A Test of Courage (Star Wars: The High Republic)

by Justina Ireland

If you judge someone by your expectations instead of their actions, you will always be disappointed.

The Jedi got all that from some grass, a few trees, and some rainbow-hued animals? He felt annoyed at being so unprepared and also a little in awe of her abilities. Unless of course she was making it all up, but he didn’t want to say that.

“During the Sith Wars the Jedi also used lightwhips,” Vernestra said, clearing the path and walking forward at a brisker pace. Philosophical conversation or no, they still had a massive rainstorm bearing down on them, and they could not levitate leaves over their heads forever. “Have you read the testimonies of Cervil the Uncanny? She states that the whip was sometimes used to defend against the Sith Lords who used the Forbidden Forms.

Imri had heard tales of Jedi who had gone to the dark side, like those ancient Jedi who had started the Sith, and he’d studied the archives in the Port Haileap library about groups of Force users with fewer rules, like the Nightsisters and the Guardians of Javin, races and cults who found something of value in the chaotic, destructive side of the Force.

it’s an excellent plan, but I know people, and something tells me that Honesty is not interested in logic right now. Emotions have a way of making even the best plan seem silly.”

There would be no pilgrimage to Jedha to commune with the Force, before heading to the main temple on Coruscant and undertaking the trials.

The Jedi Master chuckled a little. “The Force is not so simple, and neither are the emotions of living creatures. Most Jedi have felt the temptation of the dark side. It is only natural. But we resist it. It is a deliberate path to the dark, not a series of bad days. Being a Jedi is about choosing the light over and over again.”