I-467 Catulpa Garden, Denon

Ishra Estate

Lavol couldn't help but remember the homes she'd spent three years of her life in. The rooms coated in grey paint, the floors, a cold tile, the beds tiny and hard. It had been her life following her mother's death. Lavol had lived for three years in a succession of foster homes and orphanages using day dreams of being adopted to keep up hope. But she knew every day that passed, every day that she grew older, would make her a less desirable child. Until Master Horn had discovered her and brought her to the Temple at Coruscant, giving her the Jedi Order to be her new family.

The rooms she and Tiam had been given at the Ishra estate were as big as an apartment; only a kitchen would have made them complete. Sure, her room at the Jedi Temple was by far much more private and roomy than at the orphanage, but it was nothing special, nothing like this. The Ishras really knew how to roll things out; their home was like a mini-museum where you dare not touch anything in case it got broken. Fortunately, Tiam's aunt Kyra had taken her around the house and told her to feel at home, and some how she did. Here, each child had their own bed chamber, complete with bed, desk , dresser, and two very comfortable chairs, there was even a chair in the fresher and, as if that weren't enough, connected to each room was a walk in closet and a small sitting room. The children had chosen Tiam's room to work on their latest project. The glossy parts of two StealthX's lay scattered on the carpeted floor of Tiam's sitting room surrounded by the hunched figures of the two young Jedi.

"Hurry up Tiam, you got to put that clip in the hull like this." He watched as she inserted the wing into her own model. "Keep going, we'll get these done by dinner."

"Who cares, we'll fly them whether Afrim tells us we can or not. Thinks he's our boss. And he thinks he can teach us like a Jedi. So does Kyra…and you, you listen to her. You probably like her, don't you?" A wall of anger wafted from her best friend. He was scaring her, and she wondered what she did wrong. Before she could get a word in he was off on another topic, speaking at once while jamming the parts of the model together. "You should see how he treats his employees. He told me to act like I was a prince when I met them." His hands worked roughly over the model. "He wants me to run the company!"

"Now?" Lavol didn't like the tone of Tiam's voice, but she didn't know how to calm him down either.

"No dummy, when I'm older." A small hint of pain crossed Lavol's face. Tiam had never been short with her, never called her a name unless they were kidding around, but this time he'd said it scornfully. "Sorry, Lavol, I just can't believe the stuff he was saying to me; he must be crazy. How can he think I'd even want his stupid company, calling me a simple minded boy like that. I'll never forget it….and he was rude to you too, stupid rodder. Lavol, he uses mind tricks on his workers!"

"Well I had a good day with Kyra. She wasn't pushy at all. I learned how to spread my senses outward and feel even the tiniest insect in the trees. Did you know there are twenty-seven different insects just in this yard alone?" Lavol breathed deeply, contentedly. "I want her to teach me; cause she's really good at meditation."

His words caused the smile on her face to vanish. "That's easy stuff, I was doin' that before I even came to the Temple."

Lavol threw her model to the floor and her eyes were ablaze. "Well good for you mister Force genius! Must be nice being the holy gifted boy, son of the great master, owner of Tuli enterprises. But some of us have to work for what we have. Some of us don't get a master for a father and a rich family for relatives. Some of us don't even have any relatives."

Tiam's face colored, but he said nothing. He took her model and completed the wing assembly then added the canopy. He was about to fly it to her with the Force, when he stopped himself and walked to where she sat pouting on the sofa. She glanced at the model before taking it into her hands carefully.

Lavol placed the completed model on the sofa, then knelt on the floor over the unfinished pieces of his model. "Let's work on this together."

"'kay" was all Tiam replied as they worked in silence. Moments later, the children stood admiring the two model StealthX's which sat side by side on the sofa. "Let's just give them a little trial run." He lifted his hand and both ships lifted into the air. Lavol followed his lead and took over her own. Eyes half closed, arm extended, Lavol was too busy concentrating on using the Force to balance the weight of the toy to notice the look on her friend's face.

Tiam's model crashed to the floor, a ten centimeter chunk of wing dashing under the sofa. Lavol stirred, her own X wing still held aloft by her right hand, her mouth forming a question. She watched transfixed as her friend wavered on his feet. Tiam's face held a pained expression of horror as his knees buckled and he followed his model to the floor. Lavol regained her presence of mind and placed her toy on the floor, careful to not step on it as she went to him. Tiam had already pulled himself to a sitting position where he sat hugging his knees and rocking back and forth.

"Dad! No! No!" His shrieks brought everyone running to his bedroom. He held his legs to himself tightly and rocked back and forth, beating his forehead on this knee and speaking in monotone. "No, no, no." He said nothing more, not even when she came to the floor to rub his back gently.

Kyra came rushing into the room, all pretenses of careful control were gone. "What happened Lavol? What were you two doing?" She shoved Lavol away roughly and took over rubbing his back and arms. Tiam seemed to not notice the change in touch.

"Nothing! He just collapsed! Just stopped talking and started this." She knelt next to his shuddering form amazed at how quick Kyra's temper flared.

Kyra's hands made circles on his back. "What is it, Tiam? What are you seeing? Tiam, answer me." She grasped his shoulders like she was trying to rouse him from a bad dream. "Wake up!"

"He's not sleeping." Lavol sat in front of him and placed her hands over his. They were ice cold and trembling. "Do you think it's okay to shake him like that?" Kyra seemed to come back to her normal self then and realized the boy in her arms was as cold as death.

"Get me some blankets." Lavol stood and nearly ran full on into Afrim whose arms were full of covers from the bed and the cupboard. Together they wrapped Tiam in them. "FPD, go make Tiam something warm, and hurry." The droid left on her command. Kyra eased her arms around him. Still, the boy rocked back in forth, muttering incoherently to himself.

"He's taken shock to something, Kyra. He seems entranced." He motioned for her to move away. " Here, let me." Afrim crawled across the carpet and placed his hand on Tiam's forehead.

Kyra reached back towards her nephew. "Afrim, what are you doing? If he's having a vision, leave him alone!"

"That's no vision. Look at him, he's in pain." Afrim placed his hands gently on the boy's cheeks, his thumbs above Tiam's eyes. This brought a gasp from his sister and he held up one finger asking her to wait. "I'm not going to hurt him, I just want a sense of where his mind is at."

"For a second, I thought you were going to try healing touch, you know you've no skills with that." Afrim shot his sister a cold look. With his hands on either side of Tiam's temples he reached with the Force, but all he received was static. He placed his thoughts inside the boy's mind. [Tiam, it's your uncle, come to, follow me.]

He moved back from Tiam's awareness slowly. Tiam's rocking stopped abruptly. His head snapped up. His eyes focused on no one in particular. "Dad's dead."

He pulled the covers over himself and curled into a small figure on his side. Lavol struggled with those words; it couldn't be possible, Master Durron was too smart, too powerful to just die in some unknown battle. The Ishra's continued over Tiam, rubbing at his feet and hair and trying to get him to wake from whatever state he was in.

Kyra rubbed at his hair. "Afrim, do something."

But neither of them knew what to do. Afrim picked up the boy and carried him to his bed. He was in the process of smoothing out his covers when FPD returned with a steaming mug of tea. Afrim's hand went up gently as Kyra moved to take the cup. He lifted the boy's head and body supporting them with his own and carefully brought the cup to his lips. No one spoke, it wasn't necessary; all that was heard were the slurping sounds of the tea being drained quickly. Tiam settled his head into Afrim and closed his eyes tightly.

"He's so cold." Lavol looked at the Ishra's, worry pained her young face. She feared the worse, that Master Durron had died. She wasn't sure it was a sorrow her sensitive friend could bear.

There on the bed lay the desperate figure of her best friend. "He needs to be held."

"I know, Lavol." Afrim settled himself more comfortably against the headboard of the bed. Tiam leaned into him, neither asleep nor awake, but the older man didn't disturb the boy. He just held his arms around him firmly, his chin resting on the boy's head. "It's okay now, I'll stay with him, you two might as well eat dinner, we'll have something later."

Lavol's stomach was in knots, how could anyone think of food at a time like this? But Kyra led her out to the hallway. "Tiam'll be fine sweetie. And I'm sure he's just overreacting. Kyp's too smart to get himself killed." Lavol bit her lip and starred at the closed door. "Soon we'll all be reunited, and this horrible war will be over." Lavol glanced back to the room as Kyra led her to the stairway and to the meal that would probably taste like ashes.

Two hours later Kyra Ishra lifted her eyes from her novel as her brother Afrim entered the room, worry carved into his features giving him a hardened look that matched the personality he was best known for. "You're not worried that Tiam's right, are you?."

Afrim started for his liquor cabinet, but stopped a few meters short, not bothering to turn to face his sister. "Boy's just too sensitive." He rubbed his face before turning around. He was looking every bit his age that evening. "Kyp isn't easily killed. I'm sure he's just doing some Force technique." Since when had he taken up concern for any living being? The FPD droid tottled towards him.

"Will you be needing my assistance anymore this evening sir? I'd like to perform a maintenance shut down." Afrim hesitated, only an arms reach from the potent Correlian whiskey he craved,; then waved it away, watching it's golden back as it moved to its shut down station.

"Thank you FPD." Kyra looked at him, scowled, her question not spoken. Afrim lowered himself rather ungraciously to the giant flowform sofa and sipped thoughtfully on his drink.

She went back to her novel, but set it down a minute later. "Can't seem to get into this. Afrim, why are you sitting a kilometer away in that dim light? You look as wilted as a tula orchid on Tattoine." He didn't bother moving; for a moment she was certain he would not talk at all. There had been times in the past that the two of them could go weeks only speaking when business necessitated it; there was never a clear catalyst to the behavior which Kyra was convinced was Afrim fault alone.

Afrim broke the silence with the usual loving tone he could not employ. "Isn't a man entitled to exhaustion at the end of a day." He ran a hand through his hair before sinking further into the cushions of the sofa. "And, if that's not enough, I've promised Tiam I'd run with him tomorrow."

Kyra burst out laughing. "When's the last time you ran?"

"Few weeks ago at the gym. Honest, I do take care of myself, have to at this age. I'd like to live as long as our father did. I thought we'd take that park trail, I've wanted to check it out since it opened. Did we sponsor that project?" Afrim referred to a time months ago when he and Kyra had extended their credits into the community. It was always good for image, but Kyra was usually the one in charge of PR.

"No, River Path project we provided bricks for. You sure he'll be safe? Taking him out in public for a show, I suppose. You expressly told him and Lavol they would not be able to leave the grounds and now you want to take him to a very open area."

"Kyra, you underestimate me, you should know better. The boy will be safe. You know I'm never unarmed. And…" He tapped his forehead. "I've got the added bonus of intuition. Nanny droid will be with us too, if that's any consolation. I know you'd trust a droid over me anyday. But really Kyra, I won't fail in my promise to Kyp to keep the boy safe. Besides, he needs a distraction." He stood and had nearly reached the hallway when Kyra spoke.

He noticed immediately her tone had changed. Moments before she had been warm, sisterly, but now her voice took on the tone she used in business. He was aware of these subtle changes for he did it himself.

"Why's it so important to please Kyp lately? It's like you're doing more than protecting Tiam, your even watching out for the one you consider the great embarrassment. Something you're not telling me?"

"I've already told you my reasons. Do I have to explain myself again? Will that help you understand my motives? They're not yours, whatever they might be, or from whatever self-help holozine you've been reading. I do not entertain some fantasy of the happy Ishra family. This is not a functioning family, Kyra. It never was, not even when our mother was alive. We're built on lies, image, all to serve the almighty credit." She watched him move about nervously. He was never comfortable with honesty, or being open.

At the moment he was facing her, his lips curved in a snarl. "Right now, this façade is all a part of the grand plan to eliminate Solo as chief of state and end this war. If that means I make Kyp happy by taking his boy and that little orphan girl and hiding them in my fancy mansion then so be it. If Kyp's happy then he can focus his attentions on directing the Jedi on their objectives. At least Mura's kid is decisive. If anyone can muster support for action, it'll be him."

"It pains you…" She stood before him now, a good head shorter, but not any less brighter in the Force. Her hand gently touched his arm, but he did not recoil as Kyp had when he tried a similar gesture. She'd never had the skills for healing, but she all these years later she still tried in vain through her gentle touches. She knew her brother better than anyone in the galaxy, and yet she barely knew him at all.

Afrim snapped back to his normal self and backed away. "Oh, don't get all motherly on me now. Don't pretend you care I'm forced to play nurse maid to a weak willed child…that I have nephews I'd hoped to never have to know, that my business is loosing credits everyday that warmonger is in office, and you want to have a family bonding moment?"

"You just stated you were doing this to make Kyp happy. I know your arguments logic, but still you're not comfortable with it." There was pause while Afrim watched Kyra rub her hand back and forth across his arm. "Is there more to this Afrim? Is there guilt?"

"Guilt, over what?"

"Kyp accused you of not saving him from Kessel. I told him I personally never knew he was there. I think he believes me. What did you tell him?"

"What do you think I said? 'Yes, I willing ignored your plight because I hated your mother.' No, not hated, but I was jealous." His voice was barely above a whisper. "Weren't you ever? Our father never loved us, but he loved her. It was good when she left."

"You knew." It wasn't a shock to Kyra, but Afrim had never openly admitted what she'd always known, that Kyp might have been rescued, that this could have been so different for all of them.

"I think you are trying to atone. You don't have to admit it to no one. If you did know and you never saved that boy, you are as guilty for his crimes as he is."

"I think I heard enough of your theory. I'm going to bed."

Afrim stalked off to the staircase. It was true that everytime he looked at Tiam he pictured Kyp enslaved and alone in the Kessel mines. He might decide to give everything to this one boy, but he would never take the blame for Carida, that was just ridiculous. His comm chirped, distracting him briefly from his anger. "Afrim Ishra." Came his terse reply. The voice on the other end was calm, cryptic, but the few words which were spoken conveyed an urgency.

"It's time for holiday." Were the only words spoken.

"Good. We'll take my yacht." He answered his contact with the expected code words, and then he made his way to the boy's room. He'd spent months preparing for this moment. Time to rid himself of his pain.