Watching Father's battle had been difficult, but watching Mother's was down right nightmarish for Hikari. She was sitting with Izo, Father, Queen Minha, Lord Jiro, Lord Jiro's son Shura, and that vain boy prince. As well as their guards and various others. Hikari nearly jumped out off her chair at the sight of Mother struggling to stand up. She spat up blood, more than Hikari could imagine possible.
She had stayed seated, but the vain boy prince jumped up to his feet. "The angel," he gasped, stepping towards railing in front of him.
"Sit down, Takashi," Queen Minha said softly. "She'll be quite alright. She's an experienced fighter. Besides, healers are nearby."
The vain boy turned back to look at his mother, then a studying look at look at Father who sat there looking impassive, but lastly stayed rooted on his feet. Mother spat up another mouthful of blood. She stumbled over towards Lady Ayane, her knife in hand.
Lady Ayane looked over at King Hayate, asking, "is that match, your grace?"
King Hayate, shrugged and shook his head. "The angel is still standing."
Mother grimaced, spitting out yet another mouthful of blood. Lady Ayane went over to Mother, shouting, "Yield!" in her face.
Mother shook her head, looking uncertain on her feet. Lady Ayane stole her knife out of her hands, tossing it to the ground, blade first. Lady Ayane then struck Mother on the side of the neck. Mother crumpled to the ground, almost graceful as she fell.
"The angel!" the vain boy exclaimed, turning around to face the lot of them. "Why... why would Lady Ayane be so... aggressive," he growled in frustration. "You ought to learn to tame your wife," he grumbled in Lord Jiro's direction.
Hikari stayed still, shocked to hear such a statement from the vain boy. Lord Jiro looked aghast, flustered in his own right. He made a few sounds, but no actual words in frustration. The vain boy then stormed off.
Queen Minha jumped up, calling out, "Takashi, where are you going?!" Queen Minha looked around the small band of them, trying to hold together her decorum. Her eyes roamed over to Hikari. "Lady Hikari, could you please go get him and tell him to come back here," she requested.
Hikari rose up to her feet automatically, heading in the direction the vain boy went. She heard Father groan softly under his breath. "Go with her," he barked over to Brother.
Hikari stopped, waiting for Brother to join her. "She can do it herself, Izo," Queen Minha said with certainty. Father grunted, saying nothing as Brother shuffled his feet before sitting down. "Quickly now, my dear."
Hikari turned, jogging into the small arena, sensing after the vain boy. She stumbled, thrown off when she heard Father's voice in her head. 'Don't antagonize him. If he refuses, come immediately back.'
Hikari shook her head, but kept going. The vain boy had moved quicker than she expected. She caught to him as he had reached the side room Mother had been in with an elvish healer. She entered the room with him, surprising him as she stopped next to him.
"Great Mother!" he swore, seeing Hikari next to her. He jumped as he spoke.
"Pay attention to your surroundings," she told him, echoing words Father had taught her.
Mother sat up rigid on the cot she was sitting on. There was a healer sitting beside her, holding a bucket out in front of her. Mother looked up at them. Her face was pale, green and sickly. The smell of blood with an off scent wafted up from the bucket, turning Hikari's stomach.
"You shouldn't be here," Mother insisted, looking offended. "I'm fine." She then coughed hard, which made her retch. She winced, blood and then some spilling out of her mouth and into the bucket.
The vain boy stepped closer to Mother, concern dripping in his voice. "My angel, are you okay? Mhmm," he grumbled. He stopped short of her when he looked like he would rather be right by her side. "Yosei, did you not heal her?" he asked the healer next to Mother.
"Your grace, yes, I healed her wounds," the healer rattled out.
"But there was still blood in my lungs," Mother moaned distastefully. "You don't need to be here," she added in a half annoyed, half offended tone. A hacking cough tore through her, but she tried to suppress it. "You can go," she choked. "Both of you... please."
"Don't suppress, angel," the healer, Yosei, soothed. "The sooner you get that blood out of your lungs, the better."
Mother coughed harder, spitting up foamy blood from her mouth straight into the bucket.
"Mother..." Hikari said, stepping towards the pair of them, overtaking the vain boy.
"Please, just go," Mother requested once more. "You're making me look weak..." she mumbled.
The vain boy looked offended. "My angel... you're an angel. Not a demon..."
Mother looked up at him, half scowling. "I'll be fine." Hikari felt half certain she was lying.
"Let's go," Hikari said. "Your mother said to come back," she told him firmly.
"Please," Mother said, coughing hard. She looked displeased.
"Yes, my angel," the vain boy relented. He stepped towards her, but then gave it a second thought, and walked out of the room.
Hikari looked at Mother, shifting her feet. "See you later then, Mother," she murmured.
"Thank you," Mother answered, groaning.
Hikari left the room, following after the vain boy in the hallway. He was grumbling to himself about how horrible a healer that Yosei was. It was like he did not understand even when wounds are healed, like ruptured lungs, the blood lost from the wound still exists. Still has to be dealt with.
When he noticed her, it did not take long before he turned around, rounding on her. "Why?" he growled down at her, standing far too close to her, toe to toe.
"Why what?" she asked, accosted by him.
"Why is she so like a demon?" he asked. "She's an angel." He turned away, huffing.
"What's that supposed to mean?" she responded, huffing.
"If she were demon, she would be upset that we went to her. She would feel like we were making her look weak," he grumbled.
She stared at him, not quite understanding what he was getting at. "My father's a demon," she stated.
"And an elf," the vain boy turned back towards him. "He should be sitting down there with her, for moral support at least. That's the elvish way." She studied him, mouth gaping open. "What did she ever see in him anyway? A demonic-elvish bastard who grew up nomadic. Would still be that way, had he not been arrested and sent to the fighting pits." He was pacing in the hallway. "His father was monstrous, abusive, and insane. Lost his title for it. Won't even go to his own wife after what she's been through... So... ugh... So demonic." The vain boy turned away from her, starting to walk back the way their families were.
Hikari thought about his sudden, unexpected words. "My grandfather...?" she thought aloud. She and Brother had been told scant about him, beyond he was an elf related to the king distantly. She shook her head, thinking to ask about it with Mother later. She stormed after him, incised in the midst of her confusion. "You're the prince of this country, and yet you don't understand the way demons think. The way we think."
He halted, turning back to her. "Wild creatures, most of them. Valuing brute strength over most things, including love. Most of those who can carry a conversation are hardly civilized. We'd likely be better off without the North. Without Alaric."
She stared at him, shocked. "You think you know my father? That you know demons?" she preempted before charging at him.
She struck first, even though she knew she would be at fault for the fight. Yet she kept at him, kept hitting him. She was unsure how long she had been fighting for when Father showed up. By that time, she had been on top of the vain boy's back, hand yanking on his hair, messing it up on purpose. Father grabbed her around the middle, hauling her off the vain boy and then shoving her down to the ground and onto her back a few feet away.
The vain boy staggered to his feet, seething. "You wild demon bitch," he swore at her. His hands were already in his hair, trying to do damage control.
She growled at him, getting a second wind. She made to stand up, but Father shoved her back down, keeping between the two of them intentionally.
"Go back to your mother," Father ordered the vain boy.
The vain boy shook his head. Father loosened his sword in its scabbard. The vain boy's eyes went wide. He went his way back down towards the queen in a controlled rush.
Father watched him go. Without turning to face her, he said, "I told you not to antagonize him."
Hikari frowned. "I didn't..." she started.
Father turned around to face her. She stayed on the ground, resisting the urge whimper, but ended up scooting back. "You hit him when you should have just ignored all he whining."
"He said-" she started.
"I know what he said," Father cut her off. "Get up," he ordered her. She avoided looking at him as rose up. "Hurry up," he snapped when she was half way standing.
He grabbed her firmly by the sleeve of her shirt, yanking her along with him at a pace she could hardly manage to keep up with. They reached the vain boy almost before he reached the door to his mother.
"What do you want?" the vain boy grumbled.
Father shoved her forward, between the two of them. If she never saw the vain boy again, it would be too soon. "Apologize," he demanded.
Her mouth hung open, looking back at Father. The harshness in his gaze let her know he was talking to her and he meant it.
"But he said..." she started, feeling her eyes prick. She face forward, muttering, "sorry," as quietly as she could manage.
The prince said nothing, looking at her like she was beneath him. He looked over her head at Father and then back at her. "Sure you are," he stated. He turned away and went back to his mother, shutting the door with a slam behind him.
Hikari brought her hands up to her face, letting herself cry into them. She promised herself she would hate the vain boy for the rest of her life.