Jarod opened the door to the room slowly, bringing in a bowl of cool water and a towel. He took a few steps and turned to look at the door, using the Force to close it behind him. That done, he went over and set the bowl at Marin's bedside table and started to soak the towel. In a few moments, he wrung out the excess water and folded it then placed it on her forehead.

Marin shifted at the cool sensation, her eyes fluttering. "Me'bana...(what's happening?)" she asked, her voice barely a whisper as her eyes opened slowly, and she turned her head slightly towards the presence she felt in the room.

"Easy," Jarod said with a soft, relaxed tone. "Its me, Marin...Jarod."

Marin's breathing slowed slightly as she registered his voice. She tried to sit up, but fell back against the pillows after a few moments, utterly drained. "How long was I out...?" she asked softly, sighing in frustration. She knew eventually the stunts she'd pulled in the forest would catch up with her.

"You've been asleep for over a day," he told her. "You were pretty well exhausted when we brought you in here. Most of the other students were worried. We hadn't seen you since you had headed out to practice before meeting with her highness the other day."

Marin flushed then, and fidgeted with the thick blanket that was draped over her. "I uhm..." she stopped for a moment, pondering how to tell him. "I was on a training exercise that Jarius had set up... I didn't even know about it myself until it happened..." she finally said, wondering if she should tell him what happened. He'd seen the end of it..

"Rest," he told her, re-soaking the towel before putting it on her head again. "Master Karrde already talked with the Mando you were fighting with and informed us of what was going on." He shook his head for a moment. "You had us all worried all the same. Hearing a blaster shot, then you flipping over the wall and then in a duel with a person who's anger was coming off of his in such huge waves. The master really had a conversation with him on the spot, so I'm told."

Marin flushed in embarrassment and shook her head. "Et'ika's a good man, Jarod... He just got a little caught up in the exercise... and I probably didn't help his mood much, either..."

"I could feel some of what was going on," Jarod told her as he looked at her. "I spoke with Master Karrde of it some and he had me meditate and keep track of you."

Her eyes widened. "You.. you did..?" her voice was surprised. Slowly, Marin sat up, moving the pillows to lean against them. "What did you feel...?" she asked softly, thinking of how she'd projected, and how much it had weakened her.

"A lot of confusion at first...but a lot of determination for the rest of the time," he told her. "It...it was real hard, keeping myself from heading out every time you were hit. I was so used to feeling you there that when you were stunned...it felt so odd."

Marin mouth quirked. "I'm glad you didn't. It was my test alone..." she said after a moment, but it surprised her that he'd been that worried for her. After a moment, she frowned. "What did it feel like when I was stunned...?" she asked finally.

"From my point of view?" Jarod asked her as he closed his eyes. "Nothing...it was like, if I was looking at a scanner image...that you had just dropped off of." He shook his head and dipped the towel into the bowl. "Sorry..."

"For what...?" she asked quietly, turning to look at him in the low light of her room. She flushed and looked down, fidgeting. "I... sometimes forget that people care about me..."

Jarod nodded softly as he paused there for a moment. "I know you told me that all you've known since Corellia has been your father and this other Mando at times."

Marin nodded. "It was very hard at first for me to... reconcile how buir could be both ruthless, and gentle... Ethan too. I guess I got used to Ethan being a little rougher, but this..." She sighed. "I expected it to be hard when I woke up in stun cuffs." She chuckled a little at his expression, and leaned back against the pillows. "But I didn't help his mood with some of what I did..."

"I thought I picked up traces of a mind trick," Jarod said with a soft smile. "I can imagine his reaction to that."

Marin giggled. "Oh, he was so mad... he didn't like it one bit... that, and I figured out how to deflect the stun darts.. .well most of them.." She groaned, remembering how much the mind trick had drained her. "I've never done either before, but I felt... a prompting almost..." she shrugged, at a loss to explain it.

"The Force guiding you," he told her. "It will give an idea of what needs to be done. And the first time pulling a mind trick, especially on a strong willed person is draining."

She nodded. "That he is... I felt like I was going to pass out right after I did it... and then one of his darts got me 'cuz I wasn't paying attention..." She sighed and rubbed her face. "For a while last night, I was worried myself..." she paused, looking up at him. "I had to keep moving during the night... and ran afoul of a wolfhound..." She swallowed, remembering the fear she'd felt then. "I lost one of my knives because I let fly towards the wolfhound from the tree I was in. My knife hit shortly before Ethan's stun dart..." She could feel her pulse quicken again at the memory.

"You mean this?" Jarod asked as he drew the knife from inside his vest and held it to her, freshly cleaned.

Marin's eyes widened. "Where did you find that...?" she whispered, her voice awed as she took it almost reverently and restored it to the empty sheath on her belt, which was draped over a nearby chair.

"I knew roughly where you were when the wolfhound came out," Jarod said as he watched her. "I ventured out to retrieve it after I made sure you were okay here."

Marin looked back to him, her eyes huge. She knew what the knives meant, but did he...? "Why would you do this for me...?" she asked, drawing up her knees and pulling the blanket about herself. The movement made her wince slightly as she remembered the gash on her calf.

"I do know a little bit about Mandos," Jarod told her with a smile. "But, where I come from, a knife is important. More of a everyday tool as well as a weapon."

Marin nodded. "It's more than just that even, for me..." she said after a moment. "It's the closest I can come to fulfilling one of the Six Actions... Ke'juri beskar'gam (Wear armor)." she said quietly, looking down at her knees. "Right now, anyway..." she finished softly.

He nodded softly and laid her back down. "You're still needing some rest, Marin. don't worry, I'll be close by."

Steffan sat with a book in his hands, relaxed in one of the side chairs in his study at their home. Catharine and Jade were enjoying a program that was on the holonet on their entertainment system in the living room while Ryneas was working on a hobby project in his room.

He was trying to get through his book, but the events of the last while were still playing through his mind….

"You've done enough with the trial you wished to put Marin through," he had told Ethan as he still had the Mando pinned down on the ground with the bokken he had used in his short duel with the child earlier.

"Karrde, if you don't let me up…." Ethan started to grunt in a low tone.

"That's enough," Steffan said to him in a stern tone, putting an emphasis on it through the Force. "Your role was to provide difficulty for her to make her way back, evading detection from you along the way. Nothing was ever said about 'hunting' her and cornering her, firing stun darts like mad. You lost sight of the objective, Ethan…I could feel it since this morning."

It had kept on like that for a while… Ethan finally calmed down and now Steffan was thinking on the events of the trial. Marin had made it through from the ship to the praxeum, but his attention was her use of the Force during the trial. It was impressive, her use of going through the trees… a technique he himself used before when he had hunted down the Sith Lord Mahrin Jeras…and he felt her use of the mind trick earlier, a technique he hadn't begun to teach her yet, to good effect. Andrea's lessons on Force-assisted jumps and other techniques that went into use of the Fourth Form served her well so far.

Steffan set his book back on the shelf and went in to enjoy the rest of his evening with his wife and youngest daughter. He'd check on Marin in the morning.