Lost and Longing.

Ahsoka was found with her eyes focused on the passing hyperspace lines. There wasn't a sound in the cockpit, and most of the pilot station controls in front of her were dimmed. When Aayla sat down in the pilot seat next to her Ahsoka blinked slightly and gave her a small smile.

"What is it you're doing?" Aayla asked curiously, she had been doing the same thing many times over the past few days and Aayla had been focused on some of the other things she had seen, discussion on what Harry had done, and discussion of her own Oath, something she had nervously but willingly given.

Whatever she was doing though, it definitely did not seem like meditation. Too much active concentrating.

"It's a discipline of magic that Harry said I could start working on without a focus, called Occlumency," Ahsoka said before she looked briefly thoughtful, then added, "Huh, it feels nice to be able to say that to someone."

Aayla tilted her head, "What's Occlumency?"

Ahsoka chuckled, "It's a way of defending your mind from attack and manipulation. It also helps with memory recall and focus. Harry said the Jedi do the first step by learning to clear their mind. After that you have to create some sort of safe space in your mind, a construct of whatever you like and start organizing and sorting your memories."

"Sorting your memories?" Aayla inquired curiously, and thought the appeal of being able to defend one's mind against manipulation was definitely a selling point for her. At one point in her life, her memories had been wiped because of glitteryll poisoning when she'd been captured. To this day she still didn't have all of her memories back, but sorting memories, she didn't understand that part.

Ahsoka furrowed her brow as she stroked one of her head tails idly. "It's hard to explain, and Harry had to actually show me how. But... I'm going in and sorting my memories and storing them each after organizing my mind, so that they're protected."

"Harry explained that once that was done the only people who would be able to access the memories would be myself or anyone I allow. He also said that it would help greatly in my lessons going forward, though we haven't really gotten into how."

Ahsoka looked a little bit sheepish. "We've actually not done anything practical in other subjects yet, though he's done a few practical demonstrations though."

"Oh, what did he demonstrate?" Aayla asked, thinking back to what she had already seen. "Just ask Harry to demonstrate 'noise', and make sure he demonstrates with water," Ahsoka grinned impishly, remembering her own introduction to the water. Then her expression grew more serious. "The rest we're sort of taking slowly, at the moment he's making up the instructions as he goes."

"I thought you said that this was more formal and structured instruction," Aayla protested with a frown.

Ahsoka nodded, "It is, but he said he's only seen it instructed from a young age as a student, or from about my age when someone has a founding in all of the different areas of magic. He's never seen it instructed to people older who already have some experience in using magic, but no concept of what he calls the basics." "So he's adjusting the courses to account for our prior training then?" Aayla asked.

"Partially," Ahsoka nodded hesitantly, "Though Harry has phrased it as 'adjusting it to include deprogramming for all the idiocy I've been taught'. But he also has none of the course material relevant to all this with him. He has some safe house he's alluded to somewhere on Kashyyyk, that was the main reason we were travelling there next."

"The fact that they're extreme hardliners regarding slavery is only a bonus," Ahsoka chuckled a little bit.

Aayla pondered the ramifications, "A formal education in manipulating the Force."

She looked at Ahsoka again, curiosity quickly getting the better of her, "What all have you witnessed him do besides the teleporting and shrinking and the room growing thing?"

"I've seen him change one thing to another, which is an art he calls Transfiguration," Ahsoka began to list off after a pause, ticking off her fingers. "I have seen him stick things to walls that then become immovable until he releases them, which is apparently a class of spell that falls under the category of 'charms.' Of course I've seen him literally create something out of nothing."

Aayla nodded a little bit, she had witnessed that herself with the conjured handkerchiefs.

"That art is apparently different than transfiguration, and is called conjuration," Ahsoka elaborated slightly. "At first I thought he was somehow transfiguring air into the new material, but he went into some long technical explanation about how things work that made my head spin."

"An explanation of the way things work with the Force?" asked Aayla unable to keep surprise from her voice.

"Yep," said Ahsoka brightly, her inner calm that had been a result of her mediation and occlumency practice now gone. "It is like the astrophysics of the Force."

"So... it's like a study of what the Force can and can't do. Different rules for the most part?" Aayla tilted her head curiously as she pondered that.

Ahsoka frowned and hesitated at that. "I don't... know that I would go that far. More like a study into the different ways we can use the Force."

Aayla tilted her head in the other direction as a puzzled look crossed her face. "I don't understand the difference. We're not supposed to 'use' the Force, but be guided by it."

"Harry has said to me multiple times, that he doesn't believe that there is anything Magic can't do."

Ahsoka held up her hand, to cut off Aayla's follow up statement. "He says that there are some things Magic shouldn't be used for. There are consequences for certain actions. And that Magic can and does exact a price for the abuse of its gift." Aayla nodded a little bit, there were similar thoughts along the Force. Channeling too much, trying to do too much, could kill a Jedi. Many Jedi in the past had died using the Force to such an extent they literally burnt their bodies out, almost always in defense of others. Dark side users also tended to extract a price on their bodies as they acted as well."

That was a bit of an ominous statement for Aayla, as she considered the implications. Aayla's mind briefly flashed back to the discussion of oaths that Ahsoka had explained to her several days earlier, before she had given hers.

"Making an oath is a commitment. Making one and sealing it with magic is an even bigger commitment," Ahsoka tried to explain. "So Magic views a violation of an oath as an affront and exacts the price. So if I talked about this to you before Harry released me from the oath to talk to you, the price it would make me pay is my connection to Magic or the Force."

"But... what if you had a slip of the tongue? Or what if someone forced it out of you? Like... an interrogation or something?" Aayla asked, her brow furrowing with the possibilities.

"Magic itself will help protect the secrets. It won't let me just slip. As for interrogation, working on occlumency will protect me from anyone with the capabilities to extract the knowledge," Ahsoka had said reassuringly.

Her expression shifted into a teasing smirk. "Just… make sure Harry doesn't try and slip any requirements about showing your breasts into the oath."

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