The Salle, Friday Morning

[future_sandworm]

He could not afford to grow lazy. Having slipped out of bed early, Leto now stood in the middle of the salle, the blades in front of him on the floor. He pulled his shirt over his head and flung it aside, then stretched out his muscles, forcing away any remaining sleepiness. With a swift movement he grabbed the blades and hurled them spinning into the air, where they separated, so that a total of seven deadly sharp disks were spinning, hovering in the air. Best not to overdo it today. He reached out for the knives, waiting for the attack.

The blades attacked him from all directions. He dodged and parries, avoiding their trajectories. There was no time for mistake; he had to know every part of his body at any given moment. Pushing his body to extremes, he felt that stillness of mind that came with this training. The spinning discs kept retuning until he had forced each one of them off its path, making it strike and get caught in a hard surface. Leto crouched on the floor, breathing heavily.

[Open of course. If you want to know what this looks like, check here.]

Comments

[future_sandworm]

Leto raised an eyebrow, curious. "Then perhaps it would be possible. My sister would be able to teach, but I'm not sure she has time for more students."

[momslilassassin]

"I'm already one of her students," Ben said with a smile. "If your sister is Master Atreides, I mean."

[future_sandworm]

He grinned. "She is," he said proudly. "Ghanima and I are twins."

[momslilassassin]

Ben blinked once, then shrugged it off. In Jaina's galaxy, he was barely walking.

"So what was what you were doing called?" he asked. Because it had been shiny.

[future_sandworm]

"This? It's part of the Weirding Way," Leto said. "But tell me, what do you train as a Jedi?"

[momslilassassin]

"Everything," Ben said with a wry smile. "Mind, body, emotions...a Jedi must always be in control." He finally remembered the lightsaber hilt in his hand and held it up. "This is our chosen weapon."

[future_sandworm]

That sounded familiar. Leto studied the weapon, not taking it unless it was offered. "How... does it work?"

[momslilassassin]

Ben stepped back and ignited the blade. "There's a crystal inside," he said. "This one is only a practice blade--I didn't make it myself. When I'm a full Jedi, I'll choose my own crystal and it will...resonate...with me." He smiled. "The crystal is the heart of the blade," he recited. "The blade is the heart of the Jedi."

[future_sandworm]

Leto watched the light, and the humming sound it made was odd. "And when one hits something with it?" he asked.

[momslilassassin]

"Unless it's one of a very, very few substances, the lightsaber's going to cut through it," Ben said.

[future_sandworm]

That was impressive, and Leto let that reaction show. "So without the same kind of blade, your opponent don't stand much of a chance?"

[momslilassassin]

Ben grinned a little smugly. "It's one of a lot of reasons people don't pick fights with Jedi."

[future_sandworm]

"It seems wiser not to, at least not in close combat," Leto smirked. "Will you spar with me sometime?"

[momslilassassin]

"I'd love to," Ben said, trying not to bounce on his toes. "The drones used in lightsaber combat training seem like kid's stuff compared to what you were doing."

[future_sandworm]

"Drones?" Leto asked.

[momslilassassin]

He remembered Ghamina's issues with his droid army, so he was cautious as he pulled a few tiny balls from his belt pouch. "They direct laser fire at me," he said carefully.

[future_sandworm]

That seemed more like the spinning blades to Leto, and he nodded. "I'd be happy to see what we can come up with combining our training." He hadn't seen what Ben was able to do, but the education of the Jedi seemed interesting.

[bedtime!]

[momslilassassin]

"Pieces of drones everywhere, no doubt," Ben said, flashing a grin. "I can make others."

[future_sandworm]

"You make them yourself?" Leto asked, a little impressed and curious.

[momslilassassin]

Ben nodded. "They're not that hard," he said. "Just a little program that's going to increase the difficulty level as you improve, something to make it hover..."

Ben didn't realize that not everyone's mind worked like his.

[future_sandworm]

"You seem to have a talent for that sort of thing," Leto observed, making a note of it.

[momslilassassin]

"It kind of runs in the family," he said. "My cousin Jaina's much better at it than I am. But I tend to, um, shoot the drones out of the sky a lot."

[future_sandworm]

"Oh?" Leto said.

[momslilassassin]

"I'm not as good as some of the Jedi," he said, "but I have pretty good aim. I tend to shoot the laser beam right back along the same trajectory...which shorts out the drone."

Comes with being trained as an assassin.

[future_sandworm]

"Apart from it giving you more repair work that should be a good thing," Leto said, smiling. "Unless you like the repair work and do it on purpose."