Yish had already been up for ten minutes when Kayle finally rolled over and groaned.

“Morning sleepy.” She said teasingly. His only response was another groan that indicated his displeasure at being awake. “Come on,” Yish said encouragingly, “get up. We’ve got things to do.”

“Ugghhh…five more minutes.” Kayle mumbled.

“Really?” Yish said incredulously. “You do remember we’re not on Coruscant right?” Kayle shot wide awake as his groggy brain finally remembered the past couple days.

“Sorry.” He apologized, rubbing his eyes. “Had amnesia there for a moment.” Looking around he noticed that Yish had already packed up their menial collection of belongings, he sighed. “So straight to walking huh?” Yish slung one of the packs over her shoulder.

“Yeah, feel free to eat breakfast on the way, I already ate.” Kayle groaned at the thought of eating one of the tasteless ration bars, but then his stomach groaned louder and he grudgingly began to search through the pack. Once he’d found his prize he slung the pack onto his back and, with noticeable stiffness, got to his feet.

The day’s journey took them through unfamiliar territory, but still they moved towards the slowly growing Dark Side signature to the east. At one point they crossed a long bridge that stretched over a deep gorge with a river running through it, that part was particularly harrowing. Not because of the bridge’s condition or anything, it was a standard duracrete hovercar bridge with all the proper supports and safety apparatuses, rather it was the length and the possibility that at any moment a hovercar or speeder coming to or from House Thul could come tearing down the path from either end and they would be discovered.

Thankfully, the Force was with them and they managed to cross the bridge and vanish once more into the forests, continuing their journey east.

___________

Imperious breathed a sigh of relief and regarded the finished mountain of paperwork he had just processed.

“If I’d known running a planet would be this much paperwork, I might have opted to stay a warrior.” He half-joked to himself as he stood up and began to leave the Royal Office. Once outside his ever-so-vigilant female aide fell into step behind him.

“What is thy bidding lord?”

“Prepare me a bath.” Imperious said. “I wish to relax and unwind.”

“It will be done lord.” The aide responded, bowing her head and rushing politely off to do her master’s bidding. Imperious, realizing he had some time to spare, decided to go and visit the prisoners, one in particular. As Imperious strode through the halls of House Thul towards the dungeons, he found his mind going back to the encounter he’d had with the young male Jedi. The boy had talent, which had been obvious to Imperious the moment he’d seen him in action. While he was mostly raw and untrained, he obviously had an exceptionally high affinity for the Force and unharnessed skill with a lightsaber. He also seemed to have an enormous potential for harnessing his emotions and passions, breaking out of Imperious’s Force Choke had been clear evidence of that.

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Reaching the entrance to the dungeons, Imperious opened the door and began the journey down the long flight of steps that led to the Thul palace’s underbelly. As he passed the closed and sealed entrances to several torture chambers, he heard the screams and cries of some of their occupants. Most of the torture chambers were empty however; as there was little need to torture the prisoners. They were all being detained until they could be executed, which would happen only once Operation Omega had truly begun. Only a few of Imperious’s apprentices were practicing their torture techniques, and mostly on the non-Jedi prisoners.

Turning down a long hall, Imperious passed the cells of his Jedi prisoners from the raid on House Organa. Glancing inside, he could see the defeated Jedi huddled in corners of the cells or laying awkwardly on the hard wooden benches, their wrists bound in high-quality Force-suppression cuffs. Feeling their despair and melancholy wash over him, Imperious reveled in it.

His elation was deflated however, the closer he got to the final cell, the one which held the prisoner he was here to see. The aura the man projected was not one of despair or sorrow, but apathy, humility, and deep contemplation. Reaching the barred hole in the floor, he looked down to see his prisoner sitting cross-legged with his back turned to him, his cuffed hands hidden in his lap.

“Old man.” He said, attempting to get the Jedi’s attention. When the old Jedi didn’t display any indication he had heard him, Imperious merely continued speaking as if he had. “It seems your friends have come to rescue you, but all the Council could spare was two padawans.” That got his attention. For a moment Imperious thought the old geezer was going to actually say something, but then the man’s grayed head merely bowed as if in disappointment. Smiling at his enemy’s despair, Imperious decided to rub more salt on the wound.

“The girl is useless, but the boy, now that one has potential.” The old man stiffened visibly, and Imperious could sense his shock and horror at the revelation. “Oh?” He asked. “So you know these two troublemakers do you? That will make it all the sweeter when I turn them both to the Dark Side.”

Finally breaking his silence, the old man’s raspy voice echoed throughout the pit. “If you think that will be easy, you’re in for a rude awakening Thul.” Imperious laughed some more.

“The only one who is in for a rude awakening is those two Kath pups, it’ll be easy enough to turn them considering the feelings they harbor for each other,” he paused, “and for you.” The old man tried to hide his reaction but Imperious perceived it through the Force. “The girl’s weakness and attachment to her precious master will make her easy to turn, and thanks to his feelings for her, the boy will follow her right into the darkness.” He chuckled with malevolent glee. “It’ll be almost too easy.”

The old man remained silent, and Imperious, having said what he had came to say, turned and began walking down the long dark hall. The old man waited until he had heard his footsteps fade into the distance before he sighed and murmured. “Yisheera, I’ve failed you.”

____________

Yisheera sat hunched over by the fire, using the flames to illuminate the crude and messy drawings she’d made in the dirt, Kayle squatting across from her. They both regarded the pictogram silently for a while, then Kayle spoke up.

“I don’t know Yish, there’s an awful lot of “ifs” in this plan of yours.”

“Trust me, it’ll work.” Yish insisted. “Master Neeman taught me a lot about Imperial tactics.”

“But these are the Thuls, not Imperials.” Kayle rebutted. Yish snorted.

“Same skrakk different Bantha.”

“Not exactly.” Kayle said, still sounding skeptical. Yish sighed.

“Look, Thul has become a vassal of the Empire. There’s no way they aren’t using Imperial tactics at least to some degree. The Empire doesn’t believe in independent thought remember?” Kayle looked at the drawings again, seeming to be considering her words. Suddenly he reached out and began making some alterations.

“What if we did this instead?” he asked as he finished the changes. Yish looked at the newly altered diagram for a minute. There wasn’t anything wrong with Kayle’s changes, they were more cautious and safer, but they would take more time than her plan to execute, which could potentially increase the risk they would be discovered and would leave Master Neeman imprisoned for longer.

“I think we should stick with my plan.” She said finally. “It’s short and simple. Plus it lets us free Master Neeman earlier on, once we’ve done that the rest of the plan will go like clockwork.” Kayle’s shoulders sagged a little and he let out his breath.

“Alright. Your plan it is.” He didn’t seem very enthusiastic about it, but Yish let it go. Kayle made his way over to the leaf mattress Yish had made for him and settled down to sleep. Yish took one last look at her plan after erasing Kayle’s changes. It would work, it had to. She climbed onto her own leaf mattress and began to drift off to sleep, the crackling of the fire lulling her into peaceful slumber.