World Tree MUSH

    There are some places on Balmorra peaceful enough for Talia to find some quiet to herself. Despite the regime and the resistance battling it out to see who can take Bin Prime and keep it, there's still quiet lulls in the violence. Talia treasures these, allowing her some peace and quiet.

    The Force is heavy with people mourning their losses, loved ones dying, homes being set ablaze, livelihoods destroyed by industry's cruelty...it's overwhelming even to a seasoned veteran like Talia is.

    A campfire has been set up, with tea freshly brewed and drank by the Knight as she gathers her thoughts, quiet and contemplative. She has much to do still, if she is to see this world liberated.

    It can be hard to get ahold of Lian Kamoya. She keeps no permanent residence, no mailing address. She has a couple of messaging accounts on the most popular inter-universe communication networks, but it's a toss-up as to when she'll see a message, or if she'll reply when she does. The elder Jedi does have a way of showing up when she's truly needed, though, whether that need is communicated through her e-mail account, her own intuitive connection to the Force... or a request from another Jedi.

    As is her way, there's little announcement when Lian shows up. Her presence, warm and serene, is easily sensed on approach; but other than that, she simply steps into the firelight, seating herself beside the younger Knight comfortably. "Tragedy hangs heavily in the air here. I don't think that I ever felt so much of it in my own time."

    Talia had a feeling she'd have a visit from the Battlemaster sooner or later. She did treasure Lian's presence, when she did visit, or when their paths crossed on the way, but she rarely forced a meeting. To them, it would be up to the Force itself if their paths crossed.

    That, and Talia is just too damn nervous to try and pester Lian directly via message. She looks up from her daze, and she lowers her hood as she bows her head in Lian's presence. "Master Lian. Welcome back to Balmorra." The Knight nudges a backpack to make room for Lian to sit. "Tea?" She offers.

    Talia offers a sad, tired smile as she waits for Lian to respond. "You've come to an ugly past, one I imagine the Jedi Order in your time is very happy to have put behind them. I...don't think I would know what to make of a galaxy at relative peace."

    "Yes, please," Lian replies to the offer, smiling warmly. She waits patiently, and listens to Talia speak as she does; her expression is contemplative, watching the younger Jedi, then looking off up into the sky. "I can certainly say that it's taught me to treasure what I had. 'Relative' is certainly an accurate word for it, admittedly. Even in my time, skill with a lightsaber was a must for any Jedi. I've seen my share of hardship in the galaxy. But compared to this, a galaxy at war, an army of the Dark Side..." She shakes her head gently. "Never in my life would I have dreamed to meet a Sith in the flesh, let alone come back to a time when they were a thriving empire."

    Carefully, Lian unclasps her cloak, folding it and setting it aside, with her traveling satchel atop it. "How fare things here? I can feel the overall situation, but details are important."

    Talia sighs. She can remember being pushed to her limits in training under Master Furiel, multiple fellow padawans and her fighting for their lives against Sith-led factions. She had killed her first Dark Acolyte at seventeen. It was pure dumb luck, he slipped on uneven terrain and her lightsaber struck his neck, but that moment stands out even now in Talia's mind.

    Tea is handed in a spare mug to Lian, and Talia nods slowly. "It's an adjustment period. I suppose meeting you was one of the best things I've had in a long time, a light at the end of the tunnel, even if it's centuries off. I might die tomorrow or in a few decades, but I know the galaxy has a chance to heal." She says.

    "Thane and I have been looking into a transport route not far from here, it goes to one of several 'rehabilitation centers' Governor-General Garo's set up. Knowing the amount of security the trains rate, I imagine these centers are nothing good in practice." She sips her tea quietly.

    "And also, we've gotten someone in on one of the good Governor-General's vineyards. Balmorra isn't known for its wine, but Garo himself...he's got a taste for it, and he's been putting people by the hundreds to work making sure his wine cellar is well stocked." The Jedi smiles crookedly, like she has mischief on the brain regarding this show of absurd resource mismanagement.

    As she accepts her tea, Lian offers a warm smile. "I'm glad to have given you that hope, Talia Kyras." Her expression does, however, fall a little. "Though I wish that I could say the same. To see the future Juno Eclipse and her Mandalorian acquaintance come from, to know that the Republic will fall to Sith machinations, even if it lasts less than a century... it's certainly troubling. But I am in no position to change the course of things, I suppose."

    She sips at her tea, considering the information about Balmorra - and then arches a brow. "My, vineyards? He certainly expects to be here a while, then." There's some hint of amusement in her voice, to match Talia's mischief. "I worry for his mental state should something happen to them. A steady supply from off-world might have been safer."

    Talia nods. "Hope is something we need, even in the darkest of times. It's...hard for me, but hope hasn't let me down yet." She says with a sigh. "Before I met you all, I was in a dark place, mentally. I felt...alone. It was smothering, I thought the darkness would never let up. THere's still much to do before the dawn comes."

    She does brighten a little, as she grins back at the elder Jedi. "Indeed. He seems to have been coping with the stresses of his current position through it, a passion project of his. Mayhaps, in a better timeline, he gave up his ambitions of cruel dictatorship and settled for owning a vineyard. Gods know, it'd be a much happier time." A giggle escapes Talia. "I think your aid would be much welcome. Yours, Eclipse, and the Mandalorian's, among others."

    "Mm." The Master looks thoughtful for a moment, contemplating Talia's situation. "Well. Even when things seem darkest - tomorrow, the sun will still rise, on countless planets throughout the galaxy. The world turns, the sun burns, and the pendulum will swing back again. Your galaxy might not even go through the same things. The war might end sooner. Or later. There's no telling how the future will go. But the sun will rise. And even if the sun blinks out?"

    There's a hint of playfulness in her tone when she speaks the next line. "There is no death; there is the Force." She looks into her tea, musing. "I think that you would have found your way regardless, Talia. The Dark Side asks things of its users that I don't think you would be willing to give. You've seen where that path leads."

    Talia nods and swallows. "I never told you WHO betrayed my master and I, and our brothers and sisters." She admits. Sipping her tea, Talia looks Lian dead in the eyes, and she reaches to take the Master's hand. "Her name was Serissa Moran, and she was from Corulag." Her expression darkens, and Talia lets cracks show in a mask of calm she's been maintaining for some time. "I already gave some background to the Mandalorian, and Grogu. She...she was brilliant, really. Serissa was studious, she loved artifacts and ancient cultures, I think she would've relished being an archivist or a historian more than a warrior. I thought for the longest time she and I would be sisters to the end, but something snapped within her. We had a falling out, a bloody one, not long after my knighting. Serissa spat venom, accused me of being master Furiel's favorite, accused the others of hating her. Serissa disappeared, and we only saw her when she put a lightsaber in one of my fellow padawans' backs. Darth Angither got his hooks in her somehow, I don't know when or how long, for all I know he was puppeteering her for a long time but...you're right. I do know where the Dark Side leads."

    Talia's tone is shaky, her expression betraying sorrow beyond belief. "I lost my entire family that day...my master, my fellow students. Since then I've been running like hell, trying to keep something out of Angither's hands knowing the damage he'd do with it. That holocron contains dark wisdom on building an army with the Force itself, Lian. I can't take it to Coruscant knowing someone might end up using it for their own ends, I can't destroy it because I dare not ponder what I might release, and I can't even bring myself to throw it into the stars knowing someone will end up finding it, and start the whole bloody cycle over again."

    Talia swallows, choking back tears. "I'm terrified. I don't know what to do with this thing. And I know one day, I'll end up having to face Angither, and I can't bear to imagine what he's done to my sister in arms by now. I've seen too many Jedi, good and valiant Jedi, fall to the Dark Side...knowing that Serissa, my best friend, is one of them...it's tearing my heart out."

    Lian listens. Her face calm and neutral, her eyes distand and thoughtful, she listens. And after a few seconds, she closes her eyes entirely, though her demeanor makes it clear she is still listening. She's not even drinking her tea.

    In no small part, Lian suspects that Talia simply needs to get this off her chest. To have someone listen. That is often the way, for a good Jedi Master; sometimes the biggest help you can give a student is to listen. And while Talia isn't her student... you never really stop being a teacher. So, in the dim light of a campfire, in a quiet corner of a war-torn planet, Lian lets the younger Jedi let it all out. It is only after the Knight is done that the old Battlemaster speaks; and when she does so, it's only after a few seconds to consider her words.

    "If I might disillusion you on my time period a bit... while the Sith no longer hold any kind of major sway, Jedi still fall. Good people, bright beacons of hope, can still tumble off the pedestal, even in a time of peace." Her tone is soft, tinged with just a hint of melancholy. She opens her eyes, and while she remains calm, there is a tinge of quiet pain there. "Who do you call when a champion of peace and justice turns to evil? When you must stop someone strong with the Force, armed with a lightsaber, who do you send? You send the greatest swordswoman the Order can put forth."

    She smiles, then, but it's a smile that doesn't reach her eyes.

    "That is not a duty of the Battlemaster in specific, of course. The Battlemaster is simply keeper of the Saber, its foremost teacher in the Order. No, they entrusted that duty to Lian Kamoya, personally. They trusted me to do everything in my power to bring back a Dark Jedi alive. They trusted me to survive the attack and end their life if I could not. And they trusted me not to fall. Because the very first fallen Jedi I faced was Master Parak Mal. My own Master. Who trusted in me when other Jedi looked askance on my talent with a lightsaber."

    She sets her tea aside, then folds her hands in her lap, looking at Talia directly. "It hurt. Oh, by the Force, how it hurt. He was like my father. He raised me to be the Jedi I became. He was so proud of me, when I was accepted as an advanced saber student. It wasn't until I was face-to-face with him, having him point a saber at me, begging me to join him, that I understood what sort of person I was, what sort of Jedi I wished to be. I chose to be the Jedi he had raised me to be. The Jedi he believed I could be. I chose to honor the man he had been, by stopping the monster he had become. And oh, it broke my heart. I tried to save him. But he was unwilling. And he was the kind of opponent you can't hold back against, if you want to survive."

    Smoothing out her trousers a bit, Lian lets out a soft breath. "You have difficult choices ahead of you. As far as the holocron, I can suggest only that you trust in the Force to guide you true. For Serissa... you must choose how to remember her. How to honor your time together. What sort of Jedi you wish to be. Once you know those, you will know how to approach your next encounter with her. And your heart... well, it won't be ready. But it will be braced for impact, so to speak."

    Talia listens once it is Lian's time to speak. She listens long and hard, and she takes a long sip of tea, letting the hot liquid warm her insides. The chill in the air is considerable, the planet still in its winter season.

    She wipes tears from her eyes and she takes Lian's hand in hers, squeezing it. "I am so sorry that happened." is all she can offer. Having been double crossed by Serissa was bad enough, but to imagine her own Master having gone into full-tilt Sithhood...she shudders.

    Though she does smile a little, tracing fingers across Lian's hand. "You would've greatly admired Master Sura Wyre, I think. She was my lightsaber instructor, and a teacher of quite a few other things. She taught many a Padawan and Youngling about combat, how to keep a cool head, how to manage one's own fears, how and when to fight with the lightsaber in defense and when to kill...I'm sure her writings linger even through the centuries." She chuckles softly, though with a tired air as she leans back in her seat. "I'm not sure where she went, she was on a mission to parts unknown when contact was lost. Some of us fear the worst..."

    The sympathy from Talia draws some of that warmth back to the surface, in the form of a softer smile. "It's an old wound, long healed. Or at least, scarred over. But thank you." She does squeeze Talia's hand in turn, though.

    "Sura Wyre... I think I recall seeing her writings in my studies," Lian muses, one eyebrow slightly arched. "One of the Masters whose philosophy on the lightsaber I tried to take to heart. Interesting." A sign that they share at least similar timelines. Some of Juno and the Mandalorian's timeline lines up with hers, but other aspects of it are widely different. Having that point of connection with Talia across thousands of years is curious. "I wish I could offer a hint as to where she went, but I'm afraid I didn't investigate that so closely. I focused mainly on the writings which pertained to the blade itself. I was a bit... single-minded," she admits with a soft chuckle.

    The Master takes up her tea again, musing. "If anyone is likely to have survived trouble, it's someone like her, I should imagine."

    Talia gives Lian a pat on the hand. "You remind me so much of her, Lian. You're fearless in battle, but gentle otherwise." She says softly as she pours herself another mug of tea, and offers Lian a refill as well. "She was practically a second Master to me. I remember her lessons well. I'm sure the Jedi you've helped teach, one way or another, were proud to have your counsel."

    Lian is happy to take another mug of tea, settling back a bit on her seat with it. "That's all a Master can hope for. If one thing I've said makes a Jedi's life easier, if one saber technique I taught saves a young padawan's life, then I can be content. You'll get there some day too, I'm sure."

    Talia smiles, gratefully no less. "One of these days, perhaps. My journals at least might be useful to whoever finds them, if they survive the ages. I'll need to think about where they're kept, if not the temple library."

    Falling silent, the two are content to remain at peace, take in the ambiance of the night while keeping themselves warm by the fire. If Lian stays then ight, Talia more than welcomes her to do so and make herself comfortable.