Full Circle

[Jor Kvall]

/// K A L E V A L A \\\​

The return back to Kalevala had been tense, even though Jor traveled alone. He knew that his anxiety would be assuaged when he finally arrived, and that the hours spent alone aboard his ramshackle space freighter only caused his mind to wander further. Fortunately, he had obtained the freighter as part of his spoils after the final battle on Mandalore against the Insurrectionists, though the ship was falling apart and it was anything but home, but at least it beat hitching a ride on public transport. Still, his return to Kalevala would be a watershed moment for Jor. The last time he had set foot on his homeplanet, he had run off to fight in the Civil War against the will of his father. Now he was returning, not only to complete his beskar, but because his father, Hygela, was gravely ill.

The truth was that he had been ill for many years, but unnatural sciences had managed to prolong his life well beyond what nature intended, had it been given the sole hand in the matter. Old Hygela's stubborn refusal to shuffle his mortal coil echoed his stubborn commitment to keeping Clan Kvall as comfortable intermediaries in every Mandalorian conflict, never committing to any stance for fear of a repeat of history. As Jor's ship touched down on the landing pad after being accepted through the gate of one of Kalevala's many enclosed domes, he was almost afraid to see how far his father had deteriorated physically.

The landing ramp to Jor's vessel hissed open, the hydraulic beams rubbing together noisily in angry protest. Jor stepped off, his boots on the landing ramp only causing the vessel to squeak further. Ahead of him, his father's long-serving lieutenant and advisor Lok waited, appearing to observe Jor's departure from his shoddy vessel with some amusement.

"Jor," Lok stepped forward to greet him. "You're alive."

"Still breathing, heart beating. Some would say," Jor muttered, and proceeded to walk past Lok toward the exit from the landing pad. "Where is my father?"

Lok appeared momentarily uninterested in answering Jor's question. "You've obtained beskar as well, I see."

Jor stopped and turned to face him. "You seem surprised. By both observations."

Lok said nothing, instead clasped his hands together in front of him and canted back and forth on his heels, all the while wearing a cocksure grin. Jor knew that smile well, for in the years he had known his father's advisor, he had seen it many times. It was as if Lok knew something that no one else did, and he used his smile to broadcast it. It remained one of the most punchable faces Jor had ever seen.

"Your father is waiting for you. Just inside."

 

[Jor Kvall]

Hygela Kvall's well-insulated tent reeked of sickness. There was a putrid odor that hung in the air, as though the scent of death and foreboding decay itself hung in the humidity, waiting patiently to claim its victim. The smell hit Jor in the face immediately as he entered and saw his father, bedridden. The old man could not move his body, but his eyes followed his son intently as he approached. This was not how a Mandalorian should die, Jor thought to himself. Hygela's end should have come on the battlefield somewhere, shuffled out of the mortal coil gloriously by the tip of a sword or spear. Instead he withered here, pathetically. Jor could not feel anything but sorrow for his father in this moment.

"So you have beskar now," Hygela's grainy words escaped him slowly. "It is true then."

Jor sat beside his father; the attending servant decided to leave at that moment.

"Yes, it is true," Jor wasn't sure how to answer his father's statement, but pride began to swell in him. "You can rest easy now, father."

"Can I?" The old man's eyebrows raised, as if amused by some joke, an then he wheezed again. "So ready to lead men, yet you've never once led the smallest creature in your life."

"I was expecting this reaction," Jor sighed. "After this clan has spent so long rotting under its own festering dead weight, I knew you would meet my actions with contempt."

"Your actions," Hygela spat, and then began a violent coughing fit, unrestrained sputum spilling across his chest. Finally, after managing to control himself, "Yes, you have been full of those lately. And how do you think history will judge your actions, Mandalorian?"

Jor suddenly found it difficult to answer such a poignant question, perhaps the pinnacle consideration of his people. Yet a fire of courage began to rise in him, a confidence instilled after the experiences of battle in the Seven Day War, a violent assertiveness that fueled him, even in the face of his own father.

"Better than yours, father," Jor answered. "For I was a man of action and you were not. While you pissed your rule away on Kalevala, I fought beside the Mandalore. I killed men at his side. I seized upon action with the Death Watch, and destroyed Mandalore the Liberator for our people."

He expected his words to unleash an unholy wrath in his father, yet the old man laid placidly and closed his eyes, seemingly unnerved by his son's retort. Jor leaned in closer for a moment, unsure of what to expect from his father, then began to wonder if his words had deeply cut the old man.

"Jor," Hygela breathed, "Soon you will lead this clan. And yet you still cling to a newborn's foolishness."

Jor recoiled. "What?"

"You imagine yourself a great man," Hygela continued, "For what? Killing men does not make one honorable. Nor does blind servitude, even to Mandalore."

"Father," Jor protested. "The Liberator had to be stopped. She was the destroyer of worlds. Death Watch will restore honor-"

"Spare me the partisan speech," Hygela growled, and shifted in his bed. "Your trust is easily misplaced by those in lofty positions. A true Alor's trust is not so easily earned."

"And what would you know about it?" Jor's temper was beginning to flare. "You didn't fight beside Vizsla. You sat here on Kalevala, pissing in a tray while the real war passed you by!"

"I know enough," Hygela answered simply.

Jor had had enough of his father's pig-headedness, and stood from his perch to leave. He looked down at his father's pathetic husk of a body once more. The old man didn't seem the least bit bothered by his son's proclaimed exit from the room. The old man lay restfully, unmoving, save for a small peculiar flashing device visible beneath his blanket. Had Hygela gone mad? Jor wheeled around suddenly, tearing the blanket off his father's body in search of the thermal detonator. Hygela, in the cold recesses of his heart, seemed determined to have the last laugh, as killing both of them was apparently preferable to Jor's leadership. The young Mandalorian moved his father's body out of the way, only to discover the source of the red blinking light. A simple datapad, which Jor activated.

A notice to Hygela Kvall, Alor of Clan Kvall, bearing warning from Sundari -​

The new Mandalore's proclamation of treatment or death to Force-users will soon reach your settlements on Kalevala.​

Be advised to muster all house defenses in precaution for these tidings. In many parts of Sundari the killing has turned indiscriminate. Neither woman nor child, innocent nor guilty knows safety from Mandalore's squads.​

-Ubbe of Clan Ulfberh-​

"You have courage, Jor," Hygela whispered. "Perhaps more than any in this Clan. Yet you still know nothing of what it means to protect your people."

 

[Jor Kvall]

Indignantly, Jor threw the datapad across the room. It smashed against the cold stone wall, screen shattering, and sparking pitifully on the ground. Jor sank back into his seat by his father's side. He imagined Hygela getting some kind of sick joy throughout this whole act.

"I fought in the Death Watch because I believed in a better future for Mandalore. Mandalore the Liberator would have destroyed everything," He whispered, defeatedly.

Hygela shrugged in his bed, still as calm as before. "Perhaps she would have. Perhaps not. But you forgot the most important duty of an Alor. That is to look out for your people, first and foremost."

"Ra is still a good leader," Jor said after a small pause, raising his head.

Hygela offered only a sigh. "Don't let duty and obedience blind you to the truth, son. Or you will lead the Kvall to destruction."

"I won't sit idly by while the events of our times pass us by," Jor felt his anger growing again. "Eventually, one has to take a side."

"Take your own side," The old man grimaced, locking eyes with Jor. "That is the way of the Kvall. I know why you left to fight for Vizsla. He gave you an opportunity to exert strength, power and dominance, the perfect foil to the soft and weak Liberator, who allied with our ancient enemies, the Jedi. But you must free yourself of this train of thought, son. Mandalorians are not pawns in this foreign religious battle between light and dark. Ra's actions make all the more sense given the rumors that he himself is a Sith puppet."

"That's not true," Jor gritted his teeth.

"No?" Hygela canted his head. "Maybe not. But what started as a war to redeem Mandalore has once again turned into indiscriminate slaughter of her people. And intentional or not, it certainly suits the Sith Emperor to have less Force-sensitives that aren't Sith roaming around."

Footsteps at the door interrupted the conversation. His father's aide appeared between the doorframe.

"The mythosaur is ready," The aide stated plainly.

Hygela looked to his son. "Go. Do what you must. Add the beast's bones to your armor. I have failed you and the Clan in many ways, son. But do not take my many failures by discarding this most important lesson I can teach you. Don't forget what I told you here today."