Chapter 27: Captive

The bright blue glow of the lightsaber lit up his vision. Mordivai threw out his hands in a gesture of surrender.

"Wait!"

In the dark room, Mordivai could just make out the face of the Togruta he had seen earlier. She had dark skin that blended her into the shadows, but from what Mordivai could see of her face, she looked around his age.

"What are you? Some relic thief? Leave now and I'll let you go with your life."

"I'm not a thief. I'm...I'm here for the ghost."

She looked taken aback. "The Sith spirit? What do you want with him? Are you a Sith too?"

"I am a scholar," Mordivai answered. That was sort of true. "I just want to ask him some questions."

"He won't talk to you." She kept the lightsaber level with his chin.

"How do you know? I haven't even tried yet."

"He will only speak to me."

"Why?"

At this, the Jedi looked uncomfortable. Then she raised her voice and yelled loud enough for the other Jedi outside the building to hear. "Master Ryen! Master Ocera!"

"The Imperial authorities know a group of Jedi are here," Mordivai said, talking quickly. "If I go missing they'll send someone for me." Mordivai wasn't sure if this were true, but these Jedi were indeed on Taris illegally, and surely they would fear discovery.

"I don't bargain with thieves," she said, then added, "or scholars."

A shadow darkened the wall as a Jedi approached the open doorway from outside.

Mordivai climbed to his feet and pushed aside his robe to pull his lightsaber from his belt, then lit it and slid into a combat stance. He didn't want to give himself away so soon, but it was one thing to try and talk his way out of trouble with this Padawan, and quite another to get away with it on a Jedi master.

"I don't want to fight any-" he started to say.

"Is everything all right, Ashara?" The human Jedi came around the corner, spotted Mordivai, and in a split second his face changed, turning hard as stone. He flipped aside his robe and reached for his own lightsaber, immediately igniting the blade and leveling it at Mordivai.

"Get back Ashara," Master Ocera said.

The Togruta alternated her gaze from one to the other and melded back against a nearby wall. Just then, the sound of another saber being drawn reached Mordivai's ears, and the Cathar Jedi entered the room.

Mordivai was cornered. How could he realistically survive against two Jedi masters?

"Drop your weapon Sith," the Cathar said, "and we won't hurt you."

Mordivai hesitated, thoughts racing through his head. The Jedi at least were fair to their captives.

"Drop it!" Master Ocera barked.

The twin blades slid back into the hilt and Mordivai let his dualsaber fall to the ground at his feet. He held out his hands.

"Kick it to me," Master Ocera ordered.

Mordivai did so. The Jedi gestured for Ashara to retrieve it, while the Cathar automatically took a step forward in a gesture that told Mordivai not to try anything.

"Get the cuffs Ryen," Ocera said. "I'll hold him." The Cathar nodded and left the room. "What are you doing here?" The Jedi glanced up at the hole in the ceiling where Mordivai had dropped from and then back down again.

"I never wanted any trouble," Mordivai said.

"Answer the question!"

Ashara spoke up. "He wanted the Sith ghost."

Ocera nodded. "For no good purpose I assume."

"It's a personal matter," Mordivai said. "Nothing to do with you."

"Everything you do concerns me, Sith."

Master Ryen returned carrying two sets of binders. Mordivai guessed they were Force-resistant.

"Turn around and face the wall," Ocera ordered. "Put your hands behind you."

Reluctantly, Mordivai did as he was told. Behind him, he sensed the Cathar approach. Then his wrists were quickly bound into the cuffs.

"You're too young for this life, son," Ryen said quietly by his ear. There was regret in his voice.

"Where are the others?" Ocera asked.

Mordivai slowly turned back around to face him. "There are no others. I came alone."

"You expect me to believe you are really that stupid?"

Mordivai said nothing, refusing to let the Jedi goad him.

"I'll search the area," Ryen said. Then he turned back to Mordivai. "Sit down."

Mordivai stared at him a moment, and then noticed the second set of binders. They meant to cuff his legs. He suppressed a sigh and slid down the wall until he was on the ground. Ryen locked the binders around his ankles, then gestured to Ashara and left the room. She gave him one last furtive look and followed him out.

Master Ocera sheathed his lightsaber and crossed his arms, staring down Mordivai. For long minutes neither of them said anything. Then Master Ryen returned, this time carrying a small lamp, which he set on the ground to better illuminate the room.

"There's no one in the surrounding forest," he said, "or if there was, they have moved on."

Ocera nodded. "Your friends have abandoned you, like the typical cowards they are."

Mordivai let out a huff and turned his face away. "I told you. I came alone."

Out of the corner of his vision, Master Ocera lunged forward and Mordivai flinched, expecting a blow. The Jedi grabbed the top of his hood and yanked it back, exposing Mordivai's face. Then he stepped back again. The two Jedi silently studied him.

"Only an apprentice, surely," Ryen said.

"But already scarred. Looks can be deceiving."

Ryen made a noise of assent. "You going to watch him? I can get the sentry alarm."

"Oh yes. He's not going out of my sight."

Ryen nodded and left the room. Ocera stared at Mordivai and Mordivai stared back.

The young Togruta Padawan came into the room next. "What are we going to do with him, Master Ocera?"

"That's for us to discuss, Ashara. Go back outside with your master."

Ashara's shoulders rose and fell briefly in a silent sigh and then she left. Ocera stood before Mordivai like a silent sentinel, as solid as a statue.

"What are you going to do with me?" Mordivai asked.

"If I have my way," Ocera said, smug satisfaction thick in his voice, "we will bring you to Coruscant for trial."

"What crime have I committed? You are the ones trespassing on Imperial soil."

Ocera's eyes flashed and his face grew grim. Mordivai could sense his agitation through the Force although he quickly harnessed it back under control.

"You are a Sith. That is crime enough."

Master Ryen stepped back into the room again, this time carrying a small electronic sphere. He tossed it into the air in front of Mordivai and it bounced a moment and then hovered there. Ryen pressed a small button in the back and a red energy field sprouted from the sphere, creating a faint wall before it. Since Mordivai was already wedged into a corner, the wall effectively cut him off, trapping him there.

"There we go," Ocera said. "You so much as a breathe too loud, Sith, and we will know. That trip alarm senses both vibrations and heat. That little corner is your make-shift cell now."

Master Ocera remained to watch over him for a while longer, but then the second Padawan entered, a young human who Mordivai had only glimpsed earlier from his rooftop perch.

"Stew's ready Master Ocera."

Ocera nodded. He gave Mordivai a withering look and left to follow the boy out. Mordivai sat alone on the ground and contemplated his predicament. He couldn't let them take him to Coruscant. He wasn't sure what fate awaited him there, but he had had enough of being traded as a prisoner back and forth between the Empire and the Republic. Would Praven help him at all, or would he be unable, or even unwilling, to intervene? Mordivai worked on escape plans but ended up twisting his brain into knots trying to figure out how to get past the sentry alarm. He could see no way out other than to fight his way out. And that was dangerous. Very much so.

If enough time passed, Khem would notice his absence, and hopefully would come looking for him. He had told Khem of his change of plans in coming here, hadn't he?

Mordivai sat with his back against the wall, and drifted into a sort of half-sleep. Gradually he became aware that he was catching snippets of conversation as the Jedi sat around their campfire outside. The two masters were having a disagreement about what to do with him. Ocera favored taking him off Taris as their prisoner, while Ryen felt that was too risky and suggested that they simply free him and leave the planet before they were discovered. Mordivai was straining to hear Ocera's response, when he became aware that someone else was in the room with him.

He lifted his head and saw Ashara standing just outside the energy field holding something in her hand. She knelt down and carefully reached under the energy wall - it didn't entirely reach the ground - and set a bundle draped in cloth in front of Mordivai. It was fry bread, with steam still coming off of it. Mordivai stared at it longingly. With his hands secured behind his back, he had no way of eating it other than to lay down and then...what? Was he supposed to stick his face in it like a dog?

"Ashara!" Master Ryen appeared in the doorway. "You should not be in here."

"I was just bringing him a bit of bread. Shouldn't Jedi show compassion?"

"Your kindness is noted. I don't want you speaking to the Sith though. It's not wise."

Ashara slipped away and Mordivai was alone again. The bread was creating a tantalizing smell. Then Mordivai was reminded of the time Shatine chained him outside on her porch and made him eat from a bowl on the floor, and his appetite soured. He was no slave and was not willing to throw away his dignity just yet.

Sometime later Master Ryen entered, shut off the alarm field and offered to take Mordivai outside to relieve himself. When Mordivai reminded him that he would need his hands free in order to take care of business, Ryen released him with some words of warning.

"I have killed half a dozen Sith," he said with such a quiet calm that you'd think he was discussing the weather. "You can't trick me." He punctuated this with the sound of his lightsaber being lit behind Mordivai's back. Mordivai did what he had come for as quickly as possible and then let Ryen rebind him with the cuffs. Ocera may have been full of bravado, but Ryen's unassuming self-assurance reminded Mordivai that even the most peace-loving Jedi was still dangerous.

Mordivai did brave asking for one favor, but Ryen denied him before he barely finished stating his request.

"No," he said simply. "Your hands stay behind your back. You'll just have to manage."

Mordivai was returned to his corner and the energy gate restored into place. As night grew deeper, Mordivai realized that the Jedi were going to sleep outside. Apparently, they'd rather face rakghouls than sleep in the same room with a restless Sith spirit.

Mordivai slumped against the wall with his chin propped on his chest and tried to doze. His shoulders were already aching from the forced confinement, however, and his stomach was rumbling. He closed his eyes and tried to clear his mind.

Someone was watching him. His eyes sprang open and he jerked fully awake. Ashara was in the doorway, peering in.

"Am I the first Sith you've seen or something?" Mordivai couldn't keep the contempt from his voice.

Ashara shrugged and her skin darkened a shade. "I guess."

So he was more on the mark than he realized. "Not very intimidating am I?"

She crept closer and looked down at him. "You can't eat that bread I brought you, can you?"

"Not unless you want to see me smash my face into the floor getting to it."

Ashara winced and gave him an apologetic smile. "Is it true that you are just a scholar?"

Mordivai sighed. "A scholar? Yes. Just a scholar? No. I do know how to use that lightsaber you took from me."

"I was right not to trust you then. What would you have done if I hadn't happened upon you?"

"I would have spoken to the ghost and then left. You would have never known I was here."

"What do you want with the ghost?"

"Answers."

She waved a hand dismissively. "Obviously. But answers to what?"

Mordivai gave her a sideways look. "I think those are questions your masters wouldn't want you asking, don't you think?"

She frowned. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Surely whatever I have to say would be a corrupting influence. Your Jedi masters shooed you away twice now from me. They don't trust you near me."

"Master Ryen is right to want to protect me."

"He doesn't trust you to protect yourself?"

Ashara crossed her arms over her chest. "I appreciate his guidance. And I trust his judgement."

"Yet," Mordivai said, "you are still here. With me."

Ashara stiffened. "What do you know of Jedi ways?"

"Quite a bit actually." Mordivai gave her a cryptic smile.

Ashara crossed her arms. "I find that hard to believe. You look barely older than me."

"And how old is that?"

"I'm twenty."

"I'm nearing twenty-two."

"We're practically the same age then. You couldn't have met many Jedi yet."

"I have known many Jedi. My former master was one of them and so was I." After spending so long feeling conflicted about this fact, Mordivai found it strangely freeing to admit to it now.

Ashara jerked backwards as if she had been slapped. "You...you were a Padawan once? But...why? Why leave?"

The Sith Code flashed in Mordivai's head. He smiled at Ashara and gave her a steady look. "The Force has freed me."

"You could be lying."

Mordivai shrugged, or tried to anyway before the cuffs stopped him. "Your master keeps you on a short leash."

Ashara raised her chin and gave him a steady glare. "Maybe if yours had been more cautious, you wouldn't be here today, a prisoner and a Sith."

Mordivai gave her a rueful smile and said nothing.

"It's not like you think," Asahar said suddenly. "My situation is different. I have a….a history."

"What do you mean?"

"The Sith ghost here? He is my ancestor. My family were Sith once. Master Ryen only wants to protect me from that fate."

The ancestor knows. Mordivai was more sure than ever now that this was the ghost he was meant to find. While he needed to escape, he was reminded of the urgency of his purpose here. He had to talk to the Sith spirit.

"We have something in common then. I come from a family of Sith as well."

Ashara's face grimaced in distaste. "Then my master is right to be so cautious."

"Why did he take you here? To a site so haunted by dark side energies?"

"We are trying to banish the ghost. Since he will only speak to me, that means the task is mostly mine to fulfil." She paused and looked down at her feet. "In truth, this is part of my trials."

They were quiet a moment until Mordivai spoke.

"I can help you with that, you know."

Ashara's head shot up. "You're just trying to trick me."

"No. We both want the same thing. It's simply really, and it hurts no one."

"No." Asahara held out a hand as if to push him physically away. "It's my trial. I can't get help."

"Then help me instead."

She stared at him. "You know I can't do that."

"I need to speak to the ghost. That's all I ask."

"I...I don't know," Ashara looked away and toed a rock on the floor. "It's probably not safe."

"Your Sith ghost won't hurt me."

"That's not what I meant."

"I'll make sure you are safe from the ghost then. I won't let it harm you."

Ashara looked up, her face serious. "You might not have that power."

"Fine," Mordivai said. He felt tired and deflated. He let his head fall back against the wall. "Your masters captured me just because they wanted to. Not because I was doing anything wrong."

"You're a Sith."

"You would imprison someone simply for who they are and not for what they have done?"

Ashara looked uncomfortable. "It's not my place..."

Mordivai raised his head and studied her. She fidgeted and looked away.

"Do you…" Ashara struggled a moment, not meeting his eyes. "...do you want help with that bread? I can hold it for you if you want."

Mordivai's mind flashed through his options and then decided a little awkwardness was worth a full stomach. "I would appreciate that. Thanks."

She reached up and touched the alarm sphere. The red energy wall blinked out.

"Don't do anything to make me regret this."

"I'm not foolish enough to take on four Jedi," Mordivai said.

She slid over to his corner and knelt down beside him. Mordivai watched her pick up the fry bread and hold it out to him. He leaned forward and took a bite. It was cold now, but the edges were still crispy and the insides were soft as a cloud. Mordivai closed his eyes and chewed slowly.

She continued to feed him until the bread was gone. As he took the last bite from her fingertips, she yanked her hand away as if accidentally touching him might burn her. Mordivai pretended he hadn't noticed. He found himself glancing at the water bottle she had hooked to her belt.

She followed his gaze and looked down. "Um, you want some of my water? I already drank from it."

"You think I care about that right now?"

"Right. Of course not." She uncorked the top and carefully tilted the bottle against his mouth. Mordivai guzzled down as much as he could before she took it away.

"Aren't you afraid being captured in the hands of the enemy like this? All alone?" Ashara rehooked the bottle to her belt and shot him a glance.

"I have been a prisoner before. And worse."

Ashara stood and reanimated the energy wall. "I'm sorry this happened to you. You don't seem like a bad person." She gave him one last lingering look and then left.

A/N: So, Ashara has finally made her appearance! I use customization #4 on my Ashara, so that's the look she has in this story. (Dark purple skin, maroon montrals, pale blue markings.) As you have probably noticed, this story does not follow the in game time-line, where by now, the end of Act I would have occurred. I just wanted to focus on a few specific aspects of the story, and I didn't want to feel locked into a blow by blow of the game's plot. Also, by the end of Act III, the game has your character as practically a god, and a Dark Council member to boot, which didn't fit at all with the vision I had for Mordivai. He's still too young to ascend to such heights so fast and I wanted to leave more room for him to grow. So, here we are on Taris, and Zash is still our main villain.