Private The Friend Test

[Makko Vyres]

Mathilde Leyweald

Cora's Knighting Ceremony

There would be plenty of time for her to have words with this dreamer later, to ensure that he was deserving of the light within her friend. Mathilde could only watch her friend suffer through her last "relationship", the very notion evoking a sense of nausea within her - but this time, well... there would be no observing.

The group had spread around the ceremony. Little conversations breaking out between people. Makko watched Cora from a distance before turning to look for Colette to ask about their next assignment.

Instead he found himself face to face with a stranger. Not from the Order, which meant possibly from Ukatis. She was quite clearly waiting politely to talk to him.

Oh no. A sibling. Another Ascania?

"Hi, nice to meet you. Makko," he said, offering his hand in what he saw as a formal handshake, but might not be normal as a greeting between two of their relative stations on Ukatis.

 

[Mathilde Leyweald]

Mathilde dreamt of a great many things. But few were the dreams who gave her more discomfort and anguish than those where she was given glimpses of what her dearest friend had endured throughout her marriage to her husband, left to wonder if her mind was merely processing her distaste for the man during her sleep... or if there was truth to her slumbering grasp of the world beyond.

The young grovetender had seen the young man before her sharing a kiss with her childhood friend, and drawn some conclusions from that. Although remarkably free of Ukatis' rather disagreeable notions behind what a relationship should entail, the tender dreamweaver was no less wary of the Jedi who stood before her, of his designs, and the path he would be taking the radiant knight upon. Perhaps that was why she had sought him out, patiently waiting for an opportunity to slip in close and await his notice - a moment that came sooner rather than later. There was a certain gentleness to her features, still: some thought Mathilde was all but incapable of truly appearing anything but peaceful, or perhaps even thoughtful.

But the look on her face was, for once, completely impassible. No emotions filtered through as she fell back on her education as a noblewoman of Ukatis, prepared to give the man before her a practiced bow-

Oh. Right. This was not Ukatis.

After a moment's hesitation, she took Makko's hand into her own, her skin as soft as one might expect of a sheltered noble. "Mathilde Leyweald, heir of Artois", answered the grovetender. "Corazona and I have been friends since we were but girls on Ukatis."

Even on Ukatis, Mathilde was regarded as... something of an atypical lady on account of her preference for honesty, to the point of announcing things best kept private - why, even commoners had a better understanding of etiquette than her! Known as a strange young lady with her head in the clouds, she proved to be just as direct with Makko as with anyone else.

"I wish to know of your intentions with my dearest friend."

Makko Vyres

 

[Makko Vyres]

"Oh, yeah, Mathilde. She's mentioned you," Makko said.

His tone was perfectly pleasant, but his expression was a little forced. The last time someone from Ukatis had discovered their relationship, it had been Horace himself. Being dressed down by the Prince and dismissed was an experience he would never forget. There was also the fact that some self-deprecating piece of himself liked to think that he would never be good enough for Cora and that he deserved to be judged.

If she was a friend of Cora's then she was probably nice. However, it was Cora herself who had ardently defended their systems of arranged marriages. They had a system to keep the families on message, so Makko saw no reason why Mathilde could not be the same. Maybe she still thought Cora was supposed to be grieving for the great Prince? Cora might not have told her.

It would have been easy for him to lash out with a curt comment and start a scene. Makko took a breath and reminded himself how amazing this day was.

 

[Mathilde Leyweald]

Mathilde did not bother to hide where her gaze roamed - but, then again, she never did. Although her attention lingered on that exposed neck tattoo of his, the dreamweaver's gaze soon returned to his own, taking a step forward , then another, until the two were practically touching. A way for her to ensure that he could not look away. There was no anger from her, but a certain sense of intensity remained.

"Make no mistake", spoke the grovetender gravely, each and every word she uttered drowning out the world around them more and more. Hers was not quite an hypnotic trance, no, but one could lose themselves just as easily when those hazel eyes of her turned green, and promised something else than pain and suffering. Something worse than death. "If you hurt her, I will see you embraced by roots and branches alike, and I will leave you fading in and out of your dreams. I shall let you taste freedom- only to bring you back, and remind you of your debt to be paid. Do you understand?"

There was something unnatural here - something even Mathilde could not understand, the powers she remained entirely ignorant of suddenly brought to the fore as she spoke such words of power to the Jedi before her. Suddenly, she was less an Ukatian noblewoman, and more of a primordial force of nature herself, threatening the wrath of the very earth upon Makko.

Makko Vyres

 

[Makko Vyres]

"Make no mistake",

The defiance was already starting to show on his face. She'd seen the tattoos and now she was going to give him a lecture.

Hers was not quite an hypnotic trance, no, but one could lose themselves just as easily when those hazel eyes of her turned green, and promised something else than pain and suffering. Something worse than death. "If you hurt her, I will see you embraced by roots and branches alike, and I will leave you fading in and out of your dreams. I shall let you taste freedom- only to bring you back, and remind you of your debt to be paid. Do you understand?"

"Fucking hell..."

Far from standing his ground with a rebellious look in his eyes, Makko had rocked back onto his heels.

"Er...yeah...yeah I heard that..."

Where the hell was this friend when Horace was burning a tattoo from her skin?

"Did you...wanna ask anything else or just..."

Makko would often picture how a conversation might play out, but he never would have predicted this turn.

 

[Mathilde Leyweald]

Had the both of them been anywhere else than Coruscant, things might have turned a lot more dangerous - but, mercifully enough (for Makko, that is!), there was no world more devoid of nature than the Alliance's seat of power.

"There are few things more precious to me in the Great Dream than her", continued the grovetender, bringing her finger to push against his chest. "Few souls more radiant. I have seen it dim before because of another, and I was too much of a naive, cowardly fool to help her in a way that truly mattered. But I will never make that mistake again."

And, with her warning heeded, the moment passed, the girl all but shrinking before him - the green gone from her eyes... and her veins as well, the poor girl all but blind to the terrifying visage she had taken for a few moments. Just like that, the sweet dreamer was nothing more than Mathilde Leyweald once more, friend to Corazona von Asciana, Knight of the Jedi Order. A rather soft-looking young woman, meek and submissive.

But Makko knew better.

"I apologize for my outburst", spoke the dreamweaver after a long pause, and a polite little bow. "I rarely ever leave my home - much less Ukatis herself. I only worry for my friend."

Makko Vyres

 

[Makko Vyres]

Asmus was left in stunned silence, but he wasn't going to let her leave on that note. Despite the fact that he hadn't outlined his intentions for Cora, he was enjoying the freedom they had to be openly seeing one another. His intentions were long term.

That meant he was going to be seeing Mathilde again.

"I...I'm not sure what that outburst was..."

Seen it dim. He had seen her light almost extinguished by Horace too, had thought of it in almost exactly the same terms. He stepped slightly closer and lowered his tone. His expression darkened.

"You know what he was like then? Don't compare me to him. It's nice that you care, but..."

 

[Mathilde Leyweald]

The dreamweaver had the good manners to look a little sheepish in the face of his... well, she assumed it was shock, when seeing his reaction to her unfortunate outburst - one she could not quite begin to comprehend in its nature, truth be told. From her perspective, she had merely chosen to warn him after approaching him a little closer than good manners suggested: the way she all but made the Force scream around her was an enigma, as was the sudden change of appearance. Poor Mathilde was quite blind to her true nature, after all, and the many ways in which it could manifest.

Perhaps this became more and more apparent when she found herself all but shrinking before him as she realized that she had angered him. The look on his face, the words he spoke, that step he took towards her... it suddenly made her realize just how powerless she truly was.

"Are you threatening me, Ser?"

There wasn't quite the warning in her voice she hoped would be there. No, instead, the poor dreamweaver took a step back, then another, fear all too visible in her eyes.

 

[Makko Vyres]

"Hang on, you were threatening me?" Makko replied.

However, he took a step back from her to put some space between them. Makko was clearly confused by her change in attitude. He was not always the quickest on the uptake.

"I'm not a ser Makko is just fine. It's just... you kinda made out that you were worried I would be like Horace to Cora. That's not...I would never..."

He waved one arm, clearly a little flustered.

 

[Mathilde Leyweald]

There was no response to that. Yes, Mathilde supposed that she did threaten Makko - in her haste to let the man be warned, she had gone and complicated things, perhaps a little needlessly. And yet, she could not find it in herself to regret it. Not that she was aware of just how much she had changed.

A sigh of relief escaped the dreamer as the man before her took a step back, calming herself down as she focused on her breathing. Lifting a hand as he spoke of Horace, she sought to interrupt his train of though, to ask him to give her the chance to speak. "Corazona never spoke to me of... what went on with her husband. And it is not my place to ask that of her - if she wished to tell me, then she would have. But what I do know is that her beautiful, radiant light dimmed the longer she stayed at his side, and I do not want to see her like this ever again."

There was a pause, then, as she looked him up and down. There was none of the judgement one might expect of a noblewoman behind her gaze: merely the curiosity of a dreamer who did not quite know when to avert her gaze at times. Evidently, her friend's precious heartlight was not intent on hurting her, at the very least, but how could she communicate her intent without the both of them leaving with bad blood between them after... all of this?

"I just want her to be happy. And... although it pains me to say it, our paths diverge. I cannot follow her in her ventures as a Jedi, but you can. I care not for your lineage, nor your blood - only that you treat her as she deserves."

Makko Vyres

 

[Makko Vyres]

Makko visibly deflated. He understood where she was coming from, but he didn't have to remind himself of how formally Cora used to speak to him. It took him a moment to process.

"I want her to be happy too. I'm trying. And..."

Makko paused and took a breath. This was one of the strangest encounters he could remember.

"If you're her dearest friend, why don't we...grab a chair and talk for a bit? Either Cora will like that or..."

Or he would get to see a look of absolute panic on her face.

He'd seen the look or Mathilde's face. Makko didn't want her going back to Ukatis in an absolute state of worry about Cora.

 

[Mathilde Leyweald]

Naturally, the poor dreamweaver's first thought was to remain somewhat guarded. Pretty words had laid low many a Ukatian girl, dreaming of their future with a gentleman as a husband - only for them to realize, too late, that they had been deceived.

But the man before her was ostensibly not a two-faced noble from Ukatis. If anything, he was something they would refer to as an unseemly gutter rat, unworthy of a fine lady's attention! A fact that, paradoxically, only made him a little more trustworthy to her, if only just. Although he was nothing like the gallant knights of old she idealized, he seemed somewhat genuine in his words, and his proposition was sound. Thus, a nod and a little curtsy were his response.

"I think I would like that, Ser Makko", answered the grovetender with a tentative smile, gentle and kind.

Makko Vyres

 

[Makko Vyres]

"Alright...yeah..."

It had seemed like a good idea and now this was happening. Makko led her to a small group of chairs. He didn't know if there was a protocol to this but let her sit down first.

A glance over his shoulder and he saw Cora looking in their direction. Makko couldn't quite read her expression.

"What do you wanna know then?" he asked.

Please, he thought to himself, don't ask how much land I own. He had been watching too much Uptown Manor with Cora.

 

[Mathilde Leyweald]

There was naught but a thankful little nod from the dreamweaver as she sat down onto one of the chairs Makko had led her to, her gaze gentle, yet curious... and, when he asked her that question, she merely tapped a finger against her chin, deep in thought. And then, a smile pulled at her lips, her features growing even softer.

"Well, first, I'd like to ask you what your intentions are... then, how the two of you met, if you please."

Direct and to the point as ever, it seemed - the complete opposite of what one might expect from an Ukatian aristocrat! Then again, she seemed to care very little for his worldly possessions.

 

[Makko Vyres]

Makko smiled from one corner of his mouth as he thought back to the first encounter. He was normally honest with people, but he was more comfortable in explaining the past than trying to find a way to answer on his intentions.

"We first met in the queue of the canteen here and she dressed me down for taking the last pudding," Makko said. "Well...taking two puddings, one of which would have been hers."

This still quite clearly amused him.

"We did not get on very well at first, but we did over time."

Makko decided to veer away from the truth for the first time. It was Cora's decision, not his own, to reveal that they had been a thing before the engagement.

"She got engaged and...yeah...now we're dating and seeing how things go. I care about her. A lot. I'd never hurt her. I don't know if that answers the question."

 

[Mathilde Leyweald]

For the second time over the course of the conversation, Makko danced around the topic of his intentions with her friend, leaving the dreamweaver with a sinking feeling in her chest... but, mercifully, one that was all too quickly dispelled when the dreamer before her began to recount the tale of his very first encounter with her friend. It was almost banal, really! A far cry from the romantic tales she had spent her entire childhood filling her head with, perhaps, and yet.. that fact only made it seem all the more genuine to her.

Marriage in the Ukatian fashion, made between Houses rather than people, had been a disaster for her friend. Perhaps a less orthodox relationship would bring joy to the radiant knight, and in the end, that much was all that truly mattered to Mathilde.

A look of thoughtfulness crossed her features as Makko chose to be a little more cautious than truthful. Mercifully for him, Mathilde knew precious little of what went on in her friend's love life: it was not a matter for her to inquire about unless Cora chose to share its intricacies with her, and so all she could do was guess. Much like how she easily ventured a guess at just how unhappy her friend had been with her husband. A fact she did not care to keep under wraps - not with Makko, not with how he seemed to know more than she did on the matter.

"Cora was not happy with her husband", spoke the grovetender softly, her gentle features marred by worry, and sadness. She had been powerless to do... anything, then, but make the effort to visit her friend, no matter how much she disliked Axilla.

"You do not need my blessing, just as you do not need anyone's approval but hers."

Makko Vyres

 

[Makko Vyres]

"You do not need my blessing, just as you do not need anyone's approval but hers."

"No, no we don't need anyone's approval," he said. There was no anger in his voice. He simply agreed with her.

Those who had approved of her marriage had turned a blind eye to her suffering.

"But I'm not planning on going anywhere so...I'm hoping we can get on," Makko said, offering a tentative smile. He gave a little shrug too.

"We clearly both want her to be happy and I hope she thinks I'd listen if she wasn't. I'm sure I'll do something that annoys her enough to complain to you someday," he said. "But, you know, like normal stuff."

He wasn't eloquent like Horace, but normally made his point more directly. Despite what he said, if she was an old friend he actually would have liked some approval. Ukatis was a part of Cora's life, he knew she would never divorce her life from the planet and its people.

 

[Mathilde Leyweald]

A warm chuckle escaped the dreamer at that: a rather lovely and heartwarming sound, to be sure, and another reminder of how gentle she seemed to be. Harmless, really... if not for the outbursts earlier. A rare peer at just what existed deep inside of her. "Cora doesn't need a gallant knight to treat her like a damsel in distress - she is a knight in her own right. And... I think you understand that. Respect it, even."

A nod was all she had to give in answer to his words at first. Although this Jedi was hardly who she would have imagined her friend forming a relationship with, the brunette recognized that such matters were not for her to decide. If her childhood friend saw a spark within him, then surely her judgement was sound. "You needn't worry", assured the young Ukatian. "So long as you treat her with respect and kindness, you and I will surely get along. And I already find you more worthy of trust than any Ukatian suitor."

Makko Vyres

 

[Makko Vyres]

"She was better than me," Makko said. The timbre of his tone conveyed that he meant that in several ways. It wasn't just about her training. He had run spice, run the net and punished other runners. She had been destined to become a princess.

Cora was a knight now. He respected her determination, strength and independence. He also knew that the scars ran deep and in some ways she could be fragile. Time healed those wounds slowly.

"I'm sure some men on Ukatis aren't c...aren't...or...are...nice people," Makko said. He swerved away from losing what trust he had gained with a string of expletives.

"So how did you two become friends then?" Makko asked, deciding that was enough spotlight for now.

 

[Mathilde Leyweald]

Makko's little stumble when it came to the topic of Ukatian men claimed a little chuckle from the gentle dreamweaver sitting across from him, as if she found his attempt at being proper amusing, and yet... there was no scorn, no mockery. In truth, everything pointed towards the simple reality that the noblewoman was all but incapable of malice. Everything but the outbursts from earlier that all but revealed something dangerous about her, kept dormant beneath so many layers that she seemed all but ignorant of it all.

"Oh, it's rather simple, really. Our fathers fought alongside one another during the Ukatian civil war, and whenever they would visit one another, Cora and I would... spend time together. She was- one of the few people who ever liked me. I was too different for the other girls of our age to like me much." There was no regret behind her voice, no pain- discussing it as she would the weather. It was, after all, an unfortunate truth of the world, she realized. Those who were different suffered from those who were not, and there was nothing she could do to change that. Accepting it meant finding peace.

"I liked how radiant she was. And she liked how genuine I was. We made a good team."

Makko Vyres