Loyalty/Part 7

"Two more have entered the Abattoir," Qritzel reported; the blue holo gave him more color than he had in real life.

"Will either of them pass?" Nevya asked.

"One, perhaps, but no higher than the first rank. The other will die."

Nevya was not troubled by that. The more Anzati died in the Abattoir, the more easily the Brotherhood could weed out the weak from trying. And even if the other passed only the first level, the Brotherhood needed more frontline soldiers than it did commanders.

"Keep me informed."

"Yes, Lady Khiyali." There was no new respect in Qritzel's voice since she had passed the sixth level of the Abattoir, but that endeared him to Nevya. Darth Alecto had named Nevya her second, and so Qritzel had deferred to her from the first day even when he had been of a higher rank in the Brotherhood. She would have given much and more for a Brotherhood full of Qritzel Sheols.

Qritzel's heavy brow furrowed. "Will Darth Alecto return to Anzat any time soon?"

"She may, when our current business is done. Does she need to?"

Qritzel shook his head. "I merely ask."

"Our master trusts you, Qritzel, as do I."

Qritzel bowed his head, and Nevya cut the transmission there. Keeping the Brotherhood's history and lore was all well and good, but Qritzel had seen so much that he was a natural choice to supervise training. And just now, Nevya did not want to distract Darth Alecto…

She found the Sithlings in the midst of lightsaber sparring, cycling between one-on-one and two-on-one duels. In the days since Lord Rhutizh's visit, they had dedicated more of each day to dueling. Several of them bore angry burns and welts, but Nevya noticed they were not the serious burns of prior weeks. They could only have dialed up the shielding at Darth Alecto's order; why would she show them mercy now?

Shading her eyes with one hand, Nevya looked up against the morning sky and saw her master watching the duels from atop a three-story-tall construction droid which was laying down frames for the fortress. Slipping through its four tree-thick legs, Nevya climbed the ladder up its side. Darth Alecto had said precious little these past few days, and nothing of what Lord Rhutizh had told her. Inclined though she was to trust her master, Nevya had come to realize how unaccustomed she was to Darth Alecto keeping her in the dark.

She pulled herself onto the construction droid's head—or was it a roof?—as quietly as she could, but even with the din of its moving limbs, her effort was wasted. Darth Alecto turned her head—not enough to see behind her, but enough to make her point. Nevya stepped to her side and reported the two new Anzati in the Abattoir. When Darth Alecto only nodded, though, Nevya frowned. "What is it, Master? What did Lord Rhutizh tell you?"

That snapped Darth Alecto out of her abstraction, although not in the way Nevya had hoped. "How do you know this is because of him?"

"He visits, and suddenly training focuses more on combat than stealth, and yet with greater controls to ensure none of your students suffer more than inconvenient injuries." Nevya studied her master, hoping for any hint in those violet eyes. "You can trust me, Master."

Darth Alecto held her gaze, then sighed and looked back down to her students. "I do, Nevya. And more than ever, I think I have to."

She recounted what Darth Hokhtan had told her of Lady Basrasht's impending attack on Lisal. When she finished, Nevya hissed through her teeth. "None of the brethren would have betrayed you."

"None?" Darth Alecto asked.

Bitter though it was to say, Nevya corrected, "None who are here. None who know about Commenor."

"Then either it is someone elsewhere on the Sith side…" Darth Alecto grimaced down. "Or it is one of them."

"I've seen nothing from Zeff that—"

"Nor would I expect you to. If Darth Hokhtan knows about this, Gasald may too, and if she is trying to hurt me, she would not need Zeff."

"We could test that theory, Master…"

"How?"

"Leave him here. Let him face Lady Basrasht's attack."

For a second Darth Alecto looked tempted, but then she shook her head. "No. The mission will need his skills, especially without me."

Nevya blinked. "Without you?"

Darth Alecto finally turned to face her. "Without me here, Basrasht will be able to massacre them all with…impunity?"

"Jhataev," Nevya supplied. "But how will you stop her if you can not strike the first blow?"

"I do not have to—I just need to get in her way so she can not interfere, and leave her minions to mine."

Nevya thought it over. "This Basrasht operates from Dromund Kaas?"

"Yes."

"I could assemble a team—"

"No," Darth Alecto said firmly. "If any of you were caught, they would know it was my order. There is no way but the Council's way."

Nevya hissed again, frustrated this time. "What would you have us do, Master?"

"Keep a handful of the brethren here; they can not harm Basrasht, but her Acolytes and adepts have no such protection."

"And the mission?"

"Zeff, Shrizzzqadl, and Dolre will have to be enough."

Her tone did not invite confidence, and Nevya pointed out, "None of them has ever slain a Jedi."

"Rewz managed to kill hers when he was half-blinded by a grenade," Darth Alecto said, grimacing. "I forced that story out of her yesterday. Lukurt's was a fair duel, but a decade ago.  And Zurgharjhen is ferocious, but he is not stealthy enough; he would not get within a hundred meters of them without being detected.  They are my only warriors who have killed Jedi."

"Except me."

"What?" Darth Alecto demanded, startled back into Basic.

"You intended to go yourself, but now you have to attend to Lady Basrasht and her minions." Nevya shrugged. "Send me against the Jedi in your place. Three Sith and I should be enough for a pair of Jedi, a Padawan, and some bodyguards."

"Three Sith trainees," Darth Alecto corrected, eyes still wide.

"Which is why I should go," said Nevya. "Other than you, no one here has killed as many Jedi as me. And perhaps not even you."

Darth Alecto narrowed her eyes, but she did not challenge the assertion, which Nevya took as a good sign. "And if you're killed?"

Nevya had enough discipline not to throw up her hands, but she did arch her head and stare at a cloud for a second. "Master, we can not keep having this argument! I did not join the Brotherhood to be a bureaucrat.  Even Qritzel is a warrior, old as he is.  And Vandak deployed Azeroth as often as he had need of him."

"Vandak had no use for any being beyond what they could do for him!"

She stopped, blinking, but Nevya found herself briefly unequal to seizing the opening. Darth Alecto seemed to realize she had betrayed a hint of genuine emotion and hardened her face. "No one else in the Brotherhood can do what you do."

"That includes fighting Jedi Knights," Nevya retorted, but some of the edge had softened in her voice. Sentiment was for weaklings and mortals, but she had not lived so long in the cult of personality that was Vandak's Brotherhood that she could not value loyalty. "None of the brethren can do that as well as me. And you can not fail the Council of Five just to fight Lady Basrasht."

Darth Alecto crossed her arms and turned away again, gazing on her trainees for a long moment. "Will three be enough?"

"Whether they are or not, more than those three will be too many. I can avoid being seen if I wish it, and Dolre better than even me, but a Ubese will be noticed, and a Zanibar can not avoid it."

"You need Zeff and Shrizzzqadl for their skills."

"But no more."

The sunlight beat down, and the wind caught Darth Alecto's red hair, blowing it around her face like flickering flame. She closed her eyes, and Nevya caught a stronger burst of her master's luck; the alluring scent faded into the background most days, but sometimes it would blindside Nevya and make her mouth water. She knew instinctively that consuming that soup would make her strong enough to rival any Jedi.

But there were more important things than soup—not many, but a few.

Darth Alecto opened her eyes and nodded. "So be it."