Jedi T'ali'au

They had journeyed deep into the heart of the metal beast, from which the poison was spewing like an open and festering wound. But here, at the root of things, the energy was not defined by the pain it caused, it simply was just another chain of cause and effect that permeated the natural world. The struggle was an imagined one, a construct that overlaid reality because creating enemies was a fundamental part in the process of sentient minds to rally effort, to go to war. But the temptation to see all things through the lens of conflict to draw upon that reservoir of strength and will could ultimately deceive a person. Statements became threats, accidents became intentional sleights, and people could become overwhelmed with an all consuming need to oppose anything and everything they saw as the enemy or connected to an enemy's power. War was tiresome and yet often persistent in the minds of people as a necessity for fear of losing, of being overcome and destroyed or marginalized. Fear generated war and war generated fear. Only by seeking the truth of the world could the cycle be broken. "Let go." T'ali'au accepted the presence of the energies as a natural occurrence, and not an antagonistic force to be opposed. She opened herself up to Loloto while also beseeching her on behalf of her allies. She did not try to stop the poison, or meet it in a contest of wills. She accepted its presence as a natural consequence of the machines failing, but also something that Loloto had called forth champions to address. "This too is just another part of the world that we walk in. Do not defy the natural order of things, instead trust in the Mother, in the Force as you call it, to put you beyond harm as you do her work. We define our relationship with the Mother by whether or not we choose to accept the world for its truth, by whether we cherish and embrace the world or try to change it to accommodate our needs at the cost of others. There is no rival to overcome or opponent that must be broken, no us versus them in a contest of wills. There is no us for that matter, for we are here simply as a reflecting pool of the love and adoration of her will." When the ego was let go, the poison passed through harmlessly, for Loloto was the ocean, the poison, and the life that dwelled in and beside the water. The poison was not the Other, and therefore under the dominion of the Mother to deny purchase wholesale.

T'ali'au brought the embrace of Loloto around her as a mystical protection against the toxins. Her presence would not purify the water, that was a job for advanced water filtration systems, but the poison would not pervade her system or cling to her body. She extended the protection of Loloto over the others, as a supplement to their gear. All Falleen could adjust their skin tone, but her people had long ago evolved to add bio luminescence to their patterns and coloration, a silent form of communication while underwater. The priestess lit the way as she led the Jedi to the rumored entry breech. Once inside, it would be up to them to lead the way, since T'ali'au knew nothing about Star Destroyer interior design.

"The ancestors of my ancestors recorded that once there was a great battle between humans here and other outsiders, and at some point two of the ships were brought down and crashed into our ocean. You know them as Star Destroyers. Within the last few years containment was breached somewhere within at least one of the ships' inner workings, and now poison is being spewed into the ecosystem. Everything here is connected, and if the ships were to deteriorate further it could have wide reaching consequences for the planet. Some villages are already facing food shortages and sickness on account of the poisoned waters. We have a general idea of where the crash site is, but it may be best to use your ship's technology to pinpoint its location and fly there, otherwise we're talking about a long journey through toxic waters." T'ali'au hoped that they could leave immediately, feeling like her own delay in returning had already held them up enough.

T’ali’au couldn’t believe it, not only had Sandy returned, but one of the Jedi from Dac was with her. Finally having the opportunity to see the Jedi directly, she realized that the woman was a Mon Calamari. She must have slipped away during the chaos and swum out the same way that T’ali’au had. “It is so wonderful to see both of you again! Yes, I was on Mon Cal recently, my people sent me to try and enlist the Mon Cal’s aid in dealing with our troubles, but when I had arrived everything was already in chaos. I tried to do what I could, but regretfully I was outmatched. Perhaps in time once the ocean is healed my people can aid yours in saving your world from the Poison.” T’ali’au hugged both of them deeply, both because she was not familiar with the concept of personal space and because they were ridiculously warm and it was fantastic. Seriously, hugging warm blooded species was like being wrapped in a sun baked blanket on a cold day.

T’ali’au hated space travel. She had withheld judgement the first trip, on account of it being her only time in space, but now she was certain of it. The constant coldness of the void played havoc with the natural rhythms of her body, leaving her feeling exhausted and lethargic. It certainly did not help that the events of Dac weighed heavily on her mind. The Jedi there had seemed resigned to defeat, burdened by a despair so heavy that they would rather give up than continue to carry it. The priestess was by no means delusional, she knew that the current did not always go where one wanted, but she still believed that evil could be challenged, that lives could be protected. She hadn’t given up on hope. There was something inside of her, an intuition, a mad musing from the ether, that even though the poison had triumphed at Dac things were not entirely lost. A sourceless yet reassuring comfort. Her thoughts were interrupted by the captain buzzing in over the ship comms, informing her that they had arrived at Scarif and were on descent. The ship buckled and shook as it entered atmo, but otherwise remained intact as it approached. Familiar presences danced along the periphery of T’ali’au’s senses, not just the familiar swirls and eddies of the people of her village, but lights that brought renewed optimism for tomorrow. As the ship approached her village, she saw another already adjacent to it, miraculously not on fire or otherwise destroyed. The Jedi had a reputation among her people for their… questionable piloting skills, having littered the island with the wrecks of their personal craft in the past. Once the ship landed and the ramp extended, T’ali’au froliced out onto the dearly missed beach sands and welcomed the warmth of the sun like an infusion of much needed energy. Like waves upon the shore, yesterday’s path was washed away and with it the pain and sorrow.

The world was literally bursting apart at the seams as this unholy poison strained and pushed against the cage that contained it while going through its death throes. It was time to leave, especially with more agents of the poison gathering like infection around a wound. It was foolish to think that the galaxy could be saved in a day, and even more so to try and do it alone. As the waters came crashing in on the cave, T’ali’au quietly disappeared beneath the rising tides and made her way through a series of fissures out to the wider expanse of the ocean. Today wasn’t a victory for the forces of creation, but at least there were threads of hope in that a greater poison had been quelled, and as long as life persisted, the chance for future victories remained. Perhaps the most important lesson from today was that the galaxy needed the people of Scarif as much as Scarif needed the galaxy. It was time to stand together against the beasts that rampaged through the worlds. ----------------------------------------- Some time later, T’ali’au was back on the surface and departing the planet. The Imperial navy was focusing its attention on bigger fish, and the chartered freighter was able to slip by unnoticed, or at least unchallenged. OOC((Evac and leaving through imperial lines was cleared by Ex before posting))

The aggregate of all of the chaos came in the form of a surging tidal force, sweeping everyone into further depths. T’ali’au surrendered herself to Loloto’s will, diverting the blunt trauma of impacts through rolling and launching off of surfaces when possible. When at last she found herself at the terminus of the descent, she vanished beneath the waist high waters to better ascertain the situation. The ancient poison’s presence was felt more keenly in this void, but it felt alien compared to the men from the surface. These beasts were like any other agents of the poison, and prone to infighting. It wasn’t long before tentacles of whatever lurked beneath were picking off soldiers. The priestess readied her spear and began an elegant but conservative dance of strikes and interwoven movements. She muted her presence in the chaos, not concealing it entirely but also not advertising her presence.

In a sequence of moments, it seemed like everything was coming undone. Agents of that ever present poison that the Jedi called the Sith were in through the tunnels, accompanied by a nightmarish entity of pain whose presence felt like shards of glass racing across exposed flesh. It was easy to feel small and powerless when confronted with such relentless oppression, but even in this sickened place T’ali’au was surrounded and filled with the presence of Loloto. The priestess had noticed in her time abroad that people who were separated from nature equated its harmony with peace. Harmony meant that everything had a place in the waters of creation that benefitted everything else in some way, even if it wasn’t immediately apparent. Nature was fully prepared to rise against anything that threatened the natural order, in ways that certainly weren’t peaceful. T’ali’au observed the thousands of currents that were interwoven to create the ecology around her, and gently nudged certain ones. Loloto cursed those that tried to seize the power of creation away from her, but allowed for a select few to sway the natural path of things as long as they continued to embrace her design. It was not against nature for the local predators to hunt prey and defend their territory. The natural caves and heavy flooding of the area created a perfect point of access as the ocean demonstrated in blunt physicality the difference between harmony and peace. The caves erupted into chaos as sleek and powerful predators surged in from the depths. Keelkana slithered and swam through the tunnels in a territorial blood frenzy, while krakana breached from the larger areas intent on devouring large swathes of Sith troops. The enemy meant to walk against the current, and now the tides were rising and meeting them head on. T’ali’au readied her spear and let her presence fade into the world around her. Soon she would move through the slaughter to aid her unknown allies, making use of the discord to mitigate the numbers and discipline of the enemy. The day could still be won.

Life had changed a great deal for T’ali’au over the last year, and yet the core of what she was doing was what she had always done. Protecting people, bringing joy and harmony, giving thanks to the life giving oceans. She was in a different ocean now, on a different world, but she still felt Loloto all around her. She had come to Dac as an ambassador for her people on Scarif, in the hope that Mon Calamari engineers could stop the poisoning of her world, or maybe even reverse some of the damage. But now Dac was being poisoned, and if T’ali’au could do anything to stop it, she would. Loloto was guiding her now, towards a darkness that might be the source of the infection. The inky depths of the waters beckoned coldmind, but she could not afford to be sluggish and tired right now, so she reached out to the ocean mother for warmth. Phantasmal currents of heat moved through her and reinvigorated her muscles and mind. The poison here was like a fungus, lurking deep in caves and spreading its evil like spores carried on beasts and currents alike. It was too hungry, too vast for subtlety, and therefore probably something ancient and forgotten, rather than a nascent new threat. It spoke through the void in words that held no meaning to her, and Loloto’s embrace became as much a cloak against its malfeasance as the cold depths. As T’ali’au descended she realized that its call betrayed it. While the rules were different, just as sound interacted with surfaces, the mental chant’s distortions revealed a natural cave entrance to the source of the poison. It was a welcome alternative to the sewage entrance that the natives had recommended, and T’ali’au was glad to have avoided the toxins (not to mention the stench) that such a route promised. Coursing through the caves with well honed agility, T’ali’au began to sense the presence of others in the dark. At least some of them wore light around their spirits the same way that T’ali’au carried Loloto in her heart, and she wondered if they were Jedi, alien holy warriors that sought out and confronted evil. If so, they would be invaluable aid in helping to stop the poison. Perhaps the tides of Loloto had brought them all together in this moment. She reached out to them gently, the metaphysical equivalent of playfully splashing someone with water to get their attention.

“Mmmm, we can take the fish home after we harvest the areca nuts.” T’ali’au hugged the bundle of warmth a bit tighter before her eyes fluttered opened and she suddenly realized that whatever dream priority she had no longer mattered. Her scales turned pinkish in embarrassment as she apologized. “Sorry, weird dream, I’m awake now. Most people think that the Blight comes from the corpses of the metal beasts that fell from the sky, but the elders of my elders say that it was a corrupting energy that came from an evil moon. Something Other to the sacred light you used to unbind the Blighthive. Loloto’s energy is meant to sustain all things, but the Blight stills and binds it, so that only it may use it. Even the Ysbridion Stormcallers and their angry sky gods war against the blight and call it unnatural, and they believe that all is permitted. But to answer more directly, yes there are more.” The priestess saw light coming into the chamber and could feel the world breathing in, it was time to be moving again. She did not want to end the warm embrace, it was like holding the sun in her arms, but she needed to get up at some point, and she needed to check on the Toa Paia’s wounds. Reluctantly, she untangled herself to start the day. “I need to check how your body is recovering, but in the meantime you can tell me the story of how Sandy’Sarna became a Jedi.”

T’ali’au surveyed the situation and the girl with a great deal of apprehension, but as easy as it was to see only a frail young woman that needed protecting, T’ali’au remembered that she was a warrior, and a champion of the light. It wasn’t easy, but the priestess let the Toa Paia pass unhindered. She couldn’t explain the bond she had with the newcomer, but she felt like it carried the weight of a greater meaning. Her stomach knotted up and did back flips as she watched helplessly. In some ways in brought to mind a similar time in her past, but that memory was more… complicated. There was a desired victor to this fight. The girl seemed so tiny compared to the encroaching darkness, and T’ali’au’s heart dropped and shattered when she saw the darkness encroach upon her and then through her. Nausea tore through T’ali’au’s stomach and tears blurred her vision as she watched the darkness consume her new friend. ********************* “You shouldn’t tell her such stories, people don’t just find happiness through hoping for it. She needs to know that success often means working hard, and sometimes even the righteous fail. I don’t want my daughter getting herself killed because she doesn’t believe she can fail.” “And I don’t want her running away from the righteous path just because the destination is obscured. Besides, it’s just a story that she likes.” “Stories have power, take some damn responsibility for how you raise our child.” “This isn’t my people’s way…” “It’s my way, and I warned you of that from the start. If you can’t handle the responsibility I’ll just take her with me next time I leave.” ********************* Fire and a light that was felt within rather than seen emanated from the girl like a glorious new dawn, and consumed the blighthive whole with its purity. Tears of loss gave way to tears of joy and relief as T’ali’au watched the girl overcome the monster with her own inner light. As the sickness was burned away, the priestess saw her friend once again, wounded but with a look of exultant satisfaction on her face. Now that the evil was gone, T’ali’au rushed to the girl, who was heavily wounded, and gathered her up in her arms to take back ashore to recover. She was so warm, like a sunkissed rock, and T’ali’au didn’t want to let her go when she got her back to village infirmary, but the Jedi’s wounds needed treating. The priestess began the grueling process of treating each laceration for infection, embedded stingers, and toxins, a constant concern with any wound from a blightborn creature. The work was slow and meticulous, and eventually she gave the girl an opiate to help with the pain as the surgery began to drag on past sundown. T’ali’au had reached full coldmind by the time she had finished the entire affair, and the communal sleeping rock felt like a million miles away. Both timid and hopeful that this was okay, she curled up next to the girl to absorb her warmth and express how grateful she was for what the Jedi had done today. The girl was probably passed out by now, but just in case T’ali’au whispered in her ear. “You were magnificent today. Now rest up and if you find yourself in dark dreams, call for me, and I will be right there with you.” T’ali’au suddenly had the realization that she had never told the girl her name, and in fact did not know the Jedi’s name either. “My name is T’ali’au,” she whispered softly.

T’ali’au put aside her spear and readied her kopere, scanning the waves for dark shapes. It took some time, but at last she spotted the outline of the creature. It was a Blighthive feeder organism, essentially like a three foot salt water salamander with the head of a lamprey and a skin that excreted paralyzing neurotoxin. The priestess selected a frozen shaft from her kopere’s quiver, and placed it into the kopere’s energy field. Making a drawing action with her right hand, the shaft slightly receded in midair and began to spin with frantic intensity. With a release gesture, the shaft tore forward with a howling whistle that cavitated the water upon impact. The feeder spun violently from the first impact as the shaft caught a hind leg. T’ali’au did not release a second shaft immediately, instead waiting for the chaos in the water to find some resolution and the merciful killing shot to present itself. For the first time since Sandy had arrived, T’ali’au “spoke” in Lanu, the visual language of pulsing and rapidly changing skin tones. The sun was hitting the rocks well and carried her message of sinister reds and firm cobalt blues quickly to others in the village. Others came with cloth for handling the feeder and a sandspun urn for holding it until Ta’avale could come to claim. “That was a feeder beast for a larger threat, a tumor of twisted flesh that floats from island to island consuming life and corrupting nature. Ta’avale use the neurotoxins from these creatures for their weapons, restoring power stolen from Loloto to the cycle. It’s like when a villager gets a Pe’a, the pain of the process representing the hardship of the experience, and the art representing how the person grew.”

T’ali’au led the girl to a jagged line of smooth black rocks that extended past the beach into the ocean. She dipped the Kopere’s quiver into the water and it drank deeply before separating the salt from the water and freezing the water into bolts. They probably wouldn’t need the Kopere, but just in case something large and hungry approached the rocks, T’ali’au wanted to be ready. Pulling some bait out of her satchel, the priestess casually tossed it into the water before readying her spear and taking a relaxed preparation stance. “The anchor exercise teaches one how to root themself in the now, rather than what has happened or what might be. The root of it lies in focusing on the subconscious routines of the body, such as the beating of the heart or breathing. Think only of the act and the sensation, clearing away any thoughts not pertaining to these things. Surrender your mind to the natural order rather than rebelling against it, so that you may receive its blessings.” Fish began to gather around the bait, nipping at it frantically before finally biting off larger chunks. T’ali’au lined up the throw, her breathing relaxed and natural. “It’s instinctual to hold your breath when you need fine control of your body, but the absence of air only causes your mind to panic and rush the action. Embrace the motion of the world, make a careful accounting of it, and follow through on the action. Replace instinct with wisdom.” In a smooth motion T’ali’au released the spear into the water and it struck true on a fish. She pulled the line, returning both the spear and the first catch of the day.

T’ali’au took a moment to consider her answer before responding. “It’s like feeling the world breathing. In the morning the world inhales, and we take in the heat from the sun and the rocks and we feel the rush and the glow of life. Everything is vivid, and it is a time for doing and feeling and dancing. As the sun sets and the world exhales, activeness is replaced with thoughtfulness, motion gives way to stillness, and the throbbing tension of life dims enough that one may reflect on the choices of the day, and on the choices yet to come. Each state nourishes the other and I don’t think that without the one that I would fully appreciate the other. I can’t share the physical feeling of it with you, but we do have thought exercises to help the young accept the cold mind when they are too young to know the value of it. I could teach you those while you tell me of your Jedi teachings. As long as you can multitask anyway, I want to go fishing and gathering so that we can have some options for food. Besides, the world is inhaling and it’s time for doing.” T’ali’au grabbed her fishing spear and her kopere as she waited for a response from the girl.

“Loloto does not give anything regardless of one’s reverence, she simply is. No prayer or offering is required for her to be present, because she is in all things, in the places between all things, and in the current that moves us all forward in our lives. Faith in Loloto isn’t about miracles, it’s about understanding the truth of the world, and surrendering to your place in it so that you can be happy with yourself, rather than suffering over what you are not. Loloto gives and takes, and joy and loss comes to us all, but in learning to accept the flow of our lives, we find ourselves renewed by not fighting against the truth of the world for what we think we want. Eating breakfast makes you happy, but it is not the only path to happiness. Loloto is understanding that even if you miss breakfast one morning, you can still be happy, and that dwelling on not having had breakfast will only bring you unnecessary grief. Some people get so attached to what they think they need for happiness that they destroy everything around them to try and preserve that one fleeting source of temporary happiness. That being said, knowing your place in the world is less magic and more wisdom. So unless being happy is a magical power, I think I’m just a normal girl who helps people find their own measure of happiness through understanding of the world, one breath at a time. Speaking of helping people, I need to check your patterns again, just to make sure you’re recovering okay.” T’ali’au checked the girl’s heartbeat and temperature, her hand lingering a moment too long on the girl’s forehead as a question formed in her mind. “What’s it like always being so warm like that?”