But gradually, he advanced through the course, becoming faster each day, until one day, he found himself at the finish line seconds before time ran out.
“Ah,” the Jedi said. “That is always the difficult part, isn’t it? Even many my age still struggle to tell the difference sometimes.”
“I’ll go through the exercise with you,” she said. “Perhaps we can learn from each other.”
“Learn to learn,” she repeated softly. “Perhaps I have forgotten that.”
And so she took the boy on as her Padawan, to offer all she knew.
The Padawan looked at his Master in confusion. “But I am right here,” he said. “I will always be wherever I am. How am I supposed to find myself any better somewhere else?”
The Master chuckled in fond amusement at the question. “Go, and you will find out, Padawan,” he said. “If you had been able to find yourself here, you would have already done so. A change of scenery will do you some good.”
Her Master understood well enough. “Yes,” she said, her eyes softening even as her voice remained firm. “It is easy to show compassion to an injured animal, or a child, or to those who have shown you friendship. But to one who has attempted to do you harm? That is much more difficult. Yet, as Jedi, we must also offer those people our compassion, however difficult it may be.”
Mace’s hands swept over his comm. “I need a medical team to report on my position.”
The unknown clone’s eyes fluttered open, and he gazed across the room, coming to a rest on Mace – his eyes glazed with pain, but lucid.
“No need for that, General,” he said weakly, “I’m done for regardless.”
“I’ll let the medics be the judge of that,” Mace said, moving carefully to the trooper’s side. “What’s your name, trooper?”
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