The next morning, Eeth got up at five, quietly got ready for the day, packed a small bag and ate a few bites of bread, cheese and fruit. He then tiptoed to Raven's bed and rested a hand on her shoulder.
"I am leaving, padawan," he told her through their bond. "The shuttle will be here any moment."
"May the Force be with you, master," she answered across their bond, remaining in bed so as not to risk waking Jas. She really did want to spare Eeth the begging if the girl awoke to find him leaving – and subsequently spare her his displeasure. Both were likely in her opinion. Raven lay there quietly, content to sleep in for a change and smiling at the thought of the comments that hearing of her indulgence would garner from Eeth.
It was around eight thirty when Jas finally stirred and sat up. She looked around and found that Raven appeared to be sleeping. Eeth was gone, and so she threw her legs over the edge of the bed, ready to dash for the door. Jas was desperate for fresh air.
"Go to the toilet, wash your face and hands and back into bed, please," said Raven, who had been in a light meditative trance.
"Do you ever sleep?" said Jas.
"It's been known to happen," Raven replied. She remembered feeling that way on so many occasions. She could swear that Eeth had eyes in the back of his head. It went along with the bullshit detector, which, funnily enough, Raven was beginning to inherit from him.
They ate breakfast on Jas' bed. Raven had made her porridge and let it go lumpy and cold as the initiate preferred. Then they played games until Raven noticed the kid was starting to scratch at her eyes and yawn. "Stop scratching," she scolded, as Jas had been reminded ad nauseam about spreading the infection and making her eyes worse.
"But they itch so badddd!" Jas complained, dropping her arms with a huff.
"I know, but scratching will only make it worse, you know that," said Raven. She stood, took the ointment from the kitchen table and glanced at her watch. "Lie down. I'll put some of this on your eyes, then sleep for a while," she said. "They're probably itching worse because you've had them open for too long."
Jas wanted to argue, but the truth was that her eyes did hurt, and she was tired. Less than five minutes later, Jas was out like a light. Raven threw a blanket over her, pulled the privacy curtain around her bed and packed away the game they'd been playing. So far, Jas had behaved well. There had been a few complaints during the morning and, as expected, several attempts at convincing Raven to let her up, but thus far, threats had been enough to quash those.
"But it's ridiculous! There is no reason I need to stay in bed for this long," Jas complained for the tenth time that afternoon. She had slept on and off most of the day, only waking to play games, eat and use the toilet, but now she was feeling much better and had been pestering Raven to let her up for the last hour.
"You can't think of a single reason?" Raven countered, dumping the armful of clean towels she had just pulled from their line onto the couch.
"I'm not that sick! Look," Jas said, jumping up and down on her knees as if this proved her point. However, it did nothing but make her head ache anew.
Raven was about to order her to be still when the kid stopped of her own accord and clutched at her head briefly. "I'm looking," Raven said, "but I see nothing that changes my mind. Orders are orders, and they are not just mine. Do you honestly want to add disobedience to your list of misdeeds?"
"What list?" Jas looked at the padawan incredulously. "I haven't done anything but be sick. Is that a punishable offence now, too?"
Raven pulled a clean handkerchief from her pocket and handed it to her. The kid's nose had started running from all her bouncing around. "No. Purposefully concealing it from the Jedi master responsible for you, however, is very much a punishable offence."
"Garbage, I didn't try to conceal it," Jas lied, her gaze boring holes into the senior padawan.
"Really? Jas, how often must you be told that lying is an art form? Despite your dreadful effort at lying to me, Eeth knows better than most how your physiology would have responded to the Azura virus." She met the kid's glower with a penetrating glare. "You'd have been feeling bad and progressively worse for at least two days before your body finally succumbed."
Jas looked as though she had just sucked on a lemon.
Raven ran a hand over the girl's hair, checking for any signs of fever and finding none. "I have to get the rest of our washing in, but then we can play a game, alright?" she offered.
"Exploding battleships?" asked Jas, conceding defeat for the time being.
"Yes, if you like."
When Raven returned ten minutes later, her arms loaded with clean clothing, most of which belonged to Jas, she found her sleeping and did not wake her.
Jas slept intermittently throughout the rest of their afternoon, briefly complaining about how she wasn't sick and begging to be let up, only to be met with refusals from Raven, whereupon they either played games or Jas fell asleep again shortly after.
All in all, Raven felt that It hadn't been an ordeal to keep her in bed. That was until shortly before dinnertime when Raven had gone to collect some fresh herbs for her meal. When she returned with an arm full of leafy plants, she was greeted by the sight of Jas diving from the open back door onto her bunk. The bunk slid hard into the wall with her weight, her pillow went off the end, and the audiobook she had fallen asleep listening to earlier was crushed beneath her.
Raven blinked.
"I heard something scary and went to check, is all," the initiate said quickly by way of explanation and swaddled herself in the blanket. The back door closed with an incriminating click. Jas had thought Raven would be gone far longer than five minutes and panicked when, at the last moment, she sensed the padawan mere metres from their cabin's front door. She had just wanted some fresh air and to walk around in the sun for five minutes. Apparently, the Azura virus messed with her ability to access the Force, which was evident in her ungraceful landing.
Raven clicked her tongue but ignored it for the time being. She tossed the herbs into their sink, pulled what was needed to make dinner from their cooler and began preparations. It was unclear at what time Eeth would be back; probably later that evening. Therefore, Raven planned to bake bread and make some soup to go with her salad as this would keep and could be eaten over the next day. When she finished the preparation, she turned to find that Jas had rolled herself up in the blanket and was facing the wall, feigning sleep. Raven sensed that she was not far off sleeping for real. Thus, she picked up Jas' pillow and put it under her head, took the smashed player, whose cord was poking out from under her blanket, and let her rest. Then, wanting to know what the kid had really gotten up to outside, Raven went to check their security cameras.
Two hours later, Jas woke. It was dark outside now, which surprised her. Typically, she had only slept for an hour and then woken, on and off. Jas had a problem here. She didn't want to show that she was awake as it was unclear how much Raven had seen. Then again, she couldn't stay in bed indefinitely! And by now, she needed to use the toilet.
"Go to the toilet, wash your hands and go back to bed," Raven told her. Her tone was slightly clipped and void of its typical warmth, but she was not angry with the kid. Force, if anyone could understand her plight, it was Raven. She also understood intimately why it was important that orders were obeyed, especially those given for one's own safety. And Raven planned to make that clear to Jas; respecting her body's needs and safety was going to be a lesson hard-won for this initiate.
Once Jas was back in bed, Raven came to stand in front of her and asked, "Tell me, what did you hear outside that was so scary it warranted you going outdoors to investigate, in your condition, when you had specific instructions to remain in your bed, not just from me but from my master?"
Jas was hard to intimidate. Her chin was raised, her jaw clenched, and her shoulders squared. Even from where she sat on the bed, she looked defiant, more so as her arms came to fold across her chest. "I don't need to explain myself to you," she claimed.
Unfortunately for Jas, she was about to find out that although Raven was easygoing, she had less patience than her master did. "Okay, we'll do this the hard way, then," Raven said. She went to the kitchen, pulled a sturdy cooking spoon from the drawer and returned to find Jas still seated on her bed, expression impassive. "Stand up, pull down your pants and bend over the bed," Raven ordered.
"You're not allowed to punish me, you're not a master," Jas said. It was half-hearted at best. Jas knew Raven was authorised to do this. She was just being haughty and trying to save her pride.
Again, Raven did not dignify this with a response. Instead, she placed the spoon aside and started pulling off her belt. "Stand up, pull down your pants and bend over the bed," she repeated. When Jas hesitated, Raven warned, "My next order will be to take down your underwear. I wouldn't advise that you escalate this much further."
Given that the kid was prideful but not stupid, she recognised that this was going someplace she would regret, and with an effort, she swallowed her pride and did as instructed. Jas didn't like this, but neither did she think the petite padawan could make this hurt much. Sure enough, the six licks Raven meted out were taken stoically.
"That was for your attitude," Raven said. "Are you willing to answer me now, or should we continue here?"
Jas wanted to say that Raven could go ahead and knock herself out, but the truth was that she knew it eventually would actually start hurting. Raven was probably not yet using her full strength, and she wasn't as weak as Jas had anticipated.
"I heard a noise and went to investigate," Jas said. Again, this was a lie, but she hoped it would be enough to stave off Raven.
Raven tutted. "Even if I did believe that, what do you think you could have achieved if that 'something scary' had turned out to be a real danger to us?" she asked. "Do you honestly think you are in any condition to fight right now? If your landing upon reentry is anything to go by, your ability to use the Force is also affected by your illness."
"I'm a Zabrak," said Jas, her chin coming up despite her precarious position. "I am tough. I can take down anything, even with limits on my Force use."
Raven didn't miss a beat. She put a hand on the girl's back to steady her and landed another six with her belt. This time, they were as hard as she could make them. And that got a grunt in response from Jas.
"Try again," said Raven.
Jas figured that if she didn't tell this padawan what she wanted to hear, they'd be here all day. Thus, she said, "Alright, probably because I'm sick, I'm not as good a fighter as I usually am."
Raven accepted that. "And what should you have done instead?" she prompted.
Jas groaned. "Used my comlink to contact you?"
"Correct again," Raven replied. "Incidentally, I noticed on the security footage that, despite not appearing to be looking for danger or finding any, you wandered around for the entire time I was gone. Why?"
Security footage? Jas felt stupid for not having thought about that! Besides, by now, she was getting annoyed. "Because I was bored, okay!? Is that so hard to understand?"
"No, and believe it or not, you are talking to someone who can really relate to that," said Raven. "Still, like I did when I tried the same thing as a junior padawan, you knew you weren't meant to leave your bunk, let alone go outdoors to investigate some potential danger, which is why you flung yourself back into your bed so fast that you smashed your audio player in the process. Trying to hide disobedience only exacerbates the consequences. That aside, do you know why what you did was wrong?" Raven didn't think she needed to guide the kid through the whys but was willing to do so if need be.
Jas remained silent, her pride smarting, so Raven landed another six with the belt, this time to the backs of her thighs. Jas felt those, and although it wasn't enough to bring her unstuck, she didn't want any more.
"I was meant to stay in bed because I'm sick, and I was ordered to do it because staying in bed is helping me recover faster and getting up does not help me recover!" Jas said reluctantly.
"Correct," Raven placed her belt aside and picked up the cooking spoon again. "Pull down your underwear," she instructed.
"But you've already punished me!" Jas complained, but even as she said it, she was doing as instructed; she wanted this horrendously humiliating ordeal over with, and compliance was the only way to achieve that, she knew.
The padawan didn't comment. When Jas had obeyed, she told her, "That was for your attitude, this is for disobeying me." Raven was able to see a slight darkening of Jas' skin, and a few lines from the edge of her belt, but nothing that would warrant healing for a Zabrak. She popped the kid another twelve times with the spoon, knowing that there was a possibility that once Jas confessed this to Eeth, her punishment for concealing her illness would be improved upon. She dealt the swats out slowly, but each smack was as hard as she could make it, and by the time she was done, Jas was curling her toes and grunting.
"Now, back to bed with you," Raven said, offering no comfort for now.
Jas flung herself onto her side, yanked up her pants, pulled the blanket around herself and sulked.
Raven let her be. She washed the spoon and started making dinner.
An hour later Raven woke Jas for dinner because the girl, despite having meant to sulk through the evening, had fallen asleep almost immediately.
Jas opened her eyes, noting that neither of her eyelids were stuck together for once. Her ass was feeling better, but it still burned. Jas wriggled to a seated position and accepted the tray. She didn't look at Raven.
"Oh come on now, holding a grudge won't help you any," Raven said, sitting next to her and putting an arm about her shoulders in an offer of affection. "We'll meditate together if Eeth is not back before your bedtime. I will also offer healing for your backside if you need it to sleep." Raven doubted she did but was willing to indulge her.
"Okay," the initiate replied, still somewhat sullenly, but she did not fling Raven's arm off as she might have done before.
Raven went to get her own meal and ate with Jas. Then they played games, and, given that Jas' eyes were feeling better, they watched a holo, which Jas fell asleep halfway through.
Eeth had arrived at the Council chamber around nine that morning and took part in meetings, with hardly an interruption, until half past seven. Without missing a beat, he went to the hangar and returned to Borleias. During the trip back, he was busy writing a recommendation that he had promised to send to the Council before the team of negotiators left.
Around ten at night, the shuttle from the spaceport touched down in front of the cabin, and Eeth jumped off. He made his way to the front door and entered quietly.
"Good evening, padawan," he sent through their bond, given that Jas was sleeping. He was rather tired and knew that there was no way Raven would not pick up on that.
Raven stood and gave a small bow in greeting. "There is some bread and soup ready with some hot tea on the table if you feel up to it," she told him across their bond and sat back at the table herself to flick off her datapad. She could tell how tired he was, which was really saying something for Eeth.
Eeth sat down and gratefully accepted the tea. He had had a quick meal on the trip back and was not very hungry.
Jas was fast asleep for now, but Raven was not sure how long it would last. She had let the girl sit up a little later than during the past days until her body had felt it needed to sleep again. Then she had offered healing, which Jas had accepted despite not really needing it. Soon, she had been fast asleep again, and Raven had gently tucked the blankets in around her, dimming the lights.
"I expect Jas will wake again around midnight. Our evening was not all smooth sailing," Raven communicated, gesturing to the smashed screen on the audio reader that was lying on the table. "You're tired. We can talk about it tomorrow if you like?"
"Is it urgent for me to know?" Eeth inquired through their bond. If it was not, he would indeed rather wait until tomorrow. And this only happened when he was rather drained, as he knew his padawan was aware of.
"No, master. She's not in any danger and hasn't relapsed. Get some sleep," Raven replied, meeting his gaze with a sympathetic expression. He did look worn out.
"Thank you, padawan," Eeth conveyed through their bond, smiling at her. He knew he could rely on Raven, and Jas was well beyond the stage where she needed constant supervision. Therefore, he got ready for bed and soon fell asleep.
As Raven had surmised, Jas woke around midnight and went to the toilet. She then loitered by the door for a moment, debating staying outside for a while longer, only to recall what that had earned her the last time she had tried it. Besides, Jas really did want to get better and was not keen on relapsing. As she walked back to her bed, dragging her feet, she noticed an Eeth-sized lump in his bed. The initiate smiled.
Meanwhile, Raven's silent watchman had been following the girl, and she, too, smiled when Jas made the right choice and returned to her bed.
By six in the morning, Eeth awoke, feeling well-rested and his energy reserves restored. Jas and Raven were still asleep. Jas's fever had not returned and she looked much better than the day before yesterday, if still a little pale. Eeth quietly rose, gathered his clothes and left to take a shower. When he was dressed, he collected some fruit from the tree in the yard and returned to the cabin to prepare breakfast.
By the time Raven stirred again, it was to the smell of breakfast. It was almost half past six by now, so she threw her legs over her bunk and quietly went about getting ready for their day. "Master," she greeted Eeth across their bond and offered a slight bow before joining him in the kitchen. "You have this sorted. Do you mind if I go out for a run?" she asked, keen to get out and about after being sedentary for what felt like a very long time to her.
"No, I do not mind at all, but please let me know what went on last night first," Eeth replied in a low voice, beckoning for her to follow him outside for a moment.
Raven followed him, making sure the door clicked shut silently behind them. She rolled her shoulders, tilted her neck from side to side and began an active stretching routine as she spoke. "Jas went outdoors while I was out collecting herbs. Allegedly, she heard some scary noise, which I know was a lie. Then, she tried to hide it from me." Raven went on to explain how she had entered the cabin to find the kid diving onto her bunk, then how she had let her sleep as the trip outside had taxed her. "She slept for a solid two hours after that," the padawan said with a frown, then continued to outline what she had done in response. "I might have hit her too hard," she said. "I'm not sure, but it got her attention and that was what I was looking for." Raven finished with how Jas had sulked, the healing she had provided and then their meditation. She looked up at Eeth, the many times he had called her to task coming to mind. "I think I made the lesson stick. I doubt you'll need to add to it," she said in Jas' defence.
"Padawan," said Eeth pointedly. "You know better than that."
Raven inclined her head despite wishing it was otherwise.
"Jas disobeyed my explicit instructions," Eeth continued, "She needs to know that she will not get away with that. I will check on the state of her bottom and take it into account. You did the right thing."
"I know."
He gave her a brief smile. "Thank you for looking after Jas," he said. "Take a run for as long as you like. Breakfast will be waiting for you."
"Thanks," she said in response to both of Eeth's closing statements and took off.
The sand at this end of the beach was beige and quite coarse. Further towards the more expensive areas, though, it became white, very fine and, as Raven knew, a lot harder to run on. She took her time, pushing herself hard to make the five-kilometre mark in less than twenty minutes; no easy feat when you were sinking deep in sand and not using the Force. When Raven stopped, she was breathing hard and sweating, so she shucked her shirt and sat on it to recover. There were hardly any waves here, thanks to a sandbar, and the water was so clear that one could see the bottom from where she sat.
"The water is nice, isn't it?" came an orotund, heavily accented voice from behind her.
Raven spun to see if the person was speaking to her and was met with a smile. He had to be in his late fifties and had kind, brown eyes. His shortly cropped hair was salt and pepper, and he was clad in white designer shorts that contrasted his darkly tanned skin. It was hard not to return his contagious smile. "It is. Are you planning to test it out?" she asked, squinting as the sun was in her eyes.
"Not now. Perhaps later when the sun is higher and warmer." He gestured to the spot next to her. "May I?"
"You may." Raven didn't sense any danger from the man, but she knew she was sans lightsaber and not carrying her comlink. Well, there was always the Force.
Talking to the man, Raven discovered he was also from Coruscant and was here to attend a conference. This checked out, as there was indeed a conference running at Delta Beach at the moment.
Raven mostly listened to him telling her about the various beaches of Borleias, enjoying his company for a few minutes, until she glanced at her watch. "Well, I had better get going," she said. "It was nice to meet you, Sir. I hope the conference works out well for you."
"Please, call me Vin," he said. "'Sir' is reserved for 'special' occasions." He gave her a playful wink.
"Vin it is then," she amended, pulling her shirt on and stretching her legs in preparation for the run back, his wink and the double meaning of his words completely lost on her.
He watched her as she stood and pulled her shirt over her bikini, wanting to undress her again. He stood up and reached a hand into his pocket, producing a very thick wad of Republic credits. "I don't usually offer such a proposition," he said. "However, if you considered keeping me company for the day and perhaps joining me for dinner, I would make it well worth your while." He carded a neatly manicured finger through the wad so she had some idea of the substantial amount on offer.
Raven glanced at his hand briefly but kept stretching. Okay, so her bullshit detector was going off now. There was something in the way he'd said that, and there was something in the way he was looking at her now that didn't sit right with Raven, and she doubted that her company was all he wanted. "That's kind of you, Vin, but I must decline. My sister is ill, and I'm helping to care for her," she said.
"Oh, by yourself?" he enquired casually. He hadn't asked Raven's age but guessed she was around fifteen or sixteen.
"No. I'm staying with my family," she said vaguely, "and they expect me back soon."
Vin smiled. "I think," he said smoothly, "your family would forgive your tardiness this once if you brought such wealth to them." Raven had told him she was staying at the other end of the beach but had not gone into specifics. He'd surmised from the few details he could glean and the standard clothing she wore that they were not well off and thought this tactic preferable to his usual method: force. This girl was exquisite to his eye. She was also clean, educated, and, he suspected, drug-free. She would not be sold on as the others were. Vin would keep her for himself at his mansion, which, incidentally, was nowhere near Coruscant. He really didn't want to force her and rather hoped his charms would be enough. If not, he planned to ditch his nice guy role and become Wexler, slave trafficking mogul and recreational chemist.
Raven snorted. If he only knew… She was sure that it didn't matter what she walked in offering; as long as she was late, Eeth would whale the backside clean off of her. Thankfully, this time, there was no risk of that happening as Eeth had said she could have as long as she wanted. The padawan was simply using that as an excuse to leave on polite terms. "No, thank you, Vin. Enjoy the beach," she said kindly and turned to head back.
Vin sighed and reached into his pocket, where he kept a syringe for such occasions. If all went well, he would have her on his private ship and in hyperspace within the hour.
It was at that moment that Raven felt the Force warning her of danger. She didn't wait to see what it was. Instead, she took off, using a touch of Force-enhanced speed. To Vin, the padawan would look as if she was just running quite quickly.
The man cursed under his breath as he watched his prize slipping from his grasp, his hand still in his pocket. He might have given chase, but she was fast, and although he was physically very strong from hours pushing weights, he was not running-fit. Not at all. Another time, perhaps, he thought, planning to take a stroll down to that end of the beach. This one was worth putting in a little more effort.
Jas had just woken and Eeth had moved over to talk to her when he noticed an acute sense of danger through his bond with Raven, followed by the distinct impression of her taking flight. She did not seem panicking or overly alarmed, but he thought it better to check.
"Jas," he said, "something happened to Raven. I need to check on her. Will you give me your word to stay put, no matter what? And I really need to be able to rely on you this time."
"Yes, I promise," Jas said solemnly. And she meant that. She was concerned for Raven, but had the sense to save her questions until after Eeth had returned – not that he gave her much of an opportunity as he took off at Force-enhanced speed. Seconds later, she was sitting on her bed, alone.
Meanwhile, Raven was making her way back along the beach at a slow jog. She no longer sensed danger and didn't think Vin was following her, or even that he would, for that matter. She had just wanted to get away before whatever might happen, happened and had no idea of Vin's actual intentions. Did he have a gun? Was he planning to shoot or something? It seemed unlikely, and the more she thought about it, the more she began to suspect that the danger she had sensed might have come from elsewhere.
Before too long, Eeth spotted Raven jogging along the beach in his direction. He raced towards her and came to an abrupt halt in front of her.
"What happened?" he asked.
"Master, what are you doing here?" she countered his question. Had she projected her alarm across their bond?
"Padawan," said Eeth sharply, "I came because I sensed danger, and you running away from it. Will you answer my question? Now?"
Raven straightened at his tone. She knew how much Eeth disliked being answered with a counterquestion, but she had also been surprised to see him. "Uh, yes, master. I'm sorry. I'm not entirely sure what happened," she admitted.
Given that she had only been jogging, Raven wasn't winded and could fill him in on her conversation with Vin as they walked. "I turned to leave, and I felt the Force warn me of danger, so I followed it and ran," she concluded. "I didn't look back, and I didn't sense him pursuing me. If he had a gun, he didn't shoot at me." Raven looked reflective. "I don't know what the danger was, or even if it came from him, but what else could it have been? We were the only two there. Everyone else was either walking along the boardwalk or further along."
Eeth frowned. "I would rather make sure," he said. He linked with Raven and had her show him a mental image of the person she had met. Then he told her to look after Jas and took off.
Soon enough he noticed the man walking back towards an expensive hotel and took a course that made sure he would intercept him.
"Are you the person calling himself Vin, by any chance?" he asked quite abruptly, coming to stand in front of the man. He was fairly sure this was the case, given the match between his face and the mental image he had received from Raven, but he was interested to see whether the man was going to lie.
Vin was a name Wexler had made up to offer Raven when she asked and nothing more. That this Zabrak who had suddenly appeared before him was asking for him by that name had him suspicious. Had she told this man – who was clearly not her father – that he had offered her credits? Oh well, even if she had, this was all he had done for now. Deciding to go along with this, he nodded once. "Whatever business you have with me, it better happen fast, as I'm busy," he said, crossing his arms and staring at the dark-skinned, heavily tattooed man. The Zabrak was younger than him, but they appeared to be about the same size; if the Zabrak gave him trouble, he'd just deck the guy and go, Wexler thought.
"So am I," said Eeth coolly. "I am Jedi Master Eeth Koth and the girl you spoke to on the beach is my padawan learner. Leave her alone."
He was always prone to the blunt approach, and he thought that – despite his padawan's efforts to remain incognito – presenting themselves as Jedi might help scare the man off. Eeth had no idea what he had been up to, but he shared Raven's feeling that the man was dangerous, and whatever it was he had planned to do to his padawan could not have been good.
Jedi! Was Raven a Jedi? Wexler thought. This was both very good and very bad news for his plans. Good because it made her usefulness to him more than just sexual, and bad because he knew a bit about the Jedi Order; she might very well prove too much for him, and with her master, this would undoubtedly be the case. This would need a lot more thought, but for now, he had to concede to being outmatched. He gave the Jedi a charming smile. "Of course," he replied coolly. "Now, if you will excuse me, I have business elsewhere." And with that, he stepped around the man blocking his path.
Eeth's arm shot out, grabbing hold of Vin's shoulder and turning him around.
"Leave her alone," he repeated quietly, his eyes boring into Vin's gaze. Then he let go and left. However, he decided to stay on his guard as long as they were on Borleias. He was not going to take any chances with Raven's safety.
Raven opened their front door to find Jas seated on the bed.
"What happened to you?" Jas wanted to know immediately.
"Good morning to you, too, Initiate," Raven scolded mildly, but it had no bite to it. She pulled off her running shoes, tossed them by the door and closed it behind her.
"Eeth took off out the door like someone set fire to the ass of his tunic. What happened?" Jas repeated, ignoring the padawan's slight frown.
"Nothing of consequence," Raven said, sitting on the bed next to her. "I ran into a man who I felt was dangerous, but I'm not so sure now. Eeth has gone to investigate."
Jas looked incredulous. She had expected something far more interesting than a man. "That's it?" she huffed and slumped into her pillow.
"Yes, would you prefer it was something worse?" Raven said, an eyebrow raised.
Jas didn't justify that with an answer, and so Raven changed the topic. "How are you feeling? Did you eat breakfast yet?" she asked.
Jas shook her head and Raven went to prepare her a breakfast tray.
Not long after this, Eeth entered the cabin, and Raven stood abruptly, curious to know what he had found out.
"He was definitely dangerous," Eeth told Raven, pulling off his boots. "What he was up to, I do not know. I did my best to scare him off."
"I'm sure you succeeded," the padawan said with a smile; after all, Eeth could be downright terrifying if he chose to be. "Did you get any more information from him about what he wanted with me?" she asked.
Eeth shook his head. "No, and I had no leverage to push for it," he said. "After all, nothing happened because you left in time. But he did not seem the type of man who is easily intimidated. Whatever he wants, he might try to get some other way."
Raven nodded, intending to heed his warning. "I'll be sure to keep clear of him if he comes my way again," she told him, knowing that Eeth would be keeping an eye out for him also.
Eeth washed his hands and turned towards Jas.
"If you feel up to it, you may try sitting at the table for breakfast," he told her.
"Gee, I get to go from sitting on my bed to sitting on a chair. Thanks," Jas said sarcastically, her patience for being sick and stuck inside wearing thin. She got to her feet, walked to the table and sat down.
"Mind your manners," said Eeth sternly. "You have a talk on hiding your sickness and disobeying my instructions coming up anyway, and you do not want to compound your problems."
He gave her a pointed look before pouring her some milk.
"Nah-Uh," said Jas. "Raven already punished me for that once, that's double jeopardy. I'm sure there's a law about that somewhere, and as a Jedi, you're not allowed to break the laws."
Raven had to bite the inside of her cheek to stop from cracking a smile. The kid was creative, she'd give her that; suicidal, but creative.
Eeth gave Jas a look.
"You, initiate, disobeyed my explicit instructions," he said sternly, "and that is something I will not tolerate. I will take the punishment you received from Raven into account. But you will still be punished by me. As for that other matter, where you pretended you were fine and lied to my face several times: I tried this on my master once, as a very junior padawan, and she caned me for it. For good reason. We will talk about why that is after breakfast. Now eat."
Jas' jaw stiffened, but when Eeth mentioned being caned for the same thing, she fell silent and started eating. Maybe the fact that Raven had already punished her would spare her the same fate, thought Jas. There had to be some way out of this! However, when they finished breakfast and Eeth beckoned for her to follow him outside, Jas was beginning to lose hope.
Eeth pointed Jas to one of the benches at the table in their yard, took a seat opposite her and asked without prelude, "What were you trying to accomplish by hiding your illness from me? I asked you several times whether you were quite well. Every single time, you said you were. And we both know that cannot have been the truth."
This was a dilemma. On the one hand, the kid was elated to be outside in the sunshine and not have to sneak around to do it. On the other hand, it meant they had to talk about her wrongdoings. Jas didn't want to talk about them, and her expression said as much. She huffed and threw up her hands. "I just wanted to see the other things, and I knew if I told you I was feeling sick, you'd make me come home. I was right, too! The second you found out, we had to come back."
Eeth's eyes narrowed. He could see that Jas was not planning to be reasonable about this.
"Yes, I did," he said coolly, "because, as I have told you numerous times, your well-being is more important to me than your momentary wishes. Since your momentary wishes seem to be all you are willing to think about right now, however, we will cut this short. Pull down your pants and underpants, kneel on the bench and bend over the table."
Without waiting to see whether she was complying, he went to the nearest tree, pulled out a knife and cut a rather sturdy switch.
Jas stared at his retreating back and then raised a hairless brow as she watched him peeling buds from what looked like a nasty tree branch. Surely he wasn't going to smack her with that? Thankfully, her hands were on autopilot to obey his instructions because as she watched him slice off leaves and buds, his intention was now clear. Jas had never in her life been smacked with a switch before, not ever. She knelt on the bench seat, bare-assed, and tried to keep a brave face as he walked back. "You can't," she said, covering her backside with both hands. "I'm sick, you said so yourself. You can't smack a sick person. I'll relapse!" She coughed once, even though throughout her condition, she had not done so once.
"You may trust me to take adequate care of your health," Eeth snapped. "So much so that I will not tolerate it if you lie about it. It is my job to take good care of you and you went out of your way to make it impossible for me to do that job. Your body is important, much more so than anything else. And if you feel disinclined to keep it in good working order, then I will do my best to make sure that you will."
His left hand grabbed her hands and removed them from her bottom. Then he pressed down on her back, forcing her to expose her bottom some more, and brought down the switch with vigour.
Jas opened her mouth to state that smacking her backside was not doing great things for her body either, but instead, all that came out was a hiss of pain. The effect of the switch wasn't a deep cutting throb that seemed to go right through her like the cane he used, but what it lacked in depth, it made up for in surface sting! Her backside clenched, and her fists balled as the sting reached its peak a second or two later. Too many like that in a row would quickly become unbearable, she knew.
"Moreover," Eeth continued relentlessly, "lying is simply unacceptable, and you know it. How am I supposed to trust you when I cannot rely on you to tell me the truth?"
With this, he brought down a second and third lick.
That drew a hiss from Jas, and her toes curled up. This thing stung like nothing else! She flinched and reflexively tried to twist away before the fourth could land but found that she was being restrained. Jas managed to bear the first ten sans tears or begging – no easy feat as it really fucking stung, and all she wanted to do was jump up and down on the spot and rub out the fire Eeth had lit.
Unfortunately for Jas, when Eeth punished someone for a serious transgression, he was not going to allow them to keep their composure, and today was no exception. He simply continued, but he now considerably increased the speed and force behind his blows, knowing that the sting was going to accumulate quickly to a level that would make it impossible to remain stoic.
Jas had hoped he would stop at twelve. Those hopes rose higher when he made eleven and twelve truly spectacular, but he didn't stop. Instead, he kept smacking! Jas let out a pained yelp that, by the time she felt the fourteenth lick, turned into a continuous wail. "Stop, stop! Please! It really stings!" she managed to wail out while trying to free herself from his hold with no success.
Eeth, however, held on to her and applied a full eighteen strokes. He probably would have made that two dozen, were it not for the fact that she was still sick.
When her pleas were ignored, Jas started to sniffle. She was incredibly relieved when, finally, she heard the switch drop. Oh thank the Forc… she thought, only to reconsider when Eeth, instead of releasing her, continued spanking her with his hand over the welts. He really wanted the lesson to sink in and for Jas to feel this for a while when she sat down.
Jas wailed, her sniffling immediately erupting into sobs. She wanted to apologise again because that might make him stop, yet her bawling was preventing coherent speech at this point. It hurt, she wasn't in control and more to the point, she was starting to think that if he was spanking her so hard when she had only just recovered, she really had done the wrong thing by not telling him.
Eeth gave her another dozen hard swats, with Jas wailing her way through them, and then he finally stopped and released his hold on her. By now, all the fight had left the girl. She lay across the table bawling, both hands rubbing frantically, until he lifted her to her feet. As had become his custom, he gave her a moment to collect herself and then took her chin between his fingers and cleaned up her face. He did not release her chin, however, which forced her to look at him.
"The virus you caught," he said, "is very common in Zabrak children and easy to diagnose. Had you told me about it when you were first starting to feel unwell, I would have obtained a hypospray and you would have had very good chances for the disease not even to break out, or only to break out in a weak form. Had you answered my questions truthfully when I was starting to suspect you of having symptoms, you might have ended up spending a day or two in bed, but we could have avoided the two days of high fever, diarrhoea, vomiting, hallucinations and all the other severe symptoms. Do you see why it would have been a very good idea to be honest about your health?"
The girl sniffled as his hand gripped her chin, but she didn't pull away. "Yes," came the short reply, and after hearing it like that, the kid really could understand why. Still, it didn't take away the fact that her ass was on fire and had Eeth not cleaned her face up, she would have looked like a hot mess to boot. "Sorry," she brought out. Jas rarely, if ever, apologised, but right now, she honestly felt bad for having everyone nurse her when it could have been prevented, bad for lying when she knew it was wrong and tired out from the ordeal.
"Alright," said Eeth, letting go of her chin. "The apology is accepted. We are going to talk about yesterday's disobedience later. Right now, I want you to lie down and get some rest."
Jas might be better, but she was still sick, after all, and Eeth knew her body could only take so much.
Had Jas been feeling one hundred percent she'd have argued that they'd already talked about it! And that she didn't want to talk about it anymore. As it was, the kid was spent, and so she swiped a sleeve across her eyes, reluctantly righted her clothing – since the fabric hurt – and turned to obey.