Setting the Stage;
Prologue—
Dust and smoke filled the air as the palace fell; fire howled in the kitchen and servants fled like mice from every corner of the doomed estate. In what was once a proud, expansive courtyard a massive silver dog thrashed- ripping up trees and scattering stones with his powerful hind legs and thick tail. The spineless enemy who had launched the attack- under the cover of night and with the help of secret spies- looked on haughtily as the miko powers of his minions did his work for him on the once proud dog-king.
A canopy of stars looked down apathetically at the destruction as a silver-haired queen ran from the home, tugging a matching set of silver haired boys behind her. "First Mother!" the smallest of the boys cried out as her clawed hand left red marks on his cubby baby wrist. "Where is mother? We have to find her!"
The Queen didn't stop until she reached the tree line, her elfin ears deaf to the child's pleas. Her blood son, tall solemn and almost eight, padded beside her: blessedly silent as they hid in the shadows.
"There is not time for that, princeling." The queen knelt to speak to her sons. "Your mother is already gone."
The small hanyou's eyes filled with stubborn tears. "No! Mamma can't go away! She promised!"
Head bowed, the youkai royal sighed gently. "Sometimes promises are impossible to keep…" and then she tugged the child into her embrace to cry in semi-privacy as his human heart broke.
As her second son cried the queen turned piercing golden eyes on her blood son. "Sesshomaru, you must protect your brother. You are the Son of Heaven, future Emperor, and he is your blood; do not let others bring you down through him- keep him close, do not forget who you are."
The words sounded like a goodbye; the prince frowned as his mother transferred the crying halfling into his arms. "You will leave with us. We will go to father's outpost in Haramatsu together; we will be safe there, and we can wait for father to come to us, after he has revived his human lady."
She laid a trembling hand on his silver head, and told him softly that she could not leave her mate, could not leave her home. It was the first time Sesshomaru had seen hopelessness in his mother's eyes. It was the last time he ever saw her alive.
Miyazu, Empress of Japan and first wife of Emperor Toga, daughter of the Nishi Inu Youkai clan and first born of Lord Inara-Sotona, died that night without a death poem. Her body was ravaged and destroyed without burial, her youki was crushed by miko magic. Toga watched with agony as his First Wife died a painful, honorless death in his name, her body thrown into a pit along with the broken form of Izayoi, his Second Wife, and honorable human love.
Seeing his beloved wives broke the InuTaisho's spirit; he was ready for death when Takemaru- once an honored human advisor, now revealed to be an honor-less traitor- came to him with sword drawn for the killing blow.
Takemaru should have just killed the Inu lord and been done with it.
But the tall, pale human was not satisfied with killing just this youkai king; it was well known that the king had two sons; both qualified to become emperor, though the eldest was especially a danger. The children, Takemaru decided, had to go too.
That was when everything changed.
The limp-as-death silver dog sprang to life once more as the sounds of his captured son's cries reached his ears. He struggled to the corner of earth which still glowed from the power of the miko who had attacked him. Takemaru mocked the weakened lord, but did not move to stop him; "What can a crippled dog do to me?"
"You!" Takemaru swung on the tall, long-haired woman who stood silently beside his fleet of miko fighters. "You! Earn your worth!"
The woman's name was Midoriko. She was a daughter of the Northern miko clan, the most powerful miko clan in Japan. She was not there for Takemaru's political conquest; it burned at her heart to know that she was aiding in this destruction. "All for the balance." She whispered to herself. "All things must be in balance." And it would be.
The woman stepped forward.
"You will reign without contest for one hundred years.
Neither enemy's weapon, nor assassin's poison shall strike you down."
Midoriko's eyes began to glow as she chanted; she lifted her shining hands into the air.
"The years shall pass you by, as a stream leaves rocks untouched.
You shall father many strong sons and beautiful daughters, as the trees grow many leaves."
Takemaru's laugh was triumphant as the prophecy rang out, echoing into the night with eerie finality. "I will be the greatest king of all time!" he shrieked to the heavens, to the kami themselves, "I am the true Son of Heaven! A True Emperor! None are above me!"
So enraptured was he by the warm spell swirling around him that Takemaru failed to notice the apparently defeated InuYoukai stagger to his destination and draw both his famous swords—Tessaiga, sword of death, and Tenseiga, sword of life.
"Your sins today will not be forgotten, Takemaru-sama…"
The twin blades crunched deep into the ground at the same time and thrummed with their wielder's power as the greatest Youkai emperor of all time bowed his head and poured all of his power into the earth. On his back, Sounga was glowing with an unearthly light.
Takemaru jerked around as the tone of the prediction changed; "What nonsense do you spew now, woman!?"
"All trees must lose their leaves; no rock can stand the river's strength, unabated, for all time.
At the end of one hundred years a child, born within the walls of your citadel, will descend and unlock the strengths of your enemy, long forgotten."
Toga prayed desperately as the bodies of his beloved wives disappeared beneath the shifting earth. Takemaru's warriors and miko began to cry out in confusion as the ground beneath them writhed like a live thing in pain.
"Father!" the Sons of Heaven cried out in pain and confusion as the earth flowed over them like water and they disappeared into the darkness.
"When the day and night fight together, you shall be defeated, never to rise again."
Takemaru sputtered as the woman gave a small sigh and crumpled to the ground, dead. Her body swallowed up by the earth as well.
This was the night the Labyrinth was born.
This is an old story that I'm posting here for the first time. It might have errors, so sorry in advance.