Unshackled Identity

[Darth Ophidia]

Location: Unknown.
Underground.

All who trained under the Pale were instructed in one particular art: The art of stealth. This was not tradition for its own arbitrary sake, but the passing on of an essential skill that was all too often forgotten. To walk unseen was useful to all and anyone who wished to succeed, from the most blatant warrior, to the cunningest of assassins. These rudimentary elements of going unseen by aid of the Force were paramount to anyone who wished to succeed, and for an apprentice to Darth Ophidia, there was only success or death.

There was silence between them; the bald woman with the ashen skin and the blue haired beast. The Sith Lord opened her burning eyes, setting her gaze on Evaelyn's face. They did not waver, nor did she blink; instead, the eyes remained still, dead, like creatures that lived in the depths of oceans.

"You have performed well, I am most pleased."

There was no hint of a smile on her lips, but her voice appeared genuine. She wet her purple lips with the tip of a cleft tongue. With a deft hand, she picked up the cup in front of her and drank from it. This time, it contained nothing but cold water.

"Tell me, what have you learned so far?"

Their surroundings were warm, though there was no apparent source of light. Nor did there appear to be an entrance or exit. The only visible light came from a lamp set on the table between them. The memories from before this moment ought to be hazy, how had Evaelyn come to this place? And when?

Across her, the Pale Assassin sat as though she had been invited to a dinner party.

"You must be thirsty. Drink."

Now the smile appeared. It teased of dark things to come, secrets to be whispered into the ears of the worthy, and lies to those who failed her. What was in the drink? Only cold clear water, of course.

[member="Evaelyn Zambrano"]

 

[Evaelyn Zambrano]

[member="Darth Ophidia"]

Slowly Evaleyn came to. Her vision was blurred and her head ached. The latter seemed to vanish slowly as she regained consciousness. With a groan, the blue-haired Zambrano gal announced her being awake. The first thing her eyes could make out was Ophidia. She couldn't even be mad about. The Pale operated in mysterious ways, and who was she to question her? Most of the time she didn't seem to want her dead, but rather give her the opportunity to grow. Of course if she didn't, she would die... But when had Evaelyn ever backed down from a challenge just because failure promised death?

"Do you drug out everyone you're pleased with?" Elyn muttered as a hand rubbed the back of her head. She was taking more liberties now that she had become a bit more familiar with Ophidia, but she avoided mocking her and making too many jokes. She knew her place, or so she thought. If she wasn't pleased, the drug would've done more than make her sleep.

Elyn was thinking on what she had learned when offered a drink. It made her laugh, a brief laughter without mirth that died quickly. "More drugs?" Although she found it hard to believe Ophidia would have brought her here to poison her. If she wished to kill her, this would not be how. If it was poison, then this was another test which meant there was a lesson to be learned and a way to survive. Kark odds, kark traps, kark death. Time to chug.

"I've learned not to drink what I'm offered without seeing it prepared" she said with a little smirk as she raised the glass in a cheers, then ironically drank it. Her mind was on high alert, smirks aside, with the Force as her aid quickly scanning her system to see if anything was out of order. Increase or decrease of breath, heart rate, sudden heat, pain, or a spreading invasion of toxins. If Ophidia was monitoring, which no doubt she was, hopefully she would be pleased with having eradicated the girl's nativity and sense of invincibility, to a degree.

"Let's see, what else..." again, she thought, while multitasking just in case the poison was a slow-working one. "To kill more efficiently. When not to kill. How to cover my tracks after the kill. How to mask the fact that the kill is even coming. A more refined control over the Force" although she was still in many ways an untamed beast in this regard "Suppose my lightsaber skill has become more on point too." although they had done little practice with the latter, Ophidia has done well in making sure Elyn found herself in situations where her skills would not grow rusty. "Did I miss anything, 'Your Whiteness'?"

 

[Darth Ophidia]

There was a wide gap between the taking of liberties and outright disrespect. Unlike her younger self, Darth Ophidia knew the value of patience, especially when dealing with a person of Evaelyn's sort. Of course, this did not mean she would ever go easy on the girl. The Vahlacanthix constantly balanced on a knife's edge between humour and a savage beating.

"Only the ones I am pleased with wake up again. You should be thankful."

Not drinking a liquid she had not seen be prepared was probably the wiser choice. However, in this incident, it was just cool, refreshing water. Ophidia took a sip from her own cup and set it down while listening to Evaelyn's retelling of their lessons. She had not come as far with this one as she had wished, yet Evaelyn had performed well.

Lightsabre combat had come a long way through sheer practice, the time she was formally trained in the use of plasma blades was nigh, yet it was not just yet. A plan had been made, a girl brought to a place most sacred to Ophidia's shadowed ways.

"No, I think not. You have passed the most rudimentary assignments and applied it adequately in the field. That is why I will teach you something of the out most importance today."

The moment of silence that followed her words built suspense, her hands folded in her lap. She looked down for a second, narrowing her eyes to the point of almost blinking, but did not. There was a stark seriousness in her eyes when she looked back up at the blue haired girl.

"Do you trust me, Evaelyn?"

The bald woman rose to her feet and extended an inky black hand towards Evaelyn. Its skin was scarred, riddled with little ridges and lines, like a poorly put-together jigsaw puzzle.

[member="Evaelyn Zambrano"]

 

[Evaelyn Zambrano]

[member="Darth Ophidia"]

"Then consider me a ball of gratitude." she said drily, still balancing on the edge of humour and savage beatings. "Water's good." she added, before the bottom of the glass hit the table. Even though Ophidia said that it was just water she couldn't be sure, and ran scans through her body with the aid of the Force to see if she could pick up on anything... Nothing. Phew.

"Thanks-" she was about to add a sarcastic comment, but she refrained. Ophidia saying she had performed 'adequately' might sound tame to the ears of an eager student, a bill she agreeably did not fit, but Elyn knew the pale lady was not one to give praise without reason. To be adequate in the eyes of Ophidia was very promising indeed. The only thing that had kept her from making a joke about it was the next thing she had said... Learning something new, of importance.

She was watching careful, tense, even a little excited. But then... More riddles. Ugh. She nearly sank in her chair. It was never easy and straight-forward, was it? "Is that a trick question? One of those 'you shouldn't trust anyone that's not yourself, because only you have your own interests at heart'?" Indeed, sometimes Elyn too did listen.

"I trust you to want me to improve. Because I can be useful to you. So yes, in this I'll trust you." of course Ophidia wasn't above testing her in life-threatning ways to gauge her worth. This was because Ophidia had her own interests as a priority, not Evaelyn. But that did not mean she could not benefit, provided she could stay alive long enough.

 

[Darth Ophidia]

"Good choice."

She took Evaelyn's hand, raising her up to her feet with more strength than one would have guessed from such a slender figure as Ophidia. Evaelyn could perhaps feel the gentle, but unyielding grip of her hand. The ashen-skinned woman was deceptively strong.

The blue beast had of course been right; she should not trust anyone, and in most cases she should not trust Ophidia. However, she could rely on the Pale's desire to refine her and make her something great on ground of her usefulness. In other words, they had an accord of mutual profit.

Truthfully, trust nothing to do with it.

"Close your eyes and reach into the Force. Feel it."

Ophidia's eyes did not close, but she did dip into the Force herself in demonstration. Her free hand -Ashen skinned with long, elegant fingers- gestured in the air as though running through a stream of water or plucking the strings of an invisible harp. To her, it trailed through a semi-tangible veil of the force. She could feel its texture under her fingertips, folding under her command.

Evaelyn was hopefully not such a novice to the Force that she could not slip into this state of sensing. If she was, then the road would suddenly have stretched.

"Can you find yourself in it?"

It was almost like finding one's own shadow while looking at the sun. In the natural state, one's presence in the Force was always in the periphery of one's eye. Turning from this limited perception to a full awareness of one's own presence was a skill to learn, and a vital step in learning how to shroud said presence in the Force.

Easy? No, but vital.

[member="Evaelyn Zambrano"]