While the others work, Forri walks over to Master Jedi Fay and kneels down beside the child she's tending to, "Master, what do we do now?"
Fay looks up from Lily's sleeping form, "What do you think we should do now?"
Forri shakes his head, "I don't know. We can't stay here, as any scouts ships will immediately spot a group this large, and we can't hide the bantha's. Even if we could hide, it feels, I don't know, wrong to do so. We're not the only farm out this way, but the other farmers, they're just civilians. At most they'll have a vermin rifle or two, and a cellar to hide in if things get bad."
Fay takes her helmet off with a hiss of air and looks Forri in the eye, "What of you," pointing behind him she continues, "what of them. Aren't you civilians too?"
Forri shakes his head, "None of us are Master. We were all padawans, I can't speak for the others, but I just got too old before a master picked me." When Fay doesn't say anything, he looks down, "What about the child? Is she a padawan?"
Fay smiles gently, "I'd like to think she is, but no. The Jedi order could never accept her as a padawan, she's too old."
"Then how was she able to do that stuff? I've never heard of any one able to do that. The closest I've heard is the Dark Jedi that raised the Gungans she'd killed with swamp gas, and sent them against the Jedi."
Fay shakes her head, "I hadn't heard of that."
Forri looks down, "They didn't include it on the public holo's as the Jedi council thought it would be too demoralising. But we still get the Jedi dispatches as we're agricorps."
As Fay's thinking, Forri watches as she reaches into one of her pouches and pulls out a stick that's at least five times longer than the pouch is deep. As she rolls it around in her hands she muses, "If you had a way of purging someone of the darkside, what would you do with it?"
Forri opens his mouth to answer, and then stops for a moment, "I think… I think that I would use it on those who fell through no fault of their own. Give them a second chance. I don't think I'd want to give it to those who went looking for forbidden knowledge."
Fay puts her hand on Forri's shoulder, "In this, perhaps, you are wiser than I. As my thought was to hide it's existence from the order so that it wouldn't encourage people to explore things best left buried."
Forri's tentacles frame his face in thought, "Is this some forgotten force technique you've discovered?"
Fay waves the stick through the air, trailing red, green, and purple, sparks from the tip as though mesmerised by their appearance, "What? Oh, no. Not Jedi. I'm mostly convinced that it's not even using the force."
Confusion clear in his voice, Forri asks, "What else is there?"
Fay trails the stick in front of Forri's eyes, "Magic."
Forri shakes his head, "We were taught that there was no such thing as magic."
Fay sighs and resumes rolling the stick around in her hands, "I have been reminded a lot of a scientific maxim. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. I fear that in our ignorance, we Jedi have taken our knowledge of the force and all the ways we've ever seen it used, and assumed that means that magic does not exist."
As she finishes speaking, Fay looks up and over at the worker that's lying in stasis on a transfigured stretcher.
Forri turns to follow her gaze, "I thought that was just some sort of healing trance master."
Fay shakes her head, "It's a spell that Lily learnt in her own world, and I've seen her use twice. The first time I too assumed it was just a force ability that drained her because of her lack of training. But with a wand it seemed like it took her no more effort than creating the stretcher or blowing up the shed. Yet transporting everyone here and the animals exhausted her."
As Forri is turning back to face Fay, he catches sight of one of the droid blasters, "Master, you asked me what I thought we should do. I think I have an answer now. We know where the reinforcements are going to be and we are well enough armed. We should ambush them before they can move away, and possibly kill our neighbours."
Fay puts the wand back in her pouch and smiles at Forri, "Then that is what we will do. You know the terrain, so I will follow your lead and provide support if you need it."
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After the battle, Forri juggles a data cylinder in his hands as he looks around the ruins of the farm he's called home for the last five years. All around are the bodies of dead droids and another dead bantha, as their plan caught them completely off guard. Slap bang in the middle of the farmyard is the ship the droids arrived in. A standard troop ship rather than the massive droid unloaders that are used on the main battle fronts.
As Forri reaches up to rub at the bacta patch on his shoulder, Liam leans out of the ship and shouts, "Hey! Forri! We've taken control of the ship! Almost everyone else is leaving, are you coming?"
Forri looks back at the bantha's and Master Fay, who is meditating serenely on what remains of the farmhouse roof. Then he looks down at the data cylinder that Fay gave him after they started talking about going to Coruscant. After a nearly a minute he walks over to the ship and holds out the data cylinder, "Actually Liam, I think I'll stay here and see if I can't go with Master Fay. Give this to the Grand Master for me. And I mean personally, not through an aide. If I remember, he likes teaching the younglings."
Liam shakes his head, "Hey, it's your funeral. I'm just looking forward to being able to make a difference in this sith damned war."
Forri shakes his head, "I understand, I just don't think this is something that will be solved on the battlefield. Look, I'm going to see if Master Fay will allow me to travel with her, and maybe take me on as a padawan. Even if she doesn't, maybe we can turn this into a haven or something. Just remember to honour her request to stay anonymous."
Liam smiles easily, "Don't worry, we all know how to keep our mouths shut. Besides, she didn't actually do anything when we took back the farm, so that will be easy enough."
Forri looks back up at Fay before shaking his head, "I wouldn't say she didn't do anything. I'm not sure what she did, but it was something."
Liam shakes his head as he pulls it back inside, "Yeah, whatever. Anyway, last chance to leave."
Forri steps back away from the ship, "Thank you for the offer, and may the force be with you."
Liam hits the button next to the ramp as he calls back, "May the force be with you!"
A moment later Forri watches at the ship ponderously takes off on its vertical repulsors before the ion drive kick in, and send it shooting into the sky.
"You did a brave thing there."
Forri jumps as a voice comes from just below his left elbow. As he looks down, the child appears out of nowhere. "Where did you come from?"
The child removes her helmet, and reveals herself as the same child that was running around the other day, "Disillusionment charm, and a silencing charm on my feet. By the way, I'm Lily."
Forri's nictitating membranes flick across his eyes a couple of times before he ventures, "Um, pleased to meet you? I thought you were asleep back at the camp."
Lily shakes her head, "Forri, it's been hours, and this body is five. I just needed a nap. Beside, I portkeyed the old and injured back to the barn when Liam sent the message that farm was clear. That was 20 minutes ago."
Forri frowns as he considers that he'd seen Yma helping to load supplies and just not questioned it. As he's trying to think, he opens his mouth a few times before closing it again. Eventually he settles on, "Why didn't anyone notice you arrive?"
Lily shrugs and turns towards the ruined tool shed, "That's probably a question for Fay, but I'd guess it's because you expect them to be on the farm. Come on, there's lots of cleaning up to do, and even with magic it's going to be a lot of work."
Somewhat skeptically, Forri asks, "Magic?"
Without looking back, Lily pulls her wand out of her pocket and stops a few meters away from the remains of the shed. Deliberately taking her time, she moves her wand in the right gestures and says, "Repairo" while pointing at the shed. Almost immediately, the scattered rubble from the shed starts to roll and tumble back to the shed, before slotting right back into the place they came from, including a cloud of dust.
As the shed comes together, Lily turns back to Forri with a smirk, "Yes, magic."
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Asajj looks up at the ceiling as tears track down her cheeks while her hand gently strokes Harry's hair as he sleeps with his hair in her lap. Just like her master used to do for her in the early days. She even told the same force damned stories he did.
Instinctively, she reaches for the force, to allow it to pass through her and take away the pain in a wave of feeling. Instead, there's nothing. Just her in this cage.
With her eyes closed, she bangs her head backwards against the force cursed barrier that's surrounding her. "It's Not Fair! Why did you have to leave me? Why did you die?"
A second later, a gentle hand touches her face as Fay says, "Let it go, it's all in the past and he has returned to the force."
Asajj opens he eyes to spit out an angry retort, when Lily's voice comes from the doorway, "I disagree. Hold on to your memories of your master and try to make him proud of you. Live up to his memory and prove to the people that killed him that you are better than them in every single way."
Fay glances over, "Lily, that's not the Jedi way."
Lily shakes her head, "I'm not a Jedi, and neither is Asajj. What I am is a witch and a mother. I also lost my father when he was killed by my enemies. I'm not suggesting giving into hate, quite the opposite." More gently she continues, "Asajj, do you think your master, your father, would be proud of what you've done since he died?"
Asajj's anger dies stillborn in the face of first Lily's defence of her, and then that damned question. A question that hangs in the air as Harry wakes up, hugs Fay with a cry of "Mama!", before getting up and running over to Lily and hugging her with a cry of "Mummy!"
With the moment broken, Lily smiles, "Well, I was going here to use the fresher and change my clothes while Fay checked our stores for a portable generator. However, it looks like I'm going to be doing that too."
Fay has the grace to look abashed as she puts her hand on the inside wall of the exorcism circle.
Asajj dashes the tears from her eyes and frowns, "Why do you need a generator anyway?"
Lily coughs and looks down with embarrassment, "The farm's generator was damaged in the fighting, and I got carried away with my repairs. Apparently generators don't like being repaired by magic."
Asajj forces a sound of curiosity into her voice as she asks, "Magic?"
Lily pulls her wand out of her pocket and waves it in her hand. Before she can do anything else, Fay warns, "Not until you've found the generator. And don't use it on anything we might need later."
Lily sighs before her eyes widen and she smiles as she runs over to a crate with hull repair plates in it. A tap of her wand has a few plates dance out of the crate as she sings, "Salagadoola mechicka boola bibbidi-bobbidi-boo
Put 'em together and what have you got
Bippity-boppity-boo…"
As she sings she waves her wand in time with the music and turns the plates into a pair of armchairs and a wooden side table with a chessboard inlaid in the top, before having them dance into circle. A moment later a hand full of nuts and bolts turns into white and black chess pieces and they march into circle before climbing onto the table and settling down.
By the door, Harry laughs as he jumps up and down while clapping. At the end of the song Lily points her wand at him and transfigures his clothing into a little princes outfit.
Breathless and laughing, Lily turns to the two women in the circle, "I always wanted to do that. Anyway, yes, magic, no force required, and I think I've spotted the generator. D12 would you mind grabbing that crate for me please?"
D12 just remains standing by the wall where he was unobtrusively keeping an eye on Asajj until his heuristic models of the world were just broken. A moment later a stinging hex pings of his chassis and Lily shouts, "Worry about it later and help me move this crate."
D12 shakes his head and walks over to pick up the crate, "Yes mistress."
As Lily, Harry (chanting 'Again! Again!'), and D12 leave, Asajj disbelievingly pokes one of the chairs experimentally, "Do you think she meant that?"
Fay walks over to the other chair and gingerly sits down in it, "Meant what?"
"The stuff about holding on to my masters memory."
Fay pulls her wand out of her pouch again and rolls it around in her hands as if mesmerised by it, "Probably. Though I find myself knowing less about the universe than I knew yesterday."
Asajj shakes her head, "More riddles, my master was fond of those too."
Fay laughs self deprecatingly, "Not riddles. Just the truth. We like to say that anything is possible with the force. But none of us actually expect to be able to do anything. Same as we've never come across anything that other, more primitive, cultures call magic that can't be reproduced with the force, or at least hasn't been reproduced without the force. Even with what Lily was doing, I could sort of see how it could be done with the living force. I could even feel her reaching for the force while she was doing her 'magic'."
Asajj sits on her chair and laughs bitterly, "Well, this beats talking about feelings. What changed?"
Fay holds up her wand, "This did." and touches it to a chess piece with a look of concentration. Over the next couple of seconds, the chess piece slowly melts as it changes colour from black to purple. When Fay lifts her wand away, she's left with a misshapen purple rook.
Asajj snarks, "Wow, brilliant work there Master Jedi."
Quietly, Fay point out, "We are both currently cut off from the force, and I didn't use the living force to do that."
Asajj looks at Fay's face searchingly, "You're serious aren't you."
Fay nods, "I find myself having doubts about a lot of what I've been taught, and I'm afraid of what I will find when I look further."
Asajj shakes her head, "I didn't think we were supposed to feel fear, or doubt. At least that's what Master Dooku said."
Fay shakes her head, "That's not what the code's about. It's not about lacking fear, it's about not letting fear control you. 'There is no emotion, there is peace' and 'There is no passion, there is serenity' they're supposed to be goals to reach for, not a state of being. You can't be alive and not feel emotion. But if you allow yourself to be ruled by your emotions you'll never be at peace. And so the first line tells us that emotions are transitory, and when we understand that and stop them from ruling our lives we'll find ourselves at peace. The reason it's reiterated is that the third line is talking about making decisions. If we allow our passions to rule us, then we will make avoidable mistakes, we'll be blinded by what we want to be true. It's only when we can set those emotions aside for the moment that we can find the serene state of mind we need to see clearly and make the best decision we can."
Asajj shakes her head, "My master never described it like that."
Fay shrugs, "I am older than most, and I have had a lot of time to think about things. Despite everything that's happening around Lily, I still believe that the Jedi code is the right path. That hasn't changed, what's changed is that I have been shown how arrogant I have been by assuming I am knowledgeable when I am in fact ignorant. Which, itself breaks the second line of the code, 'There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.' As that line demands that we seek to replace our ignorance with knowledge. Even if that knowledge is just that there is someone that can actually explain what we're ignorant of."
Asajj sighs as she plays with some of the pieces on the chess board, "My master, he rescued me as a toddler after the warlords killed my parents. He wasn't even supposed to be on that planet his ship crashed there and nobody ever came for us. Then they killed him too, they shot him in the back and tried to kill me too. All because we were protecting the innocent and bringing an end to the fighting. Why didn't anyone ever come?"
Fay leans over and takes Asajj's hand, "You said he crashed. It's quite possible they believed he was dead. Several hours ago, a wise man pointed out that this circle could be used to give those that fall to the darkside a second chance. I know that you're somewhat older than the order allows for it's padawans since the Ruusan Reformation, but then again I'm somewhat older than the average Jedi Master. If you wish, I could take you as my padawan, and make it official once you are free of the darkside."
Asajj stares at Fay in disbelief as something she's sought for so long, even when she claimed to be sith, is just offered to her as part of a conversation.
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On Coruscant, in a grand temple set apart from the rest of the city planet by deep ravines, the grand master of the Jedi Order shuffles quickly towards his personal quarters with a data cylinder grasped like a lightsaber in his tiny hands.
When he reaches his quarters he plugs the cylinder into the computer and reads through the documents with increasing levels of disbelief. Shaking his head at the absurdities it describes, magick that isn't part of the darkside indeed. He selects the first video and watches as Master Fay first mix silver into water, and then hand the water to a droid who proceeds to splash it over a naked woman and girl in side a silver circle. For 6 hours he watches as they scream as the water turns into brown sludge that drips off of them to the ground.
At the end of that time he leans back on his haunches and begins to meditate on what he's seen, and what it could mean to the order if this is indeed a light side force ritual.