abraxaslogs | [open] be the water where I'm wading

Anakin had been serious when he'd asked Rey if she could teach him Force healing, but the subject had fallen through the cracks in the events that came after and up to the attack on the delegates. More importantly, the attack that happened upon Yennefer, left her in a delicate condition. While he'd been relieved that she'd survived it, that didn't take away the concern and the need to do something, but not having an outlet for it.

It feels uncomfortably similar to the helplessness he'd felt dreaming of Padmé's inevitable death. If he'd known then how to do it, things could have changed. He could have changed everything. While logically, he knows there are others that can help relieve her pain and make Yennefer feel better, that it doesn't fall to him, he can't exactly stop himself from worrying. From hovering nervously when she'll tolerate it.

That reason alone is why he seeks Rey out when she's not by Yennefer's side. He's on edge, all of them are, but that's reason enough why he can't put it off any longer. Crowding into Rey's space, he puts a hand on her shoulder, his expression serious.

"I need you to teach me. I don't think we have the luxury of waiting anymore."

Rey is uncomfortable with how used to Skywalker men being in her space she is. But here she is, with another Skywalker man crowding her and demanding something of her.

This, at least, is something less than what Kylo usually asked.

"I don't know how good of a teacher I'll be, but I can try," she replies, looking up at Anakin. "It's too bad we don't have any kyber crystals here, that was how I learned."

Unfortunately for Rey, Skywalker men in her business has been inherited, there is no escape. He believes his demand is reasonable, at least. It will help people, though mostly himself. If it can keep anyone else he cares about from being hurt or dying, he has to possess the knowledge.

"You know more about it than I do, so you're already ahead." He frowns at the new information. Well, that complicates things, but with everything around Thorne with magical properties, they're bound to find some sort of compromise. How many Force-users could it possibly take?

"Yeah, that's inconvenient.. but between the Force and magic, I think we can come up with a compromise."

There hadn't been time to do anything more than shoot Kylo a somewhat concerned look the day that the Queen bombarded the Free Cities, but it doesn't take long for Rey to seek him out. She waits until he's alone in his study, which is a more complicated task than it may have once been, but it gives her time to think things over, to be pragmatic, not impulsive.

She hopes, anyway.

She enters the study after knocking on the door to announce her presence, not that that was really necessary because she knew he could feel her now that she's dropped the barriers between them she'd been keeping up.

"Are you busy?"

A slight curve pulls at Kylo's lips as he looks up at her from behind his desk. On it are a collection of books he's been referencing and a tight stack of papers in equally tight, calligraphic aurebesh— and the pen is still in Kylo's hand. He sets it aside smoothly.

"Yes."

He gestures for her to join him regardless, eyes locked on her face.

"You want to discuss... recent events."

The gesture isn't entirely necessary because even if he was busy she wasn't going to go away, but it's appreciated all the same.

"Yes, and you do too," she replies as she approaches the desk, leaning her hands against the surface rather than sitting down. "Unless what you're working on is more urgent."

Predictable as ever. Naturally, nothing could be more urgent than whatever Rey believes to be the universal priority— but Kylo makes no protest.

"My reports can wait," he agrees easily enough, settling back in his chair. "What would you like to tell me? You've been... boiling with it. Ever since the announcement."

"Yes, the announcement where we watched a city of civilians devastated," Rey bristles, pushing away from the desk and shaking her head. "If it were a military outpost, it would make sense. I've heard the rumors about the Queen and that mage, and Yennefer--" She trails off, pacing away from his desk and back again, ill-contained frustration pouring from her in every motion.

"And now the Free Cities have retaliated, and the people at the top won't be the ones who suffer because of the farmlands being burned." Shoulders tense she turns again and again, until she's looking at him, brow furrowed.

"I'm not telling you anything, I'm asking. What are we supposed to do?"

If Rey is hoping to discover Kylo similarly horrified by what she considers the senseless loss of life, she'll be disappointed. Long since numbed to such displays, he's more frustrated that Thorne didn't foresee and prevent retaliation than anything else.

"She is short-sighted," Kylo mutters. "The Queen. The attack on Yennefer, and on her pet... it forced her hand. The Free Cities have been allowed to threaten Thorne's sovereignty for too long, and now... there will be war. It is inevitable. And when it comes, we will have to fight."

"We don't even know if it really was the Free Cities that attacked. Their delegate was injured, too." She had hated this part of being in the Rebellion, too. Feeling like other people were moving her where they wanted her to be, because she was little more than a pawn in a greater game. It was one of the reasons she had avoided being on the front lines.

"That doesn't matter at all now though, does it?"

Rey doesn't spend too much time in the Horizon, because the idea of just leaving her body somewhere while she's in a liminal space is concerning for her. It was her biggest problem with meditation, the vulnerability.

But she also craved the false sense of normalcy that the facsimilie of the Millennium Falcon gave her. She could disappear into the ship in her little corner of the Horizon and spend time tinkering with the systems or upgrading the hardware like she wished she could back home. She was pacing between the galley and the crew bunks when something she hadn't noticed before caught her eye. A fairly normal closet that in reality housed extra bedding had a very particular sigil painted onto its surface. Maybe she hadn't noticed it before because it was a design she was familiar with, had drawn elsewhere, because she'd wanted to keep it with her. But the image of the first Jedi, balanced in dark and light, painted on a random closet in her magic head space seemed weird.

So she opened it.

Inside was a palace of fire, entirely unlike the place she'd created for herself that that alone would have startled her. But Ronan standing there staring back at her startled her enough that she let out a surprised yelp and slammed the door shut.

Once the alarm had passed, she opened it again.

"What are you doing in my ship's closet?"

It's hardly the first time someone has had that reaction to Ronan. Doors slam shut for him more often than they tend to open, and indeed, it's the opening of the door that's strange in the first place. It's a door that didn't exist until it suddenly did — not so unusual for a dreamspace, but unusual because Ronan didn't put it there.

When she opens the door again, Ronan answers flatly, "What's your closet doing in my domain?"

Well, it isn't technically his domain. His domain was engulfed and incinerated by Kylo's. But this is the domain where he belongs now, because he belongs to its master.

Ronan does match the burning palace. Here in the Horizon, his veins glow like embers beneath his marble-white skin, the lingering evidence of the fairy bargain he struck with Kylo over a year ago. The blue of his already startlingly blue eyes burns like the hottest flame, electric and inhuman. In the Horizon, it becomes obvious that Ronan has never belonged in the human realm, that he's a creature more suited to this plane. But he's dressed far more plainly than he ever is in Thorne — wearing the all-black ensemble of muscle tee, shredded jeans, and combat boots that was his signature outfit back home. It's an outfit that puts both his tattoo and the scars down his arms in full view, unobstructed by his Thornean robes.

He's staring at Rey with unabashed suspicion, arms crossed over his chest. Did she put a door here so that she could visit Kylo in secret? Maybe it's only Ronan's presence that surprised her, and not the location.

Edited 2022-10-07 14:39 (UTC)

She looks genuinely confused by the situation, sticking her head out into the room again and looking around.

"This is your domain?" as a contrast Rey is in familiar arm wraps and tunic, her hair pulled up and away from her face in three buns. Sometimes she matches her domain and is wreathed in flowers and flowing fabrics, but since today had been an escape to her days fiddling with technology she was dressed how she spent most of her life.

She feels very out of place at the edge of this burning domain, staring at Ronan who was somehow beautiful and terrible at the same time.

"I don't know how this happened. This was a linen closet."

"That's a little on-the-nose."

To be in the closet.

But Ronan believes her. Probably. She doesn't look like she's on her way to a sexy rendezvous, and judging by her expression, this is the first time she's seen the volcano.

Ronan almost never leaves it. If he's in the Horizon at all, he's here. Although he's not chained to it, he's certainly bound to the place. It's Kylo's energy that's coursing through his form, holding him together perhaps even more than the Singularity. Kylo is nowhere in sight, and yet he might as well be standing in Ronan's place, his presence is so strong.

He looks past her, just as curious to see what her soul looks like when manifested in the form of a location. It's not really what he expected, though he's not sure why. It just looks so... small.

"Are you coming in?" he asks her. Because if she's not, he's going to go exploring.

Ronan's comment on the closet is entirely missed by Rey, as sexuality isn't something that's often masked in her corner of the galaxy. His question however gets a bit of an owlish look, wide eyes and blinking, before she cautiously steps through the doorway and looks around a little more in earnest.

"I didn't know if you'd want me here," she replies, taking her time at looking at the somewhat abstract beauty of his domain. "It's beautiful, though."

Ronan hums in agreement. It is beautiful. Not simply because it looks like a work of art, but because of where it came from. Ronan had known when he'd first laid eyes on Kylo that something like this lived inside him. The Greywaren had been drawn to it like a tree stretching toward the sun.

How it had burned him. And now his roots have buried themselves deep in every part of this place, in every part of Kylo's soul.

Except, of course, for the piece of it that lives in this girl.

"Why wouldn't I want you here?" Ronan asks. While she's been taking in the view of the volcano, he's been taking in the view of her. She's hardy come any closer, but now that she's fully here, the energy within her has grown radiant. It's warming Ronan, and he takes a step to bring himself nearer to her.

She can feel Kylo's influence here, obvious now that she's standing fully in the domain. She hadn't realized two people could share a domain, but this seemed like they had grown together. It almost feels like she's invading, but then the door had always been there.

Aware of Ronan coming closer she turns to look at him, self-conscious as she shrugs her shoulders.

"I feel like I'm not high on your list of people you'd let into your inner sanctum."

Without any need to so much as blink in dreamspace, Ronan watches Rey with an uninterrupted stare. He looks less like the Ronan of the waking world and more like a very convincing wax figure come to life. Somehow his eyes look even bluer than they did a moment ago, illuminated by some inner glow.

"I think you're the only one allowed there," he observes before giving a dismissive wave toward their surroundings. "But this isn't that."

There is only one thing Ronan would call his inner sanctum, and Kylo isn't here at the moment.

"I think he was hoping you'd come here eventually."

Rey in contrast stands as rooted in her reality as ever, a little dirty from her work even though the parts of the Falcon had no reason to leave behind grease and grime when they weren't real, but that was reality to her. She observes Ronan curiously, like he's a puzzle that she just can't quite figure out, pressing her lips together when he mentions Kylo.

"I've seen the inside of his mind without his permission before, I didn't want to intrude here unless he invited me," she knows this isn't the same, this is much more structured than the chaos of his mind, and with the control that everyone has over their landscapes he could of course change it to reflect whatever he wanted. Still, she wanted him to tell her himself that he wanted her here.

"He's always inviting you."

How strange that she doesn't see it. In the Horizon, Ronan can sense the pull between Rey and Kylo as if following a cord, but even in the waking world, he's caught it more than he cares to. He sees it in Kylo's gaze when it passes over her, in the subtle shift of his posture when she's near. How desperately Kylo wishes she would look at him, approach him, speak to him.

Ronan could say more, but he knows Kylo wouldn't want him to.

"Is it what you expected?" he asks instead, gesturing to their surroundings.

"He doesn't say it," Rey replies a little dubiously, looking away again. Maybe that's their problem, they're both just waiting for the other to say something out loud even though they know each other's minds. At his question she looks around again, thoughtfully, before shaking her head.

"I think I expected more First Order, polished metal. The volcano does make sense, though." Maybe more sense than any First Order touches would, even if that had been his life before coming to this place. It wasn't a part of him, not the way the dirty panels and old wiring of the Falcon was a part of her.

[open] be the water where I'm wading

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