Dear Ms. Barsen'thor

[Jorus Merrill]

TO: Master [member="Aleidis Ijet"] - Barsen'thor of the Jedi Order, Dayark, Kathol Republic, Wild Space
FROM: Master Jorus Q. Merrill - Master of First Knowledge of the Jedi Order, Oswaft Station, Laekia, Levantine Sanctum, Wild Space
RE: Kids

Master Ijet,

It's been a few years since you and I spoke. I've tried not to step on your toes or poke too hard into what Aldiel D'Lessio and Selka Ventus have been doing with Silk, and so far as I can tell you've done the company and the hyperlane some justice. So thanks for that.

I'm messaging you now because I've got a dilemma. See, my kid, Mara, she's growing up and I want to be sure she's got better training than I can offer her. I've done my best, and she's a great kid, but she's a troublemaker to the bone. I was hoping I could send her to train with you for a little bit to calm her down.

Best,

Merrill

 

[Aleidis Zrgaat]

TO: Master Jorus Q. Merrill - Master of First Knowledge of the Jedi Order, Oswaft Station, Laekia, Levantine Sanctum, Wild Space
FROM: A-Z
Re: Kids


Jorus,

The first time I met you, I thought we clarified the matter of titles and the like! Be that as it may, I was glad to recieve your corrospondence. Although our scheming may not have come to much fruition, I maintain that I owe you a debt - one of gratitude, of duty, and I should hope, a debt of friendship. It is with the gift and responsibility you lay into my hands that I have managed to (as I believe you would approve of my phrasing in this manner) carve out a small piece of my own heaven. I apologize that I had not thought to invite you for a visit, but civillian life has a way of blurring together the days into weeks, and the weeks into years.

Of course, I would love to assist you in the manner of your daughter's training. I am glad to see that she has reached such a point in her development! I feel the need to remind you that my own particular skillset tends towards the unorthodox, and while as a Warden you may approve of pacifistic methods I am sure I do not need to remind you that the luxury of pacifism is one frequently earned alongside of a surplus of martial skill. In the matters of saberplay and offensive technique, I am afraid that I may not be the best instructor for Mara, but whatever else I may impart, it would be my honor to do so.

If possible, I will talk to Codi about supplementing my syllabus with her own considerably more refined skill with a blade.

As a former troublemaker myself, I am glad to hear that Mara continues that most honored tradition! I would not hold your breath on her calming down, though, as a quick glance at her family tree indicates that she is likely destined for great things. If Mara, by chance, already is in posession of a saber, please do me a kindness and have her leave it behind? I've attatched to this message my more direct and encrypted personal information, which you will doubtlessly like so that you may check up on Mara during the course of her training.

A.

PS - Tell your wife that her clippings from the planet are agreeing quite well with our local weather, and I thank her for the lovely and thoughtful gift. Her cousin sends his love.

PPS - Codi asked me to include a mention that I am, in fact, a Mrs. Zrgaat as of four and a half years ago. I have not finished updating all of my personal information, so I can hardly blame you for not knowing this!

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Aleidis Ijet"]

TO: Master Aleidis Zrgaat - Barsen'thor of the Jedi Order, Dayark, Kathol Republic, Wild Space
FROM: Captain Jorus Q. Merrill - Master of First Knowledge of the Jedi Order, Oswaft Station, Laekia, Levantine Sanctum, Wild Space
RE: Kids

Aleidis,

Let's not talk about debts. Thanks for agreeing to help us out with Mara's education. She's smallish, so I'm sure your Makashi will come in handy, and by all means if your wife'll help out, that'd be ideal. Frankly, I don't know the first thing about lightsabre combat. My sister and I've made sure she knows knives and vibroswords, her mom's taught her to shoot, and she's got some hand-to-hand training. Force-wise, she's pretty much pure Warden of the Sky, lots of little TK moves and projected fighting. She doesn't like it known that she's a Warden; she's more of a purist than me. Built a lightsabre, though, just recently. Not sure I can talk her into leaving it behind, but if you say so, I'll try. Odds are she'd just try to build a new one out of spare parts on the way to Dayark.

Alna says she'll send more clippings and some bulbs with Mara and Beyyr. I'm sending them in the Gypsymoth; should take about a month and a half past Kal'Shebbol. Look for a seriously battered YV-929 about six weeks from now, and that'll be them.

Also, I'm sending you a thing that wasn't around when you were in the public eye. It's called a Jedi Order Library Card. Audio access to every Jedi holocron we've got, with some limits.

Cheers,
Jorus

 

[Aleidis Zrgaat]

TO: Master Jorus Q. Merrill - Master of First Knowledge of the Jedi Order, Oswaft Station, Laekia, Levantine Sanctum, Wild Space
FROM: A-Z
Re: Kids


Jorus,

Sounds like we have a plan, then! I've already got the extra room set up and ready for her, and between Codi and myself I am sure that we have more than enough to keep her happily occupied. I'll let you know the moment she arrives, and keep you updated on her progress. Thank you for the library card! It sounds like an infinitely useful treasure, to be sure. I'll make sure it is put to good use.

A.

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Aleidis Zrgaat"]

Getting to the Kathol Republic was about as much of a headache as [member="Micah Talith"]. The hyperlane ended at Kal'Shebbol; from there it was short single jumps all the way, all through the Kathol Sector proper, then through the Outback and past the Pimbrellan League, then over to the Kathol Republic. Then Dayark, a moon tidally locked around its gas giant. Dayark, planet of drizzle and farms and the closest thing to a city for a thousand light-years in all directions. Dayark, where she was finally allowed off the ship for longer than it took to gas up at the Underground depots and safehouses that Alec Rekali had established starting at Kal'Shebbol.

Dayark, where she was finally lightsabre-less.

She'd grudgingly agreed to leave her sabre with her dad. Then she'd spent the first week of the trip building a new sabre out of spare bits and pieces aboard the Gypsymoth. There weren't any suitable power cells, so she'd gone with the five-thousand-year-old look and just jacked it into the main reactor via a power cord. She'd only cut it once. Well, twice. But she'd spent the last few weeks defiantly training the feth out of herself, harder than she'd ever trained with a lightsabre. Maybe it was reverse psychology, but she found she cared a lot now.

But a lightsabre with an extension cord instead of a diatium cell wasn't exactly portable, so she left it aboard ship and sulked her way to the bar under Beyyr's watchful eye.

 

[Aleidis Zrgaat]

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

Aleidis was happy in her retirement. She was giving back to Codi, the love of her life. She was regaining some of the health that years of feverent service and anxiety had robbed her of. Yes, she was happy in retirement, no doubt about it. The more she repeated that fact, the more plausible it was. No more trying to save the everything, ever. It'd been almost a decade since she'd taken on her first, and only, dedicated Padawan - a rather dedicated, if somber Anzat who'd disappeared a few months into his education. Aleidis had faith that she'd equipped him with everything he'd needed to live a fufilling and blood-free life, but you never knew.

There were a lot of people she aught to be writing letters to.

Dressed in her finest faded jeans and white blouse, Aleidis checked her timepiece again, idling outside of the Glowbug with a cigarette hanging more or less forgotten between her fingers. Aside from her bare, pointed feet, the Ghostling woman didn't look like much - certianly not what reputation might suggest she should be - but if Mara had no idea who she was past 'A friend of her dad' then Aleidis would count herself lucky. A quick glance around revealed a young girl with a bag of belongings, and the subtle markings of a half-human. That'd be Mara. Her Padawan.

The Ghostling warmed up her warmest, most welcoming smile and pushed herself off of the wall of Codi's club, slipping her tablet back into her trailworn satchel. Her pointed feet, angled as though she were wearing invisible high heels, carried her out of the awning and into the everpresent drizzle. "Mara?" Aleidis greeted politely, her black eyes regarding the girl curiously. "It's nice to meet you - I'm Aleidis. Why don't we get you out of this rain and settled in? I'm sure you've had a long, boring trip."

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Aleidis Zrgaat"]

For a man who'd lived and breathed Jedi politics and holocrons for years -- with varying degrees of enthusiasm -- her dad had been unusually closemouthed about Aleidis Ijet Zrgaat. Her Jedi library card had been similarly unhelpful: the holocrons had a lot to say about things that had happened centuries or millennia ago, but recent events weren't included. So what Mara knew about Aleidis, mostly due to the occasional anecdote from her Aunt Rave, could perhaps be summed up in a handful of lines.

• Barsen'thor
• Made some kind of a treaty with the Sith
• Killed someone important, about which Rave was sad
• Bit of a wench

She'd learned to take her aunt's stories with a grain of salt, but the circumstances didn't exactly incline her to charity. "Wasn't that boring," she grumbled. "Made a lightsaber."

It had been really, really boring. The Kathol Outback sucked a bit, at least until you got out to Qektoth space and the Rift and things. Rave's stories about that stuff had been cool, but none of it had involved Dayark.

"I hear it always rains here."

 

[Aleidis Zrgaat]

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

"Did you? Perhaps you can teach me how someday." Aleidis offered cheerfully, slipping her hood up. The one-armed woman put her hand then into her pocket and led the way down a rustic path away from the Glowbug. "I never was much good at the art, I'm afraid. Always found it easier to put the parts together by hand and then try and smooth it all out later with the Force." Mara must be something if she was able to build herself a saber with junk around a ship. It was a talent that Aleidis herself did not posess, and one she respected a great deal. "And... yes. It rains a lot. Eventually, you stop noticing it." She admitted, glancing up at the grey sky and the looming gas giant overhead.

The path from the Glowbug to home wasn't a long one. Rytal Prime was the closest thing to a city for weeks and weeks of FTL in any direction, but it wasn't much of a city compared to, say, Coruscant. A great deal of the people in Rytal Prime at any given moment were passing through - either loading up on food, of which Dayark had nearly infinite amounts in comparison to demand - or using it as a staging point for deep space exploration. As a result, Aleidis' home was actually rather large compared to what she otherwise knew, and posessed the rare luxury of not sharing any walls with it's neighbors. Partly because it was half underground.

Aleidis opened the front door and ushered Mara in cheerfully. "I've got a room laid out for your use, I hope you'll make yourself at home." She explained. The interior was clean and homely - the dwelling of two busy young women. Aside from the many, many potted plants and flowers, it was clear that Codi and Aleidis were mutually passionate about a few things: They had a huge kitchen, and a huge collection of films, some of them quite old and rare, most of them action. "Your training begins promptly at six thirty every morning but Zhellday. Please try to be on time." Aleidis informed Mara warmly. Asking a tween to be up at what would normally be a painfully early hour was something of a sisyphean task, but it was how her own training had begun. "If you've need of anything, especially information, please don't be afraid to ask."

She motioned down a long hall past the den. "There is a mediation and education chamber down there, on the left. At the end of the hall is the garage." Aleidis glanced over her shoulder and gave Mara a sly grin. "I've got a beat-up old shuttle in there alongside my Washburne. I don't mind if you tinker with it in your free time."

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Aleidis Zrgaat"]

The schedule made her bristle, even though it wasn't too far off from the hours she'd been keeping for years now. But the offer of a shuttle to manhandle told her two things: Aleidis knew exactly what she was demanding of Mara, and she was certain that she'd balanced the carrot and the stick appropriately. Part of Mara resented it, part of her approved, and part of her was keenly aware that this house was about six times larger than the one where she'd grown up. Q-27, this was not. A place like this was practically guaranteed to have nooks and crannies where she might fit and they might not. It also struck her as comfortable, welcoming, and luxurious. And then there were those action holofilms...

No. You will not enjoy this place.

"Sounds fine, I guess," Mara mumbled, avoiding eye contact. "What kind of training are we talking about? Dad never said what it is you do."

 

[Aleidis Zrgaat]

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

"I... suppose that's just as well." Aleidis decided thoughtfully, padding quietly to a planeted berry bush. She plucked a bright green-and-purple berry and popped it into her mouth, pondering how to phrase her reply. "It seems uncouth to give you a checklist of what I'm good for, so I won't. For now, simply have faith that I will be teaching you things you should know - save saberplay, which will be handled by my considerably more martially skilled wife." She explained, her tone pleasant.

"But you seem like a girl who appreciates an object lesson over vague things! And your father tells me that you're quite the troublemaker, so this aught to appeal to you." Aleidis said slyly, leaning against the back of a couch. "Somewhere in this house is hidden a box, and in that box is a treasure." She explained, holding out her hand. A cube roughly four inches square blipped into being: a small wooden box. "One of your first long-term tasks is going to be to find this box - which will be difficult, as it is invisible, gives off no odor, and cannot be physically interacted with despite being quite real."

"When you've finished training with me, you will be able to pinpoint that box's location from miles away." Aleidis promised earnestly. "I do hope you'll find it long before that point, though."

Long ago, Je'Gan had tasked her with climbing through the Council Chambers, completely undetected. As Aleidis didn't have a massive security infastructure or Jedi masters to challenge Mara with, this would have to do - finding secrets aught to appeal to the girl's Warden nature.

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Aleidis Zrgaat"]

Mara's eyebrows began to rise and didn't stop. A Lorrdian's child, she knew that she was giving off a pretty firm impression of being interested. She considered clarifying that she was only interested because this was nothing like what she'd expected. This could still turn out to be lame.

On the other hand, the contradiction appealed to her. This didn't fit anything she'd ever heard of, from any of her teachers or the holocrons. Was Aleidis lying about some part of what she'd said? How could it be both physically not there and totally real? Maybe she'd misunderstood. Was the real box just an illusion? Was it genuinely real and covered by an illusion -- some kind of illusion that made it just plain not there? Or, more realistically, an illusion strong enough to make you think you'd never touched it at all? What defined 'real'? What kind of Force senses might pick it up, and were they things she could develop? If it couldn't be physically interacted with, would running her hands over every square inch of-

She caught herself caring and shrugged. "All right. I guess I can give it a shot. You got anything else for me to do?"

 

[Aleidis Zrgaat]

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

"Nope!" Aleidis chirped brightly, the demonstrative illusion fading away as quickly as it'd come. She let her hand fall back into her pocket and smiled warmly. "Go get changed out of those wet clothes and get settled in. Your time is yours - supper is in... two hours, let's say?" She decided. "We're having fried mushrooms, rice, a vegtable medley, and a large amount of steak. Codi is carnivorous, you see." Domestic life did, in a way, suit Aleidis. Service unto others was something of a running theme in her life.

Mara's room was, as promised, about as lovely a room as a young girl could want. Mostly in that it had a large, comfortable bed, a holoscreen, and lots of empty workspace between a dresser, desk, and bookshelf. Aleidis had intended for Mara to make the room her own over the time she'd be there, and didn't personally see the point of austere living conditions as a part of training, so she'd simply declined to observe the ancient Jedi tradition of living like a monk in a cheap hotel room.

The next morning, true to form, Aleidis woke early and dressed simply, leaving Codi to her slumber. She breezed past Mara's room, checking her time as she brewed a pot of tea, and decided to give the girl a reminder (or motivation) to get moving on time with the aromatic scent of rare beverage and scones being moved past her room and into a covered section of her rediculously overflowing, lively garden.

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Aleidis Zrgaat"]

At no point during supper did Mara make eye contact with anyone.

***

The odor of scones and tea wormed its way into Mara's sleepy brain. She awoke with a hacking cough and an impact -- specifically, the roof of an air duct against her forehead as she tried to sit bolt upright and failed in a serious degree. She got the coughing under control and took stock of the situation. At some point -- she never carried a chrono -- she'd apparently fallen asleep while searching the ventilation system for the little box. On balance, she'd decided to trust both her hands and the Force, and had gotten into a pretty good rhythm for balancing manual and psychic search modes. Her hands felt coated in permacrete; even without light, she knew her palms were black with grime. She had no frame of reference to figure out where in the house she might be, but she was a Merrill. Mentally retracing her steps and comparing it with an intuitive location check, she discerned that she'd fallen asleep over the garage.

Her incredibly grungy clothes provided minimal resistance as she slipped through the air ducts. She multitooled her way through a grate in record time and dropped onto the back of the Washburn-class. From there it was literally child's play to get inside -- her dad had designed the dang thing -- and exit the garage in the direction of that smell. Her gut growled, half from hunger and half from overdose of steak.

Covered in dust and grime, black marks ground into her elbows, knees and shoulders, Mara slouched into a rough approximation of a seated posture on a planter's edge. Her eyes didn't leave the tea.

"Sup."

 

[Aleidis Zrgaat]

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

Somebody really enjoyed object lessons. Aleidis made a note of this, raising only a bemused eyebrow in response to Mara's dishevlled appearance. The girl was clearly quite ready for breakfast, and Aleidis had no shortage of tea and fruity scones to share, so she didn't make her wait; she poured Mara a cup of tea, the plate of scones steaming merrily between them. It was just as well that Mara had already gotten her hands dirty, as Aleidis' teaching methods usually involved a great deal of that. "Eat up." she instructed warmly. "We've still got ten minutes before we get to work." That gave her plenty of time to enjoy a cigarette, drifting away from the table to the edge of the patio, looking over her garden - as was Aleidis' custom.

"Most of your early training will be done out here." Aleidis explained casually a few minutes later, leading Mara through the drizzle. They were on a paved stone path that weaved through her garden, flowers heavy with water and growth occasionally hanging in the way only to be gently moved aside. "Even once you advance, it will be a part of your daily routine to rise early and tend this garden with me, as long as you remain here." She added, bringing Mara to a ready-to-travel sapling, it's roots bundled up in a rough cloth. "Your father tells me that you've some skill with using the Force as a fist - pushing, punching, pulling. I can feel for myself: you're strong enough that this is likely truth."

Aleidis ran her hand over the smooth white bark of the sapling. "But the Force is more than a fist, just as a hand is." She explained. "I'd like to guage your technical skill. Lift this tree, and keep it upright off of the ground for me, would you? Be careful to cradle the roots and not swing it too much, or else you'll disrupt it's growth or worse, put it into shock."

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Aleidis Zrgaat"]

"Fists aren't for throwing." She grimaced and stretched out to the Force, seeking for something that might approach tranquility. She got a fumbling grip on the sapling, centered around the ball of roots, dirt and cloth. She told herself the warnings hadn't been necessary in the face of common sense, but the moment was gone -- who could say? Crumbs of dirt shook themselves free and mingled with leftover rainwater. The cloth dimpled as she tried to substitute strength for finesse, fist clutched at her side, but she backed off and let it settle, wary of putting the sapling into shock. She half-shook her head, stretched out her empty hands and closed her eyes. She aimed for relaxation. There was, her dad had always told her, a big difference between the tranquility required to touch the Force properly and the often blatant strength involved in what the Force would do when you asked it. She could be relaxed and still have strength; that was a thing. The tree lifted again, maybe six inches off the ground, and stayed there. It wobbled and bobbed gently, but didn't rock or sway too much. It was, she decided, just like holding a Force-enhanced grapple, and she could do that for a while. Only different in your mind said the memory of Yoda's holocron.

 

[Aleidis Zrgaat]

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

Aleidis watched carefully as Mara warmed up - or at least got her head in the right place for working the Force in the manner she'd described. Although the tree wasn't quite stationary yet, it'd get there. "Very good." She offered, walking around the tree - breaking line of sight to see if that affected Mara's control, watching the girl's reactions for signs of stress or lapses in concentrations that would mean she'd have to intervene to save the plant from damage. As important as consequeces in training were, it wasn't worth risking a life.

"Now. While holding it there, I'd like you to explain to me the Jedi code." Aleidis decided, hand behind her back as she moved to stand beside the tree. "Using your own words, of course, and what you feel that it means."

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Aleidis Zrgaat"]

Her eyes were closed in old tradition, so breaking line of sight didn't do a thing except introduce her mind's eye to a hint of what Aleidis actually was. She held the tree up regardless, half-frowning in concentration. Remembering the Code word for word was hard enough. Commentating on it while lifting the sapling was a whole other order of magnitude. But maybe if she used the Code as a mantra to get calm, she could turn that into strength, or at least endurance. The Force was supposed to be inexhaustible, and Jedi were supposed to draw on it to be inexhaustible themselves, more or less.

"Uh, let's see." Her brow wrinkled, eyes still shut. "The blade is the heart of the, um, Force -- no, wrong one, never mind. Uh...There is no passion, there is serenity. Or like the Code of the Outer Rim says, don't lose your sense of proportion for a cause or a grudge. Don't get mad, don't let it get personal. Look to the Force for calm.

"Um, what comes next...no, wait, passion was later. There is no emotion, there is peace. That's the 'don't let it get personal' one. Otherwise you just end up sour or bitter or whatever.

"Then there was...no ignorance, knowledge. Yeah. Don't be afraid of learning new things or looking at things in new ways you might not like. Code of the Outer Rim says 'improve your skills and pay your own way,' but that's only part of it. Figure out if you've got blinders on from a grudge or something.

"There is no chaos, there is harmony. Don't be a dick to the people on your side and don't split hairs to call'em others. Code of the Outer Rim says don't impose your principles on folks. Don't do things that make you conflicted. My dad showed me this one holocron that said 'live so as to have a quiet conscience.'

"There is no...oh right. There is no death, there is the Force. We all go back to the Force, the Force is made up of all of us and then some, so don't freak out when someone dies.

"Uh, ok, second stanza." She peeked. The tree wobbled and was just brushing the ground; she raised it another few inches and closed her eyes again. Her arms were burning, so she dropped them to her sides -- no need for another distraction. "Jedi are the guardians of...peace in the galaxy? Or all life? Something like that. Don't let karkers make trouble for trouble's sake, no matter what their color scheme is.

"Jedi use their powers to defend and to protect. Only take a swing at someone if you need to. Only shoot first if you gotta -- that's the Code of the Outer Rim too.

"Jedi respect all life in any form -- there we go. Oh. Yeah, I guess being careful about this tree is the thing. Guess it means your enemies too, and worthless karkers and things.

"Jedi serve others and don't rule'em. Don't be a tyrant or a dick to folks below you, no matter what your job is. Don't become an emperor or something.

"Jedi improve themselves with knowledge and training. Sort of the same deal as the 'there is no ignorance' bit, but I guess it needed more oomph. Don't get lazy, basically. Don't get too happy with where you're at as a person, my mom says.

"Jedi serve civilization and the Force above all other allegiances." That one, she knew word for word. "Doesn't matter what governments call themselves or say they stand for. Governments are crap. Serve civilization and the Force.

"Same goes for the next bit. Don't let civilization break things if things don't need breaking. 'My country right or wrong' is against the Code, my dad says.

"Jedi don't take revenge or hold grudges. I guess that's all there is to that one.

"Jedi don't grab power or go looking to be respected or famous. Jedi don't use the Force to get rich. Doesn't mean you can't have a job, just means...don't use the Force to get rich. Yeah.

"Then there's more Jedi respect stuff, about unity and each other and basically just not running around saying 'you're not a true Jedi!' 'No, you're not a true Jedi!' That kind of crap."

She opened her eyes. The bottom of the root bulb had been brushing a small circle of mud on the path for a while now. "Kark."

 

[Aleidis Zrgaat]

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

"Language." Aleidis chided gently, offering a smile. "No need to curse, Mara - you're doing well." She'd managed to get a pretty clear image of the girl's personal values and priorities - the things Mara had glossed over weren't very important to her, and most of her sense of morality was handed down from her father and his own (sometimes dubious) set of ethics and ideals. That meant that once she grew out of her parent's shadow (which human development suggested should be a process already underway) she'd be receptive to developing and cultivating her own path through life - the ideal time to begin training. She was enough of a completionist to go beyond the first part, and in that, Aleidis was impressed - she certianly hadn't, when it'd been her doing elementary excercises. Yes, she'd learned a fair bit about Mara, and managed to test the girl's Force control at the same time. Not bad, if she did say so herself.

Maybe she'd turn out to be an adequate Master, after all.

"You can set the tree down." Alei instructed, motioning Mara to her side. She crouched near the resting plant once it was safe on the walkway. "You did fairly well, considering you held a life in your hands at the time." Aleidis assured her ward. "Place your hand on the bark and concentrate - don't close your eyes. Just... look. Touch, as I am." Aleidis ordered softly. "All things are connected through the Force, as you know. The past and future are linked by the present, just as you and I are bound to every other life in the Universe through the common stream of the Force - it is endless and almighty, ever present and elusive. Keep this imagine in your mind; of the Force flowing through your body, chanelled by your will. It runs through you as surely as this tree you've kept so safe." Aleidis explained quietly. "Reach out with your senses. Extend your will. See the Force flowing through this tree. Can you?"

 

[Mara D'Lessio Merrill]

[member="Aleidis Zrgaat"]

The moment Master Zrgaat said language, a powerful ambition bloomed in Mara's heart: somehow, somewhen, someway, she would make the Ghostling cuss. And that pretty much did it for pure-hearted serenity. Mara rested her palms against the sapling's trunk, kind of awkwardly; it was thin enough to grab, so she did, because why not. Eyes shut, she reached out like Aleidis described, or at least tried it. But did she mean Mara would be able to feel the Force flowing through her or through the tree or between them or what? She poked around with her senses a bit, trying to find the big current or whatever.

You're overthinking this. Come on. Relax and listen.

Her head tilted as the vaguest possible sense of the big picture entered her mind. "OK, I think I..." She was all talked out, at least when it came to in-depth uplifting stuff. "Yeah, I think I feel it. So what do I do now? What's the point of feeling me and a tree?"

 

[Aleidis Zrgaat]

[member="Mara D'Lessio Merrill"]

"There's a point." Aleidis promised, putting a feather-light hand on Mara's shoulder. "Just... get to know it. Feel how the Force flows through you, how it brings new life and power to you and animates your will. Compare it to what you feel in the tree. Does the Force follow the same streams and rivers to bring life to this tree as it does to you? Does it look, or feel the same?" Aleidis asked with a soft smile. "What small deductions can you make about the plant by seeing how the Force flows through it? What same deductions can you make about yourself, or even me? To feel and see the Force in another is a small thing, but knowing how to interpret what you see is much more important... and it begins with trusting your intuition."

Unbeknownst to Mara, there was a second test at work, here, and a reason why the tree was rooted and more or less dormant - it was sick. A parasite had infested it's roots, just below the surface, and although that parasite was long dead, it's corpse and venom had putrefied the tree's roots and made it ill. The effect was subtle, thanks to it's dormancy, but still detectible.