Ask Yavin IV Reaching Out

[Haldir Eressëa]

(Takes place before the Yavin Invasion)

​

The halls leading to the Council chamber were quiet and empty in the early hours of the morning. The sun was just beginning to rise, the silence pierced by the leaves rustling in the gentle breeze and the soothing sound of bird call.

As soon as he was able, as soon as he could move despite his injuries, Haldir Eressëa had hurried back home with a heavy heart. Willa Kanz, his very first Padawan, had left him a message detailing her disappearance; why she decided to leave the Jedi Order. It hurt him that Crix had perished – the Arkanian Offshoot was his friend, too – but the Knight couldn't deny that her leaving stung quite harder. It hurt that she didn't ask for his help; it hurt that she didn't seem to want it.

His initial thought was to follow his instincts, to drop everything behind to try and track her down. Willa had become someone important to him – much like Elidan – and it was only fitting for Haldir as her Master to locate her and bring her back. But Haldir was also a Knight, bound to his duties to the Order. She, along with Elidan, taught him that he didn't have to be alone in facing whatever troubled him. The Order was his family, so he fought the desire to track Willa down on his own and reached out to the Council about her disappearance. He could search for her himself but Haldir knew that he wouldn't be able to do it on his own. And as Willa's Master, he had the responsibility to alert the Council about her choice.

He knew he was going against her wishes. But she had gone against his own by leaving.

Haldir cut a phlegmatic yet despondent figure as he limped his way towards the Council chambers. For the first time he was maskless, face exposed for the Councilor he was about to meet to see. In his haste he had forgone all measures to conceal his features as he had been taught, though the circular sunglasses he wore provided what cover it could offer to hide the pain in his pale blue eyes. The Knight was clad in his usual dark fashion, from his black, high-collared top with gold buttons down to a pair of similarly colored dress pants and synthleather shoes. Most of his fingers were still covered in bandages, his top lip still bearing the cut it received where he had been struck by one of his cousins. His left eye was still bruised, pale violet stark against ivory skin. The Knight had cleaned up as best as he could, though he still looked as beat up as when he first sent an urgent message to the Council requesting an audience.

And now he stepped into the Council chamber, gaze downcast and shoulders slightly hunched. Willa didn't want to be found, but it was his responsibility to find her, and to inform the Council what she had done. Haldir just hoped that she would be able to forgive him if he ever found her – or if their paths crossed again.

@Logan

 

[Kaisa Vanloa]

Kaisa had never been an early riser. She much preferred to sleep in until the first blush of the early morning had faded and the sun had finally showed its face, though she'd been able to do less and less of that in the recent days.

The work of a Jedi Councilor was constant, a steady stream of other's wants and needs that she was now responsible for. It was as exhausting as it was rewarding - though, as the gentle morning breeze floated the soft cooing of morning doves through her open office window, Kaisa found herself exhausted with very little reward.

This meeting had been requested by a Jedi Knight she wasn't familiar with, a man named Haldir Eressëa. The Knight hadn't given Kaisa the exact details of what their meeting was about - a common theme among Jedi that Kaisa found very annoying - but he did make it seem urgent.

Sitting behind her desk, a pair of half-moon glasses resting halfway down the bridge of her nose, Kaisa sipped dark Corellian whisky from a snifter. Some people would probably think she was an alcoholic with how much she enjoyed dark liquors, but Kaisa rarely drank to get drunk, she just enjoyed the taste. It helped that with the Force, you could purge yourself of the toxins that would otherwise cloud her mind and her judgement.

The sound of her chamber doors opening pulled Kaisa's gaze from her computer and the endless amount of reports she needed to go through. Truthfully, she was thankful for the interruption though her face probably betrayed that - tawny yellow eyes the same color as dandelion wine peering over the rim of her glasses, a melancholy look tugging at the corners of her eyes.

Good morning, Knight Eressëa, Kaisa said, waving her hand at one of the empty chairs in front of her desk to offer him a seat. She made no comment about the man's appearance, despite the fact that it looked like he'd gotten into a fist fight with a gundark. Your message sounded urgent. What is it that you need to discuss with me?

@Forsythe Crowholde

 

[Haldir Eressëa]

The door slid shut behind him and as Haldir stepped forward with a slight limp so too did his gaze rise to meet the Councilor's. Though he hadn't given much detail as to why he requested for an audience the Knight was grateful that Councilor Vanloa had answered his call for help. Still he couldn't help but feel as if he was interrupting her work–

The man offered her a polite and respectful half-bow before settling on the chair to her left. "Pardon the intrusion, Councilor," apologized the Knight before following up with a "Good morning."

She seemed busy– no, she was, and Haldir wasn't one for small talk nor wasting someone else's time. He wouldn't burden her with both, and was glad for her asking straight to the point. The Arkanian Offshoot took a quiet, deep breath to steel himself, letting go of whatever doubts and worries that currently clouded his mind. Letting himself get overwhelmed by his emotions wouldn't do him any good.

"My Padawan, Willa Kanz, has disappeared."

Saying it out loud didn't feel as freeing as he thought it would be. Instead it only seemed to cement his failure as Willa's Master. If only he had approached her when he saw how Crix's death took its toll on her. If only he had been brave enough to make the first move. It was his duty to help her in any way he could, and though he had made that clear his Padawan chose to take matters into her own hands.

It stung.

"She sent me a message detailing why she had to leave the Order. My Padawan is intent on discovering the cause of Knight Crix Aran's death–" here his voice slightly caught but he pushed the pain aside and continued, "–and is determined to do it on her own."

@Logan