Wake Up

[Soliath Devin Talith]

He pondered for a few moments. There weren't many things he couldn't do. That was what being alive for so long gave you, time to train, time to read and learn, time to do anything you could ever do. Most basic skills came to him instantly, and most advanced ones were nothing but tiny challenges to him. He pondered for a moment more, then a lightbulb went off in his head.

“I can't fly a ship.” The way he said it was odd, but there was reason for it.

Soliael had a curse.

Or as close to a curse as one could say. It wasn't that he didn't want to fly a ship, it wasn't that he didn't try to fly a ship. It was simply that he couldn't why he didn't exactly know, but it was a trait that many of his family shared. If he got into a vehicle and piloted it the vehicle would inevitably crash.

It was something he had long ago accepted.

 

[Kira Talith]

The blank look of disbelief was clear. "What?" for a second Kira paused, as if waiting for him to say just kidding. However, nothing in that which he could read or anything from the ring would tell her that he could be joking with her.

"Wait... really?" she would blink, her expression changing to one of curiosity.

"How come? Or did you just get used to being flown everywhere by Nien?" Cheeky grin flashed.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

“I happen to be over three time Niens age.” Soliael said flatly looking down at her. “I highly doubt he could drive me around while his mother was still a thought in his grandmothers head.”

The serious expression he carried on his face twisted into a grin.

“I can't explain it, only say that the same phenomenon carries with my entire family. Perhaps it is an odd twisting of the force, It's impossible to know really, but every time we Taliths use a ship, speeder, or even swoop bike, it will end up crashing before the journeys end. Or at the journeys end.” He shrugged, again she would feel no humor in the bond.

It was an odd little curse, but one that they were all keenly aware of.

 

[Kira Talith]

"Oh," Kira would waggle her eyebrows. "Right." came in emphasis.

"Old foggie, here." her hand would snake up to rub at the growth of hair over his head. "Are there any gray hairs up there yet?" she'd say in lighthearted humor, grinning with a split face.

"So," she'd snuggle up a bit more comfortably, sliding onto her back with her head on his thigh again. "Note to self. Never, ever let you drive -- anything."

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

“Give it another five centuries.” Soliael said with a smile, though even that wasn't true. His Great Grandmother was well over eight centuries old and she still had a rather luscious head of red hair. He assumed that she did not dye it, mostly because if he asked it would likely end with his smoldering corpse on the floor and a very angry Silencia going to Quietus to tell her about the disrespect her son had shown.

He smiled slightly.

Perhaps that was a dramatization.

He petted her again, his hand running through her hair as he nodded in agreement with her. Yes it was best that he not pilot anything. Though, it was the reason that he had found her on that planet. IF he had not been piloting, they may not have crashed at all. The thought turned his stomach, but he only nodded to her again. “Yes, that would be for the best I think.”

 

[Kira Talith]

“Another five centuries?” She’d give him an ironic smile at that, “I’m sorry, I don’t think I’ll be able to make it for that.

Guess I’ll have to take a raincheck on that.” It was a loosely humored quip. A reminder of their many differences still. In ages. In their race.

The tiny Lorrdian blonde would not live past a century. She would be but a blink in his existence.

That wasn’t even taking to account her responsibilities and what that now meant. Kira’s lifestyle as a Jedi would place her in harms way more than ever, what with the One Sith threat she was flying off to aide the Order with in this very ship.

A tiny press of her finger would go against the tip of his nose to get his attention. Despite the brief reminder in mortality, it was clear Kira had no qualms about the shortness of her lifespan.

“So…if there was one thing you could pass down to another.” her finger would trail down to rest lightly over his lips.

“What would it be?”

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

Her lifespan was a fraction of his own, where as he would live a thousand years and beyond, she would be lucky to make it to a hundred and fifty. That thought made him feel hollow on the inside, it made him miss something, yearn for something more. Of course he knew there was no way to expand her lifespan, to lengthen it unnaturally.

At least not in anyway that she could ever agree to.

No. Kira was far too pure for that, far too good. He frowned slightly, distracted until the tip of her finger touched his nose. His eyes cast down at her, and he listened to her question. It was an interesting one.

What would he pass down?

Up until he had met her he would have said his knowledge in Sith Magic. He had the strength to tear apart entire worlds, to rip a person down to their base elements and to shred their very thoughts into naught but gibberish. Yet that seemed wrong now. Well, perhaps not wrong, but different. He frowned slightly, then just said what came to his mind.

“I would tell them how I changed Exocron.” He had never told her about that.

 

[Kira Talith]

There was a shift of emotion from him. A pang that would ring hollow. A yearning. Her brows would furrow into dark blonde slashes under the fringe of her bangs.

"Oh?" her ears would perk in curiosity, feeling the subtle vibration of his lips against her finger as he would talk. Pulling her hand away, she would let it rest upon her belly. She was glad the question had been able to distract him.

"What do you mean?" Kira asked him.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

“Exocron was not always what it is. It used to be a world of rock, desert, mountains, and not much more.” He remembered that world well. It was an outer rim world, the very picture of one thought of as a planet within the Unknown regions. Of course to Soliael, it had been but a small challenge. “I changed it through the use of the force.”

“Similar things have been done on worlds like Korriban or Dromund Kaas. A powerful force user, or several use the force and the land itself to twist and change the planet. In those cases they turned dark and foreboding. In the case of Exocron...” He trailed off, not wanting to state the obvious.

Exocron was by all accounts a paradise world now.

There was massive forces, huge oceans, beaches, massive swaths of agricultural land dotted with towns and cities. Billions of people lived there, most in places where life would have been impossible just a few years ago. That was what Soliael had done, he had changed Exocron for the better, using its own strength.

 

[Kira Talith]

Kira would pause, almost taken briefly aback by that explanation. Half of her wanted to tease him that he was full of himself. That there was no way.

But the set of his shoulders, the lines she read of his expression, and the emotions she could gather from the ring he wore that connected them both said he was anything but serious.

Slowly she would rise, pushing on her hands down to sit up, her torso have turned towards him. Her blonde hair would be mused, sticking up in a few places in a nerflick. All the more endearing of a picture for sure.

“You did all that?” she would ask quietly, looking into his citrine eyes.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

Soliael nodded.

“I did.” He said the words quietly, but he looked at her with an expression that told of truth. “It didn't take great strength in the force, only the manipulations of the energies surrounding. I could show you.”

Soliael looked around. “But not here.”

His face broke out into a smile, and he planted another peck on her lips, his grin spreading across his face. His hands came up, and suddenly he pushed a torrential wave of hair into her face, blocking her vision long enough to allow him to reach down and jab a finger into her ticklish side.

 

[Kira Talith]

“Hey!” Kira would protest with laughter, spitting a mouthful of hair off of her lips. By the time the jab came to her side, she had shifted to her knees. Laughter would echo off the walls of the observation deck, a sound likely unheard to the walls of durasteel and glasteel surrounding them.

“You little brat!” she would cry out, batting his hands away as she would stifle her laughter. Giggles would mix with those of winded breaths, attacking back in turn. Straddling him, she would sit on his legs as she would face him. Her hair would get everywhere as it swung to and fro in the midst of her struggles and laughter.

He’d attempt to kiss her. She would feign aghast at his attempts at distraction. Finally she’d make a grab for his wrists, shoving her face against his, nose wiggling attempts front and center with the silliest of expressions bathing her face.

“Gotcha.”

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

It went on like this. The games, the kisses, the questions. For hours they simply lay in the observation deck, sometimes Soliael would lay on Kira, sometimes she on him. Always they spoke, they laughed, they smiled. At times their expressions would grow serious, one of them would broach a subject, and the other one would listen.

For an entire day they went like this, the hours passed by, and Soliael found himself lost in her smile, her eyes, every nuance of her body. He already knew so much about her, but the questions flowed from him as easily as they had flowed from here. They asked the awkward, the funny, the serious, everything. Nothing was off limits, and no lies were told.

It was an odd thing, but both went to bed with settled minds.

Soliael was the first to awake, a drooling Kira slobbering on his arm as he spooned with her from behind, her hair somehow having gotten intertwined around his face, tickling his nose slightly which brought him out of his sleep. He smiled slightly, his eyes opening. His free hand gently curled around her stomach, his thumb stroking gently.

He kissed the back of her head, getting more hair in his mouth.

Though it only made him smile.

 

[Kira Talith]

Kira was getting used to this.

Used to sleeping in Soliael's arms, in his embrace. She was beyond comfortable with him and it would show in how she slept so deeply -- without regard for just how much of a bed hog and clinging octopus she was. Perhaps that was for the best, if she knew she'd likely be flushed with embarrassment.

As it was, it would get on to be a small routine. She would awake half asleep, realize she left a small puddle of drool on his chest, arm, shoulder -- and promptly start to sheepishly sleepily apologize while trying to wipe it off. From there she'd either end up getting her apology kissed away, to which she was no objector of. In the rare times he would be asleep when she woke, it would end with her lovingly tracing the contours of his face. She would map every detail, imprinting it all to memory. The rough kiss of his growing beard. The weathered softness of his skin. The dips and angles of his cheekbones. It was as if through mere touch she would be able to bring him to lifelike memory later, when he wouldn't be there to hold her in the morn.

Either way, they had thirty-six hours left. Thirty-six hours before the slumbering petite blonde Soliael held in his arms would return to her life in the Jedi Order.

Perhaps it was the mental tick tock of a counting down clock that would slowly bring the woman from her dreams. She'd give a hum of a sigh, her head rubbing against his arm, body shifting against the curve of his body behind her. Arms would draw his tighter around her, as if he were a warm snuggly blanket she couldn't quite let go just yet. The faintest of smiles would draw over her lips, a strand of hair caught just over them.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

A life in the Jedi Order. What was that? To Soliael it was repression, it was being held back, it was following a code that made no sense. To Soliael, the Jedi Order represented a lack of freedom. That was why he had always disliked them, why he had never really cared for them. He never hated Jedi, they were simply another sect of force users, another group of people, not that different from the Sith.

Yet they held themselves together by a code of ideals that made no sense to him, that disrupted lie and held it to something it was not supposed to be.

If Kira followed the code exactly, then she could not be his.

The very idea of that disgusted him, enraged him. Kira was his, and the thought of her being taken from him by an Order, by a set of ideals, that did not sit well with him. Even if she agreed with those ideals. He let out a heavy breath through his nostrils, sighing slightly as his chest sagged.

He felt her stir beneath his touch, and slowly grinned as her arms tried to pull him closer. She pressed up against him, her naked body pushing against his. The hand on her stomach curled slightly, his fingers playing across her skin and slowly sliding. “Good morning.”

His words were little more than a whisper in her ear as his hand slipped across scars, sliding to perhaps awaken something within her.

 

[Kira Talith]

Awaken he did and he was rewarded with the slumbering stir of his beloved in his arms. He would do so with the precision and the delicacy of a musician, slowly turning her into a song. Sleepy blue eyes darkened by slumber would part and that hum she released earlier turned into a soft sigh. Her hand would reach up to cup at his rough cheek, shivering awake at the sensation of his breath at her ear. Her other hand would guide his other on a more northerly path, where it would just as quickly quicken her breathing ever further.

No matter what Nemene had done to her body, Soliael would soothe over tenfold, showing her that he completely cherished her and every perfect imperfection.

"Morning," came her low sleepy greeting, her face turning attempt to kiss his lips. It failed as her breath would catch, and she gave a subsequent shudder that would prompt a grin of smug satisfaction of his own.

"Brat." But he would not be so forgiving. Her temple would fall to press against his lips instead, and her eyes fell shut. A hidden smile would rise amidst the rush and fall, and all Kira could think about is -- Ohh. . . now that's what I call a wake up call.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

He grinned, smug self satisfaction washing over and through him as one hand tightened and the other curled slightly. Soliael pulled her closer to him, his arms stiffening slightly as practiced motions took Kira away.

“I have no idea....” He planted a row of kisses on her forehead and down the side of her face, craning his next as muscles tightened and flexed in his palms. “...What....”

Another kiss, this time bending her and rubbing his beard against her cheek, slowly inching her head and turning her so that he could reach her lips. “...You're talking about.”

He finished as he pulled roughly, forcing her to get even closer and her head to move so he could give her that final kiss. His lips parted as he tried to get in another few words, though they were rushed and quick, a breath wasted.

“I only wish to serve.” He kissed her, and his song began to play.

 

[Kira Talith]

How does a Kira song sound like? Soliael would be the one to know the tone, and perhaps, hardpressed to ever forget it. Either way, they were facing less than thirty-five hours left together. Time that neither wanted to waste.

Spent, but feeling content, Kira would lay in Soliael's arms, softly humming an idle melody. She clung to him, one leg thrown over his as she lay on her side, feeling the trace of his fingers go up and down her shoulder. She in turn would lightly run across his chest, playing with the dark whorls of hair. This was nice. It was peaceful.

"Tell me more about Moross." she would ask, wanting to know more about that mysterious section of the galaxy few ever really knew anything about. "You mentioned to you helped create it... but how?"

There previous conversation had been about his past before the Pit, what she could gather from the meld. Now she was asking of another time, one that came after Metalorn.

 

[Soliath Devin Talith]

His other hand lingered on the scar that she hated so, the one that caused her the greatest amount of pain. His thumb stroked over it, gently, softly, a reminder that he was there for her, that he was present and would make everything better.

“The people of Exocron believed first. It was an ancient religion. Or at least we based it upon one. “ The great lie he called it. “The best lies are founded in truth. So we researched, found this old belief, and resurrected it, altered it to fit our needs. The cultures of the unknown regions lend themselves to Moross. The Resu, the Aing-Tii, even the people of Terminus.”

“They wanted to believe, so they did. All of Moross is based upon that ancient Exocron religion. Simply altered.” He spoke intently, of course he was simplifying quite a bit, but it was the most basic version of the story. He and Menoetius had never forced anyone to believe, it would have been too difficult.

No. People believed because they wanted to. Moross had given them hope in an otherwise drab and dreary situation.

The people had gone from Fighting each and every day for survival to living in a paradise. That was why they believed, because Moross brought results. That was the justification that Soliael gave himself for the Great Lie.

 

[Kira Talith]

"What exactly is it?" she'd ask, wanting to know more about the religion itself. She would slide her head up against his chest to look at him. She caught his profile, watched him as he spoke. The stroke of his fingers would rub lightly, caressing. A constant presence that said, I'm here. Not that there was any way for Kira to forget it. No, he seemed to be digging himself under her skin every day. Here every kiss felt like a brand. Like he was tattooing herself under her skin.

And Kira didn't mind.

"How do you play into it?"