The Unchronicled Adventures Of Ahsoka Tano, Book Nine

Chapter Twenty-Three: Rain

KAYLIRA TRAMINO

As the New Hope parted ways from the Bria and made the jump into lightspeed, Kaylira darted into her room. Although she had maintained a neutral façade for the duration of their stay on Alderaan, she had come close to having a meltdown several times.

She didn't fully understand it, but she hated large crowds, seeing unfamiliar faces... Although becoming a Jedi was her dream, she wasn't sure if she was going to be able to accomplish it without getting over her fears.

She had the feeling that whatever race she had come from was extremely isolationist. But she had no way of knowing, because she had never been able to find anything about her species or what planet she came from.

Kayli fell facedown on her bed, taking a deep breath as she tried to calm down. She brought her datapad from the table next to her to her hand using the Force, and pulled her head out of her pillow long enough to read what was on it.

It was a new assignment from her Master. She was supposed to do an in-depth study of an old Jedi philosophy. She found the appropriate document in her research archives without trouble.

In this field where secrets grow and thrive a wither and die, I bury my sorrows and shed my woes, for this is the place of bitter-sweetness and beautiful ignorance; of hazardous knowledge and tainted victory; this is the place of everything and nothing. Here I come to free myself, for this is the place of the Force.

An anonymous Jedi Master had written it nearly half a century before. She wondered why her Master had chosen this. It was different than the ones she usually had to think over.

She rolled over onto her back, clearing her mind to see if she would receive any insight from the deeper part of her conscience. That was how her Master usually had her complete these assignments: by using the Force for intense thinking.

After a few moments, she felt herself being lulled to sleep by the gentle whisperings of the Force. She was exhausted from the mental turmoil that being around people put her through all day, after all.

Which was probably why she didn't notice that there was something off in the Force, something she hadn't felt before...

Kayli awoke in a strange place. It was dark, and the floors beneath her were rough sandstone tiles. She opened her eyes to a hazy blur of green, honey-brown, mauve and turquoise overhead. She couldn't hear or smell anything.

As she sat up and squinted her eyes, sound, smell and sight came back into focus. She immediately recognized the colors she had seen before. The green and turquoise were the leaves on the ah'Chuta trees that grew in the region where Temple Mountain was, and the golden brown was their bark. The dusty rose-mauve color was the sky at dawn.

Brushing herself off, Kaylira looked around her. She stood in some sort of clearing. A small pool of crystal-clear water was a few feet away from her. There wouldn't have been anything special about it if it hadn't been so perfectly round, and carved into the rock. And it was perfectly still, more like the glass in a mirror than water.

Strange symbols were etched into the rock. Kneeling down, she ran her fingers over them. She could immediately sense that she had some sort of connection with this place, with the way the carvings flowed from one into the other...

"They're beautiful, aren't they?" said a voice.

Kayli turned around, and spotted a young woman standing across the clearing. She was perhaps in her early twenties, and her hair was a golden red like the peculiar flame of Cialonian tree branches.

Her face also bore a striking resemblance to Kaylira's own, with its ivory skin, almond-shaped face and full lips. But, although her eyes were violet like hers, they also sported flecks of amber and red.

"Who are you?" Kayli asked quietly.

"Someone from your past." The woman crossed her hands over her pristine white tunic, an odd smile on her face.

"What's your name?"

"I doubt it would mean anything to you, but... During my childhood, I was known as Rain," the woman replied. Her voice was soft and musical.

"This is Cialone, isn't it? The trees are whispering to me, but... It's different than what I usually hear."

"Yes. They sing a song far older than the one you know, and it may take some time before you can hear it as I do." Rain cocked her head. "Has your Master ever told you about the people who originally lived on this planet?"

"Uh, not much," Kayli replied. "Just that they died out many years ago, and that there are none of them left."

"Well, that only makes sense. After all, she knows so little about our culture, our ways of life. One charm and a letter hardly cover our entire civilization."

"What, 'our'? What do you mean?" she asked, her eyebrows furrowing. Nothing Rain said made sense, and yet... There was something about her, something familiar.

"I'm a relative of yours, Kaylira House Tramino."

Although the way Rain said her name was a question on the tip of her tongue, Kayli went on to inquire on the first piece of information. "I... How? I have no memory of you at all."

"I was part of the House Tramino nearly a thousand years before you were born. I'm your many-times-great-grandmother."

*Kaylira has uncovered new information about her past. But what could this mean for our heroes? And just who is this mysterious 'Rain', who told Ahsoka's apprentice that she's one of her ancestors? Just what are Darth Bane and his new apprentice, the former General Grievous, planning? And what was the offer made to Han Solo and Chewbacca? You'll find out in the next thrilling chapter of The Unchronicled Adventures Of Ahsoka Tano!

Okay, I am very proud of this chapter. You guys know me, I love the spiritual stuff, and I love writing about family stuff. And by the way, I think that you can all guess who Rain is. Even though I'm DYING to tell you, I'll leave that to another time and place... *chuckles evilly*

And the quote was one of the many things I was planning to use for Book Eight that I never got to (that story was bursting at the seams already) that I came up with a long time ago. And it might just be relevant to the story later...

So I hope you all liked this chapter, as well as the next one, which I'm about to post. Yes, it's a Doubles Night because I felt like it and I got these two ideas pretty much consecutively. So enjoy the next one!

Discover that you're in love with a Jedi Padawan you've known for years and may the Force be with you,

Sharron

PS: The pic above is Cialone at dawn.