Anakin stood there in confusion as Xilukans shouted; the men were angry. He soon noticed that there were only men racing toward himself and the unconscious Pila. A cluster of women waited at the peak of the hill, his master standing among them.

Whatever they were yelling about had to wait. Pila's safety came first. After coming to the conclusion that she was relatively okay, Anakin tried to lift the Xilukan girl up. Abruptly, they pulled her from his arms, still shouting at him.

Anakin recognized two of the men as the village guards. He and Obi Wan would pass them every day on their way out to train. Before he knew it, the guards had forcefully hooked a collar around his neck and binders around his wrists.

Suddenly, Anakin felt tired, weak, and disoriented. He was cold, freezing even, noting it might have actually been ten, twenty degrees colder than he'd thought. The boy had read about Force inhibiting collars at the Jedi Temple, but this was his first encounter with such things. Now he knew the loss of the Force, understood how it was the warm blanket that surrounded him, how it filled one's most basic needs without realization.

They led him away, and he looked up the rocky cliff to where Obi-Wan stood. It was strange to see fear on the Jedi's face.

Obi-Wan stood before the king, there to negotiate Anakin's release. "He can't be sentenced to death for a religious infraction. It's against Galactic Law. When the Senate hears of this…"

"The law of the gods has greater authority than the law of the Senate, Obi Wan of the Kenobi," King Rueyen contested firmly. "I will not be shaken by their threats."

Obi Wan struggled to reach the planet's leader with his words. This would have been much easier if his command of the Xilukan language were better. He used it so infrequently, and in a situation where the right words could mean the difference between life and death, he felt woefully inadequate.

His focus flickered to where Anakin stood with two Xilukan guards roughly grasping a shoulder to keep him in place before the king. It chilled him to not feel his apprentice's abundant energy. The force inhibiting collar they'd secured on Anakin made his presence almost impossible to sense, as if the boy were a mere wraith. Anakin seemed cold, tired, disoriented, as if he wasn't quite registering what was happening. Even through the weakened force around the boy, Obi-Wan could sense that all.

The conversation was going nowhere; their gods prevented them from releasing Anakin—or Pila for that matter, as she too had broken one of tradition's highest laws. Obi Wan tried to deter him, using Anakin's Jedi status as leverage. The Jedi and the Xilukan had made a pact of honor years ago, and the Obi Wan hoped that would be enough to prevent Anakin's execution.

"The boy is not a Jedi indeed. You said yourself he is just a learner." The king sighed, a light rustling sound indicating that he'd run a hand through his hair. "Do not make this more difficult than it needs to be. The boy will remain here for sentencing. You, on the other hand… Since you found Pila, I will honor my promise and allow you to leave with the two younglings."

"But…"

"We are finished here, Obi Wan of the Kenobi."

The knight understood the dismissal for what it was, but stubbornly walked over to Anakin, grasping his shoulders gently. "I will not leave him."

"The gods have granted you two Xilukan children, in place of one apprentice. That will have to be enough."

Obi Wan felt another guard grasp his arm, meaning to lead him away. Unwilling to be separated, his own grip on Anakin's shoulders tightened, knowing what he had to do. Loudly Obi Wan declared:

"He is my Nij-dhar-ana, my son-in-spirit."

The room filled with gasps.

Obi Wan could sense their increased agitation. One of the king's councilors made an uneasy sound in his throat. The Jedi could hear them conferring with one another in whispers as the spectators began to talk amongst themselves.

"Master, what's happening?" Anakin murmured dazedly, unable to understand what was being said. On their way to the palace, Obi Wan had tried to explain that he had somehow broken a serious law by walking on that clearing. It baffled the young boy that they would want to kill him over it.

"I'm raising the stakes, my padawan. Claiming you as my Nij-dhar-ana invokes a spirit pact between us. By their law, our fates are intertwined- what they do to you, they must do to me." Obi Wan smiled reassuringly at the boy. "They won't be willing to execute both of us - they still have to answer to the Jedi Council and the Senate for their actions. Perhaps we can get out of this relatively unscathed."

It worried him that Anakin did not respond. Obi-Wan was about to speak to him again, when the king's voice cut through the din and buzz of the chattering people.

"Very well, son of Kenobi," The king answered finally, a bit of lament in his tone. He spoke to the guards and soon Obi-Wan was under arrest with Anakin. The binders and force inhibiting collar were applied and his force-sight flickered away. He was truly blind.

Obi Wan fought down the slither of panic that threatened him as he could no longer sense anything or anyone around him, alone in his darkness. The king's voice rang out and he lifted his face in the direction of that sound.

Anakin observed as his master and the king debated again. Finally, at long last, they seemed to come to an understanding.

The knight turned to his apprentice. "It looks like we will be all right, my padawan. As atonement for our misdeed, we need only offer a burnt sacrifice to gods on the next feast day."

Disoriented as he was, Anakin felt somewhat relieved. "Oh, that's good. What are we supposed to sacrifice?"

Obi Wan shrugged lightly. He turned back to ask the king. Upon receiving the answer, the Jedi's face drained of color.

"What is it master? What do we have to sacrifice?" Anakin pressed.

Obi Wan swallowed thickly before replying. "Ourselves."

They were being led down a series of stairways and corridors to their holding cells. The guard's hands were icy and rough, his breath reeked like that of a dead animal's, and his voice was gravely, seeming to grunt more than speak. Obi-Wan found it difficult to keep up with the pace, tripping every now and again on unseen obstructions. The guard became agitated, taking a primitive blaster to Obi-Wan's back.

"Stop making this difficult," he jabbed the blaster into his back as a warning.

It was then that the fog of disorientation cleared in Anakin's thoughts. The pure worry and fear for his close companion drove away the haze, giving him new focus.

He glared at the guard through the dim light, anger coursing through him and bringing with it sharpness of mind. In retrospect, he was rather glad Obi-Wan couldn't use the force. He would have certainly felt the anger, which would have led to a long lecture.

"Don't treat him like that! Can't you…" he was cut off by Obi-Wan's slightly off-center –though still pointed all the same—look, telling him to keep quiet.

Anakin fell silent and resolved instead to warn Obi-Wan when a new obstacle fell into their path. If there was uneven ground he'd scrape his feet dramatically, knowing Obi-Wan would pick up on the sudden change in sound, and when they approached steps of any kind, he went first. Obi-Wan was soon very thankful for Anakin's hidden signals, proud of his padawan's resourcefulness.

The metal door of the jail cell slammed shut and Anakin looked up at Obi-Wan, half worried, half thankful he wasn't alone.

"What next?" Anakin asked.

Obi-Wan couldn't deny the worried tone in Anakin's voice; for that matter, he couldn't deny his own worry. His first mission as a master had gotten completely out of hand. Here he was, imprisoned on a remote planet, sightless, completely disconnected from the Force, and responsible for the safety of a barely trained boy. Not to mention they both were slated to be burnt alive as sacrifices.

Well, this is going great, he thought with intense sarcasm.

The Knight tried, and failed, to connect with the Light Side, to draw strength from its reserves. The utter disconnection was unnerving. Fear is the path to the Dark Side, Obi Wan reminded himself. Fear would not help him out of this situation.

Oh well, my own strength will just have to do, he mused.

"Anakin, how big do you think this cell is?" Obi-Wan asked.

"Eight by eight, ten by ten tops," came the soft reply.

Obi-Wan reached cautiously for the walls, laying his palms flat against the cold surface. Slowly, he crossed from one side of the cell to the next, making a careful note of the number of steps. Again, he reached for the adjacent wall and counted his steps. He felt the texture of the floor and the wall—all stone—and meticulously ran his hands along the metal doors. There wasn't even a small opening with bars, all door.

Comforted that he at least had a sense of his surroundings, Obi-Wan sighed and sank to his knees, not in despair, but in meditation of possible escape plans.