The morning passed by fast. Arya did learn quickly, but she still had quite a long way to mastering the katas. Despite of that, Jedova was satisfied; this was going better than he had even hoped for.
Then the girl's stomach announced them that it was lunchtime.
Arya blushed when her stomach growled. By that time, her clothes were soaked with sweat. Those three hours of training had been the hardest ones she had had for a long time – with an instructor, that is. Sometimes, when the words of Jedi Masters who had declined on training her had hurt her the most, she had gone to the dojo and tired herself with a session of rigorous training. Those moments had helped to make the pain disappear, but she had noticed that some had started to think that she did it only to impress someone.
Arya wished they had known what really was behind it. She wished they had noticed the pain that was only now, very slowly, starting to gnaw its way away, leaving a trace, a hole in its wake.
Arya believed in her Master and his wisdom and knowledge about those feelings, but she did not know if even he could ever help fix that hole.
"All right, I think this is enough for today," Jedova said. "Go have lunch."
"Yes, Master," Arya said, bowing before leaving for the locker room, exhausted. At some points, the training session had been frustrating but once it had started to go well, it had turned out satisfying to even Arya. While she still doubted herself, she knew that she should just give up remembering all the incidents after passing the Initiate Trials and turn to believe in the future instead.
"Arya. One more thing," Jedova's voice called out.
There was only one step to the door. That step and her Master's words kept the Padawan from leaving. Arya turned around. "Yes, Master?"
Jedova had a smile on his face as he said, "You did well."
It took a couple of seconds for the Padawan to comprehend what her Master had just said. Then she smiled. "Thank you, Master!"
"You're welcome," Jedova replied.
Arya bowed and exited, leaving Jedova alone in the room. The Jedi Master stared at the door, pondering. It had been a lot of time since he had taught Form I katas six to ten at all. While Padawans would learn all the katas on their lessons, usually it was their Master's job to help them master the katas from eleven onwards.
Jedova could only wonder how much there really was to catch up.
After taking a shower, Arya was going to just head to the dining hall, but then she noticed her Master sparring with Master Chaa. She decided to stay in the sidelines and observe. During their mission on Bimmisaari she had not seen her Master wield his lightsaber. Actually, now that she thought about it, she had never seen him wield it or even known what color its blade was. Now she could observe him in a duel-like situation. Maybe she could learn something.
The two Jedi Masters seemed to talk but even with the aid of the Force Arya could not hear their words. They must read the words from each other's lips, she concluded.
Arya's stomach growled again. She ignored it and observed the spar. She could identify Jedova's Soresu with ease. Master Chaa, however, used a style Arya did not recognize. Then she identified a maneuver she had only seen holos of: Vonskr's Ferocity, a maneuver specific to Form VII, Juyo. Does Master Chaa specialize in Form VII?
It was intriguing to watch a defense-oriented style face an offense-oriented style. The two Jedi were even and there was no telling which one of them would win. This was but one of the countless spars which had evolved during the decades as the two Jedi had learned, practiced and defined their styles.
Jedova kept blocking the furious blows of his friend. The Force was blazing with the controlled fury of Phayeth Chaa, and Jedova could only dodge, defend himself and stay behind his shields – both the Force shielding he naturally kept around himself (even though he had to enforce it to keep Phayeth from storming right through it) and the physical shield that his lightsaber formed.
All the attacks he could have possibly had the chance to make would have been useless, anyway, since he knew that Phayeth could either dodge them or use the opening he would give while attacking to his advantage. He just had to wait until Phayeth tired himself with the furious way of the Vornskr, those horrendous slams his lightsaber made as it hit with its counterpart. If Jedova had not gotten used to this beating in which Phayeth seemed to take every bad, annoying and infuriating thing on him, he would have already tired his arms by dodging less in favor of intercepting the blue blade with his purple one.
Maybe I should start doing more Niman on this councilor? Jedova wondered. If he could stretch the whips of fury just a bit to make them bend to smack Phayeth instead of him...
Arya stared at the spar. She had not seen such fighting before. Such mastery at using lightsaber made her feel jealous; it would take an eternity for her to reach such a level.
"Hey!" A familiar voice startled her.
The girl turned to look at who it was. it turned out to be the boy who had scorched the back of her hand on yesterday's lightsaber lesson. "Yes?"
"Just wanted to say I'm sorry about yesterday," the boy told.
A powerful crack and an outcry, followed by a thump, made them both turn their heads towards the sparring Jedi Masters. Simultaneous with the first two voices, a tremble came to Arya through the new bond; Phayeth had broken through Jedova's shielding with a great amount of force. The unlucky Jedi Master was on his left side on the floor, seemingly unconscious.
The sight made Arya's blood run cold, as if Rikios the Chirein herself had breathed her element, Ice, into her veins throughout her whole body. A part of her wanted to rush to the Jedi Master but she could not move. She felt like the bottom of her stomach had vanished and her legs had turned into lead.
For a fleeting moment, it felt like the time had stopped, but then Arya saw Master Chaa approach his quickly resuscitating friend. Jedova shook his head in daze.
"Are you ok?" Master Chaa asked. Jedova took a moment to recover enough to mutter an intelligible answer.
"Wow... now that was something," the boy muttered in awe.
Arya felt odd sensations of ache creep to her senses. Her Master's shields were broken big time. She knew it was time to leave and get some distance.
Besides, her stomach was complaining. She had to get something to eat.
When the boy turned to look at his Veledosian colleague, she was no longer there.
/Star Wars (c) Lucasfilm, any characters you cannot find on Wookieepedia, Veledos, Veledosians and their language (c) Me/
