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This is the Way.
It is not spoken, here in this stone and earth chamber. It is heard, but no lips can be seen moving. It is a single voice and it is many. It is security. It is strength.
She is young and in the Living Waters when it is in it’s most glorious-no, it’s most pristine state. For only one moment she forgets her father and her older sister’s eyes. She forgets the ceremony and how her new armour is still leaving chafe where there should be callus and that there are things she’s supposed to be doing, be remembering. She is in the Water and she has just said the Words, the Creed, and she feels at one with every single Mandalorian that has or ever will live.
The moment ends
This is the Way.
There is a oneness again in the cave. With the remains of the cult of the Children of the Watch, of all the Mandalorians scattered through the Galaxy.
The moment ends.
Her helmet was too hot. There were gloved hands slapping her pauldrons. The Mythosaur stared.
She had grown up training to become one in a long line of cunning warriors and politicians. Ever since Bo Katan first rescued this fool of a Din Djarin, however, her life had started to feel like one that belonged to a questing Princess from tales millennia past. At least she still remembered what she had been taught.
So, she sweat in her helmet, damp and itchy in the fires of the Armory, as she nodded acknowledgements to her new allies. She had nothing to her name at the moment beyond her ship and her armour and her goal.
And now her Creed.
The cavern emptied and Din approached her as the few remaining Mandalorians turned to resume what was evidently previous work, the Covert’s leader included. The familiar Beskar helmet tilted questioningly and Bo Katan kept her voice even to respond, without waiting for him to ask.
“That was certainly unexpected.”
“Bo-”
She cut him off, still as pleasant as if she was at a state affair, “I should check the ship.”
She was quicker than he was and already strategically closer to the exit tunnel. Even with a forcefully casual pace, she was able to lose him as she recited the path back to the surface under her breath as a thoughtless mantra.
The sensors in her helmet technically made the transition from the dimly lit caves to the bright afternoon suns seamless to her eyes, but the sight of the sky immediately slowed the pounding of her heart. Despite her flimsy excuse to Din, Bo Katan by-passed the starfighter and walked to the edge of the clear blue water. Down the beach she could see a large formation of drying racks stacked with strips of meat and leathers; piles of bones bleached in the bright sunlight.
Sweat trickled down her neck, but Bo was no quitter. Until she knew exactly what this – all of this: the Empire’s attack, Mandalore’s clear air, her new allies, the Mythosaur- meant, she would play the good little cultist. She kept the helmet on, the only concession to the discomfort was when Bo Katan peeled off her gloves and let the breeze off the water cool her wrists.
The child found her first, the sound of the transport giving away his approach. Something to mention to his dad. He leaped, impressively flipping his little form out of the pod, and landed beside her feet at the edge of the water. A squeak and a gurgle reached her ears, but it was his big eyes that translated the meaning. With a sigh, Bo Katan squatted low, shifting herself into a seat next to the kid.
“That was quite the move.” She nodded back to where he leapt from. He shrugged modestly in response, eyes turning out toward the water.
She remembered her shock at seeing the apparent infant emerge from Din’s vessel at her home just… oh, only hours ago, a day maybe. The determined look on his face in the mines as they searched for his father. Perhaps it was time to stop being so surprised by this apparent Foundling… one of her Covert. She had seen what their warriors were capable after all.
Speaking of…
His approach was quieter than the kid’s. Din’s footfalls, Bo figured, were about as gentle as one could expect in the Beskar. He wore it well. “I have not removed my helmet yet.” She called to him with a glib tone, careful not to betray her unease.
A silence. Careful. That’s one thing in his favour, she could admit, no excess chatter.
“It wouldn’t matter to me if you did.” Din said, closer behind than she had thought. Careful to not betray her startle, she tilted her head back to look up at him. He was moving though, his helmet facing down and looking at the kid. Gentle armoured hands scooped up the child and he crouched low to sit in the vacant spot beside her, kid sat comfortably in Din’s lap. He fussed with the kid’s robes, as well as some of the clasps and buckles on his own gauntlets. Bo Katan could easily understand why the Covert would charge him with the duty of a Foundling.
“You would suffer a Mandalorian who would break her Creed?” She asked, amused by the apparent change of heart since their first meeting.
“You have saved my life far too many times, Bo Katan. We will always be bonded by Creed.” A weight fell gently on top of her hand where it sat, uncovered and pressed into the sand between them. Bo Katan couldn’t help the surprised blink that flinched out of her before she could school her expression and glance down. Covering her own pale fingers was a large hand, the tanned skin warm and rough as the callused palm squeezed against the tops of her knuckles. Aiming her viewscreen back to Din, she could only see his casual pose as he stared out at the water, his other arm slumped loosely behind the kid squirming on his knee.
The warmth retreated as quickly as it arrived, as Din lifted his hand and began fiddling his gloves back onto the Beskar suit. Bo Katan finally felt the temperature under her helmet start to return to normal. “You’ve changed.’ She said, hearing it come out like an accusation.
“I have.” He admitted without hesitation.
“Because you took off your helmet?”
She watched as his stare shifted from the horizon down to the creature, the child, in his lap. “Because… it was necessary to break my Creed in order to truly act as a Mandalorian. I realized there are many paths to honour the Creed.”
“So why seek the Waters then?”
Din shrugged. “This is the Way.” The child, distracted by his own hands, refocused to grumble out three noises. His father nodded approvingly.
“This is the Way.” Bo Katan repeated, pulling her own gloves back on.