Chapter 4
"Welcome, young one," the small creature said. He was very old, with red-tinted, wrinkled skin, small brown eyes, and two tiny horns protruding from his head; he was obviously not of the human race.
Kate had no idea what he was, exactly, but decided it was rude to ask, so she compromised with a simple, "Thank-you. Who are you?"
"I am Master Cathir, keeper of the library and steward of this academy." He gestured at a scattering of mats lying near his feet. "Please be seated and let us talk of your training and future here on Talún."
Dekka bowed slightly in the elder Jedi's direction and, following his lead, they sank onto the slightly threadbare cloth.
"Now, you understand the work that must be put into becoming a Jedi? You must learn our code and our ways, and train with our weapons and powers, which will take years to master."
"I understand, Master Cathir." Kate spoke softly, comprehending the gravity of what she was about to begin.
Cathir smiled gently. "Good. Master Dekka will be your teacher. He will guide you in your studies and instruct you in the ways of the force. Go now, and rest. Tomorrow, your training begins."
Kate hesitated, surprised at the briefness of the discussion, then stood up and trailed after Dekka as he led her to her new home. It was a small, simple room on the eastern side of the compound with no furniture save a pair of thick mats, two footlockers and a short table in the corner bearing a wooden comb and a basin of water. There was also an interface screen on the wall above it.
"You will be rooming with Master Grint's padawan, Niama. She should be returning shortly. Meet me tomorrow morning at dawn, in the central courtyard."
"Alright. Good night, Master Dekka."
Clumsily returning Master Dekka's bow, she trudged over and sank onto the unused mat, exhaling heavily; it had been a long day. She propped her head up on her elbow and dug through her bag until she found it: the smooth stone Gam had polished and carved a heart into for her fifteenth birthday. She pressed the cool rock to her cheek, tracing her thumb over the crooked heart gouged in its center, until sleep took her.
* * *
It was getting rather old being woken up this way; the first thought Kate had as someone yelled and tripped over her outstretched arm, stone still clenched in her fist. Mumbling incoherently, she sat up and found herself staring into someone's big, brown eyes. She blinked; the person attached to the eyes giggled and retreated back to her own mat to dig through the footlocker lying opened at its base.
"Hi! I'm Niama, what's your name? Sorry for stepping on you… Master Grint says I need to work on not being so clumsy. Or noisy." She grimaced over her shoulder, then returned to whatever she was looking for. "What was your name again?"
Taken aback by the burst of speech after Master Dekka and Cathir's silence, she reacted slowly. "Um, Kate. Kate Asan."
"Huh, what planet are you from?"
"Carun."
"Never heard of it. Outer rim or core?"
"Way in the outer rim. Where are you from?"
"Good question. Master Cathir found me on the streets in Coruscant and brought me here. That was about three years ago. Or was it four?" She frowned, then shrugged. "I'm sixteen now, though. How old are you?"
"Seventeen."
"That's ancient. Well, if you can get your wrinkled old butt out of bed, Mater Dekka hates it when people are late. He's late sometimes too, but don't point that out. He gets grouchy and makes you clean out the marsh-toad-infested storerooms." She crinkled her nose, then finally bulled a battered sandal out of the footlocker. She rolled over on her back happily and pulled the elusive shoe on. Kate studied her for a moment, admiring the ebony tone of her skin, and the long braids of black hair; everyone on Carun was pale, or suntanned if they worked in the fileds. Not having taken her shoes off the night before, Kate got up stiffly, smoothed her wrinkled clothes, then headed out the door, waving at Niama who was having difficulty fastening the leather thong on her sandal.
* * *
Master Dekka was not there yet, so Kate settled herself in the crook of one of the huge trees scattered across the courtyard. She breathed in the smell of the large pink and white blooms, ehn sneezed noisily and nearly fell of the branch. She swung by one hand for a moment, judging the distance to the ground, then let go and landed somewhat neatly on the sand walkway below. Shaking her left foot in an attempt to dislodge some of the sand lodged in her sandle, Kate saw Master Dekka approaching. He was indeed late; the sun had risen a while ago, but, not wanting to have an encounter with the marsh-toads, she kept quiet.
"I trust you slept well?"
"Good morning Master Dekka. Yes, thank-you."
* * *
After that, the spoke very little. The day was spent learning the Jedi code, and, more importantly to Kate, how to connect to the force. It was like an electric current running through her veins, powering her every movement, her breath, her life. Like having her finger on the heartbeat of the galaxy. She could feel every creature around the academy, in the surrounding woods. If she concentrated hard, she thought she could even feel a glimmer of life on the moon, Gendrann. Beyond that it was utterly indescribable.
"Alright," Dekka said, disrupting Kate's focus on a pebble she was trying to levitate, "that is enough for today. When you get hungry, the students take their evening meal in the hall to the south. You should ask Niama, she is always hungry." Dekka left to return to the council hall, to the west, and Kate returned to her room. Her stomach protested loudly at the extra movement. Niama was sitting cross-legged on the floor, her footlocker gliding smoothly in circles around her, eyes closed.
"How did you do that?" Kate asked enviously.
Niama's eyes snapped open and the footlocker immediately dropped and burst open, spraying clothes and an assortment of other things across the room.
"Practice," she said cheerfully, "now help me pick this stuff up, I'm too lazy to do it all myself."
Kate obliged.
"Sooo, how was your first day? Master Dekka run you ragged?"
"Nah, it wasn't so bad. He taught me the Jedi code, and, well, tried to teach me how to levitate stuff. I think the pebble moved a little… or maybe I breathed too hard."
Niama laughed, tossed a brown tunic into her locker without folding it, and said, "Don't worry, it took me ages, and Master Grint started me with a blade of grass."
Smiling, and feeling slightly better, Kate retrieved a stone on a letter thong from the corner.
"What's this?" she asked, fingering the intricate design: two lines twining around each other in a spiral. "It's beautiful."
For the first time, Niama looked a little sad as she took the pendant, carefully wrapping it in a soft cloth, and placed it gently in the corner of the footlocker.
"It's all I have left of my mother. I don't remember either of my parents. Master Cathir said they died when I was five, some plague or something." Then her face brightened, "But I have the academy now. Everyone is so nice, you'll love it here. Besides, it's not like anyone else has a family anymore either."
Kate stopped in the middle of refolding a wrinkled tunic. "What? I have family, my mother and Gam, my little brother, are still on Carun!"
"Well, yeah, but you can't see them."
"Obviously, but when I become a Jedi, I'll go visit them."
Niama looked uneasy. "No, you won't. The Jedi don't encourage it; it forms bonds and emotional ties. 'There is no emotion; there is peace,' that stuff. Didn't Master Dekka tell you that?"
"No. No, he didn't."
"Oh. Oh well, you can ask him later, right? Let's go eat, I'm starved."
A little more than slightly deterred by this fact, Kate followed Niama across the courtyard and into a large hall, full of people, ranging from five to sixteen years old, all eating what appeared to be some sort of fruit mixture. Niama grabbed a wooden plate and filled it with fruit, indicating that Kate should do the same. After shoving a chunk of bread in her mouth, she headed back out to the open courtyard and plunked down under a tree.
Swallowing the large hunk of food in her mouth with difficulty, Niama explained, "There are way too many people in there, I can't hear myself think. Besides, it's been so nice out here lately, with the trees blooming and all."
Kate picked at the food a little, no longer hungry.
"Come on, eat it, it's good," she said encouragingly taking another huge bite. Kate remained silent. Trying to taker her mind off of family matters, Niama said, "What's the Jedi code?"
Unfortunately it came out sunding something like, "Waf dejay co?"
She swallowed, grinning, and repeated herself. "Master Dekka will probably drill you on it tomorrow.
Kate sighed heavily.
"There is no emotion; there is peace.
There is no ignorance; there is wisdom.
There is no passion; there is serenity.
There is no death; there is the force."
Niama frowned. " 'There is no ignorance; there is wisdom?' No, it's 'There is no ignorance; there is knowledge.' "
"Oh, don't nitpick, it was close enough."
She shook her head. "Not for Master Dekka, he's a stickler. All of them are, when it comes to the Jedi Code, at least. I swear some of them recite it in their sleep." She made fake snoring sounds, in between mumbling garbled bits of the code, rolling around on the grass and twitching a bit.
Kate burst out laughing, startling what looked like a Mynoc perched in a nearby tree that flew away and sent a shower of petals down on them. Mission Cheer-Up-Sour-Rancor completed, Niama returned to her food, extracting a flower petal before devouring the remainder. Kate, still laughing, pushed half her fruit onto Niama's plate and they finished eating, enjoying the feel of the setting twin suns on their backs.