by Diane Lau
Then I heard Brenan’s voice in my head: He knows! and an instant later Lyrus took a furious swing at my Master which almost connected.
“How did you do this?—her will is free!” he screamed.
I took no time to wonder how he had seen through us; I seized my lightsaber and ignited it at once…
…then I felt the onslaught. I had never realized the strength Brenan wielded that he had been able to hold off this much power. As before, I felt the stars going out, I felt myself dying. I dropped to my knees and my lightsaber fell from my hands. With horrible certainty I knew that in moments my will would be extinguished and Lyrus would take me over, for real this time. And no doubt he would find no greater pleasure than watching me kill my beloved Master.
Brenan, Brenan…no…any fate but that one…
I was the Golden Padawan, there was no possible way the story could end with one of the Golden Pair destroyed at the hands of the other!
I realized Brenan was trying to help me, I felt energy from him and the stars brightened a little, life flowed back into me. I tried to stand…a little more strength and I could…I looked over to my Master and I could see he had shifted his concentration to helping me.
But no, this wasn’t good!
It was only by a nanosecond that my alarm preceded the disaster. I had no time even to think to cry out before I saw it happening. Lyrus took a wild and vicious swing…at first I thought Brenan had only dropped his saber, but then with a flash of secondhand pain I realized the truth:
The blow had severed both his hands.
Lyrus surprised even himself. In his glee he left off trying to crush my will.
Brenan dropped to his knees. Blood poured from his arms, he squinted and at once I realized it was not from pain, but because he was focusing to stop the blood flow before it killed him. This would take all his energy now.
Then I saw one of the hands next to him on the floor.
Horror was supplanted by rage: I would kill this fiend!
I seized my saber again and stood. Lyrus wheeled to look at me, holding me off with his own saber. “He can’t protect you anymore,” the Apprentice said, his voice dripping with smug triumph. “I don’t know how you evaded me before, but believe me, you’ll be my slave now until you die.”
I felt his power coming over me again. I looked at Brenan and he still sat on his knees, his head hanging now, but the bleeding had stopped. I could feel his consciousness almost gone. He seemed to be dying.
At this realization I was flooded with such fire as I cannot describe. It was not rage or passion, it was almost cold. I knew with certainty that I would see Lyrus dead before I saw the sun again. It was almost beyond a matter of will, beyond my desire…it was outside of the three of us, somewhere beyond. I felt nothing at all but the truth of what I had to do next.
I dropped my saber and slumped, as if in total surrender. Somehow it fooled Lyrus. He laughed and turned back to face Brenan, drawing back his weapon for the death blow.
Then in an instant I leapt across the space between us, till I stood between my Master and Lyrus. In my mind I called to Brenan, “Reach your arm up to me!” I put one hand behind me, behind my back, and felt for Brenan’s severed wrist. Finding it, I seized hold of him, my fingers gripping tight.
Lyrus hesitated. “Do you think I won’t kill you both?” he cried, enraged.
“Kill me if you want, I don’t care,” I told him calmly. “You never had my loyalty and you never will. He’s the only Master I’ll ever serve.”
I started to see Lyrus’s face go crimson with fury, but the image blurred. At the same time, I was jumping, into Brenan’s bloodstream. How thin and dark I found it at first, but in one quick circle I restored the flow of stars to brightness. I heard Lyrus shout at me, a command to move aside. Brenan’s hunger for light was immense, but I met it, I drew it from myself and also from what I found beyond us in the wider universe of the Force. Lyrus shouted again, but I didn’t move from shielding my Master, and I didn’t let go of his wrist.
I saw Lyrus draw back his lightsaber again, aiming clearly to take off my head. I gave the last of what I had to Brenan…
Then there was a blast.
Through the blur I saw Lyrus’s eyes grow large. His lightsaber fell to the floor. His chest caved in and he nearly doubled over, as if struck by a tremendous blow. Then a surge of blood burst from his mouth and he collapsed.
My Master spoke, from behind me, and his voice was strong and clear. “You wanted so much to know the identities of the Golden Pair, Darth Lyrus…well, they have just defeated you.”
I released Brenan’s wrist, and fell into a heap.
That was the last—I dropped into unconsciousness.
* * *
Blackness lightened to gray, I found myself in a strange bed…clean, fresh bedding. Then I remembered. “My Master’s hands,” I wailed, forcing my eyes open.
I was in a hospital room. Standing over me was Puer Xis. “Aelida Camil, hush now,” he told me in calming tones. “We saved his hands!”
Frantically I reached out with my mind to locate Brenan. I could find no sense of him anywhere. “I can’t find him,” I said, panicking. “Is he dead?”
“No, no, Aeli…” said Puer, taking hold of my arm. “He’s in surgery right now. It’s a complicated procedure but they’re confident his hands will be restored. He’s going to be fine.”
I sat up, my head swimming. “You saved his hands? How did we get here?”
Puer took a deep pensive breath, as if trying to determine where to start. “You were unconscious a long time, Padawan Aelida. Let me tell you what happened. The Jedi…we recovered ourselves immediately when Lyrus died. Recovered enough to function…but it will take some time to get over it.”
I lay back down, tired again. “Yes it will, Puer.”
“You know me?”
“My Master told me you saved his life.”
“Well, that debt has been paid now. When we all—came to ourselves—we remembered everything, we knew you two were down there with Lyrus. We found you both unconscious… we found Brenan’s hands. Rwan-Tem knew exactly what to do, and in fact, we got help immediately. You were both taken to this hospital, and the other injured ones as well.”
I saw then Puer’s bandaged arm. He caught my glance, and smiled. “Bren—that rascal—I have a word to say to him about this. I think he was trying to get me back for beating him at Azzipan dice.”
I laughed, and it felt good. In fact, it felt good simply to be alive and out of that hellish place, and free forever of Lyrus. A surge of joy filled my heart. “When can I see my Master?” I asked Puer.
“Let me talk to the physician, I’m sure you’ll be able to see him after he’s conscious again.”
The doctors had concluded I was unhurt, except for exhaustion, but wanted me to stay the day and night anyway to be certain. That was fine with me, I didn’t want to be any further away than that from Master Brenan. I dozed throughout the day and took a couple of small meals.
The transition from passing out in that nightmarish dungeon moments after evading death, then waking in this comfortable and cheery Naboo hospital with all of us safe and well, left me confused and unsettled. I still couldn’t shake the shame and horror of my behavior for those two days, the emotions I had experienced. Worst of all, it was impossible to erase the sight of my Master losing his hands. If I couldn’t see him, I wished at least I could feel that he really was alive.
A hologram was sent to me that afternoon from Mace Windu. He congratulated Brenan and I on our mission and told me we would be welcomed back to the Temple with much celebration as soon as we were able to return. He also passed along good wishes to me from Calnor, along with the happy news that Master Nago had chosen him as Padawan.
I fell asleep early, and then awoke in the small hours of the night. The hospital was quiet. At once I reached out for Brenan…
Ah, so you are finally awake.
“Master! Brenan, ar
e you well?” It was so good to sense him again, that familiar mirth and confidence, his warm golden spirit.
I feel infinitely better than I did on my knees before Darth Lyrus. And I’ve been told you are unharmed?
“I’m fine, although I should be headless. Can I ask this again, is there anything you can’t do?”
With the Force, all things are possible, Padawan. But right now, I seem unable to get out of this bed.
“I’m coming to you.”
I was already on my feet, and I put on the cloak I found on the chair. Brenan said no more, but he led me wordlessly through the halls; I turned this way and another without really seeing, until I was at his door. I opened it quietly.
My Master lay on his back, bathed in street light from the window. He seemed pale…but even in the dim light his hair was still like pure gold. He was…he was so beautiful I wanted to cry.
I saw his arms lying at his sides on top of the covers. They ended in heavy bandages; actually, I realized, casts.
“Yes, Aeli, there really are hands in there. Just not comfortable ones.”
“Brenan…”
I threw myself upon him and he raised one arm to rest it on my back. I clung tight around his shoulders and put my head on his chest. The past days overwhelmed me and all I could finally manage to say was, “Can you believe we’re alive?”
I raised my head to look into his eyes. He replied, “Some moments I can’t believe we’re alive…other times I wonder if we were ever in any danger at all.”
He smiled. I loved him so much.
“Aeli,” he said, “now that you’re here, I think someone needs to meet you.”
For a minute he closed his eyes. I sat up, waiting, watching his face, perplexed. Suddenly his face was illuminated with a strange light, that vacillated between green, blue, and orange. He opened his eyes and with a nod of his head, indicated over my shoulder. I turned…
A ghostly figure stood at the foot of the bed. He was tall and very thin, with long gray hair bound back, and black eyes. He nodded at me and smiled, an infinitely kind smile.
“Aeli,” said Brenan, “this is Master Teg of Aleyra.”
I turned around in my spot next to Brenan on the bed, to face the figure. “Master Teg…I’m so honored…” I said, overwhelmed.
“Master Auri-Owan…Padawan Aelida…son and daughter,” he said, obviously as moved as I was, which made me feel even more humble. “I wish to speak to you both, now that my dream is fulfilled.”
He took a deep breath, and I sensed how very old he was. Old, but incredibly strong. “Good Jedi, it may seem to you that fate decreed this end, but that is not so. I swept away some of the stars that might have been our fate, you swept away others, but until all was done, there were still many outcomes that might have been. By your courage and love the power of the Force held sway, and in the choices you made, it found a way to bring all to rights.”
I could feel Brenan very acutely then, and I knew he was thinking about Darth Sidious.
Teg, of course, knew this too. “Evil will always fight another day, Master Brenan. But remember, so will good.” He took a step closer and drew another long breath. “And so will you, my Golden Pair. It was not my calling to see the rest of your story, but since this is but the first chapter, you two have much left to write.” A sly smile came over his face. “You seem to write very well when you collaborate, I’d advise that for your next work.”
I felt Brenan chuckle next to me, and I laughed too. Then I managed to find my voice. “Master Teg, I want to thank you. Without you…I mean…I might never have found him, nor he me. My life…I…”
I could go no further. I felt Brenan’s arm come around my waist, the cast on his hand came to rest on my leg. I put both my hands over it and held on gently.
“Aelida, in some matters the Force is very hard to thwart,” said Teg with a half smile. “This was one of them.” His eyes turned to my Master. “I hardly need to tell you to watch over this one,” he said.
“With my life, Master Teg,” replied Brenan.
“And you likewise you, even less so,” Teg said to me.
I laughed. “My will does seem so inclined, Master,” I said.
“Whatever stars guide us next, I hope they will sometime bring you to Aleyra.” He raised his hand in blessing. “May the Force be with you.”
We replied in kind, and then the light went out. What a wonderful being…and without him, well, my mind couldn’t even grasp what would have been without him.
I turned to Brenan, who drew back his arm. I helped him position it back on the bedclothes. He winced.
“Oh, Brenan…does it hurt much?”
He settled down into the pillow. “What hurts most is my fear that I will be disowned.”
I gave him a quizzical look.
“Go in the drawer of the bed stand,” he instructed.
I reached over to the stand and opened the little drawer. In it I found a small cloth, which I drew out.
“Thank the gods Puer Xis was among those who rescued my hands,” said Brenan. “He knew enough to pocket it before it got misplaced.”
I unwrapped, of course, Brenan’s ring.
“You’ll keep it for me until I can put it back on? If I lose it, I’ll be disowned.”
I looked at him. His face was dead serious but he was wasting his time feigning this solemnity. In my head I could feel him laughing.
“I’ll keep it for you,” I told him, feigning solemnity of my own. “Until you win it back from me at practice sabers.”
Of course, he could feel me laughing too.
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