Chapter 4: T'Prelle

T'Prelle stood on the summit of Mount Seleya, staring out onto the desert as the setting sun cast shadows on the dunes. Soon, Elizara would be returning, and after a time, she and Elizara would stand here, staring out onto the desert as they had done once twenty years before. Elizara had chosen to leave Vulcan for Starfleet...and in doing so, her mind had become corrupted. Now, she was to return to Vulcan to heal her mind of the emotions that she has lost control of during her stay in Starfleet.

What had happened to the young child T'Prelle had known? The child so schooled in her emotions that not even adults could live up to her level of discipline. A child capable of attaining Kohlinar with little instruction from the Vulcan Masters. That child was returning to Vulcan, no longer a child, but still not the experienced adult she had worked to be as a child. Elizara had been so close, attaining Kohlinar, her emotions never impairing her judgment, her logic infallible...and yet now, somehow, she was suffering from an emotional affliction.

T'Prelle closed her eyes and remembered the child, the light hair that fell in childlike waves around her face. The green eyes, light and sweet, her round face stoic and calm, her mind pristine and intelligent. T'Prelle watched her grow, watched the childlike waves of hair grow into a smooth cascade of maturity. She observed as the green eyes darkened to form a deep, penetrating stare, the round face mature into a structured and perfectly chiseled image of serenity and knowledge, and her mind grow and mature as she accumulated a massive library of information in her head.

Now, T'Prelle would see how this child had matured in the twenty years since Elizara had left to begin her Starfleet career. She could only hope that Elizara's brilliant mind had not been soiled with emotion beyond her ability to purge. One day in the future, perhaps Elizara would fulfill her destiny as a Vulcan Master of the Kohlinar, if her mind could be re-schooled to the control she had had earlier in her life.

T'Prelle turned away from the desert, no longer golden in the light of the setting sun, and walked through the darkness of the Desert. Soon she would know of Elizara, it was not for her to concern herself with until her student arrived. Then, and only then, would T'Prelle be able to tell if Elizara's logic and mind were still intact, just hiding behind a superficial wall of emotion.