Private Marks that Maps Forgot

[Meri Vale]

Meri stepped through the doorway with a heightened sense of caution, her shoulders flinching slightly as the sudden rush of air swept past her. Even though she had solved the initial puzzle, a lingering uncertainty remained in the way she moved, as if she half-expected the very architecture of the room to shift and change again if she weren't careful with her footing. When Vex offered his praise, she hesitated, her hands shifting awkwardly at her sides as she lowered her gaze to avoid meeting his eyes.

"I…I just guessed," she admitted softly, her voice carrying a note of quiet honesty rather than pride. "It just felt like the right thing to do."

She blinked in surprise when he offered her the torch, reaching out to take it with both hands as if the weight of the responsibility was as heavy as the light itself. The flame wavered as she adjusted her grip, her fingers tightening around the handle while she stepped forward to let the light stretch across the seemingly empty expanse. Her shoulders remained tensed, however, because her experience with such places had taught her that rooms appearing empty usually held secrets that simply hadn't been found yet.

Moving deeper into the chamber with deliberate care, she lowered the torch and caught the faint glint of something on the floor: a series of small, engraved squares. She crouched low to the ground, her brow furrowing in concentration as she brought the light closer to study the patterns. Her free hand hovered just inches above the stone, tracing the shapes in the air without actually making contact as she whispered her observations.

"There is something here…they aren't just decorations," she murmured, her voice sounding uncertain as she angled the torch to better catch the edges of a specific triangle engraving. Her head tilted to the side as she tried to piece the logic together, wondering aloud if they were facing yet another puzzle. She glanced back over her shoulder at Vex for a fleeting second, seeking a silent confirmation that she was on the right track, before turning her full attention back to the markings to begin the slow work of figuring them out.

Vex Drakkon

 

[Vex Drakkon]

Master Vex Drakkon grinned from ear to ear as Meri took on the responsibility of the torch and the leader of this escapade. He wasn’t just handing the young girl a torch to light the way; he was handing her the key to this entire puzzle. The engravings on the wall were not there for show, but to be used in a way to help light the way for step two to begin. With that same grin still stretched across the Jedi master’s face, he continued to stand back and let Meri conjure up a plan for how they would solve the puzzle.

When Meri Vale grabbed the torch to take the lead, Vex could sense their determination to understand and solve what they were facing at the moment. "Every room within these ruins has taught you a lesson in some sort of manner. But this room, it will teach you something that you may have a hard time believing." He whispered lightly, allowing the young girl to concentrate on everything they were looking at. This was a moment of pure intelligence because Meri was more than likely dissecting everything their eyes have seen, but this lesson wanted to teach something that was linked to the last. Patience.

Vex watched from a short distance away, until he slowly stepped forward to get a better look at each square that was angled together to look like a triangle formation. "This one is deeper than just mental focus, young one. Close your eyes, imagine you are alone in this very room, listen to what the room has already told you.." He paused, waiting for Meri to respond, or do as they were told. Regardless, this was Vex attempting to allow Meri to understand more of the Force.

Meri Vale​

 

[Meri Vale]

Meri remained crouched low near the ancient engravings, her torchlight flickering and casting long, distorted shadows across the three squares as she studied their weathered surfaces with a scholar's precision. Up close, it became increasingly evident that the symbols were not identical at all; one was cut significantly deeper into the stone, while another appeared more worn along its leading edge, suggesting that these were not merely decorative flourishes but had been shaped with a very specific, functional intention by those who built this place.

When Vex suggested that she close her eyes to better perceive the temple's secrets, she hesitated for a long, uncertain beat. Her every instinct as an observer screamed that she needed to look more closely rather than less, as problems were meant to be measured and compared with her eyes, and removing her primary sense felt fundamentally wrong, as if she were discarding her only map in the dark.

"But I need to see it," she said quietly, her voice carrying a note of genuine hesitation rather than any real defiance against his guidance.

Still, despite her internal resistance, she didn't dismiss him. She carefully adjusted the torch so it would remain upright against the cold, damp stone, providing just enough ambient light to keep the shapes visible should she feel the need to check them again. Then, pulling her hands back slightly and offering one last moment of hesitation, she finally relented and allowed her eyes to drift shut.

At first, the darkness provided no immediate revelation, and she found herself focusing only on the oppressive weight of the earth above them—that heavy, ancient silence she had been trying to ignore while she worked. She almost spoke up to tell him it wasn't working, her eyelids fluttering as she prepared to abandon the exercise, but the world began to shift the moment she truly stopped trying to "solve" the temple with her mind.

The silence, she realized, was not empty.

There was a deep, tectonic resonance vibrating through the soles of her boots. Not a mechanical hum, but a low-frequency thrumming that felt like the temple was breathing under the weight of the soil. The longer she remained in that stillness, the more the vibration began to separate into distinct, staggered pulses, sounding less like a single heart and more like three separate mechanisms or chambers settling into the earth at slightly different intervals.

Her brow furrowed in deep concentration as she focused her entire being on that physical map of sound and pressure.

"…it isn't all the same," she murmured, the realization barely a breath in the gloom.

Her hands lifted unconsciously from her lap, fingers hovering in the air in front of her as if she were tracing the architecture from memory rather than sight.

"There are three distinct parts to the resonance…but they don't actually occur at once."

She paused, mentally working through the problem with the same careful logic she would apply to a structural flaw in a collapsing archive.

"It's like a sequence," she added more slowly, her voice gaining a sliver of confidence as the pattern took root. "One part of the stone settles first, then another follows, and then finally the last one responds."

The logic of the temple finally began to reveal itself, making far more sense than her visual analysis had provided moments before. Her eyes snapped open and returned immediately to the engravings, but this time she wasn't just looking at their physical placement; she was looking at how their subtle depths and wear-patterns might relate to that shifting, heavy sequence of the earth.

Her hand hovered tentatively over the first square before shifting toward another, her fingers trembling slightly in the torchlight as she tried to correlate the timing she had felt with the physical symbols carved into the floor.

"I don't think these are meant to be pressed together," she said softly, her gaze locked on the stone. "I think…the temple only opens if we follow the order of the weight."

She glanced back at Vex briefly, her expression still clouded with her characteristic uncertainty, but she was no longer the completely lost girl who had first knelt before the pillar.

"I just don't know which of these is supposed to be the first one yet."

Vex Drakkon

 

[Vex Drakkon]

Vex listened carefully to every word that Meri was saying. It was apparent that she was easily putting things together and finding ways to keep pushing forward. These were traits that some of the most skilled Jedi obtained, which was a reason why Vex felt the need to convince Meri that training to become a Jedi is the thing that will allow all the pieces to fall together in the end. For now, he remained focused on how she managed to identify the engravings and what they could possibly mean. "Pushing them is impossible, correct. These were meant for something else." He replied, watching the flame flicker through the poorly lit room.

As Meri continued on, processing everything she had seen and felt, Vex folded each arm across his chest, watching with patience to see if the young girl had what it took to figure this puzzle out entirely. "I will give you a hint." He paused for a short moment, staring directly at each square and how they were placed. "What is the opposite of push?" He asked calmly, while looking downward at Meri with a warm smile as usual. It wasn’t like she would have needed the hint, but it was a great moment to form more of a bond with her.

The room was nearly silent. The only thing making noise besides Vex and Meri was the sound of the flame flickering to life with every ounce of oxygen that surrounded them. With a step back, Vex was now back to observing the situation, hoping that Meri Vale was able to figure out how to finally solve the puzzle. There was no doubt in their mind that she would succeed, so it was only natural for him to sit back and let the young child baste in the glory of successfully achieving something so many others could not.

Meri Vale​

 

[Meri Vale]

Meri remained crouched low near the ancient engravings, her eyes darting restlessly between the three stone squares as she tried to dismantle the puzzle with the same cold logic she applied to architectural schematics. When she had tested them before, they had felt like an extension of the mountain itself—solid, immovable, and utterly devoid of the seams or edges that would suggest a mechanical trigger. There was simply nothing to push.

She frowned, her features tightening as she replayed Vex's hint in her mind, turning the words over like a jagged stone in her palm.

"The opposite of push would be…pull," she murmured, the syllables feeling heavy and strange in the stale air of the temple. She added a small, hesitant pause, her voice barely a thread.

On paper, the logic was sound; it was the kind of binary solution that should have yielded a result, yet as she flexed her fingers in preparation, a different sensation began to bleed into her awareness. It wasn't a sound, not exactly, but a low-frequency thrumming that seemed to vibrate through the soles of her boots and settle in the hollow of her chest.

She reached forward, her fingertips brushing along the cold, grit-dusted surface of the first square, searching for any microscopic indentation she might have overlooked. There was still nothing for her physical hands to find, but as she pressed her fingers against the stone and hooked them in a desperate attempt to mimic a physical pull, the air around her seemed to grow preternaturally still.

The stone didn't budge. Not even a fraction of a millimeter, and it stayed stubbornly flush with the rest of the ancient wall despite her increasing effort.

Meri stopped, her breath hitching as her hand lowered slowly, the weight of the silence in the chamber suddenly feeling more oppressive than the rock above. She shook her head once, a small and uncertain motion that betrayed the growing knot of distress in her stomach.

"I can't…" she whispered, her voice cracking as she stared at her trembling hands. "There is quite literally nothing for me to grab onto."

Her gaze drifted back over the other two squares, but as she looked, the edges of her vision seemed to pulse in time with that subterranean resonance. It was as if the temple weren't made of static rock, but of something fluid that she could almost…reach into. Her fingers hovered in the air once more, trembling not from the cold, but from a burgeoning, terrifying sensation that the "pull" Vex spoke of wasn't meant for her muscles at all.

"Maybe…it is not a physical pull," she said quietly, the realization feeling like a cold drench of water. She wasn't talking to him anymore, but trying to make sense of the way the air seemed to tug at her spirit, as if the stone were waiting for her to reach out with a hand she hadn't yet admitted she possessed.

Vex Drakkon

 

[Vex Drakkon]

Meri’s answer was quick and precise as Vex had thought. With a nod of his head, the Jedi Master pointed to the stone that the young girl already knew was different. "Correct, young one. You and I both could try pulling these out with our hands all day and night, but these stones wouldn’t budge under a physical touch." He replied, running his fingertips across the edges of the stone that was meant to be pulled out by the Force itself. A lesson that Meri Vale would soon learn to accept. The Force and how to use it, but only under certain circumstances.

Master Drakkon bent down low to be at eye-level with Meri, which caused him to press his knee against the cold flooring. "Look at the stone, touch it even, but I want you to try something for me, okay?" He asked in a curious tone, knowing with the courage that this child possessed, she wouldn’t think twice about accepting the challenge. But before Meri could respond, Vex wanted to explain everything to her, especially with what she was about to face. "Focus on whatever stone you want, then I want you to close your eyes for just a moment, push all thoughts from your mind to clear it out, and don’t forget to pace your breathing." His voice echoed throughout the ruins, but his focus stayed on Meri.

The only way Vex would be able to get Meri to actually believe anything about the Force is if he was to teach her something she could see with her own eyes. This was the perfect time for a lesson that would certainly change Meri’s life. "When you feel that your mind is cleared of all thoughts, I want you to open your eyes and finally put every ounce of focus you have on the stone you wish to move. Some have imagined an invisible lasso of sorts, others a blanket wrapping around the object and slowly pulling it free. There is nothing wrong if you can’t get it at first, that is what I am here for." He added, preparing the young girl for a lesson on how to manipulate the Force at your very will.

Meri Vale​

 

[Meri Vale]

Meri didn't answer immediately. She remained crouched in front of the stone, her fingertips resting lightly against its cold surface as she listened to him explain. The longer he spoke, the more her expression shifted into that familiar look of quiet concentration, the same one she wore when a structural blueprint didn't quite align, yet she wasn't ready to dismiss the builder's intent. Pull it… without touching it. Her brow furrowed, her mind racing to reconcile that command with any physical rule she already understood.

"That doesn't follow any physical rule," she said softly. It wasn't an argument, merely a statement of the problem as she saw it, a logical inconsistency she couldn't ignore.

Still, she didn't refuse. She drew her hand back slowly and settled it in her lap, grounding herself before the attempt. If there was a method to this, she reasoned, then it had to be consistent somehow; it had to behave in a way she could eventually recognize, even if the "how" remained hidden for now. "…Okay," she added after a moment, her voice dropping to a mere breath.

Closing her eyes, she tried to follow his instructions rather than dismiss them outright. Clearing her mind didn't come naturally to her; her thoughts were a constant, churning stream, but she could, with effort, let them settle like dust in still air until the noise wasn't quite so loud. As her breathing slowed into a steady rhythm, the room seemed to become more noticeable. It wasn't a visual shift, but rather the same way she could sometimes sense the hidden geometry of a ruin without looking at it directly. The hum she'd noticed before was still there, but now it felt layered, overlapping currents of energy moving through the silent space.

"…It's still there," she murmured, her uncertainty pulling at the corners of her mouth. "The same… pattern."

She didn't like that she couldn't point to it or explain the physics of the sensation. Opening her eyes, she fixed her gaze on the stone. She didn't move toward it or try to touch it; instead, she focused on it the way she would a structural flaw, holding it in her absolute attention and trying to imagine the mechanics of its movement. The idea he had given her, of something invisible wrapping around the weight and pulling, felt artificial, like pretending a hidden pulley system existed where she knew there was only empty air.

"This feels like guessing," she said quietly, though she didn't stop. Her gaze remained fixed on the stone, stubborn in that quiet, determined way she had when a problem refused to make sense.

For a fleeting second, there was a faint shift in her awareness, a moment of alignment just out of sight. It wasn't a visible movement she could measure, but a subtle change in the room's pressure that made her lean forward without realizing it. Then, as quickly as it had come, the connection snapped. Her focus broke, and she blinked, frowning at the unmoving stone.

"…I don't trust that," she admitted softly, her voice tinged with a scholar's skepticism. "I can't see what's doing it." Yet, despite her doubt, she didn't pull away. She stayed there, watching the stone with a wary intensity, waiting for it to prove itself in a way she could finally believe.

Vex Drakkon