Meetra sent the little initiate class back to Visas's care and rose from the cushion she'd sat on. The warm evening light shone through the windows and played with the dust the children had kicked up. The air filtration system Bao-Dur had designed was more than adequate for the mostly empty premises, never mind the small populace currently living there, but somehow children still managed to make a mess of everything, no matter how hard the air filtration or cleaning droids may work. Perhaps it was some talent with the Force that waned upon adulthood.
Gradually the motes of dust were sucked up to the vents. Meetra let a final breath fall from her lips and dusted off her knees as she rose.
The facility was not as grand as the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, but it was larger than Atris's academy, in which they'd spent the first year after Kreia's defeat. Then some Force sensitives, lost Padawans and Knights who'd gone to ground in fear, had arrived on their doorstep, and the compound had become much too cramped. Brianna's handmaiden sisters still maintained the compound at the pole, but Meetra and the rest of the Jedi had acquired a plot of land in a more temperate reclamation zone and carved a makeshift temple into a cliff wall, somewhat similarly to the Great Library on Ossus. There was talk about making the façade of their gray little cliff more elaborate as well, but Meetra had delegated that to Mira and Atton.
She left the natural light of the training room for the holofire sconces of the connecting corridors. The layered structure they'd cut into the slope of the hill allowed for a few skylights even for the corridor, but the Sun was low enough little light came through those.
There was still room to expand in their not quite mountain, but they'd built large to start with, so Meetra had a long trek through mostly empty corridors ahead of her. There'd been talk of going to Coruscant and reopening the Great Jedi Temple there, but Meetra knew she wasn't ready to sit in those Council Chambers. Besides, the Telos temple had some advantages, she thought as she flicked open a latch with the Force.
It was a short moment's work for Meetra to propel herself through the opened hatch to the roof of the level she was currently on. The wind picked at her hair as she closed the hatch behind her and walked.
The initiates' classes were held on the lowest levels, in case they managed to get up onto the exterior walkways or go through a window. Meetra's rendezvous, on the other hand, was at the top of the hill.
She leaped from floor to floor, ledge to ledge, walkway to walkway. The Force flowed through her, lending her wings, letting her fly. She sank into its embrace and opened herself to the world as she closed her eyes. Kreia might have claimed that a Jedi without the Force was nothing, but what was the Force but a Jedi's second skin and beating heart? One could live without it – Meetra had – but ability and desire were two completely different things.
Three quarters of the way up, the carved levels ended and gave way to natural stone. It was not quite sheer. A mountaineer could've climbed it with the appropriate equipment, but the Force was also appropriate equipment. Meetra let it guide her from foothold to foothold as she ran up the wall.
She cleared the edge with a final leap. The secondary landing pad was to one side of the flattened top, but the other side had been left covered with vegetation. It was there that she spied her company for the evening.
"Hello, Meetra," Bao-Dur said. "I should've known you'd come up the exterior route."
"The weather was too nice to do otherwise." She walked over to where he'd set up. "Did you get everything?"
Bao-Dur smoothed the picnic quilt with the Force and gestured for her to sit. "The meilooruns had run out, but the first of the jalla berry bushes had borne fruit so I thought we could try those."
Jalla berries were a new cross between two species of plant found on Dxun. The Ithorians Meetra had ensured were in charge of the Telos restoration project had come up with the variety and were eager to hear about the results of the Jedi's test plantation.
Meetra pressed a quick kiss to Bao-Dur's temple as he opened the basket. She could smell the fresh bread, and the little containers full of sliced meats and vegetables looked just as promising. They set out the spread together.
"How were the initiates?" Bao-Dur asked as he sliced the bread.
"Surprisingly well-behaved," Meetra said as she accepted the fat slice. She gave a brief overview of what she'd taught the children as she put toppings on the bread. "Tasty," she said after the first bite.
Bao-Dur smiled. "Thank you." He cut himself a thinner slice – as a carnivore, he could still consume carbohydrates, but his nutritional needs came from the meat rather than the delivery vessel – and piled some fried bantha slices on it.
They chatted of the minutiae of life as they ate. Bao-Dur was on excellent terms with the Ithorians independent of Meetra, and one of Chodo Habat's people had commed to ask about how the force field generators at the edge of the restoration zone were standing up to the increased plant life. Meetra's days were occupied with running the Jedi Order and teaching students, so she had a neverending stream of lesson plans and anecdotes about younglings and soon teens to share.
As they polished off the last of the main course, the Sun came close enough to the horizon to set the sky alight in the brilliant yellow that heralded the start of a sunset. Telos might have been razed in the war, but now the ecosphere was being rebuilt, and the sunrises and sunsets were spectacular.
Bao-Dur took out the small bowl of jalla berries and held one out. "Care for dessert?"
"Of course." Meetra held out her hand.
Bao-Dur pulled the berry further away. "Uh uh. Do you eat with your mouth or your hands?"
Meetra couldn't help but laugh. "Oh, you're a funny one." She did lean over, though, and captured the jalla berry with her mouth. It was slightly tart, though that might be the early season, and blossomed over Meetra's tongue with surprising richness.
"How are they?" Bao-Dur asked.
"Try it yourself," Meetra replied and brought a berry to his mouth.
He ate it from her fingers, lips warm and leaving behind a light touch of saliva that cooled in the evening air. He made an appreciative sound.
The light caught off his horns and bathed him in a golden glow. Meetra found her breath stolen by how handsome her soft-spoken man looked, how the sunset caught his kind eyes and lit the gentle smile on his lips.
Bao-Dur noticed her looking. "What?" he asked.
Meetra leaned in and kissed him. "I'm glad I found you," she said, leaning her forehead against his.
"I'm glad you found me, too," he replied, and drew her in for another kiss beneath the setting Sun.