Quiet. It was quiet, like always. Saekaera had known silence for a long while now. It was comforting, to say the least. The last thing she spoke was her oath of silence, and she had muttered it quietly, almost under her breath. She sat in this comforting silence, her eyes closed. This place was away from the hustle and bustle of Republic City, but still within the city itself. It was a grove tended to by Saekaera, and many other silent monks. It was small, yes, and perhaps not the prettiest thing, but it was quiet. That was all that mattered. Sometimes, she would meditate here, and sometimes she would meditate with others. This was one of those occasions. An air bender had come to meditate with her, but she hadn't bothered learning who he was. All that mattered was that he wanted peace and quiet. Saekaera, just happened to know exactly where he could find just that.

And now, here they were. Peacefully dull; that’s what this place was. If you listened close enough, you could hear the sound of leaves touching the ground. It was always nice just to sit among the silence, less so with another, but still quite nice. That caused her to open an eye. She looked about, one eye still closed, trying to find the air bender. There he was, meditating. He didn’t look like the average air bender. He had jars filled with strange swirls. Saekaera watched the swirls with interest. What exactly was it within those jars? Saekaera didn’t see many aggressive air benders, so she was quite curious. Why was he meditating here anyways? What was he doing? Her other eye shot open to watch the swirls in the jars, and she let her mind wander.

Crush, crush, crush, crush. The sounds echoed in Saekaera’s mind. She didn’t see anything this time around, but she heard it. She always heard it. Crush, crush, crush, crush. Her eyes were still focused on the swirling gases within those jars, and while she heard constant crushing, she saw the strange swirls. She did not return to reality for a small while, and when she did, she caught herself still staring. Those jars raised a lot of questions, many which would probably go unanswered. That bothered Saekaera. She wanted to know what those jars were for. Her mind wandered once more, this time her eyes were closed. Those jars were very neat.

Crush, crush, crush, crush. It didn’t sound much like that, really, but the concept was still crushing. Perhaps she let the guilt consume her entirely, and that’s why she felt this way. The guilt ate away at her day in and day out, and she just let it. She was under no illusion that this was not her fault. She knew what she was doing. She kept crushing his now-softened skull, until it turned from a crush to a squish. She could have stopped after one blow. But she didn’t. She didn’t stop.

Again, she snapped back to reality, feeling as though she was not affected by gravity. Those swirls were very entrancing. She didn’t like it. They made her curious. She stood up to stretch and her Naginata fell from her lap, crashing into the stone on the ground and breaking the silence. She felt like an idiot, but she would not let that much be known. As Saekaera bent down to grab her Naginata, she noticed not one, but two strange little creatures. One ran straight to her, and she blinked. It was strange, but not scarily strange.

She blinked, trying to figure out what the small creature was doing. It took a letter out of its mouth, and presented it to Saekaera. She opened it, and read it to herself. She almost sighed, but she stopped herself. She took her oath very seriously, perhaps too seriously. She felt a wave of disappointment flow over her. They knew who she was, and that irked her. Silence doesn’t keep secrets well, she jested silently to herself. She looked back down to the small… thing… and shooed it away. It was distracting. She decided to get ready to leave, and so she turned to the air bender.

She did not look at first, and instead tried to signal him by hitting the stone ground with the wooden end of her Naginata. When she began to walk away, she did not hear the sound of footsteps behind her, and so she turned, a disappointed look on her eyes. Despite her interest in his very neat jars, she did not like it when people did not leave the garden. That’s when she remembered that two of the small creatures had come, and only one ran to her. The other seemed to be trying to grab the air bender’s attention. Saekaera was curious, and instead of going ahead by herself, she waited for the air bender. His jars were very neat. She’d probably get answers after all.