Private To Raid a Tomb

[Ishani Dinn]

While it was currently being turned into the new headquarters of the NJO, Tython was still technically the origin planet of the Je'daii. If Ishani was going to find out more about their Order, traveling to the source made sense.

Arriving aboard Vixen, she scouted the place out. While she was safe to approach the Jedi, she didn't necessarily enjoy hanging around them, so aside from asking for directions, she stayed away for the most part.

Eventually she found herself alone in the forests of Tython, headed toward the ruins of an ancient temple of some kind. Or was it a tomb? Neither the locals nor the Jedi seemed certain, only that it had been there for as long as anyone could remember. Climbing up over a hill, she spotted fallen pillars and stones eroded by wind and rain and time. On the outside, it didn't look like much was left, but something told her there was more to this place than meets the eye.

Ara Sheridan​

 

[Ara Sheridan]

Despite that fact that a bit of a conflict broke out not too long ago on Tython, Ara felt like it was a perfect opportunity to help her in her struggle to master the Force. Sure, she recognized the issue within herself after the sparring match she had with Valery Noble , but she still had to figure out how to combat those concerns and better herself as a person.

She needed to get away and figure some stuff out. And what better trip was there to do than to go visit the birthplace of the Jedi and tap into that raw Light Side mojo. She hoped that some meditation and that other funky meditative fighting thing would help to calm her down a bit. It took some time for her to find a solid place, but eventually she came upon some old ruins of a temple or something. She wasn't sure what it used to be. All she knew was that it was old, ruined, Jedi-ish, and looked mystical as hell. She even took a few photos of the place, fully intent on sending them all to her crush once she found some signal again.

With a deep breath she looked around the place as she studied what remained. The place felt... odd. The good kind, but still odd. Though her thoughts trailed off when she felt another presence coming closer to her. She found herself sticking to the shadows and holding her breath when the other figure entered the remains of the temple. Already a bunch of jokes and insults loaded up and primed, just in case they were needed. She stuck to her spot, curious to see who the girl was.

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

Ishani certainly wasn't dressed like a Jedi or an Alliance soldier. Her clothes were plain and practical, and she had both a utility belt and a backpack full of supplies. Her long blonde hair was in a braid, and she wore no jewelry or cosmetics... apart from perfume, which she never left the house without. Today she smelled fruity and tropical.

Cautiously approaching the ruins, she stepped carefully over the long-toppled remnants of the structure. Grass grew in green tufts between the gaps, tall and in need of a trim. It reminded her of the abandoned settlements on her homeworld, all overgrown and not-quite-empty…

“Hello?” she called out, having sensed someone else nearby. The forests were full of life, but this particular presence had the brightness and brilliance of a sapient being. “Show yourself, please.”

She didn’t expect to get attacked, but you never know. Ishani had never been much of a warrior. Motherhood and politics had softened her up. She was currently trying to change that, embarking on a strict physical training regime to get into shape, but she hadn’t reached a point where she could stand toe to toe against an exceptional fighter. She'd be eating dirt in about five seconds. At least she had her bag of tricks to help get her out of a bad situation, if it came to that…

Ara Sheridan​

 

[Ara Sheridan]

It quickly became apparent that the new arrival was a Force User, her presence rippled through the Force as Ara hid in her corner. Secret was out now, no need to try and pull a fast one on her. "You don't exactly feel or look like a Jedi. Who are you?" She asked as she stepped out of her corner and got a better look of the new arrival.

She couldn't get a pin on the woman. Ara wasn't exactly an expert on feeling stuff, but the woman didn't have the same vibe as either the Jedi or the Sith she encountered a few years ago. "Yo, you got an identity crisis or something? Your force vibe thing is all over the place, hot damn." She quipped as she walked over to a toppled pillar and sat down, setting her backpack next to her. "The name's Ara, by the way. You ain't a serial killer, are you?" She spoke rather bluntly as she pulled a cigarette from her pocket and lit it with a few puffs.

A few more looks at her and the temple. The awkwardness was starting to set in, and she tried to refrain from using her typical "ice breakers" that she would usually pull out in situations like this. "So, uh... what you doing here? You an archaeologist? Or whatever you call those people that look at old stuff..." she continued, scratching the back of her head with an awkward smile.

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

The stranger was a female Zabrak. No sooner had she shown herself, she began pestering Ishani with some rather personal questions, most of them regarding her aura in the Force. It wasn’t every day one was asked why they aren’t something, and Ishani’s lips thinned a little at her queries.

“I dunno,” she replied. “Maybe because I do what I want, rather than following some philosophy. People may be born Force Sensitive, you know, but they don’t have to go along with the rest of it.”

The Zabrak gave her name as Ara, and asked a few more pressing questions. Ishani shook her head. “I’m not a serial killer or an archaeologist. I came here out of curiosity. There are some very ancient Je’daii ruins around here that I want to explore.” She pointed to the rocks. “This is supposed to be one of them. It doesn’t look like much, but I feel like there’s something more here that I’m missing.” A hidden entrance, perhaps? An underground chamber, or tunnels? There had to be something…

Ara Sheridan​

 

[Ara Sheridan]

Turns out that it was a good call to take the blunt approach, it showed a lot of the woman's character. She was rude! "Hey, I ain't throwin' shade, no need to throw it at me." She quipped with a frown as she held her hands up. The reassurance that she wasn't dealing with a psycho was relieving, though she still wasn't sure how to deal with the woman. The pronunciation of "Jedi" was odd, though. But hey, Ara didn't need to judge. "Well... this is a 'Jedi' planet, so it makes sense, I'd say. Also what accent is that?"

So much for that.

"You might be missing some manners, maybe. You thought about lookin' for those?" This was getting worse by the moment... and her flat tone likely didn't help the situation at all. With no other visible way of relaxing the situation, Ara hopped off her seat and looked around the place. "Okay, what's missing? You got me curious now, so let's go look for it. I gotta learn something while I'm here, I could have went to a podrace or somethin' instead of being here. Can't make this trip a waste of creds." She commented as she paced around.

Her gaze turned to the stranger again for a moment. "You never introduced yourself, by the way. Also, how old are you? You look like you're tryin' hard to look forty or something." Thank goodness her master wasn't with her, he would have sent her to the nether already... but this woman looked like an easy pastime.

Likely had some easy buttons to push as well... she only needed to figure out which ones. "... So... got a name?" She quipped with a smile.

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

"You might be missing some manners, maybe. You thought about lookin' for those?"

Ishani gave Ara a hard look, half-wondering if she was joking. Did she not realize how blunt and disrespectful she was being? She’d managed to make Ishani feel uncomfortable and self-conscious within seconds of meeting her. While Ishani said nothing, merely staring at her, Ara continued to poke and prod, drawing attention to her accent, appearance, and age, and then had the nerve to insist upon accompanying her into the ruins. What the feth?

“Look,” Ishani finally said. “It’s one thing to use the Force to scan a stranger without them knowing. It’s another thing to ask someone pointed, personal questions before they’ve even given you their name. But sure, I must be the rude one here.”

Stepping past Ara, she faced the ruins. With the Force she stretched out, feeling along the ground, looking for loose soil or some similar abnormality. She eventually found a patch of ground which felt hollow underneath, and with a wave of her hand she ripped up the grass and dirt, digging a hole.

Part of her wished she could leave and come back when Ara wasn’t around, but she didn’t want to give the Zabrak a chance to pick the place clean. Which meant she was probably going to have to accept the other woman as company. Great. There was one thing she’d said that did draw Ishani’s interest, however. “It’s not my accent. Je’daii and Jedi are two different groups. The Je’daii were an ancient Order that existed here on Tython tens of thousands of years ago. They eventually split into the Jedi and the Sith. I think these are Je’daii ruins, which means they’re very, very old. Any treasure they might have is probably long gone.”

Maybe that would deter Ara from following her? One could hope.

Ara Sheridan​

 

[Ara Sheridan]

Ara paused as the woman brought up a rather interesting argument. What was morally more correct? To probe a person with the use of the Force, or to simply ask them in a blunt fashion? This actually shut the Zabrak up for a good while as she contemplated the statement. While the stranger investigated the ruins, Ara wondered if she should message a few people and ask what they thought about it.

That curiosity paused when the woman spoke up again to explain the difference between "Jedi" and "Je'daii" for a moment. "Wait... you mean they were a middle ground?" Ara asked her with a drastically more relaxed tone as she walked over to the woman. "Kark treasure, if I wanted money, I'd go boost a speeder. You think there might be some dope info left in here?" She continued as she looked around the place for anything that seemed odd. She was hopeless with studying ruins and funky scripts like that, but an odd wall, or something, out of place never changed.

"Not gonna lie, I'd take any useful info I can get my hands on. There's some Jedi stuff that don't make any sense to me sometimes." She admitted casually as she waltzed over to a nearby collapsed corridor. "You, uh... got any idea what to look for? Secret entrance, any markings, anything like that?" She asked the woman, lighting up another cigarette. But her momentary vice highlighted a curious spectacle. There wasn't any draft or something going through the place, but her smoke was trailing into the cracks of a nearby wall that didn't seem to go anywhere. "Yo! Come check this out. Smoke ain't supposed to be doing this, right?" She called out, holding her cigarette to the wall.

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

Ara seemed to actually consider Ishani’s words, falling quiet for a few moments. The next time the Zabrak spoke, she only asked about the Je’daii and the ruins.

“I’m no philosopher or theologian, but from what I understand, they were obsessed with balance—their word for it was Benduu. If someone went too far to the Light or the Dark Sides of the Force, they would be exiled to one of the two moons orbiting Tython, Ashla and Bogan, until they regained their balance.”

It seemed Ara was interested in knowledge rather than treasure. Ishani supposed that was a more noble goal, but the pursuit of knowledge didn’t make one virtuous. Ara was probably a Jedi—despite her gruff manner, something about her was suggestive of other Jedi Ishani had met in her travels. She had a certain serenity about her, a pervasive calm. For all that she might have personal gripes with Jedi philosophy, she was probably more worthy of the tomb’s secrets than a typical Sith. Or at least, she was less likely to do something bad with it.

“I don’t know what might be inside. I’m just looking for something to do,” Ishani admitted. “Raiding some ruins seemed like a fun way to pass the time.”

Her improved opinion of Ara was squashed yet again as the Zabrak lit up another cig. “I hope you don’t plan on smoking like a chimney once we get inside,” Ishani muttered, approaching the cracked wall. She peered down into the crack, then crouched, stretching out with the Force into the ground beneath her feet.

“There’s something underground here. The smoke is being drawn into it somehow. There must be a way to get down there, a mechanism or a door of some kind… Or if not, I guess we could leave and come back with shovels.”

Ara Sheridan​

 

[Ara Sheridan]

Ara turned her head to listen to what the woman had to say. Master Sol'yan definitely had a point when he said it was better to not talk sometimes and rather listen... this woman had some interesting stuff to say. Ara even recognized one of the words, though from a completely different context than the woman meant. "Bendu? I've heard of that before. Some kind of Force creature or something, apparently also focused on holding a balance in the Force. Might be where they got the name... or the other way around." She commented. That was one of the few lessons Ara never actually fell asleep in, not even for a moment.

When the woman approached to inspect the wall, Ara stepped back and held her cigarette away, though she continued to smoke away at it. Couldn't let a good cig go to waste out here. "Nah, I got no desire to keep inhaling the same smoke over and over." She casually reassured the woman. What she didn't admit, though, was that she actually gave a damn about other people around her. The last thing she needed was to appear like a little-

No, that wasn't right. This was exactly what Valery mentioned during their sparring session. To not let stuff like that get to her. To simply be herself and not care about what others thought. "And, uh... I... also figured, uh... meh, don't worry 'bout it." She brushed it off. No need to make the situation awkward.

Her time to actually be useful suddenly came up, causing the Zabrak to drop her bud and stomp it beneath her feet as she leaned in close to inspect the wall. "Um... I might have something. Stand back." She waited for the woman to step back as she unclipped and ignited her lightsaber. "The Force will understand, don't worry. Place is wrecked anyway." She chuckled nervously as she stabbed the lime blade into the wall and slowly started to carve away an entrance for them. Their suspicions were confirmed, there wasn't any resistance aside from the wall through the blade. There was something behind it. When her not-so-perfect circle was finished, Ara stepped back and, with a deep breath, shoved her hand forward to release a force push.

Thank kriff that didn't flop this time. Valery's advice was working like a charm.

The entrance crashed inward and Ara held her blade up to illuminate part of the hallway. "Ladies first or age before beauty?" She asked with a snicker as she looked at the woman.

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

Ishani couldn’t help but wince a little as the ancient ruins were remodeled by Ara’s lightsaber. She peered into the smoking gap in the stone wall, then glanced toward Ara when the Jedi next spoke.

"Ladies first or age before beauty?"

Pearls before swine. The comeback rose up in her throat, but she held her tongue. Be civil, at least.

She stepped through the hole, dropping down a few feet to land inside an underground chamber—well, the beginning of a long, narrow passage, really. Ishani had no lightsaber of her own, so she pulled out a flashlight and turned it on, shining the beam on her surroundings. The walls of the corridor were covered in intricate carvings written in a language she didn’t understand, accompanied by frescoes.

“I don’t suppose you can understand the text?” Ishani asked Ara, gesturing to the unfamiliar script. The pictures, at least, were relatively straightforward, depicting scenes of mystical rituals and the two moons of Tython. As she headed further down the corridor, however, the scenes grew more apocalyptic. Ashla and Bogan were no longer in harmony, resulting in the destruction of a city by a tidal wave, painted figures drowning in the flood. One female figure in particular was shown heroically rescuing some of the victims, only to perish in the final chapter of the story.

Ishani stopped before the last of the frescoes, which sat in a special place in an alcove. The woman was shown in elaborate funerary garb, her body clothed in a green gown and her auburn hair garlanded with white flowers. Jewelry decorated her throat, ears, and wrists, and she clutched a Je’daii’s Force-imbued blade in her folded hands. Her eyes were closed as if she were merely sleeping.

“A hero’s funeral,” Ishani murmured. “... A hero’s tomb?”

Ara Sheridan​

 

[Ara Sheridan]

Ara followed after the woman, holding up her lightsaber for light as they carefully walked through the ancient hallway. A ludicrously loud sneeze erupted from the Zabrak, followed by a groan as she massaged her nose. "Sorry... dust's killing me here." She grumbled, followed by another loud sneeze. "Kark this..." she scrounged for anything she could put over her face as a mask as another sneeze echoed through the ruins, finally resorting to pulling her shirt over her nose.

She eventually turned her attention to the walls as the woman gestured to the ancient scripture. A guilty snicker escaped Ara as she glanced at the woman then at the wall. "Um... believe it or not, I actually fell asleep during the class when we discussed this exact language... never got around to asking my master to take me through it again." She admitted as she studied the words. At least the pictures were pretty easy to understand, and Ara quickly started to take pictures of the walls as they continued to study them.

"That's epic, though. Huh?" She commented as they came to a stop by the last picture. "That's a way to go, honestly. If there's one thing I want before I go out, it's to pull off something like this." She admitted with a gentle tone as she raised her datapad to take the last photo of the wall.

The girl lingered by the wall for a few seconds before she finally turned and continued down the hallway, holding her green blade high. "This place looks closed off, though. Like... I don't think anyone has been under here for a long time. I just hope we can find that girl's tomb down here. Seeing something... like... that... what's that?" She stopped and looked at the woman, a frown setting in as she listened closely. A soft rumble echoed around them, though it continued to become louder as she stood in place. The walls started to vibrate around them. "Oh no... not again." She muttered, staring at the woman before a massive stone came tumbling down. "Move it!" She shouted, sprinting deeper into the ruins.

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

Ishani felt the quake as well. Her danger sense spiked, and she narrowly leaped out of the way of a falling boulder, the heavy stone drifting close enough to her that she could feel the hairs on her arm bristle as it scraped past her skin.

Then she was off, running down the passage as fast as she could. (Which admittedly wasn’t all that fast—she had short little legs, after all.) The narrow corridor opened up into a much larger chamber dominated by a checkerboard floor made up of blue tiles.

Ishani skidded to a halt, staring at the checkerboard. What was this? Some sort of puzzle? There were no other doors elsewhere in the tomb, no way out. So, were they supposed to solve it in order to escape?

Great. She’d never been much good at puzzles.

Ara Sheridan​

 

[Ara Sheridan]

"RUN, BISH, RUN!" Ara hollered as she sprinted through the halls, rocks and debris coming down behind and around them. Last time this happened, there were garbage words to dodge as well... she really hoped that wasn't the case with this. When they finally managed to get to a safe area, the hallway behind them was littered with debris from the ceiling, but luckily not sealed off entirely. Still, it wasn't going to be easy to get through that. "Guess... that's what happens... if you snoop around." She mumbled through breaths as she rested her hands on her head.

Looking around, Ara was just as puzzled as the woman about what the hell was going on. "The kriff is this supposed to be?" She muttered as she walked around, studying the walls for a moment. "Huh... guess smacking with a lightsaber ain't gonna work this time." She commented as she walked over to the woman. "Guess we can take a breath here, anyway." Reaching into a pocket, she pulled out two chocolate bars and held one out to the woman.

"Still didn't tell me your name, by the way." She quipped as she opened her bar and took a bite. "See anything? Or shall I light another smoke and see what the wind does?" She snickered, pacing around the place. Here and there, however, she jumped up and down on certain tiles, though those didn't seem to do anything.

Ishani Dinn

 

[Ishani Dinn]

“My name is Ishani, thanks,” she replied, taking a chocolate bar. Pointing to the tiles on the floor, she added, “This looks like some sort of puzzle.”

The chocolate was good. But Ishani’s moment of relaxation after the hectic escape from the cave-in was ruined when Ara began jumping on the tiles. “What are you doing? Are you trying to get us killed?”

At some point, Ara’s booted feet hit a tile that triggered a hidden compartment in the wall to suddenly open, and a glowing orb came flying out. It came to a stop above a “starting tile”, then floated in a visible pattern from panel to panel until it reached the other side.

“Okay, maybe not a puzzle,” Ishani said. “We’re probably supposed to follow that thing’s path.”

It was simpler than she thought it would be, much simpler. In fact, she sort of wondered why anyone would bother with a contraption like this. Unless… she stretched out with the Force, feeling the orb. It had a presence of its own in the Force, and it responded to her with a gentle pulse of energy.

“It’s probably only triggered by Force Sensitives,” she guessed. “I’m willing to bet it wouldn’t let a Dark Sider in here. Hmmm…”

She started to walk on the tiles, carefully stepping on each one as she followed the orb’s path.

Ara Sheridan​