Things were easier after they had finished eating. Obi-Wan seized gratefully on the chance to clear the table and wash up, leaving out the teapots and the plate of pepper cakes for his Master and Knight Morai, who were arguing over whose fault it had been when they'd blown up a spaceport on Alteri VII. He listened to them from the kitchen, wondering which of them was right. Maybe he could get Master Yoda to tell him.
Obi-Wan finished the dishes and dried his hands, then went back into the common area, picking up his datapads to go back to the philosophy reading he hadn't finished before tea. He paused for a moment, wondering whether he should go into his own room, or if he would be able to concentrate enough if he sat on the couch while Master Jinn and Knight Morai were talking. He finally decided ruefully that he was almost certain to find their conversation more interesting than his readings on serenity, and wouldn't get anything done if he stayed within earshot. He was halfway to his room when his Master called after him.
"Obi-Wan, where are you going?"
"I was going to study, Master, since I didn't finish my philosophy earlier."
"You've got a week to finish it, Padawan," he said. "I think you may safely be excused from your studies for the evening. We would enjoy your company."
Obi-Wan wasn't so sure about that, but he tried not to let his doubts show in his tone. "Thank you, Master," he said. Master Jinn smiled at him, filling his teacup a final time before taking it over to his favorite chair. Knight Morai took her own cup, and the plate of pepper cakes. They were more than half gone, and Obi-Wan couldn't help feeling a bit smug. Apparently he wasn't a dismal failure in all ways.
Knight Morai sat on the edge of the couch closest to Master Jinn's chair, perching her dishes on the table beside it and tucking her feet up under her. She didn't seem to be worried about marking the upholstery with her boots. Obi-Wan hesitated in the doorway. He didn't particularly want to sit with Knight Morai, but the only other chair was clear on the other side of the room. If he sat there it would be obvious what he was doing, and his Master would be unhappy with him.
"Obi-Wan?"
"Master, would it be all right if I..." he paused, thinking frantically. "...worked on my puzzle while we talk?"
"Of course, Obi-Wan." His Master smiled, and Obi-Wan ducked into his room. The puzzle in question was actually meant as a training exercise, as it couldn't be solved without judicious and delicate use of the Force, but Obi-Wan enjoyed the challenge. At least this way he could get some productive work done instead of wasting an evening trying to be sociable. He picked it up from his small desk and carried it into the common room, where he sat on the floor at his Master's feet, resting his back against his chair, and set the puzzle down in front of him. It always took him a little while to get back into the flow of it after he'd left off, and he turned his senses to the intricate bit of latticework that he'd been working on last time, his Master's resumed conversation with Knight Morai a relaxing murmur in the background.
Some minutes later he found the flaw in the pattern, and a small twist in the Force had the section snapping into place. The puzzle glowed blue for a moment, and Obi-Wan lifted his head, easing the tightness in his shoulders from concentrating. Master Jinn and Knight Morai were discussing the seminar in unarmed combat that Master Rilkatha was going to be teaching soon.
"I had thought of signing up," Knight Morai said, "but I don't know that I'll be in-Temple long enough to complete it."
Master Jinn shook his head. "I don't think it would be worth your while, Bellan," he said. "Rilkatha's a good instructor, but he's doing very basic techniques and very little in the way of tactics. Not like Master i'Purna."
"Nobody's like Master i'Purna," Knight Morai said, smiling a little sadly. "He was a truly unique being."
"I remember when you had your first unarmed combat tutorial," Master Jinn said. "You were fresh from the Initiate dorms and still thought that the proper answer to every question was 'because the Force is with us.'"
"Well, it was the proper answer in the Initiate classes," she said. "That was what you were expected to say to everything. Why is a Jedi never truly unarmed? Because the Force is with us. Why does a Jedi meditate? To be in tune with the Force, which is always with us. I think once I'd been doing my philosophy homework and I told one of the supervising Knights that I'd left my boots in the middle of the floor because the Force was with me." She eyed the plate of pepper cakes at her elbow as though considering whether to eat another one. "I did a lot of washing floors and assisting the cafeteria staff when I was an Initiate."
Obi-Wan hid a smile, picturing a very small Knight Morai peeling tubers in the kitchen.
"Anyway," she continued, "I soon learned not to try the standard answers with my Master. He had a decidedly twisty brain."
"He did, at that," Master Jinn agreed. "I can't count the number of times I've recalled his advice in the field."
"The first law of unarmed combat is 'find something to use as a weapon,'" Knight Morai said. "The first law of armed combat is--"
"Disarm your opponent as quickly as possible!" Master Jinn finished the sentence with her.
It sounded sensible enough to Obi-Wan. He knew that Master i'Purna and Master Jinn had trained Knight Morai together, when his Master was only a young Knight, but he'd never heard very much about the older Jedi, only that he had been a master of strategy and had died before his Padawan was Knighted, leaving Qui-Gon Jinn to finish her training.
"What if you can't find anything near you to use as a weapon?" he asked, forgetting that he had intended to just sit quietly while the others talked.
Knight Morai laughed. "There's always something to use as a weapon," she said. "A rock, a table, a branch, a patch of sand, an unattended sandwich--"
"You can't fight with a sandwich!" Obi-Wan said, then stopped short, horrified at his outburst.
"That's the same reaction I had," she said, grinning at him over her teacup. "Master made me write an essay about ways that a sandwich could be my ally in battle."
Obi-Wan thought about it, his curiosity overpowering the voice in the back of his head that was telling him to be quiet and try not to attract her attention. "I suppose you could take it apart and use the spread to make the floor slippery," he said, "so that your opponent would lose his footing."
She nodded. "And if you're fighting a Bothan," she said, "nearly all of them have a violent allergy to cheese."
"Have you ever actually had to fight with a sandwich?" he asked. If it was a hot sandwich, perhaps you could throw the filling in your opponent's face.
"No," she admitted, "but once at a state dinner I thwarted an assassination attempt with a tureen of vegetable soup."
Master Jinn groaned. "Don't remind me," he said. "I spent the next week apologizing to the Premier for the humiliation of having to appear in public with celery in his beard."
Obi-Wan had to laugh a little at the mental image. He imagined the Premier, who in his head looked very like Crèche Master Ltlan, sputtering and wet, steaming faintly while his Master tried to explain the actions of his apprentice. Or had she even been his apprentice then? For all the stories that he'd heard about Knight Morai, nobody had ever quite explained to him how she came to be apprenticed to two Masters at once. He watched her narrowly; she seemed to be in a good enough mood, and had eaten most of the pepper cakes. He decided to risk it. "Knight Morai?" he said, "may I ask you a question?"
"Of course, Padawan Kenobi," she said.
"How was it that you came to have two Masters at the same time? I didn't think that was allowed."
She looked surprised. "Qui-Gon, you haven't told him that story yet?"
His Master blinked. "I suppose I haven't. It must not have ever come up before."
She rolled her eyes. "He can remember the complete order of succession for sixty-four star systems, but when it comes to anything practical he's nearly useless," she said. "It was really very simple, Obi-Wan. Master i'Purna felt that it was the Will of the Force that he take me as a Padawan, but he was very old and was concerned he wouldn't be able to complete my training."
"He told me once that he saw her in the cafeteria, sneaking her jikquall beans onto the plates of the children on either side of her, and he knew that he was destined to train her," Master Jinn said. "He was so taken aback by the revelation that Master Yoda stole all his cookies when he wasn't paying attention."
"So he went to the Council," Knight Morai continued, "and they agreed that the Force wanted him to teach me, but he wasn't exactly up to heavy field work or hours and hours of physical training anymore. They went round and round for hours, trying to work out how it could be done, when Master Yoda spoke up and told him flat-out that what he needed was an assistant."
"Me," said Master Jinn. "I was a very young Knight and I wanted to do some intensive training in undercover field work and covert operations, and Master i'Purna was the greatest living expert in those areas. My Master informed me that I would get my training, and in exchange I would be helping Master i'Purna with those aspects of his new Padawan's training that he was unable to do himself."
"I did a lot of my field work with Qui-Gon, especially the more physically taxing assignments," Knight Morai said. "And he did most of my combat training, especially as I got older. My Master rejoined the Force when I was a Senior Padawan, and Qui-Gon petitioned the Council to complete my apprenticeship himself, and that's what happened."
"It was an unconventional arrangement," Master Jinn said, "but I think it worked well, on the whole." He smiled at them both, obviously happy that they were talking.
Knight Morai nodded. "I'm only sorry that Master i'Purna wasn't there to see me Knighted," she said. "I had wanted to give him my braid."
"But you gave it to Master Jinn?" Obi-Wan had seen it, hanging in a display case in his Master's office.
"I cut it in half," she said. "I gave half to Qui-Gon, and then we burned the other half on the pyre."
They were silent for a moment. Obi-Wan tried to imagine being Knighted without his Master there to see it, and felt an unpleasant chill in his stomach. Suddenly, he felt much more charitable towards Knight Morai.
Bellan sighed a little, remembering. Qui-Gon was very dear to her and always would be, but no Master could ever fully replace the one who had Chosen her to be his Padawan. She had known from the beginning that he would probably be rejoining the Force during her apprenticeship; he had explained it to her before they had bonded, giving her the opportunity to stay in the crèche if she liked, in hopes of finding a younger Master. She had refused flatly to even consider doing that, though. For whatever time was given them, she knew that he was meant to be her teacher.
She looked at the way Obi-Wan sat at Qui-Gon's feet, leaning happily against his leg. His puzzle glowed blue as he solved another section, and Qui-Gon ruffled his hair absently, sipping his tea. They looked right together, now that she was willing to let herself see it. She was a little disturbed at how far she'd let herself be pushed by her emotions that morning. Obviously she was spending too little time in meditation lately.
"I've been thinking, Bellan," Qui-Gon said. "Do you remember that training exercise that Master i'Purna used to have us do, with the Force-orbs and the Initiate gardens?"
"I could hardly forget it," she said. "I think I spent most of that cycle picking gravel out of my knees."
"Yoda has been after me to do another practical next rotation," he said. "I'd been thinking of adapting that exercise for a group instead of a pair..."
They talked for a while, discussing training methods and exercises. Obi-Wan was quiet, again, but obviously paying attention, his work on the puzzle slowing. Finally, Obi-Wan yawned widely and turned a little pink when Qui-Gon looked down at him.
"Sorry, Master," he said.
She glanced at the chron and was surprised by how late it was. "Skies, Qui-Gon, let the boy go to bed," she said. " You're such a slave driver, I'm sure he's got a full day of classes tomorrow and a tutorial."
Obi-Wan drew himself up stiffly, frowning, and she cursed inwardly. She'd forgotten how sensitive he was to any perceived slight of his Master.
"I'll be fine, Master," he said. "I did sleep before tea."
Qui-Gon rested a hand on his shoulder. "That's all right, Obi-Wan. Bellan's right, I should apologize for keeping you up so late. Go in and sleep."
"Thank you, Master," Obi-Wan said. "Goodnight. Knight Morai." He bowed to her formally as he got to his feet, and went into his bedroom, closing the door behind him.
She was going to have to go to a higher authority with this. Tomorrow, she'd pick up a berry cake and drop by Master Yoda's quarters.