A/N: This is a story that I've had for a while and just now finished up. Of course, its older Rin/Sess, my favorite pairing of all time, but here's a little background on my little world I've created for them:

Its after the battle with Naraku and Sesshomaru brought Rin and Jaken back to the castle. At that time, Rin is 9. Five years later, Sesshomaru takes a mate, who then decides to try to do away with Rin. Discreetly of course. Rin decides to leave and goes north, where she runs into two sword masters (those who know the series will probably figure out who they are easy enough. I know Inuyasha killed them, but they are my favorite villains and thus I brought them back to life..again.) who train her.

She finds out she's half-demon, which will be explained, and stays there for 5 years. After she completes her final sword trial, she goes to the east to study with Kaede and Kagome for a year. I made Inuyasha Lord of the East, just because I find it amusing. The rest is explained about her journey. Rated T for mild cursing (Rin has a sailors mouth), and very slight smut, nothing really dirty. Let me know what you think!

Disclaimer: I don't own Inuyasha

"Have you heard of the recent attacks?"

"Of course! Who hasn't? And it all started when that bloody queen took the throne."

"Have you heard what the Lady of the West has done now? If she keeps it up she will make Lord Inuyasha look like a genius."

Conversation flowed through the market in the muggy southern town, practically floating on the air. A travel worn figure passed through the people, not making contact but listening with an attentive ear to all the gossip.

The figure was clothed in white and green traveling robes with a hood covering her hair and face lending her the air of mystery. She had a pack slung over her shoulder and a short sheath hung on her back under the pack.

Walking to a residence, she quietly asked for board for the night and paid extra for the best room. The owner nodded and let her in, not thinking much of her except that she was a traveler seeking a room for the night and that the added tip would allow him and his family to eat well for a while.

The woman settled into her room, sliding her pack off and taking off her hood to shake out her long mass of hair. In the fading light, you could see that she was a beauty, with an elegant tanned face, prominent cheekbones and slightly slanted eyes, which were a deep brown. Her neck was long and smooth, with a small scar on the side near her jugular.

Her mind, though wasn't on her looks as she gathered her bathing gear so she could go wash the road grime off of her. Why was there such trouble in the West? Had she been in the coastal north and east so long that something had happened to Lord Sesshomaru of the West?

The women had talked of a Lady, for she knew that the Lord had been mated to a hawk demon from the south, where the traveler was currently staying since she had taken the long way in from Inuyasha's home in the east, but the Lord of the West would hand over the reins of his land to no one.

Why did they speak of a stupid hawk demon ruling the powerful West? She would find out in the baths, when she gleaned more from the gossip pool.

"Oh you must have been far north not to have heard, miss." Rin tried not to roll her eyes as the excitable bath servant chattered beside her. Rin had come to the bathhouse to clean up and figure out what all she had missed.

It seemed she had missed more than she had thought for it seemed someone else was ruling the West. "You see, miss, a year ago the Lord Sesshomaru disappeared from the public eye. No one was sure what had happened and people were getting scared."

The woman made herself comfortable beside Rin, since Rin was paying her for her time she might as well rest while being paid for it.

"Then the Lady of the West came out and said her mate had fallen ill to a terrible illness that left him in an eternal sleep. Until he awoke, she would rule the West. No one believed this illness, let me tell you miss, because Milord Sesshomaru had ruled us for many a century and had never fallen ill.

One of the servants had snuck out of the castle and told the village head priest what really happened before fleeing east to Lord Inuyasha's realm. It seems that the Lady of the West was tired of being only a token to secure an alliance.

So she cast a spell on Lord Sesshomaru, one that is said to be from the Black Books of Magick that she got from her brother, who is a known black magick sorcerer.

So now, Lord Sesshomaru resides in his master room, where the Lady is not able to go because of the magick of the castle, asleep until someone, or thing, is able to wake him up. Unfortunately, the Lady wrecks havoc in the realm while he sleeps, because she seems to have no ability at all to run a realm.

No one can get in to wake up Lord Sesshomaru because the castle won't let anyone in to see Lord Sesshomaru and no one knows how to wake him.

And that is all you missed."

The woman beamed, being entirely to cheerful for such a depressing story, and proud of herself for the recitation. Rin looked at her as she rubbed soap into her hair. "How do you know all this if you are but a simple village girl?"

The girl shrugged and shouldered her basket of towels as she stood. "I listen. It seems that just because I seem empty headed and female that people think I can't hear. Good day miss and thanks for the rest."

Rin smiled and nodded at the woman and finished cleaning herself. A few minutes later she was dressed in a pair of her haori pants, white, and an emerald green shirt. Shouldering her sword, she left the bathhouse and went back to her room.

Once there, she set up protections so as no one could come in and kill her once she was asleep, then laid down on the pallet. She thought over all she had learned, the mysterious rumors that had caused her to travel south, the story the bath lady had told her, and her own observations.

It was clear that something had to be done before that stupid hawk demon Juricut plunged the entire realm into war, civil or otherwise, thus destroying everything that the white Inu-demons had worked so hard for over the years.

The how part was what she needed to know. The bath woman had explained that it was near impossible to simply enter the castle let alone get to Sesshomaru. But there were passageways that she knew and could access outside of the castle and she knew them by heart.

She had, after all, lived in the castle for five years and still remembered the layout of the place. When she had been younger, Sesshomaru had brought her back from the dead with his sword of life, Tenseiga, and had thus let her tag along with him as he went on adventures, the fearless human girl among many demons.

Yet he had protected her and cared for her, giving her an education in both the fighting arts and in books when she had turned nine and the matters of state required his return to the Inu-demon castle.

She then had turned fourteen and he had mated with a hawk demon princess from the south for a reason still unknown to her. So she had dealt, even if she had to share her precious Lord Sesshomaru. Yet the hawk demon had gotten demanding, nasty, and had tried to accidentally do away with Rin on more than one occasion.

So Rin had realized if she wanted to live, she would have to leave. It had hurt, but she had gathered a few of the things she held dear, a change of clothes, and had fled, leaving a note with a long standing kitchen servant that she trusted, who would leave it on his bed.

Rin had fled north and had stayed there, learning from two sword masters for a five years before going out on her own. From them she had expanded on the sword training that she had been learning in the palace and also learned things about herself. Such as that she was a half-demon.

Her power was subtle, mind you, as it appears one of her parents was a nymph demon, one of the fae creatures that wandered the forest. They were peaceful beings, not engaging in the violence that so many of their brethren thrived on. Nymph demons, in a basic sense of the world, were the forest.

They helped the natural growth to thrive and had pretty powerful nature magic that they used when vexed. However, being a half demon, she had gotten the heightened senses, that had only emerged as she had finally hit puberty (she had been 15, for kami's sake), and a certain grace on her feet that allowed her to keep up with demons.

She was in her element in the forest and could speak with the nature demons there. She didn't get the nature magic but she didn't mind. Just finding out she had a few advantages over humans was a big plus. But that wasn't important now. In all the time she had been gone she had not heard of any word of the West.

Now she was here, on the rumors she had heard and instinct, and found that she was needed. To save the Western realm and her Lord Sesshomaru, she would need to get into the castle and wake him up.

To do that she would need to sleep, eat, and plan, before going north to the castle. Satisfied that she now had a plan, Rin let herself sink into sleep, calling on her memory of Sesshomaru and whispering that she would be there soon. That was her last thought before she drifted off to sleep, weariness finally taking her over.

Far away and locked inside a darkened room, a figure turned slightly, white blue hair shifting to reveal an inhumanly beautiful face locked into place by unseen forces. Yet the face moved and the curved mouth moved to form a single word before going still again. "Rin"

Chrys