Roses on Fire ~ The Tale of Roses and Thorns 2.

Her quarters were spacious and bright. She knew those quarters: she spent weeks there before all the madness began. She was now sitting on her bed, staring out the window, deep in her thoughts.

A loud knock interrupted her. She averted her gaze, looked at the door and slowly stood up.

“Come in! ”

The door slowly opened, and a tall figure stepped in.

“Hello.” said the deep voice.

" Adrastos. ” She smiled and nodded “What’s up? ” she sat back on her bed and patted it next to her, but instead of sitting down, Adrastos walked to the window and looked out.

“Have you been thinking about who should come with us? ”

“Yes.” she nodded slowly, uncertainly “A lot. But I’m not sure. ” she added.

“What’s the problem? ”

“I don’t know. ” she stood up and started pacing up and down “Áedh should come. He’s a great warrior and a good friend of mine. I was thinking about Hagan too, but he’s young. Padráig knows everything about Sanctuary and he’s a good warrior too, but... He’s too old in my view... ”

“Cirillo? ” asked Adrastos still staring out the window. Ivelle could hear some kind of uncertainty in his voice. She examined his face but it didn’t give away anything.

“No.” she said finally “No. He’s smart and a good warrior, but... We can’t see eye to eye nowadays... ” she admitted. Adrastos opened his mouth to say something, but a loud knock on the door interrupted him.

“Come in. ” said Ivelle again. The door opened again. A tall, fair figure stepped in. Ivelle felt like her blood had run cold. The figure stopped in front of her. In the sudden silence she could hear Adrastos turn around and walk up behind her. “Cirillo.” she said below her breath. Cirillo’s face was strict and very unfriendly.

“Lady Ivelle, Adrastos. ” Ivelle felt like she had been hit between wind and water. Cirillo had never called her Lady Ivelle before. Never. ” I see I interrupted something. ”

“As a matter of fact, yes. ” She replied turning away.

“What a pity. I didn’t want to interrupt your little flirting or whatever you’ve been doing. ”

“Excuse me? ” said Ivelle much louder now, feeling her blood boiling.

“Oh, come on, Ivelle, I’m not stupid. It’s obvious that he seduced you. Why else would you spend half a year with him? ”

“Has it ever occurred to you, that his intentions are good?” Cirillo grunted and turned away.

“You’ve always been too naïve, Ivelle.” He turned back and pointed at Adrastos “He’s the Dark Prince. His intentions are everything but good. Do you really think you can trust him? You don’t even know him! ” Ivelle took a deep breath and looked at Adrastos, then into Cirillo’s eyes.

“Maybe I was naïve, but that was long ago. I’m not that naïve anymore.” she took a step closer to him and raised her voice again ” I was naïve when I trusted you. You left me alone when I needed help. You acted like I was a little girl. And at the same time Adrastos, the so called ‘bad guy’, saved my life more than once, and helped me for six months.”

“I left you?” retorted Cirillo with raising anger “You ran into every single dangerous and fatal situation. Excuse me if I didn’t want to watch you die.”

There was another loud knock on the door.

“Come in!” said Ivelle nearly yelling, and a very taken-aback Áedh stepped in.

“What’s going on here?” he asked on a calm voice “For Ryuu’s sake, I could hear your yelling from the other end of the city!”

“Prince Cirillo’s just given me his opinion about me.” said Ivelle turning away

“I see...” said Áedh and gave Cirillo a dark glare “Prince Cirillo we need your help in the ward.” he said straightening his back.

Ivelle heard Cirillo turning around and leaving the room with Áedh. She looked into Adrastos’s eyes, and all she could see was confusion.

“What?” she asked maybe a bit more irritated than she wanted to.

“Why are you doing this?” he asked, not letting her gaze go.

“Doing what?”

“Defending me in front of others, treating me like a person...”

“You are a person.”

“Okay, I’ll be more exact: a good person.”

“Because you are a good person, Adrastos. You’re not as evil and bad as others think.” she touched his face.

“You’re wrong Ivelle. I’m much-much worse than you think...” he turned away “I fought in the previous war, I killed people.”

“And still, you’re here helping me. ” She took a deep steady breath “You could’ve pretended that you’re good, for a week maybe a month, but not for half a year.”

“Still, Cirillo’s the proof that defending me will put a strain on your reputation. Don’t defend me anymore. I can look after myself. After all I’m the Dark Prince of Nendawin, and you’re most probably the hero of this story.”

“Then what are you? The villain?”

“Yes.”

“But why is there always have to be a hero? And a villain? I refuse to believe that you or Delroy are villains. Antiheros, maybe, but not villains. And anyways, I don’t give a damn about my reputation!” she took another deep breath. Adrastos turned to face her.

“You always see the good in people, but I’m afraid that right now you’re seeing things that are not there, and that’s always dangerous.” he walked past her and left the room.

Ivelle sat down on the edge of her bed, trying to make sense of everything that had happened during the last 30 minutes. Her thoughts were swirling in her head, one replacing the other. She soon became so overwhelmed that all she could do was sit there and cry.