Concentration is different from thinking, his Master had told him. When you are concentrating hard enough, you shouldn’t be thinking at all.
It was here in the map room that he had first understood what Obi-Wan had meant.
He was concentrating so intently on separating the voices that he didn’t hear Obi-Wan come in. His Master could move without making the smallest sound, but Anakin wanted to reach the point where he always knew when Obi-Wan entered the room. He wasn’t there yet.
Obi-Wan sat down beside him and waited for him to turn.
“A mission?” Anakin asked hopefully.
“No, we are at the Temple for a while,” Obi-Wan said. “I haven’t told you something I discovered on Haariden, something I told the Council about. That patrol was paid to attack us by Granta Omega.”
Anakin felt the nerves inside his body tighten. He realized he had been waiting for this. He had wanted to pursue Omega after their experience on Ragoon-6.
“Why didn’t you tell me before?”
“You had enough to think about.”
Anakin knew that his Master meant his concern for Darra. He had haunted the med clinic until he knew she would fully recover.
“Are we going after him?” Anakin asked.
“Jocasta Nu is helping me do some research,” Obi-Wan said. Anakin realized this wasn’t quite an answer. “In the meantime,” Obi-Wan continued, “I have something for you to do.”
“I am ready, Master.”
“I have arranged a private lightsaber tutorial for you with Soara Antana.”
Anakin felt his heart fall. Shame filled him. “Because of what happened on Haariden.”
“Yes,” Obi-Wan said. “There is no blame, Padawan. Yet there are things you need to learn. Things that I have not been able to teach you.”
“There is nothing you can’t teach me, Master,” Anakin argued. But the real reason for Anakin’s disquiet was a secret fear that Obi-Wan planned to leave him behind while he went after Granta Omega. Obi-Wan would do the real work while he remained behind like a schoolboy, taking lessons.
“This is not your decision, Padawan.” Obi-Wan’s tone was sharp. “This is a great honor for you. Soara rarely takes individual students. She would not agree if she didn’t think you had great potential.”
Anakin fought with his feelings. He did not want to confess to his Master that he was afraid Obi-Wan would leave him. “Yes, Master.”
The stern lines of Obi-Wan’s face relaxed into a smile at Anakin’s obedient tone. “You might have fun.”
Anakin looked at him with such disbelief that Obi-Wan’s smile turned into a laugh.
Later that afternoon, Anakin tucked the training lightsaber into his belt with distaste. He felt like a young student again. He found himself tugging at his tunic to straighten it before walking into the practice area to meet Soara. Quickly he rumpled it again. He wasn’t a student any longer. He was a Padawan Learner.
Soara didn’t notice his rumpled tunic or his lack of enthusiasm. She nodded shortly at him. “Let’s go.”
“Go?” Anakin was puzzled. Lightsaber training had always taken place in the practice room.
She lifted a corner of her mouth in a small smile. “Do you expect there to be a practice room to fight in on missions?”
Anakin grinned. “I guess not.” Maybe he would enjoy this after all.
Soara took him to the landing platform, where he jumped into an airspeeder next to her. Her piloting was as aggressive and graceful as her battle form. She took him to a part of Coruscant he’d never visited, a hundred levels or so below the Temple. Here, an entire quarter of the city was being knocked down in order to build new construction. Half-demolished buildings were surrounded by blocks of duracrete, bundles of durasteel cables, and towers of polished stone blocks.
Soara parked the speeder and slid out. Anakin jumped out after her and looked around. The work had stopped for the day. The buildings threw deep jagged shadows over the walkways. There had once been an attempt to keep the walkways clean of debris, but the sweeping had been half completed and footing was treacherous. He waited to see what Soara would do.
Soara did nothing. She picked her way over to a building and looked up at the frame being erected. “Housing,” she said. “Coruscant always needs more housing. Amazing that people keep immigrating here. Do you know that building is the biggest industry on Coruscant?”
Was he here for an economics lesson? “I didn’t know.”
He tilted his head back to follow her gaze, following the durasteel frame of the building. Suddenly a shadow off to his left moved, and a figure leaped through the air toward him. Anakin saw a blaze of orange. A lightsaber!