A Shocking Experience

[Adriana Fortemps]

Jorryn's preference for lightsaber combat had led her to becoming a considerable duelist among the ranks of Acolytes, preferring to defeat her opponent's by outmanoeuvring them with her skill. The Echani people had always held martial prowess in high esteem and, though only half Echani, she drew much of her mother's characteristics over whoever her father had been, taking up both unarmed combat and swordplay.

This bias towards one style of fighting however had left her lacking in the aspect that made her so arrogant, the application of the Dark Side of the Force. Currently she tended to prefer the aspects of the force that would allow for her to increase her physical potential, preferring abilities such as Art of Movement. This had, however, left her open to attacks from more skilled Force Users, unable to combat them properly with her own force powers.

Vaylin's invitation to the Sith Valkyrie's had also come with many opportunities, masters offering much to teach the Sith Acolyte. It was with this intention to learn that Jorryn had sought out the Sith Lord, [member="Aria Vale"], in order to learn some of her strength.

The shuttle arrived at the HQ as Jorryn ducked beneath the small exit ramp and made her way into the heart of the structure to find the Sith Lady, eyes measuring the hallways as she traversed them. Eventually she had made her way into the heart of the building, her gaze falling onto the woman that she had been looking for.

"My lady," The silver head Sith said with a courteous bow to the figure in front of her. "I have been looking for you."

She raised her figure again to properly face the woman that she was speaking with, a calm smile and demeanour hiding the simple ambition to become more powerful. The beguiling figure held a deceptively strong presence in the force, though unmistakably coming from the girl in front of Jorryn.

 

[NightSister]

Aria was under no doubts about the fact that her loyalty to the Sith Empire was conditional, based solely around curiosity and the potential for profit. But the Valkyries who'd formed under their banner - that was a different story. They were made up of her allies, her friends, people she'd fought for and bled for on more battlefields than both hands could count.

Yes, she would always fight for the Valkyries.

Vaylin had let her know of recruiting an Acolyte from the Empire's ranks, and naturally Aria had extended the open invitation to share her knowledge, free for the other woman to take up at her leisure. The Sith Lord was selfish and strongly so, but her obsessive fixation with the Dark was one of those rare things she shared freely - hoarding power was impractical, and she preferred to pass it on where it was earned besides. Vaylin had assured her that Jorryn showed promise, and Aria was interested enough to risk seeing for herself.

"Welcome," she greeted the Acolyte, comfortably matching her smile (they both knew that the Sith fashion of training was rarely pleasant, but there was no reason to neglect her manners). Her gaze was more neutral, sweeping over the taller woman evenly. Her potential in the Force was easy as breathing to pick up on, and it brought the slightest satisfaction to the curve of her smile.

But potential only took you so far. She'd seen Masters who pitted their apprentices against each other and promised power only to the last standing, Masters who searched every nook and cranny of an Acolyte's mind to create the perfect hell. And it took more than potential to pass those trials. To become Sith.

They could start small, though.

"The room next door's been suited for training," Aria began, disconcertingly upbeat, "but first tell me exactly what you're after."

Training was rarely pleasant. But the Sith Lord preferred to know it would be the helpful sort of unpleasant. And there was no reason not to get to know the Acolyte a little beforehand.

[member="Jorryn Fordyce"]​

 

[Adriana Fortemps]

The smile Jorryn held weakened with surprise as the Lady of the Sith returned the pleasant gesture, every lord that the Echani had met up to this point returned her greeting with a sense of superiority. The surprise disappeared quickly as relief filled Jorryn, her natural cautiousness around most Sith Lords disappearing as she fell into a more comfortable and less strict pose.

The Echani had heard that the ranks of the Sith Valkyries treated itself more like a sisterhood than the rest of the Sith Empire, their intentions lying in assisting each other instead of desperately climbing the hierarchy. The change of attitude was something that Jorryn would need to adjust to, taking a small breath before returning her attention to the dark haired woman in front of her.

Jorryn hoped that it would be a welcome change.

Her comforted smile began to fade as the Valkyrie made talk to begin their training, having already learned the painful training methods the Sith enjoyed at the hands of other Lords.

Despite the petite woman's pleasant attitude thus far, Jorryn didn't assume that she would make her training any easier. The Lords of the Sith differed greatly in how they passed down their teachings to eager students, but very rarely was it a pleasant experience for the ones learning.

Amber eyes quickly flicked towards the door where the training room lied, her ambition to learn pushing aside the anxiety of the method that awaited her. The gaze returning back to the woman in front of her, the question sparking a determined look in the silver haired acolyte's eyes.

"My love of the saber has left my ability to wield the force lacking, a weakness I cannot tolerate." She expressed professionally, though her posture simpered as she finished the sentence. "Please my Lady, teach me to better wield the Dark Side."

Her posture and tone both fell submissively, the mixture of desperateness and ambition being clear in her determined eyes. She had allowed herself to grow weak in the force, a flaw that one following a power such as the Dark Side should never have. Jorryn showed this vulnerable side to the Sith freely, hoping that it would show her passion to be true.

[member="Aria Vale"]​

 

[NightSister]

For better or for worse, Aria hadn’t been born a creature of the Dark side. Its power felt ever so natural now - and she supposed it had from the moment she’d really allowed it - but making a weapon of the darkness when she’d grown up shielded in the light had been a long tale, lifetimes stretched over a handful of years (hers, the Sith, the ones she’d left behind, the first to die by her hand; then it had seemed such a dreadful thing and it still did. But dreadfulness itself was not so dreadful, and there lay the key).
Aria knew acutely what it was to learn the Dark side.

“Wonderful,” she murmured, voice politely thoughtful. “I reckon I can manage that.”

And with that she led [member="Jorryn Fordyce"] into the adjoining room. The chamber did not, in fact, look like it had been fitted as a training room. There were no weapons or training droids or even any torture instruments. It was a hall, roomy without being vast, some seats grouped here, some crates grouped there, unusually aimless in its furnishing. It could’ve been mistaken for a meeting hall before it was called a training room, but it was the room she’d allocated all the same. And she didn’t look in the least bit confused at the design of this room; still pleasant, demurely cheerful, graceful as they entered.

Aria pulled up a chair and sat down. Or, more accurately, a chair pulled itself up, and Aria sat down. Telekinesis was a useful gift.

“Tell me what you can do so far.”

A blank slate left her more to work with, but prior skill was useful. Aria studied the Acolyte (her presence in the force was a cool steel silver, sharp like a knife) with roiling ochre eyes, and she was as intrigued to hear the woman’s answer as she looked.

 

[Adriana Fortemps]

The unusually calm and polite cadence to the Sith Lord's was a welcome change to the usual superiority that her kind carried, the simple sound of her voice lowering Jorryn's guard around the woman as she followed the Valkyrie into the room nearby. Her grin returned with the woman's acknowledgement, the promise of power picking up the Echani's ambitious spirit.

Unlike the Lord she had been following Jorryn was confused by the simplicity of the room, she had been through many training halls in her room and none had been as simple as this one. Golden eyes looked around at the grouped chairs and crates, wondering what purpose they would serve in a training room that a Sith Lord had. These were objects used for the basics of the force, practicing telekinesis on simple and unimpressive objects.

The Acolyte's attention was rapidly pulled back as a chair began to slide calmly across the floor of the room, amber eyes giving a knowing glance to the other woman as Jorryn made her way across the room and gracefully fell into the seat.

"I know the basi-" The Echani's voice fell short as she felt the presence of the woman examining her, the cold precision of it cutting through her like a scalpel. "Apologies." Goosebumps raised at the feeling against her skin as she took a moment to recollect herself, pushing the sensation to the back of her mind as she once more began to tell the woman her capabilities in the force.

"I know the basics of the force's power, but beyond that the only skills I have developed are those that benefit my physical prowess." A delicate hand rose in the air as it began to move around deftly, the soft but precise movements showing off her skill with the Art of Movement.

[member="Aria Vale"]​

 

[NightSister]

Aria nodded, evidently taking no issue nor offense with Jorryn's hesitation. And odd as her utterly courteous presentation surely seemed to the younger woman, it wasn't pretense, one step in a false sense of security to make turning the tables all the more devastating (not that she wouldn't have enjoyed that approach, but still). Quite simply, Aria was too used to Sith whose superiority turned them disagreeable, blind to danger because surely everyone and everything was lesser. Overlooking danger was simply that - dangerous.

She blinked.

"Then I'm sure you know that once you've grasped using the Force, the difference between lifting rocks and lifting buildings is a matter of your own will," she began, watching as Jorryn started showcasing Art of Movement--

--and stopped.

Threads of a telekinetic grip curled around the slender hand moving in demonstration, a hold that felt gentle but simply wouldn't offer room for movement. And it didn't just stay, but it spread. Like fear, the hollowness of facing danger, Aria's push through the Force flowed lazily and wrapped the other woman with immobility.

But for all Aria's indication, her telekinesis might as well have been someone else's creation. She pressed right on like she hadn't even noticed.

"It's far less about mastering a technique than it is about unlocking potential, using it right. You need control, and you need fuel." Greed. Wrath. Hatred. She'd never met two Sith who drew power in quite the same way. Her own strength came in defiance, spite, fury that brewed unseen for an age at a time before it erupted and set her aflame.

Jorryn easily had double the control Aria'd had when she first ventured to the dark. Control was important. But she wanted to know whether ambition alone could power the Acolyte to greatness- or if it would take anger.

"You can free yourself. If you really want to."

She needed fuel. Aria wanted to know what her fuel was. How well she knew to harness it. And there was no better method of discovery than the practical sort. But where there was potential for success - and she saw plenty of it in Jorryn, she'd admit - there was potential for failure. And if Jorryn failed to find her will (oh, she'd have long enough to guarantee it one way or another) the invisible fingers holding her still would toss her suitably far across the hall. Fortunately, there wasn't much to crash into but the floor.

[member="Jorryn Fordyce"]​

 

[Adriana Fortemps]

Delicate fingers froze in the air as they smoothly brushed through the air, the restriction immediately bringing a sense of urgency to the Echani. A short moment of desperateness filled Jorryn as she tried to force her hand downwards or upwards, trying any motion to continue it's path. Any movement that the girl attempted was halted in it's place, her amber eyes stared pleadingly at the pale fingers that were held aloft in the air. The panic in her mind continued to grow as she gave a quick glance towards the woman seated across from her, the calm tone of her voice did little to soothe the silver haired Acolyte as she began to slightly shift in her chair.

As her eyes met the golden gaze of the Sith Lord, she could feel the presence of the woman wrapping itself around the rest of her body. A gentle, but alarming, force that began to grow from her toes upwards to her thighs now, preventing all movement except for that of her head as the invisible grasp continued it's path along her bicep.

Wordlessly, the Acolyte's eyes remained restless staring deeply into the gaze of the Valkyrie, the despair and panic in her eyes yielding to a defiant look against her instructor.

As the woman spoke of potential, Jorryn began to search what fuelled hers. The panic in her mind had given the Echani a chance to free strong feelings that she hadn't felt in some time. A look into herself as instinct unleashed her prevalent emotions, the decadent emotions that had led her to the Dark Side such a long time ago.

The primal emotions that she had nursed herself on in dark times before boiled themselves forward as she could feel euphoria again filling her mind, the strength of the emotions feeding into her power.

First came her desire for freedom; the Dark Side allowed her to fulfill her own destiny, a chance to chase whatever or whomever the silver haired Acolyte had wished. The passion for individuality that had broken many relationships but had freed the girl of all chains that held her down, allowing her to go for what she desired.

Then her pride boiled forward; the vanity and arrogance that she had carried towards those that she saw beneath her, a disdain that most of the galaxy felt. How of all the men and woman she had met in her adventures she was refused to love one more than herself, arrogance stemming from her proud heritage and beautiful visage.

Finally the emotion that would set her free came from the deepest depths of her heart, sadness.

The former feelings had given the Echani raw strength the ability to dominate her opponents and allies alike, but the frustration at her current situation and the past that had spurned her is what gave her the presence to free the delicate hand from it's place as her determined, burning eyes, gave way to a more solemn look that turned again to her slender hand instead of challenging the woman across from Jorryn.

The pale hand fell softly into Jorryn's lap as the grip that had now completely wrapped itself around her body began to try to force her aside, the lack of violence in the sensation did not do anything to lessen the strength.

The Echani closed her eyes and tightened her chest as the forceful feeling the woman had placed on her began to fade, Jorryn pressing against it with the mixture of frustration, pride, and freedom that she felt coming from her breast. Her delicate face began to tense as she focused more on freeing herself from the grip of the Sith Lord, determined to prove to both herself and the girl in front of her that she had the potential for greatness.

The sudden return of motion to her body had the Echani throw herself to the side, barely catching herself on the chair as she began panting. She leaned herself against the chair as her heavy lungs attempted to draw in breath, sweat of her exertion fell down along her angelic hair and fell to the floor.

"I hope I didn't disappoint you, My Lady." The words wheezed with amusement past a humoured smile as her burning eyes again met with the Valkyrie, an arrogant smile as she attempted to raise herself again.

[member="Aria Vale"]​