Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 21_ The Unifying Force - James Luceno [53]
“No mention was made of the living world. Those of less than elite rank accepted on faith that Shimrra had received the divine word. Shimrra is not one to be trifled with, in any case. When the invasion progressed easily, many of us set aside our doubts. We convinced ourselves that Shimrra’s decision was correct, and that the gods were favoring us. Only of late has doubt reared its head once more. The heretical movement, the defeat at Ebaq Nine, the continuing problems on Yuuzhan’tar …” Harrar looked at Jacen. “Which I suspect owe something to you, young Jeedai. And to Vergere.”
“You knew her?” Jacen asked in surprise.
“Better than you, and yet obviously not nearly as well. She was one of the samples returned to the worldship convoy by reconnaissance ships. She became the familiar of priestess Falung; then, eventually, of priestess Elan, of the deception sect, who served aboard my vessel …” Harrar smiled lightly. “When I had a vessel.”
“Elan,” Luke said, with narrowed eyes.
The priest took a moment to puzzle it out. “Ah, yes, I’d almost forgotten about the plan to poison the Jeedai with bo’tous. Foolishly devised. Whatever became of poor Elan?”
“She died horribly—of bo’tous poisoning,” Mara said sharply.
“Vergere was a Jedi,” Jacen said, with some pride.
Harrar was unfazed. “So I subsequently learned.” He appraised Jacen, then Luke, Mara, and the others. “I have been preoccupied with you from the very start. Not in the same way Tsavong Lah was preoccupied. Nor as Nom Anor continues to be.” His gaze favored Luke. “We are not as dissimilar as you would like to believe.”
Luke grinned lightly. “I would like to believe that we are, in fact, very similar, and that you exist in the Force, as does all life.”
“The enigmatic Force,” Harrar said slowly. “But consider this, Master Jeedai. We revere life as much as, if not more, than you do. The Force gives you strength; the gods give us strength. Like you, we feel the craving to merge fully with life; to feel, sense, experience the interconnectedness of all things—as, indeed, is embodied by Zonama Sekot.”
Luke was reminded of his rigorous conversations with Vergere. “There’s one major difference between us: we accept that what doesn’t take the Force into consideration is false.”
Harrar shrugged. “What doesn’t take the gods into consideration is false. To us, you embody a dark power, seemingly as the Sith did to the Jeedai of old. And yet, if the Sith borrowed of the Force, much as you do, how then were they dark? Because they disagreed with your views?”
“The Sith sowed destruction and chaos in service to dark designs. They exercised absolute power to achieve their ends. They didn’t revere the Force; they had reverence only for the power it afforded them. They saw their way as the only way.”
“As the Yuuzhan Vong do,” Harrar said, “and you aver not to.”
“You worship pain,” Mara said.
Harrar shook his head. “If they could be persuaded to answer truthfully, Jacen and Tahiri would tell you otherwise. We accept that birth into life is pain because it is separation from the gods—or the Force, if you will. But since we would not exist without the gods and their sacrifice, we thank the gods by emulating them, and giving of ourselves in their name. Pain is our means of reuniting with Yun-Yuuzhan. We wonder why the gods created us, only to have us suffer all our lives in order to return to them. But this is unknowable. The creative cannot but create, and this is what the gods do. These things are beyond our understanding, and we accept them as being beyond our understanding. If our teachings are false, then they will pass away. Until that time, we must abide by them.”
“Perish by them, you mean,” Corran said.
“Perhaps. But this is all so much talk. I fear that the gods now look upon the Yuuzhan Vong with disfavor. I first realized this when Commander Kahlee Lah believed that Jaina