28.9 BBY, Coruscant, Jedi Temple
Standing a step behind and to the right of my Master, I couldn't help admiring her serene poise. We were standing in the exact center of the Jedi High Council chamber while five members of said Council looked on, and she was as calm as if we were back on Cophrigin V.
The arc their seated forms made surrounded us on three sides. Driving home the reality of the High Council's power and authority for whoever stood in their midst.
Dark Woman's emotions were as untroubled as the mirrored surface of a lake on a windless day in the face of expressions ranging from intent to speculative, and on into the truly inscrutable for Yoda and Yaddle.
While I was finding it difficult to remain calm beneath those penetrating gazes. I felt as if I were a particularly rare species of butterfly, and this symposium of collectors had gathered to decide how best to drive a pin through me and so create the ideal display.
Under the stares of these immense presences in the Force, I was developing a tremendous amount of respect for Qui-Gon Jinn's strength of will. Defying these people while they were assembled like this would take a will of iron, and they weren't even trying to be intimidating right now!
"It's unfortunate that you and your Padawan were unable to learn what ultimately became of Knight Vergere. Her disappearance only compounds the Order's recent losses" Mace Windu remarked in a pensive tone.
His calm demeanor firmly in place, even as his expression made it clear he could have been a great deal happier. His former apprentice, Master Depa Billaba, glanced at him with concern made clear by her fine-boned features.
The tiny jeweled Marks of Illumination in the bridge of her nose and forehead glinting in the room's diffuse lighting as she quickly returned her gaze to us.
It was a face which was quickly schooled to impassivity once more, but not before I detected just how distressed she was by her mentor's discontent.
Despite the oblique nature of his reference, Mace's allusion to the resignations of Thracia Cho Leem and Sora Bulq had sent a subtle ripple of discomfiture through the auras of his fellow Council members.
With the exceptions of Masters Yoda and Yaddle, of course. Those two had promising futures as high-stakes sabacc players before them, if they were ever so inclined.
Dark Woman hesitated for a nearly imperceptible moment before replying. Standing with my hands clasped behind me and my feet equal distances apart as I looked on.
I privately doubted anyone who wasn't intimately familiar with her would have noticed either the infinitesimal pause or the extremely subtle hint of exasperation in her voice as she dryly replied.
"It was unfortunate that the latest violation of planetary sovereignty in the Mid or Outer Rim by elements of the Republic precluded further investigation into Vergere's whereabouts and statements."
Mace Windu stiffened slightly at my Master's implicit criticism of the corruption endemic within the Republic, but other than a nearly silent sigh, the Master of the Order didn't address it directly.
Instead, he steepled his fingers, leaned forward a bit, then calmly remarked "You might consider reflecting upon the troubling prospect of passing along your own cynical view of the Republic's condition to an impressionable apprentice."
I couldn't see my Master's face, but I could feel her black humor as she answered "You're suggesting I should deceive my Padawan concerning the state of the government, then?"
"Debate the teaching of apprentices, another time, we can. The meaning of Vergere's message, we must discuss" Yoda abruptly cut in. His manner as firm as it was serene while he did so.
Turning his head to the left to eye Mace meaningfully, before returning his attention to Dark Woman with an expression I recognized from the movies conveying his trademark "Kids, these days" air.
The moment the green-skinned alien with ears as emotionally expressive as his large brown eyes spoke, I saw a glimmering latticework of fractured web-lines crossing and recrossing in a convergence of causality I finally recognized as a Shatterpoint.
By a process of perception I couldn't yet begin to understand, I suddenly grasped how the Grandmaster's resistance concerning executing Vergere's plan could be broken.
Yoda's statement had been enough to cause several moments of still silence in the chamber. Something which should by all rights have intimidated the Hell out of me.
"It's a large clear crystal. Wheel-shaped, faceted, and about three times the size of a grown man's fist. The Force concentrates about it, as if it were some kind of strange mag-lens. The blade to part the veil of the Dark Side, I mean." Struck by the absolute certainty this information would shift Yoda's decision.
I hadn't been able to resist blurting out the basics concerning the Kaiburr Crystal's description. The impulse had been all the more irresistible for coming from some shadowy instinctual recess in the depths of my mind.
The Force hummed it's low, subtly vibrating-my-bones warning as six pairs of eyes fixed on me. Each Jedi Master focusing their full and unwavering attention upon what had been up to that moment mostly the curiosity which the near-heretic in their midst was training. Of the six, only my Master didn't seem surprised by my outburst.
Mace Windu and Depa Billaba exchanged glances a few moments after that interjection on my part, as did Yoda and Yaddle, but in a more knowing fashion I thought.
His upper body covered in long straight brown hair, with pronounced claws on each finger which made me wonder how he handled a lightsaber, and the imposing lower body of a huge serpent.
The Thisspiasian Master, Oppo Rancisis was the one who first responded to me.
"Perhaps you could explain how you come by your certainty concerning the nature of the object Jedi Vergere referenced, Padawan?" His tone was mild, but the alien's expression managed to convey skepticism despite the obvious difference between Thisspiasian and human facial features.
"I often see things when I sleep, Master Rancisis. Lately, I've begun seeing things when I'm particularly deep in meditation. The visions associated with the crystal and it's location seem to me like illustrations I studied at length somewhere.
The view of the planet from space, then the abandoned temple in the jungle clearing, and finally the huge tentacle-faced statue with the crystal in it's chest. They're all detailed images I can recall as easily as a memory of you, if I were to close my eyes."
I answered the Jedi Master with all the calm seriousness I could muster. My palms were sweating and there was a lead weight in my gut as a result of all the attention, but I held my ground and continued looking back at him without regard for the anxiety caused by the (minor) element of untruthfulness in my testimony.
"Anakin's Far Sight has grown quite developed recently. If he says the object Vergere referred to is a crystal embedded in the chest of an ancient statue, I would not wager against his sight."
The firm confidence of my Master's voice as she spoke up in support of me was gratifying, but I detected an undertone which suggested there was a twenty mile run against time in my future for demonstrating talents in front of the High Council I knew she would have preferred for me to keep under wraps.
Dark Woman was no one's fool. She knew there had been an unhealthy (for me) amount of interest in the supposed "Chosen One" ever since Qui-Gon had reported his discovery to the High Council.
Just as she'd known training me in the Temple would have exposed me to being both ostracized by those who'd known each other since the creches, and unfairly judged by Masters insisting I be exactly like every other cookie-cutter Initiate they were progressing by incremental steps of orthodoxy toward becoming someone's apprentice.
Unlike what a newly Knighted and woefully inexperienced Obi-Wan Kenobi would have tolerated due to a simple lack of confidence in his authority as the Master of a Padawan learner, both eventualities were absolutely unacceptable to my strangely and savagely protective Master, so away we had stayed.
Until the web which was the hunt for the Sith had entangled us in its strands, as I at least had always known it would.
"I don't perceive the strong personal connection to a person, place, or thing that normally triggers uncontrolled instances of Far-Sight.
Would you happen to have an explanation, or at least a plausible theory, as to why your apprentice is dreaming of an ancient relic on the other side of the galaxy?" Rancisis asked my Master in the too-formal manner he was infamous for when displeased or disturbed and lacking a good reason to show it.
With the smallest of shrugs, Dark Woman forthrightly answered "I was dubious on that point myself, at first.
Especially when Anakin eventually confided to me he'd also witnessed Weaponmaster Bulq deleting a list of thirty-eight worlds from the planetary registry in both the Temple Archives and the secure back-up storage located within the Vault.
My Padawan has never even met Sora Bulq, and these were two locations he'd never even seen images of, after all. Still, he remained so adamant about the matter, that I gave him my word I'd look into it when we arrived here.
Imagine my surprise, then, when the Chief Librarian confirmed just such a list of planets had been deleted once I gave her reason to check specifically for that sort of erasure.
Unfortunately, Master Nu was unable to determine the identity of the culprit, but she's absolutely certain only a Jedi Master could have accessed and subsequently erased such information from the protected memory in the Vault.
When you couple that assurance with the fact the recovered timestamp of these erasures dates to only eight days before Bulq's resignation, Sora Bulq would already have been apprehended and deposited in a holding cell to await questioning by the most senior Jedi Shadows available if I were a member of this august body."
Mace's expression grew strained, and his calm thinned noticeably as he replied in a terse manner.
"Master Dark Woman, this Council has already taken the matter of the troubling data-erasure under advisement, as you well know. Airing your speculations concerning Sora Bulq in front of your apprentice was uncalled for. I will thank you to show more discretion going forward."
I couldn't see my Master's face, but I was very surprised to feel a few notes of concern from her for the man she'd seemed set on squaring off with prior to this moment. My awareness of that concern for Windu only confused the matter for me as Dark Woman continued in a chastising tone of her own, however.
"I suppose the timing of those data erasures could simply be another coincidence. Just like the recent bombing on Ruul by Houk extremists that claimed the lives of Bulq's father and older brother.
Giving your old friend complete control of the Bulq family's nine hundred and fifty billion-credit financial empire, as well as a ready-made excuse to increase the militarization of said moon under the guise of increased anti-terrorism measures.
It's possible all of this is nothing but a string of unconnected coincidences, of course, but how likely is that really?"
...
I'll appreciate if you guys can throw some power stones to keep the story going.
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