Practice makes perfect

[Eithni Vala Stark]

Eithni was very excited over finally learning invisibility by her mom, but that was only the first part, unfortunately. Now came the hard part, actually practising it under her mom's harsh opinion on her doing it perfectly. Having learned how to do the ritual to get invisible, it was not time to train and oh boy they were going to train. Eithni had to go invisible and get a jump on her mom without Mother Usara would notice her sneak attack.

If she succeeded, her training would be finished. If Eithni failed, she would have to start over, until she managed to get a jump on her mom. Eithni in one side of the circle with the three pillars forming a triangle in the circle, and the matriarch in the other end of the circle.

Eithni sat down, took out her pouch, uncorked the top of the pouch and performed the ritual that she just had learned earlier today. The familiar gateway portal made out of the Ichor mist stood in front of Eithni and as she went through the mist, she got engulfed in the Ichor and disappeared.

The moment she went through the mistified gateway, it gateway disappeared along with Eithni, that now stood invisible on the platform. Taking her pouch and corked it again, she placed her pouch back by her belt and now stood ready for training.

Instantly, she went for the quick route, dashing across the circle-formed platform in an arc, not at all thinking about the sound her footsteps made. Eithni flanked her mom from the left side and jumped up in the air in attempt to hit her shoulder.

@Algarus

 

[The Storyteller]

Eithni had promise, she really did, sadly she spent most of this promise on childish antics and making nice with outsiders. Many of the other sisters find it irritating, and indeed, Usara herself griped about how her daughter was going astray, but time and time again, Eithni had shown where her true loyalties lay; though it did try her patience at times. Maybe one day Eithni would replace her as the clan mother, after all that was why they were training, but the girl still had much more to learn.

A perfect example was right now, Usara stood on the platform, her elderly form leering down at the younger woman, as she prepared the rite to make herself vanish from sight. A basic technique, though few had mastered it, such as her daughter was showing now. Her steps were loud, clumsy, a deaf person could have heard her coming a parsec away. When Eithni jumped, Ursara shook her head, as Eithni would see the would turn back to her mid jump, and extend her hand; the young witch would feel a strong shove to her stomach as she would be slammed into one of the three pillars, winding her clearly. "Eithni, try and take this seriously. Surely you can do better than that." With that, the mother would wait for the girl to rise and try again.

@Raven_41

 

[Eithni Vala Stark]

A loud "OOFF" sound came from the invisible Eithni when she hit the pillar from her mom's attack and another "oof" followed by an "ouch" from the girl. Man, she had almost forgotten how ruthless her mom was when they were training and it seemed like she hasn't changed with her older days.

Quick as a wind, the young girl got up and quickly scanned the surroundings, but none looked useful to her situation so instead, she glanced to the pillar behind her. With a quick-thinking, she turned around and with the help of her levitating, she easily got up the pillar and scanned the circle for her mother. Closing her eyes, she listened to everything around her, letting the guiding spirit help her to find her target.

*There!* Thought Eithni with a smirk and jumped from the top of the pillar and sliced at where she was almost positively sure, that her mom was at where she struck. Eithni would, of course, not go for something like the head or throat, but the chest or leg, when she would use her daggers.

@Algarus

 

[The Storyteller]

Eithni was a smart girl, a little daft at times, but she wasn't an idiot; else she wouldn't be receiving the training. Usara cracked a slight smile as she watched the girl rise and levitate up to her level. She was head strong, that much she could say. It became rather clear that the girl didn't know the exact location of the mother, as she was looked about, giving Usara a moment to withdraw. Usara leapt forward, using her levitation to glide herself to the pillar opposite of her. Eithni took the bait, as the girl seemed to react to Ursara's inital movement. As the girl would come down with her knives, Usara would reach out with the force, as. she would grab the girl by the ankle and pulling her up, letting her dangle there for a moment before dropping her onto the pillar; though Eithni had plenty of time to save herself, she didn't want to give the girl brain damage after all.

Ursara' chiding would be heard by the young girl, as she would watch her start to come back to her feet. "You are being far too reckless Eithni. Hope it's not from the Sith woman rubbing off on you." Ursara held her chin, as if contemplating, though she had no plans on carrying out what she suggested. "If she's having this effect on you, I might have to deal with her." She didn't care for that sithy girl, but she was harmless relatively speaking, but if she wanted Eithni to really give this her all, she would require proper prodding.

@Raven_41

 

[Eithni Vala Stark]

Eithni just manage to stop before hitting the pillar and landed silently back on the circle formed stone-platform. She completely lost her sense of location to the matriarch and it annoyed her, she was better than this. As she silently and invisible, with daggers at the ready in hand, she scanned the circle for movement. She could sense her mom, but she was hard to track, so Eithni closed her eyes and started to listen.

With a deep breath, she listened to her surroundings while slowly keeping herself to the centre of the ring. *She's just trying to distract me, don't fall for her bait* said the girl to herself inside her own thoughts. However, it did let her direct her attention to where her mom was, or at least pretty damn sure as she silently and invisibly snuck closer to her mom.

The moment she felt she was close enough, she reached out with her magick and Mother Usara would suddenly hear the sound of a trunk flying straight at her from behind. While it wasn't a precision attack, the trunk was still large enough to hit her, if she didn't move. Eithni hoped the trick worked and the moment Usara would move, would Eithni strike from the side with her dagger, aiming at her mom's arm.

@Algarus

 

[The Storyteller]

She was learning. Good. Usara would smile from her concealment, seeing her daughter start to understand what was happening. She'd have to keep her mouth shut for the rest of the trial though; she didn't want to make this easy on the girl after all. Little Eithni was done there scoping her out, looking for her with all that she could muster. So much promise in that one. She could only watch as the girl learned and adapted to what was occurring around her. Usara felt a small tremor behind though she didn't quite realize what was coming, until the creaking sound of wood came from behind. Clever girl.

Eithni had moved up, she was ready to strike now, but Usara still knew where she was; just finding that small disturbance in the force, that's all once had to do. As Eithni would lunge towards her mother, she would find her blade being swung upward, wildly off target, as the simple hand wave of her mother knocked the strike off course. 'So close, yet so far.' Eithni would be able to feel the air move past her, as she had just missed her mother, but where did she move now? As the trunk would sail through the air, slamming into one of the pillars, Usara would use the provided noise and reposition on the left most pillar now, having used her levitation to set herself upon it. Usara kept quiet now, her own form floating just a half inch off of the stone.

@Raven_41

 

[Eithni Vala Stark]

Damn her mom and her overpowering, she was so sure she would have gotten a strike at the matriarch. The loud crash and the trunk broke into smaller piece, which came flying into the ring. Eithni had lost her mom again, the old woman hasn't lost her touch it seemed, which was both good and bad. The good part was that the clan still had a strong clan leader, the bad part was that Eithni had to work even harder to beat her.

*Damn, okay time to focus!* Thought Eithni quietly, almost as if her mom could hear thoughts. Again, silently she moves her way along the edge of the circle-formed arena, listening to every little detail of sound that she could pick up around her. Closing her eyes again, she took a very quiet breath and exhaled silently and started to reach out with the force. Unfortunately, it was hard to track someone who most likely would hide or at least make it very hard to pinpoint exactly where they were.

Eithni had a general sense of direction in where her mom could be hiding, but it wasn't much to go out from, so she did the exact same thing as her mom and started to levitate. Levitating above the arena, she made absolutely no sound as Eithni continued upwards until she was in the middle of the arena, but in the air, just above the top of the pillars. *Where are you, where are you?* Thought the Nightsister for to herself as she looked for clues that could give her a hint on where to strike.

@Algarus

 

[The Storyteller]

Usara smirked as she watched the girl look for her target. Poor Eithni had seemed to have lost her, which was as she planned. The girl needed to be pushed into a corner, only then would she see the answer before her. The racing mind of the girl was just one of the ways she could sense the young girl, another was the displacement she gave as she moved about the ground. Eithni's senses were keen, but she didn't seem to have honed her senses to that level. She would soon enough though, that was part of the point for this training. There was a grander lesson to be learned on top of this as well, though she doubted Eithni would realize this at the moment, but she would explain it as needed.

Usara allowed herself to settle down on the pillar just below her feet, her daughter would soon come after her now. But she planned on this. Eithni was so close to understanding, just a little more of a push, and she would get it. Usara raised her hand, ready for Eithni to try another ploy to defeat her. She had to still keep on her guard, after all, Eithni had a chance to best her trial without learning the lesson; and what good would that do her?

@Raven_41

 

[Eithni Vala Stark]

Levetating in the air, she listened to her surroundings for any sound that might reveal her mom's location as she floated with closed eyes. The moment she heard the tiny tap Usara's boots made when they touched the pillar, reacted the girl. She descended back down to the ground as silent as she possibly could be, though she was sure her mom could feel her and that she got back down to the ground. However, Eithni still moved on with her plan and jumped off from the ground and levitated again, giving her a good boost to get up to where Usara was.

When Eithni was ten or so meters from her mom she pulled from her Ichor, the Dark side power and released green glowing lightning directly at her mom while continuing to move closer to her position. Right before she got up in her mom's face, she extinguished her lightning attack and pulled her dagger to her right hand with the force from the belt and did a swipe attack from Usara's left side.

@Algarus

 

[The Storyteller]

Usara smirked, seeing what the girl was planning on doing. Well, she thought she knew what the girl was doing, as Eithni had seemed to have found her and moved to engage. Usara was prepared, keeping her hands ready to stop whatever the girl threw at her, which come as a bit of surprise, as green lightning was thrown at her. Usara halted the attack, keeping it at bay with some degree of assertion. She didn't quite realize what Eithni had planned in this moment, it wasn't until the girl canceled out her lightning that Usara realized what her daughter had done, as by the the time she attempted to mount a defense, Eithni had already struck, her knife glancing her in the side. The follow moments were rather tense, as Usara put her hand over the wound, verifying she had been struck, before turning to face her daughter, the invisibility fading as there was no reason to keep it up. She grinned, just a bit, as she felt a small amount of pride at what her daughter had accomplished. "Took you long enough." She said, taking some of the ichor from her own pouch and waving it over the wound, mending it in mere moments. "We'll start the final lesson tomorrow. Go and get your rest, you will need it." There was nothing else that needed to be said, as Usara would vanish from the girls sight, giving her a taste of what awaited her tomorrow.

@Raven_41

 

[Eithni Vala Stark]

Eithni landed on her feet and couldn't believe it had worked as she looked up at the clan mother on top of the pillar. A boost of proudness spread inside of her as she almost couldn't keep back how excited she was while listening to her mom speak. So instead, she just stood and grinned like a little girl and watched as her mom disappeared in a mist of green Ichor.

Eithni looked back down at her vibroblade and the biggest smile formed as she cheered and bounced on the spot that she managed to land a strike on her mom. Having not yet learned to teleport, she had to take the normal way back, through the jungle-forest and back to the village. She quickly found some of her Sisters and they fell into cheerful chatting for a good couple of hours. When dinner came, she ate and then went to bed, so she could be ready for tomorrow, with whatever might awaits Eithni as the final lesson.

~End Thread~​

@Algarus