Test Your Mettle

[prairiedog]

"Yeah, I know you've already got a lightsaber, kid," Coryn said - with a small measure of exasperation. "Things are changing, okay? The galaxy has been at peace for generations - but the Sith have returned. If we're going to war, your first lightsaber isn't going to do; you need to prove - to me, and to yourself - that you're capable of entering the caves alone and constructing a lightsaber by yourself. Do you understand?"

With a sigh, Coryn shook her head. "We're joining Lord Zo in his fight against the Sith Brotherhood. The Jedi Council insisted that I take you as an apprentice because they're worried that you aren't strong enough to control your emotions. Where we're going, you'll have to exercise a lot of restraint - war has led plenty of Jedi to the dark side. So you're going to prove that you can handle it."

Despite her cold weather gear, Coryn shivered beneath the frigid gales of Ilum. She was never fond of the cold. Standing in front of the sealed entrance to the kyber crystal caverns, Coryn was reminded of her own Gathering, many years before...

... drawn from her brief reverie by the biting cold, Coryn motioned for Shasa to approach the entryway. "We'll open it together, and you'll go in on your own; from then on, you're by yourself. The only thing that can threaten you in there is you. Find your kyber crystal and meet me here before sundown, or the entrance will reseal itself when the temperature drops."

Waving their hands in wide circles, Coryn and Shasa slowly but surely separated the ice wall sealing the caverns using the Force. At Coryn's behest, Shasa entered the caverns by herself - or so she thought. Unwilling to let Shasa lose her life in a simple test, Coryn entered the caverns behind her, lurking just out of sight and keeping an eye on her new Padawan.

@Pete

 

[Pete]

The two had been together for two weeks, now. Fourteen days. And in that time, it felt like just as many words had passed between them. Their journey from Tython had been expeditious and businesslike. Knight Del had seemed more interested in anything aboard the transport ship than her new Padawan, her eyes rarely gracing the young Togrutan, even more seldomly speaking. On several occasions, Shasa had wondered if she'd done something wrong, anxiously waiting for the older Jedi to chastise her. But even as the two crossed the frigid steppes between the Temple and the legendary crystal caves, their speeder was almost entirely devoid of conversation. Shasa hadn't expected for her new mentor to be overly friendly from the start, but the Knight's demeanor was a stark contrast from the caretakers of the academy. Shasa had been awaiting the moment she was taken under the wing of a Knight since she could remember:

Under no circumstances would she be a disappointment. She would not fail in this, or any task.

Beneath a thick winter coat and hood, her lekku instinctively curled up around her throat, seeking refuge from the piercing cold. She stood before the icy doors of a crystal cave, not dissimilar to the one she'd completed her Gathering in less than a year ago, and so naturally as Coryn explained the nature of her task, she protested.

"But. . . I don't understand. I've already completed the Gathering, Knight Del. You've seen my lightsaber. Why have you brought us all the way here?", Shasa objected, the cold burning her exposed face, rushing in to burn her throat as she spoke.

But the bite of the air paled to the stinging "kid" tacked on to the Knight's answer. As Coryn continued, revealing the purpose of this christening undertaking, Shasa accepted her trial, though begrudgingly at first. She realized that it had to be some kind of test, that the older Jedi was trying to intimidate her; in her previous exertions here, she had ventured through the caverns in a guided group, only facing the last of the trials alone. It was ceremony more than anything else. This was not.

"I understand", she spoke loudly over the low, mournful tundra winds. Channeling the force, she assisted her mentor in unsealing the cavern, focusing intensely to prevent any mistake or visible weakness. She was the greatest swordsman in her class by far, but she had struggled in other areas for years, and this was certainly not the time to let it show. "I will return before sundown", she nodded with contrived seriousness, and turned away from Coryn, entering the cavern.

She was hit with the silence like a blaster bolt to the chest. The cave's interior was motionless, and within ten steps virtually all noise from the fissure behind had subsided into nothing but a barely audible hum that seemed to reverberate out of the darkness further below. Despite being sheltered from the wind outside, Shasa was surprised and startled at how rapidly the temperature dropped, and before she had taken another ten steps, she could do nothing to prevent herself from shivering against the cold. Ten more, and she found herself descending into an impenetrable darkness. Inexplicably, she could look back and see surface light quite clearly, but beyond a certain point, the obsidian stone of the walls lost their sheen, swallowing the last traces of light.

She took ten more steps, now counting each fall of her foot. She could not see her hands in front of her face. It couldn't have been that far, could it? She looked back the way she came, and though she had not turned a single corner or curve, there was nothing. Ten more. How many was that? It hadn't been this far during the Gathering. Ten more. She stepped into a dimly lit room visible only by the glow of magnificent crystal stalactites above her, and after pausing to observe them, trudged forward another ten steps. She trembled from what she assured herself was only the cold, and looked up once more to see, quite literally the same formation.

She quickly looked backwards, saw nothing, and shot her gaze back to the ceiling, where there was now only more of the same incomprehensible blackness. Her hand impulsively broke for the lightsaber on her hip, but came back empty. Someone screamed her name. She took another ten steps. Then another ten million. She was freezing to death. Her father stood before her, pointing with an accusatory finger, his face an unknown blur. She brushed past him, abandoning him as easily as he had her. She felt again for her lightsaber. Tears began to roll down her face, which she struggled to keep soldierly, emotionless. She could've been walking for minutes, hours, or millennia, but eventually she found herself at one end of an ancient, serpentine bridge of stone.

At the far end stood herself, staring back.

 

[prairiedog]

"What are you doing here?" Shasa's ghost asked, scoffing. "You know you aren't fit to be a Jedi, little girl. You were only ever useful as your parents' sob story; a sad little token to inspire sympathetic charity. They didn't miss their daughter when the Jedi took you away from them - they just missed their meal ticket."

Shasa's ghost laughed cruelly; it was a haughty, judgmental laugh, meant to rankle Shasa's baser, more crude emotions. "Looking for this?" Shasa's ghost inquired, brandishing her lightsaber apropos of nothing. "You couldn't even hold on to your lightsaber, you loser," she mocked, igniting the blade with a snap-hiss and a low, ominous hum.

Brilliant green light illuminated the other end of the cavern, casting long, menacing shadows across the ghost's face. "You're going to die here, coward," she insisted, advancing upon Shasa, "and you're never going to be a Jedi!"

* * *​

Where's she gone to now? Coryn thought to herself, glancing first down one narrow hallway, then the other. She sighed, exasperated, and picked a corridor at random, hoping that the Force would guide her to her Padawan. Unfortunately, the two girls hadn't exactly built up a strong rapport yet; her familiarity with Shasa's Force signature was minimal, and the interference of strong residual Force energy within the caverns had masked it entirely.

Coryn came upon a large, high-domed chamber within the caverns. Hundreds - perhaps thousands - of unattuned kyber crystals glowed silently in the dark room, casting an eerie blue light. Stepping into the center of the chamber, Coryn realized that she had reached a dead-end.

"Lost your Padawan, 'eh?"

The familiar voice carried tenuously to her perked ears before Coryn could turn to leave. She pivoted on a heel and drew her lightsaber, but did not ignite the sword; what she saw before her inspired a tight, aggravated frown - but not hostility.

"You're a phantom, dad," Coryn explained, "and I've let the caves play tricks on my mind. I haven't seen you or mom in almost twenty years - you expect me to believe you haven't aged a day? No grey hair? No wrinkles?"

Dresin Del smiled the weak, sad smile of a disappointed parent.

"Heck of a way to greet your father, kiddo," Dresin mused. Coryn rolled her eyes. "Okay, sure," he admitted, "I'm not real. I'm a... manifestation brought on by your subconscious psyche. So what? What's the difference? The heart of the matter is the same: you regret abandoning your home. Your family. Don't you remember what I said to you? The last time you were here?"

"Here on Ilum?" Coryn asked, "or on Alderaan? Because, as I recall, the last thing you told me before I left for training was that Keesa would inherit the estate - no love lost there, daddy... and the last time I saw you here, you were just as fake as you are now."

"True," Dresin agreed, raising a finger, "but you're clearly not over... whatever problem you have with us. With me."

"I'm plenty over you," Coryn bristled, "and I'm done having this conversation."

Coryn turned to leave, but paused as she nearly walked face-first into her father.

"Let me leave," Coryn demanded through gritted teeth, thumbing her lightsaber to life, the bright blue blade lighting up the room.

 

[Pete]

Shasa was immediately hit with a wave of fear, realizing the sudden danger she'd walked in to. But was any of this real? She'd been to these caverns before, but nothing she'd seen then had seemed as corporal or surreal as this. She willed down the fear that was rising inside of her, and with considerable effort, struck a healthy balance between disciplined confidence, and the adrenaline-fueled anger that her academy mentors had warned her against. This was not real, the ghost was attempting to force her hand emotionally. It nearly worked; Shasa's understanding of the nature of the test being, honestly, her one saving grace.

"I will be a Jedi," she spoke in loud defiance. "My parents followed the path of their fate, and so have I," she continued, trying her best to sound like one of the academy's lecturers. "And I wish to do you no harm, but I command you to stand aside, or I will defend myself."

She placed one foot behind her to assume a more balanced stance, and raised an open palm towards the mirrored image of herself. She did her best to push away any of her doubt, even as she stared into her own face, alit with a phantasmic green glow cast by the lightsaber.

 

[prairiedog]

The ethereal projection marched stolidly on, ignoring Shasa's commands, bearing down upon her; fifteen feet, then ten, then five, and then -

- the ghastly premonition of a jealous, angry Shasa burst into a cloud of grey haze, blowing past the real Shasa as if ushered on by a powerful gale. Gleeful whispers urged Shasa to turn back, but they, too, faded on the wind that she could not feel against her skin.

Her path forward was clear, and as the cavern terminated in a low-domed nook, the glint of an eager kyber crystal would catch Shasa's eye. She would sense its alignment to her; its unification. The ordeal had been brief but draining, and now it was time to go home.

* * *​

Coryn raked her lightsaber left, sharply, abruptly dispelling her father's apparition. She relaxed the twisted scowl on her face, settling for a tight frown, and disengaged her lightsaber. Making her egress from the empty chamber, Coryn couldn't help but feel that she had somehow failed, despite recognizing the projection for what it was... had she been a Youngling, undergoing the Gathering for the first time - could she truly have claimed to have succeeded?

I let a ghost break my focus, distract me from my goal, and draw my ire, she fumed.

Perhaps it was time to visit Mr. and Mrs. Del on Alderaan, and bookend an unsavory chapter of her past. First, however, she had to locate Shasa and ensure that her new Padawan hadn't lost herself in the labyrinthian cavern.

The duo bumped into each other around a sharp corner, Coryn expressing her surprise with a pointed ugh.

"You took longer than I expected," Coryn answered Shasa's unasked question, "and the sun is setting... but I see you managed to find a new kyber crystal. Let's head back to the temple. I picked up the parts you'll need already; you can put your new lightsaber together somewhere less cold."

* * *​

The granite floor of the temple on Ilum wasn't particularly comfortable, but it helped Shasa focus on the task at hand if nothing else. That's what Coryn hoped, anyway; she was new to the business of teaching, and - truth be told - she had been resentful, at first, to be saddled with a Padawan. The Jedi Lord had declared his intent to battle the Sith Brotherhood in earnest, and Coryn was beyond ready to go to war. She could not stand idly by and allow a century of peace to be extinguished by the Sith.

"That's good," Coryn encouraged as Shasa assembled the final pieces of her new lightsaber. It was not unlike her first, per design, but it felt different - heavier, perhaps. Not physically. Her second, solo Gathering had been more trying than her first, safe in the comfort of her peers; she was ready to stand on her own as a Jedi - with Coryn's support, at least.

"The senate may hide behind turbolaser batteries and shield generators while they claim that there's no threat against democracy, but I promise you, the Sith are returning - and they'll do so in great numbers, and they'll work tirelessly to topple the Republic and all that it stands for. We can't let that happen. So we'll go to war - and we'll win, together. Okay?"

 

[Pete]

The process was lengthy, Shasa remembered, sitting cross-legged on the Ilum temple's chilled floors. Suspended before her were the numerous components that would make up her lightsaber, a device as sacred as it was deadly. Though she had coveted her previous weapon and had practically never been found without it, it paled in comparison to the significance of what would soon take its place on her hip.

"That's good," she only half-heard her mentor speak behind her. She had entered a sort of trance, meditating as calmly as she could as she maneuvered each piece into place with her mind. She made a microscopic adjustment to the angle of the focusing lens, tuning the weapon to as close to perfection as possible. The green crystal, the chief component, shone wonderfully in Shasa's eyes as Coryn's words echoed in her head. "We'll win, together."

Shasa wordlessly agreed, each component falling into its proper place as the lightsaber accordioned into itself. "We will."