A/N: guys, summer semester is kicking my tail! I really should have spaced the two classes out ^^'
The young Dō servant girl, Azumi, was sitting at a corner table in the banquet hall, surrounded by gifts from the clans. She was closely focused on her task, a brush, ink and paper nearby to record who had sent what. As such, she didn't notice the man approach until he was standing right behind her, slightly bent over to read the characters on her notes.
"who sent them?"
Azumi let out a shrill squeak of terror at the calm but cold voice and turned sharply, instinctively clutching at her scarred arm to protect it from him. Sesshomaru looked down at her, his face an unreadable mask as seemingly featureless as his frightening voice. "who sent the mochi?" he asked her again, glancing at the paper. She gulped, forcing herself to relax and look at the paper.
"The western Mori, Sesshomaru-sama. Or at least, that is what the note said." This seemed to confuse the man, as one brow momentarily wrinkled. "they-ah—" she faltered in fear as his gaze snapped instantly back to her, "they weren't the only ones to send poison or something harmful. The Umi sent a, well, a very obvious and smelly poison that would barely give Rin-sama indigestion if she managed to eat it all."
"hmm."
"I'll continue to keep careful track of everything, Sesshomaru-sama," she promised with a deep bow, hoping he would leave now that he knew what he wanted to know. But he showed no sign of moving, and was now staring at her arm, which she realized she was rubbing anxiously. She quickly stopped and tugged her sleeve down to cover the scars. His next words caught her completely off guard.
"do the scars bother you?"
She left her mouth open for a second or two, shocked by the sudden question. "ah…n-no, milord," she stammered with another bow, starting to sweat as his eyes narrowed slightly.
"you may speak freely, Azumi. I expect everyone who serves me to be honest."
"the scars do not bother me, except by their presence. There is not a known antidote for the Tsuki poison ability, Sesshomaru-sama. My scars are deep and permanent reminders of my debt to you, and that I am very lucky to still have my arm." The narrowed eyes relaxed and he gave a subtle nod, satisfied by her answer. As he turned to leave the room, she remembered something and made a small noise, making him turn back, eyebrow faintly raised.
"I…I need to leave this evening, to go to the palace and give my reports," she told him, swallowing as his eyes narrowed in suspicion again. But this time, he simply nodded.
"when will you return?"
"the day after tomorrow. I will be quick." He nodded again and finally left the room, allowing Azumi to calm her poor racing heart. Clearly the man could not be lied to. She had to pray he wouldn't follow her when she left that night.
As Azumi planned for her to venture out that evening before sunset, it swiftly became apparent to the girl that it would not be safe for her to leave the manor's grounds. The guards were on high alert for anything out of the ordinary, and there wasn't so much as a shack for miles in any direction that she could use to hide in. she couldn't risk going to the nearby villages, as they would obviously be searched first. She knew that Sesshomaru suspected her of something and would be sure she was followed in some way.
No, running would only make it worse for Azumi. Better to stay, to hide until it was over and pray that she wasn't discovered. She finished making a little bundle of food and decided on a whim to check on Lady Rin. She must be going through an incredibly hard time, the poor woman. It was a terrible fate, to lose a pup…
Azumi tapped lightly at the frame of the door and heard a croaky "come in". Rin was dressed in one winter underlayer and tucked comfortably under the blanket. She smiled softly at the young woman, motioning with one bandaged hand that she could come in and sit beside her if she wanted to.
"I'm glad you came," Rin said in the hoarse voice that was all that was left from her earlier screams. "I wanted to thank you for saving me."
Azumi blushed and glanced away. "it was nothing. I was only doing my duty to you, to fulfil my debt." She looked up to see Rin still smiling with such gentle, almost motherly eyes. "I'm sorry. None of this should have happened. I should have caught the drug before you ever reached it. It's all my fault you lost them." She hid her face in her hands, starting to cry. They didn't deserve all the awful things that had happened to them, especially poor sweet Lady Rin.
She gasped in surprise at gentle fingers and a bandaged palm against her wrist, pulling her hand carefully away from her face. "No, Azumi. It isn't your fault." Rin gently tugged on the wrist she had grabbed until she could put Azumi's palm on the faint bulge of her stomach, almost invisible under the thick blanket. "Aki said they're going to be just fine, as long as I rest. You helped me, and them. Don't feel bad about that." The gentle woman's smile widened as fresh tears flowed down the girl's cheeks at the overwhelmingly joyous news.
"R-really?"
Rin nodded gently, her smile finally turning to a grin as Azumi wept in relief, gently patting the faint lump in the blanket and smiling a little herself. She sniffled and wiped furiously at her eyes, trying to dry them. "that's…so wonderful…such happy news. A thousand blessings on the heir, and on you, Rin-sama."
"Sesshomaru said you had to go give your reports to the Palace. It's nearly sundown, and I hate to think of you travelling by yourself in the dark. Won't you go with a guard?" Rin's grin had fallen to a frown of—once again—motherly affection, this time concern.
"actually, Milady, I think I shall go in the morning. I can go plenty fast enough to make my meeting still." Rin sighed in relief at Azumi's words and nodded. "but I do need to go and make sure everything is in order so I can sleep." She patted Rin's bandaged hand gently and stood, nodding to Sesshomaru-sama, who had been listening to the entire exchange as he sat writing something at his desk. He calmly gave a minute nod back and seemed less suspicious than he had been when they had spoken earlier that afternoon. Rin did not strike the girl as being a shrewd judge of character, but her mate clearly trusted her judgement, perhaps more than his own sometimes.
Azumi bowed low and hurried off, feeling a bit of a tingling in her fingers as the sun neared the horizon.
"so you said she's…what, again?" Rin asked as she leaned against her mate's chest while they ate dinner that evening. She was concerned about Azumi's twitchiness even after she had been informed of the pup's survival.
"a mixed blood. More than half, but not pureblood like you or I." Sesshomaru took another bite of his meat, chewing thoughtfully. "She has no moko-moko, and that's one of the easiest ways to tell. Since InuYōkai don't hybridize well, I imagine the lesser half of her blood is human. As such, it does not surprise me that she was born a servant. Hybrids are always second-class citizens, if they are allowed in society at all. That, and the lesser classes are more likely to interbreed with humans and weaken their blood further." During his little speech, Rin had stopped eating, and he turned his head to the side to find her frowning deeply. "I'm sorry, My love, but this is the way it has been for millennia. Those with human blood are weaker by far than purebred."
"and yet," Rin said coldly, "I couldn't tell the difference in strength between you and your brother, even though you have different mothers. What if you're wrong about all of that? A child of two people from different villages isn't any weaker. And if you weren't the heir, and things were different, you would have been happy for our child to be half. You didn't care I was human—your people did."
"Rin, please, don't say such things," he said, frowning in return. "that was once the way things were, when the Yume were in power. But it is what caused their downfall. They weakened their blood too much, and the princess sought to put a hanyō on the throne. When the clans revolted against them they could not resist. Things are the way they are now because it is the only way that can work, and you must accept that." She shook her head resolutely.
"how long did it work just fine, until somebody decided to get ideas about 'purity'?" Rin scoffed, going back to eating. Sesshomaru didn't have an answer for that, or even who had been the one to start it. He had to assume it was someone in the Shiro-yama or Dō clans, as they had led the coup against the Yume of old. But it could have been another person or group entirely who had truly started it. It didn't much matter; it was so deeply ingrained in their culture that barely any child even questioned it. He certainly never had.
Rin let out a yawn and he helped her get settled comfortably in bed. He wanted to go speak to azumi, though he had an idea that the young servant girl wouldn't be where she should be…
It was long after sunset when a pair of soft-shod footsteps sounded outside the door of the closet. Azumi quickly stopped breathing, praying the person would keep walking, but the steps paused.
Please, go away…oh, please. No one's here. Just leave…
She curled more tightly in on herself as the door slid open and a light came with it, a tiny portable lamp held in a pale, clawed hand that was instantly recognizable to the young woman. She felt hot tears begin to run down her face in terror and anticipation of what the man might subject her to once he inevitably found her now…
"Azumi?" He spoke with a quiet uncertainty that startled the youth, making her reopen her closed eyes and look up in surprise. He was standing over her in the dim closet, the small paper lamp in one hand and only his eyes clearly visible as they reflected the light of the lamp held between them. She knew what he was seeing—her shamefully rounded ears, her brown eyes and black hair, the missing claws on the hands that clasped her upper arms tight in some feeble hope of protection from expected blows. She was human tonight, a curse passed down from her great-grandmother, whose 'love' had doomed her entire line to servitude and often early graves. She ducked her head again quickly, shivering in fear as he stood over her silently.
"Azumi…is this," he paused to indicate her changed appearance, "what you sought to hide from me this afternoon?" she managed a very faint, feeble nod, keeping her head tucked into the little ball she had made of herself, tears still falling. It was only a matter of time before the first swing came…
Sesshomaru frowned as the Dō servant girl gasped sharply and flinched away as he set the lamp on the ground between them, clearly anticipating an attack. She looked up, tears streaming down her face, looking more than bewildered as he knelt comfortably in front of her, deliberately relaxing himself in an effort to put her more at ease, though he doubted it were possible.
When the silence, marred only by her frightened panting and the flickering of the lamp, became unbearable to Azumi, she blurted hysterically "what are you waiting for?!"
He met her frightened gaze with an unreadable one, as always. "what is it you expect me to do?" he asked in a calm, flat tone, making no move at all save his lips. She just stared, even more confused.
"y-you found me…you know I have dirty blood…" she managed. "aren't you going to beat me like my last master?" at this, his eyes narrowed and she flinched again, still expecting him to strike her, clearly.
"and who was this master?" he demanded, a note of anger in his normally flat tone.
"I—he-he's no one. He's gone now. It doesn't matter." She shivered again, clutching at the scars that her current master had given her not long ago. He could have killed her in that very instant, when they first met, yet he didn't. but she didn't believe for a second that he was going to be compassionate toward her. She was relieved when he seemed to relax again, and she heard the note of anger replaced with pleasure as he simply said, "I see."
After another long, terrifying pause, she flinched again as his hand reached out, eyeing him fearfully as he frowned slightly. His hand was palm up, a gesture of peace and an offering of help. She looked up from his hand to his unreadable eyes and asked a simple question: "why?"
His eyes softened slightly and his answer was equally simple. "for Rin."
A/N: here's to 100 followers of Youkai Prike, Human Prejudice! 8D
