If You Know Telekinesis, Please Raise my Arm (Nyla Crow)

[Darth Ophidia]

Telekinesis; perhaps one of the most basic, but also most useful skills in the arsenal of any force user. With proper training, one became the master of one's surroundings. Objects moved at ones whim, enemies would find themselves flung across the room and crushed into the cold, hard ground. To any student of Darth Ophidia, it was obligatory to gain considerable skill in this.

The stage for the lesson was an open roof space on one of the many structures of Coruscant. The wind blew strong here and few speeders ever travelled this far up. Ship-travel was also restricted in the area for security reasons, meaning they would not be disturbed. Eight large objects were placed along the rim of the building. Four were heavy, smooth stone pillars, set in the corners and holding nothing but air. Another four were round metal spheres, dark in colour, set on stout platforms so they would not roll away.

The Rattataki Sith Lord stood in the dead centre. Her eyes were closed, her hands rested on the small of her back. She had folded her robe neatly and placed it down by her feet. The remainder of her attire was lighter, but equally simplistic and monochromatic. Comfortable trousers in a dark grey colouration disappeared into high leather boots, polished black. A black tunic draped down to the middle of her thighs, tightened at the waist with a wide, belt of red silk with a pattern of twisting vines. Between her fingers, she held a golden coin, one side decorated with two serpents biting each other's tails, the other with a skull on a bed of bones.

She awaited her apprentice's arrival.

[member="Nyla Crow"] would be summoned and offered transport to the location. The guide would not enter the building, but leave as soon as Nyla got out of the offered speeder. If she were to refuse the ride, then she would see none in the nearby vicinity, not as much as a protocol droid.

 

[Nyla Crow]

Private transport was not a perk Nyla had expected, but perhaps she should've; she was, after all, Apprenticed to a Sith Lord.
The young Apprentice was dressed semi-casually as she entered the building; trousers and a sleeveless shirt, both black, both made of lightweight, breathable material, and a pair of black boots, strictly utilitarian in design. This outfit did, however, have the added side effect of exposing more of her skin, and, therefore, making much more visible the evidence of her corruption. Her skin was pale, as it always had been, but it had grown steadily paler since she discovered her talent for the Force. It didn't help that, as well, there was the vaguest hint of blackening to her veins, giving her a complexion somewhat reminiscent of a corpse.

With a grace that suggested she was most definitely alive, however, she entered the building where [member="Darth Ophidia"] had settled, and took a moment to enjoy the view. Coruscant was quite the beautiful planet, and it reminded Nyla of a wealthier, cleaner Nar-Shaddaa. She reminded herself that she was here to train, not to sight-see, and bowed her head to her Master. It would be redundant to speak, seeing as Ophidia had certainly sensed her arrival already.

Still, it was the respectful thing to do, and Nyla, regardless of how else she may have grown up, was taught manners.

"I have arrived, my Lord."

 

[Darth Ophidia]

Darth Ophidia did indeed sense her apprentice as she came. It was not every day she would be escorted, but sometimes it was easier to take measures than wait for the apprentice to figure out the mundane details. Soon, however, she would be expected to find her own way to training, sometimes even without being told training was in store.

As Nyla entered the rooftop, Ophidia remained in her position. The wind shifted a fraction, tugging on her clothes and caressing her hairless head. From the neckline of the Rattataki's clothes, several dark grey lines branched up to grasp at the base of her skull; scars from severe electrocution. Her grip on the coin changed, it flitted between the fingers of a black hand, covered in the swirling pattern of burned skin, and over into a callused, grey hand which clenched it tightly.

"Sometimes, sight-seeing is a part of training. It is beautiful, yes. If you are careless with your balance or where you place your feet, the wind may sweep you away and you will fall to your death."

She let go of the coin and stepped away. It remained right where she had held it, and as she turned, she placed a finger on it. Ophidia remembered how Nyla had noticed her last trick. That was why she opened with it this time. She plucked the coin from the air, palmed it, and it was gone.

"Today, I will teach you to master the material plane of the universe. You may have had... Incidents with this in your past. I will teach you to control it, refine it."

[member="Nyla Crow"]

 

[Nyla Crow]

As Ophidia displayed her talent with Telekinesis, understanding dawn in the young Acolyte. That explained the out of place looking spheres, at least.

"A few times, maybe. Things have missed me that really should've hit. Knives, rocks, a grenade - long story, that one. Always when I was panicked or angry." Nyla grinned, and stepped closer. The young acolyte said nothing in response to Ophidia's warning about keeping her balance, but she did step just a bit further away from the edge, and sit down in her meditative pose.

Telekinesis. According to the singular book on the Force she had started reading, it was one of the most basic of Force powers, and one of the most easily learned. The Sith Apprentice did, however, imagine that it was one of those particular skills that was easy to learn, but hard to master. It was one thing to fling a rock across a room; she imagined it was much harder to, for example, disassemble a blaster with your mind. For Nyla especially; finesse was never her strong suit when it came to the Force. She had a talent for large bursts of power; causing crushing terror, bending minds to her will, and forcing her way into the minds of others.

As the girl sat there, she looked up to [member="Darth Ophidia"] and grinned again, before speaking. "Shall we begin, then, my Lord?"

 

[Darth Ophidia]

Ophidia nodded as she listened to Nyla's words. Anger and desperation often triggered abilities. The will to survive was one the Sith Lord often utilised in her training and teaching. As Nyla would experience already in the coming session.

"We will start with meditation. Clear your mind of distractions, find the fire in you and feed it."

Ophidia did not sit down, but walked over to one of the pillars and placed her hand on it as she looked out over the skyline of Coruscant. Her fingers traced one of the fissures of the stonework absent-mindedly as she let her apprentice slip into the right state of mind. Meditation sharpened the mind and cleared the path of outside concerns. She found it opened up for greater intuition and quicker learning.

"Feel your breath, the building beneath you, the air around you. Become aware of your surroundings, my apprentice."

This was not only advice for telekinesis, but for a general state of vigilance that would prove useful in all aspects of her new life.

[member="Nyla Crow"]

 

[Nyla Crow]

This was the easy part; she'd had a month alone on a ship to practice meditation, before she arrived on Coruscant.

The young Acolyte took a deep breath, and focused, channeling every ounce of fear she could muster; it wasn't hard, considering she was on top of an exceptionally tall builing, with an exceptionally powerful woman who has admitted to having few qualms about killing her. Use of the Dark Side was, as one might expect, always risky; if the practitioner wasn't careful, they could lose control, flying into frenzied rage or panicked desperation.

Nyla was naturally skittish, though, and so knew well how to use fear to her advantage. Adrenaline pumped through her. Details in the stonework around her were clearer, the whistling of the wind was louder. She paid special attention to the looming presence of [member="Darth Ophidia"] before her, carefully observing her Master for any signs of incoming hostility. She didn't quite know what to expect, but she had the feeling that pain was going to be involved if she didn't learn quickly. And, most likely, even if she did.

 

[Darth Ophidia]

She sensed Nyla's fear, her nervousness and adrenaline. Ophidia did not have an active hostile stance, yet she had the presence of a coiled viper. The image is often used to describe someone as tense, but the viper is not tense; it is restful, but ready. So was Ophidia; even with her back turned and her body without surplus tension, she was ready for anything.

"Fear is a good basis, but let it not be your only source. One day, you may run out of fear. What do you do then?"

Ophidia's own motivations were mixed. Some times it was fear that drove her hatred, other times it was a simple desire to dominate others, to justify her own existence in the suffering of lesser beings. Some times, it was her vision that drove her, a vision she did not share with the rest of the Sith: A galaxy on fire, fields strewn with corpses, war eternal until none remained to draw breath. Then came the dark vines that webbed over the bodies and pulled them down, and then, the black serpent sitting as king of the cinders. She had seen it as a Knight, the day she swore her allegiance to death itself.

The Rattataki blinked as she ended her train of thought and looked back at her apprentice again. She would give her more time, ten standard minutes to gather herself, then the lesson could begin.

[member="Nyla Crow"]