Chapter Text
"Hello! Hey, master Wei!"
I'm not even a Jedi! Wei Wuxian thinks and stops to see a hurrying teen with red hair.
"Hey, Cal! What happened?"
"I'm just!... phew… Wait for a moment, please!" The boy ran the last twenty meters to catch up with him. "Are you going to Yiling? Can I go with you, pretty please?"
"Pretty please? Well, if you warned your master, then you can."
Cal nods eagerly, and they go together.
"Why are you going to Yiling?" Wei Wuxian asks.
"Oh, it's nothing," the boy says breathily. "I just want to practice speaking a little bit."
"Why not practice right now?" Wei Wuxian says in his native language, and Kestis' forehead wrinkles in confusion.
"OK, Laoshi," he finally answers.
"Do you like it here?" Wei Wuxian asks and cringes. Remembering the Coruscant Temple means bringing pain back to the surface, but Cal seems pensive, not sad.
"I like planting trees - everything becomes green and alive… erm… right in front of your eyes. I think that's cool.".
Oh, bless this child's golden heart! These children experienced order 66 and came out wise, not angrier. Sometimes young trees are so resilient to storms because they're soft and flexible.
"I like it too. When I got in the Mounds for the first time, they were barren. Now, the birds have returned."
Cal looks at him, his face serious. If he understands every word Wei Wuxian says, he's far more productive in his language study than a lot of other padawans and younglings. But he could also pick pick unclear connotations through Force. Either way, he's doing great.
"Do you think we can get lasanian blue pear for our gardens?" he shyly asks. That's quite a specific request, and Wei Wuxian briefly makes up several ways to find the trees.
"I'll ask our journeymen to look for seeds or fruits" he promises, and Cal grins back at him. They go on without talking much after that; there is no sense in tiring Cal up with talking if they are going to dive right into intense market noises.
He himself is going to the mayor to finish negotiations on opening a clinic in the city of Yiling.
There were always too few healers in the war, and it made a lot of Jedi afraid of being too little, and everything that made Jedi afraid they turned into another lesson to learn. The war made a lot of Jedi become healers. These Jedi healers got all skittish when they came here and realized how many untreated people roamed on the streets of Yiling.
The city's mayor (mild podagra) wasn't easy to persuade, likely because he was afraid of Chalu Minae, who is orange-skinned and blue-eyed, and Mon Calamari, but together they managed. Now, Wei Wuxian's task is to check the building found for their endeavors.
When they enter the city, they agree to meet at the central square and part ways. Cal is old enough and quick-witted; he won't get into any serious trouble, and even if he does, he will find a way out. He was thirteen when Rex found him on Bracca, but now he's fifteen. Wei Wuxian was much dumber at this age.
The mayor's servant shows him the building. It's old but strong, but they'll still need to strengthen floors and walls for heavy equipment, install a power generator, organize some space for severe patients, and do so many other things medics need. They'll tell him what he should do for that, but now he scans the construction for measurements and leaves to find Cal Kestis.
The boy is not at the square. Just an hour has passed since they split, so Cal is probably still practicing.
" How well exactly do Jedi bargain? " he thinks merrily. The image of somebody like Coleman Kcaj haggling at the street vendor for some pretty thing makes him giggle. " Tera Sinube is excellent, no doubts. The old master could leave the vendor without pants if he wanted; it's just that he's too kind to do such a trick. ".
Cal doesn't return, and Wei Wuxian thinks about his options: he could walk around too and look for him, or he could wait here, getting bored out of his own skin.
Of course, he chooses to walk around.
The market is a delight as always. When Wei Wuxian was a stranger to the big galaxy and wandered the worlds of the Outer Rim, disoriented and lost, markets were a place where he could find work and a new destination. Markets are where he learned basic. It's also the place he met many interesting people at.
He concentrates and listens to his internal compass, a subtle, silent voice that shows him the right direction. He feels like turning left, so he turns left. Wei Wuxian follows this pull until he comes to the rich inn, where he hears the sounds of guqin. It sounds nice—not so nice as Lan Wanji's from his past, of course—not nice as a-cultivation-weapon, but nice as an instrument-in-talented-hands.
"Ah, I miss playing around and annoying him," he thinks. That stern young man was likely two or three years old now, eating carrots like a little rabbit somewhere in the forests of Gusu.
He turns around the building, still smiling, and breaks through blooming bushes, where, he thinks, Cal Kestis is hiding. Cal, actually, isn't hiding. He is leaning on a tree, his eyes closed, and listening to the music. He looks at Wei Wuxian, likely awakened by rustling, and relaxes again. That is strange. He doesn't look pleased or sad. He looks like he's in meditation, but meditate while standing…
"Maybe this is a Cal thing," Wei Wuxian wonders. "I've never seen him meditate like this."
If it wasn't important, Cal would say something, and they would go home, but they are still here, so Wei Wuxian sits on the ground and then lies on the back, putting hands behind his head.
The music is beautiful. It's neither sad nor happy; it's just calm, like a river. It reminds him of Lotus Pier and the constant whisper of its dark waters. His first home was the place where he had been raised to become a great cultivator. He left this place so long ago and hasn't become a cultivator, much less a great one. He met many people, though, and made several more homes for himself, and he cannot be sorry for a little bit, even if each failed attempt left a painful gash across his heart.
"That's OK," he reminds himself. "The Galaxy is a place full of misery, but it is also full of wonder and hope."
His thoughts come back to the Burial Mounds. Never in his life could he predict that he would bring people there to protect from the outer world. He was so young when he led Wen there, and leaving Lotus Pier, leaving Jian Chen and Jian Yanli…
They should return to the temple; there is always work to be done. Younglings take care of crops, and adults build halls, sales, and rooms. The order must be ready for winter.
"Cal," he calls. The teen peps up. "It's time to go home."
They return in silence. At first, Cal trudges, as if the weight of the whole world presses down on his shoulders, but soon his walk becomes lively, and he even starts smiling silently, so Wei Ying lets him process on his own.
Life goes on as it is. He returns to Yiling several times more with medics and then with clones, who take the rebuilding of the clinic in their hands; he helps to expand the northern wing, where they expect a lot of master-apprentice suits will be; he even goes hunting twice—with togrutas and several other carnivorous jedi. When he gets his turn in looking after initiates who undertake their excessive training in the living force, he meets Cal again. The teen is elbow deep in mud, and Wei Wuxian remembers how he himself wallowed in the pond, trying to grow lotuses. Cal's master, a selonian knight, is in the mud too, and her giant, hand-like paws are gently planting a tender sapling. He remembers her from the siege of the Coruscant temple—fast and lethal—and he did ask her name after they escaped, but now he doesn't have the slightest idea of what it is. That becomes a bit awkward, especially because seemingly everybody remembers his.