Private First Steps, Lasting Paths

[Valery Noble]

​

Outfit: Jedi Jumpsuit
Weapons: Lightsabers

The air on Tython was always stillest in the early morning — before the sparring circles filled with the hum of lightsabers, before the halls echoed with lessons and footsteps. Just now, the Temple breathed in silence. Cool light filtered through the towering windows of the main rotunda, casting long, golden beams across polished stone floors and age-worn columns. The Force felt clear here. Centered and awake.

Valery stood near the edge of the grand atrium, her arms loosely folded as her gaze swept the quiet space. She wasn't in her formal robes — just a dark, practical jumpsuit with her lightsabers clipped neatly at her belt. Not imposing. Not distant. But unmistakably Jedi. She had read the file earlier that morning. Tydos Kaldan. A name still new to the Temple records. Freshly brought into the fold, newly apprenticed, still finding his footing in the wide, uncertain world of the Jedi Order. And while he wasn't her Padawan, that didn't mean he had to start from the shadows of the archive stacks or meditation chambers.

No, she had something better in mind.

Her assignment today could serve as a first step — a way to introduce him not only to the Order's teachings but to its purpose. To what it meant to live the Code beyond the walls of the Temple. She glanced toward the entryway again. The Force whispered of a presence drawing closer — cautious, curious, bright.

Valery smiled faintly to herself and let her arms fall to her sides, ready to greet him.

"Let's see what you're made of, Tydos."

Tydos Kaldan ​

 

[Tydos Kaldan]

Indeed, Tydos was both new and impressionable. Despite his adult age he was altogether bereft of any deep understanding or experience with Jedi philosophy. Only a superficial knowledge, and a professed devotion, remained. The young padawan wore a rather simple robe, light in color with a dark brown belt. A training saber was clipped to a small metal hook on the right side, the belt otherwise barren of any other items.

His demeanor was quite peaceful, his gait even more so. What little was known of his public reputation among the other initiates was his penchant for calm, even amidst his rather ardent ambitions. It is said he spent most of his days in the archives rather than the training yards. What is the result of an untrained mind left unchecked? It remained to be seen.

The tranquility of Tython beckoned him, even from his initial arrival. Corellia was certainly no match for it. He took a moment to breathe as he approached the temple entryway, taking in the sights, sounds, and living ecosystem he had been thrust into.

His only clue was that someone of high repute and prestige had called him to the temple that day, another in the Order. With anticipation overflowing, he felt his gait increase in heightened enthusiasm as he crossed the courtyard to the stairwell. Then, a correction, and he slowed down.

"Put yourself in check, Tydos."

His own words echoed in his mind, and calm set over him. Valery stood in the foreground as he finished traversing the stairs. A bow, respectful and pronounced with a high degree of attention and caution paid to it, and words uttered in nervous but controlled pace,

"I am ready."

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

​

Outfit: Jedi Jumpsuit
Weapons: Lightsabers

Valery turned as she heard the soft footsteps approaching. The young man ascending the steps wasn't hers to train, not officially, but the Force had a way of arranging things in its own time. She studied him as he approached: his robes simple, his saber untested. But it was his presence that caught her attention — that disciplined calm, the kind that wasn't feigned but still felt newly forged.

Good.
When he bowed, Valery offered a small but approving nod, one hand resting lightly against the curve of her belt. "You're right on time," she said, her voice even and clear, touched by a faint Core Worlds accent. "And more importantly, you're exactly where you need to be."

She stepped forward and extended a hand — not just as a gesture of greeting, but of inclusion. "I'm Valery Noble," she said. No titles, no formality. Just the name. "I asked for you because I think you're ready to begin learning outside the archives and the training halls. You've studied. Now it's time to apply."

She paused, letting that settle as her eyes flicked briefly over his saber hilt. Then, a faint smile curved her lips.

"I've got a mission offworld. You'll be coming with me." A beat. "Nothing too dangerous — not unless it decides to be." Another beat. "But if you're ready to learn, then we'll start where all Jedi do."

Her gaze steadied on him, warm but assessing.

"In the field."

Tydos Kaldan ​

 

[Tydos Kaldan]

Her words offered a soothing presence that calmed the growing angst within his mind. Was his posture right? Stress visible? A slight nervous tic in his index finger and he reset once more, acknowledging her words with a knowing nod. In his own mind he began to compartmentalize and isolate his anxious feelings, pushing them to a place out of mind. It allowed him to convey clearly and properly an answer to her beckoning and ambitious plan for his training,

"Tydos Kaldan." His mind was once again put at ease as he felt his own hand instinctually extend to shake hers, a greeting that indeed broke some of the tension pervasive in Temple life.

A smile broke through the stoic edifice of his features, the prospect of the field delighted him.

"I am honored, Master Noble. What is our destination?" Formal. His tone and question conveyed formality and curiosity, as the two feelings danced within his mind. The utterance of an honorific revealed a slight hint of his formal upbringing, but also a devotion to performed respect.

His hands clasped together in front of his belt. For better or worse, he was bound for the field, the endless potential that creates experience from knowledge.

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

​

Outfit: Jedi Jumpsuit
Weapons: Lightsabers

Valery clasped his hand with a firm but steady grip — more warrior than diplomat, though there was no lack of warmth in her touch. She noted the shift in his posture, the way his voice steadied with the formal address. A lifetime of structured manners, maybe. Or just someone trying to make a good first impression.

Either way, it worked. She smiled faintly.

"Nice to meet you, Tydos," she said, stepping back with a nod. Her hands returned to her belt as she turned slightly, beginning to walk — slow enough for him to fall into step beside her.

"We're headed to the Outer Rim," she continued, her tone shifting — still calm, but now lined with the precision of someone who had briefed missions a hundred times. "A small world near the Hydian Way. Not charted on most modern routes. The kind of place where the law fades and opportunity thrives."

She glanced his way, assessing his focus. "There's a weapons dealer operating out of one of the old Imperial supply caches. They've been running arms through multiple systems — disruptors, thermal charges, even black market disrupter components." A beat. "Unstable stuff. Dangerous in the wrong hands."

Her expression turned a little more serious now.

"Our job is to shut it down. Clean. Quick. No unnecessary harm." She glanced at him again, her voice softening just slightly. "But it's the Outer Rim. Things rarely go according to plan."

A pause.

"You ready, Tydos?"

Tydos Kaldan ​

 

[Tydos Kaldan]

The prospect excited him, a chill erupting in his spine as he fell in behind his new teacher. Talk of such a remote destination, the Underworld, these were parts of the galaxy he only heard about in books, or scary stories told by family. Yet in the midst of the angst and anticipation, there was also fear. A new feeling, that the ambitions and adventures he sought were finally in reach, not mere rhetorical or verbal affirmations meant to project his wishes for an adventurist life. The thought briefly paralyzed him from speaking, even as the duo continued down the hall. Finally, after a noticeable pause, he spoke up,

"This arms dealer, is he imperial himself?"

The question was asked with a show of cards, that he might fear the prospect of his first assignment being entangled in imperial interests. The stories from Corellia haunted him, even in his rather calm posture. Finally, sure of himself, Tydos spoke again,

"Quick, clean, and according to plan. I am more than ready, Master Noble."

He adjusted the saber on his belt, a nervous tic revealing that the nerves had affected him in the lead up to this venture.

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

​

Outfit: Jedi Jumpsuit
Weapons: Lightsabers

Valery angled her head slightly at his question, the soft hum of their boots echoing through the Temple corridor as they made their way toward the landing pad. She didn't miss the hesitation in his voice — or the flicker of nerves that passed through him like a shadow. It wasn't uncommon. Even the most promising students felt it before their first true step into the unknown.

"He's not Imperial," she said after a moment, her tone even. "Just a scavenger. A man who saw the remnants of a fallen regime and decided to profit from its wreckage." She glanced over, catching the subtle adjustment of his saber — the kind of thing you only noticed if you'd been there before.

"There's barely a real Imperial order left these days. Remnants clinging to old banners. But this guy? He's nothing more than an opportunist. Dangerous, yes — but not because of ideology." The Temple doors parted ahead, and the open air welcomed them. The sun hung low, casting long shadows across the duracrete of the shuttle pad where her sleek Skywalker-class transport waited — all silver lines and coiled potential.

Valery started toward it without breaking stride, the breeze tugging slightly at her dark jacket.

After a beat, she asked, "Is this your first time out in the field?" There was no judgment in her voice — only curiosity. Not the kind that probed, but the kind that invited him to step forward.

Because firsts mattered.

Tydos Kaldan ​

 

[Tydos Kaldan]

His gait quickened with her answer to the question, a brief reprieve from the nerve of it all. Still, even now he learned much of himself. The simple knowledge of the answer itself was what satisfied him, less so its contents. Did he care truly if it was an imperial causing this much trouble? It was clear the answer was a firm 'no'. What scared him, indeed, was the idea of not knowing the variables that could affect a dangerous situation.

This mind game he played with himself internally was emblematic of his reputation as a student. Always learning, and in that devotion he developed an obsession with the "art" of knowing. To not know is to be vulnerable, and vulnerability was unthinkable to the young initiate.

He listened to her explanation now with careful attention. No ideology, scavenger, profit. These words echoed in his mind; they were variables to take note of. His mind practiced this exercise with little attempt to hide it, a visible nod accompanying each time the Master added a new detail. Then, a question that caught him off guard.

"Uh..." he knew the answer, but in expected fashion was embarrassed to give it, "Yes... I haven't the chance to venture beyond the temple. The wilds for training perhaps but certainly not off-world. This would be my first time since my arrival here." The words produced their own sting. He had desired the field for so long, and yet here he was in a bundle of nerves as he was about to achieve exactly what he wanted.

"How was it... your first time beyond the safety of the Temple?"

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

​

Outfit: Jedi Jumpsuit
Weapons: Lightsabers

Valery glanced sideways at the hesitation in his voice and the awkward pause that followed. It was familiar — that uncertain edge just before stepping into the unknown. She remembered it well. Every Jedi did, whether they admitted it or not. When he finally answered, she chuckled — low and warm.

"First time off-world?" she echoed, smirking. "Don't worry, it'll be fine." They approached the sleek form of her shuttle, the polished durasteel glinting beneath the sun. She paused just at the base of the ramp, thumb brushing a control on her wrist. The ramp hissed as it lowered, revealing the well-kept interior of the Skywalker-class transport.

"My Master didn't ease me into it," she continued, her tone laced with dry amusement. "First time beyond the Temple, he dropped me in the middle of New Cov's jungle for survival training. No commlink. No gear. Just a knife and the Force." She ascended the ramp without looking back, the tale offered like a shared secret — one meant to make him feel less alone in his nerves. "I was terrified. Everything wanted to eat me. But I learned more in that one week than I had in months of lessons."

Reaching the cockpit, she gestured toward the co-pilot's chair with a nod of her head. "Strap in. You're sitting up front." Valery settled into the pilot's seat and began flipping switches with practiced ease, the engines coming alive in a smooth purr that vibrated through the deck.

As the shuttle lifted from the pad and climbed into the atmosphere, she glanced at him again, one brow raised.

"You ever fly before?" she asked. "No? Good. Let's start with the basics. Watch what I'm doing — you'll be flying this thing in no time." Her fingers danced over the controls, but her voice remained calm, patient.

Because the best way to learn was to fly headfirst into the stars — and know someone had your back.

Tydos Kaldan ​

 

[Tydos Kaldan]

His first reaction to her question was an affirming nod, as though the act itself swept the nerve of the departure from his mind. He brought his hands behind him, clasping together tightly as they continued toward the shuttle. The shuttle presented the object of his prior fears and anxieties, though they were quickly relegated and pushed to the back of his mind. In truth, this exercise offered a unique opportunity to test the depths of his own stoicism. When the ramp hissed, he greeted his new destiny with a smile.

"He left you to fend for yourself?" The thought briefly paralyzed him. "I suppose isolation in the field, with nothing but the force to guide you, is a solace in itself, an entrenchment that would allow you to face all that comes after." So he did catch on quickly, or at least, relied on what he had gleaned from his studies.

"What was the principal lesson?" He asked, though the answer appeared to him, or the possibility of one.

As he ascended to enter the shuttle, the interior greeted him like an old friend. A deep memory of his original arrival, the leave of his family and the uncertainty of it all. Memories that flooded his mind once more and offered familiarity, and yet also danger. His studies of the old tomes derided such things, as they ought to be relegated away where they could not tempt with attachment. Attachment is something to be pushed aside, contrary to perhaps what the new ideal professed. This tension is something Tydos willingly embraced, an intellectual play between two perspectives that constantly assailed him, offering new questions with little in the way of objective answers.

Finally, Valery's voice broke him from the spell, "Oh?" He cocked his head back, and then swiftly took the chair in a mix of nerves and confidence. As the engines hummed to life, singing their song to the two Jedi, he professed his lack of preparedness, "No, I am afraid not." He answered her query, but his eyes swiftly drifted to her own deft handling of the vessel.

As the shuttle began to lurch and groan with the power of its traveler's will, he slid back against the chair with the force applied to him. Finally, it broke through, the smile that overwhelmed all fear. He leaned forward, eagerly attending his companion's control of the ship. And then, when he was finally ready, he would take the controls himself and in that moment the stars would be his to command.

That eager curiosity provoked his next question, as his hands drifted for the navigation computer, "Coordinates? Where are we going first?"

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

​

Outfit: Jedi Jumpsuit
Weapons: Lightsabers

Valery heard the question just as the shuttle cleared the upper atmosphere, and her eyes flicked his way with a hint of a smile — that quiet mix of approval and memory. She didn't answer right away. Instead, she guided the ship through the last patches of turbulence before it slipped into the smooth quiet of space, stars stretching wide around them like threads of light on dark silk.

"Mm," she mused, fingers still dancing over the controls. "There were a lot of lessons in that jungle. But the biggest one?" She leaned back slightly, eyes flicking to the stars ahead.

"Danger. How to see it. How to avoid it when you can. And when you can't or shouldn't…" A glance at him now, her voice steady. "How to meet it without flinching." The way she said it made it clear the memory still lived in her. Not as trauma, but as something that shaped her.

"Fear's natural. But panic? That gets people killed. I didn't leave that jungle fearless. I left it clear-eyed." She turned back to the nav console and keyed in a destination. A soft ping followed, and the coordinates appeared on the small screen before him.

"Markona," she said. "Dusty, rough, barely on the charts. Not much there now except mining skeletons and a few stubborn settlements." A pause, then a faint smirk. "And according to our intel, where we'll find our target." The stars shifted as the shuttle angled toward hyperspace, the navcomputer locking onto its target. Valery gave a final nod and pulled the lever.

With a flash, the stars blurred — and the ship leapt forward.

"We'll land a few klicks from the cache location. Quiet spot near a ridge. No settlements nearby, so we won't risk civilians if things go loud." She cast a glance at him again, a little more serious now.

"I don't expect trouble. But I've learned not to assume quiet means safe."

Then her smile returned — that familiar warmth beneath the steel.

"So. You ready to put that theory into practice?"

Tydos Kaldan ​

 

[Tydos Kaldan]

Tydos planted his feet firmly against the floor of the cockpit as the shuttle bolted forward into the atmosphere. There was a tension in his knuckles, a firmness that gripped his entire figure. For a moment, one could perceive that his appearance had become quite cadaverous and pale. He listened as she contemplated an answer, a sly confidence that he was to be right about her response. It was replaced by shallow and brief despondency at being wrong. The vice of pride, eating away at him even now.

Still, he reanimated as she began to explain, and like a leaf in the wind the brief frustration at failing to glean the lesson she had taken had subsided.

"When you shouldn't." The words echoed in his mind as unique perspectives and implications built out the young padawan's interpretations of what that could mean, as if the synapses within his mind were in conflict as to which one to land on. Finally, he arrived at another query, "When you shouldn't. For a Jedi, that is a hard moment to find, hm? The stories tell of Jedi who have recklessly found danger as a tantalizing thing to be sought out. How have you handled that?" An intellectual question it was, but the syntax of the padawan's inquiry painted a picture of his personality, how he thought through these matters.

The planet Markona was one he was superficially familiar with, and the fading image of the stars as the ship pulled forward into hyperspace's eldritch embrace offered him a fleeting moment to prepare himself.

"More than ready, Master Noble. Are there any authorities present on Markona? Anyone of note we should prepare for?"

The question was practical, and it prefaced the padawan's descent into the seriousness of the mission. His companion could likely sense his growing calm, his control over himself. Whether that would hold together when training met experience was another matter entirely.


Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

​

Outfit: Jedi Jumpsuit
Weapons: Lightsabers

Valery let the silence stretch just a moment longer. The stars outside had blurred into that familiar tunnel of hyperspace, their path locked in. No turbulence now. Just the low hum of engines and thought.

"When it threatens more than just you," she said finally, her voice calm. "That's when you don't avoid it." She leaned back in the pilot's seat slightly, arms folding across her chest, gaze flicking to Tydos with quiet focus.

"In the jungle, danger's usually instinctual. Territorial. Survival-based. You can skirt it. Move carefully. Don't provoke. You're not there to win — just to get through." A faint smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. "You learn not to take it personally when a nexu wants your leg. Just stay out of its den."

But then her smile faded, just a little — not gone, but tempered by something firmer.

"But when that danger isn't wild... when it's someone preying on the weak, using fear to control or destroy — then you don't walk away." She tapped two fingers lightly on the console. "That's the line. Jedi don't chase danger for the thrill of it. But we don't let it fester in someone else's shadow, either."

Her eyes lingered on him, as if measuring how the words were landing.

"You've got a good mind for questions, Tydos. Just remember: theory helps you draw the map. But it's your heart that tells you when to stop drawing and start moving."

Then she turned back to the console, checking the readouts as the countdown to reversion began.

"As for Markona?" Her tone cooled slightly, more mission-focused now. "We're not here to make friends. The mining corps run what's left of the settlements, and corruption's baked into the soil at this point. No real government presence. No one to call for help." A glance at him again. "Which is why we're the ones going."

The shuttle gave a gentle jolt as the stars snapped back into pinpricks of light — the ridgeworld of Markona rising before them, ochre and dust-choked, lit by a dying sun.

"Prep your gear. We'll be landing in five."

Then she smiled again, a little more fire behind it this time.

Tydos Kaldan ​

 

[Tydos Kaldan]

The shuttle continued to barrel through space, and in a stroke of spiritual mimicry, so too did Tydos' mind race through the implications of Valery's answer. She could likely read him and his immediate reaction. He had questions, several that assailed him. When it threatens something external to yourself? But what does that mean? Do you defend the prey animal that falls into the den of its natural predator? Do you take proactive action to prevent war, or intervene only when war has been undertaken? He began to compartmentalize the various pieces of her answer, separating what he thought was straightforward. Do not rush into danger for the sake of thrill, this was quite easy to understand. He wondered to himself, thoughts that were visible to Master Noble, what the contours were that allowed a jedi to intervene in conflict. He supposed they were about to discover that.

Markona did not leave much to be desired. He gently reached for his saber, then his comlink, and finally a small pouch of emergency supplies that he liked to keep on his person. He felt ready, but was he? So many questions about the proper role of a Jedi and he was about to enter a proverbial den of Nexu, only to find that they were mere predators of a sentient sort.

He nodded to Valery, his questions could wait, "I am ready Master, I will follow your lead."

One could not describe the depths of curiosity that befuddled the young mind even now as the ship descended.

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

​

Outfit: Jedi Jumpsuit
Weapons: Lightsabers

Valery glanced sideways as Tydos gathered his gear, her expression softening just a touch.

“I can practically hear your thoughts from here,” she said with a smirk, reaching overhead to flick a few switches as the shuttle began to tremble with reentry. “Don’t worry — I won’t pry. Jedi or not, minds are sacred. But if you want answers later…” Her gaze turned forward again, fixed now on the growing silhouette of the planet below. “You can always ask me anything.”

The shuttle broke through Markona’s thin upper atmosphere with a low, rattling groan. Dust clouds swirled below, painting the horizon in rust and ochre. The sun, dull and bloated with age, cast long shadows across the jagged ridgelines and collapsed mining scaffolds. From above, the world looked like it had been forgotten by time — or maybe just abandoned by those who no longer needed what it had to offer.

“Hang on,” Valery said, gripping the yoke. “Wind shear’s rough over this sector.”

The shuttle rocked once — then twice more as it dipped low over a broken plateau. Below them, scattered remnants of prefab mining shelters clung to the base of a steep ridge, most of them gutted by erosion and neglect. A few flickering lights marked power sources — probably from local squatters or old droid systems left on idle.

Valery brought the shuttle down smoothly into a small clearing just outside the old site perimeter, the landing struts crunching into hard-packed earth. She powered the systems into standby, then turned to her items.

She slung her coat over one shoulder and moved toward the hatch. The doors hissed open with a sharp exhale of pressure, revealing a harsh wind that immediately kicked up grit and dust. The smell of ozone and metal was thick in the air, and far off, the low whine of strained machinery echoed across the basin.

“Stay sharp. Trust your instincts,” she added without looking back. “And keep your senses open.”

With that, she stepped out into the red dust and ruin — hair flowing in the wind, hand resting near her saber — and led the way down the ridge path, boots crunching with quiet purpose. The mission had begun.

Tydos Kaldan ​

 

[Tydos Kaldan]

Her beckon evoked a pause in Ludo's routine, even as the shuttle opened a tunnel in its atmosphere. He passed over a dozen or so questions without landing on one he found sufficient. He opted for silence, perhaps the lesson lay ahead rather than between them. He could spend hours on the subject, but from what he had learned already a study is not a substitute for experience.

Ludo's hands gripped the chair rests as the shuttle broke across streams of wind, attempting their own passive assault on the planet's new visitors. He grew impressed with the skill at flying on display, a silent envy that he too wanted to fly like that.

Some day.

He watched as she prepared her gear, and he himself stood to proceed to the back of the ship. An eager anticipation grew within him as he neared the open hatch, and the winds beyond were but a lure to invite him further. He gripped his saber instinctively, thumbing at the controls.

"There is no chaos, there is harmony."

He repeated aloud to himself, as he focused inwardly within his mind. He felt a newness in purpose as he restored the destruction his chaotic curiosity had created. Master Noble, if she was near, could see this process play out. It was as if he was within his own mind, rearranging his thoughts and fears as if they were books on a shelf. Indeed with each shift she could feel a serenity return to him, a tranquil feeling setting in to his posture.

Finally, he broke from his attuned reverie, pulling his robe against his shoulders and tying the center with his belt as to not lose it in the wind.

"This planet looks old, as if all life decided at once that it was a relic, an artifact to be left behind."

He chimed with some observation the perfect place for a criminal to hide.

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

​

Outfit: Jedi Jumpsuit
Weapons: Lightsabers

Valery glanced back at Tydos as he stepped out beside her, the wind tugging at the edges of his robe. She could feel it — the way the storm inside him had briefly stilled, the chaos settling like dust into harmony. It wasn't full peace. Not yet. But it was a beginning.

She offered a faint smile, turning her face slightly into the wind as she scanned the landscape ahead — all fractured steel and bone-dry earth.

"Old," she echoed, nodding once. "And hollow. The kind of place that keeps its secrets under rust and silence." Then she stepped forward, leading them just off the shuttle's ramp to a raised ridge of scorched stone that overlooked the skeletal remains of the mining site below. Structures jutted from the earth like broken teeth. Here and there, the faint glint of powered systems still pulsed dimly through cracked windows and exposed cables.

Valery pulled up the mission brief on her wrist display and turned it slightly so Tydos could see. Coordinates blinked on the edge of the map — red-marked zones indicating suspected caches and movement patterns.

"There's a dealer operating out of one of the old Imperial caches," she recited, more to draw him in than to review. "Disruptors. Thermal charges. The kind of tech that doesn't just break targets — it erases them."

She let the map flicker out, then looked at him directly, "So… what do you think our next step should be?"

A simple question. But the weight in her eyes said she wasn't just testing his tactics. She was seeing if he was ready to think like part of the mission — not just follow, but shape it.

Tydos Kaldan ​

 

[Tydos Kaldan]

Tydos examined the display but for a moment, then at the structures and the layout before him. A few solutions and suggestions presented themselves to him,

"We have no disguise to speak of. They will know who we are simply by looking at us, we cannot simply approach and seek to speak to our target."

The assumption carried a firmness to it, judging likely his own overt Jedi garb.

"We should be looking for patterns in movement, when certain areas are lighter than others. For example, is the dealer more interested in protecting himself? Or the shipments? Where is his guard concentrated? That will clue us into how much he values the trafficked arms."

He thought for a moment, perplexed, then offered an additional point, "We should get closer. More information will offer a brighter path."

Valery Noble

 

[Valery Noble]

​

Outfit: Jedi Jumpsuit
Weapons: Lightsabers

Valery listened in silence as Tydos analyzed the map, the ruins, and the scenario. No nervous hesitation. No aimless speculation. When he finished, she nodded — slow, firm — and a small smile curved at the corner of her lips.

"Good," she said. "You're thinking like a shadow, not a hammer. That's how we stay alive out here." Her gaze swept down over the scorched valley. The dealer's people wouldn't post obvious patrols. Not here. Their strength would be in corners, shadows, and assumptions — and it was time to flip that advantage.

She tapped a sequence on her wrist display, dimming the screen before slipping her arm back down. Then she turned toward the slope ahead, hair fluttering around her as she stepped lightly down the ridge. "We'll move closer — stick to the high ground where we can, use the wreckage for cover." Her voice dropped to a hush as the wind picked up, scattering ash and dust across the rocks. "We're not here to announce ourselves."

She slowed her steps just enough to glance back at him, her eyes gleaming faintly in the dim light.

"You take point. Use your senses — not just sight. Reach out. Feel where the air's heavier. Where the nerves are sharper. That'll lead us faster than any map."

A pause, then her voice softened, but carried.

"Trust yourself, Tydos. I'll be right behind you."

She nodded forward, into the shifting wind and silence below.

"Let's move."

Tydos Kaldan ​

 

[Tydos Kaldan]

Tydos listened as his experienced teacher offered her own notes on his observations. He nodded along, finding little disagreement or divergence. He knew stealth was the key, their robes would give them away at first sight. When she finished and offered point to him, Tydos allowed a moment to calm his mind. He retreated inwardly, hiding in the depths of the safety he had constructed for himself. Calm. Then he dashed across the dust-filled wasteland with a hasty pace.

He followed the implication of his own observations to their conclusion. His eyes searched from the safety of the wreckage for signs of life. He could make out figures far off, but nothing definitive. Frustrated, he gripped the edge of the metal plate, only to realize that he had been given the missing piece during their briefing. He returned to the confines of his mind, searching the landscape as if a hawk overhead. His peace aided him as if an ally beside him, comforting his thoughts as they expanded through space to find targets.

They began to appear before him, heavy breath and a sense of fear. He magnified it, nerves and stressors were all too familiar for him. He took what afflicted him and turned it against his newfound foes, as if stress and worry were both old friends. Their leader was near, the source of their fear.

His mind kept looking, unbounded. Master Noble could feel his attraction to the power he was wielding. A telepath, she could discern if she had not done so already, and a potent one at that. Refined? Certainly not, but there was untapped power at play here that Tydos was relying on. More targets, this time that Valery could feel from Tydos' discovery. A confident tone was evoked when the padawan finally spoke,

"I have discovered the location of the dealer, he is with an entourage. Separate from the cache, likely for safety reasons."

The summary was uttered with cold calculation and precision.

"I have memorized the route."

Valery Noble