The Path of the Grey

Chapter 2

A/N: Thank you to my Beta Readers HMWeasley, CaptainNinapants, and Cyres. Please let me know what you think and thanks for reading. :)

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20 ABY

Yavin IV was hot. Esmin couldn't remember a single day when the humidity wasn't so thick, a person could reach out and grab the moisture in the air. She wiped the sticky sweat from her brow as her aunt gripped hard on her other arm.

"She started it!" Esmin grumbled as she was hurried down the dirt path.

Her other aunt was gripping her cousin Olizj, who was sporting a broken and bloodied nose. They were pulled through the settlement, drawing attention from the other Nightsisters. Since the fall of the Empire, the small commune on the fourth moon of Yavin had grown into a full-fledged town. The onlookers smirked as the two girls went to meet their judgement in the centermost dome-shaped dwelling.

"Mother!" her aunts called as the girls were pushed in.

Seated, whispering over a green ball of light, was Esmin's grandmother Asajj. The statuesque woman took a few deep breaths, before opening her grey blue eyes, and settling them on Esmin. They had a serene nature, but it was evident that they could switch to fury in a moment.

"What has she done?"Asajj asked, her voice gravelly and low.

"Me?" Esmin screeched, her thirteen-year-old voice bouncing between the whine of a child and the shrill of a woman.

Before Esmin could plead her case, her aunts rapidly explained how they saw her leap over the cutting table and bash Olizj's face into it. It wasn't the first time, and if Olizj kept up saying things about her appearance, Esmin was going to make sure it wouldn't be the last.

Asajj, with a grunt, raised herself to her feet. Even now, advanced in age, with the long forehead of a Great Mother, she was still a glory to see. Long and tall with skin white like ash, hair shaved off under her red hood and her black markings swirling on her face and body. All the Nightsisters possessed the same elegance and beauty as her, except for Esmin. Very rarely was a daughter of the Nightsisters born with any feature of their lesser male relations. Esmin pouted, looking down at her short legs and brown skin, void of markings. Cursed to look like her brown Kiffar grandfather, forever.

Asajj dismissed them, leaving Esmin alone with her. As the curtain shut behind her, it was the first moment Esmin felt fear. Being alone with Asajj was rarely pleasant.

"Why did you raise your hand to one of your sisters?" Asajj asked, curt and to the point.

"She said I looked like a Clone-born bedded a Jawa."

Asajj, fought a smile and began to circle the child. Her voice scratching in Esmin's ear. "Your appearance is that important?"

All her life Esmin had tried to replicate the look of her kin. Tried to lighten her curly brown hair by squeezing fruits into it. She spent hours hanging from trees by her arms, hoping to stretch taller, but nothing worked.

"Yes."

"No," Asajj snapped, any hint of amusement gone. "Vanity will gain you no future."

"But I don't look like anyone!"

Esmin tried to remember her mother, but couldn't. The woman had left her, so many years ago. Seduced by the idea of being a basic human's lover.

"You do not raise a hand to your sisters," Asajj insisted into her granddaughter's ear. "In the end, family is all you have."