Not even Lorash's aching ribs could stop her from sprinting full force at the lanky young man walking down the boarding ramp of Corr's ship. She tackled him almost over with a hug, much to everyone else's amusement. "You should be careful, Eso," Corr advised as Lorash squeezed her pilot friend in a crushing hug. "Young ladies throwing themselves at you is the kind of thing a gentleman rogue shouldn't get accustomed to, lest they take the experience for granted."

"I, uh, can't breathe," Eso wheezed as Lorash lifted him off the ground. It was hard to tell if he was grinning or grimacing at the squeeze.

"She's grown much stronger," Corr said with a chuckle.

Lorash set Eso down and let go, taking a step back. "How have you been? Where's Yyrfh? Where's your ship?"

"They're, uh, sitting in orbit around one of the planetary moons," Eso said, ruffling his own hair sheepishly. "I figured you were gonna be a lot less, uh, happy to see me."

Lorash raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"I didn't know what was gonna happen when I, uh, gave your master your stuff. I thought maybe you, uh, thought I'd sold you out or wanted you off my ship, y'know." He ducked his head a little. "And then when Seia didn't make the rendezvous, I felt even worse."

"I'm sorry, Eso. I would have told you if I could have," Lorash said quietly.

Eso scowled at that, green eyes flicking at Corr. "He mentioned you were, uh, incommunicado at your master's decision."

"It would have posed a risk to everyone on this moon," Vori said from behind Lorash.

"I, uh, ain't no rat," Eso said more stiffly.

"But signals can always be intercepted. Better to meet and talk the old-fashioned way," Corr said to smooth things over.

"What, uh, happened to Seia?"

Lorash felt the stab of pain like it was fresh. "I think she's either on Yavin-4 or going to be. The Empire is looking for a weapon there, something powerful and old enough they need her expertise to find it."

"Galaxy's heatin' up," the smuggler muttered. "You think she, uh, is in a helpin' mood with them after everything?"

Lorash shook her head, thinking of all the pain she'd dreamed of on Despayre. "No, but they're good at not giving people a choice."

"There are friends there. Friends we don't want to expose to the Empire." Corr sounded worried now. "Lorash, where is this intel coming from?"

"A dream," Lorash admitted quietly.

"Your nightmare?" Vori asked gently. She could practically hear Corr's disbelief flaring.

Eso, however, didn't seem at all bothered by the revelation that Lorash was operating off dream logic. "We'd, uh, better get a move on, then."

"It could be a deception," Vori balked.

"Or a dream," Corr said, raising an eyebrow at Eso's calm acceptance.

Eso shrugged. "Worst case scenario, we're down some fuel and empty-handed. That said, my mama always, uh, said the universe speaks loudest in dreams. What's, uh, harder to believe, Corr? That Lorash might have dreamed something real or that she drew an Idiot's Array in her first sabacc game ever?"

Corr narrowed his eyes slightly, stroking his neatly trimmed beard. "Alright, I'll entertain the notion. But your associate was Sith. Why wouldn't she help the Empire?"

"Because they tortured her and then imprisoned her on Despayre, trying to break her," Lorash said quietly.

Eso sucked in a sharp breath, like she'd punched him. "Despayre?" He rubbed at the back of his neck, eyes wide and worried. "That, uh, place is a hell and a half."

Vori seemed equally surprised and worried. Apparently Merga hadn't told him what he'd told Lorash. Corr was much harder to read. Her master shook his head. "Following this dream is unwise. If they were successful in their attempts, she could be working with them and luring you into a trap."

"Successful?" Eso let out a barking laugh, but there wasn't really any humor to it. "You don't, uh, know Seia very well, do you? I've known Mandalorians with armor, uh, softer than her will. You ever seen a sith crush a fella to death with her mind? 'Cause I have. There's, uh, one thing in the galaxy that can crack Seia, and she's been sitting on this backwater planet in the middle of nowhere for months."

Lorash tried to focus on the matter at hand, but she knew her cheeks had colored at that comment. "Corr, I fully intend to honor my promise," she said, looking up at the arms dealer.

"I sense a 'but' coming," Corr said, crossing his arms.

Lorash shook her head. "Not a but. I will aid your friends fighting the Empire, and I want your help in finding and freeing Seia. You owe her at least that much. She saved your life as well as mine by fighting Zul and his apprentice."

"Lorash–" Vori began, but he bit off his words when she held up her hand.

"I passed my trials, Master," Lorash said quietly. "Trust that this is a decision I have considered."

He frowned, more worried than openly disapproving. "Jedi knights can still fall, Lorash."

"I know." For a moment, the visions in the vergence were blisteringly real to her again, especially the dark version of herself that she had faced. "Fear of attachment is as dangerous as attachment in that regard, Master. Emotion, yet peace. This balance is mine to walk now, not yours to control."

Corr looked Lorash up and down, then held out a hand. "Alright, jedi, you have yourself a deal," the arms dealer said. "But it's just as important that we keep the Empire from finding those rebels on Yavin."

Lorash shook his hand. "Let me get my things."

"I'll, uh, grab some bags?" Eso offered, slinging an arm around her shoulder. "We've got some time to, uh, catch up, right?"

"I really don't have much," Lorash admitted. "Just some clothes and some armor I need refitted. If you really know some Mandalorians, Eso, I might need to ask for an introduction."

"I don't think you want to, uh, run with the Hutta crowd," Eso said, wincing a little despite himself at his own associations. "Plus, they'd probably shoot me for the creds. Without a proper free homeworld or a proper free Mand'alor , most of the ones I know turned Imperial bounty hunter just to keep their 'honor' intact."

Lorash let him pull her away from Corr and Vori. "You have a price on your head?"

"Yeah, I, uh, watch it tick up at night when I can't sleep. Yyrfh and I got fingered for the deaths of the Inquisitor with the imps. Dunno if it was Corr covering his own tail or, uh, the Diadem covering theirs," Eso muttered darkly. Now that Lorash was looking properly, she could see a hardness to Eso that hadn't been there before. "Until Corr reached out, I figured we were dead meat. Can't hide even in, uh, the swamps with that kind of cash hanging over your head. I did a little, uh, work for Jabba through an old friend to keep the ship fueled."

"What happened to the money from the krayt dragon pearl?" Lorash asked softly.

"Info brokers, uh, charge a lot of money to chase down ghosts." Eso glanced around and lowered his voice. "I tried to, uh, find you and Seia. Had no luck on either end. Dunno who Corr's friends are, but they did a fine job of scrubbing you from, uh, just about everywhere. I figured you were safe enough with your master and stopped looking when the, uh, trail went cold. Seia's really the one that cost me. I burned, uh, three different identities and a few friends asking questions about her. Eventually they told me she was dead."

"Did you believe them?" Lorash asked, stomach curling into a tight knot.

Eso smiled faintly. "Not for, uh, even a second. So why Yavin-4?"

The immense reassurance of hearing his steadfast belief buoyed Lorash up through her own fears. "It was the stronghold of a fallen Jedi turned Sith named Exar Kun. Seia seemed to think they needed her to find his tomb. I'm not certain why."

"No offense to Seia, uh, but I'm getting tired of Imperial bullshit." He sighed and then nudged Lorash gently in the ribs with his elbow. "Also, uh, you gonna show me this fancy armor or what? If you're asking about Mandalorians, uh, it's gotta be something special."

Lorash smiled. "It belonged to a Jedi Master back in the ancient days of the Republic. A friend of Seia's named Nabeila."

"Isn't she the ghost who gave you that lightsaber?" Eso said, keeping his voice low.

Lorash glanced around. "And the one who oversaw most of my training here."

"Uh, yeah, that reminds me: jedi knight now? No wonder they, uh, gave you fancy pants. You'll, uh, need them to go with the fancy title. Probably not going to keep Seia out, though."

The young woman narrowed her eyes at him. "Y'know, I feel like maybe Yyrfh sent you downplanet with Corr so he could have some peace and quiet in the ship."

"Y'know, uh, I think you're just worried they might be sith-repellent fancy pants," he retorted.

"If they are, I'll just take them off when she asks."

"I think you mean, uh, when she tells," Eso teased, knowing he hit the mark immediately when she blushed all the way to her ears. "We both know when Seia says bend, you say over wha–"

Lorash covered his mouth with her hand just as Maladar and Tari came running over. "They are way too young to hear that!" she hissed.

"Hear what?" Maladar chirped. The twins seemed blissfully oblivious, probably because Lorash had sensed them coming and shut Eso up before he could say anything worse.

Eso peeled Lorash's hand off his face. "Uh, uh, uh, nothing," he managed after a couple of false starts, having the good grace to look somewhat embarrassed at what they might have been in earshot of. He looked over at Lorash, searching for guidance. "These must be the twins, uh, right? Your master's other padawans?"

"They are," Lorash said.

"Cool. What's it, uh, like being a padawan?"

Tari narrowed her eyes slightly, like she knew something was being covered up, but Mal was oblivious. "Pretty cool. What's it like being one of Corr's friends? You came in on his ship, right? Do you have your own ship? What kind of blaster is that? Have you ever blasted a stormtrooper?"

Eso looked helplessly at Lorash.

"You started the questions game," Lorash said with a grin. "You finish it. I'm going to grab my stuff."

While Maladar lobbed question after question at Eso so quickly the poor pilot could barely make sense of them, let alone answer, Tari followed Lorash. "Are you leaving?" the female twi'lek asked quietly, eyes somber.

"For a while," Lorash said. She knew she might never see Tari or her brother again, but she wanted to return to Tython someday, if only to honor the promise she had made to Seia's absent heart under the light of the twin moons. She wanted the sith to have a chance to know peace, even if her storming soul could never settle in it. There wasn't much hope of reconciliation between Vori and Seia, but maybe someday her master would come to a place where he could understand the sith warrior even a fraction of the way Nabeila did.

"We'll miss you," Tari said softly. "I saw your armor. It looks like the temple guards in the ancient holocrons. You'll make a good knight, Lorash."

"I hope so." Lorash threw her clothes into a bag and then slung it over her shoulder before picking up the armored robes, carefully wrapped up until they could be worked on. "I'm sure you'll make a fine sage someday, studying here on Tython." She knew Tari would never embrace the martial path as she had, but that didn't make her any less a prospective jedi. "Be good and listen to Master Vori, but also your own heart. Neither of them completely tell the whole story, but together you'll be able to see everything."

"Will you come back?"

"I hope so," Lorash said. "But with the Empire ascendant, I don't want to promise that I will and be made into a liar."

Tari hugged her tightly around the waist, eyes brimming with tears. "I'm sorry you can't stay, Lorash," she said.

"Hey, hey." Lorash spoke softly, voice a crooning reassurance. "You'll always be my little sister, no matter how far away I go. Corr can carry messages, or maybe we can even call when it's safe. He has to have encrypted channels."

"I want to."

Lorash squeezed the twi'lek girl tightly. "Then I'll ask him about it on the way up to orbit, okay? Just because I'm not here on Tython doesn't mean I'm gone. All things are possible through the Force, one way or another."

"May the Force be with you, Lorash," Tari said, trying her best not to sound sniffly.

Lorash smiled a little, but laced with bittersweetness. "You sound so big already. Take good care of Mal, okay? Remember the Code."

"I will," Tari promised resolutely.

The new jedi knight nodded in approval before stepping back out of her tent. "Mal, it's time to say goodbye."

"You're leaving?" Suddenly the younger twin was crestfallen, abandoning his interrogation of Eso. "I thought you were home to stay."

"There are some things I have to do first. Maybe someday," Lorash said. She swept him up off the ground into a one-armed hug, immediately regretting it as his weight hit her already laden back. Fortunately, Eso stepped in and snagged the armor from her so she could switch to holding Maladar with both arms. "I'm going to miss you, big guy. Next time I see you, maybe you'll have your own lightsaber instead of that staff."

"Come back sooner than that," Maladar said plaintively.

"It'll happen before you know it." Lorash hugged him tightly and then set him down, but he didn't let go, trying to scale her like a little ewok. "I can't stay, Mal. I have people who really need me. Here with Master Vori, you and your sister are safe, but there are lots of people who aren't."

"You're going to fight the Empire." The little twi'lek couldn't really make it into a question, his eyes older than the rest of him for a moment. She wondered how much of him remembered what had happened to his parents at the Empire's hands. "Stay safe, Lorash."

Lorash kissed the top of his head. "I can't promise that, but I'll settle for staying alive. Okay?"

"Okay," Maladar said, sounding unconvinced.

"I'll, uh, watch her back," Eso promised. "Cross my heart. Until the really tough one of us can get back to it."

That seemed to ease whatever was going on inside Maladar a little bit. "You and Corr?"

"If he, uh, knows what's good for him," Eso said seriously. "We'll take good care of Lorash."