Chapter 9
Sage Words
Rin woke the next morning in the biggest bed in which she'd ever slept, her new bed in her new room. She sat up leisurely and resurveyed the luxurious setting. She had to admit, that even though she'd been surrounded by grandeur all her life, she'd never imagined that something like this would be given to her. She crawled slowly to the edge of the bed, her limbs still heavy with sleep, and slid off the edge. Looking around, she grabbed a finely made robe from a nearby chest and covered her nakedness. He left her that way last night. Before, when he'd initiated such actions while on patrol, he'd redressed her but she supposed that there wasn't much need of that within the walls of the fortress.
She curled her toes up in the unbelievable softness of one of the many furs that lined her floor and shook her head once more. This was all for her? Looking about herself again, she decided to make her way over to what appeared to be an extremely large window behind one of the many silks. It billowed with the incoming draft and shimmered like pouring water before the new morning light. Pushing the cool fabric aside and looking out, Rin couldn't suppress the gasp that escaped her lips. The view was magnificent.
Her room faced south but it was the view off to the right that stole her breath away. She could see the ocean! Whenever the stayed at the fortress for any length of time, she always managed to find her way to the shoreline and spend hours just walking up and down rocky beach in search of any unusual object or creature. She had a rather impressive collection of treasures from just such activities. Now she could gaze at it whenever she wished and from the comfort of her own room.
The rest of the panorama wasn't too bad either. The bathhouse and surrounding gardens, all of which were Sesshoumaru's private areas, were also visible from the high balcony.
She smiled as she lazily leaned up against the railing's edge. Sighing lazily, she decided she would happily continue to enjoy the moment when her peace and thoughts were interrupted by a voice she knew all to well.
"Haven't done to badly for yourself, have you?" The voice that spoke had never sounded quite so grating as it did in that moment.
Rin turned to the origin of that voice and cringed when she saw the little imp looking around the room and shaking his head, a look of dismay and disgust plastered on his ugly little face.
"I haven't done anything," she replied in as derisive a tone as she could muster. She was determined to not allow Jaken to sully the excellent mood she woke to this morning.
Jaken turned his narrowed eyes to her when she spoke and an evil little grin came over his features. "No? Well you must have done something to garner such favor with our lord. Not everyone is given such...finery."
"What do you want Jaken." She wanted him gone and she certainly didn't want to continue the conversation that inevitably would leave her feeling terrible.
"Want? Oh, I don't want anything human. I simply don't desire the service you now provide in this household, as I have said before; you would not be pleasing for me." Jaken smiled when she looked away, the familiar somber cloud was already beginning to reform over her person, and he hadn't even gotten started yet.
"Then why are you here?" she asked, most of the defiance had already fled her. How quickly she could retread old feelings.
"I just wanted to see how you were holding up. Have you been able to keep up with him or does he have to hold himself back in order to preserve your fragile body?" He continued to look at the girl as she continued to draw back inside herself and physically away from him. When she didn't answer right away he decided to continue.
"I know of several youkai females in the fortress that haven't been able to satisfy his needs. I hear his stamina is legendary. How do you ever hope to fulfill your new role as his whore if you possess only the abilities of a pathetic human?" Again, Rin didn't reply to his words but just stopped where she stood. "I think, even if you try, he'll eventually need something more - oh I don't know - more worthy than you. Don't you think?"
Rin silently shook her head.
"What's that? I didn't quite catch it?" he asked, knowing full well that she hadn't said anything. This was always so much more fun if she responded. Not that she wasn't responding beautifully with her nonverbal actions but he wanted to engage the ever-meek woman and compel her to something a little more verbose.
She shook her head again before speaking. "Leave," she stated quietly.
"But why? I'm not saying anything that you shouldn't already know. I'm doing you a favor you ungrateful human." He managed to throw some mock indignation into his voice for that one. "Would you rather know now or be taken by surprise when he gives all this to the next, far better whore?"
Rin's eyes snapped up to meet his. She hadn't thought of that. Would he get tired of this eventually? Her brows knit together. If he did, she didn't know how would she feel about that. Only a few days ago she didn't even like it when he touched her and now that she was faced with the prospect that he might one day grow bored with her, she felt a little hollow inside for it.
"And he will certainly never take you as a wife. You are unfit to bear his children." That was the clincher and he knew it. The best part of it was that he knew it was entirely true. Lord Sesshoumaru would never father a hanyou with the woman, no matter how much sentiment he might harbor for her.
Rin just shut her eyes and stood stock-still. This was yet one more aspect that she'd failed to consider. She had figured out not too long ago that the act she and her lord engaged in was the one that produced young. It had not been difficult to puzzle out. She knew it took a male and a female to make a baby; she simply hadn't known how people went about it. When he had told her that it was his seed that had come out of her, she had put two and two together. "Just leave Jaken," she finally managed to whisper out.
"Fine, see if I ever try and help you out again." And with that he turned and left the room just as silently as he'd entered it. Rin wouldn't have heard him leave anyway. He could have been wearing bells and she wouldn't have noticed, so wrapped up in her own thoughts she was. Yet again, she had finally started to feel good about her situation when `wham!', Jaken came and managed to destroy it all with nothing more than words of truth, damning, hateful truth.
Rin slumped down on the bed that not too long ago didn't seem obnoxious as it did now. A thousand unpleasant thoughts poured through her mind and she tried desperately to sort them all out. She tried pacing but it didn't help. She needed to take her mind off the situation for a little while and then think about it all when she calmed down. She dressed herself and trotted down to the kitchens in hopes that filling her gurgling stomach might make her feel just a little bit better.
After a short jaunt, she found herself scooting through the galley doors intent on finding something tasty. She opened a few cabinets and didn't even notice the older female youkai sitting quietly at the end of a long counter, quietly eating something unidentifiable.
The old youkai watched the young woman with understanding eyes. Her distress was obvious and poured off her tense flesh in waves. After awhile of careful observation, she decided to make her presence known.
"Hungry?" she asked innocently. She noted the way the young human jumped at the sound of her voice, confirming her suspicion that she was so anxious that she didn't even know that she wasn't alone.
Rin spun on her heal in order to face the owner of the unexpected voice. She gave a sigh of relief when the voice matched the face she had already assigned to it. "Seta-san, you scared me." She breathed a sigh of relief. "I didn't know you were here."
"I assumed as much child." They just looked at each other and Rin began to squirm under Seta's gaze. The older youkai seemed to be waiting for something. "Well?" She finally asked.
Rin looked confused for a moment and then it hit her. "Yes, I am hungry."
Seta nodded at her and then turned back to her meal. Rin stood looking at her a moment longer as though she expected more to happen but finally gave up when Seta made absolutely no move to further the conversation. She had known this youkai nearly her entire life. She had met her soon after first arriving at the fortress for the first time. Seta had always been kind when other members of the fortress had not. She had always indulged the little girl's playful antics and had acted as a sort of surrogate mother. She trusted her and as such, this was the one person she felt comfortable speaking with, something she desperately needed after her horrible conversation with Jaken. Unfortunately though, she had no idea how to bring up the subject that was once more plaguing her mind. So she just continued to putter around the kitchen, not really doing much of anything. She pretended to inspect some fruit for bad spots but Seta only eyed her suspiciously.
"Alright, out with it. You obviously have a question to ask. Do not keep me in suspense. I am far too old for such childish games, so out with it."
Rin looked up at the older youkai, a look of consternation covering her face. She pursed her lips together in a very childlike manner and then moved them to one side of her mouth before she gave up and just asked.
"Seta-san, what's a whore?" When the old youkai didn't answer right away and adopted a slightly sad look about her, Rin quietly asked, "It's not a good thing, is it?"
"Oh child," she quietly said and moved to embrace the young woman who now looked to be on the verge of tears. "Who said such a thing to you?"
A tear slid down her cheek as she answered, looking up into the gray eyes of the youkai. "Jaken."
Seta cradled Rin's head to her bosom and soothingly stroked her hair. "He should not have said that."
"But what is it?" Rin persisted.
Seta sighed but decided the woman deserved an answer. "It is a woman who gives herself to a man for payment."
"Is that what I..."
"No, dear." She cut Rin off. "Lord Sesshoumaru does not think of you in such a manner. You are his concubine, not his whore." Rin didn't look impressed in the least. Seta sighed and tried another line of reasoning. "Lord Sesshoumaru had taken dozens of females to his bed over his life, perhaps more, but he has never assigned a single one of them the title of concubine or the status that accompanies it. Yours is well above mine now, child."
Rin's eyes widened and she looked up at the older youkai. "But Seta, you're a youkai and I'm only human."
Seta sighed and closed her eyes for a moment before continuing. "Yes Rin, I am youkai but if you think of yourself as `only human' then any creature, especially spiteful, envious little devils, will be able to hurt you with some carefully chosen words." Seta took Rin's cheeks in her hands and looked into her eyes in an attempt to make her words touch the young woman as only the truth could. "Sesshoumaru-sama's mother and father did not even like one another, but his father cared greatly for the human concubine he later took."
"So it's true!" She started to cry. "I'm not good enough to be his wife, to bear his children." The woman looked absolutely distraught now, her face paling with the realization as she pulled away form the one she thought would be able to provide her with some amount of comfort.
Seta closed her eyes in only mild exasperation. The girl obviously didn't understand but now that she was becoming hysterical, Seta needed to calm her down. So she did what she did to silly young servants that would become unmanageable with ridiculous hysterics.
She slapped her.
Rin immediately stopped crying and just stared in open mouthed wonder at the older youkai that had served as surrogate mother for most of her life while she cradled her only mildly stinging cheek. The slap had not been intended to cause pain but just to startle her. Its intent was fulfilled.
"Now are you going to listen to me or act like the fool that Jaken is and always will be?"
Rin hesitated before nodding, a slight frown of determination settling over her features. Though she didn't like being struck, the worse slap she had just been given was to her pride at being compared to that...that...that stupid little imp.
"Good. Now this is important. The wife of the last Lord of the Western Lands was only a means to providing an heir." She looked Rin in the eyes to add emphasis to her words. "That was her one and only role. The great Inu No Taisho did take her to his bed as one can only expect but she did not make him happy. You are most probably right, I don't believe that Sesshoumaru-sama will never make you a wife but you should never feel dishonored if he does not." She pulled the chin up of the woman who had begun to look sad once again. "Understand this girl, you are human, not `only human' as Jaken tells you but as such you are simply not able to give him a full blooded heir. He will, no doubt, one day take a youkai of the same class and rank as himself for such a purpose, but that in no way will affect your high position in this house. Do you understand what a great honor this is?"
Rin only nodded shallowly and Seta gesture for the shallow lie that it was.
"I don't think you do, child." Her mild irritation was beginning to grow despite her best efforts to the contrary. "There are hundreds inuyoukai females in this fortress and a hundred other types of youkai that would all be honored to the point of tears to be in the position in which you find yourself. Many of them are more beautiful, more talented in the bedroom and all of them are more powerful than you."
Rin again looked on the verge of tears, both from her harsh words and her cold tone. So she was quite surprised when Seta lifted her chin and she saw nothing but compassion in her eyes.
"But don't you see, none of those qualities matter to him. You are special to him in a way that only you can be. He feels for you what any female would die for. You are not just any female to him, you are Rin, his Rin, his first and only concubine. You are above reproach from any of us, and you now answer only to him. Do not dishonor his gift to you or yourself by not understanding what it means. You do not have to like it but never, ever be ashamed of it. You would dishonor us all by doing that." She placed a light kiss the emotionally tired young woman. "Now, do you understand?"
Rin's eyes shown with unshed tears as she nodded her head to the old youkai. She then threw her arms around her and held on so tightly the older youkai was actually surprised at her strength. She held her until Rin made the decision to pull away.
Seta smoothed the hair of the young woman as she spoke, "Now go rest."
Rin nodded again, gave Seta one more quick hug before leaving the kitchen for her room. She had a great deal to think about as Seta had not only lifted a burden from her shoulders but also given her another in return. This new one though was not completely unwelcome. It was a sense of responsibility and a new sense of belonging that she never had before. She mind was filled near to bursting with the enormity of it all.
Seta watched her go with mixed emotions. She was now satisfied that Rin understood but she wasn't entirely convinced that she accepted it. She clenched her fist at the thought of Jaken filling her head with entirely unnecessary turmoil. If it weren't for him, the girl would probably be fine with her new station but once the seeds of doubt are sown, it's not always an easy task to be rid of them, no matter what assurances you are given to the contrary.
Now though, she steeled herself for her next challenge. The presence she had known was near, now exited the shadows. Seta bowed before her lord.
Sesshoumaru had not witnessed the entire exchange but only from a short while before the point that his most faithful servant had laid a hand on his Rin.
"You struck what is mine," he stated in his normal tone. He knew why she had done it, he had seen her take care of similar situations with the same stern but still compassionate manner but that had been done with servants under her supervision. Such actions had been her right with the others but she knew that Rin was no longer under her station like the rest had been. She had said so herself to the younger woman but she had done it anyway.
"Yes, my lord." She peered up at him only momentarily. She was well aware of her transgression.
"You knew I was present and still you stuck her." It wasn't a question but he received a response anyway.
"Yes, my lord." She was waiting and more than willing to take the punishment she knew she disserved for her actions.
"Do not let it happen again." She raised her eyes to him, only slight surprise in them. He turned to leave but before he exited the room he stopped and spoke over his shoulder. "And Seta... this Sesshoumaru thanks you."
XxXxX
AN: Over a year since my last update, surprised? So am I but I just decided, out of the blue, to check my account this morning. I saw all the lovely reviews and decided to stop my ridiculous procrastinating. This is a completed story after all and there's no excuse for me not to post it. Unfortunately, if you're here due to author alerts, my other stories are still on hiatus. Maybe my muse will return to me in the near future and I'll get them completed. Thanks for reading!
NewtypeJuliet: You jinxed me by thanking me for timely updates. I'm going to try to get one out each day now as I get the time to do a proofread before posting. I love stories about historical positions for women. One of my favorites is a movie based on a real woman. Check out Dangerous Beauty about the Venetian courtesans during Europe of the Dark Ages. Thank you so much for the review and I hope you find this story once more!
Guest: Woot! Not too sleazy. I'll take that as a positive. :) Thank you very much!
Deadman19: Not all concubines had it as cushy or loving as I've made Rin but they were definitely different from whores. They had stability and position that a common prostitute would be hard pressed to ever achieve (though even those could do well as in the case of King Charles II whose favorite mistress had been a prostitute before catching the interest of the king).
Caffiend04: I'm glad you're enjoying it despite having any previous knowledge of the characters. Very true about the courtesan. You're also right about Rin, she's too naive and kind to even have ideas of how to use her newfound position and power. Oh, the stones, they come back into the mix. I promise. I'm so sorry about Her Savior, I just lost my inspiration but I'll try my hardest to get it back. You were always such a great reviewer before I dropped off the face of fanfiction.
MamaKax: I hope you continue to enjoy it.
icegirljenni: Actually, that comment on the concubine was a part of the chapter when I originally posted it. It was just a coincidence that you'd mentioned concubines and their roles in your previous review. Sorry you took it that way but it was the original AN when I posted it on my previous fanfic site. This chapter turned out to be another incidental counterpoint to our opposing views of historical and fictional concubines. Sorry for taking so long to update and I hope you're still enjoying the story.
ChocolateReader: :)
sundance1989: I think that's what everyone is waiting for, the other shoe to drop so to speak. Sorry for the long delay.
MARAJAY04: I'm glad you're enjoying it and yes, it did used to be on a different site.
DaniHime86: I'm happy to hear that I made this pairing a logical progression or sorts. The Sesshoumaru/Jaken showdown… I hope it lives up to expectations.
klrob: Doulbe lemons are always fun, both to read and to write! Reviews from you are my friend.
jlj0170: It wasn't soon but also not quite forever. I'm glad that ooc Jaken isn't too distracting. He was just a convenient antagonist.
Mara-the-Cat: And here it is. Hopefully you won't have to wait as long for the next one.
Silvia: She was cool with the idea of concubine, the Jaken ruined it and our friendly neighborhood motherly type tried to smooth it over.
Shelisa: I hope you continue to enjoy it!
I3BOOKS4LIFE: And here you go! Next one will be out much sooner.
Ms. Reen: I love believability votes! Thank you. Angst and drama are my favorite genres, glad you're liking them.
overninethousand: I read that website with faq being said in a Bostonian accent and with a meaning that was far more crude than 'frequently asked questions'. Boy was I disappointed. Everyone has to be passionate about something and I applaud your choice to lambast a fanfiction pairing. It seems like something worthy of getting worked up over. To hell with the idea of "to each their own"! It's way more fun to hate, be closed-minded and offer unasked for opinions. Keep fighting the good fight. /end sarcasm
(I love flames, even lame ones. Can you tell?)
