Prologue: Unfortunate Descent
The sun set over the cliff sides over the Jedi training ground amongst the lush trees and deep green. Waves crashed against the rocky cliffs that borderd the restricted forest dedicated to the training of Jedi Initiates. The air breathed a gentle breeze that echoed the rustling of leafs amongst the forest. And on the cliff edge sat a lone woman, cloaked in grey and ocean blue. Her mind like a ripple on the surface of a small pond, where the water remained tranquil yet disturbed by an impending storm of what was to come. The Jedi’s white hair, usually a serene cascade was now tied back, intensity in her expression. Her blue eyes now narrowed and focused as if perceiving a storm. Each breath she took was one of exhaustion and frustraition, a silent battle to maintain composure.
The trees rustled again- “Whos there?” her voice uttered as it carried the essence of heritage and the current of frustraition. Her voice resonated with confidence of Echani nobility. Each word carried with Royal Quality, expecting obiediance.
“It doesnt matter right now- if you know. Then you know…” - The voice crept up the girls spine, it was the voice of a miserable wretch. “-Do these cliffs call to you Jedi?” There was a uncomfortable silence, the girl on the cliffs peering over to the figure emerging from the tree line. She was pale, awfully so. Her hair cascading beneath her breasts, light bags under her tired predatory eyes. She stalked closer to the girl on the cliff. “-There is somthing that draws the mind there, the rage of the sea spending itself against the store. To what end?”
More uncomfortable silence followed “Who are you?” uttered the girl on the cliff edge as the creature stalked closer, her hands settling behind her back quietly. Her eyes favoured the water below as she began to pace around behind the woman in a awkward orbit. “A better question is whom you are Jedi?” - The girl went silent, mistrust flushed across her face, her silence kept. The wretch leaned down, stealing a pebble and inspecting it, before sending it sailing against the rocks. “You guard your name from me?” the wretch spoke “-Or is there somthing else closing your mind? Somthing you dont like?”
“-I do not know you…” the troubled girl spoke, her guard raising rapidly as a ugly smile appeared beyond the wretches face. The crack-whip grin the axe gives and outstretched neck upon the chopping block. “Two Bastards who find our peace on the borders of safety-” she began to muse “-Between the black rocks and the raging sea.” A silence, just who was this miserable wretch? “-We both come here because it places us at the edge of comfort. We, both cowards who dont dare send ourselves over the edge.”
The girls jaw tightened, her blood warming at such a declaration in defiance “-I’m no coward.” she spat back as her teeth closed against each other. Who is this woman? - The wretch began to inhale deep breaths that drew of somthing more then the salt from below the cliff side. “-And there it is, there’s waves in you Jedi.” as she flicked a third pebble to it’s doom without even laying her hand upon it. “-You hear it calling to come along, as I do. We both have the same problems, the same woes.”
The girl reached out with her presence, tasting the wretches own. The wretches neck snaps and twists as the girl tasted her presence. It was like dragging a hand through a pot of filth and tar which glued to ones fingers long withdrawn. The girls senses recoil, as she began to shift herself to her feet. “-The Force has unnatural around you, it is like tar, why?” the girl spoke, uncertain of her own fate.
“You are not so clean yourself Jedi- or did you think I wouldnt notice?” the wretch snapped back. “-You cleave to the sunlight and pure fantasies of life but you know there is more in you, the same misery I possess.” A long silence between the two, only the rustling of trees beckoned by the wind. “-Is that why you seek a different path? Because you know you are nothing alike the students here.” spoke the wretch.
“I know my failings-” - “Shh… there is no need to dwell on them, you are just honest as am I. The only honest souls here.” the wretch interupted, her words as tar as the essence upon her. The girl began to coil her arms around herself, uncertain. She was a failure, a failure to her Masters, not even worthy of their lessons. Only worthy of the lessons of lesser Jedi.
The wretches hand raised towards the girl, dirty dishonesty soothed across her hand. “We both know that ~everything~ is within us. Gold and mud both, the laughter of childhood and the apprehension of death.” The girl backed away quickly, alarm in her voice. “How do you know what?!” her voice dripping with fear which the wretch fed on like a predator. “You are asking the wrong question, though I am not suprised. You have the heart of a coward as do I.” Her hand waved, trying to calm the young Jedi, tar dripping at the incantation. “-It is a coward who asks who to blame when they are hurt- and oh how they hurt you…” The young girls heart dropped, how did she know?
“We are nothing alike!” she rebuted quickly, drawing her training foil upright protectively- “Of course, we are nothing alike. You have so much more promise than I. So much more power to be had. You wouldnt fail as I have.” the wretch intoned, her stricken left hand flexing as the muscles in her arm seized up. “-You will fail in your attempts to goad me into striking you, you think me weak like they do. Think me entirely breakable to my emotions, like they do-” her fingers tightening around the hilt of her foil. The wretches own hand gently stroked across her own hilt, a hilt unlike the girls own. There was no foil, just a fallen symbol. “-Good, that was never my attempt. All I wish, all I have ever wished for anyone- was for them to understand what they could become. How great they could be.” the tar poured from that sacred symbol she grasped that was her hilt. “-And you believe that to be the work of Malice? Hate? I have no such feelings towards you, we are so alike- for how else could I know all that I do?”
“We are nothing alike! Your energy, your pain you transmit to me! That is not who I am!” the girl cried, the conflict grew louder. “-I am not afraid of you! Your pain you desire to transmit to me! I am not going to break like a dog to you or anyone! - Nor’ am I going to break my Vows!”
“The Lessons -will- continue.”
“I would Rather die!”
