[b]The student, the cobra and the mournful orphan[/b]



[img]https://i.imgur.com/0OkvLEl.jpg[/img]


The return to her palace had been spent in the same silence, albeit the tener seemed changed. The regular soldiers while fearful of her, seemed to behold her with wide, curious eyes. The blood stain on her cheek confirming what was being shouted and screeched, which filled with a dread of a different sort. The fear of exposure, of retaliation, of being killed for their part in this palace coup by the surviving forces loyal to the dead. One of them, a human male in his forties reached up to scratch his neck under his tight collar, his uniformed which had been pressed and neatly arrayed earlier seemed as frazzled as his heart rate suggested, but the other, the younger one managed a question brought on by a mix of fear and audacity. "Did you really tell Grand Admiral Pitta that you could smell his inferiority?" he asked with a near giddy laugh and the other soldier elbowed him "You're out of line!" he turned to apologize only for the woman to raise a hand "He is, but he is young and does not see the concerns you do" she turned and nodded her head ever so slightly causing the younger soldier to smile "man, it's almost worth being tortured to death by assassin droids over"

Perhaps, he wasn't as young as she thought, at least not mentally. "What's your division soldier?" her tone was an odd mix of her usual aloof formality with hints of genuine interest and the older man surprised muttered the One Hundred and Fourth. To their surprise she leaned back and let out a soft chuckle "You are a continuation of the clone division then?" "Who was the successor to the original Nightfighters Master Janus" the youth said eagerly not realizing he might have tread on dangerous water any other day. Miryia let out a nostalgic breath her head craning to gaze at the cityscape, eclipsed now in the brightly lit dark of a Coruscanti night. "I commanded the One Hundred and Fourth in the Thousand Years war, what you call the New Sith Wars". Their eyes flickered as if to say we know and she nodded, it was decided then. "Tonight you still remain posted at my palace, tomorrow in the morning I will request the One Hundred and Fourth be transferred under the Command of General Cardinal" she'd issued the Captain his new rank on the way out of the Senate meeting, the hundred and first would be reconstituted and it would be the legion that would fight beside her Knights, their vanguard.


"y-you would have us serve you again?!"

She nodded and passed the rest of the right in contemplative silence. Only speaking when she arrived to assure the Storm troopers from the five hundred and First who were scrambling to get their kits and armor on, that their service was needed here where they would begin the process of rebuilding their unit. "Why didn't you want us what you were planning?" One asked, nearly being struck by another for his arrogance. And it was arrogant and presumptive, any other soldier, even an elite of the Storm Trooper corps would have been beaten for his arrogant demand, but the five hundred and first would be [i]hers[/i] one day, the personal guard legions of the one she crowned Emperor. While she leveled a harsh stare at the soldier it followed a hand resting on his forearm "Because I would not have the Empire's Fist be seen as mercenary thugs who sold themselves to the winning side. Your honor never left you, even if others believe it was only today restored. But if you had participated in that fracas even to protect me, you surely would have" her hand tightened over the man's wrist and she turned to walk towards the interior leaving her men grim and yet filled with a fire of inspiration, if she was willing to chequer her own honor for them, then perhaps they truly were the elite they'd been in their "youth".


After she'd bathed and again changed her garb, retaining the purple robes but shedding the combat armor and appearing more as though she was prepared for something leisurely if formal. Miryia made her way across the sprawling fountains of the water gardens that made up one of the interior patios. The moons were high in the sky, their own city lights of the colonies that serviced the truly monolithic in scope power plants and relay systems that fed the planetary shield system and its sensors and defense satellites. She sat in rest for several hours,  delving into a relaxed meditation to center her emotions and review the events of the day, to replay the faces and the people who had survived. The face of that heterochromatic Isard kept playing over and over in her mind, as if the pivot of destiny, the force amplifying her instincts and feeding off the emotions and memories of others seemed to be warning her or? Her thoughts were interrupted by a familiar presence, one she'd humbled earlier and yet, it was so much more intense, emotional, distraught and potent? Purple eyes opened, casting an eerie shine in the semi dark. Before her, in supplication was the Inquisitor with the robotic eye, kneeling and showing deference if not submission?

She'd spared herself from being thrown through a wall by revealing more of herself. "Have you not learned your lesson" she asked, her voice holding contempt. "Forgive me, my lady I was merely trying to offer escort...But..you were right" she relented, tears stained her cheeks and hair that was kept in a bun was messy and frayed and Miryia noted that her clothing was disheveled as if she'd been tearing things apart, tearing herself apart. What caught the Jedi's eyes though, was that while she looked a mess now, when pristine earlier she held less dignity and less introspection. But the remaining eye caught her attention more than anything, it was an vibrant green and filled with an anguish that, much to her own displeasure at admitting she knew well. -you're a mother- she thought, only fathers and mothers could have such sad, bent eyes yet retain such unflinching resolve. "Of course I was, look at you" Miryia hissed realizing at once how blind the Inquisitors had been, how ignorant Lord Vader had been! What Miryia had guessed at being a thirty year old was closer to thirty five, yet she looked closer to twenty five. The force flowed inside of her, to such a degree her cells regenerated more efficiently, enough that her aging was slowed slightly. It was rare for even Jedi's that were wholly human to live beyond two hundred and thirty years and most fell in combat or died of old age closer to one hundred and ten. That she was still restoring herself despite, yes, yes! She could sense it, the scarring in her liver, the damage to her arteries all regenerating, repairing and it was happening now? Not over a period of years, as though whatever personal revelation she'd reached had activated her inner refinery. -They relegated this child to a subordinate? She'd have made a great Jedi, Sith would fawn over this talent before those Baninite fools- she thought, but to keep the girl focused she avoided any praise yet.

"You, who have allowed your potential to be subsumed by your guilt and perverted your form by serving inferior masters? How can I not think you are lower than the vermin?!"

That surprised the woman who looked up, dared to look up and something sparked in her eyes, something, far away. "I...forgive me, my first master once said the same of my potential I"

First master? Now this intrigued her "elaborate child"

"Well...I..." the woman swallowed. "I was a Jedi, a Padawan in the last days of the order, my master a Knight died to save me, I was eleven..I think..I ran and..I tried to honor her, I tried to stay alive" Her voice was tight, it was holding back tears but not at her own circumstances at? Miryia remained seated, straightening as if she were a sovereign about to issue a proclamation. "but you lost yourself and indulged yourself"

"And sold myself into slavery to avoid starvation..things were done..things were"

"and you wish me to absolve you of those sins?" she asked feigning disgust. "No, I..." "my time is precious and my patience is not eternal" "I...Mistress" eyes narrowed dangerously at that "Master" "I am not your master!" she hissed back "Please...I HAVE CHILDREN!"'

Ah, Miryia thought as the woman broke into tears sobbing on bended knee. "I'm so tired, of hate, of rage, of pointless service. I want..I left them..I had too, one is at the Jedi temple an initiate, he's my oldest, twenty" So, they ravaged her young then? And her boy was in the service of that..abomination? "the others, are younger, one is in the Imperial academy..logistics training..the other is on Chadrilla..I...have never" she tried to master herself but her shoulders shook. "I have never seen them since I gave them up, I can't bring myself to look at them..I am tired of feeling like that! Feeling adrift, I want to be a Knight!" she shouted the last part out, her eyes rising to meet Miryia's and there was defiance there, mixed with respect and humility and eagerness and not desperation? Good..good..she thought.

This poor creature might not be as inferior as she believed it was.

"I could kill you for such presumption"

"you won't though" she murmured, between gasps. Undaunted, no hesitation, no despair but faith? The woman's eyes narrowed but without any menace and she rose, slowly and walked toward her. "I was a Jedi Master, yes, but I am Jedi no longer, I am a Knight true but I do not serve the will of the force, for the force has none. I serve ideals, codes, valor, justice, order, the endless war against corruption, stagnation, savagery and the dimming of the lights of civilization and it may be that my war is a doomed one"

"A cause is only doomed if its empty or forsaken Knight Janus, that is what I know" Now that was presomption! And self indulgence, but it was wisdom hard earned and to the surprise of the Inquisitor she felt a hand touch her cheek and then she felt an odd twinge, an odd surge, warmth filled her body and she felt the mechanical prosthetic fall from her temple, the implant push out of her eye socket, something that should have hurt and yet? As metal, circuity and servos were purged she could feel pressure in her sinus cavity and then tears began to fall from a new eye! an eye that beheld the woman who'd nearly killed her months ago and dismissed her like a rat earlier taking an exhausted breath as if the effort had taxed her. It was the only time she showed any signs of fatigue and around them every plant was withered and ruined as if she'd ripped the life force out of them to build her a new eye. "Sith..alchemy?" she asked tearfully and the woman shook her head "Jee'dai, the ancient Forcewrights of old, the precursors to the Jedi and Bendu mysticism, it is not something I can do easily and you will not be my padawan, that is not our word. You shall be my student, my apprentice, my protege, the first of many and in time you will help me raise a legion of Knights dedicated to our cause"

"M..master?"

Slowly the cobra nodded "yes, what is your name child?" "Rheanessya Aladar" she whispered and the sobs came again, but they were akin to a breaking of a dam and power held back by guilt and time, by the foolishness of the Darkside adepts was breaking forward and Miryia did something she hadn't done in a long age.

She pulled the woman into an embrace that was as maternal as it was fierce holding her for several moments before bringing her up to their full height (of which Rhenessya stood almost a head taller). "Rheanessya Aladar, you came to me on your knees lower than a slave, you rise now a Knight and my first student in one thousand, eight hundred years"

"I do not know if the future holds reconciliation for your children and you, but I promise you, the one son who walks the Jedi's path will come home and you will face him with your warriors pride intact. This I swear to you"

As I swear it to the galaxy

"As you will it Master!"

A slow, half crazed yet oddly warm smile crept across her face, a genuine, true smile.

At last, she thought.

the great crusade begins.