Search at Terron by Genevieve Williams K'Tarah piloted the modified shuttle expertly, skimming over the planet's tree-covered landscape, and glanced at her copilot with a tight smile. "This is the tricky part," she confided, watching the sensory readings that told her the density of plant life, the proximity of human settlements, the changes in ground surface below. "I want to give the villages and towns a wide berth." Seated beside her in the copilot's chair, Luke Skywalker only nodded as he watched the forest roll beneath them like a green sea. It was a tricky thing they planned to do, land this shuttle unobserved on a planet that had seen no interstellar travellers for centuries, save some whose comings and goings had been limited to an otherwise uninhabited island. He knew little about the planet Terron. Orbiting an unnamed star on the fringes of the galaxy, it was in a location that few were inclined to visit, despite the idyllic appearance of the place and an atmosphere that was perfectly suited for both humans and a number of other sentient species. Luke,naturally, had never been there; but K'Tarah had. He had first met her in the New Republic capital of Coruscant, where she had landed some weeks ago, hassling various New Republic functionaries until, intrigued by the disturbances such activity was creating, he had sought her out. She had come to see him, she had told him. Come to see him, and to claim status as a Jedi; what was more, she offered to bring him to her teacher. Luke might have doubted her words; certainly there was no shortage of people making the same claims, most of them tricksters and charlatans. But his every instinct told him otherwise. He could feel, almost without effort, the way the Force shaped itself around her, the way her presence drew on its power. This one was well- trained indeed...and soon he would meet the Master who had trained her. K'Tarah checked over the sensory readings with a feeling of satisfaction. They were approaching a clearing in the forest - Hane's forest - that was some distance from any human habitation. Engaging the shuttle's repulsorlifts, she took a deep breath and shut off its running lights. Touching the controls gently, she reached out and felt the air beyond the ship, felt the trees and ground rushing up to meet them; her hands moved on the controls almost without volition, and the shuttle settled to rest beneath the trees. She opened her eyes and smiled. "Here we are," she said. "Terron. The home of Hane." Luke peered through the viewport as K'Tarah gathered together some supplies, packing them in a pair of skin bags, and pulled a bulky parcel from its storage compartment - a camouflage net, an extra precaution. Trees. The place reminded him a great deal of Endor. A great deal. He smiled, remembering that time. So little had he known then, in comparison to now; a Jedi, but not yet a Master. He turned. K'Tarah offered him a pack, and he took it, wrinkling his nose at the smell. She grinned, noticing his reaction, and led the way out of the shuttle. They travelled some distance from the shuttle before local nightfall, and made a small camp in the forest. K'Tarah skillfully built a small fire, then settled on the ground and watched the flames. She had ambivalent feelings about returning here. She was trained as a Jedi, true, but always there was more to learn, and of this Master Hane constantly reminded her. She wondered what the grizzled old forest spirit's and young Jedi Master's reactions would be to each other. Luke startled her out of her musings with a question. "How did Hane come to settle here?" he asked. "He has been here for a long time; these woods resonate with his presence." K'Tarah clasped her hands around her knees, shrugging her long dark hair back behind her shoulders. "What do you know about Atalan?" she asked. He shook his head. "The records are lost or destroyed. All I know is that it existed, and that it was some kind of colony." K'Tarah smiled and waved her hand westward. "In that direction, across the ocean, there was once an island. The humans of Terron had not yet come upon it, and many hundreds of years ago a small group of Jedi, seeking a place where their kind could meet and exchange knowledge - for as you know, the Jedi Knights usually trained in isolation, individual students under the tutelage of a single Master - founded a small colony there. They named it Atalan, and for many hundreds of years it was a place where the Jedi could gather in privacy. In this way their knowledge could be gathered and exchanged in a place of peace." K'Tarah frowned. "As the Emperor rose to power, he eradicated the Jedi Knights, as you well know. He destroyed Atalan, killing everyone there in an enormous catastrophe. Hane was the only survivor." Luke looked at K'Tarah then, saw the bitterness in her dark eyes. "How did the Emperor do it?" he asked. "Didn't the Jedi have some kind of defense?" K'Tarah shrugged, the look in her eyes fading somewhat. "That is the question that is always asked about the eradication of the Jedi Knights, and as always, there is no satisfactory answer. Perhaps they were overconfident, feeling that no one would discover them there. Hane seems to think so. And the Emperor was strong; he knew the dark side very well. However it happened, a giant volcano, dormant for centuries, exploded on Atalan, and the whole island sank into the sea. Hane had gone on a sea voyage, one of his meditative exercises, so he wasn't there when it happened; but he saw the explosion. Smoke and ash hung in the air for weeks, he said, and the volcano caused gigantic waves that nearly swamped the boat. In the end, he was carried here by the ocean currents, and found refuge in this forest. He never leaves it; the spirit of these trees and the spirit of Hane are as one. He knows we are here." "When will we meet him?" Luke asked, not impatiently. K'Tarah smiled, and opened her pack, pulled out a blanket to sleep in. "At his convenience. It has always been so." The fire burned low; Luke could dimly make out his companion sleeping on the other side of the fire circle. He sat very still, feeling the shape and breadth of this place. Its presence was strong; so strong that he did not wonder at K'Tarah's telling him that the locals thought the forest to be haunted. It was a strange place they had landed in. A primitive world, whose inhabitants were apparently descended from colonists but who had no memory of that collective past, according to K'Tarah, and a former society of Jedi living in isolation from these people. Jedi who had all been destroyed by the Empire, save one...one who had somehow contrived to bring K'Tarah here for training; brought her here and shown her the ways of the Force. Luke doubted that Hane would leave this place with them, although he had initially thought to ask. But from what K'Tarah had told him, the old Master was disinclined to leave the forest which had nurtured his spirit. But Hane was the only Jedi from before the time of the Empire that Luke had been able to find, aside from his former teachers, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda, both long gone. And his father, likewise dead several years past. He felt the burden weighing on him daily. "Pass on what you have learned," Yoda had told him, and for the sake of the New Republic and for the sake of the Force, he needed to do it. Those who served the darkness in themselves were everywhere; he had to find those who would serve the light; and then, he had to teach them. It was this he hoped to gain from Hane; how the Jedi Masters of old had passed on their knowledge. He doubted there was any one method, any one right way to show the ways of the Force...but he had to start somewhere. They made their way through the forest. K'Tarah explained to him in passing that Hane had a dwelling-place, a cavern, hidden behind a waterfall, where he lived and meditated. "He often teaches there, too," K'Tarah said. "He had another student, a young man from a local village, who came to learn from him right before I left." "A student?" Luke asked, sounding eager. K'Tarah stopped a moment and looked at him. "After a fashion," she said. "He is not as strong in the Force as you and I, and he has no knowledge of the galaxy beyond Terron. He sought refuge in this forest, following his escape from the prison of the warden that nominally rules this part of the land, and Hane saw the potential in him, albeit limited. So he learns the ways of the Force, as much as he can. We may meet him, if he's around when we find Hane." She turned again; there was a sudden hum in the air, and she ducked, seizing his arm and pulling him down; a split second later an arrow thudded into a tree above their heads. K'Tarah swore under her breath. Luke glanced up at the arrow. He had seen such weapons before; the Ewoks of Endor had used them. This arrow, however, was much longer than those the Ewoks had shot. The bow it had come from could only have been wielded by someone human-sized or bigger. K'Tarah pulled back her hood and closed her eyes briefly. Then she stood, and began shouting into the forest. Luke could not quite make out what she was saying, for although she was speaking Basic, it was with a strange accent that he had never heard before. Her tone, however, sounded reprimanding. She left off suddenly, as an answering shout came from somewhere in the surrounding trees; a moment later a figure dropped from a limb some distance away, and came toward them. The newcomer was a young man, perhaps in his early twenties by Luke's reckoning. He wore a scruffy leather tunic and breeches dyed in soft green and brown hues that blended in with the surrounding forest, so that if he had not moved, he would have been invisible. He was no taller than Luke himself, and his hair, a reddish blond in color, fell to his shoulders. "My apologies," he said with a quick smile, as he came closer. He carried a bow that was nearly as tall as he was, and over one of his shoulders was a quiver full of arrows. "K'Tarah, I did not recognize you." His speech was heavily accented, but now that they were no longer shouting Luke could make it out. K'Tarah smiled and replied, "A little nervous today, aren't you, Roden? Do the soldiers press so close these days?" Roden smiled again. "They grow worse each day, my friend." K'Tarah laughed, and turned to Luke. "Roden, may I present my companion Luke; Luke, this is Roden, whom I was telling you about. Roden, we have come to speak with Hane." Roden raised his eyebrows. "Have you now? Hane keeps much to himself these days." K'Tarah smiled. "But you see him, do you not? Will you take us to him?" The young man nodded. "But it's something of a journey. Come to our camp; the others are there." He turned and led them away, deeper into the forest. As he stepped in among the trees, he seemed to disappear from sight, save his hair, which shone like a beacon. Luke and K'Tarah followed him. "Others?" Luke asked as they walked. K'Tarah answered him. "Others live in these woods, who do not fear Hane's power so much as the local authorities. Roden is their leader, after a fashion; they have banded together for mutual protection." Roden turned and flashed them a quick grin. "Protection, and justice. We give the king's soldiers no end of trouble, when they enter Hane's woods, paying them for the injustices they have inflicted on our people." Luke looked at Roden thoughtfully. K'Tarah had told him something about the systems of government on Terron; monarchy and nationalism were still much in force here, so that there were constant wars between the various countries. Small wonder, he thought, that the Jedi who had come here had chosen an isolated island on which to work. According to K'Tarah, powers such as the Jedi wielded were bound to be misinterpreted by both governmental and religious organizations, and those who were thought to have such powers, whether real or faked, were subject to persecution. He pulled his black robe closer around him, to avoid snagging it on the forest's dense underbrush. Ahead, Roden moved easily among the trees, looking very much at home here, and confident. Too confident, Luke's instincts warned suddenly, and he remembered again K'Tarah's comments; Roden had some talent in the Force, but the higher powers of concentration were beyond him. Luke wondered if the Force whispered to Roden much as it had whispered to him, in his early days of training; constantly making him aware of its presence, but its secrets ever eluding his grasp. He was more aware now, more knowledgeable than he might have wished, measuring his knowledge in the losses he had endured. He wondered if Roden had known any such losses, and if they had strengthened or weakened his resolve. Ahead of Luke, following Roden, K'Tarah peered eagerly through the trees. Roden's friends, while not students of Hane, had been good friends of hers, when they came to reside in Hane's forest; she realized abruptly how much she had missed them, missed the life they led here among the trees. Already she could smell the smoke of their cooking fire, and she felt a keen stab of homesickness. What a change from the heating coils in the kitchen of the hostel on Coruscant, which only glowed faintly, or the greasy air of half-a- dozen spaceport cantinas as she'd travelled across the galaxy to speak with Luke Skywalker. She smiled, now, hearing voices filtering through the trees, and seeing flickers of firelight that cast odd shadows on the branches as the sky grew darker with approaching night. Ahead of her, Roden called out to his companions, his voice cheerful. "Ho there! Add a bit more to that pot, we've guests this eve!" he shouted through the trees. K'Tarah chuckled, then went forward as curious questions sprang out of the lit area ahead. Roden led them into a forest clearing, in the middle of which a bonfire burned. Seated on a nearby fallen tree and a few handy roots and rocks were some half-a-dozen people, all clad similarly to Roden and all looking up curiously at the new arrivals, save one young woman, with hair similar to Roden's and a gentle face, who still stirred the contents of the pot that was suspended over the fire, not looking up even when K'Tarah greeted her. "Well met, my friends," she said, and was immediately engulfed in a massive hug as everyone tried to greet her at once. Laughing, she extricated herself from the tangle and said, "My friends, may I present my companion Luke; Luke, these are Marek, Willa, Jaheen, Norcole, Greteth, and Roden's sister Rodine," she concluded, pointing last to the woman by the fire, who looked up and nodded, but did not speak. Willa, a solid-looking older woman who wore a set of knives at her belt and a dangerous glimmer in her eye, grinned and pointed to the fallen tree. "Welcome to you, and take your rest." Roden nodded, and touched K'Tarah's shoulder. "Go on - we will talk after you have broken your fast." K'Tarah smiled, and made her way through the small gathering. Luke followed, feeling their curious gazes on him. Not hostile - merely curious, wondering who he was and how he had come to be in their friend's company. Some of the suppositions he caught surprised him, to say the least. They sat down, and Rodine brought them bowls of stew from the pot near the fire. She smiled, but did not speak, although K'Tarah greeted her once again; looking pleased, she returned to a seat near the fire. Luke glanced at K'Tarah questioningly. She smiled, a little sadly. "Rodine is shy - and," she added, "she was born with less wits about her than most. She and Roden are twins - it is odd that one has some strength in the Force, and the other has less potential than most. But she is gentle, and kind-hearted." Luke nodded as he took a bite of the stew, which was surprisingly good despite its unfamiliar taste. Another question tugged at the corner of his mind as he looked around the clearing, the fire glowing all the more brightly in the deepening twilight. "Why didn't you use my surname?" he asked curiously, keeping his voice low. K'Tarah sighed and swallowed a mouthful of stew. Willa went past, handing them each a wooden cup filled with liquid - some sort of ale, from the smell of it - and K'Tarah waited until the woman had passed. "Roden's people are the subjugated nationality in this country," she explained, "but once they were conquerors. They came from the south, long, long ago, and they brought their religion, with its many gods, with them. All here save Jaheen are of that race. One of the gods - and they each had many names by which they were known - was on occasion given the epithet Sky-Walker. It will be difficult enough to explain where you came from - and they will ask, eventually - without bringing that into the discussion." Luke smiled to himself. Odd coincidence. Then he frowned. Or maybe not. He wondered if any of his ancestors had perhaps found their way to Terron... A shape seated itself on K'Tarah's other side; Norcole, a slim form in ragged clothing, somewhat younger than Luke, with dark eyes that sparkled in the firelight. He had an easy, but patient, smile; he glanced at Luke, then said to K'Tarah, "Well now, what brings ye back to Haneswood? We've seen little enough of ye of late." K'Tarah smiled, scraping her bowl clean before answering. When she spoke, Luke noted how well her inflection and tone matched Norcole's; on Coruscant she had spoken much like himself. "I've come back to speak with Hane, Norcole," she said. "My friend" - and here she indicated Luke - "was once the student of one such as Hane, an' I thought he'd like to meet the one that taught me." "Another like Hane?" The dark-haired man, Jaheen, had spoken. Luke looked at him and felt an odd sense of power. Not a Jedi, but something like it; the hilt of long-bladed weapon was visible over one shoulder, and there was in his aspect a darkness that seemed to radiate from some vanishing point, perhaps from a time in his past... K'Tarah looked up to see the gathering looking at them, or rather at Luke, with fresh curiousity. Luke spoke, aware as he did so how foreign he must sound to these people. "Yes, I think so," he said. "I've never met Hane, but from what K'Tarah has told me he's a lot like my teacher." "Who was this teacher?" Roden asked, leaning forward. "He was from a far place, if he was of your land; I hear in your manner of speech that you are of some land far distant. And K'Tarah was long gone from us in finding you." Luke shook his head. "He died, many years ago. He was very old when I met him." "I did not find Luke right away," K'Tarah added. "I wandered for a bit, after I left this forest. Then I heard of Luke, that there was another who had been taught as I had been taught. I went in search of him. And here we are." Greteth, a woman about K'Tarah's age whose brown tunic and leggings closely matched her skin, said, "Well now, we are some distance from Hane's dwelling place. But we shall be travelling near there on the morrow - perhaps you would care to go with us, if Roden is agreeable." Roden nodded. "Indeed. For it is as part of our hospitality that travellers journey the forest in safety. That is our service to Hane, in return for what he gives us." Luke blinked. The arrangement sounded odd to him. "And what does he give you?" he asked, aware that he could be earning these people's suspicion as he did so. Roden glanced at him, but did not seem disturbed by the question. "His blessing," he said quietly. There was an uncomfortable silence; then Greteth drew an object from its wrappings near her seat. Removing the cloths, she passed the object - Luke saw, in the firelight, that it was some kind of musical instrument, wooden, with strings - to K'Tarah. "Come, my friend, we heard none of your music whilst you were away from us. Will you favor us now? There are none here so skilled as you." K'Tarah took the instrument, strummed it, and twisted a few tuning pegs. "I am honored," she said, and drew off her cloak so that she could play unimpeded. Like Luke, she wore the clothing of a Jedi; perhaps that was why he didn't appear as odd to them as he'd feared. He was glad of it; he didn't want to attract undue attention. K'Tarah began to play, a gentle, lilting rhythm consisting mainly of chords. She settled into the instrument; Luke could feel her growing sureness as she played, her fingers tracing old paths anew. She hadn't played for some time, but her hands remembered their skill. And then she began to sing. Her voice had a delicate quality that matched the music she played, but Luke could feel the power behind it, the channel in the Force that her voice created. She sang, and she played, and Luke lost track of time for awhile. They all did; the threads of music wound into the night, one song segueing smoothly into the next. Some were of hope, and joy; others of despair, others of dreams. But all had that power behind them. In the midst of K'Tarah's music, Rodine came and sat by her, watching with a childlike fascination, and K'Tarah smiled. Even Jaheen, who seemed to always be tense, inscrutable thoughts lying behind his dark eyes, relaxed, and Greteth sat by Roden's side, and he leaned against her shoulder as the fire burned low. And still they listened. At last K'Tarah fell silent, and slowly the others made their way to their respective sleeping places. Rodine had fallen asleep where she sat, and K'Tarah, after setting aside her instrument, gently lifted the young woman and placed her on the ground, drawing blankets around her. Then she turned to Luke. "Sleep now, my friend," she said quietly. "Tomorrow we shall meet with Hane." Luke awoke early and suddenly; the thin light of dawn barely showed K'Tarah, Roden, and his companions, all still asleep where they had lain down the night before. The fire had long ago burned away to ashes that stirred in the faint breeze that rustled leaves in the forest all around. He stood and stretched, wondering what had awakened him. The faint memory of a dream lingered on, penetrating halfway into his consciousness in the form of a vision, a figure cloaked in darkness that laughed at him when he tried to address it, laughed mockingly and turned its back on him despite his entreaties. He seemed to remember, at the very edge of a dream, someone screaming... He shook the memory away and drew his Jedi cloak over his shoulders against the chill, looking up into the branches of the trees, watching the filtered, cold dawn light seep through. Shaking off the last remnants of sleep, he settled on the ground, sitting cross-legged and letting the new day work its way into his consciousness...the sounds of early birdsong that seemed to come from everywhere, the cool scent of the earth...and the immense power that pervaded this place, seeming to resonate in the ground itself. Hane. He smiled, feeling peaceful. In a strange way, this place made him feel at home. An uneasiness prodded at him, moments before he heard the noise. He looked up, and saw K'Tarah's arm moving in a sluggish warding gesture. She murmured something, then let out a faint cry. His dream came back to him then as he rose and hurried to her side. She was still asleep, but there was a look of terror on her face. Gently he touched her shoulder, letting the peaceful wakefulness of the forest around them flow through his fingers. K'Tarah sat up abruptly, starting awake and staring at him for a moment as if she had no idea who he was. Then..."Luke?" she said, relaxing somewhat. Behind him, he could hear the movements of the others as they awoke. "Are you all right?" he asked, feeling their eyes on him. She glanced down at her hand, which gripped the edge of the blanket, twisting it. "I think so," she said. "I dreamed, Luke - I was floating in water, I think it was some kind of boat, and everything was peaceful. Then I heard a noise like thunder, and the sky grew dark while waves rose up all around me, and I felt the boat going under. Huge flaming stones fell into the water..." she trailed off. Luke, feeling anxious now, especially in the wake of his own dream, touched the hand that clenched the blanket, willing peace. Slowly, she released her grip, then nodded, still looking at the ground. "It was just a dream," she said, pushing the blanket aside and reaching for her boots. He moved away, then, feeling awkward. Roden came up behind him, spoke over his shoulder. "What happened?" Luke turned. They were all watching him. "She had a nightmare," he said, and Roden nodded, and then the others relaxed visibly. Luke sighed, and wondered what it was about him that made them nervous. They moved through the forest, Roden in the lead with Greteth following just behind, then K'Tarah and Luke, and then the others. Jaheen brought up the rear, looking from side to side as they travelled, his dark eyes probing the forest as if he expected an ambush at any moment. Luke remembered that these were outlaws, even rebels. As they journeyed, Roden leading them where no path went, K'Tarah pointed things out to Luke along the way - certain trees and plants, and once a slender animal, dappled like afternoon sun through the trees and invisible before it moved, bounded away at their approach, and K'Tarah caught his arm and pointed. "We don't see them much, this time of year," she explained. "The aristocracy hunts them for sport, and it makes them wary." They crossed a road early in the day, Jaheen and Willa scouting a ways in both directions and giving an all-clear before Roden gave the signal to cross. It was a dirt road, hard packed but with wheel ruts clearly plowed into it, with the prints of hoofed animals running between them. Beyond, the forest grew deeper, quieter, more still. Luke could feel a steady building of power in the woods around him, and K'Tarah spoke in hushed tones. At one point Marek stepped on a dry branch, the first such event of the day, and the crack sounded echoingly loud in the stillness. Roden's companions jumped; but Luke felt at peace here. A strong presence in the Force radiated from some point ahead, and he unconsciously moved faster, drawn by it. They came to a stream, and travelled along its banks. Luke felt the course of the water like a current in the Force. Very close now. As they rounded a bend, Willa led Jaheen, Greteth, Norcole, Marek, and Rodine away from the stream and into the woods, while Roden led Luke and K'Tarah onward. Luke glanced back curiously at the departing group. K'Tarah, noting the direction of his gaze, said, "Few visit Hane's cave. It is a mysterious place, and one where those who are not strong in the Force feel odd without knowing why. Sometimes he comes out, though, and walks among the trees, and then others will talk to him. But you see, he is so firmly bound to this land - and the cave is the root of that binding. Some find it unnerving, especially here." "Why?" Luke asked, skirting a tree root that thrust out into the water. The trees along the bank were bigger here, making the going more difficult. He could hear the sound of rushing water up ahead - a curious sound, for someone from a river-less world. K'Tarah sighed. "The people of Terron are very superstitious. Four large religions, and several smaller offshoots, thrive in this hemisphere alone. Beyond Hane's forest people speak of him as a magician, and fear him, although he does not harm them. And I told you the locals think this forest is haunted. Even Roden's followers won't travel the forest at night, not that they could tell you why." Luke only shook his head. It was the strangest state of affairs concerning Jedi that he'd ever run across. Yet K'Tarah seemed to accept it as a matter of course. Well, she had lived here for some years, under Hane's patronage. He wondered how much history Hane had taught her, how much she knew of the Jedi Knights of old. Certainly she didn't seem surprised by him, nor by the things she had encountered in crossing the galaxy to find him. They rounded another bend in the stream, and before them a cascade plunged in a white spume from a point higher than Luke's head. Roden led the way to the base of the falls itself, then, with a beckoning motion toward the two of them, slipped through a narrow opening created by an alcove worn in the rock. K'Tarah followed, then Luke. Inside it was dark and damp, and sounds were muffled by the rush of water. Luke could make out a tunnel leading back into blackness. Sparks flared as Roden struck a flint and lit a dry torch that had stood in a bracket on the wall. The flame danced on its wooden bed, casting distorted shadows on the walls as Roden moved down the passageway. They followed. K'Tarah touched the walls of the tunnel, as familiar to her as her own hands; as if she had hewn this passage herself. She could feel Hane's presence, welcoming and familiar, up ahead, and realized again how much she had missed this place. This was her home, where she had grown up and learned the ways of the Force. The discomfort she had felt, singing her way across the galaxy to Coruscant, and pressed in on all sides by the crowded city itself, flowed away from her, leaving behind only the tranquillity of this place. Firelight flickered up ahead, and soon the tunnel opened out into a cavern, fair-sized but fully lit by the fire, which burned in a ring of stones in the center of the chamber. Seated by this fire, his face underlit by the dancing flames, was a man. He looked old, at first, to Luke; but then he looked up and, like Ben Kenobi, took on that odd ageless quality that had nothing to do with wrinkles and gray hair, both of which he had in abundance. The latter fell below his shoulders, streaked with white and unkempt, and the clothing he wore seemed as old as he was. But he looked up at them, and his gray eyes were clear and piercing, as if he read their hearts and minds all in that first glance. "Welcome," he said, and his voice was deep. He spoke slowly, as if turning every sound over in his mind before he said it, giving his voice a quality that Luke could only describe as relaxed deliberation. Not since Yoda had he met anyone with such a strong air of inner peace. "I greet you, Master Hane," K'Tarah said in the same quiet voice. Although she had not given Luke the impression of being at all subservient, she spoke easily now, and in that presence Luke could well understand her making an exception. "The prodigal returns," Hane said with a slight smile, which K'Tarah returned in kind, and Luke, watching the two of them, saw some meaning behind that. I have missed you; be not so serious. He felt, suddenly, oddly excluded; the two faces, young and old, suspended in the firelight, and himself an observer of that unspoken communication, but not a participant. He felt strangely lonely, then, and realized he was thinking of his father. But then Hane turned to look at him, and he met that direct gaze unflinchingly. "You have brought a guest, I see," Hane commented, his eyes never straying from Luke's. "And trained in the old ways," Hane went on. Some kind of test had been given; from the subtly pleased expression on Hane's face, Luke decided he had passed it. "This is a rare thing indeed," Hane said mildly; then, turning to Roden, he added, "Roden, I would speak with my student and her guest alone." Roden, who had remained at the cave's mouth, silent and unmoving, nodded in assent. "As you wish, Hane," he said, and bowed, and disappeared down the tunnel. Hane looked after that one as if he intended to say something else, but apparently he though better of it and turned back to his visitors. "I have heard of you, Luke Skywalker," he said. "Your old Master, Yoda, was once a great friend of mine, and some years ago I knew a man, who, I believe, was kin to you, although he did not stay on Atalan. Let us talk, then. What would you of me?" Luke stepped forward, suddenly ill at ease. Hane seemed to notice this, for he said, "Ah, I forget myself. I have little use for courtly manners here, obviously, although Roden is of a noble family and cannot seem to contrive to forget it. Please, sit down, both of you. I fear I cannot offer more than the ground, unfortunately." Luke smiled. Now Hane reminded him of Ben. What was it about this enigmatic man that seemed to call up all of the old Jedi Luke had ever known? Bemused, he took a seat by the fire, K'Tarah joining him. "You see," she said without preamble, "this is why I left - somehow I knew Luke was meant to come here, and there are so few of us now, I thought it best." Hane turned that direct gaze of his on his student, and she fidgeted, twisting her hands in her lap. Luke couldn't help but smile, well understanding his companion's discomfort. "Somehow?" Hane asked, and there was rebuke in that tone, for all its mildness. K'Tarah flushed. "It was a dream," she said, and that was all. Hane nodded, his manner now one of understanding. "The Force often guides us by our dreams," he said quietly, "for in the conscious world we work too hard to shape reality. You know this, my child." K'Tarah shook her head. "I do not know - what is my will, and what is the will of the Force." Luke frowned, thinking that that was a strange thing to say - until he remembered asking that same question of Ben Kenobi, although the words had been different: You mean it controls your actions?...Partially. But it also obeys your commands. "To the Jedi," Hane said, "they are one and the same. So, K'Tarah, the Force called, and here is your answer. Well, Luke Skywalker, what wish you to ask of me?" Luke looked down at his hands, thinking, weighing his words. At last he looked up again, met that clear, gray gaze. "I was with Yoda when he died," he began - Hane nodded, he'd known that, somehow - "and he instructed me to pass on what I'd learned. But I don't know where to start. I'm meant to train my sister Leia, but I don't know how to begin. There's so much to teach, and at the same time I feel like I'm still learning. My father fell to the Dark Side, and the consequences for the galaxy were terrible. I don't know what to do." Hane leaned back, considering. The firelight danced across his face as he sat in thought for awhile. K'Tarah had ceased fidgeting, and now sat patiently next to Luke, so still that if not for her presence in the Force he might have forgotten she was there. He shook his head inwardly, impressed by her patience. At last Hane picked up a small pebble from the ground. They were scattered hereabouts, no doubt tracked in by those who came here to speak with Hane. He held it in his hand a moment, then looked at Luke, and smiled. "Aye, I have no doubt you are related to that Skywalker I knew. He once asked me...similar questions." He put that thought aside, and asked, "Have you ever looked at a grain of sand under a microscope?" Luke smiled and shook his head. "I grew up on a desert world, but I never thought to scrutinize it that closely." Hane held the pebble out to Luke. It was a tiny chunk of rock, knocked loose by the forces of water that roared outside the cave from some larger entity. "If you were to do so," Hane said, "you would see that the grain of sand had similar qualities as that pebble, and both likewise share certain qualities with one of those boulders in the streambed outside. In other words, each part contains something of the whole - all of the whole, if understood properly." Luke nodded. He wasn't sure where Hane was going with this, but he had an idea, so he only listened. K'Tarah said, "I don't see what this has to do with - " Hane made a gesture, and she cut off, sat back. Hane continued as if the interruption had not occurred. "If you wish to train your sister - or anyone else who has the innate sensitivity - you can begin anywhere, with any part of the whole you wish. No matter what you may teach her of the Force, it is related to the whole. Remember that, and you will find that your teaching comes naturally. "And," Hane added, "you must not harbor fear. Yoda taught you, knowing that you might fail. He let you go to face Darth Vader before you were ready - albeit unwillingly - knowing that you might not survive. The Master is a guide, but he is not there to do the student's work. To prevent you from making certain mistakes, there were things Obi-Wan and Yoda could not tell you until the time was right, but they allowed you to make others." Luke nodded slowly. Ben and Yoda had not told him that Vader was his father until Luke had already known it - but had they told him earlier, could he have borne it? Perhaps he would have fallen, then, to the Dark Side - sought to save his father without knowing fully what it was he intended. He shook his head. There was little point in dwelling on might-have-beens; often, what had actually happened was difficult enough to understand as it was. He looked up at Hane again, saw the old man watching him with a measuring expression. At last the Master spoke once more. "To be a Jedi, you must confront the Dark Side and deny its easy power. But to be a Master, you must accept that the Dark Side is as much a part of the Force as its opposite - and you must not only accept this, but understand it. You know yourself that such understanding does not come lightly. You must deny it, and yet accept it - which is not as much of a paradox as it seems." Luke frowned, trying to understand what Hane was saying. He glanced at K'Tarah. Her expression was placid, as if she had heard all of this before, and he wondered how she reconciled what Hane told her. Yet it seemed as though he could understand it - if he could perceive it the right way. "There is no one way," Hane said into his thoughts. "Your sister will undoubtedly learn the ways of the Force differently from you; but does that mean she will not be a Jedi?" "No," Luke said. At the back of his consciousness something glimmered. "True knowledge of the Force means going beyond such concepts as opposites, and understanding the meanings behind the symbols," Hane said gently. "That is the mystery the Masters of old understood, and that must be preserved at the core of your knowledge and your teaching. Otherwise, the Jedi Knights will be little more than an elite fighting force." Luke nodded, the layers that he had always felt lurking at the edges of his perception now starting to become clear. Oddly, he recalled the figure of his dream the night before, saw its vague outline become definite in some half-vision, half-daydream, although he could not see its face. "You have made the journey every Jedi must make," Hane concluded. "It is the one which awaits K'Tarah, and well she knows it" - here he glanced at his apprentice - "else she might not have endeavored so much to find you. And I think the time has come for her to make her way beyond Terron for good and all." K'Tarah glanced up sharply at that; hope and fear battled for dominance in her expression. The conflict did not go unnoticed. "Yes, K'Tarah," her mentor said. "There is no more that I can teach you. Your training with me has come to an end. When Luke Skywalker leaves this place, you shall go with him." K'Tarah calmed herself. So, the time had come at last. She had always known that it would; the Jedi Knights were not meant to cloister themselves on backwater planets, although the Masters might do so, once the galaxy had taught them what it could. She glanced at Luke; his expression was reflective, as if recalling some time far from now, on some distant world. At last she turned back to Hane, to thank him; but he rose from his place, forestalling whatever she might say with a gesture. "I have something to give you," he said, turning toward one of the alcoves where he kept various esoteric objects, some familiar to her, some not. He reached into one of them, withdrew a thing that was instantly the former. It was a lightsaber. "The Jedi apprentices of old would fashion their own, in whatever manner they saw fit," Hane said. "But here on Terron, we have none of the materials or tools you would require, since the destruction of Atalan. Therefore, please accept mine, that I made with my own hands, long before you were born." He stepped around the fire, placed the lightsaber in K'Tarah's hands. K'Tarah looked down at the smooth handle, turning it over to examine the switches set into the side. It fit easily in her hand, a solid-feeling instrument, ancient but well-made, with care and craftsmanship. There was no other way to feel but moved by such a gift. "Thank you," she whispered. Luke looked at the two of them, Master and apprentice, again suspended in the fire's glow - but with a difference. There was a look of farewell between them, well-wishing on Hane's part and the aspect of a freed spirit on K'Tarah's, tempered with an air of maturity, a solidity in her expression that betokened a new sense of responsibility. Luke smiled at that look, remembering a night on Endor - long ago now, it seemed - when, likewise in the fire's light, he had seen his teachers - Obi-Wan, Yoda, and his father - bidding him a similar good-bye. "My past will no longer haunt you now, I think," said Hane in his quiet way. "Your future is yours to make." Luke and K'Tarah made their way through the forest, bearing northward toward their shuttle. It was just the two of them, now; Roden and his followers had left them that morning, with many well- wishes. Luke didn't know what K'Tarah had told them, but they seemed to know that it was unlikely they would see her again. In any case, the leavetaking hadn't been long. K'Tarah had shaken hands all around, and hugged Rodine; the others had avoided Luke, still somewhat unnerved by his presence, but Roden had approached him. "You will take care of her?" the younger man had asked, his eyes full of concern. Luke had smiled. "She will take care of herself," he had answered, not ungently. He'd paused then, thinking, and said, "You remind me a lot of myself, Roden. At your age I was a great deal like you." Roden had looked startled at that, but only shaken his hand and set off into the woods with his cohorts, not without a backward glance at Luke, his expression one of fear - and wonder. They moved quickly, now, although K'Tarah often paused to take another look around this forest that had been her home for so many years. But at last they broke through the underbrush to the clearing where they'd landed the shuttle. It still rested undisturbed, and K'Tarah smiled in relief as they pulled off the camo net and stowed it inside the ship. They gave the exterior a brief checkout, then climbed inside, into the cockpit. For a long moment K'Tarah sat in the pilot's chair, looking out the canopy at the surrounding trees. Luke sat quietly next to her, not wanting to disturb her; even he, he thought with an inward smile, held his home planet in some affection. But at last he placed a hand on her shoulder, and said gently, "Let's go." K'Tarah grinned. "Right," she said, and threw the startup switches. The shuttle lifted above the trees and into the atmosphere, then the main drive kicked in, and the tiny ship picked up speed. Within moments it had vanished from sight, if there were any on the ground to mark its passage. Copyright 1994, Genevieve Williams. All rights reserved. And redistribution or publication of this piece must be accompanied by this message and a notification to the author.