I know, I haven't updated in a bit, but bear with me here. I needed to move and settle in a place that would have me, and I'm still busy looking for a job, so that doesn't leave a ton of time for extras such as writing, now does it? Anyway, I'm here now, and here is my newest bit.
Gossamer Dreams
Part 19
"Today, a riot ensued after a demonstration in which several radical speakers worked the crowds up to fever pitch." Kagura explained the truth behind the rumors that had been circulating since noon to her brother-in-law and her husband's concubine. They were all of them sharing a light tea before dinner, and of course, the subject of the arrests that had been made was brought up by Inuyasha. "In the end, the mob was nothing more than a load of angry students and peasants with nothing better to do. Several arrests were made, and once that began, the crowd fled. None of them were very serious, when they thought they might be punished for their actions. The rioters that were arrested shall be released in one week's time. No need to make this any more overstated than it already is, clearly." Her hand rested on the wide curve of her stomach as she spoke, and she drank a very weak tea. All that she was allowed, it seemed, though she did manage to grimace quite regularly in silent resistance to this edict.
"How many arrests were made?" Rin asked, always interested in the outside world she had once been a part of.
"Nineteen." Kagura answered, setting down her half-empty cup and sighing slightly. "Of course, Sesshoumaru and I were not notified of the situation until they were already well on their way to the dungeons, but no matter. We feel that if the prisoners are treated merely as misbehaving children, it will help to diffuse the situation at once."
"It is not as if we are not aware of the unrest amongst the populace." Sesshoumaru added at that point. "But we can only fix my mother's meddlings so quickly. And how are we to know exactly which bits are considered most important to the commonwealth when they do not see fit to petition us directly, but instead stew within themselves until such explosions as this one take place?"
"You must know that your mother sent any commoner who brought complaints to her straight to the dungeons, if not the gallows." Rin reminded him. "It is no wonder they do not approach you for redress. The whole country still believes you are but a pretty pawn, controlled by your mother's master manipulations."
"What do you suggest, then?" Kagura asked, interested in Rin's thoughts as always. After all, she was the closest they had to an honest commoner who could truly tell them what it was to live in Fukumaden under their reign.
"When the child is born, there shall no doubt be a great celebration." Rin began as though she had been thinking on this problem for some time already. "At that time when the child is to be presented to its subjects, you should address your people, Sesshoumaru. Tell them that you honestly hope to solve any division between you and them. Entreat them to approach you with their pleas for redress and their complaints. Show that you are honest and sincere, and all shall be well, I am sure. This is the first step."
"If only Kijo knew you took your political advice from a Gifted girl." Inuyasha smiled, but it was not mocking, and Rin returned the grin, also seeing the great humor in the situation. "Do you think that will stop the resistance we have seen lately?"
"It will take some time, I am sure." She nodded slightly, "But I am confident we will not fail to mend this country between all of our efforts. Now, if you will all excuse us, I had intended to get a bit of private time with the emperor before I returned to the Chamber."
"Of course, dear Rin, do not let us stand in your way." Kagura's smile was broad and wicked, and she let Inuyasha help her up to exit the room as Rin and Sesshoumaru walked in the opposite direction to his own private chambers. Rin was sure she could guess what Kagura and Inuyasha must think of her request, but it was true that she needed to see the emperor alone. It was really quite important.
"I must request something, dear Sesshoumaru." She told him as soon as they were alone. "You must install me in your own chambers at once so that I might not be accessible to those who would take advantage of me. I know it is most irregular…"
"It sounds like a wonderful idea." Sesshoumaru interrupted. "I would rather know where you are at all times than risk having Naraku spot you, even if I have named you my official mistress. I simply do not want him near you."
"Good." She smiled warmly and turned to him, her hands clutching at her skirts. "Because I am pregnant."
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"You know, my Lord," Kagome gave Inuyasha one of her most winning smiles. "My birthday is only tomorrow."
"Is it, then?" he seemed rather struck by this news. "Odd. My friend shares your birthday, as well it seems."
"Continually curious, this friend of yours with whom I share so much." Kagome tried not to be annoyed. "I really must meet her."
"No, I do not think you would get on well…" Inuyasha trailed off slightly. "And she is…busy."
"Are you sure you could not arrange for us to meet? Perhaps tomorrow?" Kagome pressed. She must know who her competition was, after all. "If we share so very much, we would surely have something to speak about."
"I do not…" Inuyasha's face seemed strained, as though he were fighting some internal battle. "Perhaps…just once, then. I could take you to meet her now, if it is your wish. It could be your birthday present, as I've got nothing else I can think of that you would want."
"Haven't you?" Kagome attempted, but Inuyasha was as predictably dense about her attempts at flirtation as ever. It was all very frustrating. At this rate, the Imperial child would be married before she was. "Very well, let us make haste to see her. She is not a noble, then?"
"Not…so much." Inuyasha's neck twitched slightly, and Kagome frowned as he offered her his arm and led her out of the busy dining hall and into the nearly empty corridors outside. They moved at a casual pace, but she was sure she had never before seen this part of the Palace, and she had to try her best not to let her head whip round at the tapestries and statues like a Maiden on her first day. She would never impress him if she acted a child. "You must be civil with her, as she is much more proper in her speech manners than I am, and she takes great offense to frivolity. Only I am allowed…"
"What is her name, dear Prince?" Kagome pressed. She sounded like less of a temptress the more she heard. Surely, he could not be so very attached to whichever servant it was that she was about to be introduced to. Mostly just familiar, she was sure.
"Kikyo." He answered simply, his tone not brooking a request of surname, and so Kagome followed him as he pulled aside a tapestry she was sure she would not be able to find again on her own and opened a secret door, showing her up a staircase that was clearly not spoken of amongst proper society, unless…she remembered whispered rumors of a Chamber in this castle visited only by men, and full entirely with…but that could surely not be… "Here we are." He opened the door at the top of the stairs and guided her in past scores of purple-eyed beauties in various states of undress, all of them glaring quite openly at the prince and his guest as they made their way to a certain niche, where one girl sat alone, reading to herself from an enormous tome. "Kikyo." He repeated the name, and she looked up immediately, hope and something deeper in her violet orbs before they hardened at the sight of Kagome. The young Maiden thought it might be silly, but in that first moment of seeing her face, Kikyo did seem to bear a remarkable resemblance to herself. But that was ridiculous. A noble daughter, looking like a poorly restrained Gifted whore?
"What is this?" she asked, not half as polite as Inuyasha had built her up to be. "I was waiting for you, and you bring another woman to me? Who is she?"
"Kikyo, please do not be angry. This is the lady Kagome ka'Neko, Maiden to the Empress, and she shares a common problem with you." He told her, his voice soft and urgent. He clearly feared her displeasure, though Kagome could not understand why. She was clearly Gifted.
"Does she?" Kikyo's eyes sparked at this, and Inuyasha immediately dropped Kagome's arm as if the appendage had scorched him. "And what problem might that be?"
"Naraku." He said the name as if he were speaking of something unspeakably disgusting, which Kagome frankly felt he was. But she was still trapped on the idea that all this time, this "friend" of Inuyasha's was a Gifted whore locked away in a secret room.
"Oh." Her voice was immediately softer, and she rose smoothly, giving Kagome a deep curtsy. "I apologize, then. I am pleased to meet you, Lady ka'Neko."
"Kagome, this is—" Inuyasha began, but she cut him off before he could finish saying whatever it was he had been about to say.
"You mean to tell me…all this time, I worried what lady I might have to compete with for your affections, and instead of a lady, I find that you've been dallying with this…beast?" Kagome's lip was curled in disgust at the idea of Inuyasha doing anything at all with a Gifted girl. "You tell me we are alike, but how so? Am I something terrible, to be locked away? Do you wish me to be your mistress then? I doubt you are fit to lay with, after having this…this…beast in your sheets."
"Kagome!" Inuyasha looked shocked and angry, but that was nothing to the unbridled, murderous rage on Kikyo's porcelain face. Inuyasha made a noise like a frog being stepped on and hurriedly ushered Kagome all the way back out of the Chambers, to the landing of the secret staircase, where he finally spoke to her again. "Kagome…I think you are a good person, and I understand that many of your kind have been taught to hate and revile the Gifted, but they are not so different from us! They are just people, like we are just people. Behind the powers half of us cannot use and the claws and everything else, we are all just people, and it is very important that you learn that. I want you to know that I am your friend, and that even when I seem to be hidden from view, I will watch out for you. All I ask is that you never speak so horribly of a Gifted again. That girl you just met is my best friend, and I love her—"
"How can you even—"
"Listen to me!" Inuyasha cut off her interjection with a shake of her shoulders. "I love her, and she is not my mistress. We have not even kissed, to be honest, and yet, I know that she is the only woman I will ever truly love. If all of our time speaking to each other and becoming friends has meant anything to you, you will respect that. Please, it pains me to hear your kind speak so foully of the Gifted, but from one whose opinion I have grown to value, the pain grows ever more terrible. Tell me…"
"What do you mean…my kind?" Kagome felt a strange twist in her stomach.
"My mother was Gifted, Kagome." He told her solemnly, and she felt the air leave her lungs. "I am just as much like Kikyo as I am like you, and so when you speak ill of the Gifted, you are speaking of me as well."
"But…you are the Prince!" she was absolutely boggled. "How?"
"Not everything that goes on in the Palace is as it seems, Kagome." He sighed deeply. "Just tell me, promise you will look upon Gifted more kindly. If only for my sake…"
It seemed a trifling thing to promise. And how could he know if she truly viewed Gifted as something better after she spoke the words? It seemed only too easy to win some of his affection for herself by answering quickly. "I swear it."
"Thank you, Kagome." He smiled so warmly, she forgot to breathe as he escorted her back out of the staircase and walked her silently to her room. And that was when Kagome realized that now, once she had sworn herself, she had no choice but to honestly follow her word to whatever end it may lead her. Her aunts would be most displeased. But then, at her door, Inuyasha paused, and finally placed the lightest of kisses on her cheek, smiling bashfully as he pulled away. "Goodbye, dear lady."
"Goodnight…" she corrected him absently, but he was already gone.
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"I returned as quickly as possible." Inuyasha breathed apologetically as Kikyo moved stiffly, lifting a bundle of clothing and books with some difficulty and looping it over her arm. "Here, let me take that."
"I have it, do not bother yourself." She hissed. "If you speak loudly, we will be heard, and then what?"
"You are still angry, aren't you?" he pouted, even though she could hardly see the way his lip jutted out in the darkness of the Chambers at one in the morning. "Please, I had to pack my own things and make the last arrangements…"
"It is not about that, Inuyasha." Kikyo told him, urging him toward the staircase. "It was that girl. Why did you bring her before?"
"She has been asking to meet you for months." Inuyasha explained softly as they edged out onto the landing and closed the door quietly behind them. "I thought…this was really her last chance. It is her birthday as well, you know. I thought it might be nice to give her that. She is a good person, beneath the biases placed on her, Kikyo. I swear she is."
"I do not wish to hear any more about it, please." Kikyo spoke delicately in the tone that Inuyasha recognized as quiet fury. "Let us just be done with all of this." Her tone changed then as she turned on him at the bottom of the stairs, his hand on the door handle, her hand moving to his shoulder and a soft smile lighting her features. "I love you, Inuyasha."
"And I you," he felt a surge of happy relief. "Forever and only you."
"Do not lavish me in vows you cannot keep, dear Prince." She teased him as the moved softly down the corridors. "What if something happened to me and you were left alone for years and years? Would you not learn to love again?"
"Would you want me to?" he asked, his voice serious. She paused and turned back to him, realizing only then that they had been holding hands since they emerged from behind the tapestry.
"Yes." She told him honestly. "I could not bear knowing I had left you to a life of miserable solitude." There was a moment of silence between them. They both understood the seriousness of this conversation, and surely they knew that especially in the current situation, the death of one or the other would be all too likely. Kikyo understood that unquestionably, but Inuyasha still hoped that they would have a fairy tale of their own.
"Does Rin know?" he asked her finally as they began moving again. She shook her head swiftly.
"I knew she would not go with us, and I would hate her to be in trouble on my account." Another pause in the whispered conversation. "She is pregnant, you know." Inuyasha made a noise like he was choking on a mouthful of live fish.
"Sesshoumaru?" was all he said when he regained his ability to speak, and she nodded swiftly. They did not speak again until they had reached the corridor leading to the front gates. "We must be careful. If we are swift, it should be the matter of a moment slipping past as they switch guards. It should happen any moment now."
"I am ready." She told him, and then, because the gravity of the situation struck her and because the excitement of it all struck him, they kissed lightly, briefly, and their grip on each others' hands tightened as they exchanged a nod. They waited. They listened. And then, they flew from the Palace as swiftly as their feet would carry them, with little more to their names than some clothing and books and as much gold as Inuyasha had been able to carry and still feel he could move stealthily about. Soon enough, they were past the courtyard and the gates and the wrought iron fencing and the hedges and making their way through streets neither one had ever walked before, excepting in their minds, guided by the detailed maps and instructions milked, through time, from one very unsuspecting Rin.
"I've no idea where we are." Inuyasha told her eventually, and she stopped, pulling him into an alleyway where she handed him her bundle and extracted a large piece of crumpled paper from within the folds of her skirts. Unfolding it deftly, she traced a path on the map with a finger guided by the dim streetlamps.
"This is where we are." She finally paused the progress of her finger. "We will continue across the river, down this street, and then turn onto this, and then, we are here." She pointed firmly to a little square that was labeled with a small star. "We should be there in an hour, at the most. Be patient."
"Will he be there?" Inuyasha asked as they continued down the path she had memorized mentally. "Will he take us in?"
"Of course." She waved away his doubts. "He is my brother, after all."
The End (Of Part 19, That Is)