This time there was none of the grace of the duels. This time it was a bloodbath. Each and every Initiate threw themselves at whoever was closest to them, Tarys was no exception in that regard. This was much more stressful, Tarys needed to lean into the Force to have any hope of survival. His own senses weren't good enough to dodge and block attacks from seven others.
What baffled him was that Ishra once again didn't seem to have any trouble fighting against this many opponents. She was gracefully weaving between, almost like this was some sort of dance, and it wasn't long until she was the one responsible for the loss of two Initiates. Tarys noticed they left their sabers behind in their haste to leave the maelstrom of would-be Jedi fighting for their place with a master.
With the space occupied by two fewer people, Tarys found it much easier to navigate the circle as he did his best to start an offensive strike against the Zabrak Initiate he was currently fighting against. He'd seen him in the last match, he was a practitioner of Form III. that should make this easier for him since it wasn't a great form when it came to pure lightsaber to lightsaber combat and sure enough, Tarys was soon able to land a hit on him. Then another. And then a third all while not being hit himself. His fight against Nelda taught him how to deal with Form V and Soresu was Form V's less effective parent after all.
This left five in the circle.
Tarys was finally able to breathe without watching out for a rogue lightsaber blade that might hit him, even by mistake. He was doing surprisingly well, he hadn't gotten hit yet and they were already three down. He quickly scanned his surroundings and found that there was an odd number of people in a fight. Someone would have to fight more than one opponent.
That person was Tarys.
Vatian, the Miraluka from the very first duel and Cilta Anil, a girl he learned was from Alderaan, both started coming at him. Tarys adopted a haphazard Djem So stance that he'd only practised a handful of times before. he needed to be defensive if he was going to win against two opponents. At this point, it was only the adrenaline that stopped Tarys from getting cut down, that and the Force's help in strengthening his reflexes so he was still able to ably parry attacks from both of them.
It looked suspiciously like the two of them had teamed up ahead of time. He made sure to keep his distance at all times and made use of little Force pushes here and there to stop his opponents from getting too close. Tarys looked past them to see that Ishra was handily winning against her current adversary and oddly enough her opponent's movements were sluggish. They'd stopped trying, just like her other matches. When she beat her opponent that would put her at three "takedowns" to Tarys's one. That wasn't acceptable. He had to be more aggressive.
He let one hand go of his saber, freeing the other to use the Force. Tarys started trying to lead the dance he had with his enemies, little by little. A slash down to his right leg and Vatian would quickly follow with a parry upwards. Some Ataru footwork would help him be less predictable. He spun around, all the while guiding Vatian and Cilta's sabers at first away from him and then towards each other.
Jump.
His timing was sloppy, it was getting hard to keep track of both his opponents and whatever intricate footwork he was trying at the same time, but it seemed to be good enough because once he landed he noticed a brand new burn on each of his opponents, courtesy of one another.
He wanted to take a look around, bask in the glory of what he thought was a great manoeuvre but he couldn't afford to, not when he had to hit them both twice more. For a brief moment, Tarys closed his eyes and focused on the Force. He tried to flow with it as best he could, using it to make him faster and more agile, granting him just enough of an edge to keep clear of the flurry of blue and green that threatened to kick him out of the tournament.
He could land a second hit on them if he separated them, but doing that was easier said than done. Tarys did the only thing he could do in that situation: pushed. He called the Force to him to push them both away, and then both of them slid backwards, trying to resist it. They moved back only a few feet, not with the devastating effect Tarys had hoped for.
Within seconds both of them were safely planted on the ground, only momentarily inconvenienced by Tarys's attack. Then, Cilta let go of her saber. The green blade span around in a circle towards, way too fast for him to do anything and it got ever closer until he felt the hot sting of the blade against his chest.
The saber retreated and flew back to its owner who now wore a satisfied smile, knowing that she had evened the playing field between them. He knew he could win this quickly if he could use another saber but the two left in the arena were too far away for him to pull and closing the distance was out of the question with the other fights raging on over there.
Teleporting was probably unwise too. that would mean showing his cards before he absolutely had to, and as soon as he struck one of them he would be open to the other.
What could he do what they wouldn't expect?
The answer to that question was the only thing Tarys could do to win, what was it though? He was careful to keep his distance and his eyes trained on his opponents while he sorted through his thoughts. He couldn't lose now, not when he'd come this far. Not when he hadn't gone against Ishra.
He renewed his grip on his saber and ran towards Vatian and Cilta, then slid to the ground. Cilta's last attack meant that she had created enough space between her and Vatian that he could slide past them.
From there it was a question of agility and how quickly he could stand back up. Through the Force, He could feel the two turning around to react to his plan. Tarys needed every advantage he could get so he used it to push against the ground, hopefully giving him enough lift to let him stand up before the other two were able to ready themselves.
Tarys grasped his saber with both hands and slashed across with as much strength as he had. He felt the blade strike two distinct times, once against Varian's back, then Cilta's side. He had just enough of a window to make another and he was able to land the third and final burn on each of them just as they raised their sabers to block but it was too little, too late.
As the two left the arena Tarys saw that Ishra was waiting. Well, not waiting so much as… meditating? She must've beaten her opponent before he did. She could've helped instead of leaving him to fight two people on his own but instead she sat there.
Wait.
It made sense, she had said she had something special for the tournament. Tarys assumed it was a special form or something but no it really was special, like his teleportation in that regard.
Ishra finally stood up, he couldn't see any burns on her. had she really taken down three Initiates without getting hit once? Tarys was already at a disadvantage, he only had two hits left before he was out.
"You're like Bastila Shan, aren't you?" Tarys asked he had a hunch he knew what her secret was. "since when could you do it?"
"You make it sound like only I can do it, it's not like I'm special or anything," she replied.
"Right, like Battle Meditation comes naturally to everyone," he retorted, "please don't make me lose the will to live or anything."
"We'll see."
He could feel it already though, a gnawing feeling in the back of his mind. He was so far outclassed it wasn't even funny. No, that's just her Battle Meditation talking. Had no one else realised that she had that ability? Or was it just that powerful that it didn't matter?
He wasn't going to pull any punches, this was the first time he and Ishra duelled properly, not for practice or for demonstration in class, but for victory.
Tarys held out his hand expectantly and connected to one of the sabers left on the ground. He could finally use it now that there was no one in the way. As soon he felt its metallic hilt in his hand he knew he was in his element.
Tarys pretended not to notice the mystified reactions of the people around them to the exchange they just had. He wasn't surprised. It wasn't every day you found out a Jedi Initiate was capable of Battle Meditation.
"Jar'Kai? And you accuse me of holding secrets, looks like you've got your own up your sleeve," his friend - and as of now, enemy - said, igniting her blade.
To that, Tarys activated his own offhand saber, it too glowed a blue to match the one in his right hand. He adopted an opening stance he'd been practising in his own time, the Academy didn't teach Jar'Kai after all.
What the Academy did teach them was Form VI, Niman which itself had its roots in using two sabers so it was surprisingly simple to carry over many of the same stances and katas from the Form.
Tarys lunged forward and slashed at Ishra with his right blade while pivoting his left so the blade was backwards in his hand. As he thought, Ishra easily deflected his first attack so Tarys span around about his left foot holding his left blade out to create a blue spiral.
It was as if Ishra knew what he was going to do before he did, she took a freakishly fast step back and Force pushed Tarys, interrupting his assault.
Tarys' favourite thing about Jar'Kai was simple; it allowed him to be relentless. It was fast, aggressive while not sacrificing defence by allowing the use of the second saber as a permanent guard.
Taking after his fighting style's philosophy, Tarys remained unrelenting and advanced again to initiate another assault. He guided Ishra's saber away with his main hand while stabbing at her with his left but once again she was somehow able to avoid it, strafing to the side at the last second.
Maybe he couldn't win?
He banished the thought from his mind. He had to try again. This time Tarys took a step back himself to gather his thoughts. He needed a plan. What did he know about her?
Ishra favoured Form VI, it was versatile enough to give her a good shot at winning any fight in his experience. Most importantly, however, she shared his preference for meticulously planning attacks before she did anything. That, coupled with her Battle Meditation, which seemed to boost her abilities all around made her very dangerous.
Tarys didn't have the time to keep thinking as Ishra closed in for an attack of her own, she held her saber with both hands and slashed upwards with so much speed Tarys only saw bright green light as he reflectively tried to block it with one of his sabers but he was too slow. He felt the hot sting of saber meeting flesh on his right arm.
One more hit and he was out.
Ishra was still untouched maybe he really didn't have a shot at this. He could hear the Force telling him he had no chance, not against her, she was just too good. She seemed to be able to perfectly read his every movement and react before he even got within three feet of her. It was no surprise she hadn't gotten hit once in the entire tournament.
Tarys just wanted to get away. he walked backwards, creating distance between the two of them. He looked at her then looked around, by now there were probably over four hundred Jedi watching the standoff. He looked for Master Satele, he hoped she wouldn't be too disappointed in him. It looked like he was going to lose after all. It was difficult to find her in such a large crowd but sure enough, she was still there, her eyes fixed on the fight. Master Satele looked at him and simply nodded. What was she trying to say? Did she think he had a chance?
It was strange for him to think that a duel between two Initiates was such a spectacle even though he had been in the exact same boat as them the year before. He remembered being glued to the last fight in the previous tournament, it always boiled down to a duel between two Initiates. The best two Initiates.
It dawned on Tarys that this year it was him, he was one of those two Initiates, he and Ishra were the best of their age. He could beat her. They were both from Dragon Clan, they were meant to be tenacious, they were only meant to give up when they willed it, not when their enemy seemed too hard to beat.
And Tarys still had one last trick up his sleeve.
He hadn't trained his blink enough to say he was comfortable with it, but it would have to do. His plan was simple; he would run straight at her. Blinking behind her would surprise her enough to get a hit in, maybe even two if the Force was really with him.
He turned off both his sabers and ran at Ishra, to the bystanders he must've seemed insane. In fact, it looked like Ishra thought he was insane too, judging by how wide her eyes went when he started running.
Just as he was about an inch from her saber he focused on a spot just behind her, calling the Force to carry him there, imagining himself there already and what he would see when he arrived. He envisioned seeing Ishra's back and the bulk of the temple in front of her.
Tarys blinked. And he was there.
He had his arms raised above his head and swung down as he pressed the ignition button on each of his sabers. He knew he was that much closer to victory when he saw two charred lines form on her robes as she winced from the contact.
They were finally even. Ishra lurched forward before turning to address him.
"How the hell did you get there?" A look of outrage and bewilderment adorned her face.
"Whoever said I only had one secret?"
Ishra extended her hand out and Tarys felt himself getting dragged away, but there was just so much power behind her push he couldn't resist it. He'd try blinking but as it stood he could only teleport about six feet and he was already further away from her than that. It didn't matter though, he had her flustered and hopefully, questioning her odds of winning. That alone should take away the main advantage of Battle Meditation.
Tarys didn't resist the push any more than he had to, just waiting to land his feet on the ground before he could act. Ishra adapted her stance, her new form being clearly less rigid than she had it before, probably in a hope to be able to block an attack from him from any angle. He wouldn't make the mistake of underestimating her though, it could still go either way, if Ishra so much as touched him with her saber then he would lose.
Tarys walked toward his opponent, slowly at first, then gradually increased his pace. He couldn't take the same approach as before so he thought he would do something different. Different and difficult. Tarys threw his sabers into the air in Ishra's direction and waited until they were just above her. By then, he'd closed enough distance to blink to his sabers. She didn't know Tarys could teleport in the air and hopefully she hadn't guessed that he could.
Igniting each blade, Tarys realised Ishra was still ready for his attack. Smart of her, she hadn't discounted the possibility that he could teleport into the air, but no matter how prepared she was she could never block an attack if he teleported directly behind her. He was just too fast.
So he did just that and teleported right to the ground, knocking her off balance by sweeping his foot across the floor, causing her to fall. Tarys tried to swat her saber away from him but Ishra took the opportunity to push him away from her, undoing any hopes he had of ending it there. She was as desperate as he was and it showed in the strength of her Force push, which put almost half the arena between them. He was quickly running out of options. How did she know exactly what to do?
They both slowly inched towards one another and Tarys tried to take the time to think about what he could do. He came up empty. He had no more aces, no more tricks, no more secrets. All that was left to do was try his best. He could still win this. Within moments they faced each other again.
They didn't move.
Tarys could only hear his own breathing and the humming of the sabers as the world stood still, waiting for whoever made the first move. He knew it, she knew it, everyone knew it: the match would be decided in the next minute.
Tarys teleported behind her and was met with Ishra lunging forward to avoid him. She turned to begin her own attack, fluid, confident and flawless and Tarys was finding it increasingly difficult to parry everyone of them. He hadn't considered it before but teleportation was more tiring than he would've liked and he hadn't been conservative in its use; something he had a feeling Ishra noticed and was taking advantage of.
Blurs of blue and green filled his eyes as the duel devolved into a tug of war between the two of them. Thinking had become a luxury he couldn't afford so his body moved on its own. He relied on his muscle memory - split seconds to make decisions were too long. Ishra's calm expression began to fade as he saw that even she was starting to tire of the skirmish but disengaging wasn't an option for either of them; doing so would be inviting defeat.
Then, he felt a burn on his side.
He darted his eyes to the side of his body and he saw Ishra's blade recoiling away from it after a successful attack. The last one she needed.
He'd lost.
Tarys stepped back, wincing from the combined pain of the burn and the overexertion he subjected his body to. It seemed Ishra had only then realised that she'd won the Tournament; she turned off her sabers and walked towards Tarys. He followed suit, it was over - he'd lost, no matter how much he wished for a do-over.
Ishra extended her hand out to Tarys, which he shook as graciously as he could, trying to swallow the disappointment he felt toward himself.
"You were awesome," Tarys sighed, shaking his head - more at himself than anything.
"Don't be like that," Ishra laughed. "We both know you get way sadder than you should whenever you think you didn't do well enough. For the record, I had almost no clue what I was doing at the end there - so you could've just as easily won."
"If you say so," Tarys gave a half-hearted chuckle back. She was right; he did have a bad habit of letting even the slightest defeat overwhelm him. No matter what his mind wanted to tell him, he did well.
"That was crazy though. I didn't think for a second it was gonna be that close. The other matches were a piece of cake compared to you."
"Turns out we both had more in us than the other thought."
"We should've known better, especially when we randomly stopped training together," she laughed.
"Oh, that makes so much sense now! You were off training your Battle Meditation, weren't you?" Tarys's face lit up in revelation.
"Did you seriously not think there was a reason for it?"
"I don't know, I guess I thought you just got tired of me," he shrugged.
"We still hung out literally everyday, stupid," her eyes narrowed and she shook her head in disbelief.
Before he could object to the insult Master Seros entered the circle and shook both Initiates' hands before addressing them.
"Exceptionally fought, young ones. I think I speak for the whole Order when I say that the two of you truly blew us away with your skill. Congratulations on your victory. I certainly didn't expect you to be capable of Battle Meditation," he said, before turning to Tarys. "Nor for you to be able to teleport. When did you learn these? Surely they weren't part of your studies at the Academy."
"I found out I could do it last year, Master, and trained in my own time since," Tarys confirmed.
"The same for me," Ishra affirmed.
"At the same time?" Master Seros smiled, "That can't be a coincidence, can it?"
"Tarys and I are somewhat… competitive," Ishra explained, considering her choice of word carefully.
"If it leads to the two of you becoming so skilled so young then I support it. Be careful to not let it breed hate, however. Competition often does if you don't have the humility to recognise your shortcomings."
Of course, a Jedi Master found a way to teach a lesson even during a congratulatory speech.
Master Seros then turned to face the audience and started speaking in a clear and authoritative tone.
"I am honoured to announce that after what was a round that put us all in awe and filled us with pride for the next generation, the victor of this year's Jedi Apprentice Tournament is Ishra Datharr!"
Tarys thought he'd be bitter, he was so close to beating her but he wasn't. Maybe that was the reason: he got close enough to be happy, to be proud of himself despite his defeat. Besides, it was probably the most fun he'd ever had in a fight and he'd learned more about Ishra fought - that knowledge was going to be put to good use whenever they next sparred.
After receiving congratulations from and shaking hands with several Jedi, including every member of the Council on Tython, all the contestants were given the day off, mainly to recover. Tarys considered that a great thing since as the adrenaline was wearing off the pain of the burns he'd sustained finally caught up to him. getting burnt by a lightsaber, even a training one, five times in three weeks meant that he would probably be in some minor pain for the next few days.
More importantly, Initiates were now expected to use the time to speak to potential masters and hopefully have one take them on. Every Initiate who participated in the tournament, and even those that didn't for that matter, could expect to find someone. Jedi sought out Initiates who would complement them well, not necessarily the best fighters.
Tarys had actually received multiple offers already which left him overwhelmed; he was not expecting to be in such high demand. He could see that Ishra was similarly uncomfortable, talking to Jedi after Jedi who was trying to assess if they were the right fit for them. Before anyone else could come to speak to Tarys though he wanted to seek out the only person he'd specifically wanted as his master: Jedi Master Satele Shan.
They exchanged brief pleasantries earlier when he and Ishra met the rest of the council, but he hadn't gotten a chance to ask her. The two Initiates certainly had their hands full. He knew all eight of the participants of the last round usually received the glory in more or less equal amounts, but this year the spotlight was really on Ishra and him, which still felt extremely odd.
He scoured the massive crowd looking for the familiar brown outfit Master Satele always wore and after several minutes of weaving through hordes of Jedi returning to their daily activities, he finally found her.
"Master Satele, do you have time to talk?"
"I do, let's go to one of the refectories. I'm sure you're hungry after that," she answered.
Tarys laughed, "Yeah, I'm starving."
He hadn't actually realised how hungry he'd gotten. it was well past the time he'd usually have lunch by then and fighting what was easily the tensest battle of his life did nothing to help that fact.
Tarys was soon sitting opposite Master Satele with a tray of hot food in front of him. Even at this time, when very few people if any would be having a meal there were easily several dozen in this refectory alone, all involved in their own conversations and needless to say, their food. The holodisplays on the wall showed the day's news. some Senator had made a speech of some kind, which they always did, nothing important was happening politically, other than the debate on the rebuilding of the Coruscant Temple. Tarys couldn't believe that wasn't an immediate "yes" on the Senate's part. the Republic was meant to look out for the Jedi just as the Jedi protected the Republic, right?
"So, Master, I'm sure you know what I wanted to talk about," Tarys started.
"I have an idea, yes."
"Then I'll cut right to the chase: I want to be your Padawan if you'll have me," he stated outright, there was no need to skirt around the issue.
Tarys automatically started tapping his foot on the floor and he could feel his hands shaking a little, he decided to put the fork down to save himself embarrassment. He looked Master Satele in the eye as he waited for an answer, and each moment of silence stretched to become a millennium.
Tarys stopped breathing as Master Satele started speaking.
"Why do you want to be my Padawan? Why not any of the other Masters? Any of them would have you after the tournament."
That was not what he was expecting. Tarys was looking for a yes or a no - well, a yes - but either way, certainly not a question like that.
"It feels right I guess, I don't really know, ever since my Gathering I just felt like I belonged as your Padawan. like no other Master was "right" for me. I know it sounds stupid and I'm sorry and I know you always say to follow the Force but when it comes to this… I don't know it just, it just feels right, even if I don't have to ask the Force," he really wasn't sure what to say, but that was the best he could do to voice his scrambled thoughts.
"Good. That's the only reason you should want someone specific as your Master. And for what it's worth, I believe that "feeling" is the Force. You know how the Gathering works. It's the Force testing you, your resolve, your will before granting you a crystal. If it was the Gathering that instilled that feeling in you, then all this time you have been following the Force," she replied.
Was that a yes? Was that a no? Why couldn't she give a straight answer? It was good to know that he at least had his heart in the right place.
"Uh, does that mean that…?"
"Yes, it does. As of now, I take you as my Padawan and apprentice. The first order of business: having you building a lightsaber - or two, in your case," she stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
This was easily the best day of his life, first winning the tournament then becoming Master Satele's Padawan? Nothing could beat the feeling. Finally, all these years of drumming thousands of years of history, politics and philosophy into his head, and the training. It all was starting to pay off.
After he finished eating, Master and Padawan walked to her office so she could fill out the paperwork, and make it official. Tarys was beyond excited. He was going to learn under Master Satele, easily the greatest Jedi alive. She was a veteran of the War, and to hear the news tell it she was the single reason the Republic won the Battle of Alderaan and went toe to toe with Darth Malgus, who seemed to be the strongest Sith in the galaxy. He'd never asked her about it but now, he'd probably get the full story firsthand, in time.
Once they got to her office, Master Satele, his Master, beckoned him to sit in the chair opposite her desk and spoke to him."So I'm sure you can understand if I have several questions about what you did in the tournament. I want to know what you want to do, want to learn, what you want your path as a Jedi to be so I know what to teach you."
"That makes sense, umm, what specifically? Er, master," To him that word had taken on a whole different meaning and even saying it filled him with pride.
"Well let's start with this: when did you start learning Jar'Kai? And teleportation for that matter? You're clearly naturally predisposed to it, there are Masters who can't teleport as quickly and smoothly as you can. I daresay it's almost a different Force power entirely."
"I started messing around with using two sabers after learning about Revan in class, so about two years ago, I think." Revan was easily the coolest Jedi Tarys had learned about at the time, minus the becoming a Dark Lord thing, of course,
"Revan's a dangerous example to follow Tarys, make sure you don't follow him into the dark side, even if he did redeem himself." Master Satele seemed amused for some reason.
"I know, Master. And for the teleporting, well I call it blinking because from what I read about teleporting, it isn't exactly the same as what I can do so I wanted a new name for it. Anyway, I did the first time by accident while I was practising Jar'Kai. I sort of just ended up behind the dummy and I had no idea how I got there. And then I did it again. I realised eventually it was an actual power I was using so I started trying to figure it out and training it," explained Tarys.
"Only a Padawan and already naming Force powers?" She laughed, "Blink is a fitting name though, I think it'll stick. So you had two years with Jar'Kai and a year with blinking, and you were able to keep it all a secret the entire time? More importantly, why did you?"
"Well, I didn't want any of my teachers to know, I tried writing about a school of thought about the cosmic Force we hadn't been taught yet, and Master Dumma told me off for getting ahead of the class so I figured it was just best to just learn in private and save myself the earful. And it wasn't that hard to train alone, there's always at least one practice room free I just had to find it whenever I trained."
"An instructor disapproved of you learning in your own time? That's unacceptable. I know Master Dumma is old fashioned, but I didn't expect him to go that far. I'll have a word with him. Discouraging learning isn't right, even if it complicates teaching," Master Satele was visibly annoyed at that revelation.
"Thanks, Master, although I don't think I'll be among the ones benefiting from that. You said you wanted me to build lightsabers? How do I do that?"
"Well first you have to find the materials for them, including an additional crystal, you don't need to go through the Gathering again for that though, the Temple has a stockpile you can pick from. A lightsaber is a highly personal thing so you want to let the Force guide your choice of parts. as the Force led you to your crystal and to me, it'll lead you to the rest of your lightsaber parts," his Master explained.
"Actually Master, I already have two. for some reason the crystal I got split into two, they weren't any smaller than the ones the others got when I compared them though."
"I see. The Force must have bonded you to those crystals for a reason then, I suppose it sensed that you would use two lightsabers and gave you crystals accordingly."
They talked at length about what being a Padawan meant and what they would do going forward, Tarys was especially excited about going on missions for the first time, proper ones, and he would finally go off-world regularly. Master Satele was a member of the High Council but she promised to spend more time off Tython than on it. Many Council members spent years outside off the planet after all.
Three months later, at the Jedi Forge on Tython.
Tarys knelt at the foot of a richly decorated table. it was adorned with text in the ancient language of the Je'daii Order, the predecessors to his own. He'd already carefully arranged the pieces of his lightsabers on the stone surface as Master - no, Grand Master Satele Shan watched from the steps.
It was difficult to use telekinesis on multiple objects, extremely so, but Tarys had improved immensely already during the few months he had under Master Satele's tutelage so he was confident he'd be able to build the two lightsabers at the same time. if nothing else, it would be a challenge.
The Force drew him to parts made of Duralium-enhanced steel, they were a blue-green colour, favouring the blue but once again for some inexplicable reason, they just "felt" right. Tarys drew a deep breath and set to work, he felt each crystal as its own entity, separate, but part of the whole which would make his two lightsabers. Eyes closed, he levitated both individual components for each section of the saber, first, the sleeve. Then, the switch. Then, the crystals. They slotted in perfectly into the switch and Tarys couldn't help but smile, knowing that the sabers were perfect.
The emitters were outside the norm, however. It looked like because the crystals were broken parts of a larger one. When one was in a lightsaber and further than about three feet from the other, the blade began behaving erratically. When both were in sabers and being used at the same time however, they were perfectly stable, it was as if being in close proximity made the crystals whole. But in the case that Tarys ever needed to use only one of the sabers Master Satele suggested an ancient emitter design, suited for unstable crystals. This was the crossguard lightsaber and so both his emitters sported further protrusions from their side which would vent out quillons, essentially shorter lightsaber blades that allowed excess energy to leave the hilt.
He felt the lightsabers become complete as the emitters attached themselves to the rest of the hilt, each part becoming bonded on a microscopic level with the others to become two distinct, single objects. The sabers floated into his hands as he stood up. He felt the switches against his thumbs and pressed them, igniting the sabers and revealing bright cyan blades. The quillons extended perpendicularly to the main blades but the metal vent shielded his hands from the plasma itself.
"Well done, Padawan. You'll want to shorten the blade though, at least until you get tall enough to use the full length without the risk of harming yourself," Master Satele advised.
His Master was right, the sheer length of the blades proved unwieldy for him, he needed to shorten them. If they were dual-phase lightsabers he could've adjusted the length as much as he would've liked but because each saber only had one crystal each he only had a limited degree of control over the blades' lengths. He finally had his own lightsabers. Most of the other Padawans from the tournament got theirs a good while before, but they didn't have to find twice the number of parts.
He was ready for whatever the galaxy could throw at him now.
I should've probably mentioned this before but now is as good as time as any. To the person who reviewed asking where the Sith Inquisitor is, thanks! We will meet her next chapter, so that'll be Saturday 25th.
I will be making more of an effort to put my notes in here, I kept forgetting since there isn't a dedicated notes section on FFN. I apologise for the lack of communication but thanks for sticking with it so far!