Ayli wasn’t usually pleased with crash landings but under the circumstances she couldn’t help but smile.

“It’s a good thing there wasn’t any crew on board,” she said as she survey the kilometers long swath of ruin that remained on the Assassin class ship.

“Oh but there was,” Paralus’s projection said. Of course he hadn’t bothered to physically appear before Ayli, not when he could simply conjure an illusion of himself to talk through instead. “We’ll be recovering the machine intelligence before too much longer.”

“A useful tool is it?” Ayli asked, unable to suppress the grin which arose from her knowledge of the state of the servers on the ship.

“Everything and everyone are tools,” Paralus said. “It is only a question of how one puts them to use.”

“You don’t say.” Ayli tried to discern whether Paralus was including himself in that count. She suspected if pressed he would claim that embracing the ‘truth of darkness’ or whatever other nonsense was the scripture of his personal mania was sufficient to ‘truly free him’. It was terribly tempting to needle him into such a boast, but she didn’t want to draw his attention to how she was using him since it seemed to have escaped his attention that she hadn’t come along with him because she had no other choice.

“You would have been better served by landing closer to the temple,” Paralus said. “Praxis Mar is not home to many things which will grant you easy passage.”

“I am an invited guest,” Ayli said. “Certainly the Beast of Praxis Mar would not hinder my journey to the Lord of the world it is merely a guardian of?”

“You presume I would instruct it to deny its nature,” Paralus said.

“Then I suppose I will simply wait here,” Ayli said, surveying the ship’s ruins for anything she could add to the surviving command deck for comfort.

Pickings in that regards were fairly slim. With the damage Ayli’s had done to the shuttle bay, there hadn’t been the proper option of a taking a shuttle down to the surface, and with the damage her Dark Side had done to the rest of the ship, remaining in orbit hadn’t been particularly viable either. 

There had been enough control left of the sublight engines to manage the descent, which was how Ayli had been able to bring the ship down fast enough that Paralus hadn’t been able to influence its trajectory all that much. 

Landing it properly had never been part of the plan, but managing to destroy it as thoroughly as she had without killing herself in the process was something Ayli intended to hold onto a badge of honor for the rest of her life.

However long or short that might be.

Her plan called for her to escape Praxis Mar. She could see a future where she and Nix were back together, cuddled up alone in their house, safe and peaceful. That seemed wonderful and was exactly what she was striving for.

But she knew Paralus had a vision for the future too.

And he was powerful. Dreadfully so. 

Could she and Nix defeat him? Probably not? Could she, Nix, Ravas and Kelda defeat him? Again, probably not. For all that he blathered on endlessly, the Lich kept a lot about himself hidden, especially the true depths of his power. 

That was a smart move, and Ayli hated going up against smart enemies. The two smart Imperial Officers she’d ran up against had inflicted more losses on the Rebellion than any two dozen other officers combined. 

There was a thing about smart enemies though. Once you knew they were smart, their actions spoke louder than they did.

Paralus was smart, and he kept his power largely hidden. He’d attacked her when she was in the most vulnerable position she’d been in for over a year.

Which meant he was afraid.

Not necessarily of her. On her own, she couldn’t overcome his power. Ayli knew that for a certainty because of the fight between Paralus and her incarnated Dark Side. Even fully unleashed, Ayli’s rage and fear and desperation hadn’t come close to defeating the Lich.

Which wasn’t the victory which Paralus apparently thought it was.

“You will soon have cause to reconsider that,” Paralus said.

“And you care about this? That’s unexpected,” Ayli said, taking the chance that goading him into speaking might let her catch a glimpse of his true agenda.

“One must always care for one’s tools if they are to be of proper use,” Paralus said.

“You have a problem then don’t you? You can watch me sit here and come to whatever dire end Praxis Mar has in store for me, or you can exercise those great powers you have to clear a safe path to wherever you intend for me to go.”

“Or I can allow the denizens of this world to break all the parts of you which I have no need for,” Paralus said. “I believe that would bring the other one even sooner would it not?”

Ayli shook her head and sighed.

“If you’re going to lie, at least try to be consistent,” she said. “You’ve avoided torture so far because the moment you cross that line, they’ll be able to find exactly where I am and you need the people who are looking for me to stumble around and be worn down before you face them. You’ve kept me cloaked in the Dark Side this whole time because if I can communicate with them you know they’ll have a direct line to you.”

“I do not fear your ghosts or your partner. Nor do I fear the Horizon Knight you jettisoned. I have transcended you all. Even with twice your number on a far lesser world, I could slay you all. Here, on this site of perfected order though? Here no one may stand against me, no matter the armies they come in.”

Which, oddly, all sounded true. Ayli knew the miasma of the Dark Side which choked the planet was distorting her perceptions, but she could still tell that Paralus at least truly believed the words he’d spoken.

Which was fascinating because he was afraid of something.

If no power they could bring to bear against him would matter, then why was Paralus holding back as much as he was.

He couldn’t need her as a simple sacrifice. Ayli knew that if her blood could have satisfied him, Paralus would have cut her apart on the ship without a second thought.

She wanted to reach out to the Force. After a year of training, it had become a comfortable ally, one that she trusted more than herself at times. 

But Praxis Mar was not a place to listen to the whispers of the Force. The Dark Side was many things but honesty or even accuracy were not qualities it possessed.

In the distance, the Fallen Temple of the Heavens stood at the top of a ridgeline, backlit against the skyline by an aura which was only visible when Ayli looked at its presence in the Force. It was where Paralus had set his throne, and the last place on the planet Ayli should go.

Which was, of course, why she had to get there.

Facing Paralus at the center of his power wasn’t meaningfully different in the calculus of who was stronger. There wasn’t anywhere on the planet she could go where she wouldn’t be completely overwhelmed.

Which also gave her a piece to the puzzle of Paralus’ aims since no where else on the planet would she be as poised to strike a meaningful blow against him.

Was he refusing to clear a path for her because he wanted her to be weakened getting to him, or was he refusing because he lacked the power to control something as large of a planetary scale Dark Side Nexus? 

Or was it both? The last thing a ‘Dread Lich’ was going to admit was a lack of control and the first thing they would do was look for a means to turn that shortcoming into an advantage.

“Well this should be interesting then,” Ayli said. “I guess we’ll both get to see what it takes to break me, and what I can do once we meet face to face.”

She didn’t mean it as a threat, and so the desperate defiance which might have been there in her voice was notably absent.

Which unnerved Paralus and gave Ayli another clue to try to fit into the picture she was putting together.

“You will meet you destiny,” Paralus said. “One which you were never going to escape, no matter how far away you ran or who you turned to for shelter.”

Ayli could have pointed out that even inevitable conflicts could turn out very differently based on the preparations people made for them. As a purely random example, one might spend a year training with two master Force Users, supported by the most loving spouse Ayli could imagine, and working on the doubts and insecurities which had plagued her since she was old enough to form words. 

The woman she was had grown into someone quite different from the one she’d been before meeting Nix, and while that hadn’t involved the acquisition of unmatched cosmic power, it had given her something important to work with.

Faith.

In Nix, who was absolutely going to come for her, in her friends, who would support Nix and make sure there was a real chance for them to survive, and in herself.

“Let’s get started then,” Ayli said and hopped off the remnant of the landing strut she’d been sitting on.

And the ground immediately tried to swallow her whole.

It wasn’t the most subtle of traps. Ayli had sensed the hunger below her and its growing eagerness all during her conversation with Paralus.

Force Lightning would have been an excellent response to the attack, and the Force eagerly showed her how she could blast a crater of safety for herself which would deter all such attacks going forward.

With her Dark Side quiescent though, the jolt of overpowering fear was missing as she sank completely below the surface of the ground and she was able to react in a more considered manner.

Gently pushing on the walls of earth which entombed her, she lifted herself up and pressed the dirt slightly apart to allow her passage.

The hungry ghost which had fused with the land went wild at the loss of its prey, the only food it had held the promise of consuming in centuries.

Ayli felt its need and rage slam into her and let it pass right through.

She wasn’t angry with it. It was doing what it needed to, what it had been reduced to.

She wasn’t afraid of it. If it hurt her, that would just be how things went. She would respect it, and try to find a better path for both of them.

That did not assuage the hungry ghost. It still hungered. It still raged. 

But it was also confused.

What better path was there?

All was hunger.

Everything had always been hunger.

Hadn’t it?

Leaving the hungry ghost to ponder that, Ayli drifted beyond its reach and touched down to continue walking towards the Fallen Temple. It had taken some effort to escape the ghost and it was entirely likely that a thousand more awaited her on her path.

Her destiny lay in the Temple, and she knew she would make it there, but before she took a moment to be honest with herself; bravado aside, it was a daunting trip. Paralus was right to think that she could break during it.

What he hadn’t thought to ask himself though was what might happen if she didn’t?

Trials didn’t always make her stronger. They could be exhausting and they could leave her heart filled with regrets and shame. They could show her just how weak she was, and strip away the illusions she clung to.

Illusions like the belief that everything she’d done rested on; her faith in Nix.

By the end of the long and lonely journey she was about to make, her heart might prove to be weak enough to abandon that hope. 

Would she ever forgive herself for that?

Would she ever forgive Nix if the faith proved misfounded?

It was so tempting to simply declare that she would never crumble, never falter, but in the year of training, she’d come to know herself and her limits. For as much as she believe, for as much as she wanted to believe, she bore enough wounds that sometimes she needed a bit of reassurance to go on. Sometimes she needed people to be there for her.

“She’s coming. She’s on her way to you. You don’t know who I am, but I know who you are through her,” the voice of very quiet girl said from unimaginably far away and in her words, Ayli heard Nix’s love shining like a beacon across the stars.

Rassi wasn’t corrupting the Xah. There wasn’t a soul in the Silent Enclave who would agree with that appraisal but sitting within the center of a Force Communion, Rassi could see with peaceful clarity that what they were doing was far from corrupting anything.

Communicating with the flow of life wasn’t a sin or a crime, it was the reason the Force existed. Life sought out connection, sought out communication, even when words couldn’t reach across the gaps, life found ways of expressing itself.

The Silent Enclave had always taught her that imposing her will on others was bad and imposing her will on the Xah was unforgivable. 

All while imposing their will on her.

And she’d believed them.

Had internalized their message all while her heart yearned to speak with an listen to the currents of life which flowed through her rather than rejecting the Force at every turn.

Sitting in a circle with Solna, Nulo, and Moffvok though, she at last understood emotionally what her more reasonable thoughts had been telling her since long before she’d met Nix.

“It’s beautiful,” Solna said as Goldie’s interior faded away, replaced with the unfiltered light of the galaxy’s stars.

“It is what we are,” Moffvok said, speaking in Shyriiwook but clearly understandable in their shared mental space.

“It is what we protect and nurture,” Nulo said. Small Hutts don’t appear as particularly striking or noble figures, especially not with the Holonet’s insistence on using them as stock gangster villains everywhere they show up. In their Force vision, Nulo didn’t appear physically any different than she normally did, but Rassi could feel the strength of her spirit more clearly than ever, and saw not a tiny gangster but a fledgling with the soul of a true Knight.

“I could get lost in this forever,” Solna said. “But we need to deliver a message.”

“And who might you need to deliver a message too?”

Rassi almost broke the link.

Something vile had touched their minds.

In searching for Ayli across the galaxy, they’d stumbled into something truly terrible.

“You are not welcome here shadow,” Moffvok said, resolution more stern than iron in his voice.

“And what is this?” Paralus Stahl’s shade said. “A Padal Horizon Knight? I thought your kind were long extinct. Doomed to oblivion by your own prideful arrogance.”

“You would know all about prideful arrogance, wouldn’t you?” Nulo said with unflappable and unapologetic sarcasm.

“A Knight and a worm, how intriguing,” Paralus said. “Minds cast adrift seeking where they most certainly were not invited.”

Rassi wanted to speak too, but she knew she couldn’t manipulate the Force on the Lich’s level and didn’t want to give him any free openings.

“You will not bar us from our task,” Moffvok said, and Rassi had the sense of the Wookie standing tall before them.

“I believe you will find I will do whatever I wish to do,” Paralus said. “You should begin praying that won’t include snuffing your tiny flames out like the candles that you are.”

“You’re under the impression that we should be afraid of you?” Nulo asked, moving to stand beside Moffvok.

Rassi could tell that wasn’t only a gesture of support. Together Moffvok and Nulo’s presence eclipsed the fact that Rassi and Solna were present in the communion. 

Which meant Rassi was free to move into whatever striking position she chose having gone more silent than a whisper at Paralus’ approach.

“Whether or not you should fear me depends largely on what you were seeking,” Paralus said. “You were poking around in dark corners. If what you wish is darkness, then I would be delighted to show you the truths of the galaxy which those who refuse the Dark Side are afraid to acknowledge.”

“I’m afraid we’re not in the market for delusions and anxieties,” Nulo said.

“Then perhaps you sought pain, or your own destruction?” Paralus said. “I can offer those in abundance as well, though there is clay in you which could be worked into something far more useful than the shards of what you currently are.”

“What if the pain that we seek is pain that we’ll bring to you?” Nulo asked, which Rassi felt was a misstep. Threatening the Lich when they, likely, didn’t have the power to backup the threat had a hollow ring to it.

“I am far beyond pain, and far beyond loss,” Paralus said. “If you were real Horizon Knights you would know that though, so what are you?”

Rassi felt a weight pressing down on all of them as Paralus turned his attention to perceiving the interlopers in his domain he’d only barely noticed.

“What we are is the answer to galaxy’s disgust with you,” Moffvok said. “You’ve gone on long enough. It’s time for that to end.”

Paralus laughed at that. Not a chuckle, not a gentle laugh, an uproarious bellow of malicious mirth.

“By all means, yes,” he said. “This is too rare. Someone who honestly believes they can undo my existence. You know I could dismantle the craft you’re in, twist your bones until they’re dust, or simply choke the life from you, but none of those, not a one, will be as entertaining as watching you trying to make good on your ambitions.”

“Definitely not going to regret that one, are you?” Nulo taunted him.

“I never have before my dear little worm,” Paralus said. “So many who try lack the conviction I see in your friend though. Most of them tend to give up the moment they run into the slightest trouble. One little death among their numbers and they go scurrying away trying to hide from the darkness forever. And none of them ever succeed. Do you know why?”

“Because we all have darkness inside us,” Nulo said, sounding as bored as she could be.

“”Precisely. Darkness which we must use if we are to master it, and which we must master or it will serve as a gateway for others to master us.” Paralus was drawing closer to them as he spoke.

Because all of his banter served a purpose.

Rassi could see the trap he was leading them into and knew they had to break out.

Except that there didn’t seem to be anywhere to run. Paralus had engulfed them as Nulo and Moffvok spoke. The stars which had blazed so brightly were gone. 

And so was Solna.

Which was weird.

Rassi knew Solna hadn’t left her. She could still feel the touch of Solna’s hand in her own and knew the bond they shared was unbroken. Against the backdrop of Paralus’ cloud of darkness though, Rassi couldn’t sense where Solna was at all.

“So you’re not one of those people who think they’ve mastered the Dark Side, when it’s actually mastered them and turned them into a little twisted puppet?” Nulo said.

“I cut my strings long ago,” Paralus said. “One throat at a time. Tell me, how many rules do you live under? How much of your life is decided for you? How many choices forbidden simply because someone else believed they wouldn’t be ‘right’, or ‘just’, or ‘good’, or whatever lies they cling to in their fear of what an unfettered life could be like?”

“So you’re beyond fear then?” Nulo asked. “No concerns about another Dark Side user coming along and usurping the power you’ve stolen?”

“Power is always taken,” Paralus said. “Hiding behind childish concepts like stealing show how unfamiliar you are with the truth of galaxy. The rules you cling to are a trap to keep you weak.”

“And how weak do you think I am?” Nulo asked.

“Weak enough that you will never escape from here,” Paralus said and the shadows around them began to roil.

“I should hope not,” Nulo said. “I took a lot of effort to put together a prison that could hold you. And to keep you distracted while we built it.”

From deep within the cloud which had swallowed them, light bloomed forth in the form of dodecahedron in brilliant hues from across the spectrum.

“A trap? For me?” Paralus sounded profoundly grateful, which was exactly the tone he shouldn’t have been using from what Rassi could see. “It’s been so long since someone tried to trap me. Sadly, there is always a means of escaping these which so often escapes my potential wardens.”

“Killing me won’t free you,” Nulo said. “These bindings are complete within the Force by themselves. I’m not sustaining them at all.”

“Oh I wasn’t thinking to kill you to escape this quaint little prison,” Paralus said. He brought his hand up in front of his face and clenched his hand into a fist.

Around them the cage of light burst into filaments and shards before fading away into the darkness.

“You see the trick to freeing yourself from a prison of light is straight forward. All you need is power. Power is all that matters. You don’t believe that yet, and more importantly your Knightly friend doesn’t either. I think an object lesson is in order.”

Rassi sensed the blow that was coming and reached out to block it with the Force. With only her mind, she gathered up the shattered pieces of the prison and wove them together into a spear to pierce the spark of hate that had replaced the Lich’s heart. She was too new to manipulating the force, and too slow to lash out with the blow before it was too late though.

In the mind space, Nulo was lifted from the hoverskiff she rode and throttled by a tremendous force.

Moffvok roared as manacles of darkness weighed him down while Nulo’s life ebbed away. Rassi struggled to move forward, but the shadows had turned into tar and were pulling her down with every moment.

As Nulo’s mind went completely silent, Paralus cast the image of her corpse back onto the hoverskiff.

Except he’d missed something.

“Did that fill you with rage Knightling? Drink deep of it if so. You will need that power if you intend to face me.”

And then he was gone. 

Rassi broke them out of the link to find Nulo choking but still very much alive.

“That image, that was an illusion?” Rassi asked, understanding immediately what her senses had been telling her.

“Not the best one I’ve ever done,” Nulo said. “Thank the stars I had someone to help me with it.”

“You’re quite welcome,” Solna said

“Wait, where did you go?” Rassi asked.

“The same place you did,” Solna said. “The Enclave’s wrong about a lot of things, but the training we did in knowing how to hide really seemed to work there. I could barely perceive you at all.”

Moffvok growled and Nulo translated for him again.

“We were wondering if you’d managed to escape him entirely,” she said.

“I think we could have,” Solna said. “At least if we’d broken the mental link quickly enough but…”

“But nether of us wanted to leave you alone there,” Rassi said.

“Oh they wouldn’t have been alone,” Kelda said.

“And you all did quite well in that encounter,” Ravas said. “Thanks to you, we can mimic the Lich’s shadow now. That should prove to be quite help in bypassing the traps he has in place to protect his phylactery.”

“I’m more impressed that they drove him off,” Kelda said.

“We did what?” Rassi asked.

“He didn’t leave because he was done tormenting you,” Kelda said. “He could send beings working against him but he couldn’t tell where or what you were. The two of you terrified him.”

“And our two Horizon Knight gave him pause as well,” Ravas said. “He could have flooded this place with his shadows, but from how you stood your ground against him, he hesitated.”

“Why would he have been scared of us though?” Nulo asked. “My illusion aside, I don’t think there was anything we could have done to him.”

“If he’d struck you down then, you might have died, it’s true, but you also might have become more powerful than he could possibly imagine.”