Private Jedi Pilgrimage [Complete]

[Katarine Ryiah]

Tags: Aiden Porte

The silver-blue silhouette of the Northstar cut quietly across Naboo's morning sky, gliding like a star fallen into flight. Sleek, intelligent, and obedient to every silent command, the vessel guided itself with grace that its owner could never mirror. Katarine Ryiah stood in the observation bay, hands folded within the sleeves of her simple robe, watching the glimmering surface of Lake Paonga drift beneath the clouds. Naboo, peaceful, serene, steeped in memory. It was a world that cherished beauty, and one she had not walked in many years.

She had sent her message ahead days ago, a formal contact to the local Jedi Council. Not the New Jedi Order she had once known, fractured now into rumor and refuge, but another circle, rooted here among marble domes and echoing colonnades. This enclave, she had heard, studied harmony and heritage above war. Something in that had quietly called to her.

The Northstar slowed, repulsors humming softly as it aligned with the landing platform just beyond the Theed Temple grounds. White stone glistened with dew. The ship settled without a tremor.

Katarine drew a calm breath, gathering her travel pack over one shoulder. Behind her, there was no co-pilot, no astromech, only the soft lull of the ship's core powering down, loyal in its silence. She was alone, but not uncertain.

The ramp descended.

In the stillness of Naboo's dawn, Katarine stepped onto polished stone, emerald eyes lifted to meet the future that approached. She had not come seeking rank, nor refuge. Only understanding.

And perhaps, at last, a place where the Force was not spoken through war.

 

[Aiden Porte]

Katarine Ryiah
​

The light had changed.


Aiden noticed it first, that soft, quicksilver gleam that comes when dawn has truly broken, when Naboo exhales the last of the night. He'd been standing there for some time, the low murmur of the fountains behind him and the rustle of waterbirds down by the gardens filling the air. Theed's always felt different at this hour not quiet, exactly, but alive in the kind of way that did not need to speak.

He sensed her before he saw the ship.

The Northstar's signature was unlike most vessels that came through Theed's airspace its arrival was measured, its motion deliberate, wrapped in a stillness that reminded him of meditation more than travel. Even the way it settled onto the pad beyond the colonnade carried a discipline that spoke of the person behind it.

When the ramp touched down, Aiden drew his hood back.

The woman who emerged was not a stranger to the Force. The current shifted around her not turbulent, but deep, like the undertow beneath a calm sea. Her presence brushed against his senses with something that felt both weathered and clean. There was age in it not of years, but of distance.

He stepped forward, the sound of his boots soft against the marble.

"Master Ryiah," he said not with ceremony, but quiet recognition. Her name had carried through the Council's notice days before, though most there had only spoken it with scholarly curiosity. A Jedi from the old wars who had walked away from the Order before its fall, returned now to a world that refused to remember it had once been divided.

Aiden inclined his head. "Welcome to Theed. You'll find the lake looks the same, even when everything else has changed. I'm here to escort you to Shiraya's sanctuary, I hope your journey was pleasant." He nodded towards a speeder nearby as he gave her a polite bow.

A faint smile ghosted across his features, the kind that did not quite reach his eyes but spoke of warmth nonetheless. "We were expecting you, though not this early. Naboo mornings have a way of surprising us all."

 

[Katarine Ryiah]

Tags: Aiden Porte

Katarine descended the ramp in silence, the cool Naboo morning brushing against her white cloak and stirring its hem. The dawn light caught in her hair as her deep green eyes found the man waiting below. This, she knew, must be Jedi Knight Aiden Porte. His face was open and kind, handsome even, but it carried the quiet weight of someone who had seen too much war for his years.

She offered him a warm smile and dipped her head in respectful greeting, folding her arms beneath her cloak in the traditional gesture of honor.

"Knight Porte," she said softly, her voice calm but edged with fatigue. "It's an honor to meet you and to stand among your order."

Formalities had never been Katarine's strong suit, but she knew their value. The Jedi of this era were scattered across the stars, fragmented, diverse, each enclave with its own customs and philosophies. This galaxy was not the one she had once known, and part of her had come here seeking to understand what the Jedi had become.

"We were expecting you, though not this early. Naboo mornings have a way of surprising us all."

Katarine inclined her head apologetically. "Forgive my early arrival," she said. The truth, however, was simpler and harder. Sleep had become a stranger to her. If he looked closely, he would see the shadows beneath her eyes, the weariness she tried to hide. Nightmares still visited her in the quiet hours, dragging the past into her dreams in ways she could never quite escape.

 

[Aiden Porte]

Katarine Ryiah
​

He bowed his head slightly in return, the motion fluid and unforced. "No apology necessary." he said, his voice low, carrying the steady rhythm of someone long accustomed to meeting others in their aftermaths. "The mornings are often kinder to those who can't find rest."

He let the silence linger a moment between them, not intrusive, but gentle a silence that could breathe. The soft hiss of the lake breeze filled it, carrying the scent of dew-warmed stone and wildflowers from the terraces below.

When his gaze lifted back to hers, there was no judgment there. Only understanding.

"Theed has always had a way of catching light even when we don't." Aiden said, stepping aside to gesture toward the temple gardens. "It's a good place for beginnings or for remembering what they mean."

He started walking, slow enough that she could match his pace if she chose. The soft hum of the fountains grew louder as they moved beneath the marble archway, sunlight glinting along the surface of the reflecting pools that lined the path.

"Shall we?" Aiden said with a small smile, directing her towards the speeder.

 

[Katarine Ryiah]

Tags: Aiden Porte

Aiden Porte seemed wise beyond his years. Just from talking to him she could tell he was close to masterhood, or at least he would have been back in her day. She didn't know how things were done now. She smiled at him and together they walked to the speeder and she settled herself down inside.

"Theed is beautiful. I visited here long ago. I am glad to see it hasn't lost its tranquility." She could see why the Jedi would want an enclave here. The place flowed with a harmony that would be beneficial for any student to learn the Force.

"Tell me... Knight Porte... the Jedi Order... this is what the Jedi of Naboo call themselves? But the Jedi as a whole.. are different than the old Jedi Order that I once knew? There are so many separate groups now... so many splinters in Jedi philosophy."

 

[Aiden Porte]

Enroute to Shiraya's Sanctuary
Katarine Ryiah
​

Aiden eased into the speeder beside her, letting the hum of the engines fill the silence before he answered. The vehicle lifted gently from the platform, gliding into the soft curve of Theed's morning light.

Her words carried the weight of someone who had seen the Order before it fractured when "Jedi" had meant a singular vision of peace, discipline, and duty. Aiden didn't remember those years firsthand, but he'd studied them, felt their ghosts in every archive and every ruined temple he had ever walked through.

"Theed hasn't changed." he said quietly. "But the Jedi have, some for the better and some for the worst."


He turned his gaze toward the horizon where the temple's spires began to shrink in the distance, silver-white against the morning. "What you knew the old Order it was… vast. Rooted in unity, at least in appearance. But after the clone wars, after the Empire. I've done my research, that was a very long time ago."


He glanced at her, his tone calm but threaded with something wistful. "So yes there are splinters now. Some call themselves the New Jedi Order. Some refuse any name at all. Here on Naboo, we were once the Order Of Shiraya, now we call ourselves the Jedi Order. It's not defiance, just a reminder that the Force doesn't belong to any council or code."

The speeder dipped over a wide canal where morning markets were beginning to stir the smell of flowers, fruit, and polished stone wafted faintly even through the sealed air.

"Some of us were trained by survivors of survivors." he continued. "Every teacher carried a different piece of the old ways. What we have now is different from the past not perfect, but honest. A code that speaks who we are now."

"Where there is no emotion, there is no life."
"Where there is ignorance, seek out understanding.:
"Where there is discord, find balance."
"Where there is life, stand as its shield and sword."
"Where there is doubt, trust in the Force."

Aiden's hand rested lightly on the console as he steered them toward the winding path that climbed the lake's edge. "I've read about your generation the Jedi who stood before everything fell. Some of the Jedi here even revere that era, though they speak of it more as a lesson than a goal."

He turned to her then, his expression steady but open. "What happened to you?"

The question wasn't interrogation. It was curiosity the kind that came from someone searching not for history, but for something to learn from it.

 

[Katarine Ryiah]

Tags: Aiden Porte

Katarine listened intently as he began to recount fragments of his Order's history. His voice carried a quiet reverence, each word shaped by the weight of tradition and faith. She remembered reading about them in fragmented holorecords, the ancient Order of Shiraya, named in honor of a goddess or perhaps a revered guardian spirit from Naboo's mythic past. To the Naboo, Shiraya was said to embody balance between nature and civilization, compassion and strength. The name alone carried grace.

But, as the Republic expanded and the ideals of governance grew more structured, the Order had evolved with it. They shed the old title in favor of something that better mirrored their service to the galaxy, a reflection not of divine heritage, but of purpose. Still, Katarine wondered if something sacred had been lost in that transformation.

When he spoke the tenets of their version of the Jedi Code, Katarine listened closely, her mind parsing the subtle inflections and deliberate omissions. The cadence was familiar, yet there were differences, small shifts in meaning that revealed how centuries could reshape even the most enduring philosophies. His confidence was palpable; he believed in this new interpretation of the Jedi path. Katarine found herself quietly admiring that certainty. The Jedi she had once known, those of the Galactic Alliance, had grown few and silent. Their presence in the galaxy had dimmed to the faintest of echoes. She wasn't sure whether they had faded by necessity or by choice.

His question lingered between them, a gentle challenge wrapped in curiosity. Katarine drew in a slow breath, her thoughts gathering like drifting leaves on water before she finally spoke.

"I was frozen for several centuries," she began, her voice soft but steady. "In an underwater prison here on Naboo. The event you know as the Second Cataclysm shattered the facility, breaking the seals and releasing those trapped inside. That destruction… it saved me."

Her gaze unfocused, eyes distant as she continued. "I was taken to Theed General Hospital afterward. The healers there brought me back from the edge. It took months of therapy and meditation to fight through the hibernation sickness. My body had forgotten how to be alive." She paused, her fingers brushing absently over the worn edge of her sleeve. "When they finally released me, I had nowhere to go. Eventually I came hereto remember who I was… or maybe to find out who I'm supposed to be now."

Silence fell again, filled only by the sound of the water lapping against the lake shore. Katarine's deep green eyes drifted toward the lake as it shimmered under Naboo's dazzling sunlight. The landscape was achingly beautiful with rolling meadows, cascading waterfalls, the scent of distant blooms carried by the breeze. Once, she had imagined this planet as her home. She could still picture it: a quiet house by the water, children's laughter echoing through the fields, her husband's smile framed by golden light.

But that dream had long since dissolved. He had left and vanished without explanation or farewell, and with him had gone the fragile peace she'd built. Now, every sunrise over Naboo stirred conflicting emotions within her. Beauty and sorrow, memory and loss, intertwined like roots beneath still water.

She drew her cloak tighter around her shoulders and exhaled slowly, her tone softening. "Perhaps I came back to Naboo because part of me still hoped it could be home again. But I'm beginning to think home isn't a place but rather it's something you have to rebuild within yourself."

 

[Aiden Porte]

Katarine Ryiah
​

Aiden didn’t speak at first.

The hum of the speeder carried them along the lake’s edge, sunlight glancing across the canopy and scattering in broken shards over the water. His hands remained steady on the controls, but his eyes, thoughtful, distant lingered on the horizon where the domes of Theed met the mountains beyond.

When he finally looked back at her, there was no pity in his gaze. Only quiet awe.

“Centuries.” he murmured, almost to himself. “The galaxy must look like another lifetime to you.”

He let that truth hang there a moment before continuing, his tone low, gentle. “To survive that long, to wake into a world that has forgotten your time. Most beings would crumble under the weight of it, You didn’t and that already shows a lot about your character.”

A faint smile touched his lips, tempered by sincerity. “You found your way back here. That’s not small, Katarine. The Force doesn’t waste its mercy.”

He exhaled softly, the thought lingering, and his voice turned reflective again. “The idea of home changes. I used to think it was Theed, but its so much more than that. Its the gardens, the halls of the Sanctuary, the sound of the fountains when the city’s quiet. But after the wars, I realized it’s not the stones or the walls. It’s what peace feels like when it finally finds you again.”

He slowed the speeder near the rise that opened before them the lake could be seen. The Royal Palace also in the distance gleaming like a crown above the hills. He set the craft down and stepped out. They would take a small path that would lead them to the Sanctuary, but this sight right, was always one of his favorites.

“The Force led you back here.” he said softly. “Not to rebuild what was lost, but to remind you that you still can.”

 

[Katarine Ryiah]

Tags: Aiden Porte


Katarine sat quietly as the speeder came to a slow glide, the hum fading until only the whisper of the lake and the wind remained. For a long moment, she didn't answer. Her gaze lingered on the palace spires, golden in the sun, gleaming like something out of a dream she couldn't quite remember.


"It does feel like another lifetime," she admitted at last, her voice soft but steady. "Sometimes I wake up and have to remind myself that the people I once knew are names in archives now. That the stars I remember are older too." A small smile touched her lips, distant and bittersweet. "It's strange, isn't it? To feel so familiar and yet... misplaced in your own galaxy."

She stepped out of the speeder beside him, the grass brushing against her boots, the air filled with the scent of Naboo's waters and flowering reeds. Her hand brushed the hull of the craft absently as she looked toward the Sanctuary's path. A breath escaped her, somewhere between a sigh and a laugh. "Home may never be a place for me again, but rather a moment or series of moments." ' She turned back toward the horizon where the palace shimmered. "Maybe the Force isn't reminding me what I lost... maybe it's reminding me what still matters."

She nodded toward the path ahead, a faint smile returning. "From what I can tell the Jedi are no longer unified. The galaxy seems littered with splinter factions which all serve their own purpose. They each have their own councils, their own leadership, and their own values. Tell me... what keeps these groups from the darkness? Who watches and guides the unity of the Jedi as a whole? Or is that thought lost to time?"

 

[Aiden Porte]

Katarine Ryiah​

Aiden stood beside her on the overlook, the lake's surface glinting like a sheet of molten glass beneath the morning sun. The breeze stirred his cloak, carrying the scent of wildflowers and damp stone from the valley below. For a moment, he said nothing only watched the reflection of the clouds drifting across the water as if measuring the weight of her question against the stillness of the world around them.

"When the Order fell, during the fall of the republic and rise of the Galactic Empire." he began quietly, his voice steady but thoughtful. "The order was fractures and it never fully recovered, even to this day, thousands and thousands of years later. There's no longer a single council, no unifying banner that binds us. Across the galaxy, there are enclaves, hundreds, maybe thousands. Some teach the old ways, the Codes and Creeds preserved as best they can. Others have built their own paths, blending their traditions with the worlds they serve."

He turned his gaze toward her, calm but intent. "The Jedi are no longer one voice, Katarine. We're a chorus of many, sometimes harmonious, sometimes not. Each enclave guards what truth it can, and we learn from the echoes of one another when they reach us. It isn't order in the way the galaxy once knew it. But it's something alive, something adaptable."

Aiden's expression softened, the sunlight catching the faint silver lines of old scars along his jaw. "The one constant among us all, the thread that still ties the name Jedi together, is the shadow we face. The dark side hasn't faded, and it never will. It's older than any council, any creed. It seeps through the cracks when we grow complacent or when fear takes root."

He looked out across the lake again, his tone deepening. "We don't fight that darkness by standing under a single banner anymore. We survive it by learning to rely on one another by trusting that, when the sun is blotted out and the shadows stretch long, the darkness will be pierced in several places. And the sun will shine again..."

The words hung in the air like a vow, carried softly by the wind. He turned slightly toward her then, the faintest smile touching his features.

"That's what binds us now. Not laws, not a singular council, but the choice to stand against the dark, even if we stand apart."

 

[Katarine Ryiah]

Tags: Aiden Porte

Aiden's wise words drifted softly through the warm Naboo air, carried on a gentle breeze that rustled the tall grasses and rippled the lake below. For a long while, neither of them spoke. They stood side by side at the overlook, silent witnesses to the harmony of the world before them from the shimmering expanse of water reflecting the golden light of dusk, the gentle hum of insects, to the distant song of waterbirds gliding across the surface. Naboo's beauty had always been understated, a kind of peace that asked for nothing yet offered everything.

Katarine let her gaze follow the flight of a flock of pale-winged birds as they curved toward the horizon, their wings catching the sunlight in soft bursts of silver. For the first time in days, she allowed herself to breathe deeply and to truly feel the air not as a burden on her chest, but as something alive, something that connected her to the world she had almost forgotten how to belong to.

Still, beneath that fragile calm, her thoughts swirled like the undercurrents of the lake. Aiden's words lingered in her mind, stirring memories she had long buried. The Order she had once known , the Jedi Order , was gone. The luminous halls, the hum of lightsabers in the training yards, the laughter of younglings in the Temple's corridors were all reduced to echoes in time. Even after centuries, the galaxy still carried the scars of that loss.

Order 66. The very name sent a tremor through her heart. She had not been there when the Temple burned, when her brothers and sisters were hunted down. She had been imprisoned then but not by an enemy, but rather by her own choice, sealed away in an underwater tomb of exile and silence. Perhaps it had been penance. Perhaps cowardice. Whatever the reason, she had survived while so many had not, and the weight of that survival pressed heavy upon her even now.

The galaxy she had awoken to was not the one she had left behind. The Republic she had served was gone, replaced by new names and new orders such as the Galactic Alliance and the High Republic, all shifting faces of power that blurred together in her mind. She was an artifact of another age, a relic with no place in the modern current of things. Her talents as a Jedi Investigator, once so vital to the Republic's justice system, seemed obsolete now. Who was she, if not a servant of the Jedi Order? And what did it even mean to be a Jedi anymore, when the galaxy had reinvented itself so many times without them?

She turned her gaze toward the lake, watching sunlight scatter across its surface like shards of glass. "It's strange," she murmured quietly, mostly to herself. "To return to life and find that the galaxy no longer needs you or perhaps, that you no longer recognize the galaxy that does."

Aiden was silent but she could feel his presence beside her as calm and grounded, his silence carrying a wisdom deeper than words. The Force flowed between them in quiet resonance, a subtle current that reminded her she was not entirely lost.

Still, uncertainty gnawed at her. Did she even want to fight again? To stand on battlefields, to hunt down shadows as she once did? Or was her path meant to end in peace, perhaps in a field somewhere, beneath the Naboo sun, with soil beneath her nails and the whisper of the wind her only companion? The idea felt foreign, almost laughable… yet strangely comforting.

She closed her eyes and let the thought settle. Perhaps this was what the Force was showing her a new path, not another mission, not another crusade, but an ending. Or perhaps, a beginning born from letting go.

The stillness around them deepened. Even the wind seemed to pause. The silence carried a weight that felt almost sacred, as though she stood at the bedside of something ancient such as a beloved friend taking its final breath.

And maybe she was.

Katarine exhaled slowly, her heart heavy but steady. Maybe this is what it means to say goodbye, she thought. Not to others but to the version of yourself who no longer belongs to the world that was.

"I'm glad I came today. It is good to see that at least remnants of the Jedi remain in the galaxy. Thank you for showing me this." She smiled at him, a touch of sadness in her eyes at the heavy atmosphere that her thoughts drove her towards.

Aiden Porte

 

[Aiden Porte]

Katarine Ryiah​

Aiden watched her with the quiet patience of someone who understood that some moments were not meant to be interrupted. The sunlight framed her silhouette, the lake casting shifting reflections across her white cloak, as though the world itself struggled to decide whether she belonged to memory or to the present. He felt the heaviness of her thoughts long before she spoke, not through the Force, but through the simple, human weight of someone standing at the edge of their own life, wondering whether to step forward or simply stop. When she finally smiled at him, soft and sorrow lined, Aiden returned it with one of his own, gentle, steady, carrying no demand. He stepped closer only when the moment invited it.

"Remnants," he echoed quietly, his eyes on the water rather than her sadness. "That's what most people see when they look at us. Fragments left over from something that no longer exists."

His voice was calm, yet carried warmth, the kind that was built on empathy rather than certainty.

"But remnants are still pieces of light," he continued. "Pieces that survived what should have erased them. They're the start of something new, even if they don't know it yet."

Aiden turned his gaze toward her, then not with pity, but recognition. He had seen this crossroads before in veterans, in refugees, in young padawans who had tasted too much loss far too early.

"Katarine," he said softly. "The galaxy doesn't decide whether it needs you. You decide whether you still have something you want to give, or whether it's time to rest. Both choices are equal in the eyes of the Force."

The wind stirred again, brushing past them like a gentle hand. Aiden let the sound settle before he spoke again.

"What you're feeling isn't an ending," he said. "It's the ache of a life too long paused. Of someone trying to fit into the shape she remembers, instead of the one she's grown into."

He stepped to the edge of the overlook, letting the lake breeze move through his hair, his profile cast in morning gold.

"You don't owe the galaxy another battle," he continued, tone threaded with earnest conviction. "You don't owe the Jedi another war. Peace isn't defeat. Sometimes living quietly takes more courage than standing on another battlefield."

He looked back at her, then really looked, and something softened in his expression, something human and unguarded.

"But if you decide you're not done yet," he added, "You won't be alone. Not here. Not anymore."

Aiden inclined his head in quiet respect, the kind given not to a warrior, but to someone who had endured far more than most.

"If there is anything that you can take from me today, take comfort in the fact that here on the Sanctuary, you are not alone. There are many Jedi here, strong, able, and hopeful. We always stand beside each other, and whatever you choose, we will stand beside you."

 

[Katarine Ryiah]

Tags: Aiden Porte

Aiden spoke with a quiet confidence that carried both wisdom and strength, the kind that only came from years of discipline and reflection. As Katarine listened, she found herself imagining his future with startling clarity, standing among the Council, offering guidance to young Jedi, shaping the next generation with the same steady conviction he showed now. The image didn't feel far-fetched at all; in fact, it suited him perfectly.

"And what of your path, Aiden?" she asked, curiosity warming her voice. "Tell me, what role do you play in this Order here on Naboo?"

She gestured gently toward the arched walkway ahead, inviting him to lead. The gesture was subtle but deliberate, encouraging him to speak freely as they moved. Together they began to walk, the soft echo of their footsteps mingling with the temple's peaceful hum, giving Aiden space to share his part in the life of this quiet sanctuary.

 

[Aiden Porte]

Katarine Ryiah​

Aiden walked beside her the morning light filtering through the arches in warm, gentle bands. His hands folded behind his back in a posture that was neither formal nor relaxed, simply natural, as though the temple's rhythm lived in his bones. When she asked her question, he didn't answer immediately. He let the wind speak first, carrying birdsong from the gardens below.

Only then did he glance her way.

"In this Order" he said quietly, "I sit among the Council."

There was no pride in the words, only calm fact. A truth worn smooth by use.

"We lead not by command, but by presence. By example." His gaze drifted across the courtyard where young initiates practiced meditation beneath the shade of blossoming trees. "My role… it isn't grand. I guide those who come to us with wounds they don't know how to articulate. I teach, when the Force wills it. And for those who've lost their footing, I help them find a way back."

He slowed his pace, letting his fingers trail briefly along the cool marble railing as though grounding himself in the quiet pulse of the temple.

"Some need lessons in the Force," he continued. "Others need someone to talk to. Someone to listen. A hand to steady them." His voice softened, touched with a gentle conviction. "The Order used to be many things. Warriors, diplomats, guardians. Here, we try to be something simpler, people who don't let each other fall."

They turned a corner, stepping into a walkway that overlooked the water. The lake shimmered like blue glass below, and Aiden's expression warmed.

"Most days, my work has nothing to do with lightsabers," he admitted, a faint smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. "It's helping an apprentice learn to breathe through grief. Or assisting civilians with their homes or garden because their hands aren't as steady as they once were."

He met her gaze again, steady, sincere, unguarded.

"I've lost things too," he said softly. "I know what it is to feel unmoored. If I can give others even a fraction of what helped me find my path again… then that is the role the Force has asked of me."

Aiden nodded toward the gardens ahead, gesturing for her to walk with him.

"Here on Naboo, life is meant to be lived," he said. "And if someone has forgotten how… I help remind them."

 

[Katarine Ryiah]

Tags: Aiden Porte

Aiden's words lingered in the air long after he fell silent, echoing through Katarine's mind with a clarity that almost unsettled her. As they walked side by side, her deep green eyes swept across the Temple grounds, absorbing every detail. Padawans sparred in the training circles, their laughter and focused grunts overlapping with the rhythmic hum of practice sabers. The inner halls carried the steady cadence of instructors lecturing, guiding, correcting. And beneath it all, like a gentle current brushing against her skin, the Force pulsed, alive, vibrant, unbroken.

It was a sight she had convinced herself she would never witness again. Not after Order 66. Not after the fall.

A few students spared them curious glances as they passed, though most continued with their routines. The younger ones brightened noticeably, waving enthusiastically to Aiden. Katarine watched the exchange out of the corner of her eye. Even his silence carried a reassuring presence. No wonder he seemed to belong here as easily as breath belonged to life.

She mulled over everything he had said. His insight had been too precise, as though he'd reached into the tangle of her thoughts and gently, almost respectfully, drawn them into the open. But there had been no intrusion, no forcefulness. Instead, it felt… guided. Perhaps by him. Perhaps by the Force itself.

"Your role here may not be grand, but it is important," She told him.

Only now did she realize why his words carried such weight. He was not simply another Knight, but he sat on the Council. That alone would have stunned her once, but now it felt fitting. In her era, only Masters had held such responsibility. Aiden may not bear the official rank, but he wore wisdom like a mantle, effortless and natural.

She exhaled slowly, the admission rising before she could second-guess herself.

"I've lost my footing, Knight Porte," she began, her voice quieter than she expected. "There is nothing that binds me to the galaxy anymore. In the past, I knew who I was. I was a Jedi. I studied under Masters who shaped me, grew into a Knight, trained Padawans of my own. They called me 'Master,' and for a time… I believed I had earned it."

Her steps slowed. The hallway opened into a sunlit terrace, and she stopped at its edge, letting the light wash over her features.

"But here? In this galaxy? I am nothing. A stranger in a time that isn't mine. Few know me, and honestly, I don't even know myself."

The words spilled out softly but with a rawness she could no longer mask. When she finally turned her head, her gaze settled on Aiden's face, searching, weary, hopeful.

"How," she asked, each syllable a quiet plea, "would you help someone like me find her footing again?"

 

[Aiden Porte]

Katarine Ryiah​

Aiden stopped beside her, the morning light casting soft gold across his features. For a long moment, he didn't speak. He simply stood with her, not as a Knight or Councilor, not as someone with answers, but as someone who understood loss when it carved itself too deeply into a life.

When he finally turned toward her, his expression held none of the hesitation she feared, none of the doubt she carried about herself. Only clarity. And a quiet, steady compassion that felt like a hand held out across a river.

"Katarine," he said softly, "You are not nothing." The words weren't a correction. They were an anchor, placed gently in her hands.

"You're a survivor of a history the rest of us only study. You carry a weight no one alive can fully comprehend. That doesn't make you lost. It makes you untethered. And there's a difference."

He stepped closer to the edge of the balcony, looking out over the lake where the wind rippled the water in long, shimmering lines.

"You're expecting to recognize yourself in a galaxy that no longer exists," he continued. "Of course that feels like falling. Anyone would feel unmoored waking into a time where their friends, their Order, their purpose…all belong to memory."

His gaze shifted back to her, focused, but gentle. "You asked how I would help someone like you find their footing again." Aiden drew a slow breath, folding his arms lightly behind him. "I wouldn't try to rebuild the version of you that was lost with the old Order," he said. "I wouldn't drag you back into a role you no longer fit, or push you to fight battles you didn't choose."

He shook his head, voice steady.

"I would start by giving you space to breathe. To live. To exist without expectation." He gestured toward the gardens below, where initiates moved like small sparks of hope among the trees.

"Some days, footing is found in purpose. Some days, it's found in silence. And some days… it's found simply by letting yourself be part of a world again." He let the next words come slowly, deliberately. "If you want guidance, I'll walk with you. If you want peace, I'll help you find it. If you want to teach, to heal, to build a life here. I'll make sure the Council gives you room to choose how." Aiden's voice softened even further. "And if you want to grieve the life you lost, I'll stand beside you in that too." He held her gaze for a long, quiet heartbeat. "You are not alone," he said. "Not in this Sanctuary. Not while I'm here. We find footing by leaning on others until the ground feels steady again."

Another breath of wind rose from the lake, cool and sweet, brushing past them like the Force itself breathing through the moment. Aiden nodded to her, not as a Councilor, but as a man offering truth without condition.

"So let me help you stand again. Not as who you were… but as who you are becoming."

 

[Katarine Ryiah]

Tags: Aiden Porte



Katarine didn't answer at first.

The lake wind carried the scent of morning grass and stone, familiar and foreign all at once. She let it brush against her cheek, a reminder she was still here and still breathing, even when it felt like she'd been scraped hollow by the centuries between herself and everything she knew.

Her fingers curled lightly over the railing, not in tension, but as though she were anchoring herself to the moment Aiden had just placed before her. When she finally spoke, her voice was soft, not fragile, but careful, as though she were testing the shape of truths she hadn't dared to touch. A faint tremor of breath escaped her. "But I don't feel strong, Aiden. Not now. I feel like I woke up as a…shadow of the woman I remember being."

She turned slightly, enough to meet his eyes. The clarity in them steadied her more than she expected.

"You speak of being untethered," she said quietly. "And I suppose that's the closest word for it. I thought if I simply resumed being a Jedi, teaching, mediating, doing the work, I would feel the ground again. But that woman belonged to a time where the Order had roots. Where I had roots." Her voice softened. A moment passed, it was still, but full.

When she spoke again, there was a note of vulnerability she rarely let slip. "You offer space. Choice. Even companionship." She exhaled, a breath that sounded like something unclenching. "I hadn't realized how long it's been since I allowed myself any of those."

Her hand lifted from the railing, brushing her palm as though remembering the feel of things once held. "I don't even think I could go back to who I was. But…" Her eyes softened. "I think I could learn who I am now. Slowly. Carefully. As someone who understands that I'm still finding where the pieces fit."

She unclipped her lightsaber and turned it slowly in her hand, her deep green eyes tracing the familiar metal with a somber sort of reverence. For a long moment she simply breathed, as though searching for something within herself. Then a flicker of resolve steadied her features, and she closed her eyes—not in doubt, but in acceptance of the choice she'd finally made.

When she looked up again, her voice was soft but unwavering.

"I want to take the Barash Vow. Will you witness for me?"

 

[Aiden Porte]

Katarine Ryiah​

Aiden's breath caught, just slightly, at her request. Not in shock, but in respect. The Barash Vow was not taken lightly, and certainly not by someone who had already endured as much as she had. He stepped closer, his voice quiet but steady.

"Katarine… the Barash Vow isn't a retreat. It's a commitment to truth. To pausing long enough to hear the Force clearly again." His gaze held hers, steady as stone. "If that's the path you choose, I'll stand as your witness."

He nodded once, solemnly.

"You're not becoming a shadow. You're choosing to rebuild without pretending. That takes strength, more than you realize." Aiden glanced to her lightsaber, then back to her face. "We can perform the vow here, or in the meditation gardens. Wherever feels right to you." He folded his hands in front of him, an anchor of calm against the breeze. "Just tell me when you're ready, Katarine. And I'll be here."

 

[Katarine Ryiah]

Tags: Aiden Porte

Katarine nodded at him, impressed even still by his wisdom and understanding. She knew that this was something she had to do. She had to separate herself from the expectations of being a Jedi. She had to learn once again to trust in the Force, not in orders, time periods, sects, or customs.

"Thank you Knight Porte. I am ready."


She was ready to take the vow and begin a new life, centered on the Force in the hopes of finding her new path.

Thread End​