Raya had to fight back the urge to open an eye and peer at the Master as he spoke to her.
It was hard to reject the respect she'd been taught, in moments like these where such was a necessity. If she looked whenever someone spoke she'd never actually learn the task at hand. It required concentration, patience, and guidance. Still she couldn't allow herself to simply ignore him either. So she drew back just a little of her focus to the present in order to speak.
"Thank you, Master Vex," she said, with full sincerity, and though the meditation itself seemed effortless the act of letting herself go and accepting the will and guidance of the Force was significantly more difficult. Like a battle in her brain. The same battle she'd been fighting with Shii-Cho until Zaavik took part of the conflict away by blindfolding her.
Yes, she'd be her own blindfold.
She nodded when he suggested they tried something a little more difficult. He returned to the previous zone, after she inhaled and returned to her core, and she deflected it much in the same way she had previously. Then he shook it up, no longer going in order. She had to resist the voice in her mind that told her to instinctively deflect at zone 4. This wasn't an overview of the zones, and even when training Shii-Cho she couldn't simply presume that the next would be in order.
Instead she allowed a different form of instinct to take over, for the Force to broaden her senses and give her precognition on the strikes to come. Her blade angled down to deflect, then back up, then back down. Her expression shifted through various phases of concentration, the contention inside beginning to wane.
Each of the zones, and even the mark of contact, was deflected almost effortlessly. It wasn't until he ramped it up further and went off script that she truly began to sweat. A few strikes came through her defense, and though she grit her teeth she did her best to maintain composure, to uphold the core structure beholden to this art.
Her wavering expressions settled into one of sheer determination.
When the next strike struck she took a slight step back and broke composure, using it as an excuse to take a momentary break. Her eyes opened, and she sucked in a breath as she waited for the ebb and flow of the burning sensations to wane.