Work Text:
It was Mitth'raw'nuruodo who understood the full implications of the Sight.
Even though he clearly didn't possess it himself, he saw further and farther ahead than most in the Ascendancy. Qilori of Uandualon guides me, the two of us wearing our sensory deprivation helmets, piloting for clients that had petitioned the Navigators' Guild. I have been his apprentice in the Pathfinders for a time. He still isn't pleased, but his fear of Mitth'raw'nuruodo, even with him long being absent from our Region, along with owing him -- and by extension Admiral Ar'alani -- a debt keeps him to his task.
When we meet the others, they rarely if ever question why I don't take off my helmet. I have Qilori explain that it is to keep me disciplined, to make sure that I rely on the guidance of the Great Presence over my eyes. It might seem unusually stringent, even for the Pathfinders, but they cannot ignore my results. I've learned many of these skills already from Ool, and Thearterra center. Even so, after Che'ri's encounter with the Magys of Sunrise, and our own studies of the Redoubt, it doesn't hurt to immerse ourselves in the cultures of those who also utilize the Sight: especially those that specifically use it to safely explore the Chaos.
This, however, is only one of the reasons why I have become a part of the Guild.
Few would even consider a member of my species infiltrating this body. The Guild believes my people to be arrogant and insular. And honestly, for the most part they would be correct. Certainly, the Ozyly-esehembo are a prime example of this. We had always kept to ourselves, been the sole Navigators of our civilization, giving the Ascendancy the advantage over others in the Region who to this day still have to rely on the Guild to travel anywhere through the Chaos. Even the late and unlamented Grysk Hegemony required the services of the Guild, particularly the Attendants.
I will return to the Attendants later in this entry. When you travel through the Chaos, you often realize that the most practical way forward is rarely a straight line in your mind's eye.
Even my quarters, I tend to keep the helmet on. It is similar to those utilized by Jedi Initiates in what we had been allowed to access from the Jedi Holocron, taken from the Redoubt. Trusting in the Sight, particularly the Third Sight, is something we were trained to do from childhood as well. We are always in the turmoil of space. Always in uncertainty. Always trying to find our way through the dark.
I would have been unnerved by this helmet, once. It would have been isolating. It would have represented just one more degree of separation from others. I would have felt more alone.
Che'ri would have called me a "whiner." She didn't even have to say it, back when we met on the Vigilant. She believed she was the one doing me a favour playing at building snaps. I've grown out of it. Not the building snaps, of course. Those remain with me. My particular, customized pieces are always on hand. They are not identifiable as from Chiss origin, of course, because they are not.
Yron made them well. I can feel them with even more detail and specificity between my fingers, and the satisfying sensation of putting them all in place. Of making a structure that I can't see, but feel. When I touch this piece that I play between my fingers, I see Yron. Brierly'ro'nan is always making his puzzles, trying to create a greater picture even when he doesn't see the one that he's already in. His ambition keeps him going through his uncertainty. This piece came from his resentment working under our engineers, before he was promoted. I still see his caution, his own prejudice towards our people, but also that need to prove himself to his Empire that is long gone, and his Emperor that he feared and that no longer exists. This scrap has since outlived his Galactic Empire, and that previous self of his that I see in my own mind's eye. Sometimes, in order to know where you are going, you need to clearly where you -- or someone else -- has been.
This past version of Yron, this echo of him, would despise me giving him a core name. He would revile having his own name turned into a Chiss configuration, much in the way that we greatly dislike other peoples butchering our full names from Lesser Space. Even back when I was young, I could appreciate that. Now, I know he's become resigned to being Yron, or perhaps after a time he became more tolerant of it coming from me. I know he wanted information about "Chiss Jedi," through observing me, but he has given up on that. Now, he just helps. To promote himself. To help the Empire that he remembers, or wants to recall: a better version of whatever it was he left behind.
And maybe because he genuinely liked making me these little toys. The old bitterness I feel was always subordinated to the quiet satisfaction of craftsmanship and making something for someone else that Yron always wanted to keep hidden under his gruff and unfriendly exterior.
Masks are, of course, important. The helmet is part of my guise here. I wear synthflesh as well. The Guild would be greatly suspicious of a Chiss Navigator, the Pathfinders even more so. As an Operative of the Phalanx, disguises are part of our job outside of the Ascendancy, along with agents of the Hand. But even barring that, regulating one's outward display of emotions goes a long way to keeping others from knowing just what you yourself might know. Sometimes, being a guide means keeping the way to yourself so that others will be reliant on you.
That was a lesson I learned from Che'ri during our time together. She did not want to be reliant on my companionship. On what I offered. She saw me wanting to not be alone as a weakness that didn't just affect me, but could have compromised her as well. By offering reluctant charity, sharing time with me back on the Vigilant, it was her giving me a favour. That is how I saw it. That is what I read from her after she handled my snaps, and I don't think she ever realized that I read her. I certainly didn't know, then, that handling inanimate objects and the resonances of their users was a manifestation of the Second Sight. The Jedi would call it Psychometry, which is a rare skill, and dangerous as it can take you right into the lives and attachments and emotions of the previous holder of an object. You can easily forget yourself, or sense of self in that context. But it's different for me. I always see the difference in who held something before me. I never forget. I know I'm different.
I've always been different.
Handling the building snaps allows me to reach my mind into my work, into the tactile action, to channel the worry and the anxiety. I'm smart enough not to do it in my public guise as a Pathfinder. Qilori knows that I am Chiss, but he doesn't understand where I come from among my people. I suspect he can sense me, in a way, as I do him. He could follow me if needed, as others can track him. He can't seem to mask his presence, and given his people's philosophy he would not want that. He wants to be found, even if he is terrified of death overtaking him instead.
I don't want to be followed. Instead, I follow. I trace the paths. I untangle the chaos.
The thing is that it's more than just putting something together. Sometimes, you need to take something apart again so that you can reconfigure it and make another pattern, or understand one that was already there. My sisters look into their Kyber blades for focus. I do the same when I can, when I am in a clawcraft or a shuttle on my own I look into the golden yellow of a controlled sunbeam and see where I am going -- and all the ways I can possibly go -- before doing anything. But when I can't do that, I have my building snaps. I always have.
They let me see a picture. They allow me to put together, or take apart, piece by piece the greater picture.
Admiral Ar'alani knew that. I should have left her ship, but she requested I stay. I spent much time with her, and Wutroow. She finally made flag rank. She commands the Vigilant now. That let her shed her family name, becoming loyal only to the Ascendancy as the Admiral is. As we Ozyly-esehembo are supposed to be, before we reorganized under our own auspices as Guardians. We are still dedicated to the Ascendancy, but we have become a power and place in our own right. It was gradual.
And former Senior Captain Mitth'raw'nuruodo knows why.
I'd served as Navigator for the Admiral through dealing with the Nikardun at Primea, and beyond. I learned military strategy and Ar'alani on her part allowed me Naval training. It was irregular, but just like Mitth'ali'astov someone wanted to show me more than my Navigator background narrowly allowed. Perhaps even then she hoped, and Mitth'raw'nuruodo as well, that would be more than a simple substitution for any failing skill with the Sight.
Then there was the reorganization on Ool. Admiral Ar'alani was involved. She told me, along with Patriarch Cohbo'rik'ardok that Mitth'raw'nuruodo had been fascinated with the Sight and its implications: particularly with regards to long term planning.
The Shadehouse had, for years and even before reorganization, been implementing a program called Project Oracle. This particular project is dedicated to using the Sight to not only navigate the Chaos, but to see through into the future. It was essentially Mitth'raw'nuruodo's inductive reasoning implemented with the Sight. I realized that I had been one of those being surreptitiously trained -- to see how far I could take the Sight. Part of that training was with the Admiral and Wutroow. I became more a part of the crew over time, than a Navigator, even if that was my official designation. Then I was recalled to Ool for the new curriculum. First, as a Shadow. Then an Operative after my sessions with Instructor Kanos and Admiral Parck of the Hand, and even Ivant.
Ivant shared his numbers with me. Lists and compilations. Even now, I don't completely understand them and I recognize that it is by design. It is something integral to the future of the Shadehouse and the Guardians. Between Ivant and Admiral Parck, and the information they've given me, I have pointed out several worlds, and star systems, and even cultures that might help us. When I'm not consulted, Admiral Parck plays dejarik with me: a Lesser Space game of strategy. It is ... illuminating. Seeing what fits into what, and contrasts, and counters. There are so many patterns.
It feeds well into my drilling sessions. I'd always, ever since childhood, been an excellent Navigator. My Third Sight is fairly accurate. I can, thanks to my sight, and time with Admiral Ar'alani predict many possibilities in advance. And I act accordingly. Instructor Kanos commends my ability to anticipate my opponents, but knowing when someone is going to attack or defend doesn't always mean I know how they are going to do it, or what option they will choose in advance. I am still working on it.
But I am making my rounds through the various groups of the Navigators' Guild. Sometimes, I feel strange not being with Admiral Ar'alani or at the Hand, or even the Shadehouse. But it is important I go around. That I go through each group in the Guild that I can. As a Navigator, I can travel to many more places. This served as well when we found that world with the lambent. When I touched it, I had a vision of the Far Outsiders. I was able to relay that vision to the rest of my sisters in our link -- specifically to Che'ri, who acted on it. It is now she for whom I did a favour. And she knows that now. I sent it to her with the Second Sight in the form of a picture book -- the one she did not want to read with me the first time we met. Perhaps the addition of those blue carnivorous birds in its pages, though, wasn't unconscious on her part.
For all of her power and unique abilities, I am still better with the Sight. In our next training session, she will know. Most of the Shadows do not see me coming, and even other Operatives struggle. But I can see their movements before. I see the different angles and tangents of them, and think of all the ways I can counter them. Some details elude me, but the key -- according to Instructor Kanos -- is to improvise or have ready a contingency for such a time. Most of the time I can dodge them, or attack before they do, or counter a movement before they make it. There are different lines. Different strands. And gaps that require a particular building snap to meet it.
A building snap. A clue.
There are rumours that Mitth'raw'nuruodo has returned, though what his allegiances might be and who he is associated are other matters entirely. Our Patriarch will not let me handle any artifacts taken from where he might have been. Even Admiral Ar'alani is hesitant. But I do know that while the possibilities spread everywhere from his reentrance into galactic affairs, there is something he left behind. Something about the Attendants. That is what those insectoid species call themselves who, aside from us, are excellent Navigators through the Chaos. They do not have the Sight, but they possess many ties. And I must monitor them, for now. Perhaps even find an object of theirs. They have ties. And through those ties, in the borders of the Chaos, there might be an issue. It might not come into play now. But knowledge could become important in the future.
Something is being built. Something is coming together. Maybe not now, or even soon. But later. Project Oracle is all about contingencies. All about monitoring. All about keeping the pieces in mind. It won't be long now. Qilori of Uandualon got me into the Pathfinders, and into the Navigators' Guild. My training is almost complete. I will leave, and return to Guild Concourse 447. Then I will be someone else for Vector One. Then the Void Guides. And I will track the Attendants. I will find out what they are up to, and who they are backing. Perhaps Mitth'raw'nuruodo is behind it. Or he planted that rumour. Or that clue. Or that piece.
And my blade, or my gauntlet will be there to meet, cut, or block it before it opens ... or give us the opening that we need. And then, perhaps I can go back to the Vigilant. To the Steadfast. And to the Admiral. I feel like, had we not made the vows we had to the Ascendancy, to the flag and the Sky-walker Corp, Admiral Ar'alani might have adopted me. We might be family. But I think we are, we all are, in the ways that matter. And we will protect what is ours, enlightened self-defense and political posturing and saving face not withstanding.
A larger darkness must be dealt with first. The greater game takes precedence.
Ab'begh out.