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Leia stood and picked up the fallen statue from the floor, setting it back on the table. Luke watched her, keeping his face free of any downcast expression. “Leia, what is it?” he asked.

She looked at him with her dark eyes and hesitated before answering. “Just feeling sorry for myself, I guess. Han should have arrived on Kessel two days ago, but he hasn’t bothered to send a message. That’s no big surprise, considering him!” But Luke saw more wistfulness than sarcasm in her eyes.

“Sometimes it wears on me not to have my own children here. I’ve been with the twins for only a fraction of their lives. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve visited the baby. I haven’t had time to feel like a mother. The diplomatic chores won’t give me a rest.” Then she looked directly at him. “And you’re about to go off on your great Jedi hunt. I feel like I’m missing out on life.”

Luke reached out to touch her arm. “You could become a very powerful Jedi if you would only devote some concentration to your work. To follow the Force, you must let your training be the focus of your life and not become distracted by other things.”

Leia reacted more strongly than he had anticipated, drawing away. “Maybe I’m afraid of that, Luke. When I look at you, I see a haunted expression in your eyes, as if a vital part of you has been burned away by the personal hells you’ve walked through. Trying to kill your own father, dueling with a clone of yourself, serving the Dark Side for the Emperor. If that’s what it takes to be a powerful Jedi, maybe I don’t want the job!”

She held up her hand to stop him from saying anything until she had finished. “I am doing important work for the Council. I’m helping to rebuild a whole republic of a thousand star systems. Maybe that is my life’s work, not being a Jedi. And maybe, just maybe, I might want to fit being a mother in there, too.”

Luke looked at her, unmoved. No one could read his expressions anymore; he was no longer innocent. “If that is your destiny, Leia, it’s a good thing I’ll start training other Jedi soon.” They stared at each other in an uncomfortable silence for a few moments. Luke looked away first, retreating from that line of conversation.

“But you still need to protect yourself from the Dark Side. Let’s work a little more with shielding and your inner defenses, and then we’ll call it a night.” Leia nodded, but he could sense that her spirits had sunk further.

He reached out with his fingers to touch her dark hair, drifting over the contours of her head. “I’m going to try to probe your mind. I’ll use different techniques, different touches. Try to resist me, or at least pinpoint where I am.”

Luke let his eyes fall half-closed, then sent faint tendrils of thoughts into her mind, deftly touching the topography of her memory. At first she didn’t react, but then he could feel her concentrating, building an invisible wall around his probe. Though slow, she succeeded in blocking him off.

“Good, now I’m going to try different places.” He moved his touch to a different center. “Resist me if you can.”

As he kept probing deeper, Leia became better at fending him off. She parried his attempts with greater speed and stronger force as he guided her to put up barriers. He grew more pleased as he worked with her, touching random spots in her mind, trying to take her by surprise. He could feel her own delight with her improving abilities.

Luke reached to the back of her mind, an area of deep primal memories but little conscious thought. He doubted he could get any defensive reaction there, but no attacker would be likely to strike at such places. Her thoughts were like a map laid out in front of him, and Luke touched inward to an isolated nub in her mind. He pushed—

And suddenly felt as if a giant invisible palm had planted itself on his chest and shoved backward. Luke stumbled to keep his balance, taking two steps away from her. Leia’s eyes went wide, and her mouth dropped open in surprise.

Luke said, “What did you do?”