[Preview. To be completed. Malus is fun to draw.]

The antechamber they had entered through had been large, their booted footsteps upon the painted marble echoing in great waves only to be countered by another following set of clacks and clicks. But in comparison, the hallway with its towering ceiling and wide walkway was miniscule, and yet it still dwarfed the pair of women that walked casually through.

The taller of the two females, a lanky togruta hurried her steps to keep pace with her apprentice, a young echani as indicated by her braided snow-white hair and fair skin.

"Abeni," the master chided her student not unkindly. "Patience."

"Master, this feels wrong," Abeni replied hastily, but obediently slowed to match her teacher. "Something is not right here. It's too quiet."

The togruta's expression did not betray her unease, but she spoke in a quiet and hushed tone that I could not hear from where I perched. Though, it was clear she was issuing an order of some sort by the way Abeni's hand slid down to her belt where a metallic tube hung securely, undoubtedly a lightsaber, and a quick magnification of my lenses confirmed this suspicion.

They did their best to move forward as though nothing was amiss, however, I could quite easily feel they were on edge. I lifted an emerald-green hand, motioning with the subtlest of gestures toward a group of pebbles collected on the far end of the hallway, causing them to scatter as the Force answered my call.

Abeni jerked the lightsaber from her belt, illuminating the corridoor around her as a beam of light errupted from the hilt.

"Abeni, no!" Her master cried, but the echani girl paid her no heed and dashed headlong down the walkway. I waited patiently the few seconds it took for Abeni to put a great deal of distance between herself and the togruta before I descended to the floor, my own lightsaber in hand.

Despite the scant two yards separating us, the camouflage granted to me by an understanding of the Force few learned to take advantage of kept me hidden from the master Jedi's eyes. There was no avoiding her sense of perception however, and it was clear by the way her lightsaber leapt smoothly into her hand that I had not gone entirely undetected. Behind my mask, I was smiling.

She turned her back to her student, spinning slowly to face my general direction, and took several cautious steps further backward. Her lightsaber hummed to life in her hands and splashed the walls on either side of us with a cool green light. "Abeni," she spoke calmly, and far behind her the girl glanced toward us. "Run."