Chapter 1

1,987 A.B.Y

The bright, city-like planet Coruscant has been home to the Jedi temple for thousands of years. And Kasselis Kreelara had the great honor of being one of its many Padawan learners. She always knew she was strong in the force, but she thought her parents would have forced her to stay on Onderon and serve her family. She even got to go to the temple with her best friend Hared Ssilar, who she spent most of her childhood growing up with. Kasselis was a young girl around sixteen years old, she had long, ginger hair that went down to her waist, she had bright blue eyes, and she usually wore the traditional robes of a Padawan. And Hared was, pretty much, the same age as her. He had short, dark hair with a single, long lock of hair on the left side of his head, which he usually braided. He had brown eyes, and wore a dark battle armor that looked similar to those of the Nathema Zealots.

The two barely ever saw each other, usually only during their lightsaber drills with Master Suiac, or sometimes they would eat lunch in the academy's cafeteria. On extremely rare occasions, they ran into each other in the library, and ended up studying together. Of course, they had been on some missions together, but on those occasions they rarely talked about anything else but the mission.
Kasselis was walking the long, white halls of the jedi temple, a great academy with four bright towers surrounding the actual temple, which held the jedi council chambers on the top of the temple. She had been in her chambers preparing for her master's training, cleaning her lightsaber, the green crystal contained inside her lightsaber, and practiced her usual form III, soresu rotations. Soresu is one of the seven major lightsaber forms, one that focused on defense and wearing your opponent out. She used this form due to its emphasis on defense, and because she disliked hurting others unless it was necessary.

Master Suiac was a great instructor, but he held too much focus on lightsaber combat, just as Hared did. He rarely incorporated the force into his daily routine, leaving her and the other padawans to study the force in their own free time. But what he did teach with the lightsaber has allowed her to grow stronger than some of the jedi masters in terms of lightsaber combat, especially because of her mastery of soresu. Kasselis studied the healing and protection aspects of the force, feeling that the protection of others were more important than the ending of a life. Master Suiac's lessons always began around the same time, 11:30 am, and usually took around two hours to finish.

She began walking to the training halls in the center temple from her chambers in one of the other towers at 11:00, expecting it to be a long walk. Kasselis was a newly found padawan from her homeworld of Vermillion and was found six month ago, so she still made the mistake of misjudging the time it took to get from one place to the other. She arrived in the training room fifteen minutes early to find Master Suiac and Hared sparring. Suiac was a fairly muscular human male with green hair. Suiac was holding a green, single-bladed lightsaber in each hand, allowing for multiple angles of attack, fortified by the acrobatics of form IV, ataru. Hared used a blue, double-bladed lightsaber, a weapon that allowed longer reach and ease of defense, which supported the counter-attacks of form V, the djem so variant. Occasionally, Hared used the aggressiveness of form VII, juyo, which usually annihilated anything in its path. He refrained from using it during sparring with other jedi, but found no need to hold back during his missions.

The two continued to duel, Suiac on offense and Hared on defense as they danced around the room, with blue and green hues swirling through the air as well as colliding with each other, creating a mixed glow of the two. Kasselis had no idea how long they have been fighting for, only that the match lasted until the other padawans, all of different gender and species, began to walk through the door. The two broke from their duel, deactivated their lightsabers, and gave a slight bow as they walked back to their positions. As all the other students began to take their positions, Master Suiac began his morning lessons.

"Good morning everyone!" Master Suiac announced to his class, as he walked back to his area. The room erupted with the class' response 'good morning.' Most being in basic, while some of the aliens said so in their own language. "Today, Master Kelrus has asked me to begin instruction into one of the more advanced and less known fighting styles." Master Kelrus was the grandmaster of the jedi order. He sits among the other twelve jedi masters, including Suiac, on the jedi council. Suiac found him to be a great fighter in both lightsaber and force combat. He had been taught by the grandmaster when he first arrived at the jedi temple as a child. Jedi typically took in younglings under the age of ten, which is why he was curious about Hared and Kasselis' training at such a late age. It's easier to mold the young since their minds have not yet developed. Sure, they were strong in the force, but surely not that strong.

"By less known," started Hared with a curious tone. "Do you mean forbidden, or just not widely practiced." Hared was an inquisitive man, always asking questions during class. Whether out of review, learning something he didn't know, or just out of sheer curiosity, almost nothing slipped by him. Not even some of the forbidden secrets.

"The jedi do not forbid anything except the use of the dark side." Replied Suiac in a neutral tone. "No, what we will be learning today is sokan. Does anybody know this style?" Asked Suiac, expecting none to answer his question. But almost immediately, three hands shot up, Alk, Hared, and Kasselis. Suiac pointed toward Alk to answer his question.

"Sokan is a style of fighting that utilizes sweeping movements, aggressive mobility, and the environment around it's user." Alk stated with his head slightly raised.

"Very good." Suiac said with a shocked expression. Apparently it was more well known than he thought. "Now to begin training, i'll need a sparring partner." Suiac scanned the room for someone to help demonstrate sokan. He looked at the padawans for a few seconds before finally calling a name. "Kasselis, you're up." Kasselis simply nodded her head in response as she unclipped her lightsaber from her belt. Suiac unclipped one of his two sabers and both of them ignited their bright green blades. They both gave a slight bow to each other as several small pillars raised from the ground. Then, the two began the practice match.

Hared stood to the sides of the room, watching has his master and his best friend dueled. Suiac attempted to press his attack with charge-like lunges to her chest and sweeping slashes to the sides of her stomach and neck, but Kreelara's mastery of soresu gifted her with absolute defense, which allowed he to raise her lightsaber to either slap his attack away, redirecting Suiac's course, or just simply block his attacks, keeping Suiac's movements under restriction. It was clear why Suiac chose Kasselis as his partner. Even Hared was unfamiliar with sokan's capabilities, which would have taken him aback, and possibly cause his defeat. Of course it was only a training session, so it wouldn't really matter to Hared.

After a few minutes of Suiac's attacks, he decided to pull back, using the pillars as cover. Despite losing sight of her master, Kasselis remained still, anticipating an ambush. Her suspicions were found true, as Suiac leaped from the top of a pillar with his green blade over his head. Kasselis raised hers in turn, causing the two green hues to clash, but instead of locking, Suiac immediately flipped to another pillar, using the momentum to charge from the wall. Instead of blocking his charge, Kasselis strode to her left, dodging his attack at the last second.

Suiac tumbled onto the floor, a consequence of imbalance, but he recovered quickly. Standing back up on his two feet, Suiac began another lunging attack with his green blade straight out in front of his chest. Kasselis turned her blade in front of her in a circular motion, hoping to redirect Suiac's attack. But just as Suiac was about to make contact with her blade, he shifted from the lunge into a sweeping slash to her right side.

The green blade stopped just short of hitting the side of her stomach, thankfully Suiac's lightsaber had a training mode, which reduced the power of the lightsaber enough so that it wouldn't kill or cut anything on contact. Suiac withdrew his lightsaber, and clipped it onto his belt.

"As you can see," Suiac began to speak as Kasselis deactivated her saber, the green blade retracting into the hilt, as she clipped it onto her belt as well. "Sokan is the use of your environment such as these pillars. When used correctly, sokan can penetrate even the strongest defense." The students around Ssilar stood in awe. Kasselis' soresu defense was nearly impenetrable, which was proven true from her sparring lessons with other jedi masters, but Hared was unimpressed. Sure, sokan had some great qualities, but it was more of a principle than a style to him. Besides, her opponent was a member of the jedi council, despite her training, she could not have won that match. "Now then," Suiac spoke again. "Partner up and spar as you usually would. We don't have the space necessary for multiple spars to teach sokan, so that will be for another day." Hared had begun moving to the corner of the room at this point, distancing himself from the other students. Nobody in this class held the same skill level as him, and nobody could give him a good match. Almost nobody.

"Hared!" Called Kasselis from across the room, waving her hands to get his attention. "Do you want to spar with me today?" Kasselis' unbreakable defense is a force to be reckoned with, even for the ferocity of his seventh form of combat. The two had been friends for years, despite the difference in their social class on Vermillion. Hared was a street urchin, scavenging and stealing to survive, while Kasselis was part of the royal family.

"It would be an honor." Hared responded teasingly with a slight bow. The two walked to the center of the room and began their match.

(Sorry if this seems a little long, took too long to upload, or If the ending seems to be a little abrupt, I've just been a little busy. I've got a feeling on where I want this to go, but nothing concrete. Thank you for supporting these uploads, and let me know how you think this is going. Also let me know how I can improve my writing.)