“Feel the breeze,” Adrian Ravenna was saying. “Feel the grass beneath your feet, feel the soil below.”
She was standing, bare foot, in a glade.
The clearing was in a sunken part of the valley floor not far from their camp which itself rested on the waters edge, a rolling creek some dozen meters across, not more then half as many kilometers distant. Tall conifers surrounded the knoll and save for a few berry-ripe bushes, was open to the noon sun.
Her feet moved slowly, turning her in a lazy circle. Eyes pressed shut and palms held upturned to the sky she focused only on his voice allowing only those elements dictated by her mentor to penetrate and become part of consciousness. The sounds of the forest, tree tops swaying in the wind, bird song and the rest she blocked completely. No distractions permeated her being.
“All things are connected,” his voice was an omnipresent force. “The force moves through all things, through the wind and through you. It flows through your body and ties you to planet below.”
The lesson, today’s not unlike the day before, was one of openness; learning to feel the force, to identify it and connect oneself with it willfully. Objectivity was key, a fundamental step in learning to wield the force and not simply be overwhelmed by it as she had been for these many months, perhaps years. She was learning not only to control the force, but also to control herself.
She had been sleeping like a baby, not once terrorized by her nightmares, waking or otherwise.
Each day left her exhausted physically and mentally. Her training regimen, designed and adapted by Ravenna, was arduous but that had been a part of his goal – to leave his student so drained her mind could not contact that part of herself which was open to torment, self inflicted or not. They had been out here for over a week now, the full extent of every day and night directed at opening her to the force and instructing her in its nature as well as her own place in it.
She had, realizing that the quest upon which she was embarking would be a consuming one, petitioned her command for an extension on her sabbatical. Though she had met some resistance they had been forced to comply due her banked off time which had been accruing over the years. Additionally a request had been made on her behalf by Corise Lucerne himself direct to Lance Shipwright who in turn, wishing his one-time lover the best, had encouraged his subordinates in the naval command structure to give her the time she needed. His motivations, however; were unclear – a man whose thoughts were consumed with the welfare of the colonies, there had to exist an ulterior motive for his compliance. Just the same, d’Foose would take it.
More over, she was thankful of it.
Lesson after successive lesson had broadened her horizons indescribably. She was seeing aspects of life, the universe and everything that had heretofore evaded her perception, she was revealing within herself parts of her own character she had never dreamed possible. Deep within her meditative states, the main focus of the first weeks training, she had allowed herself to open her mind to precepts previously thought outlandish, outrageous.
At night, after a days hard work, she would sit before the fire and listen as her teacher, Adrian Ravenna, explored avenues of comprehension and told stories of the old Jedi though the main focus of their shared history lessons dwelled upon the Jensaarai and the tapestry woven over the centuries by those who would become members of their order.
These tales she found particularly involving if only in a distant fashion. She was not one of them, nor had she been inaugurated in their ways, but their methodology, not unlike the Jedi’s own, would become her own, at least in these formative stages of growth. Within the confederation they were singular masters of the force much as the Jedi had been to the old republic but she was not a confederate, but a colonial. They had reflected on this nights prior, Ravenna alluding to d’Foose needing to find her own path though he would only too gladly show her how to walk it. That night he had seemed guarded in his approach and she had resolved to discover why.
The answer had come to her slowly, revealed in pieces by the younger man. She, an adept in the ways social behavior patterns and graced with years experience that outnumbered his, had been able to cajole him indirectly in to revealing that information one bit at a time and though he never came out and said it, she estimated she knew the truth of his motivations.
He had explained the force as a powerful ally but also a powerful temptation. This was the nature of the dark side of the force, to offer paths to great power but at great cost. She was a force sensitive which meant she had an innate, natural connection to the force and, as he went on to explain, there existed within such persons a tendency to succumb to portions of the force beyond their control. Fear could be a powerful motivator.
So too there were things hidden from her, such as Shipwrights conceding to the confederate request but such was life much as she had come to expect. For now she had resolved not to let herself mull upon these thoughts but instead to keep her attention on her instruction and let time deal with the rest.
“Look in side yourself,” directed Ravenna from his perch on a nearby log, fallen some time ago. “Find within your being that which connects you to yourself, that which connects your mind to your body.”
She did. Such mental exercises were known to her from her days in boot, through to her officer training. One learned to know oneself intimately and so the early stages of expanding her sphere of awareness, those steps involved with her own self, came to her easily.
Within herself she found and mapped pathways that resembled those traveled by neurons forming a picture of them in her minds eye. She traced thought through to action, felt the autonomic beating of her heart and the pumping of blood, felt her lungs rise and fall of their own natural accord. Once achieved she kept the metaphorical doorways open.
Ravenna, for his own part focusing on her progress, felt as much through the force. This was how his instruction had progressed at first, with him watching her through the force and charting her accomplishments.
“You have it,” he confirmed. “Familiarize yourself with this sensation, make it as known to you as your own flesh until it becomes a part of you inseparable from the rest.”
Today they were rehearsing what she had already been taught by was of an examination, a test of her knowledge formally graduating from one level to the next.
“Expand upon this sensation,” the voice was very close to her now, so close she was unsure if it had been spoken from next to her ear or directly within her mind. “Recall the breeze, recall the feeling of the grass beneath your feet and know that below the grass and in direct contact, is the soil of this planet itself…”
These feelings were amazing, beyond the rush of the best drugs the galaxy had to offer and beyond anything any normal person would ever know. Slowly at first, but with inexorable progress, the map in her minds eye grew to encompass new elements. Through the force, with eyes born of that energy field, she perceived the grass becoming a part of her neural network and then the soil teeming with life.
“This is the living force,” informed Ravenna, now almost a part of her. “Draw upon it to expand your consciousness. Reach out until you can feel me as a part of your sphere.”
She complied only too willingly. It was exhilarating. Soon he was a part of the picture she was painting in the force and with him appeared a half dozen stones, roughly fist sized and arranged around him upon the log.
They had experimented with levitation, with telekinesis, and discovered that she had an incredible aptitude for it. Like baby steps she then learned to feel objects with her eyes closed first by studying them with eyes wide and then closing them and finding the object still resonating within her awareness. Only small differences existed between the methods being taught to her. Today she was learning to blend one with the other.
“There,” he continued. “Remember our lessons. Telekinesis is no more difficult then anything you have done, you know this from the days past. It, like all things, is just a part of the force much as you are a part of the force.”
“Now,” he directed, “push!”
She did as directed and in her minds eye with which she viewed the force felt the rocks lift weightless in to the air. Suspended there their weight was as nothing, their kinetic energy spread across her sphere of responsibility. One at a time they lingered higher and higher until they verged on the edge of that sphere.
“Next I want you to try something new,” he waited for her acknowledgement through the force. “Now I want you to lift me.”
Uncertainty reverberated through her like a tremor and he felt it. Quickly he spread his own force sensitivity across her own, supplementing her powers briefly while speaking words of encouragement.
“This is nothing different from what you have done, what you are doing now,” he stated factually. “Affecting the animate with the force is no different then affecting the inanimate save that now you are becoming part of a stronger shadow in the force, part of something that radiates a will of its own. You need simply become a part of that desire. Make my ambition your own.”
It seemed to her too abstract to be possible. She grappled with the implications of what he had said trying to understand the logic behind his words but it was all so vague, she thought. She felt her connection to the force begin to tremble, the rocks floating began to fall as her sphere started closing in upon itself.
“If you fail now…” Ravenna did not finish the statement.
It was exactly what she needed to hear, to know. Not long ago she would have considered all of this impossible, beyond reason. But that was not the case, clearly not the case because here she was changing her perceptions, altering the filters with which she saw the universe and in many cases removing them all together. Nothing she was doing now was any different from anything she had done before and much the same what Ravenna asked was no different.
Confidence brimmed within her and her sphere reacted accordingly. It grew stronger and started once again to expand. Determined, she would not fail.
“Open your eyes,” Ravenna commanded her. “Open them now.”
She did, opening her eyes to reveal exactly what she had seen through the force in reality.
Suspended in the air were her rocks holding steady and between them, legs crossed with hands on knees, was Ravenna hovering between them.
He smiled at her and said, “Congratulations. You pass.”
That night, as the pair sat before their fire tents to their backs preparing a late meal of simple sustenance, Ravenna looked upon her with a new pride, pride in himself and in her. They had come a very long way in a very short time.
For a time they sat in silence, neither daring break the peace with words for fear that somehow they might jeopardize what had been forged that day. Once they had finished their meal, a meager affair of proteins and the like, Ravenna stood and moved to his bivouac retrieving something from among his affects. Still entranced with her new understanding of the force, d’Foose tracked him with weary eyes and though exhaustion threatened to grip her body, she drew upon the force to renew her strength, a trick taught during the first days of instruction and one vital to her instruction.
A moment later he returned resuming his seat on the cool ground but now holding a small parcel wrapped in a water-tight skin. For a moment he held it in his lap.
“This,” he said making eye contact at last, “is for you.”
With that he handed her the object. It was about a foot long, half as wide and roughly rectangular. She studied it at length before removing the outer skin to reveal an oblong steel case clipped shut. Pausing, she studied Ravenna before popping open the case.
There, nestled in a contoured fabric liner, was an item she had never really expected she would wield, never mind own. At a hand and a half, the steel cylinder was instantly recognizable to the one-time disbeliever.
She gasped, “A lightsaber.”
It was not a question.
Ravenna nodded, “It is from the academy on Almas, and it is yours for now, until you construct a lightsaber of your own. Typically the Jensaarai training culminates in the creation of a suit of armor conceived and constructed, using the force, by the student. However, you are no typical Jensaarai and I thought it fitting that your training should reflect as much.”
“I,” she started, her voice breaking. “I don’t know what to say.”
It was perhaps the finest thing she had ever been given. Her first command, bestowed after only decades of hard work, she had long considered to be the ultimate achievement in her life. Even the Restigouche though somehow paled in comparison to this. She, a woman who had been romantically linked to the most wealthy man in the colonies, a woman who commanded one of the finest starships the galaxy had to offer, had been brought near tears with this thing, this small thing which could be held in a hand.
Though it was a simple lightsaber by the standards of such weapons she found herself caressing it. With uncanny grace it fit her hands just so, as though Ravenna had managed to pick that which would suit her best. Sleek and silver with black hand grips and a recessed activator switch it seemed to match her personality.
She felt a vigorous wave of strength wash over her, stealing away any trace of tiredness that may have lurked within her bones. Almost sheepishly she looked to Adrian and asked.
“May I?”
He shrugged, feigning indifference and replied, “It’s yours.”
She flicked the switch and a golden yellow blade, vibrant like her hair yet subdued enough not to draw from her own light, leapt out before her and found herself trembling. The blade, the color of it, matched her visions.
A sickness, a queasy nausea knotted her stomach. Previously and in detail she had revealed the content of her nightmares to Ravenna so why he would chose this color confused and scared her. He understood this however and fixed her with a serious stare.
“You have to learn to take control of your destiny,” he said in a flat, no nonsense tone of voice. “And this is the first step in that direction. Fear is a path to the dark side, you must learn to overcome your fear, to own your fate.”
With that he retired for the night leaving her alone by the fireside and she remained there well in to the morning hours.
The next day would bring new lessons, instruction on how to effectively wield a lightsaber and she would need to have clarity of mind for that. Ravenna knew this. The night would be hers to overcome her demons with.
And bring new instruction it did.
Awaking to find his student standing by the creek side, Ravenna approached her with a warm cup of tea made from local herbs offering it to her. Still clutched in one hand she held tight the lightsaber but stirred to accept the beverage.
“I know,” she spoke softly, “what this means now.”
With one hand she held up the lightsaber sipping her drink with the other before adding, “And I am ready to face what is to come.”
“Good,” Ravenna nodded, his own cup steaming in the morning sun. “Dust the damp from your flesh. We begin new instruction now.”
The next week passed even more quickly then the first and though it was filled with instruction the lessons had taken a new slant. She had learned how to connect with the living force, how to accomplish the basic tasks laid before any apprentice. Now she was learning to effectively use a lightsaber, learning to unite the abstract mysticism of the force with methodical equations exemplified in saber combat.
Those early lessons involved melding meditation with combat focus, learning to intercept attacks with her blade and direct them away from herself. They taught her to see through the force and her own eyes, to detect openings in any offense or defense and turn the advantage to her own ends.
By midweek she was learning how to use the force to speed her movements and propel her. Ravenna taught her how to utilize simple telekinesis while engaged in combat to introduce further odds in her favor. He explained that this portion of their training would teach her the hard and fast parts of the force, the aspects which could be counted on to react in a given manner in given situations. While they dueled he explained that the force went far beyond what he was teaching her now; that the force could accomplish anything asked of it if one was strong enough but that to achieve such feats one must first be well versed in the basics.
A new level of physical exhaustion was introduced to the student and d’Foose thought she would never know such weariness again. Though she had learned to draw strength from the force and was doing so frequently it availed her only so much and it seemed that Ravenna was determined to ensure she find no quarter. Part of it, she believed, was his motivation to keep her from thinking too deeply on her nightmares of old, or her future in the force. She was right, of course, but all the same she was earning bruises in places she did not know could bruise and feeling tension in muscles she barely remembered using. They dueled at length, discussing matters of the force also at length, while dancing across slime soaked stones that protruded from the flowing creek. They climbed trees and balanced on branches for hours while batting at one another with glowing sabers.
Eventually, quicker then she had realized, their time in the forest drew to a close.
On the final day of their sojourn, packing up their now well worn in camp, Ravenna approached d’Foose.
“I want you to stay with me longer,” he admitted though not for selfish reasons. “You have so much more to learn and I have so much more to teach.”
She shrugged, “How will that work?”
“Just like this.” He placed a hand on her shoulder. “I want you to come to Almas, I want you to continue your studies there, to learn the subtleties of the force and to advance your technique.”
“We’ll see,” she conceded. “We both have lives and jobs to get back to… don’t we?”
Fate could be such a cruel master.
Destiny could be such a kind mistress.
She was standing, bare foot, in a glade.
The clearing was in a sunken part of the valley floor not far from their camp which itself rested on the waters edge, a rolling creek some dozen meters across, not more then half as many kilometers distant. Tall conifers surrounded the knoll and save for a few berry-ripe bushes, was open to the noon sun.
Her feet moved slowly, turning her in a lazy circle. Eyes pressed shut and palms held upturned to the sky she focused only on his voice allowing only those elements dictated by her mentor to penetrate and become part of consciousness. The sounds of the forest, tree tops swaying in the wind, bird song and the rest she blocked completely. No distractions permeated her being.
“All things are connected,” his voice was an omnipresent force. “The force moves through all things, through the wind and through you. It flows through your body and ties you to planet below.”
The lesson, today’s not unlike the day before, was one of openness; learning to feel the force, to identify it and connect oneself with it willfully. Objectivity was key, a fundamental step in learning to wield the force and not simply be overwhelmed by it as she had been for these many months, perhaps years. She was learning not only to control the force, but also to control herself.
She had been sleeping like a baby, not once terrorized by her nightmares, waking or otherwise.
Each day left her exhausted physically and mentally. Her training regimen, designed and adapted by Ravenna, was arduous but that had been a part of his goal – to leave his student so drained her mind could not contact that part of herself which was open to torment, self inflicted or not. They had been out here for over a week now, the full extent of every day and night directed at opening her to the force and instructing her in its nature as well as her own place in it.
She had, realizing that the quest upon which she was embarking would be a consuming one, petitioned her command for an extension on her sabbatical. Though she had met some resistance they had been forced to comply due her banked off time which had been accruing over the years. Additionally a request had been made on her behalf by Corise Lucerne himself direct to Lance Shipwright who in turn, wishing his one-time lover the best, had encouraged his subordinates in the naval command structure to give her the time she needed. His motivations, however; were unclear – a man whose thoughts were consumed with the welfare of the colonies, there had to exist an ulterior motive for his compliance. Just the same, d’Foose would take it.
More over, she was thankful of it.
Lesson after successive lesson had broadened her horizons indescribably. She was seeing aspects of life, the universe and everything that had heretofore evaded her perception, she was revealing within herself parts of her own character she had never dreamed possible. Deep within her meditative states, the main focus of the first weeks training, she had allowed herself to open her mind to precepts previously thought outlandish, outrageous.
At night, after a days hard work, she would sit before the fire and listen as her teacher, Adrian Ravenna, explored avenues of comprehension and told stories of the old Jedi though the main focus of their shared history lessons dwelled upon the Jensaarai and the tapestry woven over the centuries by those who would become members of their order.
These tales she found particularly involving if only in a distant fashion. She was not one of them, nor had she been inaugurated in their ways, but their methodology, not unlike the Jedi’s own, would become her own, at least in these formative stages of growth. Within the confederation they were singular masters of the force much as the Jedi had been to the old republic but she was not a confederate, but a colonial. They had reflected on this nights prior, Ravenna alluding to d’Foose needing to find her own path though he would only too gladly show her how to walk it. That night he had seemed guarded in his approach and she had resolved to discover why.
The answer had come to her slowly, revealed in pieces by the younger man. She, an adept in the ways social behavior patterns and graced with years experience that outnumbered his, had been able to cajole him indirectly in to revealing that information one bit at a time and though he never came out and said it, she estimated she knew the truth of his motivations.
He had explained the force as a powerful ally but also a powerful temptation. This was the nature of the dark side of the force, to offer paths to great power but at great cost. She was a force sensitive which meant she had an innate, natural connection to the force and, as he went on to explain, there existed within such persons a tendency to succumb to portions of the force beyond their control. Fear could be a powerful motivator.
So too there were things hidden from her, such as Shipwrights conceding to the confederate request but such was life much as she had come to expect. For now she had resolved not to let herself mull upon these thoughts but instead to keep her attention on her instruction and let time deal with the rest.
“Look in side yourself,” directed Ravenna from his perch on a nearby log, fallen some time ago. “Find within your being that which connects you to yourself, that which connects your mind to your body.”
She did. Such mental exercises were known to her from her days in boot, through to her officer training. One learned to know oneself intimately and so the early stages of expanding her sphere of awareness, those steps involved with her own self, came to her easily.
Within herself she found and mapped pathways that resembled those traveled by neurons forming a picture of them in her minds eye. She traced thought through to action, felt the autonomic beating of her heart and the pumping of blood, felt her lungs rise and fall of their own natural accord. Once achieved she kept the metaphorical doorways open.
Ravenna, for his own part focusing on her progress, felt as much through the force. This was how his instruction had progressed at first, with him watching her through the force and charting her accomplishments.
“You have it,” he confirmed. “Familiarize yourself with this sensation, make it as known to you as your own flesh until it becomes a part of you inseparable from the rest.”
Today they were rehearsing what she had already been taught by was of an examination, a test of her knowledge formally graduating from one level to the next.
“Expand upon this sensation,” the voice was very close to her now, so close she was unsure if it had been spoken from next to her ear or directly within her mind. “Recall the breeze, recall the feeling of the grass beneath your feet and know that below the grass and in direct contact, is the soil of this planet itself…”
These feelings were amazing, beyond the rush of the best drugs the galaxy had to offer and beyond anything any normal person would ever know. Slowly at first, but with inexorable progress, the map in her minds eye grew to encompass new elements. Through the force, with eyes born of that energy field, she perceived the grass becoming a part of her neural network and then the soil teeming with life.
“This is the living force,” informed Ravenna, now almost a part of her. “Draw upon it to expand your consciousness. Reach out until you can feel me as a part of your sphere.”
She complied only too willingly. It was exhilarating. Soon he was a part of the picture she was painting in the force and with him appeared a half dozen stones, roughly fist sized and arranged around him upon the log.
They had experimented with levitation, with telekinesis, and discovered that she had an incredible aptitude for it. Like baby steps she then learned to feel objects with her eyes closed first by studying them with eyes wide and then closing them and finding the object still resonating within her awareness. Only small differences existed between the methods being taught to her. Today she was learning to blend one with the other.
“There,” he continued. “Remember our lessons. Telekinesis is no more difficult then anything you have done, you know this from the days past. It, like all things, is just a part of the force much as you are a part of the force.”
“Now,” he directed, “push!”
She did as directed and in her minds eye with which she viewed the force felt the rocks lift weightless in to the air. Suspended there their weight was as nothing, their kinetic energy spread across her sphere of responsibility. One at a time they lingered higher and higher until they verged on the edge of that sphere.
“Next I want you to try something new,” he waited for her acknowledgement through the force. “Now I want you to lift me.”
Uncertainty reverberated through her like a tremor and he felt it. Quickly he spread his own force sensitivity across her own, supplementing her powers briefly while speaking words of encouragement.
“This is nothing different from what you have done, what you are doing now,” he stated factually. “Affecting the animate with the force is no different then affecting the inanimate save that now you are becoming part of a stronger shadow in the force, part of something that radiates a will of its own. You need simply become a part of that desire. Make my ambition your own.”
It seemed to her too abstract to be possible. She grappled with the implications of what he had said trying to understand the logic behind his words but it was all so vague, she thought. She felt her connection to the force begin to tremble, the rocks floating began to fall as her sphere started closing in upon itself.
“If you fail now…” Ravenna did not finish the statement.
It was exactly what she needed to hear, to know. Not long ago she would have considered all of this impossible, beyond reason. But that was not the case, clearly not the case because here she was changing her perceptions, altering the filters with which she saw the universe and in many cases removing them all together. Nothing she was doing now was any different from anything she had done before and much the same what Ravenna asked was no different.
Confidence brimmed within her and her sphere reacted accordingly. It grew stronger and started once again to expand. Determined, she would not fail.
“Open your eyes,” Ravenna commanded her. “Open them now.”
She did, opening her eyes to reveal exactly what she had seen through the force in reality.
Suspended in the air were her rocks holding steady and between them, legs crossed with hands on knees, was Ravenna hovering between them.
He smiled at her and said, “Congratulations. You pass.”
That night, as the pair sat before their fire tents to their backs preparing a late meal of simple sustenance, Ravenna looked upon her with a new pride, pride in himself and in her. They had come a very long way in a very short time.
For a time they sat in silence, neither daring break the peace with words for fear that somehow they might jeopardize what had been forged that day. Once they had finished their meal, a meager affair of proteins and the like, Ravenna stood and moved to his bivouac retrieving something from among his affects. Still entranced with her new understanding of the force, d’Foose tracked him with weary eyes and though exhaustion threatened to grip her body, she drew upon the force to renew her strength, a trick taught during the first days of instruction and one vital to her instruction.
A moment later he returned resuming his seat on the cool ground but now holding a small parcel wrapped in a water-tight skin. For a moment he held it in his lap.
“This,” he said making eye contact at last, “is for you.”
With that he handed her the object. It was about a foot long, half as wide and roughly rectangular. She studied it at length before removing the outer skin to reveal an oblong steel case clipped shut. Pausing, she studied Ravenna before popping open the case.
There, nestled in a contoured fabric liner, was an item she had never really expected she would wield, never mind own. At a hand and a half, the steel cylinder was instantly recognizable to the one-time disbeliever.
She gasped, “A lightsaber.”
It was not a question.
Ravenna nodded, “It is from the academy on Almas, and it is yours for now, until you construct a lightsaber of your own. Typically the Jensaarai training culminates in the creation of a suit of armor conceived and constructed, using the force, by the student. However, you are no typical Jensaarai and I thought it fitting that your training should reflect as much.”
“I,” she started, her voice breaking. “I don’t know what to say.”
It was perhaps the finest thing she had ever been given. Her first command, bestowed after only decades of hard work, she had long considered to be the ultimate achievement in her life. Even the Restigouche though somehow paled in comparison to this. She, a woman who had been romantically linked to the most wealthy man in the colonies, a woman who commanded one of the finest starships the galaxy had to offer, had been brought near tears with this thing, this small thing which could be held in a hand.
Though it was a simple lightsaber by the standards of such weapons she found herself caressing it. With uncanny grace it fit her hands just so, as though Ravenna had managed to pick that which would suit her best. Sleek and silver with black hand grips and a recessed activator switch it seemed to match her personality.
She felt a vigorous wave of strength wash over her, stealing away any trace of tiredness that may have lurked within her bones. Almost sheepishly she looked to Adrian and asked.
“May I?”
He shrugged, feigning indifference and replied, “It’s yours.”
She flicked the switch and a golden yellow blade, vibrant like her hair yet subdued enough not to draw from her own light, leapt out before her and found herself trembling. The blade, the color of it, matched her visions.
A sickness, a queasy nausea knotted her stomach. Previously and in detail she had revealed the content of her nightmares to Ravenna so why he would chose this color confused and scared her. He understood this however and fixed her with a serious stare.
“You have to learn to take control of your destiny,” he said in a flat, no nonsense tone of voice. “And this is the first step in that direction. Fear is a path to the dark side, you must learn to overcome your fear, to own your fate.”
With that he retired for the night leaving her alone by the fireside and she remained there well in to the morning hours.
The next day would bring new lessons, instruction on how to effectively wield a lightsaber and she would need to have clarity of mind for that. Ravenna knew this. The night would be hers to overcome her demons with.
And bring new instruction it did.
Awaking to find his student standing by the creek side, Ravenna approached her with a warm cup of tea made from local herbs offering it to her. Still clutched in one hand she held tight the lightsaber but stirred to accept the beverage.
“I know,” she spoke softly, “what this means now.”
With one hand she held up the lightsaber sipping her drink with the other before adding, “And I am ready to face what is to come.”
“Good,” Ravenna nodded, his own cup steaming in the morning sun. “Dust the damp from your flesh. We begin new instruction now.”
The next week passed even more quickly then the first and though it was filled with instruction the lessons had taken a new slant. She had learned how to connect with the living force, how to accomplish the basic tasks laid before any apprentice. Now she was learning to effectively use a lightsaber, learning to unite the abstract mysticism of the force with methodical equations exemplified in saber combat.
Those early lessons involved melding meditation with combat focus, learning to intercept attacks with her blade and direct them away from herself. They taught her to see through the force and her own eyes, to detect openings in any offense or defense and turn the advantage to her own ends.
By midweek she was learning how to use the force to speed her movements and propel her. Ravenna taught her how to utilize simple telekinesis while engaged in combat to introduce further odds in her favor. He explained that this portion of their training would teach her the hard and fast parts of the force, the aspects which could be counted on to react in a given manner in given situations. While they dueled he explained that the force went far beyond what he was teaching her now; that the force could accomplish anything asked of it if one was strong enough but that to achieve such feats one must first be well versed in the basics.
A new level of physical exhaustion was introduced to the student and d’Foose thought she would never know such weariness again. Though she had learned to draw strength from the force and was doing so frequently it availed her only so much and it seemed that Ravenna was determined to ensure she find no quarter. Part of it, she believed, was his motivation to keep her from thinking too deeply on her nightmares of old, or her future in the force. She was right, of course, but all the same she was earning bruises in places she did not know could bruise and feeling tension in muscles she barely remembered using. They dueled at length, discussing matters of the force also at length, while dancing across slime soaked stones that protruded from the flowing creek. They climbed trees and balanced on branches for hours while batting at one another with glowing sabers.
Eventually, quicker then she had realized, their time in the forest drew to a close.
On the final day of their sojourn, packing up their now well worn in camp, Ravenna approached d’Foose.
“I want you to stay with me longer,” he admitted though not for selfish reasons. “You have so much more to learn and I have so much more to teach.”
She shrugged, “How will that work?”
“Just like this.” He placed a hand on her shoulder. “I want you to come to Almas, I want you to continue your studies there, to learn the subtleties of the force and to advance your technique.”
“We’ll see,” she conceded. “We both have lives and jobs to get back to… don’t we?”
Fate could be such a cruel master.
Destiny could be such a kind mistress.