[Dark Nest] - 3(21)

He stared into the unblinking eyes of each Jedi Knight for several moments, wondering where he could have gone so wrong in their instruction. Perhaps he had been too hesitant to impose his own values on such a diverse group of students, or perhaps he had failed to present them with enough moot dilemmas to develop a proper moral center. All he knew for certain was that he had failed them somewhere, that he had not prepared them to face the soul-corrupting ruthlessness of the war against the Yuuzhan Vong, or instilled in them the strength to withstand the power of Raynar Thul’s Will.

After a few moments of silence, Luke stood and stared down at the three Jedi. “You are not going to blame Jacen for your actions. Even if he had lied about his vision-and I don’t believe he did-what you did was inexcusable. In going to Madame Thul with this, you betrayed me, you betrayed the other Masters, and you betrayed the Jedi order.”

The three Jedi Knights were not disconcerted in the slightest. Tahiri and Tesar met Luke’s gaze with an unblinking glare that was somewhere between anger and disbelief, and Lowbacca let out a very Killik-like chest rumble that suggested he was more angry than remorseful.

“You are a fool to place your faith in Jacen!” Tesar rasped. “He is nothing but a shenbit in a snake’z skin. You trust him with your hatchling-“

Lowbacca snarled a warning to the Barabel, telling him that he was only going to make Luke angrier by mentioning that.

“Mentioning what?” Luke demanded.

“Nothing,” Tahiri said. “We didn’t see it for ourselves, so we don’t even know if it’s true.”

“If what’s true?” Luke demanded.

Lowbacca gave Tesar a sideways glare, then grooowled a long reply explaining that Jaina and Zekk had caught Jacen blocking some of Ben’s memories.

“Blocking memories?” Luke asked.

“Ben saw something upsetting,” Tahiri explained. “Jaina and Zekk caught Jacen using the Force to prevent him from remembering it.”

Luke scowled, the anger he already felt rising to rage. “If you’re making this up-“

“We are not,” Tesar insisted. “Jaina and Zekk saw it. They saw Jacen rubbing Ben’s brow and felt something in the Force.”

Lowbacca weighed in with a low rumble, explaining that Jacen had told them it was a technique he learned from the Adepts of the White Current.

“I never heard of anything like that from them,” Luke said. “What memory was Jacen trying to block?”

Tahiri shrugged. “You’ll have to ask him-he’s not much into sharing these days.”

Luke could sense that Tahiri was telling the truth, but even without the Force he would have believed her. While Jacen had returned from his five-year sojourn with remarkable skills, he had also returned a far more mysterious person, often deflecting or flatly refusing to answer questions about his experiences. It was as though he believed that no one who had not taken such a retreat for himself was entitled to share in the wisdom it yielded.

“I’ll certainly ask Jacen about the memory blocking,” Luke said. “But I fail to see what that has to do with your betrayal.”

Although he was still fuming inside-especially at the trio’s efforts to deflect his anger onto Jacen-Luke paused to give them an opportunity to make the connection for him.

When they did not, he asked, “Then I am to assume that you’re not suggesting Jacen has blocked my memory of something?”

Even Tahiri’s eyes widened with shock, and Tesar said, “Yesz-I mean no-we have no reason to believe he has blocked your memoriez.”

Luke looked to the other Jedi Knights for confirmation, then nodded when they remained silent.

“Very well,” he said. “Before coming here today, I gave this matter a great deal of thought, and nothing you’ve said has convinced me I was wrong.”

Lowbacca began to moan, asserting that everything they did was for the good of the order

“I know that’s what you think,” Luke said, raising a hand to silence him. “But what I think is that you would rather believe Jacen has betrayed his family, friends, and the order than admit that the Colony is on the brink of plunging the galaxy into the eternal war he saw in his vision.”

Tesar ruffled his scales. “That is zilly! We are not under the Colony’z influence!”

“I’m sorry, Jedi Sebatyne,” Cilghal said, speaking for the first time since the discussion had begun. “But we can’t know that for certain. Your minds are still connected, at least rudimentarily, and Raynar was able to exert a considerable influence over you even before you were exposed to the collective mind.”