AN: See previous chapters for disclaimer. Reviews are greatly appreciated!


His assessment of his daughter's obsession with the mirror and it's supposed inhabitant had been wrong. It was months now since she first spoke of the lady within, and her stories were only getting more elaborate. She was now telling everyone who would listen to her of this Kagome person, and how she had been trapped inside the mirror since she was a child. Though she was still insisting on the fact that one could not hear the lady speak, she was speaking of things she could never know if that were true. One night, when Sesshoumaru was growing quite weary with her fantasies, he asked her how she could know all these things if she could not actually hear the lady speak. She told him that the lady just put the thoughts in her head, so that she could tell everyone about her. This was the last straw for him. He would not let his servants, or anyone else for that matter, deem his daughter crazy. Though he was loathe to admit it, his servants and apparently, his wife as well, had been right about the mirror, and he should put it away again.

Finding no servants present, he decided he might just as well do it himself. As he descended the stairs that lead to the dark hall, he could have sworn he heard something rustle along the carpet, but when he held out the little oil lamp he was carrying, he could not discern any movement. Attributing it to the late hour and his own imagination, he advanced further down the stairs. He lighted the lamps in the hall, illuminating the entire room, bathing it in fiery colors and creating flickering shadows of himself on the walls. Finding himself alone with the mirror, he took a little time to observe it more closely than he had before.

It had an ornate frame, decorated with swirls and flowers of crafty woodwork. It was carved out of ebony, making it a brown so dark it was virtually black. The frame was almost as tall as Sesshoumaru himself, and nearly twice as wide. It was really an outstanding piece of work, but upon actually looking into the mirror, he found nothing else than his own reflection gazing back upon him. There were no ladies, monsters or anything there, just himself and the reflection of the rest of the hall. Of course, it was not as if he had been expecting anything else.

He put his lamp down on a table standing beside the mirror, and grabbed the frame to hoist it off the wall. A sudden gust of wind blew out every light in the hall. He took a step back, but before he could properly lower his arms and turn around, he felt cold hands grabbing him right under his elbows, and starting to pull him back towards the mirror.

"You must turn the lights back on!"

The thought came seemingly out of nowhere, but kept repeating itself in his head. With all his might, he started working against the pull of the hands grabbing at him, but the more he struggled, the more hands seemed to join the pair that was already firmly attached to his person, and he was steadily being dragged towards the mirror.

"Be ready, I'll buy you some time!"

Again, the thought bounced around in his head, and before he could process it well and good, a flash came from inside the mirror. An unearthly howl followed it, resonating through the hall, and just as sudden as they had come, the hands disappeared, and he was able to light one of the lamps in the hall. Stunned, he chanced a look at the mirror. He could barely believe his own eyes.

There stood, as clearly as he could see the rest of the hall, a woman in front of him. She was a full head shorter than he was, with long black hair cascading down her shoulders. She was wearing a yellow gown, which contrasted nicely with her piercing blue eyes. She seemed to be out of breath, but she was wearing a serene smile on her face.

"You must be Lord Sesshoumaru. Your daughter Rin has told me much about you."