Chapter 14

“My tension?” Enthea says uneasily. It’s hard to focus in this situation.

“Yes, where is it? I won’t know if you don’t tell me,” the masseuse replies. “I feel it in your shoulders.” She slides her hands sensually over Enthea’s body. Enthea shudders and whimpers, growing more excited by the second. She has never experienced anything like this before. “I feel it here.” The masseuse’s hands travel down her lower back, over her bottom, and to her legs, where her thumbs firmly probe her inner thighs.

Enthea gasps.

“There it is,” the masseuse says as Enthea is just about to ask more questions about Master Laki. “Is this what you need? Release? You seem limber everywhere else.”

Seconds go by, and a breathless Enthea looks back and over her shoulder at the masseuse, who is smiling patiently.

“You have to ask,” the masseuse says.

“For you to touch me there?” Enthea pants.

“Yes.”

This must be about consent. “Please,” Enthea says.

“Please what?”

Enthea is shocked, but too worked up to think clearly. It’s almost as though the masseuse is teasing her. But Enthea can’t fight it. She squeezes her eyes shut, totally humiliated.

“Please touch me there. Please,” she pleads.

Nothing happens. She opens her eyes, and the masseuse is no longer looking at her. Enthea follows her gaze to the door, where Obi-Wan is standing.

The masseuse grins. “Obi-Wan.” Her hands vanish from Enthea’s body as she moves around the table, going straight to Obi-Wan. She embraces him, then steps back, looking him up and down. “Or should I say, Master Kenobi?”

Obi-Wan grimaces, trying not to look at her naked body.

But he does look at Enthea, who is equally nude, still lying face-down on the table, looking up with a surprised expression. This is Master Laki? She thought the client was Master Laki. But if Master Laki is a guest… why was the guest giving the massage?

“Enthea, where are your clothes?” Obi-Wan asks, looking baffled.

“I was told you are not supposed to wear clothes here,” she replies.

“Enthea, you’re a Jedi Knight! We’re here on business! You needn’t follow the local rules for dress!”

She flinches. “Yes, Master.”

“Master Laki, what are you doing to my Padawan?”

“She’s a cute one, Obi-Wan. You scoundrel,” Laki says, stroking his shoulder with a fingertip. Obi-Wan brushes her hand away and comes to the table, summoning Enthea’s robes with the **** and putting them down.

“Clothe yourself,” he says tightly, turning back to Master Laki.

Erection bobbing, Enthea miserably hops off the table and dresses.

“Your Padawan carries much tension,” Laki says. “How can she wield the **** in that state?”

Obi-Wan gives no ground, matching her gaze. “Teasing and provoking her will not help that problem.”

“You’re wrong, Obi-Wan. Dangling something out of her reach will only frustrate her.” Laki smiles and leans close, lowering her voice to a whisper. “Better to just give it to her.”

“Spare me,” Obi-Wan says, pushing her back.

She laughs, wagging a finger at him. “Anger, Obi-Wan. Anger is the path to the Dark Side.”

“So is lust,” Obi-Wan replies.

“And what would you know about that?” Laki laughs, planting her hands on her hips. “So. Why have you come? Seeking my counsel? Or just my company?”

Obi-Wan sighs and perches on a shelf stacked with clean towels, glancing at Enthea, who is fully dressed now. But Laki still isn’t.

“Would you put something on?” Obi-Wan asks her irritably.

“Oh, certainly.” She takes the filmy robe from a hook and dons it. It does nothing at all to hide her body. Obi-Wan sighs again.

“We’ve found someone,” he says at last. “Someone who may have a power not unlike yours.”

“The boy? The one that Qui Gon was so impressed with?” Laki asks, serious now.

“No. The boy’s presence is nothing like yours, but this woman feels like you do.”

“Why, Obi-Wan,” she says, cocking her head. “I never knew that you were so attentive to me.”

Obi-Wan ignores that, looking at her thoughtfully, but keeping his eyes on her face.

“The boy is dangerous, you know,” she says.

“Qui Gon believes in him.”

“Qui Gon was wrong.”

“I thought you were close to him.”

“I was. That doesn’t mean he was right about everything, or perfect,” Laki says, twirling a lock of her glossy hair around her finger. “He was good at a lot of things, Obi-Wan. I assure you. But seeing the future was not one of them.”

“Could there be someone out there, Master Laki?” Obi-Wan asks earnestly. “Untrained in the ****, yet still carrying some power of clairvoyance?”

“Of course.”

“Oh, dear.”

“You’d better find them,” Laki says frankly. “And quickly. I think you have very little time before the Sith move against the Jedi.”

“You knew the Sith were still active? Even after I destroyed that…” Obi-Wan trails off, glancing at Enthea, but Enthea knows. The Sith that killed Master Qui Gon was a Dathomirian, like her. In fact, she looks like him, with similar coloring and markings.

“They can’t be destroyed, Obi-Wan. And they have only one goal: power. To achieve it, they must remove the obstacle presented by the Jedi Order.” Laki shrugs. “They are always plotting to do so.”

“And you think this clairvoyant can help us prevent it?” Obi-Wan asks, turning to watch her as she walks out of the hut. He follows, and Enthea follows him.

“You must think that, or you wouldn’t be here,” Laki says, looking up through the trees at the blue sky. She reaches out with her hand.

“I just don’t want her falling into the hands of the Sith,” Obi-Wan says.

“That’s reasonable. These Sith are well-equipped,” Laki notes.

“Why do you say that?” Obi-Wan asks.

Enthea points, tensing. “Because of that, Master.”

A shadow approaches in the sky, and now the roar of its engines is audible. It’s clearly a triangular ship intended for the delivery of destroyer droids.

“I assume they’re here for you,” Laki says, gazing up at it. Lights begin to flash on the underside of the ship.

“Or for you,” Obi-Wan replies, throwing back his robe and taking his lightsaber off his belt.

Enthea’s reflexes allow her to duck as a pair of long, silver, cylindrical objects fly through the air where her head was a second ago.

Laki catches them in her outstretched hand, two enormous lightsabers.

“Sorry, darling,” she says to Enthea, taking one in each hand and turning them on. Green beams erupt from the top and bottom of each hilt for a total of four blades. Without hesitation, Laki flings them into the air with a flourish, guiding them with the ****.

As the droid ship begins to deploy its payload, the two sabers strike it from below, cleaving it cleanly in half.

Laki puts her hand back out as the smoking remains fall toward the planet.

“I hope nobody’s standing under those,” Obi-Wan remarks lightly as they crash down among the trees.

Enthea dodges out of the way again as Laki’s lightsabers return to her, creating a rush of wind that makes her transparent robe billow. The green blades disappear with a crackle as the brunette catches them effortlessly

“So the Council wants me back,” Laki says.

Obi-Wan glances at the wreckage, then clears his throat and puts his lightsaber away, unused. He turns back to Laki.

“They want your perspective on the matter of this clairvoyant. Don’t get your hopes up for a seat on the Council,” he tells her, unfazed by what just happened. Enthea’s still staring at the smoking remains. Guests are coming out of their huts, wondering what’s going on.

“I don’t want a seat on the Council,” Laki says. “I want to return to Coruscant.”

“You were banned for public lewdness,” Obi-Wan reminds her.

“Well,” Laki says, rolling her eyes. “Those charges are serious when taken without context, but in fact…”

“Yes, yes. I’ve heard your side of it,” Obi-Wan says.

Her eyes twinkle and she puts one hand on Enthea’s shoulder, and the other on Obi-Wan’s. “Very well. Then let’s go and find this clairvoyant of yours,” she says. “You’d just better hope that the Sith don’t have her already.”

( End of Episode )