Jacen nudged her with his elbow and dropped his voice. “I’ve got a new one for you, Tenel Ka. I think you’ll like it. What do you call the person who brings a rancor its dinner?”
She looked perplexed. “I don’t understand.”
“It’s a joke!” Jacen said. “Come on, guess.”
“Ah, a joke,” Tenel Ka said, nodding. “You expect me to laugh?”
“You won’t be able to stop yourself, once you hear it,” Jacen said. “Come on, what do you call the person who brings a rancor its dinner?”
“I don’t know,” Tenel Ka said. Jaina would have bet a hundred credits that the girl wouldn’t even venture a guess.
“The appetizer!” Jacen chuckled.
Jaina groaned, but Tenel Ka’s face remained serious. “I will need you to explain why that’s funny … but I see the lecture is about to start. Tell me some other time.”
Jacen rolled his eyes.
Just as Luke Skywalker stepped out onto the speaking platform, a flustered Raynar emerged from the turbolift. Puffing and red-faced, he bustled down the long promenade between seats, trying to find a place where he could sit up front. Jaina noticed the boy now wore an entirely different outfit that was as bright as the one before, and of colors that clashed just as much. He sat down and gazed up at the Jedi Master, obviously wanting to impress the teacher.
Luke Skywalker stood on the raised platform and looked out at his mismatched students. His bright eyes seemed to pierce the crowd. Everyone fell silent, as if a warm blanket had fluttered down over them.
Luke still had the boyish looks that Jaina recalled from the history tapes, but now he carried calm power in his lean form, a thunderstorm bottled up in a diamond-hard gentleness. Through many trials Luke had somehow emerged bright and strong. He had survived to form the cornerstone of the new Jedi Knights that would protect the New Republic from the last vestiges of evil in the galaxy.
“May the Force be with you,” Luke said in a soft voice that nevertheless carried the length of the grand audience chamber. The words in the often-repeated phrase sent a tingle across Jaina’s skin. Beside her, Jacen flashed a smile. Tenel Ka sat up rigidly, as if in homage.
“As I have told you many times,” Luke said, “I don’t believe the training of a true Jedi comes from listening to lectures. I want to teach you how to learn action, how to do things, not just think about them. ‘There is no try,’ as Yoda, one of my own Jedi Masters, taught me.”
From the front row, in a flash of bright color, Raynar raised his hand, waggling his fingers in the air to get Luke’s attention. An audible groan rippled through the chamber; Jacen heaved a heavy sigh, and Jaina waited, wondering what question Raynar would come up with this time.
“Master Skywalker,” Raynar said, “I don’t understand what you mean by ‘There is no try.’ You must have tried and failed at some time. No one can always succeed in what they want to do.”
Luke looked at the boy with an expression of patience and understanding. Jaina never understood how her uncle could maintain his composure through Raynar’s frequent interruptions. She supposed it must be the mark of a true Jedi Master.
“I didn’t say that I never fail,” Luke said. “No Jedi ever becomes perfect. Sometimes, though, what we succeed in doing is not exactly what we intended to do. Focus on what you accomplished, rather than on what you merely hoped to do. Or what you failed to do. Yes, recognize what you have lost—but look in a different way to see what you have gained.”
Luke folded his hands together and walked with gliding footsteps from one side of the speaking platform to the other. His bright eyes never left Raynar’s upraised face, but somehow Luke seemed to look at all of the students, speaking to every one of them.
“Let me give you an example,” he said. “A few years ago I had a brilliant trainee named Brakiss. He was a talented student, a voracious learner. He had a great potential for the Force. He seemed kind and helpful, fascinated by everything I had to teach. He was also a great actor.”
Luke took a deep breath, facing an unpleasant memory from his past. “You see, once it became known that I had founded an academy to teach Jedi Knights, it’s not surprising that the remnants of the Empire would have their own students infiltrate my academy. I managed to catch their first few attempts. They were clumsy and untalented.
“But Brakiss was different. I knew he was an Imperial spy from the moment he stepped off the shuttle and looked around at the jungles on Yavin 4. I could sense it in him, a deep shadow barely hidden by his mask of friendliness and enthusiasm. But in Brakiss I also saw a real talent for the Force. Part of him had been corrupted long ago. He had a deep flaw surrounded by a beautiful exterior.
“But rather than reject him outright, I decided to keep him here, to show him other ways. To heal him. Because if there could be good even in the heart of my father, Darth Vader, there must also be goodness in someone as fresh and new as Brakiss.” Luke gazed up at the ceiling, then returned his glance to the audience.
“He stayed here for many months, and I took special interest in teaching him, guiding him, nudging him toward the light side of the Force in every way. He seemed to be turning, softening … but Brakiss was colder and more deceptive than even I had suspected. During one part of his training, I sent him on an illusionary quest that would seem real to him, a test that made him face himself. Brakiss had to look inward—to see his very core in a way that no one else could ever see.
“I had hoped the test would heal him, but instead Brakiss lost that battle. Perhaps he was simply not prepared to confront what he saw inside himself. It broke him somehow. He fled from this jungle moon, and I believe he went straight back to the Empire—taking with him everything that I had taught him of the Jedi Way.”
Many students in the grand audience chamber gasped. Jaina sat up and looked at her twin brother in alarm. She had never heard this story before.
Raynar again had his hand up, but Luke looked at him with narrowed eyes so full of power that the arrogant student flinched and put his hand back down.
“I know what you’re thinking,” Luke continued. “That I tried to bring Brakiss back to the light side, and that I failed. But—just as I told you a few moments ago—I was forced to look at how I had succeeded.
“I did show Brakiss my compassion. I did let him learn the secrets of the light side, uncorrupted by what he had already been taught. And I did make him look at himself and realize how broken he was. Once I accomplished that much, the task was no longer mine. The final choice belonged to Brakiss himself. And it still does.”
Now he raised his eyes and looked across the gathered Jedi. As Luke’s gaze passed over them, Jaina felt an electric thrill, as if an invisible hand had just brushed her.
“To become Jedi,” Luke said, “you must face many choices. Some may be simple but troublesome, others may be terrible ordeals. Here at my Jedi academy I can give you tools to use when facing those choices. But I cannot make the choices for you. You must succeed in your own way.”
Before Luke could continue, sudden screeching alarms rang out, sounding an emergency.
Artoo-Detoo, the little droid Luke kept near his side, rushed into the grand audience chamber, emitting a loud series of unintelligible electronic whistles and beeps. Luke seemed to understand them, though, and he leaped down from the stage.
“Trouble out on the landing pad!” Luke said, sprinting for the turbolift. He continued to speak to his students as he ran, his robes flapping behind him. “Think about what I’ve told you and go practice your skills.”
The students milled about in confusion, not knowing what to do.