Deskyl is eleven, and already knows that her life is going to be something special. It wouldn't be obvious just from looking at her, and she's pretty sure nobody else has noticed yet. But a few months ago, she noticed - it's not just that she can tell how people feel by looking, she can do it with her back turned, too. Or through walls, even when she doesn't know there's somebody there, she can still guess. And that means she's Force-sensitive, and that means she's going to be a Sith, sooner or later. Probably later rather than sooner - she doesn't exactly have a way to contact them from the unassuming farm planet she lives on, even if she were ready - but that doesn't mean she can't get ready for it. And that's what she's doing now, out in the woods without the distraction of other people being around. She wants the Force to help her talk, to hold the words still for her instead of letting them slip out of her mind too fast to catch. She thinks she's making progress; she still needs to figure out how to get it to give her words, but it's already helping her with sounds, and she doesn't think that's bad at all for a few weeks of secret work.

The woods are pretty safe, this close to the settlement, and even if they weren't, her knack for noticing minds works perfectly well on animals. So it's especially surprising when a giant silvery snake with a mirror for a face appears in the trees and half-dives, half-falls, directly onto her.

And then she's somewhere else.