KAYLIRA TRAMINO

With Leia and the two men carrying R2 following her, Kaylira walked through the undergrowth. Carefully keeping her thoughts away from the range of the Jedi’s powers, she thought about how clever it had been to persuade, using her abilities, a nearby wild rentherat to growl at exactly the right moment. They had never suspected a thing! She could also ‘convince’ the wildlife to do her bidding.

She didn’t know why she had tried so hard to convince them to come with her. She just wanted to get to know them – or, more particularly, Luke – better. She was drawn to the Jedi in a way that she couldn’t explain. It was almost as if the Force was trying its hardest to pull them together.

Banishing such thoughts from her head, she meditated, as she walked, about her old Master. Soon, snippets of memories came back to her, from a time when she had been more innocent, then became clearer and clearer.

She was transported back to Cialone on that fateful day, five years ago, that she had been exiled to Uluno.

“Master? What is it? Is something wrong?” she had asked, looking up from her lightsaber, whose wiring had become faulty, which she was replacing. She always had been skilled at fixing things, even on Tatooine as a little girl.

“Yes, padawan, I’m afraid so.” Jedi Master Ahsoka Tano walked up the slope and parted the vine curtain to enter the meadow. There, her student had spread a small blanket that over the grass, with the inner workings of her lightsaber and some tiny tools out in front of her. Its twin was hooked onto her belt.

“I’m sorry if you wanted me to work on my lightsaber elsewhere, but I feel so… in tune with the Force here. It’s perfect for working on a Jedi’s most important possession.” She put the finishing touches on the wires, then put the outer covering back on, and placed it on her belt.

Her Master smiled. “Yes. That’s why I like to meditate here, Kayl.” Her grin disappeared. “But there are more serious matters to discuss than your lightsaber repairs.”

There were questions in her eyes, but when she didn’t speak, the Jedi Master continued. “You aren’t progressing normally, Kaylira. You express emotions that are not the Jedi ways of feeling. You’re repeating mistakes that my old Master made…” she trailed off, shutting her eyes in sadness for a moment. “And I can’t allow it, but I can’t interfere in this.”

Suddenly Kaylira was overwhelmed with pure anger. “Can’t you just tell me what I’m doing wrong?! I try – I really do – but the life of a Jedi just isn’t working!!”

An incredibly powerful Force shockwave nearly knocked her Master clean off her feet, buffeting her with wind and leaf litter. Kaylira's eyes felt hot, like there were little fires burning in her sockets, and just wanted to let her rage out.

Suddenly she felt a rush of cool. Her mind calmed instantly, and she knew that somehow, her Master was pulling her away from the brief surge of the Dark Side that she had felt. “I’m sorry, Master,” she said, falling to her knees. “What have I done?”

“You have to figure this out on your own, Kaylira Tramino.” The Jedi’s eyes burned, but with a cold, controlled anger rather than the one that she had just experienced. This wasn’t her happy, laughing Master anymore. She was the powerful leader of the New Jedi. “And until you can, you are no longer welcome on this planet, in the New Jedi Order, or as my student.”

Without even raising her hands to bring her former apprentice’s lightsabers to her, they flew towards her, and she caught them gracefully. “Pack what possessions you deem to be useful to you.”

Then she left.

Later, in tears, Kaylira listened as Ahsoka Tano, hooded and cloaked, like the other fifty or so Jedi present, spoke the worst words she had ever heard, and pulled out her silka beads. As she boarded the ship that was to take her to Uluno, the words rang in her ears.

“You, Kaylira Tramino, are hereby exiled to Uluno, the Darkened Moon, where you will remain until a ship arrives that can bear you away, or you find inner peace and reconciliation with the Light Side of the Force.”

Kaylira awoke from her reverie as the familiar series of landmarks she had to reach the Cliff began. “Come on. We’re almost there,” she said, but she was unable to hide the sadness in her tone. And she was certain that Luke had noticed.