Magic at Midday

[Bantha_chan]

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Zena sat on a low chair, legs crossed at the ankles. She hadn’t been waiting long, killing time by aimlessly scrolling through newsfeeds on a small datapad. Her entire body was covered in voluminous black robes, with a heavy veil over her hair and most of her face. She had agreed to meet a Sith Lord named Vanessa Vantai, who had taken an interest in the acolyte. Zena wasn’t really sure what was in store, as the message was short and only briefly mentioned Sith magic or something. Hopefully Lord Vantai wouldn’t be too put off by her blasé manner. She had no patience with those that demanded unearned reverence, unless they first threatened to kill her. And in that case, she’d only give it on the outside, laughing on the inside.​

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[member="Vanessa Vantai"]​

 

[Onrai]

Vanessa had been reading up on the smollacs, cute creations formed by GenPals, when a notification had popped up. An acolyte had caught her eye - one [member="Zena Tarro"]. Apparently the other masters had not exerted s significant sway on the woman - so it was that she found herself grateful that a potential route to acquiring an acolyte had been opened.

Entering the room, black dress seeming to flutter with every step she took, the blonde Vahla smiled as she looked at Zena. “Ah, the acolyte... welcome. I’m Vanessa Vantai. A pleasure to see that you were able to in fact make it.”

 

[Zena Tarro]

Zena sensed her before she saw her, a willowy figure wrapped in an aura darker than night. A blond that many would consider conventionally attractive stepped into the room, greeting her.

"Please call me Zena. I wouldn't call it a pleasure, but thank you," she said dryly, eyeing Vantai's outfit. Breasts, buttocks, and knees on glaring display. Even her hair. Did women have no modesty? Most Sith at least seemed to cover themselves more, if not to Zena's standards.

Disgust creeped into her Force aura, as well as her eyes. As if she was physically unwilling to look at her, or to throw even more contrast between the two, Zena lifted the second layer of her veil to cover her face. "Prostitute dress..." she mumbled. Settling into Force sight now, Vantai's form melded into a shimmering aura that had no real distinction of what she was wearing. There was a reason Zena preferred the celestial plain to the physical.

"Do you have any plans for today? I know you had briefly mentioned Sith sorcery." Her voice was icy, daring Vantai to react.

[member="Vanessa Vantai"]

 

[Onrai]

"It elicits a positive feeling from me to see that you were able to make it. I'd consider it a pleasure." She responded, before noticing the woman's reaction as she lowered the veil over the entirety of her face, muttering to herself. Vanessa heard her, but chose to remain ignorant for the time being. "My plans for today generally consisted of instructing you in the usage of alchemy and magic. Two of the most arcane skills utilizable by a Sith, once passed down through scrolls and holocrons, but now taught by masters to the acolytes." She responded.

"There are multiple different spells that one can use against an enemy. They are true magic - not ignorant use of the Force like the Witches of Dathomir. She responded. "Look through the database and tell me what interests you. We can begin from there."

This was going to be challenging.

[member="Zena Tarro"]

 

[Zena Tarro]

Zena looked down at her datapad, scrolling through the many names and descriptions of Force powers that she had never heard of. Several had names in the old Sith tongue, a language that she was still not proficient in. From entrapment to convening with ghosts, to calling on the dead to aid in battle, the features of these spells was wide and vast. She was half-tempted to settle on something destructive like Force Blast, an utterly devastating power that essentially burned through everything in a small radius. Yet if she were to use it anywhere, in any capacity, there would be no more covertness. And it was terribly flashy. The Spell of Concealment caught her eye, a way to conceal one’s presence in the Force.

“Spell of Concealment interests me. If you know it, of course. False light side aura is also fascinating.” She said, with a cool and even tone. The contempt that was once present in her voice and eyes was gone. “Please, lead the way. “

[member="Vanessa Vantai"]

 

[Onrai]

[member="Zena Tarro"]

"I know most of if not almost all of the various forms of Sith magic." She responded. "Such arcane knowledge is something I like to consider a specialty of mine because it is the truest form of using the Dark Side." She said. Fingers moved in a triangular pattern - melded together as one as they traced a triangle that grew ever smaller before turning into a small spot, from whence she poked out her index finger and pushed forward. Instantly at that moment, her Force presence would disappear to the young Acolyte. "Now if you were trying to hunt down the Darksider in the crowd... what makes me so different from anyone else?" She smiled, looking at Zena.

"Go on... try it."

 

[Zena Tarro]

Nodding in acknowledgement, Zena asked, “Why do you consider Sith Magic to be the truest form of the Dark Side?” Zena was always under the impression that Sith Magic was a very specific branch of the Dark Side that allowed the user to do powerful, specialized things. At least when a beginner, a user of Magic was forced to perform rituals and actions in a preset sequence for the specific spell to work. Perhaps for covert plotting behind the scenes, this was a non-issue. But what about in the heat of battle? The area of the Dark Side directly accessible to oneself seemed to be the most practical, the closest to one’s self.

Zena watched her closely through her Force sight. Her senses settled on the peculiar movement of the woman’s hands, and her draw upon the Force. The path they traced left trails of visible energy in a triangular pattern that repeated itself. As she pressed her hand into the center of of this rotating pattern, the trails and her presence in the Force winked out from existence. She could still see her physical form, as the Force wrapped around it like it did anything made of matter.

Cocking her head to the side in a moment of contemplation, Zena considered her words carefully. “Nothing, nothing would make it different, assuming you were looking for said individual in a population of predominantly non-Force users. Now if it was the other way around, and you were searching for said individual among the population of say, Sith Acolytes here at the temple, it would make them an outlier. Shaking her head, she gave a quick bow. “With all due respect, I require more than a simple demonstration. An explanation would be very helpful.”

[member="Vanessa Vantai"]

 

[Onrai]

“Only through ritual and careful planning can the power of the Dark Side be unleashed to its truest potential.” She said, letting the Dark presence of her Force-sensitivity arise once more as the magic was dispelled. “When one uses traditional Dark Side powers such as Force Lightning, their effect, while it can be focused, is still wild and chaotic. It takes careful planning to precisely focus the effects of the Dark Side into what you desire it to aid you with.”

The acolyte raised a point. “A fair assessment. Such sorcery is used depending on the application. If one enters a Jedi temple, for example, there are means by which even strong Darksiders can appear to be servants of the light.” She stated. “The initial purpose is to create order from chaos. The hand motions are merely a means to visualize your giving such order to the Force.” Her presence once more disappeared as it had at the end of the ritual, but she had not done so much as flex a muscle. “For those untrained in the ways of Sith Magic, it serves as a useful means to correlate the physical with the ethereal, to allow one’s presence in the Force to have the same effect as one’s body.”

She thought for a moment. “Have you ever used the power of Force Lightning to electrocute someone?”

[member="Zena Tarro"]

 

[Zena Tarro]

“Wild and chaotic,” she mused. She couldn’t have picked a power more unpredictable and flashy to illustrate her point if she wanted to. Zena wondered if this choice in the [SIZE=11pt]example[/SIZE] was intentional. Was what she spoke the plain truth, or this woman’s opinion and anecdotal evidence gathered from only her experiences? The acolyte had a feeling this was one question that Lady Vantai would not enjoy being asked, so she carefully held her tongue.

She nodded. “Yes, I have.” She left out the part of how inexperienced she was, or how her sour attitude when learning how got her face literally shoved into the dirt by Lord Vereshin, who would have none of it from a pupil of his. She quickly cast aside that thought.

Zena paused to reach out to the Force, ready to begin her attempt. Beginning to trace the repeating pattern with her finger, she focused on her Force aura breaking into pieces. Each piece went into a triangular shape her finger wove, and each triangle was successively smaller than the one before it. Her aura faded gradually, until it was no longer floating around her as she saw it, a cloud. However, the extreme focus and grip upon the force necessary were beyond her, and perhaps thirty seconds passed before she released her hold. Stamina and speed in casting would come with time, but for now, this was only a frivolity to be practiced, not readily utilized.

[member="Vanessa Vantai"]

 

[Onrai]

"Let me give an example." She said. "Suppose that you were to fire some Force Lightning at the wall back there." She motioned to Zena. "No really, go ahead." When Zena did so, or at least tried to do so, she would motion to it. "Now... notice how the patterns of electricity are wild and untamed from your hands. They're scattered across a wide area." She motioned to the charred portion of wall. "Now try and do that again." She stepped into the line of fire, raising a hand - this was something she had practiced, drawing the lightning to her hand and absorbing its energy.

"Through the control of the Force, and even though your lightning was scattered over an area, I was able to focus it to a single point - my hand. It's like one of those plasma balls you see offered at novelty stores on scientifically backwards planets, where you put your hand on the ball and the arcs of electricity flow to your fingers." She said. "If you focus enough, it's possible to use the lightning to restrain people." She smiled.

"Let's try it." She held her hand out. "Focus on the lightning and turn it into a single strand. Wrap the strand around my hand and pull your arms back like you were tugging on a rope."

[member="Zena Tarro"]

 

[Zena Tarro]

Zena gathered her anger as she reached for the force. Channeling it down through her arms and to the tips of her fingers, she threw them in front of her chest. A small crackling volley of red lightning hit the wall. Stepping back, she listened while Vanessa continued on.

As Zena threw lighting at the wall again, Vanessa stepped into it, catching it with the palm of a raised hand. The energy, when seen through the Force, simply ceased to be where it was a moment ago. She knew that such powers existed, but to see it enacted in person was a startling experience.

Quickly nodding to Vanessa’s points, a moment of confusion passed over Zena. She had almost no idea what her instructor meant by “plasma balls in novelty stores”. She did her best to picture it in her mind, or what she imagined it looked like. What Vanessa was probably aiming at was multiple streams of electricity all being drawn to points in space.

Zena would be quick to admit to herself that she failed miserably at deftly manipulating flows of electricity. While she could sustain it and tell it where to go, she was clumsy and slow. Again she summoned the Force, the energy reverberating through her arms. With an outstretched hand she concentrated fiercely on commanding the lighting to wrap around Vanessa’s wrist. She could have sworn she was about to break beads of sweat under her veil, with the struggle and intense focus. After a painfully long moment, Zena gave her hand a jerk back, actually stepping back with the effort.

[member="Vanessa Vantai"]

 

[Onrai]

Vanessa looked at Zena's expression when she mentioned plasma balls and thought for a moment. "Do I have one of those around here?" She turned over to look at a nearby shelf full of trinkets and a myriad of other things. "Ah, I do." A glass ball with a round electrode inside it came to her hand. She hit a button on the side of the ball, moving it over to Zena and letting her take a look at it in action. "Looks pretty interesting, doesn't it?"

Vanessa watched as Zena tried her best in order to practice the technique of Wracking Energy. "You're doing alright... Tell you what, let's make things a bit more comfortable." She sat down on the floor of the room, crossing her legs. "Please, sit down across from me and do as I do. Perhaps getting into a comfortable position will help. Open your mind to the power of the Dark Side and let it flow through you."

[member="Zena Tarro"]