A/N: STOP! There was a bug a few weeks ago that caused new chapter notices to not get sent out. If you rely on a "follow" to read chapters you should check the chapter before this to make sure you have read that one before starting this one.

Chapter 25: A Hidden Purpose

A thin, tinny voice was calling Mordivai's name. He shifted out of sleep and opened his eyes. He was in his bedroom in the Ur House sanctuary on Nar Shaddaa. Nothing was amiss. A small suitcase laid packed on a chair nearby, ready for Mordivai's trip to Dromund Kaas. As Mordivai looked around, however, the room began to shift, gradually taking on elements of his old quarters back on Tython, austere and bare. I'm dreaming, Mordivai realized. Beside his bed the holocron still sat, but when Mordivai's gaze fell upon it, it opened, breaking apart of its own accord to cast a flickering light across the walls of the room. In the center was Kel'eth Ur.

"Mordivai," the tinny voice said again, coming this time from Kel'eth Ur's transparent figure. "You are in danger."

"From what?" Mordivai sat up in bed. "From whom?"

The figure pointed, gesturing towards something behind him. Mordivai spun to look but there was nothing there.

"Do not walk unprepared into the unknown," Kel'eth Ur said. "Do not be afraid to seek help."

"But who can help me?"

"Trust in the dead."

"The dead? I don't understand."

"The ancestor knows and will give you the truth. Heed what he says!"

"My ancestor?"

"Not yours, another's. But you will know him when the time comes."

Kel'elth Ur's voice was diminishing and his figure growing dim. Mordivai leaned over the edge of the bed. "This ancestor...he's a ghost? Is he a Jedi? A Sith?"

The walls fluttered with the last light of the holocron and the room went dim. Mordivai slumped back onto the pillow. He became aware of a light behind his eyelids and he blinked a few times, trying to pull himself out of sleep. When at last he opened his eyes, for real this time, he was back in his true room on Nar Shaddaa, untransformed and solid. He sat up slowly, the remains of the dream still clinging to him. It had felt so real.

The light he had sensed upon waking was here. Mordivai looked to the night table. The holocron was there, closed up. Mordivai stared, his heart picking up pace. An ethereal glow clung to the holocron, the center faintly pulsing with life. Like a heartbeat, it alternately dimmed and brightened, the rhythm gradually slowing, until the intervals grew longer and less frequent. Then it dimmed entirely and Mordivai was left wondering if his sleep-rattled brain had imaged it all.

00o00

Mordivai walked through the vaulted corridors of the Sith Citadel in Kaas City, noticing closed doors, elevators and dark hallways that he had never entered. Which ones might lead to the dungeons where Master Praven had been kept? To think such terrible things could be happening to people right now, at this very moment, in some dank hole under his feet, made him uncomfortable. He'd known that the Sith interrogated their prisoners of course, had known that they used torture, but as a child he had taken it for granted that these things happened to people who deserved it, who were traitors, self-righteous Jedi or their sympathizers, not people he knew. Not people he admired. The Jedi, he understood now, were not so blindly misinformed as he had been led to believe, but neither were they innocent. They had all but tried to eradicate the Sith and their ways, and thought nothing of taking a child away from his parents, lying to him, and then raising him under their beliefs. How could he follow either the Jedi or the Sith with a clear conscience?

I have already chosen, he thought. I am Sith, by heritage and by blood. But I will choose what kind of Sith I am. I will forge a new path if need be.

Could it be done?

Mordivai had spent two hours engrossed within the depths of the Sith Archives, but had quickly gotten lost among the sheer volume of information there. He found references to the artifacts he'd been collecting for Zash, stories of their origin or significance, but little of use. He finally moved on to a section of the archive devoted to ritual and arcane Force methods, but here the divide between myth and fact was blurry and frequently disputed. He searched for files on "glamor," "youth," "illusion," and other such terms, but nothing specific jumped out at him. He tried "immortality" and quickly got bogged down in works on the Emperor. There were some interesting mentions of bodily possession and mental control, but when Mordivai tried to access these files for more information, he discovered that they were restricted. He wasn't surprised. The Emperor guarded his secrets.

Zash had said that these artifacts could be combined in a ritual that would make both her and him more powerful, but "power" was a vague term and could refer to any number of Sith abilities and enhancements. That Zash did not really intend to share such bounty with him, Mordivai had no doubt, but why bother with the subterfuge? She could order him to do anything, and he would be obligated to obey, but she had tried instead to buy his loyalty, or maybe she was appealing to what she assumed would be common greed. Mordivai guessed that the real reason was that she didn't want him using the artifacts on himself. She would keep him in the dark, and then take what she had planned all along. And then? She would discard him.

He had to play along for now, be the devoted apprentice. It was a game of course, since no one really expected an apprentice to stay loyal forever. But it was too early for rebellion just yet.

Mordivai finally came to Zash's office. The door was open, and light spilled out into the hallway. From within Mordivai could hear voices. He stepped through the door.

"Apprentice!" Lord Zash gave him a dazzling smile, her blue eyes alight. Two other Sith stood with her around a table, both female. One of them could have been a younger twin of Zash, her hair was nearly the same color blonde. She looked up when Mordivai entered, and her round, cherubic face broke into a pleasantly bland smile, but there was challenge in her blue eyes and Mordiavi felt cold under her stare. She knew he was a rival and wasn't going to try and hide it. He recognized her from the holo his mother had shown him, and this was confirmed when Zash introduced her.

"This is my new apprentice, Ciela."

Mordivai had been prepared for this, so he wasn't shocked by the knowledge that he was not the only Sith under Zash's tutelage. He schooled his face to impassivity and gave her a minute bow of acknowledgement. Then the second Sith looked up.

Mordivai felt an immediate shiver. If he had thought Ciela was cold, meeting this Sith was like being plunged into frigid waters. A strange sensation prickled across Mordivai's scalp like a blade of ice making a close call across his skin. The Sith reached up and pulled back the cowl that covered her face.

Recognition jolted through him. This was his mother's old apprentice. The same Sith who had given him his first rudimentary lessons on the duelsaber when he was a child.

"Jaesa," he said.

Zash let out a delighted laugh. "I see you know each other already. You may call her Lord Agonia now though."

The uncanny scrutiny that Moridvai had felt from her moments before eased, and an expression of recognition passed across her face.

"Mordivai. All grown up now, are you? I didn't know you had become Sith." Her eyes raked over him, shamelessly and with obvious appraisal, and Mordivai was reminded of Shastine and her friend Kertrin back in his days as a slave. He felt immediate revulsion. What had his mother said about Jaesa? Something about exotic appetites and wanton violence.

The three woman were all staring at him, and the way they were arranged behind the table, with him standing alone in front of them, made him feel less like a fellow Sith and more like a supplicant. He was growing uncomfortable.

"So?" Zash said. "Do you have the artifact?"

"Of course." Mordivai got it out and approached to present it to Zash. She snatched it out of his hand and then just as quickly hid it in her robes.

"That's all for now. Thank you apprentice."

No new assignment? No more artifacts? Mordivai stood dumbly before them for a moment before nodding and turning away. The whole exchange left him feeling off-kilter and unsettled. He could feel three sets of eyes watching him in silence as he left.

00o00

Mordivai used his newly acquired spare time to train with Overseer Kryos, the Twi'lek who had begun honing his skills in the double-bladed lightsaber. Since Mordivai had spent the last month on Nar Shaddaa, he had been forced to take lessons by means of an interactive holodisk, but that was no substitute for real practice, he discovered. Kryos knocked him on his back too many times to count, shaking his head and admonishing Mordivai for his lagging reflexes. Mordivai checked in regularly with Ai'lanynn via holocomm, and as things continued to proceed well with the refuge, he decided to stay in Kaas City and continue training with Kryos.

Daytime was spent training in the park just outside the Kaas City walls, where Mordivai had first met Kryos, leaning to fight among all kinds of terrain. Nights he spent in the archives, trying to piece together answers. The more he discovered about Zash's strange artifacts, the more uneasy he became. Other Sith in ancient times had sought immortality, and some of their methods were gruesome and unsavory. Many Sith had attempted immortality and failed. Mordivai took note of their names anyway, thinking that later he might be able to work his way deeper into the archives, where the Sith holocrons were kept. Many of these Sith, he knew, had left behind holo journals of their efforts, wanting to secure what fame they could for any discovery made, even unsuccessful ones.

During one of his wanderings he discovered where the Sith holocrons were kept, but the area was blocked behind an energy wall, and a code was required to enter. The librarian at the door attempted to be solicitous, asking if he wanted to see if his Sith master would send over an approval for entry. Mordivai quickly assured the librarian that this was unnecessary.

After leaving the archives that night, he found himself growing wary. Was there a record of every search he made? His arrivals and departures? What he chose to linger over and what he discarded? His paranoia grew, and Mordivai began to wonder if he was being watched. Would Zash send someone to spy on him?

One night, Mordivai got so drawn into what he was reading, that he lost track of time until the lights were finally shut off around him. He cursed his inattentiveness, for now he had done something noteworthy and possibly memorable. He left quickly, pulling his hood around his face when he passed by the security cameras.

It was pouring rain when he got outside, and Mordivai was drenched before he had even left the building's courtyard. The splatter of the rain against the pavement and the irregular clatter of thunder would drown out the sound of anyone nearby. How would he know if he was being followed, if he couldn't hear their footsteps? Mordivai took to using the Force technique that Kryos had taught him that allowed him to move unseen. He was doing it so often now that it was almost second nature.

Another figure walked ahead of him, a woman by the look of her slighter build. She was hunched over in the rain, hurrying along as quickly as Mordivai was. There was a curfew at this hour for all Imperial citizens who were not Sith, so she was either hoping to not get caught, or she was Sith herself.

Mordivai might not have paid her any more notice had she not done something strange while he was watching. She stepped off the paved pathway and stood next to a fountain. She paused there, standing very still, and Mordivai stopped, realizing that she was searching through the Force for anyone nearby who might see her. He pulled deeper into himself, making his Force signature as tight and guarded as he could.

She raised her hand then, and gestured towards the fountain. A small land speeder rose up out of the water at her command. She pushed it through the air, out of range of the fountain, and let it settle on the ground. Then she climbed on and started the engine. Its hum was drowned out by the storm.

What made this display particularly odd was that there was a public speeder transport clearly visible a few hundred meters away, with a droid in attendance, and plenty of available speeders for rent.

The woman took off and as she did so, her cowl flew back, revealing her face and hair.

Ciela.

Mordivai sped towards the taxi pad and grabbed a speeder of his own. He jammed a credit stick into the meter and took off after her.

She disappeared into the jungle surrounding Kaas City, and Mordivai had to gun the engine to keep her in view. She did not take any of the pre-programmed speeder paths, nor did she travel along the winding, scenic paths used by tourists. Instead she took off through the wild brush, and Mordivai was forced to dodge vines and skim over rivers as she had done. It wasn't long, however, before he recognized where she was headed. The huge dome of the spaceport came into view and Mordivai slowed down, cutting the throttle and drifting over the soggy ground. She stopped her speeder and dumped it among some brambles. Then she ran into the spaceport.

Mordivai followed.

Ciela did not enter through the main door, but rather snuck through the woods to the back of the building and slipped through a service door. The door had locked behind her by the time Mordivai reached it, but it was not security rigged, and he was easily able to disengage the lock using the Force. Once inside, however, the trail went cold.

Mordivai ran towards the first hangar door he came to, and looked at the departure display reading. It was blank. He checked the next, and the next, running halfway down the hallway before he found something. The eighth computer was lit up, the screen pulsing wildly. As Mordivai approached, he could see the information racing across the screen abnormally fast, and he realized that all the data was being systematically deleted. Bay number, departure code, ship title and owner. Deleted, deleted, deleted, faster than he could read it. Then the last word flashed across the screen and was gone. But not before Mordivai had caught it.

Taris. The ship's destination.

Mordivai turned and ran, making for the hangar bay where his own ship was docked. He whispered fiercely into his comm.

"Khem! Meet me at the spaceport. We're leaving for Taris."