A Chilly Lesson, but a Warm Gift (Darth Valtryx)

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Darth Valtryx"]

Taeli stood in the middle of the training room she frequented with her apprentice, Darth Valtryx. The former Yodaling had been busy within the Sith, which was good, and Taeli wondered how she was spending her ill-gotten funds. She had suspected her apprentice did something when she heard reports of a little green creature robbing a bank on Metellos, and now that she was a human, she was fairly certain she was right. She wondered how much Ferus was interacting with her now.

Still, today they would be doing a lesson that might interest the Yodaling, a rather rare ability that might help her with her tasks, missions, and plans. Sending a message to her apprentice, she waited and smiled a bit at the present she had for when the lesson concluded.

 

[Minna]

Valtryx entered the training room shortly after, giving a polite nod to her master. "I guess you heard then?" She said, smirking as she moved across the room closer to Arcanix. It was as if a stranger had entered, with a totally different appearance but also a change in personality. If not for the same, recognizable aura she emitted through the force, it would be hard for one to tell she was once Minna the Yodaling. Once she reached Arcanix she stopped, looking at her still with a smile. "And that was only my first plan." She added, a slight ego forming in her voice. However, deep inside she was waiting for something.

Would Arcanix sense the other life-form growing inside her?

[member="Darth Arcanix"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Darth Valtryx"]

"I see your ambition has only grown," Taeli replied, smiling ever so slightly as she picked up on something else. "And apparently, that is not the only thing growing. Shall I offer my congratulations or condolences?"

The last was added with a slightly teasing smile. Even though she was a Sith, she still enjoyed the occasional tease even at her apprentices.

"In all seriousness, congratulations," she said. "While I'm happy for you, I expect this will not in anyway detract from your duties to the Sith and to me. Things are too . . . chaotic to have anything slow us down right now . . . even if you're carrying yours and Ferus's child."

She had picked a distinctive whiff of Feru's signature in the thing growing within Valtryx, a mixture of them both, and she had to admit the whole thing was highly amusing. But, that was not why she had called her apprentice here.

"Anyways, I called you here today so you might learn a new ability that might be helpful to you," Taeli said, focusing for a moment on the air molecules around her and cooling them down. Ice crystals started to form around her as she slowed down and froze the water molecules contained in the atmosphere. "Cryokinesis."

 

[Minna]

"I won't be slowing down anytime soon, master." Valtryx promised, confident in her own ability. "Cryokinesis... Definitely useful... I had to fight a guy who used a lot fire, and I have a feeling we might cross paths again." She said, as her gaze shifted to the ice crystals that began to form within the air. From her limited knowledge of the ability she knew it involved molecules, and already she had used a similar method when learning the basics of Art of the Small. Hopefully, this would be a breeze for her.

No pun intended...

[member="Darth Arcanix"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Darth Valtryx"]

"That's exactly the reason why I went and learned the technique myself," Taeli chuckled. "Encounters with Solan Charr and Romeo Sin taught me it is best to be prepared to face pyrokinetics with a counter. Regardless, the technique is both simple and difficult, but I suspect you will indeed have an easy time learning it."

Moving over to stand next to a small glowrod, she activated it and took a step back.

"Cryokinesis is all about slowing down the molecules of an object or being, robbing them of their heat and movement to freeze them. You have to bind the molecules to your will and sap their energy away. Now do note, the energy you take away cannot be added back into your own personal stores and at first this technique is slow to act. Practice will make it happen faster and faster, until your control is great enough to form ice in the air and so on."

"Focus on the glowrod and freeze it now."

 

[Minna]

Valtryx nodded at her master's explanation, and once told to freeze the glowrod she began her attempt. Raising her right hand towards the object, she took a longer-than-average blink. Through the force she focused on the molecules around and in the glowrod, watching them move about with some speed to represent their heat. Pushing her basic knowledge of Art of the Small to the front of her mind, she began slowly working on slowing the molecules down. Seemingly one by one they began to slow down, as if being caught and dragged against something physical. The process was indeed slow, and only after atleast half a minute did any sign of ice seems to appear. A thin line of crystallized liquid began forming on the right of the glowstick, slowly creeping it's way around the object. A minute or two later she was still working on it, with most of it now covered in a thin layer of ice. Her concentration did not falter, and only when there was no more of the stick's light to see did she stop.

An exasperated sigh was let out, as her hand dropped from it's raised position. She was quite drained from the effort, but part of her knew with practice she could improve, just as Arcanix had said.
"Definitely... Need practice..." She said between breaths, regaining her energy.

[member="Darth Arcanix"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Darth Valtryx"]

"It has to be faster, yes" Taeli replied, bringing out a glowrod for herself to demonstrate. Focusing her will upon it, the rod began to freeze quickly as she dominated the molecules that made up the light and slowed their movements down. Ice began to form across the surface in a rapid progression before she tossed the frozen rod away.

"Try again, but this time be faster, dominate the molecules and tell them to slow down," she instructed, setting another lit glowrod on the table.

 

[Minna]

Valtryx knew her first attempt was pathetic, so with the fuel of failure in her heart she tried again. This time she forced the molecules to slow down, whether they wanted to or not. The darkness swirled inside her, and the need to control the laws of physics granted her the conviction she needed. Much quicker than before, frost began creeping around the glowstick. A thin corruption growing over the light until, after nearly half a minute, it was covered in ice. Her hand dropped again, this time without the need to regain energy. She had fueled herself that time, and it had hardly tasked her.
"Just need to apply myself..." She commented, examining her work.

[member="Darth Arcanix"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Darth Valtryx"]

"Good work, but now something a bit more challenging," Taeli said, gesturing and activated a small space heater. This would be much trickier as the heating coils were going to be much hotter than the glow rod, but if one knew a trick or two, they wouldn't be caught in an uphill battle against the heat pouring off it.

"Freeze the heater's coils," she ordered, smiling a bit as she suspected her apprentice would hopefully deal with this quickly. She needed to move on to harder game soon, such as a sentient being.

 

[Minna]

Valtryx looked at the heater, examining it closely. For a moment she thought what the best way would be, she wasn't stupid enough to go straight into freezing the air coming from it. Instead, she reached out with the force to sense what was inside. There she found the heater's core, which was at a high but steady temperature. With her hand raised towards it, she began slowing the molecules down. It took longer than last time to get used to, as the particles were moving much faster, yet she wasn't faced with the problem of it constantly fighting against her with heat replacing her cold. Instead, the core itself froze over until it cut out the heating circulation. This all happened within a dozen or so seconds, after which she finally extended the ice over the now-cooling exterior of the heater.

Once the job was done, she turned to her master.
"I'm guessing we're going to up the difficulty considerably more?"

[member="Darth Arcanix"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Darth Valtryx"]

"In a manner of speaking," Taeli replied, gesturing with her hand. Several Sith guards brought in a row of prisoners; Murderers, slavers, serial killers, predators upon the populous. Taeli had nothing but disdain for people like these prisoners, and thus they had been sentenced to death and would be sued to further her apprentice's training.

"I want you to use cryokinesis on each of these inmates, you are to be their executioner," she stated, ice in her tone and ice appearing around her. "They do not deserve mercy as they are the scum of the galaxy and have committed horrible crimes because they can. Either freeze them, or freeze the water molecules in the air and turn them into shards of ice that can pierce flesh, I don't care what you decide to do to them."

 

[Minna]

Valtryx smirked with pleasure. "Now the fun begins." She said, already approaching the first of the prisoners. It was a Twi'lek, a species Valtryx held no love for, since they were nothing but scum in general. Her hand ran down one if it's lekku, and it winced slightly at the touch, yet remained vigilant. He thought he was not afraid. Suddenly, Valtryx's fingers curled inwards and she drew upon the force once again. The very skin on the Twi'lek's lekku began to freeze. Ice crept around the head-tail, and the prisoner began a muffled scream. Not long after, the ice reached his face and began masking him. Pathetically he tried turning away from the ice, but it did nothing, and in the end it covered his face fully. Maintaining it's cold temperature for enough time, the twi'lek eventually slumped, having been unable to breathe for long enough to live.

Her next target was an old looking man with a scar running down the side of his face. He stunk of something horrible, and so Valtryx decided to be done of this one quickly. Holding her hand infront of her as if holding something, she began cooling the molecules in the air in between her grip. The air inside her hand became solid ice, a sharp shard that was now her weapon to use. Wasting no time, she placed her spare hand on the man's shoulder, then stabbed him straight in the chest with her other. Pushing back his dead body, the shard melted inside his wound, and soon he bled to death.

The final prisoner was also human, yet this time a younger man. It was no difference to Valtryx though, as she extended her hand towards him and called upon the force. The molecules all around the man began slowing down at her will, and he physically began to shiver. A whimper came from his covered mouth, bothered by the cold. The temperature only dropped for him, before fine crystals of ice began appearing on his hair and skin. It was so cold that his tears froze on his cheek, and eventually his whole body was a thin layer of ice. His internal systems began to shut down, unable to take the extremely low temperature they were now subject to. Before he could simply shut down from the cold however, his heart froze into a thick piece of ice. It could no longer beat, and blood stopped flowing around his body. Slumping down, the man's life ended.

Valtryx relaxed, having gained some pleasure from ending such wretched lives. "A gruesome, but enjoyable ability." She smiled, looking to her master.

[member="Darth Arcanix"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Darth Valtryx"]

"Indeed it can be," Taeli replied, looking over the frozen corpses. "I'd say you have enough of a grasp on the technique for now, but I have something to show you. If you would follow me please."

Leading her apprentice out of the training room, and directing the guards to remove the corpses and dispose of them, she made her way to a hidden hanger bay nearby that was registered to a secret division of Krayt Industries that only answered to her and Jaxson. Turning on the lights in the hanger, she gestured for her apprentice to look out the observation bay window.

"That, my apprentice, is a gift from me to you, the Sicarius-class Infiltrator. A stealth ship designed like the Sith infiltrator used by Darth Maul and the old Fury-class Imperial Interceptors. It has room for three people to live in, is quite fast and agile, loaded with impressive weapon load-outs, and a stygium cloaking device."

 

[Minna]

"Ooh, a surprise?" Valtryx smiled, following her master out of the room. Quickly she glanced back, admiring her work with the criminals, but then continued towards wherever she was being taken. When they arrived in the hangar she still had no idea what was in store, until the lights came on and her gaze shifted to the observation bay window. Instantly her lips curved into a smile, surprisingly not because of what she was receiving, but rather genuine happiness at being given a gift. So far she had seen Arcanix as her master, and although that she was, now there came something else.

"Thank you." She said, aiming her smile at Arcanix for a moment. Of course, the gift was most likely for business purposes, giving Valtryx the ability to carry out tasks for her master with much more ease. Sith mostly thought of themselves, and she wouldn't be surprised if Arcanix was not an exception to that rule. But still, despite knowing this, she couldn't help but feel genuinely grateful. "I'll make sure it's put to good use, master."

[member="Darth Arcanix"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Darth Valtryx"]

"I would hope so, a lot of time and effort went into producing this ship, and it's sisters," Taeli said, smiling. "This is for two purposes, one to use during missions and such as they come up, but two, to also replace that pitiful little thing you called a ship before this. Honestly, no apprentice of mine is going to fly around in a little interceptor, not while I draw breath."

Coming up next to her at the window, she continued saying, "This is also a gift of appreciation and friendship, Valtryx. I might be your master, but that doesn't mean we can't be friends and I can't appreciate what you've accomplished. Go on, look through it yourself."

 

[Minna]

After a few moments more of staring at the gift, Valtryx finally moved into hangar. She approached the ship, circling it to examine every angle. Getting closer, she ran her finger along it's exterior before reaching the entrance ramp. Her gaze shifted upwards as she entered, rotating herself to look around the inside. The observant walk became an eager pace, opening each room and inspecting the ship in it's entirety. Once she had scouted out the inside, she found herself in the cockpit, leaning against the back of the pilot's chair. "It's beautiful." She smiled, looking at Arcanix.

Spinning the chair around, she planted herself onto it and faced the controls. Her hand ran across the top of them lightly, the interfaces being much more intuitive than her last piece of scrap. It was at that moment she felt eager to take it to the skies, but it would be rude to just fly off. Instead, she gave a look to Arcanix, a pleased smile, as if to say. "May I?"

[member="Darth Arcanix"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Darth Valtryx"]

Taeli smiled and gestured that she may. She was glad Valtryx enjoyed the ship, as Taeli had made sure everything was precisely in place. If her apprentice wanted to test the ship's capabilties, Taeli would certainly not be opposed to it. She wanted to see how Valtryx could handle this ship and whether or not she had any other thoughts she wanted to say about it.

"Do not forget, Valtryx, there is a small hanger in the back that you can keep a personal fighter craft within, just to keep options open if you need to protect the ship more," she said, smiling more.