V: Coup

It had been mere hours since she had discarded the name her parents had given her, tossing it aside like an old, soiled garment and not once regretting it.  Saffra was no more.  That sad, pitiful woman had died back on Anzat with her three unfortunate children.  In her stead stood Lady Gavira, an acolyte of the Sith, strong in the Force, a being who would never bow to anyone else’s will.

    She could tell that Master Ravaln was very proud of the years and effort he put into training her.  Lady Gavira had to admit that he was a good master.  He went above and beyond with his duties, hunting down artifacts and knowledge at her bequest, some of which his fellow Sith he considered friends didn’t even know about.  There were a good many techniques that she knew how to perform that would have been lost to the annals of time if not for these Sith’s desire to maintain every scrap of information pertaining to their kind.

Through the years, Lady Gavira had come to the conclusion that the Korriban Sith were not, in fact, true Sith.  They came off more as scholars with their fascination with gathering knowledge and preserving said knowledge.  Most of her studies consisted of archeology, holocrons, ancient rituals that had been employed in the past and were almost entirely forgotten by modern Sith.  They trained to fight, yes, but it was mostly Forms or for self-defense.  Some expected a Jedi inquisition to come to their world looking to wipe them off the planet like a stain.  And so they trained and destroyed any interlopers who set foot on the dark world, taking in those who genuinely wanted to be taught by them.  Others thought they were preparing to lead a war on the galaxy, joining forces with other secretive enclaves to overwhelm the populace.

    Lady Gavira was able to ascertain that Lord Kamak had no intention of sending his Sith out into the galaxy.  He was content to remain on Korriban, where they would conserve what information they had and keep certain traditions alive.  She kept her mouth shut when she wanted to point out that it would only lead to stagnation.  The signs were there, but Lord Kamak ignored them.

    What good was all of their lofty knowledge if they didn’t act on it?  Going to Lord Kamak and demanding an answer, she knew, would only result in a long-winded explanation that really would not give her much of an answer at all.  She had hesitantly discussed the topic with Master Ravaln.  He was of the same opinion, but he never fostered her thoughts of leaving Korriban or encouraging others among them to leave and use what they knew off planet.  Master Ravaln always noted that what she said was “true and unfortunate,” then changed the topic.  After a while, Lady Gavira learned to avoid discussing it with him, instead brooding on her own and wondering if there ever was a chance of her leaving Korriban.

—

The holocron hovered, suspended in the air while Lady Gavira studied its contents.  Even with her new title, she didn’t feel very different than before.  She felt different in the way that she saw herself and those around her, but still the same in a lot of respects.  She supposed she wouldn’t feel truly “Sith” until some while yet.

A rustling at her door caught her attention, tearing her gaze away from the holocron’s instructions so she saw a small scrap of flimsi rustle beneath the crack afforded between the door’s bottom and the floor.  The holocron snapped shut.  Lady Gavira caught it and set it on an unadorned black table to investigate.  Crouching down, she unfolded the flimsi:

Tomb of Naga Sadow.  Two hours.

-Ravaln

Lady Gavira turned the flimsi over to see if anything else was written on it.  Nothing.  Just like Master Ravaln to be cryptic, but it was certainly out of character with how concise he was.  After being in his tutelage for so long, she knew him to be extremely loquacious.  She brought the flimsi to one of the candles burning softly in her chambers, holding it over the flame.  Master Ravaln had taught her this particular trick of deciphering invisible messages with his “personal curriculum.”  She only succeeded in burning the flimsi, which was all right by her.  No use leaving evidence like that lying around this place.

    Very well.  If Master Ravaln wanted to be enigmatic, then she would play along and see what he wanted.

—

The tomb was dark when Lady Gavira entered it.  She sensed Master Ravaln’s presence, however, and sought it out behind one of the towering columns.  She could make out his hulking form in the shadows.  His eyes were shifting as he looked over her shoulder with suspicion.

“You received my message,” he said.

“Obviously.  What is it you wanted to discuss, Master?”

She didn’t like how fidgety he was.  Master Ravaln was never one to behave like an animal being hunted down, but he bore all the signs of one with his hunched shoulders and head twitching this way and that.

“Were you followed?” he inquired, ignoring her question.

“If I was followed, you would sense them,” Lady Gavira pointed out, hiding her impatience behind worry as she crossed her arms. “Master, what’s wrong?”

The Krish shook his head with a dismissive wave of the hand.

“Nothing, nothing.  I simply wanted some privacy for our discussion”–he lowered his voice, eyes flicking back to hers and locking on–”I know how much you would prefer to leave Korriban, Lady Gavira.  What would you say if I told you I could arrange for that to happen?”

    She lifted an eyebrow.  Yes, she very much wanted to get off the planet and back into the known galaxy, but she didn’t see how she could when she had sworn her allegiance to Lord Kamak’s Sith and more or less vowed to remain within the enclave for the rest of her long, natural life.  She had a feeling Lord Kamak would sooner kill her than let her leave with the information she now had enmeshed in her head.  Lady Gavira smothered the spark of hope at the mere idea, keeping her features bland.

“I would ask how you would accomplish that.”

“Ah, it’s a very simple solution,” he said, lifting his head with a thin, toothy smile. “We remove Lord Kamak from power.”

    Lady Gavira blinked at him.

He wasn’t serious, was he?  That was a suicide mission.  Lord Kamak held the loyalties of everyone in their clan, and they would rise up against any usurper…and any who assisted that usurper.  She wet her lips, her expression curious.

    “Master?” she breathed, restricting her voice to a whisper.

“I can sense your skepticism,” Master Ravaln chuckled, placing a hand on her shoulder. “But it can be easily accomplished with you at my side, and everything I’ve taught you.  Most of the others don’t even know a quarter of the rituals you do, and with our combined power, we can subjugate anyone who would attempt to get in our way after we take care of Lord Kamak.”

    “Yes, about Lord Kamak–”

Master Ravaln’s small eyes glittered.

    “That is where you become an integral part of the plan, my Apprentice,” he said, speaking quickly. “Lord Kamak is one who is very strong in the Force, but so are you.  More so in some ways.  And being an Anzat, all you would have to do is approach him when he least expects it and drain him enough so that he will no longer be a threat to our machinations.  I can arrange things so that he will be alone and unable to call upon anyone for help; I can even provide you with a drug to slip into his food if you need him more weak-willed to manipulate.  You won’t have to kill him.  When he’s suitably weakened, I will step in and finish him off.  Our impediment to leaving Korriban is gone and our brothers and sisters will be able to utilize their talents elsewhere.  And, my dear Lady Gavira, you will once again be a denizen of the galaxy instead of a prisoner to this world.”

Lady Gavira made sure to nod and lift her eyebrows at the appropriate moments as the Krish outlined his plan.  She had come to respect the man over the years, seeing him as one of the few in the clan she could connect with.  She could feel her respect for him steadily crumbling the more he spoke.  He saw her as a pawn to advance his own power.  She wasn’t his equal, she was still his Apprentice in his eyes.  She had to wonder if their entire friendship had been a sham, if he had started working on this plan when she had been assigned to him.

“I see,” she finally said, looking down and feigning delight at his scheme.

She would have to kill him.  

There was no other choice left for her.  If she didn’t agree to join him, her value in his eyes dropped to nothing.  Lady Gavira also knew that once he was finished with using her for his intended goals, she would have to be disposed of.  She would be too powerful for him to try to control, and the only rival to his own position of leadership.

“I don’t want to pressure you,” Master Ravaln said, eyeing her closely. “But if we want this to succeed, then we need to act quickly.”

Lady Gavira looked up, giving him a terse nod with a set jaw.

“Of course, Master.  You’ve thought of everything, haven’t you?  I don’t see how we can fail if we move at the right time.  I only hope that I can perform well enough to see this through.”

Subtly, she began to exercise her telepathy on him, putting him at ease.  It wasn’t enough for him to notice, but the right amount interwoven in with compliments on his conniving so that he would be distracted by the attention his ego was receiving.  It appeared to work.  The edginess that had been rolling off of Master Ravaln when she set foot in the tomb was diminishing.  It didn’t take much to pet his oversized ego.  She set her hands on his shoulders, staring back at him with a cold expression.

“But if you don’t mind, I would be happy to perform the kill.  Lord Kamak was the one who humiliated me when I first set foot on this world, and the Masters who were there to witness it have never let me forget.  I know it might seem petty–”

Master Ravaln shook his head with a low laugh.  There was an unnatural stiffness to the motion.

“I was only offering to kill him if you didn't believe you could go through with it.  You are more than welcome to perform that duty if you think you can.”

    Lady Gavira’s hands slid up to his neck, the calming, hypnotic hold on him increasing while she kept his eyes fixed on her own.  A twin set of appendages started to work their way out of the hidden pockets in her cheeks, twisting around in the darkness like blind serpents.

    “Thank you, Master.”

The proboscises crawled along his face, seeking out his nostrils and driving themselves upwards.  Master Ravaln gave a full body jerk, a slight noise of surprise, but remained where he was rooted to the ground.  Any onlooker might have thought that the two were having a romantic tryst with how closely they stood together.  It was only upon closer inspection that they would see something was wrong.  Maser Ravaln’s eyes lost focus as Lady Gavira’s hands clamped on his head to keep him stabilized.

    “Thank you, Master,” she murmured again.

—

When she was done, the husk that had once been the Krish Master Ravaln collapsed to the ground with that same look of surprise he had worn when he realized his Apprentice had murdered him.  The two little tentacles retreated to their pockets, disappearing altogether.  Lady Gavira felt invigorated by the new power flowing through her, shaking as though she had been trapped outside in freezing weather.  She closed her eyes, willing herself to still the quivering as she crouched by the corpse to search her former Master’s body. 

    She scooped up the Krish’s  lightsaber, turning it over in her palm.  She had always admired the weapon with its gold casing and black trim.  And now it was hers.  Lady Gavira attached it to her belt.  Her slender fingers roved down his neck to pull out a pendant that would have remained hidden behind his robes at all times.  It looked like some sort of Sith artifact.  She took that as well, looping it over her head and letting it settle underneath her own dark robes.

    Once she was finished with searching his body, she went directly to Lord Kamak’s chambers.

    The Arkanian looked up from his table crowded with flimsi scrolls as Lady Gavira entered without preamble.  He sat back, opening his mouth when she took the initiative to speak first:

    “Master Ravaln was attempting to form a coup and overthrow you,” she said. “He tried to recruit me.  I killed him.  I know that our numbers are already small, but it seemed the right thing to do as he would only continue to go after your position if his first plan didn’t succeed.  I will keep this to myself if you allow me to leave Korriban.  I will not say anything about you or the Sith residing here as long as you do not make any efforts to seek me out and draw me back here again.”

    She stepped up to his table, removing the pendant from her neck and letting it hang by the chain before dropping it on a stack of yellow-aged flimsi.

    “This was on him.  I believe he was keeping a good many artifacts to himself that he could have shared with the rest of us.  I suggest you search his chambers as he no doubt has much more hidden away.  Do we have a deal?”

    Lord Kamak looked up at Lady Gavira over his steepled fingers before a wry smile spread on his lips, causing the tattoos on his face to ripple.

    “What would you do if I denied you your request?”

“I would leave anyways,” she shot back. “And I would not hesitate to kill anyone you send after me.”

    Lord Kamak’s shoulders hopped with a silent laugh of amusement.  He snatched up the pendant, turning it over in his four-fingered hands.

    “Very well.  You’re free to go, as long as you do promise to keep your mouth shut.”

“I won’t breathe a word,” she replied, feeling a giddiness rising up in her chest. “I need a ship.”

    “We have a few tucked away.  I’ll have someone escort you to the hangar.  Will you be leaving us so soon then?”

    “Yes.”

“And you won’t be changing your mind?” he asked with a tilt of the head.

    “No.”

Lord Kamak nodded.

    “As you wish.”

Lady Gavira bowed at the waist, then turned on her heels to depart, that excitement spreading throughout her limbs like some sort of electricity.  She was sure part of it had to do with the power she had sapped from her former master.  She wouldn’t let that go to waste, not like these Sith were doing by hiding away on their world like cowering womp rats in warrens.