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Sesshomaru met Moiya and Rin in his wards room at the appointed hour that night. Rin was already lounging and growing more drowsy by the second, and Moiya looked ready to sway on her feet. But that didn't dampen the bright determination in her eyes or the obvious need for him not to mention it.
"Good evening Lord Sesshomaru," Rin sleepily intoned. She gave him a subdued smile and snuggled more securely into her futon.
He nodded his head to her in return and focused on Moiya, who maddeningly enough kept her eyes from him.
"She falls asleep more readily," She said quietly as his ward drifted off.
"Yes."
"I have determined a plan of action for tonight. I hope you will approve." She said as she turned her head to look at him. Their eyes clashed and he felt more than heard her gasp of awareness. He watched her throat work as she swallowed, attempting to dispel the sudden dryness in her mouth.
"Do what you will." He said simply, never taking his eyes from hers. She didn't seem sure of what he was referring to, Rin or their attraction. Were he honest, he didn't know himself.
She snapped back into herself. "You don't want me to outline the idea?"
He gave her a casual shrug and sensing her need for him to ignore the tension between them he crossed the room and sat on Rin's opposite side. The demoness relaxed immediately and turned back to Rin. His ward seemingly gave her a sense of security, with the child between them, he was less likely to pursue their attraction. She wasted no time in getting started. He wasn't sure if it was a willingness to see if her strategy would work or if she were avoiding their recent encounter. He watched intently as her eyes slid closed and her head slightly drooped.
Sesshomaru could feel her power, her energy swirling in the room. Her youkai felt different from any he had ever encountered. It was… encompassing and it shocked him that he had never noticed before. And for his part he felt more in tune with her, more-so then all nights and days previous with her combined. Even when they had kissed he hadn't felt as a-part of her. It was a bit daunting that he had not understood or even bothered to understand how she worked before. After his conversation with her vassal, it seems that he was more aware of her inner workings. He could tell the instant she made the connection with his ward, the energy snapped into place, an almost tangible connection between the demoness and the human girl. But the tension in Moiya was rising and her distress, something that had never been apparent before was flitting across her face.
Siji was in the room in a moment, though careful not to wake his ward or break the connected pair.
Sesshomaru was slightly troubled at the squirrels sudden appearance and apparent alarm. "What is it?"
Siji's eyes were fixed on Moiya. "She is experiencing something. Usually her physical body does not react with her mental one.""
Meaning?" Sesshomaru dead-panned.
"She's trapped." Siji said with a deep frown marring his features. His anxiety was flagrant.
"Then we wake Rin."
"No!" The smaller demon nearly shouted but then recoiled at Sesshomaru's narrowed eyes and then glanced hurriedly at the girl ensuring she was roused.
"Forgive me milord but if you wake your ward, while Rin-chan would be unharmed, Moiya-sama would be unable to return to her own mind if the connection is broken before she has the chance."
"Has this happened before?" Sesshomaru asked, his growing unease extremely uncomfortable.
"Once. The half-demon I mentioned when we first came. It nearly killed her."
"What can be done?"
"Pray." The squirrel said dejectedly. His helplessness was apparent and almost caused Sesshomaru to share the feeling. "Unless-" Siji's eyes connected to his hastily. "My Lord, you should try to join the connection."
Sesshomaru looked over at the female and watched as her face became sickly white. Her gold markings stood out in lurid contrast against her now papery skin. His own apprehension was rising. "How?"
"I don't know, how were you able to do so last time?" The demon asked with more eagerness than respect.
Sesshomaru thought back to the time when he had a brief insight to the mind of the psyche demon. He had been focusing on her, wondering what she was thinking and then suddenly could see her thoughts. He repeated the action. He focused on her face, the energy between his ward and Moiya was thrumming with tension and he attempted to insinuate himself into the connection. He felt a pulling sensation and momentarily stunned pulled back a bit, only to discover the sensation had not been a physical one. He tried again, this time welcoming the feeling. It took only seconds.
He was suddenly with her, seeing what she saw. She was running through the woods, but everything seemed off. Her vantage point was much shorter than it should have been, belying that she was much shorter than she had been. He could feel her anxiety, it pounded like a pulse around him. He looked behind them to see what was chasing her, but found only void. And though she was running away, she never seemed to move, the scenery merely rolling before her. He stepped forward just as she fell. She turned over fearfully but the void behind her merely swallowed her form and she was gone.
Sesshomaru glanced around him in confusion. He couldn't see her anywhere, his demon vision failed to penetrate the dark. But he could feel her, her terror was so palpable he could taste it on his tongue. His sense of smell was also useless here, he could scent nothing that could help him in his search. Then he heard a whimper. He turned toward the sound listened. It increased in intensity and he spurred his feet in that direction.
Rin. Though there was no light he could see her clearly. The strangeness of it all was not lost on him. She was curled up in the fetal position and was not the young woman he knew her to be today, but a mere child as she had been when she first began following him.
"Rin," he said while placing his hand on her shoulder.
Her tear-streaked face looked up at him, hope dawning on her features. "Sesshomaru-sama?"
He simply squeezed the shoulder he was gripping. "Sesshomaru-sama, where am I? What is happening?"
He couldn't answer her. He didn't know. He merely shook his head.
"Moiya-sama, Moiya-sama was here too."
"Was?"
"Yes. I don't know where she is now. Something was chasing us, I couldn't see. I can never see. I was scared. She put me here to hide and the bad things chased her. The dark sucked her in."
"Which direction?"
"I don't know. She was running away, through the trees." Even as she said it, the landscape returned reveling hundreds of trees before him. "Sesshomaru-sama? I don't like it here."
She sounded like the child she looked to be. "Stay here, do not move. I will return."
She looked petrified but nodded.
He headed straight into the trees once again focusing on finding Moiya. The landscape was changing the more he walked, blood seeped out of the trees and flowed to the ground and the dark was once again encroaching. This was Rin's world but Moiya had taken it upon herself to become the victim, sparing Rin anymore fear. He came to a fissure, little more than a line that seemed to stretch forever from right to left. It separated the dream in Rin's mind. Before him lay a maze, a very large maze that echoed with Moiya's screams.
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Panic. She had never felt anything close to this before, it was an uncontrollable blinding panic. Her heart beat so fast that her chest ached and for a mad moment, she wondered when it would break through. The walls, they were everywhere, so high and every other turn was a dead end.
'The wolves.'She thought. Oh Kami the wolves. They dogged her heels, and she knew that if, when they caught her she would die. She couldn't think, she could only feel… and run.
Moiya struggled to remember where she was, how she got here. Her mind didn't seem to be functioning correctly, the horror she felt filled her every thought and controlled every motion. 'Why am I in a maze?'
She could barely remember woods. Was there woods? A forest? She couldn't remember and her heart skipped a beat as she turned into another dead-end. She could hear them, barking, claws scraping over the surface as they pursued her, intent on ripping her life away.
She could hear someone screaming, and goose-bumps puckered her chilled flesh. With a sickening hiccup she realized that it was her. She clasped her lips shut, something in her telling her that her screams drew them to her faster. They would find her because she screamed. But her throat was already raw from overuse and somehow, she didn't really believe that her newfound quiet would help.
They felt closer. They sounded closer. She pushed herself harder, her legs pumped with increased speed but she knew it was useless. Pointless. When she stumbled into another dead end she allowed herself to collapse. She would face her fate. Tears flowed freely as she curled up, drawing her knees to her aching chest and closed her eyes. They were close. So close.
She remember something. A flash of a young woman with bright brown eyes and a cheerful laugh. Rin. The woman-child she had promised to help. Now she would never get that chance. Trapped in this place, she would die before poor Rin had her life back.
Simmering gold eyes crossed her minds eye. Sesshomaru. She had never said his name aloud, knowing that doing so would some how bind her to the male that her body recognized on a primitive level. She had hoped, yearned for a chance to explore more of the feeling she felt when he had kissed her. The fire that consumed her was something she'd come to crave, even though she didn't allow herself to act on it. It seemed silly now to hold back.
The barks and yelps of the frenzied wolves had reached her. Her mind stilled and she felt her heart nearly stop. Her confusion swamped her once more. Why was she about to die? Where was she? The first of the pack rounded the corner before her, and they slowed their pace, poised to pounce and rip her apart. She closed her eyes, unable to face her death despite her acceptance of it.
She felt the first bite of ripping fangs as the tore into her arms, side and legs. She tried to block it out, willing death to come so the pain would stop.
Then suddenly she felt weightless. 'I'm dead.' She thought. She felt warmth, something that had been absent here despite her activity and the double-dose of adrenaline. She wanted to open hers eyes, to see if she were in heaven, but she was afraid.
"Open your eyes." A voice, one she vaguely recognized demanded her compliance.
Shocked her eyes popped open. 'Sesshomaru.' Her mind supplied. He was here, how did he find her? Even she didn't know where she was.
"You came for me."
"I did."
"How?"
He shook his head. "Now is not the time. We must collect Rin and leave this place."
Her eyes widened in shock. "Rin is here? The wolves! We must get her away."
"She is safe. She is right where you left her."
She shook her head, unable to comprehend what he was saying. He had taken to the air after scooping her up, away from the attacking pack. Her wounds were bleeding profusely and not healing as a demon should be. Her side, arms and legs were tattered and shredded. Her face was ghostly white and the closer he got to the fissure separating the maze from Rin's dream, the more incoherent she became. As soon as he crossed over, she lost all consciousness and with it, she seemed to fade visibly. He could almost see through her though he still felt the weight of her in his arms.
He quickly made his way back to Rin. "Sesshomaru-sama?"
"Rin, we leave." He said, cradling the female in his arms against him.
She scrambled from the ground and grabbed his pant leg. "How do we leave?"
"Wake up Rin."
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Sesshomaru opened his eyes to find Moiya and Siji gone, a trail of blood left in their wake.
Rin stirred and looked up at him. "Lord Sesshomaru? Are you all right?" She sat up and looked for Moiya, and saw the blood.
"Moiya-sama! Lord Sesshomaru where is Moiya-sama? Is she ok?"
He didn't respond as he quickly got to his feet to follow the trail. He heard Rin scrambling after him. The trail stopped at Moiya's bedroom door. Without ceremony, he pushed the shoji door aside and stepped inside.
Moiya was on her futon being tended to by the squirrel demon.
"What happened?"
Siji sat back and sighed. "I want to thank you my Lord. You brought her back to us."
Sesshomaru resisted the urge to grind his teeth. "Why is she bleeding?"
"I did not have time to mention it. When it gets like that, when she gets trapped, what happens to her in her mind, happens to her in body."
Sesshomaru digested that and couldn't help the twinge of guilt. He should have taken to the sky sooner. He would have found her faster and she never would have been subject to attack.
"Why is she not healing?" He paused in the act of cleaning and binding her wounds and looked at him. "I don't know. I can't explain it. Her healing ability isn't reacting as it should be."
"Her unconsciousness?"
"She awoke briefly after the connection severed and then immediately collapsed. There has been no response."
Sesshomaru took his time processing that. The female he had unexpectedly scent paired with was lying with her breath so shallow, he had to strain to hear it. A rage blossomed and spread like wild fire. He barley contained it, and was struggling not to rip Siji away from her and demand she awaken.
"Sesshomaru-sama?"
He stiffened, have in forgotten that Rin had followed him here.
"What happened to her? Why is Moiya-sama bleeding?"
He looked down at his ward, his eyes skimmed over her face. "She will be fine." He said stiffly, not believing it. It was the first time he'd lied to Rin.
She looked at him a few more seconds, as if she knew what he had done and crossed the room to sit next to Siji. Taking up a cloth of her own from the bucket, she too began to dab and cleanse the wounds marring the demoness' body.
Sesshomaru closed his eyes against the welling up of emotion. As a demon, by all rights he shouldn't even be feeling anything, but he did. He felt pain, not physical, but a stabbing regret mixed with an un-abiding fear that she might die. He automatically reached for Tensaiga, momentarily forgetting that it had been absorbed into his brothers own sword. It was the first time he'd ever wished for the fang of his father. Turning abruptly on his heel he sought solace. He needed to think. He needed a plan of action, because he would not allow her to die. Even death wouldn't cross Sesshomaru.
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