Yoda harrumphed in disapproval, but knew better than to keep arguing. Dooku was at least as stubborn as any Jedi the Order had ever produced, so pointing out the danger of his students already being attached to their parents would only make him dig his heels in more when his pride was on the line.
...
"If you wish to see how our students will be taught, speak to Tan'ya. She is our first Youngling."
"I will." Yoda declared. What he didn't say was he wouldn't do so when her Father was there to intervene on her behalf.
Yoda could already tell in just the few minutes since meeting her that she was in far too much of a hurry to grow up, but there would be time later that evening to speak on the subject of prophecy, and get a better sense of her.
Before more words could be said, the conversation was interrupted by a droid suddenly arriving and beeped out a short sentence in binary.
Dooku's eyebrow shot up in confusion. "Another guest?" He looked at his wife. "How many more did you invite?"
"Let's go up and find out." Athemeene replied, smiling mischievously. She looked to the Jedi Grandmaster. "If you and your dashing young knights wouldn't mind mingling with the other guests for now, I'm sure it won't be long until everyone's here and dinner can begin."
Yoda couldn't help but notice how much more confidently she carried herself these days. It seemed she'd risen to the occasion of motherhood, or maybe she was just used to running the Palace's day to day affairs, it being her home.
"Very good." Yoda told her, and began to hobble away, leading his few Coruscant Jedi to the rows of tables.
As he walked over, he spotted other Jedi Knights mingling among the crowd. He knew them all by name, Friimun, Kurnee, Jannam Blurts and many more. They had all been his younglings once, and many of them he considered his own failures.
That wasn't to say they weren't skilled in the Jedi Arts, just that many of them never grew into an appropriate disposition to be a keeper of the peace. Whether it was growing resentful of the many failures of the Republic, losing their first master early on, or feeling too ideologically connected to the ways of Jedi in the Old Republic, none of them had ever quite found a place in the Order.
There were three real exceptions. Ky Narec, an accomplished Knight whom Yoda had believed dead years ago and had been pleasantly surprised to learn was still alive and well, Prialla who despite a strong connection to the force was simply too admiring of Dooku's very spotty record, and a new face Yoda didn't recognise at all, but had read about.
Asajj Ventress, a powerful and talented force sensitive that Ky had discovered and trained. Yoda watched the young Zabrak dance with her master, laughing happily as they flowed through the steps of a dance together guided by the Force. Even at just a glance, her pale skin and hornless head immediately gave away her Dathomiri heritage as a Night Sister.
Dathomir was an old thorn in the side of the Jedi Order, a small wound that had never quite been dealt with. It was a remote, dark world, not particularly close to any major hyperlanes, and only sparsely populated with primitive villages and communities that were never allowed to grow too large by the planet's true masters.
The planet's sole remarkable feature was that it was a powerful nexus of the Dark Side of the Force, and thus ruled over by a dangerous cult of force users called the Witches of Dathomir. The Zabrak ethnicity that lived there were the Night Brothers and Night Sisters, segregated into different villages by sex so their masters could control their population growth, and only brought together to reproduce at times and occasions of the Witches' choosing.
The whole planet was ruled over with an iron fist by a monstrous dark sider named Mother Talzin. Her exact purpose was unknown, but as best as Jedi investigations into the matter could tell she was deliberately trying to breed large numbers of force sensitives.
Among the general galactic population, even minor force sensitivity too weak to be a jedi occurred at a rate of around one in several million, with more powerful force sensitives being closer to one in a hundred million. Jedi investigators had been able to prove that among Night Brothers and Night Sisters, weak force users were more like one in ten thousand.
That particular revelation had nearly caused a panic on the Jedi Council, five hundred years ago when Yoda was much younger. If there were that many weak force users, there had to be many more powerful ones. The Dark Side shrouded the entire planet, making finding this veritable army of force users impossible.
The best the Jedi could do was fly over the planet's dense swamp and jungle canopies, looking for them on scanners, which had not yielded any useful results. Any Jedi who tried to explore the planet on foot or on speeder would only aimlessly wander through empty swamps, at best discovering the husk of villages destroyed long ago. Worse still, some Jedi who went to explore Dathomir simply never returned.
Eventually, the Jedi Council was forced to admit defeat. All they could do was set up satellites around the planet to watch its surface, and prepare in case this army of dark siders ever did reveal itself.
All information that the Jedi currently had on the Witches came from the cult's sporadic involvement in the underworld. Occasionally, presumably when the Witches needed funds for their plans, they would sell potent spices, or act as mercenaries. Individually, each witch was quite dangerous, and though rarely a match for a jedi, many were more than deadly enough to overpower a band of pirates or even a lone mandalorian.
As formidable as these mercenary witches were, their connection to the force was never on the level of a jedi, only ever being minor force sensitives trained in the Dark Side.
The mystery of what happened to the cult's truly powerful force sensitives remained unsolved all these years later. Asajj, who was the most powerful night sister the Order had ever seen, was most likely born of an illicit union between Night Sister and Night Brother, and sold into slavery to an offworld trader to cover up the crime.
It was a fascinating hint at rebellion against the Witches' rule over the planet, but also a frustrating dead end in the investigation.
"I still say we should have just burned the planet from orbit, and be done with it." A voice said from Yoda's right.
"Master Sifo Dyas, unchanged you are." Yoda turned to look at the man. "Such fear is unbecoming of a Jedi Master."
He merely smiled at their disagreement. "If there is another Dark Side Empire out there in unknown space, planet's like Dathomir would be ripe for recruitment."
"A good thing, it is, that no such empire exists." Yoda counted.
"You would not be the first Grand Master to believe that, and they were proved wrong in time." He sighed, sipping at a glass of punch that smelled suspiciously potent. "Such mistakes cost our galaxy dearly."
Yoda harrumphed. "Alcohol. Where the Younglings can see!" He sharply jabbed his cane at the Jedi Master's thigh. "Put it away, now."
Wincing in pain, Sifo quickly finished his glass and set it on an unoccupied table. "Look, Asajj is a good kid, whatever her origins, and very talented. The Coruscant Temple should have taken her in."
"Too attached." Yoda pointed with his cane to where the young lady was smiling widely, as she followed Ky through several steps of the dance. Even without speaking to her, it could not be more obvious that she loved her old master dearly. Much too dearly.
Worse still, Yoda was sure Ky also loved her back. Whichever of the two died first, and inevitably one of them would, the other would struggle not to fall.
Just this small look at the Jedi who had joined the New Temple had reinforced all of Yoda's worries about the New Temple. To a one, they were all rebellious, proud, and bitter. He could only hope they wouldn't pass such an attitude onto the Younglings they were recruiting.
"Eager you are, Dr Difo, to lecture your elders about history." Yoda turned to look at the former council member with a scowl. "But know do you, that the earliest Sith were Jedi first?"
Sifo looked at him, obviously shocked. "You knew? How?"
As if no Jedi had never browsed a digital store before bed. The moment Master Ki Adi had seen a book by 'Dr Difo Syas' the council had figured everything out immediately. "Among the archives, your history would have been welcome." Yoda told him and shook his head.
"Never once, the Council stopped you from speaking your mind. Valued your view, we did. Had you only trusted your friends, the University of Teta we could have sent you to. Instead, misappropriate funds you did."
After regarding his old friend for a long moment, Yoda simply sighed, feeling all eight hundred of his years in the moment. "Betrayed us one more time, you have. Betrayed me."
The Grandmaster of the Jedi Order left, leaving his former student alone.
Sifo Dyas stood by himself for a long time, truly alone in a crowded room. After standing in silence for several minutes, he reached into his pocket and took out a hip flask. He took a long pull of chilled corellian brandy before rescrewing the lid, hid it, and went to join the people gathering around the table.
"You don't even know the half of it, old friend." He murmured to himself.
...
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