Despite being on the first level of the Citadel, the massive courtyard remains hidden behind towering walls of stone and sediment. An elongated central patch of neatly trimmed grass stretches out for almost fifty-meters while maintaining a twenty-meter width. At the center of the grass is a large, ovular fountain in the shape of the Arcona emblem, with water running from the tips of each pointed edge. Vegetation grows along some of the walls, and an archaic clock-face is carved into the face of one of the entryways. A small group of rotating sharpshooters are scattered across the walls as the courtyard is supposed to serve as a safe place for Arconans to enjoy some quiet time, or to meet with visitors. It has served as the venue for multiple honor duels over time and there is a significant crater off to the side of the grass left behind as a result of a contest between Marick Arconae and Wuntila Arconae. The duel had taken place prior to either Arconae serving as Shadow Lords and in a quieter time before all Arcona knew was warfare.

Towards the back of the courtyard, closer to the base of the cliff that the Citadel is constructed upon, a tall tree shoots up from the stone, its shade guarding an entrance into the Citadel proper.

Nothing ever was simple, was it? Anders wasn't a betting man. Yet, if absolutely had to, he would have bet the shirt off his back that the Force had a twisted sense of humour.

How many within the Taldryan Republic could boast that they had wandered the walkways and admired the beautiful rosary of the Arcona Citadel Courtyard? None, as far as Anders knew, and being part of Taldryan leadership made the whole idea even more blasphemous. He had to admit, the area was certainly befitting the First Clan of the Brotherhood. It had a certain charm and elegance that was pleasing to the eye. The smell in the air was fresh and the midday sun brought with it a pleasant and welcome warmth that Port Kasiya sorely lacked.

Anders took note of the sharpshooters lining the walls of the courtyard until they were out of sight. They had eyed him warily, but had made no attempt to prevent his entry or stop him from proceeding any further inside their territory. The only logical conclusion was that they knew he was being expected. The Taldryan Vice-Chancellor allowed a small smile to curve on his lips, silently wondering if Ruka knew about this little meeting? Or any other of Sivall's supposed family? Oh, the things Anders would do to be able to see the look on their faces if they didn't.

His curiosity was what drove him forward to the fountain in the centre of the courtyard. The fountain spurted water from several points, creating a rainbow from water droplets as they were struck by natural sunlight. The silhouette of a blue-skinned Chiss, much like himself, appeared sitting on the edge of the fountain and made BUDD-E dance with excitement on Anders’ shoulder. Her very own BD-Unit droid poked its cranium from over her shoulder at their arrival.

BUDD-E beeped into his ears.

“Yes, Buddy. You may go play with that other droid,” Anders flashed a small smile. “Assuming that young Sivall is content with that?”

Sivall leapt to her feet. It was amusing to Anders just how much he towered over her.

“Of course,” Sivall gave a low bow before placing her droid on the ground. Ellie, be nice to Buddy now, OK?”

BUDD-E hopped down from Anders’ shoulder and ran off for its first playmate with its new friend.

“I must say, I am rather surprised you wished to converse with me. Given our history and the way your… Family...” Anders formed quotation marks with his fingers. “Have treated both myself and my protégé, I assumed you would rather spend a night in a krayt dragon nest than spend another moment in my presence.”

“Yes, well. What they don't know won't hurt them.”

Anders raised a brow at that. So they didn't know? How interesting.

“Keeping secrets, are we? My, oh my. I never took you for the type, my dear,” Anders allowed himself a chuckle. “Very well. How may I be of service?”

Sivall took a deep breath. “I want to join the Inquisitorius. I can think of no-one better than you to help me get started.”

The blue-skinned man immediately burst into laughter, causing Sivall's face to tense.

“I'm serious,” she said.

“I know. That was what made it so laughable!” Anders wiped the tear away from his eye. “You are the least prospective candidate for an Inquisitor I have ever met.”

“I know I can do it!” Sivall's hands balled into fists at her side. “I'll prove it to you. I was trained as a Sith assassin before I became a medic!”

“Well, you could have fooled me! If what I witnessed on our previous assignment together was anything to go by, you teeter on the lines of reckless and suicidal. Hardly fitting qualities for an Inquisitor,” Anders’ face hardened as he placed his hands behind his back. “So my answer is no. I will not help you. Now, whilst I appreciate the comedy, if you are quite done wasting my time, I have a Republic to help operate…”

“But… but…” Sivall frantically looked for something, anything that could change Anders’ mind. Naturally, she would find nothing.

What could she possibly offer him in return?

“But nothing. The life of an Inquisitor is filled with strife and conflict and is not for the weak-willed and pitiful. I bid you good day, Sivall.”

“Wait! I…”

“I said good day,” Anders spared her a glance, his tone darkening in order to drive home his answer. He watched as Sivall slumped in defeat. Good. “I think we are done here. Come along Bud-”

Anders froze. He had barely turned his back to her for half a second before the Force screamed at him within his subconscious. The danger was confirmed when he heard the distinctive snap of two lightsabers activating behind him. He spun, catching Sivall's movements as she leapt towards him like a hungry sand panther. Anders stepped back like a dancer with co-ordinated steps to avoid her swinging cerulean blades. The pair of BD-Unit droids squeaked from a short distance away.

The Taldryan Vice-Chancellor grimaced. Sivall was far more agile than he remembered from Gonda. Her fluidity and swirling motions confirmed to Anders that she was indeed a Shien adherent, just as her dossier detailed. Although he found her movements sloppy and unrefined, a disgrace to the weapons she wielded. Did she honestly believe she could strike him down with just the core fundamentals of the form? The High Inquisitor found the idea ridiculous and downright disrespectful.

Anders felt the lust of the dark side demand him to retaliate. Who was he to deny it? As soon as an opening presented itself, he thrust his palm forward, a torrent of energy slamming into Sivall's chest. The young Chiss woman barreled back towards the fountain, her upper back crashing into the duracrete as she released a pained gasp.

The High Inquisitor switched to their native language of Cheung to insult her with a series of derogatory slurs before switching back to basic.

“You wish to be tested, do you? Very well. If you are able to land one strike against me with your lightsabers, I will oversee your induction into the Inquisitorius, personally. However…”

His crimson eyes narrowed on her. “Fail, and I will kill you here and now. There will be no-one to save you.”

Sivall looked him square in the eyes. “Deal.”

And then she began vanishing in plain sight. Anders’ eyes went wide. He ground his teeth together. She was not going to get away that easily!

The dark side manifested like a storm within his soul, transforming into tendrils of electricity which lanced out of his fingertips towards Sivall as she disappeared from view.

Lightning crackled against duracrete and fizzled across the surface of the water that sprouted from it. Sivall was fast enough, but only just. While she had improved since her and Anders last saw each other in battle, it seemed that he had as well. Or maybe he had been going easy on her when he electrocuted her on Gonda?

A hiss escaped from Anders’ lips when he missed. Meanwhile, Siv sprinted in an arc towards him, each footfall carefully placed– quiet, and quick. The Force carried her towards her goal faster than she could normally move, and a pivot in her torso brought her longer saber in an upwards arc, aiming to take out the Vice-Chancellor's left arm.

Anders stepped back again, just out of the way; her blades hummed in the air where he had just been.

“Embarrassing. If you want me to produce my saber, you’ll have to prove to me that you’re worth the effort.”

The Taldryan Chiss’ words caused something to itch at the back of Siv’s mind– a ghost of a reminder, an urge to make his smug face eat those words. A silent voice screamed at her that she’d heard words like that before, that she’d been taunted like that in her past… but she pushed it down.

He wasn’t here. He couldn’t hurt her.

She needed Anders to believe she was worth the trouble, worthy of training. She couldn’t do that if she was also battling ghosts.

The medic gritted her teeth as she dropped to avoid a wide kick from Anders, brain ticking away at solutions of how she could outsmart or overpower him. The soft mask she usually wore had slipped away, replaced by an expression of focus and determination. Sanguine eyes were narrowed but honed on Anders’ movements as she tried her best to calculate what would come next..

She wouldn’t overwhelm him with the Force; he had more experience than her, and he was just as if not more intelligent than she was. He would defeat her before she could ever dance with him long enough to know what made him tick.

Trickery it was.

She reached out briefly with a spear of telekinetic power. It was almost laughable in comparison to the Force push that Anders had given her earlier, but it struck just as Anders brought his foot back down. A stumble. It was all she needed, and even though it was the faintest break in his movement and concentration, it was enough.

She could be jealous later that Anders made stumbling look like artwork.

She brought her largest saber in a swirling arc once more, hoping it would act as a diversion, putting as much force as she could into it. At the same time she dropped her shoto saber, catching its hilt with the top of her foot and kicking it towards her opponent with a spin.

It would have caught anyone else off guard, but not Anders.

She felt the probing in her mind just milliseconds before her foot made contact with the Shoto saber’s hilt, searching for her intentions. She had been so focused on not stabbing herself in the foot with her own lightsaber blade that she had forgotten one thing; The Vice-Chancellor of Taldyran was a master at using the force to prod and poke into other people’s minds.

One blade, the one she was holding, was blocked by a hand wielding the Force, using telekinesis to hold the blade steady. A snap-hiss sounded before Anders blocked the shoto saber with his own blade, reflecting the smaller lightsaber and sending it clattering across the stone surface of the courtyard.

Kark. One blade down. At least she got the satisfaction of hearing a few more Cheunh swears slip from Anders.

“Do not underestimate me, Vice-Chancellor. I was held back by barriers of my own making the last time we met. That is no longer true.”

“We shall see about that.”

With annoying ease, Anders used the force to rip the other lightsaber from her grasp and toss it across the courtyard.

Fine, she thought, hand-to-hand it is, then.

The male Chiss sliced a graceful arc through the air, aiming for her neck, but she was gone once more. The slice cleared the air above her head as she crouched and stepped forward, aiming an amplified palm against his stomach. It slammed into the man like a Bantha and knocked the air from Ander's lungs.

Her first solid hit against him.

Sivall’s lightsabers weren’t her only weapon. Connor had honed her body into a weapon in and of itself. He’d spent tireless hours training, breaking and molding her into his perfect assassin. Psychological and physical torture ensured she complied with his every whim, completed his every order; it made her into what he wanted.

Siv let her control slip a little, let that part of herself breathe, let the shadows whisper in her soul. With them, the Dark spilled in, raking its icy fingers along her spine. To tap into Connor’s teachings was to tap into the past she had buried. But, she had no doubt that if she didn’t beat Anders here, he would fulfill his promise to end her on her home soil.

Sanguine eyes glinted gold as the medic stared up at Anders from where she crouched. Fingers lightly placed against the stone as she watched the Taldyran member physically stumble back from the contact. It wasn’t a hit with her sabers, but it was enough to gain ground and show Anders that she was serious.

A smirk filled her features as she stood, summoning her sabers to her hands again from where they laid on the ground. She twirled them, lazily, a taunt.

The next strike will be the winning one

A roll of the shoulders, a bounce on the balls of her feat. She felt… good. Unstoppable. She wanted more.

One might have assumed that Anders would have been infuriated, incensed, perhaps even outraged that someone he viewed as lesser in power than himself could score a hit on him.

It was quite the contrary.

Anders could see the shift in Sivall's fortitude as she began to drop her restraints. Mental barriers, indeed. He saw the fire in her eyes and felt the coils of the dark side envelop her mind.

Most of all, he saw potential.

She was a different kind of opponent now. He felt the lust for conquest, dominance and victory through the Force. These were traits that oddly reminded him of his young Jedi protégé.

And just like in his young protégé, these emotions could, and would be used against her. She wanted to taunt him, did she? He would ensure her hubris would be her downfall. Anders brought up his blade to his face before flicking his weapon in a salute to the side of him.

“Very well, young Sivall. You have earned my attention.”

He felt the Force wave through his mind once again. The Arconan Chiss seized her opportunity to strike whilst Anders conducted his pre-duel ritual and lunged at him with an overhead slash with both lightsabers.

’The winning strike, eh?’

Her mind was an open book with clean pages to read and Anders absorbed every word. He took a large step back, avoiding one lightsaber whilst parrying the other.

“You have not learnt your lesson from earlier,” Anders placed one hand behind his back as he deflected Sivall's flurry of twin strikes. He laced his words with cold disappointment. “You are far too predictable. You should have continued using the techniques taught to you by Connor.”

Sivall nearly froze upon hearing his words. It was the moment Anders was looking for. He lunged forward with his lightsaber, the tip of his blade clipping the locks of hair close to her face. She recoiled away, seething, baring her teeth.

“You have no right!” Sivall's face could have turned red from rage. She slurred in Cheung before reverting back to basic. “You don't understand. No-one understands what that man did to me!”

“And do you honestly believe any opponent you fight will care?” Anders’ words cut sharper than the teeth of a krayt dragon. Sivall needed a reality check and he was all too happy to oblige. “No. They will not. To believe so is as idiotic as it is foolish. Any opponent will be more than happy to take advantage of any weakness you present. Stop acting like a naive little girl and fight! Your life depends on it!”

Sivall brought this on herself. Anders advanced on her with the grace of a figure skater performing on a frozen lake. Sivall struggled, biting her bottom lip as the Taldryan Vice-Chancellor came perilously close to cutting her again and again. Even with two weapons against Anders’ one, Sivall could not find an opening.

A fact that delighted the High Inquisitor to no end. The dark side swirling within him fed on Sivall's desperation like sweet nectar.

“Jar'kai is an effective tactic against Makashi. Unfortunately for you…” Anders stopped attacking, letting their blades lock together. He leaned in closer and spoke in a tone barely louder than whisper over the sound of their sparking weapons. “I trained Draca. He is far more adept at those techniques than whatever you call this pitiful excuse for bladework.”

The Taldryanite watched Sivall scowl at him, her grip tightening on her lightsabers. He mentally rolled his eyes. What good was she if all it took was verbal insults to unsettle her? This was all too easy. Sivall almost wasn't worth the effort to defeat. Could she not see that she clearly favoured her primary weapon over the weapon in her off-hand? It made her far too predictable.

Then, she… pursed her mouth in a self-satisfied smirk?

’How curious. What could she possibly be planning?’

Anders attempted to peer into her thoughts to read her intentions. Yet, when he did so, he had lowered his defences.

The Arconan let go of her lightsabers and dropped to her hands and knees. Anders’ eyes widened as he staggered, his momentum carrying him forward now that he had no resistance. She swept his legs out from underneath him.

“Oof!”

He landed flat on his chest, his lightsaber rolling out of his fingers. The duracrete beneath him was about as far from soft a landing as it could be. He was definitely going to have a bruise.

He heard the snap of lightsabers above him. He peered up, seeing Sivall had retrieved her weapons and held them above her head, intending to strike him down.

Absolutely not!

He reached out for his lightsaber, summoning the curved hilt back to his hand. Cerulean blue lightsabers crashed into the crimson black blade protecting Anders.

“How's this for pitiful!” Sivall growled as she pushed against her fellow Chiss with all her might.

Despite being on the ground, Anders was still physically stronger and pushed her back just enough to be able to stand on his feet.

“Better… but you are still hopeless.”

Anders released one hand from his weapon and sent a strong telekinetic push into her gut. Sivall went wide-eyed as she careered towards the rear of the courtyard. She rolled to an unceremonious stop in front of a tree that had spurted out of the stone.

The High Inquisitor stalked towards her like a hungry hawk-bat ready to swoop down upon its prey. His lightsaber hummed ominously in his hand. All in all, Anders was disappointed. Yes, he was slightly wounded and the pounding in his heart suggested the oncoming of fatigue, but she had failed to live up to his expectations. In another time and place, perhaps Sivall would have been worth training.

Alas, here and now, it was not meant to be.

Sivall scurried to her feet, grasping for her lightsabers. She readied to defend herself.

”Yield.”

The suggestion was simple, yet powerful. It weaved through the Arconan's mind with little to no resistance. Anders’ grasp on her mind was total.

”You will lower your weapons.”

Sivall lowered her lightsabers and deactivated them.

The Taller Chiss shook his head as he released her from his mental grasp. “Do you see now? This is why you cannot be an Inquisitor. You may possess potential when it comes to your physical ability, but your mind is fragile and far too easily read.”

The Arconan bared her teeth, sweat dripping from her brow as asinine eyes burned with raw passion and anger. “I'LL SHOW YOU FRAGILE!”

She activated her Knight's lightsaber, spinning and cutting straight through the tree behind her as it began to fall on top of them.

Anders’ eyes widened. “What are you doing, you fool!”

He reached out, stopping the tree from falling on top of them with the Force. Anders strained, tensing, focusing his whole will on lifting the heavy wood. However, it left him entirely exposed. Sivall struck out at him, connecting against the cortosis underlay on top of his thigh.

“Got you!” Sivall cheered.

The Taldryanite tossed the tree to the side, crashing upon the ground with a large thud. He snarled at her as he approached her with heavy breaths in his lungs.

“You sly, devious, crafty little wench!” Anders looked like a man possessed for all of half a second before his features relaxed. He deactivated his weapon and placed the hilt back on his belt before chuckling lightly. “Now, that? That was what I was looking for. The will to continue in the face of certain death.”

It took half a second for Sivall to comprehend what Anders meant.

“You weren't really going to kill me, were you?”

Anders scoffed. “My dear, I am many things, but a cold-hearted murderer is not one of them. I needed you to fight me with the knowledge that you may die if you do not succeed. Indeed, that is the game of life and death the Inquisitorius plays on a regular basis, as you will soon discover.”

The Arconan gasped. “You mean…”

“Yes,” Anders smiled at her. “I will oversee your training and induction into the Inquisitorius.”

Sivall practically bounced on the balls of her feet. “Thank you! Thank you so much!”

“One more thing!” Anders raised a finger in front of her. “My training is not for the faint of heart. I will push you past your limits in ways you cannot possibly comprehend. There will be times that you wish death upon me for my actions. Understand that everything I do is for a reason, and that reason is to make you stronger. To make you the best version of yourself you can be. Is that clear?”

The younger Chiss nodded her head eagerly. “Yes! Absolutely!”

Anders had to smile at her enthusiasm. “Very well. Buddy?”

He patted his shoulder, gesturing for his little droid to perch itself upon him.

“Buddy has recorded the entire duel,” Anders said as BUDD-E landed on his shoulder and beeped in his ear. “Ah, as has your droid so you can see as well and make your own conclusions. I will devise a training regiment and will be in touch.”

Anders turned to leave. A new prospective recruit? The possibilities were endless.

Especially with the rank of Grand Inquisitor in sight.