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The Lumynos messenger, known well for his remarkable speed, ran as fast as he could to the east of Raffyre, crossing the Raffyrian border and making his way into the nation of the Lumynos clan, Lumyryn.

     When the Lumynos guards that stood at the famous gate of the nation finally let the messenger in, he continued his journey to the center of the small country.

     He soon arrived at the largest and oldest mansion that existed in the country and made his way in.

     He passed the Lumynos guards who watched him carefully, knowing that their all-seeing eyes would know even before he did if he decided to pull a treacherous move. But he had nothing to fear. He was simply a messenger.

     He found the mistress of the mansion where she usually was, sitting at her garden taking care of her precious blood red roses.

     “Lady Kiaryna.” The messenger said.

     The woman didn’t look at the messenger. She continued to care for her roses, her long fingers touching the flowers without a worry about the thorns. “Good news, I hope?”

     The woman was well into her sixties, but had pitch-black hair and looked as youthful as any young woman. But it was the wisdom in her eyes that gave away her older age. Her red eyes had seen a lot in her life.

     The messenger bowed before he spoke. “Dukaryn is dead.”

     A smile graced the woman’s face as she stood up and rubbed her hands on her long, brown dress. She then chuckled. “Good. The idiot is finally dead,” she turned to face the young messenger, “it seems Avaryn has finally done something right.”

     The tall woman always seemed to make the messenger lose his words for a moment. She was so beautiful, but also so frightening. “Actually,” the messenger started, “it was Lord Seliaryn, the king’s right hand man, who killed him.”

     Lady Kiaryna's eyebrows shot up, which worried the messenger. It was hard to surprise this woman.  “Seliaryn? You mean Roviaryn’s gentle son?”

     The messenger nodded. “Yes, my lady.”

     She started to laugh, placing her hand over her mouth.

     The messenger just stared at the woman, not knowing how to react.

     “Unbelievable.” She said when she calmed down. “What possessed such a noble man to kill Dukaryn? His King?”

     “I hear it was a girl. The one who Avaryn was engaged too.”

     The woman started to laugh again, harder.

     The messenger swallowed hard. In his time working for this woman, he had learned that her laugh was even more frightening than her glare.

     Lady Kiaryna, the head of the Lumynos clan, continued to laugh for quite some time. And when she was finally finished, her smile was a happy one. "I was worried that we were going to have to intervene and force Avaryn to kill Dukaryn. But... this is good. This is very good. I think Seliaryn would make a strong king.”

     “So shall I inform the court that you give your blessings?”

     She nodded. “I guess it’s about time we had a full blooded Lumynos on the throne.”

     The messenger nodded. “Understood.”

     The woman smiled before she chuckled. “Poor Roviaryn. I wonder how he feels about his son killing the king for a girl.”

     The messenger bowed, figuring that she was talking to herself. “I’ll be off then.”

     “Yes, yes.” She waved him off before she walked away, into her mansion.

     She continued to smile as she entered her mansion, pleased at how interesting everything had gotten.

     She wondered how long Seliaryn would last as the king. And she wondered how long it was going to take before Avaryn was forced to try and kill Seliaryn for the throne.

     Things had gotten much more amusing.

     When Avaryn had finally made it back to Master Red’s hideout, he was surprised to see that all of the Hidden had already gathered there, including Master Red.

     Meenu, who had been reunited with Knight, was also standing near a door that led to another room in the hideout. She had a look of concern on her face, but didn’t say anything.

     Avaryn hesitated, and when he saw most of the younger members of the team give him a look of impatience, he understood what they wanted.

     An explanation.

     Life, the oldest of the warriors, seemed to have already known that Blood was Avaryn. Though she had never said anything, she was old enough to understand what had happened eight years ago. So she stood by Master Red, looking bored.

     The rest of them, however, clearly hadn’t known. Even though they had seen Avaryn’s true face here and there.

     Of course, eight years ago these men and women would have been too young to understand what had happened. And they had never actually seen Avaryn’s face when he was a prince.

     So Avaryn didn’t blame them for being upset with him.

     Light crossed his arms. “Well, Blood?” He started. “I don’t blame you for keeping such a secret but you’re going to have to explain this to us.”

     “You can’t expect us to continue to fight by your side when we can’t even trust you,” Heart continued. “And we only helped you this time around because we know you didn’t have time to explain it to us. But now you have to.”

     Avaryn looked at the young boy. His mask was off and he looked genuinely hurt.

     Fury had her mask off too. Her long golden hair wasn’t in her usual ponytail and it all tumbled over her shoulders, for some reason making her look a lot more vulnerable and like a young girl. She stared at Avaryn, her blue eyes looking unbelievably betrayed. “You were my partner for all these years.” She said. It came out softly. “I trusted you enough to tell you everything about myself. How could you not even mention something as crazy as this?”

     “I’m sorry, Fury.”

     The girl gave her partner a look of sadness. Though she was always strong and constantly angry, today she showed a side of her to everyone that only Blood had once known.

     Meenu watched Fury as she stared at Avaryn. This was the first time that Meenu saw her face and she was amazed by how beautiful she was. But she also looked genuinely hurt, as if Avaryn had actually done something so horrible to her.

     And that look made her wonder how close Avaryn and Fury had actually been. She knew they were partners… but were they actually friends too?

     “Well hurry up and explain yourself.” Fury said to him. “And your explanation better be good.”

     Avaryn let out a small laugh before his eyes fell on Master Red.

     Master Red just sighed and shook his head. Though the man knew that this was such a waste of time, he also knew that the only way his team would be effective was if they trusted each other. So he had to allow them to reconcile. “Alright,” Master Red started, “as you all make amends, I will head out and figure things out with Amberdyse and Destyn.”

     His warriors looked at him.

     “I’m coming too.” Life said, rather blandly.

     Master Red nodded his head before he looked back at all his warriors.

     And to all of their surprise, he smiled. “Take a break, all of you. You have done well and though our mission ended unexpectedly… our mission is nonetheless complete. You all did well.”

     Meenu watched as all of the warriors turned and bowed their heads, all at the same time.

     She wondered if she was supposed to do it too, but by the time she decided to bow, all of the warriors had risen.

     Master Red’s eyes fell on Meenu for a short moment before he looked back at his warriors. He lifted his hand up and nodded his head. “Please, continue.”

     And with that, he disappeared.

     When Meenu looked back at the warriors, she saw Avaryn looking at her.

     It lasted only a second, because he looked away quickly, and though she was confused at first she shook it off and just watched as Avaryn sighed.

     “Let me tell you all from the beginning, then.” He started. “But you must promise to keep this a secret.”

     The younger warriors snorted and Light let out a chuckle. “Of course we’ll keep your secret.” Sky said as he scratched the back of his head. “Keeping secret’s, that what we do.”

     Avaryn smiled, sighed, and then smiled again. “Right.”

     And with that, Meenu listened as Avaryn told the truth for the second time around.

     Master Red arrived at the Mayor’s office in an instant, Life standing right behind him.

     The Mayor, who now no longer got surprised at the sudden appearance of the warriors, smiled.

     Lord and Lady Kyrus, who were also still with the Mayor, also smiled.

     They had already heard the news and were all still in shock, but they knew that they had to figure everything out as quickly as possible.

     Lady Kyrus smiled at Life, who she was meeting for the first time. “I don’t think we’ve met.”

     Life bowed, her black long hair tumbling over her shoulder. “I have heard much about you all from Meenu while she was training with Master Red.”

     “Life hates chatty people,” Master Red said, “but for some reason she took a liking to Meenu.”

     Life let out a snort as she straightened herself up. It was true though. For some reason, Life really liked Meenu.

     And it was often hard to get Life to like a person.

     Life smiled behind her mask. “Anyway, Meenu is greatly fond of you. And you have a daughter who deserves your pride.”

     Lady Kyrus kept smile. “Thank you.”

     “I am curious to know what you are thinking of doing next.” Master Red asked the mayor when the women were finished.

     The Mayor looked at Lord Kyrus before he spoke. “Seliaryn is no enemy to us. I believe the best thing to do is to go to the palace and make sure he knows that we feel that way.”

     Master Red nodded. “I agree. I went to see the King of Destyn before coming here and he feels the same way,” Master Red said, “in fact, he’s already making his way to the castle.”

     “Then we shall do the same,” Lord Kyrus said, “and what about you?”

     Master Red smiled at his former teacher. “We feel the way you do. The goal of my organization was to remove Dukaryn from the throne and replace him with a better King. We had hoped it would be Avaryn but I believe Seliaryn would be just as good.”

     “You think Seliaryn will simply accept you?” The Mayor asked.

     “He will.” Master Red smiled. “He has to.”