"Astraia?" He called out to her, laying on his bed. His now cut Padawan braid sat on the desk next to him. He was a full Jedi Knight. For some reason the first person he wanted to tell was her, he just wanted to talk to her more than anything - and he'd finally gotten a good enough excuse.

Besides, Jodal and Ishra would find out soon enough.

"Hello there. You know I was just hoping a Padawan on the other side of the galaxy was going to contact me," she said in reply.

"Come on, you don't have to be that sarcastic," he was a little hurt in truth, maybe this was a bad idea. He didn't want to bother her.

"I'm joking, you twit. You'd think that since we're Force bonded we'd talk more but here I am, speaking to you for the first time in over a week." She seemed to lower her mental shields enough to convey her very real frustration.

"So you're saying you want to talk to me more?" The very idea that Astraia actually wanted to speak to him, rather than just putting up with him, made Tarys unexpectedly happy.

"I'm saying I wouldn't mind it. Don't get ahead of yourself." And there it was. His hopes - dashed.

"Anyway… I just sort of wanted to tell you something. I don't know… just share something that happened recently. That okay?"

"Of course. I vented to you before, didn't I?"

"Well… I was Knighted this morning."

"That's big. Does that mean I can't call you my 'dashing Padawan' anymore?" she mocked as she always did.

Tarys flushed red, "If you were here in front of me I'd throw something at you."

"If I was there in front of you I'd throw it back."

"Then we'd play catch." He said, feigning childlike excitement.

She laughed. Tarys wondered why it was so important to him that she did. Having a joke land always felt great, being the reason for someone's laughter was definitely up there with the best things in life but this was different - her laughter was like music to him.

"Okay, but seriously, congratulations. I'm happy for you." She paused. "This is nice, you know."

"What is?"

"Just having someone to talk to. Hearing good news is always nice, especially when you lead a life like mine," she sighed. "This whole force bond… I don't hate it."

"What's wrong? What happened?" A declaration like that didn't come from nowhere, he could tell even without their Bond that she was upset.

Astraia took a deep breath. "Remember I told you my master ordered me to kill a Darth?"

"Oh."

"And this dashade that's been following me… It's all I can do not to scream sometimes. Between all of that and having to sleep with one eye open…" She trailed off. "No. I'm sorry, you wanted to talk to me to give me your good news and now I'm ruining it."

"No, don't say that," Tarys replied. "I get it. I'd want to tell someone about it all too. I don't have to be the one to reach out you know. Especially since I'm a Knight now - I'll have more time to myself. Whenever you want to talk, I'm here. Well, interstellar time zones notwithstanding."

"I appreciate that. I might take you up on it. Might wake you up in the middle of the night too, why not."

"Please do, except for that last part. I like sleep, thanks. And for the record, I don't hate this either," Tarys gulped, he knew he was going to kick himself for what he was going to say. "I do sort of wish we could see each other though. Talking is great and all, but-"

"Eye contact is better. I understand what you mean. Do you think we can send each other images again? Like at the start?"

Tarys felt a rush of embarrassment and relief. He thanked the Force with all his being that Astraia didn't find his suggestion weird or creepy or the million other things he feared she would think.

"We can try, besides we might as well learn what we can do with the Bond right?" Tarys posed.

"Right."

"Is it working?"

"Not that I can tell."

"Well." Astraia gave a final sigh of resignation.

"At least we can see colours now." Tarys offered her.

"A skill masters of the Force would envy. I don't get it. I could see Tython clearly right after we met and now the most we can show each other is solid colours?"

"Come on, don't be like that. We'll get there."

"We've been at this for hours and this is all we have to show for it. I'm going to go mad if we try any more, let's pick it up some other time."

"How about tomorrow?" Tarys suggested.

"Only if you aren't busy being the most honourable of Knights." Apparently, even a promotion wasn't going to stop her from teasing him.

"Why do you have to do this?" He laughed. "I just got Knighted and you mock it."

"You know I don't mean it." She sounded apologetic. "I'm glad you've been Knighted, it gives me an idea actually… Nevermind. I'll speak to you tomorrow to practise colours." The Sith apprentice's voice contained nothing but annoyance when she mentioned practice.

"What's the idea?" Tarys asked.

"Don't worry about it. I just need to focus on getting more powerful."

"Woah, you need to slow down. You turned the topic of the conversation on its head. What is this idea and why does it need you to be more powerful?" Tarys was deeply confused.

"I'll tell you when I am. Don't worry, it doesn't involve the death of innocents or anything, just exercise your Jedi patience until then, okay?"

He suddenly felt her mental shields rise in an instant, he could feel being cut off from her - it was like a door slammed in his face. Weird. She sounded so distant right at the end there, like she was restraining herself and her emotions or something. Sith. Restraint. Astraia was beyond an enigma. Although that was a fact he had come to accept and one he'd come to appreciate. He looked forward to tomorrow - a wide grin formed on his face as he realised he was going to talk to her every day going forward. To say he felt good was an understatement.

Tarys finally left his room. It had been a long time since he'd returned from his Knighting ceremony but that was so early in the day that most of the Temple was only now starting their daily activities, after breakfast and morning meditation. First, he needed to have his hair looked at. The cutting of the braid was highly symbolic of a Padawan's ascension to Knighthood and Tarys wouldn't have exchanged the pride he felt at that moment for anything, but he couldn't deny that it left his hair rather messy afterwards - what with the burnt ends and all.

Most Jedi that lived on Tython sported fairly basic hair and that was mainly due to the fact it was a planet almost wholly inhabited by Jedi. As it happened, his order wasn't famous for hairdressing. Thank the Force for droids, Tarys thought as he sat down in a chair with a protocol droid ready to fix his hair. He didn't like to admit it, but the style the Order forced on its apprentices (at least on him) was decidedly not flattering. As the droid worked on turning his hair into something less reminiscent of a birds' nest, he received an alert on his holo from Master Satele: she was instructing him to meet her and the rest of the Council in an hour's time.

It would be his first meeting with the Council as a full Jedi. The idea still seemed wrong to him. To think that he was a Jedi Knight was more than strange.

A few minutes of idle sitting later, the droid announced that Tarys was free to go - having bestowed him with a neat quiff that he thought framed his face quite well. Either way, it was far better than having uneven lengths and burnt ends on his head.

Satisfied, Tarys made his way to the Council chambers. Maybe he would receive his first mission? By the time he made it there, he still had twenty minutes to kill before he was told to actually go in and it wouldn't do to barge in on whatever the Council was doing before that time so Tarys sat in front of the door and closed his eyes, maybe he would do some quick meditation.

"Nice haircut. I'm guessing you were Knighted too? And you were called here to meet the Council?" It was Ishra's voice.

"My haircut is nice, I was Knighted and I was called here to meet the Council. Three out of three, well done, Datharr," Tarys joked.

"Of course I score full marks, when don't I?" She replied, taking a seat next to him.

"I don't like that the answer to that question is never," Tarys said, exaggerating a pout.

"You don't get to say that when we almost always tied for first in the class, Tarys," she laughed.

He could only nod in acknowledgement, she had him there. "Hey, at least Dragon Clan always ranked first because of us."

"As it should. Anything less would be a crime," she agreed. "What do you think they want us for? A mission?"

"Yeah, I think so. I have a feeling we'll be heading to Coruscant," he said with a deep breath. With what Master Kiwiiks said, it only made sense.

"Coruscant…"

The memory was a painful one for them both, as they were both in the Temple when the Sith attacked the Temple a decade earlier. They both sat in silence as Ishra no doubt considered what it would be like to set foot on the Republic's capital after so long, just as Tarys did. It was difficult not to remember the screaming and shouting and rumbling as the grand structure was destroyed, taking their homes with it.

That single event had taken so many lives.

"Do you remember Aryn?" Ishra asked, turning to face him.

"Leneer? Yeah, why?"

"I was just thinking about her. She's still out there somewhere. She has to be. She wasn't there on Coruscant."

Aryn Leneer was a friend of Master Satele's and as young children were wont to do, he and Ishra practically attached themselves to them whenever they were on Coruscant - the stories the pair had to tell were incredible. He remembered receiving hearing the rumours a few weeks after relocating to Tython. Master Ven Zallow's former Padawan had left the Order. No one knew why - none of the Initiates, that is to say.

Ishra was inconsolable. It hurt to remember the weeks following the attack on Coruscant almost more than the attack itself. They had to leave their homes behind and find a way to live on a new planet that was only just starting to be inhabited after millennia of abandonment. They grieved their lost friends and mentors. Between all of that and the news that they would never see Aryn again, Ishra had a difficult time coping. They both did.

"She's out there," he agreed. "Who knows, maybe we'll see her again."

"I hope so."

Hearing about her after so long was certainly a surprise and Tarys felt more than a twinge of guilt when it dawned on him he hadn't given her a single thought in years. She deserved more than that. Between her and Master Satele, Aryn was the fun one after all.

Before either of them realised it, it was time to meet the Council for the first time as Jedi Knights.

The doors to the chambers seemed even taller than they usually were. It was as if they were about to step into a new life entirely, even if both of them had seen the room behind the two doors countless times before.

Inside, they were met by a congregation of all High Councillors on the planet and they all stood to greet them - something neither had seen before. It was a great honour to have the Jedi High Council stand just because you entered the room and that clearly wasn't lost on Ishra either as he saw her similarly dumbfounded reaction out of the corner of his eye.

"Come in, Jedi," Master Satele said, ushering them to come closer to the table.

Tarys smiled; he knew his master well enough to know she was making a point of emphasising their new ranks - it was her way of congratulating them again.

"Congratulations to you both once again on your promotions. They are well deserved and you are both exceptional examples of what younglings should aspire to be," his master continued with a smile on her face.

Tarys' heart stopped for a moment and his eyes grew wide. That was far more praise than he expected or deserved and to hear it coming from the mouth of Satele Shan was nothing short of amazing. Master Yuon Par joined her in reiterating the gravity of the pair's accomplishments, stressing the importance of the fact that they had both undertaken journeys that secured the entire order's safety against great threats that may have shaken the Jedi to their core had they failed.

Before the heap of acclaim had a chance to set in, Master Yuon collapsed to the floor. Everyone rushed to her side, what could have happened? He heard Ishra mutter a curse under her breath, did she know something? Master Syo Bakarn, one of the other Masters in attendance, kneeled next to her.

"Yuon? Can you hear me?" He called out to her.

He received no answer. After confirming a pulse, Master Syo saw to it that she was taken to the medical bay and left.

He came back some twenty excruciating minutes later.

"She's resting comfortably now," he announced, letting the room release the breath of apprehension they all held until then. "The healers confirmed it: she's suffering from some sort of illness and it seems your Trandoshan companion knew about it."

Ishra's expression betrayed her surprise, "Qyzen?"

Master Syo nodded in the affirmative. "He said she tried to heal it but made no progress herself - and that she wanted to train one last student."

He knew his closest friends well enough to know that Ishra was struggling to keep it together, despite the strong facade she wore at that moment, and he couldn't blame her in the slightest.

"I was her last student? She… she didn't say anything about that. We have to help her. There must be something we can do, right?" Ishra almost pleaded.

"We're going to send her to Coruscant, our researchers there are constantly rediscovering knowledge from the ruins of the old Temple, perhaps they will find something that can help. I suggest you follow, it's likely she'll need your help," Master Syo informed.

"Sending the two of you to Coruscant is now more than ever the obvious course of action," Master Satele said. "Originally we were going to ask both of you to help Master Kiwiiks in tracking down the Dark Side presence but it seems that duty falls onto you, Tarys. Ishra, it's best if you get to the bottom of Master Yuon's affliction."

Tarys would have enjoyed the opportunity to work with Ishra as Knights but of course, Master Satele's decision was a smart one, it was best to pursue both problems at the same time - especially since it was impossible to tell what Master Yuon's illness actually was, and for it to be so sudden and incurable was suspicious enough to warrant investigation.

"This meeting is adjourned. Ishra, you should prepare to leave as soon as possible. Tarys, hang back for a minute, please," Master Satele finished.

As soon as she said that everyone in the room began to shuffle out of the chambers, leaving Tarys and his master alone - had he done something wrong?

The smile on Master Satele's face said otherwise.

"I wish I could give this to you under less sombre circumstances but Master Yuon's illness doesn't change the fact that today is the day my Padawan became a Knight," she began, retrieving a small brown box from the Council's table in front of her seat. "I know you have your doubts about whether you deserve Knighthood-"

Tarys opened his mouth to reply but his master cut him off. "And you do deserve it, no matter what you think. I wanted to tell you what a fine young man you've become. I couldn't be prouder of my apprentice," she said, handing him the box.

Tarys opened it to reveal a bracelet. Blue, green and white. Just like the one he gave her almost twelve years earlier.

"You remember this?" Tarys asked, there was simply no way.

"Remember it? I still have the one you gave me," his master laughed.

"What? I thought you didn't like that, you gave me a whole speech about how it was wrong to steal," Tarys replied.

"I did that because you hadn't learned that lesson yet. The gift was no less sweet," she told him as she undid the bindings of her left bracer. Once it was free to come off, his master showed him her bare forearm, save for a bracelet he recognised immediately. "I thought one for you would make an appropriate present."

Tarys found it difficult to think of something to say… the fact his master had kept such an insignificant thing, nevermind wore it, meant so much to him. It reminded him all the more of the thoughtfulness and kindness that Satele Shan embodied - and to think that the Order at large thought she was intimidating and emotionless.

Well, Tarys could attest that she was the first of those two things but certainly not the second.

"Thank you, master," he began, trying his best to keep his emotions under control. "This… it means so much to me, thank you."

He could have thanked her another thousand times and it still wouldn't have been enough.

They spent a few seconds in comfortable silence as Tarys connected the two ends of the bracelet around his left wrist.

"I'll treasure this forever," Tarys promised his master.

"I'm glad. Though I do hope you won't wear it at all times and end up ruining it," she laughed.

Tarys pursed his lips as he cringed at the memory she reminded him of. When he was nine Master Satele had brought back a beautiful wooden training sword from Corellia and Tarys refused to part with it for even a second, he was pretty sure he slept with it next to him for at least two weeks. That led to him being too rough with it and inevitably and breaking it when he fell directly on top of it - from the top of a tree. Needless to say, Tarys was distraught and was only placated by the promise of a replacement.

No, this gift would last. He'd make sure of it.

"I'm not planning on it," he smiled.

"Good. Now go, you should get ready so you aren't late for the shuttle to Coruscant. I'll come to see you off this evening," Master Satele said.

At this point, he didn't even blame her for assuming he'd be late.

Tarys stood in the doorframe and peered into his room. This would probably be the last time he'd see it for a long time - there was no reason for a Knight to be sleeping in the Padawan section of the dorms was there?

He'd spent the last six years living in that room and turning away from it was much harder than he'd anticipated. He'd made more than a few memories in that room - granted most of them involved Jodal doing something utterly nonsensical in a way only he could. Tarys swallowed his emotions as best he could, he'd have time to reflect and meditate on his time as Padawan later when he wasn't running late.

Tarys had packed practically all of his belongings into a single small suitcase. Jedi really did have few material possessions. In fairness, all he had were three sets of the same robes, his lightsabers and a few other trinkets he'd collected over the years.

Shuttles to and from Tython were based in a relatively small spaceport that was only a twenty-minute walk from the Temple proper. Tarys wondered how it felt for Master Satele to visit; after all, the port was built on the exact spot her ship first landed when she rediscovered Tython ten years earlier. Every time she walked into the spaceport she was effectively reliving history she herself made. It was baffling to him that had he not known her personally, Tarys would've likely considered Satele Shan some sort of legendary figure whose famous adventures were so numerous that they could not all have possibly belonged to one person.

Regardless, he saw her standing in front of the shuttle, chatting with Ishra. The two turned to him as he approached the ship.

"Look who finally joins us!" Ishra said, pointing out his tardiness like it wasn't completely expected. At the very least it was good to see that she felt better, Master Yuon's condition seemed to weigh on her mind a little less. "Excited?"

"Yeah. At least I think so," Tarys replied. He was, of course, excited to be starting his first mission as a full Jedi but that also meant more or less leaving behind his life on Tython and that would certainly take some getting used to.

"Oh good, you're not the only one with mixed feelings then," She seemed to breathe a subtle sigh of relief.

"I know this is a daunting task for both of you and it isn't often that a Jedi's first mission is one of such great magnitude, mine certainly wasn't, but remember that neither I nor the rest of the Council would have given them to you if we didn't think you were up to the task. More importantly, I understand that you've spent so long on Tython that it's difficult to leave, but it'll still be here for you whenever you want to come back. If you feel that a few days away from the pressures of your mission would do you good, then take a shuttle back and rest. Both of you are in the habit of overworking yourselves and that doesn't help anyone," Master Satele reassured.

Normally, he'd have made some sort of quip about how Master Satele always found a way to sneak a lesson or some profound advice into every situation but this time he decided he'd just accept it. He needed to hear those words and he wasn't going to turn them down. He also didn't know that coming back to Tython was even an option, much less that she encouraged it if needed - it was comforting to know that should he need it, the safety net was there.

"Alright, I'm going to head on up and check on Master Yuon, don't take too long Tarys," Ishra told him.

"Sure, I'll be right there."

"Do you have everything?" Master Satele asked.

"Yes," Tarys nodded.

"Clothes?"

"Yeah."

"Toiletries?"

"Yep."

"Lightsabers?"

"Of course," Tarys almost rolled his eyes.

"I'm just making sure Tarys," Master Satele said.

"I know but you don't have to check every little thing - I'm not as young as I was when we first went on a mission," Tarys laughed. "But seriously, thank you - for everything. You've done so much for me, I don't know how I could ev-"

"It's alright," She dismissed him. "You don't need to thank me. Just go out there and make me proud.

"Don't forget to holocall when you can, okay?"

Tarys smiled. "I will."

With that, Tarys boarded the shuttle. It wasn't going to take them straight to Coruscant as the Tython spaceport didn't have ships large enough to make the trip available for public use, so instead the small vessel would take them to Carrick Station, which was a space station of gargantuan proportions that served as the primary staging area for the entirety of the Republic's fleet. From there they would take another shuttle to Coruscant and the entire trip should take them about six hours.

Tarys took a seat opposite Ishra as the craft took off and she turned to speak to him.

"Hey, you never did mention, how did you come across Master Ven's droid?" She asked.

"I'm sorry. Master whose what?"

"That little guy over there, the astromech?" Ishra pointed behind him at an all-too-familiar T7-01.

"Wait you're telling me he used to belong to Master Ven?" Tarys knew he had worked with Jedi before but there was no way he knew Ven Zallow. If he did… that meant there was a chance he knew Aryn as well.

"And you're telling me you didn't know?" Ishra scoffed. "How do you rescue a droid and somehow know nothing about it?"

"How do you know about him?" Tarys retorted.

"I had a five-minute conversation with him and Master Satele!"

"Oh." Tarys yielded. "Anyway, did you ask if he knows Aryn?"

"Of course I did."

"And?"

"He does. Well, he did." Ishra corrected herself. "Apparently they split up not long after the Treaty was signed and he doesn't know where she went. He didn't want to say what happened to her after she left the Order though."

"Maybe Aryn told him not to tell anyone?" Tarys offered.

"Maybe."

Tarys was the one to break the silence that followed. "How's Master Yuon doing?"

"I don't know… Not good, I think," Ishra confessed. "I'm worried about her. The medics at the Temple didn't have a clue about her illness. It's definitely Force-related, that much is for sure."

"You'll figure it out. If anyone can, it's you," Tarys reassured her.

"Thanks," she sighed. "I hope you're right."

The rest of the journey to Carrick Station was a short one, spent in silence or idle chatter. That was interrupted by awed gasps as a truly massive space station came into view. To think that such a large structure was artificial… was mind-boggling.

The main body of the station was a disc, from which extended a myriad of antennae and other protrusions from the top and bottom of the disc to make the whole thing look something like an upside-down spinning top. Four 'towers' grew from the very edges of the disc and looked like they could house entire cities within them; in truth, they were hangar bays, designed to support dozens if not hundreds of civilian vessels. Seeing the station never failed to impress. His friend was equally mystified by the sight of the megastructure as the docked in one of the four hangar bays.

The wonders of the station didn't end there. In stark contrast to the spaceport on Tython, Carrick Station was well staffed to the point where their arrival was as smooth as could be imagined. Their identification was confirmed while they were still on the ship, negating any need for going through customs or any such process that was common on some of the less organised planets in the galaxy, and Master Yuon was swiftly carted away by a protocol droid as Tarys and the rest of the travelling party made their way to Coruscant Departures.

There waited a Neimoidian officer who hailed them over as soon they entered his line of sight.

"Masters Jedi, you are headed to the capital, yes?" He asked.

Tarys gave him a nod of confirmation.

"Master Satele has arranged for priority transport on one of the Republic's most comfortable and most speedy ships, yes," He informed them. "Would you like to board it? It's a VIP transport. Of course, you could take the public route, safe but slower."

Tarys looked over at his friend, "Ishra? What do you think?"

"Comfort and speed sound great. Besides, Master Satele did us the favour of arranging it for us." She confirmed.

The officer led them aboard the ship and he wasn't wrong, the ship didn't lack comfort. Inviting sofas hugged the sides of a grand hall where droids patrolled the paths, searching for anyone whose wants they might fulfil. Before they could take the seats that so alluringly called to them, another uniformed officer came to speak to him and Ishra.

"Masters Jedi, it's a pleasure to have you aboard. I'm First Officer Haken, if you have any concerns or problems please let one of the staff know and I'll make sure it's resolved as quickly as possible." The man introduced himself.

"Thank you, Officer Haken," Ishra responded. "We appreciate the warm welcome."

"Of course. Once again, welcome aboard The Esseles."

So I'm gonna take a short break for a week or two because my buffer has almost run out and I don't feel comfortable posting when I'm completely pantsing the story. I promise I'm not abandoning the story or anything, it's just a break so I can write without the pressure of having to post every week.

I don't know when exactly I'll be back but hopefully by the end of the month! See you then!

Update 23/04: I'm still alive guys, I'm still working on this story, it's taken longer than usual because I wasn't satisfied with the stuff I'd written so far so I decided to go back to the drawing board a bit and do some better planning. The result is that I'm now super super excited about what's gonna happen going forward and you can all expect the next chapter relatively soon(TM).