Vision of the future

To a horrifying sight. Builder With Vines, his wings flapping frantically but uselessly, was struggling half-submerged in the living river flowing through the passageway. Dozens of fire creepers were already crawling across his head and wings, biting and stinging. Even as Child of Winds's terrified cry joined Builder With Vines's scream in Luke's mind a hundred more of the insects crawled onto the Qom Jha, their weight forcing him still deeper beneath the flow.

There was no time to waste. Stretching out with the Force, Luke hauled Builder With Vines up and out of the flow, holding him suspended in midair. He shifted his focus to the insects, grabbing them through the Force and throwing them off him.

'Don't bother,' Mara said quietly. 'There's nothing you can do.' Luke bit back the reflexive impulse to deny it. He was a Jedi—there had to be something he could do.

But no. She was right... and as Builder With Vines's mental scream died into the silence of death he let the body sink gently back into the mindless flow.

'Easy on the fingers,' Mara said softly.

With an effort, Luke turned his gaze back to her, focusing on their joined hands. His fingers were all but white where he was squeezing hers tightly in frustration. 'Sorry,' he muttered, forcing himself to relax his grip.

'That's all right,' she said. 'You know, you've got a pretty good grip there. I thought you Jedi usually concentrated more on the mental aspects of the Force than you did in keeping in shape.' She was trying to deflect his attention, he knew, trying to turn his thoughts away from the horror he'd just witnessed. Sympathy from Mara was a new experience all by itself; but neither words nor sympathy had a puddle's chance of smoothing over the guilt and anger rising in his throat like a twisting sand-devil. 'It's not all right,' he snapped back at her. 'I knew it was dangerous—I could have stopped him. I should have stopped him.'

'How?' Mara countered. 'I mean, sure, you could have used the Force to pin him to the ceiling. But what right would you have had to do something like that?'

'What do you mean, what right?' Luke bit out. 'I was the one in charge here. Their safety was my responsibility.'

'Oh, come on,' Mara said, the sympathy still there but with a tinge of scorn around the edges now. 'Builder With Vines was an intelligent, responsible adult being. He knew what he was doing. He made his choice, and he suffered the consequences. If you want to start feeling guilty about mistakes, start with ones that were actually your fault.'

'Such as?' Luke growled.

For a long moment Mara gazed coolly at him, and Luke felt a sudden wave of misgiving ripple through his anger. 'Such as?' Mara repeated. 'Well, let's see. Such as not moving your Jedi academy off Yavin when you first found out a really nasty dark side power was infesting the place. Such as not slapping down a tipped turbolaser like Kyp Durron the minute he started showing dark side tendencies of his own. Such as not providing adequate protection for your sister's children against kidnapping, despite the fact it had already been tried a couple of times. Such as unilaterally declaring yourself a Jedi Master after less than ten years on the job. How long a list do you want?' Luke tried to glare at her. But there was no strength behind the glare, and with a grimace of embarrassment he dropped his gaze from her face. 'You're right,' he sighed. 'You're absolutely right. I don't know, Mara. It's been... I don't know.'

'Let me guess,' she said, the sarcasm gone from her voice again. 'Life as a Jedi has been a lot foggier than you ever expected it to be. You've had trouble understanding what you're supposed to do, or how you're supposed to behave. You've been gaining tremendous power in the Force, but more often than not you've been paralyzed with fear that you're going to use it the wrong way. Am I getting warm?'

Luke stared at her. 'Yes,' he said, not quite believing it. How had she known? 'That's it exactly.'

'And yet,' she continued, 'sometime in the past couple of months, things have suddenly become clearer. Not that you've had any great lightning-bolt insights, but a lot of the hesitation has disappeared and you've found it easier to stay on what seems in hindsight to have been the right path.'

'Right again,' Luke said. 'Though there have also been one or two pretty impressive revelations,' he added, thinking back. 'The vision on Tierfon that got me in touch with Karrde just in time to hear about you being trapped here, for one.' He eyed her closely. 'You know what's been going on?'

'Yes, it's been only slightly more visible than blindingly obvious,' she said dryly. 'Certainly to me. Probably to Leia and Corran and some of your other Jedi students, too. Possibly to everyone else in the New Republic.'

'Oh, thank you,' Luke said, trying to match her tone and not entirely succeeding. 'That makes me feel so much better.'

'Good. It was supposed to.' Mara took a deep breath, and Luke could sense her reluctance.

'Look, you're the one in the middle of this. You're the one who has to make the final call on what's going on. But if you want my reading, it all started with that little jaunt you took out to Byss about nine years ago. Where you faced—whatever it was you faced out there.'

Luke shivered. 'The reborn Emperor.'