Private The Road Less Traveled

[Azurine Varek]

Understanding

Outfit: Clothing/Armor | Glove | Right Arm | Talisman
Weapons: Lightsaber 1 | Lightsaber 2 | Hook Swords

The soft murmur of cascading water filled the Room of a Thousand Fountains, a melody that should have been soothing, but to Azzie, it only made the silence heavier. She sat cross-legged on the cool stone, watching the ripples in one of the smaller pools, the gentle waves lapping at the edges, dissipating into nothing.

It had been over a year. A year since she had woken up in a galaxy that had long since moved on without her. Nine hundred years. Nearly a millennium of history, of war, of progress and loss, and she had missed all of it. The faces she had once known, the people she had fought beside, the world she had understood—all gone. Sure, she had come to terms with that fact, at least for the most part, by now, yet so much still wore down on her.

Azzie had spent the past year trying to catch up, trying to make sense of it all. But no matter how much she learned, no matter how many holos she watched or history texts she studied, the weight of time pressed down on her. She had tried, over and over, to find her place. To shape herself into someone this era could understand, someone it could use. She had fought alongside them, trained with them, and laughed with them. And yet, at night, when the silence pressed in, she still felt like an echo of something long gone.

Her thoughts shifted to Aadihr Lidos , his shimmering aura and gentle attitude, and she immediately pressed her face into her knees. He'd become her best friend, one of the rare few that knew almost everything about her. There was so much there she didn't even know how to unpack, let alone figure out if she had the ability to. The distant guilt that went along with it pressed on her chest.

She had failed before. More times than she could count. She had failed friends, failed herself, failed the people who had believed in her. And here she was, struggling to figure out if she was even meant to be here. If she could be useful. Uncertain, she remembered Master Mak Manto had referred to her. He'd pressed how that was a good thing, better than believing she knew everything there was to know. Here and now, though , it still felt raw, like the beginnings of a tailspin she couldn't quite figure out the path of. The nightmares and the nagging whispers only seemed to make it worse.

It felt as though the universe had just been less complicated when she was a rebel.

Valery Noble​

 

[Valery Noble]

​

Outfit: Jedi Jumpsuit | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Lightsabers

The gentle murmur of cascading water wove through the Room of a Thousand Fountains, a melody of tranquility meant to soothe the restless mind. Yet, as Valery stepped into the chamber, she could feel the weight pressing down on her Padawan, heavier than the silence itself. Azurine sat alone, cross-legged on the cool stone, watching the ripples in the water with a gaze that seemed fixed on something far beyond it. Something unreachable. Something lost.

Valery didn't speak right away. She didn't need to. Instead, she moved with a quiet grace, her steps light, deliberate, until she lowered herself onto the stone beside Azzie. Close enough to be a presence, but not so near as to intrude.

Only then did she offer the small cup in her hands.

"Tea?"

Her voice was soft, warm, carrying the steady certainty that she always seemed to hold. She had come prepared, knowing her Padawan well enough to understand when silence spoke louder than words.

Valery cradled her own cup, letting the steam curl gently between them as she gazed out over the shimmering pools. The air smelled faintly of greenery and water, fresh and alive, yet Azzie sat here as if she were stuck in something far older — something deeper than even time itself.

"I know that look," she finally said, a small smirk playing at her lips. "It's the look of someone trying to carry too much alone." Her fiery eyes flickered toward Azzie, searching — not demanding, not pressing, just offering.

"You want to tell me what's on your mind?"

Azurine Varek ​

 

[Azurine Varek]

Understanding

Outfit: Clothing/Armor | Glove | Right Arm | Talisman
Weapons: Lightsaber 1 | Lightsaber 2 | Hook Swords

Azzie stared into the rippling water, the steady pulse of the small pool mirroring the chaos in her chest. It had been over a year since she'd found herself in this galaxy, this new reality, and yet it still felt like a lifetime. A year of learning, of fighting, of trying to fit into a world that had long moved on without her.

Valery's soft steps barely reached her ears, but she could feel her presence long beforehand, so she didn't flinch when her master sat beside her. She wasn't sure what she expected—maybe the quiet company was all she needed in this moment—but the weight in her chest didn't lift as much as she would have liked. Focusing on the ripples in the water, she watched them spread out and dissipate, much like the thoughts that swirled in her own head—here, then gone, without leaving any mark.

Azzie didn't answer immediately. Her fingers hovered over the offered cup before she eventually toom it, feeling the weight of it, the heat that promised something more than the coldness of the stone beneath her. She could almost taste the bitterness of it, but there was something else in the offer—an unspoken understanding. Her violet eyes shifted from the water in front of her to the cup of tea, a small and dry wisp of a smile crossing her lips even if she didn't drink it.

"Do you ever feel like you're an echo of something long forgotten?"

Her gaze moved toward the dark reflection in the pool, that question left hanging in the air. That flicker of herself staring back, someone caught between two worlds: the rebel who fought so fiercely and the Jedi who tried, failed, and kept moving forward. "It's just… so complicated now." Her voice was a rough whisper, as though saying it out loud might unravel something too fragile to expose.

The words had spilled out before Azzie could stop them, frustration laced into every syllable. She didn't even realize how tightly she was gripping the cup until she forced herself to loosen her hold. Her gaze drifted to the water again, watching the ripples, the way they faded into nothing. "And then there's Aadihr," she added, voice quieter now, almost reluctant. "I don't even know what to do around him sometimes. He's—" She stopped herself, pressing her lips into a thin line, unable to find the right words to follow. Instead, she gave an exasperated sigh and hung her head.

She wasn't even sure if she was looking for an answer. Maybe she just needed to say it out loud. Maybe she just needed to be heard.

Valery Noble​

 

[Valery Noble]

​

Outfit: Jedi Jumpsuit | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Lightsabers

Valery listened in patient silence, her gaze never leaving Azzie as she spoke. The words carried weight, pressing down with a familiar heaviness — one Valery understood far too well.

An echo of something long forgotten.

Valery exhaled softly, her fiery eyes drifting toward the water, toward their reflections wavering in the rippling pool. "I know that feeling," she murmured, her voice carrying the steadiness of someone who had lived through it. "When I first woke up from stasis, I felt like I didn't belong anywhere. The people I knew, the world I fought for, everything was just… gone. And I wasn't sure if I was supposed to find a place here, or if I was just meant to fade away like an old memory."

She let that settle, watching the way Azzie's fingers tightened around the cup, the way her shoulders curled inward ever so slightly as if trying to shield herself from the weight of her own thoughts. I did the same thing, Valery thought. Pulled inward. Kept everyone at arm's length.

"That's why I spent my first year alone, even though I had already met some good people," she admitted, glancing back at Azzie. "Meditating, searching, trying to understand what I was supposed to be. But it wasn't until I let people in that things really started to make sense. Kahlil—" her lips twitched, her gaze softening ever so slightly, "He was the one who finally pulled me back. Showed me that I wasn't just some remnant of the past, but someone who still had something to offer."

Azzie hung her head then, frustration and uncertainty pressing down on her small frame. Without hesitation, Valery shifted, wrapping a warm, steady arm around her Padawan's shoulders and pulling her into a gentle side hug. "You're not an echo, Azzie," she murmured, her voice quieter but filled with certainty. "You're still you. Maybe the past will always be part of you, but that doesn't mean you don't have a place here, right now."

She gave Azzie a small squeeze before tilting her head slightly to glance down at her. "And Aadihr?" A smirk tugged at her lips. "I may not know every detail, but I do know one thing — when someone makes us stumble over our own words, they're usually worth figuring out."

She squeezed her shoulder one last time before pulling back just enough to meet her gaze. "You don't have to figure all of this out alone, Azzie. I'm here. I'll listen. I'll help however I can."

Then, with a slightly playful smile, "Even if that means giving terribly awkward advice about boys."

Azurine Varek ​