Chapter 14 – Building a lightsaber

"Where are we heading to?"

Lyn asked after Layan gave coordinates to enter in the navicomputer to T3. Once the droid was ready, Layan lowered a lever, and the ship entered into hyperspace.

"An old-world where only a few haves set foot on in the last thousands of years. If this world is hospitable enough, we will settle here for the time that will last your apprenticeship."

After the ship entered into hyperspace, Layan rose from his seat and headed to the main hold after instructing T3 to inform him if a problem occurred. Lyn follows behind him as he steps in the main hold and opens one of the crates full of mechanical parts bought on Corellia.

"The world where we are going to. What does it look like?"

"I don't know. I never visited it. I know that long in the past it was where was located the great Jedi library. It was a place of knowledge where several famous Jedi masters such as Nomi Sunrider studied. After Exar Kun fell to the dark side, this world was ravaged under the destruction of a supernova, thus becoming a toxic and desolate world."

Lyn was stunned when she heard the description he made of the world where they would settle in, it was far from being the ideal world.

"And we are going to settle on such a world?"

Layan looked at her with stupefaction before remembering that she barely knows anything except the recent history.

"Exar Kun lived thousands of years ago, this world had more time than necessary to become inhabitable once again. It may not be Bestine IV, but it should be good enough, I want to be far from any indiscreet ears for the years to come. If we're lucky, we may even find old Jedis relics or maybe lost knowledge and skills."

While they were discussing, he sorted out everything he needed out of the crates and left for the lounge with the materials in his arms. When he reached the room, he put everything on the table, put the durindfire crystal with the rest, and turned toward Lyn.

"The travel toward Ossus may take a day or more, we are deep in the Hutt space. I'll use this time to build a new lightsaber, we may need and I feel strange without it. You, meanwhile will learn a skill I will teach you named Force-stealth, I don't want to be detected by anyone. We will be in the middle of nowhere on a lost world, but I don't want someone to locate you. You have to put all your efforts on your technique while I meditate on the durindfire crystal."

Seeing Layan serious expression, she nodded and knew that this technique to be important, and she was right not only Force stealth could hide your presence in the force but also protect from farsight.

Layan wasn't worried about the time Lyn will need to learn this skill. He was more worried about himself. The bond between the master and his apprentice is said to be even stronger than the link between a child and his parents, this what he is worried of. If he unconsciously establishes a link toward Shaak Ti in the current time, he may inform the Jedi order and by extension Palpatine of his presence and fuck up his second chance.

If they become subconsciously bonded, she may become aware of his presence or the force could give her visions about him.

"I'll teach you the basics, there is no perfect formula, to use the force most of what is necessary is a good feeling and an image of what you want to accomplish. Theatrically, it is one of the simplest force powers to use but not to master, you'll need effort and cleverness to use it skilfully."

Lyn listened to him while he organized all the pieces of his future lightsaber on the table of the lounge.

"Fuse with the universe. Your presence has to become dissolved, think of it as a sort of invisibility. You have to feel comfortable with it, so much that it becomes almost natural."

Lyn sat in meditation while listening to Layan words. When he saw her so focused, he took the durindfire in his hand started to imbue it with the force. Normally it could take several days, even months for the best cases, building a lightsaber was important to a force user but several ways were created to shorten this time for example in time of wars. Using these methods, the time necessary could be reduced to only one day.

This way, several hours went by with the two focused on their meditations while the ship was heading toward the ancient world of Ossus.

At some point, Lyn opened her eyes she thought she made some progress, but she wanted to have Layan opinion. But when she saw him deep in meditation with the crystal in hand, she raised silently and left toward her room just beside the lounge after visiting T3 to see if there was any problem.

A few hours later, Layan opened his eyes and looked downward at the crystal at his hand. Before being imbued with force, it looked like any jewels but now it was emitting a beautiful silver glow.

As he didn't saw Lyn, he knocked at the door of her room, seconds later the door was opened by the young teen.

"So how was it, any progress?"

She didn't answer and looked at him with expectations. Layan could feel the force move around her. She was putting it in an application for him to see, but the results were barely effective. Her presence in the force diminished slightly, but anyone with a bit of training could spot her as force sensitive.

"Not bad for a first try, keep it up. I'll assemble the pieces together and create a lightsaber, want to see?"

Lyn became excited and followed behind him toward the lounge where she sat on a chair and watch the build of a lightsaber.

Layan stretched his hand and used the force to lift all the pieces in the air with the crystal at the center. The crystal took his place inside the mainframe were all the internal components already were, then the coverings were put on the naked mainframe, then came the blade and power adjust, finally the blade emitter shroud took its place at the top.

Taking hold of the lightsaber with his open hand presses the control switch, and a frost silver blade was emitted from the tip of the lightsaber. Moving it left and right, he heard the humming sound of the blade.

"Is there a more beautiful sound in the universe?"

"Master, isn't your lightsaber a bit… shabby?"

Lyn asked Layan with a small tone, not sure if her criticism would anger him. She was right, the lightsaber he built was bare and lack everything, from any form of customization to practical devices to help the wielding. It looked like a shiny metallic tube with buttons here and here.

"I built it because it could be helpful, we don't know what the fauna will be like on Ossus, and I'm so used to carry a lightsaber that I feel strange without it. I'll build a better one later, we don't lack time."

The girl was looking as he was swinging the blade left and right, sometimes performing movements she saw during the lesson of Makashi on Corellia. When he makes sure that the weapon was correctly assembled, he put off the blade and looked at Lyn. Her gaze was glued to the newly constructed lightsaber with admiration.

"Try it."

He stretched his hand with the lightsaber and handed it to her. Holding this powerful weapon, she didn't know what to do and was hesitating.

"Put your hand here, this button is the power switch of the blade. Push it forward and then the blade will appear."

He was holding her hand and put her fingers where she needed to hold it correctly. When the blade appears in front of her, she looked up at the silvery blade in awe.

"Swing it, feel how is it to wield this weapon, in the days to come I'll begin to training in the form I shii-cho, every youngling at the Jedi temple start their training with it. I prefer training with good old wooden sticks, it left bruises, and it's useful to train the healing force abilities."

"When could I build my own?"

"Depend on your results. In a year, maybe less but before that, I'll create a training lightsaber for you to be used to carry one."

With that said, he left the lounge and headed toward the cockpit. When he entered, R2-T3 the astromech droid he bought started to beep and turn his dome-shaped head.

"Beep. Beep."

"Thanks for your work T3, I'll take over for the landing. We don't know what this world will be like. I prefer to be cautious."