Obi-Wan touched her cheek. 'Your loyalty is what drives you, Astri. I would not like to see you lose that.'
'So we are still friends?'
'We will always be friends.'
Astri nodded and slowly walked down the steps. Soon she was lost in the swirl of the crowd. Obi-Wan felt a sudden pang. Would he ever see her again?
'Nothing has turned out as I thought,' Anakin said. 'I was here to work on my Jedi lesson of connection to the Living Force. If that is true, I've failed. I judged everyone wrong. I did not see that Doby and Deland were using me. I trusted my instincts, and they betrayed me.'
'Do not judge yourself so harshly, Padawan,' Obi-Wan said. 'Your mistake was one of the heart. You allowed your emotion to cloud your instincts. You allowed what your heart wanted to be true to make it true.
Connections to other beings, good and bad, must be pure and free of one's own desires. You wanted Sebulba to be the culprit, so you made him one.'
'I thought my connection to the Living Force was clear, and it's not at all,' Anakin said moodily. 'I have such a long way to go.'
'If it makes you feel better, I made the same mistake with Maxo Vista, ' Obi-Wan said. 'Jedi lessons are learned by Masters as well as Padawans.'
'Wisdom comes with time and missions,' Anakin said, repeating Obi- Wan's own words.
Obi-Wan smiled gently. 'And mistakes,' he said.
