AGE 6
[ The holo shows three women gathered shoulder by shoulder, all three of them having clasped their hands in front of themselves, their long garments whirling up dust along the floors. They’re giving a strong sense of united we stand, united we succeed or fall and it is the middle woman, taller than the two others, who speaks first, as if specifically appointed: ]

This is a formal appeal regarding the Rahamian child named Elio Perlman.

[ On the right, the younger woman’s face falls and there is a clear sense than someone is pushing down a wave of sadness. The woman in the middle looks to her for a moment, then continues: ]

The appeal is on behalf of Elio Perlman’s parents who wish to have the child returned to them, admitting that the father was wrong in giving him away into Jedi care.

[ A long pause. The middle woman finally bows her head, though there is a sense that it is under the utmost protest. ]

The Elder Council of Bighora awaits your response to this request in humble patience.

[ The last three words sound less than sincere. The hologram ends. ]

AGE 7
[ A small assembly, six people in total, four men, two women, stand shoulder by shoulder, the holo showing their surroundings to be stone columns and high ceilings. Their clothes are similarly-cut, long tunics in the well-known, broad-striped Rahamian pattern, the colours muted by the hologram, but giving off a feeling of orange, bright blue, yellow and a darker-nuance green. The same colours as the landscape of the planet. In the middle, the man who looks the oldest speaks first: ]

This is the Superior Elders of Ramo speaking. What you are seeing here is an official order to have the Rahamian child named Elio Perlman returned to his home planet and to his parents where he belongs.

[ The woman next to him takes the word once he has finished, her features drawn and angry, there’s an air of impatience and disappointment about her. ]

If the Jedi Order does not choose to abide by this demand, we will see ourselves forced to approach this matter by political routes instead. Do not make it a matter of pulling at the beach-worm from both ends. Nothing good has ever come of that, it bites with its teeth and stings with its stinger.

[ There is no doubt that she means the last metaphor as an outright warning, if not a direct threat.

The old man gives her a sideways glance, then picks up where he left off: ]

We await your answer in humility, of course.

[ In humility, if nothing else, sounds halfway sincere. The hologram ends. ]

AGE 8
[ The same high-ceilinged and stone column-supported room. Only two Elders, the angry woman and a slightly younger man, though his beard and his furrowed brow speak of senority as well, clad in different robes, looking less Rahamian and more like a representative of the Senate. The woman gestures for the man to step forward and he does, after a moment’s hesitation. He does not look entirely comfortable with the situation. ]

I’m Michel Laurent, representing the Rahamian Senator. On behalf of the Senator, I insist that the Jedi Order reconsider their stubborn claim to the Rahamian child named Elio Perlman and return him immediately to Raham. If this demand is not met, we must emphasize that the Senator has connections all the way up through the Senate and will not hesitate to pull the necessary strings to have the Perlman child delivered to his parents.

[ A brief pause, a deep breath and Laurent’s lips harden into a thin line. ]

Do not make this a diplomatic crisis. It may well already be one, due to your rigid claims.

[ Stepping back, the man turns and walks out of the frame. The woman remaining behind, bowing her head once, scornfully. ]

We shall be awaiting Elio Perlman’s return within three days. Goodbye.

[ The hologram ends. ]

AGE 9
[ It is a somewhat humbler picture in the next hologram. A year later, it is only Elio’s father and mother who have shown up, indicating – perhaps – who backed down from the threat, in the end.

Elio’s father is gripping Elio’s mother by the shoulders, holding her close. Whether it’s for comfort or strength, it’s hard to tell. ]

I’m Sam Perlman. I only wish to have my child back. I gave him away with the best intentions, but I no longer believe the Jedi Order is the right place for my son.

[ The mother’s face is impassive, but drawn, as if she is holding back a big sorrow. The father looks sideways at her once, then continues, voice holding no real authority. ]

Please. If not by me, then do right by Elio. While there is still time.

[ The holo ends. ]

AGE 10
[ Another year, another plea. The insistence has been substituted fully with sorrow on the face of the father, who this time stands alone in the hologram, shoulders slumped and hands hanging impassively by his side. ]

You know what I’m going to ask already. I don’t believe there’s any reason to humble me further, is there?

[ A sigh, as if he knows that unless he says the words, it won’t count for anything, even if it might not count for anything anyway. ]

Please give us Elio back. There’s still time.

[ The feed ends. ]

AGE 11
[ This time the hologram features both Sam Perlman and his wife, though his wife looks heavy around the stomach, clearly pregnant. He keeps sending her concerned looks, though she acts as if absolutely nothing, not even the weight of a child, is weighing her down.

A moment passes in silence, in which Mr. Perlman looks to consider his options. Is he thinking of giving Elio up finally, now that he is awaiting a new child?

But by now, whoever receives every one of these messages should know him better. He raises his chin, mouth set. ]

I come with a new proposition. If it is truly impossible that we have Elio returned to us, let us at least see him. He must have grown so big by now. Is he showing potential? We only want to know these things…

[ Looking sideways at his wife once more, he shakes his head and raises his eyes to the recipient that he can’t see and can’t gauge the reaction of. Yes or no? ]

If this is acceptable, let us know. Otherwise we’ll expect the same silences and brief rejections we always get.

[ The holo cuts short. ]

AGE 12
[ Once more, it’s only the father facing forward, though this time he stands with a little baby in his arms, the child burying its small fists blindly in his beard and tugging. He hums in approval, though he does catch the little hands and free them gently before focusing his attention on his anonymous audience on the other end. ]

Elio has become a big brother, little Ollie here also wants to meet him now. Does that make any difference whatsoever?

[ Glancing down at the child, shifting its weight in his arms, he shakes his head slowly, looking contemplative and maybe a little less desperate than previously. As if something, or someone, has given him patience to wait. To hope. ]

If you don’t want to give him away, I understand. He was a beautiful child. I can only imagine what he must look like now.

[ A hard swallow. ]

Unless you make it differently.

[ And so the feed cuts off. ]

AGE 13
[ This time, the mother is in attendance, but she looks pale and see-through, as if she never truly regained her strength after giving birth the second time. Elio’s father is holding her by the waist, supporting her with his whole side. And this time, it isn’t him who speaks, it’s her. ]

As you might be able to tell, we are not well. I am not well. I have been sick some time now and the healers here don’t think I will recover. It goes only one way for me.

[ A cough, she turns her head to the side, leaning heavily on Sam Perlman. ]

I’m begging you, let me see my son. Let him return to my body before it’s dead.

[ A longer coughing fit and the holo turns off. ]

AGE 14
[ The father, alone again. The child at his feet, holding its hands up to be lifted into his arms. He doesn’t lift it. ]

My wife is dying. Elio’s mother… is dying. Will you let him come and see her, before she enters into the Unifying Force?

Please. Let her see him, if not the other way around.

[ Slowly, Sam Perlman bends down and picks up Elio’s younger brother, pulling him in against his broad chest. There are tears catching the light in his beard.

The feed ends. ]

AGE 15
[ There is no mother present the following year. Elio’s father is dressed in all-white, the small child donned up in the same kind of garments, same color scheme. It’s playing with a ball at Sam Perlman’s feet. He looks down at it for a long time, then up. ]

We have lost Annella. If he doesn’t feel it, tell him. Tell him that his mother passed peacefully.

[ Bending down to pick up the young boy, Mr. Perlman shakes his head slowly, obviously tired of fighting, worn from the battles he has seen the past years.

And in the midst of rising conflict in the galaxy, it is not good timing. ]

I only want to see my son, is that too much to ask?

[ The holo cuts off. ]

AGE 16
[ The white garments have been put aside, and he’s once more dressed in Raham’s official colors. Sam Perlman stands alone in the hologram this time, no one to help, no one to provide backup. There’s just him. He’s beginning to look worn, if one remembers still what he looked like ten years ago. His beard has grayed in the meantime.

War has reached Raham as well, although they plead neutrality in the conflict. ]

Do the Jedi really fight wars now? The peacekeepers? Is that necessary?

[ A deep sigh. ]

Have you sent my son off to fight on your behalf, too? Do you keep him too busy to meet with me?

[ Expression, always so jovial otherwise, hardening, Sam Perlman purses his lips, looks down. ]

If he isn’t dead yet, let him speak to me. Just over transmission, just that.

[ And the feed ends. ]

AGE 17
[ Another year of war. Sam Perlman stands quietly before the transmitter, the holo showing his face aged and weary. The joviality long gone. The willingness to try and give and accommodate. ]

I understand you have doctrines. You follow codes and rules and regulations, I understand that.

[ He clears his throat. ]

But he was just a small child. My small child. And what is he now? I know nothing, I know his age and his date of birth and the name I have given him, but have you changed all those as well? I simply want to know the man my little boy has become. I simply want to know the person he is now.

[ His lips tremble, his voice is shaking, he is evidently close to tears. Shaking his head slowly, he regains him composure and straightens up. ]

If not him, then send me his picture, at least. That can’t be impossible, surely!

[ A step forward, all the begging he will do. ]

Just a picture.

[ The holo ends like that. An attempt at reaching out. A last attempt. ]

AGE 18
[ This time, on Elio’s eighteenth birthday, Sam Perlman looks more composed than he has the past couple of years. A boy, about five or six years old, is standing next to him. ]

I have tried. I have tried and tried again.

[ There is no accusation in the words, just a conclusive statement. It has been like that and it was apparently how it had to be. ]

Life waits for no one and I have Ollie here to care for, too. This will be the last you hear from me. But I ask you humbly, if Elio ever asks – then say, his father is waiting for him. That his father will always be waiting for him, if he should ever wish to return home.

[ He bows his head and takes the young boy’s hand. ]

Tell him that.

[ The feed ends with a buzz. ]

When he meditates by himself in the Meditation Garden, he does so in song. In the privacy of his own mental landscape, he taps into the Force in the manner of his old people, singing the Rahamians’ traditional prayers under muttering breath, hands on his knees, legs crossed beneath him and head held high. Elio is aware, of course, that the Council knows and disapproves, as they only barely tolerate his possession of the Rahamian Scriptures, when he isn’t supposed to possess anything as an apprentice of the Order. Master Kenobi understands it better, he thinks, but he worries and they’ve had the talk many, many times, why Elio feels it necessary to hold onto parts of his old self, when that is not who he is anymore. Elio has tried to explain it, that it’s not truly a matter of connection, it’s pure practicality. He never feels stronger than when he can enter the Force through that specific channel. He isn’t weak without it, he’s just stronger with the prayers and the Scriptures in Old Writ - and maybe that’s the problem, at the core of it. How he desires that strength, rather than accepting what he can obtain on his own through the ways of the Jedi Order. Maybe that is why Master Kenobi is being so careful with him, training him in every ability besides actual, practical combat skill. Every other Padawan in the Temple has been on missions with their Masters and other Masters, too, but Master Kenobi is delegating him to the Archives and making him train younglings instead. Elio doesn’t question it, he knows Master Kenobi’s history with his last Padawan, after all, Master Skywalker has a reputation, too, a very different one from Elio, so part of him feels a certain gratitude that his Master is trying to protect him. Even if it’s unnecessary. As much as he loves the Archives and Master Nu, as much as he suspects – once the War is over – that is where his path lies, Elio isn’t too frail for the front. That his powers are fuelled differently than most others’ doesn’t mean he can’t and shouldn’t fight. But Master Kenobi will either realize this on his own or be forced to yield to the Council who can’t spare anyone anymore and either way, Elio is ready. Elio is ready, with the songs in his head and the Scriptures in his heart.