Chapter 9: The Count of Serenno (Patreon)

The night air of Serenno greeted me like a new friend, chilled against my skin. This kind of temperature wasn’t something you could get on Coruscant; the planetwide climate generators were never run hard enough to cool the world down that much; they would probably ice over before they could get cold enough.

Standing on my room’s balcony, staring into the night, I took a breath of air that felt all too natural to my lungs. The air on Coruscant had a filtered edge, logical considering there was barely any flora to produce oxygen, but looking out over the gardens to distant mountains, I found myself falling in love.

Just a little bit.

As into being a Jedi as I was, I couldn’t deny the beauty that Count Dooku had obtained by giving up the Order.

Looking out from the balcony over the darkened gardens of verdant greenery, I breathed in the life. Similar to the room of a thousand fountains, yet this felt strangely enough more constrained. Each plant was carefully manicured, and I could see droids moving about in the night, seeing to the gardening work with their servos humming quietly in the evening gloom.

Throughout the garden were interspersed stone paths, and several marble white fountains that burbled quietly in the slow heavy darkness that surrounded me. The artistry woven into the stone was immaculate and pristine despite the fact that they felt rather old to me.

Of course, I rather doubted my birth family was either rich or powerful, so it was probably a moot point.

I felt the Force shiver against me as Celeste shifted in the bed, well within a deep sleep, breathing long, deep breaths into the air, huddling in the sheets around where my body had once been, seemingly unconsciously searching for my warmth.

“Jacen,” she murmured softly, and I felt a flare of embarrassment come through our bond, even as she shifted further into my spot.

I felt a jab, as a fencer's poke against my mind, calm and disciplined, an expectant edge to it.

I let a small sliver of amusement reply and looked down to see Count Dooku sitting within the darkened gardens, a bottle set on a table and two glasses.

I leaped lightly into the air and came down in front of the man. “Master,” I dipped my head respectfully.

Count Dooku did not reply other than to raise an eyebrow and to gesture at the two glasses.

I took the seat on the chair next to him and reached out, pouring for him first over two large ice cubes and then less generously into my own glass.

I took my glass and rolled the dark blue liquid underneath my nose thoughtfully, a low warm scent filtering through my nostrils.

I took an experimental sip, letting the acrid taste filter over my tongue, the liquid's sweet thickness, and the small burn as it went down.

Count Dooku took a considerably more generous sip. “How is it?” he asked, the first words of the night.

“It’s nice.” I frowned at the man. “I admit I haven’t much knowledge when it comes to alcohol.”

Count Dooku chuckled, a deep, gruff thing. “Nor would I expect such of a Jedi Padawan, but it is a part of your training to correct now; you will need the ability in most societies that pass for polite. This is a Chandrillian whiskey, aged somewhere around 50 years.”

I nodded. So we were finally getting into the questioning.

I took another sip. “Why did you really retire to Serenno, Master?” I asked.

Dooku smiled, and his bitterness matched the drinks. “I wearied of laboring for a Republic that would sooner rot than suffer a single reform, and an Order that had long since abdicated its charge.”

“I assume then Galidraan played a part in that,” I said.

Dooku smiled again, but it was thin. “You are as direct as your saber work.”

“Perhaps I just know who I’m talking to.”

Dooku inclined his head. “I fear you have come a long way for something I cannot fully give you. I am no longer certain I possess the art to mend so ailing a patient; my manner has long become too coarse and rough.”

I nodded my head. “Truly, I cannot blame you; you know our hubris better than most. I admit I remain hopeful, the arrogance of youth perhaps.” I grinned patiently at the man, and Dooku chuckled.

Dooku sighed. “Still, I would know something of the man for whom I have waited these long years.”

Waited, did that mean Dooku’s sight was unimpeded?

“What would you know?” I asked, curiosity beginning to stir within me; he had really been entirely too accommodating, and to now have an answer…

“You are unusual, as is your relationship with your Master,” he began.

He was watching me closely, perhaps to see defensiveness, but there was no need for that; I wouldn’t advertise, but I wouldn’t lie.

“It’s necessary,” I replied. “By all means you may send a message to the Council.”

Dooku snorted. “You are not the first Jedi to have a relationship outside, or I suppose within the Order; you would be surprised what blindness the Order permits itself, so long as its Jedi remain in control of themselves.”

“That seems to be against the official policy,” I pointed out.

Dooku looked to the sky, seemingly thoughtful. “The Order does not act until a thing becomes inconvenient. An unusually close relationship has been disregarded in the past if the people within it seem balanced.”

So that’s what polite Jedi called it; I wondered what the unconscious Celeste, currently worn out again, would think of that.

“And you?” I asked. “What do you think?”

Dooku smiled blandly, though it was hiding something. “I am incapable of such attachments, but I do not presume to judge. I am, after all, no longer a Jedi.”

“You are no longer with the Order,” I corrected.

“You see a difference?”

“Once you become a Jedi, I do not believe that can be forsaken,” I replied. “A Jedi connects with the Force, uses it to make their judgments and for their reasoning. That does not change.”

Dooku nodded almost amicably at that. “My old Master Yoda, I think, has forgotten that; I sometimes wonder if he has willfully or merely coincidentally blinded himself to the present. Master Yoda has allowed Senate politics to dictate what Jedi should be and what they are simply because he fears a Jedi having any position of power.”

Fear and odd choice of words to describe a Jedi Master.

“There is a simpler answer.”

Dooku looked amused but waited.

“The Jedi exist as Guardians of the Republic; that I believe is what Yoda sees, but to him every Chancellor is one in a long line of those he has known. Every Senator may remind him of someone else. His view is of the past, and his wisdom is unassailable in such regard.”

Dooku inclined his head, encouraging me to continue.

“There is the inertia, though, the ennui of seeing the Galaxy, with all its problems, continuing to spin on. Master Yoda has probably long realized that he cannot save the Galaxy because, in truth, no one can; it’s too large.”

Dooku stroked his beard. “So you think he has just grown complacent.”

“Who would not?” I replied. “Surely the thought has occurred to you that for as long as the Jedi are the dominant power in the Galaxy there can be no change?”

Dooku’s face grew grave, and he did not respond for a long while as we sat with those words.

“I once had those thoughts,” Dooku admitted quietly. “Our sight I knew was darkening, and one night I went to meditate after troubled sleep, sure that the Jedi would soon no longer exist and that it would only be for the good of the Galaxy that the stagnating corpse of the Order was dealt with.”

The breeze blew softly against our skin, the night air cooling even further.

“I dreamed of a river, frozen over the top, snow gently resting on its surface. At that river were two children playing with each other, an older girl and a young boy, both similar in features with clear blue eyes and white hair.”

I did not say anything, even as Dooku brought one of my most treasured memories to the surface.

“It took two years. I tracked the family down to Eshan, the Sols; the Mother was a soft-spoken woman, Lianna, a former smuggler during the Stark Hyperspace War. I talked with her, and she admitted to me who the Father was. A man by the name of Yusanis Sol, though he was certainly not the man people think of when they say Yusanis; he was an Echani Jedi Master who helped lead the Jedi Forces within the Stark Hyperspace War, a man I was well acquainted with, a countenance like ice but with significantly warmer waters underneath.”

I continued regarding Dooku quietly.

“The boy was still young enough to become a Jedi, but the girl by the same reckoning was too old, or so I was told when I brought them to the Order; it was then I knew that I should retire.”

That was to be expected; it only made Ani’s own entry into the Order more surprising, though considering that even now there were Jedi unsettled about it…

“Why?”

He didn’t mention my mother’s own opinions either, I noted; I had always assumed we were given up willingly, but a part of me wondered.

Dooku chuckled. “I have never been able to abide wasted potential. I took her as my student.”

Considerably out of character for the Dooku I thought I knew, but there was something odd there, and it wasn’t just the fact he was training my sister.

“Yet you say you are no longer a Jedi,” I pointed out, ignoring for now what exactly he had revealed.

Dooku smiled, a small, wan thing. “I am not, but I believe it to be a shame that she will not be.”

I hesitated, unsure whether I should ask, but unable to restrain myself, my mind now fully frozen, “Where is she now?”

“As my heir, she is currently meeting with one of the boards of my holdings. I expect she will be back in several days.”

“You expected that I would come here?” I muttered.

Dooku raised an eyebrow. “I suspected that the Force would eventually bring you here, yes. After all, my vision was clear; you were both necessary if the Order was to survive. If the Republic itself was to begin to move forward again.”

I nodded my head slowly; ice fracturing in my river. My sister was now Dooku’s heir.

I closed my eyes, releasing my thoughts into the Force and waited for an indication of where I should go with this conversation.

“Why would you do this?” I asked, deciding now to get to the crux of the issue. “This is beyond any vision; you have a plan.”

Dooku gave me a grim look. “I do not believe the Republic will survive without the leadership of Jedi. Because of the Ruusan Reformation, that is impossible. Thus your sister has become my riposte.”

A silence split us. I fully froze my mind, removing every trace of feeling from my thoughts.

I finally realized what Dooku had been trying to steer the discussion toward: “I see now why you left the Order.”

Dooku dipped his head but did not respond. The silence became meditative, and I began to process everything I had just learned, just as I imagined Dooku needed time to mull my words.

Dooku was no Sith, but it did not mean he was particularly allied with the Jedi as they were. Still, I could now see why the Force had led me here. Yet my questions kept growing.

If Dooku was not a Sith Lord, then there was no one to lead the Separatists. The Separatists would need a former Jedi to lead them to start the public’s schism of faith from the Jedi Order as a whole. Sidious’s plan could work no other way.

Yet there were no living members of the Lost Twenty besides Dooku.

Even if I then expanded the list, the number of Jedi of meaningful notoriety to cause a schism was still relatively few.

Master Fay perhaps?

Strange. Why had my thoughts drifted to her? There was something moving in the current around me. So far out that I wouldn’t have been able to tell except it was so massive that its shadow carried regardless.

Master Fay was far from what I considered to be Sith material, at least from what I had heard of her.

Actually, from what I had heard of her, she was the closest thing to a living saint the Jedi had. Not even the most irritated of Senators had anything bad to say about the legendary Jedi Master.

I was attempting to find the Jedi that would become the Sith Lord; Master Fay could not be it, but perhaps, given that Dooku was not the Lord in question, Master Fay was not the worst choice for more information.

Finding her was another matter altogether.

I closed my eyes, letting myself submerge beneath the ice of my mind, searching for my feelings, watching the currents of the Force.

It was odd that only now, outside the Temple and its control, the Force seemed to be tugging on me so strongly.

Though perhaps that actually made sense: empowered and fully on this mission set by the Council, I had never had more freedom.

The Mandalorian question had resurged. Dooku’s further designs had appeared.

Now this new question of Master Fay.

I could see the path waiting, but the feeling I got through the Force was to wait. Like a sea creature drifting through the current, what I needed would make its way to me now that I was on Serenno in Dooku’s home.

Which meant that what I actually needed to do was none of those things. Instead, I needed to train Brianna because I could once again feel her tugging at our connection unknowingly, and she deserved more control than that.

Which meant another uncomfortable conversation.

Joy.

-

Brianna could not help but note that when Jacen and Master Morne had arrived at breakfast that morning, Jacen had a red bruise on his collarbone exposed by the fact he was only wearing a pale white free-flowing shirt.

Their breakfast had been served by a silver protocol droid, and Brianna was beginning to wonder if there was any other life in the estate than them and the former Jedi Master. Seemingly, Count Dooku did not favor any actual sentient beings as his servants.

Jacen did not seem to notice, and his Master made no comment other than a surprisingly self-satisfied smile edged with a small shyness and guilt that had flickered across her face when she saw that Brianna’s eyes had locked onto it.

Brianna had never wanted to know more and simultaneously less in her life.

“Are you free to train this morning?” Jacen asked, interrupting the peaceful silence.

Brianna’s eyes flicked to Master Morne, who was tapping away at a datapad with a free hand, the other being used to portion breakfast to her mouth, her brow furrowed.

“Train what?” Brianna asked cautiously, already knowing the topic but wanting to be clear.

“I wanted to help you with your connection to the Force, remember,” Jacen raised a hand to forestall Brianna bristling, “Again, it’s not just a Jedi thing, but you’re going to want to train your awareness, I promise you; with what we're up against, you’ll be much more vulnerable without it.”

Brianna noted that Master Morne’s hand had tightened on the datapad slightly.

She considered for a moment before she nodded, putting a smile on her face, wondering if she could push his Master just a little bit…

Master Morne’s eyes landed on her, warm brown eyes darkening a bit.

“Fine,” Brianna said, winking at Jacen, “If you want my company so badly, I’d hate to think you were lonely.”

Celeste raised an eyebrow, and for a moment Brianna felt like she was staring at a massive predator before Jacen’s hand landed on Celeste’s shoulder and she startled slightly to look at Jacen with a small frown.

“Jacen?” she said questioningly.

Jacen didn’t say anything, his hand trailing down to her back. “You didn’t need me for anything, did you, Master?” His tone was warm but controlled, and Brianna watched as he stole all her work from her in a second.

Celeste’s face was impassive, but Brianna could see her consciously controlling herself. “No, I can use the free time to work with Dooku on seeing if we can begin to put together some kind of search pattern.”

Jacen nodded and then, despite the fact that he was in front of Brianna and he was a Jedi, he shifted his hand up to the back of Celeste’s neck and then brushed a gentle kiss against her forehead.

Celeste averted her eyes, and she didn’t say anything, though she looked remarkably more composed now.

Brianna frowned at seeing her needling so easily dismissed; Jedi were really karkin weird.

They finished their breakfast, and then Brianna found herself following Jacen out to the gardens and then underneath a white stone arch out to a cliffside. He had disappeared into a small building set off to the side and returned with two holstered blasters and a complicated expression on his face.

She did not ask and merely took one of the blasters that he had passed to her.

“I didn’t know you could shoot?” Brianna couldn’t help the curiosity in her voice.

“I can’t,” Jacen replied dryly, “That’s something I need to work on, but thankfully it works for our practice; these only fire training blasts.”

Brianna nodded, still unsure of where this was going, as they walked out onto a large grey circle that sat on a cliffside just above a sharp fall-off to a valley of autumnal orange and purple leaves below, a lazy blue river twining through them

Jacen pulled out a satchel and began to pull training probe droids out, turning them on so they hovered in the air, slowly laying a field filled with the orbs.

Brianna watched with a raised eyebrow as he added orbs till there were ten of them and then turned back with a smile on his face.

He pulled out a blindfold and then stepped over to her, “May I?”

Brianna nodded hesitantly as he tied the black cloth around her head, covering her eyes.

The world was now dark, and she was truly unsure of what the purpose of this exercise was.

“Focus on your surroundings,” Jacen said calmly. “These orbs will float around you, and I want you to, when you’re ready, fire a stun bolt at one.”

“While I can’t see?” Brianna replied archly.

“Your eyes will deceive you,” Jacen said calmly. “You cannot trust them; the most important information you already know. Concentrate.”

Brianna rolled her eyes, though she knew Jacen couldn’t see them, and after a moment, realizing he wasn’t going to budge, she closed her eyes.

Now she stood in the same blackness a hand on the pistol feeling even more foolish.

Long minutes passed, yet Jacen remained unmoved, his hands crossed behind his back a short distance away from her.

“This isn’t working,” she turned to him.

“Then how did you know where I was?” Jacen replied.

His footstep- no, she hadn’t heard anything; she just knew where he was. It was kind of strange, actually, because despite not seeing him, she could also tell he was faintly amused from how he was standing.

Something flickered across her mind, and her blaster spun into her palm, and a shot echoed out.

She felt something like energy spark before there was a soft chime from the droid.

“Well done,” Jacen said, “Again.”

Slowly Brianna grew used to it, firing shots that hit every time as the droids became more erratic.

Then she felt it as one fired back, the energy lighting up to her, and she realized unconsciously her body had already rotated slightly, and the shot missed.

Brianna pulled off her mask, glaring at Jacen, who was smiling in a seemingly amused manner.

“Why’d they start firing back?” she growled.

“Because you were ready.”

“You didn’t warn me,” Brianna grumbled, looking away, caught off guard by the sheer belief in his tone.

“That would have defeated the purpose.”

Brianna growled and then spun in a circle, smooth movements she had long honed combined with the new awareness of her mind.

Her finger rapidly pulled the trigger, without so much as aiming for a second.

The drones all let out beeps and then lowered to the ground.

“Yeah, I figured it would be light work for you,” Jacen admitted in the new silence.

Brianna looked at him, then back to the drones. “I don’t understand,” she admitted. “I thought accessing the Force was supposed to be difficult.”

“I had wondered,” Jacen said, “But I believe I have an answer if you wish to hear it.”

Brianna looked at him, pushing her dark hair back. “What?”

“Focus on me. What do you feel?”

Brianna frowned and then let her eyes fall half-lidded as she attempted to reach out in a way she usually consciously prevented herself from doing.

She stood on a plain of ice, freezing wind wrapping around her; she looked about herself, both surprised and at the same time unsurprised.

“I can feel you,” she murmured, and then her eyes shot open as she finally spotted the current that was flowing between them, except not quite; a blockage of Ice prevented anything from passing.

“There’s something between us?” she murmured, not sure even if what she was seeing was correct, but how could it be correct? “I thought I saw it before on the Speeder when we were running, but now-“ she looked at Jacen, who had a small grimace on his face.

“You knew,” she said quietly. “Are you controlling me right now, Jedi magic?” She let loose a small instinctual growl, her hand going to her blaster.

Jacen did not make a single movement.

“Look where you’re standing,” Jacen said. “You can see the ice, can you not?”

More Jedi magic? Or was it true? Brianna felt sick; this was why you couldn’t trust Jedi.

“Say I believe you,” she bit out because she could tell, impossibly, he wasn’t done.

“I wanted to show it to you,” he said, “But I didn’t think words would best explain it. You needed to feel the connection on your own; I formed it between us by accident.”

Right, the thing she had consciously not asked him about. If she had known-

“Why?” she asked.

“There was something else attached to you,” he hesitated and shook his head. “Someone else,” he corrected; “It was how we were being tracked.”

Now there was sickness; something had been attached to her like a tumor.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” she kept herself steady.

“Because I wanted you to see it first. I’ve spent some time in archives, and I believe I know how to sever it safely.”

Brianna nodded her head, even more confused now, that feeling only just breaking through the anger now, “So why haven’t you?” she asked.

“Because while it was your choice that I ended up taking from you to subvert your previous connection, I wanted consent from you before I removed it.”

Brianna's anger shifted slightly, muddling even further against her will. That didn’t make sense. “So you saved my life, and now you’re asking permission to break this bond it formed. I don’t-” she was so confused; people in her experience didn’t do this. “I mean, you could probably just make me do what you want then; that’s what the original purpose of it was, right- for someone to control me?” She grimaced at the taste of those words, but she didn’t know how else to say them.

And now she was wondering. Is this what was going to happen to her in the Sun Guard? It wasn’t like the first bond had been benevolent. Were her former friends…

It was the only thing that made sense and all too clearly explained why Sun Guards were moving with such deliberate duty to arrest her.

Though maybe they would have done that anyway.

Was it why she had come with him?

Instantly she knew that was wrong; she had never felt him reach out to her again, and maybe he could hide it, but she didn’t think he would. More than that, the sensation she most trusted was tugging at her lightly; it said he was safe and if he was able to fool that she didn’t know what she could trust.

Standing on this plain of ice, she could feel it even stronger; she felt oddly at peace as snow drifted from the sky.

“I do not want to influence this decision,” Jacen admitted quietly. “This was a failure on my part and something that was wrong to do in the first place without permission.”

Brianna looked at him before her eyes narrowed. “Open up then,” she said bluntly. “I want to see underneath.”

Even if it cost her everything, she had to know; it wasn’t like she wasn’t living on borrowed time anyway.

Jacen frowned. “That could widen the connection. I don’t know if I could break it without serious harm at that point.”

Brianna didn’t care; she wanted to know exactly who this was. See for herself what made this Jedi so unreasonable, kind and pleasant, yet the warrior sat ever a breath away.

“That’s my decision, right? Or was that a bluff?”

Jacen raised an eyebrow before she suddenly was sucked through the ice, submerging in water for a second before now standing in a mountain clearing. A small river drifted by in front of them; its flow was seemingly covered by a massive sheet of ice that spanned the banks.

Jacen was standing next to her, and he took her wrist with a soft hand and then crouched down, and she followed the motion before he brushed a hand to the ice, causing it to crack, and then dipped her hands into the water.

It was warm, a soft, gentle heat that was entirely too comforting and-

She felt him.

Plain, honest fear. A low tinge at the heart. The fear of losing the Family he had been given. The Jedi. A fierce quiet love of the people who he considered stubborn at the best of times but still found wisdom and compassion that astonished him. That despite everything, the boy still wanted to save them.

For it was a boy walking among his heroes.

She didn’t understand, “You’re afraid,” she said.

Jacen's amusement swam through her. “Of course I am; I’d be a fool not to be. I am afraid, but I will not let it control me. Turn me into something I’m not. The ice is my thoughts. “

He nodded upward.

“And the water is my feelings. I can always see my feelings, but it is my thoughts that remain in control. It’s what keeps me from even being tempted by the Dark Side, even in a moment of weakness.”

“That’s…” Brianna shook her head. “That’s awful.” The words came out before she could stop them.

Jacen looked confused. “I’m sorry?”

Brianna shook her head. “You don’t feel anything? No emotions?”

Jacen shook his head. “You felt the water. I know that fear inside me. I’ve felt it, examined it, but I do not dwell on it. We are not the worst part of ourselves. That fear is a part of me, but even non-force users can be consumed by their fear, and they’ll make bad decisions. With Jedi it’s worse.”

Brianna frowned. “Worse? Like the thing we’re hunting?”

“Yes,” Jacen said, “I don’t believe my solution is the ideal, but it also guarantees I will not fall, and that is something I absolutely can’t allow.”

Brianna scowled. “Look, I’m sorry if this doesn’t compute with your Jedi wisdom, but I’m telling you that’s not going to work. You’re not resolving anything.”

Jacen looked confused. “I’ve analyzed the feelings in my own mind and considered them logically.”

Brianna wanted to punch him. “That’s not feeling. When was the last time you felt something?”

Jacen sighed, shaking his head. “I was two,” he said shortly, “And I’m not going to risk that. I’m sorry. It simply is too dangerous.”

Brianna groaned; she always thought Jedi were a bit screwy, but Jacen acted like this was so normal. She had felt it. “How long have you been doing this?”

Jacen looked down for a moment. “Since before the Jedi took me in, I knew I could feel the Force when I was a child. I knew that I had to control myself because the Force is not something to be touched idly; I knew exactly what I could become. Do you understand?”

He looked concerned, but it was a strange look because the concern was still only for her.

Not himself.

Something bitter spilled forth from her lips. “You were two.” She said quietly, “And what happened then?”

“I lost my sister,” Jacen chuckled, shaking his head. “The Order wouldn’t take her like me. I shouldn’t remember, but I do. It’s somewhat complicated. I really thought I would never hear from her again,” he bit his lip, shaking his head.

“She contacted you?”

Jacen rubbed his forehead. “She’s actually Dooku’s heir, adopted somehow. I didn’t even know where to begin with that, so I’ve left it to the side for now.”

Brianna wanted to laugh or curse. She knew she was taking this personally, but how couldn’t she? It’s not like she had much of a choice working for the Sun Guard, but it was a choice, and she had wanted to make her mark on the Galaxy.

This is what she got for her troubles: a Jedi so traumatized by whatever the Jedi considered training that he had hollowed himself out because he had lost his family.

He wasn’t even glad to see his sister now.

“And you were raised as a Jedi for what-“

“The last sixteen years, I hardly remember my birth family, honestly.”

Brianna shook her head, wondering if just for a moment her Father had a small point in his drunken rants.

“And your Master is…” Brianna’s gut turned.

“It’s private and unrelated.” Jacen shook his head. “I could have left the Jedi; I had the option when I wasn’t chosen at thirteen, but I knew I would be chosen by the time I was eighteen. Master Yoda felt something similar, so he allowed me to stay.”

Brianna frowned and wondered whether to even debate it before she immediately gave up; if Jedi were certifiable religious nuts, this guy was on another level.

Still, if this said anything, it at least said that Jacen felt he had a good reason for warning her away from the Dark Side.

And to her surprise and slight discomfort, she could feel Jacen’s presence behind those words. The emotions shifted and surged within him, but he remained calm; the waves surged in him, but it was the waves lapping against the cliffs. Seemingly stopped dead in their tracks.

“It’s actually pleasant.” Jacen smiled softly. “I think I understand why this thought scares you; Jedi often seem detached. I assure you I am not. I care deeply for the people around me, and I assure you I won’t let any of them be harmed as far as I am able.”

He meant that one as well.

Brianna tried to think for a minute. The Force made her nervous. It made any self-respecting sentient being nervous. Sure, most people said Jedi were great, but it was from a distance. Who actually wanted a Jedi near them? Too wise, too knowing, too detached.

She had thought that was it: Jedi were just too much better than normal people, but at least with Jacen it was different. He admitted fault easily and impartially; he had a warm, half-amused manner to him, gentle; he walked softly across everything.

She realized that while what he said freaked her out, it was also kind of comforting. He wouldn’t snap at any moment like her Father; he wouldn’t scream at her like her Uncle; he would calmly talk to her even about what was obviously sensitive personal information.

She even felt the flickering of his emotions when he did so, but it remained entirely removed from his decision-making, acknowledged but not controlling.

At those thoughts she felt a part of herself that she had been holding relaxed and she saw an inky blackness sink off from her skin dissolving into the water.

Her head felt clear, clearer than she had ever felt it. The lingering pain and fear in her mind dissolved, reduced down to the information but no longer tainted by the dark emotions that had been attached to them.

Brianna sucked in a breath, and she realized she was still standing across from him; the world that had been silent vibrated against her attention. She felt the life of Jacen, Master Morne, Count Dooku, and then further out, the insects and small animals that surrounded the estate. The vegetation of the gardens, the trees.

Jacen blinked, seemingly caught off guard, and Brianna instantly knew why as she felt his presence surge farther outward before it was wrapped up again, becoming invisible to her own senses even as the cord she felt going to him flared.

“It happened again,” Jacen muttered, shaking his head, and Brianna could only wonder what he meant.

Brianna was about to ask before the thought came instantly to her mind what Jacen was talking about because through Jacen she could now see another cord trailing off into the distance.

She did not attempt to grab it, though; she knew exactly who it was, even without grabbing the cord.

She had a dizzying sensation as she was pulled out of the current again and sat back on the ice.

“Careful,” Jacen chided gently, “You’re not experienced with this yet; you need to know how far to chase these feelings.”

Brianna nodded, taking a deep breath as she attempted to center herself. “That was,” she shook her head, a small laugh escaping, “a lot.”

“I believe it isn’t helped by the fact that I currently theorize there’s Force resonance between us occurring; you’re probably far stronger right now than you would otherwise be.”

That actually made sense. Brianna shook her head and then unbuckled her belt, staring seriously at Jacen. “You know Echani tradition, right?”

Jacen raised an eyebrow, but that did not stop him from beginning to pull off his own shirt, exposing hardened muscles flexing against the sun.

Brianna released a breath of relief that she wouldn’t have to explain because it was too much to be spoken, and if she was going to have to get to know this Jedi through the Force, she wanted to know what he felt like on her own terms, properly.

Even if most other Echani might see it as courtship.

Jacen soon stood only in a pair of slim white undershorts that barely reached down his calf, and Brianna stood in a black tank top, which was all she needed to keep her breasts contained, along with black panties which clung to her hips.

They regarded each other for a moment before Brianna sprinted forward and Jacen caught her hand to the side, gently sweeping her away, before he attempted a grapple, his hands sliding to lock around her wrist.

She twisted in his grip and slid a foot forward to break his footing, only for Jacen to hop it and send a bruising palm forward.

It was a classic Echani movement, and while it was technically perfect, it was clear from how he braced his muscles that he hadn’t ever had to truly compete with someone in hand-to-hand combat, and certainly not an Echani.

She let the palm come and turned inside it, letting it slide past her ribs, and hooked her heel behind his knee.

She felt Jacen tense; something surged through him for a moment before he went down to one knee. From the braced low position he came up in a low guard she recognized as well.

He learned this from a library.

The realization was so absurd she almost laughed. Every line of it was correct. The weight distribution, the angle of the wrist, the way he kept his chin tucked. Perfect, in the way a thing was perfect when it had never been broken.

She came at him again.

This time she did not go for the takedown. She struck at his shoulder, his hip, the outside of his thigh, a scatter of taps that meant nothing individually, and Jacen answered each one exactly as the form said he should, and Brianna read every answer.

Each response simple: I won’t lose.

Not never been beaten; she could feel the callus of that somewhere in his movements. Never lost. Never been defeated by the world and given up.

She hit him in the sternum hard enough to send his feet sliding.

Jacen absorbed it, breathed out, and came forward, and for a moment his form fell away into something heavier, something that wanted to end the exchange rather than continue it. His palm caught her braced arms and drove her back three paces through the dust, and she had felt him soften the blow at the last moment as well.

There. That was the Jedi bleeding through, she could tell, the saber form worn under the Echani like a shirt under armor.

Brianna shot forward and then went low, going for his ankles, to put him on his back on the platform.

Jacen hopped it and then came down on the ground with her, going for another pin, and she realized his issue. He didn’t intend on attacking back; seemingly without a saber, he was unwilling to go for finishing moves because he had no desire to inflict pain.

She was on him before he could roll, diving through a gap where she saw him hold back a punch like she knew he would. She placed her left forearm almost gently across his collarbone, her knee pinning his hip, breathing hard, her hair hanging down around them.

And Jacen smiled up at her.

No flush of shame, no scramble, no flare of temper through the cord in her chest attached to his just a warm excitement. She was pressing a man into the ground with all her weight, and what came back through the bond was… care.

Brianna’s cheeks flushed brilliantly.

Brianna realized now the position she had taken, though such was far from enough to fluster an Echani warrior.

Her Father would have hit her, she thought idly. Her Uncle too. Why didn’t Jacen?

“You let me win,” she accused.

“No,” Jacen said as he stared up at her. “I don’t really fight hand to hand most of the time. Not without Force augmentation.”

Brianna's jaw tightened, and despite herself, a flare of interest went through her. “You mean those superhuman feats I’ve seen you pull?”

Jacen nodded.

“Why didn’t you use them?”

“Because this was a contest of skill, not strength,” Jacen replied.

Brianna couldn’t even counter that; there was a point there she knew well. Just because he could send her flying with a punch didn’t prove he was the more skilled warrior.

And now that she thought about it, a part of her kind of wondered if she was going to be learning this Force nonsense if he could teach her that.

It might be worth it after all.

“You’re hurt,” Jacen said, and now Brianna realized what their fight had given the man just as it had given her, “I should have realized.”

Brianna shook her head instantly, attempting to deny it; Jacen smiled gently.

“You favor defensive movements; you fight singularly aware no one will have your back.”

Brianna grimaced and looked away; lying to other Echani was always difficult, but lying to an Echani Jedi was turning out to be even more difficult than she had expected.

She couldn’t talk right now; that had been too much, too intimate. “I need some time,” she said, turning away and bending down to grab her clothes, not even in an exaggerated way to tease him like a part of her wanted to; she just needed a moment.

Unfortunately, she also knew he probably felt it from her as well, especially considering the bond.

She walked away as quickly as she could, though she knew the only reason his eyes were on her was in concern.

Unfortunately, that just made it worse.

Because she really would have preferred it for any other reason.