Private Trust Fall

[Priscilla Tel'Lightstalker]

In her months of freedom, Priscilla had started to learn about a different part of life. One that allowed her to learn new things and travel the galaxy. Not as part of an animal display but as a person. She was still learning who she was, and one thing that hadn't changed about her was her curiosity.

Scilla wanted to learn everything and anything. So when Vulpesen left Veradune, she went with him. Even if he didn't know she was along. Imagine a nearly 8-foot stowaway, but she succeeded, probably because he was distracted by the redhead with him.

Having been in space for the last 150 years, she could easily tell when the ship returned to normal space. She had kept quiet the whole journey and waited for the couple to leave before exiting the ship herself. In some ways, she was still getting used to walking on solid ground. Sometimes her wings flapped to help keep her balanced, but she adjusted to the new gravity of Bastion pretty quickly.

Murmurings followed her, but they didn't contain any fear. That was a curious sensation for her. Even the children didn't run from her. She stopped walking as she sensed a change in attitude among the people. There wasn't any hostility, but there was curiosity, and she turned around.

"Oh. I see."

Just three words, and she was frozen. She had been led to believe she was the last of her kind. The man walking out of the spaceport told her differently. He was like her. However, he hadn't seen her yet, and for the moment, she stood still. Then one of the population ran up to him and pointed in her direction.

On the bright side, she wasn't the last of her kind.

Laphisto

 

[Laphisto]

Laphisto had come to the starport today with little more on his mind than logistics. Flanked by his usual force-dead honor guard, the Kiev'arian oversaw the movement of heavy crates, a low rumble resonating in his chest as he barked quiet instructions. The work was menial, but necessary. His latest winnings from an auction hosted by Jerec Asyr a considerable stockpile of lightsaber components had arrived only days before. after molds were made of each part and component laphisto wa shere to delever the physical parts to the Diarchys brotherhood,

It was supposed to be a simple inventory run.The rhythm broke when a local suddenly hurried toward him. One of his guards reacted instantly, rifle half-raised as a firm hand caught the man by the chest, halting him mid-step. Laphisto's ear twitched, his head turning with a questioning brow. The local's words spilled out quickly, and then a trembling finger pointed across the square.

Following the gesture, Laphisto turned and the world stopped. The datapad in his grasp slipped from numb claws, clattering against the durasteel floor with a hollow echo. His breath hitched in his throat, caught somewhere between disbelief and something far more fragile. The twin souls bound within him reverberated at the shock, and for a heartbeat his careful mask faltered his Force presence bleeding outward in a flood of raw, unrestrained energy. Then, as quickly as it had come, he pulled it back in, returning to the familiar overflowing aura he never quite managed to contain.

He simply stared, his chest tightening as recognition struck with the force of a thunderbolt. Standing there, wings faintly shifting for balance, was someone like him.For the first time in his long life, Laphisto High Commander of the Lilaste Order, survivor of wars and gods alike was struck utterly speechless. and teh twin souls within him reverberated. and his grasp on hiding his power faulterd before returning to the normal overflowing effect " by the gods"

Priscilla Tel'Lightstalker

 

[Priscilla Tel'Lightstalker]

All of her reading and research couldn't have prepared her for this sight. The waves of aura and persona coming from him were astounding, but they weren't consistent. They flowed like a tide. Away from him, and then he pulled it back like the ocean. He was as shocked and surprised as she was. Only he was able to express it more.

While she was frozen in place, he was too. Eventually, the shock they both felt began to subside, and Scilla was able to move again. A path had almost been cleared between them, and it was clear these people wanted them to meet. Maybe their gods did too. Those two entities she knew nothing about.

Her education hadn't contained anything about their people or history. She knew a great deal about many things, but not about them. With careful steps, she started walking back to the spaceport. To where he still stood, but he would meet her halfway. The cybernetic eyes she had took his measurements and some other information. Internally, she digested what she saw and stopped when they would be close enough to touch.

"I am Priscilla. Most people call me Pris or Scilla. I prefer Scilla. Who are you?"

Keeping her voice calm, it was clear she was used to speaking in quiet tones. This was also the attitude she displayed, and while her mind was running riot, she did not show this externally.

Laphisto

 

[Laphisto]

"Laphisto of House Gix." The words left his throat differently than they did with anyone else. Normally his introductions carried the clipped precision of a commander, firm and practiced. This, however, was something older an echo of a greeting he had been taught as a hatchling, meant only for kin. For a moment, he hesitated. Doubt gnawed at him as he studied the way she carried herself, questioning if she truly was of his kind or some cruel trick of fate.

Then the Force shimmered across his vision, his eyes glowing faintly teal as he let it flow. Her aura unfolded before him vast, layered, undeniably Kiev'arian. The resonance was unmistakable. And behind his own heartbeat, the twin gods that lived within him stirred, their deep voices humming agreement in the recesses of his mind. She was real.

Laphisto didn't quite know what to thinkof her, of the moment, of the reality that another of his kind still walked the galaxy. His thoughts tangled in disbelief and longing, the steady discipline he was known for fraying at the edges. For the briefest instant, he almost forgot how to breathe.But words slipped out before he could stop them, raw and unpolished. His stance steadied, his ear angled toward her, as though anchoring himself in the familiarity of form.

"Where are you from?" he asked, his voice low but edged with urgency. "What world claims you what colony is yours?" The question tumbled out less like interrogation and more like hope given shape. It was the only logical thread his mind could seize, a desperate reach for the possibility that she had not come alonethat somewhere out in the stars, more of their people had endured.

Priscilla Tel'Lightstalker

 

[Priscilla Tel'Lightstalker]

"I think I'm from House Tel. If there is such a House."

A flutter of her wings, and they were folded neatly against her coat. Her cybernetic eyes were almost searching in the same manner as he was. She had been led to believe she was the last of her kind, yet here was another. As she spoke, the language came naturally back to her. Not common, but one she had only heard as a child.

Kiev'arian. The benefit of being a polyglot was that she learned many languages, including theirs, even though she hadn't used them for most of her life.

"My home has been a touring ship for the last 150 years, Laphisto. I do not know where I am from."

Serenely shaking her head, it might be pretty obvious she wasn't one to get irritated or too excited easily. The only sign she was excited was the wave of her tail and the previous fluttering of her wings.

"And you?"

They were the same height, and she met his excited gaze with one that was hidden behind cybernetics.

Laphisto

 

[Laphisto]

Laphisto fell silent, his chest rising and falling as he listened. His lone ear perked instinctively at the sound of their ancestral tongue slipping from her lips. It struck him like a forgotten melody familiar, intimate, and yet so distant after centuries of absence. He did not recognize the name of her House, though perhaps that was to be expected. Time had stolen much from him, and the Kiev'arian names he once knew belonged to an age long buried.

Still, the weight of it lingered. The language itself was proof enough "I was born and raised on Ossus," he said at last, his tone measured, carrying both pride and the faint edge of sorrow. "There, I was trained as a Jedi for the better part of my life. That path shaped me… but it is a past that lies far behind me now."

He shifted his weight, arms folding across the plates of his armored chest, one clawed hand coming up to rub thoughtfully at his chin. His brow arched as he studied her, his gaze sharp yet softened by curiosity. "A nomad, then?" The question carried a note of wonder rather than judgment, as though he were still piecing together the reality before him. "Did you come here alone?"

There were a thousand questions clamoring for release too many for his disciplined tongue to keep in check. Where had she been all these years? Who had kept her safe? How much of their people's memory did she carry? He could feel them pressing against his throat, threatening to spill one after the other in a torrent.

He drew in a slow breath instead, clearing his throat as if to steady himself. A low, rumbling chuckle escaped him, rolling from his chest despite the gravity of the moment. "Apologies for the questions," he said at last, his voice quieter now, almost reverent. "It has been… a very long time since I have stood before another of my kind."

His gaze lingered on her, searching, as though she might vanish if he blinked too long. The weight of centuries pressed against his chest, memories of desolation and silence where his people should have been. He drew a slow breath, shoulders tightening beneath the armor. "I had come to believe we were lost that our kind had passed into nothing but memory. Extinct." The word left him like a stone dropping into still water, heavy and final. And yet, here she stood, flesh and blood, her wings stirring faintly in the air. A flicker of something unfamiliar touched his voice then hope, fragile but undeniable. "And yet… here you are."

Priscilla Tel'Lightstalker

 

[Priscilla Tel'Lightstalker]

Her wings stretched slowly, brushing the air in a soft whisper, each movement measured and deliberate. She held his gaze, her turquoise eyes catching faint light, like shards of memory reflected in glass.

"You speak as though our kind was lost," she said, her voice low, threaded with a quiet gravity, yet carrying the faintest tremor of something alive—curiosity, recognition, a spark of relief. "And yet…here we are. Not many, perhaps, but still present. Still breathing. Still remembering."

Her tail curled lightly, an unconscious gesture of comfort, and her hands flexed at her sides, claws glinting subtly. "I walked alone to reach this moment," she continued, voice softening, "but I have never truly been without guidance. The Force…it is patient. And Duram," she added, a faint warmth slipping into her words, "is my shadow, my anchor. He has kept me steady when the past threatened to undo me."

She stepped slightly forward, careful, deliberate, letting the space between them carry the weight of centuries. "There are memories I cannot share yet, wounds too deep to speak…but standing here, before you, I feel the bridge of what remains. You are not a ghost of the past, Laphisto. You are real. And your presence…it is a proof of endurance, of survival. Like mine."

Her wings shifted again, a gentle pulse of motion, the bioluminescent tracery under her skin faintly glowing with quiet warmth. "We endure. And now, we face what comes next…together, if only in this moment."

Laphisto