The Forsaken Ones

Envoys

There was another city. A city build in the roots of the first one, a city behind the trees and the skyscrapers and the ashes that covered the surface. And this city was different from the others because there was people living in it. People young and old; men, women, and their children. It was a settlement, a small but efficient community. It was ugly and cramped, but it was alive, at least.

"Isn't this funny?" Lyanna's voice had recovered its usual happiness, in a poor attempt to cheer him up. "We were never going to find what we were looking for in the surface. Who would have thought there existed intelligent beings living into the core of this wasteland?"

He didn't respond. His right arm felt numb and his mind, too. He barely had enough strength to walk, right then, he relayed on her support to move.

When they settled inside a room, they took off their breathing masks. Lyanna wasted no time and tended to the younger one's bites and marks. She washed the wounds and then bandaged his arm in bacta as best as she could handle. It looked bad, but she hoped it didn't became more serious.

"They saved us. Who are those people?"

"Do not rush things. We will have our answers in time, I hope," the woman brushed a coppery strand from the young man's sweaty face, and tucked it behind his ear. It was a hopeless action since more rebellious strands found their way into his forehead.

Despite being almost twenty years her senior, over time Lyanna and her Padawan developed what was more like a brother and sister relationship, something that was frowned upon by the High Council.

She was quiet, collected and refined. When she spoke, she captured with no effort the attention of anyone.

Kisai was impetuous, too curious for his own welfare and defiant. He needed to move from one place to another and accomplish important tasks to maintain his sanity. "Rogue Jedi", that's how the old Masters called him.

They appreciated Lyanna, but didn't see him with the same high esteem.

"Thanks, Lyanna. I hadn't had the occasion to show my gratitude, until now," his voice was tired, and raspy.

"Don't, I wasn't the one..."

"They would have been too late to save us if it weren't for the time you gained," the Jedi looked at her with devotion shining through them. "Once again you save my life even though I'm no Padawan to seek protection from his elders."

"Shut up," she said in a sweet whisper.

All of a sudden, a tall, lanky man entered. He seemed to be malnourished—just like any other inhabitant of the place—and his skin was an unhealthy color. He was young, maybe even younger than Kisai, but his appearance didn't reflect his actual age. Brown and feverish eyes moved fast in its orbits, trying to take in everything. His frenetic eye motion and too frequent blinking made of him a disturbing sight.

"Welcome to our Promised Land. My name is Baaz. Baaz Kenzari. I am the current Promised One. It is a shame things didn't go as planned, but I am delighted to see you alive. If you died, we would have called you in vain. Mmmm. You don't look good."

Both Jedi recognized him without a second thought. It was the same man who had shouted at them, the one with the crackling voice. He was looking them all over; then, he got some vials and wipes out of his bag and approached them. Kisai couldn't help but notice that the man dragged a leg while walking.

"Oh, yes, yes. It was a rhakghoul's bite, too, just like yours. But mine didn't look as horrible. Drink this."

The man extended them some unidentified vials.

"Hurry! Drink it now. You don't want to become beasts, do you? It will eliminate the infection from bites and scratches."

Horrified by the explanation, both of them downed the serum as fast as they could. By that time, the pain had gotten worse and a headache emerged. It was unbearable. Much to their relief, the man also gave them a substance that worked as a painkiller. They drank it with no objection. Kisai was the one who suffered the most. There was little that could be done in the meantime for his bite marks aside the first aid treatment. After a meal and a rest, they finally had a chance to speak.

"... and our ancestors, the Outcasts, where the only ones to survive the ending of the world, and since then we live here, in the Undercity that holds the weight of the ruins in the surface. Life is hard, a lot die; some from starvation, others in rhakghoul attacks."

"Your basement seems to be well protected," interrupted Kisai as he looked at his surroundings.

"Oh, yes. We are protected, but those vicious beings find the way once in a while. They are the plague of the surface; looks like they reproduce from nowhere. Oh, and we are also protected from the radiation of shattered old reactors," Baaz rambled with undisguised excitement about his home.

They waited for him with patience. They were hearing non recorded galactic history, after all. 

When he finished, Kisai continued the conversation, trying to sound as diplomatic as possible, as a Jedi should be, "First thing first, thank you for saving us. But we need answers. Were you the one who sent a distress signal to us?"

"Distress? We are not in distress. We are better than ever. My people didn't know you were actually going to come here," he said almost laughing, a gleam of amusement dancing in his eyes. "If we had known, we would have gone to the surface to find you before those beasts did."

"What about the signal? The electrical impulse that we caught on Bandomeer coming from your city," interrupted Lyanna.

"Bandomeer? Must be another world like ours," said the man with a frown, wrinkles decorating the length of his forehead.

"No. Trust me. It's not like yours,"  thought Kisai, biting his tongue to avoid saying it out loud.

"It's another planet. Near yours. Someone in your village called us. What do you have to say about that?" he said instead.

"I have to say, dear visitor, that we didn't know our machinery and the technology that remains on our world could do such things. I apologize if we alerted you and made you came for nothing. But, since you are envoys of The Ones, it will be our pleasure if you stay in our home enough for us to honor you as it should be."

"Envoys?"

"We knew it since we saw you fight with your glowing fires."

Before Kisai had the chance to say anything, Lyanna stepped in, "Thank you, very much, for your hospitality and respect. We hope not to be a burden to your village as long as we remain here. We do not intend to abuse your cordiality, as soon as we recover from our injuries, we will leave."

After another exchange of friendship, the weird man left them alone.

"Master, I don't like this. I don't like this place. I don't like these people. I don't like this situation overall."

"Neither do I, Kisai, neither do I. Something strange is happening here. I can feel it."

And there it was, the horrid feeling in his gut was getting back.

"Do you trust these people?" she continued.

"Do I have a reason to?"

"They are not telling all the truth. But I must admit, they have every right to distrust us just as we distrust them. That is not helpful."

"So are we going to play along with them? I don't even know the way an envoy should be," he pronunciated the word with undisguised suspicion.

"A Jedi should be a master of disguise. We will stay here and try to gather some information about who they are and what they have been doing. I don't believe their machines caused the signal."

"What do you think about The Ones?"

"It's maybe a cult or religion. It is not new in galactic history when a low developed culture mistakes the Jedi for divine beings. It would not surprise me," her voice was cold, and stern. "Anyways, we have to get to the bottom of this, and then we leave."