A New Peace (Open to 1)

[Briah Song]

The mid-Autumn warmth found deep within the forests of Voss' surface could offer a sublime sense of peace, in a place where the heart of the Jedi Order could be found and a strong energy of the light side of the Force was to be felt in all of its facets. Beyond that, the deep mystic history of the ancient ancestral natives of the planet could felt in every breeze of the wind, heard in every cry of the smallest of creatures, and felt with every strike of a heartbeat. It was within the centre of this forestland, then, Auron Song sought to find peace.

Since the events of Korriban some weeks earlier, there had been little rest within the young Jedi apprentice's heart, and only having half a story it was difficult to find any sense of elucidation and calm amongst the storm of rumour and political drama that had begun to follow. Auron sought only to retain his sanity, and come to terms with what had happened in his own way. The battle changed him, and he felt he now bore a heavy scar upon himself. Between the walking dead and a sky filled with fire and the sudden death of thousands, the boy felt lost. He communed through the Force with the creatures around him, but even they could not bring him calm, for they could surely feel something was not in its right place and returned his calls with silence.

Why must I be tested so? Am I failing the Jedi Order? Am I failing father? I wish he were here...

Alone, he strolled directionless, feeling the pressures of those around him. His sister looked up to him. His mother expected him to fill his father's shoes, as did the extended Song family. As for the Jedi, he wished to excel under, but equally yearned for their guidance in clearing the storm around his heart. He sat in silence upon a fallen tree and gloomily examined his lightsaber in his hand, rolling it around his palm and inspecting any damages that may need fixing at a later date. It had survived remarkably well through Korriban, but he had no desire to use it for a long time. Placing it back on his belt, he stared out through the Autumn treescape; a solemn gold shone through bronze leaves, and the mystic breath of Voss' gentle woodland breeze could be felt warm upon skin.

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Auron Song"]

Solan was where he always found himself, the forests and the gardens of these Jedi's home. He was not the tradition helper of theirs but he remained a friend of theirs numerous times enough to stick around and help them out where he could. That was when he felt that sense of failing and sadness nearby that he perked up a bit.

Alot of people had been questioning themselves recently. And he could not blame them, after all it was the actions of one fighting on their side that had caused this. They had been able to stop a genocide that he had been bothered with and felt on Ziost at the time. The wound left behind is no doubt still there but these Jedi, especially those on Korriban... he could only wonder how it would test most of their convictions and how many of them would break.

That was why he found himself approaching the creature he could sense. He continued to walk until finally catching sight of the young man that he had been sensing. He was rather unassuming and looked to be kind enough. Only a handful of years younger from what he could tell but still it was clear the man was faltering on the line of what was right when it came to the situation. It made him wonder most of the time if the Jedi were too idealistic with their approach, but it was not his place to mention that.

"Hey there, you know the plants can feel your unease right?" He reached to the tree he stood beside and used it as a prop for him to stand against while he talked.

 

[Briah Song]

Auron's self-directed, woeful meditations were seemingly so engrossing that he failed to recognise the arrival of a new Force-driven entity until he was right beside him, speaking casually to him. His gaze flickered towards him and he examined him for a few moments. He appeared human, young, but something about his appearance exuded age, maturity and experience... and something else. The energy that surrounded him was not that of the Light; he was clearly not a Jedi. Yet, there was something more there to be seen and felt beneath the surface. Auron nodded to his curious new visitor.
"Mm," he said quietly. "I used to be able to hear them. The animals, too. I could commune with them as well. But they wish not to hear me right now." The gentle seasonal breeze against his face blew his hair back against his ears and he could hear the wispy sea of crisp leaves along the woodland floor before fading back down to near-silence.
"I was hoping this place could give me some answers, but I guess not."

[member="Solan Charr"]

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Auron Song"]

He listened to the man and with a smile he shifted his shoulder, rousing the creature that was hiding inside his clothing to appear and stick its dark furred head out.

"You hear that Kira, he is trying to talk to you, and you have left him all alone. For shame."

In response the Ashlan wolf would give him a rather clear mental thought through their connection, making his smile wider and allowing him to kneel down so that the miniature wolf would be able to reach the ground without dropping like a torpedo towards it. It was then that he looked back at the man and thought for a moment.

"I assume you were going to ask them about the recent events like every other Jedi at this temple? It is rather interesting to see so many of you questioning your positions but I can say this much. You all did nothing wrong, so you have nothing to question." He moved to sit down, resting on the ground in front of Auron, sitting with his head lower so that he would be looking up at Auron and Auron looking down.

"But, if you need someone to talk and listen, do explain what is on your mind."

 

[Briah Song]

This man was interesting to be sure. Something about his aura left curiosity about him. He watched the small creature he revealed as it sauntered around the ground near to them, intrigued by its surroundings, allowing a small smile to shoot its way before returning his attention to its master.
"I think it was more than just that, though," he told the stranger, forcing himself to think back to the day. Everything was red and orange, devoid of natural sound and sight and feeling. All comfort was gone, all light was extinguished and only a darkness prevailed, seeking to swallow him entirely. The screams of the undead still burned at his eardrums, and he shuddered.
"I've never experienced anything like that before," he said finally. "There were unnatural beasts." He struggled to say more on the animated corpses that plagued his nightmares, and ultimately could not. "When the bombs came, I saw them. I felt them. I felt their pain. And now I am unsure if I can continue down this path. I feel I have a duty to my family and my Order, and I feel I am failing them both."

[member="Solan Charr"]

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Auron Song"]

He listened to the man. He had not been on Korriban when all this had happened, no instead he had been on the nearby world of Ziost and yet the quick removal of life was great enough for him to understand what had happened and the reason that the commander had acted in such a way. There was little he could say to justify the woman's reasons, having wanted ti skin her alive himself and make her suffer the last moments of those he killed by drawing on the memories tat his empathy burned into his own mind... but he knew that would not have solved anything.

For him such thoughts were normal. He routinely slaughtered slavers for being just that, slavers. But for Jedi, he could only imagine what seeing that would do to their conviction... it was a good thing this one was not an Empath, he knew how much that could destroy the sanity of someone to be in that situation and not be prepared for it to happen. Even if he felt their pain and their death... if he had experienced their true final moments, would the man be able to even see the Jedi as good anymore?

Solan thought about this question while the man talked and finally he smiled to the man. It was a saddened and soft smile, one that seemed to be filled with its own level of understanding.

"And you blame yourself for not being able to stop what happened? For not being on that ship and stopping its crew from doing what they did?" He asked with as much care and gentleness in his voice that one might even mistake the man for being a Jedi, even if his aura was almost as opposite as a jedi as possible.

 

[Briah Song]

Auron bit his lip lightly as his eyes slowly watched the man's small animal companion sniff along the ground with the kind of calculating intrigue that beasts tend to hold.
"I don't blame myself. There's nothing I could personally have done. It is done..." He almost felt guilty saying such words out loud, but it was true. He could have done nothing, and he could do nothing. But the pain that came from that experience was almost too much for me to handle. I felt as though... As though I became aware of my connection to the Force as if it were elastic, and upon those same moments it was as if that very elastic was being stretched to snapping point. Does that make sense?" He wondered if it did. His family, and the rest of the Jedi around him, so often spoke in metaphor and analogy, and he had little else ability to speak other than through comparison and allegory.

[member="Solan Charr"]
[not a very fleshed out post this time around, sorry]

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Auron Song"]

"Hmm..." He thought about this before speaking once more, a question that would likely get the Jedi thinking.

"Tell me, what is it that you think the Force is? And I don't want to hear that mantra they teach you... trust me, I have a pain in the rear end of a Jedi as a friend and she could tell me that mantra if I wanted to hear it. I want to know what you yourself think of the force. What is it to you, based on how you have used it and how it has granted its power to you. Is it this omnipotent guiding force to you like most Jedi?"

He took his seat and reached down, scratching at Kira's head as she leaned into his hand. The two of them started their own conversation while they waited for Auron's answer, looking to pass the time.

'She can blast you again... I'd think you'd have learned not to insult Jedi?' The wolf's mental voice echoed in his head as he contained his smile. It was true he enjoyed to instigate Jedi but this was different. The man was worried that his grip on the force would snap, worried that if he didn't figure it out that he would lose control on it. And that worry would only lead to one place.

'Oh be silent. I know what I'm doing...' Well... he mostly knew what he was doing.

 

[Briah Song]

It was a hefty question to consider, and the young Jedi spent several long moments to dwell upon his answer for the man. He supposed he had not spent a great deal of time to understand his own connection to the Force until very recently, during his time with the Jedi Masters reconstructing Korriban, before hell struck. During the months he spent there, he felt in danger of slipping down a path of anxiousness, agitation and worse. And with the catastrophes that followed on the red planet, it was proving to be a difficult year.
"I suppose the Force is something we must learn to work with. It feels like something of a mutual partnership that we need to learn to foster." He spoke carefully and quietly, almost as if he was unsure of his own words. "I think it is in everything, but not everyone knows it, and those who do have some kind of duty to fulfil... But I am not sure exactly what that duty is... Perhaps to learn as much as one can about it. It feels so... unknown. It's a mystery. I feel maybe it's our duty to strive to understand more about it."

[member="Solan Charr"]

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Auron Song"]

"I see, and what does it mean to be a Jedi to you?"

His eyes focused in on the man as he asked this, eyes looking over his face and scanning it for any hint of betraying the thoughts within. He already had an inkling of the answer considering the man starting t question what he knew, it would only be a slightly greater explanation as to the base of what he had gotten before. He thought about this for a moment and looked at the Jedi beside him.

"Also, do you mind telling me your code, the Jedi code that is. It has been a long time since someone said it around me."

 

[Briah Song]

Auron fell silent a while to ponder the next question from the man whose own energy flowed in much different directions to his own, yet who was welcoming and understanding in his presentation to the young Jedi.
"To be Jedi is to serve. To serve the people, to serve oneself, to serve the Force." His words began to mirror that of the ancient Jedi-led traditions adhered to by his own family. It was frequently considered the Songs had a very unique flavour to the Jedi perspective - yet without a doubt ultimately a Jedi flavour - and in recent years Auron had begun to discover this himself. As such, he begun to recite the Jedi Code according to his family's teaching, which was far more in accord to the original verses that the ancestral Jedi Orders followed.
"Yes, of course I can." He took a moment to breathe. "Emotion, yet peace. Ignorance, yet knowledge. Passion, yet serenity. Chaos, yet harmony. Death, yet the Force... This is a less common use of the Code now, but it is what my family have always followed since the birth of the Jedi Order. Yet, I know well the Code more often taught today. I feel this version makes more sense, though." It was no secret that the Songs were an incredibly old Jedi family, even if they were now less active or noticed as they once were.

It was at this point, Auron realised he had been neglecting anything to do with his guest, and the conversation had been exclusively directed towards himself.
"You're not a Jedi, are you? You have the touch of the dark side to you, but... you're not a Sith, either."

[member="Solan Charr"]

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Auron Song"]

Solan's smile grew when he heard the words of the more balanced code, it made him smile and he straightened up when Auron spoke about his own place in the force. For a few moments he had considered entertaining the question but instead he raised up both hands and started to weave the light around them into two illusions, creating crude images of light and dark.

"You just now spoke the code which was much older. It is the code i consider myself more focused on Balance than a devout following to the lightside as a goal like the newer code is. But it teaches you something all the same about the Balance which must be held in the galaxy." Hewaited for Auron to hear his words and understand them before continuing.

"We like to attribute the darkside as evil, horrifying, and corruptive... and in most aspects it is." As he spoke the dark bubble showed bits fire, those memories of people's final moments of hate and anger, and with it Solan's arm started to pale, dark veins crawling up his arm and towards he neck and face. "While we think of the lightside as good, a force devoted to others and making them happy..." In the lighter bubble a image of a redhaired woman holding a small child came into view, the woman with a smile on her face.

"Yet, that balance is something that is proven to be different at times. Keep in mind i do not mean to turn you from a path. As a Jedi you should represent good, and you should use the light as you were meant to. But do not attribute dark to evil and light to good so quickly. Those are simply powers, the light and dark side, energies garnered from love or from hate. What is good or evil is how you use them... be it freeing slaves with the darkside, allowing them a second chance at a free life... or reducing a city to ash in the zealous following of the lightside, a zealous following which only sees the elimination of all darkside users..."

His hands closed on the bubbles, cutting them off and his arm returning to normal as he sighed.

"Does that make sense to you?"

 

[Briah Song]

"I see. Yes, I understand." Auron nodded slowly as he allowed the man's words to sink in deeper. In these moments, he felt that he had discovered something new about himself and the universe around him. Had his father known this? Is this understanding what had caused the Jedi to shun his family so often over the centuries? He could not help but be curious.
"You are saying that the light and the dark are merely reflections of the same thing," he finally said again, his thoughts reeling back to the ancient historical origins of the Songs and what they practiced. "And that, in reality, they both need each other in order to exist." He fell silent, pondering deeply on what had been presented to him. Around them, the afternoon breeze picked up a while again, letting leaves and light twigs scratch gently along the woodland bed.
"My name is Auron Song," he concluded, finding it more than appropriate to finally introduce himself.

[member="Solan Charr"]

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Auron Song"]

His smile grew as he shook his head.

"I am not saying that. I am saying that just because someone is good, and someone is evil, they are not necessarily always going to use the Lightside and the dark side respectively. I will admit that my own beliefs though do speak of the Light and Dark needing each other to survive, but those are my beliefs and not ones that fit into your life as a Jedi. As a Jedi it is your duty to protect, but also your mission to eliminate the dark side through any means possible." His smile was lost as he looked at Auron.

"It is that mission which corrupted the mind of your ally over Korriban. She let her mission override her duty, and in an instant, she sacrificed those she was meant to protect in the hopes of gaining the victory, a victory that would not come and as such the lives of those lost were in vain. It is a harsh lesson, one which you must learn. If you let your mission override your duty, you are no better than those Sith who you oppose." He stopped and heard the name as his face softened.

"It is good to know your name Auron. I don't remember introducing myself, but my name is Solan Charr."

 

[Briah Song]

Auron nodded again, this time more sure of himself and what Solan was telling him. Although the pain he felt for the people of Korriban persisted even more deeply, his understanding of the whole situation was beginning to unfurl and elucidate into an easier state. "I understand. Thank you. I appreciate the lessons you've been showing me today. My family... We come from a long line of Jedi, and descend directly from the Je'daii Order of old, who as you might know were known to study all aspects of the Force. Sometimes, I feel we have forgotten that ancestry and the lessons to be learned from that. I never realised until now how easy it is to demonise and stereotype." A silence followed as his thoughts dwelled on Korriban a while longer, before he sought a warmer smile in response to the man as he introduced himself.
"It's good to meet you, too, Solan. You are an interesting man, and one I hope I can learn more from. Now, tell me," he continued, his attention turning to the small companion who had arrived with Solan. He let out his hand towards it, palm open in invitation for the creature to sniff and consider a petting from. "Who is this sweet one?"

[member="Solan Charr"]

 

[Aithne Charr]

[member="Auron Song"]

"Her name is Kira, and she thanks you for the compliment... Ashlan wolves are just as intelligent as we are, they simply lack the ability to vocally speak like we do." He watched the Ashlan move by the hand and welcomed it. It always made him smile a bit seeing that and his own hand came through his hair as he continued to explain.

"They speak through emotions so to say, transmitting the base understanding of a thought through the mental bond shared with the one they connect to. It can't be intercepted though, as its not a force based connection. Think of it like our two minds are linked together." He neglected to mention the fact that sensations felt by one of them could be transfered to the other, thus meaning that Solan actually felt Auron's hand as it moved over Kira's fur.

He still didn't quite understand the bond, but knew it could not be force based. Ashlan tended to link with Ysalmiri in order to hide themselves from the force hunting beasts on Myrkr. Unless the bond superceded the effects of a ysalmiri bubble, it was likely a biological exchange of some kind that connected their minds.

 

[Briah Song]

"I see. How very interesting," said Auron with a smile as his attention returned to the wolf. "Nice to meet you, as well, Kira." As Solan described their connection, it deeply fascinated him. The idea of it seemed very unknowable to him. He had heard of Force bonds, and such an idea only vaguely made sense to him, but a connection beyond the Force though with similar tendencies completely alluded him. "I admit, I have never heard of a connection such as this one. It sounds like a very rare circumstance. How did it come about?"

[member="Solan Charr"]