Private A Touch of Beskar | Combat Arms

[Ivalyn Yvarro]

Xiandara, Salteract

Adelle Bastiel | Aselia Verd​

Ivalyn had long sought after martial training. She stood in her black martial gear waiting for her trainers. Combat tested warriors, victorious ones at that. Adelle Bastiel and Aselia Verd, she awaited them there at a stone training terrace overlooking the Wadi Zahrat, the river that cut through Xiandara below. The air was warm, carrying the sound of water and distant life. Guards were present of course, but they were distant. The space had been deliberately cleared.

There were many districts that relied on the Zahrat. She took in a deep breath and centered herself. Ivalyn had chosen to train at the heart of Salteract. The Pasha would not be hidden away, she wanted to prepare in full view of what she was to protect. Let the Mandalorian brutality be on full display, later when the training escalated then and only then it would move. Move to a more enclosed courtyard, likely in the more administrative or government district.

Later it would progress to an open space out in the wilds of Salteract to give the Mandalorians more space to operate. Today was merely the start of a larger journey. No matter how long the journey took, Ivalyn wanted to make one thing clear. She was not becoming Mandalorian, she was learning from them. Integrating their strength into her identity. All without losing herself, whatever would come from this Ivalyn knew it would be to keep the Commonwealth safe and secure, even if she'd have to ensure by her own hands.

 

[Adelle Bastiel]

Xiandara, Salteract
Tags: Ivalyn Yvarro | Aselia Verd

Despite the comfortable quiet that had settled in the shuttle for a while, Adelle couldn’t sit still. If she wasn’t bouncing her knee, she cracked her knuckles. If she wasn’t stretching her neck, she tapped her foot. Somewhere on this side of the river, Grand Vizier Ivalyn Yvarro waited for them.

The contract had been expected. An official document sent to her new communication lines as envoy, fulfilling a rather flirtatiously delivered request from a couple months ago, had not surprised her in the slightest. What did surprise her was the additional instructor requested and their identity: Aselia Verd.

Even with Aselia’s presence, Adelle still worried. Every time she remembered the charity ball on Naboo, she felt her body burn with embarassment at how easily Yvarro had played her, how quickly she had exploited Adelle’s imbalance, and how good the attention felt at the time. And thanks to her genetics, that was a memnis and she’d never be rid of it.

Complicating things further had been Yvarro’s unexpected arrival on Yaga Minor, just after the battle had been officially called by Mandalorian command. Aselia had been more direct than usual, brusque even, and Adelle knew she could be diplomatic, had seen it in the holocall with the Imperial Confederation. And yet she’d been on battlefields with less tension than that officer’s room.

She had no idea what to expect from this meeting.

The shuttle began its descent. Adelle flexed her right hand then cracked the knuckles of her left and stood. The thick training tunic and trousers shifted over her compression clothes underneath as she did, the once stiff fabric now flexible from hundreds of hours of training. Adelle glanced over at Aselia and tried to bury the nervous energy under humor.

“Try not to break any bones,” she said, unable to muster even a forced grin. “Those are a pain to heal.”

She rocked slightly as the ship made contact with a landing pad and settled onto the landing gear. Hydraulics hissed as the ramp descended. Adelle took a deep breath in and let it out slowly, settling herself into stillness. Things would go how they would go. Adelle walked down the ramp into the golden sun.

The Grand Vizier stood in the center of an open stone terrace. One low wall guarded the edge closest to the river but Adelle noted there was nothing to block the view of anyone happening by. A public display. To curb their teaching methods or to inspire herself? The smooth flagstones caught her eye. There was no training mat, no cushion to protect the head or joints should they hit hard.

“Adding to my last statement,” Adelle said quietly to Aselia as they walked the short distance from the landing pad. “No head injuries. Those are worse.”

They reached the edge of the terrace and Adelle came to a stop, standing at CorSec’s parade rest.

“Grand Vizier,” she said. “I trust we haven’t kept you waiting long.”

 

[Aselia Verd]

​

Aselia had noticed the nervous energy long before the shuttle began its descent. Adelle was usually much more controlled, even when anxious. Purposeful. But this was different. The bouncing knee, the cracking knuckles, the restless shifts that never quite settled into stillness for more than a few seconds at a time, it all painted a clear enough picture without Aselia needing to ask about it.

Aselia sat across from her in the low hum of the shuttle, armored as always, red and black beskar catching the muted cabin light whenever the craft shifted. Her helmet rested beside her rather than on, one gauntleted hand loosely braced against her knee. Calm. Grounded. The sort of stillness that came naturally to someone who had spent most of her life either preparing for violence or walking directly into it.

She had her own thoughts about this trip, most of which had started on Yaga Minor. Aselia still remembered the quiet room after the battle, Adelle seated while Aselia patched up the worst of the injuries herself, the exhaustion hanging heavy after the fighting had finally stopped. It had been one of the few moments of relative calm they’d had all day. Then Ivalyn Yvarro had walked in as she belonged there, carrying herself through the tension with an ease that immediately set Aselia on edge. She remembered the shift in the room the moment the Grand Vizier entered, remembered how quickly the atmosphere had sharpened despite the silence.

She had not liked it then; she liked it even less now. Adelle’s attempt at humor pulled her attention back fully, and though Aselia immediately caught the lack of an actual grin behind it, the corner of her mouth still lifted faintly. “I’ll do my best,” she replied evenly as she rose once the shuttle settled. “You should be more worried about Ivalyn, though,” she muttered under her breath.

The dry tone softened the words enough to keep them from sounding harsh, though there was truth beneath them all the same. Aselia pulled her helmet back on before the ramp fully lowered, the seal locking into place with a quiet hiss. By the time they stepped out into the sunlight, the more personal edges of her expression had vanished behind the T-shaped visor, leaving only the composed, imposing figure most people knew.

Her gaze swept the terrace immediately she noted the low wall near the river, the clear sightlines, the absence of anything that softened impact. When Adelle quietly amended her earlier request with the warning about head injuries, Aselia glanced toward her through the visor. “That one might be harder to promise,” she murmured, low enough that it stayed between them.

Then they reached the terrace proper, and Aselia’s attention shifted fully to the Grand Vizier waiting at its center. She came to a stop beside Adelle rather than ahead of her, “Grand Vizier,” Aselia said after Adelle’s greeting, her voice carrying through the modulator, smooth and controlled. “Thank you for the invitation,” for Aselia, that was as polite and well-adjusted as it got.

TAG: Ivalyn Yvarro Adelle Bastiel
​

 

[Ivalyn Yvarro]

Adelle Bastiel | Aselia Verd​

They arrived the way she had expected purposeful, unhurried, the quality of movement that belonged to people who had never needed to perform readiness because they simply were ready. Ivalyn watched them cross the terrace from her position near the edge of the overlook, the Zahrat catching the morning light below, and did not move to meet them halfway. Not out of arrogance. Because the space between an arriving instructor and a waiting student had its own protocol, and she had decided some time ago that she would observe it correctly.

She had thought about this. She thought about most things. She had chosen this, Ivalyn Ariel Yvarro had deliberately chosen this.

When they were close enough she inclined her head the specific degree of acknowledgment she reserved for people she respected, which was not the same as the degree she used for people she was managing. Most especially given the circumstances in which Ivalyn and Adelle had met with one another.

"Adelle." The name arrived with the warmth of someone who remembered the conversation that had produced this arrangement and found the memory useful. Her gaze moved. "Aselia." Slightly different register measured, direct, the acknowledgment of a name she had researched rather than encountered. "I am glad you both came."

She did not add I wasn't sure you would. She had been reasonably certain. She was usually reasonably certain about people she had chosen carefully. Had she been nervous that they may not show? Perhaps. Ivalyn wouldn't show it, no she had long ago forged a mask for herself.

Her hands were loose at her sides. The black training gear was utilitarian nothing ceremonial about it, no gold, no rank markings. She had worn it deliberately. There was a version of this morning in which the Grand Vizier of the Commonwealth received her trainers in something that announced her position. She had considered it and discarded it. Whatever she was building here, it would not be built on the authority of a title. Titles had their uses. The Wadi Zahrat did not care about titles.

"I want to be clear about what I am asking of you," she said, because she found that clarity at the beginning saved considerable time later. "I am not asking to become something I am not. I am asking to be taught what I do not yet know." Carefully, there was weighted pause between her words, words that Ivalyn had chosen. Her tone gave weight to the honesty that each one bore. "I have spent a great deal of my career in rooms where the outcome depended on my ability to think faster than the person across from me. I would like to no longer be entirely dependent on that." In any room, in any field in which she was to ensure the continuity of her nation.

She looked at them both the even, assessing attention that was simply how she looked at things that mattered to her.

"I am aware I am not your easiest student." The faintest thing that was not quite a smile. "I have been told I am occasionally resistant to instruction that does not come with a satisfactory explanation." A measured breath. "I will endeavor to be less so. Within reason."

She rolled her shoulders once, the small, private preparation of someone who had decided to begin, and turned her attention fully to them.

"Where do we start?"