Much to Lorash's relief as she was forced down into a chair by two guards, Seia was at her side. The sith warrior still didn't look good, pale with dark circles under her golden eyes, but the seething rage inside of her and her customary arrogance kept her upright in her seat. It was impressive how effectively she could look down her nose at the standing guards from her seated position.

Szorda Zul stood in front of them, a craggy-faced man in his mid-forties, bare arms still hard and muscular. He wore a dark robe not unlike Seia's, though he'd shed the outer part and the majority of the armor. Accented with red silk, it seemed more formal or just extravagant, Lorash didn't know which. He was clean shaven with a large burn scar down his face, the eye on that side hidden behind a black silken patch emblazoned with a sith symbol in crimson.

He smiled at them, flint eyes touched at the corners by real pleasure. "This is an unexpected surprise, Miss Entaira. My intelligence suggested you were no longer with the crew."

Lorash straightened up. "I came to warn them."

"How valiant." He turned to face Seia, a combination of fascination and admiration playing across his face for a moment. "It is a unique honor to stand in the presence of one so steeped in the Dark Side, Mistress. Your power and fury is something to be feared, according to my apprentices."

Seia's lip curled at the mere thought of Zul's students. "I hope you corrected them both for miserable failure."

"Dren was punished. Rafan met a rather more unfortunate fate, as his failure was the more, shall we say, spectacular. I suppose that is the wisdom of having only a master and a single apprentice." Zul took a seat across from them. "It seems to me that it would be foolish to make an enemy of you, Mistress. There is much we can learn from the techniques lost to us by time. Might I ask your name?"

"Seia Zadar." The sith warrior seemed almost relaxed, something that put Lorash slightly more on edge.

Zul's eyes widened for a split second. "That name…you were with Darth Malgus when Coruscant was conquered and the Jedi Temple sacked, in the days of the Old Republic."

Seia rolled her shoulders, a smirk playing across her lips. "Yes, a rare pleasure. It gave me the opportunity to display my skills against the best the jedi had to offer."

"Join me, Lord Zadar," Zul said. "An inquisitor of your power could ensure the rule of the Empire goes unchallenged forever."

A brief, strange moment passed between the pair of Sith. Zul seemed intensely focused on Seia, his posture growing more and more tense. By contrast, the warrior seemed to relax, crossing her arms casually across her chest. Lorash suspected some battle of wills, but it passed after a moment.

Seia's hooded eyes remained calculating. "Would my servants be returned to me? I find their manhandling insulting."

"The mirialian and the wookie? Of course. You will have great need of a good pilot and engineer if you are to pursue the jedi into their holes, as I do." Zul seemed pleased that she was even considering it.

"And the padawan?" Seia said sharply.

"She will be transferred to my custody, fitted with a shock collar, and dealt with appropriately." Zul said it with a reptilian calm.

The padawan felt the sith warrior's temper boil upwards like the lava of a volcano, but somehow it miraculously didn't surface yet. Instead the fire burned inside Seia so intensely that Lorash had to avert her senses.

Seia's voice cut the air like a razor. "Absolutely not."

Lorash took a deep breath as the inquisitor's eyes turned towards her, trying to find her calm center. She sensed his mind in motion, a flash of a needle of rage towards her. Nabeila's tranquil presence guided her around it like water without a word, but the jedi master hidden in her own mind gave her no explanation about what attack she'd just dodged.

"I have many questions for her. The Jedi must be eliminated and she no doubt has a master to reveal, whatever persuasion that requires," Zul said. The way he said it implied all the tortures Lorash knew awaited her before her death. He seemed intensely displeased.

Seia whispered in Lorash's mind. I can see into his thoughts. He is a master of manipulation, not of sense. If he gets you away from my power, your mind will not be your own. He found his failure to influence me rather frustrating, but I am not confident you could endure him for long without more training. I need you to trust me. The anger was still there, brutal and scorching, but not directed at Lorash. Seia was barely riding the edge of her control of her emotions right now.

Lorash took another deep breath. You know that I do.

"She has already divulged the name of her master to me." Seia leaned forward in her seat, the intensity of the Dark Side flaring in her eyes. "This one is mine to guide down any path I see fit. Consider my possession of her a non-negotiable part of my alliance."

Zul looked thoughtfully at Lorash. "She still seems so pure." Something about his word choice made Lorash's skin crawl, but she couldn't focus on it too long when she felt Seia's familiar darkness circling her like a shark.

Seia turned to face Lorash, a smirk playing across her lips. "You trust me, pet, don't you?"

Something about that tone in Seia's voice, dripping with seductive confidence, sent a shiver through Lorash despite the audience. "I-I do." Stumbling on the words was embarrassing, but it seemed to sell whatever agenda Seia wanted to project.

Zul chuckled. "We will put it to a test, then. In six months, I will re-examine her and see if her jedi teachings are still in place. Her master must be brought as well, to be corrected. After all, we must be certain she knows where her loyalties lie."

Seia's lips curved into a small smile. "I like the way you think."

"Regrettably, I must insist on a tracking device in your ship, to make certain you are as intent on enforcing the power of the Dark Side as you say, Lord Zadar. If it is removed I will assume you lied to me and our next conversation will not be as civil."

Seia laughed. "As you wish," she said through slitted eyes. "I appreciate your time for this meeting, and your consideration in keeping your apprentice out of my way."

Zul motioned to his guards. "See Lord Zadar and her pet to her ship. The modifications should be finished."

Seia rose to her feet, powerful and confident despite her fever. Her strength seemed to be returning. She gestured for Lorash to follow. "I expect our lightsabers to be returned."

Zul rose to his feet. "I could have something more powerful crafted for you, Lord Zadar."

"The power is in the wielder, not the blade. It served me well on Coruscant." Seia turned to face him. "Working with the Empire again should be most rewarding."

An armored sergeant brought Seia the lightsabers. She checked hers for any sign of damage, opening the casing to ensure the kyber crystal was still present. Then she did the same for Lorash's.

The inquisitor smiled thinly. "I wish you good hunting, in the Emperor's name."

"In six month's time," Seia said with a nod of her head. "I will meet you on Coruscant."

He laughed. "That seems most appropriate."

Seia and Lorash had no chance to talk unobserved until they returned to their ship. Eso, badly bruised, was already removing listening devices, though he left the tracker on the ship alone. He looked up when they arrived, as Seia handed Lorash her lightsaber. "I thought you weren't serving the Empire," he said accusingly once he'd finished the room they were in.

"I bought us six months with a fiction, though he will have us followed. He was not as naive as his conversation might have seemed. He expects us to go to Lorash's master." Seia's tone was blunt. "I am in no condition to fight him, nor is Lorash trained enough. This gives us an opportunity that imprisonment would not have."

"Oh. Sorry, boss," Eso said, rubbing the back of his neck awkwardly. "Where to?"

"Somewhere I can rest and recover, preferably with a beach," Seia muttered, limping towards her room. Lorash followed close behind her in case she slipped.

"Thank you, Seia," Lorash said softly. "I know it would have been easy to give me to him."

Seia sat down on the edge of her bed. "Come here." Her tone was an order, firm in a way that made that shiver return.

The padawan approached, stopping just in front of Seia.

The sith caught the padawan's hands and brought them forward, grip strong despite her condition. "I do not act out of pity," Seia said sharply. "You said you would not leave me. I will not force you to break that promise by throwing you to Zul. Is that understood?"

Lorash felt a profound gratitude for the sith. "Loud and clear."

Golden eyes focused on her intently, reading over every inch of her face. "Training will resume when more of my strength has returned. That is all." She released Lorash's hands.

The abrupt dismissal was a bit disappointing. There were still a thousand questions running through her head about what had happened in front of the ancient sith bones. "Can we talk about what happened in the ruins?"

Seia sighed, the sound pure exhaustion. Without her anger as a crutch, she seemed even paler than before. "Later." She laid down without waiting for an answer, slipping her arm under the folded blanket she used as a pillow. Everything about Seia's room made no allowance for creature comforts. It reminded Lorash of a cell as she left, turning off the light for Seia.

The padawan made her way forward in the ship and then took a seat in the kitchen, perching on a seat at the small table where the four of them usually ate their meals.

"Could have been worse," Eso muttered as he sat down at the table across from her, holding a pack of ice against his face. "We saw the, uh, conversation over the holo. That's why we have a dent in one of the cargo bay supports now: Dren hit it so hard the metal gave. I, uh, guess I'm glad he didn't do that to my face."

"If Seia hadn't been there…" Lorash drew in a shuddering breath. "The only reason we're alive is that he thinks he can get what he wants from Seia, whatever that is."

"Think she's, uh, telling us everything from his head?"

"No. Would you want to know what a sith inquisitor was thinking about you? Hard pass from me."

Eso chuckled at that, the first sound of amusement Lorash had heard since the flare up with Merga. "Not really, no. So, uh, am I dropping you off at the spaceport with your furry friend?"

Lorash shook her head. "I'm staying with Seia."

"Not that I mean any offense, Lorash, but, uh, why? I mean, you've got a master who wants you to come home and do, uh, whatever it is jedi do, right?"

For a moment, Lorash blinked owlishly at him. "Master Vori will be fine without me," she said finally. "He has the twins."

"You didn't answer the first question."

The jedi padawan shrugged, tracing a thoughtful pattern on the spilled salt on the table's surface. "I promised Seia I wouldn't leave her. She may be sith, but she's saved our lives without really asking for anything besides a place to belong. She's been through a lot more than I can imagine, but I've seen her in the Force. It was kind of…breathtaking. I want to be around her."

"We'll see how you feel the next time she gets moody," Eso said with a grin.

Lorash felt her spirits lifting for the first time since the quarrel. "Please, Seia is a mood."

The pilot adjusted his ice pack against his face. "Careful, I might tell her you said that." He studied the padawan for a long moment, thoughtful. "I don't think she's forgotten about the whole thing with the bothan, but, uh, thanks for whatever you did to make up with her. She was really, really angry when you were gone."

"Sorry about that," Lorash said with a sigh, leaning back in her seat. "I handled it terribly."

"Eh, no autopsy, no foul." Eso sighed. "Life's gonna be real, uh, interesting until we get the Empire off our backs. Zul's going to test us."

"Probably," Lorash agreed reluctantly. "We're working for the Empire, so I'm sure we'll be getting orders one way or another."

Eso smiled grimly. "I'm certain Seia'll love that."