Cover Artist: Ian Keltie

On Coruscant, Jysella Horn is preparing to assist Cilghal in her work when she is suddenly overcome by the feeling that everyone around her has been replaced. Terrified, she flees the Jedi temple using flow-walking,a Force technique that she shouldn't have any knowledge of. She is stopped by her fellow Jedi in time to be captured and carted of to be placed in carbonite alongside her brother. When Cilghal communicates this to Luke Skywalker, he decides that the next step on his journey should be the Kathol Rift where he and Ben can learn from the Aing-Tii. As relationships deteriorate between the Jedi and the Galactic Alliance government, Han and Leia Solo decide that they need to create a feeling of normalcy for their granddaughter Allana by taking her to the Coruscant Livestock Exchange and Exhibition where she could pick out a pet. Taking Jaina Solo, Natua Wan and Radd Minker as a Jedi escort, they spend time looking at the safe animals before entering a separate chamber where the more dangerous animals such as Nexu and Rancors are kept. In this room, Natua Wan becomes the next victim of the mysterious ailment plaguing the young Jedi and she sneaks out to where she attempts to kill the Solos by releasing the animals. Leia and the rest of their group successfully save all the patrons from the dangerous creatures with minimal injury and then subdue Natua Wan and take her back to the temple. Chief of State Daala learns of this encounter and that the Jedi are also holding Seff Hellin, and goes to the temple to demand that Natua and Seff be turned over to the Galactic Alliance. Unable to get the Jedi to back down, she nevertheless succeeds in her goal to humiliate the people who she felt humiliated her. and to come out looking like a winner to the general public, but in retaliation for not getting her way she decides to arrest Tahiri Veila and put her on trial for the death of Admiral Pellaeon. Cut off from all this in the Kathol Rift, Luke and Ben meet with the Aing-Tii and pass a test to learn from them. They are assigned a teacher named Tadar'Ro who was the same individual to teach Jacen Solo. They learn the philosophy that supports the Aing-Tii's perception of the Force, and how there is a serious rift in their people because of the words of a being who called himself the Prophet and spoke of the coming of Those Who Dwell Beyond the Veil. When Luke and Ben's time among the Aing-Tii began to run out, they were asked to visit the Embrace, the storage place for their holy relics that no Aing-Tii was permitted to touch, and see if they could find an answer to the conflict amongst their people. Luke and Ben did so and found a relic called the Codex that magnified the connection of a Jedi to the Force. By touching the Codex, Luke inadvertently brought himself to the attention of the lost tribe of Sith on Kesh at the same time that he discovered a mysterious threat in the Maw. Calling an audience among the Aing-Tii, he revealed that he found nothin in their relics that provided an answer to their dilemma, but this news itself seemed to heal the angry feelings in the Aing-Tii. As they prepare to leave, Tadar-Ro informs them that Jacen also traveled to the Maw on leaving them but warns them not to go to there because the Mind Drinkers dwell there. Made aware that there is a danger, Luke explains that he needs to go there because he needs to learn what is going wrong with the Jedi, and Ben flow-walks back to the time Jacen visited the Aing-Tii. He discovers that Jacen was firmly set on the path that would lead him to become Darth Caedus even though he wasn't yet dark, and the knowledge doesn't help him at all.