My stay on Tustra became my respite... I could finally slow down a bit and relax. It's too early for me to rest, as there is still so much left undone. But, although I consider myself a follower of the philosophy "work done, play freely," I couldn't help but note the number of items marked "to do." In short, I simply need a rest, and since there is an opportunity, I must take advantage of it urgently, because I can't imagine when I will be able to afford it in the future. On my homeland, I mostly walked and rested. The places for my walks were parks and quiet, I would even say, secluded places where one could calmly enjoy the silence...
Yes, for once, such secluded corners were used by me not for training, but simply for walks. Meanwhile, my father took my VV under his wing and decided to "pump it up" a bit. I myself, of course, could disassemble and reassemble the VV, possibly even attach some modification, but my father did it much better and more qualitatively. Besides, he had a habit of playing with droid software and periodically engaged in "amateur reflashing." The ship itself was handed over to the craftsmen who were changing the hyperdrive. I spent hours and even days jumping onto a tree located near a murmuring clear stream and watching the clouds, lying on a branch. Kaaaiif...
From birth and the realization of the world I found myself in, I dedicated myself entirely to training, hardly pausing for anything. Now, deciding to rest, I was shocked at how pleasant this feeling was. For the first time in a very long time, I used the Force only to analyze my surroundings, passively, without using Force Cloak, without fighting... I just lay and rested, contemplating the clouds. Hour after hour, I enjoyed every moment. Tustra Prime is already leaning towards sunset... Time to go home.
Jumping down from the branch, I stretched and moved my muscles a bit, dispersing the stagnant blood, and then walked towards the city. Only a paltry five kilometers separated me from the capital. There I would rent a speeder, fly to the border of the Royal Quarter, and then about ten minutes on foot, and I would be home. I was lucky to arrive towards the end of the school year, so Ziri is finishing her studies and cannot be home twenty-four-seven, which I took advantage of. The sephi school is an incredibly demanding place that exhausts even her. According to the laws of our planet, education begins at three years old. A five-year-old sephi must know a little about their native culture, their language, the basics of arithmetic, and, most importantly, perfectly understand who sephi are and what their prospects are in the Galaxy. The subject is called exactly that. It begins at five years old and continues until the end of the entire school program. I managed to grab it before leaving with Yoda, hence my knowledge of the xenobiology of my race. Well, if they start teaching three-year-old children, it's not hard to imagine that the demand for the last grades of education becomes simply monstrous. And this should be taken into account, that the last grade is at eighteen years old, and Ziri herself is only twelve. I am eighteen... What is that noise on the way?
I thought this was a beautiful but quiet place, a kind of park: greenery everywhere, tall trees... In short, a good spot, but today it was too noisy! Gradually, the hum of voices began to take the form of laughter and joy, and those who were laughing and rejoicing turned out to be simple graduates of one of the schools... My peers were feasting, drinking a little alcohol, and celebrating... Graduation. And these peers, strangely enough, I knew well. Yes, yes, it was precisely that company with which I had managed to get acquainted at the Royal School, which opens its doors to anyone who had the honor of being born in the Royal Quarter. And then my eyes fell on a couple of familiar sentients.
However, they are having their own celebration now, so I will clearly be superfluous here. Better go from here, while...
"Light?" suddenly asked one of the girls standing not far from me, slicing meat for the barbecue. Now she was distracted from her duties and looked at me with her dark eyes.
"Hmm... Rivi," I remembered the name of my friend, dressed in a purple dress.
"It's really you! I heard you arrived, but I couldn't meet you. According to Ziri, you leave too early and arrive too late," and she had grown. Rivi had become a slender sephi with regular facial features and dark hair, cascading onto her shoulders, and the pointed tips of her ears had acquired a light red hue. Yes, Rivi had become a real beauty, no doubt about it.
"He really looks like him," a whisper was heard among the girls surrounding my friend. "Haven't seen him for a hundred years."
"And what a handsome man he's become," one of them said.
"Ladies," I nodded to the girls. "Yes, you are right, it's been a long time."
"I heard you joined the Jedi," one of the girls started a conversation.
"That's right. Now I am a Jedi Knight," I confirmed with a nod.
"Wow," Rivi was surprised. "When you visited last time, you were with that sentient... Mentor... Zabrak... What was his name?"
"Lorm Decer," I said with a slight sadness. "He died."
"I'm sorry," Rivi said sadly.
Then the guys from Rivi's class noticed me. Among many of them, I recognized those who used to bully me. Rozri, for example, had become a short sephi with a developed muscular physique. An arrogant look never left the eyes of the guy with a not-so-pleasant character.
"Who are you chatting with here?" one of the guys asked. "You seem vaguely familiar... Hmmm..."
"I am Flaingstar. Light Flaingstar, you all definitely know me..."
"Ahhh... Crybaby Lighty," one of the guys recalled me. Crybaby? I don't remember such a nickname. I was usually called "purple-eyed" because of the strange color of my eyes, which is a mutation of my kind.
"Interesting," I tilted my head to the side, "why would you call me a crybaby? I don't remember giving you a reason to," I looked into the eyes of that guy. Zhevi, I think. One of Rozri's hangers-on from back then.
"Well, how so," Rozri grinned. "You always hid behind your mother's skirt, or behind Rivi's back. You hid behind a beautiful and fragile girl. Don't crybabies do that?"
"Rozri," my voice grew cold. "You're acting like you have no idea who I am. Don't you think your logic is frankly terrible? I didn't defend myself the way you're embellishing here, but just gave a black eye... Or do you suddenly want another one?"
However, I myself don't want it - as if I have nothing else to do. And it's not very Jedi-like... No matter what kind of Jedi I am, but to stoop to fighting over childish grievances...
"You wouldn't dare," he said sharply, smiling. "I'm unarmed. And what will you do to me? I didn't insult you, I told the truth... Gggh..."
"Your vanity scares me," I said, having slightly pressed him to the ground with telekinesis, "arrogance doesn't lead to good. And it's better for me to explain this to you than anyone else."
I stopped the influence, letting him stand up.
"Hey, it's not fair to use the Force," one of the girls exclaimed indignantly.
"Just like attacking in a crowd against one person," I countered. "But I don't hold a grudge against them. We were children - not the most rational part of society. Now it's time to forget childish quarrels. It's unpleasant for me to use the Force for this, because it is capable of much more than foolish settling of scores for childhood grievances." Clinging to such things is a sure sign of a crazy idiot. Yes, I can ruin Rozri's life in various ways right now. But did I go through so much just to get back at someone who gave me a couple of bruises in childhood? It's somehow petty.
"Umm... Will you join us?" Rivi suddenly asked. Although she most likely did it to defuse the situation.
"Are you celebrating the end of school?" I asked, looking around at those present. "I don't think that would be right. I studied with you for a very short time."
"Oh, come on," one of the guys said. "It would be great if you joined! Maybe you'll tell us about your Jediism. For example, about the knight who attacked a Sith on Royssa-VIII a couple of weeks ago? That broadcast literally blew up the HoloNet."
Glances converged on me... M-da... Sometimes you do some crazy thing on one end of the Galaxy, and they remind you of it on the other. However, who remembers? Specifically, no one knows the name of the Jedi who clashed with Seth Hart. And even though I was wearing the same suit now as on Royssa, it became known that such clothes are quite popular among some shadows. More precisely - such a version is common among some shadows. Jonnal, for example, wore a similar one. Therefore, I was assured in the Order that I shouldn't worry about my identity being discovered. Who knows who else is running around the Galaxy in a similar white suit...
"Yes, a colleague had quite a spree," I grinned back. "Honestly, I don't know who did it among us, but the fight was epic."
"And could you fight the same way?" one of the girls asked.
"Well," I looked at the blonde. "Perhaps. You see, we Jedi have different strengths and weaknesses. Someone fights better in direct combat, someone negotiates, and someone, for example, is better at investigating crimes."
"Ooh, and what do you do?" Rozri asked me. "Is there really a job for you in the Order?"
"Yes, there is. I am an archaeologist, a researcher," I answered Rozri.
"So you dig in the ground..."
"More like I study old ruins and ruins. Sometimes, secrets are hidden in them that can influence the Galaxy itself," the first rule of Jedi Shadows is - never tell anyone that you are a Jedi Shadow.
"Don't lie to us," Rozri said sharply. "What secrets can be found in old ruins? You just rummage through old dumps, and you're even proud of it. 'Great Jedi,' indeed."
"Boys, calm down," Rivi said. "Let's continue the preparation. Light, so are you with us?"
Hmm. Alright, why not? Nothing bad will come of me sitting here, in a company not very familiar to me. After all, I interacted with them too little, mostly my impressions come from Rivi, as she is my friend, and Rozri... Because he's an asshole. The guys set up the grill... And, honestly, they decided to make their lives as difficult as possible by buying not an electric grill, which could be charged at home and then used "on the go," but a regular charcoal one.
"Hutt," one of the guys exclaimed. "Our starter is broken," he reported.
"And I told you to check it," the girls' meat is about to be prepared, and we don't have a grill for frying it... Not good.
"Allow me," I lit a flame on my right hand using pyrokinesis.
"Wow," the guy was surprised, putting away the electric starter. "Can all Jedi do that?"
"Not all," I answered him, bringing my hand close to the logs, igniting them. The flame flared brightly...
Thirty minutes later, our whole group was crunching on freshly cooked meat. It turned out pretty well. My so-called "former classmates" mostly told me what I had missed by going to the Jedi. And indeed, the educational institution in the Kingdom of the sephi is an incredibly important thing, and they cram knowledge there more fiercely than at the University of Alderaan. I, in turn, told them a little about the Galaxy, omitting parts of my adventures. I only told them about the krayt dragon from Tatooine and showed some Force techniques. I decided not to take out my lightsabers – they were too conspicuous, and someone's sharp eyes, which had previously watched the recording of the battle with Seth Hart, could well have recognized my swords. In the future, my true identity will undoubtedly become known. But right now, I wasn't going to reveal it… Maybe someday in the future I will have a strong team, with the help of which I can do something in the political arena and will definitely not be afraid of the disclosure of my data. But for now, that's a long way off. For now, I have no strength, skills, abilities, and, most importantly, tangible weight of reputation and respect, neither in the Order nor in the Republic itself. Even after all that I did on Rys, I'm still nobody. Just another Shadow, of which there are hundreds in the Order. An assassin, honed for the destruction of the gifted. No more, no less… For now.
Perhaps the Force techniques I demonstrated were enough for some of the sentient beings to finally be convinced of the futility of trying to belittle me in any way. For example, Rozri no longer bothered me. Although this also happened because I showed that I didn't care about him. I'm just stronger. Or maybe I've simply outgrown such grievances. For the last forty minutes of our impromptu picnic, the surrounding people listened with delight to my story about the training that Lorm Decer gave me after leaving Tustra. Most of them will hardly ever hear about such things. Although… Tustra will be a planet that will join the Confederacy during the Separatist crisis and even participate in the Clone Wars. If this war, of course, happens. I'll have to take care of that moment… To demand from Alaric, a highly moral being who correctly identified the Republic's decay, support for this very Republic instead of the Confederacy is foolish… But I can at least beg for his neutrality. The Force, how naive it sounds… But he is an incredibly authoritative ruler, guiding all the neighboring rulers in the Sumitra sector. And nearby there is also Mandalore, the homeland of the Mandalorians. However, all this is a far-reaching plan. I don't know how they will be realized. It's better to focus on the present for now.
When it started to get dark, the group split up: part of the forty or so sephi decided to continue the banquet in a nightclub, couples went to their nests, and the rest…
"Rivi, are you coming with us?" Rozri drew her attention. "I have a pass to the most elite club for fifty people. Have you heard of 'The Song of the Night Wind'?" A club for the rich, as far as I remember. Although I didn't live on Tustra for long, I knew about the existence of this establishment from adult conversations when they discussed the behavior of Navi, King Alaric's nephew and heir.
"No, I'm sorry, Rozri, but I want to go home," the girl replied.
"Come on, you always refuse me," Rozri approached her, and I looked at both of them suspiciously. "Maybe stop playing hard to get? Come with me!"
"You know she refused you, right?" I asked slyly, taking a sip of water from a canteen that one of the present had handed me. "And if a girl refuses, why insist, huh, Rozri?"
"You'd better shut up," my "classmate" looked at me arrogantly. "You Jedi, as I heard, can't have children at all, so you take other people's."
"And who told you such a tale?" I asked him with genuine interest. "We can have children. Jedi don't take children to compensate for their 'childlessness' – Jedi take gifted children who need to be taught to handle the Force. After all, such children can be dangerous to others. For example, I can help you start a campfire. And if I didn't control this ability as I do, a catastrophe of regional scale could have happened! That's why the Jedi order exists, Rozri. But, just so you know, we are not infertile."
"I don't care, don't lecture me on what I should or shouldn't do!"
"And there are no other opinions here," I raised my voice, interrupting Rozri, for which I received a whole portion of surprise. "You were refused, and, judging by everything, not for the first time. Just accept the fact and leave. It's not that difficult and much easier than continuing to embarrass yourself. Or do you think it will add to your reputation if the girl goes with you by force?"
"I think you're meddling in things that don't concern you…"
"You're right, it's none of my business. But it's Rivi's business," I noted, "and she's been my friend since 'kindergarten.' Alas, I cannot call your actions worthy," I stood between him and the sitting Rivi. "Or should I remind you of the recent past? I agreed not to dwell on childhood grievances, but I cannot stand by and watch you forcibly try to impose a solution that benefits only you on Rivi. I'll repeat myself again – leave."
"Or what? You'll chop me with your lightsaber?"
"Naive… I don't need a lightsaber to teach you proper behavior," I grinned. "Just a little flick of my hand and you'll be kissing the ground."
Rozri swallowed and stepped back, apparently remembering how it all ended last time.
"Did you understand everything?" I asked him.
"Yes," he said maliciously.
"And one more thing," I quickly closed the distance, standing close. "Rivi has my contacts. If you continue your vile business, it will be nothing for me to fly over and repeat the lesson. Don't think I'm acting un-Jedi-like. I'll record this as 'sexual harassment warning,' and no one in the Order will say a word to me. Understood, Rozri Miral?"
"I understood," he turned away. "Everyone else who wants to get into the club, follow me!"
"Hmph," I snorted, turning to the girls.
"You're a brave knight," said Rivi's friend. She stood up, walked over to me, and kissed me on the cheek. Mmm, pleasant. "It's clear you're a Jedi not just by rank. Well, Rivi," she looked expectantly at her friend. "Will you thank the gentleman with a kiss?" What a sly friend Rivi has. I never liked them.
"Of course," the girl smiled, repeating her friend's gesture. And this was also pleasant.
"As a knight, I can offer to escort the lovely ladies to the doors of their homes," I smiled.
"I don't need it – my brother will meet me," Rivi's friend replied. "But Rivi doesn't have a brother. So, I think she won't refuse."
"Rivi," I looked at the girl.
"Will you escort me, Light? Like last time."
"Of course, my lady," I nodded.
When we returned to the quarter, it was already completely dark. I escorted the girl from the stop right to her house door.
"Thank you, Light," she thanked me, walking along the familiar streets of the Royal Quarter.
"Does Rozri bother you a lot?" I asked the girl. "If you want, I can talk to him more thoroughly."
"Well… For some reason, he's taken a liking to me," why for some reason? Rivi, although you are modest, you are a very beautiful girl. Shiny black hair, a slender waist, a chest of about a third size. Naturally, I noticed the glances directed at my friend. Boys can be understood.
"I'm not surprised," I said, "you've grown up very beautiful."
"Ahem… Thank you," she's not blushing or embarrassed? Last time she was all worked up. Although, maybe she picked up confidence from her blonde friend? "I appreciate compliments from you, Light. You've also grown quite… resilient… Looking at you, I see that you are a reliable sephi. Now I understand what my mother meant when she said: 'a man behind whom you feel as if you are behind a durasteel wall.'"
"You overestimate me…"
"Heh-heh-heh… Modest Light. You insult my intuition! I think you're a little constrained – as if you know something important, but you're afraid because you can't resist it, and therefore you consider yourself weak."
"Is that so. And?" I asked with interest the girl walking beside me.
"Light, I'll tell you something smart, just don't get offended. You shouldn't belittle your abilities, nor should you overestimate them – just assess yourself adequately. And you underestimate yourself. Yourself, your strength, your character. Hence the problem: you consider yourself inherently weaker. Even after going through serious training, you don't change your opinion. Why?" she looked at me, stopping right in front of the entrance to her family's plot. The light in the house was off. "Why do you still consider yourself weak?"
"Why?" I looked into the girl's dark eyes. "Because I know. I know how strong my opponents are. The weak die, the strong survive. And I doubt I'm strong enough."
"Did you know that a true man should be free of doubt regarding the chosen path?" she said importantly. "Anyone can doubt, in fact. But when YOU say that you doubt YOUR abilities, that you know something and doubt… I think we are all doomed. Without… embellishment. It's none of my business, but it's not for you, Light Flaingstar, to doubt your strength."
"Interesting…" I stretched. "I have only one question. Since when do they teach advanced-level psychoanalysis at the Royal School?"
"Did I mention this discipline?" the girl smiled brazenly. "I was talking about female intuition."
"Sounds powerful," I stepped up close to the girl. "And what does it tell you now? I'm not sure of my strength?"
"A man's strength is shown by his actions, not his words."
"In that case," I kissed my friend on the lips. "How do you like the action?"
Rivi's pupils widened in surprise, but she didn't flinch away, and on the contrary – she returned the kiss.
"Intriguing. But will there be a continuation, or will this fleeting bravery evaporate in an instant? If anything, my parents aren't home."
"Thank you for the psychotherapy session, but you're trying to tease me in vain," I said, hugging the girl and picking her up in my arms. "Now I'll show you… an action."