Epilogue: over a century later.
Kayda stared at the bloodied tissue in her hand unblinking. Blood, again. She was coughing up blood again. It made her want to cry and rage at the same time. She stayed on her bed in her room, pouting and trying not to panic. Her chest still felt racked and strained from the coughing fit that woke her up. She quickly shoved the tissue into her pocket, frightened at the prospect of what would happen if someone found it in the trash. Mother had been livid with her when she found out from a staff member where it came from.
Kayda had hardly been allowed a month back to resume training to fight in the yard with her older sisters and others. Her breathing and coughing fit last time had been so bad that she had been sent to the country side to allow the dull and fresh country air with rest to heal her lungs up. Only humans ever got an illness like this where they were rendered with fits of coughing and inability to breathe.
She would have to go back to the country side as the fresh air helped her lungs recover It was not fair. Her three older sisters never had to go to Uncle Kaze and his temple dedicated to the Great Hawk Spirit in the country side. He led a monastery up there, for himself, and other elves that dedicated their lives to the Great Mother. It was the most boring place in the world...
They got to stay home and train and fight and enjoy the sights and sounds of the capital. They three were all strong, like they had nothing human in them. Hastuko, the oldest had always been strong, also been healthy, as far as Kayda was concerned. She had never been sick a day in her life practically. She rarely missed training either. A true warrior princess and heir to the throne if there ever was one.
Between Hastuko and Kayda were the twins: Sora and Sayua. Wind elementals and demoness-like like Mother. They liked to fool around and play pranks throughout the castle, the grounds, the training yard, and anywhere else they could find an unsuspecting victim that they could fly away from. Kayda hated it when they pranked her.
Yet Kayda should no signs of any elemental type, nor seemed anything like an angel, elf, nor a demon. She was born with several years after the twins and unexpectedly so, but yet she age quickly, like a human would. She was frailer and weaker than her sisters. Developed breathing problems at a young age, which made training difficult, thus making the gap between her and the other three wider and wider. Father said she may have been a mental one like his mother before him, but she showed no signs of being to see the future, bless someone, or give someone an order they had to obey. He told her to be patient as some elves developed their abilities later in their long lives, but nothing after fourteen years was just disheartening. Each birthday that ticked by seemed to prove she was human, human, human... Human meant weak. The idea only upset her more when she thought about it. She did not want to be a weakling all her life.
None of the four princesses had inherited elemental serpents or dragons, but of the three of her sisters, Hastuko could conjure a bow and arrow from her own energy. Before the plague, their paternal grandfather had trained her. After... Father trained her. The twins could fly, but could conjure nothing. They took up swords. Before the plague, their maternal grandfather trained them. After... Their fire demon cousin, Koji, took his time to help train them, when he was not off with their eldest Uncle, Uncle Izo, who was juggling the leader of Shinobi, helping his wife, Kotone, lead the nomadic demon tribes, and watching over the Alaric Territory for Mother. The three of them juggled a lot concerning demons.
The twins wanted to join the Shinobi one day with them, even though both of them were slated to coinherit the Alaric Territory. Kayda wanted to join them, too, but was often warned she was too weak yet to consider that. Every time she struggled to breathe, it reminded her bitterly only the strongest demon blooded warriors could become Shinobi.
Yet out of four sisters and one cousin, Kayda was left the most human. Her fire demon cousin lucked out and was wholly demon through and through, in spite of his father being a mix of the four races. His mother's ice maiden genes dominated his father's. Lucky. Angelic and elvish were best, demonic second best, and human the worst.
Kayda rolled off her bed, trying not to cough, even as it tickled the back of her throat and chest. She did not want to go back to the monastery she just escaped from. Especially when her maternal grandmother seemed so unwell. She slept often, ate little, and her mind was slipping more and more each day. Sometimes she knew who everyone was and everything that had happened; other times Kayda was a stranger to her and she ask after her husband, cousin, or other friends. She was the only grandparent her and her sisters and cousin had left. The other three were lost when a that plagued whipped through the country. Elves and demons were the hardest hit, yet angels seemed immune and most humans who caught it got a mild case. It had come from overseas three years ago and raged in the summer months. Kayda had contracted a mild case of it, which made her already weak lungs worse, but Father got a severe case of it, nearly dying along with the other three grandparents from it. Kayda had heard from Sora and Sayua joke once that the only reason Father survived it when their elvish and part elvish grandparents did not was because Mother had forbade him to die. She was his queen as well as his Queen.
Kayda thought about Grandmother again. If Kayda had to go back to the monastery again, she at least wanted to say goodbye to her in case she passed away before Kayda recovered and returned. Then she would go to Father and tell him she was coughing up blood again. Father was always more gentle about when she told him. He commiserated with her. Before his father died, he would go with her to the monastery. After he became the king though, he could scarcely visit her in her medical exile.
She crept silently through the halls of the castle, trying not to attract any unwanted attention. When she felt the urge to cough, she sucked on her tongue and swallowed her spit to help wash away the itch.
She made it to Grandmother's room without incident. She knocked softly, and then opened the door and slipped into the room. Grandmother lay on her bed, propped up. The young nurse who took care of her looked up from the empty tray she had just picked up. Grandmother must have just finished her breakfast.
"Princess," the nurse said to Kayda with the bow she could manage. She set the tray back down on the wide nightstand by Grandmother's bed. She touched Grandmother's arm softly, waking her back up. "My angel, Princess Kayda is here to see you."
Grandmother jumped up, her all white hair ruffled. She opened her grey, clouded eyes. "Princess? Kayda?" she mumbled in confusion.
"Your youngest grandchild," the nurse told her softly. "Thirteen years old now-"
"Fourteen," Grandmother interrupted. "She's fourteen. Spent her last birthday in Kaze's monastery because she had been coughing up blood again."
Kayda smiled to herself. Grandmother remembered her. That did not happen all the time. She remembered Koji the most because he was the oldest, Hastuko coming in second in her memory. Kayda and the twins were younger, so she remembered them less often.
"Come here, my dear," Grandmother beckoned her, and reaching towards where she thought Kayda might be.
Kayda felt a cough rippling up in her throat, but she quelled it. She went over to Grandmother, taking her hand. Grandmother moved in her slow and weary way to make room. Kayda sat down on the edge of her bed, like the dozens of times she had before.
"You are dismissed again, Yumi," Grandmother's voice crackled out.
"As you wish, my angel," the nurse said before she picked up the tray and left the room.
"Nanashi..." Grandmother sighed out. When they were alone, she asked, "what is it, my child?" In a split second, her hand clasped almost painfully down on Kayd'as forearm, spooking Kayda. She sat up rigidly. "You're not sweating, are you? You haven't got the sweating sickness? The one that sometimes accompanies an awful cough?" she asked her fiercely.
"No," Kayda said. Grandmother sighed and her grip slackened.
Kayda had lucked into a moment with Grandmother being more lucid. She had been with Grandmother before where she kept asking after her late husband, not remembering he was gone. Father had told Kayda that if Grandmother ever asked or talked about either Grandfather or anyone else who had passed away as if they were still alive, to say they were coming to see her soon. Father had made the mistake before, which only left her distraught until she remembered, and then was distraught for having forgotten.
Grandmother hummed forlornly. "Good. That illness strikes so fast, so suddenly..." She looked over at Kayda's direction and gruffed. "Oh course you don't have it. You survived it yourself and are now immune."
"It's okay, Grandmother," Kayda soothed. "I just thought I'd come and see you is a-" she started before a cough seized her so suddenly. She let Grandmother's hand go. She coughed, but clenched her jaw shut so she would not get the bloody phlegm on the bed or floor. She dug the used tissue out of her pocket and spat in it. She tried not to notice how it was more blood than mucous.
Grandmother's hand came to her back, rubbing the middle of it soothingly. "You're sick again," she said in a comforting voice.
Kayda wadded up the tissue and shoved it back into her pocket. She turned and laid her head down on Grandmother's shoulder. Grandmother held her. What would she ever do without her? She whimpered into her shoulder.
"Shh," Grandmother soothed. "You can't help your illness. It's not your fault."
Kayda brought her hand up and wiped away at her eyes. "It's not fair. No one else is as human as me."
Grandmother chuckled softly. "Being human, must be the worst thing imaginable."
Kayda sat up, laughing in spite of herself, even as a cough raked over her. Her chest felt tight. She pushed on her rib cage, trying to force her lungs to only breathe from the lower part only. She dug the tissue back out of her pocket again wiping off the back of her mouth. She blinked away a few tears, looking over at Grandmother, who jaw was moving, but her lips were still. Kayda watched, trying not to panic at the difficulty in breathing she was experiencing right now.
Grandmother closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Kayda felt a sprig of jealousy flare up with the ease at which Grandmother could breathe. When Grandmother opened her eyes, she gave a sad smile in Kayda's direction. "You're so young, with so much to live for. I understand why you prefer the thrill of fighting and training and a thirst to prove yourself. You yearn for it the same way your grandfather yearned for it when he was younger." She reached her right hand out, brushing her fingers through Kayda's hair by her jawline. "Your hair even feels the same as his did... Right..."
Grandmother's right hand suddenly seized Kayda on the side of the neck in a firm, yet not quite painful way. Kayda froze, not moving, but struggling to still breathe a little yet. She hoped she would not cough or sputter, or even pass out, in this moment.
"I knew one day I would do this for you. Ever since you started having breathing problems that kept you from training. Your mother made me promise not to when I told her my decision though." Grandmother was starting to ramble. "I had your soul wave length check when you were younger, and ours are in alignment." "Kayda frowned, but stayed stock still. Her breath was a little wheezy though. Grandmother was not making sense again. "Your mother will forgive me, one day." Kayda watched, unblinking, as Grandmother conjured up her compact wind dragon. "Quickly, go. Before I change my mind," she strained out.
The wind dragon whirled down Grandmother's arm and headed straight for Kayda's neck. Kayda closed her eyes and scrunched up her face. It felt like her neck was on fire, but there was no way to kill the flames. the flames spread down her neck and through out her whole body. She wanted to scream, but her throat and lungs felt like they seized up.
When it felt like the flames had burned out, Kayda felt Grandmother's hand grow slack. Kayda opened her eyes, blinking. Kayda looked down at at Grandmother, breathing heavily and asleep on the bed.
"Grandmother?" she murmured, panic awash over her.
'Go to your father and tell him what happened,' an unfamiliar voice hissed in her head. 'Now!'
Kayda rose up, tore open the door, and sprinted out of the room. She could not help but notice as she ran for her Father's throne room, that she could breathe better now than she ever had in her whole life.
