FORSAKEN - Target: Zero

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Oppo Rancisis guided the party down a long tunnel with his arms folded in from of him. Carved stone pilasters reinforced the passageway. Kyber crystals grew out among the stalactites and stalagmites, providing the source of illumination. The Force emanating from the crystals pulsed hard and steady. The walls, built of mismatched, protruding masonry blocks, curved and melded, undistinguished from its natural surroundings by the passing of centuries. A slab blocked the end of the corridor, adorned with three overlapping inlaid circles. The smaller ones were positioned lower and to the sides. One was made of gold with a blue marble center; the other of obsidian and red marble. The larger one, higher and in the middle, was formed of both materials with purple marble at its core.

"This is the Mortis Chamber." Master Rancisis voice echoed through the tunnel. "It is the deepest and oldest place below the Temple of the Whills, believed to predate its very construction. None but the oldest Guardians know of its existence, for no one has ventured down this hall in a thousand years. The ancient Force-users, the Je'daii, sought enlightenment in the caverns beyond this door: from the Ashla, the Light; the Bogan, the Dark; and the Bendu, the balance between them."

"How do we enter?" Syrran said.

"That is for the seekers of the knowledge within to figure out. Everything you need to know is contained in these symbols." The Jedi Master motioned toward the door with his long claws. "A word of warning: to take something outside, you must leave something within. Though you enter as three, you shall leave as one. What you were, will give way to what you will be."

"If this place is so forgotten, how come you know so much about it?" Theleema said.

"I don't. The crystal told me. May the Force be with you." Rancisis bowed and slithered back to where they came from, disappearing down the tunnel.

Elynn sighed. "So... any clues?"

Syrran studied the linework. "Seems pretty straightforward: both sides of the Force coming together to complement each other." He placed his hand on the blue circle inside the golden circumference.

Theleema did the same on the red one and Elynn on the center one. Nothing happened.

"Alright, that didn't work," Elynn said.

"Switch with him," Theleema said.

They obliged to no avail.

"Any ideas?"

Syrran closed his eyes and lowered his head. A chorus of soft voices rose in his psyche. He had heard them once before, as a child, when the vessel he served on as a navigator crashed in Ilum. "Listen."

The women followed suit, hearing the same voices in their minds. Following the kyber crystal's instructions, Theleema made a fist, Elynn turned her hand sideways, and Syrran flipped his over, open. The circles glowed with their respective lights and the door rumbled open.

"This is the same place I saw yesterday," Theleema said.

A cave had been carved into a rough chamber from the rock itself with astonishing skill. Kyber crystals growing from the ceiling and the ground fused into a single central column, bathing everything with its dim glow. The three passages inside had been blocked with slabs of stone. The one on the left had a jagged star with a rounded pattern in the center edged on it—an early Sith sigil, the Bogan. The door to the right had the inverse of that graphic chiseled in its surface representing the Jedi; the Ashla. The central door displayed both symbols blended together; the Bendu. Here, the connection to the kyber crystal deposits to the Force felt the strongest.

The entrance resounded shut.

"Well, we know what do." Theleema placed her fist over the door marked with the Sith seal. Elynn touched the Jedi one, and Syrran went to the middle stone, mimicking what he had done before.