Warning: None

Daughters of Destiny

Chapter 14:

"Paid in Full"

Sesshomaru's fist smoked as if he'd caught a bullet in his fingertips. He looked utterly unbothered by the entire affair, however. He gazed with pensive calm at his hand, white hair drifting on the silver moonlight, golden eyes flashing like lanterns in the dark. Unhurried. Unmoved. Unperturbed. Soon he uncurled his hand, smoke drifting from the expanse of his broad palm and out of sight.

His lips curled when he murmured, "You are powerful… for a spirit."

Abbot—no, Kikyo scowled, lip curling as she gazed down at Sesshomaru from her perch upon thin air. "What's this?" she said with undisguised disdain. "A demon?"

He inclined his head, somehow staring at her down his nose despite her lofty height. "But this Sesshomaru is more powerful still," he said, continuing right where he'd left off.

And as if she hadn't heard him, Kikyo continued: "In my absence, the demons have become quite bold, then." She tossed her long, dark hair, imperious stare nearly a match for Sesshomaru's. "It matters not, however. They are still trash."

The pair had been talking at and around each other, not to each other, but something in Kikyo's words finally earned her Sesshomaru's attention. His eyes trained on her at last, narrowing until the gold of his irises gleamed narrowly from his scornful gaze.

"Insults?" he said, addressing her at last. "How ill-mannered. This Sesshomaru shall take great delight in banishing you to the netherworld from whence you came."

But Kikyo only scoffed, a wry laugh pouring from her throat. "You? Banish me?" she said "Ha! Impudent demon scu—"

Sesshomaru did not let her finish. "Be gone, spirit," he said, and faster than the crack of lightning, he slashed his claws through the air in her direction.

The attack, in anyone else's hands, would've undoubtedly missed—but Sesshomaru's clawed fingers aren't just anyone's. A brilliant laceration of light ripped through the air from the tips of his talons, erupting like a geyser into Kikyo's startled face. She screamed, figure scattering like mist under a lance of sunlight, vanishing into incorporeal wisps flexed with diaphanous gold. A ghostly wail accompanied these wisps as they streaked through the air over our heads, shooting through the night back the way we'd come—toward the river? It was my only guess. Still, despite the distance growing between myself and Kikyo, I tensed, expecting her to reappear at any moment. She did not, however, graveyard at last bereft of spirits who had wandered in from the afterlife.

That's saying nothing of the demons who'd wandered in, however.

Sesshomaru turned toward me as I scrambled to my feet, still sporting the same domineering expression with which he'd favored Kikyo. It wasn't a particularly kind look. Cold and commanding, he looked me over with all the interest a lion pays to a rat, as if he'd rather behold literally anyone other than me just then. But despite the sneering cast to his features, I couldn't shake a certain feeling of awe. If it hadn't been for the flowing fur ruff trailing from his armored shoulder, I would've sworn he'd been carved from stone and precious metals. The golden eyes, the unnatural smoothness of his skin, the silken flow of his hair, the perfect symmetry of his face—had I been too terrified when we'd first met to appreciate how lovely he was, crescent moon face tattoo notwithstanding? Or was my sidetracked appreciation of his face born purely out of fear?

Because I was afraid. Fear of Kikyo had been replaced by fear of Sesshomaru, that demon who had talked so dispassionately of murdering me back when we'd first crossed paths. His eyes certainly hadn't grown any warmer since then, and all of a sudden I felt hyperconscious of my rumpled robes and dirty bare feet. As I stood there, fidgeting in fear and awkwardness in turns, I wondered if, perhaps, I'd been better off with Kikyo's golden energy than with Sesshomaru's golden eyes…

It should come as no surprised that I flinched when he raised his head, hair flowing around him in a wash of silvery silk. I flinched again when the whip-crack of his voice announced, "The fox has left this Sesshomaru's territory."

"… eh?" I said, because this was not at all what I had expected him to say.

His chin lifted even higher, somehow. "The coward fled once he beheld this Sesshomaru's might," he said, "and once the coward realized his prize had been usurped."

"Eh?!"

"The paper, girl," he stated with an irritated glower. "Are you particularly slow-witted, or are all humans this egregiously obtuse?"

"Just me, I think." Cursing myself for the quip, I quickly added, "But why are you telling me this?"

He heaved a weary sigh. I got the sense he found speaking with me an utterly exhausting experience, and that I was not important enough to deserve the effort of a mere facsimile of a polite modulation of tone. Waving one clawed hand at the village behind me, Sesshomaru shot me a witheringly impatient look.

"Indirect although your actions may have been," he said, words as slow as if he spoke to a child, "they assisted in driving that incommodious thief away." Here he glowered again, lips turning downward in a censorious frown. "And this Sesshomaru is unreservedly loathe to owe a debt to any human, no matter how trivial that debt may be."

And with that, Sesshomaru just looked at me in anticipatory silence. He wore expectance on his face, the crescent moon tattooed on his forehead wrinkled with the finest of impatient lines—and after taking a minute or two to piece his words together, I thought maybe I understood why he was here. Sesshomaru perceived my interference in his business with Youko Kurama to be in his benefit, which meant he owed me something, even if I didn't share that perspective. He wanted to be absolved of his debts, whether they were real or imagined… and since I knew that decorum must matter quite a lot to this demonic prince (so to speak), I had no choice but to give him what he asked for.

That's why I bowed, long and long, back of my neck fully exposed. "Thank you, Lord Sesshomaru, for your aid in this undeserving girl's time of need," I said to the ground and my dirty toes, adopting his archaic speech patterns for good measure. "This unworthy girl consider all debts repaid in full."

"Hmmph." His feet (the only thing of him I could see just then) shifted, heels facing me as he turned away. "As you should."

Only when he took a step forward, out of my line of sight, did I dare rise from my bow. I didn't dare look at him, though. I spun and marched swiftly away, back toward the rest of the village, thanking my lucky stars with every step that the only thing Sesshomaru had wanted for me to absolve him of—

"Wait."

I froze. Sesshomaru waited for my attention in a tense silence more intimidating than any spoken words. Wooden as a marionette, I rotated inch by inch until I saw him from the corner of my eye. He wore the same condescending expression as before, one that only intensified as he lifted his nose high into the air. I steeled myself for whatever would inevitably follow, convinced this was not going to end well.

But Sesshomaru only said, "Read this Sesshomaru's fate, seer." It was not a request. "What does the future hold in store for the firstborn son and heir of the Inu no Taisho?"

For a second, I just gaped at him. Of all the things for him to ask, this most certainly ranked lowest on my list of possible questions—because I hadn't thought he'd actually believed Kagome's lie about me being a seer in the first place! Seems he'd done some deliberating after we'd originally met... or was he just testing me for some unknown purpose? The thought of that sent a chill down my spine. If he was testing me, and if I said the wrong thing, the consequences could be dire.

… but then again, I actually knew the truth about his future. I could answer his question honestly, if I wanted to, because I knew the name of a certain little girl who would occupy his future in the most important of ways. It was one of the few things I knew about the series, after all. Although I'd never seen the episodes about her, my old friend Lia had loved to talk about Rin, using Sesshomaru's connection to the child as proof of his softer side.

I hadn't spoken to Lia in a long time. It had been years since I last saw her. We'd lost touch even before I died in my old life. But deep in my gut, I knew she'd be crushed if I didn't tell Sesshomaru what he would one day become—and almost unbidden, words poured from my mouth.

"I see family," I said, unable to stop myself. "Companionship. Even love. All from a source you'd likely consider impossible." I smiled, thinking of Lia's face and of what she'd say if she could see me now. Ducking my head, I aimed my smile at my feet. "But that won't happen for a long while yet."

Sesshomaru retorted, "This Sesshomaru would prefer power over love."

"Isn't love a power all its own?" I said with a low chuckle, raising my eyes to meet his incredulous golden stare. "That's what all the poets say."

For the briefest of seconds, he loomed nearly pensive—but then he scoffed. "Sentimental drivel from a poor excuse of a seer," Sesshomaru said, wheeling with a flutter of silver hair. Voice as hard as silk is soft, Sesshomaru commanded, "Get out of my sight—because the next time we meet, this Sesshomaru will not be so magnanimous."

I didn't need to be told twice. Wind in my hair and earth under my feet, I left, running back the way I'd come toward the river beneath the light of the impartial and unfeeling stars.

My feet bled from a dozen tiny cuts by the time I limped back to the water's edge, where I found Kagome lying still and cold upon the shore's hard stones beneath a curtain of gold-glowing souls. A crowd had gathered around her fallen body, but they parted like the sea before Moses as I strode to her side and knelt there, breath rasping and painful in my throat. Boats of folded paper floated away toward the dark horizon, souls drifting in their wake in a glimmering stream. Had I not been so focused on Kagome, I would've marveled at the sight of the souls drifting down to the water and entering the boats one by one, making them glow as if lit from within by the light of a burning flame. The boats made it look like the sun had started to rise somewhere around the river bend, casting a warm glow to the horizon, but I ignored the phantasmal sight as I grabbed one of Kagome's hands, chafing it to put some warmth back into her icy fingers.

Kaede, across from me, grasped my wrist in one gnarled hand. "Did you get the prize you sought? Did you reclaim her soul?"

I nodded.

"Then quickly, girl!" she cried, holding out her other hand. "Give the boat to me, for time is short and the hour late!"

Reaching into my robe, I grasped the folded boat—still glowing with the light of Kagome's soul—and handed it over without a word. Kaede gestured, and a boy standing nearby poured sake from a jug into an earthenware cup. This she took in her other hand; she closed her eyes and chanted what I could only assume to be spell over the sake, and then she tipped the boat toward the cup of sake as if pouring tea from a kettle. Incomprehensibly, from the boat poured golden liquid, which spilled into the sake until it, too, began to glow. The light faded from the boat iota by iota, dimming as the cup glowed brighter, and the cup somehow never overflowed even though Kaede poured Kagome's soul into it for quite some time. Apparently souls have a lot of volume, but that volume is sake-soluble (or something; I wasn't in the most analytical state of mind just then).

Kaede didn't look at me when she spoke, eyes locked on the task before her. "Tell me what happened, child."

I swallowed, freeing my tongue to speak. "The other soul—you were right. It was my friend's sister." Holding Kagome's cold hand tighter, I said, "She wanted my friend's body for her own and tried to take it from her."

Kaede's mouth thinned. "And the weakened veil on o-bon night allowed her to enter the world of the living in the most powerful possible state. She was lucky that you and I were there to mend what the spirit desired broken." Finally her eyes flickered to my face, but only for a moment. "Do ye know the spirit's name, child?"

"Well…" It was complicated. "Sort of."

"Whatever ye know will have to do." She'd tipped the boat nearly perpendicular to the ground by then, and soon the glow faded from its paper lines completely. The cup in her hand glowed like a small sun, casting warm light into Kaede's wizened face as she handed the empty boat to me. "Speak the name into the sails of the boat and set it adrift upon the water. The soul of your friend's dear sister will follow the whisper of her name and leave this world with the sunrise." Pushing at my wrists, she urged, "Go, now. Go!"

I did as Kaede bade, though tearing myself from Kagome's unconscious side proved difficult. The boat felt indescribably fragile under my fingertips, and I walked with overstated care—crowed parting around me and following in my wake—toward the water's edge. The icy river seemed to suck at my feet and legs, pulling me deeper and deeper until I stood in water nearly to my waist, holding the boat aloft and dry, feet sinking into the cold river mud below. The golden orbs, souls of the village's dead, bobbed and whirled upon the air, swirling above my head in an infinite maelstrom of spectral light that drowned out the stars completely. I pulled the boat sharply to my chest when one soul ventured too close, too curious, too near to the boat that was meant for someone else.

It was funny, in a way. The boat had been folded in honor of Abbot, but it had once held the soul of Costello. And now the soul of Kikyo—Abbot's unwanted other self—would occupy its folded sails. I could only hope that some small scent of Costello-called-Kagome lingered in the boat, and that the sister's connection would be enough to attract Abbot-called-Kikyo, wherever she had fled to that night. I only knew two of her names, after all, and neither truly belonged to her.

Nevertheless, I pressed my lips to the boat's paper sails, sorrow in my heart that it was me, and not Kagome-called-Costello, who would bid Abbot goodbye.

"Abbot. Kikyo," I breathed. "Time to go back now." And I set the boat upon the water. "I'm sorry."

The boat leapt from my hands almost of its own accord, borne away from me on the waves by the same tide lapping at my skin. A shiver coursed through my blood as the boat joined the other boats bobbing upon the waves, and although I tried to keep my eyes fixed upon it, I soon lost sight of the boat amid the darkness of the night. Soon, though, a light left the contingent of soul-spheres floating above the river, illuminating one of the many boats sailing free upon the water. I only hoped that boat was Abbot's as it disappeared around the river bend and out of sight, and with that hope clenched firmly in my heart, I waded back toward the shore.

Kaede watched me with hawkish eyes as I returned, but when I gave her a nod of confirmation—a silent admission that I had done what she had asked—her gaze softened. She looked at Kagome, whose head she had laid upon her lap, and tipped the cup of glowing sake into Kagome's open mouth. Kagome's throat moved as she swallowed, drinking sip after sip of the sake until none of it remained. Anxiety hot in my chest, I knelt at her side and watched as her eyes moved behind closed lids, thin skin rippling as though Kagome dreamed some unknown dream of times long past.

"Hey," I murmured, unable to keep quite any longer. "Hey, hey Tigger. Can you hear me?"

At the sound of her nickname, her lashes fluttered against her cheeks, and she reached out with shaking hands. "Kei?"

"Yeah, honey." I laced my fingers through hers, combing hair from her cheeks as relief turned my blood to song. "It's me."

"Wha—what?" Her eyes at last opened, blinking in the light of the torches the villagers around us held. "Where am—?"

"You're OK," I said, not knowing if this was true. "It's all OK now. It—"

"Where's Abbot?"

Her eyes, once bleary, now held complete and unbroken focus. She stared up at me with fire in her vision, flame reflecting in her burning gaze, searching my face as a dog searches the air for scent—but when I could only stare at her in silence, the meekest of apologies slipping like breath from my mouth, something inside her broke.

"Hey, hey," I said, trying to soothe. "Hey—it's OK. I promise, it's—"

But Kagome could not be soothed. Her eyes had filled with tears, and as a sob ripped from her throat, she grabbed me around the neck and held on, tight, to cry her sister's name into my shoulder.

It was all I could do to hold her in return, and to try not to cry, too.

NOTES

After this, we just have chapters 15, 16 and 17… and then it will be over. And for what it's worth, 16 and 17 are both basically epilogues from Keiko and Kagome's respective POVs. Chapter 17 in particular will be very short. The end truly is nigh...

Many thanks to these amazing peeps for sticking with the story after all this time: rickrossed, SesshomarusLuver, HuangBaiLian, xenocanaan, Kaiya Azure, random person, BlushLover930, Kitty-ryn, Sorlian, IronDBZ, Viviene001, Cestlavie!