“Could you use it on your clock?” you ask.

“What? Why?”

“Um, before we get to that… Master, you mentioned earlier that my headband was glowing.”

“Yes, I can’t be sure why, but from the appearance of it, I would suspect that it was actually your, um… eye, that was glowing.”

“That’s probably right. In my dream, my headband was gone, and I opened my eye. It just felt right to do so. But, maybe it was actually wrong, because that’s what drew out all the monsters in the first place. My eye does something. When I looked at the monsters with it, most of them would try to avoid it. As if they were afraid of it. And, while looking around, it was like I was shooting an ion beam through water. Any loose warp-stuff in front of me would disappear or be blown away. And there’s more. It does stuff outside the dream too.”

Master Masbau stills, looking you in the eyes. Your normal eyes that is. The ones that always glow. He’s worried, extremely so.

“Master, I don’t think it’s dangerous. If anything, it’s helpful!”

“You used it for something? Already?”

“I think it lets me see the warp. And, I think my ability to sense emotions is based around it too.”

“But aren’t you able to sense emotions without having your eye open? Or has it been open all this time?”

“No, I’ve kept it closed,” you deny. “Maybe I’m wrong about that last thing, but I think something at least related to the eye or the warp lets me see emotions. You remember how I told you about the ‘true-self’ in the past? The psyche of anyone I look at? I couldn’t find anybody with Force empathy that could see it too. It must have something to do with all the warp stuff. And, when I look at anyone with my eye open, it lets me see even more!”

“Xena! I know you think it’s safe, but you need to be careful with it. Didn’t you say that you attracted monsters with it?”

“Master, it’s not what attracted the monsters! The monsters were already there, just sleeping or hiding. I just didn’t know what I was doing when I first used it – actually, I still don’t really know what I’m doing, but I’m being careful! When I opened my eye that time, I stirred all the monsters up. It was just the wrong place for it. Like turning on a lantern in the middle of a monster-infested cave and not expecting them to be angry. It was helpful though, for keeping the monsters back for a while.”

Master Masbau is, understandably, upset. He’s confused, and definitely worried for you. But, he’s certainly an expert at keeping his cool given that he hasn’t interrupted you yet. As he calms down a bit, you continue.

“As I was saying earlier, I’m able to see the warp with it. When I looked at myself with it, I could see warp within me.”

…

He’s certainly good at keeping his cool, isn’t he? Hearing that last tidbit caused a huge spike in his worry, but he’s waiting for you to finish what you’re saying.

“In a person’s true-self, I can see the Force flowing. It’s like rivers, lakes, and tributaries. The Force flows through everybody, and with my third eye – my warp-eye – I can finally see it within myself. Inside of me, the Force flows just as smoothly as in anyone else, but between the rivers of Force are currents of warp as well.”

“Have you noticed anything different since the dream? No, no.. what am I asking? It’s not like you could see this before.”

“Um. I do feel… kind of angry for some reason. All the time. And I don’t know why. I’ve also been having nightmares, but not the ‘fell into the warp kind.’ Can we come back to this later?”

“Sure,” Master Masbau affirms.

“When I use my eye on someone else, I can see more to their true-self. Where I used to see a… How do I say this? It’s - it’s like a painting. A flat canvas painted with aspects of a person’s life. I could see what a person wants. I could sometimes see what they’re hiding. But, it’s two-dimensional. I couldn’t see past the upper layer, unless it’s very thin. If they have something buried deep within them, I couldn’t tell what it was. But now, with my eye open, I pick out all the layers. I can see what makes the person, and almost infer their past! And, like I said, I can see the Force. Where I could only sense the Force in others with my normal Force sense, I can now see it in another way!

“I think that the warp has existed within me, always. As I grew older, my own ‘inner-self’ was probably covered in the layers of my true-self, which have been threaded through with warp-stuff. Without my eye, I can’t see the Force deep within me, because the warp has buried it deep down and covers it completely. Now, I can see it all!”

As you take a second to breathe, Master Masbau sits up a bit.

“So.. since you can see the warp. You want to try to see it inside the clock? And you’re hoping that you can see how it reacts to the Force Stanch?”

You nod quickly in excitement, all eyes literally shining.

“I can see your eye is open, Xena. I’m assuming the headband isn’t blocking your view…?” he trails off questioningly.

You continue nodding and he takes that for the confirmation that it is.

“Alright then. Before we start, can I know what you see in me? Actually, you say you’ve looked at others with your eye before. What did you see? Actually, please use some discretion. Don’t tell me anything too embarrassing. Your unwitting victims deserve at least a bit of privacy.”

“Uh, I first looked at one of the nurses. I didn’t catch his name, but he was the one who went to find you when I woke up that first time. I could see what he thought of himself. And I could tell that what he knew of himself was different from what was true of himself. Past his wants and needs are the, uh… foundational truths of the person. And, I could see for sure that he is a good nurse and that he cares for his patients! But! But, he thinks he should be nervous and scared of things, just because that’s what he thinks others would feel. And, paradockically - para… para-whatly? What’s the word?”

“Paradoxically.”

“Paradoxically, he’s so confident in himself, by which I mean he is so confident in his own thoughts – the belief that he should be nervous – that he ends up making himself nervous for no real reason. That’s why he went off to get you rather than deal with me himself. He’s competent otherwise. So… yeah. I can see these truths about him. What he can do and can’t. And if he were to try to hide something, I could probably figure it out if I had enough context.”

“What if you don’t have enough context?”

“I would be shooting in the dark. Guessing away. But, I knew he was a nurse, and just looking at his emotions for a bit made it easier to guess about some things.”

“Well, now. That could be extremely useful for investigations. Do you think you could do the same with objects? Maybe do psychometry?”

“Psychometry?”

“Sense echo. Where you can experience the recent life of an object. See what it saw for a time. There is a Force technique for this, but maybe you can do the equivalent.”

“I’m not sure. Objects don’t have a true-self for me to read. I guess I won’t know until I try.”

“Try it on Mr. Ears here.”

“Mr. Ears?”

He gestures at the little sculpture on his desk. You suppose it kind of looks like some sort of rabbit creature with long floppy ears, but you’re pretty sure your younger self was attempting to make a model of Master Masbau. You hope he doesn’t know that…

After a moment of concentration, you shake your head.

“There’s something. A bit of the warp, but it feels like… a layer of dust. Not much at all. As much dust as you could find on it if you didn’t clean it for a couple weeks. I think it’s from before, but it’s only coating the surface. I can’t read anything else out of it, only the warp-stuff.”

“That’s unfortunate. Still, absolutely a useful ability. Who else did you try it on?”

“Tera and Nyine visited me a couple times. Doran and the others too, apparently. I was asleep for those visits though. Tera is… simpler than the nurse. Not in a bad way! She just has far fewer layers, probably because she’s so much younger than him. She’s pretty much exactly as she seems on the outside. Talkative and friendly. Earnest to a fault. Nyine is a bit more complicated. She’s afraid of failure. I think everybody’s afraid to fail though. But, she’s more… nuanced. She worries less about disappointing others with failure than disappointing herself. Except when it’s certain people. You would think that she would be afraid of disappointing the Masters or her friends. But, it varies. I couldn’t really tell who affects her in that way. There’s more to it, but I’d need more time to work it out myself before talking about it.”

Master Masbau nods sagely at this, as if he already knew these things. Well, he has watched over you and your friends by extension since you were a literal baby, so you can grant him that.

“I suppose it’s my turn now. What do you see?”

You peer past his emotions and leaf through the layers of his true-self. You catch a glimpse of the Force within his inner-self, but stay on task.

“...You are attached.”

“...?”

“You are emotionally attached. To me and to your former padawan. You care about everybody – the whole Jedi Order, the Masters, the Knights, and especially the Younglings – but you have linked your identity to protecting me and Knight Masa. It’s almost… familial—”

“That’s enough… please.” Master Masbau sighs. “...I suppose I asked for it. And it’s good to know. But, you’re sure this is the case?”

“I know you well enough that I don’t have to guess, Master. And, you don’t have to ask me if it’s true. You know it yourself.”

“You’re right. I can feel it.” He closes his eyes. “I can feel it in the Force. A thread of connection. Thank you for telling me, Xena. But, not everybody has the strength to face the truth about themself. You’ll have to be careful before speaking to others like this. After all, how would you know I would be able to handle— Ah,” he cuts himself off. “Of course. You could see that in my true-self couldn’t you?”

“That, and I know you well enough.”

“Yes, yes.”

Master Masbau sighs and give you a bit of a pleading look. “Xena, please try to keep that to yourself. My attachment, that is. I’d rather Master Drallig not strip me of my position.”

You nod at this. Temple Guards are supposed to avoid emotional attachment as much as possible, hence the anonymous white robes and masks. The fact that Master Masbau allows you to see his face while in his office is a huge measure of trust. While off-duty, Master Masbau does go around without Guard attire, but he treats it as if he were undercover, with a separate identity. Of course, you can still easily tell who he is when he’s on duty, either by voice, presence in the Force, emotional signature, or true-self, but it’s the principle of the thing.

“Xena, you saw the Force and the warp within you with your true-sight. Did you see anything else?”

“No, Master. I was distracted by everything that was going on.”

“Perhaps you should try it. Seems like the ultimate tool for introspective meditation, really. Anyways, we should get on with what we were doing.”

At this, he picks up the pieces of the rusted clock, placing them gently in front of you.

“Right after you started screaming, this thing started rusting over. Any metallic parts tarnished to the point that some completely turned to dust. Nearly all the steel screws are gone now, which is why the whole thing fell apart. The brass gears are mostly still there though, but the zinc content is lower than before. Go ahead with your examination. Tell me what you see.”

As you turn your Gaze upon the clock, you speak out loud, narrating what you find. The clock as a whole is clearly tainted by the warp. The warp moves sluggishly throughout the various pieces, as if impeded by the material. It wisps away at the edges, threading its way through the air for a moment before vanishing. The clock was likely even more tainted in the past, but the warp has been “evaporating” over time. Hopefully, it doesn’t do anything once “evaporated,” but you think it should probably be isolated away from people and you say as much.

Peering closer, you see a sudden flash. A flash of… memory. You see a brief moment, frozen in time, of a girl with three glowing stars in her head and screaming in fear and pain. You can smell the faint scent of blood and hear the ticking of the now-broken clock. In an instant, the sensations pass, and you’re back to reality. You try to probe the clock again with your Gaze, but nothing else comes from it. You excitedly confirm to Master Masbau that it appears that you do in fact have a very limited form of psychometry. You can see a moment from when it became tainted, but it’s probably not possible to see any more than that. You do however see, as you continue to observe the pieces, that wisps of warp that fall away from the clock seem to move toward you. You stand and walk around the desk, watching as the strands of warp-stuff continue to point in your general direction, just like how a compass would point to the north. It seems that not only can you see what tainted the thing, but it’s likely that you can track down whoever, or whatever, caused it in the first place! Or maybe not. Maybe you’re acting like a magnet, brought too close to a compass, simply attracting the needle in what resembles a useful direction. It’s impossible to test this hypothesis though, as you’re the only thing that you know of that could cause warp taint to appear.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

You’re unable to find anything else to the clock and so you end your investigation. Master Masbau moves forward, saying, “I’m not entirely sure that this will do anything. Typically, Force Stanch needs a living target to work. I’ve not heard of anybody trying to channel it into an inanimate object, so it may not even take.”

Even so, Master Masbau continues with the task, placing his hand on the most tainted piece of the clock that you direct him to. After a moment, you can feel with your Force-sense a moment of calm. Serenity. The Force flows through him as you watch with both your warp-eye and your Force-sense, pooling in his hand for but a second. The tiniest bit of Force leaves his hand, injecting itself into the clock and you are confused. Why did he channel so much of the Force when so little of it is used? But then, you realize that, no, the rest of it is not wasted. He is manipulating the Force within the clock itself to do what is needed, using the Force within him as some sort of control medium. Very little Force exists within the clock however, making the work slow going, but you can see that something is indeed happening.

Where the Force Stanch goes, the warp is pushed back. And when the Force Stanch is able to touch the warp, you can see the warp-stuff being slowly… obliterated. No. That’s not the right word. It’s banished. It leaves the Materium, forced, or more accurately, Forced, back to the Immaterium! You excitedly fidget in your seat as Master Masbau finishes, unwilling to distract him while he finishes the Force Stanch. Once done, though, you describe your new findings, barely intelligible due to how fast you’re trying to force the words out of your mouth.

As you calm down and sit back in your seat, Master Masbau wraps the pieces of the clock in pieces of paper before storing them away in a wall safe. Hopefully, the warp-stuff will dissipate over time with no ill effect.

“Well, I believe that we’ve learned quite a bit from that exercise. But, it still doesn’t answer the question as to how Force Stanch could kill a monster within the Immaterium. If it is only able to slowly force warp-stuff back into the warp, why is it so much more powerful inside the realm of warp? And, what was happening inside the warp while I was using it on the clock just now? Perhaps I was killing horrors, left and right, without knowing it.”

“I don’t really know, Master. But, I’m guessing that it was a special case when you used it on me. I was experiencing the warp at the time. Maybe I was even partially in the Immaterium. Using the Force Stanch on me probably helped channel it into the Immaterium, making it much more powerful. You’re probably not… smiting any monsters when you use it normally.”

“Hmm. That’s probably a reasonable conclusion.”

The two of you sit in silent contemplation for a minute. You’ve certainly learned a lot, and hopefully you can make good use of this information. After another minute of thinking, you speak up.

“Master, could you teach me Force Stanch? It’d be really helpful!”

“Of course. Come find me around this time tomorrow, and we can get started. It may be a bit challenging for you to learn though, since it’s a technique typically taught to Padawans level learners. But, I have full confidence that you’ll be able to learn it.”

“Thank you, Master.” you say with appreciation.

“Xena, you mentioned that you were feeling angry earlier. Do you still feel angry now?

“Umm…” you think for a moment. “Yes. I can feel it humming in the back of my mind. It is… suppressed. But, it’s not really just anger. There’s a bit of fear too. I can’t really explain it. I think it’s related to my nightmares too.”

“Xena, that sounds dangerously like the Dark side. You remember what Grandmaster Yoda always says. ‘Fear leads to ang—”

“I know! I know. But, I think this is at least partially because of my warp dream.”

“I think that this is something you should try that enhanced introspective meditation on. You should aim to identify the problem, then eliminate it as best as possible.”

“Yes, Master.”

“You’re very good about controlling yourself, Xena. You’ve been holding back your fear and anger admirably. You're doing far better than I would have at your age... Xena, I'm very proud of you.”

And with that, the dam cracks. The frightfulness of the past week hits you at this moment. The dreams. The nightmares. The pain. The fact that you almost died to something that might have only been in your mind. You'd been keeping it all suppressed, pushed to the back of your mind, but Master Masbau's words strike within you and loosen your precarious hold.

The tears spring forth as you hunch yourself in the chair. You wail and bawl your fears out, as Master Masbau scoops you up and into his arms.

“But, I am scared! Scared of what is happening to me! Why? Why is this all happening to me? It hurt so much and I almost died!”

You take a moment to breathe before continuing to choke out between sobs, “The monsters… I see them in my nightmares… hic... And my other nightmares… There’s blood and slaughter and endless death. And I’m afraid! Afraid that it’s me who’s doing the killing! … I wish I didn’t have this eye. If - if I were normal, then this wouldn’t have happened. No warp. No monsters. No nightmares.”

Master Masbau keeps holding you, patting your back gently as you try to calm yourself. "Xena, child, breathe," he says. "Do not fear. You are strong. It is only natural to be scared of something like this. I would be scared too if I were in your shoes! But, I know you will get through this. And, I will always be here to help you."

You don't trust yourself to not continue sobbing if you open your mouth, so instead you bury your face into his shoulder and nod. You’re calming down now, having expelled your frustrations. Embarrassment fills you as you think about how he had just told you that you were good at controlling your fears, and then you immediately went on to cry like a baby! You’re much too old to cry! You wipe off your face, the tears having slowed. You then look up into Master Masbau’s face with bleary eyes as he speaks.

“Hush, now. Everything will be alright. Thank you for telling me everything, Xena. I will help you to the best of my ability. Just trust in me. We should probably head to the Archives soon. But, before we go, is there anything else?”

After thinking for a bit, you decide to tell him one last thing. What you didn’t tell him when he asked you to inspect his true-self is what makes you speak further. Master Masbau cares for you. A lot. Far more than a Jedi should. It’s almost like he considers himself a father to you, not that you know what a paternal figure is like. But, this feels like the right descriptor.

Attachment is a gray area for the Jedi. It’s obviously expected that Jedi will care deeply for one another. Master and apprentices. A brotherhood. A sisterhood. A family. But not a true family. There must be some level of detachment from one another for the Jedi to do Jedi things. Or, at least this is what the Masters say about the topic. You’re not entirely sure if this is correct, but who are you to question your elders?

Master Masbau however, clearly cares more than he should. If you, or his former Padawan, Asi’Bakatwa Masa were to perish, you’re not sure what he would do, but it would certainly not be adherent to the Jedi Code. However, it is because of how much he cares, and how much trust he has for you – so clear within him that you could not possibly mistake it for something else – that he feels absolutely distraught with his inability to help you beyond teaching you Force techniques like Force Stanch and telling you to just meditate. And so, you speak up one more time.

“Master, there was one more thing I saw.”

At this, Master Masbau pauses, then gestures for you to continue.

“Just before I woke up, I looked around again and I saw something else. I saw three really really big storms in the distance. They looked tiny at first, but for some reason, I just knew that they weren’t small, but actually just far away. And they felt… evil. Pure evil. And one of them noticed me.”

“A storm noticed you?”

“Yes. I think they’re sentient and very powerful.”

“This is… disturbing indeed. Another thing we must search for in the Archives. Hopefully Master Nu is there. She’ll likely know where to look this up.”

With that, Master Masbau stands, adjusting his robes and donning his Guardian mask. As the two of you move, you can hear him muttering softly, slightly muffled by the mask but still intelligible.

“A great evil… Watching…”

≡][≡ ⬦⬦⬦ ≡][≡

The Jedi Temple Library houses the records and knowledge of thousands of generations of Jedi. It is an old and sacred place, headed by the Master Archivist Jocasta Nu, and holds an austere beauty that never fails to catch your eye. Rows upon rows of brilliant blue holobooks and datatapes line the countless shelves, guarded by the scowling busts of past Jedi champions. (The Archive custodians are clearly fastidious in their work. Not even a hint of dust or patina mars the faces of these centuries-old statues). Its arched ceiling is inlaid with patterns in ancient script, which you can barely see from your position on the Archive's main floor, so far below. A mezzanine level above hosts yet more tantalizing books, which your fingers itch to get a hold of.

You have been here many a time for your studies, and thus are familiar with a good portion of the Archives. However, it’s not like you were researching ancient evils and esoteric magical realms of immaterial demons. Thus, you try to keep up with Master Masbau’s strides as he makes his way to the Chief Librarian rather than running off to search by yourself. Of course, Master Nu’s services are always in demand, so the two of you have to wait in a short line for several minutes before she is available. In the meantime, you look around, observing the wandering Knights and Younglings as they navigate the Library.

Wandering among the patrons of the Library are junior archivists, learning the trade as they assist in the maintenance of the Library. A good portion of the relatively small EduCorps makes its home within the Jedi Temple, and you could swear that the majority of those that are here make their homes within the Archives itself. A group of scholars and historians - they are the keepers of the knowledge of the Jedi Order and are invaluable to the Order as a whole.

The thought of joining them does have some merit. After all, you do enjoy your studies quite a bit. And it isn't as if the librarians are slouches in combat either. Although you would no longer have access to a lightsaber as part of the Service Corps, you are still able-bodied and trained in hand-to-hand combat. Additionally, your propensity for an aggressive style of fighting would, ironically, be welcomed here in the Library. After all, the librarians believe there is no such thing as being overzealous in the protection of their precious books. Ahem, the protection of irreplaceable knowledge, that is!

You shake yourself out of your thoughts as Master Masbau steps forward, pulling you along by the hand. You find the Chief Librarian, Jocasta Nu peering down with a trace of amusement in her smile. Evidently, she’s taken note of your interest in the Archives and the EduCorps members, and certainly approves.

“A budding little librarian, I see. How can I help the two of you?”

Master Masbau, taking the lead, begins to inform her of your purpose here.

“Master Nu, Initiate Xena here has been having… dreams, maybe visions, of an unusual realm called the warp. Xena, what else did you call it?”

“The Empyrean, Master. Or the Immaterium.”

“Yes, the Empyrean. As you may have heard, Xena landed herself in the infirmary during a meditation session that I led her through. She was in the midst of some sort of vision, in which she was injured by a massive creature. In her vision, she was struck just about here—” Master Masbau gestures toward the approximate area on his own body – “and she actually began bleeding, right there in my office. I used Force Stanch to stop her bleeding while I took her to the Halls of Healing, and it seemed to somehow affect her vision as well. As in, the energy of the Force Stanch banished the creature that was hurting her.”

“My goodness… I do not believe I’ve heard of this warp before. And if it is the Immaterium, then I suppose that there is a Materium?”

“Yes, Master Nu,” you say. “The Immaterium was what I saw in the vision. The real world, where we exist, here – this is the Materium.”

“And these terms came to you in the vision?”

“Yes, Master Nu.”

“Hmm. As I said, I’ve never heard of this before. Least of all, I’ve never heard of actually being injured from a Force vision. Was there anything else to the vision?”

At this, Master Masbau clarifies, “Master Nu, Xena was not having a Force vision. She was unable to feel any trace of the Force until I performed the Force Stanch. Xena, please correct me if I’m wrong.”

You nod in confirmation, and Master Nu frowns in thought. You continue on, filling the gaps that Master Masbau left in the account.

“Master Nu, just before the vision ended, I was noticed by something. Something big, and definitely evil. I can kind of feel it in the back of my mind sometimes, watching and waiting. As if I were a little fish in a fish tank, and it's waiting for me to do something interesting before it does anything more.”

At this, the Librarian frowns even more. All traces of her earlier amusement have been wiped away by this story. It’s good that she’s taking you seriously, but you are starting to get scared that by revealing all this, someone’s going to take you to task for making trouble and drag you in front of one of the Jedi Councils. Master Nu makes her way around her desk and motions for the two of you to follow. One of the archivist droids steps in for her in the meantime, and you suppress a pang of fear as you follow her and Master Masbau away.

The three of you walk the halls of the Library, heading deeper and deeper into the Archive. You are far past the areas you’ve been before – your studies as a mere Initiate not requiring much more than access to the area just within view of the help desk. As you walk, you try to gather your thoughts. You have quite a few questions you need answered, starting with: what is the Empyrean? While you were in there, you knew things you shouldn’t have known. And for some reason, your vision-self continuously described things as being composed of “warp-stuff” or “pure concept”. Very descriptive… very helpful…

Unfortunately, Master Masbau was unable to help you make sense of almost anything, other than what turned out to be the energy from Force Stanch. But that turns into more questions. Why is warp-stuff corruptive? Why can Force Stanch cleanse this kind of corruption? How was it able to kill such a disturbing monster as the one that almost claimed your soul?

And of course, what was it that noticed you in the end? Hopefully, the Archives can shed some light on this, but given that neither of the two Masters had any knowledge regarding the warp, you are starting to have doubts.

≡][≡ ⬦⬦⬦ ≡][≡

“This is the Holocron Vault. The greatest repository of knowledge of our Order.”

It is… less impressive than you would think. All you can see at the moment is a poorly lit circular door. Just to the right of the door is a simple interface, obviously meant for operating the mechanical door.

“Unfortunately, I am unable to allow you into the vault. Only council members have access and it is expressly forbidden for any others to enter. I will enter the vault and consult the records within. In the meantime, please search around here. This section of the Archives is rarely accessed, and may hold some answers to your questions.”

With that, you turn away as Master Nu enters the vault, the door whirring as it opens. You catch a brief glimpse of a tunnel-like path just behind the door, leading to another locked door. You spend the next hour browsing, looking for something, anything, that remotely resembles what you have seen. But, by the end of it, you have exhausted all the shelves nearby with nothing to show for it.

Well, nothing related to any of your questions that is. You did, however, find quite a few bestiaries describing a great many horrific creatures throughout the galaxy. Of course, nothing truly compares to the horrors you saw, but you learn a good deal about them. Most importantly, you learn how to kill them. You’re not sure how a lightsaber would fare against something made out of warp-stuff, but you’re probably better at identifying monsters of this galaxy.

Your browsing also resulted in you wasting some time reading up on your interests. What? It’s interesting! And it’s not like you were finding anything good. Anyways, you do feel like you’ve learned a little bit.

You reconvene with Master Masbau, who is clearly at a loss for what to do. He too, has searched up and down the aisles for the last hour, pulling down anything seemingly related to the warp, visions, and daemonic monsters. And, as you half-expected, he has found nothing. Disappointed, he slumps down on a reading bench to wait, and you hop up next to him, swinging your legs in boredom. As the two of you wait for Master Nu to finish her own search through the holocron vault, you have a brief moment to talk to Master Masbau about one more thing.