The Will and the Way

[Ras'kala'han]

Trystis glowered at the manuscript. It was a sheaf of freshly printed papers, images of a crumbling text too fragile to be handled without the most delicate applications of the Force. And it was nonsense. He knew High Sith, or at least enough to get the gist of things most of the time. But whoever wrote this confounded translation. Sentences stopped and started independent of punctuation, and dialects shifted like ice flows on Hoth. It was encoded - and it would take time.

Aside from himself, this particular subsection of the libraries of Coruscant's Sith Academy was empty. In these chaotic times, an Acolyte's life was busy. He was, according to his mistress, not yet fit to fight however. His mind had been split open and trampled, and these things took time.

Not yet ready for the brutality of full Dark Side training, he simply sat here with his book. Irritated, confused. But he couldn't just allow himself to stagnate. He had to constantly grow his power, even if mentally injured.

So turning the page, he sighed. Well, he thought, it could be worse.

[member="Sage Bane"]

 

[Sage Bane]

It was common knowledge that Sage Bane's history with apprentices was not full of success stories. While still a Knight, Sage had killed his first apprentice, a Twi'lek named Manji, with Force lightning, and his second, an insolent Rattataki, presumably having tired of the heavy-handed abuse, simply disappeared without a word. Things would be different with his new apprentice [member="Kinsey Starchaser"], of course. Lessons had been learned, and the mistakes he had made with the first two would not be repeated. Plus, the young Starchaser girl needed a more delicate hand.

When Sage had gotten word that his former Master, Matsu Xiangu had taken on the curious case of Trystis Ray, a man that Sage had originally suspected to be a traitor among the Sith, he was intrigued. Trystis was a talented young Sith. His brilliance was clear to Sage even as he brutalized the man that day in the Coruscant prison, but to catch the eye of the Empress of Coruscant as a potential new apprentice, was quite a feat. The Sith Lord felt it was time to pay the young man a visit.

He supposed that he should have raided Trystis' mind for the truth before he lashed out with devastating mental attacks that left Ray a withered husk of his former self, but Sage was an impatient and brutal man who had been tested by a terror attack on Coruscant. Trystis' fate had suffered from being in the wrong place at the wrong time with the wrong Sith Lord.

The students in the Coruscant Academy Library bowed before the Sith Lord as he entered the room, but Sage paid them no mind. His brown eyes were locked on the white-haired Echani who was hunched over an esoteric tome. He strode right up to the student and hovered over him like a vulture.

"Acolyte Ray," he said. "How goes your training with Master Xiangu?"

[member="Trystis Ray"]

 

[Ras'kala'han]

When Trystis Ray said "worse", he meant something along the lines of rabid Kath Hounds materializing out of the ether to rip him to pieces because he misread an incantation. [member="Sage Bane"]'s arrival wasn't "worse". It was a category of its own. For a brief moment, fear lanced through him. He was lucky that he was facing away from the Sith.

Rising, Trystis turned to face Bane. He genuflected briefly, observing all the formalities. "It has yet to begin in full, Lord Hand. The Lady Xiangu is a busy woman, so for now she's left me to my own independent studies."

He motioned, and a piece of paper fluttered through the air to his hand. "So much knowledge... so little time. I intend to have a few new tricks in my repertoire when the rebels and I next cross paths. These treatises of the old royal lineage of Onderon are fascinating." And infuriating.

 

[Sage Bane]

The fear emanating off of Acolyte Ray was palpable. The Echani was in a state of extreme anxiety, and Sage's presence was not helping. This was not the young Sith that had triumphantly defied the Hand of the Dark Lord in the prison control room. Trystis' mind was badly broken. Matsu Xiangu would eat the young man alive if he stayed in this state. Weakness in any form would not be tolerated by the Final Beast. Having been her Acolyte himself, Sage knew all too well, the fates that Trystis could suffer if he did not survive her training. It would be such a waste to see the man become just another guinea pig for her laboratories.

Without a word, Sage's hand gripped the crown of Trystis head, and stayed there a few moments, fingers threaded through strands of silver hair. He began to use a variant of Mind Trick to suture together some of the man's torn ego. Careful not to go too far in the other direction, lest he make the young Echani a nightmare of narcissism and arrogance, he implanted powerful suggestions in the student's mind. Confidence, trust, self-reliance, and self-assurance would be stitched through the fabric of his healing psyche. With a long sigh, Sage lifted his hand.

He took a seat opposite Ray at his table, forcing him to face his fear.

"How would you feel about training with me, Acolyte Ray?"

[member="Trystis Ray"]

 

[Ras'kala'han]

Trystis Ray's mind had been partially mended by [member="Matsu Xiangu"]. And he himself had been working on healing it further, using his own emotions to restore himself to functionality. But the magic and mentalism of the old Sith traditions required far greater focus and clarity then what he possessed currently.

He saw [member="Sage Bane"] reaching out to him. "Lord Hand, what are you - " Suddenly, he felt... strange. Whole. He almost might go as far as to say peaceful - no peace was a lie. That much had been drilled into him by the Academy. It was almost a disappointment when the elder Sith lifted his hand from his hair, it had felt comforting, pleasing. He could have stayed like that for hours - What am I thinking? It could have been a mental trick, but he felt more focused. In fact, he could remember picking up on patterns in the text's code that he hadn't already...

"How would you feel about training with me, Acolyte Ray?" As always, his voice was coy. Sweet. It belied the monstrosity that was the Hand of the Empress, but nothing felt false about the sincerity. Of course, trust was inimical to the Sith. Trust leads to ruin. But if he had been healed, then maybe the Hand thought he could be useful. And if that was true, he was safe. For now.

"Of course. What is it that you wish to teach me, Master Bane?"

 

[Sage Bane]

"What is it that I wish to teach you?" he repeated. "No, Apprentice. The question is, what is it that you wish to learn. What do you want history to say about you Trystis? What will be your legacy in this galaxy?"

Sage stood and slowly paced before his potential student, his hands folded behind his back. The Sith Lord briefly reflected on his own journey. Sage's past was riddled with trauma. The young Sith Lord had been a former slave, prostitute, and street rat. He'd been captured by Zambrano the Hutt, and freed by Matsu Xiangu in exchange for his servitude as her Acolyte. With her guidance, he transcended beyond what he ever thought was possible. Great power was there for the taking, but with it came immense pain. Trystis had already gotten a taste of this pain, and it might have seemed sadistic, but Sage believed that Trystis struggles would only end up making the man stronger.

"While all of them were wildly different, our predecessors all had one thing in common. Plagueis. Krayt. Siduous. They all knew that the weakness of inferiors is self-evident. The weak do not understand the Force and fear it. Let this fear lead your charge to galactic dominance, Apprentice Ray."

He slid back into the seat opposite the Echani, eyes gleaming bright red and glowing. He repeated his earlier question with a knowing glance.

"Now tell me Trystis, what is it that you wish to learn."

[member="Trystis Ray"]

 

[Ras'kala'han]

Trystis understood, in that moment, why he was a mere acolyte. He had been raised by the Sith. He grew up immersed in their philosophy. But he had been its servant, its slave. A true Sith was devoted to him - or her - self. Their own advancement and power. Not philosophic codes, nothing but the power from within and how to shape it. And now, he was taking his first steps down that road.

Let's start with step one, then, [member="Sage Bane"]. Through passion, I gain strength. "What I would like to learn? Everything. What a busy man like you and a beleaguered apprentice like myself has time for? Mentalism seems to be your area of expertise. I would know more about the manipulation of the mind."

He laid the sheet of papers down. His independent studies of sorcery were protracted, but he was making progress. And he was patient. Teach me what you did to break me.

 

[Sage Bane]

"Good answer, Acolyte Ray. I will teach you how to slither into the mind of your enemies and command them to do your bidding. I can also teach you how to shield yourself from mental attacks yourself." A smirk crossed his face, an acknowledgement of the torture he had inflicted on Trystis. "Force knows you need it."

Sage reached into the folds of his cloak and pulled out a small silver sphere. Twisting two halves of the sphere, he opened the device to reveal a tiny maze inside. Sage handed the sphere half to the handsome, white-haired apprentice.

"Let's start now. This object is called a mental maze. It is yours to keep. It's mostly a Jedi training tool, but it's useful for any Force users, Dark or Light. What you do is project your self into the maze entrance here."

To demonstrate, a thin finger pointed to the entrance of the tiny labyrinth.

"One you have projected yourself inside the maze, you must use only your mental ability to visualize your way out of it. The smaller the sphere, the harder the puzzle. With your advanced abilities, I figured you could handle this size."

The mental maze was a rote and boring task, but not without its merits. It was especially useful for training a healing mind such as Trystis'.

"Practice on the mental maze for two hours, then meet me at the Academy's training grounds for your next lesson."

With that, Sage stood and whirled on his heel, leaving the apprentice to his practice.

[member="Trystis Ray"]