Rancor Slam

Part 17

Cas smiled as she felt the young Ryn's spirits soar. When she figured the girl was out of hearing range, she clicked the door closed and turned to face the music.

'No good deed goes unpunished.' she sighed.

She turned and saw Master Kyl smiling at her.

That made her step falter. She had thought her old Master had come to talk her out of training Lyn.

"I had, my old Padawan." Master Kyl's eyes went misty. "You broke it to her so much better than I broke it to you."

Cas smiled sheepishly. "I've been practicing that speech since I met Young Lyn, all those years ago, Master."

"Oh, so I couldn't have talked you out of training her if I tried."

"No, Master, but it would have made me feel like heel."

Her master laughed softly, a gentleness crept into her face. It was something she had never shown any one except her first Padawan, the little girl named Cas. "Can I talk you out of any of the others, than?"

"No, Master. It would be detrimental and disruptive to their training. Things have happened…" Cas walked further into the room, toward her Master.

"We've formed bonds. All of us, including the guards. To say I can't take it would be saying all the sacrifice was nothing to me. To send them away would be to hurt them, handicap them, in ways that we couldn't possibly imagine and would never want to explore."

"No," Cas said with finality. "The only way I'll give them up is to the Knight-trials. And while Syn and Nii could probably face the trials and succeed, there are things they still need to learn that they can only get from experience. Experience that would serve them best if they had a Trainer they trusted to point it out to them, so that they may see how they've learned."

Kyl nodded. "I respect that." Kyl nodded to herself, thinking. "Will you be taking the rank of Master? It would give you greater resources and clearances for fighting a war, and training, is it nine? Or ten Padawans?"

Cas looked, down, sheepishly.

Her old Master was one of the few on Dagobah that could make her feel like that young, newly turned little girl from Coruscant. The little girl Cas thought had died years ago.

"Ten. And I can name them all. And recite their progress in training."

She heard Mere'chen move into the room, from the bathroom. She ignored the woman.

"That's impressive. But ten! You're like a little traveling academy."

She could hear the water running for the oversized bathtub.

The tub was large like almost everything else in the house. It was supposedly big enough for up to twelve.

"Yes, Master, I know. My guards help me train them, mainly in dueling. And I help the Guards, giving them truths and knowledge they'd have never sought, or found, on their own."

She saw Jak moving in the tub, in water up to his hips.

Master Kyl followed her eyes and raised her eyebrows. "That's Jak? Hmm, he's grown up nicely."

"Yeah," was all Cas could say about her concubine, her man-slave.

"Well let's get started." Kyl said.

Traditionally A Jedi's Master walks their Padawan down the isle and gives their Padawan away, into the Union.

Cas's clothes were gone and a few moments later she was sitting in the water with Jak scrubbing her body, Kyl scrubbing her hair and Mere'chen doing her nails in 'Political Red'.

Kyl and Mere'chen finished and went to get her dress and things ready.

Jak finished and looked at her. There was a sad smile in his eyes.

"Jak?" she said. "What's wrong?"

He looked at her then dropped down and held her. He allowed his body to float away from hers as he hugged her. "Milady… everything's wrong. There's a war where there should be peace. There are new men taking my place in your bed…"

"Men?"

"Kir Die'ril."

"That's one, but he's going to be my husband."

"What about Vua Shai and that Vo Kwaad?"

"They aren't sharing my bed, Jak."

He looked up at her. "They aren't? But I saw the way they look at you. Kir saw it too. He doesn't like it."

"But if you with that logic you'd think I'm sleeping with Uun and Slee, too."

"Hmmm. What about our reunion? That definitely wasn't what I had in mind."

"Yeah, well, I'm learning things don't always go as planned during war."

"Yeah. So you gonna take it back?" It was the gift. The unexpected result to the Trials.

"I kinda have to."

"Yeah."

They both knelt in the sitting nook. They kept six inches of space between them. She summoned the Force to her as they reduced the distance.

Their hands, their chests and heads were about and inch apart. They moved like they were going to kiss, keeping the distance between them.

When his lips hovered an inch over Cas's she took a deep, sucking breath. The fact that she got some of her training from the Witches of Dathomir made it so that integrating physical actions made great taps on the Force, easier.

She felt it moving around her. The Force moved like a cold wind around Cas and Jak that spiraled around them as they knelt there. It infused it self into both of them.

She felt it grab her gift to Jak and push it out of him, up, following his windpipe. It flowed out of his mouth, into hers. Down along her windpipe until it sat over her stomach. She pulled away from Jak and fell shakily back into her seat.