Do you hear it? The beating drums?
A war is coming. The call is being put out and people are answering. There will be blood in the streets, chaos from top to bottom. No one will be safe when the violence begins. It’s a call that has been heard for decades. This war will turn brother against brother. Father against son. Mother against daughter. Sire against childe.
Because it’s all fair in love and war. And love is in short supply these days. You open a newspaper and it’s just war and death and crime and violence. You turn on the news station and every talking head is calling out the other side as the enemy. No one sits and talks anymore, it’s all about the fight.
Against the system.
Against the government.
Against the politics of one another.
It’s inescapable. It’s unavoidable. War is here, it’s just the battles haven’t begun yet. There are still those who wish for peace, who are there waving banners, waving the white flag. They know the death that comes when the battle is on. They wish for all to sit down and talk. To compromise and reach understanding. They aren’t ready for war, and for that, they can’t hold the peace.
You’re one looking for peace. It’s why you run to the monastery when the heat is on. It’s why you never raise your voice. You keep a humble, quiet air about you. But there are many out there that don’t have a place to run when they look for peace. Their life is a battlefield. Peace, to them, is nothing but an illusion that clouds the killer instinct to fight and win.
I know. I was one of them. Back before the revolution, when I heard those war drums start beating, getting louder with every day, I ran to the church and prayed for peace. I didn’t want to see my family torn apart by war and violence. Much like you do, deep down. But despite my prayers, those drums grew louder and louder until the drum beats turned to musket fire and screams of agony.
You see, all I wanted was peace. I wanted to live in solitude. When I was embraced, and saw the dark world that was hidden from me, I learned a very important lesson.
Si vis pacem, para bellum.
If you want peace, prepare for war.
From that night forward, I refused to sit on the sidelines praying for peace. There is no god out there, because what loving god would allow such nightmares to exist? Why would a caring deity wish to inflict such horrors on his creation.
I see you pray, to whatever it is you pray to, in exchange for peace and love and understanding. I stood beside you in battle before, and I learned you can’t win the war that is coming.
I hear those drums again, Banzan. Your peace isn’t built for war.
I am the war, and there will not be peace.