Star Wars Visions by Emma Mieko Candon

Author:Emma Mieko Candon [Candon, Emma Mieko]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Worlds
Published: 2021-10-12T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

—

The hall outside was built of the same lavish organic materials as the Ronin’s cell: wood and paper. It led to a garden. Young trees sprouted at every corner, the source of the scent that had found him even in his prison. A shallow brook wove pleasingly down the center, and vibrantly colored fish squirmed in the clear water. Even the ceiling was dressed in light and hologram to evoke the boundless autumn sky, though the Ronin’s innate sensibility for the dimension of mechanical structure told him it was the standard height of any Dreadnought hangar.

He had seen luxury on the flagships of other lords. Gilt throne rooms, dining halls constructed entirely of fragrant woods, luxuriant silks in spacious bedrooms. This conjuration of plain planetary normalcy outstripped them all.

Yet Chie drew most of his attention. She wore robes reminiscent of any Jedi guardian, brown layered over white. Try as he might, he sensed no difference in her. She was the same as she had ever been since they met on the Poor Crow. No Jedi. No Sith. Only a person, sure of herself and content to be so.

“Speak up,” she said. “That glare will bore a hole in my back if you don’t let some of the pressure out.”

The Ronin’s temple pinched. “For a woman who spoke so ill of the Jedi, you seem quite comfortable among them.”

Chie smiled grimly over her shoulder. “You got on well enough with that apprentice. We all have facets.”

She stopped when they reached the source of the shouting he had heard from his cell. In an open-air hall lined with sleek wooden flooring, dozens of plain-robed apprentices practiced forms in a wave of synchronous thrusts and sweeps. They came to a stop when their master, a Jedi knight with lightsaber hilt at his waist, called out. Two apprentices came forward at the master’s command and took position across from each other to spar with wooden practice blades.

“There is a war coming, you realize. The princes and lords all want what they want, and they have no pity for the rest of us. And I’m quite old.” Chie gestured wryly at her cane with her injured arm. “When I considered what benefit I could bring the galaxy with my remaining body…it wasn’t on the Outer Rim. Not anymore.” Here, she smiled. “Lord Hanrai has me teaching the children all manner of heresies.”

The Ronin couldn’t summon a smile in turn.

Chie sighed. “You’re still sour about the bridge.”

“You could have just thrown yourself off.”

“I got the worse of it, believe me.” She clucked her tongue at his glower. “I think you’ll find we have more in common than you imagine.”

He suspected he had killed more friends than she had. Then again, she’d proven willing to injure her comrades too. Either way, he said nothing and sent another surreptitious glance at his wrist.

It blinked briefly at him, there and gone, so swiftly vanished that he might have imagined it. But he wasn’t given to optimism, so he had to assume it was real.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.