Out of the Shadows (Star Wars: The High Republic)

by Justina Ireland

The living Force was the energy that connected all living things to one another, but the cosmic Force was the galaxy itself and was wide and vast.

A slim woman wearing a plain tunic and trousers walked by, and Syl’s heart leapt before it settled back down to a normal pattern. This was the other thing she hated about Coruscant: the chance that she might see her ex-girlfriend again. She found herself looking for Jordanna far too often, as though the girl would be happy to see her. For a moment Syl was back on Tiikae, laughing with the girl and teasing her about her silly San Tekka manners, sneaking kisses with her when no one was around to catch them—not Syl’s mother and definitely not Jor’s stern aunt. It had been the best few months of Syl’s life, and the last time she’d been happy.

There was some thought among Jedi scholars that hyperspace was a part of the cosmic Force, the lanes rivers of energy that sprang from some unknown font. Others saw hyperspace as another dimension, a shadow of the world occupied by the living Force, and said that was why planets and other real objects impacted hyperspace as they did.