Epilogue – "Among the Order"
Chapter One - A Return to the TempleShan Pavond
Jedi Temple, Coruscant
Personal Quaters
The door slid open with a soft hiss.
Ilaria stepped inside, her gaze sweeping across the modest chamber. Spartan. Unadorned. A space meant for meditation, not comfort.
It suited her well.
Her travel case rested against the far wall, still untouched since she had arrived at the Temple. With a precise motion, she lowered herself to her knees beside it, undoing the latches with quiet efficiency.
Inside, her belongings were neatly arranged—folded robes in muted tones, a well-worn datapad, a meticulously maintained training saber, a journal with its pages left intentionally blank. The remnants of a life lived in discipline, in certainty.
She set aside the first robe, laying it across the bed with methodical precision. Then another. Then another.
Each movement was purposeful. Controlled. A ritual of order in a place that, so far, had felt anything but.
Coruscant was not the Enclave.
She had known this before she arrived, and yet…
She had not expected the differences to be so immediate, so stark.
At the Enclave, everything had been clear. Jedi did not waver, did not falter. They did not question the Code—they mastered it. The way of the Jedi was a path of discipline, not indulgence. Of control, not uncertainty.
But here…
She paused, her hand resting lightly on the edge of the case.
Here, the Jedi did not hold themselves to the same absolutes. They spoke of compassion without restraint, of connection without caution. They debated the Code as if it were something fluid, something open to interpretation.
And Shan—
She exhaled softly.
Shan had been unexpected.
He had not dismissed her beliefs, nor had he tried to impose his own. Instead, he had challenged her in ways she had not anticipated.
"Corruption is like sickness. No matter how hard you try to deal with it, it'll always come back."
She had heard many lessons on corruption before—from Masters who spoke of the dangers of the Dark Side, of its insidious pull, of how one misstep could doom even the strongest Jedi.
But they had always spoken of corruption as something external.
Shan had spoken of it as something inevitable.
As something that already existed within all things.
Her grip on the fabric beneath her fingers tightened slightly.
The Enclave had been right about the Jedi here.
They were too free. Too willing to bend the Code to fit their emotions rather than bend themselves to the Code.
And yet…
She inhaled.
"Corruption."
The word had felt so natural on her tongue.
As if she had always known it.
As if she had always been meant to speak it.
Ilaria closed the case, setting it aside with careful precision before standing, smoothing out the front of her robe.
She would meditate. She would clear her thoughts, silence the disquiet.
But some thoughts did not leave so easily.
And some words, once spoken, refused to be forgotten.
