Chapter 24: Lie

I had to remind my heart to keep beating after those words left his mouth. Either he knew for certain that I was behind Renning's death and he wanted something, or he only suspected. No matter which one it turned out to be, I had to be careful with both my wording and my reactions.

"Certainly, my lord," I replied, keeping my face a calm neutral as I shoved down as many of my instinctual reactions as possible. I gestured towards the only other chair in the room, "Would you like a seat? I'm not certain how much time this will take, as there's not much to tell."

As I pulled out the chair for him, he pressed the button to close and relock the door. I was suddenly very conscious of the fact that I was in a small space with a Sith Lord that may or may not be intending to kill me. It was hard to read Thanaton.

He could be calm and polite while simultaneously ordering someone's death. Unless you really pissed him off, he would keep that composure and inscrutability.

Sith of a certain power level tend to have instinctual ways of displaying their strength, usually expressed as a sensation that surrounded them. Renning had had a generalized "don't fuck with me" aura that most Sith appeared to have, useful for keeping the less powerful in line. Iren felt like a drawn sword, waiting to strike at whatever he was directed at with little care for who or what the target was.

Thanaton felt like a great cat, crouched and ready to pounce as soon as I said the wrong word. He sat in the non-descript chair like it was a throne, hands clasped lightly in front of him and his elbows on the armrests. There was a subtle pressure pressing down on my shoulders, causing them to droop slightly.

I wouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't been looking for it. It was accompanied by the same sensation that you get when you feel watched in an empty hallway.

I made myself as comfortable as possible, a task made difficult by the chills running down my spine.

"According to both Lord Renning's weekly reports and Overseer Iren, you began your tutelage under Lord Renning five weeks before his death," Thanaton's red eyes seemed to bore into my soul as he began speaking again, "Correct?"

"That's right, but tutelage is a bit of an overstatement, my lord," I corrected, "Lord Renning had a bounty on live Tukata for use in his experiments. Instead of credits, I had requested lessons in Sith Alchemy."

"Yes, Lord Renning had said as much. An excellent use of leverage," The Sith Lord nodded in approval, "Did you know that your efforts to get his attention drove off all the other acolytes in the area?"

I blinked. No, I hadn't known that.

"You were not the only acolyte working to earn Lord Renning's favor. However, after you started bringing in exceptional specimens, his standards increased. The others became afraid, both of Lord Renning's punishment for failing to meet said standards…and of you."

"Of me?" I parroted in confusion.

"Intentional or not, you made a statement. Staked a claim," Thanaton elaborated.

"You ventured into some of the most dangerous parts of the desert, found the largest and strongest Tukata, and hammered their minds into docility. To them, you had made your intentions known loud and clear and that you would brook no competition in your hunting grounds.

After the first, most were wary, some were angry. The most stubborn tried to match you, only to be killed by the beasts they hunted. The wisest simply left after watching you succeed again and again to seek out more fruitful opportunities."

I hadn't realized that I'd affected the "ecosystem" that much. Then again, I hadn't bothered to check. I knew all too well how single-minded I could become when I had a goal in mind.

I knew Renning had had an active bounty up and running, but I didn't think anyone else had taken him up on it.

I hadn't spared a thought about any competitors outside of my "class." Well, enemies now, I suppose. I'd deal with them when I found them, but it would just be one more thing to do on top of everything else.

Assuming I survived my interview with Thanaton.

The question right now was figuring out what he was doing. Under a certain light, most of what he had said so far was filled with nothing but praise. Was he trying to gauge my reactions to it and provoke a certain response? Inflate my ego to encourage me to accidentally let something slip? Was he suggesting that there was a possible witness that I didn't have control of?

I leaned back in my seat and brought my left ankle to rest on my right knee, clasping my hands in front of me as I assumed a relaxed posture. I've had my story straight for months. If there were serious holes in it, the Inquisitors would have already found them by now.

I let a friendly smile spread onto my face, "It seems I let myself get too distracted if something like that passed me by. Something to keep an eye on, I suppose."

"Indeed," Thanaton's expression didn't change. Not that I really expected it to, "Now, tell me of the beasts you captured for Lord Renning."

That was an easy request to fulfill and one that wouldn't implicate me in anything.

"The Tukata I hunted were usually solitary beasts. The high concentrations of the Dark Side in their bodies can cause mutations, most often expressed through greater physical strength, size, and aggression. The last one usually causes them to become outcasts, as their unbridled rage causes them to lash out at their packmates.

Once that happened, I tracked them down. Most were only barely above average for the species, but there were a few exceptions."

The Sith Lord didn't respond verbally, but instead stared at me intently. The silence seemed to echo in the room, only broken up by the sounds of the ventilation system above us.

Finally, he spoke, "In both your testimony and that of Lieutenant Maklan, you both claimed that Lord Renning's lightning did not harm the beast that killed him and that it broke his mental dominion of it, indicating a high level of resistance to the Force. And yet…you were able to easily capture and control the creature. I trust that I need not point out the discrepancy between those two facts?"

This was honestly the biggest hole in my story, but ironically it was also the most easily explained.

"A rational being would certainly suspect foul play when presented with such facts," I nodded in agreement, "But in this case, the other option is equally valid."

Thanaton raised an incredulous eyebrow, "Are you implying that the Tukata tricked you into thinking that it was docile in order to murder Lord Renning?"

While I wasn't sure about the extent of his studies, I believe that Thanaton focused more on Sith Sorcery than Sith Alchemy, so there was a legitimate chance that he simply hadn't researched "lowly" creatures like Tukata in depth beyond how to kill them. So far as I knew, he never demonstrated a particular affinity for beasts.

I shrugged, "While I didn't agree with Lord Renning's assertions that they are the "will of the Force made manifest," there is more to them than meets the eye. Tukata are far more intelligent than people give them credit for.

There have been specimens in the past that were capable of coherent, if limited, speech, so it isn't a huge leap to assume that some of the more extraordinary members of the species are capable of abstract thought and rudimentary planning."

Truthfully, I still didn't know why that particular Tukata had just…gone along with it and willingly submitted to my commands. It knew what I had been doing and maybe even why. It went after Renning with no provocation on my part and even stopped mauling him long enough for me to interrogate him. There was no question that it was intelligent, but to what extent I didn't know.

Did it have a pack once? Did Renning kill them during the course of his experimenting and it wanted revenge?

The pressure on my shoulders increased slightly. Every breath became just a tiny bit more difficult. I found that I had a hard time looking away from the Sith Lord across from me. Cold fingers trailed up the back of my skull before digging into my scalp.

Thanaton was either losing patience…or testing me.

But I had learned from my time in Marka Ragnos' tomb. The wall in my mind was no longer a dam, but a series of canal locks layered one after the other. With some effort, an intruder could access my barest surface thoughts. But if they wanted to go deeper, they would have to breach wall after wall after wall, getting locked out of the previous layers in the process.

The first layer would hold emotions and knee-jerk reactions. Anyone attempting to read my mind would be able to tell if I was lying or not.

"Tell me, did you kill Lord Renning?" I heard the question spoken to my ears and whispered into my mind.

My heart did not tremor beyond the norm as I told him the truth.

"No."

Well, the truth from a certain point of view.

It's fascinating what the human body can survive, at least for a few seconds. I had been careful when piercing Renning's brain with his own lightsaber. While precision in that situation had been impossible, I had at least burned out most of his frontal lobes while avoiding the medulla oblongata.

In other words, his capacity for higher thought had been destroyed while leaving automatic functions, like his heartbeat and breathing, intact, turning him into a vegetable. While the shock of the injury would have been enough to kill him quickly, it was within just enough time for the Tukata to finish him.

I would thank Thanaton for the wording of his question if it wouldn't mean my death. I was responsible for Renning's death…but I did not kill him, if only by a slim margin.

Thanaton blinked. Suddenly, all the pressure lifted at once, causing me to lurch forward in my seat as I regained full control. Though his face remained as passive as it had been since the beginning of the conversation, the corners of the Sith Lord's mouth were curved up slightly, "Interesting. Not a single word that you spoke was a lie."

I didn't have any clever words to shoot back at him as I was trying to overcome a sudden feeling of nausea and disorientation. Must have been an aftereffect of whatever he did to me.

He eased himself out of the chair, his lightsaber clinking lightly against it as he stood, "It seems that Lord Renning's research might have had more merit than I had first assumed. A pity the beast escaped. It would have been most useful in any future endeavors."

I gulped down the last of the nausea before replying, "I could try and track it down again, though I'm not certain it would be as easy as last time."

"That will not be necessary. At least not for the moment," Thanaton assured me, "Nevertheless, this has been…informative." He turned towards the door, unlocking and opening it with a wave of his hand, "I would wish you luck in your trials, but a true Sith needs no luck but that which they make for themselves."

As he started to walk through the doorway, I was struck with a thought. I might as well use the opportunity while it was here.

"My lord?" I spoke up.

Thanaton stopped and half-turned, eyebrow raised once more.

I forced the sudden knot in my throat down before continuing, "You mentioned the Sith Sorcery enchantments for Dark Armor earlier. Would you be willing to recommend a place to start researching them?"

Red eyes stared at me for a moment, then glanced at the vambraces, now on my desk once more. Turning away, he replied, "The second volume of the Histories of Ludo Kressh. The book itself is useless outside of its historical value, but it cites a number of other tomes that may prove more useful."

After that, he stalked out and I was left alone with my thoughts until Gaarurra returned later that evening.

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