Meditative Canyon

The Force only knows. A thought that struck Mariah more than she showed. He wanted to come here and surprise her, then managed to finally track her down here of all places. What more, he wasn’t demanding answers, and even offering to rid himself of the knowledge later. It was a situation she couldn’t begin grasping. Why any of this came to pass, only the Force knew. Still, she had started down this path already, so why the hell stop there.

“The interesting development of the spell is that they’re powered by the very thing that they protect. A constant cycle that never stops and never dies. Generations can pass, and no one will ever know what is sitting right below their feet,” she continued, pushing her luck by adequately offering an answer to his earlier question. She had already started down this path, and if he was serious about his offer, she wanted to know. “However, if you remove it from its place, the runes disappear, and this place appears like some other tomb or man-made chamber. I would offer a demonstration, but there are a few setbacks…”

Mariah finally made it all the way down to the lowest level before positioning herself to stay hoisted up by leaning on the pedestal. If anyone else had done such a thing, Mariah would have forcibly removed their head from their shoulders for defiling such a sacred object in this chamber. She was desperate, though, as to not show any more weakness to him than she already had with her tumble. The issue came by being in such close proximity to what remained fixed upon the pedestal, though. Its essence felt like sheer light and harmony radiating, which in turn created a Force-awful dissonance that tore at Mariah’s soul like organic matter being thrust into a ship’s running engine. That much, she couldn’t hide with a pained wince that tore her momentary crimson gaze away from Gavin. Setback number one, this was as close to the damned thing that Mariah could even get. Typically a curse now turned a blessing.

Following Gavin with her eyes, Mariah remained fixed where she stood. The longer she stood there, though, the worse off she became. Just as they had earlier, the runes flickered alight with Gavin's presence. However, everything seemed to glow with a blinding light as Mariah felt her soul being torn asunder. Even just looking at her, she appeared as though she held a great weight a small thing like her couldn’t hold, even with assistance from the Force. Despite that strained expression, though, she stood as strong as one could under that kind of pressure.

With his quip about the artifact, Mariah huffed out a strained laugh. “Do you forget where you stand, Phoenix?”

The Meditative Canyon was a nexus point, a vergence in the Force. One of the strongest reasons she wanted to face Gavin down again here wasn't just about home-field advantage. It was about being able to utilize her environment to push herself past typical breaking points. What many didn’t know, even those of the Dark Jedi, was that Mariah commonly spent her time in the canyon. It wasn’t just to search out this chamber, either, but to meditate within it and soak in the heavy essence of the Force for as long as she could manage. Eventually, she had hoped to achieve a connection with it, thus using the concentrated amounts of the Force like her own power.

For the artifact, though, it’s very existence was drawn to pull in the Force and be a host for such concentrated amounts of its essence. To be placed with this vergence inevitably powered it, which led to another quirk about the ‘nullifying’ spell Mariah had mentioned. “The runes only work one way, similar to a one-way mirror. Those looking in won’t see anything more than a mirror of what they know this place to be. But those on the inside looking out...” The nexus powered the shard, which then funneled that power through the pedestal, and thus, fed the runes the high amount of Force energy that they needed to remain active. With the runes hiding the shard, it continuously drank in the vergence in an endless cycle to feed its own secrecy. So long as the vergence remained, so would this secret.

Mariah breathed out a shaken breath, no longer able to withstand the sheer amount of light-side energy that washed over her. However, as she stepped away from it -- and closer to Gavin -- she stumbled again, catching herself on a knee as to stay as much upright as she could. At this rate, what was the point anyway? If he was to rid himself of all of this knowledge later, then witnessing her momentary weakness, too, would fade.

Nonetheless, his shrugged answer about not needing a demonstration seemed pitiful now, for a man who had picked for answers about this place earlier. In a usual situation, Mariah would have taken it as a boon, but at this point, she refused to allow Gavin to shirk away from the understanding he sought.

“At the very least, humor me, Phoenix. Go on and try to remove the damned thing from its pedestal.”

It was a sheer concentration of light-side energy. Any darksider would wither away at such an outpouring of energy. At the very least, it would paralyze them as the light would attempt to chase away every shadow of darkness that resided in someone’s soul. Like a kyber crystal that fought against bleeding, visions of light, serenity, and harmony would overwhelm someone, except that this particular stone seemed to be the heart every kyber crystal attuned to every Jedi over the course of the past eternity. Those weakly following the darkside could swiftly shift their belief in the Force by simply being near it. For someone like Mariah, though, it was closer to having her soul ripped from her body entirely. Needless to say, she was curious as to what would happen if Gavin took up the challenge. If anything, she just wanted to see how badly he would suffer or if his very fate would shift at this moment in time. Maybe then, he wouldn't become her problem anymore, and she could dump him on the backwater planet Felucia to live out the rest of his days as a noble Jedi.

Mariah issued the challenge haphazardly, for the moment that Gavin moved around her to take it, she felt an underlying weight within her like a rock sunk in her stomach. To allow someone outside her people to handle this powerful yet delicate artifact was blasphemous. As he reached out for it, it was as though she could hear the generations of her ancestors cry out in protest and agony over her decision. Still, she refused to back down now, and the moment his fingers pressed against the stone, Mariah sucked in a sharp breath of air.

Unbeknownst to Gavin, the moment he removed the stone from its resting place, there was a shockwave of pure Lightside energy that pulsed throughout the chamber with the stone at its epicenter. Mariah, who was already down to a knee, fell under the weight as though her soul was nearly shredded away from the impact. The wave may have lasted a mere second, but Mariah was out for several. The moment she came to, she groaned groggily and, with the swift remembrance of what had just taken place, pushed herself back up to her feet with haste. Those crimson orbs immediately snapped over towards Gavin, who stood statuesque with the crystal in hand. Mariah breathed in a panicked breath as she glanced around the chambers, and one by one, those runes that kept this artifact sealed and hidden started to fade away.

“No…”

If Gavin didn’t snap out of this fast, the whole of Ambria would know of this crystal’s existence. Although it was settled within a Nexus of the Force, a keen eye or powerful Force user would soon be able to sense the pinprick of the Force’s surging Lightside energy shining from this place. However, what was more concerning was how long he was under this spell. Most succumbed in a matter of seconds, yet he still seemed enchanted with whatever vision it pushed upon him.

“Phoenix, snap out of it!” she snarled.

As if on command, he did. The moment she called out his name, he blinked and took those few steps back. Mariah revealed the faintest of shock in her expression with the widening of her eyes as they met his -- those gold orbs peering back at her. She was quick to shake off the surprise in her expression, especially considering his casual word choice.

“A rush…?” she questioned harshly before another dying rune on the wall pressed her towards the more urgent matter at hand. “Kriff. Phoenix, put it back… now!”

Lunging towards him, she reached out to grasp his hand with hers, to forcibly make him return the crystal back to its pedestal. However, the moment that her hand touched his skin, touched the crystal, it felt like touching the center of a star. Burning, singing away at her physical body just as much her spiritual one. She hissed with a quick inhale and was forced to take a step back. Without another option open to her, she reached down for the saber affixed to her belt and prepared to ignite it. She didn’t have time to register any of the obvious questions -- Would he try to forcibly steal this artifact now that he felt its power? Why was he under its vision for so long? Was he still sane enough to listen to her, or would he force her hand to keep this crystal a secret? -- nor could she, not until this artifact was truly safe once more.

It was an immediate, recognizable reaction. The moment that Gavin placed the crystal back into its resting place, the pedestal shimmered with a soft light. A gentle pulse of Lightside energy warmed the chamber. The runes that had faded slowly resurged back to life.

Mariah inhaled sharply as she turned to look over the status of the chamber. Once she had assessed that all had returned to normal, she was then able to focus on the other matters at hand. Although she released her hand from her saber, she was still far from pacified from the act she just witnessed. With Gavin closing the distance to ensure her own safety, she used that to his disadvantage as she sent a push through the Force to slam him against the wall behind him.

“Who are you?”

Her question came with a demanding ferocity, it was nearly evident in her harsh tones that he was to answer or die. Mariah even followed up by closing the gap between them in hopes to keep him pinned against the wall. She hadn’t missed the fading of those golden orbs back to the piercing blue she was familiar with. She hadn’t even missed the deflection of fault back onto her for what had just transpired. None of that mattered now, though. As far as Mariah was concerned, he had revealed a phenomena that shouldn’t have been possible, and what more, exuded a sense of control that had no viable explanation.

“What did you experience while holding that crystal, Phoenix? How the hell are you still even standing here?”

The runes created a wave around Gavin’s body the moment that his body was slammed against the wall. In her current state, Mariah easily looked past it, her eyes locked upon Gavin as though he was a trespassing presence in need of being removed, in some fashion or another. She pressed onward, her hand grasping onto the cloak that shrouded Gavin’s body. His questions rang with an eerie calm, the same kind of calm that he shouldn’t have exuded after handling such an artifact. It only reinforced that sense of angered urgency in the small crimson-haired woman as she kept him pinned between her and the wall.

“The moment that you touched that crystal, it would have pumped the purest form of Lightside energy this side of the Veil has ever known,” she growled low, her crimson eyes locked upon his blue. “It's enough to make even the strongest and most resilient man crumble to tears and turn from the ‘error of his ways’... to seek redemption among the Lightsiders of the galaxy... filling them with delusions of grandeur... with visions of using its power to rid the galaxy of the Darkside, and you…”

Her snarled words had reached a crescendo before they trailed off abruptly. 'A rush.' That was how he described it. There was only one group who could have exuded such control after handling its presence, and as far as Mariah knew, they were like the rest of her people. Dead and gone. Mariah could only look at Gavin as though he was an impossibility within the galaxy as she knew it. She breathed in deep, seemingly unrelenting to her assault, but with her exhale, she released him and took a step away from him, keeping her back turned to him, but her body still poised between him and the artifact.

“What happened when you took it, Phoenix?” she asked again, controlling her tones now to a more monotonous drone. “What visions did you see?”

It took Mariah all she had not to lash back out at Gavin as he continued this philosophical discussion about what happens when mortals are presented with power. It was all the same song and tune, like one of those Force-awful catchy cantina tunes that one had finally ridden from their mind, only to immediately be reminded of it so that it would torment the silence of one’s thoughts for next eternity. The Sith wanted domination and power, but so did the Jedi. To rid the Darkside of the galaxy was nested in that same basket. Power to dominate. To rid something through even force, if necessary. They were one and the same. That was the dangers of this artifact, the dangers of those like it. They became a means to power for those who dared get too close.

Her thoughts were snapped back to the present, though, with the sound of shuffling. Gavin approached her, and in turn, Mariah prepared to place herself once more between him and the crystal. When she turned to face him, however, even she couldn’t dispute that his attention wasn’t drawn upon the crystal, but her. As he began to offer her an explanation of what he saw, the tension which rose within her subsided, albeit gradually and never wholly. The more he explained, the more she believed it some kind of fluke. That was until he mentioned that ‘something else’, the reason her tension never fully left her muscles.

“You saw it... It guided you to its brethren...”

She uttered those words through gritted teeth of disbelief. Her eyes may have narrowed upon him, but she made no other move against him. It was only then that she realized that it wasn’t some fluke; Gavin had somehow miraculously managed to tune himself to the crystal’s energy, without being overcome with it. It had guided him to the resting place of the other stone, its counterbalance in the universe. The shifting of the room, the changing of the pedestal. She had only a single explanation for who he was and his ability to manage this, and it was one she didn’t like. There wasn’t a better explanation than it, though, despite the thousands of holes she could riddle through this newest theory in a heartbeat. Her mind couldn’t wrap itself around any other answer, though. Not like she had the time before Gavin made that final quip.

“You’re lucky that’s all you came back to, Phoenix,” Mariah snarled with a roll of her eyes. “You don’t understand how bizarre this whole scenario is.”

Bizzare was an understatement. Her eyes turned from Gavin back to the stone upon the pedestal. Although she remained silent for a few moments, it was easy to see that she had submerged herself deep in thought over the next steps to take. The next questions to ask. The next minutes… hours… days and what they would hold for not only her now but for him as well. The biggest concern, though, was that of the missing stone on Korriban. She had confirmed that this one remained untouched, and Gavin had the key to the status of the other. From what she could decipher, it also remained safe in its resting place, but she couldn’t guarantee how long, not when there was an unidentified thief who now knew of these crystal’s existence. Mariah would need to find it before they did.

“Do you remember what that chamber looked like? Anything that struck you as different from this one here? Any detail, great or small, would be a boon to me.”

Of course, Gavin would be shocked by this new revelation. Two dual pieces of crystals, separated for many reasons -- none of which Mariah wanted to discuss with him at this present point in time. In answer to his question, the crimson-haired woman simply opted to hum in affirmation, lowering her chin as she cast a side-eye towards the stone that rested once more in its place, where it had been for the past several decades -- centuries, even.

The thing about artifacts like these, though, was that the more one knew of it and its origins, the more questions that would appear from all directions. Even Mariah hadn’t all the answers. Perhaps one day, she would have. However, the fate of her kin prevented all of that. It was why she struggled to find this resting place here. All she knew was of their existence and their general location within the galaxy -- vergences within the Force, their source for eternal fuel.

“Ignorance is bliss, Phoenix,” she uttered, then turning to him with a narrowed, critical gaze. “The less you know, the better, for both our sakes. You’re already astounded to find out that there are two out there in the galaxy, so for now, let's keep it that way.”

Oh, there were more, which could be easily implied based on her response. Based on Gavin’s reaction, she had a feeling that revealing it bluntly -- with the added bonus that one was already stolen from its pedestal -- was far from a great idea, though. At least for the time being. Time was of the essence anyway, and she would need to report back to the Temple before anyone realized she was missing. Gavin now had knowledge, knowledge that she needed. To irk her even further, he was now useful to her beyond what she would ever voice aloud.

“A pedestal spire with the channeling chamber carved within…” Mariah bit thoughtfully on her bottom lip as she turned to the pedestal before her, envisioning the revealed one in Gavin’s visions. “I’m unfamiliar with the architecture, but I have texts in my chambers that might help lead me to where its counterpart was locked away.”

Now came the fun part. Mariah braced herself for the questions to come and even the refusal of his assistance. She had no other option before her, though, and was prepared for a barrage of his uncertainties. Although she had the means to contain it outside of this chamber, there was only one here who could even get close to it. Her hands were tied.

“First, we need to get this stone safely back to the Temple, undetected…”

‘We’. Mariah nearly shuddered at the use of that word. It weighed heavily on her tongue, but as difficult as it was to succumb to such a simple word, the consequences of leaving it here, exposed, weighed as heavily as the galaxy upon her shoulders. The lesser of two evils was clearer than the Light Side that poured from the crystal.

Trust. Was that what this was? She hadn’t the desire to fight with him, though. It was an unnecessary battle that would take up too much time to fight. In her eyes, this was a necessity. Survival. The texts being in her chambers were nothing short of bait. If he one day decided to go snooping about in her room, he would be quicker caught by the guards before breaching the door. When they were finished here, at that, there would be a far more precious mark hiding away in that room, something he would have known about anyway, as he would soon be an accomplice in securing it.

Anything more that was revealed to him was done under a different guise, appointed by a different Shadows. The thought frustrated her, the momentary memory of nothingness with the only thing cutting through the black was muffled voices from the surface. At the very least, he wasn’t about to pry, and despite bracing for the myriad of questions to cut through the air, they didn’t come. A relief and a victory, but they weren’t something to be celebrated yet.

Gavin had poised an excellent question. Although she had come here vastly under armed for retrieving the crystal, that wasn’t her intention until this very moment. At first, this mission was to locate it. Now, it was an extraction. With a thoughtful hum, Mariah looked away from Gavin and the crystal and turned her attention towards the runes that glowed with an arcane light upon the walls. There, her answer lied. It was mere seconds in silence before she could prove that that critical gaze of hers wasn’t just for show. There was always a solution. This room proved that there was a solution to masking the power of that stone. All she needed was to replicate it.

Turning back to Gavin, she ushered, “Remove your cloak and then prepare yourself mentally for the next steps. You only held that crystal for a mere moment, but the trek back to the Temple will take some time. When we reach the hangars, I can’t have you rushing off to your ship to flee the planet in a momentary lapse of judgment.”

She spoke critically, as though she believed it to be a possibility; however, whether it was distrust in Gavin or simply an understanding of the crystal's power remained unknown. Once her unspoken warning had been issued, though, Mariah settled herself at the base of the steps, pulling out the athames that rested upon her belt. She grimaced inwardly at the touch of metal against her palm. Of all her weaponry she discussed with Gavin all those moons ago, she had kept these a secret and for a reason. Even during their duel, she had opted to keep them away from the bloodshed. Was it from a sudden misguided trust? Not trust, she affirmed with an inward scowl. After her lessons under Ifrit’s tutelage, she was about to put her knowledge and skills to the test, to fulfill her duty.

Nothing more. Nothing less.