Convergence (Star Wars: The High Republic)

by Zoraida Córdova

E’ronoh and Eiram were two cosmic beings that emerged from stardust, and the moon was their shared heart, vital to E’ronoh’s winds and Eiram’s tides.

People just want something to bury,

Hidden among the pinpricks of light that surrounded them was the exit zone for the hyperspace lane the Republic had opened a few years back. It turned out that E’ronoh and Eiram were in the middle of nowhere, but on the way to everywhere.

Gella’s heartbeat slowed to the rhythm of her deep breaths. Every bit of her body was buoyed by the Force, a contradiction of sensations—adrift yet anchored, steady yet in motion. She was a moment and somehow infinite.

But there was something about hyperspace that humbled her like nothing else. Meditating while in hyperspace was like being buried within light, within the Force itself. There, and then gone. A blink of an eye, a star, a life.

“To be a guardian of peace and justice in the galaxy, we must first experience the galaxy. Better understand all the living beings that are connected through the Force. The Council didn’t send you on this mission so you could help deliver medical supplies. They sent you to learn to be part of a team.”

She tuned in to the very makeup of her body, meditated until she didn’t know where her physical being began and the Force ended.

By the Force, she truly hated flying, but there was no place for fear in her heart.

But in his heart, he was still a little boy from the poorest slum in the capital.

Like generations of Eirami, Phan-tu could hold his breath for long periods of time. It was a trait that had come about from eras of diving for food.

A place of shadows where he didn’t have to be Axel Greylark, son of the most important woman in the galaxy. He could just be his wretched self.

She needed pain to focus on what she had to do.

He’d lost his boy, his first son and heir, to those waters. If something had happened to Xiri— Well. He’d rip Eiram apart, pollute their oceans, blacken their clouds. He’d find a way. He’d do anything and everything in his power to destroy them.

“Talk to me when you can make the call to send our soldiers to their deaths. Better yet, talk to me when you can look someone in their eyes and watch the light leave them. You’ve grown too comfortable, Viceroy, while our people starve.”

All that power and it granted him everything but peace.

Through the Path of the Open Hand, she had learned that every part of her lived in harmony, and her misfortunes? They were the fault of those who used the Force, like the Jedi.