A/N: Genuine thanks to everyone who has taken the time to read and review our story. We are getting close to the end of this one, perhaps another few chapters left to go and they become increasingly trying for both Raven's and Eeth's patience. We hope you are enjoying the story so far.
When Raven slinked into the dining hall that afternoon to meet Eeth for lunch, the sting from her run-in with Mathew and his lab stirrer of death had died down considerably. Still, she was not exactly sitting comfortably. Raven wasn't sure what was going to be worse: having to explain how poorly she had managed her time without Eeth pushing her, the fact that she'd lost her shit in a lab class and pissed off Mathew badly enough to spank her, or that she'd neglected to meditate after having been specifically reminded. It wasn't looking good for her.
Raven had barely waited a minute before Eeth, lunch tray in hand, made his way to where she was sitting. He had put in a thorough workout after his mission briefing and his hair was still slightly damp, but apart from that, he looked impeccable as usual.
"Hello padawan," he said, putting down his tray, pulling out a chair and sitting down. "How was your class?"
"You don't want to know," Raven replied and inclined her head in greeting as he sat. "How was your mission briefing? And –" She scrutinised him, noting his slightly damp hair. "Did you go to the gym without me?"
"I did," said Eeth, "and I will most likely go again with you later today. More importantly, I do want to know. That is why I asked. Is there anything you need to tell me?"
"Probably, but I don't want to." Raven wrinkled her nose, "And you're not going to like it."
"I am not going to like it any better if I have to drag it out of you first," said Eeth. "Tell me."
"Yes, master, but don't say I didn't warn you," Raven said. And then she gave an exhaustive account of what had happened that day, detailing how she'd been running late, her frustrations over not being able to complete the dissection and how upset she had been with herself over messing it up. "Mathew was pretty annoyed. He punished me, painfully, and made me meditate for the rest of the class." Raven lowered her gaze, sure that Eeth was as disappointed in herself as she was. She risked a glance up and wished she hadn't, his scrutinising look having her want to beg him for forgiveness there and then, especially since she had forgotten to complete her meditation and now it was all going to hell in a handbasket. She dropped her shields, projecting her regret and embarrassment over it all across their bond.
Eeth silently let his gaze rest on Raven for a moment longer. He could sense the emotions emanating from her through their bond and he knew that she was sincere both about her regret and about the fact that Mathew had already punished her in a way that had left an impression. Pondering this, he finally said, "Alright. Let us take some food home and have lunch there. That would have the added benefit of giving you the opportunity to change into a clean tunic."
Raven looked down guiltily at the splotches of milk and cream. Had Eeth been present this morning, he would have made her change before leaving.
Eeth gave her a brief smile and a quick burst of reassurance through their bond. He felt that she needed to know that nothing she had done was unforgiveable.
The reassurance was a relief and Raven smiled just a little as she stood. "You're not going to, you know?" she scrunched up her nose and started again. "We're not going home because you're planning on punishing me for this, are we?" Raven asked because, despite reassurance across their bond, she just had to know.
"First of all, I am planning to have lunch before it gets cold," said Eeth as he put their food onto his tray and covered it with a lid. "Since Mathew has already punished you for this, I see no need to add to it."
Raven looked at him, relieved. That was until he continued to speak. "For now," he said, and her face dropped.
Unperturbed, Eeth said, "Tonight's punishment will be with a paddle, and it will involve more lines than it would otherwise have." He picked up the tray and nodded for her to move towards the exit.
Raven had expected as much but that didn't mean she had to like it. It was then that something occurred to her and she gave Eeth a horrified look. "Please tell me you don't mean to use that thing with all the holes in it?"
"Not if you manage to keep out of trouble for the rest of the day," said Eeth as they navigated their way through the crowds.
"I will, I will!" she hastened to assure him, following him from the dining hall. Raven didn't want another round with that awful thing. It was a whole new level of horrifying that she never wanted to encounter again. Ever.
Eeth entered their quarters and moved towards the dining table to put the tray down. Frowning, he took in the bowl that had been left there, the dried-up splashes of milk on the tabletop and the chair that was not quite pushed in.
"Padawan, I understand that you were in a hurry this morning but could you clear and wipe the table, please?" he said. "Right now?"
"Yes, master, sorry." Raven gave him a sheepish look and got to work clearing her dishes and cleaning off the table. She hadn't thought much of it at the time, but in hindsight this was not something that Raven often neglected to do, being a rather tidy personality herself.
"Wash your hands and change into a clean tunic," said Eeth. "I will set the table in the meanwhile."
A few minutes later, Raven emerged from her room, clad in a clean workout uniform, wiping water from her hands onto a pant leg, and went to help. Finally, she could not contain the question any longer.
"Are you mad?" she asked after they had sat down and started eating. She didn't think he was, but lately she seemed to be in trouble every other day and that had to be tiresome for Eeth, too.
"No," said Eeth. "Just out of interest, though: Had you been planning on meditating this morning and just lost track of the time, or was my absence a convenient excuse for neglecting to do so?"
"What? No. I meant to meditate," Raven replied with just a hint of indignation to her tone. Not that she would have put in half the effort she would have had Eeth been present, but she didn't think it was wise to state that.
"But it did not rank high enough on your list of priorities to make sure you had enough time left," Eeth remarked. "I seem to remember that I specifically told you not to forget it."
"I didn't realise the time, is all," Raven said guiltily, neither confirming nor denying Eeth's remark.
"Precisely my point," said Eeth. "So, have you learned anything from this?"
"That the meditation is helping and because I missed it, I ended up losing my temper, getting into trouble and losing more of my free time." Raven scrunched up her nose. "I'm sorry, I really don't mean to cause you so much trouble," she added. She was indulging in a bit of self-pity here, when the truth was that what she really wanted was for Eeth to comfort her and say that it was okay.
"I am not concerned with the trouble you are causing me or, in this case, Healer Mathew," said Eeth. "I am concerned over how fast you lost your emotional balance, after having missed out on your morning meditation just once. I trust I will not hear further arguments about the necessity of your meditation schedule?"
"You won't," Raven agreed. She gave him a pensive look. "You know, I'm usually really good at this medical stuff. I mean, that's why I'm in Mathew's advanced class. I guess my failure to complete the task would have bothered me even if I weren't having problems at the moment." Raven was wondering if it had been the situation and not her sensitivity that had caused her frustration to peak, or maybe it had been both? She didn't know.
"The fact that it bothered you is not the issue here," said Eeth. "How you dealt with it is the issue, and you know it."
"Well, yes, that's what I mean. I might have been mad even before I started going through all this stuff." Raven waved her hands around for emphasis. She hated referring to this clusterfuck as 'puberty' when it seemed the only thing being affected was her damned mood. Most of her peers were developing bodily, but she was not going to go through that yet which just added to her frustration with the whole thing.
"And yet," said Eeth, "I do get the impression that meditation might have helped you deal with it in a way that does not involve stabbing a scalpel in a desk."
Raven shrank into her seat, remaining silent through the rest of their meal.
Having finished his plate, Eeth put his knife and fork down. "Let us go to the gym," he said. "A couple of hours of freestyle sparring will hopefully improve your attitude significantly."
"I wonder if she survived," Flynt remarked as much to himself as to Lakhri as he adjusted his stride to walk beside his much shorter master. They were on their way to the Temple's hangar to meet Eeth and Raven and go to Tree World. He couldn't help but feel sorry for his Jedi aunt lately who seemed to be going through a hard time. Also, he knew from experience that Eeth could be one scary fucker. That wasn't to mention the fact that Raven had disobeyed him several times. Yep, suicidal. In any case, Flynt planned to ask her how she was coping the moment they got a chance.
"Oh, I'm sure she did," said Lakhri. "But she probably won't want a repeat of last week any time soon. I just hope Eeth doesn't get called off again. I don't think his constant absences are helping."
Eeth and Raven reached the hangar before Lakhri and Flynt, so Raven took it upon herself to choose a speeder, and then she proceeded to beg Eeth to let her fly it. "Pleeeease?"
"Yes, you may," said Eeth. He handed her the ignition control and turned to beckon over Lakhri and Flynt who were just emerging from the turbolift.
"Lakhri. Flynt," he said as the two approached. "It is good to see you."
"Good to see you, too," said Lakhri. "No calls from Mace Windu yet? I'm shocked. Hi, Raven."
Raven gave him a huge grin. Eeth just shot him a look, motioning for him to take the passenger seat so he could coach Raven during the trip. He knew that Lakhri was a good pilot and an equally good teacher and Raven responded well to him. Besides, Eeth had not had a chance to talk to Flynt in quite a while, and sitting in the back next to him would give him an opportunity to do so.
Flynt caught Raven's excitement in a mirror and smirked. "Nice choice. XJ-6, flashy. Although… You got us kitted out with chutes, right?"
Raven jutted out her chin as she engaged the thrusters, piloting them smoothly into the correct traffic lane. "I find your lack of faith disturbing."
"How is your academic cycle going so far?" Eeth asked Flynt in an effort to change the topic.
"My academic cycle? Umm…" Flynt feigned an itchy spot on his forehead to conceal a smile. It was so like his grandmaster to ask about classes, although he had to concede that life as a junior padawan didn't consist of much else. "I didn't have to take Basic this cycle, so I'd have to say it's pretty sweet this time around."
"You'll never get out of it twice, though,' said Raven, grinning.
"Never say never," replied Flynt confidently. He had come a long way since becoming Lakhri's apprentice. The quick-witted Jedi master's influence on Flynt was unmistakable to anyone who had known Flynt. The boy's confidence was growing as fast as his height, which was honestly saying something.
As they left the Senate district, traffic was getting very dense. Lakhri sensed a disturbance somewhere in front of them, possibly an accident. Speeders were starting to swerve out of their lanes to avoid it and the situation was becoming hard to handle.
"Land at the next safe spot," Lakhri told Raven. "I'll take over."
Flight clearance was the biggest thing to happen to Raven since building her lightsaber and gaining mission eligibility. Thus, she didn't ask questions until she had piloted them to an out of the way fly-thru fast food platform and powered down the engine. "What did I do wrong?" she asked.
"Nothing," Lakhri replied mildly. "But traffic is getting too dense. There seems to be an accident somewhere ahead, in addition to an event at the Coruscant Colosseum. The traffic lanes are getting congested and people are trying to find shortcuts. I can take us around the traffic jam, but that will require some risky flying. Come on, let's switch seats."
"Alright," Raven acquiesced. She had to admit that experience was something that she lacked and it wasn't worth crashing to get some. Thus, she slid across into the co-pilot's seat and waited for Lakhri to get in. Given that Tree World was an hour and a half from the Temple, she'd get another chance to fly once they were out of danger. "I coulda done it," Raven said, giving her Jedi brother a sideways look and grinning.
"Maybe, and maybe not," said Lakhri, diving into a lower lane abruptly and swerving to avoid a tow truck. Once he had cleared them of the traffic jam, he let Raven fly again. Thus, it was a very satisfied-looking padawan who ultimately set their speeder down into the parking bay deftly as instructed. Once the engine was off, she removed the remote ignition and watched as Lakhri put in his code to lock it down.
"Where to?" Raven asked, vaulting from the speeder and glancing around for an entry point. It had been a long time since she'd been here.
"To the ticket booth, I'd say," said Lakhri drily.
When they arrived at said booth, Flynt cleared his throat and gave the young girl there a charming smile, making her blush. "Three adults and,'' he glanced briefly at Eeth, a cheeky look on his face, "one senior citizen."
Eeth gave him a quelling look. "Not senior enough to warrant a discount," he said.
Lakhri chuckled. "Two adults and two teenagers, actually," he told the young girl, who was working hard to suppress a grin.
A minute later, they entered the park.
"Let's grab a snack first," Lakhri suggested. "There is this stall that sells roast nuts…"
"Why did I see this coming?" Eeth said wryly. "Breakfast was nearly two hours ago. The horror."
"I see my old master understands me," Lakhri said, winking at Raven and Flynt.
"And mine can read minds," Flynt added; he was always hungry and never said no to food.
"You know, if you're not careful, you're going to start looking like Kenneth," said Raven, looking at Lakhri with a shit-eating grin. Kenneth was an informant Eeth and Drex had introduced her and Kaden to when they were investigating the Illegal weapons trade together. At fifty years old, he stood no taller than Raven and was almost six times as round. His balding head was speckled with thinning grey hair, and his long, scraggly, unkempt beard made the man look more like some dwarven pirate than a legitimate arms dealer.
"Oh, don't worry," Lakhri said. "I'm being kept too busy to ever grow as fat as Kenneth. Among other things, I have to chase you and Flynt through the gym, and that keeps getting harder the longer Flynt's legs grow." He led them to a lift that took them to a snack stall in the middle of a huge tree trunk which sold roast nuts of a kind that was rare and quite tasty.
Then Lakhri pointed them to a maze of hanging bridges. They were between ten and thirty meters up in the air and every step set them swinging. The padawans had never been there before; Tree World was huge, after all.
"If we take these, we get to the best and quietest spots," Lakhri said. "Anyone with vertigo?"
Flynt strode out onto the hanging bridge with all the fearless confidence of an immortal teen. "Come on, slowpokes," he encouraged, gesturing behind himself to the now swinging bridge.
Raven just rolled her eyes and followed him. "Move it. You're blocking up the path. People are trying to walk here," she teased and playfully nudged him forward. The bridge was perfectly safe but it was a looooooong way down, something Raven had noticed but was doing an admirable job of covering. She paused for a moment, wondering what would happen if she spat over the edge, and then thought better of it. Flynt, however, had no such qualms and launched a loogie that would have impressed the most proficient ten-year-old.
"Now that's what I call a drop," he announced.
Eeth gave Flynt a light smack to the back of his head.
"Do not do that again," he said sternly. "People might be walking down there."
"Oooaf! Hey, watch the merchandise!" Flynt complained, pretending to straighten up the feg in his hair.
Lakhri grinned.
"Let that be a warning to you, my padawan," he said. "There will not be a second one. You are dealing with Eeth, after all."
Raven scoffed. Had she done that, she'd have gotten more than a smack up the back of the head, she thought. Flynt didn't know how good he had it!
When they had clambered onto the highest point and sat to admire the view, Raven pulled her bag of nuts from her pocket and tossed one into her mouth.
"You know, I've always wanted to persuade Eeth to allow me to climb somewhere civilians won't reach, but he wouldn't let me," Lakhri said in a mock-grumbling voice, dangling his short legs over the abyss.
"Show me a place that will not be reached by a Vor or a Toydarian," Eeth said evenly, leaning back against the tree trunk.
"Show me a Vor who will travel to Coruscant and show me a Toydarian who will pay an entrance fee just to look at trees," Lakhri countered.
"Lakhri, you know what I mean," Eeth said a tad severely.
"Well, you know what I mean, too," Lakhri retorted, grinning.
"Eeth can't tell you no now," Flynt pointed out, glancing towards the highest treetop in their line of sight. "I could go with you?" He paused, suddenly recalling what had happened the last time they had been here and not wanting to go down that road for a second time. "Only if you allow it," was hastily tacked on.
"No way," Lakhri replied peacefully. "It's strictly forbidden to climb outside the designated areas. If anyone catches us, we'll be thrown out in a heartbeat, Jedi or not. Forget about it. We could go to the swings if you like, or the slides. There's still plenty to do here that we haven't done before."
"And yet you still tried to convince master into letting you," said Raven, grinning at Lakhri.
"I tried to talk him into it every time we were here, I think," Lakhri said. "At least until the point where he threatened to take me home and spank me for my insolence."
"That usually stopped the argument," Eeth remarked. He was leaning back against the tree with his legs stretched out in front of him and his eyes closed. This was the first weekend in months on which he had actually taken a day off work, and much as he would have hated to admit it, it felt good.
"Well, I like to think I'm not insane," Lakhri said.
Raven snorted, a very unladylike sound. She could relate, after all.
Ten minutes later, the four were weaving their way through a long suspended path made of vines that snaked through several huge tree trunks. Flynt paused to lean over the edge. It was an even longer way down from here, but he decided his method of judging a drop was not worth rousing his grandmaster's ire.
"Cool, isn't it? I could spend a whole week out here and still find things I missed the last time," said Raven, her tone whimsical as she trailed behind Eeth.
"Oh, yes, the place is huge," said Lakhri. "Let's make our way to the next sky rail stop. We can take the hover train to the centre tree. I'm hungry."
Eeth raised his eyebrows but did not voice any objections. After all, he had no particular plans for the day and was content to go along with what the others wanted to do.
Half an hour later, they made their way along a suspension bridge to an enormous tree. IT was surrounded by dozens of circular platforms that held food stalls, souvenir shops and crowds of people. The top platform offered a panoramic view of Tree World and the surrounding areas of Coruscant.
"Flynt, take your pick," Lakhri said, making a sweeping motion with his arm towards the food stalls.
"The same goes for you, padawan," Eeth said. "But only one sweet drink."
"Just one, I know," Raven repeated, but before she could tut at Eeth's reminder, Flynt had dragged her off in search of food.
"Has that got animal parts in it?" Raven asked the man behind the stall she now stood before, gesturing to a pot of green noodles with cubes of what she hoped were vegetables diced and mixed through.
"No, it's made from legumes," the man replied and scooped her up some to try. "The cubes are coloured tubers and stems from different plants."
Raven accepted the spoon, tasted the dish and smiled. It was good! She ordered a small portion, a gilla nut salad with ruush dressing and a small cup of lemonade to go.
A few seconds later, Flynt emerged from among the stalls, his good arm full.
"What th–?" Raven began, only to be cut off by Flynt.
"–Only the finest giant double meat and salad roll in all of Coruscant, with extra everything, according to the vendor, that is." He pulled the forty-five-centimetre-long sandwich from its wrapping and looked to his master. "Lakhri?" he questioned, offering the man first dibs on half of this baby.
"Thanks, but I'm stocked," Lakhri replied, holding up a huge bowl of grains with mushrooms and dark green leaves. Eeth had bought himself slices of lemon fish, wrapped in lettuce. They made their way to the topmost platform and enjoyed the panoramic view while they ate their meal.
When they were done, Lakhri showed them to an area where there were all kinds of swings, ropes, rope ladders and slides in and among the trees. That made for several hours of fun. After that, Eeth bought each of them a scoop of ice cream. They ate it sitting on swinging benches that were hanging from the branches of a giant tree.
"Can we go to the Taknissyan trees? They're on the way out," Raven asked, licking some dribbled ice cream from her hand before it could stain her tunic and earn a frown from Eeth. Their day had been excellent, just what she had needed to blow off some steam after the last month of classes and spate of trouble.
"Force, not again. You can torture me any other way; spare me the singing trees," Flynt implored her before anyone could cut him off.
"Any other way?" Raven hedged. "How about Basic homework for a month?"
"Maybe not quite anything, but you know what I mean."
Raven laughed, and Flynt bumped her with his shoulder. He had had a great day, too, and didn't really mind if they saw the trees.
"Why don't you take Raven to the tree harps and I take Flynt to the slides next to them?" Lakhri asked Eeth.
"Alright," Eeth agreed. "For one more hour. Then we need to go home."
"Plan," said Flynt, and Raven agreed.
When they arrived at the Taknissyan Trees, Raven plopped into one of the huge canvas slings, smiling when Eeth joined her and his weight toppled her into his side. The music was soothing, so she closed her eyes, and without thinking about it, she dropped her shields and invited Eeth to link with her. It was peaceful, there was no danger, Lakhri was not far away and… she stopped thinking and enjoyed the moment. Maybe Flynt had a point, she thought. He was always crapping on about living in the moment.
Eeth readily linked with Raven, wrapping an arm around her shoulder. He had always been wary of intimacy, but it was different when meditating. He found it easier to open up to others through the Force than by words or gestures. Despite his strictness, he and Raven were fairly close by now, and that was to a large part owed to their joint meditations. He was glad that his padawan had sought him out through their bond, partly because he believed she needed such periods of meditation much more often than she would admit, but also because he genuinely enjoyed it.
Raven might have initiated it, but she left it to Eeth to end it. She had no idea how much time had passed when he did. She lifted her head from his shoulder and stretched out, causing the sling to all but tip them both out. It would have, had Eeth's weight not held them steady.
"Thanks," she said. "Not just for the meditation, but also for coming with us. I like spending this sort of time with you. You know, the fun sort." Her lip curled slightly at that comment as she knew the sort of reaction any talk of 'fun' typically garnered from her not so fun-loving master.
"I know," Eeth replied quietly. "And I am glad this worked out. I like spending time with you as well."
The reply was sincere. He did not actually prefer Council meetings to spending time with his padawan; it was just that very often, they were indispensable.
It was quite late by the time the four Jedi returned to the Temple. They parted ways when they left the garage. As soon as they were back in their quarters, Eeth sent Raven to bed. It had been a long day. And also a good one, he felt.
The next few weeks passed by without issues for Raven. The meditation schedule Eeth had assigned her was working well, and with each day, she felt increasingly confident in her ability to control the shitstorm that was adolescence.
It was lunchtime on yet another uneventful day when Raven entered their quarters to find that Eeth was actually home, and better yet, he'd cooked! "Smells like something spicy," Raven said from the door, hopping around on one foot to pull off her boot.
"It is," said Eeth, stirring the rich stew he had prepared. "Did you have a good day?" He had noticed that he had not received notes from any of Raven's teachers for several weeks, which was a pleasant change.
"I did," Raven replied. She set her boots by the door and went into the kitchen. "Can I help?"
"You may set the table," said Eeth. "Lunch is almost ready." He tossed a handful of nuts into a heavy pan to roast them, added cubes of bean curd to the stew and started chopping up herbs, quickly and with the ease of long practice.
Raven was a little quieter than usual during lunch today. She was trying to come up with a way of convincing Eeth that she no longer needed the extra meditation and could once again regain that time to do other things. It was hard to broach the topic with him, firstly, because the last time she had said that she did not need the meditations, it had turned out to be untrue, and secondly, because Eeth never responded well to being told how to run her training, or worse still, to manipulation. Raven toyed with a cube of bean curd, poking it with her fork and splitting it in half before eating it.
"Do not play with your food," said Eeth. "Is anything the matter, padawan?"
"I wasn't," Raven defended herself poorly. Eeth raised his eyebrows, and she gave him a sheepish look in return. "Maybe I was. Sorry."
When Eeth said no more and just gestured to her plate, Raven kept eating.
The truth was, she did have something on her mind, but how to bring it up?
"I wouldn't say anything is the matter, per se," she said eventually, picking up the line of conversation that had been dropped minutes ago in place of silent contemplation.
"Padawan," said Eeth, a hint of impatience in his voice. Raven sat up a bit straighter.
"It's just about the meditations," she said. "I don't need them any longer, is all."
Eeth looked at her for a long moment. It was true that the past weeks had gone well. Raven had kept a hold of her temper, even with Professor Kogan, and she had mostly stopped complaining about her duties and workload. Then again, Eeth supposed it was too much to hope that the troubles of adolescence were over after such a short while. He suspected that, if he allowed Raven to drop the lunchtime meditations, she would revert to her irritable behaviour relatively soon. But maybe, he thought, it would be better for her to make that experience for herself? And if his suspicions were wrong and the experiment went well, that would be all for the better.
"Very well, padawan," he said. "Maybe you are old and mature enough to make such decisions yourself. We will continue our joint morning and evening meditations. I will leave it up to you to decide whether you want and need lunchtime meditations. If you do, I will be there for you."
Raven just stared at him in response. She had expected some resistance or, at the very least, some cutting remark on how she could safely leave that decision to him. This was unexpected. "Uh, really?" she said in disbelief. The question was rhetorical. "I won't let you down. You'll see," she added. It felt good that he trusted her with this. Raven was fourteen, after all, and that was practically an adult, she thought.
Raven took her responsibility and new freedom seriously. If she felt that her patience was thinning, she did ask for help.
However, after a few weeks of this, she wanted to handle things independently and stopped seeking Eeth out… Which was why, one Friday afternoon, she ultimately found herself copying out the periodic table an hour after her class had been dismissed.
"You may go now, padawan," Knight Trent told her, not unkindly. When she failed to spring up from her chair and bolt for freedom like most students would after an hour of such tedious work, he moved to sit opposite. "Raven?"
She looked up, her face scrunched. "I don't want to go home. Eeth is going to kill me."
"I doubt you will be murdered," Trent said, not without compassion. "Punished, perhaps, but I dare say you deserve it. Wouldn't you?"
Given that Raven had been led through this dance many times by those in authority over her, she knew it well. "I do, but that doesn't mean I want it."
"No, I don't suppose you do. Life as a Jedi is not always about what you want."
Raven shot him a glare that would melt the ice on Hoth to its core. "You know, I'm just so sick of hearing that!" She was about to start ranting when the image of Eeth's face upon hearing that she had lost her shit not once but twice popped into her mind, and she calmed down immediately.
Having sensed the fluctuation in the Force, Trent put a hand on her shoulder and sent her some soothing energy. "Calm?"
Raven nodded, looped an arm around the stuff on her desk and dragged it into her bag.
"It will be alright. Listen to the Force and trust your master," Trent attempted to soothe her.
"I will," was all Raven said in reply. She knew he was trying to help, but it wasn't him who was about to face off against Eeth, it was her, and she was scared. Not scared of Eeth, but scared of the punishment, scared of the disappointment he would feel when he heard that she had lost her temper. Again! And after he had given her control over her meditation schedule. She could have gone to him at any time and asked for help, but Raven had wanted to do this herself.
It was another twenty-five minutes before a cowed-looking Raven slinked into their quarters, looking guilty. "Sorry I'm late," she apologised, because that was always a good place to start. Knight Trent would have sent a message to Eeth, so she knew that, unfortunately, Eeth would already know exactly what she was apologising for.
Eeth was just emerging from the kitchen, carrying a casserole. "Wash your hands," he merely said. "Lunch is ready. We can talk once we have sat down to eat."
She pulled off her boots and hung her cloak by the door with more care than most padawans paid to the task, owing to the fact that Eeth had made her mend her cloak by hand once. A little while later, she emerged from her refresher, having washed her face and hands, and pulled her hair from its ties. It had grown quite a bit since she'd had Eeth cut it on their mission to the desert planet of Sindal and was now long enough to pull into a messy bun which she preferred whenever they were not required to look immaculate.
Eeth set the casserole onto the table and motioned for Raven to take a seat. As usual, he let her serve herself. She did not normally eat much and he did not want to heap more onto her plate than she could finish.
When they had both started eating, he said, "As you are probably aware, Knight Trent sent me a message. He asked me to talk to you about your behaviour in class. Apparently, that behaviour earned you detention. What happened?"
Raven felt that if Eeth was mad, she couldn't really blame him. He'd offered help and even given her a chance to do it herself and she'd messed it up. Now Raven was just feeling sorry for herself. "Do we have to talk about this now?" she asked.
"For your sake, I will assume this was a rhetorical question," Eeth said. "Out with it."
It hadn't been, but she conceded, her spoon splashing into her bowl and expression resigned.
"We were testing the efficiency of fan blade shapes on the evaporation rates of different chemicals," she said. "It was Gyl's job to secure the fan to the table, Flynt's to take the measurements, Tarl's to change the angles and shapes of the blades and mine to provide different conditions. We spent two-thirds of the lesson preparing this, TWO THIRDS!" Raven was becoming frustrated again. "When we were running the final part of our experiment, Tarl's tunic got sucked into the backflow, and he Force-pushed the entire hour and a half of work into the wall. I might have gotten irritated and I called him on being such a clumsy oaf. Tarl said it wasn't his fault. But it WAS! We got into an argument. He threw his stylus down, and it skidded across the table and hit me in the stomach, so I picked it up and threw it back with a little more accuracy. He lost his temper and came at me, so I fought back. Knight Trent ordered that we stop, but I landed one more punch on Tarl before obeying him. Knight Trent wasn't happy about that and carried me to the side of the room. He told me off, left me to write out the periodic table and went to check on Tarl. He was fine, of course." Raven threw her hands up in exasperation. "If I'd wanted to truly hurt him, I could have done so."
"Yes, I suppose so," Eeth replied neutrally. "I hardly think that Knight Trent is accusing you of falling to the Dark Side, though. Tell me what was wrong with your behaviour."
"Nothing," she said. This wasn't true, of course, and Raven didn't meet his eye. It was just that she hated having to restate her failings possibly as much as what usually followed it. Well, perhaps not quite as much, but it was a close second!
The expression on Eeth's face darkened and he slowly put his spoon down.
"Wait!" Raven recognised the signs, and given that she wasn't insane, she started talking. "I could have defused the situation instead of allowing things to escalate, and when Knight Trent told me to stop, I should have. I lost my temper, and I wanted revenge on Tarl for starting the whole mess, and that isn't very Jedilike." It came out in one long sentence, as was typical for Raven when she thought it might save her ass.
"Yes, all of this is correct," Eeth said sternly. "You know that engaging in fights is completely and utterly unacceptable, whatever the provocation is. Did Knight Trent impose any punishment, besides the writing he made you do?"
"No, master. But don't think it wasn't bad because it was! I made it all the way up to Manganese. My hand is still aching." This wasn't the first time her chemistry teacher had given Raven this particular punishment, and although he started her in a different spot each time, she was beginning to know the elements by heart. "Knight Trent called Tarl's master to come and pick him up. He didn't call you, though, because I didn't start it." Raven thought this piece of information was critical to her case. "Also, he gave our table a zero and said we can make it up in our free time if we want another chance, and then he had me writing while Gyl and Flynt tried to fix the mess so we would have less to catch up on in our free time." Raven felt bad for Gyl and Flynt as, for once, it hadn't been Flynt who was responsible for causing their group trouble. Still, they hadn't tried to stop it from escalating either, which landed them in almost as much shit as the perpetrators.
"And yet, he has referred the matter to me," Eeth said calmly. "And you know we have discussed the inadvisability of losing your temper in class before. Very well. Finish your food."
'Very well'? 'Very well'! Raven knew what that particular conversation-ender meant and she didn't want it. "No, please," she pleaded. "I've been punished enough already. I'm trying. I didn't do it on purpose and I know I shouldn't have lost my temper, I will meditate on it. Look, I'll start right now, right after I eat lunch." Because she wasn't about to disobey him, despite the fact that she was suddenly no longer hungry.
"No, you will finish your food and wait for my instructions," Eeth snapped, "because it is not up to you to decide how I punish you. It never has been and never will. Is that clear?"
Raven's jaw squared and she let out an irritated grunt. "But this isn't—"
"Padawan, finish. Your. Food," said Eeth in a tone of voice that suggested any further backtalk was a very bad idea.
Raven's lips pulled into a thin line but she made no further attempts to argue. That wasn't to say that Raven didn't WANT to argue; she totally did. Eeth was probably going to beat her ass for this, and not being allowed to even protest it was something that Raven often struggled with. Why had she allowed Tahl to get to her? Was she completely insane?