Harry Potter and the Radar of Mandalore

[Cathul Thuku]

Cathul, with that newly-attributed honorific called the Radar of Mandalore, could sense that someone was coming for her. From miles away. She was in the main island when Solomahal Island was undertaking Phase 2 of a social housing project. As with nearly all the buildings of that project, they were going to build commercial space at the bottom and variable amounts of commercial vs. residential space, depending on the building, with the entire project consisting of mixed-use medium and high-rises. To Cathul, on planets like Azure, where landmass was at a premium, densification was key to making the most out of it. Solomahal Island was to feature several high-rises: a relative novelty for this planet, where the highest building is the gubernatorial palace, and where much of the planet's bureaucracy lies. Cathul delegated much of the day-to-day running of Azure to commissioners, each with its specific portfolio, much like the Tunroth on Jiroch-Reslia (and more generally many a First Order world). Cathul was going to the spaceport to collect a new student.

"Come, I've been expecting you. What spells would you like to train in for today? Make your selection; if that includes Drain Knowledge or Force-comprehension, please tell me so immediately"

Drain Knowledge works on her; Force-comprehension, not so much. She is a reagent for Force-comprehension and she knew it. Same with Jessica - they knew each other, they kept contact with each other. She sensed the new student would rather run a blood bank than learn about witchcraft but perhaps with witchcraft he could get some money out of it.

[member="Xain 'Cruor' Sykes"]

 

[Xain 'Cruor' Sykes]

It landed gently onto the landing pad. The small Starship wasn't his, it belonged to some young pilot who allowed him to taxi along. He stepped off onto the metal floor, the scent of iron filling his nostrils. His pale white skin told a tale of death and whether or not many knew it, all that mattered was he did. He was contacted by a witch, who seemed to be willing to teach spells. Xain couldn't remember the last time he practiced the arts, but the galaxy was a place of misery and violence. He needed to expand his knowledge anyway he could.

"Come, I've been expecting you. What spells would you like to train in for today? Make your selection; if that includes Drain Knowledge or Force-comprehension, please tell me so immediately."

Xain was surprised to see how ready [member="Cathul Thuku"] was to teach him. She seemed a little rushed, which he clearly knew nothing about. Pondering her question he lifted his head from the ground and smiled.

"I'm willing to learn anything you may find helpful. I'm unaware of what you are able to teach, Miss Thuku.."

He grabbed at the cloth in his cloak jacket. Pulling it from inside his coat he extended his ashy hand forward.

"I was told you may be able to help me with this." He paused. "That is if you are willing."

He knew that witchcraft was what did him in, millennia's ago. He was older than he looked, much older. The irony was that magic had brought him back, even after laying him to rest. Small bits of his memory had started coming back, the images that flooded his mind from time to time was painful. It rarely happened, but when it did he would be left screaming in agony.

Xain waited for her to snatch the cloth and read it. He knew how to manipulate fire, but Cryokinesis was the complete opposite.

 

[Cathul Thuku]

Cathul snatched the cloth from the newcomer, whose contents seem pertain to the spells the newcomer wanted to learn. As she prepared her broom, she could see in the distance the beams being assembled over on Solomahal Island to form another neighborhood of social housing. Even though she knew about how a few dark-sided powers worked, and how to perform these, she'd rather neither use them, nor teach them. All that she can say about those things is limited to how they worked and how they could be countered. By now she was mostly a light-sider posing as a Dathomirian Witch. She is sure that most Mandos will see in her some light-sider, and not just because she acts as one around real estate business. As they begin to fly on these rental broomsticks, en route to Solomahal Island...

"I'm afraid I cannot teach you Drain Knowledge. However, if you want to learn Force-comprehension, be my guest. But it would seem that cryokinesis or Electric Judgment would be pretty high on your list - I'll start with Force-sense, Force-pull/push, then cryokinesis, then Electric Judgment, is that good for you? If you have any power left, self-healing. Note that Electric Judgment vs. Force-lightning is really whether you use the light side of the Force vs the dark"

[member="Xain 'Cruor' Sykes"]

 

[Xain 'Cruor' Sykes]

Xain nodded. Her assessment was spot on, she knew her boundaries. Practicing the arts of magic seemed to be a distant thing to him. The spells he conjured in the past were simple tools that barely got him by, but then again, they got him by. The witches of Dathomir were rough on him. plus, being a rare breed of Zabrak meant, he had little friends on the home front. These things didn't matter, in fact, they made him stronger. Even as cursed and diseased as he was he fought to do what was right. He wasn't an evil man, he just knew evil ways to dismantle his enemies. Know, he would learn other approaches to an art he had dared not touch.

Unfortunately, desperate times, called for desperate measures. He needed a plethora of spells to get where he was going. Not to kill, but to proceed to the ending result of who brought him back. It was still a mystery after a few long months of travel and yet, nothing. shaking his head he snapped back into reality and looked at Cathul.

"Those lessons sound perfect, is there anything that I will need in order to preform these spells?" Xain asked.

His silver eyes shifted to a small latch on the landing pad. An engineer waving over another worker. The yellow and blue outfits hurt his eyes, but he envied their simple lives. In another time and place, perhaps he could find a life for himself. Slaves were always good at running, but living was a crime.

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"These spells require no particular reagent, hence why I agree upon the list you provided me"

She knew beginner spellcasters would be best off not learning too many spells at once. It was just common-sense: too little power to actually cast many spells at once. As they fly to Solomahal Island, they land on the unfinished third floor of a social housing building under construction, where there is a bunch of items to be used for training, like a rivet or a hydrospanner. Cathul wants to show that magic can be useful on a daily basis, outside of combat. She could even think of a use for Electric Judgment that most Jedi would overlook: recharging a lightsaber or a blaster powerpack. The duracrete on the floor is hard enough for them to stand on it, and the other two floors below were beginning interior work as it stands now. As Governor of Azure she had a responsibility to provide for the people who live on it with all their basic needs. With Cathul holding the beam into place, using Force-push/pull, she began to give her instructions to the new witch apprentice:

"Visualize the rivet moving off the ground and aim it carefully into any of the holes drilled into the durasteel beam"

[member="Xain 'Cruor' Sykes"]

 

[Xain 'Cruor' Sykes]

It had come to his surprise that nothing in particular was needed, where he came from witches needed reagents in order to preform, most of them anyway. He knew of others that had gifts of the force, but now that he was brought back by its magical miracles...he was part of the force. The mere idea of manifesting his powers with thought made him anxious. The witch in front of him seemed a bit rushed in her antics, mainly due to the fact that this wasn't her first lesson. Teaching the same things over and over must have been boring, not only that; tedious in the ways they had to be taught; baby steps.

Xain stretched out to the force as she spoke, visualizing the motion to do as instructed. He felt the waver of the wind in the grasp of his hand, lifting the rivet for only a moment before dropping back onto the ground. The scarce amount of time to lift it was simple enough, he was capable of lifting objects with ease before, so this exercise should have been an easy one. He lifted the rivet from the floor once more, trying to guide it into the smallest of holes. It was the area of influence in the force that made this part difficult and right when he began to deliver the rivet into the beam, it fell. The force swept away in a gustful motion of neglect. Xain thought of the breeze he felt when he came back, the sudden brush of wind that woke him from his deep slumber. The visual gave him insight to the amount of pressure that could be contained in something as simple as a stone coffin.

Thinking on it he smiled, the rivet wasn't the problem, nor the attempt in fitting it into the hole. It was the amount of force he output in order to guide it smoothly into its socket.

"I think I get it now..."

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"There was a reason why I made you take the baby step as a first lesson in Force-pull/push: I don't want you to exhaust your power too quickly. I'd rather err on the side of caution"

Seeing her apprentice struggle with Force-pull/push, made her think that his skills with sorcery were a little... rusty. She was a Witch, all right, and she knew what her limitations as a Witch were. Sorcery was not quite what his apprentice made it out to be. She knew not everyone was like her (the Jessicas, Cathuls of this galaxy were the exception rather than the rule) so she'd rather spare lengthy, technical explanations. Now that he has an idea of what Force-push/pull is and isn't, Cathul feels that he can move on to the next topic: Force-sense. Cathul knows that the learning curve of an inexperienced Force-user was not instant in the slightest so she was patient in enduring a new student fail over and over, so long as the consequences of failure were manageable. Force-sense was also one of these things where initial training can be unpredictable, both in results and in process.

"With Force-sense, you can feel stuff your normal senses would not be able to feel. Like a rather special third eye, if you will. Now, close your eyes and try to describe what you can feel"

[member="Xain 'Cruor' Sykes"]

 

[Xain 'Cruor' Sykes]

Xain listened carefully. The sounds of the whispering force, froze him as he closed his eyes. The images of his ravenous blood spree tainted his thoughts as he tried to push the regret out of his mind. Now wasn't the time to be dealing with his won demons, no; now was the time to practice what he preached. The sudden repertoire of the murders vanished as he clenched his eyes tighter. The mere feeling of a heavy wind slammed into the center of his chest, the magical force had reached him fully for the first time in a long while. Being brought back from the dead meant a severance in the force bonds he had created long ago. This was a serious problem, until now. He could be more effective with what he was now being taught. As quickly as it came the pressure was relived and nothing happened.

"I felt it, like a strong wind pressing against me. Magic has finally deemed me worthy..." He paused for a moment before looking to his hands. Balling them up he felt the surge of power within him. "A third eye?" He questioned. Xain opened his eyes concerned about the aspect of the test. He had felt the power of the force for only a few moments and then nothing. The magic had left him normal, well as normal as any recently risen; dead man could be.

"How do I use this clairvoyant power?" he asked, lifting his head to his new teacher.

It was a basic skill that Xain had overlooked, while capable of more advanced magics then this, it seemed there was much to learn.

[member="Cathul Thuku"]

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"With Force-sense you can see behind walls for enemies, see flaws in enemies or how far they are. Just don't use it to intrude in people's privacy unless absolutely necessary"

She knew about Force-users that only mastered a subset of skills without the ability to use all those who are accessible to a given Force-alignment. Many of those were in a grey area (much like Jessica as a pre-teen) and accounted for nearly all false-negatives from midichlorian counters. But that was possible only because midichlorians had a DNA of their own and hence could be coded to process only a particular set of powers. For example, Cathul became more and more of a light-sider as she ran IGR: she knew how to use a realty corporation and still serve the needs of the many over the needs of the few. Decontamination, land reclamation, social housing projects on three planets... the sort of things she would expect proper Jedi to do in her position. That said, business-running Jedi were a rare breed. A strong wind pressing against Xain in the Force? To be fair, the day was a bit windy: that explains why he struggled a bit with telekinesis at first. So there is a strong wind pushing against him, and Cathul too.

"Try to spot for weaknesses in me in the Force"

[member="Xain 'Cruor' Sykes"]

 

[Xain 'Cruor' Sykes]

Xain separated his feet. He put his arms to his side and began to focus. The mere idea of being able to see through walls and spot weaknesses seemed more than valuable. He closed his eyes searching for the right pieces. The force was absent, but then like a jolt of electricity his eyes popped open. His vision was hazy, the tendrils of the force had gifted him with a new power. The whispers of the force lead him to search for [member="Cathul Thuku"]'s weakness but instead focused on the three men behind the infrastructure a few hundred yards away from them. The force had melted the wall away for him, making him capable of spotting particular threats from a few hundred yards away. Xain was a natural. All he needed now was a way to guide the force into finding a weakness. Re-positioning himself he closed his eyes once more. Opening them again he looked directly at Cathul, he spotted her hands, gentle and untwisted by the use of a blade. The force spoke to him, as he deduced the well kept hands to be a weakness of her own.

While a gifted individual in the force, Cathul was short on her saber skills. Xain wasn't sure if this was the only weakness, but still it was something.

"Your hands, they haven't seen many days with a blade; have they?" Xain asked. "The force had allowed me not only to sense your choice of combat style, but also the three men a few hundred yards away."

Xain wasn't sure if this was an accurate assessment of Cathul's weakness, but the power of Force- sense had given him enough insight, that if in battle; could turn the tide in his favor. He waited patiently for his evaluation. A small smile reached him, it felt good being able to use magic again.

 

[Cathul Thuku]

"I know I have been criticized by my fellow vode who reside on Azure for this reason: I am perceived as someone who relies too much on the Force. I would say that it is rather accurate. Yet it is a lot more common to face a jammed slugthrower or fried electronics than void stones or ysalamiri fields. As governor of Azure I might be answerable only to the Alor'e Council and the Mand'alor, but I know my fellow vode would expect from one of them that they at least have some measure of combat ability without using the Force. Jetiise as well as dar'jetiise, and also turjily'i're, that is, Jedi, Sith and witches, are often more vulnerable when unable to use the Force"

To Cathul, who was more of a Jedi than she would like to admit, especially since she used her knowledge of neuropsychology to turn Force-horror into Force-stasis, brains was her key to being an effective witch. And it would often seem that Force-users with big, well-trained brains, would rather make more heavy use of the Force vs. a lightsaber. Oh, sure Clan Munin would rather have their FUs undertake rigorous combat training while cut off from the Force, but it would be difficult to enforce such a thing on a larger scale than clan-level. For the time being she'd still need some skill in using a slugthrower without the help of the Force, but she'll still remain primarily a witch or a Jedi, whichever she will end up becoming in the end. But she prepared yet another rack of water cubes for the apprentice to use as practice for cryokinesis. And then the workers wouuld use the resulting frozen cubes so that they can use the resulting ice cubes as refreshments.

"Now visualize the water turning into ice"

[member="Xain 'Cruor' Sykes"]