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[color=#736AFF][b][h1]Ranbu no Izayoi[/h1][/b][/color]
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The banquet was certainly opulent. Generous, even. Considering that Leonhardt was hosting and feeding a host of otherwise itinerant mercenaries, thugs, and gods know what else. The food was certainly a pleasure. Izayoi couldn't deny that her old enemy set a fine table. She'd already ate a helping of boar, followed by fish. Certainly heartier than court meals she'd had to endure with the samurai. But above all else? This banquet was a waste of her time. 

She'd come to see exactly what Edren's new king had in mind when he'd made an open call for aid, and yet all the little fool was doing was stall, socialize, and dine. Both Valheim and the Blight ate away at the continent, and he thought there was time for niceties? A few seats down from him was a familiar face. A middle-aged Faye nobleman, bearing an eyepatch and scars. Strange. Izayoi could have sworn she'd taken both of that commander's eyes.

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[color=#736AFF][b]"Is this all my prey has to offer?"[/b][/color] Ranbu no Izayoi let a maddened cackle loose as a swing of her sword had the opposing knight scrambling to cower behind his shield, yet another crack forming in the targe. [color=#736AFF][b]"Better than the gibbering fool that came before you, but still lacking nonetheless. If you have nothing else to show me, then you will meet your end!"[/b][/color]

She leapt up into the air, gripping the hilt of her blade in both hands before sending it crashing down. The Faye knight raised his shield and tried to block, but Izayoi's strike shattered it and continued downward. Somehow, the man retained enough presence of mind to desperately jerk out of the way of certain death, to the point that her sword only grazed his eye. Still, it left him writhing in the dirt and muck as Izayoi stood triumphant before him, raising her blade for the coup de grace.

[color=#736AFF][b]"Disappear from my sight, worm-"[/b][/color] A flicker of movement from the corner of her eye told her all she needed. 

[b]"Protect the commander!"[/b]

A gunshot rang out from the side, and Izayoi turned, cutting the bullet apart in a vertical slice even as Edrenian reinforcements began to rush her. Contemptuous flicks of her hand sent her sword to take hands, arms, and heads, unworthy warriors cut down before her in an instant even as the Faye knight was escorted onto a chocobo, galloping beyond her range. How vexing. She'd claim his head later.

She never did claim his head later.
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It was with a sense of dull surprise that Izayoi realized the memory held nothing for her anymore. Once, she would have felt satisfication or pride at the thought of the duel and how thoroughly the knight had been crushed before her. Now, its only significance to her was that the events within did indeed happen. It had been only a single eye. No matter.

Not for the first time that evening, Izayoi resisted the urge to reach for the sheathed wakizashi she'd tucked away into her robes and snuck into the banquet. Had she been confident that she was more than a match for the combined strength of the Edrenians in the hall, they would have been cowed before her might and acted as she bid. But her movements were still too slow, her muscle memory only just remembering the ebb and flow of the dance. 

So instead, the swordswoman poured herself a cup of water from the jug on the table and let a deep frown show as some yammering fool at her table stood and began to make an ass of himself. Most of his speech was empty, and the rest? Deliberate provocation. Was this a gathering of champions, or a marriage arrangement? If the man wished to troll for women, he could do so without wasting the time of everyone else present. 

The scruffy-looking Sollan next to her spoke quietly, and Izayoi huffed in amusement. 

[color=#736AFF][b]"At least someone here is capable of speaking sense."[/b][/color] She replied to him in a low murmur as one Lord Caradoc at their table rose and replied. Caradoc...where had she heard that name before? It was during the war, to be certain. But who...? She certainly didn't remember one of that name as someone notable in her theater of war. Irrelevant, then. Still, if this was going to devolve into more fools prancing and posturing about, then she wasn't going to play.

[color=#736AFF][b]"Enough. I tire of this farce."[/b][/color] Izayoi's voice rang out across the hall as she stood, drawing attention to herself for the first time. No doubt a few would recognize her. The Limbtaker. Kaien's Revenge. The Emperor's Demon. And a myriad of other colorful invectives the Edrenians had for her during the war. [color=#736AFF][b]"Are you so desperate, King of Edren, that you would simply allow thugs and brigands to feast at your table and take advantage of your largesse for a scrap of their service, or are you merely a fool? Speak of what you truly have in mind, or you waste the time of what few in attendance are worthy."[/b][/color]