With the growing threat of the Second Imperium and the Dark Jedi being trained at the Shadow Academy, Luke decides, against his better judgment, to accelerate the training of his students, and asks them to build and start using their own lightsabers. The young Jedi Knights proudly rise to the challenge, but tragedy strikes when Jacen injures Tenel Ka while sparring, resulting in the loss of her arm. The princess is carried back to Hapes in shock.
On Hapes, Tenel Ka is once again exposed to her grandmother Ta’a Chume‘s schemings, as the old woman tries to initiate her to Hapan politics, and persuade her to renounce her Jedi training. Jacen, Jaina and Lowbacca arrive later in a welcome respite, but this does not last; after an unknown assassin detonates a bomb in the royal palace, Ta’a Chume determines that their lives are all in danger, and she and the Jedi trainees retire to an isolated Island in the middle of the Hapan ocean.
Even there, however, they are not safe; they barely escape another assassination attempt from a group of Bartokk killers. Upon their return to the mainland, the Queen Mother orders Ambassador Yfra, who was responsible for the attacks, arrested. Tenel Ka has determined that she wishes to continue her training, and returns to Yavin 4 with her friends, and constructs a new lightsaber.