Less than two days later, Fenya found herself backed up against a wall, her saber a blur as it deflected blaster shots coming at her from five droidekas from three different directions. Eeth was giving her cover, so at least nothing and nobody was going to come at her from the rooftop above. She knew she could rely on him. As for the droidekas, they were a nasty piece of work; but one had already collapsed under the barrage of deflected shots fired back at it, and she was confident that the other five would follow suit in due time. Well, they really would have to because her focus was beginning to waver. It had been an exhausting night with no sleep.

Suddenly, there was a different kind of fire. She could only just sense it coming and dodge in time. These were plasma blasters whose shots could not be deflected by sabers. They were coming from a rooftop above the array of droidekas facing her, and they were almost certainly being fired by very well-protected living, sentient snipers. Cursing softly under her breath, she weaved and dodged the shots as she continued to deflect the droidekas' fire. She was fully aware that she was not going to be able to hold out for long this way. Fortunately, Eeth was guarding the rooftop above her. She would just have to escape by a Force-enhanced jump. They would have to withdraw and develop a new strategy.

Just as she was preparing to jump, however, several things happened at once. The two droidekas facing her were collapsing into heaps of smouldering metal nearly simultaneously from having taken one too many deflected blaster bolts, and the plasma fire ended very suddenly. So did the human presences on the rooftop – she could not sense them any longer. Instead, the silhouette of a young Zabrak made a very brief appearance, giving her the thumbs up, and took cover again. She had not been aware his shields were this good. He must have known she would not allow him to have a go at the snipers, and therefore he had concealed his moves, even to her, with a degree of perfection that she had had no idea he was capable of. However, she had no time to ponder this right now. It took her several more minutes to take down the remaining droidekas; then she joined Eeth on the opposite rooftop.

"There's an entrance here," Eeth said in greeting, pointing at a trapdoor. She glared at him, but there was no time for voicing her displeasure now. Reinforcement might appear any moment. Knight Vladantlak was severely injured, and they needed to get her out as fast as possible.

Three hours later, Fenya was bringing their speeder to a halt in the confines of the Republican Embassy where they were safe for the moment. During the whole trip, which had taken place at breathtaking speed, Eeth had alternated between deflecting shots from pursuers and tending to Knight Vladantlak who was barely conscious. Fenya knew that he was far better at Force-healing than she was and she was glad for it. The hostage-takers had been quite ruthless. Thankfully, she had a padawan who did not lose his composure easily.

"Get her to the medics," she instructed Eeth. "Find out whether she's fit to be transported back to Coruscant. I'll get our ship ready. If we cannot take her, we'll have to ask the Temple for alternative instructions."

Another two hours later, Knight Vladantlak had been put into a state of stasis and placed inside a portable bacta tank which had been installed in their spaceship. It was a piloted ship, so navigation was not an issue for Fenya and Eeth. While the pilot fired up the engines, Fenya lost no time pointing Eeth to their room.

"Suppose you tell me what business you had climbing that rooftop and taking out the snipers?" she asked tersely, folding her arms across her chest and glaring at him.

"You told me to give you cover," Eeth replied in a deadpan tone of voice. "I did."

"I told you to give me cover from the rooftop," Fenya said sharply. "And I think you know exactly which rooftop I meant. Didn't you?"

She knew she had to ask Eeth direct questions if she wanted to get answers.

"I did," Eeth conceded. "But I did not disobey you outright."
"Don't you get started on technicalities," Fenya snapped. "You purposely avoided asking for permission; you even shielded your presence from me. That is as good as disobeying me outright. And if you do that during a mission, you know what to expect."

Eeth shrugged.

"I do," he said almost casually. "Sure, I saved the mission, I suppose, but if you insist on thinking of it as disobedience, I won't argue. Shall we get it over with, then?"
Fenya looked at him with narrowed eyes. Her padawan had a very high tolerance for pain, even higher than most Zabrak, and using corporal punishment on him was entirely ineffective unless his mindset was such that he was able to accept the correction. This was most definitely not the case right now.

"I do not care for your attitude," she said in that low, stern voice that was reserved for cases in which she was very seriously displeased. "We are not going to get anything over with at all. I am your master, and I am the one who takes the decisions. Including the decision on how and when to administer punishment. Every punishment is an opportunity for you to learn and grow. As long as you do not accept it as such, it will serve no purpose. At present, you are undeserving of the time and effort it would require on my part to correct you. Now excuse me. I will see whether the pilot needs any help."

She rose and made her way to the cockpit, leaving behind a padawan who was suddenly feeling acutely uncomfortable. He had known that his master would consider his actions disobedient, but he had also known that the only reason for which she had told him to stay behind was her desire to protect him. And that was simply infuriating. He was more than capable, and he did not need to be coddled. Had it not been for his interference, his master would have had to flee, and they might still not have rescued Knight Vladantlak by now! Still, his master's apparent disappointment did not sit well with him. He always aspired to living up to her expectations, and today, he felt that he had fallen short of that ambition. Even if he did not agree with her, which he didn't.

Several hours of flight time passed by, and his master still gave no sign of wanting to mention the issue again. She was polite, maybe slightly distant; but then, she often was, because Eeth rarely invited shows of intimacy. When they turned in for their evening meditation, Eeth finally could not stand it any longer.

"Master, I apologise for my disobedience," he said solemnly. "And of course, I will accept whatever punishment you see fit."
Fenya's eyebrows rose. "Padawan, we have been there," she said firmly. "You might accept punishment, but you will not submit to it because you do not really think there was anything wrong with what you did. And I will not discuss this matter with you any longer right now. Maybe later, if I feel that your attitude has changed. For now, the topic is closed."
Eeth was not used to his master dealing with things this way, and it unsettled him. Nevertheless, he recognised that he would only exacerbate his troubles if he pressed her further, and besides, he did not want to make a nuisance out of himself. Therefore, he let the matter rest.

Fortunately, the flight did not take more than a day. They arrived at the Temple in the early afternoon and were received by a team of healers who immediately took charge of Knight Vladantlak. Eeth and his master went home to drop off their baggage, then proceeded to the Council chamber as they had been asked to give their mission report right away. In the past, Fenya had occasionally given Eeth the opportunity to present their report, but this time, she did all the talking which showed him that he was not yet in her good books again. His uneasiness increased as she asked to speak to the Council alone after they were done giving their report.

"Go wait outside, Eeth," she said in a no-nonsense tone of voice.
"But–master!" Eeth protested in spite of himself, this turn of events totally taking him by surprise.

"Asked you to wait outside, your master has," Yoda said firmly, rapping his gimer stick onto the floor. "Obey her, you will. Go."

Eeth was so flabbergasted at being spoken to this way by the diminutive Councillor with whom he usually got along rather well that he obeyed without further backtalk. Pacing around the antechamber, he wondered what his master was up to.

Fenya lost no time in detailing her padawan's disobedience.

"What worries me most is the fact that it was so spectacularly successful," she said. "He is almost incredibly good at most things, and that is making him arrogant and overconfident. If he keeps overestimating his abilities, he might very well end up dead long before his time."

"Have you punished him for his disobedience?" Tvaren Angatak asked.

Fenya shook her head.

"No, and for good reason," she replied. "At present, he is convinced that he did the right thing. No punishment I could mete out would change that. I will punish him, but only when he has attained a humbler state of mind than he has now. And for that to happen, I think he needs to be shown his limits. My problem is that he is by now at least as good as I am with a saber. Therefore, I am asking you to assign him a teacher who will be able to show him his weaknesses. The faster and the more drastically, the better."

After half an hour, she emerged from the Council chamber to meet a padawan who was trying valiantly, and with an admirable degree of success, to hide his nervousness.

"Come, padawan, we are going home," she merely said, walking towards the turbolift. There was nothing more; no information about her talk was forthcoming

Well, Eeth thought, if she wanted to be secretive, fine. He was not going to do her the favor to ask her what went on. She was not going to tell him anyway unless she felt ready to do so. Not many padawans at fifteen would have been able to suppress their curiosity in such a situation, but controlling such impulses was something that Eeth was annoyingly good at. Well, annoying to some people. Not to his master who knew him longer than anyone else at the Temple. And who could predict his reactions altogether too well, in his opinion…

The next day was a Saturday, which suited Fenya just fine.

"Three announcements," she said over breakfast. "One, you are going to resume creche duty tomorrow."

Eeth suppressed a groan, but barely so.

"Will you make me do that until I am knighted?" he asked in a tone that came as close to being plaintive as any he had ever used.

"I will make you do it for as long as I think you benefit from it," Fenya replied neutrally. "And given your behavior during our mission, I don't think you are in any position to utter complaints. Just so you know, the Council is watching you closely. One more instance of disobedience during a mission, and you will be put on probation. Which is my second announcement."

Eeth nearly choked on his bread.

"P-probation?" he asked, trying to catch his breath. If he had thought the imposition of creche duty had hit him below the belt, that was nothing against the threat of being put on probation. Probation was for… well, for the others. For teenagers who behaved like adolescents. Who were obnoxious, disrespectful, broke the rules, and were - uh, disobedient. For all the wrong reasons, of course. He had been disobedient for the right reasons, but apparently, the Council did not agree. Whatever he thought of that, Eeth was immediately determined to avoid being put on probation at all cost.

After all this, he was not overly keen on hearing the third announcement, but it did not seem as if his master was planning on giving him a choice.

"Third, until further notice your lightsaber training will be taken over by Master Bai Li," Fenya said. "Starting in forty minutes, in fact. He will be waiting for you at the entrance to the main gym."

Eeth was lucky not to be chewing on any bread this time, or he would have choked again. As it was, he merely stared at his master as if she had suddenly turned into a nerf.

"Bai Li?" he asked, wanting to make sure he had heard correctly.
"Bai Li," Fenya replied calmly.

Bai Li's prowess at wielding a lightsaber was legendary. At this point, he was probably second only to Yoda. He had served two terms on the Jedi High Council, then had resumed active field duty at his own request and was therefore rarely at the Temple. When he was, he never performed in front of an audience, but kept his workouts to private training rooms. Consequently, Eeth had never seen him fight; he had only heard rumors.

Very well, he thought; this was an opportunity to find out whether the rumors were true. If they were, he could learn a lot. But maybe they weren't. Besides, Bai Li was human and therefore must be getting old. Eeth, on the other hand, was young, and he was good with a saber. No padawan his age was better than him, and even among the older padawans and junior knights there were few who could beat him. His own master had admitted that she could only just hold her own against him (although her defenses were impeccable and he could not usually breach them). Maybe this Bai Li was in for a surprise.

Eeth arrived at the main gym well in time, dressed in a training uniform, to find Master Bai Li waiting for him. There was no mistaking the man. He was somewhere between fifty and sixty, and even though he was only moderately tall and moderately broad-shouldered, he was the type of person who seemed to tower over everyone else. His skin was light, his eyes were almond-shaped and black, and there was something elegant to the fine curve of his mouth, the bridge of his nose and the arches of his eyebrows. His head was shaven bald, with the exception of a thin braid at the base of his neck. He was wearing a black training uniform that did not give away much of his body, so Eeth had no idea how muscular it was. He supposed he was going to find out soon.

"Master Bai Li," Eeth said respectfully, bowing to the man.

"Padawan Eeth," Bai Li replied, returning the bow. "I am pleased to meet you. Shall we get started?"
"With pleasure," said Eeth.

The pleasure did not last long. He did not remember the last time he had been flattened this fast, but it must have been a long time ago. Staring after his lightsaber which hurled towards the ceiling, he managed to dodge one more attack before Master Bai Li's saber was at his throat.

"However did you do that?" he asked in complete bewilderment.

"You are too confident," Bai Li replied serenely. "That causes you to leave openings for your opponent. Less experienced opponents might not notice, and less skilled opponents might not be fast enough to exploit them. But can you count on meeting less experienced and less skilled opponents all the time?"
Eeth did not know what to say to that.

"Can you show me what I'm doing wrong?" he asked instead. "I want to improve."

"What you're doing wrong is your attitude," Bai Li replied. "You know you're good, and that's how you fight. If you focussed more on the Force and less on your ambitions, you would be a much better fighter."

The lesson continued in much the same way. Bai Li persisted in humiliating Eeth in front of the whole main gym – or at least that was the way it felt to Eeth who was acutely aware that a lot of people were watching by now. He would certainly not humiliate himself any further by asking his teacher to stop the lesson or to move it to a private training room, though. He simply gritted his teeth and persevered. His teacher continued refusing to point out individual mistakes that caused his student to lose his fights; whenever Eeth asked him about those, the only answer he received was that he needed to change his attitude. Eeth had not felt this frustrated and unsettled in a long time. When the lesson was over, he felt shattered, both physically and mentally. He thanked his teacher with a wordless bow, grabbed his gym bag and stumbled out of the training room, deciding to take his shower at home, much against his usual habit.

He gave his master no more than a silent nod as he crossed the common room, too wrapped up in his misery to offer more. Making for his refresher, he took a quick shower, then emerged into his room and sank down onto his meditation mat. The Force had always been his refuge when he had been hungry, in pain, confused, desperate or otherwise needy, and today was no different. Focussing on the Force calmed him down like nothing else could. It also helped him to see himself in a much clearer light. The truth, as he started to realise during his meditation, was that he had come to consider himself invincible. That was what had motivated him to act as he had during their mission. It was what drove his way of sparring. And it was what had been his downfall in his match against Master Bai Li. If that was the case, it could have been his downfall in other situations just as well; while taking down the snipers on the rooftop, for example. He had known from the outset that his master had made him stay behind in order to protect him, but so far, he had not been willing to acknowledge that she might have had reason to do so. Today's lesson had taught him better. He was not invincible, and he had refused to see that. Now wonder his master had seen no point in punishing him.

About an hour and a half after he had come back from the gym, he entered the common room where his master was sitting, drinking tea and reading. She looked up as he approached her. He offered her a respectful bow.

"Master," he said. "May I talk to you?"

"You may," she said solemnly, inviting him to sit.

Sitting down on a chair without really paying attention to what he was doing, he said without preamble: "Master, I would like to thank you for making me work out with Master Bai Li. I might learn a lot from him if I ever manage to hold my own for more than thirty seconds, but more importantly, today's lesson taught me that I am not as invincible as I thought I am. I was arrogant, and I really believed I could not go wrong. That is why I disobeyed you. I still think I did the right thing, but I did it for the wrong reasons and with the wrong attitude. I would like to apologise. Will you accept my apology?"

Fenya scrutinised him for a moment. She did not doubt his sincerity; Eeth was nothing if not honest. But his apology had not only been sincere, it had also been heartfelt. Pairing Eeth with Bai Li had obviously been a good choice, and she was glad of it. At the Council's request, Bai Li had agreed to teach her padawan for at least the next three months to come, and Fenya had no doubt that, with his newly gained humility, her padawan would benefit from the lessons greatly.

"I do accept your apology," she replied calmly. "And I also think that now would be an excellent time to address the matter of punishment."

Eeth experienced conflicting emotions at that statement. His high tolerance of pain did not mean that he actually enjoyed being in pain; far from it. He had really hoped that creche duty and the threat of being put on probation were punishment enough. Apparently, his master thought otherwise. And, if he was honest with himself (which he tried to be), he knew he deserved to be properly punished. Besides, he would not feel as if things were right with his master if he wasn't.

"I will accept whatever punishment you decide on, master," he said quietly. On an impulse, he added: "Thank you for going to the effort of correcting me." Even more quietly, he continued: "For thinking I deserve it."
Fenya was unaccountably touched for a moment. Her padawan, despite often being an insufferably arrogant perfectionist, possessed a sincerity and integrity that were downright disarming at times.

"You are welcome," she said softly. "Now, please fetch me the cane. Then bare your bottom and bend over the table."

Eeth did as she asked him to without a word of protest. He knew to place his head onto the table and wrap his hands around its legs at the far end without being told.

Fenya was aware that Eeth was supremely good at internally withdrawing from the pain. He had internalised this skill during his infernal childhood years on Nar Shaddaa. He knew better than to draw on the Force in order to deal with pain during a punishment, but even then, it had to be a fairly harsh punishment to get through to him.

She laid down the first stroke, not holding back much. Eeth did not even flinch, although she could tell that it required some effort on his part to control his breathing.

"Tell me what you are being punished for," she ordered.

She knew that her padawan hated this ritual, but that was rather the point.

"I was arrogant, and disobedient," Eeth said. "I thought I–"

"Enough, for now," she cut him short. "Let's start with your disobedience. What does the Jedi code have to say on obedience?"

Eeth drew a deep breath.

"The Jedi shackle themselves in chains of obedience," he said. The second stroke, closely below the first, caused him to flinch and pause for a moment, but the he continued. „Obedience to the Jedi Council; obedience to their Masters; obedience to the Republic," he added, only to be rewarded with a third stroke that caused him to hold his breath for a moment.

„Was that how you acted during our mission?" Fenya asked.

„No," Eeth said, fighting to keep his voice even. „I'm sorry, master."
The last word turned into some kind of hiss as the fourth stroke struck its target. His master's cane was one she would not have used on a padawan from a humanoid species that was less good at coping with pain; it was long, thick and heavy and at the same time wickedly flexible. Still, even without being allowed to draw on the Force to shield himself from the pain, Eeth could probably have kept up some semblance of composure for quite a while, had it not been for the fact that his master was making him talk all the time. This made it so much harder to suppress sounds of distress, to hide the fact that his breath was hitching and his voice was breaking. Today's punishment was so long and so thorough that by the end of it, Eeth was crying quietly, as much from the pain of it as from shame over his behavior which his master had relentlessly made him dissect at great detail while turning his bottom into a painful mass of nasty welts (which she would provide a generous amount of bacta for, but only later today).

Fenya was not about to embarrass her softly crying padawan by pulling him into a hug, but neither was she about to allow him to run away from her the second she allowed him to rise. She put a hand on his shoulder, turned him around to face her and lifted his chin with one finger, forcing him to look her into the eyes.

"Do me a big favor and learn from this," she told him. "If you don't manage conquer your overconfidence, I will not take you on missions again. I'm serious about this. I don't want to see you dead."

Eeth was silent for a moment, making an intense, and mostly successful, effort to get his tears under control, despite the fact that his bottom felt as if he had been made to sit in a fire pit.

"I know," he finally said in a slightly raspy voice. "The thing is… neither do I want to see you dead."
For once, Fenya did not know what to say to that. Eeth was not normally one to express his feelings, and such a verbal show of loyalty and affection was highly unusual for him.

"I understand," she finally said softly. "I think we both agree that none of us wants to see the other dead. But you need to accept that it is my job to protect you, not the other way round. That way, I can make sure you grow old enough to take on a padawan of your own; and you can offer all the protection you want once that's the case. For now, I will have to rely on you to obey me, or I will not be able to take you out into the field any longer."

Eeth nodded.

"I will obey," he promised.

"Good," said Fenya gently. "Now go, put the cane away and clean yourself up a little. I will prepare some lunch."

Eeth nodded again.

"Master?" he said, just as she was about to turn towards the kitchen.

"Yes?" she said, raising an inquisitive eyebrow.

"Thank you," said Eeth sincerely. "For… for everything. Especially for not giving up on me."
Fenya smiled.

"I will never give up on you," she promised. "And, Eeth? Disobedience aside, you did extremely well during our mission. I am truly proud of you."

Eeth merely nodded; but his impassive features could not hide the fact that he was thankful and pleased.