Convergence (Star Wars: The High Republic)

by Zoraida Córdova

It must sound silly to a Jedi Knight.” Xiri drummed her fingers against her teacup. “You’re not afraid of anything.” The sincerity of the words made Gella smile. “We have this Jedi Master. He teaches us as younglings. Yoda’s his name. One of my earliest recollections was being afraid of the training spheres.” “What are those?” Gella held up a round fruit roughly the right shape. “Imagine if this shot lasers.” “At children?” Laughing, Gella explained, “They tickle, as do our training lightsabers. But I didn’t know that. I was always quiet, wandering around the temple halls and trying to find hidden passages or secret tombs. But when it came to practice, I was the first one there. I thought I’d be a natural, but that first day, when I saw that sphere covered in what looked like mechanical eyes, I ran out of the room.” “Poor little Gella,” Xiri said sympathetically. “Did they yell at you?” Gella blinked at the suggestion. “Not at all. Master Yoda found me. He just sat with me in the garden and we watched this one frog try to leap over a stone wall into a waterfall. It kept missing. Miscalculating. Falling. Getting back up. Then he said, Like that frog, you must be.” “Did you get it eventually?” “The next day I got hit right here.” Gella tapped her nose. “Eventually, though. So, yes, much of what Jedi do is confront fear, feel it, conquer it. Accept that it is a part of me like anything else.” “What happens if you can’t?” Xiri asked. When a beam of light broke through the clou...