Private Shadowy Depths

[Syn]

Sera Inkari

"Have I not?" He said it with interesting and smiled to himself. "I suppose because they are much like their mother Iella E'ron. She was talented, fierce and despite some things.. passionate. She had the dream to reform the Silver jedi and went through with it with several others. There is Abaigeal E'ron and Barinthus E'ron who are similar in how they act.. wanting to go off and do their own things and I am proud of them. They learned much in different ways but both showed skill and the experience will give them wisdom eventually." He said it and looked at her as his nostrils flared for a moment but he didn't say anything.

He moved and brought himself close to guide her hand. Pointing it up as he extended his finger. "He is there... I can see him in the force. Fighting for tuskans against a krayt dragon on Tattooine and she." He moved his hand and guided hers. "There, in the temple on Voss, seeing to some of the recovery efforts. She stayed there even when the silver jedi left." He said it and sounded proud though as both of them took what they had learned from him, their mother and their jedi masters and made it into something much better for themselves. He felt her in his head and he moved his hand interlacing his fingers to hers.

"You cared enough to listen, to follow. To face yourself." He said it with a small look at her. "There is also Tempest Yore who has been my oldest student and shown herself to have more compassion then many." He smirked but looked at the woman and Tempest Yore was well one of the few he considered important enough for him. She always had a place on the Alema and he would come if she needed his aid.

 

[Sera Inkari]

Sera sat brightly lit by their fire, head tilted listening to Syn talk about his family, those departed and those still with him. Emotions faded down again briskly, barely lingering for seconds. There was a happy content smile on her face, not girlish but not far off. For now, she let her guard down.

Abaigael and Barinthus, "we should visit them." Sera said with a mischievous twinkle to her eye, "when we are ever nearby," that would be a lovely day to see him as a father. Syn took her hand and she felt herself guided, finger moving toward visions he spoke of, almost feeling herself drawn to them. Scenes described like seeing directly with her own eyes, everything drifting toward transitory clarity.

Fingers softly interlaced, her hand rested with his. Moments that were brief and forgiving to live.

Emotion raised again when he complimented her, his assuring voice soothed her soul. Raising emotion always still tested her, linger embers wanting to burn. Why did Syn smirk when he spoke of his student? She gave him a curious smile to his smirk but didn't ask directly, fishing for clues. "How was training your first student?" She could barely imagine who he must have been all those years ago, how or if he had changed. Her first time wondering, whether one day anyone would learn from her.

Syn

 

[Syn]

Sera Inkari

"Different, training a padawan compared to an apprentice. Teaching one how to thrive in a cruel regime against teaching them how to face what the galaxy can offer. It... varies but my first padawan was a boy from the jedi. We found him on a battlefield, his mother dying in combat since there were not enough left to fight and defend the sick and infirm they had. So he was battle born, cut by his own mother while she was dying and given to us. Not the best start but he proved skilled and a decent enough fit for me. I thought I knew everything and just passing along some saber skills would do but he was too small.. he wasn't a fighter like me. He was quick and died wrecklessly protecting people." He said it and thought back. "But he forgot the most important part about saving someone.. you have to survive otherwise the one you are protecting and yourself will be lost and many more."

He smirked a little though and it wasn't against the boy.. more it was a lesson that needed to be learned. "Tempest though she was different... all of them are different but she is the only one so far who has not left the order and disappeared from the galaxy save Elayne." He shrugged to himself and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "Elayne is a witch, trained by the jedi and who trains the jedi... Tempest was.... clean... very much so. When she first came to me as a youngling she didn't want to get her robes dirty. She seemed almost fearful of the mud and dirt.... and still is in many ways but she has changed and helps padawans on her ship when she can." THat got more of a chuckle from him. "THen there was Iella.. she was my padawan at first... kind of. When we met she wanted to be trained and I trained her so it is however you want to view it... and then there is you whom teaches me as much as I will try and teach you."

 

[Sera Inkari]

Had Syn trained Darksiders and Jedi? Syn's story of his first padawan was tragic but they both knew what happened to impulsive force users who recklessly sort danger before they were ready. "Path of many Jedi who heedlessly rush to meet their fate, I hope you don't blame yourself, we've both seen that happen so often." Almost always with one of two results, death or new sith apprentices. After their first crusade, how many darksiders were made? More than they'd killed most likely. Reckless and foolish, such was youthful naivety. Flames flickered with a trickle of potency from her own past.

Wrapped up by his arm and warmed by their fire. Smile warmed her cheeks when he chuckled, feeling happy to share a rare moment where Syn and her relaxed. Trust? Yes. A snug peaceful state while he spoke of Elayne, Tempest, and Iella, many lives and paths shaped or helped along their way, and they helped with ripples outward from any single act. "Every one you have trained, every act you have made, create a thousand more every day they were alive. You changed more than you could ever realise or know." Sera glanced toward him, her deep blue eyes moving across his face. Each act connecting to ten more, those to ten more, and those to ten more. Currents of their force and connection. Absence or hesitation to help was a bigger harm than anyone but a seer could ever know. Which was why she was exactly where she needed to be, because they never hesitated to help.

Dipping her head again, "do you miss her.. them greatly," her voice asked quietly. She knew his answer, but like before she liked hearing him speak. If he noticed she'd sidestepped his compliment, avoidance of harder emotions to accept, or self-hatred to confront. "Must be hard to be apart from those lives that meant so much to you."

Syn

 

[Syn]

Sera Inkari

"Yes but I know they will be there if I need them. Elayne is still on Dathomir and Tempest travels but I can find her and she can find me if there is ever trouble. Iella is one with the force and watches over all of us... and there is a memory of her imprinted in the columbarium of the jedi where the ashes are taken to rest." That had been one of the things discovered and their caretakers a surprise somewhat... but it housed tens of thousands maybe hundreds of jedi who had been cremated and gathered in small urns. Their remains allowing small glimmers of them. "IT will be something to show you maybe, a place to honor many more that most will never have heard of." He breathed in the warmth and looked turning his head towards her. "But you are just as important in this conversation Sera, what are you hoping to do? What future do you see for yourself?"

 

[Sera Inkari]

"I would like that, Master." Looking into the fire's dancing warmth, her smile lit by the glow, she quietly added, "Very much." Learning from the past to balance the future, she realized its wisdom: "And perhaps there we may find another calling among those at rest." She felt that was likely without using her visions at all. She did not prod him on his family further, but she may encouraged him to remain in contact in her own time. Family was important, so they said.

He asked of her future, and her cheek tensed.

"Our work is more important," deflecting, "I do not—" It was hard to explain; she didn't focus on herself in her visions; events came at her, and she saw her part in them. Things had changed dramatically for her under Syn's mentorship, but the priestess struggled to consider her place beyond now by just thinking it through. How did you do that?

With the binding of her life guaranteed to be extended as a penance for her sins, perhaps there was wisdom in feeling this out.

"Kintan," a grave tone, which caused a slight raising of the fire, the scars of her homeworld and the devastation it suffered lingered. No, that wasn't entirely truthful. The temple had been gone for a long time. It was not knowing who she was before this, where she had come from. By design, her now-broken temple had hidden her past from her to focus her life entirely on seeing the future, which was cruel in some ways. Were there others like her?

Muse Music

Syn

 

[Syn]

Sera Inkari

Listening to her he gave a nod of his head. The fire was going stronger with her thoughts and the jedi master remained there watching with his face remaining there. "Our work is important enough... it might not be what others want.. it won't be something that is praised or seen" HE shrugged though and turned his head back towards the fire. "We'll return when the time comes to where it all began.. Where we found each other and one never knows what could be found." THe jedi master was looking into the force and here on this world they were able to see greater currents of the force that he was tracking while managing to keep warrm. He moved and sat across for the time. "Kintan will be a place to come to in time."

 

[Sera Inkari]

"I am happier for that Master," unseen and unheard. "We have all we need." Her hand, light as a feather, found his arm around her shoulder, tapping it as he moved. Feeling a sense of contentment, she longed to know more about Liber and Alema, but their acceptance was gracious. Alema's act of allowing a single live flame in Sera's meditations bestowed a gesture of trust.

"As you say," dipping her head, a journey through his and her past to come.

Facing him over their fire. She unfolded her palm upwards, and the flames rose to keep them bright. Uncertain of what they would find on that path, she found solace in companionship. Her gaze drifted, glimpsing more apparent potential futures in the embers, and her breath inhaled; a splinter of the fire broke off, dancing gracefully across the ground in time with her breathing, independently shifting until it reached the water's edge. Across the ripples, the light formed shapes—a cup, a hexagon, and finally, the letter C.

In that moment of happiness, she realized she had consciously shaped the dream with the fire, a first for her. Yet, alongside her happiness, lingering fear beat her heart faster. She had let her guard down, allowing herself to drift into the warmth of possible futures. She'd been relaxed and comfortable, a reminder to concentrate when she felt an ever-longing tug to dream.

Self-doubt wanted to ask but couldn't form the words. She wasn't the easiest or the most reliable traveling companion he could pick. She genuinely didn't know why she deserved him. Her nature was to ghost herself in the force, and despite that, this ability was a new arrangement in eternally unfolding force energies expressed through them all.

Syn

 

[Syn]

Sera Inkari

He could feel her and she had a torrent of thoughts and feelings... he didn't need to speak it all and neither did she. THis was more then enough as he sat there and continued to allow the force to be around them. He breathed in and then out though while allowing himself to radiate the force... stealth happened in many ways but he rarely masked his presence in the force.. he could but it wasn't really essential as he hunted many things... he was guided to their presence in the force. He knew how to hunt it and more.. he sensed it while moving only a little. Making it so she could prop herself up on him. "When you are ready." He didn't need to take a lot of time but he was in no rush now as he breathed outwarrds with the force expanding and he was sensing everything around them here in the caves below the temple.

 

[Sera Inkari]

Straightening her hair and elevating herself to her feet. She smoothed down her robes, preparing herself for the next stage of their journey. With a gentle pat, she declined his offer of support, adjusting her posture slightly for temperance and clarity. She did not have his reserves yet, but she would not burden him.

"Together, let us greet our path Master." The priestess smiled and pulled her hood over her hair; obscuring her face with the soft fabric. Wild space's connection to the inner systems ebbed and flowed, willed creativity of the outer worlds sent waves like moods of the heart to the core worlds of creation. Whatever mystery lay next to sense and flow, the priestess was ready to follow the cycle of creation.

Overturning her palm again and feeling the cool darkness of this place, Sera closed her fingers together, resisting nature's attempts to light or warm the way; folding her arms within her robes, force energies were conserved. Her previous exertions meant whatever lay next might require her to rely on her mind and spirit instead of matter and might.

Sera sensed he was projecting force energy and had not considered his technique before, she quietly observed the results of it as they walked. Focusing on renewing herself and preparing for what came next.

Syn

 

[Syn]

Sera Inkari

He gave a nod and walked, the tunnels and areas of it larger and more confined in some. Allowing the force to guide him more then his senses which down here picked up a lot more... he could hear the reverberations of their steps even when mostly muffled... the breathing of the pair in the cooled air. SLowly the jedi master stopped and crouched as he scented the air with his hands going into the rocks as he was able to find a hole and make his way through it... confined and close to the point he had his arms in front of himself as he squeezed through leading the way. HE came out into a larger chamber... rolling while he felt the coldness and moisture in the air.

There was space for her to get through and he moved to help her squeeze through and be able to climb... his robed pants easier to not have snag on the rocks when he breathed in the scent of the air. ONe foot rising and smalling down as he used the force... reverberations of the force sending waves through the rocks and ripples of force energy that were mapping the caves network for him to see in the near pitch blackness. He was stalking forward and listening to everything while one hand came up feeling... waiting and it came. The slightest breeze pulling towards an opening as it came out. THe chamber larger and deweper still.. area of the cave system going down from the opening into a massive hole where pale creature slithered and moved...

He crouched as the caves entrance was high up overlooking it... a faint glow and in the distance he was looking more a what was there.. massive pillars, white towering from floor to ceiling holding it up... impossibly massive and round. Carved as far as the eyes could see and he looked down as it was more a ruined city... concentric rings of buildings in a wheel design. The ruined buildings older, streets covered with albino creatures that moved around and the jedi master landed there as some looked and some ran away... then others seemed to ignore. He was looking and cushioned the area for her to leap down and join him as he looked on and further out. He was hunting with the force.

 

[Sera Inkari]

Navigating more easily with their gap than her master due to her more slender frame, Sera moved carefully to avoid snagging her belt or remedy pouches. She accepted Syn's kind help through a troublesome part of the crevice, following him through their darkness as she always would.

Despite feeling urges to light the way, she again suppressed herself, conserving her energy and relying on his guidance through their pitch-black passages. Occasionally, she felt for markings to indicate their direction and to learn their route as they made their twists and turns.

Tracing her hand above the dark pit below her, Kintan's priestess attempted to sense any life signs of the pale creature, but like her Master, her gaze was drawn to extended pillars and intricate, almost clockwork city designs. Patterns evoked memories of sundials from her former temple, where they painstakingly crafted globes to align possible futures with predicted outcomes.

With cushioned grace, she gently leaped down to land upon his assistance, dipping slightly before rising to better sense many strange creatures nearby.

~Do they fear us?~ Sera communicated through their force to Syn so as not to frighten them, considering whether moving through them might cause panic. ~Or do they not fully perceive anything beyond their symmetrical city?~ She alluded to the city's ruined but intricate circular design, musing whether the creatures were fully aware of an external existence.

Syn

 

[Syn]

Sera Inkari

'They know we are here... some fear and run.. some just do not know what to do so they do nothing. Predators might avoid them for different reasons." He said it while he was walking and the city itself was one thing.. he could sense it in the force as the things moved around them. "THis is not entirely a different place then some of the older worlds.. the temple above just makes it more narrow.. more concealed." He said it while checking on some of the other things and stopped with a crouch down below... fingers going to the dirt... He was sensing in the force as he moved deeper into the city. "The city is just something that they came to find... a ruin of the past reclaimed by them." He said it and was looking while heading towards some of it. "A place like this though with creatures like this it is where you find other things that should remain lost."

 

[Sera Inkari]

While Syn studied the earth and told her of their surroundings, she walked quietly beside him, learning from his instruction and experience. "I understand their wish for concealment; some things require space just to be," to live and evolve in a quieter, more secluded part of the universe.

"Whose past was it a relic of?" Sera focused on why they had come, to discover why this planet had lost contact. Checking for possible outbreaks from the Abersyn, the Drengir, or the Nameless. A dangerous focal point in wildspace, the darkness here felt encroaching, crawling under her skin.

Letting her senses drift along the flow of time, discerning if any of these possibilities were true. An answer came, but not what she expected. A youngling dropped a toy, and she bent down to study it, a spiral clock ticking. She dusted it off and offered it back, her voice soothing,

"Do not fear, child; we mean you no harm." The child's eyes widened, snatching the broken clock off her and pointing to a more oversized, ruined clock down the street. The passing of time stalled, unable to progress in a natural flow; the sight offended Sera. The chronometer's large hands tried to turn to point to the correct hour but got stuck either from neglect or malintent.

"Why?" She stared at the ruined clock. "Do they not rebuild, move on?" Was everything stuck in a ruin, like time had forgotten this place? Was time stuck, or had they forgotten time? Regardless, it angered her, and this decay and staleness reminded her of what she used to be. That dark side energy they had come to face lingered, prodding at her, tap tap tap. Her fire was creation, rebirth, and renewal.

Syn

 

[Syn]

Sera Inkari

He listened and moved, looking around with the force more as the beings around scattered from him walking in. "Whatever happened here... might still be happening. One doesn't need be present to leave an impact if it is a powerful enough statement and display." He said it with some experience while walking and the people remained at arms length... the jedi master slipping around when he stopped at the edge with a crouch for a moment. He was checking more on the area. "As to what happened.. it could be any number of things.. the jedi of old and the Republic.. the alliance. Good intentions in many cases but they would move on just as quickly as they found a world.. the long term concequences of their problem solving might not be felt for a week a month a year... ten... twenty... or a hundred but it would eventually spark something." He was it rising up and preparing himself for a fight but wasn't finding it. "Many simply look for the prize another world to have under their banner not what might be there or what their going there could lead to."

 

[Sera Inkari]

Syn spoke profound truth, weaving futures moving along their unseen threads, shaping crux points that formed the backdrop of every decision made. A pen, patiently waiting for the writer who had run dry; a door, silently closing to prevent a couple's first meeting, and a dog, offering companionship to a man who had yet to experience love, all placed to intricately alter the dance of fate.

"Yes, Master. So often, our gestures are never seen. We walk from them thinking we do not affect the world around us." But it was never that way.

She used these subtle gestures once to manipulate toward a darker intent, but now she did the same to counter other seer's manipulations. Pressing her hand to the clockface and turning the hand, she started it moving once more. Feeling this was the right thing to do, she pushed until the chronometer began, and the clock poured water below it into a small, simple cup.

Walking beside Syn, she felt a sense of satisfaction as the machinery of the ruin turned, creaking into time after a long slumber. The future could move forward. But then, a sharpness in her temples caused her to flinch. "Something." She couldn't tell, blinking her eyes and steadying herself against the wall.

"It's nothing," she assured, just a sharp sensation. Then it hit again, and she added, "The cup is significant somehow."

Syn

 

[Syn]

Sera Inkari

He sensed her in a moment and was moving... his line of sight and sense changing quickly as she leaned against the wall and the jedi master remained at the ready holding her up and close. "Shhh, let it come. I am here ease the pain." He said it and was looking down at her but he was radiating the force to better ease any pain that might be coming from her visions. "The cup if it is needed, tell me what you sense from it." He was saying it and didn't look around.. nothing was approaching them as this far down he doubted they would be able to contact through normal means Alema... he could with his bond to the ship but it didn't do much more images and impressions over direct conversation.

He remained there and retrieving the cup he held it for her while using one arm to guide her.. the inhaabitants of the area might or might not be able or willing to help which would be one of the bigger dangers... Moving would at least allow the pair of them to be in a more secured place he could find. The jedi master was checking on a few more of it as he came into a darker area... area from the ruins and most of the things... his senses on edge before he was checking on parts of it through the force..... and then his nostrils flared sensing the force was there. He shifted and adjusted so that Sera could concentrate on the cup and her senses in the force.

HE was moving now with her positioned to be on his back and with one arm supporting her weight.. the other moving forward as he didn't need to slow down... instincts pushing him forward and forward towards the edges of it as the ground became more wet and boggy.. the waters coming to his ankles before he stopped and listened. The smell of old vegetation was there and below that decomposition from things in the bog. He remained ready for anything that they might face. He was looking up and out as the bog didn't have creatures in it for now it was just muggy the further they could go in. "SOmething is on the other side."

 

[Sera Inkari]

Accepting his aid, she felt an instinct to stand alone, especially here, facing—she couldn't sense what it was. Thanks to their companionship, less resistance arose when kind help was offered. "Our cup bears lifeforce, expansion, but fear came when the water flowed again." She sensed ahead of them something's fear of the future or change, the clock starting had magnified it.

She leaned against his back for support, regaining her concentration. Extending her hand and pushing against the darkness, feeling a "potent, primal" force, Sera closed her eyes. This had been her turning point once, seeking certainty, much like embracing the legacy of the One Sith had brought her.

"States of being that do not know choice, to change but a single belief or idea pains them," she said, knowing it could question or alter everything the darkness was. "Everything is so clear to them." That certainty she craved was her Achilles' heel, but her life wasn't devoid of certainty; she had her companions and her purpose now—their lives beacons of support and direction.

Unyielding certainty still appealed to the Dreamer and Farseer, tempting her. She might have been seduced to walk further toward the echo if she had been standing. Her test loomed, a daunting challenge, and whatever came for them, however powerful or weak, the real test for Sera wouldn't be met with her blade. She closed her eyes, and her force aura began to reflect that pull.

"Time." The clock hands struck the hour, and a hexagonal outline appeared in a large wide space across from them, dimming to blacken the ground.

Syn

 

[Syn]

Sera Inkari

He listened to her and was feeling it... something was here as he listened to it and the force. Sera was speaking and something in front of them as he could sense it but dind't have a clear view of what it could be. "Hmmm." He said it and continued to hold her there at the ready... not shifting his hands so she was secured before he looked around and listened. Allowing the force to radiate off of himself and he was using it more like a barrier against anythign that might be coming near them. THe idea and danger of time was something he was familiar with as the ground began to shift and the boggy waters were going into the ground... more a sink hole and he dug his heels in rooting himself so that they would not move with the rushing water. Deeper and deeper they had been going it seemed as he looked down leaping with the force around himself to slow his descent as well as cushion it when he finally landed in the lower area. He reached out and set her down while turning himself and looking up. The hole receding and covering itself as the temperature dropped but he was sensing more with the force. His instincts for hunting force signatures there while he listened deeper into the force.

 

[Sera Inkari]

Syn unveiled their fated path, and they leaped toward their futures, embracing uncertainty and not fearing what lay ahead. As they settled into their new surroundings, she gently reached out with her senses, acutely aware of the shared danger and the encroaching darkness.

"Certainty," her voice carried, "draws nearer."

Released and light of step, Sera's feet splashed upon the low current, the trickle of water guiding their way. Her breathing quickened, her chest rising and falling, signifying a flutter of her heart. Danger loomed ominously as her test approached; its presence left a lingering taste in her mouth, but shielded from worse by her Master's radiating technique enveloping them both in collective protection.

Danger loomed as her test approached. Had they done enough to separate her from her past failings? Momentary self-judgement flickered inside her, but she resisted, extending her hand through the watery walls of the sinkhole, her palm guiding her sight toward an opening. Cool liquid ran down on her from above while she faced a hidden doorway.

She noticed two stone markings, one with the letter C and one with R. Remembering her fire's revelation, she turned the symbolic C, and the stone wall ahead parted, avoiding the trap the R would have triggered. Along the way, under the running water from above, hourglasses lined the walls, sand moving through them to mark time's passage.

"Do you feel it, Master? The passage of time and it's clarity." She felt like she was walking into crystal-clear clarity for the first time since childhood. Everything made sense, and the allure was so great she had to restrain herself from going ahead of him. She did, to her credit, remain within his protective force energies. TIme. A purity of time.

Syn