Meenu rode into the castle grounds with Knight by her side. This made the guards hold their ground but when she reminded them that she was the daughter of Lord Darien Kyrus, they let her pass with only some hesitation.
But even that… was probably out of fear.
After all, Meenu did have a reputation.
Servants took her fathers horse from her when she got off and she walked into the castle, a guard taking her to the king and Knight still by her side.
People stayed clear. Possibly thanks to Knight.
She had expected to be taken to the throne room, but she wasn't. Instead, she was taken up a narrow staircase and into a meeting hall.
Seliaryn was sitting in a chair on one side of a long table, with one leg over the other. His arms were crossed and he seemed to be discussing something important with the woman who was standing next to him.
But the second Meenu stepped in, they both looked at her.
Meenu smiled, happy to see Seliaryn but amazed by the woman who was by his side.
The first thing that went through her head was wow, what a beautiful woman. The second thing was how on earth is she not in pain when she’s holding a sword that heavy on her shoulder?
“Meenu.” Seliaryn put his leg down and leaned forward, but he said nothing else.
Meenu was about to say hello, but the other woman spoke first. “Meenu Kyrus,” the gorgeous woman’s red lips curved up into a smile, “I knew I’d meet you soon.”
Meenu hesitated.
As amazing as this woman seemed, Meenu found it hard to tell if she was trustable or not.
However, Knight, who was standing next to her, didn’t seem at all bothered by the presence of this ferociously beautiful woman, so Meenu relaxed.
“Quite the commotion you were a part of, hmm?” She asked. “You’re the one everyone’s talking about back at home.”
Meenu’s eyes widened, she didn’t like the sound of that.
“Well, as a Lumynos myself, let me give you some advice. Stay out of trouble,” she started, “you look like a good girl and it seems like a lot of people really care about you.”
Meenu didn’t miss this woman’s eyes flickering towards Seliaryn, who wasn’t looking at either of them, he was just looking straight ahead, hands on the table now.
“Are you a knight?” Meenu asked. She didn’t look like a knight.
The woman snorted. “No way.”
“A warrior then?”
She pursed her lips, thinking. “Not exactly. I just call myself a Lumynos fighter,” she said, “but I guess warrior would be the best category to put myself in for the sake of simplification.”
“Wow.” Meenu’s eyes went to her sword. “Is that heavy?”
The woman smiled. “Pretty heavy. If we get a chance to meet again, I’ll let you hold it.”
The thought excited Meenu and the woman could tell.
But she then looked at Seliaryn. “I assume you want to be alone?”
Seliaryn nodded, still not looking at anyone. “Please.”
The woman bowed her head. “As you wish, my King. Send for me as soon as you’re done.”
Seliaryn nodded.
The woman walked around the new King and towards Meenu.
Meenu kept a smile on her face, not really able to push the thought of how amazing this woman seemed out of her mind.
When the woman reached Meenu, she slowed down, and Meenu could see that she was a lot taller then Meenu. But it might have been the heeled shoes she was wearing.
And to Meenu’s surprise, the woman gently grabbed a handful of Meenu’s brown curls. “I love your hair.”
That took Meenu by surprise. “T-thank you.”
The woman gave her, what seemed like, a warm smile before continuing to walk off, her heels clacking against the hard floor of the castle.
When they couldn’t hear her heels anymore, Seliaryn looked at Meenu. “That was Am,” he said, “She’s the new right hand woman.”
Meenu let out a sharp breath. She walked over to the table and sat next to Seliaryn without asking permission. “She seems amazing!”
“I’m not too sure if I can trust her yet, though.”
“Why not?”
Seliaryn hesitated. “She’s the daughter of the head of the Lumynos clan.”
Meenu narrowed her eyes. “The head of the Lumynos clan? Isn’t that you?”
“No,” Seliaryn said. “I’m a Lumynos man who is now the King of Raffyre. Her mother is a direct descendent of Lumyryn and the original Lumynos. She is the leader of our homeland.”
Meenu nodded, never really knowing that the hierarchy within the Lumynos family could be so complicated.
But before she could ask anymore question, Seliaryn started to scratch Knight’s head.
Knight, who seemed more than a little happy to see Seliaryn, licked his hand and rubbed his head against the new King’s leg.
“You shouldn’t have brought him here,” Seliaryn said, looking at the wolf, “It may have scared people and caused trouble.”
“Well, I tried to keep him at home but he wouldn’t listen. After everything that’s been going on, he didn’t want to leave my side,” Meenu said, watching as Knight’s caresses seemed to be calming Seliaryn down.
Knight almost always had that effect on people who weren’t scared of him.
“The only thing I could do was tie him up… and I didn’t want to put him through that.”
Knight sat on his bottom and rested his head on Seliaryn’s lap, looking up at the man with love in his eyes.
It made Seliaryn smile. “Well, it seems to me that Knight is the only one here who knows how to do his job right.”
Meenu smiled sympathetically, knowing that Seliaryn was referring to the fact that Knight could protect his master but Seliaryn couldn’t. “I wanted to come to your coronation,” Meenu said, “but they wouldn’t let me.”
“They were smart to not let you,” Seliaryn said, finally looking at Meenu, “my father wouldn’t have been pleased to see you.”
“He’s not here right now?” Meenu had expected to see him.
“No. He’s gone to Lumyryn to settle something with the head of the clan.”
Meenu nodded.
She then surprised Seliaryn by grabbing his free hand with both of hers while his other hand was still on Knight’s head.
“Seli… Thank you… really.”
“You said that already.” Seliaryn said, looking away from her face.
Meenu tightened her grip on his hands, making Seliaryn look back at her. “I feel like you’re not hearing me,” she said, honestly, “I really am so grateful for you Seliaryn… you sacrificed so much to save my life even though you had all the right to be mad at me.”
Seliaryn just looked at her, a small frown on his face.
“You’re right. I did lie to you. I lied to you when you didn’t deserve that,” Meenu looked him straight in his red eyes as she spoke, “you’re one of the few people who respected and cared for me even when everyone else hated me and Seli… you really are my best friend. And you didn’t deserve the lies I told you. I should have trusted you and told you the truth.”
The new King let out a breath.
“I should have told you all of it. About Blood and the Hidden and Master Red… you had a good reason to not trust me,” she took a breath, “but the fact that, after everything, you still defended me… you really proved to me that I can never be as good of a friend to you as you were to me.”
Seliaryn tried to pull his hand away right then, but Meenu didn’t let him.
“I’m sorry, Seliaryn,” she said, “I’m so sorry. I know you didn’t want this and I know it’s my fault that you’re in this position–”
When Seliaryn finally managed to pull his hand away, he sighed. “Meenu, it’s fine. You don’t need to apologize.”
“But–”
“Someone was going to kill Dukaryn that day. I think it being me was better then it being Avaryn.”
Meenu frowned. “But Avaryn wouldn’t have minded being King.”
“But I would have minded if he was,” Seliaryn said, “and so would the rest of Raffyre. Whatever potential you see in him, the rest of us do not.”
Meenu sat back in her seat; hands in her lap, hunching her shoulders and making herself look smaller. “Sorry.” She said, reminding herself that Seliaryn didn’t know the truth about Avaryn.
And then Meenu sighed. She opened her mouth to ask him something.
But Seliaryn stood up, making Knight step away to give him space. He then pulled at the neck of his tunic and sighed. “Let’s go outside. I hate this stuffy castle.”
Meenu followed Seliaryn out of the Red Palace and into its gardens. People bowed for Seliaryn when he walked by and unlike what Dukaryn used to do, Seliaryn acknowledged their respect with a smile and a nod of his head.
They eventually arrived at the main garden of the castle. In the center of the garden stood a larger version of the Statue of Lumyryn that sat in the capital’s central square.
Meenu had just passed it on her way to the palace and that statue itself was remarkable… but this one seemed a hundred times more remarkable.
If it had the colours of a normal man rather than being that dark grey colour, he would have looked lifelike.
And even with the rubies that replaced his eyes… it still looked real. After all, the eyes of all the Lumynos did look like rubies.
The mythical Lumyryn was stunningly handsome. Meenu felt herself blush in embarrassment, finding it strange that she found a statue to be handsome.
But she couldn’t help it. The man was tall, broad shouldered and had all around chiseled features. His tunic went down to his knees but had a neck that was so deep that it revealed his prominent collarbones and his entire muscular chest down to just above his belly. The tunic was also cut on both sides of him from the waist down, falling between his legs like a loincloth. But he wore harem pants and boots that went just up to his calves. Over his tunic he wore flowing robes and over the robes and tunic he wore a thick belt with a stone at the center. And over all of those layers, he wore a cape that also looked to be blowing in the wind.
Except it wasn’t.
Because this was a stone statue.
His right arm was extended out, holding his axe away from him like a sword with his hand wrapped around the center of the long handle. The blade wedged into the ground and the handle extended behind him.
He had a strong, fierce jawline and for whatever reason, his lips were slightly parted. His hair was long and straight, falling well past his shoulders and just to his elbows, and tied into a half ponytail with long bangs falling over both sides of his face. But the statue made it seem as if his hair was also blowing in some imaginary wind, the same wind that pushed around his clothing.
His brows were low, making him look slightly angry… however, what shocked Meenu the most were his eyes.
It wasn’t the rubies, or how lovely his small eyes were.
It was the fact that his eyes spoke of feelings that you would least expect from the creator of the Lumynos clan.
They spoke kindness.
“Why does he look so… nice?” Meenu asked as she placed her hands behind her back and admired the handsome man whose beauty was thankfully preserved in this statue.
Seliaryn sat at one of the four benches that surrounded the statue and looked at Meenu.
The first thing he noticed was how lovely Meenu’s hair looked today. He hadn’t been able to see it inside the glum castle, but now in the light of the sun, he could see how lovely the curls looked.
It had been a while since her hair looked so neat and maintained.
It made him wish he could touch it.
But of course, he didn’t.
He then looked up at the statue that faced east, where the nation that was named after him existed. Since the sun was setting now, the statue didn’t look as remarkable as it could, because when the sun was rising, the rubies would shine with such brilliance that sometimes Seliaryn felt the urge to bow. Right now, the sun was shining against the back of the statue and it looked rather dark at the front. “Because he was nice.”
“Really?” Meenu turned suddenly and walked over to him.
Seliaryn felt his heart stop for a second as he watched her curls bounce with her every movement.
She’s beautiful. He said in his head.
Meenu sat down next to him and looked at him, waiting for his response.
He cleared his throat. “You should read the story about him. It’s a good one.”
“I like it better when you tell me the stories,” Meenu said with a grin, remembering the time that Seliaryn gave her a tour of the castle.
Seliaryn smiled back, feeling a sort of nostalgia even though that time was not that long ago. “It’s a long story. If I had the time, I would tell it. A woman who travelled with him wrote it and it’s somewhere in the Lumynos Family Hall. I’ll find the book for you.”
Meenu smiled and thanked him. Seliaryn had recommended books to her in the past and she loved every single one of them.
Seliaryn nodded as Knight returned to his position on Seliaryn’s lap.
“How accurate would you say this statue is?” Meenu asked, still admiring it.
“Very accurate. The original was erected almost immediately after he passed away.” He watched her as she admired the statue.
Seliaryn didn’t see the same thing Meenu saw in the statue. After all, he had passed it thousands and thousands of times and so it didn’t surprise him any longer.
“Is this the original?”
“No, of course not. The original is back in Lumyryn. It’s ten times the size of this one.”
Meenu’s eyes widened. This one was already twice the size of her so she couldn’t imagine how big the other was.
But then she smiled. “Do you ever wish that you could meet someone who was already dead?” Meenu wondered how this man really looked. And why he had that gentle look in his eyes.
“Always.” Seliaryn said without hesitation. He put his arm on the back of the bench, without touching Meenu. His other hand continued to pat Knight’s head. Clearly he found this as calming as Meenu did.
“Who?” Meenu asked, looking at him.
“Too many people to say.”
Meenu smiled and then chuckled. “I guess that’s what happens when you know so much about history.”
Seliaryn nodded.
Meenu then suddenly shook her head, startling Seliaryn.
She had decided that they had drifted off topic long enough.
She looked right at Seliaryn. “Answer my question honestly.”
He nodded his head.
“Do you believe that holding back on telling the truth is the same as lying?”
“Yes.” He said without hesitation.
Meenu pouted her lips for a second. “I knew you’d say that,” she said, “which is why I’ve come to this decision…”
Seliaryn gave her a look of confusion.
“I’ve been thinking about this the entire ride here and I’ve decided… that I’m not going to lie to you anymore, Seliaryn.”
Now his eyebrows rose.
“You don’t deserve that. Besides, you’re his best friend. I don’t know why it would be such a problem for you to know the truth… and I feel like… if I tell you the truth then you’ll understand a little more and you won’t be so angry with him.”
“How would Avaryn feel about you doing this?” Seliaryn placed his head on his hand, his arm still resting on the back of the bench. He seemed skeptical. He didn’t really think she’d tell him the real truth.
Meenu pouted her lips again, seeing the disbelief in his eyes. “Avaryn won’t be happy. But like I said before, you two were best friends. You only hate him because you don’t know the truth.”
He was thankful that Meenu wanted him to know the truth… or at least, wanted him to think that she was telling him the truth. But he was still skeptical. “Okay,” Seliaryn said, “let’s hear the truth.”
Meenu took a breath. “You can’t tell anyone,” she said, “I beg you.”
Seliaryn nodded his head. “This will be between you, me and the Statue of Lumyryn.”
Meenu chuckled, her eyes flickering over at the statue before she looked back at Seliaryn. “Well… here goes…”