Trial by Fear [Naj's training]

[Lilaena De'Ville]

For once, she was not waiting for Arilov when he arrived for a training session, and instead came into the courtyard she used frequently with her apprentices, cursing roundly.

He raised his eyebrows slightly, and she came to a halt. "Frelling Mandalorians want to meet the yearly migration from Dxun in a few weeks. I do not want to let them, because if I do, many of them will die when those bloodthirsty predators fly over from the moon. If I do not allow them to hunt, then my hold on them becomes less, as they think me weak for trying to protect them, or some such nonsense."

De'Ville glared hard enough just beyond Naj's shoulder that a smoking hole in the stone should have appeared. "If the Mandalorians become less, Giran will know that he has the greater strength in his so-called army, and he possibly might rebel against us, and send the whole city into civil war."

A deep breath. "Of course, the Mandalorians used to live right where the migration takes place. That is also the reason why in thousands of years, they have not grown to millions in population." She seemed to be talking to herself now, a trait that Arilov had never seen before.

Green eyes snapped to his red ones. "Show me the largest ball of fire you can make."

[Naj Arilov]

"You're late." Was Naj's casual reply to her ranting. Ignoring her for the moment, Naj flicked his wrists outward. He held his hands out, his left hand about a foot above his right. Curving his palms inward, he began gathering heat into a sphere in front of him. Soon, and without a terrible amount of effort, a ball of flame bursts between his hands, and he slowly began moving his palms apart, letting the flame grow larger as he did.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She waited silently for her apprentice to indicate he'd finished growing the ball, her bare toes curled against the stones under her robe.

[Naj Arilov]

Naj let his hands spread to nearly a meter. The ball of fire spread with them, though at this size, it was too large to do any real damage to anything. It could singe eyebrows, at worst.

The ball of flame was also difficult to keep going, and a bead of sweat began to form across the chiss' brow as he nodded slightly in De'Ville's direction.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She saw his nod, and could feel that the ball of flame was still not quite hot enough to be used in an energy attack. "Now, shrink it to the hottest you can make, or start over, and we will get down to what you really want to learn.

"Destruction."

[Naj Arilov]

Nodding again, Naj began moving his hands inward, shrinking the ball of flame. At first, it was a bit of a relief, allowing him a moment to catch his breath. However, as the ball became smaller and smaller, it took more energy to keep it focused, reapplying the strain he had only just moments ago found respite from. Pushing on, he managed to compress the fireball to the size of a baseball. Holding it in place was difficult, however, and it was all he could do to keep from releasing it. At this point, the heat he held between his hands could likely cause a fair amount of damage. While by itself, it wasn't lethal, it could like cause painful second degree burns, and set clothing on fire.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"The secret to Force Destruction is not simple. You can form a modified version of it using fire, which is not as lethal or destructive, but it is a useful stepping stool towards one of the deadliest energy attacks."

She stayed in front of him, but alert, in case his fireball suddenly 'went out of control' and came towards her. "Imagine the fire in your hands in your mind - feel the molecules you've forced into existance through the Force. And change them. Fire is pure, in a sense, what you want to create is a dark fire, one that freezes and burns, and that explodes on impact.

"The Dark side allows us to corrupt our creations, sometimes by accident, but this ... this is beautiful." She opened her hands in front of her, a ball of fire to match Arilov's appearing. "Infuse the fire with the Dark side... open yourself to the Force and to the fire, and let it flow into it."

De'Ville eyed her flames, and did as she'd instructed Naj to do. She hadn't made one of these in a while, and actually found Destruction easier to make simply because of her years of practice with it. Still, it wasn't hard. The fire in her hands rippled uncertainly, and quivered, and then twisted inexplicably, in a fashion one could not so much see but sense. From the inside out, the fireball seemed to darken, and take on a filmy, greasy look.

[Naj Arilov]

Naj glared at his sphere of flame with an intensity that De'Ville had probably yet to see. Throughout the past months, they had nearly focused on this single exercise, and up until this moment, Naj had felt as if he had firmly grasped what was being taught to him. However, seeing De'Ville not only match him, but push farther with seemingly no effort, stirred something inside the chiss. He felt not only frustration, but anger well up inside him. Though he was now sweating profusely, and shaking, his concentration held, and he centered his emotions within himself. The ball of fire he held in front of him began to change. The fire began to wave in unnatural patterns, and it seemed to take on a bit of a smooth texture. Rather than flitting in whichever direction it pleased, it seemed to turn within itself, slowly forming a sphere of energy, rather than a flaming ball.

And at that moment, Naj's concentration broke. As the chiss dropped to one knee, the ball went flying forward.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She felt it happen a split second before it did, and De'Ville loosed the dark energy she'd created. It disappeared as she flung herself to the side, feeling the singe of the dark fire as Naj's ball flew past her.

The out of control object slammed into the stone wall several yards behind her, detonating on impact and showering the pair with bits of rock. De'Ville pushed with the Force, keeping the larger bits from hitting either her or Arilov. "Well, there you see." The dust settled and revealed a crater slightly larger than the dark fire Naj had constructed, about three inches deep into the stone wall.

"Had that been Destruction, it would have punched through a much larger hole." She coughed a bit, but couldn't help looking pleased at his progress.

[Naj Arilov]

Naj took a few moments to regain his senses. His head was pounding, and he was coughing, which aggitated it even more. Once he got his bearings straight, he quickly stood up and faced De'Ville.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She pushed herself up to her feet as well, and looked at her apprentice. "Still want to learn the rest? Or was that enough?"

[Naj Arilov]

"no....such...thing..." He said through pained breathes.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

De'Ville nodded. "I thought so." She smiled, a little grimly. "You need to learn how to control. When your concentration slipped, the dark fire could have just as easily shot backwards towards you, and turned you into toast."

She paced a little further away from her apprentice, and put her hands on her hips. "Actually, let us work on a little bit of protection, first. This technique is fairly simple, but very effective. I am sure you are a big fan of anything like that, so you should pick it up quickly."

Lilaena put her hands out to either side, arms wide. "If you imagine yourself as a rock thrown into the lake of the Force..." She bit her lip for a moment, thinking of the best way to describe what she wanted him to do. "I am sure you have noticed me using a special type of push with the Force. Instead of directing the Force in one direction, the Force ripples out from me in all directions. Like a rock thrown into a pond. Once you get good at it, you could decimate a group of attackers, even if they are surrounding you.

"In this case, you could throw the energy ball away from you, with little thought. You cannot be accurate with a throw, as one can with a push in a single direction, but ... Well, you try it. It really is not that hard, just uses a bit of concentration in a slightly different way that what you're used to."

De'Ville smiled a bit more. "I think I am the only one who has ever used the Force like this, so you will join an elite group."

[Naj Arilov]

This was something Naj had thought about on his own, but hadnt tried yet. He'd moved rocks. He'd moved two rocks. He'd moved two rocks at a time. But moving everything around him was going to be something new. Thus far, his telekinetic techniques had focused mainly around targeting an object and moving it.

Closing his eyes to help concentration, Naj altered his way of thinking a bit. Instead of thinking in straight lines, he was thinking in circles, and the moving outward there of. After a few moments of concentration, the debris around him slowly started moving away.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She watched him closely, and shook her head. "No, you are thinking about moving everything at once, but still trying to move everything. Just send out a ripple of Force around you, the Force will move everything for you."

[Naj Arilov]

This time, Naj put the word movement out of his mind completely and took a moment to concentrate. Instead of even worrying what was around him, he just pushed outward from himself.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She had expected it, but was still knocked off her feet as the wave of the Force shoved against her. Had she been standing any closer, he would have thrown her to the wall.

De'Ville threw a hand behind her to catch herself on the stone floor, and shoved herself back upright. "Well, you seem to have caught on. This move only works best against things that are right next to you, and has a lesser effect the farther out from the focal point (you) it goes." She used her hands to tuck her dark hair behind her ears, and nodded with approval before returning to business.

"Now that you've got that under your belt, try the dark fire again."

[Naj Arilov]

Naj held his hands out once more. After a few moments, a ball of flame had formed in front of him. He began to concentrate the ball, until a glowing sphere began to take shape. Twisting it further, he began to pull as much energy as he could to the center, and let the outer layer do as it would within its confinement. As the core heated, and the outside cooled, the fire took on a darker shade of red. Also, with the unpredictable mixture of elements that were in the mix from the enviroment around them, the outer layer seemed to turn almost liquid, giving it a waxy, slightly reflective quality.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

"Good..." She kept her voice quiet, not wanting to distract him too much. "Now try to move it off your hand... slowly. Control it's movements. If you start to loose control, don't allow it to disapate, but throw it into the wall you've already ruined."

De'Ville took a few steps backwards as she spoke, keeping a careful eye on Arilov's progress.

[Naj Arilov]

Holding it in place was fairly tough. With so much energy bundled up, the sphere wanted to launch itself. Moving it slowly would be a task. He started by keeping his hands in place, and slowly inching his body back, afraid of what would happen if he lost control completely. With his body braced to dodge, Naj began moving the ball forward. It was very tough at first, as he was literally moving it, but after a few moments, he noticed a bit of a trick. Rather than moving it, he began to let it move on its own accord, only making efforts to steer it and slow its speed. Although it was much to concentrate on, it still proved to be a good bit easier.

After a few short minutes, Naj began to gain confidence. Steering the sphere back around, he began to creep it ever so menacingly toward De'Ville.

[Lilaena De'Ville]

She continued to watch, waiting to see how long he could hold onto it, before he lost control. Arilov was moving the energy in her direction, but she held herself ready to intercept the missile, should it become one.