Epilogue
"Another one," Darth Sidious said to himself. "That Kenobi is becoming a serious problem."
He'd witnessed all, his senses easily able to penetrate the muffling psychic cloud that he'd formed around the Jedi temple to confuse their powers.
Once he'd realized his temperamental apprentice truly meant to go through with his attack, he'd decided that lending a hand wasn't out of order. It had prevented the Jedi from divining the danger until it was too late.
Now one of the Council was dead, not much but a start. A shame Tepes hadn't been able to get rid of more of them. He would have, if Kenobi and his Padawan and his shades-of-gray woman hadn't turned up so inopportunely.
From his personal chamber's balcony, located near the great spherical hall of the Senate, he'd even had a visual view of the confrontation on the temple's high ledges.
His powers had told him much more, picking up thoughts and feelings from all the involved parties. He took delight in Mace Windu's stalwart struggles to avoid showing his pain, hands clamped to his leg in a futile attempt at stopping the bleeding.
He wrinkled his nose sourly as Zadrek Kellnu tore a strip from her robe and tied a quick tourniquet. Would have been nice if Windu bled to death, but his downturn of luck wouldn't even grant him that.
Tepes' flamboyant death had loosed not only his own living Force but that of the drained and destroyed Jedi, which had been held in suspension until that moment.
The resultant disturbance in the Force made it difficult for Sidious to maintain his dampening cloud. As there was no further need for it, he let it go and formed a few lingering impressions to make the Jedi believe that it had all been Tepes' doing.
Kenobi could never be turned, he admitted. For a time there, when he'd been struggling to come to terms with the death of his mentor, there had been hate and anger in his soul. But he had turned it into a determination to live up to and exceed the example presented by the late troublesome Qui-Gon Jinn.
The woman? She had lived cheek and jowl with darker emotions, thrived on revenge. As a bonus, she had already been half-trained and adept with a lightsaber.
Sidious contemplated the fleeting touches he'd had of her mind, and frowned. She was willful, one that would never bow to a higher authority. Be it Jedi Council or Sith Lord, she would accept no Master. That would make breaking her all the sweeter, to bad she had died. But that could be remedied.
And the there was the boy... more and more, Sidious was certain the he could be turned. The Council was already wary of him. With the further arrangement of events, he'd be ripe for a change.
Such arranging of events would take time. Years, perhaps. He would want to tread very carefully this time.
In the meanwhile, he was once again left without an apprentice.
The temple was now bustling with activity, as the Jedi had awakened from a daze they hadn't even known possessed them to the realization that their very inner sanctum had been breached.
Sidious smirked bemusedly, letting their consternation be some bitter balm to his sour mood as he went back inside and closed the curtains.
XXX
When three members of the Council came in, Anakin rose from his spot on the side of Obi-Wan's bed and moved in front of him protectively.
The only other remaining inhabitant of the infirmary was a Knight who'd had the misfortune to run afoul of Darth Tepes on his way into the temple; that man had been spared the bite but it still remained to be seen whether he'd recover from his wounds or follow two other unlucky Jedi into death.
He didn't stir as Mace Windu, Master Yoda, and Zadrek Kellnu entered the room.
Obi-Wan sat up, wincing as the movement pulled at the burn across his stomach. It was shallow but still painful. The gouges caused by Tepes' claws had closed to reddish scars, the deep healing itch the worst of that.
"It's all right," he murmured.
Anakin nervously eased back into his chair, a bit gingerly because Tepes' kick had bruised his spine.
Everyone waited in apprehensive tableau as they all sized each other up. Only Master Yoda was unscathed. His wizened green face was pinched in heavy disapproval as he stumped on his walking stick over to the end of the bed.
Mace Windu walked with the aid of a crutch, his lower leg swaddled in bandages. The brutal bite had become badly infected, necessitating surgery.
Zadrek Kellnu's arm was in a sling; she'd gotten a serious sprain at some point in the proceedings and hadn't even been aware of it until later.
"I understand I've put you in an awkward situation," Obi-Wan said, not contritely, not apologetically, simply stating the fact.
"You did break the Council's edict," Zadrek Kellnu said gently, "but under the circumstances, we cannot fault you for it."
"Without that distraction at a crucial moment," Mace Windu said, "the Sith might have killed us all."
Yoda harumphed. "Done well, you have," he admitted grudgingly. "Discussed this has the Council, and agreed that perhaps ... perhaps overcautious were we in that edict."
"Does that mean Obi-Wan's not in trouble?" Anakin asked.
Kellnu inclined her head. "Not at all. He has once again proved himself a most worthy Jedi."
"What about me?" he ventured, with a darting-quick glance at Yoda.
"You disobeyed your teacher's wishes, disregarded several laws of the Republic ... "
Anakin's face fell.
"But as I said," Kellnu continued, touching the boy on the shoulder and smiling down at him, "under the circumstances, we cannot fault you for it. If not for you and Sabeeth," she added, and felt the grief and loss radiating from both Obi-Wan and the boy," another Jedi would have been lost to us and we would still have been ignorant of the threat posed by Darth Tepes."
"Her willingness to give her life to help a Jedi speaks well of her," Mace Windu said quietly.
Obi-Wan regarded him evenly but said nothing.
"She will be getting a Jedi's burial," Windu said, "she will be remembered as a great warrior."
"You mean she could have been trained?" Anakin blurted excitedly. "She could have become a Jedi?"
"No!" Yoda thumped his stick. "A Jedi she would not be. Too old. Too easily ruled by emotion she was."
"Master Yoda --" Obi-Wan began but his voice broke.
"Difficult, she was," Yoda grumbled to Mace Windu, giving the young man time to compose himself. "Willful and disrespectful."
"Just like her father," Kellnu said, her voice soft yet pointed. "But if we put the burden of his past on her, we're as guilty as anyone of being ruled by emotion over reason."
Anakin couldn't believe that she would criticize other Council members in front of them. By the astounded looks they gave her, they couldn't either.
"Her father?" Obi-Wan asked, brows knit in puzzlement.
"She didn't have one," Anakin said. "Like me. She just ... happened."
"When I saw her..." Zadrek Kellnu said softly, "I could see Damon Blake in her eyes, in her hair, in the set of her jaw. He was her father. And he was one of us."
"Her mother was valestia, a sacred bride of the Soulfire," Obi-Wan whispered, unable to take in what he'd just heard. "She thought the Soulfire had sired her, not the Noctus, not Damon Blake."
"Question your heart for the truth," Kellnu advised.
"Blake's daughter." Mace Windu snorted and rolled his eyes at Yoda. "That does explain much."
"It is true," Kellnu said. "I know it to be so."
She sank onto the edge of the bed and took his hand. "How are you holding up? It is hard to loose someone you love." I know... She opened her mind to him. The image of a face came before him, black night-sky hair, emerald green eyes.
Damon Blake... You loved him, Mistress?
Yes, loved and lost. Like you loved his daughter and lost her.
I have not lost her... And a presence, just a small flare, a flame, violet-edged black, golden at the heart, that seemed to smile a little feline smile ensured him that she was still there.
"Enough of this," Yoda said, drawing them out of their thoughts. "A Jedi funeral fire she is getting. The gratitude of the Council that far extends."
"Thank you," Obi-Wan said distractedly, still caught up in the feeling of Sabeeth's presence.
XXX
That night, as he stood between Anakin and Kellnu in the perfect circle of the burial ground, he could still feel it, like a little flame in his heart. And as he watched the fire engulfing Sabeeth's body he knew her spirit would be with him until the end of his days.
THE END