“Alchemist, if you think that you’ll be running experiments on my brother without anyone to observe, you are sorely mistaken. While he might trust you with his life, I certainly do not!” Haruko came to a stop in front of the chair Hellebore was sitting in.
“You’re free to observe, but don’t even think of getting in my way.” Hellebore lifted her gaze only slightly. “I won’t let your desire to secure your son as heir to the throne stop me from saving my husband.”
She received silence in response. Taiyo’s expression shifted once more and he took a little, short breath, lips twitching up before he turned his head away.
Haruko narrowed her eyes, crossing the distance and glaring down at her. “My brother’s life means more to me than it ever could to you. I won’t let you steal his blood for your sick experiments while he trusts you wholeheartedly. I won’t let you kill him.”
“If I wanted him dead, all I’d have to do is wait.” Hellebore huffed, pushing herself out of the chair. She fluttered the pages in Haruko’s face, disorienting the elf and thus clearing the way for her to pass by and reach the table with her sterilized tools waiting for her to draw blood. “Not to mention, his blood is so thoroughly corrupted that there would be nothing I could do with it other than analyze it. I can’t use his blood for my own benefit. You, on the other hand—”
“Haruko, Hellebore is the only chance I have. Trust me on this, don’t make this harder,” Taiyo said, cutting Hellebore off before she finished the threat as he took the seat beside the table.
Hellebore finished disinfecting her hands and moved to put on the sanitized leather gloves. She looked over her shoulder and said, “If it would help you feel more comfortable about this and be closer to me, feel free to call me Hels. If I succeed, we’ll be sisters by marriage for at least the rest of my life.”
Taiyo rolled the sleeve of his shirt up to expose his left arm. He looked up at Hellebore. “Why haven’t you told me about this little nickname?”
“You didn’t ask, and then you made your own. Don’t be greedy.”
“Not one based off your name. I like Hels.” Taiyo’s eyes never left hers as she stepped closer, needle in hand, Haruko looking like she was going to be sick in the background.
“Of course you would, Hellebore is a mouthful.” Hellebore positioned the needle, finding his vein. “But if you get to use two nicknames, then you’ll never call me by my full name again.”
“I see.” Taiyo smirked before it quickly turned into a wince as she pushed the needle in. He, however, never looked away from her face as she drew his blood. “This is just about how much you love the way I say your name.”
Hellebore ignored his smug, teasing lilt and focused on her work. If Haruko got any greener, she was going to need a bucket. Taiyo’s blood wasn’t a pleasant sight, but was drawing a syringe of it really enough to make her so squeamish and disgusted?
Hellebore finished, pulling the needle out and setting it to the side so she could clean and bandage his arm, fixing him with a stern look. “Your name is too short for a nickname, so it’s hardly fair for you to get two and I none.”
“You can always come up with one unrelated to my name.”
“You really want me to start calling you sunshine?”
Haruko cleared her throat, nodding at the syringe. “What exactly will you be doing with that?”
“Analyzing it. I need to know the makeup of it inside and out if I’m going to find a way to cure it.”
“What makes you think you can do this? You’re not a healer,” Haruko said.
“You should be grateful I’m not. Your healers for years have been trying and failing.” Hellebore laughed and gestured to her lab. “I’m an alchemist. I’m the only one who can.”
And that was that.
If Taiyo had been spending a fair amount of time with Hellebore before when she’d been focused solely on the plants, it was nothing compared to now.
He was always in her lab, at her side, either sitting in silence when she needed to focus or discussing his condition with her when she needed more answers or talking to her about any manner of things when she needed a break. He never complained when she needed blood. He never seemed worried each day that passed and she still didn’t have an answer.
From sunup until sundown, they worked in her lab. Princess Haruko, after much convincing from Taiyo, had taken over his duties as king so he could focus on helping Hellebore save his life. They always left right before sunset. If a normal Sun Elf was weaker at night, Taiyo was doubly so. His heart had already been straining and struggling during the day to pump his thick, rotting blood through his veins, but at night it had to work twice as hard. Which is where the pain came in.
But the tincture the elven healers gave him didn’t work well.
So within a week of examining his blood, Hellebore spent the night awake, a chair pulled up to his bed and an open notebook in her lap so that she could observe how his condition changed at night. All she could see was his expression screwing up in agony. His pained breaths and huffs were so soft, she understood why she’d never heard them before, but somehow the sound of them seemed to embed themselves into her mind.
She’d been working on the rot for months now and factoring in Taiyo’s condition and his magic fighting the rot for a week. While her progress wasn’t inconsequential on either end, it wasn’t successful either.
She only had a little under four months left.
She made good on her promise to come up with a sedative to help Taiyo sleep without pain, this time ensuring the original tincture was fully out of his system before he took hers.
That first night she still watched over him, observing to make sure there were no side effects. The next night, as soon as he was out, she pulled her hand out of his and quietly crept out of his room and back to her lab. She continued working through the night.
