"...ando..." I woke up to the vague sounds of someone calling my name and found myself, helmetless, staring up at a very concerned Seku. She heaved a visible sigh of relief as I blinked up at her and groaned. She had apparently dragged me a decent way away from where we had fallen by herself. That Twi'lek never ceased to impress me.

The massive guardian lay in pieces some way off, and I glanced back at her with a weak smile, "Did you do that?"

She chuckled and sat back on her heels as I pushed myself up, "The fall did most of that." She steadied me as I wobbled and leaned me back against the wall, "Careful... You hit the ground pretty hard. Does anything feel broken?"

I felt like I had been assaulted by a Gundark, but nothing seemed to be beyond repair, so I shook my head and tried to get a sense of my surroundings. There were no further signs of the guardian automatons around, and judging from the sheer lack of any technology I could recognize, this section seemed to be almost entirely untouched. The walls were still sprawled with murals, though.

What they depicted, I had no idea. I always felt it better to leave any interpretation to the kid but with him gone and us hopelessly separated from the rest of the group, it looked more and more like I was going to have to try to understand the abstract nonsense that was Talen's forte as a Jedi. Seku walked along the wall seemingly attempting to understand all of this herself, but judging from the look on her face, she was having troubles of her own trying to make sense of any of it.

"Any ideas?" I asked as I sat up and attempted to push myself to my feet.

"It seems... like a guide, perhaps? Instructions?" She sighed and shook her head as her hand went to the wall. "When you finally have need of a Jedi's insights..."

"They're never around," I finished as I hobbled up beside her. There had to be something around. Something for an idiot like me to maybe figure out how to get out of this place. Or so I hoped.

Seku turned to me and sighed as she slumped to the floor with her back against the wall. She had a look of quiet determination on her face. "There has to be something," she whispered as she looked around the room from where she sat.

I looked at my helmet and sighed. It had been so damaged in the fall that I knew from taking one look at it that it was going to be about as useless as Orn Free Taa's fourth lekku in that pit, so I set it aside and started looking around. The room was littered with debris and parts from the guardian, but over near the door was a small holoprojector. Had I not been standing where I was, I would have missed it, covered in debris and moss like it was. I gestured to it, and Seku frowned and stood, glancing at me questioningly as the two of us made our way over to it.

We pulled off the masses of lichen and moss to reveal an ancient projector, and Seku looked over at me with a shake of her head, "How did this manage to survive?"

"Better yet, why is it here?" I asked as we surveyed the area. I reached out and pressed one of its buttons. The old thing flickered to life, and the image it produced was grainy but recognizable, by the grace of some higher being.

The figure who appeared was a Cerean, and after adjusting the holorecorder, she gave a cough, "This is Padawan Nonem-Kau. I am recording this for the next generation of Jedi who will inevitably find this location. This shrine... I am unable to decipher what exactly it. I cannot go inside the doors, but this is the spot from the legends told by the locals of mystics and ages who came from all corners of the galaxy to seek enlightenment from a long-dead storyteller."

"That explains the murals," Seku murmured.

"This storyteller has no name, but records in the holocron found on Tython correlate that the last known Barsen'thor visited this location only a decade before his death. We had been hoping to get inside, but nothing we have tried has worked. However, I can leave this knowledge: from what we were able to discern, this is a precursor to the meeting - a series of trials. We-e-e..."

The holo flickered and the sound distorted before it finally cut completely away, making both Seku and I sit back with a groan. "Wonderful," I threw my hands up and looked at the large sealed door before us. I was more than a little bit angry as I finally stood up and glared at it. "What are we supposed to do? Stand in front of it and say "I'm here for the trials"?"

Honestly, I wasn't expecting it to open, so when it did, I'm sure you can imagine the sheer surprise that both Seku and I felt as the door rumbled open. The two of us exchanged looks as the doors finally stopped moving and she stood up to stand beside me, "Guess so."

"I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting that to work."

"Neither was I."

*

We walked through the dimly lit corridors together. Seku stayed close by my side, and together we watched the glowing engraved murals on the walls undulate as we passed. Isotope-5 was running all through the murals and made them give off an eerie soft glow that illuminated just enough of the halls for us to be able to see where we were going. Figures walked across the grey expanse, strange crystals in hand to present to what seemed to be a huge guardian of sorts. It didn't make a whole lot of sense at first until we found ourselves standing before the very thing depicted in the drawings.

It was like one of the guardians we had seen before, but it stood before the path with unblinking eyes staring down on whoever was unlucky enough to cross its path. Seku finally looked at me, "Any idea what those crystals were? Something around here?"

I had an idea. It seemed a little farfetched, but I figured that stranger things had already occurred. I reached into my pouch and pulled out Talen's kyber crystal. It seemed like a stretch, but I held it up to eye-level with the rather intimidating guardian, and it hummed with that orange glow before it stood and moved aside. "I really gotta thank the kid when we get back..."

We followed the path further until the hallway opened up into a massive room with three guardians blocking further passage. These were on the smaller side like the ones we had been dealing with before we... well, crash-landed smack into the middle of stuff far above my paygrade. Seku slapped my shoulder plates and gestured down by her left foot, were there was yet again another old holoprojector. While she knelt down to see if she could make it work, I kept an eye on the guardians. They never moved, but I kept getting that feeling in my gut that they were watching me. It was a strange sensation considering that they were inanimate objects and all, but the longer I stared at them, the more distinctly sentient they felt. Maybe it was just the situation getting to me. I'm still not sure.

"Kando," Seku said my name almost as a whisper, and I turned to see her stand up with the projector, "I think I got it..." I was hoping she did.

The holo flickered to life in Seku's hands and she sighed with relief as the grainy image of a Mandalorian appeared. He was dressed in beskar'gam, but it seemed older - dated. the cloak he wore had a thick fur collar and seemed remarkably out of place for a Mando. It was when I saw his signet that my surprise became palpable, "My name is Berras Ordo, once a Knight of the Jedi Order - now the leader of my clan. When the hypocrisy of the Republic became too much, I returned to my home and found my guidance needed. I was called to this planet by the Living Force, and here I record my knowledge of the trials. This is a trial of strength. Prove your power over the guardians and the way shall be opened, but be it known: strength can come in many forms, not simply the ones you see before you."

"Oh boy," I sighed, "I riddles."

Even Seku looked ready to explode, "Because that's so helpful..."

We looked over at the guardians and frowned before I finally hatched an idea, "Do you still have that cable?"

"No. It got broken back on the other guardian."

I reached onto my belt and almost laughed out loud when I felt my cable there. I unhooked it and held it up almost triumphantly as Seku smiled. We both had the same idea about what to do. It was going to be the first little fight we had with these things all over again. Seku's eyes went to one of the half-collapsed pillars and she looked back at me. I knew exactly what she wanted to do. I cupped my hands and hoisted her up onto it as I drew my one surviving pistol and took aim at one of the three guardians.

I hit it dead center, and it rumbled to life. Unfortunately, so did the other two guardians alongside it. I was also then keenly aware of the several mummified corpses and shattered skeletons littering the floor and began to wonder if I had made the worst mistake for the rest of my life.

Seku wasn't about to let me die though, which was a definite plus. She lunged down on the guardian at the back and was able to send it toppling backward in the process. I heard a blaster shot ring out as she shot its exposed core while I ducked behind one of the pillars to avoid a rather nasty swing of the first guardian's arm.

I saw Seku dodge behind the second one and she shouted for me as she tossed me the rope. I was able to help her wrap it around the second one's legs as I dodged another slap from the first guardian, and together we pulled it to the ground and gave one quick shot to its exposed core before the first guardian abruptly stopped in its tracks, knelt down, and seemed to power off.

The two of us just stared at it and then back at one another as the holoprojector whirred to life in the corner. "The best strength comes not from the individual, but from the group. You will not pass this trial alone - be it without the Force in balance as your ally or a friend who knows you as well as you know yourself."

The door at the far end of the room shuddered and slowly began to open up, and both Seku and I holstered our weapons and began to make our way across the room and over the down bodies of the guardians to get to it.

*

When we had passed through, the door shuddered closed behind us, and we found ourselves in yet another narrow hallway before we emerged into a similar room, only this time, there was a guardian down in an almost pit-like section of the room below us. Aside from a few pillars, the room was vacant save for the pit, the guardian, and the door beyond it.

I looked around and found another holoprojector, ad Seku got to work tinkering with it until she managed to get it working with a quiet, "Ah-ha!"

This time, a clear image of a force user came onscreen, and despite the lightsaber, it was clear that they were no Jedi. The dark robes and rather morbid looking mask were proof enough of that. The figure was close to terrifying, but the voice that came out was a polished accent, almost like one from the Core Worlds. "I am known as Darth Occlus, Lord Kallig - Forcewalker. Once a slave, I sought out ancient power for my masters until my chains were broken through my own will. A dream called me here, and now that I have arrived, I shall share what I know with the next worthy one who follows in my path. This is a trial of cunning. Wit is not always hidden in the shadows. A truly cunning warrior can pull the strings of their enemy right before their very eyes."

"Wait," Seku frowned, "a Sith? A Sith came here?"

"Sith, Mandalorians, Jedi... Who else?" I looked out at the patrolling Guardian with a frown. It was going to be more than a problem if it was anything close to the last three we fought. I looked over at her and sighed, "Hang out up here. I'm going to deal with this."

However, it wasn't until I landed that I realized that a large overhead lantern seemingly filled with Isotope-5 cast my shadow directly in line of the guardian. That thing was on me like Grek on nerf steak and I was barely able to move out of its way and jump back up onto the ledge with Seku. We looked at one another and she shook her head, "Alright... We need a new strategy."

"You think?" I managed out with a gasp as I flipped onto my back with a wheeze.

Seku looked around for a moment before she turned to me, "Jump back in there."

I was ready to scream, "Are you karking kidding me?"

"Trust me!" She hefted me up and gave me a shove back to the edge. "Do me a favor and run. I want to see how it tracks you." I turned to look at her and I must have had an expression that asked her if she was out of her kriffing mind, because she rolled her eyes and grabbed ahold of my shoulders, "I need to know if it tracks shadows or body heat. I can't do that from up here."

I knew what I had to do, but that didn't change the fact that I was going to be absolutely angry about it the entire time I was out there. I jumped back into the pit while Seku watched on overhead as I ran around frantically avoiding the rather speedy guardian, ducking under pillars and making sharp turns to avoid its rather cumbersome attempts to grab ahold of me. One thing I did notice was that it would on occasion smack into pillars as it was making mad grabs for me, almost like it couldn't see them at all.

"Kando!" Seku called and waved me back to the ledge. "Shadows! It sees shadows!"

Almost before I had jumped back onto our ledge, Seku had taken her blaster and retrofitted it onto the end of my climbing cable and slung it out to the massive hanging light overhead. She missed and I heard her swear before I grabbed it from her hands. I lined up the shot and gave it a throw, able to get the gun to hook into one of the ornate openings across the light's surface, "Where does it need to go?"

Seku took a running jump out onto one of the pillars and waved her hand. I didn't realize what she was doing at first until I saw her lining herself up with the light to cast a shadow right in front of the guardian, who immediately began to give chase. She motioned for me to keep moving it so that the thing careened from wall to wall, its bronze carapace slowly becoming more and more damaged as she jumped from pillar to pillar. Finally, she jumped onto an adjacent ledge just as the thing went storming after her shadow.

The guardian ran into the wall again and collapsed backward. Unable to continue, it slowly powered itself down with a low whine as the holoprojector came to life behind us, "Overcoming this trial requires you to turn this guardian's programming on itself. Using your enemy's own tools against them is a greater advantage than any other."

As the figure finishes, the door opened at the far end of the room. Seku and I wasted no time jumping down from our platform and hurrying through as it shut with an almost ominous rumble.

*

It was the same thing as the previous two times, only this time when we entered the room, we found it lit differently. Gone was the glowing orange of the Isotope-5. In its place was a soft blue light that seemed to give everything a gentle blue hue. The room was cooler and there was no guardian in sight. Seku and I found the holoprojector by the entranceway.

The recording revealed a Jedi this time, if the lightsaber at his hip was any indication of his occupation, and he stood with his hands folded before him. His sharp features, cybernetic implants, and pale eyes stood out starkly against his darker skin, and despite his age there seemed to be a keenness in his eyes, something sagely and infinitely old despite him being no older than Seku. "I am the Barsen'thor in the Age of the Third Galactic War. It is the only name I need known, for it is all that I am. I walked the path of light, felt love and found serenity within it, followed and broke the Jedi Code, and through this found enlightenment in duty. I was called to this shrine by the Force - guided here by its hand - and now I shall pass on what is known. This is a trial of wisdom, but wisdom cannot be forced. It must be guided with a gentle hand."

"Never heard that title on a Jedi before..." I folded my arms across my chest as the holo faded away. "Kid might know what it is."

"Either way," Seku nodded towards the massive door, "this is our last room, I think."

When we approached the door, we found it set in a series of rings, each depicting a fragment of what we figured was some larger tale. I reached out and touched one of the rings, and it gave almost instantly beneath my hand, spinning slightly at the contact. "Okay..." I began, stepping back to better see the whole contraption, "so... puzzle door with spinning rings. Seems simple enough."

"I'd agree if there weren't seven of the rings."

At first, it seemed pretty obvious. Each mural had a moon cycle of some sort on it. We began trying to line them up in perfect sequential order, but when it became apparent that some phases were missing or out of order on the rings, we quickly ruled that idea out. Then, we tried lining the murals up so that the story seemed to somewhat flow, but even then, it wasn't making any sense. I couldn't have told you how long we stood their rolling rings around and looking up at the door with sweat beading our foreheads and silent prayers that the next rotation would work. We rolled through every single possible combination before Seku finally had enough.

We had tried seemingly every combination when Seku finally threw her hands up, "There's no solution!" She shouted at the door, giving it a kick and sitting back against it. "Face it Kando, we're going to be stuck down here."

"That's... not exactly optimistic, Seku."

"Should I be? We've tried every combination on this door and nothing has worked."

I had to admit, even I was getting a little demoralized. I stepped back some more until I was practically in the center of the room, and that's when I finally saw it. The puzzle wasn't to set up a sequence from one ring to the next. It was to do it from the edges to the center in diagonals. You never would have noticed had you been looking at it up close. "Seku! I need you to spin the rings until I tell you to stop!"

She didn't argue with me, to her credit, but she did look at me like I was insane. She spun the first, and then the second, and then the third, and it all started to come together. We couldn't get the moon cycles to line up from top to bottom because they weren't supposed to, but diagonally they were perfect. As soon as she rolled the last ring into place, the entire new mural we had made burst to life in a brilliant pale blue, and the door split in half and opened the way for us.

"Wisdom is not always bred from knowledge. More often than not, it comes from understanding things in a way differently from what has been written," the Barsen'thor's voice spoke from behind us, seeming to encompass the entire space. "You found the story within the door in a way many would not, and that is how you were able to proceed."

I just figured I took a step back and looked at the bigger picture, but that whole spiel worked out, too.