But isn't this the Sanctuary Moon? [Val`Sion]

[Matsu Xiangu]

EeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEE!​

A Master she used to call her own had once told her that there were powers one learned through lessons…and powers one learned through experiencing the effects themselves. Despite the fact that she’d left said Master behind for one who fit her – without question – perfectly, she found that lesson to be true. One could have explained the concept of a mind shard to her and she could have performed it well. But it had only been when she’d been on the receiving end of the particularly gruesome power that she’d known exactly what it was to tap in to the dark side, to reach in to someone’s mind to tear it apart in agony with nothing but her own thoughts.

EeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEE!​

Her new Master had performed such a thing on her as part of a quick, discerning display of his awesome power. It was what drew her to him, what fascinated her.

But it had been when…he had infiltrated her mind that she had known true pain. Betrayal, thick and hot and merciless and terrible had entered her life. She had expected Krius to be at her side forever, conquering the Galaxy and carving out their own perfect world. She had been…naïve. And she had paid the price with flesh, blood, and her own mind. He’d come I N S I D E of her skull and controlled her so completely she’d hallucinated enough to try and take her own arm, leaving her with the half-torn mechanical beast at her side. She left it without coverings, a monstrous collection of durasteel and wires ending in sharp, clawed fingers. She liked its raw design.

It reminded her of herself, all hard edges to cut yourself in half on. Sharp teeth, sharp nails, sharp machine.

EeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEE!​

But never again. She would never again allow someone inside of her mind. Her head was her realm – that daydreaming, nightmarish slip of a budding Sith. And she would use it against others.

EeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEE!​

The Ewok writhing in front of her kept screeching in pain, its companions hiding in the trees. Matsu was a common site on the forest moon and they’d come to learn to hide themselves at her approach. She watched its pain with a face nearly dead in its lack of emotion. The same Master she’d left behind had also advised that those powers, once learned, could only be perfected through use and practice.

This wasn’t pleasure.
This was practice.

EeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEEE!​

​

[member="Val`Sion"]​

 

[Valsion]

ENDOR​

​

The Forest Moon​

​

Orbiting within the Unknown Regions of Fringe territory, the Sanctuary Moon ebbed across the black, circling the gas giant from which it took the more common of it's names. The moon was something of an oddity, and not simply because the entire landscape was covered with green rich and thriving life. This planet swayed one of the largest and most fearsome rebellions ever put into power well over a millennium ago. It stood the test of time, and this natural world of wonder had turned the tides on an Empire approaching the ultimate power to conquer all of the known Galaxy. It was not an easy planet to circumnavigate though, as the mile high trees spiraling towards the heavens were in numerous mass, making the forest floor a natural maze that seemed to be replicated on all sides for as far as the eye could see. As the hawk-bat flies, there were very few glades and meadows to which a ship could easily land - and thus had been the sight for many a ship crash on what pilots generally called a 'desert paradise'. While not overrun with sand like Tattooine, you could easily become deserted in it's rich foliage, never escaping the trees that surrounded you in constant shade. The Force however could guide even the most novice of pilots into regions where its will could be accomplished.

Sunlight kissed through the trees, separating into beams of hushed white tones spotting the ground with it's cascade of brilliance. Having foregone the traditional garments he was so aptly seen in, the humidity in the forest called for a less cumbersome garb, and had left the Echani in a darkened blue shirt of soft pours cloth, and a pair of trousers ending in leather boots. Still, the sword at his side was a constant addition to his wardrobe while he edged through the forest, gently brushing back tree limbs and foliage. He would never cut his way through such a majestic forest, the life of it, was just as prevalent as his own. It rang with the energy of the Force as much or more than he himself did. Everywhere around him was thriving bustling life, and it was a pleasant retreat to be around such a multitude of living creatures. While not every creature in the forest was a benevolent peaceful creation, mostly out of fear and dread they kept their distance and did not challenge strangers in this environment, less they be cornered and forced into that confrontation.

The sights and sounds of the life within the trees echoed around in an ambient din. Birds flying overhead chipping and calling to each other in various melodic tones. The critters that scurried about foraging for food and warmth. Families of rodents, insects, and mammals packed tight into their respective homes, and even a few predators on the loose looking for their next rich meal in the ecosystem of this lavish moon. Even the deathly agonized screaming of Ewoks echoed in the Echani's ears. All was at....what? Silver eyes shot open as the distinct and piercing sounds of a furry creature in terrible agony rang through the trees causing the rest of the life around him to shudder in hushed silence. There was pain in the forest, terrible pain that not only was being alerted by the high pitched wail, but by the Force's drumbeat of horror that pulsed towards the Echani, in which a dead sprint was then initiated.

Lean legs powered through the foliage, as graceful footfalls padded in a fast rapid beat. The leaves of low hanging branches brushing against a swift and elegant form as only a faint but distinct jostle of his weapon against his hip clipped along with his pace. The screaming came again, directing his path with naught but the reflection of sound waves as they grew stronger and more pronounced. There was always a purpose, always a reason why the Force led him to places so remote, and so distant. He didn't question this nudge - he more often than not, had found the purpose behind the nudge and thanked the Force for showing him the way. The wandering Echani, now dashing in a zig-zag pattern, avoiding the majestic trees in his path until his silver eyes found the sight of disturbance and his feet pressed deep into the soil, skidding to a stop. There was nothing touching the creature. No vines choking it's tiny neck, or visible wounds inflicting such agony. No, the only source of this foul play was the woman, the woman standing feet from the furred bear-like creature, and as well not physically doing any damage.

"Why?" It was all Sion had to say, directed at the only being present who would be able to respond in the Galactic Basic he used.

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

Matsu felt the stranger’s presence just as the light noise of his weapon came lightly through the air to her ears. She may not even have heard it had she not released the screeching Ewok from her grasp just in time to turn her head, the stranger in her peripheral vision. Her hair, sleek and long down her back in a harsh ponytail dragged like a serpent (and she with her gaze to turn one to stone) over her delicate shoulder. Her clothes were loose and dark, contrasting against the harsh, pale angles of her body: high cheekbones, sharp white teeth, the whites of her eyes stark against eyes so brown they may as well have been black. Tianzun hung at her side, hilted in gold and black, light and imbued with sith alchemy so that it could resist any lightsaber she might come across.

But she rarely took it up. It was insurance.

The stranger seemed to be her exact opposite in everything but coloring – even in his presence in the Force felt distinctly different from hers.

Why?​

It was a simple enough question, but there were no simple answers. There was silence between them as Matsu turned, tilting her head and looking decidedly reptilian as she blinked at him, taking him in.

She could say it was because she knew that pain and part of her craved to break others the same way she’d been broken. The pain itself wasn’t what woke her up at night.

What woke her up at night was Krius Syonis’ face as he let rage overtake him. What woke her up at night was knowing that despite all she given him – foolish, stupid girl! – he’d taken it all and thrown her away when she didn’t agree with what he wanted for the Galaxy. And worse, he hadn’t just left her behind. He’d left her for dead, bleeding out from her ruin of an arm that she’d just hacked off herself.

But the other half was just that Matsu was born wrong. She was proof that in nature versus nurture, sometimes it really was just inside someone. No one taught her to hate, to take pleasure in the suffering of others. That was just her.

So when he asked why, she just said what came first. “Practice,” she said, her power simmering low in her chest. She was not typically flashy – she had no use for flaunting the power within her. She found it best to keep her opponents guessing and besides, this man might just move on. She may have been Sith but she did not jump in to battle without a reason. “Does it bother you?” she asked, that curved lip revealing one pointed tooth.

[member="Val`Sion"]​

 

[Valsion]

Sharp inhales of breath were taken as his form had slowed to a stop, the open glade not more than a couple of meters in width allowing the sunlight to pour upon the fauna; still somewhat gilded by the branches and leaves above. The Echani's silver eyed gaze rested in distinct wonder capturing the woman's essence, her figure, her appearance, and most of all what the aura of her character radiated. This was not a woman who knew serenity and peace - she was troubled, damaged, and in pain. Aside from the physical nature of her own past injuries, and the haphazard appendage that replaced her left arm, it was her manner, and the unseen energies of the Force that bolstered his awareness. The air around them climbing with a thickening tension that was nearly palpable, their respective stances, and lives earning a contrast that did not go unnoticed. Sion was not of the light in a manner of strict definition, but a man who believed in the balance of all things. For there to be light, there must be darkness to dispel, for the cold to come - heat must be abated. The Galaxy at large was a constant shifting of opposites, and yet he found nothing inherently wrong with either.

"This moon is wounded by the act." He spoke calmly, answering her inquiry while he took a few step forward, stooping to the ground and placing a gentle pale hand onto the form of the tortured Ewok. Silver eyes shut as the peaceful touch rested kindly within the thick fur of the creature's hide. He could hear the sounds, the gurgles of life still resting in the sentient life, and knew that the Force had not yet taken this one to it's astral and ethereal plane. His gentle touch and desire to see the creature recover aided it's own ability to relent from the aggression and pain that lingered in the mind, slowly and peacefully allowing the Ewok to relax. The rustling around them, the Ewoks in hiding gazing at the action, not understanding either Sion, nor Matsu. The only thing the slightly dim natives of Endor did grasp was that this man was not placing their brother in pain, but at peace. For the space of a minute, nothing happened, as he didn't regard Matsu further or falter in his position with the furred creature. Then in a rustle of fallen leaves and dirt, the creature stirred and shifted, righting itself and in fitting skittish behavior darted back to the safety of its family as fast as it's short little legs could carry it.

"Nature like the Force is about a balance of power. The predators and the prey run in a circle, as does the Force exchanging death for life." Sion said, slowly rising from the earthen soil and standing to his full height, now several feet closer to Matsu than when he entered the glade. "This was decidedly unnatural, and disrupted the ecosystem." He didn't seem upset however, and as much as he did not agree with such a violent method of 'practice' he felt nothing but pity for the girl, as she had no direction in which to fling her proverbial arrows and had rested on targets that had not the will or the strength to stand against the pain, and the torment. "The respect for power must come with a respect for the giver of that power." He offered in a kind gesture of good will. The Force and it's essence had to be honored as the giver of life and the taker, but all in it's own cosmic will. The reckless abandon of it's plan and misuse of its gifts on the very life it gives was a morbid twist the design.

His movement shifted, locking the silver hued gaze with her own amber eyes that seemed to fade into a deep abyss of black. No doubt an opportunity from the Force itself to meet and speak with one such as this. The Echani did not think lightly of her however, he understood the need to hone, to train, to practice your craft. She was dedicated to her art - although askew of the direction he assumed that would be the most beneficial. Still he wasn't about to stand by to condone such inherently evil acts upon creatures who had not the presence of mind to comprehend the use of the tool. He still was not rightly sure what she had done to the creature, only what he had observed and felt, but nothing concrete.

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

Matsu had grown up in a family mostly devoid of the Force, a not uncommon story. She had known of its existence being from a world close to the Core and therefore was not so poorly off as some others she’d seen that she had to learn its existence first before diving in. But growing up without guidance or direction as to its usage had also left her where she stood now. Her naiveté had let her fall in with a man who’d shown her power, yes…but also betrayed her just as quickly as he’d raised her up. Upon her arrival at the Fringe she’d been told many things, been broken, been raised up…but mostly she’d been given room to create her own opinions of the Force.

To her there was no balance of which he spoke. There were the strong and there were the weak and there were those without the gift she’d been given. They all had their uses in the grand scheme of things. But she had chosen the Dark. It played a hard game but the Force admired her want. “And who says I don’t respect that which gives me this power?” she asked, her head still tilted at an angle too reminiscent of something reptilian and predatory. “What makes it unnatural? The weak are there to justify the strong. The Force respects my want, just as I respect its place in this world and that I was chosen,” she murmured, watching him as he lifted himself from the healed, suddenly escaping Ewok.

It was no matter.

She had chosen the Ewoks not because they presented a challenge and not to work some of that frustration out. The latter could only be vented against the former and she wasn’t looking for any form of healing. She had chosen the Ewoks merely because they were disposable.

She stiffened when he was suddenly closer, drawn to his full height. She was a slip of a thing and had spent too much time on her own. Her instincts were more animal than seemed right and her body reacted in kind, every muscle poised for a fight response. He exuded calm and she sensed no immediate attack from him but he was in her space and she’d learned the hard way she should keep it her space or suffer the consequences. “Should I practice on you then – would that be more natural? To pit my mind against yours?” She had been trained by practice, trial, and fire. Her Master had skill in mentalism paralleled by few others and she was quickly taking up his skills. She lashed out, lightly and quickly, with the shard she had just been using against the Ewok. If she had surprised the stranger enough a lancet of pain would pierce through his mind, white-hot and unbearable but blissfully brief.

A warning.
She was best left alone.
His words were useless there.

[member="Val`Sion"]​

 

[Valsion]

Her words grieved the Echani, they cut like daggers against the warmth of his heart as the outlook she clave to was so cold, and unfeeling. The predatory gaze and posture of the woman were nearly feral in their placement, as if she were among the other inhabitants of the forest moon. Of the more dangerous species on the moon, the predators were still prey to something else. There was always a bigger fish. Often predators did not strike animals that they were not designed to eat, they chose to recoil and hide from larger life forms, from beings that they did not understand. He seemed to get that distinct impression from Matsu - that his presence near her was an unwelcome advance, as the bristled words that left her tongue were sharp and curt, as to ward him off. Such a cynical and singular minded view of the Force was not uncommon in the Galaxy, but it was one thing to know it, and another thing entirely to confront it. The compassion he felt for the Ewok was now shifting focus and targeting Matsu with the desire to help a woman who didn't seem capable of kindness. What kind of life had she known to be so completely jaded to the ideal of balance?

"Strength is not measured by the ability to dominate the weak." Sion responded while he stood looking at the woman, his tone a soothing and peaceful calm. "Temper your passions, and realize that the Force has created the mighty and the meek, the powerful and the paltry. While you may see these creatures as weak and deserving of your proof of strength, you are also weak compared to others in this Galaxy. The strength of the Force is not in it's might, but in it's balance." Sion explained as he moved and shifted on the forest floor, drawing his hand up towards one of the low hanging branches, and tracing digits along one green leaf before letting it go. "There is a pulse to the Force, and it's waves and ripples reach throughout the heavens. Learn to move with this tide, and you will understand that its plan is far greater than me or you, and if we are agents of this plan, you will find wonder and beauty of which you know not."

His discourse was a bit abstract to those who had not walked his path as he had, but it rang in truth and simple wisdom that he dispensed while his silver eyed gaze rested coolly on her figure. There was a very tough and gated exterior to the woman, her posture and her words both spoke to that affect, and he knew a simple discourse was not going to bring about a great change. He however was not here to change her mind, to completely re-shape her view of the Force and the Galaxy at large. No, he was here to plant a seed, and over time and nourishment of that seed, it could grow and bring for paradigm shifts in her own personal viewpoints. He was simply a messenger for the Force. The challenge though of using him as a target was of some concern as he studied her face for the briefest of moments before she attacked.

In an instant his mind was not his own, it was subject to a sharp and piercing dagger that sliced deep and caused his footing to falter, placing him instantly to the ground, without even the ability to make a sound as the searing agony ripped through the Echani. All at once, he was seven years old. One hundred and twenty years ago on the planet of Eshan. The white haired child with his kin and family playing merrily in the village in which he grew up. Val`Sion was carefree in this place, enjoying and reveling in the simplicity that was childhood. His friends, and his neighbors joining the unstructured thudding of little feet as they ran and chased in the lush grasslands. He remembered it well, the moment when pain ripped through his mind as it did now. He screamed as he grabbed his head, as a flood of voices and emotions pummeled his young mind. He heard them, he felt them...all of them on the lawn. The older ones had more burdens than they showed, the younger were just white noise of screaming and playing. It was the first time he had experienced the Force's unfiltered ability to radiate the state of every life around him. For a child that small, and that unprepared it was an overload. Soon the white hot slags that had touched his mind were gone, and his eyes opened, his breathing returned.

"That..." He started as the Echani began to rise up, the calm and cool collected prsenece of mind was slowly returning to his face, but the gaze was far more stern. "...is not something I would advise my friend. My patience notwithstanding, I have no intent to harm you - but I am well equipped to defend." He cautioned the woman as he righted himself and placed his hands at his side after a brush through his locks of snow white hair. He hadn't been hit with something like that in a long time, it was an unseen and unpredictable attack that had immediately rattled his cage. It was meant as a warning, that much he knew, and now he was attempting to warn her as well.

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

As he spoke she felt herself growing tired. It was a boredom that skirted the edges of exhaustion. For the past few months of her life she had listened to repeated visions, glorious images painted in words and gestures, of the way things ‘should’ be, the way that things ‘are’. At first she had believed every single word. It had seemed right to her then – it had seemed so right that she’d been willing to throw all her chips in with the man spouting said dreams. But those words had lost their charm and with it she’d found a new hatred deep in her stomach for moments like this.

Everyone had their ideas about the gift of the Force. Some said it was one way, some said it was another. There were those that felt nothing at all about it, just used it. Matsu had – finally and blissfully – come across her own opinions of the force. And the beautiful thing was that it could change with her, with every experience that shaped her future in the Galaxy. But it was the way she saw it, and the snow-haired stranger’s preaching grated deep in her nerve endings.

She studied him then, as he gathered himself from her warning shot. She had no doubt that he was wise – she could hear the logic behind his words. She may have been convinced of her own understanding but it didn’t mean she couldn’t see the sense in what he believed. He seemed good without being righteous, the kind of man one might feel better in the presence of simply because he was there. And as he righted himself and his features were rearranged from stoic to a stern warning of their own she felt something ignite in her chest. She’d caught fragments of his visions as she’d penetrated his skull, snippets so brief and contextual that they meant nothing to her – just hardship.

She was sick to death of hearing other’s opinions of the Force, sick to death of being spoken to like a blank slab of clay that needed molding.

It was then that she started circling him, narrowing her eyes ever so slightly and watching him with a hunter’s evaluative gaze. “True, I am weaker than others in the Galaxy. Far weaker. But I need not remain that way. I can follow the ripples as you advise, make no splash. Or I can climb above the current, take the full breadth of what the Force is offering, and rise to meet them – evolution, the hunted becomes the hunter,” she said, her voice thick. She pulled Tianzun from its sheath, twirling the hilt lightly and tilting her head at him as she circled. She had no intentions of formally dueling him – but she was quite done with his presence.

“We can both evolve today.”

[member="Val`Sion"]​

 

[Valsion]

Ever the philosopher, with a mind driven to pontificate the deeper truths of the Galaxy, the Force, and life itself - Sion was also a man who had dedicated himself to the betterment of his body, his mind, and his abilities. However, despite his somewhat silver tongue when it came to matters of dispensing experience and methods in which to view and understand the mysteries of the sentient condition - it was not always so effective. For those that had been literally assaulted with mantras, platitudes and doctrines of thought every waking moment, his speech could just as well be fallen on deaf ears. A hard heart, and a resolute mind did not make for the most fertile soil or receptive of wills. He could go on about the nature of his discovery, about the ways of the Force that one could unlock through meditation and the practiced balance of a life dedicated to its will. For those like Matsu who found the lectures to be insufferable and otherwise meaningless it wouldn't be prudent. He would simply be expelling air and making sound that had no further purpose.

Those who know don't need to be told, those who don't seldom listen.

An old saying of Eshan etched into his mind long ago, still rang true as the day it was told to him. While not a condemnation of those who blocked their ears to hear, it was a reason enough to cease the attempt to inform and educate. There was a time designed for every action, and every thought. The Galaxy was a unique mixture of sentients who walked their own path and made their own decisions. He never boasted to be completely accurate, but he only strove to help and to bolster those who needed it, those who he was drawn to by the will of the Force. With such a guide he rarely found himself out of place, or out of a lesson, either for himself or for others. Self discovery was a thing Sion valued however, and if she had come to her own conclusions of the Force, and had given herself to its study, than he could not fault her for being genuine in her convictions and beliefs. The Echani respected all life, and all opinions that were true and well examined. Even if he did not agree, that is what made the lives of people he came across so varied and fascinating. Everyone was his teacher.

The glade surrounding their position had grown quiet in the time of their discourse, as the tension of power between the two forces here had grown since the attack. The complete silence of forest life indicated a watchful and feared gaze. The absence of many life forms had vacated the area, especially the curious Ewoks who had restored to watching form a distance. Their curiosity was also caked with a healthy dose of fear of being tangled in that net of power that was radiating from both. Sion felt the rise of the Force in her as well as himself. The planet seemed to have a fixed eye on their location, observing in silence the dance that would soon commence. The slow draw of the black and gold hilt, leveling off a shining example of well forged metal drew his immediate attention as the woman began to orbit him in careful footsteps.

Every syllable she uttered was crisp and laced with intent. She was purposed in her speech, dedicated to the fact that she no longer would endure his musings on the preferred path. The path of undisturbed balance was not her aim. She meant to edge from that path, and strike her own, using the Force as a weapon rather than a guide. Silver eyes shut for the moment, his breathing regulated following the thumping rhythm of his own heartbeat. An old technique passed down from his youth, to steady ones own body, to master it. The pulsing beat of his life becoming one with the pulsing beat of the Force itself, to merge the two into one, until there was no seam or corner of difference. At the end of her speaking, his eyes flashed open, a new shine to their brilliance as he locked her gaze while she circled.

"While perfection remains a moving target, improvement is a most respectable goal." Sion offered the woman as his hand touched the hilt of his sheathed weapon. Normally a man who preferred unarmed combat, as an expression of his emotions and understanding of his opponent - this was not a spar of learning. She meant to remove him from the equation, and had thus issued a thinly concealed threat by the sound of metal. Drawing out the gifted and well cared for weapon - Sion released the super-cooled virbosword from it's holding with all the grace and practiced ease of his evident training. The blade sang as it's essence was revealed, while a nearly crystalline presence shown itself over the full length of his weapon. "May the Force be with you." He offered, as much as he was not a Jedi, he knew the mantra - and used it sparingly so its meaning was never lost or diluted by the contempt of familiarity.

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]​

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

In another universe – one where Matsu had not been left for dead, so utterly broken and left behind – she may have bent her ear to the stranger. It wasn’t as if he spoke nonsense really. Even as steeped in her own beliefs as she was she could understand what he strove for. But that was the galaxy, wasn’t it? Every single user of the Force had their own particular motivations, their own view of the gift they’d been bestowed (and that’s what it was, a gift – even for Matsu who believed it continued to give only while you fought for more and more and MORE). Every group in history that had banded together in large numbers down to lone force users had the way they believed the Force worked. And for all Matsu knew, they were all right. Maybe the Force was all things to all its users.

But she had to stop her whirling thoughts as the forest grew quiet around them, every bit of nature in their vicinity hushing with the promise of something. It was if the very woods themselves were anticipatory and Matsu could imagine their trunks leaning forwards over the two slowly circling beneath them.

As he pulled the vibrosword from its sheath she almost felt a hiss of admiration from between her lips accompany the noise of its appearance. Matsu was not one for weaponry even though she carried Tianzun at her side as insurance. But she appreciated the deadly, the slick, the smooth and there was something in the way he carried the weapon that spoke to a training she did not have with her own.

It was then – right as he uttered ‘may the force be with you’ and inside that china doll head of hers she whispered ‘the Force is with you when you TAKE IT TAKE IT TAKE IT’ – that she felt the bone-deep utterings of something profound, something largely ignored seeping up from inside her. She had been in no confrontation like this since Krius had wormed his slimy way in to her mind and cracked her wide open. And what had she promised herself lying there in the snow? (So sure that was the end, watching her blood stain farther and farther along the pure white drifts until red was all she saw. I’m dying. I’m dying. Mortality was so strange after being so convinced of existing indefinitely. And she would have gone, expired there alone with nothing to her name, no one to remember her, were it not for strong arms…impossibly strong arms carrying her somewhere…) She had promised herself, somewhere between the blood and the strong savior arms, that should she survive to see another dawn she would never let someone in her mind again. She would not open herself to the possibility until she was ready.

She had avoided confrontation until that very moment there on Endor, some intangible idea of preparedness stalling her. But was that realistic, truly, when this Force – so full of balance as he claimed – would have her version of a reckoning waiting out there somewhere? Better now to face him, to set herself free, then to keep waiting.

She said nothing as he came for him, her high, fine features flat and emotionless despite her roiling thoughts. She would begin with Tianzun but it was not her area of expertise – more a testing, prodding, practice of a spar with the blade forged of Sith alchemy. She moved to meet each swing of his, her style slightly odd and unconventional due to the one-sided blade she carried. And with each movement of her arm, each gliding swing of her body to meet him halfway, she felt release. This was a freedom she had not claimed until Krius had snapped her in two. (The Force is with you when you TAKE IT TAKE IT TASTE IT TAKE IT.)

And it tasted good.

[member="Val`Sion"]​

 

[Valsion]

Another time. Another place in the great Galaxy, the young Echani sat at the feet of ancient and wise mentors. Men and women of various species who had congregated and gathered long ago to pass on the truth of their beliefs that they had dedicated their time and energy to. Not all of them were practitioners of the Force, in fact some were not even sensitive to its presence. The Followers of Palawa were not the first to learn the art of 'steel hands' but they had learned it from great Masters of the art. Their path was different, they fashioned their values from a concise and elegant set of laws that they believed governed the entirety of life in every reach of the great cosmos. Four laws that embodied and included every facet of existence, and it was these four laws that they passed along to an eager and young mind. While Sion related these four laws to that of the Force, they were meant to be in everyway equal to all beings of all races, and in all words. The old ones spoke of them with reverent respect, and quoted each one with purpose, detailing its meaning to the grand picture.

Balance
In everything there is a negative and a positive. The two are in constant tandem and cannot exist without the other.

The motions of Matsu came into a whirlwind, as her unique style strove to find purchase within his Echani flesh. Silver eyes watched the movement, studying it, and slowing it down. His mind matching the speed of the threat with the trust in the Force. The whipping motion of her blade sung through the air as his own came to counter and off-set with efficient movements. His footing barely budged, allowing Matsu to be the more mobile participant. His sword changed angles and degrees, drawing on the strength of his trained limbs to bolster the defense and reflect her slices and stabs. Metal rang against metal causing glimmers of light to etch across their paths, leaping and striking out on their own. Shifting back and forth within the circling haze of the brunette's assault. His face didn't waver, it held a stoic expression of residual peace while he moved his sword from hand to hand. Her fury rising, his calm compensating, as the dance began. The anger that fueled her, the purpose driven mindset of taking the Force, bending it to her will, and dominating the competition. It could not exist without the peaceable calm of allowing the Force to guide him, to strengthen and empower the Echani as he moved in each swift strike to let the self same Force speak in defense against her tactic. Even in the heat of battle, he could feel the balance in this deadly tango.

Karma
Every action dictates a reaction. Every motion a consequence. Ripples in a pond spreading from a single drop.

Like movements in intricate choreography, each step moved to the next, each glance of the blade resulted in the resounding of metal. She struck he would parry, he sliced she would dodge. The first few strokes were just an introduction to this bout between seeming opposites. Sion's footwork began to flare out, to spread and to take hold as he moved with each purposed stride back and forth. His blade cutting through the air, flowing with every cut. Years had been spent to hone his ability with the blade, to become one with it. The sword not his weapon, but an extension of himself, in mind and in body. Every movement made transitioned to the other in the heated clash of metal. Her own form was wild, erratic and unorthodox. This made Matsu harder to predict, and he couldn't rely on his own perception, he had to use the Force, he had to bend to its direction. Her blade coming within inches of his body and form time and time again as he sliced along the path of her cuts to parry them and draw them off their mark. Still the unspoken guide of the Force drew him to a position in which he could come back with a stand, and begin to enter into an offensive pattern.

Extremes
At the end of any extreme, it becomes the opposite. Two sides to a coin form it's purpose. The extreme of something is it's counterpart.

Matsu's fury ignited by painful memories of betrayal, panic, loss and even the fear of death. Her wild and animalistic nature though was not in and of itself a pure trait. There was restraint mixed within her mind, her actions, and her form. She could not carry to the end of that path. Sion also could not embody perfect calm, as there was great and slippery slope that ended with the purest form becoming the opposite of its intent. He was at peace, he was balanced, but his calm still held aggression, still held focus and action. To deny this would be fall into complacency, to a state of complete apathy towards every notion, in every emotion and circumstance. While he would flow with the current, he never lost himself truly in it. He had to maintain, he had to know when to swim. Should the current of life take him on its path with no resistance, he would enter the void, he would cease to exist. The same was true with Matsu's wild style of fury and hate. To relinquish her mind in complete abandon to the feelings, all else would die off. The entire galaxy would be purged from her presence. There would be nothing, there would be a void, an inescapable loss that would mirror perfectly the end point of ultimate calm. No, they had to endure, they had to resist, and they had to maintain a balance, however slight - the extreme would end them both.

Change
There is no constant, there is only movement. Everything will advance or decline, in the stagnant there is no life. Adapt.

The first explosion of combat was coming to it's crescendo, and that meant it was about to shift. The alteration of footwork and his advance brought Sion upon Matsu with clean and concise strokes, He aimed not to kill, but to threaten. To put his blade in paths that would cause her alarm, cause her to think, and to react. If he had to fight, if he had to defend himself, he would attempt to incapacitate. She had not listened to reason thus far, but everything would eventually move either forward or back. Neither of them could continue in concord as they had been, a paradigm shift would occur. As her sword lunged, cutting to the side in and even swipe, his blade came further, and then shifted in the grip until the locking of metal cut across the glade and the force of the two pushed into an impassable confrontation. Strength and strength, as Sion held his ground. Silver eyes narrowed, as he recalled his former teachings.

"You have passion and drive. You have purpose, but you seem broken, unhinged. Bend, adapt to this life and weather the storm." He wasn't entirely sure if that was going to make sense, but in this heat, in this combat, she had expressed herself far and above what the words they had exchanged could have done. Echani were bred to express themselves in combat, and read the other as a form of communication. He saw this in her, the need to attack, the vigor and ferocity she carried. He felt the need to respond in this current stalemate.

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

In another life, she might have been like him. As she lay in that little house on Skye, waiting for her Master to retrieve her, what was left of her arm reminding her of what had happened with its weightlessness, she had imagined another Matsu Xiangu. A Matsu born in a galaxy adjacent to theirs, a Matsu that may have come from a family just as nice, from circumstances just as favorable. And this girl would turn out so differently.

In that life, Matsu would have been seeking the balance that her opponent spoke of. If she knew him, she may have studied him out of the corners of her eyes, reluctant to let him see her trying to emulate him – the shy leaf of a girl folding her fingers behind her back and straightening her posture. There was a seeming clarity to every movement he made, and even if inside he had no idea how to feel the calmness he exuded would have drawn her to him in that alternate universe she spent so much time dreaming up as she waited for her Master to come get her (or to die, waiting for the Force, was my time so short?).

But it was this Galaxy that the raven-haired girl was born in to and in the end, she craved that lean towards the dark that licked at her heels. It drove her, powered her, and she was just lucky enough to find teachers who helped her refine that animalistic rage that was her first instinct.

Still, there was something almost…peaceful in the flow of their footwork. Their styles were markedly different but that only seemed to enhance the sense of distance she felt from the situation and for a moment – just a moment – she felt abandon as the Force let her enjoy the vibration up her arm of a strike, the sheering sound of blade against blade, the crunch of the forest beneath her boots. The Ewoks had long left the area, unwilling to be caught up in the crossfire of a clash they were merely glad had ended their torment.

As they met in the middle, Matsu pushing again the man’s strength with the knowledge that she was no match in both physique and swordplay, she realized she’d relinquished that initial urge to kill him. Strange but…hadn’t that been her objection to Krius anyway? Matsu was not Sith because she hated Jedi, or because she hated the light in general. And she was not Sith because she approved of mindless killing. She could respect the man matching power with her then, and it was respect that stayed that bestial nature. Regardless, a toothy smile bloomed on her face when he spoke.

“I was broken. Into a million pieces,” she said, just loud enough for him to hear before sending a repulse in the Force out from her body, hopefully sending him flying backwards. “And when you’re broken, you can no longer bend. But now I like to imagine it like a river – all my pieces like fishes, separating and coming back together to skirt every obstacle,” she answered, that naturally poetic side of her coming out as she circled. (Oh dear [member="Val`Sion"] seemed to have stumbled on a crazy in the woods.) Her power was resting right behind her fingertips, wondering what it would be like to spar him with her true strength – her swordplay was rubbish.

She reached up, snapping smaller branches off the trees around them and sending them to hurtle towards the stranger.

 

[Valsion]

Blade against blade, locked in purpose and strength, toiled against each other in a display of determination and spirit. The icy chill of his blade nearly glowing as the condensation and steam rose from the razor edge, wafting across the length like dancing clouds. His silver eyes locked onto Matsu's gaze while she countered his advice with her own philosophy. He saw madness in her, a mind that had been splintered and fractured, but was still (after all of that) focused and deadly. Though the battle was just beginning between them, he felt a balm of compassion well over him for her state. She didn't see the need for sympathy, or grace or mercy. She found herself in the throes of aggression and the power that the Force could muster in her grasp. Rare were the times when he was pitted in a stronghold where the intent was not for expression or education; where it was for defense and protection of his own being.

Among the journeys that the Echani had, he had been lead to people who were searching for something, or had lost their way. These were generally meetings of great pleasure to the Echani, where he sought to help and to guide, offering what wisdom he'd gleaned and bestowing it freely to those who would listen. There were however times when ideals would clash, and the heat of combat would begin. These were still learning experiences, but he didn't desire them as much as the former. His mind drifted to those times where he had to engage his opponent, and yet he found something new in all of them, something that would benefit himself as a whole. Everyone was his teacher, and everyone has the capacity to also learn from him. The symbotic nature of everyone he met rang through his mind as the blades continued to lock, and Matsu replied with words that dripped with venom.

He felt it, that rise in power that radiated around the raven haired girl, as she pulled inwards drawing on the palpable potency of the Force that surrounded the two. His own preparations were of his mind, to shut it off like a steel trap. She had successfully once lanced his mind with her spike of pain, mentally assaulting his cognitive functions. He wouldn't let her have that upper hand again, keeping his trained thoughts sealed and guarded. Unfortunately he noticed the shift in her advance too little too late. Matsu had not drawn on the Force to inflict more mental carnage, but a single blast of telekinetic power rushed forward, ripping him from the stand-off and into the air. His body flew backwards in a spiral, as the sword fell from his grip, slicing into the soil while continued. His body shifted and contorted before both feet planted against the soil, dragging backwards, while his one hand splayed to the soil beneath. Coming to a stop, silver eyes flicked upwards as Matsu continued to give her own view of how she reshaped her brokenness into strength.

"The river gives life, it moves with the course of the land and the wind. You seem to fight the current, and push against the natural direction, struggling and wasting energy." Sion said, his eyes fixed on the woman as she moved in slow circular footsteps. "Rest in the power of the Force - and flow with what is." Sion said as he shot forward as long tangled branches of the Endor forest began to slice through the air like missiles aimed for his frame. The strength and power of the Force slowing the movements down till they just inched by in slow-motion, till every splinter, every knot in the wood was seen with perfect clarity. In an instant he moved, surrendering himself to the tide and current that the Force had allowed him to see.

"Be formless..." Sion said as his body shifted, in smooth and elegant motions as the branches ripped by him, missing his body by inches. He turned on a dime, his arms reaching out and then coming in, letting the Force direct him. "...shapeless, like the water of the river." Ducking under and then rolling to the right before leaping up and over, doing a somersault to avoid another barrage. "You put water into a cup, it becomes the cup..." Another shift of position, all the while his eyes came back to fix on Matsu's frame as he spoke in rhythm with his movement. "...put water into a bowl it becomes the bowl." Another jaunt of his body before he whirled around another branch and grasped the hilt of his sword, sliding it out of the soil with a single stroke. "The river can flow..." A side-step taken as the second to last branch snapped off and ripped through the air. "....or it can crash." With the same motion his sword raised up and he lobbed off the last to come at him, striking it in two at the ground, his sword rising to point the tip towards Matu's throat, about a foot away. "Be water my friend."


[member="Matsu Xiangu"]

 

[Matsu Xiangu]

Matsu wasn’t one to get taken up in speeches, but she couldn’t help but narrow her eyes in wonder when the man suddenly seemed to just let go and…flow through the arrangement of branches rocketing toward him. She knew the concept of letting the Force take over but the entire idea seemed foreign to her. And it wasn’t something she’d been taught either. Her Master preached control, to not let one’s base instincts rule the mind. It was the danger of the side of the Force she’d chosen – to let it run free was to lose oneself to it. If she wished to maintain her sanity she must always have an iron grip on herself.

But maybe what she was seeing was a form of control.

Maybe in that flow he knew himself like she did when she gripped that animalistic rage tight between her fingers. But that flow…going with the river and not against it…it allowed him to flip and dodge like she wasn’t sure she might have been capable of doing in the same position. She was still circling, the natural instinct not to stand still when defending herself deeply ingrained. Her gaze was still intent, unwavering as she watched him, listened to his peaceful tone as he revealed more of that guru, sage-like presence he seemed to infect her space with. Where she radiated ferocity he gave off serenity and it rubbed her exactly the wrong way.

Mentalism, at almost any level, required the right combination of natural talent, strength in the Force, and timing. Matsu had the first. She had earned the second through the somewhat paralyzing decision to forego more than the basics with weapons; less time spent training with her sword meant more time practicing other things and becoming formidable in their use like others became masters with their sabers. Timing…it was something her Master had given her a powerful lesson in.

As her opponent performed acrobatics that would probably plague her dreams she collected the Force around her quietly. Illusions were what she’d settled on, what she practiced without end, and they were the quietest and most subtle of moves - something that was often an advantage, as a girl so naturally inclined to brutality was not the one most expected to use quiet tactics. It took all her strength not to react as the tip of his blade came towards her, especially so close to her throat, but it was a gamble she was willing to take. (And perhaps just then she didn’t care so much.) At that moment she reached out, the seconds of serenity when he seemed to be coming down from the flow of the Force, and tried slipping in to his mind again…quiet, not a trace.

She planted the image of the same attack – more branches, dozens more than she’d sent the first time – and watched to see his reaction. It was possible that he could miss it completely, staring at the strange woman watching him so intently as if he should be doing something. But she was good at this – he would see her standing still if it worked, but more branches coming for him. And as the illusion began she drew her sword again, planning on giving him something to remember her by.

Then, perhaps, back to her Ewoks.

[member="Val`Sion"]​

 

[Valsion]

The shimmering metallic blade rested horizontal at shoulder level, with the point precariously pointed at the still form of the Human. She had watched the display, and despite the telekinetic prowess to send branches like missiles in his direction, she had not rushed in for another attack, nor even stepped out of the center line of their paused combat. If the Echani was tired, it didn't show, due in part to the extensive training of his past as a warrior of Eshan. The Echani were bred in combat, and consistently sparred to keep their bodies sharp and their minds alert. Endurance and stamina were key aspects of their regiment - and Sion was no different in that regard. Silver eyes roamed the raven haired girl, inspecting every inch of her petite frame in attempt to discover what her next motion would be. She'd said nothing, made no verbal reply of any kind and merely watched.

Such a young woman, so twisted in her early years, robbed of the innocent years of her vitality. Sion was young in spirit as well - despite having lived more than a century further than she had, it was a hundred years that he didn't have recollection of. The Force has sustained him for that century, defying time, defying decay, defying death. It nourished, protected, and preserved the Echani as it had done with all the Followers of Pallawa. He felt older though, in the maturity of his mind - having discovered secrets he thought to be hidden to many. The sword stayed poised for a few moments longer before it was drawn down and slowly slid into the sheath in a practiced and smooth motion at his hip. She didn't need to respond however, Sion had found what the Force had wanted him to find. Words were not going to sway her, nor was this spar - but now she knew that he was capable of dealing with her particular moods and abilities.

"I trust you have learned something valuable from this. Good day." Sion said with a small nod of his head, before he pivoted on one foot and drew his back against that of the girl. Footsteps paced forward, heaidng in the direction of his shuttle several kilometers away. There was nothing else to do in this place, and he wasn't after her head. He had never intended to harm the girl in the slightest, and while he did battle with her, it was a consistent parry for parry that left both of them unscathed. Though once his back was turned he heard the branches snap from the trees behind her. Loud cracks echoed in his ears before the spiraling missiles of wood began to come once again from behind him. Seconds before impact, he touched the Force again, expecting to marge once again into the flow, but nothing came. No prick of danger alerted him to impending harm.

Trust the Force, doubt is the enemy of faith.

The phrase came to his mind while he resisted the will to react on pure instinct. He listened to the Force, and quieted his mind. Nothing came but images, and slowly the images broken down in his head, the branches of the trees vanishing into naught but illusion. Silver eyes opened again a moment later, as he brought the sheath of his sword up, turning to reveal the blade once again within an instant to catch the upcoming cut of the woman behind him. The sudden strike causing a few sparks to fly off in abandon. Footfalls pressed forward, capitalizing on his instant recovery and attempting to push the woman back directly against the nearest thick base of a tree. Taller and gifted with more physical strength, the Echani pressed his advantage to line the girl's back up against the grooves of the tree trunk.

"You trust the Force as a tool, as a weapon. I trust the Force to be my guide in the Galaxy. Whether or not the Force exists to be simply one, or both - learn this lesson young one; the mystery of its connection will never be fully explained without letting it teach you." Steps were immediately taken back as his sword was swallowed again by the sheath. "I don't want to see you causing this moon anymore sorrow." And with that said, his form crouched and he leapt high into the air, immediately bounding off the branches and rushing into the depths of the forest. His time with her had expired, and the necessity of his visit was proven. The Ewoks were safe from her mental games, and she had heard what he had to say. Whatever the outcome, the moment had forever passed.

[member="Matsu Xiangu"]