The next day Leia's arms ached and she wasn't sorry that Mara didn't show up that morning. Instead, it was Lieutenant Venn who found her after breakfast.
"You're to have a holo terminal for your studies. A crew is here to install it."
Leia was pleased, not everyone in the Empire had Holonet access, but as a member of the Elder Houses she had grown up with access to the online access libraries and she had missed it these last few days. She would also be able to send messages to her parents.
Venn sat with her while two tech officers hooked the terminal into her room's power relay.
"You've used one before?" Venn asked once the crew had left.
Leia assured the officer that she had. "We have one in Aldera Palace. It's dead useful for looking up technical terms, and the planetary databases are pretty good. Pre-Imperial history… well…" She shrugged.
"I must advice you to take care, Holonet activity in the palace is strictly monitored, Ma'am."
Leia could understand that, it was monitored in Aldera, too. She had gotten in terrible trouble for running a search on poisons last year. It wasn't that she wanted to use a poison, she had tried to assure her apoplectic father, she'd just wanted to learn more about them.
"I want to look up something Mara Jade said yesterday." She explained, sitting down at the terminal. "Something called a Sith?"
Venn covered the space between them swiftly and pulled Leia's hands from the terminal input panel. "Ma'am, that is not a good idea."
Leia crossed her arms, annoyed, "Why not? Do you know what it means?"
Venn seemed to be counting to ten to calm herself. "Yes, Highness. It is a banned topic, just like the Jedi."
"The Jedi?" Leia asked, astonished. Although her father had spoken of the Jedi with fond reminiscence, it was a topic she'd been forbidden to mention outside the safe space of her parent's rooms. The old religion was banned under the Empire, and even mentioning it could bring the wrong kind of attention.
Venn nodded solemnly, "Please do take care, Ma'am. You've only just arrived and I'd hate for you to have to explain yourself to the ISB."
"Yeah," Leia breathed, thinking of the Imperial Security Bureau which she knew of only by reputation.
"But— Mara said that Lord Vader is a Sith Lord, how could that be?"
Venn looked hesitant, but apparently decided to satisfy Leia's curiosity. "I've served with Lord Vader. He can do things an ordinary person would find impossible. I think that's what it means." Venn shivered at some memory.
"I saw him training with Mara yesterday, he just pushed her through the air without touching her."
Venn nodded, "Things like that. The senior officers told me it is the Force."
"The Force," Leia repeated, wondering. "I guess that's another term I'd get in trouble for searching on the Holonet?"
Venn coughed, "Yeah. I mean, yes, Ma'am. I don't recommend it. "
Leia decided to just ask Mara Jade.
Her friend showed up later in the afternoon, at which time Venn excused herself.
"You have a thing, tonight."
"A thing?" Leia repeated, amused.
Mara shrugged, "A state dinner. Fancy dress, boring conversation, good food."
"Are you coming, too?"
Mara nodded, "I'm on duty listening for my master. So I'll be around."
"Listening?"
Mara nodded, "It is one of the ways I serve my Master. I listen to people's conversations and read their intentions."
Leia did a double take at that, "How the kriff do you do that?"
"I'm Force-sensitive." Mara explained as though Leia was supposed to know what that meant.
"Okay, I have to ask, what is the Force?"
Mara laughed, "It's everything. But most people can't even feel it. That's why the Emperor chose me, because I can feel it and use it."
"Like Vader?"
Mara considered the question, "Someday, if I keep training, I hope I'll be half as strong as he is."
"What kind of stuff can you do?"
Mara grinned and reached out her hand, a piece of fruit came flying into her hand from where it had been set in a bowl on Leia's table.
Leia couldn't help but gasp, "That's some trick!"
Mara seemed pleased, "I figured it was okay to show you, since you saw me training with Lord Vader yesterday. But I can't do much when out in public. People aren't to know I'm Force-sensitive."
Leia understood that much, "It seems like a touchy subject."
Mara took a bite out of the fruit in her hand, "People don't believe in the Force anymore. My master says that's for the best."
"I think it is amazing." Leia breathed, "You're like a Jedi!"
Mara's face drained of color. "Never say that. I'm nothing like a Jedi."
"Sorry."
Mara sighed, "Okay, so you know the Jedi used the Force, but not everyone who uses the Force is a Jedi, okay?"
"Okay." Leia agreed, filing this information away. "So you're a Sith?"
Mara grimaced, "No. Just an acolyte. Kriff, I need to watch what I say around you. You don't know anything."
Leia was hurt by that, "That just keeps in me the dark. How about you tell me about the things I don't understand so I don't say the wrong thing in court."
Mara calmed, then a wicked smiled flashed across her face, "If you ever called Vader a Jedi he would kill you instantly, princess or not."
Leia swallowed, it was the second time Mara had hinted that Vader was a killer. "See? I might have said that. Now I know better."
Mara smiled, "Fine. Vader and the Emperor are the Sith. There can only ever be two. I'm training in the dark side, but I'm not a real Sith."
"The dark side," Leia repeated, trying to figure out what that could mean.
Mara rolled her eyes, "The force is split into Dark and Light. Sith use the dark and Jedi use the light."
Leia considered that, "Wait, the emperor is a Sith, too?"
Mara laughed outright, "A really, really powerful one. He's the master, Vader's his apprentice."
Leia wondered how she had gone thirteen years in the Empire without knowing that their emperor had some sort of bizarre magical powers. The Force, she guessed, was why Bail Organa had told her to stay away from Vader. But, did her father know that the emperor had the Force, too?
Leia didn't get to sit with Mara at the dinner. In fact, the person opposite her was easily the very last person she wanted to talk to, maybe even less than Vader or the Emperor himself. For some reason, Moff Wilhuff Tarkin had wanted Leia at his table, and she suspected it was so he could gloat.
"Ah, the Alderaanian heir." He drawled, voice coldly amused as he exchanged glances with the other officers and courtiers at their table. At least, Leia reassured herself, the emperor was far way on the other side of the room.
"Good evening Moff Tarkin." Leia said softly, trying to behave as a princess should.
"I hope you are enjoying your time here on Imperial Center?" Tarkin prodded.
In fact, Leia was enjoying her time, but that wasn't what Tarkin wanted to hear, she was sure. "Sir, I miss my family on Alderaan."
Tarkin smirked, "By the time you see them again, perhaps you'll be a properly trained Imperial citizen."
Leia fought a flush of anger, "Yes, sir, as you say."
Tarkin pointedly ignored her for the rest of the evening, trading conversation with the officers at their table, and leaving Leia to pick at her food. It was as good as Mara had said it would be.