When Raven came to join Eeth for their morning meditation, she found Eeth looking at his comlink, frowning.
"The Council is asking me to meet the Mahauan Ambassador at the Republican Embassy if at all possible," he said. "I am not particularly thrilled at the idea of leaving it up to you to look after Jas, but judging from what I learned at the Council session I attended remotely the day before yesterday, it is probably wise for me to go. Do you think you will manage to guide Jas through her routine?"
Raven raised her eyebrows, not having expected this. "Yes, master, of course. Is there anything I need to know about Jas that I don't already?"
Eeth thought for a moment and then shook his head. "No," he said. "She is hardly a toddler. She should help with meal preparation and household chores, as always. I assume I will be back before dinner time. I might pick up some groceries along the way."
No, Raven agreed silently, Jas was not a toddler but sometimes she acted like one. Keeping this thought to herself, she inclined her head. "You might want to leave before she gets up, save yourself from her whining about being left with me," Raven suggested, a slight smile on her face.
"She had better not whine too loudly," said Eeth, somewhat sternly. "Besides, I still have three hours left until I have to be at the embassy. We will do our morning meditation now, as planned. Then I will call a taxi to leave after breakfast."
Raven hoped for Jas' sake she wouldn't complain too much.
It was at that moment that Jas padded from her bed, clad in underpants and a singlet and scrubbing her eyes. "What's for breakfast?" she asked, but she sensed that something was off.
"Good morning," said Eeth, giving her a brief smile. "Come and join us for our morning meditation. After that, we can prepare breakfast together. When we have eaten, I will have to leave you with Raven for a while. I have a meeting to attend."
"What meeting and where?" Jas asked, sitting opposite. She wasn't comfortable being left alone with Raven. Sure, the senior padawan had been nice to her, but she was a peer, not a superior, and taking orders from Raven did not sit right with her.
"With the Mahauan Ambassador, at the Republican Embassy," said Eeth. "I would not be doing it if it was not important. Now link with me and focus."
Jas frowned but tried to do as bade. It was hard, since all she could think about was that there would be yet one more change in her routine.
When Eeth signalled that the meditation was over, he and Raven rose to make breakfast. Jas remained seated, though. She wasn't sure what to make of this. Eeth had not left her yet and this would be a first. Then again, perhaps time with Raven would afford her more leeway; surely, the senior apprentice would not push her as hard as Eeth did, she assumed…
After breakfast, Eeth gave Jas instructions regarding the lessons he expected her to work on. "This should take you until a little before lunchtime," he said. "Help Raven prepare lunch. After that, the two of you should have a workout. No aerials, please. Both of you will be free for the rest of the day."
That day went smoothly. Of course, Jas uttered the occasional gripe over having to take orders from a padawan but that was the extent of it. She didn't like that a human padawan peer had rights over her. Then again, it was not as if she had any other options than doing her work. It was nothing more than Eeth expected from her.
By mid-afternoon, Raven and Jas finished a heated lightsaber duel, and this time, Jas had not used any forbidden moves. "Well done," Raven praised her, patting Jas' shoulder as the girl caught her breath. "Go take a shower."
Jas shook her head, but it wasn't in a defiant way. "I want air," she said and then thought to phrase this request more politely. "I'd like to stay out longer and walk, please." This was as pleasant as Jas had been to Raven so far, and the senior padawan saw no harm in allowing it.
"You know the rules. Stay within sight of the cabin. I expect you back in the yard and ready to shower in twenty minutes," said Raven.
Jas just rolled her eyes but added a nod when Raven looked as if she were about to revoke her permission.
Given that she couldn't think of much trouble Jas could get into while walking around in the vicinity of the cabin, Raven felt safe taking a shower. She would have preferred a swim, but leaving Jas unsupervised for that long would be supremely negligent. Thus, she quickly stripped, tossed her things on her bed, crossed the yard to enter the shower stall and slid into the cool stream of water. It was bliss.
Meanwhile, Jas had caught her breath. She heard the shower start, and an idea occurred to her. It was a long shot, but one she had thought a lot about since their trip to the jungle and worth exploiting while Eeth was not around. She slid into the cabin and noticed Raven's crumbled clothing on her bed, ready for the wash basket. As she had done when they had left her by the side of the pond, Jas fumbled through Raven's discarded clothing until she found the lightsaber buried underneath. It was very well hidden, and if Jas had not known what to look for, thanks to their jungle excursion, she never would have found it.
There was only one problem with this: If Jas wanted to try it, she had to keep Raven out of the way. Thus, she snatched up Raven's saber, crept into the yard, pulled the multi-tool from her belt and screwed the door lock of the shower stall shut from the outside. This was easy to do with this sort of primitive locking mechanism; all you needed was a screwdriver and voilà! With Raven contained and none the wiser, Jas took off for the jungle.
What Jas did not know was that Raven felt the crystals in her lightsaber ignite the moment Jas activated the saber. She turned the water off and sprang from the shower, only to find the door locked. Cursing, Raven wrapped a towel around herself and struggled with the locked window. In the end, she was forced to break it with a stone soap holder, knowing that this would cost them. She carefully clambered out the window, making sure not to cut herself, and headed directly for where she sensed her lightsaber. Her heart froze with fear as she saw Jas slashing at some vines. Granted, her technique was not bad, but nor did she have the skill to properly control a real saber, which became abundantly clear when at the next slash, the saber bounced back from a particularly thick branch and grazed Jas' leg.
Raven had her hand around Jas' wrist in a heartbeat and immediately disignited the weapon before the girl could do herself any damage.
"What were you thinking?" Raven demanded to know in a tone that actually had Jas shrink back, if only briefly.
"I can do it as well as you can," she said boldly.
Raven didn't dignify that with a response. Instead, she shoved her weapon under her arm, hefted her towel to better cover herself and dragged Jas back to their cottage.
"Hey, I can walk!" Jas protested, but got no response from Raven who simply continued hauling her back through their yard by an arm and only pausing to unlock the front door.
"Are you hurt?" Raven asked, sitting the girl on her bunk and starting to check her over.
Jas looked down at her scorched trouser leg and said nothing.
Raven pulled up Jas's pant leg, noticing a slight burn. It was not going to kill the kid but nor was she happy about it. "I'll do some healing, and then you can explain to…" Raven was about to say "me," but she was cut short when Eeth entered their cabin and she stood to face him.
"What happened?" Eeth inquired, crossing the cabin in fast strides and kneeling next to the bunk to examine Jas' leg.
Raven looked at Jas with an accusatory expression waiting for her to reply, but Jas averted her gaze.
"I hadn't taken you for a coward," Raven said, knowing this would typically pique Jas's ire, yet still Jas remained tight-lipped. This made it quite obvious to Eeth that she had a reason to want to hide the cause of her injury. He glanced at Raven, who was still naked, had shampoo in her hair and a towel wrapped around her, and back towards Jas who did not give the impression as if she was going to start talking unless coerced. Unfortunately for Jas, that would not get her very far with Eeth.
"Padawan, go, finish your shower and get dressed," he said, having finished assessing Jas' injury and rising from his kneeling position. "I will take off my boots, wash my hands and heal Jas' wound. You, initiate, have exactly one minute to decide whether you will tell me what happened, completely and truthfully, or whether you want to take a paddling and then tell me what happened. These are the only two options you have."
Those were not very good options! Jas thought. She watched as Raven gave Eeth her lightsaber and stormed back to the shower, taking her utility knife with her so she could get back into the locked door. Well, at least she wouldn't have to climb through a broken window this time.
Jas didn't move, she just sat on the couch watching Eeth go about washing his hands in silence. When he returned, she didn't look at him, but she did start talking because the last thing she wanted was to make this worse on herself. "I'll tell you but you're not going to like it," she said, having absolutely no idea how much she sounded like Raven at that age.
"I would like it even less if I had to drag it out of you," said Eeth, kneeling next to her and resting a hand on her leg. "Nor do I appreciate being kept waiting."
Jas honestly didn't know where to start, and for once, she looked more than a little apprehensive. Deciding that the band-aid approach was the best, Jas raised her chin but the act hardly came across as defiant; she was simply mustering the courage to admit to something that was quite an spectacular misdeed, as far as the Jedi Order was concerned.
"When we were in the jungle that day, I found your lightsabers," she began. "I wanted to try them out but I'm not stupid enough to try that with you close by. I was curious, though, very curious. I watched how you and Raven cut through the lianas and I wanted to do the same. I knew I could do it yet I also knew there was no way in Hoth you'd ever think I would be able to." Jas paused, gritting her teeth. "Today," she finally continued reluctantly, "when Raven was in the shower, I went into the cabin, saw her clothing and, knowing how you both hide your weapons, I found hers easily. So… I took it, locked Raven in the shower and ran into the Jungle to test it out." Jas stopped there. Yes, there were more details, but Force be damned, she had already sealed her fate with this much.
It was hard to render Eeth speechless but Jas had managed, if even for a moment. This was a level of audaciousness he had not seen coming.
"You locked Raven into the shower to try her lightsaber," he finally said, once he had processed the story, causing Jas to cringe. "And you hurt your leg, how, exactly?"
Jas looked at him seriously. "I was cutting through lianas," she said. "Deftly! I had full control but then I hit one that was a bit thicker than I thought and the lightsaber kind of bounced back. I can't explain how." And Jas really didn't know how that had happened.
"If the saber 'kind of bounced back' and you cannot explain how, then you did not have full control," said Eeth grimly. He focused on finishing healing Jas' burn for a moment. Then he rose in one smooth motion. "This is the precise reason for which I told you, in no unclear terms, that real sabers are off-limits to you," he said. "And you knew they were, else you would not have locked my padawan in the shower. This is a level of willful disobedience that I am not prepared to tolerate. When I give you instructions, I mean them and expect you to heed them. In contrast to you, I am concerned about your safety. And I think what happened to your leg rather proves my point."
Jas frowned, ignoring the part about having locked Raven in the shower. "What happened to my leg was a freak accident. It could happen to anyone and it doesn't mean I didn't have control. I was managing everything else fine." She pulled down her trouser leg curtly because at this point, Jas really didn't want to go where she thought this was leading, even if she was grateful for the healing.
Eeth grabbed Jas by the ear, causing her to grunt, pulled her up, tucked her under his left arm and swatted her bottom with his right hard, several times.
"Lose the attitude," he snapped without releasing his hold on her. "When I tell you that you compromised your safety, you will trust my better judgement, rather than talk back to me. Is that quite clearly understood?" Jas had crossed several lines today and Eeth thought it better to leave no room for doubt over that fact.
Jas gritted her teeth. The swats hurt a lot, yet she also knew where this would go if she persisted: Eeth would smack the defiance clean out of her and then Jas would have to endure punishment for her deed with an even sorer ass. Given that she wasn't stupid, the initiate grunted out a curt, "Yes, understood," her fingers gripping his pant leg.
Eeth let go of her. "I will make sure that this is a lesson you will not soon forget," he said, "You disobeyed me, took Raven's saber without her knowledge or consent, locked her in a shower to prevent her from taking it back, and endangered yourself in the process. Now, I will tell you what is going to happen." Jas was actually cringing at this point, despite a valiant effort not to.
"You will most likely not be happy with your punishment," Eeth continued, "but it is the result of your own decisions and as such, I will not tolerate any complaints about it. For your disobedience, you will receive a caning, here and now. For your recklessness, you will receive a paddling tomorrow night after dinner, and it will be with the black paddle with the holes. For locking Raven into the shower, you will receive a third spanking the day after tomorrow. Which implement I will use for that one will depend entirely on your cooperation and your attitude during the next two days. After each punishment, you will meditate for an hour on the reason for which you received it, and after that, you will write one hundred lines that I will set you. If you give me the slightest bit of attitude over all this, I will not hesitate to add a fourth spanking. You will talk to both Raven and me respectfully or not at all."
As Eeth spoke Jas' eyes grew wider and wider, her eyebrows rose and she did not blink once. The words registered despite the fact that she was in shock at hearing his decree. The black paddle was horrible, but nothing was as bad as that cane. She couldn't bear it, not again, not now! Both hands went to her backside and her gaze lowered. Jas didn't state her thoughts, though, which were along the lines of "Are you fucking crazy!" Instead, she did something she rarely did: she started sniffling.
Eeth's gaze searched Jas' face for a long moment. Then he lifted her chin with a gentle finger so that she was forced, teary-eyed and all, to look at him.
"You might have thought of this before you decided to misbehave blatantly," he said quietly. "All that is left for you to do, at this point, is to learn from this. Which is my only intention. I do not enjoy causing you pain, but I would enjoy it even less if your attitude and your egotism cost you your future within the Order. Or, worse, your leg. That is why I am being so harsh with you. I gave you the chance to learn this lesson before, after you performed that aerial, but you did not take it. Maybe this time you will."
He withdrew his finger and ordered in a much firmer voice, "Fetch me the cane. It is on top of the shelf next to my bed. You will have no trouble finding it there."
Jas wanted to plead that she had learned, that she'd only forgotten the rules, yet that wasn't true. The truth was that Jas had simply wanted to have her own way. She had wanted to try out Raven's lightsaber and had hoped that she wouldn't be caught before it could be replaced and all culpability could be reasonably denied.
Well, that hadn't happened and now she had to somehow deal with that. Her eyes filled with more tears as Eeth ordered her to get the cane. That was worse than having to take down her own trousers and bend over. Now she had to go get the thing for him, too! Without a word, she ran for the shelf by his bed, took down the cane and marched back to him. Jas was not typically afraid. She was now, however. And rightly so.
When Eeth was through with her, Jas was a hot mess. Jas' eyes were puffy, she was walking stiffly and sobbing hard. As she opened the door to escape from the cabin and ran right into Raven.
This time Raven felt little sympathy. Jas had made her look negligent to her master, not to mention the fact that the initiate could have seriously hurt herself. Still, when she saw the state of the kid, she felt compelled to say something of comfort, namely, "You'll live." It was the best Raven could come up with, given how annoyed she was with the girl.
Jas just ignored her and continued to limp out towards the beach where she most liked to sit. Not that sitting was an option now. But Eeth had granted her half an hour to herself and she wanted to spend it as far away from him as she could get away with.
Eeth, in the meanwhile, went to put the cane away. He was just pouring himself a glass of water when Raven entered.
"Padawan," he said, giving her a brief and somewhat weary smile.
Raven knew that look; Eeth had a hard job here and it was wearing on him even if he wouldn't admit it.
"Master," she replied. "Are you okay?"
"I am," Eeth replied. "Jas, of course, is not. I gave her time to compose herself, after which she will have to meditate. And later she will write lines. She will receive more punishment tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, too. I know that I am being quite harsh, but I think she needs to see sense once and for all. She burnt her leg handling your saber. It could have easily been worse."
Raven lowered her head and sighed. Her guilt was now palpable; she was feeling responsible for Jas' predicament. "I know," she said, "and I'm sorry I wasn't more careful. I knew Jas was running around unsupervised. I should have kept my saber with me."
Eeth gave her a scrutinising look. "Do you really think you should have taken your saber into the shower stall?" he asked. "Everything gets wet in there."
"Then I should have gone with my initial instinct and made her go first, instead of indulging her whim to take a walk. She's hardly proved trustworthy. It's like what happened with Conrad." Raven didn't need to remind Eeth about the mission to Gelisia where young Conrad had gotten hold of her lightsaber because she had left it unattended while bathing. She sure as heck remembered the guilt she had felt over that. Eeth had not punished her then, and she doubted he would now, but she was old and wise enough to know that she had fucked up, even if that fuck up wasn't entirely her fault.
"And if you had made her go first and gone second, how would that have prevented her from doing what she did?" asked Eeth.
"I would have set her to doing tasks, homework, duties. I would have monitored that," said Raven. "I should have."
She stood tall and, without giving Eeth a chance to respond, and met his eye. "I'll accept any correction you deem necessary," she said. Raven could not remember the last time Eeth had had cause to do more than scold her, let alone physically punish her, which had her lower her gaze to the floor.
Eeth thought for a moment about how to proceed, his penetrating gaze not leaving her face.
"Do you think you deserve it?" he finally asked.
"Do you?" Raven countered, meeting his eye again.
"Padawan," said Eeth sternly. "You do not get to answer a question I am asking with a counterquestion. You are a grown-up and approaching knighthood. You need to learn to trust your own judgement. And therefore I want you to tell me whether you think you deserve correction."
Raven was silent for a long time. She was not accustomed to proclaiming her own punishment; this was new territory. "This isn't up to me, it never has been!" she complained. "How am I meant to answer that?"
"Obviously, I will not leave the decision up to you," said Eeth, "but I want to hear your honest opinion."
"I put Jas in danger, she's hurt herself and I feel guilty over that," said Raven. "Do I feel I deserve punishment for my actions? Probably not. I'm twenty-one years old. I just should have known better." Raven was becoming agitated.
"You did not put Jas in danger," said Eeth. "She did that to herself. You went to take a shower. You did not leave your weapon lying around openly, Jas went looking for it. I really do not think you could have anticipated her stealing your weapon and locking you in."
Raven's lip twitched into a slight smile at that last comment because despite her frustration at the kid, she had to admit Jas was rather ingenious.
"Even I did not expect this level of deception on her part, just in order to get what she wants," continued Eeth. "I do hope she learns from this punishment because if she does not, I will be at my wit's end. As for you, stop feeling guilty. You cannot prevent everything. Nor can I, which is why you endangered your own safety more than once, too, because I had been unable to foresee and prevent it."
"I can see your point," Raven said, relaxing a bit. "I'm relieved you don't find me at fault," she confessed. Because at Raven's age, that sort of trivial fuckup would be very embarrassing.
"The punishment you're giving Jas is quite harsh, and for once, I honestly can't say I feel for her. I will, however, talk to her if you think that will help?" she asked.
"I will leave that up to you," replied Eeth. "I neither expect you to nor am I opposed to it. But if you get the impression that Jas wants to be alone, leave her be."
In fact, he had the distinct feeling that Jas was starting to open up, not only towards him but also towards his padawan. A few days ago, he would have been certain that she would reject Raven's offer of sympathy. Now, he still thought it was a possibility, but no more than that.
Meanwhile, Jas lay face down on the grass covering the sand dunes, crying into her forearms. She had pulled her trousers and underwear down to let what little breeze there was cool her ass; it was proving harder than she thought to pull herself together this time.
When Raven approached and sat by her head, Jas ignored her.
Raven, too, ignored Jas for quite a few minutes before sighing and deciding it was her place to be the more mature one here. "C'mon," Raven scolded her mildly, putting a hand on the kids back and giving a gentle rub. "I know it hurts but enough is enough; you've taken your licks and now it's time to move on."
As much as Jas wanted to push the padawan away, she didn't. She allowed the older Jedi to comfort her even if she didn't believe Raven could possibly understand how she felt. Raven must hate her, after all. "And what would you know of it?" Jas said, her head still buried in her arms.
Raven frowned. She had little patience for Jas right now but she was trying. "Eeth is my master. Do you honestly think I have never felt as you feel right now? Surely you are not that conceited."
"No, you haven't. He's harder on me!" the girl shot back, getting to her knees and turning to face her.
"Yes, he is harder on you. You're a Zabrak, your pain tolerance is well above mine, and your skin is thicker. That does not mean you have it worse, it simply means he is adjusting to your needs."
Jas felt a surge of anger well up inside her. She wanted to lash out at the padawan, to unleash all of her frustrations, pain and fear. Her eyes narrowed and her skin began to prickle.
In an instant, Raven had the girl's chin gripped firmly in her hand. "Enough. You don't want to go down this path with me," she said calmly. "Release your anger yourself or ask for help. These are your only two options." And Force, did she sound like Eeth then!
"I. don't. need. your. help!" Jas said for what felt like the millionth time since meeting this padawan.
"I don't care if you need it or not," said Raven. "You're going to accept it, especially after you took my lightsaber. Release your anger or ask for help. Decide or I will decide for you."
"NO!" Jas screamed at the girl. Her façade was truly starting to unravel around her. The stress of the last week, coupled with some seriously difficult self-discoveries and the pain she was in, proved too much. She was going to throw a fit. The air around her went static and her eyes turned coal black. Raven knew the signs. Eeth, too, sensed what was happening but he decided to wait and stay alert. After all, Raven had dealt with Kaden, one far stronger than Jas, and lived to tell the tale.
And indeed, Raven stood without warning, grabbed Jas by her shoulders, put her on her feet, pulled up her trousers and threw the Force equivalent of a bucket of water on the kid.
Jas gasped. Firstly, because Raven was none too gentle when she'd yanked up her trousers, and secondly because she had truly gotten a fright from whatever it was the padawan had done to her through the Force. Her anger abated out of pure shock and she stared at the older Jedi. "What did you do to me?" she demanded to know. Her sense of the Force was still there, but it was somehow muted. It was like listening to music with cotton wool in her ears!
"You need to calm down," Raven just said. "Close your eyes and link with me."
"I won't!"
Raven heaved a sigh and turned her gaze to the cabin, her intent clear: she was going to call for Eeth.
"No! wait, I will, I will," Jas blurted, kneeling once again, Raven had not exactly bothered to adjust her clothing for comfort and the bunched fabric was making the pain worse, if such a thing were conceivable. She closed her eyes and reached out.
The instant Jas obeyed her, Raven released the hold she had over the kid's Force abilities and linked with her. They had done this several times now during meditation so there was a sense of familiarity that made this easier than it would have been otherwise.
Ten minutes later, both Jedi opened their eyes. Raven smiled to find Jas was leaning into her side and put an arm around her. "You're going to be okay. Everything will work out how it is going to work out. You need to stop fighting the Will of the Force and accept it," Raven said gently.
Jas sniffled once but did not move from Raven's side; the padawan felt calm in the Force and her presence, like Eeth's, was soothing. "I don't know how," she admitted, laying her head on the girl's chest.
"Realising that is the first step. The next is to ask for help," said Raven. "Eeth is very good with this sort of thing. I suggest you talk to him."
Jas blew out a sigh. She didn't like accepting help but it was becoming painfully clear, both figuratively and literally, that she needed it to improve. "It will have to wait. He said I have to meditate for an hour, then I have to write lines," the girl admitted, an embarrassed look on her face. "Did he ever make you do that?"
Raven huffed. "Yes, he did, and he might have again if I'd been proven negligent because of you."
Jas actually had the good grace to look guilty at this. "I'm sorry I took your saber. I didn't want you to get into trouble, I just wanted to…"
"You just did what you wanted, without considering the repercussions for yourself or others." Raven interjected.
Jas remained silent, her eyes welling with tears again, and Raven pursed her lips.
"I accept your apology," was all she said, her tone still flat. The two sat on the beach in silence for a while longer until Eeth came up to them and told Jas, "It is time for your meditation now. Remember, the topic is obedience and respect for authority. You may meditate where you like, but I expect you to do your best to focus on the task."
Jas said nothing for a moment. She didn't mind meditation but a whole hour was a long time! She was about to say as much when Raven shoved her and she shelved that complaint. Jas sighed and got to her feet. "Will you meditate with me?" she asked Eeth.
Raven raised a brow at that request but did not comment
Eeth was a little surprised at that request as well – pleasantly so. That Jas was asking for help was a huge step forward. He felt that it ought to be encouraged, even if the meditation he had had in mind for her had been a solitary one.
"If you would like me to," he said calmly. "Where would you like us to meditate?"
"If I say back at the Temple, will you take me home?" Jas asked.
"You will be ready to go home when this stay has made a difference to your attitude," said Eeth. "Not only towards me, but also when I am not around. I know you are an honest person. Think about it. When you truly and honestly feel that you have learned something about the reasons for your troubles and that you are able to change, to fit in better, then tell me and I will seriously consider taking you home. Personally, I think you are making progress, but you are not there yet. Be that as it may: Right now, you will meditate."
Jas nodded once in deference to his words and then made her way to a tree in the yard that she preferred to meditate under. She started to sit, reconsidered and lay on her tummy. The grass here was soft, green and oddly void of spiders and other critters that might crawl into her tunic or up the leg of her trousers. She looked up at Eeth, her chin resting on her hands. "Raven said that I should stop fighting the will of the Force and let what will happen, happen," she said, "but I don't know how to do that. It's hard for me to let others tell me what to do. It's even harder to do what you ask when it's gonna hurt! I don't know how to just accept it without getting mad."
Eeth looked at Jas thoughtfully.
"You know, when we first met, you told me you are good at everything," he said. "And I told you that nobody is good at everything. You have just confessed to me the one thing that is probably hardest for you to do. Many others find it easy to relinquish control, but you do not – just as wielding a saber comes harder to some than to others. In both cases, there is only one thing to do, and that is to practise and to persevere. And the knowledge that refusing to do as you are told will have undesirable consequences will probably help. That is why I am being so harsh with you."
Jas had half expected him to tell her she was being weak, that she ought to pull herself together and start acting like a Zabrak. Why? Because that was exactly what she would have said to anyone who had confessed as much to her. That Eeth had not, set Jas to thinking again. Was she harder on others than she was on herself? Was she judgmental? Again, Eeth's words had started her on a train of thought that would ultimately end in her confronting some truths about herself that she did not like.
Jas did not comment for now, though, and closed her eyes to meditate.
She kept her shields clamped shut for the first ten minutes. However, the longer she lay there, the more Eeth's Force presence drew her to him. He felt like a bright beacon of calm shining over the plethora of crap she had pent up, not to mention the fact that focusing on obedience and respecting the authority of her superiors was difficult to maintain for the ten-year-old, especially so while she could feel both her hearts beating in her backside; it was really starting to throb now.
Forty minutes passed by before Jas reached out to Eeth, her shields coming down in clipped, jagged increments. She couldn't keep her focus; it was too hard, and now it was all threatening to flood out. "Can we stop?" she asked, keeping her eyes shut.
"No," Eeth said. "But I can help you deal with your emotions. And I think that is sorely needed."
"I don't need your help," Jas said reflexively.
Eeth gave her a pointed look. "Do you honestly believe that?" he inquired.
Jas actually squirmed at that look which was very unlike her. Eventually, when Eeth refused to relinquish his gaze, it became so uncomfortably awkward that Jas finally relented. "No," she admitted.
"I thought so," said Eeth drily. He linked with Jas and started channelling her negative emotions, her anger, frustrations and fears into the Force, nudging her to go ahead, cooperate and release them. It didn't take long before Jas started bombarding Eeth with a torrent of her emotions. It was hurting her pride to let him view her feelings so openly like this, and she physically winced at this intrusion that she had invited. Fear was topmost. Then came anger over her inability to deal with it.
The amount of negative emotions that Jas had to face during that meditation was impressive. And yet, she was feeling calm by the time Eeth allowed her to stop. She opened her eyes and met his gaze. "Thanks," Jas said quietly and then looked away, feeling embarrassed.
"You are welcome," Eeth said softly. "It is not easy to open up and let others see what is inside you. I felt much the same when I was your age. But it helps. It really does help. And you, in particular, need to do this a lot more often than you have so far."
"You did?" Jas asked. The idea that Eeth had similar problems to her was comforting in some way; if he had made it, that meant she might just make it, too.
"I did," said Eeth, giving her a small smile.
"I am willing to provide some healing now," he said. "If you could bare your bottom once more?"
Eeth was not a trained healer, but he was fairly proficient at Force-aided healing and there was a lot he could do to a well-punished bottom if he had a mind to. Right now, he did. Jas had been fairly compliant and she had also managed to open up to Raven and him; he wanted to reward that. Besides, there was more punishment in her future. He did not quite take away all of the sting, though, nor could he have if he had wanted to. Jas would be fine, but she would still feel the effects of the caning when she sat. And that, Eeth thought, might just remind her of the reason for which she was writing lines.
"You will write one hundred times 'I will obey my instructions and accept the authority of my superiors'," he said. "Inside or outside, wherever you prefer. In neat handwriting and without dawdling."
He pulled a datapad and stylus out of his robe and handed it to Jas.
Jas' face scrunched. "But that's going to take me forever," she complained, accepting the pad and dropping the stylus.
"It is going to take a while, yes," Eeth replied, unmoved. "And it might be tedious as well. That makes it an effective punishment. It might even make the message sink in. If you do not want to spend your time writing lines, refrain from doing things that will earn you punishment."
He folded his arms across his chest and stood, waiting for her to get started.
Jas picked up the stylus and wiped it clean on her pant leg, a frown on her face at his response. Still, she did not argue and strode towards the wooden bench that she favoured for their classwork. There she sat for a moment, grumbling over the unfairness of having to do this at her age. Eeth took a step towards her, which had her promptly reconsider her attitude and start writing.
Meanwhile, Raven glanced out the window from where she was drying the dishes and could only sigh in sympathy when she saw Jas sitting at the bench leaning over a datapad. Raven hated that particular punishment. In fact, most people would, which was why it was so effective, she imagined.
"Master, must you do that to her?" Raven said when Eeth entered their cabin. She could agree that Jas has been way out of line, yet she felt some sympathy, too.
"Yes," said Eeth coolly.
Raven sighed, knowing it was pointless to argue. She poured a glass of water and handed it to him. "This might not be the mission I had hoped for," she said, "but it is teaching me a lot about how to deal with problematic children. I appreciate that." And Raven did. She was a good enough teacher in her own right, but this experience was broadening her skills considerably. She placed the last dish in the cupboard.
Eeth was pleasantly surprised at hearing his padawan say this. He was still feeling guilty over making her do this when she ought to prepare for her knighting.
"Thank you, padawan," he said. "I am glad you are getting something out of this, even if it is not what I would have chosen for you to do right now. I was going to put in some lightsaber practice now. Would you like to join me while Jas is writing her lines? You do not have to."
"Since when have I let an opportunity to beat you up slip through my fingers?" Raven said playfully. Of course Raven could not best Eeth, but that didn't mean she didn't love trying.
Meanwhile, Jas was bored out of her mind! She wasn't exactly a fidgety personality but she was still ten years old and such a punishment was difficult for her to endure. The girl groaned when half an hour had passed and she only counted forty-two lines. She looked up at the sound of lightsaber combat and sulked; it felt like she was being punished for hours by now! Besides, would Eeth even bother to count the lines? Maybe she could get away with just filling the pages up; and if she wrote bigger, it would look like more. This seemed logical enough to her.
The answer to that line of thought was, of course, that no, she could not get away with it. But she was going to have to find that out for herself.