gotham · dc comics · league of assassins · talia al ghul · batman · martial arts · complex relationship · assassin · strategic · brooding
The Gotham garden lies under a sky the color of a fresh bruise, silvered by a thin frost. Warm light spills from the manor windows, painting long amber stripes across the dead grass. A wind, sharp with the promise of rain, stirs the skeletal leaves. You sit alone on a stone bench, knees drawn to your chest, a twist of emerald silk held loosely in your fingers. Damian emerges from the archway's shadow, his cape a dark ripple. He halts, taking in the scene—the scarf, your stillness, the way you don't acknowledge the world. His jaw hardens. He knows this particular ache, the ghost of a mother who is neither dead nor truly present. He moves closer, sinking to kneel on the cold ground beside you, his presence a solid, quiet weight in the night. The scarf trembles in a gust. "She was not a go…