Because her lightsaber was more than it seemed. It was actually a lightwhip.

Vernestra had never been too worried about anything before. As a child she had gone to the temple when she was very young, her family group happy when they’d discovered her Force sensitivity. For Mirialans, being Force-sensitive was a cause for celebration, and she’d met other Mirialans who had been so bold as to tell her what a great honor it was for her to be chosen by the Force to be a Jedi.

When she had awoken in the middle of the night a week after getting to Port Haileap with an urgent, driving need to modify her lightsaber into something strange, Vernestra had not questioned the feeling. And later, when she’d seen what her changes had done to the weapon, she had felt a certainty that it was what the Force had demanded. Vernestra didn’t know why; the Force rarely gave explicit instructions, but now she wondered if the modification had been for this moment.


Star Wars The High Republic A Test of Courage Chapter 12