"Your...tail?" Kagome asked, with confusion evident in her voice.

What did her second tail have to do with Inuyasha's infidelity?

Ahmya didn't bother to acknowledge her enquiry. She watched as Ahmya took off the meido stone and held it between them in the palm of her hands. At first, Kagome only saw her reflection in the large navy-blue gem but then, a light began to swirl along its surface and then shot up between them with an image of a man she assumed was no other than Toga, the InuTaisho (the light show was highly reminiscent of holograms in sci-fi shows). As she spoke the images correlated to her words, some abstract images and some were as if it was pulled from the Inukimi's memories itself.

"This all began thousands of years ago when I mated Toga. I was a young demon of 126 and he 130 at the time. My father had just died 20 years prior to that and I had been the Lady since then. We lay under th he stars and was planning our future together.

"I want more than one child," Ahmya said as she drew patterns over Toga's naked chest.

"If I had my way with you we would have a litter of pups running rampant along these halls."

"I would sooner rip your manhood off myself than let you do such a thing."

He laughed. "How much then?"

"I have my heart set on two boys. Any more children would be up for debate"

"Then I ask for us to wait to have them. I'm not ready to share your fits with any pup as yet"

"We waited almost 3 thousand years before we tried for a child. At once, I was pregnant with your beloved Lord. It was an easy five months with him with absolutely no complications. We could have tried at once for another but we chose to wait and focus completely on Sesshomaru."

She smiled softly at the memory as it played. It was strange yet fitting to see how even in his childhood how calm he was. He sat surrounded by books and his paints (although she swore she saw him use both arms interchangeably to do calligraphy).

They were overlooking their son over tea as he painted.

"Are you sure he's ours, my heart? He's so calm and serious," Toga said as he looked at the 5-year-old.

"You watched me push him out," Ahmya answered.

"But he's already more level-headed than me and he's 6!"

"It's because he's related to me, dear."

"And this moment is when everything went downhill. Before we mated, Toga was a degenerate dog with many conquests. From the day he became mature in the eyes of demon society he endeavoured to warm as many beds as possible. And it went on like that until he met me and we fell in love."

"But what of his conquests?" Kagome had many questions on Toga's philandering character. "Surely if he is any part of the tempter you imply, many of the beds he found himself in may not have been as emotion-less as he may have assumed"

"Hardly anyone that shared a bed with Toga left it without some sentiment towards him. He left a string of broken hearts. Some were more broken than others. None more than a white Inu called Sakura. She was an almost permanent bedfellow of his that worked as a soldier in the castle. They grew up together, lost their virginity to one another and no matter who they went to, they always returned to each other. All who knew of them expected them to eventually mate. That is until I came and ruined her future." Ahmya gave a self-deprecating yet smug smile to herself.

"What happened next?" Kagome asked, totally immersed in the story. She had no idea what this story had to do with anything, but she was hooked.

"Eventually, she took her revenge of course."

The image in the stone showed a mist taking over the image and she saw the memory Ahmya hacking and coughing in the miasma (she only was able to tell it was miasma by the effect it had on the memory Ahmya).

" Koi!"

"As you know, white dog demons can create a miasma and hold resistance to it. Luckily, even though he was a silver dog demon, Sesshomaru had inherited the resistance; so it affected only me. As she intended."

"How could you, Sakura! You were my friend yet you tried to kill my mate and your lady?"

"How could I?! I loved you, Toga! I was supposed to be your mate. She should have mated some ponce to rule with and I should have been with you"

"That never would have happened. Can't you be happy that I finally found love?"

"You haven't found love. I know you and I know that she will hold your affections for so long.

" Worry not. As a token of our friendship, she will not die. Only her dreams of her big family. I hope you're happy with just one."

Kagome gasped at the revelation. She did not need any clarification on what the scorned woman had done. The proof of the Inukimi's barrenness lay in her only son.

"What happened to her?"

"I tortured and humiliated her for a month before showing mercy and allowing her to kill herself" she responded as though it was the most normal thing in the world (and to her it was; it was why no one messed with her or the West).

"I was devastated of course and spent the next decade focusing solely on your beloved lord and mourning. Yet I still wanted children and foolishly I asked Toga to grant me this."

"Go out, and find any woman with suitable traits that wouldn't mind giving up their child to me. Let them know they will want for nothing for doing this. If it's only human women then so be it."

"That same month he met a 25-year-old Izayoi who was also being pursued by Ryokutuseki. 6 months later he left the Palace, a 16-year-old Sesshomaru, myself and our mating.

" When I said to get me a child I didn't mean this!"

"Ahmya-"

" How could you? You can't just leave everything and run off after her. You have responsibilities not only to this family but to the West!"

"I have to follow my heart Ahmya"

"I thought I was your heart?"

"It's different with her. I love her. "

"If you love her why don't you mate her and make her your second mate or your concubine? Why must you dissolve ours?"

"It's not fair to Izayoi."

"You're killing me, Toga"

"Second mate? I know that it's possible to have more than one mate, like Yasuhiro's parents, but don't they all have to be mated at the same time to each other?"

"That's true of canines, my dear. But dogs like me can have more than one mate. The males practised it, taking on several mates at different times. It's no longer practised but it is still possible."

It was slowly dawning on her.

"And you know the rest. He left us and I took Sesshomaru to the Sky Palace. The Hanahaki Disease began to slowly kill me and accelerated the moment he died two years after he left. Izayoi killed herself three years after that and left Inuyasha to fend for himself until I found when he was 5 and took him in thereafter.

"I was close to death when I found him. The yellow tulips I was coughing up were full blooms meaning that my time was up. But my time could not be up: I had to be there for both of them. My children had no one else but me. So out of sheer force of will, I gathered my energy to me and tried to purge the blooms rather than risk going to a Miko and losing my ability to love anything. It didn't work, but it stopped it from worsening. It's now part of me and fuels my poison and the feat earned me my second tail."

The light projecting out of the stone died down and painted the room in darkness.

Kagome's heart bled at the sordid tale. Why did love have to hurt? It nearly destroyed the woman in front of her. Yes, she now understood what this story had to do with Inuyasha. It was both how he came to exist and an insight to his intentions for her (a second mate or concubine). But there was something else that was niggling in the back of her mind.

"You said you had Hanahaki Disease. What is it?" Kagome asked.

The answers she was searching for all this time was right before her.

She gave a humourless laugh before launching into the explanation. Hanahaki disease is a lovesickness those of the royal silver western line is prone to, no matter how far off the relation (although others of no relation can have it). It's caused by unrequited love. Once contracted, the infected's lungs slowly fill with flowers that represent their love until they eventually suffocate on it. Symptoms of it are faintings, fevers bouts of anger, coughing up blood or petals. The only foolproof cure is to have their love returned.

"I think Sesshomaru has this," Kagome said with dread, before explaining what had brought her here weeks ago.

Solemnly Ahmya agreed with Kagome's findings. The possibility was high and ahmya promised to further look into it before escorting Kagome to her room before moving off to hers. But Kagome couldn't bear to be by herself after all she learnt.

She did the only thing she could.

Bursting into his room with tears brimming in her eyes she found him already up and waiting for her with Ichiro (who was dead to the world). Without missing a beat she closed the doors behind and jumped into his arms. He deftly caught her mid-air and placed her on the bed and wiped away her tears. Methodically he knelt before her and began to help her undress and redress in his outer haori (she didn't bother with modesty before him because he had already seen everything and more of what she had to offer).

"I never heard the end of the story from the other night, can you continue?"

He didn't bother to ask what was wrong, understanding that she was not quite ready to divulge the route of her sadness, so he continued his story.

How could she tell him what was wrong with her when it's him? He's dying from mot having his love returned. Either way, she considers, their moments like this was coming to an end. If he does then all of this is over. If she succeeds in finding out who his love is and convince her to give him a chance.

Because there's no way it's her, and it broke her heart more than Inuyasha's betrayal did (she hadn't even shed a tear for that). If it was her, he would be okay.

Though she tried to bury it under their respective duties, responsibilities and paths (him to the West and his family and her to help people, and to a lesser extent Inuyasha) it stayed there and bloomed beautifully, even under the oppressive darkness she kept it in.

Almost like the flowers that hypothetically grew in his lungs.

He should be okay if his love was her, because his love was surely returned.

Merry Christmas everyone. Lots to unpack, which is fitting for Christmas. Now, this might be the last chapter for the year So happy new year in advance.