A returning Echo

Chapter Twenty Five

"Master Jinn! Are we doing more combat today?" the Kel Dor youngling asked when you entered the room.

"No, today is going to be a different lesson," you said. A smile crept onto your lips when you imagined how the younglings would react. You expected it to be much like Echo, disbelief and confusion.

Echo. You couldn't help but think about the previous night. You didn't mean to tell him not to hope, but you didn't want to risk him feeling such deep heartbreak and loss if you were to be killed. It wouldn't be fair to let him go through that without trying to prevent it.

When you had woken up this morning, the holocall had been ended. You could only assume that he was whisked away to battle before you were up, and had decided to not bother you. Or maybe he had tried, but you'd been too deep in sleep to wake up. You knew that you needed to apologize, to explain to him what you had meant, but right now you needed to focus on the younglings.

"A different lesson? Is it going to be more fun?" Tayah asked, and you shrugged your shoulders.

"That all depends on your personal opinion of fun, Tayah. Some may enjoy it, some may not."

"Well, what is it, Master Jinn?" Ringo asked, eagerly looking up at you.

"Patience," you said, laughing to yourself.

"We were patient last night, we want to know!"

"No, you misunderstood me, Ringo. I'm teaching you patience. We're going to do something that will help with that."

"What is it?" the Rodian girl asked cautiously, as if she was worried about what the answer could be.

"Come with me, and you'll figure it out," you said, and moved to leave the room. You peered over your shoulder to look back at them, and they shrugged before following. You led them through the halls and down to the archives. They didn't seem to be picking up on it yet, so when you reached the door, they were confused.

"How can the archives help us learn patience?" the Kel Dor asked.

"Because, you will be reorganizing them." A unified groan escaped the lips of almost all the younglings, except for the Rodian girl. "I told you, it would be something to help with teaching you patience."

"How is organizing the archives going to do that?" Ringo asked.

"Well, it'll teach you to wait until the next time you are given the chance to practice something you enjoy. You're not going to enjoy everything you do, so learning to be patient for the fun experiences is an important lesson." You walked them over to the first section they would organize. Jocasta had already told you what needed to be done, so you just had to tell the younglings what to do and then watch over them.

"It'll be fun, guys," the Rodian girl said. "We can see what kind of cool information is here!"

"Fun? Most of these are old and musty," Tayah complained, grabbing a book and scowling at it.

"Well, I never said you had to touch them. You just have to reorganize them," you stated.

"How do we do that without touching them?" Ringo asked.

"By using the force. Here, watch me," you said. You stepped over to the shelf and used the force to pull out the misplaced books. You guided them around, making sure each one was set back in the correct spot. The younglings watched in amazement as you removed about twenty books and readjusted them all at once.

"Now, I don't expect you to be able to move as many as I do at once, but if you work together, I believe you can get a lot done."

"How long are we going to do this?" Ringo questioned.