Forever in the Light
Aiden sat in the old chair on the porch as the day bled slowly into amber.
The plains of Naboo stretched outward in quiet, rolling patience, grass brushed gold by the lowering sun, wind moving through it in soft, endless waves. The homestead behind him held the warmth of life: stone that remembered firelight, wood worn smooth by years of use, the faint scent of steeped tea and clean earth lingering in the seams of the place. Everything here felt honest. Unadorned. Real.
He rested his forearms on the chair's arms and watched the horizon as if it might offer a verdict.
It didn't.
It only offered the slow certainty of night coming on.
Aiden exhaled and let the air leave his lungs in a slow stream. He could feel the day's tension still in his shoulders, the memory of stone walls and watching eyes, the weight of a decision made in a room that shaped the galaxy with words.
He didn't regret it.
The thought came clean, without hesitation, and he let it settle like a stone in his palm. The Order had been his life, but it could not be his shield. Not anymore. Not when there was something inside him he could no longer pretend was merely fatigue or passing shadow. Not when the fracture had begun to feel…attentive.
Leaving the Council hadn't made him lesser. It had made him responsible.
He glanced down at his hands, callused and steady. Hands that had healed, that had fought, that had held a child who'd clung to him as if he were the last safe thing in the universe.
Lira.
The name rose uninvited, and with it the familiar pressure in his chest, protective instinct braided with cold fear. The Dark Council had not stopped hunting her. They would not stop. They believed she was the key to something ancient and obscene, and belief like that didn't break easily. It sharpened. It adapted. It returned.
There was so much at stake.
Not just Lira's life. Not just Naboo's peace. But the thin line that separated vigilance from obsession, justice from vengeance, lines Aiden had always trusted himself to see clearly.
He shifted in his chair, wood creaking softly, and watched the sun slip lower, turning the sky into molten color. The Force moved around the homestead like breath, gentle through the grass, quiet in the trees, steady as the river beyond the ridge. It did not accuse him. It did not comfort him either. It simply was.
This was what he needed.
Space to purge whatever lingered within him. Time to sit with the darkness when it whispered and not mistake it for truth. Opportunity to root out the Dark Council's threads, patiently, intelligently, without the weight of politics, without the expectation that a title could hold him upright when his own soul felt unsteady.
He would still fight.
If Naboo needed him, he would answer. If the Republic called, he would stand. He hadn't resigned from the duty of protecting others. He'd resigned from pretending he could do it while ignoring the war that had begun inside him.
He just hoped, Lira, his love Arhiia, Ensy, and those else that remained wouldn't think any less of him.
The sun touched the horizon.
For a long moment, Aiden said nothing at all, only watched the last light and listened, as if the coming dark might reveal whether it was enemy or teacher.
The silence held for a while after his promise, not heavy, just settled, like the earth itself had accepted it.
Aiden let his gaze linger on the horizon until the sun's edge dipped lower, turning the fields into a quiet spill of bronze and shadow. Then he drew in a slow breath and finally looked toward Alina.
Aiden's mouth curved faintly, not quite a smile, but something gentler than the hard set his face had worn all day. He shifted in his chair, the wood creaking under him, and rolled one shoulder as if he could shake loose the last remnants of the Council chamber.
Aiden chuckled lightly as he felt the familiar presence of Alina approach, he offered her a chair and Aiden tipped his head toward her.
"What brings you out here." he asked. Simple, plain and real.
A beat passed, and his eyes softened further.
"I know you weren't worried about me." He showed a smile and laughed.
