A/N: Just a quick note to touch base with everyone. Firstly, thank you for all the reviews and comments! We love to hear what you all think of our writing and ideas. Secondly, we'd like to apologise for the slow output lately. Life happens, shit happens, and it's impacting the rate at which we can produce new material. It's crazy times people, crazy times! We are also doing a lot of rewriting with this one because there was too much implausibly-stitched-together corporal punishment going on in the original, and we wanted to give you all an actual narrative instead. Anyway, thank you all for sticking with us and we hope that this chapter has been worth the wait. Enjoy and stay safe, everyone.

– Livia & Raven

The next morning after breakfast, Eeth sent Raven off to school and took Flynt to the healers in the same hoverchair he had brought him home in last night.

"Good morning, Flynt!" the young healer said cheerfully, entering the room. "How does your leg feel?"

"It's a bit sore, but I'll live," Flynt said, trying to sound brave about all of this. He really didn't handle pain very well at all. "But I could always use another day off classes if you're offering," was added on, and he shot her a charming smile.

The young healer snorted as she unwrapped the bandage.

"Nice try," she said, wiping the wound clean of bacta and examining it.

"This looks good," she continued, not commenting as Flynt turned his head away from the wound. The bacta had taken care of most of the gore, but some padawans did not like the sight of injuries, she knew. "If you stay on bedrest until tonight, you can return to your normal routine tomorrow. Well, mostly. No running or climbing, and no workouts until the end of the week. And try not to get into fights."

"I'll do my best. Thanks for taking care of that," Flynt said, honestly grateful that he hadn't needed to deal with the wound himself. If this were a mission, he would, he told himself, but it wasn't, so it was all right. He stood and looked over at his grandmaster. "You going to let me walk home?" And there was just a hint of a smile in his eyes as he asked that.

"Only if the healer gives her permission," said Eeth.

"You may," said the healer, "but take it easy and lie back down once you're home."

When they reached their quarters, a lot slower than was usual for Flynt, he was directed to the couch.

He went without protest and was busy building himself a nest of blankets and looking for the holo remote when Eeth approached with his datapad.

"Grandmaster, you need to cut me some slack here. It's Basic today, and you know what that means?" He shot the man a conspirational look. "Poetry! No man should be subjected to such an atrocity."

"Yes, they should," said Eeth, unmoved. "And so should teenagers. It is on the curriculum for a reason."

Flynt ignored the jab at his lack of manly status, accepted the datapad and sat on the couch. "How will reading Elkencast help me, anyway? What am I supposed to do, bore an audience into compliance with ambiguous prose?" Flynt raised his good arm as if addressing a committee, a supremely pompous expression plastered on his face. "Nay, here me anon fellow delegates. Destroying their planet shall solveth nothing, as it was thy attempt, and not deed, that haveth confounded them."

"A little cultural knowledge never goes amiss," Eeth replied, raising his eyebrows. "In diplomatic small talk, for example. Or for gaining a deeper understanding of the cultural variety and history of this galaxy. Or of archaic language, which you seem to have mastered insufficiently. Much of the success of your diplomatic endeavours will depend on your skill with words, and that skill needs to be honed like any other. Finally, do not confound prose with poetry. They are different things. Now, I will have to leave for my Council session in a minute. Please do your schoolwork. If there is anything you do not understand, set it aside until I come home. I should not be gone for more than two hours, unless something unforeseen comes up."

Flynt gave his grandmaster a deadpan look; apparently, his sense of humour had been lost on Eeth. Oh well, it wouldn't be the first time. He shook his head at Eeth's retreating back, and as the door slid shut, Flynt found that he was entirely alone. This was a rarity for him as Lakhri was around most of the time. He wondered how he'd feel if his master had Eeth's job, and how Raven felt about being left alone. As thoughts floated through his mind, he decided to ask his Jedi aunt if it bothered her. He didn't think it would; she didn't seem like the type to need or want constant company.

As much as it pained him, Flynt finished his work, checked it twice and set it aside. Lakhri didn't let him slack off, so he was used to being pushed. The problem was, he was also used to having help; it had taken longer to do it alone than he had expected. Flynt stood, stretched, and glanced at his watch. It was almost midday by now, and well past time for a snack.

What began as a handful of dehydrated pears, which was the only thing he could find in Eeth's cupboard that remotely resembled junk, turned into a rather extravagant fruit salad. It was very well made, too. Flynt had used a piece of every fruit available to him and painstakingly cut each into perfectly matched squares, eating the offcuts as he went, of course. Once that was made, he put it in a bowl and stared at it. There was no way he wanted his masterpiece accompanied with cut sandwiches! That would never do. Which was how it started…

When Eeth entered almost an hour later, his quarters were filled with the fragrant smells of spicy curry and the earthy accompaniment of brown rice. Flynt had recreated the Careenian meal that he had asked Eeth to teach him during their first week and he was looking very pleased with himself.

"Grandmaster," Flynt greeted him from the couch but did not stand. "I made us lunch. It might need stirring again soon."

"So I noticed," said Eeth, pointing a stern look at his grandpadawan. "But were you not meant to stay on bedrest until tonight? I presume you did not make lunch by levitating objects in the kitchen while lying on the couch. That would require more Force control than you currently possess."

"True that," replied Flynt; he sure as heck wasn't going to lie. "I got up for a snack, and I figured that while I was there, I might as well be useful. I'm not in any pain, I think the bacta has worked its magic," he pointed out, but remained on the couch.

"That," said Eeth, "was not up to you to decide."

He hung up his cloak and went into the kitchen, raising his eyebrows at the fruit salad and the more than passable-looking Careenian meal that Flynt had cooked up. He washed his hands, stirred the curry and returned to the common room.

"Cooking is one skill that you picked up fast," he said. "Your master is going to appreciate that, for sure. Let me have a look at your leg."

Flynt smiled at the praise, put his leg up on the arm of the couch and rested back on the cushions. "I like to eat so it makes sense. You'll have to taste it, see what you think," he replied. Truth was that Flynt was just as pleased not to be torn a new one for getting off the couch as he was to hear Eeth say he'd done something well, even if he'd yet to taste it.

Eeth checked Flynt's wound and found it no worse than this morning. He still had half a mind to punish Flynt for his disobedience but decided to let him off with a warning, this once.

"Until tonight," he said sternly, "you will not leave this couch again unless you have my explicit permission. If you disobey your orders again, there will be consequences, and you will not like them in the least. Is that clear?"

"You got it, grandmaster," replied Flynt, nodding his head once and lowering his eyes briefly.

At that moment, their door slid open, and Raven entered, her datapad rolled up in her cloak and tucked under an arm. "Master," she greeted Eeth with a bow and then turned to Flynt. "How's your leg feeling?"

"All good. You just missed the unveiling by twenty seconds," said Flynt.

"Aww." And Raven looked genuinely disappointed; she loved anything and everything to do with anatomy, the more gore, the better! Well, she supposed that by this stage, the bacta would have done most of the work anyway and there wouldn't be much to examine. She tossed her datapad on Eeth's chair, hung her cloak with care, and sat to pull off her boots. "What smells so good? Did you order in Careenian?" Raven knew that Eeth had been in meetings all day, after all.

"Nah, takeaway is for the cretins. This is a masterpiece that I made for us myself," Flynt announced proudly.

Raven raised her eyebrows. "You? The same guy who was burning toast a month ago?" she teased him.

Flynt shrugged. "I make a better chef than I do poet, just ask Eeth."

"You make an extremely bad poet and a fairly good chef," said Eeth. "Which is mostly a matter of motivation, I assume. Padawan, wash your hands and let us have lunch."

At this, Flynt winked at Raven, who in turn rolled her eyes at him and left to do as told.

When homework was done and lunch had had time to settle, Eeth set Flynt up with some more lessons and gave him permission to watch holo once these duties were done. Then he took Raven to the largest of the Temple's gardens which, unlike most others, was not used for meditation, but for workouts and other practical exercises.

"I will test you on Force-enhanced running today," he told her. "If you can navigate this garden without accidents, you will be cleared to do it without supervision. But first, we need to warm up."

Once suitably hyped from Eeth's warm-up, a 'warm-up' that many would consider a full workout in and of itself, Raven rolled her shoulders and took a moment to centre herself. This was an 'Eeth test', after all, and it would push her to her limits. Her only saving grace was that Lakhri had brought her to this garden once or twice before, so most of the inorganic objects were known to her. Then again, the garden contained quite a few surprises, and Raven didn't doubt Eeth would find them.

"Alright," said Eeth. "This is what we will do. I will chase you and you will run from me at Force-enhanced speed. From time to time, I will give you directions. Try to follow them. A chase is the most common situation for Jedi to use Force-enhanced running, so this ought to be a fairly realistic scenario. If you manage to maintain Force-enhanced speed without accidents until I give you permission to stop, you will be cleared to use it without supervision, but only for good reason and in environments that are not crowded with people. Navigating crowds is difficult even at normal speed; doing it at Force-enhanced speed requires an advanced level of Force control. Incidentally, running late is not a good reason to use Force-enhanced speed. Now go."

Raven disagreed with him on that last point, but she wisely kept it to herself while doing her best to shake out the nervous energy. Lakhri was an excellent teacher, but in the end, this was going to come down to whether or not Raven was able to focus on the day.

She closed her eyes, took one last deep breath and blurred from Eeth's view. He picked up her trail and was on her in a heartbeat, literally. Raven wasn't used to having someone so big chasing her. His footsteps were very light, though; it made it hard to tell how far he was behind her.

As Lakhri had taught her, Raven used her smaller size to her advantage and zipped through the tightest gaps, under the lowest logs and generally tried to make it as difficult for Eeth to keep up with her as possible. She also recalled their conversation on speeder evasion from the other day and tried to employ some of those tactics as well. Unfortunately, they were not flying speeders at the moment, and she guessed that suddenly reducing her speed would accomplish nothing. Well, almost nothing if you didn't include getting caught!

Eeth was making this difficult for Raven because he wanted the exercise to be realistic. If Raven wanted to be cleared for Force-enhanced running, she needed to be able to do this in situations in which she did not have the luxury of focusing exclusively on herself. He did not run as fast as he could, of course, but kept his speed at a level that Raven might be able to keep up. Just.

So far, she was doing well, he had to concede; Lakhri had been a good teacher. Spotting a clearing to their right that held a number of tables and benches as well as several large boulders, Eeth called out, "Turn right and cross the clearing!"

Raven sped up. She saw more than sensed the boulders but the tables and benches littered about the place were proving more difficult. She jumped the first table in one bound, and then had to roll upon landing to avoid colliding with a cement artwork. Frowning, the padawan vaulted onto the tallest boulder to catch her breath; but only briefly, and then she was off again. Raven's ability to maintain Force-enhanced speed was not yet at a level where burst could last for longer than 30 seconds without some pause. It was going to take time and experience, but she was capable.

"Go on," Eeth barked, jumping a table, landing on a bench and vaulting towards the boulder. "Across the creek."

Although Raven knew that this test was not about how fast she could go, or about not getting caught, she still wanted to do both! The creek was long and narrow so clearing it would be no problem even without using Force-enhanced manoeuvres. The bank was slippery, though, and she lost her footing briefly, causing her to land short. "Argh!" was about all the complaining Raven had breath to waste on, as she continued running, half the creek in her left boot. Yep, that was going to slow her down a little.

Not letting up on her in the slightest, Eeth directed her towards another clearing that was currently occupied by a bunch of initiates practising kata moves. Raven would need to navigate her way through them. They were fairly widely spaced but it was a challenge nevertheless.

The initiates stood out like beacons in the Force to Raven, and had she not known Eeth meant for her to navigate her way through the group, she might have tried to leap over them. As it was, however, she slowed just long enough to prove to Eeth that she was thinking and acting responsibly before once again blurring from his view.

Eeth was quite impressed with Raven's performance, but he urged her on nonetheless. He continued the chase until she was nearing the point of exhaustion. Only when she started stumbling, he called for her to stop. He did not want an accident to happen, after all.

"That was adequate," he told his panting padawan drily. "You have clearance to run at Force-enhanced speed under the conditions I mentioned. Now let us go home and see how Flynt is doing."

Raven still lacked the breath to thank him, let alone complain over his choice in wording: "Adequate, honestly!" she thought, but said nothing and simply forced herself to stand. It would have felt nicer to remain starfished on the grass, but then, she was Eeth's padawan and prided herself on being tougher than that.

It took her a minute or so to walk it off, but by the time they were entering the corridor that would lead them back to their quarters, Raven had found her voice. "Lakhri will be pleased that all our work paid off, I can't wait to tell him," Raven commented and looked up at Eeth with a satisfied grin on her face. Sometimes it was hard to tell if Eeth was proud of her accomplishments, but she had known him long enough now to know that he was, even if he didn't always say as much.

"I will make sure you have the opportunity to do so when he next calls," said Eeth. "Just as Flynt, I presume, will want to tell him all about his newfound skill at cooking a Careenian meal. Which is what we will have for dinner since Flynt made such a huge amount of it. I might add some more herbs after having reheated it." As far as Eeth was concerned, Flynt was not getting off the couch if he could help it!

"Will Lakhri call again tonight?" Raven asked.

"He said he would try but he could not promise," said Eeth. "I assume it depends on how the negotiations go. They have to take precedence." He palmed the door sensor and the door to their quarters slid open.

"Hey Flynt, guess what?" Raven asked as she entered their quarters behind Eeth.

Flynt looked at Raven from his upside-down pose. "You couldn't hold it and piddled yourself?" he observed, taking in her one wet trouser leg.

"No, you guttersnipe," Raven feigned snobbery. "I'm cleared to use force-enhanced running," she announced proudly.

"You are? Sweet!"

"I know, right?" Raven blurred from where she had hung her cloak to Flynt's side, and then to their dining room table. It was so fast that if Flynt had blinked, he might have missed it!

"Nobody likes a show-off," Flynt chided. He was joking, of course, as, truth be told, he was quite proud of his Jedi aunt.

Raven poked out her tongue and looked to Eeth. "Do you want help?" He had said that he planned on adding some stuff to Flynt's meal and she wasn't keen on chores.

"And me," Flynt asked hopefully.

"Raven, go take a shower," said Eeth. "And Flynt, you stay on the couch. Have you completed your assignments?"

"Yep. It wasn't like I had a lot to occupy myself with here," replied Flynt honestly. Sure, he had spent an hour cooking, but the majority of his time had been spent reading and working on his assignments. Alright, so he might have looked at some naked girls on his datapad, also, but he was hardly going to announce that to his grandmaster. The thought of Eeth's reaction to this had the corner of his lip twitch into a crooked smile briefly.

After dinner, Eeth asked Flynt to put up his leg on a stool so he could look at the wound.

"If it has healed well, you will be going back to school tomorrow," he said as he started unravelling the bandage.

Flynt shrugged; he didn't mind classes. In fact, nothing much bothered him. Well, nothing much except for injuries. He looked away, feigning interest in the view outside their balcony. "See, pretty much good as new," he said, actually having no idea how it looked. There was nothing wrong with a little optimism, he thought.

Eeth raised his eyebrows. "Yes, in contrast to you, I do see," he said. "The cut has closed neatly, there is no swelling, nor heat, and the skin around it is of normal colour. I will use a lighter bandage now, and then you may get up and try to put some weight on it for the rest of the evening. But take it easy."

Raven watched with interest as Eeth assessed the wound. She thought it amusing that Flynt didn't like the sight of such things, yet said nothing; Eeth would only tell her off for making fun of him if she did!

When Eeth was done, Flynt stood and, for the first time since this had happened, he tried putting his full weight on it. Gently, of course. "Good as new," he announced. "Does this mean you'll let me go to the padawans' lounge with Raven tonight?" he asked.

Raven had planned on staying with Flynt tonight to keep him company. She didn't say anything, though, at least not unless Eeth denied his request.

"No, I think that would be pushing it," said Eeth. "The nearest meditation garden, at most. If all goes well today, you may go to the lounge tomorrow."

Flynt looked a little deflated at this news, and Raven felt for him. "Hey, want me to stay?" She put her hand up to shield her mouth and said in a stage whisper: "We could go for a walk, and then we could guilt Master into playing battleships with us both." Raven's gaze shifted to meet Eeth's eye, and she gave him a questioning expression.

"Very well," Eeth said with an air of resignation. "Take a walk to the garden and back. If your leg holds up, we know that you are ready to resume your normal routine, except for workouts. After that, I will play a round of battleships with you."

And that was how the evening went.

Generally, not much could bother Flynt, but as each day passed, and Lakhri was still no closer to returning, it was starting to get to him. Eeth and Raven were both helping in their own way, of course. Eeth provided him with outlets during evening meditation and some structure, while Raven kept his mind off things by filling up his free time. They had speeder lessons also, and training for those was something they both enjoyed.

On Friday morning over breakfast, Eeth had to inform Flynt that Lakhri, despite previous expectations, did not yet have a return date set.

"But he was supposed to be a week, and that was last week," Flynt said, allowing just a hint of exasperation to show. Flynt rarely showed his emotions, yet that had been the last thing he'd wanted to hear.

"Sucks, I know," Raven sympathised, because what else could she say? If it were Eeth away on a dangerous mission a zillion light-years away, she'd be worried too.

"There is little that Lakhri or the Council can do about the situation," said Eeth. "He still has the parties negotiating, which is a major accomplishment. But he has not reached a point where he could hand over the proceedings to another moderator without endangering all he has achieved so far. I know that this is not what Flynt has been hoping to hear but it is the truth."

He gave them a brief smile and poured himself some more tea.

Flynt didn't say any more about it during breakfast that morning; he really wasn't the sort to dwell on anything. So, by the time they stood before Eeth, ready for class, there was no hint of his earlier frustration.

Eeth looked them over briefly and pulled out the hem of Flynt's tunic which had got stuck in his pants.

"You may go," he said. "Have a good day. We will meet for lunch here at 1 pm. Do not be late."

"I don't believe it, no scarring at all?" Worik questioned, after having heard a little of the story.

"Nope. That bacta stuff did a number on it," replied Flynt, pulling down his trouser leg and ending the impromptu show-and-tell that Raven had started. They'd all met during a free period between classes and were busy 'studying'.

"Did they find out what was wrong with Kaela's lightsaber?" Worik asked. He knew enough about lightsabers to know that they didn't create cuts, even if Raven and Flynt had not told him the whole story yet.

"Eeth told us that Kaela had made modifications to make it more powerful," Raven supplied.

Worik let out a whistle in appreciation because that took some balls. "I bet she got dragged over the coals for that one."

"He wouldn't say," Flynt said, shrugging.

Raven rolled her eyes skyward briefly and, in her best mock-Eeth tone, said: "No doubt her master would be displeased. The rest, padawans, is none of your concern."

Flynt smirked. "You're getting too good at that. Force help your own padawan."

In fact, the matter had been brought before the Council. Mace Windu had taken it upon himself to investigate and found that a technically gifted senior padawan named Co'achan had tried to improve his allowance by selling enhanced Force-sensitive crystals to junior padawans and initiates. Fortunately, the whole thing had blown up before Co'achan had been able to find more than one buyer, not least because most of his potential clients had had the good sense to decline, knowing what kind of trouble this would get them into. And indeed, neither Kaela nor Co'achan were currently to be envied, given that they had received a formal caning from the Council, had been put on probation, had had their lightsabers taken off them and were spending all their spare time doing community service. Co'achan's punishment was several orders of magnitude more severe than Kaela's, of course. However, Eeth did not feel that Raven and Flynt needed to learn about the disciplinary action the Council took against other padawans, which was why they were none the wiser.

The final period that afternoon went by quickly for Raven; she liked biology. Conversely, Flynt had Basic and was not exactly in high spirits when he entered Eeth and Raven's quarters that afternoon, with a stack of extra work to do, courtesy of failed attempts to charm his way out of another poetry assignment. It might have worked had it been any other teacher, but Professor Kogan, as Raven had pointed out to him upon learning who his teacher was, was entirely immune to any attempt at subterfuge.

"That good, hmm?" questioned Raven, not looking up from where she sat working on assignments at their dining room table.

Flynt tossed his datapad on the couch and shucked his cloak. Nothing much bugged him, so that Raven had picked up on his slight annoyance was quite a feat on her part. He looked over and was met with the top of her head. "Poetry," was all he said.

Raven looked up just in time to see Flynt disappear into the kitchen. "I warned you not to mess with Kogan. Even Lakhri said she had a hot poker inserted up her ass at birth." The corner of Raven's lip pulled into a slight smile as Flynt emerged carrying a bowl of dried fruit. "He thinks it might be still up there."

"He'd be right, and I bet he got away with saying as much; he's crafty like that."

Raven just looked at him. "He had Eeth as a master. Crafty doesn't begin to cover Lakhri's skill at evasion tactics."

"True that. Where is our illustrious leader, anyway?" Flynt asked, propping a booted foot on the seat opposite and leaning back into his chair. His leg wasn't hurting him, but the stitches were starting to feel a bit pinchy.

"He's at a hearing for the Republican Senate," Raven replied. "These things usually drag out well into the night. We have our instructions; he never leaves without spelling everything out first."

"I bet. Anything good?"

Raven was drumming her stylus on the table as she swiped a finger across her datapad and brought up the list Eeth had left. "The usual suspects: Eat lunch, complete all homework assignments, finish chores, go to the gym, eat dinner, clean up, meditation, bed."

Flynt looked at her critically. "Does this bother you?"

"Does what bother me?"

Flynt chewed on a piece of pear. "Being left alone," he clarified.

Raven had to think about that. Did she mind? No, not really, although she did miss Eeth when he was gone; was that the same thing? "I don't think so. I mean, sure, sometimes it sucks not having company to do this with." She gestured to the list Eeth had left them. "But I don't mind being alone so much, and sometimes being unsupervised has its perks."

"You know, I was just thinking the same thing," Flynt said, sparing a glance at his glider which was propped up in the corner by their front door.

Raven raised an eyebrow. "Don't even think about it. I'm not copping it again for allowing your stupidity to run rife a second time. Forget it."

Flynt had only been joking. However, Raven's terse dismissal bothered him, which was an unusual reaction. He raised his hands in placation. "Hey, cool your jets." When Raven looked back down at her datapad, though, Flynt continued. "You know, if I wanted to go, you couldn't stop me. You aren't in charge here. We are both padawans."

Raven put down her stylus in a precise gesture and met Flynt with as patient an expression as she could muster. "I hate to break this to you, but I am in charge. I'm a superior Jedi; you know the rules, Flynt. Let's not do this, okay?"

Against his better judgement, Flynt ignored her, stood, tucked his glider under his good arm and strode for their door. He wasn't planning on actually flying the thing, but maybe he would go to the padawans' lounge for an hour, just long enough to scare her. Honestly, she was getting too big for her boots. He was a padawan and Lakhri's padawan at that. He had skills.

"Fine then, go get yourself in more trouble. But I'm calling Eeth the moment you walk out that door," Raven bluffed. She wouldn't really, but for the Force's sake, neither did she want to go another round with Eeth courtesy of Flynt's stupidity. However, when Flynt did not stop, and their door slid open, Raven stood, upping the ante. "Stop. That's an order."

Flynt snorted and disappeared out the door without giving her a second glance.

Raven looked at her comlink, but she just couldn't bring herself to rat him out, as much as he deserved to be ratted out! There was more to it than that, though. If she had to contact Eeth, it meant that she failed to defuse the situation, which she had, and that this was also her failure. Eeth probably wouldn't drag her over the coals, but he would be disappointed that she hadn't managed to be smarter.

Decision made, Raven narrowed her eyes and took off out the door after Flynt. She was going to put a stop to this before it landed them in yet another crapshoot.