Vibrant Eyes | Din Djarin

32: new

He wasn't expecting the conversation to turn this way.

"Grogu?"

Venus nodded. "His name."

"How do you know that?"

"He told me."

"He's a child," he drawled.

Her eyes filled with challenge. "And a Force wielder."

"A—what?"

Venus sighed. "You know nothing of what he is, do you?"

Din shook his head. "Not really, no."

Then she reached her hand to the pair of stools behind her, situated on either side of the makeshift table where they played cards, and did something he'd only ever seen the child do. As easily as breathing, her fingers twitched, and the stools shifted in place. In moments they'd drifted across the floor to settle next to where they stood.

Din froze and looked from her hand to her face. She almost looked bored, as if this control over the otherworldly came as easy as breathing. Even the Child showed some effort in simple movements.

And here she stood, Venus, the eternal enigma. An effortless force of nature.

When she gestured to the stool at his side, taking a seat herself, he half expected to be controlled into it. However she may do that. 

Yeah, he wasn't lying. He had no idea how any of this worked or even the basics.

Din only knew what the Armorer told him and—no. She said they were enemies. The child's kind, Venus's kind, apparently. Sorcerers. Jedi. 

He tensed, focus darting from the woman sitting down and the stools she'd moved with her mind.

As she stared up at him, something rolled over her expression. A flicker of hurt cut through there and he knew she felt the distrust. The suspicion coiling around his heart with a harsh grip of darkness.

All things bitter and unsure swallowing the surety he'd somehow found in her presence.

"Please," she whispered. The harsh grip faltered at the sign of something real and emotional. "Trust me."

Din forcibly untensed his shoulders. "I shouldn't."

Her smile was small and sad. "I know."

So he sat down without another moment of hesitation, surrendering himself to learn what he did not know.

Venus heaved a sigh and lifted her hand to fiddle with the braid behind her ear. Her relief disappeared behind a mask as quickly as it revealed itself. Din crossed his arms and watched her silently, waiting for an explanation. Shock still coursed through his veins and disbelief muddled his thoughts too much to risk speech.

"There's something called midi-chlorians. They exist in the blood of every living thing, but some are born with a higher... density. Some like the child and some like... me. They connect us to the life force of everything in the universe. The Force is in every plant, every person, it thrives in the air, and exists everywhere there is life to be found. We force users can form a connection to it and bend it to our will. We can commune with one another through it as well."

Din took in a breath, mind whirling. "You've spoken with him."

Venus shrugged. "It's less a message of tongues and more a communion of thought. I can hear his and he can hear mine."

He still didn't understand but said nothing.

"Jedi are a separate whole, and yet interconnected all the same. They believed in maintaining order and balance in the universe and would do anything to achieve that. Before the rise of the Empire, when the Jedi sensed a new force user out in the universe, they would send someone to collect them. We were placed in temples and taught the ways of the force since before my memory begins. At the peak of our early training, we faced a test to see if we would have a future as Jedi. If we were worthy of ascending to the level of Padawan—"