"Jacen, would you check up on our guide, he's been out of camp for an hour now." Tenel Ka requested/Make sure he is behaving himself, my love./ she added via mindlink.
"I'm sure he's quite capable of handling himself, but okay," His reply filled with warmth and humor, he winked. /I love you,/ he added.
When Jacen arrived, Czuul was gazing across the prairie, his gaze reminding Jacen of when Anakin discovered there wasn't a Fete Elf. Jacen again winced at the memory of his brother, who gave his life that many might live. A disillusioned Yuuzhan Vong, what next? "Contemplating the stars?" Jacen asked softly, trying to discover what was indeed going on, curious but not urgently so.
"Everything I've been told is a lie." Czuul whispered to himself, so lost in thought as to be oblivious to Jacen's presence. "What then is true?"
"It's never easy to realize that ideas you've held dear aren't true." Jacen, for the first time, sympathized with a Yuuzhan Vong warrior. Ah, a fellow philosopher Jacen mused. "We must each then search for truth."
Czuul, his reverie disturbed, whirled, pearlescent pistol in hand. "Oh, it is just you. Belek tiu. You have questioned what you have held dear, as well?" He put the mother-of-pearl covered Yorik-Coral projectile weapon back in its leather holster, and turned to face the man said by many of his people to be the avatar of Yun Yammka, the Slayer.
"I have questioned everything I have been told; that which is true will bear all scrutiny. Only your own existence cannot be doubted." Jacen replied, paraphrasing a great philosopher, long dead, whom he held in high regard. "What wisdom are you seeking?"
"My people's gods are nothing more than stories created to cow my people into submission. What wisdom for this do you have, Master Jedi?" Czuul had been caught unawares by Jacen's approach, and could not respectfully back out; besides it would cost him nothing to hear what this former enemy much like himself might say. One is best appraised by one's foes Czuul reflected.
"Just because the faith you were taught was a lie, does not mean all faiths is false. I have seen many things that indicate that there might be something above even the Force. What it is, I know not, but the truth is out there. Give faith a fighting chance." Jacen explained, and decided to quote Master Kenobi, "Many of the truths we cling to are true only from a certain point of view."
"What about death, if it is not a Blessed Release as I was told, then what? Will I not be reunited with the brothers on the other side?" Czuul thought of his older brother, Vua and younger brother Hul, both killed in the invasion, Vua at Yavin under mysterious circumstances, Hul at Myrkr in a dying Jedi's last stand.
"I, too, lost a brother in the war, as well as more than one close friend. I know that the spirit endures beyond the grave, as I have been visited many times by ghosts of the dead. What it is like I do not know, as never having died, and never having asked a any of the phantoms I have seen." Jacen had winced at the word "brother." Maybe this will help me finally make peace with Anakin's sacrifice. Jacen sadly shook his head, Now I'm thinking like them.
"This is not all there is, then?" Czuul replied, his mind eased somewhat.
An hour later, Jacen walked back into camp, Valin immediately asked a spread of questions, "Why were you gone so long? Was there any trouble? What happened out there?"
Jacen replied "Our guide was having a philosophical crisis. We had a long debate."
"His ears are still there, right Jacen?" Malinza's tone overflowed with her biting sense of humor. The orphan had technically been raised by her aunt, but by her twelfth birthday, any statement regarding mentioning her name and the word "Custody" usually meant she was in minor legal trouble again. It took a Ssi-Ruuk invasion, the death of her first boyfriend, and Jaina's influence to redeem the hotheaded Bakuran.
"I am happy to report Czuul Rapuung received no additional mutilations as a result of this debate." Yun-Harla, you are in deep trouble for telling those two that I've talked people's ears off Jacen mused darkly.
"Malinza, that was cruel." Tenel Ka was not happy with Malinza for calling the love of her life a bore. "Please apologize to him, or we will be forced to take disciplinary action." She used the royal "We" deliberately, implying that the revenge, while not cruel, might be a little on the unusual end. Jaina had taught her well the value of a well-timed prank.
"Saw-ree!" Malinza practically sneered the apology.
"Insufficient." Tenel Ka's tone would be considered icy by those unfamiliar with her subtleties when emotionally shielded, to those lucky few, it positively screamed incoming prank. "You must bring us the contents of the blue box on Jacen's Suubatar."
"As you wish, milady." Malinza's tone dripped with her acidic sarcasm. She sauntered to the location the box was in and opened it, and, SPLUT a mass of shaving cream hit her in the face.