The Jedi And The Warrior

Through The Stars

"I am deeply sorry about your family," Windu said, his fingers gentle as he bound her leg.

They were sat at the round table in the corner while he secured the dressing around her now clean wound, Obi-Wan and Ben changing into the spare clothes Windu had handed them. Flyra didn't bother asking how he knew about her family, the wave of grief hit too hard and fast for her to care.

She looked away from him, unwilling to speak about them now, here, to him. "Thank you," she said, fighting to keep the pain from her voice.

Windu gently tugged the dressing tighter, and she hissed. He did not apologise, but relinquished the pressure. "We will take care of you on Coruscant," he said. "The Council will provide you with quarters, and a job, should you wish for one."

She tried to bite back the words, but they came spilling out of her exhausted brain anyway. "My village needed your care and you did not come," she whispered. "We've needed it for years, and you abandoned us."

To her humiliation, tears stung at her eyes, and she looked away again. Only when the Council needed something from Stewjon had they come.

Master Windu's hands halted. "The attack upon your planet was very sudden," he said, and his tone held a hint of reprimand. "It was decided that our priority was collecting young Kenobi. It was not an easy decision for the Council to make."

I thought lying was against the Jedi code.

The words bubbled up inside her, but she kept them in this time.

"Who was it that attacked us?" she asked instead, finally meeting Windu's grave eyes.

"A band of outlaws who call themselves Warriors of Fate," he said, finishing his work on the dressing and settling upon the stool opposite her. "They believe their work to be the work of Fate, and are led by a renegade Jedi, Malco Flint."

She opened her mouth to ask why they had come to the planet Stewjon, but Windu rose from his seat.

"You should be able to walk now," he said gravely. "I must attend to our flight path."

And he stepped from her, his cloak sweeping behind him.

Flyra watched him go, trying to sort out her jumbled emotions. There was anger there, and disappointment at something, but mostly there was just raw pain, and exhaustion. And the hollowness of her pain ate away at her strength like a rat gnawing at her insides.

Outside the ship the world was dark, and inside the lights were dimmed, a soft blue glow against the white walls. She didn't know how long the journey to Coruscant would take. Her eyes dragged to Obi-Wan and Ben. They were laying out blankets for her and Obi to sleep on, while Ben got the bed. She wondered if Jedi slept. They had to, but somehow she couldn't reconcile sleep with such a mighty discipline.

With a groan, Flyra pushed to her feet, and limped gingerly across to the bed, grasping onto the edge for support.

"Master Windu has given us enough, Ben," Obi-Wan was saying from his knees, while Ben stared regretfully at Windu's bent shape. "We will not test his tolerance."

"I'm hungry," was Ben's feeble, obstinate reply.

Windu had given them all some sort of cracker to keep them going, promising better food once they reached Coruscant. But no doubt it was not enough to sustain a starving twelve-year-old who'd almost frozen to death. Obi-Wan sighed, and the exhaustion in that sound alone had her heart clenching.