Hyperspace stretched endlessly beyond the viewport, a ribbon of stars pulled taut across the void. Soft blue light flickered inside the cockpit, casting moving shadows across metal walls and quiet faces.
Leia sat in the co-pilot's chair, arms folded, her expression unreadable as the swirling tunnel of light rolled on before them.
This wasn't her first time in hyperspace. Far from it.
But this was the first time she didn't know what waited on the other side.
Luke sat beside her, quiet, hands resting loosely on the controls. His eyes weren't on the stars. They were on her.
"You've been silent for a while," he said softly.
Leia didn't look at him. "Trying to listen to the wind and rocks."
Luke chuckled. "Careful. That sounds like Jedi thinking."
She smirked, but it faded quickly. "Where are we going, exactly?"
"Ilum," he said.
The name meant little to her, and yet something in it echoed.
Luke must've seen the confusion on her face.
"It was once a sacred world to the Jedi," he explained. "Before the Purge. It's where Jedi younglings went to find their kyber crystals."
Leia turned to him now, curiosity overriding her uncertainty. "You found yours there?"
He shook his head. "No. Mine was... different. I fabricated my own Kyber crystal using instructions found in Obi-Wan's home back on Tatooine. I encountered a blank crystal during my quest for a new lightsaber, and after meditating with it, it turned green... That's what emphasizes wisdom, diplomacy, and deep connection to the Force..."
"Ben," she repeated quietly. "I still remember his eyes."
Luke smiled faintly. "So do I."
They sat in silence a moment more as the stars swirled on.
Leia leaned back in her seat, voice softer now. "Tell me more about Ilum. What's it like?"
Luke hesitated, then began, his voice almost like a story-teller's, calm, reverent.
"It's a cold world. Quiet. Covered in snow and ice, full of storms. But beneath all that… there's something ancient. You feel it in your bones when you land. The planet's surface is riddled with natural caverns, tunnels of ice and crystal that stretch for miles. And somewhere in those caverns… the crystal calls."
Leia tilted her head. "Calls?"
"Not like a voice," he said. "It resonates with you. It reveals what you need to see. Sometimes it comforts. Sometimes it confronts."
She frowned. "Confronts?"
Luke nodded. "The Jedi Trials are different for everyone. But Ilum… it's never just about the crystal. It tests you, your fears, your morals, your attachments. Who you really are when no one else is watching."
Leia looked down at her hands, flexing her fingers slowly. "Sounds like fun."
Luke smiled again. "It's not meant to be fun. It's meant to be true."
Leia turned back to the viewport. "And what happened to Ilum after the Jedi fell?"
His expression darkened.
"The Empire found it," he said. "They stripped it, mined it. Used the kyber for their weapons, Death Star technology, mostly. But there were rumors toward the end… that they were building something there. Something massive. There's a scar now. A canyon. It runs across the equator like the planet's been split in two."
Leia's voice turned cold. "They desecrated it."
Luke nodded slowly. "Yes. But the heart of the world is still there. Buried. Waiting. Ilum's not dead. Just wounded."
She exhaled through her nose. "Like everything else."
For a long moment, neither spoke.
Only the hum of the ship surrounded them, that familiar, comforting vibration of hyperspace, like the stars themselves were holding their breath.
Luke finally said, "You don't have to do this, you know. We could turn back at any time."
Leia didn't answer right away.
When she finally looked at him, her eyes were steady. Calm.
"I didn't come this far to turn back."
Luke met her gaze. Proud. Quietly moved.
He leaned back, watching hyperspace blur across the stars. "Then when we land… listen. Don't just look for a crystal. Let it find you.... You don't choose the Kyber crystal, the Kyber crystal chooses you..."
Leia nodded once. She didn't know what waited for her in the caves of Ilum.
But whatever it was, she would face it.
The ramp of the ship hissed open with a rush of cold air and a pale sheet of light. Snow gusted across the landing site, and Leia instinctively pulled her white cloak tighter around her shoulders. The chill of Ilum was different from Hoth, not quite as violent, but ancient, silent with strong winds. Like the planet itself was holding its breath.
Luke descended first, his boots sinking slightly into the powdery snow. Leia followed, casting her eyes toward the looming cliffs of ice and rock that stretched endlessly in both directions. Above them, the sky was a dull grey, almost indistinguishable from the land.
She felt the Force here, not like she did around people, emotions, or her brother… but deeper. Older. Quiet.
"This way," Luke said gently, leading her across the ridge and toward a break in the cliffside that was almost invisible until they were upon it. A narrow crevice carved by time and nature, now half-sealed by frost.
Leia stepped through the stone corridor, her breath clouding before her. The silence grew heavier the deeper they went.
And then, the passage opened up.
A grand chamber lay before them. Carved deep into the mountain, circular in structure, its walls bore faint engravings now dulled by centuries of frost and time. At its center was a thick, translucent wall of ancient ice, towering from floor to ceiling. Frozen within it were the remnants of old Jedi relics, hilts, broken bits of metal, fragments of crystal, and beyond that… a hallway that could not be reached.
Above it, embedded high in the chamber ceiling, was a glowing kyber crystal, suspended in a hollowed-out groove that caught the pale sun filtering in from a narrow slit above. Its faint glow pulsed like a heartbeat.
Leia stopped in awe. "What… is this?"
Luke's voice dropped to a reverent hush. "The kyber in the ceiling channels the sunlight. At the right hour… the beam strikes the ice. Over time, it melts the wall, slowly. Only when the light, the Force, and the seeker are in balance will the path open."
As if on cue, a beam of golden light broke through the ceiling slit, catching on the crystal above. It refracted into a glowing beam, descending like a blade of sunlight. The ice wall hissed and crackled softly as the beam struck its center. A slow, steady melt began, droplets of water falling in rhythmic beats to the stone floor.
Leia watched, mesmerized. "So… this is the first trial."
Luke nodded. "Yes. Patience, awareness. Trust. The Force reveals the way forward, when you're ready."
She looked up at the crystal, then back to the ice.
"I'm ready," she said quietly.
Luke smiled faintly. "Then wait."
The entrance to the cave yawned before her like the mouth of some ancient beast, untouched for centuries, hidden beneath layers of ice and time. Leia stood at its threshold, the soft hum of the Ilum winds brushing across her face like a whisper from the past. Her breath crystallized in the frozen air, and for the briefest of moments, she hesitated.
Luke placed a steady hand on her shoulder. His cloak fluttered behind him in the chill wind, and his eyes, full of gentle wisdom and quiet strength, met hers. "This part, you do alone," he said softly.
She nodded, her pulse steady but alert. "What should I expect?"
Luke's lips curved faintly into the hint of a smile. "Nothing. And everything."
Leia gave a small exhale through her nose, half a laugh, half a sigh, and stepped forward, past the threshold and into the dark. Luke remained outside, the ancient stone of the temple rising around him like a cathedral built by time itself. He folded his legs beneath him and sat in quiet meditation, the Force flowing through him like a current through still water. He waited, patient as the mountain.
Inside, the air was different.
Warmer, somehow. Heavy with memory.
The light behind her faded as Leia moved deeper into the crystal caves. The blue glow of the temple above dimmed, replaced by a faint, pulsing shimmer deep within the tunnels. Her boots crunched across frost-covered stone, and the silence pressed in around her, not threatening, but sacred. She moved forward with purpose, guided not by sight, but by something else entirely.
A feeling. A whisper.
The Force.
The winding passage opened into a great circular chamber, domed by a glistening ceiling of natural ice. Suspended from above was a single crystal, long, slender, and glowing with a brilliant, cerulean light. But it was encased in thick ice, unreachable. Beneath it stood a small pedestal, its ancient markings faded but still legible to eyes that had seen the ancient Jedi texts.
Leia approached slowly. The air around her hummed with energy.
This was no test of skill. It was something deeper. Something older.
As she stood before the ice, a rush of emotion surged up, images, feelings, memories. Alderaan, peaceful and vibrant, then burning in the cold silence of space. Her father, her fathers, Bail Organa, with his proud, quiet love, and Darth Vader, the shadow behind her lineage. Han, stubborn and loyal, with a grin that could break through her worst moods. Luke, standing in the flames on Endor, mourning their father and forgiving him all the same.
She was suddenly overwhelmed by a sense of self, of past, of blood, of expectation.
The ice before her remained still.
"You fear who you might become," came a voice, not external, but her own, echoing through the cavern of her mind.
"I fear failing them," she whispered back.
The chamber responded with silence.
Her hand reached out, instinctively.
But the ice did not melt.
Leia stepped back. Breathed. Centered herself. The fear, the doubt, it didn't control her, not anymore. She was Organa. She was Skywalker. She was a senator, a soldier, a princess.
But she was more than those things.
She was ready to become a Jedi.
She closed her eyes, opened herself fully to the Force. And when she did, warmth bloomed inside her chest, spreading through her limbs, up to her fingertips. She raised her hand again, not with effort or desperation—but with peace.
The ice responded. Not with sound, but with motion.
Slowly, delicately, the ice surrounding the crystal began to melt. Droplets formed and fell like tears, catching the glow of the crystal in bursts of blue and silver. It was as if the Force itself was acknowledging her acceptance, not of power, but of truth.
The crystal descended, hovering just above her open palm.
When Leia opened her eyes, the blue light reflected in them. She stared at the crystal, her crystal, and felt the spark of connection. It didn't simply glow. It resonated.
It was her. It had always been waiting for her.
Outside the cave, Luke's eyes opened.
The wind shifted.
He stood.
Leia stepped from the shadows of the cave mouth, her figure framed in the faint blue glow of her crystal. Luke's expression softened as she approached, snow catching in her hair, her breath steady, her shoulders squared in silent strength.
He said nothing at first.
He didn't need to.
Leia opened her palm, and the blue crystal hummed in the air between them. It was beautiful, clear and bright, like the skies over Ajan Kloss after rain.
Luke's voice was quiet. "You found it."
Leia smiled. "I think… it found me."