Knight-Errantly Chapter Eighteen


Luke listens as Jaina regales him about the Wild Karrde, an Action VI class bulk freighter, which is part of Talon Karrde's fleet and is captained by Mara. The details on the ship schematics held Luke's interest, given his love of piloting and ships, but then Jaina starts telling stories about the ship. Mostly of pirates and slavers attacking the ship and occasionally boarding it, leading to violent clashes. Luke learns, much to his own horror, how routine death is to Jaina. She doesn't flinch or pale when going into the rather gruesome details of her mother dispatching would-be kidnappers. In fact, Jaina has even helped her mother in subduing quite a few of them.

"—So, I got my dagger right into this pirate's trachea after getting on his back like a lizard-monkey. Then, mother shows up from hangar and then proceeds to slice and dice this poor sleemo!" She uses both of her hands and pretends to hold a saber, mimicking her mother's actions in the story.

"Jaina, isn't it about time for Armitage's arrival?" Zev suggested before Jaina can finish her story. Her green eyes light up like stars.

"Oh yeah! I've gotta go!" She scampers out of the cafeteria. Han sighs and pushes his half-eaten bowl of rice porridge.

"She makes my childhood seem clean by comparison," Han said.

"She's just telling the most exciting stories, the kind that the great heroes of the Rebellion would rather hear than the boring minutia of living on a ship," Zev said in her defense. "Besides, it's easier for her to cope with this life by making it into an adventure."

"That didn't extend to her brother," Han retorted.

"He's got his own coping mechanisms." Zev focuses on his rice porridge, feeling very uncomfortable in giving out private details about the twins.

"Do you think the twins are alright?" Luke inquired gently.

"They grew up in the Unknown Regions; it's not exactly a stable place for raising children." Mara's doing the best she can. Luke can practically read from Zev's face.

"How did you end up with them? The Unknown Regions and Denon aren't close," Han pointed out.

"She called in the life debt I owed her."

"[I completely understand,]" Chewie commented.

"Oh, so you two aren't dating?"

"Never! I saw her dismember a man with her lightsaber." Zev shakes his head in horror and then levels him an inquisitive look. "Are you hoping to get your ex back?"

"No! I'm certain she will never allow me to get close to her ever again. She doesn't forgive and forget," Luke commented bitterly.

"And you should focus on the kids," Han pointed out. "They're less likely to kill you."

Luke snorted, "Thanks, Han."


Jaina nearly loses a sandal when she tackles him. The scrawny ginger falls with her to the ground, but he keeps her safe by wrapping his arms around her. She grins into his chest, knowing full well that Armie wouldn't let her get hurt.

"Ugh! Why do you do that? You're like a blaster bolt to the chest!"

"It's not my fault you're mostly made of bones!" she teased.

"I'll get muscles one day!"

"Yeah, yeah, and I'll be tall one day." I have no chance thanks to Padmé, while Jacen and Ben get to be half-giants thanks to grandfather. Well, the taller they are, the harder they fall. Maybe I can make our dear cousin fall through the earth one day.

"Armitage, are you injured?" Captain Siva asked in a dull tone.

"I'm good!" He gently pokes her, a silent command for her to get up. She acquiesces only because his boney frame isn't comfortable.

"Great, I trust you can keep yourselves out of trouble, while we're gone." The Nagai walks up the steps without a second glance to his nephew. However, Leia stays behind for a moment.

"Don't worry, Auntie, I promise that I won't do anything that will irreparably damage them," Jaina swore with no real idea if she would keep the promise. Leia sighs and then whispers some loving words into Ben's ear before leaving; she's on New Republic business after all.

"Okay, the adults are gone now, so that split personality can come out now." Ben closes his eyes and then opens them into those Sith yellow eyes.

"I'm Dead-Star, not a made-up person!" he snapped.

"Yeah, my twin explained that you were a distinct entity sheltered by Ben's Force presence or something like that." Jacen rolls his eyes at her recounting; she sticks her tongue at him in turn.

"I ate him, and he ate me back," Dead-Star said with such seriousness that she wonders how unpleasant sharing a body must be for him. She presumes that Ben must find it more an inconvenience than existential agony.

"Do we need to go on a quest to get you a body?" she joked. Dead-Star stares at her with suspicion in their golden eyes.

"Actually, we may be going to Kef Bir soon after Nagi."

"Is that some planet in the Inner Rim?" Jacen inquired with a cocked brow.

It's then that Armie tells them of his dreams including the latest one on the Jedi Princess. Jaina maintains a sabacc face until he finishes.

"Armie, it's clearly a trap. After what? Like almost ten years after he left, he decides to appear in a dream and tell you where he's been all this time? This smells like the work of a Dark Side cult needing an innocent child like you to sacrifice."

"Or maybe it's a trap for Ben and Dead-Star. Ben is the son of two important New Republic figures and studies under Jedi Master Luke Skywalker," he said a bit caustically. "Dead-Star is a rare Force entity. Together, they would be an irresistible package for someone needing a powerful Force-user to manipulate. Armitage could be the bait."

"But what about the second dream? It has nothing to do with the first, but I just got to meet her."

"Who is the Jedi Princess?"


Desolous heard of the Jedi Princess's story many times. It was one of Armitage's favorites when his father was still with them. Countless times, he watched as those blue-green eyes pleaded with his father to tell it again, and his father would oblige him. Years after his father's departure, Armitage would retell her story exactly like his father did to the Jade Twins. Now, Armitage is telling it to Ben and Dead-Star.

"Once upon a time, Kendalina left Serenno. She was born and raised there, but she had no love for her homeworld. She had only known contempt and humiliation. She had only one name, and on Serenno, it meant that her parents didn't want her. This wouldn't have been so much a problem if she had lived anywhere else on Serenno, but she lived at a boarding school for the lesser children of Serenno's ruling houses. Everyone there had two names or more, but she had only one and no apparent connection to any of the houses. The students gossiped viciously about her unwanted birth, while the school used her as their unpaid custodian. She lived in the basement with the rest of the cleaning supplies.

As the years passed, she grew tall. Height on Serenno was a mark of nobility along with capes. The taller you were, the stronger your claim to nobility. She was two meters tall by the time she was fourteen—"

"I get Kendalina was the name of the Jedi Princess, but what does anything about Serenno and her poodoo school life have anything to do with her being the Jedi Princess?"

"Because all of the things in her life, especially her horrid school, would lead to her becoming the Jedi Princess."

"Can you just cut to why she's called that? I don't think we have the time for a novel."

"I hate to agree with him, but Dead-Star has a point. I'd imagine Skywalker and Zev are getting suspicious to us being out here for so long."

"Yeah, and we've already heard the story like a hundred times, so just get to the point."

"Fine, but I will tell the full story one day!" Armitage sighs. "She's known as the Jedi Princess because she is a Force-user and had a healing gift. The Jedi may have been turned into legends by the time she got to the Outer Rim, but they were renowned for their healing arts. She was also quite tall to most of the people on the Outer Rim worlds she visited and looked quite striking like royalty. Does that answer your question now?"

"Yes!"

Desolous nearly sympathizes with Armitage's evident disappointment in not finishing the story. However, he too has heard the story far too many times and appreciates any abridgement of it.

"I'm still trying to figure out why she appeared in the dream. It's not like she was warning me away from Kef Bir. She just wanted to meet me."

"Maybe it's a prelude to a meeting in the real world."

"If she could be a Force Ghost, I think she would've appeared before my father long time ago. Unless she just learned how to! Oh, but she was never trained as a Jedi and wouldn't know how to become a Force Ghost."

"And you're presuming it's really her. The dream of her could've come from the same person that told you to go to Kef Bir. Perhaps, a dream of her would lower your suspicions?"

"Well, that didn't work!"

"It sounds like we should just go to Kef Bir and settle all of this! I would suggest stealing the Millennium Falcon and going, but Han and Chewie don't trust me alone with it. Plus, I don't think it's a good idea to go by ourselves since it's probably a trap."

"I still have to tell the Commandant about all this. Maybe he knows something!"

"Besides, the harvest festival is coming up."

"Oh yeah! We must help the Grays with demonstrations. Looks like all of this will have to wait."

"I guess the plan now is just wait and gather intel."

He leaves just as the children re-enter the citadel and heads for the library. The library is a popular place for Jedi to congregate for academic purposes. It's often the favorite place of Dooku and Qui-Gon Jinn when the latter was looking for some quiet. Right now, he finds Bruck Chun at a table by himself. He has a stack of holobooks on amulets and one on the Mandalorian Wars. The white-haired boy flips lazily through a book and then closes it with a tired sigh. Desolous moves close enough for those ice-blue eyes to notice him.

"What does Anakin want?"

"I'm not here for him. I was wondering if you'd be willing to help me."

"I could use a break. So, what do you need help with?" He leans back in his chair and stretches his arms above his head.

"I need to find someone by the name of Kendalina."

"I've never heard of her."

"I was the only one in the Order who knew her name until now. She was never trained as a Jedi, yet she ended up here."

"That sounds like an interesting mystery, but why do you want to find her now?"

"Because she got into contact with Armitage, and I need to know it was actually her."

"You think some Dark Siders are after him?"

"Possibly, I hope I'm wrong."

Bruck smiles painfully at him with such a knowing look in his eyes.


Luke hands his tray to the Nagai kitchen workers, thanking them for the food, and they nod and smile at him before hurrying back to the kitchen. As he returns to his table, he notices that he's being watched in the Force. He instinctively looks around and finds that children watching him. These children are an assortment of Voss, Zeltrons, Nagai, and other alien races that seem more insectoid than humanoid. They vary in age with the Zeltrons looking like preteens, while the insectoids about as tall as toddlers. They occupy a few tables together and stare at him shamelessly as young children wont to do. He waves at them, but the children don't return the gesture.

Do they think I'm going to eat them? The Jedi are the monsters in their stories, more so than the Sith. The Old Jedi Order exiled them when they wouldn't fully devote themselves to the Light. I want to believe that was all Sith machinations, but fear is such a powerful emotion that can't easily be mediated away. I won't let fear destroy the Jedi now.

His children return with Ben and Armitage in tow. Jaina waves at him energetically, while Jacen glowers at him. It saddens him that his son clearly loathes him.

I want to believe it's all Mara, but then Jaina would be like her brother. Or maybe she would've always been this affectionate towards me out of spite towards her mother. Us vs them. I don't want to divide the family! I would ask Han what to do, but he's never experienced this with Leia and Ben. I should comm Brendol later; his family is similarly complicated like mine.

For now, he hugs Jaina like she wanted.


Author's Comments: There are no links this time.

I have been writing this story for more than three years now. I want to say we're getting closer to the end of this, but I'm not sure how many more chapters it will take. I do know that I have future parts of The Jedi Prince series planned for after this. I have a feeling I'll still be writing this series by the time its tenth anniversary rolls around. Thank you to everyone for sticking around this long!

Next part: Brendol receives several important comms. The harvest festival is underway. Also, the kids make some plans.