Ascension/Part 5

As Crile Craetor threw himself aside from a boulder and rode a miniature avalanche back down the volcanic slope, his cries of frustration audible even at this distance, Zeff sprang the last few meters, latching onto the rim of the volcanic crater and hauling himself up. His helmet's vocoder transmitted his labored breathing, and his bodysuit was torn and his armor cracked in some places, but Darth Alecto clapped him on the shoulder. "Well done."

"I'm the Acolyte," Zeff rasped. "I should be the best."

"Oh, I agree," Darth Alecto said. "Make sure you are."

Nevya watched as her master flicked a hand and sent another rock rolling toward Shrizzzqadl with the Force. The eleven Sith had been struggling up the mountain in the hour since Nevya and Darth Alecto had taken what amounted to a trail to the summit. Several had come close only to be driven back down by one of Darth Alecto's rocks or fall as their tenuous footholds crumbled beneath their feet. The brethren who had surveyed the volcano reported it was dormant, but "dormant" was not "extinct", and Nevya glanced past the narrow lip into the black, sooty chasm at her back.

Darth Alecto gave Zeff a moment to recover, then put him in charge of rolling rocks down on his fellows while she came over to Nevya and asked in Anzat, "What do you think?"

"They're all taking too long," Nevya answered. Nodding at Zeff so as not to draw his attention by using his name, she added, "He was just the least bad."

"Not what I would hope for," Darth Alecto agreed. "But they will all have a long time to train before are ready they for lordship."

"'Before they are ready for lordship'," Nevya corrected.

Darth Alecto repeated it, then flicked a hand, dislodging a rock; a moment later a yelp of pain echoed up from below. "If they ever are."

The Clawdite Dolre Thyle was the next up the mountain; shapeshifting had been no help here, so he had simply relied on agility and the Force. Nillan Deys'lro actually made better progress than most; he kept a slow, creeping pace, flattening himself to the dirty slope and shielding his head when a rock came his way, and thus managed to avoid the slides his colleagues triggered in their haste. Fruuna's feline leaps kept dislodging the ground on her landings and sending her back down, and Zurgharjhen's desire to brute-force the climb drove him to knock aside or even catch falling boulders just because he could, even when the impact sent him into a slide. The plant girl struggled at the rear, taking frequent sips from water bottles she had refilled in the swamp.

Rewz had picked her way up the slope when Nevya's comlink buzzed. She stepped away around the crater's rim and asked, "What is it?"

"There are Sith here, Lady Khiyali," Rosyit's voice came back. "They wish to see Darth Alecto."

Nevya contained a guilty start. "Who are they?"

"I don't know, my lady; they won't identify themselves to us. No one any of us has ever seen, though."

"How many?"

"Two."

Frowning, Nevya told Rosyit to wait and relayed the information to Darth Alecto. Watching for it, understanding what they had engineered in secret, Nevya saw the small tic, the tightening around the violet eyes—the one, bare hint of fear Darth Alecto betrayed. Then she was herself again. "Is it possible?"

Nevya understood what she was being asked. "No. They would need to have spies on Anzat and be able to intercept our signals.  No one can do both, not with the brethren watching as they are."

Darth Alecto crossed her arms, face down in thought, before she narrowed her eyes. "Tell them to meet us here."

Nevya conveyed the order, and a moment later Rosyit confirmed that the mystery guests were on their way. She told Darth Alecto, whose fists unclenched a little. "Excellent."

"In what way, Master?"

"If they were here for blood, they would make me come to them."

Nevya nodded, then asked, "But it's no one you were expecting for anything else, Master?"

"No."

"I can have the brethren here in—"

Darth Alecto cut her off with a raised hand. "There is no need for that. There are two of them and thirteen of us."

Nevya looked at the adepts still struggling up the hill and those jeering from the top. "How many of them would fight with us?"

Darth Alecto chuckled once. "I wonder. But there are still only two of them; I can handle them both, if it comes to that.  And even if I can not, that is why I have you here."

Nevya nodded with a look of reassurance, but when Darth Alecto had turned away she drew her short sword, practicing a few patterns with the weapon, the blade shining in the afternoon sun. She sheathed it and turned in a single movement when Darth Alecto called her name, and she followed her master's pointed finger toward a glimmer on the horizon.

"A minute," Nevya guessed. "Maybe two. And this is no place for a fight."

"Agreed," Darth Alecto said. Then she switched to Basic and amplified her voice, calling, "Back down the mountain!"

There were groans from some of the adepts still working their way up; Zurgharjhen, only about twenty meters from the summit, snarled in frustration. Darth Alecto ignored them all, taking off at a run; Nevya assumed she was using the Force to anchor herself, because she took the slope—steeper than forty-five degrees in some places—without so much as a stagger, even on the loose volcanic soil. Nevya had no such abilities, but she gauged her path a moment, watched where some adepts had rushed it and failed, then started a controlled slide down, digging her hand into the gravel and dirt when needed to slow her descent. Darth Alecto was waiting for her at the bottom, but Nevya took some pride in that all of the adepts who had beaten her down looked much worse for it, having tumbled much of the way.

By the time she reached Darth Alecto's side, Nevya could recognize the Sith courier ship on the approach. It settled down far enough away that the dust its repulsors kicked up did not coat Darth Alecto's party, but the ramp dropped even before the engines had died and two black-garbed Sith emerged. One was a Human and the other a Zabrak, but both had the burly builds and surly expressions of seasoned fighters. They stopped a few meters away, and the Zabrak asked, "Darth Alecto?"

She stepped forward. "That's me. Who are you?"

They clapped fists to their chests and bowed in unison, and the Zabrak said, "I'm Sith Acolyte Azeykus Nonzi, and this is Sith Acolyte Neun-Jai Vertec. We've come from the training site on Dromund Kaas."

Nevya glanced at her master, who showed no emotion as she replied, "I wasn't aware we had an academy on Dromund Kaas."

"Not an academy, my lady," Neun-Jai Vertec said. "A small training facility only, for certain…select trainees."

"And why are you here?"

"We've hunting a runaway, my lady," Nonzi said. "A girl who escaped our lady's, ah…tutelage."

Darth Alecto's eyes tightened; she stared the two Acolytes down for a moment before turning to her own disciples. Nevya kept the pair in her peripheral vision, but spared her master's adepts a glance as well. Most looked on the newcomers with expressions of mixed boredom and disinterest—and of course Rogu and Varriben were impossible to read through their masks—but Nillan Deys'lro looked to his side, and Nevya saw Megaera the plant girl in Zurgharjhen's shadow, keeping the enormous Irrukiine between herself and the two Acolytes.

Vertec had spotted Nillan's movement too, because he moved for a different angle and pointed a gloved hand. "That's her! The plant girl."

He and Nonzi started forward, but Darth Alecto raised a hand and they paused. "She's one of my adepts."

"She deceived you, Darth Alecto," Nonzi said. "She was never supposed to be here, or even off Dromund Kaas. She killed two guards and a fellow adept to make her escape."

"Did she?" Darth Alecto sounded intrigued. Turning, she called, "Megaera."

Megaera crept out of Zurgharjhen's shadow; she was coated in volcanic ash, a few of the flowers on her head had wilted, and she had the look of a girl taking the steps to the firing squad. She stopped with Darth Alecto still between herself and the Acolytes and bowed her head. "Yes, Master?"

"Truth now, little flower, like your life depends on it—because it does," Darth Alecto warned her. "Is what they say true?"

A petal fell from one of Megaera's flowers. "Y-Yes, Master."

"Why did you do this?"

"I…it was horrible," she blurted out. "Lady Basrasht tortured us just for fun. She told us we'd never become Sith, that we were the rejects they'd sent her as fodder for the others."

"So you escaped."

"The guards tried to stop me, so I killed them," Megaera admitted. "And Eweyni…she was afraid to let me go. Lady Basrasht said if we ever tried to leave she'd punish all of us, and Eweyni…she was too afraid."

"Were you?"

Megaera nodded. "Yes, Master, but—"

"You see, Darth Alecto?" Nonzi said. "She admits it herself!"

Darth Alecto held up a hand without looking at him. "But what, Megaera?"

"But…I was more afraid of staying. I can't live like that, I'd rather die.  I had my chance and…and I took it."

Darth Alecto tilted her head. "You had a ship—you could've gone anywhere you wanted. To the Jedi, or back wherever you came from.  Why come here?"

Megaera made a face. "I don't want to be a Jedi; I'm not a coward. And what home do I have to go to?  Go back there without being a Sith—be better than everybody else, but only because everybody else is nobody, just sitting in pools and soaking up the sunshine?  I want to be a Sith; that's why I came to you.  You're a woman too, and a Sith Lord, and…you're the one who killed the Chancellor!  I want to learn from you!  Please teach me; I promise I'll be a good student."

"This is all fascinating," Nonzi sighed, "but we're here to take her back, Darth Alecto."

Darth Alecto did not respond, studying Megaera for a long time. The plant girl quailed under her gaze at first, but after a moment she found some vegetative equivalent of a spine and raised her chin. Darth Alecto turned away, looked thoughtful for a moment, then faced the Acolytes. "No."

"Excuse me?" the Human, Vertec, demanded.

"I said no," Darth Alecto repeated in a harder tone. "She showed strength of will and ingenuity in seeking out her destiny, and now she's one of my adepts. She stays."

Vertec crossed his arms. "We're here under purview of Lord Warlese Oruval, Sith Overlord of all Sith instruction, to—"

Darth Alecto cut him off with a nasty laugh. "Nerf crap. Have either of you ever even met Lord Oruval?  So much as seen him in person?" When they looked at each other, Darth Alecto laughed again. "That's what I thought. I'll tell you a secret, boys—I have.  I met Lord Oruval when I was eight years old and he selected me for Korriban, I saw his influence and learned from him in person when he was Headmaster there, and I can tell you from personal experience that he puts a lot more stock in creativity and the will of the dark side than he does in mindless, formulaic obedience.  He doesn't even know you're here, does he?  No, Lady Basrasht sent you here, hoping Lord Oruval's name would scare me all by itself.  Well, it doesn't, and if Lady Basrasht wants one of my disciples, she can come here and take her over my dead body.  The girl stays."

The Acolytes looked at each other again, and in their moment of hesitation Nevya stepped up even with Darth Alecto, giving the escapee hunters a glower and sliding her sword a few centimeters out of its sheath. They both weighed her with their eyes, but in the next second Zeff Rogu appeared on Darth Alecto's other side, flexing his gloved fingers. Nillan moved in front of Megaera, crossing his arms over his chest; a moment later Crile Craetor did the same on her other side, patting her flowery head on the way by. Even the Clawdite, Dolre, slunk up behind Zeff, the large, sunken eyes of his natural form narrow.

The rest of the adepts hung back, noncommittal, but the show of force was enough. Azeykus Nonzi turned away from his companion and said, "We'll report this matter to Lady Basrasht, Darth Alecto. You should know she'll raise it to Lord Oruval."

"Let her," Darth Alecto sneered. "Let Lady Basrasht tell Lord Oruval she got outsmarted and played by a teenage plant; we'll see how much trust he puts in her then. And even if he does, Lord Oruval doesn't command me, and I'll gamble on Darth Saleej's good graces.  If my master commands me to hand Megaera over, you can have her; until then, don't let our dust clog your exhaust ports on your way out."

Neun-Jai Vertec bared his teeth, turned without a word, and stormed away. Azeykus Nonzi bowed and turned as well, but Darth Alecto called in a sweet voice, "Oh, boys, one last thing."

They stopped.

Darth Alecto's voice dropped down to its normal octave and her face twisted into a threatening mask. "Tell Lady Basrasht that the next time she sends Acolytes to me who presume to bully me, she shouldn't expect them back."

The two Acolytes left to chuckles from some of the adepts and Zeff Rogu. Nevya did not laugh, but she snugged her sword back into its sheath as Darth Alecto watched the ship go. When the twinkle of metal had faded into the growing dusk, she spun on her heels, waved Nillan and Crile out of her way, and tilted Megaera's chin up as she had the day before so their eyes met. "I just made an enemy of a Sith Lord I don't even know for you, little flower. Be worth it."

Megaera nodded as much as she could with Darth Alecto's index finger under her chin. "I will, Master, I promise."

Darth Alecto scrutinized her a moment more, then nodded back and released her. "Hope you enjoyed the breather, everyone, we're heading home."