The Unchronicled Adventures Of Ahsoka Tano, Book Ten

Chapter Sixty-Two: Times Long Past

AHSOKA TANO

In different circumstances, Ahsoka would have been running far more slowly to study the strange decoration of the Temple. But as it was, she hardly noticed it.

Her only thought was to get back to Cialone as soon as possible so she could start her research. She was sure that she would be able to save Kaylira if she delved deeper into the records that had gone untouched for years, and as for Anakin, it was only a matter of finding the right way to talk to him.

And she would find a way to make Kaya Ti's death mean something.

Suddenly, she caught sight of the familiar green of Kanan's shirt down the hallway. She stopped to meet him as the corridor branched off into another passage, and before long, Ezra joined them as well.

"Kanan, Ahsoka, you won't believe what I–"

"Tell us later," Kanan interrupted. "Come on!"

Then, he took off down the hallway in the direction he had initially come, with Ezra only a few steps behind. Choosing to trust Kanan's instincts and save questions for a later time, Ahsoka followed them.

Before long, the path grew rougher, the strange but elegant carvings and symbols gradually fading into rough, stone-hewn walls that one would expect to find in a cave more than a Jedi Temple. But for the past few minutes, it had been growing steadily lighter, and that was a very good sign.

"Up ahead!" Kanan called. "The way out!"

Suddenly, the earthy smell of peat and the delicate perfume of what had to be hundreds of flowers hit the roof of her mouth. For a moment, Ahsoka's surroundings shifted to another cave, and the soft glow of an abundance of candles showed a rocky stairway up to a hidden chamber.

She slowed to a stop as she felt the heat of a lightsaber over her right shoulder, and then the left, and then in the valley between her montrals. But unlike so often of late, its warmth was a comforting rather than threatening, and the ghostly image of the blade that generated it a friendly green.

She turned back, already almost certain of what she would see.

Master Yoda raised one clawed hand in salute, and the smile in his eyes spoke as loudly as his words could have. Ahsoka nodded slightly in response, a smile of her own touching the corners of her lips as she took off after Kanan and Ezra.

As she ran, she heard voices, and knew that, despite how impossible it had to be, the ancient words of a ceremony that had been passed down from Jedi to Jedi for generations were directed at her:

By the Right of the Council...

By the Will of the Force...

We dub thee Jedi, Knight of the Republic.

It was night when they finally emerged from the Temple.

Ahsoka winced as a large piece of the Temple's rocky outer façade crumbled away and fell to the ground with an almighty crash. It hurt her to see it being desecrated so, because she knew that it was one more piece of the Jedi Order being swept away for no reason other that it was a reminder of all that had once been.

It made the three hundred or so Jedi living on Cialone, and their task of keeping their way of life alive, all the more important.

The Phantom flew over their heads and came to a halt a foot or so off the ground before them. Kanan called for Chopper, who was flying, and the droid warbled back at him that they had to hurry; two Inquisitors were already inside the Temple and had signaled for reinforcements.