The first thing that struck Nikkitis about this place was that it was absolutely massive.

A colossal obelisk with carvings chiseled into it was perched on a base right in the middle of an expansive open hall, with two sets of staircases pointing directly at it. Her mind reeled while she tried to calculate how much the two enormous Imperial banners on either side of the obelisk weighed, and how much they must have cost. She felt like a speck of sand on Tatooine. But, as her new benefactor had stated, every moment was critical, and so she tore her eyes away from the oppressive wonder of this great hall and turned down the hallway to her left to meet Overseer Tremel in his office.

She half-expected it, but it still was a bit surprising to see the one she assumed was her "rival," Vemrin, waiting for her at the entrance to Tremel's office, along with another man.

Humans, she thought with annoyance as she got through the threats they both made, both vague and direct. She barely restrained an eye-roll during the interaction.

Stepping into his office, she saw that Tremel wasn't alone. A young woman with a scarred face was talking with him. Between the adrenaline from the tomb, the awe she felt stepping into the Sith Academy for the first time, the annoyance from dealing with this Vemrin idiot, and the excitement she felt about her next trial, she only barely registered that the woman was named Eskella, and that she was Tremel's daughter.

Tremel continued to tell her how dangerous Vemrin was, but, even given that she was nascent in the Force, she could tell that he was far weaker than her. Perhaps he was physically her equal, but the sense she got was that he merely flailed about, beating up whatever or whomever he didn't like. There was no finesse, no strategy, no thought behind it, just raw instinct to kill, and that bothered her.

Chiss culture was highly focused on the intellectual aspect of existence, but they didn't shy away from a fight either. "Every issue is a hidden opportunity" was practically a Chiss motto. When faced with an issue, the Chiss preferred to analyze, strategize, then act. She had been trained to do that in a matter of seconds with randomly selected programs firing off in the combat droids she trained with on Csilla. She was reasonably certain she could defeat the simpleton.

Tremel finally proceeded to give her the next trial: to be judge, jury, and perhaps executioner. Three prisoners awaited her in the Academy jails.

When she arrived, Jailer Knash was shocking a blue Twi'lek woman who was...chirping?... Nikkitis was not prepared to walk into that situation at all. She quickly looked over the Twi'lek, who was maybe nineteen or twenty, and seemed no worse for wear after being shocked by her slave collar. In fact, she was already lipping off again.

Her arrival made the jailer turn his attentions away from the Twi'lek, and onto her. Apparently, according to the jailer, the whole situation regarding her current trial was odd, but only in the fact that the prisoners that she was to judge were shipped in for her, rather than her going off-world to do it. That intrigued her a little, why it was done that way for others, but she quelled her instinct to ask, and focused on the three prisoners she was due to judge.

The first prisoner was a perhaps middle-aged female human who looked more than a little roughed up. She'd been hired to kill an Imperial spy in the Yavin system, but claimed to neither know her mark's allegiance, nor who hired her. Nikkitis could sense no deception from the prisoner as she repeated that to her. She'd have to think on this one.

She'd been informed that most prisoners were either killed, or given a trial by combat to prove their worth, but both felt like a waste. If this woman could track down an Imperial spy in a system like Yavin, and withstand what was clearly intensive torture, there had to be a place for her somewhere in the Empire. And if she could lie to a Force user and not tip them off to her deception, either in the Force or her body language, her skills were impressive indeed, and sorely needed. Even more impressive is if she managed to deceive a Chiss Force user, as the Chiss tended to love dabbling in psychology and kinesics.

"Send her to Imperial Intelligence," Nikkitis finally said.

She felt like her deliberations took a long time, but the reaction from both the jailer and the prisoner told her it had been mere moments, both of them seemingly taken aback.

"I won't work for free," the prisoner said, while the jailer hummed contemplatively.

"Hmmm, you spared her. Interesting."

The next prisoner drew her attention by begging her for a trial by combat. This one was also human, also older, but a male with cybernetic implants.

"This pile of waste is Devotek. Once a valued Sith Champion, until he botched an important mission and caused a thousand Imperial deaths. Now look at him."

She felt pure rage well up within her chest. He caused how many Imperial deaths? If she was to be judge, jury, and executioner, this one would die. She didn't care that he looked pathetic and old. She didn't care that he once carried value. She didn't care that he had served faithfully for twenty-four years. Those Imperials deserved justice, and she would deliver it. Since there was a completely different culture here than what she was used to in the Chiss Ascendency, she decided that he would die without feeling the weight of a weapon again. It was the most she could do for the fallen, and denying him a warrior's death made the justice of it more, though not wholly, complete. She felt something akin to satisfaction as she heard his body thud to the ground within his cage, her back turned to him as a final declaration of her hatred of his failure to the Empire.

Those men and women didn't need to die. His neglect sealed their fates.

She moved on to the third prisoner, a Nemoidian male, who stood up quickly at her approach. She remembered most of the Nemoidian language, Pak Pak, that was taught to her, and felt reasonably assured she could understand his responses if he chose to use his native tongue.

This one stood accused of supplying Republic agents with forged documents, but maintained his innocence through "severe torture," as Knash put it. When the Nemoidian, Brehg, spoke, suddenly Nikkitis was incredibly glad of the militant and intense style of education she endured during her younger years, as the alien rapidly spoke in Pak Pak at them. He repeated that he was innocent, and that he was set up due to being previously convicted of forgery in the Republic. Knash conceded that the evidence against him was circumstantial, and she found herself in a bit of mental torment.

She motioned to the jailer that she needed time as she began to pace, trying to think straight. The rage she felt with the previous prisoner still had hold of her, and it was clouding her mind. This was a tricky situation, made more difficult by the fact that Brehg wasn't speaking Basic, which left room for mistranslations on her part.

Nemoidians were notoriously hard to read, as their facial features left little room for expression past frustration, anger, unbridled joy, and pain. This one used his hands a lot to talk, though, which was uncharacteristic, but not unheard of, for the species. She had to draw from old memories on the biology, society, and history of the Nemoidians. Related to the Duros, check. Began life as larvae in a massive hive, check. The larvae had to fight for their food, which led them to be calculating, but also greedy and dishonest, check. Corruption was common in the species, check. Often used droids or slaves, even their own larvae that were intentionally starved, for dangerous, difficult, and even administrative tasks, check.

I can't risk it. If I release him and he really is selling forgeries to Republic agents, that could cost the Empire hundreds of thousands of lives over time. We absolutely must know for sure. And now that he's been here, he knows our facilities, our methods, and our faces. That alone could cost lives as well.

She braced herself with a deep breath before condemning him to more torture. The spike in fear she felt from him made her feel a little bad, but she stood fast in her decision.

She was pleasantly surprised when Overseer Tremel approved of every one of her decisions, and he even gave her a small gift to celebrate her insights into each situation. Again, he mentioned a "Darth Baras," whom he had previously stated was a powerful Sith Lord, and said that this Darth would judge her severely due to her being admitted to the Sith Academy ahead of schedule.

Well, whose fault is that?

She internalized her annoyance at his statement - surely, he knew that he had put her in that situation - and listened as he gave her the information for the next trial. She was to enter the caverns of Marka Ragnos and meditate amongst the flames for a beast that Ragnos himself had placed there to defend his legacy.

A physical trial. Good. I can release my anger from Devotek upon the beast and be free of its influence.

She left the room, knowing full well that someone other than Vemrin, somewhere in this academy, was moving against her, and she wasn't about to take it lying down.