Author's Note:
Thank you, MusicDreamer! Here's another chapter,
just for you! (This way I don't have to worry so much about the not-even-near-complete
next part until I get enough reviews to carry me through this part—and at
the rate this is getting reviews, that should give me some time.)
I know my children are unrealistically mature, but please consider 2 things: most aren't Human & most are Force-sensitive.
Enjoy! :)
Part II: Heather
Her breathing quickened as she practiced, but she didn't gasp. The Masters would count that against her.
It would have only served to tell her opponent how weary she was becoming, anyway.
Sweat poured down her face through her blindfold, stinging her eyes. She risked a moment to swipe her face with her sleeve. Her adversary gave a triumphant cry, and pressed his advantage.
She recognized the voice as Terr, a Human boy three
years her senior. Must be hard for him, knowing his next birthday will
make him too old to become a Padawan, but still competing with us younger
students.
Heather sighed, allowing a nostalgia for the nursery days to pass over her. At least there, she could—she clamped down on the thought. The Masters kept an extra-close eye on her, because some fellow students claimed she used the Dark Side. They couldn't be more wrong.
But they were unnervingly close.
The nine-year-old wistfully considered telling the Masters of her secret. She knew it was nonsense. She could never tell them; she didn't know enough about it, herself.
She absentmindedly parried a blow, twisting her wrist sharply to loosen Terr's grip on his lightsaber, then proceeded to skim
his neck with her blade, winning the bout. It was times like this that
Heather missed Yoda's quiet observation, that she liked so much more than
the shouts and cheers from the other students. Of all the people in the
Temple, only he had ever known her secret; what she knew of it, anyway.
Yoda'd been picked as a Padawan already. Heather shook her head, wondering what was to become of the Jedi. Their 'reign' had only started recently, but already she could sense corruption snaking towards
it. Mana had known of it, she knew.
She also knew where Mana had gone.
Heather enjoyed learning, and would often study on her own. That was how she'd known who Mana's sweetheart was; after all, he
had built the Jedi Temple. When she'd heard a report that Yakrino Organa had returned to Alderaan with a wife and young son, it didn't take much brains to put two and two together.
She ran her fingers through her waist-length pale brown hair. Privately, she was glad of the color, as plain as it was. It made her look… average. Her eyes were a very Human-looking brown, but she wasn't Human.
That was her secret.
She didn't know what she was.
Jedi Knight Imon
Jedi Knight Garnin
Librarian: Jedi Master Lami
Security: Jedi Master Aneer
Jedi Master Orant
Jedi Knight Drevon
Vreep! She quickly stopped the information
scrolling across her viewscreen. What were the Masters thinking? Him in Jedi security?
She rubbed the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger. Without glancing at the chrono she knew it was past curfew. The data she was looking at could have easily been regular files except for
one problem: they weren't the current or past assignments; they were future ones. It had taken Heather nearly an hour to hack into them, and almost
as long to find what she was looking for. If she were caught with this file
on her computer, she was as good as expelled.
Yoda had always said her doing this wasn't worth the effort. Heather, however, had never given up, and her gamble had finally paid off. Her wrist against her keypad, she gripped the data disks firmly in her hand. Drevon would be hard-pressed to defend himself, once their contents
were in the open.
Heather's wrist tapped her keypad as she considered
if it would be worth the risk. Knowing what she did, she ran no small hazard to her life if she confessed what she knew. For a fleeting moment, a rueful expression crossed her features. If only she had told
the Masters what she knew sooner!
She sighed. There was nothing she could do about it, now; the past was in the past. But Racara was dead, and Heather couldn't help but feel at least partially responsible.
Someone was coming.
Heather deleted the file from her computer and shut
it off, grabbing a hydrospanner and sticking her hands in a jar of old grease. She managed to start fiddling with the astromech droid strewn across her floor barely in time as the door swished open.
Heather squinted, looking up at the intruder. Inwardly, she gulped. Master Aneer! "Greetings, Master!" she said cheerily, as if she hadn't a clue that anything could possibly be wrong.
Without commenting, Jedi Master Aneer, head instructor, stepped over, taking the hydrospanner from her hand in the meantime. He
hit her upside the head with her tool.
"Ow!" she cried, not needing to fake that one. It stung!
"Perhaps that will teach you to keep an eye on your
chrono, young lady. Curfew was nearly two hours ago." Master Aneer's voice
was cold, stern.
"Well, you did not have to hit me!" she sniffled, making herself start to cry. "You just had to tell me!"
"And so I do, Heather. Forgetting curfew once in a
while I can understand, but this," Master Aneer thundered, "this is the third time this week! Now into bed!"
Heather, realizing playing stupid wouldn't get her out of this one, hastened to do as he said.
Once she was settled in, he made his exit. At the door, he paused, turning around. "And if you so happen to try this again, you will be given a formal reprimand by the Masters." The way he
said formal made it sound like a death sentence. Coming from him,
it probably meant expulsion. At long last, he left.
Heather sensed him retire to his own room. Once there was no awake person within ten yards of her berth, she pulled out a palm
light and journal from under her covers, hastily scribbling:
Knight DREVON
Masters Aneer & Orant
Librarian: Master Lami
Instructors:…
Heather squinted in the dark, although in reality she sensed, rather than saw, the person she was tailing. Who was she tailing?
If only Mana had known…
Author's Reminder:
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