The Mirror within the Mask 2

I woke up with a start. The dreams that plagued me in my flat followed me here as well. I sat up and concentrated on getting my breathing back to normal. Thrawn looked up at me.

“Nightmares?” He asked sleepily. His hand was warm on my back.

“It’s okay.” I said. “Go back to sleep.” I got out of bed, stole his robe and made my way to the kitchen to make tea before he could really wake up.

In the quiet of the kitchen I sat and sipped tea. I had activated the little holocron and listened to my birth mother’s voice as she talked about her daily life in the Temple. Mostly her entries were of normal, mundane things, sometimes they were a little dull even but the next entry made me sad.

*** Today I heard some terrible news. Master Qui Gon Jinn is dead. He was killed on Naboo yesterday. I cried when I heard this because he was one of the Jedi Masters who was always kind to me and I don’t know…he was a friend … he was someone I could go an talk to…. ***

The entry was short because she had started to cry and had turned off the recorder. She had talked often about Qui Gon Jinn. He and her own master were close and she looked at Qui Gon almost the same way I tended to see my uncle Vahlek. I felt for her loss because in my own way I had known him too. I listened to the next entry.

*** I saw the new boy today, Anakin I think his name is. The whole temple is talking about him. He is supposed to be the chosen one. I asked Master Tane what that meant. He said it had to do with an old prophecy. ... “And in the time of greatest despair, there shall come a saviour, and he shall be known as: The son of the suns.” This was what he told me, but I don’t understand it.

Anakin is Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Padawan learner, even though the boy is nine or ten, which is old to be taken into the temple and taught. There are some masters who are unhappy about this but they don’t speak it out loud. They say Anakin is too old to start learning the ways of the force. Master Tane says this is because it is difficult to undo any imprinting that has already been done. In Anakin’s case the love for his mother. I asked Master Tane why love was such a bad thing. He told me that love is not the issue but attachment is. I am not certain I understand what he means by this. He asked me how I felt about my own mother. I said I didn’t have any feelings about her, I don’t know her. He smiled and asked did I love her. I said I supposed in a sort of distant way, she was my mother after all. He smiled and pointed out to me this is what he meant about non attachment.

I asked him then what age was too old because I remember hearing people say that Master Vos was also older than normal when Master Tholme brought him to the temple to be trained. Master Tane just shrugged and said; “Master Tholme had his reasons and the situation was quite different.” He then went on to tell me that Master Vos is from the same planet my father was from and that I am half Kiffar. He asked me if I ever picked up images from objects that I touched and I wondered how he knew this because I don’t talk about it. He told me that psychometry was a gift known to be prevalent amongst Kiffar and that maybe if I wanted to know more about it I could ask master Vos or master Tholme when they were not busy.

I don’t like this gift and I try hard to ignore it. Sometimes I ‘see’ the worst images from things that I have touched. Master Tane just nodded when I told him this and then told me that this was all the more reason to try and learn how to use it properly. I must have made one of my famous faces because he laughed and told me to be careful in case the wind changed.

I haven’t had the chance to speak to Anakin yet, he stays very close to Obi-Wan. Master Tane says that the boy is homesick, missing his mother and his planet. He comes from Tatooine. I had to look that up on the star map and could not believe how far away it was. It has a binary solar system so I imagine that he must find Coruscant really cold. I feel sorry for him, he always looks lonely…. ***

“What is that?” Thrawn’s voice in the dark made me jump and the holocron switched off as I lost concentration.

“I thought you were sleeping.” I said turning to look at him. He came to stand beside me and picked up my cup, sipped at the now cold tea and made a face.

“I was but when you did not return to bed after an hour I got worried that you had been spirited away. It seems I am getting used to your warmth at my side. Then I heard voices and wondered if there was a party going on I had not been invited to.” He said caressing my face.

“I didn’t mean to wake you.” I said getting up to put the kettle on to make more tea. He sat on one of the kitchen stools and watched me.

“You didn’t wake me, sj’iu tekari but your absence did.” For a moment we just looked at each other. Tousled and sleepy he made my heart skip. He ran his hand through his hair and I realised that as jittery as he made me, so I also had an effect on him. The moment between us hung in the air and then broke when he picked up the little glowing cube.

“So, what is this?” he asked a second time. “And whose voice was I hearing?”

“It’s called a holocron.” I said. “The Jedi used them as data storage devices. They hold enough data to fill about a hundred standard data chips.”

“Clever little device.” He studied it carefully in the dim light of the kitchen. “And the woman speaking?” he pressed.

“My birth mother, Akali L’uanna.” I told him, pouring hot water in to the tea pot. “This is her diary.”

He turned it over in his fingers. “How does it work?”

I poured two cups of tea then sat on the stool beside him and took the cube from his hands. “It’s force activated. Watch.” I said. I concentrated and felt my thoughts connect with the little cube.

I fast forwarded a little to pick an entry at random. The cube flickered on and the little holographic image of my mother shimmered into place. I wasn’t sure what date of entry I had picked but she was at least four or five years older than the entry I had been listening to when Thrawn had come into the kitchen.

***My friend Lorana is leaving and she isn’t happy about it either. She came to me last night to tell me the news and today the whole place is a buzz. Six Jedi masters and twelve Jedi knights are leaving the Temple to go with the Outbound Flight Project. Nobody thought it was going to go ahead but Master C’boath managed to work it out…. ***

Thrawn looked up at me so suddenly and so sharply that my concentration slipped and the holocron switched itself off.

“What is it?” I asked.

“Did she say Outbound Flight?” he asked, there was an edge to his voice that I had never heard before.

I nodded. “Why?”

“Where did you get this from?” he asked ignoring my question.

I hesitated just long enough that he glanced at me, knowing I had considered lying.

“It is important to me.” He said quietly.

“The Jedi Temple.” I admitted.

He looked at me for a moment. “I thought that place was locked down, the doors all sealed and under tight security. No one can get inside. It is considered condemned and off limits. ” He asked.

I looked into his eyes. “There are ways around security.”

He nodded his understanding. “Take me there.” He said getting up.

“Now? Right now?” I asked. “It’s the middle of the night.”

“There are records in the Temple, yes? Archives?” he asked.

I nodded. “There is an enormous library there, why?”

“Can you access the files?” he asked heading to the bedroom to get dressed. I followed him not liking where this was heading at all.

“Some of them, but the system is old and I don’t know how to use it all that well yet.”

“Get dressed.” He said. “I want you to take me there now, tonight.” There was an urgency in his voice I had never heard before and didn’t understand. It never occurred to me to argue with him.

I dressed as he had in black clothes that were easy to move in. I slung the satchel with the lightsaber still in it over my shoulder and watched as he checked his pistol and then holstered it.

“We need to go back to the palace.” I told him. “The entrance I use is there, but this is not a good idea, the Temple is a bad place to be.” I told him.

He nodded. “Your concern is noted. Let’s go.” He said coldly and without further word we left.