Melkaroth rose to his feet. Doesn't he understand? He thought. Doesn't he know how easily I could have killed him already, that any other sith already would have? Doesn't he know that I am being more lenient than my masters would ever allow me to be?
Melkaroth's eyes hardened. No, he clearly did not know, or he did not care. This bounty hunter was living proof that people did not care, did not take notice when he tried to do the best he could, when he was more tolerant than he should be, when he avoided bloodshed for the sake of bloodshed when most Sith reveled in it.
One thing gave him pause. The bounty hunter was very young--and stupidity and bravery came with such youth as part of the package, not yet tempered by the caution of age. Melkaroth himself was young--still in his twenties--but he was past the age of reckless disregard for life and limb. One last chance. He decided. It wasn't a decision he would usually make--it wasn't even a decision that he was allowed to make. If Vulcanus were here he would suffer for this moment of weakness. But his hand was stayed for one last time by the desire that had bought him to this place: the desire to stop killing, to take a break, and just for once to be out of Sith-mode in a place where Vulcanus and Ferus weren't watching him. He looked down at his glass, now empty.
"You do not comprehend the power of the Dark Side, child." he said, his voice now as hard and cold as ice but still deathly calm. "I am going to get another drink. Private, you seem to be friends with this man. You have until I return to talk some sense into him." he said, and without another word he walked back towards the bar. He hoped that the trooper would understand that he was being lenient and knew the restraint he had already shown, at least better than Carden did, and that he would explain that to him. Though he was leaving, he would not for one second take his eyes off the bounty hunter. Melkaroth was not a kind man by any definition of the word--even if Carden did come quietly, the penalty that Melkaroth would give him would still be harsh--but Melkaroth was also a soldier, and though he had learned the hard way that friendship only bought pain, he respected Private Dex Drakkel as another soldier, and he would not abandon an inferior officer while he was faced with a potentially dangerous criminal.
[member="Carden Lorps"]
[member="Dex Drakkel"]