CHAPTER 2
I was running.
I didn't know where I was going.
I just needed to get away.
From what I left behind. From what I did. From myself.
My breath burned in my throat. The air in the forest was heavy—humid, sharp, wild. Branches scratched my face, roots caught my feet, thorned vines tore at my clothes. But I didn't stop.
Because if I stopped, I would think. And if I thought, I would remember.
That explosion.
That thing.
That silence.
What… am I?
I looked at my hands while running. Thin. Dirty. Slightly trembling. But they weren't normal.
My foot caught on a root and I fell hard. My palms sank into the soil. Wet mud filled the space between my fingers.
I couldn't breathe.
My head was spinning.
My name.
What was my name?
I forced my mind.
A voice.
A place.
Nothing.
As if someone had erased my life and left me here.
"Who am I?" I whispered.
The forest didn't answer.
Only distant animal sounds echoed through the trees.
I pushed myself up. My chest still ached. There was something inside me. Awake. Quietly waiting.
I was afraid.
Afraid of it.
Afraid of myself.
I stood and began walking again. I wasn't running anymore. My energy was fading. But I had to move. I couldn't stay here.
Elsewhere, between dense trees and red cliffs, something was tracking.
The man was tall and lean; his features sharp. His gray-blue eyes scanned the surroundings with cold focus. His dark brown hair fell to his shoulders. His movements were controlled. Purposeful.
FIRST PERSPECTIVE
Spice smugglers had landed in this region. The sensor readings were correct. Heavy cargo had been moved. A camp had been set up, then relocated quickly.
He was late.
The campsite was silent.
The footprints were irregular.
They had left in a hurry.
He examined the area. He searched for a trace in the Force. The smugglers were ordinary beings. They couldn't use the Force, but it still flowed through them.
Just as he was about to return to his ship, he felt something.
Sudden.
Chaotic.
Uncontrolled.
This was not shaped by years of discipline.
This was—
A newborn spark.
A flame that didn't yet know its direction.
Raw.
But powerful.
Its presence in the Force wasn't hidden.
It shone like a sun.
MC PERSPECTIVE
The leaves shifted. Someone was there. I froze. This time I couldn't run. A man stepped out from between the trees. Tall. Walking slowly. I looked to see if he had a weapon. I didn't see one.
I stepped back. My foot slipped. I grabbed a tree to keep from falling. My heart was pounding so hard I thought it would break through my chest.
The man stopped.
He slowly raised his hands.
"I won't harm you," he said. And he began to approach slowly.
"Stay away from me!" I shouted.
With anger.
Something inside me reacted to my words.
Everything within about five meters of me was thrown outward. Leaves, branches, loose stones lifted into the air.
The stranger staggered backward but did not fall.
And he looked at me in surprise.
What he saw was not someone attacking.
It was a frightened child.
And the Force reacting to his fear.
The child was strong in the Force.
But directionless.
Emotions were the easiest path to using the Force.
But that path was dangerous.
An untrained Force user could harm himself most of all.
"Calm yourself, child," the man said.
"The Force is already shouting loudly around you."
He seemed about to take a step.
But he didn't.
He stayed where he was.
His hands remained raised.
As if to show he was not a threat.
Then he extended his hand toward the fallen branches at his side.
He lifted them with the Force.
As if it were a simple game, the branches slowly circled around me.
"You're making far too much noise," he said.
His smile looked friendly.
But it sent a chill through me.
The movement of the branches felt different.
Different from mine.
More controlled.
Quieter.
Not aggressive like mine.
I spoke with a trembling voice.
"Who… are you?"
"Where am I? What is this place? What am I? Why do you feel like me… even though you're not like me?"
THOLME PERSPECTIVE
"You don't know what you are?" he asked with slight surprise.
"I don't know… What am I?"
The child not knowing his own species surprised him.
There was something tragically strange about it.
Either he came from a primitive settlement on Dathomir—
Or he had lost his memory.
"I am from the Jedi Temple. Jedi Master Tholme," he said.
The child immediately asked,
"What is a Jedi?"
Tholme gestured toward the floating branches.
"This is the living energy that binds you and me. It is called the Force. I come from the Jedi Order, those who are trained to use it."
"Now answer my question. What is your name?"
The child hesitated.
THARIR PERSPECTIVE
My name?
What was my name?
A sharp pain pulsed inside my head.
From broken fragments of memory, a name surfaced.
Tharir.
Yes.
That had to be it.
"My name is Tharir," I said.
"Only Tharir? Nothing more?"
"I don't know… I don't remember. I don't remember anything."
Then I asked again.
"What am I?"
THOLME PERSPECTIVE
He truly remembered nothing.
"You are a Zabrak," he said at last.
"That is the name of your species."
He paused.
"But your ignorance about your own kind is… unusual."
THARIR PERSPECTIVE
Zabrak.
The word lingered in the air.
It was foreign.
But it settled somewhere inside me.
"Galaxy…" I said slowly.
"Does that mean… other places?"
"Yes," Tholme replied. "Countless systems. Countless forms of life."
It was too much.
I couldn't even remember my own name.
And he was speaking of stars.
"Can this… be controlled?" I asked.
I meant the Force.
"Yes," he said.
"But not alone."
Silence.
"I…" I hesitated.
It sounded like a plea.
"If I go with you… can you stop me?"
Tholme watched me for a long moment.
"No," he said at last.
My heart raced.
"I will not stop you."
"I will teach you to stop yourself."