Epilogue

73 ABY, Jedi Academy, Shedu Maad

21:15:09 hours

"Good evening, Master Ruune."

Master Aalyrux Ruune was lost in thought and took a moment to register that someone had acknowledged him. He'd stopped in the middle of one of the hallways of the Jedi academy and was staring at a painting on the wall. It depicted the wedding of Luke Skywalker and Mara Jade Skywalker. Aalyrux felt a pang as he gazed at couple. Their happiness echoed his own on the day he'd married his best friend. Finally he snapped out of his reverie and looked at the blue-skinned pantoran Jedi who'd addressed him. "Oh. Hello, Knight Chisu. How are you this evening?"

"Fine, thank you." Knight Tak Chisu hesitated before continuing. She didn't want to be rude and not ask how the older Jedi was, but she knew he was probably not well. Her politeness won out in the end. "And you, Master Ruune?"

Master Ruune scowled and shook his head, making a strand of his grey-streaked brown hair cover his eyes. "I'm angry."

The pantoran looked startled at that. She was expecting sad – or depressed even – but she wasn't expecting angry. Jedi weren't supposed to get angry.

"But we do, don't we?" He said, picking up on her thoughts. "Would you like to learn a lesson that I learned from Grandmaster Skywalker long ago, before he died?"

Tak tucked her violet hair behind her ears and nodded.

"Humans like me, pantorans like you, and many other species experience emotions strongly. It is part of who we are. As Jedi, we cannot be expected to not feel pain, loss, sadness, and even anger. The trick is that we have to learn to experience these emotions and then let them go. I'm struggling with that last bit."

"So Master Ondine then… is she – ?"

Master Ruune clenched his fist at his side, "Yes, Knight Chisu. She's close."

"I'm so sorry to hear that, master." Tak's golden eyes looked down at the ground.

"It is her time, and we've been living on borrowed time since she got sick, I just – " Ruune's voice caught, "I just need to let go."

Tak nodded. "I should let you go then so you can be with your wife. If you have need of company or counsel in the coming days, please do not hesitate to seek me out, master. May the Force be with you."

"Thank you. And may the Force be with you, Knight Chisu."

Master Ruune made his way to the second-to-the-top floor of the Temple, where he opened the door to the quarters he shared with his wife. He found her in the main room, sitting on a hoverchair with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. There was a roaring fire in the fireplace behind her, and she was staring out of the window at the lush, life-filled planet below. Did she still feel part of the living world, he wondered? Or had she begun to slip away? Aalyrux knew, as he'd told the young knight moments ago, that she was close, but whether she had days or hours he did not know.

"Essja?" He called as he came to stand at her side.

She didn't answer for minutes – her eyes continued only to watch the outside world. When she finally turned her head, it was with a smile on her face. "Alex, my love – don't be angry." He smiled at the nickname she'd given him. Patience hadn't been her strong suit when she was a child, and her tongue had always stumbled over his name so instead of the more difficult "Aalyrux", she'd started calling him "Alex" for short. She took his hand. "Do you remember when we were kids and we saw the Grandmaster fall apart?"

"Of course, Ezi. It was one of the most terrifying moments of our lives, how could I forget?"

"It was that, wasn't it? But you know, I think we bonded that day in a way that maybe we wouldn't have otherwise. Do you remember – " Her voice was a whisper now; she was fading fast.

"Baby don't try to speak…" He rubbed his thumb over her beautiful red skin. His voice hitched and he fought back tears. He'd known that her time was almost up but yet he was still caught by surprise that it was now.

"No I want…" She continued, "I want my last moments to be of speaking to you, of hearing your voice, of seeing your eyes…"

He picked her up then from the hoverchair and carried her to the larger, grounded chair that was close by. He sat down in it and took her in his lap. His arms circled tightly around her waist – one hand still holding hers – and her cheek rested upon his temple.

"Do you remember when we hid under the table and I held your hand just like this?" She continued.

"I do. I don't think anyone else saw us holding hands." A sad smile crossed his face as he relished the feeling of his wife's hand in his, yet realized that this would be the last time he would feel her touch.

"Will you do me a favor?"

"Of course, my love. Anything."

"Go get the small piece of flimsi that's in the chest in our bedroom."

Aalyrux Ruune reached out with the Force and opened the small wooden chest in their bedroom. In it held his wife's most precious things. He thought he knew well the contents of the chest but he'd never seen this piece of flimsi before. In his mind's eye he found it, caught onto it and levitated it to his wife's free hand. She'd closed her eyes for a moment and was surprised to find it in her hand.

"Alex!" She laughed and hit him weakly on the shoulder, "I think that would be categorized as a trivial use of the Force!"

"Well too bad – I'm not leaving you for even a second. Now what is on this piece of flimsi that's so important?"

"I never showed this to you because it is not mine."

He was curious now, "Oh? Whose is it?"

"It's Master Skywalker's. Grandmaster Skywalker that is, not Ben. It was from the day we bonded. From the day I held your hand tight like this."

"What does it say?"

"It's a poem, written by Master Skywalker. It came floating down from the upper Temple after he'd gone to his room later that night. I think maybe Ben – or someone, maybe Master Tionne – encouraged him to deal with his despair in some other way, and he took to writing this poem. I don't know why I kept it. I thought about giving it back to him, or when he died, giving it to Ben, but for some reason I held onto it."

Aalyrux read the poem and his eyes watered. He understood exactly what the master had felt then. Here and now Aalyrux was sitting with his dying wife and the air was going out of the room. He couldn't breathe either.

"Alex?" Essja's breathing was getting more tortured.

"Yes, love?" Aalyrux looked into his wife's eyes and saw the fear there. He held her tight against his chest.

"Promise me that when I am gone, if you despair the way Master Skywalker did – if you are as angry as he was – that you will not let it drag you to the dark side. Talk to someone, grieve, cry, meditate write a poem, or do anything to help you. Hold onto the Light, my love. I will become one with the Force, and I will wait for you."

Aalyrux brushed a hand against her cheek and replied, "I promise Essja. I promise." He kissed her softly. "Let go now, my love. Struggle no more."

And Jedi Master Essja Ondine breathed her last and became one with the Force, leaving nothing but her clothing and a small scrap of flimsi in her husband's lap.

Aalyrux sat in the chair until morning. When the sun began to rise he stood and folded Essja's clothes reverently and placed them in her wooden chest. Then he walked over to the fireplace and held Luke Skywalker's poem to the dying embers of the fire. He could give it to Ben Skywalker or to Ben's child, but then, they didn't need to remember Luke like that. And the poem was a part of his and Essja's story now. "And our story is done now, isn't it Ezi?" He whispered as he wiped the tears away angrily and went to his desk. He thought about his beautiful zeltron wife and about how they met and about their life together. Then he began to write.

~ Fin ~