Sand. It Gets Everywhere.

[Caid Centurion]

Geonosis

Seriously. Why would anyone ever want to be on this barren slag of rock? The Sith Lord's last visit to the capital of the Confederacy had not exactly gone...as expected. It wasn't terrible either though he supposed. Following a brief meeting with his niece, Caid had managed a brief meeting with Confederacy leadership regarding onward plans throughout CIS space. It was now roughly a month since he had first arrived on Druckenwell as its new Viceroy. In time, his mountain fortress would be complete, and he could begin his efforts to...expand the capability and understanding of a select group of Warriors from Endelaan in earnest. A goal that would necessitate another lengthy journey to the other side of the galaxy very, very soon.

For now, however, Caid needed to ensure he was keeping his own personal skills sharp, expanding them gradually. He spent a lot of time these days with his father's holocron, unlocking secrets of the Force that he did not know even existed. Further more, he had learned a great deal about the man his father was and how much he had changed over the years. Cameron Centurion kept...surprisingly detailed account of his own life. Then again, the elder Centurion's vanity pretty much knew no bounds.

Dressed casual as he normally did, Caid stepped forward towards the enclave of the Knights Obsidian with a brisk pace. The hood of his crimson-lined, black cloak was pulled over his head only to keep dirt, sand, and sun from covering his bald head. For purposes of heat regulation and simple personal flair, the young Centurion did not wear a shirt beneath the cloak - merely a pair of dark pants and lightweight boots. The matte black hilt of Caid's personal lightsaber was affixed, as always, near the small of his back, just right of his spinal column.

As he arrived at the main entrance, Caid was ordered to stop by sentries. There was no reason for Caid to become hostile, so he did as instructed.

"Name and business."

"Viceroy Centurion, and I assure you that my business is definitively not yours." Just enough political pomp to be convincing, Caid thought.

The sentries, however, were not amused. "A Viceroy has no business within these halls unl---"

"...unless otherwise so commanded by the Vicelord," Caid finished for them before pausing. Reaching into his pocket, he produced a communicator. "Do you want to call him or shall I?"

The sentries stiffened slightly before stepping aside without a word.

Caid nodded his head as he slid the device back into his pocket and went on his way. He was here to observe, to see what training looked like within the much rumored halls of the Knights Obsidian. Perhaps even...he would find something or someone to help him hone his own skills. Caid needed not another sparring partner. The highest form of mastery is to teach. A mantra he had learned from the holocron of Cameron Centurion. Caid, finally, felt he just might be ready.

[member="Alwine Lechner"]

 

[Alwine Daye]

Alwine could not comprehend it. The Confederacy space was large and ever growing. They had dozens if not hundreds of planets under their control, offering a variety of climates. Then why, by the gods above and below, had they chosen this horribly arid planet as their capital?! The very air tickled annoyingly when she breathed outside, and the smell... The Lupine's nose did not like it. Why could not have chosen a more temperate place, with cooler temperatures? Certainly, there was some political importance to this lump, but surely other planets had as well?

The first thing she had done when she entered the training room was turn the climate control down to the lowest it could go. Learning how to use the system for that had been a proud moment in the young wolf's life. On Stewjon, she belonged to a caste that did not enjoy much technological advancements. Even at the manors she had served, touching equipment of the kind had been strictly forbidden for the servants. But she was no longer on Stewjon. And she was learning.

Despite the cold, the sweat soon enough began to form on her petite form as she battled against the droids. The great-sword she wielded was taller than she was, made of heavy material. It did not matter though. She was strong enough to wield it. Her brothers had spent entire nights teaching her how to use it as well. And still, now that she was sparring with the droids and not against her brothers in a secret corner of the forest behind their house, Alwine could feel how under-trained she was. How unequipped for battle in her human shape she was.

It enraged her.

Even with the droids set on easy, the Lupine still found herself falling to the ground or losing her grip on he sword more often than she liked. For a single moment she almost cast the sword aside, ready to shift into her wolf form and shred the droids apart with her very teeth.

But no. That would not do. As a wolf, she was quick, she was strong. But she couldn't always be a wolf. When they left Stewjon, she had thought she would never use her human form again unless to communicate via speech. Life had shown her that she would not get her wishes. She had to be efficient as a woman too. She loathed it.

Alwine screamed as the droid caused her to loose her footing again. She flattened on the ground, the sword out of her hands again, and she sent a kick towards the damned machine, opening a few feet between them. She wanted to call Varick of Gerwald to come help her, but she knew she could not. Varick was learning this galaxy as well and there were steps both he and Alwine had to take alone. And Gerwald... A growl escaped Alwine's throat. He was probably with the auflaque. She wanted to kill that girl as she had killed her mother. Her main reason for not doing so was the knowledge that the auflaque had more experience than her and was protected by demons or spirits or whatever the hell it was. Alwine knew she was not strong enough to do it yet.

Walking to the corner of the room, she grabbed a water bottle and drained it before setting the droids up for another round. She had been here for the past two hours and every muscle in her body ached.

She was planning on doing at least two hours more.

This time, however, she let the sword remain on the ground, and raised her fists instead.

[member="Caid Centurion"]

 

[Caid Centurion]

Soft footfalls followed Caid as he traversed the corridors. The large Sith passed more than a handful of individuals, but he did not directly regard them with his eyes. There was a certain quality that Caid desired in those he worked with...whether long term or not. He didn't really have any desire to deal with someone that needed to be coddled or was only interested in racing straight to the destination rather than go through the entire course.

Life was about the journey in all aspects.

In a few minutes, the Sith turned down an adjacent corridor. Initially, he passed right by the room that [member="Alwine Lechner"] was training in. However, once he heard her exasperated scream, Caid paused, turned, and returned to the room just in time to watch the diminutive figure. Leaning against the doorway, Caid crossed his arms over his chest. His face wore no particular expression, but his silver-green eyes were intently focused on the girl as she, apparently, prepared to fight the training droids with her fists. It didn't take the Force for Caid to see that an intense undercurrent of anger existed in her body.

For now. He would simply watch.

 

[Alwine Daye]

She had been eight the first time the took her to see it. Dualing was considered illegal on Stewjon, but the lords and their sons had always done as they pleased. Alwine had been a little girl, not entirely sure of what she was seeing. Only Varick had turned into a wolf by then, and she eagerly awaited her own turn. She had seen the raw power that came with it, the beauty of the fur and the jaw. It was two lords' sons that were dueling that day. Even as a child, Alwine was not overly impressed by them. Their movements were slow and sluggish, and it looked more like they were pretending to dual rather than actually fought. It was boring. But then... Then they had brought a Shield Maiden forward. She was a grotesque thing, all muscles where women were usually soft, her face too square, her features so bulky, and she held a sword and a shield in her hands. Alwine thought she was one of the most beautiful and impressing of women she had ever seen. The woman was in chains. Someone said she had sinned, or done something, and the lords' sons would get to execute her in the privacy of their own entertainment. But even in chains, they couldn't do it. The sons' lords were lazy and not in good shape. They tired of the fight before they even drew the first blood. The Shield Maiden, however, kept moving. She was moving when they tried to shoot her with arrows instead, narrowingly avoiding being hit. She was moving when they sent more men against her. She was moving, so quickly, so swiftly, almost like a gazelle. And she escaped. It had taken a week before the lords hunted her own and put her head on a spike at one of the mansion's entrances. Alwine had hated them for killing such a worthy warrior. And Alwine knew, knew without a doubt, that one of the keys to survive, was to keep moving. As long as you could still move, you still had a chance. And that Shield Maiden was no longer moving.

Alwine was still moving. It had been perhaps ten minutes since the strange man had entered the training hall she was in, but she was not paying any attention to him. She had droids to fight. She was better with her fists than she had been with her sword, but she was still not good enough. Bruises were forming on her flesh as she was continuously hit by the droid she was fighting. But at least she was falling less, stumbling less. The minutes ticked by as she continued, never pausing. She wanted to beat that demonic droid.

Once again she was flattened to the floor.

Alwine screamed again, almost not realizing that the sword had been called through the Force into her hands. She jumped up, again aided by the Force, only now reaching high enough to decapitate the damned machine.

A moment later, both droid parts, the sword, and Alwine, all lay on the mattress. She was sweating, breathing hard. Chocolate brown eyes moved to the clock. It had taken her two hours and twenty six minutes to win this time.

It was two minutes better than the day before.

"Ten minute break, then send another droid," she ordered the command system that she knew was listening and attuned to every sound in that room.

With more effort than she'd care to admit, the little wolf pushed herself off the grond and made her way to the water.

[member="Caid Centurion"]

 

[Caid Centurion]

Caid's expressionless mask remained as he watched the young woman engage the droid unarmed. She seemed...well it was hard to say. It seemed as though [member="Alwine Lechner"] was almost holding back. Granted, Caid had no real way of immediately identifying her as a Lupine. However, even that realization would not have fully explained what he was seeing. Caid had met several very talented fighters...whether an Echani Warrior or a Teras Kasi Artist.

Those disciplines, however, required focus, training, and a clear mind just like anything else. He'd seen it time and again...those that relied too much or too little on emotional input to prevail in a fight. No sooner had the thought drifted through Caid's mind than he felt a surge of power flood the Force. The girl's sword was immediately in her hand and the droid was soon destroyed. Though Alwine had prevailed, she had actually failed because it was not a conscious effort. She had not truly accomplished anything.

"You will never truly succeed if you do not learn the most critical lesson of all." Reaching up, Caid pulled back the hood of his cloak and pushed off the door frame slightly. Bright eyes focused in on the girl, recalling her only now from his trip to Krant. It had been dark that evening. "Control. Whether too little or too much, it will ultimately be your undoing in combat. No amount of beat-down sessions can change that reality."

The Sith paused for a moment. She did have a ten minute break, after all. "What fills your mind as you engage these droids?"

 

[Caid Centurion]

Double Post

 

[Alwine Daye]

Alwine had been in the middle of emptying another water bottle when a voice startled her. Her head snapped to the direction from which the voice was coming from and her body almost took a step back before she stopped herself. Chocolate eyes quickly scanned his form. He was tall, but then again, pretty much almost everyone was when you were just 5"0. But it wasn't his physique that peeked her interest though; it was the eyes. Silver-green and glowing, there was nothing human about them, though his scent indicated that human was what he was. What strange and wondrous things was this galaxy filled with? They were outdoing stories she'd heard at a fast pace. She wanted to know more.

"I will never succeed unless I have proper training," she answered in return to his claim about control, "control included." Alwine was a mixture of extremes; she did not now what a right amount of it was. She knew how to be so in control so her wolf did not come out during months of torture. She knew how to be so out of control that she set a fire to the food storages in her rage, an action that had put her in the torture prison in the first place. She did not know the middle ground at all. The life on Stewjon had not presented the opportunity for her to learn that, and while she would have loved to blame it on that dreadful planet, she knew that blaming it would not serve her. Alwine didn't need to constantly be reminded of what had been taken away from her. She needed the opportunity to learn and make sure nothing would not be taken from her again.

Downing another bottle, her breathing was now beginning to calm down. Her skin still shone with the sweat, but that was nothing that could not be fixed in the refesher once she was done.

What filled her mind when she engaged the droids?

"In truth, I try to keep my mind blank," she answered, "I wish for my moves, at least when they are defensive, to be intuitive, to not need to actively think while I perform them. But thoughts of my life and home planet occasionally interfere." She did not feel the need to elaborate on what they were. Life on Stewjon was hard for anyone who was not a lord, and it was harder still for those who belonged to the female sex. "But it has only been a few weeks since I left," she added, "I expect these memory surfaces are normal and will decrease with time."


[member="Caid Centurion"]

 

[Caid Centurion]

Caid's gaze remained unwavering as the girl, who seemed just barely an adult, replied. Her comment about training rang in his mind as correct. The awareness though simple was also refreshing. However, it certainly begged the question...why spend countless hours of unsupervised practice that merely left her bruised and exhausted. Repetition was only useful if it was repetition of the correct actions.

"You are mostly correct..." Caid considered a concept for a brief moment before making a follow-up comment. "Do you know what happened just a moment ago?" Caid motioned to the destroyed droid by way of helping explain what he meant. "Specifically the point at which you encountered success rather suddenly."

[member="Alwine Lechner"]

 

[Alwine Daye]

Mostly correct? Alwine cocked her head in a movement that imitated her body language as a wolf, and looked at the man. "If I am mostly correct, it means I am slightly wrong," she said, "and if I am wrong, I would like to know which part I am wrong about."

Again she studied him with curious though somewhat distant eyes. He wished to know if she knew what she had done. Her gaze followed to where he mentioned, viewing the destroyed droid. "That," she sighed, "where I am from, what I did was receive help from demons, and earn myself a place on the pyre." The corners of her lips curled into a wide smirk. She actually had earned her place there, and would have died if it were not for her brother returning at the last possible moment, "but that was merely another application of the Force. I called my sword to my hand with it and then somehow managed to jump higher and stronger than I normally can. I suspect the jump was Force-work as well."

She sighed, taking a towel to wipe her face and shoulders. Perhaps ten minutes were an insufficient break. "While it is truly nice to know that I am not marked by evil gods and their demons, but merely have something in my blood that permits me to perform certain feats, it just means this is another ability that I have, that requires training and honing."

Now it was her turn to motion at the ruined droid, "I know that I cannot hope to catch up in a few hours or days what I should have been trained at for most of my life, and there are other areas in which I am well aware that my education is painfully lacking. However, the Knights are moving slow at present. I hoped that some training with the droids while my brothers are unavailable would at least help me learn some basic foundations that I may build on when official training begins."

[member="Caid Centurion"]

 

[Caid Centurion]

Caid offered a conceding nod to her initial point. "Yes, mostly correct. You are mostly correct in that you will not likely succeed without proper training. However, even training and study may not yet be enough, not if something else, something more ingrained is holding you back." The Sith offered a shrug. "I cannot presently speak to such as I do not know you."

Listening to her surprisingly self-aware declaration of what had happened, the Sith arched a curious brow. While to say that everyone's varying views on the force were intriguing to him was not actually accurate, he could say it was occasionally amusing. This, however, was not one of those times. "The Force can indeed open a lot of doors to increased physical prowess among many other things. I would argue those are some of its least impressive effects. As for your timetable..."

Caid finally took a moment to move from his position, entering further into the training room. As was his personality, his upbringing, he did not directly approach Alwine. Instead, he circled around her, evaluating her through a number of means like a predator would prey...though that was hardly how he saw the girl at present.

As his presence within the Force swelled to accommodate the silent evaluation of her own, Caid spoke. "Tools...useful in training but technology is so far beyond what is necessary." His gaze still locked on Alwine, Caid raised both his hands to the side. From somewhere else in the room, two very plain sticks flew to either hand. After tossing one to Alwine, Caid lowered his right arm to his side, holding the stick casually. "A droid also can only teach so much via a series of cleverly programmed algorithms. I am happy to show you how useful even a brief training session truly can be."

[member="Alwine Lechner"]

 

[Alwine Daye]

Might not be enough if something was holding her back. Alwine smirked once more. She was no longer on Stewjon, and as such, there was nothing left to hold her back. There still problems, to be sure, but everyone had those. Yet the two major factors that had always held her back, that had always tried to tame her, to make her meek an demure... They were dead. She had given the killing bite to her mother. Varick had killed their father. Now she had the magnificent chance to learn to live without them looming over her, without being reminded to know your place, woman. No, there was nothing holding her back. All she needed was time and proper training.

The man spoke of physical feats with the Force. Alwine nodded. She knew the Force was not limited to that, though she had never actually seen or- No. That was wrong. She remembered now, laying on that cold floor in the prison, her brother speaking directly into her mind. Had she been in a better state, she would have panicked at that moment, not understanding what was happening and why he was inside her head. In hindsight though, it was simply to remain calm and reflect on it. Yet somehow, she was certain the man meant more than that.

Her eyes followed him as he moved deeper within the training hall, and only now did she study not merely his eyes, but his physique as well. It was quite obvious that the man was well trained in physical matters. She followed the movement of his muscles beneath his skin as he studied her like a predator might. One side of her mouth corked upwards as she returned the body language, the wolf inside her itching to come out and meet a challenge that had not yet been posed. The growl was deep inside her throat, barely audible to human ears, and very definitely not human in any way, yet the expression on her face left little doubt to the fact she did not feel threatened. She had a feeling what would come next, and when the stick was tossed, Alwine grabbed it effortlessly.

"What is 'algorithms'?" she asked, and then nodded, taking the first stance with the stick as she would have with the sword. She thirsted to be taught - and she was ready.

[member="Caid Centurion"]

 

[Caid Centurion]

Caid blinked for a moment. He'd not fully seen the question coming, so immersed in what was too happen beyond that. The Sith had not even begun to teach in earnest and already he was identifying what he would determine to be holes in his own presence of mind. In truth it was hardly a discernible crack in the otherwise stoic veneer he presented more as a matter of life consequence than anything else. "Programming instructions for electronic devices to follow. It's what makes the training droids only so capable of adaptation...why your sudden surge of Force power prevailed over its programming."

Remaining in a definitively casual posture, Caid was anything but unprepared for a strike. "Understand that the Force is, in effect, life. It encompasses every aspect of it as well, good, bad, and the ugly. So though a percentage of sentients can actually feel its ebb and flow, manipulating it to their whim...the truly great simply allow it to become an extension of themselves."

Caid took a couple steps closer to the girl. "As I gathered from watching you mere minutes ago, you know enough about combat not to need to be bored on the topic. It is neither the fastest nor the strongest that prevails. Let go of whatever you're feeling, and do not allow frustration to seep into your conscious thoughts. Emotions can fuel powerful feats like the one you performed, but it can also be used against you. So until you know how to adequately dispel all emotion, you cannot truly learn to employ it either." It wasn't exactly a traditional Sith concept, but Caid preferred to train and teach based upon what he had truly experienced in life. Sure...forcing someone to simply be a vengeful, rage-filled weapon had its place. There were less self-destructive ways to access the Force's more powerful aspects, however. In a martial contest, one's anger would hardly be the determinate factor of victory. That was best saved for...things that required massive amounts of energy.

"One last thing. Purge yourself of any notions of honor or sportsmanship. Victors write history and losers perish." No sooner had the words left his lips than Caid motioned with his free hand, propelling a crushing wave of force energy directly at Alwine. The invisible wave of force energy would be followed almost immediately by Caid's large frame closing the distance between the two with surprising speed and agility, wooden stick slashing down harshly towards Alwine's left shoulder.

[member="Alwine Lechner"]

 

[Alwine Daye]

So algorithms were the name given to the orders put in droids that they were supposed to follow. It sounded simple enough in its own. What she didn't understand then was why they were not given orders of what to do when faced with anyone using Force powers, but she supposed that was a question for later.

Alwine smiled as the man explained about the Force. He was using the same phrases her brothers had use when they told her how to wield her sword. An extension of the arm and the body, though now it was not just about that, but the Force was to be used as an extension of herself. It made sense, in a way. But to understand it logically was simpler than understand it down to her very bones.

The part about the emotions, however, confused her. "Was I employing emotions?" she asked with a blink. She wasn't sure she was... But now that the man mention it, she wasn't sure she wasn't either. Unless he meant... "I am nearly always angry," she smirked, "it is why they call me the angry wolf. I do not know how to let that part of me... Go quiet."

To the last bit, she could only nod. That was something her brothers had told her as well.

And then it hit her. It had been invisible. Alwine growled at it, being sent about a foot back, though the petite managed to keep her balance. It was by pure luck that she managed to block the man's incoming attack with her stick, her entire focus shifting to him now rather than their conversation. As wooden blade touched wooden blade, her right leg kicked forward, aiming for his knee. She knew even before it made contact (or missed entirely) that he would have a way of blocking it.

[member="Caid Centurion"]

 

[Caid Centurion]

The back of his neck prickled as it always did when his danger senses were triggered. In an instant, part of his mind was transported to an alternate reality.

In this reality, Alwine's kick had already connected with his knee, causing his entire stance to buckle. Pain shot through his body as his anger threatened to swell, to overcome all of his senses.

Just as infinitely fast as the image flashed through his mind, it dissipated. Brought back to the present where Alwine's muscle fibers had just began to twitch into action, Caid made a relatively simple move. Pivoting his left foot away from the diminutive woman, he aggressively rotated his wrist to drop the stick down vertical. Maintaining the pressure on Alwine's weapon, Caid effectively attempted to place the opposite end of his own weapon behind her knee to swipe her leg forcefully off the ground. On the one hand, Alwine's height made the attempt much easier. On the other, her center of gravity was very low, and it would considerably enhance her stability.

[member="Alwine Lechner"]

 

[Alwine Daye]

Alwine did not have the man's forte at sensing the move that was to come. She did not even know he had that ability. What she knew was that one moment her leg was going for his knee, and the next, she was on the ground. The sudden change confused her for but a moment, but her stick was still in her hands.

With a growl, she shifted to using it as a stabbing tool, aiming the edge of it to poke harshly between the man's lower ribs while she remained on the ground.

[member="Caid Centurion"]

 

[Caid Centurion]

That particular move didn't really require any kind of extrasensory insight. Caid either expected something of that variation or a kick. As soon as the stick moved, the Sith lord twisted his upper torso just slightly. At the same time, he flexed his abdominal muscle which had the effect of softening the effects of any type of blow to the area.

With his free hand, Caid firmly grasped Alwine's weapon. With all the strength he had in his left arm, Caid attempted to wrest the weapon free from her hand as he took a step back with his left leg to keep his balance if the girl struggled. Whether it worked or not, his deep voice would call out to the girl. "Enough. Get on your feet."

[member="Alwine Lechner"]

 

[Alwine Daye]

She hadn't intended on struggling. When the man began to try to pull her stick up, Alwine had every intention of clinging to it. She was a light woman as well as short, and someone of his physical strength would have no issue at all simply picking her up as if she weighted nothing. She was letting her body be pulled along with the stick when he said enough. Her plan was that once she as close enough to him by his own doing, she would be able to cause some damage. Maybe.

Blinking, Alwine let go of the stick, and quickly scrambled up to her feet, dusting her pants off. Normally, such a quick spar would not have her gasping for breath, but she was also after more than two hours in that training room.

Wordlessly, she looked at him, waiting for him to speak.

[member="Caid Centurion"]

 

[Caid Centurion]

Releasing her stick, Caid nodded his head slightly when Alwine came to her feet. "You're good. Good instincts, you can manage your own body weight appropriately, and you don't over-extend yourself." It also helped that she rather clearly had more training in general sparring than even he had originally thought. "A couple of thoughts. One - you are smart to keep the engagement area close whenever possible. You're going to find yourself likely being smaller than nearly all of your opponents. However, on the opposite side of that, if you're fighitng someone in close that has more experience than you...don't be afraid to create distance."

Caid tossed his own stick aside before clasping his hands behind his back. "I made a comment earlier about the droids not being programmed to deal with force users. They're training droids, so I'm sure they are programmed to make one access their talents within the Force to be successful. A highly trained combatant without the Force is tragically less capable than even a slightly less well trained combatant that does exercise above average control of the Force."

Pausing for a moment, Caid raised a hand slightly as a smirk just barely touched the corners of his lips. "That's not a hard fast rule so don't take it literally. You, for instance, are very capable. I could tell that simply from watching you struggle with the droid, but I also witnessed that you have a much larger capacity for employment of the Force than even you are probably aware. So...at this stage, that is what you need to refine just as much as any traditional fighting style or technique."

Casually, Caid removed the flowing cloak that covered his legs and exposed upper torso. Tossing the garment outside slightly, the Sith Lord took a seat on the floor before motioning for Alwine to do the same. "Innate talents within the Force don't require you to do much in order to access them. So let's try this...cliche as it sounds... I want you to clear your mind and focus only on that stick you were holding. Reach out with your thoughts, your feelings. Will the stick to lift into the air by imagining you were lifting it with your own hand."

[member="Alwine Lechner"]

 

[Alwine Daye]

She almost beamed when the man said she had good instincts, managed her body weight properly, and did not over extend herself. It meant that her time with her brothers, learning how to fight in secret and in the dark, were not wasted. Truth be told, the man in front of her was the first person she had ever sparred with outside of her family. On Stewjon, she could confide in no one about what she was being taught by her brothers, and when the guards came for her... She could do nothing either. Not unless she wanted to end her oldest brother's life. To know that the lessons she had received were not for naught, that she had something she could build on... This meant much for the little wolf. And it strengthened her resolve to learn more, to train more, to catch up an advance with her knowledge.

"If I create distance, I lose my reach," she admitted, holding her hand forward to demonstrate just how short it was. Alwine had no false conceptions regarding her size. "I once attempted to join the Shield Maidens. They laughed me out and would not even let me show them I could do anything at all, because of my size." A few hours after that humiliating experience she had been at another lord's manor, scrubbing the toilets and crawling into all the little corners that the other girls couldn't reach, just to clean the too. She had raged so hard that day that once it was over, she headed off into the woods alone, ignoring all the precautions the Lechner siblings usually abided. It had been the first time she'd taken down prey on her own, and not gone for the weakest in the bunch. But that was not a story for now.

Alwine said nothing as she took her place on the floor in front of the man.

"Wait," she asked, her voice not as happy as one might expect, "If you are going to teach me, I believe we should at least know each other's names. I am Alwine." with that she held her am out to him, ready to shake it, not just the hand part, but all the way to the elbow, as the warriors on Stewjon did. She was no longer a serving maid.


[member="Caid Centurion"]

 

[Caid Centurion]

Caid didn't really reply to Alwine's comment about losing her reach if she created distance. Yes, obviously that would be a result. However, if she was about to die inside of her reach, she wouldn't have much of a choice. As a matter of fact, she didn't even have to be near death or losing. Death was nearly certain if someone ran out of time, space, and ideas. That individual could survive two out of three, and Alwine certainly wouldn't be learning to manipulate time...ever.

Silver-green eyes drifted down to regard Alwine's hand and arm. Shaking was not really a thing that he did, but he had obviously seen it. Ironically, the Warriors of Endelaan with whom Caid had spent most of his recent time, greeted each other much in the same way as Alwine was accustomed. Without instruction, Caid reached out to grasp the woman's forearm firmly, her relatively small frame seeming surprisingly less delicate than one might expect. It was a pleasant type of surprise. "Caid." His eyes lingered over her form for a brief moment, lost in her eyes, but he withdrew without it becoming much to notice. "Now. Close your eyes, clear your mind, steady your heartbeat, and feel the gentle hum of life all around you. That is the Force. It moves and bends to everything you do without you even realizing. Silently pour your will into the Force simply by seeing what you want to happen, thinking as specifically as you can about what the stick looks like as it slowly rises from the ground and suspends itself in the air."

[member="Alwine Lechner"]