Lorian stared at the ceiling. `No one has chosen me."

Dooku held his breath. Here it was, the big thing between them. He had been chosen by a Jedi Knight, and Lorian had not. Dooku had been one of the first to be chosen. Every day afterward, the two boys had waited for a Jedi Knight to choose Lorian. They knew that many had watched him, and some had considered him seriously. Yet each time, the Knight had chosen someone else. Neither Dooku nor Lorian knew why.

Dooku had always been ahead of Lorian in battle skills and Force connection, but Lorian was just as brilliant in his studies and commitment. It was unthinkable that Lorian would not be chosen eventually.

"It will happen," Dooku said. "Patience exists to be tested."

Lorian flipped over on his side and gave Dooku a flat stare. "Right."

Dooku wished he could take back his words. They were so… correct.

They were something a Jedi Master might say, not a best friend. But the truth was that he didn't know what to say. The period of waiting was hard, but everything would turn out all right.

Lorian coiled his body into a ball and then shot off the bed. "Okay, make a decision. Do we access the Sith Holocron or not?"

Dooku reached over to straighten the wrinkles Lorian had made on his new Master's bed. Thame was everything he'd hoped to get as a Master.

He couldn't jeopardize that. Not even for his best friend.

"Not," he said. "We'd get in serious trouble if we got caught."

"You never worried about getting caught before," Lorian said.

That's because I never had so much to lose. But Dooku couldn't say that. If he did, it would only point out that Lorian didn't have a Master.

Dooku felt Lorian's eyes on his back as he bent to smooth the coverlet at the end of Thame's sleep couch.