Master Cohmac led the others into the center of the arboretum, where the four idols they’d found had all been taken. The vast star field of space twinkled through the translucent hexagonal tiles that formed the primary sphere. There, the station’s ventilation caught in the whorls of its rings in such a way that it echoed the sound of the sea within a shell, a distant, granular moan. Reath’s skin prickled with adrenaline, his body reacting to the vision he’d experienced before and might again. He wondered if the other Jedi were similarly affected—was this only his own fear or the mere presence of darkness instilling dread?

No, it wasn’t only him. The shadows under Master Cohmac’s eyes had deepened, and his shoulders were tensed as though he expected to be hit. Orla’s breath was so measured that she had to be working through an exercise to calm and center the body, but she held her hands out as if pushing back the dark.

Finally they all stood in the very center of the sphere. The four idols surrounded them, forming a kind of compass: Reath decided that the crowned insect was north, the human south, the amphibian west, and the bird east. In the light, the faceted jewels shimmered in shades of rust, cobalt, and gold. Plant leaves framed each idol so thickly that both the pedestals and the walls were almost hidden. He felt alien there, as though the plants were the true inhabitants.

Master Cohmac closed his eyes, reaching out with the Force so intently that Reath could sense it—the slightest push on his concentration, the outlines of a consciousness not his own. He said, “The four statues seem to be connected. We must contain them all within a Force binding, or the bonds will be broken.”

“Got it,” said Orla. “Let’s begin.”

The Jedi stood in a circle, each facing outward. Reath gazed at the warrior queen, the human with her breastplate and crown, until he sensed the moment had come to close his eyes.

“Together,” Master Cohmac intoned, “our minds form the nucleus of all energy in this room. We are the center point. The axis. The core. Feel that.”

Reath concentrated until he could feel it, physically, a kind of warm glow that encompassed them all.

“Push the walls of the core outward. Expand the sphere. Allow your mind to fill that space.”

It was as real a sensation as any Reath had experienced, the forward drift that made his entire body sway. The power they held increased exponentially as their minds began to link, and the glowing core they had created filled almost the entire space, stopping just short of the idols.

There, he felt…coldness. Stillness—not peace, but the inertia of the grave.

Master Cohmac said, “Now, all of us, as one…claim the idols.”