Private Rising Of The Bardic Curtain

[Lief]

He'd propelled the hover chair back and forth several times in front of Starlin's door, echoing words he'd not yet uttered through his mind. "Empress, this is stupid" he mumbled to himself, as he considered retreating back to his room, or maybe heading to the galley for some pudding. If he gave up now though, he'd just keep having the same problems. "You can't just run from things, Dune..."​

​

Maybe he could get a caf' refill first? He ran a jittery hand up through his hair, and used the other to stave off a long yawn. Then he knocked before he could lose his nerve.​

​

Almost immediately he regretted not getting the caf' first. The yawn came back with a vengeance, until his jaw was aching and his eyes watered. No rest for the wicked. No rest for the weak, either.​

​

Starlin Rand ​

 

[Starlin Rand]

Starlin lay asleep in his bed, face smooshed into his pillow, when he suddenly heard a knock at his door. The sound jolted him awake. He lifted his head, wiping a bit of drool from the corner of his mouth, sat up, and turned on the lights.

It was Eli, of course. Not only could he sense his apprentice's familiar presence, but there was no way it could be anybody else. Getting up, Starlin staggered over to the door, palming it open. Yep, it was an Eliphas, all right.

"Wassup?" Starlin slurred, leaning casually against the doorway in his pajama pants and an old band t-shirt. His hair was a mess, and he kept trying to blink the sand from his eyes.

Lief

 

[Lief]

It was quite clear that Eliphas had not realized the late hour at which he'd come a-knockin'. He still wore his regular old day clothes, showing no signs of having changed for bed or slept at all. When he saw that Starlin had literally been woken up by his arrival he bit down on his lip and peered up at him apologetically.​

​

"Bad timing, huh?" he mumbled, eyeing the band shirt and almost immediately lighting up, "Oh, nice shirt!" He'd never seen that one before... Mostly because he'd never really interrupted Starlin at rest before. Where was he? Oh.. Right...​

​

"So, I was thinking," he began, knee bouncing uncontrollably as he shifted his gaze this way and that, oblivious to the fact that in actuality he should have retreated to let the poor man rest, "How, uh, how did you make the spells?" A slight frown fell over his expression, before he looked up at Starlin's sleepy face, "I mean, how'd you know how to make it work? Is there a process to it..?"​

​

Humming for a moment to fill the void as his brain whirred to catch up, he hastily pressed on, "I had a few ideas, things that might be useful. I can't do much in this damned thing," he patted the chair, "But there's nothing stopping me from learning some more spells, right? I don't need mobility for that!"​

​

Starlin Rand ​

 

[Starlin Rand]

Bleary-eyed as he was, Starlin also couldn’t help noticing that his Padawan was still fully clothed despite how late at night it was. Did the kid just not need sleep anymore after waking up from his coma?...

The compliment to his shirt was unexpected. Starlin glanced down at his chest, pinching the well-worn fabric. “Uh, thanks.”

It wasn’t long before Eli’s true purpose for waking him up became clear. Starlin began to grow more alert as he was forced to focus on the boy’s questions. He held up a finger. “One moment.”

Disappearing into his room, he returned minutes later holding a small notebook. “This is my Book of Rhymes,” he said. “It has every spell I know written down in it.” He held the book out for Eli to peruse.

“As for how I know them…” He walked past Eli, heading into the kitchen to brew himself some caf. Why the hell they were doing this in the middle of the night, he didn’t know—but since he was already awake, he might as well play along. “Syd taught me only half of the spell. The part that begins with ‘Ashla…’, that’s what she used. I added the rhymes so that they would be easier to remember. And if I’m being honest, kid, I don’t really know how it works. I just use the spells she taught me.”

While the caf machine ran, he looked over at Eli. “What ideas do you have?”

Lief​

 

[Lief]

Learning that Starlin had simply taken the spells Syd had taught him and kicked them up a notch with rhyming pairs was a little bit of a knock to his excitement, but when the book was produced he peered through it happily and then followed Starlin through to the galley. "Caf?" he asked, peeking up to the countertop and then smiling, "Good idea! Could you brew a pot?"​

​

Then he continued to flick through the book.​

​

"Uh, well, you know... Ways to bolster and lower resolve. Things to benefit others around me... I can't do much for myself right now, but if I can help others then surely that makes me more useful right? Maybe something that could work almost like caf" he added that last bit with a small chuckle, "You know, help replenish energy or whatever. Useful things I can use to help my friends!"​

​

Friends...​

​

Well, Eliphas didn't really have friends so to speak. He had a friend. Iris. And she was a Knight now and likely didn't need his supporting spells. But still...​

​

Stifling back a pesky yawn, he settled the book in his lap.​

​

"Can I borrow this?" he asked, "See if I can't find a linking factor between them, you know.. to make new ones, maybe."​

​

Starlin Rand ​

 

[Starlin Rand]

Eli’s head peeking over the kitchen counter was so strangely kiddish, it gave Starlin pause for a moment. The boy continued with his pitch enthusiastically, flicking through the well-worn pages of the notebook as he spoke.

The caf machine whirred. Starlin breathed through his nose, feeling a stab of something bittersweet, before he turned to pour a cup. No, two cups.

“You mean like… blessings?” he asked, handing Eli one of the mugs. Printed along the side of the cup was a cartoon representation of Bright Knight, instantly recognizable in his suit of blue and gray armor. Went with the ship perfectly. “Or boons. ‘Ashla, grant this one a boon’...”

He waggled the fingers of his free hand in Eli's general direction. There was a faint spark of power, though it fizzled out amid Starlin’s tiredness and the fact that it didn’t rhyme. He sipped his caf, trying to wake up more. “'A friend in need is a friend indeed; Ashla, grant Eliphas the courage to succeed.'”

The spark of power flared and burned strong this time. Eli would feel a sudden surge of bravery, a drive to overcome evil on a scale he'd likely never (or rarely, at least) felt before.

"Sure, go ahead. How good are you at bustin' rhymes?"

Lief​

 

[Lief]

Did he mean blessings?​

​

"Yeah, or uh... The opposite? Not for friends, I mean, to lower the resolve of any enemies of course. Have them turn tail, or at least think twice about being bullies."​

​

Bullies... Was that really a way to refer to Sith? He supposed it wasn't always Sith though, was it? Criminals, gang members, really anyone who meant others harm. Eliphas began to sip on the caf', exhaling sharply as it scalded his tongue, then braced himself before chugging the mug. Did it burn like heck? Yes. But he didn't actually like the taste of caf', just knew it was useful.​

​

He felt wired almost immediately, a state which wasn't helped by the fact that Starlin soon cast some sort of boon upon him. Invigorated, emboldened, he felt like Bright Knight incarnate.​

​

"I did a little poetry back on Teta" he confessed, "But not in many years. It'll be fun to try again though!"​

​

Maybe he needed a notebook of his own. He always did better when physically writing such things down, as opposed to typing it out.​

​

"Maybe putting people to sleep..?" The more he thought, the more supporting options he could think of. Remembering them by rhyming couplets seemed like a fun route to take. Calling upon Ashla seemed to unite them, as did the resolve and intent when spoken. Maybe that was the recipe... Calling for Ashla, drawing upon the Force, and speaking with firm intent...​

​

Of course he wouldn't know unless he tried.​

​

"You've never made one on the fly for yourself?" he inquired.​

​

Starlin Rand ​

 

[Starlin Rand]

Humming, Starlin started muttering under his breath. “Craven, raven, haven… Coward, devoured, empowered… ‘Ashla, make my enemies craven… Make my enemies cower… Hey, that’s a pretty good one. ‘I am no coward; Ashla, make my enemies cower?’ Or how about ‘From me there is no safe haven; Ashla, make my enemies craven’? Or ooh, what if it’s super confrontational? ‘Your willpower I will devour; Ashla, make this one depowered.’ Ha! Nah, that’s crap.”

He watched Eli chug his caf with raised eyebrows, though any concern he may have felt was quickly swept away by a grin. “Of course. Eliphas Dune, warrior poet,” he said with a dramatic sweep of his hand.

Sipping from his mug, Starlin sat down on one end of the couch, pulling Eli’s hoverchair closer. He tapped a particular page of his notebook with his finger, pointing to a spell called Stun Mine. “Putting people to sleep is basically the same thing as stunning them with the Force. Did I ever teach you how to stun? This spell was taught to me as a ‘stun mine’, where I could create a mine that would stun people when they stepped on it.”

"You've never made one on the fly for yourself?"

“Well, I made up a couple for you just now. But no, not really. I mainly just use the spells Syd taught me. Some of these are really weird, like this one:” The Spell of Sand Transportation. “It will create a portal out of sand to take you from one place to another. Obviously you have to have a lot of sand on hand, so it’s really only useful on desert planets. Or the Sonic/Light Spell… I don’t even really know how to explain that one. It’s an attack that combines sound waves with the Light Side of the Force, if that makes sense?”

Lief​

 

[Lief]

As Starlin began listing rhymes, Eliphas continued to read through the notebook.​

​

"I like the second one" he confessed, head tilting a little to one side, "Haven, Craven..." That was a smart way to do it, wasn't it? Figure out the linked words first and form the rest of the couplet around it. It wasn't the way Eliphas usually did his poetry, but then again not all poems required rhymes. Regardless, it got him thinking.​

​

"Warrior poet... I like that" he chuckled. "Tetan Bard... Maybe I should learn to play an instrument." The question was, what sort of instrument? He was being silly of course, there was no way he'd actually break out in song on the battlefield, but it was nice to imagine all the same.​

​

His hoverchair was pulled closer to Starlin, and once there a few more of the written spells were given attention and explanations.​

​

"Professor Nimdok showed me the very basics of it" he said insofar as stunning was concerned, "Can a stunned person recall what's said around them? Sleep might be more helpful if you're looking to be a little, uh, deceptive..?" Was it deception? Maybe. Eli wasn't the kind to deceive though. ​

​

"What I mean is, it could help during transport or something right? They won't be able to hear anything that's said..."​

​

Talks turned to sand and Eliphas couldn't help but grin. "How much sand? Because being able to teleport seems... useful."​

​

Still his mind was a little stuck on the idea of putting someone to sleep. "So that they cannot hear a peep, Ashla put this fool to sleep!" He wasn't actually trying to make it work, but saying it aloud still brought a slight grin to his lips. Maybe fool was a bit of a harsh word to use, but hey the Sith had Dun Moch...​

​

Starlin Rand ​

 

[Starlin Rand]

“Yeah, I like that one the best,” Starlin agreed. “Gimme da book, so I can write it down before I forget.”

He scribbled the words to the new spell down, then handed it back to his Padawan.

“Yeah, baby!” Starlin cheered, giving Eli a high five. “Warrior poets are unpredictable. They don’t fit in any box. The Sith won’t know how to handle you!”

Starlin’s expression flickered infinitesimally at the mention of the late Professor. He shrugged. “I don’t think so. When I stun people, they’re basically knocked out. Some of them even start snoring. It’s very funny, actually.”

"How much sand?"

Setting down his cup of caf, Starlin held out his arms as wide as possible. “I dunno, about this much?”

He yawned just in time for Eli to utter his new sleep spell. While there was no power behind the words, Starlin saw an opportunity and pretended to pass out, falling back against the couch with his eyes closed.

Lief​

 

[Lief]

While Starlin scribbled down his spell, Eliphas continued to mutter rhyming couplets beneath his breath. None of them were particularly good, it was evident that he was rusty, but there was an excitement bubbling within. He'd thought that by joining the Jedi he'd have to set aside his hobbies, yet here he was building upon them. ​

​

He took the book back, and then returned the high-5 when Starlin sent it his way. "Unpredictable..." It wasn't a word anyone would've ever used for Eliphas before, but the road he was looking to traverse down was certainly different. Why not? Dun Moch, but of the Jedi variety, mixed in with rhymes and spells. ​

​

Eliphas saw the way in which Starlin's expression shifted at the mention of Professor Nimdok, and he frowned softly. "Do, uh... Do you want to talk about it?" he asked, brows furrowing, "Whatever happened to the Professor, I mean..."​

​

This was one step toward him unearthing the truth about Teta, but he tried to squash that down. One step at a time, right?​

​

With the amount of sand explained (frankly, a LOT), Eliphas set aside any hopes he'd had of using it as a means to get around. Maybe one day they'd visit a desert and he could try it out though, that could be fun right?​

​

Then Eliphas muttered his attempt at a spell. Despite the fact he'd not tried to make it work, Starlin was quick to fall asleep. Eli jolted upright some in his seat.​

​

"Empress, are you okay? I didn't, I wasn't, I..."​

​

Starlin Rand ​

 

[Starlin Rand]

Starlin held out just long enough to make his Padawan squirm, then gave himself away by cracking a smile. Laughter came soon after as he opened his eyes to a very startled Eliphas Dune.

“Gotcha! Aw, if you could see the look on your face…”

Practical jokes aside, they did have some serious topics to discuss. Starlin had been avoiding all mention of the Professor or Teta or Eli’s family, but he knew he was only delaying the inevitable.

"Do, uh... Do you want to talk about it?" he asked, brows furrowing, "Whatever happened to the Professor, I mean..."

Starlin sighed and reached for his caf again. He was going to need it if they were going to be talking about the Professor. “I thought I told you about it the first time you woke up,” he muttered. “But I don’t think you remember. Probably for the best. I wasn’t in a good place then.”

He set his now empty mug on the table. “He died on Tython. The Maw attacked the planet, crashed one of its moons into the surface. I wasn’t there to see it… but Miri was. She said he was in some underground ruins, trying to protect the artifacts from the Sith. He was crushed by falling debris.”

To say that Starlin felt guilty over not being there was an understatement. The thought of his mentor, his best friend, the man who had been like a father to him, dying alone in a dirty tunnel while some Sith prick cackled above him tore Starlin up inside. And Miri… she had found the body. She had to live with the fact that her father would never meet his son-in-law or his grandchildren. She had lost her actual father, and Starlin hadn't even been there to comfort her when it happened.

“It felt like losing Syd,” Starlin said. He was facing Eli, but not really looking at him. “Well, worse than losing Syd. At least I know she’s still alive out there somewhere. The Professor is just… gone. There’s nothing but a gaping void where he used to be.”

Lief​

 

[Lief]

Gotcha indeed. Eliphas clutched a hand over his heart and shook his head when Starlin 'roused' himself, reaching out to pluck a pillow from the sofa and tossing it his way. "Bro, you were yawning and everything. I thought you were about to start snoring!" Nope, no snoring. What a pest he was.​

​

Of course the brief levity was fast underlined, as Eli was made privy to the nature of the Professor's passing. "Oh... Empress, I'm sorry. Are you okay? Is... Is Miri okay?" What a can of worms he'd opened up. "I wish I could remember, so you wouldn't have to talk on it..." But he didn't remember. There were probably other things he didn't remember either.​

​

The attack on Tython was still something he was trying to wrap his head around, it seemed utterly barbaric to assault such a world much less try to rend it apart. More and more the Galaxy was becoming a darker place than he'd ever imagined it to be.​

​

It left him longing for simpler times, the mountains of Teta called his name.​

​

Eliphas swallowed, and looked down in his lap.​

​

"Something happened to Teta, didn't it?" he mumbled. Everyone had been on edge around him whenever the world had been mentioned, though no one had outright spoken to him about it. He couldn't blame them, of course, he was already processing so much. "Have, uh... Have you heard anything from them? From my family..?"​

​

Eliphas didn't want to know the answer to that, but it was about time he ripped off that bandaid.​

​

Starlin Rand ​

 

[Starlin Rand]

“Oh, I’m—I’m okay.” He nodded a little too forcefully. “Miri is… Well, y’know. He was her dad. She’ll probably miss him for the rest of her life. I was worried about her for a while there, whether or not she was gonna be able to move on, but she did. She’s starting a family of her own now.”

You don’t want to remember how I treated you, Starlin thought. He remembered losing his temper, yelling at Eli for crying. It was a perfectly normal, natural reaction to learning your home was gone and your family was likely dead. Yet Starlin couldn’t bear to see those tears. Eli couldn’t cry, damn it, he had to be strong. He had to toughen up. He couldn’t fall apart on Starlin, not then, not when everything else was tumbling down around him.

Then the question he knew was coming arrived at long last.

"Something happened to Teta, didn't it?"

“Yeah,” Starlin murmured, pursing his lips. “Invasion. By the Brotherhood of the Maw. After you fell asleep the second time, we reclaimed the planet. But things got pretty bad.”

"Have, uh... Have you heard anything from them? From my family..?"

Starlin’s fingers twitched against his thigh, longing for a cigarette, a glass of whiskey, a death stick, anything to take the edge off. “We tried to contact them after you woke up, but we never heard back from them. While you were sleeping I checked refugee ships, records, asked around…” He shook his head, meeting Eli’s gaze. “If you want to, we can take some time off to search for them, but…”

He’d already turned over every rock, it seemed, and still he had come up with nothing. How much luck would the two of them working together have? Maybe a little more. But it was like searching for a needle buried somewhere in the hard, unforgiving earth of an uncharted world.

Lief​

 

[Lief]

Starlin claimed to be okay though Eliphas remained more than a little dubious. He'd seen how prickly his Master had become around any mention of the Professor, though he admittedly did a good job of remaining in control. "He was your friend, your mentor," he said softly, not necessarily trying to push Starlin so much as remind him it was okay to feel however he felt. "I'm here, if you need me Master..."​

​

As for Miri, news that she was forming a family of her own was a little bit unexpected and no doubt Eli's response revealed as much. His eyes widened in surprise. "Oh" he mumbled, raising a hand to rub at the back of his neck. For a moment he'd considered reaching out, but he felt as though maybe that would just open the wounds further. Instead he let that thought go.​

​

Talks soon turned to Teta and naturally all thoughts of anything else fell to the wayside anyway.​

​

Invaded by the Maw. Eliphas felt as though his throat was closing up. Even the news that the world had been reclaimed couldn't keep the sting of tears from prickling the corners of his eyes, though he held strong enough to keep them from falling.​

​

It wasn't helped by the fact that no one seemed to know if his family had made it out the other side. Starlin didn't seem too optimistic about their survival chances, which left Eli frowning in thought. Sick to his stomach. Could they really be gone, just like that? Mother, Father, Dani, Lissa..? To say nothing of those who lived and worked throughout their grand estate.​

​

He exhaled through his nose, and closed his eyes tightly shut.​

​

"Could we go there? To my home..?" Maybe they'd made their way back? Maybe someone was still there who might know where they went... Or maybe he'd just find nothing but ruins.​

​

Starlin Rand ​

 

[Starlin Rand]

“Hey now, I thought I was supposed to be the one who’s here for you,” Starlin said with a half-hearted smirk. “And yeah. Speaking of, I’ve been meaning to ask if you would be okay with Miri coming in here and staying with us for a little while. She’s been stuck in her fiance’s dorm room ever since she lost her ship. It’s pretty cramped, especially since she’s about to have twins. Meanwhile, we’ve got all this extra space…”

Of course, then they’d have to deal with two newborns on the Bright Knight. Starlin didn’t mind, but Eli might not be too crazy about the idea of no longer being the only Baby On Board.

Eli looked like he was holding back tears. The news about his family was hitting him all over again, the pain fresh. Starlin tensed, remembering what had happened the last time he learned the truth. “You can cry, you know,” he said softly. “I won’t yell or make fun of you for it.”

"Could we go there? To my home..?"

“Sure. Yeah, of course. We can do it right now, even.” He almost rose to his feet, then paused. “If you’re ready, I mean.”

Lief​

 

[Lief]

"Can't it go both ways?" he said. They could support one another, right? Wasn't that what all of this was about anyway, their Apprenticeship. Sure, it mostly benefited the student but that didn't mean the teacher had to gain nothing from it... Right?​

​

As for Miri...​

​

"Twins?" Fiancé. It was a lot to take onboard. Yet even so he knew the answer already. "Yeah, of course. Anything I can do to help?" He'd never really been around babies before, though he did know they could be... loud. Still it wasn't as though he was really doing much with his life right now, and if it meant helping out Miri? Then he was all for it.​

​

When told that he was okay to cry, Eliphas looked down almost shamefully. "I always cry though" he muttered, words forming together as he mumbled his way through them. He blinked away the tears, and then shook his head. No, he didn't need to cry. At least, not in front of his Master.​

​

Talks shifted back to Teta and when Starlin began to rise up Eli's eyes widened anew. "R-Right now?" he squeaked. Was he ready for that? His heart hammered against his chest, and the caffeine jitters seemed to worsen. "Can... Can I have a couple of days..?" Time to right his mind, meditate and all of that. Prepare for the worst.​

​

Starlin Rand ​

 

[Starlin Rand]

"Can't it go both ways?"

“I guess.” Starlin shrugged. “But I’m older than you, more experienced than you, stronger than you. It’s not an equal give and take. You can always look up to me for guidance and comfort, but I shouldn’t be relying on you for the same.”

I guess I am like your dad now, he thought, recalling what Iris had said about his role as Eli’s master. Her views were colored by her relationship with Valery Noble, who had been like a mother to her as well as a teacher. Starlin had balked at the idea of being a father figure—his own dad had abandoned him—but if that was what Eli needed, he would be it.

“Uh, just don’t get in the way,” Starlin said with a small smile. “No, really, I wouldn’t expect you to do anything. Although if Miri asks you for help, you should probably do it.” Or else she might get mad, and nobody liked it when Miri was mad.

"I always cry though."

Starlin reached over and placed a hand on Eli’s shoulder. “Yeah, I noticed,” he said. Reaching up to ruffle the boy’s hair, the gesture turned abruptly into a fond embrace. He hugged Eli tightly, as if holding him for long enough would banish all their sorrows.

“Sure. Just tell me when you’re ready, and we’ll go.”

Lief​

 

[Lief]

"Why not?"​

​

The notion that Starlin couldn't draw help or comfort just because Eliphas was younger was a little... unfounded, at least in the boys view. "You're a person too, aren't you? You're not secretly a droid or anything, right?" Tilting his head to one side, Eli at least tried to add some levity to an already difficult situation. "If you need me, Starlin, I'm always going to be here. You were my friend before you were my Master."​

​

Don't get in the way. He nodded to that, and again when it was stated that helping Miri if requested would be wise. "Got it, understood." Twins... "Do, uh, you know what she's having?" Maybe he could make them something...​

​

The hand in his hair was nice and comforting, but it didn't even hold a candle to the feeling of being actually embraced. He was fine up until that moment, but when Starlin's arms wrapped around him the boy clung tight and those tears he'd been staving off flowed freely.​

​

"What do I do if they're really gone?" he whimpered, "I promised her... I promised Lissa she'd see me again."​

​

Starlin Rand ​

 

[Starlin Rand]

"You're a person too, aren't you? You're not secretly a droid or anything, right?"

Starlin let loose a droidspeak-esque whistle, then sighed, becoming serious again. “I don’t know, it’s just… a different dynamic.” But he could tell his argument wasn’t all that sound.

"If you need me, Starlin, I'm always going to be here. You were my friend before you were my Master."

“Fine,” he begrudgingly assented, nose wrinkling as he fought the urge to smile. “Twin girls. They’re still debating over the names, but my Jedi intuition tells me they’ll be called Kyla and Lara.” If only because they kept coming back to those two names.

The hug broke Eli down. While he wept against his shoulder, Starlin more or less lifted the boy out of his hoverchair and set him down next to him on the sofa, so that he wouldn't have to awkwardly lean over to sustain the embrace. Eli was so thin and atrophic, picking him up was as easy as carrying a child.

"What do I do if they're really gone?" he whimpered, "I promised her... I promised Lissa she'd see me again."

“That’s up to you, kid,” he answered. “I’m not going anywhere. You have me, and the Order, and your training ahead of you, if you still want it.”

As for Lissa, Starlin didn’t know what to say. Perhaps there was nothing he could say.

Lief​