"They're meant to challenge you, to test that you've really learned the skills a Jedi needs to go out into the galaxy. There's five altogether: Skill, Courage, Spirit, Flesh, and Insight."

There's the academy below them. It's large, but it melds smoothly with the surrounding land, all gentle curves. There's a courtyard in front, with a group of Padawans listening to a Master speak.

The kobold nods, and is distracted from asking any more questions about that by the view.

"How many Jedi live here?"

"I think there's about five or six thousand of us on Tython? Not everyone's at the Academy, there's outlying posts and stuff, but most are in or near the main building."

Curving around the back and side of the Academy, gardens and parks become visible. Ana brings the speeder in for a landing at a pad near the wall of the building.

She nods, relieved. "I probably don't have to worry about crowds, then - I don't know how people manage, in cities."

"Can we go join that group over there?" she gestures toward the courtyard with the Padawans in it.

"I think you just sort of- mostly ignore everyone else? Like, they're there and they exist, but more like scenery than people? Wow, that sounds kind of bad when I say it like that."

Here is the group of Padawans, they're all around eight years old. Ana goes to stand at the back. The master is explaining the safety rules for the practice dueling they're about to engage in.

"...and remember, if your partner says 'quarter', stop immediately. We don't want anyone to get hurt today."

The kobold sticks close to Anna and watches the proceedings with interest.

Well, no, actually first she takes a moment to get a location-signature. Does anyone notice that she's doing something weird?

Ana looks over at her, but doesn't interrupt.

The kobold is slightly confused at the attention, but doesn't comment.

What are the Padawans up to?

At the master's direction, they've split up into pairs and begun to run through a series of exercises with wooden practice swords. Swing/parry, swing/parry, thrust/dodge. Switch roles and start over.

"What was that thing you just did there?" Anna whispers to the kobold. "Was that the magic Master Satele mentioned? It looked really cool."

Well that's worrying.

She gives the Padawans a significant look - let's not disturb the proceedings, here - and heads back to the entrance, motioning for Ana to follow.

"Yes, it was. I didn't realize you'd be able to see it. How much did you see?"

"Not, like, a whole lot, but I could tell you were doing something. It was almost like your magic wanted me to see it."

"All right, that's... that sounds okay. My magic is taught telepathically, it comes with a limited form of telepathy at touch range, I wasn't expecting something that's supposed to only pick up emotions to notice it. And it sounds like it doesn't actually show it to you, but I'd like to be very sure of that; my magic is dangerous in different ways than yours, but it still is dangerous, and one of the ways is that if you try to use it without practicing in the right ways first it will kill you."

"That sounds very unfriendly! I will try not to accidentally learn your magic."

"Yeah. I've cast around Satele, too, though - I need to know if I need to go warn them."

She steps back from the conversation, and spends a few seconds working it out, muttering to herself and gesturing. "I think the answer is no but let me go ask-", and after another moment of interestingness, she disappears.

A minute later, she's back, much calmer, holding a paper napkin with some incomprehensible markings on it. "Yeah, it's okay. You can't learn my magic that way at all. Apparently you could if you actively read my mind, especially if I was casting at the time, but I already have a spell to prevent that, it's safe."

"Okay, I won't worry too much about it then! And also won't try to read your mind. D'you want to watch the Padawans some more or go see something else?"

Satele did tell Ana about the magic but didn't tell her about the defensive spell. Huh. Good sign, that.

The Padawans weren't actually all that interesting; did they see any other people from the speeder that she might try observing?

There were a few people walking around in the gardens, or they could go explore the inside of the Academy.

The kobold is inclined to assume that the insides of buildings are private; on the other hand, humans are weird.

"Let's try something else." Also, she doesn't actually know what there is inside those buildings.

"Sure! Do you like libraries? We could go visit the library."

"The translation spell I'm using is actually really bad for reading with. It does videos just fine though?"

"Videos... you mean like two-dee projections? We might have some of those, this place has been around literally forever. Most of the non-written stuff is holos, though."

"It does holos too, that's fine. Spoken rather than written is the important thing."

Library!

Library! Several rooms full of shelves that are themselves full of books! Several more rooms full of holocrons! And just for good measure, a few rooms of holo-recordings!

Not Ana's favorite hang-out spot. She actually tries to avoid it as much as possible. Nevertheless, she knows it well enough to help the kobold find anything she wants to look at in particular.

Books!

Holo... whats?

Holocrons! It's a thing that contains a vast amount of information, as well as the personality matrix of the Jedi Master who created it. The personality serves as a sort of gatekeeper/guide to the collected lore. Useful for Padawans studying by themselves, ahead of the curriculum. Ahem. Not that Ana knows anything about that, of course.