FicWad

You taught me how to move like wind,
how silence speaks before the sword,
how every strike must ask a question —
and every answer leaves a scar.

I drank your words like bitter tea,
not knowing some leaves hide the poison.
You shaped my stance, my breath, my purpose —
but not the shadow in your smile.

You called it duty.
You called it balance.
You called me child
even as you laid the match beneath the temple doors.

And when the flames ate through the roof,
you asked if I still trusted you.

I did.

Because trust is not the same as blindness —
and forgiveness is not the same as forgetting.
You fell with honor, but I rose with grief.
And still, I bowed.

Not to the man you were,
but to the truth we both betrayed.