A Common Morning

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Lori raised a brow, much like their mother would when she was a bit confused by something. "But the Force is real, isn't it, Cae? How else could people use it if it isn't real?" She knew that it was real. She could feel it when she went on her strolls all by herself. Maybe it was what led her to this cave? She didn't know.

She took another sip of her water while [member="Caedyn Arenais"] continued to speak about people taking advantage of power and that it could get them into trouble, before putting the lid back onto the bottle and slipping it into her backpack. "Anyone could take advantage of power. We're Royalty, remember? We could do whatever we want in school and could get away with it as we rule over them all. But you know Mom and Dad. They favour equality and stuff. They want us to grow up to be good people like them." Of course those weren't the only reasons. Yet the twins were too young to understand. She picked up her backpack and slid it over her shoulders. "If anyone's going to get into trouble, it'll be Mom. Everyone says she's a magnet for it. Everyone couldn't be lying about that, could they? Yet she doesn't use the Force."

Instead of continuing down the path, Lori steered Cae to a dark corner created in the shadow of a large boulder. "If you promise not to tell Mom and Dad or anyone else...can I show you something?"

 

[Caedyn Arenais]

"Well of course it's real Lori..." Caedyn replied in response, further trying to elaborate on what he'd meant, "Dad acts like it's alive though, like it's like you and me with choices and a mind of it's own and stuff. It's weird...". He didn't quite know how else to put it, their father always spoke of the force as if it knew when things were going to happen but more than that, that it was the reason anything happened at all and that it even acted or seemed to want these things to happen to people. It didn't make sense but Caedyn had heard people talking about their spiritual beliefs in the Capital and during School hours, their Dad seemed to believe the Force to be something similar, he had come to believe.

"You know how people believe in Gods and stuff in school? Dad acts like them sometimes...".

It made their father sound crazy but they'd both witnessed more from the force and from their father than they had from the talkings of what their fellow classmates talked about in their beliefs. Who knows, perhaps in some twisted and confusing way it was all tied in together but Caedyn wasn't like his father, he didn't understand nor know if he even wanted to believe there were some spiritual guardians or whatever watching over them. If it was true then wouldn't they be responsible for all the bad stuff that happened to people?

"Mom seems embarrassed by the Force if anything...I think she's hiding it for some reason but she won't tell me why and Dad doesn't like to talk about it either. Says we're too young to understand" he rolled his eyes, giving a shake of his head in frustration. It seemed to be the default answer they were given whenever they went trying to better understand their parents secrets. Fortunately it seemed as though [member="Loreena Arenais"] had a secret of her own and greatly intrigued by this, Caedyn seemed to shrug off the previous subject for want of a hint into whatever it might be.

"Cross my heart and hope to die, I won't !" He promised eagerly.

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Lori slowly nodded her head as [member="Caedyn Arenais"] eleborated on what he had meant. It was weird to think of the Force as though it was some being pulling on their strings and making them do stuff. Or making it's own choices to choose which people could use it and which ones couldn't. Where was the good in that? Why wouldn't the Force create peace instead of allowing war and murder to happen? Maybe...maybe there were TWO Force beings and not just one? One Dark, one Light. But Dad had said that there was only one. Parents, as always, were confusing!

"If both Mom and Dad don't want to talk about it, then you know that it's something bad. Maybe it'd give us nightmares? Of course we could always ask Uncle Brad whenever he's around." [member="Bradshaw Ku"] was more open about things than their parents were. Mom says it was because he hasn't learned responsibility yet, whatever that meant. Again, it was something that she'd tell them when they were older. Lori knew that she was going to hold them to that too.

She grinned as Cae made his promise. Like always, he was eager to see her discoveries, which made her feel like some proud explorer. But this was something different. "Okay, just stay still and keep quiet..." Lori took in a deep breath and then let it out slowly. She had done this at least a dozen times in her room, hidden away underneath her blankets when everyone else was asleep. Her eyes focused on one spot, a portion of air between the two of them. There was nothing but quiet as her breathing slowed down, yet her mind was searching for the tiniest of particles in the air, like the bits of dust that one sees when they catch a ray of sun in a bedroom. She made the particles move quickly, increasing their speed faster and faster in such a tiny spot that eventually a small ball of light no bigger than the eye of a needle formed. It's intensity grew, starting off as a soft yellow light to white and then light blue in colour before it popped out of existance.

Lori's breathing soon returned to normal. Then her eyes slowly found her brother's. She wasn't quite sure of how he'd react. He could think that it was awesome! Or he'd want to tell Dad about it right away out of fear or worry. Yet he promised not to tell. Now she waited to see if he'd be true to his word.

 

[Caedyn Arenais]

Caedyn watched in astonishment as his Sister somehow created a light that would illuminate the tunnel around them. It was obviously really difficult to do and the light that she managed to produce was far less than that of what their Father could do yet it was well beyond Caedyn's current ability and watching on, his eyes widened, questions running through his head now.

"You've been practicing !" he exclaimed in abrupt conclusion, "How'd you figure it out ?...-Did you teach yourself ?!" the two questions came swiftly one after the other, his hand lifting the scratch the back of his head a little sheepishly. The breathing thing he had been told about by their father, an attempt to encourage Caedyn to calm down a little and not be so reactive towards others.

It hadn't quiet stuck with him truth be told, he often found it to be incredibly dull and his mind wandered far more than it arguably should yet who could blame a boy his age. Meditation was for old or boring people, he thought.

[member="Loreena Arenais"]

( Sorry it's short, I'm tired as hell >.< )

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Well, for one thing, [member="Caedyn Arenais"] wasn't upset. He seemed to be more astonished than anything, which was great! She might not get into trouble now.

"I taught myself, yeah. We learned in science class about how light is formed. So...one night when I was trying to sleep, I sorta thought that maybe I could make it happen myself. Dad said the Force flowed all around us and that we could control it. So I gave it a try. Pretty neat, huh?" Lori hadn't seen all of their Dad's skills. In fact his ability to create light was one that she didn't know that he had. Caedyn knew more.

Lori was eager to continue on in the cave though, so she headed back to the path, knowing that her brother wouldn't be far behind. "Have you done anything like that yet? You're carrying a lightsaber. Has Dad taught you to fight?" That wasn't fair if he was. She wanted to do it. Afterall, Lori would have to look out for herself too. She couldn't let everyone else do it. That would just leave her vulnerable and weak. She didn't want to run away from things like their Mom seemed to. She wanted to face them bravely like their Dad.

 

[Caedyn Arenais]

[member="Loreena Arenais"] soon turned the conversation on to Cae's training with the lightsaber, something that admittedly he hadn't spent enough time focusing on to really justify the carrying of the weapon were it not for the fact that it was a training variant and incapable of cutting through something like that of the full frequency lightsabers that their Mother and Father possessed. "I've done a little bit" he admitted somewhat sheepishly, tugging the hilt of the training weapon from his belt and extending it out within his right hand, toggled the activation away from them both, the cave being lit up with a loud hiss as blue energy streamed out, contained by the blades emitter in the length of a standard single bladed weapon of the Jedi.

In the reflection of the pale blue light that shined against the boys face, his sister would see the fascination that he held for the weapon, speaking up over the consistent vibration of energy thrumming within the air as he gave the blade a wave back and fourth in demonstration to his Sister. "Dad explained to me that it's something I should only use in training or if I really have to. He doesn't want me fighting anyone with it even though it's only a training lightsaber, because it can still hurt people and he says that we should know better..." his gaze turned away from his lightsaber to look to his Sister thoughtfully.

"You know, he has others...-I bet if I told him I lost it, he would give me another...-I'd probably get in trouble but at-least then you'd have one too...".

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Lori had already started walking, a bit jealous of [member="Caedyn Arenais"] and his closer relationship with their Dad. It must be because they were boys. Or maybe it was because he saw too much of her Mom's knack for trouble in her. Or maybe he could see into the future and saw a horrible fate that only Cae could stop with his lean, mean lightsaber skills. Lori burst out in laughter at her thought. Yeah right! Cae was more interested in his video games, although admittingly, he was quite good at them.

The snap-hiss of his lightsaber caused Lori to stop and turn around. Her eyes widened as she admired the blue light, far stronger than what she could create on her own. "Wow...." Nearly every kid was fascinated by them. They were an old technology that never really got old. They were a connection to something special, and what kid didn't want to be special?

Her eyes flitted from the lightsaber to her brother as he talked about getting into trouble just so that she could have one. That was nice of him and all, but she wanted to try to get it first. She didn't want to have to owe him. "You could do that...Or...you could tell me where Dad keeps them and I could sneak in and take one myself. He might not even notice if he has a bunch." Lori was an expert at sneaking, or so she thought.

 

[Caedyn Arenais]

Waving the training hilt around and watching the blade leave a brief trail of light in it's wake surrounded by the darkness of the cave that they stood within, Caedyn listened to [member="Loreena Arenais"] as she suggested sneaking one of the lightsabers on her own. He had to admit he was a little surprised, their father wouldn't find it nearly as amusing as he did in the moment but what were twins meant to do if not encourage the other one to get into trouble and try to help them talk their way out of it all.

"He keeps them in the celler..." Cae replied, though not without a hint of reluctance to his tone and his sister would soon realize why, "It's in the room we're not allowed in of course, the vault I think he called it when he was talking with Mom..." The vault was of course the only room in the house that was secured by a security panel requiring a specific code to unlock. Both their parents knew the code naturally, the room held an assortment of objects and items that their parents didn't want them to play with. The lightsabers for example being among some of the lesser threatening or sensitive objects compared to the likes of their fathers holocron, though Caedyn had no idea what exactly it was.

"If we can get in there then at-least I'd be able to practice with someone without Mom freaking out...".

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Lori's glee at the thought of an easy snatch and grab disappeared. Getting into the vault room wasn't going to be easy. She wasn't a slicer, so she couldn't hack into the system. Plus Mom and Dad always made sure that they couldn't see the code as it was entered.

"Hmmm...." She pondered as they walked, chewing the inside of her cheek. It was almost an impossible puzzle. Their was probably ancient treasures in there, maybe even all of the CSA wealth!! Lori imagined both her and [member="Caedyn Arenais"] opening the vault door and jumping into a big pool of credits that was so huge, they'd have to swim in it!

"Ohhh...." Another thought came into mind. Lori stopped in her tracks and turned quickly to face her brother. "What if we go to the Praxeum!! We could sneak in there and borrow one! Surely they have millions of them and wouldn't notice, right? You could distract the Masters, and I'll grab a lightsaber!" In her mind, the plan was absolutely foolproof!

 

[Caedyn Arenais]

The Force Praxeum of Commenor was an idea that hadn't actually crossed his mind. A place their father had founded with the support of the government for the growth and protection of Force Users across Commenor and the Systems Alliance as a whole, Caedyn hadn't actually seen much of it at all aside from a time their father had to make a stop there and pick something up before moving on again. "Dad hardly goes there anymore but there are lots of others that still live and train there and stuff I think...-They wouldn't recognize us either, I've only gone the one time and I never left the Pheonix".

"It's somewhere around the Illaria woodlands...-I heard they got base camps set up through the middle of the forest leading closer to the place. People use the forest to train in survival and stuff like that. It sounded really cool, being out in the wilds all the time" Caedyn grinned at the thought of it, their Mom hardly let them stay up late let alone go camping without their Dad.

Walking through the underground ravine, the two continued to dawdle along the route they'd taken, both caught up in the idea of how to get [member="Loreena Arenais"] a lightsaber of her own and what practices they could partake in together, neither of them were well attuned in the force to understand the presence of life that swelled around them both, the twins acting like a beacon of energy in that they were strongest when paired together, their aura's and presence within the force feeding off of one another and being proven ever stronger for it.

"I dunno why Mom and Dad are always so hushed up about it all. The Force and stuff, it all seems really cool to me..." He concluded, disengaging the lightsaber and following the receding hiss of the blade, returning the hilt to his belt, locking it in safely that he wouldn't end up losing it along the way.

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Lori followed along the glowing rocks, not yet realizing that the tunnel that they've chosen had taken them completely around to the same direction that they had come. She listened to [member="Caedyn Arenais"] speak about the Praxeum. So no one would recognize them? That was PERFECT. Already she could imagine then sneaking in with the greatest of ease, find the lightsaber room and take one from what had to be a huge stockpile of them in the middle of the room. Oh it was going to be so easy!

Her brother spoke about camping. Oh how she wanted to do that. Their Mom and Dad kept saying that they'll go out and do that one weekend, but no. It just never happens. It annoyed Lori so much that they were so secretive. But it was par for the course for being rulers, she guessed.

Lori shrugged her shoulders. "I dunno. Isn't that what most parents do? Keep us from having fun? But at least we have Uncle Brad to do cool things with. And Uncle Darlyn. Maybe they'd know the answers. We could ask." Whether or not the answers that they'd get were the right ones, who knew? It'd still be better than not knowing. "Mom still gets her nightmares sometimes. I know because sometimes she'll be awake before me, sitting in the living room with her tea. Do you think her nightmares has something to do with it?" It was never a good day to see either of their parents hurt. She always figured that they were indestructable.

 

[Caedyn Arenais]

Caedyn's mouth twisted at the thought. He had heard his mom talking in her sleep a couple times, usually when he wasn't supposed to be up and about but he liked to sneak downstairs for the odd snack and maybe a sneak peak at what's happening on the holo-vision when most kids were supposed to be asleep. From time to time he'd caught Bradshaw watching naughty holo-films and given him the fright of his life when shaking him by the shoulders and yelling at him most mischievously but these things aside, neither him nor his sister had seemed to have let [member="Lady Kay"]'s nightmares escape their notice.

"I dunno what the deal is to be honest, Lori...Sometimes she sounds like she's running away from someone by the things she says in her sleep..." His expression seemed to become hard, for that of a boy his age in any case, he soon realized and glanced back at his sister with a reluctant and apprehensive smile; "Dad would never let anything happen to her though. Mom always says he's scary when he's angry and I bet he'd scare away any other mean people that would want to hurt us !" his words came out rather evidently confident. Their dad was after all, not just some ordinary dad but Veiere Arenais, King and Former Jedi Leader...-Or something like that. Their family was supposed to be really strong and stuff from what Uncle Terrac had said.

[member="Loreena Arenais"]

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Lori raised a brow, much in the fashion of their Mother. "Isn't that what happens in nightmares? People get chased? I've had that a couple of times. But not really as much as Mom does."

She had to laugh though, at the thought of their Dad being angry. Mainly because she'd never seen it before, so it was hard to imagine. Would his face turn red? Would smoke come out of his ears? Would his eyes bludge? Would he stomp his feet and pull his hair out? Yeah, she had seen too many holo-cartoons. And she was never afraid to admit it. "I suppose so. I'll just try not to get him mad. I'll leave that part up to you."

She grinned at him and then clapped her hands together. "Let's take a speederbike to the Praxeum! That'll give us a quicker getaway when we 'borrow' the lightsaber." Already she was picturing them dressed all in black, hooded and silent as shadows as they snuck into the building, liberated a lightsaber and snuck out again avoiding laser sensors and other boobytraps like the greatest treasure hunters ever!

Out of the two of them, she figured that [member="Caedyn Arenais"] was more likely to get caught.

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay had been watching the twins from camera feeds as soon as they went into the caves. Given that there were secret passageways and escape tunnels throughout Chasin City, the Senate Hall and the Royal Palace, it would come at no surprise that there would be some near the Estate as well. Sensors had been tripped by the twins the moment that they had walked in. And it was through her datapad that Kay watched and listened. She frowned inwardly as it seemed the Force had attached itself to the twins as well. [member="Loreena Arenais"] had formed a light out of nothing, something that she had only seen [member="Veiere Arenais"] do. [member="Caedyn Arenais"] didn't really reveal much, but if Veiere was already secretly training him, then she knew.

It wasn't as though Kay hated the Force, for she knew that people could do great things with it. But for her it tended to bring the powerful ones to her, just as if she was lighting some kind of a beacon that announced to the Galaxy of where she was. This was something that she feared would happen to the twins, coupled with the fact of who their parents were.

But now that the Force was awaking within them, could she really surpress it? Could she force them into hiding it like she does? In all likelyhood, she couldn't.

"Veiere?...."

**********************​

Some time later, at the point where the twins were just coming out of the cave, their mother stepped into view, with her favourite shawl wrapped around her to keep out a chill. She eyed the twins, knowing that more than likely they figured themselves to be in trouble. Kay let that moment hang there for a little while before speaking.

"Come back to the Estate, you two. We need to talk. I'll put on some fresh tea." A talk and tea usually meant one thing. It wasn't going to be a short chat.

 

[WolfMortum]

Hours prior:

To say that Veiere had been training his Son wasn't a complete truth, he and his beloved [member="Lady Kay"] had both agreed to discourage any chance that the twins might come into the knowledge of their Force Sensitivity and while Caedyn had come to his father one day suddenly asking about his past and what he did before he met the lads mother, Veiere had done all he could to skirt around the truth seeking to give his son anything but the notion of entering into the Order of the Jedi as Veiere himself had done at a younger age than his Son was now.

That said, his children were incredibly strong within the Force. Veiere could feel it long before they ever began to show signs of their abilities and growth of presence within the flow of natural energies, it had hit him upon the day of their Birth, more so then sensing the life that had been within Kay during her carrying them and over the years that followed he had kept his thoughts to himself for the inevitability that they would one day be drawn out to it as all those sensitive to the Force and blessed by it's strength were prone to do. While Lori hadn't come to speak to him at all, Veiere suspected that at times Caedyn spoke for the both of them. They were mischievous and intelligent, too much so for their own good and as proud as Veiere was, there were boundaries that he wished to respect, paths that he could not interpret for them but was the will of the Force that they come to understand and walk on there own. This was why he had spoken to [member="Asha Hex"] about his Son and asked for her help in the boys coming into power, to be educated and guided upon unbiased principles and taught to respect the power that he would come to wield with the integrity and virtue that was his parents own.

It wasn't until now that the subject would need to be broached with his darling wife, such a talk he didn't fancy the thought of...

 

[Caedyn Arenais]

Caedyn froze in place at the sight of their Mother, a gasp escaping his mouth as he stood stationary beside that of his Sister looking up at the [member="Lady Kay"] in disbelief. 'How did she know...?' he questioned inwardly though didn't bother to speak it, instead his eyes sought [member="Loreena Arenais"] for some sort of sign or advice in how to proceed from there. Some sort of excuse or act to have their Mom think they were just playing as they always did out in the wilds of the Eldritch mountain.

"Mom!" He spoke up swiftly, letting go of his surprise and not hiding his alarm as he was genuinely curious how she had found the two so easily. She always seemed to be able to catch up with them somehow despite how sneaky he thought he and his Sister could be; "How'd you know where we were?! Lori found this awesome cave and we were exploring! We were just about to come home for supper..." He lied, though he thought it was a very good lie really, leaning a little into his Sister to pinch her subtly in suggestion that she play along.

"What're you doing out here ??" he smiled up at her, his eyes wide and as genuine as he could make himself appear.

 

[Loreena Arenais-Valhoun]

Lori was just as shocked at seeing their Mom as [member="Caedyn Arenais"] was. Was she a magician? Did she have a bunch of clones? Cae didn't tell on them, she was certain, for his eyes said as much.

He started speaking to her, coming up with half truths that weren't entirely lies. Only sort of. Lori had hoped to explore more, but with Mom there, she knew that they couldn't.

She jumped a bit as Caedyn pinched her. "Y-yeah. We were just exploring. Isn't this neat?! I bet that we could spend days down here! But we won't of course. We were just on our way out to come home..."

As Caedyn asked his question and looked up at her with that 'innocent' look of hus, Lori did the same thing, applying a genuine smile and look of curiosity on her face.

 

[Kay-Larr]

Kay didn't change her expression as both [member="Caedyn Arenais"] and [member="Loreena Arenais"] gave their answers. As always, when the twins were caught in trouble together, they sided with one another. It's a good habit for them to have, but it wasn't always for the right reasons.

She raised a brow as Caedyn asked his question of her, the two of them putting on their cutest faces in a bid to win her over and lift her mood. The truth was, she was very concerned. Not at them being in the cavern, but with what they can do. And of course it made her scared for them.

"I came here to fetch you. You both know how distracted you can get and we need to talk. So come on. Let's go." She half turned, waiting for the two to make their moves to follow her. "You're not in trouble...." She let her words hang there in a bid to give them some encouragement at least.

 

[Caedyn Arenais]

As their mother turned to begin to head off in wherever it was she planned to lead the two, presumably back home, Caedyn turned to glance to his Sister [member="Loreena Arenais"] uncertainly giving a shrug of his shoulders and having to resign to follow. There were times where they might consider running off and risking getting into trouble but it rarely came when it involved [member="Lady Kay"], their mother whom was always so kind and nurturing even when she wasn't overly pleased with either of them. She was one of those people that didn't get angry, but certainly disappointed when they misbehaved and that left a pit of guilt within Caedyn's stomach during those times that felt worse than the thought of how he might feel following a lecturing or scolding of some degree.

"..W-Why would you think we're in trouble?" He asked, feigning ignorance in the hope that he didn't give away the secret plan they'd made to get up-to no good and of course bring trouble down upon them both were they ever to get caught. "Did Dad say I left something on in his workshop or something? I promise, I've not been in there at all this week !", it wasn't uncommon for Kay to hear from Veiere that their son had gone and left a mess exploring the numerous tools and projects their father worked on in order to keep himself busy in his retirement days. Half of the things in there Caedyn didn't understand, studies of some sort of really old relics of forgotten peoples and stuff that his dad had tried to talk to him about but Caedyn simply wasn't at an age where he found any of that interesting at all.

 

[Kay-Larr]

There was such hesitation in [member="Caedyn Arenais"] 's voice that it was near impossible to not pick up on. His question didn't really catch her off guard either. Both twins had a habit of playing innocent whenever there was a hint of them being in trouble. And unless they were picking on eachother, they tended to back eachother up and support eachother. That made her a little envious, having no real siblings of her own. But that was why she tended to surround herself with friends. She admired their loyalty.

"I just wanted to assure you, so that neither of you would be discouraged in coming back home. I am glad that you discovered these tunnels though. It'll be helpful if ever we come under attack. One of these days I will show you the other entrances." The very idea of the Estate coming under attack was never far from her mind. Trouble liked to find her, even when she was hidden. Kay was quite thankful that they kept their children out of the spotlight. It made them less of a target by anyone wanting to capitalize on ransom. Or worse.

She started up the path that would eventually lead them to the Estate, passing by the cliff that they two scaled down. "Are you two getting restless? Getting tired of being around your Mom and Dad? Is that why you're out of the house most of the time?" Of course they couldn't be held at home all the time. But Kay always felt a little worried when she would come home from the city to an empty house."