Vestara followed obediently behind Jaina as she was led to one of the Temple's training rooms. There, scattered across the floor, she saw an aray of seemingly random, innocuous, metal objects, all of different shapes, but relatively similar in size. Jaina gave her a moment to take in the sight of the myriad baubles surrounding them before explaining. "Unlike my Uncle and Cousin, I haven't seen much of your talent and skill first hand, on top of that, I don't know how much of that was affected by the dark side. So, with this, we will be evaluating just that."
Turning around a couple of times to look at the objects splayed out, Vestara rose her brow to her teacher. "And how do these enter in?"
"You, are going to pick up as many as you can, and slowly raise them towards the ceiling, while keeping them level. I repeat, as many as you CAN. The goal isn't to try and grab all of them. You grab them, raise them towards the ceiling, while keeping them even, then lower them back down, gently."
"That's it?"
"It's an evaluation, not a triathlon."
Vestara gave a chuckle before readying herself. Extending her hands she reached out with the force and grabbed as many nearby objects as she could, gripping more and more until she was certain she had all of them, and then slowly began raising them. As they rose, they slowly became uneven, with some rising higher than others, and some not moving at all. "Even them out." In compliance Vestara stopped trying to raise them until she had them all floating evenly in the air before continuing. As the various objects approached the ceiling, they began to shake and wobble as Vestara began having trouble keeping focus, again some began to stand still while only a few moved at all. "Keep them even." Vestara tried pushing them all forward at once, when suddenly she heard an unmistakable metallic grinding sound. Jaina caught this as well and furrowed her brow, "That's enough!" But before Vestara could heed this, several of the small random objects she was holding in place compressed and imploded, with bits and shrapnel falling down, startling Vestara enough to make her lose focus entirely and drop all of them. Jaina wasted no time grabbing them all herself and neatly setting them back down on the ground, before giving a very disapproving glare at her apprentice. "Now, can you tell me where you went wrong?"
Vestara stared, somewhat red in the face for a moment before answering, "I grabbed more than I could..."
"You grabbed more than you COULD! I told you this was an evaluation, not a challenge, not a task, or what have you. I was evaluating you. I wasn't asking you to show off, or for false acts of bravado. IF, I am to teach you properly, I need to understand where you are completely in terms of training and skill. I know you are adept in skills you won't be making use of from this point forward, but what of those you might be?" Jaina took a moment to compose herself and erase the clear annoyance form her face, "Now, let's try again, properly, this time."
Before beginning again, she looked at the various pieces of metal shrapnel littering the floor, "I'm not gonna get in trouble for that am I?"
"No, I borrowed some spare parts and other miscellaneous scrap for this. I made absolutely sure nothing would be missed in the worst case scenario." Vestara began to give a sigh of relief when Jaina continued, "You are, however, in charge of cleaning it up."
Vestara didn't even complain, it was her fault after all. She once again reached out through the force and telekinetically grabbed significantly less than she did before, slowly raising each one to the ceiling and back down as Jaina has instructed. To this, Jaina gave an approving nod and walked over to Vestara, "Now, do it again."
"I beg your pardon?"
"You heard me, do it again." Vestara began to comply with Jaina's instruction, but as she did it, Jaina began to circle her, occasionally poking and prodding at her, making it harder for Vestara to focus on keeping hold of the objects, much less, keep them even. "Just ignore me." Jaina quipped as she tapped the side of Vestara's head, her young padawan's eye now twitching. With each of Jaina's rotations and jabs, one of the objects would fall a little, and Vestara would have to stop and readjust. Vestara guessed, accurately, that Jaina was trying to
test her performance under pressure, but could not help but feel Jaina was deriving some amusement from her chosen method. As she continued with her task Jaina finally spoke, "Do you know what the most important lesson a Jedi can learn is?" Vestara gave this a brief thought before shaking her head, she knew there were a number of important lessons to learn , but what might be the most important, she wasn't sure. "Control. Not of others, but of ones self. Control of one's mind, control of one's power, control of one's emotions and control of ones actions. The philosophy of Sith is to control the world around you, to try and bend it to your will, but Jedi inherently understand that you can't. The world spins and the stars shine in spite of your will, you cannot control the world, or the people in it, only yourself, you can only master yourself. Sith have tried, and they always inevitably fail. If you need proof, read a history book." Somehow, Jaina's words seemed to help her focus, the logic of them, anyway, as Vestara paid more attention to what she was saying, than her annoying prods, she was able to focus on her task. "Jedi, who cannot control themselves, lose themselves. Life, is both chaotic and orderly, chaos born from design, and order born from random inspiration. One must always be able to control themselves even in moments of chaos." As she spoke these last words she very irritatingly nudged Vestaras head with her finger, while Vestara finally complete the task, gently setting down every object she had lifted to the ceiling in a neat and orderly fashion. "You have been taught to give in to your passions, but let me ask you this, has such a mindset, has such a life served you well? Did being a slave to your indulgences, no better than Abeloth, make you happy? Was your life better for it?"
"No, no it wasn't. But that doesn't necessarily mean the opposite will benefit me either."
"Not by default, perhaps, but you tell me, might things have turned out better for you had approached them differently?" While Vestara pondered this, Jaina turned her attention over to the pile of metal parts Vestara had gently set over to one side of the room, and compared to how much she hadn't, taking measure of her skill.
"But, let me ask you this, would you not say one such as Palpatine had control over his own life?"
Jaina let out a little chuckle, "Not in the way he wanted. Sure, he became the rule of the Empire he created, but he never truly mastered death as he wished to, his Empire was never truly as powerful or as stable as he wished, and he never truly eradicated the Jedi as he sought. He relied on Powerful tools, such as the Death Star, or powerful figures, such as my Grandfather, Moff Tarkin or Admiral Thrawn to maintain order."
"You said Sith cannot control the world, but isn't that what he did? Isn't that what other Sith who acquired political power in the past have done?"
"It would seem that way, yes, but only from a narrow perspective. The people of these Sith regimes always envied or hated those in power, they had no true control. No political leader ever truly controls the city, nation, or world they lead. They can only earn enough of the people's trust and support but they never truly shape the world to their will. Sith seek to do just that. And they think they do. But too often they forget that just because someone acts complacent doesn't mean you control them, sometimes they are just finding where to slide in the knife. Now then, I've evaluated your use of the force, now for your next test."
"Which is?" Not even waiting for Vestara, Jaina walked over to the far end of the room and grabbing something off of a shelf before heading back over to her, now holding what appeared to be a helmet of sorts out towards Vestara. Upon examining it however, she noticed its visor was instead a full cover to completely obscure the eyes, on top of that, the helmet itself was dense, as if to block out sound as well.
"Awareness. The scrap I had you moving had more than one purpose."
"You're going to be throwing scrap metal at me?!"
"I would hardly call it 'throwing', and I certainly won't putting any real force behind them."
Not completely convinced Vestara put the helmet on nonetheless and waited. For a few moments, she felt nothing, neither physically nor through the force, for a moment she wondered if anything was happening, and then a familiar feeling came over her, something she hadn't felt since since her travels with Mirta or her time on Mandalore, specifically when she had gotten drawn into a fire fight. Acting on instinct she quickly jolted to the side, somehow confident she had just avoided something, and then she felt nothing for a time before the sensation returned and she dodged once again. This pattern repeated itself over and over, with the gap between these warnings in her mind getting smaller and smaller, eventually she felt something brush against her a few times across her sleeve and her shoulder. This went on for a while longer, with unseen objects grazing her as they passed until finally she felt something lightly tap her chest. Pulling her helmet up to see what it was, she found a small, almost spherical, piece of metal at her feet. Turning her gaze back over to where Jaina stood she found her giving Vestara a rather impressed look.
"It seems spending time with Mando definitely honed your spatial awareness, as well as your reflexes. Near the end there I actually was trying to hit you."
"Oh, thanks."
"That was a compliment, from someone who just last night said they didn't hold you in the highest regard. This is a good thing."
"Fair enough, I suppose. Is there a next step to this evaluation?"
"There is. A mental test." Jaina then produced from her robe two small data pads, holding one out to Vestara. After she took it, Jaina sat nearby on the floor, silently gesturing for her to so across from her. "Now, this is a spin on a basic intuition and aptitude test younglings typically take, one would see an image, and the youngling would try to gleam what image they saw without actually seeing the image itself. But, this time, we're both going to do it, and unlike with the younglings, we are going to try and hide the answers from each other. In short, I'll see an image, and you'll have to guess what it is, while I'm trying to keep you out of my head, while simultaneously you will see an Image, and I'll try to guess what it is, while you try to keep me out of your head."
"So, you and I are just playing a guessing game?"
"A guessing game that simultaneously tests your intuition and capacity to keep a secret, both while under pressure."
For a while the two went back and forth at this game for a prolonged period of time, each one trying to grasp an image from the others mind, while blocking off what images they had in their own. The duel tasks were tedious for Vestara, but she definitely got the impression Jaina was having an easier time with it. Honestly, Vestara eventually lost track of time, and eventually became tired, mentally and physically, while Jaina seemed to be going about it perfectly fine. Eventually, the images stopped, to which Jaina promptly stood up and stretched rather nonchalantly before reaching for Vestara's datapad.
"So, how did that go? How has any of this gone?"
"Well, your sense of control and manipulation of the force has room for improvement, but you operate well under pressure, I imagine your upbringing, and Mirta, are to thank for that. your reflexes and spatial awareness exceeded my expectations, and this... could use some work, you didn't get that many correct."
"I see, and how much more of my evaluation is there?"
"A few more things, first some basic tests, then, something more specific. For the next one, draw your saber." As Vestara complied Jaina pulled a small device from her pocket and pressed a button, immediately afterwards a Marksman-H flew from a nearby cubby in the wall and hovered close-by Vestara. "Are you familiar with these?" Vestara nodded, "Good, then you know where this is going."
The Marksman hovered around, rotating itself, while circling Vestara, before finally firing a bolt, which she easily blocked with her saber. Much like with her evasion training, the remote began to increase it's rate of fire, all the while moving more and more sporadically. Nonetheless Vestara had only moderate difficulty keeping up with it, before Jaina, unknown to her, pressed another button on the Marksman's controller, calling out a second Remote, that followed suit, firing while moving around haphazardly. Vestara's time fighting gun-toting bounty hunters and Mandalorians had given her experience in guarding against suppressing blaster fire from multiple directions, but it was still something she wasn't fully adept at, as during her time with Mirta and on Mandalore, she still relied on her armor. While Vestara managed to keep her defense up for a while eventually the duel Marksman's began making grazing shots on her limbs, much like during her evasive exercise. Fortunately, these particular blaster bolts were so low power they felt like little pinches on the skin, and were more annoying, like Jaina's previous poking and prodding, than actually painful. The duel remotes continued to increase their movement speed, as well as their rate of fire, until more and more shots were making it past Vestara's blade, until finally one bolt actually grazed Vestara's head. For a moment, she stood there, almost flabbergasted, before becoming incensed to her boiling point and rearing her saber back as if to swing directly at the Marksman, Jaina quickly took notice and pressed a button on their control to make them retreat back into their cubby in the wall, all the while Vestara recomposed herself mid swing and shut off her saber before it even reached where the Marksman had even been.
Jaina couldn't help but let out a bit of laughter at Vestara's near outburst. "Oops."
"Oops?"
"They aren't supposed to aim for your head, the settings must have been off a little. But, before that little..incident... you were doing well. I can see where your form needs work, but this is something you aren't a novice at." Vestara sneered at the stifled laughter in her voice as she spoke. "How about you clean up the mess you made earlier and calm down before we continue?"
"I'm not in trouble for trying to slice it?"
"Oh please, who hasn't tried that? But, in all seriousness, I will let it slide on account of the mishap. On the condition that you don't make a habit of outburst's like that."
Vestara rolled her eyes. "Oh, alright."
As she took to cleaning the various pieces of shrapnel from the floor and Jaina herself collected the various tools and such she had gathered for Vestara's tests and fit them into a trunk, Vestara thought about how nervous she had been to have Jaina as her Master. She was, for whatever reason, more laid back than she expected. Maybe that's just how Jaina was, she thought to herself. But all in all, so far, her first day wasn't that bad.

A/N Another chapter, nothing real exciting just yet, but sooooon, maybe. As one might have noticed the chapters for this story are shorter than the last, this is so it's easier for me to finish and get them out.
Now for some more random trivia that might come up later: Lightsaber colors of Luke's order.
Luke: Green synth crystal, and formerly a ruby shoto
Leia: gifted a yellow, and green saber before becoming a jedi, built a blue one herself, and was gifted a ruby saber by Luke using his shotos crystal.
Mara: magenta as an Imperial hand, purple as Kyle's apprentice, then Anakins blue saber for the rest of her life.
Kyle: Green, then yellow, then orange, currently blue.
Kam Solusar: originally purple, currently blue.
Tionne: described as using a pearl, which typically make silver blade, so silver.
Cilghal: Uses an ultima pearl, which again, are described as silver.
Corran Horn: silver.
Barratk'l: green.
Octa Ramis: don't quote me, but I vaguely recall it being blue.
Kyp Durron: Described as violet in novels, but always drawn pink, I really wanna say it's pink, but I'm gonna go with violet.
Saba: I vaguely recall it being described as light-purple.
Jaina: purple synth crystal, she turned it purple to mimic Mara's.
Jacen: Emerald
Ben: aquamarine.
Tenel ka: uses a rainbow colored gen that somehow makes a turquoise blade.