Author's Note: This story is based upon the PC game of the same name, by Phantomery Interactive. "Sublustrum" is its Russian title; in English, Outcry.
Dear Brother,
I haven't seen you in ages, though I have never forgotten your existence. You and I share a bond deeper than blood, deeper than even both of us being Jedi. We are connected through the Force, and it is the Force which has prompted me to come and visit you. I have missed you, all these years...
Do you remember when Master Vandar and Master Zhar came to our humble farm and told our parents that we were sensitive to the Force? Ha! The looks on their faces were those of little children, like we were back then, when they saw their first starship or luxury landspeeder that richer grown-ups had. They couldn't believe that we, two brothers, were both Force-sensitive. They thought there must be some mistake, that Zhar and Vandar had come to the wrong homestead! Nevertheless, they were wrong, and at the tender age of eight, we were sent to the Enclave to learn the ways of the Jedi.
I remember...You wanted to be a Jedi Consular, a scientist and diplomat, using the Force to calm the minds of belligerent warlords and to plumb the secrets of organic life--especially the subconscious mind. I wished to become a Sentinel, uncovering injustice and deceit throughout the galaxy and putting things to right wherever they were wrong. We received our training sabers, green and gold, and persevered under Master Vandar's tutelage. There was the time, dear brother, when you set your training remote droid to whirl around my head, and I couldn't swat it away for the life of me! I got so dizzy that I fell straight backward into the bodies of all the other Younglings!
I sense that you are falling backwards, too, into the Force. You are trying to discover secrets that even the greatest of Jedi Masters have not dared to unlock. You are treading a dangerous path, and I wish to dissuade you from it. Fear not--I bring no warnings about the "evil" or the "lure" of the Dark Side, only loving words of caution about what you, as a scientist, are trying to accomplish. The Force is a netherworld, and if you spend too much time in it, attempting to separate your mind from your physical body, the more the Force yearns to take you. Please, Brother, close your eyes for a moment...
I know what you want to do. I know what you're trying to reach, that one delicate point in your meditations called "sublustrum", when your conscious mind is at rest and the Force guides your subconscious toward revelation.
I will help to guide you there, but you must remember that snowy day...
Mother and Father were kind to us as children, before we left their home and their fertile fields. The Jedi were also kind, but they sought to end our childhood and bring us into the world of maturity and duty as quickly as possible. Thus it was that we had to construct toys in secret, tiny droids that we had to disguise as "mechanical experiments". You built them, and I used my senses to determine if anything was wrong with their inner workings. You were always the better mechanic, not I! Do you remember the ship?
It was a ship for sailing through water, not space, and we sought to test it on the wide river that flows near the Enclave. You had built the ship during wintertime, when we were both bored with our training and yearning to play once more. We had to keep our little ship hidden from the Masters, who would surely have accused us of frivolity and letting our minds wander! Nevertheless, the first day of spring came, and it was warm and bright.
What a pity we were stuck inside practicing lifting chairs at the Enclave!
The next day, it snowed, and part of the river froze over. Still, there was a crack in the ice, and it was here that we would test our mechanical ship. I went out onto the ice to slip the boat into the water gently, and then...
Brother, I sense you here. You are in the Force again, and your presence is searching, frantic. Your heart gives an outcry, yearning for peace, yearning for rest and redemption. I hear you and see you, and I'll come to you now.
Please do not resist! Remember! It was I who bore the weight of the ice!
You offered me your hand, plunging it into the water, but I did not want to pull you in. You screamed for help, but no one came, and the snow fell all around us, hiding us. I knew that if you tried to climb onto the ice, you would join me, and then we would both...yes, you remember. I know your pain.
Brother, I see you, your face unshaven, your body unwashed. You have meditated for seven straight days, searching for "sublustrum" but never finding it. I thought the Force wanted me to find you, but it wanted you to find me. It wanted you to remember. Remember me, and be at peace.
Do you think that I have abandoned you? I would never do such a thing. Some say that the self is nothing more than a collection of memories, and our consciousness is but a hunk of meat that can be cut by a surgeon's blade.
You and I know better. We are Jedi, and we are brothers. We know that we will always be as one, two eternal halves of a familial whole, and nothing can separate us. Remember...there is no death, Brother. There is the Force.
very deep, very well written.
Awesome work Tys. 2 thumbs up.
Is this just a short or will you be continuing?
Thank you so much for your kind words, and this might be a series, if I'm in the mood. :)