It wasn’t like this was all his master’s idea. After his protests, she had admitted as much: Master Jora had been selected by her peers to lead the Jedi mission on this new edge of the frontier. She’d be the Jedi Master in charge of Starlight Beacon, which would become fully operational any day now, to serve as a source of unity and allegiance throughout the newest sector of the Republic. His master deserved every honor she could be granted and any duty she chose. Master Jora would’ve turned down the assignment if she didn’t want it. Clearly she did. And where the master went, the apprentice followed.

Master Jora had left for Starlight weeks before, going on ahead of him so he could finish exams in the historiography course he’d undertaken. But they were done. His time on Coruscant was over.

(He’d considered flunking something on purpose but couldn’t quite bring himself to do it.)

Why can no Jedi cross the Kyber Arch alone? he asked himself for the umpteenth time. Reath strongly wanted to have the answer ready for Master Jora when he arrived at Starlight. Preparing for exams meant he hadn’t had much time to meditate upon her question. He’d gone to study the arch itself, hoping that would spark some insight; instead, he’d watched a Jedi cross the arch entirely solo and with no apparent difficulty. But he knew telling Master Jora this wouldn’t get him anywhere.

He had a mission. Time to focus on it.

Reath told Kym, “I shouldn’t complain about this assignment. About any assignment, ever.”

Kym managed to shrug and dance to the music simultaneously. “Hey. It’s not like everybody’s equally ready to take on every possible assignment. That’s why they’re called assignments instead of, I don’t know, ‘volunteering opportunities.’”

“I’m treating this like it was just a job.” By then Reath was talking to himself as much as to Kym. “Being a Jedi is a calling. We’re blessed with these abilities—these gifts—that we’re meant to use for the good of all living things. That’s just as true on the frontier as it is here on Coruscant.”

It just didn’t feel as true.

Rolling her eyes, Kym said, “Thanks for the lecture, Master Yoda. Now will you loosen up and have some fun already?”