Darth John snow's Arc

Chapter 9 of 10

John came home from the southern road to find strangers waiting at the stone building past the stream. Word had spread. The green light at his hip and the riders who answered bells had pulled them in. Some looked hungry to serve. Some looked hungry to take. The girl met him at the door and said what he already feared. One of them carried a cheap cloth banner with a crooked iron knot stitched on it, claiming he had ridden for the order already. John knew he had not. He sat in the loft that night and reached for the Force. He listened past the wind and the bells. He felt each man like a struck note — some clear, some sour. By morning he could tell truth from lie without a word spoken. He walked outside and set the recruits to work building a place of testing. They raised a stone tower and platform near the wood, with thick posts and rope walks. Past the trees they stacked logs and wove vines into a hard jump course that climbed between two old oaks. For months he watched them run it. The platform let him see every step. The jump course showed him who helped a fallen man up and who stepped over him. The man with the stitched banner reached the top first and kicked another rider off the logs. John felt the sour note ring loud. He walked out, took the banner from the man's pack, and burned it in the dirt. The man left before dusk. The others stayed. By the end of the season John had twelve riders he trusted. Three of them heard the Force the way he did, and he taught them in the quiet hours. They wore the iron knot because they had earned it on the course, under his eye. The girl watched them drill from the platform and did not need to say a thing. The order had a gate now that only the worthy could pass.