Ben Corscifine
The Left-Behind
She was gone.
Corvus Raaf, Grandmaster of the Jedi Order and Ben's Master, had left in the dark of night with no explanation and no warning. There was no note; no holorecording. She had not squeezed Ben on the shoulder extra hard on the last occasion that the two were together. One day she had been on Lothal, and the next, she was gone.
Maybe Ben should have seen it coming: Corvus had been walking away out of nowhere from multiple missions of late. First on Yutan, where she was meant to answer questions about the Order's role in the Republic after the crisis that had taken place when the Prime Minister seized power. She had disappeared again during a Soresu class that she had been teaching, leaving another master in charge of continuing the lesson.
Still, when the news reached Ben, it cut him deeply. Not only did this mean that his training--which had finally begun to pick up some momentum--would come to a dead halt, but Ben had lost someone that he admired. No one on Lothal had made such an impression on Ben so quickly. He felt an emptiness that he could not shake.
And he felt betrayed.
Now, he knelt in a room in the underground Temple on Lothal covered in trees and greenery. It was the room to which he had been led on the day he began training with Corvus, to practice telekinesis. The intention of the training had been to enable Ben to construct a personal lightsaber. As Ben sat alone in the room in which this process had begun, the necessary components for the construction of the weapon laid out before him, he felt a sense of completion, of coming full circle.
Corvus had intended for this to be done under her supervision, but Ben knew now that the time was right. That he must do this alone.
It was not the normal ritual for creating a lightsaber. Ben knew this. Having lost his master, he felt that a conventional construction would betray the essence of his experience. This blade had to be faithful to it's owner, after all. It would be his.
At long last, something would be his.
He closed his eyes, and saw the completed weapon in his mind's eye. Breathing gently and releasing all considerations of anything else, Ben communed with the green crystal he had acquired on Ilum. In front of him, the metal components and the crystal rose from the ground, dancing deliberately in the air until they assembled a long hilt with a red activator switch.
In Ben's mind, he saw Corvus Raaf. "Remember, Ben," he could hear or imagine her saying, "when a Jedi ignites his lightsaber, he must be prepared to take a life." The vision extended a hand to her padawan. "Promise you will be good. And never forget me."
Ben reached out for Corvus, and instead found in his hand the very tool he had imagined creating. It vibrated with Force energy, and Ben knew it belonged to him. It was an extension of him and everything he had worked for until this point.
Tears were streaming down Ben's face.
I promise, Corvus.
Beside him, Ben had laid a small piece of cord. A sash he had worn under his robes on the day he met his first master. Ben tied it around the hilt at the level of the activator.
She would always be with him.
-----------------------------------------------
Outside, Ben encountered his dear friend [member="Dune Rhur"]. Ben had asked the Bith to come with him to perform this ritual, for moral support if for nothing else, but decided in the moments before that he ought to construct the saber completely alone. Being the reasonable and kind person he was, Dune agreed to wait outside.
As Ben emerged, having wiped the tears from his eyes, he smiled at Dune and held out his newly crafted lightsaber.
"Not so bad, huh, Knight Rhur?"
Dune had recently been promoted to Jedi Knight--an honor which Ben knew the Bith to deserve. Still, Ben found himself constantly searching his own feelings for traces of envy--Ben's greatest fault.
Corvus Raaf, Grandmaster of the Jedi Order and Ben's Master, had left in the dark of night with no explanation and no warning. There was no note; no holorecording. She had not squeezed Ben on the shoulder extra hard on the last occasion that the two were together. One day she had been on Lothal, and the next, she was gone.
Maybe Ben should have seen it coming: Corvus had been walking away out of nowhere from multiple missions of late. First on Yutan, where she was meant to answer questions about the Order's role in the Republic after the crisis that had taken place when the Prime Minister seized power. She had disappeared again during a Soresu class that she had been teaching, leaving another master in charge of continuing the lesson.
Still, when the news reached Ben, it cut him deeply. Not only did this mean that his training--which had finally begun to pick up some momentum--would come to a dead halt, but Ben had lost someone that he admired. No one on Lothal had made such an impression on Ben so quickly. He felt an emptiness that he could not shake.
And he felt betrayed.
Now, he knelt in a room in the underground Temple on Lothal covered in trees and greenery. It was the room to which he had been led on the day he began training with Corvus, to practice telekinesis. The intention of the training had been to enable Ben to construct a personal lightsaber. As Ben sat alone in the room in which this process had begun, the necessary components for the construction of the weapon laid out before him, he felt a sense of completion, of coming full circle.
Corvus had intended for this to be done under her supervision, but Ben knew now that the time was right. That he must do this alone.
It was not the normal ritual for creating a lightsaber. Ben knew this. Having lost his master, he felt that a conventional construction would betray the essence of his experience. This blade had to be faithful to it's owner, after all. It would be his.
At long last, something would be his.
He closed his eyes, and saw the completed weapon in his mind's eye. Breathing gently and releasing all considerations of anything else, Ben communed with the green crystal he had acquired on Ilum. In front of him, the metal components and the crystal rose from the ground, dancing deliberately in the air until they assembled a long hilt with a red activator switch.
In Ben's mind, he saw Corvus Raaf. "Remember, Ben," he could hear or imagine her saying, "when a Jedi ignites his lightsaber, he must be prepared to take a life." The vision extended a hand to her padawan. "Promise you will be good. And never forget me."
Ben reached out for Corvus, and instead found in his hand the very tool he had imagined creating. It vibrated with Force energy, and Ben knew it belonged to him. It was an extension of him and everything he had worked for until this point.
Tears were streaming down Ben's face.
I promise, Corvus.
Beside him, Ben had laid a small piece of cord. A sash he had worn under his robes on the day he met his first master. Ben tied it around the hilt at the level of the activator.
She would always be with him.
-----------------------------------------------
Outside, Ben encountered his dear friend [member="Dune Rhur"]. Ben had asked the Bith to come with him to perform this ritual, for moral support if for nothing else, but decided in the moments before that he ought to construct the saber completely alone. Being the reasonable and kind person he was, Dune agreed to wait outside.
As Ben emerged, having wiped the tears from his eyes, he smiled at Dune and held out his newly crafted lightsaber.
"Not so bad, huh, Knight Rhur?"
Dune had recently been promoted to Jedi Knight--an honor which Ben knew the Bith to deserve. Still, Ben found himself constantly searching his own feelings for traces of envy--Ben's greatest fault.
