Chapter 43: 43. Chapter

-Ahsoka... why are you doing this to me; I have already told you that I am thirteen years old in body... Since I was hibernated that didn't change... I am still thirteen years old... Why are you looking at me like that... suddenly... You are scaring me... stop there, ssssSTOOOPPP!

I jumped at her like an enraged animal. Thirteen years old in body, when would you plan to tell me about that detail!? She was so surprised that she didn't even try to defend herself. I pulled her now physically much weaker arms behind her back in a somewhat painful hold, why, binding her arms tightly with a cloth piece that was lying around. She would be able to escape from that bind with time. But, I wasn't planning to give her that time.

-Let me go, what happened to you; I didn't even say anything rude...

I threw her into a nearby chair and tied together her legs, too, with a few more pieces of cloth.

-If I said something offensive, I am sorry, please forgive me, and don't look at me with that blank expression...

I had enough of this cat and mouse game... She would not get away from me, until I got my answers. I was worried about her life for two years, for nothing. I am not going through that again... She was, is my first real friend, even if it was only for a short time, I like to think, that we got pretty close. Therefore, I will get my answers, one way or the other.

I leaned closer to her. She was really confused and frustrated right now, good. I was also confused and frustrated in this two years. Get a taste from it, even if it wasn't your choice...

-So, tell me about this story... that you are thirteen years old in body...

Her face turned ashen the moment she heard my question. She tried to cover it up, but I was watching her closely and it was impossible to hide her genuine surprise and fear.

-Wh-what are you... talking about...

-Now, now, now... Nizzy, don't even try to act ignorant... it won't work on me, not anymore... So I will ask one more time before I decide to tie a double knot on your leks.

Heh, that is it, her eyes were about to pop out from the very thought.

-Yo-you wouldn't dare to do something like that...

-Try me.

-I am thirteen years old.

-Sigh... Nizzal... you disappoint me.

I walked behind her chair. While she was mumbling aloud that she was really thirteen years old... Yeah, sure... I thought about it for a moment; it was so obvious. This would answer every abnormality around her. Those incredibly deep eyes; her strange demeanor; the overly relaxed, guiding and teaching nature of her. Her knowledge of the force, one that could rival Masters of the Jedi order. Wow... what if she was like fifty years old? That would be incredible and kind of awkward...

I looked at her as she was trying to tell me that I was wrong... Yes, that could be true... If she didn't talk even after I tied a knot on her leks, I will actually believe her. I also realized that she was intentionally moving her leks away as I tried to grab them. Its a pity, that she couldn't move them half as fast as I could move my arms. I grabbed both of them easily, wow... this was kind of a disturbing feeling actually. They were constantly moving around as if I had caught a pair of snakes or earth worms. You would expect them to be cold to the touch and somewhat wet like snake skin; but it was not. It felt warm, and somewhat elastic, but it wasn't slimy at all. Also, you could perfectly feel her quickening heart rate through them. For some reason I felt myself blush a little. I would never have threatened her to do this, if I knew, how disturbingly personal this would feel. Kalifa had many times told me the story, of how she easily bested the girl who managed to escape under the nose of five jedi, and a small squad of clones. I didn't give it much thought back then; I know that it is kind of hypocritical since I also have leks. Yet mine was attached to my head in many ways, and it was not possible to move it around just like that. It was more stable, even solid at places, since it has internal bone structure, which twi'leks lekku clearly lacks. She was trying to squeeze my arms with her leks at the moment, it was getting on my nerves, so I squeezed back and she yelped in surprise and immediately stopped her misbehavior. 

-I GIVE UP, LET ME GO AND I WILL TELL YOU MY AGE!

I was woken from my thoughts by her sudden shout.

-So, I am waiting?

-I am actually twenty five...

Hmmm... from her knowledge and skills that seems to be highly unlikely, and the fact that she shared it so easily is suspicious. I also sensed a weird vibration through her leks since I was still holding them.

-I asked your real age!

-I just said I am twenty five!

The quivering was there again... strange... what if... no way... I felt as my grin widened with a new idea.

-Nizzy, tell me your name, then mine.

Now she looks genuinely confused.

-Why?

-Just do it.

-You are crazy... My name is Nizzal Grey... And you are Ahsoka Tano...

There were no vibrations at all. She may really think that I am getting crazy... But I have to prove my hypothesis first.

-Now tell me, that you are a sith; then tell me that you are not a sith.

-Ah-Ahsoka, are you alright? You shouldn't get overly excited, just relax a bit...

-Tell me, now!

-Okay... I am a sith...

There was the vibration.

-I am not a sith...

There wasn't any vibration.

-Repeat it, two times and also add that you are a Jedi and a member of the Grey Order...

She looked at me with a worried expression... She thinks that I lost it... But, I have to sacrifice my momentary dignity to prove my intuition.

...

As a result, every time, she told an obvious lie, her leks twitched slightly. It was a vibration, a very weak one. It was impossible to see it with bare eyes, but this, this would answer the reason why twi'leks were so overly defensive and angry when someone touched their leks. It was basically a biological lie detector attached to their heads... I mean, there are other races with leks, like nautolans, and not even one of them are half as mystical about their lekku like the twi'leks. Many of them are using it in daily activities, constantly picking up things with it left and right; it is a rare sight to see a twi'lek do those things.

-Now tell me one more time, your age.

-Twenty...

-You are lying!

-What, no?

-I can sense your lies from a mile away. So tell me your real age...

-Okay... I, I am just over three hundred years old, happy now?

-You are lying again.

-How do you know!?

She asked utterly confused, as she was beginning to sweat. Did she not know that her lekku can tell me when she lies?

-What did you say, how old where you when your mother... you know...

-Five or six. I am not sure...

-That was not a lie. ~I frowned at that. ~ How could you be actually six years old, nine years ago? When saying it now, that you are thirteen years old is clearly a lie.

-Wh-what?

Now, I see, that she was not educated about the fact that her leks can be used against her in this way... I guess, it is one of those racial secrets, that are never spoken in front of other races... She was too young and probably not expected to survive on the streets; therefore nobody bothered to share it with her... and as the time passed everybody assumed that she knows it. What a mess, it's good that I was the one to accidentally realize this.

-The only possible answer is that something changed in the time, after you left Ryloth in the company of your new master.

I saw her expression changed to a shocked one; a really shocked and confused one... I felt it, as she, for the first time stopped struggling and trying to escape.
Then she began to speak with a voice that suddenly lost every bit of the childishness I had grown used to. It was a voice that lacked even the slightest hint of emotion. It took me so off guard that I had to blink a few times and look around the room, to see if there was someone else speaking... But the room was empty, except for us.

-I don't know how you manage to so clearly differentiate my lies from the truth. But, I am warning you now, that you have ventured over thin ice. You are asking for secrets that are not meant to be shared with anybody else that is not a master of our order.

It seems that question is off the chart. 

-Jeez... I knew that some type of woman treats her age as a dangerous secret, but you have taken that to a new level... Also, I didn't know that you were a master of your order? Hmm, but I guess, since you are older than what you look like, I should have expected this.

I sensed as her robotic tone began to shatter, as she tried to answer my question with the same seriousness... but she failed... Also, she just realized that she had given away another piece of information, accidentally... She was trying so hard to scare me by changing her voice... It kind of worked for a few seconds, but not for long. Hah, she realized it too, and began to speak normally again.

-I-I was not speaking about that...

She fell into the basic trap of bartering, more specifically: asking a ridiculous price that no one would pay out, then lowering it until the point when you are still selling it for a laughable amount; but the buyer is happy, since he or she managed to talk down the price to its half. Or something like that...

You are reading story Star Wars: The Way of the Grey at novel35.com

-So then how old are you?

-I... Sigh... I don't actually know... okay?

That wasn't a lie... but, how could she forget her own damn age?

-Then tell me roughly, you must know at least that much? Aye?

-Promise to me that you will let me go if I tell you... and that you will not laugh... 

-If you also promise to not run away, and speak with me properly, than I promise.

-I, I promise...

-Good, then, lets hear it.

Why would I laugh at her anyway?

-Slightly over four thousand years... ~She blushed.

It was not a lie, at least based on the lekku lie detectors... but h-how? Is that really her mental age? But-but... but she was so childish, and... how...

-Could you repeat that?

-I am over four thousand years old.

-It can't be... how? But, you act so stupidly and all that...

-Hey! I am also influenced by a growing child's hormones, habits and attention spam, which I have already managed to stretch to an incredible degree... When you are a kid, it is not just your mind, but your body too... I can't help it...

-Interesting, most of the answer is true, but the last bit is a lie... You... you are purposefully hiding behind the mask of a child to act, spoiled, and annoy people? Is that so?

-No! That's not true!

-Lie.

-I am not lying!

-Lie.

She actually seemed on the verge of tears at the moment... It must be strange, after four thousand years of time, to have zero clue about what was happening. I bet, that this is a once in a lifetime chance for me to be superior in knowledge.

-I have already told you my secret, it is time to let me go... you promised...

She was really about to start crying now... It actually made me physically uncomfortable to make her cry... The thought was also incredibly embarrassing, since I was imagining a four thousand year old being crying with a cute pout on her face while saying it's not fair in a little girl's voice. I slightly blushed too, as I realized that I treated her as my little sister, until now... Damn, I must have looked ridiculous in her eyes...

-Okay, okay, don't cry, I will let you go... soon...

-... Sniffles... ~She is crying... what the hell...

This is getting laughable. How am I even supposed to treat her differently if she acts like her age, if I would tell this to anyone, they would think that I was dropped on my head as a child... multiple times... in a row... Also did she just describe to me what it feels to be a child? It was not that long ago, that I would forget... Sigh... Okay... I am still a kid, so what? 

The real problem is, that this knowledge has no practical use right now... I am not even sure, if I really believe it myself...

I let go of her leks, then I walked in front of her.

-So let's speak like civilized people. First of all, tell me why you are working for the queen, in detail.

-You said, that you would let me go.

-And you said, that you will tell me your age, then proceeded to lie to me multiple times. You see, I am learning from the best; therefore, I lied.

-You! Than I will lie too...

-But you can't. ~ I smiled cheekily.

-How, how are you able to tell me if I lie in the first place!

-Well, your lekku quivers every time you lie... So I only had to grab it to determine... it... I am not really sure, if it is a trait for every twi'lek or if it is specific to you... I found out about it by pure accident.

Heh, that made her drop her jaw. She really had no idea about this, just as I thought.

-No way... how... such a thing? I had no idea...

-Yeah, that was kind of obvious... Since you weren't raised among twi'leks, that could be a reason why you didn't know about it.

-You are right... Master wouldn't know about such a thing... and there was no other twi'lek master in my memories...

-Okay, so now that we have figured it out... you have the time to answer my other question... And don't try to lie, you know that I can figure it out.

-I already told you, this collar is made from beskar, and it is directly connected to the life of the queen, through the immune supporting nanomachines inside her body. If her life signals disappeared for more than three minutes; It would automatically inject poison into my body... Slowly killing poisons, in fact, that would make me suffer for hours before I eventually die...

Hearing that answer was infuriating... This, this fucking bitch... how could she do this to her, or anybody...

-I am going to kill this bitch...

-Didn't you listen at all? You are going to kill me too! Let me GO!

That was the moment when the door suddenly opened and a mirialan boy about my age walked into the room.

-I heard some shouting, so I thought I would come in and... oh!

There was an awkward silence for a while as the boy looked over at us, slowly,  trying to take in the whole picture.

I also realized something... this situation, I wanted to facepalm suddenly...

I was currently standing in front of Nizzal, while my hands were placed on my hips. She was tied up helplessly sitting in an armchair in front of me, and her obviously manipulative streak of tears hadn't even dried up yet. The boy seemed to realize something as his face visibly lighted up, then he began to talk.

-Ah! Now I see! I saw a few of the lords and the older slaves doing this kind of thing in the bedrooms at night. Therefore, once I decided to watch them for a while in secret to figure out its purpose. It seemed to be some ritualistic mating game that sometimes preceded the action of interc-...

-EQOMU SHUT YOUR MOUTH IF YOU KNOW WHAT IS GOOD FOR YOU! ~ Nizzal screamed.

-This is that Eqomu guy who tortured you!?

-Torture? Me? Tsc! Don't be ridiculous, my etiquette classes are far from torture, I assure you. Oh, by the way, I assume that you are the new girl, who needs some directions. Ahsoka, if I am right.

-Yeah...

-Good. Since my schedule is full with the newly arriving slaves, and seeing that you are already in a... tight relationship...

-EQOMU! ~ Shouted Nizzal, threateningly.

-... You will join Nizzy's classes, on every Monday and Friday morning until I decide that your skills are appropriate. Now, I will leave you to your own devices. Good bye.

-Don't leave me! Help me you stupid mirialan!

-Oh, no. I think, that I will leave this fiery togruta in your care. You seem to have gained most of her attention anyway. Bye.

The door closed behind the leaving mirialan boy, and with that another wave of awkward silence filled the room. Both of us were utterly embarrassed. I could feel as my montrals were getting hotter. The skin on my face was probably blue now from the major blush I suffered from that sudden conversation. Nizzal wasn't any better; if any, she looked even worse... Her face was turning pink from the burning embarrassment. 

-...

-...

-... so... Cough... So, lets continue with the questions... ~ I said at last.

-... kay... ~ She agreed silently.

You can find story with these keywords: Star Wars: The Way of the Grey, Read Star Wars: The Way of the Grey, Star Wars: The Way of the Grey novel, Star Wars: The Way of the Grey book, Star Wars: The Way of the Grey story, Star Wars: The Way of the Grey full, Star Wars: The Way of the Grey Latest Chapter