Prologue
Anakin had saved them both: Obi-Wan from the sarcasm of a soldier; Satine from the delusion of a dreamer. Prince Tal Merrik lay dead upon the carpeted floor of the Coronet, a lightsaber hole burned through his chest.
Satine dropped the blaster she held with disgust. The peace lilies in her hair were in disarray. She looked at Obi-Wan and said: ‘Obi-Wan, I…’ then she paused, gazing at Obi-Wan pleadingly.
Obi-Wan knew that look and responded accordingly, saying: ‘Anakin, can you please give us a moment…alone.’
‘Sure,’ replied Anakin with a smile and a wink in Obi-Wan’s direction. He clipped his deactivated lightsaber to his belt and walked off.
Satine ran to Obi-Wan and embraced him: ‘Obi,’ she said, ‘Thank you. Please consider the proposition I am about to make.’ They parted and looked into each other’s eyes. ‘I have loved you always, my dear. Please, I beg you to leave the Order.’
‘I don’t know if I can, Satine,’ replied Obi-Wan, ‘that was many years ago. What could possibly bring us together again?’
Satine blushed, and turned her eyes away.
‘Satine, what is it? Please, look at me.’ Obi-Wan placed his hand gently upon Satine’s arm.
Satine looked up deeply and steadily into the eyes of her shining Jedi Knight, and then said: ‘His name is Korkie.’
‘Korkie? Who is he?’
‘He is our son, Obi-Wan,’ replied Satine and smiled.
‘What?’ replied Obi-Wan astonished, and blushed.
‘I found out that I was with child not long after you and Master Qui-Gon left. I did not want to bring disgrace upon either of us so I locked myself up in Castle Kryze until he was born. Only my sister, Bo-Katan, knows that I am Korkie’s mother. She doesn’t know that you are the father. Korkie refers to me as his “aunt”’. That is how he was raised.’
‘Satine, if you had told me back then I would have left the Order and stayed by your side.’
‘I am sorry that I couldn’t tell you, politics is, well, complicated.’
‘That I know well. Why wait till now to tell me all of this?’
‘I still love you, Obi-Wan, and Korkie must be Duke after me. He needs his mother and father now more than ever. I must tell him the truth. Please, will you not leave?’
Obi-Wan lifted his hand to his beard in contemplation and sighed. ‘What choice do I have? How can I abandon you and our son now that you have revealed this to me? I cannot. This will be my last mission as a Jedi Knight. Then I will go to the Jedi Council, hand in my lightsaber, and leave the Jedi Order.’
‘Really? Is that your final decision?’ Tears rolled down Satine’s cheeks, Obi-Wan drew close and gently wiped them away with his gloved right hand. Satine gazed into Obi-Wan’s eyes, remembering the love they once shared.
‘Yes, my sweet.’ As he tucked a loose lock of hair behind her ear, Satine wrapped her arms around Obi-Wan’s neck and they continued to gaze into each others’ blue eyes. Obi-Wan placed his gloved left hand upon the small of her back and pulled her into a kiss. Satine moaned lightly in Obi-Wan’s passionate embrace and ran her hands through his auburn hair. ‘Marry me,’ he whispered into her ear after their lips parted.
‘Yes, Obi,’ Satine whispered in reply. They shared another kiss. Then they parted, though they were reluctant.
‘We must keep this all secret until my mission is complete. I can’t have Anakin finding out; I’ll never hear the end of it.’ Obi-Wan tidied his hair.
‘Of course,’ Satine smiled. Obi-Wan smiled back, and then offered the Duchess his arm. She gladly took it and the couple walked back to the Coronet’s dining quarters.
* * *
Later, on Coruscant after all had disembarked the Coronet, Satine met with Obi-Wan. She was once again the proud Duchess of Mandalore with lilies in her hair and flanked by four Mandalorian guards.
After they shared a few professional words, Satine remarked: ‘And yet…’
‘What?’ replied Obi-Wan.
‘I’m still not sure about the beard,’ she said quietly so that Anakin, who stood nearby, would not hear.
‘Why? What’s wrong with it?’ Obi-Wan questioned, he briefly glanced away and blushed.
‘It tickles. And besides, it hides too much of your handsome face,’ replied Satine; she ran her fingers softly through Obi-Wan’s beard as she spoke. He wanted to close his eyes and lose himself in her touch but quickly centered himself and squashed his emotions, letting them run over him like a wave that then drifted out again back to sea. ‘He has your face,’ she whispered into Obi-Wan’s ear, and then she pecked his cheek, and walked off.
Obi-Wan stood there smiling to himself, as he gazed after her. He knew that Satine spoke of their son, Korkie.
‘What was that all about?’ questioned Anakin with a laugh as he approached his former Master. Obi-Wan did not answer; he seemed lost in a dream. ‘A very remarkable woman,’ Anakin continued.
‘She is indeed.’
* * *
That night, Obi-Wan could not sleep. He tossed and turned in his bed, both dreaming and dreading what the future would bring. How would Mandalore deal with having an ex-Jedi as their Duke? Would Korkie even like him? But what worried him most was how Anakin would react to him leaving the Order.
‘One day at a time,’ he thought to himself.
He decided to get up and meditate a bit. But flashes of Satine kept coming into his mind. So he lay back down in bed. What he really needed right now was a strong drink. He opened a crate beside his bed where at the bottom hidden underneath some things was a bottle of alcohol. He opened the bottle and taking a swig thought, ‘that’s not enough,’ so he took another.
Instead of replacing the bottle in its hiding place, he kept it atop the crate just in case he needed more. It was not every day that one became a fiancé and a father at the same time.