FORSAKEN - Target: Zero

CHAPTER NINETEEN

"You play too?" Addia couldn't believe an Inquisitor had the capacity for anything that didn't involve mayhem.

"It's part of the seven skills every Kage warrior must learn."

"Which are?"

"Philosophy, to learn how to think; poetry, to know how to express yourself; religion, to strengthen your spirit; calligraphy, to organize your ideas; the sword, to defend oneself; a game, to learn strategy; and music, to sooth the soul."

"So, you must be virtuoso."

"Careful, dirt-brusher. Don't confuse courtesy with familiarity."

Addia put her hands up as a sign of apology. "Wait. Are those my Bespin frozen fruits?"

"They were." The Fourth Sister threw one of the bites in her mouth.

Witch. That was my last bag, Addia thought. "Anyway, we're about to arrive. We should get ready."

The Plunderer flew across Lothal's night sky over its prairies, towards the planet's iconic conical rock formations. Its wings swept upwards as it landed near a mount where a particularly large one rested enclosed by a number of smaller ones.

Addia and the Fourth Sister came out of the craft. The Mirialan carried her backpack with her gear, which contained Ilum. The distant howling of Loth-wolves pierced the silence of the night.

"Unless the settings have been tampered with, there should be a Jedi Temple lying about," Addia said.

"This place is strong with the Force." The Fourth Sister looked around.

"Yes, I sensed it too. It must be underneath that mount. Let's see what we're dealing with here." Addia activated a control on her wrist band.

A PTZ-1K probe droid flew out of her ship and scanned around the formation. Addia watched what the droid surveyed on a hologram projecting from the wrist control. No unusual or manmade signs were visible. But something caught Addia's eye a few meters in front of her; a pattern in the ground too symmetrical to be a natural occurrence. Commanding the droid high above it, Addia had a better view. A laser scan reproduced the outline free from the dirt and grass obscuring it from sight.

It was a round seal with a four-point jagged star inside a cross with domed ends, which repeated itself as a larger background inside a segmented circle. Addia recognized it as an ancient symbol representing the Force in both its aspects, light and dark. There were also a number of lines carved on the ground around the mount.

"Yep. We're in the right place." Addia recalled the droid. Lowering her data goggles, she cycled through a few settings, then settled on ground-penetrating radar vision, which showed a fuzzy image of a circular structure underneath the knoll. "There you are."

"The temple wants us to use the Force to open it." The Fourth Sister walked over the seal.

Addia had heard a faint whisper—a feeling—telling her how to gain admittance within the temple. She had hoped the Inquisitor wasn't attune enough to the Force to perceived it.

Using the Force, both women connected with the site. The seal and the ground lines glowed purple with both the light and dark shades. The ground began to shake as the large stone formation spiraled upwards, revealing a tall narrow entrance cut into angular shapes from the living rock.

They walked through the long V-shaped passage into a pillared chamber. The corpses of old Jedi, sitting in meditation still wearing their dusty robes, laid against the faceted columns. The heavy gate on the opposite side was opened. Addia had the strange feeling the temple welcomed her presence. These sites were built on areas with strong convergences of the Force to test Jedi and impart wisdom. So, Addia had no intention of questioning the positive sensation.