"Yeah."

"He's been doing experiments into Force sensitivity. He's gotten people who use the Dark side for them. No one who uses the Light side, at least not more often than incidentally. You're not a Jedi, but - you're doing better than most."

"Eesh, yeah." She makes a face. "That constrains things, especially for the two of us working together, or you even so much as giving me advice or feedback on learning... Would the Jedi teach me, do you think?"

"They only take kids," she says. "Pretty young ones."

"...Annoying..." Sigh. 

"...I could probably at least spot you. Most people don't figure anything out except maybe hiding themselves or intuition without training, even if they've realized which they usually don't, but..."

"I could tell you what's possible, and what's dangerous, and - "

"If just telling you how I think through things would help, I can do that. And I can provide you plenty of education in other, more mundane things."

"What would you want in return?"

"A more powerful ally."

"I might just be able to hire you, too. As an aide, as my eyes and ears. Plagueis spies on my staff, but... It's easier to slip people in through there, especially if I slip you into a school first."

"And if I can provide a reasonable explanation for having you on board - "

"Noticing you're sensitive was hard, and... If you avoid using the Force around others, you might slip under his radar long enough."

"...Hm."

"The stuff I do - it wants to be known. I found it because of that, because of sitting at the edge of the desert and listening. Letting myself be shown, and - if I keep my body empty, if I let myself become a vessel, it fills me, and - I walk the path, and I know where to go, even if I can't say why."

"Doing things - consciously - is harder."

"...If I tried anything like that, I'd be dead or worse. The Dark Side isn't nice."

"I never said it was nice."

"But it's... If it'll kill me, it won't be quickly."

"A different sort of cruelty, then."

"Life kills us slowly, too." Shrug.

"Cruel or kind doesn't seem to factor into it, for something that much bigger than ourselves."

She nods.

"Good and evil, kindness and cruelty... They're constructed by us, every time we invoke them."

Sigh.

"So, what're we doing with me?"

...Hm.

"He'll know I'm pissed at Gardulla. You're - a minor piece in me spinning my petty revenge, one I'm keeping track of just in case. Hide you a little, but not much."

"I'm angling for an appointment to Naboo's diplomatic corps right now. I'll expand my staff if I swing an ambassador position - taking you on wouldn't be too strange, if you excel in school and don't mind being seen as a charity case. You'll be a consultant on the Outer Rim officially, most likely..."

"I've dealt with 'slave' for over a decade. I can handle 'charity case.'"

"Good," she says, and gets up to set a course for Naboo.

She has messages to draft, minor favors to call in... A thousand wheels she's been forced to leave by the wayside in running Plagueis's errands...

...She pauses as she reaches the console. "Ever piloted a ship before?"

"...No?"

"Oh, good."

"First lesson, then: get us back to Naboo. And try not to crash."

"...Anything else in this lesson?"

"Well, we just established I have no idea how to teach someone non-abusively, so..." She waves a hand vaguely. "Just use the Force."

"If you use teaching me as an excuse to make me do all your chores, I'm going to 'use the Force,'" she makes actual air quotes with her fingers, "To dump you in a garbage chute. Just so we're clear."

"I swear I definitely hadn't been thinking of doing that."

She snorts and goes to randomly intuit her way through piloting a spaceship.

And she settles back to observe. (...And make sure Shmi doesn't actually crash them into anything.)