36 Temple 2

The teacher was ruthless when it came to teaching. As if in retaliation for the excesses I had allowed myself a few months before, she was mistreating me, taking perverse pleasure in my misery.

To begin with, when she broke into my room at six in the morning, she yelled at me soundly, waking me up with a poke.

But more than that, Toshi told me that the memory-wiping trick had worked, and the Master hadn't smelled anything. Of course, in a pinch, you could chalk the side effects up to excitement. I was told off for sleepiness, laziness, and lack of practice, and Toshi proudly left, ordering me to find her after breakfast.

I had to look for Toshi after breakfast in the canteen, but, thank the Force, the droids quickly told me where she had gone. She was in the training room, waving a sword at her fellow knight. Toshi took him apart, moving from the lazy dodges and pokes of the second form to the assertive and unpredictable, strange-looking blows of the seventh. When she finished, she helped her sparring partner up, apologizing in the process.

There were hardly any people in the hall-a couple of students on the sidelines waving their swords, and I went unnoticed. The man the teacher had flogged seemed to feel hurt, but he quickly got over himself and bowed and left the training hall. Toshi, after making a couple of circles with her sword to her right and left, switched off her blade and turned around, feeling me at last. I was sure she had felt me before, but we had been in the woods together so long that we had stopped paying attention to each other's presence.

- Oh, Henia, I was just waiting for you," the teacher smiled. - Would you like to wave your sword?

I didn't answer that, glancing eloquently toward the junlings, who were training in their third uniform at this early hour-wearing a deaf helmet with the Order's logo on it.

The teacher seemed embarrassed, though it didn't show on her face or strength. Almost. I learned to discern her emotions, which she did not show to those around her.

- Master, I thought you said you were at the Master's," I raised an eyebrow, "and said something about the lower town?

- Yes, yes, follow me," she walked swiftly out of the hall, sliding her training sword onto the weapon stand.

We walked out of the training room into the corridors, back into the labyrinth of the temple. It was hard to navigate without power, unless I'd been living here since I was a kid.

Walking through the corridors at a brisk pace and saying hello to our colleagues we came out onto a large balcony with a beautiful view of the city. Toshi looked at the prospect of Coruscant-the rooftops of monotonously tall buildings-and then turned to me:

- The Master said he wanted to test you personally. Tomorrow," the Togruta looked at me gravely. There was something else she wasn't telling me. Realizing that, I decided to get the truth:

- Anything else?

- No. Today we'll go to the training room, there will be no training on the local scum.

What would Tosi do and cancel practice? She, by the looks of it, wants my performance. What for?

- Teacher... Toshi, stop pretending, I know you well. You wouldn't just cancel practice. Why do you care so much about this test? The Master will just test me, see what you've taught me, and let me go on my way. In fact, I was going to do the search, and I don't care how I prove myself to the Jedi.

Toshi was genuinely indignant at this:

- What do you mean you don't care? How could you-" The teacher either ruffled my hair or gave me a smack in the face. - And anyway, you don't care, and then I...

- Me what? - I jumped at the clue.

- I might get a promotion if you're good. I hope you'll do well," she said with a frown, but then she turned from anger to mercy. "And, anyway, let's get on with business, not fussing over balconies and Coruscant. We'll have the Hall to ourselves by this evening, I'll see to it," she said firmly. - Follow me.

Toshi rushed off and scored the fifty-seventh training room for us for the day. As soon as she returned from the bureaucrats, she immediately pulled me into the gym with unprecedented enthusiasm. It turned out to be a scaled-down copy of an ordinary gymnasium you might find in any gym or school. The walls, just like in the main gym, were filled with training equipment - sword racks, helmets, some kind of balls, metal cubes, droids, and so on.

I took my eyes off the equipment and concentrated on Toshi. She drew one of the training swords, activated it, and stood in a stance of her own style. I repeated the same, changing the crystal in the sword to a training sword. The training sword gave off a very weak and scattered beam of light, which couldn't hurt as much as a normal sword, but you could still get burned with a slow blow. Toshi pounced first, pirouetting upward and leaping in my direction. In flight, she corrected her trajectory and landed a powerful punch that I had to take on a hard block. The rest was just more fun - the teacher must have really wanted to get me up to the level she wanted, so she fought seriously. I lost track of the wounds I had inflicted and simply brushed aside her light blows, relentlessly leaping and rolling away from the forceful blows. Toshi's every slip made her even angrier, and when she reached her limit, she almost snapped, stepped aside and panted... Today was clearly not my day.

The execution continued again, and lasted for four hours, with a couple of breaks. The teacher tried all kinds of attacks on me by force - trying to stun me, to knock me down, to instill fear, to damage my sword, and even to throw the sword trying to distract me and to throw the mats we were sparring on.

The training came to an end as suddenly as it had begun - Toshi was tired, her body's capabilities are not infinite, even with a boost of power. Turning off her sword, she turned abruptly on her heels and ran out of the hall. I, intrigued, followed her, but... but arrived at the door of the women's room closing in front of me. Toshi flew inside, leaving me scratching the back of my head in embarrassment. Why had I run with her?

I decided to wait, and I was right-she was out in a few minutes, with a slightly pale face. How pale can a toggruta's face be, with skin like that of a Latina. She smiled when she saw me:

- And why were you going?

- So you interrupted the sparring so suddenly..." I spread my hands.

- "Don't mind me. I feel sick. To eat only meat and other "fruits of the forest" for a year, and then to switch to the local diet..." - Tosi was embarrassed. - But don't stop training. Take care of medical things... Right, go to Nova, report..." The teacher left me, going in an unknown direction. It is really difficult to sit on meat for a year, but I took the return to civilization less painfully than the teacher.

Speaking of lunch! I went to the cooks instead of Nova, I was not mistaken, because the extreme training has exhausted me and I felt just an animal hunger. Afterwards, feeling that I had had enough to eat, I went to report to Nova Master with sluggish thoughts.

The morning of the new day brought me unforgettable feelings of deja vu about the past. For example, it was not Erdva who woke me up, and I did not wake up by myself - the teacher decided to make up for yesterday's waking scene, but went from one extreme to another - instead of just pushing me, I felt her begin to whisper something in my ear and shake my shoulder lightly. I am, of course, flattered, but really, if anyone comes in, it will be problematic that it is a teacher doing in the bed of his padawan...

- I'm up, I'm up..." I muttered grudgingly as I got to my feet and opened my eyes. As soon as I did so, I noticed that Tosi had changed somewhat - today she was a little makeup, dressed in relatively dressy clothes, compared to the work suit, of course, dressy, but so - a black top and loose pants of the same color and style. The teacher stood up from my bed and looked me over:

- Okay, get yourself cleaned up. There will be a test in two hours.

I could hardly suppress a yawn, and I answered her, still sleepy:

- What's the occasion? Isn't there going to be anyone but us and the Master?

- Idiot," she quipped angrily, "it's not every day the Master personally tests Padawans. I do not remember that happening to the current leader at all, and I need to make a favorable impression! - Toshi said that as a matter of course. I decided to poke fun and, feigning indignation, said:

- What? I'll be jealous, you know that! She's flirting with some obscure masters when you have such a beautiful student!

Toshi was embarrassed and her cheeks blushed for a second, which was not typical of her, then her emotions were replaced by a kaleidoscope - she realized that I was kidding and realized everything I said and started to get angry:

- "You!" the teacher slapped me again. - What am I to you? A girl, what would ... and in general, you should not unnecessarily ..." It was she again replaced her anger with embarrassment, hinting at the incident that had already happened.

- I'm sorry, teacher, it won't happen again... - stretched out, and her face took on a satisfied expression ... today," I finished, and she smiled, with a slight annoyance.

- Come on, jealous man, you've got a hard day ahead of you! Time! - she pointed to the clock on the bedside table. - Don't forget, noon in the first training hall!

- I got it, teacher, I got it," I said grudgingly, as she wouldn't let me go into the shower.

I didn't have to put on any makeup, just took a shower, went through all the procedures, up to and including the use of the cologne given out, and after looking at myself in the mirror, decided that it was time for me to start looking for a way back, instead of sitting here, practicing the skills I had already mastered. Practice will come with time, but I'd rather be in my own time. I wouldn't want to go back there as an honorable old man.

Master Lex and Toshi were waiting for me at the exactly appointed hour in the first hall. I didn't look bad, so I wasn't fooling Tosi's expectations. She, after exchanging brief glances with the Master, stepped back against the wall.

- Well hello," the magister greeted me, "are you ready to show me everything you've learned?

- Yes, I am! - I nodded.

- Very well. Let's start with the emotions. Project an undirected emotion. Any emotion," he sat down patiently in a seizure pose and waited for action. Toshi, too, shone her anticipation off the wall.

I, with perfect indifference, decided to demonstrate the skill and proceeded to select the emotion. I rejected the first thought of putting fear on the people around me-if I went too far, there would be unnecessary consequences. The usual sadness would do. I was able to see that I was in the phase, and I was able to see that I was in the phase, and I was able to see that I was in the phase, and I was able to see that I was in the phase, and I was able to see that I was in the phase, and I was able to see that I was in the phase, and I was able to see that I was in the phase. Usually younglings have problems with such tasks because you need more than just self-control, you need memories, and children have nowhere to get them. Concentrating on my emotions, I increased the pressure and the resonance between emotion and power. Not a muscle flinched on the Master's face, but Toshi could not stand it, and at some point began to cry, though she tried very hard to hide it. The Master interrupted the girl's execution by catching my glance at the teacher:

- Enough," and looked at me disapprovingly. And what am I to blame? Nothing she will not do from a moment of sad memories!

- Excuse me," I bowed, "anything else?

- Forging, stun, and navigation, you probably know as well as anyone. How about reading emotions? - He asked.

- That I learned along with the forging. Intuitively.

- Let's see," the Master smiled. - I will list the names of some of the members of the Order. If you tell me who's the odd one out, you'll be certified.

The rest is easy - I concentrated on the master's power and its microscopic variations. Lex read out a list of ten names, almost unchanged, but he misfired on one name and I sensed he was lying.

- Six. Benedict Al'skaav.

The Master exchanged a brief glance with Tosi and said:

- Right," and stood up, drawing his sword from his belt. - Let's see what you can do in battle.

I repeated his gesture with the sword. Toshi retreated to the corner of the room as the master pounced on me. I easily, even without acceleration, dodged his first lunge, then leaped away from the second, aimed at my feet. It was my turn to attack - I chose jujuyo for the attack, along with acceleration - accelerating to the maximum I could, I covered the distance between me and the wizard in a few milliseconds, flanked him, and struck a chopping blow. The master, of course, did not succumb to my feint and, having blocked it, immediately exploded with a multitude of accelerated blows, which I did not block. It wasn't unexpected, so I broke the distance, moving out of my line of attack. The master estimated the speed accurately and was at the same speed as me, but for me it was too much - once I could accelerate, but not always, so I decided to fight in trakata style - with a minimum of movement and fast movements. The master, without hitting me, moved on to the fourth form of combat, where I could already fight him, predicting the blows and using juyo. While the sword whistled near me, I only deflected to extremely short distances. The master slowed down, and immediately depicted a very complex combination of blows, which I could avoid only by maximizing my acceleration and diverting his sword with my own. After that it was my turn to attack, and I executed several juyo blows, which the wizard only brushed aside, but quickly recovered and stopped blocking my blows and moved away from the line of attack. It didn't work - I had a good feeling about him. He couldn't crush me with his style, like Toshi, because he didn't know how to juyo, and my foresight made his attacks predictable. But he was faster, stronger, more massive, more experienced. He could swat away my blows like a mosquito. After a combination of two rolls, jumps, and stabbing punches in the air and from below, without any effect, I decided that I would not be able to beat him. I needed something more, more speed and pressure. I used my emotions to increase the pressure, and began to use my power with my sword - my attempts to knock the Master down were unsuccessful, but a stab with a concentrated emotion of fear, right during my combination made the Master lose his composure for a split second, after which he had to hurriedly jump away from the stabbing blow. But I wasn't going to leave him like that, so as soon as his feet landed I jumped after him, yanking the mat towards me, which made the wizard shift his center of gravity forward and distract him from cutting off my telekinesis on the mat. While he was doing this, I was at the peak of my leap and swung my sword violently, turning to face the wizard in a half-turn. Distracted and slightly shifting his center of gravity, the master immediately caught a bolt of lightning from me, which crashed rumbling into his shoulder. Of course, I didn't use a strong charge, but hitting a man in the mood for a sword fight with a sword was wrong. He didn't have time to shift his center of gravity quickly, causing my attack to hit. For a second the Master was twisted with electricity, and he stopped my final blow with telekinesis.

- Uh, I can't do that..." I said, noticing that he was holding my hand with his telekinesis.

- That's it. That's enough, I saw what I wanted to see," the Master sighed heavily, and with one more glance in the direction where Toshi was standing, he turned off the sword, and left, still in the doorway he told her:

- "I expect you at my place at six o'clock. And bring your apprentice. Dismissed.

- Yes, Master! - we said in one voice and he left at a brisk pace. Toshi immediately brightened up, rushing to me with words of gratitude and hugs. She seemed to be impressed by my performance.

- Henia, you did a great job! Good for you!

- Huh?" Before I knew it, she was hugging me with her whole body.

- Well done! You did well! - Tosya's emotions were dominated by joy and anticipation of a future visit to the chief. When she stopped pressing me with the most interesting parts of her body, she broke away, embarrassed by her emotionality and then said sternly:

- Kudos. Now free until six in the evening. That you should be at the master's office! Better, I'll come and get you myself.

- I shrugged my shoulders and went to the armory, for I wanted to see what there was of shooting and stabbing and cutting... Toshi came out, glowing, and went to her room.