‘After listening to Equ’s intricate descriptions of the castle’s inner ws for about half an hour, I had to excuse myself to go ao the needs of my queen. Oh… the joy.’

  ‘While I was walking through the gmorous corridors of the castle, I started thinking.’

  ‘In all hoy, living in the castle. If you were willing to serve, wasn’t a bad life. The work table and not really that hard. This fact was only pletely 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 wao own the workers in their surroundings as well. If they simply offered work in the castle, people would e to work here on their own. But no, they wao ehem. They wao own them, so they ’t stand up aiate ue for their own goals.’

  ‘It was a disheartening sight. To see how far greed derange people if allowed to fester long enough.’

  ‘Svery was one of the most disgusting element of society. Ohat was unfortunately on the rise again, in this lit gaxy of ours. A fact that I could very well feel on my own skin.’

  ‘Even so, iain cases, svery be somewhat acceptable, with certain wful restris put io defend the ensved.’

  ‘For example, if you are lucky to have a somewhat reasonable owner, it’s not bad. Simultaneously, it bees a living hell if you were owned by some type of psychopath like little old me.’

  ‘Not eveioning that in the Republic. At the very heart of the so-called cultured worlds. There are other forms a svery and they are just as depe on it. Seriously, a rge variety of the work tracts are nothing more than embellished sve traowadays.’

  ‘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 regur svery.’

  ‘Have you ever thought about what a sve truly is?’

  ‘Believe me, I had the pleasure to, i two weeks. A sve 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. Hoeople work in a pce around the gaxy 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 svery with the illusion of choice. You even stop w 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 also be better, but that is just unlikely in today’s work enviro.’

  ‘I was happily walking towards the throne room, as it was my time to ge dowher handmaiden. The moment I walked into the rge and very beautifully desighrone 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 imagiail between her legs.’

  ‘Yet, even that wasn’t enough t back the smile to my face. Somethi 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 iiquette csses.’

  ‘I wasn’t wearing the outer yer 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 bination of white and dark green. The girl that had just run aearing 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 pce standio her throhis is going to be another b afternoon of partially listening to discussions about the w, and ining sve exports from other ps.’

  ‘These types of discussions are growing in number as the queen’s long-awaited rge sve au is about to begin. It starts tomorrow and sts for aire week. We are also pnning to be present at its opening, but from the queen’s clear love for this event, I expect to spend most of the 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 waro 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 annouhe arrival of Lars Quell.”

  ‘That was the moment I suddenly felt two pairs of shocked and furious gazes stuy lithe form standihe elevated throne.’

  ‘I felt strong rivulets of emotions appearing ihrone room, which made me flinch a bit.’

  ‘I immediately started to look around, searg for its source. My eyes soo 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 throwiaphorical daggers into me with that gre of his. While simultaneously emitting an almost suffog pressure through the force.’

  ‘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 wao hug her for it.’

  “I see that my handmaiden has gained your attention. She is of fiock, indeed, and a rare breed at that. Which is why she is not for sale. But tell me, what news do y of Bruurri? My soldiers have told me that you have news of him, which was the main reason your presence has been allowed in my pace.”

  ‘The moment Skywalker’s attention was lifted from me, I immediately felt relieved. As he proceeded to i with the queen, I remembered that there was anaze that was intensely stuy 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. Standio Skywalker with only her eyes spared from the cover of rich garment.’

  ‘There was no reason for me to listen to their versation. I immediately reized those familiar eyes, not eveioning her force prese was stronger, and more mature tha 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 e to the force to see that she ractically 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, ohat I could only see in her eyes. It was filled with disappoi 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 givihat disappointed expression, as if I had just killed her puppy...’

  “Nizzy, my dear, bring us some refreshments to the baly. I would like to wely 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 bli her, catg the slightest of blushes grag the woman’s cheeks.’

  ‘I couldn’t help but feel shocked. What is going on here?’

  ‘Then another a lot harsher tone appeared o 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, sve, and do hurry. I suddenly feel quite thirsty for refreshments.”

  ‘I gulped at that. Damn you Skywalker. You wao say revenge, but for what? Are you still riding on that misuanding? How you be so petty?’

  ‘The queen and Lars, I mean Skywalker, began their walk to the baly, 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 se... or whatever…’

  ~oOo~

  Ahsoka was shocked and speechless when she actally found her long-lost friend eo an evil sver queen.

  The friend that was wanted by the Jedi Order for over two years. The friend that escaped from a highly secured prisoransport ship, by the help of some uified droid, which destroyed every evidence of its existeer it was defeated, except a few handfuls of metal dust.

  The friend that disappeared as if she had never eveed in the first pce.

  There was not even a picture, or a video, captured of her that remaihe ohat were made have mysteriously disappeared from the jedi archives right after her escape.

  There was a thick cloud of mysteries ected 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 plete disappearance, which by itself was another mystery.

  The pary sers around Corust followed the ship that she used to ehe atmospheric border. Upoering, the sers naturally lost its signal for a few seds because of statiterference.

  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 he same way as Ebon Hawk.

  After months of futile search the Jedi cil had decided to make the annouhat the mysterious force seamely The Order of the Grey should be taken into the archives as a more than likely existing order, and any information on their presend influence should be taken to Jocasta Nu for further processing.

  Over these two years, the historians and researchers of the order had indeed found evideo 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 simir pattern. Their fighting styles were mostly unique, meaning that nothing suggested that they beloo the same order, well aside from their silver bdes, which were not so unique, as eveend to have simir coloured lightsabers.

  There were records of sightings from the uncharted territories far behind the known perimeters of the gaxy 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 showg distinctly odd behaviors. Based on the reports, the man was often seen loudly speaking to himself. He had beeed to the Naboo authorities for his disturbing and potentially dangerous behaviours. Not long ter, he rehended successfully. It is hat the man was very cooperative and offered ance while the police officers took him into custody.

  After weeks of observations and a few differes, the doctors decided that the man was healthy, if a bit etric. So they fiscated his lightsaber a him go after he paid the fine for illegally possessing a lightsaber. They ter sent the fiscated on to the Corust Jedi Temple, but it strangely never arrived.

  There were many stories like this, and ohing was the same in all of them. Each mysterious force-wielder had a silver-colored lightsaber, and his or her st name was Grey. The name Grey is an ofte name in the gaxy, and because the sightings happened iirely different pces and times, often passing hundreds of years between each report. It is unsurprising that, until today, nobody ected the dots.

  Ahsoka, when she first saw the familiar form of the twi’lek girl, with the same bored expression pstered over her pale face. As she stood o 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 st 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 nguage and facial expressions were all familiar. Soourowards them, and there was no need for any jedi special seo realize that the girl reized them immediately.

  Her bored expression ged into ohat 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 imagiheir reunion in the pace of a Zygerrian Sver Queen, he less being sves themselves. The force had a siingly dark humor at times.

  Also, Ahosoka felt pretty fused about this whole situation. Was she here the whole time? She wao ask so many questions from her. That she suddenly couldn’t make up her mind for whie to start with, but before she could pie, the girl turned around and ran away. Just like that...

  Irospect, it robably for the better, since revealing their e would have jeopardized the whole mission. Did she realize that and run away?