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“Now that you have credits and aren't living by anyone else's rules,” Jaina amended.

“That's right.”

Jag leaned forward. “We're here to ask you a few questions about Jacen Solo.”

Tahiri's uncertain look returned. “You really don't need to say Jacen Solo. When his sister comes to talk to his former apprentice and Jacen is mentioned, I'm not going to suppose you mean some Jacen who waits tables.”

“Of course.” Jag gave Jaina a pained look. “In informal circumstances, I really am redundant and stuffy, aren't I?”

Jaina nodded. “Yes, but you're pretty.” She returned her attention to Tahiri. “You've heard about the Grand Master and his sentence.”

Tahiri nodded. “I heard about his farewell. I thought about going, but I was pretty sure I wouldn't be welcome.”

“Not by everyone … We're trying to get a better handle on Jacen's thought processes. What made him turn. When he turned. It's all part of an effort to help the Grand Master—to help Uncle Luke—make his case for his return to Coruscant.”

“People have been trying to understand Jacen for two years.” Tahiri shrugged as if the task were hopeless. “No, people have been trying to understand him since we were apprentices. Since you two and Anakin were children together. They've been coming to me since he died. Jedi and government investigators and doctors and the press.”

Jaina gave her a sympathetic look. “Any friends among them?”

Tahiri hesitated, then shook her head. “I'm not sure I have any friends. Not that I blame anyone for that. Anyone but Jacen and myself.”

Jaina resisted the urge to join in with Tahiri's critics and give the younger woman a verbal beating. It wouldn't help in this situation. “You're not likely to make any, either, as a bounty hunter. You need to come back to the Order, Tahiri.”

“Not until I know who I am. What I am.” Tahiri smoothed an errant strand of blond hair back from her cheek. “I've been more things than I can count. Tatooine girl, adopted Tusken Raider, Jedi, Yuuzhan Vong hybrid, Sith apprentice, addict … I've got to get rid of all of them for a while. Learn how to hear myself think.”

Jag nodded. “So think about Jacen. What have you figured out about him that you haven't told anyone? Details too subtle or seemingly inconsequential, information that nobody ever asked about.”

“I can't tell you when he became a Sith.” Tahiri's expression became unfocused. “Only that it might not be important when he did, or even that he did. I think Sith was just another thing, another set of armor and weapons and disguises, that he put on top of Jacen. Like ‘Jedi,’ or ‘Solo.’ He was always Jacen … until he rejected that, too, and became Caedus.”

Jaina shook her head, not comprehending. “You're saying that it didn't matter when he became a Sith?”

“Something like that.” Tahiri snapped back to the here and now. “I think it matters more when Jacen broke. Maybe he broke when Vergere tortured him for all that time. Maybe he broke when he was a kid, when he and you and Anakin kept being handed off to nannies and protectors while your mother and father were off doing other things.” Tahiri raised a hand to forestall a biting response from Jaina. “I'm not criticizing. They were being pulled in too many directions at once, by too many responsibilities, and when that happens, something gives.” She frowned, trying to puzzle something out. “I think maybe he broke at some other time, whenever it was he decided that the galaxy was a huge, nasty place that had to be tamed. Whatever gave him that idea, it made such an awful impression that he had to become even more awful to confront it.”

Jag looked dubious. “You don't think Lumiya broke him.”

“I think she shaped him.” Now Tahiri looked vulnerable, far more open than when Jaina and Jag had first entered her presence. “I've been broken. I was broken by the Yuuzhan Vong. I broke when Anakin died. And again when I learned that I could be with him again, in little moments. Every time you break, outside forces can shape you, and you can't do anything to stop them. No, I don't