In the middle of the room was a fountain of what Ky presumed was a non-alcoholic fruit punch due to there being several children present. The guests were all fancily dressed, and many of them bore the symbol of House Serenno, so he assumed they were the Count's extended family.
"Oh, you're all here!" A woman smiled and gently glided over to them. "I'm so happy you all accepted my invitation."
...
She was presumably Lady Athemeene, wife of the Count from the way he came over with her. Ky had never met her before, but was shocked at how young she was, at most in her mid twenties. Despite having had three children she looked fantastic in an elegant gown of traditional Life Day red with a gilded fur mantle of some kind draped over her shoulders.
Either she was naturally gifted, or motherhood had endowed her because he almost had to tear his eyes away from the shape of her gown as it flowed over her chest. He knew there was an age gap between the Count and his young bride, but he almost couldn't believe how big it was seeing her in person. Dooku looked like he should be her grandfather!
Asajj elbowed him, and he realized he had been staring awkwardly. He didn't mean to, and it occurred to him his gaze had been somewhat inappropriate from the way his boss was now glaring at him.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Lady Athemeene." Ky hurried to introduce himself. "I'm Jedi Knight Ky Narec, and you've already met Padawan Asajj."
"I have."
Asajj stepped forward to smile warmly at Athemeene, and touch her upper arm. "How are you feeling? How's Madale?"
"Oh, she's doing very well. A little smaller than usual, but that's to be expected. I'm doing well, too. Having a wet nurse is wonderful for a full night's sleep, but how are you doing? I see you have your lightsaber."
Asajj smiled proudly, shifting to one side the weapon on her hip was visible. "Yeah, I'm not supposed to show it off right now, crowded place and all that."
"I'm so glad to hear it, congratulations. We'll have to make time later for you to demonstrate it for me." Athemeene turned her towards the rest of the Jedi, and they all awkwardly introduced themselves one by one.
Most of them even did a pretty good job of maintaining eye contact, with only a few obvious downward glances. Honestly, Ky was very proud of them right until the last moment when Prialla was introduced. The diminutive Jedi Knight looked like she'd been run over by speeder hauling a dozen carriages of cargo, practically gaping at Athemeene's breasts like she couldn't believe what she was seeing.
After multiple seconds of silence and inaction, Ky stepped between the two of them to rescue Prialla, smiling as charmingly as he could. "And that's our entire Temple. Not many of us yet, but-"
"But a foundation to build on." Dooku finished for him, stepping forward. "All of you, go enjoy this party my wife has prepared. You've all been working hard, and she has seen that."
The New Temple's collection of reprobates calling themselves Jedi Knights received the news that this was supposed to be a fun occasion and not a very difficult and serious duty with poorly disguised skepticism. They all shuffled off, only a few of them remembering to give respectful bows to their Temple's master. Ky was about to leave to supervise them when Dooku called to him.
"Not you, Ky, we have something to discuss."
The Count led them away from the various barons and lesser Counts that were currently attending the party to a small corner of the room with a view of the city below. Apparently even the underground sections of the palace were bored into a cliff face, meaning it almost didn't matter where you were on the grounds the view was always spectacular.
"Master, I didn't mean to be rude, I was just looking-"
"Yes, you were only looking." Dooku agreed, eyes narrowing. "And that is all you will ever do. I must speak with you regarding your time on Rattatak."
Ky's stomach plummeted as he realized that he'd been found out, that his great shame would be revealed. A thousand excuses gathered in the back of his throat, while questions ran through his mind. How? Why now? What do I do now?
"I have had some time with Asajj, and she is an excellent Padawan despite the difficulty of training her in such an environment. She's exactly the caliber of Jedi I want from the New Temple. As her teacher you should be proud."
Relief washed over Ky, driving away his fears and testing his composure even more than a moment before. His mind shield almost quailed for a moment, and Ky realized from the confused look Dooku was giving him some of his internal struggle must have shown on his face.
"I am proud of her." Ky murmured out, hardly able to raise his voice.
"Were you so worried for her?" Dooku's brow quirked for a moment with bemusement. "You should have more confidence in yourself."
"Th-Thank you, Master." Ky bowed his head, and hiding his face for long enough to recompose himself.
"Now, how did you resolve that matter with the Barabels?"
Ky was lost for a moment, not able to keep pace with the change in conversation. "The Barabels, sir?"
"On Lothal, you said they may be criminals."
Ky finally remembered. "Oh, I couldn't find any warrants for their arrest, so I reached out to a contact with the Bounty Hunters Guild, and there was an open bounty on four barabels, two male, two female, who I'm sure were them."
"And? What's the bounty for?"
"Uh, it was issued by a Hutt, they were pit fighters who organized a breakout. I'm not sure how they got the slave chips out, but they must have somehow. I guess they just didn't want to raise a family with that kind of future."
"Which Hutt?"
Ky searched his memory. "Oodruc the Vast, I think."
Dooku frowned, consideringly. "Oodruc holds a large piece of Nal Hutta. He's among the wealthiest and most powerful Hutts."
Ky wasn't sure he followed. "Sir?"
"If word gets out that we sheltered his enemies, we can expect retaliation." Dooku frowned. "Where did you move them to?"
"They're still on Indinor." When Dooku looked at him sharply, Ky rushed to explain. "Well, when Barabels hatch, the nest's mothers feed the newborn young mouth to mouth, and they transfer a variety of digestive bacteria, antibodies and enzymes in their bile that the young need to grow strong.
I tried to think of a work-around, maybe refrigerating some of the mother's stomach acid, but even that would need someone to drink it and… vomit it into the kid's mouth, because the newborn would instinctively reject it otherwise."
Dooku grimaced, looking away disgusted. "I see."
"Prialla said she'd be willing, but…"
"But it is beneath the dignity of a Jedi Knight."
"Y-yeah, exactly." In truth, Ky had seen Prialla's obvious reluctance, and hadn't felt comfortable about asking anyone to do something so disgusting that he would never be able to do it himself. "In the end, I gave them one of the unused bunks and added their nutritional needs to the delivery database."
The Count considered for a while before nodding. " As long as they're on Indinor I doubt Oodruc will find out about it anytime soon. There's hardly anyone there to inform him. You've made the right decision."
"Thank you, Master."
"This kind of clear thinking is why I think you should be the one to take over for our new Youngling's classes."
"Oh, uh, yes well of course I'd be happy to." Ky replied quickly. "I'll just need to talk with Master Sifo Dyas about what Tan'ya's learned already and then it'll be very easy to take over. I'm sure-"
"That won't be necessary." Dooku cut across him firmly. "Tan'ya is more advanced in her studies than our incoming students are, and so will remain in classes with Sifo Dyas."
"...Isn't that special treatment?"
"I don't think so." Dooku smiled at him. "If I had another youngling with almost a year of training as well, I think it would be perfectly appropriate for them to join Dyas' classes, but we must make do with what we have."
...
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