The Mandalorian Wars

Chapter 3

As Meetra's friendship with Rhyos and Alek grew, her friendship with Atris seemed to deteriorate. Atris was harsh, overly critical, often smug, and generally not pleasant to be around. She also seemed jealous, almost, of how easily Meetra got close to the two men. Alek, in particular. Alek and Meetra became sparring partners in classes, as Alek's strength and ferocity would often prove a match for Meetra's perfect techniques, and her ability to learn her opponent's fighting style easily made her formidable. Atris resented this. Yes, maybe her talents were best served as a historian, not a swordsman, but Meetra had been her friend first.

But what Atris seemed to despise most was how easily Meetra abandoned their former desire for Jedi purity. Rhyos was the Padawan of Kreia, a Master Atris had little respect for; Kreia's sole goal seemed to be to draw discontent with the way the Order was run. Rhyos himself was no more immune to her troubling questions than any other Padawan of Kreia's, most of whom had indeed turned to the Dark Side. And because of his friendship with Meetra, he would bring her some of those troubling questions and then Meetra was under Kreia's influence, or at least she was in Atris' eyes. That gave her drive to work harder on the project commissioned by the High Council.

As her project on Jedi reforms drew closer to completion, rumors swirled that it would be what gave her a seat on the High Council, despite the fact that she was not yet a Knight. Well, not so much rumors as the fact that at least three different people had overheard various Masters on the High Council discussing whether Atris should be invited to have a seat. Atris pretended not to hear the rumors—after all, humility is an important aspect of being a Jedi—but she was pleased.

To be quite fair, Meetra mused, Atris did deserve it. For all her faults and her overzealous faith in the purity of the Jedi, Atris was a hard worker, and her efforts would be so incredibly valuable to the Order. Reform and cleansing are always appreciated, especially since the Order was working on rebuilding itself after the Great Sith Wars.

Was there such a thing as too much reform though? She shook her head. Atris was always rambling about some aspect of the Jedi Order that to Meetra seemed perfectly fine but to Atris was absolutely unacceptable. For example, the way Padawans were assigned to Masters. Every Jedi received their first Padawan on the tail end of their own apprenticeships, as the High Council was of the opinion that there was no greater teacher than being forced to teach oneself. There was no limit to the amount of Padawans a Jedi could take at any given time.

Of course, this was wrong to Atris. In her mind, this prevented both the Master and the apprentice from reaching their true potential. Multiple Padawans spread the Master thin, and an inexperienced Master would hurt the Padawan rather than help.

Meetra had been looking forward to receiving her own Padawan, though she had hidden those feelings from Atris. Eagerness was something she did not look kindly upon. Atris, in general, had become more and more stuffy as the two of them had gotten further in their studies to be a Jedi, though Meetra attributed it to the sheer amount of time Atris spent among the dusty records in the Archives. 

On the other hand, Rhyos and Alek pushed her to become a better Jedi. Because they had been trained as soldiers, they sparred differently than the other Padawans; Meetra, of course, had very easily picked up on those differences again. Rhyos' Master Kreia often posed to him difficult questions about himself that he would discuss with Alek and Meetra, and these questions tore at a lot of what Meetra herself believed.

Overall, Rhyos and Alek had adjusted well to the Enclave, given that they had only been there for a week. Rhyos in particular had gained the attention of the High Council for his brilliance with the Force, although sometimes his smart remarks would earn him a rebuke. Alek was his best friend, and the two of them were inseparable, often seen sparring against each other or going to classes together. They were instant successes with the younglings of the Enclave, often asked to babysit or even touch basic Force lessons.