LXXX

Mala Fide

Kagura comes to consciousness, real consciousness, with the taste of something vile and sticky in her mouth, not blood but whatever blood becomes after a week. There's a red glow behind her eyelids, inhabiting her heart-space, flowing insidious, insistent, until the blood ceases to coagulate in her veins, beats painfully into the pads of her fingers and the tip of her nose. She breathes in, one sharp, putrid gasp that fills her lungs with miasma in its purest form. Then she coughs, and again, and again, until death comes out of her, and breath and some twisted mimicry of life goes in. I was ready to let go forever.

"Kagura, I know you can hear me. You have been hearing me all along." The carmine glint that is Naraku's glare compels an answer, promising more than the pain she's used to if she doesn't speak.

For a moment – just one – she wonders if it might be worth it not to answer. Just this once, can she pretend she isn't hearing him? Tempt him to her own destruction? Even to breathe hurts so much. So much. There's a poorly-filtered pang from the vicinity of her missing heart, which reminds her that she's alone now in her prison. Kanna is dead, and what other servants Naraku has, they know nothing of his true name, or how well it describes his true nature. They know nothing. The little lords who think their master lives, and that they serve him. The peasants who populate his castle and fill his collection of corpses. The woman he'd broken, so thoroughly deceived she had built her own prison out of might have been, and could have happened, and maybe someday.

But the miasma floods her veins, fills her lungs, tightens every nerve to the point of screaming, until whatever former agonies Kagura has known are merely a trickle, compared to this flood. She realizes in an instant of clarity, the edges of the world grown sharp as crystal, that this is all she will ever have, and never freedom. Never even death. And I must answer.

"Y…es." It is the absolute minimum, and that is not enough. Between their two pairs of red eyes flows a tenuous thread of will and knowledge that finally snaps at her end when she can no longer resist the crushing pain. "The wolf is strong… stronger than he should be. He wears the shikon no tama…wears its powers like a cloak, but the woman…" She shakes her head, would be laughing except that to do so would just add fuel to the blazing fire scorching the inside of her skin. She remembers her glimpse of the Wolf's woman, studded with brilliance like the crown of a foreign king. "The woman carries more of it for him. The woman you want, the one… who looks… like Kik-"

His hand at her throat cuts off the name he thinks her unworthy to speak. "The Wolf, Kagura. Speak to me of the Wolf, and gain yourself a few more precious minutes of life without pain."

In halting words, mustering little detail of the circumstances that had led to her defeat, Kagura describes the approach to the Wolf's den, the way through Echigo up into the Ou Mountains, the location of the waterfall and narrow valley there, where the wolves had made their home. Approachable from only three directions, protected by the forest and the river, she had spent some time scouting the environment, looking for an easy way to assault the pack and drive them away from the shelter of their caves. "The Wolf Alpha is nothing like you, Naraku. He cares for his people, protects them… Not considering what danger I might present, he still came for me himself, seeing them wounded, and it was the slightest effort for him to kill me. If it wasn't for how unnatural I am, how unnatural you are, you never would have been able to summon me back here."

"So he has the use of the shikon no tama, and a miko who should protect it, but instead allows him to do as he desires. Interesting. And would he be receptive to a visit, do you think? If I outstretched a hand in friendship, would he bite?"

"He builds instead of breaking. He picked a miko for his woman, but there's no force keeping her there, or if there is, she's the one who commands it. I think… he wants to make something that will last. If you don't go offering him violence, he wouldn't attack until you did. I guess he didn't look smart enough to see you for what you are…" Kagura coughs long and wetly, and pauses longer to spit blood at his feet and lick her cracked lips. "But you wouldn't go yourself anyway, would you, Waka-dono? You'll send me back and-"

Unperturbed by the blood, Naraku sits back and looks up at her lazily, shaking his head. "Oh, Kagura, as if I would be such a fool as to send you. No, my traitorous offspring, you will remain here. Precisely here. There are others better suited to this task, and your current position is exactly what it should be. It will serve as an excellent incentive for the Wolf, when he finds out the enemy that caused him so much trouble is my captive, and in prison here." He watches her face until he sees what he is saying and all its implications have sunk in.

"Naraku! You bastard, you can't be planning to just leave me here! Kanna is already dead, and you need –"

"A distraction, for which you will serve quite well."

Tapping his fingers against the floorboards, Naraku considers her. It's a good plan, if not perfect. If the Wolf Alpha has any brain at all, having seen her fail to die, he will know that something is strange about Kagura. Regardless of the reason, however, he will not be pleased to be summoned by a human lord, no matter how politely. There is no way around that, of course. It would be far worse to attempt to communicate as himself. His choice of messenger, too, leaves something to be desired. If he chooses the Taijiya Sango, he will necessarily be prevented from adding further layers of deceit and miscommunication to his message. Is it worth it, sending her to the Wolf? Does he have another choice? So much of the shikon no tama gathered in one place, so many questions gathered around one person…

Undecided, Naraku abandons Kagura to her screaming and curses, climbs out of the basement and shuts the doors behind him, one at a time. The methodical movements clear his mind, and reinforce his grip on the shape of Kagewaki. Because he is doing so, he recognizes his own subconscious intention made manifest. The Taijiya it is, then. By now she must be healed well enough to make a good showing of it… and perhaps there's no better way to reach this Wolf Alpha than to go through his human. Woman to woman, won't there be a connection there? Won't the miko have an obligation to protect her visitor? As long as he can shape his message correctly, Naraku is certain that between them, Wolf and miko, curiosity will eventually win out.

Taking on his most stringent performance of Kagewaki, Naraku strides to the main hall, settles himself on the dais and checks the corners of the room for errant shadows before he calls for servants. "Bring the Taijiya here; she's been asking for something to do, and I think I finally have a request for her." He will have to be careful with his words and how he frames his message. It's taken too much work to convince her that he is who and what he says he is, and that she is on the right side. After the several months she has spent under his control, it is unlikely she will ever be able to shed the skin of his magic and its compulsions, never mind see deeply enough that she might notice the web spun about her, the spider who has spun it, or the shard of shikon no tama he has embedded in her back.

Still, unlikely is not impossible. A useful tool can still be broken by enough force, as he has learned so recently with Kanna… And useful or not, this one is still only human, even if his subtle prodding and changes have done something to augment her natural abilities. She will not like being sent into Wolf territory, nor being told that the Alpha has a miko of his very own. Still, a far more useful tool is his Sango, when compared to Kagura's lies. Even if the latter had sprung from his own flesh, he sometimes wondered if he would be better off without her. Yes, Sango is far more useful…

A pity that she is the only one of her kin who has survived. It wouldn't be economical to waste further shards on resurrecting the others, at least not at this time. Still, one perfect sword found in a bag of broken blades isn't bad at all, now is it? And the longer she remains by my side, the more atrocities she commits, the more lies she tells unknowing, the more lives she ruins and takes... Ah, how sweet it will be when I am finally done with her, and she is all used up, and the last thing I tell her is the truth. What will it look like then, the expression on her face?

Naraku allows himself a moment to contemplate the many ways in which beauty and horror can mingle, before he stands and pastes a smile on his face at the sound of the shoji sliding open and shut. He is a consummate actor, but the more power he gains, the more shikon shards he gathers, the more difficult it becomes to remind himself of why it's necessary. Still, at this time, there are things he has to know. About the woman especially; Kikyou lives, but doesn't breathe. Something is wrong with her. This other woman... She is not Kikyou, but possesses her glimmering beauty and glittering power. What is her story?

He allows himself to contemplate the last image he'd been gifted of her by Kanna's mirror, while Sango crosses the hall with sure, even footsteps – a far cry from the last time she'd done so, wounded and bleeding – and comes to a stop six steps from the foot of the dais, bowing easily. "Kagewaki-sama, do you have a task for me?"

Naraku allows the smile to linger, a little bit warm, a little bit rueful. "Yes, I do, Sango-san, but I'm afraid you aren't going to like it."

"Like it-"

"How would you like to carry a message for me, Sango-san?"

"A message?" There's an affront in her voice that's just short of real insult, and it takes work to hide the smirk that wants to overwhelm Kagewaki's affable expression.

"To Kouga, the Wolf Alpha of Echigo, and the miko who lives with his pack… though, I'm sorry, but I don't know her name." He's fascinated by the mixture of horror and outrage that spills and mixes on her face, but her indignant silence gives him an opportunity to elaborate with the beginnings of his planned excuses. "There's a demon in my basement, Sango-san. She used to be a servant of mine, but now she's yōkai and terrifying, and the last time she escaped, apparently she attacked Kouga's wolves." He sits heavily, and leans toward her as if to intensify his point. "There are enemies I cannot afford, Sango-san, and battles that, forgive me, I think are too much to ask of a single Taijiya."

"Too much-"

"My intelligence suggests there are upwards of a hundred wolves in that pack, though I'm sure some are younger and less dangerous. Still, a hundred is excessive for one warrior, is it not?" He makes the words mild, but her reluctance to agree is amusing, despite the facts.

Finally, she nods grudgingly, but can't resist a comment. "Perhaps too many for a frontal attack, Kagewaki-sama, but there are ways. And with command of a small troop, it's likely only the Alpha would offer any real trouble."

She's so incredibly deluded that Naraku can't restrain his laughter, but at her scowl, he does his best to cut it short. "Your courage is admirable, Sango-san, but forgive me if I don't have the same estimation of my men's ability to stand up to yōkai as you do. If it were that easy, I believe you and your village would have had more competition, is that not so?" The reminder of her loss quiets her, as he had intended, and leaves him an opening to qualify his demand in a way that will make her more likely to accept it. "In fact, now that I've said all this... I'm sorry, Sango-san. I really should have thought it through more before I tried to use a Taijiya as a messenger. And of course it would be foolish of you to accept, when I can't offer an army to march with you. Sending one Taijiya into a pack of Ōkami is only a suicide mission, and-"

"No, it's not that hard, Kagewaki-sama. If they trouble me, or I trouble them, that's a different story, but I should be safe enough to deliver a message. It would be easier if I had Kirara, but I haven't seen her… since…"

"I'm sure she'll find you eventually, Sango-san. We thought you were dead when we found you, perhaps she is the same." He wasn't even lying; the nekomata had thought the woman was dead, and she had still been hovering at the brink when the beast had burst into his hall trying to find her. Like Kagura, it can stay in the basement where it belongs. "But do you mean that you'll accept my task?"

"Yes, I'll do it, Kagewaki-san. But what exactly is this message that you want me to bring?"

A/N: STILL ALIVE! And it didn't take a year for the chapter either, thanks to the trust poking powers of my head minion. This chapter's title means "in bad faith", because…. Well. That should be pretty obvious, yes? But now that Sango's being sent on her merry way, the gang's all here, even if some of them aren't all there. Ever onward, glorious beings, to the next chapter! And of course, if you've got a minute…

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