Shadowmoth

Vergere: "What I have done? Oh, no no no, this is about what you have done."

Jacen: "I haven't done anything!"

Vergere: "Exactly. Is that not the infant's tactic? To wail, and wail, and wail, to wriggle its fingers and kick its heals...hoping an adult will notice and care for it?"

Jacen: "Is that why you keep coming here? To gloat? To humiliate a defeated enemy?"

Vergere: "Am I gloating? Are we enemies? Are you defeated?"

Jacen: "I don't understand."

Vergere: "That, at least, is very clear. I give you a gift, Jacen Solo. I free you from hope of rescue. Can you not see how I am trying to help you?"

Jacen: "Help? When we talk about the kind of things you've done to me, help isn't the word we use."

Vergere: No? Then perhaps you are correct: our difficulties may be linguistic. When I was very young, I came upon a shadowmoth at the end of its metamorphosis, still within its cocoon. I had already some touch with the Force; I could feel the shadowmoth's pain, its panic, its claustrophobia, its hopelessly desperate struggle to free itself. It was as though this particular shadowmoth knew I was beside it, and screamed out to me for help. How could I refuse? Shao mothe cocoons are polychained siicates---very,very, tough---And shadow moths are so delicate,so beautiful: Gentle creaturse whose only purpose is to sing in the night sky. So I gave it what you mean by help: I used a small utility cutter to slice the cocoon, to help the shadowmoth get out."

Jacen: "Oh, you didnt, please say you didnt..." He closed his eyes, sorry already for how this story would end..He had shadowmoth as a boy in his animal collection. He remebered feeding the larva, feeling its happy contentment, carefully watching over it so that it could perform its metamorphosis. He remembered the beauty as the shadow moth, freshly emerged, spreading its wings as it trilled its moonsong. He remembered watching it as it flew away to join its kin under corucants 4 moons. he also remembered its panic, fear, and claustrophobia as it struggled to break out of its cocoon, and why he hadnt helped it.

Jacen: "You can't help a shadowmoth by cutting its cocoon. It needs the effort; the struggle to break the cocoon forces ichor into its wing veins. If you cut the cocoon—

Vergere: "The shadowmoth will be crippled. Yes it was a tragic creature,never to fly,never to join its fellows in their nightdance,under the full moons. Even its wingflutes were stunted, so it was mute as well as planetbound. During that long summer, we sometimes heard moonsong through the window of my bedchamber,and from my shadowmoth I only felt sadness and bitter envy,that it could never soar beneath the stars,that its voice could never rise in song. I cared for it as best I could.But the life of a shadow moth is short,you know; they spend years as larvae, storing strength for one single summer of dance and song.. I robbed that shadowmoth. I stole its destiny—because I helped it."

Jacen: "That wasn't helping. That's not what help means either."

Vergere: "No? I saw a creature in agony, crying out in terror, and I undertook to ease its pain, and assuage its fear. But tell me this, Jacen Solo: what should I have done that you would call help?"


Jacen: "You didnt know what was happening."

Vergere: "Niether did the shadowmoth. But tell me this Jacen Solo,if I had understood what was happening----If I had known what the larva was,and what it must do,what it must suffer to become the glorious creature it could become...What should I have done that you call help?"

Jacen: "I suppose the best help you could offer would be to keep the cocoon safe—and leave it alone to fight its own battle."

Vergere: "And, perhaps, also to protect it from other well-intentioned folk—who might wish, in their ignorance, to 'help' it with their own utility cutters. And also perhaps, you might stop by from time to time, to let the struggling, desperate, suffering, creature know that it is not alone. That someone cares. That its pain is in service of it's destiny."

Jacen: "Yes..."