Land of the Blind

[Zef Halo]

Edges of the Outer Rim
Primitive Planet

Ayta is how the natives called her, their world. It meant mother in their native language. Ember had ventured to this forsaken world in search of a dark side artefact to collect and store safely away from the wrong hands. A task he'd been doing more often than before his disappearance into the Unknown Regions. Instead, he'd found a tribe plagued by blindness and his calling, being a Jedi, answered.

To help those who cannot help themselves.

Words etched in his mind echoed so far away, yet so close.

With the help of his protocol droid (well, its head, since the rest got, uh, into an accident in his last quest) strapped on the back of his backpack, Ember found out the tribe had suddenly turned blind over a few generations ago.

All of them. Suddenly.

Most of them died, unable to survive. The blindness had culled their numbers greatly. Once a thriving nation, as seen by the now ruins of grand temples of stones, the people lived in huts. Only shadows of their former glory remained.

While the protocol droid helped his communication with the natives, the Force guided him to where he was needed. So the Jedi found himself deep in the jungle within a small on the outside temple that hid much more beneath it. A massive challenge in the form of chains of labyrinths seemed to exist beneath the temple that he currently navigated.

A tile beneath his feet gave in and Ember almost spiraled down into the nothing. His Force enhanced reflexes saved him as he grabbed onto a more durable stone tile and dragged himself up.

Close.

He glanced over into the blackness beneath the tile that had broken under his footing.

Too close.


[member="Anais Auraeli"]

 

[Seniya Nehir]

[member="Ember Farseer"]​

Far beneath the crumbling temple, another would-be explorer found herself traversing the honeycomb warren of tunnels that stretched beyond the perimeter of the ruins above. Weaving a lattice of cracked, musty stonework into the reaches of the jungle, although to what purpose was beyond the woman’s understanding. The natives were tight-lipped about the entire area. Even sightless they had sought to avoid her gaze when she had brought it up. Only a scattered rebellious handful of the tribe daring to even acknowledge that it existed. Only the bravest going even further to mutter one word, and one word alone, in warning.

Ayta’ianii - 'Forsaken by the Mother' in the native tongue. Cursed.

Now standing beneath a dusty mural, the faded mosaic tiles having long since lost any semblance of luster they might have once held, she realized the tribesmen barely knew the half of it. There was more than simple accursed darkness here. It was if a miasma lingered in every corner, twisting and turning, coiling and writhing in the long shadows that resided in the empty void of what had once been civilization. It didn’t take someone attuned to the force to sense the pain and suffering that had been inflicted on this place.Whatever tragedies had gone on here had seeped into the bones of the temple, still echoing through the labyrinthine corridors centuries later.

Far older than the quarry she had been hunting these last few weeks…

Yet as she traced her wrapped fingers over the mismatched surface of the tessera, trying to commit to memory every faced and flaw of the tiles attempted to construct, she knew that there was more to this place than a simple dead end. That whatever transpired here, however possible it seemed, somehow shared a connection with her quest. Gauvain pulsed gently in the palm of her hand, only further lending his voice in agreement. They were certainly on a path alright, just not necessarily the one they had set out to be on. As ever, the force moved in the most mysterious of ways. Why else would she find herself standing beneath a depiction of the fabled Fall light years away from Ionova V?

“Bumblebots,” She muttered, letting her hand fall back into the recesses of her voluminous sleeves. The favored curse word of her childhood tumbling from her mouth instinctively as she felt a presence behind her, somehow finding purchase between the halted set of breaths that came from her suddenly constricted chest. Even without turning she knew what would await her. Even after all these years, even after the countless number of stars and planets that had been put between them and more besides, there was one presence was one she would never forget. Her former master, friend and guide to the trials and tribulations inherent to the Jedi.

Bumblebots, indeed.

“You’re a long way from home, Master Jedi.”

 

[Zef Halo]

The Jedi carried an odd feeling with him as he made his way through the maze of the temple. He strongly sought the source of the curse but bore a burden of reluctance to find whatever he sought. An internal intuition that wanted to stop him but the Force willed him onward till he nearly stumbled at the sight of a rather large silhouette standing before his way.

A geyser of emotions broke through his well-trained Jedi self-control and he instantly explained his reluctance.

Reluctance to find himself face to face with his own failures. There she stood with her back turned to him and he knew it was no hallucination or vision of the Force. No longer the girl he had abandoned but a grown woman that illustrated his tragedy, his sin, his failure. Regret in the form of tears blasted into his ears but Ember zealously barricaded them from escaping his orbs. His lungs neglected any air from entering them as he found his breath short. Ironically, only during Coruscant had he felt the same feeling of helplessness and sorrow.

“You’re a long way from home, Master Jedi.”

No longer the voice of the young girl he had promised to protect and aid in the Jedi way but the voice of a woman who had found her way. Ember found no words to reply for a fairly long time before he yanked his self-control back with as much strength as he could muster from within.

"Anais..." He weakly whispered enough for her to hear. Shock and repentance still evident in his tone. It surprised him how vulnerable he had instantly become despite how his experiences in the Unknown Regions had molded him into a man that carried his guard up at any time. " I am so glad to see you. " The words came much stronger through the ethereal rather than through his voice.

Ember remained unsure on what to say next but found himself breathing again, at least.

"I am sorry." He bit his cheeks. The apology freed a great deal of emotional pressure within, easing his self-control.

"I thought I'd never see you again."

The joy of seeing her well and alive prevailed. A small and soft smile curved his mouth. The eternal worry for her well being finally was lifted off his shoulders. In its place, the duty of the Jedi to give a lending hand rested once more.

To help her on the path of the Jedi.

Once more.

[member="Anais Auraeli"]

 

[Seniya Nehir]

Her gut twisted at the sorrow and regret in Ember’s voice. A familiar set of notes that, for the briefest of instances, caused the world to shimmer and vanish around her. The crumbling ruins of a temple replaced with those of a windswept, blood-soaked rooftop on Coruscant. She had thought she had made peace with her past, yet once more she found herself being suddenly crushed by the full weight of her failure that day. That fateful day. Her hands tremored, fingers curling into tight fists, threatening to dig bloody furrows in to the palms of her hands before she forced herself to settle and calm.

Coruscant was years ago, Ayta was the here and now.

Whatever the sins, her sins, of the past were, they were not a burden either of them needed to bear today.

Still, it took a thin, reedy breath dragging its way through gritted teeth before she found enough composure to turn and face her former mentor. Automatically bringing up a hand to ward off the glaring intrusion of the low-light cast by his torches, those formerly amber, now blue eyes narrowing as her natural night vision fought to readjust. But there he was.

[Member="Ember Farseer"].

Large as life, yet somehow smaller than she remembered. Older now, too; more haggard and rough around the edges than she remembered, but perhaps the same could be said for her. It seemed the years hadn’t been kind to either of them. He wasn’t the same optimistic and hopeful Jedi Knight he had once appeared, but then she was no longer the impressionable, foolish padawan fumbling on the path to becoming a Jedi. Now she was… Now she wasn’t sure what she was.

“You have nothing to apologize for.” Anais found herself replying softly, attempting to allay the guilt and salve some of the hurt she saw in his face. Trying not to draw upon the reflection it cast of her own. “What happened, happened. It was beyond your control and mine. The force...That Sith...”

She took a step forward, almost closing the distance, before thinking better of it. Abruptly turning aside at the last moment, casting her attention instead down the long corridors that flanked them on either side. Swallowing the lump that was threatening to well up in her throat.

“What are you doing here, Ember?”

Ember, not Master. She had taken great pains, and many sacrifices, to close that particular chapter of her life. Opening it now was not an option she wished to entertain. Still she couldn't bring herself to shut him out entirely.

“Ayta is no place for a Jedi. You'll only find darkness here.”

 

[Zef Halo]

He saw her clearly despite the dim light of his torch. The girl that she once was - gone. Instead, a woman. Ember could see it not only in her appearance but in the way she spoke. The Jedi felt their closeness still existed but...different. Where once stood a connection of a mentor and apprentice, now stood something else and Ember was unsure what to make of it except regret of his departure from her.

Perhaps if he had not left as the Force urged him to, she would stand before him as a full-pledged Jedi not as who she was now. To Ember she looked lost, but also found. A paradox. The blame for her path change he felt on his own shoulders. So typical for him, always carrying the burdens and blames.

"A Jedi's duty is to walk through the darkness." He replied. A lesson he'd repeated to her numerous times. The Jedi kept his cool when she called him by his first name. She'd never done so before but he accepted it, there was no reason not to but it still touched his sorrow of abandoning her. "The natives sought my help, so here I am seeking what caused this curse."

"And you, Anais? What brought you here? You seem to know more about Ayta than I do." He dared a soft touch through the Force at her to sense whether there were any tracks of the dark side.

[member="Anais Auraeli"]