The Heart of the Jedi

by ardavenport

/o\\\'/o\\\'/o\\\'/o\\\'/o\\\'/o\\\ - - - Part 7

"Now dear, the first thing I want you to put out of your mind completely is that this training is any kind of punishment. No good can come from that kind of negative thinking." Master Guiyusinth wagged her finger at Semko.

"Yes, Master," Semko inclined her blond head respectfully. The matronly Master held her head back and narrowed her eyes at the younger Jedi Knight. Qui-Gon sensed that Semko may have intellectually accepted that she was not being punished, but she did not feel that way.

Next to him, Obi-Wan fidgeted.

"Now," Guiyusinth clapped her hands, even though she already had everyone's complete attention. "Let us all line up. Semko, you go next to me. Eclin, you next to her." Guiyusinth guided them to their places with a hand at their elbows. "Now, Obi-Wan." His Padwan took his position; Qui-Gon frowned at his unhappy expression.

He knew what was bothering Obi-Wan. They had spent a successful morning in the Room of Sabers and Obi-Wan had caught on very quickly to how to feel his way toward his new lightsaber design. Qui-Gon was proud of him for that.

Now he was being petulant, because he wanted to go right away to his workbench and apply what he had learned to his new saber, but Qui-Gon had committed them to helping Master Guiyusinth with Semko's training instead.

This was a disappointment and Qui-Gon was satisfied with making Obi-Wan wait. Eagerness was fine, but lightsabers were not created from impatience.

"And now." Guiyusinth looked about, turned around and looked up. "There you are," she said to Qui-Gon. He said nothing, smiling down at her. Of course, she had known that he was standing right behind her. He knew that. She knew that he knew that. Qui-Gon thought that Master Guiyusinth's act was a bit pretentious, but he accepted it as part of her way.

He did not really know Master Guiyusinth very well. He occasionally met her in the Temple and he had been on a few missions with her many years ago, but his first meeting with her had been when he was the Padawan of Jedi Knight Dooku. Master Guiyusinth had been a clan mate of his former Master. Even then, as a strong, forceful young Jedi Knight, Guiyusinth had been pretentious, but instead of a moderately confused older woman, she had played the pretty, young girl of barely adequate intellect. Dooku had complained about her whole subterfuge, since he knew perfectly well how smart she was. Dooku thought it was degrading and Qui-Gon did not understand it, but it put her in a position of always being underestimated by anyone who did not know her. She obvious preferred meeting people that way.

She was also the first person Qui-Gon had ever seen use a Jedi mind influence seductively. When he had asked Dooku about it later, his Master had sternly told him that it was beneath them. But he did not complain about it to Guiyusinth. She had used it get them out of jail with a team of smitten guards falling all over themselves for her with undisguised longing. Dooku had instructed him that this sort of use of the Force skirted dangerously close to violating the Jedi Code. But as far as Qui-Gon could tell, all covert mind influences did that. So, he had simply refrained from trying out Knight Guiyusinth's technique until after he had been knighted. It had gotten him into huge amounts of trouble, but he would not take back the lessons he had learned from it, even if that were possible.

Now, Master Guiyusinth was a stout, older woman herding him to the end of their line. But Qui-Gon still sensed the disguised intelligence, content to be strategically overlooked.

"Oh, dear. You two really aren't dressed properly for this," she tisked, looking at his and Obi-Wan's belts where they were not wearing their lightsabers. Obi-Wan blushed. Qui-Gon serenely folded his arms before him, his arms tucked into the opposite sleeves of his robe. He accepted her pretense of befuddlement, but he did not have to participate in it. Her blue eyes met his.

"Oh well," she threw her hands up. "I suppose it just can't be helped." She put on the hood of her robe and everyone else followed her example as she went to her end of the line.

"Now," she called out, facing forward toward the great entrance at the base of the Jedi Temple. "Everyone follow me! And keep your place in the line!"

They all marched diagonally across the great hall where they had gathered, toward the light streaming in from the huge windows at the entryway.

Qui-Gon saw Semko and Obi-Wan looking about curiously. But Eclin, Guiyusinth's former Padawan, had presumably participated in training like this before and knew what was going to happen. Qui-Gon suspected what the older woman was doing, but he had never participated in this version of this training before. He was concerned, since what he was thinking of could be a fairly advanced exercise for Obi-Wan, depending on how difficult Guiyusinth wanted to make it. Everyone else in the group was either a Knight or a Master, but Obi-Wan had been a Padawan for hardly more than a year.

You won't know their limits unless you test them.

Qui-Gon heard his old Master's voice in his thoughts. Dooku had always thought that Qui-Gon had been too lenient with his Padawans. He could have been right. Qui-Gon had hardly spoken to him since Xanatos had fallen, years ago now.

They exited the Temple's grand, main entrance, past the huge columns of the entryway and into the Coruscant midday. Being the tallest of the group and at the end of the line, Qui-Gon could look over everyone's head to where they were going. They descended the steps of the Processional Way, entering the shadows of the buildings around the Jedi Temple. They went down to a mid-level walkway, past two blocks of buildings and then right to a wider pedestrian-way. It was fairly obvious to Qui-Gon that they were headed for the Public Transport Station nearest to the Temple. A few people stared at their odd line of five brown-robed Jedi, but most ignored them and no one stopped to look.

"Now, I think we should take a little tour of this marvelous planet we have," Master Guiyusinth spoke above the mumble of the increasing crowds. "All you have to do is follow the person ahead of you. Don't worry about following anyone ahead of them, but do be mindful of who is behind you. And especially the people around you," she instructed, confirming to Qui-Gon what she was doing, though the last time he had participated in this exercise, it had been with eight Jedi in air taxis.

They joined the crowd at the Transport Station. Their line tightened, everyone keeping close so that they would not be separated. Guiyusinth purchased five day passes and then handed four of them back to Semko, who passed the remaining three on.

Guiyusinth only spoke again when they had passed into the station. They stood together on one of many long platforms from which passengers emerged from and vanished into repulsor-lift cars. From there they could travel to nearly any part of Coruscant as long as they kept renewing their passes. She led them aside, away from a knot of people boarding one transport car.

"Now, just to be clear about this," she instructed. "You must all stay in line." Her sing-songing voice lingered on 'all' as she pointed at them. "Don't worry about all the people ahead of you, except the one you're following. And mind the people in line behind you."

Semko tensed. Guiyusinth used the Force that she had gathered to her to leap into the departing transport car just before the door slid closed.

Semko gathered the Force to her.

"Get the next one!" Eclin hastily told her. Semko stopped in mid-crouch as the last car in the repulsor-lift train passed them.

"Whatever you do, idon't/t chase her. She'll just make it harder. Believe me, I know." Semko unhappily looked from her friend to the rapidly retreating train.

"Can you find her?" she asked.

"I should." Qui-Gon knew that the bond between Master and Padawan could be strong and Eclin Moli had only recently been knighted, but even that could be obscured by the intricacies of the Coruscant public transit system.

"I believe that train was an express," Qui-Gon pointed out the posted schedule. "A local one could delay us considerably."

Semko scrutinized the schedule and the transit map next to it. Then she looked back at Qui-Gon, her small brown eyes narrowed, the darker stripes of her short fur radiating out from them. "Should you be helping me?"

"Guiyusinth didn't say we couldn't talk," Eclin told her. "And you're supposed to 'mind' everyone behind you, remember?"

"Well, you must have already done this with her," Semko replied.

"Not on these trains, I haven't. That's new."

"But you're still sure you can find her?"

"She's not trying to hide from us," Eclin stated. "She has to mind us, too. If she's at the next stop, she should be near the train. Wherever she is, she'll be visible. Some way. She won't make it hard for us until we get further into this." Qui-Gon watched the two of them over Obi-Wan's head while Eclin reminded Semko about her Master's quirks. Around them, the multi-species swarm of commuters and tourists reformed into a new expectant knot for the next train at their stop. But it was local and they moved away while Eclin continued her instruction to Semko. Qui-Gon observed silently.

When the next express car arrived, it was more than half empty. They filed in and took their seats, still in their line. They did not speak during the long trip, though Qui-Gon again sensed Obi-Wan's impatience next to him.

The blond fur on Semko's head stood up with anticipation as they finally approached the next stop. As soon as the door slid open, Guiyusinth stepped in, all smiles.

The exercise proceeded. Long periods of sitting on transit cars were interrupted by energetic strolls through busy transit terminals and commercial concourses. Guiyusinth had a remarkable ability to disappear if Semko followed too close. Most of the time Qui-Gon would spy the hem of her robe ducking under a barrier, or the top of her veil dropping down a couple of levels, but a couple of times she surprised him.

While the training seemed to be a satisfactory exercise for Semko, Qui-Gon grew increasingly dissatisfied with his own Padawan. Obi-Wan had suppressed his fidgeting, but only after catching a glare from him. Eclin was not challenging Obi-Wan at all and he seemed to be gaining little from the excursion. He kept up, but he seemed bored and dispirited, especially whenever they passed a holo-sign with a chrono on it. The time when they were supposed to have been back working on their lightsabers had long since come and gone, and Guiyusinth still led them away from the Temple.

They exited yet another transit car into a commercial area that looked exactly like the one they had just left. Guiyusinth's veil fluttered behind her as she briskly charged out into the crowd. Beings of all sorts crossed the invisible line of the four robed and hooded Jedi who trailed her.

A lifter loaded with huge canisters drove between them and Master Guiyusinth. When it had gone, so was she.

Semko hardly showed even momentary surprise. She followed the lifter, advancing carefully. Eclin and Obi-Wan followed too closely behind her. So, when their attention was focused on where Guiyusinth might have been, they missed her popping up over the lifter and spryly landing on the other side of it. The older woman danced away into the crowd until she was behind Qui-Gon.

Now, Qui-Gon was disappointed in Eclin. She had focused almost exclusively on encouraging Semko and had done little to enlist either his or Obi-Wan's help. Qui-Gon supposed that the older woman might have instructed Eclin to concentrate only on helping Semko. But it appeared to him that it was more likely that Eclin simply hadn't thought of asking them. And he was not inclined to come to her aid. Both of them had participated well in their last mission, but now they seemed to have forgotten how to include the whole group in their task.

He walked up to the two young Knights. Eclin was again trying to sense where Guiyusinth had gotten to for Semko. Obi-Wan disinterestedly looked about while his elders largely ignored him. Qui-Gon supposed that he had some small justification for being bored.

He felt a moment of hope when Obi-Wan started in surprise and leaned to the side, to see around him. But he was too easily distracted by Eclin. The Force flowed strongly in the young woman, but when she ended up looking at Qui-Gon it wavered and diminished with her uncertainty. Semko started to look worried.

Qui-Gon kept his features neutral though he was now doubly disappointed in the two young Knights. Doubling back on a pursuer was a pathetically predictable tactic that might be expected to work on someone with Obi-Wan's lack of experience, but not on these two.

To her credit Eclin finally obeyed her instincts and told Semko to double back. But Guiyusinth fooled them again by remaining hidden in place and they walked right past her. Qui-Gon did not even glance toward the toes of Guiysinth's boots, plainly visible under the glowing advertising placard she stood behind.

They entered a corridor connecting to another concourse and transit station. Qui-Gon slowed his pace when Eclin passed a lone food stall. Semko had reached the end of the corridor and was turning about scanning the new concourse. Obi-Wan hurried to catch up with both of them. Qui-Gon followed him, but he stopped at the food stall.

It was getting late. Guiyusinth's training had far exceeded the time she said it would take. It was inconsiderate of her to not ask him about the extension, but neither he nor Obi-Wan had anything to do that could not be done the next day. And really challenging training did not conform to predictable time constraints.

He scanned the menu for Humanoids. The holo food displays along the counter looked palatable and the smells of the stall were promising. Producing a credit chit from a belt pouch, he asked for a small juice and snack box #A2. He looked over the other menu selections while the attendant swiped his card and a helper picked out his order from the stacks on the warming shelves. There seemed to be plenty of suitable things for everyone else.

In his side vision, Qui-Gon saw Obi-Wan disappear around the corner at the end of the corridor. Eclin and Semko were already out of sight.

/o\\\'/o\\\'/o\\\ End of Part 7 /o\\\'/o\\\'/o\\\