Private Arcana

[Lothaire]

Lothaire followed after Starlin Rand like the lost puppy that he was.

"I've heard of the ones the Sith use. Tear your flesh off, use it to make abominations," Lothaire mused. He'd read much of Sith sorcery in his youth out of at first morbid curiosity, and as he'd grown older, as a means to better understand his enemy. He knew woefully less of the Jedi themselves as he'd never found much reason to. His lot was in the army, away from matters of sorcery, or so it had been.

"Master Fool," Lothaire cracked a grin, "Lord of the jesters, keeper of jokers, teachers of clowns: such as myself." There was a magnetism to the Jedi Knight that Lothaire couldn't rightly place his finger on, but his mood was infectious despite Lothaire's continued disdain for the interaction with his father. It was difficult to brood when one was cracking jokes.

He walked mostly in silence, examining his current situation and what might be to come. Should his father ever find out about this... well, Lothaire wasn't certain what the old man might do. He'd already disinherited him, would banishment follow? Perhaps something even worse? Cedric clearly saw the boy as some sort of threat given his comments. Would he kill his own son to deny the prince the destiny he'd seen in his dreams?

Such thoughts vanished as the drew near the mouth of the cave. Lothaire welcomed the warmth as he drew back his cowl, wiping off flecks of white and drying the snow that had melted against his skin with his cloak.

"Yes, this does seem to be a particularly holy cave." He mused, good-natured sarcasm dripping from his words. "I can just... feel the Ashla's warmth washing down my skin. Or maybe that's the cave fumes."

 

[Starlin Rand]

“Uh… nexuses are just a source of power," Starlin explained. “The whole making abominations thing, that’s Sith alchemy. The Light Side version of alchemy is alkahest, which I’ve barely scratched the surface of, but if you’re interested in that, we could learn it too. I know some people…”

His rambling answer petered off as he entered the cave, combing melting snow from his curly hair with his fingers and stomping his feet to warm them. The cavern was larger than it seemed, stretching deep into the mountain. It was filled with stalactites hanging from the ceiling, dripping mineral-rich water into pools below as smooth and clear as mirrors.

Starlin laughed at Lothaire’s answer. The sound of it traveled, but it was no ordinary echo. The cave seemed to amplify his laughter, or perhaps even responded to it with laughter of its own, low and thunderous. It made anyone who heard it want to laugh too, as though they could feel Starlin's amusement for themselves.

“Every nexus is unique. This one likes to talk back. Although I’ve found the best results come from singing, but I won’t subject you to that.” Starlin gestured. “You try it. Speak loud and clear, put some meaning or strong emotion into your words, and see how it responds. This is a place where you can pray out loud, and I won’t scold you for it.”

Lothaire​

 

[Lothaire]

Alkahest.

Lothaire was familiar with the concept in a passing sense. Many of the Ashlan Knights utilized such abilities to forge their weapons and armor. How they actually did so was beyond the youth: that it bore relation to Sith Alchemy was a discomforting thought. "Referring to them as different versions is a too.... familiar." Lothaire muttered, "The Bogan is an aberration. A corruption. Not of equal standing." He certainly lacked the training of a Jedi, but he was not lacking in the zeal.

The cave was like any other as far as Lothaire was concerned. He lacked the sensory capacity to feel anything beyond his mortal senses: to him it was just unnaturally warm. That was, until Starlin Rand started laughing.

The returning echo seemed strange at first, but as it reached him fully and sounded like another voice entirely, it sent chills down Lothaire's spine. Beneath that shock of fear was the strange desire to laugh right along with his would-be-teacher, as if the absurdity of the place in of itself made it far funnier than a matter of cosmic horror.

"Weird," the prince mumbled, "Uh." He hesitated for a moment, unsure of what to say and feeling more than a little silly for even engaging with the idea. What did you ask a cave? Ask it what it's favorite boulder was?

"Hello... cave." Lothaire's brow furrowed, arms behind the small of his back. "My father is a dick."

The prince's words echoed off the cave walls, travelling deep toward its center. A moment later they returned, slowly deepening as if spoken by some god hidden deep beneath the earth. "Myyyyyy faaaaaaathhhhhheeeerrrrrrr iiiiiiiiiisssssssssssssssss aaaaaaaaaaa ddddddiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiicccccccccccccckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk."

Starlin Rand

 

[Starlin Rand]

In response to Lothaire’s criticisms, Starlin shrugged his shoulders. “Sure, but technically it’s the same process. The only real difference is the intent behind it, the materials used, and the results…”

He broke into a fit of hysterical laughter as the caverns echoed the prince’s words. Lothaire might as well have uttered the funniest phrase in the entire Basic language, Starlin was laughing so hard. The cave seemed to agree, howling along with him.

“Oh, man…” Starlin wiped his eyes, his body still wracked with the occasional chortle. “Okay, I think you got it. You feel that, right? The surge of energy bouncing back to you, making you want to laugh or… or hate Cedric Grayson?” He pressed his lips firmly together, fighting the urge to giggle.

Lothaire​

 

[Lothaire]

It was growing increasingly difficult to let himself bathe in his own brooding. Starlin's attitude and the warmth of the cave pulled laughter from Lothaire's chest despite himself. It was a strange noise - he'd not let himself have a proper giggle in quite some time. When he did laugh, so often was it a political act. Never because something was simply so... stupidly funny.

"I'd say something about the nature of the Bogan making terrible copies of perfection, but then the cave would yell at me," Lothaire mused, lips split in a small grin that was brimming with amusement.

"I do feel it though, I think. Like something else is there - like having someone in house, but not in the same room. Know they're there, but you can't see them." A simple analogy, but one that made perfect sense to the bastard-prince.

"I don't imagine Jedi generally commune with the Force by yelling at it though," he added, gaze flashing back to Starlin Rand . "Or is there some kind of trick to it?"

 

[Starlin Rand]

“You should be able to manipulate the energy here more easily,” Starlin replied with a nod. “There’s no one trick to it. Everyone experiences it differently. Even if you can’t figure it out now, I’m satisfied knowing that you can feel it.”

For the moment, anyway. If Lothaire proved unable to interact with the Force in any tangible way, he’d have a hard time passing Jedi training. But for now, he didn’t want to pressure the kid. Let him come to it on his own.

Lothaire​

 

[Lothaire]

"I can certainly feel something. Might just be the heartburn though, or maybe the headache. You've got a pretty mind-splitting laugh on you," Lothaire quipped as he pulled off one of his gloves and drew a pale hand along the cavern wall. It was surprisingly warm to the touch, like putting one's hand over an idle speeder hood.

He drew in a deep breathe, unsure of how even to begin trying to 'feel the Force'. He'd seen Jedi and his family perform incredible feats with its power, but he found himself feeling incredibly silly trying to do the same now. As if it did not exist, despite his prior experiences with it, and the laughing cave that seemed stranger than fiction.

"Feels like a heart." He muttered; eyes drifting shut as he focused on the strange sensation in his hands. he could feel something like a pulse, distant and heavy, thrumming through the rock. He felt it more in his mind than in his actual hand, like an intrusive thought not of his own making. "Beating beneath the mountain."

The youth's eyes narrowed as he looked to Starlin. "I don't understand."

Starlin Rand

 

[Starlin Rand]

“Yeah well, you have the laugh of a stoned spicehead,” Starlin shot back cheerfully.

He observed in silence as Lothaire reached out to the Force, describing it as a heartbeat. The boy’s question earned a shrug.

“The Force is life energy, essentially. Maybe you feel it as a heartbeat in all living things.” He gazed into the darkness of the cave as if it held no shadows at all. “For me it’s a kind of joy. A zest for life. I feel it strongest when I’m laughing and enjoying myself. When I’m at my lowest is when the Force feels most distant.”

Chewing his lip, his carefree manner slipped momentarily, before he turned back to Lothaire and asked, “Do you feel a connection with that heartbeat? Can you sync it to your own, become one?”

Lothaire​

 

[Lothaire]

"Long as it's a fun spicehead," he countered, his gaze following after Starlin as his new friend explained how he felt the Force. Seemed everyone had their own unique way of communing with it. In his writing, Lothaire's father spoke of a Great Ocean and 'seeing the changes on the tides' in reflection to shifts in the mortal world. Others saw the Force as a great sun providing them with energy when they needed it, and for Starlin, it seemed he felt its presence when he was dancing on the edge of mirth.

What was Lothaire's method then? Becoming with a heartbeat?

"Sync it with my heartbeat... Not sure I can manually control my heart boss," Lothaire felt silly about the whole affair, but he'd already come this far. If he didn't at least try to take things seriously, then nothing was going to change.

Uncertain, Lothaire's eyes drifted shut. He focused on the subtle thump within the rock, the quiet vibration of life within the stone. Set his sights on it so deeply that his perceptions began to melt away. Starlin became an afterthought, and so too did his ruminations.

The heart of the mountain thundered in Lothaire's mind. He tried to open his eyes, tear his thoughts away from the storm of sensation that had captured him, but such efforts were futile. Through the mountain he saw the world, the great peaks along the edges of the horizon, the stony edifice of the Graywall poking through the din of snow and rain in the distance. The air felt cold in his lungs, far more so than the warmth of the cave.

"It's a bit of a trip," he mumbled, gaze drifting toward Starlin, though the dilation of his pupils and the emptiness in his eyes. "What uh.... -" he paused, leaning his head against the cavern wall. "What am I supposed to do?"

Starlin Rand

 

[Starlin Rand]

While Starlin dropped to his knees on the cavern floor and began to meditate. Eyes closed, he opened himself to the Force, letting the light in. The feeling was euphoric and wild. He didn’t try to tame it; he just rode the current, along for the ride.

He hummed distractedly, a bit zoned out himself. “Yeah, just do whatever you want, man,” he muttered. “Try to manipulate that energy that you feel. Move a rock, start a fire, make a little lightning. Melt the snow. Anything you can think of, you should be able to do. All things are possible with the Force.”

In demonstration, he used the Force to create fire in the palm of his outstretched hand. The flame illuminated the cave in dancing hues of orange and gold. Taking a cig from his pocket, Starlin lit it then shook his hand, putting out the flames.

Lothaire​

 

[Lothaire]

He made it sound so easy.

Lothaire's pressed his lips into a thin line slowly slinked onto the cave floor. It was comfortably warm, and he found himself fighting the instinct to lay back and take a nap. Certainly needed one after the day that he'd had. The youth eyed Starlin through an empty gaze, awaiting some further guidance, and found himself chewing on the inside of his cheek in annoyance.

He saw the flicker of flame through a vision overlayed with the senses of the mountain. Starlin's figure struck through the orange din, a mass of mountains and the gray of the snowstorm billowing around him as if he were standing atop the pinnacle of the mountain. The experience was an incredibly disorientating one, and Lothaire's eyes slowly drifted shut as he tried to open himself to it wholly.

When he opened his eyes, he found himself laying atop the throat of the mountain, a pillar of soft blue light stretching up from the highest peak to scrape at the heavens. As before, Ruusan was stretched out before him on either side as far as he could see. The pillar poked through the gray of the storm to the stars beyond, and in those stars, Lothaire saw the shapes of men and beasts. They moved in unrelated action, some seeming to dance, others seemingly locked in combat with one another.

He looked to the world then and arrayed before him stood two men of average build. Both were clad in armor, cloaked in Essonian blue. Long white hair and a single green eye peering through the darkness adorned one, the other wore a mask carved with the Ashlan cross and a cowl of midnight. Each offered a hand, the white-haired man greeting Lothaire with a lackadaisical grin.

Lothaire met his gaze, and an icy panic bolted through his veins. It was a primal fear, a terror that gripped his body and told it to run.

The youth drew in a sharp breath as his eyes opened once again, heart thundering against his chest as he sat up to stare at Starlin Rand , his connection briefly broken. "The hell was that?"

Starlin Rand

 

[Starlin Rand]

“A vision of the future, you have had, young Padawan,” Starlin replied, grinning. “A possible future, anyway. Maybe. Could be the past you saw, or something happening right now. Depends on how symbolic it is, really.” Stretching lazily, he added, “What did you see, and what do you think it means?”

Lothaire​

 

[Lothaire]

Vision felt like a strong word.

Drug addled hallucination, perhaps. Lothaire hadn't used any stims since coming to Ruusan, but he'd partaken in enough to bring forth side effects. However, if that were the case, was the 'laughing mountain' part of that hallucination. Was Starlin as well?

Lothaire's nose scrunched up with distaste as he stared down at the cavern floor, his mind struggling to piece together what it might have meant. There were no words spoken, no indicators of anything really aside from the Ashlan crests the two men had been wearing, and the feeling of terror the white-haired man had inspired in the youth. A vision perhaps, but an incredibly cryptic and seemingly pointless one. Maybe the spirit of the mountain was trying to test him in some way; anything seemed possible at this point.

"I was thrust to the peak of the mountain. Saw the stars moving like they were alive, fighting with one another...? I'm unsure. I looked back down, and two men were staring at me dressed in Ashlan colors. One only had one eye, and when I looked at him, every cell of my body told me to run." Lothaire shook his head, his fingers running over rough and dully warm face of the cave walls in hopes of feeling something else beyond his mortal senses.

"No idea what it is. Didn't recognize either of them," he admitted, frustration leaking into his voice. "I've never had the sight. My mother had it, and it left her manic," a pause from the youth, a significant hesitation. "I'm not going to start seeing visions and prophecies regularly, am I?"

Starlin Rand

 

[Starlin Rand]

Starlin listened to Lothaire’s description, then shrugged, unable to interpret the dream. “Welp. Doesn’t ring a bell for me, either. Sorry.”

It was clear the boy was more than a little concerned about having visions. He mentioned a mother who had been driven mad by prophecy. “It can be a very difficult thing to live with, knowing the future and yet having no real way to stop bad things from happening,” Starlin murmured. He seemed to be speaking from experience, his expression growing uncharacteristically grave.

“It sounds like you might have a gift for clairvoyance. Maybe it runs in the family, as you said. If it becomes a problem, or if it’s something you want to pursue, I could teach you the ways of the Iktotchi seers. That would certainly help you to control these visions and make sure they don’t get… out of hand.”

Lothaire​

 

[Lothaire]

And suddenly, Lothaire found himself wishing that he'd not opened the door on this one.

Perhaps that had been why his father had urged abstinence from practicing the spiritual ways. The old patriarch might have worried that Lothaire too might bear the mark of his mother and might well to follow her path. It was an unglamorous and miserable one, Lothaire's face splitting into a disgusted frown as he imagined himself undergoing a similar experience.

"Not sure I want that kind of power," the youth murmured, hands shoving his pockets as he stared up at the cave ceiling. It looked utterly normal now, physical stone and hard matter, nothing esoteric about it. Strange how quickly the Force came and went of its own accord. "I am sure that I don't want these visions dominating my life though."

Lothaire turned his gaze toward Starlin, lips pressed into a thin line as the older man spoke of the Iktotchi Seers. "The Crusade has its own seers. A small caste of them, they -" he paused, the thought dying before it was fully given life. He couldn't reach out to anyone officially, couldn't rely on the means of his station. This training would stay between the two of them.

"Yes," he sighed, "I think I should learn of them now that the door to these visions is opened. I need to understand them."

Starlin Rand

 

[Starlin Rand]

“Aw, dude. Everyone wishes they didn’t have this power at one point or another,” Starlin remarked. “But it’s not for them to decide. All they can do is decide what to do with what’s been given to them.” He was obviously paraphrasing a more famous saying, but the gist of it was certainly applicable here.

Lothaire seemed to understand the necessity, and agreed to accept training. “Then our next stop is Iktotch,” Starlin said, clambering to his feet. “Goodbye, Ession! Goodbye!”

His farewell was echoed by the throat of the mountain. Turning to Lothaire, he asked, “Do you have anything you need to do before we leave?” He figured the boy would at least want to gather his belongings. Jedi were meant to have few worldly possessions, but Starlin wouldn’t begrudge the boy a sentimental trifle or two.

Lothaire​

 

[Lothaire]

Sounded pretty corny. Did make sense though.

Lothaire breathed a quiet sigh, pressing his hand to the cavern wall and relishing the warmth one last time. He wasn't keen on just getting up and leaving. He'd grown rather comfortable remaining near the center of the Greater Ession. It wasn't that he feared what lingered beyond, but rather that he might lose touch with home while he was away.

The problem of these visions remained, however. His father might have had some sense about him after all, but there wasn't any changing the past. What was done was done. Only way to go now was forward.

"Goodbye," Lothaire echoed, the mountain making him crack a hint of a smirk despite his apprehension with leaving. "Nothing left to do here. I don't think I'm supposed to remain anyway right now. The old man is in a mood." That was putting it lightly.

"Lead on."

Starlin Rand