Rey arouse at five O'clock in the morning, according to an object called a 'wall clock' that Mashra had given her yesterday, before the sun had even shined in to let its presence known. She had nothing to do except look out the window and walk in circles. For as long as she could remember she was always bordering exhaustion, continuously working with little to no breaks, sometimes having to eat on the job in order to get something done. Now, finally at last, Rey had the opportunity to rest and lay back, but she also could not sleep. After very many years of constantly rising up at the same time her body had programmed itself to its own internal schedule. So whether she wanted to be or not, Rey was forced awake every morning with nothing to do, and she needed something to do to avoid her thoughts. Staring at the late dawn was beautiful to watch as it rose above the sea water, but that wouldn't be for a while longer and it could not occupy her mind enough to suppress memories from resurfacing. She needed something more mentally active to distract herself, not just physically.
Lighting a candle, Rey paced around her chambers peering around at the walls searching for something that would peak her interest and almost gave up and was about to resign to simply working out like usual, until an odd object on the ceiling caught her attention. Up above her head in the near left corner, at least twenty feet up, a small, square, wooden door was placed curiously. There was no obvious way up, for the bookshelf below was only eight feet tall, leaving twelve feet left of unclimbable wall. Rey began to look around frantically for some item that would help her reach that little door. Nothing. Not a thing in sight that would help her get to that little door, and possibly escape. She'd have to get creative somehow.
Rey started to mull over how it was she could find a way up there. The bookshelf was too thin to stand a chair on top of it, let alone a table. There no ladder in here and she didn't have any rope-
'Rope! The curtains!' Rey shot up in realization, rushing over to the curtains by the windows. Her smile turned to a frown, however, when she found that the curtains were too thick to tear apart with her hands, she'd need a knife or scissors. It dawned on her then that she could probably sneak a knife away from a meal.
Twas a waiting game then, that's fine. Until her next meal, Rey would simply work on the basic addition and subtraction Mashra showed her yesterday. She went over to her table and pulled out the box of tiles Mashra had used to explain the math.
Two tiles plus three tiles equaled five tiles, minus one tile equaled four tiles. Using the tiles as a visual aid helped Rey learn quickly and understand what it was she was learning. Five tiles minus three equals two tiles, plus eight tiles equals… ten tiles!
Thus was the way she spent the next two hours until seven when Mashra was let in by her guard, Slip, bearing her breakfast meal.
"Good morning, my Lady Rey." The older brunette greeted with a grin while she pushed a cart tray over to the table.
"Morning," Rey greeted, back standing up to hug her friend, "It's good to see you." And it was, it always was, as seeing Mashra was the only time of the day -besides the times Slip would escort her to the bathroom- that Rey got to speak with another person. Setting aside her math tiles, Mashra set up their breakfast of eggs on toast and pears. Rey wilted internally upon seeing that there wasn't a knife in sight, because who would need a knife to eat a pear. Seems like her plan had hit an even further setback.
"I see you've been studying." Mashra noted with a nod towards her tiles.
"Oh yes," Rey confirmed as she sat down at the table once more and began to eat. "Nothing much to do in here by myself." She said with bread crumbs running down her face. The other slave cracked a smile before losing it as she looked down.
"Well you won't always be in here for now on." She said in a small voice, clearly not pleased by the truth that she was aware of. Rey became puzzled as to what she meant and inquired so, but was not met with an answer. She was put off by the way Mashra abruptly changed the subject, but decided against pushing further.
The air shifted for the ending duration of the meal, but they were able to lighten the mood when they moved on to her studies.
"Okay, so we'll do a short math refresher before I lead you into higher numbers, then later we'll go on to literacy." Mashra announced after she cleaned away and set aside their dishes. Rey eagerly nodded and listen carefully as her lesson began.
First they went over what they learned the day prior, basics, after that she introduced the symbols for the teens up to twenties and had Rey repeatedly write down the numeral symbols. Then they went on to higher math addition and subtraction. One particular equation once written out continued to stump her.
23 - 15 =
The symbols looked so new that they kept on confusing her. However she found she found that saying it out loud and counting up from fifteen to twenty-three helped to solve despite the equations off-putting look.
8
She wrote.
The hour ticked by on the clock as they worked together, Rey almost forgot about the awkwardness at the breakfast table until a knock sounded at the door.
"It's time." Slip announced from the other side of the door. Mashra let out a sigh and pushed herself up from her seat.
"What is it Mashra?" Rey asked and stood up as well. "What's happening?"
"...I have been ordered not to tell you, but simply to take you there." Mashra replied, her voice sounding slightly colder.
Rey frowned but did not argue further, knowing that it would be pointless to do so. Thus Rey simply followed behind quietly, keeping her guard up to any opposing threats. She was led down the hall, past the bathroom, turned right at the end of the hall and walked all the way down the extremely long hallway to the very end where she was stopped in front of a door. From the outside she could hear grunting, shouting, and clashing; she knew immediately that this was the training room, and what this meant. Rey was about to bolt the other way, but was held still by Slip, who struggled to keep her there.
This is what Mashra meant by her saying that she wouldn't be spending all of her time in her bedroom anymore, today is the beginning of her training as Kylo Ren's pupil, the last thing that she ever wanted to happen.
"My Lady Rey, please calm down." Mashra begged of her, trying to calm her down. Rey retaliated by continuing to struggle.
"No! I don't want anything to do with that man!" Rey refused in a loud shout just as she managed to reclaim one of her arms. She was about to further fight back when the door to the training room suddenly opened and revealed the tall feature that was Kylo Ren, standing intimidating over them. Rey shot him a hateful glare the moment she laid eyes on him, and he glared back.
"You refuse to be trained?" He inquired in a derisive tone, standing luminously overall three of them, but with his attention completely concentrated on her.
Rey peered angrily at him, not backing down despite his stance of power and commanding aura. On the inside she felt shaken by his image, she knew she could not handle him; however she would never let her emotions betray her and reveal herself to him.
"Yes." She hissed venomously, standing up straight to her full height, but still falling six inches short of him.
Kylo's eyes hardened as if he was deeply thinking about something she could only guess was a punishment. They stared each other down without breaking contact, neither one blinking, seemingly having an inner conversation that only they understood, taunting each other to make a move but both too scared to do so. Eventually his expression changed, his eyes softening as he blinked at her.
"Challenge me." He murmured. Rey, thrown off in surprise, did not immediately answer and only gaped at him. Noticing this, he spoke again. "Duel with me, if you win you will not have to be trained."
"And… what is the consequence?"
"...You will receive lessons from me. Not just in martial arts, but also in literature and language. Mashra will continue your math sessions."
Rey thought over her options, overall they didn't seem all too bad, if she won she wouldn't have to deal with this pompous beast any longer. On the other hand she would be offered the education she had always been deprived from, the only dark side being learning from said pompous beast. She puzzled over which one was worse and she decided on the latter. She has survived many years before him with her own training; she was not in requirement of his skills. This as well as the fact that education was pointless to her, as a slave, it was not needed. At last she had made her decision, she had more to lose than to gain.
"I refuse." She replied with clear cut coldness. Kylo was visibly stunned by her words, his eyes widened ever so slightly and his posture failing him.
"On what grounds is this refusal, may I ask?" He inquired, quickly picking himself up again.
"Your character, I refuse to allow someone such as you to be anything more in my mind than an enemy."
"Then you have the mind of a fool."
"One is often called a fool for being wary of others."
"That wariness is often based off of ill judgment."
"It is not ill if it is the truth."
"The truth is not always as it appears." Said he. Without either of them giving notice to their own movement, they had slowly drawn closer to each other, within each other's area of breath. A single half step would be enough to connect their bodies together. Even when they ended all speech and resolved to glaring, they had not noticed their closeness.
Kylo was the first to step back, nearly staggering as he felt like a connection had just been severed. She felt it to, and she felt it back when they had first trained back in her underground ring beneath Jakku; she didn't understand it nor was it desired yet it was simply there.
"Phasma!" Kylo yelled, calling for the appearance of his most trusted captain. A tall short, blond haired woman came walking up behind in such a dignified manner that demanded respect.
"Yes, My Lord?" She responded upon her arrival.
"Train the girl. She is too headstrong to give into the reason of accepting my seniority." He grunted as he stomped off down the hall away from their location in front of the training room, his two personal guards on his tail. Rey watched him go, proud that won the dispute. Thereafter Rey immediately turned her attention to the new woman before her; as did she.
"So you're the girl who gave Kylo quite a challenge." She noted looking down to her, her face mixed with interest and question.
"I am." Rey said proudly.
"Well no more." Phasma said in a curt tone, taking the younger by slight surprise. "In my eyes you still failed to defeat him, and now it is up to me to strengthen that raw talent into something even more. Come." She motioned for Rey to follow her into the room beyond the door, and she did.
...
Rey was knocked down to the ground for the fifth time that day, each of her attacks proving fruitless and her evasions just as so. Captain Phasma proved to be more than a worthy opponent. She looked up at the taller woman, she was panting and had a few scratches, but it was nothing compared to what Rey had. The younger was nearly gasping for breath, bruised and bloodied, he limbs became heavy and turned to noodles; she didn't know how much longer she could last as she was.
It had been five days now since she had begun training under Phasma, and every day was more gruesome than the last. She felt like she would snap from the tiniest pat, but she would not give in no matter how the pain. Within these last few days Rey had learned more on offense, contrary to her previous knowledge of defense and evasion. On the other hand, it seemed the Captain was all about strength, attack, and strategy. The classic tactic of evasion to tire out an opponent was seen as weak and cowardly and she was forbidden from using it. Rey was forced into offense nearly every moment of the four hours she spent in the training room with the older woman. She found herself entirely tiresome after each session and glad for an awaiting bath after her time.
The hot water was soothing on her cuts and wounds and seemed to numb the pain and calm her mind. She had actually fallen asleep at one point and nearly drowned; now she was at full attention whenever she was in the tub.
The lessons she had in math and literacy were always her favorite part of the day. For after a long day of being beaten down, it felt good to just sit around and learn with her friend Mashra.
However, Rey began to notice that as the days passed she had began to become comfortable with her new relaxed living style and began to fear she would think herself better than the rest. She swore than to herself that she would always find a way to remind herself of what she was; and she found that in the iron bars that kept her from escaping, and her new nightly project of subtle turning her curtains into rope to reach that little door.
But now was not the time for any of those thoughts, as she was currently being smacked around and failing to defend herself.
"Come now, surely someone of your reputation can do better than this!" Phasma shouted and aimed a kick for her stomach. Rey rolled away and came to her feet, too weak to try and block her leg.
"Reputation?" Rey repeated confused. "What do you mean?"
"Obviously a reigning champ such as yourself has a long trail of names in your shadow of past victories. Almost no other fighter has killed as much as you." Phasma said with miniscule respect, meaning her words as a form of complement. However they were not took in the same way. Rey visibly flinched at the mention of her past and felt herself shrink in.
"It is not something in which I take pride." Rey said as she stood up to her full height, watching over her breathing in attempt to regain control.
"Ha! That is of a child's matter to give pity to the enemy." She scoffed in belittling amusement.
"If to hold value in life is the maker of a child, than a child I'd rather be than an adult who values nothing."
"You contradict yourself, my dear Rey. For here you say you value life, but yet have a history of taking it."
"I give them mercy, Captain. If I had not then they surely would have been tortured to death. That of which I cannot bear."
"An ignorant child you truly are then, did you think that all masters throw away their fighters like trash? Nay, only the wealthy, for they have credits to spare to buy a replacement; the majority of masters keep their slaves even after a loss. My dear child, you have been misguided and have committed genocide without just cause."
A rug had been pulled out from beneath her feet and she felt herself fall into conflict and despair. Everything she thought she was, what she stood for, was a lie; she knew it all along but did not want to admit to it, and now she was forced to. The pit she had dug herself with thing topsoil seemed endless as she could not land on any ground to retort back or defend her actions. She knew the truth, but she still would not admit to it, less she snap.
"You lie." Rey cried.
"I assure you I am not." Phamsa replied with ernest.
"You lie!" Rey shouted as she flung herself at Phasma, tears flowing down her face, and attacked her with such ferocity that she had not felt since her fight with Kylo after she watched Ivano die at his hands.
Phasma blocked her first few attacks but quickly found herself overcome by Rey's raw strength fueled by rage, which made her almost invincible. Rey managed to clobber her in the gut, making her bend over in pain, then taking her head into her hands she brought it down on her knee, breaking Phasma's nose. The woman cried out in pain and fell back, Rey ran forward and mounted her, striking repeatedly, ignoring the bruises on the other's face and her own knuckles.
"Liar! Deceit! I did not murder them!" Rey continued to scream. Five guards hastily ran over and pulled her off, but struggled to hold her in place as she shifted her rage onto them. Her mind was lost to grief and she could no longer be calmed down as she became erratic in her movements, harming the guards who tried to settle her. Kylo was called for but did not arrive for a good ten minutes, but when he did her quickly assesses the situation and ran over to Rey.
Swiftly he raised a hand and performed the same move he did on her after their fight in the ring, numbing every part of her body and causing her to become drowsy until she passed out. And the last thing that she saw was not the cold face of her nemesis, but the conflicted and scared face of a boy.
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Hey y'all sorry I got this out so late. My life has been HECTIC and it isn't looking to be any better soon. May be weeks again until I post, but we'll see. Thanks to all who have been so patient with me, I really appreciate it. Sorry if the last bit made any of y'all uncomfortable.
If you could tell by the dialogue in this chapter I've begun to read Pride and Prejudice. Fanominole book! See ya!
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