A few hours later, Coruscant, Core Worlds
Arya reread the notes. She had fallen well behind in everything. Politics had never been her favorite, let alone the strongest, subject in her time table, but she had to pass this course. Then she would have a nice, long break from it in order to concentrate on the courses which involve using the Force and other courses she was interested in.
She noticed a form far taller than her join her as she walked. She took a quick discreet look at the Jedi; it was Master Chaa.
"Master Chaa," Arya acknowledged with a nod. She did not take her eyes off her notes. The Force helped her notice anyone she was going to bump into.
"It is good to see you, Padawan Deinden," Master Chaa noted, emphasizing "Padawan". "How are your studies?"
"I got behind when my apprenticeship began, so I have some catching up to do, but otherwise very well. Why are you asking?"
"Just out of curiosity. I hope you're getting along with your Master." Phayeth considered his words for a moment before saying them. "Jedova Wang can be a rather difficult Master to study under."
"I cannot fathom why a councilor could be so interested in someone else's business," Arya muttered just loud enough for Phayeth to hear it but quiet enough to seem like she was talking to herself.
"Excuse me? What do you mean by that?" Master Chaa asked.
"Before his departure, Master Wang warned me about councilors snooping on our business," Arya answered. "I am starting to understand what he was talking about now. Yet there is one thing I don't understand."
"What is it, then?"
"Why are you councilors so interested in our business? It is because Master Wang did not think about the 'issues' which kept everyone else from choosing me as their Padawan learner, or what's the reason? Surely as long as there are no issues, the relationship between a Master and a Padawan is not much of anyone else's business."
"That is Jedova talking, isn't it?"
"I agree with him, so it could be either of us or anyone else who thinks this way or has said it aloud," Arya noted; she was getting on defensive. Now she turned to look up to the Jedi Master. "All the time I've been here I have been taught that the Jedi value privacy. Isn't this correct?"
"Yes, it is." Phayeth frowned. He had a feeling that he was going to have a hard time in this conversation.
"Then why poke into the business of new teams?" Arya asked. She had been taught to question everything, and she was going to throw everything of it at the councilor to see what would happen.
"Maybe offer them guidance. Wouldn't it be a good thing?" Master Chaa seemed to have noticed what she was doing.
"Do you think that a Jedi Master, who has decades of experience on training Padawans, needs guidance?"
"It's the misfit Padawan who needs guidance."
"Is this 'misfit Padawan' you're talking about really too much to the Jedi Master who chose them to handle and guide by themselves?" Arya asked. She had a feeling that by "misfit Padawan" the Jedi Master was referring to her. She did not show it.
"Maybe they are. Or maybe there are reasons that make this Jedi Master unable to notice these faults," Master Chaa noted and ventured on, "Maybe like the potential the Master sees in the Padawan or gratitude for something the Padawan may have done for them in the past. Maybe even a life debt or something like that."
Arya stopped. She had been ignored and rejected enough to start to have things twist into something negative in her mind automatically. However, there were subtle ways of showing negative opinions and after getting more practice on that than she would like to admit, she had started to notice them.
"Just say it aloud, straight and honest, Master Chaa. The misfit Padawan you are talking about is me and you don't think that Jedova Wang, who has trained Padawans before I was even born, can handle me," she said.
"What makes you think of that?" Master Chaa asked, seemingly surprised. He had stopped as well to look at the girl.
"Here, in the Jedi Temple, there aren't any situations in which a Jedi Master's life could be truly threatened yet a youngling could save them. So why would you mention a life debt?" Arya asked.
Phayeth took a deep breath through his nose. He had underestimated the girl's thinking. He had also talked too much.
"Why would I be so difficult that a Jedi Knight or Master could not train me? What would it help?" Arya asked. "I'd only ruin my possibilities on becoming a Jedi. This is a path I chose. Why would I want to ruin my chances to go on it?"
"Then why have so many Jedi declined on taking on you?" Master Chaa asked in return.
"The past I left behind when I came here and my temperament. The latter is a fair excuse for the inexperienced Knights, but not for Masters," Arya answered. "But my past? So what if I lived with my family for the first years of my life? It's not like I am the only Jedi who came to training at such an age, am I? My ties to my tribe have been severed, and they don't trouble my commitment nor my focus."
"There is still such a possibility," Master Chaa noted.
"A possibility. An 'if'. I have been taught that 'if' only distracts from the moment and the task on hand. Have I understood something wrong or is there some sort of a disagreement on that among Jedi?" Arya noted. "Don't all Jedi have a possibility to become difficult, to rebel, to leave the Order, to fall, to defy the Code? And yet none of these Jedi who are close to such situations are frowned upon for merely existing and being here."
"Do you hold nothing true if you question everything?" Phayeth knew it was not a good thing to lose one's temper on a defiant adolescent, yet something in the girl's attitude was getting on his nerves.
"Quoting the philosopher Agri Mereikonen, 'You can question even the existence of yourself, the galaxy and the Force, but it does not make them any less real than your thoughts.' I question things to learn and see what is true and what is not," Arya noted. "Also, hearing the opinions and worldviews of others is nice. And who knows what one can learn from a simple conversation?"
Phayeth had to admit that the girl had studied quite an amount of philosophy for her age. But did she understand it? The Jedi councilor could not tell.
"Now please excuse me, Master Chaa, I must go to my next lesson." Arya bowed and left.
Phayeth knew how worried the Council had become after agreeing on taking Arya to the Order as a Jedi Initiate. Nevertheless, he knew he had to trust Jedova's judgement; his friend had become so wary during the decades of living that he did not commit such grave mistakes – at least not due to an impulse.
But, as a councilor, Phayeth had seen more of Arya than Jedova had. He knew better than his friend about the different kinds of dangers that lurked around the girl. He could not help being worried for the new team.
Arya Deinden did not know it, but Phayeth knew that juding from the cases of Veledosians whose training had gone wrong, there were more dangers than falling to the Dark side in her training. He had a feeling that Jedova would not listen to those warnings or that he would dismiss them, but he had to try.
He had to warn him for everyone's sake. He knew that even if Jedova ignored those warnings, he'd still pay attention to his words and watch out. It was part of their friendship. They knew to listen to each other.
/Star Wars (c) Lucasfilm, any characters you cannot find on Wookieepedia, Veledos, Veledosians and their language (c) Me/
