[Last Of The Jedi] - 08(22)

He found the street he was looking for and looked for the coordinates. Any markings had long been lost. He saw a slender figure sitting on a half-blasted stairway and stopped. It was an Acherin woman, her hair short and thick with dust. Dirt streaked her tunic and one boot had a long slash down the side. It was held together with twine.

“Good evening,” Clive said.

“Ah, an optimist.”

He tried again. “I’m looking for Vira.” Clive knew the Acherin tradition was to use first names. It was considered insulting to use someone’s full name, even for a stranger. He hoped the Acherin traditions of hospitality still held.

“And who’s asking?”

“Clive,” he said. “Toma sent me.”

This got her attention. “Toma,” she breathed. “So he is alive.”

“Alive and well and sending his regards to Vira.”

“I’m sorry,” the woman said. “There’s no way to say this easily. Vira was killed in the fighting. She lived with us. I was her sister-in-law.”

So he had come to a dead end.

She saw the disappointment on his face. “But perhaps my husband, Alder, can help you. He was good friends with Toma, too.”

She stood, and he saw how tall she was. “I’m his wife, Halle. Come inside. Please.”

She pushed through a makeshift plastoid door. Inside was a bombed-out building that had once been a house. A tarp served as a roof. Rubble had been cleared out and Planks set on the ground for a floor. Clive noted it was swept clean.

“We don’t have much, but we will gladly share,”

Halle said.

“Why don’t you leave?” Clive asked. “There’s no restriction on emigration, is there?”

“No,” she answered quietly. “But this is my home If we didn’t rebuild, who would? The Empire? What kind of homeworld would we have then?”

A tattered cloth between two columns parted, and an equally tall and imposing man walked in. “Alder, this is Clive,” Halle said. “Toma sent him to Vira.”

Alder walked forward, a shadow in his dark eyes at the mention of his sister. “Toma? Where is he?”

“I can’t tell you that,” Clive replied. “But I can tell you he’s well.”

“Thank the moons and stars. Loss is part of our lives here now - may Vira rest with the ancients - so it’s good to hear that Toma is well. Here, sit down,” Alder said. “It’s almost time for the evening meal.”

By the looks of things, they didn’t have much in the way of food. Luckily, Clive had laid in supplies. He put his utility pack on the table. “Let the visitor supply the meal. It’s a custom of my world.” Not really true, but he had a feeling they wouldn’t accept otherwise.

“You honor us with your gift,” Halle said.

Clive took out bread and protein loaf, a cylinder of prepared tea, and fruit. He added a bag of sweets and some reconstituted muffins.

Alder’s eyes widened. “It’s a feast!”

“First, eat. Then we can talk.” Clive waved his hand at the food.

He took a few bites but mostly watched them eat hungrily-It amazed him how connected beings were to their homeworlds. He had left his homeworld of Belazura behind long ago and rarely returned. Belazura was renowned for its beauty, but Clive didn’t have a particle of sentiment in his bones. He felt more comfortable moving from planet to planet. He rarely stayed anywhere long. If he had to live like this, he would have left long ago.

When he was sure they had eaten their fill, Clive poured them each a last cup of tea and sat back. “Toma told me that Vira could tell me about Flame. Flame contacted her and asked for a way to find Toma.”

“Vira didn’t tell us,” Alder said. “She must have kept Flame’s secret well.”

“We knew Flame,” Halle said. “Well, not before she joined the resistance - she didn’t live in the old city. She was from the capital, Sood. She said she came from a wealthy family, but we didn’t share much information about our personal lives.”

“Do you have any idea of her real identity?” Clive asked.

Halle and Alder both shook their heads. “You could tell she came from wealth,” Alder said. “But she never put on airs, she never asked for favors. She wasn’t a principal player, but she did surveillance, set up safe houses, things like that. She took the same risks we all did.”

“She was very smart, very good,” Halle said “Rumors were that she smuggled much of her Wealth off-planet. At first she was resented for this. Eluthans thought it showed a lack of loyalty to the homeworld But Flame just laughed at that. She felt she would only be able to fight if she had the wealth to do it.”