I have not seen Rise of Skywalker because I saw some spoilers the day it came out that broke my heart. But here is chapter two, sorry for the wait!
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Training with Luke initially seemed to mostly be doing chores. She hunted, she cut firewood, she searched the forest for obscure herbs, she cleaned the small shack he called a stable. Twice he had her move large boulders from around various places near his hut. Rey quickly resented the busy work and Luke's non-committal grunts when she asked questions about magic or sword technique.
Just when she was about to burst, he approached her on the fourth day with a practice sword. When she caught it without looking up from sharpening his old rusted ax, Luke smiled.
The swordplay was her favorite. Unlike their magic lessons, the sword came to her easily. She had a raw instinct, something that Luke remarked upon as difficult to train. Still, for all of her instinct she had little discipline, forcing the frequent practice of form and control. As Luke explained, it was not merely knocking sticks together. It was a practiced strategy.
"You're giving yourself away," he explained when she'd once again been thrown to the ground. "Your intentions are too clear. I knew you were going to strike there because you told me with your eyes."
"Am I not supposed to look?" she snapped, incredulous.
The old knight sighed, helping her to her feet. "Perhaps you should not."
Thus began a series of trials using a blindfold. Luke not only worked to make her other senses keener. After she's shown some level of mastery, he challenged her to keep her eyes glued to a spot behind his shoulder as they sparred in an attempt to rid her of her tell.
She ended more sessions on her ass than she liked, but by the end of their second week, she'd managed to best him once. For that Luke had allowed her to finish practice early — so they could focus more time on magic.
Two weeks into her training and Rey could barely summon an item from across the main room of Luke's cottage. Concentrating proved difficult and she ended most lessons with roaring headache. Luke explained that it was normal for changelings to struggle. The few that did manage to make it back to Fey homelands were at a great disadvantage — they'd not been raised around magic, had not cultivated the necessary skills. Mastering it so late in life was not unheard of, but it was a struggle.
"Not many changelings find their way back," he explained. "The fey have so few children, and those that are sent away are usually deemed weak — the idea is that they might die or they could thrive for a time with a human family, living a typical number of years to a human. It is rare indeed for a changeling to make their way back to us, and rarer still that any would return with a strength towards magic. You might be the first in nearly two centuries."
"So I was left because I was a weakling?"
He was thoughtful. "It seems to me that might not be the case. You have an unusual amount of power for one who has grown apart from us. I do not think you would have been left for any lack of strength."
"Why would the Unseelie leave a magical child to an out-of-the-way village?" Rey's brow furrowed. "It makes no sense."
But he said no more. Instead, he made her practice levitating vases for nearly an hour before releasing her to tend to her aching head.
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They were in the middle of a quiet dinner in the middle of the third week when she ventured to ask about his nephew. Luke paused, looking suddenly weary.
"I was carrying on the tradition of our father and the knights of his order. Ben had skill and raw power, it was clear that he would be a great king someday. But he needed tempering. My sister thought if I could train him alongside my other pupils it would do him some good. So he was sent off to train with me." Luke considered the fire, brows knitting together. "He proved to be more like my father than any of us imagined. Anakin had been powerful too but was seduced by the Unseelie Court's promises. His deception killed our mother, the Queen of the Seelie. I soon realized the darkness in Ben. I had visions of him taking the same path."
"How could he be so drawn to them, with you as an uncle and Leia a mother?" Rey could not understand. The Seelie Court was the itinerant of all that was good and light. How could anyone willingly leave?
Luke shook his head. "He had fear — too much fear — and a desire to control what could not be. Try as I might he was not content with the limits placed upon him. Snoke was, at the time, a mere advisor to the Unseelie King. He soon targeted Ben as a means of getting himself on the throne. It did not take much to seduce my nephew — promises of power were more than enough."
Rey hugged herself. Despite the snugness of the cottage, she felt suddenly cold. "And what happened to his father?"
The lines in his face seemed to grow deeper with that question. He stood, placing his bowl on the sideboard. Back to Rey, he sighed.
"Han was my friend," he said softly. "We fought together. He was like a brother to me and I couldn't have been happier that he married my sister. I was honored when they asked me to train their son…."
He drifted off, hands tightening on the wood of the sideboard. Rey could make out the white of his strained knuckles. After a moment he resumed speaking slowly.
"Snoke told Ben he needed to prove himself worthy. Foolish. The boy should have thought, for a moment, why they were so keen on him. But he wasn't always good at slowing down, considering…by that time he'd already divorced himself from his mother's court. He'd been gone two years. He summoned his father, frantic, claiming to need aid, that he'd made a mistake. Han loved his son. He had not lost hope. So he went. And to prove to Snoke that he could be molded into the weapon the Unseelie wanted, Ben killed his father."
Here Luke paused. He looked gray as he turned back to resume his seat before the hearth. "When Ben left, I ceased teaching. My few students dispersed. Many of them have established fine careers. But some quit altogether after seeing what had become of their classmate — they didn't want to risk facing him someday."
"So that is why you have not taken on any more pupils," Rey surmised. Her eyes were soft.
"The Snoke wants you," he said gravely. "You're a changeling with a rare amount of power. You are raw and ready to be shaped. He believes that if he can bring you to his side, he will have enough force to fell my sister's court And we cannot say where your lineage lies, Rey. So my sister was right in sending you here. The Seelie Court needs a champion."
This was a lot of expectation to place upon someone who only realized faeries existed a mere three months ago. Rey clasped her hands nervously. Her whole life she'd been an outcast — first a babe left on the steps of a church, then a meek housemaid, a savage hermit, cast away to the peripheral of society….The notion that she could be a hero, a champion, a knight….
Luke nudged the fire, stoking it so the flames shivered. "We ought to sleep. It'll be a long day tomorrow — we're going to the Dagobah Caverns."
The ominous sound of this announcement kept Rey up for several hours, thinking about all that he had said.
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Before dawn Rey found herself saddling her mare. The horse puffed out gray mist as Rey tightened straps around her middle, patient as she swung astride and waited for Luke. He rode a weary bay gelding who trotted with a note of annoyance at having been awoken so early. Since Rey's arrival, both horses had been getting fat in the meadow just a stone's throw from the cottage.
They rode in companionable silence. The question of what, exactly, they were doing felt strangely forbidding. Scenarios flickered through Rey's mind. What could be in a cave that was so integral to her training?
As there was no path, their horses picked their way through overgrowth and brush. Luke's gelding, Hazelnut, snorted from annoyance. Mallow, Rey's steady mare, simply trod on, unbothered by the terrain.
Finally Luke pulled to a stop. They were deep in the forest. The trees here were massive and as old as the rocks that marked the entrance to what Rey presumed was the Dagobah Cave. The shadowy gap that served as the threshold was unmistakable. It looked like a portal between worlds, overgrown and draped in greenery. She eased Mallow to a stop and slowly dismounted. Once on the ground, her hand went to the hilt at her hip.
"You will not need your weapons."
Luke's face was unreadable as Rey uneasily removed her belt, tucked the scabbard onto one of the straps of Mallow's saddle. She didn't surrender the dagger strapped to her waist nor the knife in her boot, choosing to pretend to have forgotten them. It wasn't that she didn't trust Luke — rather, she didn't want to take any chances.
When it became clear that no further instruction was going to be shared she steeled herself and entered the cave.
Cobwebs greeted her. Rey gently swept them away and crept forward until she had lost the light of the entrance. She found herself descending deep into the earth, with the occasional break in stones ahead letting in the barest cracks of light. Her journey felt as though it was an age, yet took no time at all.
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Years from now, if someone asked, it would be very difficult to verbalize what she had seen in the Dagobah Cave. Verbalizing it proved difficult, though if forced to she could sum it up in one word — abandonment.
Demons were to be found in the cave. Demons and darkness and desire.
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When she emerged, it was nearing dusk. Rey was visibly shaken. Luke wordlessly handed her a woolen blanket from off the back of her mare, which she wrapped around her shoulders mindlessly. He next passed her a small flask, warning her gently from taking too much. The beverage inside was instantly warming. Rey slumped against the log Luke sat upon, taking small sips from the flask and staring ahead.
"My master didn't provide much aftercare when it was my time to visit the cave," he said wryly. "Nor was I given much warning. Though perhaps that is for the best. What did you see?"
Rey took a long breath. "It felt like a memory. Watching my parents, being taken away. They were crying. I was crying. Then…"
Luke waited, not pushing for her to continue.
"What was that?" she finally broke out, turning to look at her master. "That cave — it's not normal."
He nodded. "That is the Dagobah cave. Generations of knights have endured the trials within, coming to better understand their fears."
"Why?"
"Because fear is the enemy of light."
She frowned, capping the flask. "But fear is…everyone has fear."
"Yes," he agreed. "And too many people let their fear overtake them. The darkness feeds off fear — the Unseelie consume it — and when we do not check our fears, do not hold ourselves into account, we can lose ourselves. Your fear is to be abandoned. Is that why you fight so hard for my sister's court? Do you think if you do not prove yourself that you will lose what you have gained there? That if you do not preserve the status quo you might slip into solitude once more."
Rey couldn't answer right away. She supposed he wasn't wrong. But it wasn't that simple. "I have friends with the Seelie," she explained. "They are like family to me. I don't want to see them hurt."
"You don't always have a choice," he answered gently. The old knight simply looked at her, appearing slightly sad.
They interrupted the horses, who had been grazing lazily since Rey entered the cave. It would soon be dark and it was safer to be indoors once night fell. She was afraid that she might fall asleep in the saddle with Mallow's calm tread, however, the continual navigation around the overgrown forest floor prevented her from losing focus.
"What do you see in there?" Rey ventured to asked after riding in silence for some time.
He did not reply for a long moment. After a while, he spoke slowly. "I saw my friends dying because I had failed to save them. I saw myself turning into my father, abandoning my morals. There were other temptations…I've always been afraid to make the wrong choices. It's with age that I've learned it is less about right or wrong and has more to do with making the outcomes right for you."
"Is that what you've done since Ben?" The question is blurted before she can think. Rey blushes madly. But Luke is thoughtful.
"I suppose it is. There were many times I put off making a choice because of my fear. And eventually, the choices were made for me."
Mara Jade instantly came to mind. Rey wondered if that was the choice he'd never made. Did he regret that lack of decision? She nearly asked, but Luke's pensive expression was forbidding.
Rey was quiet for the remainder of their journey back to the cottage, pondering her own experience in the cave.
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Morning began with meditation before chores. The morning after her encounter in the Dagobah Cave, Rey found focus difficult. She reached and grasped, but every time it seemed her mind settle it slipped away. Luke noted her frustration and dismissed her early.
Rey took some of her frustration out on a few of the logs out by the shabby stable. Using the ax, she split a few of the large ones, her muscles straining as she swung down. The crack that followed was terribly satisfying. Soon she had enough logs split to guarantee a week's worth of fires. Arms screaming, she put the ax back on the hooks in the stable. Luke met her in the door of the gut, brows raised. He held a few of the small steel traps she preferred in one hand.
"I believe we are in need of more meat for tonight's stew."
Rey grinned. He was giving her a bit of a day off from practice.
She set off on foot, in her cloak and with her dagger on her hip. Luke had given her a few tips on where she might set the traps. Rabbits were his preference, but he wasn't too picky.
The traps were set and Rey spent her time waiting in one of the clearings in the middle of the forest. Spring was coming, soon, and she practiced her meditation again among the shoots of new green leaves, letting the earthy breeze relax her. This time, she was more successful. Her mind still wandered to thoughts of the cave, but it didn't feel as though she were fighting against the thoughts anymore. They were less intrusive, more curious than fearful.
When the sun cast low shadows amid the trees she stood and began her rounds of the traps. Two had successfully snared rabbits. Another had been triggered but was empty. And the forth —
Rey approached the final trap to the sound of rustling. When she picked her way through the trees she caught a flash of orange and heard an unmistakable shriek. A brilliant red fox was stuck by its forepaw, mournfully crying. When it saw the trap's owner, the creature hissed.
She hesitated. Ethics dictated she release the poor thing from its misery.
It wasn't clear what made her do it. The animal's hiss turned into a high-pitched whine that struck her right in the chest, and suddenly she was on her knees, one hand pulling open the metal jaw that had consumed the fox's paw, another gently pressing the animal down. She had done this a thousand times — taken out her knife and —
But instead, she wrapped a hand around the wound. The bone was clearly broken, nearly in two. The red and white of the animal's arm was a sticky liver color from dried blood. Rey ignored the feeling. She ignored everything for a moment as she pressed her palm into the broken fur and skin. The fox thrashed angrily against her, shrieking again. Then, it stilled.
The young fey removed her hands. It was wet with blood, but the fox's arm was no longer in two unsettling pieces. A little dazed, it skittered backward, rustling against the dead leaves. Its bushy orange white-tipped tail switched, large black eyes staring up at Rey.
The fox was just as stunned as she was. Rey wanted to laugh, but for the creature's sake, she simply pressed her lips in a silent smile.
The poor fox bared its teeth at its savior. Rey tossed removed one of the rabbits from her belt and cautiously laid it out for the fox before she removed the trap's stake and back away. The wary fox didn't move, but when Rey walked away, she thought she heard another rustle.
Back at Luke's cottage, he seemed surprised that she'd only managed one rabbit. He didn't complain, however, and let her clean it outside before bringing it in to make manageable pieces for stew. The old knight was pleased, however, to see that his apprentice seemed of sounder mind than when she'd left that morning.
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Thank you for the reviews and follows so far! Adult life has made finding time to write hard, but I have parts of several more chapters done, I am hoping to update soon within a week or so.
