RESISTANCE ━━ k. ren ✓

xxiii

The Falcon lands with a thud on a grassy hill. The ramp lowers and you bound down it. Illuma is a small planet full of grassy hills and rocky caves. A small breeze gathers around your legs, blowing up, and lifting your hair away from your face.

Rey walks down the ramp after you and takes a deep breath.

"Feels good." Rey says to you. You nod.

"Should we be going?" You ask. You're anxious to get your own Kyber Crystal.

"Just give me a second." Rey says. She looks up wistfully at the Falcon.

"Don't worry. We'll be back." You say.

"I know." Rey turns and walks towards you. "Let's go."

The two of you walk down the hill and onto an old path. Illuma used to be inhabited but the people are long gone now.

You feel a slight pull in your stomach. It's not your string, it's something deeper than that. Something that belongs to you alone.

You turn to look at Rey.

"Do you feel that?" You ask.

She nods. "We must be getting close."

The old path leads you to a series of abandoned caves. Directly in front of you, there's three caves.

"Which do we go in?" You ask Rey.

"Just follow your gut." She says. You confidently take a step towards the left cave but something jerks you back. You take a step to the middle cave. Nothing pulls you back. You walk to the mouth of the cave and turn to watch Rey trying to puzzle out which cave she should go in.

"Meet back here when we're done?" You ask. Rey nods and walks towards the right cave.

You take a deep breath and plunge into the darkness of the cave. Almost immediately, the dark swallows whatever sun was shining in.

You reach for your belt and in unclip your blue lightsaber. You turn it on and it casts a bright blue glow on everything in the cave.

You walk forward, feeling the tugging become more insistent.

Once you're a good mile or so into the cave, different colors gleam on the walls of the cave. You turn off your saber and clip it back onto your belt.

Here, in the deepest part of the cave, you begin to here whispers. Colors flare up, bright blues, and dark purples, greens, and a few other colors sprinkled in.

You gasp. It's quite beautiful.

The pull in you becomes more insistent as you near the left cave wall. One color flares up. You step towards it and press your fingertips to the crystal, closing your eyes. A million images flash behind your closed eyelids and you almost fall to the ground.

You open your eyes, your instincts screaming that this is it, this is your Kyber crystal.

The crystal is a gold-orange color. It doesn't look like a normal Kyber crystal. It has three prongs at the top and one large spear at the bottom. It also isn't buried in the stone wall like the others are. It looks like it had been placed there previously.

You pull the crystal out with your right hand and unclip the almost finished lightsaber with the other.

You open the compartment for the crystal and slip it inside easily. The crystal fits perfectly as if made for your saber handle.

You ignite your new lightsaber. It's a pretty gold color. You swing it around and it makes a satisfying whooshing sound. You couldn't have asked for a better crystal.