=Chapter 14-Hidden Truths
Takara looks behind her at Daiki and sees that he has re-seated himself upon his throne with a smug smile on his lips. Then she whips back in mild terror to see that the VOL queen is almost upon her and cries out her name to stop her.
"Yoko! Stop!"
The VOL queen shrieks in outrage once more.
"You dare speak my name after touching my king!? Vile creature! DIE!"
The VOL queen charges at a shocked Takara and screams when the girl dodges her attack.
"Please. I don't wish to fight you, your majesty."
She ducks as Yoko swings around to try and catch her with a clawed backhand, then dances back out of reach as Yoko tries to snatch her up by her hair.
"Yoko, please! The people of Hikaru, your people, the VOL, sent me here to bring you home."
"My home is with my king! Daiki is mine!"
Yoko tries to tackle the fleet-footed Takara, but only ends up sprawled across the red velvet carpeted stone floor. She rolls to glare up at Takara and suddenly she understands why the queen can not hear her.
"Your eyes are closed. Just like mine."
Takara meets Yoko's infuriated gaze as what Hisako has been trying to tell her finally clicks in her mind.
"My eyes are open! And I will see you dead by my hands!"
Takara uses Yoko's own momentum against her as she flashes off the floor to fly at her and whips her back to the floor onto both of their knees. Then quickly sinks her fangs into the flailing queen's neck, rendering her motionless with her bite, and takes some of her blood into her mouth. As soon as Yoko's softly spiced blood hits Takara's tongue, she is ripped back into another trance, and is overwhelmed by this newest vision.
Takara finds herself in an unknown area outside of a cabin that reminds her of the one Hisako and Kenta had been in, in a previous vision. She instinctively knows that what she seeks is inside and runs straight through the door to see what is inside. She pulls short in surprise as she spots a slightly younger Daiki hovering by the door, a younger Chie crouched at the foot of a bed, and a much kinder looking Yoko sprawled in the bed with her legs splayed open to Chie's gaze.
"Hurry, Chie. We can't be here when they come for us."
Daiki paces before the door and is running his hands repeatedly through his already mussed hair. Chie shoots him a withering look.
"This kind of thing can't exactly be rushed, young prince."
Yoko suddenly arches painfully off the bed and lets loose a ear piercing scream.
"AH!...Please, little one...Come join us now."
Takara cringes in sympathy as the former princess Yoko grits her teeth and screams out as she tries to bare the infant from her obviously swollen belly.
"That's it, Princess Yoko. I can see her head! Give us another strong push."
Daiki takes a step toward them in his agitation, but stops as Chie's free hand raises up to stopping gesture to him.
"Hurry!"
Chie rejoins her free hand with her other and scowls at Daiki's impatience.
"Hush! The babe will come when she's ready, boy!"
Daiki growls and stomps his foot like a petulant child.
"I'm hardly a boy sense I am half a decade older than you, Protector!"
Tears of agony spill from the corners of Yoko's eyes as she turns a fierce scowl of her own on her mate.
"AH! Daiki! SHUT UP!...AR-RGH!"
Takara watches as Daiki goes instantly still as Chie suddenly reaches under the shielding blanket, between Yoko's legs, and comes back out with a tiny infant girl in her arms. She quickly puts her mouth over the child's nose and mouth to suck out the fluids impeding the infant's ability to breath, and spits it out onto the floor just as the baby inhales to unleash a mighty bellowing cry.
"Daiki. You have to cut the child's cord. Hurry now."
He instantly goes to Chie's side, takes the hysterically crying girl child into his arms, and bites the cord clean in half, and then quickly ties up the end still attached to her belly. In the meantime, Yoko has pushed free the afterbirth, eaten it, then ripped the sheets from the bed in the nude, taken them to the burning fireplace, and thrown them inside before quickly dressing herself.
"Yoko? The child's name? Quickly."
Yoko looks away from the incinerating sheets with a weak smile spread across her lips.
"Takara."
Chie stares at the princess in wonder, then at Daiki, who nods his consent, and back at the teary eyed Yoko.
"Treasure? Are you sure?"
More tears cascade down Yoko's flushed cheeks as she nods.
"Yes. She is Daiki and my own greatest treasure and we are leaving her in your protection until the day she can be safely returned to us."
Chie swallows heavily to combat her own tears and gives a stiff nod back.
"Very well then. Good luck, your highness-es."
Yoko smiles beyond her pain at the fierce protector.
"And to you, my dear Protector."
Daiki turns to Yoko so she can kiss their child upon the brow, does the same, and reluctantly hands the now silent infant back into Chie's arms. She wraps the infant in a clean sheet, then nods to both solemn faced parents and quickly leaves the cabin with the baby cradled tenderly against her. Takara is astonished to realize that she had just witnessed her own birth and the two people that Chie just left behind were her parents.
"Daiki is my father? Yoko is my mother?...Oh my..."
The second vision follows directly after the first and shows Takara a stately bedroom of the royal house of the VON clan. The colors are represented by the black silk sheets on the bed, the purple velvet of the bed curtains and the cushions of the ivory chairs before the two vanities, and the blue of the night robes lying over the ivory foot bench set at the end of the bed. The only living thing that Takara immediately spots is a black cat curled on top of the robes, then she catches movement in the bed and slowly moves closer to investigate. She smiles as she sees Yoko asleep beneath the sheets, then frowns as she notices the same hardened lines on her beautiful face as she had just seen in the throne room.
"What happened to you from my birth until now that changed you into this...Mother?"
Takara flinches as the door to the room opens, then relaxes as she sees Daiki enter and close the door quietly behind him.
"Mm...Daiki? Is that you?"
Yoko's sleepy gaze looks upon the VON king with heartwarming love and he smiles at her.
"Yes, my love. It's me. Are you feeling any better sense earlier this day?"
A slow nod, then she reaches out her arms to him for comfort.
"A little. I still don't understand why I feel so much grief."
He immediately moves to the side of the bed, sits at her side, and lays his head upon her chest while her hands play through his hair.
"Neither do I, love."
He nuzzles her breast and she sighs.
"I feel like I'm close to remembering something, but each time I get near the feeling it keeps eluding me for some reason."
He grows still, slowly lifts his head up to meet her quizzical gaze, and smiles a little to reassure her.
"Hm? I wonder what that's about? Do you mind if I see for myself? I might be able to find the answer for you."
Yoko nods her head and smiles back.
"Yes, please. It is driving me to madness with its constant fluttering about in my thoughts."
Yoko sits up, Daiki moves with her, and he gently cups her face in his hands.
"Close your eyes and think about that feeling, my love."
"Okay."
Takara moves even closer in puzzlement and somehow knows she is about to witness something really important. She watches Yoko close her eyes, then her face slowly relaxes beneath Daiki's hands, and blinks in wonder as a soft white glow emits from between Yoko's cheeks and Daiki's hands.
"There is no need for you to continue to grief someone you no longer remember, my queen. Forget it and awaken as if nothing new has occurred."
He drops his hands away from Yoko's face and she awakens with a delighted smile on her lips.
"Good evening, my king."
"Good evening, my queen."
Takara gapes at Yoko in complete shock as she kisses Daiki in greeting, then abandons the bed in the nude to disappear into the bathing room.
"No need for us both to carry the burden of grief for Chie's death. She has done her duty by us and that is all. I will not have my reign disrupted by bad memories."
Takara glares at her father as he lays back comfortable amongst the pillows and knows exactly what he has just done.
"He has been erasing her memories this whole time!"
Takara pulls away from Yoko's throat on a gasp of outrage, gently lays the unconscious queen upon the floor, stands, turns, and looks directly into Daiki's identically angry violet gaze with her own.
"What have you done to my queen!?"
Takara's sniffs at Daiki's concern for her mother.
"Nothing. I have not harmed her, nor would I sense she is, after all, my mother."
The VON vampires in the room inhale in surprise and look to their king in shock.
"What nonsense is this!?"
Takara raises herself up in her new found royalty and stares her father down as he slowly straightens out of his throne in outrage.
"Don't you remember me? You should...You were the one who sired me, Father."
Daiki pauses in mid-stride toward her with a severe frown pursing his lips as his nostrils flare to inhale her scent.
"I think I would recall fathering a half-ling human vampire."
Takara chuckles in resentment at his sickened tone.
"You normally would, but you have had so many years to work at keeping me hidden that you don't even remember having a daughter. I wonder why? Who were you trying to protect me from?"
Daiki shakes his head and growls.
"If I had, had a child like you, as you say, I would have destroyed her with my own hands rather than see her devoured by the ones who ruled this kingdom before me."
Takara is momentarily relieved of her anger by this revelation and finally all the pieces fall into place in her mind as she loses all her metaphoric blindness.
"Oh, I see. I understand now, Father. You have had to lie and cover up for so long that you have come to believe your own falsely created stories. That's why you can't remember, but you're also afraid. I have heard about the VON prophecy. How a human warrior will come and put an end to your reign. Do you think it is the Hunter, Isamu, who threatens your kingdom, Father?"
Daiki stares at her in bafflement as he takes in her regal stance and wonders who this girl, who calls him father, really is as she stares him down with so much insolence.
"Yes. That is why I had the Hunter imprisoned and I'll be the one to give him the killing blow after my men are through punishing him for his offenses."
Takara loses her bravado at these sneered words from the infuriated VON king.
"What!?"
Daiki takes advantage of her sudden distress with a sinister smile on his lips.
"Oh? Didn't you know? As soon as they took him from this room and down to the dungeon his punishment began. I bet even now that he is screaming out for mercy and I intend to give it to him. After I have dealt with you and your insolent tongue, half-ling whelp!"