Master Corr’s description of the clothing was almost insultingly simple, but surprisingly apt. Once she left the room, you opened your warp-eye to have a look, and see almost exactly what she described: a fancy, red and gold cloak. It looks to be slightly too big for you, as she said, but once you grow a bit, you’ll have no trouble fitting into it. Then again, the only real difference your growth would make would be to prevent the hem from trailing along the ground. As it stands, if you were to wear this right now, at least a few centimeters of the cloak would be constantly dragging behind you, which is a shame, for along its outer edges — the cuffs, the rim of the hood, the trim — is a beautiful band of shining gold.

If it weren’t for the larger, more flamboyant sleeves, you’d think this is just a recolored cloak that Master Masbau had laying around. However, when you look at it more closely, you see a hint of something familiar.

Warp-stuff.

The cloak seems to be soaked in shining warp-stuff, but, in comparison with the metal bird sitting just to its right, it’s downright dull.

The two-headed bird is ever so familiar and positively radiant with warp-energy. It shines so brightly in your sight that you’re afraid you’ll go fully blind! However, after a few minutes, your warp-eye seems to adjust. Perhaps the drought of warp-energy in the Materium has just made your sight sensitive.

What are these things, and why do they feel so familiar? Clearly Master Masbau didn’t make them, and you doubt that he could have just procured them from somewhere. So, how? Perhaps he’s left a clue…

You can’t see anything out of place with your mundane sight. However, in your warp-sight, you see an odd shape within the warp-energy in the left sleeve of the cloak.

You concentrate your will, then prod at the sleeve with the Force. The dark shape remains.

With a bit more concentration, you lift the sleeve and shake it, allowing the shape to slide down and out. There! A folded sheet of paper. Since it’s so light, it’s easy enough to pull it toward you, but it takes a significant amount of focus to maintain the dexterity needed to unfold it, and then hover it in front of your face,

Xena, it reads,

Hopefully you’re the one reading this (If you aren’t Xena, please give this note to her). Firstly, I must apologize. I am deeply sorry for not being there to bid you goodbye, and even more remorseful for failing to keep you safe. I should have been there for you. I should have held you back.

I made mistakes, and now I must atone.

Though I feel I could do more for you by your side, I heed the Council’s orders. Do not worry, for I trust them almost as much as I trust you. I have spoken with the Council and provided as much information as I could. With this, they will hopefully be able to aid you more than I could.

I have left behind a few things for you. Firstly are the items that are already yours. When I found you all those years ago, you were wrapped up in this cloak. I know not who it first belonged to — perhaps your progenitor’s, perhaps not — but I believe it to belong to you now. The bird too came along with you, having been wrapped up in the cloak when I found you. Hopefully you will one day make sense of its origin or its use. These were locked away for safe-keeping shortly after you were found, but I decided I would find them and return them to you now that you are older, and hopefully more responsible.

Second, is my guardsman’s mask. I cleared it with Master Drallig first, so do not worry about any of that. However, you do not have permission to actively wear it around the Temple. Please refrain from doing so as there are rather painful consequences for both you and me if you do. If you really want to wear it, you must first ensure it does not look like that of a Temple Guard. Change it. Paint it. Do whatever you want to it. But, whatever you do, do not paint a skull on it! You are a Jedi. Think about what would happen if someone were to see you with that on your face!

The final thing I leave with you is ‘help.’ I have contacted a couple friends of mine to give you some assistance. However, this did come with some stipulations. These will be surprises though, but I am sure you’ll enjoy at least some of what is to come.

Again, I apologize for my failure as well as my inability to be there for you. I wish you the best in whatever you decide to do next.

We will speak again. That, I know. May the Force be with you, Xena.

– Bren Masbau

A faint hissing sounds out into the silent room. You look up and around, wondering where it’s coming from before realizing what it truly is.

It’s you.

Your eyes, your “normal” eyes that is, feel moist. You’re… crying?

You are. The noise comes from within your own head. Literally. The hissing noise is the sound of your tears instantly evaporating as they form, heated by the flames in your otherwise empty sockets. You open your eyelids and two wisps of steam float out.

Why are you crying? You’d already been over this, right?

No… He’s actually gone, and despite your resolution to face your future head on, you’d not been expecting this. Your mentor. Your friend. He’s gone while you remain.

Of course, he’s not dead, but, what are you going to do now? He’s always been the first person you go to for advice, even ahead of your longtime caretaker, Master Binaj. He’s the one who’s been helping you with all this… groxshit. And, because of you, he’s been banished! He can no longer help you. He won’t be there to listen to your triumphs and complaints.

Your friends are your friends. They cannot replace Master Masbau’s companionship, despite their camaraderie with you. The Council is the Council. They cannot replace his wisdom, borne from years of experience dealing with you and your shenanigans. And, whoever he contacted to grant you aid will likewise never be able to replace him in any way, shape, or form.

He’s truly gone.

And it’s due to your own failures, despite his reassurances otherwise.

You really messed up this time, didn’t you? Not only were you grievously injured, but you got Master Masbau kicked out. The consequences extended past only you. Your friend, your Master in all but name, paid for it.

You failed this time.

But you can do better the next. You will do better and better, and better… You’ll succeed, or fail, over and over again, growing each time, until you never fail again.

…

Resolve reinforced, you sit there, fighting off the remainder of the tears. They run down your cheeks — one side interrupted by a round paper circle — and drip off your chin, soaking the top of your gown. You’re forced to sniff back the snot built up during your self-pity session, which quickly becomes rather uncomfortable. Fortunately, the medical droid swoops back into the room to check on you not five minutes later and patiently wipes it all away as you snort it back out.

≡][≡ ⬦⬦⬦ ≡][≡

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

It’s full of stars…

Twinkling, scintillating diamonds of Force and astronomic energy, literal light-years away. You trace their paths across the black nothingness of space, tracking where they’ve been and calculating where they will be in a million-odd more years.

The roll of the universe continues on and on. A revolving, three-dimensional platter of celestial bounty. The pull of gravity is visualized, just as clearly as anything else. Lines of potential fly across the backdrop of sidereal formations and whirlwinds of Force, sketching out the contours of galactic change, drawing your eye around and around and eventually into invisible points of disastrous singularity. The whorls of starburst events and horizons of prehistoric dawns fill your sight, endless and unbound, utterly fascinating you.

You look around, warp-eye blazing in the darkened room, looking through the material world and out into the void far, far beyond.

A dreamless sleep preceded your current bout of star-gazing. After you had a good cry, you followed it with an exhausted, deep sleep. For once, it was truly dreamless, for which you are eternally grateful. Your medically induced coma seems to have nothing on proper rest. Now, you feel… better. Slightly.

Your arms and eyes still hurt, but not as much as when you first woke. Strangely enough, you could swear you can feel yourself healing, which is certainly a trick of your mind for you cannot tell at all by any of your ridiculous senses. Whatever the feeling is, it does at least make you feel better knowing that just sitting here and resting isn’t as much a waste of time as you would think.

After all, there’s still so much to do!

But first, you want to take a moment to relax and watch the harmonic movements of ancient performers. The Bloodlust can wait. The exploration can wait.

You’re sorta training your eye right now, anyway.

And so, you relax, and watch the stars.

≡][≡ ⬦⬦⬦ ≡][≡

You’re awake again.

The clock in the corner of the room indicates it is late afternoon — near time for your friends to make their visit. You’ve not seen anyone other than that droid for most of the day. Honestly, it’s starting to grow on you, having acquiesced quickly and efficiently to all of your requests so far, not unlike one of the…

The what?

The thought slips away from you as you think it and you’re left pondering what it is that eludes you. Why does this keep happening?

These thoughts, these words and phrases, they keep popping up in your mind. The terms you now use — the Empyrean, the Immaterium and Materium, the Warp — all spring from the depths of your mind. Why do you just know these things? What is it that you are missing? Some things just slip out of your subconscious and into your internal monologues. Some things, like just now, slip out and then away; an endless annoyance to your curious mind.

You do have a new tool to play with, one that apparently works with thoughts and minds. Perhaps this new puzzle is something you should train it on? On the other hand, messing with your own thoughts could prove dangerous, even if all you’re doing is tracking something down.

But, you also have a hunch. These odd thoughts of yours are just as odd as anything else going on with you. And what is more odd than the big ol’ ship inside of you? The one that you feel a strange connection to?

You’re about to start weighing your options when you feel the familiar presence of Master Corr hurrying down the corridor. Her feet slap against the ground as she jogs her way over, bursting into the room with nary a friendly greeting. You keep your warp-eye closed, but cannot help but inspect her with your witchsight.

Her emotions, normally filled with exuberant joy, is marred by sticky-orange irritation and an unhealthy dose of worry. You tilt your head as you look in her direction, waiting for her to speak.

But, speak she does not. Instead, she strides over to the console in the corner of the room and starts tapping away furiously. The audio feedback sounds out into the room, interspersed with her heavy breathing. Finally, she turns to you, sighing out her annoyance, and speaks.

“Hello, Xena. How are ya feelin’?”

“I’m doing better, I think. How are you?”

“I am… fine. But, I have some bad news for you.”

You scrunch up your brows at that. Hopefully it’s not medical.

“What is it?”

“Well, there’s also good news. Everybody always wants the bad news first, so I’ll start with that — unless you have any objections?”

“No.”

“Alrighty. Well, it turns out that the High Council has done something I thought nearly impossible. They met and actually made a decision in less than a day!”

At that, she claps her hands. Unfortunately, you cannot join her in applause so you just shrug your shoulders.

“So, what’s the bad part?”

“They discussed you. It’s never good when someone talks about you when you ain’t in the room, and it’s especially bad when it’s the High Council of the Jedi Order! They talked about what’s gonna be done about you. Obviously, they have more questions. Many more questions. They’ll be back to ask them later. In the meantime, they’ve decided they’re going to defer your Trials.”

“What?”

“You’re going to have to participate in the next round of Trials.”

“WHAT?!”

“Yes. I know I couldn’t give you a good estimate earlier on when you’ll be ready to leave the Halls of Healing, but I wouldn’t give it more than another month or two. You’d then be ready to go through some physical therapy. Even if it did take longer than usual to complete that stage, you should still be eligible to undergo the Trials while recovering. Not all of the Trials require physical capability after all. However, the Council, in their infinite wisdom, have decided that you should be kept on probation until they are sure you are safe.”

“Safe from what?”

“Yourself, I suppose. Or, safe to be around.”

You frown at that. Everything you’ve dealt with only resulted in physical harm to yourself! There’s no way you’d hurt anybody else. But, perhaps this is your punishment. After all, it’s only fair that you be punished as well. Master Masbau wouldn’t have to suffer the indignity he currently faces if it weren’t for you.

“So, when is the next set of Trials?”

“It’s rather flexible, actually. Usually, batches of Initiates are deemed ready all at once due to the clan system. However, the Trials can be administered whenever an Initiate is ready, even if it’s months ahead or months behind their peers. As long as you can prove you aren’t a ‘threat’ or a ‘liability,’ the Council should hopefully be willing to lift this stupid ban of theirs.”

“So, ‘next round of trials’ isn’t necessarily the next year? It could be whenever I can prove myself?”

“Yes, but proving you’re ‘safe’ is practically impossible. How could you possibly do it? It isn’t as if they can just examine you and pronounce you cured like I can. You would have to produce some tangible proof. I heard — I wasn’t privy to the actual meeting — that Masters Yoda and Windu were rather against this decision. But, they were outvoted. Can you believe it? Our very own grandmaster, outvoted? Insanity! Those fools… They’re panicking, you see. There’s something clouding the Force, apparently. Something is making it difficult to see the future of our Order and the Masters are not taking it well.”

“Really? I hadn’t noticed.”

“You’ve been having your own ridiculous visions, Xena, and your own troubles. I wouldn’t expect you, or any other Youngling, to notice. And, it’s not only that. There’s been quite a fun — by which I mean incredibly dividing — topic making its way through the Galactic Senate, and our own Jedi Order by extension. They’ve been talking about some sort of ‘Military Creation Act’ in order to combat the Separatist movement. Something something protect our people. Something something defend our assets. It’s a huge pain in the backside. Almost as much as listening to people endlessly debate it!”

“Is it really getting that bad? The Separatist thing, I mean.”

“Yes. The Confederacy of Independent Systems, as they call themselves, have a lot of backing and a lot of power. All that’s missing is the manpower to fully divorce themselves from the Republic. But, if they do find an army somewhere, the Republic is in no position to stop them from breaking away.”

She shakes her head, sighing in exasperation. “This is supposed to be a Galaxy at peace! We’re really losing it now…”

“Master Corr,” you say, “what was the good news you mentioned?”

“Huh? Oh, right. Do you remember what Master Yoda mentioned before he left? That a new Master was arriving? Turns out she’s a Miraluka, and your Master Masbau asked her to help you learn to see with the Force.”

“Really? That’s… that’s… Wow!”

“Yes, she’s still settling in, but she told me she’ll visit you soon.”

“Alright. Thank you, Master Corr.”

“You’re welcome, Xena. Now, it looks like everything is in order. I’ll leave you to catch up with your friends. They should be heading over right around now. See you soon!”

“Goodbye!”

The bacta tank on your arm clanks against the railing of the bed as you try to wave to her.

“Oh. Oops.”

“Ha! We’ll have those off soon, Xena. Don’t you worry. Goodbye now.”

And then, she’s out the door. And good timing too, for you can feel a gaggle of more familiar presences making their way over. It’s your friends! This will be the first time you’ve seen them in a… a month? Wow.