RENEGADE (OBI-WAN KENOBI)

CHAPTER ONE

"BREATHE, CASSIANDRE. Empty your thoughts." Veneera's voice, sharp and commandeering, rang in her ears.

"I'm trying," She huffed, squeezing her eyes shut tighter than they already were.

Forcing herself to relax, she let her palms fall to her knees, which were crossed together as Veneera had instructed her to. Though she'd thought the position would help her concentrate, it only made her feel more restricted than she already did.

What was the point of all this anyway? It wasn't as though she'd be able to pause in the middle of a battle to take deep breaths. She couldn't very well stop her enemy and go pardon me, but could you excuse me for a moment? I need to empty my thoughts.

Not likely.

"You're not concentrating," Veneera sighed, her pacing footsteps echoing around the room.

"It's hopeless!" Cass cried, opening her eyes as she fell back to her elbows, flinging her legs out in front of her. She was hyper aware of the coolness of the stone floor beneath her, yet another reminder of her failure to lose touch with her physical self.

She couldn't concentrate in this room anyways. It felt too stuffed, too cramped with various artifacts past Jedi swore assisted in meditation. The low ceiling, draped in gauzy cloth and tapestries, only added to the suffocating feeling. The walls were completely covered in rows of shelves, all filled with dusty old books that made her want to stifle a yawn just from looking at them.

Though Veneera had lit some sort of incense ("To attune your senses," she had said) the smell had only made her brain feel clouded.

The only part of the room she liked was the window, a long panel of glass that covered an entire section of the wall. Usually, she could spare a glance at the sprawling city beneath them when Veneera had her back turned. Today, however, she could only see fog.

"It's not hopeless, you're just not applying yourself," Veneera said, in that stinging way of hers that could make Cass feel lower than if she'd been flung into the Underworld.

If an outsider were to come across the two, they might've laughed. Veneera's physical appearance didn't exactly shout authority; when the two stood next to one another, the older woman hardly reached Cass's shoulders, who was no giant herself. Her dress was plain, even for the Jedi-she wore the same deep brown robes, the ones that seemed to mold into her dark skin, as she did everyday-and her gray braids were pulled into the same tight bun as always. But it was her eyes, silver and piercing, that could make even the strongest of men feel as though they'd been melted to the core.

Not that Cass looked like a particularly imposing force herself. Her angular frame and slight build often led people to believe she was younger than her actual age, and her face had a kind of freshness that came with being newly 19. Her hair, pale blonde and pulled into a loose braid that ran down her back, did nothing to enhance her threatening image.

Like her Master, however, it was her eyes that gave her power over others. Wide, and clear as kyber crystal, her irises were a particular shade of violet unlike that of anything else in the galaxy. Though she'd resented the color as a child (people were always commenting on it) she'd come to appreciate the oddity. It gave people a reason to pause when they saw her.

"Have you been practicing those breathing exercises I gave you?" Veneera asked, stopping her pace of the room to stand before Cass, forcing the girl to raise her eyes and meet her gaze.

There was no use in lying. Veneera was an expert at sensing emotions, and seemed particularly in tune to the inner workings of Cass's mind.

Especially the dishonest part.