I woke up alone, tucked so tightly into the blankets and sheets that I had to pull them away to be able to sit up. The curtains were closed, so I wasn't sure what time it was, though there was a piece of paper on the nightstand. I reached over, wincing at my sore and stiff muscles, and picked it up.

There was a rudimentary stick figure drawn, with a mess of swirling squiggles on top of its head, and an arrow pointing to it labeled 'your hair'. I brought a hand up to pat my head, and sure enough, felt the poof of frizzy curls. I got up, finding my robe on the foot of the bed, and pulled it on, tying the sash securely around my waist. Before I left, I turned the paper over and drew a rough picture of a horse, with an arrow pointing at its backside labeled 'you'.

Sara had a warm bath waiting for me when I returned to my own room, and I almost told her that I didn't need one, but remembered what Kylo and I were supposed to have done last night, and stripped before stepping in.

She dressed me in a gown that was a crushing blue, and since she didn't have much choice, she braided my hair.

When I opened my door to leave my room, I stopped short, seeing Ushar. He was in the usual head to toe black that all the Knights wore.

He bowed respectfully. "Your majesty."

"Ushar." I said, and cleared my throat when my voice squeaked. "Is there something I can do for you?"

"I've heard that you have agreed to train with Vicrul?" He asked.

I nodded. "Yes, I have."

"I would also like to train you." He offered.

Sara tisked behind me. "The wife of a King? Training with not one, but two men? Lord Ushar, it isn't proper, or appropriate."

His honey brown eyes cut to her. "If I wanted etiquette tips, ma'am, I would've asked."

She gasped, bringing a hand to her ample bosom, and I had to press my lips together to keep from laughing.

His gaze came back to me, waiting.

"I'll go change." I turned to go back into my room, seeing Sara's disapproving glare.

"We won't be doing that kind of training." Ushar said, and I looked back at him. "I'll leave that to Vicrul. He quite enjoys pretending he's the strongest of us."

"Then what will you be teaching me?" I asked.

"The ways of The Force." He answered.

Hand to hand combat from the King's war-lord, and the ways of The Force from his Shadow Guard.

"Your majesty." Sara hissed. "Being with the Knights while your husband is with them is one thing, but going alone would be quite another."

"Kylo doesn't care if I'm alone with his Knight." I argued, and turned to leave.

She caught my arm in an iron grip and pulled me back. "I'm not talking about Kylo." She warned, her voice low.

"Let the court busy bodies have their gossip." I told her, tugging free of her grasp. "I'm going."

I stepped toward Ushar. "Can you really teleport?"

He smiled, and offered me his hand, which I took without hesitation.

Darkness roared, wind whipping at my hair, my gown, the ground falling away from under me, the world disappearing into inky black around me. My stomach dropped, and I would have screamed, if half a second later we weren't standing in the library.

Where I doubled over and vomited into a waste basket.

"I'm sorry." Ushar said. "I always forget to warn people about that."

I went to the closet of a bathroom and washed my mouth out, splashing cool water on my face before I ventured back out. He apologized again as soon as he saw me. "Dont worry about it." I assured him, and looked around. "Aren't we supposed to be in a training room, or a sparring ring?"

"We're going to start with the basics." He explained. "And, that works best where it's quiet. So you can focus."

I nodded. "I'm not sure if I have abilities. If I do, they haven't surfaced."

"Make no mistake, Rey, you have them." He assured me. "And, you don't need abilities for the lesson today."

I nodded again. "What are we doing?"

"Shielding."

My forehead crinkled. "Shielding?"

"Most Force users are telepathic. We can hear thoughts, communicate mind to mind." He said. "I'm going to teach you how to protect yourself against that."

"Why would I need to protect myself?"

"Because a few of the strongest users can go into your mind and destroy it from the inside." He explained, casually. As if what he'd said wasn't absolutely horrific.

"Destroy it…" I gasped. "From the inside?"

He nodded. "We can manipulate memories, feelings. We can rearrange your entire life, your entire sense of self."

I swallowed, feeling as if I was going to vomit again. "You can do this?"

His eyes hardened. "Yes."

"And who else?"

He didn't answer, his gaze unwavering as he stared at me. Because I already knew the answer.

"Kylo." I breathed. On Bespin, when he'd told me that I didn't know him, he'd said that I didn't know about the people he'd killed, tortured. I didn't know about the minds he'd melted. At the time, I thought it was drunken ramblings. But, if he could alter minds, manipulate them, even destroy them from the inside…

I broke out into a clammy sweat as a wave of nausea hit me.

"I was trained as a Shadow Guard, it's when I learned that I had the ability. Snoke used me as his own personal assassin. I didn't have a choice, it was do his dirty work or be killed myself. But, when he found out Kylo had the ability as well, Snoke used him as a fear monger. A way to keep people in line, threatening them with what Kylo could do if they didn't comply."

"Why didn't Kylo refuse?" I asked, my voice shaking. "Snoke wouldn't have killed his only heir."

He leveled his gaze at me, his jaw feathering. "You know why."

I knew because Ap'lek had already told me that Snoke used Kylo's only weakness, the only person he'd ever loved. That he exploited her mercilessly. "Leia."

He nodded grimly.

A tear spilled onto my cheek and I quickly wiped it away. After a few steadying breaths, I nodded for him to begin.

"Build a barrier around your mind." He said. "With your permission, I'll inspect it when it is complete."

I imagined a wall of sand stone, glittering and thick, encompassing my mind, my thoughts.

"Ready?" Ushar asked.

I nodded again.

"This will be unpleasant." He warned.

At first, I wasn't sure what he meant, then I felt it, felt him, like a branding iron in my head, spearing my pathetic little shield like it was nothing. And my mind yielded to him, utterly at his command, my body no longer my own. I couldn't move, I couldn't think.

He retracted, and I stumbled, gripping the side of a nearby table to hold myself upright, sweat beading on my forehead.

Maker above. Kylo could do that? He could go into my mind when he felt like it and completely control my every movement, my every thought, my every breath? He could do anything, and I'd be powerless to stop him. Wouldn't even be able to scream for help. I gasped, realization hitting me harder than Ushar's intrusion had.

This was what everyone thought Kylo was doing to me. This was why they were so desperate to save me from him.

I looked at Ushar with wide eyes, and he nodded, having heard every unspoken word.

"Again." He commanded.

I built another shield, thicker, taller than the last. "Alright."

"You ready?"

I nodded and it was shattered almost immediately, the white hot spear of his power seized everything inside me and took control. Against my volition my body went taught, every muscle straining.

He vanished, leaving me holding onto the table, my body wholly my own.

"Again." He repeated.

I panted as I built another shield, brick by brick, stone by stone, until it was a solid, and a foot thick. "Go." I said to Ushar, and cried out as that shield was reduced to rubble, his power digging in so deep that I felt how easy it would be for him to turn my mind to liquid. Half a thought, and everything that made me who I was would cease to exist.

He withdrew and a chair skidded across the room, seemingly on its own, to rest behind me. I sank heavily into it.

"Again." He said a third time.

"Wait." I pleaded. "I need a minute."

He sat on the edge of the table, and threaded his fingers together in front of him. Several minutes of silence passed before he said, "There's so much you want to know." His honey eyes came to me. "Ask."

I slumped back in my chair, a migraine blooming behind my left eye. "How long have you known Kylo?"

"I met him a few years before he killed Snoke. But, I knew of him long before that. Knew of the alliance between him, Vicrul, and Ap'lek, and knew I wanted to be a part of it." He said. "So, when we met, started working together, we learned that was had more in common than our abilities."

"Like what?"

His face clouded. "I grew up in war camps as well. My mother was a maid that my father forced himself on. He was a general in Snokes army, so was never reprimanded for his crimes against her, and she was mocked and shamed for having me until she died when I was thirteen." His eyes unfocused, as if he was seeing what wasn't there. "I swore to her, before she took her last breath, that I would find him, and I would repay the suffering he'd done to her." He blinked, and glanced over at me. "So, after I discovered what gifts I had, I joined the Shadow Guard, My father happened to be under Ap'lek's command at the time, and from there, it was just a matter of patience."

I waited for him to continue, but he didn't. "What happened?"

He paused, a quiet beat passing between us before he said, "That's between me and him."

"Is he dead?" I asked.

"Very." He growled.

Another silent moment.

"Why do they call you a Shadow Guard?"

His amber eyes didn't leave mine as the shadows around him took life and began to coil around his arms, and in between his fingers.

Primal fear had a chill slithering up my spine. "Do you control them?"

"I dont have to resort to controlling them." He said, as one caressed his cheek, almost lovingly. "I just ask nicely."

I watched, my eyes wide. "What do they do?"

"I'm Kylo's informant." He looked around. "And this is where I get my information."

The all seeing and all hearing shadows. The darkness that lurked in every corner, and followed every step. I let out a huff of air, trying to wrap my mind around it, how valuable that power would be, especially to a king. It was equally terrifying, and I felt like I was face to face with the boogeyman himself.

"Is it all shadows?" I asked, voice small.

He shook his head. "Just those around me. Though I do have spies in other Kingdoms."

I took time to process this, and consider my next question.

"Ap'lek showed me the day that Kylo killed Snoke. When his power was fully unleashed." I tried to block out the images of Kylo sobbing, of the ash and destruction, of the heaps of pulp that had been people. Tried, and failed. "How did you pull him out?"

"He was lost in his grief and guilt, but his shields were down so I went into his mind and just showed him the way."

"So, it wasn't a special power you have that the others dont?"

He thought for a moment. "Ap'lek has the power, he's just not as powerful as I am. Just like I'm not as powerful as Kylo."

"And, Kylo's other ability, the-" I swallowed as my stomach churned. "Disintegrating."

"It's called a few different things, but it's just a telekinetic explosion, and it destroys anything within a radius of the user." He explained.

"Do you have that ability?"

A book floated off of a shelf, and over to us. It hovered above the table in front of us until Ushar brought a hand up, snapped his fingers, and it crumpled into a pile of glittering black dust.

I gasped.

"I can't reduce a building to splinters like he can, but-" He shrugged. "He's terrified of losing control again, of loosening the leash on his power enough to learn how to use it. I'm not, but again, I'm not as powerful as he is."

"Ushar." I scolded. "You can't do that to books."

He looked at the mess on the table, then back at me. "Don't worry, that one was on tax law." He stood up, and took a few steps away from me. "Are you ready?"

My headache was just a dull ache, so I nodded. "Yeah."

I was barely able to walk back to my room after my lesson, my mind feeling like mud. I noticed Sara's scowl, the tight line her lips were pressed into. She opened her mouth but a voice behind her interrupted before she could speak.

"I'll take it from here, Sara." Kylo told her. "You're dismissed."

Her face darkened, but she dipped into a low curtsey, and disappeared down the hall.

Kylo looked me over. "You look like hell."

I gave him the dirtiest look I could muster, but miserably fell short. "Well, you look…"

He raised his eyebrows, waiting.

I sighed, my head pounding, and brought a hand up to rub my temple. I felt an arm go around my shoulders, and one behind my knees, and then I was up, cradled to Kylo's chest as he carried me to his room.

He kicked his door closed and put me on my feet, steadying me when I swayed. Then, he was behind me. "Is it...ok if I touch your hair?"

"My hair?" I asked. "Why do you need permission to touch my hair?"

He let out a low chuckle. "I would be happy to explain, but are you sure you want another lesson today?"

No. I couldnt fit another thing into my head if my life depended on it. "You can touch my hair, and explain later."

"Deal." He said, taking the band out of my hair, and gently pulling his fingers through the plait. I heard the sharp hiss of a zipper, and my gown loosened.

"What are you doing?" I asked.

"I'm getting you ready for bed." He told me, stepping in front of me. He tugged the gown off of my shoulders, and down my arms, leaving me in my silken chemise. Then, he knelt in front of me. "Put your hands on my shoulders."

I obeyed, too exhausted, too drained to question or argue.

His steady hands went to my left thigh, peeling the white nylon stocking down, and off. I braced myself as my weight shifted. Then, to my right thigh, a feather light caress as he pulled the other stocking down, then off.

He looked up, on his knees in front of me.

Despite my fatigue and my throbbing head, my breathing hitched, and I vaguely became aware of the uncomfortable tingle between my legs.

"You're Supreme Leader." I told him, my voice a thick whisper. "You bow before no one."

He wrapped his arms around my legs, holding me. "For you, Rey, I'd gladly spend the rest of my life on my knees." He shifted, and stood, picking me up, and carrying me to his bed.

I laid back as soon as he released me, and he pulled the comforter up, then tucked me in.

"I'll get you something for your head." He said, and turned toward the door.

"Kylo." I called, and he halted, looking back at me.

I brought a hand up to sleepily tap my lips with my pointer finger, and he smiled, coming back to the bed to bend down and press his lips to mine in a tender kiss.

"I'll be right back." He told me.

But I was asleep before he returned.