Before [ 4/15] To Still the Fates : Crèchewaif - 1367yr pre-ANH

Thanks. I'm sure my greatgreatgrandfather is rolling over in his grave for the use of the name on the internet, but I don't care.

I'm sure my greatgreatgrandfather is rolling over in his grave for the use of the name on the internet, but I don't care.

Somehow... I doubt that *he* cares. If he *can* roll over in his grave, then he's probably discovered that he's got a much bigger problem to worry about.

Hooray! An update! I really love this story. Even the title draws a reader in right away. You have a talent for writing and a great knack for titles. I envy that, LOL!

Nice story

VaderLVR: I really love this story. Even the title draws a reader in right away. You have a talent for writing and a great knack for titles. I envy that, LOL!

Wow! Such kind comments...

Titles are something I tend to spend a great deal of time worrying about, so don't think that it comes easily.

The title for To Still the Fates was inspired by a line from Hamlet, though the meaning is warped a bit (I used 'still' as a verb)...

As stars with trains of fire and dews of blood,
Disasters in the sun; and the moist star
Upon whose influence Neptune's empire stands
Was sick almost to doomsday with eclipse:
And even the like precurse of fierce events,
As harbingers preceding still the fates
And prologue to the omen coming on

Crèchewaif, by contrast is just a completely fictitious compound word (though I hope its meaning will become obvious later on).

sdhfs: Nice story

Thank you for reading!

An update!

Serel just made me smile in the beginning part (Probably because I'm not a morning person by any means, I tend to have a, erm, colorful vocabulary - especially when I'm grumpy, I don't deal with perky people very well, and I think a 14-year-old is still a kid. )

Another great post!

Can't wait to see what happens next.

Scoundrel: I'm not a morning person by any means, I tend to have a, erm, colorful vocabulary - especially when I'm grumpy

You and I understand each other

and I think a 14-year-old is still a kid.

And at times they surprise you and make you question reality.

Another great post!

Thanks!

i finally caught up! i just started reading this yesterday and just finished On the Shoulders of Giants today as well. its a really good story! r u gonna post more?

JediMaster_Fisto: Welcome to the mayhem!

i just started reading this yesterday and just finished On the Shoulders of Giants today as well. its a really good story!

Thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying it.

r u gonna post more?

Absolutely. My schedule is calming down, so I'll have a bit more time to write. I hope to get another post for this story done this weekend.

Part 1.4:

* * *

"Kainen," Serel said, motioning toward a Zabrak behind him, "this is Jeresh."

"A pleasure to meet you again," she replied, bowing slightly.

"Likewise, Master," he whispered, returning her greeting by bowing his dark, horn-covered head.

"No need for titles here," she admonished politely, then turned and grabbed her Bothan Padawan by the crook of his elbow. "This is my companion, Haest."

Exchanging their own slight bows, Jeresh looked up towards Haest with a confused look on his face. "This," he stated, trailing a finger down the side of his head to indicate the long, silver braid that signified Haest's apprenticeship, "is surprising."

"My own choice," Haest replied in a deep voice. "I travel with Kainen until another companion becomes available for her... or myself."

The slight hissing sound of a lift rising caught her attention, and Kainen turned to see a young blonde-haired girl step cautiously out of the lift.

"I felt the All-Clear, Master," she said quietly as she walked across the room.

The mere sight of the girl's face made Kainen's breath catch. "Oh, stars..."

"I take it," Jeresh said cautiously, "that there is no need for introduction."

Apparently having the same premonition, the girl halted her approach and returned Kainen's perplexed and anxious stare.

"I've seen my face in the mirror enough times to recognize it when it stares back," Kainen said softly, taking a step toward the girl and looking her over very carefully. After a moment, she allowed a grin to begin creeping its way across her face - the girl apparently recognized her as well.

"You're..." The girl brown eyes blinked furiously in her confusion.

So very little of the girl's face could be mistaken. Her eyes could, most assuredly... her cheeks were set higher, and consequently prettier... but everything else was like seeing time folded back upon itself.


"A Jedi does not have a mother, Master da-Boda. That is forbidden."

"Mother and child are bonded in the womb. No amount of separation can change that."

"I'm sorry, Master. We cannot have this conversation."

"If not a mother... then what? I gave you life, Zaree."

"For which you have my gratitude, Master. But as a Jedi Knight, I can be no more indebted to you than this."

"And this is how you dreamed of first meeting your mother? A short, curt blathering of an ancient code? As a child you did not fantasize of this day?"

"I did not. Neither should you have. Good day, Master."


"Hello, child," Kainen said warily. "I'm..."

Just exactly what am I?

The girl's face changed from perplexed to curious.

How do you tell a child on the verge of becoming a woman something like this?

How do you tell a girl you've never met that you've thought about her ceaselessly?

How do you tell a Jedi that you love them?

"I'm... delighted to meet you."

"You're Kainen, aren't you?"

"Yes, I am," she managed to reply.

"I knew it!" the girl squealed happily. "You're my grandmother!"

My grandmother. The title slammed into Kainen with nearly the same force as the girl did, toes barely touching the floor and arms flung around her neck.

"I'm Lamièl," she whispered in Kainen's ear.

Overcoming her initial surprise, she hesitated for only a brief moment before throwing Code and caution to the Fates and returned Lamièl's embrace.

"Kainen," Jeresh gasped from behind her, apparently shocked that she would return the gesture instead of reprimanding the girl for being out of line.

"Leave them be," commanded Haest's deep voice as the first of several tears burst forth from their prison in Kainen's green eyes and escaped down her cheek in a hot trail. "Leave them be."

"Vima Lamièl," Kainen whispered happily. "Let me get a look at you."

Lamièl relented in her assault on Kainen's neck and pulled back enough so that she could clasp her hands around the girl's arms, eyeing her from head to toe.

"You've been training

*crickets chirp*

Ooh good post...loved the first part, with poor Kainen...wow, nicely done.

I'm still smirking at the Traqodian/Trandoshan thing. And you know my feelings about the Saecrious of the Opera...

Luney: Ooh good post...loved the first part, with poor Kainen...wow, nicely done.

Thanks!

Ishy: I'm still smirking at the Traqodian/Trandoshan thing.

He's such a silly Sith.

And you know my feelings about the Saecrious of the Opera...

Heehee. Don't expect him to sing or bring down any chandeliers, though.

Great post!

Unless you wish to try out Trandoshan culture, you may want to avoid the main course.

Okay, probably not the most appropriate reaction to that bit, but I just couldn't help it - that was pretty funny (in a deliciously twisted sort of way.)

Our dear friend Serel has managed to lure the remainder of the da-Boda clan here to Coruscant.

Eeep! I really hope this is a cool double-cross coming up, and not the betrayal it appears to be.

Looking forward to more!

Scoundrel: that was pretty funny (in a deliciously twisted sort of way.

You're scaring me... or not

Eeep! I really hope this is a cool double-cross coming up, and not the betrayal it appears to be.

Events will have to play themselves out...

Hope you had a nice vacation

nice post! cant wait for ur next one.

You're calling cannibalism DELICIOUSLY twisted? Gosh, the puns on some of these threads, and I bet that wasn't intentional.

Arin: You're scaring me... or not

Sometimes, I frighten myself.

Events will have to play themselves out...

I see . . .

Hope you had a nice vacation

I did. Thanks! (I just wish getting caught back up afterward wasn't so hard. )



Ishy: You're calling cannibalism DELICIOUSLY twisted? Gosh, the puns on some of these threads, and I bet that wasn't intentional.

No, it wasn't. But I was pretty proud of myself when I did catch it.

Part 1.5:

* * *

"Kainen?"

The voice, along with a hand gently grasping her arm, drew her out of her silent vigil staring out at the millions of lights that dotted, scrolled, flitted, and blinked across the nighttime cityscape of Coruscant's Hadabon City. Strangely, though, it took her mind an extra moment more than it should have to recognize her own name.

"Kainen?" the voice repeated. "Are you feeling well?"

"I'm... fine," she lied. "I was just..."

Meditating? The amount of shaking her body was engaged in would have precluded that possibility. When in doubt, use the truth.

"I came out to watch the sunset," she replied at last, turning to look at Serel who had joined her at the railing of the balcony.

His brow wrinkled for a moment and his eyes darted to glance at the city around them before returning their gaze to her. "Sunset was nearly an hour ago."

Truth... and its wicked sibling, nuance.

"Of course it was," she snapped harshly in a cloud of frost, wrapping her arms around herself to stymie the shivering.

Serel flinched at her sudden, uncharacteristic sharpness. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes, yes," she dismissed, recovering her usual gentleness. "I must have been more tired than I thought and nodded off."

"It's getting rather cold," he noted. "You should come inside and warm up. Dirana will be home soon with dinner."

Kainen nodded her agreement and turned to walk through the doorway into the living area of Serel's apartment. "Are the others awake yet?"

"Jeresh is in the lab watching more security footage," he noted as Kainen sunk into a plush couch along the wall, "as always." Serel seated himself on another couch across the conversation table from her. "Haest and Lamièl are still sleeping. Not surprising since they worked on a droid program until noon before finally tiring out."

"The two of them certainly became fast friends."

Serel smiled and nodded. "Put two tech-heads in the same room with some equipment and they can keep themselves entertained for all eternity."

"Don't let that booksprite fool you," Kainen warned. "Even though he probably has the user-manual for your rehydrator memorized, he'd probably still manage to burn your toast. Haest can't operate anything mechanical to save his life unless it has a yoke and throttle."

"And if I were to put a yoke and throttle on my rehydrator?"

Kainen smiled. "He'd win any podrace in the Outer Rim with it while he burns your toast."

Serel chuckled quietly. "I see."

"What about my granddaughter?"

It was only for a brief moment, but Kainen noticed a subtle angling-up of the inner corners of his dark brown eyes that betrayed some hidden emotion he did not want to reveal.

"Lamièl thinks she'd make a decent pilot if she ever got the chance to learn. Truth be told, I think my speeder is about the only thing she's had the opportunity to fly."

"And how does she do?"

"She's safe, and handles herself well in traffic," he responded. "Put her in that computer lab, and she's a genius."

"You say that with a touch of pride... and sorrow."

"Stay out of my head," Serel muttered with a glare.

"It's your eyes that give you away," Kainen said softly, leaning forward. And yet, whatever revelation she expected to find in his brown eyes, what she found there was what she least expected to find.

"Kainen..." Serel whispered, apparently reading the shock on her face.

"I stand corrected," she noted. "It's not your eyes that give you away... but hers." She leaned back and arched her eyebrows in amazement. "All this time... and I didn't understand until this very moment."

"She doesn't know."

"And yet you do?" she inquired.

Serel's expression changed to one of confusion. "Why should that surprise you?"

"Donors are kept anonymous," she whispered. "You shouldn't even be aware of her existence."

"Lamièl wasn't conceived in some laboratory," he seethed. "No disrespect to y

Dang, mijo, i wasn't quite expecting that ending.

Ooh excellent update! SO sad at the end, ACK! Very nicely done though.

I keep alerting people to their own puns that they never realize they make. Like my mom who lamented that when it came to piano lessons, she felt like she was an old dog trying to learn new tricks. Then, she said she was taking a course on how to become "Unleashed." Heehee...

Ishy: Dang, mijo

What did you just call me?

i wasn't quite expecting that ending.

That was, umm... kinda the idea. After all, who would suspect the pretty brown-haired gal of being a Sith Lord?

Luney: SO sad at the end, ACK!

And lots of character info packed into one post. I wanted to go more into Lamiel's sorrow at having to leave so suddenly, but the fast pace made me have to cut that short.

And Serel... well, he just got completely shafted. He's such a nice guy... I almost feel bad for doing that to him.

Almost.

Mijo=my son.

And that's something I WOULD HAVE DONE.