Hikari made it to port with the others, Father, Mother, Yasha, Kurama, and Takashi, if you could call it a port. The nomadic demon tribes kept a port, but the buildings around it were old and half dilapidated looking. They only visited the area in and around the main meeting tent they had been in once a year. Otherwise they roamed in their tribes over the icy tundra up here.
The king and the queen were there, looking half frozen and so out of place with their own guard and retinue from their ship anchored far off shore as it was too big to land in the one dock port they were at. Hikari went with the others to meet with the king and queen and the foreigner they brought with them: a dark crone.
Hikari studied the dark crone, who looked like a miniature, sweet old lady. The sense off her though was borderline malicious. It made her ears draw back in tension. Part of her wished she had never laid eyes on the woman.
They were all gathered around an odd table, the dark crone sitting next to the queen while the king stood looming behind them. Hikari did notice the queen's chair was as far away from the dark crone as it could be. Across the table, Hikari sat between Mother and the prince with Father behind them, close to the door. Uncles Yasha and Kurama stood closer behind them. That wretched blood bond treaty signed by their fathers sat on the table, in front of the dark crone. She bent over, hand tracing over the blood signatures. Hikari wished the woman would just break it already and be done with it. She wanted desperately to grabbed Takashi's hand, but she dared not to.
"It can be broken with my magic, easily," the dark crone said, her accent making it slightly difficult to understand her. "At a cost." Her eyes flitted up across the table, locking on Mother. "The cost I want."
"No, Kyandoru," the king said firmly, addressing the dark crone by her name. "You offered the chance to settle permanently in this country in the Alaric Territory. That is your payment."
Kyandoru kept her eyes trained on Mother. "And now I am here. And now I am renegotiating. Original price. I had to abandon a lot of my stores when I came with you. More than I anticipated. If I am to settle here, I need to replenish anew. I won't kill her."
Hikari felt herself stiffen, the tension in the room, especially behind her spiking. "You promised her Nanashi?" Father growled, stepping up behind Mother protectively.
"No," the queen rushed out. "She asked that of us, to have access to the angel to harvest living for a few days, but we refused and offered to settle her down in Alaric instead."
Hikari felt her stomach drop. Harvest. Father had been given to a dark crone once to be harvested as payment for something before. It nearly killed him afterwards. Mother had told her and Izo about it, but warned them never to ask Father about it.
Hikari felt Takashi stir next to her, agitated. He exchanged a glance with his mother, the queen, who shook her head. He whined under his breath.
"Angels are so rare, and hard to catch in this realm," Kyandoru explained in an eerily calm voice. "Fortune favors a dark crone who access to one. A half one might be almost as potent, but one never knows as an angel never sired a child with a human before this one." She flicked her eyes up at Father. "You've been harvested before. You survived it. I can assure she will, too."
Hikari looked up at Father. He was ghostly pale, crimson eyes blazing. He looked down at the dark crone unblinking. The dark crone stared at him in turn, not blinking.
"You get what you wanted," Kyandoru continued. "What you all originally wanted. What your daughter still wants."
Hikari sat up straighter in her chair, wondering how the little old lady in front of her could know that. She shook her head, unsure what to say. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out.
Takashi turned to her, "you can't still want that." He looked wounded.
Father's hands gripped the back of Mother's chair firmly. Mother leaned back against her chair, trying to get closer to him as she was frightened as well. "Ask her the question you've been wanting to, you fool," Father ordered Takashi.
"Now?" Takashi said, suddenly looking quite nervous. "I... here? I haven't even asked you-"
"You have my permission," he grumbled out. Father looked desperate, boring down at Takashi, who looked bewildered.
Hikari heard Uncle Yasha snort and suppress a laugh behind her. "Desperate times..." he muttered.
Takashi shook his head. "I... I... I can't. I don't know..."
Kyandoru spoke up, "you don't know what her answer will be." The way she spoke made the hairs on the back of Hikari's neck stand up.
"Don't mess with his head," Father hissed at the dark crone.
She laughed at him. "If you offer to take your wife's place I will deny you. Nor will I let you watch. You will spend those days and nights not knowing what I am doing. Or maybe you will, if your brave enough to use remote viewing into her mind, but then it will be like you're experience it with her. Experiencing it all over again, just like your nightmares."
Father snarled, hands gripping the back of Mother's chair so hard the wood cracked. Mother brought her hands up to cover her mouth.
"You won't kill me?" Mother asked, her voice cracking. The dark crone shook her head.
"Nishi," Father's voice warned.
Mother did not look back at him, but rather at the dark crone. "One day."
"Three," Kyandoru countered.
"Two," Mother countered.
"Done," the dark crone smiled.
Mother looked sickly, a cold sweat visible on her face. "Cancel out the blood bond treaty first."
"Your husband will kill me if I do that first. Although he looks ready to kill me anyway," Kyandoru commented. "Yet with me under the king's protection, could cause some turmoil after that. If, big if, he succeeded." She laughed again. "I may just have to bind my life to hers to be on the safe side."
More sounds of wood cracking. "It's fine," Mother lied. "Just... just let me make something right for once," she stated.
Father looked back at Takashi. "Why are you just sitting there?"
"I haven't..." Takashi started.
Father kept pressuring him, saying, "ruin this deal."
Takashi cleared his throat. He turned to look at Hikari. Hikari frowned at him, puzzled when he grabbed her hand. "Marry me?" he dead panned.
"What...?" she said, not sure if she understood what he was asking. She heard Uncle Yasha snickering in the background.
"Marry me," he said clearly. He slipped out of his chair next to her, bending down on one knee. "Please."
Hikari stared at him in disbelief. She fidgeted in her chair. "But you don't have a choice..." she pointed out.
"The blood bond treaty still exists," the dark crone stated. Hikari looked at her and the paper sitting in front of her. "Still binds him to you or no one. He has no choice."
She yanked her hand away from his, wrapping her arms around her middle. "I can't," she choked.
Takashi rocked back onto both of his knees, looking down at the ground like a forlorn puppy.
"Hikari," Father hissed out her name now.
She looked back up at him. She could not remember him ever looking so disappointed and furious at her. "I can't..." she tried to explain. She placed her hands down on the table, shoving her chair as far as she could. She turned and ran out the door.
She heard someone follow after her as she ran towards the port, not too sure where she was going exactly beyond away from there. She went into the boat storage room by the water. It was freezing in there, but she did not mind that. She shoved the door behind her, but Takashi was behind her, too fast. He caught the door before it could close on him. He looked red and chilled, shivering. She warmed up the room for him, almost on instinct.
"Why did you follow me?" she grumbled out at him. She wanted to be alone in the moment, more than anything.
"Last time you ran off, I thought I lost you," he answered longingly. "Why be surprised I ran after you?" He was flustered, speaking too loudly, he added, "you can't expect me to give you up so easily again."
She blinked up at him, but kept her distance between the two of them. "Last time I disappeared, you didn't have much cared," she grumbled out. "You hated me back then."
He looked up at her, blinking in surprise. "We fought often, but..." he grumbled out. "Not anymore," he confessed. He stepped forward, but she held her hand up to indicate to him to keep his distance.
"It's not fair to you," she shared. "It was only when you found out about my mother's message from the Great Hawk Spirit that we should have wed when you showed up in Alaric. You don't have a choice. You gave in without getting a choice, which you wanted from the moment you found out about the blood bond treaty. All because of a message from my mother."
"What?" he asked, looking at her perplexingly. He looked so wounded, as well as confused. She hated that she made him feel that way.
"Someone just says you have to marry me, and you decided to just go for it. You have no choice and you just gave in," she inferred. "I can't let you do that."
He looked at her, mouthing moving with no sound coming out. "The message isn't why," he said. "How could you even think that?" he seethed.
"Then what was it then?" she asked impatiently. "What made your choice invalid when that's all you wanted several weeks ago?"
"When you were kidnapped," he confessed. He took a few hesitant steps towards her, she tightened up, but did not move. "I felt awful to find out I chased you away. Helping your family hunt the forest and caves for you. Watching them each in turn dealing with the idea of they might not find you again. Especially your father. That made me realize how awful it would be for me to never see you again. I couldn't stand the idea of it. I prayed to every god, goddess, spirit from another realm that I know of that if you just came back to me, I would give up anything. I guess I gave up hating you and took on loving you instead. The blood bond treaty and your mother's message never crossed my mind in that realization."
She brought her hands up to her face, running them through her hair. "You can have a choice though. You won't be stuck with me. It's not fair to you."
He looked overly flustered. "I don't want that!" he shouted. She blinked up at him, surprised by his outburst. "Not anymore," he pulled back on his volume, but still looked temperamental. "I give it up, alright. I don't want it. I don't want a reason to give you up. Especially now that there's a dark crone eyeing your mother for harvesting when her being here is no longer necessary."
"You are an absolute fool, just like my father said," she choked out. She walked over to him with a purpose. She punched him halfheartedly on his chest with both fist. She looked up at him, with teary, blue eyes. She hated the sight of him like that.
He wrapped his arms around her. "If you want, I can tell you your future, at least the track you're on now," he told. He spoke over her head. She feel his breath over over her hair.
She looked up at him best she could. "What do you mean?" she asked. "I thought no one could do that?"
"I can," he whispered down at her. "Only once, on the course you're currently on. I saw your mother's future once.
"What did you see for her?" she asked curiously.
He smiled down at her. "Ask her to share it with you. Would you like to see yours?"
She looked at him, eyes narrowing. "Show me," she asked, wanting to know what he might see, curiosity peeked.
He let his arms go around her and took off his gloves from his hands. He brought them up to his face and blew into them as they were chilled. He reached down and grabbed her hand, pulling off one of her gloves. She noticed it was colder, but it hardly affected her. He took her hand and wrapped his hands around it. He closed his eyes and held his breath. Then he let her hand go and opened his eyes, just like that. He smiled at her bitter sweetly.
"What did you see?" She asked.
"Give me your answer, and I'll give you mine," he answered.
She pouted at him. "No. You give me your answer and I'll give you mine," she insisted.
He sighed. He bent down and whispered the answer in her ear. He straightened up. "That's only the future your on track for. If you go another direction, it may change. So where's my answer?" he asked longingly.
"Yes then," she responded. She grabbed his collar, pulling him down, and kissed him.