The Chronicles of Guertanna: The Sword of Light and Shadow

Chapter XXIX

Rinna held her breathe, looking at the charming Dia. The room illuminated in thousand of flowers and green healthy plants. It seemed that Dia knew about Rinna's presence all along. She swallowed hard and took a couple steps forward. Dia wasn't bothered for Rinna to be following her, she looked calmed, bright, beautiful. Something it has been a long time, omitting the Tea Party. Rinna closed the door behind her and looked around to what Dia created, looking at the flower and plants absorbing the moonlight and intertwining one another.

"It's beautiful..." She murmured, looking up even in the ceiling were branches hanged with leaves and flowers. Rinna didn't even notice when the golden dust touched the ceiling. But there it was, a whole garden in a room. So enchanting, wonderful, full of fantasy and desire.

"Thank you..." Dia smiled, turning to one of the flower pots and admiring a Moonshine flower which was closed. Dia touched it gently and this opened, releasing golden dust around it. "Life... is beautiful, isn't it?"

Rinna blinked at her, surprised by her question, "I guess so," She answered at last.

"Life can give you the power to do everything, to feel everything, to think everything you want." She continued touching the petals of the flowers, "It gives you everything you need to be happy..." She paused, suddenly moving away from the flowers. "But do you know what it doesn't give you?" She murmured, looking at the bright petals of the flower, "Enough time." She whispered, the sound of her voice suddenly piercing Rinna's soul. Dia shook her head, "It doesn't give you enough time to love, enough time to cry; enough time to smile or laugh..." She chuckled softly, "I have lived for more than two hundred years, and I can tell you that time wasn't enough for me to feel everything fully, to know that I have done everything," She sighed, "I was only left, waiting for more time..." She shook her head again, "We will always ask...for more time."

Rinna watched her, her eyes wide, incredulously looking at the Empress, how her words were clearly more to herself than trying to make conversation. Rinna tried to make any sense in what Dia was saying, was any? Did she know what she was talking about, or those were just random words said in wise tone? She couldn't know what Dia was trying to convey, in fact, maybe neither Dia knew what she was talking about.

"Rinna," Dia smiled and made Rinna's heart skip a beat, "If you were a flower, you'll probably be an amaryllis. A red blossomed amaryllis." She nodded.

Rinna blinked her eyes perplexed, where did this come from? "Why do you think that...your highness...?"

"It's a beautiful flower, with the most passionate color. It defines its bravery since it grows in dry land, building up itself with the help of no one." She paused, turning one of the flowers into a red amaryllis. "It blossoms during the whole year, dying no later than spring, and it can grow with the help of just one stem. You fight the whole winter to stay alive, and become alive when summer is almost gone. You are brave, and your passion to help others, is what keeps you with blossom." She said, then taking the flower pot with the amaryllis and giving it to Rinna. "Here, it can always remind you why you are doing what you do." She said, at the moment Rinna took the pot she looked down to Dia, locking her gaze at her, exchanging that puzzled feeling she hid inside. Why are you doing this? "Keep helping others, Rinna, without letting anyone in your way. Keep enjoying your time, because, remember, is the only thing that life doesn't give."

Rinna tried to keep her breath at level, trying to not break right in front of the Empress. She felt her heart in her throat, unable to swallow, unable to speak. She just stared down to Dia with so many questions, so many things still not cleared up. She managed to nod and Dia smiled warmly, making Rinna even more miserably, melting in such smile, surrounded by the beauty of the garden.