This Subtle Knife

[Salem Ave]

The sanctuary of Iziz had been invaded. Not in any literal military sense of course, but there were interlopers within the city whose presence was not so much welcomed as tolerated. Many accommodations had been necessary since the arrival of the Hapan Prince and his men, and though Salem had adjusted his sphere of control accordingly, he could not help but resent Tristan as the unwieldy obstacle he presented.

The Prince was infuriatingly adamant about his desire to become part of court life and scarce a moment seemed to pass by without his 'perfectly shaped' nose poking into some business. There was one matter, however, to which the Prime Minister would permit no onlookers; darkness and his ample cunning would see to that.

The night-watchmen patrolling the city walls weren't aware of the shadow that moved amongst them, stealing close to the gates themselves. For just an instant, one particularly perceptive guardsman glanced towards the dark corner where Callidus stood, as if dimly aware that he was not alone - but the thought was soon dismissed and his gaze shifted, under the irresistable compulsion to look elsewhere...

[Razielle Alastor]

His attention was drawn to another shadow in the night, one that approached slowly from a distance. After a moment it was clear that the shadow moving toward him was decidedly feminine. Though a hood hung low over her eyes and her features were concealed beneath the folds of a dark cloak, it was more the sway to her walk that gave her away. When she was close enough to claim attention, but far enough away to still be mostly indistinguishable, she turned to the side, the cloak billowed just enough in the night breeze to reveal her shape, and the quick motion of her hand, beckoning him toward her. With a feline smile beneath the hood, she turned, disappearing around the corner behind her, the sound of amused laughter drifting toward the gates..

Her evenings out had become increasingly hard to come by and Anxia was wasting none of this one.. She could already hear the guardsmen signaling to his nearest companion that he was going to have a look at something 'suspicious'. He'd taken her bait, and was even now moving to follow her. Not that he would find her. Even as he was rounding the same corner in pursuit of her, she had already doubled back toward the gates, wrapped in shadow, determined to get out of the city walls with all haste.

[Salem Ave]

Iziz was well fortified. A lone oasis of 'civilization' amongst a vast wilderness, it had to be. The walls were tall and broad enough to withstand invasion; the gates were wrought from the sturdiest of metal and the guardsmen chosen to watch over them were trained to know every inch of their patrol as intimately as if it were their own armour. And yet still... there were some foes that ancient architects of the city had not reckoned against. Salem Ave was one of them. His infiltration of Iziz had gone undetected, just as his nightly escapes were.

When he scaled the walls, it was not in the manner that any ordinary man would have. He moved more like some phantom, an unnatural speed to his movements, clawing fingertips carrying him upwards. Having gained the parapet, he leapt free of the wall and into the dark wilderness below. The rush of air that followed his descent drew some attention from the patrol-man above, and though he frowned in confusion, his hand falling to the hilt sheathed at his hip, after some consideration he decided the disturbance was the fault of some wild beast roaming about below.

[Razielle Alastor]

With her back literally against the wall, Anxia moved with silent steps, keeping to the shadows at the very base of the immense walls. When she'd reached the deepest darkness to be found, within the shadowy corner of the wall and the nearest building, she removed from beneath her cloak her newest plaything.

A careful flick of her wrist sent the seemingly delicate, yet incredibly sturdy links of the chain-whip slithering up into the air, like a silver serpent rising in aggression from it's basket. It found resistance, coiling tight around the base of a parapet. Without pause, she used her strong upper body strength, crafted from years of swordplay, to pull herself quickly and silently up the wall.

Within the shadow of the very rise in the wall she dangled beneath, Anxia waited for the guard to pass, willing him to see nothing out of the ordinary.

Keep moving, there is nothing here...

When he'd moved on, she completed the climb, landing upon the top of the wall in a low crouch. Disentangling the whip, she quickly gained another hold on the limb of a tree, then dropped out of sight of the wall, into the jungle at last...

[Salem Ave]

Somewhere in the darkness below, Callidus waited. She wouldn't need eyes to find him.

There was no time to delay. For both the Prime Minister and the recently wed Princess to be absent from Iziz Palace would inspire suspicious, so it was of the utmost importance that they confine their affairs to the evening hours. Before the dawn came, they had to traverse the forest and back again, with enough respite in between journeys to complete their true task.

You have everything you need, yes?

[Razielle Alastor]

Landing with a nearly inaudible thud, she righted herself and called the length of the whip back into the confines of it's handle with a flick of her wrist. After replacing the weapon at her waist, Anxia smiled in the darkness answering the silent question in kind.

I have everything I need, Master.

The simple statement carried with it many implications, but such was their way, clever-tongued dancing around words and meanings. She had everything he had told her to bring, of course. Even if at the time some of the things had not made sense to her, she knew better than to question him. She had enough respect to trust him in all matters. He was her master in all ways. She was bound to him for all time. She had everything she needed. It was as simple as that.

Crossing through a beam of moonlight where it shone through the canopy of trees, she revealed her position, stopping just short of him, knowing that once they started moving they would not be stopping until they had reached their destination.

[Salem Ave]

Travelling by foot was the only option. A speeder or mount of any kind had the potential to draw attention, if not immediately then perhaps some days later, when the marks of their passing were noticed by the beast-riders. Light, too, was out of the question. They had only their senses to equip them, though they were fortunate in that regard, as the Force gave them the sight and speed to navigate confidently through the dark, entangling forest-land.

Their destination was a place rarely visited now. Years of propaganda concerning the perils beyond the city walls had conditioned most Onderonians into a state of blissful ignorance. First, it had been the threat of the Mandalorians which had kept them in line. Then, the faceless 'Legion'. Fear kept the wilds free of interlopers, and left Ave with plenty space to less loose his inner demons. What better place to unleash them than Fortress Kira?

The stronghold had been abandoned since the years of the Freedon Nadd uprising, after which tales of ghosts, curses and all manner of paranoid speculation had kept even the barbarous Mandalorian wild-men at bay. Vines had overgrown many of its walls, but time and wear had dulled very little of the fort's magnificence. It was Adraudia's by birth-right, but on Salem's advice she had not chosen to restore it to its former state – or worse still, turn it into some kind of historical monument. No, the Prime Minister had far grander purposes planned for Fortress Kira...

[Razielle Alastor]

The closer they came to their destination, the more excited Anxia grew. Considering what she'd been instructed to bring with her, (which was carefully stowed away in a pack, presently slung across her shoulders beneath her cloak), she had a fairly good idea about what they would be doing this night. It was something she'd wanted for a long time.. Of course, bowing to the wishes of her master, she'd accepted his word when he had told her before that she was not yet ready. The creation of one's ones lightsaber was not something to be undertaken lightly. The delay in the construction was not due to any lack of skill with such weaponry on her part. She was a renowned swordswoman, able to pick up new forms and master them quickly. Rather it was her skills in the Force which her master had wanted more... refined before the weapon could be made. She would be pouring her very essence, her will and desires, into the lightsaber as it was made. Even she could now feel that she was truly ready.

Of course, she knew the identity of the overgrown fortress before them. Her lessons in Onderon's history had included a detailed description of the events that had taken place at Forterss Kira, and some of the other much neglected structures, concealed by both time and nature, that were to be found within the jungle. Though.. she never been here before. Anxia stared up at the fortress with a sense of spellbound awe. She was going to emerge changed, enhanced...

She gazed askance at her master, waiting obediently for his instruction..

[Salem Ave]

Though it had not seen human intrusion for many decades, the beasts of Onderon had not abandoned Fortress Kira entirely. A short distance between the tall archway through which Anxia and Callidus entered the fort, a pack of Cannok were examining the area, their eye-stalks swivelling here and there. One caught sight of the two human figures approaching and sounded a grunt, to warn its pack-mates. With a series of chirps and screeches, they scuttled past the two Sith, out into the comparable safety of the wilderness.

“Pests,” Salem muttered.

Beyond the antechamber, there were no other signs of life. If there had ever been anything within the fortress which merited the beasts curiosity, it had long-since decayed. Decades of disuse had seemingly left just about every part of the compound in a lifeless state. Though security measures would have once prevented two unannounced visitors from strolling into the inner keep, there was now very little to hinder their progress. Doors stood open, gun-turrets squatted silent and ineffectual. There was a stillness about the place, but it was not a peaceful quiet. It felt like the reprieve that often came before the storm.

Turning his head very slightly, the illusion of his death's head mask shifting in time, Callidus regarded his apprentice.

“...do you feel that?”

[Razielle Alastor]

"Mm-hmm..", she answered quietly, her senses keenly focused on... whatever it could be possibly lurking in the darkness with them, if anything. The place was eerie by nature. Old, and avoided by all but the most stoic of souls...

Even though nothing untoward had yet shown itself, Razielle too felt that the sudden stillness of the interior of the fortress was somehow oppressive. Her fingers inched to her side, and up the small of her back to curve around the hilt of her weapon, in readiness, should the place present them with some manner of unexpected resistance.

Although, she was not entirely certain that any such surprise would be a corporeal presence! Many battles had been fought here, many lives ended. Those in opposition of the Onderon royal house, as well as those who were of it's bloodlines. Blood that could be traced back to Freedon Nadd himself! If the place was indeed haunted, as it was supposed by the more common, there were no shortage of reasons for such a disturbance.

She eyed the turrets cautiously, as if she expected a round of hostile fire to start blasting them at any moment.

[Salem Ave]

“This is where Onderon as we know it began... where Adraudia's ancient ancestors were married, uniting the tribes of the Beast-Lord with the descendants of Freedon Nadd. ”

Turning slowly to take in the full extent of the chamber, Callidus pressed his lips together for a moment in a tight, thin smile.

“Such a monumental edifice... with such a bloody history. What better place could there be to host your final challenge as my apprentice?”

[Razielle Alastor]

Although her attention was still claimed by their awe inspiring surroundings, instinct still prickled along Anxia's skin at his words. A final challenge? And then what? Her profile turned toward him in question, one brow arched quizzically. She was intrigued, if a bit intimidated - the sensation sharpened her senses, making her feel even more alive.

"Yes, my Master..." She lowered her head in a nod of assent.

Years had passed now, since he had first begun her training. She had been little more than a child then. With him she had come so very far. Of course, they had farther to go yet before their mutual desires in life would be fully achieved, but if he felt ready for her to give him a showing...

"I will, of course, endeavor to please..."

[Salem Ave]

“A time will come when we require more than cunning and guile to out-do our enemies. Your training with a sword will put you in good stead for this, but a traditional blade... it will not do.”

Striding further forward, Callidus allowed his senses to expand beyond the room in which they were stood – to the many hidden levels which lay beneath the Fortress. It was somewhere, beneath them, that Razielle would begin her challenge.

“You must craft a lightsaber, Anxia.”

[Razielle Alastor]

Without pause, she again nodded. "As you like..." In this, she was not only obedient, she found herself eager to acquire such a weapon and begin the process of mastering it.

Razielle had always been considered to be something of an artist where bladed weaponry was concerned. It had always been so. Each technique that she been trained in, every strike and posture had come to her naturally. Her body and mind moving as one, in fluid control. She had no doubt that this would be the same..

..But she had never created a weapon of her own before.. Certainly not something so technical, or so entwined with her own destiny. Therein lay the true challenge.

[Salem Ave]

In his life, Salem had crafted two sabers, each under very different circumstances: the first as a Jedi and the second as... someone far less easily defined. Yet, for their differences, each occasion was marked by the same sense of endeavor and strife. Though Razielle's experience would be just as taxing, he could not begin to imagine exactly what it would be like. Such things were private, sacred even – a solitary ritual to be shared only with the Force itself.

“Go, then. Let your senses guide you to where it must be done. This is something you must do.. alone.”

[Razielle Alastor]

Bowing her head, she turned to depart and do as her master wished. Adjusting the pack slung across her shoulders, she began her journey deeper into the darkness of Fortress Kira. Her footsteps carried her up a wide and crumbling staircase, cut from native rock and covered with untold years worth of sprawling vines and lichen alike. Graceful even in the gloom, Anxia traipsed over them, her boots crushing the delicate fungus beneath them, stepping over the twisting masses of vines where they lay.

She traversed a barren hall, occupied only by the echo of her own approach and whispers of the past. Stopping in it's center, she surmised that it had four exits. One of which she had just passed through. One before her, and two on either side. All presumably leading somewhere deeper within the fortress.

This was when her physical senses would no longer be of use to her. She must rely on her instinct to guide her to what must be accomplished. Closing her eyes, she reached out with her feelings, letting her desire for her future, their future...and her desire to enhance her own power lead her.

She started down the path to her left..

[Salem Ave]

Though he did not follow her in body, Callidus was with Anxia in spirit as she explored the abandoned halls of the Fortress. His feet carried him elsewhere, to other chambers whose contents lay covered in heavy blankets of dust and shadow. Everywhere, there were echoes of life both material and otherwise, the former evidenced by up-turned furniture and the like, and the latter by faint echoes of the dead that permeated the energy of the Force within. Eyes narrowed, Ave listened but heard only a distant whining, a feeble sound that deserved no more than a passing thought. Dismissing the idle curiosity, he returned his focus to his apprentice...

[Razielle Alastor]

Her path downward curled beneath the foundations of the bygone fortress. The folds of her cloak billowing softly behind her, Anxia's stride never broke it's determined cadence, even as she stepped over the jagged teeth of uneven flagstones where they had been pushed up from the crumbling mortar.

Bypassing rooms to either side of her path, she ignored the feeling that she was being observed. Whatever lurked in the shadowed alcoves was either not of this world, or likely were creatures of the jungle overhead who had stumbled into the depths of this place to make dens. Neither concerned her. She moved on..

Before her now, the path had crumbled away entirely, sloping downward out of sight. The collapse looked to have happened some time ago, as there was no sign of any recent trauma to the area and it was long covered over with dust and debris. Something cold permeated the vicinity beneath. It's chill touch leaked out and pooled around her feet, spiraling up her legs, pulling her forward..

Whatever it was, it wanted her to move forward.. She sensed danger, and darkness, but she feared neither. She followed her instincts, brazenly making her way down to join whatever awaited her..

[Salem Ave]

In the antechamber, Callidus knelt in silence.

“What do you feel, my apprentice?”

“I feel...”

“Don't think about your answer. I want to know what's in your heart - your soul - not your brain.”

With his head bowed, for a moment the boys jaw became tight as he suppressed the urge to sigh. The fingers he held outstretched in the air twitched, lingering like the unschooled hands of a fledging pianist, anxious at the thought of his clumsy fingertips drawing forth clumsy notes.

“I feel.. a force, like magnetism. There's.. tension, as if the individual parts are trying to become one.”

Someone touched his shoulder, fingertips curling into the coarse nerf-wool of his robe. The hand squeezed, as if to say: well done.

“Apart, they are all of so little consequence... but with your will to shape them, they can become something more. Your presence alone inspires in them a new awareness of purpose, an impetus they would otherwise never have known. You have it in you to turn these broken remnants into something amazing, Salemescro: you can give them meaning, if you can only realize how they fit together, how they connect...”

[Razielle Alastor]

Light and sound seemed to be unnaturally obscured in this place, that was her first thoughts as her booted legs slid downward into the opening split through the fortress floor. Even the scrape of shifting gravel seemed prematurely silenced.

Her second thought was that she no longer felt quite alone. The feeling had nothing to do with any of the jungle beasts that may have be lurking about. This presence was more sentient. So long as it did not interfere with her reason for being here, she saw no reason to engage whatever shared the space with her.

Removing the pack from her shoulder, she reached inside and retrieved a wrist-mounted light, turning it onto it's dimmest setting. She did not attach the light to her wrist, but rather set in into a groove in the carved walls, a niche that seemed to be waiting for a torch, but she had brought none with her, the flash light would have to do. she took account of her surroundings. The chamber was obviously constructed at some older time than the rest of the fortress, it seemed possible that the fortress had even been constructed around it, but she could not say for certain. It could have been a trick of the eerie light, but she was certain that the walls were adorned with some of the same symbols she and Adraudia had uncovered in scouring tomes of old..

Moving to the center of the room, she sank to her knees on the floor and removed the rest of the collected items from her bag, Components that she only had a basic knowledge of how to assemble, crystals that had come to be in her possession through Fate, and the will to see it all completed.

[Salem Ave]

For a long time, he did not speak, did not move. Though the area was silent, it was not still. The cool night air tugged gently at the fabric of his robes and tickled the hairs on the back of his neck. Yet, the fragrant night breeze could not claim his attention. He would not be distracted by anything, not now.

With his mind clear, he felt the ebb and flow of the Force around his master as she stood nearby, and the more insistent pull of its energies as that circled the focusing crystal and its sibling components. There was no doubt that they were meant for one another. He had gathered them all himself, hand guided by more than what the untrained eye assessed as suitable. Now, it seemed his hand could do more than linger above it all, as if fearful of what he might soon be responsible for creating.

“...I don't understand,” he confessed at last in a frustrated groan, his eyes opening to glare down at the scattered jumble of pieces and parts, looking like so much discarded scrap in the dim starlight. “I'm not a mechanic. How should I know where to begin?” His eyes lifted to meet those of his master, his mouth set into a defiant line.

“Not a mechanic?” she echoed, pale hair falling away from her face as she tilted her head backwards, as though she were examining the boy knelt before her. The moonlight gave her a pale aura and made her even more like a specter than usual, her bloodless flesh luminous. Salem held her gaze for as long as he could, before the look in her eyes forced him to glance away.

“You are a not a wise-man, and yet you have offered counsel to quarreling ministers. You are not a surgeon, and yet you have mended fatal wounds. The Force has directed your hand a hundred times before and it will do so hundred times again. It is the unifying current. Let it flow through you... let it flow.”

[Razielle Alastor]

She hardly knew where to begin, though it did not stop her. Silently, she picked up the handful of crystals, letting them tumble over her gloved palm as she inspected each of them. They had been removed from the sword that had been first prize in the fencing competition at the Festival of Four Moons. (http://sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?t=17365) She had not won it herself, and had persuaded her newly betrothed, Tristan to give it to her as a wedding present. The original stones that she now possessed had all been removed, replaced with priceless black diamonds from a now devastated planet. As her gift to him she'd had them set and the weapon restored to him, but that was no longer important now.

Knelt before the other pieces that she must somehow make whole, Anxia was once more daunted by the task set before her. No guide. No teacher. No guarantee. Her only option was to think back on all of her training so far. To think back on her master's lessons and what he would tell her to do now. In the small space, stripped of any stimulus of the world outside, it was suddenly as if she could feel him there with her. His aura surrounding her own, strengthening her. She didn't know if it was real, or just some illusion that this unnatural place was using to cloud her mind, but she had no choice, she continued to follow her instincts.

Her glance rested briefly on some of the dissembled innards. Some were so small she was not even sure she would be able to grasp them, and then all at once, she just knew. The Force.

I must let it flow through me. I must let it guide my hands.

She picked up the alloy cylinder that would house the mechanics and serve as her hand grip, sparing it only a moments thought and then began. Tiny instruments lifting into the air, to assist her as she began attaching the power cell.

Lips twisting in pleasure, she gave herself over to whatever forces wanted to guide her. Consciously focusing her own will, and her desire to serve her master, into the weapon itself as it was being given life.

[Salem Ave]

Bit by bit, each piece found its place. Each component locked into its rightful place, from the smallest to the largest, beginning at the centre of the sabers circuitry and expanding outwards to enfold the delicate inner-workings of the weapon in sturdier layers. Last of all came the cylinder itself, a crude pipe of metal that the boy had fashioned from salvaged scrap metal. It had looked like such a useless, misshapen thing before yet when his eyes set upon it now he saw how changed it was. It had been nothing and now he had given it purpose.

With a swell of pride, he reached out to where the newly-fashioned lightsaber hovered in the air and seized hold. The grip felt cold and firm against his sweat-slick palm, yet as his thumb brushed across the ignition switch he felt a flicker of warmth within, a glimmer of life that responded to his touch.

“It knows you. The crystal senses its master,” the woman whispered, though her voice seemed so close that she might have been close enough for her breath to tickle the gooseflesh on the back of his neck. With only a touch, the hilt roared to life...

In the antechamber of Fortress Kira, Darth Callidus rose to his feet, the sky-blue beam of his blade lancing through the shadows to shed new light onto that which had lain in darkness for centuries uncounted.

[Razielle Alastor]

Awareness prickled along her now bared fingertips. She had selected the crystal that had both appealed most to her, and which resonated best with her. It could have been a chunk of the darkest amethyst found, so like polished obsidian it seemed. Even what little light there was to be found in the chamber seemed to be absorbed into the stone. Once sufficient power flooded the saber's crystal energy chamber, she suspected that the illuminated plasma would be of a violaceous hue.

It's hilt, which she was even now finishing, consisted of two overlapping layers of tempered platinum - one highly polished to a mirror like sheen, and the other equally as regal in it's more primitive state. So like her it was... She had poured everything of herself into it's making. Her desires, ambitions and personality - even the flaws in her often fractured nature were all now inherent in the weapon. From now own they would be eternally bound, she and this most symbolic blade. It was more than just a weapon. It was a testament to her skill as an apprentice of the her master. It was her pride..

..and with the last scratch of a carefully etched mark along it's very base, it was finished.

With awed reverence, she lay it before her complete and untried. As she had been, long ago. Like her it would be strengthened with time and training.. She reached for it and the moment her fingers curled around it's beloved form she could feel the immediate connection, and smiled. Without care for the discarded items she was leaving behind, Anxia rose and started back the way she had come.

He was waiting for her..

[Salem Ave]

As he turned to face the darkened hallway she would return through, the blue blade threw long shadows against the chambers walls, where they stood as a congregation of lank and misshapen figures in silhouette, an eager audience for what was to come. When Callidus called upon the power that was so rightfully his, it almost seemed as if they bent towards him, as though they too felt the irresistable pull that existed between master and apprentice.

[Razielle Alastor]

In one pass of blue light across the hallway, only still.. empty space was revealed. In the next moment the arc of blue touched upon the same spot and it was occupied by a dark feminine shape.

Anxia stood with her head down, her hair having fallen forward slightly obscuring her features. Her gaze rested on what was in her hand. Once more gloved, her fingers were wrapped adoringly around the hilt of her weapon. She remained unmoving for a long moment before finally, she looked up, slowly.. Her eyes were drawn unerringly to his, even across the darkened space between them. Bound. Connected. She held his gaze for a time, her thumb hovering just above the activation switch of the blade, feeling it's longing to show itself, to prove itself..

So like her..

The silence was pulled apart by a sudden hiss, the blue light that had been bisecting the fortress chamber was suddenly joined by a deeper, violet light..

[Salem Ave]

With measured movements, Callidus faced his apprentice side on, his blade's beam pointed to the ground in a single-handed low guard. Pale blue light pooled around the Arkanian, its icy hue painting his flesh with an almost cadaverous pallor.

“Come.”

[Razielle Alastor]

Inseparably connected as she was to her master, she could not have denied the command had she wanted to. The distance between them was crossed in few steps. Her eyes remained watchful, alert. Her grip upon her weapon curled, adjusting naturally, even as she stopped her stride.

There was at least some small part of her that wanted to loose Anxia on the fortress itself, ignorant of instruction with the new weapon. To simply hack and destroy her way through the building, and whatever happened upon her.

Restraint kept her from giving in to such childish folly, but the temptation was there.

[Salem Ave]

He sensed... caution in her, or perhaps restraint. Fear did not come easily to Razielle, and so he suspected the latter to be true, in which case she would be pleased to know what her master expect of her. Without warning, he struck out for her with a back-handed horizontal swipe that would cleave the head from her shoulders if she didn't react in time.

[Razielle Alastor]

It was reflexive. Her own blade rose in answer to the sudden motion, automatically. The resounding clash of the joined weapons ripped through the air with the devastation of a crash of lightning. As they hummed aggressively against each other, Anxia's gaze searched her master's for a moment, one brow arched in question.

So much for instruction. Shoving away from his blade, she backed up a step into a defensive stance. A smile played about her lips, as if to say..

As you like.

[Salem Ave]

“You take to it well,” Salem observed, when she drove his saber away as if she had been wielding the saber all her life. It had always seemed as if she had some preternatural gift for swordsmanship. “Now.. attack,” he commanded, eager to see how she would adapt to the differences between her own, hand-fashioned blade and those she had been trained with from childhood.

[Razielle Alastor]

Rotating her wrist, she took measure of the difference in weight between this weapon, and the much heavier design she was used to and of the way it hummed through the space before her, rather than cutting through it with the tang of metal.

Instantly deciding she liked the subtle little differences, she moved to strike, her body adapting, fast and light of step, into a favored form she had already mastered with the sword. Rather than the heavy handed swings expected from a rapier, her attacks came swift, as from a blade meant to slice flesh apart rather than thrust through it. As she moved, she perceived that the new blade anticipated her defense and attacks.

Her will had truly been imbued into the weapon.

Yet, for all of her famed speed, none of her strikes landed. In turn, each was caught with a violent hiss against the blade of her master. Freezing into a defensive, watchful position with both hands curled about the hilt of her own weapon, Anxia held it close to her, at shoulder height, watching Callidus..

[Salem Ave]

His form was strong yet fluid, a melding of lessons from two masters who had each favored entirely opposite styles. Yet, it was not his intention to overwhelm her in an instant. If that had been so, a simple disarm was all that was necessary. When she squared up a defensive stance, Callidus lowered his saber to his side once more. Upon speaking, his tone was matter-of-fact.

“Why can't you strike me?”

[Razielle Alastor]

"Can't...?", she asked carefully.

Holding the defensive pose, Anxia's footsteps rotated as she circled her master in the darkness, carefully planning her next movements. It was obvious in the way she held herself that she was tightly strung, ready to spring into action, and yet she wasn't. Not yet.

"Who says I can't?", she asked him, almost too sweetly.

Feeling more confidant with the weapon, once more she spun into action, a maelstrom of motion, that in spars of the past had confused her opponents, claiming their concentration. She did not hope to so confuse her master, only to buy a second to.... That was it!, the opening she was seeking. With a look of triumph, her violet blade cut through the space between them in a horizontal path, cleaving off the lower half of his shirt, which fluttered to the ground like a surrendering flag.

Spinning her blade before her back into her starting position, she smiled, clearly pleased with both herself, and the view.

[Salem Ave]

No smile curved Callidus's lips, and he did not spare a glance for his now bared flesh. His head lowered as he regarded his apprentice, pale eyes darkened almost unnaturally. “You fight without anger, Anxia,” he said, his voice sharper than before. As he twisted his saber in a criss-crossing flourish, the blade snarling with each revolution. “You are Sith – show me your passion.”