Chapter 4: Ring Ring Ring!

39:3:18 GrS

Imperial Palace, Imperial Center, The Imperial Core

Ja'ce Yiaso, Grand Inquisitor of the Imperial Inquisitorius, prowled through the dark and looming halls of the extravagant Imperial Palace. Ja'ce's former master had a taste for the finer things in the galaxy, and had decorated his personal residence and the heart of his empire with those tastes in mind. Stassian black granite formed the walls with tasteful aurodium and electrum frescos detailing the history of the galaxy, and this was only the beginning of the wealth, as Ja'ce knew from experience. In the labyrinthine rooms of the palace hung the crowning works of art from core worlds and long dead empires. Phrik railings that were joined to Chandrilian glass staircases. The best liquor to ever be produced by dead worlds lay chilling in miniature cooling chambers, with glass tumblers from Alderaan and Chandrila nearby. And such things were only the items he had seen. According to palace rumors there were deep subterranean halls where the most perverse kinds of arts, banned in the rest of the galaxy, were practiced by masters of such crafts. Living humanoid sculptors, chefs who knew how to cook Twi'lek lekku in 157 different ways and the like.

He had just returned from yet another frustrating meeting with the Empire's Ruling Council, where his thrice-cursed rivals had made every move possible to turn distrust his way. Accusing the Inquisitorius, and by default him, of being negligent in rooting out the surviving members of the Jedi Order and thereby allowing the death of the Emperor. How exactly that card flipping buffon and that amatuer fencer made that leap in logic was something Ja'ce didn't wish to sully his thoughts with, and his fellow Council members had shared such thoughts.

Yet the continued persistence such attempts to undercut his power was starting to grate on Ja'ce, not to mention that he needed something to get him more say on the council, merely being the most powerful force-wielder in the Empire didn't have the kind of pull it used to. His standing had only worsened with the introduction of that Isard woman as the go between the council and Prestage. What Ja'ce needed was an additional power structure to bolster his standing among the members of the council and have the new structure function in such a way that the Prophets nor the Adepts could undercut it.

The question of how on this matter had been haunting his meditations constantly since he had become aware of the issue and it looked like tonights' would offer no succor. Then Ja'ce felt the presence of one of the palace servants ahead of him, at the end of the hallway.

"Pardon my intrusion Grand Inquisitor." The bug bowed to Ja'ce after he had come abreast with the servant. "But your quarter's are receiving a holocomm line from Prakith with Inquisitorius codes."

Ja'ce halted and looked at the servant, maintaining eye contact. Now this was irregular.

"Interesting." Ja'ce said, rolling the word in such a way that it sounded unnatural to the ears of a regular human. "I was not aware that I had routed my personal HoloNet transmissions through the palace's systems."

The servant hid his nervousness well, but in the Force he stank of it. "It was a new directive given out shortly before Emperor Palpatine's...passing."

"Well in that case, I suppose that's nothing to worry over." Ja'ce said disarmingly, the glow of his eyes returning to normal. He already had everything he needed from the servant's mind.

"Tell me: when did this call come in?"

"It just went through the palace's HoloNet center, Grand Inquisitor." Another subservient bow.

"Very good." Ja'ce raised a hand, and with a sharp twist of the wrist snapped the "servant's" neck.

"COMPNOR scum." He muttered before making a beeline towards his residence. Whoever had the gall to ignore his orders while being on Prakith itself would soon come to regret the decision of not obeying their better.

HoloNet Chamber, Citadel Inquisitorius, Prakith

This was getting boring. I'd been waiting for a good half an hour for the damn call to connect, the only sign that my call had actually reached the right people was the stupid connection line saying so. I refocused my attention away from the communicator and back to my inner senses, taking the frustration I felt at whoever was holding up my call, I funneled it into another scan of the upper levels of the Citadel, searching for anything at this point.

Nothing. Just like the previous two scans. The upper levels of this tower were completely empty, bare of even the most basic furniture that would suggest that they were intended to be occupied but merely weren't at the moment.

I was at a loss. My looting of the base of the tower had been profitable: the armory had spare armor parts and some lightsaber grade power cells, not the mention the lightsabers I had taken off my recently departed comrades, the training halls had some spare amulets and talisman crafting items that I had quickly placed in my bag, and the rooms around the landing platforms had a good 50 unactivated KX-series, a few protocol droids, and what looked like a rack of black and bronze Imperial use R3 units.

A good haul, if I was a looter. But what I was in the market for the more esoteric items, and the Citadel was looking sorely lacking, to my rising frustration. I had searched the levels assigned to every Inquisitorius rank above me, yet had found nothing greater than some carving tools. Was I too late? Had all the first generation Inquisitors completely flown the coop with artifacts in hand before I had arrived?

It was starting to look that way.

My upwards search had brought me to HoloNet Chamber and, deciding that I needed a break from my search, had moved onto the second part of my plan: contact my superior and gain some favor from him.

And that was being slowed down by some desk jockey back at Imperial Center. It seemed like that despite me no longer being a student of the Citadel, the tower still managed to test me at every turn.

Just as I was about to give up the call as a lost cause, the machine chimed as the call was finally accepted at the other end. Or however HoloNet calls worked, I'd never figured out the specifics.

I reaffixed my helmet and knelt as a semi-familiar Zabraki male dressed in voluminous robes appeared.

"Grand Inquisitor." I intoned in greeting. The Grand Inquisitor remained silent until he had finished looking me over.

"Ninth Brother." The Zabrak spoke. "It appears you have decided to defy my orders and returned to Prakith."

"I was already enroute to Prakith when I received your instructions, Grand Inquisitor." I said, schooling my body language in a familiar stance of eager subservience.

"Elaborate."

"I was returning from a counter insurgency campaign in the Mid Rim and upon entering Prakith's airspace received a priority transmission from the Citadel. Said transmission declared that a Trial of the Last had been declared, absent of your authority." If I was reporting to the Emperor I would not dare to twist the story so, but the Emperor could read his playthings inner thoughts from anywhere across the galaxy. And despite Yiaso's power, he was most definitely not the Emperor.

Yiaso definitely didn't like that piece of news and I would reckon that his yellow/orange sun eyes were glowing in rage. Not that I could tell, we were just a blue figure to each other, but nobody in a cutthroat organization liked the Inquisitorius made it far by allowing others to undercut their authority.

"Who?" He growled out.

"The former Fifth Sister and Fourth Brother Grand Inquisitor." I unhooked my two trophies from my belt and showed them to Yiaso. "I took the liberty of killing them for their actions."

"And those who took the trial?"

"Dead I'm afraid, none had the Force with them." I went into further detail about what I knew of the two rogue's plan, casting myself in as good a light as possible without tipping my hand.

Yiaso took that in for a bit before asking the question. "And why did you not decide to join in on their venture, Ninth Brother?"

"When you are surrounded by enemies at all times, Grand Inquisitor, unity is paramount. Else the carrion birds begin to descend." For all the hatred three groups that made up the disposable masses of the Emperor's darksiders had for each other, things had never fully escalated. By fully escalated, I mean our disputes hadn't turned into a Force using hot war. Didn't prevent the 'occasional' and 'accidental' duel/hit/murder from happening though, and as past examples had proven, the slightest crack that could be exploited and denied without getting an inpromptu shock therapy session would lead to red blades clashing.

While I didn't know the new modus operandi the Inquisition was using nowadays, the protection of the Inquisition was only viable as long as the organization remained a powerful group and any issues were covered up adequately enough that the Prophets or Adepts couldn't use them without looking like they were grasping at straws. It looked like Yiaso agreed with me because he didn't offer me any rebuke, just a mere nod.

"Inquisitor." He transitioned away from the issue of me being on Prakith, hopefully accepting my narrative. "While you did disobey orders by not immediately departing to Imperial Center upon receiving my orders, you also did prevent a liability for the Inquisition from forming. Therefore I am willing to overlook the slip in discipline, provided that it does not happen again."

"Of course, Grand Inquisitor." I kept my back bent and moved my gaze back to the floor.

"However, your continued presence on Prakith might be of use to me. Provided certain conditions are meant on Imperial Center, the Inquisitorius will be able to maintain its superiority over our natural lessers." Ah clever, Yiaso was playing on natural darksider's sense of pride. "Remain at the Citadel until I contact you again." The blue hologram winked out.

I rose out of my kneeling position, and cracked my back. What an annoying position to hold for long stretches of time. So, part two accomplished I guess.

I walked over to look out the window that essentially was the front wall of the HoloNet Chamber, the location of which turned out to be a surprise to me: it was at the very top of the tower, with nothing else above it. So that meant there were no rooms that belonged to Yiaso to raid. Another Force-damned obstacle to my plans, great.

I glared at the base of the tower, stroking my inner fire into a healthy flame. With a bout of mental exertion, I once more cast seeking tendrils through the tower, hitting the upper levels and the lower levels this time. I felt beads of sweat start to trickle down my face.

Yet no matter how hard I pushed, nothing pinged. Opening my eyes and reeling my force-sense tendrils back in, I let out a nasty series of curses in Basic and English.

Then, the smell of parchment filled my olfactory senses. I jerked back around and summoned my saber into my hand.

The room was empty. Both to the eye and to the Force, but the smell of parchment seemed to decrease as I scanned the room before jumping back in intensity when I looked at the elevator. I thumbed my saber on.

Slowly, my free hand inched toward the elevator's control panel. I pushed it then hopped backward, bringing my saber up in a textbook Shii Cho guard. The elevator was empty, again. Still the parchment smell persisted, and it concentrated down on a small, removable panel right below the elevator's floor buttons. Keeping my guard up, I inched into the elevator and with an underpowered pull, tore the false panelling off. A switch was revealed with a single word below it: underground.

I looked at the innocuous switch. How I had not noticed that false panel on the way up? And let's not get started on the smell. I considered that this was a long term trap that had been built into the Citadel, a red herring for escapees.

Eh, I'd already gone this far. "What goes up, must come down." I, still exercising some caution, used the Force to flip the switch and felt the elevator jolted into motion. It almost felt like it had shifted.

Either way, down the rabbit hole I went.