Private I'm the Witch, You're the World

[Alicio Organa]

SECLUDED BEACHFRONT, SUNSET​

OUTSIDE SANCTUARY CITY, ALDERAAN​

​

Alicio had found this hideaway his first month in Sanctuary City.

It was a small beach, obscured on all sides by low hills and trees. Cold sea water lapped against a shoreline of gold sand, offering a perfect view of the cooling evening sun, as it dipped behind small cragged islands on the horizon. Despite being within walking distance of the city, Alicio had never seen anyone else here. It was the perfect place to train. And to hide his temper.

The nobleman had abandoned his cloak and datapads where sand met grass, positioned at the water's edge. His unlit lightsaber was in his hands, positioned at an angle in front of him. His arms were tense, and his eyes were sharp with anger, a rare look for the Count of House Organa, as he swung the hilt in wide arcs.

Alicio adjusted his stance. It had been a rough day for the Alderaanian. He had appeared before a court of Alderaanian nobles, in a plea to take on more refugees from a camp he'd visited recently. He showed them videos and pictures of their awful living conditions, argued passionately for their sake, and even offered to help pay for the endeavor from his own pockets, if necessary. But the court stopped him mid-speech. Because the refugees in question were Shi'ido, from Lao-mon.

His swings became more fevered. The council was obstructing him every chance they got. There was no way of knowing whether they were to be trusted, they said. Sanctuary City was overcrowded as it was, despite the constant expansions, they said. There was no way Alderaan could invite hundreds of shapeshifters behind their borders, they insisted. Alicio argued with them for hours, trying to give the refugees a chance, becoming progressively more annoyed until he stormed from the room, and to the beach, unable to hide his emotions from his face, or from the Force, as he walked through Sanctuary.

With a shout, Introspect activated suddenly, it's blue and black blade slashing through the sand at Alicio's feet, digging a furrow of molten glass. There was a moment of silence and shifting ocean, as Alicio slowly deactivated the lightsaber once more.

He lifted the hilt up, like an actor might inspect a skull in their grasp. Looking for answers where there were none.

- Darth Empyrean -

 

[Darth Empyrean]

"Is everything alright?", Alicio Organa would hear from behind him.​

​

When he'd look to the intrusion, he'd see a small man with a long and wispy beard. His hair was buzzed, his eyes nearly covered by his brows drooping over them. He wasn't hunched, but he was still bent over just enough to bring his already short height to even smaller proportions. He wore no opulence, no grand signs of wealth - but the humble synth threads of a man long removed from the middle class.​

​

He smiled, and quickly spoke;​

​

"I apologize for interrupting, I was simply on a walk. It's been many years since I've seen a Jedi train - and more since that I've seen one swing so authentically at someone who wasn't there. Was a good bout?", he said motioning to the molten glass scarred into the beach.​

 

[Alicio Organa]

Alicio was jolted from his private introspection by a voice.

Alicio jumped, as if he were caught doing something inappropriate, moving to conceal his lightsaber behind his back, before realizing the futility, and holding it loosely at his side, and trying not to look embarrassed.

"Oh, apologies. I hadn't seen you there," the nobleman said, straightening his clothes. He pointedly didn't answer whether he was fine. It was likely obvious he wasn't.

Alicio cocked his head at the diminutive man, grey eyes inquisitive as ever. He hadn't felt the man approach. Perhaps he really was off his game. "Oh, I'm not Jedi. I'm... well, not much of anything. More of a hobbyist."

He looked down at the bubbling glass at his feet. Was it a good fight? "I suppose. If only one could cut through political gridlock and prejudice with a lightsaber."

A moment of pause. Alicio's face grew apologetic. "Sorry. I don't mean to burden you with my problems."

- Darth Empyrean -

 

[Darth Empyrean]

The old man laughed, shaking his head as he moved to stand near the marred earth. He kicked at it as he spoke, covering it slightly from view.​

​

"Not a burden, else I'd of just walked on my merry way."​

​

His gaze moved from the sand he kicked to the horizon - equally blue and even from their locale. He watched it for a few moments with the younger man before he broke the serene quiet of waves crashing against sand;​

​

"Political gridlock.", he repeated.​

​

"It never does seem to get better, does it?"​

​

Alicio Organa​

 

[Alicio Organa]

The nobleman hid a private smile as the older man obscured his moment of weakness, clipping the lightsaber to his belt, and turning as the man did to the horizon. Just out of view, the sounds of thrantas calling into the evening could be heard, like haunting whalesong.

"It never does seem to get better, does it?"

Alicio seemed tired in that moment, holding his hands behind him, and straightening his back to compensate for the fatigue. "I hold onto hope it will," he muttered, diplomatically.

"Some people seem hell-bent on digging in their heels, and halting progress. It is..." He searched for the right word. "...Vexing."

"There are millions of refugees in this galaxy that need help. Help I could provide, given the chance." Alicio narrowed his eyes at the evening sun. "It's times like this I wish I were a Jedi, with a less philosophical foe to vanquish."

- Darth Empyrean -

 

[Darth Empyrean]

The old man hummed and nodded;

"I'm not sure being a Jedi would help nowadays.", he said with his gaze still on the horizon.

"Even they are restricted, denied by governments to intervene. The Brynadul threat festered for years, billions dead all because they refused to intervene. It's a shame, really.", he said with a frown.

"Often, rule by council, by democracy - leads to these things. To protect against tyranny, they create a tyranny of their own sort - a tyranny of fear, of inaction, struggling against the betterment of their hegemony and the betterment of her people."

"I've... seen, so much. Experienced so much in my age - I can sympathize and detest them for what they do and don't do. Such a contradiction, isn't it?", he said, turning to him with a smile.

"To both love and hate them for their short sighted efforts at charity and justice?"

Alicio Organa

 

[Alicio Organa]

Alicio spared a confused glance at the middle-aged man when he admitted to despising and loving the Jedi. He'd never heard anyone so openly disavow them, had only heard the quiet whispers behind closed mansion doors. "A short-sighted effort is better than none at all," he replied, feeling some need to defend them.

"Disaster relief is necessary. Safety inspectors can only watch once a fire has started, but firefighters can respond." Thinking back on what the mysterious old man had said about the Brynadul, he inclined his head down. "The galaxy could use more inspectors, though."

"Democracy as a system can work. It is slow, because it provides as many viewpoints as realistically possible. When brilliant minds come together, the right choices..." He lost a bit of his conviction. "... are... are eventually made."

He thought of the Alliance. The corruption he had seen in his brief time within the halls of the senate building. The kidnappings. The murders.

"But I would be lying if I said my faith isn't shaken."

- Darth Empyrean -

 

[Darth Empyrean]

"Many viewpoints...", he said with a nod.

"Has many view points debating something always led to the best outcome?"

An innocent question, phrased with no intent - but the man glanced to him almost testing. Curiosity, of all emotions, laid bare on his wrinkled brow and crowed eyes.

"Should they have done so - was the best solution too late? Would a mediocre solution committed to with haste have saved more lives?"

Alicio Organa

 

[Alicio Organa]

"Has many view points debating something always led to the best outcome?"

"...No."

He wished he could say otherwise. But he couldn't. The evening grew just a touch darker, as the sun crept low.

"No system is perfect. Everyone gets their say, and there is less opportunity for error. But... a quick response is sometimes the best. Democracy is many things, but expedient it is not."

Alicio's arms folded over his chest, as if he were having a staredown with the horizon. "But the worst result would be a poor decision committed to with haste, when a moment of thought could have corrected it."

There was a question burning in Alicio's mind. He hesitated a moment, before letting it touch open air. "You said before you detested and admired the Jedi. What did you mean by that? Were you speaking just of their inactivity?"

- Darth Empyrean -

 

[Darth Empyrean]

The elderly man was quiet for a moment, watching the tide roll in and out before he replied.

"I believe their goals are admirable - justice, freedom, peace. I believe them strong allies of morality - but ideals and goals do not justify the process. One can be misguided into the wrong forms of justice, wrong forms of freedom, wrong forms of peace."

"It sounds odd, doesn't it? To have the wrong form of peace?", he said with a glance to the Organa, the slightest hint of a smile on his lips.

"Once, I imagined there was no difference in peace. How one attains it, through council and deliberation, to make peace simple and straightforward. All peace was equal - but do you know what I've learned in all my years?"

"A peace that doesn't last is a worthless peace. A peace that cannot hold wasn't worth the blood spilled for it - and I believe the Jedi, in all the good they do, don't strive for lasting piece despite what they tell themselves and everyone else."

"If they did, would they have not achieved it in the many thousands of years they've been the galaxies peace keepers?"

Alicio Organa

 

[Alicio Organa]

"Maybe lasting peace doesn't exist."

Alicio stared at the side of the man's head, trying to decide what was going on beyond his vision. He could tell the man's viewpoint was well thought-out, deliberated upon, tried and tested. There was conviction in those words, the kind that made Alicio want to nod and agree.

Instead, he used the rock-steady wisdom as a whetstone, to sharpen the blade of his own views.

"If thousands of years of Jedi seeking peace have failed, perhaps there isn't an answer. The endless motion of the universe will always create unstable change." He spoke slowly, as he tried to understand his own feelings on the topic as he spoke them.

"Maybe all anyone can do is create as many little pockets of prosperity as they can."

"Unless you know the secret to lasting peace?" He phrased the question as a joke to the middle-aged traveller.

- Darth Empyrean -

 

[Darth Empyrean]

"Perhaps I do.", he said with a wide smile - but one of an endearing nature.

"Tell me, do you believe in God? God's? The Force perhaps? Tell me about your views, and I'll tell you more about mine."

Alicio Organa

 

[Alicio Organa]

Alicio smiled back at the man, enjoying the humor of this stranger.

"In all honesty, I'm still attempting to figure that out for myself." The nobleman stated, still grinning. "I don't think I believe in any deities. Or, any good deities, at any rate. It's difficult to believe something worth worshipping would let the galaxy fall into disarray as it has."

"As for the Force..." Alicio pondered a moment, before deciding to trust the man. He extended an outstretched palm, calling out silently. With the taste of a song on his lips, his hand began to feel an immense pressure. Granules of sand rose from the beach around the two of them, affected by the power in his palm, before he released the weight.

"I think it's a Gift, given by a blind hand. One I intend to cherish. I've studied religions. Jedi, and... others. But for now, that is all I know to be fact." Alicio tried to gauge the stranger's reaction, posing the question back on him. "What are your views, then?"

- Darth Empyrean -

 

[Darth Empyrean]

The man's eyes widened at the metaphysical display, offering a low whistle before nodding in encouraging silence.

"The Force...", he offered back.

"It is a gift, powerful and eternal. Did you know it inhabits everything, moves everything? It's said that to some Jedi, it even has a will. A voice it can hear - some can even see the future with it."

He glanced to him then and frowned;

"Tell me, if the Force has a voice, can tell the future, if Jedi are given glimpses of it - why aren't they told everything so that they may stop it?"

Alicio Organa

 

[Alicio Organa]

"It's said that to some Jedi, it even has a will. A voice it can hear - some can even see the future with it."

Alicio was rather quiet for a beat, even as his mind was jumbled with a thousand thoughts. Memories. An immense weight on his shoulders that threatened to crush him into the beach.

"I... don't know." Alicio responded to the man's question with a dark countenance. "I spoke with a Jedi. A cousin of mine, actually. She said the future was always in motion, never set in stone until the moment it meets the present. Maybe that's why visions are vague."

"I won't pretend to have a satisfactory answer. It seems those are a rarity, in both politics and the Force. If you have one, feel free to share."

Alicio tried not to seem too interested as he posed his next question, folding his hands behind his back. "Do you think the future can be changed?" As much as Alicio tried to hide it, he was clearly speaking from a place of experience. He had seen visions himself.

What he had seen had frightened him.

- Darth Empyrean -

 

[Darth Empyrean]

"I do.", he said with a nod.

"But I have more for you to stew on before I depart. If the Jedi who say the Force is alive - that it can feel, think, and guide; what purpose would it have to let the future simply change? We know it is endlessly powerful, so is it fair to say the Force can be both endlessly strong and not nearly smart enough to predict what is to happen despite that status as a grey eminance?"

The old man turned, taking a few steps from the water as he continued to speak;

"Theres certainly a few answers to that question, but I think the most logical is the most reasonable. To say the endlessly powerful force isn't powerful enough to control the future while simple men can would be folly. It leaves a single option, I believe, that it does know and chooses to withhold that guidance for a reason. Nefariously? Hard to say, but it does do it with purpose. If the Jedi take guidance from such, it means they are working for an entity that does not truly intend to help - meaning even the Jedi, by proxy, do not intend to help likely from ignorance."

"Consider that, consider that those who aren't sensitive to the Force can still be unknowingly influenced by it. Consider that if they are, the struggles you witness and see are greater than the complicated debates of democracy, but pushed and pulled by a greater entity. Come to find the truth is that to do good in this world, you need to be able to make choices yourself - to be free of manipulation, or else you do more harm than good working with less than the full picture."

He smiled at him, then shook his head.

"Forgive my rant, Alicio. Until we meet again."

Alicio Organa

 

[Alicio Organa]

Alicio showed some sign of hope at the old man's affirmation, but the hope slowly drained as he continued speaking.

The traveller walked away from the edge of the water, and from the Organa, posing a difficult question about the nature of the Force. If this mystic energy field could do anything, why didn't it?

If it bound everything to it's will, why didn't it help? Why only give the Gift to a select few, leaving others with no choice but to be pulled around, at the whims of the Jedi and Sith, and their constant wars? Why did it give out so much power at random? Why allow evil people to use it at all?

Why me?

Alicio stared at the ground, mouth drawing into a dark line as he thought about the nature of the universe, in a way he hadn't before. And as the old man excused himself, Alicio found a frown, and stayed silent, watching him leave.

The nobleman was smart, with a perceptive, astute mind. He had heard myths, of gods coming to mortals in disguise to test them. He was reminded of those stories in that moment, and in how mortal he felt.

Because he'd never told the Traveler his name.

- Darth Empyrean -