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Souma doesn’t know how long he’s been here. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knows he’s been given some sort of iron poison, but the memory of how he got here and what they’ve been doing isn’t always on the surface.
He doesn’t remember the name of the man who’s in front of him writing down observations, but he does remember however long ago it was that they’d been captured in the first place.
It feels like just this morning Aki and Ena were shaking him and Arata awake.
“Come on, the festival is here!” Ena says. “I want to see all the cool stalls before it gets crowded!”
“Partner,” Arata asks sleepily, “I don’t think we promised to take a pair of monkeys to the festival, did we?”
“You guys do this every time!” Akito whines. “Come on please? Let’s go, let's go!”
“Oh no,” Souma says smiling, “I think they’re really going to cause problems if we don’t get up.”
“You go dress them,” Arata mutters. “You’re the one who kept me up last night.”
“Hey, you enjoyed it,” Souma says.
“Souma-nii!” Akito says. “Fes-ti-val! We promised Len and Rin we’d bring them back presents too!”
“Oh no, all the kids are expecting us,” Souma says. “Alright, alright, I’m getting up.” He leaves Arata to snooze for a little bit and digs the clothes they use to disguise the kids out of the closet.
Arata was never very public as prince, so he doesn’t have a problem dressing up as a regular person and going to perform at the local festival, but Akito and Ena, being the adorable children of the palace, were recognized easily by everyone in the capital.
The main thing that made Akito stand out was his hair, so Souma made sure the old, worn, fishing hat was tight on his head so it wouldn’t fall off, and he wrapped a bright handkerchief around Ena.
Then they wrestled Arata out of bed, grabbed some bread from the kitchen, and snuck out to enjoy the festival. Aki and Ena had gotten bolder since they started doing this, and instead of holding Arata and Souma’s hands, they’d run off on their own to look at all the stalls selling food, toys, and crafts.
At some point the kids had slipped out of their sight. When Arata and Souma had found them, they were being carried off by some vampire.
Arata moved faster than Souma could, pulling out his sword and forcing the vampire to drop Akito and Ena.
“N-nii-Chan!”
“Souma-nii!”
“Souma!” Arata said, “get Akito and Ena out of here!”
Souma nodded, scooped them up, and then took off, his wings beating faster than ever. Then pain ripped through his wings and Souma collapsed onto the ground.
He looked up and saw the arrow that clearly tore through his wings, and another vampire stepped out of the shadows.
“Heh, perfect shot,” she said before grabbing Akito and Ena.
“Hey! Let us go!!!” Ena screamed, but the vampire simply chuckled.
“Not so loud, sprites,” she said, and another vampire appeared and held some sort of smelling salt to Akito and Ena’s faces, causing them to pass out instantly.
“No!” Souma screamed, ignoring the pain in his wings to summon water and knock away the vampires, but before he could he felt a sharp pain in his back.
“Better ‘aul than we expected, eh?” Someone Souma couldn’t see said. “Knew ‘e looked weak.”
Souma kept trying, even trying to tap into his fire powers, but there was just nothing, and the pain in his back got harsher.
“Knock the biggun’ out and let’s go.”
Someone pulled back Souma’s hair and forced the smelling salts under his nose, and then there was nothing.
From there, Souma doesn’t know what happened or even quite what they’re doing to him. Whatever they’re pumping in his veins has made his memories soup. Everything after the attack is just a haze, sometimes he can remember parts, sometimes he can’t.
So he has no clue how long he’s been here when Arata bursts in.
“Souma! Come on, we have to go!” Arata says. Souma can distantly hear yelling and the guards.
It takes all Souma’s strength to shake his head. “Akito and Ena, y-you have to find them.”
“Sorry, I’m not leaving you.”
“A-Arata,” Souma brushes his face with his good hand. There are clearly burn marks. “I-I can’t move. I can’t fly. I can barely think.” More yelling and footsteps. “Get Akito and Ena out first. They should be down the hall.”
“I said I’m not leaving you, Souma, I’m really sorry if this hurts.” Arata reaches over and pulls some needles out of Souma’s skin and breaks the straps tying him to the table.
Then he picks Souma up gently and runs out.
“There’s the intruder! He’s got the fairy!”
“Damn it!” Arata curses. The. He pulls Souma close and he feels wind whip around them. Arata takes off and Souma winces as they break out into the sunlight.
“I’m sorry,” Arata says. “It’s gonna be ok.”
“But Akito and Ena,” Souma says.
“Don’t worry, just stay strong.”
Someone else must be rescuing them. They weren’t far, he just saw them yesterday (was it yesterday?)
He feels it as soon as they pass the threshold into the fairy kingdom and his body instinctively starts to relax.
“It’s ok Souma, you can rest now,” Arata says.
Souma listens and drifts off to sleep
~
When he wakes up, he’s in the Palace infirmary. He turns his head to see Arata, asleep in a chair next to him.
He tries to reach out to grab his hand, but Souma finds he can’t move his arm. He can move the other one, so he pulls down the sheet to confirm that his other arm is still there, but he just can’t move it. Souma immediately tries to stretch out every part of his body, but all he can do is move one arm and unfurl his recently-regrown wings. He can’t even sit up, so he tries flapping his wings to force his body up.
The movement wakes Arata, who reaches out gently to push Souma back into bed. “Hey, hey, calm down, you’re safe, alright?”
“Arata I c-can’t move, I…”
Arata frowns. “It’s ok, you’ll be fine.”
“B-but why…” He should have healed now that he’s back home and away from all the iron.
“The doctor says the poison permeated your blood marrow,” Arata explains. He leaves out the next part, that Souma will never be able to walk again. It’d be exhausting to fly everywhere, and even then he only has one arm. “Does anything hurt?” Arata asks.
“No,” Souma says, at least compared to what it was in that lab. “Aki, Ena, are they ok?”
Arata starts smoking. “They weren’t there.”
“W-what?”
“They’d been moved before I found you.”
“I’m sorry,” Souma says, “this is my fault if I had just—”
“No!” Arata says, “It’s mine, I should have seen the trap coming, and I should have found you sooner.”
Souma grips the sheet with his good hand.
“Souma, you’re awake!” Queen Mahono and Yoka rush into the infirmary along with the doctor. Queen Mahono hugs him. “I’m so glad you’re alright.”
“Your Majesty, I don’t deserve such treatment,” Souma says. “Because of me, Akito and Ena were kidnapped.” By Shinonome, he should have died before letting Akito and Ena go through that.
“Hey!” Arata says, “don’t think like that,” sensing Souma’s thoughts through their bond. “If anything happened to you, I don’t think I could have controlled myself.”
Only Arata could hear Souma’s thoughts, but Queen Mahono and Yoka seem to get the gist of it. “Souma,” Queen Mahono says, “I know you did your best to protect them, and you’ve suffered enough. The only people I resent in this situation are those who took my children in the first place.”
“Mahono’s right,” Yoka says. “You’ve done more than we could have asked.”
“But it was my idea to take them out, if--”
“Souma, if I wanted my children cooped up in this stuffy palace, I would have told you,” Queen Mahono says. “Please, don’t blame yourself, there's enough melancholy in the palace as is. Let us at least take comfort in your safe return. In the meantime, the nymphs and I will be hard at work on ways to help you.”
“Thank you, your Majesty.”
Queen Mahono leaves, and Souma turns to Yoka. “How is she holding up?”
Yoka sighs, dropping the formal air. “As well as can be expected.” Despite Mahono replacing her as queen, there's no ill-will between the two and they pretty much share duties. Maybe it’s because most fairies would consider it insane to ever want to marry into the royal family and take on all the duties it entails. Someone has to do it, but no one particularly wants to.
Yoka and Mahono are the exceptions for genuinely wanting to make a difference. Souma is the exception because he’s madly in love with Arata.
“Souma,” Yoka asks, “do you feel well enough to talk about what happened?”
“Mom!” Arata shouts.
“We’re going to have to ask King Kamishiro for help,” Yoka says sternly, “if Souma remembers anything then–”
“He just escaped! Give him time to recover at least!”
“I hate to do this too, but–”
“I’ll do it,” Souma says. “Anything to help Aki and Ena.”
“You don’t have to force yourself,” Arata says.
“Better than lying here, feeling sorry for myself.”
~
Souma’s done his best to compile everything he recalls from his jumbled time into notes. The person who experimented on him was Dr. Melor, and he’d mentioned wanting to sell Aki and Ena’s blood. Arata had said he’d found him in Western Kamishiro territory.
Still, he’s nervous to be alone with King Shinei. He’s often too busy to say more than a few words of acknowledgement, and doesn’t naturally emote very well. He’s also prone to bluntly saying his criticism out loud, making it seem like he insults people at the drop of a hat. That’s why when it comes to foreign relations, Yoka or Queen Mahono do the talking.
However, for a direct plea to the Vampire King, it’d be disrespectful for anyone less than their own king to reach out to him.
“Are you ready?” King Shinei asks, and Souma nods. The king pulls out a box with velvet insides, and touches the carefully placed glass orb in the center. It pulses for a few moments, and then the stern face of King Kamishiro is facing them.
Souma’s heard stories about the Vampire king, that his gaze could turn people to stone, that with one look he’d know exactly how to take you apart.
Souma never believed those to be true, but seeing him now, Souma can at least see where the stories come from.
“What do you want, fairy,” King Kamishiro asks with utter disdain, as if they were simply mud on his boot.
King Shinei isn’t phased by his counterpart’s cold demeanor, and bows deeply. “King Kamishiro, I have an urgent request of you. A week ago, my children were kidnapped by vampires and taken to your territory. We ask for your aid in searching for them. This is Souma, my son-in-law, he was captured as well but escaped, he can give you any infor–”
“Do you think me a fool?” King Kamishiro asks.
“Of course not, Your Majesty.”
“Then do you think this paltry plan to lull us into a false sense of security and then entreat on our lands with ludicrous accusations will work?!”
“Your Majesty,” King Shinei says, “I never meant to accuse you of anything. I do not assume the kidnappers have anything to do with you and your people. I’m deeply sorry for the offense I’ve caused you. I will not ask that our forces be allowed into your Kingdom, I simply ask for your aid in finding my children, however you choose to define that.”
“Liar! You fairies pass yourselves off as harmless, but unlike you I saw the battlefields, I know your cunning and ploys. If you think I will fall for this then you are mistaken.”
“Your Majesty, please!” Souma begs. “We’re not accusing anyone of kidnapping the prince and princess, they were in disguise at the time, but believe me we were taken, and I know it was to your kingdom.”
King Kamishiro glares. “You dare speak out of turn, brat?!”
Souma’s mouth stops working. “I-I…”
“Your Majesty,” King Shinei says. “I know the crimes visited upon you by my father and brother are unspeakable, I killed my own father and brother to end the war and begin to try and repair that damage, and I know that in my lifetime we could not hope to restore what you have lost. Nor will I claim to. I know, in reaching out to you, I may be overstepping in my power as King of the Fairies. However, I beseech you, not from one king to another, but as a father. Please, help me find my children. They’re only six and seven, too young to have had anything to do with the war. They haven’t even begun to grow in their wings. They play in the river with their friends and have learned to read simple stories. They simply wanted to go to a festival with their older brother and they have been taken and I do not know where they are. My wife cries every night when she thinks no one can hear her. Last month Ena snuck into my office to play with me and tried to hide the fact that she spilled ink on my paperwork by shoving it in a plant. My father’s crimes weigh on me, and you may judge me for that. But Ena and Akito are children. They are innocent. If you will not help me then please help them.”
“From one father to another,” King Kamishiro says, “it is not my responsibility to overturn my own kingdom looking for the children you lost.”
“Then let me send my own people to search for them! They will be small, I can have them report their movements to you!”
“Should any of your knights be found within our borders it will be taken as an attack. I am not so simple as to allow the sovereignty of my nation to be threatened by your unbelievable sob story.”
“But--”
“This conversation is over.”
The image of King Kamishiro disappears, leaving the room silent.
“I’m sorry, Your Majesty,” Souma says, “I—”
“No. you’re not to blame,” Shinei replies. “This is Shinonome’s wrath. She is still punishing me for failing to take action and stop my father before things escalated the way they did. She’s already cursed Arata, and now she’s taken Ena and Akito from me too.”
“Your Majesty—”
“Souma,” King Shinei says, “please, I do not need words right now. If you’d please, go get Yoka and Mahono. We need to discuss the next course of action.”
~
“Closing the border, is he insane!?” Arata gasps when Yoka breaks the news.
“He doesn’t trust King Kamishiro not to start being suspicious of all fairies and nymphs in the Vampire Kingdom at the moment. The safest thing to do is pull everyone back. We will continue paying reparations to the Vampires, but travel between the two kingdoms will be forbidden.”
“But then we can’t find Aki and Ena!” Arata says.
“He knows that!” Yoka says, and Arata seems taken aback by the fact that she’s yelling. “We can’t find them either if anyone we send to look will be treated as invaders! Shinonome knows I will argue every point I can with him, but the best thing to do now is stop any more trafficking here. No other children need be lost.”
“They’re not lost!” Arata shouts, bursting into flames. Souma summons water to put him out on instinct. “They’re still alive! Probably confused and in pain like Souma was! They probably don’t know who they are or where to go if they’re in trouble! We can’t just abandon them!”
“... That’s the burden of the royal family,” Yoka says. “You give up the right to be selfish. You give up the ability to take risks because you have to consider everyone. I chose this. I know you didn’t, and I know Shinei didn’t, but the task set before us is to protect our people, and Shinonome has already visited her wrath on those who failed.”
Arata’s visibly shaking, probably trying to do everything he can not to lose control of his unstable powers. “I don’t buy that,” Arata says. “I don’t buy it any more than I believe I’m like this because you’re a commoner.”
The royal family is blessed with special powers to help them serve their people. Enhanced connections to nature, dominion over life and death. Arata’s powers are out of balance however. Normally, a fairy will either only have a single power, like Yoka, who can control wind, or two powers in balance, like Souma who can control water and fire.
Arata’s powers, however, are not balanced. His dominions are air, fire, death, and darkness. These four abilities exist within him but without their counterparts to balance them out, meaning when he sets himself on fire he hurts himself. When he whips of a hurricane of winds, he’s tossed around. Utilizing his death powers could stop his own heart.
It’s the reason Ena’s the next in line for the throne, not him. A king can’t perform his duties if he can potentially immolate himself, so Arata was passed over and rumors swirled around him being cursed.
Whether that truly was Shinonome’s cures on Shinei for failing to stop his father and brother from waging war sooner or a simple side effect of Yoka’s commoner background as people like Souma’s parents believed, the fact of the matter is Arata’s ability to use his powers is restrained and he’s struggled for years.
“It’s all bullcrap! There’s no way Shinonome would cause anything like that to happen to anybody! Not Aki and Ena, not Souma!” Arata says. “We can’t just give up because the Vampire King is being paranoid! We’ll find someone who can see reason!”
“Arata, enough!” Yoka says. “This is hard enough on all of us, please .”
Yoka leaves, and Arata’s left to pace around their bedroom.
“I’m sorry,” Souma says. “I wish I could have done more.”
“It’s not your fault,” Arata says. He climbs into bed and pulls Souma close. “But I refuse to accept that there's nothing we can do.”
He feels Arata’s dread like it's his own. They’ll really never see Aki and Ena again? They won’t see them playing in the hallways with the other servant kids, they won’t get to watch Aki try to copy their dance moves, they won’t get to see Ena run up and demand praise for her latest masterpiece?
“Hey, Aki and Ena are two of the toughest kids out there, don’t underestimate them,” Souma says. That isn’t even a platitude, as crown princess Ena can control life and earth for crying out loud! Meanwhile Aki’s better with nature than anyone Souma’s ever seen. They have far more power than Souma could shake a wing at, and despite being children, they can often be very mature. Even without their memories, it’s easy to imagine them finding a way on their own. “We wouldn’t be together without them after all.”
Arata smiles at the memory. “They were planning our wedding from the moment they met you.”
“So let's just believe in them,” Souma says. “I think you’re right, they’ll have Shinonome looking after them too.”
“Yeah,” Arata mutters. “Yeah.”
~
Souma is woken up the next day by Yoka and several forest nymphs running into the room.
“Huh?” Souma asks. “Where’s Arata?”
“He’s not with you?” Yoka asks.
Souma shakes his head.
“Well, this might be better,” Yoka says, “we’ll surprise him, he’d like some good news.”
“What’s the surprise?”
“Could you hover in front of the bed for a bit?”
Souma does so, and the nymphs circle him, attaching wooden braces to his back, legs and arms. Then with some magic, they grow mushrooms along the braces.
Soon, they’re done.
“Ok, now try standing,” Yoka says.
Souma lowers himself down gently, and finds… he can stand! He stretches his hand and finds he can move both, and then he can walk over to Yoka.
“T-this is amazing!” Souma says, “how–”
“Thank Mahono,” Yoka says, “it was her idea to use a mycelium network in place of your own nervous system.”
Souma spins, spins ! He can walk again! “We have to go find Arata, he’ll be blown away!”
Souma and Yoka start searching Arata’s usual haunts, but there’s no sign of him. He’s not at the library, nor his office, nor has he been around to steal sweets from the kitchen. When Souma goes to check the training grounds, he finds Arata’s sword is missing too.
“Did he say he was leaving?” Souma asks.
“If he didn’t tell me, I’d hope he’d tell you,” Yoka says, her brow furrowed deeply with concern. Souma rushes up to Airi, a young forest nymph who played with Ena.
“Airi, do you know where Arata is?” He knows she’d know, because the forest nymphs are wary of Arata randomly bursting into flames so they keep track of him.
“Hmm, no,” Airi says, going to touch a tree. “Sounds like one of my aunties saw him go into the treasure vault last night.”
“No,” Yoka gasps, going pale and flying off.
Souma gives Airi a quick thank you before following Yoka to the King’s Office.
“Shinei!” Yoka shouts. “We need the key to the treasure vault.”
“Why?”
“It’s an emergency, I think Arata took Shionome’s earring.”
King Shinei stands up quickly and they all fly down to the vault. After opening it up, he and Yoka scramble to search for something in the mess of treasures and relics. After tearing up the place, they share a grave look.
“Hold on,” Souma says, “what’s Shinonome’s earring?”
“It’s a family heirloom that houses Shinonome’s spirit,” King Shinei explains. “It can be used to travel out of the kingdom without having to use the portals.”
Souma’s blood runs cold. Their kingdom floats on a landmass high above the Vampire Kingdom, so high no one could fly to it normally. Instead they have to find one of several portals, but while the portals’ locations are fixed on their side, the sides in the Vampire Kingdom tended to move around. If Arata had taken the regular portal, he wouldn’t know where he’d end up and most certainly would have been caught on this side, but with this…
“He’s going to go after Aki and Ena alone?! With the vampires on high alert for fairies! That’s insane!” Souma says.
“Souma,” Yoka says. “Can you tell him to come home right now?”
He tries to concentrate on sending a message. It should be possible but… “That damned poison,” Souma says. “I can’t feel him that far away.”
How could Arata just leave like that? How could he leave all his responsibilities, his family, Souma . At the very least, how could he leave without saying goodbye?
Souma spends the rest of the day in a daze.
He’s already lost Aki and Ena, but now he might lose Arata too?
At some point, as the sun starts to set, he finds himself in Arata’s office, unfinished paperwork still piled neatly, and Yoka at the desk.
“Souma, how are you doing?” she asks.
“What are you doing?” Souma asks in lieu of response.
“Arata’s work is still here even if he’s not.”
Right, Arata’s abandoned his royal duties.
“Can I help?” Souma asks.
“Oh you don’t have to--”
“I do, though,” Souma says. “I may only be his husband, but with all of them gone, I’m the only one left to fulfill the prince’s duties.”
“... He’ll be back,” Yoka says. “He’ll be back and he’ll bring them too. I have to believe that.”
“I know,” Souma says.
“He’s an idiot.”
“I know.”
Yoka looks between Souma and the papers. “Alright, I’ll show you how to fill in for him.”
They work together into the night until the pile is gone. Pushing forward is all they can do right now.