The goodbye he had with Lily got to him. He didn’t want to leave her side, but his daughter needed him more than ever. It took a few days to reach Adeluna. Nikolaus wasn’t there to greet them. Instead a note appeared before them saying that he was forced to go to Ataiyo. He had also lost track of Reaver but kept his search going. Angelique didn’t have to ask him to stay, he stayed to be with her. They had got along so well the last few days, sharing memories about her mother and his love he had for her. How they missed her but needed to move on.

Angelique continued to tell Clyde to go back to Lily, but Clyde said no. He wanted to be there for Angelique. She needed him most. With a annoyed daughter, they sailed to Ataiyo. Their time together wasn’t always wrapped up in memories, but playful banter and words of wisdom from his daughter. “You let mom get away.” She didn’t care that she was being blunt. “Don’t let this love get away from you. She is here and ready to be with you. Don’t let moments with her pass you by. You love her….Seems like more than you ever loved mom. The way you look at her is…different.” She paused in her words as she looked at the water around them. “I didn’t think of Reaver when I chose to not have a soul. I should've thought of him. I should’ve went to him. He would of helped me out of that funk before I chose the wrong path. I need to find him. I need to be with him. And you, sir, should not pass up the chance you have before you.”

Her words never left them as they said goodbye. Instead of heading right back to Arri. He took a moment to see his sister's grave. He sat there for hours speaking to her. Trying to decided on what to do. Then a feeling came over him. Love. He nodded. He knew what he was going to do. As Angelique said, Don’t let her get away.

Clyde made his way to the best jeweler on the island. He bought a beautiful ring and some supplies.  He knew the perfect place. Jasmine Lake. It was beautiful place any time of the year. The lake made it even more beautiful.

Towards the edge of the lake, he laid down a blanket, had a basket of food out and two chairs a bit closer to the lake. He smiled as he looked down at the falling leaves. It made the moment perfect.

As he looked across the lake he held up the note that he wrote to Lily.

My Dearest Lily,
Please meet me out at Jasmine Lake as soon as you can.
We need to speak.
With all my love,
Clyde

The note lifted into the air and burned into smoke. The image of her in his mind. No matter where she was the note would appear in a puff of smoke. Hopefully it didn’t startle her. The thought made a laugh escape him.

Standing next to the chairs, he was so lost in thought that he didn’t hear the men sneak up behind him. Their arms came around him and he was about to use his powers but they clamped down chains onto his wrists. The same kind he used on Angelique. Kicking and shoving with all his might, the chairs were tipped over and the spot that was perfect now a mess. Clyde wasn’t strong enough to fight off the five men that surrounded him. He noticed then that he relied too much on his powers. “Take him to the wagon…” The leader said as he looked around. “He is waiting for someone. Let’s get them too and get the hell out of here.”

Before Clyde could yell, his mouth was covered and tied up with a cloth. He was soon thrown into a wagon close by. His eyes widen as he saw the light of a gate. “No…Get out of here Lily!” He screamed in his mind. His words coming out in mumbles because of the rag.

Lily had been in her garden watering all of her flowers. They were all lovely and sunny. It helped that her mood had drastically improved. Out of the blue, a note appeared. She held it gently in her hands and blushed a bit at his words. Setting her watering can down she thought about changing into the dress he got her. Yes, that was what she did. Nymph took the note.

“Well.. just be safe. I guess. Don’t do anything crazy.” Nymph waved Yaeger around and Lily laughed a bit.

“You sound like me. Stop that.” She ruffled her daughter’s hair and smiled. “I’ll head there.” She looked at herself in the mirror wearing the gray dress that Clyde had gotten her. “It’s very pretty.” Nymph rolled her eyes and walked away with the note.

It didn’t take long for her to appear at the lake. The gentle breeze was all she needed to take in as she looked around. It wasn’t however long before she had been caught off guard and placed in void shackles. Not that she was able to attack them anyways but they didn’t know that. She was small enough that they picked her up with ease and tossed her in the back with him.

There was anger in her eyes but she couldn’t anything as they covered her mouth and had the shackles on her. She breathed heavily as she scooted over to Clyde and glared out the back. This was bad. Really bad. Well, Ana had told her it would be dangerous. Maybe someone would notice back home.

Clyde’s anger was magnified when they threw Lily into the caged wagon. He scooted closer to her. He needed to figure out a way out. His eyes looked at the men around them. They laughed. Did they even realize they had the Queen of Arri? They were in deep trouble once everyone figured out they both were missing. Hopefully someone knew where she had gone.

“We knew, if we followed you long enough the Queen would come.” One of the men laughed as they hit the cage as they started off away from the lake. “Should of kept your relations….quiet.” The leader of the group said with a laugh while he held the reigns. “We’re going to be rich boys!!” The Leader held up his hand in a horay. “Hell Yeah!!” They all cheered together.

So they knew about the queen. “Damnit all to hell.” Clyde cursed inside his mind. His eyes looked sympathetically to his love. If it wasn’t for him then they wouldn’t be in the situation they were in. “Were going to let the city stew for a bit before we send our letter.” The leader said as he snapped the reigns. In that instant, the horses picked up the pace.

Struggling against the gag, it finally dropped. He leaned closer to Lily and whispered in her ear. “We only have one shot at this. Stay with me.” He kissed her cheek quickly and slowly maneuvered his way towards the cage doors. The men weren’t concentrating on them. He had his moment. Holding up his legs, Clyde kicked the cage doors, once then twice. They flew open and he rolled out of the wagon. His body smacked against the hard dirt. He hopped that Lily was behind him.

He quickly got to his feet and cursed. A man stood above the cage and slammed the doors shot. He wasn’t there before? The men on the horses were about to turn back to get Clyde but the man yelled to them. “No! We don’t need him. He will be our messenger.” He said with a smirk as they disappeared in the distance.

“DAMNIT!!!!” Clyde cursed and kicked a nearby rock. He needed to get the chains off and get to her.

Nymph stared at the letter and chuckled slightly. “Looks like you’ll be getting a real father figure.” Yaeger sounded confident as she sighed lightly.

“I don’t want a new father figure but if Mom likes Clyde then I guess I do.” She strapped the sword to her waist as an oracle came in. Her eyes went and buried deep into their soul. “Why the fuck are you here?”

The oracle put up their hands and tried to calm their princess down. “It’s your mother… she’s in trouble.”

“Oh for fuck's sake.” Nymph pushed them out of the way. “She can’t go anywhere without fucking trouble.” It took a simple gate and her nose for her to find Clyde. “Took her out for one fucking day and you lose her. What the hell do they want because I do not negotiate with terrorists.” The brown haired girl with the deep brown eyes stared at him for a moment as a hellish aura came around her. There was murderous intent in her eyes as she melted his bindings. “I’m sure it wasn’t your fault. This is how it is every time she goes out. The damn oath makes it so she can’t protect herself.”

Meanwhile in the Haza Savanna Lily was taken out of the back of the wagon and put in a cave. They set her by the fire and stared at her. “She sure is pretty. Just a little touch won’t hurt right?”

After his little tantrum, Clyde looked around for something to break off his chains. “A great time to leave your damn cane.” His sister had comment a while ago that the cane made him look old, along with his looks. With a sigh, he saw a few large rocks, sitting on the ground, he laid his chains onto one rock and used another rock to hit the chains. One, two, three. Only sparks shot up from the impact of the rocks and chains. “Fucking hell!” He cursed. He wasn’t one to use foul language, but at the moment he didn’t care. He was pissed.

The sound of Nymph’s voice made him jump up to his feet. He was so happy to see her. “Nymph—” He was about to say what was going on, but she already knew what was going on. He was silenced by her words and was about to drop his head when she started to melt the chains off him. The chains burned his hands slightly. “Ow..” He jumped back from the chains as they fell to the ground. Now that those were out of the way, it was time to follows the tracks to find the woman he loves.

“I don’t negotiate either. I kill them.” The elemental’s words were stern and he was pissed off. As he started to walk along the tracks of the wagon. His hands balled into fist as he walked. He wanted to get to her before they did anything. The pain in his side seemed far away.

After about ten minutes, he sighed. “Nymph, if i knew they were after your mother I wouldn’t have sent for her.” He paused in his words. “I was going to ask her to marry me.” He said as he reached in his pocket, but it wasn’t there. “DAMNIT! Can this day get any worse?!” He ran his hands through his hair and sighed. He didn’t have time to go back and look for her ring.

Little did he knew, the men found the ring in the wagon. One of the men took it to his Leader who was staring at Lily. “Look what I found boss. Pretty damn expensive.” He said as he handed him the box that held the ring. “Well lookie here. Your man was going to ask you to marry him. How sweet. Maybe he will pay a higher price for you?” He said with a laugh and threw the ring into the dirt at her feet. He smirked. “If only he knew, you are going to go back in pieces.”

Nymph looked sympathetic at Clyde. “I wouldn’t be too overly mad. This happens to her every week. Why just a few weeks ago she got chased out of Adeluna by a group of men who were supposed to be protecting her. It’s in her nature to get kidnapped and not be able to do a damn thing about it.” Loosening the sheath Yaeger took a big breath.

“To be fair when your mother and I met… people were terrified of her.. The amount of holy magic she can produce in a single setting is amazing. I was terrified to be near her but it was the way she held herself in public. She was so proud of herself. So noble.” It sounded like a man in love. “I’m just a demon but something about her drew me in.”

“Then you fucked up and here we are.” Nymph mentioned as she chuckled. “Look, ask her to marry you after this. Day will be fine we’ll get to her. I can smell her. Mother has a pretty distinct smell.” Putting her hand on Clyde’s shoulder Nymph gave him a light nod. “She’s strong whatever they do to her she can resist it. Typical night in the Rose house right here.”

Yaeger was humming now as he thought about it. “One time your mother got caught up with a nasty group of lower level demons. I don’t know what she was doing and I don’t want to ask. They got fried from the light she gave off. If she had her magic she could have blown them to bits before they kidnapped her.”

“If she was caught off guard I don’t think that’s the case. With her defensive magic she needs to know ahead of time. At least long enough to give the right chant. Speaking of which… when are you going to teach me more demon magic?”

“When you are mature enough and can handle your anger… and not smash windows and walls on your way out when things go wrong.”

“Oh so never… that’s charming.” Nymph was disappointed as she frowned back up at Clyde. 

Lily sat there staring at the ring. Her eyes were infuriated as she managed to get the gag out. “If you think that you can get money out of my family you have another thing coming. We don’t negotiate with people like you. Blood will be on the walls. Dead or alive they will kill you. You better pray they don’t have soul stones on you when they get here. That’s a long time to suffer. Not to mention there’s a little brat that will torture you for days.” The man had humored her but when he realized she was serious he smacked her good upside the head.

Blood trickled down the side of her head as she passed out. “No one touches her. She’s right mouthy.”

Clyde nodded at her words. She was write. Then mother and father began to bickert which made a chuckle come out of Clyde. It wasn’t the time for laughs, but who couldn’t laugh at the two of them. “When this is over, I will take you out for a few practice runs. Sometimes you have to use you powers to end up controlling your emotions. It is different for everyone. “ The elemental looked over to Nymph with a nod.

They continued on their way  as a strong wind started to blow. They weren't going to have this stop them. Bringing up his hands, Clyde started to force the wind and sand away from them. The tracks were gone, how the hell were they going to find her?!

Looking over to Nymph, maybe she knew a way? “How are we going to find her?!” He yelled over the roaring wind. He couldn’t let anything happen to her. If anything did he wouldn’t be able to live with himself. After everything he has been through, he finally found Lily. He wasn’t going to loose her. Never.

Nymphaea looked up at Clyde and was actually smiling. “I would really like that. It would give me a chance to let loose and actually learn for once.” The girl was bounding and by the time he had lost the trail it was her who took the lead. “I told you I can smell her. I have heightened senses on both family.”

Together they ran until they discovered the cave. She crept in and motioned for Clyde behind them. Once she spotted Lily she was furious. The poor queen was knocked out with blood smeared across the left side of her face. “I’m going to murder you all!” Nymph let out a cry as things began to light up in hellfire. The green flames began to spread as Nymph got more and more upset. She drew Yaeger and all that seemed to do was make the flames more intense.

“NYMPHAEA CONTROL YOURSELF,” the voice boomed but Nymph had been lost as she began to slice and dice her way through more of the people in the cavern but she saved the mastermind for Clyde. Her anger wasn’t enough to forget that he should have first dibs on that one.

As they made their way towards Lily, he thought of how he was going to kill them all. His thoughts froze as they entered a cave. Nymp let loose, flames started to grow burning its way through the cave. Only one man was able to get around Nymph, but only end up face to face with Clyde. He couldn’t fight him like he wanted. Nymph was getting too out of control and needed to stop it. After a few punches, he was able to grab the man’s neck. “May your death be slow.” He said to the man before his screams filled the area. The sin where Clyde’s hand once was was dying, rotting flesh always hurt.

As Clyde dropped the man to the ground, his eyes went to Lily. His eyes widened as the flames started to reach her. Rushing towards her, his voice rang over the roaring flames. “Nymph!!! You are going to kill your mother!!” The flames suddenly stopped. Everyone laid dead throughout the cave. When he reached her looked over her, making sure there were no more wounds. The man from before finally gave his last break. His skin decayed into aches.

Beside her face, laid the ring he was going to propose with. Grabbing it, he picked her up into his arms. “She is alive. Mind opening up a gate back home?”He said and didn’t realize the blood that was forming under his jacket. He didn’t care for anything else but to get the hell out of there.