Private The First Trial: Finding One’s Heart

[Kaelos Vryn]

Location: Ilum
Tags: Braze | Loomi
Equipment: None​

​

"Since I was a child"

He answered Braze honestly. "Well, more of a child than now anyway" he added with a chuckle. "I was found on Kiffu and brought to Courscant by the Jedi. I was found by a Master who's no longer with us, I think we've spoke about that bit before"

Kaelos vaguely remembered a conversation around his first ever mentor with Braze. If he recalled correctly, it was during that whole fetch quest with the box. It was an incident he still wasn't overly comfortable talking about and in fairness to Braze he'd never pushed it.

"My mentor was capable of weaving a dragon, and I've been told by someone I met recently that ancient Mist Weavers wove an entire moon together, but I'm not sure where this is at... There's certainly room to grow."

The young Jedi cast his eyes to Loomi. "That's most definitely one useful skill" he acknowleged, making a mental note to conduct more research into the idea of mist weaving. It seemed to have a lot of uses and a lot of applications.

"The snow appears to be stopping" he commented, casting his eyes over to the window. "If we keep putting this off we'll end up snowed in again" he stated. He wasn't sure the next time that Ilum was due a snow storm but he didn't want to be caught out in it.

 

[Braze]

TAGS: Kaelos Vryn Loomi

​

Braze nodded as he listened to Kaelos, his expression thoughtful. "Yeah, we did talk about that," he said softly. "But… do you know how many years it's been since you were found on Kiffu? Time seems to slip away faster than we think. I don't know if you realize how much has passed since then."

He glanced over at Loomi for a moment, offering a small smile before standing up from his seat in the Mud Duck. "I agree though. We shouldn't wait too much longer," Braze said, moving toward the exit. "We don't want to get stuck here in the snow, especially with how unpredictable Ilum's storms are. Once they hit, they don't let up for days some times."

The snowstorm outside had slowed to a light flurry, but the world beyond the ship was still covered in a thick layer of sparkling frost, the landscape almost entirely white. As Braze stepped out into the cold, the bite of the icy wind stung his skin, but it wasn't as brutal as the earlier blizzard had been. Ilum's landscape stretched out before him—icy peaks and sharp ridges that jutted into the sky, their jagged edges softened by the dusting of snow.

He glanced toward the horizon, where a winding path led through the snow-covered plains, the entrance to a cave looming like a shadow at the base of one of the taller ridges. The mouth of the cave was dark, compared to the surrounding brightness of the snow-covered terrain. He could see faint footprints leading toward it, likely left by others who had braved this frozen world before them. The air felt charged with something ancient, as if the very ground beneath them had witnessed countless stories.

"We're almost there," Braze said, looking back over his shoulder at Kaelos and Loomi. "Let's get moving before the snow picks up again."

 

[Loomi]

Ilum
Tags: Braze , Kaelos Vryn

​

"We're almost there," Braze said, looking back over his shoulder at Kaelos and Loomi. "Let's get moving before the snow picks up again."

"Am I going too?" Loomi remarked, giggling a little. "I wasn't aware."

Braze probably needed the support anyways. Besides, Loomi had done her trials on Ilum with a great deal of success, she thought. Perhaps there was some guidance value there. She began to idly weave as they prepared to embark, quick to make two more sources of heat for the three that she slung over her shoulder. Her gaze drifted back to Kaelos.

"Do you feel anything?" she asked. "Ilum has a bit of a strange atmosphere about it. It's very... energized. It may take a moment to focus in on something specific."

But when you did, all sorts of things called out to you. It was like the ground below them was the night sky, filled with thousands of stars... Or more accurately thousands of things all calling out to anything around them in unison.

 

[Kaelos Vryn]

Location: Ilum
Tags: Braze | Loomi
Equipment: None​

​

"But… do you know how many years it's been since you were found on Kiffu?"

"Too many" he responded to Braze with a smile. "If you want a more accurate answer, eleven" he added, doing the maths in his head. He had been four when he left Kiffu, he was now fifteen. It was eleven years give or take a few months. He didn't remember specific dates.

Braze agreed that they should leave whilst the storm had died out, and Kaelos nodded. He wasn't a fan of sitting around and waiting, so he was actually excited to be moving. It was also his first time getting to experience snow, and he was excited to see it.

The trio stepped out onto Ilum and Kaelos felt the crunch of the white powder underfoot. He raised an eyebrow, having not expected it to have the texture it did. The icy chill stung at his exposed skin, but the useful ability of Tapas was helping to offset that some.

"So this is snow" he mused to himself. It was a thin layer of snow and the young Kiffar Jedi Padawan could feel the sheet of ice underneath it, slippy underfoot but thick. It had to be thick in order to support the weight of their vessel.

Kaelos followed Braze across Ilum, following a path through the snow covered plains. The walk hadn't been overly long before Braze stated that they were approaching their destination. Tapas had worked a treat, the young Jedi Padawan hadn't frozen.

He felt the eyes of Loomi on him as she spoke.

"Do you feel anything? Ilum has a bit of a strange atmosphere about it. It's very... energized. It may take a moment to focus in on something specific."

With an eyebrow raise, Kaelos allowed the Force to flow through him. He imagined a bubble, large enough to encompass their entire surroundings. Loomi wasn't wrong, the entire planet felt like nothing he'd ever felt before. It was intense if nothing else.

"What is it... I can feel?" he asked softly.

 

[Braze]

TAGS: Kaelos Vryn

"More than a decade, then. You've spent more time in the Temple than I have, I think..." Braze murmured. He couldn't remember exactly how long it had been for him, and he tried not to dwell on those memories. Some things were best left in the past.

They had been led to a vast, cavernous opening—one marked by time and change, its entrance mechanism broken and rebuilt more than once. Braze stepped forward, extending his will through the Force, guiding the ancient mechanism to shift and grant them passage into the ice-bound depths.

"The kyber crystal chooses you… not the other way around," he said gently as the passage yawned open before them. "Listen for the one calling out to you, singing its song meant only for you."


His voice softened further as he recited the time-honored mantra:

"The crystal is the heart of the blade.
The heart is the crystal of the Jedi.
The Jedi is the crystal of the Force.
The Force is the blade of the heart.
All are intertwined: the crystal, the blade, the Jedi."

Braze let the words settle, then he turned to his apprentice.

"Go forth," he said, quiet yet firm. "Find your heart—the one that calls to you."

​

 

[Loomi]

Ilum
Tags: Braze , Kaelos Vryn

​

"You'll do great," Loomi insisted. "Just trust your instincts..."

She could hear the worming in her own ear already. The cacophony of energy, crystals singing out to beckon those who may listen to their melody. Yet something different seemed to drift along the airwaves, a sensation that made Loomi shiver. It wasn't the chill of the frosty temperature, but rather a feeling of deja vu. As though she had felt this very same feeling before at a different place and time.

How curious.

"Something is calling to me," she stated, perhaps in a bit of a daze. "I'll be back."

Loomi held out her hand, splitting apart a natural fracture in the ice that made an entryway into the icy tunnels below. She proceeded to jump in without a second thought.

No elaboration.

 

[Kaelos Vryn]

Location: Ilum
Tags: Braze | Loomi
Equipment: None​

​

The crystal chooses you, not the other way around.

Kaelos remembered that he had once watched a holofilm with a line very similar to that and he wondered briefly if Braze had drawn his inspiration from there. Either way, it was a fair comment that explained exactly what he would need to do.

The Force would be his guide, would identify his crystal for him.

He cast his eyes around the vast cave and nodded towards Braze. He wasn't entirely sure how long he would be gone, how long choosing his crystal would take. He'd read some stories, legends mostly, describing that it had taken days for a crystal to be chosen.

With the Force flowing through him, he set forth on his adventure. If it took minutes or hours or days, he was determined to return with his crystal. It would be the one that the Force identified for him. It would be the one that was meant for him.

The cave got narrower in some places and more expansive in others. The walls and celings were all lined with different crystals, all of different hues and tones. He could have quite easily just taken one, returned to Braze and said it was his.

He was however determined to do his crystal hunt properly.

After some time, could have been minutes or hours, he found a large cave covered in crystals. There were footprints almost carved into the stoney floor, signs that the path had been walked thousands upon thousands of times before.

Something had changed, something that the young Jedi Padawan couldn't put his finger on. It wasn't something physical, the cave was pretty much identical to all of the others that he had passed through. It was as if the Force was trying to tell him something.

He took a seat and closed his eyes, allowing the Force to pass it's message.

 

[Braze]

TAGS: Kaelos Vryn

As the pulse of the Force surged around him, something in the cavern changed. It was no longer just a still, ancient space—it felt alive, shifting in ways beyond the physical. The walls seemed to stretch, the crystals glimmering with an otherworldly light, casting long, twisting shadows. The footprints in the stone that had been so clear before… vanished.

And then—motion.
A flicker at the edge of his vision, something darting between the crystalline formations.

It wasn't a person. It wasn't even solid.

A silhouette formed from light and mist, shifting between humanoid and something less defined, something flowing like water and cutting like a blade. The Force coiled around it, pulsing in time with Kaelos' own heartbeat. It had no face, no eyes, no mouth to speak—but he felt its presence like a weight pressing down on his very soul.

A test.

Without warning, the figure lunged, its form streaking like lightning.