Private The Past in the Future

[Carduul Akahl]

Tor Valum, Kestri
Tags: Armel Akahl​

---

Every day spent on Kestri felt as if discovering something new. Even with the fact he supposedly held a position that placed him in such a role, Carduul could not help but feel a sense of enthusiasm that was altogether different from the fervor of combat. ‘Mythkeeper,’ he was dubbed amidst those of the Covenant. So, he found it fitting to stalk a torch-lit hall in Tor Valum, one that led towards archives of which, technically, was his domain. Others came and went, but most Mandalorians were busy training for their next trials, or preparing for the next inevitable conflict. Those that did arrive, however, had mixed reactions when sighting the once-Mand’alor. Some veered off, thinking it better to spend their time elsewhere with poorly-hid disdain. Others gave passing, respectful acknowledgements. Though, he could observe,…the former may have been a touch less than usual. Or perhaps that was just a hopeful imagination.

It was the simplistic desire fostered since before his verd’goten, being the simple pursuit of Mandalorian knowledge. Their history. Their triumphs, and failures, all. No matter what went his way, nothing could replace his excitement towards this, as a gauntleted hand trailed delicately across stone. Shadows danced across murals both carved, painted, and others written. Each told different stories—some small, some grand...but most curiously of all, it abruptly ended near the end of the hall, being utterly blank.

With the tell-tale, though kept quiet ‘taps’ of his polearm, the crusader had intently- a touch eagerly, he could internally add- scoured over the many tales from behind the mask. The clatter of those training outside could be heard, spars taking place not far from this hallowed place—but that was all for another time, for him.

 

[Armel Akahl]

Tor Valum was unlike anywhere Armel had been before. Thousands of Mandalorian simply living. He was no stranger to the sight of his people massing but he had only ever seen them gather for war, staging grounds and training camps were familiar, not this. It all seemed so alien and a sense of unease had slithered its way into the crusader's mind.

For this reason it along with Mandalore had joined the ranks of planets he avoided. Instead Armel hid away in forgotten corners of the galaxy, fighting wars bearing the banner of a cause that seemed to fade further into history. He had made his home among the stars but with no clan nor comrades it was a solitary life. He had hoped long ago that Er'kit would be the last time he had to fight alone.

The quiet of the archives were a welcome change from the bustling streets. As he navigated the archives he soon found himself stood before the mural of the Indomitable's death on Dxun. It was a figure he knew well, along with the Ultimate the tales of their crusades had been drilled into the heads of many conscripts. He wondered what he and his nomadic crusaders would think of a place like this.

Then he heard it, the tap of a polearm accompanying quiet steps. He recognized it immediately and turned his head to see the approach of Carduul Akahl. He felt his back straighten instinctively as he braced up.

"Mand'alor." A mechanical fist pounded his chest in salute. "I had heard rumours you had joined the Covenant. I was..." he struggled to find the words, explain his absence, his wariness of this new banner.

"Forgive me Mand'alor. I should've come sooner." he said bowing his head.

Carduul Akahl ​

 

[Carduul Akahl]

Tor Valum, Kestri
Tags: Armel Akahl​

---

When a new pair of armored steps began to make their resounding noise, he was expecting the usual. A swerve of motion, or perhaps merely a continuance. Yet, of all things, there had been a pause of step. A brace in posture that was unnecessary for the likes of which he was. His gaze could not help but to turn, then, as he fixated upon that new figure.

Was there ever to be a more recognizable armor, it was the tell-tale design of those who had joined in the Renewed Crusade. Yet, strangely enough, that wasn’t the only thing that felt familiar about this individual. Rather, it was in the voice and intonation as well.

“I remember you.” Words were a murmur at first. How long ago since he had last spoken with this one face-to-face? A bygone time, it felt like. One with very little worries save for the next conquest, the next battle for glory and honor. How simple it all felt, looking at that faceplate. It took a brief moment of recollection- but his memory was nothing if not excellent, for how else could an archivist hope to retain it all? Armel, he could recollect.

Mand’alor. The reverent title felt hollow, even now. Did he truly deserve to be called such? Even still, after all that's happened, he had people who believed in him. He could question why, but he knew that it was merely how Mandalorian culture was.

“...If you heard naught but rumors, then the failing is mine.” Was his succinct reply. He had fallen silent—willingly or not—when his people needed him most. Cast into the void with the planeshift, the Crusader fleet had fractured, and he himself sent to the wretched unknown regions. Though he gathered what he could, not all was able to be done timely enough. Some were lost utterly, and went upon their own separate battles in his name. “Were I to be so blunt, it should be I that asks forgiveness of you.”

There had been a soft sigh to elicit from beyond the mask, as his gaze briefly tilted towards the mural of which Armel had previously been looking at. The familiar, similar visage of the Indomitable and their downfall. A cautionary tale, by now, of such a ruler’s downfall- for despite all of their honorable undertakings, they ultimately fell thrall to the Sith. The very first example of that wretched rivalry. A moment of silence hung in the air in thought. That was too somber of something in the light of this.

“But I am heartened.” The helm swivelled back, “Because I have the pleasure of speaking with you again- all the way from Dxun. Of seeing you- and many others, at least have a safe haven for however long you opt to stay, or fight.” His gaze had briefly inspected Armel. He seemed weary- and his ventures had no doubt left many a mark upon him. “Was it the curiosity to investigate such rumors that brought you here, Armel?”

 

[Armel Akahl]

Armel looked back up to Carduul as he spoke and he hesitated before relaxing his stance. It was odd, a man who to the Zeltron had once reached status of near veneration now spoke to him so candidly. Then again Armel remembered the days when he was a mere Rallymaster.

He stared back to the mural of the Indomitable. “For a time I was cut off from the rest of the galaxy. At first I followed his example, bearing the banner but that did not last. I couldn’t feed myself on zeal so I became a mercenary, I had heard how many of our kind live off that work.”

His weight shifted between his feet as he recalled his time in the Outer Rim. “It was fething lonely. Decided I had my fill and came to Kestri.”

He hesitated before continuing. Armed knew exactly why he came, for the same thing he had yearned for since the first time he laid eyes on the Mandalorians. Suddenly his hands raised up to his helmet, uncoupling the blast weave hood from his armour. His hands reached up to his helmet which hissed as he removed it from his head. As expected from Zeltrons he had a natural charm about him. But the charm was undercut by jagged scars that ran down his face, tired eyes from the months spent fighting alone, hair buzzed for practicality over looks. He was a starkly different man to who he was before the Crusade.

“I thought coming here to be among my own would bring me peace but it all feels so different. Even my armour…” he knocked on the battered plastid shell that seemed to stand out, even amongst the highly individual and customized armour of his people.

He then looked at Carduul directly. “Mand’alor, I ask to join your clan. Of all the people’s I have seen and spoke to since being here it is in your clan that I see the Crusade I know.”

Carduul Akahl ​

 

[Carduul Akahl]

Tor Valum, Kestri
Tags: Armel Akahl​

---

Some part of him yearned for those simpler days. When he did not feel the need to lay the burden upon himself so heavily. Yet, he knew as well that his duty was that of an honor. That remained to this day- though, it seems he had at least been able to ease his mannerisms. Though there was still a crusade to direct, he was not alone in making those ever-important decisions. Moreover, this was not a crowd of waiting and willing soldiers- rather but one man, whom still so ardently placed faith in him. Carduul's head had dipped in an acknowledgment of the tribulations spoken, “There is no shame in survival. It is what Mandalorians do. No matter what trials and tribulations may come their way, something always makes it to see the next dawn.” Was his knowing reply. To condemn mercenary work was a foolhardy thing- for there had been too many cases where it had seen Mandalorians survive. “...Your path must have been an arduous one thus far.” The solitary life…had never been his suit. The crusader had always been around his comrades. At the very least, his own Clan. He could hardly imagine himself as a mercenary. It seemed for however long, Armel was left bereft of that.

His head tilted with the removal of the other’s helm. Different, Armel said- a feeling mutually understood. Carduul was glad to be amongst his people. Enthusiastic, even. Even still, the gaze of others was something that could always be felt. And that ever-present, lingering pang of alienation was brought along with it.

Yet, the question had caused a more pointed stare- a mix of intrigue and surprise to cross the expression beneath the mask. Never more could Maji’s words of sympathy be more in his mind, as he beheld that visage—that leaders could afford to be seen as more than mere symbols and nothing more. Lips thinned beneath the mask at that thought. After all this foundling had endured in the wake of that failed Crusade…the askance of that bond of kinship caught him off guard.

“...Every Mandalorian is different in the end, Armel.” A softened reassurance came towards the initial words. Some enjoyed the sense of brotherhood. Others never felt as if they fit. “I believe that lesson is the sort of thing I told you of before—it is your own path to carve.” He would bid, as steps briefly paced with a sparing glance towards the Indomitable’s mural. Just beyond that ruler, was that figure ever-emulated. The Ultimate. He had already gone on that long spiel of that one’s history to Armel, that he remembered. “...But,” Gaze turned back, focusing intently upon the Zeltron’s features. That which carried the scars and burdens of all he had seen, and experienced, in that time both apart and away from his original creed. “You have already walked far. If you believe that path lies within Clan Akahl…then I would be more than happy to shepherd those steps.”

Even if the roads diverge, sooner or later. Even if hell would come to try and take them like it did before- such a bond, he hoped, was one that would last as something for the better. “Yet, I am obliged to ask a’fore you step upon this; what is it that presses you to do such? What drives you, Armel?”

Even now, curiosity of an ever-inquisitive mind could not help but to make itself known. Given the opportunity to explore different facets of Mandalorian culture, ones separate from the ones brought into…yet, t’was the ways of the Crusade that saw the Zeltron standing before him now.

 

[Armel Akahl]

Armel's face relaxed as Carduul accepted, tired eyes gave way to relief. He had certainly walked far, farther than he'd ever thought possible. Then Carduul posed a question that Armel had not thought about, not for a long time.

"I'll admit, when I first joined I knew little about Mandalorians. I just remember seeing them after Er'kit was liberated, bonds between soldiers were that of family. I craved a family. A part of me still does." he said reminiscing his days as a lone assassin amongst the slave camps.

"But as I fought, as I learned." He raised his mechanical right hand which balled into a fist. "There was something much greater. Purpose, divine purpose."

"First it was the gods, bringing change to a stagnant galaxy as you said on Dxun." His attention turned once again to the Indomitable. "But we failed. We either weren't ready or perhaps... perhaps we had it wrong, too caught up in pleasing a god ignorant to what we have to offer."

His voice began to fill with fervor as his words began to border on the heretical. Still he did not stop speaking. "His vision on Shogun, to worship war itself."

He turned back to Carduul, his eyes now filled with fire. "I lost my arm on Naboo, ripped off by my foe. It was then, in the fires of battle amongst friend and foe, in the crucible of war that I felt most alive."

Carduul Akahl ​

 

[Carduul Akahl]

Tor Valum, Kestri
Tags: Armel Akahl​

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“Family is one of the many reasons we fight. Including for myself.” He acknowledged. Yet, as Armel continued, his head tilted. T'was true- Carduul felt a natural allurement to combat and war. It boiled one's blood in an exhilarating and incomparable way. Burned away any traces of Arasuum and wholeheartedly asserted one's confidence in their own body and skills. “A curious motivation.” He added. He could ply all sorts of things about that. What was it about the crucible that most appealed to him? What fueled that fire in the heart of this one? All in good time, he assured himself.

“We did fail in many regards.” He acknowledged. “But even then, we fulfilled what we needed in reaching such inevitable conclusion. It is the innate satisfaction of the act of doing such, that I believe you have started to understand.” Steps pace off to the side, gaze sweeping across varying murals and pieces of combative history. “It is, after all, our historical nature as such. It is up to one's own will to decide what to do with that information.”

In truth, there was mixed feelings upon the matter, himself. That was what he was, after all. A conglomeration of disparate ideas, though the ideals of the Crusade had always been the most prominent in his mind. Yet, there was always more motivation than merely the fight itself. To be a force of change, for family, for home- the myriad of reasons all muddled into one. The cycle repeated.

“...In joining Clan Akahl, Armel, you are joining those who value our peoples’ history. Those who pursue what it means to truly be Mandalorian, and its many different definitions.” Gaze tilted back to focus back onto the figure. Would that zeal truly be a good thing, he wondered? Should he temper it now, or foster it?

“In so doing…you will learn for yourself whether this definition is your true heart, or not. That will come with the battles you wage, and the stories you weave with others.”

It was easier to dismiss it before. Soldiers were needed for the war. They were still needed. Hopefully, the foundling may yet understand his own perspective. One day. That was inevitable, if he was to join such a Clan as his own. Gaze briefly followed Arnel, as he gazed to the Indomitable. A contemptible figure and one respected at the same time.

“...Thus, I will encourage you to be ready and willing to learn. Stories are such for a reason.” A vague comment, but one done so on purpose. Truthfully, Carduul would give a poor initiation if he gave all the answers.

 

[Armel Akahl]

Armel's stance softened as Carduul spoke, pondering each word. He shifted as he thought. Learning their people's history, all of it. It was a prospect that was both alien and fascinating at the same time.

"As always, you have turned this talk into a lesson. Those you face in battle must surely be scholars by now." he said with a grin.

He glanced back to the image of the Indomitable. His visage called to him, invited him to past glory days. He wondered if he truly could leave the dogma that had given him meaning for the first time in his life. Only time would tell.

"Investigating the past on my own has only taken me so far." he turned back to Carduul, then past him towards the door that led out to Tor Valum. Perhaps there was use to know how the others lived so different, even if only to abide by his own code better. He steeled his resolved and gave Carduul his answer. "I am ready to learn, Mand'alor."

"I just can't promise to be the best student. Truthfully Dxun was the most formal education I ever had." he added with a sneer.

Carduul Akahl ​

 

[Carduul Akahl]

Tor Valum, Kestri
Tags: Armel Akahl​

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There had been an upturn of lips beneath the mask, upon hearing that comment. It was a favored habit of him- one that was looked on unfavorably by most, but he found a peculiar enjoyment in the prodding of his opponents, in the bold and grandiose declarations like something out of a novel. “Perhaps the movements of my weapon distract them far too much for such lectures to sink in. Still, one can only hope.” He mused, voice lilted with that same amusement.

Watching the foundling look back over to the mural, he could sense that the ‘lesson,’ whatever it may have been interpreted as, had been received well enough. Carduul regarded Armel with a sense of pride he could not help but to feel. After all, it is in his own nature to impart such teachings wherever he could. ‘Not the best student’ was a poor description compared to what he’d seen. “...You, and many others, yet hold faith in me despite my failings. I am ever grateful for that.” As he neared Armel, a gauntlet had reached out to pat the other upon the shoulder as he passed towards the exit. “And if you are able to hold such faith in me, then I ask of you to extend that same faith to yourself.” There had been a lighter chuckle to escape the mask as he straightened himself, “After all,” Came a quip as steps continued down the expansive hall of history. “Asking a question is the first step a student has to take—and this isn’t the first time you’ve done so. Education is best done by experience, and you’ve already experienced much.”