Nine days later
Jedova had cut some time – the absolute minimum, of course – from his working in order to meditate and rest more. As a result, when a wave of flu came to the village, the Force did not let Jedova avoid it. He ended up into the bottom the bed with a high fever. Luckily, Tureq, unlike Arak, did not get infected, so he could continue working.
When he fell ill, Jedova gathered all his remaining strength to inform his Padawan that he would be delayed by his illness, hoping that the girl would not get too worried about him. He was stronger than the flu even though he had driven himself to the very edge of a burnout; he would make it through this.
In feverish days, Jedova mused that it must have been the will of the Force that he got ill. It did not want him to kill himself by overworking – he had to be there for his Padawan, after all – and thus had made this happen to ensure that he got some rest. However, the man could barely eat and drink, so he was slowly running out of whatever strength he had had left. Using the Force to healing had always been extremely difficult for Jedova to the point of being a disability, but now even the little he could do was impossible. With the village healers preoccupied with more serious cases, the Jedi Master lay on the bed in fever for a week.
After healing from the fly, Jedova found himself working less, working more carefully, working with less intensity. His body could do nothing more than a fraction of what he had forced it to do after his strength had been depleted by his illness. He was fully dependent on the Force to keep on going; the healers at the Jedi Temple could take care of him if he was in a bad condition when he returned. No matter what the tribespeople or Arya said, he was going to do this now.
One evening, the Jedi Master overheard Arak and Tureq talking about him; the two Lianorosians were worried about him and apparently feared that he would work until it killed him. They agreed on cutting his amount of work. This stung Jedova's pride yet he appreciated that they cared that much about him. He guessed that it could be just because he was the only one willing to train their younger sister, but he appreciated the thought nevertheless.
Deciding to act like he had never heard anything about it, Jedova went to rest. His body did more decisions about his actions than he did now. He forced himself to understand it and that his body knew what it could do the best even though it was frustrating.
When Arak and Tureq took him to their room for a talk one morning, Jedova realized that six weeks had passed since he had arrived to the village. Because of that, he was glad and relieved when Arak told him, "Everything is finished now. Your debt, the gift, everything."
"I've already finished it all?" Jedova asked, mildly surprised. Even though he knew about the cut, he was still surprised about how soon he was ready despite of the flu slowing him down.
"Yes." Tureq handed him a small, pocket-sized and beautifully engraved orb. It was nearly the same, only a bit darker, silver as Arya's lightsaber blade. "She will figure out what this is, you can trust it."
"Thank you," Jedova said as he took the orb to his hand. The orb seemed even smaller in his big palm. It was like an ironic remark on how small Arya was when compared to him.
"Are you going to leave soon?" Arak asked.
"I am. I have been away for long already, and I promised Arya that I would return as soon as I could," Jedova told. "So, if everything is finished, I can go, right?"
"Once you have said goodbye to aunt Ni'Dea, then yes," Arak told.
"Very well," Jedova said.
When the three men came to the temple, the Seer seemed to already know that the Jedi Master was leaving.
"You came to say goodbye, didn't you, Master Wang," she said as they walked in to her chamber. It seemed to be more of a statement than a question.
"Yes, I did, Seer Ni'Dea. My work is done now, and I must be back at the Jedi Temple. Arya is waiting for me," Jedova told.
"Yes, she is waiting for you indeed," the Seer said distantly. "You should return to her now. She needs you, Master Jedi."
"I'll leave right away," Jedova said and pondered his words for a short moment. "Is there something you'd like me to tell her when I will tell her about this? Any message or something like that?"
"No. I want to talk to her face to face when the time for that comes," the Seer said. Jedova turned to look at the brothers if they wanted him to deliver a message from them to Arya, but they shook their heads. The Jedi Master nodded and said, "May the Force be with you."
When he left, the Deinden brothers did not follow him.
"We should stay away from the Jedi as long and as much as possible. For Arya's sake, and for our sakes," Ni'Dea said as the brothers kneeled to her sides after Jedova Wang had left the chamber.
"But why?" Tureq asked. "
"It is for the best," the Seer said. She refused to say anything after that even though her nephews tried to get some sort of a response from her.
For long, she had known that dark times were coming, and she wanted to protect her tribe from it. Yet she knew that as Arya had left to the outside world and Tureq was planning to do the same, no Seer could protect them from whatever was coming. Ni'Dea already knew that no matter what she would try to do, she could not prevent the tribe from being affected by the dark times when they would come them, but she wanted to do whatever she could to reduce the damage to the absolute minimum. Despite of the promise in the Force, its assurance that the tribe would not perish, she was afraid.
Lianoros the Searpent had warned her about this back when Ni'Dea Liarn'ak'o, known by her name of birth given away after she had become the Tribe Seer, Nishada Deinden, had been the disciple of Seer Xa-Dor. Still, even after preparing for two centuries, she found herself powerless at the face of the incidents and the slowly approaching future.
This was the will of the Force, and she could do nothing to fight against it.
The only comfort she found was that the Jedi Master, who had been the catalyst for their part in this story, could do nothing to run away from the will of the Force either.
/Star Wars (c) Lucasfilm, any characters you cannot find on Wookieepedia, Veledos, Veledosians and their language (c) Me/
