A/N: I have launched my funding page, as well as a face book page for my fanfiction and other writing. If you want to support me or get news about my latest projects (or more likely any delays) just search Hannahgallifrey!
Rin was prodding him awake for breakfast the next morning before he knew it, and at last he helped her dress and allowed her down to the dining hall, as her 3 days' restriction was finally over. She was met at the bottom of the stairs by her new midwife, who smiled in a friendly way. Rin pushed past her sullenly, seeming to resent her for no real reason. As Sesshomaru moved to follow her, he heard a pointed cough behind him.
"are you all right?" he asked the midwife out of courtesy. She nodded, bowing slightly. "I am assigned to the Lady Rin. So where milady goes, I must follow, at least until she is fully a youkai."
"I meant about your cough," he clarified. He certainly did not want someone who was potentially sick around his mate when she was in such a delicate state. But she offered a small laugh and explained it was only to get his attention. Rin tugged at his hand again, wanting breakfast and growing impatient. "I'm hungry," she told him, tugging insistently.
"all right, my love. Why don't you wait out on the porch until it's ready? I think I should have a proper talk with our new guest." Rin grumbled softly and left as the nurse turned to Sesshomaru with a polite nod.
"why does she dislike me so, milord?" the woman asked, looking slightly concerned. He sighed softly. "it isn't just you. She has always disliked people caring for her when she can do so herself. She barely tolerates it from me, so I'm not surprised she's less than thrilled to have you."
The woman hummed thoughtfully, taking in the information. "do you think she might warm up to me if I introduced myself?" she suggested, rather out of ideas. She had never encountered such a stubborn or unfriendly woman. Sesshomaru nodded, gesturing for the woman to settle herself at the table to be served while he went to fetch his young mate, who was sitting by the koi pond, watching the fish through the ice. She loved the bright flashes of orange and gold whenever one of them caught the morning light.
After he got Rin to sit opposite the young midwife, he left to get a pot of tea for them, mostly so he could listen in without intruding. Rin still often forgot how good the hearing of an InuYōkai actually was. She was eating eagerly and pointedly ignoring the newcomer, who finally cleared her throat, making Rin look up, before bowing.
"Lady Rin, my name is Chieko. I am a nurse in the service of the Lady Mother, and my specialty is Midwifery." The silence after her statement seemed deafening to Sesshomaru, but he knew it was a good sign, as it meant Rin had stopped eating and was listening to her.
"I have been assigned to care for you and the future heir until such time as the spell is completed, and you are fully a Youkai," the woman continued. Sesshomaru heard a small shuffle as Rin adjusted herself, he assumed sitting up a little straighter with newfound interest.
"Is there a reason you look like Her?" Rin asked suddenly. As she had thus far met very few InuYōkai, and even fewer females, he knew exactly to whom she was referring, and so, it seemed, did the midwife. Chieko hesitated and he quickly finished the tea so he could make his return.
"well, milady, I don't know how much you understand bloodlines and pedigrees, being human as you are…" Rin frowned a little. Of course she understood how they worked with people, and a little with horses, maybe—how different could it really be? She glanced up with a smile and held her hands up for a cup of tea as Sesshomaru appeared by her side with the tray in hand. Chieko immediately stopped talking and straightened up a little, afraid perhaps the subject was taboo for some reason. The Lord's Mother had told her to remain tight-lipped on any subject not directly related to the woman's health and that of their heir.
"you may tell her, Chieko. Perhaps I should have done so sooner." It was something so second nature to him, having grown up surrounded by the interwoven clans, that he hadn't even considered that it was something Rin might not understand. Chieko relaxed once more, clearing her throat softly and taking her own cup of tea.
"well, young Lady, there are 8 entire clans of InuYōkai. There were nine, quite a long time ago. All of those clans, at some level, are interrelated, usually among the Daimyō families. As for why I look like your mother-in-law, well, I am from a minor branch of the Nami clan, roughly, I believe, sixth cousins to the former Inu no Taishō." The woman looked rather pleased with herself after stating this, but Rin was still puzzled. She looked to her mate for clarification. That must have been someone important, after all.
Sesshomaru couldn't help a small smirk at Rin's innocent cluelessness. "My Father," he stated simply, his tiny smirk widening at her sudden shock and disbelief. She stared back and forth between the two of them, mouth slightly open as she compared the similarities. Besides size, eye color and possibly something in the shape of their faces, there wasn't too much. Clearly her mate had taken far more after his mother, and InuYasha must have inherited more of their shared father's looks. "You're related?"
"only very distantly, Rin-sama," Chieko corrected with a happy chuckle. "but yes, we are, in a way, related. We're no closer than two random people in one of your human villages, really." Rin nodded, taking a sip of tea. Well, that made some sense. "you never told me your father was a general," she noted, glancing back at Sesshomaru, who lowered his cup and one white brow. Hadn't he? Had it not been part of her lessons on history and etiquette? He couldn't recall.
"well, I apologize, my dear. My father was the general in his day, and my mother remains as the tendaimyō, the appointed leader of all clans and lands. There has not been a need of a new general for these past two hundred-odd years, for which I am grateful."
"why is that?" she asked him curiously, and he offered her a sly smile. "you didn't listen in your lessons, did you?" she blushed and he nodded, becoming serious once more. "as my father was the Taishō, and my mother is the Tendaimyō, I will inherit the sum of both, once our child is of this world. My title will be Taishōgun." He set his cup on the table, pouring a little more tea for himself. "however, if, for whatever reason, some large conflict were to break out before then, it would be my duty as the heir to take my father's place as general of my mother's armies." He looked up, meeting her eye solemnly. "that is obviously something I wish to avoid at all costs. You are already at enough risk as it is."
Rin shivered slightly, not liking the thought of her beloved marching off to war, not knowing if he would return. Too often the village men did just that. He was clearly having similar thoughts, if the hardness of his distant golden eyes was anything to go by. He had been growing more and more worried since the first of the missives from the Dō and White-Yama clans. They had fought before, causing a terrible civil war he'd had to study in detail in his lessons, and they could certainly do so again if they chose. If they refused to back down, he feared he would have no choice but to allow history to repeat itself in a second civil war—only this time, he had to win. How he could do that when the Yume, with their gift of foresight, could not…well, he prayed he wouldn't have to figure that out.
"well, I'm more interested in your markings, Rin-sama," Chieko noted, trying to lighten the tone from the near morbidity it had reached between the two. She leaned forward a little, examining the completed deep green marks, looking like a small tendril of ivy winding its way from Rin's ear to the center of her cheekbone, under each eye, where it formed a small incomplete curl similar to a shepherd's crook. "it seems so familiar somehow…"
Sesshomaru took new interest in the marks as well. Now that the midwife mentioned it, there was something familiar about them, somehow. "they aren't from any of the eight clans—" he began when she blurted "I've got it!"
Sesshomaru turned to look at Chieko as she glanced to him, excited. "the Yume were marked with Ivy, tendrils for the women and leaves for the men, you remember!" his eyes widened in shock and he looked back to Rin, looking even closer than before. It was green, unlike any of the clans, and it was certainly an ivy shape, which no current clan had. "but…how could that be? They've been extinct for over a millennia, you know the history—every member was slaughtered." Rin cringed at the words of the thoughtful midwife, who was rubbing her chin in contemplation.
"what are you talking about?" Rin asked, looking to her mate for answers. "it's nothing, Rin. They were long extinct before even I was born. My mother was still a child."
"well…do you have any stories?" Rin asked, looking to Chieko and back to Sesshomaru, suddenly eager. If she might have some link to the InuYōkai for herself, then she wanted to know everything she could about it. The only time Rin had heard the words 'Yume clan' they had been followed immediately by the word 'massacre', and that was all she really knew about them. Everyone was so tight-lipped about them, either reverent or fearful, Rin couldn't tell which.
"well…" Chieko began, suddenly hesitant. "every child of any sort of rank knows the histories…but…" she looked to Sesshomaru as if requesting permission to speak, and he nodded once. If Rin wanted to know something, then she deserved to, and she had never yet requested information he couldn't give her. Chieko sighed in resignation and sat up a little straighter.
"you know the saying that history repeats itself?" she asked Rin, who nodded, listening intently, her food and mostly-empty cup of tea forgotten. "well, it was then as it is now, but it ended…very poorly." Rin nodded, motioning for her to continue. Obviously the name would not be synonymous with civil war if things had turned out all right. "there was a princess who chose to take a human to mate and bore him a hanyou child." Well, Rin thought, that did sound very similar to their current situation. "a hanyou cannot inherit at all, especially such a high rank as that of Taishōgun. The clans were angry—no, outraged—at this, and they fought and overthrew the Yume, executing them all in a single day, ending with the Ivy-marked princess, her human mate, and the child last of all…" Rin cringed, gasping in horror at the thought of anyone being so ruthless as to be willing to kill an innocent child.
Sesshomaru took Rin's hand to comfort her. "as awful as that sounds, it is our history. The clans would not hesitate to revolt again if they discovered you as a human, which is why we chose to transform you."
Chieko shook her head. "it's more than that, Sesshomaru-sama. The Northern clans have been waiting for even the slightest rumor of you claiming a human since your father went astray over two hundred years ago."
He growled softly. "they are fools."
"oh, yes. Dangerous fools. And they greatly outnumber us." Rin's head shot up in alarm. "but aren't there a lot of you? I thought you said there were hundreds!"
"total, yes. But in the Nami clan—that's mine—there are only perhaps 6 of us, and in the Tsuki, only the two you know. Soon to be three." She nodded to Rin, indicating her future child. Sesshomaru nodded in confirmation and Rin hid her face in his fluff, suddenly fearful. "don't worry, Rin-sama. It's perfectly safe. None of the clans, and especially the Dō, can enter without the express written permission of the Lady Mother or Milord."
"it's really safe?" she mumbled into his moko, and he sighed. "I promise." But he stiffened slightly as he suddenly remembered the overly cordial letter he had sent the day before…an invitation to both the Dō and white-yama clans to come, not just into the territory, but to his mother's palace, at the new year!
A/N: don't worry, if you think the plot's thick now, you'll be able to walk on it soon! hope to get more out as soon as possible but life's got me pretty down