I have my eyes closed, breathing slowly with all eight lungs as I let the force flow through it.
"Good, Very good." a woman's voice comment "Now, open your eyes. It is almost time for mealtime."
I open my eyes, revealing the ten or so younglings and their teacher, Jedi Knight Mor'thal, a female human of medium build and with short blond hair. I take up almost half of the classroom and shift to the side as the younglings get up to file out, talking and laughing amongst themselves.
J'ikai Mor'Thal makes her way over and smiles up at me "You did very well for someone with half a week of practice." she says.
Shrugging my wings I burr up my feathers slightly before answering "Hardly just a couple of days. I did practice meditation at least an hour a day for quite a while now. I just normally don't access the force at the same time."
The council agreed with Yoda that I need, at the very least, basic training. The chance to become a raving force junkie is really too big so I didn't have much choice but to accept...with the condition that it would not affect my job.
Meaning that I spend my week on Coruscant in the Jedi temple, joining basic classes they have picked out as the most fitting for me.
They are mainly focused on philosophy, read the Jedi code, meditation and control.
She nods "That is true. Still, you are doing well." and makes her way out of the room, motioning for me to follow her as we move to the closest food court "I understand your next class is the philosophy with Master Ni''x?"
I nod and squeeze to the side as good as I can in the narrow, for me, corridor to let a Wookiee past before I continue after her "I believe that to be correct."
As we reach the food she picks some kind of steamed vegetables and I pile a bunch of fruit and meat on a couple of trays before I follow her to a table.
She sits down and takes a bite before smiling slightly "If you ask my personal opinion, you would make a good Jedi."
I blink down at her at that statement before shaking my head "I have already told Yoda I am not interested. I am only here because it's more likely to keep me out of black leather." I answer her and she chuckles.
"Is that so? Very well then, it is your choice. Better eat up fast through, Master Ni''x hates it when you are late. I should know, I was his student in the same subject once."
After quickly finishing my meal I pull out my PAD to get the directions I need before making my way up to the room indicated.
I press the button to open the door, revealing a...greenhouse?
Blinking, I check the PAD again so check I am in the right place before I slowly enter. It's plenty big enough for me even if I can't exactly stretch my wings.
As I move further inside, looking at the plants the door close behind me and I spot someone further in.
"Hello?" I ask and tilt my head and the Ithorian turn around before answering
"Greetings. I am Jedi Master Ni''x. You are Atreus, I assume?" he says and moves to sit down on a stone bench.
I nod and move a bit closer "I am. Am I early?" I ask and look around, not seeing any younglings or other students and he shakes his head before answering.
"You are not. You are the only student for this class due to the need to compress it down enough to fit the subject into the few days available."
I make myself as comfortable as I can on a patch of grass "Philosophy, correct?" I ask and he nods and answers.
"Correct. To be more precise, the Jedi code in this case."
Frowning slightly I nod, "I am not going to be a Jedi, though..."
He chuckles and nods "So I have been informed. That does not stop the Jedi Code from being a good guide." He answers and I nod before he continues, "Very well. You know the code, correct?" he asks and I nod.
"I do, the one you use is:
There is no emotion, there is peace.
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge.
There is no passion, there is serenity.
There is no chaos, there is harmony.
There is no death, there is the Force."
He slowly nods "It is. Today we will be focusing on the first two lines. Do you understand what they mean?" he asks and I frown before answering.
"I think I do, but I must say I much prefer the older code."
Ni''x blinks at me, looking a bit surprised "You know the old code?" He asks and I nod as I answer him,
"I do, I looked up the Jedi Code in the temple database at the start of the week...and I must say that 'Emotion, yet peace' and 'Ignorance, yet knowledge' make a lot more sense than 'There is no emotion, there is peace' and 'There is no ignorance, there is knowledge'."
Ni''x 'hmm's softly before nodding "If you so wish, we could discuss the old code instead. They are both valid even if the older one fell out of favor thousands of years ago and not normally used. The 'new', if you wish to call something thousands of years old new, code was considered easier to learn and understand. Which is why Master Odan-Urr came up with it in the first place."
I nod and start to relax on my patch of grass as I lay down fully, resting my head on my arms "Let's begin then."