The Children of the Stars

Tales of the Jedi

"Well, there goes another member of our crew," Kyp muttered once the former crew of Serenity had reconvened in one of the balcony rooms that had been built into the new version of the Praxeum.

"I didn't think we'd be taking flight for a long time, anyway," Nellith confessed. "We destroyed our ship. And while we can now use the Falcon, I imagine that Dad probably wants to keep us and Jacen and Tahiri closer. Especially now that Valin escaped and infected his sister with the disease."

"Master Tionne was telling me about that." Tash drew her knees up to her chest from where she perched on the low wall of clay and sand that acted as a railing. Her blue eyes were haunted. "Force Psychosis is a terrifying disease. It was the work of the ancient Sith. . . Who created it, no one knows, but they think it might have been Marka Ragnos. Or even Snoke."

As the binary suns sank, it grew colder.

Her father's monster had resurfaced in a horrifying way, even with his spirit gone for good.

"Things are pretty bad, then." Even Kyp couldn't keep up his good humor. "It's too bad, though. If we could've taken away the Star Forge as a source of power for Keera. . ."

"I'd forgotten all about our original mission," Nellith confessed. "But I did find a lead on Korriban."

"Wait, really?" Tash blinked, eyes brighter and wider. "What did you find?"

"It was in the tomb of Ajunta Pall," Nellith explained. "I found Revan's spirit there. He advised me not to go after the Star Forge, and instead to look for a weapon of similarly ancient technology to destroy it."

"How ancient are we talking?" Kyp frowned.

"I remember this was recorded, what Revan had discovered about the Forge." Tash's eyebrows knitted together. "A species predating the Old Republic, before even the days of Hutt space."

Nellith blinked. "He suggested something by the Killiks. They're suitably old."

"Where are we going to find something that the Killiks built?" Kyp asked. He then looked out at the horizon. The suns were almost extinguished by the ocean of sand.

"Master Tionne would know, it would be in the ancient texts." Tash leapt down from the balcony wall. "I guess we should go to the Archives. Master Tionne mentioned to me how they had managed to recover even the texts from Ahch-To that Rey and Luke Skywalker discovered."

"Mum's texts!" Nellith leapt to her feet. "I would've thought the fires would've destroyed them. . . "

"Those were buried underground at the Kenobi House." Tash shook her head. "Darth Keera never made it there, after all."

"But going through all of it would take forever," Kyp pointed out. "And it requires ancient dialects of Selkath and whatever other bantha fodder old languages—"

"Yeah, the database isn't back online yet." Tash bit her lip.

"We don't need a database, not when there's a droid that's learned it all." Nellith gestured for the other two to follow her. "Threepio knows literally everything. I think that droid was programmed as a failsafe. I mean, it was created by Anakin Skywalker, after all."

"Well, then what are we waiting for?" Kyp joined the others in standing. "Where is Goldenrod?"

"He should be with the younglings," Nellith said. "He's a very good babysitter."

Kyp looked rather doubtful about that statement.

"He looked after us when we were kids," Nellith insisted. "When Mum or Dad couldn't."