"Oh, thank goodness.  I was relatively sure of it myself, but - well.  Relatively sure doesn't go very far with chronic anxiety!"

The enchantment settles with surprising ease, for all that the blade was made to take it, and - she turns it on.

...That is the low electric hum of success.

    "Would you like to see some beginner katas, ma'am?"

There is some very eager nodding, though it appears that she has once again lost all ability to words - this time with her hands full, which, whoops!

...After a second, the texting device operates itself anyway because Alicia has magic dammit.

...With the intent that I observe, or with the intent that I replicate?

She says 'whichever you'd like', ma'am.

And Deskyl steps a little farther away from the building, lights her 'saber, and begins going through the most basic of katas.

Alicia follows Deskyl's lead - and, somehow, she finds herself good at it.

And from a window, Her Grace watches their practice for as long as she can bear to be away.  "...Do remind me to do something for Apprentice Deskyl.  As much as I wish it was otherwise, Her Highness may need these skills."

"Of course, ma'am.  Did you have something in mind...?"

"...Not as of yet."

...Despite the best efforts of some to beat back the tide that would wash away this moment, the future inevitably arrives.

The next day, Alicia texts DZ.

How's - I would say meditating on desire, but that's probably not the actual shape of what you might be doing - treating you, DZ?  And magic.  How's magic treating you.  Is there anything that's giving you trouble?

I'm sorry, ma'am, I hadn't understood that you expected thinking about desire to be useful. I've been practicing with the magic but haven't seen any change in which things give me error messages besides noticing that I can hold a small object a short distance off a surface without triggering one, if I don't move it; I'm not sure if you had an idea of how long it might take for me to see a change to that with practice. I haven't had any problems with it beside the error messages.

...Oh, damn.  My bad.  Well.  I guess you know now?

It's.  What I think you need to do here, is.  I think you need to treat this like an exercise in - motivated reasoning?  In that --

There are things you know you want to do.  Know you want to be able to do.

And so you ask yourself, can this thing that might be useful to know, be an extension of those things?

(...I should mention that Order magic has the stablest form of teleportation/portals presently known.  Which requires more power draw.)

(I suspect that might help with your magic practice.)

That would be very useful - to Deskyl. And the Sith has always held that DZ wanting things for her sake doesn't count, not really. She's not coming up with anything else she'd especially want it for, but maybe she's just not thinking of something, it's not like her line is designed to be good at strategic planning or anything.

Perhaps, ma'am, but I'm not sure why you expect that in particular to be useful, could you tell me more please?

...I'm not sure how to articulate the reasoning I had for mentioning that, in a way that would actually be helpful to tell you.

Plausibly she just mentioned it because it's cool; it's not like that's false.

That's all right, ma'am.

...I - is it alright if I ask something that's - maybe a bit impertinent?

Why do you not expect that to be particularly useful, or are you - just that blocked on figuring how things might be useful?

I think that might help me help you, if I know it.

I don't see any way it'd be particularly useful to me, ma'am. But it's very possible that I'm missing something; I'm not especially good at strategic planning and very bad at noticing my own wants.

...I'm thinking about the situation that brought you here, for one.  Having the capacity to escape, in the event of - unpleasantness.  And it's an undeniable travel utility.

...Another impertinent question, which I would like you to feel free to not answer: Are you bad at noticing your wants - have people noticed that you have preferences, that you did not know you did - or do you just not have many beyond - the obvious ones?  (Continued existence and being of service to Deskyl?)

It would be useful in case of unpleasantness, yes ma'am.

Not that she expects Deskyl to be remotely happy with the idea of her being close to danger even with an escape route.

I both don't appear to have many preferences beside being of service to master Deskyl and do have trouble noticing the ones I do have; I wasn't able to notice that I like some poems better than others without master Deskyl's help, for example.

...Well.  That's.

...That's not good.

I...

Huh.  I wonder.

You know how I mentioned you did something strange with your magic?  I find myself thinking about whether you could use a similar technique for self-understanding.

Yes ma'am?

If there are any texts on communing with spirits, those might also be useful, but - you are in close contact with the spirit of yourself, that knows what you want.  Why not just...  Ask it?

Huh.

That might work, yes ma'am. Are there any potential issues with it that I should know about?