Susan the Silent Comments on self
If you speak to me, do not be offended by my silence. I have not been able to speak since the day I was born. I may wave, nod, or make some other gesture. Do not have pity for me. I neither need nor want it.
I am a warrior of the shadows. A friend to the night. A seeker of balance.
I have many skills I use in battle from use of shadows and ninja secrets to the elements. A battle with me will leave you sorry for your folly.
I carry the Sword of Time with which I can alter time during a battle.
Though I was raised as a genderless warrior, I had one occasion I had to dress like a woman. This is the picture. Unfortunately our village was attacked during the celebration, which is why the dress is torn. Duty before beauty.
My Story
From the time of my birth, I have not been able to make a sound. Crying, laughter, and screaming do not exist for me. Because of my silence, my father was going to throw me into the river out of fear that his child had been possessed by a demon.
My mother took me to the palace of the lord of our clan and left me at the gate, where one of the guards discovered me. The lord was fascinated by my silence. He gave me to his court magician to study and raise.
Susan the Silent—people of the palace called me. I could sneak through the palace without being seen or heard. This caught the interest of the master ninja. Soon I was being trained as a ninja along with my magical training.
Part of my training as the only female ninja was to ignore my femininity. The women of the palace staff told me I was growing into a beautiful woman. If the ninja master or the court magician heard this, the woman was beaten.
Upon reaching my 18th birthday, my parents were brought to the palace. The lord had discovered their identities several years earlier, but said nothing to them or me. When the lord presented my parents to me, I felt nothing but anger. My father had been a spy for our lord, who stole an hour with one of the lord’s concubines, my mother.
The lord offered my father a choice: be executed outright or duel me. He sprang at the opportunity to fight. I studied him for a moment as my father taunted me. In on quick movement, the fight was over. The slash draw my master taught me took my father’s head from his neck. The lord permitted me to keep my father’s sword as a trophy of my victory. Even before I could retrieve the katana from his dead hand, his body turned to dust. The lord explained my father possessed the sword of time, which kept him from aging. My father was over 200 years old, and aged rapidly when he died.
A few years later my lord decided to take a new bride from the west. She was beautiful yet spoiled and demanding. As the only female ninja, I was assigned to be with her at all times as her body guard.
Her venomous tongue shot insults and cruelty at me every chance she got. This only served to make me harder and colder.
As the wedding drew closer, she informed me that I would have to wear a dress for the ceremony. This was something I had never done before. I found it cumbersome and difficult to move in. I approached my lord about it only to find myself on the receiving end of a sever tongue lashing.
The day of the wedding many foreign leaders and lords of the area attended the festivities. People of every color and size attended. Many were unknown to the guards and soldiers, yet an open door policy was in place for the event.
My lord’s bride was beautiful in her many layers of silk and lace. I found myself in a white and burgundy dress unable to properly move or arm myself. Everything in my being said this was not a good situation. The master ninja agreed, but our lord wouldn’t budge.
As the ceremony started, I found myself placed too far from the bride to effectively protect her. Being armed with only my katana made my uneasy feeling worse.
My lord and his bride exchanged their vows flawlessly. Just as they prepared for the rings, screams erupted from the courtyard. I lunged for the bride to defend her; however, the dress caught and made me slower.
Enemy clansmen flooded the room in seconds. I fought my way to the bride only to find she had been run through. Throwing myself into the battle I tried to make what I felt to be my last battle honorable.
Once the rival lord discovered the bride was dead, he ordered their withdraw. My lord knelt by his dead bride and wept bitterly. He was distraught and enraged over his bride’s death that he ordered my execution. The master ninja interceded on my behalf to spare my life. My lord’s anger cooled against me, but my fate was worse than death. I was whipped naked before the lord and his court. Then my hair was cut as a symbol of my dishonor. Finally I was banished from the land.
Sent off with the clothes on my back and my weapons, I journeyed out of the land that had been my only home. I spent a few days in a village at the edge of the mountains. It was there in a tavern that I had heard my entire clan had been killed by the rival clan.
I left that very evening for lands unknown in order to gain strength and power. As I looked down from the mountain, I vowed to one day return to my homeland and avenge my clan.
My quest has brought me to the land of Magic Duel. Here I discovered that there are some like myself—following the way of the sword. Here I will train and prepare for the day of reckoning.