It was possible that of all the sentient individuals in the known galaxy, Darth Maul was the only one completely at ease in the presence of the Emperor, which is not to say that the reverse held true. Most people would have been surprised to note the slight nervousness in Anakin Skywalker’s manner, assuming they had the skill to see it, as he faced his guest across the expanse of his private inner office. Other, more perceptive people would have simply acknowledged that a lack of discomfort at Maul’s presence indicated a level of stupidity that cancelled out the possibility of said sentience.

Still, the familiarity of long association meant that the Emperor could ignore the slight unease he felt in his former teacher’s company and concentrate on the matter which had prompted him to ask Maul here to the Imperial Complex on Coruscant, a matter about which Maul was aware the Emperor was having second thoughts. These second thoughts would have to be dealt with immediately; there was too much at stake to allow them to fester and grow. Events were moving along very nicely now, and as patient and subtle as Maul had been forced to become over the years, he had no intention of allowing Skywalker’s misgivings to derail nearly two decades of work and planning. Besides, the poor timing of the summons had already caused Maul some degree of irritation, a small amount of which he allowed to show in his manner.

When the Emperor had sent his request to come and teach his daughter and heir, Maul had been in the midst of training a new apprentice, a very promising young man whose piloting skills, mercenary morality, and bitter resentment at the unfairness of a situation that had left him outlaw through no fault of his own had attracted Maul’s notice a year before. But one cannot allow half-trained apprentices out on their own, and he had been forced to terminally end Solo’s education three days ago. There were many things that Maul hated, but having his time wasted may have been at the top of the list. It certainly was today. The Emperor was not going to render this particular sacrifice in vain because of a bit of squeamishness with regards to his daughter.

“She has had some training at the Jedi Temple, of course, and I had hoped to be able to complete that training myself, but the demands on my time have not permitted that luxury” the Emperor explained, telling Maul what he already knew. “I cannot allow her to become tainted further with the Jedi path. It has also become obvious that Obi-Wan was extremely lax with her, not trying her potential.”

“Did you expect otherwise? In spite of their surface acceptance of your ‘balanced path’ nonsense, the Jedi council still supports the return to a Republic and has no interest in a strong emperor. I am certain Obi-Wan believes if you can be removed from power, he can exert his own influence as well as using your son’s to bring Leia to heel. In another generation, the empire will stabilize. We must be assured that it will continue in the event of your death.”

The emperor gazed at him. “Or your own, Lord Maul” he said shortly.

“Or my own, certainly. Over the next twenty years, the rest of the old Jedi order will have taken the dregs of their philosophy to their respective graves…”

“Many of them speeded there prematurely by yourself, I’m certain.”

Maul shrugged slightly and spread his hands, a gesture which shifted his black robe and coincidentally revealed his well-used lightsaber. “A mere formality for many of them, useless as they have been rendered, and excellent practice for myself. Like you, all I have done has been in the service of the empire.”

“But not it’s emperor.”

“I acknowledge no emperor, only the need for a figurehead to make speeches and attend to the administrative functions of the office. Never forget how you came to your position, Skywalker.” Maul’s voice remained neutral, but his eyes hardened and narrowed.

“And never forget who can remove me? The removal of inconvenient emperors is something of a specialty of yours, as I recall”.

“A single incident hardly constitutes a habit, and I do not recall that you objected at the time. It’s late in the game to develop a guilty conscience about old deeds performed for entirely necessary reasons. I understand, however, that the subject of regicide may be an uncomfortable one for you.”

Both had plotted the betrayal of the former emperor, but it was Maul’s hand that finally removed Palpatine’s head from its body. The old wreck had brought it entirely on himself, of course, but that had not prevented Maul from experiencing the novelty of the only qualm felt in the course of a long line of assassinations. The deeply ingrained habit of obedience had been harder to throw off than he had anticipated, but like all difficult tasks it had been the source of considerable satisfaction once accomplished.

“Palpatine was an arrogant fool. He made too many mistakes, put too much at risk. There was no choice but to remove him for the sake of the empire.” Skywalker spoke as if still trying to convince himself that he had chosen the correct course of action. Neither thought of their former master as Lord Sidious anymore. He had become little more than a self-deluded obstacle to power long before his actual death, but it was still easier not to think of him as the Sith lord he had once been.

“His first and greatest error was to take you as apprentice while I still lived, and his second was to set me to the task of teaching you the dark paths to spare himself the trouble. One master, one apprentice, that is the rule, and by giving you to me, he made me the master and himself…superfluous.”

“I was never your apprentice, only your student as my daughter will be. There is a difference. A separation must remain and I will have your word on it or we end this now. I will know if you lie to me, you cannot hide that. She must be capable of ruling this empire someday, and she cannot do so as anyone’s apprentice.”

Did Skywalker truly believe Maul had never been his master? If so, best to leave him to the comforting illusions that would only make it easier to remove him. Student, apprentice, it was all just a matter of semantics.

Maul answered smoothly “You know half a year is not long enough to properly train an apprentice, nor will she be released afterwards to serve me. We have already agreed on this. She is a student only, but she is my student and you will not interfere in my decisions on the most effective ways to train her. If this is not to your liking, then certainly let us end this pointless exercise. I will withdraw and you will keep your daughter as she is, half-trained and worse than useless to you or to herself.”

The Emperor stared hard at Maul in an effort to determine how much actual truth there was behind the surface truth of his words. Maul smiled, knowing those efforts were in vain. He never lied. It was so much easier and more satisfying to convince people to lie to themselves. “I understand your concern, Anakin. You only wish her to be ‘balanced’.”

“Yes, she must know both paths, and be able to walk on either as the situation requires. I know your preference will always be for the dark side, but you understand the need for her to learn both to effectively rule this empire.” The emperor was doing an excellent job of talking away his own doubts, so Maul did not bother to make any answer.

The “Balanced Path” had originally been Maul’s concept, inspired by the old Jedi superstition about one who would bring balance to the force. Since quite a few of the Jedi were at least half convinced that Skywalker was the chosen one, why not give it to them? The two wrote the basic outline over several months, a mish-mash of harmless and progressive-sounding philosophy that combined the least controversial pieces of Jedi and Sith teachings with bits of even older and more mystical-sounding religions, then spent some time under the distracted Emperor’s nose turning Anakin into a semi-religious figure. It was agreed that Anakin would be the public face, the strong golden hero who would bring peace and prosperity back to a troubled galaxy, accepted by popular acclaim and the senate, while Maul remained faceless, pulling strings, removing obstacles, ruling from behind the curtain.

When the time to remove Palpatine came, however, Skywalker had balked at open rebellion as Maul had thought he might. It had been a simple matter to suggest to Palpatine that, in order to ensure loyalty from Anakin, his twin children should be brought to the Imperial complex as hostages against his good behavior, as well as possible replacements for a recalcitrant father. The threat to his offspring spurred Anakin to action, and after that it was only a matter of a few weeks before the empire had a new ruler and several minor insurrections had been quelled (it was amazing how quickly these rebellions could be dispersed once the leaders were removed. Bodies often fail to work effectively without heads, as Maul knew from personal observation). The Jedi, long accustomed to working in accordance with the wishes of the Senate, were divided and, for a crucial period, mute and impotent.

Time and habit did its work, and people quickly became accustomed to the new situation. The new emperor with his attractive family was popular, and if he was inclined to be somewhat more ruthless than everyone would like from time to time, well, at least most people went to bed feeling safe. Senators listened to voters, and the Jedi listened to the Senate. Many of the older Jedi rejected the doctrine of the Balanced Path, preferring to leave the Temple and seek solitary lives elsewhere. The ones who remained changed their teachings slightly and continued to operate along with a Senate that lost a little more authority every year.

Now, some 13 years later, it appeared that Skywalker had begun to believe their invention. Rather than being a convenient fiction, the emperor seemed to truly think that such a compromised and foolish path existed, to the point of wishing his own daughter schooled in it. This level of self-delusion was too dangerous to be allowed to continue. Since it could not be removed from Skywalker, it would have to be taken from his daughter, and she would need to be ready to replace her father when the time came. And that time was coming very soon, Maul felt, which made it imperative to begin her training without delay.

“You realize I have never actually met your daughter. I know her primarily by reputation and what you have told me of her.” And extremely accurate information from a variety of other sources the emperor did not need to know of, detailing every aspect of her training and personal life. “I may decline to teach her in any case, should I find her potential inadequate.” He was nearly certain that was not the case, but not everything could be discerned from a report. Some things required personal attention.

“You will not find her wanting in anything except perhaps discipline, and that is a habit I’m sure you will not find difficult to instill” the emperor said shortly, his own memories of Maul’s approach to discipline making him uncomfortable with the subject. Maul decided to twist the knife a bit further.

“Still, if she is a child who jumps when she sees shadows or still fears the monsters under her bed….” Maul trailed off.

The emperor looked at him narrowly, rising to the bait. “I would prefer that any monsters she encounters over the next half year be under her bed, not in it.”

“I thought it was understood that you would make no attempt to dictate to me the manner in which I will teach the girl.”

“It surely cannot be necessary...”

“It may very well be necessary. Experience lends perspective and provides a certain much-needed ballast when sailing the treacherous waters of life. Perhaps if her mother had had more of that sort of ballast, she would not so easily have foundered in the storm, poor girl. You might have had an empress all this time rather than a madwoman.” It was the first time Padme had been mentioned between them in years, and Maul was curious to see what Skywalker’s reaction would be.

The emperor’s shoulders tightened and for an instant Maul thought he would reach for his lightsaber. That would be interesting, but inconvenient at this time. After a moment to gather his temper, the emperor said quietly “Of all the things we have done in service to the empire, that is the one I will never forgive myself for, or you. When we meet for the final time, Lord Maul, that is the incident that will be in my mind when I kill you.”

“When we do have that final meeting, Anakin, I will remember your words and see that she joins you in death soon afterwards. Perhaps she will forgive you in the next world, since she cannot forgive you in this one. But not today. For now we both still serve the Empire and our personal desires must remain subordinate, as always, to its demands.”

“Someday it will demand a new ruler.”

“And I am here to ensure that it will have one.”

“Yes.”

The emperor turned away. Maul decided it would be counterproductive to push him any further, having established and reinforced the need for Leia’s teaching. Skywalker would not interfere, and he would not relent at this point. He had sacrificed far too much already to start counting costs now.

“She has arrived. I would like a moment alone with her.” The emperor did not turn around but remained standing over his desk as if absorbed by the information on its several screens.

“Far be it from me to intrude upon a tender family moment.” Maul gestured at the door hidden in the back of the study which led into a part of the complex unknown to most of it’s inhabitants, and inaccessible to all but two still living. The door opened, and he stepped through into a dimly lit corridor, the door slid shut, became invisible, and Maul waited. Skywalker would have his moment, but a moment was all.

Standing in the half-light, resting a gloved hand against the door, Maul extended his senses. He could feel the two of them in there, both strong but the father eclipsing the daughter. Good. She was strong enough to be valuable without being the prodigy her father had once been. There would be no partnership, no compromise necessary. She would remain subordinate without needing to be crippled, which boded well for her longevity on the throne. The perfect empress, an apprentice who would serve his purposes whatever her father wished or chose to believe.

It had been Maul’s experience that a good apprentice had a working lifespan of three to five years. The stronger they were, the more quickly they expired. He had trained several so far, five of whom had lived to complete the training and become temporarily useful tools. Three of those he had killed when they began to show signs of too-independent action or thought, one had been fatally surprised by a Jedi he was instructed to remove, and the last had taken her own life at Maul’s request when she still appeared to remain fanatically loyal to him after five years. Apparently she had been. Pity about the waste, but too many Sith had died at the hands of apprentices tired of waiting to become masters, and Maul planned on continuing this particular life for a very long time. Leia’s training would be, of necessity, lacking in certain vital areas.

The door opened again and he put back his hood as he re-entered the office, ignoring the emperor’s introduction, attention focused on the girl. Her first thoughts and reactions would provide valuable information. Fear and surprise at the sight of him and the realization of who he was, naturally, but he also caught an undercurrent of resentment and betrayal aimed at her father, quickly suppressed before she even noted its presence in herself. She had enough self-control to keep most of her feelings off her face, but emotions roiled so close to the surface of her mind that she could hardly have made them more obvious to him than if she had screamed them out loud.

A rapid, practiced assessment showed much of what Maul expected to see, with a few things he had not. More fear than he expected given the protection she had lived under all her life, layers of it kept firmly under a thin veneer of confidence. Those layers would need to be examined immediately to determine which would be useful to maintain and nurture, and which should be cast off.

That she was intelligent and well-educated in the conventional sense he already knew from previously acquired information, but it was apparent that she had more discipline than her father gave her credit for as well as more strength of character, and she was somewhat less self-absorbed than normal for a privileged, attractive girl of her age. He would raze her personality to the ground, of course, but he was now reasonably certain enough strong material would remain to rebuild it in a way that would lull her father’s fears while suiting his own purposes.

Her assent was necessary, even if it was only verbal. She doubtless thought of herself as an honest person, and one whose words should carry weight. It would also be interesting to see if she would defy her father, even for a moment, so he phrased his words carefully in order to force responses from both.

“Perhaps her highness is displeased with your choice of tutor. I have no interest in attempting to train an unwilling pupil.”

She seized on his words, seeing an opportunity for escape, but did not quite dare say it openly. She turned liquid brown eyes on her father, her mute entreaty eloquent. Maul was aware of Anakin’s displeasure at even this small sign of disobedience in his daughter (at least he was still that much Sith), and sensed the banishment of any lingering doubts he may have retained.

“I think perhaps you mistake her. She has desired to complete her training for some time now, and will prove an excellent student. I am certain she will be guided by my judgment in this matter. Is this not so, Leia?” Skywalker stared immovably at his daughter, certain she would never dare oppose his will.

“My wishes are the same as yours, sir” The words obviously cost the girl some effort, but having been spoken, she would be reluctant to make a liar of herself. It was enough for now.

The Emperor turned away, ready to be done with this unpleasant task. “Then I will see you again in six months, or possibly sooner, if Lord Maul deems it advisable.”

“I’m to go right now? But my work…”

“Has already been assigned elsewhere. I anticipated your desire to leave with a minimum of fuss. I am certain you would not wish your mother to be unnecessarily troubled.” He looked back at her for a moment. “Be diligent and obedient. I shall expect to see an empress when next we meet.” He turned away again, and resumed pretending to work, dismissing her before he changed his mind.

Maul exited the office at once without looking back. She would follow, she had no choice now. For the next half year, his would be the only face she saw, his the only voice she heard. She would be utterly dependant upon him, isolated from any outside influences. He had no intention of wasting a moment of that allotted time.

He moved quickly, knowing that it would be more difficult for her to maintain her composure if she was half-trotting to keep up, slightly out of breath, and disoriented by the maze of dim corridors. He felt her gathering her courage to speak. Good. It was never too soon to begin her training.

In a formal tone of surface humility she asked “Master, am I permitted to ask questions?

Maul smiled slightly to himself and answered her with a question of his own. “How else should an apprentice learn if questions are not asked?”

“My training, is it to be…” He turned abruptly, cutting off her question. She had clearly taken his question as an affirmative. That sort of sloppy thinking would not be tolerated.

“I gave you no permission to ask questions.”

“But I thought…” she looked confused and hesitant.

“You did not think. You assumed I spoke rhetorically. My questions will always require answers.” He observed the color rise in her face, as angry at herself for erring as she was angry at him for pointing out the error. To her credit, she appeared to remember what he had asked and came up with an appropriate answer quickly enough.

“An apprentice also can learn by observing, listening to, and emulating the master,” she said clearly, like a child quoting a lesson learned by rote.

Maul smiled faintly. “Good. Now you may ask your questions.” He turned and started away again without waiting for her response and continued down the corridor to the lift that would take them to the lowest level of the Complex, to the training rooms that no one used except himself. Like the doors, all of the lifts in this part of the Complex lacked visible controls and could only be manipulated by someone with both the knowledge of how the internal controls worked and the ability to use the Force. She followed him on to the lift but was careful to keep as much distance between them as the small space allowed, standing with her back pressed to the door. That was likely to cause her an unpleasant surprise when it opened again.

He broke the tense silence. “I take from your silence that you have achieved enlightenment on your own and all of your questions are now answered.”

Leia visibly gathered her courage and plunged forward with her question before she lost her nerve.. “I was wondering about my course of training, whether it will be primarily mental or philosophical. I know my greatest weaknesses are…”

Maul cut her off sharply. “I will determine your weaknesses, not you. You may assume that everything I do or say is a test, and how you perform on those tests will determine the course of your training. I only assure you that it will be extremely practical.” He studied her through slightly narrowed eyes. She had no idea what her true weaknesses were, but they became more obvious to him with every passing moment, and he made a small assault on one of them now. “So far, I am unimpressed. I wonder if your father’s fondness has blinded him to your numerous flaws.”

Her pale skin flushed with anger and humiliation again and she braved a counterattack. “If I’m so flawed, why don’t you take me back to him and explain why you feel incapable of the task he set you.”

She caught the opening of the lift doors with the edge of her awareness and avoided an embarrassing fall, which she took anyway a few steps later while trying to avoid Maul’s rapid advance. It would have been more sensible for her to have simply stood aside but she chose to see a threat where none existed at the moment. Maul paused as he passed her crouching half on the floor where she had caught herself. “Lessons on respect for one’s master and the appropriate uses of anger will most certainly be forthcoming. I may need to revise my original estimate on the amount of time required to school you fully.”

The corridor ended a few meters after the next turn, terminating in a massive triple door. Maul opened the doors as Leia came at a half-run around the bend and stopped abruptly behind him. He gestured toward the darkened training room and stood back to allow her to enter first.

“Home, your highness, for the next six months. Or longer.”

The lights came up as she took a few steps into the room, seeming relieved at it’s superficial similarity of design to certain of the training rooms used at the Jedi Temple. Several smaller doorways led off to other rooms, some of which would be utilized for other, more specialized parts of her training. Maul felt her stiffen again as he closed the heavy doors behind them and crossed to the center of the room, discarding his black outer robe as he went. He turned to see her staring at the doors like an animal in a trap, her own robe forgotten in her hand. At last the seriousness of her situation was fully dawning on her. Now work could begin in earnest.

“You will not leave until you can open the doors, and you will not be able to open the doors until I am sufficiently satisfied with your training to teach you how they work.” Come here.” The command was sudden and she obeyed without thinking, crossing the room to stand in front of him.

“Kneel.”

That one was more difficult for her and she made no immediate move to obey. Swiftly, he knocked a knee out from under her and pushed her to the floor, then knelt in front of her, studying her reaction. Surprise and pain, quickly followed by a rush of white-hot anger. He doubted that anyone had ever laid an unfriendly hand on her before. Well, she would be accustomed to it soon enough. Time to see if the current lesson had driven out the prior one.

“You are excessively slow to follow orders. Why should that be?”

The girl forced herself into an attitude of apologetic humility, but her voice was tight with rage and her knuckles white. “I am sorry, master. I will try to be quicker in the future”.

She had forgotten already. Pity. Maul delivered a slight, stinging slap to her cheek to draw her attention to the error. “Did you not understand when I told you that I expected all of my questions to be answered? Are you also slow of mind?”

The shock on her face told him that he had been correct in his assumption that she had never been disciplined physically before now. Outraged as much at being called slow-witted as being struck, she pulled the remains of her dignity about her and began railing at him in her best Royal Princess manner “Yes, I understood. No, I am not slow of mind, and if I am slow following orders it is for the obvious reason that I am far more used to giving than taking them. I’m a princess, damn you, and heir to this empire. My father will not sit still for this. When he hears how you have treated me….” She stopped, blushing at the sound of his laughter. He was genuinely amused for a moment. When was the last time someone had the temerity to look him in the face and throw a tantrum like an ill-mannered toddler?

“What a temper the little princess has, like a child deprived of a favorite toy.” His momentary amusement evaporated as quickly as it had come. It was time for her to learn just how far she was from her father’s protection. He captured her face in one had and pulled her forward, throwing her almost but not quite off-balance. “Did you understand what your father said to you? Not about diligence and obedience, I’m already certain you know nothing of those. But do you remember the rest?”

“He, he said he expected to see an empress.” He felt her sudden fear, and was slightly puzzled by the fact that only part of it seemed of himself. This would bear a closer examination.

“An empress, yes. Not a princess. He has no use for princesses. He will not wish to see one. Your path is decided, and you will leave these rooms ready to be an empress, or you will not leave at all. There are no other choices.” He released her and was gratified to note that this wash of fear belonged entirely to him.

“You wouldn’t dare! He would kill you if you harmed me! My father loves me!”

“You are a fool indeed if you believe any of those three things. I will not only dare kill you, I will consider it a requirement should the need arise. As for your father, he would be irritated at the loss of a potentially valuable tool, but would simply bring your brother in to take your place. He might perhaps spare a moment to grieve in his own fashion, but he is, above all else, a practical man, and mindful of your potential for failure. I would not have agreed to take you as a student if this were not the case.”

Maul watched her consider his words. They were true, in a sense, although not the entire truth. The quickest way to force a fatal confrontation with Skywalker would be to kill a member of his family, and Maul preferred to wait until a new emperor was ready to ascend to the throne. After that, he would look forward with great pleasure to removing the rest of Anakin’s family. By then, even the son might be sufficiently skilled to be provide a useful challenge. It was absolutely imperative that the daughter be separated from her attachment to her father and her loyalty held only by Maul before the end of her training. It helped that Anakin had never done anything much to ensure his daughter’s love, leaving her to make do with mere hero-worship instead.

“Poor little Leia. Nothing hurts as much as the truth, as you will have ample opportunity to discover over the next several months. You can no more become an empress while you are still a princess than you can become an adult without losing the innocence of childhood. Our mutual task is to destroy the princess so we may create the empress, to uproot the innocent beliefs of your childhood to make way for the hard realities of your adult life. Losing the illusion that you are loved is the first step on the path of your new life.”

Her thoughts were easy to follow. She was running a mental inventory of family and friends in an effort for find one who had loved her. Her grandmother had, by all accounts, and he saw that she remembered this.

“Yes, your grandmother, simple woman, probably loved Leia-the-child, but would never have understood Leia-the-adult, and where there is no understanding, there can hardly be love in any meaningful sense.” He added a measure of pity to his voice. It would annoy her, bring her back to the moment.

The irritation with him and with herself at being so simple to read pulled her up, and she raised her head and looked at him squarely with a sort of fearful defiance. “If the price of power is the rejection of love, I am fully prepared to pay it.”

“Rejection? It is not rejection of which I speak, it is absence, a very different thing altogether. When you ascend, you will be no more capable of giving or receiving love than is your father. Rather, you will understand that what your child’s mind now thinks of as love cannot exist for you. There will only be practicality. Like your father, you may be worshiped, feared, or respected, but never loved, and never wholly trusted.”

Maul half expected her to declare her love for her father, and was pleased to see that instead, she was considering his words carefully, checking them against her own doubts.

When she spoke, it was clear she had decided to compromise the habit of affection and her own suspicions of the truth. “I accept that the emperor cannot afford to love, but I know that my father can. There has been very little opportunity for me to spend time with him, but when my training here is complete, I will be of more use to him, able to take some of the burden of his duties on myself, and he can sometimes be only Anakin Skywalker.”

This would not do. It would take too long to work at her doubts this way, and time was precious. He decided to plant a new seed in her fertile imagination, one that would guarantee a small, secret horror that would taint her feelings forever even if she could walk out of here today.

“Time for him to play happy families, to be the doting father, the loving husband.” He let his ridicule and contempt for the idea to come out fully in his voice. “And where is this happy family Anakin will spend his free evenings with? His son at the Temple, his wife locked away, only his all-too loving daughter at his feet, waiting in vain for a smile, a kind word, a caress, a…what? What precisely is it you want from him?” Maul stared at her intently, smiling an insinuating smile.

The girl was surprised, but he noted that she knew what he implied even while she shied away from the thought. “I don’t know what you mean. I only want what any daughter wants from her father. I, I want his respect and affection…”

“Lies. You lie to yourself and you lie to me. You know your true feelings, whether or not you choose to acknowledge them. Your affection for your father is far more, shall we be polite and say basic, than that of other young women for their sires. Perhaps his knowledge of the nature of your feelings for him is one of the reasons your father maintains his distance.”

She radiated shock tinged with guilt and a touch of self-loathing. This was something she would not be able to entirely rationalize away, but to make certain the seed could not be uprooted before it had taken hold, Maul moved away from the subject, and on to another, keeping her off balance, exposing her anxieties. He suspected the nature of her strongest fears, the ones that lay unquiet just below the surface of her mind, and he wanted to force her to pull them into the light before much longer.

“Do not take too much blame on yourself. His position has required him to keep apart from his family. You have never had the opportunity to know him as your father, only as your emperor. It is not surprising that your feelings for him should be confused. Consider that his lot will be yours someday. Such power isolates one from friends, lovers, family, for they must always be subjects, never equals. You must always be prepared to sacrifice not only your feelings for others, but theirs for you.”

He sensed an upwelling of despair in her and looked hard to identify the actual source. Fear of isolation? Significant, but not as important as it might have been. Her family life up to now had been such that isolation was at least familiar. There was something else at work here. Fear of failure? That seemed more probable. Nothing could be more natural in an ambitious daughter with an over-achieving father who made it clear that failure would never be tolerated, and whose rare attentions were given only at the greatest successes. This was a fear to be kept and nurtured. It guaranteed that she would push herself harder than he ever could. It also appeared to be driving her to draw blood, he noted, observing a few drops run out of her clenched fists. He reached over and took her hands, turning them palms up to draw her attention to them. She stiffened when he touched her, but he was surprised at the strength of the reaction inspired by the tiny cuts. He held her hands more tightly to keep her from pulling them back and studied her closely

Her mind was wide open now, all protection gone. Maul sensed clear images of her parents, oversized and distorted from a child’s memory. Blood, panic, a knife – ah, Padme’s suicide attempt. He had heard about it from one of his spies in the Skywalker household, but had not known until now that Leia had witnessed the episode. The long suppressed memory had torn lose under the stress and fear of the day, finally coming to light when she saw the wounds on her own hands. So this was the legacy she had from her parents. From her mother a terror of madness and from her father a desperate fear of failure, wrapped up and nurtured by benign neglect. As useful as the latter might prove, the former would need to be eliminated immediately before it became a reality. Insanity would not be possible to hide from even a delusional Anakin.

She was up now, attempting to pull her hands away in an effort to escape the memory as well as him. He released her and let her make a stumbling run for one of the open doorways. He moved quickly, interposing his body between her and door. She nearly ran into him.

“No, there is no escape for you that way.” Maul moved to block a second doorway, catching her by the shoulders firmly. “What is it you are running from? What is it that is too terrible to bear?” He moved her back toward the center of the room, pushing her again to the floor, and standing over her until she came back to herself. He saw the fear of punishment momentarily drive out the older fears.

“Please don’t hurt me” Leia whispered, then pressed one hand to her mouth as if she could call the cowardly words back.

Maul felt a small surge of irritation. He would not waste the sort of physical disciplines she clearly expected until she was in a position to gain from them. Still, she couldn’t be expected to know that. Not yet.

He had taught apprentices who required pain immediately to make the most of their early training, but her mind was far too fragile for those rigors at the moment. He decided to give her a brief explanation that should set her mind at rest for the moment while preparing her for the subject later.

“Physical pain can be a valuable tool, used properly. In the correct circumstances, to mortify the flesh is to purify the spirit. It can teach you to focus your mind, by forcing you to ignore your body. In time, I will see that you learn a great deal about physical pain, both when to administer it, and when to seek it.” Maul knelt in front of her again. “But those matters are not for today. It will be some time before you can benefit from such lessons, as you must first learn to differentiate between pain as punishment and pain as teacher.”

He studied her to see if she had understood his meaning, and instead saw her recall his questions of a moment before with sudden fear. No, she hadn’t understood at all. This venom would have to be drawn out now or she would be impossible to teach.

“I-I was upset. I remembered something from a long time ago. I didn’t want to think about it. It frightened me”. Her voice was a child’s whisper.

“More than I do, obviously.” Maul gave her a gentle reminder.

She seemed confused. “No. Yes. I don’t know. In a different way.”

“Tell me of this frightening memory.”

The girl hesitated, torn between the pain of the memory and her fear of him “I cannot”.

Maul added a layer of subtle threat to his voice and stance. “You mean you will not. You must learn to speak more precisely”.

The threat seemed to do it’s work. She had sensed the change and it shifted the balance of the fear, making her at least want to verbalize the memory even if she couldn’t quite manage it yet. “I can’t. If I say it out loud, it will…” she stopped.

“It will become real?”

The girl nodded slightly, eyes averted.

“This memory, this beast from your mind that squats in the middle of this room, it reduces you to a weeping child, it causes you to place yourself in very mortal danger, yet you foolishly think it is not already real. You can destroy this thing. Speak of it out loud and you will eliminate its power. If you cannot, it will most assuredly kill you.”

Eyes closed tightly, fists clenched again, she managed to force out the words “My mother…” before stopping again. That was enough to start. Maul decided to drag it into the open himself. When it was no longer a secret, shameful thing, she would be able to speak of it.

“Yes, your mother. Poor, bitter, weak-minded Padme. If your father’s greatest error was choosing to marry at all, then his second greatest was surely his choice of mate. A pretty, high-strung, over-bred girl who had always been protected from herself and the consequences of her own actions, surrounded by bodyguards, shielded by Anakin, letting others die in her place, never needing to develop any true strength of mind. How could that fragile, untested psyche survive the first real blow it received when there was no one to absorb the shock?” Padme had not really been particularly weak-minded. After what she had been put through it was actually rather surprising that she maintained as much sanity as she had, but there was no reason to enlighten her daughter as to the true causes of her madness at the moment. He would make certain she knew of her father’s role in that matter someday, but his own part would remain hidden.

“It couldn’t…it didn’t. She tried, she had a knife and she tried….she hurt herself, cut her arms and her hands. And my father, he…” She stopped again. Maul pushed her a little farther, exposing Leia’s fear for the stability of her own mind.

“And here you are, your father’s daughter, surely, as everyone says, but your mother’s daughter also. Another pretty child, always protected, shielded by your father, by bodyguards, by Jedi, by your privileged position. What strength of mind do you think you have that she did not? How can you imagine you will escape what she did not?”

Leia practically screamed her denial. “I am not my mother! I’m nothing like her – I won’t be! She turned away from everything, my father, me – she wanted to die rather than face …she could have ruled with him, but she wouldn’t. I can, I will! I’m stronger than she ever was, I am my father’s daughter, only his. I have his strength, I only lack his training. I reject her, and I reject her weakness, and I reject her madness!” She stopped, trembling in reaction, her breathing ragged. Only a little further and she would break. Maul decided to use some of that fear of failure her father had provided her

“Listening to you now, one might suppose you had already traveled her path. It would be ironic indeed if your fear of madness drove you mad.” He studied her as if making up his mind about something, then gently shook his head with a sad sigh. “This was a mistake. There is nothing here for me to work with. I think it will be best, highness, if we return you to your father. I will recommend that you be removed from the line of succession and kept isolated, like your mother.” He stood pulling her to her feet and began to lead her across the room to the hidden exit doors.

As he planned, she began to fight him in an effort to stay. “What? No, you can’t do this. I have to learn, I have to be trained. I can’t go back like this, a failure, useless, worse than useless, a burden! If I have to go back I’ll…” she stopped, but he heard the unsaid threat.

“You’ll what? Go mad? Attempt to kill yourself?” Maul stopped and pulled her around, bringing her to face him. She tried to break loose while babbling about running away, or getting her father to send her back to the Jedi. He gave her a shake to cut off the flow of foolish words.

“He will never allow you to go back there. He will never allow you to leave. You know he will not. I was your last hope. Now you will stay locked away in a splendid cage to live out your life like your mother, protected, coddled, useless, imprisoned.” The girl tried to turn away from his voice as he spoke her of her greatest fear as if it was now a certainty. “Perhaps your father will let you live with her so you can keep each other company. You can dress each other up in your pretty gowns, paint each other’s pretty faces, spin each other pretty fantasies about how you were once powerful and respected…” She cut him off with a scream.

“Stop it! I will kill myself, I’ll kill her, then myself rather than end up like that!” She stopped suddenly, catching at the front of his tunic, and began to beg in a sobbing whisper. “Please, don’t send me back, keep me here, I can learn, I want to learn. I’d rather die trying. Please.” She half-collapsed, leaning her forehead against his chest. Now, while her mind open and the wounded part of her psyche raw and bleeding, her reliance on him was total and he could do away with this bothersome damage while making himself seem to be the comforter and healer. It would be an image of him she would not forget entirely, even through much harsher lessons. It was a talent he had developed over the years, being kind to be cruel.

Holding her, he knelt and spoke gently, calming her while insinuating himself into her vulnerable mind. “There is so much fear in you little girl, and of all the wrong things. You fear madness, but I see what is in your mind and I tell you that madness is not your fate. You have strength enough to endure what is before you; you know this. Cast that fear away from you now and have done with it.”

Clinging to Maul as if to a lifeline, desperate to believe his words, Leia excised the damage from her mind with his help, taking with it the pity she had felt for her mother. The process did not take as long as he thought it might, barely 40 minutes, although locked away in herself she would have had little concept of the passing time. At the end, she grieved without knowing what all she had lost, relief mixed with the loss in the unexpected tears that ran down her face.

Enough of comfort. It was time to remind her of where she was and what the business at hand required. Wanting to shock her out of her impending catharsis, he bent his head over her and licked the tears off one cheek, sliding them onto her tongue with his own, covering her mouth with his until she stopped struggling. Assured that she was aware enough to listen, he explained what she had agreed to when she had begged him to keep and teach her.

“Remember the taste of this, your last tears shed in grief. You will have other losses after this, but you will greet those losses joyfully, and you will thank me for them. In teaching you the dark path I will teach you to see only truth, to see only what exists. I will snuff out that insignificant light that you hold in front of your eyes, the light that blinds you to the realities of what lies in the shadows. I will tear away the veils of protection around your mind, and you will be denied the comforts of self-delusion, of hope, of madness. Only then can you understand what truly deserves your fear and no phantom in your mind can frighten you again. You will thank me for this gift, but you will also hate me for it, and this hate will make you strong, for in turning it outward, you will preserve yourself from the self-hate that would otherwise destroy you.”

He moved her away from him so they were back to the place they had started, kneeling in the center of the room, facing each other. She was calm now, but her face was white with exhaustion and she had tears still streaked one side of her face.. He reached out and wiped them away, showing them to her, but checked his next words in surprise when she leaned forward a little shyly and licked them from his finger. That was…advanced. He had not expected anything of that nature from her for weeks. He quickly changed what he had been about to say.

“Your own tears are bitter, but you will find that the tears of others can taste sweet indeed. When you can no longer shed your own, you will need others to provide them. But that is a lesson for another time, and I feel we have done enough for today.”

Maul rose and retrieved his cloak from the bench. “Leia.” She raised her head. He looked at her thoughtfully for a moment, considering. No, her mind was numb and it would be best to save that particular piece of instruction for a time when she was stronger and able to fully appreciate the experience. He gestured instead to one of the doorways “That door leads to your rooms. You will not enter any of the others until I tell you that you may. Go now. You will require rest before your next lesson.”

He was certain she would do as she was told, for the moment at least. Obedience was new to her and would require a great deal of reinforcement to set the habit. He opened the doors that led to his own rooms, satisfied at the progress made during this first session and anticipating the variety of upcoming challenges to be overcome in creating the Empire’s next puppet ruler.