The Girl With the Krayt Dragon Tattoo

[Inyos Aamoran]

"Any light that shines will inevitably cast a shadow."

Those words of wisdom had been uttered countless centuries before, and were some of the many that Inyos had comitted to memory during his studies of the Jedi philosopher Ari'ana. It sounded pretentious at first, like much of the old wisdom that Inyos had learned from in the Archives as a young Padawan; but the more he had the experienced the galaxy, the more true and profound those teachings became.

The Wheel was a prime example. It had been formed to keep safe the last remnants of the Jedi Order, and to protect their descendants and students from the Empire's efforts to drive them into extinction. Such a noble ambition - and with such promise for the future of the galaxy - arguably had the greatest potential for light and good of anything that had existed for decades. And yet, even amongst such nobility, the seedier aspects of society had taken hold.

A few thousand meters from the Whaledon, Inyos found himself aboard the Challenger. He had been on the ship many times, but had not strayed to this particular corner before. His previous visits had focused mainly on the towers, were most of the uniform-wearing members of the crew spent the majority of their time. There were a few locations of ill repute up there - namely the crew lounge that had been annexed by the Air Wing - but their mischief and miscreance was well-meaning.

Lying below the flight deck however, deep within the bowels of the ship, was the realm of the ship's mechanics and the engineers. Wrapped up in oil-stained jumpsuits and spark-singed coveralls, their duties rarely took them to the towers. While the pilots drank and joked, and while the officers and operations crew did whatever it was that they did with their spare time, the mechanics wallowed in their grubby little lounges and mess halls, half-lost within clouds of deathstick and cigar fumes. When the same space was used for breaktimes and downtimes, it was hard to prevent the grime of the engine room from contaminating rec clothes; as a result, there was barely a soul within that wasn't still wrapped in fix-it gear.

Barely a soul. Fortunately for Inyos, a shock of red acted as a beacon, leading him towards the one he had come to find. The present shift was drawing to a close, and people had begun to make their move; three in particular rose from the makeshift pazaak table that Inyos was heading towards, leaving only one figure behind.

Inyos drew back a chair, a slight metallic groan issuing forth as it scuffed along the deck plates. "Your presence has been missed on the Whaledon," he said, seating himself down in front of her.

He frowned a little, his gaze sweeping across the selection of slightly battered cards that was in the process of being collected. His eyes rose to her. "I take it that this is what you have been doing with your time?"

[Yolie Devix]

"See you three tomorrow, same time?" she smiled, a hint of wicked slipping into her gaze. She couldn't help it, really, it had long since become part of her. Cherry-red strands of hair were tucked behind a pierced ear, while dark eyes rose to meet each of the men's in turn.

"Would'na miss it, girlie." The older of the three replied with mock gruffness, eyeing her with evident interest.

Yolie took a drag from the cigarra held in her free hand, letting tendrils of smoke curl past her lips. She leaned against the wall behind her, lifting one foot flat against it. A thin brow lofted to mark her amusement as his friends dragged him away, laughing at his expense.

She sighed as soon as they were out of earshot, leaving her effectively alone at the back of the dimly lit room. Fingers stubbed out the cigarra as she shifted away from the wall and began carefully gathering the cards strewn across the table. They weren't her prime set of pazaak cards, the loss of which Yolie still somewhat mourned.

Leaving Coruscant in a rush hadn't exactly left her much time to pack what few little things she wanted to keep.

Speak of the devil, she mused, catching sight of him only as he pulled out the chair and broke her reverie. "I'm surprised anyone noticed." Yolie murmured, lifting her gaze to meet his only briefly before looking back to her cards. Therein was comfort and familiarity.

Not the glaring newness of The Wheel, more Jedi than she ever knew were still alive, and the stares her body art inevitably brought.

"Most of it, yes. I've ventured up to Deck 52 a couple of times as well...bartending for pilots is always a good time." Yolie continued after several awkward moments, normally swift and almost graceful movements turning halting and uncertain.

[Inyos Aamoran]

Inyos' mouth drew into a thin line, a hint of mild disapproval tugging at his features. He wasn't a man of many expressions, but this was one he did particularly well - mostly because he was so frequently surrounded by people doing things that he needed to mildly disapprove of.

Young Yolie was a prime example: a motley collection of bad habits that had been ingrained in her throughout her life. Had she been born but a few years earlier, a person of her potential would certainly have found her way into the Jedi Order. Unfortunately, she'd been hidden away in the Coruscanti underworld, and had picked up pretty much every single code-breaking vice that a Jedi could have.

Of course, if she had been born a few years earlier, and had been adopted into the Jedi Order, she would likely have died during the execution of Order 66. Even a life wasted in wretched hives of scum and villainy was infinately better than a life not lived at all.

He wondered what to say, musing over his options carefully. He had been trained the correct way, by an eminent Master of the Jedi Order. His only experience of educating young potentials came from that and his vague memories of observed classes of Younglings: and being an obedient and dedicated Padawan himself, he'd never found himself the subject of any kind of discipline or motivational efforts.

"Somehow," he said, his voice half-way to a mutter, "I doubt the Force divined to give you your abilities just so you could squander them behind bars and pazaak tables."

[Yolie Devix]

"You have no right to judge me. I survived-" Yolie cut herself off before she could say anything else. Fingers had curled into fists on the makeshift table she stood behind. She lifted one hand and let the ruined card within fall to the surface.

She gathered the rest and shuffled them together, giving herself something to concentrate on. The motions weren't as fluid as they normally were, but they served the purpose of calming her sometimes prodigious temper. Nimble fingers bridged the cards together then pulled apart in even stacks before repeating the process.

"I did the best I could. And so what if I like coming over here to deal or to tend bar? I'm not using my abilities, and I'm comfortable. I fit in here, unlike aboard the Whaladon where I stick out more than some of the other species do."

Yolie dealt the cards as if Inyos was going to play, lifting a sculpted brow in an unspoken offer. The fingertips of one hand traced the edge of the cards waiting in front of her, while the challenge in her dark eyes remained.

[Inyos Aamoran]

Inyos let out a sigh; but it was a slow sigh. A patient sigh. More a calming breath really, only with a little frustration hanging on like a kid with a vice-grip on the scruff of a speeding bantha.

"That is entirely the problem, Miss Devix," he said, adding a wordless gesture to accept Yolee's unspoken challenge.

Her eyes avoided his, so instead he watched as she deftly delt the cards, and felt the shift in her emotions as she settled into her comfort zone. It was a strange thing: while Inyos hadn't frequented gambling establishments, there were times when his duties with the Jedi Order had forced him into such places. He had seen much, and sensed much; but never before had he felt anyone dealing cards in such an aggressive way.

"My concern is not with what you are doing, but rather with what you are not."

He took the cards in front of him and slid them towards him, but hesitated before he looked at the hand he had been delt.

"The exercises you are avoiding will not give you anything new: what we endevour to teach is control. The ability to feel and influence the Force is already within you: but without control, you have just enough of that potential to be a danger to yourself, and to others."

His eyes rose to Yolee, intense enough to force her to look back.

"You fear being an outsider, being in a place and with people who you do not understand; and I sense much anger in you as well. You are but a few easy steps from travelling down a dark path: and without any sense of control, you will have no way to stop yourself from falling."

[Yolie Devix]

"Technically, that's Mrs. Devix. Didn't change my name back after the divorce."

Her voice emerged smooth, but thick with the lower-level Coruscanti accent she was born to. Some days she could control it - others, like today, she couldn't keep her accent from betraying her for anything. Those others seemed to happen more often than not, since the night she'd first dreamed about Inyos.

It had been so much like a scene from a holo-noir piece. An antique, dirty casino, the air stale with cigarra smoke, the lights dim, and a lone spotlight on the keybed (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/KeyBed) player in the far corner. Her pazaak table on a small dais, fingers flicking cards out across its surface until the Moment. The door opening to a rush of air, a shadowed figure in a trenchcoat entering with audible, measured steps. A flash of his face and their eyes locked across the distance. Every night for months, the dream would plague her, until she'd understood it for the portent it was. She'd left Coruscant in a rush with no destination in mind. Only a face. His face.

"You know where I lived. Where I worked. And if you'd seen what I was married to, you would understand even more..."

Yolie let her words trail off, instead relying on her cards and the game at hand. She dropped her gaze as soon as she was able to, a practiced motion tilting up the corners of her cards for a glance. She freed one card from the remaining deck, fingertips ready to flip it over if he wished it.

The girl blinked, taken aback at his...assessment. He was frighteningly on point, even if she didn't want to admit it. Couldn't admit it.

Wouldn't admit that even she could feel herself balanced precariously and it terrified her.

[Inyos Aamoran]

"When I was at the Jedi Temple," Inyos began, his voice taking on a slight hint of an old man on the brink of recounting an old war story, "I would often spend my days in the Jedi Archives. My Master had a -" He searched for an apt description. "- somewhat liberal approach to my instruction; while he gave me the tools and skills I would need to become a Jedi Knight, he encouraged me to seek out my own wisdom, rather than simply benefit from his."

He inverted his cards, and his eyes scanned the face values, but it was merely a formality: he had little interest in playing the game itself, but it seemed to provide a comfort for Yolee; kept her focused. Given her precarious position, anything that could provide a little clarity - under safe, controlled circumstances of course - was a blessing worth exploiting.

"I dedicated myself to study; to philosophy, history, and the teachings of those long past. I thought that by doing so - by filling my mind with words of wisdom - that I would do as my Master instructed, and build such wisdom for myself."

He frowed, but it was only a slight expression.

"I was wrong. Or at least, I was not completely right. What I had gifted myself was knowledge, but not wisdom: you cannot truely be wise until you have learned to take that knowledge and make use of it in life. You can have the knowledge that the fire is hot, but until you have felt it - until you have been burned - you do not know that it is."

He turned silent, abandoning his cards and interlacing his fingers.

"The Jedi Ari'ana once said: Look to the past to reclaim the future. In my youth, I believed this to mean that we should learn from history - from the lessons of others. I was wrong: and it is only now that I understand, with a past filled with lessons upon which I can look back and regret."

He found her gaze with his own.

"You have a troubled past, Yolee. But you have yet to reclaim your future, because you still allow your past to claim you. Unless you learn to abandon the things that fuel your pain and anger, you will never be able to walk the path that you were born to."

[Yolie Devix]

"How am I..."

Yolie began but cut herself off abruptly before she could blurt out something incomprehensible. Inyos had heard enough of that out of her lately. Alright, he'd gotten a good load of her running off at the mouth since they'd met. Yet he always weathered it with a profound well of Jedi stoicism and that slight, ever-present disapproving smile.

Way to get off to a new start, wasn't it?

Fingers set the cards down on the table before absently tugging on the cropped hem of her top (http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/set?id=46077757). Balancing on one foot, she reached out with her other to snag her chair and bring it close enough for her to sit on. Though not particularly tired, or anything of the sort, it just seemed the natural thing to do. Besides...standing over Inyos, whether she was dealing or not, felt damned strange.

Yolie gathered the cards up in her hands once more to give herself something to concentrate on as she thought. This time, she spoke after several moments of a comfortable silence, voice subdued.

"That is so much easier said than done. How am I supposed to abandon a lifetime of abuse? Its all I see when I close my eyes. All I ever dream about, except the one about you."

[Inyos Aamoran]

"I have asked you to abandon nothing."

Another tug of frown came as Inyos considered his words more carefully. "Or rather, I have not asked you to abandon the memories of that lifetime. To do so would completely fail to divine the meaning of Ari'ana's teachings."

He leant back a little in his chair, abandoning his cards for a moment.

"Memories are powerful, Yolie. They are sources of a great many things, particularly to a Jedi. Memories can provide wisdom. They can provide joy, and inspiration. They can also provide pain and sorrow however; and it is these memories of which we should be most careful. These dark memories are like chemical cells: when handled carefully, and used to power the right things, they can generate light, warmth, and all manner of beneficial goodness; handle them incorrectly or grip on to them too tight however, and they will rupture, leaving you with nothing but corrosive acid."

He let out the faintest ghost of a sigh, looking at her with eyes that were heavy with history. "We all have memories that we would rather not have; some of us more than others. It is up to you whether you choose to draw wisdom from them, or merely let them be a source of pain."

[Yolie Devix]

Yolie sighed heavily, resting her forearms on the table. Fingers laced together, one thumb tracing the scars that laced the opposite palm. There were so many memories, all of them filled with pain and anguish. There was nothing good to look back on.

No little moment of happiness she could latch on to. At least, if there was one, she thought she must have been far too young to remember. Her entire life had been lived at the mercy of someone else. She only had a year of freedom since the divorce, and even that was spent wallowing in misery as she struggled to make ends meet. Dealing pazaak at one casino, tending bar at another, endless hours of work just to be able to live in one of the worst quadrants of Coruscant.

"I dun have any mem'ries worth keepin'..." she said faintly, wincing as her self-control slipped and her accent took a turn for the worse. Her wince melted into a frown as she realized how pathetic her words sounded, even to her own ears.

She was alive. She'd made it off of Coruscant and out of the hell of her life under her own power. That had to count for something, didn't it? After all, there was a time when simply living had been in serious doubt.

Yolie took a deep breath and tried to set her carefully cultivated controls back into place. Since Inyos could see straight through her facade, she didn't bother with it. Her fingers separated as she ran them through her cherry-red locks, letting one side fall to cup her cheek, while tucking the other back behind her ear.

They fell back to comfort and picked up the cards, tracing the pattern embossed on the back with a fingertip. She'd long since memorized it, and when she met his gaze, the gesture didn't cease. There was some sort of peculiar solace in pattern and repetition, a thing she couldn't account for. But Yolie was thankful regardless.

"I'm not certain I want to know what's put that weight in your gaze. Something...or somethings likely worse than what I've endured. But I don't know how to draw wisdom from what I've been through. Every moment I can look at is still too freshly raw to let me think clearly." she finally said, dark eyes holding his before tracing each angle of his features.

[Inyos Aamoran]

Something worse than what I've endured.

Inyos wondered how true that was. When it came to matters of emotion, it was impossible to be objective. In the absense of objectivity, Inyos saw little point in drawing a comparison. It was as proposterous as using parsecs as a measurement of time; different things moved at different speeds, and different people felt in different ways.

Even so, he felt a shred of gratitude that she didn't pursue that subject any further. Pride and shame were traits that the Jedi Order smiled upon; while they themselves were not necessarily steps on the path to the darkside, they did form an unfortunate precipice from which the careless could fall. Regardless, while he strove to accept his dark past as a part of himself, he was not so comfortable that others would be so accepting.

"If there is one thing you should allow yourself to learn from those memories, make it this: every one of them has made you who you are. We often talk about life as if it is a path towards an end; but life is more complex, more like a maze. It is all to easy for a misstep to lead you down the wrong road; but if you do not aknowledge where you have been and what choices led you to that place, there is little hope that you will find your way back to the right path."

"Every path has a beginning," he quoted from memory, "And every path has an end. You must be mindful of both if you hope to find your way."

[Yolie Devix]

Every one of them has made you who you are.

Her lips parted as if to retort as he finished, but she thought better of it. She knew he wasn't trying to be obtuse, he was simply trying to make her think. Lips were pressed together in a delicate expression of distaste directed wholly inward.

Inyos looked at her with his bottomless dark gaze, and Yolie stared right back. As if she were searching for something that was tantalizingly out of reach. Damn the man.

"You're right."

Blinking, she lowered her gaze and sighed, setting the cards aside and picking up the one she'd crumpled earlier. She smoothed it out, carefully to bend the corner back into their proper shape. Balanced in her palm, she gazed at it, dark eyes following the pattern on its back. It floated up slightly after a moment, even spinning lazily before sliding down to rest on the table.

With a sigh, she glanced back up, a bit more clarity in her gaze than there had been before. "Don't dwell on your footsteps, but don't look too far ahead; you might miss the sarlaac in the sand beneath your feet." she quoted, a hint of a true smile coming to her lips. "See? I am listening."

[Inyos Aamoran]

"The wise words of Master Shard," Inyos agreed, with a hint of a smile. Reassuring as it was to hear at least something of his teachings sinking in however, he wondered if she had merely listened to the proverb, or had truly heard it.

He fixed her with the kind of look that went straight through you; the kind of look that surged on interrupted like a storming wind, only hitting you because you were foolish enough to step into it's path. He let his senses drink in the Force from around him; listened to the ripples as the Force danced around her; tasted the colour of the aura that she cast. She was calm, for now at least. That came as a small comfort. The last thing they needed was for her emotions to cultivate, and raise a Dark Jedi within their midst. Surely, The Wheel would not survive for long with one of those charging about.

He adjusted his features into a frown, letting his piercing gaze subside. "Why are you here?" he asked; an innocent enough question, but a weighty one.

[Yolie Devix]

Yolie swallowed back the first words that came to her as he pinned her in place with his inimitable stare. The look that made her want to confess to things she hadn't done or even thought of yet. Never mind what it did for the salacious thoughts that normally lingered and danced around in her mind.

She stayed calm, however, breathing steadily and evenly to keep her heart from racing off into the black and leaving her behind. Dark eyes blinked but didn't waver from his gaze until Inyos himself shifted. His features melted into a frown and she dropped her gaze to her cards, feeling completely defeated.

A fingertip traced the pattern as he spoke, and considered his deceptively simple question. Why was she here? Why did she ignore the dream of him looking for her for as long as she had, only to suddenly up and leave Coruscant in a rush? With only a feeling and a hazy dream to guide her...it had been a fool's quest, she thought at first.

Until that feeling and that dream had guided her straight to him in a matter of a few short weeks. Yolie sighed softly and put the cards down, determined to maintain her calm without the crutch of their comfortable weight in her hands. Fingers knitted together as she sat back in her chair, hands coming to rest in her lap. One leg crossed over the other in a pose that would have been almost demure had she been wearing something other than an off the shoulder shirt that was cropped and jeans that rode low on slender hips.

An outfit that normally garnered her the kind of attention she wanted.

Eventually, she spoke, but her gaze wouldn't settle on one spot, instead wandering about his features. "I'm here because I'm supposed to be. I have a gift...one that took my dream of a stranger and turned it into a reality. That drew me out of the misery and hopelessness of an existence on Coruscant's streets, and into a life I can make a difference with. I...I just..."

Yolie swallowed hard and wished she could disappear as the words kept tumbling from her mouth. "...I'm not comfortable around the people and the other Jedi on the Whaladon. Its almost painful, in a way, to see how they interact and treat eachother. I've never had that kind of 'family' before...or any kind...and....I..."

//I'm scared.// she thought faintly, unable to form the words with her lips, her gaze falling to her hands as she rose abruptly from her chair. She needed to do something...anything to scrub the truth away. Fingers reached out to gather the cards in front of her, the growing pile a haphazard mess.