"Hello." Pause. "I think we should talk to the Mystics."

"Are they likely to have anything useful to say?"

"I'm not sure, but it would perhaps be useful to learn more of this great evil and why it's so great—the history books were all extremely mysterious about it and this is the part of the story where the reader gets annoyed with the main characters for not looking up whether the monster might have a secret weakness or something and I don't want to be that kind of main character."

"If they didn't put it in the books, they may in fact not actually know any longer. On the other hand, if they do know and just don't want to talk about it, that might also be fun."

"Yeah.—er, can we ask them instead of jumping to torturing them? To at least save time in case they are willing to share?"

"Bah. Fine."

"Thank you."

Off they go, then.

They come to the Shrine.

"Hm. This place has been here for a long time. I can... feel the energy of it, and those who have resided within."

"Is it different than a Jedi temple or a Sith tomb or something?"

"Yes."

—she won't ask. Instead, she'll try to feel it, herself. She closes her eyes...

Weight and inevitability and a resigned fatalism that stands apart from a Jedi's attitude of acceptance.

...wow this is depressing. It... makes sense in context, she supposes, but still, wow.

And of course the presence of Occlus sitting right there is incredibly dark and ominous, no matter the placid exterior she's currently displaying.

...yeah let's not dwell there.

Any Mystics around?

A group including some of Rafa's erstwhile teachers and some she recognizes as being Important have assembled to meet them.

"Greetings," she says. "To get down to business, we're apparently going to be solving your Great Evil And Unpassable Deadlands problem and it would help if you'd share as much as you know about it with as little in the way of crypticness and evasion as possible."

They speak in turns. "This evil has plagued us for ages uncounted."

"It is difficult to speak of, and much has been lost."

"Once, there were only one people upon this planet."

"Then darkness came amongst us, and divided us."

"Of this war, Sel-Makor was born. The embodiment of all evil and strife. It twists and corrupts the very land it resides upon, turning all who enter to its dark purpose."

"...so it's, like, some sort of embodiment of emotions and energy and whatever, not an actual person who went crazy or something?"

"We believe this to be the case."

Occlus sneers. "But you don't actually know. You speak as though it has a will, a mind."

"Yes. If one approaches the Nightmare Lands, one may hear its voice."

"Such a thing would be nigh-unprecedented. It's far more likely to have some person at its core."

She nods. "What do you know of its capabilities?"

"Little beyond what you already know."