Promises and Deals | The Mandalorian

.101

It hurt too much to let him go. She does not have it in her to do it again.

So she keeps walking and wandering through the sunlight planet until she happens upon a lake. Though it is warm enough to work up a sweat, Alora pulls her ragged cloak tighter around her as she sits against a tall, full-bodied tree and looks out over the water. The stillness reminds her of how it was when she was only just starting out on her own. She needed a new lightsaber, and so she set out to get one. The only difference is the warmth she can barely feel here was nowhere to be found on Ilum.

Alora finds herself closing her eyes. Meditation has been coming easier to her now. When she was training with Luke during the war, she could barely get her mind to quiet, let alone calm. She was always thinking of battle strategies and what papers needed to be signed. Only in that hut had she found a semblance of quiet in her mind, like she was safe in that small home on Tatooine.

The darkness behind her eyelids shifts slowly like it was waiting for just the right moment to drag her beneath her consciousness. A glowing hue from the sun beyond takes over her vision, but it darkens with each passing second, honing itself into a horizon just beyond her reach before turning upright, like a glowing red sword. She feels her breath hitch, but the image of the red lightsaber stays before her eyes.

"Remember."

The lightsaber turns blue with a pair of scarred yellow eyes peering at her from beyond. Bodies of children surround her for a fraction of a second, echoes of soldiers calling out to their generals fill her ears. She can just make out towering buildings soaring above the clouds before everything goes dark around one flaming red light.

Alora forces her eyes open, forces herself to look around at the calm lake before her and the clear skies above. Her heart races in her chest as she steadies her breathing and digs her fingers into the dirt beneath her.

"I hear you're looking for me."

The familiar feeling of Luke Skywalker rushes over her. Alora glances up at him leaning against the same tree, looking out at the same water. "You must be a terrible teacher if you're here with me and not with the kid," she says as she yanks her hood off her head.

"Technically you were my first student, so I have to make sure you're doing ok." Luke sighs as he sinks to the ground beside her, letting his legs stretch out before him and leaning back on his hands. "Are you? Doing ok?"

"No, not really." Alora nods her head as she clasps her hands together in her lap. "But that is not important right now."

"I think it's very important."

"It's related, but not why I came here."

"Grogu?"

"Related."

"The Mandalorian?"

"Not remotely." She curls her lip up and shakes her head. "He would have found you here with or without me. It was chance we came together."

"Somehow I don't believe you."

Rolling her eyes, she looks him over. "Jedi Master life looks good on you, kid."

He meets her gaze. "Being on the run from your own family doesn't look good on you."

Alora purses her lips. "So, she told you what happened."

"She is my sister."

"And she's the one looking for me."

"You thought she wouldn't?"

"Not after this long. Not really." Taking a deep breath, she says, "Be honest with me. Why?"

She does not need to elaborate for him to understand. They have always been like this, though Alora has never been vulnerable enough to test it. She is a no-bullshit kind of woman. She says what she wants and means what she says. Why leave something up to interpretation? But Luke understands the words she can't say.