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Jedi of the Valley

Setzi Lunelle

Searching for Eleos's Altar
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Setzi had been back on Voss now for a couple weeks, and aside from spending time with Krux Mullarus and celebrating her return to the lightside with a party on Vanyai, she found herself spending more and more time alone.

It felt satisfying to retreat, to isolate and figure out where to go from here. When she was in the company of others, she felt, even more acutely, the absence of her sister and her daughters. It’s not fair to those I’m with, the brunette padawan thought. I can’t give my undivided attention right now to anyone.

Not one to be ever be monastic, Setzi now felt the pull of an ascetic isolation. She finally knew why the strongest Jedi embraced a type of detached loneliness. The darkside was easy, she thought. Falling to it, such a sweet spiral downwards. But the lightside was much more complex to master, it seemed.

Her own actions reminded her of another on Voss, an individual held in the highest regard at the Academy, but one which whom Setzi never clicked with. But as she was a former Sith Lord, it was quite natural for them to have been mortal enemies at one point.

She sought him out using a hand-written note on a piece of old flimsiplast she’d found at the Academy library. A padawan boy would deliver the message to Jedi Master Harrison.

It read: Meet me in Serenity Valley outside of Voss-Ka. If you can spare an hour or two, I seek your advice.

He would know what it was about. Chastity Lunelle was the subtext that filled in every small space between the lines of their transactions. In the meantime, she rode a speeder bike, wrapping a scarf around her nose and mouth to ward off the dust and wind, and made her way to the Valley. Like its name, Serenity Valley would provide a stabilizing background to what might turn out to be a difficult conversation for the both of them.

[member="Connor Harrison"]
 
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The speeder bike rode out from the gradual greens and browns of Voss-ka to where the harsh orange of Serenity Valley began. It was like another world, but still part of the only one Connor Harrison knew. The Valley itself was devoid of life, but it wasn't exactly in the middle of nowhere. You could see glimpses of civilization if you looked hard enough; the huge monitoring station loomed in the distance that was almost a city itself, but deemed too dangerous to use. A modern ghost town. Rising rock cliffs and pillars of various shapes and sizes popped up now and then, with half-buried debris from old ships. It was an eerie place but...serene. Hence the name.

The goggles he wore protected him from the sun and blowing sand, gloved hands gunning hard on the throttle as he leant forward, cresting the sandy rock below him as he drove out to meet whomever had left the note. Anyone seeking his advice had to be someone he already knew, or some deeply troubled person thinking he was actually good at helping anyone. Keira? Sy? Coci? No...certainly not her. Krux? Finally admitting he'd bitten off more than he could chew? Kyra?

Regardless, he was on Voss, on his own, on the way.

It was a good drive and a dangerous speed, but the terrain was well known to Connor and nothing took him by surprise as he hit the gravel track through the valley. He rode the only path away from the Temple grounds, Voss-ka over in the distance to his left. He would drive up once, and then back, and if nobody was there he would go.

However, after bracing against a small gust of wind that kicked sand up, he saw a figure standing off the trail by a bike and he shot past them. Turning his head, he hit the brakes to slow the bike and loop around to go back. The engine on the old brown bike growled and churned as he slowly drove to the waiting figure. The bike stopped. His feet touched the crunchy ground and the engine died. He lifted the goggles up and pulled the breathing mask down around his neck. He looked at the figure.

Setzi Lunelle.

"Got me alone and in the middle of nowhere for a couple of hours. Good job for you I'm not a very busy man at the minute."

He glanced around, half expecting an obvious ambush, casually and calmly as he surveyed the surroundings...as empty as they were...before looking back to the former Sith.

"Surprise me. What...or should I say whom...do you need my advice about."

[member="Setzi Lunelle"]
 

Setzi Lunelle

Searching for Eleos's Altar
The tall, slim figure of Jedi Master Harrison approached, a matte black shadow with the sun looming high behind him. But then the details of his face, his googles and mask took shape as he grew closer. Setzi leaned casually against her own bike, waiting for him to get within earshot. In a clipped voice, peppered with notes of efficiency and perhaps even veiled annoyance, he greeted her, referencing his busy schedule, asking her what advice she sought.

“This is much better than meeting you on Toola, isn’t it?” joked Setzi. Even though the wind blew dust in their faces, Serenity Valley was a peaceful place, full of benevolent ghosts and ancient secrets. She wasn’t sure where they should go, if they should walk, ride or find a quiet place. She only knew that she wanted to converse with him in private.

“I know you Master Harrison. As a…"

Friend? Was he a friend to her? Not really, she thought. He felt more like a father figure or a big brother. Or at worst, a disappointed headmaster. And I’m the student who is constantly misbehaving and breaking the rules.

“Colleague,” she finished. “But I don’t know much at all about Connor. It seems that everyone knows my story – you, Krux Mullarus… even Taeli Raaf knew details about my life when I met her on Contruum. But I know nothing about you.”

Her hand, clad in a sleek black leather riding glove, raised signaling to him that she wasn’t done. “I don’t mean to ask leading questions… I do really seek your advice. But I need to know more about you first in order to direct my questions in a meaningful way.”
She hoped she wasn’t being rude, presumptious or crossing any boundaries. After all his private life was his own business. But she knew he’d shared a personal bond with her sister Chastity. She knew almost everything about her sister, but hardly anything about Master Harrison. To satiate her curiosity, she longed to put the two pieces together to create a more clear and enlightened picture.

[member="Connor Harrison"]
 
Folding the gloves in on themselves, Connor stood and leant on the nose of the brown speeder bike, watching what he was doing as he listened to Setzi, cutting a fine and confident figure of her own. Both seemed like they had a point to prove to the other, but he doubted neither knew what that point was right now.

At the mention of her wanting to know more about him, that was when he looked up at her, folding his arms and tapping the gloves gently.

"Well, yes this is better than Toola and at least you're not trying to kill me." He lowered his head in admission. "And you have me to blame for Taeli knowing about you. Safe to say whenever my past comes up, a Lunelle girl is involved, and I told her plenty about our...history."

However, he smiled, and lifted his head and looked as relaxed as possible, digging his boot heel into the gravel.

"You want my advice but want to know about ME first? What is about me that people find so interesting, I wonder." He shrugged. "Ask away Setzi Lunelle. I've nothing to hide. What you ask, I will tell."

Safe to say maybe he would be able to figure out the most complex Lunelle sister of all in the process.

[member="Setzi Lunelle"]
 

Setzi Lunelle

Searching for Eleos's Altar
Setzi stood up straighter and loosened the knot on the grey scarf around her neck. She began to walk towards one of the mesas, noting the scrubby brush and cacti with vibrant-colored flowers which bloomed close to the ground. Her head turned to make sure Master Harrison was following.

“My sister has always been more trusting than I have. And yet, I’m the one who fell to the darkside like a vulnerable child,” she admitted, her eyes flitting to the sky for a moment as if to say I’m such a fool.

Shielding her eyes from the sun for a moment, Setzi looked for a place they could shelter from the buffering wind. The closest rock structure ahead of the mesa would have to do.

“I’ve only heard rumors, of course,” started the padawan, getting down to business. “But I wanted to know if it was true that you had been a Dark Jedi once.”

She could tell why Chastity chose Connor as her Jedi Master. He had a stabilizing presence that she only realized now that she wasn’t trying to rattle him, or worse kill him in a disquiet rage. And he was one of the best and most well respected teachers that the Silver Jedi had to offer. Of course Chas would have been impressed.

But perhaps he’d chose her just the same? As close as she was to her sister, she did not know the full extent of their relationship beyond Master and Padawan.

“What was that like?” she asked. “If true.”

[member="Connor Harrison"]
 
Connor followed, not really worried about someone pinching their speeders. They WERE in the middle of a vast plain and nobody could sneak up without detection. Pulling his scarf down as he looked up at the large mesa, always a fan of natural wonders like this, Connor placed his hand on it, turned and leant against the natural curve of it from the ground upwards.

He still couldn’t read Setzi. Regardless of her want to be a Padawan learner with the Silvers, she had been a Lord of the Sith. A Master herself in the Force and all it holds. It was impossible to really know someone completely, especially after such a dramatic transformation. Was she saying the right things he wanted to hear? Was it him being too closed off and not being rational?

”What was it like?” He repeated, looking up for a second to gather the words. ”It was isolated, cold and down-right degrading.”

He looked at her with those three words that best summed up a failed portion of his flirtation with the Dark Side. Nobody had ever asked him about this – because not many people knew. It would be a brave offering of information to Setzi, but part of him wondered that maybe it could help her in some way.

”It’s rather embarrassing actually,” he chuckled, as if chatting to an old friend over tea, ”but it was after I lost Chastity to the slavers, and then to the Sith. Couple that with everything that had been building up – seeing a former Padawan blinded by Sage Bane, and then he poisons Chast, and my wounds, and my heart being torn left right and centre, and it just…came out. The fear. The rage. You know how it is; the sort of things that can turn a person cruel.”

He could tell she was listening intently by her expression; did she know it was her sister that tipped him over?

”I won’t lie about wanting to control Light and Dark, I never will, but I know I never can fully do that. However, when everything was lost, all I had was that fantasy to hold onto and so I did. I didn’t want anyone near to me, I didn’t want to listen. I thought I knew it all. I was so self-assured. I used violence, anger and strength to cut down enemies and talk back to those who questioned me. Yes, maybe now I do but it’s all I’ve known, however it’s not fuelled from the Dark Side as that was. As I was. That was when I look back and see regardless how I felt; I was never more isolated, cold or degrading to myself and others.”

A second to think over the next part, in which he rubbed his eye gently.

”I spent more time as a Dark Jedi alone than I did before, but I felt invincible. But then it was only after Grandmaster Corvus Raaf, I’m sure you know her, when she proclaimed her love for the Sith Goddess Braith, or whatever she was, that I lost it. I mean, I always held a candle for Corvus, but Chastity took that when she came into my life, but I always cared for Corvus. When she then seemed to become someone else, I felt she had lied to me and betrayed my trust in her. Our friendship dissolved and I returned to Voss ready to do what I should have done a long time before – take my life.”

He shifted.

”Why were people hurt around me? Why were they afraid? Because I had become a monster, and that was what I finally saw. Power? Strength? No. A Dark Jedi is a label for the confused, the misguided and the deluded. I couldn’t even take my life when it came to it, but I lost a lost that day anyway. That was when I self-exiled myself and travelled the Outer Rim, and in the process probably lost more ties to the Silvers, or Sanctum, whatever they are now. That was where I was when you and your crew came to Toola. I returned to protect the people that did not deserve the brunt of my failing as both a Master and…well. Anything else.”

Connor inhaled and let out a breath, acknowledging a little longer than usual rant. He smiled again, wondering how it must sound.

”That was what it was like. I highly advise you don’t go down that path. Take it from me.” He looked at her, and saw a real Lunelle there. His heart ached a little. ”Why did you come to Voss, Setzi? What do you want? Are you doing this for Chastity, or for yourself.”

[member="Setzi Lunelle"]
 

Setzi Lunelle

Searching for Eleos's Altar
Setzi nodded knowingly at Master Harrison’s assessment of the darkside. Yes, it was isolated and cold, but the padawan herself hadn’t felt degraded. In fact, the passion she often felt as a Sith Lord was quite freeing, which is why the darkside constantly held such an allure for her. Still, she’d felt such acute pain and distress as a creature of evil – there was nothing sublime about it. The darkside healing she’d delved into could provide a modicum of ecstasy for her mind and body, but it was normally short-lived.

“I’m sorry that happened to you,” Setzi said, showing that she was finally capable of empathy and not the sociopathic Sith she was on Toola. “I also succumbed to the darkside just a little before I felt Chastity’s flame extinguish on Ziost. For months, I assumed she was dead as I couldn’t feel my connection to her. It turns out that, like you, I fell the worst when my sister was captured by those slavers.”

She made eye contract with Connor and gave him a crooked grin. “I guess we have that in common.”

The rest was all news to the padawan, and the dalliances of the Grand Master with another Sith was not her concern, though in a way, she felt it exemplified the need to at least embrace some passion in one’s lives. If the Grand Master is so fallible, what hope do the rest of us have?

And then Master Harrison came back from his exile to protect his SSC kin from Darth Azurea herself. “Full circle,” she remarked with a hint of sadness in her gaze. She looked down at her own dusty boots and swept her hair out of her green eyes. “I came to Voss for Chastity and I stayed on Voss for Krux and his love for me… but now I’m training on my own, which I understand. And I don’t want Knight Mullarus to have to watch my every move. But I need a mentor but one who will not be afraid of my darkside leanings.”

This request would go against Knight Mullarus’s specific instructions. She was his padawan after all. Setzi raised her head with clear interest in his response. If he took her on he may be usurping Mullarus’s authority, and in turn, damaging his relationship with his own student in the process.

[member="Connor Harrison"]
 
Connor couldn't help chuckle a little with her; it seemed they had a thing for trying to save those out of their reach no matter the cost. She had wavered and felt the Dark Side more than he; although he had touched upon it, he had never taken blade to a Jedi unlike Setzi. Now, however, she was starting to unravel her intent for good.

”I will be honest with you, Setzi. I don't know where Chastity is. I don't feel she is dead, call me a fool but I know she's not. I just...don't know where her path has taken her and like I said to you on Toola, if she wants to be found she will be found. Don't think I will stop, because I haven't in all this time. Nobody knows, but I still find what I can and seek information.”

It was strange talking about Chastity to Setzi, with whom he knew little. Even on Chroma Zed it was Chastity who had done all the talking more so and attracted his attention over the quieter sister. How the times change. When she laid out her intent for a mentor, part of the Master knew this would happen.

He rested his head on the rock mesa behind and looked up at the blanket of cool blue sky, touched by the warm reds of the desert below glinting from the sun.

”I told Krux from the start before he brought you to Voss that his feelings for you - the Sith you anyway - were a string holding him back. Not one to stand in the way, I didn't object because it's not my place. However, when it comes to what must be done, then it seems you want to think with your head also.”

Connor sighed and looked to Setzi. She was right in a way, but once Krux had made his choice and started acting and thinking like an independent Knight, Connor had done his part.

”Krux learnt to at least find his inner peace from me, and he has stuck it out. That's all I can do for him now. What he does it not up to me. You, however?” He rolled his tongue around in his cheek - the words she said were laid out for both to see and understand without being obvious. ”I don't have anything to lose from mentoring you, Setzi. If anything goes wrong, it's on my head and my head alone. We will work on this and see how it goes. Alright. I will mentor you, and if anyone objects to it then they will have me to answer to.”

He didn't move from the mesa, but looked at her and nodded. ”Maybe I can find some redemption myself in helping make you who you want to be.”

[member="Setzi Lunelle"]
 

Setzi Lunelle

Searching for Eleos's Altar
“I know she isn’t dead,” the padawan agreed. “I don’t necessarily feel her, but if she survived Ziost, then the pirate slavers, and then a deadly Sith poison… I just know she’s out there! She is stronger than all of those things combined."

Unlike Connor, Setzi felt immensely relieved to be talking about Chastity to someone who knew her well. In the past few years, she’d surrounded herself with those who had no knowledge of her family and her past. Being her Jedi mentor, Master Harrison had an intimate bond with her sister. Aside from coming to reside with her parents on their Aduba-III maze-stalk farm, this was as close to home on she was going to get: living on Voss in the company of the tall Jedi Master.

When he accepted the request to be her mentor, she genuinely beamed as bright as the Serenity Valley sun, and he may have not ever seen her smile so widely. There were shades of the gregarious Chastity in woven through Setzi’s mannerisms now. But she cocked her head to the side, eyebrows furrowing as he mentioned redemption. Setzi got the sense that… she’d been wanting to ask him if…

“Were you and my sister… more than Padawan and Master?”

Her cheeks colored at the question, but he may have not noticed it because already both of them had a reddish hue to their cheeks due to the high Valley sun.

“If that’s too private of a question, you don’t have to answer,” she added quickly.

[member="Connor Harrison"]
 
He didn’t react to the bright smile she showed – he hadn’t seen a smile that bright in forever. His hands, behind his back on the rock, rubbed the small patterns and cracks and edges to give him something to focus on and ground him. He never liked to over-think anything, and always tried to distract himself from wandering off topic

”No, no it’s alright,” he said in answer to her question. ”If it will help you to know me and anything about Chastity’s time here I will tell you anything. I don’t shy away from anything like that, so don’t worry.”

She was the first person to ever ask about Chastity and he and their relationship.

”Briefly, we were more. I don’t regret it for a moment, but I don’t know it was born out of a rebound from me being rejected by Corvus – yeah yeah, long story – or simply both looking for an outpouring of wanting to feel needed.” He looked away for a second, in thought. ”I don’t regret any of it. I loved her, I did. I fell for her. I cared for her. I wanted to help you, to show her everything she wanted. To protect her, to make her happy, to help her achieve all she wanted. But maybe we didn’t see the severity in what lay ahead. Perhaps I didn’t protect her enough.”

Then he looked at the Lunelle sister, heart a little heavy.

”I am sorry I failed her, Setzi, in turn failing you. A nasty chain of events seemed to have follow the repercussions on Ziost, but if it means anything then I’m glad we are here, now. That has to count for something.”

The warm wind blew past them and kicked up loose clothing, a faint shower of sand and that evening humidity. Connor looked out to the station in the distance, touching the sky. Then, to the floor, his mind thinking about how he had been premature with Chast and let her down with his own desire to feel love and be loved. Maybe he hadn’t given it time to blossom naturally.

”My turn. How are you and Krux? Forgive me, but almost like me and Chast, I sense that there is a premature urgency from one party to love and be loved more than the other. It’s not my place to pry, but I’d like to understand a little more and help you. After all, you are my student. That’s got an ironic twist to it, wouldn’t you say?”

He tried to diffuse any lingering uncertainty with a small, confident smile.

[member="Setzi Lunelle"]
 

Setzi Lunelle

Searching for Eleos's Altar
As she listened, Setzi internally battled herself for who exactly to blame. Master Harrison, revealed to be the lover of Chastity as she had begun to suspect? The entire breadth of Jedi Organizations from the NJO to the Silvers? The Sith or Primeval?

“Ultimately I blame myself,” she said, finally reaching to clasp his arm at the elbow with her hand. She squeezed as though absolving him of the burden by her firm touch. “I should have kept her with me. Like a team even. But I was too distracted by my own folly… my own curiosity.” She lowered her hand, and her eyebrows raised at the mention of Krux.

“I don’t know what will happen to me and Knight Mullarus. There is certainly an undeniable bond between us. But…,” Setzi sighed, her heart also heavy at the thought of what she about to say next. “My path is my own. I fear that there is more I need to confront without Knight Mullarus. My future is uncertain and emotional betrayal might be a part of it. If only to get what I want.”

She wondered what Master Harrison thought of her now. Setzi had just admitted that she may just forsake the gentle, powerful and unconditional love of Krux. But she did not elaborate on why. The wind blew a few chestnut strands of hair into her eyes, and she carefully tucked them back behind her ear. “If I did pursue the Grey path, what would do you recommend I learn first?” she said, quickly changing the subject.

[member="Connor Harrison"]
 
Connor didn’t falter as she touched him, a grasp that was probably more for her to feel that he was real, not a vision to shoulder all of Chastity’s blame on, but also for her to feel someone else was there as support. He’d had people grab him by the shoulder, elbow, hand, wrists – all done out of fear, anger, weakness, assertiveness – funny how you can read someone by just a small action, but it was a valuable trait.

The girl look pained, and he still couldn’t read her well. She was hurting, that much was obvious, but she had openly admitted the obstacle in her way which, again, was a valuable trait in someone rather than closing feelings off and ignoring them.

”Look,” he said, arms folded still, ”I hate patronising people, but in this case I’m not when I say don’t blame yourself. Honestly, nobody can be blamed for another person’s choice. Well, not always.”

He himself COULD be blamed for a lot. A lot of a lot.

”If you wanted to look upon that Grey area, then if I can tell you anything, it’s please be honest to yourself about your path. If you touch upon the Light and Dark, as I did, it’s easy to feel all powerful; near invincible. You can’t master both ends of the spectrum. If you walk the path as I do, your heart MUST belong to the Light, the side of good. If you’re not of sound heart and mind about that, you will stumble and you will fall because you don’t know what you want.”

Connor rubbed his hands together slowly.

”I am more than happy to work with you on this. I can show you the edge, and let you peer over it. It won’t be nice, not at all, but I don’t do things to be nice. I do things to get results and to find the soul of the person I’m training. I’d want to find Setzi Lunelle; not the sister of Chastity or the broken Sith Lord, but Setzi Lunelle. You. Your own person. You can be just as strong, powerful and able to lead as you did clouded by the Dark, but you can do it here with me and with us, wherever your path takes you, if you want to uphold the Light and give not just yourself, but every other being in the galaxy a chance to shine.”

He cocked his head a little. ”It’s your choice. I’m offering to devote time to you.” And that, from Connor, was a rare thing.

[member="Setzi Lunelle"]
 

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