The Way of the Mystics
by Tilt
(continued from Part 14)
EPILOGUE: Three Months Later
"Is this entirely neccessary?"
"Yes it's neccessary. Padme insisted."
"But we have too much to do. Padme needs me to --"
Ben sighed and glanced over at his lifemate as Kee looked with a frown down at the sapphire krim-silk tunic in his hands, the liquid fabric a shimmer of blue light shot with silver thread. He pulled his own cloud-white undertunic on and reached for the amber-gold silk tunic hanging in a fall of golden waves from Rhyon's large furry hand. "Padme is busy convincing Theri this is neccessary too."
Kee scowled down at the fall of gorgeous silk in his hands and then glanced out the broad windows at the bright late fall sunlight, the cloudless sky beyond. Windu, from his place in the large ornate chair by that window, gave his friend a very amused glance. Kee heaved a long suffering sigh and went over to the bed where the Queen's servants had laid out the rest of his outfit and slowly started to pull the white undertunic on over the black leggings. Then another objection occurred to him. "Wait a minute, Ani! I just remembered! I've got to show Ani how to--"
"Ani is down in the hangar with Ric, checking out his starfighter," Ben said without looking away from the mirror he was peering into as he carefully wound the darker-amber of the matching sash around his waist. Rhyon silently handed him the brown leather belt. "If I have to do this so do you, Kee."
"There's a thought. Maybe we can sneak out. If we start now we can get to Otoh Gunga before anyone misses us..."
Ben tried not to roll his eyes and sent a wordless pulse of exasperated love along their bond. "Jar Jar would haul us back by our hair."
[You're enjoying this, aren't you?] Kee Sent petulantly to his lifemate.
Ben tilted a look at Kee in the mirror and smiled slowly. [Every priceless minute, lover mine.]
[Ganged up on. That's what it is. I've been ganged up on,] Kee complained as he carefully pulled on the shimmering blue silk of the tunic.
"Would you two mind speaking aloud?" Windu said as he gave Kee an arch look. "I can't make fun of you if you're not giving me any material to work with."
Ben snorted a laugh as he began brushing out the long lock of his tailbraid and began to separate it to re-braid it, this time with the gold wire Padme had given him the day before.
Kee sighed again as he began winding the dark silver sash around himself, moving very carefully. Three months after the nearly-fatal lightsaber stab he still had to take it easy. Everything was whole and healthy again but the chest muscles would still take some time to recover full mobility. "All I wanted was a simple pledging at home in the Great Hall, not -- all this!"
"Then you shouldn't have been named to the Jedi Council, nor named the Hero of Naboo, nor Master of Padawan Skywalker, the future King of Naboo --" Ben began as he patiently braided.
"All right, all right, I take your point, beloved," Kee answered. [Well, darling my dearest, who's side are you on in this? Or should I ask?]
Kee and Ben both felt Theri's bewilderment. [I hate dresses.]
Ben laughed and turned sparkling blue eyes to Kee. "I think that about sums it all up, don't you?"
Kee shook his head as Windu suppressed a grin, trying to hide it behind an idle look out the window.
Ben tied off his braid as the door of the huge bedroom opened and Kylan came in with Benji cuddled asleep on his shoulder.
Kee immediately reached for the baby, coming forward to take his son, but Kylan turned slightly away. "Uhm, sorry Master Kee, Ther told me not to let you hold him if you're dressed already. He's been, uhm, you know, being a mess again." Kylan jerked his head sheepishly at the thick towel he had draped over his shoulder underneath the baby's head.
Kee frowned but put a large hand on his son's back. The frown faded as he felt the baby's contentment, the sleepy half-formed dreams, the full tummy and the the tiny fist jammed in the mouth. He couldn't hold back his smile then. Beside him he felt Ben's happiness too as his lifemate touched their son's thoughts as well. With a reluctant sigh the two pulled away and nodded to Kylan. "Wish we were all so happy as that," Ben said huskily as he smoothed down the tousled jet-black hair on the baby's head.
Kee nodded, his thoughts far away for a moment. Collecting himself then, he turned at Ben's gentle tug in his mind. "Come on, beloved, sit. I'll deal with your hair."
"So, Windu, since you're the primary instigator of this debacle, is all in readiness?" Kee asked as he sat down carefully and Ben found the hairbrush and began to brush out the long silvered-brown hair. It was something that had become a sort of ritual for them since Kee's emergence from the bacta tank as Kee could not quite manage the task himself yet as his healing chest and back muscles would not allow such sustained movement of his left arm. The movement of the brush through his hair soothed all three lifemates with the hypnotic, almost trancelike movement.
"Let's see," Windu said, settling his cloak around himself as he grinned a little and began counting off on his fingers. "The fireworks wing is ready to fly with your new Padawan in the lead of the formation. The Queen of Naboo has invited the entire Jedi Council plus about fifty Senators that she knows personally, the new Supreme Chancellor Palpatine and the former Chancellor Valorum among them. Not to mention declaring the next week as a freedom celebration and this day in particular as the official date of the liberation of Naboo as the non-aggression pact with the Federation takes effect today. There's a reception planned that would make Ben's confirmation party look like a night at home watching the comm. We even got your Master to wear his formal cloak. Your lifemates haven't run off to Otoh Gunga yet, and you, my oldest friend, have shown admirable restraint in not running screaming for the hills." Windu sat back again with a wide grin. "Yes, I think all is in readiness."
[You're a dead man, Mace.] Kee would have pinned his fellow Councilor with a steely glance but at the moment he didn't want to disturb his lifemate's gentle hands on his hair.
[I'll die a happy man, having seen you this happy at least once in my life, old man.]
Kee stopped at that. Happy. Yes. He'd been deliriously happy the last three months -- no, the last two and a half years, since they'd found Theri on Tatooine. He'd lacked nothing with Theri, but now...now Ben was there too, as he belonged.
Ben felt that thought and the gentle hands stilled for a moment and Ben leaned down to hug him gently. [Yes. You didn't lack for anything when it was just you and Ther. Now, we're just -- more. What we were always meant to be, I think.]
The contentment and acceptance washed over Kee then and he kissed the hand of the arm wrapped loosely around his neck in a hug. [I think you're right, beloved. I think you were always meant to be with me. I don't think we could have beaten Maul if we'd not been so closely in synch even before we bonded.]
[And now we will never truly be apart,] Ben finished for him. He moved a little to finish brushing out the lion's mane of Kee's hair.
"Is this really neccessary?" Theri asked as Eirtae and Sabe giggled behind her.
"Yes, it's neccessary," Padme said with a smile. The young Queen of Naboo picked up the stiff silver wire and motioned for Sabe to get the hairbrush.
Theri gave a gusty sigh and regarded herself one last moment in the floor-length mirror. The elaborate, layered emerald falls of silk rippled in a simple wrap-dress over the silvery-white shimmersilk underdress. It was sort of like someone had taken a Jedi tunic and simply made it floor-length with a full skirt. Padme had told her it had been one of her mother's "working" dresses and that normally there would be two other layers of linen and silk under the silver-white undertunic and a headdress big enough to house a full comm antenna array. Having seen some of Padme's royal gear, Theri believed it.
"Come, then, sit," Padme said soothingly. "Sabe is the galaxy's best at braiding, believe me."
Theri sighed and paced back to the dressing table where the three handmaidens currently in attendance giggled and traded whispered comments. It was easy to believe at the moment that they were half her own age when they were giggling and playing with hair and dresses. Any hint of danger to their Queen, though, and they were tigresses protecting a cub and woe betide anyone in their targetting sites.
She sat down and Sabe began to brush out her hair quickly and efficiently and she let her mind drift.
So many changes.
But without change, there could be no life.
A week out of the bacta tank, Kee had still been in bed in the palace infirmary when Windu walked in bearing a holomessage recording. A recording offering Kee the Council seat vacated at the death of the Sith spy, Jedi Master Plo Koon. Master Rancisis had taken up command of the Justice. Kee would be in charge of Advanced Training and also duty assignments for Knights.
Reconsidering their earlier decision to refuse training to Anakin Skywalker, the Council had decided that Kee could indeed take Ani as his new Padawan apprentice. After Ani's performance over Naboo in destroying the Federation's droid control ship, they couldn't very well refuse to train the boy any longer. His obvious talents and the will of the Force would ensure that *someone* would find his potential valuable. Better that it be the Jedi in the person of the best teaching Master of the Great Temple than Darth Sidious. As with the Mystics it was better to have that power working with them rather than against them. And so House Jinn now had two more members: Ani Skywalker and Benji bel Kaitryn.
Speaking of whom --
"Where are my apprentice and my son?" Theri asked suddenly, her eyes popping open. Padme smiled at her from where she rummaged in the box of ribbons and hairties Eirtae had brought.
"I sent them to Uncle," Padme said. "I thought Uncle Kee and Ben might want to see the little one. And since Kylan is the only one you'll trust --well, it goes without saying."
"Ah. Yes. Very true," Theri said as Sabe continued to braid her hair with the stiff silver wire. "Uhm, not to sound ungrateful, Sabe, but what the hell is this going to look like when you're done?"
"You'll see," the girl said with a grin.
Linhe, another of the Queen's handmaidens, slipped inside then and bowed to Padme slightly. "Milady, the special guests have arrived and are waiting in the small Court chamber as you requested."
"Ah, good." Padme smiled and tossed Sabe the elaborate metal and crystal hairtie she'd chosen, an ornament encrusted with enough emeralds and fire-gems to buy a starship. A Corellian cruiser at that. "Lin, go tell Master Windu that the special guests have arrived, he knows what to do."
Linhe bowed again and slipped back out the door.
"Special guests?" Theri asked. She would have squirmed but she was afraid Sabe would kill her if she did.
"You'll see," Padme said, smiling slyly. And she too left in a swirl of white silk and brocade.
"I am going to go quite messily mad," Kee muttered.
Ben snorted and elbowed him in the ribs. "No you're not."
"What are we doing here again, beloved?"
"Getting married."
"Why?" Kee asked.
Ben stopped and considered that. "I don't know."
"Then why are we doing it?"
"Because we can?"
"That can't be right. Just because you *can* do something doesn't neccessarily mean you have to."
Ben sighed dramatically. "Your logic continues to boggle the mind, Kee."
Kee groaned and resisted the urge (for the hundredth time that morning) to tuck his hands inside the sleeves of his tunic as if he were wearing his Jedi cloak. "I want to go home."
"Later, beloved."
"If we wait for later it'll be too late," Kee grumped.
Ben sighed again, turned, and pulled Kee down and kissed him for a long moment, letting the lifebond flare between them with exasperated affection, love, and a hunger that Ben was trying very hard to keep under control. "That's what we're doing here, beloved. Just making it official. Now can you please calm down before I thump you?"
"Would you enjoy thumping me as much as kissing me?" Kee asked, his eyes dancing now with mischief.
"Probably."
"Then you may thump me all you like."
Windu, standing behind them (ostensibly to prevent Kee's escape), shook his head and rolled his eyes heavenward.
Torin, standing beside his Master with Coria looking around alertly at the vineflower curtains behind them, grinned and shook his head too. "You two should warn people about the sugar levels in this schtick, you're so syrupy sweet to each other my teeth are starting to ache."
Ben looked down and blushed and Kee smiled.
"Well, I guess I'm ready," Theri said, heaving a baffled sigh and slowly rising to her feet again. "This thing won't come apart if I turn my head, will it Sabe?"
"Oh no," the girl answered. "You could fight in it and it wouldn't come undone."
"Oh joy. Well, I hope that won't be put to the test." She took one last look and almost disbelieved what she saw.
Sabe and the girls had turned her into an exotic vision. Her slightly slanted eyes were outlined in gray, the subtle make-up they'd used turned her fair skin to the paleness of white marble suffused with the barest of flesh tones. Sabe had woven some of her long black hair in a profusion of tiny braids strung with crystal beads and silver wire and the hair ornament held the coiled ends of the braids at the back of her head. The majority of her hair, though, hung loose and straight down her back. Her green and silver streak had been braided and twisted and threaded through the coils in a slash of shimmering color. The emerald dress rippled around her at every step, light and fluid. She could very well have fought in this dress if she'd needed too.
"Almost forgot," she said, snapping her fingers, and reached out a hand toward the bed.
Her lightsaber flew into her hand.
Padme smiled and handed her a length of braided silver cording with a small catchring on the end. "I thought you might want that with you."
"Always." Theri tied the cording carefully around the wide sash at her waist and clipped her saber to the catchring. "All right, I'm ready. Let's go."
Seeing the stunned expressions on Kee and Ben was worth all the fussing about with the dress and the hair. And Theri couldn't deny they were the two most gorgeous men she'd ever seen.
[You two are in big, big trouble,] she Sent to them as they stood staring at each other.
[As are you,] the twined mindvoices of the other parts of herself purred in response.
Theri slipped into her accustomed place between them, took their hands, and felt the slight pain of the two day physical separation ease as their auras blended again, sharing energies and feelings. "Well, I still don't see the point in doing this, but if you two insist then I guess I will."
Ben snorted a laughed. "He's been trying to wriggle out of it all morning."
Theri smiled up at Kee and squeezed his hand. "Yes, I know."
The vineflowers parted and Serala poked her head outside. "Okay, we're ready. Let'em in."
All three took a deep breath in unison.
"If you start reciting the Eight Negations I'm going to thump you," Kee muttered down at Theri.
"If you don't walk I'm going to stomp on your foot," she countered.
"Can't I take you two anywhere?" Ben muttered at them both and pulled them forward with him.
The Moon Grove was full of people, and all the voices hushed to silence as the vineflower curtain parted and the three lifemates came through.
The Moon Grove was a perfect circle of marble mosaic tiles, millions of tiny chips of stone worked into an impossible knotwork maze representing the path of truth. It was said that the maze of the grove could only be walked to completion during the full moon at the spring and autumn solstice, an occurence that happened once in perhaps a hundred years. No one in living memory had put the rumor to the test. The maze was so elaborate it would take longer than one night of moonlight to traverse it. There were also legends that said that walking the entire maze brought madness...just as walking the path of truth to it's absolute and final completion brought madness. But aside from all this, the grove was a place of cool shaded beauty, a flat expanse of marble sixty meters wide, enclosed by two crescent-moon shaped contemplation pools sunk into the marble, reflecting the tossing leaves of the willows and dogwoods that ringed the grove and the cloudless blue of the early winter sky.
Ben and Theri and Kee stopped, wide-eyed with wonder, as they took in the sight of all their friends and family waiting for them within the crescent-shaped bounds of the maze, the smiles of encouragement, of happiness for the three. A pathway had been left open from the vineflower entrance of the grove to the center of the circle, and at the center of that circle waited Master Yoda in his dark brown cloak, his hood pulled up over his head, the wrinkled green face smiling and the huge green-blue eyes twinkling.
"Come come," Yoda encouraged, waving his walking stick at them. "Time, children."
The three gulped and moved forward.
The walk to the center of the circle was a short one but every face was a friend. The Jedi Council stood together at one side, Master Yarael's long neck carrying his head above his fellows, Yaddle smiling merrily, Depa Billaba and her lifemate Healer Ghanivo standing together with their arms around each other, Adi Gallia watching all around her with a face of serenity and quiet joy, Mundi and Yensho giving Kee amused looks, Piell and Rancisis silent but encouraging. A little further on was Jovino and the other pilots of C Unit, all in their best camos and looking somewhat abashed at the high-rank company they were keeping these days. On the other side of the circle were the Senators that Padme had invited, many of whom knew Kee and Ben from previous missions over the years, planets and people who owed the peace and prosperity they now enjoyed to Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn.
And at the center-most ring of the circle, Theri was stunned to see her family, Clan Kaitryn, including the older brother she hadn't seen since she was ten years old, Korvin. Her mother and father were smiling at her, amazed and dazzled, uncertain of this whole marriage business since Thretketh didn't do such things but if it made their Jedi daughter happy who were they to argue? And standing with Yoda, Kylan, Tas, and Rhyon. Benji was still snuggled in Kylan's arms sound asleep.
Windu and Torin followed them into the circle to stand for Kee and Ben as chosen witnesses, and Kylan moved forward to stand for Theri.
Yoda peered up at the three for a long moment, and his smile turned wondering. Then he held out a clawed green hand and the three went in one move to kneel before him. Kee bowed his head and Yoda's hand rested on the silvered brown hair for a moment before going to rest on Ben's sun-frosted copper and then Theri's shining blue-black. "Glad am I, to see you all three so happy and so certain in your choice of each other." The old one looked up and around at the assembled well-wishers and witnesses, drew the Force around him like his cloak, and began. "The power of the Force is twofold; but ye see it not, because for your eyes the warring opposites of this power are extinguished. What the Light speaketh is life. What the Dark Side speaketh is death. But the Force speaketh that hallowed and accursed word which is life and death at the same time..."
Theri closed her eyes at the words and a moment later felt Kee and Ben squeeze her hands. It was her favorite part of the Book of the Force. The part that spoke to her of the true universality of the Force, the true Force that pervaded all things and all times, the center of all existence and the fabric of all creation.
Somehow Yoda had known it spoke to her of love as well. Not the love of simple man and woman, but that between souls. The call of the Force that brought unity. The will of the Force to reconnect, reunite, with the Force through the souls of these two beside her. As always, each was the center of the others. What one lacked, the others provided. Faith and trust, one in the others, beyond time, beyond words, beyond even thought. A love so intense and so total it could easily turn to madness without the balance of the Force. All things changed, and yet they were one.
A power so great it could make stars out of dead nebulae...or change the course of fate.
For wasn't it love and faith and trust that had brought them here today despite the odds? Despite her own belief they would not survive?
Hadn't it been love and faith and trust all along, that had brought her from the desert of Tatooine to Coruscant, had brought her through every trial? Hadn't it been her faith in the Force and her love for her old Master that had convinced her she must teach what she knew?
Hadn't it been Inda's trust in her that had allowed him that final step into the Force?
And now she must trust in the Force again, to face an unknown and uncertain future. A time filled with Darkness, or a time filled with Light?
But then she was looking into the timeless sapphire of Kee's eyes and the crystalline blue of Ben's, and all she heard was three voices in harmony and all she saw was love.
"It is the brightest light of day and the darkest night of madness. To look on it, is blindness. To know it, is sickness. To worship it, is death. To fear it, is wisdom. To resist it not, is redemption."
Yoda's eyes twinkled at the three as the voices went silent and smiles threatened to break loose into goofy grins.
"Hmph. Stealing my thunder, you are," Yoda grumped. "Since know you the words so well, I will say what needs not be said. As one soul you are by grace of the Force, lifebonded you are in fact as in truth. Say it I need not since all here can see it plain as day. But say it I will! Qui-Gon Jinn, Theriyah bel Kaitryn, and Obi-Wan Kenobi, lifemates I pronounce you to be in the eyes of the Jedi and by the law of the Republic. Love, honor, and be loyal to one another evermore."
The three blinked in the sudden silence.
Yoda gave Kee a raised eyebrow. "Well? Waiting for, what are you, Qui-Gon?"
"Oh, yeah," Kee mumbled, turned to Theri and Ben.
The three kissed and the whole gathering burst into cheers.
"Love seeketh not Itself to please,
Nor for itself hath any care,
But for another gives its ease,
And builds a Heaven in Hell's despair"
--William Blake
The End
November 15, 1999
Easter Eggs, References and Other Funny Bits in the Mystic Universe
The Registry number for the DawnStorm is my father's National Guard serial number.
There are two lines from two separate songs, one an Indigo Girls song, "Closer to Fine" ("Darkness has a hunger that's insatiable, and lightness has a call that's hard to hear.") And a line from "Moon Over Bourbon Street" by Sting ("I must love what I destroy and destroy the thing I love.")
Deke Kripalani is based on James "JY" Young of the rock band Styx. And, inadvertantly, I managed to have him say something about "too much time on your hands," which is also from a Styx song of the same name from the Paradise Theater album. Didn't mean to do it that way, but it happened. Serendipity, I guess.
There are several bits of teaching that Theri and Inda talk about which are not from the Book of the Force. There's a lot from the Dhammapada and other Buddhist teachings, plus a fair bit of Kundalini yoga stuff. The tree of life is the seven Chakras.
The Tandava symbol is the Yin-Yang in three dimensions. "Tandava" the word is Sanskrit for "the violent dance of Shiva".
The mechanoids are from the game BattleTech, and Thumper is a variant design I came up with more than 10 years ago. The variant DerVars have four medium lasers, 2 LRM-10s, 11.5 tons of armor, 14 heatsinks, and movement factors of 5 Walk, 8 Run, 5 Jump.
The textreaders are based on handheld palmtop computers, most notably the Phillips Nino 312.
The thing that Theri quotes to Kee during the trip from Coruscant back to Naboo ("We have not even to risk the journey alone, for the heroes of all time have gone before us....") is a direct quote from Joseph Campbell, from the book The Power of Myth. It appears at the beginning of Chapter 5, "The Hero's Adventure". This is the chapter where Dr. Campbell talks a great deal about Star Wars as mythology. If you get the video version it has scenes from the movies. And of course George was essentially a student of Dr. Campbell's ....hmmm...Padawan George?
Torin is based on a real person. The character originally was meant to "teach a lesson" but Torin being Torin he took on a life of his own and promptly proceeded to grow his own plot. Very much like the real Torin, actually. Heh. Names have been changed to protect the guilty and all that.
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