Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy A Fan Novelization

Chapter Twenty-Four - The Valley of the Dark Lords

PART FOUR: A TRUE JEDI

Jaden flew her X-wing around the outside of the planet, careful not to alert Tavion's ships as she passed. She landed in a remote area close to the Valley of the Dark Lords, the burial site of countless Sith Lords spanning millennia. As she hopped out of the cockpit, she was greeted by a familiar and welcome sight.

"Jaden, you made it!" Jas Harin, accompanied by Jaccyn and Master Tionne rushed forward from an arch set into an ancient stone wall they'd been guarding. "Did you find Rosh?"

"He's hurt, but safe. Kyle's taking care of him on one of the Republic cruisers. Any sign of Tavion?"

"Not yet," Jas replied. "We're trying to locate Ragnos' tomb. Master Skywalker's group landed in another part of the valley to search for it."

"Then I'd better get going," Jaden said, starting towards the arch, feeling it was the best direction to go before Tionne placed a hand on her shoulder to stop her.

"Hey be careful, this place is crawling with dark Force users. We all go together." Jaden nodded and let the Twi'lek Master Jedi walk ahead of her into the passage, into the catacombs.

The passageway was pitch black, they used their sabers to light the way: The dim glow from Jaden's yellow saber mingled with Jas's orange, Jacyyn's blue and Tionne's purple to create enough light to see several feet ahead of them. It created a beautiful sunset effect on the ancient stones of the wall, perhaps the only thing of beauty this site had seen in centuries.

The passage started to go downward, turning into large steps that descended into blackness. They kept their ears open, their Force senses on the alert, but there was nothing.

They soon saw a dim light ahead and entered a large room with a vaulted ceiling. In each corner, Jaden immediately noticed the tarnished gold statues of robed figures holding perfectly cut crystals above their heads that glowed amber, reminding her of similar statues in the Crystal Canyons. Torches along the wall were lit so that they didn't need the light from their sabers anymore. In the center of the room lay a coffin and there was no visible way out.

"How do we get out of this room?" Jacyyn said, a little too loudly for his own good in the dim, eerily sacred silence of the place.

No one immediately answered, but they quietly spread out and carefully searched along the walls, bringing their lightsabers back out so as to get a better look. Jaden slowly approached the coffin, standing directly in front of it. As evil as the Sith could be, they buried their dead with some amount of respect and care, but that was just an outside observation. On the inside, Jaden disliked the dark, oppressive feeling of the place; it felt like a crushing weight had been balanced on her shoulders, reaching towards the darkness inside her that wasn't hers, but put there by the scepter of Ragnos. She nearly jumped when a hand reached out and touched her shoulder.

"I know my dear, I know." Tionne's voice was soft. "It's alright, you don't have to hold onto it, it's this place, not you. Once you recognize that, it's not yours anymore." The Twi'lek Master's eyes were misty, gentle, totally and completely different from that of Alora's. She, and everyone else for that matter still hadn't heard the full story of what happened on Taspir III, but the kind look on Tionne's face told Jaden she knew all she needed to and that was alright. Jaden didn't try to stop the tear that rolled freely down her cheek as Tionne gave her shoulder one last squeeze before moving on to searching the room again.

"Look for the things your eyes will deceive you in, use your Force sight instead," Tionne instructed.

Taking a freeing deep breath, Jaden looked up and side to side, noticing again the statues in each of the corners. She turned around to get a better look at the ones behind her. Wait a second...