Nix wasn’t dead. Or At least she was pretty sure she wasn’t dead. She wasn’t in pain though and the last thing she remembered was being stabbed through the torso by some unpleasant looking crystal claws. So, that was a maybe on the whole dead thing?

“I don’t wanna be dead yet though,” she grumbled without opening her eyes. She knew she’d been able to slurp down one of the Bacta packets, but she also knew their limits and looking down to find giant holes in her belly was not a particularly appealing option.

“You’re in luck then,” an oddly familiar voice said, “cause you’re not. Trust me. I know what dead’s like.”

Against her better judgment Nix opened her eyes.

She wasn’t laying facedown in a pool of her own blood.

So that was good.

Great even.

But she had no idea where she was. 

Around her a vast done of stars wheeled about, but she wasn’t floating in space and the stars were all wrong. Too close. Too many. Whole galaxies visible like they were neighboring star systems. And they were moving much too fast. Not the blur of a jump to lightspeed, but visibly shifting when they should have stood as silent and still sentinels to guide travelers home.

Unless, here, the star were the travelers themselves, journeying…where? From one place to the next? From one time to another? From one life to what lay beyond?

“Takes your breath away, doesn’t it?” said an old woman who wasn’t glowing blue and transparent this time. “Turns out that’s true even when you don’t have breath left to take anymore.”

“You said I’m not dead though? Right?” Nix asked, pressing her hands to her robes and finding no evidence of severe puncture wounds.

Her robes?

Since when did she dress in robes?

Especially dull brown ones?

“You’re not,” the woman said. “Which makes one of us.”

Nix took a closer look at the other woman.

She wasn’t old. Not really.

And she wasn’t alive. Though that was a fuzzier distinction.

“You brought me here?” Nix asked.

“Nope. This is all your doing. I can only interfere so much before our bond fades.”

“Interfere?”

“Your life is yours. We’re not bound all that strongly, so if I try to pull you into the mess I left behind, well, you pull away like any rational person would, and no more chat time for us.”

“I think understood maybe a quarter of that, and I probably only really got an eighth of it,” Nix said. “I don’t suppose you could start at the beginning and make all of this approach something sensible?”

“Does this feel like a place where we’ve got all the time in the world to talk?”

“Yes…and no? I…it feels like I’ve been here before. Like I know wherever this is,” Nix said, trying to see if she could locate any familiar star patterns at all.

“You have been. So has everyone. You’re just a bit more aware than most.”

“Thank you?” Nix felt like it had been intended as a compliment but she wasn’t sure it was it actually applied to her.

“Don’t thank me, you did all the hard work.”

“What hard work? This seems familiar, you seem familiar, but I don’t really remember being here and I don’t remember you, except for that time in Sali’s garden.”

“I wish we had more time together. Or more of a bond I guess. It’s not our time that’s limited. It’s how many things I can say that have an impact on your destiny. How much I can change your life.”

“If information is going to change my life, then I want it,” Nix said. “Give me all you’ve got. Print out a whole instruction manual if you can. I like reading up on things. I like knowing how stuff is supposed to work.”

The old woman smiled and turned from Nix to face the stars.

“You wouldn’t think hearing your own words cast back at you would be such an effective punishment yet here we are.”

“Uh, what?” Nix asked.

“I said something very similar to one of my teachers and she laughed herself silly and wished me a student just like me someday,” the old woman said, turning back to face Nix, mirth lingering at the corners of her eyes.

“Is that what I am?”

“Not yet. Maybe not ever. Doesn’t mean I can’t teach you something though.”

“So teach me then. What am I doing here? Where is this place?”

“This is less of a ‘Where’ and more of a ‘When’. Consider it something like a dream, except it’s more than that. It’s the place your mind goes when you’re attuned enough to the Force for it to show you visions.”

“Is that what this is? A vision?”

“Not exactly. Your mind is pretty deep in the Force at the moment, but I’m not an image from the past or a glimpse of a future. We’re both here, now, and this is really happening. Just not in a physical sense.”

“So this isn’t my body?” Which might explain the lack of holes, Nix thought.

“It’s a reflection. It’s your body as your mind sees it in this moment. If we drift into one of your memories, you’d be wearing the body you remembered having then.”

“Okay. That feels right. Why am I here though? And, who are you?”

“My name is Kelda,” the old woman said. “Kelda Torchbearer. As for why you’re here? You were hurt. Quite badly. You pulled a clever trick with the Bacta packet. I wish they’d had those in my time. That alone wasn’t enough to save you though. You needed help. And you got some.”

“From Ayli?” 

“Yes, and we’ll get back to that later, but also from yourself.”

“How did I help myself?”

“By coming here. Your body needed healing, so you put yourself deep into a Force Trance to restore what you could and buy time for your friends to help you.”

“I did what now?”

“You subconsciously put yourself into a state where your natural healing was accelerated and your bodily functions were slowed down. It’s something that requires being highly aware of your life essence. Normally slowly down your body also slows down how quickly it can repair itself. Speed up your healing and you speed is the effects of the traumatic injury. In my time teaching the sort of healing you’re doing right now was reserved for people who’d passed the Test of Knighthood.”

“But going into a healing trance doesn’t bring you here. It usually leaves you comatose doesn’t it?” Nix asked, the knowledge flowing through her rather than being recalled.

“Usually that’s true,” Kelda said. “In your case though, I was calling for you and once you were sunk down into the healing trance enough of the other distractions faded away so you could hear me. After a while at least.”

“Why were you calling me though? You said we had a bond, but I don’t think we know each other at all, do we?”

“I could spend years answering that question,” Kelda said. “We don’t have years though, so here’s the simplest answer; we’re similar, enough that I can see a lot of things in you that I couldn’t in myself but which were definitely there. Also, the woman you’re in love with is currently being possessed by the woman I’m in love with.”

“You were in love with a ghost?”

“She wasn’t a ghost at the time, and she’s not technically one now either. Also, I’m still in love with her. That’s why I’m still here. A thousand years is a long time to wait, even when you skip past decades like heart beats.”

“How…why me? What can I do about that? I’m not…this place isn’t….I have no idea what I’m doing here.”

“Yeah, I thought that would be a little much to dump on you,” Kelda said. “You said you wanted an instruction manual? Here’s the one that you need.” She tapped Nix on the center of her chest. “Just make sure to read it with this.” She tapped Nix’s forehead.

“That’s not all that helpful,” Nix said with a frown.

“I know. But it’s what you need. Trust your feelings. You know so much more and can do so much more than you know yet. That doesn’t mean your should just do whatever pops into your head. Listening to your feelings means being aware. Think about them. If you feel like you’re in danger, you probably are, but it’s what’s on top of your neck that will help you understand the danger and how to get out of it.”

“How is that going to help Ayli though? Can I ‘feel’ the ghost out of her?”

“No. Your wife called on Ravas’ power and is holding onto of her own volition. It’ll be up to her, and Ravas to an extent, when they part. What you can do, what she’ll need you to do, is be there. Be there to remind of who she is. To remind her of the life she has. To remind her that there is someone out there who cares about her, so that she never feels like she has no one left at all.”

Nix could hear the undercurrent of centuries old anguish that ran through Kelda’s words. 

“What happened between you and Ravas Durla?” she asked.

“A lot that didn’t have to and far too little of what did,” Kelda said. “We can get into my story some other time. I just wanted you to know that you’re not alone, and that you’ve got the tools to deal with what’s coming, even if you’re not used to them yet.”

“Well, thanks. How are we going to talk again though? Do I need to put myself in another coma?” Nix asked, beginning to consider just how miserable waking up was going to be. Bacta packets or no, major wounds always came with major pain to deal with at some point.

“You can talk to me whenever you want. It’s one of the perks of being part of the Force, I can hear you almost anywhere. You hearing me is a little trickier, but that is something I can teach you before you have to go.”

“Do I have to go?” Nix asked. “It seems nice here. Peaceful but, vibrant? Is that the right word?”

“It is. Peaceful and vibrant. This is what it’s like to be in harmony with life. This is what it feels like when you and the Force are close together. We are all a part of something much greater than ourselves and here that connection is the air we breath and the sky we’re shining in like stars. That’s the lesson. That’s what you need to hear me. Focus on what you’re feeling right now. Remember this and let yourself sink into the calm silence within you. You’ll find a pulse of energy there. That’s you, and it’s me, and it’s all of us. Everyone, from everywhere and everywhen. Reach out to that and you’ll find me reaching back, whenever you need.”

“Why do all this for me though? What makes me special?” Nix asked.

“You’ll have to find what makes you special on your own,” Kelda said. “As for why I’m doing this? I owe a debt that’s been left unpaid for far too long, and this is my chance to set things right at last.”

Nix felt the lightest of touches on her forehead.

But it wasn’t Kelda who was stroking Nix’s hair back.

Instead, when Nix opened her bleary, anesthetic-addled eyes, she found a lovely blue hand tracing a pattern through her hair.

“Welcome back,” Ayli said in a voice just above a whisper.

They were in a plain white room, with Nix laying on what was obviously a hospital bed and Ayli in one of the ubiquitous plain chairs all hospitals seemed to share.

With the lighting dimmed, the moment felt almost as peaceful and quiet as Nix’s Force Vision, or whatever it had been.

Except for the transparent, multi-horned woman with red and black skin who was standing just behind Ayli and had her hand on the back of Ayli’s neck.