Four's the Charm?

[Torchgram]

Olive saw the blowign coming towards her and fell back, her blade had been knocked aside, but she simply knelt to the ground and spun around, her leg outstretched, attempting to trip her master. Presuming she succeeded she would then follow with a basic swing towards her master, just enough to get a point.

 

[Orphen]

Orphen noticed her drop, beginning to move as her feet were swept, coming toward the ground quickly she fell backwards her lightsaber disengaging as she fell. Rolling in line with her back she rose a hand the the back of her neck, transferring the momentum of the roll onto her hand instead of her head, pressing up into a one handed handstand and vaulting back up, dodging the strike as she got to her feet. Landing and extending her blade.

Speeding toward her opponent the tip of her lightsaber dragging along the ground as orphen held it in both hands, she came at Olive with a raising upward slash. Moving upward diagonally for her midsection.

Caris could be heard calling out as Orphen moved toward her.

Get up! Now!

 

[Torchgram]

Olive was already on her feet long before Orphen had returned. She raised her blade to block the simple slash. Hoping to roll to the side and get in a side glance.

 

[Orphen]

Orphens' strike hit low, guarding a low strike being virtually impossible, the axis of her guard below her core, orphen scooped up her blade to shoulder height with her strong two handed swing, stepping past her slightly. Once Olives' blade was raised Spinning, pivoting the axis of her blade so to still keep them locked, Orphen moved under her guard to perform a downward strike with the lightsaber directly into olives' chest.

 

[Torchgram]

Olive saw the blow coming and relaxed, slumping to the ground. She then kicked upward with her foot, aiming for Orphen's stomach, she also used the momentum of the strike to bring her back towards her feet, her blade pointing up, hoping to get a lucky strike in on the chest.

 

[Orphen]

She'd done this once before... Orphen with the downward strike, already standing to one side of Olive automatically evaded the kick, bought her blade down like a guillotine. Ducking a falling strike was never the most apt way to evade an attack, especially a two handed one at speed. as opposed to a relaxed fall. Falling to one knee, Orphen followed Olive right down. A strike with her saber would hurt a little, but nothing more.

As Olives' saber came up, one of Orphens hands moved to either grapple, or catch her hand, or even use Trakata to turn off her lightsaber as the impact came. Caris' training was efficient. To say the very least. If olive had only seen him when he wore his bronze armour. He was more of a demon than a blade. It was only by a sheer Miracle that Orphen managed to pull out the blade in his chest, and use force light to prevent the dark sword from taking over her own body.

Wether the attack hit, or not, Orphen backed off quickly. Very impressed at the reaction speeds of her student. as well as her natural combat prowess. She'd narrowly hit her several times and successfully thrown off her balance once. All without the use of force powers none the less.

I think that's all i need to see, you're a very, very gifted fighter Olive, you have many great things waiting for you in the futire as a Jedi Guardian, or even Sentinel like me. She smiled. Bowing in respect. Looking over to Lois as Caris evaluated her performance.

Your strikes are slow, and lack conviction, and aim. You need to observe your opponent, their stance. their means of combat, and counteract them the best as you can. But more importantly, never repeat an action. A Jedi, or a Sith, are not like your average fighter. Performing the same thing twice will cause them to expect it, and act on it. Which will put you in extreme danger. Your trip however, was well executed. Such an opening your sister could have used for a powerful force push, or pulled them into your next attack. You show promise, but have many things to work on...

Any more success over there Lois? Orphen asked moving her attentions over to her other student.

 

[Torchgram]

Olive stood, a little worse for wear from the blow. She nodded, accepting the compliments and the rebukes.

#

Lois now had 70 grains orbiting her head. She had dropped 3 total. Each had felt like a blow when she noticed them. "I'm up to 70 master." Lois strained to speak, using her sight and the telekinesis was draining, but without the sight she couldn't find the grains. She had taken to using it in bursts to preserve her energy.

 

[Orphen]

Orphen moved over to her, she had newly recovered her sight with the force, and had obviously not learned extra sensory perception. Such a skill would need to be learned to become a Jedi. So, as a rest, Orphen took up caris and ordered them both to sit in front of her as she sat on top of a large rock. Crossing her legs, and replacing her lightsaber.

Okay, both of you, come here, I have something very important, and very special to show both of you. So, in a few worlds, what do the two of you know about the force. The power we draw our skills off of. Some races think of it as a god, or many gods. But what do you two "know" about it? hmmm? Tell me, one at a time, Olive, you start. She spoke looking to Olive first, because she knew that lois would more likely have a greater understanding because she had greater command over the force.

Orphen had taken out the focus crystal again, but this time, she wanted to give it to Olive for this next practice, as she seemed a lot less fortuitous in using the powers of the force.

 

[Torchgram]

"I don' know." Olive sighed. "I still havn't really tapped into it the way lois has. It kinda feels like this power, but its always just out of reach. I try to get closer but I can never reach it."

Lois offered a hand in support, olive blushed as she took it, trying to make it look like she was the one giving support to Lois.

 

[Orphen]

Orphen smiled as she saw the two of them supporting each other through everything. It seemed olive had hit a wall. But there was no way she would have been accepted into the Jedi without at least the basic ability to perform force powers. Fighting prowess or not.

Okay Olive, listen closely. The force is an energy, it's the power, and force which surrounds and combines in every living and non living thing and keeps everything together. It's like a father, or a mother, but to all things, living, and non living. People who are force sensitive, like you two, and me, are closer to the force than other people. So, we're able to tap into, and borrow power from the force, as it flows through us. Now, meditation, is the ability to get closer to the force, to submerge yourself into it, and feel it surrounding you. Here, take this Olive.

Orphen said throwing her the focusing crystal, which, in anything but a non Force sensitive would make at the very least meditation easy.

I want you to both close your eyes, and feel the core of your body, imagine a wind surrounding you, blowing around you like a dust devil. Soon, feel it, you'll begin to feel the breeze on your skin, but do not sense it and look at it. Then move your mind to focus on your core, feel the wind in it, blowing through it. that's your connection to the force. Orphen could sense it there already, the practice was easy for her. She hoped it would be for them too, so long as Lois did not try to connect to it.

 

[Torchgram]

Olive let go of lois's hand and focused on her 'core'. It took a couple minutes, but she was able to feel the force around her. She couldn't really touch it, but she could feel its presence. "I think, I think I feel it."

#

Lois gave a small smile as her sister let go of her hand. She found her core much more quickly, she had after all been meditating every day before her sister got up. She much more easily felt out her surroundings through the force, though found it hard to focus on the wind. The crystals around and the one in Olives hand burned so brightly through the force, but she slowly beat back the sensation of them, till she had just a general feeling of being wrapped in the force.

 

[Orphen]

Orphen smiled, focusing on Olive, she seemed to be attached, so she decided to push her a little bit further, with a simple exercise, but one that is generally considered a mean trick of the mentor. Orphen focusing on her core, spread out her senses, She could see, feel, and associate with and describe everything, every living thing, rock or molecule within a twelve meter radius of them with relative ease, be it up, down or anywhere.

Now, focus on your core, this is your connection to the force, then expand it. expand it outward in every direction, so that you're inside it, like a bubble, wrapped in it. Then this is the state of focus you need to be in to use skills like barriers, and speed. Even learning to fight as a Jedi, powers like force speed, force body, and barrier are very, very useful. And can mean the difference between life and death in a battle. But this exercise is called expanding your command zone.

The further you can stretch it out, the further you will be able to sense, and utilize the force. So lets just try this for a while, i want you both to stretch it out to feel each other.

 

[Torchgram]

Olive tried to expand her core, but she had no idea how to. Suddenly she felt a small poke in her stomach, and she felt her core expand, if only by an inch. The energy, for some reason it reminded her of Lois, she tried to concentrate on the feeling of her core expanding, attempting to duplicate it. It took a couple minutes but she succeeded. She managed to get it to expand another inch.

At the end of ten minutes her core had a radius of 5 inches. She felt proud of her accomplishment, and she could swear that she felt like Lois was hugging her, though the stolen glance revealed her to be sitting at least 7 feet away.

#

Lois found expanding her core to be simple. By the end of the first minute it was already a foot in radius. By the fifth minute she had surrounded her sister. She could feel her twin trying her hardest to perform the technique. She gave her sister's core a small poke, pouring a small amount of her own energy into it, trying to jump start her sisters attempt. She gave a small smile as she watched her sister study what she had done, and attempt to duplicate it. Lois meanwhile continued to expand her core. Soon she reached her masters presence. It was like a force field, nigh impenetrable. But then she remembered, force fields had a certain rate of rotation that if matched allowed multiple fields to merge.

She felt out, studying the presence through the force, and tried to match her own field to the energy. She pushed, and her presence leaked into the other field. No, leaked was the wrong word, merged. The fields seemed to merge at the edges, though they remained more separate towards the center of both fields. Her core was now at least twenty feet in its radius. She smiled in delight, sure her master would be pleased.

 

[Orphen]

Orphen felt their two wavelengths began to combine, a sensation went over her as their minds' touched. But with a quick whip Orphen rose her mental barriers, shutting off the experience as a whole, for a short moment, Lois could feel as orphen felt, And Orphen could do the same. She'd stumbled across an ancient Jedi technique seemingly inquisitively, without even knowing it. Orphen would touch on that later, as well as research into it. The thought that she could perform it was something that had not been seen done in a long time.

Force meld

But orphen focused on Olives' efforts, she was making a little progress, but Orphen thought she could do with a little extra coaxing. Projecting a telepathic feeling of how Orphen did it, she pictured it like blowing a bubble, then the bubble wrapping around you and expanding, with each breath, you pushed it out just a little bit further, and further.

You'll notice Olive, that if you stop trying to expand, you will be able to sense, everything within your range. Everything you put your focus on you will be able to see and describe and sense in unbelievable detail. From seeing large areas at once. To it being like looking through a microscope.

Lois, what you did before, Do it with Olive, and start your expansion again. It should come easily to twins like you, and I feel like it will help more than you can possibly imagine. Though, it won't make her as good as you while performing it. You two share a powerful bond through the force as twins, and sisters, very, very powerful, greater than husbands and wives, or normal brothers and sisters. So, try.

As they began to try Orphen would expose

The technique is called Force meld, the power to link two minds, Like this, you will understand how each of you do things as if you are them. Literally, putting yourself in their shoes, while being in your own at the same time. But, it's dangerous... So I suggest you only use it for training.

 

[Torchgram]

Lois felt her master pull away, and pulled back herself, had she done something wrong? Her master told her to do it to Olive so maybe it was ok, just only with jedi her own age? She had already envealoped her sisters presence in her own, so it was not so difficult to connect to her, especially since their power seemed to be so similar already. It took a couple seconds, but she managed it, she could feel her sisters presence even closer now, like they were one being, rather than two. It felt nice, like when they were kids, and they would sleep together in the same bed.

#

Olive felt her sister reach out to her, and accepted the presence. Their master seemed to think it was a good idea, and if it help her connect to- Olive's mind erupted in a flash of bright light. Suddenly she could see everything. Everything around her. From the wind whistling the leaves of a tree, to each individual blade of grass. She could even sense the blood pumping through her and her sister's veins. All life was visible to her. And it hurt. It was more painful than anything she had ever felt before, including the time she broke her leg falling out of a tree as a kid. Was this what it was like to touch the force? Is this what Lois felt every time she tapped into it? No, Lois seemed to be comfortable. Olive could sense her, she seemed calm, collected, a far cry from the girl who had shed a tear when she first touched the force. But wait, what had Master Tor said? Let only a small bit in. Olive imagined a funnel, and placed it in the way of the stream, slowing the intake of her sister's power to her mind. So this is what really touching the force felt like. No wonder lois had nearly fainted that day.

#

Lois suddenly realized the pain her sister was in. Confused and worried she tried to figure out something to do, when Olive calmed. Her pain suddenly gone. Lois probed her sisters mind and an image of their last master, master Tor appeared, and suddenly it made sense. The day they had first touched the force. How similar today was, though with some roles rotated.

#

Sister Olive's thoughts came through the link the twins shared. This is really amazing. Is this how it feels all the time?

No Lois replied. Sometimes the images are so powerful even I have trouble absorbing it all.

How do you keep from going mad from the pain? Olive asked.

Remember when you fought Terry back on Bakura for me and ended up in the med bay for a week?

Yeah

I just remember that, and I can take any pain I need to, so long as it gets me stronger.

#

Olive shed a single tear.

 

[Orphen]

Orphen had seen that this was probably enough for the two of them for one day. So, dropping her focus and standing up from her rock after shuffling to the front of it, she stretched. Deciding to call this first lesson to an end.

The two of you did very well today. It seems of the two of you, Lois here is the more adept force user, just like you told me. But that does not meant to say that she will always be. I know I had a tiny learning curve. But I picked things up really quickly. I find, that it's the way you think of things, that really holds you back. And you're being distracted too often Olive. She said with a slight wink. Trying not to be condescending, but she was talking to two young girls.

Go, and practice, soon I'll be taking the two of you on missions and the like. I feel that you'll be up for it soon enough. But I'd like you to know, that if I'm never around. You must keep up your studies as much as possible. It's important. And Lois, that technique, when you melded your control zone with mine. Do that as much as possible while training, you'll both learn twice as fast by paying attention to each other as well. Next time I see you, I want to be able yo teach your sister how to put up a barrier. Alright Olive? If you can expand that bubble to just around yourself as quickly as possible, as a Jedi, that's all you need to be able to do

 

[Torchgram]

Lois and olive rose to their feet. Olive felt the world dull around her as her sister withdrew her force energy back into herself. She felt a little lost all of a sudden. How could she have lived her life for so long without ever having that degree of perception. Now more than ever she wanted to connect to the force. They bowed to their master and returned to the temple. They would practice alone until their master called them again.