Mordivai was chained to the porch for the rest of the night, tethered by his new Force-dampening collar like a misbehaved pet. He was given food and water in the morning, but it was in bowls with no utensils. Ai'lanynn brought the meals out to him, her face apologetic. Mordivai sat with his back against the house wall and refused to look at her.

She knelt at his side, looking around briefly to make sure she wasn't being watched. "A Jedi," she whispered. "And to think I've known you all this time."

Mordivai stole her a glance. Her eyes were roaming his face curiously. "You bested Lord Shastine," she said, clear amazement coloring her voice. "Things may get worse for a while. Be strong." She stood as if to go but paused and knelt back down again. "You are the bravest person I know, Mordivai." She kissed him on the cheek and left.

He didn't feel very brave that night, however. Lord Shastine held a social gathering with two other Sith, one woman and one man, and he was paraded around like a prize in front of them, forced to endure their jesting and listen to hints of all the disturbing things they looked forward to doing to him later that evening. It did not go unnoticed, however, that Shastine was limping and had a fresh wound across her right cheek, whereas Mordivai was unscathed. They had questions and began to probe Shastine for more details of their fight.

"Well, he's captured here before you isn't he? That speaks for itself." Shastine stroked her long nails through his hair as he knelt beside her chair, the chain to his collar in her other hand.

"But he gave you a run for his money, didn't he?" The male Sith who had spoken was sprawled on a couch, although at the moment, all Mordivai could see of him was his steel-toed black boots. "I wish I could have seen that duel."

"Oh, why wait 'til tonight?" the woman said, her voice practically a squeal. "Let's make him dance with us now. See what he's capable of. What's he going to do, anyway? There's three of us and one of him."

"Yes," said the man. His black boots slid together as he rose from the couch and began to walk towards Mordivai. "I like that idea." He took the chain right out of Shastine's hand, ignoring her protests, and pulled Mordivai to his feet. Unable to resist, Mordivai snuck a peek upwards at this new Sith. He was middle-aged, tall and wiry, with a long face made more dramatic by two symmetrical tattoos under his eyes and a complete lack of hair. A slow smile was spreading across his face.

"Let's take his collar off. Have him give us a bit of sport."

Only Shastine did not seem to share their enthusiasm. "No! What fun would that be, Kertrin? Besides, I don't want him damaged or we won't be able to play other games with him later."

"Shastine," the man named Kertrin said, dragging her name out long and slow. "If I didn't know better, I'd say you sound afraid of this Jedi."

"Don't be silly."

Kertrin gripped Mordivai's chain where it joined to his neck and yanked him forward so that his head was almost against Kertrin's shoulder. He breathed deeply, and Mordivai got the disturbing feeling that he was assessing him somehow, breathing in his very essence and judging its quality.

"Oh, yes," he said, sighing. "The Force is vibrant within him. But this collar is surely in the way."

There was a faint clink and the collar fell away, landing on the floor. Kertrin stepped back, a satisfied smile on his face.

"Defend yourself, Jedi."

With only that warning, Mordivai was thrown back against the wall and pinned there by a surge of dark energy. Kertrin held his hand in the air, slowing clenching his fist and crushing Mordivai's wind pipe.

"Damn it, Kertrin!" Shastine jumped to her feet. "Not in the house!"

"All right then." Kertrin dropped his hand and Mordivai fell to the floor. He was slowly climbing to his feet, still trying to process what it meant that he was free of the collar, when Kertrin spoke again, his voice low and menacing.

"You better run, Jedi slave."

The other woman laughed and threw her hands in the air. Lightning danced across her fingertips.

Mordivai turned and bolted from the room.

The door, get out the front door. Mordivai's feet barely touched the ground as he soared down a hallway. Behind him he could hear Shastine screaming, "Don't you dare kill him!"

He reached the door and threw himself at it, directing Force energy into his assault, and it blew off its hinges, metal shrieking and groaning as it broke out of shape. There was a yelp nearby and Mordivai spotted Ai'lanynn standing by the door, her hands clapped against her mouth.

How long had it been since he'd not worn a slave collar? Mordivai felt light as air, fear and urgency buoying his strides. He leapt straight over the porch stairs and headed across the lawn.

Next thing he knew, his chin slammed into the ground and he was eating dirt and tasting blood. He tried to move, but it was like running through water. With great effort, he flipped his onto his back, just in time to see Kertrin sailing through the air towards him, looking like he meant to flatten Mordivai's face into the ground with the soles of his boots.

Mordivai threw out a barrier of Force energy, encircling himself like a bubble, and Kertrin skidded over him ineffectually, disappearing over his head and rolling across the ground behind him. Mordivai limbs were his own again, and he jumped to his feet. Lightning streaked overhead, pelting the earth around him and throwing up dirt. Mordivai dodged each strike as he ran, trying to outdistance the storm. Then a figure materialized in front of him, the other female Sith, her face contorted into a hideous grin of enthusiasm. She stood before him with her hand outstretched, and Mordivai, with no time to stop, blundered headlong into her wall of Force power. He fell to the ground.

He looked up and spotted Shastine a short ways away, her arms outstretched in preparation for another barrage of lightning. There was a lightsaber on her hip.

Mordivai called it to him and it soared easily into his open hand. He jumped to his feet and lit it up with a buzz. All three Sith surrounded him.

"Ohh," Kertrin said, sounding breathlessly excited. "Our little Jedi has upped the stakes. Tell me again how you captured him Shastine? Seems he's disarmed you already."

Kertrin crossed his arms, reaching onto his belt, and two lightsabers came to life in his hands.

"No more of this!" Shastine cried. "I call an end to the game. You'll damage him."

The last word had barely left Shastine's lips when Mordivai was shocked into statis, his limbs freezing up and his body shaking out his control. Shastine's female friend walked up to him and calmly removed the lightsaber from his hand.

"I would have liked to see you duel him, Kertrin, but Shastine is right." she said. "I'd rather save him for after dessert." She laughed, clearly tickled by her own humor.

Kertrin sheathed his lightsabers and held up his hands. "Shastine, you can't keep a Force-sensitive slave. You know that. He must die." He paused, and gave Mordivai a wicked look, "Or, he must be sent to Korriban. That is the law."

"No!" Shastine shook her head emphatically, her prodigious curls bouncing like a doll's. "You can't just take him away from me. He's bought and paid for!"

"Take up your complaint with the slaver who sold him. I'm sure you can get another," Kertrin said. "Besides, this little Jedi seems rather clever. He might make a fine Sith."

Minutes earlier, Mordivai couldn't have imagined a worse fate than to be chained to Shastine as her personal entertainment. But at Kertrin's words, a dark abyss opened beneath him, and his stomach lurched as if he had already fallen in. Forced to go to Korriban and become Sith. Or die.

"Delicious," Kertrin drawled. "Can't you just taste his fear?"

"You can't send him away," Shastine said.

"I have a transport leaving for Korriban tonight with room for additional cargo. I won't even charge you, Shastine." He chuckled.

Mordivai felt the panic welling in him like a geyser building in power, like walls closing in, like fear itself taking over his mind. He let out a yell and threw out a wave of Force power in a circle around him. Shastine and the other woman were blown backwards, but Kertrin remained standing. Mordivai tried to run, but an invisible noose appeared around his throat. He hung in the air, kicking madly and clawing at the ring of Force power, his vision getting spotty and his world going dark.

Kertrin approached and came around to face him. His red ringed eyes held his, a terrible smiling curling the corners of his lips. It was the last thing that Mordivai saw before he lost consciousness.

00o00

A Rattataki slave met Mordivai in the hangar bay on Korriban as soon as he stepped off of Kertrin's transport. Mordivai was led into a back room where more slaves wordlessly helped him into a new set of clothes, which were sturdy yet plain, and fitted him with a pair of well-made boots. They ignored Mordivai's attempts to question them, refusing to even meet his eye. One of them cut his hair, quickly and with little attention to style, so that where it once reached past his shoulders, it now was chin-length. A slave gave him a scabbard and led him into a weapons store room, where he was handed a pathetic excuse for a vibroblade, with a taped up hilt. Lastly, they removed his collar.

"Better hurry acolyte," the slave said. "The overseer is waiting for you."

The slave led Mordivai out a door, then turned and locked the door behind him, leaving Mordivai alone outside in the searing desert heat. A long metal ramp led down onto a dirt trail that quickly disappeared around a towering rock ledge. Mordivai followed it.

He had heard the rumors that the Empire had taken to pulling anyone with Force sensitivity off the streets and thrusting them into training at Korriban, but had not understood the news as literal until that moment. A ragtag band of new acolytes awaited him at gathering point at the end of the trail, all of them dressed as he was and carrying similar weapons. They hardly looked like future Sith; one of them had skin tanned dark from the sun, with a conspicuous white ring around his neck where a slave collar had recently been. Many of them looked malnourished, confused, or openly terrified.

A Sith lord stood in front of the group, with nothing but a vast expanse of desert behind him. There was no sign of the academy.

"Well, here's our latecomer. Think you are better than the rest of us, Jedi?" The Sith's face was set in a sneer, and already the eyes of the other acolytes were narrowing at Mordivai in distrust.

"I am Overseer Harkun," the Sith said. "I'm tasked with sorting through you refuse to determine which ones of you have what it takes to be called Sith. Firstly, however, you have to make it to the academy." He gestured behind him. "Make it alive across the desert and you will be considered worthy to begin training. Most of you will perish of course. If the Tuk'ata hounds don't eat your pathetic carcasses, then the Shyracks will probably pick you apart. Anyone who makes it will find me waiting on the other side."

He kicked at a box at his feet. "In here you will find rations for the night and a few supplies. I'd wish you luck, but I doubt it would do you any good." He stepped back and nodded at the acolyte closest to the box. "Don't just stand there now, get moving!"

Inside the box was a mish-mash of supplies thrown together in unequal quantities. Mordivai grabbed some water and a handful of ration bars, but when he went to reach for a small glowrod, it was snatched out from under his grasp by another acolyte, who gave Mordivai a smug twist of her lip. Mordivai grabbed the last of several small belt pouches, which he was pleased to see contained a tiny medkit. He stepped back, content with his picks.

A female voice spoke up. "Overseer, there isn't enough water for each of us."

"Well, I expect you'll have to take one from someone who is less deserving, now won't you?"

The girl's face fell and she looked down at her feet, while the others shuffled uncomfortably around her.

"All right," Harkun announced. "The first six of you go now and get out of my sight. If I can still see you five minutes from now, I will instruct the next six to hunt you down."

Mordivai was in the second group, forced to wait in the scorching sun while the first six acolytes ran down the ridge and gradually disappeared among the crags and bony rocks of the desert. When at last it was his group's turn to go, Harken thrust out a hand.

"Not yet, Jedi, not you."

Mordivai stopped, and one of the other acolytes, the girl with no water, glanced back at him with a look of sympathy before continuing on.

"I have something for you," Harkun said.

Harkun's fist swung out so fast, that even Mordivai's Jedi reflexes weren't enough to save him from the blow. For a moment there was a bloom of pain across his face and then the sun tilted in the sky. When Mordivai blinked again, he was laying on the ground. He opened and closed his mouth experimentally and decided that nothing had been broken. He would have quite a bruise by tonight however.

"There," Harkun said, rubbing his hand. "That's to even the odds a little. Now go away and may the desert swallow you."

Happy New Year everyone!