Jedi Master Orgus Din was the one issuing Tarys with his final Trial, one of the Heroes of Karideph, the Plain Jedi, he'd read all about his adventures and his Trial was going to be given by him. 'Excitement' wasn't the word.
"Initiate I will be entrusting you with a very important mission, I know you're expecting a simple test but this is of crucial importance. You will be investigating the disappearance of a Padawan."
What?
"Padawan Callef went missing a few weeks ago but we have reason to believe that he is still alive. Your task is to learn what happened to him and try to bring him back, however, if you can't, finding out why he left will be enough to deem your Trial complete. You will be given access to his room for your investigation, I suggest you start there." The Jedi Master finished with a grave seriousness in his voice that almost scared Tarys. What had happened to him? Did he know and just wasn't telling Tarys?
Well, he had his mission, he was going to do his utmost to find this missing Padawan and bring him back to the Temple. Why would anyone leave? It made no sense to him.
He wasn't going to ignore Master Orgus's suggestion so he made his way to Padawan Callef's room using the directions another Padawan gave him, and even that Padawan had a sombre look on their face. If he was alive why was everyone who knew about him so glum?
Once he reached his room the thing that stood out to Tarys was that nothing stood out. He'd half expected some sort of murder scene or something, but there was no such luck. It looked like any normal room in the Temple dormitories, bed on one side, desk on another and was generally very tidy with ample room to meditate in the centre.
Maybe the Padawan kept a journal? He'd be really lucky if he did, it would make it a lot easier to figure out why he left if he just wrote it down in a book. Trying to find this hypothetical journal, Tarys searched the entire room: under the bed, in the desk, the cabinet, any other containers. Every inch of the room was searched and nothing. No journals, nothing out of the ordinary.
It looked like he was stuck.
What could he do? After several minutes of contemplation, Tarys realised he could ask people who knew him; most of the Padawans had the same time slot in the refectory so they would probably know each other or know who knew Padawan Callef so he decided to wait until it was the Padawan's lunch and requested access to the refectory. He was denied, at least until the Jedi was able to confirm that he only wanted access to help with his Initiate Trial, then he was finally allowed in.
Tarys searched for Padawan Kiva. A familiar face would help more than a stranger. He felt weird being the refectory when it was full of Padawans. Not a single other Initiate was to be seen anywhere and he could tell that the Padawans were giving him strange looks as he was walking around looking for Kiva. At long last he found her eating and chatting with who he assumed were her friends.
"Padawan Kiva, can I talk to you?" Tarys tried his best not to be too bothersome.
"Sure. Tarys, right? Congratulations on finishing your Gathering. What can I do?"
Tarys told her about the situation with Padawan Callef and even Kiva's face soured at the mention of the name.
"Honestly I don't know, none of us does. He seemed fine, quiet and a little strange maybe but that was normal for him so he didn't change or anything when he disappeared. We just stopped seeing him around out of nowhere. I'm sorry, I wish I could help more. May the Force be with you."
At least she tried to help. So Padawan Callef didn't act weird ahead of his disappearance so it was unlikely anyone would know anything. And he thought he was so smart for thinking of asking people who knew him.
Slightly deflated, but undefeated, Tarys went back to Callef's room in the hope that he would have some sort of epiphany if he went back there. He was really glad that Master Orgus allowed him to be excused from his lessons so he could focus on completing his trial. Three days was all he had. Any longer and he would have to fit the investigation around the gruelling timetable of an Initiate.
This time he was stuck, no other ideas revealed themselves to Tarys and he couldn't think of anything else to do. If Callef left on purpose, he'd left no trace as to why. He decided he'd pick up the investigation again the following day and decided to go back to the Initiate wing of the Temple to train for the evening and then meditate. Hopefully, the Force would give him an answer.
This time, Tarys decided to split his time more evenly, even if he wanted to spend all his time training Jar'Kai he knew he needed to spend time practising the normal lightsaber forms if he had any hope of doing well in the tournament.
That lasted for about half an hour.
The draw of the second saber was just too great for him; he felt so much more confident when he had a saber in each hand, especially since he knew he had his two crystals there in his room, waiting to be put into lightsabers so he could become a Jedi in truth. Eventually, he was joined by Ishra who also had three days away from lessons for her Trial. He asked her how hers was going, but not before making sure to put away the second saber. Jar'Kai was his ace and he needed it to be a secret.
"It's weird. It's frustrating. It's interesting. I honestly don't know if I like it." She gave a resigned sigh before she continued, "I'm meant to be helping out Jedi over in Kaleth, with excavating the old ruins and stuff and it's so cool, there's so much knowledge from thousands of years ago that we're only now rediscovering and I wanna learn so much but the Masters I'm with just won't let me. I'm just an errand girl to them."
Tarys couldn't help but give a somewhat sympathetic somewhat teasing laugh when he heard about her woes and then told her of his own experience with his trial and how confused he was about what to do.
"That's tough. They told an initiate to find a missing Padawan? Sounds cruel to me. I'm sure Master Orgus knows what he's doing though, he wouldn't have given you the mission if he didn't believe you could do it." Ishra once again donned her "deep-in-thought" expression and considered something before speaking again, "I can't remember it right now but I'm sure I read something about there being a Force power that could help with this sort of thing, like finding out what happened in the past. Damn, I really can't remember, sorry."
"A Force power? Wait, you're right! You're a genius Ishra thank you so much!"
He knew what to do now, he quickly put his remaining saber away and ran back to Callef's room.
What was the last thing he would've used?
His bag, of course. He was surprised it was still here, surely the Padawan would have taken it with him. Either way, he grabbed it and went back to the Initiate training yard where Ishra was still training, never one to take breaks.
"Psychometry. You were thinking of psychometry right? Some force-sensitives can feel an echo in the Force just by touching an object. Do you know anyone who can use it?" Finally, Tarys was getting somewhere, his excitement translated into his voice.
"Yeah you're right, that's the one. I'm pretty sure Master Quilb did a demonstration in Force class a while ago, he's probably your best bet."
He thanked her and then set off looking for the Cathar Jedi Master, he was finally going to get to the bottom of this. Thankfully the Master wasn't hard to find, he was speaking with another Master near the front of the temple. Padawan Callef's bag in hand, Tarys approached him,
"Master Quilb? I'm Tarys and I need your help for my Initiate Trial, could have a bit of your time please?"
The Cathar turned to him before bidding the other master goodbye and talking to him, "Of course, what can I do for you?"
"Well, I heard you can use psychometry and I was hoping you could use on this bag, it belongs to a missing Padawan and I need to find him for my Trial," he said, holding the bag out to the master.
"I see… I have to tell you, I can't use it whenever I please, the Force usually guides me to an object and then shows me the echoes associated with it. I would be happy to try, however," the master replied, taking the Padawan's bag from Tarys and closing his eyes.
A moment passed, then another and another, Tarys began to wonder if it was working at all but then the Jedi Master suddenly began stumbling and lost his footing.
"Master!" Tarys tried to give Master Quilb support before he fell.
In that instant where he touched the senior Jedi a rush of emotions attacked him. Hate. Anger. A desire for revenge. It felt so cold, colder than Ilum ever could have been. He saw an image of what looked like a Jedi Temple burning, Jedi Masters, Knights, Padawans and even Initiates lay dead at his feet. He could hear screaming as Jedi were killed and cut down around him and the humming and buzzing of lightsabers, red, blue and green as they clashed over control of the Temple.
He couldn't breathe, he tried to but he just couldn't, his lungs felt like they were shut. So much death and pain around him. Tarys remembered this.
Coruscant.
He felt himself falling, it didn't matter, so many of his friends and teachers dead, all cut down by them. He felt the cold in his fingertips, blood flowing away from the edges of his body, retreating from his limbs. He tried to open his eyes and saw a spotted cat-like face, orange slitted eyes. Whose? He was so tired, keeping his eyes closed was easier.
Tarys forced his eyes open, he was in the medbay, what happened? Sitting next to him were Masters Orgus and Quilb, both with solemn looks on their faces.
Master Orgus was the first to speak, "Tarys, how do you feel?"
"Cold, tired, I don't know, weird, I guess," was the best he could offer.
"Good, at least it wasn't worse," responded Master Quilb, "Initiate, what do you remember?"
It was foggy, but Tarys tried his best to recount the images he saw and more importantly what he felt seeing them. They weren't his memories, he was never in the thick of it, he and the younger Initiates were evacuated early on into the attack. So whose memories could he have seen?
"You saw what I saw, Padawan Callef's memories, at least the ones he thought about most prominently, those would be the ones that the Force would show. The Force showed you too when you touched me. You brushed the dark side," Master Quilb said with all the seriousness in the world.
"Does that mean that-"
"Yes. It's most likely that Padawan Callef has fallen to the dark side," Master Orgus preempted Tarys's question, not even allowing him to say the words. "Consider your Trial complete Tarys. I have to commend your ingenuity in asking Master Quilb to use his psychometry… even if the result was a terrible one."
"Indeed, this matter is far too sensitive for an Initiate so we'll call the case closed, for now, the Temple doesn't have the resources to hunt down a fallen Padawan so we'll have to leave it be for now but you did well regardless. Rest and recover, I'll make sure to tell your clan instructor of your performance," Master Quilb finished.
"We suspected he leaned toward the dark but I could never have imagined that he'd fall. All that hate and anger in a teenager, it isn't right," reflected Master Orgus, "Anyhow, follow Master Quilb's advice. I look forward to working with you in the future, Jedi Tarys," Master Orgus threw a sincere smile at him.
Tarys couldn't help but smile himself, Master Orgus just called him 'Jedi Tarys', maybe this Trial wasn't so horrible after all. Then he thought about what he saw. That was the dark side. It was terrible but he could feel it, the Force was still there, it was strengthening those emotions, that anger, it fed on it and gave him strength in return. Even if it was only someone's memory from long ago, it felt so real, like if he got angrier he'd get more power. The thought scared him, he knew anger and fear were wrong for a Jedi to feel - they led to the dark side - but thinking about the dark side led to that fear. It was a strange, cruel cycle.
He closed his eyes and breathed. Thankfully he was the only one in this room so there was no noise or distraction. Maybe some empty meditation would help. The Force is with me. He reminded himself of the presence of the Force, immersed himself in it, he was one with it, part of it. He tried to flow with the Force and let the Force flow through him and wash out those feelings, that cold.
There is no emotion, there is peace.
There is no passion, there is serenity.
The two tenets of the Code echoed in his mind until he felt nothing. Until the storm of emotion inside him weakened into a calm and serene sea. Then, a satisfied smile formed on his face. He had completed all three of his Initiate Trials, no matter how troubling the last one was. Now he could focus on training for the tournament in two weeks. And then, he was going to be a Padawan and he'd get to build his very own lightsabers. For the moment, however, he decided to obey the Jedi Masters and closed his eyes until he drifted off, casting aside any lingering fatigue he had.
The First Day of the Jedi Temple Apprentice Tournament
This was it, he'd been training almost non-stop since the end of his Trials for this, this was when Tarys would show to all the Knights and Master what he was made of. All thirty-two potential Padawan were gathered into the arena in the Temple. It was surprisingly big. A large circular duelling area was surrounded by stands and seats for people to sit on, there were going to be a lot of spectators.
No pressure.
It looked like other Initiates were allowed in too, he noticed his friend Jodal standing at the edge looking like some sort of proud father, the idiot. He was glad to have him there though, his support meant the world to Tarys.
In the past two weeks ever since the full roster of participants had been announced he'd try to talk to each person at least a little and in all honesty, they had him worried. These were the thirty-one best Initiates out of about four hundred who recently completed their Trials and were ready to advance to being Padawan. He was lucky to be among them. Of course, Ishra was there too, at this point the term "best Initiate" and the name "Ishra Datharr" were almost interchangeable. Thankfully, these were highly standardised one-on-one duels with a single training saber, so there was only so much variation they could have prepared for.
He had made sure to spend ample time in the library, learning the ins and outs of each of the seven forms and even then he highly doubted anyone their age would have even the faintest idea of how to use the seventh, Juyo. It was said to require a level of focus that was present in only skilled Jedi Masters so for Initiates to attempt it… no, that was a possibility Tarys could afford to discount.
As Initiates, they'd all been taught Form I (Shii-Cho) extensively and were recommended to use it since it was the least taxing to follow but there was no doubt in his mind that every one of the participants in this tournament had done something to set themselves out, unfortunately for Tarys the thing he did was useless unless he was able to secure an additional saber from somewhere and even then, that wasn't allowed by the rules of the match. However, he had been training a fair bit in the use of Form IV to help with his Jar'Kai so hopefully, that would give him enough of an edge.
"Initiates, today will be the first day of the Jedi Temple Apprentice Tournament. The rules are as follows…" The Jedi Master went on to explain rules that Tarys had read and reread a dozen times and instead, he continued going over different stances and techniques in his mind and he played out different scenarios and how he would react to different attacks.
The first round was between a Twi'lek Initiate and a Miraluka, Zor Nogu and Vatian Corrin if Tarys's memory served correctly. As he expected, they both adopted the opening Shii-Cho stance and began circling each other, each sizing the other up. The slowly advanced towards each other until Zor lifted his blue training saber over his head in an apparent Form IV attack but then jerked it to his left as a feint. However, Vatian seemed to anticipate the attack, ignoring the false assault completely and ducking to his right until he was directly under the Twi'lek's blade. Before his opponent could react, he slashed at Zor's leg causing the first burn of the match.
That was quick. Vatian was probably one to watch out for, anyone else would have been taken by the feint, it probably helped that as a Miraluka he was proficient in Force Sight and could probably sense what his opponent was about to do better than any of the others could. The remainder of the match was surprisingly even, Tarys thought that after the early lead Vatian would claim victory quickly but Zor put up quite the fight, only narrowly losing after inflicting two burns on his enemy.
Three burns and I'm out.
Three is all it took. In reality, one is often all it took, so three was quite merciful on the part of the Order. Within ten minutes of cautiously avoiding each other, thirty-two became thirty-one. And so it would continue until thirty-one became eight and then, the free-for-all.
The fifth match was Ishra's and her opponent was oddly enough one of their group mates from the Gathering, the one from Bear. He was cool, at least after Tarys got to know him a bit once they all stopped arguing over whose clan was the best. This match was much faster than the rest, but even Tarys was surprised just how much Ishra seemed to outclass her opponent. Ariluc Farrus was Arkanian, it was clear from his pure white eyes and hair, not to mention the fact he had four fingers.
But this match was really strange, it almost looked like Ishra was toying with Ariluc, all her movements were so confident and fluid, he hadn't seen anything like it from her before and they'd sparred often enough for him to know her inside out, or so he thought. And at one point it looked like Ariluc lost the will to fight like he'd given up. Tarys didn't think he was that sort of guy. Ishra struck her three burns and walked away unscathed.
The twelfth match was the one where Tarys was finally called to the duelling area to fight. From the floor of the arena Tarys could finally see everyone in the stands, he took a quick scan around and found Jodal and gave him a quick wave, then the seat where Ishra had settled after her victory. Then, he found the one he was looking for. Master Satele Shan sat at one of the highest tiers of the bleachers and gazed down at the arena, he gave her a resolute nod and he knew she saw it. He wanted her to watch him carefully.
His opponent was a Togruta girl, Nelda Taas; he didn't know much about her, she was one of the ones he didn't get to speak to and had only just found out her name. They both drew their sabers and ignited them, each revealing a blue hue that lit their face. Nelda adopted a different stance from most of the ones he'd seen so far, Form V, Djem So specifically. No one used that yet, it had mostly been a mix of Forms I and II so far no one else properly used Form IV yet.
Tarys spun his blade around at his side and adopted a simple Form I opening stance, he'd need the element of surprise in this fight.
"Theatrics like spinning your saber around won't help you Tarys," Nelda mocked playfully.
"Come on, who doesn't love theatrics at the start of a fight?" He might as well play along, if she underestimated him, all the better. Also, he fully believed in fun flourishes when he could pull them off, which wasn't often, sadly.
"Most Jedi," she laughed.
"That's fair."
Then it began, the two circled each other and fixed a gaze on the other's eyes, trying to remain aware of where their opponent's saber was at all times. All the other duels had begun like this, it was up to Tarys to make sure he ended up on the winning side of this one.
Form V was a defensive discipline so she was probably going to wait for Tarys to make the first attack and then use his energy against him. Thankfully this was already better than Ishra's match, she'd already gotten one burn in by this time.
Time to test the waters.
Making sure to preserve the Form I stance to a precise level, he started making cautioned strikes at the Togruta who, true to form, parried and immediately countered taking Tarys almost by surprise more than once. Then the duel began in earnest, Tarys used the normal Form I katas he'd been taught to try and land a strike on her before he tried anything drastic and what followed was a series of parries by both of them until Nelda was able to burn Tarys's thigh.
Thankfully her successful attack left her overconfident. Tarys held out his left hand and called the Force, push. In response, Nelda flew backwards and only caught her footing a second before she would've toppled. That gave Tarys enough of an opening to drop the false pretence and adopt Form IV, it was the best for him. After all, Tarys was fast enough to give a Squall a run for their money. He ran as fast as he could, aided by the Force and leapt over Nelda, well clear of her saber and landed behind her. By the time she turned around, it was too late, Tarys was able to tap the tip of his saber into her side, evening the score.
His form, Ataru, was the perfect match for Djem So, where she was poised to defend, Tarys began attacking relentlessly, only stopping to take a breath, Nelda was able to block and parry most of his attacks however and was able to counterattack in return, something Tarys didn't appreciate. He broke off for a few seconds to catch his breath and it returned to the stalemate it started with.
His thoughts were interrupted when his body started moving on its own towards his opponent, she was pulling him. Thankfully he'd put a good bit of distance between them, letting him think about what to do. If he could land even one foot on the ground he could try to jump out of her path, going flying to the wall seemed like a better alternative than into a lightsaber after all.
Tarys closed his eyes and focused on the Force, of course, he could feel it pushing him toward Nelda but he tried to push himself downwards too, just enough to put a foot on the ground properly. He strained to do so, Nelda was skilled in using the Force, but he managed to enact his plan. In the split second he had his foot down, he concentrated the Force the sole of his shoe and jumped out of the way and into a wall like he thought he would. That was the trade-off of a lopsided jump - looking like a fool. He threw a glance towards the bleachers and to his relief found that only some of the younger Initiates were snickering at his impact, with everyone else (and most importantly, Master Satele) seeming to understand the necessity of what he just did.
That look around bought Nelda a precious second however, and she moved to attack and Tarys barely had the time block her assault. Maybe some light theatrics would distract her, the emphasis would have to be on light because this was as much of a gamble as anything and if it failed then that was it for him.
After pushing her away following her attack he raised his saber as far above his head as he could and swung down, almost fully committing to the attack and as he expected Nelda did the only thing she did the whole match, moved to block. Perfect. Just before the lightsaber made contact Tarys turned it off. He would be lying if he said Nelda's stunned look wasn't satisfying.
Once the hilt of his blade passed her saber Tarys turned his own on again and landed a hit on the Togruta's shoulder, making the score two to one in Tarys's favour. The move drew murmurs from the crowd as well for some reason, surely this wasn't the first time someone did this, it was obvious in hindsight how helpful turning off a saber mid-battle was.
Then he felt another burn on his back. What the? Tarys left himself open and Nelda took the opportunity to simply lower her saber down slightly to stroke his back. All the Initiates had been burned by training sabers enough that it didn't hurt that much anymore, it didn't hurt that much to begin with, seeing as the burns weren't even severe enough to scar.
Tarys kicked her away as quickly as he could to build some distance. This was dangerous now, they were both two burns on the other, whoever got the next hit won.
So far Nelda had stuck to Form V and had barely been on the offence until she just dropped that stance and adopted Form II, she was desperate, just as he was. Tarys focused on blocking her attacks, he needed to formulate a plan before doing anything. He let one hand go of the saber and just blocked her attacks, walking backwards and leading the two of them in a circle around the arena. He needed to do something, and fast. Then, Tarys realised it: he didn't need to do anything. He had the upper hand. He was used to making endless assaults and the physical strain of Ataru-style barrages but she was a Djem So practitioner, this was outside her comfort zone. He could turn this into a war of attrition - one he'd win.
He kept carefully blocking her every attack, never daring to overstep his bounds by trying to counterattack, he simply waited until she broke away to catch her breath like he did at the start of the match. He was tired as well so he only really had the one chance to make this work. If he could get behind her then this would be over. Running towards her he called the Force to allow him to sidestep around her fast enough so she couldn't react and it complied, planting his right foot down and pivoting around it, Tarys was able to spin around his opponent and land the final strike on her back, finally winning their duel.
"And some theatrics at the end of the fight too, why not."
"Don't gloat, it doesn't suit a Jedi. You won though, so well done, I guess," Nelda rolled her eyes.
That he did and she gave him a good fight for it too. He held out his had to shake hers and hoped that the next round wouldn't be held today as well. He was tired enough as it was.
His prayers came true when it was announced after the sixteenth and final match that the second round would be held three days from now so that the participants could recover and perform at their best, they were told that the free for all round would be held another three days after that, again to allow time for recovery.
No one was seriously injured; it was mainly just a case of getting rest after exerting themselves so hard and the burns would heal quickly after a day in the medbay.
He wanted to talk to Ishra, how the hell was she so good? But that question would have to wait because for the moment he was going to go straight to bed, he'd earned it. Before his dreams of sleep could be realised Jodal caught him and walked with him to their dorms before he had to go to his evening meditation session.
"You did great Tarys, I can't believe you just turned your saber off like that though! It was genius," Jodal beamed at him, his grin always lifted Tarys's spirits.
"I got hit right after though," Tarys laughed.
"Yeah, but the idea was gold."
"I'm glad you think so, you'll probably be in my position next year, right?" Tarys wondered when his friend was going to go for Padawan.
"Here's hoping, I haven't done my Gathering yet so I've still got a bit of time. Hopefully, I'll do alright in next year's tournament and get myself a master."
"You'll do great, just don't do what I did and try dumb complicated moves and then get hit," he advised.
"Got it, I'll just do smart complicated moves and not get hit," Jodal pretended to jot something down on an imaginary notepad.
The two kept chatting until they got to the door to Tarys's dorm and they parted ways. He put his training saber down and just laid on the bed, he'd have to meditate soon too so there was no use in trying to sleep.
The Day of the Free-for-all round
Tarys performed well in his second duel, he won much more easily than against Nelda since his opponent was needlessly reckless and at one point even tried to turn his lightsaber off like Tarys himself did. In that regard, the student did not become the master, not that Tarys was much of a master to begin with.
This time they weren't in the arena, they were outside in the sun, still on a roughly circular stage but this time there weren't as many bleachers set up, so more people from across the Temple would be able to see what was going on without being obstructed by the large structures. Tarys remembered watching the previous few tournaments, trying and failing to sneak a peek during meditation and then getting scolded.
This time the battlemaster himself, Master Jun Seros announced the event:
"Initiates, the rules are the same as the previous rounds, if you are burned three times during this match, no matter who the burns are from, then you are out and should exit the stage as soon as you can as not to impede your fellows."
Tarys had been training another ace in the hole and did almost nothing but that over the past six days while he was excused from his lessons. About a year prior, Tarys discovered he could "blink", that was what he called his instant short-range teleportation. No one knew about it but once when he was training he accidentally teleported behind a dummy after what was a productive meditation session. He found that he could reliably blink anywhere within about four feet of him—anything beyond that and it just didn't work.
He read about it in the library after the fact and teleportation itself was an ability open to anyone who had the patience to train it but for it to be latent in a youngling seemed like it was very uncommon. Since then he'd only told Master Satele who encouraged him to keep training it, and of course, not to let it disrupt his regular studies.
He hoped that his efforts in keeping his ability secret would pay off today. Jedi weren't meant to deceive but withholding an ability from an opponent for an advantage was just good sense right?
The Initiate steeled himself for combat. Then he heard the word.
"Begin!"