“Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Weldari. It was your son that I’m here for?”

  The couple nodded and after an awkward silence stood aside and gestured inside.

  “Yes, the Jedi has been here for about a week, training our son to show him what it’s like,” the father rumbled before hesitating, “Who are you again? The Jedi wouldn’t quite say.”

  Ahsoka huffed before shaking her head slightly, “Just an oversight, I’m sure. My name is Ahsoka Tanu, and I’m one of the Jedi Knights for the Ranja Root Order. According to the treaty both of us get a representative to make our case to any Force sensitives. At least that’s how it’s supposed to be.”

  “Are you here to take him away too?” the mother interjected, “I don’t think…”

  The husband put his hand on his wife’s arm and she stilled and stopped her outburst.

  “The Jedi are here to help,” the husband said with conviction, “The real Jedi, helping the Republic in the war.”

  Ahsoka let the insult slide off of her as the man frowned at her while Mrs. Weldari frowned at him, clearly unhappy with his statement.

  “He’s right inside, ” Mrs. Weldari added quickly to break the tension, “The… uhm, Knight Jenro is in with him right now training.”

  Ahsoka nodded and let herself be led into the room where the five year old boy sat next to an older man in Jedi robes.

  The man’s head snapped up and he looked surprised for a moment before standing to his feet.

  “Ahsoka Tanu?” he said, “I… Am surprised to see you.”

  “I should expect so,” she replied drily, not impressed by the man’s evasion, “Especially when our Order was not contacted according to procedure so we could make our case. Just a mistake, I’m sure? I only knew to come because I… Was alerted to the situation through other sources.”

  The Jedi Knight slowly nodded.

  “I suppose so. You’re here now, and by treaty you will be able to make your case,” he said before turning to the son, “Keep with your exercises, Jalar. We shall return to them again tomorrow, after this woman is done speaking with you.”

  “Wha- But it’s early?” the boy pouted as he let the blocks that he was levitating fall back to the floor, “You can’t teach me more?”

  “I’m afraid not, Jalar. Until tomorrow. Goodbye for now.”

  The Jedi Knight stood and with long strides left the room, leaving the confused young boy behind.

  Ahsoka stood in front of the boy and crouched down as he stared at her.

  “Hello. I’m from the Ranja Root Order. I’m here to see if you’d like to come with me instead of Knight Jenro and his Jedi Order.”

  The boy’s brows furrowed as he stared at her.

  “There’s more than one kind of Jedi?” he asked in confusion, “But in the stories there’s only one kind? I’ve never heard of Ra-Ran- Of that hard name before.”

  “That’s okay. We’re very new, we wouldn’t be in any of your stories just yet. So, you have the Force?”

  “Yeah!” the boy said, brightening as he focused intently and lifted the block off the ground again with intense focus.

  “See!”

  “Yes, very good,” Ahsoka praised, a little surprised how advanced the boy was after a little training. He had some potential it seems, even more than normal…

  “Now what has Knight Jenro told you of being a Jedi, Jalar? It’s a very important decision, which of us you want to go with.”

  Jalar let go of the block as his concentration broke and it fell to the floor with a clatter, “Aww, you made me drop it,” he complained before refocusing on the conversation a little more, “A Jedi… Knight Jenro said that I’d train and learn my powers and be a great Jedi if I worked hard! I’ll go on missions and talk to people and save villages and stuff like the stories!”

  “And did he say how long you’d be at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant?”

  “I’d be… training and stuff all the time,” Jalar said, “He said it would be a long time. But after I was done, then I’d be super strong and able to take on anyone who’s being a bad guy!”

  “That’s all true. But how long is long for you? How long do you think it’ll take?”

  “I… I dunno? Like… A year?” Seeing Ahsoka’s expression, he guessed again, “Two years? Three? No, it can’t be more than four! That’s a lot! That’s like… How many I am!”

  “Being a Jedi is forever, Jalar,” Ahsoka said, “Even when you’re old and strong, you wouldn’t be allowed to see your family because it might interfere with your training and focus as a Jedi. You’d never see them again.”

  “No… That’s not true,” Jalar denied, “He said that I could call them if I ever missed them. He said that.”

  “That’s true,” Ahsoka said, “But only for the first year or maybe two if you’re really having trouble. It’s meant as a way to ease you into forgetting them instead of staying in contact. If you joined the Ranja Root Order, then you wouldn’t have to do that. Your parents could come visit you in person at our temple whenever they wanted. Some of our members even have families of their own that live in the nearby city on our home planet.”

  “Ms… Jedi,” the husband suddenly said from behind, “I think that’s quite enough. Son, you’ll be off being a Jedi, doing great things. Being a defender of our great Republic. I know that it’ll be hard… But I think it’s best if you go with Knight Jenro instead of this woman. She’s not a real Jedi, no matter what the government may say about her.”

  Mrs. Weldari looked like she wanted to say something, but closed her mouth as her husband glared at her. She looked off to the side and her lips pressed into a tight line.

  “I dunno, Dad. Knight Jenro has been pretty nice to me and taught me all sorts of cool stuff…”

  “Me and my order can teach you all of those things too,” Ahsoka said, “Actually, if you want I can…”

  “Enough! Ms. Tanu, my son will be going to the true Jedi and that is final,” the father said, “I’ve had enough hearing you trying to confuse my son and make him join you lot of traitors.”

  Ahsoka stood to her feet and nodded, her face a calm mask as she absorbed the man’s anger.

  “I see. I suppose I will take my leave then,” she looked back down at Jalar, “Think about it, Jalar. It’s a big choice. Don’t make it too quickly.”

  Before the father’s anger could boil over, Ahsoka walked forward and brushed past the angry man and went to the front door.

  The father remained behind in the room after some harsh whispering from his wife.

  The woman hurried after Ahsoka and led her to the door.

  Ahsoka lingered just a step outside as she saw the woman’s nervous posture.

  “Is it true, madame Jedi?” Mrs. Weldari asked in a whisper, “If he joined your order, then we could go see him? That he won’t ever have to fight in the war?”

  “The war… It’s been six years already,” Ahsoka said, “I doubt he’d be old enough to fight in the war, even if they sent him when he was a padawan.”

  The woman looked doubtful, “It’s been six years already. It feels like this war will never end,” the woman said, “But it’s true? You’re neutral and… Not working with the Separatists against the Republic?”

  “No. We’re neutral, as much as we can possibly be. Your son wouldn’t fight for either side of the war if he joined the Ranja Root Order.”

  “I… I was the one who sent the transmission to you people,” Mrs. Weldari admitted, “My husband, he’s a patriot. Wants our son to do his duty, to become a defender to the Republic… Is there anything that you can do? He won’t budge on it no matter how much I argue.”

  “It’s up to little Jalar in the end if you two can’t agree,” Ahsoka said, “You have to convince him, not me. If you can’t convince your husband to sign to consent to sending him to the Ranja Root Order with me, then it’s up to the boy himself. No matter what your husband says, if Jalar agrees to go with me with full knowledge of what that means then with me he’ll go. And the same for Knight Jenro. Jalar has the final say if you two can’t make a decision for him.”

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “But he’s only four years old, how can he make a decision like that? All he sees is tales of heroic Jedi knights and defending the Republic… I just… I can’t…”

  The woman took a moment to compose herself.

  “I’ll be back tomorrow,” Ahsoka promised after waiting a moment as she saw the woman’s struggle, “Whichever of us that he goes with, I’m sure that your son will become a great Jedi. He has some real potential in the Force from what I’ve seen already.”

  “Thank you, Knight Tanu. I will try to convince him. Thank you for coming.”

  “Not at all. I’m glad you called me so your son at least knows all of his options before he makes a decision.”

  — — —

  Knight Jenro sighed as he sat at the bar.

  “I know that our Order is right, but all of the promising recruits end up going to them. The children are the future, without them our Order will fade as the Ranja Root grows. I just thought that with this one, that we might…”

  “You made the right decision,” his Republic Intelligence liaison said as he sat next to Knight Jenro and sipped his drink, “It was a risk, and there’s still a chance that the boy will come with you even with Jedi Tanu here now. You’ve had a week to build up rapport with him, and the father seems on board with sending him to us.”

  “Still. Ahsoka Tanu herself, the rising star of the new Order. What chance do I have against her? If we weren’t competing and I’d already insulted her, then I’d be forced to ask her for an autograph.”

  The waiter brought them another round of drinks and dropped the two cups in front of the two men.

  “Don’t lose hope just yet, I think we still have a good chance,” the man insisted as he lifted the drink to his lips. He took a swig of the beer before putting the drink back down on the bar, “We have an in with the father, and…”

  Knight Jenro lifted his own drink and brought it to his lips before pausing. The Force screamed out a warning to him just as he was about to drink. He reflexively dropped the glass in surprise and it shattered on the bar.

  “What… You…”

  The man from Republic Intelligence’s words slurred; he slumped and slipped off of his chair, foaming at the mouth and eyes rolling into the back of his head.

  Knight Jenro reached out his hand and caught the man before his body hit the floor as the whole bar’s attention turned to them. The man’s body started twitching in mid air as Knight Jenro stared with his hand outstretched.

  “Bacta! I think he’s been poisoned!” he shouted, his heart pounding in his chest. Who knew what poison he’d been dosed with? The people at the bar pulled out their communicators and started calling the authorities even as the waiter ran into the back room, yelling about getting their med kit.

  After less than a minute, a group of muscular and heavily tattooed men in white uniforms burst in the door to the bar with a stretcher carried between them. Knight Jenro used his Force abilities to lift the man and place him on the stretcher. His spasming had stopped, and he was breathing shallowly despite his closed eyes.

  While he didn’t look good, he seemed… Stable at least, even with the waiter never having reappeared again through the chaos.

  Knight Jenro followed the three medics outside and clambered into their flashing hovercar. He frowned slightly as he noticed that all of the Medics were heavily scarred. They sat inside the flashing emergency vehicle as it lifted off and started flying towards the nearest hospital for treatment.

  Knight Jenro frowned as he saw that the man across from him looked nervous and was fiddling with something in his pocket.

  “Aren’t you going to check on him?” he asked to test the sudden silence that had descended on the cabin.

  “Yes, of course,” the man next to Knight Jenro said before clearing his throat. He took what looked like some kind of scanner off of its mounting on the wall and pointed it at his patient. Knight Jenro frowned as the man swore softly and obviously struggled to operate the equipment. What was…

  “For Count Dooku, Jedi Scum!”

  He ducked just as a blaster bolt scorched the wall where he had just sat. Knight Jenro reflexively reached out a hand and slammed the previously nervous man back into the opposite wall. The blaster went falling to the floor and skittering away as the man let out a heavy grunt.

  “Kriff, too early ya bastard,” the man directly to Knight Jenro swore before pulling a knife and plunging it towards his throat in one smooth motion. Knight Jenro leaned back and slammed his head into the wall of the vehicle as the knife passed right by his throat. He grabbed the offending arm and with a twist of his hips from the sitting position sent the offending man slamming face first into the floor, his knife falling from limp fingers from the force of the impact.

  The last man pulled his own knife and stabbed not at Knight Jenro, but the unconscious Republic Intelligence operative on the stretcher between them.

  Knight Jenro blasted him with the Force and sent him flying back into the wall before his knife was even halfway to its target. In one smooth motion, he stood to his feet and with a few precise bursts of Force and blows with his fists rendered the three men unconscious.

  The vehicle swerved in the air and Knight Jenro was forced to brace his hand against the wall for a moment. He stumbled forward towards the closed divider between the back and the front cabin and the driver.

  He activated his lightsaber and with two quick strikes created a burning x to the front section. With a burst of the Force the metal peeled outwards and he reached through and seized the pilot around the shoulders through the newly created gap.

  The pilot struggled, but Knight Jenro’s strength and grip on his throat quickly knocked him out. The vehicle started to drift and slowly dip its nose towards the ground with the unconscious pilot, but Knight Jenro focused and used the Force to keep the controls steady while he crawled through the newly created gap and grabbed the controls himself after deactivating his lightsaber again.

  He shoved the pilot so he fell slumped across the passenger’s seat as Knight Jenro took control of the vehicle. He checked his location. As he expected. They had been going the opposite way as the nearest hospital.

  He swung the ambulance around and started going the right way, before glancing at the unconscious man slumped in the passenger’s seat.

  He’d figure out who these people were later.

  He had to get to the hospital first.

  — — —

  “He’ll recover? What did the med droids say?” Ahsoka asked softly as she stood next to Knight Jenro in the hospital.

  “They think so,” he replied, “He received proper treatment in time luckily. It was more former slaves, trying to get revenge for Count Dooku’s death, Republic Intelligence tells me after interrogating them. Fanatics, all of them somehow. Dooku’s like a martyr to them. A Sith, of all people. Who knew that the Separatists would only fight even harder than before after his death…”

  Ahsoka didn’t reply.

  “Timing is suspicious though, isn’t it?” he said slowly, as if talking to himself, “They only acted right after you arrived. Strange.”

  “Strange,” Ahsoka agreed.

  Silence.

  “Perhaps they were trying to take me out of the picture. You’ve been spending time with young Jalar over these last few days, I suppose?”

  “No. Not at all,” Ahsoka said firmly, to the other Jedi’s surprise, “I’ve kept my distance until you were in a better state for us to continue making our respective cases to the boy.”

  “Oh. I see. I’m sorry that I doubted you. I suppose I should have expected as much from the great Ahsoka Tanu. Padawan to the great Obi wan Kenobi. Rising star of the Ranja Root Order.”

  “I know that our two Jedi Orders often come to conflict on some issues,” Ahsoka said after a moment, “But that doesn’t mean that we’re enemies. I assure you I had nothing to do with what happened or the attack.”

  “I never said that you were.”

  “But you were thinking it. I could see it on your face.”

  Knight Jenro paused before relaxing and letting out a small smile after studying her for a long moment.

  “Of course. I’m just being paranoid after what’s happened,” he said in apparent relief, “It’s hard to know who you can really trust in chaotic times like this.”

  “I understand the feeling. So, tell me about yourself. I don’t recognize you from my time at the Jedi Temple. How long have you been a Jedi Knight?”

  “About three years now. I was too young at the time to really understand what was happening with the split between our Orders. The Council thought they’d give me this mission as a bit of a break from the war front.”

  He let out a humorless chuckle, “We’ve seen how that turned out.”

  “Well your mission isn’t over yet. And the man survived. It certainly could have gone worse.”

  “True. Very true…”

  — — —

  Ahsoka held out her hand to Knight Jenro. The man stared at it in confusion.

  “You grab it,” she explained, “And shake it, up and down. It’s called a handshake.”

  Knight Jenro grabbed her hand and she pumped their arms up and down to lead the motion of the handshake as Knight Jenro kept his arm limp and went with the motion. After a moment she released his grip.

  “It was nice getting to know you, even if Jalar’s parents ultimately chose to have him come with me to the Ranja Root Order.”

  Knight Jenro shook his head, but Ahsoka saw that he was wearing a faint smile.

  “I’ll try not to be a poor loser. And even if I still think he made the wrong choice… I know that you and your Order will still take care of him.”

  Ahsoka nodded and Knight Jenro paused and opened his mouth, but didn’t speak for a moment.

  “I’m sorry,” he said after some hesitation, “For not following procedure and alerting your order properly. In the beginning. I thought it for the best to present my full case to the boy without you there to interfere, but well…”

  “I understand. My master has told me a bit of what Republic Intelligence can be like when it comes to accomplishing their missions at all cost,” she said, “Just remember for next time. Best of luck on your next mission.”

  “Back to the war it is,” he said before reaching into his robe and taking out a little palm sized figurine and smiling slightly. The figurine was of her, the orange skin and head tails prominent as the figurine struck a heroic pose with both of its green lightsabers held at the ready as if ready to leap into battle at any moment.

  “At least I ended up getting it signed,” he said, “I got something out of these last few weeks.”

  Ahsoka shook her head.

  “I still can’t believe that you had an action figurine of me. I didn’t realize they were a thing outside of the Ranja Root Temple City. Really, it’s my master that’s the really famous one.”

  “I didn’t. I had to quickly go out to buy one so you could sign it for me,” Knight Jenro said a little too quickly, “And you’re plenty famous yourself. Not just because of your master. It’s telling that it only took looking through a few local shops to find this thing.”

  “Of course. Glad that I could help.”

  Knight Jenro coughed awkwardly before nodding.

  “Until next time, Knight Tanu.”

  “Until then, Knight Jenro. Safe travels.”

  “And to you as well.”

  The man turned and walked up the ramp and into his ship, Ahsoka’s palm sized signed figurine still clutched in his hand as he raised the ramp and sealed his ship before taking off and flying upwards to go back to Coruscant again.

  Ahsoka watched his ship leave for a few seconds before turning herself.

  That had been a… More pleasant mission than she’d been expecting after the first few rocky days. Now she just had to get Jalar and organize settling his parents in their new apartment that they’d decided to move to just outside the Ranja Root temple.

  The future of the Ranja Root Order was looking ever more promising with every passing day.