I didn't expect it to be like this."

"How did you expect it to be?" Dooku asked angrily. "A pleasant walk in the woods?"

"I have to bring it back," Lorian said. "I need your help." Dooku looked at him in disbelief. "I told you I didn't want anything to do with this."

"But you have to help me!" Lorian cried. "You're my best friend!"

"You got yourself into this," Dooku said. "Just stick it under your cloak again and bring it back."

"I can't do it alone, Dooku," Lorian said.

Dooku's gaze rested on Lorian's shaking hands. He didn't doubt that Lorian wouldn't be able to do it. "Please, Dooku," Lorian begged.

Dooku didn't get a chance to answer. The door suddenly hissed open.

Oppo Rancisis, Jedi Master and revered member of the Jedi Council, stood in the doorway.

"Are you ill, Lorian?" he asked kindly. "Some of the Masters noticed that you.." His voice trailed off. Dooku felt the atmosphere in the room change, as though gravity had increased. He felt it pressing against him.

Oppo Rancisis stared at them. "I sense a tremor in the Force," he said.

They could not speak.

His keen gaze swept the room. Suddenly he turned and strode to the corner and picked up the Holocron. He placed it carefully in the deep pocket of his robe. Then he turned and regarded the two boys.

Lorian pressed himself back against the wall and pushed himself to a standing position.

"It was Dooku's idea," he said.

Dooku was too shocked to say a word.

"The Council will want to see you both," Oppo Rancisis said sternly.

"But I didn't — " Dooku began.

Oppo Rancisis held up a hand. "Whatever you have to say will be said before the Council. The truth will be spoken there." He turned and walked out.

"Dooku, listen — " Lorian started.

Rage filled Dooku. He couldn't even meet his friend's gaze.

He ran blindly down the hall. He didn't know where he was going. He had so many sanctuaries in the Temple — a favorite bench, a spot by a window, a rock by the lake — but he could not imagine any of those places offering him sanctuary now. His heart was so full of black anger and bitterness that he felt he was choking.

His best friend had betrayed him. Throughout the years at the Temple, he could always depend on Lorian. They had shared jokes and secrets.

They had competed and helped each other. They had quarreled and made up.

The fact that this person could betray him shocked him so deeply he felt sick.

He didn't know how he passed the day. Somehow the news got out that the two had been caught. Students sent him sidelong looks and hurried by him. Jedi Knights who did not know him studied him as they passed in the hall. Dooku longed to go to Yoda and explain everything, but he knew that Yoda would only repeat what Oppo Rancisis had said. He had to suffer through the days until the Jedi Council found the time to speak to them.

Dooku did not have the appetite or the nerve to face the others in the dining hall for the evening meal. He stayed in his room. When at last the hallways glowed with the cool blue light that meant the Temple was settling down to sleep, he felt relief. At least for the next hours he wouldn't be under scrutiny.

He couldn't wait to be called before the Council. He couldn't wait to tell the truth. He knew the Masters would believe him and not Lorian.

A Jedi Master was adept at discerning truth. Lorian would not get away with his lie, and Dooku would have justice.

He turned out the light and lay on his sleep couch, his heart burning.

He imagined how clearly he would speak. He would tell the truth — all of it. He would tell them how Lorian tried to tempt him. He would tell them how he refused him, and how Lorian had pressed him. It was with great satisfaction that Dooku imagined Lorian's punishment. A reprimand would surely not go far enough. Lorian could even get expelled from the Jedi Order.

His door hissed open. He hadn't locked it. Dooku never locked his door. He'd never needed to, until now.

Lorian slipped into the dark room. Dooku said nothing, hoping his contempt would fill the space better than words.

Lorian sat on the floor, a few meters away from the sleep couch.

"I had a reason for saying what I did," he said. "I'm not interested in your reasons."

"You don't understand anything," Lorian burst out. "Everything comes so easily to you. You never think about other people, about how they suffer. You just kept telling me I shouldn't worry about getting chosen. Why shouldn't I worry? Time is running out! It's so easy for you to say. You were picked right away."

"So you're blaming me for that?" Dooku hissed. "Is that why you lied to Oppo Rancisis?"

"No," Lorian said. "And I don't blame you for anything except not trying to understand how I feel. We're supposed to be best friends, and you never, ever really tried. All you think about is your own pleasure in your success."

"Get out of my room," Dooku said.

Instead, Lorian stretched out on the floor. His voice lowered. "Can't you understand, Dooku? I'm in trouble. I need your help. I know I was wrong. I shouldn't have taken the Holocron. But I was desperate. I thought if only I had an edge, if only I could know something that no one else knows… Can't you understand why I would want that?"

"No," Dooku said. But he did.

"Now if the Council finds out I did it, I could be kicked out of the Jedi."

"You're exaggerating, as usual," Dooku said scathingly. But hadn't he been thinking the same thing?

"Everything is at stake for me," Lorian said. "But you've already been chosen by the great Thame Cerulian. Not only that, Master Yoda has taken a persona interest in you. The Council has watched you, too.

They know you have an extraordinary Force connection. They'll forgive you. Especially since your Master is interested in the Sith. You could say you just wanted to do some research."

Lorian's voice floated up in the darkness, ragged with desperation. "I panicked when Oppo Rancisis came in. I saw my future, and it scared me. I could get kicked out, and where would I go, what would I do?"

"You should have thought of that before you stole the Sith Holocron."