Recently, Bril Teg Arga had been feeling a need to give back to the clan that had accepted him with open arms. So, when he spoke with his Proconsul and one-half of his teacher pair about welcoming the newest recruit to Clan Arcona, the Mirialan agreed without the need for much convincing. Like all new recruits, Cryo had been vetted thoroughly just as Bril had. Her dossier indicated that she was a highly skilled combatant skilled in hand-to-hand combatant and in the use of blasters. On paper, she was just as (perhaps even more so) skilled than Bril himself; however, the Zabrak had had enough shockboxing fights to know that what seemed obvious when looking at the tale of the tape didn’t always turn out to be the case in an actual battle. He needed to see how she operated under pressure, to get a glimpse of all the intangibles that made or broke fighters and warriors alike.
By now, Cryo would have received a datapad bulletin requesting that she head to the Citadel on Selen, the headquarters of Clan Arcona, for her evaluation. Naturally, the coordinates for said location were included in the message. All Bril had to do was wait for her to arrive, so he leaned against one of the stone pillars in the Citadel’s courtyard.
Cryo still couldn’t figure out why she had agreed to join Arcona. She had told herself that she was done with war and armies. She had been offered a chance at a life after thawing out, and she wanted to take advantage of it.
But no. Here she was, strolling down an empty pathway clad in her bodysuit and armor. She had her old and original DC-17 blasters on her hips and her beskar dagger strapped to her chest. The Mandalorian held her helmet under her left arm and held a datapad to the right to check her progress.
A soft chuckle left her lips as she realized she was running a little late. Angel would’ve been furious. However, it wasn’t Angel who was waiting for her. It was a stranger, someone different. She was promised that joining Arcona wouldn’t end with her taking orders and living in a barracks, but as always, she was skeptical.
Passing into the courtyard, she saw someone who could potentially be the stranger she was looking for, so she made her way to the figure.
“Bril Teg Arga?” The clone asked as she walked over. Her accent was unique even to most who originated on Concord Dawn.
Hearing his voice spoken aloud prompted the Zabrak to turn his head in search of who had said it. He seldom heard his full name spoken, but it made sense given the fact that she was a stranger. Bril stepped away from the pillar and placed his hands at his side, his left brushing past the crossguard saber designed in the fashion common amongst High Republic jedi centuries earlier. Bril was dressed in the Lotus robes that were a combination of black and gray with a lighter silver-blue cover trim. The brown locs that descended beyond his shoulder were bundled into a ponytail, and he looked across the courtyard at her with a pair of placid yet measuring crystal blue eyes.
“You must be Cryo,” he began, dipping his head in a slight bow, “Welcome to Clan Arcona. I volunteered to officially welcome you within our ranks and to proctor your combat evaluation. We’re not all about fighting, here, but it’s to be expected that most of us will have to do so at some point. So, it’s good to know what each member is capable of.”
Since Bril’s Force Sense was always active, he need only narrow his focus to make use of it, and he did just that by focusing on the woman standing across from him. Feelings of nervousness, regret, and some eagerness passed into his awareness like faint whispers in the back of one’s ear.
“I don’t want this to feel super formal or anything, so, hopefully this isn’t too nerve wracking for you.”
He unclipped his crossguard saber, Concord, from his belt with his right hand. “My saber will be set to a lower energy setting for obvious reasons, but don’t feel like you have to hold back against me,” he informed her with a smile. “I need to see what you can do.”
The woman looked Bril up and down as she continued forward, studying his features and build. He was big. Almost as big as Angel’s daughter, and that’s saying something. She spotted a saber and could only assume he was a force user, though she couldn’t tell what kind he was. Whether she was checking him out or just sizing him up, she’d never tell. She was quiet and content to let him talk and make his introduction.
She opened her mouth to dissuade the notion that her nerves were being wracked, barely able to make a sound before she watched Bril unclip the saber on his hip. Very quickly, she took a step back and dropped her datapad out of her hand. It was better suited in its new position on the grip of her blaster. The hand holding her helmet upturned its palm with the idea of defusing the situation in mind.
“What you need to do is put that saber down,” she said, trying and very much failing to sound non-combative. The last thing she wanted was for her official introduction to turn into a murder.
When she dropped the datapad from her hand, Bril outstretched the fingers of his left hand to suspend the digital tablet in midair with the Force.
“Careful,” he advised her, furrowing his eyebrows just a tad while moving the tablet aside and setting it down atop a pillar a few dozen feet to Cryo’s left. “These things are expensive. Wouldn’t want you to break yours because of me.”
Seeing her react as quickly as she had to him simply unclipping his saber from his hip could mean a few things. On the one hand, it told Bril that she was well aware of the potential danger that a Dark Jedi like himself posed; however, it possibly meant that she was a bit too jumpy, or perhaps not so familiar with Force users that she could probably discern what gestures were mostly benign and which ones were truly threatening. Only time would tell if his deductions were true.
“Why would I put down my saber? The entire point of this meeting is to evaluate your skillset to report to my master.”
Keeping his eyes squarely on the woman standing a paltry fifty feet away from him, Bril lifted his foot to begin a slow, purposeful amble about the Citadel grounds. He never quite moved closer to her, instead opting to move in a circle around her, watching to see if she’d let him circle around to her rear without readjusting.
“I suggest you ready your blaster, Cryo,” Bril suggested with a smile. “I’m pretty fast even without using the Force.”
And that was the last thing he said before the smile faded and an expression of stone-faced expression took its place. If she possessed any ability to sense with the Force at all, Cryo would notice the once peaceful aura Bril exuded had taken on a palpably frigid character born not from malice, but from the ice-in-the-veins mentality born from a man who had seen combat in one form or another since he was a child. If such a friendly face hid such an unwavering resolve, what else was in store for Arcona’s newest recruit?
The energetic buzz of an igniting saber ripped through the silence of the courtyard an instant before Concord’s descending blade painted his robes in an amber glow.
Cryo wasn’t exactly surprised when her datapad stopped right before it hit the ground. She wasn’t too worried, though. She was trained by force users, after all. She had an idea or two on how to take care of things. She took the opportunity to slide her helmet on, her HUD activating the moment it locked into place. A flashing red mark appeared on the type right of the screen as it usually did, telling her that her squad wasn’t in range. She knew she could turn it off, but she couldn’t bring herself to. It was a reminder of those out there in the galaxy that were waiting for her should she ever decide to come home.
“Because we’re in a courtyard, and I don’t want to make some poor gardener have to fix whatever we do…” She grumbled to herself in response to what she thought was an obvious question
The Clone may have been forced to grow up quite quick, but she wasn’t born yesterday. When the man began to walk in what would inevitably become a circle, she did the same in the same direction, keeping him at her front. She had found herself in quite the predicament. She knew if this Bril guy used the force, she would have no chance. All she could do was hope that either he played fair or didn’t know everything she could do.
Cryo grabbed into each holster and pulled out her DC-17s, her thumbs knowing exactly where the switch to stun was hiding. She didn’t let Bril’s sudden change in demeanor discourage her, if anything, she found it rather flattering that he might actually end up taking this seriously. Her body quivered at the sound of his lightsaber igniting, memories of battles and training sessions coming to mind.
Mentally, she debated grabbing one of her stun grenades and using it as a distraction but decided against it. With Bril hopefully not using any force tricks on her, she wouldn’t have to worry about using them to disorient him too badly.
She raised her blasters up and pointed them at the Dark Jedi, a silly sense of honor preventing her from pulling the triggers without being provoked first.
A flash of amber was the last thing Cryo saw before Bril seemingly vanished from view. He traversed the distance between them as a blur of black and orange, only becoming fully visible again when he was within the three-and-a-half feet of his lightsaber’s length. Wielding it with his right hand in a closed stance, he executed a diagonal cut that sent the amber blade streaking through the air toward Cryo’s shoulder.
Cryo’s eyes widened in surprise as the man seemingly disappeared. Either he was cloaking himself, or he was just moving extremely fast. Either way, she was in for one hell of a fight. “Nevermind then,” She said to her previous thought. Turns out he was going to be using force tricks.
For the past couple of years, Cryo had found herself fighting unarmed opponents, ones who weren’t force sensitive, unlike Bril. She was out of practice against a saber wielding opponent. So when she went to crouch and dodge to the side, she ran right into his saber, the weakened blade slashing directly into her shoulder with enhanced force. Thankfully, her experience with training sabers meant she was used to the sort of pain it brought on and made this first hit easier to handle.
She followed through with the second half of her initial plan and pointed her blaster vaguely at his gut, not too worried about pinpoint accuracy at this close of a range, and pulled the trigger.
After landing the first blow, Bril’s encountered no trouble when attempting reposition his saber to intercept the bolt of superheated tibanna gas. A flash of orange painted his features when the two collided, only for the bolt to go flying up into the Selenian sky, never to be seen again.
A master of Makashi, Bril used a simple flick of his wrist to send his saber’s blade careening toward Cryo’s opposite (right) side in a horizontal slash.
Kriff. Cryo wasn’t surprised by any means that he managed to deflect the bolt from such close a range, it was go be expected of a Jedi. All it meant for her was that she had to try harder.
She pushed back on her feet and sprung down and back, landing on her back and sliding away under his slash to give her a small amount of distance and an opportunity to fire once again. This time her shot was purposefully aimed at his hearts
Bril possessed an unwavering focus; once he set his mind to something, there weren’t many things that could pull his attention away from it. That was the attitude he applied to his research and to combat. So, when Cryo successfully evaded his second strike and fired another shot of her own while in retreat, Bril faced the threat head on. But his timing was off, this time, causing him to miss the blaster bolt completely when it came within range. Lucky enough for him, the dense durasteel weave of his Lotus Robes provided enough protection to prevent the blaster bolt from punching a whole through his chest. The bolt slammed into his chest just above where his two hearts were and left a scuff mark and a warm sensation on the fabric. He paused only to regard the mark it left and to consider the fact that had he been wearing weaker armor, he likely would have died there.
“That’s more like it,” he replied. “Keep that up and I might have something worthwhile to report back to my master.”
Typically, Bril wasn’t the type to talk down to anyone, but he needed to do something to get this recruit to actually fight him. If she couldn’t flip that switch on command and perform how she needed to at a moment’s notice, that’d be a major disappointment for him.
Bril extended his hand toward her to seize her in an invisible grip, wrapping her up in the Force’s invisible chains and lifting her about ten feet into the air. At the same time, he kept his saber in a neutral position while watching to see what she would do, slowly tightening his hand to place more pressure on her body from all directions.
“If I were a Sith, I would have used your own armor to crush you to death, by now. What will you do?”
Cryo was rather satisfied when her blaster bolt hit its mark, hitting him right where she wanted. She hadn’t picked up a blaster in a few months, but she still had it.
But that taunt, she wouldn’t stand for something like that. She was holding back for his sake, not her own. But she only had so big of a heart.
She was about to sit up and retort when he used the force to lift her up, holding her higher and higher until she was at a height that wouldn’t kill her, but if she landed incorrectly, she’d definitely break a bone or two.
She groaned and winced as she felt him begin to slowly crush her. She couldn’t do anything but roll her eyes and screw her eyes shut as she felt herself slowly being squished to death.
“What will I do?” She responded to his question with a question, “I’m not a Jedi. There isn’t much I can do.”
“This is an opportunity for you to think outside the box,” Bril advised her, maintaining his grip but not tightening it, either. “What happens when you encounter a Force user who intends to kill you and this happens?”
Cryo let out a big ol’ sigh and holstered her her DC-17s. “Honestly Bril I don’t know what you expect. I’m suspended in the air and you can crush me at a moment’s notice.”
Slowly her hands crept to a cryoban grenade and a flash grenade on her belt. She tried to be as careful as possible for him to not notice.
“I expect you to figure a way out of this situation,” he replied, “If we were enemies, would you just accept defeat? Death?”
“Pretty much” she smirked under her helmet as she grabbed onto her two grenades. She activated them both. Thankfully the flash grenade was on a timer while the cryoban exploded on impact. So she waited just a few moments before tossing the flashbang down, followed up with the cryoban grenade
Something told him that that was a lie. And his suspicions were confirmed when he noticed the two grenades rolling toward him. He didn’t hesitate to relinquish his grip on her, leaving Cryo to fall toward the ground while he leaped away to avoid the detonating CryoBan grenade. Frigid air produced by the sudden absorption of heat nipped at his extremities as he fled.
“That’s more like it,” he said while standing upright, his lightsaber continuing to hum at his side.
Bril wasted no time in sprinting forward again, tightening his grip on his saber.
Cryo fell from the air with little control over her descent, counting the moments before impact. Upon reaching the ground she tumbled into a roll, preventing any and all damage that may have befallen a less skilled individual.
From her roll she sprung to her feet and in one fluid motion she grabbed a throwing knife from her chest and threw it in Bril’s direction. Aannnndddd it flew right past him. Kark.
The final five or so feet of Bril’s dash culminated in him sliding across the ground to maintain his momentum, momentum he translated into additional force behind a turning side kick aimed directly at Cryo’s midsection. She wore armor, so the blow wouldn’t hurt nearly as much if she wore none, but his natural speed and the momentum added from his sprint ensured that the blow wouldn’t feel good, that much was certain.
Cryo took a step back just in time to avoid getting hurt whilst catching his leg. She might be having a hard time with explosives but martial arts? That’s where she specialized in.
Her Generals taught her everything she could about their own little brand of fighting, mixing plenty of different styles into one mishmash of pure aggression.
Cryo felt Bril trying to twist out of her grip but she was having none of it. She held on firmly, reeled back, and slammed her fist right between his legs.
The punch landed but it didn’t seem to have an effect. Bril cracked a smile before immediately latching on to Cryo’s arm with his free hand. He turned rapidly, using the leg she held to execute a hip toss that sent her crashing toward the ground.
Cryo smiled right back at him before she was tossed to the ground right onto her back. She groaned but quickly rolled to the side in case he planned on following it up with anything else. She hopped up to her feet and got back into a proper stance. “Look at you, smiling.” She thought back to when the fight first started and all emotion had left him. She was pretty glad to see she wasn’t the only one enjoying this back and forth
Bril lifted his shoulders in a casual shrug. “What can I say? I enjoy a good fight.”
The smile didn’t last, though, not when he had a combat evaluation to proctor. Bril extended his hand to seize Cryo with the Force again, pulling her through the air toward him with his lightsaber poised to strike.
“I’m glad we agree on that” She smirked under her helmet “Was beginning to worry you were some boring stiff”
Yet again she wasn’t expecting to be grabbed by the force, but at least this time she still had control of her limbs. On her way over she rapidly reached into her holster and pulled out one of her DC-17s and took a shot at him center mass
She once again managed to raise her blaster in time to fire off a shot. But Bril was ready for it, batting the blaster bolt away with a flash of orange light.
Then, with a flick of the wrist, Bril flung her toward one of the nearby stone pillars, hard.
Cryo was again impressed by his reaction speed. She wanted to try to fire again but her direction changed quite drastically as she was flung into a pillar, her back smashing into it with a loud clang from her armor.
She fell from the pillar and landed on her knees, groaning from the pain “Kriffing back…” she winced
“Have you reached the limits of your capabilities?” Bril asked, lazily pointing his saber’s blade in Cryo’s direction.
Cryo took a couple of labored breaths and brought herself up to her feet. She raised her fists and stared him down “Not even close.” She smirked under her helmet, wishing she could share her expressions with him
“Then, show me what you can do.”
Cryo rose fully to her feet and reached over her shoulder to unsheathe her beskar sword, lowering her arm to her side lazily, their body languages quickly turning from harsh and formal into something more akin to waiting for more fun. “If you think you can handle it” She smirked
She raised the blade up and gripped it with two hands. She took a rapid step forward and committed to a diagonal slash from the bottom up
Bril stood in a bladed stance with his lightsaber held vertically before his midsection, waiting with an unflinching expression while Cryo approached. The glimmer of Dajorra’s light reflected off of the beskar blade and nearly blinded him just as the blade sailed toward him, but pure instinct and muscle memory allowed him to raise his lightsaber in time to parry it away before retaliating with a diagonal cut of his own. Amber plasma buzzed loudly between them as he executed a downward cut aimed at Cryo’s chest.
Cryo’s blade was easily parried by the jedi. It’s almost like he’s been in a swordfight before, Cryo mused. But with that, she quickly brought her beskad back to her front and thanks to its hollow core, it was light enough for the clone to deflect Bril’s saber with barely a moment to spare. In retaliation she reeled a foot back and attempted a good ol’ front kick directed right at his sternum.
The kick landed and forced Bril backward, but didn’t seem to have much of an effect otherwise. He lifted his hand and gestured for Cryo to attack again.
She let out a silent, huffed chuckle. She put raised her blade into a defensive position before dashing forward with a big ol’ thrust
Remaining light on his feet, Bril narrowed his eyes while Cryo dashed toward him. He pivoted his torso with the goal of evading to blade at the last moment, but a misjudged the timing left him exposed to the strike. Luckily, the durasteel weave of his robes absorbed the damage of the beskad thrust with no visible damage.
Before another attack followed, the Zabrak lifted his hand with his palm facing the woman, calling for a stop.
“I think I’ve seen enough,” he began, “You’re skilled. More than capable of handling your own. Where did you learn to fight the way you do? If you don’t mine me asking.”
Cryo was surprised when her blade made contact with the Zabrak’s body. She expected him to dodge it with ease or parry like he did her other attacks. So when he immediately raised his hand to stop, Cryo couldn’t help but feel like she was being pitied.
The woman slid her sword back into its sheathe and took a more casual stance, crossing her arms while facing him “From a couple jedi” she said, leaving it vague
“Jedi?” he asked, his interest seemingly piqued, “Which Jedi did you train under?”
“Does it matter?” She asked, her body language a bit more defensive now that he was questioning her. In the fight they were having fun, they were playing. Now he was pushing into territory he had no right being in
Bril shrugged his shoulders. “If we’re going to be clanmates, it helps to know a bit about you.”
Feelings of distrust, defensiveness, and trepidation echoed through the Force. Bril paused for a moment and pursed his lips, seemingly ruminating on something.
“I’m no threat to you and your loved ones, you know,” he said. “As a member of our Clan, you’re an ally, now.”
“Then ask me a question about me” Cryo commented, none too pleased on him starting off with such an intrusive question, at least to her. She knew he wasn’t a threat and wouldn’t come for those she cared for but she wasnt about to give up names for the fun of it. “You haven’t said much about yourself either, Jetii”
“Who trained you is a question about you. If I told you I were trained by Darth Vader, that would tell you a lot. Would it not?”
Bril felt his eyebrow twitch when she called him a “jetii”. He’d heard the word used by Minnow often, and wasn’t a fan of the connotation it often carried.
“I have a name which you already know,” he reminded her, folding his arms behind his back. “Bril, not Jetii. As you already know, I’m a member of Clan Arcona, and a student of our Proconsul and his husband, Corazon. I am also a senior researcher at the Shadow Academy.”
Cryo was still vague on some of the details of what happened after the clone wars but Vader was a name that came up in all of the research she did. So, it earned Bril a chuckle from the clone. “The names of those who trained me don’t concern you, okay? Let’s leave it at that.” She grumbled
She noticed the change in his body language and cursed at herself mentally. She hadn’t meant to offend him, but it seemed she had. She removed her helmet and held it under her arm once again, her messy black hair flowing just a bit with the wind
“Bril,” she made sure to say his name this time “I didn’t mean to offend you. I just don’t know you well enough yet to be telling you things like that.”
So, she was completely unwilling to discuss this particular topic. He wondered if this meant that she simply took her privacy very seriously or if there was some other reason for her reticence. No matter. There’d be plenty of other details to learn about her, in time. He waved his hand to dismiss her concerns.
“No harm done,” he assured her, “I hope I didn’t cause offense by asking about your teachers. And I hope you’d still be willing to indulge my curiosity by answering less personal questions I have for you.”
Her reaction, at least to her, was very justified. She hoped Arcona would be different, but when Taldryan learned of the other members of clan Kendis, they tried to kill both Elly and Koda and she wasn’t about to suffer that same fate.
“You didn’t offend, just don’t press your luck. But I’m more than happy to answer some more questions as long as you let me ask some of my own.”
He lifted his shoulders in a shrug. It wasn’t the worse terms he’d hurt, though he would’ve preferred not to answer a bunch of questions about himself. Although not because he had an issue with sharing.
“Seems fair enough, I suppose. Now, first question: why did you join us? What’s the reason?”
Cryo raised a hand to her chin and gave the question a good thought. Why did she join? This is the exact opposite of what she thought she’d be doing now that the war was over.
“I suppose… I was tired of just sitting around. Everyday I used to wake up and go out into the galaxy to make a difference. Amd recently all I’ve been doing is waking up in a different shithole every morning after a day of irresponsible behavior.”
“And you think joining Clan Arcona will aid you in making a difference?” he asked, leaning forward a bit from his position on one of the stone pillars in the Citadel’s courtyard. “You care about making the Galaxy a better place?”
“I used to” Cryo said, an obvious remorseful and reminiscent look on her eyes as she thought back to what once was. She then thought about what she had become, the disgusting things she had done since waking up. She didn’t know where this sudden drive to better herself came from but she hoped it would last long enough to get the spark going
“And now?” he asked, folding his arms across his chest.
“I don’t know yet. We’ll just have to see what happens” she shrugged, trying to keep a nonchalant attitude about it all
That answer made Bril’s face scrunch up in disapproval. “Where’s your conviction?” he began, “It’s never too late to make a difference. This isn’t just a new hobby that you try out just to ‘see what happens’. This is real life. Lives are at stake. No room for half measures, not when the lives of your clanmates could be on the line. The lives of my—”
He caught himself, feeling the Dark Side beginning to smolder within him. He took a breath.
I’ll call upon you when I see fit. I’m the one in control.“
Bril lifted his hands to smooth out the wrinkles in his robes.
"What I mean to say is, you should probably put some thought into what you want to get out of this. Being one of us. Lest someone get hurt from your lack of certainty.”
“I was fighting the good fight before you were born.” She said very sternly. “You don’t get to lecture me about lives being on the line. When it comes down to the mission, it will be done to the best of my abilities. This is not a hobby, you’re right in that. But realize that if this isn’t a fit for me yet I still try to force myself through it then what’s the damn point?”
She balled her hands into fists, she did not share Bril’s self control “I don’t know what I want out of anything in life.”
It will be done to the best of my abilities.
“Let’s hope so, Cryo. The good news is that we tend to be very welcoming of others, so you’re in luck. There are plenty of rolls for you to fill. You should consider enlisting with Arcona’s military. It seems you have plenty of experience with that, already.”
“No.” She snapped almost immediately. “I am more than happy to help, to protect those who can’t protect themselves like I always have. But I will not be a slave to another military.”
“I can assure you that no one would think of you as a slave if you chose to enlist,” he said, voice becoming sterner as he stared at her. “My beloved served in that military. And she is no one’s slave.”
Man, this guy just wouldn’t let up. Now he was starting to raise his voice because she’s adamant on not being in the military because of some girl? She could have a field day with that, but she held back.
“Look. I’m happy that your girlfriend had a nice time killing people, but when I did it, I didn’t have a kriffing choice. And I have a feeling if you asked her to be truly genuine with her she’d say she either regrets the things she had to do or she’s unhinged.”
Bril tilted his head, seemingly confused by her response. “I never said she had a good time killing anyone,” he retorted, “I said she wasn’t a slave. And you wouldn’t be either. Just because whatever military you served in before treated you that way, doesn’t mean that ours would.”
He stepped forward from the pillar and narrowed his eyes at her. “You don’t listen very well, do you?”
Bril didn’t bother addressing her pontifications about what Minnow would say about her time in the military because he already knew how she felt. They’d had those conversations countless times, already.
“If you don’t want to be in the military. Join the Dajorran Marshals. You’ll be able to put all your skills to good use and help make the system safer for its most vulnerable citizens.”
“Good.” She said, very plainly. She felt regretful for her more personal jabs but, in her defense, she was rather traumatized by her experience with the military.
“If I listened well, I would’ve held a higher position. Tell me about these Marshals”
“The Dajorran Marshals are responsible for the enforcement of the law and distribution of emergency services to those who need it within the system.”
“That definitely sounds like it’s more my speed” she said, trying to read his expression and reaction to their whole exchange. “What are you involved with in Arcona?”
That was a question he hadn’t really put much thought into, which became clear when Bril lifted a hand to cup his chin while he pondered it.
“I don’t have any official titles in the clan itself, other than being an Equite and personal student of the Proconsul,” he explained. “I’m only involved in an official capacity with the Brotherhood at large, serving as a Research Director at the Shadow Academy and a Golden Envoy in the Envoy Corps.
For Arcona, I sort of just … go where I’m needed.”
“Wait… you can be in the clan without any sort of title? How does that work? Are you more like a…” she thought of the word “Freelancer?”
He shrugged. “My title would be an Equite, as I said. But I’m not a freelancer, no. Nothing so informal.”
Cryo sighed, fatigue finally taking over. She put her helmet on her head, not sliding it on but just keeping it on top, letting her cross her arms.
“Equite, huh? I hope you know that doesn’t mean anything to me” she said, not knowing the Brotherhood’s ranking system. “But you said you’re a researcher, right? What do you research?”
He shook his head. “It’s difficult to explain and wouldn’t help much, anyway. I’m an archaeologist and anthropologist. I mainly focus on ancient Force orders and the artifacts they revered or used.”
“A Jedi doing research and discovery?” Cryo genuinely chuckled “Never thought I’d see the day that would happen.”
“Jedi researchers are more common than you think,” he smiled, “But I am not a Jedi. Nor a Sith. I’m on my own path.”
“I hope they are” she said with a soft smile. She had read the history books explaining what had happened after she ended up on ice and she was none too happy about how things went down. It was good to know that the galaxy had fixed what her and her Republic had done.
“Is there such thing as a different path?”
Bril nodded. “There are many different paths. The Jedi and Sith have been predominant for the last few thousand years, but there have always been alternative views on the Force. It’s one of my areas of study, actually. The history and philosophy of the Force and how different cultures have approached its use across time.”
“Sounds…. interesting,” She said with a nervous smirk. She hoped to whatever deity might exist that she didn’t trigger a lecture about the history of the force and its users. “Does your path have a name?”
“The Kenaek'Mai.”
Cryo just sat there for a moment looking at Bril. “…Yeah, I have no idea what that means,” She chuckled, “But I’ll remember that.” She said, being quite genuine about remembering what he had told her.
He chuckled. “Sorry, it’s in Zabraki. It roughly translates to ‘The Path Lying Between the Light and Darkness. Or the Twilight Path, for short.”
“Oh that’s uncomfortably poetic and beautiful. What’s the catch?” She chuckled, not trying to offend but instead trying to get a laugh out of him
He smiled and nodded. “Thank you. I came up with it myself. And no catch. None of the preexisting paths I research really felt like they described me, so I decided to create my own.”
“So you do get it.” She smirked, a thought coming to mind. “I’m here because I’m making my own path in life, and this is where that path has taken me. I don’t know if this will be where the path ends or if it goes past this clan, but we’ll see.”
That was something Bril could truly understand. His path had already led him to an entirely different clan from when he first joined the Brotherhood; however, he didn’t see him changing clans again, not when he had a family here.
He smiled brighter now and extended his hand to shake hers. “That sounds good to me. Welcome to Clan Arcona, Cryo.”
Cryo took his hand in her own and shook it rather firmly “We’ll see how it goes” She responded, feeling rather awkward in this moment. She was never one for more formal actions