A Silent Party

The General's Eyes

Every step you take toward them feels like a step away from home and the freedom you know. All the time you have to resist the urge to look at your father, who's walking beside you, seeking for a comfort he cannot give you. From the people walking behind you two, not a single word is heard. The sound of the Stormtroopers' boots echoing and coming back louder to your ears only make things worse.

Thanks to the researches you did in the previous days, you already knew most of those people selected to your reception. All of them are human, but you've read somewhere on HoloNet that their superior, who they use to call the Supreme Leader, is a force-sensitive humanoid individual named Snoke. As stated by one of the officers who guided you there, he's not present, and though you never met him in person, the little you found about him now makes you feel glad for his absence.

But this detail alone is not enough to cease your worries, because the people you see in this room have their own way to represent a threat to you.

A tall, silent figure involved in black fabric stands at the right side of the room; the figure doesn't move a muscle with your approaching, so that you could start to doubt about his human nature, but you know that this man, whose name is Kylo Ren, is the Supreme Leader's apprentice in the dark arts of the Force. None of this interests you, but you've read that he sometimes represents his master during conferences and events he cannot attend to, and according to what the officer said, this is the role he's playing now.

At Kylo Ren's left, surrounded by a group of lower-ranking officers that you suppose to be Captains or Lieutenants, is the General. You take a deep breath when your eyes meet him, and you promise yourself you won't be intimidated; you're aware that your inner state can reflect on outside, so you make heroic efforts to control your emotions and observe what you have in front of you. But when you and your group finally reach the officers, you discover the hard work that it will mean.

Apart from being taller – and thinner – than you'd suppose through the images during your researches, Armitage Hux emanates exactly the same aura you sensed when your father showed you that image of him on his datapad. As far as you can see, there are no remarkable differences between the man you saw on the HoloNet and the one you have before you: the same paleness covers his skin in every inch that's visible to the eye; his hair is brushed in the same style you saw in all the pictures, but now you see its tone is so vibrant that he can't stay among his colleagues and remain unnoticed, despite being dressed in black like all of them; but if there's one thing that seems almost impossible to fight against whether through an image or in person, it was his eyes. Blue, as clear and cold as this planet, almost unreal. You've been trying to stare at them to train your courage while you were making your way to the First Order's entourage, but now you feel forced to look away as you did when you looked at the screen of the datapad.

At this very moment, you can't look forward, because the General's eyes are now fixed on you. You resist the temptation to look down, and force your eyes to wander around the room, to the other people, to the soldiers, but never to the floor. You just arrived at his territory, you say to yourself, it's too early to give him the impression he already has some control over you. You try to keep your attention on your body language, on your father, on Ren, anything that can distract you from this discomfort, but you know, you sense his gaze. You know that he's not just staring at you: he's studying you, your appearance, your movements, trying to absorb everything he can to use it later when he will have to deal with you. You're aware that the slightest sign of fear or weakness will be noticed by his implacable eyes, but all you can think about is to run from their reach and hide.

When you finally manage to pay attention to what the other people are doing, you hear your father exchange greetings with Ren, who makes some strange noises through his mask in response. You repress an exasperated sigh; you think is too uncivilized of him to attend such an occasion with his face hidden behind a mask, but you don't say a word: it's not the time for comments like this and you are new to them; you must learn what you can about them before making your first move.