Epilogue: over a century and a half later.
Kayda stared unblinking at the tissue in her hand. Blood, again. She was coughing up blood again. It made her want to cry and rage at the same time. She stayed on her bed in her room, pouting and trying not to panic. She quickly shoved it in her pocket, frightened at the prospect of what would happen if someone saw it. Last time she had thrown it away, but someone found it in the trash. Mother had been livid with her when she found out where it had come from.
She had hardly spent a month in the Demon World this time around. She did not want to go back Human World to get her lungs to heal back up after the exposure to the Demon World air.
It was not fair. Her three older sisters never had to go to the Human World for health reasons. They were all wind demonesses. Hastuko, the oldest had always been strong, always healthy, as far as Kayda was concerned. She had never been sick a day in her life practically. She rarely missed training either. A true warrior princess and heir to the throne if there ever was one.
Between Hastuko and Kayda were the twins: Sora and Sayua. Wind demonesses who were mischievous. They liked to fool around and play pranks throughout the castle, the grounds, the Hayato Territory, and anywhere else the could find an unsuspecting victim that they could fly away from. Kayda hated it when they pranked her.
Yet Kayda showed no signs of being any kind of demon type. Not a wind demon especially. Father said she may had been a mental one like his mother before him, but she should no signs of being able to see the future, bless someone, or give someone orders they had obey. He told her to be patient as some demons developed abilities when they matured, but usually that only happened to the weakest of the weak demons. The idea only upset her more when she thought about it. She did not want to be a weakling.
None of the four of them had inherited elemental serpents or dragons, but of the three of her sisters, Hastuko could conjur a bow and arrow from her own energy. Before the plague, their paternal grandfather had trained her. After... Father trained her. The twins could fly, but conjur nothing. They took up swords. Before the plague, their maternal grandfather trained them. After... Their fire demon cousin took his time to help train him, when he was not off with their eldest uncle recruiting and train more Shinobu warriors. Eldest Uncle was the leader of the Shinobu. Kayda used to day dream about joining him one day, but that dream dimmed every time she was choked by the toxic Demon World air. Only a strong demon could become Shinobu.
Yet out of four sisters and one cousin, Kayda was left the most human. Her fire demon cousin lucked out and was wholly demon, in spite of his father, Elder Uncle, being half human. The only explanation was that Aunt's genes were stronger than Uncle's. Aunt was a former ice maiden, and their genes always dominated over the father's. Lucky.
Mother was half human too, but Kayda ended up being the most human of them all. It seemed like the only demon thing about her was her blood type. That was least something she had over their younger uncle. He was born a wind mage, but with human blood; a thousand to one chance combination. He preferred the Human World over the Demon World though. He lived there as a monk. Each time Kayda got sick, she was sent to stay with him and his fellow monks in hopes that the rural mountain air would help her lungs heal faster. She hated it, yet Mother insisted. Father may be King, but Mother was his queen as well as his Queen. In her mind, Uncle Monk was the safest place she could be when her lungs were scaring from the Demon World's toxic air.
She rolled off her bed, trying not to cough, even as it tickled the back of her throat. She did not want to go back to that monastery she just escaped from. Especially when her maternal grandmother seemed so unwell. She slept often, ate little, and her mind was slipping more and more each day. Sometimes she knew who everyone was and everything that had happened; other times Kayda was a stranger to her and she would ask after her mate, or cousin, or other friends. She was the only grandparent her and her sisters and cousin had left. The other three were lost when that plague whipped through the Demon World one summer three years ago. Humans and the part humans were immune, but one out of every five died from this dreaded sweating sickness. Father had gotten it too, but he managed to survive it. Kayda heard Sora and Sayua joking once that the only reason he survived it when their demon grandparents did not was because Mother forbade him to die.
Kayda could not keep herself from coughing anymore. She ran to her bathroom, turned on the faucet, and then freely coughed as the sound of the water would drown the sound of her coughing turned retching. She hated the taste of blood and phlegm. She spat up into the sink, trying not to look at the gross clumps of runny liquid that were red and green mixing together. She brought her mouth under the tap, swishing the water in her mouth before spitting it all out into the sink. She kept the water running until all the evidence was washed away.
She would need to tell someone, and soon. Mother was livid when she kept her coughing up blood secret because it only got worse and would take longer for her lungs to recover. They had tried to simply have her healed when she was younger, but it did not work effectively. When the coughing came back a few days after healing, it was always worse. Neither did medicine from the Human World nor the Demon World. The best 'cure' her parents found was her going to Uncle Monk until her human like lungs healed on their own naturally.
She thought about Grandmother again. If Kayda had to go back to the Human World again, she at least wanted to say goodbye to her in case she passed away before Kayda recovered. Then she would go to Father and tell him she was coughing up blood again. Father was always more gentle with about it when he told her. He commiserated with her. Before his father died, he would go with her to Human World and stay with her at the monastery often. After he became the King of the Demon World, he could scarcely visit her in her medical exile.
She crept silently through the halls of the castle, trying not to attract any unwanted attention. When she felt the urge to cough, she sucked on her tongue and swallowed her spit to help wash away the itch.
She made it to Grandmother's room without incident. She opened the door and slipped into the room. Grandmother lay on her bed, propped up. The young nurse who took care of her looked up from the empty tray she had just picked up. Grandmother must have just finished breakfast.
"Princess," the nurse said to Kayda with the best bow she could manage. She said the tray back down on the wide nightstand by Grandmother's bed. She touched Grandmother's arm softly, waking her back up. "My lady, Princess Kayda is here to see you."
Grandmother jumped up, her grey, almost white hair ruffled. She opened her grey, clouded eyes, turning her head in the direction of the nurse, but not looking at her. "Princess? Kayda?" she mumbled in confusion.
"Your youngest grandchild," the nurse told her softly. "Thirteen years old now-"
"Fourteen," Grandmother interrupted. "She's fourteen. She spent her last birthday in the Human World because she had been coughing up blood again."
Kayda smiled to herself. Grandmother remembered her. That did not happen all the time. She remember her fire demon cousin most of the time, with Hastuko coming in second to her memory. However, Kayda and the twins were younger, so she remembered them less often.
"Come here, my dear," Grandmother beckoned her, hand reaching towards where she thought Kayda might be.
Kayda felt a cough rippling up in her throat, but she quelled it. She went over to Grandmother, taking her hand. Grandmother moved in her own slow and weary way to make room. Kayda sat down on the edge of her bed, like the dozens of time she had before.
"You are dismissed again, Yumi," Grandmother's voice crackled out.
"As you wish, my lady," the nurse said before she picked up the tray and left the room.
When they were alone, Grandmother asked, "what is it, my child?" In a split second, her hand clasped almost painfully down on Kayda, spooking Kayda. She sat up rigidly. "You're not sweating, are you? You haven't got the sweating sickness?" she asked her fiercely.
"No," Kayda said. Grandmother sighed and her grip slackened.
Kayda lucked into a moment with Grandmother more lucid. She had been with Grandmother before where she kept asking for her mate, not knowing he was gone. Father had told Kayda that if Grandmother ever asked or talked about either grandfather as if they were still alive to say they were coming to see her soon. Father had made the mistake once of telling her they had passed away years ago, which distressed Grandmother greatly to recall after forgetting.
Grandmother hummed forlornly. "Good. That illness strikes so fast, so suddenly..." She looked over at Kayda's direction and gruffed. "Oh course you don't have it, a human or quarter human is immune."
"It's okay, Grandmother," Kayda soothed. "I just thought I'd come and see you is a-" she started before a cough seized her so suddenly. She let go of Grandmother's hand. She coughed, but clenched her jaw shut so she would not get the bloody phlegm on the bed or floor. She dug the used tissue out of her pocket and spat in it. She tried not to notice how it was more blood than mucous.
Grandmother's hand came to her back, rubbing the middle of it soothingly. "You're sick again," she said in a comforting voice.
Kayda wadded up the tissue and shoved it back into her pocket. She turned and laid her head down on Grandmother's shoulder. Grandmother held her. What would she ever do without her? She whimpered into her shoulder.
"Shh," Grandmother soothed. "You can't help your illness. It's not your fault."
Kayda brought her hand up and wiped away the few tears that had rolled down her face. "It's not fair. Not even Uncle Kaze is so human like me."
Grandmother chuckled softly. "Being human, must be the worse thing imaginable."
Kayda sat up, laughing in spite of herself, even as a cough raked over her. She dug the tissue back of her pocket again, wiping off the back of her mouth. She blinked away her tears, looking over at Grandmother, whose jaw was moving, but her lips were still.
Grandmother closed her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them, she gave a sad smile in Kayda's direction. "You're so young, with so much to live for. I understand why you prefer the Demon World over the Human World. You yearn for it the same way your grandfather yearned for it when he was in exile in the Human World." She reached her right hand out, brushing her fingers through Kayda's hair. "Your hair even feels the same as his did... Right..."
Grandmother's right hand suddenly seized Kayda on the side of neck in a firm, yet not quite painful way. Kayda froze, not moving, not even breathing. She hoped she would not cough or sputter in this moment.
"I knew one day I would do this for you. Ever since you first started having breathing problems in the Demon World. Your mother made me promise not to though," Grandmother rambled. "I had your soul wave length checked when you were younger. Ours are in alignment." Kayda frowned, but stayed stock still. Grandmother had started not making sense again. "Your mother will forgive me, one day." Kayda watched, unblinking as Grandmother conjured up her compact wind dragon. "Quickly, go. Before I change my mind," she strained out.
The wind dragon rolled down Grandmother's arm and headed straight for Kayda's neck. Kayda closed her eyes and scrunched up her face. It felt like her neck was on fire, but there was no way to kill the flames. The flames spread down her neck and through out her whole body. She wanted to scream, but her throat felt like it seized up.
When it felt like the flames burned out, Kayda felt Grandmother's hand go slack. Kayda opened her, blinking. Kayda looked down at Grandmother. Grandmother laid down on the bed, breathing heavily, suddenly in a deep sleep.
"Grandmother?" she murmured, panic washing over her.
'Go to your father and tell him what happened,' an unfamiliar voice hissed in head. 'Now!'
Kayda rose up, tore the door open and ran from the room. She could not help but notice as she ran for her Father's throne room, that she could breathe better now than she ever had in her life.