Devon sat cross-legged on a metal floor with his eyes closed. Several burnished, hard objects floated in front of him and one red, uncut crystal. Devon sat still as the cylinders and switches slowly fell into line, clicking into place one by one. The lightsaber complete, Devon reached out, eyes still closed, and put his hand around the hilt. A red pillar of light funneled out of the hilt and the dark room glowed like a reflected sunset. A few panels and viewscreens continued emitting dull lights and beeping noises, but the light of the young man's saber dominated the room.
He stood up and began to move through a series of sword forms. Leannon taught them to him. He tried not to think of her as his hands brought the saber flowing from stance to stance around him. He hadn't heard a word of what happened to her in the trials. Barely having survived himself, he hoped to see her on the other end, but was greeted with no news.
Sweat beaded on his forehead as his practice became more vigorous. He began to almost fly about the room, bringing the glowing edge of the lightsaber a hairsbreadth from the wall over and over. Breathing heavily, he stopped when he took an almost imperceptible shaving out of one of the durasteel pillars of the ship.
Just as he started to relax, he opened his eyes and frowned. He looked at a wall as if attempting to see through it. He turned off his lightsaber, wiped his brow and straightened his robes.
A heavy clunk echoed through the ship and Devon felt the impact through his feet. He went to the door of the small room, pressed a button to open it, and stood at attention in the door frame. He looked down the hallway toward his right out of the corner of his eye, keeping his head pointed straight forward.
A tall man in black armor and cloak turned a corner into the hallway and walked away from Devon. A large, grey-black rectangular object floated upright through the air behind him. It filled the entire hallway and had blinking lights on two of its narrower sides. Devon only caught a glimpse of the front of the object as it hovered around the corner. The shape of a robed woman encased in carbonite, head back, mouth open and screaming silently.
Feeling his heart beating faster, Devon took a deep breath and stared ahead of him. Less than a minute later, he heard the footsteps of the armored man striding towards him, stop, and turn to look at him. With his hood down, the older man stood a head and half-taller than Devon, and the teenager could see his face, half metal and half flesh, framed one one side with long golden hair.
The taller man said, "I see you've been practicing, apprentice. Good. I will spar with you after I've eaten. Do you feel comfortable with your lightsaber yet? Have you made it your own?"
"Nearly so, Lord, but-" Devon paused, nervous, and looked briefly at his master's face. He saw no anger there and continued, "I feel it won't be mine until I use it in battle."
"Hmm, yes." He considered Devon for a moment, the natural eye and brilliant white eye scanning the younger man's face. "Your short training may end up as an advantage. Less time for the fools at the Academy to put backwards ideas into your head. Prepare yourself, we will spar in fifteen minutes." He stormed off and entered his own quarters.
Devon turned and walked to the center of his room. After sitting down, he pulled his lightsaber from his side and then released it in the air in front of him. Concentrating, he caused it to float steadily. He closed his eyes and the lightsaber slowly disassembled and reassembled itself. He reached out and took the lightsaber, but did not ignite it. As he focused on the lightsaber, he felt something different in the Force. The woman in carbonite that Lord Ursbrung brought on board. She was Sith as well. Devon didn't dwell on this. He had to impress his new master when they sparred. He didn't know if Lord Ursbrung would punish him if he was disappointing, but he didn't want to take the risk.
He went methodically through several forms with his lightsaber off. As he stepped around the small room and moved his arms in a silent dance, both hands on the lightsaber hilt, he thought of his parents on Dromund Kaas. His mother had reservations about sending him to Korriban. His parents had fought. They did not often fight. In the end, his father asked him if he wanted to go. Devon said yes. He'd been exceptional in school and found most of the other students boring. Most of the teachers as well.
Red light filled the room again as he turned on his saber. He felt his master approach. He spun, saber held in front of him, just in time to block a heavy blow from Ursbrung, who's human eye glowed fervently. Ursbrung continued with a furious series of slashes and thrusts.
Devon focused himself on Ursbrung's lightsaber and shut off his mind, hoping that his instincts and connection to the Force would save him. He raised his saber again and again as the stronger man rained blows down on him. He let his feet move around the room, always seeking the center of the space, always keeping Ursbrung at as much distance as possible. The human half of Ursbrung's face grinned and growled and even laughed.
He could feel Ursbrung's strength each time he deflected an attack. As Devon began to feel less surprised, he began to counter-attack, slipping in a quick stab or cautious slash. Leannon taught him that. He needed to keep Ursbrung honest.
For twenty minutes, they fought, sometimes furiously, sometimes slowly circling one another. Soon glowing slash marks littered the walls of Devon's room. Sweat soaked through their clothing and made patches of the metal floors slippery. Ursbrung leapt through the air, swinging his saber down with all his might. Devon wasn't there, but his holo-console exploded in a flash of light. After rolling out of the way, Devon settled on his feet and lunged at his master, who parried Devon's saber away an inch before it pierced his belly.
"Hmm," Ursbrung muttered, holding his red lightsaber in front of him, "childish, tentative, and weak." He gave Devon a faint smile. "But not hopelessly so. Assuming you can be taught, you may yet make a worthwhile apprentice."
Devon kept his lightsaber up. "I learn quickly, master."
Ursbrung considered his acolyte for a moment before turning off his lightsaber. Devon followed suit. The older man seemed to be relatively young, perhaps forty, but it was hard to tell for sure with half his face replaced with metal and electronics. He said, "How much do you believe what they taught you at the Academy?"
Devon let the room fall silent, keeping his eyes on Ursbrung's face. His answer could easily put him in danger. "I believe what works, master. I try what is taught and find out for myself."
Ursbrung gave Devon a half smile. "Yes, you may do well. Many of the Sith teachings are either out of date or and corrupted. As you might say, they do not work." He paused, continuing to examine Devon. "Come with me."
Ursbrung and Devon walked back into the cargo hold. The open space looked sparkling clean, with several shelving units full of boxes along the walls and little else besides the woman suspended in her long carbonite prison on the floor. Ursbrung stopped a pace away from the carbonite. "Come, open your senses. What do you feel from her?"
Devon slowly walked forward, almost closing his eyes and breathing deeply. He reached towards the carbonite prison but stopped a finger's breadth away from its surface. "Master, I feel anger. Pain. Hatred. And something else. It's as if…"
"As if your strength was being drawn away from you?"
"Yes, master."
"Then she is the perfect Sith, is she not? Full of dark emotions, able to gain power easily, steal it from her foes."
Devon remained silent. He stood up and looked at Ursbrung. He realized that it was not a rhetorical question and said, "If she is the perfect Sith, master, then how did you defeat her?"
Ursbrung chuckled. "Exactly." He knelt by the carbonite and touched it. "She should not be underestimated, Acolyte, but you can learn from her failings. She let her emotions and appetites control her. She sought to destroy but not to build anything from the ashes."
He stood up tall and looked down at Devon, "A true Sith gains power from his passions, but is not controlled by them. This Sith killed many other Sith in her rage. She became a black hole in the Force, taking, consuming, but never creating. A true Sith is like a raging star. Powerful, fuelled by great internal forces, yet ordering the galaxy around it. Giving both life and death as appropriate. Do you understand, acolyte?"
Devon nodded slowly. Ursbrung said nothing, but continued to watch Devon. Feeling that his response was another test, Devon didn't know what to say. He struggled for a moment and said, "A true Sith, a true Sith represents both sides of life, of the Force. Vigorous life and, and," he thought for a moment, "and timely death."
Ursbrung's human eye glittered, but the rest of his face remained stoic. "Close, acolyte. I see your strengths and weaknesses more clearly now. I shall put you through the flaming forge. You will suffer, but you will come out glowing like a star born in the darkness."