The next few days at the Academy passed quickly for Ryn. She continued training with Master Luke one-on-one, but he also started her in a few of the regular classes, so she had very little time to herself. So far she'd managed to avoid running into Ben again, which was good, since she still had no idea what she was going to tell him. She didn't exactly trust him, and was fairly certain that this training group he was involved in would not have met with Luke's or any other instructor's approval. Still, the idea of extra training and practice appealed to her. The more she learned, the more she wanted to learn, and even Luke's personal instruction wasn't proving enough to satisfy her newfound thirst for knowledge.
She walked down the hallway toward her room, still trying to work out what to do. As she passed the door to Luke's quarter's, Vala came out, shaking her head. She stopped when she saw Ryn.
"I wouldn't go in there if I were you," said Vala quietly, gesturing toward the open doorway. "He's in some kind of weird mood today."
Ryn frowned. Though she still hadn't known him long, she'd found Luke to be one of the most emotionally stable people she'd ever met. "What do you mean?" she asked. "What happened?"
Vala took her arm and led her down the hallway, away from Luke's door. "He has me straighten up his office area sometimes when he's really busy with teaching. So today while I was cleaning I threw out some dead flower that's been sitting on his desk for days, and when he found out he acted like I'd intentionally murdered an Ewok or something."
Ryn's eyes widened.
"Okay," said Vala, "maybe he wasn't that upset. He didn't even raise his voice, really, but he got this strange, sort of distant look in his eye and started acting all melancholy. He wouldn't even tell me why he cared about the stupid flower in the first place." She shrugged. "Anyway, just thought I should warn you. If you find any dead plants lying around, you'd better check to make sure he's not sentimentally attached to them before you throw them away."
She started to leave, and after a moment's hesitation Ryn ran after her. "There was something I wanted to ask you about," Ryn said. "Or someone, rather. A student named Ben….he never told me his last name."
Vala stopped walking and turned to look at her. "Tall, long-ish dark hair?" she asked.
Ryn nodded.
"That's Ben Solo," said Vala.
"Solo? So he's Han and Leia's son?"
"And Master Luke's nephew, yes." She tucked a strand of shiny black hair behind one ear, her eyes narrowing slightly. "What did you want to know about him?"
Ryn debated asking Vala about the training group, but decided against it. If the instructors didn't already know it existed, Ryn wasn't sure she wanted to be the one to tell them—at least not until she'd found out a little bit more about it for herself.
"I was wondering...he offered to...to help me practice the things I've been learning." It was close to the truth, anyway. "Is he a good enough student for that to be worth my time?"
Vala took a deep breath. "Ben is talented, yes," she said slowly. "But be careful. Some of his ideas about the Force are misguided at best, and he can be very...persuasive. Just stick to the things Master Luke is teaching you, all right?"
Ryn nodded, and after a brief hesitation Vala continued on down the hallway. At the very least, Vala had confirmed her suspicions that Ben wasn't particularly trustworthy. But she had also said he was talented, which meant extra training with him might help her to improve more quickly. All she had to do now was decide which of those two things was more important.
"The vast majority of your work as Jedi will involve finding ways to avoid violent confrontation," said Luke. "You'll need to be as good, or better, with your negotiation and reasoning techniques as you are at actually fighting."
Ryn sat near the wall in a training room full of first-year students, most of whom were children or young teenagers. She noticed Kaden sitting across the room, and he smiled when she caught his eye. Luke and one of the other instructors stood at the front, introducing the evening's lesson.
"Part of a good negotiating technique for a Jedi is the ability to read others," Luke went on. "Their emotions, their desires, and in extreme cases, their thoughts. Obviously there are some serious ethical considerations involved in this—it's important to know when and to what extent it's appropriate to use the Force in such a way. The goal is to never invade another person's privacy unless absolutely necessary." Ryn couldn't be sure, but she thought she saw Luke glance over at her during that last part.
"We'll discuss the ethical side of things later, but for now I wanted to give you a chance to try it for yourselves. Choose a partner and practice sensing each other's emotions—just the emotions for now. I've invited a few of the more advanced students in to help for today, so some of you will be able to pair up with them."
He gestured toward the back of the room, and Ryn turned to look. A group of older students stood behind the rest of the class and, Ryn noted with a slight twinge of anxiety, Ben was among them. She turned quickly back to face the front.
"Remember, through the Force you are already connected to every living thing around you," said Luke, "and that includes your partner. The connection is there; all you have to do is reach out and find it. Choose your partners and get started—I'll be here if anyone needs help."
All around Ryn, students rushed to pair up with their friends. She took a quick look across the room to see who might be left without a partner, but before she even had a chance to ask anyone she heard a voice behind her.
"I'm beginning to think you're avoiding me."
Ryn took a quick breath and steadied herself. "And why would I do that?" she asked, turning around.
Ben stood there with his arms folded, smiling at her in a way that almost looked friendly. "You tell me," he said, taking a step closer. "Or are you still too afraid to even talk to me?"
After her conversation with Vala, Ryn had decided that the best way to come to a decision about Ben would be to get to know him herself. The last time Ben had spoken to her she'd been so nervous she'd hardly said a word; this time she was determined to follow his lead and see where the conversation went.
"If you're really such an advanced student, why don't you figure it out for yourself?" she said. "Surely you've got this emotion-reading thing down by now."
He took another step toward her, giving her the same penetrating look that Luke had in the courtyard the other night. His smile widened. "You are afraid," he said. "But not just of me. You're afraid of...of failing. Of being worthless, living a life that means nothing. You're alone, and tired, but you're also desperate to please…" He exhaled sharply, and the smile disappeared. "...him."
Ryn didn't need to use the Force to sense Ben's irritation—it was etched in every line of his face. He took her arm and led her closer to the wall, putting himself between her and the rest of the class. She caught a glimpse of Luke across the room, but he was focused on helping a pair of younger students. The other instructor was nowhere to be seen.
Ben took a deep breath, apparently working hard to calm himself down. "I warned you about him," he said finally. "Skywalker. He's not everything he seems to be."
"Why didn't you tell me he's your uncle?" said Ryn.
"Because it's not something I'm proud of," said Ben. "You don't know him like I do. You don't realize what he's trying to do to you...to all of us."
"Which is what, exactly?"
"He's holding us back. Not letting us reach our full potential. There's so much power in the Force, so many ways of using it that Skywalker refuses to teach because he's too afraid to use them himself."
Ryn frowned. "You mean the dark side."
Ben shook his head. "There is no dark or light side. There's only the Force and those who use it. The power behind it, the abilities it gives, aren't good or evil in themselves—it's how you use them. Skywalker doesn't trust us enough to let us make that choice for ourselves. That's why we started the training group—to let people see what they're missing out on and make their own decisions."
"So why tell me this?" Ryn asked. "Clearly you're not trying to recruit everyone to this group of yours. Why not let me stay weak and ignorant with the rest of them?"
"Because you're too good, Ryn. You're too talented just to waste it like that. None of the instructors here will ever let you see the full extent of what you're capable of, but we can show you that. We can help you make your life worth something."
Ryn looked at him carefully. The sarcasm, the bitterness, the wry humor were all gone from his face. His expression was earnest, almost pleading. Reaching out to the Force around her, she found the connection between them and tried to open herself up to the emotions pulsing through it. It was a strange sensation—she could actually feel his emotions as if they were her own, and it took her a moment to distinguish between the two. The anger and frustration were still there, even if they weren't showing on his face. There was a genuine desire to persuade her, too, though she couldn't quite read the motivation behind it. But there was something else, a deeper, more desperate desire hidden away beneath the others, just beyond her reach.
"There's something you're not telling me," she said, narrowing her eyes at him.
Ben smiled again. "Of course there is," he said. He put one hand on the wall above her shoulder and leaned in toward her, so close she could feel the heat of his breath on her neck. "It's always best to leave a little bit of mystery, don't you think?"
"Everything okay here?"
Ben straightened and turned leisurely around to face Luke. "You do keep a close eye on me, don't you?" he said. Then he paused, cocking his head to one side. "Or is it really her you're watching so carefully?"
Ryn could just see Luke's face around Ben's shoulder; it was calm, betraying not a hint of what he might be feeling. Without thinking, Ryn reached out and found her connection to Luke. His emotions were far more controlled than Ben's had been, but she caught a flicker of anger and concern, along with something she couldn't quite interpret...guilt, maybe? But what would he have to feel guilty about?
"We're done here, Ben," said Luke. "You can head back to your regular class." Though the words were light, Luke's tone of voice made it clear that it was a command. Ben hesitated, as if he were considering a reply, but in the end he walked away without a word, giving Ryn one last smirk as he passed.
Luke watched as Ben left, then came over to Ryn. "Are you all right?" he said.
Ryn nodded, avoiding his eyes. It was difficult to look someone in the face when you'd just been poking around in their head without their permission—even though she hadn't sensed much, it still felt wrong.
"I'm fine," she said. "We were just...talking. And we did complete the assignment." More or less.
Luke looked unconvinced. "Listen, Ryn, there's something I—"
He was interrupted by the sound of yelling from across the room. Two of the younger boys had gotten into an argument, and by the looks of it were getting ready to tackle each other. Luke sighed and started across toward them, throwing Ryn an apologetic look. As soon as his back was turned, Ryn took the chance to slip out the side door and into the hallway. She headed in the direction she thought Ben might have gone, and soon caught a glimpse of him rounding a corner ahead of her.
"Wait!" she called after him, running to catch up. He stopped, turning to look at her with a curious expression. "Just...give me one more day," she said. "To decide, I mean. I'll let you know tomorrow."
He nodded curtly. "You wouldn't regret it, you know," he said. "We can take you so much further than Skywalker ever would." He reached out and gently lifted her chin with one long, thin finger. "With a little help from us, you could be amazing."
Ryn shuddered as he walked away. There was no doubt in her mind—she didn't like Ben. She also didn't trust him, not for a second. But if he could help her…
Despite what Ben had told her, she was certain his group was, at the very least, dangerously close to the dark side. Was it worth risking that just to reach her goal of becoming a Jedi more quickly? Was it worth risking Luke's disapproval if he ever found out? She didn't know. But she had one more day to decide.