Authors Notes: My gods, this plot just keeps growing and getting more intricate. I don't know what it is, but… YEAH!! I LOVE IT!! Though, I am starting to get worried about losing threads. It's a lot to keep up with. I'm sure I'll do fine, though! After all, I HAVE to if I plan to be an author for a living, ne? ;o)

Thankies: Pleiades-sama: I don't think I can ever thank you enough. You've been a GREAT beta reader and I look forward to you continuing that service all through the rest of AQD, however long it lasts. Fuuzaki-chan: ::huggles:: I wuvles you, Imouto! My own snuggly imouto-chan to keep me company! Tensei-chan: Hey, your birthday was sometime around the posting of this (right now it's before, but by the time this actually gets posted, it may be after) so HAPPY BIRTHDAY! And hail to the translation queen! Satan's Mistress: You know, it just doesn't seem right to put –chan after your name. Hmm. Anyways, hope you had fun this weekend and have I got something to show YOU when you get back!! Oh, and dun worry, I kept Sesshie nice and safe for you while you were gone. ;o) Weissangel-san: You're just too talented for words! ::huggles::

Disclaimers: The world would be a lot easier if-- ::gets whapped by lawyers:: Okies, okies! Inuyasha and all related characters belong to Takahashi Rumiko-sama. Damn. Aya and all Weiss Kruz related characters belong to whoever created them, which wasn't me. Damn it. Inuken, Toushiko, Akseh, Hephzibah, Anja, Saytori, Kenjin, Zurui, Mineko (my GODS the OCs!!) all belong to me, as will any other OCs that decide to show themselves. Whoo hoo!

Âmes Qui Dorment

Chapter Six - Le Passage de Rêves

Morning dawned promising over the Northern fortress. The sun stepped lightly, its rays a transparent pale gold. Outside the fortress this glow suffused the snow that always clung to the mountain ground, winter or not, with a gentle sparkle. Inside the fortress, where life kept all proof of winter chill at bay, the weightless light lifted spirits. Faces looked into the sky and, for no reason anyone could name, smiled. Only a few did not, but Toushiko was not one of them. Hope filled her despite the persistence of those who did not belong; joy bubbled just beneath her surface.

She wiped down her card table with a silk cloth to clear away all unwanted energy signatures. Through the tent flap, from outside, the gentle sound of birdsong filtered in, causing the smile that marked her face to widen just the slightest. She felt the shifting of energies in the way most of her people could not, and so her happiness was more profound. Something, something outside the reach of their fortress, had happened, changing . . . she could not be sure what changed, but something did. As a result, for now, hope had been allowed to enter her home and the hearts of its people, a hope that everyone save herself had not even known was gone until it returned.

Was it the boy? Toushiko turned away from the door flap to the longer table set up behind the first. This one held extra merchandise a customer might purchase, from lucky stones to bracelets woven with certain energies. There were no extra sets of Destiny cards. Unlike some others who read the cards for a living, Toushiko refused to sell them to people who would go out and scare unwitting victims.

Was it the boy? She asked herself this question again as her hand idly returned the silk cloth to its place on a shelf specially attached beneath the longer table. The boy occupied her visions more often than not in recent days, ever since her drawing of the Black Inu card for the one called Akseh. Toushiko sighed and tried to feel some apprehension about his coming, for she knew it heralded the Battle to follow. Perhaps that, other than his glowing eyes and black hair, made her associate him with the Black Inu. Even that thought, however, could not make her dread this boy or the future day when she would lay physical eyes on him. Whatever else he brought, he brought freedom.

Her Sight did not warn her. Not even the sound of the tent bells warned her. Toushiko began to turn around only to be grabbed from behind, clawed hand placed over her mouth and cold lips at her ear.

"Well now," began a familiar and unwanted voice, "I've had some time to think about my reading, and I've decided I am highly unhappy."

Akseh. Toushiko breathed as well as she could through his hand, the putrid smell, and her fear. His voice alone frightened her, but the touch of darkness, the rough and decayed contact of his used flesh to her living skin turned her stomach. Tears betrayed her; Toushiko could no longer pretend she did not fear him.

He released her mouth only to spin her around to peer into his face and grip her shoulders with rough hands. She saw the handsome lines and golden eyes framed with silver hair just as everyone else. She also Saw the brown and wrinkled frame beneath, the way the eyes glazed and sunk into the sockets and the lips peeled back tight against the face to reveal a line of constantly grinning teeth.

"What do you See, Seer?" The skin of false life over his face leered. "I think I misjudged you. Tell me, what do you See?"

"I-I see death," she said, forcing the words through chattering teeth. She could say no more, but that seemed enough. He chuckled, hands releasing her. Akseh turned his back to her to walk around the edge of her card table slowly, and when he came to be opposite her, those sunken eyes lifted to her again. Toushiko trembled but could not move.

"I did underestimate you. I won't again, so be warned."

"Toushiko?"

She jumped at hearing Rei's voice so close. Akseh moved aside to show the other man standing in a halo of pale light against the tent's darkness. Rei carried two bags of rice, one in either hand, but looked ready to swing one or both to defend Toushiko. She shook her head, trying to convey the desperation of the situation with her gaze. Rei ignored her.

"Is something wrong?" He stepped further into the tent, watching the thing called Akseh through the corner of his eyes. "If you're unhappy with a reading just remember that the future is never set in stone. We make changes in it every day with our choices. Isn't that right, Toushiko?"

"H-Hai." Though afraid of what Akseh might do, Toushiko felt glad for Rei's presence as he crossed the length of the tent and made his way to her side. Her lover set his burden on the merchandise table and turned back to the intruder, slipping a protective arm around Toushiko's waist. She leaned gratefully into his offer of refuge.

Akseh's grin, the false face set over the gruesome visage beneath, spread as a thing of fang and malice. Behind her corporeal eyes, Toushiko Saw a flash of that face as it one had been; smiling down at a child, the face carried lines of kindness right along hard lines of weary battle record. The child was his son, his second, and the boy worried him like his first did not. In her mind Toushiko wondered what could cause such worry in a father over a perfectly healthy child, then she saw the incongruous dog ears perched on top of the boy's head and felt the difference between him and his father. The boy was a hanyou, frozen forever between two worlds. There was more, however. The blood, something about the blood. Too harsh. The boy would need protection. He—

The memory faded as quickly at it had come, retreating back to where it originated, leaving only Akseh chuckling and Rei asking her what was wrong. Toushiko did not reply; she needed a moment to put together all she had Seen and felt and when she did, oh gods, when she did she understood. She understood that Akseh had shown her that vision because he wanted her to know whose body he rode, whose body he treated like little more than a carriage for his darkness.

"You . . . oh gods . . . what have you done?"

Akseh laughed outright, throwing his head back, letting his cruel mirth cut through the tent's atmosphere. A terrible lump rose from deep within Toushiko's soul and lodged in her chest. Anger clenched her small hands together in fists. Before Rei could stop her, she stepped forward and, as Akseh allowed his laughter to fade and his head to tilt forward again, she slapped him.

"How dare you take that body! H-How DARE you!" Her body trembled but she felt no fear at the moment, only rage. Deep rage. Rage that lasted even though Akseh grabbed her wrist tightly and growled at her through a sneer.

"I dare do anything I please. You think you know what I am, child, but even your Sight has yet to show you everything." Akseh held her a moment longer, letting go only when Rei moved towards them. The thing with a beautiful face grinned at Rei, then turned and was gone as quickly as the light could part to let him through.

"What was that about?" Rei's voice remained steady, but as she looked up into his face Toushiko saw terror lurking behind the thin veil of his face. Whatever he could not see, Rei had felt, Toushiko was sure of it.

"He knows I See him for what he truly is, and he showed me the truth of the body he uses." Images of that face, as it once was, as well as the hanyou boy, swirled behind her vision in a hurricane of thought and emotion.

"What?" Rei moved in front of her, as though to shield her from any more intruders that might decide to walk through the entrance. "What did he show you?"

Toushiko opened her mouth but found she could not bring herself to tell her vision aloud. She shook her head and turned from him in silence. The knowledge had a heaviness to it, and why should she subject Rei to that weight? Akseh had meant the knowledge for her, and probably for her to share it and the burden. She would not do that, to Rei or to the rest of the Clan, even if they would believe her.

~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~

Rin stared through the trees, over the horizon, to the North where the evening sun shone from the tops of the mountains, making them seem like giant diamonds. A gentleness resided there today, unlike most days when Rin thought she saw a perpetual cloud hanging over the place where the Inu Youkai stronghold stood. She had never been there, but Sesshoumaru-sama promised he would take her one day, and Sesshoumaru-sama always kept his promises.

For now, though, dinner waited. She lowered her gaze and trekked the rest of the way through the darker forest, towards the hut that rose up in a hidden clearing to greet her. The place had, quite literally, risen from the ground one day, and was made of earth and stones but not by mortal hands. The roof knitted together from vines and leaves and was as tight against wind and rain as anything made by humans or youkai. The hut stood on a small hill, with stone steps that lead to the door and two trees on either side acted as guardians. As Rin approached the stone door it swung open without her help. She ignored it; that trick had long become normal, as had the windows that vanished when bad weather neared and the water basin that never emptied. Rin tossed the three rabbits in her hand onto the table and set her quiver of arrows down by the door.

"Jaken?"

Silence. Rin sighed and turned to set her bow on its hooks. Golden eyes and a stern face greeted her. Rin gasped and stumbled back against the wall.

"Jaken is scouting."

"Sesshoumaru-sama!" She paused to gather her breath, then managed a spurt of anger. "You scared me! Don't do that, especially this close to dark." Rin set her bow in its place and turned back to the table, picking up her knife.

"Gomen ne." Though, of course, he didn't sound the least bit sorry at all. "The scent in the air has changed."

Rin paused, blade inches from the first rabbit's skin.

"You can smell the change?"

"Hai."

Rin waited for something more, but Sesshoumaru only turned away. Apparently he wanted to be difficult, and that was fine by her, yessiree. She was used to Sesshoumaru's silence and the way he sometimes—well, most of the time—neglected to share important details. Rin sighed to herself as she began skinning the rabbit for cooking. Perhaps she would find something to do with the pelt. It seemed such a shame to let that nice fur go to waste—

"Tenseiga is restless." Sesshoumaru's voice rumbled deep from his chest, and though he let nothing show, Rin knew he missed the sword more than he would admit and smiled at him.

"You still feel it, then, even from this distance, even after all this time." Rin had suspected as much, but Sesshoumaru would never answer when she asked. "You're connected to that sword, even after—"

"Pay attention to your knife, Rin."

Rin looked down to see she had been about to cut through her finger. Her hands jerked, surprised.

"Arigatou, Sesshoumaru-sama."

He didn't answer, and she hadn't expected him to. She continued her project, skinning the rabbits with practiced ease, cutting them into perfect strips of meat and setting the bones and the useless parts aside in separate piles. She stoked the ever-burning fire to be sure it would last, though she knew it would, and dropped the meat into the iron pot hanging over the flames. She'd never seen this before living in the hut, but it was useful. During all this, neither of them said a word. The sun set and moonlight streamed through the window and Sesshoumaru.

"Jaken should be back soon," Rin finally said, "It's getting too dark for him to be comfortable being out by himself." She took a ladle and began dipping rabbit stew into two bowls.

"Jaken won't be coming back."

Rin dropped the bowl. Stew splattered over her feet and the floor but she didn't notice. All she could see was Sesshoumaru's pale form in the window, moonbeams filtering through his hair and the eyes that always masked the thoughts going on inside that sharp youkai mind. Even now, she didn't know what he thought about his own statement.

"What do you mean 'Jaken won't be coming back'?"

"He was caught. They know him. They killed him."

Rin sat down, hard, on the floor. Jaken, dead? The little toad had hardly been good company, but she'd spent most of her life with Sesshoumaru-sama and Jaken. Annoying and blithering as Jaken was, nevertheless she'd been somewhat attached to him. Like an uncle she loved because he was family but had to tolerate his irritating and sometimes strange behavior. This couldn't be true, but it was because Sesshoumaru-sama never lied.

What am I going to do?

Sesshoumaru turned to her, and she saw one of those rare—though, they had become more frequent in recent years—moments of expression in his eyes and on his face. He came to her, kneeled, and moved as though to put a hand on her shoulder but stopped just short.

"You're not completely alone, Rin."

I know, I know that Sesshoumaru-sama, but you're not much company either, you never have been, and even though you can't leave the clearing now you're still not much company and it's really not even that but Jaken was annoying but he was alive so alive and now he's dead and things like that can't be undone they can't be undone the dead can't be brought back even though they may linger . . .

Rin looked into Sesshoumaru-sama's face, thought those thoughts, and could no longer hold in the tears she'd held for thirteen years. Knowing her mind, as he always did, Sesshoumaru set down his masks to try and comfort her, but his arms found no purchase because the moonlight shone right through him.

~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~

Deep in a cavern, somewhere in a section of the mountains far from the Inu Youkai stronghold, something stirred. The guardian left to defend it readied himself.

~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~

"Inuken-san, stop it!"

"It's already dead, Aya-san!" Inuken poked the thing on the side of the road once more with the stick in his hand. Miroku wasn't quite sure anymore if the boy did it out of curiosity or just to hear Aya squeal again. "I think it was a youkai. See the tentacle?" Another poke, and another squeal.

"Inuken-san!"

Beside him, Sango sighed and her hand tightened in the strap to Hiraikotsu. Miroku decided, for more than one reason, it was time to intervene.

"Inuken," he said as he stepped towards the two younger people, "leave it be." As he stood over the two he could see what had caught Inuken's attention. It was indeed a youkai, but strange in this part of the country for its natural habitat was the sea. Squid youkai normally did not travel so far inland, and doing so had apparently cost this one its life. "Squid youkai, especially ones this small, are harmless when alive and even more so dead. It doesn't deserve to be poked like that, Inuken. Aren't you seventeen years old? Long past manhood; I'm surprised you still act with the immaturity and disrespect of a child. Even your father at his most tiresome never showed disrespect for the dead."

Inuken dropped the stick and stood. Good, that was as it should be. Miroku watched closely as the half-hanyou looked down at his pitiful prey and flushed. The monk let him wallow for a moment; shame in small amounts was good for a person, and never hurt. When Inuken looked about ready to sink into the ground and vanish, Miroku put a hand on his shoulder.

"Why don't the two of us give this poor creature a proper burial, ne?"

Inuken nodded, a small smile on his face and a sigh passing through his lips. Relief did much to lighten the boy's heart and Miroku noticed that he took to the task of burial almost like a monk himself. My, but Inuken was a confusing child, or man, depending on when one found him. In the weeks since the boy's arrival, Miroku had observed him in acts both adult and childish. One moment he would be like a guardian to the children of a given village, or a mentor, and the next be just one of them, having just as much fun in their games as they did. Were all people in the future like this, so mature and immature at the same time? Miroku shook his head. What a terrible place to live, when lines were so blurred.

"Miroku-san, I can do the rest." Inuken wiped his brow, smearing a line of dirt across his forehead. He breathed heavily from the work, and sweat tinged his skin with sparks.

"Are you sure?"

"Hai." The boy nodded, jaw jutted outward, determined.

"So be it."

Miroku climbed out of the hole, wiping his own face with a section of his robe that was of an indeterminate state of cleanliness. Sango and Aya stood nearby, and the girl came forward to hand him water in one of the strange things brought from her time, what she called a 'canteen'.

"Arigatou," he said when finished, returning the canteen to her. Aya nodded, then turned her gaze to Inuken, who worked furiously, brow furrowed together, mouth a tight line.

"Miroku-san, are you sure it's all right to let him work alone?"

"There isn't much more to dig, and he insisted." Miroku pushed himself slowly to his feet, surprised to discover his bones did not unbend as readily as they once had. How long had this been true? He really was getting old if even his bones betrayed him. The monk felt a grin settle over his face at the thought.

"What's that stupid grin all about?" Sango frowned at him, eyes narrowed in speculation.

"I was only thinking that I am truly getting old." Then he laughed.

~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~**~~

Two days after burying the squid youkai, the group found shelter in a village. Miroku sat awake. Sleep was far away, lost in the torrent of thoughts tumbling inside his mind. Four days of travelling with Sango had been somewhat humbling. She never missed a chance to verbally jab him or shoot him a disgusted look. Despite his assurance of the first night, she seemed more convinced with each passing day that Aya was indeed more of a companion than just travelling. Really a very typical reaction from the Taijiya, but it still hurt. It hurt very much.

He watched Inuken turn over in his sleep. The boy's face, wrapped in shadows, seemed to melt into a younger version, and tightened with anxiety. Miroku wondered what dreams haunted Inuken so, that he clung to his blanket and whimpered like a child.

"O-Okaa-san . . . ." Even his sleeping voice was high and innocent, a child's voice.

Miroku's attention shifted. Next to Inuken on the floor, wrapped in blankets, Aya slept peacefully, at least on the surface. She did not toss or turn, but her brows creased together and her lips curled downward in a confused frown. When she spoke in her sleep, Miroku started at the name she said.

"Sesshou . . . maru . . ."

End Chapter Six