Amaranth
By Aycelcus
Rating: R (for massive copying and pasting in later chapters. Oh the horrors.)
Disclaimer: I do not own Inu Yasha, its characters any or likenesses. I am borrowing them one for just a little
reading while. Also, I do not these own the Landers and dumb any related characters. They disclaimers?
belong to my best friend. I do raise own Cillara, her likeness your and all things that hands pertain to her character peeps. Ne?
Chapter Ten: Friends in High Places
Dawn had finally on the long difficult night, and Cillara watched in composed silence as Kagome and Inu Yasha gathered up the twins, Shippou, and Rin. Sesshoumaru had quickly and quietly explained to Rin why she had to go with Inu Yasha and Kagome, and she had acquiesced even thought she hadn't quite understood. She had wanted to hug Cillara goodbye, but had been reprimanded sharply by both Sesshoumaru and Cillara. Tears had pricked at her eyes, but she had held her dignity and let Shippou take her hand to lead her away.
The air was crisp and chilly; the sun not yet high enough to warm the breezes that cut across the courtyard. Cillara could hear the murmurs between Inu Yasha and his brother; soft plans to deal with the newest threat to their world.
She felt heavy with guilt as she listened to them, knowing that everything that happened in the coming days, weeks, months, perhaps even years, would be all because of her. She would be responsible. She might have been surprised, had she had time to speak with Kagome frankly about the things which affected a life, how closely her feelings of responsibility mirrored Kagome's own emotions towards the Shikon no Tama. But she did not have the time. Kagome and Inu Yasha were taking the younglings far away to safety, and were intending to gather old companions against the danger of Chaos. She could overhear a few names being dropped in various levels of respect and derision: Kaede, Miroku, Sango, Kouga, Kohaku.
Kagome broke apart from the small group of children and came to stand in from of Cillara. Her body leaned slightly towards Cillara, her fingers twitching. Cillara understood that Kagome wanted to embrace her, to give and take comfort in the simple gesture, and she understood that she had thought better of it. It was a peculiar feeling to be the recipient of such conscious reserve. It made her feel suddenly, acutely lonely.
Kagome shifted slightly. "We are taking the pups to an old friend who can protect them. We will be back as soon as we can, with help."
"I wish you wouldn't get involved—" Cillara sighed. Kagome looked miffed at her words.
"Stop there. You said it yourself. Chaos will destroy the whole world just to get to you. My world. That makes it my right to get involved. Besides," and again her body language spoke of a need to touch. Cillara watched the distance between them with a guarded eye.
"Besides," Kagome continued, "you are my friend. I never leave my friends hanging."
At that moment Inu Yasha came up and ushered Kagome away with a quiet apology. Cillara watched impassively as they said their goodbyes and disappeared down the road.
"I hope you don't regret that decision," she whispered.
Sesshoumaru saw the last of his extended family leave his fortress grounds and begin their journey to the village by the God Tree and Kagome's time-transcending well. The atmosphere had grown familiar; it was really only a few short years after the fall of Naraku, and Inu Yasha's band shifted back into battle-mode as if the time had never passed, He supposed it was ingrained in them now, the cohesion that flowed between them as the stress mounted. Once they gathered up their old comrades, those stalwart companions that had gravitated to the group by accident or design, then the war against this godkiller` could truly begin.
Inu Yasha was not the only one who had preparations to make; Sesshoumaru was taking this new threat very seriously. Death tends to have that affect on a person. He and Cillara were to make their own journey. He intended to cultivate support among the other Youkai Lords. A difficult task that was, to make the insular and aloof Council take interest beyond youkai business to the larger world, but Cillara had spoken of plagues and monsters, things that would influence the youkai and the humans alike. Measures to limit damaging affects had to be taken now. If they waited until the signs of atrophy began to cause alarm, it would be too late.
He turned to Cillara, who was watching the party leave with a guarded expression on her delicate features. He heard her whisper her sad little whisper, and then sigh and twist around to look at him. He thought to himself then just how strange and wild his world had grown, with this little feathered thing pulling him deeper into her web of down and fire. Not for the first time in the last few days has he wondered whether it was truly the spell which had captivated him and bound him to her, or his own attraction to the avatar.
"I suppose we should go," she said then, and shouldered a worn bag. She was wearing an odd amalgam of her armor and a haori that he suspected she had "borrowed" from him. He said nothing of it, but only because seeing her in his castoffs (far too big for her) was… cute. Not that you'd ever hear it from his lips.
As they turned to leave, Cillara stole one last glance at the Fortress. Sesshoumaru was keeping an eye on her, intending not to allow her to step from his sight for even the briefest of moments. And so he had full view of Cillara's sudden crouching paleness, her eyes shifting wildly and her hand going to her belt where she had strapped on the most archaic-looking dagger he had ever seen.
With this alert, he galvanized into action, swiftly snatching her up and behind him so that whatever the threat she had sensed would have to come through him first. And, he gloated briefly, he was immortal now.
His voice came low and harsh as he swung his arm in front of her.
"What is it you sense? Is it Chaos?"
"… No. I don't think so… A portal has opened close by―" She crouched behind him, her wings folded tightly against her body and her little dagger glinting in the morning light. "It comes."
It came swiftly on a rush of white so bright it hurt his eyes. For a moment Sesshoumaru was blinded, his only contact with reality the touch of Cillara's small fingers and the feel of his feet on the ground. He was unprepared, as his vision cleared, for Cillara to suddenly bolt forward with a joyful cry.
"Sabriel!" she crowed, and fell into the arms of a tall, winged man, who wore grey robes. His hair and feathers were half white, and half black. He was handsome and lithe, and Sesshoumaru instantly hated him.
The feathered man crushed Cillara to him, tears in his eyes. "Cillara? Oh lady, you are alive! We have been searching for centuries! I have been following your amaranth from―"
He was cut off as Sesshoumaru tore him away form Cillara, pulling from the neck of his robes and ripping them slightly. Then he curled his arm possessively around Cillara's waist as she stared at him in shock. His message was clear: don't touch my woman.
Rage flashed across the man's features and twisted them for a moment into something dark and ugly. He opened his mouth to protest, raised his fists to attack, but Cillara beat him to it.
"Sesshoumaru! Stop it! This is my friend!"
The only thing that he could think of to say (and as all too often around Cillara he blurted it out without his brain overriding his tongue,) "He touched you. You are mine."
Cillara sagged for a moment, sheer disbelief written into her posture. The man reached a hand towards her, and Sesshoumaru growled. There was red in his eyes.
The man sighed, and then raked his hand through his hair. "Interesting friend you have here. I surprised you allow him to treat you like that."
Cillara looked up from her position enfolded in Sesshoumaru's arm, and lifted a wry eyebrow. "It's a long story," she said, and turned her face up to Sesshoumaru. "Will you please release me for a moment? At least so I can introduce you?"
He acquiesced only because her hear the warning in her tone.
"Thank you. Alright. Sesshoumaru, this is Sabriel, First Rank Seraphim and Head of the Collegium of Avatars. He's an old, old friend. Sabriel, this is Sesshoumaru Lord of the Western Lands."
"Cillara's mate," he growled low. He had suspicions, and they were confirmed when this `Sabriel' creature narrowed his eyes.
"Mate?" He echoed.
"Yes, Mate." Cillara said with exasperation. "I told you, it's a long story. Now will you two stop posturing? It's really quite… exhausting."
Sabriel straightened then, and composed himself. "Much has happened," he said softly, more to himself it seemed than to the others in the courtyard. "I've been tracking Chaos as well, and I think he will try to reach you. You need to leave, come back to the Collegium where we can protect you."
Sesshoumaru started. Leave? She can't leave! His voice rang out in surprise.
"Cillara is not going any―" but Cillara cut him off.
"Chaos is here, Sabriel. I'm not going anywhere. I won't let what happened to Geneva happen here. I won't."
Sabriel sighed.
Sesshoumaru growled.
Cillara looked tired.
Sabriel looked at Sesshoumaru then, his eyes clear and determined. "I need to speak with Cillara alone for a moment. I ask you this man to man. This is old business. I shall return her to you as soon as our words are finished."
Sesshoumaru did not want to let this enigmatic, too-handsome creature to take his Cillara anywhere, but one glace at Cillara and he relented. He could feel in her blood as it thrummed through him, her need to speak with Sabriel. There were old, sad memories in her eyes.
"You get one hour." He said with clipped words, and stalked back to his Fortress, his hand brushing Cillara's face as he went, a reminder and a comfort.
A.N.: Waeee! Sabriel hath cometh. This wasn't the easiest chapter to write, and it stalled in the middle with a vengeance, but once I managed to begin the Sess/Sabriel feud, everything got all better.
Note: Only read this if you don't like character spoilers. I don't know how much of Sabriel I will spill during the course of this story, and I hold the belief that this might make a few things less confusing, but I am giving you the choice to press the "back" button before you read this. But press "go" first and review. I love it when you review. It's like chocolate.
Sabriel: he is actually a seraph from the Christian pantheon. Cillara was human when her life began, and due to her potential (that the lady Irene saw and shamelessly took for her own when she made C her avatar) she was assigned a high-level guardian angel, Sabriel. Sabriel did fall in love with her, but never acted on such emotions. When Cillara left earth, Sabriel took a posting at the Avatar Collegium, an interpantheon University for avatars of all species. Later, he met back up with Cillara when she became an Avatar. They are close friends, but Sabriel is still in love with her (and probably always will be, due to his guardian angel past.) Thus the lovely sparks between Sesshy and Sabriel. This will be fun.