Obi-Wan
Uneasy. That was the best name for the feeling. First the mysterious shift in Prav, who'd for so long fed him information about the Separatists' use of the Net. Someone had gotten to him, of course. Prav had been so eager to help the Jedi, to keep the Republic safe in whatever small way he could, and now...
Stop looking for him.
And then there was that frighteningly powerful Force trace in the room. Obi-Wan had never felt anything like it. Was someone watching him? Listening to him? Warning him? It'd felt a bit like walking into a wall, a wall that vanished quickly as soon as he turned around to investigate.
Yes, it had to be someone close by.
That Elan girl made him uneasy, and he could explain that even less than all the other things. She was a pale, tiny thing, all fragile bones and wispy blonde hair; hardly someone to cause trouble, but yet he felt tremors in the Force around her at first. He'd been impatient when he tried to push her away with Force suggestion; had he merely imagined her widening eyes, the sense that she was shocked he'd attempt such a thing? But there'd been no Force awareness when he went to find her again; she was thoroughly out of touch with the Force, come to think of it, compared to most.
Was that odd, or was he making something of nothing?
He put a hand to his aching head and closed his eyes against the speeder lights shooting past the window of the taxi taking him back to the Temple. The Alliance was running out of time and resources. Bail Organa was convinced there was something far deeper than even the civil war, some motive they hadn't yet uncovered, but every time Obi-Wan felt he was getting close to something, the lead vanished. The Alliance couldn't tell the Chancellor, of course, what with the fears of a Sith Lord lurking somewhere near him. The Alliance wasn't supposed to know that, technically-the Jedi Council was keeping it quiet-but Obi-Wan had decided that the Alliance was taking the undercurrent he sensed of something big much more seriously than either the Chancellor's office or the Council.
What if that had been a Sith in there today, the power behind that Force wall? Obi-Wan felt a little cold. Why didn't it do anything? Why only lurk in the shadows? Surely the Order was weak enough now that taking out one Jedi would cause only panic without retribution.
What were they waiting for?
The night closed in around the Temple as he approached, the last glimpses of the sun vanishing over the horizon. Mace was waiting for him on the landing pad.
"Where's Anakin?" Mace's dark eyes were narrow, his mouth tight.
Ah, the endless question. Not where have you been? which would have made more sense. No, somehow Obi-Wan had earned unconditional trust, and used it by doing what the Council would certainly deem traitorous. But Anakin...
"I believe he was going to make some rounds at the Chancellor's office," Obi-Wan said, which seemed to be a safe answer. After all, Mace was the one who wanted Anakin there, wanted him spying on the Chancellor. Anakin probably wasn't there-because when did Anakin ever go where he was told?-but Obi-Wan didn't dare voice his actual suspicions. Anakin, in all his brooding and unpredictability, sometimes felt like the last friend Obi-Wan had in the Order, and he was not going to help the Council kick him out.
"He's not there," Mace said, following him inside and down the steps to the great hall. A few lanterns still burned, casting ghostly shadows against the wall, but most of the Temple had retreated to research studies or long-awaited rest.
"Then I have no idea." Obi-Wan thought of the ancient parable-am I my brother's keeper?-and bit his tongue.
Mace grabbed his arm and stopped him in the middle of the hall. "You are unsettled. Why?"
Why indeed? Because of an encounter with a strange Force power, or the way the Separatists seemed to be two steps ahead of him, or perhaps Senator Amidala's increasingly loose clothes, poorly shielding a growing belly? None of the answers would satisfy Mace.
"I met a woman today," Obi-Wan said finally. "I do not trust her, and I don't know why."
Mace raised his eyebrows. "Listen closely to the Force, Obi-Wan. Sometimes it speaks to us best from unexpected places."
One woman in a city of billions. He'd never see her again. But he nodded, stepped away from Mace, and went down the dark hall to his rooms.