Chapter 9
Eriana walked aimlessly around the corridors of the Jedi Academy while Jacen filled Jaina in on some of the finer details of their five year journey. Rather than wearing her usual garments which made her look more like a smuggler or pirate, she wore a simple Jedi robe of traditional Corellian Jedi design to try blending in with the Jedi around her. She always had a fondness for Corellia, and suspected she was from there. Her origins were unknown to her as she was taken from her home by the Jensaarai soon after she was born. Gone were the days when she wore her Jensaarai armour on a daily basis, adopting more practical attire for her training as a Jedi. The only time she now wore her armour based on a bha'lir was in battle. It was not out of hate for the armour or scorn for the Jensaarai that she rarely wore it anymore, she simply thought herself as less of a Jensaarai now. What she was, she did not quite know. Jacen considered himself a Jedi even after his unique learnings in the Force, so she did likewise.
However, as she walked among the students of the Jedi Order through the outdoor hallways connecting various buildings with arched covers, she felt more like a Jensaarai. These Jedi were nothing like the one she had become, the one Jacen and his Masters had trained her to become. They were so…clueless.
When she trained as a Jensaarai, from a young age she learned how to focus herself. To train herself to be as close to the pinnacle of human development as she could manage. Physically, mentally, emotionally…she challenged herself until she could control herself in all aspects from the tender age of eight – a remarkable feat even for a Jensaarai. This did not mean she was a statue of rock-solid emotional control, a droid without feeling. She merely did not lose control of herself easily. The more she trained one aspect of her self, the easier she found it to bring the other parts into alignment. When she looked at these Jedi trainees, they were emotional, ill tempered, or, in some amazing cases, overweight.
She watched as a boy about ten years old and fifty pounds too heavy for his frame throw a temper tantrum about a sugary snack he had dropped on the ground. Then she watched an Apprentice yell herself purple at his inability to control his emotions, causing the boy to wail all that much more.
Oh, the irony, She thought bitterly.
More amazing to her was the male Jedi Knight who walked past them wearing expensive clothing, hand-in-hand with one of the female administrative staff members, oblivious to the rampant display of unJedi-like behaviour.
How did Jacen turn out so normal? Eriana thought to herself. Unsure how to proceed, she used the Force to spin the Jedi Knight around, and held his head staring towards the boy and Apprentice who were trying to out-shout each other. Finally the Jedi Knight approached the two, most likely from embarrassment with his date than out of any desire to help out, and Eriana slipped away unnoticed.
She walked along the pathways aimlessly until she came to the main physical training facilities. Her access card, a temporary Order membership at the rank of Jedi Knight upon Jacen's insistence, granted her access to these facilities. The Jedi had built a large square-kilometre state-of-the-art gymnasium facility with areas for everything from weight training to distance running, obstacle courses and, of course, lightsaber dueling. Eriana did not feel up to any training, but thought she would enjoy watching some training exercises.
She soon found out how wrong she was.
Two groups of Jedi were in the duelling area, an area of semi-soft blue mats with various markings to indicate ten different sparring rings. Of the two groups, one was a large group of students about twelve years old headed by an instructor not five years older than them, and the other was a small group of Jedi about the same age as the larger group's instructor with, judging by the cut of his robes, a Jedi Master teaching them. The technique being taught was one Eriana was familiar with, but looked like the Jedi Master was only half-taught it himself. Eriana recognized one of the older Jedi in the group and approached the training area to watch. Upon seeing Eriana, Nelani smiled and waved, nearly having her arm cut off by her opponent.
"Focus, Apprentice Dinn!" The Jedi Master shouted. "Stay focused on the fight, and do not allow your surroundings to distract you!"
"Is that wise?" Eriana, struck by sudden inspiration, called out as she continued her approach. She knew it was not her place to criticize a Jedi Master, but bad advice was bad advice. She had learned years ago to not perpetuate bad practice as it made for bad results.
"Of course it is!" The Jedi Master spat. "How could you even consider focusing on the enemy who is trying to kill you being a bad thing?"
"Perhaps when there is another enemy trying to kill you?" Eriana asked pointedly, and tapped him on the head with the wooden staff she had levitated behind him. The students giggled at their Jedi Master's embarrassment. "You must live in the moment, but not get caught up in your senses."
Close enough to touch the Jedi Master now; she reached out with her hand. "Eriana Fostenon."
"Jedi Master Kyp Durron," The instructor introduced himself with the arrogance of someone pronouncing himself 'Supreme Ruler of the Universe', and kept his arms crossed so he could not shake her hand. "I know who you are. Why are you interrupting my lesson?"
"For one, the techniques you're teaching these poor students are as technically perfect as a Hutt rolling competition," Eriana turned and watched the students from Kyp's side, seemingly oblivious to his anger. "Two, the lessons are worse than useless. And three, I'm bored."
She watched in silence for another moment, and then cheered up instantly. "Mind if I take over?"
"Yes!" Kyp exclaimed. "Get out of here! This is my class!"
Eriana regarded him carefully for a moment. "Are all Jedi this hospitable?"
"No, just me," Kyp said irritably. "Are you going to leave, or do I have to remove you?"
Nelani, who knew of Eriana's prowess with a blade and her Force powers, stopped to watch. It did not take long for Kyp's entire class to follow suit.
Realizing she could teach a real lesson to an attentive group of students, not to mention an arrogant Jedi Master, Eriana decided to continue winding Kyp up.
"I think I'll stay right here," She responded with a goofy, insanely happy-looking smile. "Oh, look, your students seem to like me. Hi, everyone!" She waved to the students. Some waved back at her dully and others just stared at her with uncertainty.
"I've never had this big a class before," Eriana said with a big smile of false enjoyment. "Makes me feel important. Big warm fuzzy feeling right…"
"This is not your class!" Kyp shouted at her, turning heads from all around the training facility.
"Master Kyp, you have to control your anger," Eriana chided. "People might think you don't like me."
If the purple hue of his face did not indicate his true thoughts about her, the vein throbbing on his neck probably did. However, Eriana chose to ignore both.
"Well everyone, shall we get started?" Eriana said to the class, oblivious to the raging man behind her. "I noticed you're all working on Ataru, the fourth form, but you're all not jumping high enough to get the proper twist you need for this technique. It should be much more acrobatic than…" Her voice trailed off to the sound of Kyp's lightsaber igniting.
"Perfect!" Eriana exclaimed with false happiness. "A volunteer."
Nelani snickered, knowing Eriana really was not that dense. Eriana ignited her own blade and made to demonstrate her lesson.
"Get. Out. Of. Here." Kyp snarled behind clenched teeth.
"Oh, Master Kyp, is something wrong?" Eriana asked with false interest. Kyp responded by lunging into her with a strong overhead attack, but missed her entirely. She jumped clean over his head, flipping her head with her feet, and spun in mid-air to face his back, using the very technique his students were practicing – but she did it properly. The class broke into applause.
Kyp was not amused. He ignored his students and came in with a more calculated attack, feinting high, and striking low. Switching to Makashi, Eriana expertly parried his attack and came back with a pair of counter attacks that struck both arms in a flurry he neither expected nor saw, causing him to drop his lightsaber from the shock of the strikes. Luckily for Kyp, she had engaged the training setting. Kyp now saw a face made of space-cold durasteel staring back at him beyond the tip of the lightsaber blade pointed at his nose, not the goofy-looking imp he had originally taken Eriana as.
"And that," Eriana said with a voice as cold as her stare. "Is how you execute an Ataru single enemy twist-leap properly. Any questions?"
"Who are you?" an awed voice asked, evoking a laugh out of the former Jensaarai as she turned off her lightsaber and returned it to her belt.
"Class dismissed!" Kyp roared once he recovered from the shock. His glare was still on Eriana. The students left the training area, but Nelani waited out of earshot by the door for Eriana.
"Where do I start with you?" Kyp seethed, standing up. "What do I do with you? You are a menace to this entire Order!"
"Well, for starters, I'm not part of this Order," Eriana said calmly. "Nor do I want to be with bantha fodder like you running this place."
Kyp's mouth hung open as if she slapped him. No Jedi Master deserved this. "How…? How dare you speak to a Jedi Master in this manner?"
"Easy," Eriana replied. "You're no Master. You're a child in the robes of a man far greater than you'll ever be, wielding a weapon a trained primate could build and handle better than you. I'm surprised you haven't cut your own head off."
The bulging vein in Kyp's neck was back in action and was joined by one in his forehead, but Eriana did not stop there. She started pacing back and forth in front of Kyp. His every attempt to get away or attack her met with a suppressing restraint in a way he had neither the power nor skill to counter.
"Now, I'm certain your oversized ego is pulsing in anger at being bruised by a lowly Jedi Knight who got kicked out of the Jensaarai, but I'm not done yet," Eriana said. "Oh, no, Master Durron, I'm not letting you get off that easily. You have much to learn about the ways of the Jedi."
Kyp made a motion to speak, but the unexpected strike to his thigh from the hilt of his fallen lightsaber turned his words into an unintelligible grunt and dropped him to his knees.
"Firstly, humility," Eriana started her lesson, orbiting his lightsaber around his chest a metre out of his reach. "Jedi Masters are not arrogant. They are not superior. They are humble beings. They are everyone's servants, not the other way around. Do you understand this concept, humility?"
"That's pretty rich, coming from someone lecturing me," Kyp growled while getting up slowly.
"Someone has to do it, and that Skywalker clown doesn't seem up to it," Eriana replied. "Next, patience…"
Eriana continued for another ten minutes lecturing Kyp on the fundamental basics of Jedi philosophy. From Nelani's vantage point it was a great show. Nearly a foot shorter than Kyp, Eriana made the taller Jedi look more the fool as time progressed even while looking up at him. His every word and his every attempt to get away were thwarted by this miniature tyrant. She even had an audience of Jedi Knights at one point, who were ordered off by Kyle Katarn as he put an end to her show.
"Master Durron, by the Force, what is going on here?" Kyle demanded.
"I was teaching him a lesson," Eriana said first. "But I think we're done here. Maybe we'll continue tomorrow night, Mister Durron?"
"I will rip your…ARG!" Kyp grunted when his lightsaber hilt hit him for the thirtieth time on the exact same spot.
"Anger, young Durron."
"Miss Fostenon, what are you doing?" Kyle asked calmly. His anger was evident, but he controlled it.
At least someone read the Jedi Handbook, Eriana thought. "I am teaching Kyppie here that he is an arrogant bully, and that he should really start to behave like a Jedi. I did hope that another Master would do it, but this entire Order seems blind about their own faults. Not an hour ago I had to literally force a Jedi Knight to stop an Apprentice from screaming herself unconscious at an overweight boy who was crying about candy. Can you even think of a more ridiculous situation at a school for Jedi? And would you care to guess about what he was thinking about when he blatantly ignored this situation? I think it had something to do with his girlfriend's pants! What sort of madhouse is this? What have you so-called Masters been doing while this once-great Order falls apart around itself?"
Both Jedi Masters were at a loss of words, and Eriana knew it. She turned and walked away without another word. Her lesson was complete.
-! #$%^&*()
Three hours later than scheduled, Leia's party finally sat before Los Othrul and Zeeal Antillies to discuss the situation plaguing Velmor and the Republic at a rickety old table in one of the few conference rooms still used in the Velmorian Palace.
"Prime Minister," Leia began, "On behalf of the Galactic Alliance, I wish to say how…"
"Save it, Leia," Los cut her off, dropping all formalities. "We both know you're here to tell us we can't get what we need, so forget about diplomacy and do me a favour: tell Cal Omas that Velmor is leaving the GA."
"Leaving?" Leia exclaimed. "Los, are you sure you want to do this?"
"Sure?" Los asked. "Be honest with yourself, Leia! The GA hasn't done a kriffin' thing for us in five years! I have a dozen financial reports telling me we're better off selling our own people into slavery in the Corporate Sector to buy equipment at ten times its value and starting over on our own. Our people are living in poverty. The government has failed us and can't commit to supporting us. What would you do as a leader?"
Leia sat back and regarded Los for a moment, then nodded. It didn't take a diplomat of forty years to recognize an unmovable wall.
"I will pass on your message. But please tell me one thing; where did the convoy in orbit come from?"
Los snorted a laugh and stood up.
"Get off my planet."