Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 20_ The Final Prophecy - J. Gregory Keyes [85]
Black blood began to dribble from Nen Yim’s nostrils.
Okay, Tahiri thought. I have to do something. Breaking Nen Yim’s bond with the qahsa couldn’t make things worse—it was already killing her.
She reached for the qahsa, hoping the Force would guide her.
When she touched it, a world struck her down.
* * *
Suddenly, the stream of sight and smell and tactile data slowed and distilled. The noise dropped away, and Nen Yim found herself in the middle of a quiet moment, a totality rather than a sequence.
She found herself understanding.
And she knew the secret of Zonama Sekot.
She felt like laughing and crying at once.
When Tahiri came to, Nen Yim was daubing her forehead with some sort of damp tissue. It smelled minty.
“What happened?” she mumbled through a tongue that felt like a bloated grysh-worm. Her head hurt. Her whole body hurt.
“I’m not certain,” the shaper admitted. “When I ceased contact with … when it was over, I found you unconscious.”
“I was trying to help you. I touched the qahsa, and there was this light—that’s all I remember.” Her eyes held concern. “Are you okay?”
Nen Yim nodded. “As I have never been.”
“So you made contact with Zonama Sekot?”
Tahiri’s words seemed slow, after what Nen Yim had just been through. The whole world seemed slow, and wonderful. “Not with the living consciousness, no,” she said. “I think you are correct—one must have some connection to the Force for that. But the memories—the memories alone nearly overwhelmed me.” She stood. “I must beg your indulgence. I must meditate now. But I think—I believe I have the solution.”
“To what?”
Nen Yim felt her mouth pull in an unaccustomed smile. She still felt as if in a dream. “Everything that concerns us,” she said.
TWENTY-EIGHT
Nom Anor drew himself quietly deeper into the forest above the cave. Neither of the females had noticed him. From his angle he couldn’t see them, but he’d heard most of their conversation. If only he’d understood more of it.
What did Nen Yim mean when she said that she had learned the secret of Zonama Sekot?
As he watched, the shaper walked into view, carrying her qahsa, and then out of view again, into the deep boles of the bottomland.
Tahiri did not appear, apparently respecting Nen Yim’s desire for solitude.
After a moment, Nom Anor slipped up the ridge, traveled fifty meters or so in the direction he believed Nen Yim had gone, and then descended the hill after her.
Nen Yim gazed at the trees around her, immersed herself in the lisping of wind through their leaves and the insistent purr of insects and chatter of animals. She felt something tight in her relax, release her inhibitions and prejudices, and saw the living world, at last, as alive. Finally she felt herself as alive.
For so many years, she had been the quintessential observer. Even her actions—even the extreme actions that had brought her to this place—had merely been in the service of observation. And yet she had never thought of herself as part of what she observed, as a piece of the great mystery that was the world. She was always outside—outside her people, her caste, her companions.
But now she felt in the center, as everything was its own center, and she was … happy.
“It’s what we always should have been,” she murmured to herself. “Zonama Sekot is—”
“Am I interrupting you?”
She shook herself from her reverie, and then smiled. It was the Prophet.
“You knew all along,” she said. “Somehow, you knew all along.”
“You have discovered something,” the Prophet said.
“Something wonderful,” Nen Yim replied. “I’m eager to share it with all of you.”
“Is it about our redemption?” he asked. To her surprise, she thought he sounded mildly sarcastic.
“It is,” she assured him. “And not merely for the Shamed Ones, but for all of us. But it will not be easy. Shimrra will resist the truth.”
“You’re beginning to sound like me,