“It can be repaired. But I must see to it immediately.” The droid carefully supported its head in one of its clawlike hands as it turned to wheel out of the room again.

Once again he was alone with his thoughts, the last place he wanted to be.

I can’t stop thinking about Master Jora, he thought. Maybe that’s what I’m called to do.

So Reath went down to one of the many meditation chambers within the Temple. While some meditation spaces were small and cozy, others had soaring ceilings and vast open space. This was the latter. And stretching the length of the cavernous white chamber, arching over it all, stood the Kyber Arch.

He stepped silently through the room, taking care not to disturb the half dozen Jedi who sat on various benches or cushions, deep within their trances. While most meditation areas were nearer the center of the temple, this one, nearer the top, actually had windows looking out on Coruscant. At a certain hour in the early morning, sunlight hit the Kyber Arch at just the right angle to dazzle the whole room with rainbows. Reath had missed that hour. Now the arch simply looked dark and jagged, like something that might’ve been made out of plain old rock.

He went to the base of the path—nearly two meters thick, at that point—and grasped firm handholds. The kyber crystals were cool against his palms. Reath took a deep breath, found his first foothold, and began to scale the arch.

At first the ascent was so easy he could’ve imagined himself on a climber in the younglings’ playroom. As he moved higher, however, the arch narrowed. His footing became trickier to find. Reath climbed without fear; even if he was too shocked to catch his own fall, one of the other Jedi in the room would do so. Still, the task called for dexterity. For concentration. While Reath was doing this, he could think of nothing else.

At last he reached the very top. There, the crystals were fused together in a curve hardly ten centimeters wide. Reath walked steadily across it, then pivoted to begin finding his way back down. By this time, however, his concentration was far less sure.

I did it, Master Jora. I crossed the Kyber Arch alone. It’s possible. It’s not even difficult. So why did you—what did you mean by—

He jumped the final meter to the floor. Frustration welled up in him again, combined with the grief he wasn’t supposed to feel, and he somehow felt farther from the Force than before. Probably he should find the nearest cushion and try to meditate, but that kind of serenity seemed out of reach. Before he could think of anything else that might serve as a distraction—some gymnastics, maybe?—his comlink buzzed. He hurried out of the meditation chamber to answer. “Silas here.”