Confrontation – 3660.017 BY
With a dread filled stomach Zanleya made her way toward Darth Tharmin's chambers, situated on the fourth level of the Academy. She was partly buoyed with confidence from having received her master's approval for her boldness, but still not nearly self-assured enough to face Tharmin. This would be the first time she had spoken to a Darth, besides Kharvak, and she could still clearly remember their first meeting and the petrifying terror she had felt. On that occasion the Darth in question had been coming to her rescue, this time it was quite the opposite.
Zanleya muttered the Sith code to herself as she approached the wing of the Academy in which Tharmin resided, trying her best to get control of her emotions. By the time the plain and flat metal door stood before her she still felt like she was facing a firing squad. With a sweat slicked hand she pressed the intercom.
"My Lord, I, Zanleya, am here to see you," she said, trying to sound self-confident. The door slid open without a reply from the man within and she stepped inside. The chamber was dark, for it contained no windows, the only source of illumination came from a pair of dull lights on the far wall giving off an orangey glow and bathing the chamber in half-hearted light. The room was relatively bare, although a couple of suits of armour rested on stands against the back wall and a row of ancient weapons sat on a rack to the left. The opposite wall was given over to a small repository of knowledge, a few weakly glowing holocrons in a line next to a number of ancient leather bound tomes. A couple of doors in the right wall led away to the rest of Tharmin's domain. However, as was inevitably the case, Zanleya's focus was not on the room's relatively sparse decoration, but on the occupant. Darth Tharmin stood facing her, almost silhouetted by the dull lighting so that discerning his features was hard. He was slightly taller than Kharvak but not quite as broad shouldered, nevertheless that still put him a good head and a bit taller than Zanleya herself. He was clad in an advanced variant of plate armour, white and black segmented greaves protecting his legs whilst his chest was covered by a yellow plate. One gauntleted hand rested on the exquisitely crafted lightsaber clipped to his belt. His face was hidden behind a black mask, a narrow tinted visor stretching across it, despite this Zanleya could still very much feel his gaze burning into her. Whereas Kharvak struck an imposing figure, his posture and behaviour gave him a militaristic presence. Tharmin, however, exuded the pure power of the dark side, undiminished by apparent servitude to the Empire like Kharvak. While it might just about have been possible, for a fool who did not know otherwise, to look at a holopic of Kharvak and believe he was a general and not a Sith, the same mistake certainly could not be made with Tharmin. His attire was impressive, his stance displayed the power he wielded and he radiated the energy of the dark side, almost giving him an aura of might.
Without being bidden and practically without needing to think, Zanleya dropped to one knee head bowed. As with her encounter with Lady Gethen about a year ago, she knew that her best bet of getting out alive and relatively unscathed, was utmost respect and deference toward Tharmin. She was a threat, if only small, to him and that did not bode well for her continued good health.
"Give me a reason I shouldn't see you killed," Tharmin stated, his voice commanding and slightly distorted by his mask. Zanleya reeled, it was not the introduction she had been expecting. "There are many ways I can see to it that you meet your end: an impossible trial, an accident, a rival acolyte suddenly well equipped. I don't need to break the rules to see to it that you die." He did not bother with preamble or grand introductions, Zanleya realised she was here for one thing and one thing only, to ensure her silence one way or another.
"My Lord!" Zanleya gasped in shock, looking up at the imposing figure now standing over her.
"You have intruded upon my business and I don't take kindly to that," he hissed, the noise sounding all the more menacing coming from the speaker grill of his mask. "So, tell me, why should I not end your life?" Tharmin demanded. Sudden panic gripped her, she had known Tharmin would not be pleasant toward her, but this was worse than she had imagined. Zanleya thought fast, her mind racing as she attempted to find an escape route. It was do or die she realised, she was going to have to do something bold to force Tharmin to respect her… that or he would kill her. Knowledge is power, just as much as power is power, Zanleya thought, Kharvak's classic quote drifting into her frightened mind. Tharmin definitely had power, the standard sort, he could speak and his will would be carried out, she did not possess that sort of authority. So she would have to try and use knowledge to counter him. Frantically she racked her brain, a thousand ideas and possibilities flying through her mind like a whirling sandstorm of desperate thoughts.
"Because I've set up a dead man's switch," she replied evenly, doing her best to keep her eyes fixed on his hidden face. He paused, his emotionless mask scrutinizing her. "If I don't enter a code every week, what I know about you and your apprentice will be sent to my master Darth Kharvak. If you kill me, he too will learn what I've found out," there was a hiss of anger from Tharmin. "So murder me, his apprentice and I'm sure he'll take revenge and kill your apprentice in turn." It was a bold statement indeed and she knew she was very much putting her life on the line. She also did not know if Kharvak would actually react so, yet she hoped he cared enough for her to at least avenge her murder.
"Pathetic zygote! How dare you threaten her!" Tharmin thundered, he swiped his hand as if backhanding a slave and Zanleya was sent hurtling across the room, crashing into the wall with a bone-jarring impact. She had been prepared for such an attack, but her force defence was crushed beneath Tharmin's power, her meagre block shattering before him like a pane of glass. Striking the wall, she fell to the ground stunned and winded.
Zanlyea gasped in pain as soon as she had her breath back, flares of agony spiking down her back, then gritted her teeth and pulled herself onto all fours. Tharmin stalked toward her, unignited lightsaber now gripped in his right hand.
"You know it's true," she spat. "You know he'd want revenge. But if you spare me, he'll never find out." Tharmin paused as if he had only just caught the implication of what she had said.
"You haven't spread your ill-gotten knowledge?"
"No absolutely not my Lord, I kept my word, I promised Lady Cåssie that I would not tell anyone and I haven't. The dead man's switch is merely a precaution…" she let the sentence hang, the reason for its creation and the implication of such did not need explaining. In truth she was completely bluffing, she had not set up such a system, yet. If she made it out of Tharmin's chamber alive though she fully intended to, she was just betting on him either not seeing through her deception or not wanting to take the risk.
"Then perhaps that small spark of wisdom will save your life. You're playing with fire little acolyte, with powers you can't handle," Tharmin warned, Zanleya heard the tone of his voice shift slightly, it was only the smallest of alterations but she noticed it. He knew she had an advantage over him and he was being slightly more cautious now.
"My Lord please forgive me, I should never have said anything to Lady Cåssie in the first place. I do not intend to bring harm upon Cåssie or yourself," Zanleya apologised, pulling herself back to a sitting position. She realised that she was going to have to hastily backtrack, hopefully she had convinced him that it was best to let her live and now she wanted to let him recover face and feel in control again. It did not take a genius to discern that Tharmin did not like people having even the tiniest bit of power over him.
"For your sake, I am glad… because if she comes to harm because of your actions, death will be a mercy for you," Tharmin threatened. Zanleya did not doubt him for a second, equally well aware that there were plenty of fates worse than death on Korriban.
"I swear I haven't told a soul, not even Kharvak… although he did ask what I knew," Zanleya admitted. Her heart was hammering in her chest, she was well aware that he could dispatch her with minimal effort and that she did not stand even a ghost of a chance in a fight should it come to that.
"What did you say to him?" Tharmin demanded dangerously.
"That I couldn't tell him what it was I had learnt," she replied, hoping that he saw her honesty. Tharmin nodded his approval.
"Very well, you defied your own master to keep my secret safe, I shall credit you that. If you had told him then you both might have suffered unfortunate accidents. Tharmin stated. Zanleya blanched slightly, that was something that had not occurred to her. Kharvak could only take revenge on her behalf if he were still living, should Tharmin kill him too her threat of a dead man's switch was redundant. She was not sure which of the two Darths was the more powerful and in truth she did not want to know. Clearly though he did not wish to move against another Darth unless he had to, but the mere thought that he might scared her. Kharvak was so inviolable to her, the all-powerful all-knowing master whom she served, the idea that he was actually still mortal and that another Sith could just kill him was an unwelcome revelation. "But do not think for a moment that I would hesitate to exterminate you should I find out otherwise."
"And I will continue to keep your secret safe, just… don't kill me," Zanleya said lamely. She hated herself for sounding so much like she was begging, almost like the pathetic yellow skinned twi'lek Yena who had died in the tomb of Tulak Hord. She was truly frightened for her life though, as logical as her argument seemed to her, Sith were notoriously unpredictable and volatile.
"Your foresight has saved you this time, but don't think that I will forget about you," Tharmin said ominously. "You are an interfering maggot and I do not appreciate upstart acolytes."
"I won't cause you trouble my Lord, I promise," Zanleya insisted, although a voice at the back of her mind told her that that might not be true.
"See that you don't," Tharmin hissed menacingly.
"I swear I won't tell anybody, besides if I did you wouldn't have a reason to spare me anymore would you?" Zanleya said.
"Correct," Tharmin stated bluntly, tapping his lightsaber. "Yet I have one question, what happens should you die during a trial? Or because of weakness in the duelling pits?" Zanleya detected a note of concern, only a small one and hidden behind a façade of power and anger, but it was definitely there. She realised he was worried that Kharvak would learn his secret even if he was not the one responsible for killing her. Pausing for a moment she pondered how best to respond. Her immediate reaction was to say that she would not care, if she had left this mortal coil then Tharmin's love life would not be a concern of hers anymore. However, that was not a sensible line of logic to take if she wished to keep breathing.
"He wouldn't come after Cåssie if he could see it wasn't you who killed me. So I imagine it wouldn't matter, besides I don't plan on dying any time soon," Zanleya replied with conviction, appreciating the irony of what she was saying given where she currently knelt. Tharmin was obviously not satisfied with the answer.
"That's what they all say," he remarked casually, referring to the great number of acolytes who came to Korriban each year. "Most of you don't make it." Zanleya narrowed her eyes and put on a face of determination. She was going to become Sith she swore to herself.
"But I will," she stated. "And I guess you'll just have to hope that fate doesn't conspire against me," she added with a wicked glint in her eyes. Tharmin's left fist clenched and his fingers tightened around the hilt of his lightsaber. They both knew what that meant, she wanted to make sure he did not scheme to get her killed indirectly. He strode forward so that he was looming over her once more, his grim mask glaring down upon her.
"And likewise if anything, anything at all, happens to Cåssie then you will have seen your last sunrise. So let's hope fate doesn't conspire against her either."
"It won't," she reassured him, doing her best not to flinch away from being in such close proximity to him.
"Just remember little Zanleya, you aren't safe on Korriban and I am being especially benevolent today, I am not always so forgiving. Now get out before I change my mind," he snapped. With utmost relief Zanleya rose to her feet, gave him a courteous bow, hoping it did not come across as mocking, then made for the door. Tharmin watched her leave and the hairs on the nape of her neck stood on end as she walked away. She felt exposed and vulnerable with her back turned to the powerful Darth, but equally knew that she had to show such submission to him. The door opened and she virtually ran through it, desperate to be out of Darth Tharmin's dingy domain and his intimidating presence.
Zanleya almost sagged to the floor with relief as the door closed behind her, Tharmin's burning gaze at last blocked. Her back was hurting something fierce and she winced as she rubbed it, but still she smiled, a small but happy smile, the sort that came after realising one was walking away from a near death experience. She was still alive, Tharmin had spared her and it sounded like she was not going to have any further problems with him. Of course there was no guarantee, lies and deception were the bread and butter of the Sith Academy, but he seemed to have understood that Cåssie's continued survival was tied to hers. It was by no means an ideal situation, she still wished that she had nothing to do with Tharmin but given how the meeting had started she was just glad to still be in one piece. She cursed her own stupidity and loose tongue for getting her into this situation in the first place, but it was a lesson learnt and one that she was relieved she did in fact have the opportunity to learn from… after all, corpses could not learn from their mistakes.
Nevertheless, surviving Tharmin was only another step on the way to becoming Sith, now she had to endure the machinations of Jensine and all the other trials the cruel and compassionless overseers would throw at her. Still she told herself, it was no mean feat, being confronted by a Darth and coming out alive and relatively unharmed on the other side. One day though, one day that Darth would be her and nobody, not Tharmin, not his lover, nor Jensine, nor anybody else was going to stop her.