AN: Still don't own it. A belated thanks go out to Shimaira, for being my ever patient muse and personal library for anything that has to do with the occult.

Being an admirable man from high social standing, Sesshoumaru had a reputation to uphold. He had to attend parties, had to host parties, mingle with other elites. Apart from that, he had a daughter to raise, a household to run and manage the land he inherited from his father. He did not mind these obligations, but they did keep him from investigating the mirror any further than he had that night when he had first seen her.

That night, when she had stood smiling at him, he had found himself unable to comprehend just what was going on. Uncharacteristically, he had found himself at a loss of words and it was all he could do to just stare at her standing there, with that happy look on her face, practically beaming at him. In a way, her cheeriness at being stuck in a mirror scared him.

"I am so glad to finally meet you. Your daughter tells me you are a most capable man."

It was an utterly strange sensation, having thoughts in his head that were not his own. He decided he did not like it. But, as he could not simply ignore his apparent delirium, he would have to endure it.

"You will have to speak in order for us to talk. This mind-talking seems to only work one way."

"I see. Your name is Kagome, correct?"

"Ah! Rin has told you about me? She is such a sweet girl."

"Yes, she has told me about you. However, there is much that she did not tell me. I have a lot of questions for you, woman."

The smile she had still been wearing disappeared from her face. She nodded, and assured Sesshoumaru she would do the best she could to answer all his questions, on one condition.

When asked what that condition might be, she smiled again, but warily this time.

"That you keep a light burning in front of the mirror at all times, especially during the night."

"And why should I do such a thing?"

The wan smile disappeared all together, and fear seemed to leak into her eyes.

"Because shadows won't come near light."

After recovering herself from whatever stupor she had been thrown in, she told Sesshoumaru everything she knew. How she had been trapped inside the mirror for as long as she could remember, but that she did know there had been a time when she had been free. She had no idea how she had gotten inside, and no idea on how to get out. She told him how when she had first been seen in the mirror, the owner at that time did not know how quick she had to cover it up and send it to some uninhabited room, never to be looked upon again. That the same thing happened every time the mirror switched owner. Rin had been the first person she had ever talked to as far as she could remember. She had, however, already found out that people outside of the mirror could not hear her, no matter how hard she scre amed.

She told him the hands that had grabbed him belonged to the shadow-creatures that lived inside the mirror as well. They only came out at night, and she had never before seen them interact with the world outside the mirror as they had done with him. They seemed to be harmless to her, as long as she kept out of their way. If she didn't… she shuddered and did not continue after that.

Sesshoumaru didn't know what to think of it all. Either he had somehow let his mind become addled, or there really was a woman living in his mirror, along with a herd of shadow monsters that grabbed at him in the darkness. As he fought with his mind to comprehend all of it, and come up with a logical explanation, a girlish giggle sounded through the hall. Narrowing his yes upon the woman before him, he warned het with an impressive glare.

"Do not think to mock this Sesshoumaru, woman."

At first he thought his glare had done the trick, as she stepped back, eyes wide with surprise, mouth open in shock. But it was only when that mouth began to move, he realized he was mistaken.

"Do you mean… you can hear me?"