Private Noble Intentions

[Jonyna Si]

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Ran Dom Kuun
Cathar​

It wasn't often that Jonyna stood at the lookout point, watching the a ship to come down.

She had invited Valery Noble to come visit her planet, mostly as a way to help the Grandmaster understand her. Jonyna's troubles within the order were...documented at this point, and she wanted Val to understand her own frustrations. But also, she wanted Val the chance to relax and see a new world. Her world. Cathar was a place of beauty, Jonyna always believed. Even with how dangerous it could be, the rainforest and savannah was majestic in the right light.

She watched from the highest point on the City-Tree, waiting for Val's arrival. There was definitely some nerves there. Jonyna always had a bit of an anxiety problem, even though she rarely showed it outwardly. She worried, sometimes over nothing.

 

[Valery Noble]

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Outfit: Factory Link | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Lightsabers

Valery looked out from the window and smiled when she saw the lush green of Cathar down below. Planets with a particular beauty of nature were always special to her, and while this was no New Cov Jungle, she still couldn't help but admire what she saw. And unlike her usual visits to planets, she actually had the time to appreciate it for once. She was here to talk to Jonyna and learn more about her homeworld, so she'd take her time to look around.

Perhaps even to relax a little.

Soon enough, Valery's shuttle touched down and the Jedi Master stepped outside. She drew in a breath of fresh air and began to look around. She already felt Jonyna's presence, but she hadn't spotted the Jedi Knight just yet.

She had to be close.

Jonyna Si ​

 

[Jonyna Si]

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As Valery looked around, the sound of rustling leaves filled the air. The master could see it around her. While normal species would climb, the Denik surfed across the branches. Soon after, Jonyna came down the same way, twirling mid-air after jumping off of a branch, landing right in front of Val.

"Hey!" She smiled, dressed in more traditional Cathar wear. Simple modesty coverings, while still showing her stomach and legs off. Val could see Jonyna's tattoos clear now, not hidden behind the coat or armor. Tribal markings along her legs, and a family crest across her shoulders. "You any good at climbing?"

The branch Val's shuttle had landed on was already 30 stories up, and the air was somehow no thinner than the ground would be on Coruscant.

Tag: Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

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Outfit: Factory Link | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Lightsabers

Valery looked around, her gaze following her senses, until she noticed Jonyna and watched her make her landing. It reminded her of the way she moved between trees on New Cov. They weren't nearly as tall and enormous as what she saw here on Cathar, but ever since she was a Padawan, Valery had learned how to move from one to another. At first, as a method to avoid wildlife and dangerous plants down below.

Later, just for the pure joy of it.

"I'm a good climber, and I can jump well." She had a feeling they'd need both, and she was eager to follow after the Cathar. This was a chance to learn a little more about both Jonyna and the world she hailed from.

"Lead the way?"

Jonyna Si ​

 

[Jonyna Si]

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"Cool. I got a bit of a trek for us." Jonyna smiled, motioning her to follow, before leaping onto a branch and riding it down.

Jonyna trusted Val could keep up, but their destination would be a far one. The Lost Temple, a place once a haven for jedi of Cathar, abandoned during the war with the Mandalorians, and lost to time since. But not to the locals, who always spoke of it in tales of myth. Jonyna didn't know exactly where it was, but she knew it existed. She knew they could find it.

At least...

She hoped they could.

Tag: Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

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Outfit: Factory Link | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Lightsabers

"Anywhere specific we're going?" Valery asked as she jumped along the branch and followed the Jedi Knight. The trees and plants here felt different but in a good way. Nature here was calming and felt alive without that added tension of everything wanting to kill her. New Cov was her home, but this felt like a resort to someone like her.

But she was still curious about their purpose.

"You grew up here, right?" Valery asked as she continued their climb. "What was it like?"

Jonyna Si ​

 

[Jonyna Si]

​

Slowly, they moved from City-tree to jungle canopy. The savannah that Val had seen when she landed disappeared as they moved south east, Jonyna smiling. To her, moving through the canopy was second nature, instinct that she had grown since childhood. To have someone who could keep up with her, it was kind of relaxing. The jungle was a flourish of color, greens and blues, reds and purples, browns and blacks. Everything seemed to move, even if a little bit. The echo of hulking movements, of buzzing insects, of screeching avians. There was no off switch for it, and it was like a chorus, calling and responding. Val could see scour marks in almost every tree, some new, some very old, from generations of Jonyna's people using these trees as highways. "There's a mountain just a couple miles from here. Largest on the planet. Rumor has it that somewhere on the mountain, there's an abandoned jedi temple, thousands of years old. Wouldn't have seen activity since your days. And yeah, I grew up here. At least, early years. It was nice, learning to climb, having dad pop in every week or so to feed the family a big meal, dad was one of the elders, so he didn't stay for too long, leading hunts and stuff. But Mom was wonderful. Then when I turned 6, they sent me off to become a jedi and..." Jonyna paused, frowning, as she grabbed a vine, swinging idly.

Above them, Val could see a womprat-sized insect, blue in color, fluttering about. It's long abdomen flittering about as it hunted. Below them, a hulking beast swung from the trees, a strange fusion between primate and pachyderm. None of them seemed to worry Jonyna, even if she did keep an eye on them unconsciously. "Mom used to tell stories about the jedi when I was a little kitten. The heroes of myth, the Knights of the Republic. Keepers of Justice and The Force. It's strange, being one now, I can't really get it out of my head that I don't live up to that story. Then again, we're never really going out and seeking out stuff like the old days."

Tag: Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

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Outfit: Factory Link | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Lightsabers

"A Jedi Temple? From my time?" Valery tried to recall if she remembered anything about a Temple on Cathar. Back when she became the Grandmaster of her Enclave on New Cov, she was in frequent contact with Jedi from other Enclaves as well. Either she had missed the one on Cathar somehow, or perhaps it had just been abandoned when she was leading the Enclave on New cov. Or... she had forgotten.

She really hoped that wasn't the case.

"Why don't you think you live up to that story?" Valery asked as they moved. Her attention shifted between Jonyna and the beauty of the planet, but this question made her focus just a little more on the Jedi Knight. "The Jedi these days aren't so different from Jedi in the past. A little rougher around the edges and not as strict and traditional. But... we have the same heart and we serve the same cause."

Jonyna Si ​

 

[Jonyna Si]

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"I dunno, just...what it meant to be a jedi back when I'm from was fighting back against the Empire, keeping the flame of hope alive however we could. Now it's...all so official. The Council, the Senate, Ceremonies and Ranks. When Sylvar and Mom gave me the rank of knight, it wasn't some grand ceremony. It was two of my idols bestowing me in a tomb a rank that didn't mean anything anymore, other than a show of my progress. I didn't have anyone to look on with pride, no one to discuss my powers about, certainly no holocrons to reference..."

As they moved, Jonyna looked less and less confident. "It was always me just kinda figuring it out on my own, with only my boyfriend Giran to talk to, a fellow padawan who knew just about as much as I did. I mean, my first saber was a bunch of scrap we threw together to hold a crystal I later found out was cursed by a witch." Jonyna wrinkled her nose as she leapt from one branch to another, using her claws to twirl around the trunk of a tree, before landing on a branch. "Remind me to look into that at some point, by the way. We never...dealt with that witch. She just kinda....froze us, and I don't know what happened to her. And that worries me."

As they got closer, Val could see it through the canopy of the jungle. First, ahead of them, a massive waterfall that had to go up at least a kilometer. And above it, a mountain. One that reached above the clouds, and probably into the atmosphere. She vaguely saw it on her approach, a small peak that poked out of the stratosphere, a dot of red. But now, from below, it had to be the size of a small continent all the way around.

Tag: Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

​

Outfit: Factory Link | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Lightsabers

"Back then, you were on the run and trying to fight back against an oppressive Force that greatly outnumbered you," Valery said with a soft smile as they continued their path towards this ancient Temple. "But that is still what Jedi are meant to do. We hold our methods to different standards and we have so many Jedi, that we need to structure things a lot more, but our first priority has always been to honor life."

"To protect it."

A few years ago, this meant resisting the Brotherhood of the Maw and now, this generation of Jedi was confronted by the Dark Empire and a Sith Order arisen from the old Sith Empire. Both forces of evil that drained away the hope of countless people, but they would always be resisted.

"With what's happening now, we all get to live up to the stories of the Jedi. But that's not our focus, of course. The Jedi have changed, and our priority is to help people. Whether we recognize ourselves in those stories or not." Valery looked at Jonyna for a moment and offered her a smile.

She had come a long way, and Valery knew she'd make it much further.

"I'll remind you of her, and maybe I can-" Valery paused when it seemed they were getting close to their destination. From where they stood, it looked enormous, and she began to wonder if it was even possible to find the Temple in a place this big. But she had a feeling that she could with Jonyna's guidance.

Jonyna Si ​

 

[Jonyna Si]

​

Jonyna looked upon the jedi master, one who had taken her under her wing to train her as a Shadow, and couldn't help but stare in reverence. By all means, Valery was one of the jedi that Jonyna looked up to as a child. Maybe not directly, but as part of the larger myth of the Knights of the Old Republic. A name that came up in history books even in her time.

Jonyna never felt secure in her place in the new order. She knew where that seed had been planted. Maybe it was time to ask about that. "...do you really think my mom was a bad one?"

That meeting felt like ages ago now, but the comment, made by Kahlil Noble in a moment of Jonyna's old self doubt, had pinged around in her mind ever since. Kahlil and Vulpesen , two masters far beyond her in skill, had made Jonyna question herself. Question if she fit into this order, if she was right to call herself a Jedi Knight. Had she earned that title, if it was given to her by someone that this new order didn't respect?

As the looked onto the massive waterfall, Jonyna paused. This would be a test of endurance, sure, but that was how it was meant to be. The Cathar considered it something of a legendary feat to even reach the top of the waterfall.

Now they were looking for a temple that, to many, wasn't even considered real. Just a fairytale that the elders told to tie us back to the saviors of the sky.

Tag: Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

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Outfit: Factory Link | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Lightsabers

"We're all a product of our time, are we not? If you're raised in a time of long peace, you'll develop in very different ways than if you were to be raised in times of war. Or worse, a time when it felt as if the whole Galaxy wanted you gone just for the way you were born." That's the context of the early parts of Jonyna's life, and by extension, the time in her Mother's life when she was raising her child.

As a Mom, Valery knew what such a thing could feel like.

"I do believe your Mother leaned too far into raising you to be a Shadow, rather than a Jedi, but given the context... I can't entirely fault her for it. What's important now is that you adapt to this time as well." Which didn't mean she needed to change from one day to another, but progress had to be made.

"I don't think she was a bad mother, though. The only bad kind of Mother is the one who does not care for her children, and she taught you what she did because she felt it was best to keep you safe. That makes her a good mother to me."

Jonyna Si ​

 

[Jonyna Si]

​

It was said that you should never meet your heroes. Jonyna always thought that was a stupid phrase. She wanted to meet her heroes, meet the jedi that stood tall against the evils of the galaxy.

Valery Noble was one she was proud to stand beside.

"...thank you." Jonyna said simply, offering the Master a soft smile of appreciation. Suddenly, the doubts in her head, the ideas of leaving the order, they vanished. Now she had a new purpose. A new goal.

Stand aside them. It wasn't entirely new, Jonyna had joked about reaching the rank of master for years, but...now it seemed like a real possibility. Standing here, walking among the stream that led to the Falls of Eternity, the waterfall that many of her people deemed a place of Sylvar...

It felt like she could reach the top.

Looked up as they reached the bottom, the crashing water flowed into the long river, feeding the endless jungle below. The sound of the jungle seemed to be drown out by the massive waterfall, and yet, beyond the massive pool that forever housed the crashing falls, the river was quiet. Clean, and clear as crystal. Entirely untouched by modern society. "...how do you think we'll reach the top? It's said in my culture that those who can are either crafty beyond their years, or have the endurance of a jedi master. Think you're got that level of endurance?" It was a tease, but she felt comfortable enough now to make it. "Maybe I should ask your husband instead. I'm sure he'd known the answer to that."

Tag: Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

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Outfit: Factory Link | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Lightsabers

"Of course," Valery said with a warm smile. She knew how these things could weigh on the mind, and even a Jedi Knight or Master wasn't immune to that feeling. Sometimes, even the strongest and wisest needed someone to encourage them, or someone to take away their worries with sound reasoning. Valery was genuinely happy to have made that impact on Jonyna, knowing what it could mean for her future.

She had great potential, after all.

Soon enough, the two Jedi Masters reached the waterfalls that came down from where they needed to be. There was no clear path up, and judging by what the Cathar told her, it was going to be quite the climb. But that only excited Valery even further. As her husband knew-

Valery blinked, turned to Jonyna, and snickered.

"He wouldn't tell you much. He's very private about us," Valery said with a loving chuckle. "But don't worry, we've got endurance for days."

She paused, looked up the waterfall, and smirked.

"Or nights."

Jonyna Si ​

 

[Jonyna Si]

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"Only one way to find out, I guess. I don't think you're my type anyways." She giggled, once more clearly teasing. With a burst of flame, Jonyna leapt as high as she could force herself to. About 50 feet up, off the bat. "COME ON! WE GOT CLIMBIN' TO DO!" She called down, already gripped to the rockface.

Tag: Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

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Outfit: Factory Link | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Lightsabers

"Don't worry. Kahlil and I don't share." Valery flashed a grin in return when Jonyna attempted to tease her, and quickly moved after her without saying anything further. There was such a thing as telling too much, and she quite like having people in the dark about just how intimate her relationship with her husband was.

With the size of their family, though...

"Coming!" Valery blasted up into the air herself but decided against boosting herself with flames. The Force on its own was more than enough, and it helped bring her just underneath Jonyna, allowing the Cathar to still lead the way.

"Careful with the climb up. These rocks could be unstable."

Jonyna Si ​

 

[Jonyna Si]

​

Jonyna watched as Val launched herself up. The Cathar had never spent much time honing her ability to use the Force to enhance her own physical ability, relying on the elements instead. Part of her wondered if or when she would surpass Val in her own use of Pyrokinesis. A thought for another time. For now, the climb.

"Oh trust me, this whole cliff face is like my backyard. I've never made the climb myself, but...I'm familiar with it."

---

"No way!" The kit yelled, watching her father attempt the climb. "Dad, that's like, too tall! It goes on forever!"

"'Nyna, you'll climb this yourself one day." Her father smiled, looking to the kit on his back. "One day, when you're stronger. Smarter."

---

The climb was tedious at times. Even with her claws to dig into the rock, Jonyna had to fight against her own exhaustion. One step at a time, it was. Bits of metal stuck out of the rock at times, signs of climbers long past who too had made the attempt. Val could spot a leather hammock at one point, the sound of snoring filling the air.

Someone was up here.

Tag: Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

​

Outfit: Factory Link | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Lightsabers

The climb was demanding. Without much to hold onto, and without any gear to strap them against the rocks, it was exhausting to maintain focus and never let go. But with the Force as her support and many years of training, Valery kept up with the Cathar and continued the climb.

She'd just have to see it as a special workout.

"Hey?" She called out to Jonyna. "I think someone's up there!" Valery had no idea who else could be here, and why they would have made a climb all the way up.

But hopefully, it wasn't trouble.

Jonyna Si ​

 

[Jonyna Si]

​

"Yeah, I see it." Jonyna frowns. "HEY!"

The sound of fumbling could be heard.

"Ya know, it's rude to wake someone up when you're napping." The mystery figure poked out, looking down from his hammock. It was a Cathar, clearly, but one that had a strange blue glow to him. "What's it to ya?"

Tag: Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

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Outfit: Factory Link | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Lightsabers

Valery blinked when Jonyna yelled for his attention. The snoring suggested that he was sleeping, so that was surely going to wake him up. As expected, the voice that called back to them sounded just a little frustrated. His nap had been disturbed by two Jedi climbing up a huge cliffside.

That would have annoyed Valery, too.

"I'm sorry for waking you up," Valery said as she climbed up over the edge to get to more solid ground. "We're looking for an Old Jedi Temple that's rumored to be here."

"Any ideas?" she asked.

Jonyna Si ​