A Scythe For Reaper Man
It had been a long time since I'd been in the presence of Matukai Master Veskasa Jansen.
My inner flame had gone from a torch to a bonfire. I'd developed an awareness of the galaxy and my place in it. I'd developed the next thing to an immunity to poisons and made myself faster, stronger, tougher, able to handle intense extremes of temperature with ease.
Okay, fine, that one's still tricky, but that's what protective clothing is for.
I'd become a force to be reckoned with in combat, to the point of winning in hand to hand single combat with a mumuu.
Okay, okay, I'd cheated and thrown a spear into it first, but it was still single combat with a huge beast far larger than myself.
I'd devised a means of healing myself and others with the Force.
By every standard except two I qualified as a Matukai Adept.
The first was that I hadn't built a wan-shen, something Master Veskasa told me she'd help me with once I met the other standard.
That being that I had to beat her in a sparring match.
The bottom dropped out of my stomach after she said that. "I've never come close."
"You'd also never come close to being completely at ease in a freezer, never come close to kicking a hole in a beast several times your own size, and never come close to healing anyone without medicine. Besides, I'm sure you picked up a few surprises with the Kaleesh."
I dropped into a comfortable stance. "I suppose you're right. Most of those surprises aren't terribly useful when fighting something you have no interest in killing though."
Veskasa dropped into her own stance, beckoned me forward. "No need to force me down. Just out of the ring."
I sprinted straight at her, my lunging strike caught and twisted, throwing me out of the ring and onto the mat.
"Again. That has to be the most straightforward approach I've seen," Veskasa began.
I picked myself up, got back in the ring, stepped just outside her striking range, started circling. She circled back, and I tried to guide her out of the ring. It almost worked, except when her foot hit the edge, she seemed to spring forward and throw a series of blows at me I could only barely keep up with, forcing me back and back again until I'd gone out of the ring.
"Again. I'm not so suggestible that you can just walk me out," she continued.
My mind kept racing. How did you win when you'd lose a direct fight and an all-offensive approach didn't work?
I thought back to the Mumuu.
When you can't go straight at the problem and you can't nudge things the way you want, you take a new angle. You come at it from a different pathway, strike from a new vector.
I found my way back to the ring space and pulled my mask from my pocket, putting it on. I didn't give Veskasa any time to adjust to my new face and how little it offered for predicting my moves. I raced at Veskasa again, except instead of lunging at her I dropped into a slide and scissor-kicked her legs out from under her and then trapped her legs, pulling her down before leaning backwards into a backward roll, throwing her at the peak of that roll backwards, out past the ring and onto the mat.
Veskasa picked herself up off the mat with a smile. "Adaptableness and the ability to handle problems without being overwhelmed are Matukai traits, and you've shown them. Today, Riphath, I would be honored to help you build your Wan-Shen and name you a Matukai Adept."
"Thank you. I'm aware that most Matukai go for a glaive. Given the mask from the Kaleesh and the dark green robe you've mentioned was a signature of the Matukai? I'm curious how familiar you are with the war scythe." If the wan-shen had to be glaive-shaped, that was fine. If I could add battlefield intimidation to my repertoire, looking like the very incarnation of death come to take the souls of our enemies? Well, if nothing else, it would probably boost my confidence, which was still more than a little shaky with the mumuu and Veskasa.
I couldn't quite read the expression on Veskasa's face. "You've come a long way from the frightened medic. I think we can do that. It's very similar to a glaive anyway, except for the curve of the blade." She sounded amused, but I couldn't tell.
She led me to a crafting room and guided me into some sort of crafting trance. I don't remember much. Flashes here and there. An unfolding haft, a crescent shape of metal at its end, pointed along the line of the haft rather than perpendicular to it like a farming scythe. The whole weapon from butt end to tip of the blade was awash in my inner flame, strong with it, and yet without diminishing the flame within me.
"I name you a Matukai Adept, Riphath. You will learn more of the Force, but I can only teach you the fundamentals of the Matukai. The rest, you will need to learn on your own."
I nodded. I'd hoped to learn more. I'd only scratched the surface after all, and I felt like there was more out there, waiting for me.
"Worry not, Adept Riphath. I've asked a favor of a friend of mine. When you are next able to learn, go see Tyro Torwin and learn the way of the Blazing Chain. It should be a good fit for your fire-based understanding of the Force within you."
