Trychon immediately pushed the holocron to the far side of the large clearing as he sprinted to catch Cordelia mid-faint. The transparent lightning disappeared as did its source. Cordelia's eyes immediately fluttered open and she gave Trychon a kiss. "See? My hero."
He lifted her to her feet so that she could stand again. "Are you ok?"
"It didn't hurt. It was just... overwhelming." She replied, looking herself over to confirm she was unharmed.
The voice and the holocron reappeared in the center of the clearing. "She will be fine. She is merely fulfilling her role now as a tool for you. She has been imbued with the ability to translate things that you nor I could."
"Why?" Trychon demanded.
"As I just said. You will need help that I cannot give. Now follow me."
The holocron floated on its own in the direction of the ruin nearest to their camp. Trychon and Cordelia followed only after she reassured him several more times that she was ok, and that she wanted to continue.
They approached slowly, though Trychon kept his body in front of her until they arrived. Then she immediately pulled away from him and began studying the stones as though it was a long lost valuable she'd been searching for her entire life.
"It's an entrance!" She exclaimed, brushing away years of dirt and grime from each symbol before she moved to the next.
"Are you sure? I don't know loads of ancient writings... but I've never seen anything like these." Trychon looked closely at what she was uncovering, clearly doubtful. "I've been baffled for years since I moved away and began studies."
"Then maybe the creepy dude was right, Trych. Maybe you do need me for this. I don't know how, but this all makes perfect sense to me now." She pointed to another stone and got up to brush it off as well. "Right here it states plainly 'Enter only, those who are prepared...' or it would, if the bottom wasn't chipped off."
Trychon turned to give a disapproving look to the Sith Lord, but he had disappeared, and the holocron rested on the ground it had been hovering over. Then, as though it had been the key to an ancient invisible lock underneath, the stones beneath the ground began to part.
----------------
They spent a little over an hour exploring the underground Sith temple, simply getting their bearings. The holocron rested safely and quietly in Trychon's pack as they looked to see what the ancient building had to offer.
In the end, there was actually very little for the two to find. The stones had moved to reveal a small staircase leading to a single thin hallway that left barely enough room for them to stand shoulder to shoulder. There were only a handful of doors leading off the hallway, and the walls were surprisingly barren of even the Sith symbols that marked the ruins above.
As they walked, they noted that the only visible footprints in the layers of dirt were their own, and they wondered how long it had been since someone had been where they now were. The doorways led to rooms that were as barren of clues or signs of life as the hallways, and they each served only the most basic needs. There was two domiciles each with four beds, a very small kitchen with one table, and a general training room.
They found nothing of real interest until they reached the end of the hallway. Trychon pulled Cordelia back as the dirt began shaking from the walls and a loud grinding noise overtook the hall. The clouds of dust overcame their ability to see for several moments even after the noise had stopped.
As the dust continued to settle, light began to shine through a widening gap in what appeared to be metal doors previously hidden by the stone wall.
Cordelia coughed and tried to cover her mouth as she rushed through to the new space.
If Trychon could have expected anything as they entered, it would not have been what he found.
It contained what he expected, walls full of tomes and other resources. The size of the room was unprecedented in his experience.
It was tiny.
The entire space was packed with knowledge to be handed down, it just did not match the giant libraries of knowledge he had encountered at THX-1138 and Korriban.
"Where do we start?" Cordelia asked in awe as she brushed her hands along the spines of the tomes. This room had stayed immaculately clean despite the mess the rest of the facility was. Everything in this room had been perfectly preserved.
Trychon was also looking over the shelves. "I think you're supposed to help me with that. Look for 'Sith Sorcery for Nerf Herders."
"Ok."
The fact that she didn't catch his humor only spoke to how much she was taking everything in. "I have no idea." He added to clear up the confusion if there was any left from his joke. He grabbed one tome that he recognized the symbols on, and directed Cordelia to one that he didn't, and they both sat down to try and make sense of it all.
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