Nal sat in the room which had been reserved for the Jedi to work out. Her legs were crossed and her large black eyes were closed. The everyday sounds of the ship didn't really reach inside the well insulated room, but the omnipresent thrum of the ship's hyperdrives seemed to keep her from the level of concentration she wanted to reach.
Even before Val had suggested this meditation regimen, she knew it was what she had to do. Too close had she come to falling to the Dark Side. Too close had her emotions come to taking control, emotions that should have been suppressed long ago. She was supposed to be a Jedi Knight, above feelings and emotions... or at least strong ones.
She was also supposed to be above attachments, but Nylan had been her best friend. They had arrived at the Jedi Temple on Coruscant at about the same time and about the same age. As Younglings, they had been in all the same classes together, and had spent all their free time running about the Temple, trying out their fledgling powers to sneak into places that Younglings weren't allowed. Of course, they were caught more often than not and sent back to their rooms, even put on cleaning duties a few times as punishment. As Padawan's they had been on several missions together, their Masters being close as well.
A sense of calm and peacefulness swept over Nal, and she instantly knew that the Chiss Jedi Knight was close by. It was the same sense that always seemed to surround her partner and she envied him for it. She looked up as he entered the door. "How are da prisoners doing?" she asked.
"They're as well as can be expected," he replied, sitting down on the floor across from the Nautolan. "But you shouldn't be concerned with them right now," Val said, changing the subject. "How is your meditation therepy coming along?"
She looked down at the her hands still clasped in front of her and resting in her lap. "Not as well as I'd hoped," she replied. "I keep getting distracted by thoughts and remembrances of the past."
"Which, as you've said, is what got you in trouble in the first place," Val said, finishing her thought.
Nal was silent for a minute. It was comfortable. Peaceful. It was always peaceful when Val was around and she soaked it in. She thought back to just a few days ago and to the rage she felt. She had been reckless and out of control, and powerless to contain it. Nal hated herself for that weakness. Only when Val had showed up had she been able to clamp the flow of anger. She shuddered to think what might have happened had Val not shown up in time.
"How do you do it, Val?" the female Jedi asked. "How do you stay so calm always? How do you make the emotions go away?"
"The Force is a funny thing," he replied. "It surrounds us, and binds us. The Jedi draw their strength from the peace and serenity that it brings. Yet at the same time, a Sith draws it's draws powers from the very same well of energy." Val went on for a while, explaining how each Force user was like a well, themselves and how you had to struggle to guard your well. One single drop of poison in a water well can spoil it for a very long time, and sometimes things that can seem so harmless at first can end up destroying it. He knew these were basic teachings that most padawans knew, but he thought it was probably a good idea to go over them again.
He proceeded to teach her some techniques he liked to use to enhance calm and peacefulness, and in the end he reminded her, "to guard her well diligently."
"Only you know what is dangerous to you, and can pull you down," Val told her. "Sure, I can guess at things. The Jedi Masters can speculate and we may even be right. But in the end, only you know."
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