Private Answers in the Ashes

[Kyyrk]

L O S T
​

Kyyrk sat in the pilot's chair of his ship, staring blankly at the landscape before him. Not much had changed between this visit, and his previous one. The plants were growing again, and he could sense small life forms here and there. To the casual observer, a small difference. To Kyyrk? It summoned memories of fear. Pain. Death on a scale he'd never before witnessed. The small owl perched on his shoulder ruffled his feathers, stirring Kyyrk from his meditative silence. <<I don't like this place.>> Kyyrk's mouth pulled up at the corner. "That makes two of us, Horace." He reached up, and undid his crash webbing, standing from the chair.

There was something about this region of the galaxy that kept drawing Kyyrk back to it. First Ossus. Then Voss. Now Ziost. Was the Force trying to tell him something? Was there something from his past he missed? Something that he was supposed to know? He paused at the entryway, looking down at the faceless helmet in his hands. Perhaps this world held the secrets of his Holocron. "Horace. Keep your distance. Eyes in the sky, look out for trouble." Without a word, the small owl flew out of the ship, arcing up towards the sky high above them. Kyyrk lowered the helmet onto his head, and pulled his hood over it.

As he stepped back onto the rocky wasteland that was Ziost, he paused. He looked at the dirt beneath his feet, and crouched down. A hand ran through the particles, lifting them up for inspection, before Kyyrk let the handful of earth fall back to the ground. He remembered when the planet was choked in ash. The ashes of millions. He stood, the dark hood turning one way, and then another. He wasn't alone here. And for a sickening moment, a single word filled his mind. Monolith. Kyyrk checked that his Lightsaber was still upon his shoulder blades. A single Monolith was enough to wipe out an entire platoon of soldiers without effort. A Jedi stood a slightly better chance, but it still wasn't something a smart one would take on alone. Insofar as Kyyrk was aware, a Monolith hadn't been sighted since the old days, but he wasn't about to take chances. Whatever was coming his way, it was strong enough to put up a fight...

Naivia Neryn

 

[Naivia Neryn]

Cold wind. Death. Destiny...

Those were words to describe Ziost, lost in space a Sith planet, one of the first planets, rightly the capital of many great empires of the past and now frozen in the cold of millennia that had brought great confusion to the surface in power...

The dark sky completely obscured the face of the surface from the celestial lights, as if protecting an ancient secret or a fateful meeting that was to take place here. The wind blew a little on Neryn's dark robe filled with ancient signs which landed on the stunted ground in a fantastic twist. Almost immediately sensing through time and space all those ancient events, the girl donned her hood and walked silently through the dark sandy hills in complete solitude, sometimes only shimmering with the energy of the ancient Sith.
This power was capable of bringing almost most Jedi to their knees, it sucked everything out of life that made her move and pulsate every end of her body to get sustenance or survive in this vast and strange world. But not her...

Inside Neryn was her faithful guide, a cosmic force entity in the past and now the wisest being called Singing Fire. Though he could not fully control the situation with his power due to the rather limited capabilities of a mortal body, he still marveled and rejoiced as the girl walked completely calmly across the icy ground , sometimes joking with him and hoping that what called her here would not be the end of her fate.

For tens or hundreds of kilometres her power might have been a fusion of her immense inner potential and the essence of the force entity that had become one with her.
Though she was a formidable foe, in reality she was a keeper of the force, and so she reached the small rune stones that were emanating unique light..

She sat quietly on them in a meditative posture and closed her eyes to await the arrival of the one she could feel with every fibre of her body.

Kyyrk

 

[Kyyrk]

Z I O S T
​

Kyyrk picked his way through the wastelands of Ziost carefully. There was a ghost of a memory upon his shattered mind, a Temple within a nearby valley. The prospect of finding answers within was an alluring one. Yet...it also gave him pause. For as he drew closer, he could feel the other presence growing closer. With each and every step, Kyyrk knew he would soon come face to face with whatever creature waited for him. The once-great warrior had been reduced to near nothingness, only his skill with a blade as his own reliable tool. The Force had all but abandoned him, and now returned to him as mere threads and gasps of what it had once been.

Kyyrk mantled over a rather large rock, and paused. At the foot of the hill, a large structure stood. Not the temple he'd been expecting. Though on further reflection, four thousand years was a lot to ask for something to remain unchanged. That was not gave him pause, however. What did give him pause was the figure sitting by the runed structure. A monolith of sorts, to be sure, but fortunately not the sentient kind. The figure seemed human from this far away, but the conflux of Force Energy was centered around the being, no doubt about it. Kyyrk hopped down from the rock, landing lightly on the hillside.

He approached slowly, his helmet turning this way and that. He was ever on alert, always expecting something to jump him from behind. Or perhaps it was the paranoia induced by the Sith World. Though, for a Jedi, he was oddly at home upon the ruinous landscape. The darkness did not affect him as it would so many others. Strength of will? Or perhaps his heart harbored a secret darkness. Kyyrk paused, some fifteen meters from the lone figure. His voice broke the silence, a crisp imperial accent altered only by the modulator in his helmet. "What is this place?"

Naivia Neryn

 

[Naivia Neryn]

Neryn smiled sweetly in response and replied

"I would like to ask that question as well. Although my friend has already roughly explained to me the significance of such structures to the ancient world, celestials , force beings and other powerful beings but for you and me, there is still some sense of touching with something high, cosmic... "

She opened her fiery eyes, which were as calm as anything around her, but were clear.
There was no sense of any devotion or strength in them. It was as if they were whole, seeing the world in all its magnitude and diversity.

She looked at the huge two-metre tall man and was pleasantly pleased as she got up from her seat and walked towards him

"My name is Naivia Neryn. I don't have a precise occupation. Some call me a keeper of Force , and some call me an expert on antiquities. Either way, I travel the galaxy to understand and love the Force in all its forms. "

The girl held out her hand and asked

"And what is your name? "

She was completely unafraid and communicated as if she had seen Kyyrk before, though she had not.

Kyyrk

 

[Kyyrk]

Q U E S T I O N S
​

Kyyrk watched the girl silently. Her familiarity created a sense of...unease. The faceless mask looked up towards the structure. "I didn't think the celestials remembered this place..." He spoke with a degree of familiarity of the beings. He knew of their existence, and more importantly didn't question it. Though it certainly painted a bleak picture of Kyyrk's opinion of the world. The land the gods had forgotten. But whether that was an objective opinion of the place, or colored by his own experiences, wasn't entirely clear.

He looked back to the girl as she introduced herself. Naivia. The name didn't spark a memory within the man. This truly was their first time meeting. "Well met, Navia." Polite, if unsettled. Kyyrk took the woman's hand, and mimed kissing the back of it. Though his helmet made such an action somewhat difficult. The intent, however, was clear enough. "I am Kyyrk. A...protector of sorts." There was a certain doubt to his voice. As if he questioned his duty himself. "I came here looking for something. And I would wager I've found it."

He turned back to the structure, studying it intently. But before long, he looked back to the girl. The faceless mask did not waver as purple orbs behind it studied her. There was...something about her. She spoke of a friend, and Kyyrk could only assume the Force presence he felt was the very same. "The only question is...was I meant to find this...or find you?"

Naivia Neryn

 

[Naivia Neryn]

"Kyyrk... Pretty name, for a protector of sorts would do."
The girl laughed sweetly, she liked the fact that even though the man may have been a warrior in the past, he knew all the formal signs of decorum even in a place as otherworldly as this, near to a giant runna stele...

The girl was as much as 50 centimetres shorter than the man, had a rather thin and not very athletic body which made a strong wind seem able to carry her away like a light dandelion...

"I'll answer your question. You were looking for me. Though I thought at first it was the rune stones I was looking for too, but after careful analysis I realised that the field was moving and that field was you."

The girl walked around Kyyrk all amazed at his height, then returned to her lotus pose and said

"Sit beside me and don't be afraid. About my friend , his name is Singing Fire and he is a cosmic force entity. He was part of that primordial force that created mind, matter, the laws of physics, power, evolution and more. When I found him he was lonely and needed a reason to continue his existence and for him that reason was me and now he is with me as one being, although you can communicate with him and listen to sometimes very wise things. "

The girl looked the man over carefully

"It's not the first time you've been here though, is it? Your thoughts and feelings are related to the ones I picked up in the spatial memory of the planet... The very same wars... Please forgive me... I'm so sorry."

Kyyrk

 

[Kyyrk]

Q U E S T I O N S
​

Kyyrk grew visibly more wary as the woman spoke of the entity residing within her. When she invited him to sit, he paused. Thought she asked him to sit beside her, he instead walked over to a rock across from her, and took a seat upon that instead. "I was bonded to such a creature once. Nothing that impressive or powerful...." He grew rather quiet for a moment. "Makes a man long for the simpler days. When the worst of your worries was the war of men. Not the wars of gods."

He reached up, and removed his hood, then slowly lifted his helmet from his head. The pale skin revealed beneath shone in the darkness. His eyes particularly glowed with a sharp hue that seemed to fluctuate, to ebb and flow with the strength of the Force within him. He was in the process of setting the helmet beside him, when the woman observed this was not the first time he'd been to the planet. He paused. He turned to look at her, his head throbbing under the weight of the memory. The horror of watching the entire planet turn to ash.

Worst still, of the feeling it gave him. The raw power that was well within his grasp. He could have tapped into it. He could have taken it for himself. But he didn't. And the war that followed? The ghosts of its memory still haunted him to this day.

"I was. Impressive that you could sense that." Kyyrk stirred to life again, and place his helmet beside him, finally resting it upon the rock. "There are many worlds I have visited. The Force has asked many questions of me, of late. Questions that I do not have answers for. Perhaps one day I shall uncover the answers. But...until then, I will search however long I may need to protect my family."

Naivia Neryn

 

[Naivia Neryn]

Neryn was not frightened when the man took off his helmet and showed his real face, she was rather glad that he could breathe a little easier that way. Listening to him carefully she added in an instant after Kyyrk had finished speaking


"Of course because of my body I cannot make full use of my friend's powers, but I have enough of them to sense things and their connections even after many thousands of years. Even though you are probably thousands of years old you do not fully understand power like I do. Why did it bring us together? How could two strangers be useful to each other? What if it were me or you who caused the conflict? What if that monolith and not me who were the source?
And even when you think you have your answer... It's really nothing more than a personal interpretation of the processes that take place according to the will of the force. But if you feel better and are happier knowing that these are the answers, then let this truth. "

The girl sat for a couple of minutes until again she stood up and stretched her whole body towards the sky, making a pleasant sound of gratitude that she was not in some ship, but doing one of her favourite things: meeting amazing individuals.

"Well... "I've only lived for 34 years. But I guess we all just miss the simple things sometimes... "

She silently walked over and wrapped her arms around Kryyk's heavy armour, from her arms a harmonious and peaceful energy flowed inside the man's body.

Up close, Neryn's body did indeed feel as very fragile as crystal.

"I hope you feel better at least a little bit for now"

Kyyrk

 

[Kyyrk]

A N S W E R S ?
​

Kyyrk snorted quietly. "You presume much of my understanding. I have seen power in many forms. And it is not something I intend to wield. I know what lies down that path." Kyyrk looked back up at the monolith as she spoke of answers. "Answers are nothing more than the basis for another question. Anyone who has found an answer once and for all has contented themselves to not pursue the next question, whatever form it may take." He looked back to the woman. "That, or they are delusional enough to believe that the next question does not exist."

He shrugged. The response of a man who had long ago stopped trying to enforce his will upon the galaxy, and was instead content to see where the threads of knowledge took him. "The longer you live, the more things you begin to understand in a new light. One day you'll look back on the galaxy and wonder what changed. Or, if it was always this way." He opened his mouth to say something else, but was interrupted by the woman wrapping her arms around him. He paused, clearly flustered at this action. "Uh...I wasn't aware my spirits needed lifting..."

He gently reached up and took hold of her arms, using the greatest of care not to injure the girl. He pulled them apart, and stood, releasing himself from the woman's embrace. "No offense, but I don't do well with hugs. Too easy to put a knife between the ribs..."

Naivia Neryn

 

[Naivia Neryn]

"Knife between the ribs...Interesting thoughts..."

Neryn calmly looked sideways at the rune stele and walked over to it and in that instant one of her eyes lit up with gold, purple and emerald lights.
She used the power of the force entity to bring some of these strange lights in the stones under her power. She carefully began to move the violet runes on the stele resulting in the stele being only the top of some underground temple.
The girl carefully moved the stele to the side and placed it on the sand and looked carefully at the entrance

"This is to say that the force has apparently decided to abyss some more surprise for us. I'm not surprised."

The girl's eye returned to normal

"Yes this is Celestials technology. Huge amounts of power being spent on all this fun... "

Sweat ran down the girl's face, she sat down for a break

"So, mr not afraid of hugging. Shall we go home, if any of us have one? "

Kyyrk

 

[Kyyrk]

C E L E S T I A L ?
​

Kyyrk turned his attention towards the temple as the entrance revealed itself to them. Something bothered him about it. Celestials? Here? Ziost was a broken world, brimming with corruption. He distinctly remembered the temple, and what had transpired there. Worldbreaker, they had called it. The largest of the Monoliths. The battle that had occurred on the steps of this very temple was one that Kyyrk would never forget, even now as it returned to his memory. He drew a deep breath, and sighed quietly. "What would the Celestials have been doing here, I wonder?"

He turned back to the girl, watching quietly as she sat to catch her breath. "You'd best tell your friend to pace himself. Flesh can conduct an impressive power. But that power will consume you, if you let it." His thoughts drifted to the time he'd once exerted such a will over the force he fell into a coma for nearly a month. "Do not fear it. But do not become flippant with it either. Respect it for what it is. What it can do." The man had a solemnity to his voice that suggested he was very familiar with some of the things the Force was capable of. The creation of the Monolith creatures not withstanding.

His attention turned back to the temple, which he watched quietly. It was almost as if he expected something to emerge. Or perhaps he was just lost in thought. The girl mentioned something about going home. But it wasn't time to go yet. Not when a celestial temple was placed before him. What questions Kyyrk may find within were too tempting. "If your time here is finished, then I wish you safe travels. I still have work to do, I think." He drifted into silence for a moment before turning back to the woman. "Any idea what's inside?"

Naivia Neryn

 

[Naivia Neryn]

"Says the man who is over 4000 years old. "Of course you don't! But I guess you could try to go in there and see what's inside.
Except, believe me, it's probably something that has the power and importance to change entire destinies. Are you up for it?"

Neryn asked, seriously, glancing at the man and then returning her gaze to the temple. Those runes, the lines, the smell, the atmosphere, the feeling, the movement...Yes, this place was definitely connected not only to Celestials, but to her friend as well.
And what might lie behind those ruins and monolith could be scarier and grander than anything she could have imagined, or it could be empty. The chance that inside such an ancient structure there really was still
traces of a once race of architects, those who had created and built worlds and knew much about the origins of the Force and its history before us. The girl strained her mind and questioned once more.

"I'm not going anywhere, both of us strangers were called here by fate, so if we find something it could make enemies of us or vice versa, join our fates. Such things are dangerous, are you sure you want that?"

Naivia began nervously waiting for an answer, glancing around and hoping that no one was following them and planning an attack.

Kyyrk