Qui-Gon noted with interest as they were heading for Naboo the fact that Semele was staring out into space, fingers on the glass. "Are you alright?"
She turned to him, an eye opening on the wall behind her to look at him. "It's a little lonely being the only jade blood to wield Light for an aspect. Both my older sister and my Dancestor wielded space. I should be able to feel all this right now. I cannot. I imagine if ever a troll were to be force sensitive, it would be someone who used space."
"You wear the blindfold because light is harmful to your race, right?" Obi-Wan was just so curious.
Semele chuckled a little. "It's something of a cruel twist in my opinion. Jade bloods such as myself love the sunlight. We are the only ones who can go about freely in it. My god tier however basically ensures that what even another troll could withstand would likely completely blind me. I see so much. Know so much, but I suppose the trade off is that my eyes are incredibly vulnerable."
"How does one obtain such power?" Quin-Gon spoke a lot more quietly than his padawan.
Semele heaved a sigh, considering how to word this. "There are a couple ways. None are very pleasant." Seeing that Obi-Wan was hanging on each word, she pushed forward. "Well, there's the lonely way. You live long enough that you just get that good at using your aspect. This is lonely because my race has...had a habit of dying off early in their teenage years. Those of us left today are probably some of the oldest ever."
Obi-Wan's face showed a good deal of concern. "But the group you're with...aren't you all only about...twenty?"
Semele sighed. "Yea. Young adults to most races. But...time was different on Alternia. By our standards we're only about nine of your years. Which I understand makes us children by most laws. Luckily the Alternian Culture laws passed and I am able to keep calling myself an adult."
"You said there were a couple ways. What of the others?" This was Qui-Gon.
Semele tried a broken smile. "Well, you die. But you have to be lucky and die in a very special bed that only you and the creatures you share an infinity even know the location of. This is what happened to me. I died, but I was lucky enough that the dove creatures populating my special place saw it and dragged me to the bed before I could fully depart. Then I awoke as this. A demi-god who quite honestly wants nothing of her powers." She chuckled, to the Jedi's horror. "It's lucky I woke up still just a troll. For a jade blood, dying can mean the start of an unfortunate bloodline curse."
"For coming from a culture seemingly built around death, you're rather well adjusted."
Semele glanced at Qui-Gon with her painted eye. "Well, death isn't always so permanent for us. Or it wasn't. It used to be that if you died and your death wasn't ruled just or heroic, you just came back. So, getting murdered in cold blood was little more than a weekly annoyance."
"Have you ever talked to anyone about this?"
Semele shook her head. "No, no. To show weakness on Alternia was to ask for...well attention. Even for jade bloods in the middle of the hemospectrum like myself... Attention from those above you was never a good thing."
She shook her head. "Enough of the doom and gloom. Space is beautiful. And I must admit curiosity. One of the Jedi who visits me sometimes told me of the types of creatures out here in the vacuum. Like star weirds." Both Jedi Semele was with shuddered.
She turned her head to Obi-Wan, pulling out a game board from her skirts. "Shall we play a game of wits to pass the time, young padawan?"
X
Semele groaned, tossing and turning uneasily on the bed she had been offered up. She tried telling the Jedi sleep would not come easily and if it did, wouldn't be much good. But they had still insisted the lady take the bed. Now, in the throes of a nightmare, she sweated her blue-green jade blood into the sheets, panting and whimpering. Semele wasn't adrift among the stars, but rather on a battlefield littered with black and white bodies of Derse and Prospit folks alike. There were a couple tros too. She frantically flipped through these, trying to see and know if there was anything to be done for each dying friend.
She flipped a spluttering Sollux onto his back so he could gaze up at the sky with his blind eyes. Red and blue blood ran from the corners of his mouth, oddly not mixing. She focused, knowing all there was to know of him. "I'm sorry Sol." There were jade tears in her eyes. "You're dying and it was heroic. You will not be back from this. Is there anything I can do to ease your passing?"
Choking on his blood, blinded, and in agony, Sollux struggled to speak even now in his final moments. "Aradia...did she...did she get away?" Semele didn't need to know or cast her gaze elsewhere to comprehend that Aradia Megido was currently fighting off Bec Noir on her own, holding him back so that the human girl Jade Harley could tap into her space aspect and get them all somewhere that wasn't here and would never be close enough to here for Bec to follow and resume his slaughter.
"She's alive." Semele finally settled, trying not to show her own fear. "I will stay with you until-" Sollux stopped breathing and dropped limp, his last question answered. Semele stood and moved on, to the next body. It was...oh no. She had hoped against hope...had purposefully not Known...She dropped to her knees in the jade puddle surrounding her older sister. "Kanaya!" She was hushed, gently.
"I'm not the only one dying. We must try to be quiet. To give peace to others." She was grim, her face pulled gaunt in pain, and still upheld by her rigid politeness and propriety. They touched foreheads. "I love you, Semele. Please, be careful. Don' let your morail drag you down. You have to promise me you'll take him out if you need to. He's dangerous."
Semele, choking back more tears was shaking her head. "Forget Gamzee. Forget the two he killed. Let's just hold each other close, sister." So they pressed their foreheads back together and held it that way, and this was how death found Kanaya. Her face soaked in Semele's tears and a somber, semi-peaceful smile plastered on her war-torn face.
X
Qui-Gon was watching Obi-Wan as he drifted in and out of sleep, trying not to intrude on the feeling of rising panic in the back of the ship. He didn't want to pry, but it was clear to him and many of the older Jedi at the temple that Semele, or the Mage of Light as she called herself; had tons of repressed trauma that needed working through. It was one reason her requests to work with Jedi or observe them were never usually turned down. She had not asked for help, but it would be there when she finally did.
As if summoned, the woman stood in the doorway to the tiny back room. "I can't sleep." She said and Qui-Gon smiled.
"Would you care to meditate with me? I'm told you engage in the practice yourself. I find it helps clear the scary things and separate fact from dreaming mind."
She gave him a hollow smile. "Sure. Anything is better than..." She sat, folding herself into a comfortable arrangement. Qui-Gon descended to the floor after flipping a few switches and followed suit.
