Winter's Rose, Chapter Five

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She Dreams. Asleep in her room back at the Lair, Aislin's soul takes flight from its home and wings its way into nothingness. Back into the Void, melding together with a small bead of white-threaded wine. Upon the melding a snow-white fox unfurls and looks around expectantly. When nothing happens, the fox simply shrugs and lies down to roll, silvery-white sparkles flying up into a glittering cloud that coats her fur and makes it shimmer in the unidirectional light.

With a laugh she takes off running in a completely random direction, puffs of the silver glitter swirling up at every step, purposefully tripping to tumble into a drift of the stuff that appears the second before she whumps into it. Giggling, she flounders her way out of the drift and shakes herself out, sparkles flying everywhere to coat a floor seemingly made of black glass that was invisible against the star-spangled emptiness.

Grinning playfully, she sits down and singsongs, "Hiei, Hiei, come to me, on my count of one two three!" Once again, she looks around her expectantly and is disappointed. "Phooey. I thought that'd work for sure."

"Who's to say it didn't?" a mildly annoyed voice says from behind her. Squeaking, she jumps straight 'up' and floats there, twisting to look down and find once more the massive violet-black dragon with the same eyes as her friend. Around them, the taste/scents of Hiei's name--campfire smoke, seasoned wood and sharp herbs, summer's evenings by a river, the metallic flavor of swords--swirl briefly before fading.

"Oh. It did work. Hello, Hiei."

"Baka kitsune," he replies affectionately. "Why'd you summon me?"

"I need your help. I got caught by Koenma and one of his ambassadors--"

"Sokkenai?" Bitter apples, thornroot, vinegar on ice.

"The same--issued orders to have me inqusitioned instead of simply interrogated. Koenma didn't find out until after it was too late." The scent of paper, ink, and baby powder.

"Is there a point to this?"

"I'm getting there. Show some patience."

"Sorry. Ran out last year and haven't gotten the new shipment in."

Her lips pull back in an exasperated smile. "Wise-ass. Anyway, here I am myself. But when I go back, I'll be feral again. The ogres who did this broke me, Hiei. I don't have full control of myself or my mind--I'm simply a very intelligent animal."

"Are you still in Koenma's jail?"

"I'm not. And I killed the four who did this to me."

"Really? How? The restraints they put on should have nullified everything and kept you from fighting."

"Restraints only work on an existing ability that is there when they put said restriction on. I discovered subsonics near the end of my torture session."

"Not sooner?"

"It ended because I killed them, obviously."

"Ah. Well, I'm afraid I can't help you either way, Aislin. I've never done anything to repair damage done--usually I'm the one inflicting it. All I can do is suggest that you try and take this self with you when you wake up again." Her name lingers after he finishes speaking; snowcones and plain ice, hearthfire, wool, fox musk and fur, winter's clean crispness, the sharp taste of mint and rosemary.

"A worthwhile suggestion, at the least," she sighs, nodding in thanks.

"Your welcome." The dragon settles back on his haunches like an oversized cat, tilting his body so that he and she are level, and smiles contentedly. "So. How are you and your fox getting along, if I dare ask?"

A wicked smile blooms. "You'd be itchy within the day. We were even discussing a family before I got caught, about two months ago."

"So that was you I kept hearing about--the noble ice demon."

"Probably. Old habits die hard, and I'm still defending the weak." She shrugs carelessly, flicking one or two of her tails.

"It's going to get you killed one of these days," he warns her, and she shrugs again.

"Nonsense. I'm nearly an S-class demon now. Only ones that can kill me now are you and Yoko, and that's because you're the only two who could catch me off guard with something like that."

The dragon sighs in resignation and shakes his massive head. "Overconfidence killed the kitsune, you know."

She pins him with a flat stare. "Hiei, I know very well of my mortality concerning sharp and/or blunt objects. I had a very potent reminder last month. I'll be careful, I promise. I have to be, since he's not careful enough for my tastes."

Another sigh, this one rather fond. "If he wasn't taken…"

"But he is," she says possessively. "All mine, so go and find yourself another thief-king to cuddle."

"All right, all right, snowflake," he laughs, holding one foreclaw up in a mock-defense gesture. "I promise, I won't chase after Yoko as long as you are alive, nor will I do anything to help you along towards death. Deal?"

Considering, she tilts her head to the side and taste/smells her beloved's name. "Yoko," she says finally, putting another layer onto the name--warmth and sunbeams on top of crisp herbs, the scent of gold and precious jewels, amber, and roses. The dragon considers the new addition, and speaks the name again, wiping out the revised version and making a whole new one. Apples, roses and wildflowers, blood and gold, crisp plants, dried grass and sun-warm trees; amber and faint fox musk, precious things, and a trace of starlit nights under rich earth and thick fur.

Nodding in agreement at the new version, Aislin looks over at Hiei, who then repeats the promise. "Deal."

Waving his foreclaws at her in a shooing gesture, Hiei tells her, "Now scoot before we both burn out."

"Jya ne, porcupine head."

"Jya ne, snowflake." The dragon fades away. Rising to her feet, Aislin folds herself away back into the bead, separating herself from her anchor and arrowing back to herself, willing her full self to accompany her back into her shell. With the faintest of impacts, she drops into the half-starved, pale-skinned form lying motionless under a few furs, her lodestone and tether the faintly-glimmering kitsune asleep beside her.

===

She wakes up sometime around six am, according to her internal clock, feeling very much herself and entertaining thoughts of Sokkenai being skewered and roasted over a flame fueled by bits of his mansion. Contemplating the future validity of the image, she rises from the furs and looks over at the kitsune sitting against the wall, chin on his bare chest and face hidden by the long curtain of silver hair. His hands are limp in his lap, and she fights down the irrational urge to bite another finger.

Grinning at that pleasant mental image, she crouches down in front of him and leans forward, bracing her weight on her fingertips and leisurely licking a wet path from his navel to his chin before fastening her lips to his in a light kiss. She breaks away as he begins to stir, a lazy smile on his face, reaching out to pull her closer without bothering to finish waking up first.

"Missed me," she teases, and his eyes fly open to stare at her in shock. "Go-ood morning, koishii. Sleep well?"

"Back with me already?" he asks her in disbelief, the back of his fingers brushing a lock of hair away from her cheek. "I only got you here last night, and here you sit, restored."

"All it took was a trip to the Void, and a chat with an old friend." Quite contentedly, she eases herself down beside him and buries her nose in his long hair, inhaling deeply to fill her lungs with his comforting scent.

"Then why didn't you go sooner?"

An enigmatic shrug. "I didn't have a focal point or lodestone to tether me with my body until now. If I'd gone, I wouldn't have come back 'cause I wouldn't have been able to find my body."

His brow furrows in confusion while his arm snakes around her and pulls her into his lap. "Lodestone? Tether?"

"Some way to let me know where my body was. I gave my regular lodestone to you, and made you into my new one." When his expression doesn't clear, she reaches up and brushes away the hair at the base of one long, furry ear. The Tear of the Rose gleams there, transformed into an earring by Aislin's careful hands and given to the fox last century for an anniversary gift. "This was my first lodestone. It's one of the reasons why I wanted it back in the first place. When I gave it to you, you became my new lodestone, because there hasn't been a night that you haven't laid beside me since I gave into you. Barring the last two months, of course."

Touched, Yoko captures her upraised hand and brings it to his lips, grazing them against her knuckles and glancing up with a heated smile. "Whoever said you were not poetic needs to have his tongue ripped out, beloved."

"You want it for a present?" she asks him seriously. "It's somewhere in my collection." He regards her with surprise, uncertain as to whether or not she's joking. When he realizes that she is entirely serious, his sensual mouth curves upwards into another smile, this one decidedly hungry.

"Beloved, I am amazed once again at your efficiency." She wrinkles her nose at him, amused.

"As you should be," the koorime replies, tangling her fingers in the long silver tresses and pulling his face down into another kiss. They are just about to start making up for lost time when someone discreetly clears their throat from the curtained doorway, completely ruining the mood and making the pair sigh in resignation. They both look up to find a rather sheepish Kuronue standing there, eyes politely averted towards the ceiling, a humorous smile baring white fangs.

"Begging your pardon, oh great leader, but the crew is wondering how our other great leader is faring. I was 'volunteered' to request your presence in the mess-hall."

"Okay, Kuro-kun," Aislin laughs, rising to her feet to allow Yoko to do the same. "We'll be there as soon as we freshen up a bit. Two months running wild has not been good for my hygiene, and this stubborn fox probably hasn't been much better." Kuronue laughs while his leader protests his innocence, Aislin grabbing the much taller fox by the wrist and hauling him towards her bathing room. "Be out in a few minutes, Kuro-kun!"

"Take your time!" Kuronue laughs. "I know I would!"

"Lech!" Yoko calls back mockingly, making the bat demon laugh harder.

"With a body like yours, Yoko? Oh, most definitely!"

===

Approximately a month later:

Koenma gapes at the devastation before him in disbelief, awed by the sheer scope of the destruction and the thoroughness with which it was accomplished. "Five hours," Yuuki mutters beside him, reading from the report turned in this morning. "It took only five hours to reduce a mansion of over thirty bedrooms plus accoutrements to utter rubble. Not to mention that Ambassador Sokkenai is nowhere to be found, and his servants don't seem to mind his absence at all. Something doesn't smell right, Koenma-sama."

"You're telling me?" Koenma sighs back, sucking pensively on the binky that seems to never leave his mouth. "I just received confirmation that Sokkenai was the one who issued the orders to have Moors tortured." Yuuki sucks in his breath at this new revelation, staring down at his employer with wide eyes.

"Sokkenai?"

"Right," another voice pipes from a nearby tree. "Sokkenai did it all." Jumping in fright, the two males look up to find Aislin seated on a very high treebranch, looking down at them with cold, emotionless eyes. "Which is why I exacted retribution on him this morning."

"Back to your old self, I see," grumbles Yuuki, earning him a brief smile from the dangerous thief.

"No thanks to you, yes. And for your information, Koenma, Ambassador Sokkenai was greedy, manipulative, and cruel, forcing his so-called employees to work extremely long hours for low food and low pay. He also dabbled in sadism, extortion--" She breaks off when Yuuki leaps up and makes a grab for her, only to fail miserably and abruptly ending up facedown several inches deep in the ground with Aislin calmly seated on his back and continuing to count off the late Ambassador's crimes. "--hold still, you, I'm not finished. As I was saying; extortion, gambling, petty and grand larceny--that's stealing, you thick-headed human--destruction of private property, tax evasion, and several other nasty and unsavory habits. You're welcome."

And she's gone, leaving nothing but a couple of boot-prints on the human's back and one on his chest, visible when he pulls himself free and starts dusting himself off. Glaring up at the place she had been sitting, he says quite calmly to Koenma, "One of these days, sir, I'm going to do something about that sarcastic attitude of hers."

"Good luck," Koenma sighs, resigning himself to finding whatever is left--if anything--of Sokkenai and looking for a new Ambassador.

===

"Oy! Aislin-san! You got a letter!" The petite ice demon looks up from her jewelry-bench and smiles at the approaching lightning-wolf demon, a sealed envelope being waved around in his clawed hand. "Special delivery from one of our agents in Pridesholt."

"Pridesholt?" she repeats in disbelief, taking the letter and eyeing the elegant script of her name. "But Mizu would be the only one who would write, and he's too busy being a Merc Guild Council member to do so these days." It is now nearly a decade after Aislin's original capture, and everything has--for the most part--returned to the way it was before she'd been caught.

"Why're ya asking me? Open it already!" the young demon pipes, and is rewarded by an absentminded ruffling of his hair by Aislin.

"Nosy pup. Go ask Gre'ich if he's gotten lunch ready yet." Playfully saluting, the teenaged demon lopes off in the direction of the band's kitchen, ears flopping every which way along with his messy, untamed brindle hair. Shaking her head at the naiveté of youth, she flips the letter over and gasps at the sight of Koenma's seal pressed into the blue wax, biting her lower lip to keep herself silent.

Too late. With a quirk of his ears Yoko looks up from his game of poker with Kuronue and several others, concern spreading across his face. "Everything all right, koi?"

She flaps her hand at him, still staring at the seal, eyes wide in incredulity at the idea that Koenma would--and could--get a letter to her. Taking a deep breath, she breaks the seal on the letter and begins to read.

"To Aislin and Yoko Kurama: You are formally invited to attend the funeral of Miyami Yuuki, slain on the Twenty-seventh of March, year Eighteen-hundred Twelve. The service will be held in Ningenkai, at the address below, on April Third. Attire is formal." Below that, in neat handwriting, is a message from the child-king directly. "Moors-san, this is not a trap. If you do choose to attend, no attempt will be made to capture you. I just thought you might want to attend the funeral of the only man to have ever arrested you. Koenma."

"Yoko?" she calls, troubled, an inexplicable twinge of sorrow bringing a single tear to her eye, one that slides down and pings into a gem colored a cloudy medium blue. "You might want to come read this." Now seriously concerned, Yoko gets to his feet and nearly runs to her side, plucking the letter from her nerveless fingers and scanning over it quickly. His expressive ears droop slightly, and one hand find a comforting grip on her shoulder.

"Will you go?" he asks her softly, using his grip to lean her sideways against him. She allows the motion and leans there, head resting on his hip, eyes closed while she thinks. "For a human and the child-king's agent, he was a good man."

"He was, and an excellent adversary," she replies just as softly. Falling silent, she thinks longer while Yoko moves his free hand to slowly stroke the length of her hair, still scanning the invitation. "Yoko? What will the weather be like this Saturday?"

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It was the first and one of the only funerals that I have ever attended, and even now the memory stands clear against the passage of time. It was at a small church in France, but the church was absolutely beautiful in the early spring's morning light. Stained glass is something that doesn't last very long in Demon World, either because someone steals it or someone breaks it, but it filled the long windows of the church like tamed rainbows shattered into images of human saints and the Christian God.

It was also one of the rare times I've dressed formally, but for someone who was skilled enough to have caught me, however briefly, I was willing to put up with the discomfort of corset, stays, and all those blasted petticoats. The look of amazement on Koenma's face when Yoko and I walked up was almost worth the trip, amusingly enough.

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"Hello, Koenma," Aislin greets the ruler softly, a dark blue rose tucked over her ear, hair freshly cut for the occasion into a silken cap just past her ears despite the current fashion of large, elaborate powdered wigs. "You chose a lovely day for him, I'll give you that."

He snaps his mouth shut; for once the binky is nowhere in sight and it looks odd to see him in his teenaged form without it, and bows respectfully. "Moors-san. Glad you could make it. You, too, Yoko."

"Child-king," the fox returns calmly. He has deigned to use his rarely-seen human form, which looks much like his regular form, only without the ears, tail and claws, and his hair nearly black. The kneelength tresses are bound back into a long ponytail halfway down their length with a black satin ribbon, his body clad in a nobleman's suit of mourning. He glances down at his mate and a ghost of a smile flits across his features. "You must have respected him very much to come today, sweetheart."

"Not that I'll ever get to tell him that," she murmurs sadly. "I was hoping I'd at least get to have one more good fight before someone took him down." Eyes glittering, she glances up at Koenma. "You caught the kisama, right?"

"He was formally executed two days ago," Koenma replies quietly, and digs in his suit pocket, bringing up two small clip-earrings a moment later. "Here, these are for you two, in case you did come. They're translators, so you can understand and speak the local language."

"Thank you, Koenma-san. They'll be returned to you after the service." Aislin bows her head slightly as she takes them, handing one to Yoko and fastening the other on her left ear. Rubbing her fingertip over the small jewel, she activates it and turns to find Yoko has already followed her example. Koenma bows slightly and turns away.

"Come on. It's nearly time." Taking a deep breath, Aislin and Yoko fall into step behind him and he leads them up the flagstone path into the small church's airy interior, already filled with friends, family, and coworkers/opponents of the fallen Spirit Detective.

"Koenma, correct me if I'm mistaken, but wasn't Miyami-san Japanese?" Aislin queries in a murmur as they walk to their places near the front of the room.

"No, actually. That was the name he chose when he came back to this side of the Styx. His real name was Anthony Barbarac, and he was of the lesser nobility." Koenma murmurs back as they take their seats.

"He had a hell of a roundhouse for a nobleman," Aislin mutters to herself, rubbing her jaw at the memory. She could almost swear she heard a faint chuckle from behind her, but when she looks there is only a grieving row of faces, so she dismisses it as a passing fancy and turns forward again. Everyone who is not in tears falls silent when the preacher takes his place at the pulpit, and launches into a long-winded eulogy that really has nothing to do with the man lying in state in the coffin behind him, the koorime getting more and more disgusted with the fool every second.

I knew this place was too perfect to be true. Such a fabulous beauty would be run by an idiot. Frowning quite hard, she practically glares at the preacher and sighs in relief when he winds down, giving everyone the signal that it is time for the more personal eulogies to be given.

The first to take the old human's place at the pulpit is a grim faced man that bears an uncanny resemblance to the passed Spirit Detective, and Aislin nearly swallows her tongue in shock at the sight. "My brother Anthony was a good man," the mourner declares calmly, looking out over the sea of faces with the air of someone quietly bleeding to death on the inside. "Though he was mysterious and often gone from home, the times he could spend with us and taking care of what business he could were joyful ones full of his passion for life and his work. And despite the fact that he never revealed to us what that new work was, I still stand by the fact that he must have been something special if God allowed him to return to us, however briefly. We will miss him greatly." Bowing his head, the man walks off the dais and another takes his place.

Aislin listens in silence to recountings of her opponent's early life; his mistakes and his shining moments, his faults, his virtues, and quirks she never knew he had. A small, reminiscent smile curves her lips as she remembers the look of shock on his face when she'd bowled him over in her rush to escape; or when she first started cussing at him the second she had regained consciousness at Koenma's and he had just stood there, slackjawed and bug-eyed at the sight of a tiny woman swearing like a sailor while nearly breaking free of restraints that would hold a being ten times her size.

Finally it is her turn, and she rises with a rustling of petticoats and walks up to the dais, looking down at the shell lying in the coffin. The smile disappears, replaced with a wistful expression as she takes the rose from her hair and lays it on his folded hands. Turning to face the mourners, she takes a deep breath and begins.

"My name, for those of you not aware, is Aislin Moors." Several startled gasps rise from the audience, followed by a few confused murmurings. "I was given a vow of safe passage so that I could attend this man's funeral out of respect for him and his accomplishments in this life. Out of all of those who have tried their best to bring me to justice over the many long years I have existed, only this man, the one you call Anthony Barbarac and whom I knew as Yuuki Miyami, has ever succeeded." She pauses, and lets that sink in, sparing a glance towards her mate who is watching her attentively. "Despite his best efforts and through no fault of his own I escaped from his hold and once more returned to my previous life of deeds that only partly deserve the term 'chivalrous', but I remembered him. I have sat here throughout this service, listening to your stories about his life and his achievements and failures; and I have learned more about this man in three hours than I have in the decade that I have known and battled against him." She takes another deep breath, and glances back at the still form behind her.

"He was not perfect, no being alive is, whatever the priests of any religion say about it. But I will hold true to the fact that despite those flaws and imperfections, despite his stubbornness and moments of complete idiocy, he was a good and noble man. Nobility is not in the blood, it is in the heart, and for as long as I live, I will remember him. And, ladies and gentlemen, remembrance is its own form of immortality. Safe travels to your soul, my adversary. You truly do deserve them." Placing her hands in a prayer position, she turns and bows deeply to the coffin before resuming her seat, noting a few watery and grateful smiles sent her way. Yoko wraps an arm around her shoulders and gives her a brief, gentle hug as the priest resumes his place and intones a short prayer, the pall-bearers walking up and lifting the coffin onto their shoulders afterwards. Aislin and Yoko are among the honor-guard lining the way to the grave.

Last words are spoken, mementos are dropped gently onto the ebony coffin, and the grave is slowly filled in with the dark brown soil carefully saved on a canvas tarp nearby. After the last shovelful is laid in place, everyone bows their heads for a moment, even Koenma missing the glance shared between the two youkai as they clasp each other's hand.

Gasps arise from the gathering when the soil by the marble tombstone shifts, a couple of screams fading away when the culprit proves to be, not a body, but a plant twining dark green stems towards the sky. Within a few breaths a vibrant rosebush has sprouted from the raw earth of the grave's center, double-roses colored the same blue as the bloom Aislin had laid on Yuuki/Anthony's hands unfurling to face the sunlight.

Koenma shoots a suspicious glance at the two youkai, who simply smile secretively at him before Yoko speaks up. "One more miracle for him, it would seem, ladies and gentlemen. And I highly doubt this bush will ever encroach on any other sleeper, nor ever need tending." Casting one last look at the new memorandum, he pulls off his earring and Aislin's and drops them onto the ground at his feet. With a curt nod to Koenma, he bows in a courtly gesture and holds out his hand.

Smiling quietly, Aislin places her hand in his and they begin to walk off, Yoko's hair shimmering back towards silver as he goes, the pair disappearing through a shimmering portal just before his ears pop back up.

======================================================

I kept track of the legends of that area for a brief while--perhaps nearly a century--and much to my amusement the tale of Miyami's funeral blurred into something resembling a Bible story of the Christians/Catholics. According to the new tale, a noble-hearted man was given a second chance at life when he proved his worth in a fatal-but-very-noble deed, that chance given by God himself, and charged with a holy crusade. When he passed a second time, two celestial beings attended his funeral, an angel and a demon, in honor of that crusade. The demon--me, of course--told the gathering of her battles against the mortal man, and honored him quite piously in her eulogy to him.

Afterwards, the angel caused a rosebush to grow over the man's grave, its blooms the supposed color of the bluest blood as a sign of his great deeds, and the angel and demon then left, he resuming his true angelic form and hand in hand with the demon. Apparently we were supposed to be either fallen and/or redeemed, the story never quite stated which, and eternal lovers forever walking the earth as neither welcome in Heaven or Hell.

Well, they were partially right, which isn't bad for a legend. And the rosebush did exactly as it was ordered to--never grew much farther than its first day and lasted all the way through a revolution to boot. Koenma later told me that he'd let Miyami attend his own funeral as a ghost--which explains that chuckle I heard when I mentioned his roundhouse. It really was him, and I wasn't just imagining it. The Detective was as disgusted with the choice of priest as I was according to Koenma, but very appreciative of the rosebush--he told Koenma he loved roses almost as much as a fox would. A small part of me--the one that was beginning to tire of thieving and hiding--was and is still glad that I attended that funeral, if only for the chance to express my respect for a brave and skilled opponent. Sadly, tragedy was to strike much closer to home before that decade had ended.

========================================================

"Yoko, I have a bad feeling about tonight," Aislin tells him as he prepares for the paired raid he'd planned for tomorrow night. "Please, don't go."

"Don't worry, my snow-flower, we'll be back in a couple of days, I promise!" Yoko laughs, tugging on his pants-legs to settle them and turning to ruffle her hair/fur.

"Aislin, my chain broke again!" Kuronue whines, rushing into her new workroom and holding up the necklace he always, without exception, wears around his neck. "Fix it, please?" The chain lies in two pieces in his hand, the pendant--a simple thing of a small ruby set into a horizontal oval of silver--clenched safely in his other fist. Sighing, Aislin takes the chain over to her jewelry bench and sets a small ball of brilliant white rei in the air above her head while getting out a tiny pair of pliers and a minute silver link.

"I keep telling you to get a new chain for this thing, Kuro-kun. One of these days it's going to snap in the middle of a heist and then where will you be?"

"Going back to get it, of course." Shaking her head in disapproval, she hands the repaired chain back to him and watches as he reverently slips the pendant back on and around his neck.

"And dying for it, little brother. I'm telling you, and this is an order, Kuronue: get a new chain before the heist. And I want you to put that pendant on that new chain before tomorrow night. Is that understood?"

"Ma'am, yes, ma'am!" Kuronue chuckles, snapping to attention and saluting briskly. She pokes him in the stomach, face grim.

"I'm not joking, Kuronue. Something doesn't feel right about this trip, and my hunches have always proved right before. You getting a better chain will ease some of this uneasiness. Promise me, Kuronue."

With a resigned sigh, the handsome bat demon nods. "I promise you, I will get a new chain and be wearing it for the heist. I have every intention of coming back and celebrating with some of that wine I know you have stashed away somewhere."

"My Nine-hundreds bottle of Fireberry wine?"

"That's the one!"

She grins. "Come back alive and safe and you get half the bottle, Kuro-kun. Agreed?"

"Agreed!" And with a jaunty wave the raven-haired bat demon jogs out of the room. Instantly the laughter in the koorime's eyes are gone, and she practically glares at her mate.

"I don't want you two going, Yoko Kurama. This is not going to go well." Sighing, Yoko sits down on the bench behind her and pulls her into a warm hug.

"Beloved, we're both going to come back alive and safe, I promise you that. Why don't you believe me?"

"Because it feels like Fate's playing a different tune than yours, my heart. Do me a favor?"

He smiles against the back of her head. "What's that?"

"Let me borrow your earring?" His humor vanishes and he straightens.

"You're going into the Void?" he asks in alarm, and she nods with her eyes closed.

"I'm not going to be satisfied just sitting here, waiting for you to come home. I've spent days in the Void before, Yoko--that's not something many demons can do. Since you won't let me come along physically, I'm going along mentally."

With a explosive sigh he reaches up and pulls the backing that keeps the earring in place away, leaning over and putting it into her earlobe with his own hands. "There. A touch of my rei's in there, too, so you can sense me no matter where I am." He gently kisses her cheek before rising and putting the finishing touches on his costume. "There, what do you think?"

Despite herself she has to smile at the dashing figure he cuts standing there against the pale door. "Very edible, my fox." Getting herself up she walks with him to the main opening of the cave, where Kuronue already waits with his backpack slung over one shoulder and away from his small wings. She pulls each one down for a final kiss: Kuronue on the cheek, Yoko on the lips, and pulls away from them both as though afraid to touch them. "Come back, you two. You promised."

With a last wave and a smile from each, the two males take off running, rapidly disappearing in the darkness beneath the trees. She watches them until she can no longer see them, and turns to find that several others of the crew are standing there, just as troubled as she.

"Don't like this," a scarred earth apparition says grimly, her brown eyes solemn. "Don't like this at all, boss."

"I know. Wake me if something important--like the caves collapsing--happens while I'm 'asleep'." Nodding, the others return to whatever they had interrupted and she walks slowly to the room she shares with Yoko. Its quiet luxury usually soothes her no matter the mood, but tonight nothing with calm the jangling alarm stridently howling in the back of her mind.

Stripping down to her underthings she slides into the thick pile of furs and pillows that forms the bed, and rubs the Tear of the Rose pensively before closing her eyes and breathing outwards. Her body stills, her hand drops limply to the furs beside her head, her breathing becomes barely noticeable as her pulse slows.

Untangling herself from her body, the soul of Aislin unfurls her draconic wings and takes off on a path that goes straight through the wall, trailing a ghostly cloud of silvery dust behind her that fades before it touches the floor.

===

Dreaming, she flies on her dragon wings in the direction that she had seen Yoko and Kuronue take, not bothering to flap in an unnecessary parody of real flight as she goes. It is a matter of minutes before she catches up with them, and she slows to keep them in sight, senses alert for any danger. Kuronue keeps sending uneasy glances upwards to where she coasts above them, not even bothering to fly above the trees since she can simply pass straight through them.

"Hey, Yoko, it feels like someone's following us," he warns and Aislin's muzzle stretches into a grin as do her beloved's sensual lips.

"Someone's following us, all right. It's a very stubborn koorime that is too worried to stay at home like she's supposed to."

/Prick,/ she growls lovingly, swooping down and passing straight through him. He shudders and snarls, rubbing at his stomach in irritation.

"Don't do that, Aislin."

"I can see why she did. Look at your stomach, heart-brother." Glancing down as he runs, he sees the silver glitter just before it fades. "She likes putting her mark on you."

/Yup,/ the ice-fox agrees calmly. /And don't forget about that chain, Kuronue./

"You're really set on the chain-thing, aren't you?"

/Better believe it./

The bat demon shrugs. "Hey, I get half that bottle of Fireberry if I do, I ain't complaining."

/Smart bat demon./ Sticking his tongue out at her, he lets the conversation drop to conserve his breath--it's going to take most of the night running to get into position for the heist tomorrow night and he's only in marginally less great shape than the Silver Thief running beside him.

Allowing her senses to phase inwards for the time being, she sets her wings on auto and lets go her sense of time.

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Koi: love

Ningenkai: Human world (Makai=Demon World, Reikai=Spirit World)

Rei/reiki: Spirit energy