Kaylee Channing Meditation Courtyard, Ispen’s Force Academy Kaylee was so very pleased at the students’ success. Glancing around the courtyard, silently observing, she noticed how everyone had a unique take on the exercise. Rai had woven the petals into her hair while Kardge experimented with crushing some petals and lining the others up in tidy rows. Victor was distorting the shape of his petals, while Jacob made his float around in tiny spirals, and Einri blew his away on the breeze. But one student caught Kaylee’s eye through her interactions with other students. Lierka, it seemed, was very interested in talking. Helping, yes, that was good, but Kaylee wondered if she was focusing as much on herself as she ought to be during this workshop. Things seemed to be going all right at first. Then, as usually happened during periods of intense concentration and personal reflection, students began to mentally stumble left and right. Kaylee wished there was some way to prevent it from happening, but it was something they had to deal with, and work at. These skills could be attained only through dedicated practice. This was only the beginning. She was about to say as much when she saw Lierka and Rai take off to a corner of the courtyard. “You are all doing wonderfully,” Kaylee told the assembled students. “If you get tired, you should take a short break, just for a minute or two. I am impressed at how much you’ve been able to achieve already, in this short time.” The master rose from where she had been sitting and asked the group to excuse her for a moment. Her skirts rustled as she hurried across the courtyard to Rai and Lierka. “Girls? Is everything all right?” TAG: Rai, Lierka, other Students
Kaylee Channing Meditation Courtyard, Ispen’s Force Academy Kaylee watched Rai and Lierka, disturbed at the chaotic undercurrents in the Force that she felt swirling around both girls. There was something going on with these two, something that would require personal instruction and reflection — preferably away from the group, and possibly away from each other. But that was a conversation for later. “We’ll talk about this later,” she told them. “Please take a few deep breaths and join me back in the circle with the other students.” Back in the circle, Kaylee surreptitiously pressed a button on the back of a nearby boulder, and a small chasm opened up in the center of the courtyard. Out of this rose a platform, on which rested a giant ball of mixed metal. The thing looked as if it had been welded together from miscellaneous parts from a junk heap. It was not a lovely sight by any stretch of the word. “I don’t recall exactly how much this thing weighs, but it’s an awful lot,” Kaylee told the assembled students. “The first exercise was individual; now you need to work together. The other masters will have my head if this thing stays here any longer, so let’s get it off the platform and over there so we can have a maintenance ship pick it up,” she said, gesturing to the far left corner of the courtyard. “Again, this is all about control, but also exploration. See what you can do when you work together.” TAG: Students
