Yay, Waka time! And now, for that relationship development I... wait... what's with Iris? ...Oh snap.
Chapter 23: The Thoughts and Doubts of the Man from the Moon Tribe
Something's wrong, Waka thought as he watched Iris lead the priestess through the tainted beach, towards Sei-An City. Rao looks… different than she did before.
"Ma reine," he said, "I want to help her get here faster. I don't trust that comb to keep her safe." A flurry of minor demons encircled the group, and Iris – along with her new, demonic friend – tore through them with relative ease.
"You will do no such thing, Waka." Queen Himiko did not look at him. "After that last infraction against me, I am not letting you near her until I am sure she can get here on her own."
"If she can't, your highness," he turned to the woman, "what will you do? If she dies, will we simply summon another one?"
"You're not helping her," the Queen said, "until I say you can. You already accepted your sentence, remember?"
Waka sighed, and nodded. "Yes, ma reine," he said, turning back to the crystal, "but it makes me restless. Perhaps if Rao would travel separately…"
"With all of those demons running loose?"
"Why not? She has her prayer slips, they've never stopped her before." Waka watched Iris chase another possessed statue away from the priestess. "She shouldn't need Iris's help."
Queen Himiko looked at him. "I don't think I've heard you call her by name before," she said. "Is there something you're not telling me, Waka?"
Waka didn't answer her, instead watching Tobi claw down an umbrella-wielding demon before it could impale Iris. The three ran, Iris's hand clasped over her mouth, but were quickly stopped by another group.
"Excuse me," Waka said, and walked out of the room.
The clouds of darkness swirled over the city in a spiral, which twisted and curled downward, originating from the King's palace. Waka looked up, observing the sickening colors, as the nobles around him hacked and wheezed from the diseased air. He could see questions in the air, questions of doubt and uncertainty. What if Iris doesn't make it? The clouds asked. What happened to Rao's prayer slips, the ones that she used before? What if… Waka stopped. The last question – the biggest one – originated only from his own theory, not fact. He shook his head. Lady Ayame killed herself, he thought, but the words still didn't have any authority or substance in his mind – they sounded flimsy, shallow, false. Lady Ayame… it just doesn't add up. She had no qualms with her betrothed… his gaze turned to the house where the lord lay in his bed, his two attendants desperately trying to awaken and heal him with herbal candles. …It makes no sense…
Waka was pulled out of his thoughts a few minutes later, as one of the Queen's maids ran up to him, hand over her mouth. "Queen Himiko," she said, hacking between words, "has asked… asked you to go… to the front of the city temple…" she turned, and ran back in. Waka frowned, but turned to the temple, and walked through the wilting garden that was the aristocratic quarter.
"Ah, now this is interesting." Waka crossed his arms as he eyed the dried lake that the bridge once covered, as well as the now disconnected bridge. "That is inconvenient, now isn't it?" Anybody from the aristocratic quarter easily could have left, if they'd been in any condition to do so, but getting in would, at the very least, require some very strong rope…
…Or, it seemed, the ability to ravel and unravel at will. Waka stepped back as two streamed of thick parchment grabbed onto the rails of the bridge and tightened, pulling the demon Waka had seen earlier onto the side of the structure, and Iris…
"What happened?!" Waka failed to mask his concern as he ran over to Iris, who was lying limp on Tobi's shoulder. Tobi set Iris down, and the girl coughed violently.
"Something in the air," the demon said, "she made it all the way to the entrance after walking through the trenches, and just fell over." Waka lifted Iris off of the ground, and Tobi returned to his prayer-slip form. A minute later, Rao jumped onto the bridge, and ran over.
"Is there anything I can do?" She asked, but Waka shook his head.
"Go to the temple," he said, "and I'll get her help." Rao nodded and ran off, and Waka ran to the Queen's Palace.
"Oh my goodness!" The maid at the front barely stepped out of his way in time to avoid Waka knocking her over. He quickly ran to one of the rooms that he knew was empty, and set Iris down on the mat, pushing her hair out of her face as her brow broke into a cold sweat.
"Somebody get some herbal candles," Waka said, "now!" One of the servants came back an instant later with a few small columns of wax, and Waka set them near the head of the mat, using the nearest torch he could find to light them. As medicinal smoke filled the air, Iris groaned, and turned her head to face him.
"You again…" Waka's gaze flicked to the bandage over her eye, and he gently pulled it off.
"Oh, ma cherie…" A thick, dark scar about the width of a person's little finger stretched down the center of her eyebrow, just barely missing her eye in its decent to her jaw. Her skin was ghostly pale, and her eyelids hung heavily on her face. "The comb should have protected you…" Her hand moved towards him, and Waka closed his own around it.
"Tired…" she murmured, "so… tired… can't move…"
"Rest, Iris," Waka said, "Rest, for now. You deserve it." She let her eyes close, but she did not release his hand. Waka pushed a stray hair out of her face as her breathing slowed. "I'm right here, ma cherie."