Chapter 8: Song of Life, Dance of Death

Everywhere was dead silent, and the atmosphere dark and foreboding. There was neither moon nor stars in the sky, making the darkness thick and seemingly impenetrable.

Tara stood alone in the courtyard, practicing within the darkness with her grandmother’s short sword, now her own. She had no idea of time or her environment as she went through the forms, slowly, steadily, just like her Grandmother had taught her. She could visualize her Grandmother’s voice telling her how to move during those training sessions they had together.

Tara directed all the emotions broiling within her into the seemingly incoherent moves, immersing herself to a point that nothing else existed except the mantra her grandmother usually recited whenever she went through these secret moves.

“One step begins the dan