The Devils Inside the Walls/Part 4

Tirien surprised Narasi by taking the Second Chance 's co-pilot seat.

"Why don't you take us up?" he invited.

Narasi swallowed, but went through the pre-flight routine, double-checking each system to ensure there were no mistakes. Tirien stared out at Byblos City, its buildings almost glowing white even at the Sithing hour. He answered questions when she asked and handled their outbound comms, but otherwise offered no comment as the Second Chance drifted into a travel lane and made for orbit.

"Set course for the Pax system," Tirien commented.

"What's there?" Narasi asked.

"Nothing of significance, as far as I know. But it's on the Hydian, and Master Kadych wants us to rendezvous there.  I think we're staging to retake Malastare."

Narasi waited for the anticipation to curdle in her stomach; Malastare had been the big target since she and Tirien had joined the Crescentia over a month before. But the sensation didn't come. She wanted to believe it was a year's worth of Padawan discipline, but Tirien had taught her to be honest with herself, and she didn't believe that.

She guided the Second Chance to lightspeed, then turned the pilot's chair to face her master.

"It's bothering you too, right?" she asked.

It took him a moment to draw out of his abstraction, almost as if he was resurfacing from meditation. He rotated his chair to face her as well, studying her expression, then sighed, looking down at nothing. "Yes."

Narasi grimaced. "What happened, Master?"

He seemed to understand. "Alone too long?" he mused. "Fighting an enemy with no face, chasing ghosts in a world where every once in a while the ghosts are real. That's the trouble, Narasi, the real danger for Shadows; sometimes there really are Sith conspiracies, or Sith agents, and when the dark side is really at work you need to strike, and at once, or you risk missing the chance.  But there's a difference between being alert for it and looking for it.  When you look too hard, the line blurs.  Sometimes you see what you expect to see."

Narasi crossed her arms, thinking over their interview with Garrin's family. "That boy's dad, the professor…he seemed okay, but how could somebody so smart be so dumb?"

Tirien laughed, though he looked rueful. "I suppose Javrin would say it's the risk of being too bookish—like a Consular," he added wryly. "Too focused on theory and not enough on practicality. You'll see that with weapons manufacturers now and then; people who are so excited to make a brand new way of incinerating molecules, then wonder why everyone else is put off.  But I suppose it's the same problem with a historian; he saw the Sith artifacts as historical objects, without considering that they were instruments of evil."

"And the dealer?"

"The Judicials will follow up on it, but the real problem is these academic exceptions. The Senate needs to close the loopholes for the artifact trade.  I believe in knowledge, but some things are too dangerous for everyone to know."

Shifting in her seat, Narasi asked, "Master…do you think he's a Dark Jedi now?"

"Javrin?" Tirien's eyes tightened. "No, not yet. Shadows walk the line of the dark side; sometimes they step over.  But not every Jedi who strays is lost forever, and sometimes, with time and reflection, they can step back."

Narasi sighed, remembering the way the Shistavenan had glared at them as they turned him over to Theyf and her Padawan for escort back to Coruscant. "We're lucky Theyf and Zalzar were nearby."

Tirien nodded, but said nothing more. Frowning, Narasi asked, "Master…the dark side…that's what's been bothering me. About Javrin going bad."

"Because if he can, what's to say any of us can't?" Tirien asked, eyes narrowed thoughtfully. When Narasi nodded, he said, "We're all tempted, you know that. But he wasn't on guard against the temptation; he didn't see the danger for what it was.  You aren't Javrin, Narasi, you're on guard for your temptations.  Stay that way, but don't obsess."

Though reassured, Narasi kept frowning. "But that's not what's bothering you, is it?"

He looked at her, and a faint smile touched his lips. "You're becoming more insightful. You make me proud of you."

Narasi felt her whole chest warm, but she pressed her lips together and waited for Tirien to go on.

"Do you remember what the Praxeum Council told us with this mission, Narasi?" he asked.

It had been barely a day ago, but the stress of the long day had worn on her. "Uh…"

"They said a Jedi needed our help," Tirien reminded her. "Even though he hadn't asked for it. At first I thought they meant with the mission, but I suspected early on the 'conspiracy' wasn't as dire as he made it seem, and it was obviously a mistake when we had those boys.  I started to think yesterday that the Council…well, not knew what Javrin was becoming.  If they'd known, they would've acted to protect innocent people.  But perhaps suspected—enough that they wanted us to get Javrin back on the right path."

"Maybe we did?" Narasi offered.

Tirien snorted once without humor. "He's returning to Coruscant in custody to face the High Council; I'm not sure that's what Master La'altac had in mind. Maybe, someday, he'll be securely back in the light.  But it isn't today."

"You didn't kill him," Narasi pointed out. "He would've hurt Garrin, or you, but you barely hurt him at all."

Tirien's yellow eyes showed his weariness. "If the best a Jedi can say about his day is that he didn't kill anyone, he should be ashamed of himself. I didn't hurt his body, but I might have pushed him deeper into his anger."

"And he might have hurt those guys," Narasi countered. "That was more important, wasn't it? Saving them?"

"You're not wrong, but be careful with that kind of cost-benefit analysis, Narasi," Tirien told her. "When you start counting the lives like they're resources—when you drift away from considering every life valuable—it's a bad place for a Jedi to go. And war makes the temptation all the greater."

"We can't save everybody?" Narasi offered.

"No," Tirien conceded. "No we can't. All we can do is our best, and trust in the Force."

"And we did our best," Narasi insisted.

"I will be pondering that for a while, I think," Tirien said. "He was right, you know. Javrin.  About the battles.  It's easier to fight the dark side when it comes in the form of Sith Lords swinging lightsabers.  The subtler temptations and dangers…they take a gentler hand to manage.  I'll have to work on that."

He managed a smile. "But Jedi don't dwell. You did very well.  There was no Sith conspiracy, and we've relieved the absentminded professor of some dangerous artifacts.  Javrin isn't going to hurt anyone, and hopefully he'll come back to us.  And we're headed home to fight the obvious enemies, where I get to endure you teasing a blind man while trying to set up a Jedi Knight fighting ring."

Narasi's eyes widened at her master's smirk, but then she grinned and shared his laugh.