Private A Meeting of Pillars

[Coren Starchaser]

It took him a bit but Coren Starchaser was landing on Pagodon, to the Ferryman's Reach. He was a native son of Corellia, and the stars, and while he spent much of his early years on Csilla, the Jedi Retirement Program (Trademark pending) had other plans and he and the Starchaser Clan had found themselves on a nice Colonies world with balmy tropical temperatures and frozen drinks.

On top of that, the world was a fairly standard utopia of advanced technology and the use of the tech to enhance life, rathr than subjugate it, of those who lived on the world.

Pagodon was… not that. It was cold. It was harsh. And it was desolate.

But it had one thing that Coren needed. Jend-Ro Quill . A Force Master, because Coren wasn't quite sure he was a Jedi any longer. Which was exactly why he was here. It took Coren a while to find this, while he was a Seeker for the Order of Selab, he worked on a similar way of the Wardens, keeping people hidden and safe. But he made it here.

Stepping off his ship, the Shortfin, in order to ride a bit more stealthily out here, to protect Jend-Ro, he pulled the hood up of his jacket and made his way to the entry way, preparing to knock. He did message ahead, and a military classed shuttle, even with bells and whistles to avoid tracking, made a fair amount of noise.

 

[Jend-Ro Quill]

For his part, Quill was very sure he was no longer a Jedi anymore. Oh, some dark nights he had his doubts, but after his morning caf the universe took on appropriate clarity, and all the reasons he'd left came easily to mind.

When Coren Starchaser knocked, the door irised open 85% of the way, forcing Coren to step over an impromptu lintel. The door shut behind him.

"Sorry about that," Quill called from his library. "Door needs some work."

The library had been the prefab shelter's master bedroom. Now it boasted shag carpet, a caf machine, and shelves full of alien books. Tablets and scrolls and racks of datacards; carved sticks, tapestry banners; records inscribed in olfactory perfumes and chitinous plates; orbital images of words carved half a mile into bedrock. A couple of holocrons too, but this was absolutely not a Jedi library.

This was, in its way, a Selabite vault.

 

[Coren Starchaser]

As the iris opened, the Corellian stepped inside and looked at the door. Hearing Quill's voice, he smirked as he surveyed it a little more fully. "Its no problem. I can work on trying to fix it before I leave, if you'd like." His brother, totally not retconned in at this point and having always been in existence and is totally not Marek, was a much more mechanically minded individual but still, Coren knew his way around a few things. And no need for a Selab Keeper to be living with something broken.

On Kattada, Coren had access to a full Jedi Library, one that was seen as useful by the Order, and one that he, as a researcher, explorer, and keeper of the past, helped fill in. The way his was, was much different than this. Kattada had double paned glass, to allow the light in, but not the UV, nothing to damage the variety of tomes, scrolls, or holocrons, but to allow for a wonderful 360 view of the sea and the islands.

"You have a fair share of materials here, don't you, Quill?" Coren said, as he tried to make a bit of conversation, all before recalling just why Jend-Ro lived the way he did. Right, needed to get to the fact of the matter. "Have a question for you, if you are up for a bit of a discussion?"

Jend-Ro Quill

 

[Jend-Ro Quill]

Quill searched his feelings and found that, yes, he could tolerate conversation today. Besides, he hadn't spoken with Coren Starchaser in a good while.

"I'd be grateful for the fix," he said, settling into one of the library's misshapen old armchairs. "Keep meaning to get around to it, but—" He gestured, and a stack of alien books removed themselves from another armchair. "—my knees aren't what they were."

The stack settled onto a side table near the caf.

"So what brings you, Coren?"

 

[Coren Starchaser]

There was always something to be done around the galaxy, and around the abodes of friends and compatriots. But he was at least trying to be considerate of the man. Was he an elder, Coren wasn't sure, but the Force was helping the Corellian with a bit of longevity, that was for certain.

"I'll take a look at it, consider it repayment for letting me pick your brain, and getting your eyes on a concept." Or really, a thought process. But Coren knew that he had an idea already, it was just that he needed to make it from where he was, to where he thought he had to go.

Adjusting his robes, he found himself the spare seat.

"Had a run in with a Sith… former Sith… And she got me thinking about my place in the Force."

Jend-Ro Quill

 

[Jend-Ro Quill]

"Former Sith...that's rare." Quill weighed his words, nestling deeper into his shapeless armchair. "I can't recall whether I told you this before, but I was born and raised in a dark side organization, the Raskava Order. We had a falling out when I was a much younger man, and I wound up with the Jedi. The Raskava aren't the Sith — they have specific goals — so I'm not sure how generalizeable my experience is.

"But forgive me: you're not here to talk about how a darksider can leave the dark side, are you. What kinds of introspection did this person spark in you? What's got you unsettled, and is it good-unsettled or bad-unsettled?"

 

[Coren Starchaser]

"She may still pay lip service to the Sith, and she does lean dark. I can feel that around her…" He stated following the statement of the Raskava. "Some dark side organizations are different than others. I was once a Force Adept who specialized in powers that I'd now be hunting myself down for. It turned out I was taking orders from a Sith… it put things into perspective when I learned their true goals." But that was the tale for another time.

"She was stating that she saw me as… more than a Jedi, or beyond them…" Taking a beat to really consider Quill's last question. "I think a good unsettled. I know I am staying to my morals, even if they may drift from the Jedi slightly."

Jend-Ro Quill

 

[Jend-Ro Quill]

"I'd forgotten that you were a darksider like I was. If you'd told me and I forgot, I apologize.

"This may be harsh," Quill went on after a bit, fiddling with the edge of a circular alien book, "but I firmly believe that loyalty to institutions shouldn't be — can't be — a moral priority. And what are your morals but your priorities? Weighing an institution against your morality is a gateway to cognitive dissonance at best, hypocrisy at worst. So yes, I very much see what you're getting at.

"So where's the conflict just now? Or rather, what's your conscience telling you to do that's leading you in new directions?"

Coren Starchaser

 

[Coren Starchaser]

The Corellian gave a half tip of his head and a shrug. "It may have come up. It doesn't exactly instill confidence in the ranks, and with the way dark siders can work, I don't want to give them any ammo against the youth of the light." Jedi or otherwise. Coren knew what he had been, and what he was now. He was not concerned about a fall.

As Quill continued on, with the thoughts of an institution, the Light Master nodded. "I agree. There are certain moral silos we put ourselves in, to best understand what we are and how we approach the world, but that's my own personal gnosis, I believe." A second to gather his thoughts and he continued.

"I'm not sure that conflict is the right word. The Jedi, for all they are good and wonderful, do have their own limitations, perhaps why I'm a Wayseeker. Its possible to serve the light, and not be a Jedi… but what does that make me? I've been in a box for a long time, and I outside of one? Or expanding mine…"

Call it an identity crisis.

Jend-Ro Quill

 

[Jend-Ro Quill]

"I was a Wayseeker too before I finally left. It's a valuable tradition. My only regret is that it kept me in the orbit of the Jedi, bound to them as a central point. It's a bit like a pre-technological model of the universe with a world or a star at the centre. The Jedi are not the centre of the Force."

Quill got up and paced along his shelves, touching each alien record in turn.

"There's a whole universe of light out there. And what are you if not a navigator?"

Coren Starchaser

 

[Coren Starchaser]

"I am not certain I'm 100% ready to cut ties with the Jedi. The larger Orders will go their own ways, but the smaller groups, the Ossus Initiative, at the very least, feel open enough. I always feel like I come back to the Jedi, it was my father's religion, and mine for a long time."

But he turned away from Sith inspired teachings… The Jedi were one thing, but the way they handled certain things lately, even between Orders.. That was where the trouble lie. Maybe he was unable to progress in his research of the Light due to the Jedi's teachings.

He could be helpful and a humanitarian without being strictly a Jedi, couldn't he? "I am a navigator. I'm just hoping the galaxy won't lose its head while some of these answers come to me."

Jend-Ro Quill