Star Wars: The Soul of a Sith

Chapter 08

Knowing the speed at which his two companions could travel on foot, Ren utilized the full extent of his command over the Force to accelerate his movements. He whipped over the soft moss with preternatural velocity, the salty air whipping at his face. Neeka and Cathock kept pace with him, Neeka with smooth, liquid strides, and Cathock with powerful bounds that launched his thick body several meters with every explosive stride.

They came to an opening in the dark rock that protruded from a particularly large mossy hill. The cave mouth was about five meters wide by Ren's best judgment and at least four meters tall. Ren disliked such environments. His true talents were not as a close range melee fighter and even though this cave tunnel did not seem to be incredibly cramped, it was tight enough to make close quarters combat a difficult thing to avoid. Still, he had fought and survived in such circumstances before, and he had Neeka and Cathock with him.

He looked at his companions and said: "Let me go first."

"Are we still being observed?" said Cathock.

"Yes," Ren said.

"Can you conceal us from their senses?" said Neeka.

"Perhaps, but – " Ren searched his feelings, "I don't think I am supposed to."

"What does that mean?" said Cathock.

"I don't know yet," said Ren. "But these people already know of our existence and I don't think they see us as enemies yet. If I cloak us, that might change. We are going to encounter them either way."

"I see," said Neeka. "Better not to make them suspicious then."

"I suppose I agree," said Cathock, though there was little certainty in his voice.

Ren nodded and then turned back toward the cave. Without any further words he entered. There was a sulfuric scent that assaulted his nose as soon as stepped into the darkness. The air was warm and somehow felt alive. The cave floor, which was made up mostly of stone and hard packed dirt, steeped rather quickly into a descent, the extent of which Ren could not decipher, but almost immediately as he moved down it he saw in its depths, a faint glow of light.

"Do you see that?!" Neeka hissed.

"Quiet," Cathock whispered.

Ren gazed around as they moved further and further down. The light ahead was a dim blue that was growing steadily in intensity. Looking at it was strange – calming somehow – though Ren couldn't say why. They moved what he judged to be at least forty meters below the planet's surface before the details of the light began to clarify, and when they did Neeka let out a tiny gasp.

The walls of the cave themselves were producing the light, or at least they seemed to be. As Ren drew closer to the illumination he realized that the glow was coming from tiny filaments within the rock, and that these filaments somehow burned with Force energy. Ren leaned in to inspect a patch of stone on the wall that shined with particular brilliance when his senses alerted him suddenly to an alien presence. Instinctively he dropped down and slipped his right hand around the hilt of his light saber. A fraction of a second later both Neeka and Cathock had followed suit, their weapons out and aimed at the darkness toward which Ren was staring.

"Hello," a raspy voice whispered, speaking in galactic basic, but in an accent Ren had never heard.

Ren sensed no weapons of any kind on this being, whoever it was, but he remained cautious. "If you want to talk, show yourself," he said.