Faction Fireflies in the Dark [Lightsworn]

[Kylass Starhaven]

Xiwangu Temple, Atrisia

Suspended above the polished darkwood planks of the Hall of Serenity, deep within the Xiwangu Temple complex, Kylass Starhaven felt the Force temper her mediation. The Force oozed from her concentration in a sprouting pillar that held her cross-legged pose aloft while more animated currents swirled above her lap and carried in them parts of her lightsaber.

Slowly they orbited in a concentric ring of elliptical pathways, a system in miniature, made of every component of her Jedi weapon, down to the fine and minuscule bolts and ends. As planets revolve around a great burning star, the components spun around a brilliant kyber crystal. The Force flickered within, commanded by Kylass’ deepening focus. Gushing beams of gilded sallow shafts lanced across the hall and painted the ornately carved decorations in their myriad yellows.

Then Kylass raised one hand and began to direct all the components. One-by-one, they began to lock, slide, and connect into place. First to be assembled was the parts that made up the standard saber, then the shoto curved-hilt saber. The two completed sabers orbited around each other.

Kylass slid her open palm across and brought them to snap together, forming the split lightsaber whole again. She raised her other hand and meeting the first raised one, she held them out both, awaiting the descending fall of the lightsaber into her grip. The instant she felt the landing weight of her lightsaber, Kylass snapped open her silvery grey eyes and the Force was expelled from her control in a sudden gust of conviction.

No longer held up by the Force, Kylass rapidly sank, but before she would collapse onto the floor she unfurled her legs into a bracing stance. Her open palms flipped over and clenched the lightsaber. She landed and the saber cried out its activation as Kylass unleashed a seamless transition into an opening quick-draw slice across an imagined foe’s chest. Just as the sweep was finished she swung the humming yellow blade high and came down in a straight vertical cut. After the blurring sequence of cuts was finished, Kylass stood still and only the rattling warble of the saber sung a lament for the imagined slain.

“Still yet, Master,” sighed Kylass in her uniquely blended melange of accents borne from her upbringing among the Spacers and in Atrisia. “Still yet, can I not make my saber as empty as your twas,” said Kylass.

Relaxing from her held pose, Kylass stood back up and retrieved the yellow beam back into the elongated hilt of her split saber. Kylass buckled the split saber to the black belt cinched around the waist of her dark grey Jedi tunic and gave a deep bow to the memory of her long gone Atrisian Jedi Master. She raised her head and walked down the Hall of Serenity and stepped over its raised threshold to stand on the stilted veranda that ran around its edges. In the courtyard, Kylass’ R9-Z9 astromech wheeled closer, hooting and beeping at her.

“Calm, Ninez,” Kylass said, wincing, and waved her hand at the uppity droid. “This is a solemn place. No need to screech like a hungry gryffus. What is it?"

Ninez whispered, as a droid could whisper, some curt toots and nickering bleats. Kylass crossed her arms and nodded.

“Summons back to the Hirata Manor?” said Kylass. “Sir Inosuke gathers more fireflies in the dark.”

Kylass looked down at the droid and smiled.

“Then let us not tarry long here now. Prep the Delta-7 for flight. We shall head back to the Manor.”

 

[Ceton]

Block. Block. Strike. Strike. Slash. Force push left. Shield bash right. Downward stab. Slide left. Strike. Strike.

Another move. And his left hand threw his lightsaber right. Then grabbed another. Block. Upward slash. Throw right.

Third lightsaber out.

He was calling this sequence the Torrent. He would share it with others should they want it. But since leaving Kattada, Ceton has focused nearly entirely on the arts of the lightsaber.

The Core was in trouble. Darkness was rising. The Yinchorri was in the woods not far from the Manor. And was in his meditative stances. The sabers flying. Yellow and blue light as he hid behind the shell. The one that belonged formerly to his cousin.

The cousin that sided with the Bryn'adul and sided with the dark side. The cousin that Ceton found did have a useful trait.

A shell. Now there was one for the front and his rear. As the sabers arcs and returned, he grabbed the yellow crossguard. The other two hilts extinguishing and finding their holsters on his bandolier.

Another being had arrived. Carried by speeder. "Others are arriving." Was the message.

A deep breath and Ceton nodded.

He really needed and proper speeder.

 

[Thalen Dhorain]

Tags: Open

Thalen laid amongst the ground, gaze set upon the sky above him in thought, as he drummed his fingers along his waist. The Lightsworn were certainly not anything like he had expected. They had purpose. Strength. They believed in who they were. They were...a Tool of the Light Side, that still had personality. Something that Thalen himself could not wrap himself around. How could they have such drive? How could they push themselves to keep moving on with Hope? Thalen had spoken up in the meeting about how Hope was important, but in truth? He didn't believe a single word out of his own mouth. Hope wasn't real.

It wasn't hope that got him moving. It was duty. Purpose. He wasn't born to have Hope. Thalen was a tool. For his family. For the Force. He was not meant to take sides. He was not meant to lean towards the Light nor the Dark...so why did he find himself siding with the Jedi more and more. He could have left. Thalen didn't have to stay here, yet he had. Why? It was a question that he couldn't even answer. But it wasn't for him to know. He was not to know anything. Only to go ahead with his duties...

So why was it, he still wore the bandage over his crystal eye? It was not as if he was in a private meeting anymore. His own duty for his family was to be an observer. A camera for them. Yet here he was, obscuring the lens of said camera...It was a strange belief to have at the end of the day. Yet with all of this inner turmoil, the small smile on Thalen's face didn't leave. It was not a real smile. It was cold. Void of any true emotion...but it was a smile all the same.

He could not focus on that for long however. It seemed as if there were new arrivals coming and so he might as well look presentable. Reaching out to take his quarterstaff aloft before slamming it down onto the ground to pull himself up to his feet, brushing the dust and dirt off his robes and breaking out into a brighter smile. It finally radiated some warmth...Though it was more artificial. As if his smile was a simple lightbulb flicked on. Well. It was time to try and meet some new people.

 

[Tilon Quill]

In the short time since the 'midnight conclave' and ensuing confrontation, Tilon's Wake of Balmorra had threaded a thousand needles to get refugees out of the Byss system in the harsh light of the dense Deep Core. The Byss Run didn't connect on this side of the Core, and Tilon had pushed his instinctive astrogation skills to their limit while dodging Imperial patrols. His cloak and rad shields needed a tuneup at minimum. He'd drunk his weight in mass-market stimulants. And for all of that, he'd only just barely managed to shake the dread of coming back here.

Not that he regretted what he'd done. None of it, really, except for how much cleaning up the mess had fallen on others. But still, he'd only come back to Atrisia - to this quiet corner that pretended the planet wasn't a post-scarcity technoparadise - once he was too tired to care. Fatigue had a way of stripping out lesser considerations.

He set the freshly-scorched, black-and-gold heavy freighter down outside the enclave and took a minute to centre himself. From the cockpit he could see someone arriving in a smaller craft he didn't recognize, and a couple of people were coming out to meet them. The coincidence of the timing could be valuable.

Wearing the same ragged shipsuit he'd worn since before Byss, he headed down the ramp and closed up the Wake of Balmorra, then went to join Thalen Dhorain (who he knew) and Ceton (who he didn't) in meeting Kylass Starhaven

 

[Silya Thrast]

Silthe 'Silya' Thrast had largely kept to herself, since arriving, unsure how the people here would take an imperial-born and trained young woman such as herself. She didn’t arrive looking the part, no. She had relied on the Echani fashions her mother insisted on clothing her with, over the years, fostering that part of her identity without outright entertaining the notion of visiting Eshan itself. And Silya was unsure of embarking on that journey alone, for much of the same reasons that she had hardly spoken a word since arriving, except when spoken to.

Even in that late-night meeting with plans forming and minor arguments flying, she only watched and listened, feeling a little out of her depth being surrounded by Jedi, but not entirely out of place. She understood what drove them to gather; it was why she’d shown up, herself. The darkside and the Sith were a pervasive sickness, a stain on the galaxy entire, and she felt compelled to do something.

But one thing had derailed her attention in that meeting just a little. She’d watched that tournament, which was fascinating to her - she’d never heard of a kaggath before, and with how it differed from what she knew as more than just a fight, so her mother had instilled in her, anyway… she was curious. As much curious about the idea itself, as she was about why people would do this.

But what she hadn’t expected to see during the gathering that night was one of the best competitors in the whole tournament, who was not only present, but very few feet away, and speaking like a Jedi. Or at least, what she assumed Jedi spoke like from her limited examples which were all in the room with her. The examples differed throughout those late hours. Some passionate. Some measured. Some serene.

Silya didn’t know what to think of that.

She kriffing knew nothing, and the only person she even remotely knew here (if you could call it ‘knowing’) was some guy she’d watched on the holo. What was his name again? Kyric ? Who after making it through each round inspired in her a reluctant respect. For someone who would debase himself like that, but not for that. It was the persistence, the tenacity, the ingenuity… and he was here.

She didn’t know what to do with that either!

After a short time passed around the Hirata Enclave, she heard the whispers of others arriving, and despite her reservations thus far, being nearly a ghost, she headed out in a comfortable set of Echani leathers to see what - or who - she’d find. And what she found was two guys ( Tilon Quill and Thalen Dhorain ) of different species even from her, and… a… well, she couldn’t recall what species ( Ceton ) that was?

Silya moved closer, trying to think...

[ Nope, nothin'. ]

...and came to a stop near the three, glanced from one to the other and the other, and gave the most sure, cordial smile she could muster despite her inner world, while lifting her hand as high as her shoulder, in a little wave.

Kylass Starhaven • And others?​

 

[Kylass Starhaven]

Kylass guided down her old Alliance Delta-7 Class Jedi Starfighter by a stretch of open meadow outside the main enclave of the Hirata Manor. The Jedi Starfighter was practically an antique compared to the modern class of starfighter. Battles from another life-time within the Jedi Order of the Alliance had left scorched and gauged scarring on its arrowhead bow. Most of the green paint had been sheared off and left the Jedi Starfighter’s barren gray plating exposed. Only the faint outline of the Jedi Order sigil refused to fade entirely, faintly still brandishing its stencilled arc and ignited saber emblems.

Setting the antique down beside a freshly scorched, black-and-gold heavy freighter that landed just previously, Kylass popped the cockpit’s transparasteel hood and vaulted over the rim down onto the meadow. Ninez followed, dislodging from his astromech socket by a quick burst of thrusters. Kylass caught the droid with the Force and brought the R9 astromech gently down onto the meadow, so that its thrusters didn’t burn the flowers below it.

Kylass rounded the Jedi Starfighter and passed it, heading along the ravaged freighter. Kylass eyed its black and gold decals, the burn marks of starship grade cannons, and ruptured plating. It looked to have seen just the same amount of action in a short amount of time as her own Jedi Starfighter’s lengthy service. The freighter wasn’t unfamiliar to her, she had seen it coming and going for quite some time, and always with a new batch of refugees or cargo. Yet, she did not come to know its captain ( Tilon Quill ). She hadn’t come to know much of anyone in the Lightsworn besides the Ashina Clan members. Ninez tweeted a fluttering melody of beeps as he followed Kylass.

“Perhaps you are correct, Ninez,” Kylass said grinning down at her old friend. “There is a danger to spending all this time just with ghosts and memories.”

Kylass approached the aquamarine patinated azure captain of the Wake of Balmorra as he made his way along the freighter towards the Hirata Manor. He was already met by others as well it seemed. A young man ( Thalen Dhorain ), a martially adorned Yinchorri ( Ceton ), and a young, if not distant, blonde woman ( Silya Thrast ).

“I see the Ashina continue to summon curious and curiouser guests,” said Kylass, calling out to the group. She looked towards the captain of the freighter as she arrived near the gathering.

“Force’s blessing that your travels have delivered you here..,” Kylass interrupted herself to glance back at the freighter then down back at the captain. “...if not somewhat, yet still, safely.” She stuck out a hand. “Starhaven…Kylass Starhaven,” said Kylass.

 

[Ceton]

Walking was good for the soul. Walking allowed the connection to the body that Ceton craved. To feel at one with the Force and himself. When he did arrive at the meeting place, there were many no-shell species. Soft skins. No matter. If they were here, perhaps they were all here for the Lightsworn?

His lightsaber was extinguished now, the shell of his cousin was now strapped to his own back, giving an awkward appearance of a second shell. He would place this down soon. As the freighter landed, Ceton did find a tree to leave the shell against. It was a weight off, especially when he was not practicing.

There was a colorful one, and then the rest were pale skins. Well, pale for the Yinchorri’s eyes.

“Summons the curious and courageous. The ones ready to work.” He said, matter-of-factly. The being was definitely standoffish compared to many others. Honestly, a trait of his species, not of him.

Silya Thrast Tilon Quill Thalen Dhorain Kylass Starhaven

 

[Thalen Dhorain]

Tags: Kylass Starhaven

A small amount of actual warmth came to Thalen's smile at the sight of Tilon Quill . The Captain wasn't exactly someone Thalen felt like he could call a "friend", but he was fond of Tilon. Tilon had drive. Compassion. It was nice to watch someone like that go to work...Though Thalen had still yet to buy a replacement shield generator. He hadn't even been off world yet to buy one. Come to think of it...Thalen should really check on his funds, he was highly hesitant to believe that his family would be wanting to "reward" him for his performance recently...

Though his gaze was then focused on the new arrival of Silya Thrast , returning her smile and wave with a small bow, holding his hand against his shoulder and lowering his head. This was...a Jedi-like greeting right? That was one thing where his tutoring had been sorely lacking. Whilst he had been taught how to use the Force by tutors at home, he had never been taught the culture. The culture of the Sith or Jedi. He had been raised to pay no mind to their philosophical and religious beliefs...yet here he was, wanting to learn more and more about them.

Then his eye flickered to the Arkanian arrival, returning the same bow he had performed for Silya. A small smirk flickered on his face at the mentioning of a safe arrival. Considering his arrival had came after the operation on Balmorra, where he had been shot...Well, he supposed his arrival had been quite safe. His eyes flickered over towards the turtle-like being of Ceton , listening to his words and standoffishness state. Interesting.

"The Ashina may summon guests here, though my being here was brought upon by the Force. It is the Will of the Force that I am here, and I am merely a tool of it. Thalen Dhorain, a pleasure to meet you all."

Soft and kind words, yet lacking in warmth. Clinically polite. That was Thalen in a nutshell in this moment. With his introduction done, the lad just leaned against his quarterstaff, turning his eye upon the others.

 

[Tilon Quill]

“I see the Ashina continue to summon curious and curiouser guests,” said Kylass, calling out to the group. She looked towards the captain of the freighter as she arrived near the gathering.

“Force’s blessing that your travels have delivered you here..,” Kylass interrupted herself to glance back at the freighter then down back at the captain. “...if not somewhat, yet still, safely.” She stuck out a hand. “Starhaven…Kylass Starhaven,” said Kylass.

“Summons the curious and courageous. The ones ready to work.”

"The Ashina may summon guests here, though my being here was brought upon by the Force. It is the Will of the Force that I am here, and I am merely a tool of it. Thalen Dhorain, a pleasure to meet you all."

Tilon shook the offered hand and opted not to take mild offense. An Arkanian calling a multispecies gathering strange was like water being wet. Had to roll with it.

"Captain Quill. That's the Wake of Balmorra — refugees, raids. Expeditions and enclave connections in better days. Dhorain here might recognize it: before the paint job it was an Imperial transport we used in a bad spot."

He didn't know the Yinchorri or the Echani, both of them taciturn, so he made that introduction as much for their benefit as anything.

"Just got back from a Deep Core run, pulling out survivors and trying to catch rumors about a new superweapon that's being built. Stardust. All I know so far is it's real. Anyone here heard more?"