Star Wars: Slave Of Darkness

After a day of silence, the Sith had called for her again.

The slave had not been directed by her owner, the Head Butler, to attend to him. He had not sought her out. It had simply been…a feeling. A whisper in the back of her head, followed by a sudden need to be somewhere.

She had not known if it was real or imagined, so she had shaken it off and gone back to work.

But the feeling had returned. Again, she shook it off, but again the whisper had returned, only louder. Soon, she knew without a doubt that it would continue to grow until it was a shout.

Even then, it took her a moment to recognize the summons for what it was.

After that realization, it was a quick decision on what to do. When the choice was between displeasing her owner and displeasing a Sith, the former was vastly preferable. Still, it was with no small amount of trepidation that the slave made her way to the Sith apprentice's quarters.

The walk gave her time to think and to worry. She still didn't understand what had happened to make her collar malfunction, only that the Sith was likely involved. Somehow, through some means, he had disabled it, yet still had it read as functioning to her owner's controller.

Worse still, she did not understand why he had done so. He had spoken little the last time and what he had said had made no sense whatsoever. Her senses had been unable to determine much about his intent beyond what emotions he had been feeling at the time.

Before long, she found herself before the door once again. As she reached a pink-skinned hand towards the controls to ring the chime, the door hissed open of its own accord.

'Right, he can see through walls.' She reminded herself as she tried to shake off the sheer strangeness of it all.

The thin soles of her shoes sank into the plush carpet as she entered the room, the door closing behind her. Much as the first time, Tesser was seated at the desk, his left ankle balanced on the other knee. 

He was dressed in a simple outfit of a black tunic and blue pants, with his patchy hair combed back out of his eyes.

Eyes that she could now see, she realized. The bandages were gone, revealing the slave brands and the burns. The skin around his eyes was no longer charred black, instead replaced with fresh pink skin. 

It was obvious that he was still healing and that the injury would certainly scar, but it was no longer the horror it had once been.

Eyelids were pulled back to expose familiar amber irises, shadowed by furrowed eyebrows.

Once again, she could feel irritation radiating from him, but the slave knew it was not directed at her. No, like his gaze, it was focused solely on the datapad in his hands.

Had she not already been let into the room she might have assumed that the Sith had yet to realize that she was present. With that in mind, she waited to be called upon. 

It had been long drilled into her to not speak until spoken to and it had only been her shock that had caused her to do so before.

It was a long moment before Tesser finally reacted, letting out a frustrated sigh.

Amber eyes turned to her, causing her to shiver slightly as a chill passed over her skin. It wasn't a greeting, just a brief acknowledgement of her presence, before he asked a question, "Can you read?"

It was a legitimate question. A slave might not be expected to know how to read or write. But she had not always known a life of chains. She remembered learning in a classroom on Corellia with other children. It all seemed so long ago, but the memory remained.

She also remembered that her owner had to pay extra for that.

The slave meekly nodded, "I can, milord."

"Good." He replied simply before holding out the datapad, "I need you to read this aloud to me."

Unconsciously, blue eyes flicked to the slave brands before she could control them and a thought rose unbidden.

'A labor or gladiator slave would hardly be expected to know…'

"I am perfectly capable of reading…." Tesser stated, as though he had read her mind, "Under normal circumstances, anyways. While I can see well enough without the Force to walk around, the words on the screen are just blurs to me right now."

Panic immediately flooded through the slave in a cold wave as she realized he probably could read her mind.

Her body instinctively braced, waiting for the jolt.

But it never came. The collar didn't click. Thunder didn't crack.

There was only the extended hand, holding a simple datapad and waiting for her to take it.

It was only reflex that made her numb fingers move. As soon as it left his grip, Tesser leaned back in his seat, resting his hands in his lap.

And waited.

The slave nervously gulped and tore her eyes from the Sith to look at what she had been handed, only to have them widen further.

While she was hardly an expert on such things, it was clearly a military report of some kind, time-stamped nearly three hundred years ago. 

She only needed to scan the first few lines to understand that it was related to the Empire's reclamation of Dromund Fels prior to the invasion of Republic space.

Outdated information or not, just looking at this document, or someone merely implying that she had, could get her killed.

Was this a trap?

She hadn't felt that he was being deceitful when he claimed his inability to read due to his injury. Bacta was capable of healing traumatic injuries, but it had its limits, and she had seen the extent of the damage herself only a day ago.

She glanced back up at Tesser. The corners of his mouth had turned up slightly and she could sense a feeling of approval from him.

Not for the first time, the slave wished her empathic senses were capable of being more specific than reading a general mood.

Was he giving her approval to continue reading? Approving of noticing the trap? Approving of thinking things through?

No matter which was the truth, she was a dead woman walking. Either the Sith would kill her at his whim or someone else would kill her for reading the document.

But a small kernel of doubt wormed its way into her mind. With Darth Rictus away from the manor, Tesser was technically in the position of highest authority, well over the Head Butler or any of the garrison soldiers.

If he approved…then perhaps she might just survive for a little while longer.

Taking a deep breath and releasing it, she began reading.

"We met no significant resistance as our ships descended on Dromund Fels. The slaves that had been left behind so long ago had been left with no way to leave the planet and no infrastructure to build the means. 

In our absence, they built over what remained. Though they somehow survived the centuries, they had devolved into savage primitives wielding stone spears and bows."

The slave paused to scroll down to the next section of the document.

"Darth Igrol took personal command of the first wave, wishing to be the first Sith to set foot on the planet. By the time the rest of the reclamation force landed, he had already annihilated the small army of savages that had dared to meet our arrival. 

From other reports, few of our troopers had expended so much as a single blaster bolt before all the enemies were dead. We never got an exact count. It was a humbling reminder of the power of the Sith."

She swallowed another lump of nervousness that threatened to cut off her voice.

"Darth Igrol spoke…and they died."

The report ended there.

As she had been reading, Tesser had closed his eyes, resting them as he listened. At her pause, he cracked one open and glanced at her.

"Continue with the next one."

Quickly examining the options, the slave found several tabs queued, linking to other documents. Switching to the next in line, she found a short Imperial Reclamation Service report, time-stamped to a few years before the outbreak of the war, nearly thirty years ago.

"The efforts to excavate the tombs have been slow going on account of the traps of the old masters, but also because of the continuing ineptitude and irreverence of the old rebel slaves. 

After the Great Hyperspace War, they took their tools and collapsed many of the passages, burying themselves and the treasures below. We have had to redig new tunnels several times, a difficult task given how brittle the stone is here. 

Fortunately, we have had an easier time with the former as the Dark Council saw fit to assign Lord Marr to our expedition to speed along our progress. Thanks to his help, we have only had two maimings this week and no deaths.

At our current rate, I estimate that we should reach the catacombs proper by the end of next month…assuming the tunnels do not collapse again."

To her surprise, this was something she had actually overheard before. Not the bit about Darth Marr, but the ongoing archaeological efforts. As Darth Rictus had been talking about it with a visiting Sith and she had happened to be nearby, she had not remained there for long.

Without prompting from Tesser, she tabbed to the next document, a report sent to the Sphere of Laws and Justice dated to only a few weeks ago.

"Members of the organized criminal organization known as the Exchange have been uncovered on Dromund Fels assimilating local criminal elements. Several low-level members have been identified and apprehended. 

While interrogations have yet to reveal the identities of higher level members of the group, we have coerced the prisoners into informing us of the locations of several safe houses and businesses associated with their operations. Coordinates and names for each are attached.

The prisoners believed that they were sent here to establish a black market in the heart of Sith space to supplement the failing organization. See the attached document detailing the Exchange's loss of prestige following the devastation of Taris for further details.

However, that is merely what these…peons believe. They are too low-ranked to know anything of import in regards to their true purpose.

After exhausting their usefulness, the prisoners were liquidated."

The slave shivered at the last word.

But she kept reading, somehow encouraged by the fact that she hadn't been turned into a stain on the plush carpet yet.

As before, Tesser listened quietly. But she could almost feel the gears churning in his mind as emotions bubbled to the surface one after the other.

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The first book of this fanfic has been completed on Patreon, you can look it up in the collection alongside the second book. You can visit Patreon if you want to read in Advance.

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