Qui-Gon glanced back and forth from Watto's assistant to Watto himself. "You can't have this Alternian as a slave. There are cultural laws-" The Alternian with him stood on solid metal legs. Mechanical replacements? They looked very good. He had the same gray skin as Semele, but where her eyes were a greenish blue, he had burnt orange eyes and a timid demeanor to him that instinctively made Qui-Gon want to protect him. He had large horns, going out to the left and right of his head before bending up at ninety degree angles. They added almost a foot and a half to his height.
"His debt is rather deep." Watto said in guttural Huttese. "Deep enough no one cares here on the outer rim." He laughed. Qui-Gon considered how to handle this glancing again at the little boy, Anakin. It seemed like he could only afford to free either Anakin or his mother. Certainly not such a rare slave on top of that. But this was sure to cause Ms. Maryam undue stress. She was ways fixating on how close to extinction to her people were. The mission and this child first. He had to remind himself. Something about that didn't sit right with him and he decided to try and get them all.
Just as he was about to reply to that, he sensed rather than heard or saw trouble. He turned, trying not to groan when he saw one of the queen's handmaid's carrying a slumped over Semele. She was sweating and looked rather pale for someone who was normally gray. "I think I'm dying." She groaned, sitting heavily on a pile of junk ship parts next to them. She was sort of limp. "Oh hey Tavros. What are you doing in my fever dream?"
Tavros looked mortified. "Oh. Hey Semele. You're in heat, I see. Uh...that must really suck. You look...uh...pretty miserable."
"I'm dying." She responded. "But enough about me. What are you doing on Tatooine?"
"Well uh...you see Vriska thought it would be funny to um...Run up a bunch of debt in my name and sell me off. She said um...there were so few of us someone would definitely get me out and then it was win win. She got money and I'd get out of my house. Um...surprise?"
Semele groaned. "Oh, Tav!" She forced herself to her feet and limped over, giving Qui-Gon a wide berth. That was ok. He understood that for some reason he was complicating what was a perfect natural life cycle event. She took his hands. "Tavros, this isn't your place. I thought you enjoyed traveling and helping farmers understand their animals. Helping children connect with their pets. You can't be happy as a slave!"
"It's um...not so bad. Watto's...um...alright I guess." Semele winced, hands going to her midsection. "Semele, maybe you should go somewhere and rest. Heat is a bad time to be adventuring. You're going to cripple yourself and um... there's no Equius to fix you like there was for me."
Watto spoke and Qui-Gon mapped the way her head snapped in his direction really fast. He prepared to step in if he needed to. "Boy, why don't you take this Alternian to your home before she causes problems?"
The boy hesitated, looking at Qui-Gon. "Do I still get to pod race?"
Qui-Gon, mind struggling to comprehend a solution to this reassured him slowly that he would still get to pod race. "Obi-Wan, please walk with them and then hurry back. I don't like the look of the Mage."
"Don't touch me." Semele was quick to stop Obi-Wan from handling her. "I...don't want to make this anymore awkward than it is. And I prefer males, so that would for sure make it harder on me. I'll...follow the child at my own pace. It'll be slow, but I'll make it." Qui-Gon couldn't help but notice the pain coming off her. She was embarrassed beyond belief.
"Let her go." He rescinded his previous ask of Obi-Wan.
X
Semele tried to keep quiet, sweat pouring from her brow. Shmi visited her occasionally, reapplying a damp, wet cloth to her forehead. In the dining room next door, she could hear Qui-Gon explaining how the force made a Jedi's reflexes much faster if he bothered to hone them. Anakin would seem to have whatever it was the Jedi looked for and Qui-Gon wanted to free him.
Anakin...Anakin...Why did that name sound so familiar? Then she heard, a cry of pain in Obi-Wan's voice and jolted up. "I loved you Anakin! You were my brother!"
Semele shoved herself to her feet, the jade stained, wet cloth making a quiet thump on the floor. She hobbled to the doorframe where the others were having dinner. "Qui-Gon...Can I have a word with you?"
His kind eyes surveyed her, clearly checking her state of well being. She could he wanted to tell her to lay back down, to take it easy...But he had also seen the alarm in her eyes, so he nodded. She hobbled out to a good distance from Shmi and Anakin's home. "Qui-Gon, I've seen something. It was unlike anything else I've ever Known. It wasn't...I don't think it was my god tier."
He was looking not at her, but through her. Inside. "Do you think it was a dream?"
Semele took a moment to seriously consider this before shaking her head. "No because before that, I was in the dream bubbles." She could see his curiosity. The Jedi had been told briefly of the bubbles when she first arrived and questioned what came after death in this galaxy. She pushed on. "This isn't about that. I saw Anakin as an adult, fallen to hatred. His soul was...twisted with pain and grief. And Obi-Wan cried for him. The sound of Obi-Wan screaming...It's pierced my heart. I'll never forget that dreadful noise." She explained in a little more detail what she had seen.
Qui-Gon listened carefully, even nodded a couple times. "I see." He said when she had finished. "Semele, do you believe us when we speak of the force around us?"
"Yes. More than ever now. Kanaya...I met her when I had this...vision. She described the force to me. She told me that those of us to die here, among you will become part of it. We will know no dream bubbles."
Qui-Gon smiled a little. "Even questioning the way the temple does things...there is a part of our code that I think would soothe you to hear."
Semele fixed her blue-green eyes on him. "There is no death, only the Force." Qui-Gon looked mildly surprised, but Semele wasn't done. "I question the other things though. There is definitely emotion in the force. And this belief that passion is dangerous? I'm not sure I follow, especially when it takes passion to...lay with another. To even produce a youngling for the temple to find and train. I've not heard that called evil."
She was starting to feel weak again, and when she reached for the railing, she felt something else there. Something...cradling.
X
Qui-Gon felt it, the moment Semele went unconscious and something else spoke in her place. If her glowing gray eyes weren't enough of an indication this wasn't her, that was. She began to speak and the voice was hers but...it was magnified. Multiplied.
"Flowing through all is balance. There is no peace without a passion to create.
There is no passion without peace to guide.
Knowledge stagnates without the strength to act.Power blinds without the serenity to see.Just as there is freedom in life,
there is purpose in death. The Force is all things, and we are the Force."
While he stared stunned at this utterance of some blend if Sith creed and Jedi code, the gray light left Semele's eyes and she slumped. He grabbed her before she fell, noting her burning hot skin. It was thought trolls couldn't touch the Force, but Qui-Gon knew what had just seen. Semele Maryam was something that had it existed in a long time. Within her was the Force, of this he was certain. How else could the girl be a prophet? That's what she was. A prophet. His mind racing with the events of the past thirty minutes, Qui-Gon called to his apprentice.
"Obi-Wan, help me with Ms. Maryam a moment. We must have words, just the two of us."
