Unknown Regions
5.4 APC

A dingy, clunky old cargo hauler appeared out of hyperspace in a vast sector devoid of any known way points or space stations. No life-sustaining planets were nearby, either, but the hauler's pilot wasn't worried. Though the gruff Kel Dor was the ship's only occupant, he kept his protective mask over his sensitive eyes and mouth, a habit developed from spending the majority of his life away from his native homeworld's unique atmosphere. When an unexpected transmission came in, though, the mask was already in place to amplify his naturally quiet voice.

A small, blue figure of a human man hovered over the Kel Dor's console, but the pilot spoke up first, his irritated tone the only indication of his mood.

"I'm beginning to think you've put a tracker on me."

The human laughed lightly, amused but not denying it. "I keep a close watch on my most prized talent."

The Kel Dor sounded even more agitated. "You don't own me."

"No," the man agreed, "but I do wish to maintain an open avenue of communication as much as possible. You cannot deny that I am more than generous to my hired help whom I highly regard, and you, my friend, have been in my highest favor for some time now."

"So you say."

"Well, now intend to prove it. I have another job for you, one that will require your masterful skills of stealth and infiltration."

The Kel Dor considered his thoughts a moment, intrigued by the offer. "Go on."

"It will be the most challenging target I've demanded of you yet, but rest assured, you will be compensated in excess when you are successful. It involves the abduction of a Jedi child from three distracted Jedi Knights. Have I lost your interest?"

There wasn't even a pause. "Definitely not."

The man grinned impishly. "I didn't think so. I knew you couldn't turn down a chance at revenge. I will send more specifics to you in a few days, and you will have ample time to make your preparations. You'll be heading for the Paneau Sector, so you should await my instructions there. I look forward to another lucrative transaction for the both of us."

And with that, the holofigure disappeared, and the Kel Dor wasted little time in redirecting his hauler for another hyperspace jump.

Paneau: remote Naeron Mountain range
Rys'tihn Retreat
5.4 APC

Despite Cade's loaded statement, Garran remained confused, and before he could ask more questions, Elena had to intervene to prepare Garran as much as she could.

"Garran, do you remember how I told you that the Rys'tihns are one of the six Royal Families here?" Earning a silent nod from him, she continued. "Each of the Royal Families has what we call Ghost Heirs. They're two Royals immediately related to the current heir generation, but they are kept secret. They work kind of like...intelligence agents, making sure their Royals are safe, but no one other than their family is supposed to know who they are." She paused a moment, lightening her expression a bit. "You've already met one of ours."

Garran furrowed his brows as he thought. "...Dee?"

"Deilia," she confirmed with a faint smile. "She's Koril's twin sister."

Making the connection, Garran nodded with a broadening smile. "I thought he looked familiar."

"And this is Cade," she introduced him carefully, "the other Ghost Heir. He's Koril and Deilia's uncle."

Though still quite wary of the elder Rys'tihn, Garran nodded politely in greeting, his voice quiet. "Nice to meet you."

Cade only stared at the boy with a blank look on his face, still holding the new Crest in his hand. Anxious to keep things moving, Elena diverted Garran's attention again.

"Now, these pendants," she continued, pulling hers out on top of her shirt once more, "bear the Rys'tihn Family Crest. Only Rys'tihns can wear them, and they are very important for what they carry. Within them are codes, encryptions, and the Ghost Heirs' location, so it's imperative that they be kept safe."

Still trying to make sense of it all, Garran considered his thoughts briefly, looking to the Crest still hanging in Cade's grip. "So why is that one mine?" Turning back to Elena, his eyes lit up with sudden realization. "Is my mom a Rys'tihn?"

Without warning, Elena found it inexplicably difficult to answer him. It was a simple enough question, and an even simpler answer...and yet she was unable to tell him. He was far from being ready for the truth...

"Solienne was one of my covert agents."

Though it surprised her, Elena was glad Cade had again spoken up in the silence. It was his story to reveal, anyway, and all Elena could do was sit at Garran's side and support him when it all finally broke.

Both Cade and Garran had locked gazes, remaining completely motionless and silent as they understood what Garran was beginning to recognize and piece together himself.

His voice was so faint... "My mother was a painter."

Cade nodded weakly, speaking slowly. "That was her cover job. It gave her access to the other Royal Families' homes, as well as to the homes of other Paneau upper elite." He trailed off a moment, seeming to reflect bittersweetly on his memories of her. "We worked together...often. She was good at her job; she was my best agent. She was...brilliant, compassionate, thoughtful, thorough... She was a beautiful person." After a moment, he added with a weak smile, "I'm sure you knew that already, though."

Garran still hadn't moved, his expression frozen in a blend of a hundred different emotions, and he didn't even flinch when Cade continued, having already figured it out.

"...I'm your father, Garran."

Still, Elena watched the boy for his reaction, gauging his state of mind as the tense seconds ground on. A thousand questions seemed to flood his thoughts all at once, but unable to sort them in that instant, he chose to remain silent, awaiting further explanation. Cade was reluctant to go on, but he seemed to acknowledge the responsibility he had to answer to his son.

"When we found out that Solienne was pregnant...the other Ghost Heirs were going to force me to leave. They thought I would be too...distracted, too vulnerable to mistakes with...you both on my mind, and they preferred to have me replaced than to take the risk that I would be the downfall of our intricate operations. But Solienne..." He drifted off once more, his expression visibly faltering. "She...she chose to leave in my place, so I wouldn't have to."

The look in Garran's eyes remained the same, still full of disbelief and so many unanswered questions, but Cade was obviously struggling to maintain his composure, as close to being broken as Elena had seen him in the five years she'd known him. The stoic Ghost Heir had always been so guarded, even rigid in his past interactions with her, but she never knew he had carried such guilt for so long.

"That was the hardest thing I've ever had to do in my life," Cade continued hardly above a whisper, "...watch her walk away, not being able to do anything about it, knowing I'd never see her again...and that I'd never get to know you. Not a single day went by where I didn't nearly drive myself crazy wondering what else I could have done, what I could have changed so I'd have taken my exile instead...but it was Solienne's choice. I couldn't have changed her mind.

"I sent that Life Stone and Crest to her just before you were born, and it was the last time anything from Paneau was confirmed to have reached her. After that...I could only hope that you two were alright."

Taking a moment to settle his emotions, Cade continued with hushed sincerity. "I am sorry that you've been kept in the dark about all this, but your mother and I had no choice. And now that she's..." He paused, trembling and unable to bring himself to say it. "Now that you're old enough to make your own decisions about your life, you have the right to know: you are a Rys'tihn, you're Paneau Royalty, and you deserve the chance to have the life your mother was denied."

As Elena predicted, Garran looked like he was in far too much shock to even breathe. The lengthening silence made Cade that much more anxious and expectant, waiting for a response from the boy, but no sound escaped his lips. Long, tense moments crept by without any movements from either of them, but eventually Garran stood from his seat and silently walked away, his gaze focused blankly on the ground in front of him.

Cade moved to stand, as well, but Elena was quick to stop him. "Cade," she whispered firmly, shaking her head, "let him go." Reluctantly, Cade obeyed, and they both watched sadly as Garran disappeared down a hallway that would likely take him up to his room. As she returned to Cade, he looked little more than...lost.

"I almost want him to be angry at me," Cade confessed weakly. "Something would be better than...nothing, than this."

Sympathetic to his turmoil, she nodded, keeping her voice soft. "He has a lot to process very suddenly. It'll take time."

With obvious sadness, Cade lowered his gaze to the floor, and Elena couldn't help but see her husband in the elder Ghost Heir. Koril had only known him as long as she had, but so many of his traits, including his passion and compassion, seemed to be so closely tied to their Rys'tihn genes. Her own heart began to ache deeply, though, recalling how she had almost done the same to Koril with their son Derek as Solienne had done to Cade with Garran... There were entirely different motivations behind her choice compared to Solienne's, but seeing the agony on Cade's face reopened old wounds she had long preferred to forget.

Bringing herself back to the present and to the young Rys'tihn's fragile state, Elena stood and placed her hand lightly on Cade's shoulder. "I'll talk to him. Just...try to be patient, okay?"

Thankfully Cade seemed to ignore the irony of her instruction as he nodded, sitting back in his chair to reflect. As she left his side and made her way toward Garran's room, she did so at a slow pace, giving Garran an extended buffer of time to his own thoughts before she would intrude again. She even stood outside his door patiently for several minutes, though only partially for Garran's sake. She knew the deeper discussion wouldn't be easy for her, either, but she felt obligated to help him work through it as best she could.

Pressing the door's panel to open it, she quietly stepped inside, looking around briefly for the young man. "...Garran?"

He was seated at a large window in the back of the room, looking out into the picturesque Naeron Mountains that bordered the Retreat. His expression hadn't changed much as he turned to face her, and though he didn't invite her in further, neither did he turn her away, instead simply returning his gaze to the window without a word. She carefully pulled up a small stool beside him, sitting only when he looked to her once more, still unresponsive. Appreciating that he hadn't denied her company, she gave him the chance to speak first, but when he remained silent, she began softly.

"Garran... I know you're upset and overwhelmed. I'm sorry. We...wanted you to be a little more prepared than this."

Stoic, he let go of a short breath. "I don't know what I am. I'm...numb." As he paused, a wave of emotion suddenly rolled across his face, but he fought to control it as he continued. "My mother never told me anything about my father, not even if he was still alive. I was left to my imagination, wondering if he had...hurt her, betrayed her, left her... I had readied myself for every possible scenario, selfless and innocent or not, where it was his fault that we were on our own...but I never expected that it was...her choice."

Was he already refocusing his anger on his late mother? "Garran...your mother never meant to hurt you, keeping this from you. She only wanted to protect you. And like Cade said, she couldn't tell you; she wasn't supposed to."

"She knew she was dying for years. She could've told me then."

Though she had begun to respond, he looked at her again. "You knew about it all along, didn't you?"

There was no harshness in his tone, but she heard a twinge of pain in his inquiry. She took in a slow breath to respond. "I knew about your father, yes, but...I didn't know the whole story until now."

"And Dee?"

Again she hesitated, nodding carefully. As Garran looked out the window once more, Elena knew she had to earn his trust back somehow. "Do you know why she was looking for you? Why she was allowed to, when your father couldn't even contact you?"

His curiosity piqued, Garran shook his head.

"...she's an exile now, too."

"What!" he exclaimed in disbelief. "Why?"

"I still don't even understand it myself. She saved Koril's and our son Derek's lives, but...her reward for it was being forced to leave. The Ghost Heirs have a very...different way of going about things. It's hard to explain, and it's even harder to get a straight answer out of them. But that's why she sent you here; she couldn't bring you here herself."

Disheartened even more, he sat back in his seat, mulling things over a moment. "The Ghost Heirs have a lot of...power," he mused, slightly haunted. "Was...Cade involved in sending her away?"

Elena released a light sigh. "No, I don't think so..." Though she hadn't considered it, another thought came to her as she considered Cade's role in his niece's exile. "Even if he was, there's something you should know about Rys'tihn men, something that I've learned from experience more than once. They always have the best of intentions for just about everything that they do, but...they have this annoying habit of going about it the wrong way. Maybe they learned it from each other, or maybe it's just genetic, I don't know. But what I do know...is that Cade is a good man. You don't have to pass judgment on him right now, and neither do you have to become his best friend. But at least...don't shut him out." She gave him a warm smile as he looked to her once more. "You have a lot to share. And you still have a lot to learn, too, but I promise you this: we won't throw anything this...dramatic at you again. Everything from here on out is a lot easier to swallow. You have my word."

Though still looking somewhat wary, Garran eventually nodded, his expression lightening as she continued to smile at him.

Paneau: capital city of Dalon
Dalon Medical Center

Exhausted and completely unaware of just how much time, or even how many days had passed as he remained at Mand's side, Rech idly wondered when he'd begin hallucinating. He was so keenly focused on his ailing wife and their twin daughters she was carrying that he expected his mind to soon begin creating distractions and diversions to keep itself from shutting down due to his stress and daily monotony. The only break he had taken had been to visit with Cordira the day before, but he wasn't able to spare more than a few minutes, and he felt intensely guilty for it. But dwelling on his guilt wasn't going to keep Mand alive, so he forced it from his thoughts, returning his concentration to her.

With a quick glance at the monitors all about her, he was quietly thankful for a period of relative calm. Mand's systems were momentarily all in equilibrium, and it was such a rare occurrence for every monitor to be silent; Rech savored it as best he could. He hadn't changed his technique, save for channeling even more positive Force energy into her weak, frail body, and even though it was draining him faster than he could recover, he continued. He had to, or he faced losing his little girls, and maybe even Mand herself, too.

Looking up to a chrono on the wall opposite him that told him the very early hour of the morning, he rubbed his face to wake himself up further, knowing he'd face a new wave of nurses and attendants as shifts changed. Finding his muscles stiff and resisting his commands, he moved sluggishly, gently rolling his head around to loosen his taut shoulders. The movement helped little and may have even worsened his fatigue, forcing him to feel just how entirely spent he was. He had just taken in a deep breath to rejuvenate himself when the room's door opened and Ri Banarecc sprinted inside, stopping at Mand's side and gazing sadly on her master's inert form.

Startled by her sudden entrance, Rech watched her a moment to be sure he wasn't imagining her. "...Ri?"

Before she had the chance to answer him, Jedi Master Strone Lithess also strode into the room, albeit at his usual calculated pace. The Chiss' crimson gaze easily drew anyone's attention, but Lithess had an even more powerful, commanding presence, and surprised to see him, as well, Rech stood and bowed out of habit.

"Master Lithess."

But the swift movement his body and his head weren't prepared for would have dropped him to his knees had Lithess not already been at his side, steadying him with a firm grip on his arm.

"Easy, Rech," Lithess warned gently. "Sit back down."

Though still feeling his head spinning, he complied, easing himself back down to his seat as Lithess also sat beside him. Rech silently nodded his thanks, slightly embarrassed that the Jedi Master had seen him so weak, but at least Lithess' attention didn't remain on him long.

"I'm so sorry, Rech," Ri apologized on the brink of tears, carefully holding Mand's hand at her side. "While we were training, I could tell she was sick, or at least that something was wrong, but...I didn't know it would get this bad."

He somehow found the strength to speak. "It's not your fault, Ri. She hid it from everyone...even from me." His assurances did little to comfort her, but he moved on. "I thought you were supposed to be constructing your lightsaber on Coruscant?"

Completely wordless, she nonchalantly detached a shiny hilt from her belt, holding it up to show him without any hint of hubris. His shock must have been well evident on his face.

"Fastest completion by anyone her age," Lithess answered in place of Ri's silence. "Mand prepared her very well."

"And now I want to learn from you."

Confused, Rech looked to Ri, unsure what she meant. "I don't understand. Learn what from me?"

She couldn't have seemed more innocent or more earnest. "Healing."

Rech froze, unable to answer. She wanted to learn from him...in the middle of all this? How could he spread his focus long enough, well enough without endangering Mand?

Pleading her case, Ri continued. "My mother had an affinity for it, so I want to know if I do, too. And I want to help Mand, if I can."

His throat was suddenly dry as he stared. Had she asked him any other time, he would have gladly accepted, but right now...

"Even if you do not choose to instruct her at this moment, Rech," Lithess stepped in carefully, "...I will still be bringing other Healers here to you. I can already tell that you need the help. You can't maintain this level of intensity for much longer."

As much as he knew Lithess was right, he didn't want to admit it, to himself or to his friends. His physical fatigue had worn away at his resolve, though, and after he reluctantly nodded to Lithess, he returned to Ri, swayed even more by her look of hopeful anticipation.

"We'll...start slowly," he agreed, glad to at least see the sadness and guilt gone from her eyes.