Spread your wings

[Eshtaol]

Eshtaol had become accustomed to boredom by now. She had grown used to everything being the same, accepted that for the rest of her foreseeable future - her foreseeable future being until she turned eighteen and found a better job - she would wake up to the same things every day, work at the same place doing the same things every day, and fall asleep knowing that nothing would've changed in the morning. It was, to be fair, mostly her fault - admittedly, she could've put more thought into running away to a place that held nothing of interest or legality to anybody below eighteen - but she made no apologies; she'd accomplished her goal, and now it was just a question of waiting for something exciting to show up so that she'd have something to look forward to each day besides returning to this hellhole to watch holodramas.

Until something happened, however, Eshtaol was patient: she would remain contentedly in lower-class Coruscant and walk home with her keys between her fingers as makeshift weapons and pray that she'd get tipped well at work, because what else could she do? Besides, it wasn't all bad; she got her fun at work, in little ways. Earning more than the lady who'd spread rumours about her, slipping in insults so clever and subtle that they slipped right by and the victim only realised ten minutes later. It was petty and useless fun, but then bartending was a petty and useless job, so by that standard it was a respectable pastime.

Today though, it was the weekend. Eshtaol couldn't say they were a fantastic break from the rest of her week, but provided that she earnt enough on any particular week that she had some to spare after paying the rent for her flat, there was always the prospect of buying new books or holomovies or music, and consuming the entertainment before lying on her bed and daydreaming. She'd managed to successfully earn enough from tips to afford herself a trip to the bookstore; even better, this particular bookstore's manager was kind-hearted enough that so long as she bought something, Eshtaol could spend all day browsing and not get chucked out.

That morning Eshtaol had slept in, then had breakfast at a cafe to avoid the judgemental couple living below her. She'd dashed back to her apartment to fetch last week's extra budget, then plaited her blonde hair back in an effort to look less...scraggly. Now she was at the bookstore, browsing merrily through titles. Perhaps she'd look through non-fiction for once; she could probably find something interesting there.

[member="Darth Abyss"]

 

[Darth Abyss]

The bookstore was nothing special, non of the books and texts sold there were out of the ordinary or in any way exceptional and yet Abyss hadn't been able to resist the urge to take a minute to examine the knowledge sold there. He didn't came of the to coruscant anymore, the risk of staying so deep in alliance space was high and there was not much to gain from his visits. It was important to keep a fairly low profile, so he had traded in his black robe in favor of a black hoodie, a grey pair of pants and a red scarf that obscured all of his face besides his eyes. His lightsaber was hidden in his boot and the only weapon openly visible was a small slugthrower hanging on his right side. Without bringing his men with him he lacked the resources for effective surveillance beyond the general gathering bits and pieces of intel from the few information brokers that still lived and worked in the less popular bars and establishments in the lower levels of coruscant.

After spending his whole day on lookout, eavesdropping on officials, avoiding jedi and ordering intel he was exhausted, not physically but mentally. It was such a boring and dull task that afterwards his mind always felt flat and slow, a state he meant to conquer by shaping his thoughts with new knowledge. Without a doubt he moved to the history books, studying the topics presented in them, skipping through a few once something caught his attention. After a work on the second hyperspace war caught his attention for quite a while, he moved towards the counter to aquire the book.

After paying for the book with unmarked credits he was almost out the door already, when something, or rather someone caught his attention. A girl, from the outside completely indistinguishable from the other street rats of the city planet, was browsing through the books, looking strangely misplaced in the bookstore. But that wasn't the only thing that was strange about her, as Abyss could sense the world around him with more than just his physical senses. Her aura was tainted, but raw and unchannled, potential brooding below the surface. Whoever she was, it felt like she had never even had been aware that she touched the force, a problem all to common under untrained force sensitives. They always believed that they were simply more lucky than others.

Moving back to the books, he began to keep an eye on her, making an effort to always look like he wasn't looking at her but a the books of the shop. There was something about her aura that created a strong pulling sensation in the force, something he felt rarely around anyone. The last one to really create this emotion in him had been his last apprentice, who was gone now. He had searched for someone worthy to replace him for so long now, and it seemed like the force finally had decided to give him someone, even if she didn't knew yet.

[member="Eshtaol Hyde"]

 

[Eshtaol]

As usual, finding something worth spending her tiny portion of extra money on took a while. If Eshtaol was going to throw money away that could arguably be better spent on fixing the window, her purchase would have to be an interesting, informational and lengthy read. If it didn't meet all three, it went back on the shelf. One day, she would be rich and could leave this very bookstore with armfuls of reading content. That day was a long way away.

Eventually though, Eshtaol decided upon her purchase; an assortment of real-life ghost stories that had taken place on Coruscant, all gathered into a fat volume for fifteen credits. This would get her through the weekend and possibly even last her till Tuesday if she divided up the pages evenly. There was the possibility that she'd get so caught up that she'd totally forget to slowly savour the book and instead finish it by the afternoon, but she'd exercise as much restraint as she possibly could. Normally she was rather good at withholding - it came with being poor - but only when doing so was essential.

Taking one last look around the bookstore to make sure she couldn't get a better buy - they often offered buy one, get one half price deals; two books was always a better prospect than one - Eshtaol went up to the counter to pay. She pocketed the change and receipt, contentedly flicking through the foreword, when she felt eyes on her. Ever the cynic, Eshtaol had developed a knack for foreseeing attack or picking out whispers about her, but this was neither. She looked up, her head shifting to either side as she tried to pinpoint the onlooker - she was trying to be discreet about it and so it took a few moments, but her gaze fell on a man hovering by the bookshelves. Instinctively, she looked to a nearby window; she hardly looked good, but she didn't look like a vagabond either. Not her appearance, then. Huh.

On such occasions as these, not that one exactly like this had ever happened before, Eshtaol would normally evaluate the danger to be had from demanding explanations before doing it anyway. The man didn't look dangerous, but in a way that Eshtaol couldn't really understand he felt dangerous. Though not in the sense that would be likely to endanger her... oh feth, she was going to regret this.

As cool as anything, Eshtaol strode the distance over to him, hoping that if she couldn't be imposing she could at least come across as self-assured and unafraid.

"Something wrong?" She spoke in her usual bored monotone, in the same way she would with most people she was familiar with and disliked - only she normally didn't have to fake the confidence. He had better not call her bluff.

[member="Darth Abyss"]

 

[Darth Abyss]

"No."

Unseen by her, his face deformed into a grimace under the scarf, something that would've been a smile in the face of another man. It didn't needed the force to look through her charade, at least not for someone so experienced in toying with minds as Abyss. There was fear below the surface, she surly could sense the power that surrounded him, even if she couldn't explain what it was. His own voice was completely devoid of any emotion as he answered her her. His initial excitement quickly faded as his yellow eyes caught the title of the book between her fingers. At first he had thought that there were few more symbolic places to find someone to follow his legacy than a store dedicated to sharing knowledge, but from all the books around them she picked one that couldn't be more meaningless, more trivial than a collection of "true" ghost stories. There were supernatural forces in the galaxy, but he didn't needed to take a look inside the book to know that the author knew nothing about them.

"I think you do not mind giving me this for a second."

He extended his right so she could place the book in it, while he spoke, his voice cold and yet strangely seductive. Not because of its sound, but because of the dark side of the force webbed into it, making his simple question into a invisible assault on her mind. Forcing those with a connection to the force to follow his commands wasn't as simple as pushing those ordinary into submission, but without the knowledge on how to use the force to shield herself she wouldn't be much of a challenge to the might of his mind, a mind that had by now forced men and woman, warriors and businessman to do his bidding. A mind that once broke a jedi into nothing more than a mindless slave.

He awaited her resistance, unbeknownst to her this was her first test. How and how long she could stand against his mind would tell him if she really had the potential he saw in her, or if he simply had been blinded by his wish for an worthy apprentice. For her sake it would be best if she wouldn't turn out as an disappointment like the last few that he stumbled upon.

[member="Eshtaol Hyde"]

 

[Eshtaol]

Eshtaol liked to consider herself good at reading people. Nothing complex - she wasn't the sort to claim to be able to see a person's life story in their eyes - but generally, it was not difficult for her to detect what somebody was feeling, whether she was viewed in a positive or negative light. She didn't much care what such deductions told her; she only liked being able to analyse people with ease. Her confusion and her apprehension, then, when she couldn't even begin to place the man in front of her under such a search, was palpable. Narrowed eyes continued to try and look aloof, but now even somebody without unseen forces working for them would be able to spot the chink in her armour.

Then at his words, all pretense was abandoned as she felt something at her mind. She couldn't put it into words, she only knew that something had changed and it was to do with him and she wanted to give him the book...but that made no sense. She'd worked hard for her tips, she'd paid good money for the book and she had plans to read all about the supernatural occurrences of lower Coruscant tonight when she got bored. She had no reason to give it to a stranger; she had no reason to give it away to anybody. But she wanted to, all the same.

Several long, weighted moments passed, with Eshtaol staring the stranger down as she tried without success to figure him out. Why should she give him the book? It was her book. Just hand it over...for what? Only for a second...

"Actually, I kind of..." the contempt in her voice ran dry; her attempt to resist was cut short. "No, I don't mind." This time her voice was flat and empty, and she held out the paperback robotically.

Then the confusion returned. Eshtaol's grip on the book tightened just as it was plucked from her grasp; she looked at him, then at herself, trying to figure out what had just happened.

[member="Darth Abyss"]

 

[Darth Abyss]

"Who would even read something as trivial as this?"

Abyss slightly shook his head with acted disappointment, his voice filled with disdain. Forming her into something that was even close to a sith would be a lot of hard work composed out of countless hours of training and conditioning. Yet she almost managed to decline his request, from what he could figure that she indeed had quite a lot of potential in her. Training a sith apprentice was a venture that shared many things with the forging of a weapon. Skill and creativity of the creator could have a huge impact on the project, but without the right material to start with the final piece would always be flawed. And he would rather spend more time forging a better sword than settling for a flawed one only for the sake of time.

"I am sure you will not need this anymore, so you do not mind if I take it with me now."

He had observed her closely while she picked the book. She had taken her time, looking at each book as long it took her to determine if it was worth her time. Those with a fairly average income wouldn't do that, a books price was laughably low to all but those that lived on the absolute minimum. This book meant more to her than just pages filled with words, it was a present she made to herself. And now he would take it from her, take away what she had worked for, something she had to get adjusted to from now on, if she wanted to or not.

"I know you want to follow me, but I would really like to keep this at least a bit more interesting for both of us. Stay here for a few minutes, maybe look at some books."

With a cruel grin Abyss turned around, both his anx and her book stored under his arm. The force still flowed through his veins, and his mind still lingered above hers, clouding her judgement. With fairly slow steps he moved out of the store, blending in with the crowd around him. The power around her mind would fade soon enough for her to barley trail his path, to follow the last glimpse of him. If she would fail she would be punished. If she would succeed she would be punished. Exactly as his master had taught him.

[member="Eshtaol Hyde"]

 

[Eshtaol]

He was gone before Eshtaol could put her train of thought into words, and she was left by a shelf with her pockets lighter and her book gone. The desire to carry out his will still lingered, only slightly less dominant now that he was out of sight, and even as irked as she was by whatever had just occurred, Eshtaol wanted to follow.

But not just because that want had been placed in her mind. Eshtaol was poor. She had no friends. Her father was in jail, and her mother was a manipulative schutta. She operated only in her interests, not because she was selfish but because she truly had nothing else to operate for. Whatever prospects lay with following the stranger, there was the tiny flicker that was the possibility of an improvement. And even if there was none - Eshtaol had craved variation and excitement for as long as she had lived her aimless and monotonous life. And even if nothing improved, even if she was being lead to her attempted torture or capture or whatever else - could she honestly say she'd not rather that than what her life currently promised?

When she walked out of the bookstore a few minutes later, it was almost entirely down to herself.

Eshtaol wasn't certain where to go. Her mind was whispering her down this path or that, but it was faint and ever-fading. She wanted to think she was trusting her instincts as she twisted and turned through the maze of busy streets, but it felt like something more than that. As though she was being guided, somehow and by something. Every so often, she'd think she had caught the back of a head, or something else that seemed to point her in one direction, and it would disappear just as quickly. Eshtaol was quite certain it was deliberate.

Then once it seemed she had passed through every street on the planet, a figure stood out, and Eshtaol dashed through the crowds, taking care not to bump into anybody lest she be hindered any longer by their disturbance.

"Hey." She called out as she neared him. "Hey! What's all this about?"

[member="Darth Abyss"]

 

[Darth Abyss]

"I think you will find out soon enough."

Abyss didn't turned around, he had been aware that she was coming close before she even realized it. Again she passed his little test, showing a surprisingly high natural aptitude for the force around her. Even more than he initially had expected, so she had been able to catch up to him before he reached his destination. Good that there was still a plan b to get her there, one that would test her once more. If she would show herself now as yet another failure as so many before her, she would not survive long enough to see the sun rise again. His words again imbued with the darkness he spoke, this time not forcing her to follow his commands, but instead summoning fear.

"Follow me. A word to someone and you die. Run away and you die. Do anything that risks my anonymity and you die."

His right tapped at the slugthrower on his belt, to assure her that he was serious in his threat. It was a simple test, one to determine if she had the nerves for the path that was slowly opening up before her. Many of the potential apprentices he meet had power and talent, but they all simply had lacked the right personality to serve under Darth Abyss. Without any further words the sith lord began his way forward through the cityscape, towards the place he chose as his base of operations on coruscant. After a few minutes he reached the old, shabby motel close to the lowest levels of the planet. On the entrance a "closed" banner was placed, but Abyss simply stepped inside. The banner had been placed there by himself, and he also had personally had taken care of any customer and worker there beforehand. The lobby was dark, as Abyss had cut the building of from any electricity to make it borderline impossible to trace his presence inside by conventional means.

With a simple flick of his right the hilt of his saber jumped from his boot in his hand, as he turned around to her. In a heartbeat the crimson red blade came to live, pointing at her heart.

"Kneel, apprentice."

[member="Eshtaol Hyde"]

 

[Eshtaol]

And now it turned to threats. Of death, no less, and she held no doubt in her mind that the threats could be carried out in a moment if such was the intention. Eshtaol hadn't really needed them as such - after all, he wasn't exactly keeping her from anything of worth - but the promise of death did do something in the way of confusing her, yet again, as to his motives. This seemed an odd way to kidnap someone; it seemed an odd way to do anything, in truth. But fear, burning curiosity, and even - dare she say it - excitement kept her feet moving as she once again followed through the network of streets she was being led through.

It didn't prove any great challenge: Eshtaol had had almost a year to become familiar with the streets of lower-class Coruscant between houses. The motel that she eventually reached, however, wasn't one she'd seen before, which came as only something of a surprise. The 'closed' sign didn't even faze her - she stepped in after him, determined now to get to the point, to finally understand what world she was getting a glimpse into. In what world could people be bent to others' will with nothing but their words? In what world did teenage runaways who were a docked wage away from homelessness end up getting pulled out of their boring, underachieving lives by such benders of will? Threat or no threat, power or none at all - Eshtaol wanted to understand.

Then in a second, there was a red-burning blade at her heart and the word apprentice reached her ears. Eshtaol very nearly asked again what he meant, but her mind answered the question for her. He had called her apprentice: that meant a person learning. If she was learning something, she was working towards something; there was an end goal that was, in one way or another, positive - perhaps more to him than to her, but at the end, she achieved something, one way or another. It meant a path, a direction: Eshtaol knelt in half a second.

[member="Darth Abyss"]

 

[Darth Abyss]

The moment she knelled in front of him, the crimson red blade died down again, leaving the two in the dim light that gleamed through the windows from above. Slowly the sith lord began to pace around her, his hands clasped to his back, exactly as his master when she first introduced him into the ranks of the sith. It wasn't simply a sentimental gesture, not only a nod to Ophidia that no one but himself understood, it was the replication of a lesson that had shaped his whole life since then. Greatness was taken not given, but without his master he would have never been who he was today. The same fate awaited her.

"Our galaxy is filled with secrets, with things far beyond the reach and understanding of those without the same gift we have. There are powers far beyond what people consider natural."

The book he had taken from her levitated into his left as he finished his circle around her, again standing right in front of her. Slowly he rose the book above his head, again using the force to let it float above his left, while his yellow eyes rested on her with the burning gaze of the dark side.

"I am not talking about those tales and legends the weak minded imagine, I am talking about a power as real as otherworldly. The force. A unending, indescribable field of energy that flows through almost every living being in the known universe, a field of energy that both jedi and sith draw their strength from. A power you can draw from, if you follow me."

All of a sudden a burst of blue lighting was unleashed from his left, ripping apart the book into burning pages, and illuminating the room in ghostly blue. As the pieces of paper danced down to the ground, his left extended towards her, gestur her to take it.

"The path of the sith is one of strength, but also one of freedom. I would be a hypocrite if I do not give you a chance to decide for yourself. Follow me, reach the limits of your potential, or go back in your excuse of a live and pretend that there is not a world far greater than you right beyond your fingertips."

He had no doubt about her choice, he had seen something in her eyes he saw in his own when he looked in a mirror. Curiosity, to a degree were she would follow him with excitement even after he threatened to kill her.

[member="Eshtaol Hyde"]

 

[Eshtaol]

Slowly, finally, Eshtaol understood. She was being offered a future, maybe not one that made complete sense to her just yet, but a chance to become something. Live a life where she wasn't waiting for excitement that would never come, have some control over what direction her life went in for once, make herself a force to be reckoned with. Of course she wanted it; every pointless occurrence and every meaningless passage of time in her life had perfectly shaped her to want more than anything what she was being offered. Funnily enough, it was only now that she was being given a choice in whether or not she took it. Clever, she noted silently - giving her the choice just as he had guaranteed her answer. Very clever.

She took the offered hand.

"I'll follow."

There was no need to elaborate or extend, no need to ask further questions - everything Eshtaol cared to know, she knew already. She'd learned by now to make do with much less than she wanted, or indeed, needed; she'd been given the knowledge she needed. Everything else could wait. Already she was thinking over what he had said, processing the Force and the Sith in her mind from the explanations given, defining each based on what she'd been shown. She wanted to understand it the best she possibly could, just as she liked to understand every notion and concept presented to her. But even above that, she had grasped well enough that her new path would be challenging, and she had no desire to make it more so through ignorance. Eshtaol would reach the end of the path being offered her; of that much she was determined. And so she chose her next words carefully.

"How would you like me to begin?"

[member="Darth Abyss"]

 

[Darth Abyss]

"With your first lesson. Trust is a weakness."

As her hand rested in his left, another burst of blue lighting was released and directly send into her body. The yellow glow of his eyes hinted anger, because she made such a grave mistake. It wasn't her fault, he had seduced her towards the sith, and made her an offer to become part of something greater. Yet, only because a mistake was understandable didn't meant it could go unpunished. That was not the way of the sith, and the sooner she would learn that, the sooner she could start to really become something alike an apprentice. Like Abyss himself, pain was an excellent teacher, a truth forever symbolized by his cybernetic leg as a silent witness of the struggles he had to go through.

After a few seconds the lightning stopped, and the grip of his hand released hers, but the gaze of his eyes stayed the same. His left wandered to the scarf that had hidden his face until now, revealing the pale and corpse like skin under it, the purple veins that were unnaturally pronounced and a good look on his yellow eyes. It would show her two things. That he, besides all his power, was just a human like her, and that his power came with a price that was written in his face.

"Your future will be filled with pain, with sacrifice and misery. But it will also be filled with power, with knowledge, with opportunity to write your name into history for the centuries to come. I have one last test for you, and then ... And only then, you can call yourself part of the sith. Follow me."

Slowly he turned around, walking deeper inside the motel. Someone else besides the two was still alive in the building, down in the cellar. He didn't came to coruscant for an apprentice, but to collect information, and some of this information still sat chained to a chair down in the cellar. As stepped down the stairs inside the lowest level of the building, his red saber came to live again, filling the dark room with a sinister red glow that revealed the few corpses of the motels staff in the corners of the room, and the heavily injured woman bound to a chair in the middle of the room. His face turned to his new apprentice, and his left pulled something from a bag placed in the right corner of the room. A second later a slightly battered lightsaber hilt jumped in his hand, and another moment later the purple blade of the stolen jedi weapon came to live. He offered the blade to her, all his focus now aimed at her.

"Guilt or innocence can have no meaning when it comes to survival. One live has to be taken now, and it is your decision which it will be."

[member="Eshtaol Hyde"]

 

[Eshtaol]

Oh, ow. Eshtaol supposed she should've seen that one coming, but she hadn't and the consequence really, really hurt. Her eyes blazed with anger as she hissed through clenched teeth, but also with understanding. She had asked to be taught, after all; here she was, being taught. She had made an error, and it was being rectified in perhaps the most painful way possible, but also the best to ensure it was not repeated. She was angry and irked and in pain, but she would not make the same mistake again.

The lightning ceased, and Eshtaol nearly fell as her knees buckled from the pain - nearly, but not quite. She was far too proud for such a thing. Through a slight ringing in her ears, she listened the best she could as she spoke - it had been made clear already that there would be no room for her to be slow or unfocused. Sacrifice and pain and misery in her future? She could've done without those, but it was a future where before she'd had none, and so Eshtaol would take the bad with the good. Even if there would be a lot of bad before good came. Eshtaol was good at waiting.

He led her further into the motel, and she followed quickly. A twitch of her eyebrows hinted surprise as the surrounding corpses were lit up by the glowing red blade, and then they disappeared into her fringe as he offered a purple-bladed weapon to her. She twirled the hilt about experimentally once or twice, then her focus was on his next command. After this, he'd said, she could call herself part of the Sith. Regardless of whether that was a good thing or not, Eshtaol had never called herself part of anything.

But the request was, as she ought to have anticipated, drastic in the more violent sense of the word. Eshtaol had never tried to pretend that she was anything but self-serving, never tried to act as though she cared whether anybody who wasn't her lived or died: but she, actually doing the killing? She would never have gone so far as to be the one taking lives simply for not caring about their owners. When death was a force beyond her control, she would shamelessly imagine how nice it would be if the galaxy was relieved of this idiot or that thug. When the blade was in her hand...but there was no choice. Even if she allowed for a great deal of mercy on his behalf, if she refused to kill one of the surrounding prisoners then the future of power and control and greatness was gone, and she'd never see it again.

Alright, then. A moral sacrifice was by far the least costing, anyway. The injured woman in the center could hardly be enjoying herself, and there was the chance that she'd die soon. If not, she'd die eventually, just like everyone else. She would simply...speed up the process. Just a blade through the heart, and Eshtaol could have her future.

So that was what she did.

[member="Darth Abyss"]

 

[Darth Abyss]

With a cruel grin Abyss watched as his new apprentice rammed her sword through the womans chest, and in the force he could feel the last glimpse of life in her fade away in agony. He came for so little, and yet he found so much on his trip to coruscant. Since his last apprentice had perished he had been on the search for something worthy to carry on his legacy, to follow his will, be an extension of his arm and someone who one day could rise to overshadow him. Someone who had the potential to truly become sith one day. But the path in front of them was long, and filled with many obstacles both for master and apprentice.

"You have done good. Feel as the chains of morality are broken, feel the freedom right at your fingertips. Keep the saber, I think it will serve you well until you will forge your own."

He turned to the corpse, slowly freeing the body out of the contraptions that bound it to the chair. With a rather disgusting sound the corpse feel to the ground, making the chair free for someone else to sit on. Now her real training would begin. Now she would learn what it truly meant to be a sith.

"Sit. Listen to the sith code, the one thing that will matter to you from now on.

He motioned to the chair, as he began to walk up and down in front of it, his yellow eyes glowing with newfound dedication.

"Peace is a lie, there is only passion
Through passion, I gain strength
Through strength, I gain power
Through power, I gain victory
Through victory my chains well be broken
The force shall free me."

His steps came to a hold as he finished his repetition of the sith code, the core of the sith philosophy and the most important piece of knowledge left behind by the ancient masters. Only those who understood, who truly and fully understood, could ever think of ascending through the ranks of the sith as there was not a single truth in the galaxy that could matter more to a sith.

"For the next free days you will stay in this room. Alone. Without food or water while the dead rot around you. Think about the code, repeat it, understand it. Allow it to let if from you into more than you are now. If you leave, than this is over. There is only death waiting for the weak."

He turned around, and before he reached the stairs his head turned to her for one last time, the yellow glow shining through the dark.

"If you succeed apprentice, then you have earned the right to leave this world behind. I will bring you to a place where you can finallyr begin to gain true strength. May the force serve you well."

And with that he was gone, but his eyes would always be around to see if she was strong enough to live through her new challenge.

[member="Eshtaol Hyde"]

 

[Eshtaol]

Eshtaol looked at the result of her sins with an empty look in her eyes. Perhaps she ought to be feeling guilty, but she wasn't, not really. She wasn't feeling any sort of bloodlust or rage either, though. If anything, she'd found it unexciting. Like there was supposed to be more. She wouldn't think too much into it, though. It was what it was. Finely tuned instincts told her it wouldn't be her last kill - perhaps the next would prove more meaningful.

Keep the saber, he said. So that was what it was called. Eshtaol looked more closely at it, deactivating the blade and turning the hilt over in her hands. It felt alien to her, but not in a bad way - already it was starting to grow on her. The hilt still in one hand, she sat obediently and listened as he recited the code, trying to capture it in her mind so as to learn the mantra herself. Easy enough to see that to him it was more than words - so it would have to be the same to her. The words were a logical progression that made perfect sense in her mind and seemed a perfectly adequate key to live by, and she was confident that she could ingrain them into her own mind. Exactly how long she'd be given to do that was unclear - Eshtaol doubted it would be very long, of course - but she could do an awful lot when the only alternatives were death or being dropped back into a life void of purpose.

Then another challenge, another test. It wouldn't take a genius to figure out that her new future would be test after test for as long as was foreseeable. Again, given the alternatives, that was manageable. Three days, left without nourishment and surrounded by death? Fine then, if that was what she had to do. She simply nodded to show that she understood, and sat as he left the room.

Day one

Alright, this couldn't be too hard. Eshtaol was no stranger to being bored and without nutrition, after all. She rocked on the chair, trying to recall the words from her memory. There is no peace...no, not quite. Peace is a lie. That was it. There is only...hatred? Anger? Passion. Whoops. Peace is a lie, there is only passion. She repeated the first line quietly. Already her voice was croaky from not having hardly used it in the past few hours.

Bored, she found the button at the side of her new saber-hilt, marvelling as the purple blade shot out. Her eyes had just about adjusted to the darkness, but having the glow from her new weapon was comforting, in a way. Waving it through the air, Eshtaol kept at her task. Through passion, I gain strength. She saw a spider scuttling in the corner. Through strength I gain victory...no, power came first. Through strength I gain power. The spider was halfway up the wall now. Through power I gain victory. She should just go and kill it with her beautiful new weapon. Through victory my chains are broken. Might end up burning a hole through the wall, though. That would probably result in punishment. Damn it.

The Force shall free me.

Day two

"Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion I gain strength. Through strength I gain power. Through power I gain victory. Through victory my chains are broken. The Force shall free me."

Eshtaol lay on her back, staring up at the cobwebs on the ceiling, reciting the mantra to herself, over and over and over. She had to make it her life, her path. It did make sense, too. One couldn't hope to reach greatness without structure. Imposing structure upon herself, however, after having been without any for nearly a year, was a challenge. But if she failed, she'd be marked down as weak - and only death awaited the weak. She would've known as much even without a master to warn her.

"Oh, stop staring," she snapped at a corpse lying a few feet off. Oddly enough, the surrounding death had stopped making her uncomfortable within the first hour or so of her confinement, though the ones that had died glaring were something of a nuisance. "There's a point to all this. I think. Shut up."

God, she wanted a meal. Or something to do. He just had to go and electrocute her book.

Day three

She was just so hungry. Granted, she knew how to be hungry, but knowing that she'd survive made her situation no less unpleasant. By now Eshtaol had long lost track of the hours - as far as she was aware the second day was just dawning. She'd tried to sleep out the time left, but with nothing to do her energy ran out so much more slowly that she'd barely slept at all. She'd tried exercising her energy out to aid the sleep process, but by now she was so weak and malnourished that even that was unachievable.

The code she had repeated so many times that the words had lost their meaning and turned into a meaningless stream of sound - and yet she was drawing strength from it, somehow. Those words were her task while she was stuck here; it was, she guessed, the purpose behind the test. Left alone with nothing but the Sith code to devote her attention to, so that she could well and truly make it a part of her. Eshtaol understood the mantra alright, but this was understanding with a capital U - this was making the code how she lived her life. She didn't know if she'd achieved that, but she'd beat the words to death and had a feeling she'd be reciting them in her sleep for many nights to come. Her saber she'd waved about a couple of times, but it soon got boring without knowing she had the free reign to destroy anything or even maim a corpse. Simply out of fear, she kept everything in place, making sure that nothing she did could go punished. Which left her with very little to do.

And so there was nothing else to do but wait. And wait. And wait some more.

[member="Darth Abyss"]

 

[Darth Abyss]

In the late evening of the third day, Lord Abyss returned to see what had become of his new apprentice. He had said that he would watch her, but like so many things coming from his mouth it had been a lie, a simple mind game that was based on the fact the she had no real comprehension of the powers he possessed just yet, and more importantly on the fact that he absolutely no doubt that she had no interested in endangering her new path, her new future. Instead he used the time for more important tasks, setting up their journey that would bring them far away from coruscant, to a place where the darkness still stood strong. After he brought a few things that could be found in legitimate stores, he moved on to some more delicate things. Stolen codes, stolen freighter, faked ids. All tools of anonymity credits could by in this time, at least for someone who no stranger to the galaxy's underworld.

As he entered the cellar he could already feel the change that had begun inside her, a glimpse of what was to come in the weeks and months that would follow. The same things he felt when he began his training. Fear, anger, passion, dedication and a layer of slight confusion that made it impossible to guess what would come next.

"It is time to go apprentice. Here."

The sith lord removed a bag from his body amd threw it over to her. Inside of it was a bottle of water, some protein bars, a faked ID chip, cloths and a blaster, just in case something should go wrong. The cloths in her bag where something special, he had chosen them for on reason. She didn't looked like a sith, or dangerous at all. If he still could feel pity, the he would've felt it for this malnourished and broken looking girl. And that they would use, expose empathy for what it was. The simple servant robes looked a bit like those of a jedi, but even less imposing if that was possible. She could perfectly blend in everywhere with them.

"Get ready and meet me upstairs. A ship is waiting for us not far from here."

When he was almost up the chairs again he turned around one last time, a small but satisfied grin on his face.

"Welcome to the sith, apprentice."

And so he was gone, waiting for her to come to him so they could leave this world behind for a greater future.

[member="Eshtaol Hyde"]

 

[Eshtaol]

Time to go, at long, long last. It had taken so long, and she was so ready. Already she was bracing herself for whatever test she was being led to next, but she wouldn't deny herself the excitement of his return. Deftly, she caught the bag in one hand, unable by now to trouble herself with such a thing as restraint as she opened it in a frenzy. Protein bars - that was to be her nutrition after having none for three days? Her face fell for a split second before she smothered it for fear of having even that taken away. Food was food. Yes, even the tiny and unexciting blocks that were to be her meal. It wasn't all bad, she supposed. Look, there was water, and a fake ID - interesting - and even a new weapon; this time one she was familiar with. Did that mean she'd likely be shooting things in the near future? Very exciting.

Again she nodded in acknowledgement of the Order, allowing herself to match his grin. Welcome to the Sith. She'd passed, at least enough to be initiated into the Sith. Once they were out of there, Eshtaol would be certain to study on the lore of the Sith so she could understand them to the letter; it was the Sith, after all, or one of their members anyway, that had proven to be her gateway at long last. She wanted to thrive, she wanted to excel; this wasn't the sort of opportunity you took one-handedly. You seized it with both hands and refused to let go - no matter what.

Quickly, she gulped down half the water and one of the protein bars before changing into the dull robes that made her look, if anything, poorer even than she was but much less unhappy about it. Alright, whatever. It had already been made clear that she was apprentice now - there hadn't even been an exchange of names - and thus she had to go along with whatever he said. Not brilliant, but doable. She kept the rest in the bag, slipping her deactivated saber blade in with the blaster and ID, and slung it over her shoulder, hurrying up the stairs.

"I'm ready." She hesitated; was a title necessary now? "Master."

[member="Darth Abyss"]

 

[Darth Abyss]

He could hear her hesitation when she addressed him, and he could feel the glimpse of uncertainty. To him names and titles had lost meaning long ago, but he had to consider that she still was far from that point. Also he would demand respect from her so she would need a way to show it to him, and a title was a simple option for that.

"I am Darth Abyss, and over time I have held many titles and many names, but none of them matter to you, apprentice, to you I always will be Master."

With the end of his sentence he began his way out of the motel, opening the door and making sure to appear as less suspicious as possible. They were on enemy territory, even is she wasn't aware of that yet, and keeping a low profile was from uppermost importance. He wasn't simply a sith, he was a known war criminal who had orchestrated more than one massacre against the alliance. Luckily his new apprentice looked as common on the outside as he could imagine, and she would surly don't draw any eyes on her in their walk through the beginning of the night on the never ending cityscape.

"I know you want to tell me your name, apprentice. I allow it, at least this time. Afterwards you will simply be apprentice, until you chose a new name, one that will suit what you are then."

From the outside it seemed like he was simply someone having a chat with a friend or colleague, there was nothing in his stance or behaviour that revealed the darkness around him. Even his aura had drawn back, just in case someone was looking for them. After a few minutes he reached a secluded space port, only a single ship waiting there.

"Now apprentice. The future awaits."

Taking the last few steps Abyss entered the old freighter, and moved towards the cockpit. After entering the faked codes he made a quick input into the console in front of him, programming a route for their flight. A route to malachor v, a dead planet where the darkness was pulsating under the surface. There she would learn who she was meant to be, and how to become this version of her. A new generation, a legacy waiting to be shaped.

[member="Eshtaol Hyde"]

Spoiler

OOC I would say we continue her training in anew follow up thread on malachor.