[D8ME] ... and Fronds

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

Vaya didn't bother to dress for the light rain that was promising to start soon. If it was anything like yesterday, it would come and go, and the weather was balmy even with it. She leaned against the landing strut of the Warrior's Heart, waiting for Petrus to emerge -- or approach from somewhere else. She wasn't sure which he had intended when he'd responded to her invitation to a beach walk by telling her to meet him here.

[Petrus Karath]

It was, in fact, from inside the base that Petrus would emerge. He, too, was dressed casually, wearing his new uniform pants, and a tank top. Little patches of burn marks, red and raw, stood out on his skin, but they were clearly healing quickly.

"Hey, Vaya." He said, giving her a cheerful, if somewhat fatigued wave. "How's it going?"

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

Vaya smirked at his injuries, but threw an arm around him affectionately. "Less exciting than for you. For a Jedi Knight, you sure look like you lost a fight with a fusion cutter."

[Petrus Karath]

Petrus smiled, one arm coming up to squeeze her back. "Hey, so you heard about the Jedi Knight thing, huh? I guess someone stole my big piece of news."

He glanced down at his lightsaber, then back up at Vaya. "Well... yes. A little. And some lightning." He sighed. "We won that fight, though."

He started to walk them towards the beach. "Sounded like something was on your mind? Or did you just figure that since I'm a Knight now, my advice gets more useful?"

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

Petrus smiled, one arm coming up to squeeze her back. "Hey, so you heard about the Jedi Knight thing, huh? I guess someone stole my big piece of news."

He glanced down at his lightsaber, then back up at Vaya. "Well... yes. A little. And some lightning." He sighed. "We won that fight, though."

"Word of you getting knighted and you not immediately losing the temple I worked so hard to find for you kind of came at the same time. Thanks for that, by the way."

He started to walk them towards the beach. "Sounded like something was on your mind? Or did you just figure that since I'm a Knight now, my advice gets more useful?"

Vaya followed him, holding a hand up to squint into the setting sun. "Something like that. You've got a lot of competition, you know. Verse offered to take me on as her Padawan."

[Petrus Karath]

That made Petrus chuckle. "Uh... sure?" Petrus waved a hand in casual dismissal. "So you heard about that too, huh. Yeah, we all came together to stop him. Even Valus and Liua. And Master Surro. Did you know she has blaster turrets?"

"Verse?" He looked at her, eyebrows going up. "Well..." He chuckled. "Honestly, you could do worse. Can you manage the flips, though? Seriously though, Verse is actually a really good Jedi."

"But..." Petrus frowned. "Does she think that you're Force Sensitive?"

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

Vaya laughed. "No, she was just trying to give me meditation tips. She said that when she was as bad a student as I was being, her instructors would smack her with a stick." She shook her head, amusedly. "I told her that maybe having someone who wasn't as attuned to the, you know, whatever, might be a good beginner student. If you don't teach them well, you just end up with a regular jerk, instead of a monster."

[Petrus Karath]

"Maybe." Petrus chuckled at that. "Although I'm glad you're not a jerk. With your brains, I'll bet you could hack my datapad, post my Warrior's Heart fanfic for everyone to read... truly evil." He shook his head faux-mournfully.

He cleared his throat. "Speaking of... did you go to the trial? Neela's trial, I mean." His expression was much more sober now, as it usually was when discussing the former Inquisitors.

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

Vaya nodded, also growing serious. "I did. I'm not even totally sure why. It wasn't my place to say anything, but..." she shrugged.

[Petrus Karath]

Petrus nodded, acknowledging this. "How did it go? I heard that an arrangement was reached. That's..." he let out a breath, "-good, I hope. We needed to do something to address people's hurt..."

He looked at her as they walked along, the ground changing from ferracrete to sand. "I'd like to hear your opinion on it."

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

Vaya tapped her cheek with a knuckle, her usual thoughtful tick if she didn't have a stylus in her hand. "That's the thing, right? Like I said, it wasn't my place there to have an opinion, but as you know, being opinionated is both my specialty and my favorite hobby." She gave him a self-deprecating smirk. "Lots of cultures have different ways of dealing with people who have harmed their community..." she cut off the burgeoning lecture with a sharp jerk of her chin.

"I'm glad it's over. I'm glad there's no more blood. For Neela's sake, and the Anzuri's." With a distant look on her face, she was thinking of Ru'ni and Sinnya in particular. "And they might need her help, sooner rather than later. When I talked to her..." it seemed like ages ago, "before, she seemed to think the effort to attack the Calm hadn't started with her, and won't end now that she's gone."

[Petrus Karath]

"She's probably right." Petrus said. "The inquisitors were like weapons, forged and turned against us by an evil hand. The wheel there is still out there, somewhere."

He nodded. "But I'm glad that something was done. Something needed to be done." Petrus frowned thoughtfully. "You know, it always surprised me, once I'd started living on Bankor is how many people didn't know a thing about Jedi, or had the wrong idea. I feel like we need to do something about this going ahead. Work with people more, you know?"

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

Vaya grimaced. "That sounds like a recipe for calling a Star Destroyer and another flock of inquisitors." She hunched wickedly, and held out her hands to either side of her as if she were an Inquisitor swooping down to snatch and unsuspecting Padawan, and made a swoopwing's krie! that startled several nearby seabirds.

She resumed a more normal pose. "Sorry, but I worry about you guys... and, well, everyone, all the time." Her shoulders slumped a little. "All of these people here?" She waved a hand backwards at the entrance and aboveground parts of the Sword. "Everyone seems convinced that the Empire starts falling today. I'm not so sure, and less sure than ever what I should be doing." She looked sideways at him. "What's your next step? Are you getting a commission in this outfit? Going among the people to show them what Jedi are like? Going after the next biggest Sibling you can find?"

[Petrus Karath]

"Yes..." Petrus said, giving her a strange look as she performed her antics. "Swooping is... bad..."

He chuckled softly as things returned to normal. "But I don't mean going around and telling everyone. But at least some people. The rest of the resistance all know we're Jedi. I feel like they should know what that means. Otherwise, well... people get hurt.

Petrus shrugged. "But I'm going to do what feels right." His lips quirked. "Hopefully I'll figure out what that is ahead of time. But my answer can't help you. What do you feel is right?"

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

"Ugh!" Vaya threw her left hand up (the one opposite from Petrus, to avoid risking smacking him). "If I could answer that, do you think I'd be asking you?" She sighed. "When I met you, after cutting myself loose because of a feeling," she made jatz hand gestures, "I thought that was a sign from the, you know, whatever. Why else would I spend precious years of my life on this backwater?" She kicked at the sand as she walked. "Then, just as I was going to go crazy from boredom and maybe start an excavation in your dirty laundry pile just to pass the time, I catch a hint about..." she pointed her antennapalps horizonward, where the bluish Orlandis was coming in to view.

"Now I've found that, and..." she hunched her shoulders up around her ears, and then let them slump. "Now what?"

[Petrus Karath]

Petrus just smiled. "Vaya, if you think about it, you probably already know what I'm going to say. I can help you, try to guide you. I'll try harder than I have in the past." He spread his hands. "But really, you can't look outside yourself for answers. I can't tell you what you feel, I can only give you suggestions on how to feel it."

Unable to aim parts of his head, Petrus nodded upwards. "So... about that, huh? Sounds like there might be something there for you?"

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

Vaya made a face, scrunched up, like she had bitten into something bitter. Or maybe was about to sneeze. Or maybe was about to cry? She returned her face to her resting sardonic state. "I thought so. But... not what I'd hoped for." She'd avoided having this kind of conversation with Petrus, and only really asymptotically approached it with others -- Sinnya, Qareme, Verse. "Do you remember what I told you, about why I dropped everything to do who-knows-what? That led to us running into each other at that customs check?"

[Petrus Karath]

Petrus nodded slowly. "Because you had an experience. I remember." His tone was gentle.

After a few moments, he gave an encouraging wave of his hand, urging her to go on.

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

"Well, let's just say that that," she jerked her chin at Orlanidis, creeping upwards from the horizon, "didn't do it for me. Which is maybe a selfish thing to feel upset about. It's way, way more useful than an inspiring relic would be. I just thought..." she looked sideway at Petrus, "this is going to sound self-centered and crazy, even by the standards of you weirdo religious types."

[Petrus Karath]

Petrus smiled gently. "Perhaps you just needed your experience to set you on your path. To be where you needed to be. You've made a difference for a lot of people, you know. In a good way." Probably didn't need to be clarified, but he did anyway. "And we're hardly done up there."

He sighed, giving another wave. "But go on."

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

Vaya nodded, but didn't seem happy about it. "You're not done up there. It's not a ruin, it's a perfect secret base. It might be the seed crystal that saves the Jedi Order. It might be the thing that keeps you alive, despite your best efforts." She gave him a friendly, low-velocity punch in the arm, more like a tap with knuckles. "So I feel like a real sleemo that I'm disappointed that we found that, and not a ruin that let me feel at one with the universe again."

[Petrus Karath]

Petrus smiled. "Well, something needs to, huh?" He said dryly, chuckling at the punch on his arm.

He gave her a sidelong glance. "Enlightenment, or even moments of it, can be a lifetime sort of thing, y'know. Maybe the best thing to do is to prepare yourself for the next one."

His eyebrows went up. "And why do you need a ruin? I'm surprised you haven't spent all this time grilling Master Surro." The brows drew back down. "But I guess it's not just knowledge you're after. Hmmm. There's another place that maybe you should see. A peaceful place. No ruins, but the Force is strong there." He shrugged. "Worth a shot."

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

She had already opened her mouth, maybe to argue, before he finished talking. "Here on Bankor?" she said, forcing her voice into a neutral tone.

[Petrus Karath]

Petrus gave a slow nod. "Yeah. It's a bit of a trip, but here on the planet."

He chewed his lip a moment. "It's been a secret, for a few reasons. And I do want you to keep in mind, you might not feel anything. But..." He gave her another slow nod. "I could take you there. Maybe in a few days?"

[Vaya Mer'darrow]

Vaya laughed, genuinely. "You're a much better secret-keeper than some of the other Academy types. For months, you kept me in the dark about a Master and a sacred Jedi site? Maybe you'll do alright after all." She shook her head, smiling. "I'd like to see it. You're probably right, though. Work of a lifetime. And when I did grill Master Surro, I bet you can guess what similarly gnomic advice she gave."