Chapter Six:

Where Brilliant Ideas Are Had

The room still had an unlived-in quality, despite having been occupied by Xesh for weeks now. It was still mostly bare, but then so far Shae had not managed to find out anything about his preferences, save for the fact that he'd eat anything edible. Which was not exactly helpful when it came to interior decorating.

"Is your name Xesh because you have the letter tattooed on your face, or is it the other way around?" Shae asked. It had been bugging her for some time now, although she had been postponing asking him that. At first, she had told herself it was because it was too early; that it might cause her to lose the trust she had won from him, but in the end she had to admit it was because she had a very strong feeling the answer would be horrible.

"Because it means my master won't have to remember what to call me," Xesh answered, not taking his eyes off the card tower he'd been assembling.

"He wasn't very inventive, was he?" Shae replied. "Or was he worried he'll run out of room if he names you something longer?"

And then, wonder of wonders, he laughed. It seemed to surprise him as much as it did her, because it lasted only a moment, but Shae counted it as a victory nonetheless.

"It's not a name," he said, quite effectively killing her satisfaction. "It's a designation. All Force sensitive slaves get a letter assigned and then tattooed somewhere easily visible. I'm not the only Xesh in the Empire. There are far too many. It gets confusing sometimes."

"Sometimes?" Shae asked. "Aurebesh has only thirty-four letters. Wouldn't it be confusing nearly all the time?"

"Not really. Only when there's more than one slave with the same designation in the room," Xesh said, carefully levitating another card onto the tower. "My master would just switch to using the colour of the tattoos then. Or a combination." He glanced at her and added, "You're right. He really wasn't very imaginative."

Clearly. "So, what is your name?"

She wondered if she was pushing too far, watching his hand hover over the cards.

"I don't remember," he replied eventually, as he pulled his hand away. She could sense that he was lying now. "I was too small to remember when I was made a slave."

She could have tried prying then, but that would likely damage the little trust she had won so far. Or maybe it wasn't even a matter of trusting her specifically, but something else entirely. It felt somewhat like peeling layers of dressing from an infected wound. But in the end, it boiled down to one thing—she would not call him on the lie. Maybe, at some point, he'd feel safe enough to simply tell her he didn't want to talk about something.

Which left her with the other logical question to ask—and satisfying her own morbid curiosity.

"Is that what this Infinite Empire will do to us?" Shae asked. Somehow, she was yet again sure she'd not like the answer regardless of what it would turn out to be.

"No," Xesh said quietly. "They wouldn't be able to shape you like they do with children—they'd just use your connection to the Force to power their ships and weapons, until you died."

Shae opened her mouth to ask another question, but stopped herself. It wasn't as bad as it had been in the Council chamber, but she was sensing an echo of what she had sensed from him moments before he panicked. And then it clicked. I didn't want to die—that was what he had meant when he had said that.

Master Quan-Jang and Daegen Lok would both be very interested in the implications, but that was something she would consider later.

"You can tell me to stop asking about this," she said instead. "I will listen if you want to talk, but it's your choice."

He fell silent then, and she could sense that there was something that he was struggling with. Well, given that moments earlier, he seemed to have assumed she wouldn't take no for an answer, she had to wonder if he would believe her at all.

"Don't let the Rakata take you," he said, looking up at her. His eyes were such an odd shade for a human—a very pale blue that was closer to what she'd seen in her own species. It didn't seem unnerving to her, but she'd heard both Master Quan and Daegen Lok say the effect was quite uncanny.

She managed an encouraging smile despite her own unease and his fear. "I don't plan to."

It was not the best reassurance, but she couldn't think of anything better. It seemed to work, still, since the tension around him ebbed almost visibly.

Ah, no, there was something else she should tell him, wasn't there? "And I won't let them take you back. They won't hurt you again."

The card tower fell apart, little plastic rectangles scattering over the floor like leaves.

Maybe it was too much. She felt a wave of conflicting emotions from him: fear and shock, and so many other things, it made her almost cry. Xesh made a small strangled noise, and that was when she realized he was crying. Her first instinct was to pull him into a hug, but she knew enough not to try.

"Did I say something wrong?" she asked.

Xesh only shook his head.

"Can I do something to make you feel better?" she continued, moving slightly forward.

He only shook his head again.

"All right," Shae said softly. "I'm right here, if you need me."

Ketu had always tended towards minimalism, and his meeting room reflected this. Rajivari remembered when it had been his meeting room and how books, notes and trinkets had been scattered over various surfaces. Now, one wall and the nearby floor were all taken up by a planet arrangement. The rest of the room belonged to the worn round table made of pale wood.

They had taken places around it: Daegen Lok slouching like a lazy cat, while Ketu toyed with his cup of tea. Rajivari could tell his former apprentice was considering the news Daegen Lok had brought and what to do with them. In that moment, he truly regretted the Council's unfortunate decision to remove him. He would not waste time on useless deliberations.

There was more they could learn—that was what mattered. Fear of the unknown should not stop them. Too many times had the others shown themselves to be timid and lacking in vision. He would not accept if yet again fear of dirtying one's hands would stop them from taking the necessary steps.

"This is conjecture, so far," Ketu said, frowning, once Daegen Lok had finished recounting what Shae Koda had learned—and what she, her Master and Lok had guessed. "Shaping a child can mean simply bringing them up and instilling one's beliefs in them—it does not have to mean whatever the Rakata did to Xesh to make him use the Force the way he does. It's a good guess, but we cannot be sure."

"It might take too long for us to get a confirmation," Daegen Lok replied, lacing his hands behind his head. "And it seems to add up— take a child who does not know any better, and put it into a situation where it has no other choice but to use the Force like he does. The same will not work with an adult, simply because they know better."

Ketu shook his head. "It sounds too simple."

It was something of a failing of his, Rajivari considered. He had never been satisfied with simple solutions. Sometimes, it served him well enough, but there were other times, when his apprentice would refuse to see the truth, because he had not spent hours or days, or months discovering it.

"We are still in danger, even if Daegen is right," Rajivari pointed out. "It is simply one danger less."

"And it will not matter, if we die," Daegen Lok added dryly. "But I think by now we have established that the boy is not contagious. If he is to recover, he should start interacting with more people."

"He should be taught. Properly," Rajivari added. It was an opportunity to learn more, after all. As broken as the boy was, no one would be surprised if being apprenticed proved too much—and he would make sure to learn all that he could before that happened. It was regrettable, but the simple, brutal truth was that there would be no other use for the child.

Daegen Lok gave him a sour look, before sighing rather theatrically. "Very well. I will teach him. The boy survived everything that was thrown at him, I'm sure he can live with my comments."

Rajivari blinked slowly. He had not expected this at all.

He glanced at Ketu, who was wearing a look that many would not recognize for the smugness that it was. Had he just played into his hand? Without even realizing there was some sort of a game going on?

He could protest, of course, but he found himself unwilling to divulge the interest he had. Ketu, for all his intelligence, was compassionate, and while Daegen Lok had no such failings, he was still disinclined to sacrifice others in the name of progress.

There would be other opportunities to learn.

Daegen Lok had expected no enthusiasm from the boy, who did not disappoint him. Once he made the announcement that he was going to teach him, Xesh refused to meet his eyes and continued frowning. Apparently, being taken on a walk was not enough to earn him any points. Or perhaps the main hall of the Temple of Science was not what the boy considered a sight-seeing spot. To be fair, Anil Kesh was primarily utilitarian, but the hall did have some sort of inspirational mosaic of personifications of sciences descending to enlighten the masses.

On the second thought, Daegen had never been particularly impressed with the mosaic himself.

"I know how to use the Force," Xesh said flatly, having finished listening to Daegen's explanation.

Well, at least they knew where they stood. Not that Daegen had not been aware there was a distinct possibility he would be faced with opposition.

"I am aware of that," Daegen replied. "You're also doing everything you can do wrong."

His perfectly reasonable argument was met with an utter lack of understanding, and earned him a glare. Practically a ray of sunshine, that one.

"It works," Xesh replied stubbornly. Then, a cathar man, who seemed vaguely familiar passed them and gave Xesh measuring look as he did. The boy tensed and tracked him for a moment.

Clearly the obvious arguments were not going to work. Fortunately, Daegen had a well of patience and could spend the whole day arguing. It would not be very productive, of course, but he absolutely could do it. Or, he could be reasonable.

"Am I going to have to bribe you with chocolate like a five-year-old?" he asked. Perhaps the boy was still young enough to want to prove he was absolutely not a child, if treated like one?

The question earned him a spark of interest. "I don't know. What is it and why would I want it?"

Daegen studied the boy in silence for a while, processing it. It had not been the result he had intended. In fact, had this been anyone one else, he would have assumed they were not being serious. Instead, he was having a bad feeling about this. Was he having a premonition? It was feeling like one. And here he thought he had avoided some of the troublesome parts of having an apprentice and would not have to worry about such things like bribing with food.

"It's food."

"And you will give it to me, if I do what you tell me to?" Xesh asked. He sounded both suspicious and hopeful.

Whatever worked, right? "Yes. I will. If you do it right."

"Fine," Xesh answered after a moment.

Daegen sighed. Of course, he had managed to get himself an apprentice who had absolutely no dignity. He had thought he knew what he was getting himself into, but clearly he had been mistaken. Still, it probably couldn't get worse than this.

Vev had had an epiphany between her third and fourth spoon of the canned mystery meat. She would escape. Really, she was practically obliged to do so, given her master's current bout of stupidity. He let her scout ahead. Unsupervised. In a one-person ship.

The mind boggled.

Unfortunately, the epiphany proved to last only until the fifth spoonful, and refused to provide her with an instant solution to her other problems. The ship undoubtedly had tracking mechanisms, which she had no idea how to disable, because nobody was stupid enough to teach a Force Hound how to free themselves.

There was also the matter of where exactly she was going to escape to. She couldn't just pick a location at random and hope for the best. Slowly, she chewed on the ground meat-paste, as she considered her options.

She could probably pick one of the worlds her masters had found uninteresting, but given that the ship could be tracked, that would just mean she'd end up in the middle of nowhere on a world with no population or one that was useless as potential allies.

On the other hand, she could leave the coordinates be. She could sense the world in the Force, bright and blazing. Perhaps, if she crashed the ship and warned the inhabitants, they'd be willing to leave her be.

She froze. It couldn't be that easy, surely? If it were, why would there be any slaves at all?

She stared for what might be a few minutes or an eternity, shocked at what she had been considering just moments ago.

It couldn't be that easy.

And yet.

She fingered her collarbone, still sore from when she had hit the wall. Her master had been displeased before he sent her away.

The inhabitants of the world she was headed towards might decide to kill her, she thought. True, they were doomed in any case—Predor Tul'kar's ship had a tracker of its own, but still. She could make sure they would have to kill her, if the inhabitants decided that she would be the source of their troubles.

Yes. That sounded like a good plan. Offer them a fighting chance and if they turned on her, force them to kill her. It was better than coming back to her master.

AN:

So, the obvious change is Vev. I hadn't intended on changing Trill's name initially, but she turned out to be so different from her comic self, she was pretty much a different character. And since her name made me think of the sound mostly, I decided that since I'm already changing so much, I might as well give her a name I like better.