'Let my death not be in vain...'
This letter has existed for so long, this person talking about a fourth Rose. Everyone thought he was mad, everyone knows only three Roses exist, the White, Red, and the Clear. But I think there's more to this letter, the note left by the dying man. So it's become my life's work.
It may be that you who are reading this is in an entirely different time to myself. You'll probably want an explanation, no?
I live on The Island of Roses. It is divided into three provinces, the cold mountains of The White, the hot deserts of The Red, and the meadows of The Clear. In the center is a huge volcano which has been inactive for as long as anyone can remember. The only proof it was ever active is the ancient legends told in storybooks. The only stories we ever hear are of war, and blood, and death.
So what are the Roses?
In the center of each Province is a Rose. The Roses are buried in the ground, they can't be moved from where they are planted. Everyone at the age of 10 is taken for the first and last time to see the Rose. I remember seeing the White Rose.
It was such a clean and bright white it almost blinded me. One in five people in The White are lucky enough not to go blind. I stared, they let you watch on your own until you choose to leave. I touched it, it was ice cold. How could a living plant be so cold?
The strange thing was, (I didn't know at the time), touching a Rose is meant to instantly kill you. I didn't tell anyone I touched it. It would've caused a huge worry.
I read into it in my teenage years. How did I survive? All sources pointed to me being a Roseblood.
A Roseblood is a man, or woman, who can wield the power of their home Rose to their advantage. Red Rosebloods are known to be incredibly skilled knights, White Rosebloods are known as excellent scholars, and adept in taming animals and beasts to their advanted. Clear Rosebloods are few, and belong to the greatest group of assassins known to Man.
The entire Red Military are Rosebloods. There are thousands of them, no other army could stand a chance. The Clear assasins, known as The Shard, are a band of assassins who are known to kill a man, and hide the body before anyone even realises the man had gone. Any known White Rosebloods are executed, after a White Roseblood supposedly started the greatest war ever to happen. That letter, the one I'm studying, dates back to the very end of the War.
The madman's writings make no sense. He says he hid the Fourth Rose, but that can't be right, can it? Everyone knows Roses are unmovable. Everything about this has been made so well hidden it's impossible. I can't think straight.
Need more time..
"You're still up?"
I nearly jumped out of my seat as she spoke - I thought nobody else was in my study!
I sighed. "How long have you been standing there, Karina?"
She looked over my shoulder, and I covered my work.
Karina has been my friend for as long as I can remember. Jet black hair, flowing halfway down her back. Her eyes were crimson, people from the Red's eyes were often like that. But hers, the colour was.. deeper? It's hard to put into words. She wears this bracelet, it's quite simple. Just a band, but it has this metal rosebud, incredibly well made, handcrafted. She told me it was enchanted, I don't believe her to this day. But the rosebud on the band, it's so well made it could be an actual one, turned to metal. I know just as much about it as she does - absolutely nothing.
Karina's really great though, not just because she's my only friend.
"You still working on that weird myth?" she asked me.
I showed her - I got my hands on the original note left, all those years ago. "Take a look. That's the real deal." Her eyes widened, as she took off that bracelet. It'd been getting small for her recently, and uncomfortable. She put it on the table.
But this is the weird part - it changed colour. The silver colour of the bracelet became green, the bud opened, and turned red. The rose itself was empty, save a folded piece of paper.
"No.. no way!" we said simultaneously, as she frantically grabbed the paper and unfolded it.
The rose, you want to find it don't you? My ever so special rose? It's not a rose of a colour, like the rest of the weak roses and their petty Rosebloods. This is the Rose of the Dead and the Lost. If you are not Soulblood, do not bother with this adventure. Touching my special Rose is a very bad thing, oh I should know, I touched it. Now look, I'm dead! No, not dead. Trapped. Life's blessing and Death's cold are seeming to fight over me. If your blood flows black when let breathe, and burns through stone, let us meet one day.
Could this be a myth? This man is insane, definitely.
