When Shan arrives at nightfall, she brings good news. The words spill forth in a rush of enthusiasm. She's beaming.
"I am leaving Naboo! I have been reassigned to the temple on Coruscant! My Master wants me to assist her at the main Archives."
Snoke digests this news and her excitement. His eyes narrow. "When do you leave?"
"In three days' time."
"So I get to see you tonight and tomorrow night? And then you disappear forever on me?"
Snoke bursts her bubble.
"Er . . . yes." Shan hadn't thought about it that way. She had focused only on the prospect of being posted to Coruscant. It's where the most important work of the Jedi is done, where the High Council sits, where the diplomatic corps is headquartered and where the Archives are thousands of years old and full of fascinating stuff. This is a big opportunity for Shan, and she knows it.
But really, there's no need for Snoke to act like this is the end of their friendship. Shan levels him a reproving look. "Jedi are not cloistered, Snoke. Do you ever get to Coruscant? If so, we can meet and you can tell me what's new in your knowledge of the Sith."
The tall banker reluctantly shakes his head no. "I'm not very anonymous, Shan," he tells her slowly. The handsome Muun is looking at her intently. "I cannot meet you for caf some random afternoon without attracting attention. And if you met me at night at my Coruscant apartment, tongues would wag. Someone always sees, Shan. My business and personal affairs are highly visible. Markets trade on them. Plus, our friendship might be . . . misconstrued."
Shan hears all of his words but focuses on one thing. "You have an apartment on Coruscant?" It's the galaxy's most expensive city. Snoke must be very successful if he can afford that. She's impressed.
"I do." Snoke chuckles at her reaction. "The Eternal City is the center of power for the known universe, Shan. And power and banking go hand in hand." He cocks his head at her. "What will you do on Coruscant at the Archives?" he asks.
"The usual support work for the diplomatic corps. They are always asking for research and analysis on something or another. I do the overflow work from Coruscant here on Naboo as it is. So that will be the same. But now I will also be part of the team of Jedi to oversee the holochron vault." Just thinking about her new post makes Shan smile happily. "Holochrons are an amazing resource for the Jedi. Together, they contain the entire knowledge of the Jedi tradition in the Force. They are priceless treasure, Snoke."
"The Sith had holochrons, did you know?"
She did not. "Really? Are there any here?"
"There were. Let me show you where they were kept."
And then they are off down the stone stairs together. As usual, Snoke expertly knows his way about the temple maze. Shan has every confidence in his sense of direction down here. She dutifully follows.
They know little of each other's lives outside the confines of this mysterious Sith temple, but by this their fourth meeting she and Snoke are comfortable with each other in silence as well as conversation. It is easy to be in his company, she thinks. And Shan has to admit that she has looked forward to their meetings. It has been since university since Shan has had a friend outside of the Order.
Impulsively, she asks him to reconsider, "Would it truly be too risky to meet on Coruscant every now and then?"
He glances over at her with a measuring look. "Are you going to miss me, Shan?"
"Maybe a little." She mimics his light tone.
Snoke stops walking and fixes her with a teasing look. "I think you're going to miss this Sith temple."
She laughs. "That too."
"Sweet Shan," he backtracks to stand before her. His hands cup her face again like last night. "There is only tonight and tomorrow night for us now. Nothing more." She reluctantly nods her understanding. They stare at one another a long breathless moment. And then his lips claim hers.
And oh! kissing is not how she thought it would be. It is so much better. When Shan was a teen, one of the other padawan girls had somehow gotten her hands on a racy novel. The purple prose had been passed around the dormitory and Shan had read the earmarked pages like everyone else. And she too had speculated whether the rumors were true and the handsome human Qui-Gon Jinn had a secret lover in the Order. Yes, like every other padawan Shan had gone through a phase when she been curious about sex and romance. And that curiosity had passed in time as she had matured and focused on more suitable topics for a Jedi.
There had been no opportunities for temptation along the way. And Shan had not sought them out. Even her silly hormonal university friends had all been appropriately respectful of her Jedi status. They had whispered of their crushes and midnight antics mostly out of earshot. In fact, no one had ever broached the topic of romance-let alone flirted with her-until Snoke.
And here she is, kissing him passionately in the dim red light of a Sith temple.
Her arms are around his neck and his hands grip her waist. His tongue is in her mouth and her breasts press against his chest. This is everything she has been warned not to do. And for good reason. For in this moment, Shan wants more.
More. She pulls him closer, arching her back and moaning into him. And then his hands drop lower to cup her as his hips move into hers.
Yes . . . more. She wants more of this man. She wants more of this passion.
Abruptly he pulls away.
"I'm sorry," Shan instantly takes the blame as if she has been the aggressor. She is flustered and panting. Blushing furiously.
"I'm not," he says quietly.
Guilty. She feels guilty. Shan knows that this is not appropriate behavior. If there is a Jedi Hell, she is definitely going to it.
"Oh, Gods, what am I doing?" she wails softly. Shan raises a trembling hand to her forehead but he intercepts it.
"Shan," Snoke whispers reassurance as he squeezes her hand. "It was only a kiss. It is our secret. No one will ever know what we do here alone together."
She nods her agreement. Yes, she thinks, this will have to be a secret. Because romance leads to attachment and that leads to being expelled from the Order. She's not about to lose her head for this handsome Muun and throw her life away. He'd walk away to his busy life of spreadsheets and deals in his fancy Coruscant apartment, and she'd be cast out in disgrace. And then all the whispered horrors of life outside the Order would come true. Shan would be on her own with no family or friends and no references and no real job history to speak of. She would own only her lightsaber and the clothes on her back.
She would be nothing and have nothing.
It's a sobering thought. And it is just what Shan needs to remind her of reality. Regaining her composure, she is ready to move on now. "Holochrons," she prompts him.
"Yes, holochrons." He takes the cue.
They are back to the task at hand as if nothing had occurred. She's grateful for that. Snoke is discrete. She likes that.
He leads her to a doorway. "Careful," he cautions. As she approaches, she can see why. Standing in the doorway, the toes of her boots hang off a deep precipice. Straight ahead she looks out upon a circular platform of some kind. On the platform rests a transparent pyramid that contains empty shelves.
"Oh," she breaths, staring at the empty shelves. "They're all gone." Snoke had told her this, of course, but seeing it firsthand is still deflating.
"Yes, someone has gotten here first."
"How do you get across? Find the controls that extend the bridge," she urges. She wants to see it all up close.
"There is no bridge, Shan. You have to use the Force to approach a Sith holochron. Only those worthy in the Dark Side may claim one." He gestures at the inky blackness before her feet. "Hence the chasm. Claiming a holochron is a high stakes move. You don't just fail, you die trying."
"So a Sith has been here!" She looks to him, her dark eyes wide and snapping.
He chuckles. "So it would seem."
"That must have been long, long ago," she muses. "Long before either of us."
"Perhaps. Now step back. You're making me nervous. That's a very long drop."
She complies and backs up. Then looks up. Shan had been so interested in the holochron room that she had missed the inscription above the doorway she stood in. This lettering is very large and in Old Aurebesh. She studies it. Craning her neck to see better in the dim red haze that illuminates the temple.
"Now and for-ever," she squints at the letters. "The Sith . . . "
"shall rule the galaxy," Snoke finishes for her.
"The Sith certainly were grandiose," she decides.
"So says the humble Jedi," he remarks dryly. "Have you never had aspirations of your own?" he wonders.
Shan thinks a moment then frowns.
Snoke pounces. "You have!"
She shoots him a quelling look. "I'm a Jedi, Snoke. It's not supposed to be about me and what I want."
"Tell me," he urges. "I want to know. Share it with me."
Shan frowns again but complies. Something about this man is very commanding. Whatever Snoke does at the IGBC, he must be a boss of some kind. He is very comfortable telling people what to do.
Shan schools her voice into a tone of nonchalance. "The university on Coruscant approached me about taking a post in the history department last year. It was a full tenure track professorship. The real deal in academia. And I wanted to do it."
"But the Jedi wouldn't let you," he surmises from her expression.
She nods, biting her lip. "My duty to the Order comes first, of course. And my master thinks we are shorthanded in the Archives and she cannot spare me. She's right," Shan concedes and then tries to explain. "Few make our group their first choice. The Archives are not glamorous. We are not a prestigious assignment, Snoke." Shan shrugs with an indifference she does not really feel. "It's just us lousy padawans who barely passed the trials and a few old timers who have retired from fieldwork and don't want to take administrative positions." She falls silent. Talking about this still upsets her.
"I would have let you take the post," Snoke tells her.
Shan smiles at this loyal cheerleading and tries in vain to make light of her disappointment. "In that case, it's too bad you're not my master, Snoke."
"Indeed," he observes, watching her wipe at one eye.
"My master understood that it was important to me. Instead, she let me take a small adjunct role at the university here in Naboo. It's just not—" Shan stops. Why is she talking about this? It sounds like she is badmouthing her master and the Order, which is something she would never do That's not the Jedi way. And Jedi are taught never to discuss internal matters with outsiders.
"It is not the same, is it?" Snoke understands that her consolation prize was meager.
"No, it's not." Not even remotely comparable. Coruscant is the leading academic institution in the galaxy and Naboo U is, well, a party school in a pretty setting for rich Core World kids who generally could care less about their education. "Master Nu thinks they may approach me again in a few years for the Coruscant post. And perhaps then the time will be right."
Snoke's eyes narrow. "You're the best one they have in the Archives, aren't you? All the rest got stuck there but you wanted to be there."
"Yes." It's the truth. She is the best. By far.
"The Jedi are holding you back," he observes pointedly.
"It's not like that."
"Ten thousand Jedi Knights across the galaxy and they can't spare one to take your place even for a few years?" he challenges.
Shan looks away. She doesn't want to rehash this. "I respect the judgement of my master. And there are rules for this sort of thing, Snoke."
"Do you always follow the rules, Shan?"
"Yes." She does. She is diligent, respectful and selfless as a Jedi should be. More concerned with her obligations to the Order than her own fulfillment. But Snoke is looking at her now like that's a character flaw.
"All except that kissing rule," he goads her with a smile and the comment brings a smile to her face too finally.
"Oh, stop!" she objects. But she's glad to talk about something else. "That was our little secret, remem-".
Her voice tails off as her physical vision fades and her mental vision overtakes. She reaches out and feels Snoke take her hand to steady her, as if he knows what is happening. Shan clings to him like a lifeline as the Force floods her mind and the images appear.
It is a human male teenaged padawan sporting a Jedi's tunic and the traditional tail braid. His dark hair is cut short as is the custom for boys in training. It doesn't suit him, for it highlights the outsized ears and severe features he will grow into with time.
Tools are spread around him. Reverently laid out in a single line. The boy's face is a mask of concentration as he hunches over his task. This padawan is especially earnest. Fervent in his desire to excel, desperate even to impress. A boy terrified by the past and determined to claim his own future. To be his own man.
There. It is done. He stands and extends his arm, the fruits of his labor in the teen's trembling grasp. When the saber lights it is with a one-two snap and buzz. The red blade is in the shape of a cross.
Shan knows two things with certainty. That this sword will decide the fate of the galaxy. And that whoever this awkward boy is, he matters.
And just as suddenly as the vision had appeared, it fades. Shan is back in the temple with Snoke. She's in his arms, her head held pressed firmly to his shoulder by his large Muun hand.
"What did you see?" Snoke demands.
"How did you know?" she whispers, still disoriented.
"Tell me," Snoke commands again, thrusting her back from him so they look eye to eye.
Her words come out in spurts. Quietly. "A Jedi padawan will sit here in this Temple. He builds a lightsaber. It's in the shape of a cross. It's red."
Snoke nods, thinking out loud. "That sounds like an old Sith crossguard design with quillon vents. Those swords were unstable. Difficult to make and even more difficult to master. Quite a challenge for a boy. Tell me more."
"He was anxious and worried. He wanted to impress." Shan falters, the insight rushing up fast at her in the Force. "He wanted to impress . . . you." She pulls back from Snoke's arms to stare at him. "You?" She is bewildered by this revelation.
Snoke does not react but Shan is shocked. Her visions always come true in some form or the other. She considers her companion anew.
He sees her scrutiny. "Perhaps I will finance his war," Snoke quips.
But no, that's not it. "Who are you?" Shan whispers to the Muun banker with the blank Force imprint, opaque mind and extensive knowledge of the Sith. Despite the hours they have spent in each other's company, she realizes just now how little she knows about this man. Shan has shared far more about her life than Snoke has about his.
He brushes off the question. "Do you often have visions?"
"They come and go. Sometimes they are trigged by people or by places." Shan furrows her brow. "We are taught that the future is always in motion, that visions usually mislead and cloud your path. But not mine. Mine always come true." She grips his hand tighter. "Snoke, listen to me. Someday a Jedi boy will make a Sith lightsaber here in this very Temple at your behest."
Snoke tries again with a flippant explanation. "Perhaps this means I shall become a celebrated Sith historian and inspire others to take up their long lost cause."
Shan just looks at him. She is troubled. "No, I don't think that's what it means."
"Then how would you explain it?"
"I don't know."
"Did you see me in the future?" Snoke wants to know.
"No. In fact, I hardly see you now in the Force. You look like most people do. Alive and breathing and anonymous." No, she thinks, this man who so clearly admires the Sith could never be one. He is utterly dead to the Force.
"Oh, dear." She catches the look of annoyance that crosses his features. "That came out wrong. Did I hurt your feelings?" She asks this anxiously. Snoke doesn't strike her as a man who will appreciate being described as anonymous.
"Not at all, pretty Shan. Not at all."