The Silent Enclave had fallen and was no more. In the face of the the Death Shadow’s relentless assault, it’s end had been all but certain, and as history rolled onwards, the marks it had left on the galaxy would be washed away with the time and tides of new galactic struggles.
Which is not to say that its people would be forgotten.
Or that they would forget what they once were.
“They’re gone.”
Rassi wasn’t sure if it was Tovos who spoke, or one of the other young men of the enclave. Whoever it was though gave voice to the wonder which had enspelled everyone present.
Around them stood a ring of tired, slowly fading ghosts and around the ghosts?
Nothing.
The raging horde was gone.
More than that.
The raging horde of vengeful voids no longer pursued them.
Some of the Death Shadows were at peace at last. Rassi and Solna had shown the people around them what it took to begin healing the injuries the Death Shadows had sustained, and while none of the formerly-Silent Enclave members could have replicated the feat on their own, together they’d been able to accomplish so much more.
Together and working at long last with the Xah. In embracing the Force and allowing it to answer the calls they’d always been cut off from making, the people around Rassi had cast off the silence and accepted the burden of the power they’d hidden from for centuries.
That hadn’t solved all their problems of course, or even saved them from all of the Death Shadows.
“I don’t understand,” Jilla said. “There were ones we couldn’t reach.”
“Yeah.” Osdo’s gaze was turned entirely inwards as he searched for the answer to his survival which was so obvious Rassi almost giggled. “We helped some of them, and I think, I don’t know, maybe they forgave us? There were other though…others that..”
“Others that will never forgive,” Yanni said, her voice soft as though the enormity of what they’d faced had filled her entire being.
Which, it kind of had.
Rassi could feel the rest of the Enclave so clearly. Their cloak had been killing them. Their silence had been a carcinogen for their society. Even the people who clung the strongest to their denial, the ones who were the most invested in the Silent Enclave’s status quo, they were all still a part of the society of their peers, were still connected to the people around them.
No matter how small and cruel they were, Rassi saw that everyone in the Enclave had someone they could feel empathy for, someone, in turn, who could influence them.
Dragging the entire Enclave out of the silence wasn’t something she ever could have done on her own. Or with Solna. Or even with Tovos and his whole crew. For the Enclave to change, it had taken the whole of the Enclave to do it.
But the change had started with her, and her change had started with Solna.
She dropped her head sideways onto Solna’s shoulder and relaxed something inside that she’d never known she had been holding tense.
“Will they be back?” Jolu, no longer Honored, but somehow the more honorable for that, asked.
“No. They’re gone and they won’t be drawn to anywhere here ever again,” Solna said.
“Where did they go though?” Jilla asked.
“To find the Silent Enclave,” Hendel said, plopping his skeleton body down beside Rassi.
“But they found us,” Tovos said.
“They did,” Rassi said and let the music in the Force wash over her. “And they destroyed the Silent Enclave. Or we did. I don’t think they care about that though.”
“But, we didn’t trick them, and we couldn’t hide anymore?” Polu said. “They know we’re still here.”
“We are,” Rassi said. “But the Silent Enclave isn’t.”
Plenty of faces turned to her, searching for understanding, but Rassi was more aware of Solna’s chuckle. Because of course Solna got it.
“All we were supposed to do is listen right?” Rassi said. “So listen. To us. All of us. What do you hear?”
“Oh. Oh no,” Yanni said. “We’re…no, wait, we’re not disturbing the Xah? It sounds…”
“Happy. It sound happy,” Felgo said, sound more perplexed than any of the others.
His experience was one which Rassi could feel was shared by many of the others who’d believed deeply in the Silent Enclave’s dogma.
This wasn’t supposed to be what it was like when people touched the Xah. Touching the Xah, expressing yourself, it was supposed to be a corruption.
Whatever a “corruption” was.
Growing up the idea of ‘corrupting the Xah’ had always felt nebulous to Rassi. She’d imagined it like poisoning a river in that she was pretty sure she was far too tiny to change the course of something as mighty as the Xah, but maybe something she did could make part of it dangerous for others?
Clearly that was possible. They’d just survived an assault by the consequences of someone’s actions who’d gravely misused and abused the Xah.
But the enforced silence of the Enclave had been a grave abuse as well.
And the people could hear that at last.
In joining together and raising their voice in the Xah to shout that they would protect each other, and die for each other, they’d broken the silence to which they’d been held in thrall and, unknowingly in some cases, finally started singing along with the Xah as it coursed through their lives.
It was such sweet music to Rassi that she almost wanted to stay with them.
Almost.
“We’re not silent anymore.” No one person spoke those words. They came from everyone in the Enclave.
Recognition of what a past that had been lost and the freedoms they had gained.
Freedoms which, Rassi suspected, would wind up being somewhat wasted. She couldn’t picture the Enclave changing as drastically as she felt they needed to, but in the wake of what they’d been through, she also knew they wouldn’t be able to stay as they were.
Listening to the Force told her that the future would be messy and complicated for the Enclave. They would fight and struggle, they would try to hold onto whatever parts of the past they could while grasping for a new understanding which incorporated the experiences they shared.
And they would do it without her.
The struggles of the Enclave? She’d been bound to them for too long and where they’d had the comforts of tradition ripped away, she’d cast them off willingly. However far the Enclave would be able to go, Rassi knew that she could go much, much father.
“So where are the Death Shadows now?” Jolu asked. “Even if they are not our problem, I would say we still bear some responsibility for them.”
“Kelda and Ravas took the unforgiving ones away,” Solna said.
“Wait, they could do that?” Jilla asked.
“Not until the Death Shadows had no one here to pursue,” Solna said. “And I think there is only one place they could have brought the Death Shadows to.”
“The other Elders.” Jolu whispered her sudden understanding into existence like she was pronouncing a doom.
Which she wasn’t.
She hadn’t doomed the other Elders.
That had been entirely their own handiwork.
Rassi would have expressed sorrow or sympathy for them, but she was feeling so open to the Force that everyone would have instantly felt the lie in her words.
The sorrow she felt for the Elders was that no one had stopped them sooner, or taught them how to be even vaguely decent people early enough in their lives to prevent the tragedies they’d perpetrated.
Would the Enclave produce better people from here? Maybe? It produced some good ones already. Solna at the least. And Jolu if Rassi was feeling charitable. And Tovos, and, and, and, okay and a lot of others.
It was possible that she might have some things to work on still, and some trauma she was going to be dealing with for a while.
Happily there was a whole galaxy out there for her to explore while she did.
And, maybe, a few people she could turn to who knew a little bit more about the Force than she did.
“We should get going, shouldn’t we?” Solna said, not objecting to the weight of Rassi’s head on her shoulder, but clearly feeling the same pull Rassi did.
“You’re leaving?” Jilla asked, surprise and concern warring in her eyes.
“We did what we came for,” Rassi said.
“You don’t have to leave though,” Jilla said. “I mean, I know, before, we were…but now…”
“Now things are different?” Rassi asked. “They are. For all of us. This place, it’s not…not where I’m needed.”
“That’s not true!” Jilla said. “We…you saved us.”
“You saved yourselves,” Solna said. “And you’ll do it again if it’s needed.”
“I know everything’s still kind of scary,” Rassi said. “You’ve got what you need now though. Your listening to each other. That’s all I can give you.”
“But…” Jilla said.
“No,” Jolu said. “Rassi’s right. Listen to the Xah. We were a burden on her heart. Any debt she had to us is paid in full. Her calling is out there.” Jolu gestured towards the stars, and Rassi felt herself lifted up to them by the gesture.
“There will be one little problem with that,” Tovos said. “We weren’t kidding when we said that the Death Shadows wrecked all of our ships.”
“Yeah, about that…” Solna said, and smirked in time as the whumps and thumps from a distant fleet of clunky repulsor lift flyers became audible.
“I don’t understand?” Jolu asked.
“We mentioned to Sister Zin that we might need a ride out of here when we were done,” Solna said. “She has a contact on the planet. It’s how we found you in the first place.”
“That sounds like more than a ride,” Jilla said.
“It might also be the cavalry?” Rassi said. “We weren’t sure what kind of welcome we were going to get. Or what was going to be happening with the Death Shadows.”
“Normal forces wouldn’t have been able to deal with the Death Shadows though?” Jolu said.
“I don’t think these are normal forces,” Osdo said. “These are the space nuns right?”
“Yeah. Might be a small army of them,” Rassi said. “Still wouldn’t have been able to handle the Death Shadows, but from how Queen Sali talked, I don’t think they’re exactly ‘normal security operatives’ either.”
“Perhaps we can arrange transport with them as well then,” Jolu said. “Or repairs if they’re capable. How bad were our shuttles damaged?”
Rassi let talk turn to the inevitable planning and logistics required to deal with a population the size of the Enclave and settled in to wait for space nuns to arrive.
“Do you think we’ll be able to find Nix and Ayli?” Solna asked. She wasn’t whispering, exactly, since she didn’t need to hide her words, but they were really only for Rassi.
“Shouldn’t be too hard,” Rassi said. “Sister Zin’s friends should be able to find where she is, and she should know where Nix and Ayli are. Do you think it’s okay if we go to them?”
“I was wondering that. I feel like I kind of hijacked the journey Nix was on.”
“I don’t think she minded,” Rassi said.
“I think she’s had a lot of other things to think about since we ran into her,” Solna said. “Once all the chaos is past, she’ll probably want to get back to her regular life.”
“Which does not include us,” Rassi said.
“Well, it hasn’t up till now,” Solna said. “I was thinking, if you wanted, that we could ask them if they’d train us in what they know. I mean, Nix said she didn’t want us to lose the connection we have to the Xah, but I don’t think we can just stay like we were. I think that was what the Enclave was doing wrong for so long. Well, that and killing people with the Force.”
“Yeah, let’s not do that shall we.”
“I think we can find a better path than that.”
“Together?”
“Together.”