She doesn't sense anything out of the ordinary. Resolve and quiet anger from the Queen's party, alertness from the guard, calm from the Jedi, quiet amusement and concern from the Senator.

They follow the Queen into the ship. The inside is less literally shiny than the outside, but metaphorically it's about the same. Very luxurious.

Those seats look soft. Very important quality for seats to have.

She doesn't... Really have much to do here. Boredom's peeking up through her exhaustion, and meditation can only do so much about that.

No one will grudge her some time in the comfortable seats. It'll be a long trip, after all.

The Queen wishes to consult with the Jedi Masters about their strategy upon landing and the extent of the aid they are willing to provide.

Are the students invited to that?

If she wants to attend, of course.

She's going to have a lot of time to spend entertaining herself, so... Attend?

The conference is mostly about what the Jedi are and are not willing to do. They're not going to fight a war for the Queen, but they will protect her. Even if, she confirms, she goes into battle personally. The Jedi would prefer a negotiated solution to the Federation, but agree that seems unlikely. Negotiating with the Gungans in the Queen's stead is also beyond their mandate, but they can answer some perceptively 'hypothetical' questions along similar lines.

The conference manages to be actually fairly interesting. She likes the Queen, and she thinks the not promising to not break their mandate is clever.

After a while, the conference breaks up. Elesse would like to speak with Anakin at some point before they land, but it can wait if she'd rather talk to others or do something else first.

She's available now.

"I would like to talk on the subject of lightsabers. I would not have suggested you build one if I did not think you were ready for it, but we are going into a live combat situation rather sooner than I had anticipated."

"Yeah. Okay. What about them?"

"The crux of the matter is this. A lightsaber is a lethal weapon. It is also one of the most recognizable symbols of the Jedi. Therefore, every time you ignite your blade, you invoke both the potential of causing death, and the reputation of the entire Order. You do not need to shy from drawing your blade, but you should not do so thoughtlessly."

She nods, slowly. "And the Order's reputation for - non-violence, or very carefully considered violence, matters to you?"

"It is easy to move from talking to fighting. It is much, much harder to go the other way. I prefer to have more options readily available at the outset, rather than fewer. And reputations are easier to damage than to build."

She hums. "People who're scared don't want to deal with you fairly, and if you demand things from them they're more likely to betray you than if they like you," she says after a pause. "I know that. But - I dunno if you're saying 'don't kill people unless you really have to' or 'don't get caught killing people as a Jedi.' - I also get that threatening to kill or hurt people just to get my way isn't smart, too, but is threatening to kill people I sincerely and consideredly intend to kill also not smart?"

"If you are going to kill a person, I prefer you to have a considered reason for doing so. Jedi are peaceful, which is not the same thing as pacifist. If killing someone is the most appropriate solution, then you should do so. If killing is an inappropriate response, then you should not do so as a Jedi. As to threats, I do not make any I do not fully intend to follow through on, such that you might consider them more in the class of warnings. This can be a tool to head off a problem, but if you are sure that someone will die regardless, it can be better to skip to that step directly."

"Killing someone if they don't know they're at risk of being killed, or that you're one of their potential enemies, seems... Not really rude, but... I guess the closest idea is unaesthetic? So if I'm gonna kill someone I'll probably warn them, unless warning them really works against my goal."

"I also don't think I'll kill anyone for - reasons that're bad to me, but I think my reasons are shaped differently from other people's reasons, and I don't want you getting in trouble if I make a - decision that's considered for me but not reasonable for other people? Like... Some of the philosophy books I was reading said a life's equal to a life. So under that logic it's good to kill one person to save two, and neutral to kill one to save one, and bad to kill two to save one - but I'd kill multiple people to save you if that was needed. And it'd be fully considered and for a reason that's good to me, but people who think a life's a life might think I did something wrong? And people are allowed to think I did something wrong, but..." She shrugs. "There'd probably be consequences?"

"There will always be consequences. What's important is to be able to live with them, and yourself. It's good you're thinking about this in advance, and I won't say the decision you've come to is wrong. Master Yoda would tell you to meditate on your attachment to me. What motivates it, whether it is based in fear, how far you would go, under what circumstances you would break it."

"I guess, yeah. And I can think more, but I'm pretty sure I like you cause you're the sort of person I like."

"Well, thank you. With luck, this particular situation won't arise in the near future."

Heeee. "Yeah. Though thinking about it's not too bad."

"That is all I wanted to talk about, unless you have something else."

"Hm, I don't think so, unless you've got suggestions for exercises for me to try? I wanna train."

"If you continue as you have been, that should suffice."