Aiko looked at the emperor, somewhat scared of him for he was the almighty ruler of the entire kingdom of which she lived in. His long, silken brunette hair was tied into a loose bun structure and he wore white robes lined at the bottom with stitching of green fire and red roses. His eyes were warm and somewhat forgiving for what she had pulled with his guards outside earlier. She calmed down a bit and tugged her sheet a little tighter to give her some warmth. The windows in the room gave her long, pale legs a huge draft and made her shiver like it was a winter's day for any normal dressed person. "My lord," she began, as she looked again to Hotohori's eyes, "As the guard had said before, I am here for official business with the Suzako no Miko and her seishi, and it would mean a great deal to me if you could let her know and have her hear me out." Aiko's legs suddenly collapsed beneath her and she gasped in shock as she felt them began to freeze and slowly begin to numb. She heard a girl gasp and looked up suddenly to see a young female staring at her in awe, and dressed in some odd clothing. "Tasuki!" Hotohori shouted at the red-haired man standing near his throne, "Help her to her feet. Nuriko, please help to and then bring her to your room for something more suitable for this kind of weather," he motioned to the woman with long purple hair. They both nodded and ran to help Aiko to her feet once again. Tasuki reached her first and slowly put his left hand on her shoulder and his right hand under her right arm. The moment both of his hands touched her, a spark of something passed between them and Aiko freaked. "Get away from me!" she screeched as she shoved him aside and he fell to his bottom and just stared at her with wide eyes and a big, old sweat-drop. Nuriko came up, and put one hand on at a time because she didn't want to be shoved herself, and helped the young woman to her feet, and then swung one of her arms around Aiko's middle back to help her walk a little better than she would without the support. "So, what is your name, sweetie?" Nuriko asked gently as she looked deep into the young girl's lavender eyes in wonder. The girl looked up sadly, as if it hurt her to walk. "Aiko," she whispered like a light breeze over a field of tall grass. "That's pretty," Nuriko answered as she looked down to watch their feet move, and that's when she saw what was making the girl so full of pain. Her legs were bleeding like all heck had broke loose from them. Nuriko gasped and then suddenly lifted the girl into her arms as they left the main room and began to walk into an outside hallway on the inner sanctity of the castle. When they reached the room, Nuriko pulled out some bandages from one of her dresser drawer's and began to wrap up Aiko's legs, making sure not to pull too hard. When she finished, she looked to Aiko, who was now laying down, and watched as tears slowly streamed down her face. Nuriko turned away, not wanting to look at such a display for fear that it might weaken her heart for the poor girl. She walked over to her closet and looked to the women's side of it and pulled out a pair of ivory, skin-tight pants and a hip-long shirt decorated with green Chinese dragons and colored black for a background, lined with white strips. She helped Aiko change and then sat her down at her mirror dresser, slowly combing back her long waves of emerald hair into three small buns in the back of her head. She left two little wisps, one on each side of her face, in the front. "There, that should do it," Nuriko smiled proudly at the work she had done of making a wretched girl look like a beautiful maiden. "Well, now to get you back to Hotohori, er, his majesty, so you can explain all this information you have for the Suzako no Miko and her seishi to him."