Menacing Light

[Nikolas Faselli]

I think you’ve found your companion, don’t you? Turn around.

What was that? It wasn't a thought Ellya had thought. It had to be... telepathy. Just to be sure she wasn't going insane, she actually turned around, and even though she didn't see anything, she felt something. Something she didn't understand.

The Praefecti near the girl started circling around her, trying to examine her body, looking into the girl's soul at the same time. He was trying to understand whether to trust her or not.

All other stags started stepping closer to the group. They seemed even more majestic that way.

"Connor, what is going on?" the girl asked, hinting that she was expecting an answer to both the need for her to turn around and the stags moving around her.

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Connor slowly stood and placed a hand on the hide of the stag grazing next to him, and slowly moved his hand up to feel the warmth of the animal and the beating of his heart. The Jedi stood and simply watched Ellya and her true calling as a girl who spoke to nature, who saw everything when she saw nothing, more than those who saw it themselves.

”They are connecting to your purity; your bond with the planet forms a bond with them.”

He felt a pang of admiration and respect for Ellya, and for a moment everything felt worth fighting for when nature and the essence of the Force came on display.

Your Force aura lets me talk to your mind, and I am simply showing you the ability you hold within you.

[member="Ellya"]

 

[Nikolas Faselli]

Ellya nodded. So she had gained the attention of the whole group of stags. But she felt like there was something more to it. It wasn't like just attention or... immediate friendship. It was understanding. It was the bond had spoken of. Could it really be so that a Viatori could form anything like that with a member of a completely different species... with a member of a non-sentient race.

"How long does it take to learn using the ability?" Ellya whispered. She didn't want the animals around the two to become scared of the... humanoids. It was too much of a risk to talk with a full voice, but she also had no idea of how to talk to somebody telepathically.

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

It can take weeks, months, years – you will always learn how best to use the Force as you grow and develop, I still do now. But initially, just feel what comes natural to you. Speak to me without moving your lips.

Connor watched Ellya surrounded by the beasts, all taking interest in her, but also looking comfortable and content.

His hand stayed on his stag, a reassuring presence and showing lack of fear, and total understanding.

[member="Ellya"]

 

[Nikolas Faselli]

What colour are the stags?

The girl was rather scared to try speaking telepathically, but she did make an attempt. And were she to fail at that, she wouldn't try again, at least for the time she was with Connor. And even though she had never learned using the Force, she tried to sense the ripples everywhere around here - she had heard that was what a Force user should do - and send the message using them.

She had no idea whether it was done that way or not.

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Closing his eyes, listening to the nature around them amplified through the Force, Ellya’s voice came through to Connor rather quietly, but still there; carried across by everything she was spiritually connected to.

Soft brown, with traces of white running across their backs. Some even have white spots on their neck. Black noses, dark eyes and antlers. I’ve never seen anything like them. You can see them to – open your mind, see past the vision you don’t have. Let the Force build that picture for you.

He watched the girl ahead with the pack of stags around her, his hand still subconsciously patting and calming the animal beside him.

[member="Ellya"]

 

[Nikolas Faselli]

That just got really confusing for Ellya. How the Force would she see anything if she was blind? Letting the Force show something to her looked like a rather strange thing to do, at least for her - a person who had never used the power before. So instead of doing anything useful, she just stood at where she was and her face showed her complete confusion.

How would I do that?

Her thoughts were meant to reach the man through the ripples of the Force. It looked like she had managed to do it right, which was rather odd due to the fact that she didn't even know what the ripples exactly felt like.

And suddenly, there was a picture. But not the one that Ellya should have seen. What she did see was something a lot different - red beams of light touching with blue ones, people dying.

The girl understood what it was. And she couldn't handle it. She burst into tears, fell down to her knees, cried out loud. She had opened her mind up a little too much than what was needed.

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Connor simply watched, a small smile as he let her discover what she was so close to discovering by herself. The nature she was in tune with, and the Force she carried inside her, would determine how and when she found the strength to use her ability.

Then suddenly Ellya moved, but a sharp movement like she had been hit by something and was recoiling; then she was falling to her knees with a piecing cry. His eyes went wide and he bolted out.

”Ellya!”

The stags also ran, in the opposite direction to where they were, spooked by the sudden break in peace. Connor skidded down to his knee and put his hands on her shoulders, radiating calm and peace as best he could.

”Ellya, it’s Connor – it’s ok, what happened? What did you see?”

His heart raced, and the guilt washed over him instantly.

[member="Ellya"]

 

[Nikolas Faselli]

"It can't be real... It just... can't."

She looked at the man without really seeing him, her eyes releasing a lot of the liquid known as 'tears' and her face spoke of pain and struggle inside the girl. For once, she could actually see what the Jedi and Sith war actually looked like. Not only was the picture horrifying, but it was painful to see anything at all. Every sense of reality she had was pushed over and proven to be wrong. All she had ever thought about life turned out to be a lie.

"I don't want to see. I don't want to see what you see ..."

Her cry soon silenced her talk, making the rest of her speech a mutter.

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Seeing her emotionally shaken and upset, it was clear to Connor that Ellya had never experienced something as mentally invasive or frightening as this. And it all stemmed from the fact Connor had arrived her, pushed her to find that Force ability when there was no real reason to, and by her lowering her defences and opening up to the Force, she was now in bits.

He lowered his head in defeat at what he’d done, and gently placed his hand on the back of her head and tried to gently cuddle her against his shoulder to stem the tears and offer a thin wall of comfort and protection.

”I’m so sorry…I’m sorry. It’s ok…sssh sssh…it’s ok…”

Rolling his tongue against his teeth, he felt stinging tears welling up in his eyes. Something he hadn’t experienced for another in many, many months.

[member="Ellya"]

 

[Nikolas Faselli]

Pain was all Ellya felt that moment. No anger, no rage, no sadness. It was pure torture to see people dying because of what? Religion. She saw a huge bunch of metal scraps, they were so big, had something in them that showed the inside of the metal things. The picture was horrifyingly strange to see because the girl couldn't understand what it was. There were people everywhere. Was that truly how they looked like? Did humans really look like that?

The girl put a hand on the man's back, then moved it a bit higher, a bit lower, to the left and then to the right, and that only to get the confirmation that what she was was really a human.

"It's okay."

But it wasn't.

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Connor held the girl forever, feeling he could at least protect someone from the pain the Force brought to the galaxy; something he was responsible for. He closed his eyes as she tried to put on a brave reply.

”No. No it’s not okay.”

With a sigh, he squeezed her gently and pulled back, placing his hands on her upper arms looking at the streaks of tears down her face, eyes not seeing, but obviously looking for something.

”Did you see something that frightened you…was it conflict?”

He shook his head gently at the pain she was clearly feeling.

[member="Ellya"]

 

[Nikolas Faselli]

"It was something I've never seen. I saw... people falling to the ground, some liquid coming out of them. They were chopped into pieces and..."

It was too much to handle. Seeing fighting was real terror and she couldn't even imagine how people who see can commit such murder. It was ugly, it was painful. Didn't they have empathy? Or at least sympathy?

"... they died."

She looked at the man again.

"Is that what the war between Jedi and Sith looks like?"

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Ellya was describing that horrid activity that seemed to come second nature to the Jedi and Sith, regardless of belief or conscious; war. Two sides locked in a struggle for supremacy. Both wanted to have supremacy but for different reasons and enforcing different policies and methods.

”Yes, Ellya. This is what conflict looks like. It’s vicious, nasty and eats away at you.”

Connor had had his share of battle with enemies; slaying many, sparing many.

”The Jedi fight to defend the galaxy and we strike at the Sith. They, however, will strike at anyone in their way regardless of faith and culture. There is no excuse for war, but the Sith want to conquer the galaxy, and we, the Jedi, are one of few who will sacrifice ourselves to stop them and protect cultures and people like you.”

This was no excuse. This was the life Connor lived, and one now creeping into the peaceful mind of Ellya.

”I’m sorry you saw that. I should go soon. You don’t need this brought on you, it was a mistake me even coming here.”

[member="Ellya"]

 

[Nikolas Faselli]

"No. Please don't go."

She grabbed the man's wrist into her two hands and held it with all the strength she had. Being alone was the only thing the woman didn't want at that moment. Some empathy was the only thing that could save her.

"I'm sorry I ruined the moment like that."

She sighed.

"Those who have been left without a power shouldn't be trying to get it and thus, go against the Force. I made a mistake, too."

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Connor sighed and looked up at the warm sky above and swallowed as she held his wrists. He tried to cut himself off from the Force around them and instead focus on supporting the girl.

”I only mean…I don’t know what I mean. I shouldn’t have come here at all. You’re a peaceful planet – I didn’t need to come here and I certainly didn’t need to confuse you about the Force.”

He cupped her cheek in his hand gently and looked at her with sadness at her disability and her confusion.

”You see so much that I cannot, even with my sight The Force isn’t a choice between good or evil; it’s a part of the living world around us that both sides choose to twist and manipulate in their own vision.”

Connor dropped his hand and pushed his knuckles into the ground, angry at the Force and himself.

”Why should you be scared because of something so natural? The Force is what binds us all, and you have connected with this place without any need for conflict – you use the Force in the most natural way possible and for that, you are greater than any of us.”

[member="Ellya"]

 

[Nikolas Faselli]

"Then I have decided to do something a person with such a gift should."

She took her hands away from the man's wrists and stood up on her feet, standing brave and tall (or at least as tall as she was). Would she have known where the man, she would have looked the exact opposite way of that. But she didn't, so she just stood the way she did.

"I want to help at getting rid of the governments which make wars happen. I want to make life in the whole galaxy become just as simple as it is here."

Ellya tried to locate the man's eyes with her own but due to the inability to see, she probably ended up looking many centimetres away of where they actually were.

"I will have to study the Force. Staying here and doing nothing to make the galaxy a better place is pointless."

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

Connor looked up at Ellya and felt inspired by her words – she could lead teams with her wise words and outlook on the Force, as honest anyone could have as she felt it so naturally. Connor stood and gave a small, timid smile.

”You’re an inspirational woman Ellya and you will serve the Force as it was meant to be served – with purity and honesty to yourself and the galaxy around you.”

He let out a calming breath, a culmination of the emotion felt in the last few moments, and looked up to the city in the distance, feeling they were at a crossroads. Had Connor found what he had been called here for without even going into the city itself?

”Will you come with me, to my Order, and let me teach you, in return for you teaching me and the others about how to feel the Force with no prejudice?”

Connor looked to the her; a steely and determined gaze on her face, that of a warrior.

”There is no pressure to do so right now, or even with me. If you can find your way to the Republic, their Jedi Academy will be a perfect home for you Ellya. Just…please let me stand by you in what path you take. I want to protect you, to be your eyes where you need them, and to learn from you.”

Automatically he looked around and chuckled.

”Dear me, don’t let our little friend hear me say that…”

[member="Ellya"]

 

[Nikolas Faselli]

"I doubt I would join the Jedi. Not yet, at least. There are other ways of being a 'good' Force user, right?"

She smiled with her mouth closed and started walking towards the main road again. She had no idea where the Praefecti were, though the one she had befriended before followed her, and she didn't even think she would ever see them again.

"So, we're still going to the city, right?"

All the emotions seemed to have been wiped away so instantly that it was much like a miracle. At least that's what happened on the outside. Deep inside, the girl was still troubled by the fear and pain the galaxy had to see. Why couldn't they all live in peace, she wondered.

[member="Connor Harrison"]

 

[Connor Harrison]

He smiled to himself and took her hand in his, and brought it to his lips and kissed the back of it gently.

”You follow your own path, Ellya. That is what makes all strong leaders and warriors great; they set a path for others to follow, not go in the shadow of someone else. You will certainly be a good master of the Force.”

Letting her hand go, he stepped out from the grass and clapped his hands.

”A little bit more indulgence in this city and an understanding of your culture will be wonderful, and I can leave a happy man knowing it wasn’t a journey without results. Please, lead the way.”

[member="Ellya"]