Private Where the Roots Remain

[Issar Rae’Velis]

Issar said nothing for a long while. His silence was not out of dismissal, nor out of judgement, but simply because some truths, when spoken, deserved to ring. And hers did.

The wind stirred faintly through the clearing, brushing the edges of his robe and rustling the leaves near where they sat. Nothing rushed to fill the silence; not the forest, not the Force. Only the breath of the world, moving as it always had. His hands, still steady, traced a slow pattern across the rim of the bowl of water, spiral upon spiral, patient and wordless. Then, with a voice like low thunder rippling through still waters, he finally answered.

"There are wounds," he said. "That come not from failure... but from choosing to care when others would not." His gaze drifted to the soil where they had planted together.

"You carry that choice. And the pain that came with it."

A pause, then, softer still:

"And still, you are here."

He let the words fall gently, like petals instead of stones. No philosophy. No correction. Only truth, planted softly, left to grow if it wished.

Reina Daival​

 

[Reina Daival]

Location: Tyhton
Tags Issar Rae’Velis
Lightsaber - Pequod
Leg - Anchor

More frustration. Not because Issar was wrong. No. Because she knew he was right. And that's what she didn't want to accept. She hated it when people knew her better than she knew herself. Reina was the only one living her life, so she should be the expert on it, but everyone seemed to know her life better than she did. It just made her feel like she wasn't in control of her life. That everyone else understood what she was meant to be or who she was.

"...Hmph. It's not like I have anywhere else I could go. I've thrown myself in with the Order now. It's too dangerous for me to go anywhere else. I'm too...volatile."

An excuse. In reality, Reina didn't want to go anywhere. The Order had slowly began to become a family for her, even if she disagreed with a few members of it. It was how families work though, right? You'd have fights with some family members, but at the end of the day you cared for each other. And that was what Reina was starting to do in spades. Care for people.​

 

[Issar Rae’Velis]

Issar gave a slow incline of his head. The beads paused between his fingers.

"Volatility has its place."

His voice was steady, shaped by slow breath and the unhurried weight of thought.

"So does control. But it is not something to fear."

He let that sit for a moment before continuing, eyes drifting to the small sprout in the soil nearby.

"With the right guidance... even fire learns how to warm instead of burn."

No parable. No poetry. Just quiet truth, offered without pressure. A statement of belief, and perhaps... an unspoken invitation.

Reina Daival​

 

[Reina Daival]

Location: Tyhton
Tags Issar Rae’Velis
Lightsaber - Pequod
Leg - Anchor

"I know it does. It has its place where it can be used for good. If I go out by myself..."

Reina didn't admit it. Because admitting it would mean she accepted her own weaknesses. She knew she had them, but saying it out loud would be different. But Reina knew that if she went out into the Galaxy wth the knowledge she had now...There was a chance she could easily get corrupted. She had plenty of frustrations inside of her that could bubble to the surface, and it was only thanks to the Order, Valery and her friends like Everest that she knew it was wrong.

"...I want to warm people. Keep them safe from the cold of the Dark. I'm just...afraid that I'll burn too hot. That I'll burn out the flame inside of me."

Fear was something she could admit to. The fact she was vulnerable to corruption was not something she could admit to. She tugged at a strand of her hair for a moment, her eyes focused as a small spark lit up in her Irises. Dozens of thoughts rushing through the conflicted mind as she debated to herself...before she looked up towards Issar, taking in a steady breath, fighting the urge to shake.

"...Can you teach me how not to burn people?"​

 

[Issar Rae’Velis]

Issar watched her, all four eyes steady. He did not shift, did not interrupt, did not speak until the air had stilled around her words. When he did, his voice came like water over stone, measured, unhurried.

"No."

A pause. The word hung, hollow, for only a breath.

"But I can teach you to hold the flame with steadier hands."

His beads turned again, slow and quiet, the rhythm unbroken.

"You are not meant to quell it. Only to understand how much light it can give."

He did not reach for her. He did not promise ease. But in his voice was calm certainty. And beneath that, a quiet offer of possibility.

That she could learn.

And that he already believed she would.

Reina Daival​

 

[Reina Daival]

Location: Tyhton
Tags Issar Rae’Velis
Lightsaber - Pequod
Leg - Anchor

Reina hesitated for a moment. She wasn't meant to quell the fire burning inside of her? But she could feel it sometimes. It burned like a rage. An inferno that threatened to engulf her and swallow her whole. So to be told that she was only meant to understand how much light she can give...It was strange to her to wrap her head around but she didn't deny it...

"I can hold my own flames. I'm not afraid of burning myself. It's others I'm afraid for. I don't want to hurt...the innocent."
She had hesitated for a moment. Saying that she didn't want to hurt anyone was a lie. Reina felt alive when she was in a fight. Flowing through the field like a surging tide. But she didn't want to hurt anyone who didn't deserve it. The innocent. The people she wanted to protect. Those are who she wanted to leave alone.

Because at the heart of it all, Reina was a fighter. She always would be. But...she wanted to be a protector. A Guardian. A Knight. Someone to protect the weak from the Dark...​

 

[Issar Rae’Velis]

Issar moved.

Not with the slow weight of ceremony, but with purpose; measured and sure. The beads slipped quietly from his hand as one of his upper arms reached out, and for the first time, his touch met hers. A broad, cool palm rested against her shoulder. There was no ritual in it. No force behind it. Only presence, still and unwavering.

He did not look down at her as one might look at a student. He simply looked with her, toward the burden she carried, and the fear that shadowed it. His voice came low, steady, every syllable chosen like a stone placed in calm water.

"You will not, Reina Daival."

A pause.

"Not under my tutelage."

There was no need to convince her. No effort to explain. He did not offer absolution. He offered certainty, and it held, like bedrock beneath a tide.

Reina Daival​