@NEHUTYC : " this is mercy ? " / accepting .
they pity her . it is no great effort for them to acknowledge this ; they feel it bubbling beneath their skin , words of comfort surging in their throat like bile . what requires work is choking on it , swallowing the platitudes back down where they may collapse under the weight of darkness . it is the jedi who dress up all the ugly patches of the galaxy with the delicate trappings of white lies and mysticism , offering a caring hand so you don’t notice the deception until it’s too late . the revanchist has left that life and its hypocrisies behind .
BUT STILL , THEY HESITATE ! the truth will set you free , but it is not a glorious freedom , soaring without abandon . it is scaling the mountain with aching fingers and numb feet , every inch of you scraped raw and screaming . it is reaching the top exhausted and broken to be born anew by throwing yourself from the peak . it is embracing the dark with hands steeped in blood . their fingers clasp around each other behind their back as they stare kaia down , impassive and unflinching at her outbursts , lips pursed into a line . resolute as the mountain itself . what a wretched thing , the truth is .
“ no . ” they say finally , because they will hurt this child someday , ruin her , but they will never lie to her . not about this .
this will not break her . they know it because they have planned for this ; when the time is right kaia will not just break but shatter and all caught in her wake will be shredded with the fragments of what once was . and she will emerge from the wreckage , BORN ANEW from sunder and ash . it will be wretched , it will be beautiful , and it will break revan’s heart . these things always do .
“ THIS IS JUSTICE . sacrifice . ” they speak coldly , critically ; berating kaia for questioning a truth she , a child baptized in the fires of loss and revenge , should already know . if she is to learn only one thing, let it be this ! they would carve this truth into her bones if they could . “ we are rarely afforded the luxury of mercy and all its unintended consequences . it would be wise of you to remember that , ad'ika . ”