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Chapter Sixty Three After
hearing his grandfather’s incredible story concerning Jae’s departure with
his father he is completely astonished at the lengths his father and mother went
to keep him from this wonderful place. Just as he is beginning to question
everything he ever learned from his father, the venerable old man stands and
crosses to Jae, who is standing at the mantle, and places a tender hand upon his
shoulder, “No, my child… Your father was right in his actions. I was
betraying all that I knew of our kind with my pride. I allowed my pride and
self-righteousness to guide my actions, instead of trusting in the Will of the
Force, and every day that has passed since he left Sanctuary I have grieved for
my actions. In the beginning I grieved for your loss in my life, and when your
father was killed, I grieved for my arrogance which I believed cost not only
your life, but his, as well.” Jae
takes a deep breath, hoping to bring calm to his mind as he digests the words of
his grandfather. However, calmness was simply not there right now. He still had
so many questions, and he just did not know how to ask them, and whom to ask
them of. “I guess this is just something I’m going to have to accept, since
there’s nothing I can do to change it…” “But
you have questions, young one?” Master Falion steps forward to join them at
the mantle. “Is this not true?” Jae
shrugs, “Well, yeah, I guess so, I just don’t know where to begin.” The
two older men nod their heads in agreement, and that is when Jae notices
something else: these two men have very similar gestures. Almost
as though…
“Master Falion… Why were you sent to look for my father?” The
man lowers his gaze a moment before responding, “Are you asking because you do
not know, or are you asking me to verify your suspicions?” Jae
does not have to think very hard on this one, since he has been suspicious of
Master Falion’s agenda for quite some time now, “I guess, the latter…
It’s just that you’ve said some things, and I’ve been questioning the
coincidences for a while now.” He
nods his head, “Then I shall end the questions… I was your father’s
Master.” Jae can sense that there is more, and he can feel it coming from his
grandfather as well. The
leathery, old man speaks up once more, “Tell him all of it, Uncle.” Jae’s
expression turns ghastly white with his grandfather’s request. In his mind all
he can hear is: Uncle. Nodding
once more, and with great reluctance, Falion Mussiri begins once more, “And I
could not refuse the request of my grand-niece… I was unable to convince my
nephew of his errors concerning their marriage, and I felt responsible for the
resulting separation… My greatest regret in life was that I could not bring to
light the Will of the Force in their union, and though they accepted my
nephew’s conditions for their marriage, I could not condone them and went in
search of answers for myself. It was during this time that you were born.” Still
in complete shock from this latest revelation, Jae slowly and clumsily takes a
seat near the mantle, as his legs have grown weak with the news.
Master Falion… My Great Uncle?
Closing his eyes, in the hopes that some answer might come to him in how to deal
with this, he sees only the single image of his mother that has sustained him
all these years: her bright and welcoming smile, showering him with love and
compassion even from the great distance of the space that separated them. That
smile, the same smile he has seen upon Master Falion’s face. No wonder
I was drawn to him. “And
I to you, young one.” The man places a comforting hand upon Jae’s shoulder
as his gaze rises up to meet the man’s face, “I was uncertain, at first…
Reklaw is not an uncommon name on Corellia, as I am sure you are aware. However,
when I first witnessed your use of the saber, I knew from whom you were born…
Your father was a sabermaster without equal, and it was a supreme tragedy that
he was to only have one pupil.” Shaking
his head, while trying to shake away the doubts, Jae asks the man another
question, “But I don’t understand… How can you be my grandfather’s
uncle?” That
is when Master Arankelee begins to chuckle for the first time in many years.
“Oh, dear boy!” “I
mean, no offense Grandfather, but you are much older than he is… Aren’t
you?” Jae’s face is a mass of tangled confusion. His
chuckle grows into graceful laughter, “Unfortunately, I am not of pure blood,
my child.” He seats himself in the chair opposite Jae, with a bit of help from
Falion, before continuing, “I am also Alderaani, from my father. My mother,
she was Master Falion’s sister, and whilst her family was doing their mission
work upon the planet of Alderaan, they bore two children. Master Falion, and my
mother. When my mother came of age, she fell in love with an Alderaani who was
saved by the work of her parents and I arose from that union. The people of my
mother’s family are of a rare and nearly extinct race of people known for
their prolific longevity, however it could only occur when their blood was pure.
When space travel became a reality for many systems, those pure bloodlines were
wiped out entirely. Master Falion is the last of his kind, as he is the only one
left to have abandoned his people’s missionary ways. Unfettered, they may live
for many, many years, but most were killed for their work or their beliefs, as
was my mother.” Jae,
still perplexed, asks another question, this time of Master Mussiri, “Then how
old are you, Master Falion?” The
craggy, old man chuckles yet again, “I have been asking him that question
since before your mother was born! And he has yet to answer it… Worse than a
Kuati when it comes to his age!” Both men chuckle a bit with the younger’s
remark. “I
shall only say, that I am old enough to know better, but too old to care anymore
about the results.” And once again the men enjoy their shared laughter. “Boy,
he will never answer that question, just as my mother would never answer it for
my father!” Leaning forward in his chair, a more serious look upon his face,
the old man puts his hand on Jae’s knee, “You have other questions for me,
child?” Jae,
steeling himself against the old man’s answer, takes a long, deep breath,
“Yes, Grandfather… What about MY mother?” The
old man and Master Falion both lower their gazes to the floor. With a crack to
his voice, his grandfather is the first to speak, “I knew you would have to
ask that of me, and it is the one thing that has haunted me all these many years
since your disappearance and supposed death.” The old man suddenly looks fifty
years older in Jae’s eyes. Stepping
forward and placing a hand of comfort on the shoulder of his aged nephew, Master
Falion speaks for the man, “Your mother, upon my return to Sanctuary, was
adamant that something had happened to your father, and begged me to find him
and you. When I discovered that your father had been killed, and that a boy had
been found with him, I had no choice but to assume that you had also died in
that riot, and when I came to her with my findings, she was devastated.” As
with his grandfather, Master Mussiri now looks so much older in Jae’s eyes,
their pain aging them more quickly than time has ever been able to. “She
implored me to continue to look for you, telling me that she knew you were not
gone from her, but I erringly believed it was only her immense grief that was
driving her onward.” His voice becomes very weak and trembling and he is
forced to stop, in order to compose himself once more. Picking
up the story to spare his uncle the pain in its retelling, Master Arankelee
continues, “She was desperate to convince us of the need to continue
searching, and Uncle returned to Corellia, hoping to find some clue, some solid
evidence of your demise. What he found was a sea of orphaned children, none of
whom knew of you or your father, but were desperate themselves, and they led
Master Falion on many wild nerf chases through the bowels of Taking
up the tale once again, in order to spare the man his grieving heart, Master
Falion continues, “She was lost to us, young one. Her heart was broken in
twain and soon her mind followed. Unable to bear the thought of yours and your
father’s deaths, she simply let go of her grasp on life and faded away from
us. She died, clutching the medallion that she had borne around her neck from
the moment your father gave it her…” He pulls a tiny, satin satchel from the
folds of his tunic. “In her other hand, the engraved coin your father had
commissioned and sent to her shortly before his death, upon which was your
image.” Handing the delicate satchel to Jae, Master Falion bows his head in
reverence. “Had she not been swain by my erroneous findings to believe in your
death, she could never have given up in such a manner, and I have carried the
burden of her death, held within these pieces, with me all these many years… I
offer them to you in the hopes that you may someday find it in your heart to
forgive my failure.” Jae
takes the bag from the man’s hand and gingerly unravels the band of ribbon
wound around the top: a delicate, deep blue ribbon that Jae instantly recognizes
as the same fabric as that which makes up his sash. Carefully opening the top of
the satchel, he peers inside to see something glimmer in the small bit of light
entering the bag from the top. Allowing the bag to settle into the palm of his
hand, he pushes the fabric away from the items contained within it. On a chain,
he finds a medallion with the bearing an image of Corel upon its face. Upon
closer inspection, he finds that it also contains an unfamiliar phrase in
Corellian upon it. Mahn
uhl fharth bey ihn valle.
Looking up at Master Falion, Jae’s face is a complete question. “I
had to research the answer, myself, and even then it made no sense to me…
Until I met Meesahran… It says, ‘May the Force be with you’ in ancient Corellsi.
Meesahran also informed me that it was an ancient blessing among the Corellian
mystics of old.” Jae
turns the medallion to the other side, finding that it bears the likeness of a
man upon it. As he studies the features of the man, he finds that they are
eerily familiar to him. Staring intently at the face upon the medallion he
suddenly realizes that it is the face of his father! Much younger than Jae
remembers the man, it seems that this image was engraved years before his own
birth. “It’s my father?!” “Yes,
young one… A tradition amongst the Corellian mystics was to strike a medallion
to mark the coming of age of one of their own. This one was made prior to your
father’s arrival at Sanctuary.” Jae
turns the medallion over and over again in the palm of his hand, burning the
images into his brain with each turn. He then picks up the medallion by the
chain and it begins to spin, first one direction and then the other. Back and
forth, the spinning motion becomes almost hypnotic to Jae, and when he closes
his eyes to regain his focus upon the medallion an image flashes through his
mind: A
young man in an emerald green tunic holds a chain and medallion above a crib
containing a small boy child. As the medallion spins, first one way, and then
the other, the small boy giggles in pure delight. Soon, a beautiful and
delicate, young woman is standing by his side, her arm wrapped around his waist
and her head resting against his shoulder. As the small boy continues to giggle
at his father’s game, the woman also giggles with glee. And palpable happiness
is spread across the whole room. His
grandfather breaks his flashback with his scratchy and aged voice, “Your
mother used to love hearing you giggle with glee whenever you would watch your
father’s dancing medallion. That’s what she would call it. Apparently it is
weighted in such a manner as to spin so, when it is free from obstacles. She
would lean over your crib and it would fall free of her tunic and begin to
dance. Your giggles would then wander through the air and infect anyone within
hearing distance.” The man’s smile causes Jae a small amount of joy after
the devastating news regarding his mother’s demise. That
thought causes Jae to remember another question: one that has been troubling him
as long as he can remember. “Grandfather?” “Yes,
child.” “I
have many questions, but for right now, can you tell me where my name comes
from? I’ve been searching for some clue as to my heritage for many years, and
it is not a name I have ever found anywhere else. What is it?” Jae leaves the
satchel and its remaining contents for later, afraid to look upon that very
young face once more, knowing that is was the last image his dear, tortured
mother was able to look upon. The
man smiles and then turns his gaze downward, “That is a question that I shall
be happy to answer, child, but perhaps some of that question may be answered by
introducing myself to you…” The man stands, ever so carefully, from his
seat. Upon reaching his full height, he extends his right hand in that ever so
familiar Corellian gesture. Jae takes his grandfather’s hand and tilts his
head down in respect before the man speaks once more, “I am Master Jae-Kan
Arankelee, Son of Jae-Jul Arankelee, and Grandson of Jae-Ino Arankelee, the
sixth generation of the Arankelee line of Alderaan, from the Nobel House Aran of
the
Creator: PtrsonsZOO (Jennifer)
*SPECIAL NOTE: Due to circumstances beyond our control, the rest of the story will be written by PtrsonsZOO (Jennifer)
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