TITLE: Letting go
AUTHOR: Master Yo-Gurt
ARCHIVE: MA if they want it, MWEB, my archive at Stolen Moments (www.ravenswing.com/YoGurt)
RATING: G
PAIRING: na
CATEGORY: POV, non-Q/O, vignette
SUMMARY: A Master's thought on knightning his Padawan. Mace's POV.
DISCLAIMER: All hail to the Flanneled One. May he reap the earnings of his hard toil, and make his fans happy and fluffy-tailed!:=)
FEEDBACK: Always appreciated in any way, shape or form at bogart_and_lily@yahoo.com.
NOTES: Written for that special person in Mace Windu's life. You know who you are!;)

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All Masters are proud when their Padawans become Jedi Knights.

With love I look at Depa, standing next to me, before the assembled High Council. Answering their final questions with a poise I suspected but never truly knew was inside her. So beautiful she is in her triumph over her fears.

Her trials have made my Depa stronger, she has passed them with flying colors and now, its time to cut her braid and let her go.

I don't want to loose her! I balk at letting her go into a world where I can no longer protect her. Where Jedi are feared and spat upon by some, and killed by others. But it must be done. My hand reaches for the knife I always carry in my belt, in slow motion I reach for her strand of long, dark hair and cut it at the base close to her skull. My hands tremor as I cut off the sign of her apprenticeship with one swift stroke of the small blade.

One move by my hand and she no longer is my Padawan. She is her own master now, doing her own missions, choosing her own Padawan when her time comes.

Looking into her eyes, I see the elation of a new beginning, the joy of having made me proud, and of having conquered her darkest fear to be lost and cold and abandoned. I never will leave you, my Dee! Never! As a final blessing I speak the sacred words over her, my hand resting on the chestnut hair of her bowed head: "I greet you, my equal My friend and defender Of all too weak to help themselves. My comrade in the Light My sister and kin. Teach what I have taught you, So you will know The joy of giving to the whole. Welcome, Knight Billaba. And may the Force be with you - always!"

I kiss her cheek then, binding the severed braid around her left wrist. The braid I had run through my fingers countless times. The braid which my Dee has worn with joy and to my, and her, greatest honor. The braid I have braided for her when she was still too young to do that task herself.

The tie that bound us has been cut, and it feels as if I lost a part of my soul!

The End