They were on the threshold of something dangerous. Ronovi didn't need the Force to sense that. The recent chaos within the Brotherhood's dominions, especially the Antei system, had sparked a new current of vigilance in the circuits of her brain. Because of this, she had expected some at least slight changes in protocol on Lyspair, something she now dressed to a rather unstable Taigikori.

"Something has to be done with the checkpoint leading to this moon," she said. "The patrols, the scanning for potential threats. Since Liu Van Dae..."

"Liu Van Dae is dead, Ronovi," replied the Headmaster; were it not for his mechanized voice, his tone would have been particularly terse. "Since then, there have been no disturbances here."

"But you said yourself he may not be quite gone. Besides, the recent events that have unfolded..."

"I'm aware that the Brotherhood has encountered some heinous situations as of late," Taigikori snapped, "but I am not concerned for Lyspair. All of our repository, right now, must be directed to the students, not our defenses."

Ronovi blinked and swallowed. She had just now noticed the curious looking bottle of pills nestled on her boss's busy desk. And they certainly didn't look like doze pills. Still, she persisted. These days, it was what she had to do to communicate with Taigikori.

"I'm aware of how important the students are," she murmured, a bit defensively. "You know that just as much as I do. But just as the education and influencing of our initiates is important, so is their protection."

"We are protected enough."

"People are dying, Taigikori!" barked Ronovi. "Powerful comrades. Men and women who have served our Brotherhood with esteem, being cut down like flies..."

"I KNOW THEY ARE DYING, TAVISAEN!"

Ronovi shuddered and took a step back as she felt the metallic snarl burst from the man's throat, the electronics and wires amplifying what was meant to be rage. Taigikori did not often refer to her by her surname, normally only employing it when he was particularly serious or cross. But tonight was different. The Praetor noticed the Headmaster's shaking and quivering, his fingers twitching as he straightened his shoulders after his outburst. The remaining top teeth he had, however, remained bared as the intensity bubbled from him, even though the buzz of his vocoder did not change in pitch.

"You refuse to give me credit for the services I provide here. Do you not think I'm wary of those who have died? And many more will die, that I'm sure of. But the one thing we must not succumb to is fear. Fear is only a weapon for us to use on others, not on ourselves. And seeing as you have quite a lot of experience on the battlefield, I would think you would be familiar with that mantra!"

All the Exarch could do was keep breathing and lower her gaze from him. In one swipe, Taigikori picked up the pill bottle, popping it open as he let two tablets fall into his palm.

"You have your own priorities to focus on, and one thing that is not your priority is security. Now, you will return to your students this evening for the dark sage course I have prepared you for. Any more distractions, and I will not hesitate in giving you more than a reprimand. Do I make myself perfectly clear?"

"Crystal," Ronovi whispered before nodding and quickly bowing out of the office. The last thing on her mind before she left was how she had forgotten the intensity of the malicious Sith. The last thing she saw was the movement of the two pills, as they danced along the weathered skin of Taigikori's hand before he even moved to take them.

Welcome to another edition of the Headmaster's two cents. My apologies for the gap in between my last report and this one, it's been a horrible couple of months. I know there have been some "concerns" regarding my activity lately, and while I haven't been a strong presence on IRC, my workload as HM hasn't been lifted at all. So don't worry, I'm not going anywhere. Just in time for Great Jedi War X, which I'm extremely pumped for. It's been a long time in the making, and I've had amazing fun contributing to the fiction behind it. Good luck to all the houses and clans beforehand, I know you guys will love this one better than any previous Vendetta. Without yapping on any longer, let's get down to it.

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First off, I'd like to begin by opening applications for the Professor of Writing Studies. This is one of the more intense areas of the Academy to grade, as it deals with actual writing skills. I'm going to want this position filled quickly, so please send your apps to [Log in to view e-mail addresses] by September 17th. I have a small list of requirements for the position. -Have passed all courses in the Writing Department with a score of 85% or higher -Have a strong knowledge of the English Language and writing composition -Have a general knowledge of the SA -Be able to be purely impartial when it comes to grading

The 2011 Sage Writing Course is in the home stretch of it's hosting. From around 10 students, several have dropped out. To the remaining participants, good luck. Ronovi has done an amazing job instructing it, I think I'll keep her as Docent for it next year as well.

Next up, finally we've worked out the bugs with the previously released Planets and Stars, which was a coding nightmare from day one. One of my favorite things to do with courses like these is to of course include the Star Wars content, but then add heavy on the Brotherhood related fiction. In this case, Brotherhood stars, systems, et al. It's available now to take under the General Studies Department, at the link below.

Planets and Stars

-Don't forget to CC my Praetor, Ronovi, on all SA related emails, especially degree requests. Degree requests that do NOT have my Praetor CC'd, will be thrown in the trash.

-Projects: The SA Society is complete, we're just waiting on the code. I'm going to show a sneak peak at one of the beginning robes for the lower ranks, curtesy of Muz. I have no idea where this club would be without the graphics produced by our Grand Master, huge love goes out to him for the dozen+ images being made for this Society.

-The largest overhaul on our list right now was started by Arion a few months ago. He's taken the courses in the admin SA site and has created a text field, converting all the code into said field. In the future, if I want to create a new course or edit an existing one, I won't have to fumble around on the FTP site. My magistrate Solari will be finishing the task, which will hopefully be completed by the end of fall.

-The GMRG course has been a eye sore for a year now, something I've wanted to have changed. It was basically a wookiepedia copy/paste. Fremoc just finished updating the course notes, and will be live in the next week or so. One of my biggest rules for courses new and existing is for them to incorperate the Brotherhood lore as much as possible, which I think everyone will enjoy with this course.

-The Grind Path content is finally DONE. It's been a long time in the making, but I recently just finished the last course for the project the other night. Alls I'm waiting for now is graphics, and coding. We're shooting for a late Winter release, and before that I'll be opening Beta Testing which will be an extensive four week trial of the ins and out of the program. Only the most dedicated (the ones that actually show an interest in the growing of the club, "meh" attitudes will be sniffed out quickly) and active veterans of the club will be selected from a pool applicants, so if you're interested, it's something to keep in mind. I'll be rewarding the testers once it's complete.

-Degree Overhaul: 80% complete

-Internal Review: 100% complete

-Courses re-coded: 70%

That's all for this month, next month expect another course release, a new degree, and some Grind Path image sneak previews. TTFN.

*Summary: -PROF applications being taken -Planets and Stars released, for real this time -Sage Writing Course almost finished -Hot image released *

His Excellency, Taigikori Aybara Dupar Headmaster of the Brotherhood