Everything old is new again.

[Pippa]

Cold winds blew over the desert moon of Jedha. The holy city glowed and hummed with the late afternoon rush. However the bustle and hum of the city could barely be heard in the carved stone halls of the great temple. A pair of footsteps echoed back and forth down one hall in particular as Jedi Knight Ado Seshi paced nervously. In some ways she had hoped to avoid this situation. It had been over a century since she'd last been responsible for a specific Padwan Initiate. Sure over the last few years she'd acted a a general instructor to many such young-lings and it had been a great way for her to rejoin the order, now the army, after her long self-imposed exile. "Drill Instructor" some of them called her, it was an epithet that fit. She kept training regular, disciplined and efficient and teaching in a large group made it easier for her to avoid becoming too attached to any of them. But the Generals had decided to assign her a single student to mentor.

They hadn't told Ado as much about the Padawan as she'd have liked. She new that they were older than most Initiate's and that they'd seen more active combat than initiates normally did. They had explained that the years following the loss of Tython had been chaotic, some Jedi had fallen from a more traditional path in the pursuit of justice against the Sith Empire. The little of the Padawan's story that they did explain invoked some very familiar feelings in Ado. In many ways it was similar to her own induction into the Jedi order as a child. She could see why they thought this would be a good idea and wasn't going to object but she couldn't help but think of her last Padawan...and how she'd died. She pushed those thoughts away, this was a different time. This was a different Initiate. It would be fine. She could hear other footsteps approaching, one heavy and one light. This must be them she thought. Standing to her full height and adopting a loose, neutral stance so as to appear calm and in control she waited for the door opposite to open and to meet her new Padawan.

 

[J-Wash]

Dust danced in the shafts of light that cut through the arched and pillared temple hall. It settled on the floor, it settled on statues of Jedi past, but mostly it seemed to settle on the already-dusty form of Initiate Dogvarzha, and her shapeless grey bag that contained her few belongings. She kept her head up as she approached the figure she assumed was her new master. She walked in awkward silence up to her, not wanting to shout or raise her voice in this big vaulted space and draw attention to herself. Unfortunately for her, that just gave her plenty of time to survey her new master.

As though through a trick of perspective, the Jedi towered over her as she approached. Her eyes looked normal enough, but were ringed with red, and every inch of her skin was lined, like she'd been run through cheesewire. Karen's head dipped before she even reached her, ears flattening back against her head. She drew up in front of the Jedi, half-smiling, her hands fidgeting.

"Initiate Dogvarzha," she said, bowing low, one hand keeping her robe smoothed over her waist to hide her training sabre.

 

[Pippa]

Ado hated the politics of the old order. All the double talk and finagling. While it was never as bad as the downright corruption that had plagued the Republic Senate before it's collapse it was still far too deceitful for her liking. The moment she saw the Initiate approach her she knew that those sorts of politics were still alive and well within the Grand Army of Light. She'd sounded like she might be a handful but the young Nalroni was closer to woman than child, no wonder they'd not told Ado her a precise age. Childern were one thing; impressionable, quick to form bonds, eager to please, mould-able. Teenagers were another thing; nightmares. Before Ado allowed her annoyance to build and convince her that this Initiate had been dumped on her, she decided to firm her resolve and do the best she could for this girl and not just to spite the Generals, for the girls own sake she'd need all the help she could get. Ado could sense the trepidation in the girl and smiled, she did love a challenge.

After a brief moment of silence Ado replied in kind, "Jedi Knight Ado Seshi" she bowed respectfully in response. "As you may or may not have been told I am to be your master from today onward. I am to teach you in the ways of the Jedi until you are ready to face the trials and become a Knight in your own right. Be prepared, this will not be an easy process. It may well take years of study and practice before the Generals deem you worthy of attempting the trials. Perseverance will likely be your greatest ally. However-" Ado smiled cheerfully and with genuine warmth "that can wait until tomorrow. Today, I'd like to get to know you, at least a little. Since you've just gotten here to Jedha we'll start with where you'll be staying, if you'll follow me." Ado gestured for Initiate Dogvarzha to follow and turned to began walking towards the Initiate Barrack-Lodgings, her walk, normally the very definition of grace, was filled with verve and an unmistakable excitement.

 

[J-Wash]

"Yes, Master Seshi," Karen said, nodding and ducking her head.

She bounced on her toes as she followed Ado, or Master Seshi, rather. It would take some getting used to, and she had a really bad feeling she'd accidentally call her "Master Mathangi" or General Seshi at some point. Both would be pretty bad, although it wasn't as though either master bore any real similarity to one another. Certainly Mathangi wasn't the sort to say I'd like to get to know you, she was more of a get down before you get your damn fool head blown off you dozy dog kind of master.

"In all honesty, master," she offered, "I'd be happy to start the trials tomorrow if I could."

 

[Pippa]

Ado understood the sentiment, the drive. She had been much the same at that age, desperate to blast out into space and bring justice to the galaxy. "We will have to see. In all likelihood you will probably have to wait some time. The trials are taken much more seriously now compared to when I first took them. Of course it will come down to your abilities as a Jedi and your understanding of that position. And, I have yet to see where you are with that." As they progressed through the cool stone corridors Ado resisted the urge to pepper Karen with hundreds of inane questions and instead maintained her composure to ask one single question. "I suppose the best thing to start with would be how you feel about the Jedi and the war with the sith?"

Eventually they came to a side corridor lined with simple sliding doors. Turning down and stopping after a few doors Ado opened one and gestured through into the room on the other side. The room was small and spartan with a plain sleeping mat on one side and space for a small drawer and a cushioned stool on the other. The far side of the room was mostly encompassed by a large blind that covered a massive window. "These are the quarters for initiates attached to a Knight. Younglings live in the demi-barracks and are packed in like meilooruns in a barrel. There isn't a lot of space in the Temple right now. When you are not training, with me or on free time you will spend your time here. My quarters are directly above these, so I won't be too far away if you need me. If you would like to leave your things here we can go and have our evening meal." Ado smiled, the thought of food seemed to spread a whole wave of wrinkles and creases across the Pau'an's grinning face.

 

[J-Wash]

Karen had to jog every couple of steps to keep up with Seshi's long strides, boots slapping on the flagstones. She was so preoccupied with keeping pace that she almost missed her master's question.

"It's the duty of every sentient creature in the galaxy, Jedi or not, to fight the Sith until they are either all dead or otherwise gone," she said firmly, as they came into the quarters. "The Sith creed is anathema to life itself, and it is an act of self-preservation of the Force itself to oppose it."

The room was more or less as she'd expected, far more capacious than the closet she'd had aboard the Sword and Guiding Hand, which she had on timeshare with a Sullustan turret gunner. She walked over and placed her bag carefully on the stool and, after a moment's thought, tucked her sabre into it too. Dining armed was all very well and good aboard an assault cruiser, but she felt it'd probably be taboo in a place like this. Besides which, the last thing she wanted was having to admit her lack of personal arms to her master. She turned back, smiling thinly.

"Of course, master," she said with a nod of the head, "you will have to show me the way."

 

[Pippa]

Ah, this was going to be difficult. Teaching a student already so set in her convictions and at such a rebellious and confident age would require a bond like no other. do kept her concerns contained for now. There was no point in causing panic in the young one. Ado decided she'd do her best to reserve judgement until after she had tested the girl. Ado watched her take a moment placing her bag on the stool. She noticed the length of the pause but put it down to nerves and taking in the new lodgings and thought nothing more of it.

"you will have to show me the way."
Ado's face flashed with a sudden burst of inspiration. "You know what, where's the fun in that?" She fished a data slate out of a belt pouch and handed it to Karen. "This data-slate has all the information that you'll need to get around the temple, I was going to give this to you later when I had decided what your schedule was going to be so that you wouldn't get lost in the temple, but you can use it now to find the most optimal route to get to the cafeteria. When you have found your route and you feel confident that you know where you are going I want you to shout start. If you can beat me there I'll get you whatever your favourite's are." Ado began to stretch and limber up, bending back some of her limbs around her like they were made out of rubber. After a few moments she hunkered down into a sprinter's set. She looked up at Karen with a playful smile "Ready when you are."

 

[J-Wash]

Karen stared dumbfounded at the dataslate for a second, trying to wrap her head around the 3d model of the temple. Its corridors, halls, atriums, quadrangles, archways, viaducts, flying buttresses, ornamental towers, and all its other architectural wrangles spiraled and leaped in all directions on it, making a mockery of the orderly cargo-holds and gun-decks she was used to. Only about one in three halls were labelled according to their purpose, and others simply said "Western Sepulchre" or "Transept of Hope".

She frowned and tried to map her way to the dining hall. She glanced up at her master and saw her smiling and stretching, like she had something planned, and Karen was filled with the suspicion that she was in for a lesson in humility. Hardly unusual in any Jedi training, but she rankled at the implication she lacked respect for her new master. She plumped for the hall marked "Hall of Satisfaction", checked briefly over the straightest, broadest corridors to it, and gave Seshi her own toothy smile.

She bounced off on her toes down the corridor and shouted "Go!"

 

[Pippa]

Ado smiled to her self as the young initiate tore away down the hall. She was open to challenge and competition and since she was going the right way she seemed to have a decent head under pressure. Ado contemplated taking a shortcut through the initiates window, descending two floors down the outside of the temple and using the force to flip back inside that much closer. But she thought that might be a bit much for right now. Her mind made up she raised her set and sprinted down the hall after Karen.

The initiate had worked up quite a lead. Ado pumped her long willowy legs pulling out every scrap of speed she could manage short of tapping into the force. Howling through the temple like a gale Ado began to catch up to her Initiate. However other residents of the temple began to be a problem. Chased by a slew of exclamations and the occasional expletive Ado dodged weaved and acrobatically sprang order and around all manner of hapless and irate Jedi. At this rate her initiate might even beat her to the hall. As she rounded on the stairs she decide to step it up a notch. Rather than running down them she decided to take a running leap and clearing the several floors by dropping directly down the gap between flights. Catching a banister and landing in a tucked crouch she reached the cafeteria level just as Karen hit the bottom of the stairs.

They were now neck and neck.

 

[J-Wash]

Karen faltered as her master landed in front of her down an easy twenty feet of stairwell, but pushed off the balustrade to lunge after. She gritted her teeth, her mind spinning with mantras against the agonising lactic acid in her muscles, and burst into a sprint to ease her ahead of Seshi. The smell of the dinner hall filled her nose, and she jinked down a passage after a line of robed initiates processing along. She shoulder-barged a human (or near-human) and stumbled, but recovered fast enough to dodge his fellows. He shouted something Karen didn't care to hear.

"Training!" she shouted over her shoulder, and then in a moment of pure emotion, "Shove it!"

She realised her gritted teeth had turned into a grin. Was she having fun? The corridor opened up ahead into a receiving hall, and beyond that, the dining room and victory. She cast about for her master, but Seshi was nowhere to be seen. Karen couldn't hear her light footsteps. Surely she couldn't be that far ahead?

 

[Pippa]

Ado almost burst into laughter as Karen blasted past a blustery master that had gotten in her way. The sheer look of grumpy befuddlement that sat on the man's toady face was enough for Ado to call this whole day a success. This was great, Karen had shown passion, determination and gumption and from the toothy spread she was flashing over her shoulder it looked like she'd started to get into the swing of things. The young Nalroni was quick enough, it was a great baseline to be working from. Ado was begging to get excited about the girl's potential and was looking forward to teasing it out. But first, she'd need an example, something to keep in mind so she could progress well. Ado decided it was time for Karen to learn what an experienced Jedi could do.

Ado took a moment to clear her mind. Summoning her thoughts to a specific point she allowed the energy of the force to flow through her. Each of her steps felt as light as air, propelling her down the corridor at ridiculous speeds. She was almost on her young new initiate in a few footfalls. Each fluid hop carrying her tens of meters at a time. As her last hop brought her right behind Karen Ado decided to use the momentum to sail gracefully over her to land just beyond the threshold of the canteen ahead of her. Turning with a beaming smile to face Karen and only slightly out of breath she congratulated her, "Good race Initiate, I enjoyed that, you even made me go all out at the end there but it's good. It means I'm going to have a lot for you to learn and for that I'm glad, nothing's duller than work without a goal. Now I think I said something about lunch before we started, so what would you like to eat?"

 

[J-Wash]

Karen skidded to a halt as her master landed before her, only just keeping herself from falling completely tailbone over teakettle at her feet. She panted, trying to keep her breath steady and even, but the race had completely wiped her out. She tried to keep her face serious, hiding her brief lapse into unreasonable abandon as she became aware of the scene she and her master were making. She straightened her back as best she could. Her master had asked her a question after all.

"Um, meat," she managed, between breaths. "My digestion..."

She trailed off into panting, hoping Seshi understood. From the glimpses she'd had of her master's pointed teeth, she probably would.

 

[Pippa]

She did understand. "Carnivorous sapients are rarer than omnivores in the Galaxy. It makes sense to an extent. The more options for food, the greater your chances for advancement and survival." Ado continued to natter somewhat excitedly as she lead Karen up to the service counter. "It's definitely been a struggle for me at times, I lived on fruit plantation planet for a couple of decades, I got really good at using the flesh of the fruit to flavour and cook the otherwise foul tasting local wildlife." Ado was courteous and polite to the canteen worker that served the food, more so that she had appeared to be capable of up until this point. With two steaming bowls of pleasantly steaming and seasoned meats Ado showed Karen to a bench where the two of them could eat and talk.

"Since our last game was so much fun..." Ado grinned playfully at her young student, "I've thought of another that might be too. We will take turns asking each other questions about anything that we want and we have to answer as truthfully as we can. And, since you ran so well earlier I'll allow you to ask the first question." Ado chewed cheerfully, eager for Karen's response.

 

[J-Wash]

Karen walked a step behind her master up to the counter, took her food and sat down without uttering so much as a word, maybe half-listening to her master make small talk as she chewed on her dinner. She was so engrossed that she almost choked when Seshi suggested they play the question game, like she was a youngling again getting to know a new tutor. Surely by now she was enough of a Jedi not to need that kind of thing? She needed a master to get a sabre to get back out there and fight the war, not make friends with a blademaster who should also be out there fighting the war. But, fine, there was nothing to be gained by being ungracious. What did she want to know?

"What planet are you from?" she said, trying to perk up her ears and pluck up some enthusiasm.

 

[Pippa]

"I was born on Utapau. The ancestral home of my species. Though I didn't spend any time there really until long after I was fully grown. As was often the way in those days I was discovered by the order as force sensitive when I was around five. I know that the army always aims to find new Initiate as young as they can and the five is quite old buy the 'modern considered standards' for an Initiate but there were a lot less Jedi towards the end of the war then there are now. In those days you'd be lucky to see more that two in a decade even on major planets. So in some ways it was fortuitous that they found me when they did." She spoke with a pleased humming tone between slow mouthfuls of the spiced meat. "So, for my question...what would you describe as being your most embarrassing moment?" The kind of cheek contained in Ado's smirk is the kind that gets you punched.

 

[J-Wash]

Karen frowned as she listened to her master. By the end of the war? Her next question brewed in her head. She bit the inside of her cheek as she thought of a response. In terms of sheer shame, one moment stood out above any other, but master Seshi didn't need to know about that yet, especially not if she was going to grin like that.

"When I raised my voice at master Kauni during my time as a youngling in an argument. I argued violence could be a path to harmony, and he disagreed. I was foolish and over-emotional and selfish," she said.

But not necessarily wrong, she thought to herself. It still wasn't a nice conversation. Master Kauni had been so disappointed in her.

"How old are you?" she asked, cutting off any further discussion of her own personal failings.

 

[Pippa]

Ado was a little surprised, somehow she'd expected Karen's answer to be something a little more intimate, she couldn't really say why. And it was an interesting tack to take. "Violence to Harmony," she mused "There is a logic to that argument, though in my experience it doesn't much feel like harmony on the other side. I'd say more like...Peace isn't right, Stillness? Well there's a strange tension afterwards, it's a shame that Master Kauni was so dismissive of your point of view..." She trailed off a little, lost somewhere for a moment.

"Oh, but I've not answered your question, sorry." Clearly starting with the current year she counted backwards. After a few seconds she responded. "Somewhere between one hundred and fifty two and one hundred and fifty eight, I've never kept very good track of it. I'll have to ask my mother the next time I see her she's much better with dates." Ado took the last few bites of her food to think on her next question. Putting down her utensil and adopting a somewhat more serious expression she asked "What do you think is the most important thing a Jedi can be?"

 

[J-Wash]

Karen's eyes went wide. A hundred and fifty! Sure, she'd had her share of ancient masters in her time, but a hundred and fifty. Even her last war occurred a century ago she was still a veteran. Karen found herself hastily reassessing Seshi. At least her question required no thought.

"A warrior in the service of life itself, and an example to others," she said, trying not to smile. She'd given this one a lot of thought. "To uphold the Jedi code and its tenets is to uphold the cause of all life, and if all the galaxy did as we strive to do, things would be... well, more ordered than as they stand."

Her eyes shone at the thought of a galaxy under the Jedi code, of citizens who obeyed its tenets and who knew its righteousness. She was so caught up in it, she almost forgot to ask Seshi anything.

"Oh, um, what was your finest moment in the field?" she asked, a little tentatively.

Some Jedi could be cagey about telling war stories, but Karen loved to hear them. After all, if knowledge was an inherent good, what was a good story but knowledge well expressed?

 

[Pippa]

Ado smiled at the surprise on her student's face. Younger species always seemed surprised to hear of her longevity. She listened contentedly to Karen's answer and it was a good answer. One that displayed her ideals proudly and brazenly for the galaxy to see. And to an extent she was right, if more people wholeheartedly followed the tenets of the Jedi code and lived by them the galaxy would be a much more peaceful, if less interesting place. The trick though would be doing that without resorting to force ideals upheld with force quickly turn to bars and cages to be escaped.

Her face dropped somewhat as Karen asked her question. There were certainly many battles she'd fought and many victories won but she was increasingly coming to the understanding that Karen had more than just a militant streak. Ado was concerned that regaling her with a tale of glory and conquest would set the begging of their relationship down a dangerous path especially with the retraining the masters had tasked her with, though they had clearly intended it as a saddling, the forced adoption of a difficult initiate that they didn't know how to teach with a difficult knight they didn't really know how to handle, hoping to keep the both of them mutually busy. Ado sighed.

"There are a great many stories I could tell you about my time in the field. Though most would probably be more glorious or more like a 'finest' moment the story I am going to tell you is the story that most defines me as a Jedi." She gathers up her bowl and utensil and stands, "However I'm not comfortable telling it here in the canteen and it's a long story. If you would like to hear it we shall find a secluded place in the tranquillity gardens on the lower levels." Ado turned to clear away the borrowed kitchenware and gestured for Karen to do the same before leading the way to the gardens.

The large internal gardens at the base of the temple were a stark contrast to the rampant dust world of the planets surface. Here there were all manner of calm colourful trees with plush leaves and gentle trickling water features. The ceiling looked like a starfield, lit up with hundreds of tiny lanterns hung to keep the room light in the evenings. Finding a secluded place Ado sat down, her back to a particularly sturdy tree with dark purple leaves and gentle buds of sap-like dew dripping from the outside of the cone of its foliage formed. The gentle trickling was almost hypnotic. This truly was place for reflection and meditation. While Ado sat she drew both of her lightsabers. Placing the larger one on the ground in front of her, she continued to clutch the shoto sabre in her hands, staring at it with a complex combination of sorrow, regret and joy. Looking to her still eager initiate she felt the need to give a warning before she began.

"I have only told this story to a few people, my mother, the masters and a few close friends. After hearing it you will be part of a select group and I would be very grateful if you did not spread it further. It is a very personal story to me and not all who have heard it agree with the events that transpired or my part in them. That said there are some who know limited details of it and for me to function as a teacher to you there are parts of this story I would prefer you to heard from me and not as hearsay, legend or rumour. I must also warn you that this is not a pleasant tale and I do not enjoy telling it, but, if you would like to hear it I will tell it for you. With all that in mind would you like me to continue or would you like to stop for today?"

 

[J-Wash]

Karen perched on a flat stone jutting from an ornamental rockery of some spiritual significance, but it never occurred to her to check before sitting down. She only had eyes for her master, bright and alert.

"Yes!?" she said, her lips raised in a tense, nervous smile. "I mean, I would like to hear your story, master."

She looked down to her master's sabres, her eyes fixed on the one lying on the floor before her. It looked incredibly, unbelievably dangerous, and exactly the kind of weapon Karen wished she could wield, the kind that danced light as air through every obstacle and enemy it faced. Her ears burned at the thought of her own shameful "sabre" and her gut knotted at the thought of having to admit its existence.