Amaranth
By Aycelcus
Rating: R (for violence and sexual situations in later chapters)
Disclaimer: I do not own Inu Yasha, it's characters or likenesses. I am borrowing them for just a little while. Also, I do not own the Landers and any related characters. They belong to my best friend. I do own Cillara, her likeness and all things that pertain to her character. AKA.: Don't own, don't sue.
Author's Note: Rin at nine is more mature than Rin at six, and I imagine the changes wrought within Sesshoumaru from the point he resurrected her with Tensaiga would perhaps lead them to this point. At this point, Sesshoumaru's hatred of humans has cooled into a passive dislike for most humans. He still thinks his brother is the most unfortunate idiot hanyou to walk the earth, but as Inu Yasha and Kagome grew in that final battle with Naraku, so too did Sesshoumaru. All characters need to grow, or they become static and unbelievable. Obviously we all guessed that Sesshy wasn't evil, not in the classical sense. Rin proves it.
Chapter Three: All the Things You Thought You Knew
Purple settled upon Sesshoumaru as he lay there beside the woman. It calmed his fury, soothed his shock. It brought with it a sense of warmth and feathers, for he had fallen near fully on top on one of her large, soft wings. He fought the sudden need to burrow deep, to inhale the dusky scent and bury his fingers within the down. A little voice at the back of his mind whispered that he was overtaken, that the spell that held him fast would be the death of him.
"For now, we are even." He heard himself agreeing, and pulled up gently from the ground. "For now." Then he spoke no more, just wordlessly picked her up as if she weighed no more than a wish (she was light as a child, lighter than Rin, he thought.) Then he carried her inside to the waiting servants and the steaming bath, careful to not look at her face. She did not stir to answer, the last of her newly won strength expended. She let the servants remove her soiled garments, let them run soap and water over wounds too old to be so fresh. She didn't look at him, although he remained by her side the whole time. Rin stood off to the side, uncharacteristically silent as she watch the ablutions of the winged woman.
The servants were gentle and unobtrusive. They bandaged what they could. They perfumed her body with lavender oil, they brushed her hair and wings until the feathers dried and oiled them until they gleamed. Clever fingers cut into a kimono, keen hands robed her in the silk and tied ribbons to the neckline, until the garment covered her small frame and did not pull or bunch at her wings. Clips given to Rin appeared then, and soon her hair was carefully piled at the nape of her neck and fastened.
The whole process took the better part of two hours, but in the end, seated on a low-backed chair in the solar was a creature as unlike the crystal-born birdling as could be imagined. Her eyes were half-lidded and painted a soft purple, her hands relaxed over the lap of a simple, elegant black kimono (a sad holdover from the days when his mother had mourned her own parents.) A small sash of red and gold had replaced the obi, and soft slippers covered her small feet. Sesshoumaru was taken aback by the change. Armor and knives could never have graced this delicate form, (but he had the proof. Rin was still quietly counting the tiny daggers drawn from the folds of the woman's tattered armor.) Angry, sarcastic words could never fall from the lips of this lady, but Sesshoumaru knew that they had. Magic of such intensity should never pulse with such intensity and wrack her slight body, but even now it was there, thrumming just below the surface, promising things both wondrous and wild. Such an enigma, this birdling. Such a puzzle, she.
It had been instinct, that flash of magic that burned from her fingers and caught the arrogant Lord unawares. So strong, and so painful it was. Like a wounded soldier bleeding too much, her magic was drained and weak. Like blood, its essence sustained her. It was deep in her cells, and it etched its way across her DNA in arcing patterns born of a goddess's will; it held her suspended in life, cursed to immortality in whatever form it could devise. Like the castle fallen around her and drawn into the crystal cocoon, the magic was almost sentient in its purpose. And like loss of blood, she needed to replenish her store of strength against the tide of time. So as instinctual as it was, it had been foolish to waste such precious power on the arrogance of a breathing marble statue.
Afterwards, after the retort that had fallen unbidden from her lips she had lain limp and lifeless. She was unable to react, too tired to fight against the ebb and flow of servants with their skilled fingers and relentless ministrations. She did not protest the presence of Sesshoumaru as she was bathed, did not question the company of his strange, human daughter. And although her fingers itched to hold her knives, and her skin cried at the lack of familiar dragon-hide, she did not try to dissuade either from being taken gently from her. She sat in the sun, under the windows of the great solar, and simply willed herself to be still and warm. Eventually she drifted off, the yellow sun on her skin soaking in and diffusing into purple.
Sesshoumaru left the solar then; as the woman sleeping under the sun in the care of his trusted servants. He took Rin with him, and she held her questions until they had walked outside to the gardens.
"Who is she, Sesshoumaru-sama? Is she youkai, like you?" The nine-year old asked, a rose rolling between her fingertips just inches away from sharp thorns.
"No, this Sesshoumaru does not believe her to be youkai. Her name-" A flash then, and she was bright in his mind. "I am the Cillara De Santo, Avatar to the Lady Irene of… well I suppose that doesn't matter much now."
"… Her name is Cillara, and I do not know more than that."
"Oh…" Rin began to gather flowers then, the habits of childhood soothing her. "You went to find her, didn't you? That is why you disappeared."
Sesshoumaru understood what his human daughter was saying then, years of experience allowing him to read between her words.
"I could not leave her where I found her. She is dangerous in her potential."
"She is sad." Fingers skillfully stripped the roses of their thorns. Rin did not say more.
"… She is that." Sesshoumaru said, and then lapsed into silence. The pair walked companionably through the gardens, safe from prying eyes and philandering youkai, an odd partnership that managed nonetheless.
Hours had gone by and night had fallen when she woke, still drowsy under the stars as she straightened in her chair. In the shadows next to her, draped lazily across another chaise was Sesshoumaru, his eyes glinting slightly in the low light as he stared at her. She wondered how long he had been there, watching her. He moved forward then, his face drifting into the light falling from the moon. Her hawk-sharp eyes pierced the darkness without difficulty, and his features were clear and bright in the soft, silver light.
"Now," he said conversationally. "Now, we talk."
In the shadows on the other side of the half-world, a figure moved from its vigil. It watched as its quarry was awoken by the demon lord. Then it smiled cruelly in the darkness, and scuttled off to far away realms to seek its Master. The time had come at last, and the last child of Geneva would soon be but a memory.
Dun dun dun dun! Read and review!
A.N.: Not as long as some, not as short as others, but my brain is fried anyways. Lessee here, I think it's becoming obvious that Fluffy knows that there is a spell on him of some sort. Anyways, I thought I might give you a quick back-story on Cillara DeSanto, just in case it never comes up fully in the story. The thing is, she will be a mystery to Sesshoumaru for much of the story, and she will be a mystery to us as well. But here are a few things that might come up: Cillara DeSanto is an Avatar. What the hell is that, you ask? Basically, she is kind of a freelance angel (for lack of a better word) for her goddess (whom has a far closer relationship with her devotees than most religions devise today.) She didn't start out that way, she was a mortal mage long before she gained immortality at the hands of her Lady. But all things must come full circle, and older quarrels than we can know brought war upon the Gods of her realm, and they fell. In a last ditch effort to protect a shred of her beloved universe, the Lady Irene made her Avatar a sort of living memorial, and encased her in the shard of the living castle to sleep until long after the war was done. Kind of messed up, I know. Hope that helps (or didn't ruin anything.)
Also, in answer to Sayah, yes she is from the future, but not the same future as Kagome. The multiverse that she comes from is kinda like Sliders in the respect that universes are side by side. The Genevan universe runs on a different time than that of Inu Yasha.
Azure Dragoness: I like it when they fight, too. ^.^ they don't argue in this chapter, but just you wait till the next one! Sesshoumaru is going to try and glean information out of his newest prize, and after napping, she's all perky again. So let us see how Round Two goes, eh?