Private Remember the Name

[Syn]

Talia Larkin Swift

"Not just the world, the universe. Everywhere the force touches, everywhere the force weaves its power and influence. Across force planes and dimensions it is connected and able to be touched by anyone." He said it while remaining there on the larger lily pad but only tapped his fot for a moment as he was resonating the force through it to be able to see all of it. SHe was understanding and he was guiding along the edge of the water. "Crouch and reach in, feel the root and allow it to bond with you. It is helpful for being able to get around the islands and can survive on the world when you are not using it."

 

[Talia Larkin Swift]

Talia listened in silence, committing each instruction to memory as carefully as she would an ancient inscription. The Force was beginning to feel less like something distant to be reached for and more like a current she had simply never stopped long enough to notice.

She nodded once.

"Yes, Master."

Remaining crouched, she extended one hand toward the water. Her fingertips broke the surface first, the coolness sending a faint shiver up her arm before they brushed against the root beneath. She resisted the urge to grasp it. Instead, she rested her hand lightly against it, allowing herself to simply feel.

Closing her eyes once more, she let her breathing settle into the same slow rhythm Syn had taught her. The root didn't feel like an object. It felt alive. Patient. Ancient. She could sense the water flowing around it, the nourishment it carried through the plant, and beyond that, the faint impression of countless other roots reaching outward beneath the islands, connecting places that seemed separate above the surface.

A quiet smile found her lips.

"It isn't just surviving," she murmured, more to herself than anyone else. "It's... connected." Her fingers remained against the root as she allowed the sensation to deepen. "I think it's beginning to recognize me... or perhaps..." She tilted her head thoughtfully. "...I'm finally recognizing it."

Syn

 

[Syn]

Talia Larkin Swift

"Yes." He said it while remaining there for the moment longer. Stepping off of the lily pad across the water as his voice came out. "They are much like kyber crystals, there is one for everyone and it will find you in time if you are open to it." He was speaking for the longer moment but was walking. "I'ce see if you are able to use it to ferry you across the water. It is an early bonding exercise." The jedi master was saying it while he moved to give space but found a place that he would be abel to sit on the ground and wait while he was meditating.

 

[Talia Larkin Swift]

Talia inclined her head, accepting the instruction without hesitation. The comparison to a kyber crystal made immediate sense to her. She had never found her crystal by forcing the encounter. It had come when she was ready to listen. Perhaps this would be no different.

"Yes, Master."

Still keeping her eyes closed, she rested her hand against the root once more. This time she reached not with expectation, but with quiet openness. She let the Force flow naturally between herself and the living plant, offering no command, only an invitation to understand one another.

For several long moments she simply breathed. The water lapped gently around the root while she felt its patient presence, its age, and the life coursing through it. It was different from touching a kyber crystal. Less focused. More... alive. A faint smile touched her lips as she sensed the bond beginning to take shape.

"I think..." she murmured softly, "...it's deciding whether it trusts me as much as I'm deciding whether I trust it."

Rather than rush, she remained where she was, allowing the connection to deepen at its own pace. Only when it felt right would she ask the root to carry her. For now, she was content simply to listen.

Syn

 

[Syn]

Talia Larkin Swift

"It is an incredibly delicate creature in many things but its connection strengthens its. As you saw in the way here, their power and skill as quite impressive in many cases." He said it with a small look though and had a grin for himself though. Placing one hand in the water and shaping it along his arm. Elayne had taught the basics of elemental control to him but it was not great. He just needed to focus and could avoid some of the more dangerous elements that were thrown at him or some others. "Take as much time as you require and allow it to happen. We have no where major to be just yet."

 

[Talia Larkin Swift]

Talia watched the water flow effortlessly around Syn's arm, though she kept her attention on the root beneath her hand. It was tempting to marvel at what he could do, but she suspected that would only distract her from what she was meant to learn.

She smiled softly.

"I think this may be the first lesson I've had where not rushing is actually part of the exercise."

Closing her eyes once more, she let that realization settle. There was no deadline waiting for her. No expectation that she succeed on the first attempt. The root was alive, and like any living thing, trust could not be hurried.

She let her breathing slow until it matched the gentle rhythm of the water surrounding her hand. Rather than asking the root to move, she simply remained present with it, allowing the connection to strengthen one quiet moment at a time.

"It feels..." she said after a thoughtful silence, searching carefully for the words. "...less like learning a technique and more like meeting someone for the first time." A faint smile crossed her lips. "I don't think it would respond well to being commanded. I think it wants to be understood."

Her fingertips remained resting lightly against the living root as she continued to listen through the Force, content to let the bond form at its own pace.

Syn

 

[Syn]

Talia Larkin Swift

He gave a nod to that. "You will need to eventually command, to give shape and form but the connection is what is important at first. They do not entirely understand the forms that can help but they know to make larger." He moved around and barely disturbed much of it while he was crouched to be next to her and gave a nod. "Just allow it to connect with you through the force and keep the connection with the water. They are more delicate when not in their clumps, and easily harmed but the trust they show in detaching speaks more to who you are then anything else."

 

[Talia Larkin Swift]

Talia listened carefully, absorbing not only his words but the gentleness with which he spoke them. There was no expectation in his voice, no demand that she succeed immediately. He was teaching her patience as much as he was teaching her the Force.

She nodded slowly.

"Yes, Master."

Keeping one hand resting lightly against the Ashla's root, she resisted the temptation to ask it to move. Syn was right. There would come a time to give direction, but a command given without trust was little more than force. She wanted something better than that.

Instead, she let her awareness remain centered on the connection they were building. The cool water surrounding the root flowed around her fingers, and through the Force she could sense the delicate life within it. It felt fragile, but not weak. There was resilience beneath that fragility, the quiet strength of something that had survived by living in harmony with the world around it rather than resisting it.

A thoughtful smile crossed her lips.

"It trusts the water," she murmured. "It doesn't fight the current... it lets the current carry it where it needs to go." The observation seemed to settle something inside her. "Perhaps that's why it survives."

She drew another slow breath, allowing the connection to deepen without rushing it.

"If it chooses to separate from the others..." she said softly, her voice filled with genuine respect, "...then I want to be worthy of that trust." Her hand remained steady against the living root. "Not because I can command it... but because it believes I'll bring it safely home again."

Syn

 

[Syn]

Talia Larkin Swift

"A good goal, allow it to trust you but also guide it down the river. The waters go to the sea and that is where it is able to grow much stronger." He said it while he was moving and leading the way for her to be able to follow him further down. Some of the interest in what they had here but also as he held a hand out towards the ocean his own was forming into a larger mount that would be able to be ridden across the waters. THe jedi master was going for the moment, allowing the force to guide them through the area and the miri made navigation and senses much much further out and more powerful. Syn was moving as he stood there for the moment and was shifting the water around.

 

[Talia Larkin Swift]

Talia watched in quiet fascination as Syn's own miri responded to him, rising with graceful strength from the water's surface. It wasn't the display of power that caught her attention. It was the ease with which it happened, the absence of force or struggle. It looked less like control and more like cooperation.

She smiled faintly.

"I think I understand," she said softly. "You're not asking it to obey you. You're giving it a direction it already wants to travel."

Her attention returned to the small Ashla's root beneath her hand. She let the Force continue flowing gently between them, careful not to tighten her grip on the connection. Instead, she imagined the path Syn had described, following the current toward the sea where the living clumps grew larger and stronger.

"Come with me," she whispered, not as an order but as an invitation. "We'll go together."

She rose slowly, keeping her awareness on both the water and the delicate life connected to it. Every step was measured so she wouldn't pull at the bond they were forming. She could feel the current moving around them, carrying both herself and the tiny root toward the ocean. It was subtle, almost imperceptible, yet unmistakably there.

"I think..." she murmured with quiet wonder, "...it's easier when I stop thinking about moving it." A warm smile spread across her face. "If I simply move with the water... it wants to follow."

Syn

 

[Syn]

Talia Larkin Swift

He gave a nod of his head as she was coming along and her ashla reappeared there. At the beach for them to be able to get on and the jedi master was moving with a moment before he rose up in the water and found a place that he would be able to sit there. He could wait for her and allow her to find her focus and her moment. Even her own mount if she believed she could manage it but he was not going to rush her as she was moving. "You are doing good, as you can focus the force allow yourself to form it and be able to move you to another island."

 

[Talia Larkin Swift]

Talia followed Syn toward the beach, feeling the connection change as the Ashla's root reached the open water. What had seemed small and delicate within the grove felt different here, as though the ocean awakened something within it. She watched Syn rise effortlessly upon his own mount before looking down at the living root that had chosen to accompany her. "Another island," she repeated softly. Rather than immediately trying to imitate him, she closed her eyes and returned to the connection they had established, gently giving it direction for the first time. Not a demand, but something firmer than the invitation she had offered before.

The root responded, gathering and shaping itself beneath her. A delighted smile spread across Talia's face as she carefully stepped onto the forming mount, instinctively lowering her center of gravity as the water shifted beneath them. Her hands hovered uselessly for a moment before she laughed softly at herself. There were no reins to hold, nothing physical to steer. "Right," she murmured. "Trust." She focused on one of the neighboring islands and pressed that intention gently through their bond. When the Ashla began carrying her across the water, surprise briefly broke her concentration, but she recovered quickly. "Oh." Her smile widened with almost childlike wonder. "We're actually doing it."

She glanced toward Syn, excitement mingling with concentration on her features. "I think I understand the difference now, Master." Her attention returned to the island ahead as she resisted the temptation to control every movement, allowing the Ashla to navigate the shifting water beneath them. "I'm not telling it how to move. I'm showing it where we want to go..." Her smile softened as she felt the creature adjust naturally beneath her. "...and trusting it to know how to get us there."

Syn

 

[Syn]

Talia Larkin Swift

"Yes." He said it as he moved up into the water and rose up onto the waterhorrse that was reforming and he made it stay there to give her the chance with her own as well as the chance to come and join him should she need it. there was a lot on Ahch-To and they had only been to one of many islands on the planet that the jedi used and housed some fo the more dangerous or exotic creatures from around the galaxy and the force. He breathed outwards in the force while remaining but had the course set for them to be able to go. The distance feelings of the force as the miri returned to the center of the island and the wild force energies subsided and became less.

 

[Talia Larkin Swift]

Talia felt the change almost immediately. The wild presence of the Force that had surrounded the grove gradually softened behind them as the miri returned toward the heart of the island. It wasn't gone, merely more distant, and without its presence amplifying everything around her, the world seemed quieter again. She found the contrast fascinating, committing the sensation to memory even as she concentrated on maintaining her connection with the Ashla beneath her.

She guided it farther into the water, keeping the destination Syn had chosen clearly within her thoughts without attempting to dictate every movement needed to reach it. The living mount shifted beneath her, adapting naturally to the movement of the sea. Talia smiled as she settled more comfortably upon it. "I think I'm getting the hang of this, Master." Her confidence was growing, though she remained careful not to mistake one success for mastery.

Her gaze traveled toward the distant islands scattered across the horizon. They had explored only a tiny portion of Ahch-To, and already she had encountered things she hadn't known existed. "What's on the island we're going to?" she asked curiously, glancing toward Syn as their mounts began carrying them across the water. "Or is discovering that supposed to be part of the lesson too?"

Syn

 

[Syn]

Talia Larkin Swift

He watched and moved with it as they were going. The sensations of the force in the distance growing fainter and fainter until it was normal with a look for her and then forward towards the ocean. "The next island is where the Fairlee nest, they handle some of the other darkside crreatures and the jedi check on them from time to time." He saaid it and the small darkside things were brutal and difficult to get rid of as they liked to hide in caves. The jedi master was checking on much more of it while he was going towards it and allowing the force to expand outwards for Talia to be able to follow and feel it as it wrapped around to transport them along the water.s

 

[Talia Larkin Swift]

Talia's attention shifted toward the distant island as Syn explained what awaited them there. She had heard of creatures that carried an inherent connection to the darker aspects of the Force, but encountering them within a functioning ecosystem was another matter entirely.

"The Fairlee handle the dark side creatures?" she asked, curiosity immediately surfacing. "Do they hunt them, or is it more complicated than that?" She kept her connection with the Ashla steady as it carried her across the water, gradually becoming more comfortable with allowing the living mount to choose its own movements beneath her.

As Syn extended his presence outward, Talia allowed herself to follow it rather than reaching ahead on her own. She could feel the ocean beneath them and the distant impression of land growing stronger as they approached. "Can I feel the difference before we reach it?" she wondered aloud, focusing toward the island. "If those creatures are connected to the dark side, does the island itself carry any trace of them... or are they simply creatures following their nature?"

Syn

 

[Syn]

Talia Larkin Swift

"THey hunt them but the creatures are for lack of a better idea like vermin. THey reproduce quickly, can dig into the island under the ground and stay there for years and they are good at sneaking around." He said it while traveling the moments but there was more. "They are also something more dangerous, aas they can infest a lot of the islands and their caves are difficult to navigate. We have worked to monitor and try to map but they can just move to other islands using the underwater ridges compared to others they like digging down into the stone."

 

[Talia Larkin Swift]

Talia listened intently, committing the explanation to memory. It reminded her less of predators and prey than of invasive species overtaking an archaeological site. Left unchecked, they simply spread until they consumed everything around them.

"They sound remarkably persistent," she observed. "Not malicious... simply doing what they were made to do." She looked toward the distant islands, imagining the maze of tunnels hidden beneath the stone. "That almost makes them more difficult to manage."

Her Ashla continued gliding steadily across the water, and she smiled faintly as she allowed it to find its own path.

"I suppose that's why the Jedi don't simply eliminate them," she said thoughtfully. "They're part of this world's balance, even if they create problems." Her eyes returned to Syn. "It's about stewardship, isn't it? Keeping them from overrunning the islands without trying to erase them entirely."

The thought seemed to fit with everything she had experienced on Ahch-To so far. This wasn't a place where every challenge was meant to be conquered. Some were meant to be understood, managed, and respected.

Syn

 

[Syn]

Talia Larkin Swift

"In a way, they are dangerous but they are also something that has changed. The first ones were tormented and corrupted. The ones that have been spawned over the centuries have just been doing what they were raised to do." He said it and the Ashla was leading the way and going further and further for it.. The edges of the island were in view as groups of the fairlee were there moving through the skies. THe smallerr islands and rocks visible as they perched and some swooped down to grab as fish that were in the waters. More were looking towards them as they could arrive and a larger one was coming thorugh. "Welcome back master jedi."

 

[Talia Larkin Swift]

Talia considered Syn's words as the island slowly grew larger before them. There was a sadness to it that she hadn't expected. Creatures born from corruption, yet generations removed from the original wound. They had never chosen what they were, only inherited it.

"So the darkness belongs to their origin," she murmured, more to herself than anyone else. "Not to the choice of each generation."

The distinction mattered to her. As an archaeologist, she had spent years studying how history shaped civilizations without defining every individual within them. It seemed the Force could tell similar stories.

Before she could ask another question, movement along the shoreline drew her attention. Dozens of Fairlee wheeled gracefully through the sky, their flight both elegant and purposeful as some dove toward the sea while others watched the newcomers with unmistakable awareness. Her gaze settled on the larger one approaching them, and instinctively she remained a half step behind Syn, allowing him to make the introduction.

A warm smile touched her lips as the creature greeted him.

"It's good to know you're welcome wherever we seem to go," she said softly to Syn before inclining her head respectfully toward the Fairlee. She wasn't certain whether the greeting had been meant for her as well, but it felt appropriate nonetheless. "It's an honor to meet those who help protect this place."

Syn