We took our individual seats in silence, nothing but the rustling of cloth filling the air. All eyes were directed on the Grand Inquisitor. He was visibly enjoying the rapt audience he commanded and rested his arms easily on the armrests of his throne. Yiaso's entire posture radiated contentedness.
A man surveying his kingdom with nothing to fear from his subjects.
Was it true or false?
We would all find out soon enough.
Yiaso made the first move. "Truly I say again that it is good to see so many of my fellows now gathered before me in brotherhood. I will not bother our gathering with the mentalities of roll call. We all know who is here and who isn't."
A current of tension rippled through the Force.
"I will not bore you with the mentalities of why the traitors and breakfaiths decided to desert at this critical hour. Their base desire for power and position was well known." Yiaso further leaned into his throne, I took him to be like a snake, coiling in preparation for the strike. "But time will show them to be the fools they are. They decided to flee my wrath and head off into the backwater Rim."
"But not you, my fellows. You who remain are the ones set to inherit the Empire that Palpatine created, not those pawns of warlords." Yiaso's eyes glinted with malice. "Under my command, of course."
Silence. I smiled a bit.
An alien he might be, but the Zabrak had balls. I looked around the oval shaped room, more an auditorium really, at my fellow Inquisitors and I felt other gazes do the same to me.
The unspoken question on all our minds: who was going to make the first move?
Yiaso had just thrown down the gauntlet. His strongest competitors for the title of Grand Inquisitor had fled the field of battle and only he remained. But but but, that was the old way as dictated by Palpatine. A game of whispers, intrigue and politicking.
Now was the age of blood and saber. Palpatine's empire was cracking at the foundations and the periphery was being hacked up by warlords and the resurgent rebels. The old order's casus belli for existing the way it did died with Palpatine and Vader, this we all knew.
So Yiaso had elected to flip the board clean of the old way in one fell swoop, after his rivals had split with the slippage of their own leashes held by Palpatine. The challenge was clear, the moment was now.
Would we fall in line or would we split ourselves at the seams to decide who ruled?
The anticipation was killing me!
The silence continued.
It became oppressive, a weight bearing down on my shoulders. Centimeter by centimeter my hand crept down to my lightsaber, eventually ghosting just millimeters away from it. Ready and waiting to summon it into my hands.
My fellow Numbered were doing the same while the zeyd robes of the Named were moving in suspicious ways near the wide sleeves they had. Who would draw first?
"No~?" Yiaso crooned saccharinely.
"Am I to presume that a consensus has been reached? Unanimously?" He stood, the soft noise of his robes rustling like thunder in a tomb.
A nasty, toothless smile stretched on his face. The Force whispered at me.
"I shall make one final offer: may the man or woman who opposes my leadership declare it now, or forever hold your peace."
Ah one two three!
Snap-hiss!
Lightsabers blossomed across the room. I managed to see a Named dart forward, lightsaber raised high and a snarl on his face before I had to move myself. A Numbered was moving in the same direction as the Named, towards the Grand Inquisitor.
A broad swing from myself forced the charging Inquisitor to halt and block the attack. I quickly broke the lock and made a series of darting slices at his sides. He strong armed the attacks away with his saber at a completely upright angle before reposting with heavy swipes that I stepped out of the way of, trusting the mental nudges that told me to avoid rather than block. I was forced back past the various thrones by the rain of attacks, my vision and sense managing to inform me that our fellows were getting out of the way. I hoped there wouldn't be a backstab from a confederate coming my way.
I probably wouldn't have time to dodge away at this pace.
Behind and away from me, I could hear the sizzle of multiple sabers swiping through the air and clashing together. I barely had the time to sense that the Grand Inquisitor was not engaged before my feet hit the flat stone of the center of the chamber. More space, good.
I stepped to meet the next downward chop, sweeping it to the side with a correcting blow of my own and pushing right into the charging Inquisitor's gut. Even through his armor it was a heavy blow that staggered his approach.
I pushed forward, falling into the measured tempo of Soresu. Swing middle, swing low, swing high, vertical slice one, follow up backhand cut, deflecting middle slice. My saber cut against my opponent's heavy blow, glancing it this way and that, never expending more energy than that which was needed to turn his blows aside.
I stabbed forward but had to pull back at the last second as my opposite twitched a few fingers and his cortosis-weave cape was pulled forward. I hastily countered the opportunistic counter with a downward push that threw the blow off. We'd closed in on each other, more than I had planned. Now we couldn't fully swing at each other.
Stupid of me.
I couldn't avoid a scoring blow on my left pauldron but a snap of my free elbow gave me the space to form a saber lock and the movement of my hilt in just the right direction to…there!
Snap-hiss!
My second blade engaged and just, just managed to score a burning line across my opponent's respirator before his own second blade managed to block the improvised thrust.
Our gazes locked through the barrier of red transparisteel but our respective mental shielding blocked any divining of the other's intentions beyond the most base of hostility towards each other. And we always felt like that anyways, so not much help.
Four red blades clashed a dozen times in a heartbeat, the power of the Force making us fly at near superhuman speeds. Somehow that resulted in another blade lock.
Time for a good trick.
Feeding my anger into the Force and the power it gave me into my body, I pushed forward and made my opponent take half a step back, then I spun on my heels in a split second and slammed my boot into his side. I'd swear I felt ribs crack.
But before I could capitalize on advantage, our watchers decided to interpose on the fight. Another Inquisitor, a sister judging by the fit of her uniform, stepped up to the back of the brother I was fighting and plunged her lightsaber blade through his side and then tugged it out.
Our 'brother' made a rather funny wheezing noise as he toppled to the cold stone floor, his saber deactivating as it clattered out of his hand. I kept my blades ignited and stared at the interloper. If she wanted a 'thank you', she wasn't getting it. I had that handled!
Then our brother on the floor twitched, in pain obviously, and pitifully groaned.
"You missed." I gestured with a red blade at our prone brother. "You're supposed to aim for the head."
I could feel her sneer at my words. "Some of us plan our actions before taking them. The Grand Inquisitor will want him alive."
The sound of more distant lightsaber clashing abruptly ended.
"Enough." Somehow the gentle whisper echoed across the room like a shout would. I turned to look at the other side of the chamber. The sight of the rogue Named kneeling in defeat was a pleasing one. Warmed my 'cold, shriveled heart' as one mouthy rebel had once described it as.
The three Named that had openly sided with the Grand Inquisitor withdrew from the defeated challenger as Yiaso glided up to them. I noted that they all had single bladed lightsabers.
"Ah, Mexik. This is more foolish than usual even by your standards." The Grand Inquisitor spoke. "I would have thought that Tremayne would have corrected that aberrant behavior of yours after you last crossed him."
Tattooed hands the color of pale puce slithered out from the wide sleeves of Yiaso's robes. "Antinnis did always have that issue with fixation that he never managed to shake. It must rankle that you were always a low priority for him, Mexik. But do not worry, I always have time to…correct aberrant behavior."
I felt the Dark Side rapidly concentrated in Yiaso's hands, and then the darkness of the room was banished by an explosion of blue-white electricity from the Grand Inquisitor. The lightning arched into the wounded Mexik and sent him writhing and squealing on the floor, heedless of the further damage to his existing wounds that his thrashing caused.
Yiaso stopped.
"Oh?" He crooned. "Still defiant are we, Mexik?"
The limp man tried to moan something out but his efforts were stopped by another burst of torturous lightning. I shuddered internally. I could feel the malice that came with that lightning.
"No, don't bother denying it. Or maybe continue to do so. It will not change your fate." Yiaso continued, satisfaction flickering across his face. "I've always said that a sentient should be honest with himself in his last moments. But my words are likely wasted on a failure like you. So let's move on to more direct means of confirming your failure."
The lightning resumed.
And it did not stop.
Mexik died, neither quickly or in a prolonged manner. Five minutes according to the chrono.
I believed that he suffered for the exact amount of time Yiaso had decided he would suffer. At the end there was nothing more than a charred figure with scraps of clothing clinging to its emaciated meat.
I hoped I was just imagining the faint smell of nerf through my helmet's filters.
Yiaso summoned a still gleaming lightsaber hilt into his hands before addressing the room.
"And what is the state of late Mexik's accomplice?" I looked down at the still breathing brother. Most likely he had been in debt to Mexik, another one of the twisted apprenticeships that existed between the Named and Numbered. Drips of power and teachings exchanged for another lightsaber and a strong right arm to wield it in a factional dispute.
My 'sister' didn't seem inclined to answer.
"Alive, Grand Inquisitor." I responded. Yiaso looked down at me and I felt his presence brushing over my shields.
"Ninth Brother, effective as usual. I am pleased to see your dedication to our cause has not been confined exclusively to the fringes."
"And your opponent still lives."
"He had an obligation to repay Mexik." I answered the unspoken question. "He fulfilled that obligation with his blood. I see no need to take it beyond that. He remains an Inquisitor."
I paid care to not outright say the word 'debt'. It would be a very large faux pass. I actually had to fight down a chuckle at that thought. I don't think the rest of the Imperial bureaucracy would expect saying 'debt' aloud to be the Inquisitorius' social hangup.
"That he does but the truth remains: he raised his sword against me. Against all of us." Yiaso countered slightly. "How would you have this insult answered for, if not with his life?"
What I wanted was easy. This brother in debt to me, doing my bidding.
Couldn't say that, of course. I liked not being electrocuted. So let's put some spin on it and hope Yiaso feels his overall point has already been made.
"He has put down his lightsaber from that fight. And he can just as easily pick it back up to redeem himself in our eyes." I proposed. "Throw him in a bacta tank and send him out afterwards to do just that. His redemption or damnation will rest entirely on him."
Yiaso considered my words for a bit. Then he smiled.
"Fitting, Ninth Brother, very fitting." He spread his arms wide. "After all, it is our way to have victory or death. So let this wayward sibling have his chance to prove that he is still worthy to stand in our ranks as our equal."
"But as for the rest of you, you have no further trials to overcome! For I have seen and heard your choice, your support for my leadership and vision for the Inquisitorius! And the rewards you will all reap in time will be legion!"
More like no one else if dumb enough to make an outright challenge, I thought. The power struggle wasn't over, not by a long shot.
"So let us commemorate this momentous occasion with an appropriate feast. And come tomorrow, we can begin the work of destroying those who move against our vision for this Empire. Tomorrow, we remind our enemies why the Inquisition is to be feared!"
We cheered as one at the Grand Inquisitor's words. In part because we all liked the idea of being at the top.
But also because no one wanted to be singled out for the deluxe electro massage by not cheering loudly enough.
The game was officially a-foot.
A/N - The Grand Inquisitor shows his mettle. I wanted to try a more politically inclined Dark Sider rather than the usual fighter or mage types that Legends mostly prefers. Yiaso isn't a duelist but he is great at playing his organization against itself to his ultimate benefit.
Rather like Palpatine in a way(besides the vast power differences) but who else would he have to emulate?
Next time the Inquisitorius makes some moves and Andorak gets re-acquainted with grunt work.