"How's that work?"

"The mechanism is hidden behind a panel such that one must use the Force to activate it. The panel can be removed if necessary, but the idea is that if you are not in a state of mind where such manipulation is easy, you are not likely in a state of mind to be ready to speak with the Council."

"Oh, okay. Why wouldn't it be easy, though?"

"Delicate or small-scale telekinetic manipulations can be difficult to concentrate on when your mind is preoccupied."

"Huh. I guess, yeah, if you're really upset."

"It's not a perfect system, but it's not intended to be."

"That seems kinda weird... Why wouldn't you try to get as close to perfect as you can?"

"Most often, because the returns you get for further improvement aren't worth the time and resources to develop and implement them."

"Huh. Okay."

They reach the top and the lift door opens. The doors to the Council Chamber proper are arched, twice as tall as Elesse, and dark wood. She opens them and steps through.

The room beyond is circular, with twelve chairs in a ring around the center, with a gap at the door. Floor-to-ceiling windows offer an excellent view of the city. The ones facing the sun are auto-tinted to reduce glare. Occupying eight of the twelve chairs are Councilors. The two directly opposite the door are the most noticeable. One is a tall, dark-skinned human male with a severe expression on his face. The other is a wizened little green creature, even shorter than Anakin, with wispy gray hair and long pointy ears.

Elesse goes to the center of the room and bows briefly.

She bounces up beside Elesse and cheerily copies her bow. (This is so cool, the city's so pretty, also she's never seen the green Councilor's species and that's cool too - )

     "Good to see you again, it is, Master Vendar," the little green one says. "With success in your mission, did you meet?"

"Yes, Master Yoda." She briefly summarizes the results.

The bald man leans forward and steeples his fingers. "Well and good. But I think we are all more interested in the unexpected guest you have brought us."

"This is Anakin Skywalker. I encountered her at the end of my mission, when she landed a ship full of refugees she rescued from a band of slavers on the planet."

Yoda looks at Anakin. "Mm. And accomplish this feat how did you?"

"There's - a feeling I get, from my friend, who Elesse thinks is maybe the Force, and my friend tells me how to do stuff I wanna do, and gives me good or bad feelings about courses of action. Like, it helped me learn how to make it so people don't notice me, and how far I'm gonna have to fly and where, and how to move things without touching them, and how to pilot a ship by myself. We got the chance to run because I was annoying one of the slavers so he'd get into a fight with some other slavers and get me breathing room for some other stuff I was planning, except then the fight kind of... Spiraled, and he decided to kill everyone around him, so I told all the slaves to get out of the way so they wouldn't get hurt, and we all left afterwards, before anyone could notice what'd happened."

"Mm. Reckless, you are. Incautious."

"I knew it'd go well, and it did, I just didn't always know why or how. I don't risk my people when I've got a bad feeling - and not doing anything would've definitely hurt us. Lots of people were already slowly starving, or dying of medical issues, or just suffering, and now they won't."

"A path begun in violence, to no solution does it lead."

"Wouldn't call it begun there, unless you count the slavers taking slaves as the path's beginning. My part began with redirecting them away from my people, and hiding, and stealing medicine, and I started trying to get us out because no one was coming, and no one'd come for a thousand years, and I knew no one'd keep coming. I'm not always good at keeping things from escalating in ways I haven't predicted, but I'd like to learn how to do that, and the Jedi seem - to be good at getting goals without messing up like that."

"Training you seek, hmm? And what say you, Master Vendar?"

"I believe it would be best for everyone if Anakin were accepted into the Jedi Order."

Yoda looks around the room. A chain of glances passes from Councilor to Councilor, ending up at Master Windu, to Yoda's left. His frown deepens. "She is too old," he says.

"I've got a lot of catching up to do. But why is age a factor, other than how much I need to learn?"

"Attachments you have. Fears, ambitions. These things a Jedi needs not."

"Pretty sure I don't have fears, and I don't think there's anyone I'm attached to right now - I got my people set down somewhere safe, so they're none of my concern anymore. Dunno I have any ambitions I'm actually attached to, more current whims."

This is definitely not someone who's felt a lick of fear since coming to the planet. Interest, fascination, curiosity, excitement, a sort of background hum syncing with the contentment and happiness she feels around her - even when being challenged, she'd remained focused on the puzzle of it, any irritation mild at best, and floating away rather quickly.

"Know your mind well you do, for one so young. Nothing hidden lurking in dark corners you have, hmm?"

"If it's hiding, I don't currently know about it."

Another look chains around the room.

"Deliberate on the matter of Anakin Skywalker, this Council will. Dismissed, you are."