His girl looked okay, had to be safe tucked in her own bed and under the watchful eye of the wolf healer and her boy. Hiei was awake and out of the room the second he found out Nishi failed. She had not killed him, would not kill him for fear his girl would be a casualty in consequence if she did. The prince did it for her.
Hiei fled from the castle, heading towards the caves where he had held under his possession, hiding right under their noses. Hiei reached the sight where he and one of the wolf demons laid dead. He paused by them, wanting to look while at the same time not wanting to look. With a quick spark of hellfire for each one, they could other burn in this world as well as burn in hell for all they had done.
He continued on, rushing to the caves, wanting to find out if there was any fighting left for him, wanting to find Nishi and find out if there was any honest answers to be given to him. He reached the caves, sensing around it. The prince was outside the caves, giving instructions to one of the villagers who lived near the castle. "... I need to get back to her, but make sure the rest of the caves are clear and bring those who surrendered back to the castle with you- whoa, where are you going?" Hiei ignored him as he ran passed him.
Hiei sensed for Nishi, following her trail through the caves. As he neared her, he sense a wolf demon running towards her as well. Must have sensed her and was going after her as well. He was unaware of Hiei's presence, charging towards Nishi. Nishi stood her ground in the cave, ax at the ready. The wolf demon died before he knew what hit him.
Nishi sighed in relief, summoning away her wind dragon, relaxing her stance. She turned towards a figure huddled against the wall, trying to look smaller. The sprite that had helped his girl, the one his girl was desperate to rescue. Nishi had sought her out to rescue her for his girl.
"It's quite alright, he's with us. He's Hikari's father," Nishi's soothing voice told the sprite. The sprite watched him first, but then looked over at Nishi with a trusting look only a child could give. It was perfect to watch her work her charm to get the sprite to trust her. Nishi had the sprite's hand in hers, stepping towards him. To him, she asked, "is everything alright? How's Hikari?"
Hiei took a breath, hoping she would honest this time. Hoping she would speak the truth, and not hide anything. Hoping she could prove to be trustworthy again. "Who killed Ichiro?" he asked directly.
She bit her lip, looking away from him. "I..." He held his breath, waiting for her to speak true. "I know you told me to kill him, but he said to kill Hikari if I killed him, so I couldn't. Prince Takashi killed him inste-"
The truth. He stepped over to her, pulling her against him, and kissed her. She dropped her hold on the sprite's hand, bringing it to his face. She pulled away from him. "Hikari, is she okay? She was bit by that wolf demon, pretty badly. Izo didn't have medicine on hand for the wound. Asa was worrying over her when I left."
"Still alive. Asa was looking after her when I left," he answered, confident the wolf healer would have her righted soon.
"Let's go then," Nishi insisted. "I want to see her." She took the sprite's hand again. "You can come back to the castle with us. I'm certain she wants to see you're alright."
The sprite shifted her weight on her feet, slightly pulling away from Nishi. "May I fetch my things first?" she asked in a small voice, head lowered.
"Of course," Nishi answered sweetly. She let the sprite's hand go, but the sprite did not move. The sprite looked nervous again. "We ought to go with you. That way we can go back to the castle together," Nishi suggested.
"Oh, yes, please," the sprite perked up. "Please my... my... um, queen?"
Nishi looked pale at the name, shaking her head vigorously. Hiei figured she would have preferred the term angel to queen any day. "Nanashi is quite alright, Maiha," Nishi said friendly. "Lead on," she gestured for the sprite to lead them.
It did not take long for the sprite to reach her room, which looked way to small and clearly shared with others who had been enslaved with her. She nimbled her away around the cots on the floor, reaching hers. She had clothes on the bed, rolling them up in the sheet on the bed for her to carry. She put the small load on the floor. Next, she pushed the cot up, struggling a little under its weight. She reached underneath it, searching for something. She grabbed a tiny bag, giving it a quick shake. "Good, still dormant," she muttered to herself. She tied the tiny bag tightly to her waist. She looked up at Nishi, confessing, "if the king- the false king, had known I had these seeds," she tapped her bag gently, "he would have taken them in a heart beat."
"What kind of seeds are they?" Nishi asked.
The sprite left the room, the two of them following after her slow, trudging steps. "Extractors. My people used to grow them. The crops were all destroyed though when the wolf demons took us over..." she added somberly. "Maybe some of the plants survived in the wild or something..."
The sprite's steps were slowing, but Hiei was ready to get out of the caves that so much of him and his presence in them, even if he was dead. They could move faster if he carried her. He stepped over to her, picking her up. The sprite panicked, hitting and kicking at him.
Nishi stepped over, pulling the sprite away from him and behind her. The sprite shook, clinging to Nishi's arm. "What do you think you're doing?" she asked incredulously.
"She'll move faster in carried," he explained nonchalantly.
"Warn her next time," Nishi griped. She turned to the sprite. "We ought to move faster to the castle. Would it be alright if one of us carried you?"
In answer, the sprite raised her hands up to Nishi. Nishi sighed and scooped her up, carrying her herself. Hiei took her sheet bundle filled with clothes, but the sprite refused to give up the small bag tied to her waist. Huffing a bit, Nishi followed him on to the entrance of the caves, noticing the prince was nowhere to be seen. He was likely back at the castle, fawning over his girl. Ever since he was told the Great Hawk Spirit said they should have been wed, he seemed more open to the idea than he had before he knew of the message. Did not mean Hiei was turning into much of a fan of the idea.
The three of them kept going to the castle, but Nishi skittered to a halt, looking paler all of a sudden. "What's wrong?" he asked her.
She shook her head. "The flames, your flames from earlier," she mumbled. "I think they might have spread. I can sense them more strongly than before," she explained. She was sweating, and not from the weight of the sprite she was still carrying.
"I burned the bodies," he explained.
Nishi closed her eyes, wincing at his words. "I'll just run passed them quick as I can," she murmured. "I hate them."
"What's wrong with the flames?" the sprite asked, scared herself since Nishi was.
"Angels don't like hellfire, even half ones," Hiei explained.
Nishi shook her head. "I want to get back to the castle and that's the quickest way." She took a steeling breath and charged through the clearing. She did not look at the blackened, still burning bodies. She looked straight ahead.
Once they were passed the clearing, Nishi slowed, but kept a brisk pace back to the castle. The sprite spoke up. "So you really are the half angel, half human that was discovered years ago?"
Nishi nodded, "yes," she answered.
"Wow... a real life angel..." the sprite muttered, star struck.
The sprite was silent after that, dozing in Nishi's arms almost by the time they reached to the castle. Nishi carried her up to his girl's room with them. Hiei opened the door for them and stepped in the room, but froze at the sense of tension rolling off the room.
The wolf healer was pacing on the far side of his girl's bed. Her boy was standing at the foot of the bed, a disbelieving look on his face. The prince sat on the nearer side of the bed, crying to himself as he held his girl's hand. His girl lay on her bed, pale and panting. The scent of blood, sweat, and even death hung in the room.
"No," Nishi's voice cracked, breaking the silence. She set the sleepy sprite down, almost dropping her. "I thought you said she was alright," she threw at him. She sat herself down on the bed next to the prince. She ran a hand through his girl's sweat soaked hair. "Hikari," her voice cracked. "What happened?" she hissed out, eyes on the wolf healer.
The wolf healer stepped around the bed and over to Nishi. "Infection. Healed in her wound. We've given her medicine to drink and cut the wound open twice to give her medicine directly to the wound. There isn't anything else possible to do."
Nishi was standing now, angry at the wolf healer. "No, you're wrong. You have to be wrong. Can't you cut off the source of the infection, like you did once with my wings?" The wolf healer did not answer, but pulled Nishi into her arms, holding her tightly. Nishi broke down at that. "This is my fault, all my fault. I hid the message, and now she's dying."
"What kind of infection is it?" a small voice asked next to Hiei, interrupting the turmoil that threatened his own thoughts. The sprite was speaking, hand on the small bag tied to her waist. She took a hesitant step towards to bed.
The prince answered, voice wavering, "one in her shoulder and neck. She was bit by the wolf demon who held her. I shouldn't have given him a chance to surrender. I should have shot him first. He would not have had time to bite her then."
The sprite moved around to the far side of the bed, stepping gingerly passed her boy. The sprite stepped over to Hikari, examining the swollen redness visible around her shirt. "Okami bit her?" she asked.
"Yes," Hiei answered for them all.
"Alpha bite," the sprite said. "Supposed to be fatal to non-wolf demons. Medicine wouldn't help, besides wolf bane and few others." She untied the tiny bag from her waist. She clutched it closely to her chest. "It would not be wasteful... these have worked on alpha bites on my people in the past... When the false king learned about them, he took the harvested ones from us and burned the gardens where we grew them... if he had known I had these ones..."
"What are you rambling about?" the prince snapped none too nicely at the sprite.
The sprite, reached into the tiny bag, pulling out three ordinary looking, light green seeds. "They are extractor seeds, they can extract most poisons and infections from wounds. They plant themselves in the person, roots sucking out the problem, and then bloom into flowers when they are done. They aren't easy to maintain as seeds. If they germinate outside of a person's body, then they just grow as ordinary looking white flowers. The seeds though are worth a fortune each if sold to the right buyer overseas. More valuable than even the tear gems Ichiro built his fortune on."
"Have you heard of them?" her boy asked to the wolf healer.
The wolf healer only shook her head. "Never. I have studied extensively on medicinal plants, but those I never heard of."
"They only grow in the Northern part of Alaric," the sprite explained. "Or, at least they did," she added with a small frown.
"Try it," Nishi insisted. "Please try it," she begged.
"If it's a fortune you want for them, the crown will pay you, I'll pay you," the prince insisted.
The sprite looked down at his girl. "She was so kind to me." The sprite looked up at Nishi. "And you came for me, rescued me." She held the three seeds up in the palm of her hand, closed her fist over them, turned her fist over, and slammed her hand down, open, on his girl's shoulder. "Please work..." she whispered. "If this works, it will be quite painful," she warned. "Oh," she said, pulling her hand away from his girl's shoulder.
His girl opened her eyes and panted. She whimpered weakly, reaching up to her shoulder with the seeds in it.