Private Who'd Even Know If I Were Gone?

[Elias Edo]

Who'd Even Know If I Were Gone?

A sharp ding on his comlink reminded Elias that he was late for his usual meeting with the counselors at Theed Medical Center, but he had no intention of following through on that commitment. It wasn’t that he thought his therapy was useless—on the contrary, he was quite grateful for the time they’d invested in his wellness—it was that he felt true healing would require new methods. Methods that were of his own choosing. Methods that were far away from Theed, or even Naboo.

Methods that would be found at home, across the galaxy, among the limestone mesas and freshwater ravines of Bogano.

As Elias pulled his boots on and fastened them with leather straps, he pictured the faces of those he left behind when he lent his aide to the now-defunct Order of Shiraya: Erewhon, his closest friend and trusted first mate whom Elias had left in charge of the temple; Fenn, who’d become like a son to Elias since fleeing the Dagobah temple during the Sith invasion of League space; and Cailen, a special friend and ward of the New Jed Order whose path is still muddied… much like Elias’ now.

The Jedi—he used that term loosely—paused for a moment, sitting on the edge of his bed. He glanced sideways through a window, which afforded him a small view of the boulevard outside his apartment and the waterway just beyond. He’d walked that street a hundred times since being discharged, when sleep evaded him and a mild Naboo evening was the only cure for insomnia. He’d miss it, but not nearly as much as he missed the temple.

With that thought, he confirmed in his mind what his heart had been feeling all along and rose to his feet. He reached for a small backpack full of the essentials and a few keepsakes, then headed out into the late afternoon air.

Tags: Efret Farr​

 

[Efret Farr]

In my happy home, I barely breathe...

Vibrations rippled through her mouth and down her throat.

The tusk-cat, Raanursh, beneath her responded to her clicking her tongue and tugging on the left rein by first stepping his front legs to that side, then pivoting his back to turn more fully.

Off to his side, a shaak herder bowed his head. "Thank you, Efret."

She hadn't gone by Master Farr since resigning from the NJO Council. A few still paid her the formality, but she silently wished they wouldn't. Though she'd always consider herself Jedi, she didn't need others to do the same.

"Of course," she replied once after letting the rein down against Raanursh's nape to sign.

The herder looked like he was about to respond one way when his gaze shifted to the right slightly. He raised a hand to his forehead and used it to shield his eyes against the sunlight. "Is that another convor?" he asked.

She nor Nirrah turned their heads at first; Efret knew the answer, or part of it. It was Haerami, coming with news from Ala in Theed. "It is."

As they did turn to watch him approach, he alighted on the saddle horn. A golden tube hanging from a leather cord grasped in Haerami's beak dangled in front of him. Efret took it gently, opened it, and unfurled the contained letter—not from the local Jedi order's grandmaster, but one of the nurses on Elias' care team.

Ms. Farr,​

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Master Edo missed a wellness check-in today. Any attempt to reach him at his comm frequency has gone unanswered.​

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Dr. Parqelké is beyond concerned. I and the rest of the care team feel the same. This behavior is very uncharacteristic. He's been very eager to recover and gracious to work with, and very communicative when he's had to miss a session. We worry that he's had a change of heart.​

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You would have the best chance of anyone to find him and, if needed, convince him to come see us.​

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It is our collective medical opinion that Master Edo's mind is relatively stable now compared to where it has been, specifically related to you. Thus, it should be perfectly safe for him to see you should that be necessary.​

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However, it may well be significantly uncomfortable for you. We wouldn't be asking this if we didn't think you were the best option we, including Master Edo, had.​

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With great respect,​

Aiyorre Geprault​

The frown that had been growing on Efret's face as she read hadn't gone unnoticed. Misinterpreting it as a sign of frustration rather than concern, the herder began to wring his cap in his hands. Only when she glanced up from the paper along with Nirrah did he ask, "Bad news?"

Efret nodded and replied, "Yes, unfortunately." In more ways than one. She paused as she rolled the paper up tightly and returned it into its tube. That she tucked into a pouch on Raanursh's saddle, leaning carefully over his flank. "I need to go."

"Can I do anything to help?"

Efret only caught the word 'help' as she straightened in the saddle, but she still made sense of the question that had been asked. She allowed a smile as she nodded. "Watch Sumes more closely," she said, her gaze shifting from him to the shaak they were discussing grazing not too far behind him. "She's acting out because she feels neglected."

Her focus shifted to the avian perched on the saddle horn. "Thank you, Haerami. Go home."

He took off with an understanding coo, destined for the owlcote on Darjeeli Hill.

As she wrapped both of her hands back up in Raanursh's reins, she looked off in another direction. Theed lay somewhere beyond that horizon.

She tried not to recall how many times she had denied herself the trip she was about to embark on, and failed. She still remembered them all.

With a sniff to cast off the thought and a swallow to wet her clenching throat in preparation to exclaim, she cracked the reins, not harshly but with intention.

"'Aah!"

Elias Edo​

 

[Elias Edo]

Who'd Even Know If I Were Gone?

Elias tucked into himself as he moved by the first few pedestrians on the walkway. He sank his hands into his pockets, rolled his shoulders forward to soften his profile, and kept his eyes fixed on the toes of his boots. He didn’t recognize anyone that he’d seen, but there was an uncomfortable voice inside that kept parroting the same paranoia: “If they see you, they will take you back.”

Deep down, he knew it was an unlikely scenario that the hospital would send people to subdue him… but it took an embarrassing number of city blocks without so much as a passing glance from Theed’s citizens to sink in. Slowly, Elias unfurled from his defensive stature and began to walk more freely. The same way he did during his late-night getaways. The only difference was the distance he needed to travel—unlike his strolls around the block, this was a jaunt to the starport where his shit, the Calypso, was hopefully awaiting him.

Like many of his personal effects, Elias’ ship was being held by the Republic on orders of his care team. Or so he’d been promised. What he anticipated would be a recovery time spanning a few days had quickly slipped into weeks and now months. Whether old guarantees stood the test of time would soon be revealed.

He stuck to the walkway for a while until he came to a bend that would take him directly to the starport. Foot traffic had picked up here, even given the setting sun, but Elias had doffed his need for hiding. He walked among them, through and between them, as if he were diving into calm waters. It felt like he was finally on the verge of freeing himself, a sensation he attributed to knowing he would soon be gone from this world and en route to a calmer, happier place.

But doubt once again grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and yanked him from his path. More accurately, it hit him square in the chest… and in a most unexpected fashion. It was a woman.

Around the bend, she was walking toward him with the rest of the people coming from the direction of the starships. But unlike the smeared faces of people he’d never seen before, hers seemed oddly—devastatingly—familiar. So familiar that he stopped moving and caused a young man to walk into his from behind.

“Watch it!” he scolded.

“Sorry! I’m sorry!” he called after the man.

Elias wanted to stay there, become a small island in a sea of people, but a tiny voice reminded him that here was not the place to stop swimming. So he shifted his feet instead, taking short strides to lengthen his journey. He kept his eyes fixed on the woman, hoping she might notice him too, but praying that she doesn’t.

Tags: Efret Farr​

 

[Efret Farr]

I beg my god to speak and tear me apart...

By the time Efret reached Theed, she had coiled the Force around herself. It would work to suppress any subtle, meaningful movement that her body might otherwise make from now until she bade it not to. She didn't know the limits of the Archon's effect on Elias' mind. He had essentially forgotten who she was—or so she had been told and chose to believe—but had he also forgotten other things that he once knew, like Lorrdian Kinetic?

She was surely about to receive confirmation of the former, but didn't want to even test the latter.

Though she most often used Galactic Basic Sign, aided by the interpretation unit embedded in her necklace, she couldn't help but communicate simultaneously in Kinetic. That had been her first language, its heritage sewn into her very muscles.

Normally, doing so was harmless. She wasn't a career politician or diplomat, not that many non-Lorrdians were insightful enough to fully understand their language.

Today, though, she couldn't risk it. Elias was one of the relatively few off-worlders to learn Kinetic; perceptive, clever, intuitive as he was, or had been.

Had the Netherworld taken those qualities from him too?

After securing Raanursh to a hitching post near the outskirts of the city and dismounting, she sent Nirrah into the sky. She was more likely to spot Elias from above, but she was also more likely to be recognized by him. They had gotten separated in the Netherworld, so it was possible that he had forgotten her too.

If he hadn't, he wouldn't be able to recognize her from below. Hopefully not, anyway.

Efret's sight decoupled from Nirrah's as she flew away. The Jedi began to follow along the cobblestone pathway on her own. Careful steps lead her further into the city, her eyes moving from looking down at her feet to up at her destination ahead. As the foot traffic coalesced, she quickened her pace slightly, feeling protected in a crowd. They flowed collectively around a bend, then she felt it: the weight of a lingering gaze.

Her own looked up, swept left then right, trying to catch the person looking at her in her limited field of vision. Most everything was too far away to be clear to her, but one fuzzy figure somehow seemed more familiar than the others.

Elias.

It was a series of feelings, not a thought.

Her stomach dropped, suspended between the urge to run to and run from him. She felt cold though it was a warm day. The weight of his gaze threatened to buckle her knees as they had not too far from here when she stumbled through the rift. She could still feel how her skin had torn and bruised that day.

<Fuck,> she thought. She wasn't ready for this.

She'd never be ready for this.

She just had to do this.

Her heart seized as she raised her hands to sign.

"Excuse me."

The slightly tinny voice of her interpretation unit cut into the air. This wasn't Lake Country; this was Theed with all of the background and foreground noise of civilization. She had forgotten to adjust the unit's volume during her ride. Hopefully, it wasn't too quiet for him to hear.

But by the next moment that didn't matter.

She tripped over something small that had obstructed her path since the last time she had looked down. A loose stone, some apples tumbled off a cart destined for market? The ground came into focus in an instant as she fell forward towards it.

Elias Edo​

 

[Elias Edo]

Who'd Even Know If I Were Gone?

Hope won out over prayer, it seemed. She saw him too, and even flagged his attention. But before either could move closer to the other, she tripped. Elias was simply too far to prevent the accident, but he moved with incredible speed that put him by her side before anyone around her could notice what had happened.

“Are you alright?” he asked, in that same old voice that was smooth and warm. Many things had changed, no doubt, but Elias’ tenderness had not.

He offered her both hands, gingerly helping her to her feet. Luckily, the fall wasn’t serious, but Elias still looked for signs of injury as the woman steadied herself. A few onlookers had given the pair some space, either standing back as they watched or veering to one side or the other to pass them by; the rest of Theed kept walking on, unaware and rather apathetic.

“I’ve got some bandages aboard my ship. Healings salves, too. If you’d like, I could patch up any scrapes.”

He figured she’d decline—after all, he was a stranger she’d somehow recognized on the street. It could very well have been someone behind him she was calling out to. But it was in his nature to offer, nonetheless. Friendliness and compassion were free and cost nothing to offer.

“I’m Elias,” he said after a moment. His hand followed, extending for a polite shake.

“Elias Edo.”

Not the Jedi Master. Not the Quartermaster. Not the Force Master, or the teacher, or the healer, or any other title that had been levied—wanted or otherwise—against his name.

Simply Elias Edo, the man with a starship full of bandages, healing salves, and hopefully a navigation computer with Bogano’s coordinates committed to memory.

Tags: Efret Farr​