The observation deck of his flagship had become a favored haunt of his recruit. The floor to ceiling windows tended to be disorienting for those not used to extended space travel, but the girl had taken to them like a bird to open air. It was there that she could be found more often than not and it was there he found her now, Thalros looming bright in the background. She stood before the glass, watching the ships of the fleet rearrange themselves in preparation for departure.
The girl turned from the window as he strode in, what could only be described as a troubled expression adorning her face. He stopped a few feet away, taking note of the tension in her posture and the darkened crescents beneath her eyes.
"What did you see?"
An abrupt question, one that would have provoked counter queries were he addressing any other enlisted aboard. But the girl knew at least something of the Force and the ways it could be used despite her lack of training. Her brow furrowed as she considered the question, lips forming rapid phantom syllables as her mind chased down the words she needed.
"I saw someone in a mask, a man...just...walking," she answered after a moment, frown deepening into something frustrated as if the words weren't quite right. "He was walking towards me...fifteen steps...but...the mask changed. His clothes changed. Everything around and about him changed except...the walking."
There was more, he knew, but she had lapsed back into the silence that always seemed to accompany her moments of wrestling with vocabulary. He pulled the fragment out as he waited, unfolding the cloth to examine it once more. One edge was smooth and polished, while the other held a jagged edge to it as if it had been broken off from a much larger piece.
"It started out whole...the mask. When it was new, the eyes had red above them and through the middle. Rest was...not white...more like bones."
"You said it changed."
"It...dulled...the red...and then there were cracks," she said with a shallow nod. "It broke as he walked. There were broken walls too...on the third step. Each step forward was a different place."
She paused, gaze darting briefly from the fragment to his own masked features and then away again just as quick. That hesitation seemed indicative of some internal debate - he could sense sudden uncertainty in her presence now, a wariness that felt very much similar to the aftermath of the corridor incident.
"You said that lies, even ones of omission would not be tolerated."
"I did."
"What if...what if I'm not sure which parts are true?"
He considered this, fully aware of the tension building in her posture as he did so. There was another question buried behind that one, he knew - she would not have gone through the trouble of clarifying beforehand otherwise. He glanced at the fragment in his hand, running a thumb along the polished side before looking back at the girl.
"You've seen it before."
"Yes."
"Where?"
"I don't...I don't remember the where," she answered, the uncertainty in the words now tinged with an edge of fear. "I was four...the ship was docked. Everyone was loading crates. Windows in the station...I saw him there. Looking. I pointed...and my mother...she was scared. We left then...fast."
The girl fell silent as a she watched for some sort of reaction on his part to the scrap of a memory she had presented. It truly was no more than a shred, and while it did provide some interesting information, it did nothing to solve the underlying puzzle of why the Emperor would desire the fragment.
A mask, even an ancient sith one, was not exactly useful on its own.
"Your vision, you said it shifted locations," he stated, examining the cloth the broken chunk of the mask had been wrapped in. It was black with a dark red line embroidered down the untorn edge. "Describe them."
"Hallways. First grey stone walls and floor, dull light. Second metal floor, piping in the walls. Third cracked walls, floor stained red. Fourth bright with white walls, clean grey floor."
He watched her as she continued, each location bleeding tension from her frame. There was not remotely enough information in her words to draw any conclusions concerning the whereabouts of the former owner of the mask, but the girl didn't know that. When she fell silent again, the apprehension and wariness she had been exuding were gone.
"Should you have another vision, you will report it to me," he told her, folding the scrap of fabric back over the fragment. "Ensure that when you do so that there is no one else present. Is that understood?"
"Yes."
Holding the cloth wrapped fragment out for her to take, he ignored the faint flicker of surprise that crossed her face as she took it from him.
"You will destroy this. No trace of it is to remain on this ship."
He did not wait for her acknowledgement of the command before turning to leave - either she would follow it or she would not. The latter option would be the more foolish choice on her part, but would make for convenient reasoning in the future should he need to dispose of her. It was another test, but one with an obvious answer already laid out.
The door snapped shut behind him.
