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Aayla wasn't certain why being bigger was better there, but she knew it was. I'll get there eventually, she thought once again. Just a little longer. Then I'll probably look just as good.
After a moment, Aayla sighed and shook her head. "No, it isn't really. Is it that obvious?"
"My dear, you are one of the most social individuals I have ever met among the Jedi, and yet you are here alone? Clue number one. Clue number two, your movements are angry, disjointed, far too emotional." There was no censure in Shaak's tone when she said that. She was simply making observations, the calmness of the other woman almost reaching out to touch Aayla and calm her down in turn. "It doesn't help, exercising like this when you are so out of sorts."
"You're not going to give me a lecture about being too emotional? For overreacting to all the, the stares and the sly looks and the…"
"Youngling Secura, if I was going to do that I wouldn't be here. That is not my way," Shaak said, interrupting the other girl. "Instead, I'm here to help."
She moved forward, holding out her hand, the Force pulling a towel from one of the walls to land in her hand neatly before she reached Aayla. "Now, wipe yourself off and come with me."
Feeling somewhat drained physically but still very out of sorts mentally, Aayla complied, wiping her face and lekku, then her arms and chest, patting it once disconsolately before resolutely throwing that thought away again. I'll get there eventually.
"You'll get there eventually," Shaak said, having caught that little movement. Aayla looked a little embarrassed, further adding to her emotional turmoil, but Shaak merely chuckled. "Youngling… Aayla. I was far flatter than you for quite a while longer than I anticipate you will be. Do not let it bother you. It's simply one of the many changes your body is going through that you will have to deal with. Despite all the other tiny falsehoods you are being told at this moment that at least is truth."
Aayla stiffened at that, but Shaak took her arm before she could speak. "We'll talk further about that and about what you have been learning from the Jedi Masters assigned to teach you about such things later. For now, you need to find your sense of balance once more."
The younger Twi'lek didn't argue or try to fight back as Shaak led her by the hand through the Jedi Temple and up several flights of stairs. They eventually stopped outside a door, and Shaak paused, her eyes closing for a brief moment. Aayla could tell that she was sending her thoughts out into the Force, but couldn't figure out why until Shaak smiled, opening her eyes once more. "Good, it's empty right now. Come in."
The meditation room on the other side of the doorway was not one that Aayla had seen yet in her time in the Temple so far. It was not the bare utilitarian room that the younglings were shown and ordered to meditate in. Instead, it was a jungle, almost. From one end to the other, the room seemed filled with trees—small, two-story trees for the most part, with large branches shooting out in every direction, up and down and all around. Several yards into the room was a small stream wending its way through the roots of the trees, several of which seems to be growing directly out of the river.
Aayla, of course, knew that underneath all this would be stone and steel flooring, but right now it was very hard to remember that she was in a temple rather than on some jungle world. And listening to the sound of birds in the distance, she could not hold back a gasp of delight.
"This room dominates half this floor of the temple," Shaak said once more, guiding Aayla in by hand. "I personally have not been to the planet where these trees grow, but they are quite fascinating at first glance, are they not?" Aayla nodded, and Shaak continued to lead her through the room until they came upon a small area of grass between a few trees.
It was obviously artificial, kept clear of the trees by human or other sentient hands instead of by wild design. Yet even so, it blended into the rest so easily you had to really think about it to realize that.
There Aayla felt Shaak let go of her hand, moving forward before turning to the younger girl as she slid down onto her knees in a meditation pose. "Sit."
As she did, Aayla asked, looking a little uncomfortable, "Master Ti, was I broadcasting what I was thinking so hard that you felt it?"
"Master Yoda did, and he requested that I help you. I would have in any event," Shaak replied, shaking her head with a faint smile. "I had actually been on the lookout for this kind of a reaction from you and the rest of your clan-mates. However, I had recently been assigned another mission of my own. It will take me away for at least a few weeks, and I had been researching it so I missed whatever was...is the phrase, straw that broke the animal's?"
"I wasn't trying to blame you, Master Ti," Aayla said, feeling guilty for some reason. "I was just asking if I was projecting so much that I was bothering other people."
"A good attitude to have, and given your empathic ability it is a concern at times. Yet you have never done so in the past, and I doubt you will in the future so long as you quickly control yourself once more. Which brings us to the reason why we are here."
Shaak held out her hands, palms upward. After a seconds hesitation, Aayla reached forward with both of her own, laying them on top of the older woman's. "Close your eyes, and we will begin…"
End Flashback
There that memory ended, and Harry came back to the here and now as the first few Masters, including Master Giiett reached them. Master Giiett as one of the Masters on the council, took the lead, bowing his head to first Fay, then Dooku, before flashing a quick wink up at Lily. "Master Dooku, Master Fay, these are Masters R'sonan, Varsu, Marfel, Crux, and Porto."
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