I walk slowly, tentatively back to my room once the younglings let me leave. I'm not sure what is happening now. Whether she is serious. When she'll come to me again. What to expect.
I turn a corner, and, again, this is when I see her. This time, instead of running, she is standing next to my door with her arms crossed. I approach her at a walk.
"Hi, Akite. So you play with the younglings every afternoon?"
"Yeah."
"Do they like you?"
"They seem to really appreciate it."
"I bet the caretakers do." She laughs.
I get to have a good look at her at last. Her skin is a slightly paler gold than Fang's. She is a different race of Zabrak than I am. Her horns are smaller than and not as low on her forehead as mine are, and she doesn't have hair. She has black eyes, and there are lines tattooed on her cheeks that indicate that she has gone through the Iridonian rite of passage for the clan she was born into. My parents were from a colonial world, rather than the Zabrak homeworld of Iridona, so I will never bear tattoos. Besides, the rite of passage would require being away from the Temple for a month or more, and I don't want that.
"I guess you don't want to play with younglings your whole life," she adds, bringing me back to my situation.
"No, but maybe when – if – I retire," I tell her.
"Yes, 'if,'" she sighs. "It's all 'if' now. But we keep going, right?"
Exactly what I told Zefel.
"I think it's good for you to do that, though. Good practice for dealing with crazy people," she continues.
I never thought of it that way. She is grinning, so I think she was at least half joking. "It keeps me busy," I add.
"That, too. But if you're going to be my padawan, you won't have to worry about that."
I smile. "That's true. Would you like to come to my room and sit?"
"All right." There actually isn't a chair, so we sit on my sleeping couch. "I guess you've figured out who I am," she says.
"You're Master Yasi."
"Right. I'm sorry I was running earlier." She winces. "The Council had called me, but I finished what I was doing before I went, and they don't like to be kept waiting. But I won't excuse running in the hallways. The teachers would murder me if I did. At least, they would try." Her mouth turned up in a predatory grin.
"I won't tell anyone," I promise, smiling. They would have trouble killing someone who is such a good fighter. "What did the Council want you for?"
"Oh, they wanted to know what I was planning to do next. Last week, they would have ordered me somewhere, but now, we're getting an idea of what's going on between us and the Separatists, so we're focusing where it is needed and pulling everyone else back home. It's a big relief."
I hope that this means I will see my friends again soon.
"I told them I wanted to stay here for a little while and that Akite Chairu just agreed to be my padawan. So I'll stay as long as I am useful here."
I nod. "So – how did you decide you wanted me?" I ask uncomfortably. Oreti was looking for a padawan, had liked what he heard about me, and watched me at a few lightsaber practices before asking, but I was an innocent initiate and he was a young knight. Now, I have known great pain, and Master Yasi is more than a knight wanting her first padawan.
"I came back the afternoon before last and accidentally saw you and your friend in the hallway, when she was crying, you remember? I asked Yoda, and he told me who you were and encouraged me. You're perfect for me. A Zabrak and pretty good with your lightsaber. Mine was green as a padawan, too."
"Thanks, Master Yasi," I mumble uncomfortably.
"Call me Moyek," she says. "I think the Council may be willing to do the ceremony tonight, if you want."
"That would be wonderful," I whisper.
"And I guess you wouldn't know," she adds with a bitter smile, "that I lost my first master when I was fifteen."