Power was something the swordsman was intimately familiar with. He had fought many duels, battles, wars and they were all of them an exercise in power. His training, intense since he was but a boy, was a study in power: the power to learn the knowledge of power, how to apply it. In some ways, those early days were actually his first battles. He then began a quest that lead him through many conflicts, each with a specific stated objective, a justification, a need, a reward of some kind, all in service of his quest. As the years went on, as he traveled further and further and fought more and more, the actual goal of the quest became harder to remember, until it was scarcely but a wisp of a memory, blowing about like a leaf on a windy autumn day. His sword arms were well toned and ingrained with muscle memory of the art of combat, ready to spring into action at a moment’s notice. His mind was sharp, like his blades, ready to solve any strategic or tactical problem he encountered. But his soul…his soul was weary. 

Oh he had won some degree of glory and riches, even fame. Yet the truth was that whatever reason he had first set out on his current path was either unmet or made irrelevant by the weight of time. But he was unwilling to stop. If he stopped, what did he have, really? But, as time went on, he grew wearier, despite being very young.

He was weary, but the reasons were not clear. Perhaps it was the endless nature of the wars he fought. Perhaps that there seemed to be no end in sight. Perhaps that the reward of each battle inevitably was another battle. Or another journey, such as the one that sent him climbing the mountains. He continued to wander, all alone. He believed he knew what awaited him at the summit of these mountains that his quest had lead him to climb. He believed it would be yet another signpost to eternity. 

Beliefs, though unshakeable as a mountain itself at times, are more like a mountain of ice: hard until pushed harder, or until melted. So we now wonder what will happen first: will this mountain shatter, or will it melt?