The Dark Academy on Korriban

Sylvain bowed respectfully, "As you wish."

Then dismissed himself without looking at Layne.

/exit

She watched him go, then turned back to the queen.

"It's a real shame Thaine didn't succeed. Oh well. I have to say, this is quite the new look for you."

“This is my truest face,” she says calmly. She leans back on her throne and adds, “He is right though, we will have to find a future that allows our existence within the hierarchy of the Empire. You may find it distasteful but he could be an advocate we can utilize.”

"If you ask me, you were better off in your previous form. The empire doesn't trust aliens. Least of all aliens with power. They'll keep you around only as long as you're more useful alive than dead."

“That’s why I didn’t ask you. I loathed that Veers, far too soft… too alien, this is me,” she says with a glare.

“You’re only upset because you believe you have lost some leverage or advantage.”

"No. I'm just telling you how these people think. I obviously never had any advantage over you in the first place. Or I'd have that holocron right now, and you'd have probably helped me kill a few people by now."

“So genuine concern, that’s almost touching,” she says with queenly aloofness.

“I could not stay as Veers, it disgusted me to be in such a weak pale body. It was agony. Now I feel powerful once more. The Empire will adjust or they can try and destroy me, I will make them work for every inch they try to take from me.”

She sighed.

"And then you inevitably die. And I end up with nothing and no one at my back again. Great."

“Layne, I will not die… I have seen a future of the massassi returning to the stars,” she says picking up her axe and admiring the edge.

“You will not be alone, I will watch over my kin.”

"Could you not say that while fondling a deadly weapon? It does not inspire confidence."

“This is ancient Sith steel, remnants of the ancients. This is a weapon that has seen thousands of years of bloodshed and violence. This is a weapon worthy of a queen,” she says with a smile.

“Want to feel a true weapon of the Sith?”

"I've got two of those, remember?" She happened to be carrying the sword from the vault, as well as the blade of woe that was always by her side.

“But it’s no axe,” she sighs.

“This can split a chest open with ease, you just don’t get that same visceral feel from a lightsaber,” she says with a wicked grin.

"I'll take your word for it. Besides, I already have too many weapons."

“You can never have too many weapons,” she says in reply.

“Want to make yourself useful, I have a gift for a future queen, besides yourself if you ever focus that anger. Anyway, I have some pottery I would like to give to Shaisha, she might be tiny but she might actually be a Sith worth the name.”

"You can not be serious," she said, crossing her arms.

Shaisha? Pottery?

“I am serious,” she says.

"So you want me to deliver pottery to Torsin's friend. I hope it's laced with poison at least. Well, what's in it for me? We're about to head into battle, you know."

“Never mind.”

“Is there anything else?” she says putting the axe across her lap.

"Never mind?"

She sighed again.

"Give up awfully quick there. What's the deal with this pottery anyway? And why do you think so highly of Shaisha?"

“You have the mentality of a slave after all this time, everything with a price… perhaps you think that is the Sith way, I don’t care. I ask for nothing but a minor favor and you seek to gain some minuscule advantage like it will mean something,” she says dismissively.

“I don’t have time for this, go. I have a battle to prepare for.”

"Fine," she said, all teenage gloom and obstinence as she walked out.