To keep track of the past...

[Mantic Dorn]

Mantic leaned in over the table. The stitches were exquisite. Pleased he leaned back and gathered the robe in front of him. To sow well was something that Mantic cherished and allowed himself to be proud of. Secretly he was well aware that few could best him on the skill and even though not all knew of it he did not hide this talent either. It was simply a weak spot in the otherwise firm façade of the jedi master.
Mantic then started to fold the robe neatly as he waited for his padawan [member="Rafeesh"] to arrive.

The two had been companions for some time now and [member="Rafeesh"] had made excellent progress. As always a padawan wished to learn more but on this occasion Mantic had asked to see him on a different matter.
Something concerning both their pasts.

 

[Rafeesh]

Rafeesh was not much of sower, having only learned the skill relatively recently. But then the problem had then been that he had become more cautious around damage to his clothes than as a Sith. He tried to avoid causing unnecessary rips to his Jedi robes. Not to get out of sowing, but just because it was a hassle that right now he did not need, not with his own mental battles to fight with himself.

The call for him had come as a surprise, he wondered what his master could want. Perhaps another lesson? He hoped so, there was always room to learn and strengthen. He hoped that he had proven himself to his master and to the Jedi that he was not the Sith he had been. He feared being looked down upon by those that he considered most important in his life now.

He found his master with a robe neatly folded, "You summoned me, Master?"

[member="Mantic Dorn"]

 

[Mantic Dorn]

Mantic looked up and inclined his head as [member="Rafeesh"] entered.

"I did padawan." he replied and motioned for [member="Rafeesh"] to take a seat.

"Your training has progressed well and I am pleased to see that you seem to be finding more and more peace in your mind. You have quite the different approach now then the first time we met." he said not with out a tint of irony playing in between the lines.

"Tell me, after this time. How have you come to think about the modern day jedi and where we stand in the galaxy. I would like for you to approach this topic without trying to find the words that will please me or the code. Speak from your heart on the matter."

Mantic placed his hands in his lap and prepared to listen to his padawan on the topic. [member="Rafeesh"] came from an entire different time. Much had changed, for better or worse. It was something he had been curious about for a long time but only now he thought that it was time to expand on the subject.

 

[Rafeesh]

Rafeesh thought about that. He could think of many things that had changed, he had to focus on the Jedi. He had tried to stop thinking about the differences after he had joined the Jedi. He had found that homesickness often resulted from thinking about it. He did not really want to deal with that. But it was perhaps time. "I recall the Jedi being one with the Republic, and in that lay their strength. The two were combined in a way that allowed them to focus their power and combined might in combating what both saw as evil. But back then we were fighting only one foe, the Sith. I have found the collection of knowledge that has been built, there has been much learned, I do wish though that some of the knowledge from the other time had survived. It seems that the Jedi have lost some of their reputation, I do not understand why. I think the Jedi have fought hard for their place, but they seemed to be split, that is a mistake. We present a splintered front to the Sith, something that had at out time been a strictly Sith issue. I was surprised that the Jedi had fractured into various different factions and joining different governments.

Something I believe the Jedi have done well is adapt, they have taken the wound of losing their homeworld and the Jedi Temple on Coruscant and seemed to have saved the most important things. I wish that we had been so in the war, the attack on Coruscant and the sacking of the temple had damaged us in a way that hurt our pride and legitimized the Sith threat in the eyes of the Republic. It was soon after the Treaty of Coruscant that I fell to the dark side. The Jedi today have done well, but as always there are areas that they could improve in. I do not see myself as fit to even attempting to repair those faults I see, as I am filled with worse failings myself. But for starts I think we need to reunify the Order. If possible." He spoke from his experience. He wondered why his master asked this question specifically. He was nothing more than a padawan and one that was far from being perfect at that. He doubted he would be a knight any time soon, if ever. But that was a concern for a different time, he was curious as to what his master had in mind today.

[member="Mantic Dorn"]

 

[Mantic Dorn]

[member="Rafeesh"] mirrored Mantics own point of view. The disorder with the many force affiliated group around the galaxy offered some good perspectives here and there but overall it was what threatened peace in the galaxy above all else.


"I agree with that sentiment padawan. The jedi of old kept the force sensitive from an early age and hindered any force users from lashing out on their own." Mantic smoothed the robe in front of him carefully and removed it from the table.

"History has taught us that whenever powerful force users go with their own ideas, chaos awaits. we live in a time when the force runs wild in the many. And thus chjaos reigns on most worlds." it had been meant as stating fact but he could not help but choke on the words meaning as he spoke them. The hjorrors that swept through the galaxy of today was unparalleled.

"I wish to adress another concern of mine that involves your return tho this time." he continued trying to retake the control over his voice.

"Your former Master - [member="Lord Mythos"] - when I found you he had sent you to kill me. Or was our encounter a coincidence?" Mantic then asked with his usual calm voice.

 

[Rafeesh]

Rafeesh was relieved that [member="Mantic Dorn"] agreed. He had been afraid that he had been too critical. He missed those days, even if he had become a Sith then and failed his friends. There was strength in the Order, all the Jedi had understood that the Code was paramount and that there had to be no disagreement on lesser issues. He did not know why the Jedi had split, he felt that it was related to the reason that Sith so often broke away. Perhaps some of the Jedi had decided to run away from their decision to defend the Republic and democracy. The Jedi had taken an oath to defend the Republic, and while occasionally it may falter, the Jedi had to defend and repair what damage was done.

Then his master had asked about their first meeting. "Out meeting was not intended. I would say it was the will of the Force. Mythos had sent me to destroy the information that you had sought, making certain that there were no leads back to him. Maybe he wanted me to fight you, I do not know but I think it was unintentional."

 

[Mantic Dorn]

Mantic nodded. The force sometimes guided individual for reasons beyond what ordinary creatures of the galaxy could compresence.

"That is an reassuring thought padawan." he smiled back at [member="Rafeesh"]

"I have been overlooking the threat of this foul plot for too long and it is my intention to return my attention to the dealings of the sith lord and his network. Over time more information has been brought to my intention and other events pointed me toward a sort of larger understanding of it all."

Mantic fell silent for a moment, contemplating his own thoughts on the grand scheme that he had been trying to track for some time now. Ever since that brutal encounter on Atrisia [member="Lord Mythos"] had left few tracks to follow, but out of chance other pieces of the puzzle had come to Mantic. Pieces he used to lay the puzzle that he believed to be a correct one.

"Do you remember when I tried to describe the force as a web. There are many threads, some dark, some light that together from that which we call the force." he stated without waiting for a reply.

"I believe I have found two dark threads that interact with each other in a conscious and unconscious way. I believe I have found a master and apprentice working toward the same goal but using different methods to reach their dark goal. Lord Mythos and another dark lord of the sith, one Darth Ferus, are somehow connected and I only recently understood that they appearing on Atrisia a few years back when Emperor Malgus took the throne under the nose of a [member="Lady Kay"] in an open debate Darth Ferus was there as well. The Atrisian Emperor is firmly under Lord Mythos control. Perhaps you recall seeing the Atrisian Royal guard on Denovia, where Mythos performed his foul deed in the depth."

“Furthermore, in a recent attempt to kidnap or possibly assassinate a Republic senator Darth Ferus appeared deep inside Republic space. I cannot put my finger on it but the threads that are being woven around these two characters are growing darker and stronger by the hour. “ Mantic shook his head slightly. All of this had given him much head ache and it seemed the force would not let him leave it be.

"But there is some hope as well. I now have a lead on the whereabouts of [member="Lord Mythos"]. In the wreckage of that mansion on Naboo where we met the first time I took a device with me. Most of its content of little to no interest but it did reveal that [member="Lord Mythos"] had a connection with Mustafar and its robotic overlord [member="Ultimatum"] “

“Exactly what this connection means is unclear. But I believe that we need to investigate Mustafar and this [member="Ultimatum"] character further. But I am afraid that when move in this part of the web the threads sends signals that are too easily picked up by our enemies.“

Mantic turned his head toward his padawan.

“You must travel to Mustafar and learn what you can about [member="Lord Mythos"] from there. But understand that we do not know if this [member="Ultimatum"] is a friend or foe as of yet.”

[member="Fortuna"]

 

[Rafeesh]

Rafeesh had thought about that moment, when he had been sent to destroy the information on Naboo, much recently. It just had to be part of the Force's plan whatever it was. Would he find something worth being discovered? What did the Force have in store for him? It was a question that seemed all too prevalent in this time of his life. It irritated him to no end that he did not know why he was here. The Force had brought him here, that was for sure. Why else had he been chosen to be put into stasis? He had not been an especially talented Sith, or one with a master of high position.

He did recall the talks that [member="Mantic Dorn"] had had with him about the Force being a web. He had not thought much of it, but he agreed with the basic principle, everything was connected by the Force. The greatest of Jedi down to the simplest of organisms. He took the information told to him by his master with thought. This was certainly a good breakthrough, perhaps it was part of his fate the path the Force had chosen for him.

"So you believe that we can learn more of Mythos through this Ultimatum?" Quite a sinister name that. Was it some sort of doomsday droid? Or merely a madman's name given to it? How had it become ruler of a planet? He wondered why Mythos had worked with a droid like that. "Have you ever seen the droid? Or know anything of him?"

 

[Mantic Dorn]

Mantic furrowed a brow and shook his head lightly.

"I am afraid not. The ruler of Mustafar is a mystery besides what is publiced officially about him. But if you wish to make inquires about him you could try and use a contact of mine." Mantic wet his lips as his mind wandered. He was not sure himself where all of this would take them but he did know that both [member="Darth Ferus"] and [member="Lord Mythos"] had to be stopped.

"You can contact agent [member="Fixx Kearney"] and see if the has any intel on the droid. He is part of the Republic Intelligence and might be able to pull out more information then we on the matter. But it is a long shot, and you might draw a blank."

"I myself will try and discern if I can learn anything more about the more vague character, [member="Darth Ferus"] - in all of this. I believe he has tried to have me killed, but I am not sure on why he singled me out. Might be a coincidence, but something tells me there is more to this then meets the eye. We must both act with great caution padawan."

[member="Rafeesh"]

 

[Rafeesh]

An attack on [member="Mantic Dorn"]? Why? What had made this Darth Ferus decide to attack his master? This made it more important to Rafeesh. A direct attack, he wanted to know why. This Ultimatum would rue the day he decided to work with Sith, if he did not give the Jedi the information he wanted. He wondered still how a droid had become ruler, perhaps Mythos had set the droid as a proxy leadership so that the Sith could control two planets at once, thus giving him a massive powerbase from which to work.

"I believe I will go for Mustafar immediately. Ultimatum should not be a problem if he is merely a droid." Rafeesh came from a time when droids had been simple soldiers, not a true threat to Force users, and had only recently learned that there were some who could pose danger to Jedi. But it had not sunk in yet. He imagined a droid easily vanquished. It was a step towards Mythos, a final confrontation with the man who had held Rafeesh in the chains of the Dark Side was inevitable.

Rafeesh wanted to be ready for that. He wanted to be strong enough to face his former master. Then and only then would be be a Jedi. The ancient last right of passage of the Jedi, to face a Sith and come out victorious. That was his goal. He would go through the trials as the old days. He would prove himself a Jedi in the ways of the ancients. Perhaps this would be one of those trials.