Enduring Light

[Jannik Morlandt]

His need to practice confirmed, Jannik settled once again and felt out the Force for the next purpose it would be set to: increasing his own resolve. 'Start small' she had said, so small he did start by reminiscing over the still-fresh feeling of this power being worked on him by another, as well as the memory of his time just before he had come to the Jedi, in the hospital for days after being hit with an overwhelming vision and smacking his head terribly hard on the duracrete, how sorry for himself he had felt, how his friends had abandoned him out of what must have been fear greater than their concern. The Jedi had come for him, then, but until then... that was the spot, that feel to set back the goodness he felt after the workings of the Shi'ido master.

Then he began to bring the energy of the Force into himself, letting it fill him to every extremity, and began to change that energy to give him what he needed, that resolve to keep going despite the feeling that all his guiding lights had went out. And change it did, a little at a time, until he felt just... okay again. Content. Nowhere near as energized as [member="Erinyes Draclau"] had made him, but it was a step in the right direction. His eyes opened, and he looked to her.

"How'd ah do?"

 

[Erinyes Draclau]

[member="Jannik Morlandt"]

Erinyes would nod, giving him an encouraging smile. "Thou hast done well, Padawan Morlandt." she'd tell him. Then with a nod, she'd ask, " since thou art humour reasonably revitalized, i shall teach thee a method of sustaining thy corse f'r long periods of time. "

it is a deep meditation. a hibernation trance. the metabolism and breathing come to a standstill, causing the individual to only lay-to one tenth of the air of a ingraft individual. to all outward compliment externs, the individual appears to be dead; only thorough testing would determine that they wast alive. such is the depth of the trance that life sensors would only register a faint flicker. "

She would straighten her back.

"a fully train'd force-user couldst stay in this state f'r up to one week in a dry climate 'r one month in a wet climate 'ere dying from lack of water. "

 

[Jannik Morlandt]

[member="Erinyes Draclau"]

Deep meditation? After their last lesson, and all the time he had since spent honing that skill of farsight, he had become better acquainted with the ins and outs of meditation itself, had found it a just as reliable method of finding that calm that the strum of his quetarra also provided. It was still hard to think to use the skills he had been learning, sometimes, for he simply hadn't been at it long enough for intuition to set in and growing up outside of the order had given him a dependency on the normal ways of doing life. There was altogether a certain retraining of the brain that was going on at the same time as learning all these new things.

"Tha's verrah nifty, Master Draclau... but how d'ye come out of it? How d'ye know when, if possible?"

Those were the questions, weren't they? He couldn't deny that many of these new things were useful in one way or another that he would not have seen before coming into this life, for example: why would he want to blind anyone? But the life of a Jedi is fraught with dangers, and oft-times they were intentionally walking right into the middle of it! Well, he hadn't really done so yet, but he knew it wasn't a matter of 'if' so much as a matter of 'when'.

 

[Erinyes Draclau]

"All very good questions. well done Jannik," Jedi Master Erinyes Draclau said, well pleased by [member="Jannik Morlandt"]'s probing questions. Hibernation trance was not something to take lightly. It carried very serious risks -- one could very well be in a hibernation for over three hundred years or more if left in that state.

"There is a way to endue one out of it, through a trigger phrase f'r example that couldst be recit'd to endue one out of the trance." she would give a pause, only to follow with, "This trance is only to be used when absolutely necessary. In the face of dire straits"

She would take a deep breath and then tell him, "Thus padawan Morlandt, what would you desire your key phrase to be? I shall walk thou through it, to ensure your safety."

 

[Jannik Morlandt]

Only when absolutely necessary, somewhat of a last resort. This was one of the first times he'd encountered really learning such a thing that could be a real danger to himself or anyone else, even though the purpose of it was of great use. It made him feel sombre, and he thought on the key phrase he would like used. Something he would easily recognise for the purpose it was to be set to.

"Muja berry flatcakes," he said, and then another thing came to mind: "Is't possible tae doe this tae someone else?"

He'd thought about it a moment, and figured it would be a good thing if one could. Never a bad idea to probe all the possibilities. [member="Erinyes Draclau"] was full of rather useful knowledge.

 

[Erinyes Draclau]

[member="Jannik Morlandt"]

"It is possible for one to utilize this power upon another; however, there are certain conditions to be met." Erinyes began to explain. "A trained user should only attempt it."

She would elaborate further.

"The target has to be a willing ally and the method of inducing into a trance is relayed through touch. Only then can your ally benefit from the effects of the hibernation trance."

There came a note of added seriousness to her tone.

"They would not be able to emerge from the trance on their own; instead they rely on the force-user to bring him out of it." she would explain. "It is a lesser form of the rare Force power known as Moricho."

"In this Force technique -- it rapidly slows the body functions of targets. It is most effective for subduing opponent; yet extremely dangerous. The target must be constantly monitored. And the failure of the Jedi to reverse the process, the risk of indefinite the unconsciousness increases. They could very well die from the unintentional effects of dehydration or starvation."

She would take a deep breath, then nod.

"If thou care to try, I can send thee into a hibernation trance, so thou may feel and experience the process. Once under the trance, I shall awaken thee."

 

[Jannik Morlandt]

[member="Erinyes Draclau"]

The more he asked questions of his masters, the more he found that he was right to ask them and in some instances subsequent abilities in the Force were mentioned, only adding to his knowledge. For the most part, these other abilities made him wary and that was a very good thing. He took a deep breath, himself, and nodded in kind.

"Ah'm ready," he assured.

And it was about as ready as he was ever going to be, which was with less doubt than it might be otherwise - he trusted the cerulean-skinned master.

 

[Erinyes Draclau]

[member="Jannik Morlandt"]

And so the Shi'ido Jedi Master would rise to her feet, her robe shifting with her movements. She would come walking round to stand behind Jannik, and from there, her blue hands would come to rest gently upon his shoulders.

"Relax Padawan Morlandt, and sink into the Force." she told him, closing her own eyes. She then would sink into a meditation state, her focus on harnessing the Force energies down her arms and into the palms of her hands.

There, she would start to pour energy into Jannik's body. It would wash over him, across sinew and bone, pouring and filling him with the Lightside of the Force. Here she would chart his physique, and in it, start to manipulate the energy she poured into him to start slowing down his metabolism. From that, she would slow down his heartbeat in a granular manner, guiding him deeper and deeper into the the hibernation trance.

 

[Jannik Morlandt]

[member="Erinyes Draclau"]

Relax and sink into the Force was her instruction, and as such he did as she had taught and guided him to do in their first foray into the Force together some months before. Any thought or will to resist washed away with the touch and flow of the Force, the feel of her hands on his shoulders not a weight but a tether of sorts, of stabilisation to his mind.

He could feel himself being filled with the Light, every mote and extreme of his being touched and painted with this weightlessness of feeling and soon time seemed to slow, then melt away into a thing with no meaning or hold on him, he began to feel a sleepiness that led him not to slumber but to a standing fact: existence, pure and clear. A stillness. No pulse thundered by in his ears but did in fact flow like a placid river, the pace of his breath came down to the patient time-taking of a sloth. He floated and yet moved not at all, in some place between waking and slumber. All the while he heeded these motions, etching them to his memory of learning.

 

[Erinyes Draclau]

With [member="Jannik Morlandt"] deep in the hibernation trance, Erinyes let the Jedi Padawan settle in for a few minutes. He would need to understand how it felt, the sensation of the Force slowing down his metabolism and how it felt to be under.

Finally, after about fifteen minutes, Erinyes's hands would touch Jannik's shoulders anew. She would start to coax him out of his trance, adding in the phrase, "Muja berry flatcakes," as his trigger phrase

Granted, the trigger phrase made her laugh.

Once he would stir and come to his senses anew, it would be his turn to attempt it by himself.

 

[Jannik Morlandt]

At [member="Erinyes Draclau"]'s use of his chosen phrase, he began to 'awaken' from the 'slumber' he'd been put into, becoming once more aware of the world around him as it all began to slowly speed up, the pace of his breathing and pulse returning to resting normal. He didn't know how long he'd been under and in this context such things were unimportant. Once full cognizance returned to him and his eyes fluttered open, he gave his assessment.

"Ah understand, now. It feels like... a not-empty nothingness. A... calm something-ness, ah s'pose."

The words were slow and calm. He became aware of the hands on his shoulders again.

"A'right, time for me tae attempt it all by meself."

A peaceable smile turned the ends of his lips upward, eyelids slipping, dropping over his eyes. The phrase was the same. Relaxing energy poured into him by his own doing and was worked through his body to slow down its processes, a strange thing to set himself afloat in the sea of quiet calm where the world around him seemed to hold less meaning. The working of it was much simpler now, what with having experienced it, as opposed to diving in blind. He dove deeper, recognizing and passing the markers of the slowing of his breathing and the flow of his blood until he came to the place he had just been, where he simply ceased to dive and began to float in place, the world outside of his body taking on a daydream-like quality.

It would be up to the cerulean-skinned master to bring him out again.

 

[Erinyes Draclau]

The Shi'ido Jedi Master would carefully monitor [member="Jannik Morlandt"] 's progress. He would slip into it far more comfortably, until his breath was but a faint and barely noticeable rise and fall of his chest.

The Force would surge through her, and in it she would utilize sense life method to check his vital signs. Good, his heart while slowed, was strong.

How curious, she would muse.

He did this relatively with ease. A whimsical expression would drift over her cerulean face.

It was as if he was slipping into an old pair of shoes. Came as easy to him as one learning from memory.

"Hmm..." in this she would ponder some more, before she would say anew the phrase to bring him from his trance.

 

[Jannik Morlandt]

The realisation this time was one of knowing that he did not want to stay this way forever but that he could. That forever was finite, of course, for the body could not be sustained indefinitely without water and sustenance. Eventually the body would feast on itself and wither away unto death. The most disturbing part of this realisation was feeling as if he could easily envision what that felt like, down to his bones. He would shiver at the thought, if his body wasn't closed to such outputs at that very moment, he would shiver if the calm didn't effect such a peaceable warm.

The passage of time was something of a stranger, here. Had it been minutes? Hours? Days? He wasn't certain he would be able to tell, and therein was an assurance - not knowing was less of a panic than knowing. Knowing introduced a quantity, a time-frame that ended in 'if no-one brings you out, you're done for'. Still, there was a soothing melody to the peace, keeping him centred.

[member="Erinyes Draclau"]

 

[Erinyes Draclau]

"Muja berry flatcakes,"

Erinyes would coax [member="Jannik Morlandt"] from his hibernation trance. Were he to open his eyes, he would find the cerulean visage of the Jedi Master smiling warmly at him, her large green eyes staring down at him with notable whimsical wonder.

"Thou art powerful in the Force, Knight Jannik Morlandt. Thou hast the touch of an old soul." she would tell him, the Force revealing but a tiny glimpse of the possibility what -- no, whom -- Jannik was.

"The Force remembers thee well."

For many who interacted with the Shi'ido, some would wave off her comments as idle phrases.

But perhaps, for the young seer, they were but a forewarning of not only his future, but his past.

 

[Jannik Morlandt]

He surfaced somewhat faster than before, the world seeping in and his awareness awakening once again. The visage of the cerulean master, [member="Erinyes Draclau"], was a welcome one, as always, and slow and calm smile appeared on his lips in a fluid transition of expression.

"An old soul, hm?" he said in a soft way, in return, but his mind was on the matter of his being powerful. Again, that concern. How was it even possible? Was it simply that he was powerful? And furthermore... "It... remembers me well?"

At that he was perplexed, but also concerned, the comments from Kira during their sessions of training being easily recalled. There was some connection between those and now.

"How d'ye mean?"

How little he knew just how well, how intimately the all-encompassing, pervasive Force knew him. How clueless he was of things to come.

 

[Erinyes Draclau]

Erinyes would quietly study [member="Jannik Morlandt"], a slight frown coming to her. Those big green eyes would attempt to search, to find clarity on how to properly reply. Finally she spoke.

"Thou hast the aura of one well used to treading the path of life, Jannik." a small gentle pat would come to his shoulder.

"The Force works in mysterious ways; understanding and comprehension will come with time and meditation." she would shine him with a gentle smile.

"For now, thou needs rest."