So he can lead her somewhere quiet for some meditational exercises.

Occlus is done with her calls.

"Going somewhere?"

"Yes, my Lord. We sparred some, and I was about to teach her the basics of Force manipulation."

"How basic?"

"I was thinking breathing exercises, Force sensing, if she was really really good at it making a very small object float."

"How very Jedi. They didn't teach you anything at the Academy?"

"No, my lord."

Occlus tsks. "Why did you go there?"

"A... Sith was at one of my matches. They talked to my family, after."

"I see. Carry on, then. Rafa, I expect a progress report afterwards."

"Yes, my Lord."

Onwards!

"So how does this work?"

"Like Lord Occlus said, this is gonna be more Jedi than anything. I don't know how Sith train it." He sits cross-legged on the floor. "Sit. And breathe."

"Okay." Sitting. Breathing. Both things she's done before.

"I'm going to be a bit different than what Jedi actually teach because it never did work very well for me," he says, but his voice is low, an almost whisper. "Close your eyes. Breathe. Find an easy rhythm for your breaths and let your thoughts wander. Pay attention to them, pay attention to the emotions they cause, and the ones they don't. Don't act on them, just feel them."

Let her thoughts wander, okay. She's never been very good at this meditation thing. Some of her instructors had her try it before competitions but it always seemed like a waste of time. She'd rather do something than sit still. You can't sit still with a dualsaber, you have to keep it in motion. Momentum is your friend, once it's going. The hardest part is starting. Wait, what? She's lost track of her thoughts. Rafa said to pay attention to them. Think about what she's thinking. That's confusing. Like she should have two trains of thought at once? He has a nice voice. Soothing. Uh. Emotions. Should she be having emotions? Is she? It's hard to tell.

"You're getting restless," he says. "That's okay. I get restless, too. Those emotions of yours affect the world, even when you don't do anything about them, like I told you not to. My eyes are closed, but I could tell anyway, couldn't I? See if you can track the way they're doing that, being projected out into the world. It's okay if you can't. But try anyway. Just like your breath is affecting the air currents and you can feel that, can feel the air leaving your nostrils and touching your lap or your hands, you can also learn to feel the flow of the Force caused by your feelings."

Track emotions, okay. Like breathing. It flows in and out and affects the world. So now she's feeling... confused? Is that an emotion? Maybe nervous. Can she find the source of that and follow it out? No, that doesn't make any sense. Look outside-

Oh.

It's like reading a fight. Small cues, shifts of weight, lines of sight, you can tell what your opponent is about to do. It's like those hints. Tiny changes in the-, the fabric of the world and you can put them together into a picture and these are her nervousness and then her realization.

He grins. "There you go. Now see if you can detect my emotions. I'm going to flare them up a bit, and I'm going to slowly shift through them. Tell me when you notice a shift, and tell me what you think I'm feeling." The first thing he thinks of is being small and people finding out he was a Force sensitive. He was an orphan, then, and he felt so happy, absolutely elated, he was special and he could do things he'd always known it but now he knew it knew it and it was the best thing and he was going to be the best Jedi and end the war and everyone would be happy...

"Happiness."

And now he's small, trying to meditate, trying to concentrate on his breathing and on feeling nothing at all, on having no attachments and being at peace, and that's bullpoop, how come everyone can do it and not him? He should be able to do it he's smart he's good no matter what all those other people say wait he's feeling emotions aaaarghhh why is he feeling emotions he's not supposed to this is so frustrating—

"...Frustration?"

Now anger. Anger at his old master for being a horrible person and for belittling him and making him feel unworthy and like he didn't deserve to be a Jedi. Anger at him for "making an example" of Rafa...

"Anger."

Anger again, but this time at Lord Occlus, for killing his master, for almost forcing him to be complicit, and at himself for letting it happen, for not being strong enough to stop her. For every death she's caused and for not being able to stop her, to be courageous enough, good enough...