Over the River and Through the Woods (Adventures!AU Book 2)

Ch. 61 Distracted

WELP. Things seem to have taken a turn for the worse. At least they got to celebrate a little bit?

CW: Mild sexual content, wartime retrospection, heavy war-related content, mentions of death, mentions of feelings of hopelessness

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Being sidelined was honestly one of the many fates worse than death in Tech's eyes. He hated sitting things out. He wanted to be out there fighting!

It took everything he had and then some to not complain in front of Shadow. The Realm Walker clearly felt bad enough already, shame spreading across their face every time they laid eyes on him. But kark was it boring to just observe the battle and not actually partake.

At least he had plenty of footage to cross reference now.

And his leg would soon be healed.

He tilted his head as Sarah knelt across from him in the grass, her eyes closed as she took deep even breaths. "Did you learn Force Healing at the Jedi Temple?"

Sarah chuckled. "Hardly."

Tech frowned. "If you did not learn it from a Jedi, where did you learn it from?"

A Sith? They were really the only other Force users Tech knew of. But they were all supposed to be dead and gone. Except for the Chancellor, apparently.

Should he tell Sarah?

No, they all promised Shadow they would not tell anyone.

"Learned it on the street," Sarah was saying as Tech tuned back in. "Got into a bad scuffle on Level Thirteen-Thirteen on Coruscant during my youth."

Level 1313? The notorious underworld level? What had Sarah been doing there of all places? And how did one shift from such high-stakes missions there to a farm on a city-less planet in the Outer Rim?

"Why were you on Level Thirteen-Thirteen?"

"Crime ring investigation. Came out on top, but that win came at a price." Eyes still closed, Sarah held her hand out for his arm. "Opened myself to the Force, and it healed me. Found it interesting, and decided to pursue it.

"So the Jedi do not teach it?" Tech asked, giving her his arm.

"No mainstream Jedi. Too many would argue that to heal would disrupt the will of the Force or whatever."

A sharp, cooling sensation spread through his arm and Tech had to grit his teeth against the pain. It was a good pain, like removing a deep splinter, but it was still unpleasant. "But the Force healed you?"

"Mhm." Sarah's brow furrowed in concentration.

His bones shifted again. "Then wouldn't that be the will of the Force?" he asked through clenched teeth.

"You'd think. Guess what the Council really means is the will of the light side of the Force. Some see Force healing as unnatural and therefore it shouldn't be taught."

Tech frowned, pain forgotten at this new information. "They would refuse possibly life-saving knowledge because of its affiliation?"

"Mhm."

His frown deepened. He never understood the whole "forbidden knowledge" thing. Knowledge should be free to all, why prevent someone from learning because of beliefs? That seemed both corrupt and hypocritical. If knowledge was truly "forbidden", then no one should know it. For someone to know something, and refuse to share on the grounds it was "forbidden"?