Back to the previous part... * * * Three weeks later, a thin, gaunt, but determined Qui-Gon walked to the Initiates' wing.  It was his first foray out of his rooms since Obi-Wan's funeral.  Various friends had brought him food and supplies, and talked with him or simply sat for a few quiet minutes with him.  They seemed to have a network, knowing when to come with more food, and when to insist that he eat.  He realized only now how much Obi-Wan's life had touched others, and how much the Temple had to offer him if he could only look beyond his own sorrow. He followed the Force to a specific playgroup, the way he'd followed it into Watto's shop those many months before.  Anakin turned from his playmates almost immediately, and he trotted over to the Master, who took a seat on a nearby bench. "Hi Master Qui-Gon, sir.  Master Yoda said you might come by.  I heard about Obi-Wan, and I'm real sorry." Qui-Gon sighed inwardly.  He might have known.  "And what else did Master Yoda tell you?" he asked gently. "He said that Obi-Wan changed his mind and thought that I should be trained, and that he told you that *you* should train me before he died - that he waited to tell you that." Qui-Gon could only nod.  After a moment he controlled himself enough to ask, "anything else, Ani?"  It came out as a croak. "Yessir." Ani looked down, inspected the hem of his tunic, then sighed and raised those ice-blue eyes to Qui-Gon again. "He said that he couldn't make you train me and that you may not want to because you are so sad.  He said he would take me as his Padawan if you didn't.  In another *year* or so." Qui-Gon didn't miss the distress in the child's voice at the thought of an entire year passing without a Master.  A year to a child must seem an eternity.  Qui-Gon had made him wait most of an eternity already. "When 800 years old you are, short one year will seem."  Ani looked up in surprise and smiled at Qui-Gon's quite accurate imitation. "Yes, Master Qui-Gon," he giggled, not wholly convinced. "But you needn't wait, Anakin.  I would be honored to take you as my Padawan Learner.  If you are still willing to have me as your Master, that is." Anakin's eyes widened in surprise.  "Yes Sir!  You bet I will!" and the boy threw himself onto Qui-Gon with a hug.  Qui-Gon returned the hug and stroked his blond hair.  It couldn't be that simple, could it?  Children anger and forgive quickly.  The stress he'd felt in the Force only a minute ago when he began talking with Anakin was completely gone, and hope filled its place.  Oh, it would hurt to create a bond with another Padawan, just as it hurt Anakin to leave his mother and come to this strange place.  But perhaps they could heal together. * * * Epilogue Anakin Skywalker stood at the base of the Temple's northeast tower and stared up.  And up. The Tower of Remembrance was where the Jedi entombed the ashes of their dead Knights and Masters.  This tower was a place where any Jedi could trace their "lineage" from Master to Master, back some 3000 years, when the base of the modern Temple was first erected on Coruscant. The circular stairway ringed the walls in a slow spiral up, and alcoves off the stairway each held a dozen or so crypts that contained ashes, a marker, and a small space where flowers, pictures and other mementos could be placed. Any being fit enough was required to start at the bottom of the tower, and walk past thousands of Knights and Masters who'd dedicated their lives to the Order to get to the marker they came to see.  Anakin walked at a slow, respectful, but steady pace up the stairs, with his hands properly folded in the sleeves of his black cloak.  It took him an hour to climb to the level he sought, and his knees ached.  \\I'm getting closer to this place myself every year,\\ he thought ruefully.  There was yet another turn of the spiral stairs above this level with alcoves and crypts, even though his Master had only been here a week. Qui-Gon had lived a long and healthy life, bedridden only the last week of it with the Therklein flu, which did not respond to medication.  He lived long enough to hold Leia's newborn twins, and on the last night of his life, he told Anakin the complete story of Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi, and the sacrifice he had made so that Qui-Gon could be Anakin's Master. Though Qui-Gon never had the chance to have a formal Bonding ceremony, when the Tower Master had entombed Obi-Wan's ashes, she'd left the crypt beside his empty.  Qui-Gon made sure Ani knew where he was to be placed. Now Anakin stood before the two markers and laughed out loud in surprise, the sound echoing in the quiet tower.  The space above Obi-Wan's crypt was filled with stones ? dozens of them, some plain and unfinished, some polished and beautiful.  They were stacked haphazardly on one another, and threatened to spill over.  Placed there when?  He remembered regular disappearances of his Master when he was a Padawan.  Were these stones gifts for every naming day, every Knighting anniversary? Anakin reached into his cloak and removed the opallios necklace that Qui-Gon had given to him the night of his death as he told Obi-Wan's story.  Even before the story was complete, Ani knew the Force energy mingled with the gem's signature wasn't that of his Master; knew right away who the source of that energy was. It didn't feel right to let the gem be destroyed when his Master was immolated, but it also didn't feel right to keep it.  Thus he was here to return the gem to its proper owner. "Obi-Wan," he said softly,  "Qui-Gon never had another after you ? but I guess you know that.  He told me everything of your last meeting with him on the last night of his life.  He loved me and mine well, and together we were able to defeat the Sith. "Thank you, Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi." He draped the chain over the edge of Obi-Wan's marker plaque, and watched the gem's myriad colors sparkle in the sunlight from the Tower's clear-domed top.  He placed a holopic of his family on top of Qui-Gon's crypt.  As he turned to go, the corner of his robe brushed the stones, making the pile shift shift.  A smile lit his handsome, weathered features. "Oh, and Obi-Wan, you should've known better than to dare our Master about the rocks." He began the long descent. The End. * * * Loved it?  Hated part of it?  Let me know at ghouses@yahoo.com Thanks!                                                 Glass Houses Home...