Trial by Water [completed]

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Naj Arilov was waiting for her next to the huge cistern that held the majority of the water supply for the city. Deep underground, the cavern was a natural formation now modernized with pipes and channeled waterways, taking the life giving fluid to the minor tanks throughout the sectors.

Her bare feet made only a slight whisper of sound on the cold stone floor, but he turned around to greet her, hand clasped securely around his staff.

She spoke first. "Amazing, is it not, that something so ancient has survived from the time of Freedon Nadd until today?"

[Naj Arilov]

"I think it is a reminder of the power that nature holds."

Naj drew his staff away and took a few steps back, putting a little more breathing room between himself and De'Ville.

"Of course, men only lust to destroy that which can unseat him. Destroying a water supply is impractical, even for the most blatantly evil individuals."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She laughed, "No, you misunderstand. I was not marveling that Nadd did not destroy it, but that this system itself has survived for thousands of years. Freedon Nadd desired to rule these people, not destroy them. Dead beings cannot worship."

De'Ville leaned against the smooth wall of the cavern, and looked at him. "I trust you have been practicing what I showed you last time?"

[Naj Arilov]

"Nature tends to balance itself. Man tends to upset that balance, for a time at least. It doesnt surprise me that this system is here, it surprises me that man, whether intentional or not, havent destroyed it"

Naj straightened up a bit before answering her last question, mostly in preparation to show what he had learned.

"I have." He stated confidently.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"Show me."

[Naj Arilov]

With a simple nod of his head, Naj took another few steps back. He stretched out his hand and focused. He began concentrating on the air particles in front of him, speeding them up with his mind. While some of the excited particles managed to escape, he was able to keep the majority in a confined area, and it helped things along nicely.

Soon a small sphere of air in front of him was warm enough that one could feel a fair difference in temperates if they were to pass there hand through.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Lilaena nodded, "You are showing excellent progress, Arilov." Holding out her hand as well, she duplicated his action, and then went further, exciting the molecules to a fever pitch. The air seemed to catch fire as the oxygen atoms burned, constantly being replenished from the air around the sphere of fire. "This is the next step. Once you can create and maintain a sphere of fire, and manipulate it as an entity, then I will be able to teach you Destruction."

The sphere jiggled off her hand, and the arced neatly into the air and landed with a fsssh in the cistern. Steam rose into the air as she looked toward her apprentice.

[Naj Arilov]

Naj quirked an eyebrow at the 'fireball' De'Ville had just slung into the water. He reached out his hand again and began exciting the air in front of him. As before, the temperature rose with Naj keeping a tight sphere of concentration around the area in front of his hand. The temperature reached the level that he had achieved before, and Naj found himself struggling to get it that high.

He closed his eyes and grit his teeth, focusing even harder. The temperature raised a bit higher, but he was struggling to keep it going at this point....

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Insulting him hadn't appeared to make him angrier in the past. Good old fashioned pain had helped a bit, but in order to teach him how to tap into the Dark Side, she was going to have to become...inventive. "Think about something that has happened to you, Arilov. Perhaps...think about your parents. Were they cruel to you? Were you cruel to them?"

It was an oft repeated story, the parents of one destined to become a dark side disciple were often killed by their offspring. De'Ville's had died when she was seven, murdered by Imperials. "Take your anger, Naj, and feed it into your skill. Open yourself to the Dark Side, and control it! It does not control you, it is a tool to be used."

[Naj Arilov]

Naj continued his concentration, only slightly hindered by De'Ville diverting his attention. It seemed pretty convenient that she mentioned his parents, in the fact that she pretty much hit the nail on the head. Of course, That was a situation that had been dealt with accordingly, and he no longer dwelled on it.

He instead found his anger coming from a different source. The thought of Salem leaving Koros Major passed through his mind. That was enough to get Naj going. Anger channeled and turned into motivation, causing the air in front of him to get much hotter.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"Better...but not good enough yet..." She leaned back against the side of the cistern and watched him sweat.

[Naj Arilov]

The harder he strained, the hotter the air became, but still the ball of air wouldnt ignite into a flame. He was learning from the experience, however. Instead of becoming frustrated and losing his concentration, he found that it wasnt too difficult to divert his attention somewhat and keep the process in front of him going.

This allowed for him to use his frustration to as fuel. It also made it easier for him to observe what he was doing, and how his enviroment was reacting.

The air heated with his emotions, growing slightly warmer every few moments. The bead of sweat rolling down his face went relatively ignored. The only times he payed attention to the strain on his body were when he realized that he had stopped breathing due to his focus being so extremely shifted. A few quick breathes kept him going, but in the back of his mind, he knew he was going to have to pull this off before he lost consciousness.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She watched him silently, waiting for him to fail and give up. Or perhaps he'd actually succeed this time.

[Naj Arilov]

It was getting to be all or nothing now. It seemed he would never get his little ball of heat to ignite. Molecules were bouncing around in his sphere faster and faster, but not enough to actually cause a flame.

He knew the basic physics of heat, but had never had to apply that knowledge in this manner. But he did have one more idea.

His outstretched hand shook silently, as he quit focusing on speeding the molecules further. Instead, he started tightening the sphere that contained the molecules. With less room for them to travel, It would be easier to produce heat. His focus would me more concentrated.

Slowly, the invisible barrier he had formed started to shrink, until it was half the size of before. Once he achieved something of a balance in sphere size, his focus shifted back to speeding up the molecules. This time, it look less force to get the same effect.

With his body starting to ache, and anger and frustration peaking, Naj threw his power into one last jolt. This time, in a split second, a small flame engulfed the sphere, being fueled of the supercharged molecules inside. The whole thing happened in the blink of an eye, as the fire swished out as soon as the oxygen in the sphere was used up.

One quick fireburst, and Naj was spent. He fell to the floor and let out a heavy sigh, before looking up to De'Ville for critique and comment.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She clapped her hands together slowly, once....twice. "You accomplished it, which is something you should be proud of. Of course, you can see that this is not something you will be able to use in battle any time soon. More practice is required, until you perfect the fireball."

De'Ville reached down and pulled her exhausted apprentice to his feet. "So work hard, Arilov. You never know when you might need something like this, and it is best to have all your weapons readily at hand."

She brought her hands together, indicating a shrinking spherical shape. "The technique you used was good." Lilaena looked at him sideways, and raised an eyebrow. "Don't be so suspicious, I can praise you when you've done well. However, you are now worn out from that simple feat, and completely open to attack."

The Dark Jedi reached out and shoved him open handed in the chest, knocking him backwards.

[Naj Arilov]

Naj fell hard on his rear again, this time due to De'Ville pushing him. She was absolutely right, he was completely defenseless against someone who could kill him with a thought on his best day.

He pulled himself up to a sitting position after his rough landing, and mimicked the slow applaud that she had just given him and laughed.

"Well, then, congratulations milady. I guess my life will be forfeit, and you will have successfully wasted a few hours of your time."

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"Your sarcasm is wasted on me. You will learn, and you will get better at this. Or else, you are right, my time is wasted, and you will die much sooner than I first thought." She spat on the ground by her own feet, and turned away from him, walking towards the entrance.

"What you do not realize is that your life is already forfeit, Chiss."