Lord Kyrus stood in the Mayors office with a look of despair. “Some men reported seeing the army marching towards us.” He said. “It won’t be long now.”

     The Mayor took a breath. “Prepare the men.” He said. “We cannot wait a second longer.”

     When Lord Kyrus left, the Mayor began to pace.

     In the five months that had passed, the Mayor tried countless times to convince Lord Roviaryn to try and make the King reconsider.

     Lord Roviaryn promised to do his best, but clearly his best hadn’t worked.

     It was a long day for the Amberdysians, as they prepared for war against their own King. All villagers were ordered to stay in their homes while the Knights of Amberdyse lined up just outside the gates.

     They were very strong men, all of them. And Lord Kyrus had faith in them.

     But something inside him was telling him that something bad was going to happen.
     And to top off his worry, he hadn’t heard much from the Hidden in the five month’s since Meenu had left.

     Blood hadn’t visited once.

     Fury came a couple times, but with no news that made him feel better about everything.

     And there was definitely no news on Meenu.

     So as much as the Mayor wanted to have faith in a positive outcome, it was hard. He just couldn’t get himself to be confident of a victory.

     And he would find out why soon enough.

     Seliaryn rode in front of the King’s Army, next to the King. He kept telling himself that he had to do what was right.

     But he couldn’t figure out now what the right thing was.

     And before he left, his father had told him something that confused him more.

     “The King is a fool and he is going to lose.” He said, with confidence. “Unless you take over and make things right.”

     Why was he so sure that the King was going to lose?

     And what was right?

     To fight against the most honorable knight in Raffyre, Lord Kyrus?

     Or to stop the battle, going against the king’s wishes, and try and make peace with a town filled with traitors?

     But the more and more he thought about it, the more he realized he was running out of time.

     Soon, he could see the Amberdysians.

     He could see Lord Kyrus.

     And as the Amberdysian informers had said, they were prepared.

     “Fools.” The King said, making Seliaryn turn to look at him. “They probably don’t even know that we have already won this battle.”

     Seliaryn didn’t respond to that.

     But as he turned back around to look at Lord Kyrus, the image of Meenu passed through his head.

     What would she be thinking right now?

     How was she feeling, knowing that he was going to fight her father?

     Seliaryn knew well that he had already failed her once. He let her get caught up in that mess with the traitorous group. In fact, maybe he made it worse. Maybe his actions made her lose her trust in him, and gain more trust in that group.

     Whatever the case, he had failed her.

     He didn’t know if he still loved her. But if he did, would that make him even more of a failure to her?

     And now here he was, moments away from fighting her father.

     When they had reached close enough to be able to hear the Mayor of Amberdyse speak, the army stopped their advance.

     The Army of the King outnumbered the Amberdysians by maybe a couple hundred men. And everyone knew that wasn’t even close to the actual number of the entire army of the King. The King was confident.

     He didn’t need all those men.

     Mayor Gryre and Lord Kyrus rode forward. “We do not want to fight.” The Mayor said. “But we still keep to our decision to stay out of your war against the North.”

     “Then we will fight.” The King said back.

     “The previous king made it law that we have the right to stay out of these sorts of things.”

     Dukaryn snorted. “And that’s probably why King Kyryn died. And that’s probably why Avaryn went crazy.”

     Seliaryn looked at him, but said nothing.

     “My King.” Lord Kyrus called. “This is unjust on your part.”

     “And you are a traitor.” He said. “You will be punished as a traitor. All of you.”

     Lord Kyrus narrowed his eyes.

     “Well… not all of you.” Dukaryn smiled. “Some of your men don’t agree with you, you know Lord Kyrus and Mayor Gryre?”

     The two men didn’t respond to that, having enough faith in their men.

     “Those of you who don’t agree with your Mayor and the Lord, join me now.”

     Lord Kyrus didn’t even bother to look back. In fact, he was about to let out a laugh. But when he heard some horses start to move and saw almost half of his men leave his side and join the King, he scoffed.

     He suddenly heard the angry shouts of the Amberdysians, which made him turn around in shock.

     The villagers hadn’t listened. Many of them had come out to watch the battle, standing at the gate.

     Including his own wife.

     The mayor was too shocked by this to care about the betrayal that occurred seconds ago, so he turned his horse and rushed back to the village, trying to get people to leave and return to the safety of their homes.

     But they didn’t listen.

     They just shouted at the traitors.

     Lord Kyrus turned to face his men and glared. "You… how could you?" He hissed. "What happened to your honor? Your courage? You betrayed your family and friends for riches? You have all gone against what it means to be a knight!"

     Some deserters looked away with some regret. Others didn't seem to mind.

     "So, Kyrus." Dukaryn called. "There is no way you can defeat our army with only fifty or so men. Surrender and I will spare you, these knights and your village."

     Lord Kyrus, for the first time in a very long time, felt helpless.

     The battle hadn’t even started yet and he had already lost.

     The King was right. One hundred knights was already a small number. Now half of them defected.

     There was no way the Amberdysians could take on the capital.

     Continuing to battle would be suicide. A massacre.

     And if the King was angry enough, villagers could get killed too.

     The Lord took a breath and then let it out in defeat.

     He stepped forward, away from the remaining loyal men.

     "None of these men need to be punished. They were working under my order." He said.

     He could feel his wife's worried stare from back in the village gates.

     "Are you surrendering?" Seliaryn called.

     Lord Kyrus could hear the relief in the young mans voice. But that didn't make him feel any better.

     "Bow down and surrender now." The king called.

     Disappointment.

     There was disappointment in that ones voice.

     He must have hoped for a horrible battle.

     Lord Kyrus swallowed hard.

     He heard his men protest but Lord Kyrus knew he couldn't risk all their lives.

     They had families.

     Friends.

     Lovers.

     And a long life ahead of them.

     He had to do something to save them, even if it meant abandoning their alliance with the north. 

     At least he knew that King Karuna would understand.

     "Will you promise to let these men be?" The lord asked. “These men and the villagers?”

     "Of course." Seliaryn said immediately.

     The king didn’t seem too pleased with that, but he didn't object.

     Lord Kyrus took another breath before he lowered his head to get down on his knee.

     He was slow though. It hurt him greatly to move his legs too quickly.

     The men silenced to watch the famous knight get on his knee, but the silence was soon interrupted by the sound of something piercing through the air.

     Lord Kyrus looked up right when an arrow stabbed the ground in front of him, stopping himself from bowing.

     But before he could think, he heard multiple men from the Kings army shout out in pain.

     One by one, men from the Kings army fell off their horses, and Lord Kyrus stared in shock.

     Everyone stared in shock.

     "An ambush?" The King yelled the question.

     Confusion struck the army of the King as they tried to dodge the arrows that were flying at them. There must be at least twenty archers hiding somewhere, the Lord thought.

     But who? All he could think of was that it was the Hidden. They had arrived just in time.

     "Order!" Seliaryn yelled as he turned to his army.

     It didn't work.

     And just as Seliaryn turned back to look at Lord Kyrus, he was startled by someone else.

     The arrows had stopped coming.

     But a masked warrior stood in front of Lord Kyrus, bow loaded and pointed at the King.

     Lord Kyrus stared at the back of the young woman, eyes wide.

     Her curly brown hair was tied up into a ponytail with a ribbon.

     He stared for what felt like a very long time.

     And then a smile fell on his face.

     Meenu.

     It was his beautiful Meenu.

     Suddenly, next to her appeared another man. When Lord Kyrus looked at him, he knew by the sword that it was Master Red.

     The King glared. “The Hidden.” He said under his breath, as if he was trying to use the name as a curse.

     “Well, well.” Master Red said. “It looks like my Master Archer, in a matter of seconds, has taken down a little less than half your army. Of course, she still doesn’t have a heart of stone, so she clearly couldn’t kill them. But a little less than half your army is still, nonetheless, down.” He said. “What will you do, Dukaryn?”

     The King was grinding his teeth together. “How dare you?”

     “How dare you?” Master Red countered. “To send an army against your own people? And you call yourself a king?”

     “ATTACK–”

     “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Master Red said, calmly. “Ruby here isn’t the only warrior I brought with me.”

     The King didn’t seem to care. “ATTACK!” He yelled gain.

     His men charged at the Amberdysians, but faltered for a moment when nine other warriors and a wolf appeared beside Master Red and Ruby.

     But knowing that the King wouldn’t tolerate a single step back, they continued to charge.

     “Go.” Master Red said.

     With that, all the warriors disappeared.

     All but Ruby.

     She stood in her spot and shot more arrows. Her speed was extraordinary.

     But as the knights of the King got closer, Master Red disappeared.  

     Ruby however, turned around to face Lord Kyrus. She held two fingers at her temple and saluted the smiling man.

     Lord Kyrus wanted to hug her. He wanted to hug her so badly and tell her how proud of her he was.

     He watched as she ran away at an unbelievable speed, not as fast as the other warriors but fast enough, and climbed up a tree. From there she shot more arrows and Lord Kyrus knew that he couldn’t just sit there.

     He turned to his men. “Now is our chance!” He said. “Let us fight for Amberdyse!”

     The Men shouted their agreements and charged ahead to fight the warriors.

     Lord Kyrus jumped onto his horse and unsheathed his sword. He then charged into the fight as well.

     With the warriors on their side, the Kings Army went down like flies. One by one the Kings Army shrunk. And any time a man tried to hurt one of the noble Amberdysians, an arrow shot them down.

     Ruby, standing on a branch of a tree, clearly had only one goal. To protect the Amberdysians.

     But as the battle went on, things got unexpected.

     Lord Kyrus glared when he saw the angry king charging at him.

     The Lord wasn’t a fool. He knew well that he would not be able to take on the young and strong Lumynos King. But of course, he would still try.

     Lord Kyrus prepared his sword but just as the King got closer, an arrow pierced through his thigh.

     The King growled in pain, falling off his startled horse.

     He got back up quickly though, and just as he did he turned towards Ruby.

     Ruby was now running towards him, bow over her shoulder and sword in hand.

     Lord Kyrus’ heart stopped as his daughter’s sword clashed with the King’s. He pushed her back easily, but as she charged at him again to attack him, Seliaryn jumped in between them, pushing Dukaryn back.

     Ruby’s sword clanged against Seliaryn’s, and in the time that he held her back, he looked at her and noticed that unlike the other warriors, her mask had holes where the eyes were.

     And when he saw her eyes, he let out a breath. “Meenu?”

     Dukaryn narrowed his eyes. “What?” He spat.

     But suddenly, Meenu pushed Seliaryn back and Blood jumped between the two, pushing Seliaryn back further and knocking Dukaryn down in the process.

     “Blood.” Meenu called. This was the first time that she had seen him since he returned.

     “You’ve improved drastically.”

     Meenu smiled behind her mask, wanting to hug him but knowing that now wasn’t the appropriate time.

     “But you weren’t supposed to attack Dukaryn.”

     Meenu frowned now. “He tried to attack my father.”

     That made Blood sigh. But he didn’t argue with her.

     Instead, he turned and pulled her into his arms.

     Her heart raced and she knew the hug wasn’t going to last long, so she hugged him back, tightly.

     “I missed you.” He said to her. “And you’ve made me proud of your progress, Ruby.”

     Meenu smiled. “I missed you too.”

     He pulled away after that and turned around to face the gawking King.

     Meenu swallowed down her disappointment, wishing that Blood had arrived before the battle. But again, she reminded herself that now wasn’t the time.

     Dukaryn looked angrily at the two. “Meenu?” He hissed. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”

     Meenu didn’t respond.

     “Grab the other one.” The glaring Dukaryn said to Seliaryn.

     “That one is Blood.” Seliaryn said, recognizing the distinct mask design and knowing that it made sense for Blood to hug Meenu. Part of him hoped that finding that out would make Dukaryn care more about Blood than Meenu.

     But it didn’t work. “Good, then kill him.”

     Seliaryn hesitated.

     “Go!” Dukaryn commanded.

     Seliaryn’s father’s voice rang in his head.

     He didn’t want Meenu to get hurt. But Meenu was taking the traitor’s side.

     He shook his head and let out an angry breath. “Meenu!” He yelled, making Dukaryn turn towards him in anger. “Why are you doing this? Those people are traitors!”

     Meenu frowned. “So what, you want me to fight on your side? Against my father and against my village?”

     Seliaryn hesitated.

     “I will fight for my father, whether you like it or not, Seli.”

     “Seliaryn!” Dukaryn growled.

     Seliaryn let out another breath before he turned to Blood and began to charge towards him.           

     “Stay away.” Blood said to Meenu. “You are not good at direct combat. Use your bow.”

     Meenu bit her lip but nodded, knowing he was right.

     As Blood fought off the angry Seliaryn, who wanted more than anything to get rid of Blood so he can deal with Meenu, Meenu loaded her bow and pointed it at Dukaryn. “Don’t move.”

     Dukaryn snorted. “Stupid bitch.”

     He started to run. And when he did, Meenu thought he was coming for her but he charged at her father.

     She shot an arrow, knowing she was going against orders. But she couldn’t risk her father’s life.

     It stabbed him in the leg, making him trip and fall forward.

     “Meenu! It’s alright!” Her father called, sword in hand.

     She didn’t listen.

     When Dukaryn got up and charged at Lord Kyrus again, she shot him once more.

     But it didn’t stop him.

     She shot him again.

     And again.

     And soon, he was too close to her father.

     She pulled her sword out again and prepared to run towards Dukaryn. But as she took a step, Dukaryn disappeared.

     Meenu froze and a second later, she felt him grab her by her hair.

     He tricked her.

     He wanted her to put away her bow.

     He held a knife at her neck as Lord Kyrus shouted. His angry, frightened shouts were loud enough to make heads turn.

     And when the knights saw that the King had captured one of the warriors, they all froze to watch.

     Seliaryn froze too, shouting in protest.

     And before he even realized it, Blood had disappeared to save Meenu.

     But the knife at her neck made him freeze in his tracks.

     Even Knight, who was watching his mistress from a distance, knew it was too dangerous to move.

     “I’m going to kill you.” Dukaryn hissed as he pulled off her mask and revealed her face to everyone. “I’m going to kill you, you stupid whore.”