Making
57. Explanations
1st day, 8th month, standard year 29437
In class I saw Vulna wasn't there. Tahl pulled me aside and told me what was going on.
"He ran away. Or...sort of. They found him on the other side of the planet, and they brought him back, and they're talking to him and that's why he's not here."
"I see..."
"I know what's been going on," she whispered. "About the book that's gone and the arguements and stuff. I think everyone does..."
"Doesn't surprise me," I muttered, and was shocked to realise how much I sounded like my Master.
"Padawans!" Vione called. She was teaching the class. "Back to work."
She gave me a look. She knew too, obviously. The whole Temple thought I was out to get them, perhaps.
Tahl gave me a sympathetic look. I wondered vaguely if she was reading my mind.
"Listen," she whispered, once Vione had stopped paying attention "We can go find him after class, I think he might want to talk..."
"He doesn't." I said, surprised once again at my sharpness. I sighed. "I...well, I know he's involved in all this...stuff, and he won't talk to me."
"Make him talk. You probably could."
"No. We'll go find him, if you like, but I expect we'd be wasting our time. Besides, I need to talk to my Master, too..."
She looked at me, probably wondering why I was acting so cold. I didn't know either. She was rather distant for the rest of the lesson.
------
We went looking for Vulna. It was me who found him, in the Glass Room. I'd figured he'd be there. He was sitting on the bed, and he was holding something...and when we came in he hid it behind his back.
"What's that?" Tahl demanded.
"Nothing," he said, and got up to go. Tahl held out an arm to stop him.
"No you don't..."
"Well, fine, then!"
He threw down the thing he'd been hiding. It clattered to the floor and I picked it up. It took just a second to work out what it was...Zacka's lightsabre.
I said a filthy swearword. No-one looked at me...probably they were all thinking the exact same thing.
"You. Vulna. Tell me everything." I said coldly.
He did.
"Dilan isn't dead, and neither is Lorian d'Jochek.
And it was him who killed Zacka. And they want revenge on us. And someone
called Etha stole this book of Sith magic from here and they've got it
and...and..." He trailed off.
"I know who Etha is," I said. "I've met her."
He nodded. "Yeah. Anyway, the Council and everyone...they've started to take notice now, they're going to have everyone take turns guarding the Temple. Guards at each enterance."
"But there's other ways in aside from the enterances." Tahl said worriedly. "Aren't they setting guards up there as well?"
Vulna shrugged. "I don't think they know about
most of them. And well, I suppose they don't like to think that the Temple's
not as safe as it looks."
After that we were all quiet, digesting all of this.
"So, Vulna, how'd you know about this? You've been with Dilan. Did he tell?"
Vulna nodded.
"After I got...reassigned...and you-know-what happened...I didn't go and meet him as much, I didn't want to, but he made me," he said. His eyes looked haunted. "It took me a long time to convince them all that he hadn't made me turn. And he hadn't."
"Why did he tell you things, anyway? Did he trust you?"
"Well, we were friends once. Sort of." he muttered.
I wondered if I was ever going to really understand all of this. So much had happened in the past few weeks.
"I got Zacka involved too...she was the one who found out they had the Sith book. But then Lorian killed her...we told them we would work from the inside to bring down the Jedi, but Lorian knew what we were really doing...he killed her and he would've killed me. But Dilan stopped him."
"Why?"
"I don't know."
"You're really up to your neck in all this, aren't you?" Tahl said. "So let's see. They want revenge. They're coming to get us."
"Yes."
"And the Council know and they've started doing stuff."
"Yes."
"And they have a book of Sith magic that that woman stole and...we've only just discovered it's missing," I supplied. "So they've won one small victory already, I suppose...and they've killed people..."
"Don't you feel sorry about Zacka?" Tahl said suddenly. "If it was your fault she died..."
But Vulna said nothing to that. He looked at me instead. And I realised something.
"There's something you're not telling us."
"That's all I know, all right?"
"They're going to expel you, you know," Tahl said rather coldly. "You've been hanging around with Dilan, you've had second chances and you haven't taken them...and you've let people die."
"They're not going to expel him, Tahl," I said with a sigh. "Because he's told them everything. So if Lorian and Dilan attack, we'll be ready."
She nodded, but she looked exasperated. Vulna suddenly pushed past us and left the room, knocking over a glass vase as he did so. He looked at it, looked at us, and ran away down the corridor.
Cogs were turning in my brain.
"It's hardly fair, you know," Tahl said crossly. "Dilan was expelled for doing less than what Vulna's been doing."
"What?"
"If he hadn't been expelled, then maybe..."
"It was my fault he was expelled, you know," I said. A thought came to me. "Maybe that's what Mapru meant when he said...oh, never mind."
"I didn't mean any of this was your fault." Tahl said quickly. She sat down on the bed. "I was just wondering why in the world they're keeping him around. They could just cart him off somewhere."
"Tahl! We're supposed to be his friends."
"Let's face it though, we're not." She sighed.
I sat down next to her. We were silent.
"I had an idea," Tahl said all of a sudden. "I've been sort of thinking about it for ages. You know...you know the prophecy we found?"
"Yes..."
"Well, just forget about that one for a moment. You know, there's some prophecies that go really far back, and no-one can remember who made them...well, I know one..."
"Did Ololian make it?"
"No-one knows who did. Forget about her and the other prophecy, okay? This one's about something else. The one who will bring balance to the force."
That sounded vaguely familiar. Maybe I'd heard it before when I was young, or something.
"Anyway," she went on. "I remember reading it. It had all this stuff about and Jedi and the Sith. And I thought...what if it's Vulna?"
I stared at her. My mind seemed to have gone completely blank. It made all the sense in the world, and yet no sense whatsoever. I finally found my tongue.
"Vulna? He..." But I couldn't find a single explanation. I looked at her.
"It would explain why they keep him here," she said quietly. "And...well, look, there's definately something about him, isn't there? He's not really like other Jedi."
I agreed. Sort of.
Only sort of.
-----
I have been thinking of NOTHING but that conversation all day. It makes sense. But the Force is telling me not to believe it, and I'm trying...
7th day, 8th month, standard year 29437
I woke up today and knew it was important somehow. However, I still couldn't think properly, not with a million different things, battling out in my brain for attention.
Then I finally remembered, around the middle of the day...today was the day Master Karshan died, all those years ago.
It's funny. Sometimes it feels as if it just happened yesterday.
But I realised. So I went back to my room...Master wasn't around...and I lit a candle. Then I sat there and looked at it.
I meditated for a while as well. I asked the Force what I ought to do. But I gave nothing. No advice. Not even any riddle to solve.
But it did offer this: You'll find the way.
I was pondering this when Master walked in. He didn't knock; he never does.
"Oh," he said when he saw the candle and me sitting there. He hovered around the door, embarrased. Then finally he offered me some words.
"Amiri...Amiri always said he was no Sith," he said stiffly. "She always said he merely used the Darkside once in anger, and it was a human mistake. She said he oughtn't to have died."
I nodded, feeling grief at the mention of Amiri's name.
And a bit of unease too, for reasons I couldn't start to guess at.
"Those who fall to the Darkside...it's always been said that when they die, they go somewhere different than the rest of us." I nodded. I believed it. "She said he didn't..."
I looked at him. I wanted to ask him to stay here with me. But he was turning away.
The candle is still glowing, although it's night time now.