The eerily silent, dim room was filled with the fading remains of ceremonial clothes once belonging to powerful masters of the order.
Some of those clothes long since turned into dust and only the strangely glinting hilts of once proudly held lightsabers could be seen among the dust.
Everyone created their own pedestal; therefore, this was the only empty one. She will have to create her own when that time comes.
There weren't many rules in the order, only a few such as this one were.
There are currently thirteen lines of memories with thirteen different masters, gray lords or gray jedi, as most identified themselves.
In the past, there were a lot more lines, but they faded, along with many things in the universe. Entropy was one of the major forces fueling the cycle of existence. They were no exception in that regard.
Gray lords were the ones closer to the dark aspects, just as her memories were.
'Our order lived through secrecy, since there was one active member of every line of memories until the time came to give them away to the next master. Because there were no separate holocrons to steal or to find, the jedi and sith never learned of our presence. That also means if one master dies before using the ritual, the memories are lost with them forever. They became faded. Milleniums of effort and knowledge disappearing in the matter of seconds.'
'About two hundred years ago was the last meeting of the masters. Only five of us appeared, and one sent his regard through another master. I am too old for this journey was the simple message. That means, overall, six masters were surely alive. Seven lines of memories were lost or simply did not care about the meeting or didn't get the invitation in time.'
'Another rule was to never create a physical holocron and there was a rule to never succumb to the dark side, but that rule becomes ridiculous after five generations of memories. With that much life experience, it becomes clear that letting the dark side control you is a stupid mistake. Therefore, its lure loses its power. After enough time lived and experience gathered, you realize that life is not a linear line, but many smaller and bigger circles that repeat themselves with different characters.'
'The dark side is a quick way to gain power, but what you gain is fickle and easy to lose. It loses its childish allure for those with a wider perspective. The last rule was that you can elongate your life as long as possible with the force, but you cannot make yourself immortal to natural death. To learn and truly understand the workings of the force, you need many-different perspectives.'
'That is the reason you have to give away the memories when your time comes, and that is the natural way of the universe. The first masters created these rules with absolute faith in them, and since their creator's memories live through us, we inherited the strong faith in the need of those rules. I had no wish to oppose them.'
'I placed master's saber on top of his folded clothes; I gave a last sidelong look to the other pedestals, then turned around and walked out of the room, closing it behind me. I walked back to my clothes dressed up, then picked up my lightsaber.'
'I held it out before me and then activated it. Instead of the usual blue color, the blade had a shining silver light to it. The crystals used in the order were special kinds of Kyber crystals. Their colors changed to reflect the personality of the one who bonded with them.'
'What forms a personality if not the knowledge and experiences gathered in the mind? I turned off my saber and walked to the door that opened automatically. I looked back to the room one more time, already dreading the day when I will come back here. This time I will be in the shoes of my master. On a whim, I turned around, put my palms together in front of my chest, and gave a slight bow.'
"Rest well, masters. Until we meet again."
'Then I straightened my spine and walked out of the room, closing it behind me with the use of the force, entombing the secret ritual chamber for another few hundreds of years, hopefully.'
'While I walked towards the turbo lift, I thought about that strange bow I just completed with such reverence. In response, memories of old Sith ceremonies came to the forefront of my mind, showing rituals that happened on Korriban hundreds of years ago.'
"Interesting. Now I guess it's time to live, and explore the world, see it with my own eyes, to compare memories to the current reality. Since I am not a stuck up jedi to live in seclusion, neither am I a sith to plot something sinister all the time. Living as a gray jedi or gray lord means that I am free. Free from the influence of the force, well as free as you can become from it anyway, and I have several generations of money to spend."
'I reached the lift and activated it. Now I was waiting to get back into the living quarters of the forgotten old Sith temple, built into a working volcano that was mostly buried under the frozen surface of Hoth.'
"Then again, what should I do? I don't know much of the current political situation or anything like that, not that I care. Master was in seclusion for the last seven years; he was training me and never left for much time, only to bring back food and other things for us. By the way, why am I talking to myself aloud?"
'Another memory came to answer my question.'
"Ah, of course, master Bell Plaha, sigh, why would she go into a hundred and fifty years-long seclusions if she hated to be alone… That baffling Muun… Always talking to herself!"
'I froze in mid-step.'
"Was this the reason master forced me to speak as punctually as possible?"
'I smirked loudly.'
"He was actually trying to help me with this problem even before it occurred."
'I slowly shook my head with an amused smile plastered over my face, one that I was sure to be almost, if not entirely, identical to my master's cynical smiles.'