CHAPTER FOUR

Leia didn't look away from her view of the stars as the door to her chamber slid open.

"Hello, Rey. Please come in."

"General, you asked for me?"

Leia turned then, her fingers tingling as she detected the tension in the girl's voice. "Yes, thanks for coming so quickly." She studied the young woman standing before her. Slender, and only slightly taller than Leia, she wore her smooth dark hair pulled tightly away from her pale face.

An attractive child, though no great beauty. And deceptively frail.

Leia knew that fragility was a mask. The child standing there, in her simple tunic and boots, was no damsel who'd ever need rescuing. The Force radiated through her, illuminating her great dark eyes. An energy that Leia could sense; that surrounded the younger woman like a golden aura. A power beyond anything Leia had ever felt.

No, that was not true. She had felt such power before. In her father, and her brother.

And her son.

"I suppose you wonder why I've called you here at this hour," Leia said, motioning to a padded bench that separated her bed from the desk and storage cubes that formed her office. "Please, sit down. No need to stand on ceremony."

The girl hesitated, her gaze darting all around the room, before she took a seat on the bench. "I assumed you wanted to talk to me about something to do with our cause."

"Yes, that's true, but I also have something to give you." Leia sat beside Rey and slid an object from the pocket of her robe. "I believe this is yours," she said, holding out a refurbished lightsaber. "I had it repaired. Hopefully it will serve you well."

Rey's eyes widened. "Oh no, that can't be. It was Luke's once, so now it must be yours."

"It was my father's once as well, but that is neither here nor there. It found you. It leapt to your hand. It is yours."

Rey swallowed audibly. "Something like that, an heirloom—it should stay with you." She looked down at her hands, which were clenched in her lap. "I'm not part of your family. I can't take it from you."

"You are taking nothing from me. I cannot wield it now, nor do I wish to." Leia examined the girl, taking in the tightness of her compressed lips and the lines bracketing her mouth.

She was holding herself together, but only barely. As Leia watched, Rey lifted her hands to clutch her upper arms.

"Sorry. I seem to have caught a chill," the girl said.

But it is not so, Leia thought. Rather, a fire raged inside Rey's slender frame. Leia could sense the hot blood roaring through the girl's veins.

And something else.

And someone else.

"No," she said, dropping Anakin Skywalker's battered lightsaber into her lap. "I knew you were connected, somehow, but I never suspected…" Leia sat back, forcing calm into her trembling limbs. She couldn't betray the depth of her anxiety. Not when the child before her was ready to crumble to ash.

Leia knew she could not give into despair. Or even hope. She couldn't allow her emotions to cloud her judgement. She had to think this through. She had to consider, and, probably, make the hard choices. She had to be the strong one.

Just like always.