"I suppose with more Sith, you must specialize more."

"Sort of. The motivation is more along the lines of... specializing means Sith are somewhat less likely to step on each others' toes and subsequently attempt to kill each other. Else there'd be no stability at all. Even then, power struggles are regrettably common."

"Ben said there were always two, a master and an apprentice. I wonder when that changed."

"Could be the most stable example of Sith. It's an odd rule to codify, but I could see how it might be tempting to not have to worry about multiple apprentices competing for power and prestige, and all the chaos that ensues as they take and teach their own apprentices. But I'm afraid I can't offer more than speculation. The rule seems insanity to me."

"Yes, it's hard to see why they would purposefully keep themselves on the brink of extinction."

"When you word it like that, it sounds like it might be purposefully designed with that in mind. To magnify the risk and challenge. The Sith's fight for survival is a fight for the survival of the philosophy as well as the Sith themselves. Because Sith philosophy is a strange and twisty thing that only occasionally resembles making any sense."

"I'll take your word for it. They never explained their philosophy to me; it was all 'Give into your rage, strike me down and your journey to the dark side will be complete'. I still don't understand how that works."

"... Telling you to kill them is an. Unorthodox example of Sith philosophy, I must say."

"Darn, I was really hoping you'd be able to shed some light on that. Ben sacrificed himself, but then he came back as a ghost. I don't know if they were expecting to do the same thing."

"It seems more likely they were expecting your efforts to fail. A Sith doesn't - agree to die."

She doesn't react to the part about the ghost. Occlus would probably want to collect him, but Occlus isn't here right now, and a potential ally is more useful than yet another Force ghost.

"That's probably more likely, yeah."

"I could see him lording over how you attacked an unarmed opponent with the intent to kill, and trying to use that to drag you down to a state where he could manipulate you, but. Dying in order to ultimately win the larger philosophical victory?" She snorts. "Yeah, no, I don't see it."

"What's your teacher like?"

"Pragmatic," says Callida, wryly, "is the major word I would use to describe her. She'd find declaring herself Empress of the galaxy rather tiresome."

"I'm beginning to feel the same way about rebuilding the Republic. Putting together a functional galactic government is surprisingly difficult, and I don't even hold a formal office."

"You're just the resident Jedi, kept around in case another megalomaniac shows up to menace the populace and for looking pretty at parties?"

"Only one in the galaxy, you know. I'm exotic."

She laughs.

"Of course you are."

Grin.

"And what were your teachers like? Aside from self sacrificing and inclined to be carried around."

"Ben was... For most of my life, I knew him as 'that crazy old man who lives off in the desert'. My uncle always said to stay away from him, but he was friendly enough when my friends and I would go out that way to race speeders. I really only got a few days with him before he died."

"I'm sorry."

"What a week that was. Artoo ran away the first night, got almost a hundred klicks before I caught up with him in the morning, then Sand People attacked, Ben saved me, gave me my father's lightsaber, stormtroopers killed Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru and burned the farm looking for Artoo, we met Han, the Empire blew up Alderaan, I rescued a princess, Ben sacrificed himself so we could get away from Vader, I joined the Rebellion and destroyed the Death Star."

"And I thought my life occasionally got a bit dramatic. I hope things have calmed down since then?"

"No one week has been quite so intense."