Chapter Text
The issue with Cin telling the Initiate that he can join the Guard’s training despite being too young to even fit in a uniform is that… technically, he isn’t allowed to do that.
As Battlemaster, Cin can change his training schedule as necessary. As Chief of Security, Cin can accept someone into the Guard.
He does not technically need anyone’s approval. In fact, he doesn’t even need to outright tell anyone if a knight or master decides to join the Temple Guard. They are anonymous after all, and the only other being who has even a partial list of his guards is the Caretaker of First Knowledge.
Some of its members in the past joined specifically because they rather upset the High Council with their choices on some mission, and it’s always a delight being able to tell them that no, you don’t actually have the right to send this person to the Outer Rim for a few years.
Keeps them on their toes, and reminds them that their positions do not actually mean they are above everyone else. Some of them truly mean well, but too many Councilors have been in their position for generations and it’s become something of an echo chamber.
In any case, Cin barely even needs to tell anyone if a padawan decides to join. So long as their master approves of the change, it’s just a few quick forms and suddenly that padawan is his to handle rather than theirs.
The issue is that Cal Kestis is an Initiate. And, after a few historical debacles, an Initiate cannot join a specific track and– usually– leave the Temple without going through an entire ordeal with the Council of Reassignment to ensure that nothing has mysteriously gone wrong and that it is, in fact, what they want to do.
Especially with the way that recent generations seem to have come to the impression that the Corps are a punishment rather than simply another unique career. They’re still using the Force, still training, still helping people, and yet…
The issue here is that, honestly, there are no procedures for an Initiate joining the Temple Guard.
On flimsi, it is the most extreme specialization of Jedi. Total detachment, total anonymity. They do not exist outside their masks, as far as the Order is concerned. It is– on flimsi– an extraordinary commitment.
And in a way, it is.
It is the most isolated organization within the Jedi Order. They have only each other, and those Shadows who would take respite in their shared anonymity and isolation. They are a lineage all of their own, connected not by a shared mentor but a shared duty to protect.
The Temple Guard is the Order’s last line of defense, should it ever come to that point, and should others fall fighting. No matter how they act among their own, they take that duty very seriously. The Temple is Sanctum, and they will keep it that way.
So perhaps the Guard isn’t quite as detached as the image they cultivate suggests, but it is certainly a heavy choice regardless.
And the issue remains that regulations dictate an Initiate needs Reassignment approval to switch tracks, and there are no procedures for allowing an Initiate to join the Temple Guard.
And that? That means getting the High Council involved. And the Council of First Knowledge, but there will not be nearly as many complications from that angle.
Cin does not need to stand before the High Council to know what the majority vote will be. They will cut it down in an instant. Yoda will be all, a padawan you may take instead, hm? That one you may not; too young, he is. As if they haven’t been planning on just pushing him on someone. Senile frog-eating troll.
Well, Cin’s already made an ill-advised promise, and if he doesn’t keep it then the Order is going to lose their most promising candidate for their next Battlemaster to the Corps before he can even flourish.
Maybe not quite, but the odds would be… far lower.
It wouldn’t be the first one to come from a non-standard specialization– one of his predecessors actually came from the EduCorps, after spending their entire career researching the history of lightsaber combat. They practically resurrected Niman singlehandedly, when it had been pushed to the wayside upon the end of the Sith Wars. It is still considered one of the most important wartime disciplines among those who know their history, meant to use one’s environment to their full advantage.
Either way, if the Council refuses to let Kestis into the Guard, then it will be losing its next Battlemaster early. And Cin cannot let that happen.
Which means that he needs to bypass the Council. And that means he needs to convince select members of it to agree before it ever reaches a session, so that he can take that approval to Reassignment without certain bitter or senile Councilors ever finding out until it’s too late.
If he can do that, then Reassignment will simply shrug and accept the Temple Guard as a valid, grey-area career path that Initiates can request. Which could be a problem, but– sometimes people feel Called to it early and are forced to wait until their apprenticeship is complete.
Becoming a grey-area is sort of like how younglings can technically tell Reassignment that they would rather join the Shadows than the Corps, and someone will come to evaluate them for it.
…Kriff, he hopes the rest of the kid’s clan doesn’t try to jump ship to join the Guard. While he’s not against having future guardsmen gain interest out of something that isn’t escaping their problems, he’s not ready to handle that many. Initiate classes are one thing, Guard training is something else entirely.
The rest of the temple would likely attempt to riot if he even tried.
“Why are you reading about…” Orvonna’s nose wrinkles as he peers down at Cal’s datapad, “baneback domestication?”
“What the kark?” Yooli whispers disbelievingly, and all of them can see the one-lek warning being waved in his direction by Master Surra.
Do none of them ever remember the rule not to swear in public places? This is why everyone thinks that Master Surra is a bad influence. Even if they just want everyone to know whether or not they’re being insulted.
Okay, maybe it is early for that, but they’ve heard most of the words around the temple anyways!
And it’s always good to know what someone’s reaction to becoming part of a crèche war actually means. Yooli and Ly-Rel’s combined power got a Knight to start shouting in six different languages during the last one.
“It’s interesting!” Cal protests his clanmates’ responses.
And it is!
He’s been reading a lot of articles about societies that tame wild species that are usually hostile to settlements. Most follow the method of raising a newborn or juvenile instead of an adult, because the little ones are way easier to train. But even the juveniles can be risky, because they might’ve already learned things nobody wants them to.
Some cases can barely even be called tame. Like it’s not that they’re trained, just that they’re used to being around technology and sentients. Like nexu– just because it doesn’t feel threatened by you specifically doesn’t mean it won’t still bite you if it gets the chance.
But then you get the really weird cases where a species that snaps into a role so quickly he’s almost sure the Force has a part in it. Like with the banebacks. They’re loyal to the person who raised them for life. They aren’t even that loyal with their own species!
“Initiate Kestis?”
Cal looks up. Aw, kriff, did he forget to turn in an assignment? Or is this about the, um, training?
“Hi, Master Drallig.”
“Is there something you need, Battlemaster?” Master Surra asks, with that faint note in their voice that Cal is pretty sure means ‘I greatly dislike you right now.’
Master Drallig pauses, straightening in the doorway. “Initiate Kestis came to me recently with a request to change tracks. It is… unorthodox, at this age, but I’m currently working to ensure that it is possible should he continue to seek it.”
So it is about the training? Sort of?
“I see.” Master Surra visibly wavers between displeasure and reluctant approval. Weird. “I assume you need his help with that?”
“Correct, if he is willing.”
Both of them look at Cal, then. “Um, what am I doing?”
“There are a few… sympathetic Councilors I’m hoping you’d be alright with speaking to if it doesn’t interrupt your schedule.”
He gets to talk to Councilors?
“Who?”
“Master Ti, for one, and Master Koon,” Master Drallig explains.
That doesn’t tell him much, because he doesn’t really know anything about Master Ti. He sort of knows more about Master Koon, because he visits any of the younglings he Found a lot. None of them are in his clan, though, so he hasn’t really met him.
“And, if you’re up for it, Master Windu.”
The Master who made Vaapad?!
“I have so many questions,” Cal whispers.
“Cal, no,” Yooli hisses in his ear.
Rude. So rude. Cal can probably resist asking about Vaapad though, so, “I’m up for it!”
Yooli can be as horrified at the idea of meeting Councilors as he wants. Cal has had way more stressful assignments than this and has picked up too many Echoes from strangers for him to be worried.
Oh no, Master Windu is the one whose desk mysteriously ended up on the ceiling.
Kriff, he hopes nobody found out it was Gizka.