The following months were the hardest of her life.
The bond remained silent as the Empire tightened its grip on the galaxy, crushing every one who tried to protest against the occupation forces Palpatine had been dislocating in several systems.
One by one several civil rights and personal freedoms were eliminated under the pretence of ensuring more order, and the press was censored, the people fed with only the news the Empire wished them to know.
Fear of retaliation and occupation spread like wildfire, amplified by the deeds committed by Lord Vader, black-clad and masked Emperor's second in command. Nobody knew who he really was, and nobody cared to, for nobody wanted to get too close to him. It was murmured he was able to choke persons only by watching them, and it was well documented he was the one the Emperor had sent to track and kill the few remaining Jedi hiding across the galaxy.
More then once Naritha was tormented by a nightmare featuring Vader killing Obi-Wan and felt a certain degree of comfort every time Senator Vinder reported her Obi-Wan's name was still listed among the 'criminals' the Empire was looking for, even if it meant he probably had a lot of bounty hunters on his tracks.
§
About a year after the rise of the Empire, Naritha felt the first stirring of the Fourth Receiving.
The awareness she might be approaching the end of her life was short lived, for even before she could start to get really worried, the barrier blocking the bond came down and Obi-Wan's voice filled her mind.
//Go to Alderaan. Contact Bail Organa. He knows who you are; he will see to your safety until my arrival.//
Then the contact was terminated, as suddenly as it had begun, leaving Naritha shaken to her core.
Her mind replayed Obi-Wan's words again and again, analyzing his tone. She had heard no anxiety in it. No love. No welcome. No nothing. He had been emotionless—and it scared her to no end.
During the long months elapsed since the Jedi Purge, she had dreamed and hoped and imagined about hearing Obi-Wan's voice through the bond, but now that it had finally happened, she found herself afraid to meet the man that had spoken.
However her body's condition and her desire to know what had happened to her mate and the Jedi made it impossible for her to refuse his summon on Alderaan.
Thus Naritha contacted Bail Organa – whom she had met years before on Coruscant—and arranged one visit, officially to re-negotiate the terms of an existing commercial treaty between Angar and Alderaan.
§
On Alderaan, Naritha was lodged in the Royal Palace as a guest of the Queen and her consort.
She spent time with the sovereign and played with Leia, the small princess and heir to the throne.
The child was just one year old, but she already had a clear mind about who was in charge around the household—herself.
Mindful of not raising any suspicions, Naritha and Bail Organa went on with their charade regarding the treaty, and indeed met several times to discuss it.
Organa was still a member of the Senate, but no matter how much she tried to make him talk, he refused to tell her what had really happened to the Jedi. He kept silent even when he went to visit her in the privacy of her rooms, and the name of Obi-Wan was never mentioned, so afraid the Senator was to be overheard or spied.
The day Naritha felt her fever was about to begin, she faked, on Organa's suggestion, to have caught some nasty bug, and fainted in the conference room.
She was carried back to her chambers, and the court's physician, a good friend of the senator and evidently aware of what was about to happen, diagnosed her with a bad case of Corellian flu and ordered her to stay in bed and isolated, lest she cause an epidemic inside the palace.
The meetings for the treaty were suspended and Naritha was left alone but for the doctor's visits, as she waited her bondmate.
-----
Obi-Wan appeared in her rooms around midnight.
Naritha was still awake, sitting on the couch reading and her head snapped up when she saw him standing near the threshold. She had barely time to stand up and say his name, then he was on her in two steps, silencing her with a bruising kiss. Then he pulled back, and grabbing her by an arm, he dragged her toward the bedroom.
He did not say a word as he all but ripped her nightgown and robe and pushed her until she was stretched out on the bed.
Naritha watched his tense face and stormy eyes as he removed his clothes, and a bout of fear assaulted her.
She tried to suffocate it, but it was not easy. Obi-Wan had never been so aggressive before, not even during the heat of the previous Receivings, when his body had burned like her own.
He had always been gentle, considerate, completely different from the man facing her now. A man whose unkempt hair and beard, pale face and too prominent ribs made her heart twist with pain.
"What happened to you my love?" she asked softly and she saw his jaw tense, as if he was struggling to control himself.
He did not answer with words to her question, but their bond pulsed with his raw, barely contained emotions and Naritha suddenly realized Obi-Wan's aggressive stance was only his desperate attempt to keep his pain at bay.
As had happened after Qui-Gon's death, Obi-Wan wanted to lose himself in her, to forget his pain and the life that had been ripped from him.
Naritha felt this and much more, and her heart melted. Her fear disappeared and she opened her arms, welcoming him, ready to give him what he needed even if it meant to let him hurt her.
They never arrived at that.
After a few rough touches, the sweet, loving words Naritha whispered in his ears seemed to reach Obi-Wan. His grips on her relaxed and his hands became gentler and more loving, but also tentative, as if he was not sure she was really there…as if he was unsure she was still alive.
§
They loved several times that night, without talking, letting their actions speak for them.
Dawn surprised them tired but awake with Obi-Wan lying with his head of Naritha's breast as she caressed his hair. It was then that he told her what had happened to him and to the Jedi Order. Naritha listened with increasing anguish as the story of Anakin Skywalker's fall to the dark side unfolded in front of her.
Obi-Wan completely opened his mind to her, letting her see and feel everything he had seen and felt from the moment his Clone Troops had rebelled against him on Utapau.
He showed her the agonizing, long walk he and Master Yoda had to take across the devastated Temple, passing by the corpses of the men, women and children that had been their family.
He showed her the horror he had felt when watching the security recordings he had seen Anakin kill in cold blood a group of children. He made her feel the desperation he had felt when he had realized the man he had raised as a son and loved as a brother had turned into a Sith.
He transported her to the molten hell that had been Mustafar, and made see every moment of his fratricide duel with Anakin, and the heartbreaking pain he had felt when the yellow-eyed monster that had been his Padawan had shouted at him "I hate you!"
//I keep on hearing it in my nightmares// Obi-Wan said in a small mental voice. //Since my arrival on Tatooine, I can count on my hands the number of times I have been able to sleep a whole night.//
//Tatooine? Why did you choose to hide there?// Naritha asked.
//Because Anakin hates that planet and because his stepfamily lives there. I took Luke to them.//
//Luke?//
//One of Anakin and Padme's twins. Leia, Bail's daughter is the other. After Padmé's death, we had to hide them. We could not risk Vader sensing them…//
//Why Vader should be interested in the children?//
Obi-Wan laughed bitterly. //Because Vader is what remains of Anakin Skywalker. He did not die on Mustafar. I was not strong enough to strike the killing blow…I let him live…and here there is the result. This is another mistake I will have to live with.//
Obi-Wan did not add anything more and soon afterward he fell asleep, still with his head on Naritha's breasts.
It was that morning, as she held her devastated bondmate in her arms that Naritha made a life-changing decision: when the time to leave Alderaan came, she would not return to Angar, but move to Tatooine with Obi-Wan.
She could not to leave him alone now that he desperately needed help and a friend—someone who would take care of him, for Obi-Wan was too pale and too thin and too old-looking for a man not even forty.
Naritha could not bear to be separated from him for seven more years, not knowing if he was dead or alive, now that the galaxy had become such a dangerous place for him. She could not bear to think he might get captured by Vader or some bounty hunter when he would be forced to leave his safe retreat to reach her in time for her next Receiving.
"No," Naritha whispered to her sleeping bondmate, "we have already been separated for the last time. I left Angar in good hands, it will do well even without me. As for you, my love," and she gently ruffled his hair, "I know you are going to protest, but it will be useless. I will come with you and stand by your side for the rest of our lives."