'I told you to wait in the speeder,' she said, descending the stairs and closing the mansion door.
'I was bored,' he answered with a shrug, taking another sip of wine before changing topics. 'Looks like that confrontation you were expecting isn't going to happen after all. I guess you're the new Sith Master by default.'
'It doesn't work that way,' Zannah muttered. 'Besides, Darth Bane's still alive. If he was dead I would have felt it.'
'Somehow I was afraid you'd say that,' he said, bending forward to grab the wine bottle and refill his empty glass. 'Any idea who might have done this?'
'None of our enemies even knows the Sith still exist,' Zannah reminded him.
'I get the feeling there's something you're not telling me,' Set noted. A second later he added, 'Master.'
'Bane just arrived back on Ciutric tonight.' She saw no reason not to tell him what she had learned. 'And Chet told me an unidentified drop ship touched down near the estate a short time before he arrived.'
'You think the two are related?'
'I don't believe in coincidence,' she replied. After a moment she decided to come clean with Set. 'I think Bane might have sent me to Doan just to get me out of the way for a while. I think he was actually interested in something completely unrelated.'
'Don't be so sure,' Set replied, holding up what appeared to be a small blue button.
'Where did you find that?'
'Wedged into the wreckage of what used to be a couch over there in the corner,' he replied, tossing it to her.
She reached out with one hand, easily snatching it from the air. A splash of dried blood was smeared across the surface, partially obscuring the gold insignia.
'That's the symbol of the Doan Royal House,' Set told her as she studied the button.
'Doan?' Zannah was more confused than ever. 'Why would someone from Doan come here? How would they even find us?'
Set shrugged. 'You're the Master. You tell me.'
Zannah didn't answer right away. Chewing on her lower lip, she analyzed the situation carefully, examining it from every angle. There were still too many unknowns for her to come up with a perfect plan, but she knew what had to be done.
'We need to go to Doan.'
'Hold on a second,' Set protested, holding up his hands. 'Are you sure you want to do that? I mean, even if your Master's still alive it looks to me like he's probably a prisoner.'
'Yes:a prisoner on Doan.'
'So, what? We're going to rescue him just so you can try and kill him yourself?'
That would be in accordance with the Rule of Two, Zannah thought. But there were other, more practical, reasons to go.
'My Master is smart, powerful, and cunning. He's too dangerous to ignore. If they're holding him prisoner, he might find a way to escape. If he does, he will come after me:but it will be at a time and place of his choosing, not mine.
'Even if he never escapes, it's likely whoever took him will interrogate him for information. He may reveal something that exposes my existence to the Jedi:or some other enemy. I'm not willing to take that chance.
'Plus, I want to know who attacked him, and why. And if they did capture him, I want to know how they did it. What tactics did they use to bring down such a formidable opponent, and how can I make sure it never happens to me?'
'So this is all about you tying up loose ends?'
She heard reluctance in his voice-the same reluctance she'd sensed when she'd first offered to take him on as her apprentice. Set had spent much of his life running from problems rather than solving them. She knew he'd rather avoid his enemies than seek a way to destroy them. In time, she would cure him of this. As his Master, she would teach him the ways of the Sith.
For now, however, she simply needed his help.
'I have to go meet with someone,' she said, remembering that Chet had told her Bane had met with Argel Tenn only a few days before all this had begun. It was possible the collector had found some interesting Sith manuscript that had prompted Bane to leave Ciutric.
'Am I coming with you?'
Zannah shook her head. 'You need to find out everything you can about Doan. If the royal family was involved, where would they take my Master? And how can we find him?'
Set gave a dissatisfied snort. 'So now I'm a glorified librarian?'
'Meet me back here in two days,' Zannah said, ignoring his complaint. 'By then I'll have figured out what to do next.'
When Zannah returned to the mansion after meeting with Argel Tenn, she was mildly surprised to find Set there waiting for her. She had half expected him not to show up. The mission she had sent him on had been important, but it had also been a test of his commitment. If he was having second thoughts about becoming her apprentice, sending him away would have given him the perfect opportunity to try to disappear. The fact that he had come back was a sign that maybe he was a suitable choice after all.
She was relieved to see that things seemed to be improving with Set, because her meeting with Argel Tenn had not gone well. At first he had refused to discuss his business with Bane, claiming discretion was the cornerstone of his business. Zannah had done her best to persuade him to make an exception through nonviolent means; she knew Argel had access to rare Sith manuscripts, and she didn't want to throwaway a potentially valuable resource.
However, much to her dismay, he had shown a surprising integrity when it came to protecting his clients' confidentiality. In the end she'd had to turn to less pleasant methods to make him talk. Of course, by resorting to brutal interrogation she had revealed herself as something more than just an interested collector, and after that she couldn't leave him alive.
The risk of Argel telling someone about her was too great; the information might make it back to the Jedi and cause them to investigate. Above all else it was critical that the Sith remained hidden, so Zannah was left with no choice but to eliminate Argel.
The real tragedy was that she never did manage to get anything more than a single name out of him: Darth Andeddu. Argel hadn't known why Bane was interested in this particular Sith Lord, and without more to go on Zannah was stuck.
'Welcome back, Master,' Set said by way of greeting. 'You'll be happy to hear that I've learned everything one could possibly ever want to know about a miserable little pit of a world like Doan.'
'Too bad I didn't send you to find out about Darth Andeddu,' she muttered, letting her frustrations boil up to the surface.
'Did you say Andeddu?' Set asked, obviously startled. 'The immortal God-King of Prakith?'
Zannah's jaw nearly hit the floor. 'You've heard of him?'
'Ah, so now I have something to teach you,' Set said with a grin, recovering from his initial surprise. 'Does that make me the Master?'
Zannah was in no mood for his jokes. 'Tell me what you know about Andeddu.' To his credit, Set picked up on her tone and took on a more serious demeanor.
'My last few years with the Jedi were spent serving under an Ithorian Master named Obba,' he explained.
'I've heard of him. He's on the Council of First Knowledge.'
Ever since their battle against the Jedi on Tython, Bane had insisted they both know the name and reputation of every Master in the Order.
Set raised one eyebrow. 'Impressive.'
'Consider that your first lesson. Know your enemy as well as you know yourself.'
'Noted. May I continue?' Zannah nodded.
