[D7 ME] Watching the Tide Roll Away

[Eir]

It was an unsatisfying answer, but truth often was. It explained some things, not others. It would have to do. It seemed to her that the trial she had been given would never end, that Lord Destrus would always be nearby, ready with his open hand.

Unless I found a way to put a stop to that, she thought, but that was a temptation of a different sort.

The exact nature of Destrus’ offer seemed academic to her now. Coincidence did not bring them to Auratera at the same time and perhaps he would always be close by, her own shadow, her shoulder devil, ready to prove it wasn’t the fall that killed you. Perhaps his offer would change, perhaps it would not.

But that raised other questions...

[Chriala Hulis]

If Chriala would have known what Eir was thinking, about the trial never ending, she probably would have agreed.

Instead, she smiled, reaching out to gently pat Eir's back; something she'd done before. "I wish I had more answers." She sighed. "For this, and for more."

[Eir]

Eir smiled wryly, forcing away some of the harder questions for a moment. She tried to accept the woman’s reassurances for what the were before opening that particular can of worms.

“It doesn’t end, does it?” she asked. “The vergence shows us temptation, and we know it be temptation because we know we’re being tested. But really, our lives aren’t a path, are they? They’re a narrow bridge.”

[Chriala Hulis]

With a sad smile, Chriala shook her head. "It does not. You are entirely right. The trials you are undertaking are considered a test. But they are not a test as one thinks of them in school. Rather more like the first test of a lightsaber is turning it on, and discovering whether it has been properly put together for a lifetime of use."

The smile grew less sad. "But the bridge is not so narrow as all that. Jedi must be vigilant, and Jedi must keep control, but even with that, there is a whole galaxy of possibility."

[Eir]

Eir flopped back in the sand, shading her eyes from the evening sun with one hand, looking up at the sky. The girl realised that her weaknesses were being tested: a chance for strength, for recognition, a chance to show them all. What she didn’t realise was how her strength was also being challenged. “Thank you, Master Chriala,” she sighed. She had always been independent, but she didn’t yet realise that there could be too much of a good thing. She didn’t realise that to avoid one temptation, she was straying dangerously close to another. “I prefer the school test,” she added wistfully, she had scored the highest on the one, after all, an almost perfect score.

[Chriala Hulis]

Chriala's lips quirked sympathetically. "I don't think anyone prefers the Dark Side test." She frowned. "Perhaps Corvin. But... very few, anyway."

"So..." Another gentle smile. "Do you feel... I shouldn't ask if you think you passed. But rather, how do you feel it went? And how will you be going on?"

[Eir]

"I felt very confident in my answer, Master Chriala. I refused Lord Destrus' offer, and I felt no doubts about the choice I made, but then," she trailed off. Glancing at the woman who had found her, Eir had never asked how Chriala had came to be there that day. Propping herself up on her elbows, "wait, what's the Dark Side test?"

[Chriala Hulis]

"The test you just took has many names. That is one of them. It is not the most accurate..." Her lips quirked. "But it feels right. And I have sometimes been accused of having a taste for the theatrical."

[Eir]

"Oh," Eir felt a bit stupid after that. "Speaking of Knight Corvin, I saw him, in the vergence."

[Chriala Hulis]

"Oh?" Chriala's head tilted to the side. "What part did he have to play there?"

[Eir]

"I don't know," Eir answered, "I think I was hoping you could tell me that. He, the vision-Corvin, came up behind me and said that I wouldn't be able to do it by myself. Which I don't think is something Corvin would say." She lowered herself back on the sand, throwing an arm over her eyes.

[Chriala Hulis]

"Probably not." Chriala's lips pressed together thoughtfully. "In a vision, you must try to determine what it is that each aspect represents. Does Corvin represent all the masters? A father-figure, or an older brother? Some ideal, perhaps. Endurance, or practicality, or..." Her lips quirked. "Corvin is a complicated man. He could represent many things."

She smiled. "Or none. It may be that Corvin was the most appropriate one to voice another aspect. It may be that it's merely that he was the most likely to be there... but I distrust overly simple explanations."

[Eir]

Chriala's unspoken implication sailed over Eir's head (she was pretty short though), despite the girl's vague sense of grossness at Corvin being a brother- or father-figure. "I don't know how much of what I saw came from my head, and how much came from the vergence." Do I implicitly trust Corvin more than the others? she didn't think so, but she understood how it might seem that way.

[Chriala Hulis]

Again, Chriala's forehead creased. "Might I suggest a different question? Do not ask where it came from, ask where it lead to. How did Corvin, in this role, make you feel? Would it have made you feel differently if it was someone else? Or if he had done something differently? That will determine the shape of his significance."

[Eir]

Eir sniffed a little as she thought about Chriala's question, "well, I was pretty miffed that he, or any of the Masters, would immediately contradict themselves and say I wasn't going to succeed. I mean, I was told I was ready for the trials, and I was told I was ready to go into the vergence, so why turn around and say I'm not?"

[Chriala Hulis]

"We wouldn't." Chriala said with one of her soft smiles. "But of course, visions are not always about the truth of things."

She tilted her head. "So. Does that resolve it?"

[Eir]

Eir let her arm fall away from her eyes and sighed, "I guess? I'm still confident that I passed, for now," she clarified, "I've proven that twice now." The girl's manner of speech seemed to have matured somewhat since leaving the vergence, "I guess I still have to work out what that means."

[Chriala Hulis]

Chriala's head turned back towards the ocean. "There is time. A whole lifetime of it." She said.

[Eir]

Eir sat up. Okay, I've put it off long enough. "Why did Master Orgus stop Lord Destrus from telling me about Jedi Sembylus?"

[Chriala Hulis]

The corners of Chriala's lips turned down. "The story of Sembylus is a hard one. And it is not our tale to tell."

The frown deepened. "Nor is it his. Least of all his." She sighed. "Perhaps it is enough to say that, while there are many sides to the story, the simplest is that Lord Destrus did a great wrong to Sembylus."