The Trial of Skill

[Lilla Syrin]

“The trials are difficult. Many try and fail, so I advise you not to be complacent.”
―Grand Master Satele Shan

The Trial of Skill was one of the oldest trials in the battery of tests preferred by the Order. While the test did consist of numerous displays of lightsaber technique, the main thing that the Jedi looked for when judging a potential Knight was their ability to avoid distraction through self-discipline.

In essence, the trial demonstrated a Jedi’s ability to overcome physical, mental, and combat challenges. The standard physical challenges ranged from climbing, enduring great, feats of endurance or even escape. The mental challenges were varied and could use Force abilities or use an aspect of duress.

The final part of the trial required a student to face off against some form of adversary, sometimes real and other times simulated. Lilla knew her master would not accept the latter and would find her a mission requiring all three elements to fulfil her given brief.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

The fighter shuddered, her metal groaning, as Lilla pushed the ship through the atmosphere. Friction turned the air to fire, and the young Jedi watched the orange glow of the flames through the transparisteel of the cockpit.

She was gripping the stick too tightly, he realized, and relaxed.

She was not fond of atmosphere entries. She was a solid pilot – not the best the Jedi had to offer, but hardly the worst. But given what she was likely to encounter on the surface, this little manoeuvre could not be avoided.

She expected it, but never looked forward to it – the long forty-count when heat, speed, and ionized particles caused a temporary sensor blackout. Even the most skilled pilot never knew what kind of sky she’d encounter when she came out of the dark. It was like diving at night. Blindfolded. Off the edge of a cliff.

You always hope to hit deep water. But one day your intel is out and the tide is out. And you land on rock.

Or hard into a blistering crossfire. Didn’t matter, really. The effect was the same.

Then, as abruptly as it started, the flame diminished and the sky opened below.

Lilla levelled the ship off, straightened, and ran a quick sweep of the surrounding sky. The sensors picked up nothing.

“There, nothing to it,” she said, smiling. The single bead of sweat on her top lip told a different story.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

On most planets, the moment she cleared the atmosphere she’d have been busy dealing with requests from the planetary and then local government. But not here. This planet was a hive of crime syndicates, mercenaries, bounty hunters, smugglers, weapons-dealers, slavers and drug-runners.

And those were just the people who ran the place.

Turf wars and assassinations occupied their attention, not governance, and certainly not law enforcement. The upper and lower latitudes of the planet in particular were sparsely settled and almost never patrolled, a literal no-being’s-land.

And all that suited her fine.

Finallyh her ship broke through a thick pink blanket of clouds, and the brown, blue, and white of the northern hemisphere filled out her field of vision. Snow and ice now peppered the canopy, a form of frozen shrapnel, beating a steady rhythm on her hull.

The setting sun suffused a large swath of the world with orange and red. The northern sea roiled below her, choppy and dark, the irregular white circles of breaking surf denoting the thousands of uncharted islands that poked through the water’s surface.

To the west, far in the distance, she could make out the hazy edge of a continent and the thin spine of snow-capped, cloud-topped mountains.

Motion drew her eye. A flock of birds or at least something that flew – too small to cause a sensor blip – travelled two hundred meters to port and well below her, their huge wings flapping slowly in the freezing wind. They were no doubt heading south for warmer air and paid her no heed as he flew over and past them.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Lilla pulled back on the ion engines and slowed still further. A yawn forced itself past her gritted teeth. She sat up straight and tried to blink away the fatigue, but it was as stubborn as an angry bantha. She’d use the Force but didn’t want to waste any energy.

She’d given the ship to the autopilot and dozed during the hyperspace run, but that was all the sleep she’d had in the last two standard days. It was catching up to her. And it was intentional. All part of the test apparently. This would test her endurance and later, her mental prowess.

Lilla punched coordinates into the navicomp. She was flying without an R2 unit and had to cover every aspect of the mission alone. The ship’s HUD displayed her destination on the cockpit canopy. She eyed the location and put her finger on the spot she was headed for.

“Some island no one has ever heard of, up here where no one ever goes. That’s vital to the Jedi. That sounds about right.”

It was as much of a briefing as she’d received.

Then Lilla turned the ship over to the autopilot, and it banked her toward the island.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Her mind wandered as the fighter cut through the sky. The steady patter of ice and snow on the canopy was almost melodic and definitely mesmerising. Her thoughts drifted back to the last Test. Where she’d doubted herself.

She caught herself, caught the potential path of self-pity and recrimination, and stopped the thoughts. They served no purpose. She was a Jedi after all. Or rather she would be once she past the trials.

For although every Padawan sees themselves as a Jedi, the title truly applies only to those that have been knighted.

Lilla checked her location against the coordinates in the navicomp. Almost there.

Ahead, in the distance, she saw the island where she was headed: ten square kilometres of volcanic rock.

She angled lower, flew a wide circle, unable to see much detail due to the snow. So she ran a scanner sweep. Given nothing of interest showed up, Lilla descended to a few hundred metres to get a better look.

She circled one more time, staring down through the swirl of snow, but saw nothing through the storm. There was nothing else she could do.

“Going in,” she said out loud, to no-one in particular.

The hum of the reverse thrusters and a swirl of blown snow announced Lilla’s arrival. The combination of natural weather and her ship’s engines meant visibility was currently zero.

For a moment she sat in the cockpit, perfectly still, staring at the falling snow. Slowly, but consistently, it cleared.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Ahead, she saw the four towers surrounding the stacked tiers of a Jedi Temple, its ancient stone as orange as fire in the light of the setting sun. What should have been a welcome sight was a sad one. For there were no Jedi milling about. No support staff keeping it running.

There was no-one. Not a single soul.

She walked toward it and fate walked beside her.

Statues of long-dead Jedi Masters lined the approach to the Temple’s enormous doorway. The setting sun stretched the statue’s shadows across the duracrete. She walked through the silhouettes and then past them.

Lilla was not appraised of the location, let alone the usual complement of Jedi. But the conditions suggested it had been fully operational only a short time ago. Something or someone had done this. Or maybe more than just one someone.

Lilla wondered why the Jedi would build an enclave in such a remote spot. Then she wondered who would target such a facility.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

The setting sun at her back reached through the huge doorway and extended her shadow before her, a giant, dark herald marking the path ahead. Within the Temple was a stillness, a peace that was typically appreciated. But not today. Lilla wished for the cry of a Padawan, the naughty laughter of Younglings or even the stark admonishment of an aged Master.

But none were forthcoming.

Lilla’s boots rapped against the polished stone floor. The hall extended before her for several hundred metres. Two rows of elegant columns reached from floor to ceiling on either side, framing a processional down the hall’s centre. Ledges and balconies, too, lined both sides.

Silence ruled the hall.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Then her senses began to chime without bidding. Something was wrong. And the something was close.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Lilla continued down the hall and through the large door at the end. There she encountered the reason for her warning. A Dark Jedi.

Lilla appraised him, as she closed on the cloaked figure. His saber was aleady activated and, in a strange way, Lilla almost warmed to him. He reminded her of a fellow Padawan.

His likeness was a boy of enormous spirit and charm. As a fighter he was strong in the Force, smart, a little chunky, and without the best footwork, but with exceptionally quick wrists. He had a very fast parry. Most Padawans scored their points on the counterattack, but this apprentice was also imaginative on the attack, with the hand speed and creativity to launch complex and rather beautiful feint-and-cut sequences. High-spirited and good-natured, he was a natural leader, born to play a dashing prince in some romantic epic of the last age. Everybody liked him.

But not now. For now, Lilla realised this Dark Jedi in front of her was not someone that looked like Duffy…it was Duffy. She’d seen him only six months previously, before he went off for a mission with his Master. She hadn’t heard of him falling, or even dying. As far as she knew, he was simply still somewhere in the Outer Rim.

Except she knew better now.

Lilla liked him enough that she had taken time out of her relentless study to help him practice. She had faced him many times in the sparring ring – and never won.

But that was sparring, and this was a duel. Her master never grew tired of explaining to her the difference.

Sparring continued until one person surrendered by tapping the floor three times or took three burns from the training lightsabers, which were dialed to their lowest power settings. Even at low power a cut from a training lightsaber was no joke. The touch of the blade was shockingly painful, a searing kiss that made one’s muscles jerk and one’s nerves howl, and it left a red welt that took days to heal.

Lilla knew because she used to travel to a private spot and touched herself on the flank or shoulder or leg with her own lightsaber at low power. Pain, as the Battle Master was fond of pointing out, was extremely distracting, and Lilla, knowing she was likely to get hit often, was determined not to let the pain make her lose focus.

“Lilla,” the Dark Jedi began. “Such a surprise. Such a welcome surprise.”

“What happened here?” Lilla asked.

Duffy smiled and then his lips transformed into more of a sneer. “You think I would tell you? Suffice to say that if you think you’re going to receive help anytime soon, you’re sadly mistaken.”

Lilla knew there was no point in pressing her case, so she changed tack.

“Surrender and I’ll promise you a fair trial.”

 

[Lilla Syrin]

She suspected the response, but not the manner of it.

“I’m glad it’s you,” Duffy said.

Lilla cocked her head a few degrees. She wondered what his words meant. Did he dislike her so much that he wanted to kill her? Or was she some form of test – to kill someone he once knew of as a friend?

The sneer returned. “Because I know I’ll win,” he said, his voice slow and deliberate, as if talking to someone very young – or very old.

Lilla suspected his motives. Dun Möch. He was trying to unsettle her. And he didn’t need to, she was already a loser before she’d reached for her saber. In a duel, she was nowhere near his equal.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

But she was a Jedi. She was not here to die, but to be a champion of the weak, a force for good in the galaxy. She connected deeply with the Force and felt her attention relax and grow broad, seeping into the whole room. Her breathing slowed down, and she was aware of everything around her – even...

“What shall I tell your friends when I see them? That you put up a valiant fight?” Lilla had seen more dark siders in the next room and wondered if her knowledge of them would disconcert him.

Lilla’s lightsaber blazed to life as she brought it up to defend herself. Or rather the Force did so, for she had committed to the Form of Soresu and trusted in the Force to guide her.

The blades clashed; whirled; clashed again; and held motionless, humming and sizzling in the middle of the room.

Duffy laughed, and Lilla could feel herself smiling back. She felt a little ashamed of wishing to stop Duffy. I could let him win. Lilla blinked, turning over this new idea

'I should let him win.'

The humming silence was broken by a niggling feeling in Lilla’s mind. She blinked again, as if waking from a dream.

“You almost had me.” Duffy had been using the Force on her.

She shook her head to clear out the cobwebs. Lilla made a mystical pass with her fingers.

“This is not the victory you were seeking.”

Then she attacked. She was known for her Soresu work and that’s what Duffy would have been expecting. But her master taught her all Forms and beside the third, she liked Makashi best.

So she ran in fast on a slant, testing his footwork. She got in with a bind that locked their blades together and used the Force to shove him hard. He stumbled backward, and she tried to drive home her advantage. He let his body go loose and tumbled backward, his blade slipping out of her bind and slashing up at her neck. She barely managed an awkward parry. It wrecked her balance and she pitched forward over his tumbling body. She somersaulted over him, hit the floor with a shoulder roll, and bounced to her feet, whipping her lightsaber around in a high parry that caught his blade in a shower of sparks.

He fell back en garde, grinning hugely. Clearly this was the best fun he’d had in ages.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

He attacked. His assault was long and fluid, a series of feints and cuts that came blindingly fast, each disguised as the other, so the real attacks melted in and out of the fake ones. Lilla parried the first three with increasing difficulty, gave ground, felt herself becoming lost in the swirls of humming light, and finally broke back in full flight, using her speed to plain run away until she could escape the maze of humming crimson light he had almost trapped her in.

Lilla had been told by her master, and she’d believed him – kind of. But here and now, she felt the full weight of the truth. Soresu truly was a Form to be nigh on invincible, but you had to trust in the Force. 100%. Not 99%. Not 99.9%. 100%. And it was that 0.1% of doubt right now that stopped Lilla falling into the true Soresu defence.

Another pause. They stood five paces apart. Lilla was breathing hard. Glancing down, she saw a char mark on her tunic where his blade had come too close. The smell of burned cloth tickled the back of her throat.

Time for Plan B.

Duffy stepped toward her with renewed confidence, eager to dissolve once more into the fury of the Force.

Lilla dropped her lightsaber on the ground. Duffy stopped, puzzled. Lilla held out her hands, palm up, and bowed.

Duffy took a step nearer, “This isn’t a spar, this is a duel. You don’t yield, you die.” There was confusion in his voice, as if flustered that she didn’t understand the gravity of the situation.

“Don’t you understand,” he said, lifting his saber to deal the killing blow. “No honour in defeat, only dea–“

In the middle of his sentence, Lilla snaked out a hand and grabbed his saber hand by the wrist. Then she flipped it over into a lock. Duffy blinked in surprise, then went quickly to his knees as Lilla upped the pressure.

Duffy tapped three times on the floor.

“Sorry!” Lilla said, “This is no spar.” And she brought her own saber hilt up with her other hand and delivered a blow to the back of his head. Confident he was unconscious, Lilla bound his hands and legs and moved on to face the signatures she’d previously felt.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Lilla composed herself before she walked through to the next room. It was, ironically, the training arena, where Jedi would have sparred. And what she found there was both positive and negative in equal measures.

On the plus side, the small group had split up and she had to face only one adversary. On the down-side this was the most powerful of the group. From the aura that emanated from him, Lilla estimated he was a Knight. His power reeked, like some cheap death stick. And like the disgusting narcotic, he was deadly.

Lilla was glad she had been frugal with her use of the Force and, in facing this adversary, she knew she’d need more than just her Force prowess, for on an equal footing, she wouldn’t stand a chance. But, although she hadn’t been trained with a saber from a young age, she had been taught unarmed martial arts – and was incredibly street-wise.

Lilla walked forwards and the Dark Jedi turned to face her. His proud, pale features took on an expression of distinct pleasure when he appraised her.

Then his eyes glanced to the doorway she came from.

“Not dead,” Lilla said, anticipating his intent. “But not coming to play any time soon.”

“No matter,” the Knight said, his voice haughty. “He was promising, but clearly not worthy of my tutelage. Once I dispatch you, I’ll end him.”

“You presume too much,” Lilla said. “Yet I offer you the same deal I offered him. Surrender and I promise you a fair trial.”

The Dark Jedi laughed heartily. “I like your spirit, young one. Become my new apprentice and I’ll show you what true power can accomplish if you’d only tap into the dark side.”

Lilla shook her head. “Don’t waste your breath. It’ll never happen.”

“So be it,” he said. “I am looking forward to ending this – slowly but inevitably. To show you what you’re missing.”

I bet you are, Lilla thought grimly.

Realistically, Lilla knew he was much the better fighter. Physically, he had a great advantage in speed and strength. Technically he would no doubt have the edge.

She needed a leveller and noticed the switch on the wall that was in every Jedi training room. Using the Force, she simply flipped it.

And the lights went out.

‘No problem,’ Lilla thought. ‘I don’t need to trust my eyes, after all. I can trust the Force.’

 

[Lilla Syrin]

It was pitch black. In the darkness, Lilla could just hear the dark sider breathing, and the sound of her own blood beating in her ears. A soft rustle of cloth from the direction the Dark Jedi had been standing in.

She tried to use the Force, tried to let her awareness seep out into the dark room. But she couldn’t find the Dark Jedi any more. It was as if he were muddying the Force. She would just have to stay alert, ready to spring backward at the first instant her opponent made a move.

Lilla stared into the darkness. Her eyes felt wide as saucers, and she was straining to hear every creak and whisper. The little hairs on her arms stood up, as if she could listen with her skin. And then, a gift from the Force: the sudden electric knowledge that the Knight was going to lash out…now!

The Force told Lilla when the attack was coming and now she trusted it to protect her. She relaxed and in her mind, she was aware that the Dark Jedi would start with a high, Force-aided leap, to get out of Lilla’s plane of vision, hoping to drop down like a bird of prey from above.

As if gifted with Farseeing, the dark sider’s blade blazed to life, a stroke of red lightning crackling down from directly overhead: but Lilla’s blade, a wand of cool green, was there to meet it. The weapons clashed in a jarring burst of sparks, but Lilla had the floor to brace against, and the force of her parry sent the dark sider tumbling backward through the air.

The Dark Jedi twisted into a perfect backflip and landed in a balanced fighting stance. “Come now little Jedi, is that all you’ve got?”

Lilla remained cautious. “Not even close.” The words were more confident than the Padawan that spoke them.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

If the dark sider had a weakness, it was that he was too in love with his lightsaber. As Lilla kept him at bay, she applied her learning to the situation. She was being patient and looking for patterns.

It appeared the Dark Jedi was really much happier standing two paces from his opponent and letting his blade do the fighting for her.

“You know, there’s one thing about the dark side that I’ve always– ”

Lilla exploded into a flying fleche in the middle of her sentence, hoping to catch the Knight off guard. He snapped to parry and Lilla disengaged.

The dark sider caught her blade triumphantly and slid it down to the side. Lilla’s blue lightsaber passed harmlessly by as the Knight spun like a matador to let her go by, but that was all right, since Lilla had only meant the swordplay to be a distraction, something for the dark sider to feel superior about, right up to the moment Lilla’s body was nearly past, when her whip kick knocked the Dark Jedi off his feet.

They both hit the ground hard. Lilla tried to push her advantage, but by the time she was back on her feet the Knight was flashing forward in a lunge of his own. He had a humming, buzzing, circular style of swordplay, fast slashes that changed angle continuously.

Only Lilla’s faith in the Force saved her, subtly prompting her to ignore the feints – and parry the real blows.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Remember, you are the weapon, Lilla reminded herself, recalling the words of Mastr Windu from her training sessions with her master. Don’t get caught thinking about the lightsaber alone. Be the weapon. Slash, parry, slash, parry, slash – and this time instead of making the expected parry high, Lilla dived in low under the blade, trying to tackle the dark sider around the knees.

The Knight flipped up, sending Lilla between his legs as he somersaulted in the air, twisted, and landed in a fighting stance. Lilla tucked, turning her dive into a roll, and bounced up. They were both breathing hard now. Lightsabers buzzed, green and red. The dark sider lunged again, but this time he used the Force as well, dragging on Lilla’s saber arm so her parry came too late and she had to throw herself wildly backward to evade the blow. Regaining her balance, she skipped backwards.

The dark sider’s saber dropped and he leapt forward, slashing for Lilla’s head.

“Not good enough,” Lilla taunted. If she were to win, she needed to find an edge from somewhere.

The dark sider’s mouth opened in something like a snarl.

As the fight progressed, Lilla was pleased to note that she’d made the Knight mad enough that he wasn’t bringing the Force to bear with quite as much finesse as he had at the beginning of the bout.

On the downside, she was running out of tricks to deal with him. The dark sider knew it, too. Once more he attacked, more methodically this time, step after step, driving Lilla toward the wall.

‘Can’t let it go like this,’ Lilla thought. She couldn’t let herself get trapped purely on the defensive. She fell back, parried a slash and whipped her wrist around to bind their blades, then leaned as if she was going to charge forward. This time she reached up with her left hand and made a jabbing two-finger pop to the pressure point under the dark sider’s left elbow.

It was perfect. As the Knight’s forearm went temporarily numb, his nerveless fingers opened just as Lilla kicked up at his hand as hard as she could, sending the crimson lightsaber spinning through the air. Lilla charged forward with a roundhouse slash…and impossibly the dark sider jumped over her blade.

Lilla pitched forward through the space where the Knight ought to have been, stumbled, got her balance, and turned just in time to see the Dark Jedi, his mouth set in a grim line, use the Force to grab his lightsaber out of midair. It smacked back into the dark sider’s hand with a sharp thud. He came forward again, relentless.

“That was your last chance.”

 

[Lilla Syrin]

He fell on Lilla like a storm, his limbs flashing like whirlwinds, his long, humming blade falling like crimson forked lightning. Slowly, irresistibly, Lilla was being overwhelmed. She could see the attacks coming, she knew which ones were real and which were feints, but now the dark sider was bending all her will to Lilla’s saber hand, using the Force to slow it down until it felt as if Lilla had to drag it through water, or mud.

Feint, slash, feint, cut, cut, and then a hard blow, a dipping slash to the leg that cut through the cloth of Lilla’s robes and left a cauterised wound across her thigh. The pain dropped her to the floor. She rolled sideways and came up parrying, stopping the red blade a finger width from her face.

The lightsaber hissed like a furious serpent, spitting crimson light in her eyes. With a grunt Lilla spun sideways again and tried to make a cut, but the Knight was inside her blade, slamming it flat to the floor, so hard Lilla’s fingers loosened for just an instant. The Knight used the Force to grab her lightsaber, that line of greemn heart’s fire. Then he ripped it from Lilla’s grasp, and flung it to the far side of the room.

Grab me, Lilla prayed. If he would just grapple, there was still a chance. If he would just try a joint lock, an arm bar, anything...

 

[Lilla Syrin]

The Dark Jedi stood up. As soon as the weight left her hand Lilla rolled over on her back, lashing out with her legs, but the Dark Jedi was already out of range, cool and composed, holding his lightsaber so the red tip hummed and buzzed a hand width above Lilla’s heart. The dark sider looked down on Lilla from what seemed like a vast height, an impossible height. The distance from a farmer’s field to the stars.

Lilla lay under her blade, gasping for breath. Her leg burned and throbbed. The dark sider looked at her impatiently.

“DIE!”

“NO.”

The Dark Jedi blinked. “What?”

She thought about trying to use the Force to drag her lightsaber back while the Dark Jedi wasn’t paying attention, but the pain in her head made it hard to concentrate. And she was tired. So tired.

Then Lilla smiled.

“Did you spar as an apprentice?”

The Dark Jedi looked at her, bemused.

“We would go until one of us surrenders or takes three burns. You got me once. That means I’ve got two left. So here’s another one,” she said, and gritting her teeth she grabbed the dark sider’s lightsaber blade with her naked left hand.

The blade burned and spat, but Lilla held on to it for dear life and jerked down. She was no master of Tutaminis, but her lessons had not been in vain.

Unable to believe what he was seeing, the Dark Jedi couldn’t bring himself to let go of his weapon fast enough, and down he came, falling on top of Lilla, who was already rolling, her right hand already sliding up to the neck of the Knight’s tunic. The two of them rolled over and over across the floor, and then Lilla was on top with her left hand still tight around the crimson blade and her right hand clamped around the Dark Jedi’s throat. Lilla knew what she was doing; her choke holds were very precise, always centred beautifully on the carotid triangle, and they invariably induced unconsciousness within ten seconds. Lilla bore down, counting off the seconds she still had to hold on to the lightsaber.

One, two, three...

A film swam over the Dark Jedi’s eyes, like frost creeping over a pond.

Four, five.

“It’s not...”

Six.

“Right,” he whispered.

Seven.

Eight.

Nine.

Ten.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Lilla was tired. She tied the Knight up and paused, pulling the Force to her gently, in an almost reassuring manner.

She felt calm again, relaxed. In truth she was no less tired, but she felt significantly more at ease for her forthcoming encounters.

Lilla moved through the rooms, seeking the remaining dark siders. She’d communicated her situation – this may be a mission, but that did not mean she had to fight the entire galaxy of dark siders alone. But help would not be forthcoming soon, and so she pressed on.

Cautious but determined.

 

[Lilla Syrin]

Finally, she found the refectory. She glanced at the long trestle tables and benches, as she benignly surveyed the hall.

Plates still littered the tables and food, although cold, did not smell as if it had been lying here for days. And the neatness of the room suggested an orderly evacuation, not a battlefield.

Lila’s left hand was badly burned and she’d crafted a temporary bandage for it. She was also limping from the lightsaber burn she’d received.

What Lilla lacked in years of Jedi development, she looked to compensate however she could. Studying was one element. She spent every non-sleeping moment in the library or in a training room.

And she was resilient and, according to her master, courageous. And she never gave in. And so, fort as long as she could breathe, she would continue to seek out the dark siders here.