Lightsabers

“so…”, Ahsoka said, “How much do you know about lightsabers?”

Luke took a moment to respond, “Really, nothing…I had my fathers old one but I…lost it when I fought Vader…” Ahsoka was surprised by how hurt she felt that Anakin’s lightsaber was lost…Ugh, she needed to focus…Since Luke knew nothing about lightsabers, she thought she’s better start from the beginning. “No problem,” she said  “you can practice with one of mine for now, but first you need to understand how they work, and why we use them.”

“Maybe you should sit down.” she added as an afterthought. He obliged, and sat down with his legs crossed on the cave floor. She sat down across from him and took out one of her sabers. She decided to channel her inner Master Huang and dissect it to show him how it worked. She closed her eyes and meditated, slowly levitating the hilt of the sword. She felt like she was 7 years old again on The Crucible, concentrating on each piece and screw and how they all fit together. When she opened her eyes Luke’s mouth was hanging open and his eyes were so wide she almost lost focus and laughed aloud. She smiled inspite of herself and told him, “this, is a lightsaber. It’s actually part of my second pair but the feel is the same, and that’s the most important thing. The sword and Jedi must be one, and the key component for that, is this.” She pointed at the Kyber crystal and continued, “it powers the lightsaber, gives it life, and connects it to you. In the Order…it was the greatest honour for a youngling to harvest their crystal and build their lightsaber.” She went on explaining the different components and wasn’t surprised by how quickly he caught on. It seemed he had his father’s mind for mechanics, and was very happy when she pointed this out to him.

“When do I get to build mine?”, he inquired, sounding impeccably like every youngling in the temple she’d ever met. She smiled slightly and gave him her best Jedi master answer, “When you’re ready.” He rolled his eyes at her and she started to laugh. Her lightsaber bits clattered to the floor and she could practically hear Master Huang tutting at her in her head. After she pulled herself together and reassembled her lightsaber she threw it to Luke and said “Let’s see what you can do with that. Use the dial on the left to adjust the length of the blade.”

He looked so comfortable with the blade in his hands. She walked him through the forms and styles, displaying her own backward grip and some of Anakin’s specialised styles too. They went over these for weeks. Ahsoka was unsure how long it would take for him to be truly ready, but he was determined, and she respected that. She’d decided to teach him a little bit about Jedi history too, even though she had a strange perspective on it. And of course she made him do force-control exercises. Those were Master Yoda’s favourite, and Luke, like Anakin, hated them.

They had interesting discussions while they trained. Ahsoka told Luke about the Clone Wars and his parents and how she’d come to join the Rebellion. Luke talked about his life on Tatooine and his own adventures with the Rebellion. Finally, one evening as they were collecting wood for a fire she told him, “you’re ready. It’s time for The Gathering.”

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