Angelique's Training II: Rage Of Blood

[Jeseth Cloak]

The sky rumbled with the sound of incoming rain outside of The Sith Palace. It had been five cycles since the training session where Jeseth had nearly killed Angelique. The sky was set with overcast, flashes of lightening cutting across it and striking at the very top of the palace. The training ground gates were just before him, but he would be engaging her in a different exercise today, and the training grounds were too closed in for it to be successful. I await you, my apprentice...

[Angelique Rien]

::Her bare feet moved absently over the ground as Angelique waltzed towards the grounds. A soft humming left her mouth on occasion, making it appear as though she had lost all touch with reality as her veils of skirt twirled over her legs. Her eyes, though barely open, kept a constant watch on all around her. She make act as a child, but her instincts were sharp for danger.

A small prick hit against her stomach and she stilled her dancing, her wings folding in tight to her back as she walked sullenly to her master, her head constantly bowed. She chewed at her lip for a moment and kneeled, drawing up her breath to recite the words she'd carefully put together earlier::

"I-..I am here, Master. I am sorry for the mishap of our last session, and come here willing to do as you ask me."

[Jeseth Cloak]

"The Dark Side does not forgive failure. Take control of it, or it will take control of you." He held out his gloved hand, helping her up. It was cold and lifeless. An artificial replacement; a gift of the Dark Side... As she got to her feet, she could feel the muscles in her throat constricting slightly. Jeseth looked into her eyes deeply.

"When we are burn, most of us are taught morals and standards that society considers to be the measure of normality. It's usually when we stop to examine ourselves closely that we find there is something darker within us than that which we are ideally supposed to have... something that pushes us to embrace the forbidden. Anger, Revenge, Jealousy, Sex, Addiction... Then are not those things that we desire, regardless of what we've been taught, the true measure of our selves?"

Angelique still couldn't breath, but something Jeseth's gaze mesmerized her; kept her completely focused on nothing but his words. "What do you desire, Angelique? Power, Revenge, Love, Justice?" Her trachea was released, and Jeseth's eyes averted. She realized now how much she had desperately needed to breath. "Don't be fooled and blanketed by your surroundings. A true Sith cannot be measured by mortal standards..."

[Angelique Rien]

::Angelique coughed slightly, her lungs making a clumsy attempt to regain lost air. She looked up at the man, silent for a long moment. Her eyes, normally holding a distant fog, were for the first time, seeing the world around her. A soft giggle left her mouth as she looked down to her hands, the veil of her sleeve drifting in a short whisp of air. She regained her child-like movements, her voice hushed as if she were being scolded::

"I want none of those things... I only want to play."

[Jeseth Cloak]

"Then play you shall..." He made a circular motion with his hand, bringing it down towards the floor. A rock crawled out of the dirt, sitting in the crater it had made coming up. "Lift it, and try to hit me with it. If you can find more of them, then use those too. If you can hit me I'll give you a reward... Is that to your liking?"

[Angelique Rien]

::A small grin ran over her lips as Angelique looked up at Jeseth for a moment. She tilted her head and crouched down to stare at the rock. Her mind twirled and spun around in her head as images of the rock moving buzzed about. After several minutes she growled in frustration, her wings giving a small flap.

She nestled on her feet and again looked at the rock, concentrating more on it than she ever had something in her life.

The stone slowly flicked to the side; then rolled clumsily. Angelique pushed to her feet, keeping her gaze locked upon the tiny object. After another silent stretch, it lifted a hand's length from the ground, causing a small, pleased grin to form across Angelique's face. She stepped back a bit for a better view and watched the rock lift up slowly. Her eyes squint a bit as she urged the pebble to move towards her master; finally willing it to do so in an ackward, speeding manner::

[Jeseth Cloak]

Jeseth side-stepped out of the rocks way, smiling at his student's attempt. She wanted fun... She was a child at heart. It almost made him feel bad about what he felt he had to do. "You missed." Another pebble lifted from the ground, this one larger than the one she had used, and struck her on the side of the head. The impact wasn't very hard - just hard enough to be a bit annoying and break her concentration. "Try again." He gritted his teeth, unsure of how to handle her. She was so innocent... so naive; Yet perfect. As far back as he could remember, all his memories of Ambriel were hazy and distorted. He didn't remember the last time he had been around a female of his species.

It was starting to make him uneasy.

[Angelique Rien]

::A snarling pout left her throat as Angelique looked around for the rock he'd hit her with. Her eyes locked upon it and she quickly gathered the stormcloud of concentration in her mind. His games weren't proving to be very fun.

Angelique watched the rock lift up slowly, rattling about in the air as she let it float a bit above the air, her eyes moving as if to look at him, focusing just past him at the first stone. She managed after a slow moment, to lift this stone from the ground and closed her eyes tightly, sending them both flying towards her master::

[Jeseth Cloak]

Jeseth's hands came up in a mechanical fashion, one of the rocks shattering into dust, the other landing in his open palm. He tossed it back at Angelique, allowing her time to catch it. "Excellent. I have a task for you to complete..." He looked off down the trail that led off and into the mountains. "There is a cave in the mountains which holds something for you. Go and retrieve it... You may do this however you wish. The roads there are protected." As Angelique looked down the path, she could see red glowing eyes staring back from the foliage and shadows. She felt a single word, or thought, project into her mind: Droids.

"They will shoot you down with ease if you choose to fly. They rarely miss. Deal with them at your leisure, but they will follow you." A bird-like creature cawed above them as she continued to look down the path. "Think of it as a game of hide-and-go-seek."