This one is mine. I no longer use yours…

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus passed the time teaching her Padawan Faalo's Cadences. They were essentially personal training regimes based upon a single premise.

She rooted around and found her old box of ball-bearings and candles. "Each cadence builds on the last. It took me almost a full year to perfect them all, but it was worth it."

She showed her apprentice each in turn - so she'd understand what was necessary - before focussing on the first. "Of course, once you reach the fifth, your ability to spar using telekinesis only will be a match for most Knights. If you keep at it, who knows how good you could become?"

Corvus then spaced nineteen candles at ten degree intervals in a semi-circle and placed a ball-bearing on each. Then with a sweep of her training saber, she removed all of the ball-bearings without touching any of the candles underneath. "Practice, that's all."

They worked on the exercise regime until they reached Dagobah. It was truly a Dark-sided planet. Corvus headed to the exit ramp and spoke to Alyona. "The Dark-sided cave is fraught with danger. I think you should go in alone. There you can face your greatest fear - but in overcoming it you will be stronger. And if you find the saber, then it will have been a perfect visit."

"The cave is about a kilometre that way," Corvus pointed into the dark, smelly and unforgiving swamp. "You can lead."

[member="Alyona Volkovna"]

 

[Alyona Volkovna (Алёна)]

Faalo's Cadences were, in Alyona's opinion, one of the greatest things Corvus could have chosen to teach her during their flight to Dagobah. The center of mind that was required to perform each task was mountainous for a Padawan like Alyona, though her skill at immersing herself in the Force helped greatly in mastering the concept of the Cadences. Practice would make improvement overtime, as long as Alyona committed the necessary effort. Her successes lifted her confidence in her ability; her failings gave her new ways to improve upon herself. Alyona thanked her Master for introducing her to the Cadences, and once they arrived over Dagobah, she excused herself to her quarters to prepare for the task ahead. In her room, Alyona donned a black, short-cut jacket to guard against the cold, wet conditions of Dagobah's surface, and refastened the buckles on her boots. She then clipped a small side pouch to the wide-waisted leather belt she wore that contained some food packets, medical supplies, and a brief list of other useful items, before returning to the hold where her Master waited.
"I feel nervous," Alyona allowed, as Corvus spoke of the cave as they stepped onto the soft, wet ground outside the ship. Fog drifted lazily above the ground, and filled the canopy like air in a balloon. Gnarltrees and various other flora littered the landscape, limiting visibility to a few dozen meters at best. "Fraught with danger, go alone..." Alyona muttered, paraphrasing her Master's words with a humorous smirk. She looked over at Corvus, a nervous smile on her lips, but she steeled her resolve and returned her gaze to the forest ahead. Alyona stepped forward and led her Master into the unknown, considering what Corvus had said about confronting her greatest fears. In an attempt to prepare herself for what she might face, Alyona began considering what her greatest fear might even be. She had little fear of death, nor a past worth feeling ashamed of, and neither did she fear becoming something twisted or evil in her pursuit of knowledge. Perhaps it was her age, but Alyona could not determine what, if anything, she was afraid of. That only means it has yet to reveal itself, she considered, biting at her lower lip and caressing the hilt of the training saber at her waist as she stepped over roots and around puddles and ponds. "My fears will likely manifest in things I have yet to experience in my life," Alyona said aloud, turning to look over her shoulder just far enough for Corvus to hear her. "I have loved, as much as a young girl can," she explored, "Though I have yet to love as a grown woman might." Alyona fell silent for a time.
"Perhaps my fears will manifest themselves in my own weaknesses..." She shook her head as she reflected momentarily upon herself. "I do not fear weakness...but I fear meeting obstacles that I cannot overcome..." Alyona explored this idea aloud as they continued moving forward, she opened herself to the Force and began touching upon the overwhelming flood of lifeforms around her. Even the Gnarltrees were alive, and the planet was populated by more microorganisms than Alyona could consider at one time. It's like trying to count the atoms in a cell, there are just so many...
"Maybe I am vain, but I feel confidence in myself, Master," Alyona continued. "Though not so much so that I feel no need for improvement. My people are always attempting to hone their skills and qualities, and I have never felt that my honor depends upon this success. In some ways, to fail is better than to succeed, for success does not always allow us to learn something new about ourselves..." Alyona began feeling a sense of frustration growing in her mind. She did not see herself as faultless, but she could not help but wonder how wrong she might be.
"Even this cave will be a learning experience," Alyona murmured, suddenly spying the entrance ahead through a fading cloud of fog. Alyona stopped and stood still, looking around before gazing back at the black pit before her. The cave appeared almost as a black hole, growing infinitely darker the harder she look in from the outside. She stood several dozen meters away but could already feel the stink of the Dark Side emanating from the cave's entrance like an overly strong perfume. Alyona's first instinct was to recoil her presence from the Force, but instead she opened it further. The closest she'd ever come to interacting with the Dark Side had been her encounter with the emotional rift on Ossus, where a great amount of negative feelings had been built around a foundation of pain and suffering inflicted by the Sith.
Alyona breathed deeply and attempted to calm herself. "I feel...as if every negative emotion I've ever felt is being amplified, accentuated, Master." She reported. The sensation washed over her heart like a frigid wave on a winter beach; it was both shocking and refreshing in a way. "Something new..." Alyona considered, opening herself further. She began to explore this new side of the Force delicately, as a passive observer. She saw its affect on the surrounding area; plants withered yet continued living, and even the trees themselves seemed more twisted and gnarled than the rest of the forest itself.
"The Dark Side seems to sustain only the most base needs, and disallows any true growth." Alyona gleaned, drawing her presence back in on herself and feeling a shiver run down her spine as if the Dark Side were grasping at her with invisible tendrils, hoping to pull her back in. She breathed in deeply and centered herself, then opened her eyes and looked back at Corvus. "The Dark Side is...desperate and...weak, in many ways. It is strongest when its thralls are weak themselves," Alyona noted. Her experience had already coincided with much of what she had read and learned about the nature of the Dark Side as taught by previous generations of Jedi. "Like oxidized metal, the Dark Side is a shadow of its companion, the Light. It is as real as we allow it to be, I feel..."
Alyona felt a sense of panic and fear grip her heart, and though it came from within herself, she sensed that it was instigated by an external source. She gripped her chest and breathed, drawing herself back to a calm state and guarding herself with the Force against intrusion. "Ever does it seek to find your cracks, your imperfections, hoping to break you down and enslave your heart." Alyona lowered her hand, fear remaining with her. "I must be guarded," she turned to her Master, wanting to know what she might find, but realising that Corvus would be utterly unable to tell her.
"What I bring inside, the Dark Side will attempt to use against me." Alyona concluded, glancing down at herself. She removed the wristcomp from her arm, then detached her belt, leaving them to rest atop a tree stump nearby. She shook her limbs loose and cracked her neck, then took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "Trust in the Force..." Alyona muttered. Trust in the Force, implicitly. Corvus had told her this when they had first met. Thus far, the Force had never failed Alyona, though she had to remind herself that the Force did not work for her. She was a servant of the people of the Galaxy, and the Force was her guide, her partner, at best. She needed the Force for knowledge and clarity as much as it needed her to carry it forward, as it needed all life.

Alyona stepped forward, tendrils of fog caressing her body as she made her way toward the cave's entrance. She left her mind open to the Force just enough to observe its passing, pressing vines out of her face as she stepped into the darkness ahead. She was swallowed by it and would seem to vanish in Corvus' eyes. Alyona saw nothing, the darkness prevented it, and had to lean on the Force as her guide. The Dark Side did not hide itself from her, and was always there in the back of her mind, offering her its support and leadership through the darkness.
"Oh but I am not afraid of the dark, my friend," Alyona whispered aloud, a smile touching her lips. "I do not need to see to move forward." Alyona closed her eyes and focused on what she heard and felt instead. Her fingertips grazed the moist walls at her side, guiding her forward into the darkness. She probed the earth around her with the Force, feeling its ruts and rocks and clumps of soil, small mounds of dirt that had been influenced by the traffic of insects and creatures over the years and decades. The dim, subtle presence of plant life grew in her mind and Alyona knew the ground opened up here beneath her. She crouched down and felt for the vines that sprouted from the hole's edge and delved into its darkness. Alyona grasped them and lowered herself down below, the heavy blanket of the Dark Side growing in weight around her. Her body felt as if she had been dipped into water, and felt simultaneously soaked and weighty while feeling weightless. Something is trying to drag me down, Alyona realised as she reached ground and stepped off firmly.
The Dark Side was strong here, and Alyona could feel its corruptive energies itching her skin, tickling the back of her throat, and gnawing on her mind. For a brief moment, she felt as if she were being swarmed by womp rats, and had to brush herself off while reminding herself they were not real. Taking a deep breath, Alyona centered herself once more, then turned to face the darkness with renewed conviction.
Trust in the Force, implicitly.

Alyona entered a large chamber, one with a pathway that curved to the left around a large abyss. The ground sloped upward and down again and she followed it to the far edge of the cavern, the itchiness growing all over her body with every step she took. "There is something here you do not want me to discover," Alyona called out into the darkness, opening her mind further to the Force as she let her words resound. "You punish me with your annoyances, but overcome them I shall." Alyona pressed forward into another cavern, guiding herself by touch and her faith that the Force was guiding her with a purpose. Each movement forward brought a new weight to the suffering the Dark Side was attempting to lay upon her, though brute force alone would not stem Alyona's conviction. She was increasingly determined to discover what it was the Cave was trying to hide from her, and her suspicions developed affirmation as she drove onward.
Around, within her own mind, Alyona began to remember each of her passed failings, and the negative emotions those experiences held for her. Yet their strength was little, for Alyona had yet to experience true suffering within her own life. "The Dark Side's power over an individual is determined by the strength that individual's experiences have over them," Alyona recited from one of her favorite writings, A Catalogue of Curiosity, by long dead Jedi Master Serbus Hoil. Alyona's relative youth and inexperience was denying the Dark Side a source of fuel to use against her, though she recognized this as a detriment to her learning, not a bonus. Alyona was escaping having to face the Dark Side's true power, for at this time it held no power over her. As a result, she would not find an obstacle here to overcome, and the experience would provide little for her to learn from. Alyona felt her disappointment to grow, and was surprised when her first instinct was to let that disappointment feed a sense of anger. She felt...cheated. Alyona quickly forced the anger to dissipate, combating it with logic and reasoning. "Learning does not always occur at the pace we desire," she reminded herself, taking yet another deep breath and centering herself. She quickened her pace somewhat, navigating the dark caverns and passages as she let the Force guide her to a destination. What that destination was, she knew not, but nervous as she was, Alyona maintained her faith.
Minutes, or maybe hours later, Alyona stepped forward through a curtain of vines and into a large, tall cavern that shone with dim light filtering in from the surface above. Water dripped steadily in many places, running in rivulets down vines and walls before forming pools on the ground below. At the far end of the cavern, set into the wall, was a small alcove, a shelf, upon which rested the goal she sought: A silver cylinder some thirty centimeters in length, smeared with mud and dirt. Alyona lifted her hand and made to step forward, but something stopped her. She frowned and lowered her hand, taking a moment to immerse herself in the Force and rediscover the Dark Side around her. When I attempt to leave this place, the Dark Side will seek to kill me, Alyona realised as fear welled within her. She quelled it swiftly, deciding for herself what the most logical course of action would be. Along the edges of her mental vision, Alyona could sense the Dark Side creeping about in the shadows, like a voxyn biding its time before exacting a kill.
She smirked at this thought. "I am the voxyn, not you, curtain of shadow," Alyona muttered as she stepped sideward and turned to face her prey. She would dispel this evil not with the Force, but the strength of her own perceptions. "You have no power over me," Alyona revealed, opening her mind to the Force and bathing in it. She let the Dark Side in, let it see who she was, let it search her mind and spirit for anything it could exploit against her. It found her fear of never finding a Master and spat in her face with the memory. Alyona remembered who her Master was, Corvus Raaf, Grand Master of the Jedi Order. Her fear of abandonment by her Order was struck down by the reality of her present. The Dark Side found her childhood fear of disappointing her parents, which Alyona ruined with the memory that her mother's non-Echani background had tempered her father's more traditional nature, leading away from the strict expectations Echani families typically had of their offspring. As a result, Alyona's upbringing had been positively charged and swelled with support from both of her parents.
"You're foundering," Alyona goaded, deciding the Dark Side of the Force had been given enough time to defeat her. She closed herself off from its presence, forcing it to return to a blanket state of oppression that enveloped her like a heavy fabric. Alyona breathed deeply, realising her body was shaking. She attempted to quell herself, but couldn't, and worry grew within her for several long, quiet moments as she stood alone in the darkness.
"Breathe," she reminded herself, opening her eyes and turning back to the lightsaber that was her goal. She had dispelled the Dark Side from her mind for the time being, though she felt it coiling with renewed strength, preparing to spring. It certainly was a powerful aspect of the Force, though its power relied upon brute strength and emotional manipulation, something Alyona was not prone to weakness against. As she felt the darkness grow in strength, building itself against her, Alyona dashed forward and plucked the ancient Jedi weapon from its ad hoc mantle then stepped back to the center of the chamber and activated its blade. The green-white beam appeared with a snap-hiss and bathed the chamber in light. Gathering the Force within herself even as the Dark Side renewed its assault against her mind, Alyona sprang into the air with great speed, slashing at the ceiling of vines and roots above her and bursting out of the cave in a shower of debris. Alyona tucked herself into a ball and spun forward in the air, then stretched out her legs and collapsed her knees as she struck the soft, murky ground below. Dust billowed out of the hole she left behind, mingling for a time with the fog before both dissipated around her. Luke Skywalker's lightsaber hummed at her side as Alyona righted herself, lifting the Jedi tool before her and inspecting it with a critical eye. The blade was steady, even, and the hilt felt comfortable in her grip. Even so, Corvus was right, it would need some minor tailoring before it could truly become her weapon.
Alyona deactivated the blade and watched it vanish into the hilt, then she turned and looked back at the cave entrance she'd made moments before. "The Force guided me, and delivered me from darkness," Alyona muttered in gratitude, suddenly realising how sweaty she was and how cold she had grown. She continued shaking slightly as she grasped the weapon in her hand, looking around shivering. Briefly she reached out and touched minds with her Master, giving the other woman the impression that she was safe, happy even, and that she felt successful, though Corvus would not know in what until Alyona had the opportunity to explain her experience and show her the lightsaber.
She walked off into the foggy forest in the direction she knew Corvus to be, struggling unsuccessfully to stem the tide of glee that was emanating from her. In order to temper her mirth, Alyona evaluated herself in the aftermath of her experience with the Dark Side of the Force, and realised that it had affected her more deeply than she had though in the moment. "That must be my lesson here," Alyona concluded as she continued to shake and shiver in a cold that she felt rested more in her confrontation with the Dark Side than the temperature of the air around her. "I lost sight of the affect its power could have upon me merely because I was successful in confronting it in the moment." Alyona shivered with fear at the realisation of what could have happened. Had the Dark Side managed to find a way to manipulate her, Alyona would have been blind to it until it was too late. The thought worried her, and she began wondering if she was in fact too prideful.
"I shall not forget this," she promised herself as she returned to her Master with Luke Skywalker's lightsaber in hand.

[member=Corvus Raaf]​

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Challenges were sometimes what set a Jedi apart. The risks taken that were necessary despite being fraught with danger. And not the flashy and ostentatious battles with the Sith, but the quiet ones. Like this one.

Without knowing it, Alyona was about to undertake the Trial of the Spirit. She may be a Padawan, but Corvus knew she was ready. She would have to look deep within her soul – on a quest of self-discovery. For her foe in the cave was potentially the most dangerous she’d ever have to face – the darkness within herself.

Some Padawans did not like what they saw and left the Order – such was the trauma. It was no surprise that many referred to the trail as Facing the Mirror. And often Jedi did not like the look of what was reflected. Luke Skywalker himself passed his Trial of the Spirit here.

As they walked, Corvus took in the dank and miserable conditions. She imagined not about the negative aspect of the swamp, but what it must have been like to be trained by Master Yoda.

She was shaken from her thoughts by Alyona.

"I feel nervous."

Corvus nodded. “Good, that means it’s important. That you care. That whatever happens, you will have done your best. No Master can ever ask for more. And trust in the Force of course.”

"My fears will likely manifest in things I have yet to experience in my life. I have loved, as much as a young girl can, though I have yet to love as a grown woman might."

Poignant words for Corvus to hear. The Master had never loved as a young girl and now a grown woman, her experiences were…complicated. How she would fare now in the cave was a matter of conjecture, but she surmised Braith would be integral to whatever she faced.

"Perhaps my fears will manifest themselves in my own weaknesses...Maybe I am vain, but I feel confidence in myself, Master."

Corvus let her Padawan speak. It was pointless to answer the questions posed – and foolish for her to try to guard her charge as to what she might mace. Who knew what you would see when the mirror was held up?

“We make mistakes. Mistakes do not make us,” Corvus said out loud, not intending to. “Sorry, an old saying that seemed pertinent. We always look to improve and set-backs are just a way of showing us an option that didn’t work. So we try again or look for an alternative. But we never give up, and that’s what is important.”

And she continued to listen to her Padawan. She was wise and would make a fine Jedi – no doubt eclipsing Corvus herself one day. “If there is truth between your heart and the Force, then you will be fine,” Corvus said when there was a lull.

“I tend to think less of the Light and the Dark nowadays and rather about good and evil. Using the Light-side to kill innocents or the Dark-side to save a life. Which should we be opposed to?” It was a rhetorical question – but a valid one.

The Order had long frowned on the concept of Potentium, but of late Corvus wondered to what end? Good use of the Light-side was the ideal. But good use of the Dark-side? Was that truly evil?

But she reflected on it with a mature viewpoint. A Youngling may misunderstand the message. To them things were simply black and white. They could not see the thousands of shades of grey in-between. Not that Corvus condoned the use of the Dark-side, but evil acts were evil, regardless of how they were brought about.

A fog was rolling in now, its wisps now shrouding their feet.

And then Alyona was gone – into the Dark Cave. And Corvus waited.

Some time passed. Corvus meditated – the Force would warn her of any upcoming dangers. The time was immaterial. Corvus felt disturbances in the Force – but nothing to break her immersion.

Finally she sensed her Padawan was returning. Her emotions were positive, Corvus filtered her natural Empathy to gauge her Padawan’s feelings. And then she saw her Padawan walking through the trees – the mist now knee-high. And despite the gloom, her hand was glinting – she was clearly carrying something metallic.

[member="Alyona Volkovna"]

 

[Alyona Volkovna (Алёна)]

As disappointed as Alyona felt in herself, she grinned when she caught her Master's eye as she stepped around the large, twisted root of a Gnarltree and returned to the cave's entrance with Luke Skywalker's lightsaber in hand. Her feelings of inadequacy and drive for improvement abated for the time being, allowing her to enjoy the partial victory she'd attained in the cave. Holding the weapon out for Corvus to inspect, Alyona activated its brilliant green-white blade with a distinctive snap-hiss, and watched it spring to life before her very eyes.
"Amazing, isn't it?" Alyona muttered, for the moment obsessed. She deactivated the blade and handed it to her Master. "I was honestly surprised to find it here, and at all. This cave is twisted and its branches as numerous as a Gnarltree. I suspect they move and rearrange themselves at need, though whether this is physical or some sort of illusion maintained for each individual visitor, I have no idea." Alyona looked back to the cave entrance, shivering once more. "It wasn't the most terrible experience," She confessed, "Though it was the largest single obstacle I've yet faced as a Jedi." Alyona sighed, reminding herself not to revel too deeply in her victory. She had learned an important lesson today, that she had underestimated the Dark Side, and that her success in the cave had been due mostly to chance that it had little to exploit within her. Briefly she wondered what sort of demons Corvus carried, and if she would ever learn them.

[member=Corvus Raaf]​

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus’s smile turned into a beam. She recognised the hilt — how could she not, hers was fashioned from the self-same schematics. She resisted the urge to take the hilt — it was Alyona’s and it felt too personal to hold.

She sensed a range of feelings in her Padawan but closed her mind to them, for fear of intruding. But she marvelled at the ancient saber — essentially as perfect as the day it was crafted, no doubt hidden by the Dark-side energies of the cave, so even a strong seeker of Light-sided auras would fail to find it.

“You have done well my Padawan. Very well indeed. It has been beautifully crafted. And I have no hesitation in saying that you’ve passed your first Knight trial. Your progress is swift but none the less thorough.”

“And now you face a question. Do you simply disassemble and then reassemble the saber — in order to realign the crystal to you. It’s a synthetic one that Luke created himself. Or do you get a new crystal to re-craft the saber?”

[member="Alyona Volkovna"]

 

[Alyona Volkovna (Алёна)]

To hear her Master speak of passing one of her Trials made Alyona beam, though she watched her pride carefully even as she accepted Corvus' praise. To curb her enthusiasm, Alyona turned her mind to Corvus' inquiry regarding the fate of the saber's crystal. Hefting the Jedi tool in her hand, Alyona considered its glinting metal surface for a moment. "I wait," she whispered, learning the weapon's weight even as she handled it deactivated. "Patience, Master, is what I need. Patience and...experience with it. Eventually I will learn what the right course of action is." She arched a thin eyebrow. "Perhaps I'll adapt the chamber to accommodate two crystals." Alyona looked down at the two weapons her Master had been holding for her. Picking up the training lightsaber, Alyona looked it over for a moment before returning it to Corvus and taking the shoto. "I suppose I shan't be needing that one anymore?"

[member=Corvus Raaf]​

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus smiled. The most useful learning came from within. Her Padawan was learning patience - a most undervalued Jedi trait in Corvus' opinion. Recklessness costs lives and is against the tenets of the Jedi Code. Yet too often young Jedi especially saw patience as a lack of action.

In time many realised it was merely a tool to properly evaluate the options and make the best decision - not the quickest. For the fastest was often a path to the Dark-side and allowed emotions to cloud wisdom.

"The Force will tell you when the time is right. Trust it." And she took back the training saber. "And I commend you on your approach to this. You are gaining wisdom, which is not possible to teach. Too many confuse it with knowledge - which it is not."

Corvus looked around, clearly keen to find an analogy. "Consider the tomato. Knowledge tells you it is a fruit. But wisdom informs you not to put one in a fruit salad." She seemed pleased with her choice. "So...since we're here, how about we find Yoda's hut?"

[member="Alyona Volkovna"]

 

[Alyona Volkovna (Алёна)]

Alyona gladly accepted her Master's praise, though never forgot the woman's cautions. The Dark Side can sneak up on even a Jedi Master if they are not careful, she reminded herself, looking back at the cave's entrance as the two women walked away and entered the mists of Dagobah. She shivered, then hugged her chest for a moment. The feeling of uneasiness lessened as they distanced themselves from the cave. Alyona hoped that the reject and discomfort she felt might be replaced by a feeling of welcome and acceptance at the home of Master Yoda, a structure Alyona did not expect to find intact. "Master..." Alyona began some time later as the two women wandered together in the fog. "Would you tell me about your first experience with the Dark Side? I can't help but feel as if I could utilise some comparison."

[member=Corvus Raaf]​

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus listened to the question and gave a few moments of silence in return as she thought. She had been affected a few times by the lure of the Dark-side, and few knew the greatest challenge – but Alyona deserved to know the truth.

“I was a Padawan, on Ossus. I was awoken in the early hours one morning by another and asked to help her. Her Master had found a map to an underground den under our Academy. It was suspected the Sith had or maybe even were using it.”

“We found it and sure enough, it was being used to form a group of Padawans they hoped to turn. There was a fight and the other Padawan was taken.” Corvus looked grave at this point – clearly it was a memory she did not enjoy re-living.

“Anyway, there were rings, clearly a way of identifying these infiltrators. Or so we suspected. I carried one with me for some time. And I went to Rhen Var and obtained my Solari crystal for my saber. And I constructed it. But as I did, I had a vision. That my first Master did not die of natural causes but was killed by a traitor in the Corellian Jedi. In my haste to find him, the ring fell out of my pocket and wedged behind another crystal. The one that now sits in my shoto.”

“And rather than lose the ring…I put it on. It was infused with Sith magic. It was like a form of Taint and pulled me to the Dark-side. I found that Sith traitor. And disabled him. And then…”

She looked at Alyona, tears forming in her eyes. “And I tried to kill him. My saber cut out – due to the crystal.”

“So I meditated. I realised the connection belatedly. So I destroyed the ring and understand how close I came to taking a life against the Code. How I could so easily have followed the path.”

She looked into Alyona’s eyes. “There are other stories, for other days. But that was the first and the most haunting.”

“Does it help?”

[member="Alyona Volkovna"]

 

[Alyona Volkovna (Алёна)]

Alyona listened to Corvus' story with a vested interest. The woman had faced many demons in her time and indeed her past experiences overlapped Alyona's own. She nodded as the couple trailed through the mists, contemplating and analysing Corvus' story for several silent minutes. "You...you fought an internalized struggle brought on by an externalized force." Alyona observed, glancing back in the direction of the cave and gesturing toward it with the ancient lightsaber grasped in her palm. "That is what I expected to find myself. I expected the Dark Side to manifest in my environment a weakness or fear it found within myself." Alyona brought her hands to her chest, as if clutching at herself. "Yet it produced nothing." She quieted her mind for a moment and considered this thought again, hoping to ensure her analysis was not mistaken. "The lesson I have learned is to avoid arrogance in the face of the Dark Side. While I escaped unscathed this time, I cannot expect this to be the case in future encounters." Her analysis was calculated, precise. It was something Alyona would be considering for some time. "Yet the lesson is not the experience, thus I am unsure, what inside me did the Dark Side find? Did it find nothing? Are my own fears or weaknesses so deeply buried they have thus far remained undiscovered by even me?" Alyona looked over at Corvus, hoping to hear the woman's thoughts.

[member=Corvus Raaf]​

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus listened and reflected. There was barely one answer, so it was always dangerous to voice an opinion as if it were a fact.

“I have experience Taint one other time. But it was…complicated. I accessed a Holocron on Prakith and…well…kind of…fought with the gatekeeper. Darth Bane did it, so I figured I could too.” She gave a sheepish grin. “I was a rookie Master back them.”

“Anyway, in corrupting some of the data, some of it stuck in my head. Plus, what later turned out to be a sliver of the gatekeeper – which was of course the consciousness of Darth Andeddu. So until it is removed – which my sister has plans for – it waits there and looks to capitalise if I’m vulnerable.”

“Which brings me back to Kashyyyk. I was subject to taint and before I could purge it with Force Light, it affected me. It is a powerful magic. And it found Andeddu it seems. For a short while it took control of me. I felt great power and my emotions were driving me. And the voice of I presume Andeddu in my head was goading me, spurring me on to kill the Sith in front of me.”

“But the Force prevailed. So, to answer your question, I suspect we’re all capable of turning to the Dark-side. But the drivers of the seduction are I believe unique. Fears, weaknesses, desires, emotions, needs? Any or all of these and more I suspect. All we can do is be vigilant and watch for the signs.”

“Does this make you feel better or worse?”

[member="Alyona Volkovna"]

 

[Alyona Volkovna (Алёна)]

"The revelation that my own Master might become prey to the Dark Side in moments of weakness due to the presence of a long-dead Sith spirit inhabiting a part of her noggin makes me a bit worrisome, though I'm sure you'll forgive me of this." Alyona's tone was deadpan, almost serious, but a smirk lingered at the corner of her lips. She looked over at Corvus after a moment to share her true thoughts. "It comforts me to know that even those we see as amongst the strongest are vulnerable enough to face the same challenges as myself. It is further consoling to know that such challenges have not over ran you." Alyona smiled briefly before catching sight of the structure up ahead, through the mist. "I guess that this must be the place..." She muttered, pointing ahead.

[member=Corvus Raaf]​

 

[Corvus Raaf]

Corvus looked up. You could dwell on the negative for too long. Be aware and prepare for success first and failure second. That was the Jedi way. The Code instructed it.

“You’re learning,” she offered before turning her focus onto the structure. A small dwelling, made mostly of mud. The power source had long since extinguished and without Yoda and the Force to hold it together, the place was quite literally falling apart.

It was clear the hut was fashioned from an old starship lifeboat escape pod, covered in mud to blend in. Over time the ducts that no doubt provided drainage were clogged and the flor was now effectively under the water-line.

“It may not be much to look at, but for fifteen years this was home to arguably the greatest Grand Master the Republic Jedi ever had. It won’t hurt to take a look inside.”

[member="Alyona Volkovna"]