The trio of escaped ships had arrived in orbit over their destination and would soon begin the descent to land, but I was deeply troubled by the communication that my son had given me during the trip over. The killiks of Oroborro were willing to give them the locations of some of the most powerful weapons in existence, in exchange for a woman who was as much family to myself and my former Padawan as the blood relatives we had.
I knew Jerus well enough to know he would have accepted the offer outright if the decision were exclusively his. He would never admit it, but the sun charm that hung from his belt wasn't just for decoration, it had belonged to someone he'd met long before he married Synclair Twilight, someone who's memory he couldn't shake, and was the greatest reason he had no love for the bug people. Since I'd heard the tale behind his hate of the bugs during the war, I knew anything that had to do with them would be handled coldly and logically by him.
And so I meditated in the crew common area, where Iwan could find me if he needed something, as I reached out to the Force for aid from an old friend and my old master, Sevard Salcar. Rare was the time he would answer, but now, I needed him more than I had before, for a number of reasons.
