Two days had passed before he returned.
He explained that he had also been summoned by his father, and needed to return. That he had expected to return sooner. Standing beneath the line tree in the courtyard, hidden behind its trunk, he sat closer than would be considered appropriate.
His father, he told her, had summoned him due to some strange reports. It seemed several clans of youkai had begun to stir up trouble for no reason. Some even breaking trade agreements that had stood longer than even Sesshoumaru had been alive.