Chapter Ninety One

Master Ranicisis stared around at the other High Council members. It was rare these days that this many of them were in the temple at one time, and he knew that there was no doubt going to be some kind of debate now that Master Bilaba was due to be rotated out. One lone wintry eyebrow rising in query, he decided to confront the issue quickly. "Good evening one and all. I take it there is some topic you wish to bring up to the Council?"

For a moment there was silence, then Eeth Koth spoke up. He looked serene, but the other Jedi could feel that that serenity was only on the surface. "The separate training center on Serenno is becoming a divisive point. The techniques being taught there and on the training frigate under Master Saa are not spreading fast enough through the Order from the top down. More padawans are learning them, becoming…emotional and imaginative. There are questions, questions being asked about the Oath, about the nature of the techniques, and many, many Masters and Knights are becoming…disgruntled. It has taken time to build up as the techniques have spread and more people discover they cannot learn them for whatever reason, but it has now."

The training center at Serenno was set up to have classes of one youngling clan, up to eighty children, along with fifteen or so unassigned padawans and thirty to forty Masters and Knights at a time for retraining in lightsaber skills. The groups would be rotated in or out once they learned what were being called the main three and once their lightsaber training was done. The Masters could, if the teachers agreed, leave before they learned the techniques and their lightsaber training had reached an acceptable level. This process could take as short as three months, as had been the case for the youngling clan Padawans Potter and Secura had taught, or as long as a year. The lightsaber retraining process could take even longer.

Before the training clan had been created, Clan Saa had shared their techniques on a very ad hoc basis, all while under the watchful, even censorious, eye of the Council of Knowledge. While word of the techniques had spread quickly through the Order, and a surprising number of younglings, padawans and knights had learned one or other of the main three, the others had often eluded individual Jedi, to say nothing of some of the other techniques that Master Ti had taught a few other Knights and Masters over the years since she had taken up permanent residence on Serenno. This was made worse by the fact that the more set in their ways a Jedi was, the more certain in the Force, as many would put it, the harder they found the new techniques to learn.

There were over 11,000 Jedi in the Order. Upwards of eight thousand of them were Consulars. The vast majority of Consulars used Niman, the lightsaber technique derided as 'Jack of all trades, master of none,' which had been directly linked to Jedi deaths in the field. Even though the Temple was also running a retraining program, the process was slow and painful.

More than half the Council agreed with that, with Master Poof taking point. "I have been approached by several hundred Consular Masters and Knights over the past few months. Many believe the Consular class is being demeaned, almost denigrated, by the push to retrain their lightsaber skills. And many of them are very, very concerned about the amount of, of imagination and emotion that seem to be needed to make the most of the new techniques. They complain, rightly, I feel, that it gets in the way of their connection to the Force, to the balance that must be at the heart of any Jedi's ability to perform his missions."

Poof looked seriously at Yoda, Koon, and the others who had learned the new techniques, whereas he, Tiin, and several others had not been able to. "If we could bring them here to the Temple, teach them here, then we could combat some of that. This way, it seems as if we ourselves do not truly trust the people teaching it or learning the techniques in the first place."

As Grandmaster, Yoda normally would allow the others to have their say on something like this before he gave his own opinion. However here he spoke up quickly, shaking his ancient head. "No. Meditated on this point I have. New techniques, a danger they are, if not as you describe. Feed arrogance, pride they do if we are not careful. Further, a danger there still is. If taught here on Coruscant, the new techniques, aid in spreading the Dark Side as much as the Force."

Yoda could also have mentioned the runic training area and wanting to control access to that subject as much as possible. But with Fay gone, only Shaak Ti knew anything about them, and Knight Ti had refused point blank to teach anyone else without Lily or Fay around to vet them. A fact that Master Yoda had discovered via closed courier message, thanks to the growing concern about the HRS, and this was a decision he wholeheartedly agreed with. Even if this old canine, desire to learn new tricks he does.

"We are in danger of seeing a split within the Order," Master Koth said, backing up the other Master and drawing Yoda's mind back to the present. "These techniques are being spread throughout the Order at an ever increasing speed, but they are being spread by the younglings and padawans for the most part! And both groups that come out of the training center are changed: more emotional and less devoted to the Oath of the Order. Many of them have evinced a desire to take the Old Oath as the members of Clan Saa have to a sentient."

Master Poof nodded, while Gallia indicated agreement too. "That is a very bad precedent, especially since in a few years we will see many of those padawans going through with that statement. And all of this doesn't even consider the change last year about allowing physical relationships! We need to control the training center further if we do not move the training here to the Temple. Perhaps add a class on the Oath and why balance and serenity is more necessary to a Jedi than emotions."

"Going to join Master Ti and Knight Vosa I will be, replacing Master Bilaba," Yaddle said, smiling serenely. "A High Council member, there at all times there has been. Continue to be the case it will. Attempt to show the padawans and younglings the proper path we will. Suffice that will for the concerns?"

The discussion continued from there, but Yaddle's suggestion had taken some of the starch out of the other team, since she, while having learned some of the new techniques, hadn't embraced them and was a strong proponent of the Oath as it was administered today rather than the Old Oath. Tiin and Ranicisis also spoke up in favor of the training center, mentioning the survey that had been done linking the lightsaber styles to Jedi deaths. Having a separate retraining center, they argued, was simply good sense, adding to the seriousness of the retraining. And since the existing Council of Knowledge had failed to embrace the new techniques, why try to instigate a fight on that point when the alternative was working?

Yoda let them all talk, leaning back and removing himself from the discussion entirely now that Yaddle had stepped forward on his side of the argument. He knew that Ranicisis would keep the training center going, just as he had the learning frigates: because the Thisspassian, like Yoda, Windu, and several others, understood that the Dark Side was still gathering strength, the Brotherhood was still out there, and the Order was still in danger.

Though none of the High Council seemed to have realized the implications of what Yoda's meditations about the future if they taught the new techniques here on Coruscant really meant. If danger there still is of bringing the teachings here to Coruscant, then an enemy within the Order we might have. Search for him, I must. My task that will be.