"Sailens, this is my student, Aaron. Aaron, this is Sailens Sa'alle. I told you about the agreement I have with Lord Sa'alle, correct?"
Aaron scowls, but gives his future bride a once over. Human, pale, red-hair, scarred, tattooed. His nose scrunches up in distaste. She looks weak. His gaze turns back up to his tall, Sith pureblood master. "I remember. I still think it's stupid…"
Darth Rencarn cuffs him hard behind the ear and Aaron pulls on the Force to keep his feet. "Either speak proper Imperial Basic, or remain silent."
Sailens doesn't seem to react to his punishment. She raises a single red eyebrow and it pulls the tattooing around her eyes up with it. A droid zips between them from over her shoulder and speaks for her. "Politics are what make us stronger. You are stupid to shun them so."
Sa'alles too high and mighty to speak for themselves? He reaches out to smack the droid down, but it zips out of his reach. He scoffs. "Forgive me for not being overjoyed to be engaged to someone with no choice in the matter." Aaron's voice cracks halfway through the sentence and he hopes his skin is dark enough to hide the red of shame.
The round droid zig-zags through the air again. "Because engagement to a person of your choosing is vitally important to a twelve year old." Sailens isn't even looking at him when her droid talks. Her eyes are trained on the Sith Temple behind his master.
Before Aaron can shoot back a response, Darth Rencarn has cuffed him again. He addresses the girl, red jowls jiggling as he speaks. "He'll learn to accept it, in time. Until then, he'll stop complaining. Won't he?"
The menace in his master's voice is enough to freeze the blood in Aaron's veins. He forces out a small nod.
"There's no need to inform Lord Sa'alle of his belligerence, is there?" Rencarn's voice drips with malice and Aaron's gut reaction to is hope Sailens responds positively. Even a legacy Sith doesn't deserve-
"Of course not, my lord. The matter is beneath her notice." Her droid bobs and lets out its mechanical voice and Aaron rescinds all of his humanitarian thoughts about her.
Let the arrogant brat get it.
She bows to Rencarn, red braid falling over her shoulder with the motion. "If that is all, my lord."
His master waves a dismissive hand and Sailens walks away, feet notably not sinking into the hot, Korriban sand with every step. Aaron tilts his head, wondering if he's seeing things, but his master's voice brings his attention back.
"Don't mess this up. Don't be fooled by Sa'alle's title, there's not a man among them that could not rip out your heart with a blink."
Aaron refuses to let his arms shake from the mental image that calls up. "I'm not going to fail." His voice cracks again, but he presses on, regardless. "There's no reason to make me team up with Sa'alle. I'm strong." He raises his hand and clenches his fist for his master, using the Force to make Korriban's sands swirl up and spray between them.
Rencarn's yellow eyes roll in his head. "I am going to return to my real work. If you can manage to torture someone without collapsing and vomiting all over yourself, then I may consider changing the arrangement."
Aaron's cheeks burn with shame and he clenches both of his hands into fists at his sides. The muscles in his arm twitch, wanting to lash out and strike his master, but he keeps them in check.
Rencarn clicks his tongue and nods, the movement sending off reflected light from his facial jewellery. "Scared of retribution, finally? Good, but you'll have to take some risks if you want to survive the Academy, boy."
Aaron grits his teeth and waits for his master to depart. When the coast is clear, he lets out a wordless shout and kicks the sand. He growls and stomps back to the temple, his feet sinking into the sand and his steps dragging with the effort. "Stupid Korriban. I don't need to be trained here. I already have have a master."
"You're not here to learn, you're Rencarn's trophy and a pathetic one, at that."
Aaron looks up and Sailens is laying up on top of one of the stone walls leading up to the temple. Her droid bobs and weaves in the air in front of him. He swats at it again, but it dances just out of range. "At least I'm not too pretentious to use my own voice."
Sailens flips off of the wall and lands a step in front of Aaron, feet still not sinking into the sand. She tilts her head to one side and opens her mouth, revealing her distinct lack of tongue.
Aaron jerks back. "Eww."
"This is my own voice. You had best get used to it." She looks down at his feet, boots two centimeters below the sand line. "And to knocking sand out of your shoes, if that's the best you can do, half-breed."
There's an official ceremony to formalize the engagement and Aaron realizes that Sailens isn't actually her name. His intended's legal name is simply an identification number because she has no name. He spends the rest of ceremony considering why she might not have a name, despite the occasional, painful jets of Force Rencarn sends his way to make him pay attention.
At the end, they stand together, symbolically holding hands and Sailens's droid says quietly into his ear, "Sa'alles must earn their names."
Aaron nods just as they're separated and dragged off to their respective dormitories in the Sith academy.
"Get up, boy; you're late."
Aaron yells and falls out of his bunk when the overseer shocks him. He rolls to his knees and grits his teeth. "My first class isn't for another hour, my lord."
The tall, Zabrak overseer backhands him and Aaron falls back to the floor. "Not anymore. Darth Rencarn had you moved up to the next class of acolytes. Now get moving, half-breed."
Aaron spits the blood out of his mouth and gets to his feet, staggers towards the door in his bed clothes. He turns right, moving to where the history lessons are held. A burning pain spreads across his back and he looks over his shoulder to the overseer.
"Combat training, wretch."
The overseer throws his training uniform at him and, to his shame, Aaron flinches before catching them. He sprints to the combat area, dragging his clothes on as he goes and using the Force to catch his step when he trips on his sleep pants.
Even if Sailens was weak-looking, her class of acolytes weren't. The overseer, a pureblood like his master, barks at him for being late. Aaron sees the smirks on the faces of his new classmates and can easily read their intentions from their lazy posture and smirks.
We'll see who's smirking later, you kriffs. Aaron follows the overseer's instructions and stands in the center of the dueling circle. He tunes out the overseer's voice, focuses his attention on the kaleesh student that makes his way into the circle with him. The other acolyte is taller than him and the weathered marks on his bone mask let Aaron know the other is years older than him.
Aaron puts his attention on his opponent's feet so he can catch the first movement, but something else distracts him. The kaleesh's feet are just as sunk into the sand as his own. If this is Sailens's class of acolytes, she might be the only one that knows the trick with the sand.
His distraction costs him and the kaleesh nails him in the shoulder. Aaron rolls his shoulder back with the motion and then raises his own fist in counter. He makes contact, but dances out of range instead of following through with the motion and leaving himself open. Thanks for trying to embarrass me. Now I get to show off.
He laughs and settles into his battle focus. His master might be a sorcerer, but Aaron was all combat. Aaron dances in and out of range, landing a punch here, a kick there, nothing crippling, but aside from the first hit, he's left untouched. A hot wind blows sand on him and it sticks to his sweat.
Aaron knows his white grin makes a harsh contrast with his dark skin. "Had enough, yet?"
The kaleesh growls and lunges at him.
Aaron laughs and jabs his right hand out in a solid punch. The mask gives a satisfying crack under his knuckles. The other acolyte yells, clutching his face before backing out of the circle. Aaron throws his head back and laughs, spreads his arms in victory. Only to be knocked to his knees by the overseer.
"Don't get cocky. We've only just begun."
As Aaron gets to his feet, he notices that the overseer's boots don't sink into the sand either.