Quick note: the word 'Hanoch' is pronouced ha-noc
A sharp sensation dragged Nila back to consciousness. It seemed to her that she had only closed her eyes a minute before. She discovered that she was lying on a spartan mattress in a room of humble dimension. Daylight was seeping through the drawn shades and her sleep-misted eyes absently fixed the shadows slipping slowly on the white ceiling.
I should have waited for him…
It was almost morning.
How did she end up there first place?
She shook her head to clear her mind and let her eyes wander on the no-nonsense furniture so typical of the Temple. Yes, she had gone home after meeting Beryl. Her hands went to her eyes to rub weariness and unpleasant memories away. She did not want to remember what had been said or done. Old wounds, ugly scars…resent and hatred…Nila's eyes opened wide.
When she had not found him at the Saarliaban, she had returned directly to Kenobi's quarters, not wanting to be alone. But she had only found his apprentice. The young man had not seen his Master since the night before. She had fallen asleep in his room waiting for him.
She tensed up as she felt something sharp against her stomach.
She gripped the comforter and abruptly pulled it aside.
Nila glanced down to find a tiny felinoid fast asleep on her stomach, absently pawing her now and then. That little rascal had taken advantage of her bunched up dress, and was now lounging against the warm skin.
Nila exhaled.
Just a kitten.
She chuckled and big tawny eyes opened in the middle of the ball of grey fur. Seeing it was observed, the diminutive nuisance immediately started to show off, rolling on its small back, fussing around, hoping to get some petting. Things were going in motion that cannot be undone
But the young woman was not looking anymore. She could sense the Master's absence in the flat. His communicator sat, useless, on the bed stand: they were forbidden at the party last night. All Nila could do was hoping he was well and wait.
A sigh of frustration escaped her. She knew that going back after him alone might only cause more harm and compromise their plans but...
Not getting her full attention, the kitten let out a raspy meow. Nila ran a finger on the distended furry belly and was graced with an ecstatic purr.
She looked out the window. If he was not there by the time the sun was up she--
A low voice suddenly erupted from the doorway.
"Nila!"
Nila nearly jumped out of her skin, sending the kitten rolling head over paws to the floor where it crashed with light thud. A loud indignant meow rose from the side of the cot. Both felinoid and Jedi Knight turned to glare at Kenobi who was standing on the threshold.
"I suppose you have a good excuse."
He was as drenched as she had been the previous night and dark circles rimmed his eyes. His face was stern but with his arms hanging loosely at his sides, he looked totally at a loss. Nila fumbled with the bed cloth, taking a quick look at her partner who stared at her now with an almost comical expression of disbelief. The silence had grown so thick that Nila felt the urge to fill it.
"Well, I guess don't have time to make up a plausible one now…" was all that crossed her mind.
Punching him in the guts would not have produced more effect, she thought as she watched his eyes widen and then narrow dangerously, making her inwardly brace up for the serious telling off bout she knew was coming.
And she was not disappointed.
"Where the blast have you been, Sohal?! Could you tell me what you were thinking running away like that without telling me, at that hour, in that neighbourhood, right in the middle of the Mafia's territory?!"
His voice swelled with every passing second, becoming loud enough to make her feel how genuinely pissed off he was. For the first time in a long while, Nila did not dare to talk back. After all, he had spent the whole night looking for her because she had not bothered to warn him of her whereabouts.
When she thought that he would go for the kill, he stopped, tore his gaze from her and drew a deep breath.
"My apprentice prepared a meal," he announced formally. "Would you please, ah – make yourself decent and join us?"
That was not an invitation.
She frowned as he closed the door behind him and looked down to her outfit to see that it was still bunched up right under her breasts exposing quite plainly her bare stomach down to the oh-so-appealing issued Jedi knickers.
"Aw, that's perfect," she groaned, flopping back against the pillow.
Nila hurriedly stumbled out of bed, tried to locate her shoes and caught the bedside table corner with her hip in the process. She hissed in pain, unable to prevent the top drawer from crashing down and spread a large stack of papers on the floor.
Standing in the middle of the mess, Nila suddenly doubted this day would turn into something more or less liveable… she sullenly extended a hand to catch a plummeting paper when a thought struck her.
For the first time, Kenobi was angry with her because she had been imprudent, not because he doubted her… A light smile was gracing her features as she mechanically looked down at the paper she held.
Her eyebrows shot up…it was the portrait of a young woman with the painter's name at the bottom --Alzo. She was smiling absently, revealing a dimple on her right cheek and her eyes looking out for something. She seemed slightly familiar, her eyes maybe… Nila had imagined a lot of things about her partner but this…
Nila suddenly felt an uncomfortable sensation in the pit of her stomach. She should not have looked, it was not her business.
A soft knock on the door made her hurriedly collect the scattered documents to stuff them back into the drawer. She sat down on the bed just before Anakin entered casually, a set of tunics on his arms and a piece of toast sticking out of his mouth.
He took it off to greet her amiably. "Pardon the unwanted bed mate, Knight Sohal," he said, picking up the kitten which was attacking the ascension of the tossed covers to resume its former position on Nila.
The Padawan held it in front of her face, as it vehemently protested and reached out for her with its tiny paws. "Knight Sohal meet Zaar," Anakin introduced formally. "He's always anxious to claim first anything new in this house."
"I'd never picture your master as a pet man."
"Believe me he isn't. Had to more or less smuggle Zaar in, you see. I brought an old set of tunics for you. They're clean," he hastily added. She chuckled and nodded her thanks.
"I think you acted the right way last night, if you allow me to say so," he said conversationally. "In fact I believe I've done the same several times already." He paused to offer her a prudent if unconvincing sheepish smile. "But that's beyond Master Kenobi. He only believes in calculated risk."
"And he is right," she replied seriously. "I endangered both our lives. It was stupid and reckless of me."
"But the mission is always a priority! My Master said you often fail to see the accuracy of keeping strictly to the Code." He paused, pondering how his words might be interpreted. "But life out there isn't strictly about the Code… Is it?"
Feeling the sting of Kenobi's unflattering remark, Nila was tempted for a second to tell his padawan what 'life out there' had taught her but refrained. "Being a Jedi implies duties, Anakin," she tempered. "In this case my priority should have been my partner."
Her words rang absurd and hypocritical to her own ears. Given her past feasts, she was ill placed to lecture anyone.
"But the Council must hold you in esteem," he pressed on, seeing he was getting answers. "They took many precautions to protect you from the Mob after the Unit was dismissed."
Nila could have almost laughed. The Council had placed her somewhere they could keep an eye on her was closer to the truth and the way they regarded her could be labelled as about anything but 'esteem'.
"What is the pillar value of the Order, Padawan?"
The answer was immediate "Discipline."
She smiled thinly as she saw him falter and understand.
"They don't esteem me much either, you know…" he suddenly said, his eyes lost in emptiness. "I know my skills surpass most Jedi yet they never did."
Unwilling to go there, she stood, ending the conversation. "I'm going to get dressed now."
"Don't mind them."
Nila looked up to find Anakin observing her, his features strangely still. She noticed then the odd tension that had filled the room as she peered at his no longer young face.
She froze, her hands going instinctively to her temples. Were those visions happening again?
"Anakin?" she called him, a little unnerved.
"Sorry, I get too serious sometimes. My master rubs in on me." He smiled boyishly and she relaxed a bit. "I meant that most of the time when this kind of things happens, the Council and my Master are grumpy for a while but it never lasts."
Nila nodded absently.
He tilted his head. "He's not as detached as he seems to be, you know."
Anakin left the room with Zaar sprawled unstably across his shoulder.
Nila shared her breakfast with a passably standoffish Obi-Wan Kenobi. Since Anakin had left to attend his morning class, nothing had disturbed the stony silence in the flat. Sitting on the very edge of her chair, she found herself trying to make as little noise as possible as she helped herself with hot jawa juice. Nila abruptly put down her cup. It was stupid. They had a mission and their disagreement should not interfere. She cleared her throat and started to expose how she had met Beryl Tachklan, carefully putting aside the vision episode.
"She told me she didn't know the name of the man who's supposedly in possession of the Scroll. Only Abenok does and after a rather great deal of difficulties, she finally accepted to arrange a private meeting with him. They'll say when, we'll say where."
She stopped talking, he nodded and they resumed their meal without another word. Nila sighed audibly. She could handle anger, open hostility but his unspoken disappointment was… unnerving. Force, couldn't he make an effort? She bit the inside of her cheeks and mumbled:
"Sorry. It will not happen again."
Kenobi did not look up from his plate. "No it won't."
Nila wordlessly stabbed a piece of fruit with her fork.
"I heard Eru call you Asalwa?" he asked after a moment.
"It's the name I used then," she answered politely. "They had us choosing one to cut every link with our previous life."
"Why this one?"
Nila put down her fork with exaggerate care. "Surely because of Asalwa is the most impressive image of power this galaxy has ever known."
And indeed, the legendary Asalwa, first queen of Ossus where the Order had been founded, was one of the most revered figures of the Core World Mythology.
"So young and already the control freak?" he said straight faced.
She blinked then cocked a derisive eyebrow. "Are you really willing to have me talking on this particular topic, Master Kenobi?"
He grimaced. "Absolutely not."
Nila sat back in her chair, a bit puzzled. One minute he was biting her head off, the next he barely addressed her and now he was… Force forbids, teasing her?
"Power then…you're right the myth does her credit. Even more so, knowing there's no reference of a king reigning by her side and that Ossus flourished in an exceedingly well organized manner," he stated, unconvincingly detached.
Nila could not believe the childish turn that the conversation threatened to take. She shrugged in an expression of superior intellect and looked out the window. Of course, she would keep her mouth shut and not meet the not too subtle dare in his voice.
"There was. One for each night actually," she suddenly blurted out. "Ruling isn't the only use a queen can have for a man, you know."
His smirk deepened and her cheeks reddened.
"Give me a break, Kenobi, I was six when I chose the name!" she ranted.
"Interesting criteria for a six-year-old," he commented.
She hid a smile in her cup of juice realizing that in his own manner, he had quite effectively broken the ice. Even though he was obviously partial for having her feel like an uncultured lout…There was some progress. She guessed.
"Well, I certainly knew a lot more about life at six than you did," she shot back.
He sobered up and busied himself in meticulously slicing the fruit in his plate.
"Did they… abuse you in some way? I mean beside the use of solicaine," he asked cautiously, knowing Nila disliked questions.
"Honestly, I wouldn't say we were really mistreated."
He looked at her perplexedly.
"It was just like that," she said, deciding for some reason to explain. "We were brought up with the idea that they were our kin. A chieftain is totally devoted to his clan but most people, including very well informed men like Thranton, fail to see the persons behind the institution."
She smiled grimly, unable to resist an occasion to provoke him: "Then again, we were too stoned to tell the difference."
"This is not a laughing matter, Nila," he said, looking somewhat pained.
Nila mistook the unusual use of her first name for pity and immediately bristled. "Listen, I can't spend my whole life moping about the past, can I? Stop feeling sorry for me, Kenobi."
"I don't. It ended up well for you, you're safe."
"Oh yes, I'm safe!" Nila realised she had shouted. She squared her shoulders and smirked humourlessly. "Since my Master's death I've been locked in as though I were an object of public shame! It's a useless life, Master."
Kenobi did not answer immediately. He put down his silvers and sat back in his chair, observing the woman in front him intently.
"The knight who died on Naboo ten years ago was my master, you know," he said then. "I was there too. There was nothing I could possibly do and yet…" he made a vague gesture with his hand.
Nila tensed up angrily. The old 'look how much we have in common' trick…
Yet, as he held her gaze and she found nothing there to fuel her anger. His eyes were deep and warm and a bit sad too. She hesitated and leaned closer to him to say something but he shook his head. "I know," he simply said. He smiled encouragingly and she nodded in silent understanding.
Then, he saw her move her hand toward his right arm, turning it so his palm was upward. On what seemed to be an impulse, she pushed his sleeve up and bared the skin where the crescent shaped wound was healing.
Her eyebrows arched as she gently traced the cut on the tender skin inside his arm. Kenobi did not move, allowing the contact. It was a pleasant feeling full of… sense actually. He shook his head slightly as if to clear his mind.
"What are you doing Nila?" His voice sounded a bit hoarse to his ears.
"This is strange…" he heard her whisper. "I've already seen that mark on your arm. Long before Cir'b dealt it to you."
"What are you doing, Nila?" he repeated quietly.
Her fingertips suspended their light caress and realizing the impropriety of her gesture, she hastily leaned away from him.
"Do you remember when I dropped the holobook that night in the Archives? The Holocron projected the same mark on your arm and on my chest," she said, pointing his scar. The master nodded, a bit unsure, he did not particularly recalled this detail.
"Asalwa, of course!" Nila exclaimed suddenly, almost knocking her cup of cold juice over. "It's all in The Enisoreid myth! The general of her army bore exactly the same mark," she said with a slightly embarrassed smile. "Could it be a clue?"
Obi-Wan frowned. The Enisoreid was the fundamental text of the Core World Mythology. The twenty tome long epic retraced the Great Sith War that destroyed the world of Ossus, a millennium ago. The Ancients referred to this event as the Great Cataclysm for the Seventh Scroll had been lost then. However, this part of the civilization was so old that most of the key players had been turned into legendary warriors, part gods, part heroes, having little in common with the mortals they had once been. How could a serious trail come from a myth?
Nonetheless, he started to list aloud what he knew on the matter. "Let's see. Asalwa founded Ossus'capital -- the City of Almorch and commanded the powerful Army of the East. All is in the seventh tome, in the Fragments of the Queen's Archives."
This earned him a faintly disbelieving glance from Nila who like everybody in this Galaxy knew the myth by heart, without bothering to pore over the long-winded verses. Everybody but Obi Wan Kenobi …
"The holo you dropped was an excerpt of Queen Asalwa's Archives too. Perhaps you're right, this might be a clue."
Kenobi trailed off and turned toward her. "Do you still have the disk I was consulting the night you found me in the Archives?"
Nila went to retrieve it from her rumpled dress draped over a chair and handed it to the Master who immediately scanned through the different files. "I remember scanning some ancient manuscripts randomly so no one would see that I was working on mobsters' biographies," he explained before frowning faintly as an unknown document popped open on the screen of the reading unit. "This is not mine. Who's Farah Panasana?"
Nila felt herself blushing and hastily pointed to another file called The Runes of Enisorai. "What's this?"
She leaned over his shoulder and peered at the screen as the text appeared. It was an excerpt from the Proslogîon, the ancient, official exegesis of the myth.
"Look here," she said, pointing at a passage. "It says that when the Scroll was lost, the Elders consulted the Runes of Enisorai to unveil the future and discover if balance would ever be restored. Those runes gave their name to the epic."
He rose from the chair so she could sit and squatted down at her side. "Apparently they were quite unusual – the engraved symbol did not only represent elements but also 'figures' and 'archetypes' inspired by legendary characters and their distinctive traits, like in a tarot. The Elders drew three runes, one of each kind: an archetype, an element and a figure. They discovered that those three symbols would play a capital role in the finding of the Lost Scroll, possibly ages later."
Kenobi nodded. "The Ancients thought the world evolved in consecutive eras. A change of era corresponds to an uncertain period where Ashla and Bogan, right and wrong, fight to overrule the other. Only the Scroll can restore balance."
"So we're reaching the end of an age…" said Nila pensively.
"Yes. According to the calendar they used then, the Third Age is about to begin," he confirmed.
"Oh Force…" she murmured her eyes fastened to the screen.
"What?" he inquired, looking alternatively at his partner and the text.
"Asalwa is the figure. She embodies power and justice…" Nila replied, reading the document. She suddenly faltered a moment. "She commands men of honour in the East. Her rune symbolizes an ungraspable force concealing many secrets and mysteries.
"The second rune they drew was Delemissei. He's the archetype of the Protector. He was the general of Asalwa's Army and swore to keep the Queen safe. The text reads that the sign of his allegiance to her was marked into his flesh so he would never forget and could make himself known when time would come. Obi-Wan, he's the soldier who has the crescent mark on his forearm!" she exclaimed.
"How do you know it was a crescent?" Kenobi asked as he glanced at his scarred arm.
"When the Queen's Army defeated the Kaargans -- the people who occupied Ossus first – she adopted the moon as her emblem. Not a full one but a crescent as a tribute to the soldiers who fell during this war."
The two Jedi stared at the screen, Nila looking quite confused while the Jedi Master made a doubtful noise in the back of his throat. "What about the third rune?"
"It is the element and goes by the name of Hanoch. It is an ambiguous force bringing both annihilation and hope. As soon as the Three gather, the prophecy will start to unravel. From that reunion chaos or balance can stem… That's all," said Nila bemusedly as she reached the bottom of the manuscript. "If I weren't the rationalist that I am, I would say we are strangely alike the first two runes."
"Spectacular deduction…" Kenobi answered.
She rolled her eyes. "Look." Her hand went to her collar and partially untied her outer tunic. She pulled the rough fabric to uncover a part of her upper chest just below her breastbone.
Kenobi was clearly not expecting this and Nila could have sworn the tips of his ears had turned a darker shade. Then his eyes fell on a small mark lighter than the skin around and distinctly shaped as a crescent moon.
"It's an old scar. I've had it as far as I can remember," she stated as she readjusted her tunic.
Kenobi quickly averted his eyes and stood up briskly.
"I guess we'll have to go to the Achieves to learn more," he said.
"We've spent the last two weeks there," she objected with a heavy sigh. "We went through every available holo on that topic."
"Not the Jedi Archives."
"What do you mean? There's none as complete."
"None? Make an effort, Sohal."
"I'm quite cert—Oh…" Her eyebrows rose worriedly. "The… the Families archives?"
He nodded. "I had heard about it but I wasn't sure it really existed so I asked Eru."
"You asked Eru," she parroted in disbelief. "And he accepted… just like that?"
"Not just like that. I had to convince him a little," the master replied with a light smirk. "He granted us access but only once."
Her eyes narrowed. "You know, that ability of yours to get in trouble borders on pure talent! This place is like the holy of holies! Nobody beside the chieftains even knows where it is! All the organizations, all the members, the contacts, the snitches, all the operations past and future… Everything is kept there! Eru cannot take upon him to allow a couple of Jedi in!"
"Look, Sohal, it's rather simple. If you're scared to go, I'll do it alone," he said a bit impatiently, ignoring her offended look. "With the RAID out there, we can't afford to dither questioning the Mob's motives."
Nila shook her head lightly -- trusting Eru at that point had become a very perilous move.
The Master was already standing at the door, his cloak folded over his arm. "Are you coming?"