Haruun Kal

[Nia Doarr]

It had been a relatively short time since she'd left Mon Cal, but she'd done so much since then. After Rose's death, and her narrow escape, not to mention what she'd seen of the Jedi while she was there, she'd been sent spiraling, nearly rejecting the Jedi outright. But she owed her father more than that. The order he loved and served for so long, there had to be more to it. Maybe the Jedi were a shadow of what they were now, or maybe the ones she'd met were just bad examples of what a Jedi was.

 

As it were, she'd spent the last few weeks going from planet to planet, almost aimlessly as she saw more of the galaxy than she'd ever seen before. She remembered how excited she'd been on Ord Mantell. The luster of it are, the energy, the new experiences. Somehow that had been taken from her, and she was desperate to reclaim those feelings. That drive had brought her here, to Haruun Kal. She'd heard whispers of a ruined Jedi enclave here, and had spent most of what was left on a round trip back to Sullust, where she'd found herself previously.

 

If the living Jedi couldn't show her what she'd been looking for, she'd ask the dead instead. Sifting through rubble and ruin to find answers appealed to her more than training soldiers anyways. Maybe she could finds answers. It was no secret that the Sith were evil, or that the empire was waging war against the Jedi, but evil was a point of view and the Jedi were likewise waging war against the Sith. The dead and the past would tell her the truth. Her true purpose was to find archives untouched for years, read what she could. It would be free of propaganda, from either side of the war she hoped.

 

She cleared the treeline, to her surprise, and faced a large building. A temple. Not as large as the one on Felucia, and certainly not as large as the one she'd seen in holos of Coruscant before its ruining, but it was clearly Jedi. The architecture and the feeling about it were there, like Felucia, and like it had been on Nar Shaddaa, though it had been much fainter there. She took a breath, and stepped forward. This place would hold answers. She could feel it.

[Nia Doarr]

She stiffened, the intrusion into her mind largely unwelcomed. She glanced around, looking for the source of the voice. She clearly wasn't as alone as she'd thought. Someone was close, and they had command of the Force. She hesitated. Perhaps it was a ghost. She'd heard stories of Jedi and Sith leaving behind wise and powerful spirits, but she still questioned the validity of those claims. She pushed on. With no way to respond to the presence, it was the best she could do. Until she saw the smoke. Not from the temple, though it had clearly taken a beating itself, but from nearby. Perhaps this was the person who had spoken to her?

 

She approached. It was a small camp. She'd left her robes near where she'd arrived on the planet. She was alone, and in a galaxy that was very hostile to the Jedi. Her father's lightsaber had been left, too, though it had pained her to do so. There was a lone figure, tending a fire. Nia hesitated- she could see the lightsabers, and the woman certainly wasn't dressed like a Jedi. But why would a Sith be here? And she felt like a Jedi. Nia couldn't explain how, but there was almost an aura about the woman, similar to those of the other Jedi she had met, such as Mjan and Kel Koon.

 

The best way to find out, she decided, was to ask.

 

"Excuse me ma'am. Are you... a Jedi?"

[Nia Doarr]

Nia was hesitant to accept the strange woman's offer. If she wasn't a Jedi, then who was she? The lightsabers implied force-sensitivity, though she claimed she wasn't a Jedi. She didn't seem like a Sith though. Maybe an Imperial Knight? Though what would she be doing here, in the ruins of a Jedi temple? Perhaps the same as Nia was. She kept her distance. If this had been earlier, before Mon Cal and her encounters with the Rebel forces, she might've accepted. But she was different now. Wary. Mistrusting.

 

When the Togruta spoke, she confirmed Nia's first thought. That she was a force sensitive. This only brought more questions, however. How had she 'felt' Nia? Reached out through her mind? Were these skills she herself could learn? But she had little time to ponder, as the woman finished cooking her meal. It was clear that Nia was intended to sit, so she did so carefully, still keeping her distance.

 

The question put her on guard, concerned.

 

"I seek answers to a question, though I may not like what I find. But now, if I may ask... What brings you here? If you are not with the Jedi, then who?"

[Nia Doarr]

So the other woman was once a Jedi, and from the sounds of it, had reached the same conclusion as Nia was closing on. She relaxed, finally accepting the woman's offers of nourishment, though she kept her distance. She glanced at the temple. This was her goal. Inside, she could find records. Stories. Maybe even firsthand accounts of the galaxy that explain what happened to the Jedi, why they aren't like the stories she'd heard as a child.

 

The woman's repeated question snapped her out of her thoughts though, and she frowned, repeating herself as the woman had.

 

"I seek answers. Knowledge that I hope is in what remains of this temple's archives. You say you were trained here- perhaps you can show me the way to the temple's library?"

[Nia Doarr]

Nia hesitated, but revealing what she was searching for couldn't hurt too much, could it? She took a sip, contemplating. The reason she'd come here was to learn without outside input. Having a guide would help her achieve her goal, but it could also compromise it. Unfortunately, it was a risk she would have to take. She didn't know this temple, didn't know where the archives were, or if she could even access them alone. Whoever this woman was, she would have to trust her.

 

"Alright. I suppose I don't have much of a choice. I seek the history of the Jedi and Sith conflict. I seek it here instead of another temple because I wish to read of it outside of the eyes of the Jedi. I've witnessed the Jedi make decisions and commit acts that have shaken my faith."

 

She watched the woman, on guard. She'd revealed an inkling of her own allegiance, and had yet to discern how the Togrutan woman would handle that.