ILLUMINATE • din djarin

PART TEN

Venelia climbed up the ladder back up to the cockpit, a pack of cards she'd found after taking a quick nap between her teeth. She stood in the doorway of the cockpit, watching the Mandalorian as he sat in the pilot's seat, his arms crossed, head back. The swirl of hyperspace reflected off his helmet. It was hour two of their journey and they still had another three to go, if the Mandalorian's calculations were correct.

He lifted his head as she came into his view. She smiled at him in the reflection of the glass and held up the cards in her hand. "Want to play Sabacc?"

He spun the chair around to face her. "You know how to play cards?"

"Sure," she shrugged. She didn't tell him that it was Altair who taught her. "Do you know how to play?"

He nodded. Venelia jerked her head. "Come on then. You can deal first."

He hesitated for a moment before he stood up from his seat and follow Venelia down the ladder into the cargo hold. Venelia shifted one of the larger crates away from the wall, and the Mandalorian wordlessly stepped towards it to help when he saw her struggling.

Venelia waved him off. "No, I got it."

He let her push it with her leg into the position she wanted. He grabbed two of the smaller crates and placed them on either side of the larger crate for them to sit on. Venelia sat down, handing the cards to the Mandalorian, who took them as he sat opposite her and began to shuffle them once they were out of the box.

Venelia watched his gloved hands as he split the deck in half and riffle shuffled the cards, letting them go so the edges of the cards released on top of each other. He then bent the cards into an arch and the cards fell into a pile in his hands. Venelia wondered where he learnt that.

His question brought her gaze back to his helmet. "What variant are we playing?"

"I only know Corellian Spike."

The Mandalorian placed the cards face down on the crate to make the draw pile as his voice frowned in disbelief at her. "Where did you learn that?"

It was unavoidable now. She cleared her throat. "My ex taught me. His friends played it at the Intergalactic Royal Academy on Coruscant."

His hand paused for a split second before he gave his signature singular nod. He dealt them two cards each, and Venelia picked hers up as she watched him take one card and place it face up next to the draw pile, to make the discard pile.

He picked up his cards, shielding them from her view. "Ready?"

Venelia smirked at his challenging tone. "Definitely. Are you?"

"Of course."

Venelia's hand wasn't bad, with their total being +11. She could get that down to zero. She swapped a one card with the card at the top of the discard pile, a +6. The Mandalorian watched her. She looked up at him, keeping her face impassive. On his turn, he drew a card. She realised now that playing Sabacc with a Mandalorian would be hard since she couldn't see his face.

He grabbed the dice and rolled to try for a double. There wasn't one. They kept playing with this rhythm. A double was rolled in the second round just when she'd made it down to three, and they both had to discard their cards to the discard pile and pick up new ones. But it gave her a better hand and was able to get to +1. At the end of the first game, they laid their cards down, he had a +3. She had won.

She cheered as the Mandalorian shuffled the cards again. "Well done, should we play another?"

"I guess you should be given a chance to redeem yourself," Venelia grinned.