A Master's Saber

A Master's Saber
Date of Scene:	07 June 2024
Location:
Synopsis:	Navi runs into the Zealot again, and learns her where her Master's saber is.
Cast of Characters:	195, Navi

Amarik (195) has posed:
It's a lovely afternoon in the Holy City, just half past midday. The temperature is perfect strolling weather - not too hot, and not too cold. Which may be why in the courtyard just outside the Temple of the Kyber, there are more vendors than usual out, selling various trinkets, foodstuffs, and souvenirs.

Near the center of the open area in front of the Temple of the Kyber, there's a large fountain whose tiled bottom is littered with coins thrown into by it hopeless romantics and wishful thinkers. And wading in the knee high water are four young rascals, teenaged Chadra Fans, scooping the coins into their pockets, shirts, shoes, or any other pouch sized storage on their being...

Navi has posed:
"Please don't do that," Navi calls, having noticed the Chadra Fans scooping up coins from the fountain. "The money's not there for the taking. It's from people making wishes."

As she approaches the fountain, she begins to realize how familiar these four look... "I might have known," she muses, smiling weakly. "It's good to see you four alive and well after so long."

Amarik (195) has posed:
Peeka's ears perk up when Navi addresses them, and she quickly clambers out of the fountain towards her. "Navi!"

"You've been away for so long," she comments, "I thought you'd maybe run away offworld with a troublemaker, or something." She folds her arms. "The credits don't belong to anyone," she says, "so what's wrong with taking them? Besides, aren't you like, kind of poor too?"

She sticks out a palm with a couple of wet and rusty credits resting on them. "Here. Go buy yourself something nicer to wear." Her brothers snicker.

Navi has posed:
"Actually, I've been around since our last misadventure... I was just mostly at the Temple. But I have missed you all," Navi replies gently. "I'd hug you, but you're pretty wet right now."

She lifts a hand in a universal 'I'll pass' gesture. "Thanks for the, well, thought, but the Brotherhood provides for all my necessities. It's not fashionable, I suppose, but it's good enough for me."

Amarik (195) has posed:
Peeka's brothers ignore Navi's comment about them being wet and dogpile her anyway, effectively transferring their wetness to her robes. Now the young Sephi will smell like soggy Chadra Fan fur.

"So you're basically they don't /want/ you to care about fashion? That's literally /horrible/," Peeka says, rolling her eyes. "And you should tell them that it is." A pause. "So what were you doing at the Temple? Fighting bad guys?"

"Peeka! Jol!" a fiercely maternal voices cries out from somewhere behind them, near the vendor stalls. "/Get/ over here! I told you I didn't want you hanging around that Sephi girl!"

Navi has posed:
Navi rolls her eyes and returns their hugs. "I missed you," she repeats softly. "For what it's worth, they see fashion as generally unimportant in the grander scheme of how the galaxy works. They don't say we /can't/ care about it... just that it's not important, and may distract us from things that are."

The maternal shout draws her attention instantly, and she looks over her shoulder to see just who's yelling for their kids. "It seems I'm unpopular with someone for some reason. Any idea why?" she asks the four.

Amarik (195) has posed:
"We missed you too," Treter pipes up, hugging her leg tighter.

Meanwhile, a stout Chadra Fan woman is lumbering over to Navi and the four children. She doesn't look very happy.

When she's about three quarters of the way there, she shakes a finger at the young Sephi girl. "You stay away from my children, you.. you immodest, trouble making, happabore pup!"

Navi has posed:
Navi bows respectfully, from the waist, as the woman approaches. "I am honored to meet you, Madam," she says politely. "And I assure you, I am none of those things. I never deliberately take off my clothes in public, and I make it a practice to avoid trouble, as per the dictates of my Order. But accidents do happen, and trouble has been known to find me on occasion. Also, what is a happabore?"

Amarik (195) has posed:
"Oh certainly," The Chadra Fan woman says, looking unimpressed. "I'm sure /exposing/ yourself in public was a complete accident. As was hanging about that den of thieves and then starting a /brawl/ which landed you in jail and got another alien /killed/!"

"Moooom!" Peeka groans in Navi's defense, "she was just trying to protect herself, it wasn't like that!"

But her mother continues, "Oh, and can't forget about the time you participated in a pit fight hosted at a criminal haven," she huffs, "cavorting with offworlders, courting marauders...! Hmph! And you don't even have the slightest what a happabore is?! City folk, I swear!"

Navi has posed:
"Actually, it was... and I was arrested for a murder I had no part of, not the brawl. Which I also did not start," Navi replies, keeping her calm in the face of the accusations. What can you really do about the rumormill, after all?

"As for that pit fight incident... well, that's a long story. I didn't agree to participate in any such thing, but my opponent took offense at my defending a woman he was bullying, and it would seem that the only recourse was for me to fight him. Unless I preferred to be murdered, which no reasonable sentient would. And the marauder was /stalking/ me... I was emphatically not courting him. He turned out to be the one who committed the murder you mentioned... and several others." She's probably beating her figurative head against a figurative brick wall, but she feels she must defend herself.

Amarik (195) has posed:
"Sure, sure," the Chadra Fan woman says, waving a hand dismissively. "I better not catch you taking my children on anymore /adventures!/"

She opens her mouth to say more, but just then a customer who had been waiting at the vendor stall she had been manning shouts and waves at her impatiently. Her demeanor immediately changes. "Ah, yes! Be right there!" she says, toddling over, but shooting Navi an icy, narrowed eyed look before turning her attention elsewhere.

Peeka groans. "Ugh, sorry about my mom. She's so dramatic sometimes," she says. "And she worries like, waaay too much."

But speaking of the marauder, Navi will suddenly feel a chill shoot down her spine. He's here.. In this market, right now...

Navi has posed:
"The adventure was theirs, actually... I was there to protect them. At least, that's how it was /supposed/ to be. But the situation escalated quickly, and without my knowledge or ability to control it," Navi replies, keeping her temper in check with a measure of effort. "I'm sorry your family was mixed up in my troubles that came afterward, but by then their adventure and mine were irrevocably intertwined. The only way out was forward."

She smiles faintly at Peeka. "I suppose that's how parents are. She doesn't want any of you to be hurt, or in trouble. Being a user of the Force, I suppose I am a magnet for trouble. She may not be wrong to worry for your safety around me, but we can still be friends, of course. I..."

She trails off, looking around for the 'marauder'. "He's /here/... go join your mother, quickly!" she cries softly, moving to usher the four toward their retreating mother. "The marauder is close by!"

Amarik (195) has posed:
The young Chadra Fans are quite resistant to her trying to usher them after their mother, dragging their feet and perhaps causing Navi to stumble over them. "What? Who's here...?" Jol says, sounding confused.

Peeks gasps. "You're just trying to keep secrets from us...! How /could/ you! Who is that guy, anyway?!"

The young Sephi might then realize that she's a bit too late. He's right behind her, only a few meters away.

But this time, he's not wearing his usual get up, in fact, he's not even wearing his mask...

He looks so... nice. Ordinary. Unassuming. Any passerby on the street would have simply thought him a boy, taking a walk on the streets of Jedha, three quarters past midday.

Navi has posed:
"The marauder... I can feel him. I know he's here," Navi replies, softly but urgently. Slowly it begins to sink in that he's closer than she'd realized... mere meters away. Behind her!

She whirls to look behind her, searching for him. But when she finds him, she almost misses him, because he doesn't look at all like the marauder who had caused her such trouble mere months ago.

She blinks, hard. Then blinks again. The boy still looks perfectly ordinary. Even nice.

But the Force doesn't lie. It's him. She knows it. Should she follow him? Greet him? Or just keep quiet and hope he doesn't notice her? She stares at him, paralyzed by indecision.

Amarik (195) has posed:
"What??" Peeka whispers too loudly. "I don't see him...!" the young Chadra Fan looks around but sees no evidence of the masked marauder anywhere.

His piercing indigo gaze lands squarely on the young Sephi, and his brows furrow gently as he suddenly starts to approach her. He extends a hand towards her, reaching for her fingers, slowly, carefully, intentionally.

She'll feel it in the Force. He means no harm - but is it a trick? Deception? He's not armed, though, at least not visibly so.

Navi has posed:
"He's not wearing his mask. You wouldn't know him without it," Navi replies, very softly. Reluctantly she reaches out to accept his hand, ready to pull her hand back if it's some sort of trick.

"You look a lot different without that mask," she says softly. "But I'd know your eyes anywhere."

Amarik (195) has posed:
Peeka is, for once, speechless. A nearly inaudible squeak escapes her, but Jol quickly covers her mouth.

The Tholothian takes her hand tenderly, in a gentle fashion that Navi may have thought him incapable of. He draws her nearer to him, and at this proximity, she'll be able detect a subtle citrus scent.

Then she'll be able to feel him reaching out into the Force towards her, letting her be privy to his thoughts, his feelings, the sound of his heartbeat...

Navi has posed:
Navi feels herself blushing, her cheeks hot as he takes her hand and reaches out through the Force. She gasps almost inaudibly as his feelings pass between them, inadvertently sharing her own through the link between them. Her confusion, how drawn she is to him because of their mysterious connection... her fear of what he may or may not do, and her shame at being afraid of him, in spite of what she knows, and the trouble she's been in because of him.

"Forgive me," she says softly, a tear coursing down her cheek. "I don't know how to feel about you... I'm sorry." Slowly it dawns on her that she had said something about having something...

"For me..? What is it?" she asks, confused, a hint of wariness in the back of her mind. She /wants/ to trust him, but she is afraid to.

Amarik (195) has posed:
Navi will sense the Tholothian man becoming overwhelmed by her confusion, fear, and shame. He seems surprised by her overt emotions and isn't sure how to respond. Yet, there are traces of compassion springing up from deep within him. He doesn't like seeing her sad.

He lets go of her hand and moves it to her cheek, wiping her tears away, gently. < It is not necessary to apologize >

He reaches into his jacket and produces a small holobook, worn with age, but still functional. Navi will immediately recognize it - it had once belonged to her late Master, it had been one of the few pieces of literature she had taken with her on their journey to the Outer Rim. He presses it until her hand, using both of his.

Navi has posed:
Navi feels like she should wilt under his touch, his compassion. She doesn't deserve such compassion, she feels. "It is. We've been at cross purposes, but you..." She trails off as she realizes she has no argument in his favor. Because of his actions, she has been arrested, accused of murders she had no part in, put in mortal danger, and even attacked. Only their connection through the Force truly joins them, and it is because of that connection, because of the strange intimacy between them, that she cannot raise her hand against him unless he first raises his against her. And sometimes not even then. In spite of everything, she doesn't want him harmed. She even seems to want to save him from... something. Perhaps himself. She doesn't know.

Only the feeling of something being pressed into her hand pushes her out of her fugue, and she stares at the object for a moment before she recognizes it fully. Her eyes are huge as she looks to him. "This was my late Master's..! Where did you get this? /How/ did you get this? I had thought the Jedi Order had taken it when they claimed her personal effects during the investigation..!"

Amarik (195) has posed:
<The other Nihil were successful in taking certain items from the ship you were on when it was raided. This was among them> He tells her.

The young Sephi girl will then also be able to sense some of his memories flicking here and there deeper in his conscious - this holobook, it's not the only lost item that had previously belonged to her Master, that he's seen recently.

In fact... there. Floating in his psyche is a memory of a beautiful and terrifying alien woman, with eyes black as the night sky and skin like the color of the clouds on a rainy day, poring over the broken parts of a saber, a saber that looks very much like the saber that had once belonged to her Master.

Navi has posed:
"Thank you," Navi whispers, clasping the holobook in both hands and squeezing her eyes shut tightly. The tears that had ebbed a few minutes ago prickle the backs of her eyelids again, threatening to fall. Even as she takes a deep breath, and another, to calm herself, his memories flow over her. One in particular leaps out at her...

"My Master's lightsaber... the pieces of it, anyway. You've seen it. But who is that woman in your mind? I've never seen /her/ before," she muses, struggling to come to terms with what she's seeing and what she had thought she'd known.

"Where did she get those pieces? I'd thought it was still on that awful moon, or in some forgotten storage box at the Temple with my Master's effects..?" She can't help a shiver. That lightsaber, or one nearly identical to it, had been with her Master when she died and faded away into the Force, but in the hands of another, it had nearly killed her. And it had set in motion a chain of events that eroded her trust in the Order itself, and led her to seek a new home among the Brotherhood, turning her dreams into regrets about what might have been.

Amarik (195) has posed:
 he says, touching her cheek gentlyagain. <Everything I know is hearsay - that it was found deep in the woods, near a man slain by a lightsaber, perhaps his own, perhaps someone else's.>

He becomes visibly uncomfortable when she asks about the woman. < She is the leader of the Nihil. She carries a deep hatred of the Jedi, and collects such items to keep her hatred alive> He turns away, and Navi will be able to sense that somehow, her Master's old saber has everything to do with why he's here right now, back on Jedha.

Navi has posed:
"Were there pieces of a pendant with him? A pendant on a heavy neck chain?" Navi asks softly, sighing quietly as he touches her cheek. "I'll understand if you don't know. The Nihil may not have thought it important enough to take note of." The image of the curious alien pendant and chain comes to her mind, gleaming strangely under the light of lightning, and the sheen of rain running down its smooth metal... until it was cloven in two by her lightsaber, and with it most of the heart of the poor crewman possessed by the Dark Side spirit contained inside the pendant. Had he fled with the last of his strength? She finds she cannot remember.

Her heart aches as the Tholothian turns away. "Why does she hate the Jedi so? I don't understand..."

Amarik (195) has posed:
 He tells her. 

< Even I do not know. She is bitter, mysterious, dangerous. All I know is that her hatred is generational. Passed down from her mother, and she will pass it on to her sons, and daughters, and to her son's sons and her daughter's daughters. It is a foul lineage >

"She seeks to restore it. For what purpose, I am not sure. But I must run her errand," he says, his gaze distant as he stares off into the horizon.

Navi has posed:
"Is the errand to do with my late Master's lightsaber?" Navi asks, remembering her feeling a moment ago about his reasons for coming back to Jedha. "And is it a Kyber crystal that she wants? Lightsabers are mostly made from common parts, but Kyber crystals are much harder to get."

Amarik (195) has posed:
He turns around, taking both her hands in his again. < Yes >

< She does not have a crystal, nor does she know how to repair the saber. This is my task. To find a crystal, and someone who will repair it. I must not tarry >> He drops her hands, and turns to leave.

Navi has posed:
"The only people I know of who can fix a lightsaber are the Jedi. And some former Jedi who have built lightsabers," Navi observes softly, looking up into his eyes. "There may be others, but I don't know who they would be."

"I don't know of any Jedi who would be willing to repair a lightsaber for anyone outside of the Order. They took mine when I left. But this was my Master's lightsaber. I can fix it."

Amarik (195) has posed:
The Tholothian man stops in his tracks, and pivots on his heel, turning to face her once more. His brows are furrowed, and his indigo eyes laced with neon blaze with a passionate intensity. Navi will feel a wave of incredulity wash off of him and fall upon her like a tidal wave, followed by a softer, breeze-like sensation laced with concern.

"It's dangerous," he says. "And you cannot mean to let her have it, after you repair it..."

Navi has posed:
"Uhh!" Navi flinches away from the wave of emotion coming off of the Tholothian man, left staggered as his concern laps at her consciousness, almost like gentle waves on a quiet beach.

"I don't know," she replies, her voice a little shaky. "I don't know if she'd accept me as a lightsaber tech. I don't even know if I /should/ let her keep it, even if she lets me fix it... there's so much uncertainty, and I'm playing this by ear, as the musicians say. I know I'm putting myself at risk even trying. I just don't know what else to do."

"I suppose if all else fails, I could show her my underwear," she adds, blushing faintly. "According to rumor, it's magic, and can bewitch anyone who might mean to harm me." Her tone is sheepishly impish, and, in addition to some embarrassment, she gets a mental image of herself throwing off her robe and standing before the alien woman half-naked. Clearly she's not serious.

Amarik (195) has posed:
As Navi speaks, the Tholothian man shakes his head, causing the gold rings he wears on the fleshy tendrils attached to his head to clink together like quiet bells. His brows furrow even deeper. "No," he says, "it's not right. If you repair it..." His gaze becomes steely. "It is yours. It was rightfully yours all along, anyway."

For some reason, as he is assailed by an image of Navi in her underwear in front of the woman, he looks shocked and equally embarrassed. It would seem he'd actually had no idea that the leotard she wore under her robes was her underwear.

"Listen," he says, quickly moving on, "I just don't know how much I can help you. To assist you in taking it from her would be an act of mutiny. And she may execute you with it, after you finish your task."

Navi has posed:
"I guess my imagination is a better communicator than I thought. I hadn't meant to shock you. But things were getting too dark," Navi says softly, blushing a little more and hugging him impulsively, as if to comfort him. "I'm sorry. Clearly there's danger in going anywhere near her. And she may very well kill me. But I just don't know what else to do. It doesn't help that I have a Kyber crystal bonded to me, and I've been thinking about building a new lightsaber. It may just be temptation. Maybe the Dark Side is trying to get to me."

Amarik (195) has posed:
Her impulsiveness seems to throw him off even more, and for a moment, he seems at a complete loss for words and goes completely rigid when she embraces him. The sensation will be clamorous for a moment - that citrus scent suddenly growing stronger, and suddenly being able to hear his heart thudding and his sharp intake of breath, and preview the memory of the last time he was hugged - a very long time ago, by his mother, before she'd died...

However, after a moment, he relaxes, and grips her elbows gently. <Are you certain this is what you want? It may get both of us killed >

Navi has posed:
"I believe the Force is pushing me toward this. I don't know what will happen, but I need to see this through," Navi replies softly, gently releasing him from her hug. "Maybe I can get her to see reason, somehow. Probably not, but if she wants a working lightsaber, it can't be for a good purpose. If I can, I'll try to ensure you aren't blamed for anything I might be blamed for."

Amarik (195) has posed:
He hesitates, but after a moment, inclines his head towards her. He rests a hand on her cheek, and she'll be able to palpably feel that he's.... afraid. For her, and what would become of him if anything terrible were to befall her while he was near. < That is futile. If we are caught, I will be blamed, and there will be nothing you can do to prevent it. > A pregnant pause. < Risking my life is not foreign to me. But I have never risked myself like this for someone else> His expression suddenly softens, and suddenly those burning indigo eyes simmer to candlelight intensity.

He leans towards her. <Know this - if we are to succeed, you must rely on my expertise, even if you do not agree with the methodology>. Another pause. <And there is no need to continue calling me by my title. You may call me Amarik, instead. It is the name my mother gave me>

Then he lets his hand fall to his side as he steps away. "I'll be in touch," he says quietly.

A Master's Saber

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