They'd been walking for at least an hour now, and Din had forgotten and remembered the purpose of this trek at least a dozen times since they started down the track to the N1. He remained mostly silent, still deep in thought and uneasy, trying to process his conversation with Aldor through the Maze.
When Vane popped into his head, Din thought it was simply out of association. The vile kind of scughole pirate he knew of who fit the description. But the image he'd seen was set exactly where they had been standing, and he saw it all from above, watching blaster bolts fired back at snarling pirates with a glowing purple blade. A clear-as-crystal image from Aldor's memory. He didn't know anymore if she had given it or he had taken it.
It was merely an experiment when he willed his own memory of Vane into her mind. He didn't expect in a thousand cycles to be successful, but she'd seen all of it. The battle between the pirates and the Covert back when he was still proud to be Mandalorian. The wreckage of the Corsair ship. Din knew in the pit of his soul that she'd seen it. Because he just… knew.
Neither he nor Karga managed to get their hands on Vane, but Aldor did. Despite being outnumbered… and dainty… and ridiculously beautiful.
Fierce.
That was the word. Silk wrapped 'round zillo hide. In every visible way, she was genteel as a noblewoman. Soft-spoken and eloquent. Tender and yielding. Stubbornly kind. Yet in the face of any obstacle, whether it be a scughole pirate like Vane or the laces of her boots, she attacked with all her fire. Fire Din felt seething inside her now. Buried deep inside the zillo hide nucleus, but always burning. Always driving her. So well controlled that when it was unleashed, this fierceness displayed itself in something like elegance. Din imagined those pirates thinking they'd never seen anything more beautiful at the same time she cut them down. It was gratifying to think of it. By virtue of this alone, Din's heart had already decided she was the right teacher for his son. This incredible woman who feared nothing. Who could convert spare parts into heating coils and learn seven forms of light saber combat. Who could make, grow, or hunt everything she needed to survive… comfortably. This woman…
…who could fight off six of Gorian Shard's pirates on her own.
He couldn't help himself. The barbs that constantly punctured his brain with suggestions that he leave and forget her had dulled considerably in less than a rotation. A fact in itself he told himself to be wary of. But he couldn't help it. Every time he looked at her, he felt a pull. That something he'd sensed last night. In looking for it so intently while she slept across the room, Din feared he inadvertently lashed them together with it. It wouldn't let go, and continued to pull them closer. He couldn't tell where it came from and couldn't begin to figure out why. He only knew he couldn't stop watching her. Couldn't stop considering her. She was such an anomaly compared every other being he'd ever met, he couldn't help it. And now he was completely enamored of this fierceness. He began to see it in every aspect of her. From the way she walked to the tone of her voice. The lightening in her clear, crystal blue eyes. He felt it rolling off her in gorgeous waves. He wanted to absorb it. Let it spark over his skin and settle into his blood.
Din knew he was drifting to a dangerous place, and to get himself back on track, he finally asked a question that had been in the back of his mind since this morning, when she mentioned the others she was stranded with. "When you landed here. You weren't the only Jedi, were you?"
"No," Aldor answered. "There were four of us. An elderly master named Ha'saan died about a year after we came. He was an Iridonian Zabrak, and the weather didn't agree with him. We tried everything when he got sick, but he finally made us stop trying, and just… became one with the Force. The other two were Padawans like me, close to my age. They left with the Prospector and I haven't heard anything of them since. I sense they are still alive. Hopefully in peace."
"And there were others with you?"
"Jumper, of course, and another deprogrammed Clone Trooper named Fantom. He left with the prospector too. And… there was a young nobleman named Rothan. He died when a pack of native canines attacked him…" She paused as she had before when she spoke of Jumper, but her feelings were sharper with regard to this Rothan character. There was anger in them as well as sorrow. Her thoughts had grown dark, and Din felt the need again to touch her. Offer something. But before he gathered the ability to form proper words or actions well enough to execute them, she rallied, wiping at her eyes as she concluded, "I… I couldn't save him either. He was already gone when I found him."
"He was the other who stayed?"
"He was." Aldor said. "We had a… something of a… relationship… but… he didn't stay for me. He stayed because the Empire wanted him. He never liked it here. Could never see the beauty. Hated the hard work. There was nothing meaningful in our… dalliance. It was just the two of us after Jumper died and… we needed each other, I suppose."
"I understand." Din said it partly because he understood better than he was willing to admit, and partly to keep her from elaborating. He had a feeling he wouldn't like to hear much more about the young nobleman. "W… What about your vehicles? The speeder and the Skyhopper. How did you get those?"
"Drunk smugglers and lucky hands of Sebacc."
Din huffed a laugh, surprised by her answer and picturing a wisp of silk among hardened hunters and criminals. Saw her ignite her sabers and dare them to double-cross her. They likely had no idea what to think of so fine a lady, kicking their asses at Sebacc and unleashing her fire on them when they refused to pay up. So strange an image, but not unexpected of woman with a heart made of zillo hide and flame. He looked over at her to find she was already watching him. "I would like to have seen that."
"Well, I'm sure you know the type. Like those pirates. Easy to fool."
Din smiled, still riding high on this image in his head. "Easy for you, maybe."
"You're too kind, my friend. Anyone can fool a smuggler that's drunk enough."
"What about your outbuildings and the droids? Did you… engineer them?"
"We had two non-sentient droids with us when we came here. I've kept them up and programmed and modified them to suit my needs. I've made a few from spare parts for small jobs and convenience. We all pitched in to convert the YT when we realized we were stranded. I couldn't have engineered many of the base functions to run as well as they do without the others I came with." She looked down at the ground in front of her and shrugged. "I did build all the outbuildings and cultivated most of the gardens. After Rothan died, I was on my own and had no need for the extra rooms, so I used what I had from the YT."
In her tone, Din sensed her loneliness, and his voice came out much gentler than he intended when he asked, "How long have you been alone?"
"I think it's fifteen years now. Not counting pirates and scughole smugglers, I've had a few pleasanter visitors. One or two stayed for a time, but… mostly… it's just been me."
"How have you… managed?"
Aldor inhaled deeply, as if bolstering herself against darker thoughts. "I'm not sure sometimes," she said with a faint, mirthless smile. She looked over at Din. "Probably in much the same way you have."
"Well… yes, but… I've spent most of my life out in the galaxy… with people… around. Not sequestered."
"I sense we're both solitary by nature," Aldor said. "That makes it easier, as I'm sure you're aware. In my case, my ability to be alone gracefully has kept me from darkness. I keep myself busy. I have passions and pursuits that give my life meaning." She paused to look over at Din again, then up at Grogu, who had been listening to this conversation intently, perched on his father's armored shoulders. He looked back at her and uttered a sweet little coo that perked her lips into a smile. "To have company is always something of a treat for me, so I make it a point to welcome whatever wayward traveler happens by. It gives me something of a purpose here. To shelter those in need when they need it most." She smiled brightly. "I'm grateful the two of you are among my wayward travelers. It's done wonders for me, so I thank you for setting down."
"I… can't accept your gratitude," Din said quietly, too honored by the tone of intimacy in her voice to allow it. In it, he'd heard some note of exclusivity. As if he and Grogu were somehow to be preferred over her usual company. Din cleared his throat to explain himself. "Grogu talked me into it."
Aldor grinned up at Grogu again. "He is very persuasive. But still, I thank both of you. If you weren't such an attentive father to my dearest old friend, I'm sure you never would have buckled."
"Indulgent more than attentive these days," Din sighed as Grogu let loose one of his quiet little laughs. "And he knows it."
Aldor laughed. "Well, sometimes indulgence is called for, my Mandalorian friend."
Din grunted. "I suppose so." He lifted his eyes to the horizon from where they had been bent on the ground, trying not to look at her. Glancing back toward the settlement, he continued, "It looks like you stay occupied, maintaining your settlement. It's… impressive. What you've done with so little."
"Necessity makes us clever, I suppose," Aldor replied. "Jumper did teach me a great deal about how to survive. And I've learned from the wisdom of drunk smugglers and bounty hunters." She flashed him a small smile. "I've found it as valuable as the wisdom of Jedi."
"Because necessity makes us clever," Din mused with a short chuckle. "How did you come to be here in the first place?"
"We escaped Coruscant in the YT during the attack on the Temple. Ran into Rothan and took him on at Ord Mantell. For a while, we were able to lay low on Tatooine, but the Empire was already insinuating itself there. Or at least trying to. The Empire was after Rothan because of his involvement with Saw Gerrera's rebels, and four of us were Jedi. They found us, and even though we got away, they were already spread out over the galaxy. We ran into Inquisitors and Imps everywhere we landed. We thought we might be able to hide deeper in the Outer Rim, but the Empire had already stretched itself out so far, we finally realized there was nowhere safe in the known galaxy, so… we set a course. We were here when the ship finally started to give out. So deep in the Unknown Region, we hadn't been able to keep it in parts or adequate maintenance. And we were almost out of fuel. We happened upon this system in the nick of time and just… stayed."
Din tamped down a trill of electricity from his chest. It was an involuntary reaction to the evocative similarity between their histories. He cleared his throat before he asked, "How do you get fuel for your T-16?"
"The same way I got the T-16." She smiled again. "And a few travelers have traded with me for sheltering them. One or two traders comes through here every few years for my fabrics and pelts. I'm told they've become quite valuable in certain circles of the galaxy, so my trader friends have been generous. I'm stingy with my fuel, so I get by. I'd rather walk anyway."
"Where do you get your pelts?"
"I call them tundra banthas, because it's the closest thing I know of that resembles them," Aldor answered. "They live across the sea in the northern hemisphere. Giant herbivores. They're relatively easy to take down… if you have a light saber, of course."
"And you make all your own fabrics?"
"The grasses here are sturdy and fine, and produce rather a lovely fabric once you learn how to process the raw material. Very comfortable." She chuckled. "I doubt I'd be comfortable in anything else at this point. I have a spindle and loom in the engine room that I made from parts. They do what they need to. And I make leather from the hides of game animals and a large ray species that dominates the sea. I hear my leather has become quite fashionable on the ice planets." She chuckled, more to herself than in regard to anything outside her gorgeous mind. "Which only means it's rare and nobody knows where it came from."
Din released a short laugh. Fierce. "You're resourceful."
"Once again, my Mandalorian; necessity makes us clever."
Feeling a bit like he'd asked too many questions and become too enamored of her answers, Din fell silent, cycling back through all she'd told him. Seeing her with a winning hand of Sebaac. Taking down beasts ten times her size like it was nothing. He saw it all so clearly… everything perfectly congruent with her zillo hide and silk. He found himself searching for the energy again. This bond. Wondering where he'd find it. Maybe it was churning at the core of that hydro engine made of zillo hide. How would it manifest across her skin? What does that sort of power taste like on pale crimson lips?
He just couldn't help himself. It seemed by some spell or psychotropic aspect of the air that she'd grown more beautiful as he'd listened to her and watched her. Her expressions were animated and telling. Her eyes bright as gemstones and a thousand leagues deep. A few facets had been knocked about and cracked under all she'd borne, but it produced an imperfection about them that only proved how well she'd endured it. Din could lose himself in it, studying and considering the broken facets, trying to guess what had done the damage and how she'd lived through it.
He caught himself staring at her again, and forced his eyes away. For a time, they continued on in silence as Din bent his eyes anywhere but at her face. He didn't know what he was thinking about. Everything was so jumbled together right now, he couldn't pick out a single coherent thought in his mind to focus on. There were too many words. Words he didn't use anymore. Words he'd forgotten about. He had to clear them out. Set them loose somehow. He'd been too ready to let them out of his mouth, so he tried to push them out of his lungs, taking a few cleansing breaths to stretch out the tangled mass of words. Absorb them into his breath. Expel them back into the air.
When the words cleared at last, he heaved a final soft sigh, and cast his gaze back upward to scan the horizon, his curiosity slowly rising as it had the afternoon before. He observed the landscape of cracked rock shelves in the distance among the stunted trees, considering how much of the planet was covered with ice while this one arable continent was downright pleasant in the late morning sunlight. He suspected the whole planet had been covered in ice in its past. The thermal activity must have kicked up and burned the ice away when the planet found it could no longer accommodate the fire spinning in its belly.
It was fascinating. Familiar. The entire continent seemed to constantly rumble underfoot. Not a violent, cataclysmic wave, but a softly undulating vibration. A high enough frequency to keep its inhabitants alert, but low enough to keep them centered. The many forces at work in the systems near the core harmonized like a Mandalorian hymn. It was captivating. Comforting. Combined with the contrast of the cold air and humidity at the surface, the planet produced a balance unlike anything Din had ever seen. He began to understand why Aldor stayed here. Why she belonged here.
When he looked at her he saw the spirit of everything around them represented perfectly. Rough beauty. Natural nobility. Organic things that were truer than any philosophy in the Galaxy. Perhaps it was just the association, but she did feel like the planet did. She looked over her shoulder at him, glancing first at the beskar cuirass, then beyond his visor to where she knew his eyes were. She always knew. He sometimes wondered if she could actually see them. See him as she did now while she bounced all his thoughts of her back to him, and reminded him it was true of both of them. Cool on the surface. Fiery underneath.
She looked away again, quickly as if she'd wronged him somehow. Trying not to. It was all he sensed from her. But he did sense it.
He forced his mind away from questions he could not yet ask himself, afraid he'd suffocate under his helmet again if he let the words he'd expelled back into the tangled mass where they began. Driven to distract himself, he looked up at the nearest gas giant where it hung overhead. It was large in the sky. About half over the size of the area the suns occupied. It was a vivid array of colors from dark oranges to vibrant pinks, to bright blues and warm browns. It gave off an indigo light that vaguely stained the atmosphere over the Eye. He looked from the sky toward the Pupil, wondering what kind of effect the neighboring planet would have on the thermal activity. A strange, pinkish-orange light hung heavily in the air above it as the vast system under their feet continued to rumble. It dared him to find out for himself.
As he focused on the soft vibrations rising through his boots, Din began to feel a similarity between the planetary rumble and his tangled mass of words. At its core was a jumble of unspent, useless energy that had always jumped around chaotically in his blood. It couldn't drive his muscles or fuel his mind, but it had always been there waiting for something it could do. He began to wonder if he could harness it after nearly forty years of ignoring it. For once, it seemed possible as the planet's unspent energy met with his. Perhaps this planet had recognized itself in Din and now fed him on this rumbling energy. He did feel a kinship with the planet, even if the theories clattering around in his skull skewed idiotic. Idiotic theories aside, there was no denying the power here. Something stronger than nature kept this beautiful, bittersweet world alive despite the odds stacked against it.
Like her.
Like you.
Din looked over at her, half thinking she said it aloud. But she was well ahead of him with Grogu. He hadn't even noticed his son had climbed down his arm and leg, and now skittered of his own power just behind her. That hint of a smile that drew her mouth into a perfect bow flashed over her face as she looked shyly away. He'd been staring at her again, and she felt it. She looked down at the ground, the same look of guilt from a moment ago bending her features. "I'm sorry, Din. I don't mean to invade your mind. I just… enjoy it. It's hard to block because... well… Just know… your thoughts are safe. I will never use them against you. I swear it, my Mandalorian. I have nothing to gain from it and everything to lose."
Din didn't know why his heart swelled at the last sentence. He only knew it felt thirty degrees warmer as the golden puddle in his chest settled around it. "I just… hope I can keep some things to myself."
"Of course," Aldor said, looking down at the ground again. "I'm so sorry, Din. I don't typically delve so easily into other minds. And I don't do it on purpose unless I feel like I need to. Forgive me… I've just… never met anyone quite like you. Your mind is… unusual."
"It's okay…" He wanted her to look at him again. Wanted her to see his eyes in the way only she could see them. Overcome with the urge and unable to stop himself, Din hooked a gloved finger under her chin and gently lifted her face to look at him. "I… I'm…" Fuck. He couldn't find the words. So he gave her what he had, experimenting again with the useless energy he thought he could harness, and willed her to feel everything he did. Honored by your thoughts… how you see me… think I like it… how we just know… but shouldn't… don't know how to trust it yet… can't deny… natural… easy… just… know…
Takes time… reason it feels natural… won't force it… shouldn't… you decide… whether you embrace or forget…
The intimacy of this exchange was intoxicating, and he wanted more than anything to kiss her. But the impulse to remove his helmet and indulge himself passed before it could frighten him. Instead, he ghosted his thumb in a short caress along her chin, then abruptly dropped his hand and cleared his throat, facing forward and walking again. He only just realized they had stopped. He asked his question only partly out of curiosity, and mostly to let Aldor know he would no longer ignore what he couldn't deny. "Can all Jedi… inhabit… other minds? The ones I've met didn't seem to. At least… not like you do."
"All Jedi can sense thought, I believe. Perhaps not… inhabit it. But it's not as simple as those words allow for. Sometimes…"
"… there are no words," Din murmured.
"Or too many," Aldor whispered, glancing up at him. "But… I have been told my ability in that aspect of wielding the Force is one of my strengths, so… perhaps all Jedi can sense others' thoughts, but I tend to… know them. Of course, much of it depends on the mind in question. Sometimes it takes me a while to get in." She laughed cynically. "Usually because I'm just not interested enough in what I sense there. It sounds dreadful to say such things, I know, but…"
"I know what you mean," Din assured her. "If I had your ability, I probably wouldn't be interested either."
A tug of humor pitched up the side of her mouth in lovely line, but it quickly fell back into a resting expression. "It comes with the territory of being solitary, I suppose. Those of us with enhanced mind ability tend to be solitary because it isn't always possible for us to block everything out."
"I think it's one of Grogu's strengths too," Din said as he watched his boy chase a small black lizard along the sandy ground. "There are times when I feel like he can't hear his own thoughts. And… he always knows…" …when I need him.
"Grogu knows the part of you that has no words," Aldor said. "I suspect that's why you've always felt akin to him. Because, my dear Mandalorian, I think the largest part of you has no words. And that's something Grogu and I can relate to."
Aldor's statement struck Din intensely, though he wasn't entirely sure why. Strangely, it seemed to lift a weight he didn't know he was carrying. Or maybe it was a hand helping him out of a trap in the maze. Perhaps it was just a confirmation that he wasn't alone. In his heart he knew right away that he, Grogu, and Aldor were connected somehow. Something bound them that was beyond anything that had a definition. And thinking himself akin while he reflected on the first moments of this acquaintance, it shamed him. He'd been so cold toward her. So cold when everything she said and did was from a place of kindness, expertly measured against his sensibilities. The words were tumbling through the modulator before he realized it. "I'm sorry… if I've appeared unkind or… impatient…" He shifted on his feet and restlessly adjusted his holster, feeling twelve years old and raw. "I think you know… hard to trust people… but… I trust Grogu, and he trusts you… so I'm sorry. So kind to me and… familiar… and I…"
"Sweet Mandalorian, there's no need for this apology," she said softly. "If I were you, I wouldn't trust anything either. Grogu hasn't shown me everything, but he's shown me enough that I won't lose one ounce of pride over it. I will do everything I can to earn your trust. I would consider it an honor to earn it from a man like you."
"You… already have."
Din had been on the verge of telling her he'd made his decision for more than an hour, but decided he should make it fair and even, and considered what he could offer in return for her help in training his son. He wasn't sure what he could do that she couldn't do herself, but he might at least be able to provide extra hands. In the meantime, they'd arrived at the N1. Aldor entertained Grogu while Din checked his ship and listened to R5's binary protests. Din mostly ignored the horrific scenarios the astromech formulated with databanks and experience while he scanned through his communications logs to find none. If he was lucky, anyone who might be looking for him thought he was dead by now. He was strangely comforted by that thought. So Din pushed all thoughts of the known galaxy aside while he downloaded yesterday's scans to a datapad he kept stashed in the cockpit, casting his gaze around the horizon while he looked forward to comparing the N1's data to his own theories.
A gleeful giggle drew Din's eyes over to where Grogu and Aldor had been playing with a stone, pushing it back and forth between them with the Force. With each push, the patterns the stone made in the air became more intricate. Even as Din watched, Grogu was gaining finer control over it, focusing his immense power intently on zig-zagging the stone in the air, trying to fake Aldor out with it as a challenge lit her eyes over a breathtaking smile. A second stone flew at Grogu from twenty meters behind him, but the boy caught it in one hand while he used the Force to toss the first stone to Aldor's palm with the other.
"Good job, Kid!"
Din's cry drew both their eyes to him, and he felt his face go hot under the beskar. But why? Why not let the whole galaxy know he was proud of his son. He hefted himself out of the cockpit as Grogu ran to him joyfully, jumping from ten meters away into his father's arms to be caught up in them and squeezed to his cuirass. "Yeah, Buddy. You did good," he said more softly as Grogu pressed his nose to Din's visor and a soft laugh breezed through the modulator. "I'm… proud of you."
The sweet coo against his chest told him how much the words meant, and Din felt the swirl of warmth around his heart grow larger. Aldor looked on as if she'd never seen anything more beautiful.
I haven't, my Mandalorian.
Din gave her a short nod, and let the mist clear from his eyes as he set Grogu back down. He crouched before him to affectionately scratch his little head. "Keep going, Kid. Go play. I'll be done soon. Okay?" Grogu nodded and Din nodded back, then the boy was off again to his teacher, having the time of his life.
Din's attention turned back to the N1 for a time as he ran a few more scans and gathered what necessities he had to take back with them to the YT. He instigated a few more scans on the system as a whole simply out of curiosity. While he was punching program corrections into his vambraces to set up alerts from the ship, more laughter drew his attention back to the two reunited friends playing what Din could only describe as Force games. An excited, child-like glow rose in Aldor's eyes as she asked Grogu, "Do you remember how to play Leaps?"
Grogu squealed in the way he did when they were speeding through the desert or jetting across canyons. He immediately started jumping up and down, practically trembling with excitement and joy. He clearly remembered.
"Wait!" Aldor gently commanded. "Don't you think we should warn your dad?"
Grogu babbled and hopped up and down, almost too excited to care, but he paused as Aldor sternly looked him in the eye. After a few seconds of this, he looked up at Din with the big "Pllleeeaaasssee" eyes. Din could practically hear it. Against reason and will, he nodded his consent and heaved a ragged sigh, already irritated with whatever was about to happen, but too yielding to refuse his son anything when he was this happy.
"Don't worry, Din," was all Aldor said before a streak of blue burst over Grogu's head, arcing like a purgil through the mist. She landed on a half-buried boulder 20 meters off toward the southern boundary of the clearing, crouched like an apex feline over the smooth surface of the boulder, her face full of excitement, joy, and instinct.
Holy mother of Bendu.
It happened so fast, Din barely knew what he saw. He only knew it was beautiful. Heat seethed like lava low in his belly, rumbling through his blood as he sat dumbstruck, looking dead into her eyes as she looked dead into his through the dim sunlight. Everything stopped but her. Everything blurred to nothing in his periphery as he drank in this magnificent sight. Strength. Not power. Strength to know power, wield it, bend it, then leave it behind. The strength to stop everything. To demolish a Mandalorian's armor in one elegant swoop. Grace to catch a giggling child safely in her arms when it followed the same track she had, leaping far enough to clear a passenger speeder.
Din was doubly dumbstruck. He had never seen Grogu leap so far. Or with such precision and control. It was all he could do to keep himself from floating out of the cockpit. It was beyond question now. She was exactly the instructor he needed. The fears that burdened the child for so long melted away under Aldor's careful eyes. Din couldn't take this away from his son. It would be wrong. Completely wrong. Overnight, this woman had simultaneously lightened Grogu's heart and bolstered his courage. Made him noticeably stronger in less than one rotation. It was all Din ever wanted for him. To watch it happen before his eyes was all he wanted for himself.
Aldor gently set Grogu down on the boulder before a subtle bend at her knees launched her into another achingly elegant arch over Din's head, landing so lightly on the nose of the N1, it barely dipped under her weight.
Holy mother…
A moment later, Grogu landed squealing in her arms again as they both laughed freely as they had when they were both children. A squeeze in his chest pushed the breath from Din's lungs. Lava stirred inside him and mixed with the golden puddle of warmth, creating some magnificent conflagration of emotion and static that filled his chest and crawled up his throat, threatening to burst through his lips. He swallowed it back and just let it stay there… rumbling. He didn't even care that she was standing on his ship.
She jumped down to the ground with Grogu laughing in her arms as Din heaved himself out of the cockpit again. He stood before her and looked down at his son in her arms as he spoke, affectionately smoothing a gloved thumb over the boy's fuzzy little head. "We shouldn't leave yet. It wouldn't be right… to take him away." Din struggled in silence a moment, cobbling together what he wanted to say. A near hopeless business. At last, the obvious words tumbled out of his mouth and dropped through the modulator. "I want you to train him. And… I want to help… how I can…" His eyes sought hers this time, hoping to use this kinship of mind to show her what he needed her to see. Sincerity in his promise. Adhesion to the Creed he swore to her. "I promise to offer whatever aid you deem necessary, Aldor, in exchange for your help in training my son."
She nodded her assent as Grogu cooed his. "I'm no Jedi, Din, but I swear to you that all I know and all I have is his." She bounced him in his arms and kissed his little head. "And yours…" she added softly, looking up at Din again. "…for as long as it pleases you to stay."
Secure in her company at least for a little while, Aldor prepared a fine dinner with one of the last morsels of ray meat she had left. Grogu thought it was the best thing he'd ever eaten, and Din seemed quite satisfied when he came out of the cockpit, going so far as to join her at the table with his holopad while she finished a new pair of winter gloves for herself. Din put Grogu to bed not long after dinner, and Aldor caught another glimpse of a nose bump to the beskar helmet. Then the same quiet laugh that had followed it before.
Din nodded to her as he came back to the table, taking up the holopad again. Neither spoke a word, but as the hour advanced, Aldor began to feel his mind unwinding. He wasn't as guarded now as he had been, and she began to catch hints of his thoughts. Then entire concepts as he pieced together his scans to paint a picture of the system. She couldn't block any of it out. She tried, but the thoughts were too close in frequency to hers to be ignored. He looked up at her as she had this realization, and she knew he was as aware of it as she was.
Can't fight it. Just have to live with it. There was no portent of dread in this thought, even though he knew he'd made her hear it. Now there was only acceptance. Curious acceptance. And Aldor was pretty sure she could live with that.
