The galaxy was really a wondrous place, thought Elyrhis. Sitting behind Lord Maul on his beloved Bloodfin, she was on her first speederbike ride. These past few weeks were full of firsts for her.
Her life had settled into a comfortable pattern. Every morning she would wake to find her lord meditating. A service-droid would bring her some breakfast and tea; this was a luxury for Elyrhis, as she was still not used to being served. But she accepted this new aspect readily, for it was much easier to sit and receive food than to scavenge for it in trash cans on dirty street corners with her own hands.
Immediately after breakfast, they proceeded to the training room. Although six straight hours of watching her lord do his athletics did not bore her in the least, Elyrhis had managed to get her hands on some needles and thread, and busied herself during Lord Maul's training hours with mending his robes. She found much of his clothing tattered and singed in places from past battles, the ferocity of which she could only imagine from the state of his clothes. And although there were droids to do his mending, she liked the archaic feel of fixing cloth. It made her feel useful to Lord Maul in a way that she otherwise wouldn't be. She imagined herself a little housewife.
Sometimes during Darth Maul's training sessions Senator Palpatine would grace them with his presence. "A master must keep abreast of his apprentice's progress, after all," he told her. She suspected it was also to see for himself if her so-called Force prowess did indeed have a magnifying effect on Maul's abilities.
If Palpatine came to visit them, they would have a meal together after Darth Maul's training session. Elyrhis found her master's master to be sophisticated and full of interesting things to say. His knowledge was broad and impressive, and his conversations arresting.
"Do you know, my dear," he once said, addressing her over their afternoon meal, "that the Jedi forbid attachments?"
Elyrhis poured tea into his cup, and then into Maul's. "No, er…" At this point she was still unsure as to what she was supposed to call him. On one hand, it wouldn't hurt to call him 'Master', as Maul did, but that wouldn't be entirely right. And 'Lord Sith' or 'Darth Sidious' seemed to imply too little and too much at the same time. In the end she decided that 'Senator' was the safest way to go.
"No, Senator, I didn't know that."
"They believe," said Palpatine over his tea, "that if a Jedi had strong emotions for someone, it would cloud their judgment when they needed it most, and render them incapable of unbiased reason. Such is the foolishness of Jedi, wouldn't you agree, my apprentice?"
"Yes," was Darth Maul's monosyllabic answer. He was usually silent during these meals. He would listen intently, but say little.
"My theory," continued Palpatine, "is that a strong attachment is vital to reaching an individual's secret reservoir of strength. If you can activate your deepest emotions, that reservoir would be tapped, and you would find yourself capable of actions that would previously be completely foreign to you. Passion breeds strength."
Maul and Elyrhis always, without fail, agreed with whatever Palpatine said, for two reasons. The first reason was because there was never a need to disagree; the Sith Lord was never wrong. The second reason was because to disagree with him could spell instant death.
In any case, Palpatine never stayed for very long. Leading a double life required a skillful balance of time and commitments, and as his public life was important and officious, he had to show himself to the world often. Therefore, he always took his leave after their meal.
This left Elyrhis and Maul alone again for a few hours before nightfall. They spent this time in the workshop. Elyrhis had little interest in mechanics, but she enjoyed watching her master using his large, strong hands to manipulate tiny wires and miniscule parts of his weapons. It amazed her that someone so brutal and large was also capable of working the smallest pieces into perfection.
And afterwards, there was every night the best part of the day.
Elyrhis learned that her master could be fast or slow; languorous and languid or fierce and ferocious. His potency amazed her; his virility fascinated her. He had proven himself capable of tenderness as well as violence.
They were now zooming through the driest desert Elyrhis had ever seen in her life. It was a wasteland: there was hardly any vegetation, and absolutely no animals that she could see. She had learned enough from her past weeks of living with Maul that if he didn't want you to know something, you would never learn it.
"Where are we going?" she'd asked as she packed the new clothes Palpatine had acquired for her. She knew only that they would be on a short trip away from Coruscant.
But her question had been met with stony silence.
"Where are we going?" she'd asked again after they'd boarded Maul's private cruiser, a sleek and shiny S-1612 Rex. He piloted it himself.
And again, she was met with silence. A tree was more talkative than her master, she decided then and there. She pitied any enemy who might try to torture him for information. Then again, he would never be caught in a situation like that.
Her master had been decidedly strange throughout the four hours of flight. He spoke not a single word, and his gaze was distant. Elyrhis, giving up, napped.
She woke with a start to find him crouched in front of her. This would not have been so strange if his hand was not right in her face, his thumb pressing gently in the middle of her forehead. She was still bleary from sleep, and blinked at him confusedly.
"Mmm…" he rumbled. It wasn't a word or even a groan. It was like a very deep purr coming from his chest. And then he rose to his feet and said, "Come."
Whereupon he took Bloodfin from the cargo area of the cruiser, and they both got on.
After about another hour of zooming on Bloodfin, Elyrhis began to notice changes in the environment around them. Here and there she saw patches of forests, and sometimes even farms. As they sped along, they seemed to be entering a more densely inhabited area, but it was still nothing like Coruscant, or even her native and poor A'hinc. The buildings were low and squat, and made of earthly materials.
And then Maul began to slow down his speeder. They were approaching a small village, it seemed. It contained a sprinkling of dwellings and a large central square, marked by a pattern of inlaid pebbles. At the very center was a large bonfire, continually kept alive by two small creatures that Elyrhis could not see well from her position behind Maul.
At the edge of the square he stopped Bloodfin and swung his leg off. Elyrhis slid to the ground as well, noticing as she did that their arrival had attracted some of the inhabitants of the village, both adults and younglings, all with red skin and yellow eyes, dressed in barely there rags. Elyrhis remembered a time when she wore such things too. Now, she was fully dressed as befit a lady of Coruscant, in cool silks and nylons.
With astonishment she saw that all the full grown adults had horns on their heads. Some had the same pattern as Maul, and some had only one, growing from the center of their foreheads. With a start she realized that the ones with one horn were females, and the ones with several were male. Something within her clicked.
'That was why he touched my forehead earlier,' she thought. 'He was saying to himself, 'This is where it would be, if she were like me.''
Maul stepped forward into the square. He looked at the bystanders around him. He was utterly imposing, in his heavy black robes and full height. The fact that he had fearsome designs on his skin made him even more impressive. Some of the bystanders looked away, unable to stand his gaze.
"I am looking for the village elder," said Maul.
"Who are you?" snarled a large male, standing next to a nearby dwelling. He was only a little taller than Maul, but he was much wider. His arms bulged with muscle.
"Either take me to him or bring him to me," said Maul to the people in general, ignoring the male's question.
"Who are you to come and make demands on us?" howled the male, furious at being ignored. He had stepped away from his house and was advancing on Maul with a club in his hand.
Maul simply held up his hand, and suddenly the huge male was flying through the air. He slammed into the side of his own dwelling with a loud crack. Roaring, he rose up again, shaking his head furiously. "Who are you?" he yelled.
"That is not information you need to know," said Maul coldly. He had not even drawn his lightsaber.
But now the large male was not the only one angry. All the other villagers watching began hissing and screeching at Maul as well. "Why are you here?" "Who are you to look for the elder?" "We will never take you to him!"
Elyrhis, still standing by Bloodfin, shuddered and rubbed her ears. The words sounded strange to her, slippery and rough at the same time, and some of the sounds were oddly stretched. Nonetheless, she could understand it well enough, even if the way these people spoke baffled her. But then she realized that Lord Maul's voice sounded like that too, and she wondered why.
"So, you bring a human to our village, do you, son?"
It was a weak, wheezy voice, but somehow it floated above everyone's noise and reached every ear. It was penetrating and arresting.
"No one comes without surrendering to us their identity, and no one goes without leaving something behind. Or have you forgotten the rules of your own village, Khamier?"
A wizened male hobbled out of the largest and most decorated dwelling. His skin, which had been a brilliant red when he was young and in his prime, had now faded to a sort of pinkish mauve.
Maul did not move. He looked defiant. "So you are the village elder," he said.
"Are you a Zabrak or not?" asked the elderly male, sounding angry. "Are you one of us?"
"I am a Zabrak, but I am not one of you. Not anymore."
"If you are a Zabrak, as your horns and your skin give away, you will call me Father. I know you, Khamier. I remember how much you hated having to say it when you were young, before you were taken away from us. And how you hated being called 'son'. It seems you have not changed."
"I have changed," Maul refuted. "But you will never know how much."
"No," said the elderly Zabrak. "Even then your heart was black. You may have markings on your skin now, and a sword made of light, but you are the same Khamier now as you were when the sorcerer stole you away."
"If you know my name, I need not give it. I have come because I need something. Let me warn you, Father, it would be unwise to deny me my request."
The village elder leaned forward on his knotted cane. "So you are finally going to comply. Well, I know what you have come for, my son. I can see it threaded between you and the human. I wonder why you chose her."
He turned around and hobbled back into the house he came out of. Maul looked at Elyrhis, who understood that they were to follow him. Together, they walked into the darkness of the village elder's dwelling.