Door of Opportunity [Apillis]

[kt]

The sparring match that was had the previous day had stirred something within him, drive, motivation, work ethic. This was not to say that he was lazy or anything, it merely that he had started to plateau in his training. The amount of work he had done for himself had been quite substantial, enough to put himself above most of the herd. This however was not enough, the fight with Nieraan had put everything into perspective. Sure the fight had ended in an acceptable manner, but if there were others of his and Nieraan's caliber, and he was certain there were, then he would need much more training if he was to get on par with the dark Lords and Ladies.

It was now that Torran found himself in one of the many courtyards, sparring with yet more idiots. It was fair to assume that since there was a serious lack of serious challenges, that he would simply have to increase the volume of weaker opponents. With a sigh, the kel dor looked around as he became surrounded now by four fellow initiates, all of which agreed to spar with what they thought to be an 'easy' fight. He had made sure to keep his presence in the Force low, finding that he could use this opportunity to test out moves in what he thought of as a safe scenario. This helped him find the ones that needed the teachings he could offer, the cocky, over confident ones that were oh so fun to punish.

It had been rather easy to round his sparring partners up, finding that meaningless insults and taunts went a long way. Starting with the peon directly in front of him, he could already tell this was his victory, the tall, skinny human gave a confident snear as he turned on his poorly made red lightsaber, standard single hilt. The initiate to Torran's right was a rodian of all things, one of very few he had seen around which was surprising, those particular aliens always seemed to be everywhere. The rodian made an obscene hand gesture before igniting two short, blue lightsabers, just as the twi lek woman behind him and another human male fired up their own weapons, two more standard singles, respectively.

"Get ready to die, insect face!" The dominant human man shouted. How immature, but really, Torran shouldn't have been surprised, humans seemed to be such...over zealous creatures. Poor insults aside, the kel dor ignited his own, beautifully crafted curved hilt saber, it's perfectly focused blade gave an ominous hum as he gave his customary Makashi salute.

"Descend upon me at once, otherwise you won't have a chance." It wasn't a comment conceived of arrogance, but one born of a shrewd hypothesis. With an idiotic nod to each other, the four initiates all bull rushed him, their blades cocked and ready to swing.

This should prove interesting...

[Apillis]

As events within the galaxy escalated and time continued on its path awaiting none, Vorxere took to isolation and solitude within the Sith Temple. While wandering its halls during the unique moments she was not reserved to her marathon sessions of meditation, she would on occassion give a small instruction--when the mood struck her. It seldom did, though. With the chaotic events unfolding they often drew her attention away from such distractions to feel for the critical points of events as they unfolded as the fires of war continued to spread outward through the galaxy like a slow moving forest fire too hot to put out. Her dilemma lied within what role she would choose take on within these increasingly violent times.

However, years of such stretching out the mind and senses to the larger currents of the Force flowing through the galaxy as it touches upon each errupting event--she knew enough not to over tax herself trying to feel so much. She understood limitations and what were hers, trying to reach beyond what she was capable of would only burn herself out, and she currently was in no position where she felt the need to take things too deep into dramatics. At least... not yet. The Sith Lord knew enough when spending so much time following the currents through the Force, there somes a time to regain one's grounding within the physical world around her. Hence, like in the unique moments in the past, she stopped her relentless amounts of meditation and turned to wandering the halls of the temple.

Initiates walk the halls often, few individuals within the temple hold any actual rank within the Order--fewer still at her own level and higher. How far would any of these hopefuls go she would ruminate often when walking the halls--how many would be snuffed out in their attempt to climb the ladder. As she crossed a courtyard the answer to that pondering could possibly in the process of being answered as noticed what appeared to be one of the young Initiates sparing with several others at once. An admirable decision--and a risk--given such such sparring matches while generally end with each party going their separate ways, often also end fatally. How will this one end, she wondered.

She paused in her steps to merely stand there and observed, typically she liked being out of the way or out of sight in the shadows. In this instance, however, she did not seem to care who took notice of her presence no matter the shadow it may cast itself. So she simply stood there, crossing her arms under her chest. Her blood red eyes narrowing a little, despite her inability to see the physical, but like her mother and her people, the Sith Lord only saw the incorporal through the Force itself--watching these Initiates through the Force--seeing them as they truly are.

The dark side's corruption upon her form was obvious, the clear indication of someone who has indulge walking the dark path for far too many lengths. The air around her always seemed to be still. But it was those blood red eyes as they observe, never do they blink--watching--she is always watching through the Force itself, but never blinking as she gazes. To stare back at her is akin to staring back at the dead with those eyes of hers.

But, watch is all she did as she stood there in the courtyard...

[kt]

It would seem as though Torran had made a mistake. Increasing the volume of something aweful didn't make for a better challenge, it just meant more of a headache for the kel dor who was currently evading and parrying every blow the four fools made. What made Torran truly sad was the fact that even now, not a single one of these initiates were even close to Nieraan's level, this thought continued to hover at the forefront of his brain, prodding him repeatedly as he grew more and more annoyed.

Everything was fine, annoying, but fine until one of the idiots decided to try and grab his mask off of his face. Why was it the mask? Always the mask?! It did of course make a certain sense to target such a thing, for without it he would surely suffocate and die. A fine idea if it was executed on someone else, someone less skilled as Torran was. It was perhaps good for the twi lek girl that she had failed in actually touching his face, if she had, she would have lost her hand.

With an agitated sigh, the kel dor had finally had enough of this. With a single fluid motion, Torran spun low 360 degrees, using his toned down lightsaber to sufficiently disable the leg of each initiate. He could have left it at this injury alone, he could have, but he didn't, they tried to touch his mask after all. Before they could even fall to the ground, Torran put an open palm to the sky and let forth a powerful Force Wave, an attack that was perhaps too strong. In four separate directions, each fool flew backwards with alarming force, the kinetic explosion making each body smash into something much harder than they were. The more talkative of the two humans went flying towards the ground with a loud crunch, the second flying hard into a group of nearby initiates and toppling them all over. The twilek shared a similar fate as the loud human and the Rodian flew right into the Temple itself, priceless.

It wasn't long before Torran finally turned around, the piercing stare he had felt in the back of his head now driving him to investigate it's source. With one quick look, he had his answer, and it was one that surprised him pleasantly. Unblinking, blood red eyes stared at his goggled covered ones, her body sleek and slender, covered by stereotypically black attire. This was one of the vaunted dark Ladies of the Temple. The name Vorxere came to mind as he approached, not even having to evaluate her strength through the Force to know how strong she was.

"And what may I ask is a dark lady of the sith doing here? Surely there can't be anything of interest for you among these initiates." His tone was neutral, not giving her an inkling of his true curiosity. It was a rare sight indeed to find such a powerful Force user wandering about like the one in front of him was.

[Apillis]

Vorxere's brow furrowed a little in response to the young Kel-Dor's question after he had defeated the other lowly Initiates. Her head canted a little in reaction as well, but she was silent for a moment. But her wooden expression upon her almost corpse-like visage by its marks of the dark side cracked a smile, thinning her drown victim-like dark blue lips as she replied, "Don't be so certain of that..."

Her arms still crossed under her chest as she begun to walk in a slow, meandering pace though in a circle around the young Kel-Dor. She continued to speak as she ever so slowly paced around the young Kel-Dor like a hssiss circling its prey, "The shadow of the dark side is irresistable if you come to it while young and fresh with ideals and notions of it as a means to harness true strength. To feel it's there in your hand--this... destructive energy and power that fuels the stars--control it to do your biding...to even lift many tons of rock into the sky. It gives them the illusion of unlimitable power, and in some ways I would say is responsible for this Order's troubles. This... what you could call... metaphysical arrogance overcomes them... and many Sith... when they can see what they can do with their minds."

Her pacing came to an abrupt stop with a sharp spin on her heels to face the young Kel-Dor, her arms still crossed under her chest. That ever affable smile contrasting with the marks of the dark side blatant upon her visage despite the hood of her cloak being drawn. With another small silent moment passing she continued to say, "Many Sith who reach the higher echelons of power see themselves too above what could be considered the more mundane of their number... i.e. the Initiates... or even the non-Force-Sensitives... But, this is misguided thinking... It is never a bad thing to see where you started out... to see what you were when you were weak. The structure--the culture of the Sith is required--and must be overseen by the hands who wish to lead it and spread it across the galaxy to counter-balance the light that shines so bright. But, how can those who wish to lead, lead properly if they do not walk amongst the initiates of the Order and citizens of the Empire?... At least... from time to time."

Nonchalantly she then shrugged almost as if dismissing everything she just said, but then followed the shrug up with questioning of the young Kel-Dor, "What about you? Are you one of the weak seeking to become stronger? One of the misguided seeking to be guided? What is your purpose--your ambition?", in a way, two of her questions were trick questions. Having these sorts of little moments had always ben a point of amusement for her, but learning what motivates others had always been a certain joy to her--whatever the purpose maybe in doing so.

[kt]

It seemed she had caught on to his lapse in modesty, something that made the Kel Dor smirk--if he could, that is. As Vorxere began slowly circling around him, Torran did nothing but stand straight as she gave a cryptic speech in response to his question. So far all of what she said was quite understandable, getting back to your roots was never a bad thing. It wasn't until she stopped and turned towards him did Torran get a decent look at her, she was slim and quite pretty, or would have been had the dark side not infected her appearance.

It took only a moment to process her question to him, why was he here? It was simple really, like so many others, he had come to learn, to become stronger. With a small chuckle, Torran spoke. "Unfortunately my reasons for being here are quite unremarkable. I am no different than any other initiate, I come for power, strength to defeat my enemies. Quite simple really." What he said was true, he wanted strength, more power to use to crush those who would dare hurt him or those he cared about. It had already happened twice, it wouldn't happen again.

The kel dor thought hard for a few seconds, thinking on what the woman in front of him had said but moments earlier, there was wisdom in her words. "As long as we're on this topic, what purpose do you have here?" His tone was not confrontational or stuck up, but held a neutral curiosity. "Does helping the weak progress into something greater factor in?"