Jacen’s face was solemn as he nodded his acceptance. “Thank you.” He let his eyes fall half shut and took a deep breath.
Tenel Ka did the same, feeling the Force flow into her, through her. Her muscles tautened—not with fear, but with a delicious anticipatory tension. Reaching for the rancor’s tooth clipped to her belt, Tenel Ka held it steady in front of her and pressed the power stud.
A blade of sizzling energy sprang from the ivory hilt, glowing a rich turquoise, produced by the rainbow gems she had installed from her tiara. A heartbeat later, Jacen’s emerald lightsaber hummed to life.
As if in slow motion, the two friends raised their blades until they hovered at eye level, just centimeters apart. With a crackle of discharged energy, their lightsabers touched once. Then again.
Hesitantly at first, Tenel Ka thrust with her turquoise blade, and Jacen parried with a barely perceptible nod.
The Force flowed between them, around them, and soon they were moving in ancient patterns and rhythms, as in a well-rehearsed exercise routine, an intricate dance. Somehow both of them knew that neither would come to any harm.
Their eyes locked, while the silent music that accompanied their movements built to a crescendo, then began to fade. But their confidence in each other did not wane as their movements slowed.
They stood still at last, lightsabers barely touching, a look of amazement on both of their faces. Jacen opened his mouth as if to speak, but no sound came out.
A moment later, an ear-shattering roar split the air as Lowbacca and Jaina ran across the rooftop to greet them.
Jaina laughed. “I agree with Lowie: it’s good to see you holding a lightsaber again, Tenel Ka. For a while I was worried that you thought you were too different from us, that you couldn’t be our friend anymore.”
“Perhaps for a while I did,” Tenel Ka said. “But I have learned that differences can be positive, that they can be blended together to form a stronger whole.”
“We are pretty different,” Jacen pointed out.
Jaina switched on her amethyst energy blade with a snap-hiss. “But we’re all going to be Jedi Knights.”
Lowbacca ignited his lightsaber as well. Its shaft glowed a molten bronze.
“Stronger together,” Tenel Ka said, raising her turquoise lightsaber high over her head.
Lowbacca lifted his lightsaber to touch hers.
“Yes, stronger together,” Jacen and Jaina said in unison, crossing their glowing blades with the other two.
The four lightsabers blazed into the morning light.