Wake Up

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

"Hey!" Kira abruptly cried, only to scowl in mock affront and give her husband his own resounding smack. Well, tried. He was quick to snach her hand with his own, encircling her tiny wrist and tugging her along against his side.

"Hey hey, you're lucky you're cute!" she managed to huff out, cheeks puffing as she blew hot air out. She wasn't really upset, just playing along. A half giggle and a content sigh, she snaked her arm around his back as they headed on up.

"That's fine." a thought came to her.

"Maybe we can see if we can send a message through to the kids, hmm?"

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

"We'd need to get back on the ship for that." He reminded her.

Any comm-array they set up on the planet would be significantly weaker than the one they had back on the ship. Cosmic radiation was hard enough to overcome on it's own, throw in an atmosphere as well as whatever other noise was running around on this planet? Near impossible.

"Unless you're ready to go back to space." He didn't mind either way really. "Might be good to sleep in a bed."

One night of camping wasn't so bad, but...well he was getting a bit old to sleep outdoors.

He frowned slightly as they stepped through the long winding halls of the Jedi Temple. He couldn't help but feel somewhat...let down. A part of him had expected to find something more significant, something bigger. Perhaps he had hyped himself up too much, but...well he had at least wanted to know what had happened here or why. Perhaps the journal would give him answers, but a part of him was unsatisfied with that as well. The piece of him that still dubbed itself the God of Knowledge was simply overcome with curiosity.

He couldn't help it.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

Devin had a point. HOwever, it didn't mean that Kira didn't feel a slight pang in her heart at the prospect of not being able to send a message to the kids. The woman was rather inclusive when it came to their children's lives. Having a comm or letter from her every other day was not surprising. Missing one from her, on the other hand, would be.

"Well... not yet." they still had to figure out the mystery of the temple. Taking her datapad, the blonde dipped her head. Her thumb went sliding across the display to gather more information.

"There seems to be more caves nearby." she informed him, getting more of the data from the prob.

"A small lake."

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

"Hm." He said quietly. "Lake sounds nice."

It did sound nice.

They came from a world, or rather, had lived on a world with a vast ocean all around them for years and years, yet oddly enough they didn't swim all that often. Sure they spent plenty of time on the beach, even lounged around, but they rarely went swimming anymore. It was probably because after all those years they had learned not to run around in the sun too much, Kira especially with her pale skin, but maybe they'd also just grown a little bit tired of salt water.

"You can splash around for me..." He said with a smirk.

They passed through the Temple's entrance as he spoke, a cool breeze flowing down the hall as they moved.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

Nothing beyond the breeze and the sound of their boots would echo as they made their way up to the surface. The temperature would become a degree or so warmer as they ascended, and within a few minutes, they reached the metal gate with the odd puzzle lock.

"Yeah, yeah big guy." Kira gave him a slight push with her hand, knowing full well it wouldn't do much for him.

"You just want to see me naked." she'd tease, the apples of her cheeks puffing up in her wry grin. Truth, but he always enjoyed the view regardless.

"I'll see what I can find about these crystals while you read the tome." something to do. They didn't know how far the inhabitants had spread on this world. Giving the prob new coordinates to scout ahead would give them even more options in the coming days.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

"Alright." Soliael said. "Let's eat something first though."

He wasn't sure how much time they would spend here.

This was only the first planet in the Rishi Maze they had visited, and in truth, he was woe to linger here for too long. It was true that they weren't in any rush, and he was curious about this place...but he just felt like the Jedi Temple was more of the same of what they already knew. Soliael wanted something...new. Something they hadn't ever seen before, some culture or alien species that was foreign to the both of them. He wanted something unfamiliar.

He wouldn't drag Kira away just yet of course, if only to find out about the mystery of this place.

"I'm getting hungry." He said with a smile.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

"I can make us something!" which was actually a fair bit of a terrible idea. While Kira did her best, she wasn't the most popular cook in the Talith household. The Lorrdian could be an amazing baker. Cook? Well she did okay with sandwiches.

"You can freshen up while I see what I can make us!" her smile practically beamed rays of sunlight. She at least did put in a good effort.

They made it up towards the vine and moss covered corridor in the surface. By now the sun was high overhead. There were a few sounds of bird calls here and there. No Bha'lair's at least.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

"O-okay." His voice was tinged with a hint of fear, though he tried not to let it show.

Soliael had no real idea what she meant by "Freshen up", it wasn't like they had a shower anywhere nearby and he doubted that the lake wasn't in walking distance, but...well he wasn't one to argue with his wife. That had been part of the secret of their marriage, just go along with things and try to sneak in his own way when it looked like he could get away with it. For now he simply agreed, mostly because...well it wasn't like she could burn rations or anything.

Right?

Right?

Probably.

He shifted slightly as they wandered back into their little camp. Everything was exactly where they had left it, their tent still in place, the ash from the fire last night, everything. No beasts had disturbed their food or sleeping arrangements, something that Soliael was rather glad for.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]


Devin would be glad to know that Kira was well aware of his sense of uneasiness of the meal situation. The Lorrdian gave a mischevious chuckle, moving ahead to sling her satchel off her shoulder and onto the ground next to their tent.

"Shouldn't be too hard." well first they had to get the fire going again. There was a nice pile of ash, but the bulk of it had already burned out. All that was left were a few embers that Kira would take advantage of.

With the extra kindling and wood, she'd collected from the day prior, the Jedi Master went to work on getting the fire going again.

"It's beautiful here." it was. Which was strange why the place would be abandoned to begin with.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

"It is." He said as he slowly settled himself down a little ways behind Kira, watching her set the fire up once more. There was an undoubted peace here, a sort of calm air that reminded him of Ossus. The Temple itself seemed to illicit that calm, though perhaps that was the foliage that had slowly crept over it over the millenia. He looked up at the stone masonry for a moment, taking it in. For a moment Soliael let his gaze linger, then slowly he returned to his wife.

"Wouldn't you be more comfortable without those clothes, Honey?" He asked. "I know how much you like to be one with nature and such."

As he spoke Soliael pulled the journal from his pack.

The book folded open.

He was still rather curious about what happened to this place, why it was abandoned, hopefully the journal would tell him why.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

That made Kira cough in surprise and amusement. A small pebble was taken from the floor and thrown over at his direction.

"You're the one who was so quick to strip down there bud." she reminded him. In fact, the first day that the Lorrdian had awoken at the Exocron palace, the former false god had been quick to strip down in front of her without any hesitation.

Truth be told, Kira had been the one who was more apt to be a bit prudish when it came to that. Devin worked her out of it for the most part, but it was still there.

"Sandwich sound good?" she asked as she set the kindling on fire.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

"Sounds fine." He said flipping the first page.

The girls hand writing was neat and orderly, something that he'd noted before. He wondered if it was a learned skill or if it had come natural to her. For their own daughter, well their eldest daughter, handwriting had come naturally. Aela wrote in neat blocked lines, easily scribbled and beautiful even when written within half a heartbeat. It was one of those things that Soliael had always been oddly proud of, even though it wasn't really all that applicable to life.

"Also." He said reading on. "I just like showing off the goods."

Another flip of the page. "Never hear you complaining."

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

He'd hear her laughter as Kira gave a shake of her head.

"Show off the goods to whom, eh?" the blonde would tease him, blowing off her bangs away from her eyes. Her hair was longer now than it had been when she first met him. It hung almost to the middle of her waist. There were a few silver strands interwoven with the wheat of her hair, but it no less deterred from her honest beauty.

Bending forward, she gently encouraged the kindling to spread, catching on the wood.

"Would you like a sandwich?" easiest thing to make with their supplies. Unless he was looking for a hot meal.

Catching him reading, Kira gave a gentle smile.

"Anything interesting?"

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

"Not yet." He said quietly.

"Sandwich is fine." Hunger was beginning to eat at him a bit. He could go without food for quite some time, but eventually it even got to him. There was nothing he could really do about it to stave it off forever...or rather nothing too pleasant. He frowned slightly, shifting where he sat so that he could bit a bit more comfortable. "So far its just daily Jedi stuff."

Which was boring.

"There hasn't been much change in how you guys do things over the last thousand years or so." It was actually kind of depressing.

"Training." He began. "Meditation, sitting around, etc."

Soliael had never been too terribly impressed with how Jedi did things. He had always thought of them as repressive, pushing their people in the wrong direction. He knew why they did it, knew why they thought they had to, but...still it had always seemed to him that they took things a bit too far. He frowned slightly, and then shook his head as he realized it didn't really matter. Everyone was different, they would all do whatever it was they wanted to.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

"Continue any longer and I'd sooner believe you'd die of depression!" The Jedi Madter joked, chuckling at the slight grimace that ran over her husbands face.

"It isn't all that bad you know," she reminded him, giving a slight gesture of emphasis with her right hand.

"It might not have change in several milenia but their teachings are not all that bad," glancing down, the blonde gave the fire a few pokes with a long stick so that she wouldn't burn herself. The flames eagerly licked at the firewood.

"You have me to consider! I didn't turn out all that bad," she teased.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

”I never said they were bad.” Soliael pointed out.

”Just limited.” That was what really bothered Soliael. Jedi teachings were, by nature, practiced, patient, and completely one sided. There was good reason for it, or thats what they told themselves, but he had no doubt that most Jedi missed out on a huge portion of what the force was, and could be. ”Jedi teach a very small and narrow viewpoint of the force.”

He shifted slightly and flipped another page. ”Why do you think I taught the kids about the darkside even though I or none of them use it? It’s important to know, even if it’s only in defense.”[/color
Hding never worked well.

That was, he perceived, the greatest failings of the Jedi; Educations. They did perfectly well with the lightside of the force of course, that was their job, but the darkside...well the darkside was utter temptation, and if a padawan was never truly taught about it save for “fear” and “anger” and lack of emotion, the end result would be easy to find.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

"They might. " As the former Master of Shadows, Kira had a bit more training on how to conduct herself along artifacts of the Dark as well as Darksiders. Granted, her technique had always been to incapacitate and knock unconscious.

"But I did well enough." the blonde began rifling through her bag to grab the ingredients to make two sandwiches. Best get on with the fresh produce first before it went bad.

"Of course, my training was a bit more orthodox." Kira had always been the type of Jedi to make the most of on the job training outside the stuffy rooms and meditation chambers.

"The kids have done well enough of course." a pause, then she turned up her attention to her husband.

"What would you change then?"

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

Soliael flipped another page, thinking for a moment. The kids had plenty of training, but most of it...well most of it wasn’t very Jedi. Aela now ran with the New Jedi Order, and as far as he knew she followed their tenants, but he wasn’t exactly sure what that was.

”I would do pretty much what I did with the kids.” Simple enough answer.

”You can’t fight something if you don’t know what it is.” It was simple logic. ”The darkside is dangerous to learn, but its not dangerous to learn about. I mean look at Aela, she read half my library and she’s fine.”

His library was of course, mostly ancient Sith tomes.

None of them were infected or alive like the more fancy Sith artifacts that loomed around. They were simple scrolls, detailing lifetimes full of stories, tales, and rituals that had been conducted by the Sith.

 

[Kira Talith]

[member="Soliael Devin Talith"]

"So what? Have defenses against the Darkside courses?" it was hard to not tease Devin then. There were few times he was ever so serious and having his expression settle on that never stood right by her. Taking a few slices of bread, she spread a few of the condiment packages on one. Kira knew that her husband wasn't too fond of them.

"You realize that our children were raised differently than those that would be in the Order?" as in they were raised at home. They were constantly under their watch and care and even if Kira was a bit of a worry wart, there was always that support system. Not all the younglings had that.

"Most spent their entire lives at the temple."

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

[member="Kira Talith"]

"You asked me what I'd change." He said simply. "That's what I would change. Our children might have had the benefit of my family to teach them, but that benefit could very well come from the Jedi Order itself. Instead they have Padawans running after Sith Holocrons, cracking open ancient Sith tombs, and trying to sate their curiosity in the most dangerous manner possible."

His tone was jovial, not accusatory. "At a certain point denial doesn't work."

As evidenced by thousands upon thousands of years of Jedi falling to the darkside. It was almost inevitable. Not every Jedi would fall of course, but perhaps one out of a hundred, or maybe even more. Soliael didn't know the exact figures of course, but he knew it was plenty.

"Education is the best method of prevention." He flipped another page.

"Like with sex." Soliael smirked. "Same concept really."