56. The Moment You Realise You're Not A Child Anymore
21st day, 6th month, standard year 29437
Went to Didi's cafe. Because the Temple is scaring me now. Everyone is walking around with these looks on their faces, like something's just started and they won't live to see the end of it...
Didi and me ate some food.
"Strange things have been happened around here," he told me, in the middle of a conversation about something else.
"I know," I answered. Something occured to me. "Listen. Perhaps I oughtn't tell you, although I think I should...a girl went missing. Her name was Zacka...she was a green Twi'lek. Have you heard anything?"
"No..." He looked worried. "People going missing? But...oh...what if they get you next?!"
I assured him that they wouldn't. But he fussed over me the rest of the day.
7th day, 7th month, standard year 24936
Not much has happened. No-one knows what going on...with anything...anymore. Everyone's worried. Vulna is avoiding me. More than that, even. He won't talk. In a fit of rage I'm very ashamed of, I practically pushed him up against the wall and threatened him to talk to me or else. He wouldn't.
And Master's so quiet now. Now that Amiri's gone. I miss her. I miss her so much...
Master had been watching me write. Then he got up from his seat and went to the door.
"I just remembered something," he muttered. "Routine archive checks..."
That jogged my memory somewhat. "Tahl had to do that."
"I know," he said. "Boring worrk. And difficult, having to go through everything..."
"Why, what do you have to do?"
"Just you through the older Archives beaneath the Temple...they kept them locked up before," he said vaguely, something on his mind. "You're given a list, you have to check it's all there....needs a lot of people...and..." But then he snapped out of it. "See you later," he said aruptly, and was gone.
8th day, 7th month, standard year 29437
I heard them arguing. Yoda and my Masster.They thought I was asleep...or maybe they were too busy yelling to care.
I had remember a few things...
"She must have taken it! You should have been more careful!"
"Clever, she was. Very clever, to outwit me..."
"YOU SHOULD HAVE REALISED EARLIER! DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND! Stedents dead, Amiri gone...AMIRI, WHO WAS ONE OF THE FEW LIGHTS IN THIS PLACE...and if all the d'Jocheks are involved, Master, we're in TROUBLE!"
"Speak like that, you must not..."
Then a door slammed shut.
10th day, 7th month, standard year 29437
No-one will talk to me. No-one will tell me anything. I can't stand it I can't stand it I can't stand it. It's driving me crazy. Tahl is off on some planet doing some stupid thing and no-one else seems to be around and Master won't tell me what the argemen was about and I don't know who 'she' was and Vulna just won't talk and I think he probably hates me and I miss Amiri so much.
11th day, 7th month, standard year 29437
I was sitting in the middle of the room meditating. I was doing a bad job. Master came in. He sat down at the table, then got up and made some food. I watched. When he put it down on the table I sat down with im. We ate in silence, and finally he cracked.
"I imagine you're curious about the argument."
"I am," I said, a bit snappishly. He looked at me, surprised.
""Remember Drekka?" he asked me. I did. Then it struck me. "But she's..."
"Yes. Dead. But do you remember Yoda saying she came here once? Called herself Etha?"
I had to search through my memories for a few seconds, but I remembered.
"Yes..."
"Well, she took something," he said carefully. "And it's taken us-him-this long to find out. Dilan and darkness are alive...very much alive...and there's nothing we can do about it."
12th day, 7th month, standard year 29437
But there were more questions. And since I didn't think of them until later...this is a lot to take in...I spoke to my Mastre again. But I, as usual, chose the wrong moment...when I found my Master, he was outside, and Mapru was with him, and they were arguing.
When I saw Mapru, I turned to go back inside, but he stopped me.
"Let's involve your Padawan in the conversation too, Kanak," he said. "No doubt he's dying to know."
""As a matter of fact, I've told him almost everything," Master snapped.
"Almost?"
They both looked at me. Or glared, perhaps.
"Anything you want to know, Padawan, ask it." Master said.
I hate these situation. I do. "All right...Master, what did...what was taken?"
"A book of Sith magic," Master muttered. I looked at Mapru;; he was smirking.
"And..." I hurried on. "How come you knew to look for it...Tahl looked at the archives too, how come she didn't..."
"How did he know about the book of Sith magic?" Mapru hissed. "Because he's unhealthly obsessed with two things...the Sith and his...old friend."
"Because," Master answered, his eyes flashing viciously "I am the only one around here with any sense. Clearly. I requested you look for the book. Requested it. And judging by the results, you didn't even let Tahl know."
"You don't know it's been stolen," Mapru snapped back. "It could be anywhere. The Temple's a big place."
"It won't be for much longer! It'll be a pile of dust!" He was yelling now. "And I could have prevented it. But no. You suggest it's a better idea to let the old Archives rot. And when you do decide maybe we should look at it to see if our secrets are kept, you trust it to Padawans."
Mapru came right up to him, and I thought he'd hit him.
"I stopped you from looking." he hissed. "I want you to keep away from there. Archives. Sith. You. Lorian. Do you know what Eridar left me?"
"Ololian?"
"Yes. Don't you know her gift was real?"
"What? Oh, don't tell me." He sounded disgusted. "They say she was mad..."
"They were wrong. And so are you. And I saw both your fates, and together you'll cause more destruction then any team that ever existed in this temple."
Cause more destruction...
"What do you mean?"
But I never got to know. Master grabbed me arm, and pulled me away from him. He raced down the corridor, me being pulled along. Mapru wasn't following us. Eventually we slowed to a walk. I managed to speak.
"Ololian?" I said. "I know about her. I mean, I know she was...she was Karshan's Master, and she was Yoda's Padawan and...everyone said she was crazy and everything...what's going on?"
"I don't know," he answered. "But he obviously thinks her craziness was a genuine gift, and he thinks she somehow gave him her 'powers'..."
We turned a corner.
"Stark raving mad...him and Ololian. He..." he paused for a second. "Who knows...he might have been in love with her. He used to follow her around. I was young, but I remember."
We were still walking.
"I remember when I was twelve...she was perfectly normal then, quite a good Jedi," he went on. "I remember her bringing you to the Temple...never told you that, did I? I got to carry you. She started acting weird about two years after that, and it just doesn't seem right, the fact that she actually had something..."
But I'd stopped.
"Wait a minute..."
"What?" he asked, concerned.
"You said Ololian found me..."
"Yes, she did," he said, puzzled. "I was there."
"But Yoda told me it was him..."
A look of comprehension and then indignation spread over his face.
"He told you that?"
I nodded. "When I was younger. About five or something. That's what I'd thought all my life..."
"He lied!" Master was staring around in fury. "How could he? Being ashamed of her is one thing, pretending she never existed is quite another! And lying to my Padawan! Lying to him again!"
"I wasn't your Padawan then..."
"I suppose we weren't." We were opposite the Room Of A Thousand Fountains now. I could hear voices from inside...younglings playing, probably. Everything seemed so unfair all of a sudden.
"I'll leave you here, I have work to do," Master said. "Now listen. Don't speak to Mapru. At all. Understand? I trust that you won't, but..."
I just nodded.
"Good."
He marched off. I watched him go.
I swear here and now that I will not cause destruction. I will not. If I will be remembered in the Order, it will be for doing something good. I shan't cause destruction. I shan't be the evil Mapru thinks I am.
Neither will my Master.