Hey...GUESS WHO FINALLY UPDATED! Wow, am I great or what?! Anyway, here's the latest chapter. I'm sorry but it is with tremendous chagrin that I report that it just gets even more confusing. Make the best of it boys and girls. I'm starting the chapter with a quote from Dune. I think I'll do that every time. It's just a way of paying respect to the book because for those of you who have read it, you know that all the chapters started the same way.
***
Disclaimer-Don't own anything related to Dune or Inuyasha. Everything belongs to Rumiko Takahashi or Frank Herbert. And the quote is totally, all of it, Frank Herbert's. Yes.
***
Flower Blooming
Chapter 3-"Control the coinage and courts-let the rabble have the rest. If you want profits, you must rule." There is truth in these words, but I ask myself: "Who are the rabble and who are the ruled?"
***
"The priests...the damnable priests..." She muttered angrily. It was a well known fact that she despised them, which was why she had no trouble crying it to the sky.
"Honestly My Lady, let them have their way, they are of no significance."
"That is not what bothers me Korba. What bothers me is that they have the potential. Surely you see the obvious, if they ever gained any more control than they have now, they could be a rival to the Therum, which is of course what everyone expects, and they are so disgustingly willing to please."
"My Lady, is that not what you pray for every night as you have told me? Why would you wish to protect your sisters?"
She lowered her eyes and glared at him from beneath her hair, resisting the urge to sigh over-dramatically, "Surely you jest. I want them stamped out, I don't want them replaced. They would know better than to make an alliance with the priests, so don't even start. If anything, and you know this, it would boil down to another war; as if we needed more of that."
Korba chuckled gruffly, "You are so critical My Lady. Do you not think it possible that they simply live admirably in your sisters' shadow?"
"Please refrain from calling that lot my sisters, and no, that is not possible. Not only do I know it because of their smug faces and obvious strategies, but I have seen it. It's written all over time because it is so important. Thank the Gods that it is only a possibility, but a possibility nonetheless."
"I see...And, if I may, what were the other possibilities?"
There was a silence. "I could not see them. Yet another matter that the Rengola will have to decide for us."
Korba's gentle face became stern, "My Lady, do not call it by the formal title that the Therum do. It is your child, treat it as such."
Kagome shut her eyes, and said in a small, calm voice, "Korba... This is not my child anymore." When she lifted hazel orbs to him again, they were lined with something the elderly general would never have imagined seeing from the strong Lady Kagome.
"Lady Kagome..."
"Hush, it is something that neither of us can change. I will be there when it is born, and I will see it raised, but that is all I will be allowed. It is not up to me."
The carriage halted suddenly, and Kagome prepared herself to rise again. Korba rose with her, and they each were lead out. Standing on the soft grass, dark grey clouds overhead threatened rain. "Do not bother yourself with these troubles Korba." She whispered, now speaking quietly in the midst of the many eyes and ears upon her. Routinely, she flipped her white shawl up over her head, while a handful of ladies swooped upon her, fastening the slip of cloth that covered her mouth, and the small veil that covered her eyes. Completely hidden then, she nodded to Korba, and they began the ascent up to the Holy Temple of Atalaya. The priests were there, waiting for them, and Sesshomaru, and the rest of the ruling party of House Hirohitoh. She wouldn't have been asked to come, had it not been for the fact that she was the mother of the royal heir. That and the fact that she could see time like others saw colors.
Korba followed her out obediently, and together they promptly drew into their wake a small swarm of soldiers; each bearing a weapon of some sort with obvious pride.
They quietly took each step with careful, practiced elegance and etiquette. There was a slight, notable limp in Korba as he half-dragged a leg that had been wounded in battle sometime during his many years. They were a strange couple. Kagome was a lady in every right and aspect; her pristine clothes hung on her timid body in beautiful splendor. She was a symbol of the new world, of demons and spirits and Therum witches. She was a solid representation of the steady evolution of humanity; of how it had grown so much that it was creating concepts that were so unbelievable they could almost be considered fantasy. And here, walking beside her, was a worn soldier of a bleak generation. He was covered in scars that each told a story; his small black eyes were nestled in tanned, rough flesh. His lengthy, crisped black hair was combed back and hung loose. He was a survivor from the old days when things were as they should be and there was nothing but reality. That was still the same, to a point. This was reality, whether he could survive in it this time was another matter entirely.
How odd that when he should have been intimidated by Kagome, he had been drawn to her instantly. He pitied her situation and envied her strength at the same time. Her strength...It was something that Kagome herself was not even aware of. The Therum had stifled her knowledge of it, how predictable. Kagome in her own mind believed that all of her strength was spent. Often Korba thought of revealing it to her, but decided that were she to know now, she might do something terribly rash.
Korba himself was Sesshomaru's foremost general; wizened and weathered by both military experience, and his own tragedies connected to House Oni. His own sister had been taken from him after a life of slavery together in their hands. He couldn't be sure where she had died, where her body lay, or even if it had been buried at all. He didn't even know if she was actually dead, but it was nearly impossible that she was still alive. After making a desperate attempt at freedom by fleeing his captors, Sesshomaru himself had found him at the young age of nineteen, and taken him in as a type of son; though as the years passed and his knowledge and power grew while Sesshomaru remained the immaculate picture of youth, their relationship soon changed from that of father and son, to that of old friends. Sometimes even Korba a mentor to Sesshomaru, rather than the other way around. There was much that Sesshomaru could learn, when experiencing the rapid life of a human compared to his of agelessness.
Korba was fascinated by this young, delicate creature now in his midst. He was certain that she would be a perfect mother, were she ever to convince herself that the little life she held in her womb was not anyone's but hers. Despite Sesshomaru being such a dear friend, he found himself worrying over his lack of kindness to Kagome. He secretly feared that his obvious lack of concern for her would lead to the destruction of the young mother's soul.
It was this fear, his pity, and his admiration that had drawn him to Kagome. And Kagome had been drawn to him because of his gentle, almost loving manner. She had never known a father, given the strict boundaries between the Therum and the opposite sex, and Korba was the type of person she had always imagined her father being.
It was raining mournfully; coming down in a dissatisfying, thin layer that could have been mistaken for mist. In this region, the mountains, the sun had hardly been seen for all of five days; only lonesome rain and bleary black-grey clouds.
The temple, famous for once being beautiful and marvelous, was set in a mountain valley, surrounded on all sides by snowy peaks, and resting comfortably on a stretch of long, withering grass. Two columns formed the entrance, spreading up to form a thick arch at the top, some fifty feet about the ground. From those two columns, on either side, geometrical shapes had been hewn in the stone to create a maze like image. It was identical on all sides. Beneath the towering entrance, a stretch of small steps crowded down to spill out onto the lawn. Everything was created from the same gold-brown rock.
As the rain grew heavier umbrellas sprouted up simultaneously over the two royals' heads like flowers opening. Kagome cursed very quietly under her breathe and hiked up her skirts just a bit more to keep from tripping on them while walking on the slippery stone.
No one said a word; the only sound was the rain splattering rhythmically. Their group passing up the steps and Sesshomaru and his host of soldiers and officials, all dressed in the traditional soft colors of Hirohitoh made the entire picture that of something resembling a funeral procession. Kagome imagined it as being just as repetitive and distant as that very thing. She hated the visits Sesshomaru made her undertake to the temples. She hated the priests because they were too similar to the Therum.
***
"Recording states...as read from the Scroll of Aisha, Life..."
The Earth had been in the grip of war for centuries. With a demon uprising beginning shortly after the dawn of time, what little of mankind's power both physical and political had been shoved into the background. Demons had control over everything, more or less.
They had evolved to the point where they could govern themselves in such a fashion that resembled something that a human civilization might do. Many chose humanoid forms, and for those humans or, in some cases, demons, who had not been gifted with psychic or spiritual abilities, it was growing very difficult to tell the two races apart.
Technology was clashing dramatically with the tradition that still very much existed in society. Many soldiers that marched proudly to battle lugged large, bulky guns rather than sword or spear. Metal had been woven into architectural design more than ever before. Many buildings stretched farther to the sky, with tall iron beams supporting them. Ghostly temples like Atalaya were figures of the past, made with "pure" materials as the very elderly sometimes called them. They were pure because they were usually not metal of any type, and metal created the weapons of war; metal had helped bring about a new age of blood.
With the rise of technology, there had also been the rise of psychology. Practices like Tara Onu, Getsa-chi, and Fanan Dai were all ways of tapping into the psyche and releasing energy. All of them had started by analyzing the mind. They showed how it could be stimulated and molded, how it could be lead to believe things that, perhaps weren't real, but thus fooled the body into abiding by natural laws of its own making. The creation of these methods, and there are thousands, were all major events in history, and surprisingly, more often they were created by humans rather than demons. The human mind is far less extreme than a demon one; extreme in the sense that, a demon mind is usually extremely rigid and set, or totally unstable. Whereas, a human mind is right between the two, and so can be worked with more easily.
The Therum, specifically, dabbled in the affairs of the mind and body with these methods (the entire practice being commonly known as Human Psycho-Pseudo Control), and the founders of the organization also happened to be the founders of the idea itself.
The practice Human Psycho-Pseudo Control was basically what saved the human race from being forgotten entirely. Using their new knowledge to tap into hidden stores of strength, they became a force that was just enough to rival the demons again; if not enough to defeat them. That and the fact that the vast population of said race was enough so that many were captured for slavery or used for soldiers.
Some demon races even considered humans as more than shrewd, nagging animals; some thought of them as equal, though such a case was very rare. Only a handful of humans, excepting the Therum and the Priests, ever managed to officially work themselves into positions of power. Yet even so, humans still played an enormous role in everything, and made very few protests against the demon rule, though groups of protest were still established and created small plans of fights for dominance once again. Demons chose to ignore these groups and found they posed very little, if any threat. Indeed, they had themselves to worry about.
Certainly humans put up small fight when the demons took the upper-hand and conquered the Earth, but that still did not mean peace. Demons are monsters, there's no getting around it. They have a thirst for blood that is unrivaled, and they will never be satisfied.
There were small, territorial fights for years, though not anything that could be called war. The Royal Houses were created as a result of early disagreements over land and how things should be ordered about, and so on. The fighting never really started until House Hirohitoh was cursed by House Oni, in such a way that was disgraceful, ridiculous, and frustrating. Generation after generation, they had to risk everything on a single birth.
The battling had escalated to the point where no one was entirely sure that the curse was the true reason, but it still remained the most probable answer. Houses joined the fighting throughout the years.
The war, yet to be named, had lasted for a millennia. While it increased the demand for more growth in technology and the like, it slowed everything down at the same time. Demons and humans both were now blinded by bloodlust, the Houses were gradually melding together to form two opposing sides, many feared that it would boil down to stupid, thoughtless fighting and nothing more. Still others feared it because it was punishment sent by the gods. They claimed that the Lords of Heaven were trying to clear away demons, humans, animals, everything, to start anew because the creatures of the Earth had shamed them with their foolish battling.
Starting over again.
The Priest cleared his throat and started again in a deep voice that echoed through the temple and bounced off the walls.
"The Recording...as read from the Scroll of Aisha, Life, states that the war shall be ended soon, and that all shall rejoice in a new life free of bloodshed and turmoil; that this Earth will only be stronger for its pain."
Kagome huffed and narrowed her eyes, glaring at the huddled mass of people that had gathered in the temple shortly after she had arrived with Korba. 'They've been saying that for a thousand years.'
***
Her mind, trying to overcome sleep and boredom, struggled to remember what the whole escapade was about in the first place. Something a monk said sparked her memory and she was brought back to the situation at hand. This happened every year, according to Korba.
The Priests were a very strange bunch. Mostly men (whether that was a move to spite the Therum or simply to uphold the ancient idea that males were and should be closer to God was not clear); demons, and sometimes humans, they claimed to be true religious visionaries when in fact it was obvious to everyone that their religious fanaticism was actually just a disguise to conceal their true purpose; to improve, warp, and expand upon Human Psycho-Pseudo Control.
Somehow, through posing as an innocent organization of humble monks, they had wooed the Great Houses into paying respect to the Gods. It was initially part of the rouse; the priests felt that by appearing so dedicated as to ask the Houses to take part in religion they might further lead them to believe that they actually were humble monks. And the Houses, feeling that it would be far less tedious to simply go along with it rather than take the time to obliterate something that was obviously so tenacious that it would spring back up again after a few decades, complied.
What Kagome, Korba, Sesshomaru, and they others were being forced to go through was a routine process that told the Priests whether or not the Houses were trying to destroy them yet, or, as they put it, "Proving Faithfulness to the Gods."
It was asked that the Lord of the House and the Officials of the House come to the Holy Temple of Atalaya (the most famous and grand temple in the vast network that belonged to the Priests) and sign the Holy Scroll of Aisha, Life, with their own blood.
It was a private joke between Kagome and Korba that the Priests were almost blowing what little cover they had by preceding nearly everything that belonged to their organization with the word "Holy."
Humans and demons made enormous journeys to Atalaya to see the event, no matter the house. To those who came, it really did appear to be a show of dedication to the Gods. The crowd standing before the raised dais on which the royal Hirohitoh party and a small number of Priests was comprised of such people.
Kagome looked upon them all and smiled ruefully. 'What fools...'
The Monk concluded his reading from the Holy Scroll of Aisha, Life and a Priest began the process of cutting the index fingers of the Royal Party so that they could sign the Scroll. Kagome watched with carefully hidden amusement as the Priest paled when Sesshomaru stepped forth and extended his hand to be hut by the Holy Dagger of Nana. To this man, it could mean both his, and his organization's, life or death. The relief was clear on his face when Sesshomaru turned to the parchment that was the Holy Scroll and dragged his finger across it.
After Seshomaru, his brother, Inuyasha, went, and then Korba was cut; after Korba, Kagome came forth.
She offered her small, pale hand to the Priest and the crowd seemed to lean forward with earnest curiosity. Her ears caught snippets of their conversation. It seemed that despite the efforts of Hirohitoh, news of the conceiving of an heir had somehow circulated through to the masses.
"Is that the mother?"
"Is she human?"
She raised her chin from under the layers of silk that had been wrapped over her and refused to flinch as the metal grazed her skin lightly. She signed the Scroll, and moved on to stand by Sesshomaru's side.
After every member of the party had signed Aisha, the Priests concluded the ceremony with a long, over dramatic speech about the power of the Gods and everyone started filing out gradually. As Kagome was ushered out through her sea of hand maidens, she found her way to Korba's side and whispered, "Look out there Korba, don't trip on the Holy Doorstop as you make your way out."
Korba laughed softly.
***
Look at that, isn't it lovely? Chapter three, all neat and beautiful. That whole thing with the priests was basically to make room for a way to explain basically what's going on in this world at the time. Try to keep in mind that while technology is advancing rapidly, they still have a society that's mostly based on what resembles the traditional Japanese culture from around the Feudal Era. If you have questions (because I know it's all probably confusing) please e-mail them to me or include them in a review. I'll be happy to answer.
***
Disclaimer-Don't own anything related to Dune or Inuyasha. Everything belongs to Rumiko Takahashi or Frank Herbert. And the quote is totally, all of it, Frank Herbert's. Yes.
***
Flower Blooming
Chapter 3-"Control the coinage and courts-let the rabble have the rest. If you want profits, you must rule." There is truth in these words, but I ask myself: "Who are the rabble and who are the ruled?"
***
"The priests...the damnable priests..." She muttered angrily. It was a well known fact that she despised them, which was why she had no trouble crying it to the sky.
"Honestly My Lady, let them have their way, they are of no significance."
"That is not what bothers me Korba. What bothers me is that they have the potential. Surely you see the obvious, if they ever gained any more control than they have now, they could be a rival to the Therum, which is of course what everyone expects, and they are so disgustingly willing to please."
"My Lady, is that not what you pray for every night as you have told me? Why would you wish to protect your sisters?"
She lowered her eyes and glared at him from beneath her hair, resisting the urge to sigh over-dramatically, "Surely you jest. I want them stamped out, I don't want them replaced. They would know better than to make an alliance with the priests, so don't even start. If anything, and you know this, it would boil down to another war; as if we needed more of that."
Korba chuckled gruffly, "You are so critical My Lady. Do you not think it possible that they simply live admirably in your sisters' shadow?"
"Please refrain from calling that lot my sisters, and no, that is not possible. Not only do I know it because of their smug faces and obvious strategies, but I have seen it. It's written all over time because it is so important. Thank the Gods that it is only a possibility, but a possibility nonetheless."
"I see...And, if I may, what were the other possibilities?"
There was a silence. "I could not see them. Yet another matter that the Rengola will have to decide for us."
Korba's gentle face became stern, "My Lady, do not call it by the formal title that the Therum do. It is your child, treat it as such."
Kagome shut her eyes, and said in a small, calm voice, "Korba... This is not my child anymore." When she lifted hazel orbs to him again, they were lined with something the elderly general would never have imagined seeing from the strong Lady Kagome.
"Lady Kagome..."
"Hush, it is something that neither of us can change. I will be there when it is born, and I will see it raised, but that is all I will be allowed. It is not up to me."
The carriage halted suddenly, and Kagome prepared herself to rise again. Korba rose with her, and they each were lead out. Standing on the soft grass, dark grey clouds overhead threatened rain. "Do not bother yourself with these troubles Korba." She whispered, now speaking quietly in the midst of the many eyes and ears upon her. Routinely, she flipped her white shawl up over her head, while a handful of ladies swooped upon her, fastening the slip of cloth that covered her mouth, and the small veil that covered her eyes. Completely hidden then, she nodded to Korba, and they began the ascent up to the Holy Temple of Atalaya. The priests were there, waiting for them, and Sesshomaru, and the rest of the ruling party of House Hirohitoh. She wouldn't have been asked to come, had it not been for the fact that she was the mother of the royal heir. That and the fact that she could see time like others saw colors.
Korba followed her out obediently, and together they promptly drew into their wake a small swarm of soldiers; each bearing a weapon of some sort with obvious pride.
They quietly took each step with careful, practiced elegance and etiquette. There was a slight, notable limp in Korba as he half-dragged a leg that had been wounded in battle sometime during his many years. They were a strange couple. Kagome was a lady in every right and aspect; her pristine clothes hung on her timid body in beautiful splendor. She was a symbol of the new world, of demons and spirits and Therum witches. She was a solid representation of the steady evolution of humanity; of how it had grown so much that it was creating concepts that were so unbelievable they could almost be considered fantasy. And here, walking beside her, was a worn soldier of a bleak generation. He was covered in scars that each told a story; his small black eyes were nestled in tanned, rough flesh. His lengthy, crisped black hair was combed back and hung loose. He was a survivor from the old days when things were as they should be and there was nothing but reality. That was still the same, to a point. This was reality, whether he could survive in it this time was another matter entirely.
How odd that when he should have been intimidated by Kagome, he had been drawn to her instantly. He pitied her situation and envied her strength at the same time. Her strength...It was something that Kagome herself was not even aware of. The Therum had stifled her knowledge of it, how predictable. Kagome in her own mind believed that all of her strength was spent. Often Korba thought of revealing it to her, but decided that were she to know now, she might do something terribly rash.
Korba himself was Sesshomaru's foremost general; wizened and weathered by both military experience, and his own tragedies connected to House Oni. His own sister had been taken from him after a life of slavery together in their hands. He couldn't be sure where she had died, where her body lay, or even if it had been buried at all. He didn't even know if she was actually dead, but it was nearly impossible that she was still alive. After making a desperate attempt at freedom by fleeing his captors, Sesshomaru himself had found him at the young age of nineteen, and taken him in as a type of son; though as the years passed and his knowledge and power grew while Sesshomaru remained the immaculate picture of youth, their relationship soon changed from that of father and son, to that of old friends. Sometimes even Korba a mentor to Sesshomaru, rather than the other way around. There was much that Sesshomaru could learn, when experiencing the rapid life of a human compared to his of agelessness.
Korba was fascinated by this young, delicate creature now in his midst. He was certain that she would be a perfect mother, were she ever to convince herself that the little life she held in her womb was not anyone's but hers. Despite Sesshomaru being such a dear friend, he found himself worrying over his lack of kindness to Kagome. He secretly feared that his obvious lack of concern for her would lead to the destruction of the young mother's soul.
It was this fear, his pity, and his admiration that had drawn him to Kagome. And Kagome had been drawn to him because of his gentle, almost loving manner. She had never known a father, given the strict boundaries between the Therum and the opposite sex, and Korba was the type of person she had always imagined her father being.
It was raining mournfully; coming down in a dissatisfying, thin layer that could have been mistaken for mist. In this region, the mountains, the sun had hardly been seen for all of five days; only lonesome rain and bleary black-grey clouds.
The temple, famous for once being beautiful and marvelous, was set in a mountain valley, surrounded on all sides by snowy peaks, and resting comfortably on a stretch of long, withering grass. Two columns formed the entrance, spreading up to form a thick arch at the top, some fifty feet about the ground. From those two columns, on either side, geometrical shapes had been hewn in the stone to create a maze like image. It was identical on all sides. Beneath the towering entrance, a stretch of small steps crowded down to spill out onto the lawn. Everything was created from the same gold-brown rock.
As the rain grew heavier umbrellas sprouted up simultaneously over the two royals' heads like flowers opening. Kagome cursed very quietly under her breathe and hiked up her skirts just a bit more to keep from tripping on them while walking on the slippery stone.
No one said a word; the only sound was the rain splattering rhythmically. Their group passing up the steps and Sesshomaru and his host of soldiers and officials, all dressed in the traditional soft colors of Hirohitoh made the entire picture that of something resembling a funeral procession. Kagome imagined it as being just as repetitive and distant as that very thing. She hated the visits Sesshomaru made her undertake to the temples. She hated the priests because they were too similar to the Therum.
***
"Recording states...as read from the Scroll of Aisha, Life..."
The Earth had been in the grip of war for centuries. With a demon uprising beginning shortly after the dawn of time, what little of mankind's power both physical and political had been shoved into the background. Demons had control over everything, more or less.
They had evolved to the point where they could govern themselves in such a fashion that resembled something that a human civilization might do. Many chose humanoid forms, and for those humans or, in some cases, demons, who had not been gifted with psychic or spiritual abilities, it was growing very difficult to tell the two races apart.
Technology was clashing dramatically with the tradition that still very much existed in society. Many soldiers that marched proudly to battle lugged large, bulky guns rather than sword or spear. Metal had been woven into architectural design more than ever before. Many buildings stretched farther to the sky, with tall iron beams supporting them. Ghostly temples like Atalaya were figures of the past, made with "pure" materials as the very elderly sometimes called them. They were pure because they were usually not metal of any type, and metal created the weapons of war; metal had helped bring about a new age of blood.
With the rise of technology, there had also been the rise of psychology. Practices like Tara Onu, Getsa-chi, and Fanan Dai were all ways of tapping into the psyche and releasing energy. All of them had started by analyzing the mind. They showed how it could be stimulated and molded, how it could be lead to believe things that, perhaps weren't real, but thus fooled the body into abiding by natural laws of its own making. The creation of these methods, and there are thousands, were all major events in history, and surprisingly, more often they were created by humans rather than demons. The human mind is far less extreme than a demon one; extreme in the sense that, a demon mind is usually extremely rigid and set, or totally unstable. Whereas, a human mind is right between the two, and so can be worked with more easily.
The Therum, specifically, dabbled in the affairs of the mind and body with these methods (the entire practice being commonly known as Human Psycho-Pseudo Control), and the founders of the organization also happened to be the founders of the idea itself.
The practice Human Psycho-Pseudo Control was basically what saved the human race from being forgotten entirely. Using their new knowledge to tap into hidden stores of strength, they became a force that was just enough to rival the demons again; if not enough to defeat them. That and the fact that the vast population of said race was enough so that many were captured for slavery or used for soldiers.
Some demon races even considered humans as more than shrewd, nagging animals; some thought of them as equal, though such a case was very rare. Only a handful of humans, excepting the Therum and the Priests, ever managed to officially work themselves into positions of power. Yet even so, humans still played an enormous role in everything, and made very few protests against the demon rule, though groups of protest were still established and created small plans of fights for dominance once again. Demons chose to ignore these groups and found they posed very little, if any threat. Indeed, they had themselves to worry about.
Certainly humans put up small fight when the demons took the upper-hand and conquered the Earth, but that still did not mean peace. Demons are monsters, there's no getting around it. They have a thirst for blood that is unrivaled, and they will never be satisfied.
There were small, territorial fights for years, though not anything that could be called war. The Royal Houses were created as a result of early disagreements over land and how things should be ordered about, and so on. The fighting never really started until House Hirohitoh was cursed by House Oni, in such a way that was disgraceful, ridiculous, and frustrating. Generation after generation, they had to risk everything on a single birth.
The battling had escalated to the point where no one was entirely sure that the curse was the true reason, but it still remained the most probable answer. Houses joined the fighting throughout the years.
The war, yet to be named, had lasted for a millennia. While it increased the demand for more growth in technology and the like, it slowed everything down at the same time. Demons and humans both were now blinded by bloodlust, the Houses were gradually melding together to form two opposing sides, many feared that it would boil down to stupid, thoughtless fighting and nothing more. Still others feared it because it was punishment sent by the gods. They claimed that the Lords of Heaven were trying to clear away demons, humans, animals, everything, to start anew because the creatures of the Earth had shamed them with their foolish battling.
Starting over again.
The Priest cleared his throat and started again in a deep voice that echoed through the temple and bounced off the walls.
"The Recording...as read from the Scroll of Aisha, Life, states that the war shall be ended soon, and that all shall rejoice in a new life free of bloodshed and turmoil; that this Earth will only be stronger for its pain."
Kagome huffed and narrowed her eyes, glaring at the huddled mass of people that had gathered in the temple shortly after she had arrived with Korba. 'They've been saying that for a thousand years.'
***
Her mind, trying to overcome sleep and boredom, struggled to remember what the whole escapade was about in the first place. Something a monk said sparked her memory and she was brought back to the situation at hand. This happened every year, according to Korba.
The Priests were a very strange bunch. Mostly men (whether that was a move to spite the Therum or simply to uphold the ancient idea that males were and should be closer to God was not clear); demons, and sometimes humans, they claimed to be true religious visionaries when in fact it was obvious to everyone that their religious fanaticism was actually just a disguise to conceal their true purpose; to improve, warp, and expand upon Human Psycho-Pseudo Control.
Somehow, through posing as an innocent organization of humble monks, they had wooed the Great Houses into paying respect to the Gods. It was initially part of the rouse; the priests felt that by appearing so dedicated as to ask the Houses to take part in religion they might further lead them to believe that they actually were humble monks. And the Houses, feeling that it would be far less tedious to simply go along with it rather than take the time to obliterate something that was obviously so tenacious that it would spring back up again after a few decades, complied.
What Kagome, Korba, Sesshomaru, and they others were being forced to go through was a routine process that told the Priests whether or not the Houses were trying to destroy them yet, or, as they put it, "Proving Faithfulness to the Gods."
It was asked that the Lord of the House and the Officials of the House come to the Holy Temple of Atalaya (the most famous and grand temple in the vast network that belonged to the Priests) and sign the Holy Scroll of Aisha, Life, with their own blood.
It was a private joke between Kagome and Korba that the Priests were almost blowing what little cover they had by preceding nearly everything that belonged to their organization with the word "Holy."
Humans and demons made enormous journeys to Atalaya to see the event, no matter the house. To those who came, it really did appear to be a show of dedication to the Gods. The crowd standing before the raised dais on which the royal Hirohitoh party and a small number of Priests was comprised of such people.
Kagome looked upon them all and smiled ruefully. 'What fools...'
The Monk concluded his reading from the Holy Scroll of Aisha, Life and a Priest began the process of cutting the index fingers of the Royal Party so that they could sign the Scroll. Kagome watched with carefully hidden amusement as the Priest paled when Sesshomaru stepped forth and extended his hand to be hut by the Holy Dagger of Nana. To this man, it could mean both his, and his organization's, life or death. The relief was clear on his face when Sesshomaru turned to the parchment that was the Holy Scroll and dragged his finger across it.
After Seshomaru, his brother, Inuyasha, went, and then Korba was cut; after Korba, Kagome came forth.
She offered her small, pale hand to the Priest and the crowd seemed to lean forward with earnest curiosity. Her ears caught snippets of their conversation. It seemed that despite the efforts of Hirohitoh, news of the conceiving of an heir had somehow circulated through to the masses.
"Is that the mother?"
"Is she human?"
She raised her chin from under the layers of silk that had been wrapped over her and refused to flinch as the metal grazed her skin lightly. She signed the Scroll, and moved on to stand by Sesshomaru's side.
After every member of the party had signed Aisha, the Priests concluded the ceremony with a long, over dramatic speech about the power of the Gods and everyone started filing out gradually. As Kagome was ushered out through her sea of hand maidens, she found her way to Korba's side and whispered, "Look out there Korba, don't trip on the Holy Doorstop as you make your way out."
Korba laughed softly.
***
Look at that, isn't it lovely? Chapter three, all neat and beautiful. That whole thing with the priests was basically to make room for a way to explain basically what's going on in this world at the time. Try to keep in mind that while technology is advancing rapidly, they still have a society that's mostly based on what resembles the traditional Japanese culture from around the Feudal Era. If you have questions (because I know it's all probably confusing) please e-mail them to me or include them in a review. I'll be happy to answer.
