"Will I ever get home?" Obi-Wan said wistfully after what felt like hours of silence, more to himself than to Loiso. But the man answered anyway.

"No."

The answer startled the boy into a jump. "No?! You mean… But why?"

"Because it won't be you who returns," followed the reply. Loiso seemed unperturbed by Obi-Wan's reaction.

Confusion crept at Obi-Wan again. This man was worse than Master Yoda. At least Yoda spoke without riddles, sometimes. But the boy wasn't going to give up easily. Besides he had nothing else to do. "Why is that?"

Loiso seemed thoughtful for a moment, but a sly twinkle in his eyes told Obi-Wan that he was just keeping a pause. "That guy will have your appearance, even your soul, but he will be different. You already are different because of what you saw. And you will see and learn something else."

Now this was more like a normal talk - or maybe he was simply getting used to Loiso's odd views and opinions. "Do you see it in my future?" Somehow it seemed right that a man like this must know the future.

"No, not really," Loiso laughed. "I'm afraid I lack that talent. However funny and ridiculous it might seem, you see, I never had even a plain simple premonition." For a moment Loiso seemed almost sad, his eyes trained on some unseen spot on the golden horizon.

"But why did you say what you said, then?"

"In my experience, it's not easy to get where you want, no matter where that is. Once eternity has you it won't let you go so easily. You need to have special powers..."

Obi-Wan hung his head. 'Special powers'! Whatever that meant he was sure he didn't have any special powers. Loiso looked at him with something akin to compassion lurking somewhere in his eyes, and continued.

"Or you must be... nice enough for eternity to fall in love with you. Then she will make you a gift." Loiso looked him over with an appraising look. "I think you have a chance."

Blushing slightly, trying to ignore his discomfort, Obi-Wan raised his head and looked around. "But how do I get home from HERE?"

The place seemed frozen in time. There was no sun, and hence no shadows, to mark the passing of time. Nothing moved in this world. No animals, no birds, just brownish-golden grass. Anywhere. And white sky, covering the plate of the plane.

Loiso's voice brought Obi-Wan out of his reverie and back to their conversation. "From here? Well, I guess there's no way to get anywhere from here. But why don't you go where you were before?"

"All right, suppose, I'm back there. But how do I get home?"

"The way you came here, of course." The man said it as though he found even the question ridiculous. "How did you do that?"

"I saw a dapple and reached for it. That's all," Obi-Wan confessed.

"Well, that's one way to do it."

"Is there another way?"

"Every person has their own way. This one is yours. Using another's won't give you anything, but failure."

"But if you're a prisoner here doesn't it mean that I'm a prisoner now as well?" Obi-Wan decided that he didn't like the idea to spend the rest of his life here. With Loiso as the only one to talk to.

"No, you can go away freely. I am the only one who is bound to this place."

Obi-Wan stood up from the dry ground. "I guess I'll go now, then. It was nice to meet you." He made a couple of steps, then paused and turned back. "Maybe you can come with me?" he asked, surprising even himself. It seemed... unfair to leave Loiso here.

The man smiled at him, but his eyes were sad. "Sorry, I can't. You go on. Don't worry about me. There's someone with enough power to get me out of here, and one beautiful day he might do just that. In his soul he is as kind and openhearted as you are. Speaking of which: it is a good trait, but be careful... Now go!"

Obi-Wan wanted to say something else, but sudden wind that came from nowhere pushed him down the hill slope. Obi-Wan looked back once again, but Loiso was already gone, had dissipated like mist under the morning sun. Only the smoky yellow stone stood lonely on the hilltop. Obi-Wan moved onward - back to the place of nothingness.

The place met him with cold unwelcoming void, and once again he had nothing: no body, no feelings. But now he had hope - a little light in darkness that would save his life... and sanity.

He looked around, seeing nothing at first, but then... then the void brightened, started to play with myriads of brilliant lights, scattered around. It looked almost like an outer space, but somehow it was much deeper.

Now Obi-Wan knew that he could get home. But where exactly was home? Which one of these sparkling lights was the door to his world?

He tried to reach one of the lights, then another. He came close to them and then looked inside. There were different worlds: warm and cold, of wars and peace, beautiful and ugly.

Once he saw a huge space station, round like a moon, gray and sinister. It was being attacked by numerous starfighters that flew around it like motes.

But none of those worlds was HIS home. So he kept searching, waiting for the gift eternity might give him.

When he reached the next light, he saw a large alley, surrounded by city buildings - nothing special. But he suddenly felt compelled to go there. He dived out of the void and into the thick and hot summer air of the dusty alley. The sun was setting for the night, and evening sounds promptly covered the boy's ears with a blanket of life's din.

The alley was empty safe for the two men, who were sitting on a bench and another man dressed in a straight gray suit, who was standing in front of them with his back to Obi-Wan. At first there was nothing strange in that man, except, perhaps, that his cloth was nothing like what Obi-Wan had seen before. No big deal, really. There were plenty of weird cloths, worn by different kinds of beings in Obi-Wan's world. Nothing strange if he met an unknown dress in another universe.

But then the man turned, and Obi-Wan had a chance to take a better look at him. At the first glance at him Obi-Wan felt sharp needles of cold fear creep up his spine. The man was tall, but not too tall. He had black hair and black brows - one was raised higher than the other. He seemed to be about forty, but something in him belied this impression. The man carried a black stick with the handle, resembling a head of a dog with open maw and sharp fangs.

The man smiled - or rather sneered - demonstrating his teeth: platinum on the left side and golden on the right side. The whole visage of the man was unsettling, but what was more frightening - so much more - were his eyes. The left one, green, was absolutely insane. The right one was empty, black and dead.

When the man looked at Obi-Wan it seemed as though the very essence of evil turned its eye upon the boy. The Padawan froze under the glare of this man, feeling all of his thoughts leave him in near panic, fluid like running water.

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