Author's Note: Another chapter edited and ready to post. Feel free to leave feedback. I'd love to hear from you. I hope you enjoy.

Chapter 6
Converging Threads

Ezra had tried meditating aboard the Phantom II after Sabine and Tristan left. While he had never felt meditation to be as productive as Kanan had, it was a better way to pass the time than pacing the short length of the shuttle. Distantly, he was aware of Sabine. It took no effort. If he closed his eyes and concentrated, he could nearly always feel and get a vague idea of her location. He had used this at least once to save her life. To him, she was a radiant star in the Force that he could not turn off.

Ezra wasn't sure Sabine would be too happy that she was so visible to him. He could imagine that conversation getting uncomfortable for both of them quickly. Unable to tell her and unable to ignore her, Ezra had long ago swore to himself that he would never use his sense of Sabine's presence for his benefit, only for hers. Besides the one moment of heroics, he had often used the link to calm her troubled mind with the Force, sending waves of reassurance and helping her put aside her fears. In the dead of night when her demons and nightmares came back to haunt her, he was there to help push them aside.

There were times he felt this may have been an invasion of her privacy, but he thought that leaving both of them suffering when he could ease her pain was unjustifiable. While he never knew what exactly she struggled with, he could certainly feel the emotional weight of those moments. The last day had undoubtedly been one of those times, but he had let her handle things on her own, as best as he was able. Whatever was going on, she wanted him to trust her. And he would.

Even now he could feel her fears and anxiety rising as she spoke to her parents. Ezra sighed. He would have to tell her about this. He hated feeling like he was spying on her. Attempting to go back to his meditating, Ezra tried to push Sabine from his mind. Whatever was going on in the Wren Stronghold was getting rather intense, and Sabine was nearly furious. He opened his eyes. Okay, meditation was not going to happen right now.

Suddenly he heard a rap on the door of the Phantom. He opened it to reveal Tristan looking stern. "Countess Wren has commanded I take you to a guest room. You will remain there until otherwise noted."

Ezra laughed. "House arrest. Great."

Tristan's stern face softened apologetically. "I'm sorry Ezra. Come with me." The room was nearby and accessed from outside the stronghold. Tristan opened the door and gestured for Ezra to enter. "I'll be waiting out here if you need something. I... Hope this isn't a long-term arrangement."

"Well if it is, at least the accommodations are nice." In fact, they were downright luxurious compared to what Ezra was used to on the Ghost. "Thanks, Tristan." He entered the room closing the door behind him. What a guest room, he thought: hardwood everywhere, a whole wall of floor to ceiling windows, and the largest bed he had ever seen in his life. The Wren clan was nothing if not wealthy.

Whatever was going on with Sabine now seemed to have calmed down. Her anger had subsided into something else. Relief, confusion, embarrassment? He wasn't sure. Meditation was out, so Ezra pulled out his lightsaber to practice forms. Sadly he decided he still had better not ignite it. Using his lightsaber was going to be a rare pleasure going forward.

It seemed he had only been practicing for a few minutes when the door opened again. He ignored it and continued. Tristan stepped in and watched for a few moments then smiled. "You're free to go. It sounds like Sabine worked a miracle."

Ezra let out a deep sigh and smiled. "Great! Can you show me to Sabine?" He put his lightsaber back on his belt

Tristan shook his head. "I think that she's on her way here." He laughed. "Be careful, Bridger. I don't know if you're out of the fire yet." and with that, he left the room.

Ezra didn't have long to wait before Sabine practically ran into the guest room and threw her arms around him. "Well does this mean your plan worked out?'

Sabine pulled back and looked down at her feet. "The first part. I've only cleared up the part of your supposed death and our supposed relationship."

"So you haven't gotten to the part that I'm trusting you with."

"Nope, that comes later."

Ezra smiled, "Well we can take a little solace in the small victories then. At least your brother isn't holding me captive for your mother anymore. That's a start right."

Sabine smiled nervously. "It's a start. Come on let's go get our stuff from the Phantom." As they walked back out into the cold Krownest afternoon, Sabine told Ezra about the night's celebration. "Expect it to be rowdy. Lots of alcohol. A few good-natured fights. Ezra, you'll need to be careful. I wouldn't put it past a couple of the warriors to want to try their strength against a Jedi."

Ezra frowned. "What are we talking about? Hand to hand fighting. You've taught me a lot in our training, but I imagine any Mandalorian born warrior is going put me on the floor hard if it comes to unarmed combat."

"Could be anything, unarmed, sharpshooting, you name it. If you can direct it towards a duel with blades, you may as well. Won't be as embarrassing for me if you're the one winning," Sabine said with a wink.

"I'll see what I can do."

They took a couple of trips to unpack their things from the Phantom II. Ezra had to cheat to carry Sabine's heavy crate with the equipment. Using mostly the Force, he lifted it above his head and guided it with his hands as if he was carrying it. As they passed through the halls, Ezra could feel more than one set of eyes staring at him in disbelief. Oops, he thought, this may be attracting too much attention.

Sabine shook her head. "Good job dummy. Now they are going to want to take you down a notch tonight. This is my family's private wing. Don't ever be here without a member of my immediate family. My room is the first on the left." She pushed the door open. "Exactly as I left it." She set her bags down as Ezra dropped the crate into a corner, relieved to be through with it and took a look around.

The room was even bigger than the guest room and even more ornately furnished. Paint adorned the walls in the form of murals, including a large one of the Ghost crew. "Don't look too hard at the art," she said quickly. "Most of this is from when I was a kid. I only had time to paint the one of you guys when I was here a few months back. I was pretty busy."

Ezra stepped over to examine the likeness of the Ghost crew. It was the largest painting of Sabine's he had ever seen with everyone almost life size. He smiled to himself. She'd put lavish details into every member of the Crew, even Chopper, but he could tell that she'd put just a little more effort into his painting. Sabine usually painted him as a caricature or in a humorous light; here he held his lightsaber high above his head, looking quite heroic.

That big dumb grin was coming. He couldn't help it. "I think you missed me," he gestured to the painting.

"Of course I missed you, moof milker. I missed all of you."

"I don't know. It sure looks like you spent a lot more time putting detail into my eyes than you did Zeb's" Ezra's painted blue eyes had been layered with blue paint until they seemed faintly luminous, shining out across the room.

Ezra had long known how to get under Sabine's skin. He was used to seeing her annoyed. Still, he had never seen her face turn that color of red before, and he wasn't sure if it was irritation, embarrassment, or some unholy combination of the two. I better step that one back, he thought to himself. "What I meant was...?"

"I know what you meant. Out of my room. Go. Move." She shoved him bodily out the door and then closed the door behind them. She put her hands on her hips and looked up at him with a threatening look in her eyes. "Any more clever comments?"

"Not even one."

"Good, you can be trained."

Ezra's mouth dropped open. "Hey what's that...?"

Sabine winked. She got over that quick, Ezra thought.

"Move Loth-rat," she pushed him again.

After a moment of walking, Ezra realized she had stopped pushing and had fallen behind. He turned to see Sabine standing in the hall with an uncertain look on her face.

"Look, Ezra..." she said haltingly. "We'll talk about all this soon. I promise."

She didn't say what this was. He knew, and it caused a knot of fear to settle in his stomach. It was an irrational fear. There was a part of him that knew he had nothing to fear. Not anymore. But old habits died hard.

"I'd like that," he managed evenly with a small smile.

She nodded and rejoined him. "Come on then; we still have to take your bag to your room. Then I'll show you around."

For the rest of the afternoon, Sabine showed him around the Wren Stronghold. Ezra was surprised at the sheer size of it. As it turned out, most of the compound was underground. It contained an enormous hangar with a cleverly disguised exit, extensive barracks, an armory filled with weapons of all types, a training gym, workshops, a library with actual physical books, an art gallery mostly filled with Alrich's work, and more. There were even anti-air turbo-laser emplacements hidden in the woods that could be deployed at a moment's notice.

"Wow, you guys could host a small army here," Ezra said impressed as the tour was wrapping up.

"That's because we do host a small army here. There's usually less than a hundred warriors here at any given time. The rest are scattered around Mandalorian space or at other settlements on Krownest. This stronghold though is the center of all things Clan Wren. In a time of danger, we could host the whole clan here safely. It wouldn't be comfortable, but we could do it."

"And how big is Clan Wren?" Ezra asked.

"A few thousand strong. We're not a very big clan, but we're a wealthy one. Krownest is a valuable planet to hold."

Ezra chuckled. "All this and you spent years bouncing around in your cramped quarters on the Ghost. No, don't give me that look," he said raising his hands in defense. "I know the reasons. It's just hard to imagine that you're practically nobility and you never told us." He paused. "Your mother is starting to make a lot more sense to me now. She's responsible for a lot of people."

Sabine brushed a strand of purple hair behind her ear. "Mother's all business most of the time. It wasn't much fun growing up when she would go from mother to Countess in the blink of an eye. Tristan and I had a system to warn each other of what kind of mood she was in. It's not that we didn't love her, it was just hard to be close to her when she was always so serious all the time. Dad was the opposite. Tristan and I always knew we could go to him if we had a need."

She winced and looked at Ezra. "I probably shouldn't be complaining about parents in front of you. Sorry, that's pretty insensitive of me."

"I'm just glad you still have both your parents," Ezra said truthfully.

Sabine's comm pinged. "That's the dinner bell. Let's run by my room. I need to grab my helmet. We're expected to be in full armor for this sort of event."

After picking up Sabine's helmet, they moved to the Grand Hall. During the afternoon it was transformed into a banquet hall. Rows of tables had been set up, and dozens of armored warriors mingled all over the room. Most brandished the grey and gold of Clan Wren armor, but Ezra saw a few with some more personal touches. None of those, he thought proudly, even came close to matching Sabine's vividly colored armor.

Then Ezra noticed that Ursa's throne had been removed and a platform and table sat on the raised area. Four chairs, probably for the Countess and her family. Ezra's face fell. He wasn't going to be seated by Sabine during the meal. This celebration was going to be much less fun than he had hoped it would be.

Sabine led him through the room to the front where Ursa and Alrich stood. He bowed his head in respect. "It is good to see you alive," Ursa said, with a smile that seemed somewhat forced. "We feared the worst for both you and Sabine when we heard the news on the holo-net."

"Thankfully, Ezra is a lot harder to kill than the Empire realizes," Sabine said.

"Indeed," Alrich said, shaking Ezra's hand warmly. "It's good to see you son."

"You too, sir."

"We've prepared a place for you at the table of honor at the front of the hall." He gestured to the table directly in front of the family's table. Okay, so he'd be close to Sabine. Maybe it wouldn't be too bad. "I believe you know Fenn Rau. I thought you would appreciate a familiar face, so I placed him at your table as well."

Ezra brightened. "I appreciate it," he said bowing his head again. He and Sabine stepped away.

"Bridger?! You're supposed to be dead." Fenn Rau had just walked with up a look of disbelief on his face.

"Hope I'm not disappointing you," Ezra said shaking the Protector's hand.

"No, not at all. There's a story here I'm sure. I want to hear the whole thing later, but Kanan...?"

Sabine shook her head. "That part's true Fenn."

Rau took the news in stride. "I'm sorry to hear that. He was a brave warrior." He straightened. "Ezra I'm glad you've cheated death," he inclined his head to Sabine with a smile, "If only for her sake."

"Haar'chak, you too, Fenn?" Sabine spat, her voice full of annoyance. She turned and left to join her family before anyone could respond.

"And she's still defensive about you too," Rau laughed. "I don't know what you did to earn Sabine's affections, Bridger, but I sure hope you know what you're getting yourself into," he said with a good-natured smile.

"I'm not really sure I know what you're talking about," Ezra lied carefully. His doubts about Sabine were resolving quickly at this point, but he thought it best not say as much with Ursa so near.

Rau rolled his eyes at Ezra. "Oh don't tell me you two are still chasing each other in circles. It's like watching a Nexu trying to catch its own tail."

Ezra opened his mouth to say something, but Rau waved him off laughing. "Save it. I don't want to get drawn into your drama. Let me know when you've said your vows so I can congratulate you and be done with it. Come, let us sit."

"Yeah, I'm not sure that's going to be happening anytime soon," Ezra said sitting down beside the Protector.

Rau took his helmet off and placed it in the depression to the right of his seat. Ezra had been wondering about the oddly shaped benches, but this made sense; the helmets had to go somewhere while they ate and drank.

Rau looked at Ezra and shook his head. "I must be getting old because you young people are exhausting." The warrior inclined his head towards the front of the room. "The Countess just stood up. It appears the feast is starting."

Ursa Wren smiled and raised both arms wide. "I bid each of you welcome, brave warriors of Clan Wren. Tonight we celebrate the homecoming of my daughter, Sabine. Let us rejoice that she has returned to us, for she is a cunning warrior and has much to offer our Clan." she said gesturing to Sabine. There was a thunderous round of applause as well as some cheering. Sabine smiled politely, but Ezra she was uncomfortable being the center of attention. "We also celebrate the survival of Sabine's close friend and ally, Jedi Ezra Bridger." There were murmurs of conversation and some light applause. Ezra had met many of these warriors on Mandalore, but not all of them. Some of them had no clue who he was and were probably just confused over the presence of a Jedi.

Suddenly the Countess switched into Mando'a and Ezra no longer understood what was happening. Sure he'd picked up the odd Mando'a word here and there from Sabine, but those had mostly been curses, exclamations, and insults, not conversational words. He waited patiently as this went on for several minutes. All at once the entire clan was repeating words after Ursa. Finally, she nodded to the gathering, said "Let us begin," and sat down. Stewards began bringing food and drinks around to the tables, and the room became loud with conversation.

Ezra tapped Rau on the shoulder. "Should I even ask what just happened?"

"The countess just bound the entire clan with an oath to keep you and your identity a secret. The penalty for breaking such an oath is immediate death."

"Oh."

"You should be honored. Mandalorians do not take oaths lightly. None will betray you, and they will carry the oath to their graves."

Ezra didn't say anything. For as crazy as Sabine's people seemed sometimes, it was easy to respect other parts of their culture. A steward had placed a plate of steaming food in front of Ezra and was asking him a question. "Kri'gee or Shig?"

Ezra looked questioningly at Rau, who just smiled. "He wants to know what you'll be drinking. The first is an extremely potent alcohol. The second is an herbal tea."

Ezra narrowed his eyes. Sabine had said there would be lots of drinking. "Is there a wrong answer here, Fenn."

Rau just laughed. "There is no shame in not drinking yourself under the table if that's what you're asking. Take the tea and maybe try Kri'gee in private sometime. Better not make a fool of yourself in public."

"Shig it is then," he told the steward. Ezra sighed, thankful Fenn Rau was close at hand. Otherwise, this would have been a very tricky evening.

Author's Note: I hope you're ready for tommorow's chapter. It's a good one!