THIRTEEN

The Jedi Council gave the boy a good looking over, and not only with the physical image of their eyes. The Force-sense in the room was almost enough to make Obi-Wan shiver, like he might if someone just barely brushed his skin with a fingertip. The slight flinch however did not go unnoticed by Qui-Gon, who stood just to the left of the fourteen year old. Jinn peacefully waited for the Masters to speak, while Obi-Wan struggled not to squirm beneath their watchful, probing gaze and remain calmly centered in the Force.

Qui-Gon was impressed with the degree of control the youth displayed; certainly it was a normal emotion to be nervous, but Obi-Wan was rapidly mastering it, placing it under the control of the Force.

"Sorrow in you I sense." Master Yoda was the first to speak. His wizened face peered intently at the young Initiate, awaiting an answer.

"Master Toran's loss is great." Kenobi's voice was subdued; Toran had been Obi-Wan's sparring instructor until an untimely death during a recent mission. Toran's funeral ashes had scattered to the winds only twelve hours earlier and grief had not yet ebbed from his young student. Qui-Gon felt a small pang of sympathy for the boy; this one was a study in losses. Obi-Wan was an orphan, with no other family than those Jedi who trained him. It was in fact Toran's death that had prompted Qui-Gon to formalize young Kenobi's apprenticeship.

"One with the Force, Master Toran now is." Yoda continued, and even though the wizened old Jedi master could seem intimidating, there was a note of compassion in his voice as well. This was the first time Obi-Wan Kenobi was facing the death of a Jedi Knight…Yoda knew that Kenobi's perception of the event could be a vulnerable spot for the Dark Side. "Your feelings you must stretch."

Obi-Wan glanced at Qui-Gon Jinn, and Qui-Gon nodded his approval. Obi-Wan closed his eyes obediently and reached down into that quiet center as he'd been taught to do. Suddenly his eyes flew open with understanding, and he looked at Yoda, startled. The small head nodded and a look of almost amusement reached the Jedi master's blue eyes. "Understand now you do."

"Yes…Master Toran will always be with us." Kenobi suddenly stood a little straighter. Qui-Gon allowed himself a small smile. A fine Jedi he'll be one day.

"Master Qui-Gon, wish this boy to apprentice, you do?" Yoda continued to speak for the Council, since all had already been decided before Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon's arrival.

"I do, my Master." Qui-Gon said respectfully, his hands clasped before him. "I wish to honor my word and take Obi-Wan Kenobi as my Padawan- Learner."

"Then take him you will. Agrees, the Council does."

"Master Jedi, are you all right?"

The hand on his shoulder, Qui-Gon suddenly realized, had been there for some time. He looked up to see Inais Touku looking intently at him in concern.

"The Force shown me…reminded me of the past." Jinn replied, rising to his feet. He motioned fluidly toward the motionless form of his apprentice. "The Council's decision to make Obi-Wan my Padawan-learner. Whatever purpose there is to this, I am fairly certain he is at the center." Qui-Gon paused, his breath snagging in a throat suddenly tight with emotion.

"I am sorry harm has come to your Learner, Master Jinn." Touku said, and Qui-Gon sensed that it was an honest sentiment, and he nodded once to the House Roeh in response.

"I appreciate your support, Roeh." His statement was also true, but Touku recognized the tone of voice as one moving the conversation away from relaxed sympathies on to something more formal. He crossed his arms and leaned on one of the several high-backed chairs in the room, preparing to listen. "I want to discuss a few matters with you, Inais Roeh. The true nature of our summons here, for example. Why did you deceive us?"

"There was no deception, Master Jinn." Touku replied evenly, and reaching into the Force Qui-Gon could sense no anger or irritation. "You met the Hopefuls yourself, talked with their families. They are ready for you to take them on to Coruscant. It was my intention to speak to you about…the rest privately, after the main ceremony last evening."

"And the 'rest,' as you put it, was that you knew for a fact there was a servant of the Dark Side here in the city and wanted Jedi intervention in the matter." Qui-Gon spoke quietly but forcefully, driving home the point that the truth had been kept from them. Truth that might have made a difference in his padawan's condition just now. Touku nodded silently, and Qui-Gon could feel the regret coursing through the man. "Did you deceive the Council in this manner as well?" He had to know if this Bahreena was honestly doing what he thought was right for his people or if he was possibly in league with this dark lord.

"No, honored Master I did not. My request for help in this matter was received fully by the Council. There are some…concerns that this dark one may have an informer in one of the major Houses and so it was agreed upon to keep the details hidden until after your arrival. My apologies for the…inconvenience." Not quite the right word, but Touku's grasp of the finer details of Basic were not quite as good as Qui-Gon's grasp of Bahreeni.

Qui-Gon nodded shortly; he recognized the honesty in the man's confession; there was no sense of deception or of intentional covering up. Yoda would have set this up, possibly along with Mace Windu; however he knew that it had not been a deliberate deception on the part of the Council either. It was simply misfortune that Inais Touku had not been able to inform them of these details before Obi-Wan's encounter with this dark infiltrator.

"And you have no clues as to the identity of this individual, Roeh?" Qui-Gon knew that he was going to have to find answers…and fast. He felt a great weight settle around his shoulders; his Jedi mantle, so to speak, encompassing an entire planet of beings…and he realized then the scope of the threat this one person made against the Bahreena and indeed against the entire Jedi Order.

And already a first victim claimed… The thought rushed unbidden into his mind and Qui-Gon squelched it ruthlessly, refusing to believe that Obi-Wan was lost to him.

"No, I do not unfortunately. There have been few clues to go on, but my guess is that it is truly a native Bahreena…easily blended in and not noticeable as an outsider or off-worlder." Touku sighed heavily. "And that worries me, Master Jedi I must be frank. If the Dark Side has taken root here…"

"…then you all are in grave danger. The Force has been gracious to preserve you from evil these many years." Qui-Gon had to wonder at that a little bit, curious about the history of Bahreen and the Jedi. That they had remained unspoiled, untainted by the darkness was a mystery of the Force, to be sure.

Sighing softly, he returned his gaze one more to his fallen Padawan. Taking the few steps back to Obi-Wan's side, he took a limp hand in his own, clasping it affectionately for a brief moment. He did not want to go, but it seemed the tides of circumstance were rising ever higher and so much…so very much was at stake. I'm sorry, my young apprentice. He sent into the bond, even as he knew it to be a futile gesture. I will return as soon as I may… May the Force be with you.

Lying Obi-Wan's hand carefully back at his side, Qui-Gon straightened up and turned from the bed.

"Master Jinn?" Touku took note of the determined look on the Jedi's face.

"I have an idea where I may begin. Please, the moment…"

Qui-Gon's worried sentence was interrupted by the slender page who had greeted the two Jedi upon their arrival. The Jedi master's relief was evident as the figure following her appeared in the doorway.

Obuk had arrived.

++++++

Obi-Wan found himself wandering--if you could call it that--aimlessly in the old part of the city some distance from the House Inais. He had no clue where to go really, or how he might find this girl. The fact of the matter was that he couldn't ask directions of anyone anyway; he was the wraith of fiction and dreams, he supposed. Unheard, unseen, observing the living around him and…what? Haunting? Was that what he was doing?

People walked right through him, eliciting abrupt shivers from the living and an odd sense of that person's essence imprinted on his mind like an odd sort of handshake. Too bad none of them had any clue that he would love to ask them where he was going.

He paused on his floating/gliding journey next to a pair of Bahreena who were waiting for a transport. If he could have run his finger through his hair he would have but the impulse hardly seemed possible as he still had no real physical sensation. Obi-Wan glanced at his 'companions,' and did a double-take. They looked vaguely familiar…a mother and child…and then it registered with him. The little girl was the one who'd drawn his master's attention at their first meeting last night, the one Qui-Gon had predicted would certainly be a Jedi Knight. And whose name for Force's sake he could not remember.

"Wait right here, you hear me?" Her mother was telling her. "I just have to pick up one of these for your father."  She motioned to a stand nearby. The girl nodded but she wasn't really paying too much attention. She was looking straight up to her left--and Obi-Wan turned to see what it was she was staring through him to look at. When he turned back she was standing there alone and she shook her head just a little bit. And it was with a sudden shock that he realized that she was looking at him!

Hunkering down on one knee…at least that's what he hoped he looked like he was doing, he got down to eye level with the child.

"Can you hear me?" He asked first, and when the girl's eyes widened and she nodded her head, he grinned broadly. "Can you tell me where we are?"

"Bluehouse." The girl ran the words together and pointed to a nearby structure that was indeed graced with two very large, very blue doors.

At that moment the transport arrived, and the child's mother hurried up and took her hand, tugging her away. Obi-Wan watched them go, and then decided that he certainly had nothing to lose by checking out this Blue House. Heedless of (and impervious to) the racing ground-speeder traffic, Obi-Wan made his way toward the large structure and passed straight through the blue front doors.

++++++

Twenty years had not been enough to erase the familiar path he walked from his mind, nor the memory of the sweet heady scent of skiffra trees or the song of the native creatures that dwelled in their branches. He could almost feel her walking alongside him, her gentle lilting tones explaining the urgency of their situation and what he must promise her to do…

Qui-Gon moved almost automatically through the garden, his feet following the small footpath almost of their own volition it seemed, that mechanical instinct that took over when the mind was preoccupied.

He had not visited here since the day he'd said goodbye to her cold, still body; her essence entrusted to the Force and the promise she had extracted from him deep in his heart. The marker was much as he remembered it; only now it was moss-covered and neglected. Kneeling down in front of it, he began to clear away the debris. Ahead of him, on the hill, were the remains of her beloved House, burnt all those years ago and the stone foundations blackened yet still standing.

"You should see him, Ina." He said softly as he worked, something instinctive inside him working out the long-buried emotions. "He's everything you told me he would be, and more. He's strong…he has good instincts, good skills and he's improving all the time. You were right to rescue him; more right than I ever knew back then. I'm…" His voice faltered momentarily as a wellspring of emotion threatened to overwhelm him. "I'm sorry I failed you, Ina."

"Not many people remember the House Amagi, much less an outworlder…and a Jedi no less. Stay where I can see you and turn around."

The voice was so hauntingly familiar that Qui-Gon nearly called out her name, but he held his tongue. Slowly he did as he was bid, turning and holding his hands out away in plain view. It was almost like the pain of an old injury stabbing at him as he looked at this girl from his padawan's visions. She was standing there holding a lightsaber in her hand, not as yet ignited, and he had to wonder if she knew how to use it with any degree of skill. He had to wonder if that lightsaber was hers or if it was…inherited.

"You look remarkably like your mother." How he'd found his voice long enough to speak, he didn't know. And it surprised him that those should be his first words to her, but so heavy had Ina's memory been of late that to see her very nearly mirror image here was astounding.

The girl put up her weapon, hooking it to her belt much like any Jedi would, and glanced past him to the partially cleaned marker.

"I was two the last time I saw you. And you buried my mother." Her voice was not quite frosty but it wasn't exactly warm either. Twenty years had done little to blunt her pain, but Qui-Gon could feel the small war going on inside her heart.

"I buried a part of myself along with her that day." He spoke honestly and openly, unshed tears finding their way to prick his eyes. "How did you know we would be here?"

"Sometimes I…see things." She didn't know how else to explain it; except that she knew her gifts were far above most of her peers. There had to be a reason for that, but she did not yet know what it was. Qui-Gon merely accepted that answer with a slight nod and he turned slightly back toward the marker.

"Four hands will be faster than two, and I sense this is the first time you've been back here since…she died."

The girl hesitated, then slowly knelt down beside the Jedi to help him tidy her mother's grave. Indeed she also had not walked this garden path in twenty years.

"You're in danger here." She said suddenly, bluntly. "The Dark One will be looking for you and here is the…most likely place." The Jedi decided that equal bluntness was called for.

"What did you do to my Padawan?"

"I'm not sure there's a word that describes it, Master Qui-Gon." Jinn blinked that the girl knew his name. "and I'm not entirely sure I can even reverse it but I am certain that I saved his life last night." She took in his amazed expression with an impassive one of her own. "Amagi Iya."

"Excuse me?" Qui-Gon hadn't quite heard what she'd said.

"Amagi Iya. That's my House name, the name my mother gave me the day the Force decided my place of birth should be here and not say, somewhere on Coruscant." Qui-Gon had to smile a little; Ina had always been proud of her heritage too.

"Amagi Iya, you're a part of a proud House." He cleared off the last of Ina's name, written in Bahreeni. "And I intend to see to it that you stay that way."