Masters and Commander

Posted on Thu Apr 13th, 2023 @ 11:00pm by Rynseh Lahan & Sotah & Thurius

2,503 words; about a 13 minute read

Chapter: Chapter VI: The Last Bastion
Location: Reborn Jedi Temple Training Hall
Timeline: Concurrent with the events of "The Bastion Document" series

ON

Rynseh had assumed responsibility for the training of the initiates for one afternoon just days following the Sith incursion and escape from the heart of the Reborn Jedi Temple. He was observing their blaster deflection skills and was none too pleased, especially given that he was told they were among the best and brightest of the next generation of potential Jedi Padawans. There was great promise in their techniques, but they lacked precision.

"Your abilities to protect yourselves and each other from blasters are good," he remarked to the group of youngsters after pausing the training droids. "However, your collateral damage is unacceptable. Remember your physics lessons on the reflection of energy directed on a force field. The angle of your blocks is critical. If the bolt is poorly deflected, what happens?"

"It...uhh, reflects away from the attacker?" one student nervously answered.

"And?" Rynseh pressed. "What or whom could it hit if not said foe?"

"Innocent bystanders," said another pupil.

"Correct," Rynseh nodded. "It's not always possible, but a true master should use the Force to return a parried shot directly back at its point of origin. Remember, a good warrior focuses his powers to contain and subdue his foes, but we must always be mindful of the innocent. A Jedi earns their Knighthood when you demonstrate your ability to not only protect yourselves and quickly defuse dangerous situations through use of the Force, but most importantly to protect those who cannot help or defend themselves. We are the swords that champion justice and safeguard the citizens of the Republic from those that would do evil unto them. That is the responsibility the Force has given to each of you. It is a hard burden, but one we must take pride in, for there is no greater cause in all the galaxy. Now, let us practice the disarming techniques, and then I will test each of you to see what you have learned."

"Your enthusiasm for teaching and talent with inspirational words is almost as disarming as your talent with the blade, Master Lahan."

Rynseh had felt the owner of the words before he had heard or seen him, delivered in accented Basic that was heavily laden with aquatic sibilance. Master Sotah had brought himself to stand just some feet behind the Cathar Jedi, his rubbery hands clasped within the folds of his cerulean robe. Wearing a warm smile, but with a face creased with a sorrow that rarely seemed to depart the Selkath consular, he was accompanied by his long-time ally and friend, Thurius.

"Seeing such young and eager padawans-to-be taking to their training with such enthusiasm warms the cold blood of my heart." Sotah showed a few teeth with his friendly grin, and he came a little closer to Rynseh's students. "As does the time you still devote to such pursuits. There is an innocent joy to guiding young minds."

Rynseh was none too pleased to have the first class he had had the chance to teach in years be interrupted by two ex-Council members. His contempt was most particularly towards Sotah, the former master of Thane.

He turned to his peers with a near-expressionless gaze fit for bluffing opponents at a Seven Card Comet table. "Masters Sotah and Thurius," he said courteously with a solemn bow of his head to them. "Welcome to you both. I am covering for their instructor who is away on an important task for today. To what do we owe the surprise visit--hold a moment."

He stopped himself and turned to a nearby Rodian female student who had just lost control of her lightsaber, but luckily didn't make accidental plasma blade contact with her sparring partner.

"Deedlin," he coached her as the girl quickly Force-summoned her fallen weapon back to her hand with deep embarrassment, "remember that your lightsaber is an extension of your very life. Use the breathing exercise we reviewed. Each breath fuels your muscles, sharpens your mind, and draws in the Force. Let the Force flow through you. Channel your feelings through it. Trust your instincts, and you will never fail. Now, start again. Breathe in: deflect. Breathe out: disarm. Well done. Repeat ten times and switch places. Never let me see you drop your lightsaber like that again. Understood?"

"Yes, master!" the Rodian initiate replied.

Rynseh had a sudden feeling of deja vu before turning back to his visitors. He recalled witnessing his own daughter, Rusasha, making the very same training mistake at the same age. He felt a pang of shame and an ache of guilt in his heart thinking of his only child. He worried greatly for her after learning of her daring escape from Coruscant, and with the traitor, Zenarrah, no less. He couldn't blame her for running, though. Nevertheless, she had crossed the line, and the needs of the Republic always came first above all else...even family.

"Ahem," the Cerean Master Thurius, himself a master lightsaber tutor of many a year, nodded respectfully towards Rynseh, "Quite so, I see that you still hold the tutelage of the next generation in high regard, even after so many years away from the temple. It is of our shared future that we wish to discuss with you, in fact."

He smiled kindly at the gathering of students, before turning his accentuated cranium back towards the Cathar and speaking more directly, "We understand and have accepted the reasons behind our own changes in position, but hoped we might be able to discuss other recent events with you on a more personal basis. We are still Masters of the Order, after all, and want to understand more about the future of us all, clouded though it is."

Rynseh's gaze into Thurius' eyes was solid, unwavering, and outwardly unemotional. However, beneath the surface, the Cerean was keen and wise enough to see the smoldering contempt beneath their peer's green accusing orbs. He silently motioned the masters to walk with him to another part of the room that was out of earshot of the students.

"'Clouded' barely begins to describe our situation," Rynseh said quietly to them in a tone that was deeper and more rumbling than his usual firm speaking voice. "Your former apprentices have inflicted unfathomable harm to everything we honor and strive to protect. As a result, these younglings will not have a traditional Jedi upbringing as any good student of the Doctrine should. When I procure the Council's blessing, I will focus these prospects on martial prowess. All of the lessons we've learned from recent conflicts will be applied. I will see to it that they and our current padawans are prepared to battle and destroy your apprentices as Knights of the Republic."

Thurius gazed at the stern hairless face of the Cather Council member, perhaps recalling the harsh words spoken to him of his failure as a master to his own former student Mykles, "I have given much thought to what you last said to me, Rynseh," he retained his composed and reasonable tone, "About how I should meditate on my failures, and ponder my path to redemption through the Force."

He gestured to the students, who now began to chatter and idly practice their forms without their teacher's direct guidance, "If I have erred in my tutelage, then I shall bear that responsibility but it shall not deter me from speaking plainly about the fate the council is setting for our Order. If you ever respected me as a Jedi or as a warrior, then hear me now when I say that the Force is no longer the guiding hand of the council, it is fear. Oh, it may be masked as a righteous crusade against the forces of darkness, but it is fear nonetheless."

"What you sense as fear, Master Thurius, I view as vigilance," Rynseh countered. "The massacre of our Knights at Korriban should have made that crystal clear to you. Search your feelings. You know that we are at war again and nothing will ever be the same as it was, or do you deny it?"

“Your revelation of your fearsome encounter on Korriban leaves little doubt that dark Forces are mustering in this galaxy,” Thurius agreed solemnly, “And I have no desire to diminish the significance of that threat as it is one of the most organised and tangible Dark Side threats I have seen in my years as a Jedi. But forgive me in wondering why we are not focussing on the so-called Cult of Axion.”

The Coruscanti sunlight that stretched in through the wide windows of the training hall elongated the shadows of the short padawans some distance away and gave crude form to the future Jedi they might become.

Thurius continued, asking “Why are we instead turning away truly talented and loyal members of our order? Why are we teaching younglings to destroy first and seek knowledge later?”

A gentle hand swept carefully across to Thurius' shoulder, the loose blue material of Sotah's robes draping slightly on the Cerean Jedi. "Let us not fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming we are being persecuted, Thurius, when we are merely contradicting a friend on a point of philosophy." He glanced back to Rynseh, the dark beads of eyes still managing to twinkle amidst the obvious malaise of the trio's conversation. "More and besides," the Selkath continued, looking again to his friend, hand still resting on him, "having you ask the wrong questions saves another from having to worry about the answers."

Sotah released his delicate and reassuring grip from Thurius, allowed his hands to rediscover one another in the depths of his voluminous sleeves, and took a couple of careful paces to the side, bringing him only marginally closer to the Cathar Master. He allowed himself a self-indulgent examination of the nearby children, the hilts that signified their membership of their ancient order clasped firmly in their young hands.

"Age is foolish or bitter when it forgets youth, wouldn't you say? Worse when it underestimates it." Whilst he was smiling, Sotah's affection for the apprentices renowned and still present, there continued to be a sadness in his posture and expression. There was more than a hint of disappointment as he spoke and look to Rynseh, who had permitted him to continue his ruminations. "It is the foolish and bitter that are less interested in what you say than what you hide - or what they believe you hide. And you are teaching these young beings, this hope for the Order, to fixate on what you think may be hidden, robbing them of that youth as they glance askance at their friends, their fellow Jedi. But, I suppose paranoia can seem more reasonable when one bears the scars so plainly."

Ryn's initial feeling was to glare in offense at his Selkath peer, but instead flashed a Cheshire-like insincere smile at the two aging masters instead. It was an expression seldom seen on the Cathar's face.

"Is it not better for a father to bear the scars of strife so his children and grandchildren need not suffer?" He asked them rhetorically knowing full well of their awareness of his own status as an actual father. His smile instantly melted to a scowl as he added, "The three of us standing here each failed someone very important to us. The difference is that I am taking action, and Master Quellus, in his wisdom, agrees with my methods. These younglings are going to usher in a new era of peace and harmony in this galaxy. Say what you will of me, but given all the evidence I have shown of the darkness that is coming, I will do what I must to make these boys and girls the heroes we need to save us all. Now, if you'll excuse me. I bid you both good day."

He turned and approached the students, calling to them to gather around and resume the lesson.

Sotah continued to watch the class as they brought themselves close to Master Lahan, their young eyes fixated on the impressive warrior, and their minds and spirits clearly attuned to the words and guidance he imparted to them, unwavering in their attention or adherence to his guidances or physical motions. Little heed was paid to the two other Jedi Masters stood to the side, their physical presence less a concern and more a passing peculiarity to this newest class of Quellus' Jedi Order.

"Our fears grow to become terrors in the wilds of our imaginations," he mumbled solemnly to Thurius, out of earshot from Rynseh or his charges. "Yet," he countered to himself, "through the Force, our thoughts may become reality. Abstract made real, through willpower or wisdom alone. I must wonder, by imagining in their most feverish ramblings the great terrors that our students might concoct, what misery they sow. Tyrants have always birthed their own rebels."

"And where do we fit into that picture, my friend?" Thurius' eyes watched the powerful Cathar's directions to the students and allowed an anxious tone to infect his usually strong demeanour, "Rebels we are not, and yet we are tarred with the same brush of suspicion by our peers and now find our words falling on deaf, but dangerous ears."

Sotah looked solemnly between his friend and the young Jedi nearby. "I believe that depends entirely, I would say, on which picture we were looking at. Every generation believes theirs has the lifetime most filled with existential crises, of the worst wars, of the greatest achievements, or thinks they are more intelligent than the preceding or wiser than the ensuing. I, for one, intend to remain nothing more than I ever was or could be - Sotah." He finally turned from Rynseh's class and smiled a small toothy grin at Thurius, although there was no hiding the resigned melancholy behind the expression. "I have a hankering for a firaxan slider. I could do with a walk outside the grounds, if you would humour me. The Ahto City cheese at a diner nearby is almost worth breaking the Code for alone."

Rynseh did not hear the two masters as they spoke behind his back, nor did he care. He narrowed his eyes and glanced with a scowl in their direction upon sensing their departure. Thurius and Sotah were, from his increasingly paranoid perspective, thorns in his side. He convinced himself that he needed to find a way to remove them from the Jedi Temple permanently. Nothing short of full defrocking and exile would suffice. Quellus alone, however, wouldn't be enough.

The problem was finding a means with which to convince the Council to unanimously see things his way. He began to consider possibilities after his training session with the younglings had concluded, some of which he feared would risk falling deep into the dark side of the Force. If the Republic was to be protected from the Sith, however, sometimes the most terrible sacrifices would have to be made for the greater good...

END

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