On Still Drinking Tea With Friends

“I have seen the world burn. I have seen the skies die. I have seen the heavens fall. I h-”

“Have been through some shit,” Ruby interjected.

The siblings sat opposite one another in an old, oblivious tearoom on the border of Akashima. Outside, if you were to venture ten feet west of the gardens, you would find yourself in Corone. East, you would find the rice fields of the southern district.

“That is blunt.”

“No. It is not. You have had two years to dwell on your actions, Lillith. Akashima, after all it has witnessed moves on with gusto. Here you are,” the red headed matriarch prodded an accusatory finger at the cup of tea before he sibling, “drowning your sorrows once more in the past.”

Home truths were the concrete that kept Lillith Kazumi and Ruby Winchester sane. Despite their differences, their ability to state the truth without complaint that ensured their continued success. Though Akashima rebuilt itself in the wake of the war with the Greater Oni, Lillith found herself bereft of that same regenerative drive.

“The gods themselves sit on my shoulders,” Lillith replied. She lifted the stoneware cup to her lips, took a subtle draft of tea, and kept it held, like a salve for her wounds, between forefinger and thumb. “I spent centuries warring only to find myself without an enemy.”

Ruby shrugged.

“We are all in the same boat, sister.”

Both siblings spent the better part of two years searching for peace in the mundane existence of their ‘lives away from war’. Ruby, a homemaker in Scara Brae’s quagmire politic, had suffocated in the inability she had to do anything productive. Lillith chained by the newly formed senate’s rules, driven to the brink of insanity with constant, divisive, and paper pushing meetings.

They stared north, where the walls of the teahouse gave way and revealed the expanse of valley below. Atop a cliff, Sei’s Tea House found itself in a unique place in the ever-changing Akashima. Out of sight. All but out of mind. Two server boys, in black uniforms, rushed between tables with trays of steaming dumpling and stewed onagri, only to refill, empty, and rush out with another order. Only when the sunset would they find piece.

“But, what do I do?” Lillith shrugged.

Exasperated, Ruby did away with the pretence of drinking tea with friends. Although the blend they enjoyed most, on the rare chance they have to attend the teahouse, was delicious…the prospect of uncertain futures spoiled it. She folded her arms across her ample bosom and rattled off her reasoning.

“Fight. Keep fighting. Oversee the changes you and others like you died to see come to fruition.” Ruby watched Lillith go through the emotions of recognition, torment, and guilt. “Nejo is gone. Most of Capitol traumatised, riddled with grief. The southern tribes of ninja are brought low.” She cocked her head, expectant.

“And?” Lillith replied, meekly.

“You stand alone amidst the ruins. You can make sure that Akashima does not forget the sacrifices it has made to be a part of this world. You alone can make sure that no Kami, or Oni, or tyrant true ever puts your home beneath its boot.”

It had been nearly a decade since they had last partaken in Sei’s hospitality. Then, times were simpler. The Forgotten One Oblivion was a promise. Akashima was stagnant, but no war waged. The Greater Oni worked behind the scenes. Corone found a saviour in the Ixian Knights. Althanas proper took to its namesake – a company of kindred folk.

“So this man…this, ‘Shinzo’…”

Ruby rolled her eyes.

“You think he will help me?”

Three weeks ago, rumours of a magical sword (as most adventures began), circulated around Scara Braen smoking parlours. Ruby, out on the cards, overheard too many rumours to ignore.

“We’re oft in the company of men who will fall on their swords for gold. In this case,” Ruby wrinkled her nose, “he’ll fall on his sword for a sword.” A certain irony aside, her associates in the Scara Scourge and the Corone Armed Forces (thanks to a certain long toothed Orc), put forth an ultimatum to the man in question.

“If he doesn’t turn up?”

“He will. Just,” Ruby waved a dismissive hand at her sister’s lunch and turned to gaze out wistfully at the midday mists. “Stuff your face.”

Lillith set down her cup and made short work of a medley of tea-stained eggs. Their firm shape and subtle, ginger undertones marked them as Sei’s special items. Only gifted to sono tokubetsu na hito. ‘That special person’.