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Chapter Text

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.

- Friedrich Nietzsche

Kiarn hadn’t been on many interstellar journeys in her life, but she was already learning a few things. The slight change in the vibration of the shuttle’s hull, for instance, meant that they were entering the atmosphere.

 That, and the creeping malevolence that reached her on a deep, gut level. Korriban knew she was coming, and the planet was hungry for her. 

Stop it, she told herself. She was being melodramatic. There was nothing here that she hadn’t experienced before. All the horrors would be sentient-made, not some vague bad feelings that were natural in a place that had seen as much death and pain as this one had. 

Her legs were shaking again and she tried to still them without success. Unhooking the safety restraints, she paced back and forth, running over again in her mind the plans she had made earlier in the trip. First impressions would be everything here and she would need to look strong. No – to be strong. The whole point of the academy was to weed out the weak and uplift those with the will and the might to be worthy of joining the ranks of the Sith. A tall order, especially for the students here.

The landing skids opened with a hiss, audible even from within the shuttle and she sat down again. Should she tie her hair back or leave it down? Were there any other alterations she could make to her appearance that would help? 

The vessel shuddered to a stop as the autopilot finished its landing routine. No time, then. She fell still, waiting for the hatch to open. When it did, a blast of cold air swirled into the space, cutting straight through Kiarn’s clothing. She hesitated before peaking out. The landing pad, such as it was, rested on the edge of a cliff surrounded by crags of reddish stone. She couldn’t see the bottom at this angle. 

A Togorian male stood nearby, clad in black armor and with a lightsaber at his side. He folded his arms over his chest and tapped his foot. 

Kiarn quickened her pace as she crossed the landing pad towards him, wary of keeping him waiting. In her head, she rehearsed how she would approach. Head up, shoulders high, but no direct eye contact. That might be seen as overstepping from someone like her. When she reached him, she bowed deeply. 

His gaze swept her critically as she straightened. She tried not to flinch, painfully aware of how inadequate she must look. Undersized and underfed, her unevenly-cut red hair a mass of tangles, the stained greenish jumpsuit hanging off her frame. Force sensitive, maybe, but not worthy of Korriban and certainly not worthy of him. 

He turned on his heel and started down the hill without a word. Kiarn followed. It seemed to be what he expected. 

They walked down a path that wound from the landing pad down the side of the hill and into a valley with steep, rocky walls. She wondered if the shuttle stopped so far from the academy due to the landscape making it impractical to land closer, or if it was on purpose, to increase the students’ isolation. Sand crunched under her feet and she stumbled several times on loose rocks. Her boots, too, were too large, and it made walking difficult even on this well-worn track. . 

After perhaps five minutes, the sides of the canyon suddenly widened, opening into a larger valley that ended half a kilometer further away.

The Togorian didn’t stop, so Kiarn continued after him, although she couldn’t stop herself from gaping as she did. The Sith Academy was smaller than she had thought it would be, but the stone building carved into the cliff faces was still impressive. A massive black opening marked the entrance, a set of wide stairs leading up to it from the valley floor. On either side, a statue depicting the hunched form of a humanoid slave held up the roof. They gave her a crawling feeling. 

It took a few minutes to cross the empty space, packed sand giving way to flat stones worn smooth from millennia of feet. Only the cold whistling of the wind broke the silence. 

A feeling was growing in her as she walked, the sensation of being watched or stalked. Stronger and stronger, pressing into the back of her head and clawing at her throat until she could practically feel hot breath exhaled on her neck. She looked over her shoulder. No one was there, only a dark cave opening like a mouth, set into the ground directly opposite the academy. 

She couldn’t help counting as she climbed the stairs. Twenty-two. Despite the quiet, the sound of her shuffling steps seemed to disappear immediately. 

Inside was large and cavernous, as cold as outside and even gloomier. Decorated in black and sparingly lit, it overwhelmed Kiarn with the sense that something malevolent lingered in the shadows. She tried to shake it off as she passed through the entrance hall after the Torgorian. Just as she had told herself on the ship, every danger here was physical. And there was enough of that without getting herself worked up about ominous architecture. 

They passed through the entrance hall and into a large atrium. A statue of some Sith lord rose in the center towards an opening in the roof that bathed it in sickly light. Kiarn didn’t recognize the man, but she wasn’t sure if that was due to her own ignorance or if it was supposed to be a generic representation of the order. The Torgorian climbed a set of stairs to the balcony above and from there plunged into a bewildering series of hallways and stairs. Despite her initial attempt to pay attention to the route, Kiarn quickly found herself lost. 

Finally, he stopped in front of a door in a hallway that was slightly better lit than the others. “Wait here.” 

It was the first time she had heard him speak, and his voice wasn’t as deep as she had expected from a being his size. He knocked on the door, then stalked off, leaving her alone. 

Worry gnawed at Kiarn’s empty stomach as she watched him disappear around the corner. Had they already judged her unworthy? Had they divined her intentions for the future and decided she was too much of a risk to train? Should she try to run for it? 

Stop it, she told herself severely. She couldn’t lose her nerve now. And even if she did, where would she go? The only way off Korriban was in the shuttles, and even if she could steal one, which she doubted, she would never make it out of the atmosphere. She dug her teeth into her tongue until blood welled up, concentrating on the metallic taste and the pain and trying to block out everything else. 

The door opened, but no one was there. She hesitated, wondering if she was supposed to enter, until a woman’s voice called softly from inside. “Come in.” 

She entered to find an office, basically but expensively furnished. The warm, moist air felt amazing on her chilled face, a contrast to the bone-dry cold outside. A red Twi’lek sat at the desk, twirling one of her heavily tattooed lekku in her fingers. She looked up from her datapad. “Hello.” 

Her voice surprised Kiarn – smooth and calming, neither the harsh command nor the seductive purr that most female Sith seemed to choose between. Nonetheless her apparent disinterest was almost certainly calculated to remind Kiarn of her place. “Hello,” she replied warily. 

“What’s your name, acolyte?”

“Kiarn.” Perhaps she should have chosen a different one. She was already on the way to remaking herself, this would have been the perfect time to take on a new name as well. But it was too late for that, and her old one would do just as well, she supposed. 

“Welcome to Korriban, Kiarn. I am Darth Eliss, master of the Sith Academy here. I won’t keep you long. We only have a few rules here, but don’t mistake that for laxity. Break them, and you will suffer the consequences. First, stay in the lower levels unless given explicit permission by a teacher or another Sith lord to visit the higher ones. Second, do not attack the other students or hinder their progress in any way. And finally, you are to do whatever your masters tell you, immediately and without question.”

She paused, obviously expecting some kind of response. Kiarn nodded. “Yes, ma’am.” 

“Good. You are excused from classes today. I’ll have another student guide you to the dormitories and show you the areas in which you will be living and studying.” Motioning for Kiarn to follow her, she stood and walked toward the door. 

They walked down the hall for several minutes, moving, Kiarn thought, lower in the building. A large Selonian approached from the opposite direction and Darth Eliss stopped. “Acolyte. This is Kiarn. Show her to Torsten’s old bunk and give her a tour.” 

“Yes, Lord.” The Selonian bowed. There was little respect in the gesture, but Darth Eliss either didn’t notice or decided to ignore it and returned to her office. 

The Selonian made a disgusted-sounding noise in the back of his throat. Or perhaps her throat. Kiarn had only met one or two Selonians before and she wasn’t certain how to tell if they were male or female. Or even if they had genders. 

It stalked back the way it came, down two flights of stairs and past several closed doors. As they entered an elevator and descended even further, she realized how far they had gone underground. She swallowed hard, fighting nerves and still tasting blood from her injured tongue. You are not claustrophobic. You are strong. Still, the Dark Side energy that had seeped into every piece of the Academy amplified her awareness of the hundreds of meters of rock above her head, the millions of kilos that waited to crush her. All it would take was a single earthquake. . . 

When the doors finally opened, it was all she could do not to rush out of the elevator, but she held her cool and let the Selonian go first. The sensation disappeared as she walked into a moderately wider hallway and she relaxed a bit. See? It’s going to be alright. You’ll get used to it. You can get used to anything.  

The Selonian turned left and stopped in front of an open archway. “Yours is the second bunk,” it said in heavily accented Huttese. “Don’t touch mine or you’re dead.” 

“Thank you,” Kiarn replied, a bit more snappishly than she intended. The threat didn’t bother her. Very little that people could say hurt her anymore, and Sith loved to emptily throw their weight around. By now, it just fueled her hatred. But the stress of her arrival and the elevator ride was setting her on edge and her control wasn’t what it often was. 

“I’ll know if you do.” The Selonian turned to leave, hitting her with its tail in a way that was just a bit too convenient to be accidental. So much for a tour. 

As it disappeared around the corner, Kiarn felt the tension in her body relax. She had made it. Settled in the Academy, a proper Sith student. If she was going to have to be here, the fewer problems she had, the better. Not that she should get cocky. She hadn’t even made it through her first class yet. 

She looked around the room. It was bare enough – three beds, each with a chest at the foot and a blanket. No door on the room; it was really more of a large alcove. The middle bed lay under a fine layer of dust, but the other two looked like someone had slept in them recently. 

Kiarn wondered what time it was. The gloom outside made her think early evening, but it might be like that all the time, similar to Dromund Kaas. 

She walked over to the bed and opened the chest. Empty. Was she going to have to wear this jumpsuit during her entire training? I hope not, she thought, pulling at it in distaste. As she did, she caught sight of her hand. It was filthy, with broken nails and dirt pushed into the cuticles. Dried blood crusted her knuckles. The rest of her probably didn’t look any better. No wonder the Togorian and the Selonian didn’t want to have anything to do with her.

She should try to clean up before meeting with the rest of the students. Not that she particularly cared about impressing them, in fact, it was probably better if she didn’t, but showing up like this would probably do far worse than not impressing them. It would paint her as an easy target and lead to too many questions about her background and how she came to be at the Academy, questions she didn’t feel like answering right then. 

Well Kiarn, it looks like it’s time to do some exploring. She peaked around the corner of the archway. No one in the hall. Leaving the dorm room behind, she started to walk back towards the main passageway, nerves and excitement still warring with the sense of dread that lay over the back of her mind. 

Chapter Text

The refresher was at the end of the hall, and it appeared that the male and female students shared. Privacy must be against the Sith Code. But it was deserted now and staring at the empty tiled room made her acutely conscious of how filthy she was. She stepped into one of the shower stalls and pulled the curtain shut before peeling off the jumpsuit and letting the water flow over her.

It wasn’t quite what she had hoped for. The water was lukewarm and even with only one shower running, the flow was anemic. But it was enough to lift the dirt and dried blood from her body and to let her make an effort at cleaning her hair, helped along by what she assumed was soap in a dispenser next to the showerhead. It was soothing, relaxing. A moment to herself that she hadn’t had in a long time.

Too soon, she made herself get out, wrapping two of the thin towels around herself before she did. It wasn’t comfortable, but at least it was close to covering enough of her skin. As she reached for the jumpsuit where it lay in a crumpled pile on the floor, a movement caught the corner of her eye and she froze.

A Miraluka female a bit younger than Kiarn herself stood next to the sinks, holding a rag and a bottle of cleaning fluid. The girl brushed short brown hair out of her face and made a motion as though she was looking at Kiarn, although without eyes, she couldn’t have been. It was unsettling. “Are you new?” she said.

Of course not! Kiarn bit back a response, reminding herself not to lie more than necessary or about things she couldn’t deny. It would only cause problems, and it’s not as though she could avoid having anyone learn anything about her whatsoever. “I just got here.”

“Ah. You can take one of the uniforms if you want; they have lots of sizes. Put it in the laundry chute when you’re done with it.” She gestured first to a cubbied shelf of clothing, then to an opening in the wall.

Kiarn could only blink in surprise. Sith trainees were supposed to compete with each other, look for every opportunity to bring each other down. Not offer courteous advice. “Thank you,” she said before she could think too hard about it. “What’s your name?”

“Meiko. And yours?”

“Kiarn.”

“Welcome to the Korriban Sith Academy, Kiarn.” Meiko swept a bow. Unlike the one that the Selonian gave to Darth Eliss, it appeared to be a true gesture of greeting rather than of subservience, mock or otherwise.

Shifting from foot to foot, Kiarn wondered what she should say next, or if she should say anything at all. After a moment of uncomfortable silence, she decided to remain quiet and walked over to the rack of uniforms. Finding one took several minutes, but it wasn’t as hard as she thought it would be. She supposed that the Academy was used to dressing beings of all shapes, sizes, and ages. One underfed human girl wasn’t going to be that much of a challenge.

Before long, she was dressed similarly to Meiko, in a red tunic, fitted black pants, and knee boots. The tunic was a bit too large and the boots a bit too small, but she tightened the sash around her waist and ignored the slight pinch at her toes. She had worn far worse outfits before.

When she again emerged from the shower stall, Meiko was standing over the sink, scrubbing at it with a rag.

“Shouldn’t you be in class?” Kiarn said.

Meiko shook her head. “Not while Lord Rornak is teaching.”

“What do you mean?” It’s alright, Kiarn. It’s a chance to get a bit more information about how things work here.

“I made him upset a few days ago, so I have to clean the refreshers every day during his lectures until he decides to allow me back in.”

“Oh. And you’re actually doing it?”

“I mean. . . of course. He hasn’t checked to see if I’ve done it yet, but it will just make it worse if he does and I haven’t. And it’s not like it hurts me.”

“I see.” Kiarn shifted uncomfortably. The Miraluka’s open manner wasn’t at all what she’d expected to find here. Maybe it was general knowledge that this had happened and she saw no point in lying because she assumed Kiarn would find out anyway. “So don’t make the Sith angry at you, is what I’m hearing.”

Meiko finished polishing the faucet she had been working on and moved to the clouded, stained mirror above it. “Better yet, get them to like you. It’s the only way to get into the advanced classes, and it’s almost impossible to pass the trials without being in at least one. Or at least that’s what they say.”

Despite longing to ask what she meant, Kiarn decided that she had displayed enough ignorance for one day. Nodding her thanks, she left before Meiko could say anything else.

I’m tired, she realized as she wandered back towards her room. Not that it deserved the name, without even a door. At her bedside, she shook the dust off the blanket, replaced it, and stretched out on top. Her exploration would have to wait for another time. For now she would rest.

A twinge of her previous fear returned as she lay there. It was so quiet in the Academy, the movements and voices of anyone who was present smothered by the thick stone walls and the grim coldness that seemed to seep into everything there.

To distract herself, she stared up at the ceiling, easily six meters above her head. A narrow crack wound its way across the reddish brown and Kiarn lost herself in tracing it with her eyes, over and over until there was nothing left of her fear and she could turn her mind to plotting. How best to impress the teachers, the meaning of everything that had happened that day. Before she knew it her eyes closed and she fell into a tense half-sleep.

The pounding of feet in the hallway outside snapped her awake and she sat up. Her body felt weighed down with chill. Her feet were numb and there was a bitter, gummy taste in her mouth that she couldn’t seem to swallow away. 

She ran her fingers through her hair and struck what she hoped was an intelligent, alert pose as the Selonian entered the room. Just behind it came a human male with untidy brown hair and a day’s worth of stubble. Kiarn watched him as he walked to the bed closest to the hall and dug through his trunk for something. He had several of the outfit they were both wearing neatly folded inside, along with some other items she couldn’t make out. She wondered where he had gotten them. Were they brought from home? Rewards from the teachers for good behavior?

When the man left, she followed him, hoping it wasn’t too obvious what she was doing. Fortunately, she didn’t need to for long. All the beings in the hallway – Kiarn estimated it was closer to a hundred than fifty, but not more – were moving in the same direction. She followed the current through a series of corridors to a large room. Although they were still on the same level as the dormitories, she no other conception of where it might be in relation.

Inside, tables and benches stood in neat rows and Kiarn could smell food. Her stomach growled and the ground suddenly lurched under her. When was her last meal? Yesterday morning? The day before? She fell into line behind a tall Zabrak female to wait her turn. The line moved quickly and a scant few minutes later, an ancient droid handed her a metal tray of food. There wasn’t a lot of it, but it should be enough to get by on, at least.

Finding a table that didn’t seem too occupied and gave her a good view of all the doors, Kiarn tasted the small green cylindrical objects that formed one of the piles on the tray. Some kind of vegetable, she thought. Tasteless except for the burned parts. But she had eaten worse, so she concentrated on consuming it with something resembling dignity, although she alternately longed to shovel it into her mouth as fast as she could and to spit it onto the floor.

After finishing, she could spare the attention to study the rest of the students. About half of them were humans, but a broad variety of species were represented in the remainder. She could see everything from fish-eyed Mon Cal to a massive Trandoshan to a diminutive furry thing that resembled no sentient being she’d ever seen before. The cafeteria was large enough for many more, though. Kiarn wondered if the Academy usually held more students, or if the room was originally built for something else.

Despite finishing faster than most of the students, the time passed quickly and before she knew it, everyone was filing out of the mess hall. She followed at the back of the crowd, listening as the conversation grew quieter. Something about the passageways seemed to command silence. By the time everyone started to pour into a classroom, the only sound was the shuffling of their feet.

Darth Eliss stood at the center of the room, watching them enter. She’d changed into a more highly decorated version of the grey robe she was wearing earlier, this one with gold trim around the edges. The room was empty of furniture and the Twi’lek Sith gestured for them to sit on the floor.

Kiarn obeyed, drawing her knees up to her chest. It was even colder there than it had been in her room, and she had a sneaking suspicion that she wasn’t going to be warm again until she left Korriban. If she ever did.

Eliss started speaking as soon as most of the students were seated. Kiarn was fairly certain she was explaining a Force technique, but whatever it was, it was far beyond Kiarn’s own skill. She could barely move small objects reliably. She did her best to remember the lecture for later, when her skills were more advanced, but the words soon blurred together in a meaningless jumble. By the time Eliss had stopped talking, Kiarn had already forgotten the beginning. She stood at the Sith’s command and watched the other students attempt the exercise.

Most clearly struggled. The Nikto a few meters from her was concentrating so hard that she could barely recognize his species, his face was so twisted, yet all he had to show for it was a few weak sparks issuing from his fingertips.

Still, not everyone was as hopeless. From across the room, Kiarn caught a flash of brilliant lavender, followed by a scream. The other students moved back and she could see the source of the commotion through the sea of arms and legs.

The lightning came from a small, slim Zabrak male. His red skin was covered in geometric black tattoos and his short black hair combed into spikes. His victim, a blond human male, lay on the floor, groaning in agony with smoke rising from his clothing.

Sympathetic pain raced through Kiarn and she could almost feel her hair standing on end. It had only been a few short weeks ago that she had known that same pain.

It had been the worst physical sensation she had ever felt. A searing burning jolt racing back and forth over her and making her limbs flail and her jaw clench. Despite her determination not to give Lord Harod the satisfaction of hearing her scream, she had been unable to stop the injured, animal-like whimpering that escaped whenever the shocks stopped long enough for her to get a sound out.

She had wondered at first why he didn’t just kill her, why it had to take so long, but had soon realized the dismal truth. She was going to die because she had disobeyed him, but she was going to die slowly because she had embarrassed him. That the embarrassment was not her fault was irrelevant.

Suddenly, in a lull between shocks, she had felt it: the familiar tug that had always appeared at the most important moments in her life. The Force. It was always there, tugging at the back of her mind and flowing under her skin, but it had bubbled up then, pushing the pain from her mind and giving her clarity even as it overwhelmed everything. She had raised her hands and let all her fear and rage pour from her fingertips in violet arcs.

If only she could summon lightning that easily now.

Kiarn pulled herself from the unpleasant memories to hear Darth Eliss congratulating the Zabrak. She led him toward the front of the room, where Kiarn had a good view of his face. Exultant, proud, superior. A perfect Sith student. And, she realized, exactly the kind of student she would have to compete with if she wanted to graduate. Eliss had him demonstrate the lightning technique again and then sent him back to his spot.

The human who had been the Zabrak’s victim was still hunched over, looking pained. Kiarn mentally crossed him off the list of potential allies as pity turned to disgust. I know it hurts, but pain is part of being a Sith. You stood up, you gritted your teeth, and you kept going. The Sith had no room for weakness, and Kiarn wouldn’t be able to either, if she was to be one of them.

She turned away and tried to practice. It would be a long time before she could do anything close to what the Zabrak did, but she would never get there if she didn’t start. Pulling off one of her boots, she closed her eyes and concentrated on trying to lift it.

She felt nothing, not even the slight tingling in the back of her mind that told her the Force was there. The boot shifted slightly, though. Or was she just imagining it?

Something brushed her arm and she spun around, ready to fend off an attack from another acolyte eager to show the new arrival her place. Meiko stood there, wearing the same expression Kiarn remembered from before. Like she was looking at her.

“Do you want something?” Kiarn said, more harshly than she meant to. But only slightly.

Meiko shook her head, looking a bit taken aback, but not necessarily hurt. “Do you need help? It’s hard to catch up if you start late. I’m surprised that they let you into this class at all.”

“No. I don’t need help.” There were other classes, then. Based on Meiko’s statement, Kiarn guessed that the training lasted a certain period of time. New students would be added until a particular cutoff point, then a new class would form. It would be a system blatantly biased towards those at the beginning of the cycle, giving them more time to catch teacher attention and hone their skills while still being held to the same standards as those that had arrived later, but she doubted the Sith would care. The ability to rise above stacked odds was the mark of one with the will to succeed.

Meiko turned away with a shrug. “Alright. It helps if you hold your hand out towards the thing you’re trying to move at first.”

After making sure the other girl had retreated far enough that she wouldn’t see, Kiarn tried it. The boot still didn’t move, but she felt a slight ripple in her awareness of the galaxy. Another try saw it vibrate slightly – or was that just from the other students moving around? On the third attempt, it slid across the floor, stopping at her feet.

Kiarn smiled.

By the time the class finished, she could move the boot every single time, although her control was still terrible. Twice, she narrowly escaped being punched by an unhappy acolyte who got hit when she used too much power. As far as she could tell, only a few of the pupils had figured out the lightning technique Darth Eliss had tried to teach them. Besides the Zabrak, there was an attractive, blonde human female and, to Kiarn’s surprise, Meiko.

The Miraluka’s behavior still puzzled her. Three times now in less than six hours, she had given her unasked for advice. And two of those times, it had been useful. Kiarn knew that it was probably a trap, that Meiko was probably just trying to get something from her, but a part of her wanted to trust her. It would be nice to have an ally here, and it had been so long. . .

Darth Eliss dismissed the class and Kiarn left with the rest of the students, shoving her boot on as she went. From the conversation around her, she picked up that this was the last session of the day unless you had been invited to one of the advanced classes.

She should probably spend the free time practicing her Force techniques if she ever hoped to catch up to the rest of the class. But something else was nagging at her, too. The tour that Darth Eliss had ordered had never materialized and so far she had only been able to navigate by following others. She should spend some time familiarizing herself with the Academy. Besides learning where all the classrooms were, it would be nice to find some unused storeroom where she could be alone. Even in the worst spots of her life, there had been the occasional chance to sneak off for a few minutes along, whereas here. . .

As long as she didn’t stray into the upper levels, she would be fine.

Chapter Text

Kiarn decided to skip looking around the rest of the dormitories. The other students wouldn’t like her poking into their rooms and she doubted that she would learn anything useful anyway. Instead, she began at the cafeteria and worked her way along the corridors, avoiding any rooms that looked occupied.

There wasn’t much to see. Every door that wasn’t locked merely led to an empty room or a dusty space filled with long-disused equipment of unknown purpose. Although the dark, intimidating pressure she had sensed since she arrived was strong, the presence felt general to the entire Academy, rather than concentrated in a specific location.

It only took a few hours to investigate as far as she dared. It would be better to wait until she was more firmly established to push the rules by venturing to other levels of the building. Darth Eliss seemed fairly reasonable for a Sith, but that said little.

So she returned to one of the empty classrooms she found to practice with the Force. Quickly, she found out that she couldn’t simply pick up where she had left off earlier. It took at least another quarter hour to reach even the meagre progress she had made during the lesson and even more time to break through and start improving again.

It occurred to her after a while that she had neither a wrist chrono nor a schedule. She could very easily be missing dinner and rations were short enough already without skipping meals.

As she opened the door of the room, faint voices drifted around the corner of the hallway. Kiarn froze. She would rather not have to explain what she was doing there, but perhaps it would look worse if she seemed to be hiding? The voices were too indistinct for her to understand the words, but she could tell that there was at least one male and one female in the group.

While she stood in indecision, wondering if she should reveal her presence or try to find another route back to the dormitories and risk getting lost, the voices grew louder until she could hear what was being said.

“ – not doing anything!” It sounded like Meiko. Firfek, why does she keep turning up?

“You could have done nothing in your room,” replied a male voice.

“I was trying to find somewhere to be alone.”

“Do you think she heard us?” chimed in a third voice in Huttese. Kiarn thought that it might be the Selonian from earlier.

“Shut up, Kahnishh.” A third voice, female and with an unusually strong Imperial accent. “Who were you going to be alone with, Meiko? Were you following us? Or did you find a boyfriend?” She snickered, although Kiarn wasn’t sure what the joke was supposed to be.

“Why would I follow you?”

The Selonian spoke again. “We should just kill her. It’s not like anyone is going to look for her, and if we threw the body in one of the rooms – “

“Don’t be stupid,” the male voice replied.

“Any stupider than you are,” the Imperial girl chimed in.

The boy continued. “Someone might find it. And if they do, I’m sure there’s some weakling who will remember that we were gone when it happened. Bruises, on the other hand. . . “

Scuffling sounds came from around the corner and Kiarn backed up quickly. The last thing she needed was to get pulled into a fight if they should happen to move in her direction. There was a thick impact sound and Meiko cried out.

Kiarn stopped. Before she really knew what she was doing, she turned and began creeping back toward the sounds.

The four students didn’t seem to notice as she slipped up behind them. The Zabrak and the blonde human girl from Darth Eliss’ class struggled with Meiko while the Selonian tried to grab at her from behind. She was putting up a valiant fight, but she wouldn’t last long against three opponants.

As the Zabrak reached for Meiko, Kiarn jumped onto his back, wrapping her arms around his neck. He stumbled forward, clawing at her, but she had already jumped off and hopped backward to avoid his punch.

Meiko looked surprised, but didn’t waste the opportunity. Twisting out of the Selonian’s grip, she kicked at it and began backing toward the wall to keep them from surrounding her again.

The Zabrak lunged for Kiarn. As she sidestepped, she felt a pull at her, like invisible fingers clawing and scraping her skin. Strong fingers. They pulled her off balance and the Zabrak’s body slammed into hers, sending them both tumbling to the ground. Pain shot through her body and she gasped, black exploding into her vision.

Before she could recover her breath the Zabrak was on her again, trying to hold her arms down and keep her from getting up. She thrashed and writhed, but for someone barely larger than her, he was strong. Summoning everything she had, she drove her knee between his legs and he collapsed with a groan.

But as Kiarn shoved him off her and started to stand, the blonde girl tackled her again, kneeling on her shoulders to stop her from rising. Between her legs, Kiarn could see the Zabrak pulling himself up on shaky legs. “You’re going to regret that,” he said. His voice, at least, was a bit ragged.

“Not if I win,” Kiarn growled, knowing even as she said it that it was nothing but an empty threat.

“Leave her alone!” Meiko shouted unhelpfully. Kiarn couldn’t see her from where she was, but the Selonian probably had her again if she hadn’t run already.

“Attacking other students isn’t allowed here,” the Zabrak said.

“She’s only defending me.”

“Oh, so she’s your friend, then? Well, then, I guess we’ll have to – “

“Quillan!”

The Zabrak, who Kiarn assumed must be Quillan, broke off whatever threat he was about to speak and the human girl pulled herself off Kiarn.

The newcomer spoke again. “What are you doing?”

“Merely practicing today’s lessons, Lord,” Quillan replied, voice suddenly full of oily politeness. So it’s one of the teachers, then.

Kiarn sat up, but Quillan’s body blocked her view. Seeing him now, standing still and without lightning shooting from his fingers, she wondered how he had ever intimidated her. Although he was obviously fully grown, he was just barely taller than she was and not particularly muscular. Still, his manner suggested he was used to getting what he wanted. If his performance in class was anything to go by, he usually did, too.

The teacher laughed. “I don’t recall teaching you to brawl like cantina scum. Now go back to your quarters until dinner. Kahnishh, Tamine, you too.”

The Selonian and the human followed Quillan down the hallway and Kiarn took the opportunity to get a better look at the Academy’s third teacher. He was a Sith Pureblood with the red skin and yellow eyes common to his species. His black hair was in need of a trim and although he sported the typical Pureblood facial tendrils, there were fewer than some of his species that Kiarn had seen and he wore no jewelry.

“Are you the new student?” he said, turning back to her.

“Yes. My name is Kiarn.” She spoke slowly, trying to concentrate through the pain in her head. It was ebbing now that her breath was coming back, but not fast enough.  

The Pureblood nodded. “Well met, Kiarn. I am Lord Erilinn, one of the instructors in the Korriban Academy. I see you have discovered trouble already.”

“Thank you for helping us,” Meiko chimed in.

“Why don’t you two go back to your dormitories until dinner as well. And stay out of trouble.” Without another word, Lord Erilinn turned and walked away.

Kiarn frowned as she picked herself up. He hadn’t seemed particularly harsh, as she would have expected from an Academy instructor, but there was still an edge of menace to his voice, as though the good humor would drop from it the instant he was contradicted.

“Thank you,” Meiko said, breaking off Kiarn’s line of thought. “You didn’t have to.”

“I didn’t do it for you.” Hollow words, given the lack of obvious benefit to jumping in, but better than nothing.

“Still, I’m not sure I could have made it until Lord Erilinn showed up without you. Is there any way I can repay you? Help you somehow?”

“No.”

She sighed. “We should go, then. It’s almost time for dinner.”

Kiarn watched her disappear around the corner. Leaning against the wall, she slid down to a sitting position and buried her head in her arms. How could I have been so stupid? Not only had she just made an enemy of three powerful students, but she had openly presented herself as Meiko’s ally, a move she hadn’t been prepared to make. She probably never would have been; of all the students she had met so far, Meiko seemed the least likely to graduate.

Why had she done it, anyway? To satisfy her conscience, too upset at the thought of an unfair fight? To lash out at someone who reminded her far too much of those who had tormented her in the past? In any case, she would have to control herself better. Such acts were weakness, a sign of one who was ruled by her hatred instead of using it for the power it offered.

This isn’t all bad, Kiarn, she told herself as she pulled herself to her feet and started back to the more trafficked sections of the Academy. She hadn’t been planning to attach herself to Quillan’s group anyway, and people might not find out about what had just happened. She certainly wouldn’t want to talk about it if she was them.

But as soon as she stepped into the mess hall, she knew that wasn’t the case. The look Quillan shot her was pure hatred and enough people turned to look at her standing in line for food that she knew word must have spread. Not everyone seemed unhappy, either.

Ignoring the looks, she took her tray and sat down next to Meiko with deliberate quickness.

“Hello,” the Miraluka said. “Are you alright?”

“Nothing that won’t heal.” She’d endured far worse for less cause before.

The blood from Meiko’s nose had crusted on her upper lip and she wiped at it with the back of her hand, gesturing to the other two beings sitting with her with her other hand. “This is Kelas and Tyrin.”

Both acknowledged Kiarn with nods and she inspected them from the corner of her eye as she started eating. Kalas, to her disappointment, was the Nikto from Darth Eliss’ class. The one who had so much trouble with the lesson. Up close, he didn’t look any more impressive. Although he was tall, he was skinny, and constantly twitched his head from side to side, like he was on alert for invisible dangers.

Tyrin looked a bit more promising. He was a human man of average height and build, with medium-length brown hair combed back from his face and a bit of stubble on his chin. Startlingly blue eyes caught her gaze and held it, full of intensity that was evident even in such a casual interaction. If his skill was a match for his apparent drive, he just might succeed.

Kelas finished his food in a few gulps. “Did I do alright today?”

After an uncomfortably long hesitation, Meiko answered. “You did fine. With a little more practice, you should be caught up to the rest of us.”

“I can’t get any power. It’s all just flashing lights. It’s hopeless.”

“I’ll help you,” Meiko promised. “Can I help you too, Kiarn? Just until you catch up?”

“No, I’m fine.” Will she stop asking already?

Tyrin saved her from having to stall more by fixing her with an intense look. “So, Kiarn, how did you come here?”

“I was. . . discovered by a Sith who sent me here. He saw me lose my temper and realized that I was Force sensitive.” At least that was the short version. “What about you?”

Kalas looked around nervously. “I lived on an independent colony world. When the Empire invaded, they sent all the Force-sensitives they found here. Including me, I guess.”

“I came the same way you did,” Tyrin said to Kiarn. “Sith found me using the Force, shipped me off here. My father was a soldier in the Imperial navy.”

Something about that seemed off to Kiarn – wouldn’t he have gone to Ziost if that was the case? – but she didn’t feel the need to argue. If she could keep secrets, so could they. Meiko hadn’t answered, either.

After a few more abortive attempts to start a conversation, Kiarn excused herself and returned to her room. There, she kicked off her boots and crawled into bed. If anything, it had grown colder as night set in and the blanket was too thin to offer much warmth. Pulling it over her head, she curled into a ball and tried to set her thoughts in order. Was it only thirty-six standard hours ago that she had boarded the shuttle to come here?

So far, everything had fit her predictions to a depressing extent. There had been a few bright spots, though. Darth Eliss and Lord Erilinn didn’t seem to hate her yet. And the longer she thought about it, the less she regretted being forced to ally with Meiko. The Miraluka was talented with the Force and while her easygoing demeanor spoke to a lack of the ruthlessness needed to succeed in the Sith, Kiarn also doubted that she would betray her unless Kiarn acted first.

Unless, of course, it was all an act, waiting for her to let her guard down to take out a potential rival. That was always a possibility as well.

Sighing, Kiarn turned onto her back, willing herself not to get caught up in an endless loop of possibilities. Paranoia could be just as dangerous as recklessness and there was little to do about it now.

She lay in the bed for a long time before the general background noise died down. A few minutes later, she heard someone enter the room and half rolled over to see Tyrin climbing into his bed. Kahnishh followed a bit after, laughing loudly at some joke before lying down as the lights started to dim.

The dormitories still echoed with whispered conversation as Kiarn fell asleep.

Chapter Text

Morning arrived with a sudden burst of light against her closed eyelids. Even filtered through a blanket, the overhead lighting seemed painfully bright to her sleep filled eyes, but she nonetheless dragged herself into a sitting position and looked around.

Kahnishh and Tyrin were stretching and yawning as they climbed from their beds. Tyrin slid out of his shirt, revealing a well-muscled back dotted with a few scars, and bent over to look in his footlocker. Kiarn turned away, although not fast enough to avoid seeing him begin to pull his leggings off.

He must have noticed her embarrassment. “You’ll get used to it.”

Somehow, I doubt that. Bodies had always made her uncomfortable – even changing her own clothes felt safer in a dark room, where she didn’t have to look at herself.

The floor was cold on her bare feet, so to distract herself, she looked around to see where she had put her boots last night. They’d gotten pushed under Kahnishh’s bed. “Excuse me,” she muttered as she bent to retrieve them.

Her fingers had barely closed around the smooth synthleather when large hands wrapped around her waist, pulling her backwards and knocking her hard into the side of her own bunk. “What did I say about touching my stuff?” Kahnishh growled.

Kiarn held up her boots. “They were under your bed, okay?”

For a moment, she thought he was going to hit her, but instead he growled. “Don’t do it again.” Muttering under his breath, he stalked off.

Annoyed, she finished putting her shoes on and headed out. Although, she reflected. I probably would have been equally upset if our positions were reversed. Not that it made any difference in the moment.

A pack of students was moving out of the dormitories and into the hallways as she emerged and she followed them. She hoped they were headed to breakfast. Probably not, though.

“Kiarn!” It was Meiko, trotting to catch up with her. “Did you sleep well?”

“I was fine.”

“I’m glad.” It actually sounded like she was, too.

“Where are we going?” If they were going to be stuck together, at least Meiko might be a decent source of information.

“Outside. We have exercises before breakfast.”

“Ah.” Kiarn decided to take note of their route. There was no real chance of escape from here, she wasn’t even sure if she wanted to escape, but it made her feel calmer to know that she could get outside if she wished. Instead of using the elevator she had descended yesterday, the students started up a set of narrow stone stairs. Back and forth they zig-zagged and despite the cold, Kiarn found herself breaking into a sweat. She had known they were deep beneath the valley floor, but this hammered home exactly how far down she had been.

When they finally emerged from the stairway, it was in a small room just off the main atrium. The Academy looked slightly less tomb-like than it had the day before, with a bit more light coming through the hole in the roof and something slightly less still in the atmosphere. An older Sith she didn’t recognize walked across the balcony without a glance at the students.

“The upper levels are residences for Sith who come to Korriban on business. I’ve never been up there,” Meiko said in answer to Kiarn’s unasked question as they crossed the entrance hall.

Outside it was, if anything, colder than yesterday. It was still dim and no one spoke. The wind kicked up bits of the sand that lay in between the stones of the path and tugged at Kiarn’s tunic and hair. She tried to smooth it down with her fingers, but soon gave up. She still had too many tangles from sleeping on it last night to have a hope of it looking alright before she got inside. A comb would have been nice as well. She wondered if there was any way to get one.

Lord Rornak stood on a slight rise of ground next to the opening she had wondered about yesterday. His eyes followed the group of acolytes as they approached. Although Meiko stopped facing him, Kiarn turned slightly so she could keep both the Sith Lord and the giant hole in the ground in her field of view. Even so, she had to restrain herself from constantly glancing over her shoulder. Every moment she was outside on this planet, she had felt like something was trying to sneak up behind her.

As soon as the students were mostly stopped in front of him, Lord Rornak started to talk, his deep voice carrying well despite the wind. “We’re running today.” Someone groaned loudly and the Sith glared at the group, but continued, apparently unable to find the source. “You have an hour. GO!” The last word was shouted and he took off at a brisk jog, loping easily on his back-jointed legs.

Everyone followed, spreading out as their paces separated them. Kiarn quickly realized she was in no shape to keep up. Before a few minutes were up, sweat was gathering on her forehead. Quillan gave what sounded like a snort of derision as he ran by, but Kiarn noticed he wasn’t doing that well either. His face looked strained and she could hear him panting over her own gasps.

Even still, she was falling behind. She couldn’t see Lord Rornak anymore and the main body of the group was far ahead of her. She wondered how far they would have to go. It felt like hours since they had left, even though she knew it couldn’t have been long. A shooting, pinching pain raced along the bottom of her ribcage with every breath and her mouth was dry. Sweat stung her eyes and she could feel it dripping down the back of her neck. But the worst was the temperature. The inside of her body was hot, so hot, while her sweaty skin froze in the cold, dry air and her fingers and toes grew numb.

She was at the back of the pack now and there was at least ten meters between her and the next slowest student. You need to keep going, Kiarn. You need to finish or else.

But they wouldn’t kill her just for failing a run. Would they? And even if they didn’t, she would draw massive amounts of negative attention and she couldn’t afford that.

The path turned sharply and dipped into a smaller cleft off the main valley. The way was narrow and the stone walls blocked most of the dim light. Kiarn could barely see her feet. Suddenly, something caught the toe of her boot and as tired as she was, she couldn’t keep her balance.

The ground slammed into her chest, knocking what little breath she had left out of her. For a moment, she could only lie face-down on the stones, trying to recover. Black spots filled her vision and she closed her eyes to keep them from overwhelming her.

After a minute or two, she trusted herself enough to get to her knees, just in time to see a pair of legs walking in her direction. Wonderful. Lord Rornak or Quillan was coming back to mock her.

“Come on.” Meiko’s voice. A strong hand settled on her arm, pulling her up. “It’s not much further.”

Kiarn knew that she should do this on her own, but she was too tired to say anything. Meiko led her along the path at a brisk walk and, true to her word, Kiarn could soon see the valley opening back up into the larger one that housed the Academy. She was starting to be able to breathe evenly again and as the statues that marked the Academy entrance came into sight, she shook off Meiko’s hand. “Thank  you. But I have to finish this myself.”

She broke into a slow run. Immediately, the stitch returned to her side, a pain so sharp and sudden that she almost missed Meiko’s soft “alright.”

Chapter Text

Lord Rornak watched Kiarn and Meiko disapprovingly as they climbed the stairs and entered the temple, but refrained from commenting. Fierfek, she was going to be sore tomorrow. Her legs shook and everything hurt. Twice, she tripped over a step and had to clutch at the cracked stone wall to keep from falling.

Meiko didn’t offer help and Kiarn didn’t ask.

When they entered the cafeteria, it was all she could do to walk to the food line with dignity. As soon as she reached it, she snatched up a cup and filled it with water. Cool liquid poured down her throat and hit her stomach like a punch, but already she was reaching over to fill the cup again.

Meiko stopped her with a hand on her arm. “Don’t drink too fast. You’ll make yourself sick.”

Kiarn sighed. Meiko was right; she had made that mistake before and ended up vomiting most of what she had consumed. She set the cup on a tray, hoping her hands would be steady enough to avoid spilling her food. Today, whoever was in charge of meals had decided to feed them short cylinders of an unidentifiable meat and gloppy porridge made from a grain she didn’t recognize.

Following Meiko to a table, she found herself sitting down in the same spot she had yesterday, across from Tyrin and Kalas. Tyrin was sweaty and smiling, but Kalas twitched as he picked at his food. Not that worry seemed to be an unusual state of mind for him.

As Kiarn sat, Meiko inched away from her. She tried not to let on that she had noticed, settling herself down very deliberately and carefully before starting to eat. The smell was making her nauseous, but she forced herself to finish it all anyway. It would help once she got it down. The porridge was very bland, but that was probably a good thing right now, and the taste wasn’t actually bad.

“I did terrible,” said Kalas.

“You couldn’t have been that bad,” replied Meiko. “I saw you. You were maybe twentieth.”

“I was tenth,” said Tyrin. “What about you and Kiarn?”

“Dead last,” Kiarn replied. No point in sugar-coating it. Finishing the grains, she moved on to the meat – surprisingly delicious.

Meiko pushed the last of her meal around with her fork. “Who was first?”

“Karanni,” Kalas said with a resigned sigh. “She’s always first.”

“That’s not true, she – “

Before Meiko could finish, a brief wail like an alarm sounded and everyone began to stand. Kiarn frowned as she brought her plate towards the disposal area. It seemed like breakfast was shorter than dinner, or possibly just that they had missed most of it.

Lord Erilinn’s class was held in a different room than the one Darth Eliss had used yesterday, high-ceilinged like the mess hall and made of the same red stone. Apart from the students, it was completely empty. Everyone took positions and stood at something that approximated military attention. Meiko took a spot to Kiarn’s left, Tyrin on her right, and Kalas in front of her.

Lord Erilinn entered and everyone fell silent. He wore a plain tunic and pants in shades of grey with a black vest, lightly padded, on top. Two lightsabers hung from his belt. Interesting. Dual-wielding was certainly not unheard of among the Sith, but it was uncommon enough that it drew her attention.

Walking over to a small wall panel that Kiarn hadn’t noticed before, Lord Erilinn set his palm on the surface. A light blinked and she heard a low beep before a hidden door slid open next to him. Lord Erilinn pulled out a wheeled rack filled with poles, each about as long as Kiarn’s torso and maybe four centimeters in diameter. He shut the closet and motioned for everyone to stand back.

For once, Kiarn was near the front of the crowd and could see what he was doing as he pulled out his lightsabers. Igniting them, he leapt into action. The red blades twisted in elaborate patterns, glowing in the dim light of the room. Kiarn soon gave up on trying to figure out what he was doing and watched, mesmerized. A hunger was growing in her, a desperate need to be able to use a weapon like that. The forms looked so precise, so controlled, and yet so free. It was the feeling she had been chasing all her life.                           

Too soon, Lord Erilinn made a final vault backwards, deactivating his lightsabers in mid-air and coming to rest lightly on his feet. “Now,” he said. “Obviously I do not expect you to be able to attain this level of skill by the time you graduate. Many of you never will. But it is a demonstration of a combat style that arises from the form we will study next. I will demonstrate some of the basics now.”

Following his gesture, Kiarn trailed after the rest of the students to the rack, where she picked up one of the poles. Now that she had it in her hand, she saw that it was a non-lethal training saber, probably weighted to match the real thing. It felt strange in her hand, both too light and too heavy, but nonetheless, she couldn’t help a bit of excitement as she took her place again.

As she settled back into her place, she watched Lord Erilinn work slowly through his forms. Now that he wasn’t moving so quickly and she wasn’t as stressed as she was yesterday, she realized how young he was compared to the rest of the teachers. Not more than twenty-five standard years, if she had to guess. She wondered how he had gotten his job. If perhaps she could do something similar, once she had finished her apprenticeship. Influencing a batch or two of young Sithlings could cultivate valuable allies for the future.

You have to make it out of here alive first, Kiarn.

While the pose and movements that Lord Erilinn showed them seemed simple enough, Kiarn quickly found it difficult to balance with even the one training saber. Meiko looked a bit lost, too, at least, although not as badly as she was. Kalas was predictably awful, but Tyrin took to the lesson easily, comfortably spinning through the drills without any apparent effort.

After she had struggled for a good quarter hour, Erilinn approached. He had been walking down the lines for most of the class, stopping frequently to correct or instruct. He paused in front of Meiko, made a few adjustments to her posture, and watched her do the sequence afresh before moving on to Kiarn.

But before she could even start, he held up a hand. “You have never used a lightsaber before.”

It was not a question, but Kiarn nodded anyway. A tall Zabrak female who had been watching Lord Erilinn’s progress scoffed and turned back to her own exercises. Kiarn pretended not to notice.

“This is too advanced for you. Show me how you hold your lightsaber.”

Feeling uncomfortably exposed, she brandished the practice weapon and tried an experimental swing.

“At least your grip isn’t awful. But your form is too closed-off and you’re tense. Try to relax your limbs and don’t keep your elbows pinned to your sides. You are a Sith, not a trooper on parade.”

After a few more bits of advice about basic stances, the Pureblood moved on to Kalas and Kiarn breathed a sigh of relief. Out of the spotlight again. The new sequence, however, was no easier than the first one. Her limbs felt clumsy and awkward and she kept losing her place in the rhythm.

By the time the class ended, she was more exhausted than she had thought possible and could only sit quietly as the other students talked amongst themselves or stretched. All too soon, however, the reprieve ended as Lord Rornak strode into the room. He wore an outfit very similar to Eirlinn’s, but without the tunic under his armored vest and his face held its usual stony expression. Kiarn dragged herself back upright, mentally cursing whatever fate had brought her to this place.

She wasn’t quick enough. “Having a good nap, acolyte?” Lord Rornak said, loud enough for everyone to hear.

Kiarn felt her face grow red. “As a matter of fact, yes. Quite pleasant.” Stupid Kiarn. Would have thought you’d have learned to keep your mouth shut by now.

Lord Rornak held her eyes for a few seconds, seconds in which a chill crept over her. Like the cold that she had noticed on her first arrival.

He broke the contact first. “It’s time to start. Today, we are going to do some unarmed combat.” His eyes ranged over the group before resting back on Kiarn. “Meiko and Karanni, come up here.”

Meiko swallowed loudly, but walked up to the front of the room without complaint. The other students parted to allow her through.

A moment later, the Zabrak student Kiarn had noticed earlier joined her. Outwardly, at least, she looked like the perfect Sith acolyte – tall and muscular, with red skin and thick black hair cut in to spikes that emphasized the horns that formed a ridge along the top of her head. The jagged black clan tattoos on her face were the same as Quillan’s and Kiarn wondered if they were related or if it was only a coincidence. She wasn’t sure what size of group the patterns represented. Karanni smiled as she took her place and then, at a nod from Lord Rornak, lunged for Meiko.

At first, Kalas blocked Kiarn’s view, but as she scooted towards the front of the pack, she saw the two girls wrestling on the floor. Meiko wasn’t small for her age, but Karanni was still taller and heavier than her and she was clearly getting the worst of it. More than that, really. After only a few seconds, Meiko was barely moving, blood covering her face as she flailed helplessly in Karanni’s grip. Lord Rornak watched with an impassive expression.

Agonizingly long moments later, he stirred from his position. “Cease,” he said, loudly but almost absurdly casually given the situation. Karanni climbed back to her feet, but Meiko seemed like she was having trouble standing. After a moment’s hesitation, Kiarn stepped forward to help her up.

“Now, everyone break into pairs. Karanni, why don’t you work with the new student?”

Kiarn suppressed a sigh. This was payback for snarking at him earlier, made all the worse by knowing that it had been a bad idea when she did it. Somehow, punishment would have felt less humiliating if it had come as a surprise.

Lord Rornak spoke quietly to Meiko as Kiarn took her place and the Miraluka limped out of the room.

The moment that Karanni stood in front of her, Kiarn knew she was in trouble. The goal was to throw their opponents to the ground and hold them there for five seconds, but how was she supposed to do that when she only came to Karanni’s shoulder? The Zabrak must have had at least 35 kilos on her, too.

“Begin!” Lord Rornak’s voice roared.

Her dodge wasn’t fast enough. Karanni’s hand clipped her shoulder and sent her spinning, toppling to the floor with an impact that knocked the wind from her. She could hear a five count through the ringing in her ears, but it still took several more seconds after Karanni removed the knee from her back before she felt ready to stand.

“Again!”

This one was longer, but still it took less than half a minute for her to end up on the floor. Kiarn could feel frustration rising, eclipsing the pain of the bruises and the annoyance of the blood dripping from her nose. Karanni was strong and fast, but she had to have some kind of weakness. Kiarn just couldn’t find it. Every time she lost, Karanni’s expression got more superior and Kiarn knew that she needed to win. At least once.

Her body hit the mat yet again. As the impact sent yet another shockwave of pain through her, it was as though something cracked. A shell breaking, not quite the same as the day when she had unleashed lightning for the first time, but still there. Anger pouring through her and filling up every broken place with a lambent purple glow. Swiping the blood away from her split lip, she stood again.

Karanni clearly noticed that something had changed. Her next assault was still aggressive, but less reckless. Again, Kiarn twisted and spun, but this time, she seemed almost to be able to anticipate the other girl’s actions. More than knowing she could feel in the back of her head what Karanni was going to do before she did it. Finally, an opening presented itself and Kiarn grabbed her arm, trying to flip her over her shoulder the way Karanni had done to her so many times.

She was too heavy.

Before Kiarn could try again, Karanni had her turned around, pinning her arm behind her back. Kiarn yelped at the sudden pain as she fell to the ground gain.

“One. . . two. . . three. . . four. . . five!” Karanni bent down and spoke so only Kiarn could hear her. “Nice try, girl. Almost as good as some protocol droids I’ve seen.”

It was a childish comment. Silly. She’d had far worse said to her every day at some points in her life. But in the moment, none of that mattered. A red mist clouded her vision and the Force that had been filling her suddenly burst forth. Her knee shot up into Karanni’s stomach, hitting with a satisfying resistance.

Karanni grunted in pain, but recovered quickly. A grin spread across her face, like Kiarn was finally giving her what she wanted.

Her arms moved on their own, throwing punches over and over, not bothering to check if they landed or not. A grim satisfaction filled her as she saw Karanni flinch for the first time that day. Through her rage she was aware that she was in pain, and that the pain was steadily increasing, but she had no idea what the source was. It was easier to ignore it. Her vision was gone and she wasn’t sure if the roaring was only in her head, or if she were screaming herself as she fought.

And then her arms only hit empty air. She stopped. Karanni had fallen to the ground where she lay, staring up at her with shock in her eyes. Shock, and a little bit of fear. Blood gushed from her nose and already her face was swelling, the red skin turning an ugly purple.

You’ve beaten her, Kiarn. See, I always knew you had it in you. Now go, finish the job!

She had to make sure Karanni could never humiliate her again. Stretching her hand out toward her, Kiarn felt her hair floating into the air as she gathered the lightning that would end the girl’s life.

But she couldn’t. The mist was clearing and she knew that it would be too much. Not now. Not in front of everyone, not with the mist already fading and her conscious mind already taking hold again. So much blood. . .

Turning from the sight, she ran out the door, and no one tried to stop her.

Chapter Text

Kiarn pelted down the hall, not caring if anyone was trying to follow her. Meiko was in her path and she brushed by without a word.

“Kiarn, what’s going on?”

The dormitories flashed past in a blur and she stumbled into the refresher. The angry mist had faded now, but she still felt hot and upset. What had happened to her? She’d lost her temper before, of course, any number of times, but never like that. Never over so little.

Standing in front of the sink, she ran cold water over her hands and splashed it on her face, trying to cool herself. As she turned on the tap, she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror and couldn’t look away. Her eyes were bright yellow with dark circles around them and her skin, while still pale, had taken on a hellish glow like firelight on bone.

So this is what I look like as a Sith. She’d always favored her father, but like this, the resemblance was even stronger.

But even as she watched, the corona of Dark Side energy was fading, leaving only her normal green eyes and colorless face. Swallowing the discomfort and the last of her anger with a gulp of odd-tasting water from her cupped hands, she looked down at her split knuckles. All that was left now was an empty, hollow ache. You were foolish, Kiarn. Weak. Getting involved with Meiko, thinking she had it all handled, even whatever had just happened with Karanni, it was all a stupid, overachieving mistake. She would have to learn to control her emotions better if she wanted to succeed here.

If Lord Rornak’s class was the same length as Darth Eliss’, then the students would be finishing soon. They would go to lunch after, most likely, but first some would come back here. Kiarn wasn’t ready to see anyone yet. Didn’t want to explain.

Aware that she probably had little time, she hurried back to her room and crawled under the cot. It certainly wasn’t roomy, but there was enough space for her to curl up and not be seen unless someone was looking directly under the bed. Advantages of being small.

A sense of déjà vu filled her. It was like being a child again, hiding from her parents’ arguments. Her stomach growled. Another reminder.

The rest of the students clamored in a few minutes later, sounding little different than they had that morning. Now that she was calmer, Kiarn could guess that outbursts like hers probably weren’t rare.

Tyrin and Kahnishh entered, their legs moving back and forth across her field of vision. After a few minutes they disappeared and the room grew gradually quieter as the halls emptied. Soon, silence pressed in on her and her limbs started to ache. Her stomach growled again. How am I going to make it through tomorrow?

Crawling out from her hiding spot and climbing up to sit on the bed, she pressed against the pain in her abdomen and frowned. Surely it couldn’t be that hard. It wasn’t like she hadn’t gone hungry before, endurance was part of the skills a Sith needed to –

“Kiarn? Are you alright?” Meiko’s voice.

“I’m fine. Go away.” Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Meiko flinch. “No, wait, I didn’t mean that. Come in.”

Meiko sat down on Tyrin’s bed, running her fingers absently over the blanket. “What happened?”

“Nothing, really. Got frustrated and lost control of myself, that’s all.”

“That kind of thing is frightening, I’ve heard.”

“It’s never happened to you?”

Meiko shook her head. “Lord Rornak says it’s what’s holding me back. Along with other things.” She made a face.

“So you never get upset during his classes?” Banthashit.

“No, I do. I guess I’ve just been here long enough to realize that it’s not going to help me. I could help you, though, if you want? Staying in control, getting caught up a bit faster?”

How did she learn to do that? Even with all the practice she’d had keeping everything under wraps, Kiarn still struggled with the rage that boiled up sometimes, an incandescent heat that seems to flare almost randomly. It’d gotten her in trouble more times than she could count. “Thank you. But I don’t want to make this go away – we’re Sith, it’s the source of our power. But I don’t want to lose myself in it when I don’t want to.”

“I understand. We can start after Darth Eliss’ class.”

“Wait.” Stupid, Kiarn, why are you so naïve? “What exactly is the price for all this help?”

Meiko shrugged. “I need more allies here. Why not you?”

“What about Tyrin and Kalas?”

She snorted. “Look, I hope that Kalas makes it. But I know better than to count on him to have my back – he’ll try, but he’s not going to succeed. And Tyrin is great, but, well. . . Anyway, why you? Don’t really know. Call it instinct.”

“Alright.” Kiarn decided it was better not to press her. Before she had the chance to think, she opened her mouth again. “And Meiko? I’m sorry about this morning.”

“That’s alright. I understand. I’m going to see if there’s any food left; are you coming?”

“No, I’m not hungry.” It wasn’t entirely a lie. While she could feel physically that her body needed food, the desire to eat had slipped away from her as she spoke. The thought of eating made her nauseated now.

Meiko cocked her head as though she wanted to say more, but left without commenting. As she did, Kiarn laid down. What was that?

She had never thought of herself as the forgiving type. Wasn’t the forgiving type. Forgiveness was just a way to let people in to hurt you again, and there had seemed little point in asking for something she wasn’t prepared to reciprocate. Apologizing was something you did to get people off your back.

And yet she had done it with someone she barely knew. The result was. . . puzzling. The guilt was still there, of course – even if she’d barely realized she felt guilty until now – but Meiko’s response had taken the teeth out of it and let it stop gnawing at the edges of her awareness.

Perhaps coming to Korriban wasn’t such a good idea after all. Everything had seemed so simple when she’d considered it in the shuttle, or when she’d planned it as a girl, lying in bed at night. But nothing was as straightforward as she had expected. In her heart, she knew that Meiko would eventually hold her back or betray her. Either way, allying with her was dangerous. But Kiarn also knew that she wouldn’t be able to coldly ignore her. Not after the help she’d offered and the friendship she’d extended.

Nowhere in her calculations had she included the possibility that she wouldn’t hate all of the other students.

But it would work out, right? She would get what she needed to from Meiko and then leave her to make it on her own when the time came. Just like any Sith would.

No you won’t, Kiarn, said the voice in her head. You’ll be too weak.

She ignored it.

That afternoon, they met in one of the unused training rooms that Kiarn had explored the day before. Meiko wasn’t the most skilled teacher in the galaxy, but she was patient and tolerant of Kiarn’s many errors. Her advice seemed strange for a Sith – too much emphasis on breathing techniques and centering and not enough on controlled release – but Kiarn knew that she had never learned Sith theory proper, only observed others. Perhaps this was a part often ignored by those she had known.

As they worked, she felt as though she were beginning to see a bit more of Meiko, too. Although she had initially assumed that the Miraluka was shy, further interaction was leading her to suspect that she was merely quiet, preferring observation to interaction. Despite the Force talent that rapidly became obvious, she didn’t appear to have much in the way of allies, perhaps due to her apparent lack of ambition.

By the time dinner rolled around, Kiarn was so tired and hungry that she could barely see straight. She tore through her food – some kind of stew – in the time it took Tyrin and Meiko to get theirs and walk to the table. They sat next to each other, across from her, and started eating.

With her new awareness of Meiko’s moods and mannerisms, Kiarn quickly noticed how close she was sitting to Tyrin. How she perked up every time he spoke and how she seemed to almost unconsciously mirror his expressions.

She had to admit, Tyrin was kind of good looking. What it was about his personality that attracted Meiko, she had no idea, but then again, she’d only spoken to him a few times. She wondered if he noticed, if he liked Meiko in return.

“Where’s Kalas?” Meiko asked after a few minutes of unsuccessfully trying to pull Kiarn and Tyrin into a conversation.

Kiarn looked around. If he was at the back of the food line, it might have taken him a while to get in, but still he should have been there already. As if in response to the question, a commotion across the room caught her attention. It was always noisy in the cafeteria, the collective sounds of dozens of beings eating, talking, and arguing amplified by the high ceiling. But this was different.

Meiko leaped up and sprinted towards the source of the sound and Kiarn and Tyrin followed.

Kalas stood in a group of other acolytes, watching a tangle of limbs and screams as two of the initiates rolled around on the floor. Kiarn identified Quillan first, his nose bleeding and his arms raised to protect him from Karanni’s blows. Her arms were covered in electrical burns but she had the upper hand, sitting on top of the smaller Zabrak and continuing to punch him through the shocks.

“What is this!?” Darth Eliss’ voice brought a halt to the chaos and the students parted to let her approach.

Darth Eliss gestured and Karanni flew off Quillan and tumbled to the ground where she stayed, eyes filled with a kind of wild determination that bordered on insanity. Kiarn recognized the look from some of her own darkest moments. She wondered what Quillan had done to earn such wrath. He scrambled to his feet and glared at Karanni, arms crossed over his chest.

“Follow me, both of you,” said Eliss. Both obeyed without complaint, but neither looked remorseful in the slightest.

“What happened between those two?” Kiarn asked as the cluster of students began to disperse. “Do they know each other?”

Meiko shook her head. “Quillan was already at the Academy when I got here and Karanni came a month or two later. They’ve never liked each other, but if there’s a reason, I haven’t heard it.”

“Has this happened before?”

“Yes,” Tyrin replied as the group made its way back to their table. “Sometimes he attacks first, but it’s usually her.”

Whatever it was, then, Quillan was likely responsible, if Karanni usually instigates the fights. Kiarn made a mental note to figure out their history. Maybe she could use the information someday.

But for the moment, she had more important things to think about.

Kalas sighed as he settled onto the bench and started eating. “Quillan’s so powerful. He’s probably going to kill me when the Trials start.”

“Rumor is that he’s the son of Darth Ixis,” said Tyrin with more than a hint of envy in his voice.

Kiarn rolled her eyes. “Don’t be ridiculous. If he was the son of a Darth, he wouldn’t make any secret of it. Not to mention that he probably wouldn’t be here in the first place.” She doubted there were many others in her situation and there was no point in drawing attention to the possibility of more existing.

“Still, he’s gonna crush me.”

Wanting to get off the topic of Kalas’ inevitable failure, Kiarn seized on a more interesting line of discussion. “What do you know about the Trials, anyway?”

Meiko’s face grew even more sober. “Only that every acolyte has to take them at the end of the term. If you pass, then you have the chance for a Sith Lord to select you as an apprentice. If you don’t. . . “

She trailed off, but Kiarn didn’t need the elaboration. The Sith only gave thought to inferiors if it presented an opportunity to crush them further.

“I hope they kill you quick,” said Kalas. Pity and disgust mixed in Kiarn as he did. It must be awful to be so certain of your failure. But giving up was weakness. Destiny may not be real, but an attitude like that is good as a prophecy.

Meiko cleared her throat conspicuously. “Do you want to go to the library?”

“I thought we weren’t allowed upstairs?” Kiarn said. “Not that I don’t want to go, but maybe we should wait until there are fewer people around?”

“Officially, we’re not, but really nobody cares. Lord Erilinn told me that as long as they don’t see us doing it, it’s alright.”

Kiarn nodded. “Then let’s go.”

Meiko looked at the boys on either side of her.

Shrugging, Tyrin stood and picked up his tray. “Might as well. Can study just as well there as in my room.”

“I’m going to bed,” Kalas said.

Chapter Text

Kiarn stood in Lord Erilinn’s class, bathed in sweat, as she waited for him to give out new instructions. Behind her, Meiko offered congratulations for a duel victory and wiped her forehead with the back of her hand.

Life had taken on a steady but exhausting routine in the last two months. The morning exercises – usually running, but sometimes strength or flexibility training – were becoming less difficult. She still didn’t finish near the top of the class, but she was rarely last, either.

Lord Rornak’s class was still difficult, perhaps even more so since he had noticed that she was an ally of Meiko’s. Kiarn didn’t let herself passively accept being pushed around like Meiko did and the harassment had died down, but she could tell that he disliked her nonetheless. She had come no closer to figuring out what the issues between the two were, and whenever she asked, Meiko just shrugged.

Lord Erilinn tapped the wall with his training saber and Kiarn turned her attention to him. His class had become her favorite, not only because it had the most helpful teacher, but because she had discovered that she liked the subject itself. Unlike Lord Rornak’s eclectic mix of subjects or Darth Eliss’ Force techniques, lightsaber combat was something she was beginning to grasp and even enjoy.

“I’m quite pleased with the progress of your duels,” the lord said. “But remember, just because this is a more aggressive form than many others, that doesn’t mean that you can leave your defenses open. Even if you defeat your opponent, I can guarantee you’ll miss your arm later. Now, I want you all to find new partners and – “

The door opened, cutting off his words. Darth Eliss entered, wearing a long, dark purple skirt with silver trim and a lighter-colored top that showed off her stomach and arms. The tattoos on her face extended across her shoulders and down to the wrists, but apart from a small circle around her navel, her stomach was unmarked. Many Sith had tattoos in similar styles and Kiarn wondered if the twi’lek’s were merely to show allegiance, or if there was a deeper personal meaning.

She said something to Lord Erilinn that Kiarn didn’t hear, then left. He started to follow her, but stopped at the door and turned back to his class. “You may rest or practice, as you like, until I return.”

What’s going on? He didn’t seem worried, so it was probably something minor. Most of the other acolytes sat on the floor or returned to their sparring. Kalas joined the former group with a sigh, while Tyrin had barely paused in his exercises. He’d been studious for the entire short time Kiarn had known him, but lately it had gotten even more intense. She rarely saw him outside meals and classes and he frequently didn’t come to bed until well after the lights went out.

Kiarn and Meiko returned to their fight by silent agreement. Although she usually beat Meiko easily, Kiarn had the feeling that a real duel between the two of them wouldn’t have such a clear outcome. She was faster and better with a blade, but Meiko was smart and Darth Eliss wouldn’t have invited her to the advanced force techniques class if she wasn’t talented.

Neither of them was fresh and their blows were sloppy and poorly coordinated. Still, Kiarn was well on her way to winning when Meiko stumbled backwards, crashing into Karanni’s shoulder. The Zabrak turned, anger smoldering in her eyes, and Kiarn saw Tamine pulling her foot back. She, Quillian, and Kahnishh hadn’t stopped harassing them, but since Lord Erilinn broke up the fight on the first day, it had been limited to childish annoyances. “Accidentally” knocking over their food, laughing at Meiko behind her back, scattering the contents of Kiarn’s trunk all over the dormitories. It was immature and didn’t take much effort to ignore. But she couldn’t shake the feeling that Quillan wasn’t satisfied with being that petty. No Sith worth their life would be.

“Who hit me?” asked Karanni, and Tamine pointed at Meiko. Karanni crossed her arms over her chest and Kiarn moved closer to Meiko in case the situation turned into a fight.

“I’m sorry,” Meiko said soothingly. “It was an accident. I didn’t mean to.”

“I don’t – “

Kiarn stepped forward, cutting the Zabrak off before she could finish. “You’re not hurt, are you? She said she was sorry and Lord Erilinn will be unhappy if he finds you fighting when he returns.”

Karanni was one of the most openly aggressive students at the Academy, but Kiarn had noticed that the approval of the masters was important to her.

Karanni sighed deep in her throat, making it sound more like a growl. As she returned to her own exercises, the door opened again and the class froze, expecting Lord Erilinn to reappear.

Instead, Lord Rornak stepped in. His usual padded vest was missing and he wore a light gray tunic with no belt.

“We’re going to be dueling today,” he said, eyes searching the room. “Quillan, you may pick your opponent.”

Despite his short stature, Quillan’s confidence was evident in his posture as he strode to the center of the room and looked around. Kiarn hoped that he picked her. He may have been talented and a favorite of both Darth Eliss and Lord Rornak, but Quillan’s lightsaber skills were no better than Meiko’s. Humiliating him would be a pleasure.

His eyes locked with hers and she gave him a challenging smile.

“Kalas,” he said, pointing to the Nikto. Kiarn cringed inwardly; he was no good at anything. Although he was still taller and stronger than Quillan. If he could use that to his advantage. . .

Kalas shook as he took his place in the open circle that Lord Rornak had directed them to vacate. He nearly dropped the training blade before he could start and Kiarn fought to keep from rolling her eyes.

Quillan took advantage of this in his first attack, although not as fully as she would have. Instead of knocking the training saber from Kalas’ weak grip, he simply tried to hit his body, probably hoping that Kalas wouldn’t be able to defend fast enough.

Amazingly, Kalas managed to block. The small success seemed to give him a bit of confidence and he deflected the next attack as well. Quillan’s face hardened and he struck with more force the next time, forcing Kalas to stumble backward with a gaslp.

In most circumstances, everyone watching would be excited by now, shouting and cheering for their favorite and shoving each other to see. But today, they stood quiet and still.

Kiarn had been lucky enough to get to the front before the fight started, so she had a clear view of everything as the match continued. Although he had managed to hold out for a few more traded blows, Kalas was fading fast. Before long, Quillan landed a lucky blow on his arm and he dropped the training saber. Raising his own weapon, Quillan brought it down again as Kalas scrambled to retrieve the lost saber with a hard thwack.

The weapon slid away from Kalas as he reached for it and Quillan laughed. He hit Kalas again and Kiarn heard a cracking sound. Kalas yelped. He finally got hold of his weapon, but he only seemed to be able to use one arm. Although he blocked a few of the blows, most landed on his head and face.

Bile rose in Kiarn’s throat as the beating grew more and more brutal. Finally, Quillan touched his saber to Kalas’ neck. “Dead,” he said.

Lord Rornak smiled as the Zabrak returned to the edge of the circle with a triumphant expression on his face. “Very good, Quillan.”

Kalas pulled himself backwards with his good arm and Meiko squirmed her way through the people toward him, trying to wipe up some of the blood. It continued running from his nose despite her efforts.

“Who would like to go next?” said Lord Rornak. Several hands shot up, including Tamine’s, Khannish’s, and, to Kiarn’s surprise, Tyrin’s.

Why would he want to be a part of this? Violence was the way of their world, but this was a pointless display.

To no-one’s surprise, Lord Rornak picked Karanni. She walked into the dueling circle, swinging her training saber with a familiarity that spoke to her skill. As Kiarn’s own abilities had increased, she had only come to appreciate Karanni’s talents more. The girl was good.

“Who will challenge her?” Lord Rornak asked. He usually seemed to enjoy watching his favorite students beat on the others and today was no exception.

As expected, no one volunteered. Someone nudged Kiarn from behind, perhaps urging her to take on the challenge, but she ignored them. The silence was growing uncomfortable.

“Well??!” Karanni said loudly.

“I guess you’ll have to pick someone.”

“Hmm. . . how about. . . “ She scanned the circle.

In that instant, Kiarn knew she was going to pick Meiko. “I’ll do it!” she shouted.

Way to go, Kiarn. Brilliant. The last time she and Karanni had fought had been her second day at the Academy. When she’d lost control and beaten Karanni bloody, something the Zabrak probably hadn’t forgotten.

But even if she did get taken down this time, Kiarn was fairly certain she could avoid getting damaged as badly as Kalas had and she didn’t think Meiko could. Besides, by now she had been at the Academy long enough that it was time to show off what she could do.

As soon as Kiarn was clear of the other students, Karanni leapt at her. Her body slammed into Kiarn like a starship, knocking her to the floor, but she kept her training saber up fast enough to block the blow.

Karanni pressed down on her weapon, twisting it slowly toward Kiarn’s face. But it was far too soon to give up. Using the Force to shove her back, Kiarn rolled to the side and jumped to her feet. Karanni seemed surprised, but swung her training saber with just as much momentum as before. The impact raced up Kiarn’s arms and into her shoulders, but she pressed against it.

Kiarn couldn’t outduel her, she knew that. Karanni was too strong and too tough and too skilled. But who said she had to follow the rules? Who said there even are rules? You are Sith.

She brought the heel of her boot down on the top of Karanni’s foot and spun to the side, grinding it in. Karanni didn’t seem as phased by it as Kiarn had hoped, but she was still limping as she approached again.

Kiarn retreated, watching her technique. Someone jeered, but she ignored it. Karanni wasn’t as agile as some of the others, but neither was Kiarn, so that didn’t help her much. Her hair was too short to grab without getting dangerously close and risked slicing her fingers on the Zabrak’s sharpened horns.

Dodging another slash, she noticed Karanni’s legs. They were planted wide apart, holding her body rock steady, but her aggressive style left them wide open to attack. Kiarn slowed a bit, blocked a blow instead of avoiding it, and flinched visibly as she took the impact.

Karanni smiled. The next attack was more decisive, even more aggressive. It left Kiarn with the opening she needed. Swinging her leg around, she kicked Karanni as hard as she could in the knee. Her leg buckled, but she stayed upright. This time, her slash was lower and Kiarn couldn’t quite block it. The training blades were really no more than glorified sticks, but Karanni hit with enough force to send her stumbling sideways, gasping.

Her adrenaline was pumping now, but the fiery strength of the Dark Side still escaped her. A second blow hit her shoulder and she almost dropped her saber. The third time, she managed to parry, but the impact jolted her shoulder for real this time and she saw Karanni starting to regain some of her earlier confidence. As she pulled back, Kiarn swung the pommel of her saber into Karanni’s shoulder and followed up with a quick strike to her other knee. Kiarn could practically see Karanni’s rage now, coming off her in dark red clouds, but already she was backpedaling, staying out of her range. Once again, Karanni leapt forward and once again, Kiarn sidestepped.

But not fast enough.

Her shoulder connected with Kiarn’s and they both tumbled to the floor. Kiarn’s head struck the floor and black spots filled her vision, scattering and multiplying as Karanni’s fist impacted her jaw. She tasted blood. Feeling around for something to help her, her fingers closed around her dropped training saber and she clutched at it.

Time slowed as Karanni raised her fist for another blow. It was an almost palpable moment as the Force took over, not in the overwhelming anger of the last fight, but the animal will to survive that had protected her before.

The blade was an extension of her arm, stabbing into the soft tissue below Karanni’s ribcage almost on its own. Her hand raised to block the follow-up strike to her head and Kiarn let her, rolling out from under her and onto her stomach.

Kiarn’s arms wobbled as she tried to get up. There wasn’t much time before –

Something closed around her neck, cutting off her breathing. Reflexively, she grabbed at it, but found nothing there. The invisible pressure tightened, pulling her to her feet. Sharp pain shot up the side of her face and both her hands flew to her neck.

Karanni was smiling again and her eyes glowed with a rush of dark energy. Through the crushing sensation, Kiarn threw her arm out and violet lightning arced from it, sending the students pushing backwards before the bolts connected with Karanni’s body.

“STOP!” someone shouted, but Kiarn ignored them. She needs to give in first. The lightning faltered and she focused on starting it again. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could stay conscious with such tiny gasps of air.

A form leapt into the space between them. It caught Kiarn’s lightning on a red-glowing blade and Force-shoved Karanni, knocking her down. The grip on Kiarn’s lightsaber relaxed and her knees buckled as she gasped in precious air.

Somehow, she found herself sitting on the floor. Her head felt like a thousand space miners were trying to drill their way out of it. Lord Erilinn stood in the center of the circle, talking, but she couldn’t pick out his voice over the ringing in her ears. The room spun as she stood up, but closing her eyes and concentrating on her breathing helped.

When she opened her eyes, Lord Rornak was leaving and Lord Erilinn was speaking to Meiko. A moment later, she helped Kalas to lean on her shoulder and began leading him toward the door. She shot a concerned look at Kiarn on her way out, but Kiarn was fairly certain that Kalas needed more help. His nose was still bleeding and his free arm hung at an odd angle.

“You need to get looked over, too,” Lord Erilinn said to Karanni. She ignored him and got to her feet. Her hair still stood out from her head and although the fury had faded from her eyes, the look she sent Kiarn’s way was pure venom.

“Class is over for today,” Lord Erilinn said. “Go back to your rooms until lunch. Kiarn, stay here, I want to talk to you.”

Chapter Text

As soon as everyone had left the classroom, Lord Erilinn crossed his arms over his chest. “How do you think you did today?”

Kiarn raised an eyebrow as she considered how to respond. What’s his angle?

“Karanni was a much stronger opponent, but still you volunteered to challenge her. Why?”

“I thought I could beat her.” It was a lie, but the truth in a way, too.

“Really?” He fixed her with his yellow stare. Kiarn knew there was a Force technique for reading thoughts and wondered if that was what he was doing.

If he was, he didn’t give any sign, just studied her intently until it took a great deal of effort not to squirm. Finally, he broke the silence. “You did well Kiarn. You’ve improved a lot since you arrived. Would you like to join my advanced saber techniques class, starting this afternoon?”

Kiarn wasn’t sure what she had expected, but still she was surprised. Surely, he must have some alternate motivation, an angle he was working that she couldn’t see yet? Perhaps there was something he thought she knew about one of his rivals, or possibly he intended to pressure her into his bedroom? But she’d be a fool not to accept in any case. The advanced students all showed rapid improvements even in their regular lessons and the extra skills she could pick up could only help her. “I would love to. Thank you, Master.”

“I’ll see you at 1600. You have my permission to visit the med droid for your cut.” He turned and began putting away the rack of training sabers without another word.

Kiarn reached up to feel the side of her head and pulled her fingers away sticky with blood. She didn’t even remember getting hurt.

As she walked out of the room, she quickly discarded the idea of going to the medcenter. She didn’t want to get examined, even by a droid, and Karanni might still be there.

Instead, she made her way to the acolytes’ refresher. A few others were showering or washing their hands, but no one looked at her with undue interest. Everyone had seen her fight Karanni and battle wounds were common enough. One student had even died last month from a head injury he received during a scuffle in one of the back halls. Whoever did it hadn’t left any obvious evidence and the staff hadn’t investigated too closely. Officially, murder was banned, but no one had seemed to care.

Except the dead acolyte, of course.

Kiarn pulled a tunic off the shelves and dabbed at her head. It had been long enough that it wasn’t really bleeding anymore, but there was plenty of blood crusted in her hair and down the side of her neck. She washed it off with cold water, ignoring the sting as sweat touched raw flesh.

Her tunic was torn, spattered in blood, and covered in floor dust. She needed a new one. Taking one in her size, she pulled it over her head and used it as a cover while she slid out of her old one and pulled it out through the neck hole. In the past few months, she had grown quiet adept at avoiding having to undress in front of others. If she changed into the next day’s clothes after light’s out, it also let her sleep a few precious moments longer in the morning.

Fortunately, her leggings were still decent enough that she could leave them on for now. As she left, she tossed both of the old tunics into the laundry chute.

Meiko wasn’t in the cafeteria when Kiarn arrived, but Tyrin was. She sat across from him and ate her food without comment. He remained quiet, reading off a datapad from the library until it was time to leave for Darth Eliss’ class.

As she made her way through the hallways, she sensed Meiko’s presence approaching from behind. It was amazing how much she’d become attuned to individual people’s Force signatures recently. The training must have helped at least a bit.

Meiko fell into step beside her. “Kalas’ arm is broken.”

“You’re surprised?” It was getting harder and harder to hold back the frustration with Kalas’ helplessness, but the one time she had addressed it directly, Meiko had grown angry and Kiarn didn’t think it would be worth starting an argument about it.

“No. He’s supposed to stay in the medcenter until dinner, and it’ll be a while before he can spar properly again. I hope he doesn’t get too far behind.”

I’m not sure he can get much further behind. “And Karanni?”

“The droid was putting kolto on her scrapes when I left, but she should be back soon. She wasn’t happy that the triage program put her at a lower priority than Kalas.” She studied Kiarn, clearly looking at the cut that she hadn’t managed to quite hide with her hair. “You should get them to look at that, too.”

“I’ll be fine.” The concern was nice, actually, even if Kiarn didn’t feel like following through. To distract Meiko, she looked for another topic. “Erilinn invited me to his lightsaber class.”

“Really? That’s great!” She smiled, an expression that looked so genuine that Kiarn couldn’t help but feel glad she’d brought it up.

“What happens in one?”

“I’m not sure what Lord Eirilinn does, but –“ Meiko broke off as Darth Eliss entered. The discussion would have to wait until later.

Kiarn paid little attention to class. Between the distraction of her aches and pains and excitement she was already feeling for her new class – despite knowing that it would probably be mostly work and embarrassment until she had time to catch up to the rest of the advanced students – it was impossible to keep her mind on the finer points of emotional masking. At least no one seemed to notice her wandering concentration.

After the lesson finished, Meiko stayed behind for Darth Eliss’ advanced session and Kiarn returned to her bed to rest. While she’d had no trouble getting by on the six hours of sleep they were allotted here at first, the near constant physical and mental exertion was starting to wear on her to the point that she was constantly exhausted.

When it was time for Lord Erilinn’s class to start, Kiarn returned to the room they normally met in, hoping that she was in the right place. She’d hoped to perhaps run into Meiko on the way, but there was no sign of her.

Inside the classroom, a half-dozen other students warmed up or talked quietly. They looked up when Kiarn entered, but quicky resumed their activities. Tyrin was there, speaking to another human male whose name Kiarn didn’t remember. She’d never seen them interact before, but they seemed on good enough terms.

Finding a place to sit, Kiarn stretched her tired muscles until Lord Erilinn entered. As in his morning class, he unlocked the weapons cabinet and distributed training swords. Tyrin, she noticed, took two. Which made sense, she supposed – unusual Force techniques or lightsaber styles had to be learned somewhere.

Kiarn was the last in line and before she could grab a weapon, the Sith stopped her. “Wait here while I get the others started.”

When he finished delivering a few brief instructions to each student, he returned to the saber rack. “I invited you here because of two things, Kiarn. First, because you are a promising acolyte and I wish to help you.”

That too made sense. Giving extra attention to the students he thought most likely to succeed later, in hopes that they would become allies later on. It was what she’d do if she was him. “I understand.”

“The second reason is predicated on what I saw this morning. The way you were attacking makes me thing you would be better suited to a double-blade.”

“A what?” She knew what they were, of course, but had never considered using one.

“A double-bladed lightsaber. It has a longer handle than is standard, with a beam on each end. You fight with a lot of reverses and spins, but rarely take advantage of thrusts. That suits a double blade quite well.”

As he pulled a long pole from the closet, he continued explaining the weapon’s strengths and weaknesses. In addition to the intimidating visual effect, she would have an advantage against anyone who wasn’t familiar with a double-blade’s typical maneuvers. She could attack faster and with more power, as well as having two blades to parry with, but her mobility would be severely limited compared to a single saber, as would her versatility. Additionally, the elongated hilt could become an easy target.

“And try not to impale yourself,” he said as he handed her the training saber.

Kiarn felt a twinge of worry as she took it. What if she was terrible with it and just humiliated herself while he watched? Just as quickly, she pushed the thought aside. There was more to gain here than any potential lost pride.

Watching her adjust her grip, Lord Erilinn frowned. “This one is too long for you – it should be about your own height – but it will do for now. Now, stand with your legs about shoulder width. The resting position should be just above your hips. Hold it overhand. No, overhand. And keep your hands relatively close to each other, too far apart reduces your flexibility.”

When Kiarn’s posture finally satisfied him, he stepped back. “Alright, you can try out some basic slashes and parries while I work with the others.”

The practice saber felt awkward in her hands. It was too long and had more momentum than she was used to. The grip in the middle threw her off and she felt lopsided, having to stand with her arms to one side of her.

Lord Erilinn returned just as she once again hit herself in the leg. “It’s a good thing we’re using practice sabers,” he said dryly. “Saberstaves take a lot of dexterity; we can work on that.”

Gesturing for her to set the saber to the side, he guided her through a series of painful stretches, making her contort in ways she hadn’t known were possible. By the time the class ended, she felt as though every joint in her body had been repeatedly dislocated and pushed back into place.

But even as she dragged herself back to her bed, she found her mood still buoyant. It had been a good day.

Chapter Text

Kiarn’s eyes jerked open automatically as the lights switched on. Another day. . .

Kahnishh and Tyrin clattered around the room getting ready as she slowly uncoiled her body from the knots it had twisted into while she slept. By the time she poked her head out from under the blanket, Tyrin had finished changing and Kahnishh was already gone. Not that he wore anything anyway, being a Selonian. Tyrin was still digging for something in his footlocker as Kiarn pulled on her boots, but nodded at her as she left the room.

So far, the day had been just like every other since she arrived on Korriban two years ago, but something still felt off.

Like her very first, the day opened with running. By now, she could go the entire distance without too much effort and was able to treat it as a speed contest. As usual, she finished on the fast side of the average time, probably between fifteenth and twentieth, with Tyrin a few people in front of her and Meiko a few behind. Kalas, who always did well, outshone himself that morning and returned to the Academy before anyone else did. He grinned with pride as Kiarn and the rest of the students entered the cafeteria.

She had revised her initial assessment of him over the last several years. Yes, he was pathetic, but he wasn’t totally talentless. If he’d had a bit of self-confidence, he would be doing much better and he still had occasional flashes of usefulness with the right circumstances.

Kiarn got her tray – it was meat and grain again – and sat down. Meiko had reached the bench first and Kiarn felt a spike of hurt from her as Tyrin paused, looked at the seat next to her, and sat on the other side of the table. Her tone was light, though, as she greeted him. Time had confirmed for Kiarn what she had initially suspected: the two were sexually involved, although to what extent she still wasn’t sure. For him, that seemed to be all there was to it, but Meiko was in love. Force only knew why, but at least she was sensible about it. Kiarn felt uncomfortable enough with the idea without having to manage schoolgirl pining.

Conversation fell off as they ate. While the group was never very loud, everyone seemed especially subdued that morning and Kiarn wondered if they sensed the strangeness as well. Despite his earlier good humor, Kalas looked despondent and Meiko picked at her food.

Something at the far end of the room caught Kiarn’s attention and she looked up. All three of the Academy’s teachers stood by the entrance, along with two other Sith she had never seen before. They remained at the door while the teachers advanced through the room, Darth Eliss in the lead.

Kiarn’s heart skipped a beat. The teachers only visited student meals when a disturbance required their presence, and even then, only one or at the most two came. Never all three. It was hard to see over the heads of the other acolytes, but what Kiarn did catch glimpses of told her that they were all dressed formally as well – Darth Eliss’ in robes elaborately draped and cut away and trimmed in gold, Lord Rornak in flanged black armor that enhanced his already wide shoulders, and Lord Erilinn in a simple but impeccably-cut outfit of charcoal grey and deep blue. All three carried lightsabers.

Darth Eliss stopped in the open space near the food line. A subtle nudge rippled out through the Force, drawing attention to her, but it wasn’t needed. Every eye was fixed on her already.

When she was satisfied with the level of interest from her students, she began to speak, voice echoing in the high-ceilinged room. Kiarn was overwhelmed with the sensation that the twi’lek’s dark eyes were fixed on her and her alone, although that was impossible. Eliss wasn’t even looking at her. “Students of the Sith Academy on Korriban: today marks the end of your training here and tomorrow the first day of your trials. In them, we will determine who among you is worthy to become a Sith. Those who survive will finish their training under the direct tutelage of a Sith Lord. Those who fail. . . ”

She let the statement hang in the air and Kalas’ whisper was loud in the silence. “Those who survive?”

“What did you expect?” Tyrin replied coldly. “We’re Sith.”

Not yet we aren’t, thought Kiarn, but she kept her mouth shut.

Ignoring the whispers that still flitted around the room, Darth Eliss continued and a stern look from Lord Rornak quickly silenced any who still dared to talk over her. “The first trial will take place tomorrow morning. Return to this room immediately upon waking. Classes are dismissed for the remainder of the day, but I will remind everyone that any student caught outside the allowed areas will fail their trial. Immediately.”

She turned and left without another word, Erilinn and Rornak following her. The unknown Sith, who Kiarn guessed were there to observe the trials, lingered for a few moments longer. Their gazes swept the clusters of students and they spoke quietly to each other before they, too, exited.

As soon as they were gone, the room erupted into dozens of conversations, but the voices remained muted. Everyone still seemed to be feeling the intimidation of their unknown observers. Kiarn struggled to pick out individual voices in the murmur, but the faces she saw ranged from excited to terrified. Kalas’ was sheer horror while Meiko and Tyrin both looked quite serious.

And herself? Taking a moment to think, Kiarn was unsure which of the tangled emotions was supreme. Was the jolt of adrenaline that set her hands shaking from anticipation, or fear? Or both?

Either way, she need to calm down. Think. Plan. They had the rest of the day to prepare. What would be best? She had planned to get advice on a particularly difficult lightsaber maneuver from Lord Erilinn that afternoon, but that seemed unlikely now. Would her time be better served practicing force abilities or combat stances?

“Kiarn, do you want to practice with me?” said Meiko.

Should I? They would certainly have designed the trials to prevent students from helping each other through. It would perhaps be best if they learned not to rely on one another. Even if it was a bit late for that now. Still, she couldn’t practice alone and they might never see each other again after the trials, even if they both passed.

Which seemed unlikely in itself. If Kiarn remembered correctly, there was forty-three other acolytes at the Academy and neither she nor Meiko were the best in their respective areas of strength. Meiko’s lightsaber skills were weak and compared to the rest of the class, Kiarn was missing almost three years of instruction.

Not that I’m pessimistic or anything. Realizing that Meiko was still waiting for her to say something, she nodded. “Why not?”

“Can I come too?” asked Kalas, an edge of desperation to his voice.

“Yes, of course,” Meiko replied.

Kiarn would have preferred if he didn’t, but there was no way to argue without coming off as a bully. “What do you want to work on?”

After a brief discussion on practice topics, she looked over to see if Tyrin planned to join them, only to find him gone. Probably off practicing. He’d always been studious, but lately it had seemed almost like an obsession. One that would probably pay off soon.

She followed Meiko and Kalas out of the room, trying to put the worries from her mind and focus on practicing.

Chapter Text

Kiarn couldn’t sleep.

She had to sleep. She would need to be alert tomorrow when the trials started in the morning.

They had trained hard that day, sparring until they could barely lift the training sabers and shooting endless bursts of lightning. Kiarn hadn’t seen Tyrin again after he disappeared at breakfast and when she, Meiko, and Kalas had tried to return for a midday meal, they had found themselves locked out of the cafeteria. No dinner, either.

Kiarn hoped that the masters didn’t expect her to go the entire trials without eating. Unless the tests they had planned only took a few minutes each, this was going to be a multi-day ordeal and she didn’t have the body fat reserves to fast for long. She didn’t think the other students did, either.

She lay flat on her back for what must have been hours, staring at the blackness that concealed the ceiling. When all the lights were off, it was pitch dark, far underground without even an emergency lamp to offer a dim glow. Her stomach growled and Kanishh snuffled in his bed. A twinge of claustrophobia took root in her gut, something she hadn’t felt since her first day in the elevator. So much rock above my head. . .

She couldn’t do this. She had to get outside and do something besides lie there with questions buzzing around like beetles. Sliding into her boots, she listened to make sure her roommates were asleep. As far as she could tell, they were. The feeling of being closed-in lessened as soon as she stood up, but the urge to roam was still there and she continued into the hallway, making her way slowly towards the main portion of the Academy.

Someone was walking behind her. Kiarn spun around and dropped into a combat stance, trying wildly to figure out how she planned to defend herself if this was an attack.

But a familiar presence pressed against her mind and her stomach dropped in relief. It was only Meiko. She straightened up and hoped that anyone who heard them would write any noises they made as someone headed to the refresher.

Meiko’s lips almost touched Kiarn’s ear, but even so, she could barely hear her as she whispered. “Can’t sleep either?”

“No.”

“Take off your shoes and follow me.”

Meiko led Kiarn out of the dormitories and through a series of hallways that Kiarn wasn’t very familiar with. Judging by the general direction, though, they were going up to the atrium at the building’s entrance. What is she thinking? If they were caught, they’d be killed. And someone would certainly be patrolling the halls tonight.

But they encountered no one as they exited a small passage. Meiko remained silent and started for the door. Kiarn was too intrigued to consider staying behind. She followed.

The starlight coming through the skylight bathed them in silver beams as they crossed the atrium. Kiarn wished she was invisible. She felt so exposed like this. Darth Eliss had said there was a Force technique that could produce near-perfect camouflage, but that their time was better spent on other things. Perhaps they had studied it in her advanced class; Kiarn had never been invited.

They stopped just outside the doorway and Meiko turned to the right, disappearing into the shadows behind the statues that held up the porch roof. A hand appeared from the darkness, beckoning Kiarn. When she stepped behind the statue, Meiko’s voice spoke, louder now to be heard over the wind. “Climb. There are handholds.”

Kiarn obeyed, feeling her way up the path of cracks and indentations worn by years of exposure. Behind her, she could hear Meiko climbing after her and before long, they were both sitting on the statue’s horizontal thigh. “So why did you bring me out here?” she said.

“You seemed upset. I come here to think or meditate away from everywhere else.”

“Why don’t you just use one of the rooms downstairs?”

“Nobody ever finds me here. And it’s nice to have a place where no one’s watching you.”

“Are you sure?” This must be where she had gone the few times Kiarn had been unable to find her. It wasn’t common, but it had happened enough times that she’d been curious.

“The wind makes a lot of noise most of the time. And we’re not allowed out here unsupervised, so they don’t usually think to look.”

The thought relaxed Kiarn a bit. But only a bit. “Are you nervous about tomorrow?”

“A little. Are you?”

“No,” Kiarn said, more quickly than she meant to.

Meiko was quiet for a moment and Kiarn knew that she was doing the disconcerting thing where it looked like she was staring directly at her. “You don’t have to lie, Kiarn. No one’s listening but me.”

But she did. If she admitted that she was afraid of what would happen tomorrow, that she was weak, then. . . Then what? But she couldn’t talk about it. She didn’t even know what she was afraid of. Death? Certainly not. She’s devoted too much of her life to an idea that will almost certainly end in death to be frightened by it. Failure? Pain? She didn’t think it was those, either. Or was it?

The silence grew awkward. Finally, Meiko shifted, her silhouette black against the desert stars. “Kiarn, do you want to become a Sith?”

“What? Of course, don’t you?” It was the only path she could see to the power she needed.

“I’m not sure.”

“Why wouldn’t you?” Kiarn could think of plenty of reasons, but she wasn’t sure if any of them applied to Meiko. She wasn’t sure of a lot of things about her when she got down to it.

“Call it an ideological difference, I guess. I think the Sith’s view of the galaxy is entirely self-fulfilling.”

“How so?” Kiarn pulled her knees up to her chest. She’d gotten used to the normal chill that pervaded everything, on Korriban, but it was cold outside at night.

“’Peace is a lie, there is only passion’, right? ‘Through passion I gain strength, through strength I gain power’ and all that? But if you spend your life doing nothing but chasing strength and power, then of course you won’t have peace. You can never be satisfied and none of the Sith around you will be content to just let you take all the power, either. The code becomes true just by your believing in it.”

“So what do you suggest? That we embrace the Jedi, become scholars and go on about bringing balance to the Force instead of fixing anything?” She’d never met a Jedi who wasn’t screaming in pain and half-dead, but it was the distinct impression she’d gotten of them.

“I’m not sure what I’m suggesting. I just think that the Sith aren’t the right way. Besides, not all Jedi are like that.” There was a faint note of hurt in her voice.

“Have you met one?”

Meiko nodded, just visible in the starlight. “Several.”

Kiarn had done her best to respect Meiko’s silence about her past. If she asked, then Meiko could ask in return. But the girl was practically begging for her to ask. “Where did you live before you came here?”

“Lots of places.”

“I thought you said we didn’t have to lie out here.”

“Alright.” She hesitated, almost long enough that Kiarn thought she wasn’t going to answer. “I lived at the Jedi Temple on Tython.”

Astonishment was enough to make Kiarn sit up straight. “You’re a Jedi?” It made sense, she supposed. Her skill with the Force – particularly its less aggressive uses, her serene nature, and her determinedly un-Sith-like outlook all fit into place with the knowledge.

“Not anymore. In fact, I was barely even a padawan. My master was killed on our first mission together and I guess they thought I was dead too, because no one ever came for me and I couldn’t get a signal out. I wandered around Imperial territory for a while, trying to find a way to contact the Republic until the Sith found me. Now I’m here and – “ Her voice cracked and Kiarn knew that if she had eyes, she would have been crying.

“Oh. I’m. . . really sorry.” Sympathy felt strange, but Meiko had earned it. Kiarn reached out and put her hand on the other girl’s knee. Meiko took it in both of hers. “Do the masters know?”

“I don’t think so. I’ve never told anyone and I made sure that the soldiers who found me didn’t know.”

They sat in silence for a few minutes, watching the stars. Something, a tuk-ata or k’lor slug most likely, shrieked in the distance. “What about you?” said Meiko. “How did you get here?”

Kiarn contemplated lying. There was no way for Meiko to check anything she said. But after all these years of remaining silent, staring down probably death in the next few days, she found herself longing to be honest with someone.

“I spent most of my adolescence the. . . property of a Sith named Lord Harod. One day, he sent me on an errand and I didn’t come back. I got as far as Nar Shaddaa before they caught me, but the bounty hunter had the idiotic idea to drag me in while Harod was entertaining guests.” She could still remember the pain of electricity arcing through her body. “I’d known I was Force-sensitive since I was small, but I’d never done much more than hide it until then and when I revealed myself, the other Sith who was with him shipped me off to Korriban. So here I am.”

“And Lord Harod?”

Kiarn couldn’t help but keep the triumph out of her voice. “I’m sure they’d buried him by the time I made it here.” Her first kill, and she still didn’t regret it in the slightest.

Meiko fell silent. “We should go to bed,” she finally said after perhaps ten minutes.

“Yeah, I guess so.” Kiarn would have liked to stay up longer, out in the clear air where her mind felt light and free, but her pragmatic side knew that she needed to sleep. Besides, the longer they were outside, the more likely someone would discover that they were gone.

They slipped back to their beds without incident. As soon as she lay down, Kiarn pulled the blankets over her head and was asleep a few minutes later.

Chapter Text

The lights flickered on at their usual time the next morning, but it took more than the typical effort for Kiarn to drag her eyes open. Until she remembered what day it was. After that, she couldn’t get up fast enough.

It wasn’t that she was excited for the trials – she dreaded them, really – but every moment spent waiting just delayed the inevitable and set her even more on edge. Pulling on her boots, she headed out into the hallway. Maybe for the last time.

For the first time since she had arrived, a door separated her wing of the dormitories from the main corridor. Her heart skipped a beat or two. We’re lucky it didn’t close before we got back.

Everyone else was in the hallway as well, some talking in hushed tones, others stretching or muttering old lessons under their breaths. Some just stared listlessly into empty air like they had already given up. The Force swirled around them, thick with emotion: excitement, worry, determination, terror.

Meiko found her in the sea of red and black uniforms and led her back to her room. It was empty, so Meiko sat on her bed with her knees drawn up to her chest and Kiarn perched on the unoccupied one. One of Meiko’s roommates had been the student who was murdered last year and no one had come to replace him. Neither of the spoke and Kiarn marveled at how calm Meiko looked despite the nervousness she could feel spiking under the other girl’s serene exterior.

The noise outside the room changed. They jumped to their feet and hurried to join the others, unwilling to miss anything that might be happening.

The door was open and although no one had arrived to guide them, everyone started for the cafeteria by some unspoken consent. Streams of students from the other dorms merged with theirs, a sense of alarm radiating from the growing crowd.

Whispers splashed between them, too quiet and quick for Kiarn to catch the substance of them. Kalas joined the group and spoke too loudly. “Did you hear?”

Kiarn didn’t bother masking her annoyance. “Hear what?”

“Never mind,” he said, deflating visibly.

Meiko sighed. “What happened, Kalas?”

“Cena is dead.”

Kiarn’s interest returned. “What happened?”

“I, uh, didn’t really look. But someone said that whoever did it used the Force to strangle her.” He looked more terrified than Kiarn had thought it was possible for a Nikto to look.

“Does anyone have any ideas who did it?” Meiko asked, but before anyone could respond, they arrived at the cafeteria. Lord Erilinn stood alone in front of the double doors. Although he wore the same grey and blue outfit he’d been in yesterday, up close, Kiarn noticed that he had placed several silver rings into his lip and more in each eye ridge.

“Welcome, acolytes.” His voice was deeper, more formal than normal. “Today, you will begin your first trial on the road to becoming a Sith. You have all survived so far, but the Trials will weed out the ones who cannot contribute to the Empire, those of you who have gotten by on sheer luck or cowardice.”

He began to pace back and forth slowly, hands clasped behind his back. Kiarn was surprised to see that he was a bit nervous – perhaps it reflected badly on him if they didn’t do well. She wondered if it was obvious to everyone or if most of the students had missed whatever subtle peculiarities of body language she had picked up on.

“The Trials,” he said, “are arranged as a series of tests on various skills you will need as a Sith, each generally more difficult and complicated than the last. The students who perform the poorest on each test will fail, the rest move on. Your placement in the last trial has no bearing on the next one, but be advised that potential masters can see footage of your performance, so don’t waste them.”

Lord Erilinn stopped pacing and looked directly at the students. “For this test, you will enter this room and take a seat. At each seat, you will find a datapad. Activate it and follow the instructions. You may enter.”

He stepped aside and gestured to the doors, which opened smoothly.

Everyone remained silent as they filed in. The doors slid shut behind them and Kiarn heard a lock click into place as she entered at the back of the group. The long tables and benches that normally filled the cafeteria had disappeared to be replaced with tables no bigger than a half meter square and plain, hard-looking stools.

Quillan and his posse sat in the center of the room, Kalas slipped into a station by the door, and Kiarn headed for the back corner, where she could keep an eye on what everyone else was doing. Meiko sat next to her and Karanni was a few paces away.

The datapad looked ordinary enough: a matte silver finish with handles on each side wrapped in slightly ragged brown fabric. While Kiarn waited for it to power up, she checked the back to see if there was anything written on it. There wasn’t.

Exclamations and muttered curses rose from around her and Kiarn couldn’t help but agree as she read the screen.

Answer the following questions:

Would there every be a reason a Sith should refuse offered power?

A keypad invited her to type her response.

Kiarn almost laughed. A written test? To become a Sith?

But as she thought back to Lord Erilinn’s speech a few minutes earlier, she began to understand. Intelligence was as much a part of being a Sith as lightsaber combat and with such huge numbers of students, it would be easier to start here. The more involved tests were probably saved for later, when there were fewer students to run through the exercises.

But she was wasting time. The datapad had no indication of a time limit, but she shouldn’t assume there wasn’t one. Refusing offered power. . . hmm.

Obviously, she typed. If the power is a trap, you should consider carefully before you say yes.

But there had to be more to it than that. She didn’t think that future masters would be satisfied with obvious answers. Through passion she gained strength, through strength she gained power, through power she gained victory, and through victory her chains were broken.

The answer was right there in the Sith Code.

Also, you shouldn’t grab power if you can’t hold on to it. If you take too much too soon, not only could you lose it, but you could lose a lot of your other power to when fellow Sith see that you can’t hold your own.

She hit “submit” and the screen went dark for a few seconds before a new question came up.

Who of the following is not on the Dark Council?

This one just required a simple selection from a list of choices before she was again moved on.

An unknown Sith Lord approaches you on the steps of the Academy and demands to know why he shouldn’t kill you this instant. What do you say?

On and on the test went, questions starting to blur together. Sith theory and increasingly complicated hypothetical situations mixed with basic knowledge about the Empire. Occasionally she even ran across a simple math problem that she could only assume was included to throw them off. Her empty stomach twisted with sharp pain and her mouth was dry.

After what she knew must have been hours, the datapad flashed another message.

Await further instructions.

The screen went dark and Kiarn looked around listlessly. About half of the others were done, datapads resting on the tables and staring blankly into the air or resting their heads on the desks. Meiko was one of them, and she looked as worn-out as Kiarn felt, fingers tented together and head raised as though she were looking at the ceiling. The room was silent except for the low whistle of the students’ collective breathing and the irregular tapping of fingers and claws on keypads.

Kiarn lost track of how long she waited before something caught her attention. The datapad’s screen flickered back to life, a single line of text in the center. Report to Practice Room 187b. Glancing around, she could tell everyone else was getting similar messages.

The room spun as she stood and Kiarn felt herself sway, but grabbed at the table for support and managed to stay on her feet. After taking a moment to catch her breath, she shakily made her way to the room that Lord Erilinn and Lord Rornak used for their classes.

She hoped she had done alright. She hoped she had made it to the next phase.

At least if I failed, it will be over quickly. I hope.

Chapter Text

The training room had been made over into a sort of substitute mess hall with food set out on trays. Lord Erilinn was there as well, looking grim.

It was all Kiarn could do not to attack the food with her bare hands, but she forced herself to sit and eat slowly, with dignity. This, she suspected, was a trial as much as the previous test had been.

Meiko sat next to her, face grey with exhaustion and worry. “How do you think we did?” she said quietly.

“I don’t know.”

“Neither do I. I just put down what I thought they wanted to hear, but there was a lot I didn’t know how to answer.”

Kiarn wasn’t surprised. However bright and talented she was, Meiko still didn’t think like a Sith. And do you? The thought frightened her a bit. But then again, it was what she needed to do if she was going to make it through this. After she graduated, she could begin to undo some of the knots that the Academy had worked into her. There was nothing she had done so far that could not be undone, right?

When they finished eating, Lord Erilinn sent everyone back to the dormitories. Kiarn had no idea how long the first test had taken, but it must have been a while, because only an hour or two later, the lights went out and everyone settled down into their beds.

There was, Kiarn reflected, probably plenty of downtime at the Academy if you weren’t in an advanced class and were either overconfident or apathetic enough that you didn’t study outside of lessons. But that had never been the case for her. Even when she had been free, she had tried to find solitude, not socialize. So now she found herself watching curiously to see how the other students spent their leisure hours.

Some chatted idly or reviewed what had happened that day and discussed what might be in store next. Others played simple games with dice or cards. Several of the burlier ones arm-wrestled and Kiarn caught Quillan and Tamine kissing passionately in a shower stall. But most, like Kiarn and Meiko, just sat quietly, enjoying the break from endless training.

That night, Kiarn slept soundly. Meiko’s roommate had never come back to the dormitories that evening and judging by the conversations she had overheard, neither had at least one other student. She was fairly certain that she had passed. That she was safe. At least until tomorrow.

When she woke, she felt more rested than she had in a long time, but apart from droids delivering meals, none of the Academy staff showed themselves. By mid-afternoon, most of the students were showing signs of boredom. People were on edge, arguments broke out over small things, and a few disagreements even escalated to fist fights. By the time the lights went out again, Kiarn was grateful to be done with the monotony.

She woke in the middle of the night to the sound of a shrill, alarm-like tone. Jumping out of bed, she hurried to pull her boots on as she searched the suddenly bright room for signs of what was going on. Tyrin was doing the same and Kahnishh untangled himself from his blanket and dashed into the hallway. Kiarn followed.

The doors that shut the dormitories off from the rest of the Academy were open and Lord Erilinn stood in the passage. The agitation Kiarn had noticed in him before the last test was stronger now, though he looked more like he usually did: a lightly armored chest plate over fitted robes in shades of gray. The facial jewelry was gone too. “Follow me,” he said.

They all did and Meiko grabbed Kiarn’s hand with her own small, shaking one. “Do think this is the next Trial?” she said in a low voice.

“I’m sure of it.” Kiarn forgave her the obvious question, the other girl still looked half asleep.

Lord Erilinn led them to the room they had used as a dining hall the day before yesterday and told them to sit. They did and as soon as they had settled onto the floor, he pointed to eleven of the students, seemingly at random, and gestured for them to go with him.

Kalas and Quillan were among the group chosen. As they left, Kalas flashed Meiko a nervous look. Kiarn was surprised he’d made it through the first round, but disappointed to see that it hadn’t seemed to help his self-confidence at all.

They waited.

After a while, Lord Erilinn reappeared and selected another group of eleven, this time taking Tyrin and Kahnishh. One or two people went back to sleep, but Kiarn decided that it would be a sign of weakness to join them. Besides, she was too nervous to sleep anyway.

Finally, Lord Erilinn selected her for the third group. Meiko and Karanni were chosen as well, leaving only Tamine of the students that Kiarn knew to wait for her turn with the considerably smaller group.

The Sith led them to a large, open room with a high ceiling. Directing them up a set of stairs to a platform about four meters off the ground, he waited at the bottom. From the elevated position, Kiarn could see that the room was huge, the largest she’d been in since she arrived at the Academy, and filled with obstacles of various sorts.

“Try to reach the door on the other side,” Lord Erilinn said as he started to climb the stairs. At their hesitation, he shouted “Now!”

Are we supposed to jump? Kiarn leaped forward. The floor raced up to meet her and despite dropping into a three-point stance like she had been trained to do, the impact sent sharp pain into her ankles and wrist. She ignored it and started running.

From the ground, it was hard to see what was ahead of her and she was already struggling to match what she’d observed from the platform with the walls that rose around them, funneling the students towards the first obstacle. By the time she reached the sheer wall that cut off the end of the lane, Karanni was halfway up it, pulling herself up by the spikes that jutted from the smooth surface at irregular intervals.

But she couldn’t think about Karanni. She had to tune everyone else out, pretend she was the only one doing this.

The first spike was just out of her reach, but she caught it on a jump and pulled herself upward. Her boots had almost no traction on the polished wall, but there was enough to claw her way up to reach the next spike. Her progress was slow and painful, but finally she made it to the top.

The wall was far too high to jump down from, but a series of repulsored platforms dotted the space in front of her. Calling on the Force to assist her, she leaped for the nearest one.

She overshot just a bit and found herself struggling not to fall, her heart seizing as she teetered at the edge of the platform more than a dozen meters in the air before she managed to steady herself. The next jump was more conservative and she eventually reached the lowest platform and jumped to the ground.

Another set of barriers formed a straight lane in front of her. She jogged toward it, wary of traps.

Sure enough, a scant two meters in, a laser beam shot across her path at chest height. As she ducked under it, another one appeared, this one close to her knees. Kiarn slowed her pace to a walk. Beams continued to materialize just in front of her, vanishing when she had passed.

Lord Erilinn’s emphasis on agility and flexibility in his advanced class had developed those attributes in her to the point where she had little trouble getting through the laser hall, but not everything was that easy. Next came a dark shaft that she had to shimmy down, back and feet braced against the sides. Then a maze-like tunnel that required pulling herself along on her stomach. She had no idea how the larger students could have made it through. Even at her size, she felt as though she barely fit.

The course challenged every physical attribute she possessed and left her gasping for air quickly. She was only vaguely aware of the other students, but she thought she was doing alright compared to them.

The door was in sight. It was a straight shot, just twenty meters of open floor, and she was close enough to the Cathar in front of her to tell that there was no traps.

Kiarn ran with all the strength left in her. Maybe I can beat him there.

Someone screamed. I know that voice!

“Meiko!” Kiarn called, risking a glance back over her shoulder. The Miraluka was hanging a good five meters off the ground, wedged between tow of the poles woven together in a haphazard network that they had been forced to traverse in the last challenge. It would have been easy to slip, the poles had a bit of a give to them that made for extremely unstable footing. Kiarn hoped she could extricate herself quickly.

Looking back had delayed her enough that the Cathar was through the door now. Ten more meters. . .

Meiko was still stuck. She could feel it with the same intuition that had told her that the other girl wasn’t a threat so early on.

She skidded to a halt and turned around. She couldn’t escape the thought of her second day there, to the awful first conditioning run she’d had. Had others wanted to help her, but decided that winning was too important? But Meiko had come back for her, even though it had cost her.

Another student passed her on the way back.

When she reached the intricate network of poles, Kiarn climbed up them to where Meiko was still struggling to free herself.

“You shouldn’t have come back,” Meiko said.

I shouldn’t have. Kiarn had no idea what she had been thinking. This was foolish and reckless and stupid. But now that she was here, she couldn’t just leave. “Grab onto something,” she replied, tugging on the bars that trapped Meiko’s foot. It didn’t take much work to part them enough so that she could get out.

They climbed down the obstacle, Kiarn’s pulse pounding in her ears and Meiko obviously favoring her leg. At the bottom, Meiko sighed. “Go on, I can make it from here.”

“It’s okay.” You’ve already wasted enough time helping her, might as well finish the job. Supporting Meiko on her shoulder, Kiarn started for the door. Two more students passed them. Just a little further. . .

And they were there. Kiarn slapped the button to open the door and stumbled through it. Meiko limped to the nearest chair and sat down heavily. “Thank you,” she breathed, voice heavy with gratitude and exhaustion.

Kiarn looked around and it felt like her body was being sucked into the void of space. Sitting in the rows of chairs, staring at her and Meiko with confusion or disbelief or superiority, were exactly nine other students.

She had come in last.

She had failed.

Chapter Text

Kiarn tried to keep a straight face and sit down with dignity, but she wasn’t sure if she succeeded. Black dots filled her vision and receded and her hands shook. I don’t want to die.

After perhaps ten long, agonizing minutes, Lord Erilinn entered. “Thank you, acolytes. You may leave.”

Meiko and the other nine students filed past him and out the door. It took every measure of Kiarn’s willpower to stand, to make her legs move, to not show any signs of emotion whatsoever. Despite the weakness that led to her downfall, she would finish strong.

The lord put his hand on her shoulder as she passed, holding her back. I guess they don’t wait long to do it.

Ater the rest of the students had disappeared around the corner, he leaned close to Kiarn’s ear and whispered. “You’re not out.”

“What?”

“Two of the acolytes in the first set didn’t finish the course at all. You and your friend passed.”

Barely. A weight lifted from Kiarn’s stomach. She wasn’t going to die, at least not right now. She still had a chance to become a Sith. But then suspicion poured into her. “Why are you telling me this? How do I know that you’re not lying?”

His yellow eyes locked with hers. It was perhaps the first time that one of the teachers had done so since she arrived. “I’m not lying,” he said. “I swear.”

“So why are you telling me?” Kiarn knew better than to take people at their word. Anyone could add oaths to the end of a statement, it didn’t make it true. Hells, it made it more likely that there was something they were lying or leaving out. Her increased skills with the Force helped with the other students, but the teachers were too good at hiding their feelings for Kiarn to get a read on them, especially Lord Erilinn.

“I don’t want you doing anything stupid. It’s my way of influencing the trials. All the masters do it.”

Kiarn frowned, unsure of what to say or to think. It certainly sounded like something that would happen in the regimented anarchy that prevailed there. But why would Lord Erilinn admit to it, especially to a student?

“You may return to your room now,” he said in a tired voice.

Kiarn left and he followed her for a bit before turning off into a different passage, she assumed to fetch the last group to run the trial.

The large door that had kept the dormitories separate from the rest of the Academy was open, but the students didn’t seem inclined to wander far and most of them were around as she entered the area. Their eyes followed her as she approached, but she ignored them. Her head hurt and her mouth was dry and all she wanted to do way lie down.

As she entered the hallway that led to her own room, Meiko practically tackled her with a hug. “You’re not dead!” Her body shook. “I thought he was going to kill you and it was my fault. I’m so, so sorry.”

“It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.” Kiarn pulled Meiko off her. “I’m going to bed.”

“Is everything alright? What happened?”

Kiarn felt Meiko’s confusion and worry rippling through the Force as she walked down the hallway, but did her best to ignore it. Throwing herself down on the bed, she rolled onto her back and closed her eyes.

“Kiarn? What’s wrong? Talk to me.”

The silence stretched out for long minutes before Kiarn felt her leave.

She wasn’t angry with Meiko. She couldn’t be. But they’d reached the point she’d known had been coming, although she’d sometimes been able to delude herself into thinking that it wouldn’t. Her friendship with Meiko was interfering with her Sith training and it had to go. She might be able to pick it back up again later, but she doubted it. Even if Meiko would forgive her later, the life that Kiarn had chosen would be one with no room for attachments. She should have realized this a long time ago.

The last group entered the dormitory halls before much longer had passed. There was still talking and laughing, but the students were much more subdued than they had been even right after the last test. And it was no wonder. Kiarn knew she would be sore tomorrow, lying still after so much exercise.

As seemed to be usual, a droid dropped off a meal, but Kiarn was in no mood to eat. The aftereffects of adrenaline left her exhausted and nauseous and the only thing that appealed was sleep, despite its elusiveness.

Meiko check on her several times, but Kiarn pretended to be asleep.

Finally, lights-out arrived. When everything was quiet, she slipped out into the hallway. The doors were closed, of course, and even if they weren’t, she wasn’t foolish enough to risk going out. But she had to move around.

Her feet took her to the refreshers where she pushed herself into a corner and laid her forehead against a sink. The metal was cool on her skin and it helped soothe her pounding headache and calm the panic that rose whenever she remembered how close she had come to dying.

Eventually, a steady cycle of sitting still and getting up to pace calmed her down enough that she thought she could return to bed. Maybe not to sleep, but at least to be in her bed when morning came. On the way, she paused in front of Meiko’s room. Her bed was nearest the door and Kiarn could hear steady breathing that told her the Miraluka was asleep.

Kiarn’s eyes started to burn and she rubbed at them fiercely with the back of her hand. It has to be this way, she reminded herself. The Academy, unpleasant as it had been, was predictable, even safe in its own way, and it had made her soft. Weak.

Leaning against the stone wall, she closed her eyes and tried to remind herself why she was there. At first, she was afraid that time would have dulled the memories, but every image still came up sharp and painful. Fear, loneliness, desperation, and longing, they mixed into a burning desire that dried her eyes and warmed the cold lump in her stomach. I will get my revenge, and it will be worth it.

She made her way back to the bed and stared into the blackness above until morning came.

The next inevitable instruction came as they ate breakfast. Kiarn sat in a corner by the large doors, chewing on the tasteless ration bar that had been handed to her. Meiko was with Kalas – who bizarrely seemed to have survived his trials yet again – and Tyrin. They were too far away for Kiarn to hear what they said, but Kalas looked worried and Tyrin bored, so it probably wasn’t significantly different from other mornings. Meiko appeared to be listening intently, but her Force-sense told a different story. Most of her attention was directed at Kiarn.

In daylight, the regret was easier to ignore.

The doors opened ponderously and Lord Erilinn strode in, carrying a datapad. Although she had only had two points of reference, Kiarn had noticed that his outfit seemed to coordinate with how physically involved the next trial would be, so she studied it closely. A dark purple outer robe, vaguely reminiscent of what she’d often seen pictures of Jedi wearing, over a black tunic, fitted pants, and mid-calf boots buckled at the ankles. She guessed that today’s trial would involve more activity than the first one, but less than the second.

He looked around. “Kiarn, follow me. Everyone else wait in Practice Room 187b.”

The students got to their feet and started to file out in silence. Kiarn followed Lord Erilinn, puzzled and more than a bit worried. Had something changed? Were they going to kill her now? So what, Kiarn? You don’t give them the satisfaction of knowing that you were afraid. You meet it with your head held high and your shoulders back. You are Sith.

He led her to a mid-sized room, empty apart from a deactivated droid and a rack of training sabers and gestured for her to take one of the weapons. After a brief inspection, she concluded that they were identical and selected one at random. Disappointment and frustration filled her as she adjusted her grip and tested the balance. It was sized for a slightly larger than average human, far too big for her to wield it comfortably as a single blade, but still too short for her double-bladed techniques.

While she fiddled with her stances, Lord Erilinn walked to the droid. “For this trial, you will fight this droid for as long as possible. Destroy it if you can. You may use the Force to enhance your own speed, strength, or agility, but nothing else.”

He pressed a button on the back of the droid’s neck and it’s eyes flickered on. Moving to the edge of the room, Lord Erilinn leaned against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest.

The droid raised a weapon identical to Kiarn’s own and approached. Its first blow was slow and clumsy and she blocked it easily. Backpedaling, she kept her eyes on the droid. It followed her, swinging again.

She could strike at it right now, end the trial here, but something told her that there was more going on. It couldn’t be that simple.

After a few more rounds of simple blows, when she was starting to wonder if maybe it really was that simple, the droid parried one of her swings and followed up with a counterstrike, almost quickly enough to break through her defense.

Ah, the difficulty increases, then. The droid was still slow, but its attacks had more finesse and sometimes it would feint or dodge. Kiarn had to pay attention, but it still wasn’t very hard.

An especially hard strike made her stumble backwards and the droid’s programing stepped up again. Hopping to the side to dodge an attack, she saw an opening and swung. It blocked, then riposted with surprising speed.

She was starting to feel as far out of her depth as she had with Karanni. Block, parry, feint, dodge, they all started to flow together. The drive and fury of the night before, suppressed but not forgotten, boiled up again and instinct took over. Guided by the Force, she didn’t even need to see.

Her body ached and her pulse pounded in her ears. Using her less-developed single-blade technique was trying her skill level and a quick thrust from the droid nearly connected. She dove to the floor and swept her legs at the droid’s. The metal frame was too heavy for her to topple, but she managed to unbalance it long enough to get up and start another strike.

They fought on and on, the droid growing more and more skilled and Kiarn less and less so as exhaustion set in.

She could barely keep up now, just keep trying to hold off defeat as long as she could. Red haze clouded her vision and the only thing keeping her from unleashing a torrent of lightning was the knowledge that she must not, under any circumstances, use Force powers.

She caught a blow, used the droid’s training saber as a lever to spin, tried to hit it in the back. Sweat stung in her eyes and her breath came in gasps. The droid turned, swung, missed her by half a centimeter. A sharp pain shot rhythmically up her side. Attacks kept coming hard and fast.

Something hit her neck and she heard a voice break through the cacophony in her brain. “Hold!”

The droid stopped, but Kiarn kept her training blade up, wary of another attack. How did I do? Not just adrenaline kept her heart pounding.

Lord Erilinn straightened up and walked over to the door. “Follow me,” he said, tapping on his datapad.

He led Kiarn to another room like the one they had waited in the prior day. How many of them did the Academy even have? All it took was an empty classroom and a pair of prefab chairs, she supposed, although there was only two in this one, sitting equidistant in the center of the space.

“Wait here.” The Sith master turned to leave, his robe rippling with his quick stride.

Kiarn had learned her lesson the day before. Instead of collapsing into her chair, she started a series of cool-down exercises, beginning with a few laps around the room before moving to stretches and finishing with more circuits of the room, this time at a slow walk. By the time she was finished, Lord Erilinn had returned with a Twi’lek male who Kiarn vaguely recognized and left again.

Taking a seat, she waited quietly until he returned once more, this time with a Human female, also mostly unknown to her. He checked his datapad.”You may return to your room, Kiarn.”

As she left, Kiarn breathed a sigh of relief. I think I made it.

Chapter Text

When Kiarn reached the dormitories, they were deserted and she was overwhelmed by a desire to shower. And she might as well - she hadn’t washed since the trials started and this was as much privacy as she was likely to be able to get any time soon.

The showers in this wing were a trio of stalls at the back of the refresher area, just large enough for one person and separated from the rest of the room by translucent curtains. She and Meiko had gotten used to standing guard while the other washed to prevent unwelcome intrusions. She would have to figure out some other way to do it now.

The hot water felt good on her tired muscles and as she prepared to step out of the stall, she realized that she had let herself enjoy the luxury for far longer than she should. Voices approached.

Stepping out nude was out of the question and some eavesdropping might prove useful besides. Moving slowly and quietly, she slid down to a sitting position, making herself as small as possible in the back of the stall.

She heard Karanni’s voice first, sounding annoyed rather than upset. “Why should I?”

“You’ve seen the rankings.” Is that Tyrin’s voice? Kiarn slid toward the front of the stall and moved the curtain aside just a hair. Yeah, that’s him.

“We’re near the top right now,” he continued. “And probably going to be there after today. Together, we’d be almost unstoppable. We’d even be able to beat your brother.”

“I don’t have a brother.” Karanni sounded genuinely angry now.

“Please. It’s obvious to anyone with eyes.”

“No. I don’t make allegiances.” Footsteps retreated rapidly, which Kiarn guessed was Karanni stalking out.

Tyrin swore softly and for perhaps half a minute, Kiarn heard him moving around. Then, the shower on her right turned on.

Letting out her breath, Kiarn hurried to the clothing rack and dressed quickly, leaving the bathroom as soon as she’d managed a tunic and leggings.

It seemed that Tyrin was trying to forge alliances against the other students, separate from the little group they’d formed during their studies. Kiarn didn’t blame him. She was perhaps the strongest candidate there besides him and that said little with how close she’d come to failing the second trial. And Karanni was a good choice of ally. Powerful, tough, and should be easy enough to manipulate, given how strongly she displayed her emotions. Kiarn wondered if he’d approached anyone else and what they had said, who was on his list to eliminate.

The suggestion that Quillan and Karanni might be siblings was also unsurprising. Family could stir up the hatred that so clearly consumed Karanni in a way little else could. Kiarn should know. And the two Zabraks clearly loathed each other. The “rankings” – almost certainly of how well they were doing in the trials – were also no shock, although Kiarn wondered how Tyrin and Karanni got to look at them and if there was a way for Kiarn to see them as well.

She made it back to her room before sitting down to pull on her boots and tie the sash around her waist. With any luck, Tyrin would never know she was there at all.

The soft part of her wanted to warn Meiko that Tyrin was up to no good, but she decided against it. You’re not helping her, remember? Besides, for all she knew, Meiko was in on the plan, right?

Something told her that she wasn’t going to sleep much again tonight, so she should go to bed and rest as much as possible. But instead, she installed herself in a corner of the hallway where she could see the other students arriving from their trials. It wasn’t truly hidden, but by pulling her knees up to her chest and keeping still, she hoped that nobody would pay her much attention.

Soon, the Twi’lek who’d been with her in the after-Trial room earlier came down the hall, barely glancing at Kiarn before going to his room. Weird. She’d left as soon as the third student finished, so hadn’t he left when the fourth student entered? After a moment’s consideration, she realized that Lord Erilinn must be saving out the two current lowest scorers and letting the rest return. If that was the case, then she was safe, at least.

A new student appeared every few minutes, but no one else she knew. Nearly all of them looked as tired as she was – a few triumphant faces, a few terrified ones, but mostly just relieved.

Tamine reappeared after a while. She didn’t seem like the trial had fazed her at all. Her pale blonde hair was no more than artistically tousled and she walked with a swing in her stride and a self-satisfied arrogance that dared anyone to disagree with her right to be there. But Kiarn could tell that it was merely a front to hide her weakness. Under it all, she was still as exhausted as the rest of them. Kiarn found herself envying how good Tamine was at covering it. She took up a position further down the hallway where she stretched and sighed for a few minutes before settling onto the floor.

Kahnissh was next and he stopped to confer with Tamine before continuing on. Then came a long interval of virtually unknown faces before Kiarn saw her.

Meiko’s head hung and she looked more drained than Kiarn could ever remember seeing before. She limped and as she approached, it became obvious that there was a massive bruise along one side of her face. The strip of fabric she usually kept over her empty eye sockets was sliding off and she made no effort to redo it.

As she approached, Kiarn shrank back, but Meiko walked past and continued on to her room without a pause. Kiarn wasn’t sure if she’d even realized she was there. At least they didn’t have to talk.

Quillan’s posture rivaled Tamine’s in attitude, but Kiarn wasn’t sure if it had as much sex appeal as it was probably meant to on his scrawny, unimpressive frame. He was even better at covering his exhaustion, though. Now, with the suggestion that he and Karanni might be siblings, it was easy to see the resemblance. They shared most of the superficial details, of course – black hair, red skin, the same black tattoos and golden eyes – but they also had similar facial features and even shared a few mannerisms. Kiarn had no idea how she hadn’t noticed it sooner.

No one else arrived for a long time.

Finally, Lord Erilinn appeared with the dinner droid in tow, waiting until a reasonably-sized group of acolytes had gathered before beginning to speak. “Congratulations. You’ve survived my section of the Trials. From now on, Lord Rornak will be in charge.”

He turned to leave, his steps slow and measured.

Wonderful. While Erilinn’s tests had been no stroll on Alderaan, they had at least been fair. Kiarn doubted they would get the same treatment from Lord Rornak. She wouldn’t put it past him to fail students he disliked on purpose. But she’d never thought this was going to be easy.

As she had suspected she would, Kiarn slept poorly that night. Tossing and turning gave way to nightmares that left her shaking. When morning came, heralded by lights and a deep-voiced shout from the hallway, she awoke feeling less rested than she had when she lay down.

She dragged herself out of bed and toward the shouting to find a very annoyed-looking Lord Rornak standing in the central hallway. By the time most of the remaining acolytes had assembled, he was already turning to leave. Kiarn followed, assuming that, at least, was the same as when Lord Erilinn was running things.

Meiko fell into step beside her. The bruise on her check was purple and brown now and she still limped, although it wasn’t as pronounced as it had been the pervious night. She kept turning her head in Kiarn’s direction as though she wanted to say something, but kept her mouth shut. Good. Kiarn didn’t want to talk to her.

Lord Rornak led them down one of the hallways that Kiarn and Meiko had used for their practice outside of class. She’d never seen a teacher there, though. He stopped in front of the first door he came to – which was open – checked a datapad, and pointed to a student. “Get in there.”

The boy wisely didn’t argue and Lord Rornak shut the door and moved on, repeating the performance at the next door they came to.

Kiarn watched with a frown deepening on her face. At first, she’d thought he was going to kill one of the failures as a demonstration, but he was starting to remove a lot more people than she had thought they would kill at once, some of them quite strong.

They continued down the hall, one student to a room.

After perhaps a dozen students had been pulled out, Lord Rornak wrapped his huge paw-hand around Kiarn’s upper arm, claws digging in and, without a word, dragged her to the latest room and half-shoved her inside. She stumbled forward and nearly ran into the opposite wall, turning around just in time to see the door shut. Although she already knew what she would find, she tried it anyway.

Locked.

The room – more of a closet, really – was about the size of a public refresher stall with walls of the same red-brown stone as the rest of the Academy and a floor coated in a thick rug of dust. A small camera glinted from one of the corners of the ceiling.

Why was she here? What was she supposed to do? If the goal was to break out, she should probably start as soon as possible; the test was likely timed.

Just as she braced herself against the door to test its strength, Lord Rornak’s voice made her jump. “Wait for further instructions. If you leave this room, you will fail the Trials.”

Not that, then. But what was being tested, then?

Kiarn sat down to wait and a cloud of dust floated up around her, making her cough. She wished she’d had time to visit the refresher before she left.

* * * *

Hours passed. No new instructions arrived. Kiarn started to doze off several times, but managed to stay awake. Of all the ways to fail the Trials, sleeping through them would probably be the most embarrassing.

Eventually, she couldn’t stand to sit still anymore so she got up to pace. Back and forth, back and forth, her feet stirring an endless line in the dust.

* * * *

At least there was a light in the room. She would be having a lot harder time dealing with the situation if she couldn’t see. Her stomach growled and her mouth was dry. Was it still yesterday that she had last eaten and drank? Or was it the day before now? It was hard to tell time when nothing was happening.

Her throat hurt.

Her head ached.

She wished she could sleep.

* * * *

She was certain it had been more than a day now and she’d stopped feeling hungry. Now there was just that all-too-familiar lightness in her head that warned her not to try anything physical. It really wasn’t so bad once you had learned to get used to it. It would have been nice to stand without seeing black spots, though.

It was so hot in there. Why hadn’t she noticed before? Was it new, or had the temperature been increasing the entire time she had been in there?

Hopefully she didn’t sweat too much. She couldn’t afford to lose too much water.

* * * *

It had gotten hot enough that she was seriously uncomfortable. It felt like the floor was burning her skin and all she wanted was a drink of water. What am I doing here? Why is this happening?

* * * *

As if by magic, it finally began to cool off. Just what she wanted. Now all she had to do was get her hands to stop shaking and she would be fine. Sometimes she almost thought that Lord Rornak might not be trying to kill her after all.

But she was so, so tired and every time she tried to fall asleep, someone blared loud noise until she opened her eyes again. That’s not very nice, is it?

* * * *

Kiarn didn’t feel very good. Maybe she had caught a cold. It was certainly cold enough in the room for it. Her teeth chattered and she felt like she had to throw up. Over and over again she retched, but nothing came up.

“You’re sick, Kiarn.” Her mother’s voice. “Don’t worry about the mess, I’ll clean it up before anyone sees it.”

She couldn’t quite bring herself to push her away, even though she knew that kindness like this never lasted. She did feel a little queasy.

Her mother stroked her back. “I’ll take care of you.”

* * * *

She wasn’t going to make it. Whatever Lord Rornak’s test was, she had obviously failed it and now he was going to leave her there to die. At least it didn’t hurt much anymore. She probably wouldn’t have to live much longer.

Another voice. Somehow, Kiarn knew that this one was real and not another figment of her hallucinations. “The fourth trial has just ended. For your fifth, you have one simple task: escape this room.”

Chapter Text

Escape!? Kiarn could barely move. How was she supposed to break down the door? She doubted she could have managed it when she arrived and she hadn’t been half-dead then.

Still, the alternative was to give up and she couldn’t do that now, could she?

She was lying on her face, although she didn’t remember how she got there. Had she fallen? Her body felt heavy. So heavy. Raising herself to her knees made her arms ache and she waited, panting, for her vision to clear. The large closet they had her in was still as small as ever, but now the door seemed to be a kilometer away.

As she started to crawl toward it, the nausea returned and this time she couldn’t even bring up bile. Reaching the door, she slumped against it. The metal was cool and smooth against her skin.

She stared at the intricate patterns of the dust on the floor. Did my movements really do all of that? The thought struck her as funny and she laughed, a harsh, grating sound that reminded her of Tamine’s mocking.

Tamine. Quillan. Karanni. The Trials. How could she have forgotten?

She pushed into the door with her shoulder. It didn’t budge. She latched onto what little Force power she still had access to and threw all her strength into it, but still the door remained as solid as the stone walls of the Academy itself. Exhausted, she let herself collapse to the floor again.

There had to be another way out. Even at full strength, she doubted most of the students could break down a door with their bare hands. She didn’t even think that Darth Eliss could do it, although Lord Rornak probably could and Lord Erilinn might be able to. And even the Sith wouldn’t have created an unbeatable test. Would they?

Something was wrong with her logic, she knew, but her head was too foggy to figure out what it was right now. As near as she could tell, her options were to sit down and wait to fall into a coma or keep trying to escape. So she opened her eyes and looked over the room again. It was as empty and bare as before, just stone walls and a stone floor and the eternal dust. Only a few cracks in the stone broke up the monotony.

A crack! Of course! Something must be hidden in one of them. They wouldn’t do something as drastic as putting a hidden passage in every room, but maybe there was something she could use. She pulled herself over to the nearest one. It was tiny, not even wide enough for her fingernails, and Kiarn couldn’t find anything.

The next crack was bigger, but twisty and jagged. Instead of simply running her fingers along it, she had to insert them over and over, all down the length of the fissure, to make sure she hadn’t missed anything. The stone tore at her fingers and rubbed them raw. She grit her teeth and kept searching. Wait, is that something?

Whatever it was, it was buried deep. Kiarn’s fingertips just brushed the tip of it. She could use the Force to retrieve it, but she was calling on it with all her might to keep her conscious and coherent. Moving anything might be the last push needed to drop her into unconsciousness. She jammed her fingers further into the crack and managed to catch the edge of the item with her nail. It was thin and hard, whatever it was. After several minutes of painfully slow, tedious progress, it slid out.

A chip of rock. That was all she had to show for her trouble.

Kiarn’s vision blurred and she hurled it across the room in frustration. This was so stupid! Why was she even trying to please these people? What was even the point of becoming a Sith?

Calm down, Kiarn, the voice in her head told her. You have to focus. She couldn’t lose control now.

She dragged herself to the next crack. This one looked different, somehow. She didn’t think the marks around it could have been made by the natural decay of stone. Could they? At least this one wasn’t so painful to get into, although it was little help to her fingers at this point.

It seemed that she had been right. She pulled out another object, this one a slim strip of metal, about the length of her longest finger. Clearly not something that would have been in the room for no reason.

Back to the door.

Sure enough, there was a slot on the door that looked about the right size. She slid the metal in and found herself unable to remove it, but the door remained locked.

Something drew her eye up to the ceiling, where she knew that Lord Rornak was still watching her through the holocam.

Kiarn tried the door again. It was still solid, but now she could hear something rattling inside when she fell against it.

Something else that required the Force. Wonderful. Closing her eyes, she reached out. This was difficult – she had no visual input to guide her and she had to hold very still to keep the room around her from spinning into oblivion – but she picked up an impression of loose pieces dangling. Maybe something would happen if she brought them together?

It took several tries, but eventually the ends lined up with each other. Something appeared on the door, just in front of Kiarn’s face. A grid that glowed light blue.

Leaning back and squinting to clear her vision, she stared at it. It looked like a keypad of some sort. No numbers, just a square grid about twenty-five keys to a side. She tapped the one on the bottommost left experimentally. It turned red, with some kind of symbol on it. The eight keys adjacent to it also displayed various colors and symbols. Kiarn touched another key, this one on the same row, but just to the right of it. It was green, with a different symbol.

A shock raced through her and she pulled her hand back. The keys reverted to their original blank state. She needed to tap them in some kind of order?

She tried again, this time starting in the middle somewhere. Another shock. So I have to start at the bottom, then.

Returning to the first key she pressed, this time she looked before she went on. There was no other red keys lit, but there was one with the same symbol, just above it. When she hit it, everything went dark for an instant, then returned, with only the square her finger was on at the moment and the ones touching it lit. Ahhh. So that’s it.

Progress was slow. Every time Kiarn made a mistake, there was another shock and she had to start over. But gradually, she managed to work her way up to near the top. Her hands shook and she worried that she would accidentally brush the wrong key and have to start all over again. She couldn’t really remember what the entire sequence was, and she was sure that she was running out of time.  

Finally, she hit a key in the top row and the entire thing disappeared. She heard a click from above her head and almost didn’t dare to hope as she reached up to try the door one more time. It gave a little and then, slowly, ever so slowly, slid open. Without its support, Kiarn slid to the floor, but she didn’t care. It’s over. It’s finally over. I can get out of here.

But she had to show them that they hadn’t beaten her yet. She had to walk out of there under her own power, head held high.

Kiarn gripped the edge of the doorway and tried to pull herself to a standing position. All color faded out of her vision and she felt herself sway. No, no, she had to stay alert. She could do this. Put your right foot in front of your left, girl, then left in front of right, right, left, right, left.

Someone was up in front of her, down the hallway. Lord Rornak, good. She tried to call out to him that she’d made it, that she was done, but couldn’t hear if she had succeeded or not. Had she not actually said anything?

She tried again. This time, Lord Rornak turned around and his eyes met hers. They held the contact for a moment, then he turned his back and walked away.

Why had he done that? Had he not been able to hear her over the roaring in the hallway? But he saw her, she knows. Maybe he just wanted her to follow him? She’d have to run to catch up, though. . .

The floor slid out from under her and everything went black.

Chapter Text

When Kiarn woke up, she was lying on something soft with an aching head and stiff, cold limbs. How long had she been there? And where was ‘there’? She forced her eyes open and immediately wished that she hadn’t. The room was eye-hurtlingly bright with a white ceiling that seemed burned into her eyelids, even after such a brief flash. A medcenter? That probably meant that she had passed, if they were bothering to take care of her, right?

Something was touching her arm. She rolled her head over to the side and saw a clear tube ending in a needle plugged into her arm. Although she batted at it a few times, her ravaged body was too weak to dislodge it.

Eventually, she fell back into darkness.

The next time she awoke, her head was clearer and she could look around without feeling assaulted by the room around her, although it still made her dizzy. Tamine lay on the bed to her left, eyes still closed, while the bed on her right was empty.

She should try to get up. Who knew when the next Trial was going to start? Maybe it already had. Pulling the needle from her arm, she pulled herself into a sitting position and stopped to catch her breath. The room was empty of any personnel, not even a med droid, but they had to be watching her somehow.

Tamine stirred, but her eyes remained closed. Kiarn looked around, then back to Tamine. This would be a good time to kill her.

She doubted they would be alone together again during the Trials and even if they were, certainly not with Tamine comparatively helpless and Kiarn having the advantage of surprise. They had been pushed to the limit in the last two trials. Kiarn wouldn’t have been surprised if a few people died afterword. But how to do it?

There wasn’t a lot of furniture in the room and besides, it couldn’t be obvious that Tamine had been murdered. Maybe she could puncture an artery somehow? No, too much blood.

Thinking about blood reminded her of a fleeting memory from childhood. She had probably been five or six years old when she watched her father kill a man by cutting off blood flow to his brain. She should be able to do something similar, and she was fairly certain that the Force wouldn’t leave any marks.

But as she reached for the power, the door opened and she let it go quickly. You hesitated too long.

Lord Erilinn entered and if he’d known what she was about to do, he didn’t show it. A medical droid followed him. “You survived,” he said flatly.

“I did,” Kiarn replied in the same tone. The droid rolled across the floor and started checking her vital signs. She would really have preferred that it didn’t, it felt like an invasion of her privacy, but she couldn’t object while Lord Erilinn was there without creating a scene.

He leaned against the doorway. “Rornak didn’t think you would.”

That didn’t surprise her, but she couldn’t think of any response that wasn’t too defiant or an admission of weakness, so she stayed silent. The droid took a small amount of blood from her arm, deposited it into a slot on its body,  and let out an affirmative-sounding tone.

“It says you can go back to your room,” said Lord Erilinn. He poured something out of a pitcher on the counter next to the door. “But you might be happier if you drank some of this first.”

Kiarn took the cup he was holding out and looked at the slightly off-colored fluid inside before taking a sip. It tasted a bit like blood; not quite sweet enough to cover a metallic saltiness. Trying not to make a face, she swallowed. But despite the taste, it felt amazing going down, soothing her dry mouth and raw throat.

“Time to go,” Lord Erilinn said as soon as she had finished. Kiarn wasn’t sure if she could stand yet, but he was obviously expecting her to, so she set her feet on the ground and tested her weight. He knees buckled, but she managed to keep from clutching at the wall to stay upright and took a tentative step. Two more.

Lord Erilinn waited another moment for her to get her footing, then led her out of the room, into a sort of central hub with numerous other rooms like the one she had been in branching off of it. Kiarn had managed to avoid visiting the Academy’s medcenter before and it was bigger than she had thought it would be. They continued down a hallway and boarded an elevator.

Kiarn couldn’t help but watch the Sith Lord as they traveled upwards. What did he want? She was certain he didn’t do this for everyone. It is more of his “throwing the Trials”? He didn’t look at her or say anything and when they reached their floor, he motioned for her to step out of the elevator and remained inside as the doors closed.

Despite the strangeness, Kiarn realized that she was unlikely to come up with a satisfactory explanation right then and put the matter out of her mind as she made her way back to the dormitories. It only took a little while in spite of her slow, unsteady walk. A few other students lay resting on their beds or sat quietly, but not that many. There wasn’t that many of them left, probably. She should try to count the next time they were all together.

Karanni didn’t look like she has suffered too much. Certainly she seemed a bit more tired, her cheekbones a bit more prominent, but she stretched and swung an imaginary lightsaber in the hallway like nothing had happened.

Kiarn saw Tyrin sitting on his bed and considered following his example, but before she did, she caught a whiff of herself. Her hair was greasy and tangled and her clothes reeked of sweat and stale vomit. Another shower, then.

This time, she finished quickly, although she found herself drinking more than a little of the water. When she emerged, feeling at least a little less shaky but now extremely hungry, more students had appeared. Kiarn guessed that it was probably most of those that remained at this point in the trials. Meiko stood at a sink, washing her hands, but Kiarn managed to slip by before she turned around. She could feel in the force that Meiko knew she was there, though.

Quillan stumbled into the doors as she exited the refreshers. He looked terrible and Kiarn felt a surge of pleasure in knowing that she had done better than at least one of her rivals.

Even though she had just slept for who knew how long, maybe she should sleep a little more. Her head hurt and she was still so tired.

As she entered her bedroom, Tyrin nodded at her, but said nothing and returned to his meditation exercise. Kiarn lay down, remembering the conversation with him and Karanni that she had overheard before the last Trials. Maybe she shouldn’t go to sleep. She might well be on his hit list along with Quillan.

For a few hours, she lay there with her eyes closed. Meiko came in and tried to start a conversation, but she ignored her and kept pretending to be asleep.

Finally, she heard a commotion outside and got up to take a look. Tyrin was already gone and everyone seemed to be clustered around the central hall. Kiarn’s pace quickened. She knew what this meant: food, or another Trial.

Sure enough, a droid stood in the center of the hallway, offering out bowls. Kiarn grabbed one as soon as she could get close enough and retreated, taking tiny sips of the greasy broth that seemed to make most of the soup. Her stomach cramped up as soon as she swallowed, but she couldn’t make herself stop, not even when she realized that she had forgotten to take a spoon. She scooped limp noodles up with her fingers and enjoyed their pasty softness on her tongue.

A shadow crossed her lap and she looked up. Tamine and Quillan stood over Meiko, who was sitting a few feet away from her. “Give us your food,” said Tamine.

Kiarn wondered where Kahnishh was – he rarely left the intellectual protection that the other two offered – but then realized that he might not have survived. Come to think of it, she hadn’t seen Kalas since before the third trial either. She tried to muster up some regret for Meiko’s sake, but failed entirely.

“No,” Meiko replied. “You’ve had yours already.”

Tamine bent down and grabbed Meiko by the front of her tunic. She might have been weaker than she was before the last few Trials, but so was Meiko, and Tamine dragged her to her feet. In the process, the bowl fell off her lap and spilt its contents on the floor.

Tamine’s face colored. “Look what you did!”

Meiko pressed her lips together and said nothing. A couple of other students watched with varying levels of interest, but most were too absorbed in their meals to care. Tamine shoved Meiko against the wall and leaned in to whisper something Kiarn didn’t catch. When Meiko shook her head, Tamine let her go and, just as she was regaining her balance, punched her in the face.

Kiarn’s gut twisted worse than it already had. They were both pretty weak, so she didn’t think they would be able to do too much damage, but Meiko had never been the most sturdy of the students and if she got hurt now, Kiarn wasn’t sure if she would be able to manage the next Trial.

You’re not supposed to care, she reminded herself. Meiko stumbled forward and Tamine brought her knee up into her stomach. Kiarn stared into her soup, which had suddenly lost its questionable flavor.

But she couldn’t block out the sounds. Meiko was losing, although Kiarn could still hear a few weak attempts to fight back. Stay out of it, Kiarn. You can’t care about her. You can’t care about anyone. You’re almost a Sith.

She set the bowl down and stood up. “Leave her alone.”

Tamine paused and looked at her. “What did you just say?”

“Leave her alone. It’s not like she had that much soup left anyway.”

“So give me yours, then. I’m still hungry.”

“Deal with it.”

Tamine shoved Meiko away from her. “Fine.”

Kiarn turned back to her spot, ignoring Meiko’s puzzled expression and the gratitude that was starting to spread across her face.

Quillan stood there, licking his lips as he held out an empty bowl. Her bowl. He smiled with a self-satisfied expression that told her this had been his plan all along.

“You- “ Kiarn couldn’t manage to finish her thought before leaping at him, clawing his face and trying to sink her teeth into him. She felt the tingly sensation that signaled that he was about to shock her, but she was too angry to care.

Someone pulled her off him and she felt Lord Rornak’s claws grip her shoulder. He pushed her roughly against the wall and shouted, “Anyone else who attacks another student will fail their trial immediately.” He looked at her and she turned away to glare at Quillan.

“It’s time for your sixth Trial,” he continued. “And since this one is obviously feeling restless, she can go first. The rest of you try not to kill each other before I get the chance to.”

He stalked back down the hallway and Kiarn followed him. Another trial already? She hoped it wasn’t one of the more physically intense ones. Just walking felt like a lot of effort right now.

They entered a room, much smaller than any of the ones they had used previously except for the closet she had been locked in for the last two. The only thing inside was a trio of chairs pushed against the far wall. Lord Erilinn and Darth Eliss sat in two of them and Lord Rornak took the third. Eliss still held the completely neutral, clam expression that was her norm and Erilinn looked like he had just eaten something that disagreed with him. This wasn’t going to end well, Kiarn was certain of it.

“Kneel,” said Lord Rornak. Kiarn obeyed, kneeling in the center of the room facing the three masters.

Lord Rornak lazily flicked his paw in her direction and immediately her entire body started to hurt, an unclassifiable pain that was neither hot nor cold, neither sharp nor dull. She stiffened, then forced herself to relax. Tension would only make it worse.

It intensified, getting stronger and stronger until all she could see was a dancing red pattern. Never in her life had anything hurt that much. It wiped everything else from her thoughts and all she could think was that she must.

Not.

Scream.

She couldn’t give Lord Rornak the satisfaction.

Just when she thought it couldn’t get any worse, it did. Kiarn lost all sense of time or place.

She had always been there, always been trying hopelessly to resist the agony.

A sensation of falling and then the pain stopped.

“Well she didn’t last long, said a deep male voice.

“No, she’s still awake,” replied another, higher-pitched male voice. Kiarn felt as though she should know who it was that was speaking, but she couldn’t quite recall.

She knew what she had to do. Everything inside her rebelled at the thought, but she drew on the Force to bolster her will, feeling the Dark Side’s flames licking her ribcage. “Keep going. I can do this for as long as you can.”

In answer, the pain started again, as intense as it was before.

This time, she couldn’t control herself, writhing on the floor and screaming until her raw throat wanted to explode. Just let me die!

Finally, she lost the capacity to even scream and just whimpered incoherently until unconsciousness wrapped her in its mercifully numb tendrils.

Chapter Text

For the second time in as many days, Kiarn dragged herself back to consciousness. This time, they – whoever ‘they’ was – had put her back in the dormitories, although the layout was wrong for it to be her room. It took a few minutes to realize that it was Meiko’s room and that she was sitting on the next bed over. Her face was pale and drawn, but she didn’t look hurt.

Am I hurt? She sat up gingerly. Her muscles were stiff from spasms, but nothing felt truly injured. Whatever Force technique that was, she should learn it. It must be incredibly satisfying to be able to do that to your enemies.

She could already think of a couple of people she would use it on.

“Are you doing alright?” said Meiko. “Lord Rornak didn’t spare anything on you.”

“I’m fine.” Don’t you remember, Kiarn? You’re not supposed to associate with her. “I’m going to get a drink.”

And she did need one. Her mouth felt dry and tacky, seasoned with blood. She must have bitten her tongue.

“Kiarn, wait!” Meiko called after her as she stood and began to shakily walk away. Kiarn ignored her.

In the refresher, she got her drink, washed her hands and face, and slipped out. Avoiding Meiko the rest of the day was difficult, but hiding under a bed in the other wing of dorms did the trick, whether because she couldn’t find her or because she had finally realized that Kiarn didn’t want to be found.

This was stupid. Why was she even bothering? Because you are weak. You can’t stand to tell her ‘no’, so you avoid the problem.

Alright, yes, Meiko was a weakness and a vulnerability. But she was working to eliminate it, no? What else was she supposed to do?

Her thoughts offered no response.

Finally, after what must have been hours, she heard the sound of whatever meal it was supposed to be arriving. She managed to avoid Meiko in the press of students and slipped away to a new hiding place, this time one a bit less confined so that she could eat in peace.

The night passed uneventfully and at breakfast the next morning, Kiarn tried to get a count of how many students remained. Thirty-one, if she counted correctly. Her odds weren’t great, but they were still better than they had been when there had been forty-five. And she knew that she was a better Sith than some of the ones that remained.

Meiko leaned against the wall, not looking at her, and Kiarn tried to concentrate on her food. It was the best thing she had eaten since the Trials started, maybe the best thing she’d eaten since she arrived on Korriban. The mushy grain that was a common breakfast item remained central, but today it had been cooked properly, neither underdone nor fused into a gelatinous mass, and there was fruit mixed in and thin slices of meat on the side. The smell made her mouth water and when she alternated bites, the sweet and salty flavors brought a smile to her face.

No one interfered with her meal this time. When she had finished, she set the bowl and plate next to each other and prepared to hide again, but then noticed that Meiko had already left. Perhaps the problem had solved itself.

When she returned to her room, however, the mild pleasure of not having to spend another day curled under a bed evaporated. Her footlocker was open. Empty. Her extra socks, the items she’d managed to scrounge from failed students, even the scrolls she hadn’t had the chance to return from the library, all gone. Heat rose in her face and acid boiled in her stomach. How dare they?

Tyrin sat on his bed, calmly reading a scroll. Her scroll. “Give that to me!”

He looked up languidly. “I thought you were dead. You can have it back if you want.”

Kiarn took it and sat down. She would have done the same thing in his place, but still she wanted to punch him. She would have punched him if he wouldn’t have made such a dangerous enemy. They might already be enemies, but there was no point in forcing it on the off chance that they weren’t. Fortunately, nobody bothered her until the red haze had left her vision and she was breathing normally again.

They fed the students three more times that day, two full meals and a lighter one that Kiarn guessed might qualify as a snack. She wasn’t sure if she had ever eaten a snack before. Every dish was among the best things she’d eaten there and by the time night came, she was starting to feel a little better. Not at full strength, but at least the littlest bit of effort wouldn’t break her.

With nothing else to fill the hours, she read her one remaining scroll over and over until she could close her eyes and see the fine brushstrokes on the spotted tan parchment. Idly, she wondered who had made them. The Sith himself, trying to preserve knowledge for future generations? An apprentice, desperate to learns her master’s secrets? A slave, comprehending nothing but fearing to miss a single word?

Kiarn supposed that it didn’t really matter in the end. The knowledge was there and that meant she could use it. Who thought to write it down was irrelevant. Shoving the scroll into her now-empty footlocker, she climbed into bed and waited for the lights to go out.

She hadn’t thought she would be able to sleep – a sort of half-conscious daze seemed to be the norm for her lately – but apparently she had been wrong. The next thing she knew, she was waking up to the brush of fingers on her shoulder. She shot up, dropping into a combat stance as she looked around helplessly in the pitch black.

Meiko’s surprised presence rippled through the Force. Is she working with Tyrin and whoever else he’s recruited, or is she acting on her own? Kiarn had never pegged her as a betrayer, but maybe she had underestimated her, or maybe Tyrin’s hold over her was just that strong.

“Calm down,” Meiko whispered. “I just want to talk.”

“Prove it.”

“When have I ever done anything to hurt you?”

“When you made me almost lose the Trials. All the times I stood up for you, and what did I get for it? Nothing!” Kiarn bit her tongue to stop herself. There was no need to keep going on and doing more damage, and her whispers were getting louder.

“Is that all this was to you? A bargain? You see what you can get out of me and I’m just your loyal pet?” She sounded like someone had just kicked her in the stomach. “I thought we were friends.”

“We were. But things are different now.” Was that why she had woken her up in the middle of the night and almost gotten herself killed? To talk about their relationship?

Meiko sighed softly. “Why don’t we go back to my room? I don’t want to wake anyone up.”

Kiarn followed. It would be awkward if Tyrin overheard them.

Meiko sat on her bed and Kiarn took the one she had woken up on earlier. “So, where are we?” Meiko said.

“Do you want the truth?” For once, it might be the best thing to say.

“Yes.”

“You’re a weakness. As long as I care about people, I’ll want to help them, and I can’t afford that. Not here. Not even for you.” Kiarn hoped she would understand.

“The Trials? Is that what you’re worried about? Kiarn, you’re the most talented student I know. You’ll do fine. And you don’t have to help me. All I’m asking is that you decide where you stand.”

This was it. She had to choose, there would be no chance to go back. You have to say no. Friendship had already proved itself too dangerous to keep around, and this was just the Academy. What would happen when they were thrust into the politics and schemes of the Empire? No, it had to go.

But how could she give up? It was a lonely path she had chosen, but did she really want to spend it completely isolated? Do you?

“I’m sorry. I’ve just been. . . scared.” Stupid, Kiarn. You’re a weak fool who would throw away everything for your own petty happiness. “Scared of failure.”

She couldn’t tell if Meiko believed her or not, but regardless, the other girl reached out and placed a hand on her arm in the darkness. “I won’t be the cause of your failure. I swear.”

“Thank you. I’m sorry.”

They went to bed soon after; there seemed to be little else to say or do. Kiarn didn’t sleep, though, lying awake wrestling with her decision, trying to justify it to the pragmatic part of her mind. Morning found her disheveled, unrested, and confused.

As Kiarn and Meiko ate breakfast – flatcakes and sweet syrup this time – the doors that held the students inside the dormatories opened again and Darth Eliss stepped in, dressed as usual in an outfit that walked the line between practicality and accentuation of her features. Today, it was a long black rob cut very close to her body with no ornamentation whatsoever.

“Greetings, acolytes.” She spoke softly, but everyone’s attention instantly turned to her. “I hope you’re all sufficiently recovered from Lord Rornak’s tests. I will be overseeing the final phase of your trials. Ficre, will you follow me?”

She left with a Human male in her wake. Kiarn and Meiko settled in to wait while the other students talked in groups or sat quietly. As had become a familiar routine by now, Darth Eliss returned periodically to take another student and disappear.

Meiko went first. “Good luck,” Kiarn whispered as she did. “May the Force be with you.” That was what Jedi said to each other, right?

Only five other students remained by the time Kiarn’s turn arrived hours later. Darth Eliss led her through the twisting hallways to a midsized training room. Kiarn thought it might have been the same one they used for the lightsaber trial, but she couldn’t be sure.

The Twi’lek stood near one wall, placed her hands behind her back, and smiled calmly at her. “In this test, I will measure your aptitude with the Force. Please begin by taking this from me.” She held up a small metal ball in one hand.

Kiarn reached for it with the Force, wrapping her mind around its smooth surface and lifting it gently from Darth Eliss’ palm. As soon as it left her skin, the resistance began, but Kiarn kept lifting. The pressure increased, growing from a light resistance to a physical weight on not just the ball, but her mind, compelling her to stop.

When Kiarn couldn’t move the ball a centimeter further, Darth Eliss reached up and took it. “Now, demonstrate Force Lightning.”

Although she usually needed a target in order to use it effectively, Kiarn managed to conjure up a bit of energy to flicker around her hands and arms. The darkness built inside her and she smiled. She had learned a few things in the last two and a half years, after all.

“Attack me,” Eliss said.

“What?” replied Kiarn before she could stop herself, but immediately followed up with a burst of lightning.

Eliss caught it harmlessly with her bare hand – another proof of how little you really know, Kiarn – and smiled. “Good. Continue to attack using any Force technique you like, as long as you don’t physically touch me or continue after I tell you to stop. Break either of those two rules and you will fail immediately.”

Anything? That gave an obvious advantage to her advanced students, who had learned a much greater variety of techniques, but Kiarn wasn’t entirely without resources. She launched another burst of lightning, then leaped to the side. Eliss hadn’t shown any sign of wanting to counterattack, but it would be foolish to assume that she wouldn’t. Next was a burst of kinetic energy that Kiarn sent forth in a wave. Nothing seemed to move her. What else had she learned?

A couple more lightning blasts bought her time to think. Suddenly, she remembered the way Karanni had caught her by the throat during their battle in Lord Erilinn’s class. Reaching out with the Force, Kiarn squeezed Eliss’ windpipe, imagining it cutting off her air supply, the skin around her mouth turning purple, her collapsing to the floor.

Like every other technique Kiarn had tried, it did nothing, but Eliss raised one tattooed eyebrow in an unreadable expression.

Before long, Kiarn began to tire. Years of training had hardened her body, but endurance with the Force took much longer to build up. She hasn’t said you can stop yet. There was one more technique, something she had only learned a bit of. She would need a few seconds uninterrupted to do it, though.

Her next attack was deliberately flashy and over-zealous, designed to draw attention to itself and nothing else. While the flashes of Force-conjured light faded, Kiarn turned anger and pain into malignant energy and directed it at Eliss’ body, a crushing darkness that should stop her heart and squeeze her lungs.

The Sith held up her hand. “Passable. You may stop.”

Kiarn obeyed.

“You’ll find some food and water in the next room, then please follow Lord Erilinn to the waiting area for the next Trial.”

Chapter Text

Lord Erilinn was waiting for her when she entered, walking slowly around the perimeter of the room. A chair and a small table stood in the center with a light meal set out. Kiarn looked at him and he gestured to the food, so she began to eat, remaining standing as she shoveled it into her mouth.

The plate it came on was made of metal polished to an intense sheen and even in its reflection, Kiarn could see how terrible she looked. She’d never been strong or curvy, but now her face was thinner than ever and she was certain that she could count all her ribs if she took her tunic off. Dark circles rimmed her eyes and her hair hung in tangled strings. Her face glowed with  a slight aura of Dark Side energy, making her look feverish.

When she finished her food, she looked up. Lord Erilinn turned without a word and led her out of the room, through the halls, and into a large, open space. Kiarn thought it might have been the one used for the second Trial; the scratches across the floor could have been from platforms and wall segments being dragged across it.

Her heart started to pound. What were they going to do to her? More torture? You can stand that. She took slow, deep breaths, trying to force herself to remain calm.

Lord Erilinn stopped and turned to face her. “You are doing well,” he said quietly. “You’re ranked in the top ten as of the sixth Trial. But the last ones are the hardest. Don’t relax.”

He brushed past her as he walked out and called over his shoulder “You can sit or stand, as you like.”

The door shut behind him and Kiarn looked around apprehensively. This wouldn’t be a repeat of another Trial, but apart from that, she had no idea what could happen.

The wait was long enough that she was almost starting to wonder if she had failed, if this was just some elaborate way of taunting her, when the room when dark. Instinctively, she dropped into a fighting stance, although she wasn’t sure how well she could do blind. She wondered if it was like this for Meiko all the time.

Suddenly, she realized that she was lying down. How had that happened? The room was still dark, but she could see the tiniest sliver of light, like there was a door close by. The blankets over couldn’t keep out the damp chill that seeped into her bones.

Pulling the covers over her head, she closed her eyes and tried desperately to block out what she knew was coming, but she couldn’t. Voices, quiet at first but soon rising loud enough for her to hear. They were talking about her.

“No, please, I’ll do anything.”

“I’ve heard that before.”

“And have I ever failed you?”

“Yes. And you’re starting to outlive your usefulness.”

Kiarn slipped across the room to the door and tried it. Locked from the outside. She sank to the floor and pulled her knees to her chest, shivering in her thin nightgown but to afraid to move further and her own pain and fear resonated through the Force, overwhelming her.

“I’ll do better, I swear. Anything you want. Please, Lord. Don’t leave your child without her mother. . . ”

“Fine. I’ll give you one more shot. And get up off the floor.”

Kiarn crawled back to her bed and folded herself into the corner. The darkness swirled around her, whispers in her ears echoing her own fear. It was only temporary. They would have this fight again and again, with one or the other of them playing on her existence to one-up the other in their games, until one of them finally actually got rid of her. And who would want her then? Only the Sith, and she would never make it through their training.

The truth crushed her and she lay shaking. Wait, Kiarn. What are you doing? None of this was her fault. She should be blaming the people who made this happen to her.

The pain built and she turned it into rage, willing herself to break out of the room, destroy this place. Change her own destiny.

The determination faded as she felt rain pounding her body. She looked up. It was still dark, but the light under the door had disappeared. Soft earth squished up between her fingers and she sat in a puddle of water. The drops kept falling, soaking through her academy robes and plastering her hair to her face.

She should find some shelter. Even a tree might block some of this rain. She stood and it grew lighter, just enough to see by.

On and on she walked, through endless charcoal-gray grass as the rain kept falling. Water sloshed around her ankles, but she couldn’t get any wetter than she had already been, so she ignored it until it reached her calves.

She started to walk faster, trying to get to high ground. The water rose to her knees, filling her boots and slowing her down. Kicking them off, she started to run. She had to keep going, stay out of the water. A current had started, dragging her backwards and the water was cold, even colder than the rain, cold enough to numb her legs and make breathing difficult.

By the time the water came to her waist, she was only making the slightest progress. Then it started to rise faster. Before she’d made it another ten meters, it had reached her chest and lapped at her shoulders. The current tore at her clothes and pulled her back. The ground under her feet turned to slick mud.

She slipped.

The flood was unrelenting. It pulled her along with it, only giving her enough time to catch the slightest of breaths before dragging her under again. She had no idea how long it swirled her across the plains but she felt herself growing weaker.

Something caught her leg and jerked her to the side. It had grown dark again sometime while she was walking and the water stung her eyes when she tried to open them. Kiarn relaxed in the water, hoping to let her natural buoyancy carry her to the surface.

Her back bumped against something hard. Something smooth. Something solid.

She was trapped.

Instinctively, she sucked her breath in, then stopped as water hit her lungs. Choking, unable to cough or gasp, she saw flashes of light explode in her vision. She was going to drown there. Unless she could get out.

Kiarn had never learned to swim; she had never had the chance to. But desperation gave her the strength to at least thrash her way to one side. Another solid wall. But if she could follow it, she might be able to find the entrance to whatever cave or room this was.

The wall was made of something slick; durasteel or solid stone. She reached another wall and tried to turn, but the effort of moving had used up what little oxygen she had left in her lungs. Her head hurt and her chest felt tight, like someone was trying to pull it in half.

Letting her hand drop from the wall, she brought her knees up to her chest. You can’t give up yet. The Force had to be able to save her somehow. She let the Dark Side energy course through her body, pushing outward, unsure what she was doing but knowing that she had to try. It sent fire through her veins, warm, life-giving fire that she poured back into the water. She couldn’t even think clearly now, acting only on instinct.

Everything exploded around her in a burst of light, then went black again.

Light. Bright light. She was back in the Academy, wearing clean, dry clothes and feeling almost warm compared to the frigid water of her hallucination. Was that what it had been? It must have been part of the Trials. Had it been a Force technique or some kind of drug? What had been the purpose?

Had she done alright?

Her hair was falling into her face again. She raised her hand, which felt strangely heavy, to brush it away, but couldn’t bring it past her hips. Looking down, she felt everything compress to a single point of space, like a punch in the chest.

A manacle was bolted around her wrist with a short chain anchoring it to the floor. Identical ones held her other wrist and her ankles.

Before she had the chance to start trying to escape, the door in front of her opened and Darth Eliss strode in, wearing a perfect white robe that fell all the way to the floor without so much as a belt. She walked up to Kiarn and crouched down, lifting her chin with her hand. “You hid well, didn’t you, little girl?” said Lord Rornak’s voice from Eliss’ mouth. “You thought we wouldn’t notice.”

“But we did.” Lord Erilinn’s voice emanated from the walls. “It’s a shame. So much wasted potential. You could have been a great Sith.”

“But the Sith are loyal to the Empire. They’re not traitors.”

What had she done, what had she said, that could have revealed herself to them? I’m not a traitor, she longed to say. I just hate every single one of you. But what would that mean in the end?

“And that’s what you are, aren’t you? Bastard. Castoff. Disloyal. Traitor.” Had someone else been listening that night on the statue? Had Meiko betrayed her?

“And we know what Sith do to traitors.” Darth Eliss’ fingers tightened around her chin and her nails dug into her skin.

Kiarn tried to meet her eyes, but looked away as the chains started to tighten. They pulled her down, fixing her hands to the floor as Eliss sent a wave of pain through her. Kiarn thought back to her last Trial. She’d never be able to beat the Twi’lek, not with her level of training and no lightsaber. But she might be able to stall her long enough to think of something to do. She Force-shoved her as hard as she could.

Eliss tumbled backwards, her nails drawing blood along Kiarn’s jaw, and smiled. “You have the gall to turn traitor, at least.” Breaking into Lord Rornak’s deep, mocking chuckle, she gestured casually.

Something crawled up Kiarn’s back as she continued her Force assault, which Eliss now seemed to completely ignore. A smooth tendril wrapped around her neck and bent her backwards, tighter, tighter, until she couldn’t keep going any longer.

The last thing she heard as she blacked out was Lord Erilinn’s voice again. “You’ve failed.”

Kiarn woke up. Her limbs were free and there was nothing around her throat. She was curled up in a ball on the dusty floor, her clothes damp with sweat. Darth Eliss stood over her, wearing the same plain black robe she’d had on earlier.

“Very impressive,” Eliss said. “You may return to your room.”

Chapter Text

When Kiarn reached the dormitories, Meiko was sitting on her bed, knees pulled up to her chest, rocking back and forth a little. She didn’t look up as Kiarn entered. “Hello, Kiarn,” she said softly.

“Hello.” Kiarn sat next to her. She should do something, say something to help her, but had no idea what would help.

“Are – are you okay?” She sounded devastated.

“I’m fine.” She’d had enough nightmares in her life that she could at least pretend she wasn’t bothered, but Meiko was more sensitive. “What about you?”

“It was awful. Everything terrible that ever happened to me, everything I’ve been afraid will happen, it was all there. And I couldn’t do anything.” She let her head drop to rest on her knees again.

Awkwardly, Kiarn put an arm around her shoulders. What was she supposed to do? She’d never comforted anyone like this before and it wasn’t as though she could change anything about the situation.

Meiko curled up against her and buried her head in her shoulder. Her chest heaved up and down with silent sobs. “I don’t want to become a Sith, Kiarn,” she whispered. “Only a monster would do this to people.”

“Don’t say that!” Kiarn growled, shoving her away. “You can’t give up, ever, even for one minute, do you hear me?”

Meiko took a deep, ragged breath. Another. “You’re right. You’re right, I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine.” Everyone had their moments of doubt. It was alright.

They sat in silence for a while. Kiarn tried not to think about the last Trial and to instead plan for the future. But she kept remembering the last segment of the visions. Had Darth Eliss seen what she was seeing? Did she know what it meant? The thought made her skin crawl.

Wild plans raced through her head before she realized that the best, the strongest thing to do would be to simply act like nothing had happened. Eliss hadn’t given any indication that she had seen, and even if she had, she might not care.

Dinner arrived, thick slices of meat this time, with some kind of mush that might have been anything from a grain to a mashed root vegetable to the remains of a small mammal. Shortly after they finished, the lights went out and Kiarn and Meiko both went to bed.

Despite her earlier bravado, images from the day haunted Kiarn. Every time she closed her eyes, she could taste cold water, hear the anguished sobs and insidious whispers, feel chains on her wrists. There was no chance she was going to be able to sleep and even if she could, she would stay awake to keep from crying out in her sleep.

She had stayed in Meiko’s room, since there was no real point in going back to hers. The beds were the same and there was nothing she needed there. Meiko lay in the next bed over and although it was far too dark to see anything, Kiarn could hear her murmuring and shifting around in her sleep. Her Force presence was stirred and upset.

Reaching out, Kiarn touched her lightly on the shoulder. She didn’t respond. Again, a little harder. This time, Kiarn felt her alarm spike and heard the blanket shifting as she sat up abruptly. “What is it?”

“You were having a nightmare. I thought I’d get you out of it.”

“Thank you. I – “

Before she could finish, the lights flashed on, assaulting Kiarn’s eyes. Darth Eliss’ voice broadcasted on the comm. “Acolytes, please report to the front of the Sith Academy. Immediately.”

The comm crackled off and Kiarn leaped up. “Let’s go.”

They jogged up twisting passageways and isolated staircases, pulling on their boots and tightening their sashes as they went. Meiko still looked upset from her dream, but there was nothing Kiarn could do about it, so she said nothing. She had to focus on survival right now.

Darth Eliss stood at the top of the stairs outside the Academy, watching the students assemble in front of her. She was bundled up in a long black mantle trimmed with silver fur that blew in the Korriban wind. It was cold enough that Kiarn felt like a vibroknife was slicing into her bones with every gust.

When it seemed that most of the remaining students had arrived, Eliss began to speak. “First, I would like to congratulate all of you on making it to this point. As you can see, your numbers have been significantly reduced since your first lessons.”

Kiarn looked around. The change wasn’t as dramatic as she had thought it would be, but there was still a lot fewer students than when they had begun. Probably around thirty. She also noticed that Tamine’s pale blond hair and arrogant posturing was conspicuously absent in the cluster of sleepy Force-sensitives. One less person to get in your way. Kiarn smiled.

Eliss continued. “Now, however, you will face your hardest Trial yet. Your final Trial.”

She gestured to the crates next to her. “In this box, you will each find a backpack. Among other things, it contains a datapad. You will receive instructions through it. If you lose it or fail to follow the instructions, you will fail the Trials. If you successfully complete the tasks, but it is found that you modified the datapad in any way, you will also fail. In the other box, you will find blades. I will remind you that the rule against attacking other students still applies. It is for defense against the beasts of Korriban only. Once you have your things, follow me to the shuttle pad.”

Were they leaving the Valley of the Dark Lords for this Trial? Kiarn slid through the press of students – being small had its advantages – and grabbed her things before following Darth Eliss towards the landing pad. Over the conversations and arguments on the steps, she heard the distant wet growl of a k’lor slug.

When she reached the platform, Eliss gestured for her to board the shuttle that waited there, idling, ready to go. Kiarn’s heart began to pound.

She sat near the front of the shuttle, consciously avoiding Karanni, who was sprawled across two seats with an expression that dared anyone to challenge her. Meiko took long enough to arrive that it was impossible to save a seat for her without being obvious about it, so they ended up separated by several other students. The excitement seemed to have distracted her from her nightmare, at least.

Eliss boarded the shuttle and it started to take off as the ramp closed behind her. She smiled, then stood there, watching the students, for what must have been at least five minutes. Finally, she spoke. “We’re nearing the drop area. Hertalt, Ki’Rah, stand up, please.”

A Human female and a Twi’lek male obeyed her. “When the ramp opens, I want you to jump out, one at a time. Don’t forget your datapads.”

Everyone stared at her in shock, although Kiarn couldn’t help but feel like they should all have been used to orders like this by now. “But we’re a hundred meters up!” said the Twi’lek. Kiarn remembered that he had taken the lightsaber trial right after her. He sounded close to panic.

“And you are a Sith.” The ramp opened and Darth Eliss gestured toward the opening. The human girl stepped to the edge of the ramp, paused, then let herself fall forward. Her scream faded as she dropped out of sight.

The Twi’lek still hesitated. “Well, Ki’rah,” said Eliss. “It’s your turn.”

“No. I’m not jumping to my death.”

“Very well, you have failed your Trial, then.” A bright red blade illuminated the dark compartment. The rest of the students seemed to collectively hold their breaths as Ki’rah deflated. Eliss swung her lightsaber, bisecting him cleanly across the stomach. He fell to the floor and his body slowly slid toward the opening.

What a weakling.

“Meiko and Alludani,” said Darth Eliss, deactivating her lightsaber.

To Meiko’s credit, she appeared perfectly composed as she dived off the shuttle. Kiarn hoped she got down safely. Meiko was one of the strongest Force users at the Academy, so if anyone could do it, she could. Alludani seemed to barely be keeping a hold of herself, but Eliss’ display had cowed everyone into submission and she too jumped without complaint.

“Karanni and Kiarn.”

This was it, then. Kiarn undid her safety restraints, grabbed her pack, and stepped forward. The wind felt stronger now that her center of gravity was higher and she was in the center of the compartment. Karanni jumped without being prompted, flashing an arrogant smile as she did so.

Which made it Kiarn’s turn.

She made her way to the beginning of the ramp. It seemed to take a long time, although she was sure it was only a few seconds, and the remaining students watched her critically. Taking hold of one of the struts, she looked out. It was a long way down. Stop with this hesitation, Kiarn. Just jump!

With a final tug on her pack straps, she leaped into the empty space as gracefully as she could, throwing in a flip like Lord Erilinn had taught her. She knew that showing off like that was pointless, but boosted her confidence, at least. The cold air shoved into her chest as she fell and roared in her ears.

Despite her best efforts to slow her descent with the Force, the ground still knocked the wind out of her when she landed. She lay there for a few minutes, face pressed into the sand, hoping that she hadn’t damaged anything severely enough to hinder her in the Trials.

Finding the willpower to sit up after a few minutes, she was relieved to find that she didn’t seem to have any broken bones or major internal bleeding. Just some scrapes on her hands and knees and a lip she’d bit when she hit the sand.

As she brushed the blood from her face, she heard a hiss that sent chills down her spine. There was a tuk’ata somewhere nearby.

Kiarn reached back, relieved that her pack was still attached to her back, and pulled out the weapon she had been given. It was similar to the ones she had used in training except that instead of a blunt, rounded blade, this one had been sharpened to a keen edge that could probably cut through flesh if she hit hard enough with it. She was lucky she hadn’t landed on it.

The hiss came again, closer this time, and Kiarn looked into the darkness for its source. At first, all she could see was the dark shapes of rocks that blocked out the stars above, but soon a pair of glowing orange eyes materialized about five meters from her. “Steady,” she said as soothingly as she could muster. Her voice cracked. “I don’t want to hurt you or anything. I’m just lost.”

The tuk’ata hissed a third time and she could feel its mind; simple, but full of darkness and suspicion. She tried to manipulate it to convince the creature to leave her alone, but it was already too agitated.

It tensed and sprung at her.

Kiarn jumped out of the way of its leap, keeping a firm hold on her blade. She had never fought a tuk’ata before, but she knew from her reading that they were incredibly dangerous for someone with her level of training. The creature’s spiked back was silhouetted against the sky as it charged toward her. Its wing-like poison fins nearly grazed her, but she managed to avoid them. Her swing went wide of its target and the tuk’ata came around for a second pass.

This time, she was ready for it.

Claws slashed toward her face as she unleashed a blast of lightning at its underbelly. The beast rocked back on its haunches, seeming puzzled and slightly injured, but not nearly as upset or wounded as it should be. Was it resistant to electricity? Or to the Force itself?

On the third charge, Kiarn decided she’d had enough of defensive strategy. Running straight at the tuk’ata, she slashed wildly at legs and spines, trusting the Force to guide her blows. It shrieked in agony as the blade sunk into a foreleg and she pulled away as fast as she could.

But not fast enough. Its claws raked across her face, a white-hot sting that clouded her vision and traveled down into her gut like molten metal.

She shoved out with the Force, sending the tuk’ata into a rock. It shuddered, but got back up and came toward her again. Mechanically she struck at it again, over and over, until it was nothing but a lifeless corpse.

The Dark Side-fueled rage disappeared, leaving her tired, thirsty, and in pain. She sat down next to her kill and wiped at the blood that was running down the right side of her face, hoping that the creature’s claws weren’t poisoned as well. Why had they even sent her out here?

For the rest of the night, she stayed awake, on the lookout for more beasts, but none appeared. No other students, either, and no communication from the teachers. She checked the backpack once she was certain that she wasn’t going to be attacked constantly, and found that it contained a few ration cubes and a small bottle of water. She took a few sips, but decided to save most of it. There was no telling how long the Trial would last and the memory of dehydration during Lord Rornak’s Trials was too strong to want to risk it.

At sunrise, she jolted awake, cursing herself for dozing off, and found herself leaning against the large rock face she had landed next to. The Korriban morning was gray and quiet and still bitterly cold. At least there hadn’t been any nightmares. But what had woken her?

Kiarn sent out her Force-sense, searching for anything that could mean danger. Nothing.

The datapad beeped and she picked it up. A message was flashing across the screen.

Congratulations on making it through the night. The ban on killing another student has been lifted. From now on, you may do whatever you wish in this respect.

-Darth Eliss

Chapter Text

Kiarn had barely had time to process the words on the datapad before she felt something nearby. A presence. She held still, hoping to remain undetected as she probed out to see who it was. Meiko. She relaxed a bit, but kept hold of her training blade. It was beyond unlikely that Meiko would betray her, but only the weak let their guard down in such a precarious situation.

“Kiarn?” Meiko called. “Are you down there?”

Before she could answer her, Kiarn’s datapad began to beep again, clearly signaling her location. Pebbles fell as Meiko began to climb down the rocks.

“I’m so glad I found you!” she said as soon as she stood on level ground again. “What are we going to do?”

“We?”

She backed up a step. “Do you – do you not want me?”

“No! I mean, it’s fine. You just surprised me.”

“So what are we going to do?”

“We find a good place to hide. I’m not strong enough to take on the entire Academy and it’s going to be a bloodbath out there right now.”

“Alright.”

Their datapads beeped in unison. Meiko read hers, then passed it to Kiarn with a puzzled expression.

Scattered around this valley are twenty relics. The acolytes who hold them when all the rest have been eliminated will pass.

Below the words was a picture of a roughly pyramidal metal item with three points on the top.

“Let’s go,” Kiarn said. This would be difficult. She had no idea where the relics would be hidden and while they could steal them from other students – she was certain that it was not only allowed, but encouraged – they would still have to figure out who had them before wasting risk on attacking.

“There’s probably at least a few relics in the tombs.”

“Tombs?”

“They just flew us around in a circle. We’re still in the Valley of the Dark Lords.”

Now that she mentioned it, Kiarn could see that. She’d never been further into the valley than their morning runs took them, but this looked like it could be the same place. “Where should we go, then?”

“I’m not sure exactly where we are. But there are so many tombs that we shouldn’t have too much trouble finding one. Most of them are along the valley walls.”

They walked for several hours, scrambling over rocks and wandering through miniature canyons without seeing any other students. Once or twice Kiarn felt one get close, but they managed to hide their presence and the others moved on. They didn’t talk much, their normal quiet muffled further by the need to preserve water and to remain undetected.

Finally, they reached the looming cliffs that marked the edge of the Valley of the Dark Lords. Kiarn hoped that nothing was hidden higher up. The walls were craggy enough to look intimidating, but not craggy enough to climb without proper equipment. Night was falling, but Kiarn wasn’t ready to stop yet and Meiko just shrugged in response to her inquiry.

As they continued along in the shadow of the cliffs, Kiarn heard faint yelling in the background. Some of the other students must have found each other. Or the tuk’ata had gotten to them.

When it was nearly pitch black outside, they were forced to stop. Kiarn cursed herself for her inability to use the Force to guide her the way Meiko did, but there was no time to develop the skill just then. They leaned against a wall, close enough to each other to provide some warmth. Meiko fell asleep after a few minutes, but Kiarn’s sense were too tense, scanning for wild animals, other students, anything else unusual. Even if she could calm down enough to sleep and felt safe enough to try, she didn’t want to, not with the memory of the last trial still fresh in her mind.

Meiko twitched in her sleep and began to groan. Probably having another nightmare.

Before Kiarn could decide whether to wake her or not, she sat straight up and screamed, a high-pitched sound of utter terror. Kiarn clamped her hand over her mouth and tried to calm her struggles.

“It’s okay,” she whispered in her ear. “You’re safe.” They weren’t really safe, and considerably less safe than they had been a few minutes ago, but that wasn’t what you said to someone on the edge of hysteria. Even she was smart enough to figure that out.

Meiko’s chest rose and fell, rose and fell again, then she gently pushed Kiarn’s hand out of the way. “I’m alright. I’m sorry.”

“We should get moving. I don’t know if anyone heard that, but I don’t want to risk it. And I don’t think you want to go back to sleep anyway.”

“You’re right.”

Their progress was considerably slower in the dark. Kiarn had to move slowly, feeling out each movement with her feet, and Meiko tried to supplement with input from her own Force-based perceptions, but the ground was still too rough and the potential hazards too many to risk going faster than a crawl. No one disturbed them, though, and Kiarn hoped that it meant they had remained undetected.

Suddenly, as she was pulling herself over a particularly steep rock formation, she reached out to steady herself on the valley wall and found nothing there. A dark presence stirred in her gut, like cold smoke. “I think I found an opening.”

Meiko scrambled up beside her. “I think you’re right. Should we go in?”

“Yes.” The idea of stepping into an ancient, powerful Sith Lord’s tomb was terrifying, but Meiko was right. At least a few of the relics were probably hidden inside them.

So she pushed down her fear and climbed through what turned out to be a rather large opening. The interior was definitely sentient-made, with floors far too smooth to be a natural cave. Even the faint light from the stars outside was gone by then and she worried that they would fall into a pit or spring some kind of trap that was invisible to the Force. If Kiarn were a Sith Lord building a tomb, she would fill the place full of traps to keep people from messing with her body.

Although she wouldn’t build a tomb in the first place. What would she care when she was dead?

The passage sloped down a bit, but not very steeply. She wished again for some light, but she’d never seen any wood anywhere on Korriban, nor anything else she could use for a torch. Meiko grabbed her hand and Kiarn felt it shaking.

This was ridiculous. Holding her free hand over her head, she let a spark of lightning dart between her fingers, filling the space around them with a purplish-white light.

It was a good thing she had. About three meters in front of them was a steep set of stairs leading into another room that Kiarn couldn’t see much of. She let the light die and looked over her shoulder. The entrance was a slightly lighter patch in the blackness, but she couldn’t make out anything else.

“Let’s keep going.” Although just above a whisper, her voice still seemed too loud. She doubted that anyone had spoken there for a long time.

They continued deeper into the tomb. Every dozen steps or so, one of them illuminated the room with lightning to check the passage ahead. If the tunnels branched off, they pulled scraps of fabric from their tunics to mark where they had entered. Nothing stirred, but the oppressive dark energy grew stronger as they continued further.

Entering the largest room yet, Kiarn heard a low, gravely screech. “Shyrak!” hissed Meiko.

Kiarn pulled out her blade. “Get ready.” She had never fought shyrak before. They lived mostly in the tombs and the acolytes had been actively discouraged from entering them. Still, she had heard stories. One alone wasn’t much of a threat, but in groups they had dismembered apprentices.

Meiko’s breathing was loud in her ear as she waited. They needed light. Meiko might be able to fight in the dark, but Kiarn couldn’t. Concentrating, she produced a few bits of lightning to run up and down her arms. In their glow, she saw the shyrak approaching. Nearly fifteen of them.

A shout from ahead and the blurred form of another student appeared at the edge of the circle of light.

The lead shyrak screeched again and the flock was on them.

Kiarn cut the first one in half with her blade, but the others were cleverer. They flitted back and forth, beating her with their wings and darting away before she could slice at them. Kiarn sent jolts of lightning out in every direction, but they seemed to have little effect. Two more fell. Her tunic soaked through with sweat. She wished she had her double-bladed training saber.

She caught quick glimpses of Meiko in the confusion. She wasn’t doing well. Her fighting style relied heavily on her skill with the Force and the shyraks’ resistance to it left her with few options.

As Kiarn sliced the wing off yet another shyrak, she noticed that the room was still as full of them as it had been when she started. How many of them were there? Were more arriving as they fought?

“Kiarn!” screamed Meiko from the other side of the room. Kiarn spun around. Three shyrak had grabbed her by the arms and were dragging her deeper into the tomb.

“I’m coming!” She sent out a telekinetic wave to clear the area around her and charged forward. But as she reached the room’s exit, another cluster of shyrak barred her way.

“Get away from me!” she shouted, leaping into the group with her blade raised.

Meiko screamed again, but Kiarn couldn’t see what was happening. The red mist of Dark Side energy clouded her vision and she couldn’t hear anything but the screeches echoing over and over again.

The last shyrak fell to the floor and she ran on. Meiko was just barely in view now. She had to catch up to them, but more shyrak emerged from a hole in the side of the tunnel.

And then suddenly they stopped. A humanoid figure leaped from the shadows, ripping into the cluster of shyrak like a tuk’ata. Kiarn ran past him and shouted to get the attention of the ones that had grabbed Meiko. They paused, but then continued their retreat into the tunnels.

In desperation, she used the Force to rip a chunk of stone from the wall and sent it hurtling at one of the shyrak. Its wings went limp and it fell, claws still buried in Meiko’s arm.

Kiarn searched for more debris to throw, but Meiko was making good use of the slight bit of freedom. She sent lightning blasts into one of the remaining shyrak over and over again until it let go of her and crumpled to the ground as Kiarn managed to pick off the third with a piece of broken stonework.

She looked around. Were there more? Shyrak corpses littered the floor. Was their mysterious helper dead as well? “Hello?” she called. Friend or foe, if he was still alive, she wanted to know where he was.

Something moved in the darkness and a young man stepped into the circle of light Kiarn had created. She didn’t know who else she would have expected to help them, but somehow his identity still surprised her.

“Tyrin?”

Chapter Text

Tyrin didn’t seem surprised to see them. “Hello.”

“What are you doing here?” Kiarn said.

“The same thing you two are doing. Trying to win.”

“But why are you here? In this particular tomb?” Suspicion filled her now. Had he been following them? There was probably a dozen tombs there and certainly not all of the acolytes would have decided to search inside them first at all.

“I could ask you the same question.”

They stood there for a few moments, tension ricocheting between the three of them, until Meiko broke the silence. “Did you want to join us?”

“Join you?”

“Yes. We can watch each other’s backs and the other students wouldn’t attack a group of three. And who knows what kind of guardians are deeper in this tomb? Besides, what else can you do? Make us leave?” There was just a hint of pleading in her voice. Her infatuation with him was clearly clouding her judgement, but Kiarn didn’t want to let Tyrin know she was suspicious, so she kept her mouth shut. And she didn’t want to know who Meiko would pick if she was forced to choose.

“Fine with me. What are we going to do if we don’t end up with three relics?”

Kiarn spoke up. “We’ll face off for them.”

“Let’s get going, then.” He started walking, but paused and looked at Kiarn before continuing on. “What happened to your face?”

Oh. That. In the hours since she had been injured, she had forced the pain to the back of her mind, forgetting about it all together in the rush of fighting the shyrak. It seemed to have partly scabbed over, but she hadn’t found anything to wash the dried blood off with. “Tuk’ata.”

They continued deeper into the tomb, not talking beyond an occasional warning of dangerous terrain or an attempt from Meiko to start a conversation. Although there was no sign of traps, Kiarn was certain that they would appear eventually. They’d only been fortunate enough not to trip any of them. She imagined that the upper areas of each tomb were mostly cleared out from looters and apprentices eager to please their masters. The lower levels would be less safe.

The tunnel only branched a few times and a quick check confirmed that the spurs just led to side rooms, not entirely different passageways. Flights of stairs recurred at varying intervals, always down. Why would anyone need a tomb this big? The Sith was dead, it didn’t matter. It wasn’t like his ghost would be haunting the place. Even if ghosts or an afterlife existed – and Kiarn wasn’t convinced that they did – who would choose to spend their eternity in here?

The air was thick and stuffy so deep underground, making it hard to breathe, like she wasn’t getting enough oxygen. Meiko stayed close to Kiarn and Tyrin walked a bit in front of them. Suddenly, he stopped. “Dead end.”

“But we’ve been on the only pathway the entire time. How could we run into a dead end?” said Meiko.

Tyrin shook his head. “We could have missed a turn anywhere. I’m sure Naga Sadow would have made sure that his body would be hard to find. We’ll have to go back.”

Kiarn turned to leave, but realized with a chill that she was staring at a wall. Apart from elaborately carved Sith runes, it was blank. Where was the door? It was right there. She strengthened the lightning to illuminate the whole room. Cylindrical, nothing but carvings.

“There’s another way out,” Tyrin said confidently.

“How do you know?”

“There has to be. You can’t build an inescapable prison, it’s impossible.”

Kiarn resisted the urge to point out that there was a far difference between ‘impossible’ and ‘impossible with their time and resources’ and decided to focus on something more productive. “Meiko, help me.”

They felt their way along the walls, searching for anything that might indicate an exit or trigger an opening. Remembering Lord Rornak’s Trials, Kiarn checked the floor and felt in all the cracks. Nothing.

After several hours of searching, they sat down in the center of the room. Meiko sighed softly. Kiarn realized that her head was spinning and pulled out her canteen for a sip of water. You’re not giving up yet. Meiko closed her eyes and was asleep almost immediately – how did she do that – but Kiarn and Tyrin sat in silence for a while before he spoke. “You can go to sleep too if you want. I’ll keep watch.”

“I’m not tired.” She was exhausted, but she also wasn’t about to sleep three meters away from him.

“Suit yourself. I’ll wake you up if anything goes wrong, I promise.”

Ignoring him, she pulled her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on them. It was cold and the darkness felt increasingly oppressive. She’d been keeping her lightning going while they walked, but it was too much effort to continue now that she didn’t have to see where she was going. Meiko’s breathing was gentle and regular and loud in the deathly stillness and the room was absolutely black. She closed her eyes to stop them straining to see where there was nothing to see.

After a while, she heard Tyrin stand up, walk around a bit, then sit down again.

Suddenly, she was filled with the overwhelming desire to get out of the tomb, right now. She fought it, knowing that she would have to find the relic or be certain that it wasn’t there before she could go, but still she felt herself start to pant, heart racing. She stood up, waking Meiko. “What is it?” she said.

“Just going to try again.”

Summoning the lightning was harder this time, but she managed after a few tries and squinted in the sudden light. When she adjusted, she peered again at the carvings. There was something odd about them. . .

Wait a minute. Even though the runes themselves were as unintellegable as ever, she could see a sort of subtle pattern to them. What she thought were straight lines and simple rows were actually wavelike patterns emanating from a specific point. It should be right. . . “There.”

Tyrin and Meiko watched in puzzlement as she walked toward the spot and pressed it. It was tiny and buried in a rune, something she never would have thought to check if she hadn’t noticed the pattern. A breeze colder than the rest of the air rushed past her and a door slid open.

It wasn’t the same one they had entered through, though. Instead of a passage, this door led to a stone-lined room with a square, unadorned table in the center, like an altar. On the other side, Kiarn could see a black opening that probably led to more passages.

She should be afraid, she knew. Meiko radiated terror beside her, although outwardly she remained calm. They didn’t even know where they were. But something else tugged at her and she could tell that Tyrin felt it too.

They approached the altar.

As she caught sight of what rested on top, Kiarn raced forward to snatch it up. The relic! After all this trouble, they had finally found it. Now she just needed to find one for Meiko and they could be done with this Trial, with all the Trials.

“Give that to me.” Tyrin’s voice. Kiarn turned around. He held Meiko casually floating off the ground. His blade pointed at Meiko’s neck and the other, which he must have taken from her, at Kiarn. A little pity stabbed through her for Meiko’s sake. Betrayal stung.

But only a little pity.

“No.”

“I’ll kill her.”

No he wouldn’t. Tyrin might be the cold, ambitious killer she had always known he was, but she had a bit of the same blood in her veins. If he killed Meiko, his hold on her was gone and she would run. And he wasn’t sure he could defeat both of them at once.

Then again, Kiarn wasn’t sure that she could defeat him alone, either. A desperate plan started to form in her mind. “And if I give it to you, what will you give me?”

“I’ll let you live.” She knew he would expect what was coming, but what other choice was there?

Stepping forward, she started to hold out the relic, taking care to stay out of the way of his blade. He reached for it with the Force and Kiarn made her move. Dropping to the floor, she slid toward his legs, trying to throw him off balance.

Anger crystalized into a dark cloud above them, lightning flashing inside. Tyrin struck at her with one blade. She dodged, he struck again and kicked out.

A lightning bolt hit him in the shoulder and he stumbled backward. Meiko shuddered in his telekinetic grip and Kiarn caught a glimpse of her face, taut with concentration as she tried to free herself.

Tyrin recovered his balance and came at Kiarn again.

Meiko’s scream echoed through the chamber as she broke out of Tyrin’s grasp and power swirled around her, a purple so pale it was almost blue. She raised her hand and unleashed lightning of her own. “Run, Kiarn!” she shouted.

Kiarn did.

Chapter Text

Kiarn didn’t think there was anyone running after her, but her footsteps echoed so loudly in the empty hallway that she wouldn’t have been able to tell if they were. She reached out with the Force. Meiko was about a hundred meters behind her, Tyrin on her heels.

She had to get out of the tomb. Outside, she could lose him in the rocks or lead him into another acolyte to distract him. Here she – or rather the relic she carried – was the only target. She stretched out further, trying to find another life form that might indicate where the tomb exit was. Nothing.

Tyrin’s presence was growing further away. He’d always been faster than she was, but perhaps it was harder to pursue than to flee. Or else he had caught Meiko. Her stomach dropped at the thought, but no, Meiko was still ahead of him.

Kiarn’s breath came in gasps and her side hurt. How long had she been running? The anemic light from the lightning she conjured dimmed and surged with her heartbeat.

She needed to find a place to stop and let Meiko catch up. Together, they could fight Tyrin or avoid him. She wished there was time for Meiko to show her how to cast a stealth field, which she’d mentioned learning in Darth Eliss’ advanced class. It would solve all her problems right now. But no use wishing for what she couldn’t have. She ran on.

Finally, she had to stop and rest. The endless training runs had toughened her, but they hadn’t made her tireless. As a compromise, she kept walking while she tried to catch her breath. The other two were still behind her and definitely still alive, but quite far away now.

She wished that Meiko was there. The corridor seemed much more intimidating without her. You’re such a weakling, Kiarn, said her mind, always with her even here. Afraid of the dark. What kind of Sith are you?

An unfamiliar noise startled her from her thoughts. She let the light go out and fell perfectly still. Silence, so complete that her ears produced an imaginary roar to fill the void. Had she been mistaken? No, there it was again. A low buzzing, like electronic equipment running a very long way away. But why would there be something like that in a tomb deserted for hundreds or thousands of years?

Well, whatever it was, she wasn’t going to gain anything by standing there waiting for Tyrin or the shyrak to find her. She stepped forward and instantly the floor dropped out from under her. With an involuntary yelp, she tumbled headlong into the blackness.

Mercifully, she didn’t fall too far before hitting solid stone. For a few minutes, she just lay there, unable to breath, unable to think. Something above her made a grating sound, then a solid thump.

When she managed to gasp some air back into her lungs, everything hurt. She sat up and shooting pain wrapped around her chest. She hoped that she hadn’t broken a rib. The claw marks on her face began to bleed again.

It took most of her willpower to summon the lightning to dance around her arms again, and when she did, it was the weakest it had been yet. She was in another hallway, almost identical to the one she just fell out of, except that this one sloped up slightly where the other one had been flat. Meiko and Tyrin were difficult to sense now. Something else was nearby, something with such a strong Force presence that it eclipsed everything else.

Following the tunnel downward, she began to get used to the overwhelming sensation and became able to concentrate on other things. There was some kind of beast down there, she could feel flickers of simple minds some distance off.

A flash of hope sent a bit more energy into her tired limbs. If animals could survive down there, they had to be able to get to the surface, right? And it couldn’t be that hard to access.

Kiarn exited the hallway into a round room much like the one they had been trapped in right before they reached the relic. The relic! Her mind had been so full that she had almost forgotten it, but there it was, still tucked into her pack. Good.

The room was empty apart from a stone structure on the far wall that looked vaguely like an altar. But instead of a flat top, there was a pair of stone supports with a long, staff-like implement resting on them. The Force presence she had felt earlier was nearly overwhelming and Kiarn was certain that it came from the staff itself. Curiosity tugged at her and she stepped inside.

To her relief, no door slid shut as she entered this time and she crossed to the altar unharmed. The staff was about as long as her torso, thicker than the training sabers she had used, and topped at one end with a massive crystal faceted into a vaguely blade-like shape.

She shouldn’t pick it up. Who knew what it was, how long it had been there, or what traps might be unleashed on whoever touched it? It was obviously not one of the relics the teachers placed there and it would be heavy and awkward to carry.

She should pick it up. Whatever it was, it was obviously valuable and even if it didn’t give her power of its own, she could certainly trade it for something or give it to her new master as a show of goodwill. And something about it invited touching. Her hand snaked out to grab it. Immediately, her mind filled with a sensation that had undercut many parts of her life, but never like this.

Wrath.

That was the only word for it. Deep, vindicative anger that sent flames licking around her and turned her eyes to glowing coals. Her pain disappeared, turned into more fuel for the storm. Surprised, she dropped the staff and the feeling rapidly faded.

She left the room, more drained than when she had entered.

Going down the tunnel in the other direction took her much further before she ran into anything but endless smooth walls and smooth floors and dust and cold, dead air. But at the end she found yet another room, although this one was much larger and six-sided, with a high ceiling and a low, circular dais in the center. On two of the sides were sets of double doors that must have been at least five meters high, covered in carvings. The light was too dim to see exactly what they depicted and Kiarn didn’t want to expend the effort to make it brighter, but it looked like some kind of bloody conquest. Probably led by whoever the tomb had been built for.

On the other walls, including the one she had entered through, were doorways and yet more of the altar-like structures that seemed to be a favorite design element. These ones had a sort of stone sphere attached to the top with crescent shapes on either side.

Ignoring the altars, Kiarn crossed to one of the doors. They were shut tightly, without evidence of a handle or lock. She leaned against them and pushed with all her might, but could tell immediately that there was no way she would be able to move them. There had to be a way to unlock them, though. Why would anyone build a set of doors that don’t open?

She would have to try one of the other hallways. They looked identical from where she stood, so she arbitrarily decided to check the one to her right first. As she walked over, she stopped to examine the altar. The top of the sphere had a slot where something was obviously supposed to be inserted. Perhaps it was the way to unlock the door?

The new tunnel was exactly like the one that she had initially fallen into: plain, unadorned, sloping slightly downward. After a long time, she reached another room.

Wait, have I gotten turned around already? She was back in the first room, with the staff sitting on the altar and nothing else. But no, she had dropped the staff on the floor, so this couldn’t be the same room.

It all fell into place. The slots on the other altars. The locked doors. The broad, flat crystals on the staves. She picked up the staff, careful to wrap her hand in the end of her tunic sleeve to avoid contact with it.

It did no good. Anger seared through her again, less about vengeance this time and more about a raw, animalistic desire to see everything around her destroyed. She could rip the whole place apart. Red mist clouded her vision and the light she had been producing flashed like a strobe.

With what rational thought was left to her, she hurried back to the main chamber and shoved the staff, crystal side down, into the slot. The fury faded as she let go of it and it glowed slightly. Kiarn saw no other signs that anything had changed, but there was three other altars in there. She probably had to get three more staves before anything else happened.

Next, she retrieved the first staff she had found. By the time she managed to place it into the slot, she was so tired that she had to sit down, take a drink from her canteen, and eat a ration cube. She hoped that the Trial was almost over; she was down to just one cube and a few swallows of water. Despite her intentions, she dozed off.

She woke up cold and stiff. How long had she slept? Stupid, Kiarn. Anything could be down here and you have no idea what’s going on outside. She stood and stretched, readying herself to start working again.

The next staff was also retrieved without incident, although this one filled her with a crushing despair that sapped her will and made her want to curl up into a ball until she died. Even more than the first two, she was grateful when she could set it down.

By now, the power in the room was tangible, a surge of dark Force energy that flickered around like an electric current, prickling her scalp and making her skin crawl.

When she reached the last room, she knew that something was wrong. There was a presence inside, distinct from that of the staff. She brought the light up a bit and nothing leaped from the shadows, but the presence remained. Shaken, she hurried to take the staff.

This one was the most powerful yet. The unbridled hate hit her like a torrent of cold water, painful yet invigorating, empowering but paralyzing. She hated the Sith. She hated Tyrin and Quillan and Karanni and Rornak and Eliss. She hated the confining walls and the dead, unfeeling air, and the locked door that kept her in this place.

And most of all, you hate yourself, Kiarn.

Without knowing why, she took off running toward the central chamber. There, she collapsed to her knees in the center of the dais, the Force swirling around her in a purple maelstrom so dark it was almost black, shot through with white lightning, knocking bits of stone off the altars and breaking against the doors like a wave. Somehow, Kiarn flung the staff away from her and it clattered to the floor in the sudden calm, the only sound now that of her tortured breathing. She felt hollow inside, like her purpose was gone.

She dragged herself to her feet; shoved the staff over to the altar with her boot. With the Force, she slid it into its slot.

Nothing happened. She stepped backwards a bit, looking around.

A burst of lightning shot from the end of the staff, hitting her in the chest and knocking her backward onto the dais. One by one, the other three followed suit until she was being hit with so much energy that she thought her heart would explode.

It hurt.

Kiarn let herself scream, one long, shrill note until finally the pain stopped and she slumped to the ground. She looked up. One set of the doors was open.

She crawled toward them, pulled herself up by the doorframe, and walked into the room beyond. It was far, far larger than anything she had seen in the tomb, but as far as she could tell, it was mostly an open pit with a catwalk around the perimeter. A section just in front of her jutted out to a platform with some kind of apparatus on it. Keeping in mind the need to hurry, she stepped a little closer.

It looked like some kind of stasis chamber. Flashes of energy connected a top piece to a console at the bottom, with some sort of large being hanging suspended in the center of a column of blue light. Kiarn had never seen anything like it: a monstrous, muscle-bound creature with a jutting chin, dull gray skin, clawed hands and feet, and large teeth. It wore only a loincloth and a few bits of what looked like cybernetics.

Curiosity ate at her. She could perhaps try to wake it up and ask it what it was and what it was doing there, but if it was considered dangerous or valuable enough to keep buried in the tomb of a Sith Lord for who knew how long, it was probably too dangerous for her to play with. She let and continued along the catwalk, up a ramp.

At the top, she found something much more immediately useful: a door with recognizable controls. As she pressed the button, it slid open to reveal a tunnel like the ones on the upper level. The air felt different as well. Fresher. She must be close to an exit!

Standing absolutely still, she closed her eyes and tried to pick up any hint of a breeze. There it was!

Kiarn hurried toward the source of the air movement, not quite running. Before long, she caught sight of a faint light. Letting her own lighting flicker out, she broke into a sprint and burst into the open, rocky area that made up the familiar landscape of the Valley of the Dark Lords.

For the first few minutes, she wanted nothing more than to sit on the boulders, breathing in the cold, clear air and letting the wind pull at her hair and clothes. But after she had caught her breath, she reigned her focus back in and sent out a probe in the Force. She was less surprised than she had thought she would be to find that Meiko was nearby.

She shouldn’t start toward her, of course; this would be the perfect time to strike out on her own while she had a relic and Meiko probably didn’t even know that she was alive. But at that moment, she needed to see a familiar face that wasn’t trying to kill her.

Making her way over the rocks was harder than it was at first, but she managed. During one of her frequent rest breaks, she checked the datapad. It hadn’t displayed any new instructions or updates, so she had no idea how far along the Trial was. She didn’t even know how long she was inside the tomb, she realized. It was nighttime and she was almost certain that it wasn’t the same night one which they had entered, but beyond that, she had no idea.

When she got close to Meiko, she sent out a mental call to her. As she got an acknowledgement, she saw a flicker of movement in the rocks. Something light colored. It wasn’t Meiko.

Kiarn dropped to the ground and watched. A blonde human girl came into view, looking around furtively. Had she been seen? Or was the girl just being cautious?

Meiko’s head popped over a rock on the far side of the gully and the girl whipped around to stare at her. After a split second she unleashed a torrent of lightning in Meiko’s direction and started to scramble up the rocks toward her.

The blonde girl hadn’t noticed Kiarn yet, so she tried to be quiet as she leaped to the sand and crept closer. Shooting out lightning of her own as soon as she was in range, she managed to catch the girl off guard and she fell back down the slope.

Meiko jumped in front of her with a shout and pinned her to the ground with the Force. “Give us your backpack and we’ll let you live,” she said with surprising calm.

“No,” said the other girl. Kiarn had at first thought that it was Tamine, but she remembered now. Tamine was dead. She failed the eighth Trial, the one with the nightmares. Some part of her wondered what it was that they had shown her.

“You’ll never win, shuttas,” the girl said when it became clear that she was not going to be able to break out of the hold easily. “Sith don’t make alliances, and they don’t ambush people like cowards.”

“You’re wrong,” Kiarn said as she stabbed her through the heart.

The girl’s life faded out almost instantly and she went limp in a patch of red sand.

“Kiarn! You didn’t have to do that!”

“Taking her backpack is basically signing her death sentence anyway. And I can’t afford to care about the entire Academy right now. All I’m concerned about is you and me and winning.”

It wasn’t entirely true. This wasn’t the first time she had killed, but it was the first time she had done so with clear intent and with such certainty that her actions would kill. It seemed almost too easy. “At least take the pack.”

Meiko picked it up and opened the flap, still looking sick. “She’s already drunk the water,” she said quietly. “But there’s still a ration cube here. And her datapad. Wait, this is – oh!”

She pulled out a three-pointed metal objected and held it up in the starlight. A relic.

Relief flooded Kiarn. They were both safe. Now all they had to do was survive until the rest of the acolytes managed to pick each other off.

Her datapad buzzed and she hurried to pull it out.

Congratulations, surviving acolytes. You have passed your final Trial. Shuttles will arrive to pick you up shortly. Do not attack any other students. You will still fail if you fail to follow instructions.

Darth Eliss

Meiko managed a tired smile. “We did it, Kiarn.”

Chapter Text

The shuttle appeared around half an hour later. It hovered a few meters off the ground and extended a ramp. Kiarn mustered the strength to swing onto it and pulled Meiko up beside her. They were the only two inside.

Meiko sat down heavily and Kiarn noticed a dark patch on her tunic, right under the sash. “Are you hurt?”

“It’s not that bad.”

“Are you sure? You should have the med droid look at it when we get back.” There was far too much blood for just a minor scrape.

“I will.”

“Is there anything I can do to help you?” She knew that her kindness would be perceived as weakness if anyone saw them, but it was just her and Meiko and the trials were over. Couldn’t she just have these few minutes?

“I don’t think so. It’s not bleeding anymore, it just hurts.”

“Okay.” She sat down next to Meiko and leaned back against the headrest.

“So, what do you think your master is going to be like?”

Kiarn shrugged. She hadn’t given much thought to it. She had spent many long, sleepless nights planning what she would do when she became a Sith Lord, and even a Darth someday, but skimmed over her time as an apprentice. She had assumed that since she would have no control over who or how, that she shouldn’t spend too much time worrying over possibilities. And like the Trials, when and how apprentice selection happened had always been a closely guarded secret. Whoever her master was, she would work for him, do his bidding, and quietly find a way to destroy him.

The shuttle touched down with a slight rocking and they exited onto the landing pad that they had departed from at the start of the trial. As always, the wind cut straight through their clothes, stronger than it had been deeper in the valley. Meiko’s outfit was tattered and covered in red dust and Kiarn imagined hers didn’t look much better.

A Human male Sith Lord met them as they approached the Academy. He was about sixty standard years, with gray hair, skin a few shades lighter than Meiko’s and a reasonably good physique for his age. For a moment, Kiarn was confused by how familiar he looked, but quickly remembered that he was one of the Sith who had been present when Darth Eliss had announced the Trials. It seemed like years ago, now.

Kiarn and Meiko both bowed.

He allowed them up with a wave of his hand. “Good, you’re already together. Follow me.” He led them inside.

From the atrium, they took the stairs up to the balcony, made two right turns in quick succession, and stopped in front of a closed door. The Sith tapped the keypad next to it in a rapid sequence and it opened. He gestured for them to enter and they obeyed without a word.

As soon as they had passed through the door, it shut. A chill rippled up the skin of Kiarn’s arms. Something was wrong. She could tell that Meiko felt it too. Everything inside the empty room was perfectly still.

A comm crackled. The voice of the Sith who had just brought them there. “Congratulations on passing your ninth Trial. The twenty of you are the best that Korriban has produced in the last few years. But there is one final Trial you must pass before you will be accepted as an apprentice.”

“Each one of you has been placed in a room with another acolyte, matched according to your abilities and level of injury after the last Trial. The door will unlock when only one of you remains.”

Eliss lied.

Meiko stepped toward her. “Kiarn – “

Kiarn used the Force to lift her in a harmless version of the choking maneuver that Karanni once used on her. She needed time to think, damnit!

She could kill her. She could kill her easily. She doubted that Meiko would have the strength to resist much. Despite what she said, the blood loss would have weakened her.

Cold sweat poured down Kiarn’s neck.

Memories swirled through her mind. Meiko’s kindness to her on her first day. Studying in the library. That night on the statue, where she felt for the first time in her life like she could be honest. Fighting side by side in the last Trial. No one she had ever met had done anything like that for her. Not even her mother. She could never throw it away. It would be destroying one of the few good people she had ever known.

And why? To save her own worthless life.

But she’s also a weakness.

She thought of how Quillan and the others had been able to manipulate her into making herself vulnerable to protect her. As long as Meiko was around, she was exposed, both to those who would exploit their friendship and to Meiko herself, should she prove to be much more devious than Kiarn had thought. Where she was going, she couldn’t have any attachments whatsoever.

Meiko was struggling. Trying to escape. Kiarn saw her mouth moving, but whether she wasn’t actually speaking or Kiarn just couldn’t hear her over the torrent of thoughts, she wasn’t sure.

How could she get out of this? If they could escape the room, steal a shuttle, hide again. . .

No. They would never make it to the landing pad. Not with this many Sith around. If they sat down and simply refused to do it, she knew they would both be killed. It would be a clear demonstration that they were too weak to graduate. One of them had to go.

But if she did it, how was she better than any of the people she hated?

Her hands were starting to shake.

Meiko stopped struggling and seemed to look straight at her, expression full of grief and hurt and, oddly, strength. She wasn’t weak. In fact, together, fully trained, they would be almost unstoppable. Meiko was easily one of the most talented Force users there and by far the most stable.

But what would she want? She didn’t even want to become a Sith. Would she thank Kiarn for sacrificing herself to send her to a life she hated?

Kiarn didn’t know. But she knew it was not a choice she could make for her.

The walls seemed to have disappeared and the only two people in the galaxy were her and Meiko, standing alone in an infinite sea of black.

More images. Kiarn as a child, alone in the dark, wishing sleep wouldn’t come so she didn’t have to dream. Her parents, fighting and screaming and throwing furniture around with the Force, Kiarn just another pawn in their twisted games. Being handed off to another stranger who would take her away and put her to work until he found she was no longer of use. All the evil she held the Sith responsible for.

If she died here, it would continue forever and those who made her suffer would never feel what she had felt.

But Meiko had reminded her that other things could exist. That people could do things for others simply because they could, without asking anything in return. That loyalty could persist when it wasn’t easy or convenient. That she could endure pain for someone else’s sake and that there was some small pieces of good in the universe. Destroying any of it would be monstrous.

Kiarn looked away from her, to plain empty walls.

Weeks of Trials, years of study, a lifetime of planning, and it had all come down to this little room.

She saw herself stabbing Meiko with the blade that was still at her back, walking out of the room a Sith Apprentice with blood still dripping from her hands.

She saw herself turning the blade to herself instead, blood flowing from her chest, blackness closing the galaxy to a tiny spot, knowing that she had failed in what she set out to do but avoided the depravity she’d been asked to commit.

The trembling fingers of her outstretched hand closed slowly into a fist. Tighter. Tighter. Until she felt Meiko’s life fade out of existence.

Because she wasn’t strong enough to become her own sacrifice. Because you aren’t weak enough to let a threat like that live.

Because in the end, she needed to become a Sith more than she needed a friend.

Chapter Text

The door slid open and the voice of the Sith Lord who had brought them there filled the room. “You may return to your room, Acolyte.”

Return to her room. She wasn’t even sure she could walk, but she had to. Had to prove that she was strong. All she had to do was walk. Just walk.

She could feel her legs wobbling as she went, but hoped that anyone watching would chalk it up to exhaustion. The hallway was deserted and she wondered where the other students were.

She couldn’t do this anymore. She had to get away from that room. Her feet pounded the floor with a dull echo as she ran, faster and faster.

Finally her knees gave out and she tumbled forward, retching. Hot, acidic bile filled her mouth, over and over again until she couldn’t bring anything else up and she just lay there spasming. When she was too weak even to do that, she pulled up her head to see that she was in the acolytes’ bathroom.

Dragging herself over to a sink, she used it to pull herself to a standing position. Her face appeared in the mirror. Or, rather, a demon with her face. Golden eyes that glowed with power sunk into dark sockets. Bone-white skin stretched over hollow cheeks and a gaunt face. Blood oozed slowly from a series of claw marks and dark energy collected in clouds around its shoulders. What had she done? What have you done, Kiarn?

A tear slid down her cheek, blistering hot. Grabbing the mirror, she pulled it from the wall and let it crash to the floor with one motion. The effort exhausted her and she leaned on the sink, panting.

She had to hide. No one could see her like this. Although, she thought with a rueful smile. I would like to see someone try to attack her now.

Stumbling to the nearest bed, she dove under it, burying her face in her knees. And then the tears came, an endless stream that burned in her cuts. Something was in her stomach, dragging her down, into the floor and weight pressed her further in. She felt Meiko’s fingers around her neck, choking Kiarn the way she had choked her.

She had no idea how long she lay there, gasping for breath and trembling. It might have been minutes or days. Sometimes she heard someone moving outside her hiding place, but no one bothered her.

Eventually, she woke from endless nightmares to something brushing her shoulder. She shouldn’t have been so weak as to fall asleep while she was still vulnerable. Until she was off the planet, every other student there was still her enemy. And even after, the would become Sith Lords who would spend their lives trying to destroy her. Well, let them. She didn’t care anymore.

To her surprise, it was Lord Erilinn who spoke to her. “Acolyte?”

Kiarn ignored him. She was going to be sick again.

“Kiarn, are you alright?”

“What have I done, Lord?” Stop it, Kiarn. You can’t be so vulnerable with him, more reasonable than the others or not.

Sharp pain sliced across her face and she could feel the claw marks from the tuk’ata start to bleed again. “Get ahold of yourself! Are you a Sith or not?”

Kiarn blinked at Lord Erilinn in shock. Except in practice bouts, she had never seen him hit a student before. “Yes.” To her satisfaction, her voice didn’t shake anymore.

“Then stop crying and get ready to meet your new master. I’ll be back in half an hour.”

* * * *

Half an hour later, Kiarn followed Lord Erilinn down a hallway in the upper levels of the Academy. She had never been to a floor this high up and all the doors were closed, so she had no idea what sort of rooms they concealed.

Although she still couldn’t muster up any emotions outside of dead, numb emptiness that she always felt after drawing on the Dark Side, at least she looked better. She had washed all the dirt off, changed into a fresh uniform, and even managed to comb out her hair a bit with her fingers.

Lord Erilinn stopped in front of one of the doors. “Your master is waiting for you.”

Stepping closer to Kiarn, he dropped his voice. “Lord Zash is something of an unknown quantity. She’s risen to power very quickly, but her superiors don’t trust her. Or rather, trust her even less than is usual. I haven’t met her myself, but I do know that she’s considered to be a very strong Force-user who enjoys searching out obscure rituals. I also know that she seemed quite fixated on having you and you only as an apprentice, even passing up one who outscored you in the Trials. Be careful.”

“Thank you.” She couldn’t help but suspect that his help would come with some kind of cost down the line, but somehow she appreciated it anyway.

He stepped back and motioned for her to enter the room. Hesitatingly, she tapped on the door with two fingers as Lord Erilinn retreated down the hallway.

“Come in,” said a soft female voice from inside.

Kiarn pressed the panel and the door slid back, revealing a well-lit room much like Darth Eliss’ office that she had visited on her first day on Korriban. Lord Zash sat at a desk in the center, bent over a sheet of parchment. She looked up slightly as Kiarn entered. “Hello,” she purred, standing up and walking confidently around the desk. “You must be Kiarn. Welcome.”

“Thank you, Lord.” Kiarn bowed slightly, unsure of the appropriate amount of deference now. Would she be expected to spend the next few years bowing constantly, just like when she was a child? Her experience with Sith Lords suggested too much was better than too little, though. She’d never seen anyone killed for being too humble.

Zash walked slowly in a circle around her, a probing gaze running up and down her body. Kiarn fought old habits that told her to bow her head and keep her hands folded behind her back.

“Not as attractive as I’d hoped,” Zash said under her breath. “And probably malnourished, but she’s human and she looks like she’ll be strong enough.”

Strong enough for what? To become her apprentice? Kiarn would have thought Zash would have decided that by now. As she passed into Kiarn’s view, she studied her in return. Zash was human, about thirty standard years, with rich, golden-tan skin and short blonde hair cut longer in the front. A bit on the tall side, she had brown eyes and a face that Kiarn could only describe as ‘aristocratic’. Her Force presence matched her appearance: calm and collected, with hot fire lurking below the surface like some sort of forest predator.

Lord Erilinn was right. She’d need to watch herself around this one. And she would start by figuring out why she had chosen her.

Zash sat back at her desk, her walk quick but smooth and gliding. “I’ve seen the footage of your Trials and I think you’ll do wonderfully. Have you seen the results?” Her voice was almost flirtatious and Kiarn wondered if she spoke like this to everyone. She shook her head and Zash held out a datapad.

On it was a list of names with rankings, points, and a breakdown of their performance on each Trial. Unsurprisingly, Tyrin was first. Kiarn wondered who they had made him kill but knew that whoever it was, it had probably been easy. You should kill him for what he did to Meiko.

Quillan and Karanni had tied for second place. No surprise there either, although she was certain that they would be upset. At first, she wondered why the Sith hadn’t set them against each other before realizing that there was nothing particularly ruthless about killing a long-time rival.

Fourth down on the list was her own name. Fourth? She had done that well? Looking at the list, she realized that only ten acolytes had made it this far. Only ten. Out of almost fifty.

Lord Zash pulled the datapad back. “There was one thing that particularly interested me in your footage. The room you found in the tombs. Inside was a Dashade, a powerful alien bred to hunt Force-users. I know from my research that this particular Dashade was in the service of Tulak Hord, who left a map hidden in the tomb. I also know that it is impossible to retrieve the map without the Dashade.” Her eyes fixed on Kiarn’s. “I want you to bring me the map.”

Her surprise must have shown on her face. Zash smiled and a light that resembled childlike happiness sparkled in her eyes. “The map I the key to a ritual that will make the Sith who performs it unbelievably powerful and unlock the secrets of Tulak Hord. I want to help you perform this ritual. But first, I need that map.

“I’ve instructed Lord Erilinn to give you everything you need for your journey. He will also supply you with your lightsaber once you return. I’ll meet you on Drommund Kaas.” The smile again. “Good luck, Apprentice.”