Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage

We spent a day and a half recovering from our mission, which most of the team spent sleeping or unwinding. Ahsoka and I spent a good amount of time going through what we had recovered, cleaning and inspecting lightsabers, Jedi texts, and holocrons. With the Mandalorian's help, we recovered an incredible amount from Grakkus, including all of the Holocrons that he had collected, as well as all of the lightsabers and a few personal effects. Some of the lightsabers were identified as belonging to specific Jedi, some from far before Ahsoka's time at the temple, while most of them were from the Jedi who died during the Clone Wars.

We also recovered a few boxes of remains, sealed and stored away, precursors to what Grakkus had hoped to do to Ahsoka and me. We had plans to bury them on Nirn.

When I wasn't spending more time with Ahsoka, I was in Pola's workshop. Our armorer was eager to get started working on more armor and uniforms, so I quickly converted the precious metals donated by the rebellion into beskar. We kept five pounds of it, as agreed upon, before shipping the rest back to them. I gave two pounds of the Beskar to Clan Syr, freeing up my debt to the Mandalorian people.

The rest of the beskar, as well as the the metal recovered from Ahsoka's temporary armor, was melted down, purified, and re-alloyed. About a third of it was going directly back into Ahsoka's armor, this time based on the design of the recovered ancient Jedi armor. It would take a few days to make, but considering our only destination would be Nirn, that was fine.

When our recovery time was over, we packed up the Chariot and the Loyal Hound with supplies and temporary structures for people to live in. Tatnia, Julus, Corvak, Clan Syr's armorer, and a pair of warriors would be joining Ahsoka and me for the trip. I couldn't help but notice that Ahsoka seemed unhappy about the extra company.

Before we left, Ahsoka and I debated for a while if we should bring the holocrons with us or leave them at the station. Eventually, we decided to bring three that we tested so they could be used by the young members of the stranded Jedi, leaving the rest on Omega Station for safekeeping. When more permanent structures were built on Nirn, we would transfer the rest.

Ahsoka also gave Felia a holocron, which contained the force presence of a Jedi she recognized, at least by name. Felia needed more consistent teachings, and the holocron could provide that, in part, when Ahsoka wasn't around. They would guide her through meditation and reaching out to Force, as well as answer any questions she might have. Luke had actually taught her the early stages of kinetic meditation to help the young girl work through her age disadvantage.

Felia also understood that the holocron was not going to share some of our more progressive beliefs, even if Ahsoka recognized the Jedi as being less strict than most. Felia understood and promised to pay attention to what she was learning. Given how independent and slow to trust the young Force-sensitive was, I didn't think it would be a problem.

Once everything was set and packed, we headed out, piling into the Chariot and leaving Omega Station behind.

During our trip, I worked on my magic. I had enough time to learn two expert spells, with enough time to recover between each of them, so I quickly got to work. I learned Thunderbolt first, a massive spark of Destruction magic that I was pretty sure could be considered an anti-armor weapon. It could definitely take down a good-sized speeder bike, at least.

As always, finishing such a long spell learning process left me drained and tired. I was really dreading how much Master level spells would mess with me, even if I desperately wanted access to them.

After spending a day recovering, which I spent the second half sparing with Ahsoka and the Mandalorians, I got to work on the second spell, Conjure Storm Atronach. The Storm Atronach that the spell conjured had to be my favorite-looking conjured creature so far, with classic medieval armor and a simple sword, all covered with dancing electrical sparks that sizzled and arced as they moved. It was considerably more powerful than my other Atronach options and could use more powerful spells, as well as its sword.

It was a shame that I wouldn't be using it very often, as even with its power, it could not beat the usefulness of having a Conjured Mage who could heal people.

The only reason I learned it at all was its potential to disable hard targets. I could conjure it, then order it to run deeper into a ship or structure before dumping all its energy into the computer systems or the energy core of whatever I was trying to disable. Judging by how much power it could output, it would be a death knell for a lot of potential targets.

When we finally arrived at Nirn, I had fully recovered from my magic learning. I stood at the bridge with Ashoka and Calima as we slowly descended to the planet's surface. The Loyal Hound would remain in orbit until we found a place for it to land and unload its cargo. We were only a few hundred kilometers from the island when we got a comms connection.

"Skyforged Vanguard, this is Knight Amescoll, come in?" A familiar voice said through the comms. "We picked you up on our scanners, so you should be in range... Are you reading us?"

"Amescoll, this is Deacon, we are on our way with a new load of supplies and structures," I responded, leaning over the naval droid's chair. "Some of it is for you guys, but we are looking to make a new settlement as well."

"Ah! Good to hear from you, Boss," He said, his smile audible. "We aren't on the island anymore, we decided to relocate. I think we have found the perfect location for the settlement. Sending coordinates now."

I looked down at the screen, a data-packet flashing on the console. The Comms droid immediately sent the data to Calima, who looked back at me and nodded.

"Got it, Amescoll," I confirmed. "See you soon."

The coordinates were a good distance away, not even on the same continent that the ancient Jedi island was close to. We diverted our momentum, and Calima guided us to the new coordinates before sending them back to the Loyal Hound. They weren't coming down quite yet, but now they knew where to find us.

When we arrived at the location, all of us that were on the bridge were stunned. The stranded Jedi had found a gigantic gray and black stone mesa that sat in the middle of a massive jungle. The black and gray stone towered over the jungle canopy by at least a hundred feet. The gigantic geological wonder was made out of two different layers, both vaguely circular, with a fourth of each overlapping, Venn diagram style, creating a high, middle, and low section, each separated by a sixty to seventy-foot cliff.

Each circular surface was at least two or three miles wide, with the upper one having a large lake in the center. The lake must have been fed by a spring or something because it was full despite the fact that a large waterfall poured over the side that breached the massive cliff. The water fell all the way to the middle platform and traveled a short distance to the next cliff before making another waterfall. The water then ran in a long river before eventually flowing off on the opposite side in another majestic waterfall.

The entire site was mind-boggling and gorgeous, and for a while, we just stared, the Chariot at a complete stop. Eventually, after a few minutes, Calima managed to break free of the wonder and began to land the Chariot, guiding the ship to a spot by the Maka-Eekai L4000 that Knight Amescoll had purchased on our behalf. As we got lower, we could see people looking up and waving as they moved around a partially set-up village.

Knight Amescoll, his wife, and a few of the Padawans all came down to meet us as we walked off the boarding ramp. Their smiles and excitement were palpable and only dimmed slightly when they spotted the Mandalorians. Amescoll stepped forward, moving with a walking staff of all things. All of the Jedi were dressed in new clothes, a style closer to the ancient Jedi. They looked like a combination of monk and martial artist robes, lacking the roughspun look that the brown Jedi cloak had.

"Amescoll, good to see you," I said, stepping forward and shaking his hand. "I'm impressed. You really found something special here."

"I can't take credit for it, I wasn't on board the Patient Ponder when they found it," He admitted, nodding to one of the older Padawans, who I recognized as Malua Var'Samallo, the Balsor I spoke to on our first trip to Nirn. "They found it on their own."

"Well, well done either way," Giving the younger humanoid a nod. "And just to confirm, you do plan on forming a joint community here?"

"Yes, absolutely," Amescoll said confidently. "The more I think about it, the more certain I am that the old orders' failures were due in no small part to our isolation. As you have said, I don't know what is coming next, but I think it will be better done together than apart."

"I agree. We have a much larger shipment of temporary housing in orbit, with enough labor droids to get it set up easily," I explained. "We also have a large order of building equipment on its way. Our techs are just looking over it before we ship it here. And, of course, a good number of the families of people who work for us are interested in settling here as well. We are looking for a large potential growth here, especially as the Skyforged as a whole continues to grow."

"Speaking of growth, who are your friends?" Amascoll asked, looking past me to Corvak and his people.

"Ah, these are our friends, allies, and, hopefully, future members, though they haven't agreed to that quite yet," I said, turning to gesture for Corvak to join us. "Amescoll, this is Corvak Syr, leader of Clan Syr, Mandalorian, and honorable man. He and his people were being forced to work for Grakkus. Luckily, we were able to kill the bastard without hurting them."

For a moment, Corvak stared down Amescoll, before the Jedi Knight let out a long sigh.

"I can feel your trepidation, Syr, and I cannot say I blame you for it. Our people have often been at odds," He admitted with a frown. "But at this point… my people are dead. The Order is dead. It feels foolish to grip on to their grudges, especially when we can see their failings so clearly."

Amescoll reached out with his hand, looking back at Corvak. After a long moment, Corvak reached out as well, shaking the Jedi's hand.

"Our people are dead as well, and we cannot afford to bear their grudges either, not when so few of us remain," The warrior leader responded. "Call me Corvak."

"I look forward to working with you and your people, Corvak," Amescoll said. "Call me Casmot. Or Amescoll, I'll respond to either."

"I'm glad that went well," I whispered to Ahsoka, who nodded in agreement, before I stepped forward and patted both of their shoulders. "Alright, well, now that introductions are over, we can start unloading everything. I'll call down the Loyal Hound as well."

Over the next few hours, the labor droids, with the help of some handy Force levitation, carefully unloaded quite a few bits of equipment. When the Hound landed, some of the larger bits were offloaded as well. Included in that equipment were a half dozen speeder bikes, a pair of more industrial speeder vehicles made for moving and pushing, food and tools, and the already mentioned temporary structures. The last item was unloaded in several large pieces and then reassembled very carefully. Most of the labor droids returned to the ships, while the rest continued to assist in setting up the buildings and moving equipment.

"What exactly is this?" Amescoll asked, watching as several repair droids put the large, multi-part device together.

"This is the shield generator from a CR70 Corvette," I explained with a smirk. "Our head engineer took it out while upgrading the Nautilus, then spent some time reworking it. Once turned on, it will project a dome of protection around a significant area. There's a datapad with more details, but as long as the temporary homes are built in that area, then you won't have to worry about animal attacks. Miru cranked the power down, extending the range considerably."

"That's incredible!" Amescoll said, happily thumping his staff on the ground. "That would have made living on the island a lot easier."

"That's what originally sparked the idea," I explained. "But now it will make living here much safer."

Amescoll thanked me profusely for the modified shield generator and the power station that ran it. Both of them would make adapting to the new location safer and much less stressful.

After a day of working, everyone started to wind down. Most of the people, myself, my crew, and the Mandalorians included, had crowded around a central area. While the Jedi survivors talked about some of the animals that they had seen, including the ocean dwellers, I noticed that Ahsoka was missing from the group.

As I looked around, concerned, Tatnia spotted me, shook her head, and pointed away from the group. Sure enough, I spotted her, slowly making her way towards the river flowing across the mesa. As if sensing it, she turned to look at me, and after a moment, she nodded ahead, silently asking me to join her. I quickly made some excuses, ignoring Tatnia's smirk, before following after her.

By the time I caught up with her, she was sitting on the shore of the river, on a large slab of stone. She looked over her shoulder with a smile, before looking back over the water.

"Everything alright?" I asked, sitting down beside her.

"Yeah, everything is fine," She responded. "Better than it has been in a long time."

I nodded and looked out over the river with her. I could feel she had more to say, so I silently waited for her to formulate it into words.

"So much has changed in such a short time, but I am… I am doing well," She said, a smile on her lips. "I was… so broken, so stuck without any idea how I could go forward or move on…"

"Hey, you would have figured it out," I assured her with a smile. "I'm just glad we could help."

She looked at me, her blue eyes staying on mine for a moment before she looked back over the water. Together, we sat there, enjoying each other's company. Eventually, as it slowly got darker, she leaned against me, her head on my shoulder.

"You know, I talked to Professor Huyang, about how the story of the Jedi and the Princess resonated with me," She admitted. "He was glad that it had led us to him, but he actually apologized."

"What for?" I asked, putting my arm around her back, helping her get closer.

"Well… it turns out that one of the masters who heard the original story disliked the real ending," She explained. "They forced him to change it so that the ending resonated more with the core tenants of being a Jedi."

"Jeez… What did they change?"

"Well… Apparently, while they were repairing the ship, the Jedi and the Princess grew closer," She explained. "And when it came time for them to finally return, his mission completed, the Jedi continued to see her. When the Jedi Order found out, they demanded they stop, explaining that her high-profile status and her connection to a royal family made their ... friendship inappropriate. They insisted that it would cause too many problems for the Order. They told him that he could either be a Jedi, or be with the Princess. He stood in front of the council, declared his love for her, and left, never to set foot in the Temple again."

"Huh... yeah, I can see them not liking that," I admitted. "Runs counter to a lot of what they teach. I'm honestly surprised they let him tell it at all."

She chuckled and nodded in agreement, letting a peaceful quiet settle over us again. We could hear our friends talking in the distance, nothing but a calm mumbling.

"Deacon... I want to thank you," Ahsoka eventually said. "I... had lost hope, lost myself, and you found me. You gave me hope back and... well..."

I turned to find she was looking at me now, her eyes locking on mine. She was blushing, having pulled back off of my shoulder. Time seemed to slow to a crawl, there on the shore, as all my mind could think of was how beautiful she was in the rising moonlight, about how her eyes were the same color as the water that flowed past us. Everything else disappeared.

Until I learned that her lips tasted like cinnamon.