Private Hard Lessons

[Avalore]

Books were only as entertaining as the person she could discuss them with. The pages read like one sided conversations, and they often left Avalore with more questions than not. It did not matter how inquisitive or fast reading Ashin had enabled her to be, there was the brutal fact that Avalore simply hadn't been educated. Starting from the middle when it should have been ground up was showing its strain.

After weeks of trying to learn, absorb, and apply she hit a point of pure frustration.

She could read and read the whole universe, but regurgitation did not breed comprehension. Maybe this was why the woman had refused to use the force to make her learn. All she could do now was keep applying herself.

Today the enthusiasm had melted away. Left alone with the instructions to study and apply, Avalore found the house to be a cold and lonely place.

The books were not opened. The library was left closed. For the first time her curiosity turned to the rooms beyond her study hall. The ones she had been told to stay out of.

What Ashin didn't know, wouldn't hurt her. Right?

 

[Noelle Varanin]

Noelle found purpose in the direction her mother had given her. From the outside in she could see how almost ridiculous it looked-- going from reclusive and mourning to chasing after the location of a damn chair.

She might have suspected Ashin of just giving her the task to 'fix her', but her mother was far too practical for that. If she was chasing after smoke, then so was everyone else in this household.

Well, everyone besides the girl.

What she had to do with anything was still up for questioning. Her mother hadn't told her all of her plans yet, but today that wasn't her concern. While Ashin was fussed with restoring one Varanin, Noelle was set on not losing another. It all started with some alchemy and holocron whose texts were far beyond her level.

Her silk slippers padded through the hall, her thoughts swirling around the possible difficulties of her task.

 

[Avalore]

The tall oak doors were baffling when Avalore really thought about it. And the floors-- the amount of effort it must have taken to carve all that smooth, continuous rock.

She hadn't really paid attention to the house before. Big deal-- they used really big trees to make doors! She was learning magic.

Well.

Guess she couldn't really call it that anymore, now that she understood what it really was. Still, with her attention waning from her studies, the wealth of the family home brought goosebumps to arms. An easy wave of tapas warmed her against the chill, her eyes falling across the marble to the large pains of glass. Near floor to ceiling windows... Did they understand how truly impressive that was?

Her roots were showing, but alone in that hall, she didn't feel compelled to hide her awe. She turned from the wintery wonderland beyond the glass and pushed into the set of doors on her right.

Ashin's workspace.

What, she wasn't gonna touch anything!

 

[Noelle Varanin]

Noelle was absolutely going to touch things-- in fact she was on her way to her mother's space to take things when she came across the opened door. Her eyes narrowed, a mental pulse informing her of the occupant before her next step touched the ground.

Why did that not surprise her?

Her already soft steps fell silent, the silk drawing no noise across the ground as she pressed herself into the doorframe. She peered around it, her breath held tight.

The girl's back was found by Ashin's desk, her sticky fingers running over papers and cracking into draws.

What a foolish thing, came the biting thought, the echani surging forward with a sharp comment.

"I would think twice about stealing from a Sith Lord."

 

[Avalore]

Avalore gasped, her hand jolting off the poison box as if it had jumped to life and bit her.

Which truth be told, she was expecting. "I-uh-" she sputtered, twirling around and bracing against the forbidden desk. It was not Ashin that stood before her, but the daughter. Noelle was an enigma to Avalore. In all her time in the household she found the girl to be equally frightening and all the more intimidating with all her smoldering glares.

The woman looked at her with all the softness of a viper pit. Chit.

"I wasn't stealing. Ashin told me to practice! She has my thing in here." She side stepped from the desk, gesturing to the small training box she had been curiously oogling.

 

[Noelle Varanin]

Noelle read the lie written across the lines in the girl's forehead.

Her features remained smooth, not belaying the knowledge as she called her bluff. "Is that so? The tonkutaji? Oh you must be very far advanced for her to already be training you on it." A spark a satisfaction sparked in her gut as the little girl paled.

"Well, yeah, I guess. You might say I'm advancing best of them all."

Noelle bit back a flash of agitation, the girl's flustering attempt to cover herself nothing less than an insult to Noelle's intelligence. Her eyed pinched in the slightest warning, the Varanin not backing down. "Oh. That's good then."

Noelle pushed off the door jam, her shawl sliding down a bare shoulder as she pressed inside. "I was beginning to wonder why you were here."

 

[Avalore]

Avalore blinked, her lips parting. Was that an insult? The question clung to the edge of her features, a wary gaze leveled on the girl that approached with predator grace.

"Aren't you cold?" She uttered, desperate to change the topic.

"No. This is my home. I'm perfectly comfortable." Noelle gave her a thin lipped smile. The hairs on her arm rose.

"O-oh. That's nice." She took a step back as the woman closed the distance, so close she could smell the lavender on her ivory skin. It wasn't natural, being that pretty.

Nor smelling that nice in a place so perpetually cold. Did she really bare bottom it to get clean?

Avalore's knuckles went white on the edge of the desk, Noelle's hair brushing her arm she leaned over her.

 

[Noelle Varanin]

Noelle felt the tension move across the girl's body, little ripples of telekinetic energy that told the story of the girl within.

To feel so small. So unconfident. So angry.

What skill did this waif bring to Spencer Varanin 's revival? What did her mother see in her?"

Noelle closed the desk draw with a decisive 'click', the noise making the girl flinch under her. Noelle found unapologetic enjoyment in watching the girl squirm, lingering a moment longer as she dragged her finger tip over the sharp edge of a ruined blade... before pulling back.

"Well go on then," she gestured to box still sitting on the desk's edge.

"I'll oversee you." That thing smile spread across her lips again, her hands folding patiently before her. "In case you cannot get out yourself."

 

[Avalore]

Oh. You mean the thing she distinctly promised Ashin she wouldn't touch.

I mean, she had broken that already, but it was just a curious glimpse. She had had no intention of actually fussing with it. Aradia's palms tingled, the puckered scars from the day she tried to catch Ashin Cardé Varanin 's lightening aching in a faint reminder of what happens when she pushes boundaries.

It had happened right here, at the foot of Ashin's desk.

Her pits grew damp, her heart slamming in her chest as she faced down Noelle's challenging gaze. Oh she knew. Yet in the dismal display of self-awareness, Avalore felt utterly incapable of saying no.

"I-"

"Or we could wait for my mother to return and do it as a group. I'm sure she'd appreciate having you off her hands."

And again, was that an insult??

Avalore raised her chin, baited into picking up the device with damp fingers. Her heart slammed in her ear as she tried to steady her breath, Ashin's lessons rolling through her eyes. Concentrate. Find the poison and push it out. She glanced up, Noelle's blue orbs leveled unwavering on her.

Waiting.

For her to cave.

Avalore held her gaze and jammed her fingers in.

 

[Noelle Varanin]

Noelle waited with baited breath, unnaturally still as she bore down the lying girl.

Her eyes dilated in shock as Avalore followed through, the building tension shattering into the psyche pain of a stubborn, stubborn child. She stared down at the seizing girl, her disbelief melting to dismay as she waited for signs of progress.

But none came. In that, at least, her guess had been correct. She let out a heavy sigh, side stepping the body and moving back to the desk.

"Foolish thing."

She rested her fingers against the edge and closed her eyes, remaining that way until something clicked and a lower draw opened. Slender fingers dipped in and pulled a rough stone out, the object singing through the force at her very touch.

Her expression softened, her thumb rubbing circles around its rough surface. For you, Mother.

She shoved it into her sleeves and nudged the draw closed, paying little mind to Avalore as she turned to leave the room.

The tonkutaji 's power would drain eventually. It was a lesson either way.