Dark Resurrection

PROLOGUE The fresh morning air caressed Hope’s face, making her chestnut hair flutter and dance. It had been a few days since her eighth birthday and, guided by Master Zui Mar, she was beginning to delve deeper into the study of the Force. They were both sitting on a cold rock, facing each other, but something was preventing the little girl from concentrating. The chiseled, strong-willed face of her young master looked like it had been carved from the hardest rock in Minar. His short, pitch black hair and bushy dark eyebrows lent him a fierce and severe demeanor. Zui, who believed in discipline and in controlling one’s emotions, had more than once distinguished himself for his fighting skills, yet, never before had he passed his knowledge onto anyone. Four years earlier, when Organa entrusted him with the child, he eagerly accepted. Looking into those big blue eyes had been enough for him to feel inextricably bound to the girl. He searched his own mind and heart and was surprised. Despite her being weak in perceiving the Force, he nevertheless felt she had a hidden potential inside of her that seemed to stir every so often, especially when she felt strong emotions. Hope looked up, unveiling her light blue eyes, and broke the silence. “Master…” “You interrupted your meditation again, you incorrigible little girl!” Zui Mar said in a scolding tone. “I’m... sorry, Master…” she hesitated, unsettled, lowering her glance. “But when we meditate, I sometimes see… things… that frighten me.” Zui Mar contracted his jaw and inhaled deeply. The breeze tasted of Gelx fruits, native of the hills of Akiah. The tiny purple spheres ripened fast and fell to the grassy ground, permeating the air with their pungent sweet smell. He moved closer to the apprentice and gently brushed her cheek with the back of his hand. He couldn’t help being somewhat tender with her. After all, she was a child, and the bond between them was already very strong. “Fear is a choice, and you must choose to be rid of it,” he then said in a deep, warm voice. The little girl’s gaze shot up. “And how can I?” she asked with a childlike persistence. “What is the worst thing that could ever happen?” He stared at her as Hope averted her glance and tried to visualize what scared her the most. “Really think about it,” Zui Mar urged. “Dying?” the child said, as if she were scared to utter each syllable. “Precisely. But there is no real death. When the body dies, we join the Living Force and keep on existing. When you will accept this truth, you will be able to vanquish any fear.” Hope seemed to accept her Master’s words. She shut her eyes and pressed her lips together, appearing to recall a distant memory. Zui Mar smiled and was about to return to his place to meditate. “Master...” Hope said, again. And then she opened her eyes. They were so sad, they looked like they reflected the darkness of the universe itself. Zui Mar lost himself in them and felt a chill creep up his spine. The tiny lips of the young apprentice trembled as they formed other words. “Then why do I see you being scared in my visions?” Her Master’s smile was swallowed up by the darkness. Zui Mar’s eyes snapped open. He violently filled his lungs, like he had been holding his breath for too long, and found himself gasping for air, lying on a stone platform. A vague memory haunted him, but the more he strived to recall it, the more elusive and blurry the images became. He touched the surface under him and tried to discern where he might be. It felt like stone, but was it really? It was warm under his touch. It almost seemed alive. He got up and inspected his surroundings. He was inside some sort of cathedral with peculiar, organic looking shapes. Ones that to him resembled more the belly of a whale than a building. But how had he ended up there? What happened to his memory? Then, like fierce lightning in a thunderstorm, the fragmented images of what had transpired rushed forward and engulfed him. Zui tried to shape the incoherent visions into something clearer. They had been sent there, tasked with investigating the nature of such a remote peculiar temple, but something had gone wrong. “They” had been sent? Who else was there with him? With his hands pressed to his temples, he shook his head, mentally grasping at the fleeting images. He remembered fighting, then losing. He recalled a blade piercing his hand, finishing him off with a s***h to the chest. He instinctively reached for it, but his skin was unscathed under the frayed cloth. He then stared at the palm of his hand. His adversary had stabbed him, inflicting pain, in order to convince him to reveal something… but what exactly? Astonishingly, that wound had also vanished, but his memory of the searing pain was still vivid. He had screamed like never before and felt ashamed for having lost control. Once again, he raised his eyes towards the ceiling looming over him. He almost seemed to understand that this place would somehow restore the memories he had lost. The interior of the temple was alien, organic. The vertebrae forming the pillars were of an unknown, never before seen substance: a hybrid between rock, metal, and some sort of plant organism. He barely finished formulating that thought when everything around him started to shake. A fault opened in the walls, letting in a raging storm. Boulders started plummeting to the ground, exploding into smaller pieces. Deadly splinters and dust filled the strange building and Zui Mar, spurred along by the imminent danger, rushed to find an escape route. The temple doors were smashed in, making it easy to leap outside, but a fierce wind carrying dirt, rain, and rock shards flayed his skin. He raised his hood of frayed cloth and clutched his cape as he tried to balance on a walkway connecting the temple to a rocky ledge. Another shock wave, more violent than the one before, made him falter. It seemed like both the temple and walkway were about to crumble, so Zui Mar started to run at breakneck speed, while huge stone blocks broke apart from the floor and plummeted into the raging ocean below. One of the blocks gave way under his feet. He leapt into the air, employing the Force, and landed on a ledge, beyond the chasm that had formed. He stood up and turned to the terrifying spectacle unfolding behind him. The entire walkway broke into pieces, striking the waves and splashing up pillars of water. The strange temple now remained isolated from dry land, like a stone flower besieged by the ocean, still standing despite the deep gashes that had formed in its slanted walls. He wondered for how long it would withstand the quake before it crumbled and sank to the bottom of the sea when, again, the earth beneath his feet trembled and broke. Zui moved away from the chasm, running towards the passage leading away from that clearing, but the hill had also crumbled, obstructing the escape route. He looked down at the ever narrowing sliver of ground still beneath his feet. It was all disintegrating under him, and he would soon fall into the abyss. Faced with the inescapability of impending death, his resolve in suppressing his emotions broke. A primordial part of his brain frantically looked for a way out. Finding none, it gave way to a terror that was rapidly slithering into his heart. Zui Mar didn’t want to die in the darkness of fear. He got down on both knees on the rain pummeled ground. He turned his gaze to the horizon and let the Force flow around and through him. Peace returned, and his mind became a quiet distant island, away from that world on the brink of annihilation. Again, a fracture opened, just missing him. But the Master did not flinch and continued meditating. He had surrendered and was preparing his essence to merge with the Force. Then, unexpectedly, the roar of an ionic engine rose from the deafening chaos of the storm, and Zui Mar opened his eyes in surprise. Maybe his hour had not yet arrived. A republican ship appeared on the horizon and seemed to be flying straight towards him. The warrior got up, ready to act. A few arns of land still separated him from the chasm. He knew he’d have to fight for that one last chance he still had. He backed up a few steps to avoid that ever widening chasm that was about to swallow him up, then prepared himself for another leap. The republican ship slowed down in front of the precipice and lowered itself, so that it could move closer to him. It was a small transport vessel similar to the one he had used to reach the planet, with… who did he come with? Why couldn’t he remember? The hatch opened, and Zui recognized a familiar face. Organa, that was her name, the Grand Master of his Order. It had been she who sent him to that place. The elderly lady stood with another woman and a girl who looked not much older than a teenager. They were screaming, but the storm was drowning out every sound. Nonetheless, he understood. The small patch of land between him and the chasm was crumbling very fast. Zui Mar gathered his strength and jumped, leaping just far enough to land on the edge of the cargo hold. Many hands grabbed him and pulled him inside. The hatch closed shut with a loud hiss but, for some reason, the pilot was giving no sign of wanting to take off. “Where’s Hope?” Master Organa asked. Her furrowed wrinkly face contracted in pain while uttering those words. Instantly, the memories all resurfaced, and Zui felt like his heart was about to explode, overwhelmed with despair. Hope, his apprentice, the girl to whom he had been master and father for twenty-two years, was still inside the temple. She had descended into the abyss of the building to end up who knows where. It had been she who dragged him into the temple, after finding him barely alive. In that place, something performed a miracle, cured his seemingly mortal wounds, but then rejected him, casting him out. Not Hope, she wasn’t there. Without answering, he turned towards the temple, and everyone followed his stare. Through the rain pouring on the ship’s porthole, he saw the flower-looking stone structure ultimately lose its last petals. Huge chunks of the building plummeted to the sea when, finally, the stalk crumbled, sending the whole temple crashing to the ocean floor. Hope was still inside. Shocked, Zui turned towards the Masters. He hadn’t uttered a single word, but it seemed as if he had screamed it at the top of his lungs. Nemer and Organa exchanged a guilty look. Zui thought they felt responsible. After all, his ward and he had gone there under their orders. The voice of the pilot reached the cargo hold from the intercom. “Storm’s nearly upon us. We have to leave the area!” Nemer got up and pressed the communication button on the wall. “Take us to Keys. We have to join the battle.” Zui raised a worried glance to Nemer, then turned to Organa in search of answers. “What battle? What happened?” “Zail proclaimed himself Emperor and attacked the Republic. Messages we received from Keys say that the fleet of that wretch is immense. We should go there and help them all we can.” The ship accelerated into the stratosphere. Once again, Zui turned towards the ocean. The place that had swallowed the temple, and Hope, gradually shriveled and disappeared under a veil of clouds.