The way of the sword (Open).

[WolfMortum]

It was a new day, a new opportunity to further explore the gift that he had, the force and by extension the lightsaber that so many other gifted and well known force users had learned to wield in the past.

Karrus Zorathi was by no means a match for any of these historic legends, he had next to zero experience in battle other than his escape from Eriadu in which he was more duck-and-covering while the other rag-tag band of misfits covered his and Alysara's departure aboard the Jedi Freighter. Since then, it had all been so quiet, in fact even on Voss he'd sparred with maybe a handful of people, really only knowing the ettiequette encouraged within the Order, bowing when coming to meet in the sparring floor, both on start and finish of each bout and then the obvious, no head shots as at the time, the head was considered a forbidden target in which was only meant to encourage killing, not disarming or disabling as was the Jedi way there.

Within the courtyard however, Karrus stood tall, his lightsaber active and the blue blade shimmering a brilliant and vibrant light upon the floor around him as he waved it about in front of him, as if trying to remember how the others had used it, almost picturing the students that he'd watched way back in what seemed like another lifetime.

Too shy to ask for help, he hoped to teach himself something, as silly as that seemed. The Lightsaber itself had a varied degree of intensity, the current setting on training and would leave little more than a large bruise upon contact with himself or another's body; naturally it would sting and induce something of a welping shock to discourage clumsiness though it wasn't nearly as deadly as the real thing, thank the force.

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

[member="Karrus Zorathi"]

Alexandra watched Karrus from her little perch, waiting for him to reach out for help as the minutes moved on and she smiled as he didn't. In the two weeks since the return of a few former students, some of the others had shown up and the Order started to look like it had back then but then there were those moments where her eyes were now drawn to her own student trying to isolate himself. She wondered why for a bit, avoiding touching anyone's mind anymore as she no longer saw herself fit to touch the minds of others, especially her students.

But even with that, she noticed he didn't so much as ask for any help, something that she would smile about for a few reasons that to others wouldn't make quite as much sense. First she enjoyed seeing him taking his training into his own hands but even that was not the only reason as she found herself curious as to what he could come into knowing when there was no one to help him correct his mistakes. So once he was turned around, she dropped down softly andd walked over to him, feet touching the ground like leaves and leaving little to no sound concerning the contact. Her hands had crossed behind her as she looked at the saber with a curiousness before smiling and reaching out to touch Karrus on the shoulder, careful to keep her eyes on his saber too.

The last thing she wanted was to lose her head.

 

[WolfMortum]

[member="Alexandra Feanor"] had managed to get the drop on him though he hadn't initially noticed. With his back turned and should her eyes have been attentive enough she would recognize the hilt for the make that it was, a typical sized cylinder that the Jedi Order offered each and every Initiate upon their entrance into the Order after spending several months as a Hopeful and coming to know a little of the way of life. It would seem that Karrus got at-least that far with the Jedi, and now, though he was not aware of it, that probably meant that his absence had been noticed and registered as a rogue force user, even if not terribly able.

Meeting the hilt with his left hand, he held the weapon out in front of him, the blade pointing horizontally, aimed at a spot on the other side of the area where he found himself ever so focused on staring at as a means of an imaginary training line, per say, he moved to raise the lightsaber and strike at his would be mysterious enemy in training (The Air), before he felt a hand touch his shoulder and almost lost his breath, flinching in fright and stepping quickly forward several steps only to turn back and look at who had come to join him.

"Oh...-Uh...-Hey!" He smiled awkwardly up at Alexandra, still not entirely sure about calling her by her name, he sort of just stood there looking back at her in surprise and a little sheepish guilt; "I hope you don't mind! I just wanted something to do...-And this seemed like a good idea. It's what the Jedi were learning to do...".

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

[member="Karrus Zorathi"]

Her eyes focused on the stammering young one with a smile as she looked at his saber. He was smart enough to try and get in some basic work but without a partner he would never be able to truly learn how to handle that blade. For a few seconds her eyes left Karrus to look around before nodding and letting her words reach out to the boy, though she was sure what she would have to say was not what he expected or really wanted to hear considering their content. "Set that to the lowerest setting you can please. Im going to have you train with me... and pleases, call me Alex. I would hate for you to think that im any better than you simply because of where you are now Karrus."

Her smile and kind tone never changed as she stood infront of him with her ebony black hair this time, her hands working to remove the main robes from her body and folding them up before placing them at the side of the ring. Under them was a White Jedi Tunic and another cloak over them, having hid both under the larger Silver robes that were now folded on the side of the training area. Following that she removed the cloak like part before setting that down too and standing there with her tunic alone as well as a long sleeved undershirt and two bracers that reached halfway up her forearms.

Only then did she return to the Ring with Karrus, carrying no weapon or sabers on her at all, even her echani warstaff she normally always had with her was gone. Instead, all she had was the tunic and the leather bracers, neither with any special quality to them. "I want you to knock me off my feet Karrus, before i can remove the Saber from your hand. Understood?" She smiled at him as she said this, her voice still kind and soft, never raising higher than what was needed, as if the old Alexandra was back for right now.

 

[WolfMortum]

[member="Alexandra Feanor"]'s attire hadn't escaped him, in fact it made him smile. When he'd first arrived to the Jedi, he had dorned that old classic tan tunic, the brown boots and belt , that really old Jedi look that people most remembered yet he'd been told that it was distastefully out of fashion and that people didn't wear said uniforms anymore, it had left him feeling really embarrassed on his first day being a part of the Silver Sanctum and now seeing 'Alex' sporting a likely attire; well, it made him smile in appreciation of the unknown gesture.

"I was told never to have these settings on their highest..." She told him to call her by her first name yet Karrus wondered about that, a bit of reluctance as the Jedi called their teachers Master someone-a-rather, whatever their last names were, "At-least until I had graduated to a more advanced class; though I guess we don't really have enough people here for Classes do we..." He added thoughtfully before returning his attention to her. "Are you sure you don't want me to call you Master, that's what they all did back on Voss...-It seemed weird at the start but I sorta got used to it I suppose. That's what you are now, right? My Master?", it hadn't really dawned on him until now, he was an apprentice to someone. Following the path, paired up with a Mentor of his own; and he couldn't help but grin a little to himself at the thought.

When she asked him to try and knock her off her feet though, that wasn't something that came easily. At first he wasn't sure he heard her right and he would've looked a little taken back; Alexandra wasn't armed at all like he would have expected in a sparring session and he didn't know if it was right to strike someone, even in training, while they did not have a weapon or tool that could match the threat of a lightsaber. Lowering the blade a little, he stepped back once as if to get a second look at her, like she might be hiding a lightsaber somewhere; when he couldn't see one, he shook his head a little in polite and sheepish refusal. "I don't think it's right to hit someone who can't defend themselves, Master...".

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

[member="Karrus Zorathi"]

Alexandra just smiled as he continued to speak of him calling her master instead of Alex or Alexandra. She understood what she was asking him was a strange thing, that what she was asking him was alot and that it probably didn't sit well with him considering that his last place was rooted in such traditions. "I am certain. Here i am the Historian of the order and as such am not bound to the titles that the others here are. While i am your teacher, and an elder here, as far as i am concerned I am little different from you or Saran or Veino." She drew her head into a bow towards him with a smile.

"I'm your friend Karrus, and a member of this order with you. And another thing... I'm not defenseless without a saber." Her eyes told him that it was ok to continue. She was determined to show him that she was not a Jedi and this was a place where the old traditions he knew were gone. It was a place where there was a closer bond than just a grand order with a grander purpose. They were a group devoted to bettering themselves and the expansion of the knowledge in all its facets. As far as she was concerned, every person here was her family and she would see that they knew anything and everything that could keep them safer. "So go ahead, and strike. It won't harm me."

 

[WolfMortum]

[member="Alexandra Feanor"]

The boy nodded reluctantly, not wanting to strike her while she appeared unarmed and yet not wanting her to think he did not believe her when she said that she was still capable of defending herself, he brought the lightsaber to bare and stepped forward, sweeping the blade around in an arc to strike her mid-section. The attack held no strength, his precision was null and he hadn't yet found the heart to approach conflict with the steady hand...

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Years later...​

(OOC: Jumping ahead to keep this thread on-going despite personal changes to my character).​

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Karrus stood tall within the clearing, his breathing slowed, the heat of the air he expelled from his lungs, like mist from his lips as he remained poised, motionless and eyes closed. Like the many before, this was another training session held for him by his Master Alexandra Feanor, she who had invited him into the Order of the Grey as a personal student and had shown him the way she understood the Force, opening the door for him to expand his mind beyond the views of the Jedi that he had been introduced to at such a young age.

With his lightsaber at the ready, the blue blade held chest high in a defensive stance, he waited for her, listening to his surroundings not with his ears but instead with his mind, his connection to the Force that of which flowed through all things and whispered of the slightest movement, threat or otherwise.

 

[Alexandra Feanor]

[member="Karrus Zorathi"]

She smiled, in the years he had been here, over the time that she had been Echani and then now her new body, she found herself interested slowly in this kid more than she had been in the past. Her own hands were still wrapped in the same energy resistant bracers that they had that first day, borrowed from the old armor she had once sported all the time but now only used as a training implement. It was Cortosis, but a weave only, not that of which would shut down the saber that Karrus held leveled, even if it were lowered when it came to the setting for its power.

She grinned though, the kid much better than he had been during that first day, and to be fair she could barely call him a kid at this point because of the fact his own body reflected nearly the same age as her own. It was something she had to keep reminding herself about when she trained her students and they grew older while her form remained the same. It was strange to the former echani, but she was slowly coming to terms with that fact.

Either way, her form moved to strike first, hands moving to attempt a strike at his body, one moving to hit his chest while the second moved to knock the blade to the side should it try to swing in and hit Alex. Her own breathing was slow as the cold air moved around her, rippling through her robes as she had come to providing herself some barriers in her abilities. She was by far no master in hand to hand combat, but she was interested in seeing how hard she had to push herself against her student during their sessions.

 

[WolfMortum]

Though [member="Alexandra Feanor"] thought herself not a Master, Karrus had to exert himself to keep in pace with her throughout their training sessions together and even then, day to day he assumed that she was holding back in order not to push him to hard that he might strain himself. Moving to strike at him with open hands, he pivoted on his left foot, throwing his upper body to bend down under her left arm and coming out on the other-side of both making her right an awkward attempt, he left missing just marginally; he brought the lightsaber to bare close to her throat, stopping a clear gap away from connecting with her and moving no further, simply looking back at her slightly amused yet preferring that she come at him armed in equal taste, at-least having learned as much by now of him. Karrus refused to strike someone unarmed, though she could remove his weapon from him before he could land a blow, it wasn't that he doubted her ability but rather held his own integrity even in battle higher than one who might do so.

This did not however mean that they could not continue. Slowly he stepped away from her, proving that for the brief moment, he was not about to pursue her, a half smirk across his face while his right hand moved to deactivate the lightsaber, returning it to his belt and putting distance between the two once again; starting over, if she were to use hand-to-hand combat then as her apprentice, falling into stance, he would meet her on such terms and no less.