Private Fates Intertwined

[Kisaku Oroken]

Kisaku coming out of the council chambers did so with energy. His gait terse, almost as if his legs might break out into a skip or a trot if he didn't fight his impulses to do so. He was a buzzing ball of equal parts excited and anxious.

"I wonder what she's going to be like? Will I impress her? I'm the best of my peers, of course I'm going to impress her! But... Maybe Jedi Knights are just completely on a different level. I FEEL like I could probably beat a knight in a spar... At least like one out of three times, right? If not more! That's still enough to be more than luck."

His mind a mile a minute, and his legs taking him across the temple, with zero idea where he was going, as he'd been half-listening at the point in which he'd been told where he could find the knight he was being apprenticed to at that point. He'd already been drawn into his head -- into fantasy at that point.

It's worth noting by an impartial narrator that Kisaku's fantasy is very much a fantasy. At least in some regards, for though his grasp over Shii-cho is truly impressive and worthy of praise... It has come at the cost of his attention span to more or less, any other study that the jedi order tried to impress upon him. As a saber combatant, he is gifted. As a jedi? He is embarrassing.

Enter Auteme. What a lovely task she has, and perhaps has yet to truly know it. Kisaku's mentors likely had good things to say about him. That he was good-natured and good tempered. The battlemaster would have certainly had good things to say, though whether Auteme would have been interested in hearing them is a question of it's own. Of course every mentor but the battle master would have also spoken of Kisaku's struggle to apparently actually study anything, his issues with punctuality, and his frequent journeys into daydreams in blocks of instruction.

She may have had some idea of the challenge she was accepting. Or perhaps, she may have none. Time would tell how both of them grew to feel about the newly-blossomed apprenticeship.

 

[Auteme]

Kisaku Oroken ​

Auteme was doing what she usually did when she needed to calm down -- reading. When things were difficult, when she was anxious, it was easy to escape into another world through the pages. Her days as of late had been filled with battles and healing and war-planning that she was vastly underqualified to participate in. Nonetheless she'd done her part, but her need to read had grown to be too much to bear.

So, on one of her days 'off' was spent reading in the Prosperity's Archives. Still, the anxiety didn't go away. At first she assumed it was because there was still work to be done -- it brought her some discomfort knowing there were books to be organized, even in her time off -- but it soon came to her.

She was supposed to have a padawan.

Of course, she didn't see it that way. Truly taking on a padawan learner would be much more strenuous than what she was doing. No, this was just mentorship in a smaller form. It was something she'd promised she'd help with. The New Jedi Order was low on true masters, but every one among them had something to teach.

Still, having something to teach and actually teaching were two different things. Kisaku, the young man she'd been paired up with, seemed like the type where it'd be all or nothing. A prodigy with a lightsaber? Disorganized and extraordinarily driven? He was far, far from Auteme, despite them being almost the same age.

Yet he wasn't the first. Ryv was her polar opposite in many ways, but when they worked as a team they could solve any problem. Sword and shield. Moreover they learned from one another.

When Kisaku arrived, Auteme had busied herself with putting away the returns. Physical activity (as loose a definition of it that could be applied to moving books) tended to clear one's head. She waved him over.

"Hey! You must be Kisaku," she said. "I'm Auteme. Would you mind giving me a hand? I've got some stuff to put away... actually, if we work together, we could probably have everything done before dinner. How's that sound?"

 

[Kisaku Oroken]

---

Auteme
​

Kisaku at some point had realized that there was something he should be doing right then. Namely, that he should probably actually find the knight he was being apprenticed to. That's exactly how he came to be speed-walking through the halls and various facilities of the temple in a state of near panic. He realized that he definitely should have listened better because he had zero plan on how to actually find them at this point. He had no idea what they sounded like, or where he'd find them and was rapidly approaching the conclusion that they would quickly realize that their new Padawan that they selected was defective. He wondered what the return policy on apprentices was?

Catastrophizing. A hidden talent of his.

When he'd made his way into the library and was half-way through imagining the embarrassment of his new mentor having to go to the council herself to find him ("My Padawan never showed up. If they're lost in transit do I get a new one?") he came to an abrupt halt, rocking onto his toes with the effect of making him look like a loth-cat raising it's hackles after being startled -- nearly falling over as he caught himself on one foot. The person organizing books that he was just about to pass had spoken to him.

They had called him by name.

It was a feminine voice.

He didn't recognize them, yet the name definitely sounded familiar.

It was definitely his master. Catastrophe averted. He straightened having no way of knowing his face had reddened nor that he was absolutely horrid at masking facial expression. He was blind, how would he be? A wave of both embarrassment and relief had washed through him and the conflicting emotions showed.

"Ah... Yeah, of course Master Auteme. I had just come to find you." He wouldn't have to live down being the Padawan that got lost on their first day of apprenticeship.

He moved in closer now, feeling but not recognizing the pressure leaving him like a kettle taken off of the heat. A general warm nervousness still lived in him, the one he'd started with. The buzz of questions about her that lived in his head.

He placed his hands onto a book that was in the pile before hesitating.

"How are these to be organized?" He certainly hoped it was by size... Or that she had a stack of braille volumes for him to work through.

 

[Auteme]

Kisaku Oroken
​

"Oh, I'm just a Knight," she said. As respectful as the term Master was, she wasn't especially comfortable hearing it in relation to her. Master of what? She hadn't finished her Master of Philosophy at the university yet. And she certainly wasn't a Jedi Master. "But please, just Auteme is fine."

His question was simple enough at face value, but a glance at his face told her it wouldn't be so easy. She'd done her research; Miraluka were reliant on the Force to provide them sight, but that didn't facilitate more 'traditional' means of reading and information-gathering. She couldn't imagine a galaxy without reading. Still, the Miraluka's adaptation to their homeworld -- spurred on by the Force -- was fascinating enough, and she'd be loathe to disrespect Kisaku so early.

In a flash of insight, the day's lesson came to her. She clapped her hands together and grinned. "You know, the Miraluka aren't the only species with inherent Force abilities. The Kiffar are known for their ability of psychometry, which allows them to discover things by touching an item. For example," she said, selecting a book ("The Blue Banthas of Entooine") and holding it out to him, "If a Kiffar touched this, they'd probably see the hours I spent reading it.

"Don't expect it to come instantly, but I have a feeling it'll be easier for you than it would be for me. And even I've picked up some of it." Given two of her closest friends were kiffar, she had some far better teachers than most. "Feel the flow of the Force; not just of the books, but of the Archives. Each shelf has a story to tell, and there are quite a few stories here."

She gave an encouraging thumbs up. Then, it was off into the stacks with a little cart full of books.

 

[Kisaku Oroken]

Auteme
​

Kisaku's delicate brow furrowed at Auteme's request for her to refer to her so... Casually. He knew she was 'just a knight'. That didn't change that she was his master now. It felt... Wrong to speak to her off-hand like that. She deserved his respect after taking him on and saving him from a mundane life at the temple. Not all Jedi were taken on as Apprentices after all. Some looked after the temple in various ways. Worse, if he believed the rumors floating around his peers when he was a youngling; that some padawans that weren't apprenticed got sent to the moisture farms to live out an ascetic life devoid of adventure.

That wasn't what he wanted. He wanted to be a great knight, one that was looked up to and was a guardian to the weak. Auteme taking him on provided him with the chance to live that dream. She deserved the honorary from him, and his utmost effort to deserve the opportunity.

He visibly perked up when she clapped her hands, the noise drawing his attention immediately. As he listened and she picked up a new book, he cautiously traded her...

"I'll try." Kisaku agreed hesitantly. As he considered his task, the more he worried that the very first thing -- no, second thing his master asked him to do -- he might not be any good at. He wondered if this was her realization that he couldn't help her put away the books, and thus gave him a fool's errand to keep him quietly out of the way while she worked. He didn't give that insecurity too much occupancy in his mind -- she seemed too nice, too genuine for it to be true. It didn't stop the thought from stinging when it arrived.

Looking at the book, if what he was doing could be quantified as 'looking'. In his mind's eye, the force painted a picture of the fat rectangular volume as a mere wireframe. A conceptualization of what the book was shaped like.. And yet his thumbs could feel more -- the texture of the weathered canvas bindings. He could smell the sharp scent of old parchment. His method of sight was far more abstract than true sight, and he exhaled softly as he focused over the task she gave him. "Don't expect it to come instantly." He sighed quietly. Fair enough. He slowly leaned against the desk, sliding his feet out until he could cross them. He tried to focus on the book... But soon found that her direction had only stymied the burning questions he had for her momentarily.

"Maste--.. I mean, Auteme I guess.." He corrected himself sheepishly as he picked up his head towards her. It sounded a little stiff coming from his lips in a way he didn't expect.

"How did you end up learning a skill like psychometry? I mean -- I'd heard of it before I think... But I don't think I've ever known anyone who could do it."

​

 

[Auteme]

Kisaku Oroken
​

She grinned a little as he stumbled over 'master Auteme' again.

"Oh, well- I learned it from my friends," she replied.

"I'm sure you know them- well, at least, you've heard of them." She imagined seeing the posters and propaganda would be difficult for him. And though Ryv did his best to speak to the padawans, there were surely a few he'd missed. " Ryv Karis, the Sword of the Jedi, and Loske Treicolt -- as it happens, they're both Kiffar, and have a bit of a knack for it. It was never a real... formal, lesson, but I spent enough time around them and picked up bits and pieces. I'm not nearly as good as they are, but you never stop learning."

She pulled the cart further into the Archives; first to the Jedi History and Philosophy section. There were a few copies of the Jedi Path on her cart. She picked them up and headed into the shelves, giving a quick flip through -- most of them were annotated by one Jedi or another. One day she hoped her own notes would help someone.

A minute later she returned to Kisaku, holding her own copy of the Jedi Path. She handed it to him. "Try this one. Can you tell me anything about it? Don't be afraid to start with the physical aspects. What does it feel like, what's it made of?"

 

[Kisaku Oroken]

Auteme


​

Kisaku's eyebrows rose sharply. "You know Ryv Karis? Like personally though?" The astonishment was in no way hidden by his tone. He accepted the book while picking up his jaw. His hand passed over the cover for a moment as he collected himself. She was giving him a task, and it wasn't to gawk over how well connected she was if she called the Sword a friend of hers.


That brought a thousand more questions to mind for him, but he did his best to focus. "Well it's... It's smooth... Some kind of hard cover binding.." He says, his brows furrowing a bit. "It smells like paper -- like that specific smell you only get with a really thin-paged book... It's dense." He murmurs softly, his brows slowly unfurrowing as he took a deep breath.

To Kisaku, the Force was like a tapestry in motion. Each object and living being appeared distinctive and separate on the surface, yet the scene -- indeed life and the world itself -- was all composed of the same threads. They wove between each other creating a larger whole. Cut one thread out and the whole tapestry became more unstable, but together it was solid, yet flexible. He focused on the book and as he felt the Force, the way his threads connected to the book.


Another deep breath.. In, and out and he started to tackle the problem. How did he become closer to the book? Pulling on the threads was how he usually called on the Force. Forcing more of the threads into the part of the tapestry that was him. The harder he pulled, the more the taught the threads would get. The harder it would be to pull more to him... But above all else, it would be impossible to get the book to reach him. He couldn't just pull it through everything else. So how then?

He was almost stumped... But eventually, he realized to do something he never did before he would have to try doing something he never did before. What if he could fold the tapestry? Create a wrinkle between him and the book and.. They'd be closer to one another, wouldn't they? He didn't even know if such a thing were possible.

But he began to try. Like a toddler learning to walk, his first attempt was shaky, wobbling. Like he just lacked the coordination in this unseen but felt dimension.


A breath of surprise suddenly left him as he felt things move. As the book was shifted closer to him, a small wrinkle in the fabric appearing he felt it shift Auteme closer to him as well... What did that mean? It felt like she could be physically anywhere in the galaxy and she'd still be closer to this book than he was holding it in his hands right now.

"It's -- Is it yours?" Kisaku stammered with confusion, clearly jarred by his observation. It was an entirely new perspective that he hadn't seen before. Like a two dimensional creature seeing what was above for the first time; something it had no previous language for describing.

 

[Auteme]

Kisaku Oroken
​

"Yep. It's mine," she said. The quiet nervousness about taking on a student had subsided in favor of a small flush of pride. She didn't know this boy well, and she couldn't claim to have given him much, but there was something about seeing someone learn something that brightened the world.

"I know you... you can't, you know," she gestured to the book before reaching to take it, "But I like to make little notes in the margins, when I think of them. It's not my favorite book, but I like it just enough.

"Everybody has things to teach, even if they're not a formal 'teacher'. I mean, I know only a bit about the Force, and barely anything about saber work, but I still think I'm not a half bad Jedi. Don't hesitate to ask me questions about whatever -- and if you think you'll learn more someplace else, even for a little while, don't hesitate to go and learn there."