Lorna thought she had seen all there was to see of the deserts of Tatooine, but she had been unprepared for the vast emptiness of the Northern Dune Seas. No clumps of brittle grass, no towering rock formations, not even the occasional pebble dotted the landscape. As far as she could see there were endless waves of sand-all light and silence, magnificence only matched by hyperspace.

Venturing into it made her uneasy. With no features to mark the geography, it would be easy to get lost, even as Force users. She wondered again why Obi-Wan had brought her here, but she knew now not to ask. He hadn't wavered on his decision to let her discover it for herself.

After the cramped confine of the cave, both she and Obi-Wan had opted to walk rather than ride their mount. It felt good to stretch her legs, her muscles working harder with the resistance the sand created as her boots sank into it. The dry afternoon heat bore down on her, but she preferred it to the bone-chilling cold of the cave. It was enough strain to keep her occupied, without draining her completely.

She needed the distraction. Anything to keep her from dwelling on Obi-Wan.

Her mind kept drifting back to how solid and warm he had felt against her, how easily his arms had encircled her. She had felt silly and her cheeks had colored when she awoke to find her fingers had clenched his tunic in her sleep. There was something almost sad in his eyes as he had gently extracted himself from her. Their early morning departure had been nearly devoid of conversation.

If she hadn't feared the onset of hypothermia, she would not have agreed to get so close. After the way her body had responded during the healing massage, it was obvious she needed to keep her distance. But the cold… it seemed the Force had other plans. It almost felt like a cruel joke.

Except that she had wanted to be near him, and no amount of heat in the cave would have changed that. Because when she'd sung for him, the feeling had been as comforting as it used to be in the Temple, and yet it had been so much more. His Force presence had joined with hers in the meditation, creating a harmony that was as thrilling as it was peaceful. She hadn't wanted it to end. Much like how she hadn't wanted to leave the warmth of his arms this morning.

She rubbed her temples, the sharp brightness of the sunlight suddenly hurting her head. This was wrong. A Jedi was not meant to feel these things. The Code existed for a reason. What was she thinking, asking if she could come back? With his deflecting answer, he had spared her feelings by not giving an outright refusal, but had not encouraged the possibility of continuing in the direction they were headed. It was the only sensible response. The response of a Jedi Master who had already learned painful lessons about attachment.

The meeting with the Toydarian was in two days. Whatever this training was that he had planned for her—it would be her last. She had to make it count.

Obi-Wan stopped walking when they crested one of the taller dunes. His eyes were trained on the rolling hills of sand that continued into the horizon. There was nothing remarkable about the location, nothing that identified it as a place for a lesson. His sharp focus told her he was sensing something. She reached for the Force, but it felt as void as the desert around them. Not even a slight breeze interrupted the stillness.

"We're close," he said, letting go of the eopie's reins. He gave her a pat on the rump with a sharp tsk. "Stay far from here and you'll be safe," he told the beast as it lumbered away back down the dune from where they'd come.

"Safe? Safe from what?" Lorna asked, instinctively resting her hand on her lightsaber.

She felt the anger first, a primitive but poignant rage that lurked under the sand. Something was out there, and it wasn't happy that they were too. Her fingers wrapped around her lightsaber hilt, drawing it out slowly.

Obi-Wan's features were alert, but he made no move to draw his own blade. In her senses, the anger got closer and soon it started forming into something more substantial. A life form. Large. Dangerous.

"I'm guessing whatever's coming is a part of my training?" Lorna asked, dropping into a combat-ready stance, her eyes roaming her surroundings for signs of movement.

Obi-Wan nodded, stepping back a few paces. "I will be watching. But this task is for you alone."

"You still haven't told me what the task is."

He didn't respond, only nodded his head to the dip between dunes below them. She ignited her lightsaber, the snap-hiss cutting through the dead silence. She took a few steps down the slope, using the Force to steady herself as her feet slid.

The sand beneath her suddenly started to vibrate, the tremors increasing in intensity with each moment. Force, it was closer than she realized. She watched the sand at the bottom of the dune begin to quake, shifting in erratic waves, as if a massive drum were being struck beneath it. At the epicenter of the vibrations a scaly, cracked hide broke through the sand.

Lorna's head whipped back to where Obi-Wan stood, his expression infuriatingly calm. He still hadn't moved from the top of the dune.

"A vessicore," he called to her. "Your task is to survive the encounter."

She looked back in time to see a creature emerging from the sand that she could only describe as something out of a nightmare. Six spindly backward-jointed legs, each ending in a single viciously curved claw, supported a body that suggested something reptilian. Its head bore multiple gleaming eyes and ended in serrated mandibles that snapped in fury, looking for bones to crush. The vessicore let out a piercing shriek as it reared up on its back legs, towering nearly twice her height despite her position higher on the dune.

Lorna called on the Force, letting it flow through her as time seemed to slow. This was what Obi-Wan had brought her to face? She wanted to be annoyed with him for being so cryptic with the details of this lesson. But she knew him. There had to be a purpose. He would not have brought her here if he didn't think there was something valuable for her to learn. Nor would he let her face this monster alone if he didn't fully believe in her capabilities. Thinking of his confidence in her reinforced her courage.

But surely he didn't bring her here to kill the creature simply for a training exercise. It would be a needless loss of life. That was not what the Jedi stood for.

The vessicore's rage rippled through the Force, raw and potent. The creature was far from sentient, didn't even seem to be particularly intelligent, so the emotion had to be coming from some basic instinct. But what? She reached out through the Force, trying to soothe the creature's agitated mind, but its hostility only seemed to intensify as it charged, its chitinous legs kicking up clouds of sand.

Staying within the Force's current, she blinked and her perception of time returned to normal, just as the vessicore's foreleg made a swipe right at her head. She ducked and rolled sideways, the claw missing her by inches as she slid partway down the dune, gravity and the shifting sands working against her. Its mandibles snapped at her face and she had no choice but to bring up her lightsaber in defense. The creature recoiled from the humming blade, giving her time to scramble back up the slope.

She sent another wave of calm at the vessicore as it stalked towards her. Coming face to face with her lightsaber had made it cautious, but its anger was no less powerful. If she couldn't calm it, she would have no choice but to fight it. Its lithe body was fast, its hooked claws and jagged mandible capable of easily ripping her to shreds. The thick hide of its body was tough, but no match for a lightsaber. She simply needed to focus on evasion while she waited for an opening to strike.

When it charged again, Lorna let the shifting sand carry her down the dune past its flank. Her lightsaber flashed, severing three of its legs at the lower joints. The vessicore's agonized scream tore at her heart as it collapsed. She watched and waited, hoping it would retreat to safety somewhere to heal, concluding the conflict.

Instead, she watched in horror as new limbs sprouted from the stumps, completely regenerated within moments. Each new leg was coated in a sticky, yellowish fluid, but ended in the same deadly hooked claw. The creature's rage now burned even hotter. She had only made things worse.

Its regenerated legs propelled it forward with shocking speed, mandibles slicing towards her head. She ducked, but it was already striking again. With a sob caught in her throat, she swept her blade in a clean arc. The vessicore's head thumped into the sand, its body following with a heavier thud.

She swallowed a wave of nausea as she turned away from the sight of the vessicore's flesh, still smoking where her blade had singed it. Tears pricked at her eyes. Whatever Obi-Wan had wanted her to do, it couldn't have been this. She locked eyes with him as she began her ascent up the dune. She expected to see disappointment in his gaze, but found his mouth was quirked in a knowing smirk.

"What?" she demanded, wiping the sweat dripping from her brow.

He raised his eyebrows and lifted his chin towards the corpse behind her. "You're not finished."

A cracking sound tore Lorna's attention away from Obi-Wan. She whirled around, her jaw dropping at the sight of what was happening at the foot of the dune. The vessicore's body convulsed and spasmed, its claws scrabbling for purchase in the sand. Its neck twisted back and forth in the air, the flesh of the stump churning with rapidly multiplying cells.

No. It can't be possible.

The vessicore regenerated a new head. Scales layered over one another, curving over the skull that was forming underneath at an absurd pace. With a sickening pop, the mandibles materialized from the skull, the serrated edges dripping with the same viscous yellowish substance.

"Can it even be killed?" The fear she'd been fighting crept into her voice.

"You do not need to kill it. Only subdue it."

Now he tells me.

"I tried! It's too angry," she cried.

"Trust the Force, Lorna."

Before the vessicore could finish forming its head, she stretched her awareness into the Force's flow. She remembered how it had felt when she'd sparred with Obi-Wan, shared her fears with him, sang for him. How the Force had flowed between them, creating that perfect harmony. She closed her eyes, seeking that same connection now.

He had wanted her to face her fears, to get to the root of them.

Find the root.

The vessicore had closed the distance between them, mandibles slicing towards her. She dodged to the side, but not quite fast enough—a serrated edge caught her thigh, tearing fabric and flesh. The pain was sharp, but the wound was not deep, and she didn't let it break her focus. Dancing away from another strike, she honed in on the creature's emotions.

The anger flooded her mind, its strength almost overwhelming, but beneath it, Lorna found something deeper. Fear. Desperate, primal fear. Not for itself. Something else. Something the vessicore wanted to protect.

She retreated down the dune, putting space between her and the onslaught of ripping claws, buying herself time. Her leg burned as sand kicked up from her descent found its way into her wound. She grit her teeth and her eyes darted between the vessicore and the surrounding terrain, trying to find what it was guarding.

She caught a glimpse of something in the Force, a cluster of life signatures radiating from somewhere below. Following that pull, she let the vessicore drive her back, steering their fight towards a valley between dunes. Another swipe of those deadly claws forced her to leap backwards—and the sand beneath her feet gave way.

She landed hard on cool, compacted sand, the impact driving the air from her lungs. Pain shot up her leg as she pushed herself to her feet, her eyes adjusting to the darkness. She had fallen into a narrow hole that had been dug into the ground, as deep as the vessicore was long. The hole widened into a burrow, dark and cool. As she caught her breath, grateful for the reprieve from the scorching temperatures above, movement in the shadows caught her eye. A clump of translucent eggs was tucked into a depression in the ground, each one pulsing with life in the Force. A nest.

The vessicore was protecting its young.

A scream from above told her the mother was approaching. She pushed herself into the wall furthest from the eggs, searching for a way out of the burrow, but the hole above was the only way in. Once again, she immersed herself in the Force, seeking its guidance for a path forward.

Memories jolted into her mind, moments in time flashing before her eyes. Her father's face, twisted with anger as the rival gang members cornered them in the alley. How small she had felt, how desperate to keep him safe. The Force had responded to her fear then, bringing down walls around them all.

Watching helplessly as Anakin advanced on Master Secura, knowing she couldn't save her. The shame and guilt she'd felt because she'd run, rather than stay and fight. The crushing weight of failure when Niko and Sinya were captured because of her. She had wanted to protect them all. But her failures had paralyzed her, making her doubt her own strength.

The realization hurtled towards her like a projectile in the Force. That desire to shield others from harm—it could twist into fear, into anger, into violence. But where she had buried her fear to keep it from growing, the vessicore had no such capability. Nor did it have the Force to heal its fear. She did. She had been trying to impose peace on the vessicore, when what she needed was to show it understanding.

With a menacing screech, the vessicore descended into the burrow, putting its body between Lorna and the eggs. She reached for its consciousness again, and this time, instead of trying to calm it, she shared her own feelings. Her reverence for life, her desire to protect rather than harm. I am not a threat, she projected. I understand your fear. I have felt it too.

The vessicore's rage ebbed, though wariness remained and it hissed, wrapping its legs around its eggs. Its mind touched hers, no longer hostile but far from trusting. It was enough. Lorna gathered the Force beneath her feet and leaped from the burrow, landing softly on the sand.

Strong arms enveloped her before she could even catch her balance. Obi-Wan guided her back up the dune, an arm around her waist to support her as she limped through the pain in her leg. Once they'd put some distance between themselves and the vessicore's nest, he stopped and turned to face her. Pride and triumph coursed through him in the Force, though she felt a tremor in his hands as they moved to frame her face. His eyes searched hers with an intensity that caught her by surprise.

"You did well, my dear," he murmured, conviction and relief mingling in his voice.

"I got to the root, like you said," she said. "She was just guarding her nest. Once I could show her that I understood why she was afraid, she stopped attacking."

"Yes." His thumbs brushed her cheeks gently. "Just as the vessicore's limbs grow back stronger when cut off, when you try to sever or avoid your emotions, they only return with greater force. Our emotions serve a purpose—fear is the mind's warning system. But a lack of fear is not what marks a Jedi; the ability to let it go is. When you acknowledge your emotions instead of trying to destroy them—"

"I can release them," she finished. "And heal."

Lorna threw her arms around Obi-Wan's waist, pulling herself in close and resting her head on his chest. Slowly, his arms circled her shoulders, returning the hug. She closed her eyes, letting his presence anchor her as the truth of the lesson washed over her. The Force flowed gently between them, carrying away the last remnants of her fear from the encounter.

"Learn to do for yourself what you did for the vessicore," he whispered into her hair, "and you will become the Jedi you were meant to be."

For once, she felt like that goal was within reach. Her heart swelled with gratitude and affection for Obi-Wan for guiding her here. The man she had found hiding in the desert truly was the wise Master she had believed him to be.