Private balance of the wills

[Laphisto]

A message had been sent to Diarch Rellik brief, direct, yet carrying undeniable weight. It summoned him to the High Commander's office aboard Aurora Station. Clearance codes were provided, the time fixed, leaving nothing to chance.

Though Mortis had restored what Serenno once stole, granting Rellik the wholeness of his soul again, the scars of that ordeal had not vanished. In the weeks since his return, visions lingered at the edges of his mind echoes of Mortis, whispers of futures woven with fire and shadow. They were not merely dreams, but premonitions: threads of destiny pulling taut as the galaxy lurched toward another crucible.

Laphisto had seen the signs as well. The Empire's attack loomed on the horizon, and with it came the certainty of blades crossing, of leaders tested, and of loyalties strained. Paths once scattered now bent toward collision, falling into place with an inexorable precision.

And so the summons was sent. Not to heal for Mortis had already seen to that but to amplify. To awaken in Rellik the fullness of his potential, to sharpen the bond between Diarch and High Commander, and to ready him for the storm that would decide the fate of the Diarchy. If their people were to endure the coming trial, their leaders would need to stand stronger than ever before, unshaken, and united in power.

 

[Diarch Rellik]

Rellik did not keep Laphisto waiting. Aurora Station's halls carried him with familiar precision, each step echoing faintly against durasteel bulkheads until the High Commander's office came into view. The door parted with a muted hiss, and his cloak followed in a quiet sweep that trailed his entrance.

Golden eyes settled on the figure at the desk, taking in the gravity that seemed to linger. Rellik inclined his head in measured courtesy before breaking the silence.

"You asked for me, my friend?" he said evenly, his tone calm yet edged with curiosity. "I came without delay. What is the matter?"

Laphisto

 

[Laphisto]

Laphisto stood before the broad glasteel viewport, arms crossed over his chest, his lone ear flicking faintly at the sound of Rellik's entrance. He did not turn, yet the subtle tilt of that ear was acknowledgment enough his presence had been seen, his arrival anticipated. "I've heard of your visit to Mortis," Laphisto said, his voice low and measured, carrying the weight of both curiosity and certainty. "Your wound has been cleansed. I can feel it."

For a moment, silence lingered, broken only by the distant hum of the station. Slowly, Laphisto's arms unfolded, his hands clasping behind his back in a posture that was both thoughtful and commanding. The viewport caught the golden glow threading through his eyes, reflections that seemed more alive than mere light. force-born embers flickering across his sight. "But there is more," he continued, his tone hardening with quiet resolve. "Something you will need for the future that approaches, Rellik. The storm ahead will demand more than what Mortis restored. It will demand all that you are and all that you can become."

 

[Diarch Rellik]

Rellik stood with his hands clasped behind his back, posture calm but deliberate. At the mention of Mortis, he gave a single nod. "The journey has brought clarity," he said, voice measured. "For the first time, I breathe knowing it is all of me. Now when I look down at my body I can see the scares of my fractured soul. They are mended... I can see the fractures in everyone." He did not give more information on the matter. Leaving it to show itself in time, as he knew with Laphisto near him that it would eventually become clear.

His gaze settled firmly on Laphisto. "And yet you say more is needed. What did you have in mind?"

Laphisto

 

[Laphisto]

Laphisto finally turned to face him, the faint glow in his eyes flaring with an almost ethereal brilliance. Golden light shimmered across his gaze, not merely a reflection but something alive an echo of forces greater than himself. As he moved, the air seemed to shift, his presence in the Force swelling heavier, pressing against the edges of perception. It carried the same weight Rellik had once felt in the arena when Saurav'ix had tried to take hold yet this was different.

Here, Laphisto's essence was not smothered, not consumed. It was intertwined, coiled in seamless tandem with another presence: Dra'ko, the god of life and creation. Two currents moving as one, balanced rather than in conflict.

"Balance," he said, voice steady but resonant with layered tones that did not seem entirely his own. "Not only within yourself, but within the Force. You have walked the shadowed path, Rellik, deep and unyielding. And yet… I can see the glimmer of light at the edges of your spirit, brushed but never embraced."

He took a step closer, the weight of his aura thickening, not oppressive but undeniable. "The road ahead will demand more than clarity. It will demand balance of dark and light, of fury and restraint. And most of all, it will demand power. Call it essence, call it fuel whatever name you give it, you will need it to endure the storm that is coming. To have not only strength enough to strike, but stamina enough to last when all else begins to wither."

Diarch Rellik

 

[Diarch Rellik]

Rellik held his ground beneath the weight of Laphisto's presence, the layered resonance in his voice impossible to mistake. What once had been struggle now moved in harmony, not one force overpowering the other, but strength refined into balance. Rellik inclined his head slightly, a mark of acknowledgment.

"You stand in full power now," he said, calm and certain. "What once threatened to tear you apart has been bound into something greater. That is no small thing, Laphisto. Congratulations."

"It is true that I was raised in my father's dark shadow for most of my life," Rellik said, his tone even, but the weight of memory pressed behind it. His hands remained clasped at the small of his back, his posture calm but deliberate.

His gaze shifted, a faint gleam of warmth breaking through the gold of his eyes. "Yet I find myself enjoying more now. Friends. Allies. Love. Things I once thought beyond me. They bring a strength of their own that I have grown to value."

He stepped forward, steady as ever, but the question that followed carried the ring of genuine curiosity. "What do you think we can do, Laphisto, to help harness this power?"

Laphisto

 

[Laphisto]

Laphisto walked forward until he stood directly before Rellik, his steps measured, unhurried. He reached for the gauntlet on his right hand and slid it free with a quiet hiss of seals breaking, the polished plates folding away to bare the scaled flesh beneath. Tucking the gauntlet beneath his arm, he let his other hand fall to the hilt at his side. The broadsaber slid free from its mag lock, its weight settling with a familiar hum. For a moment, the golden glow in his eyes caught the reflection of the blade. Then, without hesitation, he turned the weapon inward and dragged its edge across his palm in a swift, precise motion.

No blood fell. Instead, a radiant flow spilled forth not liquid, but light. A stream of shifting auroras bled from the wound, emerald and gold mingling with threads of silver, spilling into the air as though it had been trapped, waiting to be freed. It did not look like pain. It looked inevitable, natural as if his very being overflowed with power too vast to contain.

He closed his fingers into a fist, then opened them again, the energy spilling brighter between his claws. Raising the hand, he fixed his gaze on Rellik, his voice carrying that layered resonance, Laphisto's and Dra'ko's in harmony.

"This is what I carry each day. Excess. Renewal. Life itself, waiting to be given form. It is not sacrifice. It is balance… and power enough to endure what comes."He pressed the glowing hand against Rellik's chest. The aurora surged forward like a tide, flowing not as fire to consume, but as breath to awaken. and pure light side energy rushed out pushing deeply into the very fabric of relliks soul

Diarch Rellik

 

[Diarch Rellik]

The surge struck hard, not as something foreign, but as something vast. Light was no stranger to him now, he had felt it in his bonds, in his family, in the lives he had come to value. But never like this. Never as a flood without end.

The weight of it shook him, not with pain, but with magnitude. For a heartbeat his balance wavered, and the cloak upon his shoulders responded in kind. Its edges rippled wildly, then tore free into the air, twisting as though unmoored from him. It did not fall directly but it hovered, shuddering, reacting to the instability within him.

Yet he did not break. Mortis had made him whole again, and that wholeness held. He had accepted his fate as perhaps a pawn of the Whills in some new way to mix up their game for fun and has realized that his life is his own. That he must live it, damned what the stars say. That to throw away his nature is to throw away himself before he can help those he has come to care about.

Slowly, his breath steadied, the tide settling deeper into him. As balance returned, so too did the cloak, folding back around him in quiet deference.
Golden eyes lifted but the hue no longer burned as it once did. At their center, a faint blue glimmer threaded through, not overtaking but tempering the gold. It was as though the shadowed fire that had long defined him now held a calm heart, balance pressed into his very gaze.

He exhaled, steady now, and his voice carried low but firm. "I have felt the light before," he said, eyes fixed on Laphisto. "But never in such measure. That was... something. What have you done exactly? I feel... the flow of the force through me. I am not just catching it and molding it. It is.... different."

Laphisto

 

[Laphisto]

Laphisto's gaze held steady on Rellik, the aurora fading from his hand but leaving its resonance behind. His voice rolled low, ."I have given you what many only dream of," he said, each word deliberate. "You are now aligned one with the Force, and one with yourself. Equal parts shadow and flame, equal parts light and calm. True harmony. A gift so rare it is spoken of more often in legend than in life."

As the last word left him, his head snapped slightly to the side. A sharp wince crossed his features, golden light in his eyes flaring bright before fracturing. He staggered back a half-step, hands rising to grip at his temples as if fighting off a storm inside his skull. For a long breath, his shoulders trembled under the unseen weight, until finally he drew it back under control.

When at last he straightened, the glow had dimmed, blinking away until only the natural hue of his eyes remained. His chest rose and fell once, steadying, before he spoke again voice lower, carrying a note of apology yet edged with conviction.

"I swore to you I would not let the gods take hold of me," he admitted, "but Dra'ko's voice was not wrong. A storm is rising, Rellik, one greater than either of us have yet endured. You were not ready to meet it as you were. I saw it woven into the fabric of the Force itself. You will face Prazutis again. And when that moment comes, you must be ready to do what you could not before."

Diarch Rellik

 

[Diarch Rellik]

Rellik drew a slow breath, the resonance still moving through him like a second heartbeat. He did not doubt the words that had been spoken with Dra'ko's tone, he could feel them thrumming in his very marrow. His eyes lifted, and there was conviction within them. His true heart where it was meant to be. A distinct and interesting feeling but one he deemed was where he belonged.

"Then it is real," he said evenly. "Both present, interesting."

When Laphisto's own voice returned, Rellik inclined his head slightly, a mark of acknowledgment between equals. "You have kept your word as always my friend. I trust you with more than my life. The lives of all I care about and more."

The name Prazutis stilled him, the memory flashing like the scar carved across his face. His jaw set, but he did not look away. "He marked me once. Took more than I would admit, even to myself. But you are right, I was not ready then."

He straightened, shoulders squaring as the cloak settled firm around him once more. "Now I am whole. When that day comes, I will not meet him the same. And this time, Laphisto… he will find no fracture to break in my mind, my soul, in my connection to the force."

Laphisto

 

[Laphisto]

Laphisto stooped, retrieving the discarded gauntlet from beneath his arm. He slid it back into place over his scaled hand, the locking seals hissing shut with a muted click. He flexed his fingers once, twice, testing the fit, before a low rumble rolled from his chest a sound caught somewhere between thought and resolve. Turning back to Rellik. His voice carried the calm certainty of one who had seen the path laid bare. "And now comes the true test," he said. "You must learn to wield that balance not as one or the other, but both. Light and dark, to draw upon them simultaneously. To summon them together without breaking apart." He stepped closer, the weight of his presence steady, grounding.

"There is a training ground here, on Aurora Station. We will begin there. Time is not on our side you will not master all of it before the storm breaks but I will see to it you are prepared enough to endure what must come."A faint smile ghosted the edge of his mouth, though his tone remained iron. "We will train. And when that is done, we will see to forging you an armor befitting not only a warrior… but a leader of the Diarchy. One who will stand unshaken before gods and emperors alike."

Diarch Rellik

 

[Diarch Rellik]

Rellik listened in silence, golden-blue eyes fixed on Laphisto as the words fell. "You're right," he said at last, voice even. "What you've given me will mean nothing if I cannot wield it without tearing myself apart. If that is the test, then I will see it through. These will certainly be interesting times indeed."

He inclined his head, a faint edge of respect in the gesture. "Training, then. As we have done before. You have pushed me beyond what I think I can endure, and I rise to meet it. This will be no different."

At the mention of armor, a glint passed through his gaze. His cloak settled at his back as he stepped forward, posture squared, calm and ready. "Lead the way, Laphisto. Time is short. Let us begin."

Laphisto

 

[Laphisto]

"We will all have our struggles to face," Laphisto said, his tone carrying the quiet certainty of command. "And in the days ahead, those struggles will not lessen. The galaxy plunges toward war, and every part of us our soldiers, our leaders must be tempered to meet it, my old friend."

He gave a small, measured nod, arms folding behind his back as he turned from Rellik. His stride was steady, deliberate, the weight of purpose clear in every step. The door before him parted with a muted hiss, and without pause he passed through, the soft glow of the corridor lights spilling across his armor.

Aurora Station's halls carried him onward, the steady rhythm of his boots against the deck plating echoing faintly as he led the way. He did not look back, but his presence in the Force reached out like a beacon, guiding toward the path ahead. Soon enough, the doors to the training platform loomed before them, waiting to be opened.

Diarch Rellik