"Occlus likes her resources all pointed in the same direction. In-fighting isn't impressive, it's an annoying distraction that she has to waste time and attention disentangling. If she didn't already see worth in you, she wouldn't have picked you as her apprentice. She despises useless people."

Callida decides that she'd like to hop out of melee range and see what Brin does. Is she going to be chased?

Brin vaults overhead to land behind Callida and strike.

Yep, she's going to be chased. Callida would like to state, for the record, that Ataru's jumping around shtick is getting quite old.

She blocks the strike, of course.

"Not interested in chatting anymore?" she asks, mildly.

"It's a distraction."

On one hand, she's more likely to be far more honest here, but on the other hand, yes fair enough talking while fighting is kind of silly.

"I'll take that as a yes, then."

If Brin wants her to not be distracted and fight in earnest, she can absolutely do that. They can always talk after Callida's done not embarrassing herself.

It's much closer this time.

Well, good. Callida's glad she improves so quickly. But she's also pretty glad that she's still a proper Sith Lord and isn't embarrassing herself. Yet.

"You've improved a lot," she says, approvingly.

"Occlus showed me a lot."

"Well, excellent job absorbing and using it all." Pause. "Do you know why I invited you to spar?"

"...You were testing me." A safe answer.

"Well, yes. But on what?"

Ah shit.

"Not... on how I fight. On how I think...?"

"Yes. And what you want. Though in retrospect maybe 'test' is the wrong sort of word, test implies that there's a correct answer I'm looking for."

"So... why?"

"How would I know how to help you improve if I don't know where you are? If I don't know how you think? It'd be like navigating in pitch black without reaching out for the Force or trying to figure out the location. It doesn't precisely matter where you are, but it matters that I know."

There are benches in the sparring room; Callida sits on one.

"You're going to teach me?"

"Yes. In the Force. Perhaps later in other things too, but for now it's important to help you get a good foundation to work from."

"Oh. Okay" She straightens a little.

Callida smiles at her, a little.

"So, if you were to describe the Force to someone, how would you do it? How would you describe using it?"

"It's like- a blanket."

"That's an interesting way to describe it. Would you mind elaborating?"

"You wrap it around yourself and it keeps you warm and protects you."

"Accurate, but perhaps missing the full potential scope. A blanket is warm and protective, but inactive. Would you say that when you're in combat, the Force is inactive, or even limited to just being reactive?"

"... I guess so?"

Head tilt.

"But I clearly didn't use it reactively, as you might have noticed. And, actually, neither did you. Where did those flips come from?"