The door to the loading dock opened slowly, and they all peered down at the landscape below. Master Cohmac kept the ship about ten meters off the ground. They were above a city in the middle of a desert. Roofs curved into brightly painted domes, and below them was a market square with a fountain and a number of combatants. Blaster fire rained down from windows and flew from doorways, and in the midst of the chaos, a lone Jedi in ivory temple robes repelled the incoming blaster fire, his bright green lightsaber a blur as it moved. He looked to be fighting completely by himself.

The scent of heat and sunbaked sand made Vernestra blink stupidly for a long moment. She knew this place, although she had seen it from a different point of view last time.

The town was the one she had just seen in her vision.

“Vern?” Imri said uncertainly, his voice loud in her ear, both through the communicator and because he was standing next to her. She shook away the memory and her sense of unease at having one of her visions actually be true and gave him a quick nod.

“Let’s go. As soon as your feet hit the ground, protect the Master.”

And then Vernestra was leaping through the air, letting gravity pull her toward the surface of the planet, too fast. This was the part where jumping from such a great height could be tricky. Giving in to fear, letting one’s focus wander and losing that vital connection to the Force, could mean disaster, and then instead of using the Force to control her fall at the last possible moment and landing nimbly on her feet, she would plow into the ground, and that would be the end of Vernestra Rwoh.

There was, of course, little chance of that.

Vernestra pointed at the ground rushing up toward her and used the Force to push until she landed, bending her knees to absorb the impact.


Star Wars The High Republic Out of The Shadows Chapter 10