Private Trip for the lost

[Laphisto]

Laphisto had summoned Cora for this journey with deliberate intent. He had not forgotten her little escapade during the funeral rites after Daro an act that had, at first, left him seething with fury. But time had tempered that anger. In the quiet days that followed, he had turned the matter over in his mind, reflecting on her history and her losses. Perhaps she did not feel as though she truly belonged among them. Perhaps she was running from grief, seeking escape rather than remembrance. If that was the case, then he could show her why the Lilaste Order stood so firm on the matter of their dead why the fallen must stand beyond their own lives, their memory eternal.

He had given her a dossier of the world they were bound for: Kiev'ara. A dead planet, and yet not empty. He had outlined the risks, the strange phenomena, and the chilling truths of what could happen the moment she set foot upon its frozen surface. Yet he offered no explanation for why she had been chosen. Only that she was to come. During the descent, silence reigned in the shuttle's cabin. Laphisto sat motionless, hands folded across his lap, his presence calm and unyielding. He offered her no reassurance, no warning, no hint of the destination's purpose beyond the datachip he had pressed into her hand. When she arrived in the shuttle bay earlier, his only instruction had been simple: "Take a seat."

The rest she had to endure in silence.Only when the shuttle touched down on the barren surface did his voice finally break the stillness."There is no atmosphere here," he said evenly, his tone more instruction than conversation. "Seal your suit. Lock your helmet." Without hesitation, he drew his own helmet down, the seals hissing as they engaged. The sound echoed faintly inside the shuttle, sharp in the quiet. He watched her with patient stillness, waiting until her own armor hissed shut before moving. At last, he reached for the ramp control, pressing the release. With a hydraulic groan, the boarding ramp lowered, a blinding wash of pale light spilling into the shuttle's interior. The dead world of Kiev'ara lay beyond.

Laphisto turned without another word and descended. His first step onto the planet's surface made his entire frame shudder, as though the ground itself pushed back against him. For a brief moment he seemed to falter, his balance threatened by something unseen. It was not weakness more like the weight of a memory pressing down on his body. His head bowed slightly, breath catching inside the sealed helmet, before he steadied himself and moved forward onto the frozen wasteland.

 

[Cora]

The travel to the planet's surface was long, silent and uncomfortable. In the seat, her leg shook with anxious anticipation. She flipped through the dossier the dragon-man had given her, skimming over the long-winded documentation, not really taking in the information but using it as an attempt to mask her discomfort in his looming presence. Her heart hadn't stopped pounding once he had learned of her... misdemeanours.

Silence was broken by his instruction as the shuttle was planted on the surface. She fumbled with her helmet for a moment, struggling to lock it into position, still not used to the armour. It finally sealed with the same hiss, then Laphisto opened the shuttle door. She observed as he set foot on his home rock, pausing to gather himself for a short moment as his feet touched the surface. What was that about? She wondered as she followed after him.

The instant her first step connected with the surface of the planet, she fell to her knees. Something felt wrong. She couldn't pinpoint what that feeling was. What did that dossier say again? Collecting herself with a few laboured breaths, she scrambled back to her feet and quickly followed after the High Commander, trying her best to hide that strange feeling gnawing away insider her.

Words could not describe the sensation she was feeling. It was if something from deep inside her had suddenly been ripped out. She felt cold and hollow. Yet she pressed on, remaining silent in the wake of Laphisto's punishment for her. Her pace quickening to catch up to him as she held her head low and wrapped her arms around herself for some comfort.

Laphisto

 

[Laphisto]

Laphisto said little as they walked. The journey across the frozen expanse was carried only by the crunch of their boots against crystallized frost and the faint whine of life-support systems humming inside their helmets. The planet itself glowed with an eerie luminescence blue static dancing across the surface like a perpetual storm sealed beneath ice. It gave just enough light to see by, bathing the dead land in an otherworldly pallor.

After some time, Laphisto slowed, then came to a stop. His silence carried a weight, as though he was listening to something she could not hear. Ahead, the landscape shifted into something far more terrible than empty wasteland.

Spread before them was a field of statues hundreds, perhaps thousands, stretching as far as her eyes could follow. At first glance, it might have been mistaken for an ancient graveyard of weathered stone. But the truth was far more chilling. Each figure was Kiev'arian, each one frozen in the throes of their final moment. None were alike. Some were mid-swing, blades raised high in defiance. Others knelt or staggered, clutching mortal wounds. A few slumped across petrified logs or collapsed onto their shields, captured forever in the instant of their fall.

And within every statue burned a glow. Faint, but alive, pulsing like the rhythm of a heartbeat. The light was synchronized across the field, a thousand souls bound together in silence. With each slow thrum, the entire graveyard seemed to breathe as one.For the first time since they had landed, Laphisto broke the silence with more than a terse instruction. His voice, low and steady, carried through the helmet's comms with a resonance that cut through the stillness of the graveyard.

"Tell me what you see here, Cora. Look out upon this place… and tell me what you see."He did not move as he spoke, standing tall against the backdrop of frozen warriors. His face was unreadable, the glow of the statues reflecting faintly across his visor. Yet his stillness was not complete. His hands betrayed him opening and closing, fingers tracing against his palms, a subtle fidget that betrayed a tension he could not mask.

Even here, on his own home soil, the weight of this place pressed down on him. It was more than memory. It was something that disturbed him deeply, something he endured rather than accepted. The silence between his words and her answer stretched long, filled only by the synchronized pulse of a thousand petrified hearts beating faintly in the dark.

Cora

 

[Cora]

Cora came to a halt beside Laphisto. Looking up at his towering figure, she studied his body language as he gazed upon the field of graves ahead of them. He was still and unmoving, save for his fidgeting talons. Something about this place seemed to have shook him to his core. She’d never seen him like this before. It was a faint hint at a deep pain beneath the hard exterior he so often hid behind.

She held her tongue, knowing all too well that the questions she had for him were better left unasked. Instead, she could show her understanding to him by following his instructions and answering his query. What do I see? She focused her attention toward the fields.

Her eye scanned over the land, resting for a moment on each Kiev'arian statue. They all looked so helpless, as if expecting some inevitable tragedy. As she realised the scale of the scene before her, she could feel her heart sink. Hundreds of his kind, strewn about the field mid-battle, frozen in time. It must be so hard to come back here…

The unified heartbeat within the statues caught her eye next. What is that? She squinted, as if that would help her see the picture more clearly somehow. If only she could draw upon the Force here to help her feel out her surroundings better.

A sudden flash of that strange feeling hit her again as she thought about using the Force. She frowned as she looked down and turned her hands over in front of her, observing the small tremors she didn’t realise she had. Curling her hands into tight fists, she bit her lip and continued to look out at the field ahead.

Cora wanted to ask Laphisto why she felt so disconnected here. Surely he felt it too. But as she opened her mouth to ask, she thought better of it. No, I’ve disappointed him enough. Focus, what do I see here? It was difficult to describe. The conflicts that they had been in were obvious, but there was something ominous about them. That fire…

“They… They’re alive?” She asked, finally breaking the silence between them. It wasn’t entirely what she meant by those words, but she couldn’t find any other way to describe it. No, they weren’t alive, but they had been, and now something was still alive within them, but it wasn’t alive in the same way she was. Maybe the words he would use to describe it would make her understand better.

And maybe… one day… he would open up to her about how he truly felt in this place.


Laphisto

 

[Laphisto]

Laphisto stood still for a moment after Cora's words, his head turning slightly toward her before he gave a single, deliberate nod. The motion was slow, almost ceremonial. Then he stepped forward, motioning for her to follow."You are right," his voice came through the comms, low and even, vibrating faintly in the silence that surrounded them. "To a degree."

He led her down the gentle slope into the sea of petrified warriors. The ground beneath their boots shimmered faintly with blue static, discharging in quiet flickers with each step. There was no sound hereno wind, no air, no life. Only the hum of their suits and the slow, synchronized pulse of the dead. "But there is more here,"

He stopped beside one of the Kiev'arian statues its figure frozen in mid-charge, sword gripped tight, wings spread wide as though it had thrown itself against an invisible wall, the light within its chest beating like a heart of molten fire. "In their final moments," Laphisto said, his voice softening, "every one of these people fought. They stood against an enemy that consumed worlds… that stripped suns from the sky. And yet they did not run."

He lifted a hand, gesturing toward the rows upon rows of figures around them some blue with the shimmer of water, some green with the hue of earth, others white as the driven frost. "They were outmatched, outnumbered beyond counting. But still they fought with everything they had. The Fire Dragons burned until their lungs collapsed. The Water Clans froze rivers to halt advancing machines. The Windborn tore the air itself apart to shield those behind them. The Earthkin held the line until their bodies shattered under the bombardment."

His gaze fell on the statue beside him. "They fought knowing they would die. They fought knowing no one would come for them." He tapped his vambrace, and a light beam pierced the dark, cutting across the broken remains of a city wall ahead. The beam caught faint outlines within the ruin smaller shapes huddled together. Children. Mothers. Elders. Some cowering, some standing in front of the others, hands raised as if to shield their kin. Their chests all glowed dimly with the same slow pulse.

"They knew," he said quietly, "that this was the end. That no one would remember their names. No one would sing their songs." He paused, and for a moment the static light reflected off his visor, catching a faint tremor in his breathing. "But they fought anyway. Not for recognition. Not for glory. Not even for hope." He looked back at her. The reflection of the field thousands of colored lights, pulsing together danced across his visor.

"They fought for each other," he said at last. "For the child behind the wall. For the comrade at their side. For the chance that even one of them might see another dawn. That… is what it means to stand beyond your life." He turned, gesturing broadly to the field. "This is why the Lilaste Order remembers its dead, Cora. Not to drown in grief but to carry their purpose. Every funeral rite we hold, every name we speak it's not for the fallen. It's for the living. To remind us of the weight we carry forward. Because one day, someone will stand over our graves, and they'll ask themselves what we stood for."

He stepped closer to one of the statues, his clawed hand brushing against its stone arm. A faint static pulse responded beneath his palm, the glow brightening for a heartbeat before dimming again. his thumb running over the family crest on there armor "These souls endured the impossible," he said softly. "Even now, their hearts still beat in unison. Their memories, their courage, their defiance they are carved into this world itself. They refused to be forgotten. And so, even in death… they still stand."

He looked back toward her then, the hum of the static rising faintly between them. "tell me if im wrong but. you didnt attend the runeral rights for those lost on daro because you thought remembering meant suffering. But forgetting…" His tone deepened, each word slow and deliberate. "…forgetting is the truest form of death. These people teach us that remembrance is not pain it's continuance. It's how we give meaning to what we've lost." He turned his gaze back to the glowing battlefield, his voice dropping to a whisper carried only through the comms. "So tell me, Cora. When your time comes, and someone stands over your ashes… what will they remember of you what do You want them to remember of you?"

Cora