A Mother's Touch

THE TAPESTRY

She was displaced. Out of place. Out of time.

The story of my life, Osha thought.

Sitting on the veranda outside the cave, she stared down at the red holocron at her feet and then at the ocean. A strange blue haze colored her surroundings in a three-toned palette of twilight. The roar of the ocean, though ever present, was distant to her ears and slowed down like a recording on reduced speed. She had meditated and fought her way through the holocron's puzzling layers to its center, but what was she supposed to do next?

The artifact sprang open in slow motion, the crystal blossoming like a flower. Inside it, Osha saw a familiar sight: leaves from the bunta tree attached to a sliver of a branch. The vibrant yellow fronds showed no signs of withering or decay.

"Osha."

Hearing her name, Osha stood up and scanned the shoreline. She squinted at what appeared to be a figure standing on the causeway. The proximity alarms were functional. She had recalibrated them herself. Had anyone gotten within a kilometer of the cave, there would have been an alert.

Osha felt the weight of her lightsaber on her hip and started toward the stony berm to investigate. "Hello?" she shouted from a safe distance.

The figure turned to face her. Osha instantly recognized the turquoise kaftan, the crimson, hand-woven shawl, and the thick coil of the woman's dreadlocks. Though her mind fought to reject the image, she could not deny the white spiral tattoo in the center of the woman's forehead or the compassionate brown eyes that looked down on her with pride.

"Mama?" Osha ran the length of the causeway. "Mama!" Apparition or not, she rushed into the open arms of Mother Aniseya, tears streaming down her face as Aniseya's arms wrapped about her and held her shoulders. "Mama? How? Sol killed—"

"What has transpired in time cannot be undone, Osha," Aniseya said. "I am a construct of your mind. This form came through your thoughts as the strongest. But I can appear in any form that you like." She grew taller, her shape becoming less feminine and more muscular until she had assumed the image of the Stranger. "Or this," she merged again, becoming Mother Koril."

Osha took a cautious step back, having not seen the fierce hunter for sixteen years.

"Or this form."

Osha retreated from the likeness of Jedi Master Sol. He smiled at her, causing such a tremor in her spirit that she stifled a sob and took two more steps back. "No, no!"

Aniseya returned to her form as Osha's mother. "Then if this is the form—"

"This is the form I prefer!" Osha threw her arms abut Aniseya's waist as she sank to her knees. "This form. Please, mama!

"Now that you have chosen," Aniseya said. "Let us begin. Queries?"

"Mama, the Jedi Order will claim that I have gone to the dark side because of my actions and my use of the Thread."

"Light and dark are one thread, Osha. But when seen from different perspectives, yes, there are those who will attempt to dictate to you what you see and how you see it." Aniseya cupped her chin in her hand. "You mustn't allow it."

"But I used the Thread to kill a man, mama. Master Sol." Osha fought back tears. For his crimes, Sol was not worthy of them. "I killed him because he murdered you and then covered up the lie for sixteen years!"

"This was justice, my love. There is no darkness in it."

"But that moment affects everything I do. Interfering with my training."

"That moment was an awakening, Osha. It was not the first, and it will not be the last," Aniseya said. She looked out across the ocean. "You are holding onto what the Jedi have taught you, like this shoreline holds the sea. They told you to let go of your grief, your emotions. But these are the very things that define you. You are the storm and the wind and the surge, Osha. Beyond their control. They fear you and your power."

"I don't understand what I'm doing wrong?" Osha shouted.

"Listen carefully. You cannot wield the Thread, unless you understand that you are a part of the tapestry that creates it." Aniseya smiled and wiped away Osha's tears, caressing her cheeks. "The Thread is simply an extension of yourself, Osha. Your will made manifest."

"The Thread is immaterial. It cannot be severed, but it can be interrupted. But with the power of many, where one Thread may fail, the others hold it in place and prevent it from being cut." Aniseya walked to the edge of the causeway. "But you must be careful, Osha, for such bonds demand a price, one that requires a sacrifice of self."

"Ascension?"

"Yes, a kind of Ascension." Aniseya chuckled. "When such a bond is found. It is very rare, Osha, and very, very precious."

"You mean my Master." Osha stared into the sea and its subdued waves and then back to her mother. "I think I love him, Mama."

"Does he feel the same about you?"

"I believe so." Osha looked at her and nodded. "He risked his life for this holocron. To bring you back to me."

"Then you must protect him, with everything you are and everything you were meant to be—by walking through fear and sacrificing a part of yourself to become the power of two. Your destinies will be interwoven in the tapestry of the Thread. Two threads that begin and end as one." Aniseya took Osha by the shoulders. "When he ceases to breathe, you will cease to exist. Do you understand? Are you prepared for that, Osha?"

"Yes."

"Then we shall start with the first exercise." Aniseya cast her eyes out over the sea again. Three large boulders rose from the white-capped waves. "Begin."