Symphonia: Ad Asterim

Chapter Ten: Scene of a Perfect Crime
(Song title by Concrete Blonde)

The tall grasses whipped around her legs and feet as she ran, but Kayla Silar'rian paid them no heed as she passed swiftly to the meadow's edge. Obi-Wan followed only a few steps behind her; a part of his mind that was not focused on finding the source of the scream noticed the sudden grace and fluidity of her movement, so unlike the clumsiness that plagued her every day.

The meadow came to an end, and before them stretched an expanse of shorter grass crossed by a swift-flowing stream. A dark-haired man lay sprawled on the bank, blood staining his shirt from a large wound to his chest.

"Help him!" Kayla cried, pointing to the wounded man as she scanned the area. Seeing something dark break the water's surface a few meters away, she quickly pulled off her boots and dove into the stream, disappearing beneath the surface without so much as a splash.

Torn between following her and helping the injured stranger, Obi-Wan decided to do as he'd been told, and pulled one of the tabards of his uniform off, using it to staunch the flow of blood from the wound. The man was barely conscious; he could feel a pulse at his wrist, but it was very weak. Still applying pressure to the wound, he struggled out of his robes and laid them over him in an attempt to keep him warm. //What are you doing?// he sent an anxious thought to Kayla as he worked.

Kayla swam beneath the stream's surface, reaching into a belt pouch and retrieving her aquabreather as she went. She stuffed the device between her lips and breathed in sweet oxygen at last. If she stayed under water, there was a good chance the attacker wouldn't even realize he was being pursued until she'd caught him. A worried sending from Obi-Wan reached her as she swam. //Whoever did this went into the stream. I'm going after him// she sent back to him. Ahead, she could see rippling eddies in the water, a sign she was closing the gap between her and her quarry. //I think I've got him.// She kicked harder and turned a slight bend in the stream.

Something struck her hard in the middle of the back, and she gasped in surprise as well as pain. The aquabreather tumbled from her mouth and fell to the artificial streambed below, and she breathed in not air but cold water. Kayla broke the surface, coughing and gasping for air, and barely dodged another blow. This time, the hand that moved to strike her was holding a vibroblade, traces of blood still lingering along the grooves of the cutting edge despite immersion in the stream.

Instinct and training took over. She launched herself out of the water and onto the bank, landing in a tumbling roll that brought her to her feet behind her attacker. She reached for the lightsaber at her belt and realized belatedly that it still held the modified crystal. Dear Force, let it work normally against a vibroblade, she thought as she pulled it free and ignited the blade.

"Drop your weapon and surrender! You are under arrest!" she shouted, fighting off another coughing spasm. With her free hand, she pushed her sodden hair away from her eyes and wiped the last traces of water from her face.

Her attacker turned to face her. It was her childhood friend and fellow Jedi, Tassida Judrelle.

***

//Kayla! What the hell is going on?// Obi-Wan's sending was near-frantic with worry. When there was no response, he rose to his knees and stared in the direction she'd gone. He could see her standing on the bank several hundred meters or so in the distance, 'saber drawn and poised en garde against an opponent. He was torn between staying with the critically wounded woman and aiding Kayla in what appeared to be imminent combat; taking her failure to answer his sending as a sign of trouble, he sped along the far bank of the stream towards her.

It took all her training to overcome the shock of seeing her old friend before her. "Tass…what the hell are you doing here? What's going on?" she managed to say. She did not lower her 'saber a millimeter.

The tall Corellian sighed, dropping the blade and extending her hands up in a gesture of peaceful surrender. "You have no idea what you've gotten yourself mixed up with here, Kayla. It's a long story, and I swear I'll tell you the whole thing. I just need to get out of here. You never saw me."

"I don't think so. Why don't you tell me now, and let me decide; better yet, why don't you just explain before the Council?" She spoke between tightly clenched teeth.

"Some of the Council know why I was here today. You have to trust me that I was here on Order business." She looked at her feet and shuffled uneasily. "Very secret Order business."

Kayla snorted. "Since when does the Order condone murder? Was that a part of the Code that I missed somewhere in my training?"

The blonde woman shook her head. "It's deeper than that. I swear to you, Kayla, I am telling the truth. Please, let me go. I can and will explain it all to you as soon as I can."

At that moment, Obi-Wan arrived at a dead run, igniting his 'saber and adopting a similar en garde position besides Kayla. "Master Silar'rian, what's going..?" his voice trailed off as he recognized her foe. "Master Judrelle?" Confusion was evident both on his face and in his voice. "Is there something I've missed here?" he asked, looking from one to the other.

"I'm not certain," Kayla admitted. "Tass, I shouldn't do this. It goes against all my training and certainly against the law. But I believe you, and I'll trust my feelings on this enough that I will wait for your explanation later. Go. I never saw you." She lowered her 'saber with a sigh and gestured for Kenobi to do the same.

"Thank you, my friend," Tassida answered with a sigh of apparent relief. "Meet me tonight at the usual place, around midnight. I will explain it all then." She bent and retrieved the dropped vibroblade, wiping it clean on the grass before fitting it into a sheath on the side of her boot, and then with a bow to them both, trotted away towards an airspeeder parked off in the distance.

They watched her go in silence, the 'speeder taking off and hastening off to the south. When the vehicle was no more than a speck on the horizon, Kayla turned to him. "How is the man who was stabbed?"

"He was in pretty bad shape when I left him. I tried to stop the bleeding, but I don't think it did much good." He ran a hand through his hair. "I didn't want to leave him, but when you didn't answer me, I feared the worst."

She nodded. "I understand. I probably would have done the same. Well, let's go check on him and see if we can get him to a medicenter." She powered her lightsaber down and reattached it to her belt. Still dripping wet, she squeezed water from the sleeves of her outer tunic with a wry smile. "Hadn't planned on going swimming today, or I might have dressed for the occasion."

"I still don't understand what happened here just now," he commented as they walked together back to where they'd found the injured man. "How was Master Judrelle involved?"

Kayla shook her head. "I'm really not certain," she admitted. "But I do believe she will meet me tonight, and I'm reserving judgment until I hear her explanation."

"I'm coming with you," he said, a statement rather than a request.

She pondered this for a moment, and then nodded agreement. "I think that would be a good idea. You were there, after all, and she owes you an explanation as well."

Obi-Wan's robe, heavily stained with blood, lay in a pile on the grass.

"Where did he go?" the padawan cried, looking wildly from side to side. "He was here just a moment ago. And from the way he looked, he wasn't going anywhere anytime soon."

Indeed, there was no trace of the man. Aside from the bloodied robe, there was no sign that he had ever existed.