“Yawn~”

  ‘After I slept enough, I woke up the m, about 7 AM.’

  ‘There was a digital clock built into one wall across from my bed. This way I could watch the clock even from my sleeping position. I was still in bed, pting the thought of leaving it, but I realized that there was nothing else to do, so I decided to turn around and sleep for a few more hours.’

  ‘That was the moment when the door suddenly opened, and the tall form of a temple guard came in. I looked at the new guest. Now there was at least a reason to sit up and say hi. So I did just that.‘

  “Hi, I help you with something?”

  ‘Since I was sitting now, I could see that the guard was actually a she. I also saw that she had a pile of clothes held in her hands. Looking at me patiently.’

  “Good m. I brought you a pair of new clothes. Your current ones will be sent to the er.”

  ‘Now that she mentions it, my clothes were pretty sweaty and unfortable since I did those demanding force teiques yesterday. I was too tired to care about it, but now, they feel kind of gross.‘

  “Thank you very much. I appreciate it.”

  ‘She nodded.’

  ‘I stood up, took the two pairs of clothes from her, then walked to the bathroom. First, I washed up a bit and only then ged my clothes.’

  ‘They gave me two sets of clothes with the same simplistic design, but they were in different colors. One was a bck-colored light tunic, with brown pants, while the other one was beige colored oh grey pants.’

  ‘I got two pairs of shoes, too. One was more fortable and easier to wear, most likely for training purposes, while the other was a simple pair of boots, much like my own.’

  ‘Ag on a whim, I took the light-colored clothes. I was in a bck robe until now. Time for some ge, I thought. A few mier, I dressed up and came bay room. The guard was still here, waiting for me.‘

  “What should I do with the undry? I am ly allowed t them to the er myself...” — ‘I spoke my mind, showing my dissatisfa sarcastically.’

  ‘She looked at me, cheg my tire for a few seds, then said.’

  “There is no reason t them there. A droid will e for it soon, you are io the cil room for another meeting. Follow me, please.”

  ‘Now that was straight to the point.’

  ‘I nodded and hastily followed her out to the corridor. She gave me a short sidelong gce when I reached her side and started walking beside her.’

  ‘Now, what was her problem? There was a momentary frustration in her eyes, then she gave up on the voiceless unication and said.’

  “You should always walk oep behind your superior.”

  ‘Ah, the etiquette. I almost fet about it, but she already tradicted herself. She is not my superior, but my captor at the moment.’

  “I am not a jedi, therefore you are not my superior.”

  ‘She reacted to my snide answer as if she expected it.’

  “I am older than you, and you are a guest here. Therefore, it would be prudent of you to abide by our rules instead to rewrite them.”

  ‘Oh, I am not so sure about that, but I ’t really bme her for thinking this way. The other half of her argument I could hardly question. I nodded and gged behind just a little.’

  ‘She seemed pleased with her insignifit victory. She nodded with a light smile, clearly satisfied.’

  ‘Well… as long as she is happy.’

  ‘We walked for a while through the long corridors. Corridors that felt surprisingly empty. We only met with oher temple guard on the long way towards the jedi cil.’

  ‘Thinking about it, master hairless shouted something about a war, and separatist? Maybe that is the reason why there is only about a hundred force signal around the whole temple.’

  ‘Most of those are pretty weak, likely children, the geion of the order.’

  ‘When I expanded my senses, I could also feel the presence of the masters. Their force presences were like beas of light pared to the other, less powerful auras.’

  ‘The temple guard’s aura was not bad either, but theirs were leagues uhe power of the masters. I could easily differentiate them this way. I also realized that master hairless presence was gone.’

  ‘He must have got an urgeing outside of the temple, but there was another force presehere, not as strong as a master or even a temple guard, but it wasn’t weak either.’

  ‘Most likely a weaker knight, or a padawan. The temple guards were, after all, full-fledged jedi knights and sometimes even masters joined in their ranks to do this sacred duty, as they called it.’

  ‘I would call it utter boredom, but no one asked my opinion in this matter.’

  ‘We finally reached the familiar door. My guide knocked on the rge double door then waited.’

  ‘A few heartbeats ter, I sensed a calm invitation through the force. This must be the sign to enter. Just as I thought, the guard pushed open the door, then urged me to enter with a slight wave of her palm.’

  ‘I walked in then she closed the door behind me from the outside, ah she wasn’t io the party. What a shame.’

  ‘In the room, I saw the grandmaster and master Kenobi sitting in their usual seats, but there was someone else too, standing in the middle of the room.’

  ‘Oh a togruta girl, about my age, this will be iing.’

  ‘I reached the ter of the room and stood beside the obviously antsy togruta. Someone doesn’t like to stand before the cil, I guess. I o her, then turo the masters and greeted them with ease.’

  “What do I owe the pleasure of this splendid invitation, dear masters? Not that I have anythier to do in my solitary cell, mind you.”

  ‘The togruta girl beside me pletely froze after hearing what I said.’

  ‘Her mouth was hanging loosely in the air. Wow, those are pretty sharp teeth. I shouldn’t get distracted too much. It’s rude after all, some of my masters had a very good upbringing, therefore I also am in possession of those etiquette lessons.’

  ‘I looked back to the masters. Kenobi seemed to have a hard time hiding his smirk, while Yoda nontly gave me a nod of aowledgment. Now he was the one who began the versation.‘

  “I am happy to see that you have rested enough after your eventful arrival at our temple.”

  ‘He looked at me with a mischievous glint appearing in his eyes. I looked to the floor with a bit of embarrassment. I am sure that he already heard what I told to the healer dy. No problem though, if I have to make some sacrifices to achieve my revenge on Revan, so be it. I soon collected myself and looked back to the masters, just as Kenobi tihe versation.‘

  “Indeed, but first of all, let us introduce you to your new guide. This is padawan Tano. She will help you find your way around the temple. Oh, where are my manners, padawan Tano, here is our new exge student Nizzal Grey from another more secretive force user sect. The sect’s name was not shared with us yet, but we knew just enough to know that it is an only chil-”

  ‘While listening to their sentences, my expression began to grow darker and darker. I slowly realized what they were getting at. While I didn’t care about what the elders thought for some reason… The prospect of getting embarrassed in front of Ta unbearable. Was this eople called peer pressure?’

  ‘She is the first child simir to my age that I met in seven years… I just didn’t want to ruin the first impression with a potential friend.’

  ‘I gritted my teeth and hissed out just before Kenobi fihat sentence…’

  “The Order of the Grey.“ — ‘Not that they would know anything of it by simply knowing its name. Even if I told them half of what I know, that wouldn’t ge anything meaningful. The Order is not a pce that anybody ihout being invited first.’

  “Pardon me?” — ‘Kenobi said teasingly.’

  ‘I gritted my teeth. I didn’t think that this will backfire, especially not this soon, damn it.’

  “Our sect’s name is The Order of the Grey, or more only, the Grey Order.”

  “Iing. Remind me, what did you say? How many of you are out there currently?“

  “I did not say it.” — ‘I spoke sarcastically.’

  ‘He smiled at me ily, pletely ign my gre. Then he said, with humor.’

  “Very secretive, indeed.” — ‘He teased me once again.’

  ‘Last time master hairless took the limelight, but now I have to realize that this guy is just as much of an annoyance as him.’

  ‘Yoda looked at me with a weak smile, theuro the togruta girl, who in the meantime mao pose herself somewhat.‘

  “It will be your mission to guide her and also to guard her if the need arises while she resides in our temple. Treat her as your equal, as a padawan learner of another force sect. I must remind you that this is a great opportunity to create friendly es with a mysterious yet seemingly peaceful force sect.”

  ‘What does he mean by, seemingly? Is he als to get on my nerves?’

  ‘The girl answered eically.’

  “Yes, master Yoda! I uand!”

  ‘I hope that this girl isn’t always this excited, or my peaceful life will also bee a memory in my archive. I gave a sidelong go the togruta girl. She didn’t even notice it, although, master Kenobi seems to uand the reason for my irritated expression. He only smiled at me sympathetically. Oh, no...’

  ‘Master Yoda turned bae with a grandfatherly smile.’

  “I holy hope that this cooperation will bee fruitful. It is a rare ce to create friendly es between members of different philosophical schools of the force. As a sign of trust, we allow you entry to our jedi archives on the level of a padawan learner. You find your card in the library by asking our lead librarian, Jocasta Nu. She has already been notified of this.”

  ‘He looked at me with a thoughtful expression, then he added o sentence.‘

  “You have reminded our cil of some of our basic principles that we shouldn’t have ed. In exge, I ask you to show us the same respect as we do. And while we ot let you leave the temple perimeters, we allow you to roam it freely. Let us nret the trust we gave you.”

  ‘So this was the roundabout way to decide what kind of person I am. I guess I couldn’t pin... So I gave a decisive nod to them.’

  ‘Kenobi stood up and walked over to me, then said.’

  “Also, there is something I have to give back to its rightful owner.”

  ‘Now, that truly surprised me. There was a shocked expression on my face as he dropped my lightsaber into my open palms. I even looked towards the grandmaster. He gave me a serious nod, then master Kenobi tinued.’

  “It is a beautiful bde, resolute and ho. It’s strongly bonded with its wilder, through a special force ritual that our on master could not identify.”

  “You may wish to speak with him iure. In the hands of a true on master, a bde tell much of its user’s nature.”

  “There are dark shadows partially clouding your bde, yet its heart remains clear of its taint. Sharing some of our teags in a friendly manner could be beneficial for each of our orders.”

  “For starter, you tell us what is the proper form of address to one of the higher members in your order?”

  ‘Okay, they are quite good at making me feel ied to them... Dangerously good, to be ho... Well, what is the ce that they run into one of our members in the first pce? I may as well gave them an ho answer.‘

  “There are two different invocations. Every person chooses their own style from these two. It serves as a warning for the others, showing which aspect of the force they stand closer. The first is the Grey Jedi, while the sed is the Grey Lord.”

  “Iing... whie is yours and your master’s title?”

  “Grey Lord.”

  ‘There were a few seds of sileer that. Then, master Yoda closed our meeting hastily.’

  ‘I pced my lightsaber on the side of my robes to be visible to everyo was a strange feeling.’

  ‘I was so used to hiding it that I actually felt unfortable not doing so.’

  ‘After we left the cil room, the little togruta practically boune, grabbing my arm with one hand and she started to pull me towards somewhere stantly talking about herself and pces she liked and I o immediately see too. She also asked me just as many questions, leaving me no ce to properly answer any of them.’

  “I am Ahsoka Tano, but you already know that oh, I am padawan to Master Skywalker. He is a really powerful jedi! Who is your master? Is it a secret? Is he powerful? I bet my master is strohan yours, he is very cool too! Oh, I am fourteen years old. How old are you?”

  “Thirteen...”

  “You are youhahan, just as I thought! I will show you one of my favorite pces. The room of thousand fountains is really beautiful! What is your order like? Why are you so secretive? Are you afraid of something to hide all the time? I never saw a grey twi’lek in the Jedi Order. Is it your natural skin color?”

  “Yes...”

  “So you are afraid of something? What are you afraid of?”

  “I meant the skin col-“

  “Oh yes, what color is yhtsaber? Master Obi-Wan seemed to be ied in it?”

  “Silver...”

  “Wow, I never saw a silver bde. Will you show it to me, please? you show it?”

  “Maybe ter...”

  “Eh, e on! I will duel you if you want, oh that’s it. We should duel, it will be fun! I want to fight with someone who is not trained by our order.”

  “You wao show me the fountains...” — ‘I attempted to distract her, unwilling to end up in a duel… that would not show good on my already troublesome record…’

  “Ah, we look at it ter. e now, hurry. In the m, the dueling fields are mostly empty. We fight as much as we want!”

  “But, I don’t-”

  “Yes, I know that you don’t know where it is. I will lead the way! e now!”

  “Ugh, I didn’t eve breakfast, ’t we fi-” — ‘I was really getting hungry to be fair…’

  “I also did yet. I used to eat after a little workout. It feels much better to eat after that.”

  “Master Vokara says that it’s a togruta thing to eat after a workout. I mean, it stimutes the predator nature of my kind. Like, if you go on a hunt and only then got to eat!”

  “Twi’leks are not like that, I heard. They are more peaceful usually. Like Master Vokara, she always acts strictly at first, but she is really soft on the inside, especially with children.”

  “Are you like that too? I don’t have any twi’lek friends, I read that twi’leks use their leks as arms. Are you really able to lift up things with it? My lekku ’t do that!”

  ‘Force save me!’

  ‘We reached the training halls, and I felt already drained from the stant storm of questions.’

  ‘I started to look forward to the duel, actually.’

  ‘I hoped that she will stop speaking while we fight. Ahsoka lead me to one of the many training fields. She told me that I have to make my on run on the lowest energy level that only gave a slight shock.’

  ‘It was uandable, there were oo many force sensitives. It would be idiotic to kill each other in a friendly duel. Oh, wasn’t that what the sith usually did, hmm I guess that tells something about Revan’s and his friends general IQ level.’

  ‘Thankfully, he ’t read my thoughts here!’

  ‘We showed each other that we indeed ged our bdes to the agreed energy level. Then we walked to opposite ends of the training field. We took up hting position.’

  ‘I waited for her to see what form she choose, oho! Is she really a Jar’Kai user, with two single bdes, or maybe she just tries to show off? Her stance is not that bad, so it’s probably not the case. One sword is in front while the other is hidden behind her, mostly out of sight, clever.’

  ‘This will be much more iing than I thought, looking at her more carefully, she is in a much better physical state than I am, an obvious sign of a guardian type of force user, she obviously relies more on her sword skills than the use of the force.’

  ‘Let’s make a more careful approach at first. I choose form six Niman. It is the most basid most banced form of the general lightsaber forms.’

  ‘With an experienced user, the form create a strong defeh clever calcuted attacks boosted with the extensive use of the force. This was why I never bothered to use any type of Jar’Kai, sihis way one of my arms is free to trol and el different force attacks freely.’

  ‘I usually only held my bde with one arm. I am a force user. Why would I choose to not use it in a battle? As I slightly opened myself to the flow of the force, I sensed another outstandingly powerful presen the room.’

  ‘It was even strohan the grandmaster’s aura. What a damn monster! I wao look around, and pin down the source of it, but Ahsoka sensing my momentary distra choose to charge at me at that exaent. Damn it, she is fast!’

  ‘I instantly jumped backward, emp my legs with the ford also giving Ahsoka a light force push to slow down her charge. It was enough to recreate my defensive form. She seemed very annoyed by this, almost pouting. She wao finish it quickly. Sorry, but I have some pride of my own, you know?’

  ‘She was cirg arourying to find an opening, but I always followed and tered the small ges iance.’

  ‘She was getting frustrated by this. She will charge at me soon, most likely overextending, then I will be able to hit her.’

  ‘Here she es. Oh, she charged at me, then jumped up, empowered by the force. Oh, she wants to attack from the air since she didn’t find any other opening?’

  ‘Not a good idea. In the air, your mobility, even with the help of the force, is very stricted. I lowered my bde then raised my other hand, giving her a moderate bst of raw but trated forergy.’

  ‘She got hit by it for a fra of a sed. She stopped in mid-air as a result of the tradig forces. She gave me a shocked expression, then she suddenly accelerated backward.’

  ‘She even dropped her bdes on the way, then she fell on the ground about teers away like a sack of potato rolling a few more times on the ground for dramatic effect.’

  ‘I stood there looking at her unmoving form spread out on the ground.‘

  “I guess I got too excited and overdid it a bit.”

  ‘Probably I shouldn’t take my master’s capabilities as the base of what is moderate and what is strong.’

  ‘Yes, that must be the problem. There is a need for re-evaluation oopic of normality. Thinking about normality, there is a pretty abnormally powerful killing i directed towards me from one of the furthest ers of the training room.’

  ‘Oh, it was getting closer, too. There was a tall guy running towards the training ground. He had somewhat long brown hair, and was sending a death gre towards me while running to the most likely knocked-out girl sprawled out on the floor.’

  ‘If a gre could kill, I would be evaporated by now, about ten times, give or take. Is this the hatred what Revan feels whealks with me? Hmmm, maybe I will be a bit o him ime if I see him. I will only mention his giant hree times in one versatiohat should do the trick.’

  “Ahsoka! Ahsoka are you okay?”

  ‘I walked a bit closer, then said.‘

  “She is knocked out. She ot hear you.“

  ‘Oh, his face was quite er hearing that. I could feel the burning hate leaking out of him. Is he really a jedi? Maybe I met someone from my order. That would be ued, but not impossible. So I asked.’

  “Hey!”

  ‘He didn’t even look at me.’

  “Is there any ce that you are a Grey Lord? “

  ‘Now that made him look at me instantly, oh did I hit the nail on the head? Then I saw his face. For a sed, there was sheer disbelief, then his face turned red as a ripe paradise from repressed anger and embarrassment. What is his problem now?’

  ‘He asked with a very, and I mean very ominous, voice.’

  “Did you just call me a Gay Lord?”

  ‘There was a heavy and stifling silence filling the empty space betweewo of us. A silehat was starting to suffocate me.’

  “…” — ‘Oh, fuck me.’