-Dokuga Valentine's Day Secret Exchange-
~For SkyIsTheLimit~
Through Waters And Stars
III.
The Masquerade Of A Fallen Star
I long to feel
My heart burned open wide
'Til nothing else remains
Except the fires from which I came
Lay me down
And wash this world from me
Open the skies
And burn it all away
- VNV Nation, Nova
The old woman hesitated for a moment at the edge of the next phase of her story. The hall was silent around her, every eye focused on the movements of her wrinkled old lips. Carefully, she sipped at the last of her tea, and gestured to one of her older granddaughters to refill her cup.
Steam rose in milky swirls, spiraling from the surface of the hot liquid.
She lifted the cup to her nose, breathing deeply, and then let out a long sigh.
Rin's path behind Kagome continued far longer than she had contemplated walking. In the dark woods, she grew cold; as the night continued on, she grew tired – but still, she kept her eyes on Kagome's back, and still she made sure that she stayed far enough behind a tree or a tall bush that Kagome would not see her if she turned suddenly.
And then there came a voice; soft, lisping.
"Hello. Who are you?"
Rin jumped, startled, and then calmed at the sight of another child, a girl perhaps a year younger than she was.
"Oh...hello. I am Rin."
She continued walking and did not slacken her steps, one eye on Kagome and one eye on the girl, who kept pace with her.
"Hello, Rin. Come, play with me. It's been so long since I had a friend!"
Ahead of her, Kagome paused for a moment, and so Rin paused too, and turned to look more closely at the girl. Her hair was long, and her eyes were large; she wore a red yukata that was oddly bright against the night.
"I would like to be your friend; what is your name?"
The strange girl smiled, and the smile seemed somehow too wide for her face, too many teeth in it, her eyes too open.
"My name is Joru, Rin. I am so pleased to have met you. Come, play a game with me; come, come and play!"
But in the distance ahead, Kagome had begun to move again, and Rin skipped forward a few steps and then began to walk to keep up with her.
"Sorry, Joru, but I can't stay for games right now; I have to follow Kagome-sama. It's important – but the village isn't that far away. I can come visit you!"
She smiled, and waved, and then turned back to her self-appointed task. Almost absentmindedly, she pricked her finger on the thorn she had kept, and smeared the drop on the tree beside her as she walked away.
She went on for a short while in silence – and then stopped dead in her tracks. In front of her, on a low branch of a tree and then suddenly on the ground just a few feet away, was Joru.
"Rin...Rin...come play with me, Rin."
And then, with a too wide smile, she came forward in a way that sent Rin scrabbling backward, screaming; screaming at the top of her lungs.
It was Sesshomaru she screamed for, while Joru stalked towards her – but it was Kagome who came. She came running, her heart in her throat, knowing that girlish scream – its tones, familiar in fear. She came berating herself for not being sure the girl had gone back; she came with her bow in hand, an arrow waiting on the string –
And then she stopped dead, and her expression shifted from frightened to quizzical.
It was Rin, as she had thought – but there was nothing but a little girl standing over her.
A little girl?
After a moment of focus, her miko senses were tingling across her skin as they did in the presence of darkness. She stared at the girl, and slowly, too slowly, the child turned to face her. She bore the same wide smile that had disconcerted Rin; her wide eyes looked at Kagome hungrily, and she licked her lips with a too-long tongue.
"Miko? Miko, I smell...aren't you sweet, pretty lady? Aren't you...sweet?"
A strange smell wafted by Kagome; for a moment she felt weak, and then struggled back to attention, pink light crackling visibly over her skin now, purifying the air she breathed.
The girl's smile changed, became openly ugly. She opened her mouth wide and let out a horrible shriek.
"I want my sweets!"
And then she smiled, and took a step back from Kagome, towards Rin. Her arms seemed to lengthen, elongate...and then there were more of them. From the ground, Rin let out a gasp, a word:
"Jorogumo!"
Joru looked at her, and spoke again in her little-girl lisp.
"Rin, Rin, such a clever girl! Such a clever guess! And we never did play our game, did we? We can let the sweets play, too, can't we?"
And then her claws, sharp as knives, were poised over each of their hearts, faster than Kagome could see. The dark spider eyes looked up and captured Kagome's gaze with their wicked gleam.
"Well, miko, miko...should I tell you the rules? Only one of us can take a step; if I step, then I decide who dies! If you step, you die; if she steps...oh...the sweets are angry. You understand, then?"
And then she laughed, a terrible cackle.
"Hurry up and decide who goes first, miko...before I get impatient and decide myself – yes, decide myself!"
The cackle became a girlish giggle, and Kagome shuddered. Even that much movement tore her shirt on the claws that were poised to destroy her – but though her fingers clenched tightly on her bow, on the arrow, there was nothing she could do. Rin was frozen in fear; even the tears hovered in her eyes, shivering on the brink of falling.
Kagome swallowed thickly, and then made her choice.
She took one step – and then two, and then three. The pain was terrible, but she kept her eyes on Rin; she would make sure the girl was safe, she would. And did it matter, if she died herself? Rin had a life in front of her...a whole life. Kagome had wasted her own chance, wasted the future on the past, her heart on Inuyasha, her dreams on impossible goals...impossible desires.
When she reached Joru's side, she raised the arrow in her hand – but the power would not come. She had lost too much blood; already the world was growing dim.
She fell, bloodied, silent, and in the same moment the shadow of a great presence fell over her. Her eyes blinked open, and through a red haze she saw Sesshomaru standing at her feet, tall, towering, a black silhouette of power that strove momentarily with a darkness beyond her vision, and then conquered in light.
The last thing she saw was that light, outlining his profile, the sharp angles of his features all edged in blue as sharp as steel. The glare of his eyes grew in golden wildness until they obscured all else from her vision. She heard his voice, heart-stopping in its inexplicable concern:
"Kagome – Kagome – Kagome -"
And she thought she heard something else; a sob – a broken sound – but even as she strode past death's door, she dismissed it.
A sob? From Sesshomaru? Ha...
The world dimmed into darkness, and sound into silence; thought and memory faded. She strayed past the borders of life, and into the timeless regions between fortune and feeling.
Kagome had never considered her own death, except in passing, except to wonder if a certain moment might be the one that brought her to her next life. If she had thought of it, she would have contemplated heaven – the various aspects of paradise and what they might mean for her. She had lived a good life, had been filial, loyal, loving...hadn't she?
Hadn't she?
It was with the greatest surprise that she opened her eyes, knowing she had died, and found darkness; the blank and blasphemous depths of Hell.
And then came a Voice, sound made liquid, penetrating and painful. She pressed her hands over her ears and cowered down to the ground, but the Voice was inescapable, pressed down on her, repeated its words over and over:
"Do you know why you are damned, woman? Do you know why you are here? Do you know why you are damned, woman? Do you know why you are here?"
And through the agony came suddenly a clear and blinding revelation; through her panic and the passionless fury of the Voice came the answer, ripped from her in both sobs and laughter.
"Yes – yes!I know – I know..."
There was silence, and then the Voice again, demanding, implacable.
"Speak your reason! Speak your reason, and test its truth! Speak your reason!"
But Kagome was ready for it this time. Of course the kami would know – her secret, her desire. An unfulfilled and impossible wish – that was what came to her mind, what filled her. Not that she had been the mate of a hanyou – not that she given up her purity – no.
"I am damned – because I loved a demon. I am damned for love!"
The Voice retreated; the Queen of Hell approached. She knew her as she saw her – terrible, overwhelming, magnetic, her power both luscious and vicious, washing over her like waves.
Then she knew nothing for a long while.
Sesshomaru knelt over Kagome's body for a long moment, still as the night around him, gone quiet at the flush of his power. A strange anguish was coursing through him, and a terrible fear; how wrong it was that the old miko was right after all!
The worthy one...enough to make me fear...
He stood with the thought and drew Tenseiga, and held it over Kagome's body – and waited. Nothing happened. No pall bearers appeared; her soul could not have fled so fast, and yet...nothing. No blue light; no power.
From her place on the ground, Rin came to him then, trembling, and clutched at his leg. Her eyes stayed fixed on Kagome's body, her pupils wide and dark.
"She saved me – Sesshomaru-sama, Sesshomaru-sama – can't you save her – can't you – won't you -"
The broken tones of Rin's voice reached Sesshomaru when even his own conflicted heart had not. He looked down at Kagome – really looked – and saw that she was beautiful even in death, posing a question to him even from beyond the boundaries of her mortal life.
What will you do, Sesshomaru? What is it worth to you – this life you wanted to claim?
"Rin, stay close to me."
As he had done once before, Sesshomaru went to his mother.
This time he knew what she kept hidden, and demanded the power of the amulet that hung heavy around her neck. She denied him, as he knew she would; Kagome's body was heavy and cold in his arms, a reminder he did not need, and in half a moment he was half a pace away from his mother's chair, his face close to hers, his eyes wild with rage.
"You will not deny me! You will not deny me this – not this! Not now!"
"It will not work, Sesshomaru! You will not escape a second time!"
He leveled a single furious gaze in her direction, and tightened his hands on the body of the woman he held in his arms.
"You do not know how precious she is – to me, to you – to all of our kind, and hers...she is our future. I know it. Without her, I will never find out the truth – I will never know what is supposed to happen –I will never know why I stopped, something jagged inside me, when her body fell; I will never know why..."
But he could not say it.
The magic is going to die.
"I will escape. And she will come with me."
Something – his words, his distress, his fury, moved her. Slowly, regal, she stood and lifted the jeweled pendant from its resting place at her throat. Power moved outward in a flowing of void and stars, and Sesshomaru went through the gateway, down and down. He felt it close behind him and spiraled down into darkness; he was met by demons, the dead, the lost powers of all the ages.
He lived for battle, but he did not have time for this. He held up Tenseiga before him, glittering blue and eerie in the blackness, and they shuddered at his intent. They lived; in hell, to be sure...but they lived. They existed.
Sesshomaru offered them darkness; offered to their souls the abyss of Mu.
And then came the voice:
"This is the second time you have come here, seeking a human soul; what is it you do not understand about mortality, Inuyoukai?"
A swathe of darkness became something like fabric, garments fit for an Empress. Within them moved shadow and power; beside them stood a familiar shape. Sesshomaru stood very still, his eyes fixed on Kagome, who stood silent and unmoving, her expression hollow as a doll's, a mere ornament beside the Queen.
The Voice that questioned him was a hiss, and a roar, and a hundred voices, and silence.
End Of Part III