When Lok came to, he was disoriented. It was semi-dark; he blinked several times and finally realised that this was because the curtains were drawn to keep the sunlight out. He was lying on an entirely unfamiliar couch in a common room that resembled his own in layout, but was different in all other respects.
Hoisting himself up on his elbows, he found that Eeth was sitting in an armchair, reading. Just in this moment, though, as if he'd sensed Lok's look, the Jedi Master raised his eyes from his data pad and gave Lok a small smile.
"Where am I?" Lok asked in a rather accusatory voice. The effect was diminished by the dryness of his throat; it came out as a kind of croak.
"My quarters," said Eeth matter-of-factly. "Shall I get you some tea or do you prefer water?"
Lok was too thirsty to reject this offer.
"Water, please," he said.
When Eeth had returned with a tall glass of water, he gulped it down thirstly and asked: "What time is it?"
"Half past eleven in the morning," said Eeth. "You went out like a light and have slept for seventeen hours. You obviously needed the sleep."
But I didn't want it!, Lok wanted to yell. He didn't voice that thought, though. Eeth had told him quite clearly that he was not interested in what Lok wanted. On the other hand, the man had told him repeatedly that he was very adamant about what Lok needed. That felt strangely comforting. And Lok felt immediately guilty for feeling that way.
Eeth gave him a scrutinising look.
"You give the impression that you begrudge yourself the sleep you had," he said. "Why?"
Lok's first impulse was to tell the man that it was none of his business, but he remembered the reaction that response had garnered him the last time he'd given it.
"I should be grieving for my master," he said in a small voice. "How can I just go on with my life when he's ... I mean..."
"When he's dead?" Eeth said mercilessly. "How can you NOT go on with your life? What do you think your master would have wanted for you to do? That you jump off the top of the tallest spire?"
Lok stared at Eeth. He was not used to such bluntness. During the past week, people had tried to treat him with so much tact that it made him want to scream. He had to concede that Eeth had a point.
"No, of course he wouldn't have wanted that," he admitted, unaccountably feeling tears pricking his eyelids again. "But I can't help feeling guilty. I'm... sometimes the grief is so overwhelming that I don't know how to go on. At other times, I think of other things, nearly forgetting my grief - and then I feel as if I'm forgetting my master. I think that's what I feel guilty about."
Eeth looked at him thoughtfully.
"You will need to learn to separate the two - the grief and the memories of your master," he said. "Getting over your grief, which will take long enough as it is, is not the same thing as forgetting your master. Rationally, you are probably aware of this, but your feelings will not be as easy to change. It will take time and effort, a lot of both. I will be happy to provide whatever help I can, but ultimately, nobody can take this burden from you."
"What do you mean, you will provide help?" Lok asked, frowning. "So you just decided to take over, huh?"
"Oh yes," said Eeth matter-of-factly. "And in light of the fact that I was the first person who had any success at getting you out of your bed, the Council entirely agrees with that decision. Now understand that this is not a decision over your future in the Order. Eventually, when you are ready for it, the Force will guide you to a new master. For now, I will merely be your caretaker."
"Don't I get any say in this?" Lok asked hotly, sitting up completely and wincing slightly as he was reminded by the lingering sting in his bottom of the scene in the corridor yesterday. What in Force's name had the man hit him with and where had he produced it from?
Eeth raised his eyebrows at the question.
"Do you have a better proposal?" he inquired.
"Well - uh - not right now, no," Lok admitted, "but -"
"Do you have a serious problem with this arrangement?" Eeth cut him short.
"Well, I hardly know you!" Lok exclaimed.
"In that case, it will please you to learn that, contrary to popular belief, I don't eat children," Eeth said. "And I think you are arguing for argument's sake."
Lok did not know what to reply to this because it was entirely true. He was not unhappy with this arrangement at all; it just irked him that he hadn't been asked.
"Oh, alright then," he conceded. "Are you moving in with me?"
"No, you are moving in with me," replied Eeth. "And there's really no need to start arguing again. Being stuck in the quarters you shared with your master has not done you any good. Besides, as heartless as it must feel to you, they are needed. Master Neverin has been kind enough to pack up all your things and send them here. I've got a spare bedroom that will be yours. As a temporary arrangement until you are ready to take on a new master, this is really for the best."
Lok was glad that he would at least have a say in the matter of taking on a new master. He did not plan on that happening any time soon, but Eeth did not need to know that.
"What about my master's things?" he asked. "The paintings? He's done them himself."
Eeth had not known that about Jerad. He was fairly certain that the Twi'lek had not been painting at the time he had been involved with him. But forty years were a long time, he reminded himself, and he really did not know a lot about Jerad's life.
"Everything remotely personal will be packed up and put in storage," he said. "You are free to look at it and sort through it any time. Maybe it would be good if you waited until your padawan siblings are around, though. It is better not to do such things alone."
That made a lot of sense, and Lok found himself nodding in agreement.
If one thing had to be said about Eeth, Lok soon found out, it was that the man knew how to take charge. What surprised Lok was the relief he felt about this. It was not up to him any longer whether he slept, got up, or meditated. Eeth sat with him on the very first day to draw up a schedule that was going to be valid at least for the next ten days or so until the start of the new cycle.
"You are going back to school then," Eeth decreed. Lok had no intention to do any such thing, but he did not voice that thought. He did protest, though, when Eeth said that he was going to see a soul healer every other day.
"No way," he said. "I don't want to discuss my feelings with a soul healer, thank you very much."
Eeth gave him such a fierce glare that Lok actually shrank back a little.
"Whether you want to or not is entirely irrelevant," Eeth snapped. "The next time I hear that sorry excuse for an argument coming out of your mouth, I am going to put you across my knee and spank some sense into you. And I'd better warn you right now that I don't make idle threats. Your master died, you are grieving, and therefore you need to see a soul healer. End of story."
"Oh, so whenever I don't want something you want me to do, you just threaten to spank me and win the argument by default?" Lok asked bitterly.
"Broadly speaking, yes, that's the idea," Eeth replied matter-of-factly. "Was that any different with your master?"
Lok actually had to think about this.
"No, ultimately not," he finally admitted reluctantly. In fact, Lok had had a reputation of being close to unmanageable during his time as a senior initiate. Jerad had remedied that, and one of the ways in which he had done so was by imposing strict consequences for any kind of disrespect and disobedience.
"I still feel I shouldn't be forced to, you know, expose my innermost feelings to a random soul healer," he told Eeth.
"Oh, you've got a say in what soul healer you work with," Eeth replied. "Just not in whether you'd like to see one at all or not."
Good, thought Lok, immediately thinking of ways to go through so many soul healers that he'd never end up actually working with one.
"Within reasonable limits," Eeth, who had studied his face closely, added pointedly. "If I get the feeling that you reject individual soul healers just for the sake of it, I will pick one for you."
Now where did he get that idea from? Lok thought in consternation. He would have expected this degree of perceptiveness from his master, but not from a virtual stranger. Lok was starting to feel an ever-growing measure of grudging respect for the Zabrak Jedi Master.
The next few days went surprisingly smoothly. Lok got back into a rhythm of sleep, meals, meditations, workouts and chores, and every time he did one of these everyday things, it became a little easier. Since Eeth had seen through his ploy concerning the soulhealing sessions, he decided to just settle on the soul healer who had seen him in his quarters and be done with. Ngka Sing was a middle-aged human female, and her no-nonsense approach sat fairly well with Lok. Eeth also made Lok catch up on his school work, but Lok's mind was not in it. If Eeth realised he was not making much progress, though, he did not comment on it.
Eeth asked Lok several times whether he wanted to go out and meet friends, but Lok refused that outright. He had no desire for looks of pity, questions and pointless efforts to spend comfort. For the same reason, he never returned his friends' calls. And he did absolutely not want to go back to classes and be exposed to the whole lot of them. It was over that matter that he had the first real run-in with Eeth, several days after he had moved in with the man.
"The course schedule for the upcoming cycle is now available," said Eeth. "We should take a look at it and book you in for your courses."
"No, I'm not going back to school," said Lok with an air of absolute finality.
"Excuse me, what was that?" asked Eeth icily.
"I think you heard me perfectly well," said Lok, imitating Eeth's stern tone with great success.
"And I think," Eeth said in a dangerously low voice, "you know perfectly well that your duties are not negotiable. You are going back to school. Period."
"Nope," said Lok.
"Let me guess," said Eeth, still in that carefully controlled, low, stern tone of voice that he managed to make sound rather ominous. "You do not want to go."
"Exactly," said Lok, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
Eeth looked at him for a long moment with narrowed eyes.
Then he said in a deceptively mild tone of voice: "Go and open that cupboard to your right."
He pointed at one of the closets that lined the wall of the common room. Lok's master had used the same closet to store tablecloths, flower vases, napkins, candle holders and so forth. For a moment, Lok thought that Eeth had gone mad.
"Why?" he asked cautiously.
"Because I'm telling you to," said Eeth softly. "Just do it."
Lok stood up slowly and stepped over to the cupboard in question. After a doubtful glance at Eeth, who nodded at him to go ahead, he opened the door. And gasped in dismay at what he saw.
"All of these," said Eeth conversationally, "are guaranteed to leave a strong impression. Just a fair warning. Either you drop your unreasonable attitude by yourself or you can go ahead and bring me one of these implements so I can convince you to drop the attitude."
Lok gaped at him. To be fair, his master had owned a number of spanking implements, and he had not been beyond using painful stuff like his belt on occasion, but he had certainly not devoted a whole cupboard to them!
In any case, Lok definitely did not want a paddle, strap or, Force forbid, a cane used on him. He would just have to concede defeat - for now - and find some other way to get out of going back to school.
"Alright," he said begrudgingly. "I'll enrol for classes."
"I'm glad you see some sense now," Eeth said neutrally. "Now, come here."
Lok returned to the table. Before he knew what had hit him, he found himself upended over Eeth's lap and something hard exploding on his bottom half a dozen times.
"Ouch!" he yelled indignantly (and also because this was really painful.) "Yeow! What'd I- Oww! What the - Aaah! Owww! Ouuch!"
Eeth released him, and Lok immediately jumped up and furiously rubbed his smarting bottom.
"That," said Eeth sternly, "was for your attitude. Maybe this way you will try harder to keep your smart mouth in check the next time."
Lok scowled at him. Eeth's style of dealing with him was uncannily like his master's.
"Where did that paddle come from?" he inquired, pointing at the item that was still in Eeth's hand. "Is that what you used in the corridor the other day?"
"Yes," said Eeth. "I usually carry it in my belt. So be warned."
After this talk, Lok was warned alright. He realised that he would need a good plan if he wanted to get out of school. Eeth was not to be trifled with.