Private Ancient Memories

[Cailen Corso]

Obroa-skai
Jedi Academy Ruins

​

Cailen’s hands idly rubbed the chill from his arms, but his gaze was locked in space. He sat at one of the ancient stone tables, staring while his mind reflected on what he’d seen.

All those years ago, the Jedi lived and trained here. They collected vast amounts of data from all over the galaxy, and brought it back here to study. Cailen saw them store their findings in some kind of data vault, but whether it survived the purge he witnessed in the vision was uncertain. Where it even was, he didn’t know.

Did the Empire steal all the data? Or worse, destroy it? What if they never found it, and it’s still full of information and knowledge?

His eyes finally blinked, stinging them as he adjusted to the present. They had to find that vault.

“Master?” the Padawan asked, looking to Valery Noble as he rose to his feet.

“I-I want to look for the vault.”

His eyes were full of that classic ‘Cailen determination,’ and his heart was beating hard. He worried she or Master Kahlil wouldn’t approve of a search after what happened in his vision. After all, he may have to use psychometry again to find the entrance if it’s hidden or buried.

“Who knows what could be inside? Maybe something we can use to rebuild this place, or something that could help the Jedi.”

---

Tags: Valery Noble | Kahlil Noble ​

 

[Valery Noble]

Obroa-Skai

​

Outfit: Factory Link | Wedding Ring
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Weapons: Blasters | Lightsaber
Tag: Kahlil Noble Cailen Corso

"Are you sure?" Valery chuckled and briefly glanced at her husband for his opinion on that. Even figuring out there was a vault to begin with had been hard on the young boy. What if the visions only got worse from here? It was a risk she didn't like taking as someone who understood Psychometry quite well, but she saw that boyish grin on her face and could barely find the strength to tell him no.

She knew that kind of excitement for learning about the Galaxy.

"Well, I do think it'd be of value to the Jedi if we can recover this vault, so... let's give it a shot?" She looked between the two and smiled warmly. "If we suspect that a place might be intense, I could always help with looking into its past. But... we also don't have to worry about a lot of danger out here."

"I say we give it a shot."

 

[Kahlil Noble]

Kahlil stood close by, datapad in hand, idly scanning over the tablet. Some of the text was long worn down by now, but there could be all manner of secrets still to recover. He was, unironically, already searching for a path to this lost vault. The curiosity of a scholar was never something he could deny from himself. He blinked slowly, glancing up between the two of them before chuckling and lifting up the pad.

"I had a feeling you might want to continue. Here, tell me if you recognize anything."

He passed it over, smiling faintly to Cailen.

Cailen Corso | Valery Noble

 

[Cailen Corso]

Obroa-skai
Jedi Academy Ruins

​

Cailen returned his smile, eagerly taking the datapad and setting off with his eyes. He skimmed the text, looking for anything that felt familiar, but it proved more difficult than he thought.

It was like comparing written directions to landmarks you’ve only seen in a dream. The memories were so real when he connected with them, but on the waking side, they seemed so hazy and disconnected. Still, there were things that felt relevant as he read.

“I remember the vault was cold,” Cailen said.

“The Jedi breathed puffs of steam when they talked. So it must have been someplace without heaters.”

Just how helpful that was now, he wasn’t sure. The Academy hasn’t been temperature controlled in centuries. But surely finding a portion of the temple kept in sub-zero conditions couldn’t be that hard. He assumed they kept it cold to preserve samples. Maybe it wasn’t in the main temple at all. Did the Jedi have a subfloor, or a satellite structure outside in the frozen desert?

“What do you think? Where would you hide a data vault?”

Cailen smiled to Valery then.

“I’d put it in the basement. They’re creepy.”

---

Tags: Valery Noble | Kahlil Noble ​

 

[Valery Noble]

Obroa-Skai

​

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Tag: Kahlil Noble Cailen Corso

Valery looked between them with a bit of a smirk. She wasn't going to call her own Padawan a nerd, but she was definitely going to tease her husband about it a little. Which, all because of their lovely bond, he'd know by now. The only thing left to really make him feel in his element were some runes, and something told her that this wasn't even that far fetched. Obroa-Skai was known for having a huge collection of knowledge.

Some ancient Force knowledge was definitely possible.

"The cold you mentioned is a good clue, but Jedi typically put vaults where they are easier to protect too. So underground isn't a bad idea at all," she agreed with a small dip of her head.

"I'm not looking forward to it getting even colder, though," she added with a slight grumble. Kahlil knew just how much she preferred heat, and it wasn't something she could hide right now.

This cold was constantly making her rub the sides of her arms.

 

[Kahlil Noble]

"The one who plays with fire doesn't have an easy time keeping warm, mm?"

Add that to the list of things to tease Valery about. He smiled rather smugly, but his mind was already traveling to where might be best to store something deep below ground. Ironically the deeper one went, the warmer it should be.

Which meant, perhaps, it wasn't as deep as they thought. Or at least it had a direct line to the surface for the chilling winds to run through.

"Is there a canyon close by? Somewhere where the cold can travel deep?"

Valery Noble | Cailen Corso

 

[Cailen Corso]

Obroa-skai
Jedi Academy Ruins

​

He was totally nerding out now!

Cailen raised his brows and rubbed his chin, like a cliché detective in a holofilm. He was being silly outwardly, but his mind was racing over memories of the day. His own memories, this time. He couldn’t recall seeing a canyon or trench on the way to the Academy, but that didn’t mean one wasn’t there.

The desert was huge, after all. Rocky and vast. Surely it was possible. But how would the Jedi have gotten inside? He didn’t imagine they’d go to the trouble to scaling down a gulch every time they wanted to store or retrieve data.

There must be an access point somewhere inside, and his gut told him it was below their feet.

“Master?” Cailen asked, his head titled curiously.

“I think we should find another echo. Maybe I can see something that points the way!”

---

Tags: Valery Noble | Kahlil Noble ​

 

[Valery Noble]

Obroa-Skai

​

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Tag: Kahlil Noble Cailen Corso

"The one who plays with fire, huh?" Valery asked with a huff, "Alright, nerd, I see how it is~" she bumped her hip into him while he tried to read his datapad, purely to make him lose track of where he was, and looked around. Exploring and all of this research stuff wasn't exactly her specialty, but it was still a fun change of pace from the usual missions. Sometimes, it felt good not risking your life on duty.

Then there was Cailen — seeing him nerd out and be excited was just wonderful.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure there are ventilation tunnels too. Used to suck in cold air, before it was heated up and distributed inside. But after so long, the heaters don't work anymore and it's just cold air getting in." She looked at Kahlil, a little smugly because she just read this and didn't actually know anything about mechanics stuff.

But did he know that?

"An other echo?" she then asked Cailen before letting out a sigh. "Well, if you're careful and know where to be... I don't see why not?" she looked at Kahlil for his opinion.

 

[Kahlil Noble]

"It'd be the best way to find it, and given this already had an echo, I don't see why not."

It'd be ideal to make sure they knew where they were going instead of wandering. Then again, there could be all manner of other things to stumble upon and discover. He hummed in thought, glancing between the two before raising a brow at Valery. That made sense. Vents would be important, and long forgotten ones would be as good a place as others to hide a vault.

"I'll keep an eye out if you two want to find yourself another echo. It's not an ability I can use, so I imagine you'd be best to guide him through, mm?"

Valery Noble | Cailen Corso

 

[Cailen Corso]

Obroa-skai
Jedi Academy Ruins

​

Like that, it was settled. Cailen tried taking this task as seriously as he could, but he couldn't help smiling.

It felt amazing to spend this time with Master Noble and Kahlil. She's always felt like a second mom to him, and that made Kahlil the closest thing to a dad he had while serving the Jedi away from home. Cailen didn't know him all that well yet, a sad repercussion of the complex life of a Jedi, but he looked forward to learning more about Valery's husband today.

"Let's go!" he said, one hand clutched around his amulet while the other gently brushed against the walls as they set off through the temple.

He wasn't a master of psychometry by any means, but he had learned tricks to help sift through smaller fragments that would be less helpful than others. They were memories, no doubt, but of lesser events and situations that likely wouldn't help them find the vault. Those would have a much stronger presence, and he hoped that having Valery with him would help them find the echoes faster.

While they walked together, his mind began to wander. Eventually, he posed an innocent question.

"How did you meet each other?"

Surely there was a good story there. Something with action and suspense! Fighting Sith on a Dark Side planet, or maybe while saving a family from pirates!

---

Tags: Valery Noble | Kahlil Noble​

 

[Valery Noble]

Obroa-Skai

​

Outfit: Factory Link | Wedding Ring
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Tag: Kahlil Noble Cailen Corso

"I'll guide where necessary but I'll let Cailen tap into these echoes. Unless there is reason to believe they are dangerous, of course." The earlier echo had been intense, but it could get far worse. She wasn't going to let him connect at all if death lingered in the room, or if something terribly dark had happened inside. It had to still be appropriate for a Jedi Padawan.

For now, she followed after him and glanced over st her husband with a smile. Cailen was one of the more innocent Padawans under her wing. Others were often troublemakers or not exactly easy to handle. He was honestly a breath of fresh air in skme ways, and she was happy for her husband to finally meet him properly.

Of course, that also sparked a fun question. She loved gushing over these things.

"Well, after I got out of stasis and acquired my first ship, I decided it was time to confront the past I left behind me by visiting my old Enclave on New Cov. I landed in a city not too far away and first decided to check the library there for any records about what might have happened to the Jedi there." She looked at Kahlil and smirked.

"That is where I met him, looking for information about the Jedi in general. We talked and he was very kind and polite, so we decided to travel together. That way I had some help on my difficult journey, and I was able to talk to him about being a Jedi." Funny how that went, looking back. Now they were both Jedi Masters on the Council.

"Eventually we found my Enclave in ruins, and...it was hard on me to see it and realize everybody I knew is long gone. But Kahlil helped me through it, and even wrestled with a few huge predators to protect me while I was meditating alone." She chuckled and reached for her husband's hand to squeeze it briefly.

"We grew close that day and I never wanted anybody else in my life anymore."

 

[Kahlil Noble]

Kahlil raised a brow at the question, glancing between Cailen and Valery. He didn't say much, more listening to how Valery told the story itself. He eventually stopped looking at them and walked ahead, looking around to make sure there weren't any threats that could harm them hiding in the shadows. All really as an excuse to hide the blush on his face that had formed on his face. Not that it stopped the red of his ears from being seen.

Though that could just be the cold.

Cailen Corso | Valery Noble

 

[Cailen Corso]

Obroa-skai
Jedi Academy Ruins

​

Cailen smiled, his own cheeks sporting a pinkish hue as he listened to Valery’s story.

There was less fighting than he had hoped for, but it was still a sweet tale nonetheless. Most boys his age would turn their noses up at a romantic tale like that, but Cailen was surprisingly mature for his age when it came to such things. His parents had been happily married his entire life, instilling a soft place for healthy relationships in him.

“Those crazy plants didn’t scare you away?” Cailen poked at the red-eared Jedi ahead.

Cailen hadn’t gone girl-crazy, not yet at least. He kept so busy with his training, which was all the more difficult when considering the delay he faced in the beginning. There simply wasn’t enough time to find a girlfriend, to date. Cailen wasn’t sure he even wanted one. He wanted a partner who would have his back. But he couldn’t devote time to searching one out…

Not while there were so many cool things to find in ruins!

“Master!” Cailen called out, stopping to look at a small metal object buried under frigid sand.

“It looks like a… it looks like a lightsaber.”

His eyes widened as he examined it. He was nervous to touch it, especially after what he encountered on Tython after handling Tarus’ saber. Cailen waited for one of the Nobles to look at it first before trying to lift echoes from the hilt.

The visions could be anything, and he didn’t want to lose Kahlil’s trust if the memories were dangerous.

---

Tags: Valery Noble | Kahlil Noble​

 

[Valery Noble]

Obroa-Skai

​

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Weapons: Blasters | Lightsaber
Tag: Kahlil Noble Cailen Corso

"No crazy plants at the Temple, luckily. He did get scratched up pretty badly by those predators though, so I ended up taking care of him a little." She smirked and looked over at her husband while he walked ahead. She knew he was blushing, and it just made her feel incredibly warm inside. Because as often as he felt this way, he was pretty good at not physically showing it. But there was no way she'd miss those red ears, ever.

<You're cute when you blush,> Valery teased. <You were cute when we met too~> It hadn't been the main reason she let him join her for that important journey into her past, but... she'd be lying if she claimed that it wasn't something on her mind at the time. Even after 10 years with him, that strong attraction had never faded even a little.

Cailen's voice then snapped her out of her teasing, though she was going to remember it for later too. Instead, she turned to her Padawan and followed him over to the object he found. A lightsaber? It wasn't surprising that the hilt had survived for so long. They were often made with special materials that could stand the test of time, after all.

"What do you think, love? Lightsabers can be intense, but I'm confident in him."

 

[Kahlil Noble]

"It was just a couple bites." Kahlil glanced towards his arm, pausing briefly as he did. Right. After his sister carved off his arms he'd lost those scars. What a shame. Those were some of the few scars he was proud of. He cleared his throat, glancing back towards Valery as he seemed to take some control of his earlier blush. And smirked.

<You were too floating in that sacred pool.>

But his attention quickly turned to the found item. A lightsaber? He crouched beside it, looking it over. Jedi, or at least non Inquistorial given the timeline. It didn't exclude it from being Sith, but he didn't see any of the classic designs of such.

"Go ahead. But if you start feeling anything too dark let it go. I don't believe it's Sith, but there's no telling when it was left here."

Cailen Corso | Valery Noble

 

[Cailen Corso]

Obroa-skai
Jedi Academy Ruins

​

He couldn’t have been entirely sure - especially if Kahlil wasn’t either - but Cailen certainly agreed that the weapon didn’t seem like it belonged to a Sith. It just didn’t feel like something that a Dark Sider would wield.

Cailen gave a final look to both of the Jedi beside him before kneeling down and taking the saber into his hands. He blew off the sand, examining the delicate inscriptions in the metal that had survived the test of time. As he took in its appearance, he also considered its weight and shape; It helped his psychometric readings to pay close attention to an object’s physicality.

After a moment, he closed his eyes and searched for the echoes.

It took a bit more effort than he was used to, but eventually the memories came. They were hazy and fragmented. Incomplete, but still decipherable. Cailen could see a Padawan. She walked through the halls with an older Jedi.

“I think it belonged to a Jedi Master,” Cailen explained as he remembered. His eyes rolled gently beneath his eyelids.

The pair of ancient Jedi were talking about things Cailen didn’t understand… the memories themselves were choppy and fuzzy, coupled with bits of dialogue mentioning things he wasn’t familiar with. But what he could sense was that this Master was guiding the girl to the vault.

“He wants the Padawan to hide something, I think.”

---

Tags: Valery Noble | Kahlil Noble​

 

[Valery Noble]

Obroa-Skai

​

Outfit: Factory Link | Wedding Ring
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Weapons: Blasters | Lightsaber
Tag: Kahlil Noble Cailen Corso

<You were too floating in that sacred pool.>

<Y-you were there, too!> She stammered through their bond, and now it was her time to blush like a school girl. Even when she thought she had him for once, he could find something embarrassing to her to bring up and turn things around. It just wasn't fair, but then again, he never played fair when it came to teasing her.

Valery then turned her gaze to Cailen as he studied the lightsaber and tapped into the echoes tied to it. Luckily, the visions he saw didn't seem to be too intense, but it also wasn't an overly vivid one that revealed the memories in great detail.

But it was enough.

"Hide something? Hmm." Valery perked a brow and looked at her husband.

"It must be tied to what happened. The Master standing here to guard until the end, while the Padawan is tasked to hide something in the Vault. I say we go check it out, hm?"

 

[Kahlil Noble]

<I was very much there, yes.>

He flashed just the briefest grin towards Valery, but then pretty quickly shut out the rest of that conversation. He'd tease her more later, not while Cailen was about to dive into the ancient remains of a Jedi's lightsaber.

"If the vision was indeed of the vault, then yes, that seems correct. Did you get a general sense where the Padawan went?"

Valery Noble | Cailen Corso

 

[Cailen Corso]

Obroa-skai
Jedi Academy Ruins

​

"It feels close," Cailen said. His eyes flicked back and forth as he relived the past.

The girl was nervous. She followed her Master without question, even though she was afraid. Cailen chewed the inside of his lip as he focused on her emotions. He knew exactly what it felt like to put all of his trust into Valery. It was a terrifying thing to do, but she had always made sure he came back home safe.

Stutters in the memories made tracking their movements precisely tricky, but Cailen figured he could fill in the gaps as they went. A sudden rumbling stopped them in the corridor, but the Master was quick to push the girl ahead.

"Go!" he ordered, before turning and igniting his weapon.

Cailen's eyes eased open. He pulled himself from the memories preemptively, sensing what must have come next. He was getting better at controlling his psychometric episodes, and good thing - the fact that the lightsaber was even here for them to find proved the Master met his end here, defending his Padawan all those centuries ago.

The boy looked to his own Master and Kahlil with solemn understanding.

"It's this way," he told them, taking the lead and retracing the girl's steps. It wasn't much farther ahead, but where Cailen's feet came to a stop looked nothing like what a Jedi vault would. At least, not what one would imagine.

There were no fancy inscriptions or motifs on the walls, no alcoves or domed ceilings or statues. Simply a recessed sitting bench etched into the solid rock of the tunnel wall. If you were in a hurry or tending to other business, you'd walk right by it on your way to someplace more important. It was perfect. Cailen looked closely at the stone, trying to figure out how to open it.

"This is it," he said, "but I didn't see how she opened it. The memories... they were her Master's, and I- he-"

Cailen took a breath. He felt a bit overwhelmed by everything he'd relived today. It was mentally exhausting, and he'd grown tired from exploring both the temple and its ancient past. But they were too close to give up now.

"I don't know how to open it, but it's here. I can feel it."

---

Tags: Valery Noble | Kahlil Noble​

 

[Valery Noble]

Obroa-Skai

​

Outfit: Factory Link | Wedding Ring
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Weapons: Blasters | Lightsaber
Tag: Kahlil Noble Cailen Corso

<I was very much there, yes.>

Valery pressed her lips into a thin line, her cheeks still a rosy color, and shot her husband one last look before she focused on the task at hand as well. This wasn't going to be the end of the teasing, she knew, and she was going to get him back for bringing up the Serenity Springs.

Turning her focus to Cailen, she could feel the ancient memories, but especially their emotions affecting him. He was perhaps one of her most calm and measured Padawans, but there was something about this vision that still shook him a little bit. When they followed him to where the vault was supposed to be, the reason for that became clear to her.

The Master had died defending his Padawan, who had been tasked to head to the vault. It sent a shiver down her spine because if she had been in this Master's place, she would have done the same. He had done the right thing, and Valery hoped his sacrifice had ensured the Pasawan's survival.

But only time would tell.

"Back on New Cov, we had a huge vault as well. Much like others in the Galaxy, it could only be opened with the Force and in that particular case, it needed at least two people. If the Master sent just a Padawan, it means this one can either be opened alone, or it was already open." She looked between Cailen and Kahlil and smiled, before she placed her hand against the cold stone.

"Still, it's easier if we work together. Let's try to access the mechanisms within as a group."