Whispers from The Past

Whispers from The Past

The mountains of Tython surrounded a low green valley. A middle aged man was sitting in the right side of the valley, with his back lying on a big gray stone, looking at a small gray stone-like object in his hand. The man was the Jedi Knight Rutger Emrila. Baez knew little about the Knight, only interacted with him in a couple of classes. The Knight was around 40 years old, with a one scar line running through the left side of the crease of his nose. Baez was sitting in a meditation position facing the Knight.

Knight Emrila with a serious thinker kind of tone in his voice, says: "Now before you begin to meditate, and try to use the ability, remember that going too deep in the past is dangerous, it might even be impossible for you to return."

Baez with a serious look. "I understand."

Knight Emrila extended his hand holding the gray object. "Now take this, and try to feel its past as I instructed earlier."

Baez closes his eye and takes a deep breath. While letting the air out slowly he examines his emotions and thoughts, his blood streaming in an endless cycle, the beat of his heart sustaining the movement of the blood in perfect rhythm. He feels his whole body relaxing making the emotions and thoughts fade one by one, and the sound of the mechanics of the body almost silent, like there is no body at all. Then a slow moving wave of energy and light presents itself, and starts expanding within him. The energy felt timeless, eternal, like the water on a planet taking different shapes and forms, but the essence is the same.


Then, he tries to expand the energy outwards, towards the stone. Afterwards, he visualizes that the energy around the stone is like an open door to an unknown space. Baez's mind moved forward into the door, feeling a disconnection from the sounds and senses of his physical surroundings. He tried to listen to anything the energy could whisper to him, but there was only silence and empty darkness.

With nothing left to do, he dived deeper into the energy's calling. Now the physical world was irrelevant and distant, an old memory of meaningless existence. Baez was not one single entity neither one single spot, he was everything and nothing moving in an eternal expanding motion. Emotions were vague, he could hear voices speaking all at once, and he could understand them all, feel them all. There was light taking strange shapes. Becoming in an instant, from faces to waves of light. From towers and cities to a thin quiet river making his way down a mountain. All expanding towards all directions without a starting point, creating space as the movement becomes more intense.

Life and death tangled in a mad dance in the rhythm of the time and space. Born and reborn forever, dead forever, alive forever. His consciousness from buried six feet underground, to echoing from star to star, exploding and being a tiny spot in the same time.

Then static images flicker over everything, popping in and out of sight. First an image of two men in a forest looking at him, then a one eyed man with a steel-like gaze, was looking at him. Static sound of whispers coming after the images. "Son, Brother." Then "Where are you?" Then, the one eyed man pointed at a robe hanging. "Go there, take it and leave." Suddenly, the sense of purpose came in fractions, and planted the urge to take the robe and climb upwards.

Baez, with all his rediscovered will, grabs the robe and climbs up like he was escaping an explosion. Looking upwards he followed the light climbing and climbing. The more he moved towards the light, the more his consciousness returned, piece by piece building his mind and self-back together.

After a tense silent moment, Baez comes back to the surface of his consciousness. A sudden burst, shooting his body awake. The Padawan looks up and sees Knight Emrila in front of him, still in a meditative position with a perked eyebrow.

"You went limp young one. The fact that you were no longer truly in the present." Takes a moment. "Is concerning. "
Baez felt the examining eyes of the Knight looking at him seriously.

With a flat tone of his voice the Knight spoke. "You were losing yourself. " With a hesitated look. "Are you truly back?"

Baez looked away with a thoughtful look, and took a long moment to respond. "Whatever that..." A long pause. "...that space was, it felt real." Looks with concern at the Knight. "I was trying to find something, and in the way I lost myself, and everything around me."
Rutger pursed his lips, and with a grunt escaping pushed himself to a stand. He took a small step forward, and the rock was rapidly snatched from the young man's hands. Rutger tossed it in the air before being caught again once. "Don't go so deep young one."

Then, Baez stands slowly up, and looks at the Knight with a concerned look. "I hope, I did not fail you Knight Rutger." Looks down. "It felt like I got lost without realizing it."

Rutger bowed his head for a moment. "You only fail me if you lose the path, young one. Walk with the Force."

Baez looks at the man with a short smile while bowing his head. "I will have your words in mind the next time I try to use the ability."


It's the first night back from Tython, and the last noise of people moving around had been in hours. The room is almost completely dark, if it was not for the moonlight sneaking in from the window and hitting the stone wall of Baez's room. The Padawan lied there with open eyes for hours, before he moved his body sideways to the right and opened the drawer of his small chest in the right side of his bed. The sound of the chain scratching against the wood broke the silence of the night. The chin had a medallion on it with two faces facing each other on one side, and a star on the other. Baez took the medallion in his hands, laid back to his bed, and closed his eyes starting to meditate, searching for whispers of the past.