[center][h3][color=yellow]Jaslyn Dayne[/color] & Grandmaster Satele Shan[/h3][/center]

[right][sub]Collaboration [@Ruby] & [@Almalthia][/sub][/right]

The Masters huddled in a dark corner split in half by a narrow beam of Tython sunlight that had begun to come out again in the last few hours. They spoke in hushed tones, all three constantly reaching out to sense the presence of any of who might be nearing their little hide-away in a corner of the claustrophobic lower level corridor of the Tython Temple. The Togruta female Jedi Master Kiwiiks, the Zabrak Master Uakro, and Satele spoke quickly after she emerged from the chamber, human Jedi Master Kaedan soon removing him from the guard of this 'Selene' long enough to join them. 

Some basic facts had been established from their questioning of the Dark Sider: Selene had been planning this for a long time, Selene was no Sith, Selene disliked the Sith in equal amount as she disliked the Jedi, Selene was an academic, killing Jedi or even conflict with Jedi was nowhere in Selene's list of motivations, Selene had a unique understanding of the history of both Tython and Force users in general. One of the largest issues at hand that remained, to Satele, was how Selene had found them and gotten enough information on Tython defenses to set up a way through it all.

Master Kiwiiks returned to the point of escape, or more appropriately the apparent lack thereof. How did Selene plan to escape Tython? There seemed no plan for it, it never seemed part of the young woman's equations for the entire operation. Master Kaedan offered the theory that sounded the most interesting considering what Satele had sensed from Selene in person: that Selene never planned to escape. That the plan was to get captured by the Jedi Order. It created a coil of anxiety in Satele: they couldn't just kill Selene, they couldn't strip her mind and memories, they couldn't hold her on Tython--the weather alone made that clear. 

Satele was confident in sending the woman to a prison built to hold her. That was, at least, until Master Kaedan offered his theory. Was she playing into the Dark Sider's plan by sending her to a prison? Is that what she wanted? The Jedi Shadows had been able to confirm the Empire was after Selene, a message she had received just before going in to talk to Selene personally. Was it that simple, she wondered? Was whatever Selene had done been worth imprisonment, a fate better to Selene's point of view than whatever the Sith would do? 

[i]If you had to be taken prisoner by one, which would you pick?[/i] 

It was an uncomfortable thought that only added to the tension of the hard knotted coil developing deep in her stomach. Every time her mind pushed away from her body, her energy, away from the energy of those around her, and focused on how the Force flowed through and around Selene...it was maelstrom of light and shadow. Satele saw no shatterpoint, Satele felt only an endless void of darkness swirling unseen but there just the same. Alarming as all of that was, Satele had a more immediate concern, a cause for concern that erupted the huddle of Masters whispered in quick fire heated tones. 

There was a link with Selene and...Satele could not tell. Was someone manipulating Selene? Was someone watching it all on the other end of the link? Was Selene working with someone? 

The huddle ended with more questions than answers. The question of the link burned hottest on Satele's mind until she walked into her quarters, turning around after closing the door behind her to see Jaslyn waiting. Her eyes fixated, widened at their edges just-so, and like that the answer to her burning question was offered up to her. Satele almost laughed. It was so obvious, at least, now that she knew. 

"Jaslyn..." Her voice began, her eyes coming down on Jaslyn with weight and intensity rarely seen from the Jedi Grand Master as realization was heard in Satele's words, "you're telepathically linked to a Dark Side academic." [i]War[/i], her thoughts whispered to her, as a pang of some emotion perilously close to anger fired off in the back of her mind like a lightning bolt far away on some stormy horizon. 

Satele's head tilted to the right, just slightly, as her eyes narrowed on the girl's image, and her voice lowered. "What did you do? What happened under the silent sands?"

Jaslyn stood as Grandmaster Shan entered the room and shut the door. She was on edge and the statement that came from the Grandmaster made her go white. Jaslyn had never had a puzzle piece click so well for her.[color=yellow][i] I am? I am. This means I kept my promise. She won’t ever be alone.[/i][/color] Jaslyn almost smiled at that but swallowed it quickly.

Then came the question that she wished no one would ask. Jaslyn made herself look at the Grandmaster her expression calm and flat. Well almost. Jaslyn’s eyes showed her emotions like a kaleidoscope. Fear, anger, belief, love all rolled in upon each other for a brief moment in time. That moment in time felt like a lifetime as Jaslyn quelled each emotion one by one.

There was no way to have missed that display, nor the way that Jaslyn was able to reign it all back in. Jaslyn kept eye contact with the Grandmaster.[color=yellow] “We entered a chamber that was decorated in symbols that were unfamiliar, yet familiar all the same. I believe questions were answered, truths discovered for each of us. The only logical explanation is that since Selene and I were in telepathic contact when the door to the chamber opened, we are now linked.”[/color]

Jaslyn bit her lip.[color=yellow] “Grandmaster she needs someone. She’s so... [i]alone[/i]. I could feel it. The sadness was like my own yet not mine. It called to me. It was so deeply a part of her that it was heartbreaking.”[/color] 

Jaslyn stood straighter, taller, her stubbornness clearly apparent.[color=yellow] “I made a promise that she wouldn’t be alone anymore. No one deserves that heartache.”[/color] Sadness filled Jaslyn for a moment remembering how deeply filled Selene was with sadness and loneliness. But when Jaslyn had promised that she wouldn’t be alone anymore hope filled Selene.[color=yellow] “Grandmaster I felt hope and happiness when I made that promise. Surely that would mean that if she learned from us she would not be so… unbalanced?”[/color] It was going out on a limb but maybe Jaslyn could convince them to let Selene stay and she’d be able to see her again.

Satele’s expression ran dull. A very small, focused, sigh escaped her lips as she simply walked past the Padawan and into her bedroom. It was only a few minutes and when she returned removing clips from her hair, her bright eyes weren’t eager to return to the Padawan.

There was simply too much going on, in her mind, and Jaslyn’s. 

“This woman will not bring you happiness or fulfillment. She will be a shadow on the wall, always dancing just out of your grasp, no matter how hard you try.” Never, not once, did her tone waiver. Her words carried the weight of someone who could see, and had seen, from the Force before. 

Satele could not question what she felt now. Her mind shifted, like someone might shift their weight from one side to another, her mind switching to another side of the matter altogether: “She will be escorted to a max security Republic prison built with Force users in mind. She will spend the rest of her life there, if we’re lucky.”

“She wants you. I feel it. She’s…” Satele frowned. She may have had a ‘secret’ child with the Supreme Commander but Jace was no Dark Sider. Satele had to know more about the chamber. “Selfish, Jaslyn. With time and the right conditions, yes, I think perhaps you could save her. With a lot of time.”

[i]But when has the galaxy ever been kind enough to give any of the time and right conditions for anything lately?[/i]

Her dark hair rain wavey in the light as her fingers teased out tangles, her eyes swinging from mirror to Jaslyn. It might have seemed an odd time to groom, but that was Satele’s point by doing it; she was comfortable, enough to groom, in Jaslyn’s presence. If she was upset, she wasn’t showing it, focused on something so...mundane.

“In the meantime, I have to save you.” Satele Shan smiled and turned to face the Padawan. “You did what you did because you follow your own path, as it will be. That path is not the typical Jedi path, but...it is a very not typical time for the Jedi.”

Satele jerked her head towards the door, the intensity in her bright eyes never once leaving them. “C’mon, walk with me.” Out the door, closing it behind the girl, Satele nodded to the Jedi Guardian human standing ready. His brown eyes eyed Jaslyn hard, and Satele’s smile widened. “You will be popular for a while, Jaslyn, ignore it.” Down the corridor of painted stone walls and cut polished stone tile floors, around a corner marked by a pale milk white marble column, only when they were alone did Satele speak again.

Much softer than before. “We Jedi are light. The Sith are dark. I am not naive, there have been before and will be again those between the two. Those stuck in the haze of gray,” she said it, finally, that word. [i]Gray.[/i] Her head turned that way and this, then back again, then to Jaslyn where they settled heavily. “Stay with us, Jaslyn. You have not yet finished with the Jedi Order, I think, still some things to learn...patience with destiny, Jaslyn, it’ll find you the moment it wants to. I’m sure the Council will punish you, but I would expect the mother of all demerits more than I would exile…”

The smile shining on her lips bordered on playful, and might have gotten there, save for the shadow of the dead today. “Enjoy your link. Such links can be fickle things, prone to simply dissipating over distance and/or time.”