The Finer Details

[Aela Talith]

New Jedi Temple Archives - Sullust

Her siblings had always called her a bookworm growing up, and it was possible that they were right.

Much of her childhood had been spent in her room alone reading. She had always liked novels, had always enjoyed flights of fancy and great tales that could only be described within the pages of a book. They had taken her heart early on, and mostly kept them. A great deal of her knowledge had come from reading, and even in her teens she had spent more than her fair share of time simply buried within the pages of a book.

Now that she was even older, Marhsall of the New Jedi Order and had lead outright raids on Sith...well reading didn't seem as important. Oh she still enjoyed it, she still yearned to pick up a novel in her spare time, but more and more she was finding herself reading technical schematics and planetary defense layouts than a good fantasy novel. Perhaps that was simply the age that she had reached, or perhaps it was the position she held, but it was a regret that she could not help but shake. Even now, as she sat inside of the New Jedi Archives she couldn't help but fell a tad melancholic for the lost time she had endured.

A sigh escaped her lips, a shake of her head.

The datapad in front of her contained the specifications for an old Jedi Artifact, a Holocron to be exact. It had been forged thousands of years ago by a group that called themselves The Jedi Covenant. They had been Masters and Knights of the Old Order that had appointed themselves as watchers of the Darkside. They had thought themselves above the Order, had worked in the Shadows and beneath the cover of Dark to root out 'corruption'.

In the end, their work within the shadows only helped secure a future they had hoped to avoid.

Aela found it sad, even depressing. It was not a story of happy endings or great wonders, but instead one of betrayal.

Her head shook. Despite her dislike of it she knew she had to keep reading. The Holocron was important, and she needed to find it.

 

[Aela Talith]

A sigh escaped her lips.

It seemed that the Archives here within the Temple simply didn't have all of the information that she needed. Jacen had secured holocrons a few months back, though how was still a mystery to her, yet even with those holocrons there were massive gaps in the knowledge available. She knew that the old Archives on Coruscant had been compromised by the Sith, but those were likely the ones she would have needed. Her lips thinned and her head moved forward, her face burying itself in her hands.

"Okay." She breathed to herself. "Next step."

She was unsure of what she could do, where she could find more knowledge.

The Jedi Covenant was old, older than the Gulag Plague and even older than half of the governments she knew of. There wasn't much of a chance of randomly finding information on them on some planet, she had to look specifically where it would make sense to find something, specifically where there would be a compendium of knowledge. Her eyes closed for a moment, her fingers rubbing over them as she tried to make herself think of exactly where she could go.

"Libraries...libraries." Perhaps saying the words would make her think of something.

 

[Liliane]

Lilin had managed to get herself the position she had wanted to. The time she had taken off from fighting the Dark Side and general crime was going to be spent mostly in the libraries and archives. She was new to this place so she was still learning the ropes and everything, but he had high hopes. After all, he had started to love reading more and more in the past months. It was one of the things which slowed down her depressing thoughts but didn't make her deal with other people.

Kind of like a dream activity for her at the moment.

She walked around the halls, carrying a few tomes and books, trying to understand where they were meant to go. She hadn't managed to memorise the plans these chambers, so it typically took her a ton of time to find anything. She doubted she would manage to memorise everything about the libraries during the month she had taken off... But only time could tell if she was right about it or not.

Her steps were fast as she approached the area she thought these books were meant to be. There were some people around the place, most of them people whom she didn't know at all.

She had yet to see another person she had met before, besides Jacen of course.

[ [member="Aela Talith"] ]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Lilin Imperieuse"]

"Oh." A realization came to her.

There had been something in the news recently, an article that her mother had sent her. Someone had constructed a new library or sorts, no, more like an archive. Her mother had sent her the missive about a week ago, the opening of a new Cultural Archive. The Jedi Master shifted in her seat, digging through the bag that hung from her chair and pulling out her own personal datapad. She swiped the lock screen away and quickly began to dig through her mail.

Eventually she found it. "The Arceneau Cultural Archives."

For a moment Aela mused.

The article said that the data stored there was one of the most comprehensive in the entire galaxy, that the knowledge found there spanned back millenia. Could it be more comprehensive then the Jedi Archives? Could it have what she needed. Her lips thinned for a moment, eyes shifting to look around the room. She saw a few wandering figures, though no one that she knew. Taking a trip to The ACA would be hard, she didn't have a pilot and the Rising Tide was being used by Micah.

Perhaps she'd have to rope someone into flying her.

 

[Liliane]

Lilin took a look at one of the remaining tomes she had to find the place for.

She had literally no idea where to put it, but she knew these libraries had to be completely organised, especially if she herself was working as a librarian. So after having taken a deep breath, she turned around and started walking where she thought it would go.

To be honest, the girl had never been that organised. She did like to keep everything around her clean, but that didn't mean she would make systems for everything. She simple put things away. And now the lack of such organisation seemed to become a huge weakness for her. Maybe during the month in the libraries, she would learn some of that.

But she had to act now and find the place for it.

Her eyes attached to the rows of shelves, she didn't notice how a person -- a Jedi Master whom she had met in her life -- was sitting and studying. Had she noticed her sooner, she would have probably tried to run away so that she wouldn't have to talk to her or reveal anything about how she felt inside.

However, she noticed the woman when she was already practically next to her, meaning there was no way back.

"Hi," she muttered, not knowing if Aela would hear her or not.

[ [member="Aela Talith"] ]

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Lilin Imperieuse"]

She recognized the girl, one of Jacen's hounds.

Aela might not have been the most sociable person, but she did make an effort to know the people around the Jedi Temple. Her father had told her that it was an important aspect of leadership, knowing whom you lead. The New Jedi Order had been broken down into sects, and there were many hundreds of Jedi, but Aela had attempted to learn most of their names, at least the ones that she could potentially end up working with. That was important to her, and it was something that occupied her in trying times.

This one, however she actually knew from before. It was something that most would have forgotten, but Aela remembered.

"Lilin." She greeted the girl by name. "Hello."

Something occurred to her in that moment. "Can you fly a ship?"

 

[Sabena Shai]

“Don’t say ‘yes’. Next thing you know, she’ll make you fly half-way across the galaxy to a swamp planet where the trees have eyes and mouths,” quipped Sabena to [member="Lilin Imperieuse"] as she peeked around the corner of a holocase.

Sabena then stepped forth into full view. She had a few holodiscs in here hand - apparently on her own quest for knowledge. The topic of the discs also seemed to be recent compared to the Jedi Covenant - the title of one could clearly be read as, “One Sith Movements before Coruscant.” She gave [member="Aela Talith"] a wave 'Hello.'

“But if you do say 'yes',” she continued, “Don’t complain to me!”

 

[Liliane]

Lilin was about to answer 'yes', but after opening her mouth to do so, she was interrupted by somebody whom she'd never met before. Truth be told, she had never even seen her in the Temple before, maybe just because Lilin herself had been there for only a short while. Whatever the reason was, this person was a complete stranger to her.

Unlike Aela.

"I know Aela," she said as a response. And for the most part, she trusted her. If she remembered correctly, she was on some kind of a high position in the New Jedi Order. A Jedi Marshall or something like that. Why would she have become one were she not to be trusted?

Maybe it was just Lilin thinking overly logically, though.

She eyed the disc in her hand -- about the One Sith and Coruscant, it seemed. Whatever she was trying to investigate, Lilin couldn't help her much. She had not managed to read a lot about that topic, neither had she had been in the library for long enough to make any suggestions.


"And I can fly a ship," she muttered.

[ [member="Aela Talith"] | [member="Sabena Shai"] ]​

 

[Aela Talith]

[member="Lilin Imperieuse"] | [member="Sabena Shai"]​

​

"Oh quiet you!" Aela called to Sabena.

As far as she had recalled she'd never taken anyone to a jungle planet where the trees had mouths and eyes, at least, not on purpose anyway. The Covenant had had some adventures, but most of them had ended up rather well. As far as talking...or rather eating trees went Aela was almost entirely sure that they had never encountered anything like that. Her head shook slightly, and then she returned her attention back to Lilin.

"Would you be willing to take me to Bestine?" The planet wasn't too far away, and she just needed a pilot. "I can requisition us a transport easily enough."

Transports were easy, pilots not so much. The Alliance took all of the pilots for themselves citing desperate need for Navy personnel, and most of the Jedi who could fly were often on missions. It was rather unfair to people like her, but she knew the reasons for it. "I promise there won't be any talking trees, just an Archive."

An archive that could hopefully tell her more about the Jedi Covenant.