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“What does tābir mean?” She blurted out.
He frowned. “Where did you hear that?”
“The Nightbrothers.”
He had taken her to the city on the mountain. At night, a market opened. Maul visited once a month to negotiate further trade and continue discussions with the clan elders. Saifi had become partial to the market. She liked the loud bustle, the music from various corners, the cookfires where people gathered to share food and stories. The Mando’ade were welcome, and one or two could always be found around one of those fires. He had taken her last night. What had they told her?
“What of it?” He asked her.
She gripped one hand with the other, squeezing and scratching at the skin between her thumb and forefinger.
“‘You have a good tāba .” She quoted. “‘Make your tābir proud.’”
He resisted the urge to clench his hands into fists. They had no right to meddle so. They had no right to call him that, to assume … He took a deep breath. She was only repeating what she’d heard.
“It means ‘Father.’” He said. “In Paecian.”
“Paecian?”
“There is Dathomiri. And there is Paecian, an older language. Dathomiri has no word for father.” She looked away. “I am your Master and teacher, child. Nothing more. Forget their words.”
She nodded. He pushed to his feet. She waved her hand, releasing the spider from its bond and sending it running. She leapt down from the crate.
“Time to go?”
He nodded, leading her to his Gauntlet. She strapped in without another word, her thoughts clearly still troubled. He brought them up into orbit and set the ship to maintain its position before turning to her.
“We cannot go to Ilum. But there are crystals in the most unlikely of places. You will search for one, first with the Force, and then in person. Focus your senses. Calm your mind. Let the Force be your guide. Trust in it, and it will show you what you seek.”
Nodding, she placed her hands down in her lap, closed her eyes, and breathed out. Maul made himself comfortable. They would wait as long as they needed to.
If the Force willed it, they would take a crystal from whomever they needed to. But Saifi was not fully Sith. She did not feel the need to take everything she wanted. She preferred to work for it, no matter how many disappointments blocked her path. Maul allowed her nature to guide his teaching. It was this or breaking her to his will and losing her trust. So they would do this her way as long as it did not interfere with his plans. He waited while she searched the Force and the cosmos for a path forward.
“I found it,” Saifi gasped some time later. Maul looked up. She grinned, bouncing in her seat. “I know where to go!”
He fired up the engines. Saifi closed her eyes again. She frowned and pointed forward. Willing to see how far the Force would guide her, he pushed the yoke and followed her direction.
She brought them to a dark and stormy planet, covered in gray, desolate sand. Green lightning flashed in the distance. She shivered and edged closer to Maul before shoring herself up and standing on her own.
“Well, apprentice?”
She looked up at him. “Now what?”
“That is for you to determine.” They were nowhere he knew of, off the maps and away from civilization. At least the Force had not led her anywhere the Empire was mining kyber. Still, he wondered what it had in store for them here. Would they really be able to find a crystal? He sighed, already dreading the cleaning his legs would need.
They walked toward the storm, toward what appeared to be pillars in the distance. The sand gave way to dried mud, cracked earth flaking and crackling under their steps like shale. Maul looked around, taking in what used to be the banks of a deep lake. Did the storm never reach this far or was the lake waiting for the rain’s return?
Saifi led them forward, her brows creasing with each step onward. She stopped finally, turning a scowl back towards him.
“I lost it.”
“Then we wait. We do not move without the guidance of the Force.”
“But what if it doesn’t come back? We could be here forever!”
Maul looked around. There was no shelter, no scrubby trees to gather kindling. They would be exposed to the storm and the rapidly approaching darkness.
“We can return,” Maul said, “if you would resign yourself to failure so easily.”
Saifi’s frustration sparked in the Force. She turned around, pacing away and desperately reaching further into the Force. She grabbed every nudge and signal, yanking it closer for inspection, only to turn it away when it was not the feeling she sought. Maul settled on his knees, half meditating, half watching the storm. Tension crawled up his spine and speared the beginnings of a headache between his eyes. The lightning was frequent. He did not relish being stuck in that, a beacon to it as he was.
“Quickly, Saifi.” He snapped.
“I’m trying!”
“I will leave you here if I must. You may survive for a few rotations and continue your search. Perhaps without the safety of your master, the solution will come more easily to you.”
She whirled on him, her eyes wide. But even as tears welled up, she stood her ground, baring her teeth to him before turning away.
“I don’t need help. I’ll do it myself.”
“Will you?” Perhaps it was too early for this endeavor.
“Ugh!“ she stomped away.
The wind began to pick up, a low howling thing as it ran across the dry lake. Maul frowned at the storm. Lightning struck the far reaches of the lake, just on the edge of his vision. A crack resounded in the distance, louder and sharper than any normal thunder. Maul lifted to his feet, looking around. He reached toward Saifi.
“Come here, child.” She didn’t respond and he looked toward her, finding her on her hands and knees, some ways away. “Saifi!”
She looked up at him. Even from a distance he could see the whites of her eyes. Fear sprang into the Force. He traced the cracked ground, scanning the large fissures that had appeared, all of them converging on Saifi. Moving slowly, he tested the ground below him. He couldn’t go to her. If the ground would crack under her, it would swallow him whole. Kneeling, he held a hand out to her.
“Slowly!” He shouted above the wind. She shook her head. “Saifi! Come this way. You must trust me!”
“It’s here!” She shouted back. “I feel it!”
“Then we will return! Come to me!”
He looked back at the storm, at the wall of darkness. He had never seen rain in such a heavy curtain, moving inexorably like a wave, looming closer by the second. Over the growing howl of the wind, he could hear the rain. It wasn’t a steady pounding, but a scream carried on the back of its harbinger. The lightning was flashing closer, spearing the ground and blinding him.
“Saifi!”
“I’m coming! I’m coming!”
The wind snatched her words. Maul crept closer to the fissures, reaching out and wondering if he could hold the ground steady for her. Lightning whited out his vision again. There was a snap, a thunderous crack all around them. A scream.
“Saifi?” He blinked away the blindness. She was gone. “Saifi!”
A jagged hole ripped into the ground, leading into nothing but darkness. Maul scrambled closer, falling onto his belly and looking down, heedless of the fissures growing around him. The darkness was complete. Even as lightning flashed again, the chasm below was so deep he couldn’t hope to hear her land.
“Saifi!” He shouted. But the storm came, and it brought no rain. It was a relentless stinging wall of sand that choked his nose and scratched his throat, scraping at his eyes. Maul held a hand up uselessly against its onslaught, feeling stung and whipped until he backed away from it. Sand filtered through the fingers shielding his face. He turned away, putting his back to the screaming wind and hunching over, hoping his feet would take him back to the Nightbrother.
Saifi was…
No. When the storm had run its course, he would search. He would find her, no matter what.
Saifi woke slowly, squinting up at the thin shaft of light above her. She blinked. She’d fallen far. How far? Had Maul fallen with her? Shifting her weight, she rolled her shoulder and tried to pull her arm out from under her. Piercing pain snapped up her arm. She choked on a cry and paused, rolling on her side to shift her weight. Carefully, whimpering, she brought her arm to her chest and held it there. Her other arm was bruised and cut, but uninjured. She pulled her legs under her and tried to push up, only for the same pain to streak up her leg. She collapsed with a shout, landing on her arm, screaming.
Tears streaked down her cheeks and she rolled slightly until her body hurt less. She was laying in cold water. Spluttering, she rolled onto her back and stared at the long climb upward.
“Maul!” She shouted. Her voice bounced around the walls of the cavern before trembling up the shaft. He didn’t reply. She closed her eyes, trying to sense him. She reached out as far as she could, trying to find the comforting ice-fire of his Signature.
Anger powered him, he’d said. It was his anger she felt whenever she touched on him in the Force. He had to be furious with her now. She was sure she’d feel him blazing across the planet. But there was nothing. Dimly, she felt something move against her back. Swallowing a shriek, she scrambled to her uninjured foot and pushed off with her hand. She looked around but saw nothing move in the dark.
“Maul!” She shouted again.
Looking up, she hopped and limped until she met a wall. It was pocked and unstable like shale. Still, she’d have to climb out somehow. Gritting her teeth, she reached until she found a handhold and rested her weight on her ankle. It gave immediately, crumbling her back to the watery ground. She cried and looked around. There had to be another way.
Something hissed.
The hairs on her arms stood up, every muscle clenching. It hissed again, this time a little on her left. She looked towards it.
Something kept her mouth shut. This wasn’t sentient. She couldn’t sense much of anything. Reaching out, she shivered and filtered out the cold of the cave, suddenly wishing she was back in the dark of that oncoming storm. At least there, she could still somewhat see. There, she still had the anchor of Maul’s glowing eyes watching over her. Reaching, reaching, she felt something. Thick muscle on a low-lying body, scaly skin rippling under her hand. It shifted back with another hiss. She shrank away from it. It moved closer, huffing breaths scenting her before a low rumble shook the air. It bumped her.
She reached out slowly, meeting a long snout, wet skin, blankness where she thought there would be eyes. It shook itself and rumbled again before moving away, disgruntled by her unwelcome entrance. She breathed in relief. She wasn’t food. Her luck hadn’t totally run out.
Other smaller, simpler beings skittered and slithered around her. A sharp prick in her back made her gasp, and she felt multiple presences behind her. Turning fast, she stumbled back on her ankle and whimpered, crawling on her good hand until she was away from the wall. But the feeling stayed behind her, those small presences following her every movement. Shaking, biting back tears, she reached until she could feel her back.
She touched something cold. It writhed.
She screamed. The thing on the other end of the cave skittered away.
She screamed and sobbed and tore at her flesh but the pain only grew worse. She looked up at the shaft. She was trapped and Force only knew what would kill her first.
She reached out, desperate for any sentient, pleading for one sentient.
Help. Help me, Maul, please, please help.
“Maul!” She screamed, tears choking her until she feared he wouldn’t hear if he came back. Would he have left her?
“I will leave you here if I must.”
He wouldn’t. He was only trying to scare her.
“Perhaps without the safety of your master, the solution will come more easily to you.”
What solution? She wasn’t even sure what she was looking for, if the nudging of the Force was a crystal laying in wait for her, or something more. Maul had looked skeptical when they landed. There was nothing for miles and miles.
Nothing for miles and she was trapped in a cave, surrounded by strange creatures, being eaten alive from her back.
“Should you fail to retrieve one, I would dismiss you as my student.”
She would die here. Maul had abandoned her; he knew she had failed. She would die here and be eaten by whatever was waiting. What would he tell Khara? Would Khara come looking for her again? Or had that all been a lie? Would she ever see Khara again?
But then she wasn’t sure she wanted Khara to come looking. She had promised before and it had taken so long. And she’d never taught Saifi that she could fight with her powers. If she’d known, if she’d been strong like Maul, nothing from before would have ever happened. No one would have been able to hurt her.
Maul taught her to be stronger than anyone. He taught her to fight, he… he protected her. He didn’t leave. He wouldn’t!
Which meant he was hurt too. Something had happened! She had to get to him; she had to get out of here! If something happened to his legs, he’d be helpless!
“Maul!” She shouted, pushing to her feet again. The writhing against her back increased as she limped into the dark. She heard the shallow water on the ground shifting. She swallowed bile and blinked to clear her vision—not that there was much to see.
“Maul!”
She stumbled, crying out as her hands caught her and stabbing pain shot up her arm and leg. She whimpered, struggling to her feet. She searched for anger, trying to consume her own fear from the inside out. But she was cold and hungry, and everything hurt, and Maul was gone, he was gone, he left, Maul was gone, her taba, all she wanted was to make him proud and she failed.
Saifi shivered and fell again. The pain curdled in her stomach and the things on her back moved again, and she retched. Her entire body shook as she emptied her stomach into the water, again and again, until she heaved painfully, hot tears pouring down her face. She shuffled away, pulling her knees into her chest and trying desperately to see. But she was cold.
There was cold metal at her back instead of jagged stone. There was the faint beeping of the dwindling life support instead of the rustle of creatures. There was blood dripping from the body… the body… the body of… no.
She was here now. That was over. It was gone. The empty eyes and the slack face and the blood, there was so much blood. Saifi remembered screaming. But no one came when she screamed before. No one came for a long, long time. She’d dragged Iona to the airlock herself. And then she’d been truly alone.
This was different.
You’re our foundling now, Kast said.
“What’s that?”
“It means you’re family!” Brom offered her one of his rare grins, and Saifi felt warm knowing he offered it to her.
She had a family. Families protected each other. They helped each other. She’d never known that. They had taught her that.
“Is Maul family?” Saifi asked another time.
“Lord Maul is not like us.” Kast sighed. “He didn’t know his family until he was much older. He has been alone for too long.”
Like her. Maul was like her. He was her family.
“He didn’t leave.” She told herself. She glared at the darkness. “He didn’t .” Maul was coming for her. But he was different. He didn’t give up. He always fought. She just had to do the same.
Maul was lost. He had lost the ship, the empty lake, and their rations in the storm. The storm was gone now, revealing an empty wasteland he had no hope of navigating. He had tried backtracking, tried to reach for Saifi again, to sense the ship, their path, anything . This planet was strange. It was wrong in so many ways, a trap and a trial in one. But he would not fail.
So he walked. He reached. And he listened. Saifi was here somewhere. She was safe. She had to be.
She was… important to him. Valuable. She was no use to him broken, he kept telling himself, and the part of him that sounded awfully like Savage sighed every time.
“A Foundling suits you, my Lord.” Kast had said.
“You never should have been alone.” Savage said once.
“I will always be alone.” He told Savage. “She’s merely an apprentice,” Maul had told Kast.
But she wasn’t. Saifi was his. Somehow, amidst training her and watching her grow healthy again, amid the nightmares and the late nights stargazing while he told her of the Sith, of his people, Saifi had become his. And he would not lose her the way he had lost everyone else.
So he walked. And he reached. And he listened. Saifi was here. And he would bring her home.
The strange thing in the cave came and went. She never sensed it leave but always heard it return, sometimes with the faint sounds of tearing flesh and the smell of blood. Whatever it ate, she was glad it was nothing like her.
It hissed at her every time. She flinched and stared into the dark, but her eyes never adjusted to that inky blackness. She moved deeper into the cave, hoping for a way out. The creature didn’t venture towards her again, but it stayed close.. She wondered if it was making sure she was leaving.
The… presences at her back had stopped moving. She didn’t think about them. She was weak enough without fear sapping the last of her strength.
She was dizzy. Every stumble made it harder to get back up. But a surge of anger filled her veins each time. She would not fail like this. She wouldn’t die like this.
She was going to be a warrior. She was going to be strong like Brom, brave like Kast, kind like Khara. She was going to be powerful like Maul. She was going to see them again. She was going to get out.
She reached and screamed in the Force until her mind felt numb. Sharp pain on her back made her gasp sometimes. Sometimes the creature moved past her, a shadow in the dark, keeping to the water. Her hand gripped a jagged stone she’d found. She wasn’t sure she could scream again. She wasn’t sure she could fight. Her eyes seemed blurry, but there wasn’t much to look at.
She had tried returning to the shaft and shouting. She had tapped out a message, the familiar rhythm soothing her, the sound echoing up the shaft.
Tap tap. Tap tap tap tap. Tap. Tap tap.
No one answered. No one ever had anyway.
“Tāba!” She shouted. He didn’t hear.
She had tried drinking the cave water, but it was bitter. Things wriggled just under the surface. She had tried scratching her back against the rough wall, hoping to scrape the things off. They bit in harder, and blood seeped down her back in thin rivulets, thickening as she frantically scratched and scraped until they bit so hard her head swam. She collapsed again.
There was no water. There was no escape. So she reached out tiredly to the Force and prayed she’d at least fall asleep first.
A call answered. Like a song, a soft hum that made Saifi’s head snap up. It was soft but loud. Tears sprang to her eyes. There it was again, the nudge, the call. It had led her here, but maybe it would lead her out. The creature slid past her again with a loud hiss. She reared back, almost falling again, but she didn’t have the strength to get up if she did. Staggering, Saifi breathed loudly and pushed on. The call grew louder. She walked on, tapping anxiously against the wall with her stone.
A piece of the wall fell away. Light speared the darkness, glowing brightly then dimming before her eyes. Saifi squinted at it. It was a little stone, no bigger than her pinky, a crystal as clear as water. It hummed. Reaching for it, she heard the call cut out. Saifi stared down at the little glowing crystal, a grin spreading slowly across her face.
She found it.
“Tāba!” She shouted. “I found it! I found it! I found a crystal!”
But she was still alone. Right.
There was a hiss behind her. Saifi gripped the crystal and whirled, holding her only weapon out with shaking hands. Light peeked through the other wall, a pinprick of white moonlight. Saifi moved towards it. The animal moved towards her and then back, hissing. It bumped the wall and stones tumbled away, letting in more light. Saifi squinted at it. She looked down, seeing only a swath of blue-black scales and the shift of muscles around a shape she couldn’t make sense of.
“Did you lead me here? Is this how I get out?” She asked. The creature rumbled. She reached into the Force, finding a slippery mind that saw her as a glowing shape and not much else. She soothed its mind, trying to impart her gratitude on it. It shook her off and disappeared into the dark. “Thank you.” She called after it.
She looked down at her crystal.
“I found it… Now what?” She turned her good shoulder into the wall, pushing until the stones gave and she tumbled through the hole and into the open night. Wind breathed against her, cooling her sweat, making her skin itch. The creatures on her back wriggled. She retched.
“Help!” She shouted, pushing to her feet again, limping forward. “Help! Maul! Help!”
But he wasn’t here. And as she looked around, she realized she was not outside. She was in a crater, some sort of great hole in the earth that no one could climb out of. Her knees gave out. She stared up at the stars, impossibly far, cruelly cold.
The ship was half buried in sand, the engines clogged, the ramp jammed. But he found it. And he knew where to go from here. He’d wandered for another day and into the night, starving, dehydrated, but no worse off than he had ever been in his youth when Master abandoned him somewhere for a few days. He remembered the anger at his helplessness, the fear that clogged his throat. But his fear was for Saifi now. She was not used to this. She had not eaten before they left the ship. He still could not sense her.
He forced the ramp down and climbed into the ship, grabbing a med pack and improvising climbing gear from what he had. Then he ran.
“Saifi!” He called as he reached the lake again. He reached out as far as he could. “Saifi!”
He couldn’t feel her. But he could feel a pull. Something else was here, something connected to the Force. He followed it. It traveled to the other side of the great lake, miles in the night. The sky had begun to lighten and the cracked mud had turned to rocky sand and craggy outcroppings. He stopped at the edge of a crater nearly wide enough for the ship if the wings could contract just a little more. He looked down, aided by the light of the newly risen moons. He opened his mouth to shout when the pull intensified. A shadow caught his eye.
There.
She wasn’t moving.
He scrambled to secure his gear, hooking the cables and ropes to an outcropping on the edge of the crater. He dropped into the pit, gripping his line in one fist. He lit his lightsaber as he descended, scanning the ground for enemies, creatures, anything at all. His hearts stuttered as the red light caught the sheen of blood in her clothes and on her skin. It was dried and caked black on her fingers. He dropped to the ground and ran to her, his senses prickling at the feeling of that pull disappearing from the Force. What had led him here? He held his lightsaber high and gripped her shoulder, shaking her roughly.
“Saifi. Saifi!” He prodded her mind in the Force. She jolted, screaming in a rough throat, pushing back against him even as she flinched back at pain in her body. “Hush, child, it’s only me. It’s me.”
“Maul?” She barely breathed, her voice gone. He scanned over her body, noting the way she held her arm against her chest. Her breath shuddered. The yawning fear closed around his throat and squeezed in his chest. He breathed and steadied himself. There was no room for panic.
“Yes. Can you stand?”
She shook her head, the bright gleam in her eyes turning to the shine of tears. Her relieved smile crumbled into sobs.
“Taba.” She choked.
He couldn’t speak, for the tightness in his own throat prevented the words. Had she feared he wouldn’t come?
His hands slid under her, but she flinched. She whimpered. He hesitated, looking her over. He had to carry her somehow, but he wasn’t sure where her injuries were. He felt around her head, searching for a wound he suspected and found blood caked on the back of her skull. He didn’t dare tip her over his shoulder. Taking her shoulders gingerly, he lifted her up. He steadied her with one hand and maneuvered her legs with the other. He knelt between her knees, turning his back to her.
“Hold onto me.” He said.
Her small arm draped over his shoulder and gripped his shirt until he heard a stitch pop. He hiked her legs over his hips and squeezed until she crossed her ankles with a muffled cry. Returning to the ropes, he tested their hold before hauling them upwards. Saifi gasped into his neck, gripping him tighter.
“I have you.” He muttered into the arm around his neck. She was shivering. He had to bring her out of this place, had to see her eyes, to know she was alright, that he hadn’t lost her to her own fear. “Saifi. Listen to me. I would not have abandoned you.”
“You said—”
“Listen to me now. Do you understand what it means when the Mandalorians call you their foundling?” She nodded against his neck. “Do you understand that I am the one who found you?” He grunted as he pulled them further upwards. “I am your keeper. I have no clan left. The Sith took everything from me and will take more still if I do not defend it. You are…” He hauled them over the edge, panting as he fell onto his hands and knees, cinching Saifi closer before standing.
“You are my clan now. I will not abandon you. Do not doubt that.”
She sniffled. She loosened her grip on his shirt, her hand wrapping gingerly around one his horns. He flinched, but allowed her to hold on. Vaguely, a memory came to him of a panic that sometimes overtook him, of Savage’s softened voice, the low tones of a song he didn’t know, a patience that lingered protectively until he could face reality again. He had always hated those moments. All he could do now was try to cherish them, for his brother’s sake. Gently, he pushed the feeling of that memory to Saifi, feeling her relax slightly against his back.
“Like a tābir ?” She asked.
He huffed. “Yes. Yes, I suppose that does make me your tābir , doesn’t it?”
She nodded against his shoulder. “What’s daughter?”
He tipped his head so he could look over his shoulder at her. She met his gaze steadily.
“Fata,” he answered.
“You don’t have any family either, do you?”
“I have you. You are more than I can manage.”
She giggled into his shoulder. “I’m not that bad.”
And oh, how she sounded like Khara just then. Something about it warmed him, melted some of the icy fear in his veins. “No,” he said, “you’re worse.”
She laughed, wincing when it tugged on her wounds. He shifted her higher on his back and let her rest her head on his shoulder.
“I got one.” She mumbled later.
“One what?”
“A crystal. I think.” The hand she had tucked between them, unmoving, was cinched into a tight fist, holding something. “Also, there was a monster down there. But I think I made friends with it. Also there’s things on my back and they hurt. I think they’re trying to eat me. Also, I remembered—”
“Hush.” He breathed out slowly, willing his hearts to calm down. “Let’s get to the ship first.” She was feverish and cold, drenched in sweat and bile and blood. He couldn’t be sure how coherent she was. Her breaths started to turn shallow and her body slumped heavily onto him.
“Saifi, stay awake.” She groaned. “Stay awake.”
They reached the ship. Sand had washed into the hold. Maul’s legs whirred and clicked on the metal, gears clicking from the sand in them. He focused on getting Saifi to the cramped medbay. He sat her down as gently as possible, holding her up. She gripped his shirt with her good arm, staring blearily up at him. Her pupils were the same size, but he suspected a concussion anyway.
“Tell me what is injured.” She shrugged her left shoulder, the arm hanging limply at her side. Then she nodded to her left leg. Blood was dried on both limbs. Ugly bruising covered her arm. “Clearly. What else.”
She swallowed, her eyes widening. He frowned. Saifi breathed shallowly and blinked away tears.
“My back,” she whispered.
There’s things on my back and they hurt. I think they’re trying to eat me.
He reached for the scissors and cut her tattered shirt away. He turned the lights up, swallowing back disgust at the slimy black leeches huddled on her back. They writhed under the light, jolting as they pulled on her skin. Saifi gasped, gripping him harder.
“Stay still,” he growled, igniting one side of his saber. He wouldn’t wait to cut them out carefully. She gripped his arm and buried her face in his chest. He burned the things off with one careful sweep. They fell away, their grip loosening and dropping from her. A sharp, sulfurous smell filled the cabin. Saifi gasped with relief, slumping against him. Her skin was bloody and puckered, a thick yellow discharge flowing from the wound.
He pulled away, gathering bacta patches and a shot, a handful of bandages. Jamming the bacta shot in her arm, he let her continue to lean against him as he cleaned her back meticulously. He carried her to the fresher and ran water over her skin until the blood ran clean before bringing her back to the sharp lights of the cramped medbay. He pressed compresses to them, wrapping bandages to keep them in place. Moving away, he tipped her chin up until she met his gaze, her eyes hazy and unfocused. He tapped her cheek.
“This will hurt.” He warned. She nodded, dazed. He gripped her arm, feeling the break and setting it as efficiently as possible. She grunted, swallowing a cry before a low keen made her bow forward. He wrapped it in a bacta cast and bound it against her chest, letting her keep whatever was in her hand hidden. He moved to her leg, setting and binding it stiffly with another bacta cast.
By the time he was done treating the wounds on her back and bandaging the cut on her head, she was asleep. He woke her long enough to make sure she had water. When she fell asleep again, Maul took a seat beside her. He pulled out another flask of water and settled in for the night. They wouldn’t move until he was sure her concussion wasn’t serious and her wounds weren’t festering.
You are my clan now.
He wasn’t sure what made him say that. But he wouldn’t take it back. Saifi was his to teach and protect. She would carry on his legacy when his time was done.
Saifi’s little hand relaxed, her palm opening slightly. A crystal glowed faintly in the center. His breath caught. She wasn’t delirious at all. He grinned. Deep in his hearts, where the memory of Savage watched on, something like pride rumbled.