Private Where I Stood | Valery

[Auteme]

Valery Noble ​

The steps to the Ilum Temple felt foreign now. Not that she'd been here often -- four times. Twice as a padawan herself; the first for a crystal, the second for a friend. The rest were accompanying groups to visit, as had been her duty. Even though she'd never built a lightsaber, there was something compelling about the caves, the vaulted halls, the frigid world; now that all seemed distant, even as she stood at the temple's gate.

"Okay, one more time with the coat."

"Yep." She twisted her hand, changing the long blue-white dress she wore to a more practical (but still stylish) long coat. She posed. Looking up at the gate, then out into the distance to her right, then turning fully to look past the cameras.

The Alliance needed symbols; a meeting between the new Chancellor and Sword of the Jedi would be an opportunity to show their worth, articulate their vision. But it would be nothing without the media to spread the word. For a moment she felt grateful that she was less connected to this ancient place; she would likely have felt more guilt for defiling it with camera droids and PR specialists.

"Got it."

Auteme nodded. "We've kept our host waiting. Let's go."

She wove her clothes back again to her dress, and ascended the icy steps to the temple's main doors. With a gentle respect she opened them, and entered in search of Valery Noble.

 

[Valery Noble]

Outfit | Weapon | Appearance

Outfit | XoXo
Location | Ilum
Tag | Auteme

Valery stood quietly within the main hall of the Temple, her back turned towards its large doors of stone while her fiery eyes glanced up at one of the statues. Ilum was a familiar place for her to be — from her own crystal gathering as a Padawan, thousands of years ago, to her position as Watchmen to protect this sacred world and guide many more through their journeys into the caves. But somber memories existed as well, sparked by the war the Empire brought to this planet.

A war that had now claimed the life of her husband.

It had kept her from performing her duties for a while, but after spending some time focusing on herself, and accepting the help of close friends, she finally found her way forward again.

"Master Noble? The Chancellor has arrived," one of the Temple's protocol droids told her.

"I know," she said after a brief moment of silence, having felt the arrival through the Force minutes ago already. She then turned away and began to walk towards the doors moments before they opened so she could greet her guest. Today was about showing the Alliance its leaders, and while they had only briefly met once before, it was important to show a united front despite the unfamiliarity with each other.

"Chancellor Denko-Durren, welcome to the Temple," Valery said while she ignored any droids or people following after Auteme for now. She didn't know that much about Auteme beyond what was known publicly, so her priority was changing that. Posing for cameras and handling PR teams was not exactly her specialty.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you properly."

​

 

[Auteme]

Valery Noble ​

"You as well, Master Noble." Auteme angled her approach slightly, ensuring that they were both in the shot for the cameras. She stayed close for a moment, and again her dress transformed into a coat.

"Sorry- I'm going to be doing this a lot," she said, patting her coat. "For the pictures. It's a whole thing, I won't get into it.

"In any case, thank you for welcoming us here." She smiled. "It's been a while since I was last here. I'd love, ah, a little tour, before we head out to the devastated areas.

"Oh, and- they're not doing audio. If they need an audio bite they'll ask. And, ah, all the pictures will be run by you."

 

[Valery Noble]

Outfit | Weapon | Appearance

Outfit | XoXo
Location | Ilum
Tag | Auteme

"It's fine, it just seems... tiring?" Valery smirked faintly but she had no real idea what it was like. She had become quite a public figure herself, but her Jedi duties often meant she was at the front lines or in places less accessible for reporters or people with cameras. She didn't even want to imagine what it must be like for Auteme.

Either way, she tried her best to play along — she assumed Auteme had some kind of media training or at least knew how to pose properly, but she didn't at all. So all she could do was be herself, and either look at Auteme or towards the cameras whenever that was appropriate.

Hopefully, at least some would look okay.

"Of course, I think I know what is most interesting to see," Valery finally said after a few pictures were taken. She then turned around and guided Auteme to a large open room that was likely quite familiar to her. Aside from a few statues, a large wall of ice stood out, as well as a mechanism to melt it. Behind it, she could feel that warm and welcoming aura created by thousands of crystals singing together in the Force.

"I don't know if this is where you began your gathering on Ilum, or if it looks the same as it once did, but I'm sure it feels quite familiar, hm?"

​

 

[Auteme]

Valery Noble
​

Auteme was happy to lead the shoot, moving and positioning herself to make sure it was easy for the cameras. Of course, the volume of photos being taken left little to be desired; the real work would be sifting through them for the best ones afterwards.

She followed, heels clacking against the old stone. "Yes, I remember this place well," she replied. Her eyes scanned the room once more. Every time she entered the temple, she felt it'd aged decades since her last visit.

"Last time I was here, we were at war with the Brotherhood. It hasn't been that long. Or- perhaps it's been an eternity."

 

[Valery Noble]

Outfit | Weapon | Appearance

Outfit | XoXo
Location | Ilum
Tag | Auteme

"Time sure seems to fly these days, despite the war." Conflict and terrible times often felt like they lasted forever, but it was crazy to think how much had already happened since she came back to the Galactic scene. It felt like it was only yesterday that she returned to Coruscant to help in the aftermath of the Maw's attack.

Even this Temple wasn't standing when she came here first, and now it felt strange to think about it not being used for crystal gatherings or as an outpost for Jedi traveling through the Galaxy.

With a small shake of her head, Valery pulled herself out of her thoughts and looked at Auteme again, "Is there something else you'd like to see while we're here? I can bring down the wall of ice for a look into the caves if you'd like. But if you want to visit the trench, I'll bring you there."

"I have speeders ready."

​

 

[Auteme]

Valery Noble
​

She paused a moment before making a decision. "To the speeders," she said. Even feeling disconnected, she couldn't in good conscience bring her whole apparatus into such a sacred place. Taking pictures started to feel almost sacrilegious. "Please, lead the way."

As they began to leave, she pondered how best to open things up, and decided to start close to home.

"I never built a lightsaber," she said. "It always seemed- intimidating, on the one hand. Wrong, on the other. But I'd come here, feel this place, and wonder if I was mistaken." Her gaze turned to Valery.

"What does kyber mean to you, Master Noble? I've heard ideas as varied as the many philosophies on the Force."

 

[Valery Noble]

Outfit | Weapon | Appearance

Outfit | XoXo
Location | Ilum
Tag | Auteme

"Very well," Valery said with a dip of her head before she began to guide the Chancellor away from the caves, and to a small hangar area where speeders and shuttles were kept sheltered against the extreme weather conditions of Ilum's service. For this trip, Valery picked a two-seater, but one with a closed canopy to keep them warm.

The film crew could pick their own transport from all available options.

"Never built one, hm?" Valery blinked, clearly in surprise — to her the construction of one was a traditional milestone, so that was definitely quite odd to her. "Perhaps not a mistake, but there is something special about constructing one. For more than it just being the process of getting a weapon or tool we use in our duties."

"I'm not sure if you're familiar with the crystal code? We used to teach it to all Jedi starting their gathering, but it captures everything well for me." Just to be safe, she quickly began to recite it.

The crystal is the heart of the blade. The heart is the crystal of the Jedi. The Jedi is the crystal of the Force. The Force is the blade of the heart. All are intertwined. The crystal, the blade, the Jedi. You are one.​

Meanwhile, they took off together towards the trench. Valery made sure to take it slow enough so the camera folks could keep up and even take pictures of the ride there if they wanted to. "My crystals represent crucial parts of who I am through the bond that formed between it and myself. And they use those aspects of me to give my blades their strength; to be their beating hearts." There was a time when Valery's kyber had been a very different color, but life events had changed much about who she was deep within. These crystals were representations of that.

​

 

[Auteme]

Valery Noble
​

"I see." She smiled. "And, yes- I taught the code a few times."

Her security team approached, initially, but she waved them away; they found their own speeders alongside the cameras and crew.

"That's a powerful connection," she said. "What did it mean to you when the Imperials came here? Started mining?"

 

[Valery Noble]

Outfit | Weapon | Appearance

Outfit | XoXo
Location | Ilum
Tag | Auteme

She wasn't used to Jedi being familiar with old codes and philosophies anymore, but it shouldn't really have been a surprise that Auteme was. Either way, it brought a smile to Valery's lips, although one that faded rather quickly on the topic of Kyber crystals and how the battle had affected her.

"Whatever it meant to me personally was overshadowed by what happened before the attack," Valery said with a slight frown. "I felt a disturbance out here on Ilum, where we're going now, and I tasked a group of Padawans to work together and investigate it." She paused a moment and turned her gaze to Auteme "I nearly sent them into their deaths."

"I'm sure you had to deal with a very different kind of response when it all happened?" She wasn't sure where Auteme was at the time, or how it affected her and those around her.

​

 

[Auteme]

Valery Noble
​

"No, much the same. I authorized the deployment of the GADF. An easy decision, but- every loss weighs on the conscience, doesn't it?" She clasped her hands together and placed them in her lap. "Though, especially, the sending of padawans into danger always feels... monumental."

She found herself chuckling. "When I was a padawan, I was never eager for combat. But some of my friends were. Or, at the very least, they were more experienced, such that they were far less hesitant when it came to danger. Then we had padawans of our own, people who we were responsible for -- and we were desperate to keep them out of harm's way."

And how far away that time seemed now.

"It's good to hear they're alive, though."

 

[Valery Noble]

Outfit | Weapon | Appearance

Outfit | XoXo
Location | Ilum
Tag | Auteme

"It does," Valery said with a slight dip of her head, while her gaze remained focused on the path ahead of them. "Few things feel worse to me than bringing others into danger when it could have been me. When it should have been me." She was, after all, the watchmen of Ilum, its protector and liaison. But she also saw the merit in her original plan still — the Padawans had tension within the group, and making sure they'd work together better was a worthy goal.

Just the timing had been awful.

"But yeah, I'm just glad they're okay now, and while I wished it would have been under better circumstances, what happened on Ilum really brought them together."

Soon enough, the speeder began to approach the trench, and even from relatively far away, Auteme would already be able to see some of the destruction that was left behind. From exploded equipment to personal gear that hadn't been retrieved yet from the fallen. Only the bodies of the dead had all been removed already, but so much lingered still, especially in the Force.

Death was a constant echo, tugging at the mind to reveal emotionally powerful images. It was no pleasant place to be for someone Force-sensitive, but it was still important to see and remember.

"Here it is," Valery said, as the speeder came to a stop.

​

 

[Auteme]

Valery Noble
​

Auteme exited the speeder and walked towards the edge of the massive trench. She'd seen a planet die from the bridge of a starship, but seeing scars up close seemed so much worse.

The trench was more like a canyon; it stretched at least a kilometer across, and had been mined deeper than that. Iron protrusions from the canyon's walls marked the now-disabled Imperial emplacements. The craters, stains, and scattered equipment marked the dozen tiny battles that had taken place. Auteme had long mastered her own body heat, but here she found herself deathly cold.

The following speeders arrived, stopping not too far from them. She didn't allow herself to be immersed in this place just yet. Instead she turned to Valery.

"Do the cameras make you uncomfortable?"

 

[Valery Noble]

Ilum

​

Outfit: Factory Link
Appearance: Link
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Auteme

The second Valery approached the edge of the trench, images of the battle flashed back into her mind. The intense emotions, the memories — they were all echoes that lingered in the Force, likely for many years to come. Her own mission on Ilum had been far less demanding than those who battled here, as it focused on bringing back a lost Jedi instead of intense fighting, but the suffering of those who were less fortunate weighed heavily on her mind.

Especially those few fragments of the Padawans who found themselves fighting for their lives out here.

The speeder with the camera crew soon joined the two women, but Valery's focus was drawn towards the trench alone, and to Auteme as she began to speak. "No, but I'm not exactly used to it either." To an extent, she had become a more public figure as well, but Jedi duties kept cameras from being on here all the time. A luxury the chancellor likely didn't have. "So I might not be very photogenic. I have no idea," she said in an attempt to make the mood just a little lighter.

But when her eyes shifted back down to the trench, that cold feeling overwhelmed her again.

"Do you want to go down there? It's safe now, but it can be quite... intense."

 

[Auteme]

Valery Noble
​

Auteme snorted. "Mm, yes, totally, you're definitely not photogenic. You're destroying all my pictures, I can't believe this."

She looked back at the approaching crew. Her mind flitted to Ryv for a moment, but she quashed the thought; Valery was a different person, a different Sword, and there was already enough tragedy here to break Auteme's heart.

"Yes, I think we should." The crew took a few quick pictures, and Auteme switched outfits quickly. Once they were finished, she got to work. From her outstretched hands sprung a wealth of ethereal threads that twisted and wove into two simple towers. Ropes extended downwards, pooling at the cliff's edge into a platform big enough for the whole group. Stepping on, it felt less like an unstable pulley-lift, and more like a modern elevator. A few of her crew seemed a touch hesitant, so she wove a few railings for safety, then beckoned them on. Once everyone had boarded, the platform began to descend towards the base of the trench.

"I'm a Mist-Weaver," she explained. "It's- well, actually, you're probably familiar with it. I sent Aeris a guide for the Jedi a while ago." A glance to Valery. "Do you practice anything- strange, with the Force?"

 

[Valery Noble]

Ilum

​

Outfit: Factory Link
Appearance: Link
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Auteme

"I hope you'll be able to forgive me," Valery said with a smirk, but this time it didn't fade because of where they stood, but because of what she briefly felt through the Force. She had no idea what it was, but the atmosphere grew somber for just a few seconds around the Chancellor before those darker clouds passed again as well. Their focus shifted back to the trench, and Valery dipped her head when Auteme agreed to go down there.

She had planned to take them around or slowly lower them using the Force, but the impressive and fascinating display from Auteme made all of that a lot easier. Valery stepped onto the platform and turned her fiery eyes back to Auteme, "I've seen it once before on Jedha when the black site I was tasked to protect was shrouded by it. Strangely enough, I've never seen Aeris use it." She was quite close to the librarian, but they had never really been out in the field together.

"And uh, most of my training was in the very traditional days of the Old Republic, so it was all pragmatic and solely focused on making me a better fighter." She paused a moment and chuckled, "Though I suppose some of what I learned as a Shadow could be seen as strange. Going invisible and walking through walls or objects is quite... odd to most Jedi."

Looking back down, she watched as the platform finally settled on the ground, leaving the entire group in the trench. From above, it had looked and felt daunting to go down. But now that they actually stood in the center of it all, it was likely far worse. "There are some crystal caves nearby we could walk to. There was a lot of heavy fighting there."

 

[Auteme]

Valery Noble
​

Auteme looked a little surprised. Walking through walls? "Cool."

Their descent was accompanied by an equal drop in temperature. This canyon was artificial, fresh, so the base was cooler. The wind picked up, but the snow had been down a few days; little powder was sprayed in its wake. The only thing it carried was the smell of dried death.

Yet, even here, she found politics slipping in to her mind. She shook her head, then began towards the middle of the trench.

"You still work with the SIA, yes? How is that? The Director is quite the taskmaster."

 

[Valery Noble]

Ilum

​

Outfit: Factory Link
Appearance: Link
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Auteme

Valery grinned a little at Auteme's comment and nodded, "Very useful, too," she said before they finally made their way down. The cold below in the trench was worse, heightened by a wind that felt like it could cut through skin, but Valery wasn't phased by it. She had learned to retain her body heat a long time ago, and it was a skill that proved its usefulness time and time again. Especially to her, considering how often she was on Ilum and other icy worlds.

With their arrival at the scene of battle, their conversation shifted as well, and Valery glanced in the woman's direction for a moment. Perhaps she was being overly suspicious, but politicians bringing up other politicians or figureheads in these ways usually had other motives behind it.

"Occasionally, when they need a more experienced Shadow. I don't work for them anymore, though, but it's... interesting." That was a bit of an understatement, considering what they were planning at the moment. "My relationship with the Director has been quite good, both through work and by saving her from a murderous android once..." she blinked. "But I'm sure you understand the type of person it takes to run an intelligence agency." She glanced at Auteme again. "It's always best to keep some distance."

It's why she preferred working with them without being tied to them.

"How has your shift into the political world been? I assume, in some ways, it's quite similar." In terms of knowing who you can and can't fully trust, anyway.

 

[Auteme]

Valery Noble
​

"Mm. Yes. It took- a type of person, to get here."

She paused a moment, finding herself reflecting on her journey to reach this point in her career, her life. Had she lost her naivety completely? She must have -- so great was her caution that she could not even bring herself to completely trust Valery.

"I was just curious. Even in my current position, I feel as though the Director is... holding back, with me." She shrugged.

"I have to confess -- part of my reason for coming to meet you was to make a request. I'd been meaning to make some changes to the SIA. Both to expand and refine it. Part of that means... new blood.

"I wanted to ask if you'd sit on a review board. Recruitment, and personnel review."

 

[Valery Noble]

Ilum

​

Outfit: Factory Link
Appearance: Link
Weapons: Lightsaber
Tag: Auteme

"I think she's holding back with everybody to some extent," Valery half-joked. She wouldn't be the director of an intelligence agency if she was very open about everything, but there were obviously some people who needed to be a little more informed. The fact that Auteme felt like that wasn't the case didn't necessarily mean there was an issue.

Yet the Chancellor seemingly felt very different about that and made a proposal that got Valery to stop walking.

"I..." she paused and gave it some thought, "I'd be very careful with such a plan. The director, as far as I know, hasn't done anything too questionable, and the SIA has been very effective. Both with the intelligence they've provided to fight the Maw out of the core, and the retrieval of the Maw Wayfinder was their work as well." An operation Valery happened to have been one of three agents involved in.

"You might need something to make people believe that it's necessary, and I'm certain you'll need to discuss this within the Senate as well."