The second section of Lucasfilm’s High Republic period is making some massive strikes—largely ones backwards, as we leap away from the dramatic climax of the transmedia marketing campaign’s first section to a time tons of of years earlier than it. And now, io9 has your look inside one of many subsequent massive steps of that sophomore chapter.

Although The High Republic section two has already begun with releases just like the YA novel Path of Deceit and Marvel’s relaunch of the accompanying High Republic comedian, Convergence—the brand new novel by Zoraida Córdova—might be going to be a giant jumping-on level for a lot of followers as the primary grownup novel of this subsequent chapter.

It’s set in a interval of the Republic’s expansionist historical past 150 years earlier than the occasions of The High Republic’s first section—the place communication throughout a galaxy more and more opening itself to the universe remains to be sparse, the Republic remains to be in a nascent interval of its evolution, and the Jedi should not but hand-in-hand with the governance of the galaxy. Alongside that, new factions emerge, with probably main ramifications for The High Republic because it strikes forward—just like the unusual Path of the Open Hand, a non secular motion that believes the Force ought to by no means be utilized by sentient beings… just like the Jedi.

In Convergence, the Path begins making massive strikes when the Jedi and the Republic are referred to as to orbiting planets of Eiram and E’ronoh, in an try to forge peace between the warring worlds. When an assassination try on Eiram and E’ronoh’s royal households is made throughout a marriage meant to unite the planets, the Jedi and the Republic alike discover themselves attempting to work collectively and uncover the mysterious movers and shakers at play behind the scenes… a number of of which you’ll be able to meet in our unique excerpt beneath, each in textual content type and from Convergence’s audiobook, learn by Marc Thompson!

Serrena took the EX communications droid aside piece by piece. It would have been misplaced to hyperspace if she hadn’t moved shortly. With all consideration on the drill ships ascending into E’ronoh area, Serrena had slipped by undetected, and intercepted the Republic’s capsule together with her Vane-class transport shuttle, a two-person shuttle she’d salvaged from scrap and armed with retractable magnetic clamps. She’d welded and assembled it together with her naked arms.

She’d landed inside the Brushlands, at an deserted mining village that skirted the capital. There Serrena had discovered every thing she wanted to meet her mission. A quiet place to cover and serve her grasp effectively.

The entrance door hissed open, letting within the chill and dirt of the windy night time. Abda had returned, and the scent of fried scorpion crammed the room. Serrena didn’t search for.

“I brought food. You’ve been at it for hours,” Abda stated, sitting on the threadbare rug.

She resented having Abda watching over her shoulder, declaring each single element as if Serrena hadn’t considered it first. But the elders had insisted on working in pairs, on ensuring they have been by no means susceptible to the corruptions of the skin world. Serrena and Abda have been, in fact, each Kage, born to the darkish shimmering world of Quarzite. Banished by their clans for refusing to struggle. For Serrena, it wasn’t the violence she turned from. It was the insignificance of it. Through the Path of the Open Hand, she had realized that each a part of her lived in concord, and her misfortunes? They have been the fault of those that used the Force, just like the Jedi. After years on Dalna, she had been referred to as to a better function, one she would fulfill together with her final breath, as a result of she was one of many Mother’s Children, and Abda was not.

She snarled, “I’ll eat when the work is done.”

Abda sighed, taking a chunk of her meal. “If you pluck the wrong wire, everything will be erased and we won’t be able to learn why the Republic has come to this sector now. And if you can’t dispatch it once we’re done, they may get suspicious, and it’ll lead back to us.”

“I know what I’m doing.” Serrena pushed again her hood. Her pale pores and skin was lined in pink burns from the unforgiving solar. She bared her tooth and seethed. “You forget she chose me for this honor.”

“And you failed,” Abda muttered, rolling her pink gem eyes. “Princess Xiri lives. The cease-fire still holds and your jamming beacon was destroyed.”

Serrena slowly put down the Louar clamps. “Patience.”

“You sound like a Jedi.”

Serrena cursed, however centered on her work. She wanted one thing helpful to report again. Everything else was a distraction, even her accomplice.

A bead of sweat ran straight down her nostril, and he or she caught it together with her tongue. Her fingers have been regular with function as she plucked a silver wire that will set off a system reset. Then she turned on the EX droid, and a holo of two previous Jedi, judging by their robes, flickered to life.

“That isn’t Chancellor Mollo,” Abda grumbled as they listened. She at all times was shortsighted.

“Even better,” Serrena stated. “We need to tell the Mother the Jedi have arrived.”

***

Abda awoke to the gentle beeping of a holoprojector. Her holoprojector. Ever since they’d been stationed on E’ronoh to survey the disaster, all communications had gone by way of Serrena. But Abda was not jealous. She knew that the Force supplied. Her time would come to show herself, to indicate everybody within the Path of the Open Hand that she was grateful for her second probability at life. That was all anybody needed, wasn’t it? An opportunity.

She slipped out from below her covers. Once the solar sank behind the orange and pink canyons, E’ronoh’s nights have been unforgiving of their chilly. Abda was used to cooler climates. Her homeworld of Quarzite was naturally cool, with its stomach stuffed with shimmering crystals and twisting tunnels. That was one other life. Another model of herself, too weak to be the violent, ruthless warrior her household had anticipated her to be.

Abda had discovered individuals who accepted the damaged elements of herself. They welcomed her. From the minute she’d left dwelling— no. It wasn’t dwelling anymore. She needed to shed the blinders in her thoughts. From the minute she’d left Quarzite, she’d develop into a distinct particular person with a brand new identify and new function. She’d seen how large the galaxy was. How merciless it was, too.

Her ft have been a whisper towards the stone as she shivered out of their deserted shelter and into the night time. She answered the decision, and the pixelated holo got here into view.

Abda’s lips trembled from utter and full pleasure. She dipped her head low. “Mother—it’s you!”

Her lips have been all that was seen below her lengthy, hooded cloak, however Abda acknowledged her anyway. She solely wished she have been on Dalna to absorb the Mother’s magnificence and hear as she whispered the reality of the universe. Now, she was smiling for Abda. “Hello, Abda.”

“Do you want me to wake Serrena?” Abda glanced again, however the Mother tutted her tongue towards straight tooth.

“Let’s not wake her just yet. She has her instructions.”

“I’m sorry we’ve failed you. I—”

“Never,” she stated, her picture rattling. The non-public relay techniques of their sector have been unstable, and Abda cursed them for interrupting even a breath of her viewers with the Mother. “You have not failed me.”

Abda nodded, cheeks hurting from smiling. She didn’t realize it might harm to smile. “I would never.”

“I know you wouldn’t. That is why I think it’s time for you to go out on your own.”

“Of course, anything for the Path of the Open Hand.”

“Oh no, Abda. This is something for me.” The Mother smiled as she rested her palm over her coronary heart. “I want you to take your rightful place as one of my Children.”

Abda’s abdomen clenched with nerves. She’d waited and waited to be observed. To be one of many Mother’s Children. She wasn’t prepared. Was she? Serrena at all times reminded her that she wasn’t prepared. But the one voice that mattered, the one voice of reality was the Mother’s.

“I would do anything.” Her voice trembled with want. “Anything.”

“Good, Abda.” The Mother glanced over her shoulder. “You must do exactly as I tell you. Can I trust you?”

“Yes,” the younger Kage cried. “With every part of my being.”

Reprinted from Star Wars: Convergence (The High Republic) by Zoraida Cordova. Copyright © 2022 by Lucasfilm Ltd. Published by Del Rey, an imprint of Random House, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. Audio excerpted courtesy of Penguin Random House Audio from Star Wars: Convergence (The High Republic) by Zoraida Córdova, learn by Marc Thompson.

Star Wars: The High Republic – Convergence hits shelves tomorrow, November 22.

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