Every night, a dream. The same dream. The dream about a golden ship bedecked with skulls and cannons. The Materium is torn open and a great rift a thousand meters in diameter is formed. Tendrils of warp-stuff in myriad colors spew forth from the rift as the Imperial ship glides forth. Hollow eyes and guns-a-plenty keep endless watch in all directions, but the greatest eye of all is that behind the helm. The Navigator’s. Yours.

Every morning — in Coruscant time, that is — you awake awash in confused emotions. There is never enough information to satisfy your lack of knowledge. What is the meaning behind it all? Who are you?

While confused, you are still thankful to not be the receiver of nightmares. The dream just feels right, like a habit once lost but recovered once again. One thing does intrigue you, however. What is it that allows the ship to enter, or exit, the warp?

Is it a machine? Something like a hyperdrive? You cannot even begin to comprehend how that would work! But then again, you don’t understand how a hyperdrive works either. Perhaps, if there were many people like you who had experienced the warp, then a collection of knowledge could be established, enabling them to build a device to breach into the Empyrean? But again, that would rely on countless numbers of people who understood the warp well. And you are the only person you’ve ever heard of who has even glimpsed the warp, let alone understood it.

But, perhaps, you could do more? You experienced the Empyrean in a… dream. Twice, maybe. What you see with your “warp-senses” is mostly nothing related to the warp. You only ever see warp-stuff within yourself. Of course, there was that clock, but it seemed to have been tainted during that event, probably by you.

Is there a way for you to look into the warp proper? Tear your own way into the Immaterium? Tear a hole big enough for a ship to pass through? That would be… horrifying. If you could open a hole from reality to the warp, wouldn’t it be hypothetically possible for one of those monsters to do so in the other direction? But, maybe not. If that were possible, then you’re pretty sure the Galaxy would be swarming with those monsters by now. But, either way, you don’t think it would be a very good idea to invite them into the Galaxy by opening a door for them. You’re not sure how it was done in your dream without any monsters squeezing through behind the ship, but you’re not about to try it yourself anytime soon.

Well, at least you wouldn’t open a big hole. Maybe one just big enough for you to squeeze through… On second thought, that still seems like a really bad idea. You’ll leave it alone for now. It’s not like you even know if it’s possible to do that anyways. It’s probably more likely that a hyperdrive or “warp-drive” was made for a ship like that.

Yes… That sounds about right.

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Master Fulier seems to spend most of his time in his quarters meditating. The rest of the time is taken up by what looks to be paperwork, and making sure that you and the others don’t cause too much trouble for the pilots. Right now, he is lounging around in the common area reading up on something and marking down notes on the side. You’re a bit curious about him and what he does. The first time you ever met him was when he greeted you and the others on the landing pad, so you have no idea what he usually does.

The roles of the Jedi are just as varied as the roles of the average citizen, or so the Masters profess. The Jedi are often just seen as the “peacekeepers” of the galaxy, but within the ranks of the Jedi are so many different “professions.” For example, Master Masbau spends his time as a Temple Guard, but he was once a Jedi Peacekeeper. Confusing, but that is a role of its own. As a Guard, he simply guards important parts of the Jedi Temple, such as the main entrances. As a Peacekeeper, his tasks mostly involved aiding Coruscant Security Forces in policing operations. He also has close ties with the Jedi Investigators, yet another branch that works in tandem with law enforcement.

You’re not really sure what Master Fulier does, but whatever it is, it might not be too important considering he’s currently stuck on what’s essentially baby-sitting duty. But, since he’s here, you might as well see if you can learn anything from him. He is a Master afterall. He must have something to teach. Maybe he’d even be a potential Master for you?

Apparently not. It appears that he already has a Padawan; one Etain Tur-Mukan. As for what he’s willing to teach you… Well, it’s not exactly the most interesting of subjects. It’s “economics theory.”

“This is a treatise on the diplomatic conflicts between the Core Worlds and the Outer Rim. According to this author, the issue lies with cultural conflicts between the two sides. In this chapter, he claims that conflict between the Outer Rim and the Core Worlds was inevitable, purely because the ways of living, the standards of living, the cultures are different.”

“That doesn’t sound right, Master Fulier.”

“And you’re exactly correct. While cultural issues do arise, and often are the leading causes of war, what we’re facing now is heavily influenced by economics… How much do you know about the current issues? Actually, how much do you know about money?”

“I know a bit. And, money is… Money is a means to an end, at least for Jedi.”

“But, for others, money is everything. Hmm. Let me tell you a story.”

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Some years ago, back when I was a Knight, I visited a small theater in the Uscru District to see a play of Petra Pott. Have you heard the story before?

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No? Well, it’s about a young girl who lives in a fantastical world where nothing changes. It is perpetually day and the sun shines merrily forever. The land is wild, free, and beautiful in its bucolic ways. And, most importantly, no one ever ages. The girl, Petra Pott, spends her endlessly youthful days with her friends, children who she has rescued from abusive families and underfunded orphanages — a tragically common trope in these types of stories — as well as with her best friend of all, a strange little flying creature named Belle. They play and are always happy, until one day a band of dreadful adults crashland on the planet. And these aren’t ordinary adults either! No, they’re pirates!

The tyrannical adults take the land for granted, ripping it up and looting as much as possible. They take the wondrous world for granted, only seeking to loot as much as possible and gather enough resources to repair their ship. And, because they’re terrible adults, they’re also lazy. After all, what can you expect from people who steal for a living? And so, they don’t want to do any of the actual work of scavenging for materials and actually doing the repair work. Instead, they’d rather try to get the indigent children to do all the work for them.

…Yes, I’m getting to it. You’ll see what I mean.

…

I swear this is about economics. Everything boils down to that. Now, hush. That was just setting up the story. You told me you hadn’t heard the story before, and this needs proper context. Yes, I know the story’s bad.

…Yes, yes. I made some details up. I can’t remember everything. But, I remember the important parts! Just let me continue, please.

Alright, so the pirates — that is, the terribly evil and horrendous adults — are wasting their time committing the crimes of attempted human trafficking and child labor violations. I say attempted, because the children are obviously too skilled and quick to be caught. When the adults do catch up, the children fight back, leading to epic clashes. Somehow, the children are quite adept at martial arts and the adults have completely forgotten that guns don’t work well when you don’t aim. So, despite the many battles between the two groups, the children are doing just fine and the pirates aren’t getting anywhere. Except, one day, the beloved friend of Petra Pott, the little creature, Belle, of a species called the Fae, is captured by the pirates.

Belle, despite her puny size — she’s supposedly the size of my fist — is forced to start repairing the pirates’ ship on her own. I’m not exactly sure how that’s supposed to work, but that’s how it goes. Maybe she could use the Force, but if she could, then she probably wouldn’t have been caught.

Anyways, she’s caught, and it’s tragically discovered that she’s rapidly losing energy and will soon die. Her species, the Fae, cannot consume food the same way we can, so it is impossible for her to replenish her energy. So, what does she actually feed on?

Well, it turns out that she feeds on the energy of friendship. Yes, it’s exactly as cretinous as it sounds, but the story is meant for children.

Sorry, I didn’t mean it like that. I meant very young children. Younger than you.

Eventually, Petra Pott and her gang rescue poor little Belle from the pirates and spirit her away back to their base of operations. But, at this point, Belle is dying.

Let me back out of the scene a little bit. There I am, sitting at the back of the theater, squinting to see what’s going on and straining my ears to hear past all my chatty neighbors. The actress playing Miss Pott is down on her knees in the center of the stage, crying as “Belle” dies. And Belle is just a little lantern hung on a string from the ceiling. To show that she dies, the lantern just dims and flickers until it eventually goes out.

And then, the stage lights go out. The stage goes dark, and the scene is over. Dead Belle. Grieving Pott. The end.

But, is it really over?

The lights turn on a little itty bit, just barely illuminating Petra Pott standing over the darkened lantern. And she, the excellent actress that she is, says to the crowd,

“Clap, if you believe in magic.”

And the room starts clapping.

Louder.

And faster.

And louder and faster.

And the lantern flickers.

On and off.

Just a bit.

But as the clapping continues, cheers start to ring out from the audience…

It rises!

The lantern is lit!

Belle is alive!

And I have the most wondrous epiphany.

This is exactly like economics! This is how money works!

Money…

Money is magic!

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You stare in disbelief at his concluding statement. Is this really what all that was leading up to?

“Don’t give me that look. This is my most excellent and original economic theory. Look, money works by belief. Everybody believes in the buying power of the all-powerful Republic credit. If we all suddenly thought credits were worthless, then they become exactly that. Worthless.

“Everything — from galactic economics and politics to ethics and morality — works exactly this way. People all believe in one thing and it just becomes so. So, while this book is absolute nonsense, the more people read it and believe in it, the more it becomes true. And this is a problem. We, as Jedi, are in a unique place both within and without the system to make a major difference. The political differences between the Outer Rim and the Core Worlds is caused by cultural differences, economics, and a hundred thousand other divisive issues. It is our job to understand and solve these issues, as no one else can.”

Master Fulier seems to be in the same camp as Master Jinn. There are traditional Jedi. And then there are… passionate Jedi. Those that, according to the more traditional, have some… discipline issues.

“Master Fulier, is it even possible to fix what’s going on? Fix the Separatist Crisis?”

“I… I don’t know, Xena. But, we do what we must. Many worlds are suffering because of it, and we will simply do our best to ease their suffering. Mayhaps we can do more. Well, we can always do more. I believe we can do more.”