I KNOW PLACES ➶ STAR WARS

Part XVI // Far-Off

"Should we prepare?" Padmé asked hurriedly and quietly, just as Obi-Wan finished explaining the call he received from the Jedi Council. "What do we do?"

His hand ventured up to his beard. "For now, nothing." Their eyes made brief contact, and hers were fearful. "We keep low profiles until we get word on where to go." His eyes followed her every move as her expression turned stony, almost angered.

"I don't like all this hiding, Obi-Wan." She practically stomped out of the bedroom and into the infants' room, very aware of him following close behind her. "I'm a person of action, even if it's from behind a chair as a galactic senator." Padmé carefully picked up the still-fussy Leia and smoothed the baby's dark, messy hair, then kissed her forehead.

"One thing about this war, Padmé- if it does happen," he sighed heavily and watched her closely, "the infants must go where the Sith will not sense them."

All of her movements stopped. "What?"

"It would be too dangerous here on Naboo, or even on Coruscant. We cannot risk Anakin finding them."

"You mean the Jedi Council is planning to take them from me, only weeks after I saw them for the first time?" She asked flatly, knowing the answer. As Leia continued to cry, she took to clutching the small girl to her chest, the woven light blue strands of her evening dress catching every tear the wailing infant emitted. "I have no affiliation of any kind with the Council. You have no say in the matter of my children."

"This was not up to me!" He exclaimed, his eyes widening in disbelief. If she really thought that he would choose to separate the three-

Padmé moved closer to the Jedi Master, aggression clear in her eyes. "It's not up to any of you."

She rounded him and only broke eye contact as she left the room.

A heavy, shaking sigh wracked his sunken chest as he leaned against the silver cradle in which Luke slept. The child had grown some light blonde hair between his birth and now, at two weeks old. Luke shifted in the cradle, restless.

Obi-Wan had not yet sensed a strong Force tremor from either child. But there was something; something about him that made the Master wonder.

Something far-off.

Padmé sat on the veranda and looked out at the Great Falls of Naboo. The sun had dropped just below the surrounding rocks and bits and pieces of the golden stuff poked through every crevice it could find. Large, short-furred variations of banta grazed near the Falls and avians perched on rocks; the yellowed, drying grass swayed and crackled in the autumn breeze. This year it was unseasonably cold for such an early-autumn month, but Padmé did not know what this foretold, though she could feel it.

Leia's tiny feet struggled in her tight blanket, wanting to be free. A small cry flew from the infant's lips when she found no escape, her little hands balled up into fists.

The infant grasped her mother's finger for the first time just as a shadow passed through Obi-Wan's meditation.

"Oh, Flower," Padmé cooed as she unwound the deep blue blanket, her brown eyes capturing every detail of the two-week-old: her fuzzy brown hair, her tiny fingernails, and her light blue eyes, all illuminated in the senator's mind.

Suddenly, a hand gripped Padmé's shoulder, and her arms flinched the slightest bit.

Tears in his eyes, Obi-Wan knelt in front of her and kissed her full on the lips. It was nothing fierce, nothing intimate, just mouth-to-mouth. Padmé asked him why his grip was strong but his emotions faltered. Obi-Wan merely shook his head.

"I can't tell you that. You must find out on your own, and for that... I am remorseful."

Fear flooded her eyes as the water flooded his. Her hands shook. Her infant murmured softly. "When will I know?"

A bittersweet smile played on his shaky lips. "Sometime far-off."