The Way of the Mystics
by Tilt
(continued from Part 6)
Theri pulled Kee by the hand down the hallway leading to the Temple's hangar, almost bursting with excitement and eagerness, her mind shining with anticipation.
[Calm down, beloved,] Kee Sent with a twist of amusement, resisting her pull on his hand with a grin. [The shuttle won't get here any quicker.] He pulled her to a stop just inside the hangar, put his hands on her shoulders and looked down into her eyes.
Theri nodded, closed her eyes and started concentrating on her breathing. Kee was right. She needed to get back the control she'd had when she'd been on Korolis, she needed to be calmer. They had figured out the night before why she'd been so charged and chaotic since she'd come back from the Force. Her mindpowers had gotten stronger, and she'd been subconsciously tapping into the charge from all the Jedi in the Temple. The answer was to let all that stray energy go back into the spiral of the Force, and as of yet that required consciously clearing her mind and soul to let it go. With practice, she'd be able to do it automatically just like shielding.
After a few moments Kee nodded and hugged her briefly, and she opened her eyes and smiled up at him. [Much better. Now. Let's go. And remember to keep moving that energy back into the Force.]
They turned and continued on to the landing square where the shuttle from the Justice would be landing. Master Windu grinned at them as they approached, and a moment later Yensho and Mundi swung into view from the hangar's other side. A baggage droid trundled up slowly to the landing square and Mistress Yaddle hopped down from the droid's flatbed, a serene smile on her wrinkled green face.
Theri stood holding Kee's hand, concentrating on her breathing, doing one of the meditation exercises Kee had taught her that morning, identifying everything she sensed and felt but not getting tangled up in those sensory impressions. All the energy from the Force and the psi-energy of the Jedi in the Temple was making her crazy. But once she'd learned what was going on she'd been able to identify where the energy was coming from and start to shield it out. Kee had told her that once she got the trick down she'd stop being so wobbly with her emotions, and that it would make it easier to control the Thretkethan lust. But it required constant mindfulness, constant attention to the present moment. A difficult task, but Kee believed she could do it with such fierce conviction that she couldn't disagree with him.
The little shuttle from the Justice hovered on repulsors into the hangar, moving slowly toward the landing square. It turned in place over the landing square just as Adara raced up to the group waiting there, breathing hard as she made it just in time. Theri grinned over at her as the younger girl gulped down air and tossed her tumbled hair back nervously, the purple and gold streak very prominent. [Got fifteen minutes till next class,] Adara Sent raggedly to Theri. Master Mundi gave the girl a stern look but put an arm around her shoulders as the shuttle settled to the landing square with a hiss of hydraulics and the clank of landing gear.
The rampway descended and Uloa scampered down, bouncing over to Mistress Yaddle with a burbling laugh and nearly bowling her Mistress over in a hug.
Torin and Serala came down the ramp together, Torin's face and hands still bandaged but both of them surrounded by a sort of shining peaceful happiness. Beside Kee, Windu relaxed all at once and let out the breath he'd been holding. Adara squealed and raced forward to her sister, and Torin grinned as much as he could as he walked over to his Master.
"So. You made it," Windu said with a quirk of one eyebrow at his apprentice.
Torin shrugged silently, then burst out laughing and threw his arms around Windu in a hug.
And then Ben was coming down the ramp, smiling, running straight to Theri and Kee.
It was several long moments before they could pry themselves apart long enough just to look at each other. The only thing to do was just to clutch each other desperately in silence, absorb the fact that Ben was home again. Then Ben looked up at Kee and then down at Theri and scrubbed at his eyes for a moment before hugging them both again. [I'm home,] he Sent to them. [I can't believe I'm home. There's so much I've got to tell you both, so much that's happened.]
Kee nodded. [I know, Ben. But we've to to get you all up to Operations for the debriefing. It'll have to wait til tonight. Theri has her classes to go to.]
Ben nodded reluctantly and kissed Theri for a long moment. [You! Minx! I've missed you so much...]
Theri choked and nuzzled his neck for a moment, hugging him tight. [I made my lightsaber. It's yellow and orange, it looks like a solar flare! It's beautiful, Kee says it's odd for lightsabers to be yellow and orange like that!]
Ben smiled, buried his hands in her hair and kissed her again, then pulled away and held up her green streak in his hand. [What in the world--?]
Theri giggled and goosed him. Kee laughed and hugged them both, then pulled away with a faint grin. "Assemble your team, Jedi Kenobi, and let's get to the debriefing."
Ben quirked an eyebrow up at him with a grin, but called his teammates together. [I'll see you tonight, minx,] Ben Sent to Theri, Sending her a caress as he turned to follow his Master out of the hangar.
"Hellstorm?" Ben said softly to Kee that night as they stood on the balcony of their apartment looking down over Coruscant. "I'd never have guessed he'd turn out to be a Mystic."
Behind them in the apartment, Theri and Kylan and Adara were sifting through the old textreader cards that Theri had brought from Tatooine, talking animatedly and passing Kylan's graphicspad back and forth comparing symbols.
"Nor would I have guessed Adara would be interested in such," Kee replied just as quietly. "Although I think it's more a sort of hero worship, not truly a call to the Way."
Ben grinned slightly, then took a deep breath and closed his eyes. "It's so good to be home. Smells like a chemical factory here after Teravin. But it's home."
Kee smiled and put a hand on his shoulder. "We've missed you terribly, Ben. Every moment Theri was working on her lightsaber she was thinking of you."
Ben nodded and glanced back at the three in the apartment behind them. "Speaking of which," he said, looking back up at his Master. Kee nodded and they went back inside.
Theri looked up at him with a dazzling smile. "This is going to be a real job, correlating all this stuff Kylan's found over the years with the teachings my Master gave me. I think R2 is going to have to help us with it."
The little droid whistled and beeped happily from his spot by the comscreen, rocking back and forth on his legs in excitement. The three laughed.
Ben grinned and raked his hair back as he dropped into the chair behind Theri where she sat on the floor. "Hey, minx, where's your lightsaber?"
Theri cursed in Thretkethan. "I completely forgot! Hang on, love!" She rolled in a Soritsu-ji tumble and jumped to her feet and disappeared into the bedroom. A moment later she reappeared with her lightsaber. She looked to Kee for permission, and he nodded. The yellow-orange blade sprang into existence, glowing like Coruscant Alpha itself at noon, the droning hum loud and steady. Theri still couldn't get over it, even now she'd had it for these two weeks. Her own lightsaber.
Ben was looking up at her, nodding in approval. "Well, the blade looks very defined, so the crystals are fine. And the length looks right. Turn it off and bring it here so I can look."
She switched it off and went back over to him, handing him her saber as she dropped back down to the floor at his feet, leaning against his knees. Ben grinned down at her and ruffled her hair for a moment before starting a very detailed examination of her lightsaber.
[Master? What's the deal with that lightsaber crystal necklace Theri's wearing?] Ben Sent to Kee on a narrow line as he looked at Theri's lightsaber, unscrewing the emitter assembly to check it minutely.
[You didn't miss that, huh?] Kee Sent back quietly.
[I felt it this morning when we came home. I'm not used to feeling anything but her body against me when she hugs me, and there was something there...and when I kissed her tonight I saw it. And that's Maul's symbol, isn't it?]
Kee smiled faintly at Theri and Adara arranging the old textreader cards on the floor between them. [So that's why you tackled her onto the bed when you kissed her. You wanted a better look at the crystal while she was laughing.]
Ben looked over at him and nodded once. [Uh-huh. So what's the story?]
[Yes. I'd like to know about it too,] Kylan's mindvoice said quietly, startling Ben and Kee both. They glanced over at the other Jedi with almost hostile expressions for a moment before Kee sighed and nodded.
[Yeah, he's a Mystic all right,] Ben Sent to Kee. [Just like Theri, he can pick your thoughts right out of the air.]
[Kylan, you know already I don't approve of you coming to Theri for teaching,] Kee began tentatively. [She's too young, she has no experience of teaching, she hasn't even completed her own training yet. But she is the only one of her kind left, and she's been very much alone since Therasslen died.]
[I know, sir,] Kylan Sent quietly. [I'm willing to wait until she's older, but I see no harm in asking her for copies of all these teachings. Gods, just look at it all! I never imagined there would be this much that's survived!]
Kee sighed and nodded. [You can learn a lot from her just from being her friend, Kylan. She needs that right now more than she needs a student. I think sometimes Ben and I are too close to her to really just be her friends. We love her too much.]
Kylan Sent only a faint puzzlement at that, but nodded slightly at Kee. [The crystal?]
[About two weeks ago now, Theri and Adara decided to go to the Galleria together after classes,] Kee Sent, and both Ben and Kylan felt his amusement at this. [I was busy up in Operations, and I've been telling Theri not to link with me while I'm there. Security reasons. So they got bored and went to the Galleria. While they were there, Darth Maul stalked them all over the Galleria. Theri could easily have escaped him, but she had Adara to take care of. And because of some--events--that happened on Thretketh recently, Maul has something of a connection to Theri. To be honest, Kylan, the Sith hunt the Mystics down. I'm afraid you're making yourself a target if you walk the Way with her. Darth Maul has tried to acquire her at every possible opportunity. And now his tactics are tending toward seduction rather than kidnapping or combat.]
Ben's hand clenched on Theri's lightsaber, and Kee felt his sudden white-hot anger. [Seduction?] he Sent in a growl.
Kee looked over at him for a moment and then down at Theri and Adara. [Yes, Ben. And Theri's very confused about it all. That's why I'm glad you're home. She needs us both to steady her. I'm going to ask Yoda to take you off the assignment roster for a few months so you can start Theri's lightsaber training. Qualara tells me she should make sixth-level in only a couple more weeks. And she needs to learn the lightsaber as quickly as she can. I would be willing to bet that every time Theri steps one foot outside this Temple, Maul knows about it in minutes.]
Ben relaxed again, but Kee knew he was still seething with anger. [I'll do my best with her, Master. Thank the Force she's a fast learner.]
Kee Sent his agreement.
[I'm amazed she's not bouncing off the walls screaming with all that's on her,] Kylan Sent quietly to Kee and Ben. [I know I would be.]
[The resilience of youth,] Kee Sent with a twist of amusement in his mindvoice. [Well, Hellstorm, if you want to join House Jinn tomorrow at first bell down in the beginning lightsaber area, you can help us chase Theri around a saber cube.]
Kylan smiled slightly and nodded up at Kee.
"Well, minx," Ben said, reaching down to run a hand through Theri's hair. "Looks like it's all in one piece. And it looks good. And obviously it works. So I guess we'll take a couple of my remotes down to the cubes tomorrow and see what we can do."
Theri looked up at him sideways. "And what were you three just Sending about? Me, probably, because you were shielding me out."
Ben grinned a little. "We were deciding which one of us was going to chase you first around the cube tomorrow."
Theri gave him a very unconvinced look. "Uh-huh. Right. And I'm the Chancellor of the Republic."
"You are?" Kylan said innocently. "Can I have a planet?"
They all laughed at this as Theri thumped him on the knee.
"We were really talking about that, love," Ben said, handing her lightsaber back to her. "Hellstorm's a Jedi too, y'know. He'll come down to the cubes tomorrow with us."
Kylan nodded at this. "Indeed. And if I'm to get up that early, I need to get back to my place and get some sleep."
Adara caught up her own pack from the floor beside her. "Yeah. Me too. I'll see you later, Theri." The girl got to her feet and swung her pack onto her shoulder. [You lucky peko,] she Sent swiftly to Theri, shielding it from the others. [I'd give my left arm for one night with Ben and here you've got him falling all over you!]
Theri almost laughed out loud at this. [You better believe it I'm lucky!] she Sent back to Adara as the girl turned to go.
"Finally," Ben mock-growled as the apartment door clicked shut behind Kylan and Adara. He pulled Theri up from the floor into his arms and gave her a very long, passionate kiss. He settled her beside him on the chair with her head on his shoulder, both of them looking very contented. "So much happened with us on Teravin I don't really know where to begin, love."
Theri smiled, playing with his tailbraid. "Well, Seri's pregnant."
Ben snorted a laugh and rolled his eyes. "Yeah. She is. Two and a half months pregnant now. And they already know it'll be a girl. Torin Read it from his lightsaber and he's never wrong. And they'll probably get Master Mundi to marry them soon. Seri's parents are going to go into apoplectic shock when they meet him."
"What else?" Theri asked.
Ben glanced over at Kee for a moment, then continued. "Well, did Master tell you about Torin's mech? Thumper?"
Theri shrugged. "A little. One of those robot things, isn't it? The big ones that people ride around in?"
"Yeah. Torin captured one and named it Thumper. If it wasn't for Thumper, I wouldn't be here talking to you right now. I'd be vaporized," Ben said, cuddling her close.
Kee watched them talking for a moment longer, then went back out onto the balcony, troubled anew at all that had happened over the last few weeks. He felt like he was missing something, some vital part of some vast puzzle, something directly before him but hidden. Where was the pattern in all this? Where was the order from chaos? There'd been nothing but chaos the last few weeks. Even Theri felt it, despite all his attempts to shield her from it. She'd told him the night before she wished they could go home to Tatooine, that things had been much simpler there. She was right. But they shouldn't need to go home to find peace and balance! This was the Great Temple of the Jedi. Peace and balance should be the order of the day here. Between Maul, Inda, Kylan, Kee's work and Theri's classes, the Way of the Mystics and the will of the Force, they'd been pulled to bits slowly. He was tempted to pull her out of classes altogether and just teach her himself, one on one, moment to moment. But she wanted so much to learn, to absorb everything she came in contact with. And he didn't know everything.
He turned to look back at Ben and Theri and smiled faintly. They were a family again with Ben returned. The moment was all that mattered. He took one last look around the skyline of Coruscant and went back inside.
"Tell me about this," Ben whispered later that night in the darkness of his room, entangled with Theri in blissful lazy warmth. He snagged the lightsaber crystal necklace from the table beside the bed and turned the crystal to look through the facetted planes at the interlocked circles carved inside. "Master said that bastard Maul gave you this."
Theri shrugged slightly and sighed against his neck, reached to take the dangling crystal from his hand. She put it firmly back on the table. "I don't want to think of that right now. I just want you."
Ben smiled and kissed her neck, tightening his arms around her. "Tell me, love. Don't run from it. I'm not going anywhere."
She was silent for a moment, then he felt her mind touch his gently and he was seeing her memories, standing there in that music store at the Galleria, her whole body numb and cold with lust while Maul's hand sifted through her hair and his voice whispered in her mind. "That green streak in your hair...is it a reminder of old times? Or a sign of ownership?" And later, over the days since then, she'd realized she wanted Maul, that lust and curiosity was circling around in her head with revulsion and fear. Maul fascinated her as much as he repulsed her.
Ben shivered as the memories and emotions faded from his mind. She always felt things so deeply that sharing such with her was like going through plasma fire. But now he felt her confusion and guilt, and she was snuffling and crying, trying to pull away from him. [Don't you dare try to get away from me!] he Sent and tugged her back against him. [I love you, silly! I'll always love you! Maul's a slimebag, he was doing that to you deliberately. Why should I get on to you about that? It's not like you had much choice in the matter!]
Theri whimpered and relaxed again. Ben shook his head at her a little and pulled the blanket up around them. [I guess I'm more naive about things than I thought I was. It never really occured to me that someone would use the lust against me. Or that I could be led around by it like he's doing. No one does that on Thretketh.]
Ben nodded. For all their wholehearted and enthusiastic pursuit of each other, rape was something rare on Thretketh and even jealousy was frowned upon. Manipulation through lust was probably something only the Master clans had used. [Have you talked to Master about all this?]
[Do I have a choice?] The words were Sent with a resentful snap that surprised him. [That's the problem with being lifemates, nothing is ever hidden even when you want it to be. I can't keep anything to myself with you two around. Even the stuff that hurts.]
He had to agree with that. [That's one of the reasons I don't really know if I could ever lifemate with you, love. But Master keeps things from you, he has to, security and all that. Why can't you do the same?]
[Because I'm the more experienced telepath,] Kee's mindvoice said softly in both their minds. [I've been in and out of other people's thoughts since before either of you were born.] They felt his wistful surprised amusement. [Odd to think I'm so much older than you two when you're my whole life. Yes, there was life before Kenobi and Kaitryn. But I remember it being very boring.]
Theri laughed a little at this and Ben grinned.
[Nevertheless, I am able to keep my thoughts from crossing over our lifebond, beloved,] Kee continued. [I don't always hear your thoughts and feelings. When you are deliberately shielding me out I don't hear you at all, of course. And your old Master taught you different ways to shield your thoughts than the ways I taught Ben. You are something like four times as strong a telepath as I am. I can reach across Coruscant. You can reach halfway across the system. But I've been doing this since I was twelve years old, and I can lock stuff up in my mind that you'll never be able to find or read, even with your greater psi strength. You'd have to burn out my mind to acquire that information. But this also applies to the Sith or anyone else. Maul or Sidious or Izar or Ylaren would have to risk turning me into a vegetable to get that information.]
Theri went cold with dread and squirmed in Ben's arms. He didn't look too happy with the turn of the talk either. [Can we talk about something else, beloved? This isn't exactly the most relaxing subject.]
They felt his amusement and agreement then. [Anyway. Maul's crystal means nothing. He can make all the claims he wants, he can do whatever he likes, but it has no bearing on you, beloved. You belong to no one save yourself.]
Silence then, of mind and voice. Ben and Theri watched a couple of his little crawler-droids picking their careful way across the zero-gee net across the ceiling of his room, the little pinpricks of light from their photoreceptors moving slowly about on the strings of the net.
[But I'll never know that until I prove it, will I?] Theri Sent abruptly, as if the thought had surprised her.
Ben pulled back from nuzzling her hair to look at her face, and they both felt Kee's puzzlement.
[No,] Ben Sent firmly. [Absolutely not! Don't even think it! I'll tie you to the bed if I have to!]
Theri scowled at him. [It's the only way to truly know, isn't it?]
[What? Know what?] Kee Sent worriedly. [What are you two talking about?]
[The only way to truly know if I'm free of him is if I give myself to Maul the way he wants,] Theri Sent quietly. [The only way to get through any fear is to do the thing you're afraid of. What is anyone most afraid of? You, me, anyone? Not the Dark. We're afraid of that shadow part of ourselves, that part of ourselves we don't want to admit we have. And that's what Maul's been using against me. My shadow side.]
[Finally! Damn, kid, I was beginning to think you'd never get it!]
Theri jerked up out of Ben's arms with a yelp. [Inda! Where have you been?!]
A wisp of blue energy swirled dimly in the air by Ben's worktable and seemed to shiver down into the form of Sowelu Inda sitting on the chair at the table, tossing his hair back impatiently. He grinned over at Theri as Ben squeaked and started to reach for his lightsaber under his pillow. [Heh. Sorry. Forgot you'd never heard me, Kenobi. Or seen me, for that matter. It's me, Inda. Theri has told you about me, hasn't she?]
The door opened and Kee poked his head inside. [And where have you been, Inda? Theri's needed you!]
Inda scowled up at Kee as Theri and Ben curled up their legs so Kee could sit across the end of the bed. Kee had thrown on his old Soritsu-ji uniform and now tugged the end of the blanket Ben and Theri were sharing free where it was tucked in, folding up his long legs underneath it to try to keep warm. [Where do you think I've been, boy? The Core? Hell! I've been where I've always been. With Theri. I just haven't been speaking to her, that's all. You know you can only teach so much. It's up to the student to learn.] Inda looked away for a moment, emotions playing over the spirit's face like light and shadow. [Never did have kids of my own. Students, yeah, but never kids. Theri's like my kid more than my student. So I guess I'm a bit hard on her. But we're working at a pretty deep level here. Kiddo, the idea was to realize this little tidbit. You don't have to go running off to Syharath with the Demon. I still don't trust him any further than I could spit a peko.]
Ben tightened his arms around Theri. [Listen to him, love! Don't you dare go running off to Maul! Please!]
[But it's the only way to truly be certain,] Theri Sent softly. She reached out a hand to Kee and he caught her hand instantly. [Don't you all see? It's not just Maul! Master Inda, you told me once that Maul was moved by the will of the Force to be in that water-beryl cave on Thretketh. I was only the means for him to learn of us. Couldn't it be that the Force is arranging matters so that I'm to learn how to get through this from Maul? If he and I could be brought unwittingly to that cave on Thretketh, then maybe this whole chase for all these years has been meant for me to face my shadow side. There can be no self-deception in the Way. Eventually I will have to accept and acknowledge my shadow side. And...I don't think I can do that here at the Temple, safe with Kee and Ben. We don't learn anything unless there's some sort of difficulty involved.] She nuzzled Ben's neck and he kissed her forehead. [And there are other things in it too. How am I ever going to be a good teacher if I don't know myself, all parts of myself? The Way depends on me, Kylan depends on me, the students I may have in the future depend on me. We can only be true teachers when we live the way we teach. How can I tell Kylan to get rid of all concepts of himself when I haven't gotten past my shadow side?]
[Master Inda has said this is not neccessary,] Kee Sent quietly, implacably. [I say it is not neccessary. You are my apprentice and my lifemate, and I will not allow you to do this.]
Theri looked up at him, and her whole body tensed up as she felt the strength of his mind and will on hers forbidding the course of action she knew to be right. But instead of fighting that will, she shifted her attention to her breathing and reached to touch the spiral of the Force, to submerge herself in that inexorable whirling dance of movement and life. Which is the right way to go, she asked the spiral, is this the right course of action to take?
But instead of the chime of rightness and connection she had always felt when her other decisions had been right, she felt nothing but the dance. Not a negative answer. Not a positive answer. No answer at all. And that knocked her off stride. She directed her attention outwards again, puzzled and troubled. But it had seemed so right, so much like the Way...
[Damn, that was close,] Inda Sent on a very very narrow line to Kee. [Had to plant a subliminal in her mind to keep her from feeling the answer. And it's been five hundred years since I've pulled that kind of trick.]
Theri looked from Kee to Inda as Ben clutched her to him desperately. She thought she'd felt Inda Sending, but she couldn't be certain. She just had a vague feeling that something was not right here, something had been snatched away from her just as she was closing her hands on it.
[You will not step even one foot out of this Temple,] Kee Sent to Theri evenly, but the Sending had the feel of an order. [In the morning, you are going to begin your lightsaber training. And there will be no talk of running off with Darth Maul. That's an order, trainee.] He reached over to the table and took the lightsaber crystal necklace, frowning down at the crystal glinting in the peripheral glow of the lights of Coruscant.
[Sorry, kiddo, this is probably going to give you a headache,] Inda Sent ruefully. [But I think you had best get some sleep.]
Theri stiffened in Ben's arms for a moment, then went limp as her mind shut down. Ben looked over at Inda and his Master worriedly. [She's only asleep, right?]
[Yeah, boy, only asleep. Albeit a very very deep sleep,] Inda Sent with a faintly guilty look on his face. [You might have some trouble waking her up in the morning. And her memory will be a little fuzzy of this whole conversation. Damn, I don't want to have to do this to her. She's right. She does need to give herself to the Demon and go through all that. But not right now. She's not strong enough yet.]
[I don't want her going through it at all,] Kee snapped at the spirit. [This Way of yours is too difficult, Inda. You expect her to go running into situations she cannot handle and to somehow muddle through without knowing what she's doing half the time. All this reliance on intuition is all well and good in controlled circumstances, but not in dangerous, life-and-death situations.]
Inda gave Kee a hard look. [Jinn, it's the only way we have open to us. No lies, no deception, no running from anything. There is no Dark or Light save only as reflections of what we have already within us. If you turn back on the Way you live half-alive and in a kind of suspension that's pure agony. If you turn away, you turn away from the true Way and again into that hanging-fire world. Yes, it's difficult. Yes, it's hell. Yes, it's masochistic. And she'll never get to the end of it, her whole life will be this way, a constant testing and a constant learning. It's going to take over every moment of her life eventually, this living the learning. I think you had better seriously consider taking her out of her classes and training her one-on-one. People are going to start gathering around her soon wanting her to teach. She won't be able to get away from it. The Force will call both them and her to it. That boy Hellstorm is only the first.] Inda looked over at Theri, guilt and sorrow written in every line of the spirit's face. [You have hard times ahead.]
Kee looked down at the lightsaber crystal in his hand and sighed wearily. [Am I not allowed to protect her at all? Do I have no claim on her at all? What about what she wants, what about what she wants for her own life?]
Inda shrugged slightly, still peering over at Theri's sleeping face as Ben held her against him. [You two make the Way something more than just a pointless wandering. But you're not here to hold her back, Jinn. You're not with her to keep her wrapped up in shimmersilk and stuffed in a box somewhere all nice and safe. Nor is she just some pretty young thing to keep you warm at night. She's your lifemate, yeah. And that's going to be the hardest choice she'll have to make, the hardest compromise she'll have to reach. I only hope it doesn't end up in history repeating itself.] Inda looked down for a moment then back up at Kee, and the image the spirit projected of himself changed to that of a much older Sowelu Inda, the same features but aged, the black hair became longer and streaked with gray, the face thinned and became lined with faint wrinkles, the shoulders slumped and the body grew emmaciated. The clothing changed from the Jedi field combat uniform to a tattered robe and dark Jedi cloak. [This is how I looked when I went into the Force the last time. I was...seventy-four. I'm still seventy-four, I guess. I had a good life, Jinn. I had an incredible adventure of a life, I lived like few people in this galaxy are given to live. I saved entire planets. I stopped wars. I fought the Sith. I brought peace and justice to many different worlds. It should have been enough. But it wasn't. Not when you can't escape the questions that bang through your head like a Gamorian with a hangover. It will never be enough for her to simply play galactic fight referee. In the end, she'll follow the Force no matter where it takes her. Don't make her try to choose between you and the Force. Help her. Forget your Jedi insistence on the Light. Forget that she's only a kid. Forget that you're her Master and she's your apprentice. What she really needs from you most is your belief that she can do whatever she puts her mind to. If she knows she can count on that and your love for her, she can do whatever the Force tells her to do.]
Kee sat looking at the spirit for another long moment as Inda's form flickered and returned to the younger image again. Then he turned and looked at Theri asleep in Ben's arms. [What am I to tell Yoda and the Council if I take her out of her classes? That I did it on the advice of a ghost? That my lifemate and apprentice is destined to become some sort of saint? They'll ship me off to Cyrinx and tell me to think nice happy thoughts for the rest of my life.]
Inda grinned a little at this. [I'll talk to Yoda. The old man and I have an understanding about Theri. He doesn't interfere with her Mystic training and I don't tell her about him chasing Yaddle around the waterfall pool on Level 17.]
Kee and Ben both laughed a little at this. But their thoughts were much too grim to laugh for long.
[Anyway. Get some sleep. Nothing can be done right now, and you're just wasting your energy if you try,] Inda Sent softly. The spirit's glowing blue form flickered and diffused into wisps of energy, then dissipated slowly.
Kee sighed, shook his head, and got to his feet. He gestured for Ben to let go of Theri, and scooped her carefully into his arms to carry her back to their own bed.
Theri stopped herself from trying to scrub the sweat out of her eyes with her right hand just in time, remembering almost too late the glowing, star-bright lightsaber that filled that hand. She smiled down at the blade.
"Hey, wake up!" Ben said suddenly behind her, and she whirled, bringing up her saber belatedly as one of the remotes dived at her from above. She missed completely and the stun charge hit her in the left arm. Ben gave her an exasperated look. "Come on, love, concentrate!"
She nodded. She wanted to rub that stunned arm but couldn't. Fortunately Ben had turned the stun charges down some so they didn't completely numb the places they hit. She could still use that arm, as he'd intended. She went back to ready position and let her mind touch the Force lightly as the two remotes circled around and came to hover directly above and in front of her.
The remote above her dived at her abruptly, dropping toward her as the one in front of her scooted to her right and began to zip upwards. Her Soritsu-ji reflexes jerked her to the left and backwards, and the simultaneous stun shots crossed in the space she had just vacated. She tumbled backwards awkwardly and climbed to her feet again, bumping into the wall of the cube.
[You're not letting the Force move you, dearheart,] Kee Sent from outside the cube where he watched her. [You're off-balance and trying to deal with the remotes with Soritsu-ji.]
Ben's blue lightsaber hit hers as she stood looking over at Kee. "The remotes are still active, y'know."
Theri batted his saber blade away and glared at him for a moment, then sighed and went back to the center of the cube and back into guard position as the remotes started to circle around her again. And she decided she'd had enough all the sudden. She relaxed into the Force and let the spiral sweep through her, closed her eyes and saw the remotes zipping around her like huge insects. She let the Force take her body and felt the rush of air as the yellow-orange blade whirled, and both remotes fell deactivated to the floor. She straightened up, pulled her soul back from the Force, and opened her eyes.
Ben was scowling at her, and Kee was giving her a very stern look.
[What?!] she demanded of them both. [You just said to let the Force move me! I did!]
[That's not what I meant,] Kee Sent.
Theri snorted. "I know what you meant. And it makes no difference! I'll always be able to ask the Force anything I want, I'll always be able to let it move me like that, so what's wrong with it? If I'm able to do it, why shouldn't I?" She turned off her saber and put in in her left hand so she could rub her aching left shoulder with her right. "Geez. You don't quibble about using your telepathy, beloved. You never have any problems using it at full strength, you never even think about it. Ben, you never stop and say, 'Oh, I'm not going to Lift this thing because I'm not supposed to be able to Lift something this big.' You just do it! So why shouldn't I let the Force take me? That's what you want me to do, isn't it?"
"Because I want you to learn this yourself, not have it given to you by the Force," Ben said as he bent to scoop up the remotes from the floor. "Haven't you always said you didn't want anyone to question what you've accomplished? And isn't letting the Force do all the work like that cheating?"
Theri glared at him. "No one seems to care as much about what I'm able to do as I thought they would, so I'm beginning to rethink that decision to hide what I can do. And I need the skills, right? So how is it cheating? I could do my confirmation right now and pass it. I don't need to do this."
Ben and Kee both scowled at her at this. [Arrogance? From the girl who said she had no ego?] Kee Sent.
[Impatience!] Theri snapped back at him. [And I'm tired of things hurting all the time!]
[So your ethics go right back to the street-gang mentality when you're under stress, is that it?] Kee asked. [Wonderful. The first mission you go on you'll be right back in the gang wars!]
Theri glared at him again, and the tension in the air was like the electric sizzle of a lightning storm about to erupt. Then she straightened up, closed her eyes, and started doing the mindfulness exercises Kee had taught her. Ben and Kee both felt the anger drain out of her as she did so, and Kee Sent her a mental caress in approval. She smiled a little at this and returned the caress before opening her eyes and nodding to Ben with a sigh.
Ben smiled at her a little and leaned over to give her a kiss before tossing the remotes into the air again as she went back to guard position.
Outside the cube, Kylan came up to the bench where Kee was sitting and watched Theri inside the cube as she tried to block the stun charges of the remotes. He shook his head slightly and sat down on the edge of the bench as Kee looked up at him with a brief nod of greeting. [I don't think it's the street ethics that are the problem, Master Jinn. I think it's simply a desire for expediency. She knows she needs to know how to do this as quickly as possible, so that Maul will not be able to harm her.]
Kee looked over at the younger Jedi and shook his head. [Partially, yes. But she's been in Ethics and Philosophy class since she got here, and at this rate I think I'll never let her get out of it. She knows right from wrong, and she deliberately ignores such when she's under stress. That must be corrected before she can be trusted as a Jedi. And she must never allow her anger to dictate her actions. Never. You know this.]
Kylan nodded readily. [Of course! For Mystic or Jedi, this is the same. But I think this also shows the difference in the two. Ethics and morality are inherent in the Light and Dark. But not to us of the Way. That's where the problem is, I suspect. We're more the sort for situational ethics, not for ethical constants that may not apply to the situations we find ourselves in.]
Kee was silent for a moment, watching his lifemate trying to block stun charges. She looked so young suddenly, for all that he knew she was capable of. [Kylan, if it came to a choice between the way of the Jedi and the way of the Mystics, which would you choose?]
[The Mystics,] Kylan Sent immediately, unquestioningly.
[Why?] Kee asked, turning to him again. [I know it isn't because of Theri personally.]
Kylan gave the Jedi Master a startled look and then looked away. [I have been trying to keep that part of my life from her, Master Jinn,] he Sent as narrowly as he could. [I would prefer it if she did not yet know of that. I don't know how she would react, and...I value her friendship.]
[She comes from a world where love is never questioned,] Kee answered. [No matter the form of it. It is common enough that I think it would not matter to her. She might be a little disappointed, though. She prefers men with long hair.] This last was Sent with a twist of amusement, and Kylan laughed.
[But I would choose the Mystic Way every time, Master Jinn,] Kylan Sent, and there was such serene, joyful conviction in Kylan's mindvoice that Kee could not doubt him. He grinned as he watched Theri cursing in Thretkethan as another stun bolt hit her leg and Ben had to catch her before she fell over. [Everything you and the other Masters taught me here makes perfect sense, yes. It's all nice and neat and codified, and has been for thousands of years. But the Jedi deal almost entirely with the material, physical world. We're concerned with life and growing and the material world, even if we ourselves have no claims on any of it. But the Mystics...the Book of the Force begins with equating nothingness to the Force itself. Everytime I read those passages it's like I'm battering myself against a wall I can't get through, trying to smash through to the true Force, the Force beyond time and matter and space. It's a hunger I can never satisfy until I do my questing. And Theri shows me that it can be done. Just the hope of it...it's like a supernova inside me. It's worth any price I have to pay.]
Kee looked at him thoughtfully and the younger Jedi smiled slightly and tossed his hair back and took his lightsaber from his belt to check the charge indicator. [She's right, you two *are* two of a kind,] Kee Sent quietly.
Kylan shrugged a little. [We may not be allowed to be yet, but she is my Master. The Way begins with the first step. And every step brings us home.]
"You sure about this?" Ben asked Torin softly as they stood together in their best uniforms outside the door of the Council chamber. Behind them, Windu and Kee also stood in their best uniforms, watching their apprentices calmly while Torin nervously straightened his tunic and Ben raked his hair out of his eyes and tossed his tailbraid to his back.
Torin took a deep breath and scratched at the newly-healed scars on his face with a hand still red and raw and nodded. "Teravin's worth a try, isn't it? Rao, the Rajai, all the friends we made there. And the herb farms and the plains. There's lots more good that could come from this than bad."
"It's your show," Ben said. "But I'll back you up."
The Council door opened with a whoosh before them, and they walked forward together into the Council chamber to stand in the middle of the mosaic circle in the bright light of Coruscant's afternoon sun streaming in the great windows. Windu walked silently past them to take his chair in the Council, and Kee clasped his arms inside his cloak sleeves and stopped to stand near the door quietly.
Ben and Torin bowed to the assembled Council and Yoda nodded to them. "Jedi Ghanbari. A proposal you have for the Council?"
"Yes, Master Yoda," Torin said quietly. He looked around at the other Masters of the Council, those he knew and those he didn't, Mundi, Master Koon and his own Master among them. "As the Council is aware, Jedi Kenobi and I have just returned from our mission on the planet Teravin. We encountered a mercenary mechanoid unit there that we later proved had been hired by the Trade Federation to terrorize Teravin into seeking help from the Federation. I myself helped to destroy all but one of those mechanoids. During our weeks there, the thought occured to me that even if the Jedi eventually succeeded in driving the Federation's mercenaries from Teravin the Federation would continue to harass the planet unless the people of Teravin learned to defend themselves. One way in which this could be done is if Teravin had it's own mechanoid force. I seek the Council's permission to negotiate with Davion Industries with the intention of building a mechanoid factory and training academy on Teravin. And I wish to be posted to Teravin permanently as military advisor."
A murmur ran round the Council chamber then in surprise at this. Windu looked up at Torin serenely, quiet pride and approval in his eyes.
Yoda nodded as he took in the various expressions of his fellow Council members. Most saw merit in the idea. Mundi was nodding slowly, his eyes distant. Thinking of Seri being so far away, Torin thought with a pang of guilt. Yaddle smiled up at him happily, probably thinking she could send Uloa with him after she confirmed. Yoda let the others talk for a moment as Ben and Torin waited patiently. Then Yoda tapped his walking stick on the metal of his chair, and the others quieted and looked to him again. "A good idea, this is. Teravin is small, agrarian, pacifistic. Artists, craftsmen, farmers, nomads. A good place to live! But the Trade Federation wants the medicines and the taxes the transport would bring! And many more throughout the galaxy with the sickness must have the medicine. It is not the Federation you fight. It is greed. And this is a good reason to fight. Also with mech factory and academy on Teravin, it will bring jobs, money, new people to Teravin. You would allow Jedi trainees to train at the academy, and so the Temple would benefit. Still on the Observers list for the Senate, Teravin is. Not of the Republic yet. But with greater prosperity and power of the mech factory and academy there, the wait will be shorter."
Torin nodded. He hadn't even thought of Teravin's status in the Senate. He'd forgotten it wasn't in the Republic. An added point in his favor he hadn't even thought of. Ben tilted a look at him and smiled slightly, then faced toward Yoda again.
"A thought worth considering, this is," Yoda continued, then held up a hand warningly. "But there are other thoughts also to be considered."
This is it, Torin thought. They're going to say nice idea, but no. Not you. Too inexperienced, we'll let someone else do it, thanks for the idea, now go chase Sith.
Yoda nodded to Koon, and the Vaikerian rose from his chair to stalk quietly to the wall of the chamber to the comscreen, and a moment later a picture appeared, a holorecording. A view of rough desert terrain at twilight, just enough light to see twisted black rocks and greenish-gray sand. The camera shuddered and a Rthikin appeared, and Torin and Ben looked at each other in shock. The Rthikin Phoenixhawk pilot they'd captured on Teravin!
And mechanoids began walking across the background of the picture behind the Rthikin. The camera shook with every massive shuffling stride of the great metal beasts. An entire lance of Shadowhawks. Another of Archers. Another of Stingers. Brand new mechs, not a scratch on them. The Rthikin began growling and chattering in his own language, then turned and gestured at someone off-camera. The familiar black-robed form of Darth Ylaren glided past the camera and away.
"The Rthikin is Commander Itani," Windu said in the silence as Torin stood rivetted to the picture. "The Warhammer you destroyed was his mech, but he'd apparently traded places with another of his company, the pilot of the Phoenixhawk. But now he's taken over the top command spot in Tiano's Falcons with the help of Darth Ylaren. She's bought out the entire company and bought them new mechs and ships."
"And Intelligence tells us they are looking for mech pilots," Koon's deep growl said as the Vaikerian sank back into his chair. "Dervish pilots."
Torin grinned. "If the Council commands me, I will be ready to go in an hour."
"A day or two you have," Yoda said mischievously. "While plans are set in motion." The old one laughed a little. "Patience! Sometimes we let go of the dream, sometimes the dream will not let go of us. But go now, call you we will when needed."
Ben and Torin glanced at each other, bowed to the Council and Master Yoda, and turned to go with bemused expressions on their faces. Kee and Windu managed to keep straight faces until the door had slid shut behind them.
"You did something to me the other night, didn't you?" Theri muttered as she stood by the blue-green stained glass windows of Yoda's rooms, watching the water of the waterfalls falling past the windows flickering the daylight that streamed in. "Come on, old man, answer me."
A mental sigh like wind rustling through grasses, and she felt Inda's presence behind her. She turned to look back at Yoda and sure enough the spirit was now in her place in front of Yoda. But he was looking at Yoda, not at her.
[Well? Didn't you?] she Sent to him. [I can feel something's not right in my mind. The last thing I remember about that night was talking to Ben in the main room of our apartment, I remember him telling me about Teravin and Torin and Thumper. Then some sort of vague grayness for the rest of the night until I woke up with Kee the next morning. It was Ben's first night back home and I was planning to sleep with him that night. So how did I end up back in bed with Kee? And where's Maul's crystal? I haven't seen it for two days!]
Yoda gave Inda a very sharp look, his ears lifting. "Always truth is better."
Inda scowled and looked away. [Yeah, kid. I did something. For your own good, though. Can't you just trust me on this?]
Theri humphed and came back to sit down on another of the pillows of Yoda's nest, steadying her lightsaber where it hung now from the ring on her belt. [What did you do?] she Sent after a moment when Inda didn't look over to meet her eyes.
The spirit shrugged slightly. [A subliminal. And I knocked you out. That's why your memory's fuzzy.]
Theri closed her eyes and concentrated on her breathing for a moment. What could she do to him anyway? He was already a ghost. And anger wouldn't solve the problem anyhow. Beside her, Kee was silent but she could feel the tension in his mind. She touched the spiral of the Force and let her soul be carried by the endless turning, let it sweep through her soul like a cold wind to cool the anger and carry it away. She felt Kee's hand cover hers where it rested on her leg, the tentative touch of his soul on hers. She opened her eyes and looked up to smile at him and leaned against his shoulder for a moment.
[Trust us?] Kee Sent softly. [Please? We really do know what we're doing here, we're Jedi Masters after all.]
[Do you think it should be kept from me?] she Sent back. [This feeling of something wrong in my mind is like having sand flea bites, it's driving me crazy.]
Inda looked sheepish at this. [Heh. Uhm. Well, it's been five hundred years since I've had to pull those tricks, and I'm out of practice.]
Yoda nodded. "To Yaddle, you go. Will heal mind of the mistakes of others," he said with a sideways look at Inda.
Theri nodded. She felt a faint anger still and questioned it silently to find the source. "I'm still angry that you two did something to my mind without my consent. That's not exactly the best way to make me trust you, don't you think? And don't pull rank on me, Kee! I'm your lifemate as well as your student."
Inda looked very guilty at this. [Kiddo, let's just say that the thing you figured out that night was correct and true, but your man and I both agree you're not ready to face it yet. You're not strong enough yet.]
Theri thought about that for a moment. "My old Master used to tell me that if you could think it you could do it."
Inda gave her a smile full of pride. [Well, normally I'd agree, but you're such a precocious little snip that your mind is getting way ahead of the rest of you.]
Theri rolled her eyes. [You nit. You've been watching Kee do that trick, haven't you? Flatter me to get me to do something.]
[Of course. Works better than kicking you,] Kee and Inda Sent simultaneously. Theri cracked up and fell over backwards laughing.
She sat up again a minute later and raked her hair out of her eyes. Kee put his arm around her and she leaned against him for a moment. [I don't like being told I can't make my own decisions,] she Sent to the three. [I didn't much like it with my old Master either, so it's not just you three.]
"Ego, this is," Yoda said, leaning back in his pillows. "Concept of self. 'What I want. What I think the world should be. Who I am.' Who is this 'I' person? Nothing but an illusion! Only a temporary form of the Force, movement and time."
Theri nodded her understanding, remembering Kylan's Sra Yandra symbol. There is nothing here at all, she thought. A memory flash. The first time she'd heard her old Master Therasslen say that nothing truly existed in any permanent way she'd thought he was crazy. And the moment she'd truly felt what he said. She'd been walking on air for days afterward. They'd been on Zharvan. The memories brought tears to her eyes. Kee pulled her into his arms and his soul touched hers, and the grief and sadness eased a little. She felt Inda's mind touching hers as well in understanding.
[He's gone, isn't he? My old Master. When Maul killed him he didn't really have time to prepare himself to go into the Force. So he can't--he can't come back to me like you do,] Theri Sent to Inda.
Inda shook his head sadly. [I know now that if a Mystic who's gone through the questing has time to get ready and consciously go into the Force when they die, they can choose to come back like I do with you. But if you die violently or unexpectedly, the will isn't there and your soul is too much in shock to stick together. So, no, dear, Therasslen can't come back. He's part of the Force now.]
Theri tried to swallow the lump in her throat, but couldn't. "Ah well. Two of you on my case would be one too many," she said, trying to make a joke of it.
[Heh. If we could all come back you'd go bug-nuts,] Inda Sent with his usual grin. [We'd all want to get our say, and you'd never get any peace. We're an individualistic lot, us Mystics.] He grinned over at Yoda.
Yoda humphed softly.
[You were one of his students, weren't you?] Theri Sent to Inda on a narrow line. [You were one of Yoda's apprentices, like Kee.]
Inda glanced over at her and nodded slightly. [Yeah, kid. And it's really odd sometimes to see someone else as his Padawan and know that it's been over five hundred years...do you know, he uses my room as a meditation room now...it freaks me out. I'm his soul-son, I think sometimes, not this Jinn fellow. But...time went on without me. And life went on without me. That's the way of things. The will of the Force.]
Theri nodded. Yes, life and time went on, the universe went on. You either went along with the will of the Force or you lived half-alive while you tried to resist the pull of it. No one could live in the past. And the future pulled her forward now, the future was Kylan and the other students who would follow him. She had no future as a Jedi. She could see the need for Jedi, she could see the sense in fighting the Sith and the evils of the galaxy. But to a Mystic, these things were an integral part of the universe as a whole. The Light and Dark were symbiotic of each other. They existed dependent on each other for definition. But the Mystics were the centerpoint that gave way into the transcendent, the nothingness of the true Force. She would only have the motivation to defend those who had no other means to defend themselves from the predations of the Dark. But as to the actual spiritual conflict, she saw no point in fighting it or condemning it. It all existed in harmony and balance, and there was no need to fight.
"I'm going to start teaching Kylan," she said abruptly into the silence. "The Force brought him to me. I can't hold on to the past anymore, I have to grow up now. I want to grow up now. I'll still learn the lightsaber, but it's time I stopped avoiding the future. You can't hold back the tide with your hands. I'm not a Jedi. I'm a Mystic, and I have to follow my own Way."
Kee and Inda gave each other startled looks. She could sense their immediate negative reaction to this. Kee tightened his arms around her.
[Beloved,] she Sent softly. [I will always be with you beyond time. But I can't be a Jedi. I don't have your will to fight the Dark. My heart isn't in it, I see no real need to fight it save only to protect people. My Way is beyond that. And it calls me now. Please, beloved. Let me live my own life.]
She felt Kee's protests unvoiced in his mind, the helpless denial. She turned to look up at him and saw the conflict in his eyes, love and fear.
[Whatever happens, beloved, we will go through it together,] she Sent. [I will not leave this life without you. I promise you, your soul will never be alone even if my body is far away. But I must live my own life. Don't hold me back anymore. Help me.]
Kee looked down and nodded silently, reluctantly. [I trust you, beloved. But the Way scares me. You could so easily go mad or get killed by these crazy things you want to do. How can I just stand by and watch when I want so much to protect you?]
Theri smiled a little and put up a hand to caress his cheek, twining a lock of his hair in her fingers. [Probably the same way I have to watch while you get older and this lovely long hair gets more gray in it, and know that I won't have you with me forever. A leap of faith, dearheart. Just a sheer, blind leap of faith.]
Over the next few days, it didn't appear as if any more students would be joining Kylan's Religious Symbolism class, so the four of them would often meet at the classroom and then leave to go elsewhere for lessons. Usually they would go and sit below the sunsplittler sculpture beside the waterfall fountain on the first level of the Temple. Sometimes, though, they would just all wander around together around the Temple, and anything and everything they saw or heard would become the topic of discussion. Once Rhyonluppa sat for ten minutes watching the fish in the waterfall pool, and Kylan told them of the symbolism of fish and water and oceans. Rhyon replied at one point that it wasn't the symbolism of fish he was interested in at the moment, but the symbolism of food. Wookies were predators after all, and it had been a long time since lunch...That had led to several classes spent in the lunchroom where they sat with munchies and drinks and Kylan told them about several cultures that had ritualized food to such an extent that it was more ceremony than edible. When Taslimi had told them all about the old scout ship she was rebuilding in her Starship Mechanics class, Kylan had suggested she research the mythological meanings of starships and bring the class her reasearch. Tas had surprised them all by showing up a couple days later with a holorecording from her grandfather on Corellia, an old grizzled mechanic who talked of the Corellian myth of the Lost Ship-Gypsy Tribes. Corellian folklore had several stories of how Corellia had been first settled by a tribe of ship-gypsies, which would account for the almost-universal talent all Corellians had as pilots. But it was also said that three tribes of the ship-gypsies had not landed on Corellia but had gone on with their wanderings, never to be heard from again.
It was a magical time for Theri. Kylan had learned so much during the years he'd been searching for the Mystics, and his joy in finding the common threads between cultures was genuine. It was like a giant puzzle to him, an endless story with myriad characters and signs to be read. He taught by association, letting the world around him suggest the turn of the teaching. At times it seemed like a scavenger hunt, following trails through the Temple library databases or taking the maglev to Coruscant's many vast museums to copy pictographs off some alien artifact or sitting in the lunchroom debating whether the Sra Yandra symbolized creation or dissolution.
Theri soon learned that Taslimi and Rhyon were much of a mind with herself and Kylan. The Corellian girl and the young Wookie were taking Kylan's course as their chosen elective, just as they'd taken his Cultural Anthropology and Sociology courses more than a year before. Also the two were inseparable friends, they'd been chosen as apprentices by Mistress Goza within days of each other as children and had grown up together. Both were intensely interested in other cultures and mythology and anthropology. And both Tas and Rhyon were interested in learning more about the Mystics from her and Kylan, despite some good-natured kidding around.
And that led to discussions of the various personal sigils used by almost every Jedi and Sith, from the Jedi triskele to the Sith's nine-pointed star. Theri brought her Mystic symbol-disk to that class, and explained it had originally come from the Mystic Temple on Cae-Tauvon. Kylan had held the disk like it was spun of golden shadows and not simple duralanium.
If Kylan taught her any one thing from that class it was that literally anything could be a symbol and thus everything had deeper meanings to it. If one knew how to look and had the proper background in anthropology and mythology, the entire world around you could be read like a textfile. Sometimes the depth of meaning in these symbols was quite astonishing. And nothing could have pried her away from that class for all the fire-gold in the galaxy.
There would be no Padawan ceremony to make Kylan her apprentice. He'd already been confirmed as a Jedi for five years and was seven years older than she was. But in the months during which he taught her in his class, the bond of friendship and shared soul-life took hold just as firmly and lastingly as it would have if they'd stood together in the Great Hall and claimed each other as Padawan and Master. They found they were equals in mind and heart and soul, so much so that when Kylan finally scraped up the courage to tell her he was homosexual he was stunned when she threw her arms around him laughing and told him she was glad that sex would never get in the way of their friendship. There would never be that distraction between them, and in some odd way they were closer emotionally and spirtually because of it. Save for her old Master Therasslen, Theri had never had a relationship with a human male that didn't include sex. Kylan had never had a relationship with a female where he felt safe. For both of them it was something strange and new to be so close to someone they weren't sleeping with. For everyone around them it was bewildering. But for Kylan and Theri, it was just right.
The blue lightsaber blade flashed over to the left in a slow arc, and Theri felt Ben's strength behind his saber pushing her own yellow-orange blade down. She concentrated on keeping her balance as her arms and wrists were forced downward, resisting the urge to try to fight the pull of her saber.
"All right, now instead of trying to bring your saber up, pull it in the direction I'm pushing it--"
Suddenly she saw what he meant and shifted forward slightly, moving her hands on the grip of her lightsaber to pull it away from Ben's blade, arc it around behind her. The blue flash of Ben's saber lifting to block as her own blade came back over her shoulder to slash downward. The yellow-orange and blue sabers crossed just over Ben's head and rasped loudly as the frequencies of the energy-blades fought and translated into sound. And they were looking at each other now almost nose to nose. Ben grinned and she kissed him swiftly.
[Oh good grief,] Kylan Sent sourly from outside the cube. [If that isn't hopelessly melodramatic I don't know what is.]
Theri and Ben laughed a little, and he nodded to her. She nodded back, and he pushed with his lightsaber and she flipped simultaneously backwards and landed in guard position. Ben didn't wait, just came at her in the attack he'd just shown her, and she managed to block it. This time he kissed her and Kylan rolled his eyes with a snort of laughter.
[I hope I get to try that on Maul someday,] Theri Sent mischievously. [He'd be so surprised I could beat him senseless before he could recover.]
"Yuck!" Ben said with a laugh. "Now then. Here's the next move in that kata. Turn off your saber, love." He turned his own saber off, hooked it onto his belt and gestured for her to come over to him.
Outside the cube, Kee came up to the bench where Kylan was sitting and nodded in greeting as the younger Jedi looked up at him with a grin. The Jedi Master's face was calm but Kylan could see the worry behind the calmness. [What's wrong, sir?] Kylan Sent tentatively. [Theri's doing fine today, aside from all this syrupy romantic stuff.]
Kee's amusement flashed and he smiled at the two moving together inside the glowing amber walls of the saber cube. [Could be worse. She and I could be practicing together. We have to make sure we're alone every time we do.]
Kylan smiled and picked up the remotes Ben had built for him and headed for the empty saber cube nearby. Kee watched him for a moment as the saber cube appeared out of the floor and the younger Jedi tossed in his remotes and followed them into the confines of the cube, tossing his long black hair back over his shoulder as he did so. The droning hum of lightsabers activating brought his attention back to his apprentices where they stood side by side inside their own saber cube, yellow-orange and blue blades raised over their heads as they began to move together through the sword-kata Ben was teaching her. He smiled faintly, remembering teaching that same kata to Ben many years ago on Tatooine. Theri had found to her frustration that learning the lightsaber was going to be somewhat more difficult than learning Soritsu-ji. The flashes of impatience with herself might have become self-doubt without Ben's constant badgering and encouragement and the occassional distraction. As much as Theri was learning from him, Ben was learning how to deal with students from her. Yoda had been wise in assigning Ben to teach her.
Kee sighed and pulled his cloak around him, suddenly wishing he could just forget the news he brought and hop into the cube with Ben and Theri. [Ben, Theri, can you stop for a minute? I have something to tell you, beloved.]
The two stopped, turned to blink at each other, then deactivated their sabers. Ben unhooked the cube controller from his belt and the cube began to dissipate around them.
Kee held out his hands to Theri as she walked over to him, absently hooking her lightsaber onto the ring on her belt. She came to stand in front of him, wondering at the way he was shielding her out of his thoughts. "What's wrong?" she asked as he took her hands and kissed her fingers.
[Your brother Dodiya, beloved. We just got a message from your Apa--]
Theri saw the message in his mind, and her hands clenched around his. [Doda--Doda can't be dead! No! We were just there--he was--No--]
Kee moved her gently onto the bench beside him as Ben sat down on her other side, both of them wrapping her in their arms, trying to Send what comfort they could into her stunned and disbelieving mind. [He was sick for a long time, beloved,] Kee Sent softly, settling her against his shoulder as she started to cry. [Your Apa said it was something the doctors on Thretketh had never seen. They tried to help him all they could, and for a while they thought they had it under control, but then he started to go downhill fast a week or two after we were there. Your Apa said that's why they had the speeder, they'd bought it so they could get Doda to the doctors in Delia quickly.]
[No...he can't be gone. He was--fine when we went home. He was kidding me about not eating enough.]
Kee sighed and closed his eyes as he felt her grief in his mind, her disbelief that Dodiya was gone. [He wasn't fine, dearheart. He was very sick. We were lucky enough to see him in fairly good shape.]
She was silent then, but he could still feel her stunned grief. Then, [Was Apa certain it was the sickness that killed Doda?]
Kee pulled away a little to look down at her. Ben looked up at his Master in surprise at this. Theri scrubbed at the tears on her face as Kylan came up to them wonderingly.
[You think it might have been something else?] Kee Sent carefully to her.
Theri shrugged slightly and took Ben's hand. [It could have been anything, couldn't it? If Doda was already weak, who knows?] She looked up at Kylan as he knelt before her, his eyes going distant as she Sent the situation to him.
Kee put a hand to her cheek and lifted her head to face him. [Spill it, beloved. You've been hiding something since we went to Thretketh. What?]
Theri was silent, shielding him out of her thoughts, trying to look away from him but he wouldn't let her. Then Kylan reached up and put a hand on her arm, and she looked down into his eyes and turned her arm over to squeeze his hand briefly. [It's rather--vague now. I was real small when it all happened, so I don't remember it too well. But--] she stopped, looked up at Ben then back to Kee, and reached out to all three of them.
Thretketh. The Kaitryn family clanhold seen from the perspective of a ten-year-old, all high stone walls and seagulls wheeling and clouds piling up over the ocean. The smells of fish and salt and klatchaska trees, the new acrid scents of alga processing. Dodiya chasing her down the beach, laughing, toward the cave where the Kaitryn children played when the weather permitted. Tharki scrambling beside her, tugging her up the rocks by one arm, chattering about maybe finding some of the godru stars in the tidal pools below the cave. Their brother-cousin Korvin laughing at all of them as he followed behind them, his fishing line coiled in his hand, wincing a little as the cave opened before them and the yells of the children suddenly echoed painfully in their ears. Theri and Tharki laying face-down on the overhanging rocks over the small tidal pool at the entrance of the cave, searching for the godru starfishes amidst the multicolored crawlers and anemones, Dodiya climbing up to the ledges inside the cave behind them. And Korvin calling out in greeting as Dalryn came walking up to the cave from the other side of the beach, his speargun over his shoulder and a string of thorotla fish in his hand. Dalryn's furtive glance at the three children before turning to face his brother Korvin.
[Korvin was--is--Dalryn's brother, my mother's second child,] Theri Sent to them. [Doda told me later that Korvin was about to be sent off to Delia, to Morosala. Apa and Ama were going to send him to the SpaceCorps Academy. And Dalryn was jealous.]
Dalryn's angry voice, Korvin's voice even and quiet as always. Theri and Tharki looking up at their older brother-cousins as Dodiya watched silently from his ledge. And Theri chewing at her lips nervously, seeing the long fishing knife in the sheathe on Dalryn's belt. She knew how sharp that knife was. She'd watched Dalryn throw that knife time after time into the wooden posts that held up the awnings on the terrace outside their mother's solar. She'd seen him gut dozens of fish with that knife. And the voices were too angry. And suddenly she knew--
But so did Dodiya. They traded a look full of terror as Tharki squirmed beside her. Theri was terrified, too scared even to move. But Dodiya wasn't.
The rock Dodiya tried to throw at Dalryn missed, but it succeeded in distracting their brother-cousin for a second or two. He turned to glare up at Dodiya and the boy's eyes got wide and he gasped and clutched his head in pain. Theri yelled and jumped to her feet. She'd felt something, some sort of invisible wave of hate and pain, that had burst from Dalryn and arrowed across the cave at her brother. Korvin yelled at them to stop, but Theri was running at Dalryn already with her small hands balled up to hit him. Dalryn merely scooped her up and tossed her down off the rocks to fall down onto the beach below. Then he whipped around, drew his fishing knife in one fluid move, and plunged the knife into Korvin's stomach.
The memory-Sending faded from their minds as Theri snuffled and rubbed her eyes. Kee shook his head free of the memories as Ben and Kylan blinked.
[Tharki ran to get Ama,] Theri continued, her mindvoice filled with tension and remembered terror. [Apa was out on the boat with my uncles and cousins. Dalryn grabbed hold of me and Doda and did something to our minds, all I remember is a terrible pain in my head and then Ama was running up the beach toward us. I don't know how he did it, but the official family story was that Korvin had been helping Dalryn gut the fish he'd caught and the knife had slipped and he'd stabbed himself, and that Doda and I had panicked. Tharki was only twelve, and he was scatterbrained early. Even if he'd gone running up to Ama screaming that Dalryn had stabbed Korvin Ama would have put it down to Tharki's usual over-reacting. But whatever Dalryn did to me and Doda, it didn't last long. Dalryn realized this and kept us terrified so we wouldn't talk. But Ama had my Apa take Korvin to Port Druva to the doctors, and he never came home. Apa told me that once Korvin was patched up he went straight to the Academy recruiters office and shipped out as soon as he could. He's been a navigator on a water-hauler ship, the Orionis , ever since.]
Kee sighed and kissed her forehead, and Ben rubbed her back. Kylan shook his head and sat back on his heels.
[It amazes me sometimes how evil can just pop up unexpectedly in places you'd never think to find it,] Kylan Sent quietly. [And this person Dalryn is still living with your family?]
Theri nodded. [Unfortunately, yes, but he's in prison now. He's the one who tried to sell me to Maul. He's always been desperate to find a way off Thretketh. He hates it. I don't know why, since as far as I know he's never been off-planet. He tried to enlist with the SpaceCorps when I was fifteen, but for some reason they wouldn't take him.]
Kee humphed softly. [Psychological problems, probably. SpaceCorps does psych tests on every applicant, standard procedure. Primarily to look for the possibility of claustrophobia and xenophobia, but also for psychosis. But I think I should ask Windu to send someone to Thretketh to test your brothers and sisters for psionics and for Force-talent. With Dalryn, Dodiya and you having at least telepathy, the rest of your siblings might also have such. And we already know Dalryn's dangerous.]
Theri sighed and sat back against the pillows of the bed, looking out the windows of the bedroom at the ships passing by and the shadows of the Temple on the nearby buildings. She hit the Save button on her textreader and rubbed her eyes wearily.
She'd explained everything about that whole wretched incident with Dalryn to her mother in the letter she'd just completed. All about Maul. All about what really happened to Korvin when she was little. All about Kee and Ben. She'd been working on the letter for two days. She was suprised the file still fit in the textreader's onboard memory.
It all seemed so very distant from her at the moment. Distant and disconnected. She still couldn't believe no one at home had told her about Dodiya being sick. She remembered the way Dodiya had picked her up to hug her just as he'd always done when they were kids. That gentle giant brother of hers, gone.
Ah well. She suspected at least one of her brothers or sisters would show psionics or Force-talent. Dalryn wouldn't be able to play his mind games anymore with them when he got out of prison. And a life in the Psi-Corps was almost as glamorous as that of the Jedi. She quirked a grin briefly. Her family would never believe her if she tried to convince them the life of a Jedi wasn't all swordfighting and saving planets.
Thank the Force she had managed to convince Kee to let her quit Ethics class. Finally. After almost a year. He had not decided whether to choose another class for her yet. She knew he was contemplating taking her out of classes altogether and teaching her himself one on one. He'd been zipping over to the Senate lately while she was in her classes. She wondered what was going on, but as usual Master Qui-Gon Jinn would not enlighten her as to his work.
Almost a year. She'd been with Kee and Ben almost a year.
[And it has been the happiest year of my life,] Kee Sent softly to her, his mindvoice fainter than normal with distance. He'd heard her thinking of him. [Every moment we've been together has been joy.]
Theri swallowed against the sudden lump in her throat and reached out to him with a mental caress. [Even when I've been a dork?] she Sent. [When I wouldn't trust you on Tatooine and when I wanted to kill Dalryn and when you almost died when I went into the Force?]
[Even so, beloved.] She felt him smiling. [There is no joy that does not also have some sadness in it. We're humans, not perfected saints. Have you finished your letter to your Ama?]
[Yeah. I guess I'll send it off tonight,] Theri answered, picking at the fringe on one of the pillows on their bed.
[Good. Because you wouldn't have time for it tomorrow. You're coming with me to the Senate tomorrow.]
Theri blinked in surprise. [I am? Why?]
[Because I want you to learn of it, that's why. And I thought you might like to see the Govenor General of Thretketh make the second petition to the Senate for Thretketh to be admitted into the Republic. One of Clan Vaitra, I think.] She felt his presence getting closer, his mindvoice gaining strength. [I'm coming home now, I'll be there in a few minutes.] And she felt his caress in her mind as his presence faded.
The Galactic Senate. She'd been there once, briefly, with her Ethics and Philosophy class. She'd gotten terribly dizzy looking up and down the giant well of the Senate chamber, the hovercars of the delegations in spiralling ranks along the walls. She knew that the Chancellor of the Republic was the commander in chief of the Jedi, that he directly assigned them to the great majority of the conflicts they were dealing with. Save for the Sith, of course. That was a spiritual conflict that usually ended up spilling over into political and criminal activities. So while the Chancellor assigned them to deal with conflicts of more mundane nature, it often happened that such conflicts also had the seeds of true evil within them.
She got to her feet and took her textreader to the viewscreen on Kee's desk and sent the letter to her Ama to the Temple's main computer. It would be sent via lightsignal to the Lyncis , one of several Jedi ships that was on constant patrol of several key star systems. When the Lyncis got to Eltanin it would forward the message by lightsignal again to Thretketh, to the comm satellites there. And then to Clan Kaitryn's clanhold. The letter would reach her mother in only a few days.
Outside in the main room, she heard the door open and she looked out curiously to see Ben tossing her a grin as he saw her.
"You're home early," she called, surprised.
"Yup. Come on, come with me, I'm going to see Seri. We've got a message from Torin."
Theri smiled and ducked back into the bedroom to scoop her lightsaber from the bed where she'd been sitting, slid it onto it's ring on her belt as Ben held out a hand to her. Serala was now seven months pregnant, and Torin had been playing the part of mercenary Dervish pilot with Tiano's Falcons for almost four months. Torin's messages home were infrequent at best. Often he couldn't find a safe way to send them back to the Temple which couldn't be traced. And Serala feared he wouldn't be able to make it home in time to see their daughter born. There was also the constant fear that Torin would be revealed as a Jedi. The Rthikin Commander Itani had gotten the Falcons into several conflicts already at Darth Ylaren's order. They weren't honest mercenaries anymore. And the veterans of the company were becoming increasingly uneasy with the turn of events. Torin was working to turn that uneasiness into open dissent within the company. If the veterans and the old-timers of the Falcons deserted the company, Itani would be left with only those he'd hired himself and most of those pilots were quite young and inexperienced. And the Falcons would begin losing battles. Greed and mistrust would begin tearing apart Tiano's Falcons from within, and neither Itani nor Darth Ylaren would be able to hold things together for long no matter how much money they threw at the problem. Torin's skills as a Jedi were being tested to the limit, as were his abilities to act the part of a mercenary and his mech piloting skill.
[Beloved, Ben and I are going to see Serala, Torin's sent a message,] Theri Sent to her lifemate as she and Ben got in the lift.
[Interesting. Windu tells me his mission is going well, for all that he's alone and in danger constantly,] Kee Sent in answer. [I think I would not be able to handle such a situation myself.]
[Well, it's kind of difficult for you to pretend to be someone else,] Theri Sent teasingly. [If someone had seen you in your Jedi uniform first, they'd have a hard time forgetting a Jedi Master who's nearly two and a quarter meters tall. You're not exactly easy to lose in a crowd, sweetling.]
[Insolent snippet,] Kee Sent with a playful growl.
[What, not 'impudent wretch'?]
[That's Ben, young lady. Not you.] Theri felt his smile and his amusement as she and Ben got off the lift on Level 25.
Lim bel Vaitra, the Govenor General of Thretketh, looked over at Theri with a faint nervous smile as his hovercar began to pull away from it's dock against the wall of the Senate chamber. She nodded to him with an answering smile. Govenor Vaitra was very young for his responsibility as Govenor General of Thretketh. His grandfather had made Thretketh's first petition to the Senate for admission into the Republic, exactly twenty years ago now. The job of Govenor General and in fact most of the planetary governance of Thretketh fell to Clan Vaitra, and Lim had been the only one of his family who wanted the gruelling work and constant travelling of Govenor General. He would make the petition today and the Senate would vote on it sometime in the next year after the Senate had reviewed the planetary socioeconomic reports. But the signs were good and hopeful. The first petition had been approved by a wide margin, and conditions on Thretketh had improved tremendously since then. While Thretketh's government was still somewhat make-shift it had managed to stick together, and that was really the only problem on Thretketh. In all other areas, Thretketh was improving almost daily.
Theri pulled her cloak around her as Kee came up beside her at the railing of the hovercar dock. He looked down at her with a faint smile as Govenor Vaitra began his petition to the Senate. [A good day for Thretketh,] Kee observed quietly to her. [If the Senate votes to grant this second petition--and there's no real reason they won't--then twenty years from today the third petition will be made. If the third is granted, Thretketh becomes part of the Republic. Until then, it's still on the Observers list. But with the two petitions made and approved, that gives Thretketh many of the protections and privileges of a Republic world. They can request negotiators from the Senate for trade disputes with the Federation, or in cases of conflict with other planets, though that's unlikely for Thretketh. Your people are not much for conflict, really, beloved. Not with a starfleet that's all freighters and passenger ships. Thretketh only has a few squadrons of old Z-95s for planetary defense. So if there were to be trouble with the Federation or with another planet, Thretketh could call for help to the Senate. And the Chancellor could send Jedi if he needed to, obviously, as we did when I first went to Thretketh.]
Theri looked up at the spiralling ranks of hovercars along the vast towering walls of the Senate and started to get dizzy. Kee put a hand on her shoulder to steady her and she could feel his amusement. [It all seemed so very far away from us at home, when I was little,] she Sent to him. [Kaitryn never really bothered about such things, we were too busy just dealing with our own lives to worry about Thretketh as a whole. Although I think my Ama and Apa keep up with it, since they were in the militia. That's how my Apa met my Ama, actually. They were assigned together in the same unit of the Sea-Force.]
Kee nodded. [Anyway. Back to the lesson, dearheart. The gray-haired man up there in the podium is obviously Chancellor Valorum. Make no mistake, he's the most powerful man in the Republic. The Chancellor has personal command of the Jedi, without needing the approval of the Senate, though with Valorum it's more a partnership than command. His Intelligence branch shares information with us, and a great deal of the information we work with comes from scout ships and probe droids sent by the Senate. Between the two, the Jedi Council and Valorum's circle of advisors decide what kind of response to make to each conflict that's identified. Might be Jedi, might be Republic starfighter squadrons, might be Republic ground forces. Or, usually, negotiators. Valorum prefers to work in non-violent ways. One reason he works so well with the Jedi.] Kee wormed his hands inside his cloak sleeves to cross his arms on his chest, and looked up at the Chancellor, then around at all the aliens surrounding them, the Wookies and the Ishitibs and the Baradans, the Vaikerians, the Korgons, the Corellians, the Danovars, the myriad others. [There are so many different species and cultures that comprise the Republic even now that I wonder it manages to stand at all. And I wonder sometimes if it is too much power to invest in any one individual, no matter how strong he seems to be. I don't think I'd trust even a Jedi to do the job, except maybe for Yoda. We're only finite, small-minded beings. And it is a tremendously powerful thing, to be the leader of a galaxy.]
Theri nodded up at him, then looked back up at Govenor Vaitra concluding his petition. [When Thretketh is admitted into the Republic--if it is--What will happen? What will we gain from it?]
[A great deal more offworld trading,] Kee began. [Technology, medical technology, planetary disaster assistance. All kinds of assistance with many different things. People like your Apa could get grants to improve the way they work. For example, your Apa's boats are petrochemical and electrolytic drive. When Thretketh is part of the Republic, he could get a grant to replace them with hoverboats with maglev drive. The grants are given to replace old, outdated, inefficient, and polluting technologies with newer, non-polluting, energy-efficient technology. Your uncle could get grants for new equipment for the mines. And with your Ama's alga farm, Kaitryn could get credits to exchange for even more improvements, since an alga farm is a food resource. And your Apa's fishing is a food resource too. Cities like Morosala or even Port Druva could get new hospitals and medical clinics, medicines, new equipment. But there are downsides to all this. Thretketh would start to see more aliens, more offworlders, and with that usually comes crime, racial tensions. Since the revolts, Thretketh has been a small, close-knit, peaceful world. Once they become part of the Republic, that will all change.]
[But Zharvan is in the Republic, and it's much like Thretketh,] Theri Sent as they turned to go back onto the Senate concourse walkway. [Zharvan hasn't turned out like Korolis or Coruscant. Couldn't Thretketh do the same?]
[Zharvan is mineral-poor,] Kee answered as he gestured for her to put her cloak hood up. [The main export is agricultural, and as such Zharvan avoids much of the politics and greed that a mineral-rich world seems to attract. Planets that are primarily mining worlds are worst for corruption, greed, crime. Because of the quick profits and the rough sorts that go after such, I suspect. Thretketh may do fine once it becomes part of the Republic. If your people are determined to keep it the way it has been since the revolts, it can be done.]
Kee stopped suddenly beside her, and she almost bumped into him. Then she noticed he was bowing to someone coming down the concourse toward them, and she bowed as well.
"Master Jinn, how good to see you again," Senator Palpatine of Naboo said as he approached, nodding cheerfully to Kee.
"Senator Palpatine," Kee said quietly. "How are things with Jedi Doran and little Amidala?"
"Naboo prospers, and so they are both well and happy," Palpatine said with a sunny smile that didn't fool either Kee or Theri. "In fact, I have a message for you from our Prince Regent, in my office. And I am going there now, if you wish to view it there."
Theri felt the spiral of the Force in her mind lurch suddenly, and she barely managed not to gasp out in pain. Something Dark as a moonless foggy night had just ripped through the Force. She was glad her cloak hood partially hid her face so no one would see her sudden fearful, furtive scan of the crowd around her. [Maul? Is that you?] she Sent in a small mindvoice into the surrounding crowd. Why she had expected an answer she didn't know, since he never answered her when she mindcalled him. But it felt much Darker than Maul, and much stronger.
[Beloved?] Kee Sent softly. [I felt that. What was it?]
[I don't know,] she answered swiftly, nervously. [It doesn't feel like Maul. It feels worse.]
"But who is this? And where is young Kenobi?" Palpatine said as he turned to look at Theri directly.
"My new apprentice, Senator, as Obi-Wan has been confirmed as a Jedi for over a year now," Kee said quietly. "Theriyah bel Kaitryn dan Thretketh, be known to Senator Palpatine of Naboo."
Theri recovered enough to bow again to the Senator.
"Thretketh? But they are making their second petition today! You must be very excited by this," Palpatine said as he smiled down at Theri. But the smile didn't reach his eyes which held a frostiness she didn't like.
"It will be a good thing for my people, sir," Theri said softly. "I hope that I am here in twenty years to see the day we are admitted into the Republic."
"I'm sure you will be," Palpatine said. "But come now, let's go to my office."
Kee gestured silently for the Senator to lead the way with his retinue of secretaries and jurisconsults, and he and Theri fell into step behind them.
In their wake, a black-cloaked figure stepped out from a nearby docking niche, and Darth Maul peered after the Jedi and the Mystic as they followed Palpatine to the concourse exit. The yellow eyes fixed on the small gray-cloaked form of the girl and he was suddenly moving through the crowd behind them like a flickering shadow, staying within sight but hidden in the crowd. He had learned from watching the girl how to shield himself from her, but Jinn might still sense him. So he kept far enough away that the alien minds in the crowd would provide cover. But the strange shimmering sound that screamed of power in his mind drew him on behind the Mystic girl as if they were opposite poles of a magnet, like a moth to a candleflame. He could no more have turned and walked away than Jinn could.
"The Prince Regent has been quite involved lately in training our security forces," Palpatine was explaining to Kee as they approached the door of his office a few minutes later. "I must say, it is quite a change to have such a formidable warrior as Prince Regent. Many have volunteered for the security forces, more than I had expected. But the Prince does well with them, and also with our starfighter squadron. He has considered calling the Justice to Naboo and requesting Master Plo Koon to assist in training our pilots."
"Naboo has the talent, all that is needed is the proper training," Kee said. "And Doran has never been the sort to sit still when there was something he perceived needed to be done."
"Indeed so," Palpatine said with a smile. "And Her Majesty has learned this from him, it seems!" The Senator stopped before the door of his office to give orders to his staff, and Kee turned to Theri beside him.
[You still feel that strange Darkness, beloved?] he Sent as he peered down at her, faint worry in his eyes.
[It comes and goes,] she Sent. He could tell from the careful way she Sent the phrase that she was touching the Force, letting the movement of it balance her soul. [I can't pinpoint it or even localize it. I keep getting dead spots in my scans.]
[Many of the Senators' offices are psi-shielded heavily,] Kee Sent. [Some even have psi-static fields. Not a lot of fun to be inside one, but some people feel they're neccessary. But you've an hour until Kylan's class anyway, so you can go back to the Temple if you like.]
[I think I'd like to,] she Sent with a slight shiver. He saw her cloak rustle slightly as she reached a hand to touch her lightsaber where it hung on the ring on her belt. [I feel like something's trying to ...overwhelm me. Sneak up on me. Whatever. Something's just not right here!]
Kee nodded slightly. [I agree with you there, beloved. But go on home now, and I'll find you for dinner later.] He Sent a swift mental caress in goodbye as she nodded and turned back down the corridor toward the lifts.
"My apprentice will return to the Temple," she heard Kee explain to the Senator as she rounded the corner of the hallway. Another moment and she was punching the lift call button.
[Kid, you okay?] Inda's mindvoice said worriedly in her mind.
[Do you feel that? That Darkness? It feels like something's poisoning the spiral!] she Sent to him, her mindvoice shaky with fear. [I think I'm going to be sick if this keeps up.]
['Course I feel it, I'm part of it,] Inda Sent back. [Don't you worry, I'm with you. You just keep your head and don't rabbit on me.]
The lift was dropping down past the fifty-third level when she felt a familiar, razorwire presence closer than the strange Darkness. Something thumped heavily on top of the lift car.
[Damnit, Maul! Is that you doing that?!] she Sent angrily.
A panel of the lift car's ceiling was moved aside, and Darth Maul was grinning at her wolfishly, crouched atop the lift car like a gargoyle.
Theri jerked her lightsaber from her belt and the starbright blade flamed yellow-orange in her hands. "I'm tired of this, Maul! Let's get it over with!"
[Oh, no, kid, what the hell are you doing?] Inda groaned in her mind.
[Conflict resolution,] she answered him. [What the Jedi are all about, remember?]
Maul's laugh echoed up the lift shaft and he jumped down into the lift car, one blade of his double lightsaber coming to life in his hand. The orange blade batted at hers almost playfully, casually. [Bit crowded in here for fighting, don't you think?] Maul Sent, his humming orange blade gesturing around at the close confines of the lift car. Faster than she could track, his free hand shot out and hit the button for a level ten floors below, and the lift slowed and stopped as it reached that level.
They dived out of the opening doorway side by side, and Theri flung her cloak off as she dodged out of the way of the orange blade as it slashed only a few centimeters from her nose. She let her soul join the spiral of the Force, and dived forward at Maul with her lightsaber's droning hum loud in her ears.
Maul kept laughing as he blocked every slash and batted aside every thrust of the blazing yellow-orange blade, hardly even seeming to put any effort into defending himself. He kept backing up, drawing her along the corridor. Theri didn't notice there were no people milling around the corridor, didn't notice there were no sounds of computers or printers, no peripheral telepathic static of unshielded minds working. For her there was only the balance of that whirling spiral in her mind moving her body, the electic rasp and crackle of her lightsaber blade on Maul's, and his infuriating amusement at her.
[Fight me, damnit!] she Sent, flinging the Sending into his mind like a dagger. [Don't just stand there laughing your fool head off, fight me you coward!]
[My my, such aggressiveness!] Maul Sent mockingly. [I'm terrified!]
Theri didn't bother to answer, just kept pressing her attacks. They were coming to the end of the corridor where there was a door that looked much like a ship's airlock. Maul activated the second blade of his lightsaber and stopped in front of this door and began truly countering her attacks with such swiftness that soon it was Theri who was on the defensive. Every time she blocked one of the orange blades it seemed the other was coming at her from the opposite direction and she was barely able to bring her own blade up in time to keep vital parts of her body from being cut off or stabbed. The Force moved her, kept her alive, let her move her blade where it needed to be. But she felt Maul touching the Force too, and the Darkness she'd sensed earlier seemed to gravitate to him and move him just as the spiral moved her own body. But after a few minutes of the whirling dance of the Force and their lightsabers, Maul lunged forward at her and she jumped back just in time to avoid the orange blade thrusting at her chest, and the blade swept up and around to wrench her lightsaber out of her hands, and Maul was backing her against the wall of the corridor, the kill-hunger of combat feverish in the yellow eyes.
Theri looked around frantically for her lightsaber, but Maul freed one hand from his own saber and the yellow-orange blade jumped into his hand. As it did so, Theri dived out from under his lightsaber blade, tumbled to the right, jumped to her feet, and began running back up the corridor toward the lifts.
Maul's hiss of anger behind her, and fire like lightning slashed across her back. The black shadow leaped over her head, flipped in mid-air, and landed in front of her, his gargoyle's face a mask of rage. The double-bladed lightsaber whirled in a windmilling arc in front of him as he stood there blocking the corridor in front of her, and she stumbled to a stop. He had stuck her lightsaber in his belt, and she doubted her weak Lifting talent could jerk it loose. Maul began backing her again toward the end of the corridor, and she had no choice but to be herded by the whirling orange blades.
Or did she? Suddenly she remembered him diving through Ben's lightsaber on Thretketh--
She watched the orange blades spinning, caught the timing of it, opened herself to the Force and waited for the signal--
Maul hissed and caught her against him as she tried to jump through his blades, flinging his saber away as the girl dived and nearly got herself cut in half. He wrestled her down to the floor, put an arm across her throat as she struggled underneath him, and reached into one of the pouches on his belt. Theri kicked and tried to scream, and he growled as she hit him across the jaw hard enough to almost dislocate it. Then he was pressing the hydroinjector to her neck and she went silent and still beneath him as the tranquilizer took effect instantly.
He retrieved his lightsaber, switched it off, slid it into it's carrying loops, and knelt to scoop the girl up from the floor. The airlock door at the end of the corridor led to a docking ring around the edges of the building and the little cloudcar shuttle. With any luck, Jinn wouldn't know anything was wrong until Maul took his ship into hyperspace, and then it would be far too late.
"--like you to come back to Naboo for a while, Kee. I'm in need of a good teacher here, and I already know you're one of the best," Doran, the Prince Regent of Naboo said with a faint grin in the hologram message projected on Palpatine's desk. "I've got good material to work with here, of course. Us Nubians may insist on peace, but when we need to be we can be as tough as anyone of the Republic. And I'd like you to teach Amidala what you can about the politics of the Senate. I'd like someone to teach her who doesn't have a stake in it, so she can get an unbiased view of it. I've tried to tell her some, but I was never much for politics. I'm only a fighter, but you've been our link to the Council and the Chancellor's advisors for many years now. Plus you're up on the current happenings, as I am not. So if you have some free time, come home to Naboo for a while! I'd like to see Ben again, it's been far too long since I had a good sparring partner." The Prince straightened his richly-embroidered overtunic, smiled for a moment. "Send me a reply back soon, old friend. If you can tear yourself away from the Temple, that is. Until later, then." And the hologram flickered and faded out.
Kee pulled his cloak around him and straightened up where he sat in one of the chairs of Palpatine's office, his sapphire blue eyes guarded. "A tempting offer," he said quietly to the Senator.
"And it is late summer on Naboo now," Palpatine said as he turned from the window and sank into the thickly upholstered chair at his desk. "Autumn is the gentlest time of our year, especially in Theed. As far as I am aware, the Jedi code does not insist that duty must be a torturous slog."
"Indeed, Senator," Kee answered, but privately he thought he would have taken two weeks of Tatooine's high summer scorching heat over an autumn on Naboo so long as it meant he'd be there alone with Ben and Theri. But he had not been to Naboo for some years, and he'd been the designated Jedi Council representative for Naboo for over two years now. "I will consider it and send the Prince Regent my reply shortly." He got to his feet and turned to go--
And stumbled against the door as the bottom seemed to drop out of his soul and his heart skipped seveal beats and then raced erratically. An all-too-familiar white haze began to gather in his sight, and he waved Palpatine away as the Senator got to his feet and darted around his desk to the Jedi Master.
"My apprentice--" Kee managed to grate out as he stood holding himself up in the doorway. "I must go!"
He turned as the door opened in front of him, opened his soul to the Force, and stumbled down the corridor toward the lifts.
[Ben!] he Sent across the miles to the Temple, reaching for the presence as familiar as his own. [Ben! Help! Theri--something's happened to her--I'm at the Senate office building--]
He vaguely felt the faint answering surprise, the shadows of arrowing movement, and the acknowledgement.
Kee stumbled out of the lift in the lobby and into a nearby side corridor, sinking down onto one of the many benches there as he fought to clear his mind of the white haze. And Theri's presence, that sweet chattering laughing loving mindtouch, had faded to the merest trickle. But for all his fears of falling into the coma again, her presence did not vanish completely from his soul. The Force had woven their souls together much too firmly for that now that she'd done her Mystic questing. So while the white haze clouded his sight and the strain on his soul was a wrenching tearing scream, he did not falter and fall into the white void of coma. When Ben raced around the corner of the corridor a few moments later with Shosin-ka and Kylan at his heels, he was able to raise his head from his hands as they surrounded him with frantic questions.
"I felt nothing wrong until I felt her go into hyperspace," Kee said raggedly as Ben and Kylan helped him up the steps from the maglev station below the Temple, Shosin-ka skittering up the steps in front of them. "I don't know why, Ben."
"All the psi-static fields and psi-shielding in that building," Kylan said quickly. "More than likely Palpatine has multiple layers of psi-shielding in his office. So you would not hear Theri calling you! But when she was taken away into hyperspace--"
"Your lifebonding told you," Ben concluded. "Thank the Force you didn't go into the coma again!"
[Because Theri's gone into the Force now, kid,] Inda Sent narrowly to Ben and Kee. [It's kind of hard to explain, but now it isn't Theri bel Kaitryn who can touch the Force, it's the Force choosing to manifest itself as Theri bel Kaitryn. And that's a big difference. So as long as you can touch the Force you're touching her soul.]
[Do you know where she is?] Kee Sent to the spirit. [Are you still with her?]
[In hyperspace right now,] Inda Sent. [And yes. But, y'know, I can't really do anything to help her. Nothing physical or tangible, really.]
[Was it Maul?] Kee Sent.
[Yeah, boy. Maul. And the snip tried to fight him with her lightsaber. She did okay too, until he disarmed her.]
[Do you know where he's taking her?] Kee Sent as Ben and Kylan led him to the lifts in the Temple and Shosin trilled a worried whistle as she punched the button for Level 35.
Inda was silent for a moment. Then, [Syharath. The Demon's fortress. I think. At least, that's where they'll end up eventually. But I think he's going some other places first, to try to throw the Jedi off his trail.]
[It seems the Force already had the plans made for Theri to confront Maul,] Kee Sent to Inda as Ben and Kylan helped him to a chair in his apartment. The anger and helplessness were nearly as paralyzing as the strain on his soul. [You're the only one of us who can be with her right now, Inda. So you stay with her, don't you dare leave her even for a moment!]
[No problem, boy. I'm stuck on her like a Mynock on a freighter,] the spirit Sent back emphatically. [When I figure out what the hell the Demon's doing, I'll tell you. And get Yoda to help you. Don't give in to the rage.]
Kee opened his eyes to look at the worried faces of Ben and Kylan, the carefully controlled fears. "We will just have to trust her to come back to us," Kee said, his voice rough with his own fear and anger. "It was Darth Maul who took her." He saw Ben's immediate comprehension and Sent a swift wordless warning. "Ben, call Operations and tell them to put out an alert on Maul's new ship. Tell Windu that Theri's been kidnapped by Maul. And tell him to order a scout ship kept prepared to fly at a moment's notice. The minute Maul is spotted, we're leaving!"
Ben nodded and got up to send the message from the viewscreen in the kitchen.
"I'll be going with you," Kylan said firmly. "She's my teacher and my best friend, and I'm going with you."
Ben and Kee exchanged looks at this, and then Kee nodded reluctantly. "Kylan, I hope you're as committed to the Way as you seem to be. Because Maul kidnapping Theri was no coincidence."
Kylan raised an eyebrow questioningly at this, and Kee took a deep breath and started trying to explain.
"I don't understand it completely myself," Kee said an hour later as he rubbed his eyes wearily. He was getting a headache from the psychic strain of trying to reach for Theri's presence constantly, like constantly trying to reach for something so important just barely at the edge of his fingers. "But Inda told us that if a Mystic has gone through the questing successfully, when they die or go into the Force for the last time they can come back as spirits. This isn't unusual for Jedi Masters either, I'm sure you've seen or heard your own Master who was killed. But with Inda, it seems there are a great many differences. One, he can change his appearance as a spirit. He seems to prefer to appear as he looked when he was about Ben's age, though we've seen him change to look as he did when he died. Two, he is with Theri constantly. He's with her now, in fact, and can simultaneously be in two places at once. Three, he doesn't just come to her in times of stress or danger, as some of the Jedi Masters do. He's been teaching her, or rather guiding her to find her answers for herself, and my Master Yoda thinks it isn't unusual to sit for hours chatting with him about all that's happened since Inda died. Inda was Yoda's Padawan, over five hundred years ago now. And if I am given the choice when I die, I will do the same. Yoda will outlive us all, and I would be with him as long as I can even if I'm only a spirit."
"As I would be with you," Ben said quietly. "And with Theri."
Kee looked over and gave Ben a wan smile in answer. "Impudent wretch. But go, get that little holoprojector of Theri's, the one with Inda's message."
[No need, boy. I just haven't been talking to Kylan yet, not that I can't.]
Kylan squeaked and looked around frantically for a moment, jerking upright in his chair.
The blue wisps of energy and light began coalescing in the air and swirled into the form of Sowelu Inda sitting on the arm of Ben's chair. The spirit appeared this time in an everyday Jedi uniform, not the field combat uniform he usually projected. The resemblance between him and Kylan was quite pronounced, despite Kylan's longer hair and more willowy frame.
Inda and Kylan stared at each other for several seconds, Inda slightly amused and Kylan stunned speechless.
[Well, kid,] Inda Sent with a lopsided grin. [You knew this wasn't going to be by-the-book. The Way is a real mindtrip. Anyway, I'm Inda, you're Kylan Hellstorm. So. Yes, the Way is real. Yes, I started that Temple on Cae-Tauvon. Yes, I'm not some legendary mythical figure, I'm simply another Jedi who happened to fall down the peko hole into another world and it took over my life. Yes, I think you've got it in you to make it into the Force. Yes, I'll help you. Yes, being a ghost is boring but it beats being dead. Now. As soon as Maul lands somewhere we can get our collective butts after him and get our girl back, right?]
Kylan's eyes were wide as moons and his mouth dropped open, but then he managed to nod weakly.
[Heh. You're cute. Don't ever change,] Inda advised as he rolled his eyes in amusement.
"Inda," Kee said quietly, almost warningly.
[Sorry, boy. When you're dead the whole universe makes you want to laugh,] Inda Sent with a chagrined expression on his face. [Anyway, here's the deal. Theri must have told you that one of the main practices of the Mystics is to confront every fear and to conquer it, to go through your fears. Well, really, to challenge every concrete concept you have in your mind, because concepts are just things we've made up ourselves. It's not really the real world, so to speak, just our approximation of it. What this busting up concepts does is bring you insights into your own nature, your own soul. You have to do what you think you can't do, always. You can't ever turn away from something that scares you, no matter what, because usually the fears we have are only concepts we've gotten in our heads. The trick is to learn to identify the things that are influencing you and to challenge them. If it's fear that's making you move or avoid something, then you have to confront and go through that fear. No turning away. But sometimes it's not fear, it's temptations like greed or power over others. For Theri, it's sex. Partially because she's Thretkethan, and it's almost an instinctual thing now in their culture to get the heebie-jeebies so bad that they can't think of anything else. But she's still very young, and the young tend to see no reason at all to restrain themselves when they figure out sex is the best thing since sliced bread.] Inda grinned over at Kee, but the Jedi Master didn't react. [So after that little performance of Maul's at the Galleria, Theri started getting curious about Maul. The Demon used her Thretkethan tendencies against her and got her very confused. She didn't know if she wanted to rape him or break his neck. So she figured she needed to go through that, to confront it and get out the other side of it. But Jinn and I decided she wasn't strong enough to confront Maul on her own yet, so I had to knock her out and put a subliminal in her mind to make her forget what she wanted to do. But the Force had other ideas. And here she is, kidnapped by the Demon.]
There was silence for a long moment as they all three sat there staring at the floor, then Kylan straightened up and Inda nodded. "Master Inda, what if--what if Theri fails this challenge? What happens to her?"
Inda shrugged slightly. [Maul might kill her. Sidious might kill her. For a time she might turn to the Dark, but not forever I think. Her soul could be broken, and she'd never believe in herself again. She could give in to despair and fear and kill herself. This is an outward, physical challenge, so she probably won't go insane. But the threat to her soul is just as great. But I've seen that the potential for harm in a situation always equals the potential for good. Unfortunately for things of this nature, the whole thing is on a personal level and has little impact on the rest of the world. The rest of the world usually think Mystics are crazy. But if she fails it and survives, the test will be given in different forms until she passes it. You can't just skip lessons, y'know. You have to eventually go through them all.]
"Is there any chance she could make it through successfully?" Kee asked in a harsh voice. Ben winced and looked down at the floor, away from Inda.
[Of course there's a chance!] the spirit snapped back. [Sometimes I don't think you give Theri enough credit. She's a tough little thing! She's smarter than a freighter full of Wookies and she's got a fighter's soul. She won't just give up and let the Demon kill her. You just wait and see! My money's on the girl making it out not only alive but passing this test the Force has set for her!] Inda gave Kee a very hard look. [Jinn, sometimes I wonder if you believe in destiny at all.]
Kee returned Inda's look, then closed his eyes and rubbed his temples. "I hope you're right, Inda. My soul depends on it."
Inda merely laughed.
Part 8
Archive