[Black Fleet Crisis(36)

The sea began to freeze, as the northern hemisphere slid deeper into Coruscant’s short winter. Over a period of many days, the rocks and beach were draped with a heavy crust of sculpted ice. But the sight would have surprised Luke, had it mattered enough to him to seek it out.

Even Leia had stopped reaching out for him, though more in anger than in understanding. The result mattered more to him than the reason.

His solitude was complete, timeless and undisturbed.

Then a visitor came, and everything changed.

It was his ordinary senses, reawakened, which informed Luke of the visitor’s presence. First, a sound, which he later realized was his own name.

At that point, it had been many days since he had spoken, or even thought in words.

He concentrated. “Lights, medium. “

The meditation chamber reappeared around him.

Sight told him that a woman stood in the chamber with him, half a dozen steps away. Her shoulders were bare, her throat covered by a long scarf that vanished down her back. Her hair was long and braided, her clothing soft and flattering. Her eyes were dark, intent, and knowing.

He took her at first for a projection, because it was unthinkable that anyone could have passed through the walls, his screens, without alerting him. But then he touched her bare arm, and touch told him her skin was real, and warm. He circled her, and scent told him of salt air, dead quarrelgrass crushed underfoot, a body bathed in flowers, a hint of the taint of the old oils and clinging vapors that hung on one’s person after a long flight.

“Explain yourself, ” he said when he had circled around to face her again.

“You are him. You are Luke, son to Anakin. ” She smiled with bright delight. “Forgive me. I thought I would never find you. It must have been the working when you built this place that I felt. That was what led me here. “

“You felt what I did? From where? “

“From Carratos, ” she said, naming a planet in a system forty parsecs from Coruscant.

As rudely as his visitor had invaded his hermitage, Luke suddenly invaded her mind, probing the secret place where sensitivity to the Force resided. If she possessed the sort of talent her words claimed for her, he should be thrown halfway across the room when the ancient reflex repelled his mental touch. It was so with every Jedi he had probed, every candidate he had brought to Yavin for training.

Luke’s probing met no resistance. He felt no shields blunting or deflecting his examination. Her mind was open-and yet there was no reflexive response. So sure was he of that test that he wouldn’t have considered her for a moment as a candidate for the academy.

But, still, she had found him. She had, somehow, entered a space she should not have been able to enter unless her gifts in the Force were the equal of his.

“Who are you? ” he asked wonderingly.

She laughed. “Forgive me. I am Akanah, of the Fallanassi, an adept of the White Current. “

“I’m afraid I don’t know your people, or that path, ” he said.

“I know, ” she said. “You won’t find us in your census, or the Emperor’s, or the Old Republic’s. It’s not our way to claim lands and raise flags, or stand queue to be counted. But you should know us. That’s part of why I’ve come. “

His brows showed puzzlement. “If your people are such ciphers, why should I know you? “

“Because your mother is one of us, Luke Skywalker. Because you are bound to us through her. “

Luke stared. “My mother? How can-do you-what do you mean, ‘is’ one of us? Leia told me my mother is dead. “

“Yes-I know. As Obi-Wan told you that your father was dead. “

“Are you saying my mother might be alive? “

“I don’t know, ” said Akanah, suddenly sad-eyed. “Who saw her fall? Where is her grave? I wish I could answer your question. But I don’t even know my own mother’s fate. I’ve been separated from the body of my people for too many years. “

“Separated? Why? “

“I was away when the Empire came to the world we called home then. The Fallanassi had to take flight, because they would not let themselves and their gifts be used for violence and evil. I don’t blame them. I know they must have waited for me as long as they could. That was nineteen years ago. I was twelve-not much more than a child. “

“And you never found them again? ” There was a touch of suspicion in Luke’s voice. “You found me. “

She smiled tolerantly. “The Fallanassi are more practiced at hiding than you are, Luke Skywalker. And there isn’t much an abandoned child can do in the middle of a war to search for a family that doesn’t want to be found. “