As a Youth, be Self-Disciplined

[Epistor of Phasekion]

Location ~ Silver Rest, Epistor’s Dormitory
~~~

~~~
Epistor sat on her bed in her tunic, sans her breastplate, gauntlets, and sandals, the first two laying ready to be donned at her feet. She had drawn them up onto her neatly made mattress to drape her arms over her knees that were bent into her chest. One hand propped up her chin; the other held her nova-shaped, golden holoprojector. From it projected the translucent blue figure of an older woman.

“Far thee well, my daughter. May Daphis always be willing to show you the way.”

“I will, Mother,” she whispered to herself as the recording ended and the hologram flickered out. She missed her whole family terribly already, but Jestrista the most of all. But she had a few of her things and she had her gods, and both offered her some of the homely comforts that she could not find in the hospitality that she had found here at the Temple.

Sighing heavily, Epistor got up and clipped her projecter back onto her belt. Her dagger and lightsaber hilt followed it, and then her armored top. She had yet to find a crystal, or many of the internal workings, for her blade, but she had brought along the hilt she wanted to use. Before leaving Sargus Novis, one of the last things that she packed was the ornate, alumnabronze hilt which her father had detached from their family's heirloom. The sword itself was ancient--rusted and barely usable but as a barbarian’s butter knife--but its handle persisted. So far, she had carefully hollowed parts of it out in preparation of finding the parts necessary to breathe new life into the old weapon.

~ [member=”Jyoti Nooran”] ~

 

[Eugen Aker]

Sometime later:

A single Liberté corvette touched down amid a blizzard that raged across the region. The first starship to pass through the area in a while. Once under the watch of the Iron Empire, the planet had been abandoned once more as the IE crumbled in a sudden unfortunate downturn. With much more plentiful sources for Kyber crystals these days, few seemed to frequent Ilum aside from the odd research team, and pilgriming Jedi.

Such was the case for Jyoti and her newest apprentice Epistor, on the hunt for new crystals for an incomplete saber.

"This storm is pretty bad," Jyoti noted as she studied readouts from her console. "Just our luck, it's normally so calm out here. So what do you say, try to wait it out, or trudge through right now?"

Jyoti was fine moving now or later, not much bothered by the cold as she could manipulate the temperature around her with great precision. The same couldn't quite be said for Epistor, Jyoti still in the process of assessing her new student's abilities.

[member="Epistor"]

 

[Epistor of Phasekion]

Epistor glanced over her Master's shoulder to examine the weather readouts herself. She also noted Jyoti's nonchalant attitude about the storm: wait out the blizzard, or brave it. She had read up as much about the Force as she could in the time before they left the Temple, and had learned about its wide-ranging applicability, so she was assuming that there existed some sort of practice in which one could return to homeostasis in extreme conditions such as the one currently outside.

It was true; Epistor had no knowledge of how to do such a thing. Still, she tightened the tie cords on her cape, the fur collar pulling tighter around her neck, and gave Master Nooran a wary smile. "That is alright. Let me have trial by fire...er, by snow."

~ [member="Jyoti Nooran"] ~

 

[Eugen Aker]

Jyoti, nodded, personally preferring to weather the storm. She learned a little more about Epistor then, more adventurous than cautious. That was good, Jyoti wasn't one of those masters that hung around the temple very often. Soon she would be pulling Epistor along with her on missions, OJT the best form of training in her view.

"Fine by me, but first I want to show you something before we head out."

She unbuckled herself from her seat, then motioned for Epistor to follow her to the lounge for a bit of spot training.

"Whether you know it or not, I'd like to go over my technique for keeping warm through the Force. Some people like to use Tapas, which is drawing directly upon Force energies to keep the core body temperature up, but that still leaves the wielder vulnerable to the direct influence of the cold. I found what I think is a better way, focusing the Force around you to create a very light barrier that traps a pocket of warmed air around you as a thermal insulator. Rather than fighting against the cold, you're blocking it from affecting your bodily functions in the first place."

She held out her hand, creating a small spherical barrier in her hand as an example. Invisible to the naked eye, but able to be easily perceived in the Force. Providing an example of what to shoot for.

"Give it a try like me?"

[member="Epistor"]

 

[Epistor of Phasekion]

Epistor picked up on her new Master's intention right away, and followed her out of the ship's cockpit and into the lounge area. But, when Jyoti began to explain--and then demonstrate--this Force power, she looked very much less confident. Her brow knit and her head cocked slightly to one side, as much doing her best to understand the communicated concept as trying to keep together her nerves that threatened to fray. Just the suggestion of trying to tap back into a power she could barely control made her heart beat steadily faster in fear.

She did not want Master Nooran to know, though Epistor was not so naive as to think that the reality remained a secret from the Echani. No vocal admittance had to be uttered; with the Force, one could tell.

Slowly and a little shakily, the padawan too extended out her hand. She then closed her eyes and focused on her open palm. With a single, deep sigh, Epistor reached out in much the same way metaphysically, into the roaring rapids that was her untamed connection with the Force. She only needed to borrow a little, but the current might still carry her away if she did not go about this with care.

It is now or never, she thought, finally choosing to think of her performance now as a discus-throwing tournament. In the Great Games, there was always an equally great audience, but any serious athlete quickly learned to ignore it. Feelings of nervousness always led to fear to malpractice, and fear of it led to a bad performance--almost without fail.

And, like that, Epistor was able to mold a small, balled barricade similar to her Master's.

~ [member="Jyoti Nooran"] ~