Private Eternal flame

[Stardust Solus Skirae]

The library was massive, even more so then stardust could ever hope to create, she was already 2 hours into exploring the library that Darth Carnifex had created on malsheem. It took her mind off the fact she was in the home of her worst enemy and she was learning things she'd otherwise have to seek out in the far reaches of the galaxy right here within this massive palace, finding something she wanted she grabbed it and began to pour over the information before her, forgetting she was in the home of the enemy for just a bit.

There was but two things stardust strived for, knowledge and the ability to be able to learn all the knowledge to come, however age was beginning to be a thing stardust could not push off for long. Stardust needed a better way then using her age renewal chamber which while effective she could only use it every 8 years or so before she had to go back for the procedure and even then that wasn't enough. If that place was ever wiped out she would lose her only way and needed another option.

So far she wasn't finding anything viable, either what she found alluded to full dark side corruption or being a jedi ghost...sighing in annoyance she sat in a chair looking over some irrelevant information to take her mind off her issue

Ahani Najwa-Zambrano

 

[Ahani Najwa-Zambrano]

Fine place, a library. Tons of useless information surrounding a few nuggets. Like heck I need the section on 'cooking tubers' or 'child-rearing' at my age. Or those little stories, which never happened. I'd've known, I'd remember... I think... truth is stranger and more wild than fiction, and it's a great deal more fun to throw a golden coconut into the middle of a pre-industrial society and watch them rustle around making a godling out of it over a few decades in any case. So what, then, am I doing in a library?

Not picking out picture holos for the children, I encourage my kids to have a much more... hands on education. While my days on Malsheem are far more lucid than I usually desire, something is currently tying me down to this place like cortosis ties down lightsaber beams. Maybe my Apprentice Skorvek needs me, or... "Oh hullo."

Twi'lek looks about as happy to be in the library as I am.

"... have I fekked you over before?" Green skin, black markings... something about the aura is almost familiar. Fire or grit teeth... "Growl for me. C'mon! Come on, show me your teeth when you snarl."

It'll come to me, it always does eventually.

"Nooo that wasn't it..." An arena flickers in my conscious mind, a bunch of nearly feral bits of people frothing at the mouth over some girl and her nanny in the middle of a pit. Spectators in the stands... "Naw, it wasn't you that I fekked over, it was the bloke. The.... sourpuss with compensation issues... wasn't it?"

I poke my nose so close to this being's Lekku I can see the texture of her skin, and still nothing but a vague familiarity of the time before Taeli made me lucid. Okay, repatched my brain from its' disassembled bits.

"Mmmmmmmnnnnnooooooooo... got a match?" Nothing.

Stardust Solus Skirae

 

[Stardust Solus Skirae]

She was deep within some book on the several attempts of immortality, seemed like a book compiled of other smaller books but it offered very little of what she didnt know much to her annoyance. A presence entered the library a oddly familiar one she had met before yet she couldn't place a finger on who it was...turning her head she came nearly face to face with Ahani Najwa-Zambrano babbling in about if she fekked over stardust or not.

Squinting her eyes a little stardust was trying to tack her brain for when she last saw ahani...last she could remember was maybe...the arena? No that was years ago and definitely not the last time she saw the star mother. Ah! Yes star remembered now! It was when she lost her memory and star had visited gunnr! Giving a smile she chuckled even when ahani was nearly nose to lekku

I was there when you fethed over that man, in fact I was against you at the time, but the last time I truely saw of you was I believe a say after gunnr had her newborn...my memory then was shattered and I knew not the danger of where I was or who's presence I was in

She said as she began to move nearby for another book and opened it while keeping aware of ahani

 

[Ahani Najwa-Zambrano]

“If you knew the danger not, was the danger present? Were you ignorant, or acting on instinct, when little Adara brought you to us?” I flump my back against a litany of holos and books, honest old tomes. “Do you define danger by your experience, or by external factors? I could reorder the atoms of the atmosphere around you, turn the oxygen-nitrogen mix into toxic gas. Heck, could consume the nearest star into a black hole and swallow us all into its’ event horizon. Am I dangerous? Are you in danger as we speak?”

Maybe it’s the way she recognizes alpha predators, or maybe the woman’s gotten my interest, or more rightly, I want to see what my beautiful wife thought of as a sibling (having none myself, mother long dead before brothers or sisters could swell her). Hands in my pockets, I blow at the air and it crackles and poofs into multicoloured clouds of gasses which drift harmlessly about.

“You knew no danger that day because you weren’t in any. Kaine was celebrating Gunnr’s defeat of labour as any proud Panathan father would celebrate, by taking their older children out to also defeat a vicious monster in his wife’s honour. I ensured my wife's safety, mopped her brow and swaddled the infant. Allowed you entry, as family should celebrate birth the way all mothers should celebrate life. Sure, in another time and place, meeting the infamous Kaine Zambrano might cause you harm, but is danger a constant state, or a mutable one? Just as these bodies, which age, well, if you’re not me they age, but… I suppose I age in a way. No, I live, I don’t age… what on Malsheem are you filling your Twi’lek brain with? Dashes and sigils. Bits of blah-blah. How can you tell that book’s not dangerous?”

Stardust Solus Skirae

 

[Stardust Solus Skirae]

Stardust was listening to ahani, she raised a good question about how danger was defined, this caused stardust to look up from her book and her brow furrowed for a second as she thought about it then closed her her book

when the man you've faced for a good chunk of your mandalorian life is there before you even if I was unaware it was still a danger, however I suppose then I wasn't who I am now in fact that was a different part of me. By his grace I'm not in danger where I stand, he is gracious enough to allow me access to this massive library

She tossed the book up and with ease placed it back in its place with the force, turning to ahani fully she looked her in the eye

actually, I seek the way for my body to never age, for my soul to never die, a way for if my physical body dies I can be anchored to this world. But I know not the proper way. I wonder if it is something i will have to make myself, a way for the dragon to become a Phoenix

She worried not about her goals being placed up front, why should she? Her quarrel was no longer with the dark lord she had better targets and quests

perhaps, instead of books and old tomes filled with what has been done, i should look to a living being like yourself who HAS obtained such immortality

 

[Ahani Najwa-Zambrano]

“Gunnr is gracious. Kaine? Is tactful. There lies another sincere difference, something your Yasha recognized from the age of twelve. Kaine sees reason as a method to acquire his long-game. Thus, bite not the hand, receive no scars. That is, if he sees you as a being at all, and not a cog inside another of the galaxy’s machines. Naw, you? You were and are precious to her, thus, welcome to the library. Doubt he remembers your name, heck, at least he can name your species. If it doesn’t matter to his machinations, it’s fog on a dewy morning field.” The twitch of her lekku, a shift to shoulders so proud. Those are my guides to Stardust Solus Skirae and her desires.

“Ah! A being who tells the truth!” I flop back against the wall and slide down to the floor in relief! This one didn’t consider a lie, or some story or allegory I can read from her muscles was a series of half-truths. “By the sun, it’s been ages since someone’s come out with it! Boom! Actually, I want to be immortal. Finally! How refreshing.”

A shake of my head and a bought of soft laughter, and I wring my fingers through long silver hair. “Well if that’s all, you won’t find the answers in those books. What do you want to be immortal for? Got a set of thighs you really don’t want to leave behind? Don’t give me the whole ‘galactic conquest’ thing either. What’s the point? No, really, what is the point of immortality?”

 

[Stardust Solus Skirae]

carnifex interest me, he is a man I wonder how he got to where she is now...what journey led him to wish the galaxy wiped and renewed under him...but thoughts for another time

With that stardust waved her hand off like the idea was some mere leaf in the wind, instead her eyes focused on Ahani Najwa-Zambrano as stardust gave her signature grin then a laugh deep from her lungs as she shook her head and moved to one of the windows

galactic conquest isnt my sort of thing, wheres the fun in that? It would seem boring once you obtain it, just to be on the top and in a moment you could lose it all, no I seek immortality for a different reason.

Stardust turned towards ahani again standing tall, there wasn't a part of her that betrayed her determination for this goal

I want to learn all there is, all theres been, and ALL there shall be. Even if I must mean I will watch carnifex burn this galaxy to the ground....I shall be there to watch and record it...to build a massive library bigger then this! A place to store all the collective info...

She looked back to the outside as she took a deep breath

the point of immortality...heh isnt that a question we shall never answer yes? For that answer lies in the one who obtains it therefore the answer is vast...but it is a curse I've already made my peace with...I shall see my bloodline expand a thousand times! I will lose people again and again...in the end I'll be just myself

 

[Ahani Najwa-Zambrano]

"Now that,” I waggle my finger in the Twi’lek’s direction, a smirk to my pert lips. Might’ve been a throw-away for her to wonder, but it’s a whole lot easier to understand than immortal life. “Only Gunnr knows. Back when she was Yasha, and they curled together in the dark, they shared many things the rest of us do not know… no… those two shared hellacious times…”

My head shakes and I let it, leaning against stacks of books. The laughter chuckles heartily out of my chest like the release of a decompressed airlock.

“He is a cruel man, and the utter definition of apathy if you do not bring some vague form of gain, but there is love in him. So boundless he buried it so far removed from his conscious state Gunnr is its’ only keeper, and thus Gunnr is the most integral piece of flimsy matter in this universe. Why else do you think he brought her back? He’s lost lovers before. Wives.” I shake my head, as if the thought’s only now hit me, who shares his bed. A useful oddity, a timeless wanderer who controlled stars in the palm of my hands. Of course the great Zambrano would claim such a force as his own, as if by claiming my body he could make use of my sense of time.

“Two lost and torn children, forced by cruelty and circumstance to mature too fast. Who both fought more battles than most can count, then found each other after decades of the Living Force’s dancing waves pushing them constantly into singularity. And we wonder why he held her soul in his hands, utterly and viciously angry at those who kept her from him, then gave her every fathomable mercy? Him, the Dark Lord of the Sith, a man so blackened, worshipped as a God Corrupted, even his eyes aren’t white? He, who sees all others as abstract cogs? Those of us who tend his needs receive affection. But look at what Gunnr is. Look at what she can do and consider she is the other side of him. One clung to in light and dark.

Gunnr makes plants grow, she gives birth to healthy and powerful children, she dotes on those whom she cares for, and her heart is so full of care, yet fierce in protection. Gunnr is the life left in his veins, the courtly symbol of rejuvenation after the destruction’s done. And he is her pain. Her anger and anguish and hatred. Would you not burn the Galaxy to cinders to ease the ones you love?”

Knowledge, books, a bunch of things and spaces for words. Still, not a terrible reason to live forever. I kick off the library cabinet, a few tomes scatter across the floor. I walk on, through the monotony of books and holocrons.

“Why is it nobody considers bringing their loved ones back? If you figure out your own immortality, don’t you think you’re ninety nine percent the way to bringing them around again, too? Sure, we lose people. We lose people in a regular life. C’mon! Hurry up, we’ve got a ways to go. If you’re going to collect all knowledge, I’ve got to get you fit for it, and probably toss you at Taeli Raaf at some point, but yeah. Come on, Stardiddles.”

Stardust Solus Skirae

 

[Stardust Solus Skirae]

Stardust listened, however she found herself trying to cone up with excuses, true star remembered seeing carnifex give affection to gunnr once though the memory was as foggy as when all her memories were. Her brows scrunched up and her face contorted in a bout of rage that swelled up before it dissipated in a bit of a small heat wave. Turning away whole stars mind worked it over she let a breath out and shook her head

She had better things to worry about, plenty of time to figure that out later when time wasn't a worry

Turning back towards ahani stardust had calmed herself down and pushed the issue in the back of her mind like she had plenty of other issues

heh... yeah I suppose we do lose people in regular life...what's the difference between the two right?

She moved to follow when she was caught off guard by the nickname...stardiddles? Stardust wondered how this woman even achieved immortality she was so...out of it? Careless? No maybe those weren't right...maybe? Regardless the name Taeli Raaf made her perk up as she spoke

I've actually been meaning to...contact her at some point...there is something I need to apologize for that I know can never be forgiven

 

[Ahani Najwa-Zambrano]

I hiss a sigh out of her nose, hands still in the pockets of my linen trousers. I like linen, it’s soft and dry, a plant fibre which reminds me of planetary days, instead of the decades in space.

“You’re not used to being lost, are you, sis’rho? Not used to your convictions being twisted about or maimed by a reality far less Light or Dark or null, eh?” I flip my palm, the pale silvery skin of a purebred Echani a thousand years removed rom the now, at a time when our skin was near white. And the black fire of the Force on the other, passionate and bold. Contemptuous in its’ lack of heat.

Stardust Solus Skirae provides enough of that.

“Nothing in the universe can keep a being alive, if they lack direction and purpose. If knowledge is the only reward you seek, a computer could commit to your function. You must have a more intrinsic reason. Something more… sapient and familial.” I reach for her hand, caring little for the heat. “Come along. You must know what you seek for the millstone it is.”

Upon contact with her skin, I discorporate our bodies into their constituent atomic clouds. Break us apart, as simple for me at this state as it probably feels overwhelming for one who is not used to leaving their bodies so utterly behind. We rise like vapour on the breeze, the soul and spirit and mean existence of us riding on the emphatic wills we both possess. Up, through the cold detached metal and into the heavens, where space and time are easier bent by the Starmother. No air to breathe, no lungs to breathe it, nothing but incorporeal one-ness with the fragments of the universe. Nothing, not a body or an Echani and a Twi’lek, but a sigh upon the vacuum.

"Watch carefully, my young Apprentice." A gracious silver cloud, I pull us backward, through the fabric and down to the grounding moment, the day I became immortal.

“This Galaxy, the entire universe is in a constant contraction of labour-pangs, soaked in the sweat of its’ own exertions as life begets death, and through the volcanic ash, new life.” A woman thrashes on a prison pit’s floor. Broken wrist coddled into her chest on one elbow and both knees, sobbing. It is my younger self, nine hundred years from this point, in a prison under Kashyyk’s massive forests. I watch as yet again my mind shatters with the Voice in the Dark, and with that final release, my infilling of the Force’s power. “He’d slaughtered my husband to coax Manu to fall, after torturing Urdu and I for years, when Manu refused to barter for us. Didn’t work. Ineffable, my firstborn son, truly ineffable. The Force came so easy to Manu, my Blessed Child, in most cultures a woman’s life is a much harder and worse fought affair. So blessed, my little boy. In that gift, a sword.”

 

[Stardust Solus Skirae]

even if its explained to me, even if I see it I cannot comprehend it, I do not understand carnifex and I do not understand how he can be so evil so down right dark and yet you say he possesses things like feeling of love and affection its just...irrational

There was a growl at the last word, stardust once more searching the air for answers that just would just instantaneously appear. Looking back to ahani star almost seemed offended

but what good would a computer do if I couldn't experience and FEEL it all happening before me? Sure it could be simulated but what's the point at that moment...its just simulated

The hand reaches to her, at first her own moved away before star looked to her own hand, one that was of synthetic flesh, metal, and wiring. One she longed to truely be able to feel once again and grasped the hand of the star mother

What happened next was something star could only describe as dying but yet she still existed, she tried to gasp and even let a Yelp of surprise out yet she felt no intake of air, she was just a emerald colored cloud next to a silver one. There was no sensation of being solid at all it was like she was...merely air upon the wind was the best way to describe it

Then came those words, words stardust hadn't heard in decades...not to mention being referred to as young...but to the star mother stardust was but barely becoming of age. Looking upon the scene below or well was star looking? Regardless the scene played out before her whole the words flowed over her senses as she 'glanced' to the cloud beside her confused yet content to watch on

manu...that name is....familiar to me yet I do not remember the face or person it goes to

 

[Ahani Najwa-Zambrano]

“Ohhh my Stardust.” I cluck my tongue, still the mother even with someone who appears closer to my body-age. “Careful, I might show you.”

Matter and energy, conversions meant to be understood by physicists and theoretical scientists flow in interplay. The phase variance of our current state an echo of the stardust I may with time reforge into new worlds. It is… discombobulating to say the least. Took me quite a long while to get used to the sensations and the lack of others, when after a hundred years locked in my body within the Krystalsøvn I first understood my nomenclature. Darth Gyaumchem, Mother of the Blessed, the Starmother.

“Manu, who through marriage to Queen Erryn of the Echani became Manu Xextos as is fitting for a man to take his wife’s lauded name. The Blessed Child, blessed of the Force in abundance since his first breath. You meet him, his being echoes across your timeline even now.” Deep beneath the earth, my younger self struck the compacted dirt with my one good fist. I wailed long, a dying animal’s predatory bleat. The shadow shifted from our perspective, a man with long silver hair and Dark-tainted eyes. “He came to kill me, Manu wouldn’t turn so why keep his mother alive?”

“Finally… finally.” The agonic wail morphed in timbre to a series of panted roars, a strike of my fist, another roar. No one to tend or care for, no husband to be strong for as Urdu shattered in the damp cell. Each roar became more ferocious, embittered. The Blessed Child, the Force came easy to the Blessed Child, the son of a teenaged girl, who ran and kept running until he was old enough to pitch off the hatch of the shuttle over Naboo. “Urdu was dead, and Manu wasn’t coming to rescue me. Not when he had the entire planets of Eshan and Thyrsus to protect and the Jedi to wrangle. Palpatine died a handful of years prior, a dozen tops. The Galaxy was shattered. I remember so clearly the words, which damned me. The only thing which could damn a traditionalist Echani midwife, who put herself through school as a spacer on an old rickety shuttle to save her kid from planetary emotional residues caused by his overabundant blessing in the Light.”

“I… hate him.” Silver eyes craned from filthy, harrowed eyelids and emaciated cheeks. “I hate you Manu… I hate you…. the Blessed Child, I hate you… I curse you. I hate you…”

The tears poured, a caged nexu rolling to her knees as she noticed the intruder, who swooped down and cradled the suddenly worthy and important woman… The image shifts, Kashyyk’s underbelly gone for cosmic nebulae and a planetoid formed from what appeared to be crystalline matter. Manu and the Dark one in battle, my former husband who married the woman he tortured because of her strength to withstand and endure. And there, unhappy me in desperation to salvage my son or my life-mate. Hands flung between them, as their lightsabers came micron to micron closer to the kill. Crystal formed from the nebulous stardust, encased their lightsabers then their skin and muscle and bone.

“I hate my firstborn child. The sheer detestable state of a mother’s hatred and child’s love burned into our souls. I stay, cursed midwife of the universe and all its’ exertions until the day that hatred dies to a new and profound love. This is the punishment of my immortality, and in its’ wisdom I shall remain.” The Krystalsøvn expands and contracts through time, the death-blows in medias interuptas as He and Manu lingered in a battle too equally matched for my heart’s hope. Solid crystal, and my conscious body locked to the spot, where a scream begat the formation of a new planet, a new world. One jagged and potent, but silent as our vacated graves. “What is love, Stardust? What is hate?”

Centuries pass, and Stardust ventures with me, locked in spot, transfixed on the intrinsic battle between purest darkness and hallowed light. The crystal cracks, I and Manu released by a descendant Chandaari Queen. And as I fumbled, corporeal and temporal once more, the wisdom of many voices, many times and eons and worlds cracked my mind to dust.

I linger within the insanity of my past, I let Stardust feel the hopelessness, the fractured sentences and thoughts which tumbled and bit at my shins like a hungry Vornskyr. Head so full of many, many things. Of past and future things, of peoples’ body language and their weapons and the tides of wars I had no context for beyond ‘mine’, ‘no mine’. And in the panic, and the dim overwhelmed flow of information, my little daughter Raya’s voice, and a familiar crushgaunt on my cheek. I can hope this parable teaches through experience, the arts of immortality. Or that it sits well in Stardust’s consciousness, to show her the road.

Stardust Solus Skirae

 

[Stardust Solus Skirae]

huh?

Star was both curious yet she didnt inquire any further, instead she turned her attention back to the scene below, watching it with awe and interest. Great respect and reverence even coming to mind for the woman before her and it even made star think...this woman could see back into the pas...could she have seen the future? Did she know one day stardust would arrive? To ask for this secret. Many questions grew within her mind as she continued to watch and feel what she had felt. 'Looking' towards Ahani Najwa-Zambrano she spoke

love is...the deep affection for something that brings joy...it could make a terrible day into the best and the opposite for hate. Hate is something you despise and rather not see...it can ruin a good day

With that stardust continued to watch as the arts of immortality was laid out before her, all the tools she needed the entire way to obtain it, she felt herself reaching for it but stopped. This wasn't her way, it didnt feel like it was earned, instead her senses came back to her as now her path was lit and she would use this to her advantage

I see now the path I must go, thank you ahani, for showing me.

 

[Ahani Najwa-Zambrano]

“That is a child’s answer, one for a Padawan or Apprentice seeking simple rules. Not a Master’s. We Masters of the Force do not hold the luxury of such stark approaches. Dig deeper…” I sigh, the very thing Stardust Solus Skirae rejects viewing is that which can help her understand not solely immortality, but the more important place she will hold in the universe. Without such context, no immortality will join with a sense of person. Stardust would end, but her essence stretched and remained as fractured dust. As empty as the man I married, had he not found his Bride.

“An example then, a story. Kaine Zambrano is from your point of view as monstrous as a pile of innocent corpses is horrific, and you are not wrong. He destroys and decimates and poisons almost anything in his grasp.” The face of the Butcher King, despoiler of all he consumes unless it sees some mystic use to his goals. Dark and dour and pale of skin, hair long or short, bearded or clean shaven. The many faces of my husband. “That is his function. Would you charge a Nexu with murder because it hunts to survive? Put a dragon on lettuce and kale to save bantha or the odd virgin? What of the simple mushroom? Its’ function is to expedite decay, to bring the essential nutrients out of that which died or must die. Would you fend it off, destroy each one to allow only a certain amount of matter to function? What happens when there is stale permanence? The Galaxy, all life becomes a holding pattern, stagnation reigns unimpeded and you will very well accomplish your goal of consuming all knowledge. No new knowledge could take root.”

Outward now, so far beyond the planets the arcs of the Galaxy’s expanse prick at our senses. The Galaxy churns and roils, its’ spindle arms contract and expand with eons innumerable. No map matters here, nor colours or flags of empires, unions, confederacies. At this scale they are but the silly drapery of youths at play. So many cacophonous stories, the lives of trillions passing and beginning in seconds and here, the churl. The deepest vacuum, the purest light. Infinite cold and warmth, radiant from various nebulae, and it all seems so…. insignificant. Yet, a single duo’s lives can explain the macrocosm in a way many theorists would beg or cleave off limbs to purchase in their wits.

“Hate is neither the absence of love, nor its’ doppelgänger. Hate, love, they both bespeak of the same fount. The same initiating power, as none can exist without the other. Jedi teach detachment, I could never master such ludicrous philosophy. Not when you see the universe from a proper sense of scale.” Out still, at such speed the uninitiated could be discombobulated even more, out until the Galaxy itself is but a revolving ring around a blackened core. “Hatred tears down matter, love transmutes it. Without decay there can be no love, no life. Hate and love are processes, not the raw Forces which twist the spindle-arms of our Galaxy. This place, this flimsy matter is neither so cold or clinical to drift between peace and dystopia for the sheer heck of it.

Passion, Stardust. The compelling wellspring creates from its’ fountain hatred and love, twin children of the Galactic Mother. What is love, and what is hate? What reason would you give these stars to toss their energy into your extended life? How would you persuade them to keep you, embolden you? Would a star burn into your hand, expelling its’ eons to your welfare for a threat you could not possibly enact? No. Be passionate. Grip onto a concept so tightly and with all you possess until you realize you possess nothing but the passion to endure in its' name. Thus is the true Dark of the Force. The grip and its’ empty palm.

If you seek knowledge, but seek not the truth of Kaine and your sister, you are destined to his impediments. Another inch of work at immortality with an ulterior method, will create the same emptiness you see in the Butcher King. Passion is the purest energy aside from the flinch of fear. Where does your passion lie? Have you hidden it, whiled it away, repressed your root? Show me. Where would you extend your grip?”

 

[Stardust Solus Skirae]

Star was dumbfounded, he answer was...simple? Stardust being a master level with the force with the ability to manipulate fire on levels that were good like...hadn't spent much time in philosophy

The cloud of sea green was afloat with confusion as new things were shown and open to stardust, who at 60 years old, was now just barely beginning to grasp at the true scope of the universe. The universe which was but a speck of sand in the cosmic infinity of time and space. She looked among the as of the galaxy as she felt her world being shifted experiencing such sensations that many would never feel nor even begin to think of, while stardust refused to even understand carnifex she knew that if she didnt heed the words of the star mother she would end up like carnifex single minded and empty

Stardust refused to let that happen

Her passion, what was her passion again? She spread fire anywhere she could and tended to the fields which she called her own. She was a being of war and life, destroying what was agaisnt her while she grew plants and even gave most if not all sometimes away. Her senses reached put, forming a sort of hand towards the galaxy before it stopped as stardust spoke

no ones asked me about my passion in so long...I've nearly forgotten...what it was...but..

Stardust reached out looking through the many planets

i... am the bringer of fire...I am the bringer of of death and scarring. But in that I've created fields of wheat that span for miles, ive quelled the fires that spread wildly...for fire is both death and...a new start

She stopped, her grip stopped on nothing and had in fact returned to seeing the universe once more

I've helped people, ive killed people, I've fed people and I've starved them wih my flames...and through that I've watched and learned...my passion is to make fertile ground through the all consuming flames I command

The hand returned back to the cloud

balance...fire is balance. I've used it for both good and bad...its...its purpose is null and it is not inherently evil...like you said with carnifex that is how he is...as I am how I am...

It was slowly if even just a tiny bit starting to come to sense

 

[Ahani Najwa-Zambrano]

“Cling to passion alone. What is anger, but a filament of passion? A pocket for passion misused? You are the bringer of fire, the emerald dragon. Your flame will survive, not because you want certain things, which can shift with time, but because that flame, the aspect which defines you is necessary to the continuation of this entire plane. You, who bring death and birth life. You, who help and hinder. Learn this lesson, and prepare your mind for the penalty of immortality clung to prior to enlightenment.” Maybe I’m pushing the Twi’lek too far. Could be, I’ve melted brains enough in my time. Not as many as Raya’s musical choices, but it’s a close second.

“That which you cannot love, you cannot hate. Not that all hatred is love undefined, but hatred comes from love, and in this case the love of those who suffered at the hated one’s hands.” We veer down through the miasma, in and down, back into the micro-scale until we hover not long ago. A few scant days perhaps, it’s silly. I spend my time viewing the universe by causal events and escalations, not by days or time charts. Back to the moment Stardust Solus Skirae saw Gunnr and realized what was done.

“Erase what you know of Kaine Zambrano. This could be any two people, concentrate on the movement only not the words. Concentrate on what you see, not the shock of it. Look at them.” There they stood, Stardust, Skorvek, Kaine and Gunnr. Kaine’s arms fold around the mighty woman, he tilts her chin and at this scale we can witness the clench of his fingers to her back, the wide posture of his feet, how close her hand presses to his chest. Confusion splays on Gunnr’s face, as wide eyes, vulnerable and open stare with an innocence denied most into her husband’s face. While it appears Kaine’s face is always chiselled from limestone, the cast of his eyes, tilt of his chin speak sagas to my Echani language. One cannot hide the truth of their bodies, when they are so close. “What if it were true? What if the great desecrating evil of the Galaxy looked upon your sister and experienced a love so guttural it shook the last of his mercy and restraint? What if, beyond the initiating grand manipulation and yes, at first it was manipulation, it developed into the perfect example of the interconnected states of love and hate as processes of Passion? Look past your hatred, and see them.”

He tilts her head, presses his lips to hers and we pause in this state. Two statues of paragon Epicanthix genomes enraptured, consumed.

“Can you imagine the gut-wrench, watching one you love so haunted she spent every second in armour, slept once a few days or week depending on stims and the hungry ungrateful need of too many? Imagine seeing her hide, protected by his enemy while she held his sons in her arms? Now, when she left the mantle behind, sought freedom of a simpler life…” The vision shifts again, a spy drone hovered around the Erebos compound, where Yasha and her wife and spouse lingered as others laboured for the Mandalorians. And again, to Adara clinging to Yasha’s wrist, begging her mother not to don her armour. Not to save Mandalore… let it burn. “… see how he pulled back. If I did not see the truth of them, I might’ve walked in there, grabbed her by the scruff of her neck and taken her home myself. But Yasha was not my lesson. It was his. That is why I am showing you this, why you have been conflicted by Kaine Zambrano for decades. He is an easy foil, the destroyer without life, the consumer who takes all which could be lit alight by your righteous flames. And yet here he is, holding his bride, their children finally safe and as an Empire crumbled, she stood beside him. Only after he tore the remnants of hers down, to bring her home. Mandalore had a grip on her soul, you know this, you saw it. She loved Mandalore as if its’ atmosphere alone could sustain her lungs.

Now tell me, Stardust of Clan Solus, Clan Cadera. Was… he… wrong?” This, the lesson of passion of seeing beyond the dichotomy of Light and Dark lies before her, and I hope Stardust hears what I say. “Think of the scale of the Galaxy, when it fit in the palms of our hands. Do we condemn decay for its’ function? Do we despise fire for its’ penchant to blister the skin? We must, those of us brought to the gates of immortality, see the universe from a larger sense of scale. And we must use caution to know when to interfere, and when to allow the course of time to flow unimpeded by our selfish ways. Was Kaine wrong in what he did to your sister? Was he wrong to rid her of her traumas and pain?”

 

[Stardust Solus Skirae]

Passion. Stardusts passion was within her fiery nature, the urge to move wildly like a flame, letting a deep sigh out or well its equivalent stardust continued to watch and listen as they were brought down to a very very famailar scene so recent on stars mind. She watched everything before her focusing on body language as stardust wanted to look away but knew that if she'd not heed the words of her new master she would perish in her attempt to reach the goal of hers

Then cane the question that hit stardust hard, the question that pounded at those cracking walls of he rmond walls she had erected to protect herself to solidify her will enough to keep on going. Emotions bubbled up like rapidly rising magma before it broke loose as she finally let herself crack apart

no! No he wasn't!

Came a harsh sad wail from the cloud of green

I wanted to see her at peace! I want to see my sister finally at rest to enjoy life but i was trapped in the mindset like her! I thought my life was to be dedicated to mandalore and as such i was dedicated with yasha

Everything flowed out finally, a massive tidal wave of truth

and when SHE died when the clans fell apart I've wondered lost from group to group watching them fall while trying to find my purpose. I've had nothing but anger and passion that was unguided.

If she could cry in this form stardust would be on her knees doing so

all I've got is my passion for war, my passion for life, my passion for death, and my passion to learn. While I may be surrounded by those I love dearly I still feel alone ahani...just another aging warrior trying to learn to late the reason for everything...trying in vain to extend her life even if it was negatively effecting her..

Her words cane as a whisper, her walls torn down and now finally to her lowest once more
Ahani Najwa-Zambrano

 

[Ahani Najwa-Zambrano]

And there it is, the break. When one defines their universe in Us versus Them, finding even a spark of kindness or mercy in the nebulous Other usually ends in either bursts of anger or tears. One decides whether to reject the information, burrow back into their hidden and shallow pool. Stardust has not.

Good! I won’t have to bring a brain-addled hospital case back and explain the mess to my wife. Sorry! Mind-bent your sister, she didn’t make it. Mind the mess, discorporated bodies don’t recompile right without intense mental acceptance. Maybe I should explain that before we go on mind warping trips through reality…….. nah!

As Stardust redefines the universe through her inner and outer vision, I redefine her. Every cell, every bit of body, the flick of her lekku. I stand beside her kneeling form on a beach, the warm sand radiating through my bare feet, a calm breeze flickering at the linen of my trousers and my tunic. Once Stardust Solus Skirae looks up, she will see the spire of a temple formed of rock and crystal, once she feels beyond her agony, the pressure of peace can descend upon her rattled bones.

“Mandalorians are strange creatures.” I dig my toes into the sand and settle, hands once more in my loose pockets. “They cite honour and a simple children’s poem code, defend each other when the mood strikes, but bite their leaders into bits if not all choices are followed. They are more capricious than the Force, more dangerous than Vong, or a crazed pack of Rancor. Yet, capable of honour and regard. Absolute warriors, if there are not enough outward battles, they slash at themselves. It is… enigmatic to my Echani sensibilities. They both need the tether of a Mand’alor, and contest the requirement with blood and bile.”

I let the commentary slide on, as a figure clad in the white robes of a Jedi bleached in Sabarene’s sun exits the Temple. Descending on my haunches, I set a hand on Stardust’s shoulder.

“We are alone. Every being in this Galaxy is alone, until we see our place in the great fabric of all things. Be fire. Claim it, as you claim breath and love and the cantankerous bash of shield and sword. You are unique, because you will yourself to be unique, because you were touched by a soul who fought to live forever…”

A masculine sigh breaks the whispered words from my black-stained lips, the long shadow of a man nigh as tall as Stardust, but thin and silver of hair, pale of skin. My firstborn son, Manu Xextos . “What are you filling her head with… mother?”

“Manu, this is Stardust. Yasha’s sister.”

“Fine, come inside. Ahani’s mind-fekkery can turn a body into knots, let’s… come. Lucky you, I put on some tea.” Manu rubbed his face with his hands and shook his head. I can taste the Light in him, the Blessed Child and his infinite graces. Mercies I can never possess. A flash of jealousy, gritted and whole, flash across my body, how I hate his lack of struggle with the Light. How it came so easy for him, when those of us who found the Force in other ways crawled through mud.

 

[Stardust Solus Skirae]

It hurt, her entire soul hurt, all the grief she had been suppressing and forcing down as she went into battle after battle letting her rage guide her flames. Now though all she felt was like as if she had finally given up.

Slowly sensations came back, though stardust didnt quite know/was paying attention to the return of sensation. After it was all done stardust noticed it was warm on her skin, then saw the sand beneath her that had drops of tears soaking deep into it, she looked up towards the temple unlike anything she had seen before and soon towards the sun as she closed her eyes and tilted her head back extend her arms like a hug as she let the light bathe over her body. She felt so...calm now...at peace! There was no strife within her soul anymore just simply peace. After a minute or so she let a steady breath out and looked to ahani as she spoke more words of wisdom as start wiped her nose and gave a soft smile

i... will ensure your words never leave me

A jedi was approaching, stardust didnt react like usual and stand in a defensive pose if anything she trusted ahani to not bring them somewhere dangerous er....well ok maybe a little. This was manu, a name who was so familiar but without a face, standing slowly she wiped some sand off her armor and then without a thought she started walking to follow the man, however she stopped and looked to ahani to see if that's what they should do