Johun's mind was reeling. He remembered the mercenaries he'd encountered in the aftermath of the battle, and their tales of a Sith Master who had brutally slain their companions. Though he'd later recanted his position and dismissed their account in the face of Far-falla's irrefutable logic, part of him had always clung to the belief that their story was true.
With no evidence and no leads, he had abandoned his efforts to prove that a Sith Master had escaped Ruusan alive. Now, inside the walls of a tiny mud hut, he had stumbled across the proof that had eluded him a decade ago.
"You saw a Sith named Lord Bane?" Johun pressed eagerly, looking for greater confirmation. "How do you know it was him?"
"For a time I was part of Kaan's army," the hermit whispered softly. "We all knew who Bane was."
"This… this is unbelievable!" Johun stammered, all thoughts of the monument and the vandalism that had led him to the hermit gone from his mind. "We have to tell the Jedi Council! We need to go to Coruscant as soon as possible!"
"No."
The refusal was delivered with such simple finality, it stopped Johun cold. "But… the Sith are still out there. The Council must be warned."
The hermit shrugged. "So warn them. My place is here on Ruusan."
"They won't believe me," Johun admitted. "They'll want to question you themselves."
"I've seen what happens when the Jedi and Sith go to war. I won't be part of it again. I won't go to Coruscant."
"You were vandalizing Republic property" Johun reminded him. "I could arrest you and bring you there to face charges."
The hermit laughed again. "And then what, Jedi? Torture me until I confess what I saw? Use your powers to twist my mind and make me say the words you want to hear? I'm sure the Council will believe you then."
Johun frowned. The hermit was right; the only way the Council would believe him was if his testimony was freely given.
"Don't you see what's at stake?" Johun said, changing tactics. "You saw what happens when the Sith raise an army and go to war. If you come with me now, the Council will listen to your warning. We can seek out this Lord Bane and stop him before he has a chance to lure others to his cause."
As he spoke he reached out to touch the hermit's mind with the Force. He didn't compel him to agree to the request; that wouldn't serve his purpose here. Force persuasion was a temporary measure, and by the time they got back to Coruscant, the effects would have worn off and the hermit would know he had been manipulated, making him even more intractable. Instead Johun simply tried to make the man more willing to listen to reason, casting a veil of calm and tranquillity over his thoughts. He gently swept the other man's bitterness and resentment to the side, allowing him to weigh the logic of his arguments unclouded by passion and emotion.
"Bane has gone into hiding," he continued. "If we do not find him, he will reveal himself only when he has rebuilt the armies of the Sith, and the galaxy will be plunged once again into war. But if you come with me now, we can convince the Council to seek him out. Help me stop him, and we will prevent another war."
The hermit stared at him for a long time before finally nodding his agreement. "If it means stopping another war, I will go with you to Coruscant."
The chief librarian of the Jedi Archives was a venerable Cerean named Master Barra-Rona-Ban.
"Welcome to Coruscant, Padawan Nalia," he said, rising from his seat to greet Zannah with a smile as she entered his room. "How was your trip from Polus?"
Master Barra's private quarters looked much as she had expected: a great number of journals, handwritten notes and datacards covered his small desk, organized into neat little piles. There was also a small viewscreen and a terminal that she suspected was linked to the main index catalog of the Archives, allowing Master Barra to reference it at will.
"The journey was long but uneventful," she replied.
Her voice was calm and relaxed, though inside her heart was pounding. The illusion she projected of being an apprentice of the light side had served her well so far, but now she was face-to-face with a Jedi Master. If she made even the slightest mistake, all was lost,
"It was good to get away from the cold," she added. Nalia, unlike her Master, had not been born on Polus: She had originally come from the tropical regions of Corsin.
The Cerean laughed, creasing up the wrinkles on his tall, cone-shaped forehead. "Master Anno would disagree with you, I suspect."
She replied with a gentle laugh of her own. "My Master sends his regards," she said, recalling from the profile that Anno and Barra had briefly studied together at the Academy here on Coruscant. "Do you have any plans to visit him on Polus in the near future?"
"I'm afraid such a journey would be impossible," he replied with a sigh, "The Archives require my constant attention."
"Master Anno warned me you would say that," she said, smiling. "He told me you would use any excuse to avoid ever visiting Polus again."
"Not everyone takes to the ice and snow with the ardor of the
Pyn'gani," the Cerean admitted with a sly twinkle in his eye.
The exchange of pleasantries concluded, he returned to his seat and punched a key on his terminal, bringing up a large block of text on the screen.
"I have reviewed your request to access the Archives," he told her,
"and I believe we can accommodate you."
He tapped the terminal again and inserted a datacard. The terminal hummed as encrypted data was loaded onto it.
"The Archives are available at all hours, day or night," he informed her. "You will have clearance to access the general collection, but please remember that the contents of the analysis rooms and the chamber of Jedi Holocrons are restricted."
"I don't think they'll be necessary for my research," she assured him. "Master Anno was very specific in what he wanted me to look for."
The datacard popped out of the terminal, the information download complete, and Master Barra handed it to Zannah.
"Insert this into any of the catalog terminals in the Archives whenever you wish to log in and look something up. Original works may not be removed from the premises, but you are free to copy any materials you find onto this disk for your personal use or collection.
"I've taken the liberty of preloading your disk with some seminal works that may be of interest to your research," he added, smiling at her once again.
"Thank you, Master Barra," Zannah said with a bow.
"How long do you expect to remain here on Coruscant?" he asked.
"A few days at most," she answered. She doubted she could maintain the illusion that shielded her dark side powers from detection any longer than that. "Master Anno is anxious to continue his research. He wants me to return as soon as I have the information he needs."
The Cerean nodded in understanding. "Of course. But while you are here, I hope you won't spend all your time studying parasites and symbionts. You have a rare opportunity to explore all the knowledge and wonders of the galaxy, and I hope you will take advantage of it."
"I will try, Master Barra," Zannah promised, though she had no intention of staying a second longer than was necessary.
"Good luck with your research, Padawan Nalia," the librarian said, dismissing her.
With another bow, Zannah turned and left his room, more confident in her mission than ever. If she could fool Master Barra, chief librarian of the Jedi Archives, into believing she was Nalia Adollu, she knew she could fool anyone.
Chapter 18
The Mystic dropped out of hyperspace with a jolt. Through the cockpit viewport a large planet loomed only a few thousand kilometers away, its surface concealed beneath a thick mass of rolling gray clouds. Bane checked the nav computer, confirming via the coordinates that he had arrived at Tython.