12 Chapter 12: Rosa

Rosa entered the Library of Non-Magical Books. There you can find books on countries, people, the origin of things and more. It has information on everything except for how to use magic. For that information you'll need to go to the Magical Library.

Rosa browsed the books and tried to find something to read, but nothing caught her eye so she decided to just read a book on kingdoms and flopped down onto a sofa. As she opened the book the door opened revealing a Josh.

Rosa wondered about what he was doing here and then remembered she was in the form of The Rose. She quickly changed her galaxy eyes to brown and said in Rosa's voice, "now what brings you here at this time of night?"

Josh looked at the figure which soon stood up and walked over to him, she had average height, silky, black hair, chocolate, brown eyes and a fully symmetrical face. The Prince thought that when he walked in she had the eyes of the Galaxious family, but it seemed to have changed to brown. He got suspicious but pushed his suspicions to later, right now he was standing in front of Rosa, The Rose, who was standing in front of him without a mask.

While remembering the skills he learned on how not to get nervous Josh answered with, "well I fell asleep and woke up again. When I tried going back to sleep it did not work so I decided to go to a library and look around. How about you?"

"I'm a night owl. I like the night, it's easier to see the stars. I wished to relax so I came here and got a book", replied Rosa.

"Ah, is that so..."

There was awkward silence for a few seconds until Josh said, "so what are you reading right now?"

"A book on kingdoms. I was just about to open the book up to Celeste's part of the book. Our kingdom is brilliant isn't it. Ariana and you better do a good job to make sure this country lives up to its name".

"I am sure we will do great".

"How was the ride here?"

"Fun, however, something happened on the way here which Ariana said she will talk to me about, but I have not been able to talk to her since we have gotten here".

Right, Ariana immediately changed into Rosa when she got to Vas and made no time for Josh. Rosa/Ariana felt bad about forgetting and said, "well she is incredibly busy right now which is the main purpose for her not being able to see you, but if you want I can tell you about what happened in that village since she reported it to me".

"Please do tell me then".

"Well it was a case with eternal flame. A member of Black Lilac unleashed it. Luckily Ariana was there at that time and got rid of the flame, but ended up using all of her crystal water".

"Oh, I see. That was close".

"Indeed, it would have been incredibly bad if the fire spread far. The last time eternal flame was let loose a whole entire kingdom almost burnt down".

Josh remembered his other tutor talking about it. The flame was let loose by a dictator named Troy Adler a few hundred years ago. He was the King of the country Adler, the kingdom with the best non-magical users, however the kingdom was known as hell during Troy's rein. He was a terrible ruler, he stole from his people, kidnapped whoever he wanted, destroyed villages that disobeyed and did many more horrendous acts. He was also the founder of Black Lilac too which gave him even more power so if the citizens tried to rebel they would immediately be struck down. Troy Adler was also a very powerful magician.

Eventually the kingdoms were fed up and attacked together to overthrow Adler's villainous king. Troy was cornered and as a last resort he unleashed eternal flame.

"Troy Adler, he truly was a demon wasn't he. Thanks to Black Lilac he was able to obtain eternal flame and create a special glass for it. At that time only he was able to create glass strong enough to contain the flame and just in case he let it loose by accident he also kept a stash of crystal water. That was sure useful when he let the flame loose", said Rosa.

"Yes, they ended up having to use centuries worth of crystal water to put the flame out. I don't know much about crystal water but what I do know is that it is incredibly rare and hard to obtain, this was a very big loss", replied Josh.

"Indeed. Only once a year may licensed people be able to get a glass full of crystal water. The Royal Family only have the privilege of getting a bucket full of crystal water which they can't even use for themselves, nor can they use a glassful. It all goes to the savings".

"My father wished he could at least have some the size of a pinky for experiments but they wouldn't let him... So he asked his friends for some".

"Sounds like him".

"Do you and Ariana know him well?"

"Yes, Ariana is the daughter of the Galaxious family and I am The Rose. We have met his majesty and became good work partners when it was needed. Ariana was actually one of the people who gave him some crystal water".

"Crystal water... How much can it sell for? One of my tutors told me that a lot of people go to the black market to try and find the water since it can heal many things. I remember my uncle got a disease considered incurable but with a sip of crystal water he was back to normal".

"The last time crystal water was up for auction it was sold for 710 million stars (stars is Celeste's currency. 1 star= 1 NZ dollar). Only seven groups have a license to collect crystal water in this country. The Royal Family, the Galaxious Group, the Rose Group and four others. Only one cave with crystal water has been found here and it is quite small. The water is found in caves deep in the mountains but it is a long walk there. You can't use magic to arrive there since the government prevents it just in case somebody sneaks through the defence force; the only way in is through the staircase which is heavily guarded. In the cave where the water is located there are many beautiful crystals of all kind, they all radiate magical energy and are quite valuable. The actual water has a crystal like shine to it, something so beautiful that it can't even be explained".

"It seems I was lucky once when I was sneak-wondering around the palace. While being scolded about my father told about its rarity and how we can only take half of the water from the pond there otherwise it can't regenerate. Sadly we can't seem to find a way to regenerate it outside of the cave, it feels impossible".

"It is indeed hard but I'm sure one day someone will find out. Just needs a lot of time".

Rosa then turned and looked at the stars. "We have a lot of knowledge but it will take millions of years to discover everything there is in this galaxy. I'm afraid we won't live long enough to see it but the future generations will be able to and when they do, I hope they will still look at the stars", whispered Rosa.

Despite being 14 she is incredibly mature and her movements looks like one of an adult. As she stepped closer to the window a brilliant light shone on her face, showing her natural beauty and fine features. Her uniform glittered with a magnificent glow along with her hair which shone like the moon.

Josh looked at the sight and wondered about what she meant when she said, "I hope they will still look at the stars".

While Josh showed a puzzled face Rosa turned her head to look at Josh and chuckled. It was the first time he saw Rosa smile and he couldn't help but blush. "You are quite interesting, would you like to stay together a little bit longer?" Asked Rosa.

"S-sure", replied Josh timidly.

Rosa once again chuckled and shot a little spark into the air with her magic which soon flew to a book and hit it. It flew to Rosa's hand and she passed the book to me. "This is a good book to read if you want to know more about eternal flame and crystal water", smiled Rosa.

"Thank you", said Josh.

"There is no need to act so politely. Here we are all equal. Now come on, I've got something to show you".

Rosa led him outside and into a white building the Roses call the Museum of Vas. There are many things like awards, trophies, magical objects and many more placed on podiums or shelves or in the air. She then walked to a little pond, placed her hand on a rock nearby and swiftly jumped into the water. Afterwards Josh heard her voice from within the pond saying, "jump in", and he imitated her action.

Josh felt water surround him and opened his eyes to see Rosa gesturing him to follow her. They were in a dark cave of water and Josh could barely see as he followed Rosa to the surface. When his head was back in air he took deep breaths and swam to the edge of the water which was lined with stones and flowers. He sat on the edge and found his clothes were not wet and were dry instead, With a confused look he faced Rosa and she responded with, "this type of water doesn't make you wet so you don't have to worry about getting your clothes wet when jumping in. This is how you enter the Cave of Rarity. We named this area Cave of Rarity because this is where we store our eternal flame and crystal water".

Josh then looked around to see he was in a cave with grey walls with drawings on them and crystals placed around. The floor is grass with flowers protruding from it, making it seem like an ordinary grassy area. However this area is definitely not ordinary. On one side of the room it has a pond and in the middle of the pond is another pond which is around the size of a bucket. The mini pond is where the Roses stored their crystal water. Most of the water is from awards and gifts though since the group has only existed for two years. On the other side of the room is a glass box which has eternal flame. From the ceiling lights and vines with flowers hang from it which gave the area a special glow. The place set a feeling of enchantment, power and spirit, perfect for the crystal water which can heal almost anything and eternal flame which can burn through almost everything.

The Prince was indeed amazed by the sight and suddenly a bird appeared. The bottom half of the bird was golden and the upper half was crystal blue. The bird chirped happily at Josh and flew to Rosa's hand. "This is Misty, the protector of the Cave of Rarity. Since Vas was built a year ago so far we have had no intruders but it doesn't mean we can't be safe now. This bird feeds of the energy from the crystal water and eternal flame so when the bird transforms to its full power it can be quite... either incredibly destructive or bring prosperity. Depends on what the bird wants. These birds are quite rare, only very few people have met one and the only people I know who have one is the Galaxious family. These birds are known to live for thousands of years and the one with the Galaxious family has been with them since the first generation of the Galaxious family", said Rosa.

Misty chirped happily again and looked at Rosa with happiness in her eyes. She then flew around Rosa and disappeared. "Misty is quite young though. I met her at an illegal black market where I rescued her and later on found out that Misty was stolen from a powerful magician who was murdered. They used a special lock on Misty prohibiting her from using magic and since there was no eternal flame or crystal water she started to starve. Good thing she seems to be doing fine now. Though despite being the protector of this cave she likes to leave it a lot", said Rosa.

"Well birds do like to be free", replied Josh.

"Indeed".

Afterwards they kept on talking about many things and they soon arrived back in the moonlight.

Josh breathed in the air of Vas and sighed in satisfaction. "Would you like to do some archery with me?" Asked Rosa.

"Sure", answered Josh while stretching his arms.

The two made their way to the practice area and did some archery until the sun started to rise. They split of and Josh went to sleep while Rosa did some work since soon things will get incredibly busy.