Chapter 9
We were very unsure of what to do when we landed, night had already fallen on the planet which furthered the ominous feeling in the air. Mazer had suggested just taking off, honestly I would have given the idea a lot more thought if Lynn hadn't immediately shot it down. Insisting that Master Donnavin might need our help. We moved slowely as we stepped out of the ship and onto the didn't have our weapons out but we did grip them tightly, we could all feel that Master Donnavin, Madarra, and Azera were still alive. That was something at least. Whoever had landed hadn't put any effort into hiding their ship, it was sitting openly on a plateu near the tomb. It was of a similar model to ours but we didn't waste time inspecting it in detail.
"Master, what's going on?" Lynn yelled as he pushed through the main door. Inside their stood a tall, fat man across from Master Donnavin, both of which were looking at us. The stranger was suspicious, and afraid. It was obvious to all of us that he wasn't anyone of authority, near him stood ten children in a line being carefully inspected by Master Donnavin. Their were six boys and four girls, if I had to guess I'd say they were around ten. Most of them were twileks and humans, but I noticed one rodian. Apparantly finished with his task Master Donnavin looked up to us, he didn't say anything though, he just turned back to the fat man.
"Everything seems to be in order. My student will show you to the payment, just take what seems fair." He said with an overly generous tone. The man nodded and slowly walked away, keeping his eyes on our master.
"So uh... lead the way I guess." He said releasing a nervous chuckle, Lynn glared at him a moment and looked back to Master Donnavin who gave him a small nod. Without saying anything he stepped outside and headed towards the ship, followed obediantly by the stranger. Mazer and I walked up to get a closer look at the kids, I didn't bother asking Master Donnavin what was up, figuring he would tell us everything we needed to know. Besides once I started inspecting the children it became very obvious what they were for, they were all extremely force sensitive. As soon as who I presumed was the slaver had left Master Donnavin began speaking passionately, walking back in forth in front of the children as he did
"You, are some of the luckiest children that ever lived. On this day you have been chosen to be my tools in constructing a great new empire, you have been chosen to be kings and barons of a new era, you have been chosen, to become sith! Those of you who do as I say will be Gods among men, you will have anything you want in the galaxy, you will wield strength that most can only dream of!" His voice quieted and became more sinister as he continued. "But this power does not come without cost, pain is the price a sith pays for power; you will suffer much in the halls of this place. But if you do as I say, if you train hard and follow my guidance, you will become strong. I do not pass on this strength out of goodness of my heart either, I give it to you so that you may serve me with it. If you obey me you will have great strength, and if you serve me, you will have whatever your heart desires." He stopped in his stride and leaned down into the face of a young, brown haired boy. Then in a slow, calm voice asked.
"What do you want?" The boy looked at the floor, clearly terrified. Master Donnavin stayed where he was and continued staring, after a moment the boy mumbled out something inaudible.
"Louder." Master Donnavin replied. The boy let out a sob, and began speaking in a pathetic, quivering voice.
"I-I-I want to leave. This place is dark and scary and my stomach won't stop hurting."
"You want to leave?" Master Donnavin asked, his tone sobered greatly by the boy's statement. The child nodded Donnavin glared at him and then spoke loudly.
"Is that what all of you want?" He asked standing up straight. After a second of hesitance the children released quiet murmers of agreement. In an instant the room was flooded with blue light as Master Donnavin released a spasm of lightnening on all the children, it hit Mazer and I too but we barely felt it. It was a very weak attack but evidently it was enough to make all the kids collapse. Wow, did I use to be that weak? To be more acurate all but one of the children collapsed, one of them, a blue twilek girl with oddly clean clothes, managed to stay on her knees. He was the one Donnavin spoke to.
"That is merely a petty, childlike desire. Look deep inside yourself, if you could have anything, what would it be?" She stared at the floor for a long time before answering.
"I want to find my brother and sister, I want to rescue them from the bad men who took us." Master Donnavin smiled, an oddly warm smile, and nodded his head.
"Do as I say, and one day you will." He spoke in a hushed, hopefull voice. The girl said nothing but looked up to meet his face, Master Donnavin rose.
"Get up, all of you." He said, returning to his aggressive, commanding tone. When only a few of the kids complied he made his hand crackle with a small ball of lightening and they all forced themselves to their feet. "Marcus, Mazer, get my new students settled. AZERA-" He called out, looking to the dark hallway where she had been hiding. "-you help too." With that he left, the children all flocked to Azera, I guess since she was younger she was less intimidating. I pushed a small blast of energy out knocking them all, except of course Azera, off their feet and spreading them out into a line. I stepped to a point where about a third of the children were to my right.
"Follow me." I said simply to those children, Mazer had followed my pattern and Azera just took the other third that were in the middle. I'm not sure why I decided to flex my power to these children, I guess I held a little contempt for their presence. I was all but certain that having ten little brats running around would hamper my training. Especially if Master Donnavin expected me to help train them. Of course I knew he intended to grow his order eventually but this was still very unexpected and unwelcome. I was broken out of these thoughts as I reached the first empty room, I pointed to a blue skinned rodian in my group.
"Get in." I said simply, he nodded quickly and darted inside. All the other children did the same as I reached various rooms. It was late but I didn't want to go to bed just yet, I hadn't done any training on the ship and I didn't want my body to get a break. When I returned to the main chamber I saw that Azera was still standing by the first door in her corridor with the children badgering her with their questions. It wasn't my problem so I didn't go any closer. Lynn was in the training room when I got there, tearing apart one of our dumbies with his strikes. He paused when I walked through the door, he took a few deep breaths before speaking.
"These are new students?" I just nodded, wanting to get to work and take my mind off all of this shit that was going on. I could hear Azera and the children as I began running laps. Azera was clearly getting exasperated, she had no doubt recieved special training from Master Donnavin while we had been gone and wanted to rest. I was surprised when her tone finally became commanding and she yelled at the kids.
"Look, Master Donnavin will tell you everything you need to know eventually, just get in the room!"
"Make me!" I heard an obnoxious child yell back at her. Man that little brat's lucky he's with Azera, had he said that to me, or Mazer, or even Lynn we would... ZAP! The loud blast snapped me out of my thoughts. I recognized the sound, it was a small burst of lightening, I was just dumbfounded by where it had come from. I poked my head out the door and saw the child slumped to the floor with a good sized burn on his chest. Azera stood across from him, she was breathing heavy and still had a little lightening crackling on her hand. She noticed me staring and looked up with an angry what-are-you-looking-at-expession. I let out a short laugh and went back to my laps. It was about time Azera started acting like a sith.