Winter's Sight

[Dash Pavan]

ARNDALE WOODS, RHINNAL
3.00pm local time​

It had taken most of the day to reach the woods, even starting from Rhire at the crack of dawn. Dash just hoped it would be worth it.

He was back home visiting family and had decided to bring the Casket out to the village where Jadis had started life. A lot had happened and he needed to talk to her.

He was not entirely sure why. The last time he had communed with her, she had said some pretty unsettling things. He had run from them and since he put her out of his mind he had not done all that bad. Sure, the Jedi Order had indeed given him and Ezra a bit of trouble and he had faced more than one near-death experience. But everything had worked out in the end.

Still, he could not shake the feeling that he was ignoring something important. Jadis claimed a power like his own, a claim the Casket had proven to be true. He had learned a lot from the knowledge contained in the holocron, but he could sense he was not getting the whole picture. She had woven herself into its makeup on purpose after all and he was trying to read the book while keeping the author to one side.

After the Knighting and setting things straight with the Order, he felt strong enough and safe enough to try again. He needed to know what Jadis knew, but he was not going to be pushed around by a ghost in a pane of ice.

He walked off-piste into the woods, finding a small frozen pool out of sight and mind. He set the Casket by the edge and quietly recited the incantation. It came to him a little easier this time and the trees all around seemed to still as the translucent Jadis took shape above the pool.

"You ran from me Dash, that was a mistake". Her voice was ethereal and yet overpowering as always.

"I am not running now" he said confidently.

She seemed to look right into him. "No" she said softly "you have grown already I see. Every day you become more worthy of my legacy".

"Your legacy?" he frowned "what is it? Hardly anyone seems to even remember you". He did not intend to be be mean, but he and Ezra had seemingly uncovered more than anyone else in the last three centuries.

"It is knowledge" she replied, undaunted "power. The power to protect everything you value. Buried in hidden places across the galaxy, in places like here on Rhinnal".

 

[Dash Pavan]

Dash pressed Jadis on what was hidden and where. But she deflected as she so often did, her flawless white face almost laughing to itself.

"In good time. First you must learn to see beyond the here and now. You have discovered that our power can both harm and protect, but it can also reveal".

She gestured to the frozen pool beneath her feet. "The ice can be a mirror for those of us who know how, a looking glass to divine what was, what is and what can be". She beckoned him forward to the edge. "Look into the ice Dash, seek the past first. The parts of it that come to you most easily".

He stepped forward uncertainly, unsure but intrigued. He gazed down at the frozen pool, surprised to see the surface layer of frost receding as he did so. The clear ice beneath was almost transparent, but images played on its surface as he tried to think about the past.

Dash saw two men in frozen pane, the blue and white of he and Ezra embracing at his Knighting ceremony. His heart swelled. The image changed, reforming into the idyllic backdrop of Thorne Manor, then the murderous red of the Berchest Sith's blade. Dash tensed, almost feeling as if that day was happening again.

The picture kept rolling, scenes from Kro Var, Rhinnal and Kashyyyk flicking by. Then a shuttle escaping a frozen launchpad, the hospital encounter that had made it necessary. A family of five walking in the mountains, the blonde mother silhouetted against the icy peaks behind.

Dash jumped back, a sudden shock arresting him. The woman had been his mother, or rather her younger self in a different time. She had looked different too, yet strangely similar to the ethereal Jadis still floating before him.

"The boy is important to you" Jadis said snidely, as if it was an irritant. "But you began to see past him didn't you, to a truth the ice can tell you". There was a cold satisfaction on her face.

"Why did my mother look, look like you...?". Perhaps it was just some trick.

"Oh I think you know" she replied softly "even after centuries, family resemblance never quite dies".

No. It was impossible surely? His mother - he- were descended from Jadis Charn? A failed Jedi and a witch, a lost legend told only as a scary story for children? Yet, the realisation crept up Dash's spine as surely as the frost across the ground. It explained their shared talent and the strange sense of connection he had felt from the start.

But what on earth did it mean for his future?

 

[Dash Pavan]

Dash was still brooding over the vision and its ramifications when Jadis reached down, spectral fingers almost touching his cheek. "Yes, Dash. I birthed a daughter and she a son. He a child of his own and so on through the ages. You and I are joined by both blood and destiny, you cannot run from it".

Dash was not so sure, but equally what did he have to fear. His talents with the ice had saved his life and that of others more times than he could count. Jadis understood his powers, in a way no one else did. If he could learn more from her, he had to.

"But that is the past" she said, seeming to read his mind. "Focus now on the future, what you aspire to and what you hope for. See in our strength a shadow of what could be".

The Rhinnalian was less sure where to start this time, planting his feet again and scanning the surface of the pool. Images began to move again in the smooth ice, but this time less clearly, mere wisps on a frantic wind. After all, what did he aspire to?

The rough shape of a blonde-haired man stalked across the pane of ice, confident and proud but his face hidden in obscurity. Crowds waved at him as he passed, walking the streets of a snow-covered world. A moment later, lines of robed figures clapped and cheered, doves flew and a white flag fluttered below and a jubilant trumpet. Two figures stood side by side, the white of the flag encircling their world.

What did it all mean? Could any of it be true? As if in answer, one of the figures turned to face him, the blonde-haired man again. He strode closer, growing in size in the frozen pool. He petty robes fell away, an icy light refashioning a splendid mantle in their place. The glow was incredible, all-consuming. Indeed, the rows on onlookers began to shy away from the light, drawing back and then running in fear and despair. Still the light grew stronger, burning away everyone but the figure it adorned.

The pool cracked and Dash staggered back. "What- , what does this mean, any of it?" he steadied himself on a tree, half wondering if it was all just nonsense.

"It is what might be" Jadis answered, looking curiously intrigued herself. "You have taken your first steps in divining through the ice, Dash. But so much awaits. My home here on Rhinnal is no longer my own. You must take it, its secrets now belong to you".

 

[Dash Pavan]

It was not too difficult to find the cave again or retread the treacherous path through to the main chamber. Dash opened the secret passage with his frost, taking the elevator down to Jadis’ sanctuary.

She followed him all the way, her face glistening in any reflective surface and her voice whispering in his mind. The Casket pulsed gently in his hands, underpinning her connection, though these days he could increasingly commune with her without it.

Dash stepped out into the dimly lit lair, unsure whether it was somewhere he could really feel comfortable. The anguished faces of the frozen people stared at him from their blocks of ice

“Rhinnal is where I honed our most basic talents” Jadis explained “working the ice, and using it to see beyond. Eventually, I saw clearly enough to know I had to leave, to seek out more”.

“Your route?” Dash thought aloud, finding his way way to the star map carved into the wall. “Here, Kashyyyk, Christophsis, Kro Var?”

“Yes” she whispered back “I mastered certain things here, but there are other sources of knowledge in the galaxy, Dash. The witches of Kashyyyk taught me their magick and how to commune with creatures of the cold. The crystalline Christophsis too, the secrets of that world showed me how to use our power to build and create”.

Dash listened intently. He had made both weapons and walls from the ice already and recently built an archway with little more than a song. Was there more still to discover?

“What about Kro Var?” He asked, eyeing the most prominent point on the carving. “What did you learn there? It was a hot wasteland when I went”.

“It was not always so” Jadis replied “Kro Var holds the greatest power of them all, buried deep beneath the mountain. A nexus of energy”. She drew close, whispering in his ear. “When I unleashed it Dash, I became strong enough to remake the world. The whole of Kro Var froze over, a beautiful, perfect winter with all of its delights. It was like a dream, I could make anything I imagined. Wouldn’t you like that?”.

Dash frowned, turning to look at her uneasily. “Freeze a whole world?!” He was about to ask about the people, but he had not seen any on Kro Var come to think of it. All the same, it seemed too big a thing for one person to do. “That’s impossible”.

“Not for you or I” she replied, holding his gaze “not when you are strong enough and not with the power of Kro Var flowing through you”.

Dash snorted, still disbelieving. He paced around the strange room, feeling this was all a bit mad. “Look, I want to learn” he said “I used to be frightened of the ice stuff, but it’s saved me and my friends more than once. I accept it now, like it even, it makes me feel stronger, like I can really make a difference”. It was weird pouring out his inner thoughts to his ten times spectral great grandmother but there were so few who understood.

“But can you help me learn something really useful first, useful to the Jedi?”. In truth, he was starting to feel a little impotent despite his knighthood. “The Order have got me doing stuff, help someone here, start up a new temple there, but it’s all small stuff”. The Jedi were still on the backfoot across the galaxy and his experiences on Berchest and elsewhere made him feel they were always in danger. “Something big to really help?”.

Her eyes narrowed as she considered briefly, then blazed again. “If your Jedi friends matter so much to you, then don’t give them a temple, give them a world. Give them Kro Var. Together, we can unearth the power there and transform that world into a sanctuary under your rule. Anyone you bring there will be safe, forever”.