[Noleyci and Devia are breaking out a gifted child, taken by the Imperial Inquisition because of his sensitivity to the force. B. is a rebel general, El. is a Jedi in the New Jedi Order.]

I remember the last time I was here... when I went on my rampage. The night I proposed to Devia. She's with me now... and they still stand no chance. We clouded their minds, crept up behind them, and ignited our sabers through their white armor. This in and of itself marks us as not part of the Jedi order. That we can kill so easily. But it is part of the balance, they took an innocent... they have to face the consequences.

B.'s team moved in smoothly behind us and the extraction went as planned. We left I. in a safehouse. El. will look in on him later... there is an affinity for the boy that may help is introduction back into this time, his memories repair...

I sensed someone before we began this operation... a 'student' and a friend of mine. She's hurt, but safe.... and this distraction should stop any pursuit. Nothing like killing two birds with one saber thrust.

0 comments

[Noelyci's adopted sister is residing in Amethyst Vale on Dantooine, a town under the watch of the Imperial Garrison - whose commander has been engineered to hunt down and eliminate Jedi.]

He called her Mother. How bad has his life been that he called her that just because she was kind? He has memories of the destruction of the temple and the slaughtering of the younglings... something nobody should know about, and he has a large affinity for the force. That alone would make him worth talking to, but now he's been taken by the Imperial's. B has lent his support but Devia and I are preparing to walk into the Imperial Prison to break him out, if he is truly an innocent then he can't be corrupted by the Inquisition...

How does someone his age have memories as if they were still a child. This is either an elaborate trap or he is a gravely hurt victim. His name is I. I hope I can help... the path is uncertain with this child.

0 comments

Her hands are beautiful... hell... all of her is beautiful. But I watched her hands trace some of my scars... her fingertips and mind absorbing where I got each one. None in our adventures of the night, though she had a few... I know she is learning everything about me. Each mark on my skin and the story it tells. I wanted to tell her that she had healed much about the marks left on my heart. Made me more confident, more sure that I had something to fight for. When I opened my mouth to say it she traced my lips with her fingertips. She already knew... spoken across the mindlink without me even realizing it.

I love watching Devia work... she wields the sabre like she did the pike. Dancing in and out of danger, almost never taking a hit, demolishing things with power and ferocity unrestrained. She is a hunter... like her cats. The grace in meeting the objective, power in pushing herself to the limit against something that only wants destruction. Single minded, living in the moment, gorgeous to watch.

I used to jump in when she was fighting, trying to protect her and take the blows myself.... stupid of me really, though my intentions were good. I've earned some of my marks from doing that. However, it really was arrogance on my part not to step to the side and help her rather then trying to take her objective... It's not wise to get between the huntress and her prey. She never mentioned anything, but I noticed she could take care of herself, and me. That gave me the ability to more accurately gauge when we should take things on together, and when she could just be watched....

Watching her is a thrill to me... I can't describe the feeling accurately. Listening to her through the mindlink, watching her spot weaknesses with finesse and technique I wouldn't have noticed. Our styles are quite different in some ways. Her doublebladed sabre moving more like a pike and my one handed blade built for speed and deception. To those watching I'm sure it looks like I'm faster in technique but the majority of mine are feints and deceptions.... working from the shadows and trying to influence the mind of my opponent. She finds openings I don't see, that they can't close... every hit striking something.... leaving a mark.

She's left a mark on me... and I on her... but this one isn't a scar... it's something that proclaims ownership, partnership.... oneness. I'm proud to wear mine.

0 comments

[Noleyci was raised in an Imperial Sponsored Orphanage when he was a child. The Jam is a weekly party at the River Bend cantina. B. is a semi-disgraced Jedi and Ji. is his wife.]

After last week's Jam I wasn't sure there was much left to just amuse me socially. So much of my life is filled with obligations, both self-imposed and as a duty to those I've recruited, that I thought there wasn't much left between my family and my enemy. But I discovered last night that there is a middle ground.

Devia and I took the time to show B. & Ji. her house near the River Bend. Ji. is working as a decorator and Devia wanted to show of her award winning sanctuary in Rielig. Ji. seemed to be quite impressed and it was great fun to play the doting husband role with B. while the girls did their thing. It was almost normal. She made a proposal to Devia about partnering up to decorate. I could feel the pleasure Devia had in the idea and I decided to hire the two of them to push it along. It would be truly wonderful if Devia found more friends... We went to the Gallery and I had a great time showing off my collection. Ji.'s lekku were going a mile a minute as she looked around. B. spent a great deal of time showing that his credits were going to be spent quite quickly... though the smile in his eyes showed the lie to his teasing.

It's strange to find myself enjoying the company of others who aren't my family. Devia and I may have found another couple we can spend time with as if there isn't a war on... though the reminder may come back. In the orphanage I didn't have time to make friends... or rather my friends were fooled by the masks I was already learning to wear. I've made a mistake of finding myself with only two types of people in my life. Family, who I am the shield and sabre for... or enemies. There is a third option. B. & Ji. can take care of themselves... they don't need me to take responsibility for thier safety... and if I choose to take on that obligation later then maybe that's the flow of the Force. But for now I can just have friends.

0 comments

[Noelyci is a force sensitive who has rejected the title of Jedi.]

It's been interesting going to the Jam as a patron rather then a security officer. I've enjoyed it for the most part. Although things have gotten a bit rougher I've noticed. Some other people noticed too last night. I agreed saying that a certain class of people seemed to cause the problems. Ky. heard me and wanted to show off so he got in my face and acted offended. He might truly have been but I wasn't talking about just him... I didn't understand why it so bothered him but then it struck me. He's afraid. He can't get past the fact that he dosen't understand something like the force and he's turned it into a prejudice that's destroyed his relationship with me... with his child's mother... with several he used to fight with...

I wonder sometimes why I still fight, I have plenty of money, agreements with all the residents around the mountains I want to call home... I could just fade away with my family and mask us all from sight. Nobody would step within several hundered clicks of my territory without being marked. The only thing that could cause problems would be bombardment from orbit, and that death would be quick and unavoidable anyway...

But it dosen't truly matter what a paranoid second rate smuggler thinks of me... I don't need his validation anymore, if I ever did. It does bode ill towards those of us blessed/cursed with the gift. I never really understood why people could call my sister 'witch' with such derision in their voice. Intellectually I could, but it never got to me the way it was intended. I worry for those younglings that come after me... it's possible they will become second class citizens like so many others.

There is a prejudice forming, born of jealousy and fear... that's why I can't fade into the mountains and ignore things.

1 comments

So much has been lost… first of course to Vader’s pursuit of the ones with any ability at all. I see the Inquisitors stalking those with ability and wonder if they know that once it’s done and over with they too will get a blade in the back. It takes sensitivity to the force to detect those with the curse. When the Empire feels it has eliminated them all it will have no need of specialist hunters in the ranks.

I’ve gotten good at spotting the plainclothes inquisitors… course once you get used to it a cop is never had to spot. It takes me back to being a smuggler, looking over my shoulder. I’ve been doing that all my life, just looking for a more skilled operative class now. Quite a bit easier then the independent Bounty Hunters the Empire was hiring for awhile. These advanced snowflakes just can’t pull it off. They don’t have the contacts… or the right combination of swagger and deference to be in the right circles and not look conspicuous as hell. I don’t know if the powers that be ran out of money or it just got too dangerous, but I haven’t seen one in awhile... though I haven’t stopped looking.

I still find it quite incredible that I don’t look over my shoulder so much when I’m with Devia. I thought when I had built my retreat, masking it in the residual force from the old shrine that covers this mountain, which would make me feel safe and be able to truly relax. In all honesty I have lowered my guard here… feeling less vulnerable and able to sleep, to meditate. However, until Devia entered my life I truly didn’t know what peace was. Hard to believe that with the amount of worrying I do over her safety I actually feel more relaxed and centered. It’s amazing… stronger then the force, but also infused with it. I always knew love and care was the saving grace… just never expected to have it.

I had to take a trip to an isolated moon in the core worlds… well, the edge of them anyway. One of my contacts had found a small stash of lore. I haven’t been able to sort through all of it before I got back but it looks quite good on initial survey. That’s another part of the loss… the dynamic of the Jedi and their focus on light and dark sides of the force caused so much about balance to be lost. Many of those other paradigms and cultures did not write down the quasi-religious overtones that so infuse most cultures understanding of the force. But the Jedi could have been more balanced in their documentation… less judgment on their part could have kept so much knowledge. Instead of insisting on their way of understanding and taking the younglings they could have treated it as anthropologists and historians and learned from those cultures new ways and understandings of the gift. So much lost… but there are remnants…. Beautiful ones in fact, like this little ball of sand and water…and the person who created it.

0 comments

[Noelyci is a force sensitive who has rejected the old jedi way of doing things and strives for balance, seeing dark and light as artificial aspects of the force, yet he is familiar with the Jedi code and traditions, having done much research into what he is. A seer.]

"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."

I can't help it. Every time I modify my sabre I recall those words. I didn't come through the traditional system. I rejected it, and I'm glad I did. But the simple meditation and intense focus needed to create a lightsaber is one best enacted by the repetition of the way you learnt in the first place. And truly that benediction is one of the things the Jedi got right. No seperation into dark and light, no distinction between tool and wielder. The force is the heart is the blade is the person.

An unbalanced person produces unbalanced flow. It's an interesting thing, understanding the Force this way. We who are cursed/blessed with the ability to modify the flow are in turn shifted and sorted by it. It's like being a fish in the streams I so love on talus. The fish lives in the water, changes the water, to a degree even determines the flow of the water by shifting things with it's tail. Yet it cannot escape the flow, nor stop it. Doing so would damage itself fatally. So the flow continues, both guiding and being changed by those of us who can see it.

I finally attained the components the old documents described... Putting them in the Chu Gon Dar Cube and activating it with the flows produced a crystal of indescrible beauty. The lava of the planet seemed to be suspended in it's heart, neither cooling to obsidian, nor burning my hand. The crystal flowed and shifted, maintaining a balance in it's orange heart. I took it back to my workshop, trying to trace the flows through the crystal's heart. It intrigued me all the way back to Talus.

I prepared my workbench and began the simple coda while removing the safety locks on my blade. Extracting the green crystal I'd grown so fond of... I was glad it still spoke to me, just not as loud as this new one had begun to. I gently attached the power cell to the alignment mechanism and sealed it back up while finishing the coda.

The blade is gold and red, shifting endlessly, like the lava the crystal resembles. Devia said it looked like life itself. It's interesting to wield. The lattice is in constant flux, it requires presence and effort to keep the blade in balance. Yet I've been espousing balance in the force for so long that it almost seems like a perfect fit. Time to go hunting....

0 comments