Corscuant still held the scars of conflict and war, the gapping maw remained, once the home of a warship that the Dark Empire had somehow managed to build to near completion beneath the nose of the Galactic Alliance without raising suspicion or inquiry. It would take years, if not decades to rebuild the destruction, to heal the planet-spanning cityscape, and make the event only remembered in historical text and the stories of the old. For now, it would remain, a stark reminder to the people of Coruscant that the Alliance was not untouchable nor unassailable, a reality that many on the fringes of the vast system-spanning Federation had to face each day.
The lives that had been lost were incalculable, and even as the rubble was still being sorted through, and crews of labor droids toiled to repair the damage, cadavers were still being discovered. Those who lived on the fringes of society, those who had lost so much, and still the galaxy demanded their lives when all they sought was a place of refuge and shelter in the lower levels. For many they would not be remembered, nor would those above seem to care that the lives of those in the lower levels were so impacted or easily thrown away; that was the unfortunate reality of the Alliance despite all the good that they did, that they could do, there were still those who slipped through the cracks and were forgotten, even in death.
There had been little reason for the woman to travel to the rift, the plunging hole that, only a couple of months prior, had seen Jedi, Adventurers, and many others descend into the darkness to face the denizens that claimed the lower levels. The noises that still echoed from the depths were more than enough to keep away the skittish and easily frightened. Guards had been posted to ensure that no one else attempted to descend into the darkness and that nothing attempted to rise once more and threaten the people of Coruscant. It had been one of these postings, an unsure and raw recruit that had sounded the alarm when the rift had first appeared.
She stood silently before the masked figure, golden-yellow hues peering from beneath the enclosed helm that she wore. The woman listened and watched, her attention shifting carefully between the individual and the rift that remained at its back.
"Welcome, welcome, to the edge of all you know and all you dare not know! This is your doorway to the Diavolin Mists, where winter never sleeps and secrets dream of being found. There is power here. Merriment! Excitement…Everything a Solstice could ever offer. Are you brave enough to face the pale? To cross between this world and the next?"
Quietly she stepped forward, her attention falling solely upon the rift now as she approached, only stopping as her ears perked up and she heard the warning.
"You see, my frosty friends, this portal is hungry. Not for flesh—oh no, that's far too pedestrian. It craves the truth. One secret from each of you! Large, small, juicy, dry… It matters not, so long as it is true. A lie, however..."
A heavy sigh slipped from her lips as she bowed her head, her mind racing at the thoughts, the secrets that she held. Her arms remained at her side, her hands slowly balling into fists as the voices within her mind, the memories, rose into a calamitous chorus that threatened to drown out her thoughts of the here and now. Each memory rose and fell in time, drawing her attention, and pulling her focus to it until in the final moments were mind quieted and her mindscape was nothing more than a black emptiness bathed in darkness.
In that darkness, there was a light, a simple flash that drew the eye to what appeared to be a reflective surface. Her breath caught in her throat, the secret that she would give had revealed itself, and it was one that she had kept closely guarded. Everything about her life, every little aspect that had been tailored made, and provided to historians and would-be authors, all of it... that had been the lie. Slowly her head rose, a soft breath slipping from her lips as her eyes opened, those golden-yellow hues peering into the rift, the ebbing and waning pulsing awaiting the secret, the truth that it craved.
"I..."
Her voice was shaky, as though there was fear of the words that waited beyond the pause. She steadied herself, her memories flooding into her mind once more of the countless conflicts that she had seen, the fear that had passed through her in all those moments. She remembered how she remained, still standing as she steeled herself and took in a deep breath, her confidence restored.
"I am not of this Galaxy nor Dimension..."
The portal shuddered, the song that it sang, unheard by her until now, seemed almost deafening...
The Gateway Opened...
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