Echoes

[Kael Serasai]

Ilum
The Unknown Regions
119 ABY

"I failed" Kael grumbled through frozen lips, moving with deliberate hesitance up the cold boarding ramp of the shuttle he and his Master had flown to Ilum, the icy steel burning the soles of his bare feet.
"Failed, or gave up?" Caden Sturn asked, not turning away from the holomag he was reading. Kael could barely make out his form against the darkness, only his silhouette in the gentle wash of blue light in the passenger area.
"Aren't they both the same thing?" Kael asked tiredly, reaching the top of the ramp and moving to hit the retraction lever.
"Yes, and no. Don't do that" Caden said in a light voice, turning to his apprentice. "I'm enjoying the cold. It's a nice change from stuffy cockpits and stuffier temples"

Kael stubbornly hit the ramp switch anyway, his breath coming out in short, sharp clouds, as he bit back an angry retort. He'd been sitting out there for hours, frigid winds tearing his naked skin, ice and snow burning into his legs and backside. And he'd still failed.
"Did you discover anything?" Caden asked, still absorbed in his holomag.
"What?" Kael asked, irritated. "No, I told you, I -"
"You only failed if the journey yielded no knowledge, or bartered no wisdom" Caden replied, sounding bored at his own lecture. Kael assumed the words were echoes of Caden's own Master, not so many years ago.

Caden Sturn was older than Kael by the inconsiderable span of seven years. He had a reputation among his peers for being laid-back and sometimes disrespectful of centuries-old traditions, which (when coupled with his wandering attention span) made others wonder why he'd even been knighted when he had, let alone been encouraged to take an apprentice.
And here was that apprentice, Kael Serasai, a nineteen year old bag of hormones and anger issues. Even the Jedi code couldn't smack such things out of a teenage boy, not that Caden would want to. Truth was, something about Kael reminded him of himself, though at the same time he could see the boy maturing and becoming his own person. It was happening quicker than Caden would have hoped for, too; it saddened him to see youth stolen so quickly away, replaced by adult woe and responsibility.

He, himself, had grown up far too fast.

"I learned nothing" Kael snapped, without thinking it through. "I sat out there for hours, butt naked, trying to do something which couldn't be done".
"And you learned nothing?" Caden smirked, glancing up over his holomag for the first time. "Put some clothes on, you'll catch your death" he tutted, still smirking.
Completely immodest, Kael tramped through the passenger area and retrieved his sleeveless cloak, wrapping himself in its folds, then pacing up and down the cramped space.
"Have a seat" Caden offered, once again lost in his holomag.
"My legs are cramped" Kael grunted in reply. He was growing angry at his Masters' apparent lack of concern, and unhelpfulness.
"Decided what you learned yet?" Caden asked, as if in response to Kael's growing tension.
"No. I was able to shut out the cold and the noise of the wind and focus, like you told me, but..."
"But?" Caden asked, when Kael paused.
"But no matter how I tried, I couldn't stop the candle flame from flickering. I could sustain the flame against the wind, but I couldn't achieve stillness".

"So how did you fail?" Caden asked, glancing over his holomag.
"I tried forming a protective bubble around the tip of the candle" Kael sighed.
"Protective bubble?" Caden quoted, amused. "That's a new term..."
"Fine, I used the Force to divert wind, snow and air from the centre of my focal point, creating a vaccuum which nothing tangible could penetrate..." Kael explained, though he knew full well his Master knew what he meant.
"Ah... a protective bubble" Caden nodded. "Carry on".
"Well, for one whole second, the flame was still, and I felt somehow emptied of everything, and aware of each breath, and the cold against my skin, each hair on my body being nudged by the wind..."
"But?" Caden asked, his smirk returning.
"But the flame died" Kael said, finally ceasing his pacing and taking a seat next to his Master on the passenger couch. "For hours, I did everything I knew of to achieve my goal, and just when I thought I'd done it... I failed".

Caden slapped Kael's thigh, then stood up and began making him a cup of caf. Kael winced at the sharp pain in his cold leg, but made no fuss of it.
"Well, sounds to me like you learned a valuable lesson" Caden called from the galley.
"What? You don't mean... that was what I was supposed to learn? Not some new Force technique, or... higher state of meditation?" Kael exploded, though he didn't get up from the couch.
"You learned that no matter your power, no matter your influence, some things are just meant to be" Caden called back, his voice suddenly stern. "You learned that, if we try too hard to alter the fate of that which is already decided, then we may bring about that fate faster".
"Oh..." Kael muttered to himself. It made sense, though it still didn't seem worth hours of sitting in the biting cold.
"And," Caden said, his voice gentler now, "you learned that you have a high threshold for patience and endurance, if it means achieving something your heart is set on". He handed Kael the cup of caf, shut down his holomag, then stared down at his apprentice. Both stood and sat in reflective silence for a while.

"Something my heart is set on?" Kael asked, after a while.
"Hmm?" Caden responded, snapping out of some silent reverie.
"You said 'achieving something my heart is set on'. I thought the code teaches that detachment is the key to achievement?" he quizzed, narrowing his eyes thoughtfully.
"It's an old doctrine" Caden said, carefully choosing his words. "Some follow it to this day, others don't. Some, like myself, believe that emotional investment is paramount to understanding the Force. We shouldn't shy away from our nature, or let it impede our progress and quest for knowledge".
"And what do others think?" Kael probed, wanting to see his Masters' take on the alternate, older view.
"The others believe that emotional interest leads to the Dark Side, by detriment of attachment, jealousy and greed" Caden offered. "For many, the old ways are much harder".

Kael waited for his Master to explain further, but he didn't. He seemed lost in thought, though Kael didn't need to ask what was on his mind. Whenever Caden Sturn talked philosophy, he was forced to remember his own Master, and experience the pain that came with her memory. Kael didn't know the details, and would probably never find out.
Instead of probing further, he asked "Did you take the same test I just took?"
"Yes" Caden replied, a far-away look in his eyes.
"And what did you learn?" he questioned.
"Figure that out for yourself" Caden chuckled, before retreating to his bunk with a sly wink and a smirk. Kael shook his head, smiling for the first time since returning to the shuttle, then headed to get some sleep himself.

Tomorrow would be another challenging day; tomorrow, he was to find his very own lightsaber crystal.

[Kael Serasai]

The Next Day

Four freighters lay south of their position, and a little further away, a squadron of starfighters.
"I make that four Acton VI's, and ten... no, make that twelve R-41 Starchasers" Kael said into the comm stitched into the muffler that covered the lower portion of his face.
Caden was crouched only a few meters away, but the snowstorm had picked up so badly that they could no longer hear each other speak.
"Same here" Caden's voice replied through the bead in Kael's ear. "Question is, what the kriff are they even doing here?"
"Master?" Kael asked, ignoring the expletive.
"Ilum's location isn't known to any outside the Jedi Order. You need to be able to use the Force just to reach it" Caden explained. "As you know, since you had to bring us here yourself two days ago".

Kael returned the macrobinoculars to his goggled eyes, peering through the relentless downpour of snow at the gathering of ships in the clearing below. Thankfully, nobody seemed to be looking up, for their navy and black attire made the two Jedi stick out like sore appendages against the ceaseless white backdrop.
"Wait a minute... activity" Caden said, and Kael tracked his macrobinoculars across to where his Master was looking. A large droid on treads was emerging from a cave mouth, accompanied by four humanoids wrapped in cold-weather gear, and dragging a large crate through the snow behind it. Another two figures emerged from one of the freighters and approached the droid, which had travelled to one side and stopped. Another droid was crawling from the cave in its wake, probably dragging more cargo.

"What's in the crates?" Kael wondered aloud.
"Only one thing valuable here on Ilum, unless they're here for the Gorgodon's" Caden replied grimly.
His evaluation was confirmed when one of the two figures began issuing orders, pointing at workers then at the crate tethered to the droid. The four workers that had accompanied the crate out of the cave set about releasing the latches, then lifted the lid clear so that the two figures could peer inside.
One of them ran a gloved hand over a sheen of green and blue crystal, while the other lifted a handful from the crate and let them slip through his fingers and back into containment.
"Master, look at their waists" Kael whispered, even though there was no chance of him being heard over the wind.
"Padawan, now isn't really the time to..."
"Their belts!" Kael hissed.
"Oh... that explains something" Caden muttered, noticing the lightsabers hanging from the waists of most of the people gathered.
Meanwhile, a third droid had completed its journey from the cave, also pulling a crate in its wake.
"This doesn't make sense" Caden said, and Kael could picture him scowling beneath the protective gear covering his face.

The two figures were now returning to their freighter, and Kael spied other figures leaving the open hatchways of the other two freighters, while canopies popped on the starfighters and pilots rushed to assist with loading the cargo.
"It makes perfect sense" Kael said, after a moment. "Dark Jedi, probably being led by someone who's left the Order. The number of Jedi is dwindling, as is the number of children with sensitivity to the Force. If these Dark Jedi are identifying those children first, then they're planning to train them, hence why they need so many crystals..."
"What?" Caden interrupted. "Oh, yes, I know. I mean, it doesn't make sense to bring four freighters for three crates of crystals. Two would have done the job, maybe even one, depending on their maximum cargo weight".

"Oh..." was all Kael could say, dumbstruck. "Maybe they've been to other places, and are carrying more cargo?" he replied, though not convincing himself, nevermind his Master.
"Maybe" Caden replied, too sounding unconvinced. "Whatever it is, there's nothing we two alone can do about it" Caden said with a resigned sigh.
"So we're not going in, lightsabers blazing?" Kael asked with a slight smirk.
"No, and we're going to have to postpone your crystal search too I'm afraid" Caden said apologetically. "There's some proper investigation work to be done here. Lets get to the shuttle, see if we can't grab some images of those ships when they take off".

[Kael Serasai]

Coruscant
The Underlevels
4 Days Later

More grit and filth caked Kael Serasai, covering what little remained of his clean face. He pressed his lips tightly together to keep from ingesting any of the muck churned up in the wake of the swoop infront of him, and turned his head slightly to shield himself from any sharp debris. In doing so, he spotted another biker trying to edge around his flank, and adjusted his position to block him off.

Adjusting his grip on the steering bars, he leaned forward to streamline against wind resistance, and accelerated just as he and the swoop in front reached a turn-off. Leaning into the turn, he nearly grazed the floor as his swoop sagged, and had to exert all of his upper body strength to turn his bike the right way up as soon as he'd cleared the bend.
Meanwhile, he'd drawn neck and neck with the swoop he was pursuing, but was aware of his right flank being exposed again. Sacrificing inches of position in order to close the gap between him and the edge of the street, he pushed the swoop for all she had, but it still wasn't enough to carry him into first place.

He'd been doing this for years; sneaking out of the temple after-hours, travelling to the underlevels and participating in the illegal swoop races. If his Master or any of the other Jedi were aware of his actions, they'd never said a thing about it to him, which led him to believe they genuinely had no idea.
It had started when he was fourteen, and his Master had lectured him about relying too much on the Force. He'd set off into the night, not really knowing where his objective lay, but he'd found himself at the races and had seen opportunity to test himself without allowing himself the use of the Force.
There were some things he couldn't help, such as precognition in the face of danger. Many times, despite his best efforts to close himself off from the Force, he'd been warned of impending death, and had been able to avert it. But he'd never overtly used the Force to gain position in the races, and with each race it became easier to rely on his own talents rather than those borrowed from the Force.

"Today iz not your day, this one thinkz" the first-place rider laughed above the noise, turning to block him off yet again. A Barabel with a near-perfect win-loss record, Kael knew, but he wasn't intimidated by Vess Kesker's reputation. Prone to cheating, it was no wonder that not many could pass him on the racecourse.
"Maybe its not yours either" Kael shouted back, feinting as if to turn his swoop into Kesker's, then shooting off into first place as the Barabel hesitated.
The track began to carry the racers above ground level, roaring along a ferrocrete highway that travelled up into the layer of clouds which divided the upper and lower levels of Coruscant.

This was the most dangerous part of the track; skimming through clouds, it was near impossible to see anything but the track immediately ahead. In the back of his mind, he was aware of Kesker beginning to overtake, but was suddenly stabbed by a sense of danger as the Barabel drew alongside him. Ducking reflexively, Kael felt the vibroblade shear off his Padawan braid and graze the side of his head, cutting through the strap of his riding goggles and sending them tumbling over the edge of the highway.
"What the - "
"Thiz one told you..." Kesker snarled, "it iz not your day". The Barabel drew up as close as he could get, and smacked Kael in the back of the head with his muscled tail, forcing Kael to hit the side of the highway, leaving a trail of sparks in his wake as he fought to correct his course.
Finally pulling away from the edge, he almost careened into the third-place rider, who adjusted position just in time to prevent a crash.

An explosion up ahead lit up the clouds, and suddenly Kael was falling, his swoop cascading into the falling debris and washed away to the ground some many miles below.
The updraft caught him, forcing him to twist and cartwheel in the air, and he saw another rider falling either above or below him; he'd lost all sense of direction.
Darkness suddenly enveloped him, and he knew he was back below levels, still falling freely. If he was especially unlucky, he'd be blown into a power line, or smacked into the side of a building, or maybe even splattered across the front end of an airspeeder.
Fighting to spin himself the right way up, he used the Force to try and slow his fall, and angled himself so that the sky was behind him and the ground, growing ever closer, was beneath him.
The other rider levelled out alongside him, helmet covering his face, arms and legs spread to slow his descent. Not that it mattered now.

Suddenly, the rider clamped a hand on the back of his collar, and brought them both into a vertical position. Kael felt his stomach turn as they began gathering speed, then turn again as a sudden impact knocked them both upward, and they began to deccelerate rapidly.
"Jedi?" he muttered to himself, looking at the other rider, who had his hand extended toward the ground. They were still falling, but not nearly as fast, though they were still travelling fast enough to make a mess when they hit the ground.
Snapping out of his stupor, Kael extended his own hands, adding to the effort, hoping it would be enough...

******

Vess Kesker snatched up his winnings, having barely left his swoop, and allowed himself to be hoisted from his feet by his cohorts. Ale was slapped into his hand, and he engorged himself, letting the alcohol spill from his scaled mouth and drown the celebrating few.
"Hey, look at that!" someone called. Vess was disturbed that all the attention wasn't on him, and that some lowlife was more interested in what was going on in the sky than in his glorious victory. Still, he looked up, and frowned.

Something was still falling from the sky, and a quick estimate in Kesker's mind placed it around the same distance from where he'd thrown the thermal detonator on the highway. Whatever it was that was still falling, though, it was cutting a clear line through the sky, and seemed to be slowing down the closer it came to one of the low-rise buildings. Low-rise, in this case, meaning it didn't reach through the cloud layer into the upper levels.
"Impossible..." he growled.

******

Far from a soft landing, Kael and the rider nevertheless survived hitting the roof of the low-rise, though they'd nearly been skewered on its jutting array of communication spires.
Sliding down the smooth sloped roof, both men braced themselves as they neared the edge, and rolled down onto the uppermost observation deck.
"Owww..." Kael groaned, landing on his back. The other rider fell into a forward roll and came up on his feet, slamming into the railing.
"You need to work on your landing" said a familliar voice. The rider began working on the fastenings of his helmet, and Kael's stomach sagged even further.
"Master?" he groaned, pushing himself to his feet and dusting himself off.
"And you need to be more mindful of your surroundings" Caden continued, pulling his helmet free. "You could have taken first place".
"Wha - hang on, aren't you supposed to be dragging me back to the Temple to explain myself to the Council?" Kael asked, completely astounded.
"Hmm. Is that what you want?" Caden quizzed, arching an eyebrow.
"Well, no, but I -"
"I've told you before, Padawan, that we must all make our own choices and divine our own paths. Your actions here aren't written in the Jedi Code, but from a certain point of view, nor are they violating the Code" Caden winked. "If this is your way of achieving personal betterment, then so be it. Just... don't get yourself killed" Caden warned, turning away to look out over the city below.

Kael eventually joined him, his hand rubbing the back of his head and his severed braid.
"What were you doing racing, anyway?" Kael asked, the thought suddenly occuring to him.
"I saw you leave the Temple and was curious" Caden replied nonchalantly. "Besides, I received a message from the Temple. The analysis of those images we brought back from Ilum has been completed. Unfortunately" he sighed with mock exasperation, "you were nowhere to be found, so I entered myself as a last-minute racer, rented a swoop from the organiser, and decided to make sure you didn't get pasted to a wall somewhere".
"Thanks for your undying confidence" Kael muttered.
"As always" Caden shot back, smirking.
"So, I suppose..."
"Yes, we're needed at the Temple, and its likely we'll be leaving Coruscant again shortly, so wrap up any other 'business' you have here" Caden advised, leaving Kael to wonder how much of his personal life his Master was privy to, and whether he'd already known about the races.

[Kael Serasai]

The briefing room of the Jedi Temple was an exact replica of what it had once been before the Temple had been razed at the formation of the Galactic Empire, over a century ago. An auditorium of sorts, with a bank of holoemitters at the centre, it was designed for giving assignments to large numbers of Jedi in times of crisis. Just one of many rooms which made up the communications complex.
So why this one? Kael wondered. There were only three of them in the room; himself, his Master, and Jedi Master Gani Torre.

Torre finished loading the holoemitter, and turned, blue light washing over his dark skin and reflecting on his shaven dome. He looked grave, but then Kael had only met him on a handful of occasions, and he always looked grave. He found it hard to imagine Master Torre tearing at shattering speeds through the underlevels of Coruscant, falling hundreds of feet, and grinning after making a safe landing.
As if in response to his thoughts, Torre cast him a dark, penetrative look, and Kael focused instead on the hologram which had formed behind the Jedi Master.
"Knight Sturn, Padawan Serasai, as you can see we have some news on your crystal thieves" Torre began, gesturing behind him. A clear hologram of one of the freighters from Ilum revolved slowly, while Torre paused for effect. Or at least, Kael assumed that was why the Master had stopped talking.

"I never noticed that before" Caden said thoughtfully, as the freighter revolved to port, showing a small but clear insignia of a dark circle surrounded by a spiked halo. "Black Sun" he murmered.
"That is correct, Caden, but the difficulty lay in trying to track down which cell of Black Sun these ships belonged to". The holoemitter switched to display a map of the galaxy, with various systems and their positions in the galactic disc highlighted and labelled.
"Don't they all use the same symbol?" Kael asked, confused.
"They do, Padawan" Torre replied, and when he didn't explain further, Kael crossed his arms and studied the map moodily. He got the impression that the council member didn't much like him.
"They don't all use the same ships though" Caden spoke out, realisation dawning. "The last time I encountered Black Sun, they only marked certain vessels with their insignia, so they could perform other operations without detection".
"Precisely" Master Torre cut in, and most of the highlighted systems disappeared from the galactic map, leaving only a handful. "These systems are rife with Black Sun activity, and not the hidden variety. Their presence there draws attention away from other systems, where they act from the shadows".

"But if Black Sun are helping these Dark Jedi", Kael cut in, sounding irritated, and not noticing the sharp look cast his way by Torre, "then why would they lend them marked vessels? Wouldn't it make more sense to give them unmarked ships, to hide their involvement?"
"There is no involvement" Master Torre said with finality.
"Master?" Caden asked, his arms now crossing too, as he tried to puzzle out the situation.
"We dispatched Master Keta to ascertain the truth of the matter, and she found herself a very talkative Black Sun operative in the underlevels" Torre explained. "Some Barabel by the name of Kesker". Kael's eyes went wide.
"What did he reveal?" he asked, without thinking.
"A lot" Torre replied, once again regarding the young man like a Torton regards a bug, and Kael wished he could just shrink out of sight. Surely the man now knew of his little adventures in the underlevels?

"Kesker said that recently, contact was lost with his friends in the Yavin System. We ran your holo's past the Temple analysis droids, and they discovered a fungal rot on the undersides of most of the ships, which correlated with a fungus found on Yavin IV" he explained, and suddenly the room was dominated by a large glowing sphere, surrounded by more than twenty smaller globes. Yavin IV was highlighted, and the holo zoomed in to show the moon. One area in particular was highlighted in yellow, and a strange complex which seemed to run underground was also highlighted in red.
"We sent a probe to Yavin IV, to try and spy on any activity from these Fallen Jedi. Unfortunately, it was detected, but not before it was able to map out their hideout" he said, gesturing at the red area.

"Underground. How original" Caden quipped, then bowed his head apologetically to Master Torre.
"Since you were the ones to first detect these Fallen Jedi, the council has decided that the assignment is yours. Go to Yavin IV, and see if you can find out what they're doing" Torre instructed. "Do not engage them in combat, if it can be avoided" he added.
Kael was about to ask why not, but Caden bowed and turned to leave the room, so Kael followed suit.
"Yavin IV?" he asked as they were out of earshot. "What's there, apart from a bunch of old rocks and lots of nasty creatures?"
"Yavin IV is a nexus of the Dark Side, according to some. Either way, the planet has historical significance. This should provide some good training for you" Caden smirked, glancing at his Padawan from the corner of his eye.
"I don't need more training" Kael muttered, and Caden chuckled to himself. "You've said it yourself!" Kael said in his defense.
"I have, but there are those that would disagree with me".
"Like Master Torre?" Kael asked, defiantly, adding spite to the man's name.
"Among others. Perhaps Yavin IV will act as a proving ground" Caden suggested.
"We're not even allowed to engage" protested Kael. "So unless I'm going to be put through the trials for not fighting..." and then he paused. He realised what was coming.
"Fighting isn't always the answer, Kael. A Jedi must learn to explore all avenues before resorting to combat, and even in combat should seek to end conflict without prolonging" Caden lectured. He never sounded like himself when he reeled off one of his Jedi lectures, Kael thought. Sometimes, he wondered if Caden felt as out of place in the Temple as he did, but he was likely never to know. Caden Sturn was better at keeping his secrets than anyone Kael knew.

[Kael Serasai]

Yavin IV

More and more cloaked and armoured figures had emerged from the entrance to the underground lair during the course of the day, and Kael found himself wondering if he and his Master would ever come out of hiding from the highrise overlooking the old complex.
As far as they could tell, there was only one entrance into the base; Kael doubted it had been built by the Dark Jedi, but was simply serving as a convenient base of operations, out of sight of the larger galaxy.
"There's something forboding about this place" Caden murmered, lowering his macrobinoculars and squinting at the ruins below. The trees around the area were all either broken or decayed, the ground more like hardened rock than soil. In the distance, starships could be heard taking off, implying that the occupants of the enclave were embarking on another mission to collect resources, for whatever purposes they may have.
"We should go down" Kael suggested, glancing at Caden. The Jedi Knight simply nodded absently, focused on the ruined entrance below. "Master?"
"Yes... I think you may be right" Caden decided, and the pair of them stood up after hours of crouching behind cover. Kael's knees cracked and his legs screamed in protest, but he managed to ignore it. He heard Caden's elbows crack as he straightened his arms to hook the macrobinoculars to his belt.
"After you" Caden insisted with a smirk, gesturing Kael to take the lead. Kael rolled his eyes, and leaped over the highrise, coming to a graceful landing on the hard ground below. Caden fell in behind him, and both men set off at a jog toward the entrance.

From nowhere, a pair of Dark Jedi charged them from either direction. One was a blue-skinned Rodian, her black and tan robes swirling around her lithe form. Her lightsaber was ignited before she was even on them, and as she approached with Force-imbued speed, she took a swing straight at Caden's head. He weaved under the attack, losing nothing more than a lock of red hair to the blade, and brought up his own lightsaber to counter. Emerald fire spat from his carved silver hilt and met her crimson blade on the down-stroke, pushing her up and away with a flourish.
Kael, meanwhile, had drawn his training saber, but refrained from igniting it; the Trandoshan that bore down on him looked every bit as terrifying as the pulsating, unstable amethyst blade in his hand. He brought the weapon up in a diagonal cut which would have sliced Kael from hip to shoulder, had Caden not nudged him out of the way with the Force.
"Kael, your lightsaber!" he roared, locking blades again with the Rodian, and again pushing her back, following up with a kick to her midriff. She flipped backward, riding the momentum and landing deftly on her feet. The moment she touched the floor, she sent a bolt of dark lightning at Caden, which he caught on his lightsaber and deflected into a nearby tree stump, shattering its already broken bark.
Kael sprang into action, his shakiness gone, and intercepted the Trandoshan Dark Jedi as he moved in to impale Caden from behind. Gripping his elongated hilt in a two-hand reverse grip, he slid onto his knees, angling his cyan blade beneath the purple one, and forced it upward as he rose again to his feet. The Trandoshan almost caught the blade in his own face, but was able to twist with the motion and bring the blade around... straight at Kael's lower spine.
Suddenly Caden was there, his lightsaber batting the Trandoshan's blade into the ground. Kael turned on the spot, hurling his weapon at the Rodian, who again was running with alarming speed to close the gap between herself and her prey. She somersaulted over the arcing weapon and punched Kael full-on in the face, staggering him. He missed his lightsaber as it returned, and called the hilt back to his hand before it could clatter to the floor.

Caden was now taking on both opponents, but not for much longer; Kael seized the initiative as Caden locked both Dark Jedi's weapons in an X with his own blade, coming in from behind the Trandoshan and sweeping low at his legs. He cut the Dark Jedi behind both knees, and the reptillian flailed in sudden agony, his lightsaber nicking Kael across the jaw.
Pain shot through Kael's face even though he'd barely been touched by the weapon, and he staggered backward by instinct, falling onto his behind. The smell of smoked flesh curled into his nostrils, and he felt light-headed, though he still witnessed Caden disarm the Rodian - quite literally - and send her crashing into a stone ruin with the Force.

"Kael!" he shouted, running over and kneeling beside his apprentice.
"I'm gonna be sick..." Kael mumbled, and seconds later he was, wretching up his breakfast. Watery-eyed, he looked back up at his master, who cupped his chin and turned his head to inspect the wound.
"Nothing serious" Caden sighed with relief. "Just a graze".
"It hurt like hell" Kael protested, as if Caden were challenging his threshold.
"I can imagine it did" Caden said, pulling Kael to his feet. "It'll heal. But you might have to live with a scar, if your good looks can take that punishment" he chuckled. Kael thumped him in the arm.
"Shouldn't we kill them?" Kael asked, nodding at the Rodian and the Trandoshan. She lay slumped againt the broken stone pillar, her arm and lightsaber some distance away, while he lay moaning and rolling in the dirt, unable to stand or concentrate beyond the pain. "If she wakes up, or if he regains his strength..."
"We'll be gone before they do" Caden reassured him, neglecting to lecture Kael on the Jedi way of dealing with enemies.

After letting Kael regain himself, the pair headed into the entrance to the underground lair. Both had torches hanging from their belts, but neither needed them, for the circular passages were illuminated by crystalline fixtures running at intervals.
"I sense something..." Caden began, but trailed off.
"This place is strong in the Dark Side" Kael nodded. He could feel something too, something obscene. He ran his hand along the curved wall, picking out inscriptions with his gloved finger. The language was lost on him, though the faded murel's spanning the walls weren't.
"Sith" he murmered.
"An old Sith enclave" Caden agreed; his lack of alarm concerned Kael, but then Caden rarely showed signs of anything but smug confidence.
"I guess that explains the bad feeling I'm getting" Kael sighed.
The pair of them moved on. After what felt like a half-hour travelling a lone, door-less corridor, they came to an intersection in the wall, which led to a second corridor which appeared to run in a ring parallel to the first.
"Nothing's ever simple, is it?" Kael moaned. Caden smirked, and they entered the second corridor. They encountered the same thing another four times, until finally emerging in some sort of chamber.
It was small, squared off, and contained little more than an altar, two doors and two burning braziers.
"Odd... I was expecting something more grandiose" Caden said, puzzled. Then, "And we still have no idea what these people are doing here".
"I say we split up" Kael suggested. He could already tell Caden didn't like the idea. "We'll cover more ground and increase our chances of finding something" he reasoned.
"And if you're attacked by something stronger than you?" Caden asked, flipping an eyebrow at his younger apprentice.
"Then I'll come yelling and screaming til you rescue me" Kael retorted, hurt. Caden chuckled, then nodded.
"I guess it's time I stopped protecting you, and started trusting in you" he said, placing a hand on Kael's shoulder. "You'll become a great Jedi someday. I see many trials in your future, all of which you'll overcome without my aid".
"Not all" Kael murmered, but Caden was already gone, disappearing through a side-door. Kael caught a glimpse of a ramp leading upward, before the door slid shut again. Taking the other door, Kael found himself on a staircase spiralling further down into the earth. The air was fresher down here, once the door slid shut and the smell of incense from the braziers in the other room faded.
On he went, the darkness becoming thicker, more cloying. Further down, he began to see light, though it flickered and danced across the walls rather than casting a hopeful beacon.
He emerged in a low-ceilinged room, filled with relics and burning torches. A lone figure rose from where it was kneeling, and turned upon him, shrouded in its red and black cloak and observing him like a predator stalking prey.
"So I get the Apprentice" the figure said, sounding almost disappointed. "So be it".

*

Caden circled on the spot, taking in the sight of the room around him. The grandeur he'd been expecting had suddenly been found; a high ceiling supported by carved pillars of stone overshadowed the chamber below the walkway he currently stood on.
In the chamber were row upon row of stone seats, all facing the same way, toward a large black throne set on a plinth at the head of the hall. The throne was flanked on either side by another large stone chair, and steps led down from the plinth into the assembly area below.
Slowly, Caden made his way to the end of the walkway, and descended into the assembly area. He felt nothing but awe; this was perhaps the most preserved Sith enclave still in existence. It was a wonder it hadn't been discovered along with the Massassai temples, or destroyed by the elements.
His eyes wandered to the large black throne on the plinth, and he fought a temptation to go up and have a closer look - a fight which he lost. In seconds, he was up the stairs, and running his hand over the glossy onyx surface. There were no controls, no carvings... and it looked oddly out of place with the rest of the enclave.

Feeling like a naughty child doing something he shouldn't, Caden sat in the throne.
"NO!" a voice shouted, and a red-robed woman came running from a doorway in the back of the hall. "What have you done?"
Caden began to sit up, reaching for his lightsaber, when something happened that pinned him in place. In the overhanging 'hood' of the throne, something glistened, and then sprang to life, bathing him in red light and flooding his senses with what felt like untamed power.
His mind was screaming, unable to shut it out, but he was rooted to the spot. The Dark Jedi woman came running to him, and he expected any moment to be impaled while he sat defenceless, clutching the arms of a Sith throne.

The woman didn't kill him, however, but looked on with amazement.
You will change everything, a voice told him. It sounded like it was coming from afar, echoes from another place or time. This enclave I leave to you, Seraph of the Dark Side. You will change everything. You have a preordained destiny, Caden Sturn, and I, Darth Kroenen, am it's keeper...
The light vanished as quickly as it had erupted, and something dropped softly into Caden's lap. He squinted at it and picked it up. It was a pyramid, not much bigger than a chance cube, obsidian and capped in electrum. A Sith holocron.
"You... you are the Seraph?" the Dark Jedi cried out in disbelief, looking up at Caden as though he'd severely offended her. "No... no, that was mine, I was going to kill you and that title would be mine!"
Caden, head still swimming, barely listened to what she was saying. And then she was on him, lightsaber in hand, swimming in her own fury...