I had a good time writing this; I hope you have a good time
reading it. I was partly inspired to claim this particular
obscure item by Kaoru's lovely yaoi comic, "The Jedi Code."
It's a silly thing, a piece of jewelry, a little ring made of
silver made to fit in a place usually hidden. I got it on my
Naming Day, the year I turned 18. I suppose I expected a book,
or a new tunic, or some such practical thing; my Master has
never been one for sentimental gifts -- but after a meal in our
quarters (of several of my favorite foods and possibly more
wine than was strictly good for me), while we sat on the small
sofa, he placed this tiny bit of metal in my hand. I looked at
it, turned it over and over and couldn't for the life of me
figure out what it was -- a small silver ring, open in one
place, and engraved with a design that could be interlocking
chains or jacaranda leaves or possibly the symbol for infinity
repeated and overlapped again and again. The edges were smooth,
and the metal had that look very old silver gets when it's been
worn for years close to skin. Jedi don't usually wear rings on
our hands -- they show a vanity most of us don't have, and
besides they get caught on everything. I'd seen several
Corellian boys wearing little gold rings through the septums of
their noses, but this wasn't that kind of ring. Anyway, I don't
think I have the right sort of nose for that, and it would look
silly for a Jedi apprentice to wear something usually
associated with... I smiled at the idea of my generally solemn
Master giving me a pleasure boy's ornament for my Naming Day,
and looked at him questioningly.
"Where, exactly, would I... wear this?"
A look of barely veiled amusement showed in his usually very
serious eyes. "Would you like me to show you?" I nodded assent,
and he astonished me by going down on his knees before me,
taking my bare right foot in his hand, and slipping the ring
onto my second toe. He turned the ring so that the open part
was at the bottom, then squeezed it slightly to fit it tightly
but comfortably in place.
Possibly it was my Master's large, strong, gentle hand holding
my foot that made me feel so suddenly warm, and possibly it was
the wine. I looked down, and our eyes met, and I fell into his
arms, and my Master surprised me again, right there on the
floor, more or less the way I'd dreamed of it since I was old
enough to imagine such things.
Afterward he held me for a while and we lay together and talked
about what this meant, and the gift he'd given me. It turned
out he'd found it in the bazaar on Paxillon months ago, when we
were on that awful diplomatic mission. It's quite old, and Old
Earth silver is hard to come by these days. Anyway, he'd held
onto it since then, and now here it was on my second right toe,
marking me as his, as if my heart weren't already so marked.
I've hardly taken it off since then. It felt slightly odd at
first -- I wasn't used to wearing any kind of jewelry,
obviously -- but as I got used to it, it became part of me. I'm
always just slightly aware of it. No one else notices it, most
of the time, since it's hidden by my boots; when someone
remarks on it at the Temple pool or elsewhere, I just smile,
and they assume it's another odd thing about me they don't
understand. I don't like trying to explain the love between us
to others; some things aren't really describable. When we're
alone together, sometimes I focus on the ring to keep from
losing my mind entirely; sometimes it works. Usually it
doesn't, because he seems to be able to destroy me with
sensation when he wants to. When I was injured last year, they
had to take it off me before they put me into the bacta tank,
and I missed it the moment I woke up on clean, cool sheets in
the infirmary. My Master was there, and he slipped it back on,
and it felt warm on my skin, and even though I still had more
healing to do I felt complete again.
It's a silly thing, really, a tiny piece of silver on my second
right toe. Hardly anyone ever sees it, but I'm aware of it all
the time. It links me to him, the Master I love.
Archive 