Chapter Title: I Think Therefore I
Chapter Summary: The Jedi is not unimpressive.
For the fan_flashworks prompt stages. Am I getting a little Cal/Merrin shippy? Perhaps. They're a fun dynamic. I have read the Courtship of Princess Leia. And Cal was doing some nice double flips...
With Malicos gone, with the Astrium retrieved from the Temple, her path leads Merrin away from Dathomir. Away from the village, and crags, and tomb. To the stars. With the Jedi.
Merrin had been young when her sisters were slaughtered, not blind. And if she were ignorant, her face would remain bare.
She knows how these things work. Her mother had planned on another, before. A small sister to dote on, with Merrin grown independent near adulthood. Not that Merrin was ever able to, after - Malicos is - was, no matter how long he clings to existence in the dark - an outsider. A scavanger, seeking their secrets. And the nightbrothers - she cannot be the nightmother. Merrin was old enough for tattoos, but that is - that is not nearly enough - she can't - her - no.
No. She is the last nightsister.
The Jedi - he is ... different. Not like Malicos. A survivor. Like her.
And he is showing off. For her.
He is jumping across the gaps in the path she has raised, rising high and fast, limbs tucked tight. She doesn't mind. None of the nightbrothers can reach such a height, or keep such pinpoint control. And it is not a display - he does this, too, as he makes his way up cliffs and between ledges. Not with so many flips, though. Those are for her.
Makes clean work of the nydak too. He had fought well, before, but that was survival, Jedi blade against Jedi blade. He has breath to complain, here. The amusement it brings is a bright thing.
