.
MIRROR, MIRROR
He pulled off the mask, sensing that his unease was getting rather noticeable. Which wasn't saying much, given they were quick literally linked. Aayla had opened up to him a tad more, though, much like a river, some of the streams of thought simply came to dead ends. She had laid boundaries in her mind that he wouldn't be permitted entry, which to him was something he could understand. Everyone had a right to privacy after all, though at current, he had no real secrets to conceal. Least, nothing he could think of. "I can't see much of a retirement honestly, I don't even know what I'd do with myself." He mused, rubbing his beard, before looking to Ayala as she spoke of Adhira. Yea, he could run for office. That'd be wonderful. "Wonder if she carries her saber with her. Wonder if that gets her kicked out of diplomatic meetings."
Truthfully, he would have left this place by now, but Aayla's presence was the only thing that kept him in any sort of calm. They had to do this for her, to figure out whatever was going on in her head, and if doing this would help her, then so be it. He just wanted whatever was going on between them to feel addressed, and this felt the right way to go about it.
He grinned at her attempt to humor him. It worked, though he was still uneasy from this place. "Close, but you have to do the deep sigh. She always does this deep sigh before she says something profound." Honestly, at times he felt more like a secretary than a padawan. If anything, he was an honorary knight working with the grandmaster. Which was a tad irritating, as he was deprived of the respect that was laid upon knights. He was frustrated by it, but he kept it in check. "You're the only thing that's keeping me at peace here." He spoke, his eyes following her, until the reached the stone structure, and immediately felt his stomach sink.
There was something seeped in this world, like a disease. It festered here, deep in the earth, and pulsed to the surface like a flower spreading it's pollen. It was strange, unnatural. What was needed to warp the force so severely here? "Aya, let me check this out first." He suggested, stepping forward, hand extended towards the monolith. His ability to glance into the past had come in handy at times, ideally, it would help once again. He closed his eyes, putting his palm to the stone, and let the force guide him along the way.
He caught visions, flickers of memories, strung together in an amalgamation of a horror film. There was chanting, sacrifices, and fowl entities that flowed from this rift. Spirits of the darkside had passed through this rift, some willing, some less so. Those who had the power to tap into this focus however, had long since passed, either done in by their work, or turning on one another to control it fully. Regardless, he had seen enough, as he withdrew from the stone, a tad disturbed from what he had seen. "Whatever we are going to do here, we best do it quick. This area has seen a lot of bloodshed, and I'm not sure if we are entirely alone." He felt something on the edge of his senses, a faint flicker in the force that both would feel, though their eyes would reveal nothing; nothing that Kadan could see at least. He glanced about them, his hand taking hold of his saber. "I'll watch out for you, so just focus on what you need to do." He turned to take up a defensive posture, leaving Aayla to her study. Whatever was out there, it had better not start a fight with them.
Because if it was like the creatures he had encountered before, he had no idea how he would combat it.
