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“Then go!” Bane spat. “Join the others on Ruusan. Be united with them in their defeat.”

He turned and stormed angrily away as she called out “Wait, Bane. Wait!”

If she had made any move to follow him, he might have.

Bane kicked open the door to Qordis’s chamber; it slammed against the wall with a crash that reverberated down the hall. The Academy’s Master had been awake and already dressed, meditating on the mat in the center of his room. Now he leapt to his feet, anger darkening his face.

“What is the meaning of this?”

“Did you send Sirak to kill me?” Bane blurted out. The time for subtlety was gone.

“What? I … did something happen to Sirak?”

“I killed him. Yevra and Llokay, too. Their bodies are in the archives.”

The shock and horror of his reaction made it clear that Qordis had known nothing about the attack. “You did this on the eve of our departure for Ruusan?” he asked, his voice rising shrilly.

A few of the other Masters had gathered in the corridor outside, drawn by Bane’s loud arrival. A handful of the students, as well. Bane didn’t care.

“You can go to Ruusan,” Bane snapped. “I will have nothing to do with the Brotherhood of Darkness.”

“You are a student of this Academy,” Qordis reminded him. “You will do as you are told!”

“I am a Dark Lord of the Sith,” Bane countered. “I serve no one but myself.”

Glancing over Bane’s shoulder at the gathering crowd of curious onlookers, Qordis dropped his voice to a threatening whisper. “We leave for Ruusan tomorrow, Lord Bane. You will be coming with us. This is not a matter for discussion.”

“I am leaving tonight,” Bane replied, lowering his voice to match and mock the tone of Qordis’s own. “And none of you here is strong enough to stop me.”

He turned his back on the head of the Academy and walked slowly from the room. For a brief second he felt the spurned Master gathering the Force, and Bane braced himself for a confrontation. But a second later he felt the power fading away.

At the threshold he halted. When he spoke, he was addressing the assembled gawkers as much as Qordis.

“Someone here once told me the Darth title was no longer used because it promoted rivalry among the Sith. It gave the Jedi an easy target. It was easier just to abandon the custom. To have all the Sith Masters use the same title of Dark Lord.”

He raised his voice slightly, speaking loud enough for all to hear. “But I know the truth, Qordis. I know why none of you claims that name for yourself. Fear. You’re cowards.”

He half turned and looked back at Qordis. “None of the Brotherhood is worthy of the Darth title. Least of all you.”

There was a gasp from the assemblage. Some of the students stepped back, expecting some type of reaction. Of course there was none.

Shaking his head in disgust, Bane left them there. As he passed the other Masters, Kas’im stepped in front of him, placing a hand on his chest.

“Don’t go,” the Blademaster said. “Let’s talk about this. If you just meet with Kaan you’ll understand. That’s all I ask, Bane.”

“It’s Darth Bane,” he said, slapping the Twi’lek’s hand away and pushing past him.

Nobody else tried to stop him as he made his way through the temple’s halls. Nobody tried to follow him or even called out as he mounted the stairs to the small landing pad on the roof.

There was only a single ship at the starport: the Valcyn, a T-class long-range personal cruiser. The blade-shaped vessel was one of the finest in the Sith fleet, equipped with the latest and most advanced technology. It had arrived just the day before: a gift from Kaan to Qordis, in recognition of his work with the apprentices at the Academy.

Bane lowered the access hatch and climbed inside. During his stint in the military he’d been given rudimentary training in the basics of piloting a standard hyperdrive vessel. Fortunately, the Valcyn’s controls matched all intergalactic standards of operation and were designed for ease of use. He sat himself down in the pilot’s chair and fired up the thrusters, punching in the hyperspace coordinates of his destination even as he