A Thousand Awkward Autumns (Open)

[Lillith]

War has been my life for so long now I do not know how to find peace. Born to defend, living to protect, and dying time and time again for my failures. This is no life to lead. This is no natural balance. The only way I am going to break this cycle, however, is to become stronger. I must fight harder, longer, faster, better. I must learn to control the emotions that rage within, lest they unleash the demons that are entombed in my frail form.

“Give me an opponent whose rages and ferocity matches my anger,” she said softly to the monks at the reception desk.

They nodded silently, a pair of twins Lilith had seen each time she came to the Citadel. They knew her. They expected her. They anticipated her to succeed. They walked around the dusty countertop and advanced quickly and silently across the flagstones. The assassin followed, knowing that they would guide her to a pair of doors as thick as a castle’s walls and the bounty of battle and pain beyond.

“Give me a trial,” she continued in a whisper, “that will set my soul ablaze once more.”

For so long now, the kimono wearing daughter of Akashima had wandered aimlessly. She had no purpose. She was bereft a brother and a friend. She was a woman born to kill with no name to hunt in the cold, long, and hard darkness of the world. Perhaps here, perhaps today, she would hunt again.

[redford]

John's feet wandered back to the Citadel yet again. The spires of blackened stone that had seemed to picturesque before were now simply components of a building. The structure was not beautiful or elegant, nor was it detestable and ugly. It simply was, like all things.

Not unlike myself, I suppose, he thought pensively. So much of his life had been filled with intense desire; there was the great love of his wife and daughter, the loyalty to his family house, his desperation to find some reason to live after his exile. But now, there was no great burning within him, no passion or fear or anger or love; there was simply his existence, an existence that he didn't quite know what to do with.

And so, the Citadel's walls loomed before him again and again. John came more out of simple routine than genuine desire. He was so far inside his own mind that he hadn't noticed the monk that strode toward him.

Snapped out of his thoughts, John straightened his back and set his jaw, recognizing the monk as brother Jor. John noted silently that he'd been getting into better shape; the pudge around his belly was nearly gone, and his jawbone was more defined, though not for lack of muscle. He smiled pleasantly.

"Again?" He asked. "I'd've thought that little girl would keep you away from this place, at least for a while,"

"Again," John said, more to himself than anyone.

"Alright, come on, got a girl round here that'll give you a challenge," Jor said, walking away as he waved at John over his shoulder.

Soon a glowing green doorway was before him and the world twisted for a moment before he saw the arena.

[Lillith]

Lillith sat on a rock at the heart of a walled garden. For those familiar with Scara Braen architecture, it was an excellent example of Valeena'n style lavished with the island's warm summer glow. Four paths lead away from the rock, gravelled thoroughfares between four large squares of pristinely kept jade green grass. The four walls of the garden were indomitably high, too steep to climb alone, but covered in ivy whose roots were thick enough to support a man's weight.

“And here entered the villain,” the assassin said chirpily. She gestured wide and beamed a smile as the door appeared in the rock to the south.

The sun cascaded down onto the arena, uncomfortably warm and yet welcoming. The four lawns would not stay jade for long, and the quartz edging that kept the gravel on the path and the bees dancing merrily over the grass danced with the day’s reflections. She remained cross legged until the door crashed open. Carefully, she slipped off the edge and advanced two feet forwards.

“Welcome, stranger,” she shouted to the figure in the darkness. The monk that guided him to the door was already gone. The duties of the Ai’bron kept them too busy to talk much, even if they could.

Lillith wore black geta, a simple keikogi (http://www.thevikingstore.co.uk/ekmps/shops/thevikingstore1/images/costume-budo-keikogi-[2]-5758-p.jpg) with a white tunic and red obi tied tightly at the waist. She appeared unarmed, but carried tanto about her person, and kunai in her soles. Her hair was tied back into a bun.