THE FOURTH RECEIVING ( 18BBY)
The time span between Naritha's Third and Fourth Receiving could be divided in two parts. One full of happiness, the other full of worry, desperation and darkness, as the world they had known ceased to exist.
The first three years were extremely happy and emotionally fulfilling for Obi-Wan and Naritha. They talked to each other every day when Obi-Wan was on Coruscant, more sporadically when he was out on a mission. He always kept their bond open so that, even if they could not communicate with it due to the great distance between them, they could at least feel each other's presence and know they were both all right.
They managed to meet three times, twice on Coruscant and one on Ansion, where Obi-Wan and Anakin had been sent to settle a border dispute.
Skywalker was now a young man that chaffed under his master's restraints and, in Naritha's eyes, had little of the self discipline and selfless attitude her bondmate had sported when he was his age.
In particular, he seemed not to grasp how hard it had and still was for Obi-Wan to cope with a bond he had not wanted and had been forced on him just because he was in the wrong place at the wrong moment.
During the time together, Naritha overheard the Padawan accuse his master of being a hypocrite because he preached to Anakin with the Code's dictates while he broke them every day.
Obi-Wan would often be in low spirits after such discussions, blaming himself for not being a good master, because Anakin was arrogant, too sure of his powers, always ready to ignore his warnings to do as he pleased.
In those occasions, Naritha would try to reassure her mate the boy was young, and that he would mature and come around, but she could never completely silence that voice inside her that said the boy was dangerous and difficult to control.
§
The leave on Ansion marked the end of the happiest years of Naritha's bonded life.
Soon afterward, the Separatist Party, which had begun to make its presence known a few years before, declared war to the Republic, and threw the galaxy into a spiral of hate, destruction and fear.
The most competent Jedi were appointed Generals of the Republic and put in charge of the Clone Army.
Obi-Wan was among them and from that moment on, Naritha heard and saw him less and less frequently.
Naritha had cringed when she had heard about his new appointment, for Obi-Wan was a peaceful man that used violence only as last resort when everything else failed, while now he was expected to plot sieges and lead his clones in battles that would cause hundred, thousand of dead.
As the war raged, Angar was not directly involved in the hostilities, but its economy suffered because of the restrictions put on the commercial routes.
Naritha and her diplomatic advisors worked hard to keep the planet neutral and its people safe and well, and she encouraged them to be strong and optimistic, putting on a confident front, even if inside she was as scared as she had never been before.
She was worried for her planet and for her bondmate, whose name was often in the news.
Perfectly in line with his personality, Obi-Wan had come to be known as "The Negotiator", for his ability in resolving critical situations using diplomacy instead of violence.
Naritha always smiled when she heard about The Negotiator's exploits, but her smile was a sad one, because Obi-Wan's success meant that as soon as he completed a mission, he was sent to deal with another crisis.
Since her bondmate was afraid to attract the Separatists' attention on Angar, should one of his messages being intercepted, he kept his communications with her as brief and scarce as possible.
He usually called in the aftermath of a battle, to reassure her she was fine, and every time he did, Naritha's heart constricted at the pain and exhaustion she saw on his face and heard in his voice.
Jedi were guardians of peace, not warriors and the war was straining them, both as individuals and members of the Order.
Every time Obi-Wan contacted her, Naritha tried to cheer him up, but he could always see the worry behind every one of her forced smiles, and many a time he ended up comforting her.
The war raged for three years and each day Naritha prayed it would be the last one, but when the end finally arrived it was not the happy occasion she had expected it to be.
§
Naritha awoke in the middle of the night, her heart pounding and her breath laboured.
She felt at once something terrible had happened and, almost instinctively, she reached out to the bond to check Obi-Wan's condition.
She barely had the time to sense he was alive but in great distress that their connection was brusquely interrupted.
"Nooo!" she screamed in the darkened room, and then took several uneven gasps as panic rose to almost suffocate her.
Forcing herself to calm down, she probed the bond and realize it had not been ripped by Obi-Wan's death as she had feared; it was still there, but completely blocked on her bondmate's side.
The discovery reassured her, but it also raised the question why Obi-Wan had blocked the bond so suddenly. Why he had interrupted the connection between them that had been left open for almost ten years?
Naritha concentrated and tried to reach beyond the barrier, but Obi-Wan's mental shields were too strong for her.
Closing her eyes in search of a possible explanation for her bondmate's behaviour, she thought back to the last time she had heard from him.
It had happened two days before, when she had returned from a walk to find a recorded message Obi-Wan had sent her while she was out.
"Hello dearest," he had said smiling, "I am sorry you are not home. I would have loved to see you. But if things go as we hoped, we might be able to see each other in person very soon. I am leaving for Utapau within twenty minutes. General Grievous has been spotted there and his elimination would leave the Separatists without military leaders, thus obliging them to ask for a truce." Obi-Wan had sighed and briefly looked away from the screen before adding, "There are also other questions worrying the Council, but I hope there will be no need to explain them to you for it would mean our concerns had been for nothing. Now I salute you, my Naritha. May the Force and my love be with you."
Naritha mused about the message and then decided to switch on the holonet, to see if the news reported something about Utapau and General Grievous.
The first image that appeared on the screen made her breath caught in her throat, as if someone had just punched her in the stomach.
The Jedi Temple was burning.
Tall flames and a thick column of smoke rose from the ancient building, while an emotionless voice-over reported that the Jedi had tried to seize control of the Senate by attempting to kill Chancellor Palpatine. The Chancellor however, had been able to escape and to retain his power and had ordered an immediate retaliation against the rebels.
The voice-over concluded by announcing all the Jedi were now considered enemies of the Republic, their presence on a planet to be immediately reported to the central government on Coruscant.
Naritha needed time to grasp the meaning of those words, but the more she mulled over them, the more she believed the Jedi couldn't have rebelled against the Republic. Obi-Wan had explained to her more than once that the Jedi were not interested in power or wealth, and that their only desire was to perform their duty to preserve the Republic they had been guarding for millennia.
If the Jedi had indeed gone against the Chancellor Palpatine – and she was not sure it was really so- then they had to have a good reason to do so.
Naritha knew from the Angar senator appointed to Coruscant that some groups of politicians had started to question the Chancellor's behaviour and all the special powers he had seized during the war, and she would not be too surprised if it turned out Palpatine had been the one staging a coup.
A few hours later Naritha's suspicions were confirmed when Senator Vinder sent her an urgent communication, to inform her that in a still on-going Senate meeting Palpatine had declared the Republic had ceased to exist and been transformed into a Galactic Empire.
Naritha's blood left her face at the news, but she tried not to betray her shock, nor to voice her indignation. She trusted Vinder, they had been friends since their university studies, but she was not sure it was safe to let her feelings known on an open channel. Gods only knew who might intercept the transmission.
As she switched off the holocom, she decided it was time began to use the secret code her advisors had elaborated, but never utilized, during the war to encrypt all the transmissions to Coruscant.
Naritha barely slept in the following days. She was worried for Obi-Wan and she spent hours prodding her bond in the hope he would respond, but it was to no avail.
She visited her doctor and had him examine the bond, but he was not able to give her a definitive answer.
The bond was neatly blocked, but given the mental discipline of a Jedi, it was impossible to say if it was just a temporary barrier or if Obi-Wan had created a block not to let her have the experience of a bond truncated by death.
"We will know for sure only when you enter your next Receiving," the physician said, looking at her straight in the eye. "If your bondmate is still alive, your mental call will be able to break the barrier to reach him. If he is dead, them your call will hit against the barrier and be deflected. In the meantime, my friend, I advise you to begin to look for a new partner…to be ready if the worst has happened."
Naritha nodded distractedly, fully knowing she would not search for another mate. She was aware she would never allow another man to replace Obi-Wan. She would wait for her fever to begin and trust her life to destiny. It had brought her and Obi-Wan together, and it would decide her fate. Had her bondmate died, then she would let nature run its course and she would die for an unfulfilled fever, so to able to join him in the netherworld of the Force.