The Devils Inside the Walls/Part 3

After a long afternoon and evening, including the most awkward meditation session of Narasi's Jedi career—and that was including the two months on Taanab when she and Tirien had barely spoken—the three of them took the maglev across Byblos City into yet another white cloudcutter. She wasn't sure how Javrin could tell them all apart or remember the city's labyrinth of maglev stops, but he seemed to know where he was going. Narasi could sense her master did not share Javrin's grim edginess; his yellow facial tattoos might as well have spelled out S-K-E-P-T-I-C-A-L. But he offered no comment, allowing Javrin to lead and looking up at the stars from the maglev car's window.

When Javrin got out, Tirien and Narasi followed and found themselves in a well-appointed station. Narasi saw a sign at one exit reading T HE A RTEPOISE, a security barrier and a guard droid beneath it. Narasi took a step in that direction, but stopped when she saw Javrin heading perpendicular to the offload of commuters. Following along with her master, she saw the Shistavenan wait for the maglev to depart, then jump onto the track. Tirien waved a hand at a curious passerby, who instantly became less curious, then he jumped down after Javrin and Narasi brought up the rear.

"Another maintenance room?" she asked as Javrin plugged a datacard into the reader.

"No way into the main building," Javrin replied.

"Other than the gate…" Tirien noted.

The wolfman spared him a glower. "The Artepoise is the most exclusive residence in this part of the planet; one of the collaborators lives here. We can't risk being picked up by the cameras."

Tirien opened his mouth, but seemed to think better of it and just shook his head. Javrin's datacard apparently overrode the security lock, because the door beeped and opened to admit them. Within they found a service droid and a maintenance turbolift. The droid turned its face toward them and Javrin reached for his lightsaber, but Tirien put one hand on the Shistavenan's shoulder and extended the other to the droid. It vibrated in place for a second before its photoreceptors dimmed and it slouched.

"You were saying something about stealth?" he asked Javrin.

The Jedi Shadow shrugged off Tirien's hand. "And if it reboots?"

"Let's not be here then," Tirien answered, nodding forward. "I'm assuming your universal key works on the turbolift, too?"

It did, and they descended to the downlevels of The Artepoise before the maintenance droid reactivated. Narasi watched as the floors scrolled by and dropped into basement numbers before the car finally stopped. The doors opened on a dim expanse of ferrocrete pillars, holding up the ceiling some thirty meters up, braced with durasteel girders and lit only with orange floodlights here and there. Sticking to the shadows, the three Jedi made their way through the dark until they heard voices.

"I thought Garrin was gonna be here by now," one of them fretted.

"Chill, dude, he'll be here," another assured.

Narasi made a face; the voices reminded her of Aldayr Nikodon, Mali Darakhan's apprentice. Her master's features were hard to make out in the gloom, but Narasi thought she saw him frowning.

"Who—" he started.

"Quiet," Javrin breathed. "Can't you sense it?"

Narasi opened herself up to the Force, parting her robe and laying a hand on her lightsaber to be ready for anything. She could feel a handful of presences, but none of them felt like the Sith Lords she had encountered—they did not seem Forceful at all. But when she really concentrated, she did feel a tremor of foreboding like a faint ringing in her ears—not impossible to ignore, but jarring enough that her other senses kept giving way to the sensation.

"Garrin!" called one of the voices in relief. "We thought you weren't going to show!"

"I'm what, ten minutes late?" a new voice drawled back; Narasi heard the smirk in the words. "Little panicky, are we?"

"That's what I said," one of the others grumbled.

"Did you bring them?"

"Of course I did," Garrin replied, and Narasi sensed both her master and Javrin become more alert. "Why do you think I'm late? I couldn't exactly walk out of the house with them in my hands."

Narasi felt interest and excitement mingle with fear in their unseen quarry. At her side, Javrin drew his lightsaber hilt into his hand and growled, "Time to end this."

Tirien's eyes narrowed. "What exactly do you mean by—"

"So this…they're real?" one of Garrin's friends was asking.

"Of course they're real," Garrin replied. "These are old Sith scrolls—thousands of years old. And this one's a holocron."

"Don't you mean datacron?"

"No, it's a holocron," Garrin insisted. "Only a Sith can use it. My dad says they're as real and dark as they come.  I bet nobody else in the Republic could get his hands on them."

His comrades oohed and aahed as Javrin started forward. Grimacing, Tirien whispered, "Narasi, go around and cut them off!"

She nodded and slipped from their pillar to the next. Part of her wondered what it meant that he had sent her off alone; was he expecting the brunt of the force to come at the two Knights? She caught a glimpse of a circle of young men standing around a spot they had lit with their own glowrods; one of them looked her way as she ran, and she threw herself behind a pillar.

"Hey, did you see that?"

"Yeah, real funny, Manno."

"I'm serious! There's somebody here!"

"Ooo, maybe it's these things! Like…they're Sith things, right?  Maybe they're messing with your mind!"

"Dude, that is not funny."

"No," Javrin Flek snarled, "it's not."

He stepped out of the shadows and ignited his yellow lightsaber. Several of the young men cried out in surprise, and one of them actually screamed. Narasi ran around, throwing stealth to the wind; as some of them staggered to their feet from where they had been sitting—or had fallen—she interposed herself between them and the other side of the basement and activated her lightsaber. Those who had started her way ground to a halt and lurched away from the lethal plasma blade.

As she took in their terrified faces, Narasi had a moment of surprise herself. In the group of eight, the youngest were barely older than she was, and even the oldest looked to still be teens. All were well-dressed and well-groomed, and none of them were armed.

In the middle of the pack stood one of the oldest of the group, his blond hair coiffed into a sloppy-yet-handsome style so flattering Narasi thought the 'mess' had to be purposeful. He looked stunned as his face turned from Javrin to Narasi and back. He held objects in both hands…or at least he did until Javrin blew him off his feet with a Force push that sent the objects skittering across the floor and knocked the young man to the ground.

"Javrin!" Tirien snapped.

"Get the artifacts!" the Shistavenan snarled, ignoring him.

Following the cylindrical case as it rolled, Narasi took a hand from her lightsaber hilt, warning the boys back with a gesture as she reached out with the Force. She fixed the case in her mind, but as she tried to seize it and pull it to her grip, she felt her skin crawl, and she had the odd sensation of recoil, as if her own Force grip was curling her fingers.

"Narasi," Tirien said urgently.

"I can't!" she said, baffled. "It…something's wrong."

One of the boys tried to scamper past her, and Narasi refocused, shifting her blade that way and nearly singeing his arm. He fell back; fear was mounting toward naked panic, and Narasi resumed her two-handed grip. The thought of cutting down defenseless people turned her stomach, but she had to keep them from escaping. If they escaped…if she failed to contain this menace and let her master down…

"I'll get it for you!" one of the boys cried, reaching for the shaking holocron. "Don't hurt us!"

"Get away from it!" Javrin screamed.

The fear in the Force was infectious …

"Stop!" Tirien commanded. Narasi thought he must have put some Forceful compulsion into the order, because all the boys froze, and even Javrin lurched to a halt mid-stride toward the nearest of their quarry. His voice also cleared Narasi's head; she shook off her momentary intensity, startled by the strength of her concerns. She looked against at the dropped casing, and now, with her master as an anchor, she heard again that faint ringing in her ears. It started to resolve into whispers, not of words but emotions, all of them demanding an immediate response, before the moment slipped away, before she lost control of the situation…

"Master," she warned.

"I feel it," he said. "Don't move, any of you."

He crossed through the pack, raising a hand over the scroll casing. His fingers trembled, and the cylinder rocked, but it did not rise to meet him. Eyes narrowed, he stooped carefully and picked it up in his left hand; Narasi felt its power recoiling against his.

"You couldn't take it, Narasi," he said softly, "because it doesn't want to be taken."

"You see?" Javrin demanded. "I told you, Kal-Di. Sith artifacts."

"And you were right," Tirien conceded, tucking the scroll casing into his belt and stooping to retrieve the holocron as well. He studied the small pyramid for a moment, then turned his cold eyes on the blond, whom Narasi took to be Garrin. "You know what these are, boy?"

"I…y-yes," he said; he was lying where he had fallen, still propped up on his elbows.

"Then you're a fool," Tirien said with awful coldness. "If you had read this scroll—if you had so much as opened it—you probably would have died, and all your friends with you."

Garrin swallowed. "I…I didn't—"

"—think," Tirien cut him off. "Yes, I can see that. Where did you get these?"

"Where else?" Javrin demanded, stepping forward; he herded one of the stray boys back with his lightsaber. "He's a Sith agent."

"What?! No!" Garrin insisted; Narasi could see the terror on his face. "No, I'm not!"

"Spare us your lies, boy," Javrin snarled. "Your little Sith cabal is finished. And so are you."

He started forward, bringing his lightsaber into a two-handed grip. Tirien held out a hand. "Javrin, enough! Answer me, boy.  Where did you get these?"

Garrin hesitated, but the sight of a Shistavenan bearing down on him, armed with a lightsaber and half-veiled in shadow, loosened his tongue. "I…my dad. They're my dad's."

"Aha!" Javrin said. "They placed a whole family of infiltrators."

"No!" Garrin cried. "He's a teacher! A professor at the University of Byblos!  He teaches ancient history!  He got them because he's studying some Sith war from a long time ago."

"It's true!" one of the other boys supplied. "We all go to school together. Professor Althos is a teacher."

"And your whole group decided to meet in the dark with Sith artifacts that could have killed you, or driven you insane, or made you murder each other in cold blood," Tirien observed. "What in the galaxy were you thinking?"

Several of them shuffled, looking shamefaced. One ventured, "We're sorry…"

"I don't care how sorry you are," Javrin growled.

"Nor do I," Tirien added. "This was stupid and dangerous. Did you think this made you brave?  Did you think at all?"

They seemed too frightened for words, but one of them opened his mouth, a little squeak coming out. Tirien eyed him. "Speak."

"I…we…we thought it'd be really prime…" he whimpered. "They're…you know, they're the bad guys…"

"I know that better than you," Tirien said, and the boy who had spoken shuddered at the anger in Tirien's voice. "I have seen the Sith with my own eyes. I've seen the people they've tortured and murdered, the lives they've destroyed, the worlds they've reduced to ash.  I've seen the good people who died trying to stop them."

He took the scroll casing from his belt and held it out in his hand. Narasi imagined it as a living thing, some type of snake writhing in his grip, trying to be free of him and spitting poison in all directions. The dark side echoed through the room, rebounding off each of the boy's minds, and those who had found their feet sank back down again while those on the ground cringed and curled into the fetal position. Someone sobbed.

For a second Narasi felt a sliver of fear, wondering if the baleful artifact was poisoning Tirien's mind too. Then he drew his hand back and replaced the scroll case on his belt. "The dark side of the Force is misery, suffering, and death," he said. "The Sith are not really prime, and being like them doesn't make you special. They're living poison, and everything they touch is evil."

No one dared to speak, but after a moment the anger melted from Tirien's face, his usual emotionless look returning. "You're all arrogant children playing with evil far beyond you. We're going to let the Judicials sort you out, and see what your parents have to say about what you're doing with your nights."

"No! My dad will be so angry…"

"We're really sorry!"

"If my parents find out—"

"If this goes on my record, my application to the university—"

"Enough!" Tirien barked, his voice cutting through their pleas. He gave Narasi a downward gesture, and she deactivated her lightsaber. "Narasi, get the government on the comm, have them send a squad here to pick up our friends."

She replaced the lightsaber on her belt and reached for her comlink as Tirien turned away, but she paused when he did and followed his gaze. Javrin Flek still had his lightsaber in hand, the yellow blade humming in the quiet, and his lupine face showed his fury.

"The great Tirien Kal-Di, suckered by a ploy this transparent?" he spat.

Narasi bared her teeth and took a step forward; Tirien stilled her with a gesture. "They're stupid kids, Javrin, no more or less."

"They're spreading Sith propaganda!" Javrin insisted. "If you think the Sith don't know how to veil their agents in youth—"

"I'm fully aware what the Sith are capable of," Tirien cut him off.

"We're not Sith!" Garrin protested.

"Silence," Tirien shot over his shoulder. Garrin seemed to take it as a reprimand, because he winced, but Narasi thought she heard a hint of warning in her master's voice. She took another, more measured step forward.

"They're obviously lying, Kal-Di," Javrin insisted. "Eight Forceless infiltrators caught by three Jedi? What do you think they're going to do, confess and start naming their Darth masters?"

"Fine," Tirien said. "We'll share your theory with the Judicials and let them do the investigation. They'll trace holocalls, follow records…"

Javrin was shaking his head before Tirien was halfway through. "This is why Consulars aren't fit to be Shadows. Heads in the clouds and blind to the filth down on the ground."

He turned to Garrin and pointed at the terrified young man with his lightsaber. "You, boy. You're going to name your source or you're going to wish you had."

"I told you!" Garrin said; even in the gloom Narasi could see the white on all sides of his eyes. "My dad's a professor—"

Javrin shook his head. "You want to play Sith? Then you'll be treated like one."

He started forward, but Tirien took a step to put himself between them. "That's enough, Javrin."

"I'm not going to ignore the Sith just because you're blind," Javrin growled.

His voice was getting more heated, but Tirien's was becoming quieter. "I said that's enough," he repeated, and he brushed the left side of his robe back away from his lightsaber hilt. The silence that followed the gesture was like a physical presence, creeping among them all and breathing on the backs of their necks. Javrin very deliberately looked down at Tirien's weapon, then shifted those glowing eyes back up. "We are Jedi, and this is not the path of the light."

"No," Javrin agreed, "it's the path of the Shadow."

He started forward, and in a heartbeat Tirien had his green blade in hand and activated, the sizzling beam of plasma a barrier between them. Narasi could feel a new wave of fear spreading among the boys, entirely unmotivated by the Sith artifacts this time. Slipping forward, she touched some on the shoulders, beckoning them away from the confrontation.

"Get out of my way, Kal-Di," Javrin warned.

"Javrin, you may have been a good Jedi, but you've let your fear consume you," Tirien replied.

"Fear?! Of what?"

"Of missing threats. Of failure.  We have real enemies, Javrin, we don't need to look for them where they don't exist."

The Shistavenan bared his fangs. "You've let all the garish battles blind you to the subtlety of the dark side, Kal-Di."

"And you've become a Shadow jumping at shadows," Tirien retorted. "A Shadow afraid of the dark."

Narasi felt the change in the Force, and she grabbed Garrin by the collar to pull him back as the two Jedi moved. By the time she had her own lightsaber hilt in hand again it was over; Javrin hissed, pulling one burned hand off his lightsaber hilt, and Tirien disarmed him, the Force bringing Javrin's weapon to his free hand. He held the yellow and green blades crossed before him at Javrin's throat. Narasi moved to her master's side; she no longer worried about their prisoners, because terror had them all paralyzed. She extended her free hand, and Javrin's blaster pistol flew out of its holster and into her grip.

The Shistavenan showed no fear of his own, only anger. "Do it, then. You're letting the Sith get away with this evil, you might as well compound it."

"I wonder how many innocent lives I might save if I did," Tirien answered, and Narasi flinched at the contempt in his voice. "But no. I am still a Jedi, and Jedi are not executioners.  The Council will decide your fate."

"Narasi," he said without taking his eyes off Javrin, "put that call in to the Judicials. And see if you can't raise the Temple on your beacon, too.  Javrin's going to need a ride home."