Private The Blade Unsheathed

[Jonyna Si]

TAGS: Lorn Reingard
Naboo, Shiraya's Rest​

Jonyna had kept her distance.

The High Republic had always been a false ideal to her. A southern sanctuary with their head in the sand about the state of the galaxy. She'd seen it before. Twice now. Republics ran by politicians who don't care about anything outside of their voting jurisdiction. First with the Old Republic, then with the Alliance, and now the High Republic.

She didn't trust politicians these days.

And she struggled to trust the Jedi Order.

The truth was, she didn't see herself much as a jedi these days. The idealism had been drained from her with the fall of Coruscant. She still held to the code, but not the jedi code.

No, she followed her code.

Do Good, even when it is inconvenient.
Protect the Innocent, for you are their shield.
Fight Evil where it stands, with both kindness and fury.
Above all else, survive. You are one of few. Do not let the Light die out.

That's why the words of the Sword of Shiraya took her off guard when she first heard them. Jonyna might not participate in the meetings of the Jedi Order, but she had ears everywhere. Padawans she kept in contacts with from the NJO days. People she trained herself, now knights who were kept close.

That's why the Tenacity had landed in Theed, and while Jonyna was now standing in the secluded base, having trekked quite a ways to get to it.

She wanted to hear it from the man himself.

Was the jedi order on a crusade?

If so, she wanted in.

 

[Lorn Reingard]

Tags: Jonyna Si​

Dust and the rhythmic hum of training blades filled the courtyard. Jedi from all over had answered the call, but these sands belonged to those who swore a permanent end to the Sith. Day and night, they conditioned themselves for a war behind the Black Wall and in the Core.

A sharp hum from a scout droid interrupted the drills, signaling an approaching figure through the mountain pass. Lorn tossed his practice blade to a nearby knight and grabbed a rough cloth.

Boot steps crunched against the stone as a Cathar rounded the path.

Lorn stepped out into the open courtyard to meet her, wiping the sweat from his forehead. He didn't recognize her face, but the Force around her felt like it was forged in the same old wars that kept him awake at night.

"And who might you be?" Lorn asked.

 

[Jonyna Si]

TAGS: Lorn Reingard​

"A blade ready to fight." Jonyna said simply, "But you might know me as the former Sentinel of Harmony. I heard from some old paddies of mine that there was a call for a Crusade. You fighting the sith, or is that just rumors?"

Jonyna didn't wait a moment. She didn't bother with formal titles, other than the one that mattered.

"If that is true, when and where?"

 

[Rik Perris]

SHIRAYA'S REST
NABOO

Rik was in the area, just as much in oversight of the drills as participating himself, and when a trill sounded the approach of a visitor or another arrival, it drew his attention, but Lorn was quicker to respond. Often, whoever was closest or least encumbered would handle it, was the way of things. They had a lot on their hands here, and in the infancy of this, there was much still to do.

Though he kept an ear out. He was all too aware of the risk that something else could find that path and follow it, but as Lorn greeted, and the visitor spoke, the Corellian became well aware of whose interest they'd drawn.

It was her manner of introduction, however, that made him follow after his brother-in-arms, discarding his training blade and approaching with a cloth in much the same manner.

"Didn't figure you for rude," he cut in plainly as he emerged, his attention slipping past Lorn to the flame-hared felinoid with a pointed look, wiping away his own sweat while he walked up, "but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt."

Maybe she'd misplaced her name somewhere out there? He cracked a half-smile that didn't reach his eyes, and tucked the cloth to hang from a trouser pocket.

"Lorn, Master Jonyna Si," he said, looking from one to the other as he made the introductions, "Master Si, Knight Lorn Reingard." He crossed his arms over his chest. "No rumours here, only the vigilant preparing to do what must be done... wherever the Sith have entrenched themselves." He confirmed, his gaze then flicking to the other Knight. "That about right?"

Jonyna Si • Lorn Reingard​

 

[Lorn Reingard]

Tags: Jonyna Si | Rik Perris​

The name Sentinel of Harmony meant nothing to Lorn, and the mention of loose-lipped padawans sent a cold spike of unease through his chest. If word of this gathering was spreading that easily, their window of secrecy was already closing.

Rik's sudden arrival broke the tension. Lorn offered a small, grateful nod to the Corellian. Having a trusted brother-in-arms to shoulder the weight of these introductions made the burden of leadership a little lighter.

"We are preparing for a concerted effort against them, yes," Lorn said, acknowledging Rik's introduction.

His eyes locked back onto the Cathar, searching her face for the true depth of her resolve. They needed steel, not just sentiment.

"You missed the meeting, Master Si," Lorn added, his voice dropping to a serious, quiet tone. "Most in the Jedi do not agree with our approach. If you stand with us, you stand outside their grace."

 

[Jonyna Si]

TAGS: Lorn Reingard Rik Perris​

"Most in the jedi don't see me as one." Jonyna shot back without hesitation. "For exactly that reason. You want a blade ready to strike at the sith? I've been waiting 5 years, since the days of the NJO. Since the height of the GA. I don't much care what others think of me at this point. I've got a fleet at my back designed and ready to strike down sith battleships. Tell me where you need them, and I'll make it so."

 

[Lorn Reingard]

Tags: Jonyna Si | Rik Perris​

A fleet changed the calculus entirely. Five years of waiting meant she harbored the same slow-burning fury that drove the rest of these hidden Jedi. Still, a sudden influx of warships brought a target they couldn't afford to harbor on Naboo for long.

"We will be moving our operations shortly," Lorn said, leaning back slightly to study her. "If you wish to be a part of this crusade, we will see you at the staging grounds. We need every resource we can muster."

Trust was a luxury he couldn't afford on faith alone, but desperation demanded risks. Her anger felt real, mirrored in his own scarred history.

"I don't know you, Master Si, but I will accept your hand if our cause is truly the same," Lorn warned, his gaze hardening as he stepped closer. "Just understand this: we are playing for the survival of the galaxy. Treat this with anything less than absolute loyalty, and the consequences will be dire."

 

[Rik Perris]

SHIRAYA'S REST
NABOO

He'd come to know this Cathar in the kitchens of a Jedi Temple that was doubtless converted into some dark palace for the brunt of the past year, if not razed to the ground. Months that were an exception of his path since Knighthood. A path hardly erred from but for that handful of months in the waning years of the NJO, and little more than half of this year past where... well, he put those thoughts out of his mind.

He'd already aired that fact of his current existence once, recently. Dwelling on that which he had little control over did no good. Rik kept his attention fixed on Jonyna, only flicking to Lorn when the other Knight pressed forward.

"The bulk of the thirteen years since my knighting, I have went to where oppression reigns, and sought to undo it, council sanction or not." Mostly not. "I have been to most of these meetings over the past few years or so, and at every turn, Jedi have dissented against this path, and ignored force-given warnings. Painted what is necessary, now more than ever, as an evil."

He hardly blinked, his gaze unwavering. Firm.

"I shouldn't need to tell you what has happened as a result, Master Si. And since." His own anger simmered sometimes at the costs of the dark cancer that increasingly infected the galactic plane. "You must know with the state the galaxy is in, that we can't afford anything less than to be united in where we stand in our views of the Sith."

He was. He'd been this since sometime into his training, when he'd finally absorbed the views of his Master, completely.

"We can't be careless in who we relay the cause to, when our own kind, when other Jedi may seek our dissolution."

Jonyna Si • Lorn Reingard
​

 

[Jonyna Si]

TAGS: Lorn Reingard Rik Perris​

Jonyna's expression darkened slightly at the thought.

"I spent 20 years on the run as a child. Rik knows the story, I'm not of this time. I grew up during the height of the First Empire, during the darkest days of the jedi. When there was no order to protect me. Don't let my eagerness for justice be mistaken for foolishness. I haven't made any moves on the sith since leaving the NJO, for good reason. I know the mountain I'd be climbing. I know the threat they pose. My fleet has been engaging in rebel tactics against the Imperials for a reason. I know I can take them. But let it be known, I'm loyal to the Force, to the Light. I'm not here to join the Jedi Order, I'm here to fight for the hope of all people whom the sith persecute. That's where my loyalty is."

 

[Lorn Reingard]

Tags: Rik Perris | Jonyna Si​

Hearing Jonyna speak of her childhood under the first Empire only deepened Lorn's respect for the weight she carried. They were all ghosts of different eras, haunted by the same cyclical darkness.

Her dedication to the Light rather than the politics of the Order struck a chord. That pragmatism was exactly what this crusade required to survive the coming storm.

"Good," Lorn said, a genuine nod acknowledging her declaration. "I am asking you to do exactly that, Master Si. Defy the Order. Keep doing what you have been doing against the Imperials, and direct that fury toward the Sith when we move."

Aligning with someone who understood the raw necessity of survival made the path ahead feel slightly less isolated. The pieces were finally coming together.

"Our thoughts are the same," Lorn said, extending a hand to seal the pact. "I will be glad to have you and your fleet at our backs. Meet us on D'Qar when you are ready."