Private In The Wake...

[Darth Petrichor]

Alwine Bergen

Coruscant... a planet steeped in more history than even Petrichor would care to uncover. Yet, there he was... walking the steps... examining each misstep of the Alliance. They could have never imagined such a defeat. But Petrichor could. They had been so blindly guided by their personal vision, and yet, what did that get them? Granted, the Sith held little philosophical water as well, for they preyed upon the same insecurities the Jedi had so often proliferated.

And yet...

The planet burned....

Petrichor stood on a distant balcony, looking over the destruction. And in that moment... there was no feeling but vindication.

He had spent most of his life trying.... struggling to teach the Sith that their was a better way.

Yet none would listen.

He walked throughout the rubble, trying to find sense in it all. Thankfully, hopefully, he would find it...​

 

[Alwine Bergen]

Another day had passed on Coruscant. The first hours had been spent with her children at the aid center, busy packing, handing over food and medicine. The afternoon had been spent going door to door with a list in hand, delivering the same packages to those too unfortunate to make it to the center.

Sights after a war were never easy, and the last one on this wretched planet had been no different. People had lost limbs, loved ones, livelihoods, and not everyone had a cushion to fall back on.

They had been here for several days now, Alwine herself, along with her children, Aethelwulf and Wulfric. Wulfric, the younger one among them, was ready to go back home to Figaro Fortuna. It was his first time exposed to these sights, and he had only known a safe home and peace. She didn't completely understand him on the issue, but she was his mother. She wanted to keep her children safe. Both of them.

Aethelwulf… Was another matter She completed her tasks without complaint, but Alwine quickly realized that her daughter's heart wasn't in it. She hadn't come to help, she had merely come to avoid being at home. No number of wounded souls would convince her otherwise.

And now the child had wandered out. At night. Alone. On Coruscant.

Alwine cursed. Her child was only fourteen, still a cub by any standard. Her education had made her book smart, but was she street smart too? Alwine wished she knew better. But all she knew she had to go look for her.

Quickly, she put Wulfric to sleep, reading him a story, pretending that he did not hear how much faster her heart beat while Aethelwulf was gone. And as soon as his eyes closed, Alwine Bergen rose and quietly shut the door behind her, leaving him alone with a droid on their ship.

That had been an hour ago.

Now she was walking in one of the lower parts of Coruscant, following a trail left by her daughter who had chosen one of the worst moments possible to go wild. Part of Alwine wished her daughter would lose control and become a wolf that night, as that would make it far easier for her mother to find it. But… No.

Coruscant was not Stewjon, but Alwine's skin still bore the marks of what had happened when she wasn't much older than her daughter and had shifted against her will.

"Looking for the girl," a voice called out to her. Alwine turned around, brown gaze falling on what looked like an old human lady. But she knew her face. She had seen it every day since coming here, "She passed by not too long ago. Some of the youth are having a party over that way," she pointed.

Alwine nodded her thank you, and continued her trek through the dark streets of the city-planet. Every bit of her thoughts were focused on what her daughter might have gotten herself into it while Coruscant burned, her senses for the moment too wrapped up in it the notice of the Sith's approach.


Darth Petrichor

 

[Darth Petrichor]

Alwine Bergen

Petrichor continued his mental musings, gazing distantly as he pondered the state of the galaxy. He had done that a lot, lately, perhaps more than he should. His order had kept to the shadows, their work kept under lock and key as he did his best to determine their next move. Their time in the shadows seemed fated to grow short, however, as Petrichor's old enemy Darth Solipsis had managed to rise to power once more. He thought back to the meeting on Mustafar all those years ago, where Solipsis had claimed his right to lead the Sith. The same meeting where Petrichor had called that same man a weakling and a coward. He still stood by those words... and soon, perhaps he would get the chance to show the "Sith'ari" exactly how weak he truly was.

The thoughts faded quickly, Petrichor's attention turning toward a growing presence nearby. The individual was a stranger to him, but their aura oozed with a sense of concern... perhaps even anxiety. Curiosity was a dangerous thing, but Petrichor had not gotten as far as he had by shying away from its ever-present draw.

He emerged from the shadows, his masked gaze centered upon the stranger. His voice was calm, almost inviting.

"What brings you to the lower levels of Coruscant? This world is rather dangerous, of late."​

 

[Alwine Bergen]

Alwine's head snapped toward the voice before the words had even fully registered. In the dim light of the lower levels, she couldn't make out much beyond the mask and the way he seemed to have stepped into being from the shadows themselves. She was a Lupine, which gave her a metahuman sense of smell, but when it came to eyesight, she loathed to admit it was actually sub-part compared to most humans she had come across.

Her nose twitched out of instinct, but there was no scent for it to catch to give her anymore information. For a moment, she wondered why she had not simply shifted into her wolf form. If nothing else, it would make the search for her daughter a lot easier by relying on her sense of smell.

"I am well aware of the dangers," she said, her voice low but even, "One of them is my daughter wandering these streets alone."

Her gaze did not linger against him. She swept the nearby alleys and crossway, looking, searching, for the faintest signs her daughter had left behind, those that she could identify and follow.

"I do not suppose you have seen a girl about my height and colouring," Alwine, even as an adult, could easily be mistaken for a child from the back. She was a mere 5"0 and had to stand with her back straight to reach the full potential of it, her frame narrow, "with more curiosity than sense?"

She let the question hang a moment, then finally looked back at him, studying what little she could see of his form. He seemed very calm for someone in the lower levels of a burning world. Perhaps too calm. Was this because of he was among those who had burned it, or was he simply powerful enough not to care? She could feel the Force all right, but her own control over it was limited, by her own choice.

And still, the thought that he had perhaps done something to her daughter did not cross her mind. After all, her scent was not upon him, and he was not her daugher's type to go with willingly without a damned good reason.

"But if there are specific dangers you know of nearby," she continued, "I would truly appreciate a warning."

Darth Petrichor