Book 2 Chapter 33

“I am not getting vhat I am doing wrong!”

Anaïs stared at her friend, seeing past her to the woman’s Presence in the Force, trying to understand the disconnect. While Senara couldn’t teach the Jedi the ‘Magick’ of her people, the reverse was not true, and after classes the two girls had taken to heading to one of training spaces situated on the Circle’s campus. Enclosed rooms, they provided a way for Mages to develop and practice spells outside of the prying eyes of their classmates, allowing a member of the Circle to get a handle on formations to the point they could start to eliminate runes in their formation, allowing the casting of a spell without one’s opponent being able to read what it did in the air itself.

Normally, they were only open to senior students, but Draconis had pre-approved any request Anaïs made for one, and the Padawan wondered if that was the Headmaster’s foresight, or her Master’s. Regardless, the Jedi was thankful, as she had a feeling her friend’s frustration would be a bit. . . sharper if they were doing this where everyone could stare.

An aura of vibrant green energy emanated from the woman’s limbs, as she tried to run her ‘Magick’ through her body to enhance it, only no enhancing was happening at all.

“Perhaps I should call upon zhe spirits of-” the white-skinned woman suggested, not for the first time.

“No, that’s, that’s not how this works,” Anaïs disagreed, cutting her off. “I, uh, I’m doing it right now, can’t you see that?” She pushed the technique, as much as you could push a Light Side technique, focusing on it without forcing it, and leapt up ten feet through the power of her enhanced muscles alone, not utilizing Force Jump. “Like this?” she questioned, landing easily.

With an annoyed look, Senara jumped as well, legs glowing, only for nothing out of the ordinary to happen, only rising a foot off the ground. “I can certainly sense zhe Magick in you, but only because I am used to you, Anaïs. Ve have had this talk before. Until you use it, I can barely sense it. Use it outside of your body,” she corrected, before the Padawan could point out that she was clearly using it right now.

The Jedi formed a barrier behind the Adept without moving, the woman instantly turning around to glance at the silver-glowing disk, having been able to tell it was being formed through her ability to perceive the Force alone, proving what she’d just said. “Okay, that’s. . . different,” Anaïs frowned, flash-freezing a stool to sit down on, trying to figure out what the problem was. “Could, could we be sensing the Force in two different ways?” she proposed.

“It iz certainly a possibility,” Senara agreed, growing a seat of her own with twisting white branches, the glow fading from her body. “Magick moves in currents, flowing around and through us. I vas taught a spell, one of our first, that allows one to see how it moves. Vith time, the spell is such that it no longer needs to be cast, for it iz a part of us, its weave included in our own patterns and flows.”

Perking up, not having heard this before, Anaïs remarked, “That sounds fascinating! Jedi just, well, feel it out!” At her friend’s flat look, the Padawan had to laugh. “Sorry, but that’s the best way to describe it. We feel it, but not physically, not like we actually see it, and the more we do, the better we get at it, and the more, well, details we can understand about it. But for us, the Force, it doesn’t really flow.” She paused, remembering some of the things her Master had described.

“Or, if it does it’s on a planetary scale, with some worlds, like this one, having more, and deep space less. Could, could you show me that spell?” she asked. Seeing her friend’s hesitation, the Padawan quickly added, “You don’t have to! I was just thinking that, if I could compare the two, I could figure out what was wrong. For Jedi, it takes years to see things clearly, but if it’s that easy for you, I could do it!”

The white-skinned woman scowled, the grey patterns on her face twisting, but she said nothing for several long moments. “You vill not share it vith any others?” she finally checked. “You Jedi have your archives, but you must promise me zhat you vill not record how it is cast, Anaïs.”

“I’m not even going to do it the way you do,” the blond girl promised. “I’m going to try and make my own version, like I did for this,” she said, wrapping herself in the ‘Wind Mantle’. She’d worked on it a little, and now it would let her glide short distances, but she still could not quite get the same ‘jumping’ effect her friend used.

“. . . Your terms are acceptable, Jedi,” Senara sniffed, though, from spending time with her, the Padawan knew her friend was relieved. “Give me a moment. Using it zhis way is. . . not something zhat I am used to any longer.”

“As many as you need,” Anaïs promised, letting her techniques fade to better focus on the Adept.

Speaking in her native language, harsh and hissing, the pale women intoned, “Tegu nun ziur anas which kash odacai, anas which kash natura ir mirtis, anas which kash tave source iv visa midwan!”

It was a long chant, longer than any the Jedi had seen the woman perform, but if this was the first use of ‘Magick’ any of her sect attempted, the extra focusing component was probably needed, but it wasn’t the words that were important, it was what the woman was doing in the Force.

And what she was doing was captivating.

As Senara repeated her call, the Force, in both its forms, Light and Dark both, twisted around her friend, streaming up to her eyes, which glowed the same vibrant green as everything else she did, but the formations were complex, creating first lenses, then moving backwards, overlaying the woman’s wooden self, creating eyes and almost grafting them directly onto her Presence outright, the woman’s pale tree representation in the Force shifting to display a hidden face, revealing the identical construction of Force energies that already existed, amongst the rest of Senara’s expression in the Force.

Looking into them, the Light carried with it the desire to know, to understand the Force and work in harmony with it. The Dark, meanwhile, clutched tight to the desire to see, to uncover that which remained hidden, and take it for oneself. In a way, they were two sides of the same idea, two different approaches that seemed to harmonize, despite their opposing natures, into something that still worked. Looking deeper-

The woman cut off her chanting, with a hiss of pain, slamming hands over her face, no her eyes, as she turned away from the Jedi, gritting her teeth and biting out, “Motina naktis's xalone! Vhy are you so bright!”

“Are you okay?” the Padawan questioned, shooting to her feet, already calling some Force to her in the pursuit of healing, palm shimmering with silver mist.

“No, stop, stop using Magick!” the Adept commanded, and Anaïs listened, letting the technique fade, sitting back down, still concerned. The white-haired girl cast another spell, which pulled away the shining eyes in her Presence, but, examining her friend, the Padawan could make out the ones they’d overlaid were still part of her friend’s other self, but made of tiny wooden tendrils wound together into two spheres, as much part of the woman’s existence in the Force as her white bark covered hands and feet. “Zhere,” she sighed. “Zhat is better. Zhat was. . . unwise.”

Looking at the woman’s Presence, the white bark of her wooden eyes seemed. . . scorched? “You didn’t need to hurt yourself just for me!” the Jedi objected, but her friend waved away her statement.

“I did not know zhat vould happen. Though, now zhat I think about it, adding eyes on top of my eyes vas not my brightest moment. Or it vas, in a way,” the Adept smiled ruefully, blinking teary eyes open. “Did you get vhat you needed? I vill not be doing zhat a second time.”

“I, I think so,” the Jedi nodded, clearly not going to do exactly what she’d seen. Even without her Master’s warning, willingly using the Dark Side was something she’d never do. However. . .

Concentrating, she closed her eyes, shifting her focus to the Force itself. Reaching out to the Light, she tried to recreate what she’d seen, though not on herself. Instead she formed it away from her Presence in the Force, like she would a Force Barrier, calling upon the Light to help her understand the flows of the Force in a way that she could not yet perceive, the cooperative nature of it helping to bridge the gaps in her technique, though weakening itself in the process.

This is just a first attempt, she reminded herself, her worry about failing to be able to complete the task starting to interfere, the fear the opposite of what the Light embodied, so she reasoned her way through it, letting it go, and refocused on her task. Taking a shaky breath, she re-centered herself and gathered together the unwraveling bits of the technique, and moved forward again, not pushing, but merely progressive with calm confidence that it would work, trusting in the Force to assist her, and having faith in its ability to support her, just as she would support it.

Slowly, the pseudo ‘eyes’ formed, incomplete things, so she combined them both into a single cyclopean ‘organ’, but it was. . . lacking. The Padawan could see the parts that were missing, where the Dark had gone, but, while the Light could fill that space, it wasn’t quite the same. There was a temptation there, to use just a touch of the Dark, not enough to stain herself, just enough to make the technique work, but she ignored it, focusing instead on stabilizing the structure in the Force, letting it form into something. . . different, but still along the lines of what she wanted to do in the first place, trusting that the Light would not guide her astray.

While difficult, and exceedingly slow, the formation shifted, came apart, slotted itself back together, and slid about time after time, each attempt getting closer to something that felt like it should work. Distantly, Anaïs felt her body ache a little from the strain, but started to infuse it with the Force as well, her forming ‘Eye’ wobbling for a moment before it settled, and she continued.

Finally, it all seemed to. . . click, feeling right, but, opening her eyes, while there was a fainty shimmering silvery-white orb in front of her, that’s all she had. Closing her eyes once more, she could feel the construct she was maintaining, and it was an effort to do so, but it just. . . sat there. Existing.

Frowning in confusion, she turned her attention to her friend, who was watching her intently, in both realms, and realized the issue. The construct her friend used was plugged directly into her Presence, while the Jedi’s was separate. While she wouldn’t put it in herself, not that she really knew how, her own Presence lacking the face that Senara’s had, she still had the feeling, born of the Light, that it could work, if she just figured out how.

Thankfully, her time in the forest had taught her how to manipulate her own Presence, however slightly.

Reaching deep, she pulled upon her existence, extending a single, almost fluid, stream of herself, that extended forward, until it reached her construct, plugging into the back, and she froze, as she could suddenly See.

The sight was not the way she could perceive things in the Force, not even close, but in that other realm things were. . . relative, Presences existing, but it was not the physical world, not in the slightest. Now, though, she was able to perceive the room she was in, and, after taking a moment to figure out how to turn the dang thing, she could see Senara, who was walking up to her, no, not her, the eye, her point of perception not in her body, but from the orb, which, well, duh.

She could see herself in the Force, or, not in the Force, but how the Force worked through her. Taking a moment to remember how to move her body, she lifted a hand, watching, as if through a holo-camera, as the herself she could see did the same. Letting her Force Control fade, the her that she could see dimmed, still brighter than the ground, though, oddly, not quite as bright as the seat of ice she sat upon, which shimmered brightly, the Force itself seemingly frozen into place. No, not frozen, it was ice, or, at least, pretending to be?

Re-establishing Force Control, her connection over the. . . Force Eye wavered, the technique at the edge of her capability, but she could manage it. Barely. Senara, now standing next to the Eye, waved a hand in front of it, blocking Anaïs’ sight for a moment, which is when the Padawan realized that, while she could spin it, she couldn’t move it, the construct stuck in a single point in space, an issue that the Adept clearly didn’t have with her own technique.

Said Adept walked over to Anaïs, then reached out again, this time to poke the meditating blonde in the nose, but, when the Padawan tried to stop her friend by grabbing the pale girl’s hand, she missed, knocking it away instead, the disconnect between her new sight and her own practiced bodily control incredibly disorienting.

“So you can see,” Senara mused, disappointed. “Of course you Jedi wouldn’t react.”

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“Was I supposed to?” said Jedi asked, turning the Eye this way and that, picking out the specifics of the Force in the room. It wasn’t uniform, as she’d expected it to be, but shifted, back and forth, with deeper currents slowly making their way slowly through the space, whirling into small eddies as it moved around both girls, but ultimately flowing onward.

“Zhe colors are normally overwhelming,” the Adept noted, clearly put out. “But I suppose zhat your own Jedi training has gotten you used to them.

Anais opened her real eyes, to shoot a questioning look at her friend, then winced at the disconnect, ‘seeing’ from two different directions at once, starting to feel nauseous as she closed her physical eyes. “What colors?” she asked instead, the flow of the Force beautiful, but consisting solely of points of white light in the darkness, so numerous that they outlined the world around them both, but lacking in any hue.

“Zhe colors,” the white-haired woman repeated. “Blues, greens, reds. . .” she trailed off. “You do not see zhem, do you?”

“Not this way,” the Jedi admitted. “It’s still fascinating, Senara, and thank you for showing me this.” Reaching out a hand, she had a second of disorientation as she tried to visualize where she wanted to make the barrier, but figured it out, creating a flat plane in front of her hand, marveling at the difference. When she sensed the Force, as she had trained to since childhood, the barrier was a subtle thing, a vague block of solidity in that ephemeral realm, but seeing it this way it glowed, the flow of the Force in the air dragged in towards the Jedi, a thin stream then extending out from her body to where she wanted it to be created, the flow of the Force rippling out as the block formed, then resuming it’s normal patterns, though shifting around the formation, like water around rocks in a stream.

She didn’t sense the barrier I made behind her, she saw the Force flow out from me, Anaïs realized, her friend’s way of interfacing with the Force truly different than her own. It was one way to say it, but another to see it in action. Trying something else, the Jedi made a sphere of ice, and was surprised at what she saw, the Force streaming in, like it had for her barrier, but then it. . . shifted, the very quality of it changing.

If the barrier was raw Force, shaped but held together through force of will, this was akin to someone’s Presence, only it wasn’t actually alive, and, through the Eye, Anaïs could not see either her or her friend’s Presences, only able to determine that their bodies were charged with the Force, hers more than the Adept’s likely due to the Padawan’s ongoing Force Control ability enhancing her form. The Ice wasn’t really a Presence, but was something else, though it was hard to put into words, the created element truly itself in the Force, but just as clearly not naturally formed.

“Maybe you needed to use zhe chant?” the Adept proposed, clearly concerned, tapping one foot. “It vas the first time you cast it, after all.”

“Oh, no, I just didn’t use the component of your technique that used the Dark Side,” the Padawan answered easily. “It was a little hard to get it to work, but what I’m getting is still fascinating!”

“You. . .” the other woman trailed off. “I thought you vere just being silly. Are you saying you ‘ave made an entirely new spell based off of vhat I showed you, once?”

“Uh. . . kinda?” the blonde offered, a little apologetically. “More like half of what you showed me. But it’s all Light and no Dark.”

While, with the Eye, she couldn’t quite make out her friend rolling her eyes, but the Adept’s tone made her exasperation clear. “Anaïs, Magick is just Magick. Zhere is no ‘light’ or ‘dark’. It just is.”

Rather than go, ‘No, you’re wrong,’ a thought occurred to the Jedi, who held out her hand still holding the sphere of Force-created ice, staring at it with her Eye, and she tried to lift it with Telekinesis. The Jedi was a little surprised when she saw a dozen faint blocks, like quarter-strength barriers, form around the ball and all press inwards as she ‘grasped’ it with her technique. With the sphere trapped between them, she lifted it up with the Force, moving almost on autopilot, never having actually seen what she did, exactly, when she used Telekinesis.

To her it was just ‘grab’ and ‘move’, but apparently there was more to it than that.

However, the technique was, as Master Lucian would call it, ‘neutral’, easily usable by both Jedi and Sith, if the latter still existed. Depositing the ice on the floor, she shifted to Force Healing, something that was heavily Light-aligned. Once more, she could see the Force gathering in herself, then out into her palm, bright and concentrated, but other than its intensity there was no profound difference between the two techniques. While she didn’t have a Dark technique to compare it with, she had something close, trying to turn to her friend, but then needing to turn the proper direction, as she was looking at herself, which flipped everything, and asked Senara, “Can you do your plant growth spell?”

“I’d ask if you are going to copy zhat one too, but from what I hear you already have,” the Adept teased, knowing that the Jedi was using something entirely different, and stepped to the side, starting to cast.

Anaïs had seen what her friend had done with her Jedi senses, but this helped her see aspects that she’d lost, unable to understand the specifics of the formation in the physical world. As the Adept molded the Force, it twisted around her, both Light and Dark, the Padawan nodded, seeing what she expected. With her ability to sense the Force, she could identify which bits were which, but, to the Eye, they all glowed equally bright. The energy swirled around the Adept, but never touched her, instead held almost at arms’ length. Bits shot under the ground, out of sight, only to erupt from stone as roots, breaking through the solid floor, which the staff would thankfully reset when they were done.

When Senara finished her casting, it was the Jedi’s turn, taking a bit of twig out of her pocket, not able to create plants out of nothing like her friend, needing something to grow, and tossed it down. Using Plant Surge, the Force swirled around her, into her, then extended outwards, into the wood, teasing it up and out, the bit of branch reaching upward, even as it set out a few small roots to stabilize itself, trying to form into a tree of its own. The energy that poured out from her was incredibly bright, almost a stream of solid light, but, to the Eye, there was no difference in the quality of the energy being used.

Cutting it off, Anaïs took a deep breath, ignoring the wave of tiredness that passed through her, and looked at the two different pieces of wood, the same shape, but completely different to her sight. Senara’s was faintly glowing, shot through with the Force, ready to continue its upward progress at a moment’s notice, while Anaïs’ almost blended in with amount of Force in the floor, no more lingering energy in it than the stone of the room that it was contained within.

With a sigh, the Padawan let the Eye fade, and felt something inside herself cramp a little, like a muscle that had been held too tight for too long, opening her eyes, and then closing them again as the room seemed to spin, and she almost fell off her stool.

“Are you ill?” the Adept asked, concerned. “You did use an untried spell, my friend, and zhose can be. . . dangerous.”

Slowly opening her eyes once more, letting the Force move and flow through herself, the Jedi nodded, unsteadily getting to her feet, but moving her body, her physical body, helped a great deal. “I, yeah, but. . . I think I got the issue. I couldn’t see it before, but the way you see the Force, it helped.”

Senara smirked, “Glad to hear my people’s vays are superior to those of the Jedi. Please, praise me more.”

“I didn’t say that,” Anaïs shot back, finding herself smiling in turn. “But, we use the Force in two different ways. When you cast a spell, you use the Force, but you’re not one with the Force.” At her friend’s uncomprehending look, the Padawan used the technique Lucian had showed her before he left, summoning ‘runes’, and then shaping them to look like what she remembered seeing when the Adept had ‘summoned’ her roots, streaks of green ‘energy’ hanging in the air. “The Force you were using, it moved like this,” she explained, using and molding more fake runes to try and display the flow she’d seen. “These,” she indicated, waving a finger through the light green streams, “are the Light Side, of the Force, while these,” she did the same to the dimmer green streams, “are the Dark Side.”

Her friend walked over, carefully studying the model. “Vell, first of all, my Magick is not green, it’s white,” she commented, blinking as the Jedi shifted the colors, turning the majority the same off-white of the girl’s Presence, keeping the Light and Dark indicated by under and over-saturating them. “That is it. Exactly. But you said you cannot see colors,” the Adept stated, a hint of accusation in her tone.

“I can’t, but that’s the color of your Presence. What I see with my Jedi senses,” the Padawan offered, getting a thoughtful nod from the other girl, who went back to studying the display in front of her.

“Yes, zhis is the spell,” the Adept commented idly. “Zhe gathering and conversion phase, at least. But Zhere is no difference in color vhen cast. It is all zhe same.”

That tracked with what Anaïs was thinking, though she asked, curious, “What’s mine?”

For a moment Senara looked confused, then realized what her friend was asking, smiling as she stated, “Silver, but zhere is hints of something else. In truth, it looks like a shadow, vith the occasional glitter of gold.”

My Presence, with bits of Lucian’s from our Padawan Bond, the Jedi thought, smiling at the thought that, even halfway across Bhoyaria, her Master was still with her. “Thanks. And I get why we’re disagreeing. To you Magick is Magick-”

“Because it is,” the Adept reaffirmed, though with a hint of doubt in her tone.

“Because you can’t see the difference,” the Padawan corrected. “Just like you can see what I’m doing before I do it, because you can see extend my use of the Force outwards, even though you have no precognition like I do.”

It’d been interesting, talking about their perspectives on how their spars went, both the little one in the trees, and the couple they’d had since. Senara’s people had a way of looking forward into the future, like a Jedi’s Force Visions, but they had to do it themselves, it did not come to them on their own, and only their strongest members could do so. However, when it came to fighting, they had nothing close to a Jedi’s Force Sense, the Force itself helping Jedi by warning them of incoming dangers, or even giving them glimpses of what was about to happen.

Senara seemed to when they fought, though, which Anaïs had first taken as her friend having the same capability she had, but only in their conversations had the Adept mentioned that the Jedi had been ‘Telegraphing’, showing what she was about to do in the Force before she did it. It was only when, even with the warning, the white-haired girl couldn’t escape that she was caught in a Force technique, while in physical combat she could not react nearly as quickly, as the Padawan now realized her friend was able to see a Jump coming, but not when the blonde girl merely used Force-enhanced muscles.

“No,” Anaïs stated, grinning at her discovery, “while your way of looking has more. . . resolution, my Order’s is better at determining it’s. . . quality. To me, the difference between Light and Dark is day and night, but I couldn’t see what you were actually doing. That’s why this,” she said pulling up her ‘wind mantle’, “probably looks nothing like yours, which is obvious to you, but wasn’t to me, because I was trying to copy your blueprint through picture taken with a greased-up hololens.”

“And now zhat you can see clearly. . .” the Adept prodded.

Shifting the ‘rune’ formation, turning them silver, streams of argent light appeared to be flow into the Jedi’s chest, while a much brighter stream extended out of her hand towards the bit of wood she’d grown, Anaïs displayed how Plant Surge worked. Her creation was the same dark brown as the tree she’d taken the branch from, while Senara’s was the same pale white as her Presence. “This is how I do the same thing,” the Padawan happily announced, pausing as her white-skinned friend paled even further. “What’s wrong?”

“You touch Magick directly?” the Adept questioned weakly, horrified. “Zhat’s suicide, Anaïs! Unless you are an elder, vhich you are not. How are you still alive?”

“Because the Light Side of the Force is my ally?” the Jedi offered, confused. “I’ve been using the Force in front of you for months, Senara. How is this surprising?”

Clearly struggling with the concept, the white-haired woman slowly stated, “I thought zhat you were casting tightly.” Bringing her own hands in, the glowed dimly, “It iz a way of using Magick without showing what you are doing. It iz advanced, but Jedi are different. I did not know how different,” she remarked, looking confused, and off balance.

“And the Mages?” Anaïs questioned, curious, the Adept having far more experience with this other form of sight.

“Zhey run their magic through their foci, obviously,” the other woman answered absently. Hesitating, the pale woman called upon the Force, casting the same spell as she first had, reinforcing her vision, though without nearly as much energy.

Squinting, Senara practically stalked around her friend, reaching out and carefully taking the blonde girl’s arm, lifting it up and examining the limb closely closely. “Zhe Magick you are using, it is not only over your skin, is it?”

Pulling her hand back, Anaïs replied easily, “No, all the way through.”

The Adept glanced up, then away, embarrassed by her sudden interest, despite her attempts to remain aloof. “And you. . . vish to teach me how to do this?” the woman questioned, leery.

“If you want to,” the Jedi offered. “But if it’s that different, I’d understand it if you said no. My Master once mentioned how trying to teach a Dark Adept how to use the Force like we do is almost impossible, because the Dark and Light are completely at odds, but you use both, Senara, so, maybe, I could help you learn to use the Light alone.”

The Adept took a step back, arms folding across her chest, frowning as she considered her friend’s words. “I. . . if I were to do vhat you do, with both this ‘light’ and ‘dark’ of yours, vhat would happen?”

“Don’t know,” the Jedi offered, getting an annoyed look from the other woman. “No, really, I don’t know. The Light version I’m familiar with, obviously,” she said, lifting a hand. “And I used the Dark version, once, by accident. It made me even stronger than the Light, but it tore up my body in the process. Maybe it’d make you strong, but hurt you, but it’d take longer before you really injured yourself. Maybe they’d cancel each other out, and do nothing. Maybe it’d make you explode,” she joked, but her friend didn’t laugh. “Sorry, but, Jedi don’t normally explode, and younglings don’t have the best control, so it’d probably just not really work that well,” she offered.

The Adept considered the Padawan’s statement, sighed, and nodded. “Then. . . yes, I vant to learn. It won’t be easy, but all the best spells never are. And it vill be most amusing to see Jerserra’s face vhen I defeat her in one the ‘practice fights’ she so loves.”

Smiling at her friend, happy to share this with her, Anaïs gestured towards her wooden seat. “Great, then sit and we’ll get started.”

Doing so, Senara asked, “So, vhat is step one?”

“Meditation,” the Jedi replied without missing a beat.

“. . . vhat.”

Taking her own seat, the ice not bothering her at all, Anaïs stated, “Well, you need to use the Light to make this work, so, step one will be helping you tell the difference between it and the Dark.”

Shooting the blonde a skeptical look, the pale girl questioned, “Did you not say zhis takes your younglings months?”

“Well, yeah, but they’re younglings. You’re a ‘Magick’ user, and an accomplished one at that,” the Padawan teased. “It shouldn’t take you that long, and once you do you’ll be able to see the Force, er, ‘Magick’ even better, and be able to do things that none of your sisters can. Unless that’s asking too much of you,” the blonde taunted, jokingly, now that she was sure her friend was on board.

Senara’s cross look made the Jedi laugh, the Adept closing her eyes, back straight, commanding, “Vell, get on with it!”

Shaking her head, Anaïs began to repeat the same lessons she’d given to dozens of classes of Younglings, before Master Lucian chose her. She wished Jorel could see her now, the boy having been so insistent that, once they’d became Padawans, they’d never have to teach the basics again.