‘After listening to Equ’s intricate descriptions of the castle’s inner workings for about half an hour, I had to excuse myself to go and tend to the needs of my queen. Oh… the joy.’
‘While I was walking through the glamorous corridors of the castle, I started thinking.’
‘In all honesty, living in the castle. If you were willing to serve, wasn’t a bad life. The work was acceptable and not really that hard. This fact was only completely missed by the types of blind fools like your average jedi were.’
‘The problem was with the beatings and humiliation. The fact that these people here were so greedy that they wanted to own the workers in their surroundings as well. If they simply offered work in the castle, people would come to work here on their own. But no, they wanted to enslave them. They wanted to own them, so they can’t stand up and negotiate or argue for their own goals.’
‘It was a disheartening sight. To see how far greed can derange people if allowed to fester long enough.’
‘Slavery was one of the most disgusting element of society. One that was unfortunately on the rise again, in this war split galaxy of ours. A fact that I could very well feel on my own skin.’
‘Even so, in certain cases, slavery can be somewhat acceptable, with certain lawful restrictions put in place to defend the enslaved.’
‘For example, if you are lucky to have a somewhat reasonable owner, it’s not bad. Simultaneously, it becomes a living hell if you were owned by some type of psychopath like little old me.’
‘Not even mentioning that in the Republic. At the very heart of the so-called cultured worlds. There are other forms a slavery and they are just as dependent on it. Seriously, a large variety of the work contracts are nothing more than embellished slave contracts nowadays.’
‘The inhumane way in which megacorporations prey on the poor and treat them as disposable, people who fuel to propel their profits for under minimum wages, is sometimes even worse than regular slavery.’
‘Have you ever thought about what a slave truly is?’
‘Believe me, I had the pleasure to, in the last two weeks. A slave is someone who is forced to do something, anything that he or she normally wouldn’t want to do, because his or her life directly depends on it. Now, is this familiar to you? Do you fit into that description? Most of us do, in one way or another. How many people work in a place around the galaxy that they hate just because they must?’
‘Otherwise they would go hungry, their family would go hungry... Now you see, it is just a different type of slavery with the illusion of choice. You can even stop working if you want for a while, because eventually you will run out of credits and you will be forced to grovel to get a job somewhere else. It might be even worse than the one before. Of course, it can also be better, but that is just unlikely in today’s work environment.’
‘I was happily walking towards the throne room, as it was my time to change down the other handmaiden. The moment I walked into the large and very beautifully designed throne room, I felt a sudden premonition through the force, and my easygoing mood immediately turned sour.’
’I walked in front of my queen, while the other handmaiden, seeing me, began to hastily escape the room, with her imaginable tail between her legs.’
‘Yet, even that wasn’t enough to bring back the smile to my face. Something felt off, and it bothered me, greatly.’
‘I greeted the queen while bowing moderately low, while slightly raising the hem of my long skirt as it was taught to me in etiquette classes.’
‘I wasn’t wearing the outer layer of my clothes right now. It wasn’t expected of me. The only exceptions were when I was ordered to do so, for some ceremonial purposes, or when we went outside of the castle.’
‘Right now, however, I wasn’t notified of anything like that. I was simply wearing my usual white and green outfit. The only proof of my rank in in the court. I was a member of the queen’s inner circle, with the status of a handmaiden. Each of the handmaidens was ordered to wear the exact same type of clothes. But the colors had to be different. Mine was a combination of white and dark green. The girl that had just run away was wearing white and yellow, and so on.’
‘The queen waved lightly, showing that she accepted my greeting, and I was allowed to rise and take my place standing next to her throne. This is going to be another boring afternoon of partially listening to discussions about the law, and incoming slave exports from other planets.’
‘These types of discussions are growing in number as the queen’s long-awaited large slave auction is about to begin. It starts tomorrow and lasts for an entire week. We are also planning to be present at its opening, but from the queen’s clear love for this event, I expect to spend most of the next week there.’
‘Still, I could feel that strange premonition lingering in the air. It was warning me, but not for danger, at least not necessarily. What is the reason for this force's premonition? Am I imagining this? No, it clearly was trying to warn me to something, but what?’
‘The door opened, as two people were escorted into the throne room. Four armed soldiers following them closely, two on each side. I didn’t really pay attention to it at first. As I was trying to figure out what that warning was about. Then I heard as one of the guards loudly stated the man’s name.
“To the queen of Zygerria, we announce the arrival of Lars Quell.”
‘That was the moment I suddenly felt two pairs of shocked and furious gazes stuck to my lithe form standing near the elevated throne.’
‘I felt strong rivulets of emotions appearing in the throne room, which made me flinch a bit.’
‘I immediately started to look around, searching for its source. My eyes soon met with the cold eyes of Lars Quell... and I froze like a deer in headlights.’
‘Lars Quell my ass. This was Anakin Skywalker, and he was currently throwing metaphorical daggers into me with that glare of his. While simultaneously emitting an almost suffocating pressure through the force.’
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
‘The queen had sensed my plight, or had just got annoyed by me gaining most of the attention, and decided to interrupt this silent stare down in style. For once, I wanted to hug her for it.’
“I see that my newest handmaiden has gained your attention. She is of fine stock, indeed, and a rare breed at that. Which is why she is not for sale. But tell me, what news do you bring of Bruno Denturri? My soldiers have told me that you have news of him, which was the main reason your presence has been allowed in my palace.”
‘The moment Skywalker’s attention was lifted from me, I immediately felt relieved. As he proceeded to interact with the queen, I remembered that there was another gaze that was intensely stuck to my body.’
‘I shivered lightly as I looked up, only to meet the hostile stare of said person.’
‘She was covered from head to toe in fine silk clothing. Standing next to Skywalker with only her eyes spared from the cover of rich garment.’
‘There was no reason for me to listen to their conversation. I immediately recognized those familiar eyes, not even mentioning her force presence. It was stronger, and more mature than the last time I felt it. Just as the girl herself was a lot taller now.’
‘It were times like these when the fact that I have been frozen for two entire years has truly sunk in.’
‘The girl was standing right in front of me, staring down at me, as she was the taller one now. I didn’t need any connection to the force to see that she was practically boiling with anger. I wasn’t sure, however, if it was directed at me, or at the situation she found me in.’
‘To be fair, probably both. She schooled her features with a visible effort and offered me a sad smile, one that I could only see in her eyes. It was filled with disappointment and longing.’
‘Oh, no, don’t look at me like that... I felt as if a knife had been turned around inside of me. As she was giving me that disappointed expression, as if I had just killed her puppy...’
“Nizzy, my dear, bring us some refreshments to the balcony. I would like to welcome my handsome guest properly. He even brought me such a gracious gift.”
‘I was jolted out of my daydream by the queen’s unusually mellow voice. I blinked at her, catching the slightest of blushes gracing the woman’s cheeks.’
‘I couldn’t help but feel shocked. What is going on here?’
‘Then another a lot harsher tone appeared next to me, sending shivers down my spine.’
‘Shit, when did he get so close to me? I felt an iron grip tighten around my right upper arm, stopping me in my effort to move away.’
“Yes, slave, and do hurry. I suddenly feel quite thirsty for refreshments.”
‘I gulped at that. Damn you Skywalker. You wanted to say revenge, but for what? Are you still riding on that misunderstanding? How can you be so petty?’
‘The queen and Lars, I mean Skywalker, began their walk to the balcony, while Ahsoka was still giving me a sad look. Just, just give me a break!’
‘I decided to run away to find those damnable refreshments, especially as I saw that Ahsoka was about to ask me something, or maybe just to scold me... or whatever…’
~oOo~
Ahsoka was shocked and speechless when she accidentally found her long-lost friend enslaved to an evil slaver queen.
The friend that was wanted by the Jedi Order for over two years. The friend that escaped from a highly secured prisoner transport ship, by the help of some unidentified droid, which destroyed every evidence of its existence after it was defeated, except a few handfuls of metal dust.
The friend that disappeared as if she had never even existed in the first place.
There was not even a picture, or a video, captured of her that remained. The ones that were made have mysteriously disappeared from the jedi archives right after her escape.
There was a thick cloud of mysteries connected to the strange girl who lived in the Jedi Temple for about two weeks and only leaving a mountain of unanswered questions in her wake.
A year after her complete disappearance, which by itself was another mystery.
The planetary scanners around Coruscant followed the ship that she used to enter the atmospheric border. Upon entering, the scanners naturally lost its signal for a few seconds because of static interference.
However, the signal never appeared again. The ship, which, by the way, was also a mystery in itself. Being the same type of ship that Revan, the betrayer, used in the mandalorian wars thousands of years ago. It was even named the same way as Ebon Hawk.
After months of futile search the Jedi council had decided to make the announcement that the mysterious force sect namely The Order of the Grey should be taken into the archives as a more than likely existing order, and any information on their presence and influence should be taken to Jocasta Nu for further processing.
Over these two years, the historians and researchers of the order had indeed found evidence to the existence of this weird order.
There were many sightings of mysterious strangers, who suddenly appeared and helped out or sometimes fought against jedi through the annals of history.
Their appearance seemingly had no similar pattern. Their fighting styles were mostly unique, meaning that nothing suggested that they belonged to the same order, well aside from their silver blades, which were not so unique, as even jedi tend to have similar coloured lightsabers.
There were records of sightings from the uncharted territories far behind the known perimeters of the galaxy by expeditions, just as in the core words.
They seemed to be present everywhere, but nowhere. The first suspected report of a member of this order being found in the archives was over three thousand years ago.
It was a young cerean man named Ari Grey, who had been in possession of a silver-colored lightsaber while showcasing distinctly odd behaviors. Based on the reports, the man was often seen loudly speaking to himself. He had been reported to the Naboo authorities for his disturbing and potentially dangerous behaviours. Not long later, he was apprehended successfully. It is noted that the man was very cooperative and offered no resistance while the police officers took him into custody.
After weeks of observations and a few different tests, the doctors decided that the man was healthy, if a bit eccentric. So they confiscated his lightsaber and let him go after he paid the fine for illegally possessing a lightsaber. They later sent the confiscated weapon to the Coruscant Jedi Temple, but it strangely never arrived.
There were many stories like this, and one thing was the same in all of them. Each mysterious force-wielder had a silver-colored lightsaber, and his or her last name was Grey. The name Grey is an often used last name in the galaxy, and because the sightings happened in entirely different places and times, often passing hundreds of years between each report. It is unsurprising that, until today, nobody connected the dots.
Ahsoka, when she first saw the familiar form of the twi’lek girl, with the same bored expression plastered over her pale face. As she stood next to the queen’s throne. She simply couldn’t believe it.
The reason for that was quite obvious. She looked exactly the same as she had last saw her, which was more than two years ago. There wasn’t any difference except her clothes.
She was carefully following the girl’s movements. Her body language and facial expressions were all familiar. Soon she turned towards them, and there was no need for any jedi special sense to realize that the girl recognized them immediately.
Her bored expression changed into one that resembled a scared child’s that was caught with her hand in the honey jar. There was no more question about who she was.
Ahsoka was long awaiting the moment when she will find her lost friend, but for sure she never imagined their reunion in the palace of a Zygerrian Slaver Queen, none the less being slaves themselves. The force had a sickeningly dark humor at times.
Also, Ahosoka felt pretty confused about this whole situation. Was she here the whole time? She wanted to ask so many questions from her. That she suddenly couldn’t make up her mind for which one to start with, but before she could pick one, the girl turned around and ran away. Just like that...
In retrospect, it was probably for the better, since revealing their connection would have jeopardized the whole mission. Did she realize that and run away?