((Written in response to this, as Coryth Elaris was Elpsis' IC mother)).
She's gone.
I don't know how she died. Or where. All I know is...mum's dead. Coryth is gone. We barely know each other. After how much she'd suffered at the hands of the bastard who'd infected her with poison, she could not raise me.
So shortly after being born, I was adopted by the Kallikoras, then sent off to the Jedi Temple when they decided looking after a child that got headaches from being around crowds was too much of a hassle.
It's funny. She was a Jedi. We might have passed each other in the Temple without even noticing. In fact, I'm dead certain that my smuggling crew once boarded her ship and stole stuff. Story of our lives. Passing each other, always in reach...but never close.
Now she's gone.
The tears fall.
We met years later. After I'd...had a reunion with the monster who call himself my father. After I ran away from the order, and Siobhan killed him. For a while...we were family. I took her name. We clicked together.
Then she disappeared. I searched for her. I was mad. I could not keep myself from fearing she'd abandoned me. That I was not good enough. I was selfish.
I wish we'd...had more time together. That I'd done more to get to know her. Now she's gone. No do-overs, no second chances. Maybe in our next life.
I hear noise coming from outside the bushes. Boots on the grass. I try to compose myself. It does not work. It is Siobhan. "Hey, you just ran off during the middle of a report."
"She's gone." Despite my best efforts, my voice cracks. "Mum's gone."
I cannot see her puzzlement, but I can sense it. "Elpsis, I was on the holocom with Tegs a couple minutes ago.
"Not her, Coryth." I bite back a sob.
"Oh," she pauses. "I'm..sorry."
"I barely knew her. Took the Kerrigan-Alcori name when I lost her. Now she's gone. I betrayed her. I should have looked for her more. I should have..."
"Elpsis, stop right there." Her tone is sharp. Like the crack of a whip. "You betrayed no one. You're a brave girl and if she were here...she'd be proud of you. She's dead. Nothing can change that. She lives on in you. Honour her in your actions."
I'm too stricken with grief to process the fact that Mother's trying to be nice to me. "I just...I wish I'd done more. That I'd gotten to know her better...that she'd still be here."
"Yes," she says after a moment. "I loved her, too. We had our differences...Personally, ideologically. But she was one hell of a woman."
"She was."
"Putting you on leave."
"I don't..."
"Yes, you do, and that's an order." Her tone brooks no contradiction. "I went stir-crazy after Adril died. So if you need to hit something or someone..."
Just...just hold me." I do not expect her to do. I feel like an idiot. Stupid and weak. A moment later she hugs me.