"I gave Vergere my promise that I would only play the message most appropriate to the listeners and their circumstances. Please, do not ask me to betray the confidence of the one responsible for protecting my people as I could not.
Keeping my word is all that I can do for Vergere now, so keep my word I shall." Sekot's silent voice was just as courteous as it had been, but there was an underlying note of firmness that hadn't been there before.
...
Dark Woman didn't immediately respond. Apparently searching for some tack she could take to elicit more information from the living planet.
I knew we'd reached a dead end, but I also understood why my Master couldn't just write Vergere off as I'd had reason to do. Finally, she quietly and courteously inquired.
"Without asking you to violate any of Knight Vergere's confidences, is there anything else you can tell us about the Sith? She might have made an oblique reference to another person or place in passing, or mentioned something else she intended to do before the crisis required she visit the enemy flagship. We're very concerned about her, you understand?"
The image of the middle aged man frowned in response to these words. A pensive expression clear on the artificial features when Sekot silently replied "Nothing that might provide a clue as to Vergere's present whereabouts, but as for anything to do with these Sith?
She made a comment about evil being exactly where anyone with eyes to see would expect to find it, but no. I've no idea what she meant in specific, or even if her observation really concerned your adversaries or mine."
It was everything I could do to avoid choking on that comment. The fallen Jedi was doing everything but trailing breadcrumbs to Palpatine's very door, yet remaining just obscure enough for her intent to be missed by those who didn't already know the answer to the riddle.
Perhaps sensing she'd reached the bottom of the well, Dark Woman's subsequent questions were simple approaches to the same subject from different angles. None of which resulted in anything more from Sekot.
Eventually, the world-consciousness firmly changed the subject himself. Looking in my direction with his illusory self, as he stated aloud for the first time "The two of you should be getting back to the design-library.
My dreams have become ever more troubled. Turbulent and shadowy they've been, but I see you in them again and again. I'm supposed to be a help to you, so I'm helping as Leor would have wanted.
You won't have greeted the wind yet, but you will. Go and envision your gleaming angel. Go, while there is time remaining for the raising of angels. I wish that things didn't have to change, but change finds us all, eventually."
It was a dismissal, and we would have taken it for one even if the illusion hadn't vanished so abruptly an instant later.
"What did you make of all that, Apprentice?" Dark Woman inquired of me as we were walking down the flights of stairs we'd so recently climbed. Her manner presented it as a teacher offering up a lesson via the Socratic method, but I thought there lurked a bit of desire for a second opinion within the open-ended question.
"I think we would do well to remember Knight Vergere is a Fosh, Master. Her people adore wheels-within-wheels type stratagems, and often talk around a point, but this is more than that. She's hiding a great many things, but I'm convinced she spoke truthfully and accurately concerning the points she made in a declarative fashion.
I believe her when she says she knows the identity of the Sith Lord. Just as I believe her when she said that it would be a disaster for her to be the one who pointed out the Sith. I don't think she would have made such a point of saying so, if she didn't have an alternative solution to offer.
Whatever's on Circarpous V in this Temple of Pomojema is extremely important" I replied without a moment's hesitation. Having had plenty of time to think while my Master spoke with Sekot.
The tall, silver haired, blue eyed woman's expression grew reflective as she considered my response.
"What about Sekot's statements? I notice you focused entirely on the content of Vergere's message. Was there a particular reason for your decision to avoid attempting an analysis of it's almost certainly precognitive dreams?" Her questions gave away as little as her absolutely neutral tone as we came to the end of the stairs.
Fallnir was waiting a discreet distance away for us to appear, because he immediately raised a green hand by way of greeting as he began his approach. Before he drew close enough to hear me, I quickly answered the Jedi Master's questions.
"I don't consider myself qualified to analyze my own brushes with precognition, Master. Let alone whatever glimpses of the future a sentient being so different from myself might be having.
You've driven home the point that overreaching is just as bad as underachieving again and again. Plus, I've worked very hard to persuade you I'm trustworthy enough concerning my studies that you can safely treat me as if I'm a bit older than my twelve years.
It would be stupid to begin ignoring you concerning primary tenets, and cause you to reconsider that position. You know how curious I am." Everything I said was the absolute truth, but it wasn't every bit of the truth.
"Yes, well, I believe taking Sekot's advice would be wise" Was all Dark Woman said in response. Her eyes had grown hooded as Fallnir drew near, so I didn't comment on the fact she hadn't specified which bit of the world-sentience's advice we should take.
...
Four days passed faster than I would have believed possible. Initially, I couldn't get the fact that Vergere was directing us to the same solution I'd had in mind for so long, but the designing of an entire starship soon proved enough to fully occupy my attention.
Especially now that we'd completed the design, and were being met at the end of a rather scenic river journey.
"Is there something of particular interest among our fellow travelers, Anakin?" Dark Woman's question was asked in an annoyingly knowing manner. One which tempted me to round on her and snap "Are you sick? The girl's only twelve or thirteen!" Except I couldn't give vent to my outrage, because I appeared to be only twelve.
Instead, I replied in a long-suffering tone. "Master, I have decades of study still in front of me. I don't have the least little bit of time for the female of the species.
I noticed the admittedly cute redhead is Force-sensitive when we boarded the boat, so I decided to see if I could sense just how strong her connection to the Force is without getting any closer. Aren't you always telling me there are opportunities to learn all around me?"
Seeming a little surprised by the nature of my reply, Dark Woman's follow-up query was offered by the detached instructor. "How would you assess her connection to the Force, then?" She seemed a little put off that I wasn't behaving like an adolescent boy embarrassed to be caught checking out a pretty girl.
"Her connection to the Force is quite strong. Strong enough it's a shame the Seekers missed her." My reply was analytical, but I could do better than that with my recent progress. I found myself smiling as a particular tidbit drifted up to me with a gentle, prolonged trill of the Force's song.
"She's discovered quite the rapport with the local birds. It's probably the most adorable use of the Force I could imagine. Like something out of a child's holo-film" I murmured just loudly enough for my teacher to hear.
Not realizing in the grip of a deeper empathy I wasn't yet in full control of that my words were more appropriate for a bemused thirty-something uncle.
Rather than those of the twelve year old ex-slave who'd spent his entire emancipated life in the company of precisely two women and some training-droids that I actually was.
I felt my Master start beside me. The Force a warning hum as I sensed her own empathy sharp as a scalpel touch me with a gossamer sensibility.
It took my every bit of skill as I realized my mistake to remain an untroubled enough channel to hold to a Thought Shield being scrutinized speculatively. I wanted to sigh in relief as I felt the next thing to the Eye of Sauron retreat, but didn't dare.
I knew Dark Woman could work her way round me to get at my real feelings if she really cracked her mental knuckles and took it to me, but I doubted she'd be that crass without more cause than me speaking in an oddly mature manner.
"You've kept up your Thought Shield admirably, Apprentice." Was all she said after a moment's reflection.
"It will serve you well when we journey to the Temple." The reminder I was going to be subjected to the scrutiny of the Order soon was a test of my nerves, but I weathered the knot in my guts and smiled at the weathered Jedi Master. For such a brutal instructor, Dark Woman could be so quintessentially considerate about important things.
She knew everyone was going to watch "The Chosen One" like a hawk-bat, and how private a person I generally was. In typical Dark Woman fashion, she left my fate in my own hands wherever and whenever she felt it appropriate.
The girl in question suddenly glided up and interrupted our intermittent conversation. Her shiny, wavy black hair, blemish free emerald skin, and expressive sapphire blue eyes came to a pleasing visual sum. Giving hints of the beautiful woman to be inside the young maiden. Her stormy expression was presently marring those good looks, however.
"It isn't polite to stare at and whisper about someone. Especially when you're somehow prying into my memories! I think I would like an apology!" The girl's tone was frosty as she glared at me reprovingly.
I started to look to my Master for a solution, then I stopped myself. The Savage Savant who beat, blistered, and otherwise battered me certainly wasn't going to shield me from a bit of adolescent pique.
Turning to face my accuser squarely, I bowed to her, and in my most contrite tone offered "Please accept my sincerest apologies, miss. I should not have pried for the sake of my education. You have the loveliest feelings, I quite forgot myself."
The fire in those bright blue eyes persisted several moments longer, then an almost quizzical expression replaced the angry frown. "You're both like Lady Vergere, then? I would have thought you'd look more like her than me, then."
I thought about how best to answer that.
"I don't have any more special powers than you do, miss. It's the Force which connects all living things providing access to what you're calling special powers." It was a good answer, but the slight frown on her cute green face revealed my answer hadn't really conveyed a lot of useful information.
"That's what Lady Vergere said, but it didn't make anymore sense when she said it either. I'm Jabitha, but my friends call me Wind. What's your name?" Jabitha asked me after a few more seconds.
"My name is Anakin Skywalker, Padawan learner to Jedi Master Dark Woman. Which is a very formal way of saying I'm the one she is teaching how and why to use the Force" I replied with amiable warmth. Meeting the girl's eyes and shaking my head as Dark Woman gave me a taunting grin as she glided away.
"Is the Force anything like how I make myself more attractive and acceptable to the birds?" Jabitha excitedly inquired of me once the imposing form of my Master seemed to have drifted out of earshot.
With one hand around the eight-sided pendant on the chain around my neck, I concentrated intently and lifted a globule of water from the river passing beneath. It hovered as a shining orb between the two of us, as I distractedly lectured "What you are seeing is not some power of mine to lift the water and hold it in a discrete sphere.
My Master has taught me how to use my inborn connection to the Force to persuade the Force to lift and hold the water for me. That's not quite the gist of the matter, but it's as close as I can get in a brief conversation."
Sweat trickled down my brow as I divided one gleaming ball of water into two, and then four marbles of moisture glinting in the sunlight.
"With an enormous amount of practice, one can improve your capacity to influence the Force. Allowing one to accomplish more with it as one's understanding of it's ways improves. With the Force, the impossible can become possible."
The four orbs I'd carefully arranged in a gentle downward facing arc suddenly came apart into a field of mist.
Creating a brief but pronounced rainbow, as the tension of intense ongoing concentration drained out of me. It was the best punctuation of my statement I could arrange on short notice, but Jabitha's delighted smile made it worth the trouble.
"Could I learn to do that?" The question was inevitable, and caused me to glance in my Master's direction. Dark Woman was studiously not looking in our direction, as she appeared to be meditating.
"Close your eyes and focus on nothing but my voice" I replied after a moment's consideration. Again, those hoping for an Orthodox Chosen One were going to be disappointed.
...
I'll appreciate if you guys can throw some power stones to keep the story going.
=========================
if you want to read ahead of the public release you can go to p@treon :
p@treon.com/Rage_moon