Public Tea With Tiland VIII: Turkana

[Tiland Kortun]

TURKANA
OUTER RIM REGIONS
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It had been a long time since Tiland had been to Turkana. Centuries, to be precise. Not since he had been seeking other Jedi as a youth during Palpatine's Empire and he had heard of a space battle and Rebel Base there. He had arrived after a battle in space and helped to care for a crashed pilot, but heard nothing of any Jedi, except they were all dead, presumably the one who had rescued him nearly a hundred years before included.

He had been devastated and wandered long across the surface of the planet, using his skills for hire for those in need in order to pay for food, which he could still eat, and shelter. A ronin, they had called him. A warrior without a master. And so he had been. Scared, alone, hunted by his uncle and the Empire both, with instincts he loathed and the only skills those of death. There were feral Anzati in the galaxy and that was as close as he had come to falling to that state, losing his mind to his fear and rage and the violence that seethed through his veins.

Only the memory of a Jedi with a mission to kill him sitting down and talking with him as he wept and that small presence of Light within his mind had kept him sane until he was able to pay for passage to a newly discovered world and set off into the wilderness for the remainder of his exile over the next twenty years. Turkana had been his second crucible. The first had been the choice of mercy and compassion from somebody else. The second forged him into who he would become and his commitment to hold to it.

Being back on the world brought a strange wave of nostalgia, regret, shame, and gratitude all mixed in one. He sat quietly by a lakeshore, in a simple reed structure he had assembled as the Force had told him to come and wait here. So, he sat in stillness as days became nights, simply observing the waves lapping on the pebbled shore.

He sat now on a simple stool, watching the sunrise across the water, painting the sky with pinks and oranges as its light spread across the gentle waves. A small fire burned beside him and a copper tea kettle rested atop the coals, while thin wisps of smoke trailed up into the sky.

The ancient Jedi had a mortar and pestle in his hands, absentmindedly sifting through the tea leaves for the perfect ones. They were finally beginning to run low. He would have to return to Sanctuary and his little workshop to resupply. Perhaps continue his work on Alkahest-infused teas. Ever since the meeting with the last of the Mist-Weavers, age and the passage of time had weighed heavily on his mind.

A Jedi aboard Peace had called him an old man that it was time to let the youngsters be the future of the Jedi. Yet, they were not the future. They would be dead and gone centuries before he even reached proper middle age for his species. He had, unless a lightsaber got lucky, another four thousand years. What was he to do in that time? What would his legacy be? He had no illusion that history would remember him, nor any reason for it to.

Emotion, yet peace.

The great challenge of the Jedi Code. That was what it all came down to, was it not? What was the Jedi Code truly about? What did it mean? What was the purpose of a life that dwarfed nearly everyone else's and even the governments that the many sentiments in the galaxy viewed as the movers and shakers of the history.

Dust in the wind, waves on the shore. They rose and fell and were forgotten in less time than it took him to get hungry. Especially lately when governments lasted less than two decades at most. Was that not the road to oneness with the Force?

Detachment. The submersion of the Self into the Cosmic Whole?

Still, Tiland sat, watching the waters on the shore. In and out, forward and back. An endless cycle undisturbed for more than a few moments by even the largest rock he could throw into its depths.

That brought a fair amount of solace as he considered the image and he smiled, faintly at first, but then broader. He had sensed someone coming in the Force. Perhaps even multiple someones.

 

[Kuxirra Tano-Bonteri]

Kuxirra limped over to Tiland Kortun , drawn by both the Jedi and the view. She sat down on a nearby rock, setting her crutches beside her. "Master Kortun," she said, dipping her head. The Togruta spoke quietly, and those close to her would know she was in pain, although she tried to conceal it through the Force. But one had to only look at her right ankle to know she'd been using it a little too much, as it had swollen despite the ankle brace to stabilize her broken ankle.

 

[Tiland Kortun]

Pain, suppressed, but still pain was the first sensation that Tiland picked up through the Force as he turned to greet his first visitor. “Ah! If it isn’t Kuxirra Tano-Bonteri ! Very good to see you again, my young friend.”

His brows furrowed at the sight of the swollen ankle and crutches. “But I see you have been ignoring your doctors, no?” Leaning over, he handed her a hand carved wooden tea cup. “The water is not yet ready, but it is close to begin the tea.”

The Jedi considered for a few moments. “Would you like me to fix your ankle? It should not take much longer than it does to drink a cup of tea.”

 

[Kuxirra Tano-Bonteri]

Kuxirra smiled brightly at Tiland Kortun . "It's good to see you again as well." As he noticed her ankle, she shrugged. "I mean, I'm using the crutches. That's pretty much all I need to do, right? My parents constantly tell me to slow down for some reason." As the old Jedi handed her a cup, the Togruta took it with a nod of thanks. At his offer, she thought before answering. "Are you sure? I wouldn't want to be a bother."

 

[Tiland Kortun]

Kuxirra Tano-Bonteri

"Ahh, the youthful impulse to never slow down," Tiland said with a nod. "That is hardly a surprise to me. As for not being a bother," Tiland shrugged and held his arms out wide. "The call of the healer is my primary calling as a Jedi." He leaned over and moved a few of the other rocks along the shore to set up something with a little more structure that he could better work with. One was taller than the other and he rapped the shorter one with the end of the walking staff. "Sit here and rest your ankle on the tall one."

Meanwhile, he rolled up his sleeves and tucked them in above the elbow and breathed onto the small fire, heating the water faster. Not enough to boil, but enough to help draw energy from for this process.

"Once the tea is ready, I'll pour you a cup and use the rest to help fuel my focus."

 

[Kuxirra Tano-Bonteri]

Kuxirra nodded at his words and moved to sit where he instructed. "I think I understand what you mean. I've never really liked fighting. If someone is in need, I need to help them. It hurts to see others in pain, more than my ankle pains me. Ironically, I was trained to be a super soldier, able to kill someone in a hundred different ways in under a minute." She sighed. "And that's unarmed. I did have a lesson in Force healing, but unfortunately that was after..." the Togruta shook her head, trying to clear away the memories that rose to the surface. The gang known as the Razors, named because they skinned their victims alive and left them to bleed out. She'd encountered them, and had seen one of the victims. Despite her best efforts, the man had died in her arms. The Padawan took a breath to calm herself, wiping away the tears that had unintentionally trickled down her cheeks. She opened her mouth to speak again, but a cruel voice interrupted her thoughts.
"Why do you keep appearing to me? Get out of my head!" The voice was identical to her own, but at the same time, just the opposite.
Kuxirra turned her head to see her "evil twin" as she had begun to call this person that only she could see and hear. "Me appearing to you? You've been appearing to me! What is going on?" Before she could get an answer, the evil twin disappeared, and Kuxirra rubbed her temples, turning back to Tiland Kortun

 

[Tiland Kortun]

Kuxirra Tano-Bonteri

Tiland just nodded as Kuxirra spoke and closed his eyes. "Empathy for others is a powerful trait in the service and good of there," Tiland agreed, "But can also be quite damaging to one's own self and well-being. A balance must be found, as it must in all things." He could sense the grief and guilt and smiled faintly. "But do not blame yourself for those you failed to save. Jedi are not gods, capable of choosing who lives or who dies, and even our powers are limited in what can be healed."

He reached out into the Force and opened himself to it, letting its warmth and its gentle strength flow through him, and then out from him, into the injured ankle, where it flowed into the cells of bone and tissue, amplifying their strength and their energy, speeding up their natural processes. Slowly, over time, while he was barely conscious of events outside him, he focus and redirected the flow of energy until eventually, he opened his eyes again and hid the sag in his body from the effort.

The ankle would be healed, essentially, its structures and damage restored to full health.

 

[Kuxirra Tano-Bonteri]

Kuxirra smiled broadly at Tiland Kortun once he healed her ankle, moving forward and hugging him with almost as much force as a Wookiee, no pun intended. "Thank you."