Kyra took out her green bag and opened it. Inside was an instrument. It was not
a fiddle or flute, it wasn’t even a clarinet. It was a mandolin. It was smaller
than a guitar, and more elegant.

It was elaborate, and must have taking a painfully long time to finish it. The
neck was made of fine polished rosewood. At the end it had the head of a dragon,
in the middle was a sort of design that made the body, its wings outstretched,
with the tail at the end.

Kyra headed over to where the others were. She sat down and started playing.
Gandalf stared at it shrewdly. He’d know that mandolin anywhere. Anubis stopped
pacing. That sound…He knew that sound.

He ran down the path to see Kyra holding the mandolin. Before he opened his
mouth, Kyra told him everything. ‘I found it among the debris behind the towers.
I thought it was nothing until Uncle told me it was a family treasure.’ He
nodded. Kyra strummed the strings to hear wonderful music fly away into the
night.

Chapter Forty-Six: Kyra’s Revelation

Rowan found he could not sleep. Groggily, he walked towards a small clearing.
Rubbing his eyes, he sees Galadriel. “Hello, Rowan. I see that you can’t sleep
well tonight.” “Where am I and why am I here?”

“This is where The Mirror of Galadriel is located. You may look in its dark
depths and see what is revealed to you. Touch not the water!” She replied. Rowan
approached the mirror.

He peered at it thoroughly. At first, nothing happened. At first, nothing was
seen. Then foggy images swirled around the watery surface. He leaned closer
until his nose was a millimeter away from the water.

Suddenly he felt that some sort of hook grabbed at his collar. He tried to take
it off, but it was in vain as he was hurled into the water. Rowan found himself
in a place that appeared to be an ice cavern, or something of the sort.

In the middle was a block of ice. There appeared to be writing on it but the
entire block was covered with fine marble dust. He brushed it onto the floor.
When he was finished, he could make out Japanese writing on the top part of the
block:

Here Lies
Kyra Luthien Tinuviel
Daughter of Luke
Heir to Antoria

With a strangled cry, he broke the coat of ice. It split into several cracks and
broke into a million pieces. He dug the shards out to reveal his worst
nightmare. Kyra dead. She was a horrible sight.

People would say someone had done a ‘Jack the Ripper’ on her. For she was paler
than a vampire, her lips were dark, and her face covered in blood. Rowan took
her face and laid it on his chest.

He cried as he had never cried before. The last thing he remembered was
screaming in agony before blacking out.

Chapter Forty-Seven: Small Talk

Ryo knocked on the door. “Hey, Ro’, you’ve been there all day and we wanna know
if everything’s cool with you.” “Ye-yeah, everything’s cool. I’m alright, don’t
worry.” Ryo was about to reply when he detected something in his friend’s voice.
“Uh yeah Rowan, I hear ya.”

Turning around, he headed to a dark room where 7 people were covered in shadows.
“Well, how is he?” “Sage, something’s not right with Rowan. He seems to be
hiding something.” Sage stepped out of the shadows, his eyes showing a look of
concern.

“If something was bothering him, wouldn’t he have told us by now? It’s not like
him.” Said Dais. “Dais is right, Ro’ would have told us by now, unless…” Cye
trailed off. “Unless it was something that hit him deep.” Finished Kento, as he
said it, he pounded his chest with his fist.

Anubis turned to an elf. “You. Could you please bring a cask of Rainbow Dew and
9 glasses to Room 46#? Thank you.” He rushed into the back of the room to emerge
carrying a long pipe that looked like a long, narrow horn.

“You never told us you smoked.” “I don’t, Sage. This is only reserved for
important matters. It belonged to Great-Great-Great Grandfather Luigi, or was it
Cerin? Oh what the hell, I never really knew the whole family tree, anyway.”

He said casually. “Riiight.” Sage answered. He grabbed the knob. Locked.
“Stand back.” He told them and slammed the door. Didn’t work. Anubis calmly drew
a hand towards the door. It writhed and twisted, vines started growing around it
and cracked it to pieces.

They entered the room. When they saw the young bearer of Strata, they could not
help but notice how incredibly bloodshot his eyes were. Dais held him quietly,
letting the youngest Ronin shake in his arms. “I…I saw her…It was a nightmare. I
couldn’t turn away…and neither would you.” He said, looking up at Dais.

He was taken aback by this. He glanced at Anubis, who shrugged, and lit the
pipe. “What are you talking about, Rowan? Would you mind letting us in?” Asked
Cale. “Pool…Vision…” “Okay, you had a vision that you saw in a pool, right?”
guessed Cye. “Right. Last night…couldn’t sleep…somehow I ended up in this
glen…all pale with starlight…”

Rowan answered weakly. “What did it look like?” “Nubis’, it was…full of magic…I
don’t know…all I noticed is that it felt different from other glens…” “It was
Galadriel’s then. Was anyone there?” “Tall…Elven Lady…told me where I was…gave
me permission to…to…”

Here Rowan started to collapse. “This is what happens when you go on
starvation!” Cried Dais, who grabbed a bottle of Miruvor and made him drink half
of it. Rowan sputtered, feeling more human than before, finished; “Gave me
permission to look at her mirror and that she will not command it.”

All leaned close to him. “And?” “At first I couldn’t see anything. Then, images
started to form, and when I leaned closer, I was pulled in.” “What happened
next?” Asked Kento. Sage slapped the back of his head. “Idiot, he’s gonna tell
us now so don’t interrupt!”

“Anyways, I was in this ice cavern, it was cold as in, space cold, anyway I saw
this big block laying on the floor…” He stopped. He did not want to continue on.
Dais forced some more Miruvor down his throat. “Keep talking blue-boy, or I’ll
make sure this has hotroot to go with it.”

He said. Rowan paled, and kept talking. “It seemed to be built right there in
that spot. It was covered with rock dust all over. I was brushing it off when I
noticed letters. Erm…Can I draw it?” he added in a tiny voice.

Dais’s hand reached automatically towards his notepad, where he wrote poems drew
and studied spiders, and for some strange reason, he drew Spiderman comics. He
ripped off a page and handed it to Rowan.

“Thanks.” Rowan was a good artist. His pencil raced across the paper like
wildfire in a dry plain. When he finished, he blew on it to get rid of the dust
and handed it to Dais. Dais went, if possible, ghost white as he stared in
horror at the piece of paper. “Hey Dais, you ok?” Asked Anubis.

Dais nodded furiously and handed him the parchment. Anubis went dead white when
he saw it. As soon as they passed it around, all were paler than vampires.

“You-You’re kidding…right?” asked Sage. Rowan bit his lip hard before answering.
“No. It’s true. Kyra will die if we don’t do something quick.” He licked his
lips. They were bleeding.

Anubis puffed one final smoke ring and said; “Not a word to the girls, kay?”
They replied back; “Kay.”