Giving your old friend complete control of the Bulq family's nine hundred and fifty billion-credit financial empire, as well as a ready-made excuse to increase the militarization of said moon under the guise of increased anti-terrorism measures.
It's possible all of this is nothing but a string of unconnected coincidences, of course, but how likely is that really?
...
I could feel the discordant notes multiplying in Master Windu's aura, but they were being drowned out almost as fast as they cropped up in his personal song by a howling symmetry of harshly repeating notes that reminded me a great deal of the sudden and powerful gusts of wind on Ilum.
The rate at which the discordant notes were being silenced continued to increase, as I realized I was sensing the Jedi Master's efforts with the Force to regain his emotional equilibrium.
Keeping track of what I sensed in addition to following an important discussion, plus all the equally significant non-verbal cues was beginning to grow really difficult.
I still wasn't entirely acclimated to the leap forward in sensitivity I'd made no more than a month and change ago on Zonama Sekot, so the strong emotions of others tended to grow as abrasive as a psychic sort of wind burn over time, and quite distracting besides.
Again, I was so caught up in what was going on within my head, I nearly missed the Master of the Order's response.
"You've made your points, Dark Woman. Leave it at that, please" Mace quietly answered her. Mysteriously, at least from my perspective, much of the tension seemed to have left the man.
I wouldn't have called him tranquil or serene, as I would have Yoda or Yaddle, but he seemed completely in command of himself for the first time since we'd entered the chamber.
I wondered at that given the confrontational nature of the clash between him and my Master, before a sudden and startling flash of insight revealed to me my Master had actually been trying to help Windu this whole time.
Before I could figure out how I felt about that, or Dark Woman could reply to Windu's request one way or another, Yoda adroitly slipped in and seized control of the discussion once more.
"Wandered from our purpose again, we have. Accuracy of young Skywalker's vision, the Order must determine. For this reason, four Jedi to Circarpous V, I will take." The Grandmaster's statements weren't in line with his usual style of inviting discussion of a problem until a consensus was achieved, but it didn't take a great deal of thought to account for the deviation from his personal norm.
The obscuring pall of the Dark Side had been impeding his vision in an increasingly maddening fashion for years now. Making the prospect of cutting through all the suggestive dead-ends and outright prevarications which had been blocking his precognition a temptingly blessed relief from ongoing feelings of frustration stemming from a loss of control.
Not to mention an ever-increasing sense of helplessness in a rapidly changing galaxy. Something which had been slowly sapping the great Jedi's strength for the last few centuries.
Unsurprisingly, my perception of Yoda as the deciding factor in this situation quickly bore itself out. Masters Windu and Rancisis both made token objections to the Grandmaster's going in the form of alternative suggestions, but everyone in the room could tell the small yet enormously powerful being was in no mood to delegate.
It was to his very great credit he listened attentively to their each and every objection. Fully internalizing what all of the High Council's members had to say, before finally dismissing their individual reservations and moving along to filling out his mission roster.
What did surprise me was hearing Yoda intended for Dark Woman and I to come along. My Master's usefulness during a mission to a jungle world was obvious enough. Dark Woman could control plant life to an amazing degree using the Force.
I'd once seen her make a redwood-sized tree walk like an Ent, then re-root itself somewhere more convenient when she was expanding the obstacle course on Cophrigin V. The feat hadn't even seemed to tire her, so I could definitely envision her abilities proving useful on Mimban/Circarpous V.
The reasoning behind my own participation in such an important undertaking wasn't as yet apparent to me, however. The Grandmaster's third choice was again one I likewise immediately grasped the reasoning for, but Yoda's lack of foreknowledge was going to make this entire mission extremely uncomfortable for me.
"I understand choosing a Knight who was trained by one of the Order's chief archeologists. It's just Ameesa Darys will end up falling even faster than her former Master, down the line."
The thought was a bleak one, but I comforted myself with the knowledge I'd stand a much better chance of keeping newly Knighted Ameesa out of my thoughts and feelings, as opposed to her ex-Master, Jerec (Inquisitor) My Master assured me my Thought Shield was better than that of many young Knights she'd known.
But concealing one's thoughts and emotions from a Miralukan Jedi Master who'd spent decades honing the entire umbrella of Sense abilities was clearly beyond my (present) capabilities.
Hopefully, my ambivalence concerning Ameesa's fate in a timeline I was already changing would help me stay off the Knight's radar, because I sure the fuck wasn't going to trust her for so much as one heartbeat.
Hallan Krintu was a Rutian Twi'lek Jedi Knight I'd known absolutely nothing about. I quickly gathered that the Grandmaster's final choice was a Jedi Researcher with a specialty as a Liturgist, however.
Which would only make sense from Yoda's perspective, because he was anticipating needing to divine the Kaiburr Crystal's function from materials available where it was found. Which, come to think of it, might well be a superior alternative to Luke and Leia's.
"Let's just wing it while mortally wounded" stratagem. I was basically demanding Yoda penetrate the most impenetrable Force-mask utilized in the last two thousand years via the Kaiburr Crystal.
The Light's Grand Goblin deserved all the help he could get, because I sure as fuck wasn't looking forward to watching the 501st Legion get constantly reinforced as my idiotic-yet-somehow-strategically-successful plans killed clones (ironically) too loyal for their own good by the thousands.
A few additional details were being gone over, but my attention had quickly wandered from what I'd determined was a non-vital discussion concerning logistics.
I'd had basically no time at all to come to grips with the fact I seemed to possess one of the rarer Force-talents, and didn't really know what to think about the fact I'd just altered Yoda's decision concerning the search for the Kaiburr Crystal.
Granted, I didn't know what his decision would have been if I'd refrained from opening my mouth. There was also the fact that pretty much all of Anakin's biological descendants had possessed the ability to perceive, if not actually Force Breach the Shatterpoints the Force showed them, so my stunned surprise might be a bit unwarranted from a logical perspective.
My theory as to why the Chosen One had initially lacked this talent was his complete inability to detach himself from anyone or anything in which he vested emotional value. Since that wasn't my epic weakness, I'd apparently defaulted back to being open to insights provided by the Force like all the other Skywalkers and Solos.
The High Council let us withdraw shortly thereafter. Though not before I learned it was going to take nearly five weeks to acquire use of a ship capable of withstanding the rampant high intensity lightning-strikes which vessels entering Mimban's atmosphere were inevitably subjected to. I knew what that meant, of course.
I was going to have to train within the Temple, with other Padawans, and under the supervision of Masters who were not my Master. In other words, people who would stubbornly insist on boring me to death by treating me as the twelve year old they perceived.
A fate which Dark Woman had eventually permitted me to earn an escape from via endlessly consistent demonstrations of maturity beyond my years, and a diligence directed my education's way that the most gifted twelve year old the galaxy had ever seen would not have matched for lack of unfair preternatural maturity-advantages.
I didn't need precognition to realize I wasn't going to enjoy the next month.
...
I'll appreciate if you guys can throw some power stones to keep the story going.
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