Is the Bright Jewel's Heart as Large as its Wallet?

[Stace de'Lorne o'Breac]

Over the course of several months, Lorn learned many things. The most important detail was that he was nowhere near Qiilura, his home planet. He didn't know how it came to pass that he left Qiilura, Lorn just knew he was no longer there. The place he awoke and had since wandered was called Ord Mantell. Or Bright Jewel. Or Worlport. Or resort.

Or capital. Or city. But he was pretty those weren't names. Lorn still had trouble identifying the difference between words and names. Weren't names also words? Why were they so indistinguishable? Whoever invented language didn't do a very good job of it.

Needless to say, the Neti had learned the importance of names. Apparently, there were many different places on Bright Jewel (he liked the name Bright Jewel), and they all had names. Streets had names. Buildings had names. Even parks had names, which seemed to be the most arbitrary designation for a plot of land that Lorn could imagine. Wasn't land just land? He supposed if someone could name an island, somebody else could name an arbitrary plot of land.

All the different names of things probably could help direct a being on a route or path, so he supposed all the names could be useful. The only use he could find, though, was that some names apparently told of invisible boundaries he wasn't supposed to cross. Arbitrary plots of land also had arbitrary lines and some people seemed to own those lines. You couldn't own land, at least not in the Neti's mind, so it must be the invisible lines that these people owned. Lorn wasn't big on lines. He wasn't big on ownership either.

To go along with invisible-arbitrary-line-boundaries, Lorn also had learned that there were these invisible concepts known as credits. Everyone seemed to have them except for Lorn, but no one could show them to him. They showed him synthetic cards, or sometimes metal, but never credits. Apparently, invisible-credits could occasionally gain one access beyond and invisible-arbitrary-line-boundary. He still hadn't really learned how that worked.

Lorn continued to greet everyone with a smile, which was apparently uncommon on Ord Mantell. Since he had met and immediately lost Lilin, he had learned that whatever that "Force" thing was she had mentioned was also uncommon. Some people said that Force was invisible too, but that didn't seem right. Some people started talking about push and pull and electromaga-... electronimer-... elecmagom-... electromagazines or something like that but none of that sounded right either.

Even more uncommon apparently was him. Lorn was just Lorn. He was nothing special. But the initial glance everyone offered him was always the same: a mixture of shock, awe, and fear. Some hid that look, but Lorn saw their expression obviously. It was the same expression that the Lorn family had given him when they first happened upon him. At most, the only thing people would say was: "I thought Neti were a myth." Lorn wasn't sure what a myth was. Were Neti and myth synonymous? But most folks just stared from a distance and avoided him when he approached. He hoped to find someone as kind as the Lorn family was. He was sorry he had just run off after talking with Lilin. She seemed nice.

Lorn had most certainly learned that no one knew the Lorn family. Even when he asked about their village on Qiilura no one seemed to know of that either. The few that would talk to him told him to just visit the planet and find out for himself. After learning that you needed a ship to get to another planet, and that there was a difference between water-ships and spaceships, he tried to get on a spaceship. But anytime he tried to get close, one of those invisible-arbitrary-line-boundary-inspectors would come by and prevent him.

So Lorn had waited and wandered about the city for awhile planting himself in arbitrary-"parks" and trying to learn the secret behind invisible-"credits." After all, he was patient. Certainly he could figure something out.

[member="Iceis Sovereign"]​

 

[Syss Rembala]

Sometimes curiosity led people to strange places. Sometimes people just got the urge to see something, to be somewhere just because. This was one of those times. Curiosity had brought Iceis Sovereign to the Bright Jewel System, to the planet Ord Mantell. She walked down the boarding ramp of her spaceship and through the hangar bay. She paid te price for leaving her ship there until her departure and proceeded into the capital city of the mountainous planet.

Her attention was soon enough occupied by many different things. People coming and going, humans and Falleen in abundance. Ord Mantell was a busy city, little did she know that she had still to see much bigger and busier places in the galaxy. Trying to find something worth spending her time on, Iceis moved through the city. She wondered its streets, examined its buildings and, occasionally, discreetly observed its residents actions.

A full day had gone by and despite the fact that nothing truly memorable or intriguing had been found, the Witch Initiate felt pleased and at ease. It was a good change for a routine that had turned heavily active ever since she started wondering the Galaxy beyond the views from the Pillar of Ascension.

She was now walking through a green park, a short-cut she was taking to the place where her ship awaited for her to depart. The sun was starting to set and not many people were left in the green space. Suddenly she felt a strange sensation, one she immediately recognized as the Force and shifted her cold violet gaze to what appeared to be some sort of weird sapling. She got closer and eyed it for long seconds, trying to understand why a plant had triggered her Force-sensing...

[member="Lorn Breac"]

 

[Stace de'Lorne o'Breac]

There it was again. That familiar tingle. Whatever it was. What had that girl called "it?"

Ah, yes. Force... or was it The Force. Was there only one? That seemed odd.

Thoughts for another time perhaps. For the moment, Lorn could feel that tingle grow closer and closer once again. Though the day was growing late, and he was rather tired. The sun shone lower and lower in the pink sky and his energy so often came and went with the source of light. So the Neti remained planted. Besides, like before, the presence he felt seemed to approach him. By accident or by design, he did not know. But the coincidence of two such occurrences was not lost on him.

The arbitrary plot where he had set himself was off the beaten path, tucked in alleyways with names he did not know. Though unlike much of the rest of the city, this arbitrary plot was rather green. Lorn could only guess that it was more well cared for and that less foot traffic gave the private little space a better chance for other plants to develop. Lorn had been planted there for some time, a good place to soak in the morning sun and occasionally feel water seeping in through his roots. Though when he had arrived at the spot, the Neti had stood at well over sixty inches, over the time he had spent there, Lorn shrunk down to the size of a sapling, better to appropriate water within the cells of his body and conserve energy. While planted, he stood at no more than fifteen inches.

When finally Lorn could feel the presence near, he decided that awakening was necessary. He couldn't miss the opportunity to speak with whatever this Force-bearing presence was. The Neti had been bereft of answers since Lilin. He desired answers once more, and sleeping would not make progress on that front.

Lorn stretched out his trunk and branches, allowing the sensation of autonomous movement to carry through his bark and wood. As small and as water-inundated as he was, he felt rather nimble, and the motion made no sound. The few leaves adorning the crown of his head shivered. And finally his eyes opened to the twilight of the setting sun. He yawned, activating lung-like sacks that he could use to gather carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, while mobile.

Looking around, the Neti saw one figure in the area, unfamiliar, but carrying the same familiar presence he understood to be Force. Or The Force. Or whatever. He blinked a few times to get his bearings and clear the membranes over his eyes so he could better see. Lorn gave the biggest smile a fifteen-inch-tall sapling could possibly give and waved to the person. "Hello! I felt you come near. You must be like Lilin. And like me! It is nice to meet you!"

[member="Iceis Sovereign"]​

 

[Syss Rembala]

The Princess took a quick, long step back when she saw the sappling move. Surprise and confusion had arose within her, her white eyebrows furrowed together and her her eyes, slightly wider than usual proof of this sudden surprise. The sappling did not only move, it stretched, shivered and...yawned. As if that hadn't been enough to startle the white haired Princess, the being opened a pair of eyes and talked to her in a very animated tone.

Iceis had never seen anything like it. She found herself at a loss of words and comprehension and this as not something she was used to. It was a rather uncomfortable feeling, not knowing. For a moment she had even questioned her eyes but then she heard the being speak. And just to make it even more strange than it already was, the being was also Force sensitive. Something was nagging her though. Something in the back of her memory that wanted to come out and so she let it. It was a word. Etti? Nitti?...Neti! A Neti?

This being, this little animated and talking plant...could it really be a Neti? She remembered the plant-like species being mentioned very briefly in one of the scripts found in the library aboard the Pillar of Ascension. It wasn't much information that she knew but it was the only thing that could explain this being. Still she had no way to fully confirm her assumptions and, in all honesty, she thought they had a very little chance on being true.

"G-greetings" She said, for a moment feeling a little bit silly but soon shrugging it off. She was talking to a plant after all. "W-what are you?" Normally, Iceis was not as direct and was much more protocolar and formal than this but curiosity was really getting the upper hand on her at the moment.

[member="Lorn Breac"]

 

[Stace de'Lorne o'Breac]

People certainly were beings of habit. Lorn had heard the same question asked nearly every time he had a first interaction with whomever. What made designation such an important qualifier for a person, place, or thing? Everything seemed to circle back to names. Luckily for him, having being asked the question so many times, he had developed his own habitual answer. Perhaps that was how culture started.

But what did he know? He was just a kid. A tree kid.

An honest tree kid without a filter or any inclination to slow down. "Everyone asks me that! I am me! Some have called me Breac, a few have called me Lorn. Lots of people call me Neti but I've never met anyone else with that name. But there are plenty of other Breacs and Lorns on Qiilura. That's where I come from!"

As Lorn spoke, he continued stretching, but the act probably looked more like a rhythmic wiggling. Feeling gradually spread through every part of his frame, from the tips of his leaves down to the roots spread through the slightly damp dirt. The chlorophyll receptors were less active in the hours of the setting sun and he kept himself planted to take in as much water as he could to make up for that decline in energy. He didn't know the science behind his being, he just knew what felt right.

Lorn yawned again, sucking in another gasp of nitrogen and carbon dioxide. Humans often yawned when they were sleepy, or so Lorn had observed. He had picked up that habit too somewhere along the way.

"Have you met anyone with the name Lorn? They're my family. I've been looking for them but I can't seem to find anyone who knows them. Oh! Do you know Lilin? I haven't felt her for some time but I could feel you the same way. Are you family?" His small voice didn't carry very far, and he looked up at the much taller woman with his big, dark eyes with innocence befitting a young child, though his true age was well over a century.

[member="Iceis Sovereign"]​

 

[Syss Rembala]

Impressive...This was one of those strange times when Iceis had found herself fully, genuinely surprised. She was in the presence of a creature that not many ever got the chance to meet. Even more, most didn't even know of their existence. A Neti. What an unexpected discovery had been hidden here on Ord Mantell. She heard him speak, the look of intense surprise never leaving her usually emotionless and cold violet eyes. She remained silent for a moment, most surely trying to process all of this new and curious information, paired with the fast tongue and energetic responses of the little creature.

The Princess had come to the conclusion that the Neti didn't understand too well the world around him. For instance, he believed that with 'Neti' people were referring to his name, which she didn't know if it was Breac or Lorn, rather than his species. He probably didn't even know what species meant. He did have a childish look and feel to him though, it was either he was a child or he had a very, very childish nature. But she still was prone to believing her first assumption more than the second one, simply because she concluded that an older being wouldn't be as naive.

Then the Neti started asking questions, many questions. One of them was if she knew another being under the name of Lorn. This confirmed to her that his surname was Lorn, meaning his name was Breac. [member="Lorn Breac"] , the Neti. The white haired humanoid was still struggling to wrap her mind around the fact that she had met a Neti. He then mentioned someone called Lilin who, for what she could make out, must have also been a force sensitive.

"I know no other Lorns, sorry. Nor do I have any family member named Lilin" She said, her voice calm and collected; the complete opposite of the flowing and unstoppable stream of words the Neti could put together in one sentence so rapidly. "How have you come from Quiilura to Ord Mantell, Breac?" She then asked, looking at the sapling.

 

[Stace de'Lorne o'Breac]

An uncharacteristic look of sadness crossed the sapling's little face. Where could they be? Lorn quickly overrode his melancholy, however. He was sure the Lorn family was somewhere. The Neti would just have to find his adopted family on his own. He was also sure he would figure out how to find them along the way. The Neti's idealistic optimism knew no bounds.

He was curious, though. If Lilin and this new face were not related, why could he feel both presences so distinctly? Perhaps this Force thing was not based on species. He didn't really understand differences between most species. Lilin had been lightly golden in complexion and this new face seemed to be lightly purple. But who was to say what that difference meant. To Lorn, every living thing was simply that: alive. Distinctions weren't so necessary. But the fact that two people had been so highlighted by his senses was an oddity he would have to try and figure out.

Lorn kept his mind from wandering, focusing back in on the conversation at hand. Over the past few months as well as his time among his community on Qiilura the Neti had gotten better at reading humanoid facial expressions. This new face's was a familiar one: shock and awe. Lacking was the fear that many had greeted him with on Ord Mantell. Though there was something else that he hadn't seen for some time: curiosity. Like Lorn, this new face was inquisitive. The sapling liked that.

"I don't know!" he responded honestly but with even more enthusiasm than before. "I went to sleep near my family's home on Qiilura. I was waiting for them to come back, and I knew I would wake when I felt them near. But instead, I woke up here! I think I woke up because I could feel Lilin, and since I had never felt anything like her before, I thought I'd find out why she was so distinct, even while I was asleep! Isn't that strange?"

The Neti was not at a loss for words, despite his lack of energy. Much time had passed since his last real conversation. Few made the attempt to speak openly with him. He was mostly just glad that this person had stopped. And that joy alone could energize him.

"But then I wandered off while she and I were talking. I think I was in shock that where I had woken up was not the same place that I went to sleep. I needed to see for myself. But I got lost and couldn't find my way back. And I couldn't feel her after that so she must have left. I've been wandering around trying to figure out how to get back or if anyone knows what happened to the Lorns but I haven't had much success. I've been sleeping here for awhile. Then I woke up again when I felt you!"

[member="Iceis Sovereign"]​