Jedi Adept: A Path In The Dark Ch. 1

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Coruscant. The capital of the galaxy. Homeworld to billions upon billions of sapient beings. It is a world ruled by bureaucracy. Though it has a gross domestic output in the quintillions, in reality it produces nothing but laws, bureaucrats and soldiers. It is a giant city planet, covered almost entirely by smog and buildings.

Small pockets of Yuuzhan Vong wildlife still struggle for life and survival, but these are few and far between, most located down deep, near the surface of the planet.

Yet despite the fact that it claims to be a single, overarching city, there are districts and sub-cities within the great city. Precincts with their own flavor and culture, some as wildly divergent from the Galactic norm as any Outer Rim world, others displaying the annoying production-line perfection of any of a handful of Core worlds.

Yet out of all the buildings and monuments, parks and museums, there are two buildings which are more widely known than any other buildings in the galaxy.

There are two buildings which every sapient on the planet, and most within the borders of the Galactic Alliance, would know on sight.

One is the Alliance Governmental Complex, more commonly known as the Imperial Palace.

The other is the Jedi Temple.

Both are works of art in their own right, yet while the Palace is a beacon of ritz and glamour, the Jedi Temple is profound in its simplicity and beauty.

A gleaming citadel, a pyramid, capable of housing every living Jedi, trainee and their families, and still having thousands upon thousands of spare rooms, it is a massive edifice glorifying the relationship between the Jedi and the Galactic Alliance.

And on a consistent basis it is nearly empty of Jedi.

Only a handful of Jedi are ever there at any given time, and though the Jedi Council holds its meetings there as a means of keeping close to the law-making body of the Alliance, for the Jedi it is merely a building. It is not home.

It is in the top most room of this pyramid in which the Council holds a majority of its meetings. An ostentatious room, designed to strike awe and respect into any of the sentients who have walked into it.

Mosaics adorn some of the walls and the floor, while large windows are situated behind the Council members themselves. When meetings were held at dusk, the setting sun would backlight the Council Members, giving them something of an ethereal glow.

The most impressive design though, is the Jedi sigil made from various colors of Hapan marble which adorned the floor.

It was here, in the Council Chambers, the most awe-inspiring room in the Jedi Temple, conceivably the most awe-inspiring room in the galaxy, which Noelani Darklighter found out her world was slowly crumbling.

Since the secret of her parentage had been revealed by Jedi Master Mara Jade Skywalker just a few short weeks ago, everything had been different. For a short time, she had thought that things were looking up.

Suddenly, she had a family beyond Huff Darklighter, the man who had raised her.

Suddenly, she had cousins and an uncle and an aunt. She had grandparents.

Suddenly, she knew who she was and where she had come from. All those thousands of questions she had asked and pondered over the years? Finally, she had answers for all of them.

Suddenly, her Master was her Mother.

Sure, her father had died during the war with the Yuuzhan Vong, but he had had a family that she now knew. She had grandparents and an uncle and aunt.

Yet for all the good, all the things that she had learned; that joy has now been sundered. She was once more cast adrift, lost to confusion when she had been so close to being safe and comfortable.

What sent her emotions spiraling downwards was the simple fact that the Council had determined that they needed to hold a hearing to decide if Tahiri would be too emotionally invested to be able to train her properly.

For a moment, she wondered which she would have preferred, not knowing who her mother was and still being trained by Tahiri, or knowing and being yanked away from her the way Council seemed certain to do.

She allowed her gaze to flicker from one Master to the next. Corran Horn, Kirana Ti, and the old hermit Streen flickered as blue holograms, attending these proceedings from Corellia and Dathomir respectively. Cilghal and Kyp Durron seemed impassive as they watched the proceedings: she had overheard them talking with Tahiri earlier so she knew that those two supported Luke. Kam and Tionne Solusar each had a pained expression on their face, as if they were not certain where they stood on the issue. Kyle Katarn had a stern look on his face. One which caused Noelani to swallow hard as a cold lump formed in her stomach. She was not certain why, but Master Katarn always seemed so frightening to her.

Mara Skywalker's seat was empty, her recent murder still hanging over everyone's heads; making a difficult Council meeting just that much worse; especially since her revelations had been the cause of this meeting.

Then there was Luke Skywalker. He seemed darker, more ominous than she remembered from earlier discussions with him, and she wondered if that impression was because of what happened to Mara or because of what he had done to her. For a moment, she wondered why he always seemed to be taking her from Tahiri.

She quickly glanced at her mother, and felt her in the Force. A tight, coiled ball of nervous energy, tinted through out with anger and distrust.

Noelani looked fully at her mentor, her Master, her Mother, to see Tahiri's green eyes locked in place, as she stared at the Grand Master of the Jedi. Noelani shifted, following Tahiri's gaze, and started watching Luke as well.

Luke sighed, and dropped his eyes. "It is this Council's decision that you will be too emotionally involved to train her."

And with that simple pronouncement, Noelani Darklighter's world shattered. She found it hard to breath, and gulped at the air as tears stung her eyes.

Tahiri's voice was calm and level, yet Noelani could feel the emotions which her mother was suppressing. "Tell me Luke, why is it that you're constantly trying to take my daughter away from me?"

For a moment she wondered if Tahiri had plucked those thoughts from her head, but decided that she would probably be thinking that as well.

Kyp spoke his voice tired and resigned. "Please speak to the Council members with the proper amount of respect, Knight Veila."

Tahiri snarled slightly as her attention snapped towards him. "Respect? When he kriffs with your family, stripping away months of your memories, and keeping something as important as a child from you. Then! Then you can come talk to me about respect."

Tionne sighed. "Angry outbursts from either side of this debate will not help things."

Tahiri turned towards Tionne, her jaw clenched as tight as her fists and then she sighed, as she nodded her head. "Sorry, Master Tionne."

Luke chose this moment to speak up again. "And these outbursts are why this Council feels that someone else should complete Noelani's training."

Tahiri opened her mouth to snap at Luke again, and he held up his hand, and said, "And that's enough."

Tahiri slowly closed her mouth, anger pouring off of her, as she stared at Luke, her eyes flecks of green ice.

After a few moments, Luke spoke again. "The Council's decision is final." He then turned towards Noelani. "Noelani, your new master is Tionne. She will complete your training. You are both dismissed."

Noelani could feel her tears as they sliced down the sides of her cheeks. She rubbed the back of her hand against the side of her face as she stared at Luke in shock. She knew that this meeting was about her continuing to train under Tahiri, but she never believed that she would be reassigned.

She had always thought that the Jedi's wisdom and compassion would make them realize how much of a mistake it would be to separate her from her mother.

Suddenly the full weight of the realization that it was the wise and compassionate Luke Skywalker who had stolen her from Tahiri in the first place crashed down upon her, threatening to crush her.

She took a step backwards, creating a larger gap between her and the Masters, and began to shake her head.

"Why?" she asked, her voice weak, and slight, even to her own ears. "Why did you do this, Master Skywalker?"

Luke sighed, and glanced out one of the windows at the lines of traffic visible in the distance. "I did… I do what is best for the Jedi, Padawan Darklighter."

Tahiri laughed bitterly at that. "No, Luke, you don't. You do what is best for you and yours. You always have. And for whatever reason, you don't want to claim your nephew's daughter as part of your family. Is it because she's my daughter? Or because she reminds you too much of the mistake you made sending us all to Mrykr?"

Kyp and Cilghal were both on their feet, and Tionne had her head lowered into one hand. Luke stared at Tahiri, his eyes cold and emotionless.

"That was uncalled for Jedi Veila," Cilghal responded.

Noelani dropped to her knees, and covered her face with her hands, as she began crying. She couldn't handle the Masters like this. She had always respected them, always believed that they were the best the galaxy had to offer.

They were supposed to be the epitome of the Light Side of the Force.

Yet, as her body shook with her tears, and the only person in the room that cared was Tahiri, as she laid a hand gently on the top of her head, Noelani realized something.

A fundamental truth slammed through her.

The Jedi were as flawed as every other being in the galaxy.

If not more so.

For a moment, she wondered why she had ever left Tatooine. Why had she left home and came all these light years in order to be abused over and over again?

A sickening knot of pain rested where her heart used to be. Even her torture at the hands of the Yuuzhan Vong warriors had not hurt her soul this much.

Tahiri's hand disappeared from the top of her head, and then Tionne's musical voice was close by, and Noelani could hear the pain in it; a pale reflection of what her heart now was. "Noelani? Come on. Let's go and have a chat."

For a moment, she almost believed that Tionne cared for her. For a moment, her desire to see the good in anything and anyone almost won out. Then she remembered that this was one of the people who had decided that her Master, her mother, was not good enough to teach her.

Tionne's long, slender fingers touched her shoulder, and Noelani's head snapped up. She snarled, and with a quick flash of the hand pushed Tionne away from her. "I don't want anything to do with you!"

Then she was up off her feet, spinning as she fled the Council chambers. Dimly she heard Tahiri calling her name out after her.

As she pushed onto the stairs leading down, she heard Tahiri make a final snapped comment towards the Council. "Well, Luke, I hope you're proud of yourself."

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