Walking into an enemy encampment wasn’t something Nix did every day. Or ever before if she was being honest. Primarily that was because, spaceship mechanics didn’t tend to build up enemies – assuming one didn’t count the spare parts dealers most mechanics dreamed of throttling for selling junk refurbs as ‘factory new’. As a result that, Nix had to admit that she didn’t have enough experience to judge her present circumstances well, but the complete lack of interest shown about her by the other members of Honored Jolu’s encampment was a bit puzzling.

The Force wasn’t offering much help either. For all that Nix had seen a full dance troupe of them performing with a precision that suggested a deep awareness of the Force, the encampment was like a hush in the Force.

Not a Dark Side nexus. The Force didn’t seem to be twisted or snarled up in the encampment. The people all hummed with the same life as the ones she’d walked by in the market or waited in line with at the customs terminal. Unlike those people though, the Force wasn’t being churned up anywhere near as much in the encampment. 

“Does everyone here practice meditation?” Nix asked, curious if this was what the Jedi Temples might have felt like when they were fully populated.

“Not as you understand it,” Julo said. She didn’t seem inclined to expound on the answer, which Nix could understand. Julo was already taking a risk given that Nix was apparently “unclean” and “possessed” in the eyes of her people.

It was somewhat patronizing that Julo had decided that Nix was instead merely ‘mislead’, as though Nix hadn’t arrive at her present state entirely through her own (sometimes foolish) choices. On the other hand, given that the whole purpose of the trip was for Nix to learn about other Force traditions, she couldn’t think of a better method of discovering what Jolu’s people believed than by allowing Jolu to rant about everything the Jedi had gotten “wrong”.

“I hope you’ll have a chance to show me then,” Nix said, not precisely lying since she was interested in what Jolu and her people could teach her, but also not quite as willing to discard the understanding she’d spent her entire life developing of the Force as her words and tone might have indicated.

“That will be the Prelate’s decision,” Jolu said.

“Is that who we’re going to see now?” Nix asked.

“No. You will need to be purified first,” Jolu said, her expression again discouraging further inquiry.

Jolu’s encampment was located just outside the city on an unused fairground. While it was technically a ‘tent village’, the tents were not the sort common to low-tech nomads. The Hyvlar walls of the tent were lighter weight than animal hides and natural fabrics while also being substantially more blaster proof. 

Many of the tents were two story affairs, with open areas on the ground floor and, what Nix guessed to be, living quarters on the second floor. 

“Do your people need to move around a lot still?” Nix asked. She knew asking a barrage of questions wasn’t doing her any favors, but even if her curiosity could have been satisfied with simply observing the environs and customs of these people Nix had Ayli to think about. The anthropologist in her wife would take any answers Nix could bring back about a fascinating new culture of Force sensitives as the best present ever.

“Not since the Jedi fell,” Jolu said.

Nix frowned at that, wondering if Jolu’s people had struck some kind of deal with the Emperor. Except that the Emperor, from all reports, was not the sort to strike non-aggression pacts with other Force users.  When Nix’s brain finished translating Jolu’s Galactic Basic into general Galactic Basic though her meaning became clear. 

To Jolu the Jedi and the Sith was essentially the same thing, so she wasn’t speaking with the sort of precision someone familiar with the two groups would. With the fall of the Empire the ‘Jedi’ were finally gone in Jolu’s eyes. That at least a few handfuls of Jedi were still wandering the galaxy wasn’t important because they no longer carried the same renown and cultural weight that they once had. Most importantly, the Jedi were no longer going to come and snatch their children away, assuming they’d ever really done that in the first place. Similarly while there had to be some Dark Side users lurking out there, the threat of the Sith waiting in any and every shadow was a thing of the past.

Jolu stopped at one of the tents with a closed off first floor. She raised her hand to the flap and paused for a second, closing her eyes.

“He is ready for us.”

No mention of who ‘he’ was, or what ‘he’ was ready to do.

Nix checked in with the Force, but it wasn’t warning her of danger, so she shrugged and followed Jolu into the tent to find a well stocked medical facility within.

“Is this the P’shadu?” an older man with close cropped white hair and deep brown, weather wrinkled skin asked.

“Are the purification tools ready Barso?” Jolu asked.

“Of course Honored Jolu,” Barso said, gesturing to the countertop beside the examination table.

“Climb onto the table then,” Jolu said, addressing Nix directly.

Not ‘if you’re ready, climb onto the table’, or ‘if you’re still sure’. Which made a degree of sense if Jolu was convinced that Nix was a danger of some sort.

Which Nix was. Even without her lightsaber. It was unusual for someone to notice that though.

“What does this purification entail, exactly?” Nix asked. She was mostly willing to play along with the traditions of Jolu’s people but there were limits.

“It’s a two fold process,” Barso said. “First we fit you with a training stud so that you won’t disturb the Xah. They’re very safe, in case you’re nervous. We use them with our younglings all the time to help them maintain proper posture with the Xah as their skills are developing.”

“Can the training studs be removed?” Nix asked.

“Yes, but we will know if you do,” Jolu said, the warning in her voice crystal clear.

Nix wasn’t sure how she felt about gaining a pair of Force dampening earrings but she was curious enough to see how the devices worked that she nodded her approval of the process. In the worst case, she expected she’d get some interesting trinkets to take apart and analyze along with the animosity of an entire tradition of Force users. Since she had gained a fair degree of animosity with Jolu’s people simply by existing, she didn’t view that as a terrible trade.

“What’s the second part of the process?” Nix asked.

“Covo Juice,” Barso said, gesturing to pitcher which waited on the counter.

“And what is Covo Juice?” Nix asked, imagining a variety of horrible things cultures across the galaxy ingested.

“It’s a wine made from the Covo Lutrus flower,” Jolu said.

“Not toxic for humans?”

“Less toxic than most alcohols,” Barso said. “It forms benthine chains you see and…and you’re not interested in the chemistry.” Which was the furthest thing from correct he could be. Nix didn’t count herself especially well trained in chemistry or any other science, but she’d picked up some from understanding things like fuel mixtures and had a general fascination with learning things that listening to an expert expound on their area of competence sounded like a delightful passtime. Honored Jolu disagreed with that with a glance though and hence the lesson was cut abbreviated to, “Too much will make you drunk, but in moderate amounts it will serve to sharpen your awareness of the Xah.”

That…Nix was puzzled.

“You’re going to suppress my connection to the Xah and sharpen it?” she asked.

“No, no,” Barso said. “We are not changing anything about how the Xah flows through you. We’re not an Unclean practice.”

“You will understand after the Purification,” Jolu said.

Which was the sum total of the explanation Nix was going to receive. She considered demanding more, but that was only going to lead to a brick wall or a fight and neither would yield the answers she really wanted.

“Lay down on the table,” Jolu said.

“The studs hurt that much?” Nix said, hopping on the table without hesitation.

“This should be painless,” Barso said. “The Covo Juice has a bit of a kick though.”

True to his word, the new earrings he popped into her earlobes went in without even a twitch of pain after he swabbed a bit of anesthetic on each ear.

Also true to his word, the Covo Juice was just a mite stronger than Nix had expected it would be.

Also sweeter.

And if it hadn’t made her drunk with the first swallow, the first swallow was still all it took to send her mind reeling.

The Force, which had been so silent in the encampment swelled like a roaring tide until Nix was sure her head was going to split open.

By the end of her third swallow, she had to reach out her hand to calm the Force down. It yelling at her about everything. The entire galaxy was crashing into her mind and she had to push it out if she was going to survive.

That was when the studs cut in.

Nix tried to press the cacophony away and she felt her arm go numb. She pushed harder and flopped down bonelessly onto the table she’d been sitting on.

“Just a like a little kid,” Barso said, clearly amused by the whole process. His inner laughter swirled around Nix spinning her in its mirth until up and down were the barest of suggestions.

“She is not a child, and you would do well to keep that in mind,” Jolu said, her repressed anger burst over Nix, scorching her and making her fight back even more.

As choices went, that wasn’t a particularly wise one and she held onto consciousness more because the world was simply too loud to sleep through than due to any resiliency on her part.

“Give it a bit,” Jolu said. “You’ll adjust in time.” Nix heard her turn to leave the medical tent though Jolu paused at the tent flap. “I’ll be back in an hour. If she’s still fighting the Covo Juice then, we’ll need to make the proper arrangements.”

Nix had no idea how she was ‘fighting’ anything, since everything below her neck was too numb to move, and everything above her neck was too numb to feel.

“I’ll keep an eye on her,” Barso said.

And he would. Nix could feel the pride Barso took in the care he offered. He sincerely wanted her Purification to proceed well and he intended to be diligent in ensuring that Nix didn’t experience any unforeseen complications. She was not going to be hurt, not on his watch.

How he was able to match that outlook with what was happening to her even at that moment seemed beyond belief to Nix, but from Barso’s perspective this was something everyone went through. No more traumatic than trimming fingernails.

Nix wondered if it was worse for her because she was already adept with sensing the Force, but Covo Juice seemed to be something adults in their culture drank regularly, so that didn’t make sense either.

With the Force battering her senses unrelentingly, Nix turned inwards, seeking to manufacture silence there if everywhere else was denied to her.

“Your vitals are all doing fine,” Barso said. “I should be recording this though, so give me a minute or two. I need to get the scanners from upstairs. They’ve got holonet links so that we can back the data up.”

And with that he scampered up to the second floor of the tent leaving Nix alone.

Or mostly alone.

“Hey Mom, you doing okay there? That data burst you just sent me seems a bit worrisome,” Goldie said.

“Doing great,” Nix managed to wheeze out.

“That sounds like a lie. You wouldn’t lie to your daughter would you. That would set a bad example.”

“Got slightly drunk, I think. Just wanted you to know what was up. You know, in case things get worse real quick.”

“I’m going to prep the engines and take the firing locks off the laser cannons. In fact I think I’ll go for a little cruise. You know just patrol those coordinates that were in your data burst.”

“Don’t shoot anyone. That’s not why we’re here.”

“Gotcha. Massive property damage only. I’m on my way.”