Private Trip back home

[Laphisto]

Laphisto raised a brow and gave a small chuckle grabbing his chin in thought for a moment a soft rumble pushing from his throat. As he thought her words over for a moment " a scholar? That wouldn't be a bad idea. I don't see the harm in that. Considering my family comes from a long line of scholars. Who knows you might even find one of my ancestors here"

He had said it half hartedly a small chuckle rolling from his throat " in fact a scholar might actually come in handy. They would know more about this place than we could ever begin to understand." Laphisto took a few steps forwards looking out at the few scholars who were locked at Thier scrolls one or two of them having piles of them in their arms.they seemed to be doing something but what?

Iandre Athlea

 

[Iandre Athlea]

It always made Iandre happy when she made Laphisto laugh. To hear that from him caused her smile in return.

"Were you different from your ancestors?"

Turning in a circle, she looked across the room. At the volumes of information, she then stopped to finish her circle and gazed at her Master. She not only waited for an answer but gave him a slightly appraising eye as if she was trying to memorize how he looked to compare it with the scholars in the library.

"Too many people know how to fight. Not enough know how to pass along knowledge. You do both. Fight and teach."

Drawing in a breath, she turned away to look through the room again.

Laphisto

 

[Laphisto]

Laphisto paused for a moment in front of one of the dead, his gaze lingering on the ancient scroll clutched in the figure's withered hands. He studied it with quiet curiosity, as if trying to decipher what the scholar had been attempting to carry and where they had intended to go. "I don't think so," he murmured thoughtfully. "But I evolved past just bookkeeping. I told you about the library on Ossus, didn't I?" A small smile tugged at his lips as he glanced toward Iandre, then back to the towering shelves around them. "I would have loved to become the Chief Librarian of the Archives, back in my day."

With a soft shake of his head, he moved to one of the long-abandoned tables and carefully picked up a thick, timeworn book. He brushed the dust from its surface, fingers tracing the faded title, flipping it open with a reverence that spoke of old habits not yet forgotten. "I had to learn to fight," he added, eyes still scanning the brittle pages. "Especially being a Jedi Guardian, as I was." As Laphisto remained focused on the book, it was Iandre Athlea who might have noticed the detail he missed one of the dead scholars bore a sigil stitched into the shoulder of their robes. The same sigil engraved into the chestplate of Laphisto's armor.

 

[Iandre Athlea]

Her gaze softened as Laphisto answered her.

"I would have loved to have seen Ossus before it was destroyed. That was before my time, even, so it wasn't possible. What I did see was some of the tiling that was rescued and some of the records, of course."

Watching him as he moved, the dim light of the distant stars briefly lit up the emblem on his chestplate. It caught her attention until it disappeared in the darkness again.

"Did you ever make a lightsaber? You have that giant sword, but I've never seen you with a lightsaber. Mine is green. I wanted to be a Temple Guardian, but now that's no longer an option. I'm unsure what I should focus on. What do you think I should work on?"

Turning to look at the scroll one of the scholars was holding, the light of her helmet grazed across the shoulder of the Kiev'arian. Taking a step back, she strengthened the beam and focused on the stitching. Her breath caught for a second before she could speak.

"Laphisto, you might want to come see this."

Keeping the light where it was, she didn't turn her head when he arrived.

Laphisto

 

[Laphisto]

laphisto gave a small chuckle " so the moasaic's are still there? " he spoke briefly as he looked around at another table a flick of his ear being seen " i was actually there when we salvaged that. me and a few other knights did our best to dig it up . or at least the parts we thought were the most important" he gave a half hearted chuckle a soft rumble pulling from his throat though his ear soon fell back on his head.

"i ended up making a light saber eventually. during the mandalorian wars, i bet my force sword in a duel against a man named ris ordo. he in turn gave me a good chunk of beskar and told me to forge a weapon worthy of a jedi" he shook his head softly with a light chuckle grabbing at the Broad Saber that was mag locked to his side before offering it towards her to inspect " a focus?" he thought for a moment as he approached" you hsould focus on where you think you are most needed. find a place where you belong most" walking towards her when he heard her call out to him which caused him to raise a brow looking at the stitching

" would you look at that, another of my ancestors" he rumbled his words lightly eyes darting over the fabric

Iandre Athlea

 

[Iandre Athlea]

Giving Laphisto a rather flat look, he might not see it across the distance and darkness. Without the Force, she didn't even know if he would be able to feel her reaction.

"This was 900 years ago or so. I haven't exactly been back to Coruscant to check out the current temple. Does the current incarnation of the Republic control it? I certainly would NOT want to visit if I could get shot at just for trying to check it out again."

After finishing, she silently chewed on the inside of her cheek as she listened to his answer. Accepting the blade, she didn't turn it on but did look at the hilt closely. Handing it back to him, she considered his advice. Shrugging her shoulders, the spacesuit rustled slightly.

Moving to the other side of the room was when she found one of his ancestors.

"Can you tell what she is reading?"

Maybe Iandre should have stated it in the past tense, but she didn't think of that when she spoke.

Laphisto

 

[Laphisto]

"From everything I've gathered, yes the current incarnation of the Republic still holds Coruscant. Though, truthfully, that hardly means the Jedi Temple remains untouched. Over the centuries, that place has been razed, repurposed, and rebuilt by more regimes than I can count. The original structure is long gone, and whether that old mosaic still exists? That's anyone's guess. It wouldn't surprise me if it's buried under layers of reconstruction or shattered entirely, lost in one of the countless purges or invasions. The city might be the same in name, but what it was when we knew it? That's dust."

He paused, voice growing slightly more serious. "As for the Alliance—they're keeping their distance, for now. Not hostile, but not allies either. With our plans to raise a new Jedi Temple on Lah'mu, we're trying to avoid stirring any unnecessary tension. Ideally, we'll stay off their radar. For a while, at least."

Laphisto stepped toward the figure, his expression darkening with a quiet frown as he studied the frozen form. The scholar had been caught mid-stride, as though urgently moving through the archive before the cataclysm struck one arm still clutching a scroll, the other outstretched toward a pile of books as if trying to save them. With a low rumble in his chest, he gently pried the scroll from their stone-stiffened grip, handling it with reverence rather than urgency. His fingers traced over the flaking parchment as he read the title, then moved to lift one of the tomes resting nearby, brushing away centuries of dust.

"These are historical records," he murmured. "Early Kiev'arian culture... social structures, naming rites, even their ancient myths." He opened one book carefully, scanning a page covered in neat, looping script interspersed with faded illustrations spiraling symbols and diagrams of architecture. A moment passed before he added more quietly, "They were trying to preserve what they could… even as the end came. Knowledge was their final act of defiance." He closed the book slowly, letting the weight of that truth settle between them like the dust in the air.

Iandre Athlea

 

[Iandre Athlea]

What he said about the Coruscant Temple made sense to her, even if it gave her sorrow. Places changed, sometimes as much as people, and Iandre needed to remember that. From the conversations they'd had, even Laphisto had changed. She knew she had, and that would continue for a very long time. Not as long as it would be for him, but her whole life. When she had once been in a stagnant phase, change came to her whether she wanted it to or not. She accepted this and was quiet as he explained about a new Temple they were going to build.

Remembering the two people who came to her rescue, one of them had been a Jedi Padawan from the Alliance. She and Zinayn had worked together to get her to the surface and stabilized. The two had expressed pretty much the same thoughts and feelings, from what she could remember.

Iandre softly smiled at his answer. Her tone matched the feeling.

"Knowledge is power, isn't it? Should we take any of these archives?"

With a broad motion, she indicated the large room around them.

"Until the day comes that I can read your language, you'll have to read it to me. Like a small child and her parent."

It would be up to Laphisto to decide whether he took her seriously or not.

Laphisto

 

[Laphisto]

Laphisto turned his gaze toward the towering shelves and vaulted arches of the library, letting the scale of the place settle over him again. The quiet hum of the air was broken only by their footsteps and the occasional shifting of dust. He glanced sidelong at Iandre when she spoke, pausing beside a long stone table stacked with brittle scrolls. "If you need me to read the texts to you, I can. It may take time to cross-reference the language structure, but I'll begin a system tonight. We'll start with basic entries cultural records, terminology tables and expand from there. You'll need to memorize the phonetics first before we move to syntax."

He said it like he was planning a lesson, not realizing she might've been joking. "As for removing anything " He stepped forward and gently ran a hand along one of the preserved cases, fingers brushing dust off a carved titleplate. "It's doable. We'll mark which sections are most intact. Anything loose will go first. Fixed shelving, binding racks we'll catalog and return for those once we've got stabilization equipment."

He looked back at her plainly. "This place is massive. We're not going to carry it out by hand, and I'm not leaving it behind to rot. If these records survived this long, they'll outlast us assuming we treat them properly."

Iandre Athlea

 

[Iandre Athlea]

It was nice to see Laphisto getting passionate about saving the work of his people. She was glad to have asked this, and now that it was an option, looked forward to taking language lessons from him.

"I've heard the best way to learn a language is to have full exposure to it. So maybe after teaching me some of the basics, you only speak Kiev'arian to me and expect me to do the same with you."

Usually, she was confident in her speech, but this time it lacked a little. As if she were second-guessing herself. That seemed to happen a little more often of late, and she wasn't liking it much. Then again, getting thrown into a different time might be a contributing factor. Perhaps she was feeling out of place, and that was the reason her confidence was wavering.

"How do you plan to keep these stabilized? Once they get moved from this sterile atmosphere, they are susceptible to decay."

Following in his footsteps, she admired the work and literature before them.

Laphisto