"Are you OK?" Ashla asked, poking her head into the medical bay.
"I'm good," Serana replied, as she finished bandaging up her leg. She winced slightly as she put her weight on it. "Where's your cat? You didn't leave it with S17, did you?"
"Is that a problem? She seemed fine with it. She started cooing over him as soon as you left the room." She sat down opposite Serana. "I'm sorry you got hurt because of me."
"It's not your fault. I chose to get involved."
"Still. I'm sorry. I mean, I don't even know why they were after me, and you –"
"Wait," Serana interrupted. "You don't know why they were after you?" Ashla shook her head. "You don't even know what you are?"
"Hey!" Ashla snapped. "Just because I'm a hybrid, you –"
"Wait, what?" Serena frowned, confused. "You're a hybrid?"
"Yeah, I'm half-Twi'lek."
"Explains the hair. Look, I think this conversation has gotten a bit twisted around. What I meant was, you don't know that you're a Force-sensitive?"
Ashla laughed. "Come off it. Just because I can do a few things, that doesn't make me some kind of mystical Jedi or anything."
Serana groaned, resting her head in her hands. "I need a drink. What kind of 'things' can you do?"
She looked slightly embarrassed. "I can make animals like me. I can tell if somebody's hurt, or upset, and I can make them better sometimes." She shuffled her feet. "That's really the Force? I thought it was just something that I could do."
"Ashla, that's not just the Force, that's a high-level Force ability. Most Jedi can't do that." She sighed. "Shit. He was right, wasn't he? I'm going to have to do this. I can't leave you with anybody else, they'll sell you to the Jedi as soon as my back is turned."
"What?"
"Talking to myself." She stood up. "You have the Force. The Jedi are going to keep coming after you until you either join them or they kill you. If you want, I can drop you off at Mandalore, they'd be able to protect you, although there's no guarantees, especially if the Jedi send an assassin after you." She took a deep breath. "Or, I can try and train you how to use the Force. It won't be easy, but it'll give you an edge."
Ashla stared. "You're a Jedi? You can use the Force?"
Serana spat. "I'm no Jedi. And of course I can use the Force, didn't you see the things I did when I was trying to save you?"
"No, I must have been distracted by people trying to kidnap me." They both chuckled at that. "So, you want to train me how to use it?"
Serana shook her head. "What I want is to go back to that bar you found me in and continue drinking myself to death. But if I did that, I'd be abandoning you to the Jedi, and I can't do that. So, yes, I'll train you."
Ashla perked up. "Great! When do we start?"
"When we get to New Alderaan. I know a place there that we can stay."
It took them a few hours to get to New Alderaan. Ashla stared out of the window as the hyperdrive shut down and they began approaching the planet.
"It's so blue!" she exclaimed.
"We are now beginning our descent," S17 announced over the loudspeaker. "All meatbag passengers, please strap yourselves in to avoid having to be peeled off the bulkhead."
"That has got to be the rudest droid I've ever met," Ashla observed, as she strapped herself into a seat.
Serena snorted. "You have led a sheltered life, haven't you?"
Further conversation was rendered impossible as the ship slammed into the upper atmosphere. Flares of orange light flashed past the windows. The force of deceleration pressed against them, threatening to crush their ribs. Then they were through and gliding towards their landing site. The thrusters fired one final time to slow them down as they settled onto the ground.
Ashla stared as she left the ship. On one side, a dense and dark forest formed a wall that blocked out half the world. On the other, the ground sloped down sharply into a valley, then up again on the other side in a series of steep, rolling hills. There were mountains in the distance, fangs of blue-grey stone capped with white. A bee flew lazily in front of her. Apart from herself and Serana, there wasn't anybody else in sight.
"It's beautiful," she breathed.
"Yeah, yeah, scenery is great," S17 grumbled, pushing past her. The white Loth-cat rode on top of her head, but as soon as she was out of the ship it jumped down and ran into the forest. "Serana, the primary buffer panel fell of while we were entering the atmosphere. I thought you said you fixed it?"
"That was six months ago," Serana said. She was taking in the scenery alongside Ashla, not looking at S17. "You said you were going to buy a new one. I told you it was worn out." S17 beeped angrily. Serana turned to Ashla. "Here. You'll need this, until you can make your own." She handed her one of her lightsabers. Ashla stared at it as she took it. The hilt was slightly curved and fit perfectly in her hand.
"Thank you," she said. "So, when do we begin?"
The first week was brutal. The second week was worse. Serana pushed Ashla as hard as she could. Some days she'd have to do everything with the Force. Other days, she wasn't allowed to use it at all, and she'd have to do everything manually. Sometimes Serana would change her mind halfway through the day. She'd spend hours every day drilling moves with Serana's lightsaber before a sparring match that would inevitably leave her beaten black and blue. Serana always refused to heal her afterwards, insisting that she could do it herself. Sometimes she managed it, sometimes she couldn't. Sometimes, Serana would take her out into the wilderness and just leave her there, and she'd have to find her own way back. By the end of the second week, she was afraid that the training would kill her. By the end of the third week, she was afraid it wouldn't.
She was getting better, though. She could levitate and move objects with ease. By the second week, she was lifting the ship up so that S17 could manoeuvre underneath it. She didn't get lost as often when Serana left her out in the wild. She could sense the life all around her, feel it as if it were a part of herself, right down to the individual blades of grass growing out of the soil. Her senses extended for miles. She could feel what it was like to be a tree, to fly in the sky as a bird, to be a cat stalking its prey through the grass. She could feel it all.
Then, in their next sparring session, she managed to get around Serana's guard and land a hit on her arm.
It was barely a hit. Even if the lightsabers had been on at full power, it would only have left a graze, if that. Serana smiled and knocked her lightsaber sideways before kicking her in the knee and dropping her to the ground. But it was a hit.
From then on, whenever they fought, she wasn't the only one who went to bed with bruises.
"You need to focus," Serana said, as they walked through a city. "Stop drifting. Keep your mind here and now, where it belongs."
Ashla nodded, reluctantly pulling her mind back and focusing on where she was going. She couldn't help it. People were just so fascinating.
They paused just down a side alley as a procession wound its way down the main street. People in white robes holding lanterns and chanting. Occasionally, one of them would spy somebody in the crowd and throw some food to them out of a bag they were carrying.
"Who are they?" Ashla asked.
"The Cult of the Light," Serana replied, an odd expression on her face. "That's what most people call them. You find them in most places, running shelters and food banks and the like. Apparently, they're waiting for the reincarnation of some Force goddess that they worship, and until then, they have to do good deeds to keep the Light alive in the galaxy." She turned away. "They're harmless. Come on, we have places to be." She strode off down the alley. Ashla lingered a moment, watching the procession tail off into the distance, before following.
It took them a while to make it to the blacksmith's shop. Ashla stood around as Serana began negotiating with the shopkeeper.
She let her mind expand slightly, becoming aware of all the people around her. She felt Serana glare at her, sensing what she was doing. A rat scurried through a sewer beneath her feet. People bustled up and down the street, each one a fireworks display of thoughts and emotions. A few of them stood out of the morass. A couple out on their first date. Someone hurrying home, worrying about how he was going to tell his wife he'd been sacked. An old man people were avoiding because he was sick and dying, although she knew – somehow – that he would survive it. A woman pregnant with her first child. And on and on and on.
And above all that, she felt somebody watching her. She could see herself through their eyes. Slowly, she turned her body until she could see herself seeing them. Her awareness vanished as the world snapped back into place. She spotted them immediately, a man in a white robe standing down the street, staring at her. His jaw dropped as he noticed she'd seen him, and he started making his way through the crowd towards her.
"Serana?" she said worriedly, tugging on her sleeve. "Serana?"
She turned as the man reached them. He stared in wonder at Ashla for a moment before falling to his knees and prostrating himself before her.
"Mistress!" he cried. "It is you! Please, forgive me!"
"Get up," Serana snarled, yanking him to his feet. "You're making a scene." Her eyes flicked around before settling on an alleyway. She dragged the man inside and pinned him against the wall. "Who are you? What do you want?"
"My… my name is Tyin," he gasped. Serana's arm was pressed against his throat. "I – I – I used to be a part of the Light, but I lost my faith." He focused on Ashla. "Please, forgive me. I never thought we'd find you!"
"What are you talking about?" Ashla asked. "Why are you looking for me?"
"You… you don't know?" he exclaimed. His face fell. "I didn't think…" His head hung for a few seconds before he looked up again. "Come with me to the Temple. They can explain it better than I can."
"Why should we trust you?" Serana demanded. He massaged his throat as she let him go.
"I know who you are, Serana Kol," he said. She started. "You already know the answer to your own question."
"I want to go with him," Ashla said. "Maybe he knows something."
"You're sure of that?"
She nodded. "I am."
