The window was shut.

“Blast it!”

“It’s closed?” Luke questioned, appearing beside her.

“Yeah. I hope Kella isn’t as paranoid as I am and keeps it locked all the time.”

Luke looked up from their concealed spot between the bushes and the house to the window four and a half meters above them. “You can reach it from my shoulders. Are you sure she’s there?”

Tempest began climbing up Luke’s back, managing to dig her boots into more than one spot between his ribs in the process. “I don’t want to scan for her. When you’re asleep it gives you very strange dreams, trust me. And it’s an invasion of (oof!) privacy.” Wobbling about on her perch, she grabbed the windowsill. “Besides, I don’t hear the piano, so she's probably not down there practicing.” She windmilled her arms in a frantic attempt to regain her grip on the windowsill, while Luke did his best to help keep her footing on his shoulders. He couldn’t hear everything that Tempest was muttering darkly to herself, but he caught “worm-brained architects” and “danged high ceilings”. Keeping himself from laughing both because of the noise it would create as well as the turbulence Tempest would experience up where she was, he wondered how such a person could keep herself sane with everything she went through.

“If I wasn’t insane, I’d be despairing right now…”

That takes care of the question…

“…The window’s stuck.”

Luke blinked. “What?”

“Stuck.”

“You can’t—”

“No, I can’t get in.”

“Tempest…”

She didn’t let him finish, afraid that if she didn’t go on, she’d decide to leave and never say good-bye to the one person she could.

“Here, I’ll hold onto it and pull up, and you push me up.”

He needed no explanation in order to understand her. The window was too high for her to get it unstuck, but floating a bit higher…

“Can you shield all that?”

“Yes, I can shield you. Now…”

She has to put more trust in this than I do.

Tempest began to rise up at a steady pace.

“A little more to the right, Luke. No, Luke, your other right… Down another two feet would be helpful…” The mindshield could be a bit disorienting to work through, Tempest knew. Finally she achieved the proper hover, waist at the windowsill. Remembering the last time Kella saw her levitating herself, Tempest peered into the dark room. Good for a sleeping Kella, not so good for Tempest. She gave a tug on the window, but it still held firm. It stuck like this a lot last summer, she thought stubbornly.

“On three…”

It was wonderful having someone who understood you so well that they didn’t ask questions. Tempest felt the invisible grip tighten over her, like a giant’s hand.

“One, two, three…” Tempest boosted her mindshield another notch and yanked up on the window, feeling herself move upward as Luke pushed her up as well, but too fast. Much too fast…

Oh, no.

She barely had time to silence the bang of the window shooting up; she wasn’t able to check her sudden missile-like fling up into the air. After a moment, however, Luke was able to slow her down and return her to her original hover in front of the now-open window. Luke looked serious enough, but Tempest had a feeling that if he were any less disciplined he’d crack up laughing, turn all white and shaky, or both.

She pulled herself into the room, but she undershot this time, landing half on the bed and half on the floor. Thinking that she might have sat on the one she came to talk to, Tempest jumped up, only to run into something in the dark. Confused and disoriented, she paused.

“Kella? You here?”

The lights remained off, but a voice came back through the darkness. “Yes, I’m here. What in the Creator’s name are you doing, Tempest?”

Eyes adjusting to the dim room, Tempest could see Kella standing in the doorway, arms folded and looking a bit perturbed and confused. Tempest shrugged sheepishly. “Apparently I’m creating a mess…”

Kella tried valiantly to keep from laughing. “Yes…which reminds me, would you please pick up my lamp?” Tempest did so, wondering how all this would go down in the history books. Brightshadow bravely crashed into her best friend’s house in the middle of the night with her news, breaking things in the process…

“Tempest, are you all right?” a half-whisper from outside asked. She stuck her head out the window to find Luke being investigated by the local guard, a four-legged, spiky-furred, long-snouted brown animal. “Tempest, this—creature—of Kella’s is getting a little mad.”

Tempest grinned. “Just pet him; he’ll calm down.”

“Right…”

The animal snuffled Luke’s pant leg, seemed to decide he was acceptable, and nearly knocked him over by rubbing his head against Luke's side. The creature's tail wagged happily.

Leaving the two to work things out between themselves, Tempest closed the window and pulled down the shade. Kella turned on the light to find a strange mix of excitement, sorrow and fear on her friend’s face. Tempest fidgeted.

Kella gave her a wry look. “Sure, go ahead. But…who is he? And what does he have to do with…? Never mind, I don’t want to know. Just hurry up and get back so you can explain.” She shook her head, frowning bewilderedly.

Tempest left the room, wondering what her friend thought about all this. She padded down the stairs and through the main living area, only to find Luke already inside the house. She looked at him blankly, and he shrugged.

“The door was open.”

“Kella, this is Luke,” Tempest explained as he shut the door behind them. Tempest sat down near Kella on the bed, but Luke chose a seat on the floor across the room, knowing that the girls would want to talk. “He’s part of the news you’re not going to like.” She drew a deep breath. “I’m leaving.”

Kella nodded politely to Luke, but she gave Tempest a confused look. “Leaving? But Tempest, where will you go?” She put a sympathetic hand on her friend’s shoulder. “I know how awful you feel about your parents—how devastated you must be. But you know you can’t escape the Force by simply going to another city. Or…Tempest, are you planning to go look for your parents? You know how foolish that is; it wouldn't do you any good…”

Oh, how do you break to someone that you’re jumping the planet, when they don’t believe it’s possible to travel faster than sound? “Luke asked me… I mean, we’re going to…”

Kella’s eyes grew wide. “Luke asked you to what?” Tempest winced; Kella wasn’t taking this well. She glanced at Luke. “No offense to you, Luke—whoever you are—but, Tempest! Where did you meet him? How long have you known him?” Kella gave Tempest an imploring look. “Look, this is not the way to deal with the loss of your parents. Don’t make a sudden decision that you’ll regret later; believe me, it won’t replace them!”

“But Kella…” Tempest said feebly, trying to sort through Kella’s strange response and her glaring at Luke, who was sitting passively with his eyes closed. Suddenly, the problem figured itself out in Tempest’s mind, and the first flutter of mirth began to show on her face. “Oh! Kella, by everything the Creator made, you’re insane!” She was having a regular laughing fit, all the more strange for the silent state she managed to keep it in. “Married?” she sputtered. “Oh, help…” and she curled up in ultimate gleeful misery.

Luke’s expression hadn’t changed, but Kella was clearly confused and a bit ticked off. “Then what in the sky do you think you’re doing?” She frowned irritably and crossed her arms, clearly feeling she was being made fun of.

Tempest’s giggles wound down and she became serious amid her gasps for breath. “Saving the universe,” she said finally. Catching a reassuring glance from Luke, who had finally opened his eyes, she went on. “Kella, I… Luke, he’s not from out planet. I’m going with him back to where he came from.” Her voice dropped to a whisper and she shivered. “Out of our time and place…”

Kella’s look was disbelieving at best. “What? How?” She blinked in astonishment, looking back and forth from Tempest to Luke. “Where is he from, then? What do you mean…out of our time…?”

Tempest could feel the confusion boiling about in Kella’s mind without even looking for it. Taking a deep breath and trying to make light of the situation, she dove into her explanation. “As much as our government would hate the thought of it, we are not the supreme entities in the universe.” She gave a snort of mirth. “As a matter of fact, we’re a bit backwards, if you ask me. Luke comes from—” she knit up her eyebrows and looked his way. “Tatooine? Yes.”

Luke spoke for the first time to Kella. “We’re not going there, though. I need to take Tempest to our capital planet. I know this may sound strange to you, but I saw her in a dream, and Tempest may be the only one who can stop the wave of darkness that is beginning to spread through the galaxy.”

The look of disbelief on Kella’s face was more than evident. “This has got to be a joke.” She looked at Tempest, then at Luke, apparently noticing his short ears for the first time. “…I need to sit down,” she said faintly, and she collapsed onto her bed, apparently overwhelmed. Tempest sat next to her, feeling guilty about the bombshell she had just dropped.

“I’m…sorry about this. I couldn’t think of any other way of telling you. If I just disappeared, you’d have thought that I’d been Erased…”

“…Or that the Hederon had gotten you.” Kella shuddered. “Yes, well, I’m glad you told me; I would have gone sick with worry. But—” Something inside her still couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Tempest, no one’s ever left Ricalia before! How did Luke get here, anyway?”

You’re wrong about no one ever leaving… “He came in a spaceship. Did you know, there are lots of spaceships out there? Just traveling from place to place.” She grew quiet. “Or shooting at each other…” She had to get on top of the sadness that was beginning to engulf her. “But you can leave, too. Later. Here.” She handed the plans from her brother’s memory box to Kella.

She took them and gave Tempest a quizzical look. “What’s this?”

“The greatest gift I could give you. Don’t use it foolishly, whatever you do. I don’t know if you could get back.” I don’t know if I will ever get back. “Show them to Kev. He’ll know what to do with them.”

“Well, I certainly don’t…” Kella had unfolded the thick stack of papers and was turning one around in circles. Tempest laughed at the look of utter confusion that Kella had acquired. She felt the same way when she looked at those doodles of her brother’s. She still didn’t know exactly what the plans would produce when followed, but she did know that it could get someone off the planet, and if anyone on her world could build the thing, it was Kev. Luke’s voice gently broke the moment with a reminder.

“Tempest, the watch will be changing in the station soon. We have to go.”

Suddenly, she had no control over her voice. “Kella, I… I’ll miss you…”

“I’ll miss you, too,” Kella replied, wiping her eyes in an attempt to stay composed.

“Oh!” Tempest had almost forgotten her request. “Kella, please, if you can, could you try to find my parents? Please, don’t get into trouble, but if you can find them…” She took a deep breath. “They won’t remember me, but tell them I still love them, and…I’m finally free.” She couldn’t keep the tears back any longer, but her smile shone through them. “I don’t have to hide anymore.”

Kella slowly put down the plans, staring at Tempest. Then she reached out and hugged her friend tightly. “I’m going to come find you,” she told her, tears making her voice shake. “I’ll miss you too much. And besides…it’s no fair for you to have all the adventures, right?” She released Tempest and laughed hollowly, trying to make light of the parting, but it didn't work very well. She sighed, and her smile grew sad. “Tempest—take care of yourself, all right?”

In response, Tempest drew her sword from its scabbard and held it between them. “I swear by all that I am, all that I was and all that I will be that you and this place shall never be forgotten. We are sisters in heart, if not in blood.” As she said these words, the sword began to glow and make a low humming noise. Tempest cut the palm of her right hand open with one edge and then held the sword out to Kella. “The strongest oath ever invented on this planet.”

Kella didn’t need to be told that. Like almost everyone, she knew of the blood-oath, and she knew that those who took it could often hear each other’s thoughts over great distances… Tempest might have worried that Kella would reject taking the oath, but she didn’t even hesitate. She immediately held out her hand, pulling back the sleeve of her robe. She didn't even wince as the sword cut deeply into her left hand, and she repeated Tempest’s words. “…I will not forget you…and I will try to find you someday,” she added quietly.

The girls brought their bloody hands together, and the sword gave a sudden, blinding flash of light. By the time everyone had recovered their sight, the wounds on the girls’ hands had already healed. Tempest now had two scars making an X on her palm, the previous one being from the oath she had taken with her brother years before. Kella’s scar faded as they watched. Any evidence of the oath would cast suspicion on her; acquiring an oath-scar the very night a powerful friend suspected of being dark disappeared would be cause for much trouble. Apparently Sefu knew that just as Tempest did, and so the evidence of Kella’s oath became invisible.

Tempest would never remember how she dragged herself away from Kella’s house. She could feel her friend watching them hurry away, Tempest and Luke, two walking shadows. She wondered how Kella would adjust to the brouhaha bound to erupt because of her disappearance. The questioning, the mindscans hopefully foiled by a Shield, the living in secrecy… Tempest hated having to leave her friend in such a place, to leave her having to hide the truth, much as Tempest herself had. How long would it be before Kella would follow the steps she was now taking, if she was truly willing to follow at all?

And how the heck were they going to get off the planet?

“How did you get here?” Tempest asked as they headed deep into the woods. “I know it’s possible to get off the planet. I know someone who left. But I don’t know how it works. Mind transport is possible, I suppose…” Luke just gave her a strange look. “What? I may be ignorant, but I’m not stupid. Spaceships are all fine and wonderful, but how in the Master’s eyebrows would you get one here?” Her words died as she spotted the huge shapeless mass in front of them. Luke stepped up to it and pulled the camouflage off the thing.

Tempest had never seen anything like it. It loomed over her, a behemoth of metal, a vehicle of the likes she had never seen before. She could barely see it in the darkness, but what she did see flabbergasted her to no end. “Whoa. What does this thing do?”

“It’s a small, two-man shuttle.”

“Which means…” She raised her eyebrows at him.

“We get in, it takes off, and we leave the planet’s gravity, then shoot into space.”

“Right. This thing flies? My gosh…”

Luke did something to the ship, and a small doorway opened in its side. Gawking, Tempest entered. The interior was even more amazing, especially after Luke began to slap the vehicle into life. Tempest stuck close to him, holding tight to her bag, afraid she would bump into something and accidentally set the whole thing off in a ball of fire. Luke was absently explaining everything as he went along.

“…This controls the repulsorlifts, which make it possible to get off the planet…” Tempest was sitting down gingerly in the copilot’s seat when a mighty roar burst in upon her. She leapt back up clutching her bag to her chest, wide-eyed. “I didn’t do anything!”

Luke shook his head. “I know you didn’t. I just turned the engines on; we’re taking off. Look.” Tempest pressed her nose against the view panel, staring at the dark forms of the trees below them. Soon Tempest could see the lights of the cities, small in comparison to the large swaths of dark forests, lonely and vulnerable. Within minutes, the lights were mere dots on the dark disk that was Ricalia. The ship picked up speed, flying to break the dawn. Tempest was witness to a sunrise like none she had ever known. Luke didn’t see (or pretended not to see) Tempest put her palm to the view panel as if to catch her receding homeworld in her hand. The hyperdrive engines kicked in, the stars streaked and blurred, but Tempest didn’t seem to see this new wonder. The moment her home disappeared, a sharp pain jerked through her. Now something was missing besides just her parents; the chance of ever seeing them again, however slim, was gone. Her entire life winked out in one fatalistic instant. She had thought before that she was alone, but as her planet disappeared, she knew that her loneliness had been nothing. Perhaps for the rest of her life, she would effectively be the only one of her people within the entire universe. And she had no idea how big the universe really was.

“I wish you were here to meet me, Ori,” she whispered.

“What’s that?”

Tempest rubbed her eyes and turned to him with a bright smile. “Show me how this thing works.”

“…You are clear to land, Master Skywalker. Welcome back.”

“Thanks. It’s good to be back.” The Jedi Academy loomed in the viewscreen. It seemed to have grown from the last time he had been there, not in structure, but in what he could feel it contained. The docking bay engulfed the small vessel, and Luke let it power down around him as he moved through it, looking for his passenger.

“Tempest? Hello?” He couldn’t lose her in the vessel; it was too small for that. He had almost begun to think that the girl had only been a figment of his imagination when he finally found her. She was in a back corner, curled up on the floor, datacards scattered around her. Luke had given her the briefest of rundowns on how the ship worked before supplying her with the cards. She had had crouched avidly over the reader for the last half of the trip, absorbing as much information as possible; after all, she knew absolutely nothing about the universe outside of her own world. Now the reader was wedged between her cheek and the deck, still scrolling away faithfully.

Tempest was asleep.

Luke was amazed that someone who had been so vigilant all her life could suddenly become so dead to the world. He shouldn’t have worried about waking her when he picked her up, or the noise level as he moved through the corridors of the Academy. A brief and hushed discussion located a room near his own, in which to deposit the slumbering girl. She never even twitched. She was catching up for eight years.

Tempest finally stirred a little over two full days later. Some noise woke her—she frowned into the dark and silence, still dopey. What had it… The noise came again, an intimidating rumble.

“Boy, my stomach’s sure talking. Hungry…!”

Her eyes’ focus came to rest on a datapad inches away from her nose. Her eyes crossed a few times trying to comprehend what it said—Comlink is set to my own. Call whenever you wake up.

“I should call the caterer first,” she mumbled, rolling over. Smack into the gaze of a pair of very green eyes.

Tempest’s heart stopped for an instant.

The eyes were part of a shadowy face that seemed to melt into the darkness. Tempest blinked. The face blinked back.

Luke’s comlink beeped. Startled, he turned it on.

“-llo?” Tempest’s voice queried. There was a slapping sound. “Is this thing working?”

“I’m here, Tempest. You just wake up?”

“Uh huh. And I haven’t figured out how to work the lights in here—oh, thanks.” Something crashed. “Well, she got the lights on, my eyes just haven’t adjusted to them yet…”

“Are you doing okay?”

“Yeah… Luke? The next time you introduce a non galaxy-hopper to the outside reality, warn them ahead of time that they will wake up with an alien in the room.”

“Er’ Nirveli,” Luke remembered. “I’m sorry, we wanted to make sure you were okay; Er’ volunteered to keep watch over you.”

“Make sure I didn’t spontaneously die of some foreign pathogen? Thanks.”