Starry Starry Night (completed)

[Darth Ren Malgus]

He knew exactly what she was talking about and he said it with such understanding and conviction Connor had said she was too blunt. There was a way to control that not speak, but the thought was there the emotion was attached to the thought.

"Yes Seydon that's it. Strange how you think at the time this is what I need to fix it, you just don't realize that you're only diving into a deeper darkness" It could be heard in her voice the lilt was gone. She wanted to fix it, everything within her said she could, but the truth the actuality of it no she could not.

Serena poked at the ground with her finger wish she'd find something there that would alter her thoughts, her words. "I'm a Jedi Padawan I have some of the most un Jedi like thoughts" She felt guilt, she felt failure, and many times she felt like she did not belong.

"It is another way I see your aura the changes, my empathy rages and picks up emotions, and images. If there were any secrets in the temple before I got there, I don't think there are many now." She looked up from poking the ground over to her companion and now confessor.

"So I'm out here to escape from the temple, but I am a good scientist." She smiled, "my parents made sure." why was she talking so much right now? Saying things that had nothing to do with monsters.

Going back to what he had said about the feeling sick, "Do you ever feel that sickness inside you after killing a monster?"

[member="Seydon of Arda"]

 

[Seydon of Arda]

"Not often," He said. "Oft times, there's little left to mourn. Black alchemy and that brand of Force magic render them automatons."

Seydon took his turn gathering another swollen armful of deadened underbrush and leaf bracken, displacing both their stove and its lattice-stand, stoking up fresh warmth. He retrieved electrolyte ales out of the speeder-meshing, popping a pinched cap-ring off one block-necked carafe and handing it to Serena's grasp. Heat threaded up their shins and arms, until it found the slight cold in their bellies. The Dunaan kneaded a thought around in his mind. The young woman was playing with her hands, tilling her nails in the dirt. Nerve distractions, he thought, brief moments that fed strain into motion and produced just a brief psychopomp.

"It's... Admittedly, there's more to it than that, Serena," He said. "But we'd be stuck by this fire for a month of Sundays if I tried telling you. Pain and weariness are like any malady: some have a greater resistance to it than others. I tolerate it. I endure it. Because I must, simple as that. I don't have the luxury of an alternative.

"But that doesn't make tears or anguish suffered a mark of weakness, girl," Seydon looked up, stern as a thundercloud. "Don't berate yourself. I couldn't imagine what it's like being trapped with everyone else's thoughts trying to push out my own."

[member="Serena Bouie"]

 

[Darth Ren Malgus]

Serena couldn’t help but laugh a month of Sundays. The words that Seydon spoke afterwards they left the impression upon Serena. Tolerate. Endure. I must. A life of duty? For once she would not ask the question for once she would ponder the words further before allowing her own to fall out of her mouth.
He admonished her like her father would have, calling her girl effectively stopping her for the moment.

“Their thoughts, their dreams, their hopes, their anger. Their fear of me. Not the fear that I would hurt them, the fear that I would hear them.” Serena looked at the fire and sighed softly. A burning flame could remove almost anything, but it did not always remove everything it left behind something as a reminder.

That’s how it felt with empathy that it always left something behind, something as a reminder. Serena shivered even though she was close to the fire the warmth radiating towards her.

She had gone this far, what was a little farther. “My thoughts seem to be the weakest among them all you know the whisper.” She tilted her head now and picked her gaze up to meet Seydon’s, “Does it sound like I’m quitting?” It feels like it even though I want to continue the fight, “I need strength that seems to be escaping me, I guess hiding out here isn't going to convince anyone of my commitment" She shrunk down some, "Is it?"


[member="Seydon of Arda"]

 

[Seydon of Arda]

"Ma'am?" Seydon said after a while. He'd been sitting hunched in a lean against is log-seat, occasionally wrinkling his eyebrows, frowning, when heat off the fire-pit turned with a rogue breeze and scorched his whiskers. They had a fresh kettle of saline water brewing to a boil on a spit-roast lean-to of erected branches. It piped up a shrill whistle, startling a few midnight easterling birds from their close perches on the camp perimeter. He poured them further cups, mixing in that crushed up rose-weed, taking a sip. Thinking.

"I wouldn't know what to tell you. I don't think that's even my place," He lifted his cup to her. "But I'd say just be wary against anyone trying to turn you into someone you don't want to be. What you have stowed in your blood is not an obligation to be a Jedi. Or it's antonym. All that I think you are obliged to do is find some destiny that suits you. If Serena the Geological Paleontologist feels more concerned at sediment fossils than honing a lightsaber... then so what?"

[member="Serena Bouie"]

 

[Darth Ren Malgus]

[member="Seydon of Arda"]​

"Seydon it is often the words of a stranger who sits in objectivity that can give the best advice" Serena looked over at him she knew she was talking far too much. She also knew she should not be concerned with how the galaxy viewed her, or her order but she wanted to know if the appearance now was that she was showing the Jedi to be noncommittal.

She silently considered his words she wasn't obligated to be a Jedi except for the word she had given. The longer Serena stared at the fire the darker the apples of her cheeks became soon glistening with a bright shade of red. "I do enjoy being Serena, and I sure do love history and rocks." There weren't many that could say they liked the tiny sparkles that appeared in the sands of time, or the layers of rock that separated one era from another.

What had they given her so far? Were they obligated to give her something. The deep she delved into the force her skills blossomed and were at times hard for her to handle. But that was the challenge right?

"I don't particularly care for the lightsaber at times it feels alien in my hands, the focus of its value troubles me." Serena frowned slightly.

"Maybe I could hunt monsters." She looked over to see his reaction.

 

[Darth Ren Malgus]

The two talked for hours drinking several pots of tea as they exchanged ideas and ideals. Streaks of gold began to show on the horizon the birds began to announce the new day. Serena stretched her head filled with many things.

It had been a very long time since she had camped out like this she spent too much time within four walls and not enough to put her back in touch with nature, and the living force. Yes there were those that would say even in the temples the force flourished but for Serena the living force was most evident when you paused and looked around.

Here on a planet that she knew little about she could see the force working the connections made. Who would have thought that Serena Bouie would have passed the night talking with [member="Seydon of Arda"] about hunting monsters.

There was a tiny chirp a message had come in. Someone was looking for her, she expected it to be her mother. A quick step to her left she rummaged through her bag, no. She half laughed and looked over to Seydon, "Well color me purple, they're promoting me to Jedi Knight. They are asking for my return there's a mission."

She sighed heavily as she sat back down. She stared at the last of the embers as they slowly blinked away to gray ash. "Thank you Seydon for everything, I guess I'll have to come back to get the rest of my rocks. I'll be sure you get the credits for bringing me out here. I appreciate your time sir"

After a bit of enjoying the dawn and listening to the world come to life under the full light of the sun they traveled back to "civilization". Serena nodded and disappeared into the space port to find her way back to the Temple.

Fini