A Jedi Wizard Tale
Chapter 2
Jocasta Nu watched Obi-Wan flip another ancient tome shut with a sigh of disgust. The archives, usually a solemn, dusty place, pulsed with the agitated shuffling of the wizard knight. Dust motes swirled in the afternoon light streaming in from the archer slits in the vaulted walls. Obi-Wan reshelved the tome before pulling down another, beginning yet another tedious page by page search for Force knew what.
Enough was enough. She strolled slowly over to the table the wizard knight had commandeered and, with hands folded neatly behind her back, she leaned forward and arched one delicate white eyebrow.
Obi-Wan glanced at her once quickly before doing a double take and frowning impressively. "You and Mace," he mumbled.
Jocasta arched her other eyebrow as well.
Obi-Wan rubbed his ginger beard, a nervous habit everyone in the Order was well-versed in. "Yes…? Madam Records Keeper?" One hand still nervously fingered a page to flip to the next in his newest tome.
"Ah yes," Jocasta said, "I am the Records Keeper. Perhaps if you would take the time to inquire, I can assist you in your…frenetic search."
Obi-Wan looked affronted at it being implied he was frenetic anything. Jocasta couldn't resist the tiniest of smiles. Obi-Wan had spent more time than most in the Archives, and the two of them shared a bond over love of knowledge if nothing else. Wisdom and dignity had been traits she had watched Obi-Wan strive for with great diligence. No wonder suggesting him frantic would ruffle his feathers.
But it was the release valve Obi-Wan apparently needed. He sighed like a bellows and said, "I would greatly appreciate some assistance actually."
Jocasta's smile faded. "So what has you so troubled then?"
Obi-Wan went back to stroking his beard. "Tell me, can you think of any reason why one wizard would get a—a power boost from another?" Obi-Wan glanced away, staring off into the distance. "But only…only when they're touching skin to skin."
Jocasta frowned. "What have you been doing, reading fairy tales, Obi-Wan? I heard you have an important role as Negotiator coming up, it hardly seems the time."
"Jocasta, it's not a fairy tale!" he said. "It's happened to me! Please listen!" he added. His cheeks were red, from anger or embarrassment or both, Jocasta could not say. "The first time I dueled Skywalker, we locked blades, and our auras—it was like lightning striking the sea during the worst of storms…"
She found her frown deepening. Something niggled at the back of her mind, though what it was she was not yet at that moment sure. Instead she nodded, encouraging Obi-Wan to continue his story.
Obi-Wan drummed his fingers on the table, like he was deciding what to say—or perhaps what not to say. Jocasta gave herself a little shake. She had no reason to think Obi-Wan would withhold information, or, or lie of all things. It was strange though, the way he stared at the table top as if ashamed.
Finally, he continued. "He brought us into a hilt lock, body to body, and he grasped my wrist with his bare hand…which is so odd because he always wears gloves, ask anyone they would say the same—"
"Obi-Wan," she gently chided, raising an eyebrow yet again.
He nodded jerkily once, hands falling to his knees where they bunched in his robes. "My apologies, Madam Record's Keeper." Obi-Wan blinked rapidly, as if he was in a dream and he was trying to figure out how to wake up. "It was just—I don't know exactly how to explain it." He shifted on the bench, eyes suddenly vividly and intensely locked with hers. "It was like our auras except deeper, like somehow he had touched my heart, the essence of me instead of just my wrist."
Obi-Wan tore his gaze away, abruptly standing, hands on either side of the tome. "I suddenly felt like, like two people but—still just one, and he must have felt the same, or something similar. We both dropped our swords and flew apart from each other, as if burned." He turned his eyes back to her, a stormy gray compared to the usual placid blue Jocasta remembered from his page years assisting her in upkeeping the Archives. "It was like a burn," he mumbled, staring off again, eyes unfocused. He rubbed his left wrist. Jocasta wondered if he noticed.
"And then?" she prompted, curious as to what happened next.
Obi-Wan snorted. "The cavalry arrived. Skywalker eluded capture once again, and I was lauded for holding my own against the strongest dark wizard in recent memory."
"Sith," Jocasta corrected absentmindedly, that stray thought niggling again at the back of her mind.
"Exactly!" Obi-Wan exploded. "Yet the Council stubbornly refuses to call him what he is! They refuse to accept the return of an order they happily believed extinct! To their own folly…and very likely my doom," the last bit so morose Jocasta felt she must intervene.
"Now Knight Kenobi, no doubt you exaggerate. And the Council is never foolish—everything they do is for reason and the best of all parties." She couldn't keep the censure completely from her voice at Obi-Wan's brash statement.
Obi-Wan shook his head, a high blush spreading up his cheeks to his forehead. "Apologies again, Madam. I overstep myself…but there is something at work here and I feel I must know what it is before I go to meet Skywalker for these supposed peace negotiations."
Jocasta nodded, face solemn. "I do find your account—unusual and slightly troubling, Knight Kenobi. I will assist you in your search for information."
At that, Obi-Wan sagged, relief obvious as he swiped a hand down his face. "That—would be very much appreciated, Madam Nu."
She set a gentle hand on his bowed shoulders. "All will be well, Obi-Wan. Never fear." But even as she offered platitudes, a sharp knot formed in her own stomach. There was something very troubling about the story Obi-Wan had shared. Something she had read once, something she felt was important.