Return of the Alkahest [Phylis]

[Nima Tann]

Alkahest.

Ever since Nima joined the training session just out of curiousity and experienced the process herself, her interest in this craft got even bigger. It was an alternative to Sith alchemy, using the Light side energy instead of the Dark. She even got to create her first item, which was an enhanced copper necklace that helped her concentrate more on her telephatic abilities. The process was extremely tiring even though Master Alince was helping her, but there was something about it that was calming and rewarding as well. When she felt the invisible hammer created by her energy start hitting and shaping the molten metal, the heat and Light Side energy pouring out, it was such a satisfying feeling.

Still though, there were a few questions lingering in her mind about this whole process. First of all, it required blood for the item to be tethered only to the user. It was a bad omen when blood was involved in alchemy and she’d be extremely cautious if she didn’t know who Master Alince was. She also talked about using Alkahest on living beings, Jedispawn. Considering she fought a lot of the evil counterparts of them, she wasn’t a fan of that idea. It wasn’t natural after all. In any case, she hoped that she’d find answers about them and learn more about Alkahest today.

Yes, today. Nima contacted Master Alince to arrange another training session and continue from the last time, perhaps to more advanced topics. Her tools were ready, Ice already ate his meal and was sleeping loudly, so it was about time she left home. Before she did that though, she activated her holocomm to send a message.

“
Dear Master Alince,

I’m planning to visit you for the training session we discussed before, if you are available. Same place as the last time, I presume?

Nima.

“

Then she pressed the send button.

[member="Phylis Alince"]

 

[Phylis Alince]

[member="Nima Tann"]

Phylis was on board her ship when the ‘ding’ of a new message reached her. Putting down the instrument she had been tinkering with she wandered over and checked the message.

To her surprise and delight she saw it was from her friend Nima, and that Nima was interested in some training.

Dear Nima,

That’s great to hear! Any time is fine. I’m currently in orbit at the station on Kashyyyk on board my ship. Join me there. Will likely take a few days though so make sure you pack appropriately!

I will inform control that you are on your way.

Phylis

With that she hit the button to reply to the Twi’lek Jedi.

 

[Nima Tann]

Her holocomm beeped once again and she activated it to see Phylis's response. "Oh dear. A few days?" She talked to herself as she continued reading it. Considering she thought it was a one day thing, she was not quite prepared. Certainly she needed more than just the tools. And there was someone else snoring in this very room that couldn't be left alone for such a time. Otherwise he would destroy the house or eat the furniture. Perhaps both. Even though he was a senior now, he was still a big puppy at heart. "Ice, you wanna go for a walk?" She asked, and before she could even finish the sentence, he immediately jumped from where he was and barked happily, moving towards the Twi'lek in alarming speed. " Hey hey hey slow down!" She took a few steps back to give him some space to let out the excitement and watched him jump around happily with a smile forming on her face. Once he calmed down a bit, she moved towards him to give him a pet. "Good boy!" She said, with a tone one wouldn't expect from her. Interacting with any type of dogs had that effect." First we'll need to pack ourselves more stuff though. It'll take only a couple of minutes." Ice whined, but she didn't want him to get bored and destroy Phylis’s place. “I’ll make sure to get your favorite toys as well, so just be patient.” With that, she left the room to prepare a bag and returned to the room a few minutes later. To her surprise, he actually sat and waited for her this time.

“Okay, we’re ready. Let’s go.” She called Ice to her side and the two left the house. Their journey would take them along to the hangars where they’d find a ride to bring them to the station on Kashyyyk mentioned in her response. While on the ship, Nima took out a squeaky toy from her bag and held it near Ice. “I want you to behave yourself where we are going.” She said, and then added. “She’s a good person and she invited us to her ship, so let’s be careful not to make her regret that.” Collar and leash would help greatly if he wasn’t a horse sized mutated wolf, so words would have to suffice. Nonetheless, she then gave the toy to him. While the voice of the toy wasn’t exactly pleasant to hear, it helped her keep the wolf in check. Rest of the journey passed with a lot of irritating toy noises yet without a problem and finally they arrived at their destination.

The pilot established communications with Phylis’s ship through the channel Phylis sent to Nima’s holocomm and after sharing her credentials and information about the ship, requested to come aboard.

[member="Phylis Alince"]

 

[Phylis Alince]

[member="Nima Tann"]
Phylis was quite lost in her work, and indeed quite forgotten that she had a guest coming to see her. So it was that when her commlink buzzed she wasn’t even in the room. However, when Nibbles scampered in with it in his mouth she took it.

“Hmm? Phylis Alince here.”
“Yes, Master, we have a visitor for you, a Master Tann?”
“Tann? Oh, Nima, of course! Send her in, thank you.” She closed it down and picked up Nibbles. “Now, you be a good boy, understand? Nima has a friend who might be a bit scary. Hmmph, just stay near me.”

Heading out of her ship into the hanger she saw Nima and Ice approaching. The hanger bay was quite small, big enough for Phylis’ ship and a bunch of boxes and crates.
“Nima! Good to see you again!” she said, giving a bow to the Twi’lek and then held out her hand to lead her forward. “And hello, Ice! My…you’re a big boy!” she said in puzzled awe. Was he always this big? She couldn’t really remember.

“Hmm, come aboard. Ice can stay out here if you like. No one comes in here, and there’s more room out here than on board the ship.”
Nibbles poked his head out of her robe and then ducked down again seeing the giant wolf. He wouldn’t even be a mouthful.

 

[Nima Tann]

The hangar was quite small so it was easy to navigate and find her ship. Fortunate for the Twi'lek, it was, as Ice didn't have much space to run off to and cause mayhem. The two approached the ship and saw the silhouette of a woman standing at the entrance, possibly waiting for them. She was none other than Master Alince herself, looking as tired as ever.

"Master Alince. It's good to see you too." She returned the bow and smiled. Ice was happy about the attention he got and he barked happily as the woman was rightly puzzled about his enormous size. "He had the size of a normal dog when you last saw him." Nima clarified. "Grew up... a lot since then." She put the emphasis on "a lot".

"I think it would be for the best. Are you sure people won't come in here? I don't want him to cause trouble." Speaking of trouble, suddenly a little nose appeared from Phylis's robe, followed by the small head of a rat. He looked terrified of the big wolf in front of him and immediately got back into the robe, but it was enough to catch Ice's curiousity. The big wolf tilted his head from left to right for a couple of seconds and then started moving towards Phylis. He wasn't slow, at all.

"Ice, no. Hey. Leave her alone. Ice!" Already his nose was all over Phylis's robe, smelling to find this little creature. "I'm so sorry!" She said awkwardly as she tried to get his head away from Phylis. He already violated her personal space a lot. "Look, look. Squeaky toy. See? Catch!" As she squeezed the toy, his attention immediately went from Phylis's robe to the toy. She then threw it away from the ship and Ice followed, finally leaving her alone. "I'm so, so sorry. He normally wouldn't do that, he just got overexcited." The words escaped her mouth quite quickly as she was embarrassed for what he has done. "Uhm... Shall we move on to the ship?"

[member="Phylis Alince"]

 

[Phylis Alince]

[member="Nima Tann"]
“Oh, that’d explain it,” Phylis said. He seemed to come forward, but there was no malice, just excited curiosity. He was only distracted by the squeaky toy.
Phylis watched as Ice bounded over to the toy and started enthusiastically squeaking it.
“That should keep him busy for a while. Yes, let’s go inside.”

She reached into the hood of her robe and after a moment a very scared Nibbles appeared on her arm.
“This is Nibbles. He’s my Jedispawn!” She laughed at the joke. The little rat was certainly no deadly beast of destruction. He did like nuts though. “Want to hold him?”

They headed inside the ship and Phylis led Nima upstairs and closed the hatch.
“Can I get you something? Tea? Caf? Hmm…I have some biscuits somewhere.” She started rooting in a cupboard, eventually producing a battered tin triumphantly. “I developed a little stasis device to keep them from going stale. Hmm, possibly better uses for that.”

 

[Nima Tann]

Fortunately for the Twi'lek, Master Alince didn't seem to be that annoyed, which made her sigh in relief. Perhaps she was overthinking it as she didn't know about her that much, nonetheless, as Ice laid down and started playing with the toy enthusiastically, the two decided to move inside. As they did, Phylis reached to the hood of her robe and the rat from before climbed on her arm. Poor little one looked so scared, sniffing the air for any possible danger. Phylis used the term "Jedispawn" again while describing him which she remembered from the last training and asked if she wanted to hold him. It was a good opportunity for Nima to check if... something was different about him.

"He's very cute. Can I?" She asked, while extending her hand towards the rat. It would be difficult to trust a person who brought a horse sized wolf who just scared the life out of him, but it seemed the rat didn't hold any grudges as he, with small steps, found his way to her hand a few moments later.

"Hey there little guy." She smiled and pet his head with her finger while she looked at his appearance. He weighted like a rat, looked like one, a bit brighter perhaps. The only big difference that she could tell was the immense Light Side energy she could feel radiating from him. "A Jedispawn, huh? Certainly better than the alternative. Hmm..." She mumbled to herself. The two moved to upstairs and while Phylis went for the cupboards Nima sat down in the chair near a small table. Meanwhile, Nibbles moved from her hand to her shoulder to make himself comfortable.

"I think he likes me." Nima chuckled and then added, answering her question. "Preserving food is a worthy cause and a good way to use a stasis device, in my opinion. And, uhm, tea would be good." She smiled. Normally she'd prefer blue milk, but Phylis hasn't mentioned that in her list so she didn't want to assume she had some.

[member="Phylis Alince"]

 

[Phylis Alince]

[member="Nima Tann"]
Nibbles did indeed seem to like Nima. Riding on her shoulder he nuzzled up to one lekku, and after quick nibble drew an adverse response he contented himself with nuzzling.

Phylis poured some tea for them both. It was a relatively exotic blend from Tygara which was a unique flavour. There was a crisp biscuit on the plate too with the tea.

“Hmm, well, I’m so glad you’ve come, Nima. I’m guessing you want to continue the training I gave for Alkahest? Have you been performing any research into it yourself?”

Putting down her teacup, she went to a cupboard and produced an armoured gauntlet and offered it to Nima.
“A little something I’ve been working on. Provides good protection from the hand. By using individual plates along with Alkahest metal and leather joins it’s good…if heavy…hand protection. Practically immune to lightsabres, blasters or melee weapons. Still working on elemental absorption.”

 

[Nima Tann]

As she waited for the tea to arrive, suddenly she felt a burning feeling spreading all over her body. It seemed that the friendly rat decided to become a bit too friendly and bit her lekku. It wasn't enough to give her a seizure, of course, but it was an uncomfortable feeling nonetheless. "H-hey. Don't do that." She said with a painful sigh and pushed him away with her finger. Fortunately, he seemed to understand her discomfort and stopped biting. Meanwhile, Phylis brought the tea and some biscuits.

"Yes, I've been meaning to come for a while now but didn't have the chance. Unfortunately I haven't been able to practice it due to my schedule, but did some research on how to effectively channel my energy to an object so that I won't get tired easily. Also, a bit on armor and weaponcrafting so that I know what I'm doing." She explained and took a sip of her tea. It tasted somewhat familiar as if she already drank it before. It had an exotic taste, a bit on the sour side perhaps. Then Phylis stood up from the table, went to a cupboard again and this time returned with a gauntlet and gave it to her, explaining what she did with it. It was heavy as she said indeed, as Nima turned it around to examine. It was a good opportunity to ask what she had in mind for a while.

"Do you have a lighter version of it by any chance? Or a set ready that I can buy from you? I've been meaning to find someone to build me a specialized armor as mine is terribly outdated. If it won't be a bother of course."

[member="Phylis Alince"]

 

[Phylis Alince]

[member="Nima Tann"]
Phylis rubbed her chin. “Hmm, no…but we could make one if you wanted! Something lighter is possible – that one is heavy durasteel – but there’s no reason it has to be heavy. We could use any metal you wanted, provided I have it. Hmmph, I don’t suggest gold though. Too expensive, too ostentatious.”

She gestured and led Nima down into the hold. Down there was a collection of different metal ingots. There was some copper, iron, durasteel and even some rarer metals. There were also various cloths and leathers present as well as some gems and other ornaments.

“It’ll be good for you to make it though, so it fits to your hands. It’ll also be a good learning project for you. So, choose your materials.”

 

[Nima Tann]

Nima suddenly felt the fear of being put in front the spotlight as her request turned into the first step of her training. Even though she researched about armorcrafting, she was in no way ready to build her own armor, not yet! She didn't even have any practice with it. She stopped herself as she realized what her brain was doing. After all, worst case scenario she'd cost her a few ingots... Okay, that didn't help. But she was here to learn. She remembered her first training sessions and the wounds created by the smallest of pebbles as she couldn't deflect. It was all part of the learning process. Shaking her head to get rid of the flying thoughts, with Master Alince leading the way, the two moved down into the hold. "What do you mean by it doesn't have to be heavy? Can you make an object lighter using alchemy?" She asked, meanwhile. Could one alter a core quality of an object using the Force? Things just got a bit more interesting for her as the world of alchemy continued to surprise. In any case, the two arrived at the hold and there were crafting materials, metal ingots and colorful gems all over neatly arranged.

"As you may know, I rely on my speed a lot while fighting. My armor shouldn't affect that, so what I'm looking for is a metal which is not heavy but provides enough protection since I get very close to my target and it's inevitable to take a few hits. It's also important that we use material in the joints to provide additional flexibility so that I don't get tired easily. We can use alchemised cloth..." She looked at Phylis for a confirmation and continued. "...for that purpose, uhm, I suppose. Iron for the metal...?" She stopped for a second to look at the alternatives. Would iron provide her the flexibility she needed? According to Phylis, if she understood it correctly, it was possible. But it was something Nima couldn't comprehend just yet. "Or silver? But silver is a shiny metal and may be problematic in the battlefield so perhaps not. Gold, definitely not. Gems would just be for decorative purposes, so I wouldn't probably... Or they can be enhanced to have a functionality. Hmm... Oh Force." What Phylis was witnessing was a very clueless Nima trying to logic herself into normality. With each sentence one would sense that panic started to kick in. She looked at Phylis, her eyes screaming both "Help me!" and "I'm sorry.".

[member="Phylis Alince"]

 

[Phylis Alince]

[member="Nima Tann"]
“Hmm, well, no, not directly lighter. However, you can get away by using thinner plates than regular since the metal only needs to be thick enough to maintain integrity.”

Phylis watched Nima resolutely fail to make a decision. It was time to take charge.
“If speed is of paramount importance then we will go with something a bit different than normal.” She held out her hand and called several ingots of a grey metal to her hand.
“Phrik, but we will use thinner plates for the gloves. If we move to doing a full hauberk we’ll use a few larger plates combined with scales for flexibility. Now, do you have any experience forging or smithing?” she asked as she led Nima back up the stairs.

 

[Nima Tann]

Luckily for the Twi’lek, Master Alince decided to step in after seeing her inability to choose and called a few ingots to her hand.

“Oh, yes, Phrik, of course.” She wanted to facepalm so badly, but fortunately stopped herself. “I’m sorry. Wasn’t expecting to be put on the spotlight so soon. I... uhm... panicked. ” She explained herself with an awkward laugh, then added. “My previous armor was made from Phrik also. A traditional armor, no alchemy involved. It had some useful components we can utilize for the new one. I’ll send the schematics to you if you think it’d help. Though as I said, it’s quite outdated and my needs have changed quite a lot since then.” If Phylis’s answer was positive, then Nima’d proceed to send her the schematics she was talking about. Then Master Alince continued about the armor they were going to do, this time giving a bit more detail. “Hmm, that sounds... good. ” She didn’t add anything else as she had little idea about what Phylis was talking about, for now. Instead she took mental notes like a good student. Hauberk, scales... Phylis had a lot of work to do indeed.

“Unfortunately, I have been a consumer instead of a producer when it comes to armors.” She answered her question. Nima was more of a nature person instead of a tech one and didn’t understand much about them, but she had to start somewhere as she wasn’t living in a forest. “But I’m eager for new experiences. People say I’m a quick learner, so hopefully I’ll not be so much of a headache for you.” She added afterwards with a soft laugh.

[member="Phylis Alince"]

 

[Phylis Alince]

[member="Nima Tann"]
Phylis seemed to have forgotten just how nervous the Twi’lek Jedi Master could get when pressed for a quick decision. She put a comforting hand on Nima’s shoulder.
“Fear not, dear, I tend to assume everyone knows everything I do. Hmm, can be a bit difficult, I know. Slow me down if anything is not making sense.”

Phylis carefully examined the schematics and nodded. “Hmm, these aren’t bad, to be sure. I think I can improve on them though. The good thing about this is that we can make so the joints are even better protected than the old sets plates were. Hmmph, well, almost.”

“No fear, Nima, I can certainly make sure of your skills!”
She headed into the forge room. There, she gestured at the furnace and it flicked to on. Whilst it heated she placed the ingots down and started producing various tools of the crafter’s art.

“Phrik has a high melting point, so we need to get this very hot. Fortunately though it’s not too difficult to work with once it’s melted. Our process actually helps in that regard.”

It was starting to get very hot in the room so Phylis took off her outer robe and tied her hair back. Sadly for anyone hoping to see bare skin she still had three layers on.

 

[Nima Tann]

Phylis's encouraging words helped the Twi'lek get rid of some of the anxiety. She smiled to the woman as she put her hand on her shoulder. Phylis would feel that Nima’s shoulder suddenly tensed upon her touch, but then loosened up again. "I will. Thank you." She said, her tone being a bit calmer than the last time she spoke.

Phylis then proceeded to look at the schematics she sent to her datapad. According to her, the armor wasn’t as bad as Nima thought but there was room for improvement. In any case, now that they have decided on what metal to use and discussed Nima’s preferences about the armor, the two moved on towards a big room that contained a big furnace. Phylis warned her that it was going to get quite hot very soon as she placed the ingots down and started preparing her tools, and as time passed, Nima’d realize that she wasn’t exaggerating.

“Oh dear! You weren’t lying about the heat.” She said as sweat drops started to form on her face. Nima wasn’t wearing 3 layers of robes, but she wasn’t wearing summer clothes either. She rolled up her sleeves and tossed her lekku back gently. Here we go, better, she thought. Well, slightly.

“I... uhm... bought some tools for myself just in case. Have them in my bag?” She said, more like asked if she should take them out of the bag, as she watched the Jedi Master preparing her tools. She found them in Spacezon. Special offer too, so it seemed like a great deal to her at the time. Now to think about it, perhaps it wasn’t a good idea. Credits well spent!

“Before we start, can you go over this process again? What are the steps, your suggestions for me?” She added finally.

[member="Phylis Alince"]

 

[Phylis Alince]

[member="Nima Tann"]
Phylis glanced over her fellow Jedi’s tools, nodded. They seemed the standard sort of things one could expect.
“Excellent. Hmm, I will show you a trick which will mean you won’t need some of them….”

The metal was bubbling along nicely, but they still had a few minutes.
“Hmm, well, the first step is the hammer and fold the metal to strengthen it. That’s quite easy, and you won’t need a hammer. Instead, we will use the Force. More efficient, though more tiring if you’re not good with it. Hmmph, won’t be an issue though for us I think.”

One of the ingots were ready, so she poured the molten metal into a mould. Telekinesis allowed great control of the crucible without burning herself or having to use tongs. Turning out the mould she laid it onto an anvil.

“You can start this one. Use the Force to hammer it. Hold it with the tongs or with your mind, whichever you see fit.”
She closed her eyes, and the red hot metal suddenly rang out as an invisible blow struck it, and then another.
“Like so. Pound it out, then fold it back, we’ll reheat it and do it again. This will be the main top hand plate, so it’s got to be strong. I’ll work on the more fiddly smaller plates. After that, hmm, I’ll show you where Alkahest comes in.”