Post by ender on Jul 25, 2009 15:03:03 GMT -5
A Souvenir Part 1
The sigh that radiated throughout the entire room would have made it too thick to move in had it not been for the high ceiling. Corran wondered if that was not large enough, even though this was one of the largest and most extravagant rooms in the {Jedi} palace, “I’m so bored…” Ender said loudly. Corran could almost feel the air around him solidify, and also see Tigeress’s shoulders tense as she glared at Ender. It was a bad sign when Ender began to sigh. It was usually shortly followed by a lightsaber duel.
“Ender! I don’t care what you want to do, I refuse. You will NOT take me on some heroic quest to kill another weak clan killer. I have had enough of your So-called vacation. We haven’t been to one planet resort that hasn’t been halfway blown out of the sky! I’m going home, to my home planet, away from you. We’ve been away from our clans for nearly a week, and I have yet to hear from an adjutant of mine who didn’t complain about some problem that he could easily fix himself.” Tigeress sighed irritably. Those sighs were making the books in this room musty, “I was so looking forward to those massages, Ender. You deliberately deceived me into coming. You KNEW there would be an invasion on those luxury planets we visited! Ugh, I’ve had enough of Ender for one day.” Tigeress started to get up from her poofy red sofa.
Ender threw his arms around his head and slouched in his armchair, stretching his feet towards the fireplace. It had a rather rudimentary style to it; simple bricks and square hole for the fire to make it look more like part of a country home. It stood in stark contrast to the gold embroidered walls that lined the Leader’s Library. Originally the style was pretty well blended in, but previous leaders thought the walls would look better in gold, whatever that meant. Corran thought it looked like a room of a king attempting to make his house look humble; a failed attempt indeed.
Which suited Ender’s next statement quite well, “Tigeress, I promise I’ll let you have the duel this time, you don’t have to stand and watch. Besides, you might be able to beat one of these so-called clan killers faster than I.”
Tigeress threw her red-cushioned pillow at Ender, hitting him in the face with a grunt, “You are impossible! Did it ever occur to you that I may not want to go around killing people? I need to get back to my subjects.” Corran could tell that Tigeress did not really mean her next sentence, but she let her anger get the better of her and drove it home, “They…are…USELESS…without me!”
“No killing?” Ender shrugged, “Is that all you want to avoid? You know that they all deserve it; they found themselves complacent in enjoying thoughts of the immolation of my clan by my death. It was easy for me to deign it a worthy cause to stop them from destroying {Jedi}, I believe you and Corran agreed with me,” Nodding to Corran, “and I also deign it to be an excellent way to spend a great vacation.” Ender smiled and let his feet soak in the heat of the fire. He looked back at Tigeress when her only reply was a look of murder, “I know just the thing we can do, though, that should satisfy you. Our vacation is not yet over without a proper souvenir!” He flung out his hand and a random book leaped from a shelf and hurled itself at Ender. He caught it and opened it to a certain page in one smooth motion. He set it on the table in-between the sofa and the armchair, and turned it so Tigeress could read it clearly.
Tigeress sat back down and leaned over to view the pages of the book that Ender had taken off the shelf. She handled the page delicately as she moved her fingers down the page with grace. Her dueling style was very similar, superficially that is. When one looks deeper, one can only be amazed at how intimate her precision and her strength really was. When one knew her as long as Corran had, the exterior swan only feebly concealed the tiger within.
Finally, Tigeress gently closed the book and looked at him, “Ender…you are an idiot.”
Ender looked at Tigeress with a confused look that would have fooled anyone else, “Huh? What are you talking about?”
“I hate it when you do that Ender. I know what this book means. You want me…to go with you…to find a thing…that doesn’t even exist…you are a retard…if you think I am going to do that for you.”
Ender put on his widest grin, “But what if it does exist? That book is over a thousand years old. What if we really could find it? We would be written into the histories forever.”
“We already are written in the histories you dimwit. We are leaders of entire planets!”
“So…? It’ll be fun.” Ender chuckled like he did when he found himself in a situation that was either very funny to him or very tense.
Tigeress clenched her teeth, “I am going to stab you in the back when you are sleeping, Ender”
“Huh? What was that?”
Tigeress, ignored him, “Unless you can find a way to seriously convince me that it exists, I am not going to go with you. You can go and rot for all I care.”
“You know you don’t mean that,” grinned Corran, standing over them arms folded, as he usually did as the bodyguard of Ender and Tigeress.
“No…I don’t…but that’s what’s going to happen when you don’t find it Ender. And besides, is it even worth it?”
“Of course it is, it’s there isn’t it!? It can’t be all that hard to get, and it will make {Jedi} an even more formidable force if it was discovered that we found an essence of legend. The history behind it is more than enough to make it intimately breathtaking.”
“Ugh,” Tigeress threw herself into the sofa, not taking her piercing eyes off of Ender, “You are the most thick-skulled man I’ve ever met! Well, other than Tchdwn of course. What do you think Corran? Is Ender having fantasies again, or is he just always this way?”
“Always this way,” Corran nodded, Ender scowled at him, “What exactly are you two talking about? What are you referring to?”
Tigeress rolled her eyes and muttered something under her breathe. For some odd reason, it sounded something along the lines of, “…we go again…” Then she looked at Ender to explain, giving him a sniff in the process.
Ender slouched even further down his chair than what Corran would have thought possible, “It’s called the Horowitz Crystal. It is a very old crystal, very old, dating back several thousand years. It is claimed that it was owned by the legendary Grandmaster Yoda. According to legend, he created the crystal using very advanced force techniques which are said to take hundreds of years to learn, and enacted it as a vessel of his wisdom and might. According to the old tales, a few years before he died, he extracted the crystal from his saber and hid it somewhere. In all this time, it has never been found.
“Now, disregarding the enormous history and significance of the crystal, it can be used as a very powerful weapon. Its capabilities can, if used properly, significantly enhance the skill of the user. It has the ability to instantly clear the mind, giving a high amount of peace and serenity that would take a hundred years of training to feel, but only if the user naturally leans towards serenity. If the user leans the other way, the crystal has the power to amplify emotions, making one stronger, faster, and more responsive to change in an opponent’s strategy. It was said that Master Yoda had the ability to draw on both of these characteristics, but it is doubtful that anyone else would be able to do so. Nonetheless, whether emotional or calm, it is a formidable weapon.
“Like I said, however, and what Tigeress seems to emphasize, the crystal is legend; it is believed by most to be a fable. However, I have been studying this book here. Well, I have been studying it for the last thirty minutes before you two came in here, and I believe that this book gives the location of the Horowitz Crystal. The book itself is a copy of one of Yoda’s journals. I believe there were only about three or four copies of it ever made, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the last one left. The journal itself was destroyed sometime after Yoda was said to have passed away on Dagaboh. However, I believe that Yoda may have left some clues as to the Crystal’s location inside his journal, and this book may prove useful.”
Tigeress looked skeptical, “I’ll admit, it does look very old, but you have yet to prove that it is a real copy and not a forgery, Ender.”
“Let me see it,” Corran said suddenly. Ender and Tigeress turned their heads slowly to face him, “I believe I can tell you whether or not it is legitimate. I love books, and Jedi history is among my favorite. I…have experience in these matters. It should not be difficult to tell whether or not it is a copy or a forgery, let me examine it.”
Ender nodded and motioned for him to sit and take a look. Corran would have refused if he was not afraid of damaging the book by holding it without the support of the table; that book was very old indeed. The very age would protect it from accusation of a cheap imitation, but there were clever forgers during the Emperor’s time. They were put under his pay to scour and confuse the last of the old writings. The Emperor hated the Jedi and would want to destroy their reputation even by changing the meanings of the very words they wrote.
Corran obliged and sat next to Tigeress. He examined the front cover. It was typical of that which would be found in a library during the times of the beginnings of the New Republic. Either the author did not wish to be conspicuous, or he did not truly know the value of the writings inside. Even a copy of the journal that Yoda wrote would be invaluable to anyone who possessed it. It seemed awfully plain and ordinary for such an important book.
Corran permitted his eyes to wander across the surface of the cover for a while. He was about to open the book when his eyes suddenly came across a peculiar marking. He closed the book again and looked at it more intimately. It looked very familiar.
“Ender, how often do you come in here?”
“Every so often. Why?”
“Do you know any books here that were written by Grandmaster Skywalker?”
“Of course, which one do you want?”
“The one that is closest.”
While Ender rose to look through threw the shelves, Corran continued his examination of the book. He was pretty sure he knew the validity of this book now, but he went over the proper procedures in any case. He made sure that the book wasn’t hampered within the last few centuries. He made sure the cover matched the pages inside. He checked to see that every page was still there or not replaced. He found a few repaired pages, which indicated that this book has probably seen many places to have ended up here. A few bent pages spoke of a careless hand while others spoke of respect and awe. Corran was mildly surprised that this book survived at all. Perhaps the force has guided it to this place.
Ender came back cradling a book that looked as old as Yoda’s. That helped prove his theory. Ender placed the book down on the table next to Corran, “As I suspected,” Corran observed, “Look here.” He pointed to the mark that was on Yoda’s journal, vaguely seen unless one looked for it.
Ender peered closely, “What does it mean Corran?”
“hmmm,” Corran said, “That would involve a history lesson that would probably bore you.” Corran gave a little chuckle at Ender’s expected reaction.
“Tell me Corran! I will hang you out to dry if you do not!”
“I’m not wet.”
“Uh huh…” Ender visibly took care to make certain that Corran noticed him looking outside. Rainclouds were beginning to form.
“Corran if you do not stop teasing Ender I swear I will throw you out that window. We have more important things to do than for you two to bore me with your silly little games.”
“Anyway,” Corran said as though nothing had happened, “Back then, the Empire was still playing the conquest game with the New Republic, so GrandMaster Skywalker, though I’m not sure if he was a Grandmaster at the time, had to have a way of letting other Jedi secretly know which books were fake and which ones were real. I have always pondered how so many genuine books survived with so many forgeries plaguing the scene. Obviously, it would be dangerous to find a book that was forged and misprinted. It could lead unknowing Jedi astray to the dark side, teach them things about the force that aren’t even real, and so on. The history books of today make no indication as to how we have the books we have today. I believe I stumbled upon the answer on accident.
“It was actually pretty straight forward. Although there is no indication anywhere that Skywalker concerned himself with books, there is strong evidence that he did. If you look closely at that mark, you will see that it is three tiny black circles arranged in an equilateral triangle. I do not know why he chose this marking, but it might have something to do with balance. It is faded, but it is still there. As far as I can remember, Skywalker always put these markings on anything he wrote. So if you look at this book,” Corran shifted his finger to Yoda’s journal, “You will see the same markings, which are also faded. From this, I can say that this book was written by none other than Luke Skywalker himself. He was the one who made this copy.”
Such a legendary Jedi’s name would bear its weight, “You satisfied Tigeress?” Ender asked.
If Corran had known that eyes could not burn giant holes in people, he would have guessed that that was what Tigeress was trying to do to Ender, “Fine! But I’m warning you, Ender, if you so much as think of having another vacation after this I swear I am going to throw you into my pit of tigers and let you rot there!”
Ender performed an excellent show of being flabbergasted, “You don’t mean that!”
Tigeress grated her teeth, “Don’t you dare push me…”
“Well then,” Ender continued cheerfully, “Time to see what kind of clues we can find in this book. But first we must get something to eat, I’m so hungry I’ll even go after some of Tigeress’s food.”
“You mean your arm, Ender?”[/size]
