Disclaimer: George Lucas owns Star Wars

A Shift in the Force: Chapter Forty-Three: The Shrine of Eleuabad

AN: A lot of theories about what Sabé's future holds, none of them right :)


"Does it hurt?"

Sabé looked up from the construction of her new right arm to meet a pair of wide brown eyes, small hands clutching at the table, watching her work with interest.

"Only when I plug everything in," Sabé smiled. She'd already realigned the nerves, so that part was done, it was getting everything else into place that was all she had left to do.

Sabé had told Talik early that morning the specifications that she required and the Twi'lek had taken off in search of the pieces before returning rather shortly thereafter, leaving Sabé to tinker as best as she could with only one hand.

Sabé knew that Talik had wanted to help her, seeing as she only had one hand, Sabé could see it on her face, but Talik knew as well as Sabé that Sabé had to do these things on her own.

She hadn't made the first artificial arm, that had been the job of one of the droids in the Temple, and it had long since reached the end of its use; Sabé had just been too stubborn to see it. The old arm with its silver plating and its inner workings that Sabé had to keep replacing because they weren't up to snuff, this time around Sabé was making it more durable and she didn't care if people stared. She was done caring about if people stared.

Now she couldn't help but wonder if she'd only worn that black glove over her artificial arm to make everyone else comfortable, or if being Carina had given her a rather careless attitude. Even she wasn't very sure.

"Diddit hurt when you lost it?" Ryoo's eyes were still wide, taking in everything. She was very articulate and curious for a four year old, but she was a Naberrie.

"Yes," Sabé said honestly, "but the hurt went away after a little while."

She screwed into place the black covering that hid the last of the inner workings of the arm, leaving the plating black and silver. She thought that suited her a bit more than the completely silver one she'd grown up with.

Ryoo poked the arm cautiously. "Didja feel that?"

Sabé had connected the tactile sensors already, so the pressure wasn't missed. "Yes," she smiled, screwing the palm-piece into place, twisting it a few times to make sure that it wasn't going to fall apart, which would be aggravating, given how much time she was putting into it in the first place.

"Are you a Je-di?" Ryoo asked seriously, sounding the word out carefully despite it being only two syllables, still watching Sabé curiously as she started working on the fingers.

"Not anymore," Sabé said with a pang in her heart.

"Is Pooja gonna be a Je-di?"

"I don't know," Sabé said, working on the thumb now, fitting it into place at long last and flexing the fingers for good measure. It was nice to have her arm back given the manner her previous one had been destroyed at the Temple.

"Whatcha doin'?" Ryoo asked as Sabé stood, cleaning up the table and removing the spare parts.

"Well, I was planning on meditating," Sabé smiled, her eyes glinting in the lamp-light.

"What's med-it-at-ing?" Ryoo inquired, tilting her head in curiosity.

"Mostly sitting around for a long time doing nothing."

"Boring!" Ryoo declared loudly, her hands on her hips and Sabé allowed herself a soft laugh.

"It does sound that way," she agreed, but Ryoo still held out her arms to Sabé, who lifted her easily, holding her in her arms just as she had once down for Talik when she was young and small and easier to carry in her arms. "Oh, are you going to keep me company?"

Ryoo's face brightened significantly and she bobbed her head quickly.

"All right, but only if your Mom says so." Ryoo was calling for her mother before Sabé had even finished the sentence, and Sola appeared moments later looking rather harried, cradling a wriggling Pooja in her arms.

"Mom, can I med-it-ate?"

Sola arched an eyebrow at Sabé who gave a helpless shrug. "Sure, sweetie, as long as you keep a good eye on Auntie Sabé, okay? She needs looking after."

Ryoo held up a pinkie finger to her mother. "Promise," she said and her mother linked her finger with her daughter's an easy smile on her lips.

Her sister made being a mother look so easy, so effortless, despite being a single mother. Sabé supposed she had it easy with Talik; she'd already been ten when Sabé had taken her on as her Padawan learner. But Sola and Darred had started from scratch.

"We'll just be out on the beach," Sabé added, looking out in the direction, where she could see Talik sitting, staring out on the endless surf.

Her eyes softened slightly. She could sense how Talik felt about doing relatively nothing on Naboo. Talik was a healer, and a good one at that. Monitoring Sabé's condition didn't take enough time out of the day to keep her occupied; her unrest was easy to sense.

"Mind if we join you?" Sabé asked, and Talik looked up at her with Ryoo balanced on her hip, smiling toothily.

"We're med-it-at-ing," Ryoo informed the Twi'lek cheerfully.

"Sounds like fun," Talik said with a smile as Sabé came to sit beside her and Ryoo plopped herself into Sabé's lap.

Sabé locked her hands around Ryoo's middle to keep her in place and closed her eyes, breathing in an out deeply.

Talik kept her eyes on Sabé as she focused herself before lifting a finger to her lips when she caught Ryoo looking and she stood slowly, making her way back to the villa with the knowledge that Sabé wouldn't be able to overhear her within deep meditation.

She patched a specific code into the Jedi frequency and a moment later Taria Damesin's blue holo-image appeared above the image-caster she'd set up on the

"Talik," Taria smiled tightly, "how is she?"

"She's getting better," Talik said, glancing out the open window to where her old master was sitting in the sand. "Every day she regains strength."

Taria sighed, a hand pressed over her heart, her relief practically palpable. "That's such a relief…but how is she doing?"

That earned Taria a helpless shrug. "Some days good, some days bad…it feels like she's stuck in Wildspace with no way out and she doesn't know if she wants out."

There was nothing more frustrating than watching and waiting and not knowing if the woman that had raised you was going to choose the Order she'd dedicated her life to all over again. Talik wanted Sabé to choose to come back…but she also wasn't going to force her choices on Sabé; Sabé had endured enough of that over the years.

"Patience, Talik," Taria advised. "Sabé's still sorting herself out."

"How d'you know?"

"Because I know her," Taria said simply. "And I know that doing what she did caused such a huge change within her that she needs to take time to understand it all…and she should be allowed to come to terms with what's happened."

Talik frowned, her back turned to Taria so she wouldn't see it, and it was gone when she twisted around, her brow furrowing slightly. She'd seen Taria in person quite frequently, seeing as she and Sabé were Jedi Shadow colleagues as well as being friends, and she liked to think she could tell when Taria was holding something back.

"Master Taria," she said, considering her blue wavering form above the image-caster, "is something wrong?"

"Wrong? No, I don't think so," Taria said, brushing a few locks of her brightly colored hair back, but Talik didn't believe that for one second, and Taria could see that.

She sighed. "If you must know…Maw and I think that –should Sabé return to the Order– she should be named Spymaster."

Talik's eyebrows arched high on her forehead. Now that was a chief honor afforded to only a few in the millennia since the Jedi Order had been created. The Jedi Sentinels that Jedi Shadows were a part of didn't have any great titles like Sage or Warrior Master, though members of the Council of First Knowledge, which was partially made up of Jedi Sentinels, were specially revered. To attain the title of Spymaster was…well, it was rare.

"Then why do you look worried?" Talik asked curiously.

"It's not about the consideration…it's about Maw." Taria cupped her chin, looking particularly troubled. "There's something off about him…has Sabé mentioned anything about the Sith Holocron?"

"No," Talik responded in surprise. "She's hardly talked about what happened as Carina, but I know she remembers some of it, but the extent of it I don't really know, and I'm not entirely sure if it would be very healthy to pry."

"Just give her time," Taria advised.

"But how much?"

Even Taria didn't have all the answers.

"Has she tried to use the Force yet?" Taria asked instead.

"No," Talik's expression soured further, "and I don't know if she even wants to."

"That's her choice, and you should respect it, young Padawan."

The reprimand was clear and Talik flinched. It was so easy to talk to Taria that she forgot that the woman held a place on the Council of First Knowledge, Sabé's place.

"Yes, Master Taria."


The air was moist, like close to a swamp or in the sewers. Sabé's eyes fluttered slightly where she was meditating. She could feel the warmth of the water of her hands, the cracks of the stone, the symbol etched into stone.

The Force buzzed in her ears. A suggestion.

Eleuabad.


"What're you doing?"

"I have to go."

"What's going on?" Jobal inquired loudly over the pair and both heads turned in her direction. Sabé had abandoned the robes that had always identified her as a Jedi for nondescript wear of a navy blue shirt tucked into pants the same color and a sturdy brown vest unzipped as she pulled her boots securely onto her feet.

"Your daughter has decided to leave the villa," Talik informed her shortly, "because she has a feeling."

"I'm not leaving the planet," Sabé rolled her eyes, "but there's somewhere I need to go…there's a shrine here on Naboo, I can sense it."

"I've never heard of a Jedi Shrine here on Naboo," Jobal couldn't contain her surprise. There were many shrines and temples throughout the galaxy and planets that were aware of their shrines and temples tended to regard them reverently.

"It's not above ground," Sabé said with a loud sigh, giving her mother the feeling that she'd been over this already with Talik. "Trust me, I know what I'm doing, and I promise I'll be back later."

She kissed her mother's temple as she moved past her, leaving Talik with her aggravation until—

"Are you coming, Talik? I might run into a wall without you there to patch me up."

Talik's expression brightened somewhat as she sidled past Jobal with an inclination of her head, following quickly after her old master so as not to be left behind.

Jobal twisted her hands uneasily, but she could never understand half of what Sabé did, so all she had left to do was wait.


Sabé could feel it in the air. Her ability to Force-sense hadn't decreased, despite her not using the Force, and that was a relief, because she didn't think she would've been able to feel the shrine, see the shrine as clearly as she had when she was meditating.

"So…this shrine…is it in the sewers?" Talik asked lightly, a few steps behind Sabé so as not to crowd her and Sabé viciously ignored how Talik had been all but stepping on eggshells since Sabé had awakened.

They had parked the air-speeder in the square before taking off in the direction of a less traveled road in the opposite direction of Theed.

"Deeper down," Sabé said, pulling out a rebreather and offering Talik one as she knelt to remove the protective covering on the road that hid the sewer beneath. "Come along, Tali."

Talik rolled her eyes, taking the rebreather and climbing down after her. "Still looks like the sewers," she muttered behind Sabé as they stood on the ledge as the water moved calmly underneath.

Sabé ignored her, following the trail that only she could sense, her hand feeling along the wall.

Look with your mind, not your eyes, a voice whispered in her ear and Sabé drew up short.

"I am looking with my mind," she said out loud.

"What?" Talik asked, befuddled and Sabé turned back to motion for Talik to be silent.

So often our eyes blind us to what is clearly sensed.

"So my eyes are the ones fooling me?" she asked.

In a manner of speaking, yes, the voice responded. If you wish to enter the Shrine of Eleuabad, you must do it without sight, young Journeyer, and without guides.

"If I do," Sabé spoke slowly, carefully, "what will I find?"

Only what you wish.

The voice faded and Sabé glanced to Talik who had bypassed befuddlement to complete confusion.

"Who were you talking to?" she asked.

"I have no idea," Sabé said, more intrigued than cautious. "I think there's someone waiting for me in the shrine…a spirit of some kind."

Talik gave a nervous chuckle. "But, um, Mas-Sabé, there's no such thing as ghosts…people don't live on after death, everyone knows that…they become one with the Force."

"Or do they?" Sabé arched an eyebrow. "Just because something is believed in doesn't make it true."

She took the rebreather back from Talik. "You're staying here," she added and Talik wanted to protest, but Sabé continued before she could. "No buts. I'm to go alone and to go in blind."

"That's crazy," Talik insisted. "You could be walking into a trap."

The look Sabé cast her direction was one she didn't recognize. "That just makes it more fun."

"This decision is reckless," Talik tried to convince her as she walked away from her.

"Taking a leap of faith usually is," Sabé called back before jumping into the water, disappearing out of Talik's line of sight.

The Twi'lek pinched the bridge of her nose. It wasn't like Sabé at all, she was more cautious and calculating, but then she'd always said that none of her strategies would work with anyone else…so maybe Sabé was reckless when Talik wasn't around and she was only just now noticing.

Either way…Talik was worried.


Sabé could hear the water rushing past her ears and could feel the Force pulsing softly. She kept one hand in front of her to keep her from hitting anything, using one hand to pull herself through the water as it buffeted her to the side.

Sabé grunted around the rebreather as her side hit a jarring rock.

I see the Great Guide is not as great as guiding herself, the tone was amused now and Sabé did her best to ignore it, pulling herself carefully through a tight reef-made hole, almost being swept away by the current.

Sabé almost lost her rebreather as another current tried to sweep her away, only succeeding in bringing her closer to her destination. She struggled and broke through the surface, grabbing at the rough stone and coughing out the rebreather.

Her legs swayed in the water as Sabé regulated her breathing, her hands feeling over the stone. It was flat and meeting at a ninety degree angle…steps. Sabé felt along until she was a few steps up before hoisting herself out of the water.

"You did well," the voice spoke beside her, deep and ancient and not unlike Yoda's and Sabé managed not to jump, something she couldn't help a moment later when a cool hand followed her arm down to the wrist of her right arm, helping her to stand. "Welcome, Sabé Amidala to the Je'daii Shrine of Eleuabad. The shrine that may be entered but never seen."

"A bit of an odd requirement, don't you think?" Sabé asked, keeping her eyes carefully shut. "The Je'daii? You mean the first version of the Jedi?"

"And the Sith," the voice agreed. "I am Nordia Gral, I was the first Je'daii Temple Master of Padawan Kesh."

"Padawan Kesh?" Sabé inquired, feeling the texture of his hand under hers, of the wrinkles that showed his age. If he noticed, he gave no indication that she could feel.

"The Je'daii Academy on Tython…you've been to the planet, I believe?" Amusement tinged his words and Sabé wrinkled her brow.

"I have," she said slowly. "But you can't be still alive if you were young in the time before the Jedi Order."

That would've been more than twenty-five thousand years prior. Sabé knew of no being that had a life span that long, not even Yoda and Yaddle's species.

"How right you are," he chuckled and a moment later there was nothing beneath her hand where his had once been, like it had never been there in the first place.

Sabé almost tripped, forcing herself to keep her eyes shut as she reached out blindly for something to hold onto, but there was nothing, forcing her to steady herself.

"The Jedi are taught that we become one with the Force after death," Sabé said carefully, turning slowly as she sensed him, always facing his energy, "that we merely change form in death."

"That is mostly true," Nordia Gral said and Sabé leaned back suddenly, feeling a flick to her nose more than anything else. It made her feel like she was nine and asking too many questions in class. "But some can…shall we say…ascend? Maintain our identities after death."

"Sounds…difficult," Sabé said finally.

"It can be."

Sabé already had a lot of questions about that in particular, but she didn't think there was enough time in the day for it.

"But let us speak of other matters," Nordia Gral said, almost solidifying to her ears in that his voice lost its whispery quality that it had gained when Sabé could only assume that he'd lost form. "Come and sit."

There was a sound like rustling on stone and Sabé could only assume that his physical form wore robes that were so long that they brushed against the floor.

She took a step forward carefully before giving up and dropping to the floor carefully feel her way to where she could hear his rumbling chuckles.

"Tell me why you've come," Nordia Gral suggested once she had gotten herself situated. "I rarely receive guests from the Jedi Order and even fewer from the Naboo…but you are from here, aren't you?"

"I was born here, yes," Sabé agreed, relaxing where she sat. "But I'm not a Jedi."

"You once were," Nordia Gral mentioned.

"Yes, I was." It still stung to think about it, to think of all the time she'd taken as a Jedi, of all the artifacts she'd found as a Shadow…and they'd just thrown her aside. "But no longer."

She could hear a sound not unlike humming from his direction. "Makes you angry, does it?"

The way he'd phrased it made him sound a bit like Yoda and she frowned.

"Sometimes," Sabé said finally. "But anger fades; pain lingers. I did something terrible to prevent something equally terrible."

"Falling to the Dark Side," came Nordia Gral's sage voice. "Yes, I've seen it many times, I can feel its taint within you."

Sabé grit her teeth together behind her lips.

"But returning from it is not such an impossible task." His tone was kind, layered softly. "Back in my day, we believed there were three aspects of a whole: the Ashla, the Light; the Bogan, the Dark; and the Bendu, the balance between. I'm sure you can recall that on Tython there are two moons, Ashla and Bogan, named for the two sides of the Force, and when one tilted too much in favor of one, they were exiled for a time to the opposite moon."

"Sounds a bit drastic," Sabé chuckled lightly. "But I've been on the planet, those Force storms—"

"—are quite dangerous," Nordia Gral continued for her before clearing his throat.

"There is no ignorance; there is knowledge.

There is no fear; there is power.

I am the heart of the Force

I am the revealing fire of light.

I am the mystery of darkness

In balance with chaos and harmony,

Immortal in the Force."

Sabé tilted her head, the words washing over her and the Force humming in content in her ear and warm in her veins. "Was that the Code of the Je'daii?"

"It was."

It was very different from the one that the Jedi taught, that much could be said.

There is no emotion, there is peace.

There is no ignorance, there is knowledge

There is no passion, there is serenity

There is no chaos, there is harmony.

There is no death, there is the Force.

"My old master is the Grandmaster of the Jedi Order," Sabé said, her mind drifting away from the two differing codes. "He believes that once you let the darkness in it never leaves."

"And you? What do you think?"

"I think the Jedi Order tried to strangle me and turning Dark only showed me just how much," Sabé said with a cold realization settling in her gut.

It was a horrifying thing to think of, after all, she had once believed so completely in the Jedi Order…when had that even changed? Was it when Aayla had been taken advantage of by the Dark Jedi Volfe Karkko? Or was it when Darth Maul had taken her arm? Or the first Jedi Shadow mission she'd ever been on?

Even Sabé didn't know.

She'd locked herself away for so long. Her mental shields were as tough as durasteel by the time she was eleven, and being Yoda's padawan had afforded her nothing but recognition from other Padawans, a reminder that if she failed it would be the Grandmaster that it was reflected poorly on as well.

Sabé wasn't an inherently angry person, not in the slightest, not like Obi-Wan had been when he was younger, but she was very passionate, and the Jedi didn't believe in passion.

So Sabé had tried for serenity, and she thought she'd pulled it off rather well up until she'd seen Talik for the first time. Talik had broken Sabé's walls over time, let more of who she really was shine through…and if there was one good thing in her life, Sabé knew it'd been Talik.

"Your thoughts dwell on your young Padawan."

It seemed like she'd be fighting a losing battle in order to remind him that Talik was no longer her Padawan.

"Yes," she said.

"She came here with you," Nordia Gral probed.

"Yes," Sabé said again.

"And yet you doubt her place with you."

There was a spike of irritation. "That's not it. I'm not a Jedi and she still is, she should be back on Coruscant with someone she can still learn from."

"But she still wants to learn from you." Sabé could practically hear his smile.

"She wants me to go back, back to the Jedi, and I–I just can't." Sabé could feel her pain and her anger bubbling inside her. "The Jedi…they broke my heart and stripped me down until I felt so disconnected from –from everything…how could I go back when I'm so lost?"

There was nothing but silence and for a startling moment, Sabé thought Nordia Gral had left her.

"The conflict within you…I can feel it raging like a tempest," he said softly, "and the only way for you to truly overcome it is to face it, Sabé Amidala, Exile of the Jedi, and with that, I can help you…but only if you're willing."

"I am," Sabé said with the utmost certainty.

The Force cloaked her in approval and for the first time since she'd arrived on Naboo, Sabé felt content in her decisions.

AN: The Je'daii have been a concept that I've been interested in bringing in for awhile now, so at long last you guys will see their beliefs in the fic.

I think the next chapter is going to be very interesting for Sabé, not being able to rely on her eyes while in the shrine.

As always: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE REVIEW!