Private To Be a Mando

[Adelle Bastiel]

Training Yards, Sundari
Tags: Torva Vikar | Mia Monroe

Sundari’s training yards were full, Mandalorians of every clan, belief, and age sparring, testing weapons and each other. Readying themselves. The Great Heathen Army was mobilizing. The Diarchy had crossed the final line and something had to be done. Adelle had spent too many shifts in the emergency ward pronouncing time of deaths for Mandalorians and Domarians, young and old, soldier and civilian, these past few months. She would follow Aether into battle.

Her boots fell near-silently under all the din of the yards as she walked into the open area proper. She wasn’t here for herself today—Aether had asked for her help in training a foundling in the ways of the Force. Adelle looked over the young warriors standing at the edges, either waiting for their turn or waiting for instruction, and tried to pick out the girl the Mand’alor had described: human, nineteen, red hair, blue eyes, pale skin, slightly taller than Adelle herself, plain armor. The Healer huffed. Very descriptive, very specific—the information could fit any number of redheads. However, there was one detail that would help: Clan Verd’s sigil.

A flash of red hair over unpainted armor caught her attention and Adelle approached. The horned skull of Clan Verd caught the sun’s light and glinted.

This was Torva then.

“Torva Vikar,” Adelle called. She watched the girl carefully, and with every sense available. Torva’s presence in the Force was still unrefined, although she could feel the beginnings of control. “I’m Iron Wolf Adelle Bastiel. I’ll be one of your instructors for today.”

She paused before nodding her head at a small sparring ring closer to the edges of the yard. She’d only heard rumors and fairytale-like stories told to young children in her clan about Torva’s other assigned instructor, but a legacy like that didn’t come from nothing. “Come on. Warmaster Monroe will be along shortly.”

 

[Torva Vikar]

Sundari, Training Yards


Nervous blue eyes scanned the scene and the people around and with her, listening to a myriad of noises that cascaded over her senses. Voices of people talking, shouts and sharp cries from the training yards, and the hustle and bustle of a place that was active and gearing up for war.

Torva had heard the whispers, the talks. Some other faction known as the Dyarchy had crossed a line, and now the Mandalorians were rising to the call of battle. Torva, would not be among the many who went to the frontlines. She was still too new, too inexperienced with, well, everything - to be of any real help.

Aether had decided it would be better for her to go to Sundari to truly begin her training in earnest, to prepare her for the conflicts that would come. He was the one who was supposed to be educating her, and he had been, when he could. But he was the Mand’alor, he had other duties to attend to besides holding her hand through every little thing these days. He was leading the charge against their foe, and so he would leave her in the capable hands of others he trusted with her care and training.

She had been assigned into a group embedded within the Great Heathen Army, a collection of warriors - new and old - known as the Iron Wolves. She had been told that she would be meeting two of them this day, to help further guide her on her path.

And thus, there she stood in her plain armor outside the training yards, the Clan Verd sigil marking her as one of Aether’s. She was scanning the people coming and going, unsure of just who she was looking for.

A figure, a woman, approaching her caught Torva’s attention. A heartbeat later, she heard the woman’s voice call her name, and Torva turned more directly to the woman - her blue eyes sharp with both curiosity and uncertainty.

“That is me.” Torva confirmed, feeling her pulse elevate a little further from rising nerves and growing excitement.

“I’m Iron Wolf Adelle Bastiel. I’ll be one of your instructors for today.” the woman, Adelle, said to her before gesturing with her head towards a farther sparring ring that was closer to the edge of the yard. “Come on. Warmaster Monroe will be along shortly.”

Torva stepped away from the sidelines and alongside Iron Wolf Adelle, her nervous energy clear enough - even without Force perception. Her movements were somewhat stiff, her presence alert. Her apprehension made her quiet, as if she had suddenly lost her ability to speak.

As if realizing this on her own, she summoned the courage to glance at Adelle as they walked.

“Apologies for being so quiet. I don’t get out much. This is a bit…overwhelming.”

Adelle Bastiel / Mia Monroe ​

 

[Adelle Bastiel]

Training Yards, Sundari
Tags: Torva Vikar | Mia Monroe

Their interaction had hardly begun and already, Torva was apologizing for something. Existing, apparently. Adelle frowned to herself and glanced over at the young woman, noting how stiff and jittery even just walking seemed to be. Nerves. That would be problematic if Adelle was going to teach her how to use the Force. Control required focus, focus demanded calm. She rolled her shoulders, black and blue armor gleaming dully with the motion, as her buy’ce swung at her hip, clipped to her belt.

Had she ever been so nervous as a teenager? A futile question but Adelle wondered all the same.

“Then it’s a good thing we have a ring to ourselves on the edge,” Adelle said. “You won’t have noise on all sides.”

They reached the training ring, a short empty space buffering the ring from the edge of the training grounds surrounding wall. Adelle had set a bag of items she thought might be useful at the ring’s edge. Weapon racks lined the wall but they would leave those alone for now. She needed to see where Torva was at first.

“Before we begin,” she said, walking over to the ring. “I want to clear something up. Aether’s talked with you about the Manda, I think he calls it, and the power it gives you, right? I was not raised among Mandalorians. I know it by a different name. The Force. And I will probably slip and call it that in training you. But the Force or Manda, I mean the same thing—the power you and I can both wield.”

Adelle reached behind her back and pulled the durite lightsaber hilt from its place on the back of her belt. She strode to the far side of the ring and stopped, then faced Torva.

“I’d like to see what you can do.” She held out her hilt, balanced in the palm of her hand. “There is a crystal in this that feels like me, my presence. I want you to first tell me if you can feel it. Then, I want you to call this to your hand... Don't push the button though.”

Her blue and brown eyes met Torva’s blue ones. “When you’re ready.”

 

[Torva Vikar]

Sundari, Training Yards

Torva noticed her instructor glance at her, but she kept her eyes ahead, scanning everything - especially the smaller ring that Iron Wolf Adelle pointed out. It was a good thing that it was separated from the others, at least for the time being. Less noise to draw Torva’s attention away from her lessons for the day.

When they reached the ring, Torva noticed an item sitting on the wall, as well as weapon’s racks that lined said wall. Torva wasn’t sure if they would be using any of those weapons, but she figured she would be told one way or another at some point.

Now that they were inside the smaller ring, however, Torva took a moment to take a deep breath and try to bring her nerves under control. She focused on calming breaths, easing her heart rate back down to near normal levels - as best as she could anyway. She was still jittery, her nerves of excitement for meeting someone new and being out of Mandalore still prickling underneath her skin.

“Before we begin,” Adelle stated, drawing Torva’s attention right back towards her, the red head’s blue eyes sharp with focus. “I want to clear something up. Aether’s talked with you about the Manda, I think he calls it, and the power it gives you, right? I was not raised among Mandalorians. I know it by a different name. The Force. And I will probably slip and call it that in training you. But the Force or Manda, I mean the same thing—the power you and I can both wield.”

“Manda and the Force…got it.” Torva replied, willing her shoulders to relax as she brought herself further into focus for the lesson. “Aether referred to the Manda as the Force too, so either way I will know what you mean.”

Torva’s eyes watched Iron Wolf Adelle’s hands as she reached behind her and withdrew what she now recognized to be the hilt to a lightsaber. Her blue eyes traced Adelle as she walked across to the far side of the ring from Torva then turned to face the younger Mandalorian. Her voice echoed across the space to Torva, instructions for what was to transpire next:

“I’d like to see what you can do. There is a crystal in this that feels like me, my presence. I want you to first tell me if you can feel it. Then, I want you to call this to your hand... Don't push the button though.”

The red head swallowed to try and clear the sudden dryness from her throat, before nodding her understanding.

“When you’re ready.”

Torva inhaled another deep breath, shifting her eyes from Adelle’s to the saber hilt in her open palm. At first, it seemed as if she was trying to will the saber towards her by staring at it, but it was just her way of pulling her focus back towards herself.

I’ve done this before…I can do it again. Torva told herself. Remember…Don’t touch the button…

She closed her eyes, attempting to shut out the noise from beyond the ring, the clash of distant training weapons, the calls and shouts of voices. Just like she had practiced in her meditations, she began to shift her focus from outwards to inwards, starting slowly and taking her time.

Torva inhaled and exhaled softly, calmly. Her heart had settled its pace, and now she felt as if she could move to the next step - shifting her awareness from inwards, back outwards. She was more aware now, not of the noise of the training yards, but the way the currents in the air moved around her. The thrum of the ground beneath her. If she pushed too hard to try and feel something else too quickly, her focus would start to slip. She didn’t want to keep her instructor waiting forever, but she knew from her prior practices in even attempting to feel the Manda that things like this could not be rushed.

Eventually, however, Torva felt something different. It was the hum of the ground, or the way the air moved around her, or even how her own blood pulsed in her veins. It was like a spark, flickering faintly in her awareness. She focused more intently upon it, the more she realized that it was ahead of her.

“I feel something…like a spark, flickering…” Torva replied slowly, her voice muted with her concentration, following the instruction to inform Adelle if she could feel the crystal inside the lightsaber first. She was assuming that was the spark she could sense. “Ahead of me.”


​

Adelle Bastiel / Mia Monroe ​

 

[Adelle Bastiel]

Training Yards, Sundari (Mandalore)
Tags: Torva Vikar | Mia Monroe

The training yards of Sundari had not been Adelle’s first choice for teaching someone with a marginal understanding of the Force. Too many distractions. For a beginner, the noise, the movement, the other senses feeding the brain data would be incredibly distracting. But Sundari was the capital of Mandalore. It was Aether’s home, or one of them at least. Familiar surroundings would at least be easier to ignore.

And the girl seemed nervous enough already.

Adelle watched Torva after setting the task. At first, the girl stared at the hilt but it lacked the hard edge of concentration that someone trying to will an object to them had. And she felt no straining in the Force. She was centering her attention, maybe, before she closed her eyes. Measured controlled breaths, and Adelle felt Torva’s presence withdraw, becoming something smaller and more focused before it expanded outward again.

Which reminded Adelle she still had Art of the Small shrinking her presence. Well, she’d have to amend that after Torva confirmed whether she could or could not feel the permafrost crystal.

Time stretched with Adelle still holding out the hilt in her hand, Torva’s eyes still closed. To the outside observer, it would look like nothing was happening. Adelle, however, could sense the young presence seeking out, diffusing when Torva got distracted and becoming more defined when she focused.

Torva spoke. A spark, flickering. Good.

“That’s the crystal you sense,” Adelle explained. “If it feels like it’s flickering, it may be that your focus keeps getting pulled away. Remember what Aether taught you. Find your center. When that spark steadies into something clearer, call it to your hand.”

 

[Mia Monroe]

Mia’s mind was busy with preparations for the coming fight. Acquisitions had to be made, outposts scrambled and reorganised to keep a presence where it was needed, drawing the main force out to prepare for the battle. Entry points into the system had to be planned, scout reports analysed to make sure their plan was seamless. Aether’s idea was wild, but it would work, once they had everything in place.

She had her nose in the datapad as she moved through the Training Ground, lifting it only to return greetings and sweep the yard to locate her quarry. The flame of red hair caught the light as it shifted, and Mia tucked the pad away, stepping up to the rings edge quietly to watch, careful not to intrude on Torva’s concentration.

Aether had asked her to look in, to help guide his daughter and she had agreed without hesitation. It didn’t matter how busy she was, Aether was practically family, therefore, so was Torva. This was not an ideal location for training in the force. Quiet was better. She stepped away again, finding the quartermaster. After a quiet word, the training yard began to empty slowly, though not without grumbles from those waiting to get into the sparring rings.

Complaints that were silenced with a sharp sapphire gaze before they silenced. She’d bought them an hour of peace, more than enough for a first lesson. She returned to the rings edge as quiet began to settle around them.

Adelle Bastiel Torva Vikar

 

[Torva Vikar]

Sundari, Training Yards

Iron Wolf Adelle’s voice reached Torva’s ears, instructions clear to guide her forward, though it did momentarily break Torva’s concentration, the spark she felt flickering and fading into the background. “If it feels like it’s flickering, it may be that your focus keeps getting pulled away. Remember what Aether taught you. Find your center. When that spark steadies into something clearer, call it to your hand.”

The young red head inhaled a deep breath, forcing down the uprising of frustration that she could feel creeping up from her chest. She knew that frustration would only block her efforts and learning how to feel or even use the Force was a lesson in patience. She didn’t respond to Adelle, not verbally anyway, and tried once more to locate that flickering spark she had sensed earlier.

Her ability to focus came faster this time, once she was able to recenter herself and ground herself there. The space around her became quiet - the distant voices and clamor fading until all she could hear was the wind.

When she felt the spark again, she tightened her concentration and focus around it even further - pressing in until the faint flicker became steadier and steadier. It was a challenge, and it took all her effort - but nothing that was rewarding came easily.

But now came the next part of the challenge - calling that hilt in Adelle’s hand into her own, and Torva wasn’t entirely certain on how to do that. She had made small pebbles and stones levitate while under her Father’s guidance, but she had yet to actually pull things into her hand.

Torva supposed that now was as good a time as any to practice.

Now that she could feel the crystal within the lightsaber hilt more firmly and steadily, Torva first tested to see if she could will it to respond to her intentions. Her brow furrowed slightly with her intense focus and, like how she had practiced with the stones, willed the crystal to rise up into the air.

Or at least, she made the attempt. At first, nothing seemed to happen. The hilt stayed right in Adelle’s hand, though a tremor could be felt through it. The longer the moments stretched on however, the more that Torva seemed to grow frustrated with herself, until her focus began to unravel at the edges - and she lost her concentration completely.

The young Mandalorian sighed heavily, her freckled face scrunching in a display of agitation as she opened her eyes to look across towards Adelle somewhat sheepishly.

“Is…there a trick to actually summon something into your hand? I only know how to make stones levitate - I thought that maybe I could apply the same idea to this and make it rise out of your hand. But I couldn’t even do that…” Torva said, the edge of disappointment coloring her words. ​

Adelle Bastiel // Mia Monroe ​

 

[Adelle Bastiel]

Tags: Torva Vikar | Mia Monroe

A flash of gold at the edge of the training ring threatened to distract Adelle from the moment but she kept watching Torva. The flare of frustration was quickly tamped down by the young woman by a deep breath. It was a method Adelle had used many times—breath control had been emphasized by her old Master in her remedial training. Adelle felt Torva’s awareness shift into a more solid, grounded state far quicker this time.

The sudden decrease in noise drew Adelle’s attention away from the ring for the moment, as warriors and their superiors started gathering their own equipment and leaving the yards. It wasn’t until she caught a glimpse of black and gold armor that Adelle understood. Warmaster Monroe had arrived and had exercised her authority. Adelle gave the Warmaster a silent nod and returned to her observation of Torva. She could feel Torva’s presence around the crystal in her lightsaber hilt, surrounding it. The durite hilt quivered, shifting slightly in her palm. For half a heartbeat, Adelle held her breath, expecting to watch the hilt fly from her hand.

Frustration creeped up again, a slow-moving poison. Torva’s presence began to bleed around the edges before dissipating entirely as she sighed across the way, a grimace on her face. Something embarrassed entered her face as she looked up at Adelle.

“Is…there a trick to actually summon something into your hand? I only know how to make stones levitate - I thought that maybe I could apply the same idea to this and make it rise out of your hand. But I couldn’t even do that…” Torva said, the edge of disappointment coloring her words.

Empath that she was, Adelle could feel the sting of disappointment, like a phantom pain. She gave a small smile. It had been a feeling she knew too well as an adult.

“You made the hilt move,” Adelle said. “That’s more than I was able to do my first time.”

Remedial training had been difficult until Master It’kla had pulled her into isolated training rooms without the young Padawans.

The information that Torva had only ever been able to lift stones was useful, if only to understand what she was working with. If Adelle could somehow leverage that into further applications of telekinesis, they might could get somewhere.

“There’s no real trick to it,” Adelle said. Well, that wasn’t entirely true. “If there is one, it’s that everyone senses the Force differently. My old master in the Jedi said it felt like the wind. A different Jedi said it felt like a tapestry, something she could pull the strings on.”

She had often wondered how her friend Vidalu Na’an had sensed the Force, given that the woman could only ever really channel it through her body.

“For me, it’s like an ocean or river. I can feel the currents moving around me. And I can move those currents to do what I want them to do.” Adelle turned to Monroe, inclining her head respectfully. “Do you have anything to add, Warmaster?”

 

[Mia Monroe]

Mia returned Adelle’s nod with a gentle incline of her own, setting the datapad down on a nearby bench, along with her helmet, watching without intrusion as Torva’s attempt to summon the hilt faltered, focus dissipating rapidly when the attempt did not succeed.

Only when Adelle turned to invite her commentary did Mia step forward. “I’d never considered what it felt like.” she admitted thoughtfully “It is a tool, something I can reach for when I need it, that shifts depending on my will. Though my training was drastically different from Adelle’s.”

Mia’s training did not exist. One moment, she knew nothing, the next…

She took a small breath and forced a smile into place and extended a hand to Torva. “Its good to meet you, Torva. Aether speaks very fondly of you.”

Mia stepped back, again. “Everyone has different strengths in the force, some have a better inclination for physical attributes like telekinesis, other are better with matters of the mind. Personally, I am severely lacking in capability when it comes to mental uses of the force, but I can reshape the world around me with ease.”

Her smile softened. “You’ll find yours, it just takes time, and exposure.”

Adelle Bastiel Torva Vikar