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 Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2011 10:39 am
❀ Page 3 ❀
✿✿✿✿✿✿ 16. Table of Contents
✿✿✿✿✿✿ 17. PRP/Battle - The Lion Sleeps Tonight
✿✿✿✿✿✿ 18. Conspiracy Theories
✿✿✿✿✿✿ 19. PRP - Vapor & Scars
✿✿✿✿✿✿ 20. PRP - Tea for Two
✿✿✿✿✿✿ 21. PRP/Battle - Quiet After the Storm
✿✿✿✿✿✿ 22. Solo Battle - Time's Oldest Snare
✿✿✿✿✿✿ 23. Memories
✿✿✿✿✿✿ 24. PRP/Battle - Housing Woes
✿✿✿✿✿✿ 25. PRP - What in the World?
✿✿✿✿✿✿ 26. Solo Battle - The Girl Next Door
✿✿✿✿✿✿ 27. ???
✿✿✿✿✿✿ 28. Bataar, the Artist
✿✿✿✿✿✿ 29. PRP - Grocery List
✿✿✿✿✿✿ 30. Solo Battle - Prison Break
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Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2011 12:26 pm
✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿PRP/BATTLE - THE LION SLEEPS TONIGHT✿✿✿✿✿Honestly! I thought I’d been rid of him for good. I hadn’t seen him around since we were both students. Just a little while ago, though, I woke up from a dream and saw a man peering through my window. It gave me a bit of a scare, but I looked closer and realized that it was that stinky Noble, Bataar. Dear journal, I don’t think I can express my dismay enough. I have no idea how long he was standing there, but this takes creepy to a new level.
✿✿✿✿✿I got up to give him a piece of my mind, and, again, I really cannot stress to you how much of an idiot he is—he’s looking through the window, and when I ask him what the hell he’s doing on our property he asks me why I’m there and what I was doing. Seriously? Obviously I live here and obviously I was sleeping! My Goddess! Interrupting my beauty sleep just to ask me stupid questions—is he really a captain? If he’s the best the Nobles have to offer, then we as Legionnaires really have nothing to worry about.
✿✿✿✿✿I got the idea to subtly inquire what he was here for. I’d hoped that he might know something about where Thanh Long was, but he seemed as clueless as ever. I’m proud to say I didn’t divulge anything of interest about our family, not that I know very much to hide.
✿✿✿✿✿Anyway, as it turns out, I am pretty sure Bat was lost. Actually, I know he was, because he had the most mortified expression on his face when I accused him of it. It’s happened before—people (Sara, remember) seem to be predisposed to finding our property at inconvenient hours of the night. He and I got into a little argument about it, and—oh, the funniest thing—he started choking for no apparent reason. In hindsight, laughing was probably a bad idea, since he dealt me a pretty hard blow to the jaw that still hurts when I touch it.
✿✿✿✿✿He didn’t do any lasting damage, thank goodness, but I decided to take the fight outside. I nearly almost killed the brute, too, but a lucky block on his part saved him from my sword. The rest of the fight, I’m a bit embarrassed to say, was something of a scramble as I was left without a weapon and had to make do with the fruits of the rainforest. That was the closest to death I’ve been for a while, though, and not because of Bat—we apparently disrupted a mother tiger and she effectively broke up the fight.
✿✿✿✿✿I got away with a few scrapes and bruises, nothing that will hinder me too much in the rice-cooking competition tomorrow. I don’t know where Bataar went. I hope he got eaten; it would serve him right. If he didn’t, well, he better hope he never sees me again.
✿✿✿✿✿I’m... fairly certain that he doesn’t know anything about Thanh Long. Any intelligent Noble would never dream of trusting him with that kind of information. It’s either that, or Bat has played an extremely convincing idiot act for the entire time I’ve known him. Unfortunate, really, to always be seen as the dumbass, no matter your rank and age.
✿✿✿✿✿Well, I just wanted to record this so I can look back on it and laugh later. It's back to bed for me; I do have to get up early for the competition, after all. ✿ Âu Tuyết Vân✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿
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Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2011 12:28 pm
✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿CONSPIRACY THEORIESDeep violet eyes blinked open quietly, scanning the thick forest surroundings uselessly for signs, for anything from the Goddess that would enlighten her on the events that had racked Lunaria. Van had visited the Imperial City for the first time in about a week earlier in the day, only to find bodies hanging from the charred remains of the cherry tree atop Cherry Tree Hill, and, as she ran through the city to make sense of it, more bodies strewn across the streets.
She had returned home to the news that the Emperor was dead. Her mother was in tears, and her father had been staring stonily into the fireplace for hours now. When the young fighter pressed for more information, she received none. Nobody knew how, when, or why this had happened, simply that the elusive figurehead over Lunaria—the Emperor—was now gone, and that their fates were uncertain now. So Van had run back outside into the warm jungle rain, more shocked and distraught than she wanted to display to her parents.
Only the Goddess knew. Van hardly noticed the warm trickles of water running down her skin, drenching her expensive clothes as she knelt upon the stone in front of her family’s small shrine. She had meditated, she had prayed—but she felt no more enlightened than she had those hours ago when she’d first come out. It was indeed a dark time for Lunaria.
The events compounded upon one another in her mind. The woman’s eyes were open, but they were not seeing. Images of the night her brother had been abducted ran across her mind’s eye, one after the other, with the sight of the dead bodies on the street, the remains of Cherry Tree Hill mixed in—the memories whirled sickeningly in her mind, making her dizzy and short of breath. These events were all connected, but what did they signify? Not knowing why was not something that the fighter had ever been able to accept, but now it seemed that her entire being was racked with questions of what, how, why...
And no one had answers. All of Van’s attempts to find them had ended badly. She thought back to her first official mission as a fighter. It was supposed to be a simple recovery mission, but the scars on her back were a permanent reminder of how the operation had gone awry. And the black market was rife with all sorts of stories, naturally, but it had gotten past the point where they were reliable.
She had done everything within her abilities to get to the bottom of things. She’d even enlisted the help of others and their connections for information. Where could the woman turn now? Earlier in the night, she had been sure that the Emperor’s death had been at the hands of the Nobles. Yet, now that she had thought about it at length, she realized that it could have just as easily been done at the hands of the Legion, by some looking to usurp power... particularly because, she remembered, the bodies hanging on the Cherry Tree had been Nobles.
And perhaps the most dangerous notion of all was that neither side was at fault. The Neutral Guard that was being assembled now did little to put her fears to rest. The idea of such a guard intrigued her, and if that was where the power and knowledge was, that was where she wanted to be. There was no way she could join them, however, not at the risk of losing the rest of her family upon her defection.
Sighing, Van got to her feet in the middle of the rain to head back inside. It was useless to search for the answers when there were, apparently, none to be found. 
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Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2011 12:32 pm
✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿PRP - VAPOR & SCARS✿✿✿✿✿I notice now that I haven’t written much about Sara. This is not due to any severe oversight on my part, but more because bringing her up means bringing up an entire slew of subjects that I’d rather not remind myself of. After today, though, it’s become necessary for me to at least pen this entry.
✿✿✿✿✿The circumstances under which we met still puzzle me, but I think I’m beginning to understand why her spirits led her to my home, if that is indeed what happened those many months ago. Since graduation, though, I stopped seeing her around so often except for only briefly at the wedding. It seemed that our emerging friendship had been on hold for a while, and this was probably due in part to the fact that my captain tends to assign me to long-term, undercover missions these days. It’s nice having an excuse to buy new clothes all the time (not that I ever needed to look very far for one), but it’s at the cost of the time I spend for myself. I’m never home anymore.
✿✿✿✿✿Being a fighter is rather lonely, dear journal. I still crave the one-night infiltration missions that the bigger, burlier fighters get assigned to, but I suppose the captains are expected to assign fighters to operations according to their strengths. Though, with the sudden shortage in manpower after the Emperor’s death, perhaps I might get an interesting mission soon? Ah, I’m getting off-topic—the point is, I don’t have any free time these days.
✿✿✿✿✿That’s why today was so nice. Sara and I went to the hot springs for a well-deserved soak, and afterward, a shopping trip and a brief stop by the tea cart for some rose tea. It was as if nothing had ever changed, dear journal—Sara is still the sweetheart she always was, somehow even managing to coax me into telling her about Thanh Long. It’s strange because we are so different; after all this she still manages to exude innocence, whereas I merely feel tired and jaded. Somehow we are friends, and in many ways I think we need each other. That’s the conclusion I’ve come to, at least, for even as I try to protect her, she ends up helping me in return anyway. The scar I got from my first mission is hardly even noticeable, now.
✿✿✿✿✿She came back here afterward to introduce herself properly to my parents, and speak with the spirits surrounding the house about what could have happened that night when the Nobles came. What she came up with was mostly intel we’d already collected by this point, but I did get a handful of names... that I can’t write here in case someone finds this and reads it. I know I have that paranoia more than most, but when it’s this sort of information, it’s prudent!
✿✿✿✿✿I didn’t tell my parents. I think this is what Father was trying to challenge me to do, back at commencement. As a tenryujin, I’m sure those names will get back to him eventually, anyway. But now I’m the one with the lead, with the head start, and I plan on capitalizing on it as soon as possible. I don’t know what kind of time I have anymore, though—any day now I’m supposed to get shipped off to an indefinitely lasting recon mission, one that’s apparently more advanced than any of the ones I’ve been on before.
✿✿✿✿✿Both are challenges I’m willing to accept. This Noble captain is rumored to be a tough one to crack, but as far as reconnaissance missions, I have a 100% record due to my ‘specialized skill set’ (Captain was very cheeky when he told me that; I wanted to slap him). And Long, well, I’ve already said I’m willing to go to any lengths to get him back. So I guess this is goodbye to you, dear journal, and to my friends for another long period of time, but I hope to have made great strides toward my goals by the time I get back. ✿ Âu Tuyết Vân✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿
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Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2011 4:06 pm
✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿PRP - TEA FOR TWO✿✿✿✿✿paragraph ✿ Âu Tuyết Vân✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿
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Posted: Thu Dec 22, 2011 4:08 pm
✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿PRP/BATTLE - QUIET AFTER THE STORM✿✿✿✿✿For a minute there I really thought that we could be friends—and if not friends, then we’d at least be on speaking terms. That was a brief minute of stupidity, now wasn’t it? I ran into Kiran at Cherry Tree Hill earlier tonight, on my way to the... night markets in the Imperial City. We traded polite conversation for a few minutes, the way any old acquaintances would. We were talking about the Emperor and the recent unsettling events that had been occurring in the city. And I was sure we were both on the same side as far as not knowing anything about the Imperial situation, but he quickly put that thought to rest as he swung his hand nearly into my face.
✿✿✿✿✿Thank goddess I got to him first. I’m still a bit confused as to how a normal conversation could escalate so suddenly into a fistfight, but it only means one thing—that Nobles and Legionnaires can’t be friends. How could they? The moment we try to make peace, someone has to throw a punch and send us all back to square one. I never went out of my way to befriend any of them, but now I don’t think I want to.
✿✿✿✿✿I’ve been right all along. Any sort of relationship between the opposing factions is fragile, at best. It’s the self-righteous types like Kiran who make me happy to be a Legionnaire. Before I couldn’t always say with certainty why I’m aligned with the Legion, but at least now I can say I am, partially because I don’t want to be grouped together with those two men in anything.
✿✿✿✿✿He’s gotten better since the last time we fought. I think it’s interesting that his weapons of choice are a pair of tonfa, but I managed to get a few slices in with my deer horn knives, myself. The fight would have continued for longer, had I not realized that we were fighting in front of what used to be my favorite monument in all of Lunaria. His polluted blood certainly wasn’t worthy of being spilt over the remains of that tree. ✿ Âu Tuyết Vân✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿
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Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2011 3:40 pm
✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿SOLO BATTLE - TIME'S OLDEST SNARE✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿Noble Win“Are you crying?” Raiden asked, kissing her cheeks to find that they were wet.
Van laughed shortly, settling against his chest so he couldn’t see her eyes. “Don’t flatter yourself.”
The Noble captain laughed in kind, and reached one muscled arm around her waist to pull her closer to him under the blankets. His lips found their way onto Van’s forehead, down the bridge of her straight nose. He nudged her nose with his, getting her attention, and luminous violet eyes opened to look into his. “Van,” he breathed, “I love you.”
The Legionnaire’s eyes were large, before her mouth widened into a smile and the corners of her eyes crinkled at the words. “I love you, too.” That was the truth.
He closed the distance between their faces again, and she could feel the smile on his lips as he kissed her. But she couldn’t bring herself to smile back, knowing that their time together was drawing to an end. And as he fell asleep beside her, she couldn’t help but let the tears seep out of the corners of her eyes, into Raiden’s patterned pillowcase.
When she was sure he was asleep, she rolled onto her back, letting his hands slip off of her waist. With all of the stealth of an experienced fighter, she slid off of the bed. The sudden chill gave her goose bumps, and she shivered quietly, looking longingly back at the warm bed and the man in it. Unfortunately, this was something she had accepted to do long ago. Van collected her clothes, one by one in the dark, being careful to leave nothing behind.
On her way out, her foot nudged something soft, and she bent over to pick up Raiden’s shirt. Staring at it as she realized what it was, she brought the dark red fabric to her face, breathing in his scent. For a moment, Van contemplated taking it with her, but she knew that she couldn’t risk the mission for sentimental items. Folding the shirt swiftly, she placed it at the foot of his bed before silently vacating the room.
The fighter had already been running for an hour under the cover of forest and night, but somehow she couldn’t shake the sensation that she was being followed. Every few minutes, she found herself looking into the trees behind her for signs of life. Nothing moved. The only sounds that could be heard were the muffled staccato of her footsteps in the soft forest dirt, and her own ragged breathing as she slowly but surely began to tire. Was she far enough away now? The woman had run for miles—no Lunarian would pursue her so far from civilization and not show himself by now, she was sure of it.
As soon as she slowed her run to a more leisurely walking pace, however, she was met by a wall of fire that bloomed up from the ground in front of her. The fighter yelped as she fell backwards to avoid it, narrowly missing the yellow fire; she barely got away with a burnt sleeve and slightly singed hair. The rank odor was quickly lost to her senses as she realized with a sinking feeling that the fire had encircled her, effectively trapping her.
Through the flames, she could see Raiden emerge from the trees just ahead. His arms were folded, his walk slow and unhurried. How had he managed to catch up to her so quickly?
“Raiden,” she said his name, hoping to invoke mercy, anything that would let her gain an edge in the situation.
The damage had been done. As he raised his head, she saw that his crimson eyes were hard, suspicious. She didn’t shy away from his cold gaze, but held it steady, as if she had nothing to hide. His expression, so different from how he was looking at her just hours ago, stung her, but she couldn’t let him know that.
Their staring contest went on for several moments longer, before Raiden raised both scaled hands and clasped them together, forming a seal. “Kai,” was his low murmur, and the wall of fire slowly abated until all that was left was a ring of dark ashes around the purple Lunarian.
The Legionnaire got up slowly, making sure her hands were in sight so as not to provoke him to attack. Not bothering to brush herself off, she straightened up and stared back at the Noble Retainers’ greatest captain, who was clearly expecting her to explain herself.
Her mother had said that this might happen, and Van realized now that she was stupid to think she could run away without confrontation. Now, she could tell Raiden the truth, or she could go through with the plan she had devised over the past few days, the one that would ensure he’d never want to see her again. In her mind she already knew which path she was destined, required to take, but that didn’t make it any less devastating. Suddenly, a smirk spread across her face, and she shrugged and held both hands up in a sign of admission.
“Alright, you got me.” She watched him hesitate, as if he didn’t want to hear what she had to say. Yet, he remained still, for it was his obligation to the Nobles to hear her out.
“Ah,” the fighter breathed lightly, continuing in a smug tone, “to think of how the Legion will praise me when they learn that I seduced the great Captain Raiden. They said it couldn’t be done, but it looks like I’ve proved them wrong. I’ve made a fool out of you, love.”
The words were foreign, acrid on her tongue, but she couldn’t take them back, even as she wanted to throw herself at his feet and tell him everything, to beg him to understand. Instead, she watched him bristle, no doubt burying his shock and horror deep behind the impassive mask he wore now.
Van sniffed then, trying not to let his nonreaction faze her. The smirk on her face remained intact. “You made it too easy for us. As soon as I got you into bed with me, you were a goner. Sex, that’s all it really was. But you called it love.” And she laughed cruelly, a high, harsh laugh which was unlike her normal one—the one that she would later claim she used to seduce him.
“I’ve taken everything we need, so I’m going home.” She placed a hand on her hip now, challenging him. “Are you going to chase me, darling, like you have for the past year?” It was all she could do to keep the aloof expression on her face, while the storm inside her raged. Every word of it hurt coming out—infinitely more than she had thought it would. But she could no longer turn back.
“No,” Raiden said, pulling himself into a fighting position. The fortitude in his voice surprised both of them. “I’ll kill you tonight.”
If he had been hurt, he hadn’t shown it. Instead Van had watched as his expression turned from troubled to angered. He was serious, and she was wounded. This was all it took for him to turn against her. She averted her eyes now, no longer able to hold his gaze without betraying her emotions.
“Bring it,” she declared proudly, unsheathing her butterfly swords as she too readied herself for the fight. Her irises darkened in anticipation of his first move.
The woman evaded him easily as he charged at her, making a swipe at her legs with his fire-enhanced wakizashi. It was a simple start, and Van could not help but wish it was because he didn’t want to fight her, for facing him was the last thing she wanted to do. The two Lunarians circled each other slowly, each watching the other for signs of the next move, for some muscle tic that might signify an attack. Van’s mind raced through her options, finding that there were few. He was still stronger than her—she’d never beat him in a head-to-head battle. Somehow she had to detain him.
Raiden wasn’t going to make this easy for her—he knew well how she fought, and the first thing he did to put her at a disadvantage was attack again, his rapid sword work preventing her from planning too far ahead. Seconds stretched into minutes as they dueled, with Van barely managing to block or dodge his decisive slashes. In a lucky break, Van saw an opening, and, wrapping her butterfly swords quickly around his, jerked the wakizashi out of his hand. The fighter nearly smiled in triumph as the short sword landed several meters away, but it quickly became apparent that their fight was far from over. He wasted no time in charging at her, fists flying. She sheathed her weapons.
Her martial arts skills weren’t as good as his, but she was faster than him. Van caught his balled fists with her hands, and occasionally managed to get hits in that he couldn’t avoid for inferior reflexes. The fighter could see that his superior strength was driving her back, though, and suddenly, she’d withdrawn from their close-quarters spar, leaving him lunging at air.
It took only a moment’s glance for the Noble to realize that she’d transported a few feet away to recover, and he ran at her again, determined not to let her have that moment. Van had expected him to close the small gap between them with no trouble at all, however, and had prepared herself. His leg collided with her crossed forearms in a well-timed block. Scowling, the Legionnaire shook out her arms before spinning on the spot and disappearing into the trees, much farther than she’d teleported before. He followed her, searching the darkness for the remnants of her magic signature.
Van knew she had been spotted when she heard Raiden suddenly change course, the crashing of trees behind her indicating that he was catching up. Throwing a panicked look behind her, the femme found that her lover had been reunited with his wakizashi. Another wall of fire sprung up in front of her, stopping her forward progress. Van cursed and backed into a nearby tree, only to have its branches wrap themselves around her under Raiden’s magic command. Just ahead she could see the captain running toward her, his blade aimed at her heart.
Her mistake of giving him time to recover his weapon had cost her. In what she was sure were the final moments of her life, Van decided to give up her act. Her arrogant face suddenly changed expression to that of total fear, and she squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the finishing strike.
It never came. The Legionnaire slowly opened first one eye, then the other. The magic-enhanced wakizashi had collided with the wood just above her shoulder, leaving in its wake a split tree, its remains charred and smoking. Their faces were mere inches apart, and she looked into his eyes, finding that his expression of surprise mirrored hers. The fire was gone; the branches relaxed their grip.
Van slumped forward, feeling as if she could cry in relief. Though Raiden said nothing, the beseeching look in his ruby eyes asked, “Why?”
Suddenly, everything caught up to her—that he’d come at her with the intent to kill, but had hesitated at the very last second; that she’d responded in kind, trying to end his life before he ended hers... She could make up with him now, or she could run away. Her expression went slack for a brief second as she faltered and her lips hovered just in front of his.
The moment of indecision was nearly imperceptible. Van touched her lips to his, wanting to savor it, wanting to love him, but she knew as she pulled away that it could never be. “Learn from this, Raiden,” she said stiffly, her voice once again the sound of undeserved pride even though she had just lost their battle. The woman regarded him as he stepped back from her, pain and hurt clearly painting his expression now.
She could no longer stand it. Van broke their gaze and turned around, fleeing into the darkness, knowing that she had cemented his hatred of her in their last kiss. He wasn’t following her. He’d let her go.
What no one could see was that her mask of arrogance disintegrated as she ran away, and the throes of shock and grief found place in her. With both eyes wide open, she had walked straight into time's oldest snare. Tears flew from the corners of her eyes as she fled, lost in the wind just like the love she’d just thrown away.
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Posted: Fri Dec 23, 2011 3:54 pm
✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿MEMORIES依然记得从你眼中滑落的泪伤心欲绝
混乱中有种热泪烧伤的错觉
黄昏的地平线 割断幸福喜悦
相爱已经幻灭
I still remember the tears that slid from your eyes sorrowful and despairing
In the confusion, there was an illusion of being scalded by scorching tears
The horizon at dusk, severed all happiness
Love has already vanished
Scarred, calloused hands carefully flipped through the tattered pages of a small, purple journal. These hands, though worn, had the capacity to be surprisingly gentle. Raiden had always commented on this.
Van’s amethyst gaze scanned the rows of her neat script, finding a small measure of amusement in reading through the stories of her childhood and her Academy years. How the world had seemed much smaller, simpler then. Since Van had become a fighter, however, the entries became fewer and farther in between. This was due in part to the fact that she had merely become much busier, but also because many of the things she was now involved in, she could not risk putting into print for the enemy to find.
Raiden was one such story. As she looked now, the Legionnaire realized that she had not penned a single word in the diary on her Noble lover. This meant that the only things she had to remember him by were her memories of him. Those, and the various gifts he’d given her, but Van doubted she’d be able to wear or use them without feeling that dull, characteristic ache in her chest. And so she stowed them all away in a dark corner of her closet, never to be recovered. With nothing to rely on but her memories, she only hoped that one day they would fade, and that she would eventually question whether those things had even happened in the first place.
Not now, though. The pain was too great, the wound too fresh. The reconnaissance mission had taken Van an entire year to complete, and in that year she’d managed both to seduce the Noble Captain and fall in love with him, all while stealing detailed battle plans and Noble profiles right from under his regal nose. Usually, it wouldn’t have taken her so long, but this “females-only” (she scoffed now as she thought of the term) mission had been marked among one of the highest ranking missions available, both in difficulty and in the value of the classified information.
And Van had completed it with flying colors. She had garnered acclaim and recognition from her fellow fighters, from the captains who’d been assigned as her handlers, and while she thought these would make her feel better, she realized now that their pretty words did nothing to fill the quickly expanding hole in her heart. What was she fighting for, if it wasn’t the praise of the Legion?
Her eyes caught on a single word on the page—Jun. She easily recalled the image of the tan-skinned boy from the Academy. His crimson eyes, light hair... and the fact that he also had an affinity for the color purple had made the two of them quite the dynamic couple back then. One day, he had up and disappeared without even so much as a goodbye. When Van went to check on him, all she found was the Huo Li residence boarded up and empty. At least then, she’d had her diary to go to. Smiling a bit at the emotional entry on the page, Van found herself grateful that she’d recorded her time with that particular Lunarian. It had comforted her for months when she’d needed it most.
She didn’t have that now, and she had no idea who to turn to. The fighter never had many female friends during her time in school, for reasons that mystified her to this day. Well, there was Sara, she remembered with a rueful smile, and Yue... but Sara seemed much too innocent to defile with the details of her sordid mission. And Yue, well, Yue was happily married and Van was fairly sure that Captain Jianyu made certain his wife was as far removed from such missions as possible.
Van closed her diary. It was alright. She’d get through this by herself, just like always. Somehow. Healing might be a long time coming but, she thought as she turned out the light and crawled into bed, all she needed was to begin anew. The fighter scanned the dark crevices of her room briefly before closing her eyes, deciding that there were too many lingering memories in the place. It was time to put it all aside and finally move out.
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Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2011 2:32 pm
✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿PRP/BATTLE - HOUSING WOES✿✿✿✿✿You would not believe all the trouble I’ve gone through to get this place. You’d think that, with the Emperor gone and Lunarians turning up missing only to be found dead in the street later, people would be fleeing and houses would be empty. This is not the case—I searched for months before I could find a decent place, even then only through a stroke of luck. Kiran pointed me here when I ran into him earlier in the month. It’s a nice and roomy ger right near the beach. The lease is for a year, and at a fairly low price for what it’s worth (this sounds terrible, but, at least the murders have been doing something to the real estate around here). Odval, the landlady, was very sweet too.
✿✿✿✿✿There’s one small problem—this is mostly a Noble neighborhood. The bigger problem is that Bataar used to live here. Biggest problem? I’m fairly certain that he’s going to harass me the entire time I’m here. Not that, you know, I can’t handle it—I did kick him out of the place just now—but I don’t want to be trying to bring someone home to find him sleeping in my bed or kicking back on my couch. How would I explain that to anyone? Just after I booted the man out the door, the movers came in with all my stuff. They didn’t say anything, but they took one look at my post-fight appearance, another look at the retreating Noble, and I think they assumed the worst.
✿✿✿✿✿But I couldn’t say anything! “Those damn Nobles,” nervous chuckle? No one buys that anymore after what happened; there are traitors in both factions. And ugh, I’ve surely had enough of Noble captains for a lifetime.
✿✿✿✿✿...I just realized that I talked about traitors and Noble captains in relation to myself in the same breath. It’s not like that at all—I’m still a full-blooded Legionnaire— (There is a blot of ink here, where Van rested her pen while to figure out what she was trying to say) There are so many things that I can no longer pen due to my profession as a fighter of the Legion, now, in case this journal falls into the wrong hands. I try to write about the things I do unrelated to missions, but these days it seems like my life is consumed by them. My mind certainly is—I just... can no longer come here to write my problems away as much as before.
✿✿✿✿✿Flipping through now and reading back on the things I used to worry about, it seems all so trivial. Things were much simpler then, and it was easier to be happy. I feel like my own existence has been darkened by the things that have happened since. But I don’t want to bore you with my angst, although you should know that this really is how everyone has been feeling these days. A few months ago I would have attributed it to the new-fighter blues, but now I know it’s not just me. Imagine that.
✿✿✿✿✿Onto a more pleasing subject—how to keep Bataar out of my house! Perhaps I should set some traps outside? Some sort of alarm system? Nothing that would hinder me while trying to get home myself, of course. In this neighborhood, though, I’m sure that Bataar won’t be the only one I’ll need to worry about. ✿ Âu Tuyết Vân✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿
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Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2011 3:44 pm
✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿PRP - WHAT IN THE WORLD?✿✿✿✿✿An interesting development, dear journal. First, may I say that right now I have the worst hangover I’ve ever had in my life? And second, that everything I ever thought I knew, is s**t. That’s right, s**t.
✿✿✿✿✿Well, perhaps I am exaggerating, but only just a bit. Yesterday morning, I woke up exactly where I am now to find Sara standing in the doorway. When I roll over to greet her, well, I’m met by this behemoth of a man Bataar in my bed next to me, and he’s naked. So in short, I flipped out. I don’t remember much from there—it was a lot of screaming and crying and throwing things on my part, because I thought he’d drugged me and raped me or something during the night. Upon closer examination, um, I’m fairly certain that wasn’t the case, because there was no evidence—oh, never mind. If anything happened, I don’t remember it and I’m damn glad for that. Otherwise I would literally go commit suicide out in the bushes right now.
✿✿✿✿✿This was not the interesting part; the interesting part was what happened after. Sara started screaming and swearing at the Noble, which is not something particularly strange for a Legionnaire to do, but I’ve never even dreamed that she would have it in her to do such a thing. And it was everything she said about loving him, kissing him (Goddess, it makes me shudder just to think about it)... they got into a fight over me right in my own house.
✿✿✿✿✿That’s right. I was speechless too. Sara was convinced that we’d had sex at some point during the night, whereas Bat was vehemently denying it. At this point, I am positive that I temporarily lost sanity and became a catatonic mess. After I’d removed myself from the situation it was all rather amusing for a bit, with her calling him a momma’s boy and pulling all the dirtiest moves in the book as she fought him. It was like watching myself... but because I’ve just acknowledged that, it means that I’ve absolutely failed at being a big sister to this woman.
✿✿✿✿✿Obviously, because now she’s consorting with a Noble captain whom I know to be among the lowest scum of Lunaria because—well, if he’d truly loved Sara, he wouldn’t have gone and put her in that situation. He wouldn’t have tried to twist her arm in half, and try to guilt her into submission because that's exactly what gets to her. And at the end of the day, he changes his mind and then she rushes to catch and heal him, unable to bear seeing him bleed out on my floor. Ugliest lovers' spat I've ever seen. It might have been terribly heart-wrenching, had I also not wanted to bore out my eyeballs at the same time. I wanted so much to look away, but in the end, I was unable to. The image is still imprinted in my mind and quite frankly, it scares me.
✿✿✿✿✿It is not so much that it’s Bataar—I am simply afraid that he is taking advantage of her, as men are wont to do with a woman as naïve as Sara. It worries me because I know all the tricks; I’ve done them myself. Even with all that she told me at the bar last night (suffice it to say that I don’t remember much), I wouldn’t put it past Bat. I don’t want to see Sara in pain.
✿✿✿✿✿And I’ll only admit this here; Sara’s pain would only remind me too much of my own. I can’t bear the guilt of seeing in her what I did to him. Oh dear journal, that was such a vile entry. I’ll rip the page out and burn it later—we’ll never need to remember that this happened.✿ Âu Tuyết Vân✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿
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Kurama no Koishi generated a random number between
1 and 3 ...
2!
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Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2011 3:45 pm
✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿SOLO BATTLE - THE GIRL NEXT DOORThe night was deceptively still as Van returned home, as if nature itself were sleeping. It was a perfect night for a kidnap-and-interrogate operation, exactly the kind of mission that Van and her squadron had just completed. Her face remained carefully emotionless as she crept quietly through the forests on her way back to her ger. She felt no sympathy for the man; her own brother had been captured by the Nobles in the same way. No, tonight’s mission was retribution on what had been wrought on the Au family those two years ago. Captain Liu Ruolan was one of the cloaked Nobles who got away that rainy night, an accomplice in a mission to tear apart the heads of the illustrious Au clan. The Nobles’ ultimate objective had not been realized then, but they didn’t walk away emptyhanded, leaving Van’s family sans one very important captain.
As far as Van was concerned, the scores were not yet even. The Legion was only four for five on the Noble squadron who’d stormed her house, three of whom were brought down by Van and Vinh Hung himself the night of. One of the captains was still out there, and even if they managed to capture him, things would not be right again until Thanh Long was returned to the Legion. She didn’t care what it took to bring him home—she’d torture and interrogate every last Noble if she had to, until she found what she wanted. Her obsession was consuming her.
The image of a bloody pair of pliers flashed briefly in her mind. Van recalled Ruolan tied up in the chair, her own teeth littering the floor around her as the four Legionnaires demanded the locations of Noble safehouses and prisons. The fighter had stepped back, then, allowing her teammates to do the dirty work as she wondered which of the names the woman spat out was the one she was looking for. No matter. Van felt confident that the Legion would infiltrate each and every one to free the prisoners.
Her feet hit sand, now, as she began to emerge from the tropical forest onto the beach. From here, it was only a ten-minute walk to her ger, which rested on a short cliff overlooking the ocean. A Noble neighborhood, indeed. Van did not notice the two men trailing her from a small distance until they suddenly started speaking loudly above the crash of the waves on the sand, their voices carrying over to the woman’s purple finned ears. They meant for her to hear them.
A wolf whistle sounded, and she walked faster, not wanting to deal with their antics. Nothing good ever happened after the second hour of the night, and these men were certainly bad news. If she could only get closer to the houses, they would back off—the Neutral Guard was stationed there every night, and no Lunarian, Legion and Noble alike, wanted to get involved with them. It was always more trouble than it was worth.
Van noticed too late when they started running, their speed on the soft sand of the beach astonishing as they drew closer and closer. Realizing that she was being chased, Van broke into a sprint, hoping to add space between them, but she was too slow and too late. She nearly ran headlong into one of them as he popped up in front of her, blocking her path. When she tried to take off in the opposite direction, she saw that the other was already standing in her way. With nowhere to go, the fighter stalled, raising her hands in the slightest in case she needed to defend herself.
“What’s a pretty lady like you doing out at this hour, hm?”
She slowly swiveled her head to look at the man who’d just spoken. He was of tall stature, and his blonde hair shone brightly under the soft moonlight. His face was comparatively dark, and she could not make out his features. Noting the brass knuckles he carried on him, she figured that he, too, was a fighter. Keeping her silence, the Legionnaire peered instead at the other man, a redhead who appeared to show recognition when their eyes met.
“Hey! Aran, isn’t she the one who moved into that ger?”
For a moment, Van thought she could play the neighbor card in order to get them to let her go. Her hopes were dashed, though, at Aran’s next words.
“Isn’t she a Legionnaire?” They shared an identical smirk.
Van frowned, knowing that she was outnumbered, two fighters to one. The odds weren’t terrible, and when they both started at her, she spun in a rapid circle, pulling her butterfly swords from the scabbard attached to her waist. Their progress was halted, with Aran stopping just short of the tip of her sword. The black steel of the blades was nearly invisible under the cover of night, but she could see that he knew what he was facing.
“If you leave now, boys, I’ll forget this ever happened.”
His grin was an incandescent white, floating eerily in the darkness. “Looks like we’ve got a fighter, Hulin.”
The next thing she knew, she had been tackled to the ground. Hulin was holding her legs down as she thrashed against him, while Aran planted both of his feet over her wrists, immobilizing them. Within seconds, the woman lay still, knowing it was useless to struggle and risk broken bones unless she had a plan. She glared at the Noble in contempt as he leaned down and plucked both of her swords out of her hands, tossing them behind him. They were useless to her now.
“You’re in the wrong neighborhood, girl.” No trace of his flirtatious manner remained in his voice. Assuming her to be harmless without her weapon, he made the mistake of lifting his legs off of her arms, letting her free. When he rounded back for the kick to her ribs, she was ready. Her nimble fingers had found the karambit concealed in her sleeve in that split second, and before his foot could make impact, she had bolted upright, butting Hulin in the head. Taking advantage of the moment to stagger to her feet, she could only duck as a cursing Aran attempted to punch her.
The pain in her head was acute, but she could see that Hulin had been more affected by their unfortunate headbutt, for he was stumbling uselessly in the dark, holding his head.
The tall blonde was as unaffected as ever, however—it was all Van could do to duck or jump backwards from his steel-adorned fists. His rapid and dynamic offense was impressive, forcing her into a defensive mode. She couldn’t even block him directly, at the risk of breaking her hands. If he wasn’t a Noble, and if she hadn’t been fighting for her life, she would have complimented him.
Gripping the small claw-shaped knife tightly, she wondered whether he’d seen it in her hand. It was unlikely, after all, considering that the small curved blade was only about an inch in diameter. She had to take the leap of faith. Ducking one last time, Van fell into a crouch and leapt forward at the tall man in a catlike manner. Raising her knife hand, she slashed quickly and hard across his abdomen, feeling some satisfaction as the blade ripped through skin and muscle. Recovering easily in a similar feline crouch, she turned to peer back at her handiwork.
Here was where her technique fell short. The karambit was not long enough to kill; it was a weapon to be used as a last resort and in extremely close quarters. Judging from the amount of blood running down his stomach, however, she had done a sufficient job in stopping his violent show of martial arts.
Van was not the bloodthirsty sort, even if she did enjoy taking justice into her own hands as far as her personal grudges. The Legionnaire never killed if she didn’t have to. Deeming her job done, she looked around, searching the sand for her butterfly swords. A glint caught the corner of her eye, and Van turned just in time to dodge a flying sword—her own—before it struck her through the heart. Hulin was up, advancing quickly on her with her other sword.
The fighter fell backwards, fumbling in the sand behind her for the butterfly blade that had flown her way mere seconds before. Her fingers caught on a gilded handle, and she brought it up over her head just in time to block the ebony steel that was flying down towards her chest. Catching the edge of the sword with the handle guard, she gave a hard twist, wrenching the twin blade out of her opponent’s hand.
“You don’t know how to use those—” her voice was cut off when an arm suddenly found its way around her neck from behind, choking her. Van clawed uselessly at Aran’s arm, but the vice grip held, and all she could see was Hulin’s smirking face in front of her.
Van couldn’t tell if the night was actually getting darker, or whether she was just losing consciousness. She only knew that if she didn’t breathe soon, she’d—
“Hey! Break it up!” A new voice sounded somewhere near her head. Aran’s choke hold suddenly loosened, and Van fell to the ground, gasping for air. When she rolled over to see what had happened, she was met by the sight of a group of Lunarians in uniform dragging a struggling Aran away from her. Another group was arresting Hulin. The Neutral Guard had caught up to them.
“Are you alright, Miss?” a male voice asked, just above her head. Van turned in surprise to see one of them bent over her, holding out his hand to help her up.
She took it, seeming stunned at the guard’s manners, but also thankful for the apparent kindness that was so different from the scorn of the Nobles she’d just fought. Her hands lifted to her neck, and she noticed that it was already beginning to swell up. If this was the extent of her injuries, though, she considered herself lucky. “Yeah. Yeah... I’ll be fine. Thank you.”
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Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2011 3:52 pm
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Posted: Thu Dec 29, 2011 3:56 pm
✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿BATAAR, THE ARTISTVan’s hands shook as she stared at the picture that had been haplessly drawn on the next empty page of her journal, and it was impossible to immediately tell whether she was shocked, angry, or in despair. Perhaps it was all three.
It had been a very trying day for the fighter, and all she’d wanted to do was go home, have a nice long soak in the bathtub, and vent to her journal (as she had very little by way of other options). The problem, she realized as she sat on her bed in her bathrobe, was that her privacy had been violated to the greatest degree possible. Except for perhaps rape, but that subject had already been covered earlier in the pages of the small diary the fighter held in her hands now.
Ruined. Her thoughts were no longer safe—the woman’s eyes widened in genuine fear as she imagined the Noble captain sitting gleefully on her bed, riffling through the worn pages of the journal as he read out loud the particularly juicy parts just to roar in laughter at how they sounded when spoken aloud. It was just one of those things he would do! Then she imagined him taking the crayons that he was so given to buying these days and vandalizing the page with them when he got to the very end, to show her that he’d been there. She squinted, staring at the grotesquely colored picture. What was that anyway? A tiger and... Van?
She scowled at the poor representation of herself. He had made her ugly—the only redeeming quality about the picture was that he’d managed to get her breasts somewhat correct, and knowing that he paid that much attention to them comforted her none.
Fear and irritation turned into shame as she realized that the captain had singlehandedly beaten her at the thing she had set out to do as soon as she’d moved out here. Sure, moving had been part of her plan to renew her fighter vitality, but it was also an effort to end the long undercover missions that she kept being sent on. She’d never admit this to anyone, but Raiden’s mission had exceeded her breaking point by a long shot. This was the mission that had made her swear off all the rest of them. By moving into a Noble neighborhood, she could easily continue her covert operations without being sent off to the ends of the country on that kind of assignment—and how thrilled Captain Rikimaru had been, when he learned that she and Bataar were living under the same roof.
Slowly but surely, intel was coming in and Van had been reporting it periodically to her superiors. But within one stroke, Bataar had upstaged her. He now knew everything about her. Van wasn’t stupid enough to write about her family secrets or the missions she was sent on, but he knew everything else. He knew how she worked, what she thought, what she was insecure about, and if nothing else, he would hold it over her head for as long as they lived together.
She should never have bought him that bed and let him move back in. Waking up next to him in the morning was a relatively small shock compared to the torment that would undoubtedly follow her now. Snapping the journal shut, Van tossed the book behind her, a dark rage burning in her amethyst eyes. It was time to take the ger back. She’d kill him, ensuring that he’d take all her secrets to the grave.
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Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2012 12:57 pm
✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿PRP - GROCERY LISTA recipe has been carefully taped onto the page.
Hazelnut Meringues
Ingredients
For 80 1.5-inch meringues:
3 large egg whites (room temperature)
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup hazelnuts
3 tbsp Hazelnut Liqueur
Instructions
Move oven racks to upper and lower thirds of oven. Preheat oven to 200 F.
Beat egg whites and cream of tartar until soft peaks form.
Slowly add sugar, one tablespoon at a time, until all has been incorporated. Continue beating until peaks form and the mixture is stiff and shiny.
Add vanilla and beat for 30 more seconds.
Fold in 3 tbsp hazelnut liqueur and 1/2 cup hazelnuts
Line baking sheets with waxed paper, securing at the corners with small amount of meringue mixture.
Fill bag with meringue mixture and seal the bag almost completely, except for a small opening through which air can escape.
Cut one corner off of the bag, making a 3/4 inch opening.
Fold the top of the bag over several times, then push meringue down to the snipped corner to ready for dispensing.
Hold the bag at a right angle to the baking sheet and squeeze gently, making 1 1/2 inch meringues, about 1/2 inch apart.
Bake 90 minutes or until dry and crisp.
Remove baking sheets from oven and let cookies cool for 15 minutes or until room temperature before eating or storing.
✿✿✿✿✿Just leaving this here for safe-keeping, since I suspect I’ll be using it someday. That’s just the thing about ingredients as seldom used as hazelnut liqueur—it’ll sit in my pantry forever. I traded my chocolate cake recipe for this one with a younger girl while I was in the marketplace today. The name was Lestari, I believe? Her hair was a lovely shade of blue, and she seemed to have quite the affinity for the culinary arts, if the state of her kitchen was anything to go by.
✿✿✿✿✿It’s too bad she appears to be a Noble. I’m not heaping evil on her head simply because of her faction, of course, but it certainly puts a certain strain on any possible relationship. Legionnaires and Nobles are bound to clash eventually, especially given the fact that I fight Nobles, literally.
✿✿✿✿✿Still, I wouldn’t mind seeing the girl again just to trade notes and recipes. That’s innocent enough, isn’t it? I imagine it’s nearly impossible to get into a fight over chocolate-flavored desserts (never mind that I’ve gotten into fights over less), and I’m sure I could probably learn a few things from her as far as proper baking technique. I never fail to be amazed at how difficult it is for me to cook when I’m perfectly proficient at following directions otherwise...
✿✿✿✿✿Like the ones Captain Aida gives me. You would not believe some of the things I have to suffer through because of that man. I’ll pick up where I left off later though, dear journal. For now I’ve got a cake to bake in time for the reunion tomorrow. ✿ Âu Tuyết Vân✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿
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Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2012 12:58 pm
✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿SOLO BATTLE - PRISON BREAK✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿✿Predetermined Legion Win (Approved)Somewhere outside the perimeters of Minsheng Prison, four Legionnaires gathered to review their imminent infiltration operation. The silver-haired captain, named Aida Rikimaru, rolled a map out onto the soft dirt floor, while Van shone a light on it, illuminating the prison floor plans for all to see. She paid rapt attention as her captain and handler quickly went over the map, making sure everyone knew their role in this highly classified mission.
It had come to this. For months on end, the captain and his men had scouted out the various prisons and safehouses that Van and the intelligence team had found those years back. They planted prisoners and spies, tested security, and counted heads. Tonight would simply be the first of many prison breaks the Legion was orchestrating, to recall the many captains and fighters they’d lost from their ranks. Thanh Long was among them, Van knew, and that was why she was on this operation—he was in this prison. It was well known among her handlers that she was better suited for low-risk covert ops rather than ones that involved heavy fighting, but Rikimaru had cut her a break, citing to their superiors her personal involvement.
She wouldn’t disappoint them. As Captain Aida went into the finishing statements of their assignment, Van pulled a black mask over her face, concealing the bottom half of her face from view. Her eyes were serious, like those of her teammates. Over the past few years, Van had come to trust Rikimaru, Liang, and Kasem. This wasn’t to say that their relationships were very intimate, or that they even knew much about each other at all. The woman only trusted them to have her back, as she would unquestionably have theirs. It was the kind of trust that developed out of necessity. They all knew the gravity of the assignment at hand. Failure was not an option; the Legion needed the momentum of a successful first op to carry them through the string of prison breaks that were planned.
“Move out, team.”
At the command, the four of them fled in different directions, all running to fulfill their individual objectives. Van ran slowly, trailing behind the captain and Kasem. Those two were to generate a diversion at the gates, while Van and Liang entered the complex to notify their spies that the operation was under way. Biyu and Guiren, disguised as Noble guards, would open the all the cell doors as quickly as possible, and the prisoners that had been planted months ago were to take the lead in staging the rebellion. The plan was simple enough, but executing it successfully required perfect precision and timing.
Shouts went up in the air as flames and strong gusts of wind flared up at the gates of Minsheng Prison. Van found herself admiring her comrades’ seal magic, before Liang pulled on her sleeve, an irritated look in his eyes. It was time for them to go in. Their stealth was unmatched as they flew to the unmanned doors, slipping inside easily. Nodding once at her partner, they parted ways in search of their designated checkpoints, where their contacts were waiting for them.
Van’s footsteps were muffled as she dashed down the dark passageways purposefully. She knew exactly where she was going; she’d memorized the maps as soon as they’d been drawn up. Biyu, the guard she was looking for, should be in the very next room. Gloved hands tried the doorknob, finding it to be unlocked as expected. When she entered the room, though, she found it empty. Van looked around quickly, her heart racing. Was this the wrong room? Had she made a mistake? The fighter ran back out into the hallway, rushing to the next door. Locked. She could feel her stomach sink further and further with every door she tried as she realized the mistake was not hers. Something had gone terribly wrong.
One more door gave way, and the sight and stench that met her was overpowering. Van dropped to her knees, her hand over her nose and mouth in a display of shock and horror. There lay the bodies of Biyu and Guiren, both of their stomachs cut wide open, their entrails flooding out of the gaping wounds. They had to have been dead for days. Someone had leaked the mission, and Van realized now that Liang, too, was now left with no mission to finish. With their contacts dead and no way to alert the others, Van only had one choice—to muscle through the rest of the prison.
She wasted no time in worrying about the unlikelihood of success. She only knew that if she gave up now, everything they’d fought for in the past few months would be for nothing. The fighter backed out of the room, breaking into a sprint in the direction of the control rooms, where the warden was. She should have had Biyu by her side, but one less fighter against the warden wouldn't hurt her chances much, Van figured.
How wrong she was. A uniformed Lunarian intercepted her as she ran down the halls, stopping her where she stood with a katana held to her neck. Her reflexes were quick; she leapt backwards before he could slash at her, unsheathing both of her butterfly swords in a clearly practiced movement. The woman stood her ground, piercing her new opponent with a violet glare.
“I’ve been waiting for you.” he rumbled lazily, inattentive to her animosity. The guard lifted his katana slowly in warning, and Van found herself unimpressed. Then, in a blinding burst of speed, he was right next to her, the edge of the sword at the black fabric of her mask. “Aren’t you a pretty one.”
Van blinked, saying nothing as the dark cloth fell from her face and thin lines of blood rose on her neck. She hadn’t even seen him move, let alone seen the cuts he’d made. But she knew exactly what he’d done, because she employed the exact same technique to improve her speed. From this one move alone, she knew he was capable of matching her speed.
There was no backing down from such a challenge. Channeling her ki to her feet, Van ducked under the sword and sped out of range, her form a dark blur as her enhanced speed teleported her just down the hall. A split second later, she noticed with some chagrin that he had followed her just as quickly—she lifted her black butterfly sword just in time to block a cut to her throat, before backing away once more at high speed.
“I hope you’re not running away,” his drawl followed her. The lethargic tone was just a cover for his impossible speed.
The Legionnaire tried again. Stopping suddenly, she sidestepped the Noble barreling at her, lunging forward again to stab him in the back as he passed. He blocked her just as easily as she’d blocked him. He jerked his wrist, and for a second she thought he was going to disarm her. The woman barely just held on, however, and retreated backwards again, just out of the reach of his katana. The Noble wouldn’t let her have the safety of distance, closing the gap between them just as soon as she’d backed up.
Steel met steel as their swords clashed once, twice, before both jumped away from each other for a split second. Closing in again, he slashed—she blocked. Van stabbed; he parried. For several long minutes the duel continued, neither side gaining an advantage over the other. They were about to stalemate at this point, Van realized as she withdrew to catch her breath. She needed a plan; she’d never beat him so long as they were dueling. Her mind raced as she recalled everything she knew about this man. He was able to focus his ki to his limbs, but did that mean he was able to use any other form of magic?
The answer seemed obvious now. Van lunged at the other Lunarian, channeling her ki into the black steel of her butterfly swords. Because they were pointed right at him, he wouldn’t be able to see the blades shifting shape and length. Their duel resumed, but this time, the Legionnaire managed to land a cut. She saw the dull look in his eyes darken as he realized what had happened. He shrugged it off, attributing the hit to mere luck. When she cut him again, though, it became apparent that she had something up her sleeve.
Van could have laughed in glee as she charged her opponent, slashing her deceptively short swords at the Noble’s torso. The tides had turned. Flecks of blood spotted the ground beneath them, as Van’s shallow cuts on the guard became numerous. Their fight stretched on for a few more minutes, until the Legionnaire decided that the fun was over.
“Not so bright, are you?” These would be the last words he’d ever hear. She left him with a slit throat, her sense of urgency renewed as she burst into the control room to find it empty. A long row of wooden levers lay untouched, and it was clear what Van had to do. Running down the length of the room, the woman forced each and every handle down, hearing the creaking mechanisms of the cell doors groan as they swung slowly open.
The Legionnaires were free. A loud roar of victory could be heard as the Lunarians exited their cells, overrunning the remaining guards. But Van did not hear any of this. Instead, she was staring at the raven-haired man in the doorway, one Thanh Long.
“Long!” she exclaimed, losing her careful mission composure for a moment as she jumped up toward her brother, to embrace him. “You’re here! Good, you can help us all get out of this place—”
“That’s not possible,” he interrupted.
Startled, Van let go of him, stepping back to look her brother in the eyes. “Why, what’s—” She stopped mid-syllable as she took in what she saw. Her brother was not dressed in the regulation prisoners’ uniform like the Lunarians swarming outside were. No, it was far from that. He wore a captains’ uniform, its material finer and richer than anything Van had ever laid eyes on. The sword at his hip was encrusted with rubies and sapphires matching his deep blue eyes, and in his hands, jingled a large set of keys.
“Y-You’re the warden,” she stuttered uncharacteristically, stumbling backwards as the shock of the realization caught up to her.
“That’s right. You know what that means, don’t you?” he asked gently, in the patient tone he’d always used when he was training her those many years ago. This time, though, a barely-concealed hint of malice could be detected in his voice. “I am a Noble. I am your enemy.”
“N...No…” was all she could manage, her amethyst eyes wide as she stared into Thanh Long’s face. He had betrayed them.
Someone grabbed her arm, pulling her back. “Van, we’ve got to get out of here!” Rikimaru’s voice rang in her ears, but she didn’t hear it. She was too busy trying to make sense of what had happened. Losing patience, her captain yanked her backwards. Van complied easily, unable to fight back, for her world had just been shattered.
There was only one image burned in her memory: her brother’s receding form as Rikimaru dragged her away across the chaos of the liberated prison. His arms were crossed, his stance rooted. And plastered across his handsome face, was a cruel smirk.
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