Private Seek and Ye Shall Find

[Kalanda Tishire]

Kalanda frowned, unable to focus to as the woman was telling her to, as her vision spun about like a kaleidoscope, the colors and shapes blurring together at a nauseating rate. "I don't know how to do that." Kalanda said, her voice dripping with confusion as she blinked frantically, trying to see. It was rather terrifying as one might imagine, which didn't help at all as Vanessa left her alone for a moment. Kalanda sat up, only to feel the barrage of colors grow worse, almost as if she was under assault by the colors themselves. She grabbed her head, then closed her eyes, only to find that she couldn't escape the barrage. It was then that she witnessed something that horrified her.

A bubble of the colors began to melt away, as an empty void moved to consume her, just as it had everything else. She shot up on the table, attempting to move away from it, and falling off the table in the process. As she struck the floor, the void engulfed her, stripping her of the force, of her sight, and the sense of everything around her. It was the darkest void she had ever conceived of, and it felt as if it would consume her. She was frightened beyond words, as she screamed, getting to her feet and trying to run away from the sensation; or rather, lack there of. She screamed, trying desperately to pull something towards her, trying to fight whatever she was witnessing, only to feel nothing. "HELP! SOMEONE HELP!" She cried, pedaling backwards, slamming into several trays. Sevaral objects fell, bouncing against the floor, some even tripping Kala as she fell to the floor. On her knees again, Kalanda began to back crawl away only to reach the back of the wall; there seemed to be no escape from this torture. "MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP!" She cried, curling up and wanting the nightmare to end. "VANESSA! HELP!" She screamed, unable to fathom what sort of hell she was experiencing.

Onrai

 

[Onrai]

Vanessa immediately came over and cradled Kala in her arms. She focused, even though her own powers of the Force were gone, and cradled the young Sith like a child, holding her close and snuggling her tenderly within the fuzzy blanket that still clung to her. "Relax, Kala..." She said, trying to use her calmest, coolest voice. "I want you to close your eyes and focus. Focus on your eyes, on what they see. Listen to my voice and focus on it and only it. Nothing else." She said, leaning in to whisper quietly into Kala's ear. "Focus on your eyes. On visualizing the world around you through them. While you're focusing, I'm going to count to five. When I get to five, I want you to open your eyes, okay?" She said, continuing to be there and comfort the former Dathomiri witch.

"One... two... three... four... five."

Kalanda Tishire

 

[Kalanda Tishire]

Feeling Vanessa wrap around her, Kala took some measure of acceptance in the fact that she wasn't going insane. Frankly for a Sith, she found the woman to be strangely welcoming and accepting of her plight. It was nice to know that perhaps she fit into the Sith after all, or maybe just a pocket of particular Sith. The blanket seemed lifeless in the absence of the force now, though it's warmth was still felt regardless. She steadied herself, trying to accept this new reality, as Vanessa coached her on what to do. She would attempt it to the best of her abilities.

She did as Vanessa said, calming herself despite feeling as if she was caught within the maws of a void. "Okay, I'll try..." She muttered, ignoring the pain that still pounded against her skull. She opened her eyes, only to find the darkness still there. She could make out the silhouette of a form cradling her, Vanessa's body seemed to be a white outline against the vast emptiness that encapsulated her. Small pulses of white streaked across the outline, indicating that Vanessa was alive It was a small comfort, but there was still a sense of crushing despair that pressed on the woman. It's just in your mind. You aren't in danger. She told herself, fighting against the instinct that told her to lash out. "I can see you, but everything else is so dark. It's like I'm in space, and there are no stars. It's so empty. Lonely." She muttered, focusing on the blackness before her, trying to comprehend what she was witnessing. Whatever Vanessa had done to her vision, it was going to take time to adjust to.

Onrai

 

[Onrai]

Kalanda Tishire

“Focus.” She said. “Focus in suppressing your Force Sight. I know you’re still trying to use it, but you need to focus on seeing with your eyes, not with the Force.” Vanessa was going to try a bit longer as she continued to gently cradle her new apprentice. This form of immersion therapy, or perhaps even shock therapy, was atypical for how Vanessa had usually done things, but perhaps it would have en effective result.

“Focus on your eyes, not the a Force. Move them, see what they see.”

 

[Kalanda Tishire]

Kalanda was trying, but her eyes were not exactly being compliant with what she was trying to do. Could it be that it was just beyond her biologically limits? She wasn't at liberty to say. Her kind had gone without sight for thousands of years, what use would her body have to make those pathways viable? "Miss Vanessa, I can't try any harder. I don't see anything other than you." Kalanda repeated, as the woman was still hiding from her via the force, something that Kalanda's sight should not have allowed her to see.

"I don't know what I'm even looking at. It's....rather confusing." The young witch struggled with this change in her state, though she seemed far more calm now, her tone ventured on curious. She hadn't tried to experiment with her eyesight before, had she perhaps found a new method of seeing through the force?

Onrai

 

[Onrai]

Vanessa waited a brief bit longer before sighing. She took the Ysalamiri away from the room Kalanda was in, returning it to the chamber it was living in with its brethren. Upon coming back, she presumed Kalanda was no longer under the influence of the ysalamiri’s dampening effects. “Oh, if you thought that was bad, it could be worse. You could have been hit by a Forcebreaker Grenade, or been given a Force Collar. Both are also means of inhibiting your Force abilities the same as a Ysalamiri.”

Vanessa, comfy as she could be, would come back over and take the blanket from Kala. “This is the biggest weakness of a Force User, and why one must be ready to act or have an alternative means of sensing. You in particular need to have an alternative means of sensing those around you, hence me fixing your eyes.”

Kalanda Tishire

 

[Kalanda Tishire]

As the Ysalamiri was drawn away from her, Kalanda could start to feel things once again, though everything still seemed to be a strange void to her. Not liking this, she calmed herself, and reverted back to her original vision, and found she could see just as before. She felt puzzled by this, having never experienced the sensation before. When Vanessa returned, Kalanda attempted to see normally once again, this time she didn't see anything of note. But now, the void resembled that of space. She could make out the silver lined features of Vanessa as the woman returned, but down below, she could actually see the strange form of the planet now. It seemed to be wrapped in silvery threads, almost like the galaxies largest spider web, but she could see the force keeping it teetered together, ever so slightly. It was an experience unlike anything she had seen.

She cut this experiment short however, as Vanessa began to speak with her, snapping Kala out of it. It was clear the the woman was disappointed, as she confiscated the comfy blanket from Kalanda, and harped on about how she depended on the force too much. What was worse, was that Kalanda knew she was right, but it was all she knew for the longest time. How could she escape that what she depended on? "I'm sorry for failing Miss Vanessa, I've just never witnessed anything like that. It terrified me." Kalanda frowned, rising to her feet, as she soon realized the mess she made within the lab. Several vials had been broken, a tray was knocked aside, and several files had been knocked open during her freak out. "Oh, Miss Vanessa I'm sorry, I didn't mean to do that!" The witch apologized, moving to right the wrong she had made earlier, as she would set about to tidy up the lab. "I...can see things differently now though. I can see you, and the planet down below! Before I couldn't do that, so maybe something worked?" Kalanda questioned, collecting up the papers and the tray, before looking around for a way to collect the glass on the floor.

Onrai

 

[Onrai]

"It's alright." She said. "I had hoped that the shock of having your Force Sight removed would force your body to compensate for its loss by seeing things more conventionally." Vanessa was in truth disappointed that such had not worked. She said nothing as Kala moved to clean things up, but when she looked at the glass, Vanessa merely focused with the Force, levitating the various shards of broken test tubes and vials as a whole unit into the nearby recycling unit. "Use the Force. I know it's rather cliché nowadays, but it really is useful for little things. Besides, the more you use it, the more strain you can take. It's like a muscle in a sense."

Kala's final comments, however, confused her. "You can see me? And the planet? Can you see anything else? What do we look like?" Evidently something had apparently happened to alter Kala's own forms of perception. Had Vanessa accidentally caused her to see something she couldn't otherwise see?

Well, even mistakes had their benefits.

Kalanda Tishire

 

[Kalanda Tishire]

Seeing that Vanessa was able to lift several of the smaller shards with relative ease, Kalanda felt a tad embarrassed for not thinking of the solution first. Then again, she never like overly depending on the force, but it certainly wouldn't have hurt to use it in this situation. "Ah, right. My apologies Miss Vanessa. I was thinking too narrowly." Giving a small apologetic bow, Kalanda straightened as the woman inquired her to explain what she was seeing. Kalanda tilted her head, having assumed that Vanessa knew this would occur, but apparently this was a new development even for her. "Oh, right. Let me try and explain."

Grabbing the sides of her dress, Kalanda tried to think how to best explain the phenomenon that had occurred not long ago. Truth be told, it was too difficult to explain without seeing, so perhaps she needed to glimpse into that void yet again. Following what she did before, she closed her eyes, took in a breath, and let the connection to the force slip away. Her eyes lost a touch of their color, going from a bright yellow, to a dull orange. She opened her eyes, and was greeted with the alien world without the force. Once again, silvery lines made out the form of Vanessa, as well as the rest of the room. As before, the lines seemed to almost be shimmering, dancing as they traced out the form of the woman. It was an odd view for certain, one that seemed to lack dimension, yet she could make out what she was seeing. Her eyes followed to the outline of the view port, gazing down on the dead world, and saw the same spherical spiderweb from before. "I see...lines. Silvery lines. They are so thin, constantly moving, shifting. It's like watching living lightning." She tilted her hand, seeing the globe of webs shimmer, as white streaks crisscrossed over the shape of the world. It looked like a white pulsating orb in the midst of the great void. "You look the same, your face, your features. I can make it out, just barely." Kala turned back to the Sith, hoping that her explanation was satisfactory.

Onrai

 

[Onrai]

Kalanda Tishire

Vanessa shrugged. "Just remember that often the simplest solution is the correct one - or at least one that will let you accomplish your intended goals." She listened to her apprentice's exposition as to her new method of sight. She couldn't see, not in a way Vanessa would have considered sight, but she could evidently see features. "So you can see me, and you can see Nathema below us... but with your sight, you can't see the ships, the station, or anything else?" This was somewhat concerning to say the least, if her new means of vision truly was as limited and partial as it appeared to be right now.

"In either case, it's something to fall back on."

 

[Kalanda Tishire]

Vanessa seemed less than pleased with her apprentice, least from what Kalanda could see. Not a good sign, but at least she wasn't being tortured. "No, I can see the station too, just...it's transparent." She frowned, detecting that perhaps she might be rejected for her damaged sight.

Taking a lock of hair in hand, Kalanda gripped it, working it back and forth as she worked out knots she had locked up into her hair, trying to ease herself into a better state of mind.

She felt she didn't need to be ignored, that she still had something to prove to the woman, she just didn't know what. Vanessa was clearly her superior in force power and sorcery, something that Kalanda desperately needed to improve on from what she had seen. "I can make it work Miss Vanessa, please. I'm worthy of being your apprentice, I'll show you." Kalanda stated, clasping her hands together and bowing her head in a form almost akin to begging. She needed someone to help her get stronger, she needed to be stronger to be with Amur, to be able to defeat her mother. To be turned down after all this, well, it was an idea that she didn't want to entertain right now. She needed to find her place in all this madness, needed to feel like she deserved to be along side Amur and help her when the need arised. She didn't want to be turned away, to be treated as a cast off because of the flaw she couldn't help. She just wanted to belong somewhere again.

Onrai

 

[Onrai]

"Kala, I never said you weren't worthy of being my apprentice." She said. "You don't need to show me." Looking at how weak and pitiful Kala was, Vanessa was at least glad this wasn't a public display. Feeling the desire to move forward and appropriately fulfill her role as a master, she moved forward and gave the practically whimpering Kala a hug and another pat on the head, snuggling her close. "Don't be worried. And don't be weak, either - that's silly. You are Kala, and you are going to become the comfiest of all Sith. I will teach you what I know and you will put it into practice."

At least, that was the plan in theory. Whether it would work out was another question entirely.

Kalanda Tishire

 

[Kalanda Tishire]

Vanessa's words dispelled the worry that the witch held, as Kalanda corrected her behavior with her mentor lecturing her. This wasn't like with her mother. This was going to be different. She took in a deep breath, calming herself and getting a grip of herself. The last few days had been draining on her mental faculties, but that was no excuse for acting like a child here and now. Vanessa accepted her as an apprentice, she had nothing to fear. Letting her anxieties melt away, the witch looked to the woman and nodded. "Yes, Miss Vanessa."

Straightening out her dress, Kalanda wondered what would occur next. Her arm had been mended, and she felt as if she had gotten a tad bit stronger from her meeting with the woman. "When do I begin training, Miss Vanessa?" The half Echani asked, knowing that as much as she wanted to run back to Amur, she needed to return stronger than she had left. Vanessa could give her the ability to get so much stronger, it was important to learn everything she could while she was here. "I'm not as weak as you might be lead to believe Miss Vanessa, I was an Obsidian Knight with the CIS, and a skilled sorceress during my time with the Nightsisters." She affirmed, giving another nod as she was eager to display her power. A new Kalanda would start today, as she awaited what her new master desired of her.

Onrai

 

[Onrai]

Vanessa paused at the last moment, and everything would appear to completely melt away from Kala's sight. There would appear to be nothing more than a two-dimensional plane within the void that she stepped on. Across from her would manifest Vanessa, wearing decidedly plain Sith robes and holding the hilt of what looked to be a lightsaber. She smiled, looking at her apprentice kindly. "You're not as weak as I think you are?" With no visible push of a button, what appeared to be a black, whip-like length of energy emerged from the end of the hilt, swiftly manifesting as Vanessa lashed it once against the ground.

"Prove it."

Kala would find the blanket she had snuggled with earlier in her hand. It appeared her training had begun.

Kalanda Tishire

 

[Kalanda Tishire]

Kala straightened as her sight was altered, something had happened, everything was being thrown into another prospective, and she found herself standing in an alien world. It was as if her 'Void' vision was forced into being used, though the witch didn't back down. Vanessa motioned with a weapon, one Kala was only too familiar with. It was a whip of some sort, the same sort that her mother had used on her growing up She tensed, eyeing Vanessa as this was clearly a test that she was being put through. The strange blanket from before wrapped around Kalanda's hand, lashing outwards as if it was a whip on it's own. The witch looked to the fabric with confusion, before realizing what it meant. This fabric was infused with the Dark Side, which meant it could withstand lightsaber strikes; and potentially anything that Vanessa threw at her.

Taking up a stance, Kalanda held the blanket between her arms, prepared to do battle with her master if that was what it took. Her one arm wasn't quite healed yet, as she could feel the stinging of her damaged nerve clusters reacting to the stimuli, but it wouldn't be enough to dissuade her. She reached out with the force, feeling strength return to her as she fixated on the pain that flickered along her arm. It drew her into the moment, got her mind in the headspace to do battle. She wasn't sure what the objective was, perhaps just survive the onslaught that Vanessa sought to throw her way. Either way, Kala was prepared to handle it. She had done the impossible before, this was no different. "Try it." She responded, the timid attitude melting away, as this would be a milestone to earn back Amur.

Onrai

 

[Onrai]

Vanessa smiled as the tasseled whip was again cracked at the ground, a black scar oozing sparks momentarily across it before dissipating. "Your move. Just remember, I have the reach." She swung the corrupted weapon over her head as a tendril of Dark Side energy was flung towards Kala, barbed metal tassels following shortly themselves. "This is the Darkwhip," she exposited, "a weapon of my own design, an attempt to recreate the ancient Force-powered weapons of the Rakata. It's not perfect, but as a lightwhip, it gets the job done." She smiled.

"The question is, can you handle it with that blanket of yours?"

Kalanda Tishire

 

[Kalanda Tishire]

Listening to Vanessa's weapon, and the damage that was able to inflict, she wasn't sure if her weapon was capable of doing the job. Still, she had to do something, this was a test after all, so Kala put her brain to work. Seeing that the woman had her beat with the weapon, Kalanda had to try something else.

Taking the blanket in hand, Kalanda threw it, using the force to spread it out, blocking Vanessa's sight, as she would rush past the blanket, and attempt to use the force to knock the woman off her feet. If this worked, she would pull the blanket back to her hand, aiming to use it as a shield against the counter attack Vanessa would undoubtedly launch at her. This woman would be far more powerful and skilled than herself after all, she could only hope to prod at the defenses and expose an opening. Then again, this was all just a roll of the dice. It quite possibly could go terribly wrong.

Onrai

 

[Onrai]

Vanessa was surprised when the blanket was thrown before her and lashed at it with the whip, sending it flying back a few feet before finding herself pushed back by Kalanda. She was not pushed off her feet, but did roll backwards before using her hand to support herself. A sideways lash was performed, tassels and the black tendril of energy striking the blanket directly amidships - all she was witnessing was purely illusory, within Kala's own mind. Theoretically the tendril could, being made of Dark Side energy and not an energy beam like a conventional lightwhip, affect the blanket, but Vanessa had never tested such and certainly did not want to take advantage of such a vulnerability if it existed. Vanessa ran forward and struck at her apprentice with a combination of sideways and over-the-shoulder strikes with the Darkwhip before getting close enough to attempt to kick the middle of the blanket, and hopefully some part of Kala behind it.

So far, her apprentice was doing quite well with what she had available.

Kalanda Tishire

 

[Kalanda Tishire]

Using the blanket as cover, Kala was surprised to find that her strategy was working for the time being. The blanket was able to endure the strikes of Vanessa, which was good, however it also meant Kalanda was going to be on the defensive. Defensive was good and all, but Vanessa was going to be able to bypass her soon enough and then she would be in trouble.

Just as she had thought, Vanessa began to strike, throwing a kick into Kalanda's chest and causing the witch to recoil back, grunting in pain, but already looking to take advantage. The blanket would wrap around Vanessa's leg, hoping to distract the woman while Kalanda threw out her hands and attempted to knock her mentor off her feet. Once that was done, Kalanda would withdraw, pulling back the blanket to her hand, she sought to put distance between herself and Vanessa, trying to gauge what she could do next.

Onrai

 

[Onrai]

Vanessa's response to the blanket around her leg and the resultant push back was to roll backwards and attempt to crack the briefly exposed Kala with the whip before getting back to her feet. As Kala attempted to gain more distance, Vanessa would remain close behind, attempting to on several occasions lash her with mostly overhead and a couple of sideways swings. She remained on the offensive, as one needed to with a lightwhip.

"You've got to give up eventually, Kala." She smiled.

Kalanda Tishire