After leaving Deikun's compound and heading back to her base, Sarai's comm came online. It was one of the security officers.  "Ma'am, there is someone here to see you. They seemed to know exactly where our base was and are currently waiting inside for you."

Flight was a glorious sensation. It was considerably less so when she was reminded of her retainers' incompetence. Perhaps she had been lax with discipline lately.

Impassively, she replied, "Very well, Corporal. I will be there shortly. Do you have a name? And of course, I presume they are being watched. Covertly."

She picked up her pace without waiting for a response and arrived in under three minutes. In vacuum, she could outpace most starfighters; while considerably slower in an atmosphere, she was still very fast. Her species was built that way, tall and slender, like graceful needles to pierce the sky.

It took a great deal of exertion to fly for long periods, at least around a gravitational body. As with everything else, space was different. Sarai felt hungry already, even though she had eaten less than two hours ago.

After composing her hair and wings and smoothing out her dress, she glided into the foyer with serene self-assurance, assuming that her unannounced guest would be in that room.

In reply to Sarai Fleur (msg # 2):

Standing to one side of the room was a figure. She stood around 5'2" not particularly intimdating in stature but that wasn't what made her dangerous. She was Sith. Her hair shaved on one side of her head with long bangs on the other. Her armor was non existant; black leather armor shoulder pads, strips of leather and cloth covering her chest, long leather sleeves forming into gloves and a crimson red cloth around her waist.

She turned to watch the new arrival enter the room. Her eyes watching her movement. She turned slightly as the figure moved into the room. Silent.

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Sarai seemed to occupy the entire room. She was over eight feet tall, slender, porcelain-skinned, and graceful. Her beauty was breathtaking, not merely sexual but transcendent, like the natural beauty of a nebula swirling and coalescing into a new star. She even glowed, faintly, with white light, and large, white wings graced her back, folded neatly. Her long blue dress, slit up the side, seemed an afterthought.

It was easy to see why she, and her beauty, were legendary. It was more difficult to see why she had a reputation for strength and power; perhaps the rumors were exaggerated. She didn't even have a weapon.

She smiled beatifically at the newcomer. "And who, may I ask, do I have the honor of addressing?"

The shorter woman approached and gave a bow.

"Honor is mine, my Lord. Fairuza Vale." She held the bow for few moments than righted herself up.

Her delicate eyebrows rose in surprise, looking down at the newcomer who already seemed to know her. She towered over Fairuza, who barely came up to her hips.

"'My Lord?' Well, Fairuza Vale, what have I done to deserve such a title, and why are you here to see me?" Her voice was soft and sweet, without a hint of arrogance or threat.

Perhaps it was some kind of test.

She looks up confused.

"Perhaps I have the wrong person. There is a war and if this is the wrong post, I need to talk to the officer who assigned me and remove their head." She says dryly. "Time lost is one step closer to losing." She stands up her hand brushes her lightsaber slightly.

Sarai paused for a full three seconds. Her stare was as hot and piercing as a blaster bolt from a precision rifle. The pretense of pleasant conversation melted away like wax held up to a sun.

"Yes, there is a war, no matter how much fools would wish it otherwise.

Have you come to be my soldier or my apprentice?"

In reply to Sarai Fleur (msg # 8):

"I am here to help win this war. The Jedi will fall. We will prevail. Take me as your apprentice and together will shall defeat the Jedi."

"Come with me," Sarai instructed, turning to her left with a sweep of her long skirt.

With legs as long as the average human was tall, her casual stride was very fast. Most people would have to jog to keep up.

"This is the beginning of your test. What is the nature of conflict?"

She led Fairuza down three corridors and into a large room, about twenty meters on a side, box-like and clearly once a kind of storage facility. Old, empty crates, broken furniture, and burned out electronics were stacked haphazardly all over the place. The lights flickered dimly, one swinging from a cable, a side broken free of the ceiling.

"Broad question. Nature of conflict? You could could say it strengthens us. Without conflict their is no progression. Without it we wouldn't be able to truly 'test' ourselves." Fairuza causally strides with the woman looking back and forth through it the walls and getting a layout of the land.

"If we didn't test ourselves against the Jedi we wouldn't know how powerful we are or could be."

"An interesting answer." Her tone of voice and expression were impassive; whether she meant what she said or not was up in the air.

She gestured at the room and its cluttered contents with a sweep of her long-fingered hand. "Show me what you can do."

"What is it exactly you want me to do?" Fairuza looks over the clutter. "I could move some objects with the force I could cut them into molten metal slag or search through the contents for clues...'do' is vague, my lord..."

"I wanted you to respond to my command. Your performance thus far is...less than spectacular."

She folded her hands in front of herself. "Hopefully that is something we can fix. Certainly, we can make some immediate improvements. Now tell me, on what skills do you pride yourself?"

In reply to Sarai Fleur (msg # 14):

Fairuza bit her tongue slightly and clenched her jaw. Than responded.

"I'm good with a lightsaber and I can move objects through the force. I'm decent at other things as well that do NOT apply to empty rooms and junk. I'm a decent ship pilot, speeder pilot and not so bad with computers."

She walks over to a piece of junk picking it up and dropping it.

"Not so good at putting them back together."

"Ah-hah! Anger. Excellent, something to work with."

This time she clasped her hands behind her back, then starting to walk around the room.

"I asked you to show me what you could do because I wanted to gauge your development and character. You want to be my apprentice, and so I must know you.

You could have done any number of things. Demonstrated prowess with the Force, built a repulsorlift, found the datapad containing esoteric teachings buried beneath the junk, asked a question, professed humility, and so on. What you did was ask for direction, but without directly asking."

She stops behind Fairuza and puts her hands on the much shorter human's shoulders, engulfing most of Fairuza's chest and arms. Sarai's hands are soft and warm.

Her voice loses its edges and drops in volume, becomes comforting.

"Your response tells me you are ready to receive instruction. To listen and obey. That you will make an excellent student. Your anger at being insulted tells me that you will make a great Sith one day."

Sarai's breathy, melodic voice was sending pleasant tingles racing up and down Fairuza's spine.

"I think you will make a fine apprentice, Fairuza Vale."

She let go of Fairuza's shoulders and stepped back. "Now I ask you to make a decision. Will you serve me openly, by my side, or will you serve me in the shadows?"

"I don't hide. But don't mistake that for not being able to or not being able to put on facades when they are needed, my Lord." She gives a slight bow.

Sarai pondered that response for several seconds.

Then, "What are you hoping to learn from me, Fairuza?"

In reply to Sarai Fleur (msg # 18):

"I need a teacher. I know I can become more powerful in the dark side. Outside the Sith Academy is the real test. Inside you have rivals but that's minor ...the real enemy is out here...the real world, the war, the Jedi."

She begins to walk around the room a bit pushing things aside with her foot.

"And what do you - The Sith Academy?" Sarai's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "And where might that be?"

Fairuza was turning out to be full of surprises. Sith was a title of respect and honor; to give it to a mere school student was extremely unorthodox, and whoever was doing it was either a genius or an idiot.

"Basic Sith Academy with basic teachings. Learn the tenants of the Sith, learn strength and skills and knowledge. Learn with your peers but your peers are also your rivals. Some have lightsaber skills some have the force as their allies but cunning and knowledge are also a weapon. But you can only learn so much- again the real world is here. The enemy does other things than plot and scheme your demise. They can lure you and seduce you with the light side of the force: the Jedi.

Tell me...," Ravenna stops rummaging with her foot. She looks up, her steely eyes full of wonder and a hunger...hunger for power? Knowledge? Something else? "Have you fought a Jedi?!"

Sarai grinned without showing her teeth. It was the smile of someone remembering hardship and victory.

"Oh yes, I have fought a Jedi. Hundreds, in fact, though not likely in the way you think. Perhaps you mean fought in the deadly contest of blade against blade, pitting my saber and powers against a Jedi Master in single combat? Of that, only once. His downfall was rigid belief in dogma."

She nods slowly.

"Well than...let's not keep the rest waiting." She grins.

"And how, exactly, do you plan to do that, Fairuza Vale?" Sarai sounded skeptical.

Many Sith believed impetuousness to be a virtue. They were soon disabused of that notion, violently.