Star Wars_ Fate of the Jedi 04_ Backlash - Aaron Allston [68]
All his life, he’d heard his father make amused but highly critical remarks about meetings. How they wasted time, how they usually constituted a forum for people to air complaints but not resolve things.
And this meeting was an example of exactly that. Clan leaders of both the Raining Leaves and Broken Columns, and the offworld “counselors,” sat around a campfire built beside the lake and talked. One Raining Leaves woman, gray-haired and lean to a point just short of emaciation, had the floor—meaning that she held the gnarled, skull-topped staff indicating that she was the only person other than clan chiefs allowed to talk at the moment. “Clearly, Shattered Chains is no different from Broken Columns. It speaks only to the men’s tribe and ignores the Raining Leaves. It is a ridiculous suggestion.”
Several of those gathered, especially the men, raised their voices in protest, but Kaminne and Tasander waved them to silence, pointing at the speaker’s staff. Those who had objected raised hands, reaching toward the woman, and she reluctantly yielded the staff to a black-bearded Broken Columns man.
He stood. “No name can please everybody. We have to decide and enforce our decision. We can’t worry whether every member of both clans is satisfied. I say—Rusted Fetters.”
Another raising of unhappy voices, another raising of hands.
Ben sighed. He wished Tribeless Sha were here. Of all the people at this conclave, she probably had the most perspective on clan customs and was not influenced by loyalty to either clan. But he had not seen her in several hours.
The question of what name to give the united clan seemed like one of secondary importance, but Ben had learned since joining the camp-fire council that the union simply could not take place until it was resolved. And the way the two sides argued partisan perspectives, while pretending they were trying to help everybody, was a crime.
He stared into the fire, built higher than Carrack was tall, and frowned. Perhaps it was a crime, and perhaps it should be solved like a crime.
Motive, means, opportunity. Those were the staples of determining who had committed a crime. Once you knew who had a reason to commit it and what that reason was, who had the resources necessary to commit it, and who had the opportunity to commit it, the answer was close at hand.
With this crime, that of supporting one tribe’s naming agenda over the other’s, means and opportunity were not in question. But motivation—what reason did the two clans have to support names that referred only to themselves, that elevated them over the other? Ben suspected that it was nothing more than a lack of imagination on their parts—that, and a lack of understanding of what their clan names represented.
He thought about it while more futile discussion raged. Then, in a lull while members of both clans glared among themselves, he raised his hand.
Olianne, who had just been speaking, looked annoyed but handed him the speaker’s staff.
He rose. Several people looked confused that he would be talking. His father merely looked amused.
“Can I take it that the name Raining Leaves sort of speaks to your place in the world—you live in the forests, under open skies, you want to make reference to nature?” Ben looked from Raining Leaves member to member as he spoke.
Firen Nuln nodded, though she looked a little uncertain. “The name is ancient, so we do not know what the members of the clan council were thinking when it was chosen. But, yes, that’s the belief.”
Ben turned to Tasander. “And Broken Columns. I kind of get the sense that the name is saying, We break with the traditions of the past that made us slaves.”
Tasander nodded. “That’s exactly right. Columns representing society as it was before. A failed way of living.”
“Then I have a suggestion.” Ben drew a breath as he composed his thoughts. “‘I am as ancient as time and yet constantly newborn. Nothing lives without me, and without me there is no hope. Yesterday’s children smiled at me, and tomorrow’s children will as well.’” He stopped and glanced around, silently inviting