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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Ankh-Morpork Guard" data-source="post: 3688353" data-attributes="member: 10079">Chapter 502: Jedi to JediThey were kids...just kids. Two damned little kids with a name that made them famous. Not even Knights yet, they were on Centerpoint as the Jedi that were supposed to assist in the operation. It wasn’t their fault, directly, at least they both ended up deciding not to act and fire the weapon, but they could have stopped the one who did. Not by killing him, either, a Jedi Knight would have had that kind of experience.    But no.    No, the Solo kids were special. Despite the fact that the oldest of them was Tobias’ age and couldn’t have had the kind of experience necessary in such a situation. And now, their relative, who had fired the weapon, was being hailed a hero in the Corellian system. Sal-Solo was a monster and everyone should have known that by now but apparently that didn’t get through to people.    Venda sighed and stared at the blank holoprojector. After sending a report back to Master Skywalker on Coruscant, she’d been updated on what had happened. None of those thoughts were actually spoken out loud, that wouldn’t be polite. The kids were his nephews, anyway. It wasn’t the only thing she neglected to speak, as everything about Alraxia was carefully left out, too.    That, alone, had been an amazing work that Venda felt she deserved a medal for. While she didn’t actually lie to Skywalker, slipping any untruth past the Grand Master of the Jedi Order wasn’t exactly easy, or something Venda liked to do. But she was keeping her word about staying silent about Alraxia.    The hardest part about it was that she truly wanted to tell him about the Jendari. While Venda had only interacted with Master Skywalker in delivering reports and receiving missions, he had given her some very helpful advice through the years. On the Jendari, she really felt the need for it. It was bothering her more and more as Vend ahad time to think about it.     The problem of it that was eating at her wasn’t that they knew where to send her, or the fact that she’d need to be there to find Tobias and Corentan...it was that the entirety of that relied on her looking at the message in time to change course and get to Fondor quickly. And that was the crux of it, she had. Venda had looked at the cryptic message and figured it out at just the first time to drop out of hyperspace and change course. Any later, and she likely couldn’t have even safely dropped out of hyperspace. Sooner...and she’d have been caught in the battle or, worse, Centerpoint’s attack.    It meant that the Jendari knew exactly when Venda would look at it, and exactly how she would react. Venda was not very good at looking into the future, herself. She could see a few moments off, maybe slightly farther, but it was always hard to make sense of and never at all specific. From what she knew, there were some Jedi that were skilled enough to look days, or more, into the future...but it was never definite or, from what she was told, extremely accurate. But the Jendari had to have known the exact moment and exactly what she was going to do. For them to know that, despite the difficulties of the future always changing and shifting, almost worried Venda.    It would have helped if Master Skywalker had needed her to do something, but he hadn’t which meant Venda was on her own again. She liked having a specific task to accomplish, especially when her mind was latching onto thoughts that were distracting her.    Thankfully, her thoughts were ended by a ripple in the Force. It was familiar, and strong enough that she could identify it without too much trouble. Corentan was conscious again. Deciding she needed to figure out what she was going to do next, Venda got to her feet and left the small galley she had been wasting time in to head for the medical ward where the Jedi Master had been taken.    Venda found the Omwati sitting up and meditating, the Force flowing off of him strongly. He was healing himself. But when she took a few steps into the room, the feeling ended and he opened his eyes. Slowly, the Force withdrew from around him and he nodded to her, speaking in a voice that was weaker than she was used to hearing from him, “Tobias told me what happened. You have my thanks.”    Thank the Jendari.    “How are you feeling?” Venda kept her thoughts to herself.    Corentan took a deep breath and shook his head, “Its been a long time since I’ve had to use my lightsaber. This has taught me the lesson to stay in practice.”    Even though his voice remained rather flat, Venda could sense it was a subtle joke, and so she smiled, “A few scars are nothing to worry about. Besides, it seems to me that you’ve done a good job with Tobias.”    “He is learning,” Corentan nodded, “But he still has a great deal more to learn.”    “We all do,” Venda said with a shrug, then decided to cut the small talk and ask a question, “Where are you headed to next?”    For a few moments, the Jedi Master remained silent. After some of the New Republic medics passed by, he spoke up again, “Did you ever meet my first apprentice?”    Venda quickly reached through her memories, latched onto one, then asked, “The Miraluka? Once, yes.”    “Tobias and I came here looking for him,” Corentan was keeping his voice somewhat lower now, obviously not wanting everyone around them to hear, “Tokarr was...he is skirting a dangerous line. Speaking with him before the battle only proved this and he got into a fight with Tobias when I wasn’t there. And now...well, I can no longer feel him here on the ship where he should be. I would know if he was killed, instead he simply not here.”    It wasn’t hard for Venda to connect the dots that were being placed in front of her, “You think he slipped away during the battle.”    “I’m sure of it,” the Omwati nodded, “He is close to crossing the line, if he hasn’t already. He can’t just run free with the galaxy as it is...or something like what happened here will happen again.”    Corentan couldn’t know that the Solo kids were involved with Centerpoint. He was unconscious. But Venda wasn’t about to think that this Jedi Master didn’t feel that some Jedi was involved. She couldn’t sense it, but then again, Venda still found herself overwhelmed with the shadow of the deaths.    That was when the Jedi Master added, “It is going to be days before I am in any shape to chase after Tokarr. With that kind of time, he could easily disappear.”“You want me to go after him instead,” Venda had always been good at reading people, and having the Force to assist made her instincts even more reliable.    “And take Tobias with you.”    Okay, so sometimes her instincts were completely off or missed something important, “Buh...I’m just a Knight.”    “And I am just a diplomat,” the Jedi Master smiled, “Tobias can learn a great deal from you...besides, if I remember correctly, you are very good at finding people.”</blockquote>

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