Mar stood in a very,
very large and open room. It reminded her of a hanger bay, but the walls, floors and ceiling were broken up into a grid. The only decor to the room was a light yellow line around the edge of each plate the room was made of, suggesting they could pop out for whatever reason.
It hadn't taken long for her to find her way here. She stood out a bit as an outsider, somebody who didn't know their way around. Once a passing Knight questioned her, word was sent for where she would go and instead of a meeting room she found
this.
The platform she stood on was raised three meters off the floor, making her blink. "I don't get it."
"That's alright. This is a test, of sorts."
The voice didn't seem to come from anywhere in particular. Mar rolled her shoulders, trying to relax and taking a deep breath, exhaling slowly. "What
kind of test?"
"Reach me."
A panel flipped open at the other end of the hanger bay, revealing a door near the top of the wall. Parts of the wall and floor popped out, creating a parkour course with repulsorlifts. She could see the path she was
supposed to take, but at the same time, acrobatics weren't something they'd covered a lot.
"Heh." She shook her head. Test, indeed.
She let her mind relax, going into the semi-fugue state that came with letting the Force flow into the space her thoughts had been. What was a sense of quiet blankness became intuition. She jogged forward from the platform and jumped, landing on the first lift and running across it, throwing herself at the vertically placed sidewall next to it. She grabbed the top of the panel-
And was unceramoniously dumped onto her ass, finding the panels in the floor had some give. It hurt, but not nearly as much as a solid floor would have.
The impact knocked the wind out of her and for a moment all she could do was wheeze, curled up into the fetal position.
"Not by shimmying. Run along the wall, holding yourself in place with the Force. Use it to boost your jumping, throwing yourself upward. In your own good time."
Slowly Mar pushed herself up, her ribs aching and her back
screaming as she got up off the floor, then climbed the ladder to the starting platform. She didn't try again right away, taking a few minutes to recover.
Again, she ran and jumped, keeping pace as she threw herself at the vertical wall. This time she kicked off it, using one hand to direct a 'pull' towards her with the Force, pinning her against the wall as she did it. At the other end she dropped, landing on the third platform, which dipped and then sprang up, launching her into the air.
Easily fifteen meters off the floor, a small part of her animal brain panicked at the imminant reinstatement of gravity. The other part of her, the part being directed by the Force, told her to kick her leg sideways, causing her to spin. Halfway through it she saw the handle on the upside-down platform above, grabbing it just as she began to swing down again, then letting go and allowing her downward momentum to become forward momentum. She grabbed the edge of the doorway, feet against the wall, then pulled herself up and into it.
It let to a small service corridor with a single computer interface, which was currently blank. The next room was similar to the first one but shaped as a vertical cylinder. When the platforms detached from the walls to make a climbing ladder upwards, Mar
groaned. It was Ilum all over again.
"Something wrong?"
"No, mysterious disembodied voice. I've just done this before and it kind of sucked. I suspect it's going to suck even more without climbing gear."
"Hah."
No other reply came and she grumbled to herself, beginning the climb. The panels were covered in jutting bits of pipe or handholds, forcing her to freeclimb her way up. When she got about 1/3 of the way up the chamber, the platforms at the bottom flipped, revealing a crash mat. That made her feel a little better, mostly because her hands were a bit tired, so she hooked her knee over a pipe and held herself there by her legs, letting her arms hang and trying to shake life back into her fingers.
"Tired hands? We'll work on that. Don't worry, you're not being timed."
"Mmm." Mar grunted softly, curled her fingers and shook them out, then began to climb again.
At the top of the cylinder was a free-hanging rope, the climbing surfaces stopping on the wall opposite the door she was trying to get to. Holding herself there with one hand, she reached out, focusing on the rope. As she did on Ilum she yanked it to herself, grabbing it and finding a surprising amount of grip, then swinging across the top of the chamber into the door, stepping in lightly.
The door led to a
third chamber, the platforms already deployed. This one was a little different in that the door at the end was larger and somebody stood in front of it. Their hood was up, so all she could make out was Generic Jedi Person watching her.
"Let me guess, you're the voice?"
"Perceptive of you. Make it across this chamber."
She sighed, taking a close look around. No climbing surfaces at all, nothing like the previous two rooms. She ran and jumped to the first platform, which dipped and then sprang back up to throw her into the air. She rose up above a vertical platform just above her, then sprung off it just as her upward momentum began to reverse.
This feels like flying, she thought to herself. She knew she ought to be nervous, that what she was doing was reckless, but she trusted her instincts. She'd seen the kind of gymnastics Fenet was capable of and could remember wondering how she did it. Now she knew. Using the Force to clear the obstacles felt like walking with extra steps, she just
knew what she had to do.
As she came back down, she hit the next platform which again dipped, springing her back up while her momentum kept her going forward. She could see she was going to land on the platform this person was standing on, but realized she'd never accounted for
falling.
Trust in the Force. In much the same way she had when wallrunning, she 'pulled', her body weight hitting the platform with a fraction of the force it should have at terminal velocity. She landed lightly, shocking herself into bouncing twice with normal jumping before her body caught up with the fact it wasn't smashed against the floor.
"Very nicely done. Fenet's trained you well."
"Fenet hasn't trained me much in this stuff at all. So'duun only showed me a little." She was panting slightly, out of breath from exertion. "So, did you have fun watching me bounce around?"
The hooded figure reached up and pulled it down, revealing a woman with a humanoid face but bright, golden-yellow eyes with a slit pupil. Her face wasn't flat, a light emphasis on her brow that made her look a little angry, even though Mar didn't sense anything like that from her. Her nose was T-shaped, curved ears sticking out the side of her head.
"If it's not rude to ask, what are you?" Mar tilted her head.
"I'm a
cathar. My name is Nyrellis. Is Mar a shortened version of anything?"
"Marenna. I don't like the full name so I don't use it."
She nodded slowly. "I'll remember that. I'm going to be your new teacher. If you really had very little training, I'm curious how you navigated that so easily."
"I didn't."
"Oh?" Nyrellis tilted her head. "Looked like it to me."
"No, I mean, I wasn't making decisions. I just let the Force direct me with a vague idea of what I needed to do, once I got it. The last bit with the fall was pure improvision. I've never done that before, I just didn't wanna splat."
"Impressive. I was told you have a knack for learning, but I didn't quite believe it. How well do you do with meditation?"
"If you mean meditation on my feelings? Okay. I don't feel like I have any lingering issues. I've kinda squared them away in my head the way I like."
"What do you mean?" Nyrellis gestured, leading Mar through the larger door into a stone hallway beyond. The floor was durasteel, but the hall itself was carved stone with braziers for open flames, giving it a very medieval look.
"I can be angry about things, it's how I deal with it. I can feel strongly about things but at the center of myself is
myself and I don't feel like my emotions drive my actions. They power the hyperdrive, they don't steer the ship."
"You use your emotions to use the Force?" Her voices gentleness belied the weight of the question.
"Not really. I feel like I'm more of a conduit, more like..." She struggled to find an analogy. "Like a kyber, but the Force is the energy and the shape of the blade is my intent. Does that make sense?"
"It does." The woman smiled, inwardly relieved. "Do you have a favorite part of your training regime?"
"Lightsabers."
"You like to fight?"
"Are you kidding?" Mar stopped for a moment, looking at her. "It's the most fun thing
ever. I mean, I've only been on one really panicky fight, but I've done lots of sparring and I love it." She started walking again, moving to catch up to her. "What about you, Master Nyrellis?"
"Call me Nyri. Everyone else does." She made a dismissed gesture with one hand, flicking her ears. "I think I see why Master Charro asked me to meet you. I'm a fan of lightsaber work as well."
Mar grinned in a predatory kind of way. "Yeah? You good?"
Nyri chuckled quietly. "Are
you?"
"Only one way we'll ever find out, you know." Mar stuck her hands in the pockets of her pants. It was the same baggy ones she had on Nar Shaddaa. She'd ditched the makeup, but she found she liked the clothes.
"Oh my. Just met me and already challenging me to a spar?" Nyri smiled, but it wasn't friendly in the way a human smile was. It showed teeth. Sharp teeth. "I think I like you. You're on kid, but first, I'd like to go down to the lightsaber workshops and have a look at your weapon. That your design?"
"Yeah. Fenet liked to build things, she has this really awesome drafting table. It took me a couple weeks to design it the way I liked, I just used the stuff we had on-hand on the ship to build it."
"Where'd you get the crystal?"
"Ilum, same as Fenet."
Nyri stopped, turning to look at her strangely. "You were able to go on a spirit quest to find a kyber crystal
before you were trained in agility?"
"Yes? I just used climbing claws and grappling hook."
Nyri didn't say anything for a moment, staring at her. "How old are you?"
"I probably turned fifteen somewhere along the way since I joined
Light's Touch. I'm not sure when my birthday is compared to the standard galactic calender. I grew up as a castaway."
"But you learn very fast, so you've adapted well."
Mar nodded to her in reply.
Nyri gestured to her. "Come on. The more I talk to you, the more I wanna learn."
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