The High Republic: Convergence

The High Republic: Convergence is a Star Wars: The High Republic adult novel by Zoraida Córdova. It was published by Del Rey as part of Phase II of the multimedia project, on November 22, 2022.
==Publisher's summary==
The next adventure in the High Republic, expanding the new era of Star Wars, with a story set generations before Light of the Jedi.
It is an age of exploration. Jedi travel the galaxy, expanding their understanding of the Force and all the worlds and beings connected by it. Meanwhile, the Republic, led by its two chancellors, works to unite worlds in an ever-growing community among near and distant stars.
On the close orbiting planets of Eiram and E'ronoh, the growing pains of a galaxy with limited resources but unlimited ambition are felt keenly. Their hatred for each other has fueled half a decade of escalating conflict and now threatens to consume surrounding systems. The last hope for peace emerges when heirs from the two planets' royal families plan to marry.
Before lasting peace can be established, an assassination attempt targeting the couple tilts Eiram and E'ronoh back into all-out war. To save both worlds, Jedi Knight Gella Nattai volunteers to uncover the culprit, while Chancellor Kyong appoints her son, Axel Greylark, to represent the Republic's interests in the investigation.
But Axel's deep distrust of the Jedi sparks against Gella's faith in the Force. She's never met such a puffed-up, privileged party boy, and he's never met a more self-serious, relentless do-gooder. The more they work to untangle the shadowy web of the investigation, the more complicated the conspiracy appears to be. With accusations flying and potential enemies in every shadow, the pair will have to work together to have any hope of bringing the truth to light and saving both worlds.
==Plot summary==
===Opening crawl===
===Part One: The Bargain===
====Chapter One — The Rook, E'ronoh====
On the planet E'ronoh, the skies are clear of fighting ships for the first time in five years. The planet is devastated and struggling due to the effects of its war with the planet Eiram. In the market of The Rook, many citizens eagerly await a water shipment. In the market, a woman named Serrena walks through crowds until she reaches the royal launch pad outside of it and in a canyon. After walking past Captain Xiri A'lbaran, who was giving a speech to a crowd of pilots, Serrena made a mocking remark toward A'lbaran. Serrena then placed a program chip into an astromech droid there, but she was confronted by Jerrod Segaru, who tells her she is not authorized to be there. She pretends to be a beggar, which causes him to take pity on her and let her go. She then forces her pay past a group of people fighting over a better spot in the line for water rations until she reaches the road out of town, then using a comlink to announce to someone that her mission was done, and confirmed that she had done was correct. The person on the other end of the com then tells her to go back as they have a perfect spot to see the 'fireworks,' as if their plan worked the pilots leaving would not return.
====Chapter Two — Beyond E'ronoh's Gravity Well====
Xiri A'lbaran waits with thirty pilots from E'ronoh's Thylefire Squadron, named after the planet's famous Thylefire scorpion that represents their people and is prevalent throughout their planet's imagery. They wait for an ice hauler that they were meant to escort to E'ronoh's capital's docking bay for distribution, but the hauler was late. Lieutenant Segaru warns her that they can't stay there much longer, as the Eirami might think it a violation of their agreement to clear the corridor between planets, but she insists that it will come. After they all reflect on the war and the debris it has left between the planets, Eirami ships arrived, prompting A'lbaran to speak with Eirami General Nhivan Lao and explain the situation. The hauler eventually emerged from hyperspace, but immediately after two Galactic Republic Longbeam cruiser emerged too, on a collision course for the hauler. The hauler moves to avoid a crash, but moves towards Eiram's gravity well. A'lbaran speaks to one of the Longbeams, the Paxion, and tells them that they are not authorized to be there and need to pull back. But the Paxion, unused to the area, moves into a collision course with the E'ronoh starfighters, forcing A'lbaran to tell them to move out of the way but to be careful not to pass into Eiram's space. However, Bly Tevin, one of the starfighter pilots, loses control of their ship and unintentionally fires on the Eirami ships, causing them to fire back on the E'ronoh starfighters.
====Chapter Three — Aboard the Valiant, Hyperspace====
Earlier, Jedi Knight Gella Nattai is aboard the Galactic Republic Longbeam cruiser Valiant attempting an Aerialwalk, in which she uses the Force to walk while levitating. She previously learned it from the Singing Mountain and is still struggling with her failure during a mission on Orvax as part of a Republic Pathfinder team. Her aerialwalk is interrupted by Jedi Padawan Enya Keen, who is apprenticed to Jedi Master Char-Ryl-Roy. They speak about their mission to bring medical supplies to Eiram, and are joined by Jedi Master Creighton Sun, who brings them to the bridge. The Valiant then violently exits hyperspace and crashes into fellow Republic Longbeam cruiser Paxion just before a skirmish begins between Eiram and E'ronoh forces. The Jedi Masters decide to take the ship to the Timekeeper Moon between the two planets as they could not get a hold of Eiram or the Paxion, but then Nattai feels that one of the E'ronoh starfighters is in distress and has lost control of their ship, so she decides to help them. She boards a starfighter and joins the fray, ignoring the Jedi Masters' requests for her to come back. She sides her fighter in between Captain A'lbaran's fighter and General Lao's fighter to get their attention and tells them over comm that she was there to help. They eventually agree, and Nattai uses her fighter to push the out of control fighter up and slow its descent, before speaking with its pilot, Bly Tevin and telling him that he needs to deactivate his fighter. He is initially unable to, and the ice hauler gets nervous and dumps its shipment. When Tevin does shut off his fighter, A'lbaran pleads with Lao once more and he agrees to personally escort them back home. However, a problem develops with Tevin's fighter and it explodes.
====Chapter Four — The Rayes Canal, Erasmus Capital City, Eiram====
Phan-tu Zenn, the heir of Eiram, notices ships entering the planet's atmosphere while handing out rations. One is an Eirami ship that is destroyed by the city's electrostatic dome, but the other is an E'ronoh ship that is let through and plunges into the water. After having his guards escort all the civilians inside, Phan-tu walks into the water and swims out, before diving under to the plunging ship. He spots Xiri A'lbaran in the open cockpit, who is afraid that he will attack her, but after showing her he means no harm, uses her knife to cut her free from the straps holding her and pulls her out as the ship tumbles down into a trench. He manages to pull her to shore, but after asking her if she's alright, finds her standing over him holding a dagger to his throat.
====Chapter Five — Level 2623, Coruscant====
Axel Greylark, the son of Chancellor Kyong Greylark, is playing a gambling game in Raik's Parlor in the lower levels of the planet Coruscant, which he wins. He flirts with Raik while explaining why he won't drink her drinks, and discusses his recent very public breakup with Lady Lu-reen Faraday. He attempts to start up a game with a Mirialan that he flirts with, but the idea falls apart and Raik suggests he go home, though Axel begs to keep playing. She eventually agrees under the conditions that if he wins all his debts to her are cleared, but if she wins, she gets to keep a clipping of his hair in her wall of trophies. He agrees, and due to incredible luck wins the game, angering Raik. After he calls her a sore loser, an angered Raik smashes Axel's droid QN-1 to the ground, which enrages him. After Raik and her enforcer pin him down and she puts a knife to his hair, Axel asks her to make a deal and stops her from cutting it, but was really only distracting her for a little longer so that QN-1 could electrocute and knock her and her enforcer down. Axel is then faced with three muscled figures, who he also tries to reason with, telling them to have a drink with him. He pretends to retrieve a flask from QN-1 put really retrieves a blaster that he shoots the biggest goon with before he and QN-1 start taking on the other two. Then, Coruscant Guards arrive, which initially relieves Axel, but they tell him they have orders from Chancellor Greylark and stun him.
====Chapter Six — Erasmus Capital City, Eiram====
Phan-tu Zenn asks Xiri A'lbaran why he would save her if he wanted to hurt her while she holds her knife to his neck. Guards then approach, and she points her knife at them instead, before laughing and asking why he would let her drown when he could instead have her as a prisoner. After great deliberation, seeing the state of Eiram's people was the same as her own, and remembering receiving her blade from her brother for her rite of passage, she turns the blade on herself, believing that any good E'ronoh soldier would rather die than be taken prisoner. Phan-tu begs her not to stab herself, promising her that he won't let anything happen to her and ordering the guards to stand down as a sign of good will. He tells her that she could either go with the guards to a holding cell or he could get her an audience with his mother, Queen Adrialla. She realizes what her father would do if she died, and that the vicious cycle of war would only continue but even worse without her, so she gives her knife to Phan-tu as a gesture of trust. He gives her his necklace in return, and the two walk into the city.
====Chapter Seven — The Moon Between E'ronoh and Eiram====
Master Creighton Sun lands the Valiant on the Timekeeper Moon. They learn that Jedi Nattai is on her way to them, and that Chancellor Mollo's ship is docking on the moon as well. Creighton expresses his surprise to Master Roy, who tells him that they cannot know whether the Chancellor is aboard or if events would have unfolded differently if the Paxion had arrived earlier or later. The two walk onto the surface of the moon, and see Chancellor Mollo walking out of the Paxion with two aides at his side. They greet each other, and Creighton can immediately tell that Mollo is under distress. Mollo explains that he came as soon as he heard about the Jedi's mission, which Creighton responds to with telling him that the Queen of Eiram had given them a precise arrival time due to the terms of the cease fire, which Mollo took to mean they were blaming him. Mollo told them that many worlds were suffering due to the war, and asks the Jedi for their help if settling the matter for the good of the Republic. They tentatively agreed to try, and one of Mollo's aides asks if he wants to send an update to Chancellor Greylark then, but he explains that they needed to get the full report, especially that of the Jedi who was piloting a Jedi starfighter in the skirmish. The two masters tell him that the Jedi, Gella Nattai, was just arriving.
Nattai regroups with the other Jedi on the moon and gives her report on the skirmish to Chancellor Mollo. She wishes to take a starfighter to rescue Princess A'lbaran, who she still believes to be alive, but Sun talks her out of it. She then discovers a hobbled together jamming beacon on the landing station after letting herself be guided by the Force. She destroys it with her lightsabers, much to the chagrin of Sun who suggests they could have instead tried and figure out where it came from first. The beacon destroyed, one of Mollo's aides receives a message from Eiram confirming Princess A'lbaran survived. Mollo then devises to use arranging safe passage home for her as a way to invite the Monarch and the Queen to a peace summit aboard the Paxion, between the two worlds.
=====The Rook, E'ronoh=====
Meanwhile, Monarch A'lbaran discusses his missing daughter with Lieutenant Segaru and Viceroy Ferrol, with Segaru suggesting that the Princess could still be alive because he heard General Lao order his people to deactivate Eiram's anti-missile cannons. They discuss the cause of the explosion of Tevin's fighter, suggesting sabotage from Eiram, but Segaru says they should focus on finding Xiri and not move against the Republic and the Jedi. After the Viceroy and Lieutenant erupt into argument about their positions and devotions, the Monarch finally has had enough and promotes Segaru to Captain before ordering him to prepare to attack.
====Chapter Eight — Aboard the Paxion, Between Eiram and E'ronoh====
Gella Nattai and Enya Keen head to the communications hub of the Paxion to send a message to the Jedi Council, and are eventually allowed to when they say they can use an EX droid. They successfully use a pod to send the droid, and then use the Force to help the onboard techs by protecting an astromech droid they sent out to perform repairs from the sea of debris floating through space. They then spot E'roni ships exiting E'ronoh's atmosphere, and Gella says to sound the alarm, as E'ronoh was answering the peace summons.
=====Erasmus Capital City, Eiram=====
Xiri meets with Queen Adrialla of Eiram along with Phan-tu Zenn and they discuss Eiram and what she had expected from it based on what she had been told all of her life. The Queen reveals that they sent word of Xiri being alright to the Monarch, but he had decided that they were holding her hostage. They show her a holo of her father where he orders them to send proof of Xiri's survival and return her by sunrise or he would attack and devastate Eiram. The Queen then played another holo of Master Roy and Chancellor Molo inviting the E'roni to the summit on the Paxion, and the Queen suggests that since Xiri's father would never agree to it, the Princess go to represent E'ronoh herself. Xiri agreed to send a message to her father proving she was alright and attempting to convince her father to come to the summit, and the Queen insists that they will leave for the Paxion that night, and says that the summit might be their only chance to listen to each other without chaos and with the aim of resolution.
====Chapter Nine — The Brushlands, E'ronoh====
Serrena pulls apart an EX droid at her hidden temporary home where she lives with her reluctant partner Abda. They are of the Kage species, and are part of the Path of the Open Hand, a cult from Dalna that believes that no one should use the Force. Serrena is a member of the Children, a subgroup within the Path that is in service to the Mother, one of the leaders of the Path, though Abda is not. Abda warns Serrena to be careful with the EX droid, as she could accidentally erase its data and prevent them from learning why the Republic had come to the Dalnan sector. Serrena reminds her that the Mother chose her and not Abda, and Abda reminds her that she failed and that Xiri A'lbaran was still alive, the cease-fire is still active, and the jamming beacon had been destroyed. Serrena is able to open the message from the EX droid, which is of two old Jedi Masters, so Serrena says that they need to tell the Mother that the Jedi have arrived.
Phan-tu Zenn, his mother, and Xiri A'lbaran take a shuttle off of Eiram in-between the two worlds for the summit aboard the Paxion. Phan-tu has never been off world and has never flown before so is anxious, but is comforted by Xiri and his mother. On the Paxion, Xiri and Phan-tu are separated as the delegations from the different worlds are on different sides of the ship, Xiri promising the Queen that her father will be swayed toward peace before she leaves. In his room, Phan-tu thinks about how he would give everything for Eiram.
=====Level 2623, Coruscant=====
While Eiram and E'ronoh are deciding the fate of their worlds, Axel Greylark is in prison participating in an arm-wrestling contest with another inmate. After losing, the warden announces to Axel that he has made bail, and his mother Chancellor Kyong Greylark retrieves him from his cell. After retrieving QN-1 from lockup in a huff, anxious that the droid would be gone, he and his mother take a speeder to their penthouse, passing holos that have his and his mothers face on a gossip feed talking about him and his incidents. Kyong sits and talks with Axel, and tells him that if he goes to the Eiram-E'ronoh system and represents her to Chancellor Mollo and the Jedi, she will release his inheritance. Kyong is frustrated with Mollo's tactics and lack of communication with her and wants someone to report back, thus hopefully making the other chancellor reconsider some of his impulsive urges. When Axel asks why she isn't worried he'll just make things worse, Kyong brings up how he blames her for his father's death, causing Axel to recall a memory where he had told her that he wished she'd died instead of his father. Axel agrees to her deal, and as he leaves tells her that he doesn't blame her for his father's death, but doesn't tell her who he really blames: the Jedi.
===Part Two: The Fuse===
====Chapter Ten — Aboard the Paxion, Between Eiram and E'ronoh====
Chancellor Mollo prepares himself for the summit and prepares what he is going to say with the help of his droid AR-K4. The droid then makes sure that all of the people and parties needed for the summit are accounted for. She overhears Xiri begging Captain Segaru to convince her father to come to the summit. An alarm then activated and the ships cannons locked on to something, which turns out to be a group of E'roni drill ships. They are all relieved and the cannons disengage when a singular shuttle comes from the ships and docks with the Paxion, which Xiri recognizes as her father's shuttle.
The parties from both planets arrive at the meeting room for the summit and are forced to give up their weapons, but the E'roni keep their bane blades because they believe them to be part of them. Chancellor Mollo and Master Roy then begin a talk where they urge the two parties toward peace, but both parties are immediately dismissive because they don't like outsiders from afar telling them what to do. The E'roni delegation then accuses the Eirami of being the ones to program Bly Tevin's ship to explode, with Viceroy Ferrol accusing them of developing weapons against E'ronoh for five years. The Viceroy then brings up the death of E'ronoh's Prince Niko A'lbaran on Eiram, but Xiri herself refutes this, saying that her brother drowned and nothing more. The Viceroy then lists E'ronoh's grievances with Eiram, including their belief that Eiram took their colony, which Queen Adrialla attempts to refute. It erupts to a point where the Monarch declares he has had enough and leaves, with the rest of those present following suit, including the Jedi.
====Chapter Eleven — The Brushlands, E'ronoh====
In the middle of the night, Abda receives a message on her holoprojector from the Mother. The Mother tells her not to get Serrena, and adds that Abda had not failed even though Serrena had. She then tells Abda that it is time for her to go out on her own and become one of her Children. Abda told her that she would do anything for her and that she could trust her with every part of her being.
=====Aboard the Paxion=====
In the training room of the ship, Gella is attempting the aerialwalk again, but is distracted by her own negative thoughts and traumas and falls once again. Master Sun then enters and compliments her on her work, checking in on her and asking how long she'd been there. Gella admits that she does not see a path forward with the Eiram-E'ronoh situation, and commentates on how difficult the situation was and how much was in flux. Creighton tells Gella that he admires her for being imperfect, and for being connected to the greater galaxy instead of just the Order, something that had taken him a while to learn. He then tells her that they had retrieved pieces of the beacon and found traces of dust and clay from E'ronoh on it. They suspect that Viceroy Ferrol could be behind it, but they decide that they need to gather more evidence and information before relaying the discovery to the summit.
Braxen, one of the Monarch's guards on the Paxion, is pulled aside by Viceroy Ferrol, who tells him that Xiri A'lbaran has been altered by Queen Adrialla, and that if they followed her 'lies' they would be brought into Eiram's clutches. The viceroy tells him that he is the only one he can trust and gives him his orders, and then Braxen follows them and ejects himself out of an airlock into space.
Wandering the halls in the night, Phan-tu spots a suspicious Viceroy Ferrol, before he leaves and later finds Captains A'lbaran and Segaru talking in their room with the door open. He eavesdrops and hears her ask Segaru not to escort her around the ship, but Segaru says that she is the reason he's there and that they didn't hear word from her when she was stuck on Eiram until she sent a holo. Xiri says that she had sent two holos before that and suggests that Viceroy Ferrol prevented them from receiving them, which Segaru waves off as her suspecting her own because a few 'barnacles', a derogative term for the Eirami that Phan-tu hears, were nice to her. Xiri tells Segaru that she needs his support, as without them her father only has Viceroy Ferrol's voice in his ear, who won't let him see through the past. He tells her that she can always count on him and tries to tell her something else, but she says it can wait till after the summit. Phan-tu then goes to the ship's aquarium and falls asleep there.
Queen Adrialla, unable to sleep, gets up and reflects on the entire summit. She then sees Serrena in her parlor, who announces that she doesn't want to hurt the Queen and just wanted to talk. Serrena tells her that she broke her bargain, and the Queen immediately realizes that the girl had been sent by the Mother of the Path of the Open Hand. Adrialla claims that E'ronoh had destroyed the facility, but Serrena claims she's lying and wonders what those around her would think of her when they heard what she'd done. Serrena says that the Mother herself, not just the Path of the Open Hand, had provided for her and her planet in their time of need, which meant that Adrialla owed the Mother something in return and needed to keep her bargain. Adrialla said that the shipment was destroyed, so Serrena said to just make more of the poison, telling her that if she didn't or if she confessed, they would target Phan-tu just as they had targeted Xiri. Odelia then appears behind Adrialla and shoots Serrena in the shoulder with a blaster, but Serrena is fine enough to escape through the vents. After waving the blastershot noise off to her guards as just being her cleaning her blaster, the Queens hold each other and Odelia asks Adrialla what she has done.
====Chapter Twelve — Aboard the Paxion====
Many days of the summit pass without progress, and on the third night Gella discovers Xiri and Phan-tu sparring in the training room. Xiri claims that Phan-tu is pulling his punches and Gella agrees before all three of them discuss the Jedi Order and its beliefs, paths, and levels. Xiri challenges Gella to a duel, and while they spar Gella also explains the Force to them as everything around them and the energy that makes life flow. After Gella wins, Xiri points out that Gella didn't pull her punches, which leads to a dicussion about the differences between their three worlds. Gella brings up that Eiram and E'ronoh were once friends back in their history, and the three resolve that though difficult they can get there again and go home, but Gella realizes she doesn't know where her home is.
After another failed day, the Jedi all meet in the parlor without Chancellor Mollo and discuss ways to get the planets on the same track. They decide to play imagery from the streets of both planets of the suffering of their people on every screen and holo in the ship to make the delegations remember who they're fighting for.
While the videos play, Gella meets with Xiri on the ship's archives where they talk about how the Jedi go where they are needed and that the entire galaxy was their home. Xiri is going through the archives for history on their planets, but only found a page with a peice of information that she shares with Gella: the planets were previously united by marriage.
The next day, Xiri walks into the meeting room last wearing a bright red dress to get the attention of all those there. She immediately declares that she has had enough, and expresses her gratitude for whoever decided to play the videos of their suffering citizens, declaring that they have no right to represent them or use their names if they do not fight for a future while they still have one to look toward. She then proposes that she and Phan-tu marry to try and return to the time of the alliance between Eiram and E'ronoh during the greatest age. The Jedi and the Chancellor say it is a good idea, but the Monarch rejects it, having a fit and beginning to cry at the notion and asking why Xiri was 'doing this' to him. Xiri ignored this and said she would await their response before strutting out of the room back to her father's chambers, pulling rank on Segaru to let her in. Viceroy Ferrol then calls her a traitor and response she grabs him by the collar. He calls guards on her but the Monarch tells him to let her go, which the Viceroy says he will regret as he leaves. The Monarch, sitting in his chair, still cries, so Xiri kneels before him and whispers something in his ear that he would tell her all the time when she was a child: "Get up, my heart. You are thylefire-made, and the scorpion does not cry." She tells him that they will be in the parlor if he wishes to join them, and leaves.
====Chapter Thirteen — Aboard the Paxion====
Jerrod Segaru tries to stop Xiri from going through with the marriage, but she is committed to the idea. He insults her, saying she is betraying her people just to bed a 'barnacle.' She says that she will give everything for her people, and needs him at her side. He says that he could declare himself to her father to be her husband instead and they could make Eiram pay together, but she doesn't want to make Eiram pay or cause more violence, and resolves to take another path. After she leaves, Segaru punches the wall and then marches down the Paxion's halls to Phan-tu's room, holding his E'roni bane blade and intending to kill him. But he is met with someone else that he recognized first, who shoots and kills him.
Phan-tu speaks with his mothers about the proposed marriage, Odelia suggesting it was a good idea, though Adrialla is notably quiet. She explains that her parents were going to force her to marry someone when she was a kid, but instead chose Odelia, chose love, and that she wants Phan-tu to have that same opportunity for love. But she added that Xiri was very pretty. Chancellor Mollo and Xiri then reentered and asked if they'd considered the offer. Adrialla questioned Xiri to make sure she actually liked Phan-tu, and then Phan-tu said he agreed. They decide that they will have a campaign where they would tour and help the suffering places on both worlds together and announce their marriage as well as having a two part wedding, one on each planet. Phan-tu then gives Xiri back her bane blade, and the two hold each others hands, Xiri saying "For Eiram" and Phan-tu saying "For E'ronoh."
Phan-tu then returns to his his room and showers, before finding Jerrod Segaru's dead body in his bed.
====Chapter Fourteen — Aboard the Eventide====
Axel Greylark, aboard his ship the Eventide, finally arrives in the Eiram-E'ronoh system, having taken a few detours before he got there. He and QN-1 board the Paxion and look for his suite, but they instead find a suite with its door open that Chancellor Mollo is in. He greets the Chancellor, is bothered by the sight of two Jedi, and sits down next to Phan-tu on his bed before asking what he missed.
Gella was one of the first to arrive in Phan-tu's room when he sounded the alarm, and is there now with the others as Axel walks in. Xiri accuses Viceroy Ferrol, but Phan-tu reveals he's been cleared. Upon hearing about murder, Axel cracks a joke about the Chancellor hosting a themed party, which causes Mollo to snap at him and yell that a man is dead. Gella and Enya tried to calm the Chancellor and insisted it was safer that they all stayed there, which caused Xiri to ask how Axel had gotten aboard. He and Mollo explain that he is Chancellor Greylark's son, and that she had sent him. A guard then brings news that they believe the killer had traveled through the vents and used an escape pod to leave. Gella then has a feeling and an idea, having sensed a disturbance in the Force the night before, and she asks Enya to go with her as they go to the ship's hangar, deciding to take Axel's ship the Eventide out into the debris belt. Searching for something, but not exactly sure what for, the dead body of the E'roni soldier Braxen then hits the ship, and they bring the remains inside.
The royal vessels from the two worlds as well as the Paxion and the Valiant land on E'ronoh for the first part of the campaign. The bodies of Jerrod Segaru and Braxon are in one of the ship's morgues. Members of the entourage include the Jedi, including Gella and Enya, Axel, and the two heirs, who exit their respective vehicles and walk toward each other, not letting anything get in their way, because they all believe that this is how peace holds on.
===Part Three: The Spark===
====Chapter Fifteen — The Rook, E'ronoh====
Jerrod Segaru's funeral is held, with the Jedi and Axel in attendance. Gella stands by Axel in line, and the two discuss the morbidity of the funeral and Gella's theft of the Eventide, which she all but apologizes for. He then flirts with her and she points out that his red outfit is perfect for the funeral, red being the customary color for funerals on E'ronoh, before he abruptly leaves in the middle of the funeral and tells her to save him a seat at dinner. Gella and Creighton then both admit how frustrating they find Axel, and wonder why his mother sent him. Then Masters Sun and Roy protect the Eirami delegation present at the funeral from large rocks hurled at them by E'roni insurgents who call themselves the Children of E'ronoh and are angry that the Monarch is allying with Eiram and inviting their people onto their planet. The Jedi then evacuate both royal delegations back into the palace.
In the aftermath, Queen Adrialla is furious about the lack of protection and directs her anger toward the Monarch and the Jedi. Xiri says that they need to focus their efforts into quelling any more fighting across both their worlds, with Master Roy adding that it was especially important since they believe that someone is working to make sure that the fighting continues. Master Sun then revealed the jamming beacon to the Monarch and the Queen and informed them it had been placed on the Timekeeper Moon and found to have traces of E'ronoh dust. The heirs insist that it changed nothing, and Gella adds that they could use the heirs and their campaign as bait to draw the assassins out. They all decide that the two heirs, along with an undercover Gella and Axel, the latter of whom Mollo revealed to have had a significant amount of training, had enough skills and training so that they would be well protected if they continued the campaign without guards. Gella and Axel assure the Queen and they could count on them, and then Xiri declares that they will leave at dawn.
====Chapter Sixteen — The Rook, E'ronoh====
Abda walks through the Rook's market and passes a group of Path members advertising the cult, before meeting with Binnot Ullo a fellow Path member. He is surprised that the Mother sent her, and tells her that the Mother isn't pleased and they need to clean up her mess, reminding her that Serrena had failed, the Jedi now look like war-ending heroes, and Queen Adrialla thinks she can get off without keeping up her end of the bargain. He then gives her a vial of Eirami poison and tells her not to miss before leaving and Abda heads back to the brushlands.
=====Aboard the Amaryliss, E'ronoh=====
Phan-tu, Xiri, Gella, and Axel travel across E'ronoh in the Amaryliss. Phan-tu tells Xiri that everything that is happening suddenly seems very overwhelming, and makes him feel like he is being devoured by krel sharks. Axel asks what a krel shark is, and Phan-tu explains that it is a shark from Eiram named after their god Krel, who would transform into a shark but kept his beard, which manifested in the sharks as low tusks. Xiri tells Axel that E'ronoh used to have stories of old gods, but now their greatest symbol is the thylefire scorpion, which is nothing like the poisonous ones from Eiram. Gella explains a story her master told her about a Jedi that walked along the seam of the galaxy for years attempting to see the entire galaxy, until he finally stopped to help those in need and fulfill his duty. Gella also explains that she doesn't have any stories from her family, because she had never really known them and insisted she doesn't miss something that was never meant for her. Axel then tries to throw away a jogan fruit he is allergic to and receives a scolding from Gella and Xiri as the ship arrives at their first outpost.
=====Barakat Outpost=====
When the Amaryliss arrives at Barakat Outpost, they are greeted by a group of villagers that look unhappy, making Gella suggest that she and Axel deliver the relief shipment and the heirs stay onboard. Xiri refuses and walks toward the crowd, but she is stopped by a Pantoran man named Bruzo who challenges her in a right for honor, life, and the throne. Xiri accepts, and Gella begs to fight in her stead, but Xiri decides to take on Bruzo herself. Gella gives her a few tips ahead of the challenge, and Xiri assures her that all the strength she needs to win is being the heir of the thylefire scorpion. The fight begins, with the rules being that the first person to draw blood on the other three times wins. Xiri draws blood first, but then Bruzo does too immediately after. She gets her second blood when she cuts him with her knife, but gives him his second when she headbutts him to escape his grip. Xiri thinks about Phan-tu and how she is also fighting for his and Eiram's future too, and then tells Bruzo that she might not be worthy of the E'roni people yet, but will do everything to make sure that she will be when the time comes. She then stuns Bruzo by straddling him and slapping him in the throat, before slicing his cheek with her knife and winning the challenge. Xiri then addresses the crowd and tells them that she will fight for them every day in every way she could. However, Bruzo, behind her and thus out of her line of sight, charges at her, but he is stopped by Phan-tu, who punches him in the face before he can reach her. Phan-tu tells the crowd that Xiri and him will fight for them together, and then takes her hand all while staring into her eyes.
====Chapter Seventeen — Aboard the Amaryliss, E'ronoh====
Axel counts his earnings after having bet on the challenge, though he had bet on Xiri losing and winning. He gave the others a cut, except for Gella, who he decides doesn't need one since she was a Jedi. He suggested they take their show on the road to a few places he knew where they'd really do well, saying that it was his goal to burn a hole through the galaxy and never look back, and telling Gella that he thrived in chaos.
The next few relief drops are all routine, and Axel gives detailed daily accounts to QN-1's recorder, with Gella catching him one day and asking him if he is reporting back to Chancellor Greylark. Him being shirtless, Gella sees the red crescent-shaped scar on Axel's chest, causing him to immediately put on a tunic, but telling her that she was probably used to being in close quarters and seeing more than that. He then becomes frustrated with her hair coming undone, and asks her if he can fix it up. She agrees after a second, and then Axel tenderly braids her hair and refastens its metal clasp. Xiri then calls down to them and tells them to come up immediately. When they get up, Xiri, looking through binocs, tells them to stop the barge, which Axel does. They spot people in front of them on the rocky desert, which Phan-tu recognizes as Eirami soldiers. One of the soldiers falls, and an explosion booms throughout the Badlands.
====Chapter Eighteen — The Badlands, E'ronoh====
Xiri retrieves a mine scanner and trains it on the kneeling soldier, showing that he was kneeling on a mine. Gella decides that she would hold back the trigger while the others got the man to safety. Gella steps off the barge and leads them to the man. She then holds down the land mine with the Force while the others got the soldier away, him willing to go with them after seeing Phan-tu. Gella then throws the mine far away with the Force, and was pulled away from the explosion by Axel while she deflected falling rocks with the Force. They got the man back to the barge, but he was already too close to death. He tells them to save the others, and looks at Phan-tu and says he made it back. When asked he says his name is Salas, and he then asks if Phan-tu knows the Sailor's lament, which he says he doesn't, but Xiri reveals that she does and sings it while Salas dies.
Unable to dig a grave in the hard rock, the group instead 'buries' Salas and the other soldier by covering them with rocks. At dinner, Gella thanks Axel for saving her. Xiri then reveals that this area was meant to be a dead spot with no fighting and the mines are supposed to all have been recalled, as well as prisoners be released. Xiri said that the nearest village was A'ranni, and Gella suggested they investigate it to see if there are more of Eiram's soldiers there before moving for backup, like Axel suggested. Xiri says they should investigate a network of stone arches and caves by the village, telling them they'd know how to proceed when they had more intel. Gella assures Xiri that the Force was on their side, but Axel says he'd much rather have luck on his side.
During the night, the group travels over the ridge on the outskirts of A'ranni. Using binocs, they spot a crashed Eirami military transport vehicle in a cave with E'roni soldiers around it. Xiri tries to reach the military units with her comm but receives no signal. As Xiri tries to use QN-1 to try and talk to the ship on a different frequency, Phan-tu and Axel move back over the ridge to keep lookout. After Phan-tu successfully shoos a thylefire scorpion off of Axel, Axel asked him how he had become the heir of the Queen of Eiram. After bickering about how annoying he finds Axel, and that he is treating everything like a joke, Phan-tu eventually explains that a monsoon struck Eiram when he was a child, and that he lost both his biological mother and his sister to the storm and was left floating through the ocean until he was found by the royal guard and taken in and adopted by the Queens. Xiri then says that she'd managed to get something through, but just then Phan-tu falls through the ground and is pulled underneath.
====Chapter Nineteen — A'ranni Outskirts, E'ronoh====
The group is shocked at the sudden disappearance of Phan-tu and witness a chasm open up in the ground that leads into the cavern. Gella, using the Force, confirms he is still alive, and QN-1 claims that it can hear him. Gella also ominously says, "It's happening again." They then hear blasterfire in the cave below and Xiri decides that rescuing Phan-tu needed to wait and they first needed to free the soldiers. Gella tells them that she'll draw their fire so that Xiri can tell them to stand down, reminding them that the soldiers may not even know the war is over. She tells them to instead wear them down if they don't stand down, and then jumps down into the cave.
Meanwhile, Phan-tu ends up in an underground cave system. He follows a breeze by climbing into a tunnel and crawling through it, but then finds himself in a thylefire scorpion nest.
Gella lands and uses her lightsabers to deflect the E'roni soldier's blasts. Xiri and Axel arrive, and Xiri announces to the soldiers that the war is over and a treaty of peace is being drawn. But the soldiers don't believe it, and instead think Xiri to be an impostor and Gella to be with the Eirami, so they once again open fire as the three run away. Gella uses the Force to set up a barricade of crates, allowing Xiri and Axel to shoot at the soldiers with stun blasts, but Xiri gets hit in the shoulder by a blasterbolt. She is still able to shoot, and she and Axel stun all of the soldiers one by one while Gella distracts them by running out in front and deflecting their blasts with her lightsabers, making herself the bigger threat. The Eirami soldiers that had crash landed in the cave then approach the three of them and ask if the news of the treaty was true, but since Phan-tu is not with them, they do not believe that the Queen had surrendered. One Eirami woman takes aim at Gella with her blaster while the other two men reach for their weapons, and so Axel Greylark fires his own deadly blasts.
====Chapter Twenty — A'ranni Outskirts, E'ronoh====
Xiri, Gella, and Axel build a pyre for the dead soldiers from both planets. The surviving E'roni dissenters who had refused to stand down are placed in the cargo hold of the Amaryliss. Phan-tu then returns, his entire body crawling with thylefire scorpions, him explaining that he had just kept going through the tunnels and they came along for the ride. As he lets the scorpions onto the ground, a few of the prisoners whisper 'thylefire-made', which makes Xiri feel happy because of the support from her people. Xiri explains to Gella that 'thylefire-made' means of the scorpion, and of E'ronoh, which the people thus recognize Phan-tu as.
Axel is haunted by him killing the soldiers as he takes a shower on the Amaryliss. After his water ration runs out, Gella gives him a canteen full of her water for him to finish rinsing off since he hadn't known there are water rations and because he had saved her life. She then asks him why he is antagonistic to the Jedi, and he asks why she said "It's happening again" earlier, both of which they say they will tell the other some other night. Axel asks Gella if she believes in the mission and she says she believes Xiri and Phan-tu believe in it. He says he could never marry under the pressure, and Gella says they are doing it because they are selfless, which Axel recognizes as her calling him selfish, the proof being the canteen in her hand. They say good night, and Gella leaves his room.
=====The Rook, E'ronoh=====
Viceroy Ferrol and Rev Ferrol burst into the throne room to confront Monarch A'lbaran, the Viceroy asking why he is being treated as a criminal if he is still the Viceroy. The Monarch says he will call on him when he needs him, and turns back to a holographic display of the route Xiri and Phan-tu are on. After the Ferrols leave and end up in the market, the Viceroy asks Rev if he got a good look at it, which Rev says he did. As a girl in the market puts up a sign that reads 'Rise, True Children of E'ronoh', Rev tells his father that they know exactly where Xiri will be, and that she will never see them coming.
====Chapter Twenty-one — Aboard the Amaryliss, E'ronoh====
After many days of their routine of traveling E'ronoh, Gella spots clouds in the sky from the deck of the Amaryliss. They are heading to the mining village U'ronoh next, but Xiri reveals that the town's comms tower hasn't responded since the night, and she is afraid that the people won't accept her as Monarch. Gella tells a story about how she used to be afraid of the training remotes Jedi trained with as younglings, and she was taught by Master Yoda to allow herself to fail but to never be completely knocked down and continue to persevere until she overcame her fear. Phan-tu and Axel arrive on the deck, the two having developed a bizarre friendship, and Phan-tu tells them that U'ronoh's mining tower let them know they are awaiting their arrival. They discuss the town, and Axel figures that it would be a target for marauders, and comes up with a plan to steal from it on the spot. Xiri asks how Axel is not in prison, and he says that nobody wanted him there because he'd run the place in no time, which gets a laugh from Xiri and Phan-tu, but not Gella. When they arrive, the town is completely empty which worries them, and shots start being fired at the barge from what appear to be Eirami soldiers, frying the barge's engine. More soldiers arrive and say they are there for traitors Xiri and Phan-tu, and then reveal the miners of the town at every doorway and rooftop wearing detonators on their chests. They say that they will only let them free if the heirs come with them, and the couple decides to go with them together, Phan-tu telling Axel to come save them, the trust catching Axel off-guard. QN-1 follows after the heirs and Gella and Axel jump off the barge and run to the hangar bay. QN-1 meets them and reveals that it managed to steal the detonator trigger and then Axel and Gella manage to fight and sneak their way onto the transport, ending up killing one of the Eirami soldiers. But Gella recognizes the soldier as a servant from the Monarch's court, and realizes that the kidnappers are not really Eirami. She looks up and sees graffiti on the ceiling that reads: 'Children of E'ronoh.'
====Chapter Twenty-two — U'ronoh Village, E'ronoh====
Xiri wakes up on the transport to the sight of Rev Ferrol's face. He confirms that Phan-tu, who is still unconscious, is alive, and tells her that the Children of E'ronoh understand that they need to keep fighting the war until they are dead and Eiram is defeated. He then tells her that she's underestimated him, as he was the one who killed Jerrod Segaru, and did so because Segaru was loyal to Xiri. He reveals that he is going to parachute out and crash the transport into The Rook, killing Xiri and Phan-tu, and leaving the people of U'ronoh with the memory of Eirami soldiers kidnapping their princess. Axel and Gella then arrive into the room and fight and subdue Rev, but he presses a button on a trigger that causes the ship's cargo bay doors to open, sucking him out, though while wearing a parachute. Gella uses the Force to barricade the doors with crates, Xiri wakes up Phan-tu, and Axel changes the autopilot coordinates so that the ship crashes in the middle of nowhere instead of the capital, as the ship and control panel is too damaged for him or Xiri to land it safely. They prepare to jump from the ship with parachutes, but realize that there are only three. Gella decides to be the one left without one and gives the last one to Axel, before moving the crates out of the way and pushing Xiri and Phan-tu out of the ship with the Force, both wearing parachutes, telling them to try and reach U'ronoh.
Gella then tells Axel to jump, warning him that she can't hold the crates back much longer. He says that he still needs to tell her what he was going to, but she grabs him by the collar and throws him out of the ship before he can say anything. Then Gella waits, reaching out into the Force until she feels it tell her the right time to jump. And when it does, Gella jumps from the ship.
Phan-tu lands safely on a mountain. He remembers Gella's instructions and starts to run toward U'ronoh's comms tower, desperately hoping that Xiri will find her way there too.
Xiri lands in the middle of U'ronoh, and the entire town embraces her. A Tintinna runs across the village searching for her missing husband as Xiri spots Phan-tu making his way into the city. She throws herself into his arms and he holds her as Gella arrives at the town. Axel and QN-1 are still missing, but they believe that he would find his way. The three met Iana Percei, the Mon Calamari marshal of U'ronoh, who said that they would get them healed and their ship fixed, as well as hold a traditional E'ronoh Remembrance for those they lost. Gella then spots Axel walking up the mine road, carrying the dead body of the Tintinna woman's husband, who she rushes to meet.
Gella sits with Marshal Iana in Siggi's tavern, and they talk about how Iana had wanted to move to Eiram, but couldn't because of the war, and had left Mon Cala to escape the Mon Cala civil war. Gella says Jedi have a different idea of home and go to where they are needed to fight for others, but Iana warns that if you fight for peace you'll fight forever. They are then approached by a human woman named Kala who confronts Gella with the word of the Path of the Open Hand. Iana shoos her away, and Iana explains to Gella that the Path of the Open Hand was a cult from Dalna that offers a better life away from the war and the influence Jedi have with the Force. She adds that they say that the Force does not belong to the Jedi, which Gella says the Jedi have never claimed, and that many of the younger people in the town left with them to escape the draft. Gella leaves and finds Axel alone on the Amaryliss, telling him that he ought to go so the family of the Tintinna could thank him for bringing his body back, but Axel only makes depressing comments, clearly upset by it. Gella asks him why he had not cared about the dead body of Jerrod Segaru, but suddenly cares now. She tells him that she wants to understand what drives him, as she herself is driven by curiosity, but he interrupts her and asks why she didn't take the parachute. She simply says that she knew she needed to protect him and the heirs, which he says is maddening, and admits that it's partially because he doesn't want to be friends with a Jedi. Gella asks why, so while holding her hand, Axel tells her the story of his father's death during a diplomatic mission to Melida/Daan. After an explosion that left Axel with the scar on his chest, his father was trapped under rubble. He was trying to free him, but attackers were coming quickly and so a Jedi Knight dragged him onto their ship with the Force to save his life, leaving his father behind to die. Then the Jedi simply told him that it was the will of the Force, and immediately started discussing a cargo manifest. Axel tells Gella that the Jedi hadn't recognized him or remembered him when he saw her again. But Axel says it made sense that she didn't, and asks what one grieving boy was in a galaxy full of them, to which Gella responds that it was everything. Phan-tu then finds them, and Axel gets up to go with him back to the party, just as it finally rains on E'ronoh again.
====Chapter Twenty-three — The Rook, E'ronoh====
Enya Keen is assigned to interrogate Viceroy Ferrol, but she is unsuccessful. The Monarch and Queen Adrialla are frustrated, the latter especially saying that the treaty isn't safe until he is brought to justice. Master Sun says that he senses something moving in the shadows. The rulers want to cancel the public ceremonies, but Xiri says that doing so ruined the point of making the worlds celebrate, instead suggesting that they move the ceremonies up so that they can catch Rev and the Children sooner, as they will inevitably try to attack. After they end the meeting and Enya starts heading back to Master Roy's quarters, she bumps into a Kage woman, Abda, who refers to her as a Jedi with contempt.
Abda, who had now killed Serrena with Binnot's poison for her failure to the Mother, walks through The Rook's palace during the first ceremony of Xiri and Phan-tu's wedding, which she hates. She walks around with a tray of drinks and checks once that she has the vial of the poison in her apron pocket. In the Monarch's kitchens, Axel runs into her, sending the tray of drinks flying so Phan-tu scolds him. After delivering more drinks to the royals, Abda climbs through the palace's laundry lifts towards the Princess's room and jumps down silently. However, she checks her pocket and finds she no longer has the poison, and also finds herself confronted by Enya and her lightsaber.
====Chapter Twenty-four — The Rook, E'ronoh====
Elecia Zeveron, known as 'The Mother' to the Path of the Open Hand, sits in her throne on the Path's Flagship, the Gaze Electric. She is speaking to someone she refers to as 'Chaos' via a hololink. 'Chaos' tells her that perhaps everything is lost as the wedding is still happening and Abda has been captured. The Mother tells him that it falls on him now, and that ultimately Eiram and E'ronoh mean nothing, but they need to get back at Queen Adrialla for betraying her, allying with the Jedi, and disrupting their plans. The Mother orders him to get rid of Abda and allow Eiram and E'ronoh to go forth with the wedding, and while the Jedi are preoccupied find the poison and bring it home. He asks her what she will use the poison for, and she says for the safety of the Path, and so that she can finalize the Gaze Electric without vulnerability. She also tells him that she's sure he can manage something with the Jedi Knight he's told her so much about. After making sure that he is not having doubts, she tells him she knows she count on him and finally refers to 'Chaos' by his real name: Axel Greylark.
Gella meets with Creighton Sun in the gardens of the palace. She says that her thoughts are unsettled, as it doesn't make sense that Ferrol would send a weaponless assassin to kill Xiri, especially if he was behind the other sabotages that had happened. Creighton says that it is perhaps time to make her talk, but Gella says that though she doesn't doubt his skill, the Kage is protecting someone. Creighton then tells her that if she wants she can now return to Coruscant to finish her training, unless she feels she is called here.
In her cell, Abda desperately holds on to the hope that someone will come and rescue her. Someone does arrive, but they hook their arm around her throat and shushes her, telling her that she had tried her best, but that the Mother needs more than her best. He then injects her with poison in the side of her neck, which causes her body to erupt with blisters and her throat to swell shut, killing her.
Phan-tu Zenn walks into the morgue, desperate to see the body. He asks for the autopsy report, and Master Roy says that he's never seen anything like it, that its similar to a foodborne disease, but no food was found in her stomach. Gella also adds that nobody knew her name. Master Roy also deduces that because they can't tell you the names of the living and poison is not the E'ronoh way, the Ferrols are ruled out. Gella then revealed the only thing that was found in the cell, which is a round black disk. Axel said that he recognizes it as an invitation to a game, and Phan-tu asks if it is the championship he had lost a bunch of money at, which Axel confirms. Gella agrees to go with Axel, because he said he needs a skilled fighter, but he warns her that it is a bad idea.
====Chapter Twenty-five — Aboard the Eventide, Dalnan Sector====
Gella and Axel grow closer on the ride to the Hesperys Station. She opens up about being out there making her shift focus from trying to be the ideal Jedi and instead just listening to the Force. He tells the story of how he first stumbled upon the station after his father's death and secretly became a smuggler. He also tells her that he knows someone at the station who might help identify the mystery Kage. They arrive at the station, and Gella loves it to Axel's surprise. He takes her to the Rusty Rancor, going in and walking past a fighting ring and then up steps until they reached the office of Ney Madiine. Axel asks her for a favor, and she tells her that he knows the rules and that his champion would have to beat hers for her to grant one. So Axel pushes Gella out of a newly-opened doorway into a fighting ring, telling her that he has faith in her, and when she fell into the fighting ring found herself going up against another Jedi, with a double-bladed lightsaber.
====Chapter Twenty-six — Hesperys Station====
A Pa'lowick announcer named Goldy Bex introduces Gella, though calls her the wrong name, as well as her opponent, a man named Dario Melek who she called the 'Wrath of the Jedi'. The fight began, and the two engaged in fierce lightsaber combat. However, Gella quickly relaized that Melek was not a real Jedi, but just a showman who had stolen a lightsaber. After figuring out she was a real Jedi, he still refused to give up and have his win taken from him. Gella steals his lightsaber from him, and knocks them both to the ground, but then a magnet rips all of the sabers out of her hands and a hatch opens up in the floor, she and Melek falling in.
Meanwhile, Axel speaks to Madiine, who is convinced that Axel is smitten with Gella, which he denies. She wonders aloud why he always goes back to the Path and tells him he should work for her again instead. He asks her if he can dig up dirt on Viceroy Ferrol, and she admits that she does owe him a favor. But her favor is instead showing him that a bounty has been put on him by Raik and giving him a head start before she captures him. She slides a datacard of information to him and thanks him for bringing them Gella, who she says will be a good champion once they break her. Axel then leaves, running into a member of Nadiine's security detail holding the three lightsabers on the way. He shoots him and takes the lightsabers, before meeting up with QN-1 outside, who he tells about the bounty on him. Axel starts to walk away from the Rusty Rancor, but collapses, overcome by anguish and holding the scar on his heart. He knows that he is meant to leave Gella behind and could give the excuse that she fought and lost, but QN-1's panel flashes the purple color of her lightsaber, and he thinks about how she looked at him with patience that no one else had given him, leaving him unable to bring himself to leave. He screams and storms back into the Rusty Rancor, stealing and shooting a blaster into the air to cause a panic and distract the guards while he sneaks into the lower levels and finds Gella's cell. He uses one of her lightsabers to cut a hole in it and let her out, and she thanks him, telling him that she knows he could've left without her, Axel knowing full well that he should have and was going to. She refuses to leave without finding the override button and letting all the other prisoners free, an act that reminds Axel how she was selfless and full of justice, and he was selfish and full of chaos. She lets them all free, and they run back to the Eventide. Axel punches in a flight sequence and tells her that he got a datacard from Madiine with everything they need to take down Viceroy Ferrol.
====Chapter Twenty-seven — Erasmus Capital City, Eiram====
The day before the wedding ceremony for the heirs of Eiram, senators and royal households started arriving for it. Phan-tu waits for the Eventide in Docking Bay 26 and as he does his guard Vigo asks him how they will know he loves his people as much as he always has when half of him will belong to E'ronoh. When Axel and Gella exit the Eventide, Phan-tu remarks that they look terrible. Axel tells him they found proof against the Viceroy, and then Phan-tu asks for a favor, so Gella decides to take the datacard to the summit and leave them. Phan-tu tells Axel to take them to Arium Island in the Eventide. As they arrive, Axel urges Phan-tu to tell him why they were there. He had taken them to a research facility on the island, and said it was because the death of the Kage looked like an extreme reaction to the sting of one of the poisonous Eirami scorpions. Phan-tu asked Axel if he was alright, noticing something off about him. Axel said he was fine and in turn told Phan-tu to ask himself what he would do if his hunch was right and if he would tell Xiri. But Phan-tu insisted that he didn't want to start things with Xiri with a lie, even if it meant he had to confront his mother. When they enter, they meet a blue-haired woman who tells Phan-tu to tell the Queen that the samples are about to be destroyed, except for the ones archived in the palace. Phan-tu searches the lab and finds vials of the poison in a small refrigerator and realizes his mother had actually lied to him. He throws them into the incinerator and destroys them, just as he notices an empty cage. Axel finds one scorpion and shoots it with his blaster, but then another one appears on a shelf in front of Phan-tu. Axel shoots at it but misses, so he jumps in front of the pincer before it can reach Phan-tu and takes the full brunt of the sting beneath his clavicle. As Axel wheezes and gasps for breath, the lab initiates a lockdown due to an arriving storm, which closes and locks the lab doors and leaves the two stuck.
In a flashback, Axel is on his way to the Eiram system from Coruscant in the Eventide after his mother gave him the mission and the promise of unlocking his inheritance. He stops along the way at a saloon on Lorta and meets with Binnot Ullo, who tells Axel that the Mother has a job for him and misses him as she cares for all members of the Path. Axel insists that he is not a member of the Path, but Binnot says that he is still one of her Children and she wants him to come home. Axel recalls how he first got wrapped up in the Path, smuggling ship parts for the Gaze Electric to them for Ney Madiine. He had stayed because they did not worship the Jedi like the rest of the galaxy, and because of the Mother. She had taught him to press down on the bruise on his heart every time he would start to forget his father and become the Greylark his mother wanted him to be. He had learned to need and use the pain that it brought. She eventually sent him to the Senate because she realized he'd be more helpful there, but whenever she needed him, he returned. Binnot says the Mother wants him to keep track of some Jedi. Axel asks why the Mother would care what a bunch of Jedi were doing on Eiram, completely unaware and unprepared for what he would eventually truly find.
===Part Four: The Collision===
====Chapter Twenty-eight — Erasmus City Center, Eiram====
Phan-tu returns to the royal palace with a very sick Axel Greylark. He then confronts his mother and asks what she did, aghast that she had lied to the summit. She realizes he has been to the research facility and tells him that she had been protecting them from E'ronoh and potentially even the Republic's growing arsenals. He is furious with her for lying to him and thus making him a liar, but she insists that telling him would potentially put him in a position to compromise himself if he were captured and for no point. After he pushes her more, she reveals that the ship and soldiers they had found on the Badlands of E'ronoh had been carrying an aerosolized version of the poison that had failed, but after the cease fire she shut everything down instead of trying again. She explains that she had been coerced into engineering it by a woman that calls herself the Mother, who had offered Eiram relief for the war for nothing at first, and then asked her to use the creatures of their world to arm themselves against E'ronoh since they cannot match their ships. She admits that she had been wrong and only thought the poison could fix the never-ending war. She also assures him that she didn't kill the Kage girl. Phan-tu decides that he needs to tell Xiri, but Adrialla reveals that Xiri is already there in the doorway listening to them. Surprisingly, Xiri tells the Queen not to destroy the facility, warning that other threats could emerge besides the Ferrols and they have no way of knowing that the Republic and the Jedi would be their allies in thirty or so years. It would be a fail-safe, and Phan-tu agrees to it, saying that she can always remind him of the cruelty people were capable of, but that he can remind her not to let it change who they are. Seeing them, Adrialla resolves to protect them and their planets' futures at all costs.
====Chapter Twenty-nine — Erasmus City Center, Eiram====
Axel Greylark has a severe fever dream due to the effects of the scorpion sting, Phan-tu having rushed him to Erasmus City for treatment. He wakes up and sees Enya Keen, who he initially mistakes for Gella, who informs him that he has been asleep for five days. He tells her not to tell anyone he is awake, and she tells him that he should rest because the wedding rehearsal is that night and his mother, Chancellor Greylark, is there. After she leaves, he uses his comlink to contact Binnot Ullo who is shocked he's alive. Axel confirms he has the 'package', so Binnot tells him to send it in the droid while also warning him that the Mother is not happy that he did not get rid of the Jedi. Axel opens up one of QN-1's panels and sees the three vials of poison he stole from the research facility while Phan-tu wasn't looking. He thinks about the horror that the poison inflicted on him, how the ache in his chest feels lighter, and finally Gella Nattai, who he regrets telling that some things aren't meant to be unraveled. Axel tells QN-1 that he's not sending the droid to Binnot, and that he is keeping the poison to destroy it.
Rev Ferrol sits in an E'roni drill ship and listens into the Paxion's comms for the best time to strike. He is angry about how his father has been destroyed for his actions and beliefs and is determined to take down the A'lbarans.
Gella is in the ballroom of Eiram's royal palace the night before the wedding, where delegations from across the galaxy are present at the behest of the Republic. Chancellor Mollo welcomes them in a speech and revels in the achieved peace. Axel arrives and greets Xiri and Phan-tu, before offering Gella a dance. She initially declines but relents, and the two hold each other and dance gracefully across the ballroom. He asks where she will go after the wedding, and she tells him that she might stay there because she believes in Xiri and Phan-tu and wants to help them. He then asks her if they would ever be real friends if she were not a Jedi, but she says that being a Jedi is intrinsically part of who she is. He tells her possibly in another life and kisses her hand just as Chancellor Greylark arrives. She greets Gella and tells her that she came there despite not really being meant to so she could pay her respects to her for protecting the heirs, telling her that she will be watching the wedding from the Paxion the next day. She adds that she hopes Axel didn't embarrass himself too much on the relief campaign, but Axel asks how she would garner sympathy from the galaxy if she didn't have him to embarrass her. Shaking with anger and weariness, he excuses himself and leaves them.
Axel jams a beacon into a potted coral plant in the ballroom. The beacon broadcasts his location, believing Raik to have done a favor when she put the bounty on him, as it made him press down on his bruise. He then finds Quin ripped apart in his chamber. Viceroy Ferrol sneaks up behind Axel, puts him in a headlock, and holds a blaster to his head. Axel frees himself by throwing himself onto the floor, a blastershot grazing his ear, and then stares down barrel of the blaster. Ferrol says that he knows it was him, and Axel laughs saying he couldn't prove anything. Ferrol says that Axel framed him and that he saw him enter the tower, but Axel points out that Ferrol is guilty of much more. Axel then grabs Ferrol's bane blade and stabs the Viceroy under his ribs, before throwing him off of him and shooting him with the blaster. Axel realizes that he won't be able to come up with a good enough lie to explain the situation, and that he wouldn't be able to carry the pieces of Quin and disappear quietly, so he leaves, taking the poison and apologizing to Quin as he does.
====Chapter Thirty — Erasmus City Center, Eiram====
Gella feels a disturbance in the Force that she realizes is related to Axel. She finds Xiri and the two head to Axel's room, where they find the dead body of Viceroy Ferrol with a blaster in his hand and a dagger in his chest. Xiri tells her guards to gather the leaders from the summit and the Jedi Masters discreetly.
Gella brings QN-1 back to her chamber where Jedi Knight Aida Forte is waiting with a repair kit. They know that Axel had run because his ship is missing from Docking Bay 26. When QN-1 is reassembled, Gella goes through its memory bank and listens to every recording, including one holorecording from the day they had been attacked by Rev Ferrol and the Children of E'ronoh. In the recording, Axel is speaking to the Mother, and informs her that he isn't sure if Gella survived the crash, only that she didn't have a parachute but is very impressive. He assures the Mother that he is not sad about the possibility of her death, but then hears a noise and draws his blaster. A Tintinna appears and tries to speak, but Axel shoots and kills him. It is the same Tintinna that Axel would later carry into U'ronoh. Gella shows all of the holos to both royal families, the other Jedi, and both Chancellors. She is certain that Axel is still in the capital with three vials of deadly poison and decides to find him.
Enya runs across the roofs of Erasmus City with Gella and Aida and they see that every docking bay is full of ships that they believe are there for the wedding. Gella insists that Axel is still on Eiram. Aida asks why they don't postpone the wedding, but Enya says that it feels like it's now or never. Enya recognizes one of Axel's capes on one of the people arriving and asks where it's from. She says she got it from Axel and reveals a holoprojection of Axel's face, before telling the Jedi that he's broadcasting his location. Enya realizes that all the people arriving aren't guests, but bounty hunters. Gella tells Enya and Aida to warn the Jedi and tell the queen to close the dome before stealing a speeder and taking off. She feels Axel thinking her name in the Force, and lets it lead her to one of the towers that creates Eiram's protective energy dome. She thinks about Axel saving her from her cell at Hesperys Station and decides she needs to know why. She takes a lift to the top and finds Axel, who is holding an explosive with a vial of the poison strapped to it and a detonator in his other hand. He tells her that he had every bit of faith that she'd find him.
====Chapter Thirty-one — Erasmus City Center, Eiram====
The wedding of Xiri and Phan-tu begins, and Xiri is walked to the courtyard on the beach where the ceremony is being held. Xiri and Phan-tu start walking across the sand towards each other, but then blaster shots sound.
Earlier, before the ceremony starts, Creighton feels a disturbance in the Force and a trandoshan bounty hunter and his group wearing Bandoliers approaches, but are stopped by E'roni guards. Enya then arrives on her speeder and tells Creighton that many bounty hunters are arriving because Axel has a bounty on his head and something there is broadcasting his location and making them think he's there. Creighton tells Enya to find the beacon and shut it off and that they will stall. Creighton tells the approaching bounty hunters that Axel isn't there, but they do not believe him, and so Creighton and the other dozen or so Jedi guarding ignite their lightsabers just before the mercenaries begin to shoot at them. The wedding now having begun, the Jedi fight the bounty hunters fervently. A Lasat kills Jedi Laan and Crieghton lays him to rest. Someone deploys a toxic gas canister causing Creighton and the rest of the Jedi to falter. Creighton gets relief when someone pours water on his face, just as bells indicate the end of the wedding, but Crieghton and Char-Ryl-Roy's fight is not over.
Earlier, during the wedding, Xiri tells Mollo, the officiant, not to stop the wedding under any condition. She and Phan-tu hear the sounds of fighting and see that most of their guests had either run for cover or stayed to fight. But they do not stop, saying the traditional Eirami vows to each other. Mollo declares them married, and immediately joins the fight. Phan-tu pulls Xiri in close and asks to kiss her, but first she unholsters her blaster and shoots an approaching bounty hunter. Phan-tu declares that he is madly in love with her, and Xiri simply says "Good." The two passionately kiss just as the Paxion appears over the city.
====Chapter Thirty-two — Erasmus City Center, Eiram====
At the edge of the tower powering the dome, Gella asks Axel why he is trying to bring the shield down. He tells her that the dome was created to keep out Eiram's intense storms that could erode the coast and wash the palace away. Gella realizes what he means and tells him there are other ways to destroy the poison and to think of Phan-tu's home. Axel says he doesn't care, and Gella asks why he would risk his life for Xiri and Phan-tu if he doesn't. Axel says that in a generation or two their planets will be right back where they started because the only certainties in the galaxy are war and chaos. Gella remarks that that's what the woman in the holos called him. Axel presses down on the spot over his heart and says that he killed Viceroy Ferrol, which Gella says she knows. After killing him, he saw it as an opportunity to stop being a Greylark and to start anew. Axel says that Gella is truly good and she says that he is too. He says to stop trying to fix him, but she says that's not what she's doing, to which he asks what she wants from him. Gella asks why he didn't leave her behind when he was ordered otherwise by his master. He says that they are not his master, which makes Gella ask who they are. He simply tells her that they are free from the Jedi. She expresses that she is angry because he has all the potential in the galaxy, which she tells him she still believes despite knowing what he's done from QN-1's holos. After he regales the horror he went through due to the poison, she assures him they will destroy it, but he asks her what he will do after, as he can't go back to his regular life. He tells her to go home, wherever it may be. Gella takes the detonator from him with the Force, but then he warns that there are two other shield towers and if they go down so do the others. Gella hears the bells of the wedding finishing and cries Axel's name just as the shield towers detonate.
Eiram witnesses the shield fall and the storms worsen. Vigo tries to reach out to the Paxion, which is changing course, but gets a response from Rev Ferrol, who says the Children of E'ronoh will rise. Drill ships appear in the sky and tear through the Paxion's hull. Xiri asks the guard for a starfighter and tells Phan-tu to stay there, telling him she will stop the mutiny and they will make their people safe together.
Xiri, Kinni, Thylefire squadron, and Eirami guards board Eiram's starfighters in their hangar bay. They take off, Xiri leading them, the first time Eiram and E'ronoh fought side by side in a lifetime.
Phan-tu races to the Rayes Canal on a agopie as the Paxion splits in two and crashes into the Erasmus Sea. He rallies the people to evacuate, telling them that they know him, they know he had grown up there, they had known his mother, they know she died there because she wouldn't leave, and that he would do everything he could to keep them safe. The families emerge from their homes and leave, Phan-tu leading them as the ground trembles.
====Chapter Thirty-three — Erasmus City Center, Eiram====
Xiri sees the Paxion in the sea and calls for a water evacuation. She, in a starfighter, and the rest of her squadron then go to confront Rev Ferrol, telling him over comm that he is not allowed to use the drill ships and to retreat or they will open fire on him. Xiri's squadron fires and Rev's return fire, though Xiri's squadron's shots can't penetrate the ships and one drill ship uses its drill function to destroy one of Xiri's fighters. Realizing that they have a speed and agility advantage, Xiri and Kinni prepare to do a move called the Kestrel's Dive. Xiri taunts Rev over the calm and encourages his ships to chase her and build up speed. She asks Rev over comm if his soldiers know that he declined a rite to challenge her for the throne and that he killed Jerrod Segaru, which receives a negative reaction from his pilots. Xiri speaks to them directly and tells them that they can come home, as she continues to climb higher. Xiri tells the members of her squadron to help rescue people from the Paxion and leave Rev to her. She then begins the dive, and Rev chases after her, the two plummeting towards the ocean at incredible speed. The clunkiness of Rev's ship doesn't allow him to pull up before he hits the water, but Xiri's Eirami fighter is able to go underwater. Rev and his ship crash into the bedrock and fall into a trench, leaving both swallowed by the sea.
Earlier, Gella watches the Paxion fall from the sky. Gella asks Axel what he thought would happen just as something hits the tower they are in and the ceiling falls in on them. Gella holds it up with the Force, and Axel helps with his brute strength at her urging. Axel tells her that the vials of poison he stole were in the first two towers. He explained that he knew he couldn't reach the archived poison, so he created enough chaos to draw attention to what he did and expose the Queen. The effort of lifting the ceiling starting to become too much, Axel tells her that if they die there, he hopes his ghost will haunt her for eternity, which causes her to remark that the Jedi don't believe in ghosts. He tells her that he couldn't believe he fell for a humorless Jedi as he falls to the floor unconscious. Gella thinks of Axel's faith in her and tells herself that the Force is with her, allowing her to protect the two of them until they were lying on a heap of rubble. Gella sees a group of Eirami starfighters rising above the city. Axel then tells her to stay with him, but she says she can't. She sees the new scars on his face and thinks about how one can never truly regain something that is broken, but decides she would rather have the scar and the reminder that it gives. Gella then leaves to get help.
====Chapter Thirty-four — Erasmus City Center, Eiram====
After the wedding, Eiram and E'ronoh begin planning how to create lasting peace, starting with a treaty to end the war. However, the many parties could not agree on a location to sign it. Eventually Xiri suggests that it be signed outside of their system to be a symbol of peace for the galaxy, which everyone agrees to. Chancellor Mollo has an idea of his own, and looked to Chancellor Greylark for sympathy, though she has displayed no emotion since Axel had been arrested. The Queens of Eiram had also decided to destroy the poison, which meant the royals of the planet would not be charged, but Mollo makes a mental note for he and Chancellor Greylark to monitor the situation and the research facility. Mollo suggests the treaty be signed on Coruscant, but Monarch A'lbaran reminded him that they were not part of the Republic. After Master Roy suggested they do it at a Jedi temple, Gella, who hadn't said a word since she arrested Axel, suggested the moon Jedha, which is sacred to many groups, including the Jedi. A vote is cast, and they decide that Jedha will be the location of the summit and the signing. Chancellors Mollo and Greylark begin their journey back to Coruscant on the latter's longbeam Aurora Sun. On the way, Mollo asks Greylark about Axel, telling her that she can appeal for a reduced sentence, but she just insists that she serves the republic. Mollo tells her that she should have trusted him, her co-chancellor. She insists she does, just like she had trusted Axel, even though she shouldn't have, admitting that she wouldn't allow herself to see who he really is because it feels like recognizing she had made a mistake she can't fix. Kyong Greylark, holding Axel's droid QN-1, tells Orlen Mollo that perhaps they should do things differently.
Gella and the other Jedi remain on Eiram for another week. She has dinner with Xiri and Phan-tu, and announces that she will not be going to Jedha because she feels like she is called somewhere else. She says she hopes to return there, and that she believes the couple will forge something stronger and better than before. Later that night, Gella meditates with Crighton Sun, who tells her that Chancellor Greylark gifted her the Eventide, Axel's ship. Gella then tells Creighton that she is going to formally declare herself a Wayseeker, which is a type of Jedi that operates independently of the Jedi Council and follows only their own path and the will of the Force. Creighton tells her he is happy for her, and that he and Aida Forte will be heading to Jedha in advance of the peace talks, Gella saying she will get back there someday. He asks her why she decided to become a Wayseeker, and she explains that being on E'ronoh made her realize that the more she learned the more she understood her place in the Force and she wanted to answer its call. Creighton tells her that he will support her on behalf of the council, which she thanks him for.
Gella sits in the cockpit of the Eventide and feels the call of the Force more clearly that she ever has in her entire life. She familiarizes herself with the ship and flies across realspace for hours before picking a destination, feeling like the galaxy is calling her home.
====Epilogue — Prison Barge CA73Z, Redacted====
Axel Greylark is in prison. He is spending his time trying and failing to make small talk with the guards, retraining his muscles since being poisoned, and picking fights which he bets on and relishes in the pain of. No one visits or communicates with him for weeks. Eventually he receives a message on a datapad from the Mother, who tells him that what had happened to him was because of trusting Jedi, and that she had not forgotten or abandoned him. He then squeezes the datapad so hard the glass shatters and cuts his fingers. Axel thinks to himself that maybe he had been right to tell Phan-tu that he would run the place if he were in prison, feeling like he can thrive there and only hurt himself and those who deserve it. However, he cannot stop thinking of Gella no matter how much he tries and sees her everywhere. He tells himself that one day he will carve her out of his heart, and then waits in his cell, ready to feed his inner chaos.
==Development==
The High Republic: Convergence was known as Parabola during production.
==Continuity==
According to the reference book Star Wars: The High Republic Character Encyclopedia, the events of Convergence occur some time after those of the novel The High Republic: Path of Deceit.Star Wars: The High Republic Character Encyclopedia However, the StarWars.com High Republic Reader's Guide places Convergence before Path of Deceit. Convergence includes the Children of the Open Hand,The High Republic: Convergence a group that was all but wiped out bar one survivorThe High Republic: Path of Vengeance during the events of Path of Deceit,The High Republic: Path of Deceit meaning the events of Convergence must occur before Path of Deceit.
==Media==
===Editions===
*; November 15, 2022; Del Rey; US Hardcover
*; November 15, 2022; Del Rey; US eBook
*; April 4, 2023; Random House Worlds; US trade paperback
===Cover gallery===
File:THRConvergence_NotFinal.jpg|Placeholder cover
File:The_High_Republic_Convergence_solicitation_cover.jpg|Solicitation cover with art by Yihyoung Li
File:HighRepublicConvergence-Cover.jpg|Final cover
File:Convergence-textless.png|Textless cover
File:Convergence-inprogress1.png|First look at the cover in progress shared by Yihyoung Li
File:Convergence-inprogress2.png|Second look at the cover in progress shared by Yihyoung Li
==Appearances==
==Sources==
==Notes and references==
==External links==
*
Convergence