Sesshoumaru watched the odd demon's eyes flicker before him, thinking on everything Sesshoumaru had said. "A miko from a different time, how…?" He closed his eyes, brows just barely furrowing. "Do you recall my lessons, Sesshoumaru-sama?"

"Every, Sensei." Sesshoumaru answered, slightly confused, but kept the emotion from his eyes and voice.

"What of the predictions by the stars?"

Sesshoumaru blinked, and in that single moment, every teaching he had been given for over a three hundred year period returned to the forefront of his mind. Every word, every telling of futures that had yet to occur at the closest reaches. "Yes, Sensei."

"You recall a telling of a purity from the far future falling into the memory of the past?" He wondered.

Sesshoumaru glanced down at Kagome. "She is not the same. Kagome does not look as the miko in the painting." He stated.

"Yes, she does. Longer hair is needed and blue eyes-"

"Her eyes are not the blue of the miko in the painting." Sesshoumaru nearly whispered.

His teacher paused mid breath. "She has blue eyes?"

Sesshoumaru's lip curled briefly, but he offered no vocal answer. Instead he looked back down at Kagome, refusing to believe it. She was powerful, he would allow that, but she was not any stronger than Midoriko. Legend foretold of a priestess that could rival the strength of the one who created the jewel of four souls by a great magnitude… It was impossible, because if Kagome was this priestess, then that meant she would reach the plain of the Gods.

The scroll pulsed with that thought, sending a chill down his spine.

"Knowing that she could very well be the half God's mate, you still wish me to preserve her life?" His sensei asked cautiously.

"She is not to be his," Sesshoumaru said menacingly. "And she will be saved."

The pale demon nodded slowly. "Why not simply let her pass on and revive her with tenseiga? Could not the sword of healing revive a miko?"

Sesshoumaru had thought about that, but only briefly. With how the sword let him know of its agitation at her ill state, he did not doubt he could revive her, but Sesshoumaru did not want to. Kagome couldn't die at all… "I would prefer not to be forced into using tenseiga as of now."

"What of this time period you spoke to me of? Can not you return her, or was the barrier to greatly powerful for even she to reopen?" His Sensei asked.

Words from a shared vision with Kagome reentered his mind. They were wrong, something must have changed from the vision. His teacher had said he'd heard her speak of another time period, but now it was he whom his teacher had heard. What could have possibly changed such a vision and made her even more ill? Had Naraku somehow gained the ability to see futures as well and upon realizing Kagome would survive the illness, he had given her a more potent mixture?

"The miko is untrained." Sesshoumaru answered. "I am certain she would never be able to return the well to its previous state and she is far to weak as of now to even try."

His sensei sighed, looking over the girl and Sesshoumaru. "I can not undue what a miko has done, yet that scroll can."

Narrowing his eyes, Sesshoumaru asked. "How?"

"Take her blood-" He paused when Sesshoumaru's aura raised unexpectedly. "Would you care to let me finish before you throw such a childish fit?" Almost embarrassed, the demon lord clamped down on his rage. Knowing his once pupil would not interrupt him again, he continued. "You need only enough to line the lip of the well and then drop the scroll into the bottom."

Sesshoumaru scoffed. "It is too simple."

"The doing is of no effort, of course, but what will occur after is not so easily fixed." With a sigh, the demon seated himself silently and spoke softly. "A great energy will swell up into the sky, causing a fierce lightning storm. Whatever energy the scroll swallows from the well will only be Kagome's. It will leave the older magic untouched, but once it feeds upon her miko, it will hunger for demon. When you lift the scroll once more, it will fight you and try to take your power from you so it may open the way to the Gods plain."

The demon scoffed. "I would not be so foolish as to allow it open."

"Do not be a fool," his demon teacher forced calmly. "This scroll was created by a fiercely powerful dog demon and priestess several centuries ago to lock one demi-God in a place between heaven and earth. You, Sesshoumaru, are no match for such power if you do not take extreme caution."

Sesshoumaru felt the pulsing of the scroll, and wondered very softly. "Who was the dog demon?"

There was a silence thereafter that left the demon lord on edge. He watched his teacher, feeling out the energy within the air as best he could, but gained nothing. He had to wait in a senseless world. This silence seemed foreboding and made him tense.

"You already know. Why do you think you have never met your grandfather, Sesshoumaru? How did he die?"

"Battle." Sesshoumaru hissed. "His mate had sacrificed herself for…" This story was one he had heard through the forests long ago, whispering voices when he was but two decades old… It was difficult to grasp. "Something."

His teacher sighed softly. "It was when I was much younger, not to my six hundredth year and I was a general in your grandfather's army, when he met her. The priestess whose blue eyes reminded him of an endless sky. She was kind and patient with the dog demon, unusually so, even for her, she admitted to me once." As his teacher spoke, Sesshoumaru watched his eyes return to that place and that time and listened acutely. It was reminiscent of being taught once more.

Flashback

"He's different, Miren," she had whispered. "I may be a miko, but I've never agreed that all demons are evil and must be vanquished, but this is so bizarre." She shook her head, her eyes shut tight for a moment. "It's incomprehensible. I don't want to believe he could be so wonderful, and yet I do. Each time I see him, my heart…" She closed her eyes. "My heart, it beats unusually."

Miren, Sesshoumaru's teacher, watched her with his odd irises, trying to discern the puzzling human rambling. Even she, the most powerful priestess in all the land, the most witted of humans, could not explain how she felt? How strange. "Lady Souren, I fail to comprehend." He admitted.

"I don't understand it either." She promised, staring out at the pond, watching the fish swim. "I think that I love him, Miren…"

The general stiffened, his eyes widening somewhat as he turned them to her. "Lady, such union is-"

"Forbidden, frowned upon, wretched, impure; I know." She sighed, smiling sadly. "I know."

She was asking him for something, he knew it. Not approval, but an insight into his Lord's mind. Could he willingly offer it to her? What events would occur should he do so? "You are my friend, Lady, and though I honor such a bond, I will only do as is best for my Lord." He vowed.

He could smell the salt in the air and knew he had inadvertently allowed her to know how his Lord felt for her. "I would expect nothing less of you, Miren." She whispered, laying her head against his arm. He allowed her to fall prey to her weak, human emotions against him, no matter how others may have mocked him.

Of course, afterward, she had told the demon lord she needed to depart the castle grounds. It wouldn't do for her to remain when there was so much unrest in the world. She thanked him for his hospitality and never allowed her eyes to meet his. Of this, the Lord did not know of what to make. "Souren, I do not understand." He whispered in the trees where they always met after dinner. "Are you not happy here," he paused, amber eyes bright, flashing with uncertainty. "With me?" He wondered, his heart pounding oddly.

She refused to look at him. "The happiest I have ever been, until-" She cut herself off, feeling the tears swell. She did not wish to say goodbye! She wanted to stay, to be with him in any manner she could, but if she did… He would never have a mate, he would never have an heir. She had to leave.

"Until?" His voice was dangerous, filled with promises to torture what or who had hurt so much.

"I can't," she shook her head, two tears falling. "I'm sorry, my Lord, so sorry."

"Why do you call me this?" He asked, going to reach for her when she stepped just out of his reach. The burn nearly sounded in his voice. "I have told you to call me Si-eshomaru, and you have, until tonight."

"Give me permission to leave." She almost demanded, but it came out more like a beg.

He narrowed his eyes. "Souren, let me see your eyes."

"No, I-"

"Show me your eyes and, depending on what I find, I will allow you to go." She knew he was being honest, and she was grateful for it, but she also knew he would not let her go because of what he would undoubtedly find.

She braved it and looked up into his amber eyes. They were almost gold with pain she had caused, that he was trying to hide. And then they widened, lightening into a hundred different rays of warmth and shock. "Say the words and I will make you mine." He whispered, stepping forward.

She bit her lip to keep them in and when he touched her, her spiritual power surged outward, burning him. He grit his teeth, making no noise, but his eyes flashed red. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I didn't mean to, I swear it."

She touched his burned forearms and forced the miko within to heal him, something that hadn't been done by her before, but she knew she could. She felt it inside of her. Si-eshomaru watched her closed eyes, the curve of her face, her parted lips and the tears that still glistened on her face. He watched everything about her, including the pink glowing around her and the long, ebony strands of her hair dancing in her aura.

Before she could even fully heal him, the demon pulled her into his embrace and kissed her hungrily. She gasped, trying to pull away, knowing that if she stayed in his embrace much longer, she wouldn't be able to stand it. He wouldn't let her go though, his hold was iron. "Mine," he breathed over her mouth, the one word making her still. "My Souren." He whispered, moving down her throat.

Heat pulsed through her body, making her gasp. How could she say no to him, how could she try to escape him? But she was doing something that could not be done! This act had never been between human and demon, let alone a miko and Taiyoukai. What if her purity attacked him and his demonic abilities attacked her? What if-

"I love you." She admitted, her body betraying her.

With a low, but loving growl, he crushed his lips against hers, the heat of his body pouring straight through her clothes. Si-eshomaru was with her through the night, their bodies one. Demon and human, priestess and demon lord. It did not matter, not until the morning, because in the morning, she was gone.

End of flashback

"She left?" Sesshoumaru questioned, one silvery brow raised.

"Yes, with a child beginning in her womb." Miren confirmed from the recollected telling of the night.

Both brows raised then. "She gave birth to this pup?" A miko having a demon's child… Who had ever heard of such a thing?

Mrien smirked. "Inu-no-Tashio."

Suddenly the whole world reeled around him and Sesshoumaru lost his sense of everything. "That is impossible." He stated, disbelieving that a human and demon could bare pureblood demonic children.

"Your father remembers her, briefly. She loved him very much, more than any demon mother could ever love a child." Miren, again, confirmed.

Sesshoumaru frowned. "Did she sacrifice herself for my father or was this sacrifice for my grandfather?"

He smiled. "For every living being and for her son, yet not the father, for he would die and she knew this. The dog demon could not defend her from a demi-God who wanted her so terribly that he would destroy a whole world to have her. So, as he lay on the battle field, bleeding to death, she took out a blank parchment from her bag, as they had been traveling, and began a spell with both of their blood to seal it. It was when the spell was completed and Si-eshomaru died, that she took her own life, right before the demi-God's very eyes.

"I had been ordered to take Lord Inu-no-Tashio to the dragon Lord's palace for safety, so I do not recollect this for certain, but I do believe the only soldier who survived. He claimed the demi-God, upon touching the scroll, not knowing what it would do, was sent into another plain. His touch, which lingered with a drop of his own blood, altered the spell upon Ugai. Now, if the blood of a demon and priestess touch it directly, at once, it will reopen the plain."

"Such a possibility is highly unlikely." Sesshoumaru said, concentrating on the scroll's origins and his teacher's warning, but also recounting the tale of who his grandmother happened to be. A priestess… Souren at that. He had heard much of the human. She was a beauty beyond compare and powerful enough that every Lord, be it demon or human, did not wish to tamper with her. A human, a priestess was his grandmother.

How could that even be remotely possible? A priestess and demons bloodline could not combine, not as far as he knew. Obviously it had to be if his sensei said it was so, yet why did the child not show any human in appearance or scent?

"You look confused, Sesshoumaru." Miren observed.

Sesshoumaru hesitated, and then admitted. "I suppose this Sesshoumaru is indeed perplexed in regards to the… mating."

Miren's eyes warmed, the desire to teach reawakened within him. "Of?"

"Why did the human not appear in my father?" He asked, his voice nearly completely emotionless.

Miren smiled. "That is an odd mystery, one I have never understood myself. I can only assume that the soul decided what it wished to be before it was even born."

"Though I do not think this is possible, I have faith in your words." Sesshoumaru stated, glancing at Kagome. If… If he allowed himself to feel something more for her, was it possible she could birth a demon child? A hanyou could not withstand the demon blood in its veins, it would need something to protect it. A demon child on the other hand would not.

Miren watched his pupil, curious. "You claim not to love the mortal, but what is this stirring within your eyes, Sesshoumaru?" The dog demon glared at him and so the teacher laughed. "Come now, do not hide behind anger."

Sesshoumaru raised his head higher, eyeing his teacher. "I should return the miko to her era, Sensei." Sesshoumaru stood, gathering Kagome into his arms once more. "Her life weighs in the balance."

"You know as well as I do that a few moments more will not harm the lass." He smirked. "But we also realize it is you who are in jeopardy. So go, if you must. Run, if you wish."

"I am not fleeing." Sesshoumaru nearly growled.

"Do not lie. You try to escape from her when you are thinking." Miren sighed. "Always a thinker, never one to feel. Release your inhibitions, feel for once. Take everything in and consider it briefly, but give it nothing more than a passing glance."

"You change so rapidly. You seem… detached from any contact with the miko and then you invite it for myself. I fail to understand, Sensei." Sesshoumaru searched the eyes of his teacher for any hint to his puzzling thoughts.

"I am capable of realizing a mistake." He chuckled very slightly. "I can feel her kindness corrupting just as much as Souren's did."

The dog demon barely managed not to scoff. "She is a pressing, over joyful individual." Sesshoumaru agreed. "I am grateful for the information you have given, Sensei." He bowed his head a slight.

He nodded once, and as Sesshoumaru turned, his Sensei added. "Return with the miko once she is no longer ill. I would like to speak with her."

Sesshoumaru paused mid step, glancing back. "As you wish, Sensei."

"Good day, Sesshoumaru-sama." The demon smirked and watched his pupil go.

Sorry for the late, late, late update. I've had a death in the family and then a week later, I fell at work and hurt my arm. It gets very painful after I type for too long, so I've been very slow.