Chapter Five: Sernenity

Her face was of cool marble- cool, white with the pale etchings of blue veins- with the red slash that dripped words for a mouth, and two holes- pits- for eyes. Her glossy, raven-wing hair was pulled back from her face and there was an icy beauty that hung on her personage.

The Lord came in and took a seat, folding to sit across from her.

Her smile was empty, and her eyes were a flickering onyx reflecting the single candle that lit the room. The slash- bloody, rose red- curved to form the parody or a smile-perfect and grotesque.

"Greetings, Sesshoumaru-sama." Her hand rose to her collarbone and flicked out.

He eyed the motion, and then shook his head; her ways were none of his concern.

Her eyes gleamed fiercely under the warm glow of the candle.

"Greetings woman." There was no inflection to worry the meaning away. She smiled again, hiding teeth behind a hand.

"I am honored with your presence." He nodded and she continued. "I wish to know if your palace has a garden. Your hospitality is unparalleled but I long for the companionship of the sky and breathing things."

Her voice was cool, lilting, and with an odd, resigned serenity-like skating across thin ice. His eyes flickered across her face and finally settled right above her frost-threaded green eyes. He could not meet them- would not meet them, he assured himself, for to do so would to say that she was of equal status to his own.

She was the first to blink, and for a moment he was distracted, and was caught as surely as the black widow's last husband. There was a softness of discordant song that he had mistaken for unyielding ice, an innocence, bewildered, that he had taken for the flash of silver fang in the night. She was a woman of contradictions, the dagger protecting the innocent, warm blood melting the fresh snow, the doe before the hunter, and the hunter with the knife.

Her eyes were disgusting, dirty, ugly! things; bulbous, almost as he watched him, like the swimmer under for too long. And as he watched them, he could see them distort- they could have once been beautiful- but never now.

In another blink it was gone and he was staring at the chilly eyes of a mad woman.

"There is a garden for your use in the East Wing. My personal servant Jakken will be at your disposal." He stood, the only sound being the rustling of his robes settling into their folds.

A green creature with large, bulging yellow eyes darted forward, uttering a cry, "Not your Jakken!"

Nodding the woman veiled her hands and repeated her opening gesture.

And turning on his heel, the Lord departed, hair whipping like silver snakes behind him.

-

She shut her eyes, deliberately folding her hands over the fine silk of her obi and letting her body relax. Always selfish, no? Koken. And she let the familiarity of nothing- no nameness- come like cool rain.

She felt no remorse of taking names when they suited her, and leaving them when they didn't. It was something of a game she played; a game with definite advantages, she decided.

Shifting subtly, she turned her gaze to the green creature. It was decidedly odd, as many things were in this world, but she didn't mind.

"Lady, should you wish to visit the gardens now, I shall assist you." Tipping her head to one side, she caught its eyes with her own.

She smiled, welcoming, cupped its toad cheek and stared into its eyes. A shudder went through the creature but she probed deeper, pushing against something she couldn't name. She could hear it, something, frenzied, a heartbeat. She paused- paused and slowly clamped down on that beat, heard it falter, slow, boom and echo, pound- falter and stumble, miss and splutter. She knew if she didn't let up soon the creature would die and her garden gate would close.

But something struggled in the recesses of its mind, flickered but would not be quenched. She pushed at it and it pushed back.

She smiled serenely and let the mind go.

She was drunk with power: a mix of euphoria and the serenity of death.

AN: Okay, I know that my Rin seems a little out of character in this chapter but you'll see why in the next one! Than you for sticking with this story! You guys are the best! Yavi, thank you for your never ending support, even when you didn't like it.

Reviewer Response Corner:

agent-doo: Thanks for reviewing! Ok, here's the answer to your question but I hope it was kind of cleared up in this chapter. She takes 'names' just as she gave her own away, and with taking these names, she takes the traits of those they belonged to; in essence she takes their identity. It's weird, but…hey. –shrugs- .

Danica Blake: I love the questions! But if I answered them now it'd ruin the surprise! –okay, so maybe I haven't decided . - But please! keep reading.

Yavi- HA! Again, I'm not going to spoil it… . … . Ok, reference to agent-doo's review response, but I hope this chapter gave something as to an answer to your question.

Spiritually-lunar- Love the penname! . Thanks!