Wake Up

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

"Yeah." none the less Kira gave a few sharp glances towards where the two jungle cats had run off to.

"So much for no lifeforms," she added, but in a half amused tone. They were likely bound to find more native creatures the more they would explore this planet. At the very least there was confirmation that there were living animals here. That was a good sign.

"We can check off any biochemical or disease being the source of any exodus then." Kira would say, starting to move along with her husband back on the trail. The only difference was that this time, the Lorrdian was keeping her senses alert for any potential future encounter.

Aquamarine eyes went darting over to the former false god.

"Just down the road, eh?" she'd say wryly, moving down the road. It was anything but. There was still at least an hour or so hike by the way mynock flies.

"Well.. I guess this is a good as work out as any for my butt."

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

"The best would be squats." Soliael said with a smile, looking towards where he knew the Ruins would be.

There was something off about all of this. An abandoned ruined hidden in the middle of the forest wasn't common in their own galaxy, but out here...well it was just strange. He tried to go over a list in his head, a small map of all the places in the galaxy that he'd heard of something similar like this. Oh there were quite a few 'lost' Jedi temples, though most of them had either been dug back up or put on some sort of map. All of them had usually been the sight of some massacre or slaughter at the hands of the Sith, something that made the Jedi leave.

That didn't seem to be the case here.

It was an unsettling fact.

Jedi weren't usually the types to run away. Sure they were a bit self-righteous and sometimes even idiotic, but they didn't tend to just run away. "Come on."

Soliael walked passed Kira and flicked her behind with his finger.

"Let's go see." There was still quite a bit of walking to do, as she had pointed out. "I'm sure something is waiting for us."

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

"Hey!" Kira gave a rub of her bum where he had flicked her.

"Yeah you better run off," she called out to him as he ambled past her. I'll get you soon enough, she thought to herself, shaking her head before adjusting her hat. The brim secure, and a bit more alert than before, the Lorrdian took longer strides to catch up to her husband.

"It just doesn't feel right." Kira's voice would pipe up from behind Soliael.

"There seems to be far too much constructed here for anyone to simply up and leave." although she had heard of exoduses along that line. Rumors told of one particular organization that the Sanctum had lent aid to help to do exactly that. But leaving one planet to go to another was entirely different from moving from one satellite galaxy to ... well, wherever else it may be.

Kira was not an intensely Force-sensitive individual. Her sense skills were not honed enough to sense any potential Dark-side cause.

But if they were lucky, perhaps the Jedi ruins would tell them a bit more.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

“That’s what I’ve been saying!” He teased with a smile back towards her. “It doesn’t make any sense, why leave all of this behind.”

Just logistics wise it didn’t make sense.

“This place is big enough and arid enough that they probably grew their own food, we know that animals can live here so they probably had livestock, why leave? I mean it’s isolated, but I know as well as you that Jedi like their isolation.” Especially some.

Soliael had met a few Jedi who he thought had never actually left the Temple, their only interaction with the outside being when someone visited them. This place was perfect for people like that, and the oddest thing about that is a temple like this didn’t even need a lot of people to staff it, relatively few in fact.

He frowned slightly.

“I don’t know Honey.” Soliael shrugged. “It’s weird.”

Soliael didn’t like it.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

"Anything you can... you know... " Kira gave a gesture of her hand as if to encourage him to do something. "Sense?"

Her husband had a knowledge of the galaxy at his fingertips. Not an exaggeration there. As Neth the Keeper, he had spent his time searching and gathering as much as he could from his many travels. That wasn't even including the time prior to the Moross Crusade.

"Something you can do?' it likely sounded a bit silly, but Sol knew far more than Kira did when it came to the Force. The flat ground began to curve, degrading into a soft slope that led into the valley where the Jedi Temple ruins sat in. There were plenty of loose rocks and debris, making every step a cautious one to take lest it slips right from under their weight.

There were thicker trees here, many with colorful flowers decorating them. Vines that would cling and climb those thick trunks, along with moss and lichen that coated the northern area of their sides.

Looking out towards the temple, a few more flocks of birds would swoop up and down, moving around the stone terraces. Honestly, it was quiet beautiful.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

He shook his head in answer. For whatever reason this place was dead to him. Not in the sense of a Yuuzhan Vong bastion of course, but more like...there was a lapse. He could feel the life around them, the jungle, the vines, the critters running about, but there wasn't anything else of note. No Dark Side Nexus, no Sith Lords hanging about, nothing of the sort. It all felt a little bit off. The fact was only made worse by the lack of...light around the Temple.

Soliael half expected to feel something like one felt on Ruusan.

The Valley of the Lost Jedi was perhaps the most famed Jedi monument in the galaxy, though half corrupted now it was still a grand thing. He had visited it centuries ago, at least in some form, and this...this did not feel anywhere similar. From that he could at least guess that there was no grand self-sacrifice of Jedi here, or at least the feeling had long since passed. It was an oddity, all of this, and that really set Soliael on edge.

He didn't like oddities.

Not when he couldn't explain them. "Maybe it was the old Empire."

That was an odd suggestion, but really the only thing he could think of. The old Empire had hunted Jedi after all, though the era didn't quite match with the architecture that he saw all around them, nor had he ever read anything about The Old Republic having an Temple way out here.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

Kira's light laughter came bubbling from behind Sol.

"Which one?" she quipped out with sassy commentary. There had been one too many Empires to rise and fall during her lifetime. She was sure that many more during the hundred or so years Devin lived prior to meeting her as well.

"There are so many," she continued, stretching her legs to move down and along the path. A few loose pebbles went scattering down.

"They rise and fall like the seasons now a days..."

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

She was right of course. There were half a dozen Empire’s currently in existence not to mention the half dozen that had come before. When one started that conversation they had to start being a little bit more specific about what they were actually talking about.

“The one neither of us was alive for.” That narrowed it down a little, but not by much either. He frowned for a moment, then went on. “Palpatines Empire.”

Kira should know what he was talking about. “They wiped out the Jedi in one fell swoop after the Clone Wars.”

Though again, that didn’t include any temples out here.

The Rishi maze was like an entirely separate entity to pretty much anything else. There were no governments out here, at least not officially, it was like Wild Space but a thousand times worse. He wasn’t even sure if they would be able to find anything of note here at all. It didn’t sit well with him, but that made him want to press on all the more.

“Maybe before that…” He said quietly. “Sith Emperor? Valkorion.”

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

"Palpatine?!" a small pant came from the Lorrdian blonde, grabbing her water canteen to take a quick sip of water. She offered it to her husband as he took another step in front of her, landing on a flat rock. The path was clearing up, but not by much. The only reason they were still able to discern the road was because it had been well worn. Various ferns and weeds had managed to climb over it -- but a discerning eye would be able to tell the path that lay underneath.

"Think they'd spread outside of the galaxy just to search for any of the Jedi?" then there was Valkorian. And to be honest, Kira didn' know much about him. She wasn't a Jedi Scholar after all.

"Who was Valkorian?"

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

He stopped for a second, taking the jug of water. "A Sith."

Soliael took a sip.

"Well, more like the Sith." Valkorion was a story worth a week of telling. He took over an entire era, centralizing it around himself, plotting, planning, moving forward on only his intent. It was something that should have been told over the course of several nights, but Soliael didn't want to regale his wife with such a long tale, so he gave her the short version. "Probably the most powerful force user that has ever existed in the galaxy. His strength went beyond...well, anyone."

He only knew the stories of course, but some of the scrolls he'd acquired, the holocrons he'd learned from, everything he'd ever read of the man were very telling. "He supposedly was the only Sith to ever achieve true immortality."

That was telling enough when it came to Sith.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

"I thought that was Palpatine?" Kira would say with bemusement, her face scrunching up as Soliael would continue to explain. To think that anyone would be far stronger than Palpatine was staggering. That he could actually achieve immortality...well, Kira thought, that still seemed a bit silly.

"There is such a thing as true immortality?" Kira inquired, giving a half-chuckle as she took the canteen back from her husband. Moving ahead of him, she tucked the canteen by her hip again.

"The Force already does that, doesn't it?" she said, repeating the doctrine instructed to her in the Jedi Order.

"There is no death but there is only the Force and all that." casting a glance over her shoulder, blue eyes gave a twinkle.

"What made Valkorian so special?"

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

"There's a difference, Honey." Soliael pointed out, no hint of condescension in his tone. "The force provides a form of immortality. You join with it, become one with it, but that's different then...well this. Living, touching, corporeal. We don't really know what happens after death, and while yes you can join with the force, we don't know what that actually does. Are you conscious? Aware? Can you influence things? Help the people you love?"

He would guess no. "Valkorion found true immortality. Not a cheap imitation of himself, not a way to throw his power into a clone, but something else. Obviously I don't know for sure, but...there are accounts of him coming back several times."

Ziost, Zakuul, a time before that. Valkorion had been powerful.

"He wasn't like Palpatine...He was more refined." That was a good way to put it, at least he thought so. "His strength was said to be unimaginable. Stronger than any other force users in history. The ritual my father used on Byss was based on one Valkorion created and used on Dromund Kaas. A planet that still suffers the effects. I think he would make me look like a child."

It was difficult to explain the scope of Valkorions power.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

The more Devin elaborated, the more Kira's eyes would widen, until they were two large discs of blue. The Lorrdian was taken aback by the explanation of just what sort of immortality this Valkorian knew. The former Masters of Shadows was aware of what had occurred on Byss, seen the after effects herself.

It wasn't a sight she'd ever want to see again.

"That's... scary." Kira was honest about how she felt about that. "To think of such power. " they continued down the mountain path, the sun rising with every step they took. A small gust of wind blew strands of blonde hair from under her widebrim hat, and she had to bring a hand up to make sure it didn't fly away.

"Scary to think that someone would go to such lengths to find that kind of immortality." her face grew grim.

"What ever happened to him?"

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

Soliael shrugged. “Dunno.”

That was the frustrating part really.

“No one does.” If he was immortal, then what happened to him? That was the question everyone asked who ever learned about Valkorion. Of course Immortality did not mean invulnerability. He had been powerful, but he most certainly hadn’t been a god of some sort. Even the mightiest could fall if pressed hard enough from one side. “Someone probably killed him somehow.”

It was the logical explanation.

Though it would have been difficult of course, there were always means by which the small could defeat the big. Whether it was some mystical artifact or something of the sort Soliael had no way of knowing, but he guessed that in the end Valkorion had met his end like everyone else.

Sith always seemed to.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

"You think any of the stories or accounts may have been exaggerated?" could very well be. Then again, only those who actually managed to do anything -- or at least ensured their legacy survived -- would be discussed throughout history.

"It's been... well over," Kira gave a small pause, propping one foot up on a flat boulder to look down into the valley.

"What era did he live in?" Palpatine had been at least within the millennia, but she didn't know about this Valkorian. Honestly, there were so many Sith that rise and fall it was hard to keep track. That wasn't even including all the knowledge and history they lost during the four-hundred years of darkness. Some systems were still recovering from it, and with the ever looming presence of some kind of war, it made uncovering and retaining that knowledge all the more harder.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

“I would think that.” Soliael said as he let out a heavy breath. Climbing a mountain was not an easy thing, especially when you carried your wife half-way up that mountain along with you. Not that he minded so much. “But I think it’s not the case with Valkorion. There’s too many stories, too many planets, places, people that all say the same thing.”

That was the trouble with History.

One could never quite tell what was the truth, what was embellishment, and what was simply legend. It became even more difficult with Sith. “He was, by all accounts, central to pretty much every major galactic event for hundreds of years.”

Half of that was rumor too though.

Soliael frowned slightly as they crested a small ridge, taking in another deep breath and allowing himself to relax slightly. There was half a pause as he peered down the path, trees now being pushed away to reveal slight stone structures.

“Millenia ago.” He finally answered. “Thousands of years before the Clone Wars, Palpatine, all of that.”

Ancient really.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

"Huh." Kira began, giving a slight frown. That was a lot to take in. To think that one man would be so powerful. So influential. Scary. Definitely scary. Her lips thinned.

"So where do you think your father would have ranked against Valkorian?" she asked. Moridin was the only real base of reference she had in terms of Sith Lords. Even the Dark Lord of the Sith didn't really register for the Jedi Master as the family had kept away from the initial fighting for several years. Even when Aela and Micah began to conduct missions against the One Sith and when Kira came back to help out with the Academy, the extent of what the Dark Lord was capable of went over her head.

Blessed were the few who had not had to deal with the threat directly.

Lifting her arm, Kira took out her datapad to check up on the probe droid. "Got a few more data feeds. There seems to be a rather large atrium that is good enough to set camp in. I'll have it continue to make sweeps just incase there is any animal activity that was already making the temple its den."

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

He frowned slightly. It was a good question. His father had been a powerful Sith Lord in his prime. The ritual that Valkorion had used to empower himself several times had been the very same that Moridin had used, though Valkorions had been more exact, more refined. Moridin got scraps so to say while Valkorion got everything.

“I suspect.” Soliael said slowly as he moved further into the ruins with his wife, eyes darting back and forth to watch for any sort of animals ready to pounce out and eat his wife. “That my father would have been humbled before him.”

It was an odd thing to say. “I don’t think Moridin would have stood much of a chance against Valkorion, but I doubt my father would have tried to fight him.”

From what his mother had told him, Moridin had been too smart for that.

Valkorion was an entirely different animal when it came to Sith, and fighting him likely would have lead to death. Soliael couldn't help but feel that the man could have been a resource, a tool for the gaining of vast and untold amounts of knowledge. His father wouldn’t have tried to kill him, at least not until he was sure that he could win.

“Careful.” Soliael said. “The road is a bit loose here.”

As they moved deeper into the ruins he suspected they would find more of that.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

It was something to consider, what Moradin would do. It brought to mind Soliael and what he was capable. However, comparing Soliael to his father was an odd thing. For Kira, he was always just 'Sparky' to her. The Jedi Master could only see the good, not the dark in people.

"I guess you wouldn't want a bruised wifey," Kira said with a mildly humored quip. "At least not one due to falling down into the ruins," she added shortly after with a half waggle of her brows.

Careful of her step, Kira took heed of Soliael's advice. They were now slipping into the outer reaches of the ruins. The masonry and the architectural design were now more familiar. The Lorrdian as able to see why her husband had been so confident that this was indeed a Jedi Temple.

"It is almost overrun by the jungle," it was almost as if the surrounding flora had made it their personal mission to try and reclaim it, only to fail. While there were a rampant amount of vines and overgrowth, the beauty underneath and the craftsmanship would peek through.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

“Well.” Soliael said with a slight yawn tinging his voice. “Honestly I’d be more concerned if it wasn’t overgrown by the jungle.”

That was a good argument.

If the ruines weren’t overgrown then it would very likely mean that something was going on. He’d rather walk into a place infested with wildlife than a place where it was mysteriously absent, especially considering that the latter usually meant there was something Darkside related happening. “Besides, at least it’s pretty this way.”

There was still something off about the place, something that Soliael couldn’t quite put his finger on. This close up the Ruins didn’t look anymore more impressive than the dozen or so Sith and Jedi Temples than he’d been to before, in fact it actually looked less astounding.

Yet the age on the walls, the jungle overgrowth, something about all of this just felt...wrong.