STARDUST

He could sense her approach, quiet footsteps against the dusty ground audible to his improved hearing. His head cocked slightly, one hand resting on his staff and the other holding his collection dish, a few loose coins rattling around it. Perhaps enough to get a meal for the night, he would count it later, but for now, it could wait.

“Comfort and nostalgia for an old blind man,” he spoke calmly, giving away nothing in his answer, although he elected to not answer that she must pay for that response. He was treading on difficult ground as it was, and he had to be cautious.

It was’t the answer that she was seeking, but an answer nonetheless. Though it did little to ease her curiosity about this strange man. Few people paid much attention to what was left of the temple guardians, finding them to be more troublesome than before the temple was stripped of its kyber. In the past weeks since the harvesting began, the only ones who remained were the blind man and his guardian, and she wondered if they would remain long after the Empire withdrew from Jedha. There would be nothing left but an empty temple and faint memories of a dead warrior race.

She was with the Empire, he could tell as much, and yet he could sense the Kyber crystal hanging at the base of her neck. Unusual in one of the Empire’s young proteges, he noted to himself, for they had been taking the Kyber crystals from the city and he highly doubted it was for making jewelry. No, something foul was afoot, and he had the feeling that it would soon come time to leave Jedha, even if it was his home. 

“Your necklace for your fortune? Yes, I’m talking to you,” he called out. It was a risky move, but at the same time, it felt right. Baze would doubtless be happy with him for it- he could feel the other man’s presence in the archway a few feet away but it was worth a try.

The shout was unexpected, so much so that it stopped her dead in her tracks, eyes swiveling from her predetermined path to rest on the monk. Immediately she let the crystal fall from her fingers, back into the hidden safety of her collar. Not even the storm troopers noticed the gesture, though they were quick to try and turn her from her new object of interest after they took notice of the bodyguard behind the monk. 

“Ma’am, the Director is expecting-”

“I don’t care.” 

“We have orders-”

“You have new orders. Quiet or I’ll drop you both into a mining shaft.”

That effectively silenced them, and she was pleased that they allowed her to approach the monk. From a distance, once could notice that he was blind, with the way he reached out sightless with a collection dish, pale blue eyes unblinking, staring. 

@jynperial liked for a starter

The Empire did not frighten Chirrut. He had survived many things against the odds, including living in hiding in Jedha of all places, an Imperial-occupied city where things could be most vicious. But no one suspected the old blind monk- after all, the Guardians of the Whills had always been present in Jedha alongside the Jedi and while they had been cast out there were still some of them who remained there. It was easy to blend in.