Private Petals in the Stream

[Everest Vale]

Outfit: Robes
Equipment: Lightsaber, Bracelet, Earrings
Companion: Isari
Tag: Ichika Masudo

The sun over Tython streamed through the tall, arched windows of the temple, warm and clean like a blessing. Light spilled across the stone corridors, painting Eve's path in gold as she made her way through the heart of the Jedi sanctuary. Her footsteps were soft — not hesitant, but thoughtful, her silver hair catching the light as she walked.

She was adjusting. Healing. Settling.

The weeks since her arrival on Tython had passed in a quiet rhythm of gardens, meditation halls, training rooms; the kind of peace that didn't erase pain, but allowed space to breathe through it. Slowly, she was laying foundations again, planting roots not only in the temple but in something more personal too. In stolen moments with Tigris — whispered dreams, half-laughed 'what ifs' — there’d been talk of even finding a little apartment, just theirs. Nothing grand. Just something together.

But today was for something else.

She stepped out from the cool shadow of the hallways and into the temple’s garden courtyards — a haven of wind-stirred leaves and slow-moving light. The scent of wildflowers lingered faintly in the air, mixed with the rich green of moss and stone. Somewhere nearby, a fountain trickled quietly, its soft rhythm syncing with her breath. This was where they’d agreed to meet — Master Ichika Masudo, healer of hearts and minds. Eve had heard of her before, not in loud boasts or glowing tales, but in soft-spoken gratitude. A presence felt more than seen. She was someone who listened. Who understood. Eve found a good amount of inspiration in the Master.

Eve reached a quiet bench nestled beneath the outstretched branches of a flowering tree. Isari padded silently beside her, the fox’s silver-striped coat catching in the light like silk threads. With a soft sound, the creature circled once and curled up at the bench’s base. Eve sat down, folding her hands in her lap. She was nervous, but not afraid. Curious. Hopeful. Maybe even a little excited. She had questions, not just about healing, but about what it meant to walk that path. To truly become someone who could help others, not just with power, but with patience. And soon, she’d ask them.

She glanced toward the garden’s entrance, waiting for Master Masudo to appear.

 

[Ichika Masudo]

Ichika’s own arrival on Tython was a necessity, a further separation of herself from the civilian concerns that had taken a good deal of her time since the end of the last great war, and a boon to fostering her peace with that decision. Coruscant, with its immense population and central galactic location was an ideal environment for many professions, but so many beings was a thing she had to keep certain walls up against, and its hard, gleaming landscapes and invariance of colours were never any good for the soul, anyway.

She could have gone to Atrisia if it was just peace that she wanted, but no-one walked those halls of her family estate but those who kept the buildings and grounds maintained, the rare visiting relative of her late father, and her, a small handful of occasions per year. The silence could be deafening at times.

Here on Tython, her workload was smaller, but still similar in nature to most of what she had done before. Her focus was simply on the denizens of the Order, but it left more room for her to truly pick up the blade again… which made her think of something Gabriel Pryce had said a small number of years ago, all the way back on Selvaris.

“I remember you being quite the duelist.”

That had been so much of her life back then, and there was no practice of the blade, no form of the lightsaber that didn’t come without so many memories attached, a book that ran the gamut of feeling. It was as much a meditation, a dwelling in what was and what could be.

What could be for the padawan she was to meet this day?

Ichika approached the entrance, unaccompanied by Haru, who was slumbering when the Master left her quarters, and it was likely for the best. Haru could be particular about new people, though the feline was distinctly judgemental of men. Still, best to leave sleeping felines where they are.

“Padawan Vale?” She queried, taking in the form of the patiently waiting young woman, seated on a bench beneath a tree, “I hope I’ve not kept you waiting too long.”

She had to be around the age Ichika had been when she left her father’s instruction to join the Order, properly, and apart from the absence of an eye and the colour of the padawan’s skin, Ichika got the sense of what she herself in her peace must have looked like from the outside, at that age. With a cordial smile, she gestured to the bench.

“May I?”

Everest Vale​

 

[Everest Vale]

Outfit: Robes
Equipment: Lightsaber, Bracelet, Earrings
Companion: Isari
Tag: Ichika Masudo

Eve rose at once when she heard the voice, the hem of her white robe brushing softly against the ground as she turned to face the approaching Master. Her silver gaze settled on the woman — poised, graceful, self-contained in that way only certain Jedi were, as though she carried quiet tides within her rather than fire or storm.

"Not at all, Master," she said gently, and offered a small bow, hands brushing together at her waist. "I came early."

There was no apology in it — just a calm truth. Eve had always preferred to arrive early, especially when nerves accompanied curiosity. She hadn’t known what to expect of Ichika Masudo, save for what her Master had told her: that she was a psychologist, a duelist, and someone with a gift for seeing through what others tried to hide.

But the woman before her didn’t feel like someone who would dig into wounds unkindly. She felt… quiet. Not soft in the fragile sense, but in that deep, echoing way of old temples and wind over grass. And something about her presence reminded Eve of Tython itself — still, but not empty.

"Of course," Eve said when Ichika gestured to the bench. She stepped aside to give room. "Please."

She sat again once the Master was settled, folding her hands loosely in her lap. Isari, who had dozed off at her feet, now stirred slightly, lifting her silver eyes to study the newcomer before giving a faint yawn and resting her head again.

"I've been hoping to meet with someone like yourself for a while," Eve admitted, her voice not shy, but careful — weighed, as if she’d chosen each word like a stepping stone over water. "To… understand a few things better. About myself."

She turned her gaze toward the trees ahead, their pale blossoms just beginning to open in the warmth of the day.

"And about where I'm going."

Then she glanced back toward Ichika, her voice steadier. "Thank you for taking the time, Master."