Star Wars: The Price of Balance

Chapter One: Two Souls Bound by Fate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZY4ckRa39E

Adriel Ferr

How long has it been now? A week? A month? A year? I can't tell anymore. I sit here in the pitch black with nothing but my thoughts to keep me company, "you mustn't lean on your thoughts and emotions Adriel. Holding onto such pain and memory can lead you down a dark path. Focus on the light, stay strong, and trust in the force" A voice echoes through my head, a voice of a very old memory "master?" I reply but with no response, all I hear is just the unceasing hum of the ship. This cell of shadow is driving me to the depths of madness, but I suppose that's what 'they' want. They want to turn me and force me down a path of darkness, to twist me into a puppet. But they won't get the satisfaction I won't let them, them being the blind followers of my old friend, Ben Solo. Just the thought of his name causes my heart to burn with hate. Ben the traitor, Ben the murderer, Ben the one who would blindly turn and kill his friends, his family and destroy his home, my home. "Don't cry Adriel there's nothing to be afraid of this is your home now. No need to dwell on the past look here at your future, plenty of food to eat and a bed with your name on it. You know my uncle was telling me that he senses much power within you and I sense it too. You'll make an excellent Jedi one day, I guarantee that." Ben's voice used to be such a comfort, a reassurance always in my times of darkness. I knew I could always spend my nights of worries in his tent, I always felt safe around him, I trusted him and would share all my emotions and fears. "Another nightmare Adriel? Don't be scared, your dreams are only that, dreams. They won't follow you while you're here I'll protect you. Here eat this, it's Shuura, a fruit from Naboo I snuck it in my bag from my last trip to see my parents. It's incredibly sweet and it will make you feel much better." Ben would always be there, a teacher, as well as a friend, always gentle. It was why it was so confusing to see him sparring, striking with such power, such rage. How long has it been now? Haven't I already said this or was that weeks ago? I cannot tell anymore these damn walls are mocking me! I can't think over there incessant screaming and begging for mercy, SHUT UP! They just won't quiet down every time I get near them or touch them they scream at me! "Calm yourself young one, silence your mind feel the crystal, see the crystal and trust in the force, it will lead you to it" I hear his voice still as clear as day "Yes master Nabnar..." the joy of that moment still fuels me, the joy of hearing Kolar, my Kyber Crystal for the first time. Hearing the sharp hiss of my name echoing through the icy caverns. I remember running quickly over ice my master calling my name from behind. Oh, such a beautiful joy It was to be young and innocent, running with a joyful purpose, running not from people who wish me harm. I expected to find my crystal pressed into ice and rock, like how my fellow brothers and sisters found their crystals. I was confused when I rounded a corner to find my crystal glowing within a beaten and old lightsaber. It lay next to a decrypted and frozen old corpse of a Chagrian. I took the lightsaber from the death-grip of the fallen Jedi and as I did the hilt turned to dust revealing Kolar in the center of my palm. I held him in my hands for the first time and it was then that I heard his voice, "Jedi, Sith you both are weak you'll never know true power when all you do is feed on one side of the force, THE FORCE has no sides! It is one, you have become fools to-" a sharp scream echoes through the void of my mind than I hear a deep raspy and mechanical breath followed by silence. Kolar, my crystal was different to all its Kyber brothers, It wasn't like anything even Master Skywalker had seen. He is a white crystal but cracked almost in two but seemingly melted back together. A broken soul just like me. Kolar is special and changes as you hold him, he responds to you and comforts, changing hue as you speak, as you feel, he's alive I know he is and he's been taken from me.

"Mealtime," says the trooper outside my cell, I feel him in the force but I am too weak, too starved, too thirsty to do anything. A tray slides in, the first meal and drink of water I've seen in all the time I've been here. I ate with haste, stuffing the slop down my throat. I don't even know what it was I was eating, I'm not even sure if It was food. "You're going to choke if you keep eating like that you know?" She said, Aaya Ulah she was a Twi'lek enchantment, I hadn't paid much mind to her until that moment in the food hall when she stared at me and I saw hope truly for the first time. I was entranced by her eyes of blue and skin of pale violet, her dark freckles coating her rosy cheeks from my silent stare. She was right I did choke. The combination of bad eating habits and her beauty had clogged my throat. Luckily she plucked the food right out with a click of her fingers, and with that click, I had fallen in love. We grew up together spending every mealtime across from one another, playing games in the fields and training our saber skills and mastery of the force, we were inseparable. She was my best friend and soon our friendship grew into a forbidden romance as age brought our desires forth. Our studying had changed from reading in the archives to secret kisses in the woods. I loved her truly more than anything and I believed that our love was knit together by the force itself. She brought out such a light within me, such a peace that came to fuel my training, a love that showered me in the light. I always suspected that my master Nabnar Tok knew of our secret but maybe he allowed it because he saw the light too.