"This is not the life that I had envisioned for you...".
The voice came from behind, yet the presence had been immediately apparent the moment that her father's spirit had crossed over.
"Much of what you hoped for me, never played out according to plan though did it?".
She countered his sentiment with a tone of hushed cynicism while remaining seated in front of the open fire. She had hoped that her only company for the evening would be the sounds of the wilderness of Anaxes, and the blanket of stars shining radiantly overhead, yet it seemed that her Father had seen fit to visit her.
The visage of the elderly spirit merely chuckled quietly under his breath, dipping his gaze for but a moment before moving to join his daughter, who had been seated upon the ground.
"Indeed, I was far from the perfect father, yet I did not run blindly towards my errors of judgment as you appear set on doing with what life you still have. My heart was always in the right place, as was your mother's...".
The spirits' gaze lingered upon the fire, the embers that rose with every lash of the flame into the night air. As if seeing more in the way
"Is this why you've come, to speak of our family?".
She turned to glance back at the man, eyes hardened at the sudden shift in subject.
Her Father simply smiled again, as though the stressors of the mortal plain were somehow diminished in the light of the ethereal.
"Perhaps I simply felt the need to spend some time with my Daughter", he replied, a notable pause as his gaze turned skyward; "You live such an isolated existence. It was high time you were reminded what it feels like to be in the company of loved ones".
She remained quiet for a time, knowing not how to reply, simply staring back into the fire.
"You know..." Her father began to speak once more, pausing to glance back to her with a studious gaze; "I've been with you for a long time. I know how difficult it was for you when I passed on. One of the largest struggles the living are forced to confront, the end of life for those they love..." His words faded into quiet yet again, intentionally pacing himself, aware of her emotional volatility.
"But there are others who need you, as you needed your Mother and me", he concluded, his point lacking clarity and yet his gaze still spoke volumes.
She knew exactly what her Father was implying, and she hated that he knew of her past and what she had done in order to remain on the run. Anonymous to most, one step ahead of the enemy wherever she could manage it. Yet he was speaking of the sacrifice that she had made, a decision that hadn't been entirely selfish, yet felt wrong all the same.
"The boy is safe with the Jedi. One day he'll become strong like you and Veiere were" She answered, speaking quietly under a hushed breath. This was the last thing she wished to be discussing with her father of all things, and yet it was so typical of him to force the subject; "I made one mistake. A big karking mistake but that doesn't mean he's gotta spend his life paying for it".
"He's with the Jedi, but not those of the Alliance, and he's hardly a boy, any longer", Caedyn corrected her as he laced his hands together and turned back to stare into the firepit in front of them; "Like it or not, he's already paying for your mistake. I'd simply prefer you not continue to make entirely new ones. You tell yourself he's safer with the Jedi than without you there to watch over him, and yet fail to consider the fact that your being there could be the one thing that keeps him from suffering further".
Suddenly, she turned back to stare at her father, a look of suspicion and frustration blended with the gaze of someone trying to read between the lines.
"You know something, don't you?" she accused, sensing somehow that her father wasn't simply here to be an emotional thorn in her side, but now realising that there was something else, something that had pulled him back to the mortal plain. "Kark the riddles. What aren't you telling me?".
