The temple while not overly large had a few spacious rooms; I suppose Seyerna didn't need a lot of room if this was actually her home. She didn't seem like the type to be surrounded by popularity, and I was fairly certain she wasn't a Lord of any sort, so the home suited her nicely. She offered me one of those spacious rooms and a roll out futon which was the most comfortable thing I'd slept on in a week and I was grateful. The materials were of the finest quality, but the rooms were sparsely decorated, still the simplicity of it was a relaxing change. There were matts lining the floor in parallel patterns, and a single table with a beautifully sculpted bowl atop it filled with a small bit of water, other than that there was nothing in the room, but it didn't take from the simple beauty of it. The rooms were separated by thin screen doors covered in bamboo paper, there were five rooms total, two on either side of the main corridor I'd caught Seyerna having sex in – the thought still made me blush. The screen doors of the main corridor were huge and opened up on either side creating an interesting effect being able to stand outside one door and see straight through the building.
I had actually come upon her from the front of the temple, out the back, not two steps from the temple was another small building, upon entering I found a dream: hot springs. It was as if Seyerna found the perfect hot spring and decided to build her home right next to it, given the nature of Seyerna, it would surprise me if that's exactly what she did. They were secluded by walls but not a roof, the small area was always foggy with steam.
While I'd been too tired the night before to take advantage of them, come morning it was my first destination. Seyerna joined me, bringing me fresh clothes for which I was grateful as my once white robe was ruined, from stains to tears, it was a tattered mess and there was no saving it. We sat in silence for a long time but I got the impression it was because of something on Seyerna's mind; she seemed troubled.
She knew my thoughts and thus did not keep me waiting knowing I'd soon verbally inquired. "Sesshoumaru did terrible things to you, Kagome." As if I hadn't figured that one out; she scoffed at the thought. "Will you return to him?" 'No' was my immediate thought, but could I continue to hide from him? I had to complete the jewel; I couldn't leave until Naraku was dead.
"Oh, that reminds me." Seyerna spun around, reaching out of the spring and dug through her clothes, pulling out a small pouch she handed it to me, instantly I realized it was the jewel shard. Seyerna's power was so intimidating and foreboding it had completely clouded me from feeling the jewel shard that was as black as she was. Likely it had to do with her soul being a part of it so the jewel shard just about disappeared from view after being in her hands and yet I had sensed it earlier. "Probably because Sage had been carrying it for a time, he's fascinated by my soul being outside of my body like that." Which also explains why I didn't see it until later on. I wonder if that was part of the reason for their audience. "Likely, I hadn't considered it; it was a rather large audience, wasn't it…?" She chuckled.
"I met your friend Naraku. It was very strange talking to him, his mind was cloudy and hard to decipher. The woman with him helped me pick up on most of his words. Her name was Kagura. It was almost like he wasn't actually there. Something was strange about the form in front of me. It held a scent and an aura, but mentally it just didn't seem all there, and not the crazy kind of not there." I nodded, Naraku's puppet.
"What did he ask of you?" He always gave jewel shards when he was trying to coax someone into completing a task for him whom he would then turn around and kill them once completed - if they completed it.
Seyerna seemed to mull over my thoughts for a moment before answering me. "In a nut shell, he wants me to kill Sesshoumaru and InuYasha. He must think me stupid for the way he worded things. I'm a mistress of the mind, he'd have better off being completely honest and offering a better reward. Not that I would have anyway, I don't like allies with prices that's what mercenaries are for. Real allies are born from loyalty derived from trust and action not petty means of payment like that. Of course, a demon desperate for power is still desperate and demons will go to any lengths to achieve it. It's too bad really, knowing that the jewel shard is just a temporary power gain; wouldn't it make more sense to train oneself and become better than the jewel and its makers? But that's the demon in me speaking; all these halfbreeds running around with their human greed and power-hunger don't know what it means to be a demon." I chuckled at her because even being human I understood what she was getting at. The powerful demons didn't seem to give a damn about the jewel shards, they would much rather the power come from their own hands not another source, no matter how powerful that outside source would be.
Seyerna smiled at me, "It's so nice to be in the company of an intelligent human. So many humans would have been offended at my reference to human greed." How could I be offended when I knew exactly what she was talking about? Humans were greedy; fathers would sell their daughters in a 'political' marriage to raise their self-worth. All the wars? Usually over who gets a strip of land. Even lowly peasants, stealing, robbing and killing their neighbors all for money or more than what they have. It's all rooted to greed in the end.
"Don't get me wrong, demons are innately greedy too, but we're greedy for the power in ourselves. We want to be the strongest, the fastest, and the best at what we do. We didn't start marking land until we started inbreeding with humans and human greed was born in halfbreeds which inevitable effected the demon race. There are still demons like myself that cling to the old ways. This very temple the only reason I built it was for my human companions that would come to stay with me, like yourself. I don't expect my human allies to survive a rain storm and not get deathly sick from it. Well, no, I originally built it two hundred years ago when I created Sage, I had no idea he'd turn out to be so powerful. But it's come in use more times than not with the various races of allies I have. What's more, I much prefer it to sleeping on the ground; it gives me a sense of belonging." The way she said the word 'belonging' made me feel she didn't get that often, if ever before this place.
We climbed out of the springs and I dressed in the new kimono, it only hung to my knees and was a rich blue tongue with white sakura blossoms, the obi was plain white. It was simple and I was grateful. She also showed me how to wrap my breasts without it being too tight, though my mind was running through all the bras I had at home, she didn't question my thoughts. It seemed strange, surely Seyerna knew I was from the future with her ability to read minds and yet she never inquired, as curious as I was to ask, I wouldn't initiate the conversation.
Seyerna walked with me into the forest leading me to god knows where. After about a half hour we breached the forest and stepped out into an open meadow. Sage was sitting a ways off, meditating I assumed. Seyerna escaped me, moving towards her mate, not a sound coming from her motions, her aura invisible. Coming up behind Sage she wrapped him in her embrace and kissed his neck, when he turned to her she wasted no time in stealing his mouth in her passion. Even though I'd seen them together in the most intimate of ways, I just couldn't wrap my mind around a demon showing public displays of affection. Trying to get InuYasha to use my name had been a challenge, Sesshoumaru didn't acknowledge anything behind sex, in fact the only time I recalled affection with him was sitting in his gardens before Kouga. I sighed as the memories that came were hurtful and I had to force them away with all my strength to keep from tearing up. I hadn't really cried about what Sesshoumaru had done to me and I didn't want too now when these two amazing people were willing to help me and offer me all their love and affection as if I'd always been part of their family.
Seyerna's arms were suddenly around me and I looked up to see her red eyes glazed over with what I feared looked like pity. I pushed her away and she did not fight me, hugs would make me cry. I took a deep breath and forced it away, walking to Sage who was not standing in the middle of the clearing watching hesitantly. Even as I reached him he did not speak, he looked to Seyerna, then to me, this isn't what I wanted from them and certainly not what I needed from them.
"What are we doing today?" I broke the silence unable to bear another moment and shamed at the slightest hiccup caught in the mist of my words.
Sage was hesitant to speak but eventually did; "I brought you here in an open field so you could play with the technique I showed you yesterday a little more. This will help you understand how draining it is and also let you work on just moving around in that state without running into anything." He smiled at that, I was grateful for it and smiled as well.
The training was much less painful today, but Sage hadn't been kidding about being draining. Yesterday I ran into things before I got a chance to really move much in this new dimensional state. Today without anything to run into I could hold the state for 30 second intervals and when I came out I felt like I would feint. The good news is I could circle the perimeter of the clearing which was easily a mile about a dozen times in those thirty seconds when moving at a full run. However I could also simulate this state as a walk which was much slower and made dodging easier. After tampering with it a bit in the clearing, Sage had me loop through a not so dense part of the forest. I was quickly getting better at this fish lens sight and the speed at which I was moving. It was all in your head.
When I thought I could take no more Sage had me sit down with him in the middle of the clearing and we just talked. When asking why we spent so much time just talking Sage was happy to explain that half the battle in fighting with magic was just comprehension. Understanding what you're using, the pros and cons of it were just as important as being able to do it which made perfect sense.
I found out, which I'd dully noted when doing it, that when in that dimensional state it was harder to sense things, if I already knew where something was I could keep track of it, but if something new entered my sensing range I likely wouldn't know it. He said there were levels to the training process. He had perfected this technique to such a point that he could keep his mind in our world while letting his body move through this magical world so he wasn't hindered by my problem. This was apparently quite difficult to achieve because we were already dancing on the dimensional line to pick and choose which pieces of oneself goes to the dimension and what doesn't is tricky as he simply put it. He didn't seem to know how to explain how he'd achieved that.
After lunch and so many hours of the recuperating we moved onto something less magic intensive – or so he believed. He helped me conduct magic, he said a good mage never loses magic when conducting it. We conduct magic when we use weapons, he said my magical arrows was a prime example, but that I used far more magic than necessary, most people do he pointed out. According to Sage most of the magic we put into a weapon attack drifts away before the weapon hits the target, this can even apply to melee weapons: swords, maces, axes and the like. The key is to have magic in only the portion that is going to strike the target directly, for an arrow that means to concentrate the energy into the very point and only the point, not the entire head of the arrow. Magic is very powerful and can do a lot of things, using more than necessary is just exhausting and will get one killed.
Sage wielded a halberd, it was a beautiful creation, with a black staff made of a light metal I was unfamiliar with; the head of the halberd was completely attached to the body, all one solid piece of this metal. The blade head was split into two claw-like pieces, engraved with a beautiful relief. He showed me time and time again how he would use magic and it was only to be on the sharp edge of the blade that would be used for cutting, however, because of the nature of his weapon there would be times when he would use the blunt end and he could also direct magic into that portion, the same rules applied though, only the side that would strike the target should have magic, the rest is just wasted energy. He compared this to if a target got to close to me I could direct magic into my bow but I should only direct it to the portion that would strike the foe.
It didn't take me long to conduct magic, I was familiar with it enough that it was just a matter of taking a small portion and concentrating it into a single location versus doing what I had been doing and engulfing the entire arrow in my power. The thing was, Sage also said it was possible to condense one's power so I could concentrate more power into a smaller location; this, he said, would take a lot of training that I could only discover on my own – that seemed to happen a lot with magic.
Moving on I discovered we can also create shield through conducting that just exist without ever wasting magic unless it's struck or attacked in some way. In essence he was telling me that every second of every day I should have a shield up and if I did it right it wouldn't drain me unless the shield was struck. Shields can be made in every shape and size, from dome ones to cover oneself and her companions to glove likes ones that fit the perfect outline of the caster; he said they were the least noticeable and also the most difficult to achieve.
Erecting a shield wasn't so difficult; it was a matter of pushing out my power but not my aura and hardening it through will and visual thought. A strange concept I realize, but it made sense when actually looking at it. My aura was my soul, whereas my power was my physical imprint on this plane and what connects me to the supernatural realm. By keeping my aura locked away but releasing my power I could always have my power at my disposal without having to struggle to unlock it and then use it while still being off the grid. It was amazingly helpful. It's pretty much always safe to assume that someone who is not magically inclined cannot see power, but almost everyone who fights and is even the slightest skilled in combat can see auras. Auras are much more obvious and much easier to pick up on, you don't need training to notice them, just a soul that isn't weak. Because of how much power I apparently have it will be easier for other magical beings to notice me. Seyerna suggested I still keep my power locked away if I was going to be on my own, but if I was certain foes were about then to unleash it then. I assumed that was her general method.
I spent hours and hours trying to wrap this shield around my body. I was tired, not from lack of power – as I quickly learned the quirk to not wasting energy – but from sheer effort and force of will. At some point Seyerna picked me up and carried me back to the temple. Sage wasn't around anymore and the sun had disappeared on me, the moon peering down at me curiously. I had been so lost in my concentration – meditation Seyerna corrected me – I hadn't notice time fly by me. Even still I was determined to at least wrap my power around my little finger, but alas at each attempt it seemed to rubber band away from me.
Seyerna had no useful tricks, but that it was different for each of us. For Seyerna it was a matter of her will being stronger than her power, I assumed it related to her knowledge of the mind. She assured me it likely was, as everything we do and everything we encounter affects our power, our auras and our very essence on this world and morphs us all into unique individuals. No two people would ever have the same grasp of magic. You could teach someone to wield a sword, but teaching someone to shoot a fireball was damn near impossible. It was all about becoming in tune with your inner self, your magical self, and the world around you and how it affects you and your powers.
It hadn't been my intention to let Kagome get so far. I'd been exhausted the first day she'd run away, proud she'd manage to take me down, but now she'd gone too far. I had things I had to attend to so I sent my first in command to find her and keep an eye on her. I thought it would be a simple task to find the little priestess, however, after a week and my visit to Lord Makoto to plan everything they hadn't found her. Now I found myself chasing a week old scent trail like a lowly mutt. It was degrading, but I'd make Kagome pay for it in due time, right now it was more important to just find her. I wasn't sure why I felt it was so important, she had, after all, managed to best me even if only by surprise. However, I knew it had likely been a fluke, her fear had heightened her senses and put her more in tune with her magic, it was common of her, likely she had no idea how she did it, or how to do it again. As proud as I was of her, I was… worried.
Her trail was obvious and yet invisible, the further I followed the more it seemed to disappear. While her scent still lingered, the remains of her meals weren't as easy to spot and her scent on the greenery was becoming minimal. I'd found the human camp she'd come upon with two dead males, one had pure fire forced into his face the other an arrow through his chest. It was almost worth laughing at, but then it occurred to me that I had never seen her kill before. The thought worried me more than I care to admit. None of her blood lingered in the air, just her scent passing through, didn't seem they'd hurt her.
Kagome didn't seem to run into much trouble surviving on her own, but I didn't know her to be the type to give up either. In fact, I believed she'd do just about anything to survive and with her optimistic view on life she was sure to succeed. Another days hike for her casual pace - mere minutes for me - and I came upon a demon corpse being picked at by crow demons. They disbursed as I came upon the corpse. There was a hole in its chest, likely from her arrow which she must have taken with her, but there was also a slash down it, a very awkward and uneven cut, it looked to be from a blade. I moved on, there was nothing more to see here, the only thing that would help me find her was the residue of the shikon shard, she must be hunting them. With that thought in mind I might be able to cut her off if I could find a way to track the nearest one. For now I was forced to follow her scent trail.
Following her scent deeper into the woods I found a temple, strange as it was, it seemed to hold only Kagome's aura and smell. With the doors already open I went in. I won't admit to being surprised by Seyerna sitting against one wall, a cup of tea cradled in her hands, her claws dancing across the stone cup. Nothing expensive for this demoness, she believed herself above such material items. Beside her, sitting with tea cup in hand was Kagome and beside her was another male, a human male. To my utter frustration I could sense none of them. Kagome's smell drafted about, but her aura was invisible to me. I was ready to grab her and shake her for hiding from me. This demoness should not be trusted, hadn't Kagome learned yet that demons only looked after themselves? And what's more who was this male whom scent was so tightly mixed with my priestess'.
"Relax, have some tea, I will explain whom the male is if just to keep you from overreacting." Seyerna read my mind and I felt my claws dig into my palm, damn her.
"Okay, don't have tea. Sage, the male, or human as you keep calling him, is my mate, so don't fret, he hasn't touched Kagome any more than necessary when training her." Training? Who was this man that was training my priestess? Surely no human male competed with her.
Seyerna 'humphed;' "Think what you want, neither Sage nor I are worried about if you think he's capable or not. We know what he can do and that's all that matters. Now, I really suggest sitting down and having tea, there's no reason this needs to be unpleasant."
Reluctantly I sat across from them at the small table. Kagome poured my tea and I couldn't help but think how appropriate it was that she served me. I didn't want to fight Seyerna on this day; I didn't want to fight her ever for that much. Her powers were not something I even liked to consider existed, alas they did, so the best I could do was avoid them and her.
"Tell me what you know of Lord Raidon and I'll agree: this need not be unpleasant." I stated the words matter-of-fact. Kagome was clutching Seyerna's hand and the male, what had Seyerna called him? Sage, I believe it was, was rubbing her forearm. Seyerna touching Kagome made me want to kill someone, Sage, a male, touching Kagome made me see red.
Seyerna sighed and looked at Sage, he seemed to realize his touch and pulled back, I tried to relax, but the thought alone made me sick with anger. Kagome had bodyguards now, how was I supposed to get her from them?
"You're not, you're supposed to negotiate with me and Kagome can decide if she wants to go with you or ever see you again for that much." Seyerna put emphasis on 'me' and the tone in her voice suggested she knew everything I'd done to Kagome to try and find out about Lord Raidon's murder. I did not feel guilt for what I'd done. Kagome would submit to me. She needed to learn one way or another that as the male she would have to obey me.
Seyerna sneered at me, "You're a pitiful creature." She hissed and anger bit into my stomach, I managed to quell it, but the audacity of this demoness was infuriating. Powerful or not, she was still a peasant and she needed to learn to respect her superiors.
"Please…." Kagome's soft voice seemed to break us both out of our fistless combat. Seyerna looked at Kagome and combed her fingers through her hair, calming her and herself it seemed.
"I apologize, I promised to be civil about this, but if only you could hear the things running through his mind…." I glared at her, but I realized the action was pointless, she couldn't see it anyway.
Sage had remained quiet until now his voice was almost alien after the silence and only Seyerna's voice piercing the tension. He stood up and moved behind Kagome to stand beside Seyerna where he rested his hand on her shoulder before weaving his fingers into her hair. The action seemed strange to me, but I realized it was affection something I hadn't even encountered in life until Kagome.
"Seyerna…." He spoke the name with as much endearment as his actions. "We cannot deny it forever, so perhaps we can come to a solution. We will tell you what you want to know, but it comes at a cost…."
I glared at the human but he never faulted, in fact, he seemed completely unaffected by my presence. I pushed out my aura as a means of intimidation, still he did not shift. Something was strange about this human. "You see, Seyerna has a great number of allies, unfortunately she's extremely protective of them, to the point that she'll do just about anything to protect them from even the menial of threats. This is not a menial threat by any standard, so you can understand why she's so reluctant to speak of it at all. Kagome also understands the threat of this; whether she knows all the details or not, she at least senses the chaos that could be unleashed should the truth come out, thus why even after your abuse she would not speak of it. You know, Lord Sesshoumaru, you probably could have seduced Kagome much easier if you'd gone straight to the source instead of trying to rip it from an innocent the way you did." It didn't matter that he'd shown the utmost diplomacy, or that his words were complete logical, or even that he knew how to respect his superiors, but that he seemed to know just as much about my situation with Kagome as Seyerna infuriated me. Seyerna must have told him and that pissed me off even more; was there no sanctity of the mind with this she-devil?
Seyerna leaned on Sage's leg, "On the contrary, Sesshoumaru, I didn't tell Sage anything. Don't think for one second I could care less about the sanctity of your mind, or the privacy you so desperately crave. I didn't tell him a thing because it wasn't my place too. It is Kagome's life and she may tell who she pleases. I try my hardest not to pry on the darkness in one's mind." She had her eyes closed as she spoke, her voice was soft, much softer than normal; Sage seemed to be able to calm her. "Sage is very observant, per say, he's good at reading between the lines. Do not blame him; he is far nicer than I."
I managed to calm my anger, they didn't want to fight, that was obvious, so the least I could do was hear the worthless human out, he seemed to be the more logical of the two. I nodded to him to continue and he did; "The point of it comes down to this: What will it take to buy you, Lord Sesshoumaru?" To buy me? Was he suggesting Seyerna had anything I could possibly want? He thought he could keep me quiet? It was almost worth laughing at.
The silence stretched between us, Sage must have realized I found his suggestion ludicrous because he finally broke the silence with a sigh. "Lord Sesshoumaru, you must meet us somewhere. Surely you understand we're not just going to let you take Kagome and torture it out of her. What's more we have the answer, and with Seyerna's connections she can make sure you never find the answer without her help, you must realize this? Seyerna's abilities make her an irreplaceable force to all her allies. My Lord, there is much to be gained from being allies with Seyerna. She is no Lord but she has the followers of one." Seyerna scoffed but I caught the slightest tightening of Sage's grip, followed by a slip in his power that up to this point had been non-existent, how offered the slightest glimpse of his white powers. Seyerna never moved, her face never expressed pain, but I know he's shocked her. He kept his woman in line, I could respect that.
Unfortunately, his words were all logic, and he was right, Seyerna would be an asset to the Western Lands, but would she obey me once I'd swept this whole incident under the rug?
"I don't like the word obey, but I will abide by your command within reason. I will not kill innocents. You will have access to my allies, but not if I feel you are sending them to their deaths. You may not have your way with my female allies. You are not allowed to abuse any of my allies or myself sexually, physically or mentally in any way shape or form. I can only promise that my immediate and closest allies will pledge allegiance to the Western Domain. I will not fight the ones that choose not to unless they attack the Western Domain." Seyerna's voice was hard and unforgiving with her words, but she offered a lot. Who exactly was it that killed Lord Raidon? She knew and whoever it was, they were close to her for her to be willing to offer so much. Her face gave away nothing so I was forced to contemplate the words.
There was still one problem with her offer; "There is one more requirement; Kagome must agree to become my mate." I could hear Kagome's sharp intake of breath, even Seyerna's heart seemed to skip a beat, but to my utter astonishment Sage acted as if he hadn't even heard the words. What makes a human as hard as him?
"Kagome, you don't have to do this. You know I will protect you with my life from him…." Seyerna was cut off as Kagome squeezed her hand and kissed the back of her knuckles. More affection that seemed alien to me. Kagome was like this with Naomi too, what was it about Kagome that brought out such affections and kindness in people?
"I wanted to believe it would be that simple, but you can't protect everyone, Seyerna. Like this, we know everything will work out. Everyone will be safe and as your ally he can't abuse me any more under the conditions." Seyerna's eyes looked like they were melting, pain, I realized. Is that what it took to break the great demoness? To make it so she couldn't save everyone? Kagome didn't need to fear me though, as my mate there would be no more secrets and there would be no reason to continue her torture. In time, she would become my willing and ever loving mate.
Seyerna stood up and forced past Sage, leaving the room in a quick angry stride. Her power, for once, was radiating off of her in waves of anger. I grinned before looking back to Kagome and the grin fell away. The eyes that looked at me from beneath her midnight bangs were filled with anger and hate. The stone cup in her hands was shaking; the tea inside sloshing from side to side, in the next moment it seemed to shatter from no apparent cause. It was her power though, her white energy building with anger that shattered the stone. She never blinked even as the tea stained her kimono and soaked her arms.
"I will submit to you, Sesshoumaru. I will become your mate, but rest assured, I will not make this easy…."