Private Flickering Lights in Starless Nights

[Runi Kuryida]

RESA | KESTRI
​

The soft glow of lanterns shone in the night. They illuminated the walking paths through the humble village of Resa. A small community of people seeking refuge and solace from the galaxies woes. A place of peace where the forges of the mind, heart, and soul can be reignited. Not even the bitterest of winds of Kestri as they swept down the steep slopes of the nearby mountains chilled the hearths there.

A young woman stood cloaked in furs and beskar beside the tall, wooden doors of the Briirud, the tall round house that sat atop a bluff overlooking the village below. It was a chill evening -- as always -- but someone always stood guard over the entrance to the Mandokarla's chief residence on Kestri. Not that they believed someone would try to assail it, but to guide visitors to whomever they needed to see. Many came seeking help, and it would do no good if such wounded souls were left wandering aimlessly.

Others milled about inside, of course. Students still needed teaching. A few visitors with accommodations still needed healing. Though there was a sense of... disquiet about the Briirud of late. The Jorhaa'ir was not there.

The young, if dutiful guard's eyes drifted off to the side toward another, higher cliff nearby. The faint light of the encampment could scarcely be seen from there despite the view over Resa it held. Solitude without being far in case the Mandokarla needed their Speaker. Why she had taken to that spot, few seemed to know, but then Runi Kuryida did often venture into strange and unfamiliar places. Was it more or less strange that this place happened to be nearby? Her countenance seemed about the same, but then the Jorhaa'ir rarely let her emotions get away from her.

Well, hopefully it would be another calm evening until her shift ended. It would be nice to get indoors and warm up again.

Darius Mereel

 

[Darius Mereel]

A long battered coat of murder-tooth leather would hide his presence in the Force. The weapons went largely unnoticed. He didn't bother to advertise them, but nor did he conceal them. And he walked with confidence and lethality well earned from years in the Hutt pitts on Nar Shadda and elsewhere. Sometimes, despite his worth as a physician, he was thrown in to fight, and a ruthless edge of hard iron was revealed in the man in those moments. Knowing how to fix the broken carried the inverse- one knew very well how to break them beyond fixing.

Walking up to the guard, he pulled a helmet, his fathers, from his coat. The crest and identity would be obvious as to whose it was. Apparently Ijaat was famous in these parts to some extent. But the gross damage to the buc'ye would tell a more urgent note of his errand, and he gave the guard a second to grasp his purpose before speaking.

"I bring tidings for Runi of Ijaat"

Runi Kuryida

 

[Runi Kuryida]

The guard turned to regard the figure as they crested the stairs that led up from the village. A guest? Unconsciously, she made certain she stood upright and attentive to the man as he approached. Runi would thump her with one of those wooden swords if she heard one of the Mandokarla hadn't welcomed a new visitor properly. Or a long-time resident of Resa for that matter.

Her eyes fell to the helm the man produced from his coat. They rose with his purpose made clear by word. Tidings? Part of her thought to find a Pathfinder or Shaman to handle this matter. But she already knew what the outcome of that would be.

With a short exhale of frozen breath, she planted the butt of her staff into the ground and began to draw a simple diagram. "Head left along the rocky cliff until you reach three pillars of stone. Turn back and climb the hill. You'll see the light of the fire long before you find the Speaker." A fragment of a thought to warn of what might be her state for visitors fluttered by, but was not even given serious thought. "You're welcome to return here afterward." Doubtful the Speaker would just send him on his way back out into the cold.

Darius Mereel

 

[Darius Mereel]

Puffing out a cloud of breath, the wayward son nodded and set off without a word, but there was a grateful sense to that nod as the helmet disappeared back into the murder tooth jacket. Muffled and blurred in the Force almost like a Vong, he began his walk. Clouds of freezing moisture and air huffed from his nostrils as he plodded relentlessly onward. The coat was quite warm, but another coldness seeped into his bones from his heart.

This was his father's lover, a woman of her own renown and capability, and by reputation mercurial and cryptic. With her skills in the Force would she know already?

Reaching a door, his hand rose and with a firm rap sounded his presence. He knew of the effects of the coat, so the woman within was likely taken by surprise. He held the helmet out and waited, clasping it in both hands in front of him.

"Darius Mereel to see Runi Kuryida with tidings of his father..."

 

[Runi Kuryida]

The light of the campfire through the trees made locating Runi Kuryida easy. The Speaker, herself, knelt on the other side of that flame facing out over Resa below. She knelt in the snow with the hands on her thighs, her back to the man that drew ever closer. No movement was seen as he stepped into the light of the fire ringed by rocks.

A moment passed after the man announced himself. Runi turned her head slightly to one side to indicate her words for the man behind her, "Tea?" A moment later, the cloaked woman shifted in place until she'd turned to face the man with the helmet held out before him. Her features might as well be carved out of stone, as the blue-green gemstones for eyes shone in the light of the fire between them.

Whether Darius chose to join her was his choice. Runi, however, would go through the motions to lifting a pot and pouring herself a cup of steaming tea regardless. Though if he accepted, she would pour his first as a host should.

"Darius Mereel." If the man hadn't sat yet for tea, she would gesture for him to do so. For a moment, Runi occupied herself with a sip of the tea. "Son of Ijaat Mereel. Bearing his Father's helmet. Tell me what transpired." She spoke calmly, but with a chill to rival that of Kestri to her voice. He brought tidings, did he? Perhaps he'd be gracious enough to say the kind.

Darius Mereel

 

[Darius Mereel]

"My father has fallen in the task to break my bonds of servitude to a Hutt Cartel. Even under my care as a physician his wounds were too great. How we managed to stay upright and walk away from the fight after winning it is beyond my guess. He sends back his armor, for a foundling if so desire. And his helmet to his cyar'ika to say he will not be coming back, and waits for her beyond."

The words came slowly, but clinically. No drag of pain, and only a slight tinge of regret to them. He had barely known the man who was his father. A few days of him dying. But in those days he had come to respect the warrior known as Ijaat as a man beyond any other in terms of sheer grit and will. How he talked about this woman so fondly made him convinced they were lovers, and so he tread carefully.

"I am a poor trade, but I would like to come to know more of my fathers' people, and perhaps be of service medically as a healer to those in need, to see that his last wishes were honored."

Runi Kuryida

 

[Runi Kuryida]

Runi's hazel eyes peered out over the top of her cup at the man as he summarized events leading to his arrival. While the cup hid her lips, it did nothing to dull the sharpness of her gaze, or its unwavering fix on Darius as he stood before her. So still was the Shaman that the man might even have noticed the descent of snow flakes reversing in their course on either side of the woman. If he managed to break his gaze away he'd notice it wasn't an optical trick or a localized phenomenon either.

The effect lasted only a few seconds before gravity's hold took over once again.

The woman slowly lowered her cup to rest in the palm of her hand atop one thigh. "He... waits." A slow, deep breath was drawn out. Her chest fell with equal measure as the exhale sought to carry with it the tension within. "The Hutt Cartel has in their possession a woman. They are not forced to dance, nor serve tables. They are neither abused nor neglected. They merely exist. To be seen. A testament of the Hutt's command. This woman, she had a lover before her enslavement. He visits regularly. To catch a glimpse of her. Perhaps even exchange a few words in the shadows. As things stand, the Hutt will never surrender custody of her. What should the man do?"

Darius Mereel

 

[Darius Mereel]

Though he barely knew the man, his father's words seemed to spill from his mouth. To him it was his own voice, but the passion and lit eyes would remind Runi all too well of another. As would the set of the jaw, and the clench of it. Though he knew not the purpose of the question, he answered freely, sensing it was perhaps a gauging test.

"Free her. No one has a right to hold another captive against their will as a plaything. Debasing the most essential sentient capacity, the freedom of choice is unforgivable. The way is up to the lover, but freedom should be the end goal."

In a rare glimpse of his own gift, the man would relax his jaw, and a wave of calm would wash out from him as he noted the tension on the Speaker's face. And in a very gentle, non-smothering way his ability would urge her fist to unclench, her jaw to relax, and an echo of her own pain would be shown from him, to express solidarity and soothe the ache of longing loneliness perhaps.

"I barely knew him, and I miss him still. He has that effect, I am told, of magnetizing or repelling people. But for you... I am sorry. I wish I had knew him better, and been deserving of the last gift he had to give."

Runi Kuryida

 

[Runi Kuryida]

Runi's hazel eyes were fixed on Darius, lidless as the man responded promptly.

Once he finished, the Shaman's shoulders relaxed slightly and breath escaped her lips at last. "It was... his Way." Her eyes fell to the flames for a moment. "Someday, if you find your Way, you will meet again." A small yet sad smile touched her lips as her eyes lifted to regard the younger man before her. "If you wish it, I will help you in this life-long task. I cannot make you walk it, and it will not be a life of ease, but it will be yours."

What she wanted to say, but felt it would be too much to burden someone that might not wish to linger especially in the presence of a 'mystic,' was why Runi had poised the scenario to Darius in the first place. 'Free her,' he had said. As he should. If only it were that simple. Break the underpinnings of the galaxy just this once, reclaim the dead back into this world with no regard to the ramifications. Cast aside everything she'd upheld all these long years...

Yes, love was something she often dare not flirt with, and yet to forget how to love at all would be as dangerous as flaunting the Law she upheld.

The thought had not occurred but briefly to Runi to indulge. She had not ventured into the balmy weather of their ice-locked world for a mere change of scenery.

Darius Mereel

 

[Darius Mereel]

"I have yet something he pressed to me to do. On Adumar he had created a vault, in my mother crypt. In case he did not make it back and I did. He must have had some foreshadowing before he set to reclaim me. Regardless, I go there first.. And if I still seek answers, I will find you."

Darius knew the offer was sincere, and not lightly given. Not by one such as she before him. But something in him held caution for once. The path of his father, and this woman... It wasn't a path taken lightly, or quickly. Nor was it easy. Darius had seen the fear and trepidation of the common folk at seeing his father in his armor. And the way some even grabbed their children out of his path, or whispered if they weren't good, they'd give them to the Mando to sell to the Hutts.

Never mind Ijaat would never sell another being, and kept the to Canons of Honor and wasn't randomly and senselessly violent. The fear was as ingrained in those people of Mandalorians as it was of Sith or Jedi.

"Do not take my hesitance as rejection, or ingratitude.. I.. I just have much to think over. For the first time, my life is my choice."

Runi Kuryida

 

[Runi Kuryida]

"Answers?" Runi regarded the young man through the flames. "Yes, I can provide those as well." The Shaman set her empty cup aside. "You must do what you feel you must, of course, but I mean to provide you skills. The means to build whatever life you choose." Answers or Truth were things people had to find for their self. Runi could speak the words, but only if the mind was ready to hear them. No, the Mandokarla was far more interested in teaching technique and mindset and leaving the soul to walk the path of Self Discovery. It was more fulfilling that way. If the soul sought to grow stronger in this life.

"The Mandokarla are there for all that honor the Manda and their self, Darius. The when does not matter so much as the strength of your conviction. Take whatever time you need; I will always be there." Which was precisely why charging the gates of the Manda to steal back Ijaat's soul ached so. Breaking the Law of Creation was the only way they could be together as they were before. They could commune, of course, but it would be different now. He'd gone beyond the physical realm, and that was somewhere Runi was firmly fixed.

Darius Mereel

 

[Darius Mereel]

Darius nodded as he sipped the tea he had taken, smiling thinly as thought of the lack of anything a Mandalorian would call skills. He was a physician first and foremost, and a pit fighter with a history of dirty tricks and nasty surprises second. Nothing too impressive to such a race of warriors. Certainly not a master duelist like his father. Darius knew just enough of swordplay to know his father was something else. Even at such an age as he was, it was impressive to watch and fight by his side.

"Then I will return to be taught. And see where the path takes me that you offer, and how far. I am not a great warrior, like my father. But I am a physician of more than adequate education and skill. And not without some sense of the fighting I was forced into in the slavers pits. It would be nice to belong... Anywhere, really."

As he tuned to go, Darius said one thing over his shoulder in way of goodbye. The formality of his greeting felt out of place to this woman now.

"He loved you, perhaps more than anything I ever knew him to love. I heard many stories of my mother, but you... You he would simply fall silent and smile when trying to explain. For what comfort it is, his last thoughts were that he wouldn't get to see you and I bicker over philosophy."

Runi Kuryida

 

[Runi Kuryida]

Runi accepted the young man had made his decision to depart and return again. It would have been...nice to have spoken longer, but aside from sharing a familiarity with Ijaat Darius had yet a reason to linger. Her offer had been laid out before him, as it was before any that came to Resa, and it was his to take up when the time was right. In this life or the next.

It was interesting to learn Darius was a physician, however. She wondered what specialty he held, if he had one? Resa was a place of healing. She only believed he'd find peace there despite recent events surrounding the Enclave. There were also other, satellite locations the Mandokarla had set up. Perhaps he would find his way to one of them in time.

The young man paused to pass parting words over his shoulder. The Shaman's chin lowered and shadows cast by the fire claimed her eyes.

As Darius left, the winds picked up and the howl from the mountain tops seemed particularly loud in that moment. The flames flickered and then vanished with only embers remaining in his wake. "I would like that," Runi said to herself. The bitter cold of the icy world was nothing to the numbness she felt at that moment. She would need to return to the Briirud, of course, but not now. Not with the ache in her chest so raw.

Darius Mereel