Thalias sighed. The last thing she wanted was to keep talking about it. But she’d decided to tell the truth, and there was no way out of it now. “You gave me hope,” she said. The words sounded a lot sillier when she said them aloud than they had when they were just bouncing around inside her head. “I mean…I was thirteen. I thought my life was over. You told me I’d find a new path, and that I could choose how things worked out.”

“Yes,” Thrawn said, his voice thoughtful. Not sympathetic, not encouraging, not even really responsive. Just thoughtful.

Thalias had thought about this moment for a long time. She’d wondered what he would say, what she would say, and if it would open up new vistas for her life and her future.

And now nothing. He was thoughtful. Just thoughtful.

She closed her eyes, wishing she was anywhere else in the galaxy. She should never, never have started down this path in the first place.

“I had an older sister,” Thrawn said, his voice almost too soft for her to hear. “She was five when she disappeared. My parents would never tell me where she went.”

Thalias opened her eyes again. He was still sitting there in the gloom, still looking thoughtful.

But now there was something new in his eyes. A distant, well-hidden, but lingering pain. “How old were you?” she asked.

“Three,” Thrawn said. “For a long time I assumed she’d died, and that I would never see her again. It wasn’t until I reached bridge officer rank that I was finally told about the sky-walkers, and realized what must have happened to her.” He gave her a small smile, tinged with the same distant sadness. “And I’ll still never see her again.”

“You might,” Thalias said, moved by an obscure desire to comfort him. “There have to be records somewhere.”

“I’m sure there are,” Thrawn said. “But most sky-walkers want to disappear into obscurity after they finish their service, and the Ascendancy’s long had a practice of honoring those wishes.” He lifted a hand. “We all have regrets, however, just as we have hopes that will never be fulfilled. The key to a satisfying life is to accept those things that cannot be changed, and make a positive difference with those that can.”

“Yes,” Thalias said. But just because something couldn’t be changed didn’t mean a person shouldn’t hammer away at it anyway. Secrets could sometimes be brought to light, and even Thrawn could be wrong.

“In the meantime, we have time to rest and think out our future strategy,” Thrawn continued, pulling a pack of cards from his pocket. “You can choose the first game.”

Chapter Fourteen

“Are you certain,” Zistalmu said, “that you know exactly what you’re supposed to do?”