The Blue Rose

This was a short story I wrote for a Mud game. Several players from the game liked the story. At some time I'll redo it in to a novel. 

Looking at an exotic blue rose:

You stand in awe as you peer at a blue rose, nowhere else can you get one. You don't know how they were made or how they have grown blue, but they are a sight to see. Perhaps it would be a fine gift for a lover, or an appropriate token to place on the coffin of your enemy. 

Tales of the blue rose abound around the world. Many tell of death, forgotten love and Madness. Here is one tale Whispered around the Great hall when the night is cold and the Fire pushes back the chill. 

Long ago it is said two lovers met in the still of the night. Both were from rival families who were constantly at war with each other. So the two loves were doomed by birth to fall in a love yet never know the bliss of marriage. The young lord wanted with all his heart to forever hold his true love, as did the young maiden. To shout their love through out the world. But alas it was not to be. 

The lord's elder brother knew something was a foot with his young brother. So that night when his brother made some excuse to visit their Grandmothers' home he followed. The young man lead him thought town and did indeed visit her home. The older brother was ready to leave that moment. But suddenly the young brother reappeared exiting the home and started down the road to the abbey. 

The elder brother followed with care to hide his ever step. His brother entered the garden gates of the abbey and soon disappeared inside. Carefully the elder brother climbed a tree next to the wall. And peering thought the thick branches he spied his brother sitting next to a young lady in the rose garden. It only took him a short time to recognized that she was the daughter of a rival family. 

Hate burned within the elder brother's chest. His heart harden to his brother and this young woman who dared to love a member of his family. He would make his brother pay for his betrayal to their family. And so he stole away to hatch a evil plan. 

The next few weeks the young couple met many a time in the garden. They watched the roses come to life as the spring dawned. Frustrated that they could not wed but only steal these few moments in the abbey's garden. 

Then one night in the early summer the young man came to the abbey and did not see his love in the rose garden. He waited for hours but still she did not come. He looked at the beautiful roses that were all the colors of the rainbow. And in the middle he saw the most beautiful blue rose with dew glistening upon it's petals. 

Think that his lover would cherish this beautiful rose. He enter the rose bed and carefully he used his sword to cut the stem of the rose. His thoughts races and filled his eyes with visions of her beautiful form. In the dark he held the rose to his chest. It's dew soaked his silk shirt. 

He would steal up to her house and place the rose upon her bed to show his love. He held the rose close to his heart and headed to her home. Upon arriving at her house all was in an uproar. Woman were weeping and the men were crying murder. So the young man stayed within the shadows listening to all that was said. 

Apparently someone had entered the home and using a sword killed a member of the family while they slept. The young man feared for his love. For he did not see her anywhere about the house. Turning his cloak about himself he melted into the shadow. For the cloak had a spell of shadows upon it when turned upon itself. And so he entered the house with none the wiser. 

Within the house there was just as much crying and woe as without. So none noticed a moving shadow heading to the stairs. He stole up the grand stairs and into her bedroom. There horror met his eyes. For there upon the bed was his love dead. Crudely a sword had cut her in twain. He kissed her dead lips. Vowing to kill the one that had done this deed. 

At the last moment he remember the rose he had picked for her. It had become caught within the cloak. So he flung the cloak off to the ground. And there in the middle of the cloak laid the blue rose in a pool of red blood. With one cry he knew that the Murder had been himself. That some how the rose had been linked to his love's life. His heart broke with the knowledge that it was his sword that killed his love. 

In torment he swept up the rose and holding it to his breast the tears running down his face he flung himself out the window and down to the cobblestones below. Thus the young star crossed lovers died that night. They both were buried in the abbey’s garden next to the roses. 

At the burial the elder brother gloated over his deed. For he had used great magic to tie the exotic blue rose being to the woman's life. And thus exacted his revenge upon them both. No one knew what he had done. 

Years when by and the lovers were forgotten. The girl's family moved away. No more blue roses grew in the abbey’s garden. But two rose bushes did grow over the graves of the lovers. The bushes all those years did not bear a single rose. And so time passed. 

One day years later in early summer there was held a great wedding within the abbey grounds. For the elder brother had brought back a fine royal lady to marry and this was their wedding day. No expense was too much for this day. The fountains flowed with red wine. Coins of silver and gold we're tossed to the crowd. The abbey was decked in all matter of flowers. All we're happy with joy for the new couple. 

Just before the wedding the young bride wanted to have in her boutique at least one of every color of roses in the abbey’s garden. So along with her servant she took a pair of silver scissors that the elder brother had given her as a gift at their betrothal. They collected all the different colors of roses. Sitting on the old bench the servant started to arrange the roses into a brides boutique. Then another rose caught the young brides eye. 

Looking across the rose bed she saw two small rose bushes knotted together. Buried within the bushes was a beautiful blue rose with the dew just glistening up on its petals. She bent down and with the silver scissors cut the rose. Suddenly a cry was heard with in the abbey. Startled she dropped the silver scissors and with the rose clutched in her hand the young bride ran in to the chapel. 

There at the alter steps lay the elder brother with a terrible wound. He was dying. She rushed up to him still holding the blue rose. Upon seeing the rose he cried out to all present. "My revenge does come about and trap me into it's clutches. I knew of my Brother’s love for another. And using great magic I did cause him to kill his lover by picking the blue rose. And so my love you too have unknowingly killed me. It's not your fault but mine." And so he died as the last drop of bright red blood fell from the stem of the rose. 

Since that time blue roses are called "The Lovers Rose" as well as "The Coffin Rose". Never again since that time has picking a blue rose cause the death of a love one. But it is Whispered that finding a blue rose upon a coffin tells all that this person did evil in their life and revenge has been exacted. 

-Annette Rust 2000-2002

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