• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

“Hey, there are worse family traditions.”

“Like Aunt Leia’s spiceloaf.”

“You think the dark side is scary, you say that to her.”

“I won’t. I like my body intact, thank you very much.”

THE JOURNEYS UPON WHICH THE AING-TII SENT LUKE AND BEN WERE fascinating. The Aing-Tii sometimes knew the precise location where an artifact would be. Other times, Luke and Ben were sent on missions based only on a “sensing” that something “might” be there. Traveling was much easier now that they had the Aing-Tii to help them plot jumps. Ben once asked if they could learn how to make the Jade Shadow jump the way the Sanhedrim vessels did, as they were now on a pilgrimage on behalf of the Aing-Tii.

Tadar’Ro shook his head. “Your vessel is without the Force,” he said. “Ours … are not.”

“Are they organic, then?” Luke asked, thinking of the Yuuzhan Vong.

Tadar’Ro cocked his head, considering. “Yes and no,” he said finally. “They are of the Force, but they are not organic, not as you understand the word.”

“More rainbow philosophy?” asked Ben.

“Indeed,” said Tadar’Ro. The question could have been perceived as flippant, but Luke and apparently Tadar’Ro both knew that it wasn’t intended as such. “Things are not just one thing or another. Not with us.”

The artifacts they were sent to find were of all varieties. Sometimes they seemed to Luke and Ben to simply be exceptionally beautiful stones, crystals, or other natural formations. Other times they carefully brought back what was clearly a piece of advanced alien technology. Each time, the item was received in the same manner: with reverence. And most of the time, Luke and Ben, the ones who managed to obtain the item, were treated with gratitude and courtesy.

Most of the time. Increasingly, though, Luke began to sense resentment from the Aing-Tii. He asked Tadar’Ro about it one afternoon.

Tadar’Ro seemed agitated. “It is not directed at you,” he said finally. “The schism between the two factions—those who believe the Force guides us, while not directly shaping things, and those who believe the Prophet was a voice for Those Who Dwell Beyond the Veil—increases each day. More and more, each side swells with those who step from neutrality, from being comfortable with the not-knowing, to a firm stance. Fewer and fewer are staying open to all possibilities, as I am. We need to heal this rift, and soon.”

“What can we do to help?” Luke asked.

“When you are ready, we will take you to the Embrace,” Tadar’Ro said.

Beside Luke, Ben started violently at the word. Luke reached to squeeze his arm reassuringly. For Ben, for a long while yet, the word Embrace would be followed by of Pain, and would produce an instant and visceral reaction. Tadar’Ro of course picked up on it.

“It is nothing of harm,” he said reassuringly. “It is simply our term for the site that contains the Relics. That … embraces them lovingly, holds them safely.”

Ben was calming down and nodded. “Sorry,” he said. “So why can’t Dad and I go to this … Embrace … and try to answer that question for you?”

“You are not yet ready to do such a thing,” Tadar’Ro replied. “There are still things you must learn; things you must understand about us. Things that Jacen Solo and Jorj Car’das learned and understood, at least to some degree. Then I will lead you into the Embrace.”

Luke knew what Tadar’Ro was talking about. He was not at all happy that Ben had asked to learn flow-walking, or that Tadar’Ro had agreed to teach it. For beings who had a multifaceted approach to the Force, even to physics itself, flow-walking was probably not that big a deal.

But for humans, it was something else entirely. Still, the situation was what it was.

“I know Ben is anxious to learn flow-walking from you, so I will leave you two to it,” he said, rising and nodding respectfully at Tadar’Ro. Ben didn’t meet his father’s eyes, instead gazed straight at the Aing-Tii. He was still looking intently at him as Luke turned and walked back to the Jade Shadow.

THE SHADOWS OF EVENING WERE STRETCHING