The Knight, Death, and the Devil

Chapter 31: Two Masters

Chapter 9: Two Masters

Torin awoke to the feeling of cool sheets and the sight of a gray ceiling illuminated by what little light shone in through the bedroom window. The lack of any real sunlight on Dromund Kaas proved somewhat disorienting, but the nightstand clock told him it was early morning. He moved his hand up and down the bed, feeling for Vathamma. Sitting up, he saw her perched on the edge of her side of the bed, her back turned to him and head cradled in her hands.

"Morning." He crawled over and put a hand on her shoulder. She flinched at his touch, and her head snapped back to look at him. Her eyes were bloodshot and hair a mess, her eyebrows and lips drawn down into a furious scowl.

His jaw dropped open and he stared at her silently, hand hovering just over her shoulder. "What's wrong?" he finally managed to gasp out.

"What do you think?" she spat back at him, her words full of venom. He searched her eyes for any clue as to what she meant, his mouth opening and closing in silent confusion. "I begged you to stop."

He went to touch her before withdrawing his hand. "I was trying to show you I loved you," he said quietly.

Her scowl deepened and she looked at him with eyes ablaze. "Trying to show me you loved me?" By forcing yourself on me?"

"I didnt mean to... I thought you wanted me to—"

"You thought I wanted that?" Her scowl turned into an expression of horrified anguish, and she stared up at the ceiling and shook her head, blinking tears from her eyes. "Leave. At least let me dress."

He rose from the bed and walked out of the room, stumbling towards his own bedroom in a daze. With every step his body grew weaker, and he just barely managed to reach his bed before sitting himself down with shaky arms. He hung his head in his hands and stared blankly at the wood floor, mind a blur even as his body remained perfectly still. All he could see was his Master's tear-stained face; all he could hear were her words laden with hurt and betrayal.

Footsteps sounded in front of him, and he looked up to see Vathamma standing in the entryway to his room. She wore the black and purple robe he had seen her in the previous days, with two red-trimmed epaulets on either shoulder.

"I have a very important meeting at the Ministry of Intelligence in one hour. You will be there." Her eyes refused to meet his, and he simply nodded in response. "We will talk about... this, later."

He swallowed and found that his mouth had gone dry. "Ok," he said softly.

She left the apartment, and he went to the bedroom closet to retrieve an outfit. No sooner had he opened the sliding doors that than he felt a wave of nausea rising in his stomach. He rushed over to the bathroom and tossed up the toilet seat, then retched into the bowl until his heaves turned dry. Wobbling to his feet, he leaned over the sink and looked into the mirror—he hardly recognized the man staring back at him. Heavy bags hung under tired eyes, and his lips were flattened into an expression too featureless to be called melancholy.

He looked down at his right hand, then clenched it into a fist and banged it against the counter. Pain radiated outward in waves, and small sparks shot from his hand as he raised it in front of him. The current flowing through his scarred tissue created more pain—pain he directed back at its source, in a continuous cycle that grew and grew until blue current arced off of his hand in streaks that singed the air and cast the room in an eerie blue light while he shuddered in agony. The pain in his mind was gone, supplanted by a simpler one that anchored him firmly back to the cold ground of reality.

This, he could handle.

Once dressed he left the apartment, taking the elevator down to a lobby and out onto a street he had not yet had the chance to see. Dromund Kaas was a planet wreathed in perpetual shadow, but in the early hours of the morning it lacked even the weak purple light that managed to pierce its cloud cover. Black spires sprung up from the city in every direction, darkening further the higher they rose.