I rested on the ground, my knees taking most of my weight while my lower legs were bent under me. I kept my backside off my heels, as that was part of the instructions the Guardian of The Way had given me when I, and around fifty others had entered the Hall of Testing at this Sanctum of The Way. The Way was how the Anzati referred to the overarching martial art they followed.

I’d learnt this, and a bit more about the world when we arrived in orbit about a week ago, the Star Marshall who greeted our arrival providing a decent overview of how to learn The Way. There were five Sanctums upon the planet – all located on one of the two northern continents, where those wishing to learn The Way – be they Anzati or off-worlders – could attempt to prove their worth.

The Sanctums only opened on certain dates each year and were very particular about which sentients they would take as an Initiate of The Way. Anyone who failed a Sanctum’s Trial had to wait half a year before reapplying to another Sanctum, and if one failed to gain entry to any of the five Sanctums, then they were unworthy forever of learning even the first steps of The Way.

Those taken as Initiates trained at the Sanctum where they had proved their worth for however long it took to be determined by the Guardians to attempt the First Judgment. Completion of the First Judgment saw an Initiate become an Apprentice and then be able to choose the path they wished to walk.

The most common path taken by off-worlders was the Path Of the Hunter; a route dedicated to warriors who fought with distraction and diversion. The two other most common paths were that of the Tracker and the Assassin. Most Anzati favoured the Path of the Assassin, which was why to the galaxy at large they were generally regarded as a race of that profession.

I was unsure as to which path I wished to follow, but from what little I’d managed to gather from the locals while Simvyl and I waited for the next Sanctum Trial, I found myself seeing use in the Path of the Assassin and the Path of the Hunter. Training to use the Force in subtle ways to slip past and engage targets, while not ideal to how I generally fought, would be a useful set of extra skills in my arsenal and could be of use if Dooku’s hints of a plan to redistribute some of the treasures of the Jedi Temple developed into more duracrete plans.

A faint grunt of struggle drew my attention to my right. There I saw Simvyl resting in the same position as me, though it was clear he was fighting to maintain it. When we had first entered the Hall of Testing, assuming the position we were in was easy, yet as the hours stretched, and the sun slowly set somewhere outside, many of those in the room began to fall from their position, be collected by one of the Attendants monitoring us, and sent home.

One hundred had entered the Hall yesterday afternoon – I was sure a new day was upon us as I could see the sun rising outside – but now only twelve remained. Simvyl and I were the only non-Anzati remaining, as the other off-worlders – about ten – had failed during the night. It was clear that Simvyl was struggling but I could feel him drawing upon what little connection he had with the Force to strengthen himself. That was a sign the teaching of the Matukai had taken hold with him, and a clear indicator of his improvement over the last two years.

The challenge that lay before him, was to remain as he was as we waited for the Trial to end. I had no such issues, the Force granting me the strength to easily endure this trial, but I hoped that when it was time to become Initiates, Simvyl was still with us.

… …

As the sun rose high above the hall, increasing the temperature inside, I looked around. We were down to seven remaining, and impressively one of those was Simvyl. He had been struggling all morning, sweat flowing freely down his brow, but I was proud of my friend for not giving up. I was uncertain of how long we had been here, but I felt we were slowly approaching a full day in the Hall.

There was an unpleasant odour in the Hall, the result of two who failed during the morning losing control of their bodily functions. They had been escorted from here by the Attendants, embarrassment at their public humiliation evident on their faces, but no effort was made by the Attendants to clean up the messes left, nor nullify the smells. It hadn’t taken me long to realise they, or more like the Guardians, left the issues to further test those of us who remained. In their place, I might not do the same, but I could see the use of taking advantage of the unexpected opportunity.

The doors at the front of the Hall slid back, drawing everyone’s attention. We watched cautiously as Grand Guardian Frauq stepped into the Hall. He looked at all of us in turn, his eyes lingering on me more than any of the others. “Be at ease. The Trial has ended. You have proven your worth as potential Initiates.” He paused there waiting for us to shift from the positions we had been in.

None of us moved at first, either fearful or curious that this was some form of final test. The Grand Guardian chuckled at our reaction. “I assure you this is no trick, no test or challenge you must face.” He clapped his hands and the Attendants around the edges of the Hall stood. Most moved away though four came into the centre, moving to clear up the issues left by those who’d failed embarrassingly.

Seeing that, everyone shifted. I could tell they were all tired – their hands rubbing their calves to regain feeling in them – but I had no such issues. Even if I didn’t have the Force to ease my burden, Player’s Body ensured, even as altered as it now was from when I’d first been reborn in this galaxy, that such physical issues were heavily minimised.

I moved around and sat cross-legged, waiting for the others to recover and the Grand Guardian to continue. “Each of you has proven your dedication to taking your first steps on The Way,” he said slowly, a faint outline of a smile creeping onto his lips. “In the coming hours, the Guardians of this Sanctum will speak to you in turn, seeking to know what your purpose here is, and thus determine which Path might be best suited for you. However, you will not begin any Path until you prove yourself worthy of being more than an Initiate. I warn you that for many it can take years, even decades, to gain such skill. Many depart this Sanctum never reaching the next destination on their voyage along The Way, though I have hopes that some of you here today,” again his eyes focused on me, “will impress myself and my fellow Guardians.”

The Grand Guardian stood at that and nodded. At that signal, the Attendants that had departed returned, bringing with them trays. My nose perked up as I caught the faint, but growing stronger, hints of food. While I didn’t need the same sustenance as others – due to the Force and Player’s Body – hunger was still an issue I faced.

Two of the Attendants – both females who offered me demure but hungry smiles – placed their trays at my feet. Lifting the lid from the bowls I saw one brought what appeared to be rice and vegetables, the other a hot broth with a strong and very distinct scent.

I offered the Attendants a nod of thanks and then reached down for a spoon, curious as to how the broth tasted, and then later, how the discussions with the Guardians would go. I had not hidden my status as a Force user from the Anzati when I arrived in the system, though they, like many, had simply assumed that meant I was a Jedi. That was true enough, but it did amuse me how that was always the first-choice others made and when the time came to leave the Order, it was something I could exploit if I so wished.

… …

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… …

I moved through the paths of the Sanctum, about half a month into my training here. So far that had revolved around simple training focusing on ensuring that I, Simvyl, and the six others with us knew how to move silently around a location. The Guardians also taught us, or in some cases re-educated us, on how to move through the shadows, mindful of any – be they organic or mechanical – that might be seeking to find us.

After the meal following the First Trial, I had spoken with three Guardians about my intentions. They were impressed to see another Jedi coming to them to learn – it was uncommon but did happen on occasion – and they explained to me the purpose of training with the Anzati.

At this sanctum as an Initiate, I would work on drawing on the Force in subtle, almost untraceable ways. The intent was never to overwhelm a target, but to distract, disorientate, and dissuade them while moving toward whatever target one who follows The Way had.

Already that training had begun on nullifying the sound we generated as we moved. With my immersive Force connection, doing so was easy, but I was working hard on making such actions something I could do with the slightest effort. I wanted it to become as second nature to me as breathing; something that would always be used even when I had little or no use for it. The Guardians that were teaching us had decent potential with the Force, or at the very least their skill was such that they could sense if I drew too heavily upon it, helping to guide me to the point of manipulation of the Force that I desired. I wasn’t there yet, but I knew I was close.

In the coming weeks, the Guardians would advance the training, teaching us how to mask our scent to further improve our ability to move about without detection. Once that was mastered, and I intended to do so as quickly as I could, then the training – the final section of that for an Initiate – would be using the Force to brush against the minds of others and guide their attention and thoughts in ways that allowed one following The Way to move past them unseen.

Everything about how that trick was applied sounded similar to Force Persuasion, the gentler form of the common mind trick the Jedi used that Master Fay preferred. Thinking about that had me wondering how Fay’s task was going. It had been around three years since she left with Satele Shan’s holocron to locate Tython, I knew she still lived as I could sense my former Master through the Force, but beyond that, I remained unaware of her progress.

I hoped she was successful as the more she could bleed off Jedi unwilling to fight in the coming war, or even better who wished nothing to do with the Republic at large, the fewer obstacles I would face in the future. Yes, such an action would also help the Banite Sith, but for now, my goals aligned slightly with theirs, so actions that could benefit us both were acceptable.

I would normally have spoken with Adas in my quarters aboard Raven about the training the Anzati had placed me through so far, however, there had yet to be an ideal time to do so. Since being accepted as an Initiate, I had been sequestered in the Sanctum, sharing a room with Simvyl. I trusted he would not question the holocron, nor speak of it to another, but I could not be sure if there were any listening and watching us while we rested.

Access to my ship, and more importantly Anakin, was why I was moving through the Sanctum today, heading for a meeting with the Guardians. Even if they granted my request, I would not be using the ancient Sith holocron. Adas likely had already sensed Anakin around me, but I would not speak with the long-dead Sith Lord with Anakin anywhere nearby and risk the Sith trying to corrupt and manipulate my son. When he was older, ready for what I had learnt from Adas, then if he so desired, I would teach Anakin what I had learnt, but access to the holocron would never be his. That path carried too great a risk to even consider.

Anakin would not become Darth Vader, and join the Banite Sith, but I understood now, after over a year and a half of interacting with the Force normally that, just as with myself, the darkness that gave birth to Vader was within Anakin. The challenge I would be facing in the next decade was teaching Anakin how to accept that darker part of himself, that part that was always there, and not allow it to take control of him, and drive him down a path of rage and anger from which he would be lost to the Dark Side, possibly forever.

As I passed a pond in the Sanctum, fish of some form swimming freely within it, my mind rolled back to my early days as an Initiate and my ideas about Balance, about how one should be able to draw on both sides of the Force by channelling the correct emotions. I understood now that those ideas were, to be gentle, impossible.

The ways in which one used the Force, what most termed the Dark Side and the Light Side, were almost discordant. The base ideologies of those two Orders were simply irreconcilable. You could have a Jedi that was more aggressive and drew on their impulses to make decisions (which I was sure many would feel was a good description for me), but they ran the risk of getting lost in their needs and placing personal desires over any sense of what was good for others. Or you might find a Sith that would try to not place their selfish needs ahead of things that might help the greater good. However, in each case, the sentient ran a high chance of slipping and shifting to the other side of the Force. Trying to be both Sith and Jedi, both Light and Dark, would only lead to one’s mind shattering as it tried to reconcile the two paths.

Interestingly, this was, at least according to what I could discover in the Jedi and Celebratus Archives, what had happened to Revan. Hundreds of years after defeating Malak, and falling in love with Bastila, he had left her and ventured into the galaxy seeking out a threat. That threat had emerged centuries later as the Sith Empire fought a decade-long war against the Republic and the Jedi.

Yet it was after the rise of something called the Eternal Empire – the Celebratus archives had little on the exact details, and what I’d seen on the matter in the Jedi Temple had been highly restricted even as a Knight – Revan had somehow returned. Reading between the lines, he did this to stop a Sith Emperor who may also have controlled the Eternal Empire, and in doing so split his soul. The Light and the Dark within him were unable to reconcile their need to defeat this Sith Emperor with how they would do so.

In the end, Revan had been stopped from whatever insane idea his Dark Side had produced, but if his soul had split, then how had I spoken with him in the Crystal Cave on Ilum all those years ago, and what the fuck had happened back then?

I shook my head, pushing those thoughts aside. Every time I spent more than a few minutes trying to determine what had happened, I ended up with a migraine that would shatter duracrete and drive my mind close to shutting down. Perhaps one day, if he ever reappeared, I could ask my ancestor about how he could become one with the Force when his soul had severed itself, but given I’d yet to see him in the decade since that meeting, I wasn’t holding out much hope of that happening. Nor of my completing the quest he gave me.

As I neared the Guardian’s Quarters, I pushed thoughts about Revan and the Force away. There were two guards outside the building, each holding impressive-looking pikes that I had confirmed via Observe were coated in phrik and cortosis. Their armour was blaster-resistant to a degree and an interesting mix of practical and ceremonial. I wasn’t sure where they gained the phrik and cortosis for their weapons, but I knew this was not the only Sanctum that would have such weapons, suggesting an impressive supply was available to the Anzati government.

Seeing the guards my mind turns back to the first afternoon as an Initiate. Two of the more senior members of the Path of the Hunter provided us with a demonstration of their capabilities. They moved with impressive speeds – not on-par with what either I or Anakin could, but beyond what most without a strong connection to the Force could manage – striking and avoiding each other with fluidity and grace. Simvyl struggled to follow the fight, but I had no such issues and found myself mesmerised by the deadly dance the two Hunters engaged in.

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Afterwards, the Grand Guardian had spoken to me, impressed that I had tracked the movements of the Hunters so easily. He spoke of the last Jedi to train here, which had been Master Tholme who I knew in passing, and how it was always illuminating to have one of the Order train with their Assassins, Trackers, and Hunters. What the Great Grandmaster was surprised by was learning that I was a Jedi Knight. It seemed he had believed me a Padawan sent by my Master to study with them, and not a fully-fledged warrior of the Order.

“Why are you here Initiate?” one of the guards asks as I come closer. “The dormitories and training facilities are over there.” He uses his pike to gesture in the direction of where those places are.

I bowed, showing respect for them, and acknowledging that they outranked me. “I have come to speak with the Grand Guardian. He is aware of my request and bids me to arrive at this time.”

The guards looked at each other and then at me. It was early evening, less than an hour after dinner, and one of the few moments when Initiates were not in lectures, training, or spars. That I would use that small amount of free time when the Guardians were not pushing us to our limits, to seek out the Grand Guardian was unexpected.

One of the guards lifted his arm and accessed a small computer interface on his vambrace. As he did, I watched the sun slowly setting to my right. Anzat had a twenty-eight-hour day, and our training took up much of that time. Nearly twenty-two hours in total, with only four hours allowed during the night to rest. It didn’t take a genius to understand the Guardians were pushing us past our limit, forcing us to keep going even when barely able to. Unlike the others, however, I had the advantages of being a Jedi, Player’s Body, and a Meditation skill that was maxed. With those working in concert, I could negate any weariness my body and mind experienced.

It was because of that, and not being able to train Anakin while inside the Sanctum, that I was here to speak with the Grand Guardian. I hoped that even if just a few times each month, I might be allowed to return to Raven to monitor Anakin and test his progress.

“The Grand Guardian is expecting you.” The guard said after something flashed on his vambrace. “You may enter and will be escorted to him. Do not attempt to deviate from your path, or escape the notice of your guide.”

I bowed again, accepting the orders, and ignoring the tone the guard used. He was just doing his job and not, I felt, targeting me because I was an off-worlder. I entered the building, my mind already devising altered training patterns for Anakin if my request was granted, and the extent to which HK could go to ensure Anakin followed my plans.

And perhaps, while I was there, I might see how my son was coming along with his two projects.

… …

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… …

I slipped forward, moving from the wall I’d just scaled toward a row of bushes five metres further in. My steps were silent, the Force working in an almost inconceivably small way to dull the sound of my steps so that even I failed to hear myself as I moved. I was also using it to mask any scent I might produce. I could feel the Force swirling around me, subtly asking me to use it, offering its services, wanting me to rend every threat in the compound I’d just entered to pieces. I refused to do so. This challenge I faced was based on my skills and subtle usage of the Force, not overwhelming power. Failure to complete it sufficiently would deny me the chance to advance beyond Initiate, and prevent me from learning some of the greater skills those who followed The Way had.

Two months had passed since I, Simvyl and five others had been accepted as Initiates, and while Simvyl was doing well in his training, thanks to my ability to draw on far more reserves of the Force, and years of combat training before being reborn, I had advanced faster than him or anyone in our intake. This exercise, to infiltrate a compound, locate the target terminal, and then exfil without being detected was my Test of the Initiate; a chance to show that I was ready to learn more, and I was not going to fail it.

The major difference between this exercise compared to the various training drills we had been put through by the Guardians over the last two months was that this was a live-fire exercise. If the guards found me, they would shoot. The only small upside was that their blasters wouldn’t be set to kill, just a form of stunning that induced great pain.

To prepare me for what might happen, one of the Guardians had shot me with a blaster with that setting. Even knowing it was coming and preparing for it, I had been driven to my knees. My senses had struggled to remain active as every nerve ending in my body felt as if it was on fire. At that moment, the Force came to my call, and only the barest thread of control and the knowledge that this was something I had accepted as needing to happen prevented me from lashing out. From using the Force to eviscerate the Guardian who had dared induce the pain I had felt.

I was relieved that I had been able to control my rage during that demonstration and knew that if I’d come to Anzat not long after taking Natural Selection, I’d have never been able to contain my rage. Sithspit, even before Naboo I wasn’t sure if I’d have had the control – at least without Player’s Mind – to not lash out at those who’d dared to hurt me.

I stayed still in the bushes I was in, looking around the compound. The Guardians had made clear that beyond the three objectives of infiltrate, locate the target, and exfil without detection, I was free to use all the skills and weaponry at my disposal. I had chosen to not bring my lightsaber, as this was – even if I was to be shot at – just a training exercise. The use of the lightsaber would make it far too easy to maim and kill any who got in my way and certainly cost me any hint of anonymity.

Instead, I had a simple blade along with a holdout blaster at my hips, and the tools located in my mechanical limb. The Guardians, while aware that I had the replacement, and understanding and accepting of it, remained blissfully unknowing of the extras the limb possessed. Ideally, that would remain the case even after this exercise, but if not, the myriad of tools I had at my disposal would ensure that I could escape without detection regardless of whether I found the required terminal or not.

I went still as the sound of movement reached my ears; the Force boosting my senses to make it easier to know what was happening around me. Staying low in the bush, I waited for the guard – there should not be anyone here but guards – to approach while examining the map of the compound that I had overlaid on my minimap. I was still several metres, and at least two paths, from coming into sight of the central building that contained the terminal I was to access. Yet as I stayed there, listening as the guard grew ever closer to my location, I felt something was wrong.

The guard was unaware of me, I was sure of that. Yet within the Force, there was a distant echo. As if something was happening elsewhere. Not on Anzat but off-world. The faint sight of blue flashed through my mind before I drew my focus back to my location.

The steps grew closer, and the crunching of gravel louder, as the guard walked along the path. I stayed still, trusting my cover, the skills I had learnt, and the gentle applications of the Force I was using to keep me hidden. The rules of the exercise said the guards wouldn’t have anything like night-vision goggles or scopes, but I wouldn’t put it past the Guardians to change those rules without telling me. I stayed low, using the bushes to mask my presence and waited for the guard to draw ever closer.

I listened carefully, tracking the sounds of his movement, and comparing them to the compound’s layout on my minimap. As the sounds of his footsteps moved away, heading along the path, I stayed still. The routes and timings of the guards weren’t given in the briefing so I had no certainty as to when or if the guard would turn and come back.

Once the steps became quieter, and the minimap confirmed he had moved around a bend, I slipped forward, sliding under the bush so that I could see the path. There was no moon in the night’s sky, but using the Force to enhance my sight I saw the faint shifted sections of gravel where the guard had stepped. Pushing myself up to a kneeling position, I noted the marks in the gravel and the next row of vegetation.

Those bushes weren’t as tall or dense as the one I’d just moved under, meaning it would be harder to avoid detection once in them. I looked both ways, searching for a better route. However, two trees, each about three metres from me on each side marked the end of the bush: the ground beyond them being open and exposed.

The bush across from me was my best path. At least unless I wished to sneak around the walls of the compound seeking another route toward the central building that contained my target. I felt that path carried more danger. The guards would be more alert to shifting shadows and unexpected sounds the closer they were to the walls. Deeper in the compound, the odds were higher that they might be less alert to a threat, thinking those further out would find a danger before it moved inward.

I moved over the path, placing my feet gently into the indentations the guard had made, and reached the other bush. My steps were muffled by the Force dampening any sound I made, but I still moved slowly, not wanting to risk a sudden mistake that might expose my position.

Sliding low, I slipped under the bush and crawled forward. Yet before I was fully under the cover of the bushes, I heard the sound of shifting footsteps on the gravel. The guard had turned and was coming back. Not wanting to be found, I pulled myself as much as I could under the low bush. Then, as the sounds of the footsteps grew ever closer, I called the Force to me, bending it around myself as a sort of second skin in a way the Guardians called the Unseen Façade that they had been teaching me over the last few months.

The Force would distort my appearance, in theory making it difficult for any to be able to focus upon me. In well-lit locations, that would make it harder for others to shoot at or attack me, and in the darkness of the night, as it was now, it would allow me to remain unseen even if someone were almost on top of me. In time, I would be expected to use this new power to hide from the detection of droids and mechanical sensors, but I’d yet to begin such training as that was considered an Apprentice-level skill. Provided I passed this exercise, then I should move to that rank and begin more advanced training. That said, I could already see how it would in theory work, and with two droids at my disposal if I couldn’t learn it before my time on Anzat was over, I’d be able to learn it for myself.

As I lay there, unmoving and waiting for the guard to pass by, my thoughts drifted for a moment to the Jedi Shadows. Master Giiett had suggested on occasion that I would be well suited to serving with that subset of the Order. However, while I was skilled at subterfuge and able to think outside the box, I had grown to prefer being in the heat of battle instead of slipping around the edges of it to cause damage others wouldn’t notice until it was too late.

The training that Giiett had provided me with when trying to convince me to join the Shadows – at least before his death – bore similarities to much of what the Anzati Guardian taught and wondered if the other Jedi who’d’ come here – such as Master Tholme – had been Shadows themselves.

I refocused as the guard came to a stop almost on top of me. I remained still, waiting for him to move yet preparing to strike. Darts in my arm would render him unconscious in an instant if he spotted me, however, such a move would place a severe time restraint on the exercise. Either the guard would wake up in four or five hours and remember what had happened, or another would find him; either by walking along this same path, or by him missing a check-in.

Time seemed to slow as I readied myself on the chance I was detected. My heart rate remained steady even as I felt my body and the Force wait for my signal to strike. The idea to cast a false sound elsewhere in the compound came to mind. It was not a trick the Guardians had suggested, but one Fay had taught me years before. I’d never needed that power before, nor had it registered as a Force Power back when the Interface tracked such things, but it was an option if the guard lingered for too long.

Thankfully for me, the guard resumed moving, heading back in the direction I’d first seen him coming from. I stayed still listening intently to the sound of his steps, as the gravel crunching under his feet grew ever quieter. Once he was far enough away, I shifted, moving through the bushes toward the centre of the compound.

Once out from the bushes, I looked around. Ahead of me was a flower bed. There was no way I could move through it without damaging some of them, which risked giving away my presence. I could move around it, but either side offered no cover on the small expanse of grass before. That, however, was acceptable for now as my location granted me a clear line of sight of the central building in the compound, and where on the top floor the terminal I was expected to access was located.

At five floors tall, the building was a good ten metres above anything else in the compound, which made it easy to use as a point of reference. However, the downside was that scaling the outside of the building would be troublesome as I’d be visible to anyone who looked at it from the side I climbed up.

The terminal on the fifth floor was special in that it was air-gapped to the networks running in the compound, and supposedly the only one used for accessing several highly classified files that I needed to duplicate. The problem was always going to be gaining access to that terminal, and as my eyes scanned the base of the building, the difficulty increased exponentially.

The only visible entrance – I could make out two sides clear and catch hints of the third – lay before a large open expanse of gravel. An area of around ten square metres in size. Two guards stood at their posts on either side of the door, and as I watched, I saw at least four guards moving around near the sides I could see.

I could get past those guards, or at least I thought I could. However, doing so would either take too much effort to do so without alerting them or if I took them out, draw the attention of the other guards before I had completed my assignment.

My eyes searched the building, spotting windows on each of the floors between the ground and the fifth floor. However, as I looked closer – the Force granting me impressive depth of vision – I noted that all were locked from the inside. To make matters worse, along the edges of the building, shaped in ways to hide their presence with the architecture, I saw what I assumed to be sensors and cameras.

That removed the idea of taking out the guards, as I’d be seen by others before I was close enough to take the two guards down quietly. Oddly, I smiled as I understood the cameras were an extra layer of security, one not mentioned by the briefing before the exercise that was designed to catch out any who chose to rush the building in a desire to reach the terminal.

My gaze moved to the building’s roof. From what I could see from my vantage point, it appeared flat. In theory, there would be some way to enter the room I wanted from there, however, getting to the roof would be a challenge. The sky might be black due to the missing moon, but using the Force to leap onto the roof would make it highly likely I would be spotted, if not heard as I landed.

My gaze shifted around, seeking a way to reach the roof of the central building without being seen by guards or cameras. There were a few smaller buildings nearby, though none within easy jumping distance. Some were close enough that I felt I could make the leap with the Force boosting me, and ensure that no one saw or heard my actions. Yet, as my eyes focused on one building in the corner of the compound, out of the way and seemingly unimportant, the Force subtly shifted.

That drew my attention, and I examined the building as best I could from my location. There was nothing seemingly important about it, and it lay far from my target, with only a single guard patrolling nearby, yet the Force was implying that this building might be of use. Curious about why that was, and knowing I had until the first light of the morning – about six and a half hours from now – stretched over the compound to complete my assignment, I decided to investigate.

At the very least being able to watch the target building from another angle might offer a way into the target. And at best… there might be a way to complete the challenge without needing to risk discovery.

… …

“Why were you drawn to the building you ended up entering?”

The question had come from one of the three Guardians that I was standing before. It was a few hours after the exercise had ended, and it was confirmed that while I hadn’t accessed the terminal in the main building, I had completed it successfully.

“A feeling,” I replied, thinking back to the small building the Force had guided me to. As I drew closer I discovered several instances of hidden security around the building, which only served to further my curiosity. “The Force hinted to me that there was more to the building than met the eye,” I added as the Guardians looked at me. “Unlike the other buildings in the compound, bar the primary target, this one had more security than one would expect. Because of that, I decided to trust the Force and investigate further.”

As it turned out, the building the Force guided me to had a terminal in it as well, one that connected to the supposedly air-gapped one on the top floor of the building I was meant to infiltrate. I had copied the files from the new terminal and then slipped from the compound without being spotted by any guard or sensor.

“You abandoned your orders?”

“My orders were to access the terminal in the main building and copy the files on the secured terminal. Whether I could or could not complete that, I was expected to leave the compound before sunrise without being stopped, or ideally detected. The target building with the terminal was too heavily guarded for there to be much chance that I could gain entry without being detected. Deciding that remaining unseen and learning as much as I could about the compound that night, so if allowed I could return the next, was the prudent course of action.”

The three Guardians turn to each other. I could see their lips move, yet was unable to hear what they were saying as they discussed my actions. Soon, they turned back to me.

“The exercise is deemed a success,” one of the Guardians stated, drawing a small smile from me. “Few Initiates ever consider accessing the secondary buildings, and fewer still locate the secondary terminal. Interestingly, you are the tenth Jedi to train at this Sanctum in my time as a Guardian,” which, from what I knew of how long an Anzati could live, could be centuries if not millennia, “and all have located the secondary terminal. However, only five including yourself accessed said terminal.”

“Because of your performance, we deem you to be ready to take your next step in harnessing The Way. Well done Apprentice.” I bowed in thanks for the promotion. “We should state that an increase in rank brings with it a more gruelling training schedule. We are aware the Grand Guardian has permitted you to depart the Sanctum one night a week to train your Padawan. However, with your new training schedule, you shall only be granted two evenings of rest each week. You might also be sent to another Sanctum for additional training if we felt it would benefit your journey in harnessing The Way to do so.”

I frowned at hearing that. While the increased training would help with the quest I had linked to my time here – which was focused on the skills of Stealth, Sleight of Hand, Lockpicking, and Perception, it would mean my time with Anakin might be curtailed.

“An Apprentice of the Way is pushed to the very limits of their physical abilities,” the third Guardian said, “pushing you past the limits of your species and testing just how long you can rely on the Force for support. We understand that this might interfere with the training of your Padawan, and as such grant you a choice which needs to be made by the end of the day. Either you accept Apprentice training, and all that entails, or your time with us will see you remain as an Initiate; barely being pushed to improve yourself or harness The Way.”

I bowed in thanks for the time to consider the matter and stayed there until the trio had left the room. Once they did I stood up and sighed. Anakin disliked only seeing me once a week as was, and while I should be able to keep seeing him as an Apprentice, I feared that I would not be able to do much training, or even supervise much of his training if I became as worn out and ragged as the Guardians were suggesting.

I left the room, and knowing I was under the clock sought out a quiet corner to meditate on my choice.

… …