Duel of the Fates: Familiarities and Stranger Things - Velusia

[Ilias Nytrau]

Sometime in the near future...

***

It wasn't often that most citizens of the Galactic Empire would visit such a place as Velusia, for any reason. The vast oceans surrounded what was mostly volcanic islands, and the terrain was plagued by groundquakes and volcanic activity, making the water the only relatively safe and decent place to inhabit, other than some relatively inactive or extinct volcanic islands, such as the capital, Mount Hollow. Aside from those that made their lives and homes on this world, there were various mining corporations that operated here, digging up the ore within the planet's structure, where originally, the Nexcore Mining Corporation operated under the guise of oceanic exploration missions to hide the existence of the ore and keep the potential profits for itself. Unfortunately for them, the cover was blown and in the end, they lost their monopoly on profits.

Mount Hollow, aside from being the capital, also housed the world's only spaceport. This was the in and out place. You arrived here, you departed here. And it was here that Ilias Nytrau had arrived. Sufficiently out of the way, and yet close - too close - to his once-home, this planet was. He had suffered a banishment, an exile he knew was coming. Once upon a time, a valued and known member of the old Order, he had been living a somewhat-lie these many years. The Purge had left him fortunate, a little. He'd survived it and managed to continue his work under the guise of a skilled doctor, all thanks to a genetic abnormality that his mixed breeding created. Had he looked even remotely similar, he may not have had a chance. But it would have taken more than looks to hide who and what he was now. That day had told him much, but he was still unsure. Was he truly to seek out others, join their cause? Or would he continue on his lonesome, having left it all behind, abandoned the vindictive Empire, to live life with himself and whatever few others he would choose to take with him - running until he outran or could run no more? Perhaps the wisdom of his long-dead master would prove useful - on Velusia, he hoped to garner some note of it.

Yuma's grave was here. The old man had escaped the Jedi Purge to come to this place, only to die in the largest concert of groundquakes and volcanic eruptions that year. It mattered little, really. Though Yuma Orys hid it very well, his long-suffered illness could not be kept from his own student. He would have passed in short order, natural disasters or not. And even though Ilias found things that were bothersome about the elder man, and even though the teachings of the Jedi dowplayed emotions, he couldn't help but feel a twinge of regret, a smidge of fond sadness at the man who had very much been like a father to him. Nearly sixty years had been much kinder to the doctor-healer than it had been to Yuma, and a difference in genetics was all it took. Things like this made being a man of medicine ultimately frustrating, but peace, peace...Ilias showed only that, from many layers below his surface.

Yuma's grave was located on another since-extinct volcano island clear on the other side of the sphere. The local Aquar inhabitants of Velusia held memory of the Master Jedi well. They believed Yuma's soul went peacefully, and that the peace was great enough to shut up that very volcano forever. Such thoughts made the 'old man' (by human standards) smile. The grave, as Ilias approached it, was marked only by a symbol - recognizable only to those who knew it - and within a foot of the marker, the tall man knelt down on one knee and reached out to touch the marker, running the tips of fingers over the symbol engraved in it.

"I have been found out, master. I seek cause to support why I should abandon the work I have poured my life into these many years, to return to the life I had before. I am as strong a man of the ways as I ever was...nay, stronger, but my path is fogged."

He closed his eyes, his hand resting on the marker stone.

"I seek guidance from the Force, and I ask that you intercede on my behalf, master."

It would look strange to most that he would be talking to a stone marker, but for those of the teachings - those of the Jedi - the spirits of those strong with the Force often could be found as guideposts for the Path. The act was almost religious, and in accordance with that similarity, the seeking Jedi looked for a sign.

Which could be anything, really.