Moments of Truth/Part 17

With living shadows prowling the streets, Tirien advised Boss Mukka to terminate the nightly patrols, and the three of them slept inside the Second Chance for the first time since the siege began. Perhaps sensing her distress, Gizmo curled up with Narasi in her bunk; even more of a rarity, he was still there when she woke. She smiled drowsily, though she rolled her eyes when he saw she was awake, croaked in her ear, and hopped down toward the galley and breakfast.

The whole village was on edge, waiting for the blow to fall—even Tirien, though he tried to hide it. Narasi thought even Zaella couldn't be sure, and the signs were subtle—the way he answered questions without looking at whoever was speaking, how he opened and closed his sword hand, the way he filled himself with the Force every once in a while as if to make sure he could still do it on command—but Narasi had seen those same tells before on Darkknell, and Milagro before that.

When lunchtime came and went, Narasi and Zaella had taken to racing each other to the highest branches of Marekka's Tree just for a distraction, though every time they reached the top they surveyed the landscape together. Tirien had gone off to the Second Chance, promising to feed Gizmo in a way that Narasi distrusted at once, but he appeared through a gap between buildings as Narasi's boots touched ground and raised a hand.

"Stay down this time."

"Did you feed Gizmo?" she asked as Zaella dropped from ten meters up, slowed her fall with the Force, and rolled.

"Of course. Don't confuse preoccupation with inattention," he chided. When Zaella joined them, he said, "We're doing no good here. Let's go down to the shrine and—"

"—meditate," Narasi and Zaella said in unison. Narasi grinned, and Zaella's right lek twisted in a way Narasi had come to associate with amusement. Tirien did look directly at them then, and Narasi had to struggle not to giggle at his arid expression, but they followed him down the well-worn steps, Zaella grumbling less than usual.

This time they all sat outside the corae, and Tirien set out little taper candles on stands. Narasi nodded in recognition, shifting to get comfortable, but Zaella stared. "It's daytime. Is this supposed to help against that shadow thing?"

Her voice cracked, and Narasi shuddered. She didn't know what the shadow would or could have done to her if Tirien hadn't been there, but just considering the possible answers had been enough to keep her awake long after Tirien had drifted off to sleep, even with Gizmo there to comfort her.

"It's candle meditation," Tirien said, settling down cross-legged and lighting each candle. "Watch your candle and think about it as it burns down. The candle is a life—one lifespan.  The wick first caught at birth; the last ember fails at death.  Between is all the highs and lows of life, triumphs and defeats, the slings and arrows of fate.  Every trial is a flicker in the flame; every flare is a success.  Watch your candle and meditate on the life behind it."

Zaella didn't ask any questions, which was not unusual, though she set her elbows on her knees, plopped her cheeks into her palms, and stared at her candle with a frown. Narasi tried to focus on her own candle, though she stole glances at Zaella now and then. The first few times she had done this exercise with Tirien he had encouraged her to meditate on her own life, but now she thought of Byffa, her young Guudrian friend. Was it her imagination, or did the flame wobble more in the first few minutes than it did the rest of the time the taper was burning down? Narasi wondered if that was a sign—that Byffa's first years of life had been blighted by Maia's rule, but he would soon be left to live the rest of his life in peace.

Narasi sighed when the flame burned down into the puddle of wax and vanished in a puff of smoke, but she told herself it was the way of all things. Byffa and everyone else on Guudria—herself, Zaella, and Tirien included—would die, whether sooner or later. Trying to keep the flame going once its wick had expired was impossible.

At a guess, she thought Tirien had brought hour-long tapers. She looked at Zaella and found her friend pondering her own smoldering flame with a very different expression than she'd worn when they started. When her flame died Zaella started, goggling at her surroundings as if she'd forgotten she was in the shrine. "That was…I…do you Jedi do this often?"

"Some more than others," Tirien said; his candle was finished too. "It's a Jedi spiritual exercise. It reminds us of the transience of life, and its fragility."

"Spiritual like religious?" Zaella asked.

Tirien took a second to reply. "That depends on the Jedi. But many Masters have written contemplative treatises about the candle exercise.  Master Gol-Yossagris entered such a deep state of meditative contemplation that he followed a candle that burned down over the course of twenty-six days, without moving, eating, or drinking."

Zaella cocked one of her tattooed eyebrows. "That's not what we're doing next, is it?"

Tirien laughed; it was only a little sound, and it died a second later, but Narasi was glad to hear it all the same. They did not try for the candle exercise record, but took a walk around the village, stretching out their Force senses without sensing anything. More than once Tirien stopped and gazed in the direction of the Jedi enclave, but when Narasi tried to expand her mind the same way, she felt no hint of what was to come. "Is it too far, or are they blocking us?"

If Tirien was surprised she had intuited his thoughts, he gave no sign of it. "It could be both. Zaella?"

She blinked. "What?"

"You're more attuned to the dark side than either of us. Do you sense anything we can't?"

Zaella made a face, and Narasi felt a flicker of hope that Zaella had taken offense—if being associated with the dark side was insulting, then they were making progress. Zaella stared out over the rolling plains, her eyes tight with the concentration Narasi could feel, but in the end she shook her head. "No. I felt the dark side in Bras, like I told you, but from…what'd we say, eighty kilometers or so away?  No, that's too far for me."

Zaella had been vocal in her belief that Bras was a dark sider—if not all along, certainly now—but she'd had no more experience with the terrifying shadow than Tirien or Narasi, leaving the central question unanswered. Tirien, Narasi was sure, could take down Bras without breaking a sweat, but how could even a Jedi Knight fight a shadow?

Tirien fell into Moving Meditation on the way back, and Narasi thought he was only half-conscious of her explanation that she was going for a walk. Zaella joined her without a word.

"Don't tell me you still think it's awkward being near him?"

"He's your master," Zaella replied. "He's my captor."

"Oh, give me a break," Narasi complained. "He saved our lives last night!"

"Or he saved your life, and I just happened to be standing next to you."

Narasi rolled her eyes. "You're impossible."

"Maybe you only see what he is to you."

"Or you only see what you expect. He's not Izkara."

Zaella grimaced, but didn't reply, and Narasi let it go rather than refight the same battle yet again. They made the rounds through Marekka—by now Narasi knew many residents by name, and Zaella got most of them right the handful of times she bothered to try. They helped a farmer carry a bushel of crops and fixed a leaky pipe, and Narasi stopped to tell a story to Kriifa and Kriita, Paudro's twin daughters, though there Zaella drew the line at helping. Feeling mischievous, Narasi told the girls gravely that Zaella was just sulking because no one would give her a hug, whereupon they blindsided the Twi'lek before she could do more than widen her eyes. The look she gave Narasi promised slow, painful death, but she patted the twins awkwardly on their heads and sent them on their way.

"I will murder you," she promised as they walked on. "I know where you sleep."

"Yeah, but I have the bottom bunk and the lightsabers," Narasi countered with a grin. She worried a second later that Zaella would take umbrage at the reminder and watched for the usual glance at the hilt on her belt, but Zaella just rolled her eyes.

For every door or window they found open for a chat, though, five more were closed even though it was not yet dusk. Tirien had only told Jebba, Boss Mukka, and Mukka's husband about the shadow, but somehow the story had spread through the village regardless. The fear was not so much hovering over Marekka as shrouding it now; for all their supposed terrible power, at least Maia and her minions were physical, tangible threats. The Guudrians couldn't imagine fighting the false Jedi themselves, but they could at least comprehend the idea of Tirien doing it. This newest horror was something else.

How could they conceive of fighting a shadow?

"Master Fane had no knowledge of the shadow; all he could urge was that we be on our guard and maintain our focus on the light," Tirien said when they circled back around to the Second Chance. Giving Narasi a dry smile, he added, "He also said to tell you hello."

Narasi cleared her throat. "Ah. Er, right…good to know."

"This is the dead Jedi you talk to for advice?" Zaella asked.

Tirien blinked, and Narasi supplied, "Holocrons aren't such a big thing on Ryloth."

"Ah. Well, I've never heard one described in quite that way, but yes, something like that."

Boss Mukka had a dinner to welcome Barka home, though few beings attended, not wanting to be caught out after dark, and conversation was broken by such long gaps of silence that Narasi thought even Tirien noticed something off. Barka's expression told Narasi he was in the early stages of what Jebba was going through—coming to terms with the fact that everything he believed was wrong. Narasi gathered that her theory had been right all along—every village had sent at least one son of the boss or another leading figure to the queen's guard; she wondered if the Guudrians had missed the obvious, or had seen it and just feared to say the word 'hostage' aloud.

After dinner the Jedi escorted Jebba and Mukka's other guests back to their homes, then slept in the Second Chance. This time Gizmo slept in his cupboard; Narasi tried to take that as a sign that he thought she was better than the night before. She was still listening to the sounds of Zaella tossing and turning when she drifted off to sleep.

She woke to a breeze in the dark, and slipped out of bed in her pajamas, grabbing her lightsaber. Tirien had lowered the Second Chance ' s ramp; he sat halfway between ship and ground, wearing only a tank top that hugged his lissome frame and a loose pair of cotton pants. Gizmo sat beside him, eating from a pile of vegetables; he hopped down toward Guudria, but Tirien levitated him back.

Narasi goggled at the bizarre scene so long that her master asked, "Can't sleep?"

She sat down beside him, pulled Gizmo into her lap, fed him a ripe red something-or-other, and said, "Just the breeze. You?"

He stared forward as if he was waiting for a sign. "I can't shake the feeling I'm missing something. It is not what it seems.  But what isn't?"

Narasi petted Gizmo. "We could go after them? If it's gonna be a fight, why not take it to them?"

"Away from Marekka and innocent people?" Tirien nodded. "Don't think I haven't considered it. But they can divide forces more easily than we can, because they know exactly what we have."

"If they had a skifter up their sleeves, wouldn't they have played it by now?"

"You'd think so—but that would be what it seems." He grimaced. "And what if Maia was working toward some version of what's best for the Guudrians—a deluded version, but with good intentions?"

Narasi raised her eyebrows. "With things like amputations and executions? And being queen?  Haven't you said all along that they're just using the Guudrians?"

"Yes, and I think that's certainly the result, whatever their motives. But you should never contort a theory to embrace all the facts; they should fit naturally.  If they don't, either you're missing context for the facts you have, or you don't have all of them and your theory is wrong."

"But we have to fight them either way, right?"

"At this point it's inevitable, yes. Maia will fight, and Bras has just been waiting for an excuse.  If they do, Jirdo will fight with them, I suspect.  But understanding the context helps us to fight smarter instead of harder."

Narasi yawned, and Tirien patted her shoulder once. "Go back to bed. I need to think a bit more."

Nodding, Narasi patted his shoulder too before lumbering back to bed and climbing into her bunk. As she snuggled under the covers, Zaella mumbled, "'s everything okay?"

"Yep."

"No Maia?"

"Nope."

"'kay."

Once the sun had risen on the second day, they breakfasted and ventured out to find Jebba had rallied the village for collective meditation. Many Guudrians hesitated at the shrine's door—Narasi suspected they did not want to join Jebba in defying Jirdo's edict—but Jebba raised his voice so even those outside could be heard as he invited them to contemplation. Tirien sat with him inside the corae; Narasi and Zaella knelt side-by-side outside the door.

Tirien stayed after the Guudrians had left, and drew three more tapers out. Zaella nodded and said, "I wanted to try this again."

"I thought you might," Tirien said, setting the candles up and lighting them again. He arranged them in a triangle small enough that they all sat almost knee-to-knee. Narasi wondered whether that was designed to make her contemplate all three flames—the way lives interacted with and paralleled one another, and how their collective light accomplished more than one alone.

It was certainly complex enough for Tirien, but he proved her wrong some twenty minutes later when he shot out a hand and pinched out the flame of Zaella's candle. As he drew his hand back, she recoiled and snapped, "Hey!"

"Problem?"

"I was doing it! I was trying the meditation thing, about the lifespan!"

Narasi had sensed her at it, and shared her annoyance, but Tirien asked, "And it irritates you that I cut it short?"

"I…yeah, it does!"

Tirien's look of innocent ignorance melted into an expression so solemn even Narasi flinched. As Zaella met his eyes, he said, "That is murder—cutting short a life before its time. It feels wrong because it is wrong; it goes against the natural progress of life, and so against the will of the Force."

Zaella's angry expression wavered, and Narasi could see her falling into herself. Even as she reeled, though, the village bell began to ring.

Tirien rose, waving out his candle with a gesture before jogging for the door. Narasi blew out her candle and got up. "C'mon!"

It took Zaella a second, but when she sprang to her feet that hard look was back in her eyes. They ran into the overcast morning to continued peals of the bell, but even as they hit the flagstone steps there was a horrible cacophony of metal; if a building could scream, Narasi thought, that was the sound it would make as its support struts gave way. After that the bell rang no more.

"I tried to help you!" a voice shrieked from down the dirt street. High and feminine, it sounded like Maia's, but…off. "I could've saved you! But you want to defy me?  You're ungrateful—you deserve what you get!"

Screams followed this pronouncement, and Narasi sensed a surge of the dark side. Guudrians fled into the main square from down the road, and one soared above them in the air; Tirien caught her with the Force and set her down, and she took off running the moment her feet touched earth. More bursts of splintering wood followed; Narasi wondered if wood could explode.

On the main road, Guudrians lay cowering on the ground, covering their faces and clutching their heads, paralyzed with dread. In the center of it all, Maia Kyss laid waste to their homes with blasts of the Force. Even from a distance Narasi could see she looked bad; her pale attire was dirtied as if she had run rather than ridden her swoop, and the shadows around her eyes had become much more pronounced. As they closed in, Narasi saw they were not shadows, but bruises, like two black eyes. Her lilac skin had paled too; the veins in her slender neck bulged. She radiated fear into the Force; Narasi fought through it, but she saw the effect it had on the Guudrians who had no defense against her powers.

When she saw Tirien she glared and raised a hand, and blue-white lightning bolts coursed toward him. Tirien drew his blade to catch them, pressing forward as the lightning wrapped around the lightsaber. As she activated her own lightsaber, Narasi saw surprise and confusion on Tirien's face for a split-second before cool resolve took its place.

Narasi charged Maia from the side, but she cast a second stream of lightning with her other hand. Narasi had never deflected lightning before, but the theory seemed easy enough, so she angled her blade into the lightning stream. Sparks flew around her blue blade, singeing her hands, cheeks, and ears. As she flinched, a bolt slipped through and sent knives ripping and tearing down her right arm; she cried out, but managed to keep the blade up to guard in her left hand as her right spasmed off the hilt.

As she cringed, Maia directed the lightning flow from both hands at Tirien, and he rooted himself in place to fight it. A second later Zaella's lightsaber hilt flipped off Narasi's belt and into its master's hand. Igniting her crimson blade, Zaella charged Maia, but Maia stared straight at her and Zaella collapsed, screaming in agony and clutching her head. The dark side surged, but then receded, and as Maia cut off the lightning, she stared down in disgust and horror at her charred, blackened fingers.

"Now!" Tirien said, but Maia gave him the same look she had given Zaella. Tirien grunted, but pressed forward. Maia turned her gaze on Narasi, who felt a sudden pain in her head; the galaxy's greatest migraine had erupted out of nowhere, but she closed her eyes and focused, and after a few seconds the pain receded.

By the time the pain vanished and she looked up, Tirien and Maia were dueling, green blade on green, Makashi on Makashi. It took Narasi only a moment to realize her master was the superior swordsman; he might have killed Maia several times, except that she slashed at the cowering Guudrians whenever he got close and he aborted his lunges to parry her blade and save them. Running to Zaella's side, Narasi got her up, but Zaella shook like a tree branch in a gale, clinging to Narasi with desperate strength.

"Zaella, we have to help—"

"My head…she was in my head…"

"It's okay now, but we—"

"Like Lady Hadan…it hurt…"

Narasi couldn't waste any more time. Prying herself free of Zaella, she ran to her master's aid, but Maia saw her coming. She was tiring already, Narasi could tell, but she screamed and blasted them with the Force enough that Narasi went down and rolled into a house while Tirien slid fifteen meters along the ground. Maia grabbed a pair of Guudrians with her burnt hands, and they both croaked, slapping at her wrists while they turned pale and the fiery colors of their manes went flat. At the same time, the crisped flesh on Maia's hand lightened back toward lilac.

Tirien slammed her with a Force push, and she dropped the wheezing Guudrians to catch herself before the impact on the ground broke her neck. Whirling up to one hand and one knee with an animalistic snarl, she pointed, and a door hanging off its hinges burst with a roar and a flash of flame. Tirien managed to stop all the shrapnel before it could impale him or anyone else, but Maia flung a Guudrian into him and they went down together; the Guudrian had crashed into Tirien's gut, and he coughed on the ground, winded.

Narasi charged before Maia could rally another Forceful attack, and the fallen Jedi met her with her lightsaber instead. Maia was almost a head taller, and her slender build screamed "Makashi fencer", but Narasi had more than enough experience with Makashi to compensate. Keeping close to deny her enemy the use of long lunges, she battered Maia's guard with powerful strokes. Maia bared her teeth in frustration, but Narasi exposed her own fangs and snarled back, and threw in a twisting Juyo reversal Zaella had taught her that scored a hit on Maia's thigh. Maia hissed in pain and Narasi, flushed with victory, pressed in and raked Maia's face, splitting her cheek and bisecting her pointed ear.

Flinging herself back, the Force adding distance to her flight, Maia spat, "Hypocrite! You use the dark side and you don't even have my reasons!"

Brought up short, Narasi hesitated rather than pursue with a killing stroke, and Maia counterattacked. Forced onto defense, Narasi gave ground, but a swell of hate warned her of the dark side's power on the approach. She braced herself…but so did Maia.

It didn't save her. Zaella hit her like a thunderbolt, knocking her backward and into the side of the Big House. Even as Maia was bouncing off Zaella was on her, face twisted in rage, lekku streaming behind her. She rained blows on Maia's guard, and Narasi could see that Maia had even less experience with Juyo than Narasi'd had.

"You think you're bad?" she snarled between slashes. "You think you know the dark side? I'll show you the dark side, schutta!"

Tirien was at Narasi's side the next second, but his eyes tightened, and Narasi knew they shared the same dilemma—Juyo was so unpredictable, its movements so chaotic, that it was hard to know how to help without accidentally endangering Zaella too. Maia herself solved the dilemma for them; the second she got a chance, she slipped to the side of one of Zaella's slashes and glared, and Zaella collapsed again. Her shrieks flattened Narasi's ears, but it was the overwhelming pain in the Force that really hurt; the telepathic attack had been enough to stop Narasi in her tracks, but it was doing something far worse to Zaella…

Unable to stand it, Narasi ripped a house's shutter off and propelled it at Maia. She cut it in half, but as she lifted her blade to finish Zaella, who was crumpled in the dirt, gasping, Tirien sprang forward and intercepted the blow. Maia whirled to confront him, but he parried her lunge, and when smoke rose from her left hand as lightning crackled through her fingers, Tirien slashed in deftly and cut off her hand.

Maia screamed, clutching her maimed arm to herself and backing away from Tirien, hacking wildly to keep him at bay. He advanced in a fencer's stance, batting away her slashes with the tip of his blade, waiting for his opening. Trusting that he had the kill in hand, Narasi helped Zaella sit up a second time.

"Are you okay?"

Zaella's eyes were squeezed shut, but tears streamed down her cheeks; the tip of her right lek curled. "I hate it! I hate her!"

"It's okay," Narasi said, rubbing Zaella's back. "Tirien's got her, it'll be over soon."

Zaella opened her eyes, and the way the dark side rippled from her, Narasi feared they would be red and yellow. They stayed amber, but there was no mistaking the hate in them. "No! She's mine!"

She pushed Narasi out of the way—not hard enough to injure, but enough that it off-balanced her and sent her to the ground. By the time Narasi had gotten back up to her knees, Zaella had thrust out her hands, fingers splayed to cast lightning of her own. Narasi's eyes widened, terrified that Zaella would strike Tirien too as her rage peaked…but nothing happened.

"Zaella!" Narasi yelled, but Zaella screamed at the same moment and didn't hear. She continued not casting Force lightning, though, and Maia gave a broken laugh.

"Is that all the darkness you have, Twi'lek?! Pitiful!"

Clear of the Guudrians at last, Tirien pressed her harder, and she almost tripped in her hasty retreat. Narasi helped the Guudrians closest to the duel to their feet; they shivered, stared, and didn't respond to her words, so she settled for pushing them out of danger into houses, through the holes where doors had once been. Looking back at flickers of pain in the Force, she saw Tirien had nicked Maia's left shoulder and somehow managed to take off the smallest finger on her sword hand.

Aborting her fruitless attempt at lightning, Zaella held out a hand, and her lightsaber flipped up into her grip. She stalked forward, crimson blade snap-hissing back to life, growling threats in Ryl. Narasi, who had seen what happened the last two times, did not want to see her friend reduced to a shrieking, sobbing mess a third time. Nor did she trust Zaella not to get in Tirien's way and get one or both of them hurt. So focused was she on Maia, Zaella didn't seem to notice Narasi coming up behind her.

"Sorry," she whispered, and grabbed both of Zaella's lekku, squeezing hard.

The effect was instantaneous; it was like a Twi'lek OFF switch. Zaella gasped, her lightsaber fell out of her hand, and she collapsed face-first toward the ground; Narasi lunged and caught her belt just in time to keep her from breaking her nose, but Zaella hung limp in her grip; when Narasi laid her down on her back, Zaella's eyes rolled up into her head. Grabbing her friend's lightsaber and returning it to her belt, Narasi ran after her master.

Maia's swoop was visible down the road, but Tirien's surgical, merciless lunges showed he had no intention of letting her get there. Maia was all defense now, not even attempting to riposte, but pain dragged her down, and Tirien landed an inconclusive blow above her left breast. Even as she sprinted, Narasi sensed he would kill her before she reached the duel.

In her moment of intuition, she realized Maia had sensed it too. Her once-lovely face twisted with fear and fury, and Narasi pulled up short; she had never seen such a look of madness erupt out of nowhere. Maia screamed, but her scream flowed into the Force, where it magnified and unleashed a shockwave of power. Narasi dropped, pressing her ears to her scalp with her hands, eyes squeezed shut against the dark side energy. The stone of Maia's madness hit the Force hard, and it was several waves of ripples before Narasi could look up. Tirien knelt on the ground, his blade and his free hand up to shield himself, but all that remained of Maia was a streak of dust racing for the horizon.

It took Narasi a moment to stop shaking; when she pulled her hands away from her ears, unconscious fear kept them low to her head. She heard Guudrians sobbing and crying out behind her, but her legs trembled as she tried to rise and go to their aid. Only when Tirien reached her and gave her a hand up did she find the strength to stand—it flowed from their touch into her arm and eased the dread in her heart.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

"Yeah," she rasped. "Yeah, it just…rattled me."

"Did she hurt you at all?"

As the adrenaline dropped out of her system, Narasi realized how much her arm stung. "My sword arm. A lightning bolt got through."

Tirien touched and prodded it for a moment. "Do you have any range of motion limits?"

Narasi rotated her arm; it ached, but not enough to slow her up. "It just aches. You?  Did she hurt you?"

"I'm fine. I was closest, so I took the brunt of the Force Scream, but I'll be all right." He was sweating, Narasi saw, and he looked a little strained, but his voice was even. "Zaella?"

Turning, Narasi saw the Twi'lek groaning on the ground. Flushing with chagrin, she said, "Oh geez…I hope I didn't hurt her…"

She explained what she had done while she and Tirien helped Zaella to a sitting position. Tirien took Zaella's chin in one hand, moving one finger in front of her eyes, then laid his hand on her forehead. Narasi felt the Force flow into her before her amber eyes focused and she shook her head. "What the hell did she do to me?!"

Tirien glanced at Narasi from the corner of his eye before he said, "Let's help the Guudrians and make sure no one's injured first. If you need to sit and rest, Zaella, we can handle it."

Had he played on her weaknesses, or just tried to be kind? Narasi wasn't sure, but either way Zaella flopped to her hands and knees, got one foot under herself, and then, leaning on a window, clawed her way to a standing position. Most of Marekka's villagers had barricaded their homes when the bell tolled, but a few younger or hardier beings had come running, and Tirien enlisted them to help account for all the wounded and carry those too ill or injured to the Big House.

Boss Mukka sent runners to call out a village assembly throughout the streets; an hour later, every Marekkan was either in the square around the tree or being treated inside the Big House. Tirien tended the two Maia had Force Drained himself; the rest had only bruises and cuts, and he entrusted them to the village healers. Narasi bandaged wounds where she could, but kept an eye on Zaella, who seemed to have pieced together what had happened, because she paced the outskirts of the assembly with a mutinous look and glared at Narasi whenever she caught her gaze.

Tirien spoke for a moment, informing the villagers what had happened and assuring them of continued protection against the Dark Jedi. No one spoke or asked any questions, but Narasi thought she sensed a faint current of hope now that the worst had come and gone. As they walked back to the Second Chance, Tirien seemed to agree.

"They couldn't really picture a clash between Jedi, so their imaginations made it worse than it was," he said. "That's not to say it wasn't bad, or that good beings weren't harmed, but no one died and the structural damage should be easy enough to repair in a few days."

Zaella followed them, fuming, and once they were inside she held out a hand and said, "I want my lightsaber back."

In unison, Tirien and Narasi said, "No."

"I just fought for you!"

"You just got angry, charged into a fight without a plan, and nearly got yourself killed," Tirien corrected. "Maia took you down twice."

The loathing look Zaella gave Narasi was so ferocious, Narasi had to fight the urge to flinch. "She's not the only one."

"Grabbing a Twi'lek's lekku can be dangerous, Narasi, and it was an extreme thing to do," Tirien said, "but Zaella, she probably saved your life. Narasi, do you have a tank top on?"

Thrown by the non sequitur, Narasi floundered for a second. "Uh…yeah?"

"Take your tunic off, I want to see your arm."

She stripped down to her tank top, and she was as pleased as Tirien to see no scorch marks or raw flesh, though her shoulder and biceps were bruised. This time Tirien rotated her arm himself, squeezing her muscles and watching her tics, before he let her go and said, "Healing meditation. You got off relatively light, but Force lightning is still very dangerous, and you don't want to take chances with your sword arm."

"No, Master," she agreed. Making a fist with her sword hand, she frowned. "Did I do something wrong? With the block?"

"It's not all the weapon," Tirien explained. "You need to concentrate on grounding the bolts on the blade. The lightsaber will do some of the work for you, but not all of it."

Narasi nodded. "I really wasn't expecting that."

Zaella had been glowering from one side of the hold, but she exploded back into the conversation. "Yeah, what the kriffing hell?! I've been a Sith more than half my life, and this bitch can use Force lightning, but I can't?!"

"That's a good thing!" Narasi could hear the strain of the day in her voice. "It's not an achievement to be better at being a bad guy!"

Zaella fired up, but Tirien raised a hand to each of them. "You're both right. Force lightning is the quintessential dark side power; it's hatred given form.  It's no achievement for a being to be capable of that much hate, and so much callousness toward others that she can control it.  But Zaella's not wrong, Narasi.  Force lightning is called 'Sith lightning' for a reason—it's usually only well-trained, powerful Sith Lords who can use it at will.  We first confronted Maia less than two weeks ago, and she didn't display anything like the powers she used today.  Where did this come from?"

Zaella crossed her arms, frowning, but didn't interrupt. Gnawing her lower lip with one fang, Narasi ventured, "Well…it's the dark side, right? Isn't that its whole thing—quick and easy power?"

"Not that easy," Tirien replied. Narasi could tell it was bothering him despite his victory. "Nor that quickly. Something isn't right here.  Flamusfracta, lightning, Mind Shard…any of those powers should take months, even years of practice."

"Mind Shard? Is that the headache thing?"

"Yes. It's a telepath—"

"Headache thing?" Zaella asked, staring. "Is that all it was for you? A headache?  I felt like she was tearing my brain out through my eye sockets!"

Narasi winced. "I'm sorry, Zaella. You said Tarni Hadan did that to you too?"

Zaella shuddered; she was not so much crossing her arms now as hugging herself. "I thought only Lady Hadan had that kind of power. It hurts so much…"

Tirien's eyes had narrowed. "Hadan did it to you too?"

Looking down, Zaella muttered, "Yeah."

"And it hurt the same way? Or comparably?"

"Pretty much. She's a sorceress, and this Maia…what?"

Tirien was studying Maia with narrowed eyes; Narasi recognized his look of intellectual curiosity. Half-extending a hand toward her head, he asked, "May I?"

Zaella leaned away. "What do you want to do?"

"Every being has…call it a natural mental shield. The Force generates it within us.  It's much weaker in a non-Forceful being than in a Force-sensitive; that's why mind tricks work on weaker minds, and why they don't often work on Force-sensitives, even untrained ones, let alone Jedi or Sith.  With training in self-discipline and concentration, you naturally strengthen your mental barriers." Tirien held out his palm. "I want to probe at your shields to see why Maia hurt you so much worse than us."

"I…oh. Nobody's ever asked before." Zaella looked at Narasi, who nodded in encouragement. Swallowing, Zaella draped her lekku down her back and leaned forward. Tirien set his hand on her brow, closing his eyes, and Narasi felt him sink into the Force. She tried to watch through the Force—nothing was happening in the mundane world apart from Tirien's eyes scrunching tighter now and then—but even her mind's eye missed a lot of it. She was still working on mind tricks, and this sort of subtle poking and prodding was a level beyond.

Then Zaella shrieked and her knees buckled; Tirien's eyes snapped open and he caught her against him. Once he steadied her on her feet, she demanded, "What the hell?!"

"That's what I'm wondering," he said. "I need more data. Again?"

Scowling, Zaella submitted, and again Narasi felt flickers of pressure in the Force before Zaella screeched so loudly Gizmo croaked in his cupboard and Narasi's ears flattened. Tirien caught her again, but this time she lurched away from him and fell. Raising a hand to shield herself, she sobbed, "Stop, please!"

For the first time all day Tirien looked like he had taken a real wound. Kneeling beside Zaella, Narasi said, "It's okay. We're friends, we're not gonna hurt you."

"It does hurt!" Zaella said. "Why don't you get that?!"

"I don't want to hurt you," Tirien said. He knelt beside Zaella as well; she drew her knees to her chest to get her feet away from him. Narasi saw him wince, but all he said was, "I want to understand why you're so vulnerable to this so I can prevent people from using it against you."

Zaella swallowed. "Can we be done please?"

He hesitated. "May I try once more? Light pressure only; I have a theory, and I want to see if it's right."

Zaella shivered, and she squeezed her eyes shut into the expression of a woman being led to the burning stake, but she gave a jerky nod. Tirien touched her head, keeping his eyes open this time, and after a moment Zaella cried out in pain. Narasi caught and hugged her.

"Yes, yes!" Zaella howled; Narasi felt the Twi'lek's nails digging into her skin and wished she had put her tunic back on. "Whatever you're doing, it hurts! Now STOP!"

For a moment Tirien said nothing, frowning at the back of Zaella's head. Then, to Narasi's blank-faced astonishment, he laughed.

Zaella jerked free and whirled around, her face showing shock and betrayal. "Is this funny to you?!"

"No. No, it's not funny at all, but…"  Tirien shook his head, wearing a bemused smile Narasi couldn't begin to understand. "It's magic."

"I told you that! I told you she's a sorceress!"

"No," Tirien corrected. "Not Sith magic—not alchemy and revenance and all that. No, I meant it's stage magic—misdirection and illusion."

Zaella frowned. "I don't get it."

"Yeah, me either, Master."

Tirien shifted to sit on the deck. "I told you everyone has shields. I've developed mine for years, and I've trained in skills to protect my mind, so I was able to fight Maia off without much effort.  Narasi, you haven't trained as long, which is why it hit you hard at first, but when you settled your mind you were able to fend it off."

"And me?" Zaella asked. "What about me? I'm older than Narasi!"

"That's the thing, Zaella—your shields have holes."

For a moment silence reigned; Gizmo poked his head out tentatively. Then Zaella asked, "Holes?"

"Not like you missed something in training—like someone cut holes around your mind. Small ones, mind you; it would be difficult to stumble into one unintentionally.  But if you knew what to look for…?" He shook his head. "That's what I meant about stage magic. Hadan wasn't using overwhelming power to shatter your barriers; she carved herself a backdoor and walked right in."

Zaella's eyes widened in horror, and Narasi sensed her fear and vulnerability. She touched Zaella's shoulder, and Zaella clasped her hand, but the Twi'lek's face hardened into rage and she said, "That…that…"

She spat something in Ryl; Narasi couldn't translate it, but she sensed she wouldn't dare use it even for Darth Alecto.

Tirien nodded. "That's not to say Hadan is a pure magician; it would take some skill to build holes like these in the first place. But if she did it early on, when you were a child…say, right after you were brought it?  And did it for all her servants?  It would give her an almost-flawless insurance policy against betrayal, while at the same time making her seem so powerful that few would even risk betrayal in the first place."

Tirien shook his head and snickered again, and now Narasi heard the contempt in the sound. She bared her teeth, disgusted, but to her surprise, Zaella's rage faded. She stared at nothing for a long time, but when she refocused her eyes went to Tirien. "Can you fix it?"

He thought about it. "It should be possible. The mind is supposed to defend itself; these sorts of holes are unnatural.  It would take extensive meditation, of course, but when we get to the Crescentia, I can speak to the Masters and ask if they—"

"Can you fix it?"

Tirien hesitated. "There are Jedi Masters far more powerful and experienced with the mind than me, Zaella. They'd know best how—"

"I don't know them," Zaella snapped. "I don't trust them."

There was a long pause, and Narasi sensed a twist of fate as the Force turned. Then, staring determinedly at the deck, Zaella muttered, "I trust you."

Tirien's surprise was obvious, but when he spoke his voice was gentle. "If you want me to, then yes, I'll help you as best I can."

Zaella nodded and lifted her chin. "So what do we do first?"

"Not right this second," Tirien said, eyes widening. "I'll need time to study and prepare."

"I don't want this to happen again!" Zaella insisted. "Maia's still out there, I want this fixed!"

Tirien held up a hand. "I give you my word I'll help you, but I'll do it right, or not at all. I don't want to make things worse.  Be patient and trust me."

Zaella's grimace showed what she thought of patience, but Narasi squeezed her hand, and in the end Zaella sighed. "Fine. Talk to the dead Jedi, or the Masters on the Crescentia, or whoever.  Just…please hurry.  Please."

"Once we have Guudria settled, it's my top priority," Tirien promised.

"So let's take the fight to them," Narasi suggested. "Maia's half-dead, and any of us could beat Jirdo. Let's hunt 'em down and finish this."

Zaella nodded, and though Tirien made a face, he said, "We may have reached that point. I don't want another fight in Marekka like what we saw today.  No one was seriously hurt, but that's more a function of coincidence than design, and it would be foolish to risk it twice."

Narasi got to her feet. "So should we go? If we kick on the artificial gravity in the well and fly upside-down, I can pick them off with the double gun."

Tirien smirked as he rose too; Zaella accepted Narasi's hand up, rubbing her forehead, as Tirien said, "Not that there isn't a sort of elegance in that solution, but I want you both to rest now. Zaella, try to clear your mind of emotion; Narasi, healing meditation on that arm.  I'm—"

He gasped, clutching his head. Narasi lurched sideways, clinging to a bulkhead as her legs threatened to give out. A terrible feeling welled up in her, sickness and cold in her spirit, cries of agony tearing through her mind. Zaella's eyes widened. "What?! What the hell?!"

"Something…" Narasi panted. Her ears flattened as her own claws squealed on the metal bulkhead. "Something terrible…"

"A disturbance in the Force," Tirien whispered. He had straightened up, but he stared without seeing, only half in the mundane world. "I've never felt anything like it. It was a…coup for the dark side."

Narasi stared at Zaella, who edged away. "Didn't…didn't you feel it?"

Zaella shook her head, looking from each of them to the other. "The dark side, you said? Why didn't I sense anything?"

"That's a good question." Tirien had brought himself back to reality and firmed his voice, though he still looked troubled. "And one worth pursuing, but right now our priorities are the same: meditation. I'll try to get a better sense of what's going on, but now more than ever I don't want to go on the attack until we're at our best."

He gestured to the deck. "Go ahead. I'm going to walk through Marekka and make sure everything's all right.  I'll be back in a while."

Narasi chafed her bare arms with her hands; she barely noticed the ship's cool, but that disturbance in the Force had reached her in a way no air coolant ever could. Zaella cocked her head. "You gonna be okay?"

"Yeah, I think so…" Narasi said, though even remembering the nauseating horror gave her vertigo. She sat down on the deck. "I guess meditation it is."

Zaella sat too, frowning now, and Narasi said, "Be glad you can't feel this; it's not fun."

"What? Oh, no, that's not…"  Zaella squirmed, then blurted out, "Do you really think he can fix me?  The holes in my mind?"

Narasi nodded. "He can be humble and talk about the Masters all he wants, and maybe they're more experienced, but I've never met a more powerful Jedi. If anybody can, it's him.  And I know he'll do whatever he can to help you."

It was hard to tell if Zaella was reassured, but as she reflected, Narasi realized with extraordinary relief that at least she didn't feel jealous. She was sure it would take Tirien a lot of time and effort to help Zaella, but watching Zaella scream and writhe on the ground had burned out any envy Narasi had; if she would rather expose Zaella to that kind of suffering just to keep her master's attention, she was no Jedi at all. Whatever else might be said for this horrible, tumultuous day, at least she and Zaella had emerged from it at peace, and friends.

Trying to hold onto that ray of light amidst her lingering unease, Narasi closed her eyes for meditation.