Out of Time [Star Wars Story]

14. A Meeting with Zul

Much to Lorash's relief as she was forced down into a chair by two guards, Seia was at her side. The sith warrior still didn't look good, pale with dark circles under her golden eyes, but the seething rage inside of her and her customary arrogance kept her upright in her seat. It was impressive how effectively she could look down her nose at the standing guards from her seated position.

Szorda Zul stood in front of them, a craggy-faced man in his mid-forties, bare arms still hard and muscular. He wore a dark robe not unlike Seia's, though he'd shed the outer part and the majority of the armor. Accented with red silk, it seemed more formal or just extravagant, Lorash didn't know which. He was clean shaven with a large burn scar down his face, the eye on that side hidden behind a black silken patch emblazoned with a sith symbol in crimson.

He smiled at them, flint eyes touched at the corners by real pleasure. "This is an unexpected surprise, Miss Entaira. My intelligence suggested you were no longer with the crew."

Lorash straightened up. "I came to warn them."

"How valiant." He turned to face Seia, a combination of fascination and admiration playing across his face for a moment. "It is a unique honor to stand in the presence of one so steeped in the Dark Side, Mistress. Your power and fury is something to be feared, according to my apprentices."

Seia's lip curled at the mere thought of Zul's students. "I hope you corrected them both for miserable failure."

"Dren was punished. Rafan met a rather more unfortunate fate, as his failure was the more, shall we say, spectacular. I suppose that is the wisdom of having only a master and a single apprentice." Zul took a seat across from them. "It seems to me that it would be foolish to make an enemy of you, Mistress. There is much we can learn from the techniques lost to us by time. Might I ask your name?"

"Seia Zadar." The sith warrior seemed almost relaxed, something that put Lorash slightly more on edge.

Zul's eyes widened for a split second. "That name...you were with Darth Malgus when Coruscant was conquered and the Jedi Temple sacked, in the days of the Old Republic."

Seia rolled her shoulders, a smirk playing across her lips. "Yes, a rare pleasure. It gave me the opportunity to display my skills against the best the jedi had to offer."

"Join me, Lord Zadar," Zul said. "An inquisitor of your power could ensure the rule of the Empire goes unchallenged forever."

A brief, strange moment passed between the pair of Sith. Zul seemed intensely focused on Seia, his posture growing more and more tense. By contrast, the warrior seemed to relax, crossing her arms casually across her chest. Lorash suspected some battle of wills, but it passed after a moment.

Seia's hooded eyes remained calculating. "Would my servants be returned to me? I find their manhandling insulting."

"The mirialian and the wookie? Of course. You will have great need of a good pilot and engineer if you are to pursue the jedi into their holes, as I do." Zul seemed pleased that she was even considering it.

"And the padawan?" Seia said sharply.

"She will be transferred to my custody, fitted with a shock collar, and dealt with appropriately." Zul said it with a reptilian calm.

The padawan felt the sith warrior's temper boil upwards like the lava of a volcano, but somehow it miraculously didn't surface yet. Instead the fire burned inside Seia so intensely that Lorash had to avert her senses.

Seia's voice cut the air like a razor. "Absolutely not."

Lorash took a deep breath as the inquisitor's eyes turned towards her, trying to find her calm center. She sensed his mind in motion, a flash of a needle of rage towards her. Nabeila's tranquil presence guided her around it like water without a word, but the jedi master hidden in her own mind gave her no explanation about what attack she'd just dodged.