Chapter Two

"You will like it at the temple, Ayla," her Master assured her. Ayla worried at her lip, nervous.

"But Master….won't they – fear me?" she asked tremulously. This was her greatest fear. Gifted in the Force far beyond any creature yet born, Ayla's powers were both a blessing...and a curse. Such great power led others to fear and shun her, in terror of what she might choose to do with it. Unfortunately, at times when she was in a highly emotional state, her powers would sometimes become too much for her to control. Not that she ever hurt anyone – she would never harm someone who did not deserve it. But sometimes… Sometimes, she lost control and they spilled out of her.

Her Master smiled at her kindly, knowing her fears before she had to speak them aloud. Of everyone she had ever met, her Master was the most unfailingly kind and understanding, never judging her and always encouraging her. He knew the potential of her powers; that she could do things no one in recorded history could do. But he always remained steadfast, never wavering in his commitment to teaching her and helping her to pass through the obstacles that life inevitable threw at them. This sometimes led to difficulties for himself, as people either criticised his teaching methods or attempted to influence him in the hopes of indirectly influencing her.

"No, Ayla. They may be curious, and people naturally fear what they do not understand; but your kind heart and enthusiasm will surely teach them otherwise," he reassured her. A tall man in his forties, he had observant brown eyes and threads of grey were now beginning to appear in his blonde hair, something that she occasionally lightly teased him about.

Ayla frowned slightly. She did indeed try her best to be kind to all, and she was fervent in her lessons as she was desperate to harness the Force that she sensed so much more keenly than any others, even the Grey Jedi Masters. Under their tutelage, she strove to understand. The Force she felt flowed through every living being...a connection between them all...cascading through them until she felt as though she lived in a constant river, the Force dipping and swirling between herself and the world. She had felt its stirrings when she was only a few years old, and she had only grown stronger since.

The Grey Jedi were a world apart from the traditional Jedi they were to visit. The original Jedi believed that they must not feel strong emotion, that the key to the Force was the precise opposite of the Dark Force Users, who used passion and strong emotions such as hate and greed to fuel their powers. The Jedi proved a stark opposition to these emotion-driven Force sensitives, and encouraged emotional detachment above all as a way to create peace in the Galaxy. The Grey Jedi, however, walked a precarious path between the two oppositional sides. They believed that emotion, when properly controlled and channelled, could provide the purest understanding of the Force and the living inhabitants that it flowed through.

"After all," Master Jedson, one of the Grey Jedi Masters proclaimed solemnly, "what love can there be that is greater than that of a parent for her children? Or a spouse for their beloved? As long as that love drives the desire to improve the Galaxy for the better" - and not drive you to the Dark Side, like Anankin Skywalker, was the unspoken comment - "how can emotion truly be a bad thing?". And so Ayla learned that to harness that emotion and use it to drive for rightness in the Galaxy was surely the calling of those born able to feel the gentle caress of the Force. For Ayla, as the most powerful of those so born, surely this was a goal she must achieve.

But still...the journey to Luke Skywalker's Jedi Temple stirred unease within her. She was afraid, it was true, of the reactions of the other padawans; as a Grey Jedi apprentice, she would already be different from them, her learning so different from theirs. Her strong command over the Force would only render her more strange in their eyes, and she dreaded the judgements they would surely make of her.