Art of the Jal'Shey- Force Imbue

[RC 212]

Location: Aboard the Gypsy Caravan, hangar bay.

The air was cool in the hangar as Vassar removed her coat and tossed it aside. Today she had a ruined crystal she had only just discovered. Plucked from the snow of Illum it had been broken and luckily she had been able to recover most of the pieces.

The tricky part was using the force to repair it. After a lengthy read on the Jal'Shey and the art of force-imbuing she had tried once or twice to manipulate it's properties but each time was too unfocused.

Today she planned to change that.

She set the crystal on the cargo bin and sat down in front of it, closing her eyes. Her breath slowed, becoming deliberate and she relaxed, opening her soul to the force. She felt the familiar glow of the live giving energy flood her, cooling her body like the seas of Alderaan.

She could see the crystal in her mind. The larger piece and the smaller chips.

"That which is broken can be made whole, the force renews."

She breathed quietly. The crystals began to glow faintly, and she projected herself into them. Slowly they revealed themselves and she could begin to make out the clean edges of the break. She could feel the taint of the darkside as well. There was passionate rage locked within them, an after effect of the emotions of the person whom had broken it.

Vassara....

She paused. It was a familiar voice, a wraiths whisper. The crystal could sense her touch, her presence. Much like the caves on illum she felt as if she had floated into a dream

"Yes?"

Come within

Answering the call, she drifted herself forwards, pressing her consciousness into the cool clutches of the crystal....

 

[RC 212]

Vassara became even more heightened inside the crystal. She could see the inner molecules, the workings of it. The air felt cool and her perceptions in the force were heightened. She could hear the beating heart of the void and feel the infinite void.

Welcome Jedi, why are you here?

"I'm here to fix you, and ask you to be my guardian."

How so?

"The art of the Jal'Shey, tethering the force into you for a function."

Ahh to do that you need to cleanse the passion from this place. Observe me, make me whole.

It was then that a spiderweb of colors exploded as her conscious fully merged with the living force inside the crystal. She could see the flaws, the smaller red seams where it was fragile and broken. She gravitated towards these, reflecting upon them.

Whomever had wanted this crystal had broken it with their saber when it refused them. Pain ad rejection ran into each thread.

Vassara began to call the memory of Alderaans beaches back to her. The cool water on her toes, salty smell of the sea. The sun shone brightly and the air was alight with the laughter of children. Her endorphins soared. The force roared now like a raging current within her and she poured it into the red threads, slowly turning them....

 

[RC 212]

The crystal began to glow ever more now. As she moved the other pieces onto it with the force she could see the microscopic edges press together rejoining their brethren. While she watched it made itself whole again, doing it's own mending and using her as a conduit for the activity.

The first phase was complete, the crystal was holding now, but just barely.

You must tell us why you need us? Is there something your hoping to accomplish here?

Vassara nodded, though no one was around to see and she was very peculiarly looking outwards through the glass like panes at herself.

"Become my charge, my shield. Do not respond to another touch but that of me, Vassara."

And why? What end does this meet?

"I need another crystal for my saber, more reliable, one that only I alone can influence. One that can stop outside influences on my saber by anyone who is not me."

You ask a lot. What will you give in return?

"Anything you ask."

The crystal paused for a moment. The force drifted idly through it now, weighing the possibilities. Slowly ever so slowly it continued to mend itself, growing small tendrils of living crystal like flesh. Except it wasn't flesh. It produced it's own heat and pressurized itself with the force.

You will need to pass on something powerful. A memory or something only you posses. To attune yourself soley, is to give a piece of your soul.

This was begging to sound dark now and Vassara felt a slight twinge of anxiety.

Never worry, give us you memories, three and most powerful. One dark, that we may blot out the darkside, unless specifically from you. One light, that we may filter the light-side signatures, and one neutral, that we may find your true center and hold it as the final key.

 

[RC 212]

Vassara paused, and then began to recall her darkest memory. She had locked it away for some time and now revealing it brought about a hidden wellspring of passions. Still though she remained in the light, the darkside tugged as she called it forth and placed it into the crystal.

The sky was alight with smoke and flame. She had just returned home upon hearing the news of her planet being destroyed. The Sith had taken Alderaan. The bodies of the dead lay scattered in the streets.​

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Buildings were reduced to rubble and the sky was black. Creeping biots of the Yuuzhan Vong slithered across some shadowy areas. She fell to her knees at the end of the street where her home had once been.​

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There was nothing now, all was lost.​

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The playground where she'd played as kid, destroyed. The house her parents had passed down to her, where she'd grown up and they had passed away. Demolished.​

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The very earth was scorched. Fire filled her eyes and she lifted her head up to the heavens, tears streaming like rivers from her eyes. A hoarse scream escaped her, rising intensity. The roar echoed through the abandoned buildings growing louder by the moment.​

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Something dark stirred within her soul. This was their fault, their making. She would be their unmaking. Vassara would become the Bane of the Sith.​

That will do, we require no more.

Vassara rocked back and forth, the memory tormenting her soul. For a few moments she felt that rage anew, passing through her. But the Glare Ice Crystal within her belt throbbed to life, the pontite vibrating rapidly and steadying her heaving passion. She could feel her skin begin to cool as the crystal amplified her connection to the force.

"There is no passion, only serenity."

She managed to center herself, regaining a proper balance in the swirling ripping currents.

Go now, rest and return to us with the next memory.

Vassara nodded, slowly retreating with her mind. As she slipped from the crystals grasp she could almost observe the dark red hues bouncing within, spinning themselves into an intricate web...

And then she was free, and opened her eyes, breaking the meditation....

 

[RC 212]

She returned the next day. Cross legged and closed her eyes once more. The crystal opened up and she watched as the red hues buzzed, connecting to her using the memory.

You have returned. What is next?

She recalled the next memory. This was one that she always used to center herself. Something very special and near to her heart. Now a blue hue began to enter the current, moving in a wispy waif towards the crystal.

​

The beach at Alderaan. It was warm. The sand was wet beneath her toes and cool breeze flew in from the sea. she could feel the warmth of the sun, shining it glowing rays on her bare skin.​

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Children laughed as they ran about in the tide, scooping up balls of mud and slinging them at each other. Vassara had come for vacation, time off from the freighter lanes and her gruelling job as a freighter captain....​

That will do. Now Give us your last and final memory.


She shifted uncomfortably now. Was there a final one that could act as a key? Something only she knew about?

Karen Roberts.

 

[RC 212]

As the crystal buzzed evermore she recalled the final memory, placing it into her current and projecting it on the crystal. This hue was gray, not exactly something of any alignment.

​

She was sitting in the bar on Fondor. It was the last time she would ever see Karen. As she talked her mind was wheeling with questions but the Jedi Master seemed to know her pupil all to well. She passed a silver saber across the table and Vassara scooped it up marvelling at the weapon.​

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She had been a novice then, completely engrossed with brining justice to the Sith.​

​

Then she passed the data stick. The last and final lesson, the lesson on Form I. It was a good day and she smiled sipping her drink.​

That will do. That is the final key.

"How are you talking to me? How are you sentient?"

 

[RC 212]

The crystal buzzed even harder and began to levitate. Inside the colors swirled and mixed and she could almost feel the raw power emanating from it. A natural crystal to be sure, but a special one. Something that responded to her touch eloquently.

When the Jal'Shey visited the Caves on Illum they hid many things. Fortunately in your wisdom you sought to collect me as I was broken.

"I dont understand. Sentient crystals are rare are they not?"

Perhaps you do not truly understand then.

"Show me."

Very well...

 

[RC 212]

Vassara was whisked away suddenly, vanishing into another vision. Much like the caves on Illum, only this time the vision was not as as dark and rueful. Not designed to test her but to show her.

Several robed figure laid scattered about the caves. As she watched they buried shiny....What they were she could not tell. Twas only then one looked up, almost as if he saw her.

She drew back a step, boots crunching on the ice.

"We must keep these safe and ensure that no darksider ever possesses them."

"Indeed. I am already comitted to my plan Jalak. Now come, we must meditate and preform the final preperations."

They took seats around in the ice. She watched in silence as they closed their eyes and she could feel the force pulse wildly from their bodies. It was only moments later that they vanished from sight. Not seen or heard...but she could feel them.

And then she was back in the present. Her mind still connected to the crystal.

 

[RC 212]

Can you guess what happened?

Vassara paused, trying to work the puzzle over. It was apparent they had vanished but to where and for what purpose?

"Im guessing you ascended into the force? There is no death, but the force, correct?"

An astute observation and a sound theory. But you must dig deeper. If I am a gatekeeper of the crystal then where did I come from. Did I simply end up in here by chance, by no feat at all?

"No you must have been...."

Then it hit her. The entire thing unfolded in her mind. There was no death but the force. But where the force flowed, life flowed. Their was life in the crystal itself. Which meant...

 

[RC 212]

You finally understand then?

"You tethered your force self into the particular crystal."

Indeed I did.

"So why did you break?"

I broke the crystal to protect it from a Darksider who seeked it for his own. The Dark side clouds and corrupts. I have no wish to have it visited upon me in my ethereal state. To become a weapon of malice.

Vassara paused, remembering what she had asked earlier. If the Jal'Shey guardian was a part of the crystal, his force essence would be al she needed for the protective properties. As if the guardian could read her mind it spoke once more.

Remember, should you fall to the darkside, I will abandon you. For that is the agreement between us. Do not disappoint me, and I shall not disappoint you. Any last questions?

She sat in silence for a minute. Letting the cool currents of the force ripple through her.

Then she spoke her final words.

"No."

The crystal buzzed once more and she could feel its light, it very essence connect to her, tethering itself to her force signature. As the glow faded she was left with the crystal still floating. She called it to her palm, and it was cool to the touch, but silent.

Then she pocketed it.

Moments later she would return to the Datacron Karen Roberts had given her, opening it with the force and immersing herself in the last little pieces of lore she could find. But it was not enough. Soon she would need to find more....