and the sigils we created used the golden solari crystals to attune themselves to the lightside. It helps channel and make a jedi able to reach some of the highest potential." That had been the goal and it worked making jedi padawans intune with the lightside of the force have reserves and resolve no one thought possible. Others got to work on some of the things as she was studying the crystal and lifted it up. "The old jedi used to have this secured with a family and since theyt have mostly been gone it has been missing. Several things have been missing." She was following it to the walls and pulling at the crystals to get them off the wall and check them. "We'll be able to use these to infuse into these." She held up a second sigil from her pocket. "We can work on infusing the energies from the crystal to continue to augment the sigils to make them stronger so all jedi can benefit."

 

[Dune Rhur]

[member="Matsu Ike"]

"That's just as useful as a holocron, perhaps more," he said with a sardonic laugh "However, I'm waiting on the other shoe to drop."

Where was the tarentatek or the Sith spirit haunting the bathroom? Wasn't it traditional for them to stir up trouble, he wondered. Perhaps it was a touch of paranoia but past experiences educated him. Dune sighed and shrugged to Matsu.

"I suppose we deal with it if it comes. More pressing, how do we extract the crystal? Lightsaber, perhaps?"

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Dune Rhur"]

Matsu looked at him as he was speaking. "Lighten up, yu were ith Leina, you should have a positive outlook on things.... hell did she ever tell you the time she hugged a sith lord. THere was a diplomatic meeting the chancellor Ijet set up and the dark lord sent an envoy to meet the jedi and she saw him hugged him calling him grouchy head before skipping off." Now that was a fun time she had seen going over things while her hand was vibrating and touching the stand the crystal was on. "Got to look at the positive side of things... Like if anything goes wrong the Aing-Tii trained me how to planet hop without a ship so I'll be fine."

 

[Dune Rhur]

[member="Matsu Ike"]

"Yes, I was with her. One of us had to be the adult. That often fell to me."

That brought back memories of having to carry his Master after she passed out after a cake binge. Or an ice cream binge. Or a cupcake binge or brownies, cookies. Anything sweet was fair game, really.

"It would be like her to hug a Sith Lord. She did mention hugging mister grouchy at a conference once. I assumed she was hallucinating after too many root beer floats and it was her teddy bear. A Sith Lord, though, that's impressive."

Somehow, she'd done it without being impaled, electrocuted, choked or otherwise dismembered. No one else could've done it. Not even the Grandmasters would've come out unscathed. Leina Snowfire was unintentionally history's greatest Jedi that no one would ever come to know of.

"Ah, fortunate for you, you'd survive a planetary catastrophe. I, on the other hand, am still karked."

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Dune Rhur"]

"Yes." She said it nodding not indicating if she agreed with either statement about him being the adult, his old master doing her thig or her surviving. Just a simple yes while she came up with the crystal. "See you are much like my old padawan Dragonsflame, he can be brilliant but he is to much in his head always looking for a reason to blame and always looking for the downside in a situation. We are jedi, we live in the downside and work to try and make it brighter for someone else." She held up the crystal nd was looking at it as it pulsed in her hand making the grating above them sound like it was sealing while another opened leading deeper into it. "Here, use it and keep it safe. Maybe it will give you some warm fuzzy feeling."

 

[Dune Rhur]

[member="Matsu Ike"]

"Thank you," the Bith said as he accepted the crystal "It does have something of a calming effect."

It really did, functioning like a meditation crystal he'd used before. While it didn't amplify his level of power, his connection felt a bit stronger. No doubt due to the gentle calming sensation. It made him feel a little better; maybe if the planet blew up, he'd live on as a Force spirit to guide future Jedi.

"What you call pessimism, I call realism. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best."

He watched the grate close behind them and shrugged. On the good side, they'd found something new. On the bad side, that tarentatek could be waiting to disembowel them. See, he thought, progress!

"After you, Master."

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Dune Rhur"]

"That's the spirit." She was all for it while moving towards the new area and head in deeper while she was focusing on detecting what was around them. Field detection she had worked on with Corvus and on building up a number of things for them to be able to detect electronic energies. She was mostly enjoying it now and letting the sigil illuminate the dark areas while staying focused on what was important. Sensing for anything dangerous while trying to get the jedi knight to smile and be happy. They were getting the chance to explore the galaxy and all of its mysteries. She loved it more and more while pouring over the information in her head while she was following the flow of crystals and energy deeper into the caverns.

 

[Dune Rhur]

[member="Matsu Ike"]

There was no doubt that Dune enjoyed spelunking in these places. It was oddly satisfying in a way that simply reading wasn't. Reading histories was fantastic too, mind you. This was exciting in a more tangible way. Reading, however, seldom involved being shot at.

"Too much stock is placed in height, you know. For example, here our relative lack thereof means easier access."

His seemingly inane chatter actually helped him focus by venting frustration brought on by the evil aura. Besides, the companionable conversation helped brighten the subterranean gloom. He supposed even his mathematically inclined forbearers would find it so, probably sending droids of their own design to probe.

Dune found it odd that he wasn't more inclined towards being an artisan. Building mechanical constructs like many of his fellow Bith in the Order both past and present. He did possess an aptitude but it simply didn't interest him so much. Not that if mattered as the Force guided him anyway.

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Dune Rhur"]

Matsu kept going and letting the force energies guide her more then anything as she listened to the knight and the force leading down into a longer section of crystal caves they could search through. She was feeling the force while getting down deeper into it and paintings were on the walls carved and faded, the shimmer of the crystals before she made another light setting it up high to shine down. "There we go, there are plenty of crystals here to harvest and be able to use. Might be able to find some large enough to function like pontite."

 

[Dune Rhur]

[member="Matsu Ike"]

The paintings on the wall were faded but still visible in the caverns. There seemed to be a sacrifice of some kind represented. Dune examined things more closely and he hoped it was simply an animal being disembowelled. Then again, those did look an awful lot like a pair of lekku and being as this was Ryloth....

"Pontite would be a fantastic find in any quantity."

Even a cache of mephite crystals would be fantastic as an asset. Many lightsabers could be built and various devices powered.

"If you examine the paintings more closely, Master, I'm fairly certain that's a Twi'lek being sacrificed."

The caverns took on a much more sinister quality in his mind.

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Dune Rhur"]

Matsu was looking at it and letting her pupils go wider while she was taking in everything she could see and memorizing it with a small look on her face. "Yes the past is often filled with such things." She kept looking at things and brought her glow ball up to look along the crystal veins until she was looking at some of the smoothed over rocks. She was moving and sitting down with most of her attention on some of the places filled with force energy around them, she could feel it resonating with the other pieces for force items she had while removing one of the sigils from her pocket and putting it on the stone to glow before raisign her hands and meditating.