Two

Chapter 7

Her fingers clutched the fabric of her shirt. Her arms were crossed in front of her chest. Shaking, Nima looked to her right and saw that Maul was still asleep. Part of her was glad he was still asleep, the other part selfishly wished he was awake. Perhaps he would know what to do, though she doubted it. She doubted a Sith Lord would wake in the night, panicking over being stuck in slavery and with no way of defending themselves.

She tried to breathe, it didn’t feel like she could breathe. Her lekku were nervously wrapping around each other, she was too warm and while she wanted to leave, there was also the urge to hide. Nima wasn’t sure how she would even manage to get outside without disturbing Maul. She couldn’t even get to the knife under the pillow. Then she remembered she hadn’t put it under the pillow, she had left it on the table earlier.

“What are you doing?”

Nima flinched at the sound of his voice. She looked at him, eyes wide. She could see his yellow eyes watch her in the dark.
“I uh…” she stuttered. She just wanted to hide now more than she could ever remember. Why couldn’t she just speak? “I woke up, had a nightmare.” Maul tilted his head slightly and then sat up straight. Slowly, his hand reached out and rested on her shoulder. Her eyes stared at his outstretched arm and her hand rested on top of his.

“I don’t want to go back there, I can’t go back there,” she whispered, her voice breaking. Maul glanced at her hand on top of his before looking back to her face. “But I wouldn’t be able to stop them, not if you left again.”
“Has this happened before?” he asked. His voice was quiet and nothing like the way he spoke when he first met her in the swamp. Hesitantly, she nodded and managed to stammer out that it had happened the previous night.

“No bounty hunters will get you here, we are in wild space.”
“Wild space? So they can’t find us?” Her hand moved from on top of his.
“No. And if they somehow did manage to find us, I doubt they’d be competent enough to defeat me.”
Nima looked down. “But what about when you’re gone? When you do your Sith duties, whatever they are, you leave. And I’m alone.”

Maul moved his hand from her shoulder to her cheek. She didn’t flinch away. Instead, she looked him in the eye. He had told her that her nervousness might give her away.
“They will not find you here.”
“But if they do?”
“They won’t.”
“You can’t promise that,” she said, shaking her head slightly as she spoke.
“I’m a Sith Lord, I don’t make promises.”

Of course not. He was a Sith Lord and somehow he’d managed to take in an escaped Twi’lek.

“Why did you even help me?”
“Would you rather I had killed you?” he asked. “Or returned you to your old masters?”
Nima shook her head. “No, I’m glad. I appreciate it, I do. But I don’t understand.”
“I’ve told you already. You’re interesting and other than that I don’t know why.” Nima looked away from him, remembering that he had given her the same answer before they both headed to sleep.

“No one will find you here,” he said, moving his hand away from her cheek. She looked back to him and realised she had stopped shaking so obviously.
“But when you’re gone, I can’t even defend myself.”
“I won’t be leaving again for another few days,” he said and Nima was glad he wouldn’t be leaving so soon. “And this planet doesn’t even have a name, not many people know of its existence. You will be safe.”

Nima nodded. This planet was so unknown that it didn’t even have a name and from what she knew, there weren’t many maps of Wild Space.
“I’m safe here,” she whispered, mostly to herself. Maul nodded once and she nodded back. “I should sleep.” Nima lay back down on the bed and closed her eyes. Thankfully, she had stopped shaking completely now and her heart felt a little more steady. Maul lay down next to her a few moments later. Closing her eyes, Nima let sleep take her, knowing that she would be safe for now.