Private Beyond the Beskar

[Veyla Krinn]

Veyla listened quietly, eyes still closed as Kallous spoke. The image he painted was an unfamiliar one. An endless ocean. Currents. Depth. It wasn't how her mind naturally worked, but she didn't dismiss it. If this was how he understood the Force, then she owed it an honest attempt.

She drew another slow breath and let the quarry disappear around her. For a few moments, the ocean came easily enough. Dark water stretched in every direction, cool against her skin as she imagined herself sinking deeper beneath its surface. She searched for the currents he described, trying to feel them rather than think about them. Yet each time her mind drifted toward them, another thought interrupted. The rhythm never lasted.

Instead, almost without realizing it, her thoughts wandered somewhere else entirely.

The steady ring of a hammer striking hot beskar echoed through her mind. The forge. The same place she had learned to quiet herself before. Heat. Steel. Measured breaths. Every strike was deliberate. Every motion served a purpose. The sound became a rhythm she didn't have to think about, one that gradually pushed aside the clutter of everything waiting for tomorrow. House Kryze. Mandalore. Even Kallous' lesson faded into the background as she simply...listened.

It wasn't sight. Not yet.

But somewhere beneath the imagined ringing of hammer on steel, something else seemed to answer. It was faint enough that she almost dismissed it, like standing in a crowded room and catching the sensation that someone had whispered her name from the far side of it. She couldn't make out what it was. Couldn't reach it. But for the briefest of moments, it felt as though something beyond herself had acknowledged she was there.

Her brow furrowed ever so slightly before she opened her eyes again, looking toward Kallous.

"I couldn't stay in your ocean," she admitted honestly. "But... I found my way back to a forge instead." She hesitated, searching for the right words. "It helped." Her expression grew thoughtful. "And for just a moment...it felt like something answered."

Kallous

 

[Kallous]

Kallous watched Veyla closely. Observing her thoughts from an unobtrusive distance, he found himself impressed by the woman again. She wasn’t able to focus on the ocean like he’d suggested, but rather something far more personally familiar to her, and her focus on one thing clearing away all other thoughts was exactly where she needed to be.

And he could feel it when she heard the force respond to her presence.

She told him that she hadn’t managed to stay in the ocean he’d tried to depict for her, and he honestly didn’t much care about that. It was ultimately unimportant. What was important was that she succeeded.

“Don’t worry about that,” he told her, “you cleared your mind enough that you could hear the force speak to you. Even if only a little, and that is enough for now. I won’t lie to you, this will be the single hardest thing you will ever do. Learning how to develop a personal relationship with the force is ultimately what you want to build to. And learning how to hear it is the first step in that direction.”

He gave her a smile, “From today onward, I want you to meditate just like that regularly. Set aside a time each day to meditate like this, and listen for the force’s voice. The more you do it, and the easier it becomes, the more powerful you will be. Now please, continue just like that for a while. See if you can’t hear it again, see if you can’t hear it more clearly than you did just now.”

Veyla Krinn

 

[Veyla Krinn]

Veyla listened quietly, letting his words settle before answering. She understood discipline. She understood repetition. The idea of practicing something every day until it became second nature wasn't foreign to her. It was how she'd learned to fight, how she'd learned to survive.

What caught her attention was something else.

Her emerald eyes settled on him, thoughtful rather than doubtful.

"Why?" she asked simply. "Why is this the hardest thing I'll ever do?"

She folded one leg beneath the other where she sat upon the stone, still making no move to stand. The question wasn't born of reluctance. If anything, it came from genuine curiosity.

"Learning to use a weapon makes sense. Learning tactics makes sense. Even learning to trust someone else with your life eventually makes sense." Her brow furrowed slightly. "But this..." She glanced down at her hands before looking back to him. "You speak about it almost like it isn't a skill at all. More like...getting to know another person."

She considered the feeling she'd experienced only moments ago. That faint answer beneath the imagined rhythm of the forge.

"If that's true..." she continued quietly, "then maybe that's why the forge worked." A small smile touched her lips. "It wasn't your ocean. It was somewhere that already felt honest to me."

She settled again, closing her eyes once more.

"I'll keep listening." Her breathing slowed as the imagined forge gradually returned, not because Kallous had instructed her to picture it, but because it was where her own mind naturally found stillness. "Just...answer me while I do. If I'm going to spend the rest of my life learning this, I'd like to understand the path I'm walking in the first place."

Kallous

 

[Kallous]

"That's because that's exactly what it's like. Only not quite." Kallous answered, "The Force isn't like physics, or math, or language. It isn't some concrete science that can be fully defined perfectly at all times. It isn't something that can be learned through a textbook. There are manuals, texts and writings that help to be sure. But ultimately, what I've learned, is that the force is unique to the person. It is cosmic sure, it encompasses, surrounds, influences and fills everything in the galaxy. But it is ever changing, and ultimately unknowable. That is why I say it will be the hardest thing you will ever do, because building your connection to the force is something that even Masters that have been doing it for centuries will never be able to fully complete that task. It is, simply put, beyond our ken."

He stopped, he was getting ahead of himself, explaining concepts that would only confuse her further and make her think more than she should. "The first step is learning how to converse with it, how to hear it clearly. And once you've done that, you can ask it questions, and it will answer. Once you've learned how to hear what it says to you, you will become capable of greater and greater things. You knowing where my blade is going is only scratching the surface of what is possible. And it starts with this, simply learning how to listen."

He remained sitting across from her, ready to provide guidance if she needed it, and closely monitoring what she did with the information he gave her. doubtless she understood the importance of establishing a foundation of fundamentals before moving on to anything else. Perhaps he could get her started on basic telekinesis sometime soon, introduce her to controlling the powers the force granted her. But for now, he wanted to make sure that the channel through which those powers flowed was as open as it could be.

Veyla Krinn

 

[Veyla Krinn]

Veyla nodded slowly as his explanation settled in. The comparison finally made sense. It wasn't about mastering a technique. It was about building something that never truly ended. A relationship. One that changed as the person changed.

That...she understood. Without another word, she closed her eyes again.

The forge returned almost immediately. Heat radiated against her face. The smell of worked metal filled the air. The steady cadence of hammer against glowing beskar echoed through the quiet of her thoughts. Breathe. Strike. Breathe. Strike. She remembered Kallous' words and, this time, resisted the urge to search for whatever had answered her before. Instead, she simply listened.

Nothing. Minutes passed.

The forge remained. The rhythm remained. Yet no whisper came back. No sensation. No distant voice calling her name. She found herself trying harder, straining to hear it, wondering whether she had done something differently. Had she lost it already? Was she sitting wrong? Thinking too much? The questions multiplied until she caught herself doing exactly what Kallous had warned against.

With a slow exhale, she let the questions go. If it answered, it answered. If it didn't, forcing it wouldn't change anything.

The imagined hammer continued its patient rhythm without expectation, each strike fading naturally into the next. Her breathing settled with it. Time became difficult to judge. The need to succeed drifted quietly into the background, replaced simply by... being there. Listening. Waiting. Content to let the silence exist without demanding it become something more.

Kallous

 

[Kallous]

Veyla would find herself isolated in this forge of hers. Her mind flooding with questions, and the disquieting of such questions and doubts disrupting the rhythm of the hammer striking the hot metal. She would swing, then a question would enter her mind, and it would distort the clarity of the image. The hammer would land later than it should have. She was making progress, and Kallous observed with patience as she struggled to build the foundation of quiet that was the basis for everything else she would learn from here on.

She would drive the distractions from her mind, and the steady ringing of steel would stabilize again. Only to be interrupted again when she had another thought come up. Quieting one's mind was easily the hardest part of fully understanding the the force as it was. It wasn't necessary for its use, focus was all that was needed for that, but Kallous refused to teach her the same way he had be taught. He would not teach her to utilize negative emotions as the focal point, it was a substitute that could not be trusted. So for now, she would need to build that connection to the force, little by little, day by day. Each hammerfall bringing her a little closer and a little closer.

She would continue this effort for some time. Until at some point, very, very faintly, she would hear a response. Another hammer, another anvil, another craftsman working hot metal. It was distant, it was faint, it was almost impossible to make out, but it was there. Her hammer would strike, and she would hear another hammer strike elsewhere in her mind. She had gotten to where she had been before, barely hearing something that was most definitely there, but was entirely out of reach.

Her training would require her to close that distance, and if she asked Kallous would tell her that there was no shortcut, there was no easy road to that understanding. She would just have to try, and push, and try some more. And little by little, that echo would get louder, that other smith would get closer, she would grow to hear it more clearly, and she would learn to work in tandem with it, allowing herself to move with it's rhythm to craft a masterwork.

This was a long ways down the line, but once she got there, she would understand how truly profound this was. For now, all she could do was keep hammering.

Veyla Krinn

 

[Veyla Krinn]

Veyla stayed where she was for a long while after the faint echo disappeared. She didn't chase it this time. Didn't strain to hear it again or force the rhythm back into existence. Instead, she simply sat with the forge, letting the steady ring of hammer against beskar become what it had always been: familiar. Comfortable. Honest.

Eventually, she opened her eyes.

There was disappointment, certainly. Not the sharp sting of failure, but the quiet realization that some things simply refused to be rushed. She had hoped, perhaps naively, that once she'd heard it the first time, the second would come easier. Instead, it had slipped away the moment she'd reached for it.

A slow breath escaped her as she looked toward Kallous, a small smile finding its way back despite herself.

"I think I understand now." She rose from the stone, dusting a bit of quarry grit from one knee. "It's like trying to hear someone across a valley. The harder I strained to listen, the less I heard. The moment I stopped trying to force it..." She shrugged lightly. "...that was when it answered."

She reached over her shoulder and unclipped her spear once more, extending it with its familiar mechanical snap.

"I don't think today is the day it suddenly speaks to me like an old friend." There wasn't bitterness in her voice, only acceptance. "And I'm alright with that. Mandalorians don't build anything worth keeping in a single day."

Settling back into her stance, she rolled the spear once through her hands before looking at him with the same competitive spark he'd seen earlier.

"Can we spar again?" she asked. "I want to see if I can make you move twice."

A grin tugged at the corner of her mouth.

"One step at a time."

Kallous

 

[Kallous]

Kallous watched as Veyla had her revelations. Slow and steady, faint but there. It was encouraging to see her making progress. He’d seen some young students try for days before they heard anything, and she’d heard something in the first few hours. It was a good sign.

He watched her stand up and prepare for another spar. He’d have liked her to work at it a little more, but likewise he understood that she was making progress, and she likely didn’t learn through hours upon hours of meditation like he had. He had learned all of this over the course of years of trial, hardship and pondering. She had only just begun, so it wouldn’t be too bad to spar with her more often.

And on top of that, maybe she could learn through this too.

He stood up with her, “I suppose we can have another go. I’m hardly a Soresu master, so I’m afraid I won’t be able to give you a proper demonstration. The fundamentals are all I really know. Though I suppose that means it will suffice for giving you a fair challenge.”

He activated his saber and kept the point presented to her, hilt held in the middle of his body to minimize the distance the blade had to travel to cover any part of his body. And he stood ready to meet her.

She wanted to test her offense, that was promising. He supposed he might have found an apprentice that might appreciate his own preferred form. He doubted she would like Ataru, given her use of armor. Maybe she would prefer Form II, it was conceivable.

But these considerations could be made later. First, it was another match.

Veyla Krinn

 

[Veyla Krinn]

Veyla couldn't help but smile as Kallous rose to his feet again. There was something reassuring about the simplicity of it. They had spent the better part of the morning discussing philosophy, things she suspected neither of them could fully explain with words alone. But this? This she understood. Two warriors crossing weapons to learn from one another.

"Fair challenge is all I'm asking for." She unclipped her spear once more, letting it extend to its full length with its familiar mechanical snap. The point settled between them before she rolled the haft through her hands, finding the same comfortable grip as before. "And if I manage to surprise you once or twice..." A grin spread across her face. "I'll count today as a success."

She paused for only a heartbeat before changing her grip. One hand reached lower on the shaft while the other twisted a locking collar near the middle. With another muted click, the weapon telescoped inward, shortening by nearly half. It no longer resembled a battlefield pike so much as an oversized spear or long sword, sacrificing reach for maneuverability.

"One thing you said stuck with me." She gave the shortened weapon an experimental flourish before settling into guard again. "You kept getting inside my reach." Her emerald eyes met his. "No sense making the same mistake twice."

This time, she didn't probe from long range.

Closing the distance more confidently than before, she used the shortened weapon to attack much like a two-handed sword. A quick diagonal cut tested his upper guard before she pivoted sharply off her lead foot, bringing the opposite end of the haft around toward his ribs in the same motion. Whether either strike landed mattered less than what came next. She wanted to feel how the shorter configuration changed the flow of the fight, to learn where its strengths lay and where its weaknesses remained. If this weapon was going to grow alongside her, then so would the way she wielded it.

Kallous

 

[Kallous]

Her approach changed, and she immediately became more aggressive. Not so much probing anymore as she was pressuring. She already had a handle on his defense, and she already knew that she would have to create rather than find an opening to exploit. And she behaved accordingly.

She shortened the haft of her spear to more manageable lengths for their duel, making it more nimble and less restrictive in distancing, while still giving her an advantage in reach. That made things far more complicated, a spear of appropriate length was incredibly nimble in the hand given the leverage that a fighter could apply with the haft, and that paired with the length of the weapon created a deadly combination. One he would need to be wary of.

She was taking this a lot more seriously now, and he would return the favor. His focus sharpened, and he prepared to meet her. She wanted to see if she could force him to move, so he would remain on the defensive for now, letting her test her skill.

Immediately she began to use her weapon in a style that was somewhat familiar to him. Her assault wouldn’t have appeared out of place were she using a double-bladed lightsaber. This would be fun.

His blade moved, parrying the first strike high at his head and blocking the one to his ribs afterward. His blade hissing against the Beskar spear. Their second bout starting out strong, with a good offense from the Mandalorian and Kallous putting up a defense formidable enough to match it.

Kallous had the distinct feeling that he was going to enjoy this.

Veyla Krinn

 

[Veyla Krinn]

The shortened haft immediately felt more natural.

She still missed the leverage and commanding reach of the fully extended weapon, but in return, she gained something she hadn't expected: freedom. The weapon flowed from one side of her body to the other with noticeably less effort, allowing her to recover more quickly each time Kallous redirected one of her attacks. It wasn't replacing the spear. It was becoming something different.

Something worth learning.

Veyla refused to let the rhythm die.

Instead of retreating after each exchange, she stayed in his space, keeping the pressure constant. Every deflected strike became the beginning of the next rather than the end of the previous one. A downward cut rolled seamlessly into a thrust. The thrust became a twist of her wrists that brought the opposite end of the haft around before the spearhead snapped back into line again. She wasn't trying to overwhelm him with strength. She was trying to make him solve an endless series of small problems, hoping that eventually one solution would place him where she wanted him.

Her footwork reflected the same philosophy. She circled, stepped offline, then reclaimed the center again, never allowing herself to become rooted. If there was one lesson she'd already taken from their first exchange, it was that standing directly in front of Kallous for too long was an invitation to have him step inside her reach. She intended to deny him that opportunity for as long as she could.

The corners of her mouth lifted despite the concentration written across her face.

She was enjoying this.

Not because she expected to break through his defense today, but because every parry told her something. Every effortless redirection taught her how little wasted movement he carried into a fight. If she couldn't create an opening yet, then she would keep asking the question until she found a better one.

And so she pressed on, her breathing steady, the shortened spear becoming a blur of measured, disciplined offense as she searched for the moment that might finally convince Kallous to yield even a single step.

Kallous

 

[Kallous]

Their exchange picked up speed, the strikes from the Mandalorian woman hitting with greater power as she increased her speed. And his blade blurred as he marched her beat for beat. Much like her he had begun to grin, this exchange was an enjoyable one. He would need to test her own defenses after this, but for now he had an idea for just what kind of form he would help her focus on.

Mandalorian melee combat wasn’t something he would have her throw away, it was clearly good. But if he could teach her a lightsaber form, then she would be able to incorporate that into her fighting philosophy. And that was going to be a dangerous combination to be sure.

The tempo increased, and their motion became a blur. Soon enough, Kallous decided it was time to take momentum for a moment and test her own defenses. He would strike her weapon with his own, putting strength enough into it to throw her tempo off enough to begin pressuring him with his own offensive.

High, low, middle, low again. Thrust, cut, slice, false-edge, bind. Incorporating everything he knew to pressure her. He made sure it was appropriate to her ability, he didn’t want to overwhelm but rather to test. See how she fared when the direction of the fight suddenly changed.

Veyla Krinn

 

[Veyla Krinn]

The instant Kallous seized the initiative, Veyla recognized it for what it was. A test. She had been the one asking questions with her spear until now. Now it was his turn, and every strike demanded an answer.

Rather than trying to wrest momentum back immediately, she accepted the change. The shortened spear flowed into a defensive rhythm as naturally as it had moments before on the attack. The beskar shaft intercepted the high cut, slid down to catch the strike toward her middle, then twisted in her hands to redirect the next attack away from her body instead of meeting it head-on. Where before she had tried to make Kallous react, now she concentrated on surviving his sequence cleanly, refusing to panic simply because the pace had changed.

Her Mandalorian training surfaced without conscious thought.

She gave ground only when necessary, each backward step measured rather than hurried, her boots found stable footing before the next exchange arrived. Whenever an opening seemed too narrow to block comfortably, she let her body move instead, rotating her shoulders or shifting her hips just enough to let the attack pass while the haft remained between them. It wasn't elegant in the way Kallous fought. It was practical. Efficient. The habits of someone who had spent years learning that preserving one's balance was often more valuable than holding a particular patch of ground.

Even while defending, she continued to watch him. Not the lightsaber. Him.

His shoulders. His hips. The way his weight settled before each motion. Somewhere beneath the pressure of the exchange, she found herself looking for that strange certainty she'd experienced earlier, wondering if it might return now that her attention was consumed entirely by the duel. She didn't chase it. She simply remained open to it if it chose to appear.

Whether it did or not, she intended to weather the storm before trying to reclaim the initiative. A good defense, she'd learned years ago, wasn't about refusing to bend. It was about knowing exactly how much you could yield before it became your turn to push back.

Kallous

 

[Kallous]

Thus far Veyla was performing as well as expected. She was not trained in Soresu, and a spear was not too well suited to that particular style anyway, but nevertheless she was able to imitate his efficiency of movement with impressive accuracy. And even when it was hard for her to follow his motions, she was able to respond in a way that kept her safe from his weapon, which was itself incredibly impressive for only their second bout, and first real spar.

But most importantly he could see her trying to find that inner voice that had told her to evade during their first match. Trying to hear what it had to say, and he decided to give her some advice. "Don't think. Just do. Let your instincts take control, and you'll hear it."

He maintained his pressure without intensifying it, keeping her on the defensive but giving her enough space that she could keep up her defensive and still try to quiet her mind. Alternatively, if that didn't work, he could intensify his assault well beyond what he was doing now to remove all time she had to think. It was a far more brute force and much meaner way to do it, but it sometimes worked, and was a solution to consider if the other methods didn't work.

For now however, he wanted to see if she would feel it again. Because if she was the kind of person who was able to more easily focus on the force and quiet her mind in the middle of combat, then that was a method of training he could certainly help with.

Veyla Krinn

 

[Veyla Krinn]

Kallous' words reached her, but instead of trying to obey them, she let them settle.

Don't think. Just do.

It sounded almost too simple.

Her next few exchanges were no different from the ones before. She defended, redirected, yielded a step when she had to, then reclaimed it when she could. She stopped asking herself whether she was doing it correctly. Stopped wondering whether this feeling was the Force or simply years of experience reading another fighter. The question itself was becoming a distraction.

So she let it go.

The duel became the only thing that existed.

The rhythm of lightsaber against beskar. The scrape of boots over weathered stone. The rise and fall of measured breathing. Kallous' shoulders turned, his weight shifted, his hips followed, and Veyla simply answered. Once. Twice. Three times. Somewhere during the exchange, she realized she was no longer consciously deciding which defense to use. Her hands simply moved where they needed to, the shortened spear finding each interception with growing confidence.

Then she saw something. Or perhaps...she felt it.

Not a vision or certainty like before. Just the faintest impression that Kallous was about to move one way before his body fully committed. It was so subtle she almost dismissed it as experience. Perhaps she'd simply begun recognizing his habits over the last several minutes. Perhaps not. She couldn't tell.

She didn't stop to figure it out.

The instant the pressure eased, she answered. Rather than remaining purely defensive, she stepped into the space he'd momentarily surrendered, the spearhead snapping forward in a quick counter before flowing immediately into another controlled attack. It wasn't reckless, nor an attempt to seize the duel outright. It was simply the first opportunity she'd recognized without having to search for it.

Whether she'd read Kallous...Or whether something else had whispered the answer...Veyla genuinely couldn't tell anymore. For the first time since they'd begun training, she wasn't sure it mattered.

Kallous

 

[Kallous]

She'd done it.

It was incomplete, imperfect, inexperienced... but it was there.

Kallous noticed the difference immediately. When she simply stopped, and went with the flow, fell into the rhythm that the force was trying to guide her into. She wasn't thinking, she wasn't looking, she was simply existing. Her body moved, but she wasn't directly telling it what to do now. Rather she was letting her instincts take over. And that was exactly where he wanted her to be.

Her counterattack was smooth and well-executed. Guided by instinct rather than by conscious thought. And that made it faster and more precise than it otherwise would have been. And that necessitated an increase in his own speed to keep up. Now he wanted to see how far she could go in one duel before she had to stop. He matched her speed and matched her flow. Deflect, parry, riposte, strike, bind, deflect, block, evade... their duel had become far faster now, the sound of their weapons impacting one another creating a staccato rhythm and filling the space around them. Each of them now smoothly transitioning from offense to defence and back again wherever the opportunity came up.

All the while Kallous watched with curious intensity, trying to see how far Veyla could go, how deeply she could dive before she started to grow fatigued. It was not an uncommon thing, for someone to grow tired when conversing with the force for the first time. Headaches were likewise an occurence for those who were widening their minds in such a way. So he would, if he saw signs of either of those, stop and see to it that she could rest.

Veyla Krinn

 

[Veyla Krinn]

At first, Veyla hardly noticed.

The exchange flowed from one movement to the next with an ease she'd never experienced before. She wasn't chasing Kallous' blade anymore. She wasn't trying to predict it. Somehow, her body simply... answered. The shortened spear became an extension of her hands, each deflection blending naturally into the next until the distinction between offense and defense began to blur.

Then her breathing changed. Not from exertion alone.

A faint pressure settled behind her eyes. Easy enough to ignore at first, but with every exchange, it grew a little more noticeable. The strange awareness she'd been leaning into began to feel heavier somehow, as though holding onto it required a kind of effort she'd never exercised before.

Still, she pushed on. She wanted to know where the limit was.

Another exchange. Another. Then another. Her spear caught his blade a fraction later than she'd intended. The next parry lacked the crisp certainty of the last. The whisper she'd been following grew distant, fading beneath the sound of her own breathing until instinct became conscious thought once more.

That was enough.

Rather than stubbornly forcing herself onward, Veyla broke contact with a measured retreat, lowering the point of her spear as she stepped back. She took one steady breath, then another, one hand unconsciously rising to rub at her temple.

"There it is..." she murmured with a tired, almost amused smile. "I was wondering when I'd hit the wall."

She looked back at Kallous, disappointment flickering across her expression for only a moment before it settled into acceptance.

"I felt it slipping away before I lost it." She rolled one shoulder, trying to ease the tension that had crept into her neck. "Like trying to hold water in my hands. The tighter I held on, the faster it disappeared."

The spear rested against the ground once more.

"I think...that's enough for today." She smiled, not defeated but satisfied. "Now I know where my limit is."

Stepping away from him, she lowered her hands to the canteen at her hip. Lifting it for a drink, she offered it to Kallous when she finished.

Kallous

 

[Kallous]

They continued for a while, and eventually she reached her limit. Kallous noticed that she'd stumbled briefly, slowing down a little. And he knew immediately that she was done. He disengaged, stepping back from the engagement to allow her the space she needed to recover. She'd learned much for the first day, she'd learned plenty. And he could hardly ask her to learn any more.

His saber deactivated and he returned it to his belt as she got out her canteen and took a drink. When she offered him a swig he politely declined. "You need it more than I do. You made a lot of progress today Veyla, you made it much further than many do for their first time. Some people struggle for days or even weeks before they can conscously touch the force. And after that it usually takes some time after that before they can fully delve into it when fighting someone. Allowing it to guide your motion is not so easy as you would think, as you described, the harder you try to hold onto it, the harder it is to grasp. And the longer you do it for, and the more strain you have on your body and mind in maintaining that balance, your immediate response is to grasp it tighter, which is something that is hard to overcome."

He glanced at the sky, and found that the sun was already past its zenith and was now approaching the far horizon. They'd been out here all day, most of the daylight spent with Veyla learning to feel the force. Chances were the days where she was able to do this training would likely be spent mostly just learning.

"We should head back, get you some food, and a comfortable place to sit down and reflect on what you've learned. Allow it all to settle properly in your mind." He said gently. "You did very well Veyla. If you keep this up your progress will be remarkable."

Veyla Krinn

 

[Veyla Krinn]

Veyla followed his gaze upward, squinting slightly against the afternoon sun as realization dawned on her, her eyebrows lifting in surprise before she let out a soft, incredulous laugh and shook her head at herself. "...We've been out here all day. We skipped lunch."

The realization hit her stomach a heartbeat later, which chose that exact moment to remind her it hadn't been consulted on the day's schedule. She rested a hand against her abdomen with a sheepish grin.

"That explains a few things."

She clipped the shortened spear back onto her back before looking toward Kallous again, genuine curiosity replacing the humor.

"Would stopping to eat have made any difference?" she asked. "I know a hungry warrior gets sloppy eventually, but..." She gestured vaguely toward her temple. "...does learning to touch the Force draw on you the same way? Or was hitting that wall simply because I'd never done it before?"

There wasn't any frustration in her voice, only an honest desire to understand.

"Either way," she continued, "I think you've earned the right to let your apprentice buy you dinner." A small smile returned as she started walking back toward the trail leading out of the quarry. "Besides, I have a feeling learning goes a little easier on a full stomach."

Kallous

 

[Kallous]

The honesty of her stomach made him chuckle sympathetically, remembering how treacherous his own belly could be when it sensed good food in the viscinity.

He shook his head, "No, it would not have. How much you've eaten doesn't effect your ability to touch the force very much. Many people who train deliberately avoid eating to avoid distraction so they can meditate for longer. Though I don't think you're there quite yet."

He walked with her, satisfied with the day's results.

"I hope you are as satisfied with today's lesson as I am." He said earnestly. "I've taught lessons before, but never taken an apprentice. So if what I'm trying to teach is unclear, please do say so. I'd like to teach you as best as I am able, and if I can do better, I'd like to."

They left the quarry behind, their visit leaving the place barely touched. The old worksite now empty again, waiting for its next vistor. They would be back, he was sure. But for now it would fall silent again, the echoes of a duel no longer resounding across the smooth stone.

"You're most generous to offer Veyla, thank you."

Veyla Krinn