Chapter 11: A time of growth
When Beldorion met them, Icia was a tiny Kiffar girl, always willing to jump right into danger, and to try and lead around her clanmates. Bolb, on year younger, was bright and inquisitive, always questioning his mates and teachers, and of a more bookish bent. With the years, the had both learned and matured, and they had become more well-rounded in their abilities, with Icia becoming more measured and tactical, if not studious, and Bold taking up to lightsaber fighting with disciplined practice, if middling natural talent. The Jedi academy had a well established track record in producing competent graduates, to be sure, and Beldorion liked to think his personal dedication to his friends helped them achieve a personal best beyond the basics.
Irsen, their Pacithhip junior, became their protege in the year Bel was otherwise occupied, and was a peer in their escapades by now. Together, they took care of leading the younger years, while grooming the most dedicated ones, like Reca and Naltek, to take over their role in the future. It was, Bel realized, a cycle that happened everywhere groups such as theirs were groomed, if perhaps more explicitly encouraged by the Jedi mindset. Of course, he imagined it more closely resembled a web of dark deals and treachery back when the Sith Academy existed, but the principle was at least similar. In any case, for them it was a net benefit, and the love of all beings they were supposed to champion as Jedi tentatively expressed itself through the younglings, ever clearer as they aged.
When the next Trials arrived, Beldorion stood by his clanmates, and they faced them with confidence, becoming proud Padawans, and in some cases, proud members of the Corps. In time, Icia showed her exemplary dueling skills and her burgeoning Batte Meditation, becoming apprenticed to a Jedi Consular who desired to both hone and broaden her skill set, and left the Clan happily. Bolb offered a masterful display of tactical dueling, almost a Dejarik match in its flow, impressing a Jedi Guardian enough to become hist first Padawan in years. One by one, his clanmates grew and left for the next step in their lives, while Bel remained behind, cheering for them. Master Jaune left the Academy to retake missions and a Padawan again, succeeded as supervisor by Jedi Knight Morre, their lightsaber instructor, and the days in the Academy neared their end for Beldorion.
In the intervening years, his old friend Bink had taken the time to visit when his Master took him to Coruscant, and they had shared their pain on Ta'gen's fate and renewed their bonds of friendship, with Bink insisting he would take Bel as a Padawan when he graduated. They took it as a joke, but at 22, Bink's apprenticeship was almost over and he would probably be a Knight when Bel finished in a couple of years. He expected the teachers wouldn't push for Bink to take him, or any Padawan so soon, of course, and it would probably be Master Ro Ambria again, or any of the hundreds of available Knights and Masters. Years away, he thought. Even Irsen will take his trials before me. Of course, those years passed in a blink, and soon, that time arrived.
When the time came for Irsen to take his Trials, Bel looked on with pride at his fellow Initiate. In some ways, he felt closer to him than he had to Bolb and Icia, having seen him arrive as a tiny, naive and tuskless infant, who had blossomed into a magnificent graduate. His Mind trick was not ready for application in battle, but his Force Push was quick and certain, somewhat reminding of Fari's skill at it from years back. His skills were more miscellaneous than her, however, and his Trials saw him attempt Telepathy ("a competent effort," the teachers called it), and even a touch of Technopathy ("a rare find," that was). He had no difficulty in passing of course, and Bel felt that with Irsen leaving, a chapter was closing in his own life.
In the next years even Naltek grew up to become fine a fine candidate, and he trained with Bel for their trials. The time had come for him, at a young 24 years of age, to graduate with his fellow who was turning 13 himself. It was a bittersweet thought to consider that he would be leaving the Clan forever in a matter of weeks, and that he would never again belong to a such a close knit group of children. The other Jedi could be friends, or brothers even, but the Clan was something unique, an experience that would never return in his lifetime. Food for thought, and a reminder to live every experience to the fullest.
It's so amazing that the entire Order was gone, and Beldorion didn't care, Bel thought, but maybe he did, and that's why he always felt so empty. Thinking of that bleak future, he often wondered what had happened to the Order, and in a more selfish vein, if they remembered Beldorion at all. It was an impossible future now, of course, but it felt like it had a weight to it that other Visions lacked. Glad as he was to have avoided it, his thoughts turned to it on his loneliest days, making him meditate on what Beldorion had done wrong to become like he had. It was a plausible future, and wasn't that a sobering thing to consider? Even his darkest, or even the most detailed dreams seemed somehow less real than old Beldorion dying alone in a forgotten desert.
But he died, he always reminded himself, and I am alive to do better. And with that mantra running through his head, the years passed as he grew in skill, knowledge, and hopefully wisdom. Or that's how he thought of it when he was feeling like a hero in a holovid. Other times, he just prayed he was a bit less foolish every day, and that it would be enough. If the Force wills it, it will be, by Force. Who says the Jedi have no sense of humor? Still, he religiously kept to his studies, planning to have a firm foundation on Jar'Kai as the base of his lightsaber combat, with elements of Makashi and Niman. Form VII, of course, would wait until he had a Master, or perhaps even until he was a Knight himself. It was time to really take his nose to the grindstone. His Trials were near, and he was not going to waste this year.
Author's note:
At 24 years old, the Trials have come for Beldorion. Will he even pass? JK, obviously.