Obi-Wan's Silver Toe Ring




It's a silly thing, a piece of jewelry, a little ring made of silver made to fit in a place usually hidden. I got it on my Naming Day, the year I turned 18. I suppose I expected a book, or a new tunic, or some such practical thing; my Master has never been one for sentimental gifts -- but after a meal in our quarters (of several of my favorite foods and possibly more wine than was strictly good for me), while we sat on the small sofa, he placed this tiny bit of metal in my hand. I looked at it, turned it over and over and couldn't for the life of me figure out what it was -- a small silver ring, open in one place, and engraved with a design that could be interlocking chains or jacaranda leaves or possibly the symbol for infinity repeated and overlapped again and again. The edges were smooth, and the metal had that look very old silver gets when it's been worn for years close to skin. Jedi don't usually wear rings on our hands -- they show a vanity most of us don't have, and besides they get caught on everything. I'd seen several Corellian boys wearing little gold rings through the septums of their noses, but this wasn't that kind of ring. Anyway, I don't think I have the right sort of nose for that, and it would look silly for a Jedi apprentice to wear something usually associated with... I smiled at the idea of my generally solemn Master giving me a pleasure boy's ornament for my Naming Day, and looked at him questioningly.

"Where, exactly, would I... wear this?"

A look of barely veiled amusement showed in his usually very serious eyes. "Would you like me to show you?" I nodded assent, and he astonished me by going down on his knees before me, taking my bare right foot in his hand, and slipping the ring onto my second toe. He turned the ring so that the open part was at the bottom, then squeezed it slightly to fit it tightly but comfortably in place.

Possibly it was my Master's large, strong, gentle hand holding my foot that made me feel so suddenly warm, and possibly it was the wine. I looked down, and our eyes met, and I fell into his arms, and my Master surprised me again, right there on the floor, more or less the way I'd dreamed of it since I was old enough to imagine such things.

Afterward he held me for a while and we lay together and talked about what this meant, and the gift he'd given me. It turned out he'd found it in the bazaar on Paxillon months ago, when we were on that awful diplomatic mission. It's quite old, and Old Earth silver is hard to come by these days. Anyway, he'd held onto it since then, and now here it was on my second right toe, marking me as his, as if my heart weren't already so marked.

I've hardly taken it off since then. It felt slightly odd at first -- I wasn't used to wearing any kind of jewelry, obviously -- but as I got used to it, it became part of me. I'm always just slightly aware of it. No one else notices it, most of the time, since it's hidden by my boots; when someone remarks on it at the Temple pool or elsewhere, I just smile, and they assume it's another odd thing about me they don't understand. I don't like trying to explain the love between us to others; some things aren't really describable. When we're alone together, sometimes I focus on the ring to keep from losing my mind entirely; sometimes it works. Usually it doesn't, because he seems to be able to destroy me with sensation when he wants to. When I was injured last year, they had to take it off me before they put me into the bacta tank, and I missed it the moment I woke up on clean, cool sheets in the infirmary. My Master was there, and he slipped it back on, and it felt warm on my skin, and even though I still had more healing to do I felt complete again.

It's a silly thing, really, a tiny piece of silver on my second right toe. Hardly anyone ever sees it, but I'm aware of it all the time. It links me to him, the Master I love.

-end-



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