Hikari rested after that, exhaustedly after that, but was feeling better the next day. It did seem annoying but nice that the prince was doting on her. She did like it, but was carving for some alone time. Did not help Mother and Father insisted on planning to go to the tribes up in the far north to investigate. The lot of them would be leaving for that trip in a few days time.

She had laid down for a nap after lunch, excusing herself from the prince that she did not need him to walk her to her room or wake her up in time for dinner. As she laid in bed, dozing, she thought about the prince, about the kiss he had given her. She touched her lips, wondering if they could do that again, if they should ever do that again. What with his parents off aboard searching for a dark crone to free him from the accidentally one sided blood bond treaty and all. She wondered if he were given the chance, that he would stay with her anyway, choose her anyway...

"Hikari," she heard a voice and a hand shaking her shoulder.

She jumped awake, reaching for her fire dragon, bringing it back up around her neck. The smell of singed hair greeting her reminded her she need to trim and even up what remained of her hair. Mother had offered to help her with it when she was ready.

Hikari blinked, seeing Brother, and then summoning away her fire dragon without a worry. "Izo, what is it?" she mumbled sleepily. She rolled over on the bed, pushing herself to sit up.

Izo alighted himself on the side of her bed, looking over at her bedroom door nervously. "I have to tell you something," he started.

Hikari sat up straighter, shoving the blankets away from herself. "What is it?"

Izo explained in a voice barely above a whisper, "when Mother did not share her message from the Great Hawk Spirit with you to marry Prince Takashi, she changed the course of the future." Hikari listened silently, trying not to breathe too loudly so she could hear him properly. She leaned towards him as he continued. "If you two had wed, the king and queen would have never left the country. Ichiro would never had made his move and captured you or hoped to capture the prince even. The king and queen would have been in country, and the lot of us would have down a tour throughout Alaric. Then we could have found Ichiro in the far North, with all the villages. We would have had a better chance to stop him together up there."

Hikari shifted, blinking, still feeling a little tired. "How do you know all this?" she asked, matching his quiet volume.

"I got two messages from the Great Hawk Spirit," he confessed. She gasped. "The first one came the night before we got you back, but I didn't get a chance to share it. That message was Mother would no longer receive messages from the Great Hawk Spirit anymore because of her refusal to share them. I was also told to stay with you after you were rescued."

"That's why you didn't go to the caves with Mother and Prince Takashi?" Hikari rushed out, louder than she meant.

Brother nodded. "I don't know why I couldn't have gone with them, that fight was so easy with the wolf demons being caught unprepared. Whatever the reason was, I stayed."

Hikari nodded. "Have you told Mother?" she asked.

Izo shook his head. "I'm not going to either. She already suspects she won't be a messenger anymore, realized it on her own. She was so worried when you were taken, regretted not sharing the messages she should have in full. She assumed you were kidnapped by angels and taken away as punishment for her refusal to share the messages she swore she would. My confirming her being bared from being a messenger anymore would just upset her more."

Hikari nodded, agreeing. "I wouldn't have wed him anyway," she resolved. "At least... back then I wouldn't have..." she reminiscenced.

Brother shifted next to her. She looked up at him when he spoke. "Last night, I got my second message. One about you and the prince," he said. Hikari looked at him, waiting for him to continue on bated breath. "There's no urgent need for you two to wed anymore." She felt her shoulders slump, disappointed. "The king and queen are still abroad looking for a dark crone, but will likely rush home with or without the dark crone. The Great Hawk Spirit said the future was unclear whether they will find one before they return home. But the Great Hawk Spirit did say when the prince reunites with the king and the queen, that's when you and he will need to decide to either be together or not. She did say, given enough time and searching, he will eventually be freed from the blood bond treaty, but she's unsure how that could play out, if it is allowed to play out."

"So, he'll be free from it? One day?" she asked in a small voice.

Brother nodded. "Eventually, if the two of you don't wed before that. She wasn't sure how long it would take, considering the future is not set in stone, as we have seen. The decisions others make affect our lives, just as the decisions we make affect the lives of others."

Hikari tucked her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around them. "Did you tell him yet? Takashi?" she asked, nervous about what Brother's answer would be.

"I haven't yet," he answered. "She said the message was for you, so I only had to tell you. She insisted on that."

"Tell him, just him" she ruled, not wanting to give that permission. "Give him a choice, too."