New Moon Rising: Part One (Completed)

[Katrine Van-Derveld]

The answer to her question was quick. Pebble quickly figured out she'd used the Force to enhance her jump, comparing it to running, making Katrine nod. "Exactly what I did," the blonde responded before she felt [member="Scherezade deWinter"] using the Force to jump, meeting her up on top of the Crimson Shadow soon after. The little comment afterwards made her laugh though. "Oh, some are super simple. You'll catch up with them in no time. Some, however, are way more complicated and worse than that, some take a lot of your energy so you have to pace yourself," she pointed out as she watched. Katrine had no problem believing Pebble was on her way to where she had to go but it sure wasn't going to be as easy as the teenager believed. But, Katrine had no intention of wasting their training on the education right. They'd get to those more complicated and draining ones in time.

"Come on, the same principle," she instructed as she jumped down, her feet finding solid ground beneath before she concentrated again, intending to use the Force as Pebble had commented, on running. In a moment, Katrine began running, starting off at a normal human speed before she'd speed up a little more before she'd actually applied the Force, speeding up to the point she was blurred as everything felt like it was moving slow motion around her before she'd come to a stop, only to turn and see the Crimson Shadow much smaller than it was moments ago. Here, she waited for Pebble. Once this was done, they'd be moving on to something more complicated which would definitely require energy.

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Same principle. Scherezade was fully in charge of her body, her feet leaving the platform as she gracefully made the jump down, her legs already moving to get her running once she met the ground. There was nearly nothing to it. Moving your legs was easy, though she truly loathed running. Walking was fine and nice but running... She could do without. Still, following Katrine's guidance, she used the Force to make herself quicker, faster, reaching her in a mere few moments.

The young woman put her hands on her sides, a smug look on her face.

"Challenge me, Katrine," she asked, grinning from ear to ear, "also, hey, do you know how to fight? I could use some instruction on that. I don't want to flounder under a zombie again."


[member="Katrine Van-Derveld"]

 

[Katrine Van-Derveld]

From the distance, Katrine watched Scherezade achieve yet another Force Power, by the same principle as the one required for Force Jump. A blur moved, barely noticeable as the teenager made her way over to her, making the Witch smile as she watched. She understood more and more why Pebble's grandmother had wanted her to train and just how talented she was. She needed little explanation of basic powers which was a good thing.

Once the teenager had joined her, a smug expression on her face, she asked to be challenged. It made Katrine's brow arch as she watched her, knowing full just what she wanted to teach her next. She didn't get a chance to answer immediately as Pebble asked if she knew how to fight because she needed instruction on that. "Yes," Katrine responded flat out. Witches were Warriors. It was as basic as learning how to cast spells.

"Before we go there, there is one more thing we need to do today," Katrine told her before she looked back to the open cargo bay, spotting the silver object that was barely recognizable before she summoned it from where she stood, watching the knife slowly rise from the speeder seating before it came flying towards her, hand rising to catch it as it flew into her. "Healing is a wonderful thing. Simple and complicated at the same time. Simple because the idea is literally that your repair from the deepest layer cut and work your way outward. The complicated bit is just how much focus and control you need to do it," Katrine explained as she spun the knife in her hand and cut her other hand, concentrating. She did exactly as she told Scherezade, searching through the wound to find its deepest part before she began repairing layer of layer of skin, careful to trace each bit of it, not to make a mistake.

One layer after the other, she reached the very last before her actions became visible, the skin coming together inch by inch, a small glow following as her mind worked through it, piercing the skin together and eliminating the damage caused by the knife. When she finished, Katrine exhaled and used the side of her t-shirt to wipe the knife clean before she extended it to Pebble. "You learn best when you do it to yourself. Don't worry about a thing, I'm right here if you need me."

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

Oh yeah! Katrine was gonna teach her how to fight, which was great because too many timeline wobbliness related reasons, but it was good! Scherezade would've given a little jig if she'd had the time to, but Katrine went on almost immediately, getting a knife into her hands, causing the pebble to blink.

They were going to cover healing now. Healing was a shiny brand new thing, and the thought of it was exciting. She knew how to break and ruin things, but fixing things was a whole different world. Katrine explained that it was about the repair and Scherezade listened - and looked - with full on focus. She was going to learn this. She was going to know this. She was not going to think about the blankness that accompanied this idea because she was not looking into the information her grandmother had left her with.

Grabbing the knife, the girl almost stabbed herself in the liver with glee, stopping just a fracture of a moment before the pointy end pierced her flesh. With an innocent grin and shrug, she directed the knife elsewhere then, making a small gash on her arm. Not enough to penetrate the dermis levels, but just a touch of epidermis, enough to make it bleed.

Now she had to concentrate on it. Get it to repair. Information ran behind her eyes, how the skin was constructed for humans, how the layers were, what she had done. Atoms and dust and skin cells and all of that. She held the image of it in her mind, and in her mind, repaired it.

But when she looked down, the cut was still there, untouched, unmoved.

Scherezade frowned.

"Bad form," she mumbled under her breath, "I ordered you to heal."

And still nothing.

Blinking, now the information rose.

"They all used to know how to do that," the words came out of her, their speed above usual for the girl, "grandmother, mother, aunts and uncles. Everyone. They knew how to heal themselves. And one day they just couldn't anymore because it stopped working, and they just went on with their lives as if they never knew how to heal in the first place."

And that was worrying.

"How could they just let it go like that?" she looked up at Katrine, her eyes wide, "why didn't they look into it? See what the cause was? Wouldn't you want to know what happened if you were suddenly severed from your spirits?"


[member="Katrine Van-Derveld"]

 

[Katrine Van-Derveld]

Scherezade mumbled something then started talking quickly about them, listing who they were. A lot of people. They all knew how to heal themselves and then one day it stopped working? Katrine was super confused. She wasn't too sure just what she was talking about until she remembered a moment something. "There was a curse once," she recalled a story Nona used to tell her. "It messed everything up with the Force. Witches couldn't use powers, outsiders couldn't use spells. It was written somewhere." She could remember word for word what she was being told but she could recall Nona's confusion in the storytelling. It seemed to involve someone on Dathomir but not even Nona knew everything about it. "Something like that?" Katrine wondered.

Would she want to know what happened if she was suddenly severed from her spirits? The Witch nodded almost immediately. "I'd be lost without my spirits but I think I'd easier lose my ability to use powers or spells. My connection to the spirits is different from everything else. Like, if I'm using the ichor, I can't use my powers or spells at all. It seems to work on a different level." Katrine didn't fully understand it yet but she had noticed that when she pulled her sword from the ichor, she couldn't use anything else, she could only manipulate the ichor in those times.

"We can talk about it later, right now, you need to heal." They could probably keep talking about her family losing the ability to heal for days on end but right now, Pebble was the one that had to learn how to do it.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

A curse. Scherezade scanned her memories. She found echoes of some of the things Katrine had said; Witches could not use certain Force Powers, Sith could not use spells, but... there was something missing. Katrine made it sound like something that should have been big. Should have been huge, even. But in grandmother's memories, it was barely a comma. Scherezade couldn't pretend to understand it, and it wouldn't have helped with current training anyway.

So she did the adult thing and let it go.

"Ichor?" she asked after Kat's explanation about powers coming from different sources and being different in general.

Back to the healing.

Scherezade's mind brought up the blueprints of the human body again. Layers. How things worked. She needed her imagination here. Making her arm heal was a nearly impossible task to get right off the bat. It didn't come to her as naturally as the other stuff they'd done so far. It was like swimming against the current; she ordered skin cells to close, and they did, but then they reopened again.

It was a painful process.

"Can't I just keep a pet healer to do this for me in the future?" she grumbled, trying again. The wound almost closed now, before ripping open again. She was really glad she'd made a shallow cut and not something deeper.

Her rage began to flare. It rose from her, easy to sense by anyone who could be around. Invisible electric-like tendrils, dancing against her body, her skin, her face, her wound. She grabbed the knife again, screaming in frustration as she began to tear at her arm with a dozen cuts, each deeper than the one before. Within seconds, she was bleeding raw all over the place. Her cheeks flushed as she continued to glare at her arm, the anger continuing to rise.

It felt like an eternity. It could've been a second, a minute, even an hour. But it felt longer. Much longer, before the wounds finally began to repair themselves at her order.

Scherezade huffed.

[member="Katrine Van-Derveld"]

 

[Katrine Van-Derveld]

Her mention of the Ichor sparked Pebble's attention. "Nightsisters believe the Spirit ichor is the source of all magic, that it somehow channels the Winged Goddess. Allyan Witches don't meddle with it. However, the ichor is just another source of magic, one that gets strengthened by the spirits, the dead souls. It can act as an confinement for them, a carrier for magical items, it can be a material for magical weapons like," summoning the ichor already in her blood, Katrine called for the sword in her possession. Green smoke formed first, before it began to take the shape of the sword, green smoke still dancing around the blade almost as if it was a lightsaber. It levitated in front of her before she reached for its hilt, holding it out for Scherezade to see.

"The ichor can help you achieve a lot of things if you're able to form a connection to it. Even heal. This sword was created by the Nightsister Mother Talzin. I can fight lightsabers with it but in reality, it's only the ichor, no other material," Katrine explained, holding out the sword for a while longer before it vanished as she released it back into the ichor, the lingering green smoke vanishing seconds after.

Once it was gone, she noticed Pebble had returned to healing herself. Katrine could see Pebble was trying, she could see the wound attempting to close even though she couldn't feel the use of the Force right now. A small chuckle escaped her lips as her Ward asked if she could keep a pet healer at her side. "No, you gotta learn it. Not really sure why you're having such problems with it," she wondered out loud as she moved closer to inspect the would. She was just about to say that she had some healing herbs to close it up for now when the wound actually started healing and actually stayed healed. "You're gonna have to practice, you're having trouble with that one. Let's get back to the ship for now," Katrine finally said, beginning to walk back to the ship that was now pretty far. She couldn't Force run right now so a nice walk would just have to do.

[member="Scherezade deWinter"]

 

[Scherezade deWinter]

So that was ichor. It was impressive, and she could easily see the benefits of having such a thing. It certainly suited Katrine. But using the weapon meant not being able to use the Force, and Scherezade took a mental note that she would not attempt to master the ichor, even if it was an option at all. Katrine hadn't delved into what the requirements for it were, but the young Sithling made herself not care about it. There were too many other things she could focus on without having them disconnect her from the Force.

Katrine also mentioned that she didn't know why Scherezade was having such problems with the healing. Scherezade huffed and made no reply. If there was a curse, that wasn't the problem. Obviously, she could do it, it was just hard. Harder than anything else.

But that was what it all boiled down to, didn't it? She had to practice. Her knify senses were tingling. There was going to be a lot of self cutting and stabbing in the days to come. She'd do it again and again and again until she had it perfected. "I'm going to need some bacta patches," she mumbled as she calculated the amount of bleeding she was going to do in her room until she got it right.

With a sigh of pride, Scherezade followed Kat back to the ship. They had done good work today. They would have to much more of it in time to come.


[member="Katrine Van-Derveld"]