Lok's streak of good behaviour lasted throughout most of the journey. Eeth made an effort to keep him from becoming bored, and apparently, that paid off. He helped the boy through his lessons, which Lok was finding easier to deal with now than he had at the beginning of the cycle. They did workouts and meditations together and, as promised, Eeth also coached him in stealth and evasion techniques. Lok had a talent for those and had been trained well by Jerad, but of course, he was no match for Eeth who was, after all, an experienced Jedi master and whose Force control had always been supremely good.
"Is there anything you're not good at, by any chance?" Lok asked Eeth in exasperation on the third day of their trip after he had failed to detect the man for the third time, despite the fact that they shared a bond.
"Communicating with animals," Eeth replied immediately. "You want Raven for that one."
Lok rolled his eyes. "That was not what I meant" he retorted. "I'm no good at it either. It's a rare skill anyway. I meant from among the more ordinary stuff."
Eeth raised his eyebrows. He would have thought the answer was obvious.
"I am not good at all at dealing with people," he said frankly. "My master made me learn small talk. I studied it like others learn a foreign language. The same is true for diplomacy. And, ultimately, for raising a padawan. You are benefitting from all the mistakes I made with Lakhri, and to a lesser extent with Raven, and from the fact that I am trying to improve."
Lok tilted his head, looking at Eeth.
"You know," he said, "I don't think you're at all bad with people. I mean, you're not exactly easy-going. But not everyone has to be. It didn't take you more than a couple of hours to get through to me when I was grieving for Master Jerad, and quite a number of people had tried before. And if the Council sends you off to negotiate with folks like the Awaré rebels, you can't be all useless at that either."
Eeth was at a loss for words, and that did not happen often.
"It might have learned a thing or two over the years," he finally said. "But it has never been easy for me. Not as it is for you."
"And since when do we give up when something becomes difficult?" Lok intoned solemnly in a perfect imitation of Eeth's voice.
"I try not to," Eeth said calmly, deciding to end this conversation which was becoming entirely too uncomfortable for his liking. "And neither will you. Next round. Your turn to conceal yourself."
On the morning of the fourth day, Knight Satii, of whom they had not seen much due to the fact that she was cramming details for a long-term mission into her head, called Eeth to the cockpit, alerting him to an incoming communication from the Council. Lok continued his breakfast on his own. He had nearly finished when unexpectedly, Knight Satii, rather than Eeth, came to join him.
"The Council wanted your master's input on something," she said, plopping down onto a chair and helping herself to one of the rather bland buns their starship had in store. "He's currently busy having a holo call with Mace Windu. I assume he thinks it's gonna take a while since he gave me a note asking me to have a workout with you."
Lok raised his eyebrows. "Alright," he said slowly. "No offence meant, but do you know how to do this?"
"Yes, smarty-pants," said Knight Satii, raising her eyebrows as well. "I might not have a padawan yet, but I do know how to spar. And I have taught any number of classes. Why, are you doubting my competence?"
Lok shrugged. "You've seen my master," he said with a slight air of superiority about him because, truth be told, he had by now become quite proud of having been apprenticed to Eeth Koth, of all persons, and he also did not like the Knight's tone. "He's good at everything. It's quite hard to live up to that."
Knight Satii snorted. "Leaving aside the fact that nobody is good at everything," she said, "I hadn't planned on living up to Eeth Koth's standards. That doesn't mean you can't have a workout with me. Are you done? Let's clean up the dishes and get going."
"I think I've warmed up enough," said Lok. He said it quite politely. Nonetheless, it was something he wouldn't have tried on Eeth because he knew the man enough by now to suspect what reaction that would get him. If Eeth was feeling tolerant, he would merely say "I will be the judge of that" and continue. If Lok persisted after that, Eeth would glare and order him to stop whining immediately, and he would make the rest of the warm-up twice as long and hard as he ordinarily would have done. Any further complaints would result in Lok being swatted. It was not that Lok had actually tested this theory; but Eeth, despite his ability to occasionally surprise Lok, was predictable in many ways.
"Tired already?" asked Knight Satii with a hint of sarcasm in her voice. "Or are you just trying to antagonise me? Either way, go on."
Lok rolled his eyes, but obeyed, mostly because he had no desire to push Knight Satii into going to his master to complain about him. He obeyed in bad grace, though, and without putting in a lot of effort. Knight Satii told him to hurry up several times. She gave the impression that she was running out of patience. Well, Lok thought, that was too bad for her.
When they finally had finished with their warm-up, it turned out that she was specialised in Soresu and that was what she was intending to work on with him.
"I do Ataru, though," said Lok.
"I know," said Satii. "So does your master. Well, I do Soresu. And you might as well learn what I can teach you best. They must have taught you the basics in the creche, anyway."
"Yes, but that was ages ago," said Lok.
"Pity your memory is that bad," said Satii, and now she was definitely annoyed. "You'll just have to learn it anew."
Lok had no clear idea why he resented the knight teaching him. He just did. That should be Eeth's job, he thought irritably as he made a lacklustre attempt to learn the block Knight Satii tried to teach him. Jerad had never spent his missions talking to Mace Windu and neglecting Lok over it. Never! But of course, Eeth was important. Or maybe he was just showing off.
That line of thought was cut off by a slash from Satii's saber that forced Lok to jump out of harm's way. Another slash sent him stumbling and falling onto his bottom.
"Would you mind focussing on what you're doing?" Satii demanded. "I get that you don't feel like learning this move, but your master asked me to teach you and that's what I'll do."
If Lok had not been busy picking himself off the ground, he probably would have been more alert. As it was, he was caught completely by surprise when he heard his master say: "That is quite commendable. Thank you, Knight Satii. Padawan, what is going on here?"
Eeth was leaning against the doorframe, arms folded across his chest, and pointing a rather displeased look at Lok. For some reason, this riled Lok even more.
"Nothing is going on," he said loftily. "She was teaching me because you couldn't be bothered."
"'She' is 'Knight Satii' to you," Eeth said coolly. "And being rude to me is not buying you any favours."
"Well, I don't need your favours," Lok snapped, disigniting his saber and clipping it to his belt. "Other than maybe the favour of teaching me yourself, rather than delegating it to someone else. Now excuse me."
He headed for the door and made to push past Eeth. Eeth was having none of it. He grabbed Lok by his upper arm and propelled him back into the room.
"You wait here," he said, and his tone of voice made clear that this was not a request, it was an order. "Knight Satii, would you come with me for a moment?"
"Sure," said Satii. The look she gave Lok as she followed Eeth out of the room was nearly sympathetic. Nearly, but not quite. It occurred to Lok to just leave, but first, even in his current mood, he was not that suicidal, and second, it was likely that he was going to run into Eeth in the corridor anyway and that would not accomplish anything. With a sigh, he flopped down on the gym mat and propped his head up on his elbow. He was starting to feel bad about the way he had behaved. Unfortunately, he had a tendency to compensate for such feelings by acting up, and that had got worse when he had entered adolescence. He had had frequent run-ins with Jerad over this and the ensuing consequences had lessened this habit somewhat, but it seemed that it was back at full force.
After a minute, Eeth returned. He closed the door behind himself and looked down upon Lok, frowning. Lok made no move to get up. He might have done so had he known that Eeth was going to pull him up by his ear, though, because that really hurt.
"Oww!" he protested, hurriedly pushing himself up to diminished the pressure on his ear. "Let go!"
Eeth, however, did no such thung. He pulled Lok up close to himself by the ear and said quietly and firmly: "I have no idea whether you intend to fall back into the kind of behaviour that you displayed on our trip to Mahau. If you do, I advise you to reconsider. I will not tolerate any of it. Nor will I allow you to be disrespectful and disobedient towards a knight who has been asked to teach you. And I think we have established before that you will most certainly not try to walk out on me."
Now, he finally released his hold on Lok's ear. Lok's hand shot up, rubbing it to ease the burn.
"I am going to ask you again now," Eeth said brusquely. "What was going on there? Or, more precisely, what did you think you were doing?"
"Nothing," Lok said sullenly. "I just didn't like the way you were pushing me off onto her, nor did I like the way she was treating me like a small child."
"Given your behaviour, I can hardly fault her for that," Eeth said acerbically. Lok flinched. Eeth rarely made cutting remarks like this, and when he did, that usually meant he was seriously fed up. Rationally, Lok knew that this was where he needed to back off, fast. He could not resist the temptation to get one back at Eeth, though.
"Why should I act respectfully when you can't even be bothered to have a workout with me?" he asked and added: "Jerad never asked other people to teach me just because he felt his time was too valuable for that."
As soon as he had said it, he knew that he had made a mistake. Eeth's eyes narrowed and became even darker than usual if that was at all possible. He did not say a word, though. He merely glared at Lok until the boy started squirming. He knew his remark had been stupid. He also knew that Eeth was waiting for an apology. But for some reason, he could not bring himself to utter one.
The silence between them stretched on and on. The longer it lasted, the more determined Lok became not to be the first to speak. Eeth, on the other hand, seemed to have no such concerns.
"I am sure it has not escaped your attention that I am not Jerad," he finally said in a low, stern voice that raised the hairs on the back of Lok's neck. "Nor do I take kindly to attempts at emotional blackmail. Which is another thing that we have already established. Alright. You want my attention, I will give it to you. I doubt that you will be thankful for it, but then, we have had this conversation before. If you refuse to learn your lesson the first time, you have only yourself to blame."
Lok suddenly remembered that they had indeed had a similar type of run-in during their disastrous trip to Mahau. Eeth had offered Lok to have his workout with Lakhri and Flynt, rather than Eeth, and Lok had responded by being quite rude. This had resulted in Eeth putting him through an absolutely horrifying workout that had left him thoroughly exhausted and his muscles sore. He realised that he ought to have avoided a repeat occurrence at all cost, rather than behaving like an ass towards first Satii and then Eeth, but that realisation came a little too late.
Lok soon found out that Eeth could do even worse than he had done on their trip to Mahau. Of course, his master had never taken kindly to repeat offences. Nor had Jerad, for that matter. Unfortunately, Lok was left with no energy to pursue that line of thought because Eeth seemed determined to run him ragged. Lok gritted his teeth and persevered. By the time Eeth was through with him, however, he was seeing stars and felt about ready to puke. Eeth, on the other hand, while sweating and slightly out of breath, seemed fine which was adding insult to injury.
"You killed me," Lok croaked, lying on the floor and gasping for breath.
"Nonsense," Eeth said, gazing down on him. "I punished you. You might not feel too well right now, but that is the nature of punishment. Do you understand what you were punished for, though?"
Lok closed his eyes and coughed convulsively. Then he propped himself up on his elbow and gulped down half a bottle of water.
"You don't seriously think I'm able to understand anything right now, do you?" he brought out.
"Unless you want further punishment, you had better make an effort," Eeth said matter-of-factly.
Lok scowled. He did not currently think it wise to call Eeth a bully to his face, though, nor did he desire "further punishment." Therefore, he tried to pull himself together and come up with what Eeth presumably wanted to hear.
"I was disrespectful towards Knight Satii and you. I didn't always obey her instructions,or at least not the first time. I didn't make an effort for her, and I tried to walk out on you," he said. Eeth continued to look at him expectantly. Lok wracked his brain for what else to say. Suddenly, it came to him.
"Oh," he said. "I… I was trying to make you feel bad for not being like Jerad. I'm sorry. I really am. That was mean." He was surprised to hear that his voice was breaking. Of course, that might be a normal side effect of adolescence, but he was not so sure. He swiped his sleeve across his face; it was sweaty enough to justify such an action, after all. Before he knew what was happening, he found himself leaning against Eeth's chest and Eeth's arm wrapped around him and he started to cry.
"Why do I keep doing that?" he asked a few minutes later when he had finally managed to calm down. He was still leaning against Eeth's chest, though, and was not in a hurry to get up.
"What, crying? I think the answer should be obvious," Eeth replied calmly. "Or were you particularly tearful before Jerad died?"
Lok sighed. "No," he admitted.
They fell silent. After a while, Eeth said: "When I started taking care of you, I made sure to free myself of other obligations so I could devote all my attention to you. You needed it. However, this cannot go on indefinitely. The more you are healing, the more often there will be times at which other needs are more urgent. I expect you to accept that, just as I expect you to accept other teachers occasionally. I am not doing this to get rid of you and you know it."
Lok sighed again. "I do," he said. "It just didn't feel that way."
"Then you will have to work on your feelings," Eeth said. "And ask for help if you cannot manage on your own. Incidentally, this is exactly why I am making you do additional meditations, much as you resent them."
"Do you always have to be right?" Lok asked wearily. "This is not making things any easier on me, you know? Being stuck with the master who's always right?"
This actually made Eeth laugh.