Oath of Allegiance

[Percy Fleck]

Location: Imperial Palace, Coruscant
​

"Percy Marvolo Fleck"

The guardsman paused for a long moment, his narrow eyes raking the screen in front of him. Normally Percy would have hated waiting for a lowly soldier, but today he was glad for a moment to pause. To breathe.

"Yes, you're on the list sir." the Lieutenant replied, "you're clear to proceed to the antechamber. Please remain there until the stewards call you".

The young Sith nodded in reply and made his way past the barrier and down the hallway. The walls of the Imperial Palace stretched away above him, to a high ceiling far above. The architecture was beautiful; the epitome of everything that civilisation could achieve. There was nothing like it outside the Core and, not for the first time, Percy felt immensely proud to be a Republica citizen.

He reached the end of the corridor, entering a wide antechamber where at least two dozen people waited impatiently for the same thing he did. Percy weaved his way between them, smiling warmly at highborn ladies in sleek cut dresses and smart officers in their pressed uniforms. Nothing but the Imperium's finest were here.

A handsome waiter slipped by and Percy took a glass from his tray against his better judgment. He needed to be on top form.

Across the chamber, a pair of tall ornate doors stood closed, embossed with a gilded Imperial Crest. Beyond, lay the throne room, and his Majesty Elix Drast, the Fifth of his Name, Emperor of the Sith Empire and all its domains.

Percy sipped his drink with increased vigour. He'd watched the Imperial Royalty from afar his entire life, admired and adored everything they stood for. He'd worked tirelessly to protect and serve the Empire that had raised him, all of it under the previous Emperor, a man he'd never had the chance to know personally.

But now, tragedy had passed the crown to his son, the new Emperor, Elix V. Not much older than Percy, the new Emperor was a shining symbol of everything Percy believed in, and someone who might be in need of friends right now. He wanted to serve him to the best of his ability. To help him destroy those who would threaten him.

Somehow, the young Sith had managed to get a place in today's hearings; an opportunity to stand before Elix himself and make his devotion plain. He wasn't about to waste it.

He stood patiently behind his trademark smile, drink in hand, and waited to be called.

@Rexx

 

[Elix the Fifth]

Schedule permitting, the Emperor took a single day out of the month for lesser petitioners to approach the throne; it was good to cement the image of an enlightened ruler shepherding his people forward into the future and doubly so in the current political climate. Well-connected but still unknown on the grand scale of the Empire, he would speak with them, counsel them, or receive whatever concerns with which they approached the Emperor. Luckily, he was able to screen many of the incoming requests, and yet he was booked on these days for months in advance. He left much of the minutiae of scheduling and initial screening to his staff, letting them sift through the volume of requests for only the choicest of petitions.

And yet despite this, the majority were quite banal. Minor Moffs asking his advice on how to handle trade disputes between sectors. Special aid to areas affected by natural disasters. Concessions made for orphans living in squalor down in the lower levels of Coruscant!

Well, sometimes Elix used his executive power to help the poor of Coruscant. Concentrating all the wealth at the top was not conducive to a happy populace. Their happiness would be less costly and destructive than revolts. It really was simple arithmetic sometimes. Rarely.

The Emperor sat assured on the throne, on a dais in front of a transparent glass window that looked out from the Imperial Palace over the ecumenopolis. The chamber was cleared for a five minute recess, to allow Elix to dip at some water as he reviewed the next items scheduled on his agenda. One interested him slightly more than the others. An Acolyte. Younger than he. Well-monied and well-educated.

The Emperor would hear what he had to say.

The Emperor tapped at a datapad and signaled to the stewards, summoning this Percy Fleck to him. Elix would give him some time. How much depended on what he had to say. There really was a flurry of audiences to attend to today.

“Fleck,” he said to himself, barely audible. “Like a grain of sand?”

@Alhon

 

[Percy Fleck]

Finally his turn came.

Percy smoothed his formal overcoat and made his way through the press of people and into the throne room, the great doors heaving shut behind him. The throne lay ahead, on a raised dais before a great glass window. The young Sith kept his eyes down for the moment, kneeling as soon as he crossed the room.

"Your Majesty"

He could hardly believe that he was saying the words. That he'd come this far. He remained silent and kneeling, eyes fixed on the polished floor.

 

[Elix the Fifth]

Average height. Close, Imperial-style beard. Fashionable. Fit. It seemed to his first impression that Percy Fleck was the archetypes of an Imperial come to life. Would he be of the same cookie-cutter mold, or had something more than that come before the Emperor? Elix regarded him impassively from the throne, letting him wait on bended knee for but a moment that would doubtlessly stretch out for an Acolyte but was merely an instant for an Emperor. Truth be told, Elix did not particularly enjoy receiving supplication and adoration, but it was a function of the state and could not be avoided.

“Arise, Acolyte.” His tone was neither friendly nor unfriendly but regally neutral, but as Percy arose he would be able to see the faintest hint of a smile on the Emperor’s face, like the fondness of an older brother, or what Elix imagined that might be like. Fate, in all of its twisted dealings, had not seen fit to grant his father any additional children.

“Our records indicate this is your first petition,” the Emperor said in a business-like tone. “I bid you welcome. With what do you approach the Imperial Throne today?” His tone was curious and yet magnanimous. The Empire relied on all of its subjects to be motivated in interests that served the greater good and if Percy was committed to this ideal then the Emperor would be amenable to listening to him speak.

@Alhon

 

[Percy Fleck]

Percy rose as instructed, daring to make eye contact with the Emperor for the first time.

The man was stunning. The young Acolyte had known that of course; he'd seen the holovids and news broadcasts put out in recent months. But Elix the Fifth was even more in the flesh. All the power and credits the Emperor held in his hands, and he just had to be handsome as frack too. It was almost enough to knock Percy off his stride.

But he was forgetting himself. This was not some undercity bar and the Emperor was precisely that. The Emperor.

"Thank you, your Majesty" he began, bowing his head at the welcome. "I'm so grateful for the opportunity to speak to you". The Emperor almost betrayed the beginnings of a smile, but it was near impossible to imagine what he was thinking. Percy might have been tempted to use his gifts to find out, but he wasn't a complete fool.

"I don't come to ask anything of you, your Majesty. I come to offer something, freely and without condition.

My loyalty.

"You already have it of course" he continued, hoping the Emperor would afford him time to explain "every Sith in the Republica swears loyalty to the throne. But I want you to know that you, your Majesty, you personally have my undying loyalty." Percy refrained from working the Force into his words, as he had practised for so many years, but at least tried to use every ounce of confidence and charisma he could to make the point.

"The Empire your father built saved my life, and made me who I am today. I believe in it through and through. It makes me so angry to see people trying to tear it down, to undo all that hard work, to undo you." A green spark of fury crackled about his knuckles. His hands had curled into firsts in spite of themselves.

"I'm just with you, your Majesty. All the way. I'm one Acolyte, but one ready to be your number one if you need it.

That is what I came to say."

@Rexx

 

[Elix the Fifth]

The Emperor sat impassively on his throne as the Acolyte spoke to him, returning his courtesies with practiced manners and Imperial style -- “Your Majesty” was the preferred appellation for the Imperial Person according to the experts in protocol that the Court maintained by virtue of its existence. Articles were written on the proper way to address one’s betters, screeds of language devoted to propriety and gentility. Words and effort and time spent so that those without power knew how they stood in relation to those with it.

Elix didn’t really care either way; a strong state was a functional state whereas a weak one was ineffectual, so if proper protocol maintained the strength of the Imperial apparatus then so be it.

The Emperor raised his right eyebrow as the acolyte continued to speak, and made no sort of petition in the traditional sense of things. Many of the Moffs and Lords that came to speak with him in this capacity had a specific goal in mind that they wished to accomplish and that they needed Elix’s personal dispensation with which to proceed, but Percy made no attempts to allocate the Emperor’s resources as needed. One the one hand, he was annoyed that something that could have been sent as a letter had instead been allocated to one of his busiest days. Every waking second of Elix’s could and should be spent with the maintenance and safeguarding of the Empire.

On the other hand, loyalty was not inspired in rising Sith by disinterest, and as Percy finished speaking, the regal man rose. He was dressed in his traditional black-and-silver garb, an elevated version of the uniform worn by prominent Intelligence Directors. He took several languid steps down the dais and made no sounds, keeping his eyes fixed on the acolyte who had petitioned him. His posture was straight and noble, curiously colored hazel eyes focused on Percy. After a dozen steps, Elix was situated a single step above Percy, and he held his gaze firmly, looking the shorter man up and down.

“Yes, perhaps a purpose might be found for you within the Imperial agenda,” he said in a low voice as he evaluated the acolyte, loud enough only for the two of them to hear. “But make no mistake, Percy Fleck -- the oath you have just sworn has been witnessed by members of the Court in front of the Imperial Throne and you will be called to task. Duty is to become your watchword.”

@Alhon

 

[Percy Fleck]

The Emperor appeared to listen, though whether or not he found any value in Percy's words was difficult to tell. Elix the Fifth was impenetrable, his features unchanged save the raise of an eyebrow. When he rose and began his silent descent towards the young Sith, Percy had to resist the urge to back away, unsure what was coming his way.

When the Emperor finally spoke, his quiet but perfectly formed words cut right through the Acolyte. A purpose may be found for you. Relief sparked in Percy; it was good news of course – he’d been judged worthy to continue serving the Empire.

But did he not already have a purpose? Had he not been serving the Imperial agenda for the last fifteen years?

He brushed the thought aside. He was overthinking. The Emperor no doubt referred to a new purpose, or a new focus for his efforts. Besides, he had no problem at all with the central point; that his watchword in all things should by duty. Duty to the Empire and its leader. To Elix.

“Always, your Majesty” he replied, his eyes back on the floor beneath their feet. It was too hard to look the Emperor in the eye this close up. “Nothing matters to me more”. It was the truth; proving himself in the Empire’s service had always been his goal. Elix the Fifth was the Empire embodied.

Percy couldn’t know if the Emperor wholly understood him. Certainly he was giving little away. The young Acolyte supposed he would not be the only one to have offered their leader fine words and promises of fealty. Elix was unlikely to trust such on their own; he couldn’t afford to. Percy could only imagine the weight on the Emperor’s shoulders, a man who for all his wealth and power was little older than himself.

“If there is any way I can prove my loyalty” he offered, going further than he’d ever planned, “then it will be done your Majesty. Any task or test that will assure you I seek nothing more than to be among your most loyal servants and protectors”.

@Rexx