A Matter of Principle

[Prancing Yawn]

An immediate issue had risen, and with that an emergency council meeting was called as soon as time could be made for it - and time, certainly, was made. Involving the Loremaster, a serious decision needed to be made. In the back of his mind, Garth always expected this to eventually be brought up. He had waited too long..

With something of a stark contrast of facial expression - much more hardened, and discerning - he waited for the other Councilors.

 

[Matt]

Bektar walked into the council chambers and made a beeline for his seat giving the grandmaster a small nod as he sat down. This was a most unusual situation that had come about but there was nothing for it.

The jedi needed to stick together in such times but...This was unheard off.

 

[GABA]

Ebberla wasn't sure what to make of the situation, she was truly at a loss for words, but she was sure they would find their way back to her lips as soon as she heard more. She entered the Council Chambers, Master Telun and Grandmaster Dovhann were waiting, she bowed to each of them before taking her seat.

The matter, however, was critical. Though the council's voice was wise, they would need someone wiser. The Sage Master recalled their former Grandmaster, Jhon Cordatus, had left them a secure line of contact if he should be needed. The Corellian sent the message concerning Adalii and by the Force, she hoped he received it.

She waited silently for the others to arrive.

 

[Master Maverick]

This whole thing because of a mere child's throwing a fit over something she clearly had no grasp of comprehension over. The Lore Master was, to say the least, no impressed at the slightest. Not only was her position on the Council in jeopardy, but her livelihood and freedom as well. She wasn't overly worried about the murder trial; there was absolutely no motive and she was sure, no matter the result of this trial, the Jedi would not simply leave her to fend for herself.

If they did, she would certainly not simply be imprisoned.

The usual inspection occurred upon her arrival. The looks from the Knights were quite obvious; they knew what was going on. It was their job to, so she could only expect it. Her icy glare made their eyes shift away from looking at her, however, as she waited for them to finish and open the chambers for her.

She walked in with confidence, if not annoyance, and was quite unimpressed that Kara had not shown up. Of course she had said she wasn't going to be involved with Council affairs as long as she herself was on it, so it wasn't necessarily surprising. However, it simply solidified Adalii's perception of the girl.

Walking to the center of the room, she simply looked at the 3 Councilors before her. A bow did not greet them, simply her eyes examining them and her flat expression displaying little other than annoyance. While her emotions were hidden from those in the room, they would be able to tell what she was really feeling on the inside given her outward expression. That is, if any knew here, which none did. Except, of course, Ebberla, but that was only slightly. Their meeting had been brief and she had never informally met either of the others. Even the Grand Master. He had been appointed after her so, while she welcomed him, of course, they didn't get to know each other outside of this setting.

After a few moments, her eyes settled of the Grand Master, waiting for him to start this ridiculous session. She had nothing to say yet. Even so, it wasn't up to her to start the meeting.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

Familiar footsteps echoed through the corridors of the Tythonian temple. Each passing moment brought with it a cold remembrance of a life Jhon Cordatus had given up in service of another’s destiny, one far greater than his own. The child in his care was nearby, being kept safe by one of the few people in this universe that Jhon could trust, but even here he could sense the girl’s every thought, every emotion that passed through her mind. If she felt afraid, felt danger or sadness, he would know. He could be there in moments, like a father whose daughter was in danger.

The former Grand Master would not have normally returned to Tython, especially so soon after leaving the Jedi and faking his death in the presence of Andraste and the Emperor, yet the unity he had worked to sew, the unity that would be required for the salvation of this galaxy, was fracturing. It was only the beginning, but the Council was beginning to unravel, and he doubted they were even aware of the greater ramifications of this meeting.

It was Kara Vaalki he was most concerned about. It was not the fact that she brought up her issue with Adalii’s actions, actions that were trivial in comparison to the larger issues that they were illuminating. It was not that she was ashamed of the actions of a fellow Councilor. Indeed, disagreements should be aired. To not have done so would have been unhealthy for the Council. But from what Sage Master had told Jhon in her message, Kara was refusing to set foot in the Council chambers because of this. That was what concerned him the most, so it was Kara’s chambers that Jhon went to first.

He held the hood of his cloak tight around his head, not wanting anyone to see him, and removed his hand from the cloth only momentarily to press the chime on Kara’s door.

“Can you spare a moment for a dead friend?” he quipped with a whisper through the door’s intercom.

 

[Green Ranger]

There was a long pause, and then Kara's door opened without a word. Usually a stickler for organisation and cleanliness, the small chamber was now cluttered with datafiles, old holovids...Jhon would even notice a bound tome or two amongst the piles, nearly priceless artifacts from when written word was committed to paper instead of data. A pile of assorted crystals covered part of a desk, and various powercells, vibroblades and even the occasional blaster seemed littered all around in various states of assembly. If the former Grandmaster didn't know better, he would have thought he'd walked into the wrong quarters.

Then, there she was. Stepping out from one of the side chambers, the Jedi Councillor, Kara Vaalki...apparently one of the more controversial members of the Order now, due to her actions. But at the same time, this wasn't the Jedi Master everyone knew. Her clean pressed uniform, neatly tied back hair and stern expression had seemingly vanished. Her dark hair was dishevelled - tucked behind her ears in a knotty mess, her face marked with oil stains...instead of her uniform she wore a looser tan tunic, with various burn holes all over. Her eyes seemed brighter then ever, but sunken into her skull, and her cheeks seemed more hollow and pale then usual. As she looked up from a contraption , she barely even seemed to recognize Jhon, her eyes glazed over for a moment before they finally focused on the man. And then as she realized who it was, she stopped dead in her tracks. Stiffening up in surprise, she wiped a tangle of greasy hair out of her face.

"Jhon!" she exclaimed, a look of surprise and then concern washing over her features. "You...you can't be back! I mean...you left with Lana. Is she safe? Where is she?"

 

[Brandon Rhea]

“She’s safe,” he said, his voice becoming cold, distant, an immediate sign of his displeasure at the unfolding events, “though I have to wonder at this point if I’m hiding her from the Sith or from the ineptitude of the Jedi Council.”

His hand slowly reached for the control console on the side of the door. Behind him, it hissed shut. While it did so in instant, that half a second felt like half a year, half a century of awkward silence passing between Jhon and the Battle Master. He didn’t know if she would pick up on why he was acting in this way, but she was a smart woman. She would undoubtedly figure it out.

In truth, Kara generally reacted more to brash behavior than she did to Jhon’s typical restraint. That’s why he led with it, knowing that he stood a better chance at making his point this way.

“Refusing to return to the Council chambers,” he said, shaking his head. “I would expect that from the young girl I pulled from that ship, but not a member of the Jedi Council. You know the secrets of salvation, and you know full well what’s at stake. Destiny can’t be fulfilled if the light is tearing itself apart from within. Don’t be so irresponsible as to forsake your destiny like this. Don’t stick your hand in the sand simply because you don’t want to confront that which you don’t understand. If you can’t confront a fellow Councilor, how can you possibly hope to stand against the Sith?”

Jhon pulled his cloak off from his shoulders and threw it against a chair for effect, before saying, “You’re a Jedi Master now, Kara. Act like one.”

 

[Green Ranger]

Kara's immediate reaction was anger. Though she knew better, she couldn't believe that the Council had called on Jhon of all people to berate her. Could they not come themselves? The notion was both ridiculous and insulting.

"What would you have me do, Jhon?" she said, the frustration in her voice evident, "sit on the Council with a serial killer? You were a Sage Master once - you know what those creatures are capable of once they've fed, even once! If the Dark Side can infiltrate our highest ranks like that, who is to say the rest of the Order isn't as corrupt? I'll be damned if I'll stand here and let you berate me for not putting my life at risk!"

The Jedi Master's cold eyes seemed to light up as she spoke. Though it was clear she was empassioned, there was still an air of restraint about her, and Jhon would have had to be blind both in eyesight and the Force to not notice she was holding back. Whatever it was, she was far too proud for even their long friendship to confide in him enough to reveal it to him.

 

[Brandon Rhea]

The anger that she displayed told Jhon all that he needed to know about the circumstances surrounding this situation. She thought she was fighting the dark side. She thought that she was protecting the millennial ideals of the Jedi, but she had become blinded by anger. He said nothing of the sort, though he thought it, and he did nothing to hide that thought from her. While his words were harsh, his thoughts would be soothing, a warm reassurance not of what she was saying now, but of who she really was and what she truly stood for.

"You understand the dark side like a spoon understands the taste of food," he told her, referencing both the current situation and her own feelings towards it. "Is the Lore Master misguided in not seeking another means of sustenance? Yes, but evil? Hardly. You could make the argument that she is walking down a dark road, but I reject that. This is her biology. You can no more berate for needing to do that which is out of her control than she can berate you for having to eat solid foods. Even with another source of nourishment that she may find, she will always feel the urge, the temptation, to feed on a sentient life. That doesn’t make her evil. That makes her Anzati."

From his pockets, he pulled a small datapad and tossed it to her. On it were his teachings, specifically the Eightfold Path. She'd seen it before, but she needed to see it again. They would tell her everything she needed to know, and everything she had apparently forgotten.

"You think you're respecting the Way," he said, "but you're disrespecting it with a temper tantrum born of your own self-pride. That is a cancer that eats at the heart of good beings, and you know I say that with the weight of my own past actions. If you think you're greater than others, or even equal to or less than, then you have succumbed to your own pride. It's the most damning of all the sins. To commit to the Way means to respect all life and treat it all equally. Live for the benefit of everyone. Respect everyone, be they Gungans or Ewoks, Jedi or Sith, Human or Anzati. Your life is meant to help others, so help. Don't berate. Don't ignore. To do so is to ignore who you truly are. A Jedi."

 

[Green Ranger]

"She has already walked down that road, through years of feeding," Kara said, a quiver obvious in her voice, "and that makes her a threat to all of us while she sits on that Council! I don't disagree that she can find another way, but as it stands at the moment, right now? She hasn't discovered that alternative, and so she is a threat! The Archives have countless cases of Anzati Jedi falling after even a single feeding, and not a one has returned to the Light!"

The Jedi Master paused, and sighed, running her hands through her hair. She seemed suddenly to deflate somewhat, and the light in her eyes dimmed. "I'm not a leader. When you talk, people listen, Jhon. I don't have that power. You know as well as I do that the Council appointed me to the position grudgingly. Even now, I don't have their respect. They think of me as a child. You know it as well as I do. 47 years old, and the Force has blessed me with the gift of youth, and it's cursed me to be looked down upon by my peers. And after all these years, I still can't change that, Jhon."

She looked up at the Jedi Master, her voice cracking as she spoke. "I can't become the Jedi you inspired me to be."

 

[Brandon Rhea]

Jhon pulled a chair from the corner and slowly sat in it, exhaling as he finally sat. It’s not that he hadn’t been able to sit for months, but he was becoming tired. Destiny weighed heavily upon him, and he relished any opportunity to at least feel as if he was resting, even in the midst of work like this.

“Yes you can,” he said, his voice becoming softer, warmer, than his previous harshness, and he carried now the weight not of destiny, but of his own past. “Look at who you’re talking to. Do you remember the man who saved you from that ship? It was me, but it wasn’t me. I caused a war because I was more concerned with showing off than I was with doing a job I was told to do. Millions died before the war ended. I see them every day. I’ve given up regret, but I still remember.”

Their faces flowed through his mind ever day, all day. Not all, of course, but enough. Early in his exile from the Order, he spent his days watching the newsreels and military reports put out by the Empire, an Empire before the Sith, and looked at nothing but the faces. He remembered every face he saw, every name. That was a curse he would have to bear for the remainder of his years.

“You’re who you are now because you have a harsh perspective about what is right,” he told her. “Perhaps that's my fault. Perhaps, in what was still my inexperience then, I taught you too well about the Way but not enough about how to live it. You have an admirable concern with making Jedi be Jedi the right way, but you know as well as I do, even if it’s deep down, that there is no right way. There are plenty of wrong ways, but there are no right ways. For that, you look down upon others. You can’t find the respect of your peers because, on some level, you don’t respect them. If you did, this matter with the Lore Master would’ve been resolved already, and without my assistance.”

He leaned in forward, clasping his hands together as he continued, “Biology isn’t destiny. That which is out of our control doesn’t fate us in one way or another. Light and dark are about choices, not birthrights. Adalii should find another way. She should have found another way years ago, but mistakes don’t suggest darkness on their face.”

Jhon stood up again, thinking of the right words to say. There was always a metaphor he could find, always an event that was strong in everyone’s mind that he could explain. Perhaps that was why he could command people’s attention, because he could make them see themselves in others in ways that they never thought possible. It was worth a shot again.

“Yoda was wrong, you know” he said, standing up as he did. “If you've ever read the journals of Luke Skywalker, you'll know that Yoda told Luke that once you start down the dark path it would dominate your destiny forever. It would consume you. And yet, Yoda was wrong. That certainty, that self-assuredness over Darth Vader being irredeemable could have destroyed the galaxy. Luke proved them wrong, and Darth Vader was redeemed. Why did he turn off that path? Because Luke showed him love. He showed him compassion.”

He turned away as he continued, a hint of sadness creeping into his voice, knowing that these words would mean more to him than most others, “Vader fully became who he was in the lava fields of Mustafar because those around him had given up their compassion, save for his wife. Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda were intent on seeing Vader killed. Not once, at least in our understanding, did Kenobi try to redeem Vader. He went to Mustafar not to save him, but to fight him. Is what you’re doing any different? The scale, the importance, is different, but are the methods? Obi-Wan walked out on Vader metaphorically. You walked out on Adalii literally. That lack of compassion can drive people to madness.”

As he turned around again, locking his gaze with hers, he said, “I wonder if her story will end better than that immolation on that ancient river. How do you suppose you’ll be remembered if Adalii is lost because of this?”