Talia roamed the halls of the temple. She had the habit of doing that every once in a while. Mostly to strike up conversation or research whatever topic seemed most relevant in her head. At least when she wasn’t meditating or training. Today? She was aimless. Simply trying to find something that would center her, but could find nothing significant.
A week had passed since Nethara, her right arm, the little that was left of it, had healed quicker than expected. The stump had gained some movement already, although she would have to work for a while longer to fully feel it again. Not that she could really do anything with it. Regardless, she was allowed to walk around a little. She couldn’t sit still, but even during her stroll, she kept running the events through her head again. Was she stupid? Was she reckless? Probably. But she saw no other option in the moment. Those people… they would’ve died horribly. So she gave a part of herself. She got lucky that she escaped with merely a lost limb. Half of her body still hurt, a reminder of both her recklessness and perhaps heroism. She wasn’t entirely sure. A piece of her, gone forever. Perhaps to be replaced with something better?
Talia didn’t linger on that too much, instead focusing on the tragedy she and her fellow Padawans witnessed. Such senseless carnage. The powers at be, at war, and it was always always the innocents who paid the price. She couldn’t get Riordan’s look out of her mind. How broken he was. He blamed himself so thoroughly. Talia thought if she would’ve as well in his shoes. There was no reason to, yet those feelings were never truly voluntary. He lost a child, you never really forget that. As for her, Talia could at least take solace in the fact that while a piece of her was gone, she could… rebuild. But even with a physical replacement, she’d never forget those faces in that building. Or the faces of the soldiers in the tent. Or those of the children who would never feel the embrace of their kin again.
To Talia, it had become increasingly clear that it was part of the Jedi path. To bear the burden for those who couldn’t do so themselves. Perhaps not always at the cost of limbs. For her, it gave her a new task, a new possible opportunity, however. To find a part of herself again, to live and adapt to it. She knew it wasn’t going to be simple, but she had no choice. She owed it to those she could save, and even more to those she couldn’t.