The short Togrutan has a bundle over her shoulder, but it's a small one. Not that Jedi need much. She squeezes Merryn's hand lightly, but does not look particularly reassured.<br/><br/>Shaala seems to be trying to project that inscrutability which is so commonly associated with the Jedi, but her eyes are red. It doesn't take much to guess that she has been crying, and recently. When she makes eye contact with the others, however, there's a slightly challenging air to her red-rimmed gaze. Determination.<br/><br/>After a moment's pause, she settles herself in the circle before answering, perhaps a little coolly. "Thank you. I can be stopped. I do not believe I can be dissuaded." The small bag, she drops beside her.<br/><br/>She listens to the others, eyes wary. When it is her turn to speak, she speaks slowly, choosing her words with care and knowing full well that they could be used against her. "I hesitate to equate searching my feelings with, with...The Will of the Force. If the Force had but a single will, there would never be dissension among the Jedi." and the past twenty years have certainly seen far too much of that.<br/><br/>"I have discussed the idea with my Master that there may be more than one 'Will of the Force.' It grows outward from us all, and as we may be divided, so can it, too, appear divided. Perhaps with intent. He has not said he disagreed, though he questioned me at length." There is the faintest hint of warmth in her voice at that, though it does not curl her lips into even a slight smile. "But he questions me always, even on those things which I know there are correct answers for. It is not enough to have the correct answer, one must understand why it is correct."<br/><br/>"I can only believe that what is right for one to do, may not be right for another. I believe that the Council is right. For the Council. And that it may be necessary, as it has ever been necessary, for some to walk alone for the benefit of those others for whom it would be inappropriate or even dangerous."<br/><br/>And just like that, all the past decades of divisiveness among the Jedi, of splinter sects, fragments, and accusations of politicking and even of heresy are brought to bear on the conversation. Just like that, she has inferred justification of the desire of the individual in terms of possible needs of the community.<br/><br/>Perhaps Shaala Dal does not yet number herself among<em>those</em>Jedi...but she surely has just admitted that others could see it that way.