Star Wars: Rise of the Battlemage

I stared back at the young woman, studying her face. She seemed earnest, intrigued, and understandably worried about what I was talking about. After a moment, I nodded, satisfied with what I had seen.

"Luke, could you do me a favor?" I asked, looking at the young Force-sensitive. "There's a crate in my room, black with our symbol on it. Would you mind grabbing it for me?"

The young man nodded and stood up, walking out of the Starcallers lounge area. As he left, I turned to focus back on Sabine, who was still watching me closely.

"So, as Ahsoka probably mentioned, I'm a mage," I explained, reaching out to the side and casting Conjure Familiar, the large, translucent purple tiger appearing in the open space in the middle of the room.

Sabine and Ezra both jumped when the construct appeared. The latter quickly recovered, while the former went as far as to pull one of her Westar-35s and aim it at the construct. Luckily, not only did the Mandalorian have a blazing fast draw speed, but she also had good self-control, as she held her fire, her blaster trained on the construct. After a good fifteen seconds, she slowly pulled her pistol back, sliding it into its holster out of sight. R2, who had been sitting in the corner, had also let out a screech of fear before trailing off into confused warbles and whistles.

"That… is incredible!" Ezra said, peering intensely at the translucent feline, watching as I ordered it to spin around and sit down. "What is that?"

"A simple Conjuration spell," I explained, pausing for a moment before banishing the construct. "No real intelligence, just a construct that follows basic orders. This one is a bit more complex…"

I spent a few minutes showing off my magic, conjuring a few more things, and even chilling the table with a quick blast of Frostbite. Eventually, Luke returned, lugging my armor crate out into the lounge. I stood and took it from him, bringing it closer to my seat before putting it down and cracking it open. I pulled out my helmet, passing it to Ezra, who looked at it for a moment before passing it to Sabine. She ran her fingers along the painted metal, looking at it with wide eyes. As she was doing that, I grabbed a couple of metal ingots I had stored inside my armor crate after picking it up from Pola's workshop. None of them were valuable, which was fine because I just needed to show off my ability.

"So, I can do magic. What I can do varies a lot, but one specific spell is called Transmutation," I explained, placing the metal bars on the table. "As you can imagine, it takes one thing and turns it into another. Specifically, it takes one metal and turns it into another."

I pick up a bar of aluminum, then a bar of durasteel. I hand them to Sabine, who reluctantly put my helmet down to accept the ingots. Before she could comment, I reached out, put a finger on each of the ingots, and cast Transmutation. As always, the process was slow, but constantly using the spell had given me a pretty decent grasp of it, meaning it had definitely gotten faster. It was also slightly more efficient, both for mana and for material lost.

Everyone, even those who knew I had this ability, watched with wide eyes as the bar of durasteel slowly changed to aluminum, losing a slight amount of mass in the process. When the bar was done, I sat back down in my chair.

"Now, before everyone starts to freak out, there are some harsh limitations. You'll notice the new aluminum bar is smaller?" I pointed out, people nodding mutely. "That's from inefficiencies in the conversion process. They also scale with value or worth, meaning if I tried to convert a bar of Durasteel into beskar, I'm likely to get nothing but a few specks of dust. Using precious metals works much better. I've found that electrum is just about the closest to equilibrium I've gotten to. One bar of electrum for one bar of beskar."

"You can turn electrum… into beskar?"

"Technically, I can transmute any pure metal I have a sample of," I pointed out. "It's just a matter of it being worth my time and effort. Beskar just seemed like a good opportunity."

"This is… Why show me this?" She asked, her brain still trying to comprehend what she had just witnessed.

"Because I'm worried about how your people may react," I explained. "I understand beskar is extremely important to your people, and seeing it in other people's hands seems wrong. I don't necessarily disagree, considering how it was stolen from you."

She nodded, following what I was saying. I could see the gears starting to turn in her head as she listened.

"But as I clearly demonstrated, we aren't using Mandalorian beskar," I pointed out, tapping my helmet. "Well, technically, there is some Mandalorian armor floating around in ours since I had to get the original sample from an ancient set of armor."

I reached over and picked up my helmet, choosing to ignore the fact that she clearly wanted to take it back from me.

"This is not made from your people's home world. It was not stolen from your people or from the Empire," I explained. "A month ago, this beskar did not exist."

That seemed to stump her, the armored young woman leaning back in her chair with a frown.

"Now, the way I see it, there are two likely scenarios. One, a group of Mandalorians finds out about my ability to make beskar that they send a team to kill me to preserve the integrity of their… holy? Sacred? Significant metal."

"What's number two?" Ezra asked.

"A group of Mandalorians track down rumors of beskar, discover my ability, and drag me off the streets so that I can print out more for them," I explained. "Either scenario is unacceptable, obviously, so I want to ask you, a Mandalorian who I could possibly convince to keep it a secret for as long as possible, what you thought and what you think your fellows will do."

Sabine was silent for a long time, staring down at the two metal bars in her hand. She was clearly still stunned, her brain almost visibly working through what she had just learned. After a full two minutes, she looked up.

"I don't think you're wrong. The likelihood of some clan or group coming after you is not small," She admitted. "Even if you could successfully prove to every Mandalorian you meet that the beskar you use is not from Mandalore or Condcordia, plenty would come after you anyway, to take you out or take you for themselves."

"What would you suggest we do?" I asked, leaning back in my chair. "I'm not looking to go against any Mandalorians, even if I think we would win."

"Well… If you hired a group of us to work for you, kept them on the payroll, and had them go on actual missions… That would probably keep a good fraction of the others out of your hair," She responded, frowning slightly as she considered the options. "The general rule for coverts and clans is to stay out of each other's way. Forming a covert at your base wouldn't stop everyone, but a big enough group would make them reconsider."

"...Damn. Yeah, I was hoping for a better solution than that, but it's better than nothing," I responded, shaking my head. "I'm worried that someone is going to kill a lot of people who have done nothing wrong to get to me. And that I will have to burn a covert to the ground to send the message that there are consequences to doing that."

Sabine paled at my words, and Ezra looked at me with wide eyes before looking at Ahsoka. I shook my head and explained.

"I am not a Jedi. I do not have a connection to the Force. Whatever higher standard you may hold yourself to does not apply to me or my people," I explained before glancing at Ahsoka. "Obviously, any children would be left unharmed, as would anyone who surrendered, but considering how young your people train their children for combat and how seriously they take their 'honor"... I'm not sure the offer will make a difference."

"You… would you really…?"

"Sabine, your people's history is a sordid, violent, and long affair. You have been on both sides of morality. You've been the cause of and the victims of unearned violence," I explained, shaking my head. "Save for a recent and disastrous stint of barely restrained pacifism, your people have always lived by the sword. And if your people come after mine or kill innocents in an attempt to get to me, I will make sure they die by it, too. Don't get me wrong, I'm not insane. I'm not going to declare a crusade for the actions of a small group of individuals. I will react according to whatever happens."

She still looked a little spooked, but she nodded in understanding anyway. She slowly slid the bars back to me, which I returned to the crate, along with my helmet.

"I do like your idea, though," I said. "Any idea who I might be able to recruit?"

"I…"

"Perhaps you're asking a bit too much, a bit too fast?" Ahsoka pointed out, putting her hand on my shoulder. "You are spoiled by the Skyforged, Deacon."

"...Shit, right, fair enough," I said with a wince, rubbing my neck. "We move a bit faster than other people, it seems."

"It's fine, I'll think about it," She responded, seeming to come back to herself slightly. "If I can think of anyone, I will let you know."

I nodded in acceptance but also made a note to do some research on my own. If I could recruit a small covert, or the remnants of a clan, they would be a solid deterrent as well as a great tool. Plus, we did actually have plenty to offer. Ships, resources, workshops, weapons, and armor, to name a few.

I also needed to come to terms with working with Mandalorians. I knew for a fact I did not have the patience to deal with the religious ones, the groups that refused to remove their helmets and lived by an outdated, pointlessly strict code. Sure, it was cool in movies and books, but such strict honor-bound societies were ludicrous in real life. I could understand it if they were aliens, because then they could just have a different way of thinking than us. But the majority of Mandalorians were human, meaning they had no real excuse for following such a harsh creed.

Societies needed to be flexible, and whenever one of them focused predominantly on one thing, it always seemed, to me at least, that they always ended up getting in their own way. I would not tolerate things like honor duels or rites of succession through mortal combat.

"So… should we talk about what happens next?" Luke asked, looking a bit out of sorts with the current conversation.

"We are already on course to the planet of origin, where the story says the Jedi and the princess started their blind jump," Ashoka responded. "Once we arrive, we will start triangulating Huyang's position using Deacon's magic. Then, we will calculate a jump, get closer, and start again. With any luck, Huyang is where I think he is. If he isn't… well, we might be forced to put this on hold for some time."

"Why exactly do you need this 'Professor Huyang?'" Sabine asked. "You know how to make a lightsaber, right? Can't you just teach them?"

"Attuning to your lightsaber for the first time is a delicate thing," Ahsoka explained. "Yes, I could absolutely teach you how to do it, but when you can find the expert… why go to the amateur? Beyond that, Professor Huyang would be a valuable asset for us and for future generations. He has thousands of years of history stored in his memory banks and more knowledge about the Jedi's past than anyone."

"And you're sure… he is intact?" Luke asked, hesitant to voice the possibility our target might already be destroyed.

"He is whole enough to be recognized as himself," I explained, continuing when everyone looked but Ahsoka looked at me in confusion. "My ability to locate things requires familiarity. I'm pretty good at the spell by this point, so a picture and a description of an item are usually enough to direct me. But, if the object or location is so destroyed that it would no longer be identifiable as the original object, say… like a boulder being crushed and spread as gravel, the spell won't catch. The boulder isn't the boulder anymore, it's gravel. If Professor Huyang is in one piece, or even several, the spell will locate him. If he was shredded and melted down, or blasted to pieces and spread over a whole planet, the spell would fail."

"I gotta say, you using magic is... Freaky" Ezra said, leaning in. "If I couldn't feel that the Force was completely still, I would accuse you of being some sort of Force witch, but there's nothing. It's like watching someone throw a big rock into the pond, cause a huge splash, only for there to be no ripples at all."

"That's because it's not the Force," I explained with a shrug.

We talked a bit longer about my magic and about our destination. We also attempted to get Ahsoka to retell the story of the Jedi and the Princess in its entirety, but she refused, saying she wouldn't do it justice. I got the distinct feeling she really enjoyed the story and that she wanted everyone to experience it, if they were going to, in the same way she did.

After a few hours, we ended up making a meal in the Starcallers kitchen, using some of the fresh ingredients that Ezra and Sabine picked up for us on Lothal. It was simple fair, but the fact that it was fresh meant it was nearly infinitely better than the shelf-stable rations, even the high quality ones.

If living in this galaxy had done anything for me, it was an appreciation for fresh food.

Once everyone had eaten, we ended up going our separate ways. The Force-sensitives among us went to the cargo hold to practice and prepare for finding their crystals while Sabine, Claron, and I hung out in the lounge. Sabine demanded that I put on my full armor, and by the end of it, I was chuckling to myself as she was clearly very jealous.

"It's insane!" She said, pacing around me, examining the armor from every angle. "The amount of beskar… you have complete coverage!"

"That's kind of the point," I responded, pulling off my helmet. "Why go with partial coverage if it just means you might not get shot."

"Because it's too expensive," She explained, her exasperation coming through loud and clear. "You're wearing enough beskar to trade for a large starship. Something big, new, well-armed and tricked out."

"No expense spared to keep my people safe," I explained with a shrug. "All ground team wear these, and everyone has access to the uniform."

"Wait, the uniform you and Ahsoka were wearing, that was beskar too?" She asked. "Why?"

"Because I take care of the people working for me," I explained. "And the beskar was basically free, considering we stole the precious metals we used to make it."

She shook her head, sitting down with a huff. She glared at me, annoyed at me and her own reaction. Mostly me.

The laughing probably didn't help.