Ask Crystal Marks the Spot

[Mila Tesara]

Location: Dantooine, outskirts of the Brith Canyon

It had been a long time coming since Mila had come back to this place. Her first lightsaber had been lost, taken by some Hutt crime boss who wanted it on the mantle over his fireplace. But, that was the will of the force, she had lost it so that she could return with her students and reforge blades of their own. With the loss of Ilum, Mila now stood to repeat an ancient jedi tradition, the forging of the blade that was symbolic of their order. As The Jabberwocky touched down, she would lead her students out of the ship and give them a brief rundown on what they were going to do. "I know to many of you, this task might not be familiar, but that's okay. Long ago, the jedi once went to the world of Ilum when it was time to make their lightsabers, but Ilum was destroyed long ago, and so we have to resort to finding other worlds for this traditional rite of passage." She looked upon their faces, smiling at Fiach, Brahe, and Gilan. This was going to be a rather significant process in them becoming jedi, and she was eager to see how they would take to it.

@Corbeau @TRook @Noctyr

 

[Giran Latt]

Giran played with the lightsaber on his belt rolling it over his fingers testing the familiar weight. He'd made his first saber a year after joining the order and he'd rarely had to use it for more than a lamp to see by. Recently, however, he'd found more and more reason to take it off his belt and so he'd found he wanted another one. He'd been practicing his niman after his recent training session and found he was far better at it with two sabers than he ever had been with one.

He looked at the others, his new family, each with their own reason to forge a new blade. Fiach, Brahe and their master Mi'la. He was fond of all of them in their own unique ways. Brahe with his incessant teasing. Mi'la with her caring and nurturing ways and Fiach. He hadn't had much time to bond with her yet but he'd seen her pouring over ancient texts in the library and if there was one thing Giran could bond over it was history.

The first time he'd come here in search of a crystal he'd been alone. It'd been the end of his first year as a padawan. He'd gone on the shuttle with the other padawans who were ready but he couldn't tell you who was there. He'd gone through those caves alone he'd felt alone, until he'd found his crystal. This was going to be very different it felt different already.

He smiled back at his master. Maybe this was how it was supposed to feel.

 

[Brahe Sienar]

Another broken lightsaber. Brahe had lost or damaged more lightsabers than the average padawan, mainly due to his rather adventurous lifestyle.

His first one was lost during a particularly heated swoop bike race, his second destroyed after being smashed when it fell into a trash compactor in a junkyard, and the third sliced in half and lost to a chasm on Teth. The fourth lightsaber was now on his belt. This trip was actually for his fifth, because he had a feeling he might need an extra for the trials to come. The loss of so many lightsabers wasn't something Brahe took lightly- he had actually been quite fond of each of them, especially his first one he had made at the age of 13. But with each new saber came the opportunity to create an improvement, no matter how slim.

"I've done this four times already master...at this rate, I'll be worth two or three times as much as any of the other Jedi being hunted just by the sheer amount of lightsabers I'll be toting around." He said, somewhat joking, but also knowing that there was an element of truth to the statement. Their kind were now being hunted, ever since that Hutt broadcast went out.

Part of him couldn't help but feel nervous for what was coming.

@Corbeau @TRook @Algarus

 

[Fiach Dubh]

Fiach was sitting somewhat uncomfortably. Her previous attempt to seek a crystal had not ended well. She’d searched — but her efforts were in vain. She’d been told there was a crystal for every Jedi and in many ways, it was the crystal that chose the Jedi, as opposed to the other way around. Well…on that basis, no crystal had wanted her.

At the time she had been told not to worry, that it was just a timing thing. Maybe they were right, and she wanted to believe them — given what the alternative would mean. But time had not helped her understanding and she was beginning to doubt if she was destined to be a Jedi, given the symbolic and functional role that a lightsaber plays in their life.

Maybe, just maybe, she wasn’t ready. Perhaps it was too soon? She certainly hoped so and had put her full faith in her Master’s judgement that now was the right time and looked to push any doubt aside and — as she so often was advised — trust in the Force.

So, she closed her eyes and connected to the Force and listened to her Master’s words. Reassured, she reopened her eyes and her ubiquitous smile returned to her lips. This time, she told herself, it would be different.

 

[Mila Tesara]

Mila only shook her head as her padawan gave out one of his fabulous remarks. "Then I guess I know what I'm going to do the next time you blow the hyperspace motivator." Mila showed a small grin as she looked to her adopted son, knowing he would appreciate the joke; or be horrified at what she was suggesting, though she had no intention on ever doing such a thing. It was nice to have all of her students in one place for once, in fact Mila was actually looking forward to the learning potential she could instill upon her students, but always what they might instill upon her.

Her eyes beamed with a small bit of pride as she looked upon them all, though her gaze lingered on Fiach for a time; after all, this was the woman's first time forging a blade. She merely stepped up and set a hand upon the padawan's shoulder, giving a small smile to encourage her. "I'll be leading us towards the crystal caves, though be careful, there are many beasts that call this planet home, and not all of them are friendly." Stepping back, Mila turned towards the canyon in the distance, probably take a few minutes to reach it, though she was a tad concerned that the Laigrek wouldn't be an issue, after all, those creatures lived in the surface below the world. The real danger however, was the pack of Karth Hounds that lurked just beyond the hills to the pairs right, it seemed fine for the time being, but the further the group moved from the ship, the more tempting of a target they appeared to be for the hungry pack.

@Corbeau @Noctyr @TRook

 

[Giran Latt]

Giran listened to his master's witty response to Brahe's bravado and let out a very undignified snort. This definitely wasn't going to be the serious endeavour the last time had been. His master continued warning them of the possible danger.

"Kath hounds are probably the biggest issue we have on the surface but four jedi shouldn't have to much trouble with them right?" Giran said taking a step off the Jabberwocky.
"Laigrek are pretty nasty though, poisonous"

Giran had researched Dantooine before his first trip here and he'd gone over his notes before arriving. Agri-world, Kath hounds, laigrek and kyber crystals. His own research would probably be put to shame by anything Fiach had done but it would suffice for now.

"Shall we go? I'm not sure there are any crystals on the ship?" Giran grinned and started off in the general direction of the canyon. Taking the lead how very unlike him. His grin widened.

 

[Brahe Sienar]

The further the group moved from the ship, the more tempting of a target they appeared to be for the hungry pack...OR SO NATURE THOUGHT!

"Don't worry too much master, the ingenuity of technology is on our side." Brahe said, his nervousness receding a bit as he pulled out his data pad, pressing a couple buttons. Brahe's ID droid deployed from his backpack-while it was true that Brahe was wearing his Jedi robes on this particular incursion, he did bring a backpack packed with adventuring supplies- a dock for his ID droid among them.

The seeker droid made a couple affirmative beeps, before floating a bit higher into the sky and scanning the area immediately around them. Any particularly large or dangerous life forms would now appear on radar.

Brahe's grin grew wider as the sound of an incoming TIE could be heard in the distance, before it flew right over their position, at least a kilometer in the sky. The thing was on autopilot, but that was more than enough for Brahe's purposes. Brahe pointed up at the flying fighter, grinning like he had just created Frankenstein.

"If anything...big tries to mess with us, ID can laze the target for my starfighter to shoot down while we're out here."

Of course, it wouldn't work once they were in the caves, but having freaking AIR SUPPORT on a rather casual stroll through the plains of Dantooine was a bit overkill.

@Algarus @TRook @Corbeau

 

[Fiach Dubh]

Fiach listened intently to her Master's words. Although her last encounter was ultimately fruitless, she learned a lot from the experience. About working as a team - still a new concept to Fiach - and also about social skills and dealing with what she had come to learn were 'egos.' She still couldn't explain what one was precisely - she certainly had none of her own - but she was learning.

Kath hounds and Laigrek might not be a challenge for a Jedi, she mused at Giran's words - but the Klatooine girl was hardly a Jedi yet. And a training saber might sting or even burn a human - but she doubted it would have much impact on the creatures described in the briefing pack for this mission.

She smiled at Giran's directness. She was becoming a team player and would take the initiative when alone, but never in a group situation. The Knights and Masters of the Order had told her that would come in time - so for now, she was more than content to go with the proverbial flow. And the smile turned to a beam at Brahe's ingenious approach for air support.

"I'm ready," she added to the conversation. "As ready as I'll ever be. May the Force be with us."

 

[Mila Tesara]

Mila noticed Giran seemed to take a step ahead of her, though let the padawan do so. It was good to see him taking the lead, so often he seemed unsure of himself, or if he belonged, so it lightened Mila's heart to see him taking those steps; even if they seemed small. Her gaze turned back to Brahe, as she raised an eyebrow at her padawan. Mila wasn't exactly as keen on engineering as her padawan, but she knew enough to ask some serious questions, questions like: "Brahe, what optics are you working with so it doesn't accidentally fire upon us?" She asked with a degree of concern. Brahe was a certainly a gifted young man, but he did have a few flukes every now and again. She looked to Fiach and smiled, seeing that her newest padawan seemed to be a bit more at ease this time around; perhaps spending time with Brahe had helped after all.

She turned to answering Giran now, as the group of four inched closer to their destination, though Mila looked suspiciously up at the sky at Brahe's Tie Fighter; she didn't have the heart to warn him about the price of fuel, though she wondered how he even got it here to being with. "Well Giran, that depends. A small group we can hand, a large pack might be an issue without a lightsaber, but I think the force will protect us, and if not, we will protect ourselves." As the group was about a third of the way to the canyon, the Kath hounds couldn't resist any longer, as a whole pack of them broke out from the hills and rushed towards the group of jedi. Staying in a spread out formation in two groups of six, the pack hadn't made it too far before Brahe's TIE began to fire down on them, alerting the jedi to what was about to occur. Brahe's ship had managed to eliminate one whole group of six, but the four jedi still had six Kath hounds charging at them. The Tie was in the midsts of making another pass back to eliminate the ones it missed, but it would risk catching the jedi in the cross fire. Mila turned to face the beasts and shook her head, knowing where this was going to lead. "Everyone stay close together, we can handle this." Mila declared, as she reached out with the force and prepared for the attack to begin.
@Corbeau @Noctyr @TRook

 

[Giran Latt]

The tie screeched over head.
"You always have to be just that little bit extra don't you?" Giran groaned at Brahe as he covered his ears from the deafening noise. Moments later he was glad of Brahe's extraness as it vaporised a group of six hounds charging them.
"Ok, I take it back" he muttered

"Everyone stay close together, we can handle this."

He pulled his lightsaber from his belt and ignited it realising, as he did, that he was the only one with a lightsaber. This was going to be at least somewhat down to him. He took point in the formation dropping into the Soresu stance. Waiting for the pack to slam into their hastily set defence.

The hound leading the charge was a bull. It was a great slobbering beast with tusks the size of Giran's forearms.
"No thank you."
Giran tripped him with a small force push at least delaying his arrival into the melee. He smiled at his own quick thinking maybe he wasn't as ....
The rest of the pack slammed into their position far quicker than Giran had estimated. One of the smaller hounds slipped between his guard and clamped it's jaws onto his left calf. He screamed out in pain and kicked at the smaller hound. A glancing blow from his saber managed to get the hound to disengage but it had tasted blood and it liked it. Giran dropped to one knee blood pouring from his leg and his vision blurring from pain. This had not started well.
useless.

ooc: I rolled an 11 so only a minor fail but only just

 

[Brahe Sienar]

"I assure you master- it's relying on radar targeting data from my ID droid. I'm sure things will be just fine. And if things aren't accurate enough for you..."

Brahe gritted his teeth and stopped his sentence as he heard the TIE fire overhead. Clearly, they were in trouble.

Soon enough, the Kath hounds were upon them. Acting quickly, Brahe tapped a couple commands onto a wrist mounted input slaved to his Datapad. Then in the next moment, smiling rather confidently, Brahe aimed his left hand at the convenient grouped Kath hounds, and pointed his index finger and middle finger at them.

And then nothing happened.

Panicking a bit, Brahe rolled out of the way of the incoming hounds, wondering what had happened. His eyes grew wide with concern as Giran got bitten by one of the hounds. Pulling out his Glie-44 pistol, he fired a couple shots at the hounds, one of the shots hitting a hound in the leg, eliciting a rather angry yelp of pain.

And then that sweet, sweet sound filled the air.

WWWRRAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!

The scream of Brahe's TIE was heard overhead as it transitioned into a hovering pattern 15 meters overhead, the engine roaring as it provided overwatch, it's guns directly linked to triangulate upon whatever Brahe pointed at with his left hand. Pointing just the index finger meant to lock on target, but upon pressing a button on the wrist mounted data input with his right hand, the TIE would fire its medium laser cannons. He had implemented safeties, just in case. If the TIE deemed the target to be too close to him or anything designated as a friendly on the radar, it would fail to fire.

Holstering his pistol, Brahe focused in on the force, using it to shove back two of the hounds that had been somewhat closely bunched together by unfortunate coincidence Having created the space he needed, Brahe raised his left hand to them, and pressed the fire button.

The TIE opened up with it's twin medium laser cannons, drowning the air in noise as the two Kath hounds were shot to hell in a rather violent and spectacular fashion, completely eschewing any pre conceived notion of stealth or serenity.

If there was one thing known about all creatures, it was that a predator only attacked if it believed it could win and gain more benefit out of it than loss. Survival of the fittest. Seeing their kind vaporized so easily caused the remaining Kath hounds to become much more hesitant in attacking the group, especially given the now glaringly obvious noise of a TIE's engine screaming overhead like a banshee.

Brahe's smile then turned into a frown as he heard the familiar buzz of his seeker droid in distress ring across his ears before ID came spinning down into the earth, it's radar sensor damaged. The ID droid returned to Brahe, re-docking itself on his pack. In his haste, Brahe had set the hover coordinates to be dangerously close to where ID had been floating only a moment before. When he had rotated the ship to bear it's guns on the hounds, ID had been smacked by one of the s-foils, damaging the poor droid.

Brahe gritted his teeth.

Well great....now I have to manually aim it with my left hand, because now if I put it on autopilot and let it fire on it's own, it won't be accurate enough at telling who's friend or foe and might accidentally blow us up.

Of course, he didn't say that aloud. Saying that aloud would have induced panic in the group. Instead, he gave the others an uneasy smile. Starfighters in their standard configuration were designed to detect other stafighters accurately via radar. While life forms were also detected by most ships, their accuracy was more of a generalization, rather than something accurate enough to be viable as precision targeting data. Hence why the seeker droid helped. But with it out of commission, it meant that Brahe had to replace the autopilot with slaved manual aim.

Whoops?

@Algarus @TRook @Corbeau

 

[Fiach Dubh]

If this was a routine mission well...Fiach had underestimated just how dangerous things could be. Only two of them had sabers and as helpful as the TIE fighters were in taking out the pack of hounds in the distance, once it became hand-to-hand (or was that hand-to-claw) combat, she was hoping the AI had enough sense to disengage.

If there was a positive it was the fact that, as was the way, things happened in slow motion for Fiach. She closed her eyes momentarily and connected deeply with the Force. As she opened them again, her training saber moved from her belt and into her outstretched palm. It was not an offensive weapon, but it could and should help defend her whilst she placed faith in her Master to manage their situation.

The scream from Giran did nothing to help matters, but Fiach remained in the zone, adopting the standard Soresu defensive stance and allowing the Force to guide her motions as she sought to at least keep the hounds at bay.

 

[Mila Tesara]

This had not gone at all like Mila planned. There was a tie fighter blowing up Kath hounds, half of her group was saberless, and one of her padawans had been injured. Yep, it was time to step up. Mila reached out to the hound that Giran was struggling with, and threw it several yards, the creature bounced off the ground like a rock skipping across a pond. She turned to one of the creatures facing her now, as it lunged, taking hold of Mila's arm, before she slammed her right elbow onto it's snout, and it let go; though her hand had a nice gash in it. Mila took hold and pinned it to the ground, as she repeated the motion she had done to the hound before it. Brahe's TIE seemed to startle those beasts that had pressed on, as the last living hound seemed to try and attack Fiach, but it seemed the glow of her saber kept it from trying anything.

Before Mila could launch a defense for her padawan, the hound turned tail and ran, as the four jedi were now left to mend their wounds and press on. Turning her attention to Giran, Mila rushed towards her student, ignoring her own bleeding hand as she looked to his wounds. "Giran, calm down, show me your leg, I need to stop the bleeding." She said calmly, as she reached out with her good hand and attempted to seal the wound. "Fiach, Brahe, are you two okay?" Mila called out, as she only hoped they were unharmed. She frowned as saw how much blood her padawan had lost, it wasn't life threatening, but Giran would probably be feeling lightheaded for a bit. She could still hear the TIE screaming up above, but she kept focused on her injured student, a tad frustrated that she hadn't been able to react quicker; good thing Brahe had his TIE she supposed. "It'll be okay Giran, it's not too serious. Just stay calm." Mila looked to her apprentice, trying to assure him things would be okay. So much for a uneventful trip.

@TRook @Corbeau @Noctyr

 

[Giran Latt]

Ow, who'd have thought being bitten would hurt this much. Now that he'd knelt down the world had stopped spinning quite so much but his leg still felt like it was on fire. He gritted his teeth and faced the hound that had got the better of him, raising his saber in preparation. He needn't have bothered though, the hound went flying thrown by the force and moments later Brahe's tie fired again. that was enough for the pack and they lost their nerve fled.

Now the fightining was done the adrenaline fled his system, leaving him with even more pain in his leg and a slight blur to his vision. He flopped down on the grass ready to inspect the damage but before he could even begin his master was there.
"I'm fine really, don't fuss so much" Giran sighed half-heartedly as she began inspecting his wound. He could see she'd been injured too. Her hand was oozing out blood, a superficial but painful injury. He let out a little groan of frustration, to slow again.

"Thank you master." Giran said quietly as she went to work.

 

[Brahe Sienar]

Brahe pressed another button on his wrist mounted input, freeing his left arm temporarily from aiming the starfighter. Walking over to Giran and Mila with a look of concern, and he knelt beside them, placing his hands on both of them and taking a deep breath.

The sound of the TIE hovering overhead helped a great deal as he focused in on the force, and in a rare moment of clarity, he found that the focus came extremely easily. He felt almost like he did every time he was sitting in that cockpit flying- like he could feel everything and everyone around him. He took a couple more deep breaths as he closed his eyes, remembering a lesson about force healing long ago. Was it Master Aamaw that taught him? Or was it Master Mila? Brahe couldn't remember too well, as it had been years since then, but he did remember the lesson itself at least partially.

Dantooine was a world teeming with force connection, and by sheer luck, Brahe was able to tap into that, feeding off of a very tiny portion of that energy as he fueled his attempts to heal both Giran and Mila. And it went much better than expected as Mila and Giran's wounds began to close up, healing rapidly until they weren't there at all.

Opening his eyes again, blinking a bit, Brahe looked at both of them like he had performed a miracle or something. He tried and it was successful, but honestly in trying he wasn't 100% sure of what he was doing to begin with. He scratched his head, wondering how the heck that had happened.

"Uh....I suppose we can continue now?" He said, trying to lighten the mood. Mila would probably be a little amazed- Brahe usually was more worried about star fighters and TIE engines than trying to meditate- a key thing that allowed one to use force healing in the first place.

@Corbeau @TRook @Algarus

 

[Fiach Dubh]

There is a huge benefit when - in a tight spot - things seem to happen in slow motion. It allows for more time to react to whatever life might throw at you. The downside? Bad events last twice as long! So, although the encounter was over quickly, to Fiach, it seemed to drag on and on.

But she remained calm and the moment the final hound turned tail and ran, she deactivated her training saber with a hiss-snap before clipping it back onto her belt.

She sighed audibly and stood, slightly anxiously, next to Giran as their Master checked him out and, with a little use of the Force, put things right.

"I'm good," she replied, when asked how she was, "thank you Master." Then she turned to Brahe. "And I'm good to go when everyone else is. This was a bit of a shock but we managed the situation OK, didn't we?"

 

[Mila Tesara]

Mila was only able to stop the bleeding, but she soon began to feel her own wounds starting to interfere with her efforts. She was happy that Brahe and Fiach were unharmed, but Giran still needed her, and her thoughts still lingered to that of her padawan. Needless to say, Mila was shocked when Brahe moved up and began to heal not only herself, but Giran as well. Mila felt the familiar touch of the force at work, as her wounds closed, her pain vanished, and the worry that had plagued her thoughts shifted to shock and a small bit of pride at her eldest student. She paused, looking to her hand, then to Brahe, as a smile formed on her face. She set her now healed hand onto his head, ruffling his hair as her smile beamed with pride. "Yes, yes we can." Mila affirmed, as she looked to Giran and rose, offering her padawan a hand. "Giran, does your leg feel any better?" Mila asked, not wanting to get too far ahead of herself, after all, she needed to ensure he was able to continue on. She turned to Fiach, then Brahe, finally Giran and gave a satisfied nod. "You all preformed remarkably, especially for something so unplanned." Mila affirmed, even Giran had managed to keep fighting after being injured, and if all four of them were properly armed, she believed that they might have all gotten away without injury.

If Giran was able to continue forward, Mila would lead her students on, as they would reach the edge of a cliff that looked down into a steep canyon. "Now, this is where the process will truely begin." The Twi'lek stated, as a small path had been made down the canyon, it seemed rather easy to climb down, rather walk down given the slope it was at. If one were to look closer, they would see a small cavern about halfway down from where they now stood, as it seemed to be where this worn trail seemed to lead. "Don't let this path intimidate you. Trust in the force, and it will lead you along the way." The jedi knight stated, as she would begin the slow climb down below, though she kept her senses open in case any of her padawans ran into issues. The trick was to use the force and find the path down, knowing which rocks were safe, and which ones were not. If a padawan failed, they would merely fall, it would take a true miracle for one to be sent falling all the way to the bottom of the canyon, but that was why Mila was there to ensure that didn't happen.

@Noctyr @Corbeau @TRook

 

[Giran Latt]

Giran felt at his leg where the bite marks had been only moments before. Nothing. The pain was gone too. He stretched his leg out and then back in. Seemed to be working fine. He stood up and his vision stayed clear. Well that was all much ado about nothing.
He smiled at the thought and turned to Brahe.
"Uh thanks, I guess I owe you one or two" Giran chuckled he then turned to Mila "yeah, it feels brand new" he said hopping around

Giran was, only mildly disappointed with how things had gone. He had failed there was no doubt about that, even despite Mi'la's words of encouragement. He hadn't expected anything less though. He was weak at the moment he'd come to terms with that but only by failing was he going to get stronger. At least he was being proactive about it now.

As Mi'la pointed out the slope Giran fell into line at the back. He wasn't the most coordinated of the padawans so he planned on taking his time picking his path down the steep slope, no point holding everyone else up.

Giran reached out with the force. Much like his train with Oren he felt the dirt, the insects in the soil and the life force of the others around him. Pushing the almost overwhelming sensation aside heh focused on the slope; picking out a route that was circuitous but would probably allow him to keep his balance as he navigated down.

 

[Brahe Sienar]

Mila reached out with the force. Giran reached out with the force. And perhaps Fiach did too.

But see, this was Brahe Sienar-Wren, and if there one thing to be said about Brahe, it was that he wasn't exactly the most....meditative of Jedi, unless he was doing something related to starfighters. And so instead of reaching out with the force, Brahe tapped a couple buttons again, bringing his TIE close to the edge of the cliff, before he casually climbed onto it, using it as a floating platform to fly down to the entrance of the cave. He smiled and offered everyone else a lift, holding out his hand rather earnestly. Why work harder, when one could work smarter?

The TIEs iconic hum remained in the air as it lowered in altitude at a comfortable and stable pace. Brahe shrugged his shoulders and smiled at his master Mila. Things seemed to be rather....easy this time around?

Soon enough, with or without those who had decided to take him up on that offer, Brahe had flown down to the entrance of the cave, and with a rather satisfied grin, he hopped off his TIE and onto the solid ground at the entrance of the cave itself.

He let out a satisfied sigh.

"That was pretty easy!"

@Corbeau @TRook @Algarus

 

[Fiach Dubh]

Fiach was becoming more and more comfortable being part of a team — whereas when she first joined the Order, she was very much more at home being a loner. But the transition to team player meant that she embraced the role wholeheartedly and would not look to take the lead. It was something the teachers back at the Order had noted and she was determined to address, but she felt a hierarchy of sorts on occasions like these and saw herself as the newcomer and acted accordingly.

She smiled at her Master’s words, appreciating she did the very least, but had acted sensibly and within her natural abilities and so did not feel ashamed of her input.

She kept in step with the others as they reached the canyon and looked down. She did not find the height or incline intimidating but her Master’s cautionary words suggested she should be wary. Fortunately, the solution was straightforward — to trust in the Force. Maybe that had been her downfall the first time she’d gone seeking a crystal? This time she would not look to rush anything and instead closed her eyes momentarily, connected deeply as she could to the Force and — much like her Soresu practice — allowed the Force to guide her.

It was a sort of auto-pilot, to not focus consciously on the path ahead but to step wherever it felt right to do so. Often she would find her foot moving sideways instead of forwards and she did not question the move or try to correct it. She actually felt as if she could walk down blindfolded, such was her faith in the Force and the connection she felt.

Soon she was at Brahe’s side right beside the entrance to the cave. “Easy? Yes,” she replied. “It was — the Force is a powerful ally.”