"It's okay, Rina," Jacob said brushing her bangs out of her face. "You'll be okay."
Josh was holding Rina and Jake was using his shirt and the small amount of water given to them to gently bath her face. She was burning with fever and had started coughing up blood. They'd stopped begging the guards' for help hours ago, when they realized that they were never going to help them.
They hadn't been told why they had been taken prisoner; they'd just been locked in the cell. That was almost a week ago and they'd had no contact other than a guard slipping them bread and water once a day.
The door opened then and three guards entered the room.
"Give us the girl." The obvious leader spoke.
"She's sick." Jake stood up and told him. "She needs a doctor."
All he got for his trouble was a large fist to his gut and Josh ended up with a broken nose when he'd tried to defend Jake. The guards took Rina by the arms and dragged her away. They brought her to a room and dumped her at the feet of a large Asian man in impressive black armor.
"This isn't her," he said bending down and touching the bit of blood at the corner of Rina's mouth.
"They came through the portal at the appointed time, Sir."
"Perhaps your information was wrong, Captain Tanaka." The large man said standing up to his full height of six foot six.
"Maybe."
"And the men with her?"
"Couple of homosexuals. Or brothers. Not sure. They're big men, could be capable warriors if they were taught. They couldn't fight their way out of a paper bag right now though."
"Bring them to me and send for the physician."
"Yes , sir." The captain and the two guards left the room.
"Who are you?"
He looked down at the girl on the floor. She couldn't have been more than five feet and had to weigh a hundred pounds sopping wet.
"Hotaru."
"They're not gay."
"No?" He asked.
"They're brothers." She started coughing violently and then finally fell still. Her head turned to the side and blood poured from her mouth.
"Brothers," He said repeating her word, bringing her attention back to him.
"My brothers." Her eyes were closed and he could tell she was starting to lose conciseness.
"You love them?" He bent down to once again touch the corner of her mouth and then the scar at her throat. He could feel the heat radiating from her.
"More than anything." She opened her eyes to look at him with grey-white eyes.
"Who are you girl?"
"Rina."
"How old are you child?'
"Twenty."
"So young."
"I'm a survivor." She closed her eyes and let herself slip into oblivion.
Hotaru made a split second decision. He picked the small girl up and walked to a set of double doors on the other side of the office. His private quarters. He pushed the doors open, walked to the other side of the room, gently set her down on the bed, covered her with a blanket, and walked back into his office shutting the doors behind him. He went and stood in front of the window, waiting for the other prisoners to be brought to him.
The guards brought the two men to his office as ordered. Hotaru motioned for them to sit in the chairs that sat in front of his desk.
"Where's our sister?" Josh demanded.
"Your sister called herself a survivor." Hotaru looked at them with black eyes. "Why?"
They looked at each other and then Jake spoke.
"She was kidnapped by a couple of gang bangers when she was eighteen. The raped and beat her. They cut her throat and left her for dead in the middle of a large park."
"But she survived?" Hotaru asked.
"They didn't do a very good job of cutting her throat. One of her eyes was swollen shut. Her left clavicle was fractured. Her right arm was broken in two places. She had two fractured and four broken ribs." He couldn't go on so Josh finished the story.
"She managed to walk a mile and a half to the nearest house. They called 911 and got her to a hospital."
"How did she manage this?"
"Sheer will," Josh said shaking his head. "She wanted her attackers to be brought to justice."
"Justice. And were they?"
"Yes. Rina faced them in court even though she was terrified to testify."
"You are not who my men were looking for. You were in the wrong place at the wrong time. You are free to go. My men will escort you to the portal and you will leave Seido."
"What about our sister?"
"She is too ill to travel at this time." Hotaru snapped his fingers and the door open to admit some of his guardsmen.
"We can't leave Rina." Josh insisted.
"Escort them to the portal."
"We won't leave our sister." Both men spoke vehemently.
"Admirable." Hotaru said. "But, irrelevant."
Both men struggled but to no end. They were escorted out of the room.
The small physician Ling came into the room right after the brothers were escorted out.
"You sent for me, sir?"
"Yes." Hotaru led the man into the bedroom and then left so that he could examine the girl.
"Well?" Hotaru asked from his position in front of the window, as the physician walked out of the bedroom.
"I've given her medicine for the fever. It should break tonight, hopefully."
"And the blood?"
"As far as I can tell, it's because she's been coughing so hard, that blood vessels in her lungs have broken. "He set a vial on Hotaru's desk.
"One drop needs to go in her mouth every hour even if she is asleep. It will keep her asleep and stop her from coughing and give her lungs time to heal. She needs to stay abed for at least a week."
"It will be done."
"I will come back tomorrow morning and check on her. Please send for me if her fever worsens, though I doubt it will."
"Of course."
Rina's lips moved a bit as Ling dropped medicine between them.
"How long did I sleep?" she asked.
"Twelve hours," Ling said.
"Who are you?" Rina asked opening her eyes.
"I am Ling, a physician."
"Oh."