The Lecture

Faiyaz headed out to the Revenant and took the tram down to Ciniath's office. She waltzed into the room slowly looking down at the personal datapad. Her posture was lax. She stopped in front of her desk and read for a while before looking around for Ciniath. The moment she finally decided to look down, she'd spot Ciniath—staring. Her brows slightly furrowed with annoyance at the clear disregard for her presence, and her disrespect. Her hand lifted, attempting to yank the datapad from her hands.

"So you finally decide to come to see me."

Faiyaz frumpled her lips and scratched her head and then sighed as her datapad flew across the room from her. Catching on, to her facial expression she took a bow and greet her.

"Darth Ciniath, with all due respect,  considering that you embarrassed me in front of Lord Xalkas. I needed time to save face. I apologize for my early outburst but what do my personal affairs have to do with being your apprentice. I can manage myself well. I'm only here to learn under your tutelage."

"I embarrassed you? Oh, well.. please forgive me. Perhaps you think it would be less embarrassing to go out and sleep with whatever red-skinned life form walked in front of you." Upon catching the pad, she slammed it against her desk, breaking both the datapad and the inner workings of the desk. In a flash, she stood.

"You misunderstand, unsurprisingly, because you cannot look past yourself for but a second. I have forbidden the Lord Xalk'as from speaking to my apprentices because he is a fool. Not but a few weeks ago he was head over heels for my apprentice Taytra and nearly got her killed with his stupidity. And now you wish to cast yourself into that cesspool of ignorance too?"

She stormed out from behind the desk and took the apprentice by her clothing on her chest. "Listen here, apprentice. You've proven to me time and time again so far that you cannot manage yourself, let alone well. The way you present yourself is a direct reflection of me and my values and I will not have you skulking the halls of the Yavin academy every day looking for something to ride."

Faiyaz bit her lips and cringed at her broken datapad. It made her blood boil under her skin. She remained quiet during her lecture but she rolled her eyes the moment Ciniath snagged her up. She wore a smug expression and look to the side avoiding eye contact with her master. She eventually faced her and muttered tight words under her breath.

"I don't expect you to understand a true pureblood connection and besides I can manage myself. I have done so before joining this order. I've trained under many, however, I do what feels good to me. What proof do you have of me not doing so? I've obeyed your orders, fought your wars and you're mad at me because I want to find true love with another pureblood man. I don't air out my love life but now people know about how I feel about Lord Shailuz because you intervened. I've done nothing to insult your name, title, or personal life. Nobody even talks about me, why? Because I stay to myself."

Faiyaz grabbed her clothing with both hands tugging at it for her to release her.

In response to her heroic exchange, instead of letting go, Ciniath used that grip to lift her from the floor. With a single, swift motion, her arm arched over her head, bringing Faiyaz headfirst—as if she were diving—into the top side of her desk.

Faiyaz whimpered into a guttural groan from the impact. Her head throbbed into her ears, a well-size knot protruded from the contact on her forehead, blackened, vision blurred a bit from the motion. Her head swayed back before she brought her hand to her head. That familiar metallic taste causes her to cringe. She failed to hold her sarcastic smirk. 

"It seems- I struck- a nerve." Her words came out breathy. "Why are you so- angry at me? Huhn! I did nothing to you! Aargh." She spits her blood to the side as it pooled in her mouth. She felt her neck muscles inflamed and tender. Her head swayed a bit as stiffening only made it worse.

Ciniath added to this—thanks again to Faiyaz's need to make things worse with her words—by cocking her arm back and swinging her fist around to drive into the side of her temple. After the strike, she stalked forward.

"You dare mock my understanding of purebloods. You mock my teachings. You disrespect me at every turn. You make a fool of yourself and thus me. And you dare claim you've done nothing to me." She pulled her arm back for a second strike.

"Will any utterance from your mouth be without your smarmy attitude? Or will I have to beat you unconscious?"

Faiyaz's head twisted to the side as did her body slid over to the edge of the desk. She winced as she did feeling the hotness from her stinging face and an even more rush of pressure built up behind her eyes now. Her position left her hanging onto the table fingers lightly tucked under her palms in a very loose fist. Faiyaz drooled maroon from the corner of her lips.  She shook her head slowly as her will to take more was short. Not because she couldn't take it but she didn't sign up for it either. 

"I'm just expressing- mahself and you keep hitting me. How am I suhpostuh talk to you?" 

Faiyaz wiped her mouth and kept spitting out the dark blood.

"How? Like a normal person. I have been open and willing to talk since day one, but every time you come to me you do nothing but insult me, and I am not one to stand and take your childish attitude."

She stood down, not following with the next strike, but she still wasn't pleased.

"You'd be dead if you had spoken to anyone else the way you've spoken to me, but I have spared you."

Faiyaz shifted her eyes and occasionally closed them. She didn't think she wasn't talking to her differently than normal people but Faiyaz hardly ever talked to anyone much except her animals. She went to try to crack her neck back in place but it was too sore. Her breathing was deep and thick. She laid her head down on the table.

"I didn't think I was being disrespectful. I'm sorry I don't sugarcoat my words. I just say what comes to my mind. I'm sorry, okay! I'm sorry. You wouldn't understand the way I was raised. You say that you do but everything I do only upsets you. I can't win."

Faiyaz's hand gestured as she spoke but still kept her head down. 

"I have only been beaten and pushed my whole life. I'm used to mistreatment and beatings. I don't see the harm in having someone to love. I love it before and messed it up by focusing on work only. So forgive me, please, if what you tell me to do doesn't reconcile with me." 

Her voice cracked midsentence.

"There is a difference.." She pointed at her from above. "...between sugarcoating your words, and being disrespectful. I do not sugarcoat my words, but I do not speak to authority in such a brash and careless manner. And your apologies don't mean a thing without a change in attitude."

She slowly crossed her arms, listening now only that she wasn't mouthing off. "Your assumptions are foolish. How can you be so certain of something you don't know?"

Drew her hands over her head and gently massaged it. She shook her head. Communication was not her best skill, far from it. 

"What do you mean? You're not like me. True we are the same race but your path is different from my past. My old love left me and I know he left me because I spent my time doing other important things. I've slaved for nothing, lost Rak and time spent on fighting. It's vain, so I rather follow my mother's footsteps." 

She rubbed her head as her thoughts were muddled.

Ciniath stood firm in her position, staring down at the struggling apprentice.  She uttered but a single question to her claims.

"What of my past do you know?"

Her eyelids lowered over her golden hues in a dead stare at the wall. She didn't know anything about Ciniath's past. However, she assumed she did.

"Are you a bastard? Do you have cybernetic implants or a plate of metal in your skull? Okay, fine I don't know anything from your past. However looking at you and me, people could tell her apart easily."

"The only answer that mattered was nothing. It is the only truth I've gotten. You know nothing about me. And your insults, again, are insulting to me." She squinted.

Faiyaz sighed but the motion put tension on her neck as she hissed. 

"They aren't- insults. I was asking questions that related to my past. Since you didn't answer them, I guess that means the answer is 'No'. Well, I am a bastard and I have cybernetics. We're different already in that sense. Please don't hit me, I'm just being frank here."

"They are indirect." She corrected.

"I never knew my parents. For fifty-three years they were unknown to me. I scraped by on my own, without their help. I was known always too many as the Sith with no house. As for cybernetics? No, I do not, but I also don't think it's a hindrance."

Faiyaz listened and of course hearing, this left her facial expression perplexed. She never expected someone like Darth Ciniath to live the way she had."

"I've misspoken about you." 

Faiyaz kept quiet listening more attentively.