Leia frowned. “You almost sound … sad.”
Lando paused, groping for the right words. “No … but there’s no risk in my life. The years aren’t going to make me old, but sitting around being successful, popular, and responsible is.” He scowled. “Do you know how long it’s been since a bounty hunter came after me?”
Leia offered him a wan smile. “For us, not so long.”
Lando heaved himself to his feet. “I’m going to show you to your quarters. You get some rest. I’ll arrange for a suitable transport to be brought up here.”
CORELLIAN EXCLUSION ZONE
ANAKIN SOLO
Jacen sat cross-legged in his cabin, floating a meter above the floor, tranquil.
For once, he was fully open to the Force, letting it flow through him, sustain him, support him in the air. He let the Force do as it wished, showing him pictures, flicking little traces of thought and emotion through him … and all the while he searched, peering as if the entirety of the Force were an ocean and he wanted to find one distant, familiar face among its waves and currents.
He found it. Very far away, tiny in the distance, but demonstrably still alive … Lumiya.
And suddenly she was nearer, much nearer. She appeared In his physical vision as well, no more than two meters before him. She looked as though she were a two-dimensional thing who had been at right angles to his line of sight, then suddenly rolled over and into plain view.
As she had in years past, she wore a dark pants-and tunic ensemble, and on her head she wore a wrapped headdress. One portion of it concealed her nose and mouth, ending in a sharp point oriented down toward her chest, and two other portions radiated from her forehead as if concealing a Devaronian’s horns, giving her head an oddly triangular cast.
She lay on her side as if resting on a couch. There was no couch to be seen; she floated in the air as Jacen did. Her head was lifted and her eyes were unfocused. They took a moment to orient on him. “Jacen?” Her voice was distant, echoing as though she were in a large room with hard walls.
For a moment he was nonplussed. He’d known about her ability to project realistic Force phantoms from her home, an asteroid suffused with concentrated Force energy. But he hadn’t imagined her using the technique for simple communication. He envied her the technique. Perhaps she would someday show him how she did it. “Lumiya,” he said. “I’m happy to know that you’ve survived.”
“Thank you.” She laid her head down again, as if on a pillow. Her movements suggested exhaustion, even pain. “I am healing. Here I can summon my strength. Your uncle hurt me.”
“Yet you don’t sound angry.”
She laughed. The noise was faint. “I’m used to it. When ever we meet, I expect him to hurt me. He will probably do so until I die … or until you and I have won and he is forced to understand us.”
“I’m in a holding pattern for the moment, Lumiya. Waiting for negotiations with the Corellians to bear fruit. Thinking about where my studies need to lead me.”
“Ah.” She was silent a long moment. Jacen watched her breathe-it seemed to be an effort for her. “You have been considering your sacrifice. Sacrificing what you love. Loving what you sacrifice.”
“Yes. I am becoming … more ready.”
“Good. And you have been looking for an apprentice?”
“Ben is my apprentice. Though I realized not long ago that I can sacrifice him if I have to.”
“Ben is your Jedi apprentice. Not your Sith apprentice.”
“I’m not a full Sith yet, and therefore cannot have a Sith apprentice.”
Her sigh sounded exasperated. “You’re stalling. You don’t know whether he will be fit to become a Sith apprentice. The time to learn that is now, not when you reveal yourself. You must test him.”
“He’s back with his parents, and they don’t want him to see me.”
Lumiya lay there, silent, unhelpful. She watched him and waited.
“So…” He considered. “I must separate Ben from Luke and Mara, and test him.”
Lumiya nodded. “If you wish, I will coordinate the test.
But you must decide what it will be.”
“All right.”
“And you must decide what to do with him if he fails.”
“Yes.”
“If he fails, will you love him less?”
Jacen paused over his answer. He had to look deep into his own feelings to imagine how he would feel about Ben if her boy failed. “I think … initially it would make little difference. But we would soon grow apart.”
“So if he fails, he will not long be suitable as your sacrifice. Keep that in mind.”