Private Golden Child

[Cedric Grayson]

Malachor V, restored ruins of the Trayus Academy


Malachor V was a place of tragedies. What little remained of the forgotten world was either ruined, irradiated, or shattered into unrecognizable forms. In centuries past, the world had suffered two cataclysms, its teachings lost with each death. Shattered by an exile, reforged by the Vong, dominated once more by the Sith, and finally forgotten as a glorified vault by the Ashlan Crusade. The lessons it could teach, ground to nothingness as it lingered untouched by worthy students. Forgotten, or they had been, until the coming of the second exile.

Even now, in its restored form, the wound that was this world bled into the depths of the empyrean. It was not akin to the Bogan, but rather an absence, a void into which all sensation was muffled until only silent nothingness remained. It weighed as heavily as Korriban did upon the Jedi's heart, though where Korriban sought to crush him, Malachor V wanted only to consume him.

The exile wandered the hellish surface, meandering through the forgotten ruins of what was once an academy. This place, once a font of learning, was now little more than an ash-caked ruin, a blight upon an already broken world. He could feel echoes of what had occurred here as he walked through its entryway. They whispered to him from beyond the veil, coalescing as physical voices creaking at the edges of his perceptions. He halted for a moment, listening now as intently as he'd done over the past few months. This place, away from the eyes of his compatriots, had become a sanctuary for the exile. A place of teaching.

The words ceased, and Cedric continued forward, carving a path through the familiar ruined halls until he reached the center of the former academy. This chamber had been destroyed centuries ago, and then found itself rebuilt by the will of the Sith that came to lord over it. Now, Cedric was its master, and its crimson core served his purposes. Here he lowered to his knees and opened himself to the devastation that characterized this world. The wound poured into him, and he into it.

"You feel the threads straining, I know it," his words, spoken both with voice and mind, would whisper to the one he had chosen across the endless void of stars. "Soon they will break. You are summoned knight. We will do what we can to keep them from coming apart entirely."

Geiseric

 

[Geiseric]

Geiseric was not clairvoyant, not a seer of the future. Of all the things he was, of all that he'd become on the frontlines of the Crusade, he wished most he was that.

The Brotherhood had proved again their destructive capabilities against the New Imperial Order. How long would it take for the bulwarks to fail and the defenders to fall? Would the Ashlans be ready when that day was upon them? The answers plagued the man. Dark premonitions that he could not understand clouded the mind he'd worked so hard to steel against the Bogan. The only respite was the call from his liege, perhaps the one man who could help him understand.

When he'd heard the summons across the void, he had awoken in a cold sweat. He rose from his bed in the dark and slipped on some plain clothes. He wasn't accustomed to anything but his armor these days, a gripping sign of the times if he'd ever seen one. He was one of the few lucky enough to escape the war for something better, but it was only brief. As he looked over at Eina, it again flashed across his mind the things he'd had to do to get her. War was all he knew, and the demons that came with it were ceaseless.

His woman did not sleep, not in the way that he understood. He made his best effort not to rouse her. Either way she would feel what he felt, and she would understand the need for him to go.

And so he made haste. He had learned to step through the netherworld, which like the rest of the family he'd married into had become a strange home to him. I did not take him long to traverse the time and space between their estate on Ession and the ruins on Malachor.

Geiseric entered the ruins and approached behind Cedric, where he too took a knee in obeisance.

"Kaiser Grayson. I have answered thy summons."

Thus he awaited the rise of his superior, if his king would rise to greet him at all. A dark and secluded place such as this did not warrant the pomp of ceremony he'd become used to...

Cedric Grayson

 

[Cedric Grayson]

It was difficult to understand when the line was being crossed if there was no one to be accountable to. For so long, Cedric's accountability had been that of the Force, though now he understood it would provide him with nothing more than its obedience or its company. The Ashla offered a path, a safe way to move forward, and while he still walked it, it would not hold him accountable. If his teachings failed, then they did so of their own accord, and often far too late to be correct.

Such had plagued many of his students. Indeed, of all of them, there were only two he might have ventured to call successes, and even their training was flawed. Absolutism was a powerful shield against the forces of chaos, but it could also serve as a poison steadily eating away at the soul. The affliction had nearly crippled Cedric, and his students suffered far moreso. He now understood the way to counter its more bleak aspects, but putting it into practice was an entirely different matter.

The teachings needed revision, and this one would be their first pupil.

The academy rumbled quietly with an animal displeasure as Geiseric stepped through the hole in reality. Once again, Cedric found himself somewhat baffled at the strange technique, but it wasn't worth questioning. As he knew it, Geiseric had taken up with Ingrid's heir, and it was likely they imparted him with their arcane knowledge.

The Trayus Core beneath their feet pulsed a dull crimson as Geiseric fell to a knee. Cedric rose from his meditations to greet him. "It seems you've mastered the L'lerims' magic," he mused by way of greeting. "There is little need to kneel here, my friend. This place does not respect our stations, and titles are just what they are here: words, and nothing more."

The exile's arms folded behind the small of his back as he appraised the Ashlan Knight. "It is little secret that I have been away for some time. The shadows have been my realm for these past few months, and in them I have learned much." The exile cast his gaze to the floor, then to meet Gei's own. "Do you know what this place is?"

 

[Geiseric]

Geiseric stood again with his liege, at his behest. The paladin looked around to truly take into account where they were. He had never set foot on this dead, dark world before heeding the call. He'd had no need, for Malachor was just that: dead, obsolete even. He'd heard a tale of the Sith they'd encountered clearing out ruins such as this, but that was nothing surprising. Those Sith foolish enough to continue their resistance in these sectors were ferocious, he had no doubt, but inconsequential. It wasn't the dregs and the run-off that worried him with premonitions.

If anyone knew what was going on it was Grayson. Few living souls had been touched by Ashla like he had. At least that was how the stories from Korriban went. Stories could be, and always were, embellished. In the bleak world they lived in, to mythologize was to bring hope. But the things Gei had seen in his service to Cedric... he wondered if maybe they were not far off when they called him Saint Cedric. For all Geiseric had been made into, some would say a guardian of the Light unwavering, he was still a mortal man. A man with a beating heart, memories of the past, of Ession, of the brutality of war... seeing the Kaiser here in seclusion made Gei remember that Cedric too, was a mortal man. How did this war affect their lord, their beacon?

"I cannot say I know this place, my lord. I have tried for a long time to give little thought to such dark places. When this is over I pray I won't have to."

Cedric Grayson

 

[Cedric Grayson]

The exile huffed with quiet amusement at the knight's assessment. Indeed, such places were unpleasant at the least for those that walked in the Ashla's light, and completely unbearable at worst. Their campaign to cleanse the Tingel Arm of any remnants of Sith rule was a testament to that. Even so, Geiseric had not been summoned here to destroy the Trayus Core.

"This world is called Malachor. It has been host to terrors the rest of the galaxy can only ever come close to understanding in their nightmares. This is a world that has been struck down twice, and yet it refuses to die, even as its crust collapses in on itself and it vile core irradiates anything unfortunate enough to walk upon its surface." Cedric explained, "And this place in particular is an academy, though I have been its only student for quite some time. There are teachings here found nowhere else, cast out by both the Jedi and the Sith alike because they came to close to the truth."

The exile's arms folded behind the small of his back, and he cast his gaze up toward the cracked black ceiling of the core. "The Jedi were reshaped here once, and for a time were expunged of all their failings. Unfortunately, they grew complacent, as the Jedi of old tended to do. They thought the Sith exterminated forever and rested on their laurels for a thousand years. It is the consequences of their negligence that requires us to fight today. Their choices led directly to the creation of the Crusade."

Among many other things, but the failings of the old order lingered at the heart of the matter as they so often did with other issues.

"I have brought you here to learn what I have learned. The beliefs of the Ashlans were forged over centuries, but I weaponized them, brought them to the Jedi. Now, those beliefs must evolve too. If we are to exterminate the Bogan entirely, the Jedi Order must be reunited again, its teachings synthesized with those of the Ashla, and those learned simply by being alive."

Cedric paused to get a measure of the Ashlan Knight. "You have become a champion of the Crusade in the years since your joining. I've asked you here because I believe you alone among our constituents have the will and constitution to understand my teachings without losing yourself. It is a path of great sacrifice, but if we succeed, the flaws of the Order might finally be mended, and perhaps you might teach others should I fall in battle."

Another pause.

"Will you walk with me?"

 

[Geiseric]

Geiseric listened carefully. As Cedric explained, Geiseric recalled the history of this place to the best he knew it. Not that it mattered now. This place would be relegated to the footnotes in due time, regardless of who won this struggle. The eternal battle between light and dark seemed worse now, all things considered. More dire, more final. For the first time, the Sith actively sought to destroy the galaxy, whereas his ancestors had fought back Sith merely wishing for control.

Every word Cedric spoke was true. Geiseric could argue with none of it. Complacency had been the downfall of the Jedi far too many times. Whereas the Jedi took respite in the years of peace they created, their enemies never did the same. When Jedi spoke of the Sith lurking in the shadows, constantly plotting, they did not stop and care to think why. The Sith knew vigilance. The Sith knew waiting and readying for the time when they would strike again. And every time they took the Jedi by surprise.

The Jedi too, needed to learn vigilance.

If Darth Solipsis was defeated, if he even could be defeated... would the Jedi return to comfort? Would they erect new temples within which they would sequester themselves while the Sith rebuilt, as they had done time and time again for millenia? Men such as Cedric and Geiseric could not let that come to pass in good conscience.

"Will you walk with me?"

"Of course, my lord. These are lofty goals of which you speak, sir, but there is no army with more ambition in this galaxy the one you have created. What would you have me do?"

Geiseric thought again to the pivotal battle of Korriban, where they had indeed almost lost Cedric. He did not doubt the faith of his superiors like Demici or Draellix, but they were not so occupied with mending the Jedi schism as Cedric was, and Geiseric felt deep down the calling to pursue the same goal. If he didn't, it was all too likely the Sith would win this conflict once and for all...

Cedric Grayson

 

[Cedric Grayson]

"Lofty goals are the only ones worth striving toward." A hint of amusement laced Cedric's words as he turned toward the walkway that led back into the academy. "What is a man without a dream after all? Mine was to reclaim Ession and see our ancestral lands restored That has been accomplished, and yet the galaxy will never be repaired unless we continue the work. We must find a way to reforge the Jedi Order, and deal with our faithless rivals permanently." He explained as he began to walk back toward the greater academy.

"I have stepped away from politics, but my eyes are always open. When the Maw is dealt with, if we can manage it at the least, there will be other contenders. The New Imperials are nostalgic for the days of their galactic dominance. We are fair-weather allies to them now, but there will come a time when they seek to subjugate us like all the rest," his expression was that of stone, tone matter of fact. These were not predictions, but prophecy. "The Alliance is threatened with dictatorship. They yearn for an emperor it seems. If they fall into autocracy, then they too will be our enemy, and I will have to reclaim my throne to keep the core from spiraling into chaos. That would mean galactic war, but I know you understand the grim necessity of it."

The winds outside the academy howled so madly that they could be heard hissing through the rock and stone that confined the academy. Cedric would draw Geiseric toward the lodgings of the place, or what were once lodgings anyway. Now they were little more than ruined empty rooms, marked only with stone slabs that served as beds fit only for criminals.

"That being said, I would rather avoid war if we can. There is a woman running for the chancellorship, Auteme Denko-Durren. She is somewhat inexperienced, but her heart is with the people and more importantly we can rely on her to rout the Sith out from the senate. She blames herself for the Sith's attack on Coruscant, I do not believe she would allow something like that to happen again. It is in our best interest to help her become the leader of the alliance, so that they remain our allies, and we do not have to take them to the sword." He was fond of Auteme, and looked down upon Tithe as any religious man would when looking upon a creature that chose to live in sin.

"The Eternal Empire are capable and your ties with their heiress will keep them within our sphere of influence indefinitely. In time, I think we may be able to truly show them the Ashla's light. Them aside, the Silvers are a dying beast laboring for breath. It is best we entrench ourselves in their trust, guide them the best we can, but it only a matter of time when the beast draws its last breath. This will be good for the galaxy - the Silver were the first traitors to shatter the Jedi Order. Their cowardice resulted in three decades of near endless war, though we cannot hate them for it. Fear is the most primal of emotions which all creatures share - rather we must teach them the error of their ways."

His political diatribe done, Cedric halted in the center of the dormitory halls. "These are my ambitions, and you are their sole listener. If we accomplish them, we might be able to seal the portals to the Netherworld and finally destroy the Sith in their totality." A pause. "You have my trust, do not betray it." His tone brooked no argument.

"I will teach you to see the galaxy as I do, and from you, the rest of them shall finally open their eyes. When they understand the horror that is to come, they will not stand against us."

Geiseric

 

[Geiseric]

The reason Geiseric respected Cedric was ever present in the man's words. It was because Grayson listened, observed, analyzed. Lofty goals were indeed all there was to strive for, and very few in the galaxy had the foresight, dare he say clairvoyance to actually achieve them. Geiseric never hid his distain for politicians, and their shortsightedness. It had been politicians chiefly responsible for the destruction of the temple on Coruscant. It was politicians who continued to grind the core worlds beneath their corrupted boots as the Sith came ever closer to victory. If Geiseric was to be Grayson's instrument, he could only hope that meant continuing on the the path he was on, the path of the warrior.

"I have served Ashla since the day Ession died, and I will continue to serve her, and you my lord, until the day Ession shines brighter than ever before. To betray your trust would be to betray the Force." he reaffirmed. There was no question in his devotion, for devotion is what brought him as far as he'd come. The sun had set on a galaxy at war, but he knew in his heart of hearts that the dawn would come again. They had to work for it, and they would but the best minds to it. The dawn would arrive.

"If there's one thing that is certain, my lord, it is that friendships change as quickly as the times. I respect Rurik Fel as I did Tavlar. As noble as men like that have been, and may still be, in their fight against the Bogan, they have shown their capability for treachery all the same. They may throw us away as quickly as they did the Alliance when the time suits them. This Auteme women, I have heard good things about her. Another Jedi in the chancellor's office will ensure our true enemy is dealt with. As for my wife and her mother..." he paused. After all this time he was still unsure about the Eternal Empress. She had shown her willingness to help the crusade against their common enemy, but she was a woman who moved in the shadows, and that did not exclude her state from the same possibilities as the NIO. He had married Eina for love, not political connections. If that time were to come when Eina would have to choose...

No, he banished the thought from his head. Such lines of thinking would only dig him a hole around himself.

"I cannot speak for the latter. I do not know the Empress' intentions, and I don't trust they are any purer than those of Fel or Tithe. But Eina is pure of heart, more so than anyone I know. To help and to heal is her nature. If I devote myself to this task, to restoring the order in your image, I have no question she would follow me."

He paused again, trying to think where all of this was headed. Geiseric did not want to fall into the trap of shortsightedness himself, and he had a feeling that soon this war would once again become a lot more complicated for him than hitting things with his blade, the thing he was perhaps best at.

"I agree that the Silvers must be our first priority in this matter. They fought well against the hordes of the Draelvasier, but they cannot continue to stand on their own against what is coming. What is your plan for them? Say it and it shall be done, my lord."

Cedric Grayson