Lady Shalice

Lady Shalice is the main protagonist of the book, I Think, Therefore We Are.

She is also featured as the titular object in Calm Silence, her original form lost to the power of the hilt.

Personality and Traits
Lady Shalice exhibits abnormal behavior unlike her brethren. She is a very conflicted person; her stubborness is matched only by her wanderlust and wistful thoughtfulness. Unimpressed with the other women of her tribe, Shalice involves herself with the men. Through this she learns several survival tactics and works very hard to maintain the tribe's supplies.

Much like her tribe, she treats sex very casually. To her it is more of a hobby than something important or meaningful, so she callously disregards advances simply of not caring either way.

She also carries a very thoughtful tone when she speaks.

Motives
Her deepest desire to go out and involve herself in the world gets the better of her - she cares little for the squabbling of her tribal home and longs for the beauty that is hidden from her. Entirely selfish and alone in this desire, when she gains the opportunity to do so she spends much of her time satisfying her curiosity and desires, disregarding the duty set before her.

Shalice also maintains a deepset regret after her argument with Kell. She wishes for Kell to get over himself and become a good, honest man and throw away his arrogance and egotistical self-preening. Her attempts to knock him down a peg have been all but futile, and it is only through him witnessing her suffering first-hand does he get an idea of who he is.

Relationships
Her relationship with Kell could be equivicated to "Slap slap kiss". They find each other physically attractive, but their stubborness and pride gets them both easily into competitive streaks. The two argue and bicker continually, although this is more out of a desire to get the other to change the way they want rather than talk to each other about their issues.

Backstory
In a forest in a strange land, there exists a small tribe of creatures known as Kitsunes. Secluded and spiritually tied to their home, they live in a quiet peace and harmony with the forest.

Among them is one named Shalice, a beautiful girl with long ruby shaded hair. An independent and competitive soul with a wandering mind, Shalice is the black sheep of the tribe; a quiet, eccentric testament to the power of will and resistance. Soft spoken and careful with words, Shalice speaks with a dignity unlike any other. Her voice carries a thoughtful mix of the wistfulness of an inner child and a harsh undertone of reality. Practical and whimsical, she is unique compared to the women of her tribe.

While equal rights are granted to the two sexes, women assert their authority by having more Committals - a pact of courting with the allowance of sex to take place - than the others in the tribe. While Shalice did have many Committals and rather than use her standing as a way to make a place for herself in her home - she was instead a dreamer. She spent much of her time at the river, wondering where it would take her, yearning for the world and the secrets it hid. The outside world captivated her, entranced her, and gave her the stimulation that she needed, away from her home and their petty trifles of reproduction.

The mortality rate of their tribe was dismal and producing as many offspring as possible was key to their survival - those that were more fertile and were more willing than others to produce children were received with praise and held in higher standing than the others.

Shalice had no care for any of this, but the elders of her tribe saw her unique traits and looked to her as an opportunity rather than a fall from grace. She did not hold herself in competition with the other women but fell in line with the men, particularly their strongest, a man named Kell.

The physical embodiment of athleticism and masculinity, Kell stood for every value that the Kitsunes needed - courage, strength, skill, and determination. With her mind and his attributes, the elders foresaw that the resulting offspring would give the tribe the chance they needed to survive.

Despite their wishes for the two to Commit they were bitter rivals, with Kell surpassing her in every capacity, humiliating her and belittling her through each victory. She never gave up on challenging him, continually pressing him into more and more difficult exercises and competitions.

The defeats were staggering to her psyche, but she never lost hope that he would recognize her as a worthy challenger to him. In truth, she idolized Kell and cared about him, but was unwilling to look past his arrogance and hurtful words. Her own stubborn attitude to act like a normal woman only spurred Kell on to be more aggressive toward her, unwilling to give her the opportunity to show what is inside her heart.

So it goes.

Eventually, their world became shaken apart. The forest was under assault by an unknown force, something that even Kell was unable to remove completely. The elders themselves had no recourse but to move their tribe, a costly and devastating decision that would cost many of their people their lives. Instead of migrating to any area, they decided that they would send one out first to find a new home to spiritually attach themselves to, and then they would travel to that location.

Kell immediately was given first choice, but Shalice interfered, challenging that Kell is not the only option that they have for them. She proposed a new contest and defeated Kell through the use of his arrogance and clever trickery.

Having earned her dream of leaving the forest, she was blessed with a curse - her mind lost its hold on her, separating out into multiple aspects of herself. They all are her but not her, each function seeming to have a mind of its own, eventually growing into their own personalities and affecting her decisions.

Unable to function properly, she now roams the world to search for a new home while combating the thoughts that talk to her in her own mind. Only time will tell if she will make it home, or if she will lose herself in the dream that she fought so hard for.

ITTWA
Having left her original home and with no idea how to accomplish her goal, Shalice wanders endlessly. With her emotions getting the best of her, she eventually is gifted with a hilt from the god known as Jason. An ancient relic used to protect the wielder from those that may do harm to them, the hilt has mysterious powers fueled by the wielder's emotions. With her unique trait, she is able to power the hilt with a singular emotion to create a weapon - something that no one else has previously done before.

Unable to succeed in her mission, she falls into despair. One of her emotions - Exercise comes forth to tell her that he is actually Kell, and wishes to repent for all of the things he has done. Now having witnessed her pain with her eyes, he can understand the torture that she has put herself through, willing to put aside his ambition to do the job himself through her body and wishing for her to come home.

Her loneliness and sorrow was strong, and she inadvertently activated the hilt's second power - the ability to bring out those that are in the hilt. When Sin was placed in the hilt, it took the opportunity to come out and cause havoc to her old home, killing and destroying as many as it could before she returned. Kell places his being into the hilt, unwilling to return, forming Heartbroken. After defeating Sin's physical presence, she lost herself in a battle against her own emotions, eventually sacrificing her entire soul into the hilt, creating the Calm Silence. With only a remnant of the one she loves in the hilt with her, her physical body is nearly a hollow shell, lifeless.

While part of Kell's soul remains in the hilt to comfort her, his physical body remains alive. He watches over her as she tells the children of her tribe her story - at the end she professes her love for him, to which he returns that love. After this, she loses contact with her physical being entirely.

Calm Silence
Time passed - but no one knows for how long. GOV rose to power, but was unable to combat the unstoppable rise of a continuing energy crisis. An intrepid scientist named Garius Effacel was given two subjects that were found in the wilderness. One of them was a mysterious man and the other was a peculiar blade forged with a blue metal.

Tests were conducted, and Garius slowly discovered a way to harness the power of the blade, using its strange properties to channel emotional energy from victims into storage tanks.

When the man found with the weapon was used, he split apart the souls inside the hilt, creating three blades instead of one. The two that separated from the main hilt were Heartbroken and Corruption. He then stole the Calm Silence and hid it away so GOV would never find it.

Centuries passed. With Heartbroken gone, the Calm Silence was lethal to any who touched it - her loneliness drew in the souls into the hilt of those who dared to wield her.

Shalice Kismet eventually came upon her, and the two resonated with each other. She felt a familiarity with him - although it was also the case that he was holding Heartbroken as well. While still unable to keep herself under control, she slowly drew in his soul as he used her to bring down GOV. Reunited once again with Heartbroken, she hid herself deep within the hilt to stay with Kell.

Eventually Shalice returned to deal with Sin and its blade, Corruption. Fusing herself with Shalice Kismet, she battled together with him to return Corruption back to the hilt. With Sin defeated again, Lady Shalice hides inside the blade once more, her voice no longer reaching the outside world.