Chapter Seventeen

Hyperspace trade routes were lanes of space with no gravitational anomalies in them which allowed ships to run at the highest speed they could handle, however it didn't change the actual distance. Ryloth was deep in the Outer Rim and Denon was on the fringe of the Colonies Region in the Inner Rim. So even using the Corellian Run it would take the ship four days to get from Ryloth to Denon.

The next day Tholme woke the children up and began to lay out what would be their daily regimen for the rest of the trip. First was an hour of simple exercises, followed by breakfast, then several hours of learning with Glimmer to speak Galactic Standard. After another hour of exercise, Tholme began to tell Harry, Aayla and Lily about the Jedi Order. This was very difficult given how little Galactic Standard Harry and Lily understood, but he persevered with Glimmer's help, and the children's dataslate.

Having taken the time the evening before to find imagery to match his words was very important and helped Tholme immensely. Still, he did feel a little silly using it to help an eleven year old boy understand. "We are the Jedi Order. We use the Force to guide us in our place as defenders, law givers, counselors, Healers, investigators, and diplomats. We have been around for more than 20,000 years in various forms, aiding the Galactic Republic as we may."

"Why?" Harry asked, grateful that Master Tholme at least understood him since the older man looked a little silly using the dataslate. It was fine between me and Aayla, but watching an adult use it is just weird, especially with the little cartoon pictures. "I understand we can use magic, and I am fine with the idea of using it to help people, but is that all the Order does, and why does the Force make us better at those jobs than anyone else?"

Tholme smiled, misconstruing some of the feelings he felt from the boy. "Inquisitiveness is good in one seeking knowledge Harry, never feel silly asking questions. However, while I understand the question, I am uncertain if you will understand the answer. The Force, and that is the proper name, not magic, helps us make decisions, see the truth in things, see connections where others would not. Moreover, our neutrality is respected by all parties."

"Hmm… I understood about five words out of that. Why the Force, and not magic?"

"Because magic implies a certain level of mysticism and a lack of understanding of the process of what you are doing." As he said that though, Tholme had to wonder. What Harry did was Force related, but what he had already shown was well beyond anything Tholme had studied. "Is that what it was called on your planet?"

"Yes. Where I come from, magic users apparently live apart from other people to avoid abusing their powers or being abused. I didn't, because… well, reasons I suppose." Harry said, trailing off as he pondered what to tell Master Tholme about his background.

He liked what he had seen of Tholme, but that wasn't really enough to get Harry to trust him quickly. "Anyway, yeah, it was, and my mum told me about some of the jobs and things that magic users could take among their own people. Researchers, spell crafters, that kind of thing."

"We do have the equivalent of those, though they are very specialized tasks." Tholme replied circuitously, not really telling Harry anything. The Jedi Order actually didn't have anyone like what he imagined spell crafters would be, but he was uncertain how much of that meaning was lost in the translation of 'magic' to the Force. "However we don't use specific spells as you seem to be speaking of, nor do you I've noticed."

"Apparently I'm kind of unusual there," Harry replied, looking up at Lily who laughed quietly, shaking her head at him. "I can get magic to do things just through my willpower that my mum says older wizards would have to use spells and gestures to do. I still use gestures sometimes but…" He suddenly smiled, looking at Master Tholme. "I saw you use some of the Force as you put it yesterday a time or two, but why don't you show me something you think I can't do?"

"Something you can't do hmmm?" Tholme mused, smirking somewhat. "Well, I suppose I could do that. But judging by how you handled my padawan, that is my apprentice, you might have gotten the wrong idea of what he can do. Quinlan, why don't you come down here?"

Quinlan quickly joined them, smiling at Aayla while giving a bit of the evil eye at Harry, not having forgiven him for the humiliation yesterday, though he understood half of it was his own fault. At Tholme's direction, the room changed configuration, the sofa disappearing into the floor along with the center table, the floor evening out in the center. After that Tholme put on a helmet that blocked out his eyes and ears, activating his lightsaber.

Tholme smiled, having wanted to maneuver this conversation into this move the evening before. He pulled out a few more images on the dataslate as he continued, gesturing with one hand. At his gesture Harry watched several small silver balls the size of Tholme's hand appeared out of cupboard, moving one after another into his hand, where he pushed a few buttons. "A Jedi can use the Force, to feel the universe around him, far beyond the range of his mere physical senses. We can even anticipate things, as Quinlan did yesterday against the Wampa. Watch."

As Harry and Aayla stood against the far wall and Lily hovered in the air behind them, Quinlan moved into the center of the room. As soon as he did, the little balls began to fly all around him. Then they began to spit out sparks of energy at Quinlan. Moving with a grace and speed that Lily had never seen before in anyone Quinlan deflected several of them, blocked others and dodged a few without seeing where they were coming from.

"Interesting," she mused. "I was right when I thought they were better at combat than wizards Harry, at least close range. I have to wonder how he would deal with area effect spells. Ask Tholme if you can try something to add to the training then use Stupefy on him."

Harry nodded and relayed the message to Tholme, who nodded agreeably, not warning Quinlan. Harry turned then concentrated, gesturing with one hand. A red circle flew from his fingertips towards Quinlan.

However, Quinlan turned from blocking the low power energy bolts from the training balls to face in Harry's direction just as the spell left his fingers. His lightsaber flashed, intersecting the attack. In a welter of reddish sparks which rapidly disappeared in the air the spell dissipated.

Narrowing his eyes, Harry conjured up a few things, spoons, balls, a few rocks and other things. Then he started to fire off Stupefys as he moved around the room. He didn't apparate, not yet, figuring the Jedi would be able to sense it. Nor did he use any transfiguration, not wanting to use it on any part of the ship lest he damage it. He did however cover himself with a Notice-me-Not and the other spells he used to move around unseen on Ryloth.

That seemed to work but only on Harry himself, just trying to overwhelm Quinlan didn't work at all since Quinlan was able to feel the attacks moving from Harry toward him. The young Jedi turned all around, following Harry, his footsteps sure, his lightsaber work certain as he deflected, dodged or destroyed anything coming his way. After only a few moments, Tholme called, "Stop."

Harry did so, his eyes wide, though Lily's were not. Harry didn't know it, but his Stupefy wasn't really an area effect spell, there were a lot of others he would be able to use once Lily began to guide him towards figuring them out. "Not bad, but I still think at range a wizard would be able to beat a Jedi. Though keeping the range open would definitely be a trial."

"Maybe mum, I've never seen wizards fight. But even so, think about what I could do if I could feel the environment around me like that," Harry replied, to which Lily could only nod. On the other hand, she made a point to keep a more open mind about these Jedi, just in case.

"That is what the Force can do young Harry, if you learn how to reach out with your senses, with your mind, rather than simply manipulate its energy to your own designs." Tholme said softly, making to put a hand on the boy's shoulder, only pulling back after a second. What he had already learned of Harry told Tholme he wasn't used to adults, particularly adult men, treating him kindly and might react badly to physical contact.

Tholme idly wondered if he should ask Master T'ra Saa to join them, but though the Neti master was the Sector Jedi for this area of space, she was busy at present on Siskeen aiding the locals after a series of natural disasters had wracked one of the planet's continents.

So that leaves me alone for now, without a female element to counter Lily's. I just hope she is willing to work with us. "The Force can guide us in battle, and in life. Would you like to learn?"

From there, Tholme continued to teach the two about the Jedi Order, and the Force during that period of the day. Harry kept on interrupting at times, which was to be expected, though Tholme was somewhat discouraged to realize both he and Lily were questioning a lot about the meditation aspect, about the need to clear the mind in order to reach out to the Force, and the need to abstain from emotions while doing it. While at this stage in their education that second part wasn't important, the basis for it had to be understood, and they didn't seem to be understanding the point of it.

During the evenings they had another exercise under Quinlan, then another session under Glimmer during dinner, which Harry took over by common consent. Astonishingly, Harry was in very good shape. Despite his scrawny frame he had quite a bit of wiry strength to him, and fantastic endurance. Tholme however was more interested in watching him 'transfigure', the art of changing one thing into another, the items in the kitchen. The definition of the word Tholme translated what Harry was doing smacked a little too much of Sith alchemy to the Jedi master, which along with Harry and Lily's concerns about Harry's blood was enough to set Tholme's hackles on edge until he watched it with his Forces senses on high.

However Sith alchemy was just that, a somewhat scientific process accentuated through use of the Dark Side of the Force. This was simply an extension of Force power as far as Tholme could tell. Harry seemed to be telling the universe, telling the Force in that small area, that no, what you believe you are is wrong, this is what you really are, and then imposing that image upon reality.

It was astonishing, but the more Tholme looked at it and watched Harry do it, the more he wondered if perhaps Jedi could do the same thing. After all, do we not already do that in a way with Force telekinesis? Moreover there was no feeling of hate or anger here, which was another plus. It all served to firm up Tholme's belief that the Order needed Harry within its ranks. Perhaps he is the Chosen One that I have heard a few masters mention a time or two.

Tholme began to instruct the children in the first few steps of Jedi Mediation the third day out, when he felt that Harry was just up to understanding what he was talking about. But yet again he had to use visual aids to cross the language divide.

Lily watched his attempt at communication then nodded her head. "I think they are trying to teach you the start of Occlumency Harry, the art of protecting your mind. The rest, I've heard of Eastern wizards who bind up magic with mysticism. Most English wizards thought it was all bunk, but it might be part of the reason why they don't need a focus here, they never got into the habit. And if you follow that concept to the logical conclusion, it might be the key to how they can 'feel' the universe around them."

The other half of that equation was that the magic field, or the Force she supposed, of this universe was much stronger than back home and thus easier to feel but possibly harder to direct to a single effect. Even here in the ship it felt like being back at Hogwarts, only more intense, heavier almost. And the difficulty of imposing their will upon it might be why Tholme and Quinlan seemed so interested in Harry's transfiguration skills.

What interested both Lily and Harry were the conversations Tholme initiated with them during the evening, including Lily as she too learned the local dialect. Sometimes Aayla joined them, sometimes Quinlan up in the cockpit. Through these discussions, Tholme, Lily and Harry sounded one another out. Aayla would follow Harry's lead that was obvious, but Aayla trusted the Jedi, whereas Harry was much warier of them.

Harry was willing to trust Tholme and Quinlan as individuals, that was obvious. But he had never heard of Jedi except possibly in passing. It was both irritating and refreshing to speak to someone who had never heard of the Jedi before.

If only I was not getting the impression that Lily was not impressed with us either, he mused to himself more than once. Lily also told them both about the society of magicals, or Force users as Tholme thought of them, which interested both him and Harry.

Some of the things she mentioned, the idea of massive areas covered by 'spells' which kept non-Force users from finding them, was impressive, and beyond anything the Jedi did today. Though Jedi and Sith had both done similar things to hide from their enemies in the various wars before the Ruusan Reformation. The Sith had been particularly good at that trick.

Some of the other things however, the idea of 'runes' in particular, were fascinating. Jedi and Sith could imbue the Force into objects, even specific, simple concepts, such as 'stay away', 'don't notice me' or fear, which the items would then radiate out to fool the weak-minded. But the Jedi had lost even the ability to do that long before the Reformation, and even those skills were well below what Lily described runes were capable of.

Eventually however, his curiosity about how Harry didn't know about these things overcame Tholme. Their third evening out he decided to broach that subject. "Harry, how is it that you did not live with Lily, or your… father? How did your mother die that left her as a ghost?"

Harry flinched slightly and leaned back, looking at Tholme then up to Lily. Lily shrugged her shoulders sadly, looking back down at him. "It's up to you Harry, if you're up to speaking about it, it doesn't hurt my feelings to talk about it in general, just the particulars." She smiled wanly, leaning down to kiss him on the cheek with her ethereal lips. The memory of her husband's death still haunted Lily somewhat, and it always would, but talking about their deaths in general at least she could handle.

"Alright." Harry nodded smiling up at Lily before looking over at Tholme, his face becoming serious quickly. It was time to trust Tholme a little more, and this was the first step to that. "My mother and my father and I we were attacked by a Dark Lord a few months after I was born."

Harry jerked back as Tholme suddenly leaned forward, his eyes which had been somewhere between sympathetic and inquisitive hardening noticeably. "Dark Lord? What do you mean Dark Lord?"

"His name was Voldemort apparently. He wanted to rule the world, and used terror attacks and Dark magic, Dark spells to get it. My mother hasn't told me much about the actual fighting," Harry said, leaning back further, a little worried by Tholme's intensity.

Tholme reasserted control of himself quickly, shaking his head. "I apologize for startling you young one, but the Dark Side is no joke to us. Dark… spells?"

"Repeat after me Harry," Lily said, touching his shoulder with one hand as she looked at Tholme keenly. He was honestly worried about Dark spells, which was interesting, telling and frankly a good sign in some ways.

"Some spells are powered by negative feelings. For example one of them is a torture curse, you have to want to hurt someone with every fiber of your being to power it. I will not help my son learn anything of that nature because every time a person uses spells like that, they impact their soul, and it is harder to come back. I know of people who use some of the Dark spells for good, but even they are changed by it, nor will they touch the worst spells out there."

Tholme nodded thoughtfully, but Harry looked up at his mother questioningly. "I think I ran into something like that, anger and frustration helped me power a spell once, but I didn't like that it made the spell and me feel so out of control."

"Anger, fear, and aggression are the basic tenants of the Dark side." Tholme said softly, with his Force telepathy still allowing him to understand Harry's words, hoping that Harry understood enough of what he was saying to get the gist of it. "They are easier to use because they are powerful emotions Harry, but they corrupt the individual the longer you use them."

Frowning for a moment he pulled out Aayla's datapad flipping through it before he found a few pictures which he could use to describe the emotions he was talking about. Then he kept going, finding an individual who was obviously sick with something. "Fear, anger, aggression, the Dark, it makes you like this, like a sickness."

"He's trying to say the Dark is like a sickness to the soul, and that those emotions he mentioned feed into it. I'm not certain if I agree with that, but unbridled anger and certainly hate can indeed do very bad things to a person's soul Harry, especially when they use it to power their magic." Lily said, smiling and nodded agreement, which seemed to satisfy Tholme's anxiety almost as much as Harry's immediate nod of understanding. Indeed for the first time a tension he seemed to have whenever he looked at Lily faded entirely away, though why it had been there in the first place was beyond Harry.

Harry nodded once more then smiled. "In that case I won't use them, I'll use the Light version. If anger and hate are bad, than using spells based on happiness or love would be good right?"

"Light version?" Lily asked smiling back at Harry as Tholme frowned slightly, both at the idea and Harry's continued use of the word 'spells'. "There are a few spells that call upon happy feelings. I know of a few protective shield spells that call upon the urge to defend, and another spell that requires you to think of your happiest memories. I suppose you could say they are the light side of things.

"Those spells sound interesting." Harry said with a nod. "You'll have to teach me about them."

"Normally those spells would be taught in your seventh year at Hogwarts, if that, but I suppose like so much else, that could have been based on a false assumption of the need for prior training." Lily replied, then nodded. "We'll try Harry."

"I followed your half of that conversation Harry, and I have to say it sounds fascinating to me as well," Tholme said mildly, smiling lightly at him, the small coiled knot of worry within him dissipating entirely now.

The boy had good instincts, and while there was pain and fear, fear of loss, and most definitely attachment in Harry, Tholme could not detect any anger or hate in him. Determination yes, but not anger, which was good, very good. What was odd, and not very good in the long term was the idea of using positive emotions in such a way. The Order taught that even positive emotions led to the Dark Side, hence the 'there is no emotion, there is only peace' aspect of the Oath of the Jedi.

Still, these two represent too much knowledge for me to turn them away just for that, especially since I know that a Jedi can feel love and not be in danger of falling. But it is yet another reason why I need to keep these two away from Coruscant and the whole of High Council for a while. But Yoda at least needs to know…

A day later they came out in the Denon system. The single planet in the system buzzed with lights and movement, Denon was a major industrial hub, fueled by being the crossroads between two hyperspace lanes. The asteroids in the system were the sight of much of the industry, but the planet itself had grown into a cityscape like Coruscant, though it only consisted of a single level or at most two levels of buildings, while on Coruscant no one knew how many level existed between the present day buildings and the natural ground of the planet.

Tholme set Quinlan to telling the two children and Lily about the system, using the hologram connected to the ship's sensors to use it as a teaching tool as he ostensibly turned the ship in the direction of their next jump. Instead Tholme input another command into the ship's computer which powered up the ship's personal Hypercom relay, something even his own padawan had no knowledge the ship even had. It was one of only six such devices the Jedi Order had, able to send out a Hypercom signal without needing to piggyback on the nearest relay and they were a secret known to fewer than ten people. The energy of the ship's reactor noticeably dipped on the readout as the signal was sent out, and Tholme made a note to recharge it when he could.

The destination of his signal was a secret back door entrance to the Jedi Temple's own communication net, and it kicked him directly to the Grand Master's own room. He was one of only six living Jedi who had that code, and it was only used in emergencies. Tholme believed this was important enough however, the powers Harry had so casually shown so far, that Lily mentioned from her past, were world shattering, but only if the Order could harness them correctly. "Master Yoda, I apologize if I woke you."

The hologram appeared over the display of his seat and Yoda looked at him. "Asleep I was not. Old I am, need much sleep, the elderly do not. Many years, decades even, it has been since this line was used. Good reason for using it now, you have?"

"I do. I have discovered something very odd on Ryloth, so odd I do not even want to talk about it like this, only in person. We are heading to the training vessel Explorer. How soon can you get away to meet us there?"

Yoda actually blinked in shock, frowning, Force senses reaching out, though at this distance even Yoda would be unable to detect anything in particular. "A secret even from the rest of the Order, you wish to keep this?"

"Yes," master Tholme replied simply. "As I said I have found something highly unusual, and I am afraid there are elements within the Order which would not take a lot of that discovery very well for various reasons. And there are still more who would wish to see it buried entirely or disbelieve their own senses."

"To your desire to keep this a secret, more there is." Yoda said pointing his glimmer stick into his own hologram so much so that it disappeared in Tholme's. "Feel something through the Force do you?"

"Feel something through the Force we all did master," Tholme said obliquely, "I simply may have found the root cause of it. But yes, I feel that this needs to be kept secret."

Yoda's eyes widened slightly, understanding what Tholme was really saying, his reference to the massive Force splash the Jedi had all felt a little under two months ago. He nodded his head decisively. "Very well, but for many weeks, leave Coruscant, able to I will not be. Leave the secret there you will, return to Coruscant you will, speak in person then, hrhrhrm."

Tholme frowned. "Master I am uncertain that is the right move. I would prefer to remain with the Explorer until you arrive."

Leaning back slightly Yoda could not keep a frown from his aged, wrinkled face. Tholme was a very active Jedi, not one who enjoyed sitting in the temple or inactivity of any sort. And as one of only six Jedi Shadows, he, and his padawan thanks to Vos' unique powers, needed to be in the field. There were few among the Order so at home in moving within the criminal element. That he would even think of taking himself out of the field showed yet again how important he felt this was. "Hrhrhrm, agreeable that is, try harder to get away I will. My interest, you have awakened young Tholme."

Tholme actually chuckled, shaking his head. "Oh master Yoda, you really don't know the half of it." After that the call ended, and Tholme turned the ship towards their next jump.