8 - Greetings and Misunderstandings
Kia lets out a cheer as the ships engines surge with the new power, driving her back into her seat. With this much power, she could punch out of the gravity well of the planet and set up a distress beacon at center of the system, the place that 99% of hyper jumps were planned to go, just to avoid the very problems that the Dawnsprinter would run into. "Great work Aasan, not sure what you did, or why you did it while we are in mid-air, but it was a stellar job." the scoundrel congratulates the scout. She rules out telling the settlement that they would be there in a few minutes, not liking being dismissed for a second time in less then half a day.
"Come on up here Aasan, take the copilot seat, we'll be there in less then 5 minutes." she tells him over the intercom. Grinning tightly, she waggles the ship a bit out of the pure joy of flying again at more then a snail's pace. This speed, this was her baby, the Dawnsprinter that she had fallen in love with. After a minute, her antics settled down, and she watched the ETA swiftly count itself down to nothing as the ship roared to a stop over the settlement and the area that Miera had told her to land in. She made a quick loop over the landing area, to make sure it was clear, and then cut power to the engines, easing her down smoothly on her repulsorlifts, till she settled softly on the ground.
Kia spent a moment smoothing out her sleeveless body sock and clipping on her gun-belt, tying the bottom of the holster to her thigh. Between the belt, the holster, and the lightsaber clipped opposite of the holster, it and the body sock did a very good job emphasizing her figure. She winked at Aasan as she hit the landing ramp control.
Aasan had rubbed his skull idly while trying not to think too hard. After returning to the cockpit, he couldn't help but admit that he wasn't even completely sure what he'd done, but it had worked, and in the end, that was all that really mattered.
Once they were down, he pulled on his own belt and holster, and checked his breath mask one last time. With a bit of a worried feeling, he stepped up to follow Kia down the ramp, simply nodding to her to lead the way down since she seemed ready to do it anyway. He'd learned a thing or two about humans in his years, but sometimes, the eagerness of the young of any species still was beyond his grasp.
***
Adrial nodded to Master Pannar and went to go rouse the other two. First she headed to Kal's quarters and found the young Sethi still asleep. She shook his bed. "Kal! Wakeup! It's almost lunch time." Without waiting for him to get moving she is heading out of his quarters as he is starting to stir. "Meet at the cooking area." Next she goes to find the new arrival, Jorran. She finds him just outside the meeting hut looking up into the sky. As Adrial is about to ask what he is looking at, she sees the ship fly over the camp. It is the first working starship she has ever seen. She starts running to the cooking area while yelling over her shoulder. "Meet at the cooking area!"
"Get up, it's almost time for lunch and Jorran is waiting for you to begin his training." Miera nudged Arias, who was sprawled out on their bed. "It's not like you to stay abed this late."
"Bah. It's also not like you to be so energetic." Arias smirked. "You try sleeping out in the wilderness for three days straight before coming home to such a vigorous welcome." He stretched, and scooted over to sit on the edge of the bed, pulling Miera down next to him.
Miera cuffed him upside his head. "Are you referring to me, or the vornskr attack? Don't answer that. Anyway, that Kia girl will have her ship here in a few hours and Orran's gotten lunch ready, so get dressed." She took his clothes from the edge of the bad and shoved them playfully in his face.
"Oh, wonderful, and I'd just gotten used to this planet." Arias dressed, making sure to secure his lightsaber to the small clip in his robes that held it in place hanging between his shoulder blades, beneath the outer cloak.
"Would you like me to send her away, instead?" Miera teased.
"Don't be fooling around, woman! You know I hate this place. It's always hot and humid, you can't stay outside the gate for more than fifteen minutes before something tries to introduce you to its digestive tract, and every day it's the exact same thing for breakfast lunch and dinner." Arias complained as he smoothed out the creases in his clothing. "I swear, the first thing I do when I get off this miserable planet is find the nicest restaurant in the galaxy and get a private booth where it's colder than Hoth in the winter season!" He paused for a moment. "Well, maybe not that cold, but still pretty damned chilly."
They stepped out of the large hut just in time to hear the Dawnsprinter shoot past overhead before coming back and hovering down to the ground not far from the fire pits.
"I thought you said she was going to be here in a few hours." Arias said.
"Well, over the comm she did sound like the typical young, impatient sort." Miera said as they headed over towards where Adrial was waiting for them...
"Traits that I'm willing to ignore if she can get us off this rock." Arias smiled broadly.
***
The landing ramp of the Dawnsprinter touched down smoothly, letting a rush of hot, humid air into the climate-controlled starship interior. Kia and Aasan descended down the ramp into the center of the village, where they were greeted by three figures.
A tall, handsome man with a well-trimmed brown beard stopped several paces in front of Aasan and Kia. To his left was a very short black-haired woman, and on his right, an attractive woman of average height with amber hair. Both women wore lightsabers at their sides, though the man appeared unarmed.
"We had expected you a bit later, Kia. Lucky for you, you've arrived just in time for lunch." The woman said with a smile.
Kia allows the motion of the lowering ramp to carry her to the ground, not even the jolt of the ramp coming to a stop fully extended made her lose her balance. The former academy candidate smirked down at the group gathered to meet her and Aasan. She tossed her head and her red hair settles back around her shoulders, it was the kind of personal motion that could get very annoying very quickly if repeated. Kia smiled and stepped off the ramp, her hand traveling to her lightsaber when she sees the two women wearing their own sabers. "I guess you weren't kidding about being force sensitive," Kia jokes, looking at the older of the women.
She extends a hand to Arias "Kia Obscura, Captain of the Dawnsprinter, now lets see what we can do to get us off of this wonderful planet you've discovered." She brushes the white lock of hair over her temple up and behind her ear to keep it from her face. Standing a step from the landing ramp of her ship in a skin tight body sock, with a hand on her light saber, she looks every bit like a heroine from some insipid romance holo-drama.
Jorran chuckled when he saw a dent on the front of the Dawnsprinter--with bits of russet-brown paint in it.
"I thought I had seen the last of the Umber Dart when it exploded in orbit, but you brought some of its paint with you just to cheer me up."
He seemed to notice Kia finally.
"You seem a little young to be ramming older mens' ships out of the sky...but you made it here just fine, which is more than I could have done at your age.
He grinned.
Adrial is speechless. She never really imagined she would ever see a working starship and now here one set before her. She stands and waits beside Master Pannar trying to remain cautious. But inside she is jumping up and down.
Miera was just about to speak when she noticed something oddly humorous.
The red Twi’lek child had shown up and was tugging on Aasan's pant leg. "'Scuse me mister space man. What's tha' thing stuck on your face? D'you need help gettin' it off?"
Miera covered her face halfway with her hand, not sure whether to laugh or apologize.
Aasan smiled under the breath mask, his attention suddenly drawn away from the others (and the lightsabers). With a slight grunt, he knelt down and rested a hand gently on the child's small shoulder, "I require it to breathe, little one. Believe me, I would take it off if I could."
He didn't get up, though, and instead simply looked up to Miera, "I am assuming you are the one on the comm, yes? I am glad there is a settlement here...wherever here is. Though, I must admit, I have not seen so many lightsabers in nearly thirty years."
At the mention of not being expected so early, and the mention of lunch, the force sensitive girl just shrugs, "Aasan is a tech wiz, he got Dawnsprinter up from 2% to 100% sub light while we were in the air. Look, I don't have enough for everyone to make it a habit, but I have enough meals for everyone to have a one, well, maybe not if you came here on a Star Destroyer, but anything smaller, and I should have you covered. Climate control too, if you want to get out of the heat and humidity for a bit to talk about what you offered earlier..." she says the last more hesitantly, the Sethi Master might be able tell that it came from what she had said about Jedi Hunters.
"That won't be necessary, Kia. We already have a meal prepared, and the climate isn't so bad once you've gotten used to it. And yes, Aasan, I am the one you heard over the comm." She gestures towards a semicircle of wooden benches near the fire pits. "Please, sit. We have much to discuss, but first, we should have some food."
Kal was startled out of bed as the Dawnsprinter shot past overhead. He hurriedly donned his robes, and just remembered the grab his lightsaber before dashing out of the hut. To his surprise, everyone was gathered near the fire pit and a large metal...thing, and seemed to be having lunch. Kal quickly took a seat, hoping that his teachers wouldn't notice his tardiness.
Kal’s muscles still ached from the last day’s exertions. How could he fall asleep while the most exiting events in his life happened? Strangers! A spaceship! Finally a way out of that little jungle planet and to the Galaxy!!
"I'm not planning on being here long enough to get used to the climate." Kia said with a youthful smirk of impetuousness. She allowed herself to be led to a seat by the obvious leaders of the group, Miera and the bearded man. She didn't accept any of the food from the group, simply ate a meal of roast nerf in naranji sauce with noodles, and then broke the desert bar that was with the meal into pieces and offered the sweet fruit bar to the children, especially the red skinned Twi’lek child.
Kal strode deep in thought to the fire pit. Then he realized that everyone was there, and that he was almost the LAST person on the village to join them. Blushing he greeted his masters, friends, and the strangers. Wow! That redhead was HOT! but she seemed... what? 22?? a LOT older... Kal tried not to stare.
"What’s wrong kid, never seen a girl in an outfit like this before?" the youthful pilot asks Kal, teasing lightly, at the flush in his cheeks. "Do you have any parts available from your ship? I got here from a blind hyper jump, just ahead of a flight of headhunters. I bounced to close to a star and my hyper-drive was slagged. Between your ship, if it still exists, and Jorran’s, if I can find it in orbit, hopefully we can get a hyperdrive functional enough to get us to Coruscant, and then we can get relief ships out here to you here."
Kal's father, Nikama, patted an empty spot on the bench next to himself. He sat not far from the Sethi, as his technological expertise would be needed. Seeing his reaction to Kia, he gave his son a quick wink and an indiscernible hand signal that looked like he was tracing the sides of an hourglass. Kal noticed that Arias gave him a similar wink, but quickly turned his attention to Nikama.
Nikama responded to Kia's enquiry concerning the hyperdrive. "Actually, we scavenged what we could from our crashed transport a long time ago. Hull plating, wiring, power sources, systems, we took them all and made them into things that were actually useful. You see, when our ship crashed here about thirty years ago the only systems that were still functional were the engines, but our repulsorlifts and life support were completely shot. There was no way we could repair them, so we were stranded. The only thing we didn't scrap was the hyperdrive, since our transport was a very old model that used highly radioactive isotope fuel rods to power the initial boost to light speed. The separatists wouldn't let us have anything more advanced, the bastards. If we broke that open, well...it would not be a good thing, to put it mildly. I don't know if it would be compatible with your ship's systems as they are, but between the three of us," He indicated himself, Aasan, and Kia. "we might be able to jury-rig a solution. If not, we could try checking Jorran's ship if it's still intact, but that's a remote possibility, judging from the dent in your ship's hull." Nikama waved towards the bearded man who sat next to Miera, and dug into his food.
The bearded man cleared his throat. "You're already acquainted with my wife Miera, so I'll introduce the rest of us. I am Arias, these two are Adrial and Kal, our most advanced students, and this is Nikama, our resident technician, also Kal's father." Arias said, indicating them each in turn. "As you probably suspect from the lightsabers, Miera and I along with Kal, Adrial, and our newest student Jorran, are practitioners of the force. And before you ask, no, we aren't Jedi. If we get your ship up and running, we will of course get off this planet, but we are not going to go about advertising the location of this planet to the rest of the galaxy. Although this is a very dangerous planet, it is more important than you realize."
Kia nods smiling at the introduction to the 30-something force apprentice, and then at the teenage one. "How long is your training?" Kia asks Arias, her eyebrow going up at the 30something woman being called an apprentice. When she is told that there would be no mention of the location of the planet once the survivors are evacuated, Kia's suspicious nature kicked into over-drive. All cops were suspicious people, and being surrounded by them growing up had shaped Kia as well. "What is so special about this place? The lovely animals? The wonderful climate?" she asks jokingly.
Arias took a long draught of water and pondered Kia's question for a moment before answering. "The initial training is not long, but our training never truly ends. If one has the capacity to feel the force, it takes but a short time spent training for them to be able to find some measure of control. From then on, it is a matter of strengthening those abilities. Depending on the focus of one's abilities, the methods of strengthening those abilities differs.
Considering the state of the galaxy, I find it odd that you carry a lightsaber, and that I feel a measure of control of the force in you. You could not have been trained as a Jedi. Just as well, considering how poorly the Jedi trained their students in retrospect. A significant factor in their demise, I imagine.
The significance of this planet is not in anything mundane, but that the force has an abnormally strong presence here. Nearly all of the wildlife seems to have some ability to feel the Force, and the planet itself seems to be trying to hide from the rest of the galaxy. I suspect this is why the system is uncharted as of yet. What's more, there are many areas within a day's walk of this settlement alone that are extremely powerful focus points within the Force. There is even a cave nearby where one can find crystals of extraordinary power, which are perfect focuses for lightsabers. So you see, this planet is the perfect training ground for our order, hostile though it may be."
"Carrying Lightsabers is coming back in fashion, during the purge with Vader and Palpatine hunting down and slaughtering anyone with links to the Jedi, carrying a Lightsaber was a suicidal death wish, anyone and everyone would be gunning for you to curry favor with the Imps. After Luke Skywalker slew Vader and the Emperor and was declared a Jedi night a few years ago, wearing them is back in-style among the rich, some people even wear it if they are afraid to carry a blaster. I wear this because I liberated it from an Imperial Collaborator who was holding out from the Emperor, and because my family and friends were purged by the Empire just like the Jedi were." Kia says defensively, narrowing her eyes at Arias.
"Lightsabers are the weapons of Jedi, if you think they are so incompetent and everything, why are you using their weapons?" Kia shakes her head, sounding a tad offended, despite the Empire's attempts at spin, she still thought of the Jedi as the guys wearing the proverbial white hat, and even if that wasn't her path, she had been raised to respect people who put the lives of others before their own. "Look, lets just get my ship fixed, then I can get you to Coruscant or wherever refugees go and get what you need to start over somewhere on some nice boring planet like Dantooine, and we can go our separate ways."
Arias looked at Kia, unmoved by her glare.
"You exaggerate my comments. The Jedi were noble, this is true, but they were not without fault. I did not suggest that they themselves were incompetent, only their methods. I said that the Jedi were poorly trained because the very code that they followed and glorified was their very weakness. A Jedi was taught to only become as powerful as was necessary to protect the weak. Centuries of relative peace made them complacent, and when a real conflict found them, they were unprepared and were destroyed.
Miera and I were Jedi once. We helped maintain peace in the galaxy for a time, and served the Republic with distinction in the Clone Wars. Yet we were looked down upon by our own order. Unlike our brethren, we did not limit ourselves in our training and did not forsake our emotions. Because of this, we were able to find love with one another, and the fleets and armies under our command never lost a system to 'the enemy'.
You speak of history, but do you truly understand what you speak of? Unlike the rest of the Jedi, who blindly followed the council, which blindly followed the Supreme Chancellor, I questioned this 'grand crusade' our order was on. I examined past events, and the course of the war, and eventually found that the entire war was the last step in a grand, elaborate plan to overthrow the Republic. But by the time we realized Palpatine's plot, it could not be stopped. Even if we were to reveal our findings to the Jedi Council, they would never believe us. We had disobeyed their mandates and found love and strength outside of their restrictions, and even though we remained loyal to the Jedi, we were scorned.
The individual Jedi was strong, but as a whole, the Order was fragile. Because of their self-imposed limits, they could not foresee or prevent their downfall until it was too late. The thousands of Jedi were destroyed not by an army or a great fleet, but by
one man. Noble though they were, their nobility was no shield against their demise.
A lightsaber is simply a weapon. Nothing more, nothing less. It is the warrior who wields it that gives it worth, not the weapon itself. I carry one because a lightsaber is a powerful weapon with which I have significant skill. If they are tools of the Jedi as you say, why do you carry one? Would you disgrace the memory of those who fought in died in your defense by wielding one of their 'sacred' weapons?"
Arias turned to Aasan. "What of you? You fought along side a Jedi. You were present throughout the whole ordeal of the Jedi Order's destruction. What is your take on what happened?"
Arias looked at Kia, unmoved by her glare.
"You exaggerate my comments. The Jedi were noble, this is true, but they were not without fault. I did not suggest that they themselves were incompetent, only their methods. I said that the Jedi were poorly trained because the very code that they followed and glorified was their very weakness. A Jedi was taught to only become as powerful as was necessary to protect the weak. Centuries of relative peace made them complacent, and when a real conflict found them, they were unprepared and were destroyed.
Miera and I were Jedi once. We helped maintain peace in the galaxy for a time, and served the Republic with distinction in the Clone Wars. Yet we were looked down upon by our own order. Unlike our brethren, we did not limit ourselves in our training and did not forsake our emotions. Because of this, we were able to find love with one another, and the fleets and armies under our command never lost a system to 'the enemy'.
You speak of history, but do you truly understand what you speak of? Unlike the rest of the Jedi, who blindly followed the council, which blindly followed the Supreme Chancellor, I questioned this 'grand crusade' our order was on. I examined past events, and the course of the war, and eventually found that the entire war was the last step in a grand, elaborate plan to overthrow the Republic. But by the time we realized Palpatine's plot, it could not be stopped. Even if we were to reveal our findings to the Jedi Council, they would never believe us. We had disobeyed their mandates and found love and strength outside of their restrictions, and even though we remained loyal to the Jedi, we were scorned.
The individual Jedi was strong, but as a whole, the Order was fragile. Because of their self-imposed limits, they could not foresee or prevent their downfall until it was too late. The thousands of Jedi were destroyed not by an army or a great fleet, but by
one man. Noble though they were, their nobility was no shield against their demise.
A lightsaber is simply a weapon. Nothing more, nothing less. It is the warrior who wields it that gives it worth, not the weapon itself. I carry one because a lightsaber is a powerful weapon with which I have significant skill. If they are tools of the Jedi as you say, why do you carry one? Would you disgrace the memory of those who fought in died in your defense by wielding one of their 'sacred' weapons?"
Arias turned to Aasan. "What of you? You fought along side a Jedi. You were present throughout the whole ordeal of the Jedi Order's destruction. What is your take on what happened?"
Aasan had done his best to restrain himself and keep himself quiet. He would not eat or drink, but that did not mean he couldn't just sit there quietly, even if he was getting angry. But when he was directly addressed, everything went right out the view port.
A critical look in his eyes(though they couldn't be seen directly), he leaned forward and pointed to Arias with a single finger, "Arrogant and thick headed Jedi who thought they knew what was best for the galaxy while ignoring their duties and teachings were what caused the entire Order to fall. It wasn't Palpatine. It was Jedi who thought they knew better than the entire Council. It was arrogance and childishness," he paused, a slight hiss sounding through his breath mask as he exhaled, "It was Jedi like you, focused on glory and victory, and so sure of themselves that they ignore the combined wisdom of the greatest Jedi to do what you thought was best, more than what really mattered, that destroyed the Jedi."
"You could have tried to tell them, tried to help them escape being hunted. You got your wish, the Jedi are all gone, and a single Jedi Knight is going to try to rebuild the order. If you had problems with policy, well here's your chance, rebuild the Jedi with him, I doubt much information survived the purge, he'd probably love all the help you can give him. So long as the ideals stay the same, I doubt policies will matter much, I mean, things that worked before wont work now, new ways will probably need to be found." Kia says solemnly.
"I keep this saber, I use it, because I agree with what the Jedi stood for, I was on a parallel, if force-free, path, before CorSec was destroyed by the remnants of the Empire. We were dedicated to putting our needs behind those of others that needed help, protecting the weak and the helpless, upholding justice and law. I keep it because I don't trust the use to which someone who does not agree with those precepts would put it to. It may sound foolish, but I keep it, because deep down, I want to make sure that the Jedi don't simply disappear, I want to make sure that they are reborn, whether I help someone do it, or have to fumble through it myself, because those are important things that the galaxy should not lose." Kia says, putting a lot of feeling behind her words, she truly did believe them in the center of her being, and she felt guilt at the thought of having not lived up to the honor of them for the last few years as she drifted from system to system. She had helped out a bit, here and there, but overall, she had fallen into a selfish spiral of despair, and turned her back on what she had hoped to be. I will do better, guilt wont help, needed to come here, I needed to feel all of that, it only makes me more sure of what I have to do, she vowed to herself.
"Once we are away from here, I will be doing what I can to help Skywalker, if he'll have me, the New Republic is in its infancy, and I am sure that it will need all the help it can get." she told the others simply. "Even if I don't know everything about the force, using what I do know to help those in need cannot be wrong. The worst thing the Empire did was not simply destroying the Jedi, it was in vilifying them, making them feared."
"Focused on glory and victory, were we? Arrogant? It was by our negligence that the Jedi were destroyed? Strong accusations. Or are they simply the words of someone who holds himself responsible for not being able to prevent the destruction of that which he cherished, and desires a scapegoat on whom to lay the blame?" Arias said calmly to Aasan. "The fall of the Jedi rests on the shoulders of Palpatine alone."
"Please, try not to be offended, Aasan. If the blame is to be laid on anyone, it falls to those who acted with malice and hate, and actively sought the fall of the Jedi and the Republic." Miera said. "It is good that you understand that the Jedi are needed in the Galaxy, Kia. We intend to meet this Luke Skywalker fellow, and perhaps aid him in rebuilding the order. The New Republic will need the Jedi again, perhaps it will not rely as heavily on them as the Old Republic did.
We will help you repair your ship, of course, but that will take time. It would be a shame if we were to spend that time on ill terms." She looked around her as she spoke, with her eyes resting on Aasan with the last words.
Kia finishes her noodles and then presses the final button on the packaging of the meal that breaks the trash down into ashes. "I don't know that calling Skywalker's teachers names will endear you to him. Let’s just get the repairs over with and go from there. If you want to point out anything about the force while we work, I'll keep an ear out, but my main goal is getting off this rock." she says, dusting her hands off, and then standing.
"I would love some pointers on using a light saber though, or just about what is possible with the force. I've figured out the best known Jedi tricks, I mean, the mind trick thing I can do, and the moving things. I don't really know anything else, the Jedi hunters were too good at getting rid of stories and people passing on information."
"You wish to know what is possible with the force?" Miera asked Kia. "Anything is possible. What we can do through the force, however, is limited by the effort we put into expanding our abilities. I'll give you a simple, tangible demonstration through contrast for now. Adrial, levitate that stone if you would." Miera pointed to one of the sizable rocks which lined the outer ring of one of the nearby fire pits.
"Of course, Master Miera." Adrial smiled. She always enjoyed practicing her abilities. Here she had an opportunity to both show her progress to Miera, and to show off to the new arrivals. Adrial focused on the rock which had been pointed out to her and concentrated. The stone was not very large, being roughly twenty five kilograms at the most. It rose off of the ground slowly, and then floated over towards Adrial at the speed of a brisk walk to settle down on the ground in front of her. Miera smiled approvingly at her.
"Adrial has been training for eleven years. Normally we would start the training at around the age of four or five years, but she came to us late. Her skill is representative of her time spent training, not her age. Now, observe your ship."
Miera waited until Kia was looking at her ship, and then concentrated on the Dawnsprinter. The massive Corellian Transport was still, and then suddenly, it shot up into the air at incredible speed. It rose above the wall surrounding the settlement, and then sped around the perimeter at more than one hundred twenty kilometers per hour before coming back to rest right where it had been sitting a moment before.
Miera observed the shocked and slightly annoyed expression on Kia's face. "I have been training in the use of the force for approximately forty eight years. The ability to move physical objects is one of the skills I specialize in. But there are other, less observable applications." Although still stunned by the earlier display, Kia is slightly confused. Miera said she had spent nearly fifty years training in the Force, yet she doesn't look a day older than thirty.
Aasan watched the little demonstration and sighed, which came out sounding scratchy through the breath mask. Idly, he took a step next to Kia and said quietly, "Do not let their flashy displays cloud your judgment. I have seen many more elaborate displays of strength in the Force, but I learned quickly that it is restraint that proves to be the real power. I have a bad feeling about these...people."
He does his best to stand there looking as polite as possible. That is, thankfully, not too hard when his eyes and mouth are concealed, but it was keeping his mind calm that was the tricky part. One didn't have to be a Jedi to have strong control, but it had been years since he'd really thought about it.
"My ship isn't a toy, at the moment it’s our only chance of getting off the planet." Kia mutters grumpily. She reaches out with the force to grab that same stone that Adrial had lifted, and without any real strain, does the same that Adrial had done, moving it to herself instead of the short woman. "Like I said, I know how to move things, a starship is a bit out of my class at the moment, but with a bit more work I should be able to move heavier stuff without too much effort." Kia said looking pleased with herself at learning on her own in a month or two what it took Adrial 11 years of training to do.
"So you want to learn how to use your lightsaber properly, do you?" Arias asked Kia. "Luckily for you, I was planning on evaluating Jorran's proficiency with his own today. You might as well observe, perhaps you will learn a thing or two." Arias stood up and walked to a spot not far from the rest of them, but with a good deal of space to move about. He took off his cloak and tossed it to Kal, with just a touch of the force helping it get over to him. "Come on, Jorran. Let's see just how skilled you are in lightsaber combat." Arias flicked his wrist, and his double bladed lightsaber shot from its resting place on his back into his right hand, where a single white blade sprang to life with a snap-
hiss.
When Arias threw off his cloak and lit his saber, Kia grinned, and seated herself on a bench. Her green eyes darted, following every movement, wanting to be that fluid and agile herself with her own blade.
Jorran pulled his own saber from his belt--by hand--and ignited it.
"It's been a while," he said, whirling the blade around in a simple flourish. He proceeded to put his left foot forward and hold his saber in a high, attack-oriented stance. "I take it you--errr, we--Sethi follow the traditional rules for sparring?
Standing ready, all of the signs of his age seemed to disappear; he may as well have been twenty years younger.
"Rules only weaken the lessons learned from sparring." Arias raised the blade in front of his eyes in a salute, illuminating his face. "In combat, there are no rules, only the victorious and the vanquished." He held the white blade off to his side. "Now come at me."
No rules? Kia mouthed confused...did he really mean that? It was dangerous, not having rules, it wasn't fair either, Jorran wasn't a master like Arias, or at least it didn't sound that way, and no rules sounded like a good way to get someone hurt. "No rules doesn't sound very safe." she says to Miera questioningly, wanting the woman to tell her she had heard wrong. Kia's hand rested on her own lightsaber, ready to spring in to help Jorran if it looked like he needed it, even if he was better then she, and Arias was every bit as good as his confidence made him seem.