Chapter Nineteen

Plagueis frowned, leaning back in his stool for a moment, once more alone. Sidious was up in the Senatorial district wearing his Palpatine guise and taking part in a few debates about the Trade Federation's demand they be allowed to arm their ships further against pirate attacks, attacks which Plagueis had set in motion to be the impetus behind that militarization. He could envision a time when they would be magnificent tools in the Sith end game he saw coming up in a few years' time.

For his own part, Plagueis was about to leave for a job of his own alter-ego, that of the banking clan Magister Hego Damask II. During that time he would fall off the grid for a bit to start the next phase of the Veil's emplacement, and to set in motion a few other plots, plots which would drain the Jedi of their numbers slightly and their attention certainly.

But nothing that could lead back to the Sith, the thought always uppermost in his mind, hence the frown currently on Plagueis' face. He had just finished decrypting the message Master Tholme had sent to Yoda, and now had to wonder what to do about it.

I cannot place any devices or anything else on the Explorer to learn whatever variable Tholme has discovered, that is impossible. Worse, any tools I could use to do that or to perhaps steal the new variable is away could be traced back to us.

Closing his eyes, Plagueis probed the future, trying to calculate if the odds of finding this new angle and turning it to their own ends was worth it in the long term, only to come up with nothing definitive. In fact, it felt as if that was entirely impossible. Indeed, it felt more like whatever he did the new variable would strengthen the Jedi's position, though how much it would was undefined at present.

With that so certain, the decision was simple: remove the new variable. Plagueis was a scientist, and refused to leave anything to chance. And while I have few tools whose subtlety I could trust to discover whatever this variable is, I do have several who can delete it for me. And I can even do so without leaving any hints of our own involvement, which is even more important.

OOOOOOO

"What do you mean you want the Force Ghost to join us in teaching the clan? And that you don't want us to go on to Coruscant immediately? Setting aside my belief that we need to get that boy and his abilities under the eyes of the Council of First Knowledge, we're only allowed to have 40 students at a time before dropping them off, and we're nearly at that level now."

"The Force has been telling me not to bring Harry to Coruscant just yet for some reason," Tholme said quietly turning away from the small viewport which was the only real affectation in the room. The rest of the matriarch's room was as austere as to be expected from a Jedi: a desk, a hologram device for work, and a bed. There was only the one viewport there which broke up the austerity, allowing the individual within to stare out into space beyond.

That took the matron aback for a moment, but after a moment she frowned, her muzzle pulling back slightly to bare a hint of tooth. "That's all well and good, and I am not going to tell you that you are not feeling that, but I am getting no hint of any such thing. I have my own duty to the Order to think about. Several of my students have been aboard Explorer for nearly 3 months now as we've made our way from one system to another in the Outer and Mid Rim territories. And now you want us to pull away from the Inner Rim. You know how the council already feels about the training ships as it is."

Tholme sighed, but nodded. The Council of First Knowledge had long been pushing for the training vessels to make shorter journeys, ever since the Chu'unthor was lost to a crash landing on Dathomir. The Dark Sisters had repelled the Order's attempt to retrieve it, and the Order had decided to let them have it rather than risk a war between two Force sensitive organizations since it had not had any students on it at the time. That and the less learning that happened away from the temple, the more time the teachers there had to inculcate the younglings into the Order's way of life.

"That is true. However, I believe that Master Yoda told you I was to be placed in overall command, is that not so? It is my decision that we remain way from Coruscant for a time."

The Bothan woman scowled, even more teeth showing, but then she took herself to task, leaning back with her hands folded in her long Jedi robes. "I will go along with this change in our itinerary for now. But why do you want Lily to help teach the other younglings?"

"She and I have had several discussions since we first meet on Ryloth, the scope of which I won't bother you with now." Tholme said sitting down in the small chair across from the woman at the desk. It was either that or sit on the bed, and that was a bad idea on many levels, even if the chair was made for smaller frames then his, designed to make the student summoned to the office feel even smaller than he already was. "But one of the most interesting things she said was that Harry's abilities were not unusual in scope, but time."

At Illaveil's confused look Tholme explained. "Apparently among her people they start going to a school at around 12 or 11, and live there for seven years. At that school they learn how to do many of the things that Harry can, but he is much younger and much better at it than most of the students there would be by the time they finish their education."

"Are you saying his powers this, what was it, transfiguration, conjuration? Those are commonplace among his people?" The other master's eyes had narrowed thoughtfully, and she was now listening fully to Tholme for the first time in this discussion.

"Indeed. But she also said something else that was rather odd to me, that their people needed focuses of some kind."

"There were ancient tales of the first Je'dai needing such," Illaviel said thoughtfully. "But that soon was done away with quickly when they began to spread out." Her eyes narrowed once more. "You think Jedi, our younglings, can learn what he does."

"I want to see if it's possible yes." He held up ahead as the womanly to protest. "Spending a few weeks on this little experiment of mine will not harm the younglings in any way, you and I both know that the education they get on Coruscant is no different than what you can provide here. And the implications if it is possible…" He shrugged not needing to go into detail there.

"Why not have her try to teach you then?" woman replied quickly. "Or your young padawan. Why use the children for this experiment?"

"I've already begun some experiments of my own, a few of the things Harry does seem to need 'spells', words and gestures to accompany them, I've been practicing them. The results have not been very good admittedly, which I fear might be down to age and mental flexibility. Or perhaps some kind of mental discipline that her people take for granted we're still dealing with a slight a language barrier after all. Their ability to speak Galactic standard is exceptional for so short a time but it isn't quite fluid yet. We're adding to their vocabulary constantly as the days go on."

Tholme didn't say that Lily was interested to see if the other students could learn how to use magic like Harry could too. She had insisted that the wizards and witches of her world all needed focuses, but Harry didn't and moreover Harry could do things even the masters the art couldn't do as easily. If other children could learn to use the Force as Harry did, then it meant focuses were not necessary, at least for spells. Runes were another matter, and one that Tholme was very interested in exploring in the future.

"That's true, I suppose, the primitive society they came from originally must have been very backward indeed to not know Galactic Standard." The ancient Bothan mused but her eyes were still sharp as she stared at Tholme. "I don't like it, I don't like the idea of contaminating my students with dangerous non-Jedi thoughts at this stage. You know a few of them, Harry included, are already too old for many of the Council of Reassignment or High Council to approve of further training. Adding in new teachings to that could make things worse for them when we reach Coruscant. We may say that the Agricorps is an honorable profession but there is no doubt that it does not hold the same primacy as becoming a Jedi."

The Agriculture Corps was the portion of the Jedi Order for those initiates who did not make the cut from youngling to padawan for whatever reason before their 17th birthday. Exceptions were known to be made for students with exceptional Force ability, but for the most part if you weren't accepted by a master or knight before your 17 you were sent to the Agricorps.

In the past five years there had been a move to stop that practice, simply because more Jedi had died recently on missions then in the 30 or 40 years before, and the Order wanted to bolster its numbers. But there was quite a bit of internal dissension against that idea, and no clear outcome in sight for that discussion.

"True, however, I do not think that it's necessary to worry about it at this time. Of the students can learn to manipulate the Force in the same ways that Harry can, no doubt they will be welcomed with open arms."

"I don't like it," Illaviel said again shaking her head. "I don't like it, but if you have Master Yoda's permission, I will not argue further. I will however demand that I sit in with you as we watch her teach. And if she is not a good teacher, I will make my own decision then agreed?"

"Agreed," Tholme said with a complacent nod. After all, Harry's skills couldn't entirely be put down to his power or his own intelligence, nor could Aayla's progress in so short a time.