Witchcraft Isn't Dust And Ashes

[Janick Beauchamp]

"I'd love to learn something new from you, Sutta Chwitsukak. If that's possible, I would want to download it directly from your brain"

"I agree but only on the condition that you teach me how to do, as you always seem to call it, mental data transfer afterward. I can probably infuse into you whatever you wish for, if you wish for more than one power; on the other hand, I may as well wish for stuff from you, please keep that in mind" Tamana told Janick, before the latter gasped at the condition.

"Here we go"

As usual for using Drain Knowledge, she feels that hours' worth of learning has been absorbed in a few seconds, and she could now attempt using bolts of hatred if she feels threatened. In the weeks prior to this attempt at draining Bolts of Hatred, Janick could finally secure Sithspawn-splicing equipment, as well as a third witch to operate that segment of the Magic Circle's business. Once again, the castle had three resident witches, hard at work alchemizing items. Sure, the new witch on the block was about as smart as Griet, just knowing a different set of spells, but clearly Janick craved interactions with outside apprentices. And, for some reason many of those outside apprentices come to her in a crystal ball. One of those apprentices would probably appreciate all the knowledge Janick would have of witchcraft, and be grateful for that. Tamana would like to learn something from me via draining, but what? Now, that apprentice better have good reason to come all the way to Wild Space to learn and/or have stuff alchemized, she thought, while attempting to contact that apprentice in question via holomail, realizing that it could be days before that apprentice would actually arrive to the Castle on the Fourth Moon of Utapau.

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ATTN: [member="Princess Ashelia Solidor"]

Your Highness, I believe in developing your witchcraft potential, so I would like to take it upon myself to help you achieve it in any way possible. Spells ranging from mental data transfer, Neural Storm, Memory Walk, or even Force-lightning, pyro/cryokinesis, Force-fear, Force-cloak are yours to learn. I'm available at the Utapau Alchemy Castle on the Fourth Moon of Utapau; please let me know what works for you.

P.S.: If you have an item that you would like to alchemize, please come to the castle with that item.

Janick Beauchamp
Owner, Utai Magic Circle

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[Ashelia Solidor]

Her father’s intendant was the one that contacted her with the mail, and Ashelia almost screamed with the servant. It was her father that should have called her if he was so eager as to learn about such deep lore about darksiders magic, so he would be capable to make use of it in his dreams of greatness. She was not convinced, but it did made her curious about the woman in question, in her years, Ashe had came upon several interesting quotes about Sith magic, so interesting and powerful that convinced her to that upon that offer.

In the past, she heard about many strange powers, such as force blast or Sutta Chwituskak, both powerful techniques that were deadly if they ever hit their mark. Deadly enough to turn them to pure ashes. And there were even more dangerous knowledge, such as a ritual called Supernova, and Qâzoi Kyantuska. Those were spells that intrigued her, but scared her even more.

As the ship landed in the area of the castle and she came down her rusty “metal public danger”, Ashelia waited, one long item wrapped in a old rag, and a bag at the same should as she held the sword. Infusing something with the Force also made her very curious, she had tried before, but failed. As she waited, she thought if this was not a trap for her job in Korriban, or if she was wrong on not sending a signal for the castle before landing.

“She knows i’m here.”, her voice murmured to herself, in her heart she knew that, as she had no trouble hiding her own self, a gray thing gleaming in the Force, from the woman.

[member="Janick Beauchamp"]

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"I feel you downloaded way too much for my own comfort" Tamana retorted, while not feeling any pain whatsoever.

"Your brain is very fast, this is why you didn't feel any pain whatsoever. Same goes for me too. In due time, I will infuse into you the knowledge of mental data transfers"

Janick also realized that, from Tamana, she downloaded more than she bargained for, and also gained the knowledge to create a false light-side aura for herself. Yet, as is customary when people came to her for training, she knew that often people asked for either mental data transfer, alchemy or both. And those who wanted it both, typically used Drain Knowledge on her to learn alchemy. Now, she realized that another ship landed in her backyard, a ship that definitely saw better days, sure, but that nevertheless landed safely. Exactly what sort of witchy stuff [member="Princess Ashelia Solidor"] hoped to learn from Janick, she knew that she couldn't learn the whole thing in one go, unless she just wanted to use Drain Knowledge over and over. Just that she had to approach that ship cautiously: for what she knew, it could be a trap. But she did, in fact, know that there was an air of class around her: possibly someone going incognito, or she just went under attack while en route for what she knew. And yet, she did, in fact, summon the effort to greet the guest of the day before that guest could enter the castle. And met with her face-to-face.

"Her Highness, Princess Ashelia, I presume?"

 

[Ashelia Solidor]

She was the first daughter of Iedolas Aldercapt Solidor from the Nine Great Houses of Kaikielius. Born of a elvaar mother, raised as a noble in Enfer where the whole court could see her under the shadow of the Suncryst Throne, or in Villehivers where she was displayed by the commoners like a prize they would never conquer. For too long she was pampered, flattered, showered with gifts and praise, even so, Ashelia hate it her lineage and the title that she carried, and never felt comfortable when people called by the proper honorifics that her last name gave her. She had no claim for the throne, only want it to live her life in freedom, howling at the Mother moon thanking her for that and praying to find peace. Whatever that was.

“Greetings, elder.”, her voice keep a calm tone, one that seemed to come natural for her, unlike her ‘feline’ sister. “It’s just Ashelia, please. No need for any formalities.”, as she walked, the elzeri dropped her bag in the floor, the one that she was holding on her shoulder. “Quite the place you have in here, it’s a real sight for sore eyes.”, she added to her speech, making small talk was always a good way to know people, as her mind presumed the woman to be human. In a wide galaxy such as these, was hard to know.

The Vahla in her homeplanet seemed human, but were not. Even the elzeri had much in common with humes, as they call them in their native tongue, with the exceptions of their natural beauty, the hair and eyes that sometimes was pink, silver, pale, white and even a light tone of blue. And off course, her big pointy ears. That one time only, moved up down, like the ones from a rabbit, shaking her gold earrings in a metallic sound, it was a action that was hard to control, meaning that the girl was anxious.
“It’s a honor for me to be here. Thank you for having me.”

[member="Janick Beauchamp"]

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"You might have an idea of how it is in neighborhoods like these: everybody wants to have nicer things than their neighbors. It happens pretty much regardless of the residents' species, albeit the actual renditions feature highly variable doodads, often race-dependent or culture-dependent"

So, if [member="Princess Ashelia Solidor"] somehow visited the neighborhood's villas or mansions, she would realize that such a visit would supplement a trip to a museum, or a book of comparative art history. Especially since Janick knew at least one homeowner from the following races: Kitsune, Pantoran, Pau'an, Resu, Tro'zet, Twi'lek, Utai. So they were all nice to an extent, but one race's fine art is another race's gaudy. Janick's mind quickly shifted into what Ashelia came here for: learning new magicks, and, above all, mental data transfers.

"My favorite spell these days is Memory Rub, which I use mostly for infusing knowledge into other people. However, there's a word of caution with all things related to mental data transfers: don't use more bandwidth than the target's ability to process it. If you don't have any objections, Ashelia, the infusion will begin momentarily"

 

[Ashelia Solidor]

Ever since she was ‘free’ to work around the galaxy, Ashelia has seen a huge number of different species from all corners of space, but she never saw or met any of the local residents of Utapau, and never even heard of them in the past. Polite as she was, she nodded with her head, smiling and simply stating.

“Even so, is a lovely place to live.”, she was a little nervous with this things about learning magic. Real ‘witch’ magic that was going to satisfy her lust for knowledge, the Solidor was a bit scared, for she heard a long time ago, how ‘magic always comes with a price’ from the members of the Enclave, those that dabbed in that ancient and powerful art and never were the same afterwards. And when the woman said about ‘infusion’ of spells and rituals on her mind, she could not help herself from having goosebumps, and said in a calm tone of voice.

“So you're saying there is a limit of how much you can ‘infuse’ into my mind?”, walking at the woman’s side, the elzeri was thinking how much would that be. How long until she screamed like a baby because it was too much information? She had no idea, but knew she was about to find out. Iedolas was very clear when he told his aide to send her to Janick, they ordered her to learn, write everything she learned, make a book and bring it home. "I am very interested in learning how to master the art of taming a animal."

[member="Janick Beauchamp"]

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"Or rather, a limit on how fast knowledge is infused in your mind that one shouldn't cross unless one wanted to inflict pain. I'm afraid I don't know spells related to animal taming, however, but what I'm about to infuse right now into you is the knowledge of how to perform Memory Rub"

The other two constraints are about how much Force-energy one had, and in the very extreme cases of people that can infuse knowledge in others but otherwise don't know much, how much knowledge they had, although the third bottleneck typically isn't one, Janick thought, while preparing to infuse knowledge into [member="Princess Ashelia Solidor"] regarding the matter. Janick's brain was lighting up in the Force, as the infusion process began: the two have visions flashing into their minds of how the infusion process happens inside the infusee's brain, as well as to how to modify it to alter or remove some memories from other people. And also the main factors affecting the effectiveness of mental data transfer: it seemed to work better for infusion when the infusee's memory is better, but it is easier to alter or delete memories from someone with a poor memory. And finally one should not infuse, alter or delete memories faster than the target's brain can handle it, or else pain will ensue proportionately to the excess in mental bandwidth. She has come to expect Ashelia feeling dizzy once she was finished, regardless of whether Ashelia felt any pain whatsoever, as she knew that a stream of knowledge flowing as fast as the infusee's brain could absorb it took a lot of mental effort on both people's part.

"There's another spell you're going to like, that involves downloading knowledge from other people, using the dark side as well"

 

[Ashelia Solidor]

She had heard of such arts in the pasts. Skills that allowed a force user to alter, erase and even add more memories to someone's mind, which was a powerful skill for agents, slicers and even assassins. Her mouth felt dry for a moment, especially with the prospect of feeling any pain from this, not that she was not used to knowing pain, her whole life was painful enough, especially when she went to Felucia. Her back still had the scars from that little adventure.

“Hope it doesn’t hurt that much.”, her arm stood up, also delivering to her sword, wrapped in a cloak, the one that she said to infuse with magic in her letter. Not long after that, the infusion began, while Ashelia closed both her eyes, she could still feel them moving, like they were trying to search for something in the darkness.

Her own memories were like a maze to her, she went on and on trying to remember the root of that spell. Feeling Janick inside her mind, graciously adding that piece of information in the back of her brain, like she was nothing more than a droid.
‘This... is… incredible.”, her own voice was fainted, the sensation was not bad at all like when people tried to use mental tricks on you. It felt like she was floating inside a deep sea, being taken away by her own thoughts in a sea of memories.

[member="Janick Beauchamp"]

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"Drain Knowledge is about downloading stuff from other people's minds. You have to be mindful not only of the target's mental speed and of the quality of its memory, but also of its mental defenses. For both Memory Rub and Drain Knowledge, getting a feel for the target's mind is important"

[member="Princess Ashelia Solidor"] knew by now that Janick's brain operated very quickly, so there was limited potential for her to cause pain while download was underway; that pain would mostly be caused by the pain level of what's being downloaded, more than any real information overflow. The latter was what caused the pain when using a Force-powered mental data transfer if the content was painless, or if the target's mental defenses were not overwhelming to the person performing the Force-powered download. Oh... I am led to think that there would be significant long-term consequences to using mental data transfers too much, but there has been so little research thus far; for as brilliant as I might be, as fast as the minds of the other people I infused memories into may have been, there still seems to be the possibility that some long-term side effect could arise, but it seems that other regular users of mental data transfers all seem to be highly intelligent in their own right, Janick thought, while she tried to ascertain what the student of the day would be most interested in, based on what she could tell from a preliminary scan in the Force.

"If I may, I'd rather have you download what you feel you cannot learn from anyone else, or is otherwise too dangerous to learn by normal means"

 

[Ashelia Solidor]

After the information was placed inside her mind, Ashelia felt a bit numb in her knees, like she was needing a minute. It was not a bad feeling, but reminded her what deathsticks were like, except the hangover one got from using those weird drugs in Coruscant, and as the woman said to her, Ashelia concentrated in the knowledge she now had, and as Janick suggested to her, the elzeri went on to reach out her arm in front of her forehead, while her own finger began to glow with a strange pale light as she closed her eyes to concentrate.

Slowly feeling the mind of the witch in front of her, Ashelia felt like she was gently sliding her fingers over the surface of a lake. Noticing how much information resided inside that mind, and almost as instinct dictated, the girl went after a knowledge she had read about it, Qâzoi Kyantuska, a rash and more powerful form of complete mind control. Old Sith magic with such ability that could even control many individuals at the same time. ‘Impressive..’, she said while thinking how that ability was being absorbed by her own mind, and like a excited child, the elzeri began to search for more, noticing so much inside her mind, open like a library and noticing the famous arts of how to use force blast and the bolt of hatred.

“This is… fantastic… You are brilliant, Janick, brilliant.”

[member="Janick Beauchamp"]​

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"Brilliant? You just downloaded a spell that I never got the chance to use because I'd rather not cast it until I have no choice left" she told Ashelia, while that spell was a reference to Qâzoi Kyantuska.

Brilliant? There's no use hiding it, and I acknowledge the full extent of my intellectual capabilities; however, I'm aware that the one-in-a-million figure floated around the ORC Navy is really just an estimate that, even if it proved correct, would still nevertheless mean that there would be millions at my intellectual level, albeit spread across many different sectors. Then again I've never seen someone download that much knowledge in one go; sure even beginners can download one power from me on their first try, or maybe two highly related ones, but three unrelated powers requires a lot of Force-energy to download, even with the excitement of the person performing the download, Janick thought, while a little dizzy from [member="Princess Ashelia Solidor"] downloading from her for longer periods than she was used to. It was very taxing on the user's mind because the user's brain was continually absorbing knowledge while the mental data transfer was underway, but even a mind as fast as hers would still need some rest from such intensive mental data transfer. Then again, perhaps she feels dizzy because of the pain level of the content. She would be very happy to go fetch a vacutainer for the purpose of alchemizing Ashelia's sword, but she needs to issue one disclosure about the blood's salubrity.

"Before we move on to alchemizing the sword, perhaps I would like some blood sample because the alchemizing ritual requires spraying your own blood on the sword. Also, I just want to make sure the blood isn't contaminated or else you may as well be conferring venomous abilities, in which case please tell me if you desire such a thing before I proceed with the venipuncture. Don't worry, it won't require much blood"

 

[Ashelia Solidor]

As she still continued to learn from the library Janick called a mind, Ashelia thought to herself that if she had a better relationship with the Archmage, she could have learned a thing or two. The Duke, Roman once thought her the wonders of healing someone with magic, but did not went any further with his teachings, there was a unknown rivalry between the branches of the Enclave in her homeplanet. One always tried to best the other with their skills and knowledge, but they never clashed, for that would mean to break the truce they agreed when they were founded. This way, was much faster to learn, a way that made her feel like she was nothing more than a droid, that had new information download to her program.

She want it more, those spells were brilliant but there was more to learn and more to drain. Her mouth felt thirsty, like she did not drank any water for the past week, probably a strange side effect for draining so much knowledge, so much sweet and powerful knowledge to her brain at once. Her hand shaked a moment, when slowly she took her hand away from the pale face of the witch, lowering her slowly back to the side of her body, opening her eyes like it was the first time she did it after a long night sleeping, except that she felt more tired than she ever felt in her life.

“Hm?”, she humbled for a moment before realizing what Janick was saying after she stopped with the force drain. “Blood? Oh…”, thinking for a moment, Ashelia realized that she did not mentioned about the sword, or the two swords wrapped in the piece of fabric. “I want it to talk to you about that… I bought two swords, one for me and the other one for my sister.”, that was a request from her father, Iedolas gave her a small box with DNA samples from her sister and brothers in case Ashelia ever want it to track them down at his request. “I have her blood with me… But is this something you can do?”, she was going to mention about that blood, Ashelia knew very well that her sister had poison in her blood, deadly Vong like poison due to her ‘improvements’ with technology from the Yuuzhan Vong.

[member="Janick Beauchamp"]​

 

[Janick Beauchamp]

"I know it's doable" she told Ashelia before taking the vial of poisoned blood for spraying on her sister's sword.

The whole point of the owner's blood is for traceability; very useful for tracking down a stolen alchemical item when its rightful owner still lived, Janick thought, while realizing that [member="Princess Ashelia Solidor"]'s sister had, in fact, Vong venom; she could always add a pinch of Odacer-Faustin kudzu venom (which is a pretty corrosive poison) to Ashelia's blood sample after that is done. But then she started spraying the venomous blood onto the sister's blade (if Elzeri or Aevlar blood is anything like human blood, white cells also contain DNA so it's really just a supplement), while making sure that the hygienic blanket is in place, and then, once the venomous blood has been sprayed, she then proceeds to infuse spirit ichor into the blade. Thus tendrils of purple-black dark-side energy enters the blade of the sister's sword; the process feels like a plastic surgery being effected under general anaesthesia to her. Sure it does require a lot of concentration, but each item has to be alchemized individually: alchemizing items cannot be serially done, and each owner has to use its own blood to get one made.