Star Wars Republic Commando: Knight of Honor ✓

Chapter 26

Author's Note: Thanks to everyone for all the support! You've been great with inspiring me, and I am highly appreciative of your input. If you have any tips writing tips, please feel free to comment.

As always, I continue to hope that I am doing justice to the spirit of Star Wars as well the respective authors and characters from which I borrow. Again, I gratefully accept constructive criticism as a means to help me develop my skills further as a writer.

Mandalorian (Mando'a) words

Ba'vodu (BAH-vod-oo): uncle (plural bavodu'e) or aunt (plural bavodu'e)

Buy'ce (BOO-chay, BOO-shay): helmet; Colloquially: pint, bucket  

Ner vod (nair-vohd): "my brother/sister"; colloquially also "my friend"

Ika (EE-kah): diminutive suffix written as 'ika - also added to a name as a very familiar or childhood form, e.g, Ord'ika - Little Ordo

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Chapter 26

I needed to be free, to be able to live and explore. Bringing you into the galaxy was the greatest accomplishment I had done to date, but you didn't deserve a mother who would never be able to provide you with the attention a child requires. It would be unfair and cruel to stay with you, and we would only be miserable in our expected duties.

Excerpt from Queen Darian Psach's farewell letter to Princess Arlesse

Tochin Moon III, 786 Days ABG

Jas leaned over the water of the lake, the armor from his arms neatly stacked beside him with his gloves sitting efficiently besides the armor. His bodysuit's sleeves were rolled up past his elbows, and as he took a deep breath, he lowered his head into the cold water. While submerged, he ran his hand through his hair and allowed the refreshing liquid to help awaken him. Sleep didn't come as easily as he had hoped last night, and being stuck with the middle of the night sentry shift didn't help at all. 

He had spent a long time during what was supposed to be his resting periods tossing and turning, fading in and out of consciousness as he tried to piece together if what he had done earlier in the evening hadn't been part of some fantastical dream. By the time he stopped arguing with himself, he had no choice but to admit that he had, in fact, kissed Les'ika and had finally admitted his growing attraction to her. But, for as excited as he was that their shared emotions made him feel joyful, he couldn't remove from the equation the fact that she was royalty and that he was merely a clone – an age-accelerated clone – who would die long before she would grow old.

Coming up for air and wiping his face on the material of his bodysuit's upper arm, Jas looked outward to the beauty of the lake around him. Last night, things made sense and there was clarity to all his confusion. Under the Tochin stars, the galaxy had narrowed down to just Les'ika and him and...that kiss. Despite his morning haze, he could still feel her soft and sweetly flavored lips on his, and he didn't know why nothing about it felt wrong. Even though everything in the kriffing galaxy should have been against them, he had felt the most peace and the most accepted when he kissed her. Last night, Jas had realized that Les'ika had nothing but genuine compassion and kindness for him. She wasn't afraid to open herself before him in their shared moment, and he had the rare opportunity to truly see who she was beyond a sheltered princess.

The water in the lake on Jas' right side rippled as though competing with the disruption Jas had made to the water before him, and he brought his eyes to see who had joined him near the bank of the lake.