"And just where have you lost your padawan this time, Master Cetari?" asked Obi-Wan Kenobi, as soon as he noticed the Jedi Master climbing up the stairs at the entrance of Jedi Temple. Master Cetari removed the hood off his head to greet Obi-Wan. His close-cropped platinum hair glistened in the sun as he bowed. It was a beautiful day on Coruscant. One to be enjoyed and celebrated outside in the sun, and not spent indoors.

"She'll come. Easy," reassured Ares, smiling. His usually dark sapphire skin seemed to turn light blue, and the facial tattoos now resembled strings of golden flames starting in the outside corner of his eyes, running down his cheeks, and ending just above his chin.

"I told you this meeting was important." They entered the Temple and started walking towards the southwest tower. "The Council needs both of you. It's about the refugee retrieval, we're taking them back to Alderaan. What the blazes is she doing out there?"

"Oh. She's— um—." It only now occurred to Ares how absurd it would have seemed to other Jedi Masters, who didn't know the padawan as well as he did. She was the solitary type, and some of her choices of how she'd spend her free time might have seemed a little odd. Fortunately, Obi-Wan wasn't one of those other Jedi Masters, and he found her preferences rather interesting, if not admirable. "She's meditating. Again."

"Meditating? She's really onto something with this, isn't she?"

"Oh, yes! Just waiting for the Force to struck her down with a revelation. Or some common sense, preferably. Or both. I don't think they're mutually exclusive."

Obi-Wan chuckled.

"She's dedicated!" He explained cheerfully. "I'm sure, however, I've yet to see you take some time off to meditate at least half the time she's meditating. Perhaps you should consider joining her every once in a while?"

"I think I'm wasting just about right amount of my time doing precisely that. Leth, on the other hand… Sometimes she's just— sometimes she just tries too hard, you know?"

"Well, I'd worry if it was the other way around."

"No, no, no. It's not that." Ares looked around before they walked into the elevator to make sure no one was spying on them, or eavesdropping, for that matter. "Actually, I've been meaning to talk to you about this. I might need your advice."

"Well?" asked Obi-Wan, as the doors closed behind them.

"Leth is… She's really beating herself up about this… if the results do not reflect the amount of time and effort she spends mastering the ways of the Force. And this— this self inflicted, sort of, pressure affects her overall performance, especially in combat. All of a sudden she's distracted, unsettled, anxious, tense. I haven't had any of that with of my former padawan, Attila. I mean, he's surely had his moments—"

"Oh, yes, we all remember our favourite rebel." Obi-Wan cut in, remembering the ever rebellious, yet completely loyal, Attila, who was knighted a couple of years ago and just recently took a youngling under his wing.

"—and Leth is nothing like him. She really wants to be at her best. All the time. She's just, you know, one of those obedient, incredibly devoted, but slightly over-zealous padawans."

What wouldn't Obi-Wan give to have such a padawan of his own. But for now he had to wait. There were bigger things he had to take care of first. Maybe after this mission he'll have some time to go and ask the Council to have another padawan assigned to him.

"You must be really proud of her. You should be."

"I am," assured him Master Cetari. "But when she keeps pushing her limits—don't get me wrong, it's not a bad thing, I don't think it is, at least— it's almost as if she feared that, when she falls behind with her meditation practice, or if she spends her free time some other way than meditating, getting stronger, enlarging her mind… That she's going to lose the Force altogether. I can't help but feel I must be doing something wrong… I wish I knew how to help her. I just can't break through this— this wall of expectations she has of herself. Or fixation, or whatever it is."

"It can be. Or, perhaps, she's trying to live up to your expectations? Has it ever crossed your mind?" asked Obi-Wan playfully.

"Of course it had! And it's not me."

"Well, that's reassuring."

"She says she just needs to quiet her mind and get stronger. I don't know—"

"What, does she think she's not strong enough, even after all the training you've given her so far? Maybe it is you after all," admitted Obi-Wan, teasing his concerned friend.

"Well," Ares shrugged, "she's not as strong and confident as Ahsoka, but she's not far behind."

"A little competition between the two, is it?"

"Unlikely. Not with the Force, at least."

"Then maybe all that you both need is more time. And patience."

"But it's so hard to see her struggle. Especially if I don't know what it is she's trying to achieve, she's not falling behind in her studies, her skills are still developing—"

"Listen to me." Obi-Wan looked him straight in the eye, about to give the best advice he could. Or, at least, so he believed. "Sometimes you have to step back and leave your padawan be; let her deal with this on her own. And, I know, that's the hardest part, but do not get involved. Do you understand me? Whatever you do, do not get involved."

"So what do I do?"

"Have patience, Ares. You need to have more patience than she does."

"Patience," he snorted, as the elevator stopped and they walked out into the bright, wide corridor.

"Yes, patience. And time. Some flowers take a little longer to bloom."

And it certainly took long enough for Leth Hal.