Athemeene pulled Tan'ya into a hug. "Who said that to you, Tan'ya? You are normal."
"No, I'm not." Tan'ya disagreed firmly, pulling away and looking into her mother's eyes. "We both know that I'm not someone Madalee can emulate."
...
Athemeene looked like she was ready to disagree, but something about the look in her daughter's eye froze the words in her throat. Eventually, she said softly, "...Every girl thinks they're different. Every girl just wants to be normal, and every girl wants to think they're not like the other girls."
"...Mother, please." Tan'ya stayed firm. "You've raised two other children. You know there's something wrong about me."
"It's not wrong!" Athemeene immediately defended. "You're not a problem, or anything like that at all, you're just-"
"But I am something different." Tan'ya insisted. "And we both know it."
After a long silence, Athemeene put her hands on Tan'ya's shoulders, rubbing them with her thumbs. "Not wrong, just different. The same in some ways, but yes, very different in others." She smiled, with only a hint of sadness. "Your brother never taught himself to read, and I don't think your sister will do that either."
Nodding, Tan'ya looked away. It was easy for a toddler to teach herself to read with two lifetimes to tell her how.
"Oh sweetie." Athemeene pulled her daughter in for another hug. "You don't need to worry about setting a bad example for your sister. I'm sure that one day you'll find that you two are more alike than you think."
After a moment, Athemeene shared one more sad smile with her daughter, then left.
When Tan'ya stepped out into the hallway she was surprised to realize there was a mind nearby in the Force, shielding itself. She turned the corner to find Vai's back retreating out to the main hall.
Tan'ya scowled as she watched the girl run away, shocked that she could be so rude as to spy on a private moment of her host. At that moment her holocom pinged, and she glanced down to see instruction from her father to meet him in his office. Glancing at where the other youngling had been, Tan'ya turned on her heel to climb the stairs to her father's office.
She found him seated behind his desk, waiting for her. "Come in, close the door."
After locking the door in case of any more prying ears, Tan'ya took a seat, feeling slightly nervous as she regarded her father. Part of her felt like she was about to receive a stern talking to, when he took out from under his desk a small red crystal.
Tan'ya immediately recognised it as a kyber crystal from the way it resonated in the force, though she had never personally held one before. Her training had taught her that each Jedi formed a special bond with their kyber crystals, which allowed them to commune with the force, aiding each other in battle. These crystals weren't just pretty gems, but a bizarre kind of organism capable of reproducing on a long enough time scale. Kyber mines allowed to rest would gradually repopulate over the course of centuries, and so the Jedi Temple on Coruscant was able to sustainably harvest crystals from the planet Ilum for millennia. Reading about them, Tan'ya couldn't help but wonder if it was possible to plant them somewhere else and in time reap the rewards.
The one in front of her was a bled kyber crystal. Rather than bonding with an individual and communing in the force, a dark sider could reportedly dominate the crystal forcefully, allowing them to use any crystal they liked, but turning any they touched red as though the stone itself was bleeding. Over time these red crystals and lightsabers came to be seen as a powerful symbol of the Sith, who had no regard for the feelings and thoughts of stones.
Regardless of Tan'ya's thoughts on the subject, the fact that her father was holding one was curious. She knew his to be blue, and could see his lightsaber still at his hip.
"Where did this come from, Father?" Tan'ya asked, curiously.
"The Mandalorian survey team uncovered a Sith fortress buried under the earth. Likely dragged below by the Tira'taka."
Tan'ya hesitated at hearing that. Of course she'd heard that her father had ridden the Tirra'taka into battle against Ramil, but it had sounded nearly mythological at the time. There were many witnesses to the event, so she'd supposed it to be true, but to hear her father speak of the dragon that in legend held the world together and punished evil with earthquakes left her feeling slightly cynical. Like they were discussing a fairytale as an ordinary part of history, when there was a much more plausible explanation available.
Hego had said that a sith assassin had killed Sifo Dyas, and here her father was with a red kyber crystal. The billionaire had claimed her father had nothing to do with Sifo's death, and Tan'ya wanted to believe him, but still wasn't quite willing to confront her father about what really happened.
"Something wrong?" Dooku asked, studying her face carefully.
"...The investigators report said that a Sith assassin was responsible for Sifo's death." Tan'ya said at last.
He paused, face frozen in a complex mixture of pain and concern, before he said. "Who shared that with you?"
"Asajj had a copy." Tan'ya lied, firmly keeping her mind closed, as she felt her father's force gently circling the edges of her control.
"I see." He said at last, frowning. "Yes, it's true. But this is not that kyber crystal. As I said, this comes from the lightsaber of a long dead sith." He turned on the holoprojector of his office holocom, and displayed footage of a droid probe exploring what appeared to be a buried facility. As he described, the probe eventually found a scene of ancient combat, with the bones of a man and an enormous beast large enough to carry someone in its jaws.
The skeleton was clearly an actual dragon, with wings and sharp spines growing down its back. "It's massive." Tan'ya murmured in disbelief, shocked at the scale of the creature. It was the size of a humpback whale!
"The one I called on was much larger." Her father said, matter of factly. "As big as Ramil's airship."
Tan'ya turned to him, eyebrows shooting up in surprise. "So it's true. You really rode the Tirra'taka into battle against your brother? As a liberator?"
"No, I didn't ride it. I merely… called on it." Dooku said. "But it had been corrupted by the Dark Side, a mad beast that threatened your Aunt. It had to be put down after the battle."
A miserable fate for the legendary Beast that Holds the World Together, or so Tan'ya thought. Looking at the bones of the dead creature, she could only remember the same feeling of being a child once and learning about dinosaurs for the first time.
Pushing down the sense of childish interest, Tan'ya looked back to her father. "Why show me this?"
"As a historian, and the Advisor to the Defence, this concerns you directly." Dooku replied, a smile tugging at the corners of his normally stern mouth. "This buried facility has a carbonite stasis chamber still sealed inside. I've been to the site personally and confirmed that it was safe."
It was a little bit too much to call Tan'ya a historian. She certainly didn't have any official qualifications, which made her feel a slight flicker of nervousness as she asked. "What was inside?"
"According to its logs, it stores a number of biological samples from Serenno, some plants and animals, but of particular note was a clutch of eggs, that are fertilized, still living, and force sensitive."
Force sensitive? Had the Sith captured some Rodians or Trandoshans to use as slaves? No, the facility was collecting native flora and fauna samples. Did that mean? "Tirra'taka?" Tan'ya asked, almost disbelieving. "They were collecting Tirra'taka?"
Dooku said, "The one I met was female, and had escaped captivity. Likely, this is the facility where it was raised and modified with sith alchemy. These eggs may be its offspring. The dead one may have been its mate, or an offspring that called its mother for help. When the voice of her child was silenced, the mother buried the whole facility in her wrath."
It sounded like a plausible theory to Tan'ya. It was said that when the Sith conquered this world more than a thousand years ago they had corrupted and rode its natural guardians into battle. Before then the original Tirra'taka had roamed all across the planet, ruling the peaks and plains as apex predators that even the humans feared and respected. For the primitive humans of Serenno, the Tirra'taka was a powerful symbol, and had only become even more so with the passage of time and the growing of myths.
Now the Tirra'taka wasn't just an ancient guardian beast, but the Beast that Holds the World Together.
"If they've been modified into beasts of war, they may be dangerous." Tan'ya cautioned. "But…"
Dooku watched her, raising an eyebrow as he waited for her to speak.
"But they're a very important symbol of our people." Tan'ya finally said. "It could only increase the prestige of our house to tame them."
"Then what is your advice?" Dooku asked, patiently.
"...We should try rearing one, and keep the rest in carbonite. As a juvenile, the risk would be minimal and the potential benefits not inconsiderable."
Dooku nodded, still gazing at his daughter. "And the rest of the facility? Such a dangerous and corrupting ruin would fall under the purview of the Jedi Temple."
"...Yes, and we are Jedi, as well as the rulers of Serenno. This facility represents an important part of Serenno's history. The kyber crystal and the lightsaber it came from, as well as any artifacts recovered, should be preserved and studied." Tan'ya said, speaking firmly.
Dooku nodded. "Then I trust that you will handle this? You will coordinate the archaeologists, the rearing of the beast, and make sure it's all handled in good order?"
"Yes, father."
Dooku smiled. "Then see to it."
On top of her other duties? Well, Tan'ya supposed that working on Volumes Four and Five could take a back seat for now. "I'll get started right away."
As she was leaving the office, Tan'ya had a sudden thought regarding her history book. Hadn't she just been concerned about a lack of available Sith Source Materials? If even a single datacron was recovered from this facility, then it could be invaluable as a historical text.
And if the Tirra'taka proved itself to be tameable, it might even make a great asset. With its help, could she one day fly again? Forcing down a flutter of excitement, Tan'ya reminded herself that safety was the highest priority.
Flight may have been one of the few pure joys of her second life, but it was still a long way off in this life even if the creature wasn't a threat. Who knew what the Sith alchemists had done to the minds of Tirra'taka, let alone how long they would take to grow?
Still, despite herself, Tan'ya couldn't help but hope that maybe this would all go well, and she would get to experience the wind on her face once more as the horizon stretched out before her.
...
Apparently, chapters write themselves faster when Power Stones are involved. Who knew? Feel free to test the theory go ahead, toss a few my way.
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