Exquisite mentoring-Thrawn is exquisite. Part IV.

And then, to Al'iastov's surprise, Thrawn got down on one knee in front of her, putting his face a little lower than hers. Grown-ups almost never did that. Even most of Al'iastov's other caregivers had usually stood straight up looking down at her. "But while all of us face a variety of paths, we all have the power to choose among them," he continued. "You have that power as well, the power to choose which of those paths is the right one for you".

~

"Are you willing to go with me, just the two of us, into the depths of the Chaos?

For a moment Che'ri's mouth and tongue and brain seemed frozen. What Thrawn was asking was never done. Ever. []

"Can we do that?" she asked hesitantly.

He shrugged, a small smile touching his lips. "Physically and tactically, of course," he said. []

"I mean are we going to get in trouble."

"You, no," he said. "Sky-walkers are effectively untouchable by any punishment. You might get a scolding, but that would be all." []

"If I don't go, what happens?"

"Then I abandon the mission," Thrawn said. "What would take days under the control of a sky-walker would require weeks or months of jump-by-jump travel. I can't afford months." His lips compressed. "Neither, I fear, can the Ascendancy."

This game, at least, Che'ri knew way too well. An adult would make vague threats or vaguer promises, with big stuff happening either way if she didn't run for the extra hour or skip one of her rest days or do whatever it was they wanted.

But as she gazed at Thrawn's face, she had the eerie sense that he wasn't playing the game. In fact, she wasn't sure he even know *how* to play it. []

"Okay," she said. "Can you—? Never mind."

"What?"

"I just wondered if you could get me some more colored graph markers, that's all," Che'ri said, feeling her face warming with embarrassment. Of all the stupid things to ask for—

"As a matter of fact," Thrawn said, "there are two new boxes already aboard. *And* four binders of art sheets do draw on."

Che'ri blinked. "Oh," she said. "I am— thank you."

"You're welcome." Thrawn gestured toward the ship. "Shall we go?"

~

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