The Heart of The Jedi

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A time would come when Cedric could focus fully upon his padawan's training, but it had not come yet. This brief foray to Atrisia was one of the few times he could fully devote himself to the tutelage of his student - something that was arguably just as important to the war effort. Cedric knew the risks the war entailed, and understood that without the proper instruction, Cenric would perish. There was also the uncomfortably likely possibility that Cedric would fall in battle before the youth's training was completed.

With that in mind, he had dedicated himself to the task at hand, which just so happened to be making breakfast a few minutes before the sun rose above the wasteland they had chosen to camp in.

There was a location a handful of miles to the south that would see Cenric pushed further down the path. The boy had a long day ahead of him - it was only right that Cedric have his eggs made before he awoke to tackle it.

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[Cenric Marus]

Cenric had already been awake for several hours when Cedric began to make the eggs.

It was a habit that had formed not because of the Jedi, not because of the tutelage of his Master, but because he'd worked on a farm. His morning routine back on Lorrd had regularly seen him rise in the early hours of the morning to milk the Nuna's and feed the other animals. Waking up early was simply part of his lifestyle, and it helped that no matter what planet he was on he seemed to have his internal clock set perfectly. Some of the other younglings on Coruscant had found that annoying.

Still, he didn't get up, mostly because he didn't know what to do with himself.

Instead he went over everything that he had learned while here on Atrisia. The list was a long one, but he repeated it in his mind more than once. The lessons were important, as important as what he had learned with Mariya. He thought of the two things differently, one was an education on life and the other on becoming a Jedi. They were important to him, both central to what he knew he would eventually be. Eventually however he smelled food wafting into the tent.

It was only then that Cenric pushed himself off the floor and out of the small sleeping area.

The day was starting.

 

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Cedric had grown fond of the boy.

In his youth, his twin sister had kept him constant company. When she'd passed, a void had been left within Cedric that no being could ever fill. He'd chosen a path of isolation because none could meet the standards Caida had set for him, but Cenric was different. The boy was skilled and attentive, yes, but more importantly he had common sense, a quality severely lacking in many Jedi students. Having Cenric around had at first proven to be privately grating on Cedric's own sense of autonomy, but over time he'd grown used to the padawan's presence, and then had begun to welcome it. It seemed as if that void had finally been filled. He viewed the young Cenric in a similar vein as a younger sibling as he did a student, though he was wise to rarely let that fondness to show lest it undermine his authority as a teacher.

When the youth strode out of the tent, his bearded teacher cast him a smile. "You know," he pulled the pan off from the fire, "Pretending to be asleep so that I'm the one that needs to cook is laziness, and laziness leads to the dark side." His tone lacked any sense of seriousness as he scooped the fired eggs onto a paper plate and offered them to the padawan.

"Sleep well? No visions of planets being destroyed and the like I hope? Tends to be a recurring theme when staying in places like this."

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"I was going over my lessons." Cenric stated plainly, though there was a hint of a smile at the edge of his lips as he sat himself down in front of Cedric and grabbed the plate that was offered.

He grabbed one of the forks that they had brought and briefly found himself wondering when the last time was that someone had eaten like this here. He supposed many months, perhaps even years. A frown touched his lips, but he didn't say anything about the thought as the took his first bite.

"No." The Padawan shook his head. "Nothing like that."

No visions had come to him, a few dreams but none of them had come even close to being about Atrisia. His mind was still drawn elsewhere, though he was more than eager to get on with his training. So far things had gone well here, despite the odd feeling that was constantly in the pit of his stomach. Cedric had told him that was the darkside that still lingered here, and after what he'd experienced during the invasions he guessed that his Master wasn't lying.

He shrugged as he finished his food. Eating quickly was another quality he'd picked up back home. "Probably just lucky."

 

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"I suppose I was too," Cedric replied as the sun rose over the mountains to the east. It cast the blue sky in a hue of bright orange as it slowly emerged above the rocky outcroppings, making the ruined battlefield almost beautiful in a sad sort of way. Cedric took a moment to appreciate the view before rising to his feet.

The temple was half a day's walk from here - a trek that Cedric was feeling far too lazy to make. Instead, he headed toward the two speeder bikes that he'd stored at the base of a dried lakebed. "I've only ever received visions from the force a handful of times," he said as he pulled back the tarp that had covered the speeders. "One was during my Jedi trials. I saw Ession burning several months before it happened."

The newly christened Jedi Master threw a leg over one of the speeders. "I think they only come when you need to know something important." Cedric waved his padawan over, "Get on your speeder. We need to get to where we're going before noon."

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Cenric nodded along quietly.

There wouldn't be any argument from him when it came to continuing his training. There was a reason that he had left Coruscant in the first place, and no matter how hard or difficult it was Cenric desperately wanted to learn more. He knew that he would never Master the force, knew that he would never be as powerful as some of the fabled figures within the Orders, but he didn't need to be. In Cenric's own mind all that he had to achieve were his own little goals.

With Cedric's help he was well on his way to getting there. "Alright."

The Padawan said as he scrambled up to his feet and walked towards one of the speeders. He'd only recently learned how to fly the thing, though it had been surprisingly easy to do so. A part of him was still somewhat weary, but practiced made perfect.

"Where are we going?" He asked as he flicked on the powercircuit.

 

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A worthwhile question, and one Cedric momentarily hesitated to answer. Most Jedi Masters would not dream of tasking a newly minted padawan to a place such as this, but Cenric had experienced the face of the dark side for himself already. Some might have seen the boy as as simple man, but Cedric felt he understood what made Cenric tick. His simple desire to do good was a natural and earnest thing; something the denizens of the shadow would find incredibly difficult to corrupt.

He had little fear of his padawan swaying from the path.

It was after thinking about this for a moment that he spoke, "There is a temple not far from here that a number of Sith Lords sacrificed themselves within. It is a large source of the corruption that plagues these lands, and we're here to help excise that sickness. This will both serve to better your knowledge, and to help this world." It all sounded far less melodramatic in his head. Cedric found himself internally cringing.

"Anyway," he switched to his ear-bud comm as the speeder's engines made simple speech inaudible. "If you're going to protect the people, you need a tool to do so. You've outgrown the training saber."

The speeder's engine roared as it tore off into the wasteland, "And I need to make sure you're not fighting with a glorified flashlight when you're watching my back." He added with obvious amusement.

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[Cenric Marus]

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Ah.

Cenric partially wanted to argue, mostly because he was of the mind that in such a ritual he would be next to no use. The force didn't come to him easily, really only in moments of panic and absolute distress. Even then it wasn't much. His abilities within the force, he had found with Cedric's help, lay more in enhancing himself. Lightsaber combat, close quarters fighting, that was where the Padawan took off. The more mystical parts of the force?

That was something he just didn't excel in, never would. That was why when Cedric went on with his explanation he couldn't help but grin wide. The training saber that he'd taken from Coruscant had served him well over the last few months, but it wasn't a real lightsaber.

The Prospect of building one? He couldn't have thought of a better thing to do. "Awesome."

It was the only word that came to him as he pressed down the clutch of the speeder and took off after his Master. The Temple still concerned him, and a small pit formed in his stomach at the thought of it, but he managed to push it to the back of his mind.

Some concerns were simply too large for him.

 

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Though he might not have seemed it outwardly, Cedric was somewhat aware of his padawan's concerns. The boy was a martial warrior, one who protected rather than chose to ponder the secrets of the force. Cedric himself sat somewhere in the middle - it was that experience that gave him some level of intuition into the boys' thoughts, and thus had led him to bringing Cenric to the temple. There were few students Cedric would have trusted to follow him into such a dangerous place, but the newly christened master felt Cenric would only ever truly learn when pushed to his limits.

The ride across the amber wasteland was uneventful. There was no arguing the dangerous beasts stalked the lands, but none had the courage to attack men on speeder bikes. Those that might have were deterred by the light of the sun that now bathed the rocky hillside. Cedric, on the other hand, welcomed the warmth upon his pale features.

It was a warmth that would unfortunately seep away as they drew closer to the temple. The light of the bright summer day grew dulled by furious storm clouds that blocked out the majority of the sky. The air itself grew oppressive, manifesting in a tight feeling around Cedric's chest that was anything but comfortable.

He recognized the presence of the dark side immediately, and reached out to assure his padawan within the empyrean. He could not speak mentally as other Jedi could, nor did he think Cenric would understand it if he could, but the projection of emotion was not beyond him.

It only took half an hour for the temple to breach on the horizon. Cedric led them toward the foot of the temple and powered down the speeder bike, unlit lightsaber in hand as he dismounted the vehicle. The temple was clearly Atrisian in design marked by its great marble pillars and the ornate paintings that adorned them. Most of the building was covered in foul looking vegetation, and many of its walls had collapsed in upon themselves. A distinct air of malevolence clung to the large structure, as if it were warning any who approached to run very far away.

"Welcome to the founding place of the dominion," Cedric remarked bitterly.

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