The Ways of the Force

[Elijah Black]

In recent years since the fall of the Republic, Zylah had liked to refer to herself as a Jedi without a home. While she had roamed the galaxy, true to the Jedi ideals but without affiliation to any specific order after her own seemingly had disbanded, she did need somewhere to rest her head. That had become Ithor. The lush planet with few traces of civilisation seemed the perfect place to disappear and lay low. Yet somehow the presence of what she could only assume to be the ruins of an ancient Jedi temple had escaped her notice. That was where she had travelled to now.

The place bore heavy the burdens of time and neglect. The place looked run-down. Rocks misplaced, entire sections seemed to have collapsed. The foundation and base structure remained, but it was but a shell of what it once had been. Nature had caught up with it, and trees, leaves and branches grew in, on and around the temple. Abandoned, yes, but to her it also seemed undeniably peaceful. It was here she had time to reflect on the state of her life, the past years, and how she would like to go on forwards. Zylah attempted to the best of her ability to rid herself of any sense of regret. Past was past, only the future lay ready and malleable in the palm of her hands. If there was one thing she would like to change for the future, it was this; she didn't want to be alone.

When it came to reaching out to people, it should come as no surprise that the first on her list was [member="Kaia Vullen"]. The bright and bubbly Miraluka had been her closest friend since her Padawan days, and nothing had changed. Well, except for them growing up. While both Jedi, the paths they thread differed, and so much to her regret they did not see eachother as much as Zylah would have liked. What was even more sad was that after Kaia, Zylah could think of no one else to contact. The sad truth was that over the years Zylah had been so consumed with training to be the best Jedi she could be, with hunting the Sith and frustrating their plans that her list of acquaintances stopped here. There was her former master of course... But she was gone with the wind, and no one knew where she was.

Strangely enough one individual came to mind... [member="Kaili Talith"]. They had not gotten off on the best foot. And... She regretted that. Zylah had been younger then, stuck in her ways. She didn't like admitting it, but perhaps pompous and even a touch bitter. In retrospect they did not seem very different. Both at the time were Jedi without an order. She wondered if Kaili had found one like Zylah had. What became of that girl? Zylah thought on it long and hard, but in the end decided... What was the worst that could happen? She sent a message to her as well.

After that only one group of people came to mind. Another group which had given her hope, but then for all intents and purposes withdrawn from the galaxy, at least as far as she could tell. What became of them? The Order of the Sacred Lotus. Perhaps some would show, if information still travelled to someone through the old connections she possessed. Perhaps the Force would bring its own visitors. It did work in mysterious ways.

[member="Kaia Vullen"] [member="Lina Renning"] [member="Nora Lithos"] [member="Hazel Zanteres"] [member="Madeline Roux"]​

​

Spoiler

In case I forgot someone, and chances are I did and you know who you are, feel free to jump in or get in touch!

 

[Kaili Talith]

Kaili blinked at her terminal for a second.

Well now. That was not a name she had thought to hear, much less get a message from any time soon. A pleasant surprise all things considered.

But...

[ From: ]..... _KTalith//holo.net
[ To: ]....... Stored Contact ("Zylah Dvale")
[ Subject: ].. RE: Party?

While I must admit I am both happy and somewhat surprised that you wanted to invite me to a party of all things, I fear I can't really attend. As a technomancer (fancy title flash lmao) working in the field I find myself involved in the recent rumors of an AI rebellion. I am currently traveling the galaxy shutting down all of my company's operations in preparations for what is brewing on the horizon.

Perhaps once this has blown over and order has been restored again we can grab a cup of tea, or caf, or whatever to bury any hatchets we once had between one another.

- Kaili Talith, Lead Engineer of the Andromeda Collective

 

[Kaia Vullen]

Kaia didn't receive many calls these days. At that point it had been weeks - Months?

'It was by mere chance' - As those who do not know the will of the Force would say - that she decided to check her transmitter on exactly that day. Kaia Vullen, was busy at work - Creating salves and ointments for the treatment of other farmers on Alpheridies, instructed by one of the local elders. Some days, Kaia had not looked at her lightsabre, but the code and her dedication to the Ashla; that never went away. That day was not a message checking day, not really, but she felt a familiar itch.

When she checked, she jumped from her seat with a high pitched squeal; one she promptly choked as the elder stopped stirring the soup in order to give Kaia a surly stare.

"Excuse me, Mahar." She said with a swift bow, already backing out of the shack.

She read the message again, then rubbed her eyes that did not exist, then read it again, again, again - Okay now she believed it and she sent her reply

Dear Zylah

By the Force, I would love to see you again! It has been so long, I could barely believe what I read when I got your message. I have so much to tell you! And I bet you have a thousand stories yourself. Where have you been? What did you do? Who did you meet? Did you fight? You better have all your limbs when I see you! Are you eating well? I will bring some snacks from Alpheridies, you will love them. I swear, they are delicious. Did you invite others? I will bring enough for everyone... If I have enough. I'll pick some before I go! Anyway! I will be off first thing tomorrow.

Much love,
Kaia.

P.s: It's been three years sinc- I hope we will have time to talk.

Kaia barely sent the message before she started packing. It was a five hour walk to the nearest spaceport and her boots were worn down to sandals, her robes tattered and torn. The one thing that was absolutely pristine was her lightsabre. Sure, it was scraped, used, nicked by battle, yet polished to keep its shine. As bright as her smile.

Dimples in her cheeks, teeth shining in the setting sun, Kaia walked.

[member="Zylah Dvale"]

 

[Hazel Zanteres]

The message that had reached the Sacred Lotus had been an odd one, at least amongst the ones they usually got on a constant basis. Typically they got requests for help, ones that the Order still did manage to answer, just not in such large swathes anymore. There would no longer be any movements to assist in the bigger invasions that occured across the galaxy.

So when Zylah's message had reached their doors it had been directly sent to Hazel's office.

It had been a long while since the Hapan had gone to such a gathering. Always occupied with work somewhere, and after stepping away from all the war and fighting she hadn't ever really found any peace in doing anything beyond burying her head into her more work.

But things had changed as of late, something had been changing within the Hapan and she felt that perhaps attending this might do her some good.

She had also revealed this to Nora, knowing the young Arkanian had become somewhat more interested in things involving the Force. After all, it hadn't taken too long for her to be surrounded by it with the various Jedi and Healers that occupied Monastery. And Hazel personally felt it was be a worthwhile experience for Nora to have.

The two had packed a few things and departed from the planet, opting to take Hazel's own ship rather than any of the ones the Sacred Lotus still had on hand. Amidst them following the provided coordinates, Hazel had dispatched a message to [member="Nylea Apollodor"] who had been offworld at the time, to see if the Echani wanted to meet up there too.

Eventually they reached the planet indicated, landing the ship down in a suitable place before departing and searching for the location Zylah had mentioned.

[member="Zylah Dvale"] | [member="Nora Lithos"] | [member="Kaia Vullen"]​

 

[Nylea Apollodor]

Things had been somewhat quiet for Nylea lately. Aside from the occasional trip offworld to either help with a humanitarian mission with what remained of the Sacred Lotus or to assist [member="Nora Lithos"] in whatever research she was doing at the time she had spent most of her time on Monastery, keeping herself busy with activities such as training and helping [member="Hazel Zanteres"] with taking care of her adopted children in times when the doctor was busy. This was far from a bad thing however- her life had been very turbulent for years and the peacefulness of Sanctuary gave her hope that one day she would be able to let go of what plagued her the most, her past.

When the echani received Hazel's message however, she was doing none of those things. Instead she was on Eshan, visiting her parents for the first time in over a year. With the Lotus slowing down she had finally found time to do so and jumped on the opportunity without hesitation. The planet reminded her of easier times, before the grim chapter of her life had begun. Not only her parents were paid a visit, but other people as well. Her old bladework teacher had been overjoyed to see her again and for the first time in the woman's life she had been able to best him in a spar. Small things like the smile on his and her parents' faces did her well.

Originally Nylea hesitated to go, wanting to spend more time on Eshan, but in the end her old man had been able to convince her to go. And so she sat on a ship after sending a reply to Hazel telling her she was on her way, curious to who she would meet there. Other Jedi would without doubt be coming, and she was told Nora was invited as well, but she knew little beyond that. If she had known how to contact the one who had called for the meeting she would have sent her a message too, but for now she had to hope her affiliation with the Lotus and Hazel would be enough to warrant a friendly welcome. She would find out soon however as the vessel was starting to prepare for the landing sequence.

[member="Zylah Dvale"] | [member="Kaia Vullen"] | [member="Kaili Talith"]​

 

[Nora Lithos]

[member="Nylea Apollodor"] // [member="Hazel Zanteres"] // [member="Kaia Vullen"] // [member="Zylah Dvale"]​

It always saddened Nora to know how many of her friends had decided to leave Sanctuary once the news of the Sacred Lotus’ return to a bit smaller organisation had hit them. Some disgruntled, having had misplaced belief that it would be able to turn the galaxy into something better… Others simply because the momentum was up. Nora had stayed because as much as the idea to get out and the see the galaxy was something that both enticed and excited her, she was very much a poor little girl with no means to make a living, mooching off of the credits that the Order was parting to her little department on their temple grounds.

Needless to say, the invitation to both go off-planet as well as meet new people was something she was looking forward to. Force users or not. It meant more time with Hazel too, and if the blonde was correct, a chance to hang with Nylea too. There hadn’t been a whole lot of chance for actual socializing, but perhaps Nylea was used to that. Always watching Nora’s back one way or the other as she threw herself in harm’s way in pursuit of the next scientific breakthrough. What that breakthrough was remained to be seen, but Nora was certain that there was at least something that she could find.

Just too bad a lot of the time it involved dragonsnakes.

And Nylea having to be firmly on her guard.

Good times.

Dressed in her finest jacket and shirt, which was to say a jacket and a shirt, Nora stepped off the ship with Hazel to see what was up. If anyone had been less likely to see Nora it would have been her. Once she had gotten over the rules that might have been place, which they were not, Nora had latched onto the Hapan rather firmly with no intentions of really letting go. Perhaps there was something to what the others around the temple grounds in that Hazel had become somewhat something of a maternal figure to just about everyone that she came across.

It wasn’t necessarily a bad reputation. Now Professor Jude down the hall from where Nora lived these days he had a far worse reputation. He too was someone people turned to when they wanted to be taken care of, but the kind of care he offered was quite frankly questionable in its student-teacher ethics in a way that made Nora frown whenever she thought about it.

She shook the thought from her head and put her mind to where she was, in the present, here on… Wherever they were.

“So, you said there would be no normie-... Regular-... Me. No people like me, right? Force ‘insensitives’ I guess you could call them?” She asked Hazel before just deciding to drop the act of not using the words she wanted to use. “Actually, let's just call them regular mortals. There are no regular mortals here, is there?”

 

[Rosario Perlyn]

While [member="Zylah Dvale"] was sitting pensively on the steps that led up to the long-abandoned temple, Rosario had decided to try and climb the ruins. She had had to be careful of loose rabble, but overall it had not been difficult to reach the top, indeed she hadn't had to use her hands very much. Many surfaces that used to be flat now had cracks in them, and many stones had had parts broken off and now provided convenient steps.

Standing on top of the structure above the tree-line, Rosario breathed deeply and looked around. As far as her eyes could see, there were hills covered in dense green jungle, broken only by the occasional rock face breaking off from the top of one of them. After the mountainous desert of Deneba, this was the second type of extraordinary natural landscape she had got to see in person for the first time, and it made no less of an impression on her. Even up here, she could hear the thundering of a waterfall in the distance, and the wind was constantly rustling the leaves of the forest.

The weeks she had spent practicing meditation had already begun to change the way in which she perceived herself and the world. There was a new richness to it, she had learnt to attend to things she had never before noticed, and she enjoyed the novelty and weirdness of it. Closed her eyes and disengaging from her surroundings, Rosario paid attention to the tingling sensation in the muscles she had exerted. In the past, she had perceived this sensation as one, an indiscriminate whole, the feeling that in her mind had been tagged as that of exhausted muscles. But in the same way that the fabric of her robes, seen from afar, seemed like an indiscriminate whole when in fact it was made of separate threads that could be discerned upon a closer look, the tingling sensation was also composed of smaller components into which her mind had now learnt to decompose it. It was, in fact, made up of little spikes that appeared more or less periodically in different locations, and there were moments, tiny fractions of a second, those into which none of these spikes happened to fall, where there was even absolute silence. She could loose herself in the observation of these tiny spikes, completely estranged from the phenomenon as a whole, losing any consciousness of the fact that, when put together again, this was the sensation that indicated soreness of muscles. Instead, for the moment, it was just a series of curious phenomena that just happened, which she perceived, and which had no meaning of any sort.

Rosario withdrew her attention from it and opened her eyes again with a wide grin. She walked to the edge of the roof and, hands on her hips, looked down at her master, who was pensively sitting over a data pad, writing letters to be sent later. Zylah had told her that she hoped to meet other old friends, and Rosario was both excited and apprehensive. She was curious to discover what sort of people her master called friends, for kind as she was, she had not struck the Padawan as very outgoing and social.