Fury patted Avaryn’s shoulder. “One, two, three!”

     Avaryn winced as Fury pushed his shoulder back into the right position. But once it had returned to normal, it didn’t seem to hurt much at all.

     Master Red, who was standing across from him, looked at him with a frown. “I do not understand why you look so upset.”

     Avaryn rubbed his shoulder as he stood up. “Thank you, Fury.” He said with a slight nod of his head.

     Fury smiled and returned the nod.

     When Avaryn looked back at Master Red, he sighed. “I wasn’t going to kill him,” he said, “I really didn’t… want him to die. I wanted to avenge my father’s death but…”

     Master Red stared at Avaryn. He could see pure regret on the young man’s face and it made Master Red uncomfortable.

     Ever since he reclaimed his identity as Avaryn, things have been getting out of hand. And Master Red absolutely hated it when things were not under his control.

     Blood was always quick to finish his work. He was not hesitant and he never held any regrets. He was… in a sense, colder than Avaryn was now.

     Avaryn was slowly becoming more and more sensitive.

     But what made him worry was the fact that he couldn’t understand why. He couldn’t understand what had happened to Avaryn that would make him so… childish.

     Was it his love for Meenu?

     That was really all he could think of.

     “That was Seliaryn’s father,” Avaryn’s brows furrowed, “and mother…”

     “But it was for the greater good–”

     “Was it?” Avaryn asked, “Seliaryn was king already… his father was probably not going to do anything else to hurt anyone. His had achieved his goal.”

     “But bringing justice is always for the greater good.”

     Avaryn looked away and sighed. “Seliaryn… when we were kids, he would have done anything for me.”

     Master Red narrowed his eyes.

     “If he found out that I wanted to avenge my father, he would have joined me without a hesitation. That’s how good of a friend he was.” Avaryn suddenly looked even more regretful then he already was, “that’s why I did it… that’s why I threatened to kill everyone he loves before I left. Because I didn’t want him to come with me. It wasn’t his problem and I didn’t want him to ruin his own life for my sake.”

     “Then if he is such a good friend, he should understand why all of this happened.”

     “The fact of the matter is, it was his father…” Avaryn frowned deeply, “the least I could have done to repay Seliaryn for his kindness was to give him peace. But now… his father is dead. And his mother–”

     “Killed him.” Master Red finished, “it wasn’t you who did it. It was his own mother.”

     “But it was my fault.”

     “No it was not,” Master Red said, “that man had left that woman emotionally traumatized by what his had done. She would have done it eventually.”

     “You don’t know that,” Avaryn said, “you didn’t see what I saw.”

     “And what was that?”

     “She loved him,” Avaryn said. “He must have done something right to make her love him so much… and now, because of me–”

     Master Red was suddenly right in front of Avaryn. He punched his fist in Avaryn’s cheek and Fury jumped when she heard bones crack.

     Avaryn wasn’t pushed back, it wasn’t that hard. But he stared at the floor in shock for a moment before he looked back at Master Red.

     The man glared at him. “Look at you,” he said, “you look pathetic.”

     Avaryn let out a breath and touched his cheek. Just as he did, blood escaped his lips.

     “I have told you countless times, boy, that worrying about the past is not going to do anything for you. What’s done is done. Roviaryn is dead and there is nothing you can do. Sitting her whining like a child isn’t going to bring him back and it isn’t going to make Seliaryn forgive you.”

     Avaryn wiped the blood from his lip but kept look at his master.

     “Instead, I suggest that you actually do something. If you regret your actions so much then do something about it. Go and apologize to Seliaryn. Make sure he knows the truth about what has happened before he learns something else and misinterprets the situation.”

     Avaryn hesitated.

     Master Red’s eyes flickered down to Avaryn’s belt and then back up at him. “Where are your weapons?”

     Avaryn thought for a moment before he blinked hard in annoyance.

     Master Red sighed loudly. “Your carelessness is getting worse and worse, Avaryn. This is what happens when you let your petty emotions take over. Go retrieve your weapons and get back here. We must talk about what you’re turning into and how to stop this childish stupidity.”

     Avaryn looked down, feeling slightly embarrassed at his carelessness.

     “And I will say this only once and you will hear it,” Master Red said, making Avaryn look back at him, “if you continue to act in such a foolish manner then I will have no choice but to remove you from my group.”

     Avaryn’s eyes widened.

     “Do you understand?”

     He lowered his head, “yes, Master Red.”

     “Now go,” Master Red said as he turned around to return to his usual seat, “go retrieve your weapons, do what you can to make amends with Seliaryn and get back over here. We need to talk deeply about your actions. Take Fury if your pathetic ass needs moral support or what not.”

     Avaryn bowed before he looked up at Fury.

     But just as she gave him a sympathetic smile, Master Red jumped around to face Avaryn with an extremely aggressive glare.

     Avaryn stared in shock, but before he could wonder if Master Red was truly that angry with him, he heard the voice of a woman coming from behind him.      

     “My, my, Master Red,” she said, “aren’t you being a little harsh?”

     Avaryn turned around quickly and held back a shudder when he saw Lady Kiaryna. He bowed low, as did Fury.

     Master Red however, simply acknowledged her presence by relaxing his glare ever so slightly.

     Just then, five people appeared behind the chief of the Lumynos clan. They were all cloaked but it was easy to tell that three of them were men and two were women.

     All of them were Lumynos.

     “Have you heard the news?” The woman asked. Her hair was braided tightly today and she pulled the braid over her shoulder as she spoke, “Lord Roviaryn is dead. Do you know what could have possibly happened?”

     Avaryn narrowed his eyes, knowing just by the small smile on her face that she knew exactly what had happened.

     And everyone in the room knew that this woman seemed to find this amusing.

     “What do you want?” Master Red asked, still glaring and looking more annoyed than ever.

     The woman continued to smile, “well… the recent turn of events have led to some horrendous results.”

     Avaryn hesitated.

     “It seems that… Seliaryn thinks that you killed his family, Avaryn.” The Lady said as she stepped forward. “And it seems to me that he is thirsty for revenge.”

     Avaryn let out a breath. “No…”

     “It is a little funny though, if you ask me.” Her smile grew, “this whole situation reminds me of when your father died and you went mad for revenge.” She even let out a small laugh.

     “Where is Seliaryn?” Avaryn asked.

     “I don’t know.” She said, “but you’ve gotten what you wanted right? That’s why you killed Seliaryn’s parents? So that this could happen and you could take the throne?”

     Avaryn scoffed, “Absolutely not–”

     “Whatever the case may be, Avaryn, Seliaryn has relinquished his claim to the throne. He doesn’t want it. And we’ve come to take you to where you belong.”

     “What?”

     “We cannot leave the throne empty. And besides, you are the rightful heir.” The woman’s smile finally faded, “this is your duty. Do not waste our time.”

     “But what happened to Seliaryn–”

     “I don’t know and truly, I don’t even care. That is none of my business.”

     “I won’t come with you until I know Seliaryn is okay–”

     “Do you think you have a choice?” She asked as she put a hand on her hip. “I have brought five of the best Lumynos fighters that I could come up with. Against one, you might win but against all five, you are useless. We will drag you to the castle if we must but we prefer not to, Avaryn.”

     Avaryn narrowed his eyes.

     “Go.” Master Red suddenly said. “If what she’s saying about Seliaryn is true then she is right. We cannot leave the throne empty.”

     Avaryn looked at Master Red for a moment before he sighed.

     “Fine.” He said, with regret in his voice.

     Lady Kiaryna smiled. “Perfect.”

     And with that, all of them disappeared except for Master Red and Fury.

     Fury, who was still in shock, just stared.

     Master Red looked at her. “Fury.”

     She turned to him and straightened herself up.

     “Find everyone. Tell them that Avaryn is now the king. And tell them to inform all the allies.”

     Mayor Gryre looked at the tearful Meenu with pity. Just as things seemed to be turning around for her, they were all immediately turned back upside down.

     The village doctor was covering her upper arm with bandages as it was bruised and the bone within was cracked just enough to almost shatter.

     And the Mayor just knew that she wasn’t crying because of the pain.

     That wasn’t even close to the reason.

     “What happened?”

     Everyone looked up when they saw Master Red step into the Kyrus household. He was looking right at Meenu.

     She looked back at him and took a breath, but before she could speak, her father did.

     “Seliaryn attacked Meenu. We have no idea why.”

     “He attacked her?” Master Red asked in shock.

     Meenu looked away and Lady Kyrus nodded. “And he said something about how he’s going to hurt Avaryn.”

     Master Red shook his head as he started to pace. “God dammit.”

     “What on earth is going on?” Mayor Gryre asked as he adjusted his glasses, “Red, you can’t keep us in the dark!”

     Master Red sighed. “Seliaryn’s father and mother are dead.”

     Meenu’s head snapped up. She stared at Master Red with wide eyes as she stood up. “What?”

     “Seliaryn’s mother is the one who did it though. She killed her husband. Then grief is what killed her. But Avaryn was inconveniently there when it happened so Seliaryn believes that Avaryn did it.”

     “No…” Meenu placed a hand over her mouth, “that’s horrible.”

     “But,” Master Red started, “that is not what I came here to tell you…”

     “What is it then?” Lord Kyrus asked, “what could be more important than this?”

     “Avaryn is King.”

     Everyone stared in shock.

     “What is most important now is to convince all the people of Raffyre that Avaryn isn’t a mad villain,” Master Red said, “because if we don’t… then things are going to get a little difficult.”