[SpringsSong]

Xyshari. Lana.

The two women approached the hot spring, slightly overburdened with various items that they had brought along with them. Among their possessions were a blanket, a basket full of food, and other such items one would find with a picnic. Once they set down the blanket and the basket, they sat down at the edge of the hot spring.

"Been too long since we did something like this, hasn't it?" Lana asked, and Xyshari nodded.

"Since all the color was stolen from this world for a time," Xyshari said, opening up the basket to look inside.

[SpringsSong]

Lana had packed a rather impressive spread for them: a large variety of meat dishes for Xyshari, and a few mixed dishes of Lana. Lana had learned the hard way that Xyshari couldn't eat much plant matter when the two of them had shared a more or less meatless dish, and Xyshari had been sick for days afterwards. Xyshari knew how bad Lana felt about it; it wasn't like she had intended for Xyshari to get sick.

"I see you've outdone yourself with the cooking this time, ra svet," Xyshari said.

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"I wanted to be sure that you had something to eat - I didn't want a repeat of last time," Lana said, and Xyshari could feel the wave of concern washing over her from her wife. "You know I didn't intend to make you ill that time..."

"Lana, you have nothing to worry about or to apologize for in that regard," Xyshari said, offering a genuine smile. "It was an accident - accidents happen. Admittedly, I could have been a little more firm about my dietary restrictions."

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"If you're really certain that it wasn't any trouble..." Lana said, and Xyshari chuckled.

"I survived, did I not?" Xyshari asked. "Listen - it's fine, it really is," she said, turning to Lana with a small smile. "Really, it's not anything to be worried about. Now, let's move on from this and back to what, exactly, it is we are doing here today. We get Senya and Arcann to watch the children while we go on these expeditions, we stop at a temple to meditate... and yet, I can't help but sense an ulterior motive behind this choice in location."

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"You seemed... a little stressed when we were at the temple," Lana said. "When the topic of Loq's death came up... I could sense the unease in you. I sense it even now, now that I've mentioned it again," Lana said, lowering her gaze as Xyshari turned it on her. Xyshari offered a pensive sigh after a moment.

"I keep remembering the Grand Master's words in regards to Force Sight: never use it to see someone's last minutes," Xyshari said. "But... but I want to know," she said.

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"There's nothing wrong with wanting to know," Lana said, placing her fingers underneath Xyshari's chin and tilting her face upwards slightly. "I can't stand to watch you torture yourself silently over what might have happened if you were there, and I can't just expect you to pretend it doesn't affect you at all, because I know it does."

"And you would know because we feel everything the other feels," Xyshari said with a groan as she rummaged into the basket to pull out some of the meat. "And... I have no ties to any order now, just... just to you."

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"And to your brother," Lana said, and Xyshari nodded slightly as she took a bite of the meat, looking around at the rain forest around them.

"Yeah, I have Ti as well," Xyshari said, offering a sigh. "He's said that, whatever choice I make, he'll stand behind - but if I fall, he will end all of us," she said, and Lana offered a sigh as she nodded.

"Well, then, I'd better make sure you don't fall, shouldn't I?" Lana asked with a smirk as she pulled out some fruit.

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"You're assuming that I'm sold on the idea of... going to where he died and looking into the echoes of the Force around that area," Xyshari said, sighing as she looked out over the water. "I don't know if he would want me to know how he died, either," she said, but as she said this, she felt something surge over her: a sense of sadness, and in the corner of her eye, she could almost see the Zabrak shaking his head.

"You know that's not true," Lana said, looking directly into her wife's eyes.

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"Am I really so transparent?" Xyshari asked, her voice almost timid as she looked over at her wife. Lana nodded, chuckling as she took another bite of the fruit she had pulled out of the basket.

"I could practically see him shaking his head at you, and I can't even see him the same way you can," Lana said. "However, I could feel the sadness that washed over him through your bond with him, through our own bond," she said, and Xyshari nodded.

"Because I carry his crystal," Xyshari said.

[SpringsSong]

"And so, your bond is solidified and amplified," Lana said. "I can imagine that you not knowing the circumstances behind his death weigh heavily on him."

"Yeah," Xyshari said, slipping her armor off and sticking her feet into the hot spring they were beside. "But he never speaks up because I've... made it clearly evident at the time that I didn't want to know. It was... hard enough to deal with his death in the moment. It nearly brought me and Ti to the brink," she said.

"But now?" Lana asked.

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"Now... I have to admit, I'm curious," Xyshari said. "When my first Master died, his other Padawan told me enough that I did not need to imagine it. I felt my second Master's death," she said. "Loq's... our bond had been deadened enough by that time that I did not feel it when it happened. All I felt was the surge of emotion when I found his lightsaber - was exposed to his crystal."

"So his death left more questions than answers," Lana ventured.

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"Exactly," Xyshari said. "He was a council member - why did he not have a guardsman with him? Or... did he, and they also perished? If any guardsman willingly let themselves live while their councilor died, I would expect them to go into exile as penance - you were to give your very life for the councilor you were meant to defend."

"I take it none of the councilors you were assigned to were in a hurry to rush into danger," Lana said, and Xyshari shook her head.

"Most of mine never left the system that our temple was on," she said.

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"I bet that was rather a letdown from what you were expecting to do, wasn't it?" Lana asked, and Xyshari laughed as she motioned for her wife to join her in the hot springs as she slid fully into the spring.

"Once I became Gatekeeper, I wasn't really tied to a councilor - I was tied to the Council Guard itself; my task was training its members so that our councilmen and women would be properly defended," Xyshari said. "Ilum became my second home once Loq passed that mantle onto me."

"And he was one of your closest confidants," Lana said as she shed her clothing and slipped into the hot spring as well.

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"I could trust him with anything, and he could trust me," Xyshari said. "...at least, until I left the order. He was gone at the time, and I hadn't been given any of his comm information. When he called me to say that he was returning to the Order... I was hurt. I had already left by then, and I knew I wasn't going to get the chance to explain my side of why I'd left," she said.

"And did he ever receive it?" Lana asked.

[SpringsSong]

"If he did... he never replied," Xyshari said, sighing heavily. "I keep telling myself that it doesn't matter as much, but deep in my heart, I can't help but wonder if he did, and what he thought of me after," she said, leaning her head back as she looked up at the sky. At this point in time, Lana felt the question in Xyshari's heart shift from a question to a definitive.

"All right," Lana said. "Where are we going, and when?" she asked.

"Tattooine," Xyshari said. "That was where I tracked him to when I thought he was in trouble."