Private Forgotten Echoes

[Aadihr Lidos]

Outfit: Field Attire
Weapons: Walking stick / Lightsaber Pike | confiscated slugthrower rifle

Aadihr nodded in agreement. The defences were serving their intended purpose, he supposed. Why not let the fauna stay occupied with the fortifications for a while and scout around.

Aadihr could not see the orange hues of dusk shine through the otherwise impenetrable canopy overhead, but the forest communicated it in waves of its own feeling, the reduction in photons beginning indicating restful period of night for the upper canopy as they shared the energy collected to the jungle below with their bioluminescent vines and sap.

The forest was quick to commune with Aadihr, sharing its sensations freely as if they were the Spirit Tree itself. Perhaps that was a simplified manner of describing the blessing - the tree offering its force-light as a badge of authority to those who have appeased it. Perhaps the flora simply thought they were limbs of the spirit tree. In a less than literal sense, they almost were - acting as it's agents for its benefit.

The moss and roots shared the outline of the ruins, open gaps in the earth where they could not grow into. Azurine Varek was right, there was another entrance. It appeared to be undisturbed by fauna presently as well, though that may simply mean it's defences worked faster.

It would take several hours and sunset rapidly approached.

"That seems like a sound plan" Aadihr replied, crawling in reverse back down the hill overlooking the conflict. "There is another entrance yet undisturbed, but it is a ways off, this ruin is much more expensive than I had thought."

Aadihr stretched his neck. It had been a long day, but he would be fine in the dark - it shouldn't even be dark with the bioluminescence present - but time still brought exhaustion.

"Should we find shelter along the way? We would have to turn back if you want to rest at the Terlathi village"

Aadihr stifled a yawn.

Azurine Varek​

 

[Azurine Varek]

To Infinity And Beyond

Outfit: Clothing/Armor | Glove | Right Arm | Talisman
Weapons: Lightsaber 1 | Lightsaber 2 | Hook Swords

Azurine smirked as she watched Aadihr crawl back down the hill, his movements deliberate despite his clear weariness. "Turning back? After all that build-up about performing for Spirit Tree blessings? Not a chance," she said, light but firm. She crossed her arms, shifting her weight onto one leg as she considered his suggestion. "Besides, I don’t think whatever’s waiting in there is going to take the night off just because we decided to catch some Z’s."

Her gaze turned toward the bioluminescent glow that shimmered faintly through the underbrush, the soft light casting eerie patterns on the mossy ground. “We'll definitely be better off finding shelter nearby. This place has got enough teeth without us wandering into them half-blind and exhausted.” She paused briefly, chuckling, "Pun intended."

Azzie reached down while removing the glove from her hand, brushing her fingers lightly against a patch of bioluminescent moss-covered rock that seemed to react to her touch with ripples of blue-green glow. The texture, damp and rough, sent a faint pulse of resonance through her senses. Closing her eyes, she focused, letting the Force guide her thoughts. Images flickered through her mind—shifting shadows, the cool, damp scent of stone, and the faint trickle of water echoing off walls. A cave, hidden but not far. It was worn smooth by time, its entrance veiled by thick vines. She heard whispers of prayer and warning in a language long forgotten she couldn't understand and saw the flicker of torches against the stone walls—

Though her body shook, she only barely managed to cut the visions off before they were too much. Yanking her hand back, her breathing having sped up by a lot, she leaned out to grasp onto Aadihr’s arm to recenter herself before speaking. "You know... you sure are lucky you have a survival expert such as myself." She gave a small grin and pointed her thumb at her chest with an overly dramatic flair. The skills she’d had no choice but to learn surviving alone in the canyons of Iridonia as a child may come in handy, though they had come prepared with at least some of the things they would need. Broken branches, displaced rocks, a faint sound of sedimentary water carried on the damp breeze—all pointed her toward her destination.

Azzie didn't wait any further. She let her instincts lead her, balancing the Force's guidance with her survival understanding. By the time she reached the yawning mouth of the cave, concealed by thick, luminescent vines glowing, she could feel it. This place had once been a sanctuary, and tonight, it would be theirs.

"Home sweet cave."

Aadihr Lidos​

 

[Aadihr Lidos]

Home Sweet Cave

Outfit: Field Attire
Weapons: Walking stick / Lightsaber Pike

The cave's entrance yawned before them, its curtain of glowing vines shimmering softly in the dimming light of the jungle. Aadihr paused for a moment, his hand brushing one of the bioluminescent tendrils as it pulsed faintly at his touch. It was a stark contrast to the chaos they'd left behind—a tranquil refuge carved from the wild, shaped by time and nature into something almost sacred. He exhaled quietly, the weariness of the day's exertions pressing on him now that they’d found some measure of safety.

"Not bad, Varek," he said, his tone carefully neutral as he turned to glance at Azurine. Her confidence was as infectious as ever, and though he wouldn’t admit it aloud, he was thankful for her instincts. He watched as she surveyed the space with that blend of curiosity and determination he’d come to recognize—her presence grounding him in a way he hadn’t fully acknowledged until now.

Suppressing the thought with a shake of his head, Aadihr turned his attention to the task at hand. "Let’s make it livable for the night," he said, shrugging off his pack. He was methodical as he began unpacking supplies, setting aside a tarp and a few small survival tools. The soft glow of the cave’s natural light made it easy to work, and the rhythm of preparation helped him settle his thoughts.

The floor of the cave was uneven but dry, the mossy patches offering a natural cushion. Aadihr crouched near the center, arranging stones into a makeshift firepit. He took his time with the placement, ensuring the structure was sturdy enough to contain the flame without risking a cave fire. His fingers moved with practiced precision, though his thoughts were anything but steady.

He glanced over at Azurine as she explored the cave, her movements purposeful yet unguarded. There was a warmth to her presence, a vitality that seemed to fill the space around her. Even in the dim light, her amethyst eyes sparkled with curiosity and a hint of mischief. Aadihr found himself smiling despite himself, though he quickly turned away when she turned in his direction.

Focus. This isn’t the time for distractions.

He finished assembling the firepit and rummaged through his pack for tinder, arranging it neatly in the center. He gestured to Azurine with a faint smirk. “Your turn. Let’s see if you can light it up without burning the whole cave down.”

As she stepped closer, he caught a faint scent of her—earthy, with a hint of something sharp and metallic, like the tang of adrenaline. Or her arm. The proximity sent a ripple through the Force, their shared presence resonating in a way that felt almost... intimate. Aadihr’s jaw tightened as he forced himself to focus on the task at hand, but his traitorous thoughts lingered.

Aadihr busied himself arranging their bedrolls a safe distance from the fire, ensuring they were as comfortable as possible given the circumstances. The work gave him an excuse to avoid lingering on the increasingly insistent pull he felt toward his companion.

Still, he couldn’t help but steal glances through the force when he thought she wasn’t looking. The way the her aura highlighted her features, the faint curve of her smile as she muttered some joke under her breath—it was distracting in a way that unsettled him. He’d always prided himself on his composure, but around Azurine, he found himself slipping, caught off guard by the way her presence seemed to fill the spaces he hadn’t realized were empty.

The Terlathi ritual flickered in his mind, unbidden. The way the forest had teased and nudged them toward each other, the way it had almost seemed to know. Aadihr shook his head again, his hand brushing against the cool stone as he straightened one of the bedrolls. The middle of a mission is no place for this kind of thinking, he chastised himself. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t quite suppress the quiet warmth blooming in his chest.

As they settled into the camp, Aadihr found himself more attuned to the subtle ways he was giving himself away. The way his hand lingered just a moment too long when passing her the canteen, the slight hesitation before meeting her gaze, the ripple in the Force that seemed to echo his unspoken thoughts. He could feel her awareness of it too, the gentle tug of her presence brushing against his like a question left unanswered.

Despite his best efforts, the atmosphere in the cave grew undeniably more intimate. The fire’s soft crackle filled the space, and the natural acoustics amplified the sound of their breathing, their movements. Aadihr settled against the wall of the cave, his back to the cool stone as he let the tension in his shoulders ease. He gestured to the space across from him, inviting Azurine to join him.

The night stretched ahead, quiet and full of potential. Though the mission loomed large in his mind, Aadihr couldn’t shake the sense that this moment—this quiet, shared pause—was just as significant. For now, he decided to let it be, content to simply exist in her presence and let the Force guide whatever came next.

"I'm sorry I've been... Quiet this whole time" Aadihr said, unsure of how to address the situation, or if he even should.

Azurine Varek​

 

[Azurine Varek]

To Infinity And Beyond

Outfit: Clothing/Armor | Glove | Right Arm | Talisman
Weapons: Lightsaber 1 | Lightsaber 2 | Hook Swords

Azurine tilted her head, the flicker of amusement in her nebula-shifting violet eyes betraying her thoughts before she even opened her mouth. Smirking over her shoulder at Aadihr, she made a playful show of cracking her knuckles. “Try not to blink, or you might miss it."

Her hand rose, steady and sure. The air around it grew warmer, and faint tendrils of heat shimmered in the dim light. Then, with a quiet whoosh, a small flame leapt to life, dancing at the tips of her fingers before catching the tinder. The fire spread quickly, the dry material crackling softly as it grew into a steady flame. "Voila, one campfire." She leaned back, her expression a mixture of satisfaction and mock arrogance as she wiped imaginary soot from her hands.

Azzie's hand brushed a stray lock of hair out of her face as she took the canteen Aadihr passed her. She was too attuned to the whispers of the Force for the undercurrent between them to go completely over her head. The way his presence brushed against hers like a hesitant question—curious, cautious, but unavoidably drawn in. She crouched by the fire, prodding at the edges of the kindling with a stick as though the act required her full attention. In truth, it was a convenient excuse to keep her hands busy, to avoid addressing the way the space between them seemed to hum with words not said.

When Aadihr gestured for her to join him, she rose slowly, brushing off her knees as she crossed the small space between them. Settling across from him, she leaned back against the stone wall. The firelight played across her face as she turned her gaze to him. His lingering, eyeless glance at her prosthetic arm had caught her attention, even if it was only a brief one. She knew he'd been curious about it since the moment they met, and she'd always skirted around it.

"I lost it right after the summit that created the formal Rebel Alliance, sometime around 3 or 2 BBY, I think." Azzie started, breaking the silence with her eyes locked onto the fire. She had yet to tell everything about it to anyone other than Valery and Jonyna, until now at least. "We were ambushed. Kynn and I were captured. Ended up having to fight our way out. Our luck was just really awful that day because our way out was blocked by Darth Vader."

She paused for a moment, glancing at Aadihr. It was technically ancient history by now, and she wasn't exactly sure how much of it was infamous and how much had been lost to time. To her, though, it was a name she'd not soon forget. "Like I said before, it wasn't much of a fight. We were just desperately trying to make a run for it—get past him somehow. He used me to try to get to Kynn... and cut off my arm. I don't remember much after that except for pain and being carried out, but even that's blurry."

Azzie let out a quick sigh, running the fingers of her biological hand through her inky-black hair. "So yeah, that's the story."

Aadihr Lidos​

 

[Aadihr Lidos]

Outfit: Field Attire
Weapons: Walking stick / Lightsaber Pike

Aadihr let the silence sit for a moment. Her voice and her aura showed that she had time to process this, but the weight of her tale still hung heavy. Paired with the knowledge of her centuries in Carbonite, and what she had told him during at the cliffs and recovery of Iridonia, he mourned vicariously for her. He felt a need to connect to another robbed of their childhood, but he couldn't pretend to know how she felt.

He reached out to take her hand in a comforting gesture, scooting around the fire. He placed her hand between both of his, surprised at how cold her fingers were.

"Thank you for sharing that. It couldn't have been easy for you to open up about your past like that."

He held his tongue from saying anything further, he didn't want to finish any of her emotions by trying to console or relate to them. With something as deep and personal as that kind of grief, it would either be dishonest or naive of him to do so.

Naturally, he knew plenty about Darth Vader, one of the major players in the Battle of Yavin, which marks the year 0 in the galactic calendar. Another thing Aadihr wouldn't remark upon to avoid bringing up more trauma.

Instead, he opened himself in the force, allowing her to read, or share what she wished via psychometry. Memories served better than words, and he wanted to comfort her. Her aura has the shell of a brave face but hinted at vulnerability within, Aadihr found himself drawn to that vulnerability, to protect it - this fleeting and preciously fragile part of someone's spirit.

He didn't know what that light was, dancing throughout like a paper thin bubble of light within the hues of her aura. Aadihr vowed to protect and nurture it. It felt like the right thing to do - perhaps the force was truly guiding him for once.

His hands wrapped tighter around hers - to warm her fingers; the cold from the tips of her hands in the warmth of his palms. He hadn't noticed how close his face had gotten to hers. Their aura's intermingled, swirling back and forth in a dance, trepidation preventing them from connecting, but both alternating between reaching for the other and pulling back. Aadihr felt that same motion in his chest.

"Azurine..." Aadihr's words failed him. He didn't know what to say - part of him wanted to break the tension with a joke and flee from the swirling auras, but a greater part wanted to address it directly, to confirm she saw or felt the same thing, that he wasn't crazy and this feeling wasn't one-sided. Caught between his heart and his mind, only silence emerged from his lips.

Azurine Varek​

 

[Azurine Varek]

To Infinity And Beyond

Outfit: Clothing/Armor | Glove | Right Arm | Talisman
Weapons: Lightsaber 1 | Lightsaber 2 | Hook Swords

The silence stretched out, a taut thread threatening to snap at any moment. Azurine was aware of every shift in the air, every subtle motion as Aadihr’s hands tightened around hers. The heat of his palms seeped into her cold fingers, grounding her in a way that felt unexpectedly intimate. For a brief moment, she allowed herself to lean into it, the vulnerability in her heart pushing against the wall she so carefully constructed.

What she hadn't realized in that moment were the rippling echoes that moved to him at their touch.

Spoiler

"No. Over my dead body will I be leaving you here, Kynn! We have to go!" They didn't have much time; the plan was in motion, and if they didn't get the hell off this ship soon, they, too, would be vape bait.

"You don't know him like I do. This plan will not succeed as long as he lives." Kynn's words were sharp and planted a slow fear twisting through Azzie's gut. She could feel it on the other side of the door, the overwhelming feeling of icy cold energy as it marched closer and closer, the 13th brother. "Then we'll do this together!" Azzie started to protest, but she felt a hand against her chin, gently lifting her gaze to his. The violet of her eyes met the silvery stardust of his, and for a moment, the sounds of blaster fire and starship warfare faded into the background.

His thumb moved to her cheek and brushed a strand of her hair behind her ear. "I can't let you die here. The force has different plans for you."

Then, the room felt like it was spinning. Her consciousness was fading quickly, something she recognized as an ability of his that he'd taught to her over these years: manipulating the force to put one into a temporary state of sleep. She fought the drowsiness, but he was much more proficient in it than she was. "Please... don't do this!"

"I'm so sorry, Azzie. Forgive me."

The last thing she saw before the darkness completely closed in was the tears that rolled down his cheeks and a red saber blade that had begun to melt its way into the metal of the door.

***​

"No. No, that's not true. It can't be true! I—I don't believe you!" The darkness and pain in her mind turned to an icy cold akin to the dark side of the force, but not yet consuming. She ripped her hands away from Valery, stumbling for the opening in the metal and having to grip the edge of it to hold herself up. That is where she saw him, or at least the wispy and ghostly form of him, and she collapsed to her hands and knees (both because of the weakness still in her muscles and from the overwhelming agony lacing her mind). "No ..." Azzie clutched at the grass under her hands, her vision blurred from the tears streaking down her face. The scream ripping itself from her throat that followed was accompanied by a pulsing blast of energy outward, sending pieces of the environment outward in all directions.

They're gone. They're all dead. Raith, Arch, Baine—all of them gone. Kynn. Oh god, Kynn. Azzie pulled her hands back from the ground, one grabbing and yanking at her short raven hair while the other clutched tightly at her chest.

"I didn't ... even get to say goodbye..."

How could you do this? How could you leave me?! How could you make me leave you?! You were everything I had!

***​

The soft laughter that echoed from the both of them felt distant, almost heavy in a way, fading into a silence that would last much too long. Azzie's smile slowly faded, and her gaze fixated on the holoimage while the pain in her soul burned through any chance of peace she had for the remainder of the evening. "I miss you. I still wish I'd been with you in the end..."

"You're alive, and that's what matters," the ghost of Kynn moved to rest a hand on her shoulder when his words were met with more deafening silence, but she quickly flinched away.

"Am I? Because I feel more like a walking corpse half the time."

"Azzie—"

"I know, I know! It'll get easier. I keep hearing that." Her voice was raised at first, trailing off at the end as the silent tears trailed down her cheeks. Slowly, she stood from the chair, putting the record back in the spot she'd pulled it from. She didn't think she could stay here right now, not when her careful mask was slipping. The distorted bond that still remained between them that bound his soul away from eternity and her own stuck in a halfway state of madness, teetering on the edge, left her wondering how much longer she could survive this.

***​

All of this culminated in the painful struggle, the final goodbye, when that bond finally snapped away. While the relief was immense, the festering wounds, fear, and guilt would leave scars behind.

But then the weight of his unspoken words settled on her chest, mingling with the intensity of their shared aura. It was too much.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Azzie murmured, her voice softer than she intended, a mix of humor and something else she couldn’t quite name. She turned her head slightly, breaking the almost magnetic pull of his gaze. Her fingers twitched in his grip. She knew she could pull away, say something flippant to shatter the moment, and reclaim her usual sarcastic distance. But she didn’t. Not yet. Why? She had no idea.

Her biological hand instinctively tightened in his grasp, his aura drawing her face closer to his. Her gaze flickered to his lips, then back to the blindfold across his face, where she swore she could feel his intent as clearly as if he had eyes to display it. She swallowed hard, her usual bravado faltering as she opened her mouth to speak. “Aadihr, I—”

A sudden rustle behind Azzie snapped her focus away, and she jerked back, her prosthetic arm instinctively reaching for the hilt of one of her lightsabers. But the sound behind her didn’t repeat, and a quick sweep of the Force confirmed it—nothing threatening. Just a nocturnal creature, scurrying through the underbrush. Realizing her mistake, she let out a sharp exhale, somewhere between frustration and embarrassment.

As the tension eased, she glanced back at Aadihr. The warmth of his hands lingered like a ghost on her skin, and she felt her stomach tighten with an odd mix of regret and relief. Worse still was the guilt that gnawed at her when she felt the stirrings of affection, a heavy weight pressing on her chest. Guilt of the irritational betrayal to the ghosts of those she had lost, and fear of reckless gamble with a heart too scarred—one that she was unsure could survive the consequences. She quickly ran her hand through her short black hair and let out a nervous laugh.

It was easier to convince herself she didn't notice and that all of this was nothing more than normal between friends.

“Sorry about that,” Azzie said, her voice more even now, though the faintest flush warmed her cheeks. “Old habits die hard, I guess.” She waved a hand in the direction of the noise, her tone light, teasing to make a quick joke out of her own actions, though her heart still raced. Her sass became her defense as well as her way to lighten the air. “Watch out, though, Aadihr. That terrifying… leaf might come back for us.”

Aadihr Lidos​

 

[Aadihr Lidos]

In the Middle of the Night

Outfit: Field Attire
Weapons: Walking stick / Lightsaber Pike

A quick rustle of the underbrush and the moment was gone, as quick as the critter that made the sound.

Aadihr simply smiled, bittersweet but thankful that circumstance removed the choice from him. The Miraluka cleared his throat and replied, "Yeah, terrifying... Leaf. It was a reptilian scavenger, actually. Think a racyon with scales and a defensive frill-neck." Aadihr knew it was nearby, but forgot others viewed the world differently.

Maybe he saw the world too differently... He wanted to see through her eyes, feel what she felt, to know what she was thinking and feeling to understand her better. To safeguard that precious luminous bubble floating in her aura.

"I'll keep first watch for tonight, you go ahead and sleep, I'll wake you up early and we can switch." Aadihr said softly, still clinging to the moment as it faded away.

He carried his Sight back to the ruins stretching deep underground - the material seemed to be excavated and then lined with something blocking his Force-Sight, leaving a network of black rectangular hallways and voids where the temple must be. The waves of malice still radiated from within. More than that - there were. . . Echoes. Stirring wisps that almost resembled auras, also disturbed by the disturbances within.

On the surface, the entrance seemed to be one of three humble crypts within a graveyard - but not of Terlathi origin. The three circular structures contained remains of many different species, buried in ceremonial but largely nonfunctional armor, dessicated robes. In the center of the three buildings was a single statue, larger than life, like those found in the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. Very similar, in fact, the hooded figure holding a lightsaber may have been the same, had time not worn the distinguishing features from it. Curiously, it had a compartment within its stone, but that compartment was made of the same material that blocked his Sight.

The site has seen much death - both as a crypt and as a bloodbath. The dead were restless - both those laid to rest within and those killed attempting to explore it. He may want to attempt psychometry to get a better understanding when they arrived. Azurine Varek seemed more capable in that regard, however.

Only one of the three buildings connected to the network of corridors that ran underground, and from it the darkness propagated. Aadihr made mental notes of this, before he brought his attention back to the cave, where Azzie prepared to rest.

"We'll have our work cut out for us tomorrow - and likely the rest of the week judging from the size of the ruins. If things get hairy in there, we should retreat and share what we've learned and return with support." Aadihr suggested. The complex was indeed vast - he hoped the disturbance could be resolved without having to comb the entire structure.

Azurine Varek​

 

[Azurine Varek]

To Infinity And Beyond

Outfit: Clothing/Armor | Glove | Right Arm | Talisman
Weapons: Lightsaber 1 | Lightsaber 2 | Hook Swords

Azurine stretched her arms above her head, feeling the pull of tired muscles and the weight of the day settle into her bones. The firelight flickered across her tattoos, almost painting her in warm, shifting patterns because of it as she gave Aadihr a sidelong glance. His face was calm, his words measured, but she knew better. The way his shoulders stiffened when he talked about the ruins, the faint edge of tension in his voice—he was uneasy. She couldn’t blame him. The ruins radiated malevolence, the kind that crawled under your skin and whispered threats too quiet to hear but too sharp to ignore.

"Retreat with what we’ve learned," she muttered, half to herself, as she knelt by her bedroll. She didn’t want to retreat. She never did. She wanted to solve it, face it head-on, the way she always did. "Yeah, well, we'll cross that bridge when we get there," she said, her sheer stubbornness creeping into her tone.

Azzie's eyes flicked to the mouth of the cave, her thoughts racing ahead of her words. The crypts had a presence about them, one that pulled at her mind and heart like a distant melody. She never knew what to think with places like this. They always seemed to awaken something buried deep inside her—fear, rage, and intrigue, along with deep curiosity. She exhaled sharply, pushing the thoughts away. She would have argued with him about the watch, but her thoughts were too stationed elsewhere.

She dropped onto her bedroll, the thin padding doing little to cushion her from the cold, hard ground. "Wake me if you see anything," she said, though she doubted she’d need the reminder. Aadihr was thorough to a fault.

"I hope you’re wrong with that timeline, though." Azzie eventually said, without turning. The words felt thin on her tongue. It wasn’t hope that made her say it. No, it was more like an instinct, a refusal to give in.

Her eyes closed, but her mind refused to follow suit. Her thoughts circled back to the ruins, to the statue with its hidden compartment. Something about it gnawed at her, an itch she couldn’t scratch. She remembered the way Aadihr had described the voids, the black rectangles that even his Sight couldn’t penetrate. Why would whoever built this use a material that could block the Force like that?

Azzie rolled onto her side, staring at the faint shadows dancing on the cave wall. Aadihr’s presence was steady, a quiet reassurance as he stood watch. She trusted him with her life, but the ruins—they were another matter entirely. It left her almost shivering, something that continued even after she finally drifted off and seemed to only be made worse by the cooling night air.

Aadihr Lidos​

 

[Aadihr Lidos]

Outfit: Field Attire
Weapons: Walking stick / Lightsaber Pike

"Retreat with what we’ve learned," she muttered, half to herself, as she knelt by her bedroll."Yeah, well, we'll cross that bridge when we get there,"

"I heard that!" Aadihr said jokingly, then earnestly replied: "if it's safe enough we should have no issue, but this deep in the jungle and far enough from the starship, I don't want to get you stuck in something I can't heal" the thought turned his stomach with worry.

"I hope you’re wrong with that timeline, though."

"Me too," Aadihr mumbled. " Me too."

Aadihr let his mind wander, reflecting on the past day. Everything from the Drakarans to the Terlathi up to this moment, it felt surreal.

The chirping of nocturnal insects provided a steady backdrop of sound, through which Aadihr thought he heard teeth chatter. Anchoring his Sight back to himself, he saw Azurine shivering next to the fire, curled up, not entirely due to the cold. She seemed fast asleep regardless.

Aadihr removed the outer layer of his robe and splayed it over Azurine's sleeping figure and tossed more kindling onto the fire. That may address the cold, but she still shivered. Aadihr sat cross-legged near her head, wondering what he could or should do to soothe her. With everything that had happened on Iridonia, he felt sympathy for her - how alone and scared she must have felt before being frozen and being stored in that state for hundreds of years.

Aadihr recalled the skies of Iridonia, where his childhood blindfold still whipped in the wind somewhere. The memories flooded back to Alpheridies, to a song - a lullaby his mother would sing when he couldn't sleep. One he sang to himself alone at the academy on Naboo. It was embarrassing, but she was asleep and it felt like the right thing to do, like the force was guiding his actions.

Aadihr placed his fingertips gently upon Azurine's scalp, weaved through her black hair and bone horns. He sang, guiding the Force into his fingertips, to soothe her as he once was was soothed. The words were in Miralukese, and he had long since forgotten the correct translation, but he clung to the words through the years, they were a lifeline to the boy he used to be before, well, everything happened.

Before he left Alpheridies and entered a galaxy full of life and light that everyone else could see, alone in what he himself saw.

He sang softly, repeating the song with the accompaniment of fire crackling and the calls of nocturnal fauna.

Azurine's shivering ceased, but Aadihr continued - if only this moment would last forever.

Azurine Varek​

 

[Azurine Varek]

To Infinity And Beyond

Outfit: Clothing/Armor | Glove | Right Arm | Talisman
Weapons: Lightsaber 1 | Lightsaber 2 | Hook Swords

Azzie stirred, pulled from sleep by something gentle and distant. A voice, low and smooth, weaving through the jungle’s nighttime sounds. It drifted on the fire’s warmth, cradling the darkness between them like something sacred.

Her eyelids fluttered, but she didn’t fully wake—not yet. The song, foreign but still somehow familiar only in the way all lullabies seemed to be, wrapped around her like a warm embrace. The touch at her scalp was light, deliberate, and soothing in a way she hadn't felt in a while. A lifetime of battles and sharp edges had taught her to brace against contact, but this? This was different. It wasn't asking anything of her.

For a moment, just a moment, Azzie let herself sink into it. Let the comfort ease the tightness in her chest, the weight she hadn't realized she was carrying. The distant fear of what might lay ahead ached in the marrow of her bones, cold and distant, but the song dulled the sting. The voices in her head, the ones that whispered of everything lost, everything stolen, quieted.

Eventually, the song faded, dissolving into the crackle of the fire and the rustling of unseen creatures in the underbrush. She drifted on the edge of waking, awareness seeping back in with the realization that the night was still pressing in around them, though it likely wouldn't be for long. She exhaled, curling her fingers into the fabric draped over her. Not her own.

Her brows furrowed slightly. A robe.

Azzie wasn't typically one for grand gestures of sentiment—at least not those that were incredibly over the top, but the quiet ones? The ones spoken in little moments? Those were the ones that mattered most. And this?

This was one of them.

Slowly, carefully, she blinked her eyes open, staring at the fire’s dim glow. She shifted, testing the stiffness in her muscles. It was her turn for watch soon, wasn’t it? Azzie sighed, rubbing a hand over her face before pushing herself up onto her elbows. Her eyes flickered toward Aadihr.

His posture was relaxed, but she knew better. No one kept themselves that still unless they were listening, feeling. He had been singing—she hadn’t imagined that. And that had been his robe. She certainly hadn't realized he could sing so beautifully. Her lips parted, then pressed into a line, all words she could have said, being swallowed into her mind before she could process it.

She shrugged the robe from her shoulders and reached over, draping it gently back across his. A trade, in a way. Acknowledgment without words. Then, stretching out her arms with a quiet groan, she stood and rolled her shoulders. Her watch shift had arrived.

"You know, I didn't take you for a songbird." She eventually joked over her shoulder, attempting to keep her face hidden in the shadows so he wouldn’t see just how bright red it was.

Aadihr Lidos​

 

[Aadihr Lidos]

Outfit: Field Attire,
Weapons: Walking stick / Lightsaber Pike | Slugthrower Rifle

"You know, I didn't take you for a songbird."

Aadihr turned his head away, trying to hide his embarrassment. He thought she was asleep and... Well, Aadihr didn't know what he was thinking.

As per the arrangement, Aadihr replaced Azzie by the fire, letting her take over for the second watch - accepting her robe to keep warm.

"Singing is popular on Alpheridies. It's, uh, well, music in general is." He said, gesturing vaguely at his face.

"Sorry if I woke you." Aadihr said quietly, mind already locking in the tender moment in his memory.

Aadihr laid down, blushing, after stoking the fire a bit more.
"Big day tomorrow." He said again, sleep turning his words to a drawl.

Soon he was sound asleep - gently snoring once in a while but otherwise peacefully.

Something about this Padawan crept into his dreams. He slept with a faint smile, dreaming purple dreams.

Azurine Varek​