Character
She was not sure what was more distracting: the rumble of the inside filtration system or the slightly higher pitched disturbances from outside the window. In either case, she found it incredibly difficult to focus. Her eyes firmly closed, Donne sat with her legs crossed in a position that channeled and centered her mind, the stream of everyday thoughts being muted as to allow her to navigate her meditations.
She looked around the room, sensing what little features that were present in her vision. A small dais, no bigger than a foot stool, placed in front of her, a brown ceramic bowl filled with a gently undulating liquid within reaching distance. She saw the cold dura-steel floor tiles, reflecting nothing as if they consumed the light itself. She saw the light, placed high above her in a focused beam from the ceiling. She reached out further, observing the door panel, bare and solid, no window or porthole with which to see in or out through.
A flash.
A man sat ahead of her, mimicking her very own stance. He too was searching through his mind’s eye for answers to a question. Conflicted. Concerned. Scared. Afraid.
A flash.
Two children, young practitioners of the Force. One, a girl, struggling to focus, to clear her mind. The other, a boy, far more capable of quietening his inner voice. His face, wrought with frustration, buckled and gurned in hardship, fighting some inner concern of his own making. The small ceramic bowl ahead of them began to quiver, the liquid contained within almost forming wave-like patterns as the energy oscillated. It shattered, the girl opening her eyes in shock at the noise.
A flash.
Donne opened her own eyes, resolved to return to the physical world. She looked down at her own bowl, smashed as she had seen it happen in her vision. She frowned, checking to see how much of the liquid had splashed on her meditation robe. A little.
It wasn’t altogether frequent that one of her psychometric visitations manifested into a real-world response. She had found her talent for the reading of past events through the Force was a utility most useful within the Knights Obsidian; she could see what others literally could not. They didn’t often manifest as usefully as they might; it was rare she actually watched a crime committed or the like, but she was certainly able to feel a vestige of feelings, or emotions, or impulses that showed her small actions, flashes of the past, versions of history playing out in her very vision like an audience to a drama. Her ability to sense the past gave her keen insight into real-time emotional states, her empathic abilities allowing her to sway and suggest alternatives, placing visions into the minds of others.
The door opened and a sturdy Ottegan filled it, his long dark robe gathering at the floor. His aged face, a gray tuft of hair remaining in place, wrinkled.
“Almoner Dega. You are timely as ever.” Donne barely moved, taking in his full form. She found the Ottegan species to be fascinating.
Dega humphed and spoke, the device attached to his throat allowing his guttural words to translate to Basic in a somewhat inelegant but competent way.
“Knight Toulemonde, I am glad to see you are clearing that chaotic mind of yours. It thinks so loudly these days.”
She twitched a little, suddenly cognizant of the idea that there were those who used the Force that could quiet easily read her intentions, even without her knowing so. He laughed.
“Do not fret- there is little I find of interest in looking into the minds of my friends and colleagues. You do not harbour any strange notions, I promise.”
He sat, mirroring her own stance.
“But you do yield interesting conclusions. Donne Toulemonde. Force Body, Force Echo and Force Dominate, with a penchant for levitation and a most aggressive sabre style. You have yielded many interesting conclusions.”
She loathed when Force adepts referred to her skills with arbitrary titles, names, or descriptors. Her own connection to the Force was not something to be categorised like a catalogue or school report. She had not picked them as electives in a school semester and she certainly had not favoured one over the other. They were what had happened upon her as a child and what she had developed and grown.
The Ottegan waved his hand, a rush of calm buffering up against her.
“Yes, yes I know. You are loathed to talk of your gifts as if they are to be so easily labelled. But it is of use to categorise them, especially when dealing with assignments and schooling. Which is why I come to you now. We have a new away-mission for you.”
Donne steadied her body, shaking the lecture out of her head. She had not been sent out on an assignment for some time now, spending more time on archival and data-entry than investigating crime.
“You have been assigned to investigate a litany of disturbances on Vylmira. They are not, yet, related to Force-related incidents but the Planetary Administration has asked for KO assistance. You will be briefed in full on your journey.”
Vylmira was a place of great tragedy to the KO and all Force users. So much pain. So much destruction.
“You will need to leave after your OB tomorrow A.M. You are not to disrupt the goings on there but you do have full KO jurisdiction this time. Try not to maim anybody unnecessarily.”
With that he huffed and stood, bowing once again at his colleague. She bowed her head, watching him shuffle out of the room, the door sliding shut behind him.
Vylmira. Hmm.
