Bravery did not come easily to her naturally. She spent too much time weighing her options to be brave. Too much time calculating the many paths before her. But Mariko knew it was time to do more. Time to be more.
In the lie she heard the truth.
The darkness that had recently become her refuge would also likely bring about her ruin.
Her thoughts began to wind through her mind with the slow squeeze of a snake.
This was an experiment, and experiments of all sorts intrigued her. They offered a way to glean knowledge. To use it - shape it, mold it - into whatever she needed it to be.
It was all unfathomably frightening. Darkly fascinating.
Death follows indecision, like a twisted shadow.
Her resolve hardened once more. Hardened like folded steel shaped and reshaped under a red-hot flame for countless days and nights. Until nothing could best it.
Sometimes we must fall forward to keep moving. Remain motionless - remain unyielding - and you are as good as dead. Fall forward. Keep moving. Even if you must pick yourself up first.
Our greatest enemy can often be found within.
"Stop asking questions. Truly you don't learn."
If I'm going to die, what is there left to learn?
No. She needed to be brave.
And there was always something left to learn.
She was beginning to realize that honor did not serve her well in a den of thieves.
The fool thought knowledge did not win wars? Knowledge was everything in a war.
It was not a gift, nor was it a blessing. It simply was.
"We are so much more than what we do!" Mariko drew closer, as if nearness could invoke a sense of truth. "We are . . . " She searches her mind for the right things to say. "Our thoughts, our memories, our beliefs!" Her eyes dropped to the dying boy. To the evil tree, slowly draining him of life. "This tree is not the forest," she said softly. "It is but one part."
No matter how high a man rose in life, death was the greatest of equalizers.
Anger is an emotion that poisons all else.
"I believe the stars align so that souls can find one another. Weather they are meant to be souls in love or souls in life remains to be seen."
Beautiful words were beautiful words, even to the most practical minds.
Time would soon reveal truth.
The touch of true strength is as light as a feather.
The deeper you dig, the higher the walls around you become.
How a night sky darkened words as well. Imbued them with shadowed meaning. What once was innocent became illicit with nothing but a glance.
"When all I strive for each day is to convince my shadow I'm someone worth following."
I've been blind to so much. I've thought I possessed the truth so often. When in truth I've possessed nothing.
Perhaps my mind saw only what it wished to see.
In all his life Okami had never thought to find love. Because he'd never sought it. Love was a burden he did not want. When others had described it to be like an arrow or a bolt of lightning, he'd sneered inwardly. Both were things that could kill. Love to him was not a shot to the heart. It was not a sudden, unpredictable thing. Love was a sunrise. A welter of crimson that rose much like a warning. Slowly and almost in secret.
"I thought I possessed all the answers. Or at least most of them. Now I know I understand nothing."
"That knowledge is key to understanding the world, don't you think?"
Mariko supposed it was possible all women and men were forced to wear their own kind of masks.
The only great mistakes are the mistakes that remain ignored.
Fear kept her alert. She would always let it feed her. Never let it consume her.
"Stay or go. I leave it to you. But you are welcome always. In all ways."
"My heart knows your heart. A heart doesn't care about good or bad, right or wrong. A heart is always true."
The magic of a night sky filled with stars. Of a haunted forest with demons hidden in its folds. Of a liar, cloaked in truth.
Everything around her was rendered in shades of grey and white. Of black and silver.
The only power any man has over you is the power you give him.
A flurry of words collided in her mind, searching for order amidst chaos. Seeking truth amidst lies.
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