Meenu was more than a little nervous. Her heart was racing and she could feel the blood rising to her head. But she knew she had to try to keep calm. After all, Light made it seem like they weren't in that much danger.

     Lumyryn was... nothing like she'd imagined it to be.

     It sat in the middle of the bases of two, large mountains. Almost as if there was a need for even more protection then the wall had to offer.

     The land itself was lush and colourful, though Meenu had expected it to be dark and more... red.

     The homes were large and Meenu could hear the laughter of children and chatter of friends.

     At the very center of the small nation that was contained within these walls was, of course, as Seliaryn had once told her: a massive statue of Lumyryn. It was identical to the one in the Red Palace, except for the fact that this one was maybe a hundred and fifty feet tall.

     It was huge.

     As was the case with the wall earlier, she could not see the base of the statue.

     But she imagined it to be filled with offerings and flowers and maybe even more statues.

     Maybe she would find out one day.

     Right now though, the three warriors were standing near metal gates that led to the mountains roads, hiding behind the thick trees.

     "We need a plan." Heart said.

     "The plan is that we go straight to Seliaryn's home as fast as we can," Light started, "and then once we find, or don't find, what we need, we leave without causing trouble."

     Meenu nodded but chuckled when Heart groaned, "boring."

     Light turned his masked face to look at Heart. He just looked at him for a moment before pulling Meenu back into his arms and jumping up into the trees.

     When they arrived at Seliaryn's home, the three were pleased to find that it was empty. There were no maids, no guards, no one.

     "You'd think they'd have more guards here after the King's Advisor was killed."

     "To guard what?" Light asked, "the blood that was shed?"

     Heart, who had his mask off now, stopped walking, pouted his lips and crossed his arms.

     Light chuckled.

     Meenu, who heard the two of them, didn't pay much attention to them because the flowers that filled the house were all she could focus on.

     They were beautiful.

     She had heard countless times that lady Maryryna loved flowers, but she never imagined that she loved them enough to fill her house with them.

     Besides, this wasn't just her home... it was also Lord Roviaryn's. It was strange to think that such a cold man would live in a home filled with so many flowers.

     "I'm glad she's not dead." Heart said from behind, startling Meenu.

     She turned to look at him.

     "I heard she's the kindest Lumynos alive right now. It would have been sad if she died."

     Meenu nodded. "Yeah..."

     "And also, the knowledge of her being alive may be what we need to convince Seliaryn to settle down." Light added.

     "That's what I'm hoping for," Meenu said, "he really does love his mother."

     Light looked at her. "That's believable," he said, "but unfortunately, Seliaryn doesn't seem to be here. So what now?"

     Meenu sighed, "where on earth could he be?"

     "I was thinking that maybe he's gone to search for power." Heart said, crossing his arms and stroking his chin.

     Light raised an eyebrow, "Seliaryn is already powerful. Why would he need to search for power?"

     Heart shrugged, "that's what the villains do in the stories."

     "Villain?" Meenu asked, sounding offended, "Seliaryn isn't a villain!"

     Heart hesitated, "that's not what I meant..." He said, realizing that he said something inappropriate, "I meant... the confused and heartbroken people."

     Meenu forced out a chuckle, seeing the worried look on Hearts face.

     Light just shook his head, "Seliaryn could most definitely pose a threat to Avaryn. Why would he need to search for power if Avaryn is his enemy right now?"

     "Then maybe he just wanted alone time." Heart said.

     Meenu liked the sound of that, and she was hoping dearly that Heart was right. She would feel better if all he wanted was some alone time.

     "That's possible," Light said, "but still, I am skeptical." He turned to Meenu.

     Meenu looked back at Light, "what if he's just in hiding..." she said, worriedly.

     The words that Seliaryn said to her before he disappeared flashed through her mind.

     What if he was hiding? Waiting for the right moment to attack Avaryn?

     "Waiting for the right moment to come out and attack Avaryn." Meenu said sadly.

     Light nodded. "That seems the most logical, if Seliaryn truly does want to attack Avaryn."

     He did. Meenu was sure of it.

     And though Meenu didn't say anything, Light could read her face like an open book. He had already figured out a likely scenario as to what may have happened between her and Seliaryn when she was attacked by him.

     "Let's keep looking around for a bit," Meenu suggested. "Maybe we'll find something that will give us a clue as to where he is."

     Light nodded, but Meenu knew that he doubted they would find anything.

     Meenu walked up the very large staircase that led to the upper floor of Seliaryn's large home. There were many rooms and Meenu quickly searched through every one. And it was almost half an hour later that Meenu found herself in the room with dried blood all over the floor.

     Heart was behind her again. "So this is where it happened."

     Meenu swallowed back her sorrow and stepped into the room.

     She never knew Lord Roviaryn very well. But all she could remember when her mind thought of him was the time when he was holding her back, right before Seliaryn killed Dukaryn.

     That moment of trust she forced herself to have for him when she had no idea what to do.

     And even though it only lasted for a short while... even though right after he told her to stay put and watch because Avaryn was going to win... he had proved himself to be honest.

     Because Avaryn did win.

     And though it was obvious that Roviaryn had no intention of protecting Meenu from anything or anyone... it almost felt like that was exactly what he had done in that moment.

     She had trusted him. He had protected her.

     Even if it was only for a minute.

     And that minute was enough to make Meenu's stomach turn as she stared at the blood.

     Aside from her own sorrow, she couldn't bare to imagine how Lady Maryryna felt...

     And Seliaryn, for that matter.

     She sighed. "I guess there really is nothing here." She said as she turned around to leave the room, finally giving up.

     Light seemed relieved. "Then we shall leave."

     Meenu nodded, but right before she turned around, she saw something strange from the corner of her eye.

     A light shined into the room from the window for just a second.

     Meenu hesitated, looking over at Heart and Light who were already down the stairs.

     She walked over to the open window and looked out of it. There was nothing there.

     But from the window, she could see the large mansion with a huge rose garden in its backyard.

     "What are you doing here?" A woman's voice said.

     Meenu jumped and turned around quickly.

     Standing behind her was Am.

     "Am!"

     "Are you looking for Seliaryn?"

     Meenu nodded.

     She could trust Am, right?

     "So am I."

     "Really?"

     Am walked over to her and looked out the window. "He's better at hiding then I thought. But I always find people."

     "Do you know if he's okay?" Meenu asked.

     Am shrugged. "I'm sure he's fine."

     Meenu looked at the beautiful young woman, who was still staring out the window. She followed her gaze and saw that she was looking at the roses.

     "My mother's flower garden." She sighed, "it's famous. I heard Avaryn got you a rose that never whither?"

     Meenu hesitated, wondering how she knew about that, "he did. A long time ago."

     "It's from the garden. It originally belonged to the wife of Lumyryn... and the chiefs of this nation are entrusted to maintain it."

     "Then it's ancient?"

     Am nodded. "Legend has it that the wife of Lumyryn, Mina, grew the roses because roses were Lumyryn favourite flower. When he died, she felt like that was all that she had left of him, aside from her kids of course, so she took care of them until her last breath."

     Meenu smiled. "What a sweet story."

     "But that's not even the main part." Am was smiling, "one day, while Lumyryn was still alive and she was taking care of the roses, she was daydreaming about her husband because he had been gone for some time and she pricked her finger on a thorn. She thought it was funny that she would prick her finger while thinking of him so she kept that rose separate from the rest."

     Meenu listened carefully.

     "That rose never withered. Never." Am said, "It's still in the mansion, cased in glass. As beautiful as it was a thousand years ago."

     Meenu was shocked.

     "That's the same way the rose Avaryn gave you works. He pricked his finger with that rose and so as long as he loves you it will never whither. Just as Mina's rose never withered."

     Meenu could feel her cheeks redden.

     "Meenu?"

     She turned around and saw Light standing at the door.

     "What are you doing?"

     Meenu opened her mouth to answer but when she looked back to where Am was standing... she had vanished. "I..."

     "We should hurry." Light said.

     She walked over to him. "Light... is there any chance that we can... go see the roses in the Lumynos Chief's mansion?"

     Light let out a laugh as they both left the room and approached Heart, "that's ridiculous."

     "But the Chief of the Lumynos isn't even here." Heart said, hearing what Meenu had asked and liking the sound of it.           

     "No." Light said, "absolutely not."

     "I just want to see," Meenu said, "if she's not here, then why not?"

     Light shook his head, "it's dangerous, Meenu."

     Meenu pouted her lips, surprising herself a little by her own stubbornness. She really did want to see the garden where Avaryn got her rose from. But she knew that he would say no, so she wasn't too upset.

     However, Heart suddenly chimed in. "Oh come on, Light! I'm sure you've always wanted to see her prized rose collection. I've heard they're magical."

     Light shook his head. "No."

     "Only for a second! We haven't done some sneaking around in a long time!"

     Light started to glare, though none of them could see his annoyance behind his mask. "Heart. If we go there, we will be in the heart of Lumyryn. It would be like we were begging for trouble."

     "I know, exhilarating, right?"

     Meenu chuckled and Light rolled his eyes.

"C'mon!"

     "No."

     "Fine, Meenu and I will go check it out. We'll be back in a second."

     "Absolutely not."

     "Light..." Heart whined.

     But Light was not moved. "Avaryn asked us to protect Meenu, not walk her straight into the lions den."

     "But it's an empty lions den!"

     Light groaned and waved his hand in frustration. "No. Let's leave, now." With that, Light vanished.

     Heart looked over at Meenu, and with a cute giggle he lifted her into his arms and initially, it seemed like he was following after Light, but suddenly, he jumped right over a fence and into the property that belonged to the head of the Lumynos clan.

     "But Light said no!" Meenu said, worried, as Heart set her down onto the well-kept grass.

     "We've got between thirty seconds to a minute before he realizes I'm not following him. So let's hurry and look around!" He said as he ran into the garden.

     Meenu laughed and chased after him, going straight to the massive rose garden.

     The famous rose garden of Lumyryn.

     It was bigger than she thought it would be.

     The size of her entire family home.

     A smile formed on Meenu's face as the smell of roses filled her nose.

     But as she walked through the path of the garden, she felt the urge to stop.

     So she did.

     And just as she did, from the corner of her eye, she saw something sparkle.

     She turned her head and walked in the direction of whatever it was.

     And when she reached it, she knelt down and picked it up.

     It was a ring.

     A ring for a man.

     Meenu looked at it carefully. It was thick and silver and had a red ruby on it.

     And then she felt the urge to try it on.

     She knew it wouldn't fit. It was way too big. But her newfound love for rubies made her stick it right onto the middle finger of her right hand. 

     She held her hand out in front of her and admired the ring, wondering why it was on the floor like this.

     Meenu felt herself smile, for no reason in particular. But then suddenly she heard the angry voice of Light.

     "You two!" He hissed, and just as he did, Meenu felt herself get picked up in Lights arms.

     Heart was chuckling and though Meenu was trying to tell Light to wait as she tried to pull the ring off her finger, he didn't listen.

     But what shocked Meenu wasn't that he was ignoring her. It was that the ring wasn't coming off.

     "Light, hold on!" She said, as she pulled the massive ring.

     There was no way it could be stuck. It was huge.

     It was for the finger of a man. It wouldn't even fit on her thumb if she put it on there.

     Light continued to ignore her until they were out of Lumyryn and in the woods they were in before they got into Lumyryn.

     Light put Meenu down and crossed his arms angrily as Knight rushed over to the three.

     Heart jumped next to Meenu and was still chuckling. 

     "Avaryn will hear about this, Meenu, do you understand?"

     Meenu didn't hear him.

     Instead, she looked up with a distressed look. "It's not coming off!"

     "What?"

     She showed them the ring.

     "Where'd you get that from?" Heart asked.

     "The garden," Meenu said, "it won't come off!"

     Light was glaring, he even lifted his mask to make sure Meenu and Heart both knew he was glaring. "You brought it with you?"

     "I tried to take it off, but it won't come off!" She said again, still tugging at the ring.

     Light grabbed her hand, "that's ridiculous, the ring is huge."

     "I know!"

     And as she said it, Light pulled the ring.

     It didn't come off.

     Light looked at Meenu with confusion.

     "Let me try." Heart said as he gave it a shot.

     But he too couldn't get it off.

     He pulled as hard as he can and only stopped to ask Meenu if it was hurting her.         

     When she said no, he pulled the ring with all his strength.

     It wouldn't come off.

     "What the..."

     "Why did you put it on?" Light asked, sounding frustrated. He half expected that any minute now a battalion of the Lumynos army was going to jump over the wall and attack them for stealing something that belonged to their queen.

     "I don't know! I just wanted to... I didn't think it'd get stuck!"

     "It's not stuck." Light said as he examined the ring, "it has to be some sort of spell."

     Heart stepped forward to take a closer look.

     But just as he got close enough to see how big the ring was for Meenu, Light smacked him across the head. "This is because of your foolishness."

     Heart frowned, rubbing the back of his head, "sorry... I was just trying to-"

     "You should know better!" Light disciplined.

     Heart didn't argue this time.

     "It's not his fault." Meenu defended, "I'm the one that brought it up."

     Light shot a look of annoyance at Meenu too. "I'm not letting you off either. It hasn't even been a week since you've become a warrior and you've already started to do stupid things."

     Meenu frowned. "Sorry."

     Light glared for a bit before sighing. "We have to take this to Master Red. He'll probably know what to do. And we must hurry. This is probably the property of the most frightening woman in our realm. We do not want to anger her."

     Meenu nodded. "Okay." She said, though she knew Master Red wouldn't be pleased.

     But just as Heart took a step forward to carry her, they were both startled by Meenu collapsing onto the ground.

     Her eyes were filled with darkness.

     And then there was a bed.

     And in the bed was a sleeping couple and the sound of a crying baby.

     And then she lost her senses.