Chapters weren't uploaded in the correct order. So I had to repost everything --'
---------------------------
The first thing Saryn saw when he entered the academy's main hall was a colossal black stone obelisk at the center of the room, its surface carved with ancient Sith runes that pulsed faintly with crimson light.
The stone itself pulsed with power. Light itself seemed to bend in front of it, being quietly distorted by the weight of the dark side of the Force.
Siths and Acolytes were everywhere in the main hall, going about their business.
The Sith Academy was, after all, still a school, albeit a very violent and efficient one, where Overseer and Sith Masters taught the future pillars of the Empire.
Aside from the wandering Acolytes and Siths, there were also some Imperial Royal Guards whose job was to point the way for newly arrived Acolytes.
Saryn approached one of those people directly.
"I'm looking for Overseer Rance's office." Saryn didn't beat around the bush. He had already wasted too much time.
"Second Floor, Left Hallway, Office 02-16." The Imperial Royal Guard also replied curtly in a cold monotone voice.
Those men were representatives of the Emperor. So they only had to show respect to the Dark Lords and a few Lords.
Having received the direction, Saryn departed toward the office.
He climbed the metallic stairs up to the second floor, passing a few acolytes on the way, and quickly found the left hallway.
A bunch of Acolytes were there.
'The offices of most Overseers are probably located on the second floor.' Saryn deduced.
After walking until he reached the middle of the hallway, Saryn stopped before one of the doors.
"Office 02-16. Here it is." Not wasting any time, he directly entered the Office to report his arrival.
When he entered, none of the other acolytes who arrived on Korriban with him were present.
The office was relatively simple.
Most of the furniture appeared to be made of durasteel or some type of blackstone often found in Sith Chambers.
Saryn had seen such a setup in his father's office back on Dromund Kaas.
The only exception to the room's simplicity was a small Sith Obelisk in the left corner.
It was pulsing with a low red hue and, from what Saryn could feel, it was in rhythm with the ambient power of the dark side, like a heart that breathed in sync with its surroundings.
In front of said monolith, Overseer Rance was meditating, letting his passion guide the force throughout his body.
"Overseer, I have arrived as instructed," Saryn informed as his eyes locked on the back of the Overseer.
The Overseer seemed to rise from his meditation when he heard his voice, and he turned around, clasping his hands behind his back.
"You've made it, Acolyte."
"From what I've heard, you haven't been wasting time in the tomb of Ajuntal Pall."
"It is quite rare to hear that old man, Spindral, praise someone as much as he praised you. Congratulations." Overseer Rance continued.
"I wouldn't have left Dromund Kaas if I didn't think I was able to handle everything this academy has to offer, Overseer."
"It would have been a disgrace if I couldn't even do something as simple as the Trial of Blood of the Sacrificial Chamber," Saryn smirked.
"Indeed. At the end of the day, the acolytes who remain close to Spindral are nothing but rejects who didn't even manage to pass their trials." With a nod, Overseer Rance quietly agreed with what Saryn had just said.
"From the moment I saw you as you landed on Korriban, I knew you were exceptional." Overseer Rance praised.
"And, you arrived at a perfect time, one of the powerful Lords here on Korriban is looking for an Apprentice. She is the reason why your batch was brought to Korriban."
"I will help you become the Apprentice of Lord Zhorrid to the best of my ability." Overseer Rance looked seriously at Saryn.
"What do you gain from doing that, Overseer?" Saryn eyed the middle-aged man in front of him.
He knew better than to trust the Overseer who had been playing politics on Korriban for decades. He wanted to understand what game Rance was playing.
"A good question, Acolyte. Always remember to be cautious when others do you favors." The Overseer nodded with appreciation.
The large man turned back toward the monolith and continued.
"To answer your question, we need to dig a bit deeper into the way things work at the Academy. "
"The Academy is the only place authorized to administer the trials necessary for an Acolyte to become a Sith."
"Once an Acolyte passes their trials, two paths open for them going forward."
"The first and most desired of those paths is to be noticed by one of the Lords and to become their Apprentice."
"It is a shortcut to power because if the Master rises, the Apprentice follows."
"It is also the only path where an Acolyte is directly put into a position of power and authority the moment they graduate."
"Another path is to become one of the common Sith. An Overseer, an Assassin, an Inquisitor, or any kind of Sith under the commands of the different Spheres of Influence."
"Though this path is not as desirable as the first one, it is still relatively good, and promotion mostly depends on how successful you are in your tasks."
"Well, the Sith that follow this path may never successfully become Lords, but they will still have some authority after having accomplished a few things."
"For example, I followed this path once I passed my trial decades ago."
"Now that I have explained all of this, you should have understood why I need you to become an Apprentice." Overseer Rance finished his explanations.
"You want me to rise through the ranks to make you a Lord?" Saryn observed the man sharply.
It was something he could do for sure once he achieved authority in the future, but he doubted things were that simple.
"You are correct, once again. Your blood is pure, and you are powerful in the Force. It would be nonsense to let someone of your qualification rot in the Academy." Overseer Rance nodded.
Saryn observed the man with a frown for a few moments, then made his decision.
"I'll accept that deal."
"You'd better give it your all, Rance, because I can become the Apprentice of a Lord with or without you."
"Never forget that you need me more than I need you. It is the only chance I will give you." Saryn knew the Overseer had probably kept a few things hidden, but he didn't care.
He would use the Overseer just as much as the Overseer would use him.
That was, after all, the way of the Sith.
"Excellent."
"We will need to get to work soon, but you are dismissed until tomorrow."
"We still need to wait for the other Acolytes to arrive." Rance turned around, but this time, a smile was on his face.
"I took the liberty of getting you an individual room," Rance informed while handing Saryn a metallic card.
"I will see you tomorrow, Acolyte." With that said, Rance went back to his meditation in front of the small Monolith.
Saryn turned around and left the office. He had nothing to say to the Overseer anymore.
'Room 06-22?' When Saryn exited the office, he directly took out the card and checked the room number.
'Up it is then.'
A few moments later, Saryn was back in the Central Hall of the Sith Academy, and he saw someone he hadn't expected to see again so soon.
A female human with long blonde hair and green eyes.
"You are...?"
"You're already here?" The woman was precisely the one who had tried to pull him into the group of Acolytes back at the landing pad.
"Would you look at that? Turns out you do indeed have some potential, woman." Saryn's eyes focused on hers, and he sneered.
A look of anger flashed through her eyes, which she quickly hid, restoring the air of innocence that she always seemed to display.
But Saryn would never miss such a thing.
His smile grew even more.
"Tsk." The woman, realizing that Saryn had seen through her disguised expression, couldn't help but make an annoyed sound and directly ignored him, departing toward the Office of the Overseer.
"Hahahaha! Looks like I underestimate you." Saryn also continued on his way, leaving with a resounding laughter.
Saryn kept climbing the stairs through the floor until he reached the sixth.
Here, his room was the second on the right in the hallway.
The room was simple. A single bed, a private bathroom, and a wardrobe. Everything was made of durasteel, like most of the Empire's infrastructure.
The first thing Saryn did was to take a shower. He had been covered in blood, dust, and sand on the way here, so he couldn't wait to clean himself.
Saryn also saw that some clothes had been prepared for him in the wardrobe.
Grey and dark red. Those were the usual clothes worn by acolytes around the Academy.
Having taken a shower and put on new clothes, Saryn exited the room to explore the Sith Academy.
He wanted to check out the Archives to see what he could access, in case he could find something House Seake didn't have.
The Sith Archives was located in its own designated area on the ground floor of the main hall.
Once he arrived, Saryn saw a place filled with row upon row of datapads and holocrons.
From a quick observation, he found that Acolytes could only access the library's central area. Two Sith Ravagers guarded both right and left wings.
Saryn quickly approached one of the shelves and began looking at the displayed content.
'History of the Empire, The Dark Lords Throughout History, A Study on Ajunta Pall…I already read all of those at home.' Having finished looking over the first shelf of general knowledge, he went on to the next.
'An Introduction to Sith Alchemy?! Now, that is interesting.' Saryn directly took the Datapad and sent a copy of its content to the personal datapad he found in his bedroom.
He then kept on looking for knowledge for the next three hours.
"The knowledge accessible to Acolytes is really limited…" Saryn couldn't help but sigh. Nearly everything he found in the archives, he had already read at home.
During those three hours, he had only found two datapads with information he hadn't read before and one holocron.
'An Introduction to Sith Alchemy, Record of the Great Rituals… I guess it's better than nothing.' Those records were indeed things he had never read before.
'But the most interesting thing is this Holocron!' Looking at the holocron he had borrowed from the Archives, Saryn couldn't help but smile.
This holocron recorded ways to use one's passion to bend the force to one's will.
To most Acolytes, this holocron would be meaningless, as they used their Anger or Hatred to fuel their passion to empower themselves, but Saryn was fond of such esoteric information.
He could already use any emotion he wanted to feed his passion, so he didn't take this holocron for that.
What he wanted were the detailed experiences of the person who recorded the Holocron.
He wanted to see how others used their emotions and passion to gain more power, to see if he could grasp something new from it.
Saryn went back to his room and began looking through the information he sent over on his datapad.
"Sith Alchemy really is an incredible art!" Saryn had, of course, heard of it back when he was still in Kaas City.
But because his father showed little interest in the discipline, he hadn't managed to find a single datapad or even a holocron with information about it at home.
But now that he was introduced to this art, he couldn't help but be deeply attracted to it.
'Alchemy has the power to reshape the world.'
'If one manages to go far enough on the path of Sith Alchemy, maybe one could even transform someone born ordinary into a force-sensitive individual!'
'This would be the work surpassing anything achieved in the galaxy's entire history… Well, except maybe back when the Rakata were still around.'
After having read the information on Sith Alchemy, Saryn couldn't help but be disappointed.
The information recorded in An Introduction to Sith Alchemy was, as its title suggested, merely an introduction. There was nothing about how actually to practice the art itself.
"Let me check the information I got from the other datapad, then." With that said, Saryn directly opened the file he copied from the datapad, titled" Record of the Great Rituals".
The information was divided into ten chapters, each recording one of the greatest Sith Rituals ever used.
'Chapter One: The Ritual of the Dark Side's Army…' Saryn began to read.