Sunshine Challenge: Rose Quartz

[extrapenguin]

sunshine_challenge continues. Also, minutia_r is hosting a fannish poetry fest! Shall have to check out.

Rose Quartz


The jaunt to the jungle stronghold embedded in amber had been worth it, in the end. Acina was however grateful that when the next time Nox pulled her from her imperial duties, the Fury-class Imperial Interceptor landed next to what the Force told her was an entrance hidden in the mountains.

The whirr of the landing ramp extending was swallowed by the wind. When the door opened and Acina stepped out into the open air, she instinctively closed her eyes. There was little dust, but the air was biting dry, making her eyes feel like they would shrivel into prunes at any moment. She let out an involuntarily cough at all the moisture leaving her pulmonary passages.

Nox placed a hand on the rock and closed her eyes. A moment later, a slab of granite shuddered to the side. They slipped inside.

"And whose fortress might this be?" Acina asked as Nox waved on crystalline braziers that lit the pinkish rock in an infinity of hues. "Another Sith Lord from Vitiate's court?"

"This one was actually not even a Sith Lord," Nox said. "Before its star went nova and turned into a supergiant, Kathrol was a world of towering peaks poking out of an emerald sea. Its natives had their own sect of Force sensitives who trained in the art of shaping rock. They sheltered from the planet-encompassing thunderstorms deep inside artificial passages."

Acina followed Nox up the spiraling stairs. "Did any of them make it out before their sun exploded?"

"Some did, but very few, and the rock shapers were bound by tradition to their mountains. The escapees shared enough of their lost home to become a minor footnote in the history of the galaxy before their extinction."

"How did you come across this information?"

"One of the people who came across them was Darth Asha, a contemporary of Naga Sadow's who left behind a treasure trove of research on necromancy in her Yavin crypt." Right in Nox's back yard, then. "The utter lack of moisture is oppressive, but this structure from the twilight of Kathrol still demonstrates the main architectural feature."

"Staircases?" Acina hazarded.

"You'll see." Nox was smug. Probably something spectacular, then.

They trod up countless flights of stairs. Rooms branched off the main staircase, some large, some small, some with the remnants of rock furniture, all in the pink rock that dominated here. The staircase's walls were left unfinished; most of the rooms had it polished into a smooth façade. Here and there Acina spotted regions left in the natural crystal state, perhaps for reasons of acoustics.

She was about to rescind her appreciation of Nox parking the spaceship close when the stairs evened out into a landing. "Here," Nox said and waved open a final door.

This led them to a small room. The ceiling and walls had been left rough-cut, save for one, which was smooth and so thin as to be translucent except for the polished, spherical piece of rock suspended within it, easily three meters in diameter, only barely small enough to fit into the wall.

"I suspect this was the rock shaper's room." Nox walked to the center and observed the sphere. "The sun is almost in position."

Zabrak eyes were just as much at risk of sun-blindness as human ones, so Acina didn't feel a need to calculate whether this might all be some elaborate ploy for her life before joining Nox in the center of the room. "I assume this – sphere – will look quite spectacular against the backlit backdrop."

Nox let out a hum, but didn't reply. Acina resigned herself to wait.

The sun soon hit the not-window from behind, lighting up the translucent framing of the giant sphere. Acina hazarded a glance at Nox. The soft pink light did not work with the other woman's red and black coloring, but there was something appealing in the way it smoothed out the marks reality had left on her.

"Look," Nox murmured.

Acina turned back to the sphere. A starburst had appeared on it, a point of light surrounded by six narrow spokes radiating outwards.

For a moment, she did not breathe. The starburst was akin to a giant eye, staring at her, set in the light. An involuntary shiver ran down her spine.

"This mineral is one of the few that demonstrate an asterism with transmitted light," Nox said, drawing Acina back to the present.

Acina shook herself in a manner she hoped was imperceptible. Nox was a fellow Sith; what was she doing, being distracted with her less than an arm's length away? "Was this meant for timekeeping, or just decoration?"

"The surviving records do not tell. Perhaps both."

Acina hummed. It was pretty. She did not often encounter the sublime anymore. The moment was over, but she had enjoyed it. "Indeed. Perhaps both."

Neither of them made a move to leave. Eventually, the asterism would fade as it had appeared. For now, they could observe in companionable silence.

Comments

[enemytosleep]

I'm loving the lost history Nox is sharing with Acina as they traverse the ruins. This culture is really starting to feel full, now, with the force user rock shaping!