Coruscant, Jedi Temple, High Council Chamber 21.9 BBY (60 seconds later)
Watching as Master Tiin strode across the room to reclaim his seat, I noted this was a full session of the High Council, with the exception of Master Poof. Looking at the Quermian's empty seat filled me with a deep foreboding, but the feeling was as nebulous as it was compelling. I tried to recall what eventually happened to the illusionist, but nothing except his silent presence during "my" testing by the High Council in a vanished timeline came to mind. Momentarily, I considered saying something to the Councilors about their fellow possibly being in trouble, but quickly rejected the notion. I wasn't even sure this vague reaction was connected to Master Poof. It could just as easily have been triggered by a tragic decision influenced by the actions of the successor of his successor a generation from now, or it could be nothing at all. Nothing but a subconscious expression of my anxiety over having to give an accounting of myself to the near-entirety of the Council.
Not that this major in-gathering of the Order's leadership was occurring for me, of course. The Council had been deliberating all day concerning the the findings of the task-force Masters Jinn and Koon had jointly lead to the Pammant System. Their scans of the fleet-killing Malevolence, confirmation of it's fully operational status, and knowledge of it's sister-ship still under construction would definitely be reason enough for the full Council to convene and remain closeted for the many hours they'd already been here. It was merely my misfortune to be the tail-hook issue of their long and undoubtedly tension-filled day.
Continuing my observation of my superiors, I noted with mild surprise, not to mention a touch of dismay, that there were a couple of new faces in the limited-term seats. When Tutso and Bultar had both repeated to me the rumor that Master Koth was considering stepping down prior to the expiration of his term due to an intense interest in a potential apprentice whose identity the rumor-mill hadn't revealed, I'd selfishly hoped it was unfounded gossip. The Zabrak Master was a natural crusader cut from the same cloth as me and my former Master. That, and he knew what it was like to be a major talent inducted into the Order later than was normal.
Furthermore, Master Koth had the respect of both my major critics on the Council, and he'd often used it to soften or deflect their antagonism when I ended up standing where I was right now. I recalled seeing him preparing to depart the Temple at the same time I'd been leaving for Padme's ship, but I didn't have any idea where he was now. Fortunately, and I had to suppress a smile over this, his replacement appeared to be Master Fisto. The easygoing, often smiling Nautolan Jedi Master was, if anything, even more of a do-good-by-directly-battling-evil type than his predecessor. Even better was his quiet yet growing disagreement with the no romantic attachment doctrine, and the fact he saw the value in emotions for a Jedi. If I had to lose Eeth Koth as a voice in my corner, getting Kit Fisto as his successor was just about as good as it got.
A reminder to me that the Force (not to mention the High Council) ever sought balance, Master Giett's long-anticipated replacement was something of a mixed bag from my personal perspective. While the portly Jedi Master hadn't ever looked on me with the kind of favor that Masters Yaddle, Koth, and Tiin did, or taken an interest in me due to my talents, as Masters Yoda, Windu, and Koon had, his had ever been the voice of a peacemaker seeking moderation in all things. He'd remain silent through any number of quasi-dignified, passive aggressive digs the scarred Lannik and cerebral Thisspasian fired my way, but could be counted on to counsel leniency when one or the other was for having me spend weeks on make-work penance for some utterly trivial violation that should have been handled by the Council of First Knowledge anyways.
Adi Gallia was, quite unfortunately from a personal perspective, thick as thieves with Master Piell. A diplomat like Master Giett, the best thing I could say from what little I knew of her was that she was also quite close with Qui Gon and Obi Wan. I knew that someone who'd earned Master Jinn's respect wouldn't simply be another echo-chamber for my one-eyed bane, but I'd often seen the Tholothian Jedi Master walking slowly about the Temple with the far older Lannik. The two of them deep in conversation. It had seemed such a strange sight to me, that I'd asked Master Vilbum what he knew about how the pair had come to know each other so well, while studying to acquire the fundamentals of the Force Burst technique. He'd told me that Master Piell had saved an infant Adi, as well as her diplomat parents decades earlier, and was also responsible for her induction. I could see how that could create a tie between them, but didn't really have any idea how it would influence the woman in her new role. It happened to be more of my bad luck that today of all days, Piell actually had something of a leg to stand on with regards to his criticisms. Still, I had no intention of meekly letting him have it all his own way.
All of this I took in and considered in the time it took Master Tiin to get settled. A moment later, and with a brief glance the Grandmaster's way first, Master Windu brought the Council to order. His first words after having done so, I chose to take as a good sign. In part due to my knowing he'd doggedly advocated for providing Padme with a capable protector during her mission to Cato Neimoidia.
"The Council thanks you for your patience, Jedi Skywalker. After setting the time for your debriefing, other developments were brought to our attention that required consideration. There was also the fact we did not anticipate your commendable decision to record everything which transpired on Cato Neimoidia, from both yours and Senator Amidala's perspectives. That demonstrated an admirable sensitivity to the politically charged nature of the mission, and a forthright sense of personal accountability, but it was a great deal of information to sort through." Normally sparing with praise to the point one could generally be forgiven for wondering if the stoic Jedi Master was familiar with the concept, it was a not so subtle sign of support from the Master of the Order.
Inclining my head respectfully, I bowed with my hands clasped before me to the members of the Council, then replied with calm courtesy "It seemed prudent to create an objective account of the events in question to refute whatever lies the traitor Senators, the Trade Federation, and the InterGalactic Banking Clans might concoct to conceal their misdeeds."
Inevitably, it was Master Piell who inquired with deceptive serenity "While I agree in principle with the idea of creating such an objective record of events, in practice, I find myself deeply troubled by the minute and a half gap in the footage shortly after your recovery of the data-disc. Would you care to explain this curious failure to capture what occurred immediately after this critical moment in your self-appointed mission, Jedi Skywalker?"
A little puzzled that this was the tack the head of my personal inquisition was taking, I saw no harm in answering with complete honesty. "Without telling Dod or Clovis what he intended, Poggle the Lesser arranged for the Dark Jedi, Asajj Ventress to make a surprise appearance, so she could examine his co-conspirators for any signs they intended to betray him. When I learned of her imminent arrival from the message Senator Amidala sent along with the data-disc you saw me recover, I realized it was time to enact one of the contingency-plans I'd developed with the Senator and her bodyguard."
The whole Council seemed interested in where I was going with this, so I didn't hesitate to finish explaining "Under the circumstances, the most feasible of our plans required me to contact Senator Amidala from the shuttle in my guise as her pilot, then feign the arrival of an urgent diplomatic communique. Given the tight time constraints, I chose to traverse the nine or ten kilometers to the spaceport by running across the rooftops using a combination of continuous Force Speed, Force Reflex, and a number of Force-assisted leaps. The filament-cam I was wearing wasn't designed for that kind of high-speed motion capture, so it stopped recording what passed in front of the lens until it's visual processing unit began making sense of the incoming data. That's why the recording picks back up with me reaching the last of the rooftops, then dropping down into an alleyway I could emerge from like just another pilot or crewmember returning to their ship after a bit of shore leave."
Leaning forward a little, the scarred Lannik's face was a study in disbelief marred with by black suspicion, as he replied "If you were capable of simultaneously utilizing two very draining techniques for so long, as you interspersed a third use of the Force at-will, then why is this the first I'm hearing of such a capacity on your part, Jedi Skywalker? Prior to your recent Knighting, I was privy to all your training-data as a member of the Council of First Knowledge. Do you expect us to believe your abilities have expanded to such an extent in a mere two months naturally?"
Meeting the judgmental Jedi's half-gaze with equanimity, I calmly replied "Respectfully, Master Piell, I received eight years of instruction in the methodologies of the Matukai, and the vast majority of my training occurred outside the Temple. Those methodologies allow me to go without sleep for more than a week at a time in a sustainable fashion. Regardless of my day-to-day level of exertion. Once you know that I've only been sleeping twice a week since my twelfth life-day, it only takes a bit of arithmetic to realize I've put in more training-hours than most Jedi more than half again my age."
Before the pink-skinned, barrel-chested dwarf could respond, I allowed my tone to grow the slightest bit critical, as I concluded "I'm uncertain why this should come as such a surprise to you, sir. You certainly spoke as one who possessed a complete understanding of Matukai practices, when I assisted Master Dark Woman with her presentation before the Council of First Knowledge. Please correct me if I'm misremembering your stated position, but I seem to recall you stating that 'The Jedi Order has no need for the derivative, sub-standard practices of heretics who cribbed everything they know from first principles they almost certainly purloined from us to begin with.'"
Realizing I'd gone on at such length it might appear as if I was trying to talk over the Jedi Master, I finished quickly with "Regarding my performance during the brief periods when Master Dark Woman chose to have elements of my training carried out within the Temple, I can only say that I felt constrained to conceal the full extent of my capabilities from my peers and Temple instructors. At the time, I didn't think it my place to prove your assertion as to the unilateral superiority of Jedi training practices was in error."
There was an almost imperceptible tightening of the long-eared Jedi's deeply lined features, and a drawing together of his pronounced brows, before he looked to the fur-covered, long-clawed Thisspiasian coiled beside him. Master Rancisis's deep-set dark eyes peered out at me disapprovingly from the unruly mass of hair concealing everything except a mouth that always seemed turned down into a frown. The tips of claws as long as they were thin drumming in rippling sequence against the arm-rests of something more back-rest than chair, as he spoke up in a thoughtful and cultured voice rather at odds with his appearance.
"I accept there doesn't seem to be any reason for you to dissemble about a performance we could easily call on you to demonstrate, but my own concerns are ethical rather than practical. The recording showed you using the Force to coerce a great many Neimoidians into facilitating your successful sabotage of the spaceport's power-grid. By my count, you employed a dozen instances of Force Persuasion, and did so under circumstances which are likely to blow back onto your unwitting confederates. Neimoidian jurisprudence cannot be considered lenient by any stretch of the imagination, so it's quite possible the Neimoidian courts might refuse to accept that your unwitting accomplices were acting contrary to their own wills. What would you say, Jedi Skywalker, if those you used were imprisoned or even executed for actions taken while under your sway?"
Before the attempt on Padme's life, I wouldn't have hesitated for an instant to offer a defense-of-necessity. Now, I remembered a dying young guardsman's desperate gray eyes, and had to suppress a wince before doing just that.
"I would express my regret for the necessity of my actions, Master Rancisis, then explain I was unable to find another viable alternative. Please believe me when I say that the lethal examples of Dark Side compulsion I just witnessed, not to mention the assassin's attempt to suborn my will, has underscored for me the horrors which can be perpetrated by a trained Force-sensitive who begins tampering with free will for the sake of expedience. I didn't, and still don't, see any other means I could have employed to engineer our successful escape from Cato Neimoidia, but if you see an equally effective option I failed to identify, I would be genuinely grateful for the instruction. As it stands, if I never have to do something like that again, it will be too soon for my peace of mind."
Tracing a complex geometric design on his right arm-rest with one claw tip, the Council's master strategist nodded thoughtfully, then replied "You consider that the most important metric of success, then? The achievement of the mission objective by whatever means necessary?"
His questions were offered in a perfectly reasonable, benign sounding tone, but I wasn't taken in for an instant. It took a great deal of effort to maintain a calm and detached in the face of the Thisspiasian's obvious preference to continue the inquisition, rather than admit he didn't see a better way forward than the one I'd utilized, but somehow I managed.
"Within the boundaries of the Code and Republic law, generally, yes." I said as calmly as if we were simply debating a point of philosophy.
Master Rancisis's reply was immediate. "You don't see the contradiction inherent to taking actions which safeguarded three lives, by endangering a dozen others, then?"
Looking him straight in the eye, I shrugged slightly, then responded "Respectfully, no, I don't. If the financing of the battle-droid foundry on Geonosis had been allowed to continue uninterrupted, the C.I.S would have been given a compelling motive to wipe out the Republic task-force presently blockading Geonosis as soon as possible. If I did indeed endanger a dozen Neimoidians, it was with the intent of safeguarding the one hundred and thirty thousand members of the Judicial Forces aboard the five dozen cruisers in the Geonosis System, plus everyone else who would be killed once the C.I.S carried out what would undoubtedly be seen by the Republic as an act of war."
Shaking his head slightly, the Jedi Master verbally riposted "Jedi Skywalker, I'm afraid you'll find this body, and the vast majority of magistrates unmoved by retroactive justifications. You didn't know that's what the two Senators were doing with the ruler of Geonosis while you were enlisting the involuntary aid necessary for your sabotage of the spaceport's weaponry. The relevant S.B.I reports indicated only a suspicion of treason on the Senators' parts. What if the report had turned out to be in error?"
Suppressing the first snarky comeback which came to mind concerning the High Council being willing to send Jedi Masters to kill based on nothing more than Senate reports, I replied "If my actions had been predicated solely by the attempt to confirm or refute the S.B.I's suspicions, I might agree with your reasoning, sir, but unlike Senator Amidala, my primary obligation was to see she survived the mission she'd undertaken on the S.B.I's behalf. The same actions which facilitated the success of her mission were required for her and Captain Typho's continued survival."
"And I in turn might agree with your reasoning, if this had been an actual mission you'd been assigned. What gave you the right to appoint yourself Senator Amidala's guardian, when you knew the Grandmaster had ordered no Jedi be sent to Cato Neimoidia at this time?" The Thisspiasian's tone had grown extremely stern as he asked what was probably intended to be a rhetorical question.
Meeting the Thisspiasian's dark gaze, I replied in a hard tone "There's a galaxy of difference between Master Yoda ordering no Jedi be sent to accompany Senator Amidala, and the Grandmaster actually forbidding any Jedi from choosing to go. Respectfully, it's been my experience that Master Yoda invariably says exactly what he means, and means what he says. If I'd been actually been ordered not to go, well, that would have been another matter entirely."
It would have been a matter of me defying such a stupid farking order, but I saw no compelling reason to belabor that point in the present company.
I could feel the flare of irritation in the snake-bodied Jedi Master as he opened his perpetual frown of a mouth to reply, but just then there came a couple of quiet huh-heh-huh-huu-haa's from the tiny green Jedi Master in question. The attention of everyone in the room shifted momentarily to the Grandmaster, but nothing more was forthcoming from him.
I felt his gaze measuring and weighing me, but didn't waste my time trying to speculate as to the arcane reasoning going on behind those big eyes. It was enough he'd seen fit to take some of the heat off of me.
Leaping into the sudden silence, Master Windu remarked "I for one am more concerned by this Ventress making another appearance to advance the interests of the Secessionists. Especially saying things which could be construed to mean she was working with those elements of the IG.BC fleet which suddenly appeared in-system to take part in the effort launched to prevent your escape. Can you tell us anything more on that front?" His eyes settled on me for a moment, and I had the sense he was urging me to ease back away from the confrontational posture I'd been on the point of adopting.
"It's not as readily apparent this time, but Ventress has had years of instruction from someone who knows enough about lightsaber combat to create a seamless fusion of Makashi and Ataru for her to study. Master Yaddle got a very good look at Ventress's fighting style on Tynna. I'm sure she can confirm what I'm saying" I replied after a moment to consider the question. Grateful the Master of the Order had stepped in when he had.
All eyes except Piell's, Rancisis's, and Gallia's turned in the direction of the diminutive Jedi Master with the cropped ear. I could feel subtle spikes of irritation continuing to come from Piell, but Rancisis was doing a masterful job of concealing his outrage. He seemed to simply be studying me, and Gallia was simply curious why I merited so much attention from her patron.
"A master's pupil, she is. Collared her with anguish and need, they have." Yaddle affirmed after the briefest hesitation. While I'd been getting interrogated by my critics, I'd noticed her gaze lingering upon the one empty Council seat she'd glanced at more than once, but that could have been due to all the talk about mental coercion bringing Master Poof to mind. He was, after all, the Jedi Master who taught both the practical and ethical aspects of using Force Persuasion.
I was impressed that Yaddle had seen right to the heart of Ventress's makeup under such difficult and dangerous conditions. Which only demonstrated that I'd probably do well not to dismiss out of hand anything said by Jedi who measured their service to the Order in centuries rather than decades.
There was an uncomfortable shift by more than one Councilor after Yaddle confirmed my assertion. Something which had me resisting the urge to roll my eyes, because I was beginning to believe was going to take the entire Council collectively catching Bulq in the act of deep-frying a newborn sentient for his own immediate consumption, before they'd be willing to entertain the idea he'd gone over to Palpatine.
Master Piell was the one to break the ensuing silence. "Speaking of your latest clash with this Dark Jedi. In your opinion, would it be accurate to say her loss of self-control and apparent disregard for her safety represented a missed opportunity, Jedi Skywalker? Asajj Ventress is a mass-murderer and Jedi-killer, after all." His tone making it perfectly clear what kind of opportunity he thought it had been.
I considered several possible responses, then chose the simplest and most direct explanation. "I wasn't the only one recording everything that happened. The data-goggles of the officers leading the contingents of Neimoidian legionnaires were uploading everything the officers saw to a mainframe somewhere on Cato Neimoidia. Killing Ventress on camera would have made it easy for an agent of the Trade Federation or the IG.BC to pick up one of her lightsabers, then murder Clovis and Dod with it. Once that was done, both organizations could claim I was a Jedi assassin, and the proof of treason we recovered nothing but a smoke screen we concocted to divert attention from my villainous actions. By the time they were done, Senators who were liabilities alive, would have been heroically deceased assets used to damage the Order's reputation further."
The unexpected nature of my reply seemed to catch the Lannik out for a moment. I guessed that he'd been prepared for a moral argument, or a plea of inability due to the constraints of our escape. My cynical (and all too likely) supposition demonstrated a far better grasp of the political realities than Piell had been ready to believe a recently Knighted twenty year old possessed. He opened his mouth as if to refute my reasoning, then seemed to think better of it. His one bright blue eye glittered like a chip of glacial ice as he fixed me with a balefure stare I refused to react to.
No one else seemed prepared to dispute the point either, so I pressed onward with "Masters, I told Senator Amidala I would convey her request for Jedi protection. Master Jinn recommended that I be the one to pass on her request, because he agreed with me as to the likelihood of the assassins making another attempt prior to the upcoming Senate session." The uncomfortable silence had seemed like the perfect opportunity to move the discussion onward from Cato Neimoidia, and into a more relevant discourse concerning what had happened this evening right here on Coruscant. Yet if I'd thought shifting the discussion to something more actionable would diminish the ill-defined tension which had been building for some time throughout the chamber, I was sadly mistaken.
Master Fisto actually leaned forward in his chair to crane his head and take in the view of his fellows as they'd stilled and fallen silent. When no one else seemed inclined to break that silence, he took a deep breath, looked directly at me, then explained "The reason Master Jinn agrees with you concerning the probability of another attempt on Senator Amidala's life is simple. The head of the Senate's Pacifist Faction, Senator Kin Robb of Taris was killed in an aircar crash a few hours ago. The police are still investigating, but they believe it was a remotely detonated ion charge."
I was still absorbing this news, when Yoda broke his silence "Upon Senator Iblis's life, an attempt was made. A deadly spider, bit him many times, it did. Native to Naboo, it is."
My mind spun as I tried to determine why the C.I.S would want to kill the man championing the idea of Corellia sitting out the imminent conflict. Let alone doing so with a spider from Palpatine's homeworld on the same night they tried to kill Padme.
It didn't make sense, but I asked the relevant question instead of stating that obvious fact. "Is Senator Iblis expected to recover?"
"One bite from a nightspider is generally considered fatal for a man or Gungan weighing a hundred kilos. Senator Iblis was bitten six times, and two of the bites were immediately adjacent to major blood vessels. The only reason he isn't already dead is a cybernetic implant designed to isolate and flush poisons from his system. He's in a stasis-pod, but his prognosis is bleak." Master Windu responded after a glance Yoda's way I couldn't glean the reason for.
There was a big part of me that wanted to roll up my sleeves and get to work unraveling a mystery which could have an enormous impact on the fate of the galaxy. Against that, I weighed the likelihood of Padme getting assassinated if I didn't see to her safety personally.
"I'm a Guardian, not a Sentinel. I might be able to figure out what's going on, but do I trust anyone else to keep Padme among the living?" It was a question I silently asked myself more than once, but I wasn't any more thrilled with the tenth answer than I had been with the first.
"Did anyone think to send a messenger to the Brotherhood of Cognizance on Naboo? The monks have been gathering knowledge concerning their planet for centuries, but they're not exactly modernists. I doubt that any part of what they've collected is on the planetary holo-net, but if anyone in the galaxy has recorded a cure for the venom of the nightspider, it's probably them" I responded after a few seconds to consider the problem.
The glances several of the assembled Jedi Masters shared told me no, no one here had any idea what I was talking about. It was Master Mundi who asked the obvious question of me, however. "I don't believe any of us were aware such an organization existed, Jedi Skywalker. Would you care to explain how you learned of them? I was given to understand you devoted most of your time to the honing of Force-techniques, and your knowledge of the lightsaber."
It was a reasonable question, and I had just the bit of half-truth to answer with. "Master Dark Woman and I have been all over the Chommell Sector on various missions. Most of the inhabited planets are pleasant locales, whose peoples are generally uninfected by the social ills so common to 'civilized' societies. I wouldn't mind becoming the Sector's Watchman in a few decades, so I do a fair bit of reading before bed the two nights of the week I actually sleep."
Which was sort of true, as far as it went. I was a capable speed-reader, so I often requested information from the Archives which had nothing to do with my core interests. Just in case someone was prevailing upon Master Nu to keep watch on what I was reading since the recent expansion of my access. The thought of Master Piell trying to find a sinister connection between the writings of Master Arca Jeth concerning the Great Droid Rebellion, and centuries old accounts of Explorer Corps missions into Wild Space was enough to warm my heart.
Not all that engaged with the current discussion, I wasn't surprised to see it was Master Tiin who rose and glided from the chamber to set someone to seeing whether or not the monks of Naboo might know how to save Corellia's Senator. I was rather hoping we could pull him through, because Garm Bel Iblis wasn't the kind of man to shrug off an assassination attempt. He was going to want blood, and with luck, we might be able to persuade him to settle for C.I.S vitae. The thought of the fruits of Corellian industry being added to what Kuat and the Kamino affiliates were cooking up filled me with the tiniest bit of hope I wouldn't end up having to watch everyone in this building murdered by Anzat-trained Morgukai clones, or cortosis sheathed battle-droids.
"Talking Padme out of opposing the Military Creation Act is going to be a nightmare. She's not going to just take my word for the fact the C.I.S parliament has absolutely no authority over Bulq and the mega-corporation reps spoiling for this war." My silent musing illustrated multiple problems, but did nothing to provide any actual solutions.
No one was proffering any additional questions, so before they could simply dismiss me, I decided to ask "Master Windu, who was the Anzat responsible for the murder of the Senate Guards, the attempt upon Senator Amidala's life, and the attack upon myself?"
Instantly, everyone except Yoda and Yaddle adopted an impassively detached demeanor. The Grandmaster and his countrywoman's ears were laid back flat, and if I didn't know better, I would have thought what I just felt was the briefest flash of honest to Ashla anger flicker through the ancient Jedi Master's eyes. One glance from Yoda, and I knew that Mace wasn't going to be answering anything.
The room was so quiet, I could hear individual Councilors breathing as everyone waited to take their cue from Yoda. I did everything I could to remain calm and composed myself, but it was exactly this sort of secretive control-freak behavior which had bitten the Order in the ass the first time around, and I didn't have much patience with it.
Eventually, Yoda decided to go for the deflection. "Willing to safeguard the Senator, you are?" His tone, as usual, giving nothing of his thinking away.
Looking the venerable Jedi in the eye, I answered his question with a question in true Jedi fashion. "It's the same assassin responsible for the murder of Senator Greyshade, isn't it, Master Yoda?"
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught the minute widening of Master Mundi's eyes in response to my question. That was really all the confirmation I needed, but I remained silent in the hopes that Yoda would give me something more.
For once, I could actually tell what the wise and canny old Jedi was thinking. "He's trying to work out whether I'm just making an assumption because both incidents involve extreme mind-control, or if I have insider foreknowledge in this case."
Eventually, the wizened Jedi Master hrrmmph'd, then answered "Misled by Sith lies, he was. The spread of these lies, tried to prevent it, we did."
I knew there was worse to come, because I'd begun using the Force to sharpen my senses just as he began speaking, so I heard the otherwise nearly silent yet irregular hitch in Windu's breathing. Literally everyone aside from Yoda and Windu were straining to hear every syllable. Which was all the confirmation I needed to know some sort of operation had spiraled out of control.
Rising from his seat suddenly, the Grandmaster made a negating motion to the gathered Council, then began hobbling toward the door. He was nearly even with my own position, before he looked up at me, then pointed to the door leading from the chamber with the tip of his gimmer-stick.
I really had no idea what the ancient Jedi Master was playing at, but apparently I wasn't going to find out anything more here, so I did the only thing I could, and followed.
A/N: OK, got the new chapter out later than I wanted, because the structure of it was giving me fits. I wanted the dialog to flow better, but it was growing ever more clear that this was as good as it was going to get. Hope it was enjoyable, regardless, and will try to be rather more prompt with getting back on a more regular posting schedule.