A blunt sword would have smashed against my face had I not moved my head to the side, narrowly avoiding the strike before countering with several strikes aimed at various parts of Selene's body. Each strike she blocked with her single sword with such grace and precision that no living thing should possess. She didn’t block so much as she redirected the force behind the blows.

Each strike was turned away like the water crashing upon rocks in a stormy sea. Finding a gap between my strikes like a serpent would find an opening against a rodent she exploited it mercilessly my strikes now aborted bringing one of my swords up to block and use the other to try and hit her out of desperation.

Only for her to further force me on the defensive as the force of me blocking her strike was used to fuel her next strike and the next, each successive blow getting faster and faster the momentum building up over time. The temptation to use my bullet time like when training for the first month with her daughters and those that served her house to make it far easier to beat them sprung up again but was swiftly ignored.

It could help and maybe would lead me to victory but I needed to get better. Using a shortcut like bullet time to do that would undercut my training in the first place… and use up far too much stamina. If anything it would be used for having more time to observe their bodies.

I still only occasionally can read their body movements but it’s becoming more often now than it had at the beginning.

Like I had done with Celeste I was now showing much better reading skills. Each muscle along her form was trying to tell me something but most of it was white noise to me. Our bodies were covered with a sheen of sweat clothes oddly dry with the outfits being breathable. 

A slash brought me out of my musing that almost hit my temple had I not blocked it just in time.

“You are getting distracted. I suppose I should increase the difficulty if you are finding me lacking as I am now!” She said with a manic grin each of her strikes became far faster. She moved circles around me while I focused solely on defending from her strikes with several slipping past my defense. Each one made me grunt when it landed and as time went on I began to do worse.

Eventually yielding having had enough when one attack had far more power than all the others so far knocked me on my back. Selene stood before me, I breathed heavily while her chest breathed enough showing the labor of the fight it was mild, like the kind you would get from a leisurely walk. 

I still found this to be a waste of time. As insane as it sounds I think I now understand why Sidious viewed lightsaber combat beneath him. Why resort to killing someone with it when you could simply plot their demise by having some people employed by you deal with them for you?

As cool as it is to do lightsaber kung fu, do I need to do it? No. 

My feelings on the matter still have not changed. The only reason I am even doing this was to take down House Atrix without angering the Hutts and having my plans not get slowed down because of this going horribly wrong. 

The lightsaber I had enchanted with a soul trap to ensure I had something to aid me in the long term was only meant to be something to help me contain the souls of those killed with it as a source of enchanting. That and I simply wanted a lightsaber because of how cool they are. Not as a main weapon to use in a fight. Something that in some ways I may come to regret making.

I knew full well that when I created it it had to have done something in the force since that blast that knocked me back had to have done more than just that. If it was able to physically knock me back, what had it done spiritually that I couldn’t sense?

Selene and I took a break from that several-hour-long training and sparring session. I decided to break the silence as we walked along the hallways of her family's manor, “I am curious about something.”

She side-eyed me, “I may have an answer.”

“Why is it that your people have become so isolationist? I know just enough about galactic history to know your people had helped the Republic greatly in the past great wars and conflicts. So why retreat to your home system and have nothing to do with the rest of the galaxy? Your people should hold a great position in the Senate with your people’s legacy and contributions.”

She remained silent for a moment as we passed several guards and the decorations I always enjoy seeing. Like walking through a museum and seeing the weapons and armor of the greatest warriors and badasses who ever lived.

“Our ancestors had come to the decision after the Ruusan Reformations that it was best to do so. Yes, we had helped greatly considering the Mandalorians still held onto their rivalry with us Echani even before the New Sith Wars, but it had come at no small cost to our people. They had felt it was time for us to stay in our home system and leave the rest of the galaxy to their devices and only step in when we collectively felt whatever conflict had appeared would drag us into it and needed to be dealt with.”

“Rather surprised that a martially inclined species like yours would even consider simply hiding away in your home.”

“Corvo be careful with what you say, I am willing to let it slide but the rest of my people would take great offense to what you just said.” She admonished me and simultaneously gave me some good advice before coming to an abrupt halt and giving me a piercing gaze.

Stopping right beside her and looking back into her eyes not intimidated in the slightest. “Then what would you call it?” 

“Rebuilding and recuperating. The cities across our world have grown beyond what they were at the height of the Old Republic. We may not be the same back then but have found a way to compromise the old ways with the future. Something the Mandalorians have failed miserably at themselves.” She walked ahead of me a sway in her step but for once my gaze was focused on the conversation as I moved to catch up to her.

“The New Sith Wars were that bad for your people?” 

Her head slowly looked over to a painting of what looked like a battle between Jedi and Sith on a plain filled with blood, death, and fire. Lots of fire.

“Keep in mind that war was so bad that it brought the galaxy back to the past. Ships with capable hyperdrives and the vast array of great and terrible weapons of that era were myths to the people at the end of the war. They had started with great ships and weapons that made what we have now pale in comparison. To then only have simple swords and spears near the end of it. My people had suffered heavily and only now are we finally moving beyond the height of our ancestors before that dreaded war. So does that answer your question?” She said stiffly with for once what sounds like forced politeness. Like ripping off a bandaid and upsetting an old and terrible wound.

Feeling like I just stuck my foot in my mouth knowing I needed to make this right, “Apologies Selene. I had learned at a young age to never hide away and to face what you fear. I had misinterpreted your people's reasoning. I ask for your forgiveness.” 

She stopped and slowly turned to face me, her face a blank mask before a small smile greeted me. “Your apology is accepted. We have suspected you were fearful of facing House Atrix but despite that, I still had chosen you to represent my family since you were more than willing to fight them on a battlefield where they held the advantage. Something I highly respect and approve of.”

She said as I bristled at the mention of them reminding me they can read me like an open book but unlike before when I first arrived I picked up as best as I can how to hide my body language just enough to make it hard to read me. Selene does not mention nor does she tease me about getting indignant about how they had known so either I managed to hide it just enough so she didn’t fully pick up on it or she just doesn’t say anything out of politeness.

Hard to say with her. “I wish to show you something, Corvo. Please follow me.” She told me with curiosity getting the better of me. Besides the occasional small talk, we simply trained and sparred. If not Selene it was with Serleena and Selene’s daughters with those that serve her family.

We walked along the beautiful house before coming across a random door and as we stepped inside my breath was taken away. On a massive display, a kaleidoscope of colors greeted me. Light reflected out of them painting the room in reds, blues, greens, blacks, and many other colors.

What looked like a model of a battlefield between Mandalorians and Echani with some pieces holding what looked like lightsabers of different colors from the main bodies. Each of the figures was made of what appeared to be all the rare gems I had sold to them when I first got here. The light coming from the windows reflected out of each of the figures.

It is a beautiful and mesmerizing sight laid before me. Now this is art I can get behind! I stepped closer Selene quietly smiled as I looked over the model. Noting that one side's lightsabers are all red so some battle from the ancient past. One figure standing on a large hill overlooking the battle drew my gaze. 

Walking around the display and seeing a robed figure with no lightsaber on display, arms held behind them in an oddly similar manner to Darkside from Justice League with another figure behind them. Unlike the robed one, this one wears armor with a weirdly oversized lower jaw. Looking at the finer details it almost came off as an implant of some kind like Baron Underbheit from Venture Brothers.

But the robed figure once more drew my gaze. Their mask reminded me of the Mandalorians with that T-shaped visor. No idea who he was since I never knew anything about the Old Republic events besides a few names.

“Well done Selene. I will admit to thinking you were going to do something gaudy with the gems.” 

Instead of getting offended she merely chuckled, stepping closer to the large display looking down at it in pride. “Nothing of the sort. It’s something I have wanted to do for some time but lacked the necessary idea of what most of the figures should be made of. That is until Serleena met you and purchased them in my stead.”

“Who are these two?” I am curious about who they are. I know I have seen that mask somewhere before with that figure.

“You don’t know who Revan is?” She said looking surprised.

“No. I don’t. I know I have heard the name before but I know nothing about them.” I said not taking my eyes off the rather detailed carving of the mask that was made from a ruby while the body was that of onyx and giving Selene my partial attention.

“Revan the Prodigal Knight. He was a Jedi and a Sith from the Old Republic. Long before the New Sith Wars. I suppose not everyone interested in the history of that era would remember him but even a passing glance at galactic history and you would see his name. The one who chose to stand up and meet the Mandalorians who were slaughtering so many people in the galaxy and the rest of the Jedi of the time refused to stop them.” 

The more she spoke of him the more passionate she became. It’s odd. She is usually more reserved but here she is becoming more excited as she talked of Revan.

“If it wasn’t for Revan the Mandalorians would not have been stopped. Eventually, he became a Sith Lord that the Jedi would one day stop before he would redeem himself and save the galaxy. He had not only managed to beat the Mandalorians but even defeated my people. Not an easy feat yet it showed just how gifted he was.” She trailed off staring intently at the figure.

“So you respected him as a warrior?”

“That is part of it. The other reason being his tactics and the fact he had helped both my people and the Mandalorians rise higher than we had before. He always came off as being several steps ahead of his enemies, plans within plans within plans. So many layers and no one but him knew what they were and how they would give him victory. A good example is when he broke the Mandalorians at the battle of Malachor V. It is also where he sent many Jedi to die who were not loyal to him or a threat. It was at that time he had long since fallen.”

I was surprised at the mention of the name Malachor. That’s where the name came from. One of my friends in school at one point would not stop talking about a Star Wars game that had come out at that time called Knights of The Old Republic. That is where I heard about Revan and Malachor but never paid much attention since I was thinking about other things and only half listening.

Now I wished I had fully paid attention and remembered it all now. Hard to say if it would have proven useful since it had to have been well over a thousand years ago. By now anything of use is probably destroyed either by the conflicts that came after or lost to the ravages of time.

“I see. Rather surprised you made something like this to honor him.” I said looking over the other figurines made from the gems. Each had absurd levels of detail even the simple troopers with their blasters in hand were not left out.

“Most sentients don’t even know of him besides historians or those that he would be relevant to. But for me and my people much like the Mandalorians, we hold him in high regard. Even if he managed to bring our ancestors to their knees, crippling our people after the Mandalorians had been stopped he also had a hand in giving each of our people a way to rebuild themselves better than they were before.”

My head snapped up to look at her and she looked back at me knowing my thoughts. 

“Corvo not many in the galaxy had managed to not only beat the Mandalorians but to also beat my people and the Jedi. That is something that as a warrior one can respect. It is well earned even if it came at the cost of my ancestors.”

“Fair enough. Got to respect someone who can do all of that. I have to praise whoever you had who carved these. These are incredibly detailed!”

She smiled smugly back at me, “Thank you, Corvo. I will have to let the artist know of your praises. They and I both wish to know, where did you get all of those gems?”

“I just found them.” I shrug at her and see a look of disbelief on her face which was only made worse when she saw I was telling the truth. I may have gotten much better at masking my inner thoughts through my body so that they can’t read me as easily but not enough to fully hide something from them. 

Echani martial arts were ridiculous, which is why I respected Revan that much more if he was able to beat them as he did back when they must have been a force to be reckoned with compared to how they are now. That’s something hard to stomach. That Selene and her people now were weak compared to what came before.

“You're serious?”

“Yeah. If you want a few more I am more than happy to sell them to you?” My question made her tilt her head at me and I had to fight not to laugh because it reminded me of that teacher from the rainforest episode of South Park.

Her eyes narrowed at my amusement, “What are you comparing me to?”

“Nothing! Nothing at all!” I said immediately with a smile, chuckling, raising my hands in surrender. 

“Very well. I doubt you will tell me what you were thinking even if I pressed for it.”

“So do you want the gems?”

“Yes I do, but where did you find them? You haven’t set foot out of the manor.”

She wasn’t wrong. If I am ever allowed outside of the manor and that is only on the grounds of the manor when I am in disguise. 

“Found some in my drinks and food I was served.” 

It never got old seeing her stare in disbelief as her ability to read people told her I was telling the truth. “How-”

“So is there anything else you wanted to show me?” I cut her off not even wanting to go down that rabbit hole of having to explain who is putting rubies in my meals or drinks as I almost bite down on them every time. It’s a miracle I haven’t lost a tooth to one of them yet.

She opened and closed her mouth several times as if she was trying to figure out if I had somehow managed to trick her skills or to ask how that even worked when her servants were the ones cooking the meals. It’s just so hard not to laugh. 

She huffed knowing what I am thinking right now before accepting she wasn’t going to be getting any answers. “No. You may enjoy the next two hours at your leisure until the next training session begins.”

Nodding my head to her before walking away to enjoy some nice show that I found. It was a buddy cop series set on Coruscant. It’s getting good now that they had a chance to get back at Norudo the Hutt who had been constantly out of their reach and now they were getting close to putting him behind bars.

Got bored trying to find something to do around here when all of this first started and saw one of the living rooms with a projector and said screw it tried finding something to watch. Then while channel surfing I saw it and sat back and relaxed to the glory that is Staro & Hoop.

Sitting back on the couch the scene unfolded before me. Hoop the glorious Rhodian that he is questioned the traitor to Norudo's criminal enterprise-- a seductive yet tragic Zeltron by the name of Laura Starborn. Staro, his human partner and Laura may have romantic interest in one another but his dedication to being a straight and decent officer of the law on Coruscant won’t budge an inch on criminal activities yet his growing attraction to her has put him in danger far too many times.

So Hoop had kept him out of the questioning for his own protection as he got the answers he needed while ensuring this wasn't a trick or a trap. As I enjoy the drama unfolding before me and the nice eye candy that is the actress portraying Laura Starborn my body is healing at an accelerated rate just as I had done after every training session that pushed me to the limit and beyond.

Something Serleena had clued in on early on when she was the one focused on training me until I had gotten far enough to bring Selene herself to train me one-on-one. I still go through sessions with Serleena, the servants, and daughters of the house but more time is being dedicated to sparring against Selene while she had the time to train me. It was fast and felt rushed yet it didn’t deter me from adapting.

My stamina, strength, and speed have all improved courtesy of my restoration magic. One thing that I have outright refused to abuse throughout my time here training was my bullet time. Simply because it is not going to help and I would only get so far with it. To say it would undermine what is being taught to me was an understatement. It may cost me this mission when it hasn’t exactly worked out when dealing with the Echani in the past when I had battled house Atrix. 

The only time I had used it was when I watched the others spar against one another to try to help me get better at seeing which muscle groups in their bodies would activate, tipping me off on what they were going to do next coupled with my intelligence hoping to get a better grasp of it.

I must commend the Echani on their ability to have such mastery over their bodies. Even with my heightened senses and intelligence with my bullet time in use to give me enough time to observe their bodies and movements they made it exceedingly difficult to even gleam anything off of them when I had first started. I would go so far as to compare it to learning how to drive a car. 

You can read and even watch and observe. You can do those two as much as you want but they will never truly teach you anything until you get behind the wheel yourself. Not that it didn’t help me observe when it did, just not as much as actually getting the living crap kicked out of me in each sparring session in the beginning. 

Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face, indeed Mike Tyson. As time went on I lasted just a little longer each time until on the odd occasion I could briefly get in the zone and read a little of their body language seeing what they were going to do before they did it. The thing was I had made the mistake of overthinking it and instead of learning to read their bodies I instead tried to mind game it.

Take Dead By Daylight for example. Back when I was still playing it as a killer chasing survivors there were times you would try and mindgame someone by figuring out what the options the survivor had to escape you and not get hit. You narrow down the options they have available and either are correct on your assumptions and get the hit or they get away because you made the wrong call. 

The problem with that method against the Echani and their ability to read others’ bodies is that they already know what I am planning and either preemptively stop me or lead me on into what is revealed to be a trap that was several steps ahead of me. 

After learning the first couple of times I instead decided to fight more instinctively if you would. It was only slightly better but in the end, I had still lost with no notable improvement so abandoned that method of fighting as well. I hadn’t given up on it but for now it was on the backburner.

Each time I tried to come up with a shortcut to try and speed it along it got me nowhere while wasting precious time. Serleena had to take me aside for one rather embarrassing session and put it in no uncertain terms. I cannot cut corners when it comes to this. To at least try it her way. Stick to what they told me to do and despite how many times I lose regardless of how badly to continue. That I would see results better than what I am currently trying to do eventually.

I decided to follow her advice since this is her people's martial art they all had trained in since they could first walk so who would know better than her? She was right. I continued to follow the lessons as they were and I did get better. Not as fast as I would have liked but better than what I was doing before. 

One of the downsides of picking up reading people's bodies and seeing their emotions and in a way a glimpse at their inner thoughts was watching shows and movies and having the cool moments that most of everyone else loved ruined for you. 

Those that I had watched before I can’t watch anymore because when I look at the actors portraying their characters where before they seemed decent enough with nothing to write home about for me and the few that were good to me were now meh at best. At worst just simply bad. When I look at them every muscle twitch, posture, and even the slightest movement tells me despite the effort they do put in they don’t care at the end of the day. 

They found what they were doing tedious and were just going through the motions. It made the experience of watching them less because of their lack of care and effort. That in turn shows in the characters they are playing. It’s why the few actors regardless if they were a random side character that gets into the character stand out for me.

It’s why I got into this show. The actors get into character and stay in character giving it their best. It’s depressing this show doesn’t get near the love it should have compared to the trash that everyone else watched. Learning here had opened my eyes on a level I had not realized until channel surfing.

Besides Serleena telling me that I had improved greatly since I had begun this right here was proof enough that I had indeed improved at an absurd rate for an outsider. Apparently, most outsiders besides a few cases in galactic history struggled to even get the first foundations laid in the Echani arts.

 

The few who managed to learn them were either absolute prodigies and even then they didn’t learn all that they could from it and most of the others were force sensitive. So unless you are either of those two and the latter doesn’t guarantee you are going to be amazing with their ways of fighting you are better off just getting good with a blaster.

Watching Hoop and Laura go back and forth as Hoop has had enough of her games. The actors’ bodies convey just how much they were in character they were. There was an occasional slip up but those are rare across the series compared to other better actors.

“Oh Staro & Hoop!” 

Looking over seeing Celeste alongside a few of her sisters taking seats and watching the show with me.

“Oh come on Celeste it’s not that good. You're just saying that because Corvo likes watching it.” One of her sisters teased her.

“If Corvo likes it doesn’t mean I like it because he does. It’s actually a good show and the actors put in far more effort when they play their characters compared to higher paid jokes that think they are better.” She countered back reclining into the couch and enjoyed the show.

“Hey Corvo, what did I miss before this?”

“Laura looks like she has finally turned against Norudo the Hutt and is currently being tested by Hoop if she is legitimate. He couldn’t trust Staro nor would he put him in that situation.”

“About time she joined up with them.”

After that we fall into a companionable silence as we all watched the episode before it ended on a cliffhanger of Hoop and Staro going into a massive warehouse holding many of Norudo's assets and Laura still being held by the police. She was currently facing several of Norudo's men who were staring her down after infiltrating the building.

Shaking my head in annoyance, “I hate cliffhangers. They feel so cheap yet I hate the that I think they are good as well for building up suspense even more.”

“Agreed. I can see now why you two enjoy this show.” One of Celeste’s sisters chimed in having been engrossed in the show.

As we discussed the things we liked in this episode and the other girls wanted to find the previous episodes and watch them, a lot of noise got our attention. The sound of splintering wood and a series of crashes had all of us get up from the couch.

Remembering one of my contingencies that was discussed with Serleena and Selene my form shimmered and changed looking like one of the servants that trained in our sparring sessions as we all moved along the wall with the noises getting louder before several figures surround the large living room covering most of the exits. They stared us all down with weapons hidden in the black and yellow robes covering their forms.

The insignia on the robes told me enough about who they are or work for. The First Sister, the family that had control of Eshan and was the current strongest of the Six Sisters and the Echani people. They also have several amongst their number that do not have an insignia but I note their uniforms are those of law enforcement.

“We are here to search the premises for a fugitive believed to be hiding within this house. We ask that you surrender yourselves and not make this difficult.” A woman stepped forward. Most of them are women with two men in their group.

Some of the girls looked ready to strongly object while I remained calm not wanting to give them any reason to give some form of admission that the fugitive who more than likely was myself is here but Celeste spoke up, “We have no issue with it despite the less than satisfactory way of you entering this household and coming in like common criminals.”

Her comment made them rather unhappy by the subtle creasing of their facial muscles with their postures adjusting followed by the silence that now had filled the room.

The lead woman’s eyes drilled right into Celeste’s but she gave nothing away with that cold mask she had dawned, “It would be wise to be more respectful-”

“You come into a notable family's home on Eshan who happened to be the former head of the Second Sister and do so without so much as knocking on the door and explaining things and instead break into it like common criminals and then say house Solorok is housing a wanted criminal… so please elaborate on how we are currently not being respectful by not attacking what currently appears to be nothing more than thugs breaking into our house?”

The woman is silenced but her glare would freeze hell over a thousand times as the others around her are more tense. They all knew she wasn’t wrong. 

“Now unlike you we will abide by the law. We will step aside and let you do what you came to do,” she stepped aside with each of us following her, letting them move forward to approach our group.

What she said next stopped them, “And you will keep your hands to yourself. Lay one hand on any of us and you will pay dearly.”

The officers and a few of the First Sisters house members froze before looking back at who is now made obvious who was in charge here. The woman merely stood as still as a statue before nodding her head grudgingly.

“You will wait outside while we search the premises.”

At that we all walked out close to one another as no one spoke. To think they would have the First Sisters family force their way in and try to get me.