Private Crossroads

[Katarine Ryiah]

All you folks think you own my life​

Location: Coruscant - New Jedi Order Temple
Objective: Meet Grandmaster
Tags: Valery Noble


The faint hum of repulsorlifts echoed through the steel corridors as Jedi Master Katarine Ryiah stepped onto the polished durasteel platform, her dark cloak trailing in her wake. Coruscants's sterile scent metal, oil, and industry did little to soothe the storm behind her composed expression. In the distance, the Alliance's banners fluttered against the artificial breeze, their stark symbolism a constant reminder of the crossroads she faced.


The Galactic Alliance had reached out weeks prior with an unexpected proposition: join their expanding police force. A Jedi at the helm of justice, they'd said—someone who could bring order where bureaucracy often failed. The offer came far more personal: dedicated funding and support for her ongoing investigation into Black Marsh Prison, the hidden scar she'd been chasing across the Outer Rim. If she was honest with herself, the offer also came with the opportunity to work more closely with SIA... or to be more precise, a particular SIA agent. It was everything she needed, even if she wasn't letting herself admit that yet.


And yet, it came at a cost.


To accept would mean leaving the New Jedi Order, her Order. The place she had bled beside, grown within, and finally called home. Could she truly walk away from that? From them?

That was why she was here. The halls leading to Grandmaster Valery Noble's office chambers felt longer than she remembered, lined with quiet shadows and the weight of unspoken truths. Katarine's fingers grazed the hilt of her saber, not out of threat, but memory. She had come seeking more than counsel, she sought clarity. And if anyone could offer wisdom through the haze of uncertainty, it was Valery.

She knocked outside the door and waited, her mind clouded with indecisiveness.

 

[Valery Noble]

​

Outfit: Combat Jumpsuit | Wedding Ring
Weapons: Blasters | Lightsabers

The quiet knock echoed just as Valery was finishing a datapad report, the soft tap against the chamber door drawing her gaze up — though she had felt the presence long before the sound. Familiar. Steady beneath the turbulence. A friend.

Her expression softened, the wear of the day easing from her features as she rose to her feet. With a simple button press, the door slid open with a gentle hiss.

"Kat," Valery said with quiet warmth, her amber eyes locking onto the figure in the doorway. There was no formality in her tone — not between them. But as her gaze settled on her old friend, Valery could feel it — the weight pressing just beneath the surface. A choice not yet spoken aloud, but heavy all the same. Her presence in the Force wasn't frayed… but it wasn't still, either.

She stepped aside and motioned inward. "Come in," she said, voice calm and certain. "Close the door behind you."

Valery turned, walking back toward the center of the room, her tone shifting just slightly — from welcome to insight, without ever losing that quiet empathy. "You're carrying something heavy on your mind." She glanced back over her shoulder, a faint smile touching her lips.

She gestured to the chairs near her desk — not the formal ones, but the softer seats by the window, where sunlight spilled across stone and the hum of the Temple felt a little less official.

"Sit with me. Tell me what's on your mind."

Katarine Ryiah ​