Chapter 4.2

***

Lairi led us into a large hall, about half the size of a football field, but the true dimensions were difficult to discern due to a large circular holographic panel in the center. About two meters in height, this panel occupied about a third of the entire space of the hall. Chairs were placed opposite the panels, next to consoles of indeterminate purpose. The room itself was dimly lit, with bright lights and buttons on the consoles shining brightly. As for the panel itself...with my height, I couldn't see what was in the center, but the light emanating from it was bright enough. As our mentor explained, pointing to one of the consoles, the Great Holocron was located right in the center of this damn thing.

Pressing a couple of keys, Lairi stepped aside, presenting to our view a half-meter hologram of a human male dressed in the standard Jedi robe.

"Welcome, Guardian," the woman bowed slightly, followed by us,

"I want to introduce you to the future Order of Jedi, and their connection to the Keeper of the Great Holocron," she pointed her hand towards our entire group.

"Hmm, interesting," it seems to be the most popular word in the Order, "I haven't had a tour in a while," the Guardian smiled.

"Hello, children." After his greeting, we all bowed again, greeting him in turn. And I, accordingly, muttered along with everyone else.

"How do you feel about answering a couple of questions from these children?" the Twi'lek asked,

"I think they would be interested in asking you." "Like me, young lady. Like me," the hologram replied, then tilted his head.

"Ask your questions, younglings." We stood, silent. Well, if nobody wants to...

"How old are you?" Shauli - a boy from the Rodian race, beat me to it. He had a funny name - Bulat.

"Oh, this question has been asked of me many times, but like them, I can only answer one thing - I don't know," the hologram of the man smiled.

"But how can that be?" Mitzi - a Twi'lek girl - was surprised,

"Don't you know when you were born?"

"The past," the Guardian replied, "and the future - it is the prerogative of the living. For me, there is only the present. That's why I have to rely on you in this matter. But intelligent beings love to change the dating system...," he shook his head.

"Only in the last thousand years, it has changed twice. And they love to fight. But too much is lost in wars," he finished sadly. An interesting question, by the way. Does he have emotions?

"Well, at least approximately," Bulat didn't give up.

"Approximately?" he glanced at Lairi.

"The Great Holocron is a little over twenty-four thousand years old."

"Wow," the Rodian said, and the others whispered to each other. And I realized that we'll have to pry the knowledge out of the Guardian with pliers. That's what he should have named that number right away.

"Any other questions?" the Keeper of Knowledge asked. This time, there was no need to hesitate.

"What is telekinesis?" I spoke up, and the whispering children suddenly fell silent. And the Guardian didn't rush to answer, piercing me with a gaze.

"That's a very... interesting question," the Guardian finally responded and fell silent again. But this time he was clearly thoughtful. I mean, it's understandable that he was thinking about something before, but now he was showing it by thoughtfully raising his gaze. "Telekinesis is a technique for the gifted, allowing them to move physical objects in space."

"Hmm, that's a rather standard answer," I thought. It seems that, in his opinion, I'm not yet ready to hear a more elaborate answer. And that's why I need to think about it.

"Okay," I spoke up again. "Let me ask you differently. Why is it difficult for Jedi to lift large objects? Master Lairy says that size doesn't matter."

"And what do you think?" he asked.

"Is he Jewish or something?" I wondered silently.

"I think a lot of things," I replied. "But I would like to hear the answer... from a specialist."

"And why didn't you ask the Master?" he asked.

"I did," I grumbled in response, glancing at Lairy. "But the answer turned out to be... too childish. I already know that I need to train more."

This time he remained silent for even longer. Our group, including the curator, was also quiet.

"It's all about perception," the Guardian finally answered. "In psychology, if you will. Until the mind is ready to accept that it can do something, telekinesis won't work to its full potential. And you're not really training, you're expanding your horizons."

"So, you need to train not control, but concentration?" I asked.

"It doesn't really matter how you improve," he said. "Sentients are too different, and each has their own path." And with a slight change in tone, the Guardian concluded, "But it's better, of course, to train both. It'll come in handy."

In principle, this conversation is enough for me to start with. I'm already behaving too maturely. I don't want to ask any more unnecessary questions. Everything is clear about telekinesis. Although, apparently, only to me. The kids' faces are too expressive. And the answers I received only confirm, and in some places complement, my conclusions. It's time to fade into the background.

"The tour itself lasted half an hour and was very informative. And it's not just about the questions and answers, but how exactly the Guardian responds. It's as if he's creating a psychological profile on everyone who asks him a question. Innocent questions, answers given in a way that makes you ask him again, meaningless phrases just to see the reaction of those around him. And of course, the constant feeling of being watched. At first, I thought I was imagining things, but when I "looked" at the hologram, if that's what it is, I "saw"... thousands, probably barely visible threads of the Force. Not even threads, but slightly more organized streams of the Force that extend towards the hologram. And I'm not sure if that's the only way he can monitor the state of the interlocutor. But I'm sure that's all he's doing - monitoring. After all, the ability to "see" the Force gives a lot of advantages."

"The next week, I was waiting for 'extra' questions, but surprisingly, they never came. Apparently, I'm not the only 'genius' in the history of the Order. Look at Skywalker, for example. How old was he when he built himself a racing car out of all kinds of junk as a slave? Ten years? I think even at almost six, like me now, he wasn't much dumber. Or do they just not care as long as I'm on the light side of the Force? I don't know."

"Once, about a month before my birthday, when I was training at night in the fencing hall, something happened that I didn't initially realize was lucky. I was trying to deflect training droid shots at the fifth speed level, and as always before that, I wasn't doing very well. And the reasons weren't just that I wasn't keeping up, although that was also present, but also that I simply didn't have enough lightsaber movements. After all, pure Shii-Cho is not very suitable for deflecting blaster shots."

"Fifth speed level." "Holy mother! "I jumped at the voice that came from behind me and missed a couple of shots. "Very impressive for such a young Padawan. Honestly, I haven't seen such a prodigy in fifteen years."

Turning off the droid, I turned around. Behind me stood a tall human man in traditional Jedi robes. Although if he were dressed in something else, I would have been surprised. A Jedi, and all that. And the guy had long white hair, not blond, but specifically white. And his ears were slightly elongated, but that's if you looked closely. Actually, I had seen this type during my training in fencing, but from a distance, and I didn't know his name. Now, up close, it was clear that he was a half-blood, and one of his parents, apparently, was from the Sefi race. Or maybe not parents, but grandmother or grandfather. If it weren't for the silly hairstyles of this race in the form of spirals that stood like towers on their heads, the Sefi would be an exact copy of elves. They even resembled them. Even the lifespan of the Sefi was slightly higher than that of a human.

"Rein Dakari," I bowed, deactivating my lightsaber.

"Cin Drallig," the man smirked at something. "As I can see, you know Shii-Cho pretty well. Again - for your age."

"It's simple enough, Master Drallig. Sometimes too simple," I glanced at the hovering training droid nearby.

"And that is very often used by masters of this style," the Jedi nodded.

"Meaning?" I didn't understand.

"This is the most famous and the easiest to learn style. But only technically. After all, the main thing is not the strikes and combinations, but their application. For example, knowing Shii-Cho well, you can predict the next strike, not the place where it will be applied. But your opponent is a master of Shii-Cho, and he undoubtedly knows that you know. Just as you know that he knows that you know. The power of this Form is hidden in its simplicity. And by fully mastering it, you will become very, very dangerous to your opponent. Of course, there are also downsides to it. But there are downsides to every Form."

"Are you a master of Shii-Cho?" I couldn't help but ask.

"I... practice six Forms out of seven."

Wow.

"Can you teach me?"

"Heh, you're in a hurry. First, learn Shii-Cho. At least on an intermediate level."

"I would love to," I grimaced, unable to contain myself. "But they don't teach it. Everything is within the program. If only you knew what it took me to beg to show a couple of extra moves. I looked for help in the Archives, but learning from a book...," I shook my head. "Although I did learn a couple of moves from there."

"You can learn sword fighting without a teacher... but it's difficult. And often harmful. And certainly takes longer."

"That's what I'm talking about," I said, sighing heavily.

"But you don't need to hurry anyway."

"I almost recoiled from his words. Nowhere, darn it all. In general, they don't intend to teach me here. And what is distracting you then?"

"Excuse me, Master Drallig, but I need to practice," I activated my lightsaber and turned to face the droid.

"Even like this? Well, I won't interfere."

Strangely enough, Drallig didn't leave, but he also didn't get in the way of my training. He just stood aside and observed. At first, this irritated me, but then I got used to it. Well, if he wants to watch, let him. I'm not a blushing maiden, I won't melt. What bothered me much more was that I couldn't reduce the droid's hits. A rough estimate showed that only in three out of ten cases could I not get my lightsaber under the shot, and in the other seven, my knowledge of Shii-Cho let me down. For some positions, there simply were no necessary sword movements to harmoniously deflect the shots. I had to improvise, but after that, a hit inevitably followed. At worst, I could deflect one or two more shots, but there was no rhythm anymore, and the end was predetermined - another missed shot.

"You switched to the fifth level too early," the Jedi said after twenty minutes. And he's not too lazy to stand here. "You just don't have enough knowledge. You feel it, don't you? And you probably blame it on Shii-Cho. The most interesting thing is that in general, you're right, this form is not designed for deflecting blaster shots, but not in this case. Right now, you're incompetent even in the first Form, which is why you lack the necessary movements." How he annoyed me with his constant talking. Stretching through the Force, I deactivated the droid. I turned to the man, deactivating my lightsaber.

"And what?"

"Uh-uh-uh... well. I advise you not to continue these lessons. Now you're developing harmful skills for yourself, which will come back to haunt you later. If you want to train, reduce the speed level and only use what you already know." Damn, reasonable. At least, with my knowledge of fencing, I couldn't argue with this statement.

Glancing at the clock, I noticed that I still had about twenty minutes left from the time I had set aside for myself. "Well, let's work on the fourth level," I thought to myself.

"Thank you for the advice, Master Drallig," I bowed to the Jedi. "May I ask a question?"

"Please," he waved his hand.

"Can I use the techniques I learned outside the standard program in these training sessions?"

"That's an interesting question," the man said. "If your mentor showed you these techniques, then undoubtedly. But as for the ones you obtained from the Archives, it's better to show them to someone first. Perhaps even to your mentor. It would be unpleasant if you repeatedly practiced a technique incorrectly. I would even say, more than unpleasant."

"Thank you again, Master."

"It's nothing, it's not difficult for me," he said, rubbing his chin. "Would you mind showing me how you handle the fourth level? Or even better, first the third level, and then the fourth."

"Of course, Master." Maybe he'll show me a few techniques?

Unfortunately, he didn't. After standing with me for another forty minutes, smiling kindly, thanking me, saying goodbye, and leaving. What a jerk. I even extended the training time in my unfounded hope. But no, what a disappointment. Piece of shit. I'll remember this.