Desolation. What had once been a modern galactic encampment outside a profitable tradeport was nothing but smoking empty ruins. The tradeport hadn’t fared much better, but unlike the encampment, there were bodies in the tradeport. 

And survivors.

The presence of any living beings were largely due to the spirits of the dead which prowled the tradeport’s streets, searching for those in need. Of rescue or retribution.

“I can’t sense anyone else here,” Rassi said, fiddling with an onyx crystal in her left hand.

She wished it was a lightsaber despite the fact that she had never held one of the jedi laser swords, and had no idea how to fight with one.

Nor anyone to fight.

Not any longer.

The spirits of the dead who had travelled inside it across the stars at her behest were out roaming the shatter tradeport rending what aid and comfort ghostly revenants were capable of providing.

“I think the Praxians drove off the last of the Death Shadows,” Solna said. She held one of the crystals too, and hers was as empty as Rassi’s was.

“This wasn’t what we expected to find, but it seems it was good that arrived when we did,” Kelda said, materializing beside the two girls. 

“Though it would have been better if we could have gotten here sooner,” Ravas said.

They made an odd quartet, each of them visibly an outsider from the other three. Rassi was the largest and darkest by far. Solna was lighter in skin tone and by far the frailest in physique. Kelda was closer to the median for human physiology, and despite her aged appearance seemed spry and healthy enough, if one discounted the pale limbus of blue light surrounding her which announced her ghostly state. And then there was Ravas, whose horns announced her a Zabrak and who lacked Kelda’s ghostly aura despite being every bit as much a projection from the Force as Kelda was.

The bonds between the four weren’t visible, at least not to those without a familiarity with them or a deep connection to the Force, but they were present and grower rapidly stronger.

“We should have taken the Halzen Route,” Goldie said, her mechanical voice emerging from a comm device on Rassi’s belt.

“I don’t think so,” Solna said, her eyes gone distant and searching. “I don’t think it would have gotten us here before the Enclave left.”

Rassi went still, listening as Solna was listening, finding echoes of the past in the Force and whispers of alternate presents they had stepped aside from.

“She’s right,” Rassi said. “The Enclave left here before they captured Nix and Ayli.”

“They knew these Death Shadows were coming then,” Ravas said, not so much asking as testing out the idea.

“Your people are familiar with the Death Shadows?” Kelda asked, listening to the Force for whispers far more distant than the ones Rassi or Solna were searching for.

“They’re not our people,” Solna said. “Not anymore.”

Rassi cast her a glance and a nod of agreement. She would never have guessed that Solna would make a statement like that, but the change in Solna’s outlook had been building for years it seemed. Possibly even longer than the change in Rassi’s had.

The Silence Enclave had raised them, but despite the near continual brainwashing, had shunned and ostracised the girls in just the right manner to place fatal cracks in the foundations of unquestioning belief the Enclave had tried to inflict on Rassi and Solna.

There was also the small matter of Nix’s open gift of acceptance and support, not to mention the fact that Nix had damn near killed herself to show both Rassi and Solna that they were worthy of love and that they things they’d seen as flaws in themselves were unique strengths that were worth cherishing no matter what the Silent Enclave had taught them.

Which was why Rassi and Solna had convinced a small army of living, mechanical, and dead people to come with them to rescue Nix and Ayli from the clutches of the Enclave’s team who had apprehended them on Praxis Mar and dragged them off to face the Enclave’s justice.

It hadn’t been particularly difficult to convince any of their little army to come along of course.

Especially not Goldie, who viewed Nix and Ayli as her mothers and had been ready to drop in with guns blazing until Ravas had pointed out that they needed survivors to make sure they could find where Nix and Ayli were being kept.

As it had turned out though, finding survivors was far more challenging than they’d expected it to be.

“We were told stories about the Death Shadows,” Rassi said. “The Elders said they were worse than the Jedi, or sometimes they said they were a secret arm of the Jedi.”

“Looking back I can’t believe how much contradictory stuff they shoveled at us,” Solna said.

“They were always consistent about the Death Shadows being one of the reasons we had to stay hidden though,” Rassi said.

“Supposedly, the Death Shadows were manipulators of the Xah who became corrupt and sold their talents to the criminal cartels,” Solna said. “They were always on the look out for us, because we are the only ones who can see them, and the only ones who can report on their crimes.”

“No one had ever seen one of them though, so I always thought they were just stories to scare us into being quiet like they wanted us to be,” Solna said.

“Apparently not,” Ravas said. “From what we can see here, the Death Shadows are quite thorough in destroying things connected to the Enclave.”

“Even if that connection is tangential at best,” Kelda said her gaze returning to their immediate surroundings.

“Not to be a heartless mechanical monster, but the Death Shadows seem to be someone else’s problem, especially since the don’t seem to want to tangle with the Praxians. So shouldn’t we be trying to work out where my Moms are?” Goldie asked.

“Oh, we know where they are,” Kelda said. “They’re clearly with the Silent Enclave. The question is where did the Enclave go, which the Death Shadows might be able to help us uncover,” Kelda said, frowning in concentration.

“How can you be sure they’re with the Enclave?” Goldie asked.

“Because we can’t sense where they are and that’s normally impossible,” Ravas said. “To date it’s happened in only two circumstances.”

“When Ayli was shrouded in the Dark Side by the Lich,” Kelda said.

“And they clearly dealt with him before they left Praxis Mar,” Ravas said.

“And when Nix last visited the Silent Enclave,” Kelda said.

“But you’re sure their okay? I mean, that they’re still alive?” Goldie asked, the worry in her voice every bit as genuine as it would have been in an organic sapient.

“Definitely,” Ravas said. “Neither of them seems to be tremendously happy but they are still among the living.”

“How do we make sure they stay like that?” Goldie asked.

“We find them,” Kelda said. “Though at this stage, I suspect we may need help in that endeavor.”

“I’m willing to pitch in whatever I can, but I don’t know how much use I’ll be,” Archivist Bopo said.

Rassi wasn’t sure why the elderly Galruxian been willing to come with them on the trip to the Silent Enclave but she suspected it was some sort of trauma response to the events Bopo had recently been put through.

Which more or less made her a part of their odd little club.

Once they had rescued Ayli and Nix and had time to settle down, Rassi suspected they were all going to need an awful lot of mediation to reclaim the balance and sanity they were so had so clearly lost.

“An Archivist might be exactly what we need,” Ravas said. “Nix came to you for help in finding the hidden Force traditions who’d survived the Imperial purges, correct?”

“And the Jedi purges,” Bopo said. “Not all Force traditions play nicely with others after all.”

“As our current surroundings beat witness too,” Kelda said.

Rassi wasn’t sure if the Death Shadows were a Force tradition though. What the Enclave had taught her about them had too many inconsistencies, and just felt off somehow.

Since that characterized most of the information she’d learned from the Silent Enclave though, so couldn’t say it was all that surprising.

“If you were able to assemble a data set of likely locations where a set of Force users might be hiding out, it would perhaps behoove us to check the nearest other locations on that list,” Ravas said.

“What makes you think they might be close by?” Monfi asked, as the four Padal Horizon Knights strolled into the small clearing in the rubble which remained of the Enclave’s encampment. They were carrying various supplies which they’d managed to scavenge from the city and assemble into survival packets for the remaining survivors.

“They were prepared to leave and that’s most easily done when you’re destination is already decided upon,” Ravas said. “It should be nearby as that would allow them to check on its condition with greater frequency, and they would be the most exposed while they were in transit so a shorter trip would provide them with the quickest return to security.”

“They never told us about a place we would flee to,” Solna said. “But they did insist that everyone be ready to flee at a single command from the Council of Elders, or the Primus.”

“I seem to recall that the Primus wasn’t in much condition to issue orders when we left here,” Ravas said.

“What happened to him?” Lasha asked, setting off a hover flare to mark the location where the supplies were being collected.

“Nix happened to him,” Ravas said. “I believe he tried to kill her with the Force and she took offense to that. Toppled a building on him and set him on fire if I’m remembering correctly.”

“I thought she was the nice one?” Nulo asked.

“A lot of people think that after meeting her,” Kelda said.

“And after they get to know her?” Lasha asked.

“Pretty much the same,” Ravas asked. “Her pirate girlfriend was convinced she was a marshmallow, I think right up until Nix electrocuted her and then kidnapped her.”

“Pirate ex-girlfriend, and it was for Sali’s own good,” Kelda said.

“Should I be calling her in too? Aunt Sali and Aunt Zin?” Goldie asked. 

“You already did, didn’t you?” Ravas asked.

“Well, yes, but if you’d like I could tell them to hide that and say they just stumbled across us randomly,” Goldie said.

“We need to work on the timing of when you ask for permission for things,” Kelda said. “But in this case, Saliandris and Zindiana may have valuable information as well.”

“Saliandris is the pirate?” Lasha asked.

“Pirate-Queen,” Goldie said. “She was between thrones for a bit, but Aunt Zin says a throne’s really the only chair that suits her.”

“Never thought we’d be working with undead Force spirits, pirates, and Force Shadows,” Monfi said. “Also never thought we’d manage to take out a monster like Paralus though, so I suppose I can’t complain.”

“We’re not working with the Death Shadows,” Rassi said. “Not after what they did to the tradeport. Those people were innocents.”

“Most of the Enclave is too,” Solna said. “The Enclave is horrible but most of the people in it can’t see that. They’ve never had the chance.”

“Forgive me,” Monfi said. “I wasn’t referring to the Death Shadows. I was referring to the two of you.”

“We’re shadows?” Rassi asked.

“You slid past traps and wards setup by a centuries old Lich of unfathomable power,” Monfi said. “If you fell to the Dark Side, I’m not sure if there’s anyone in the galaxy who would be safe from you.”

Which, Rassi saw, was why the Silent Enclave was really hiding.