An invitation, a rejection, or might be not…

Author's note: Hey people, thank you for all your reviews, sorry for not updating for so long, my exams are just over, and I have been so busy for the past few weeks, so sorry. I'm not sure this chapter is as nice as the other chapters. I tried to put in more descriptions. Is Riyo turning out to be very irritating? I also put in more conversations, is it very boring? Please review and tell me how you feel, no flames please. Thank you

Normal pov

Kobaru marched quickly down the streets with two of his subordinates to the dancing halls. The urgency of the demons could be felt clearly, for almost everyone got out of their way the moment that they sensed the trio coming anywhere close to themselves.

The trio soon reached the dancing halls. Kobaru marched in alone, leaving his two subordinates outside to stand guard. This time, there was no marvelling of the interiors of the dancing halls, or of the dancers, it was just strictly business, all professional, and nothing more.

"Can I help you my lord?" A voice asked respectfully. Kobaru turned around to see a wolf demon come out to greet Kobaru. He was wearing a rich coloured hakama. His hair and eyes was brown in colour. He looked like he was in his twenties. His demonic aura was not too strong, but strong enough.

"Oh, I forgot to introduce myself, I'm Kazemura, the owner of this dancing hall." The wolf demon said respectfully.

"Well, Kazemura, I do need your help. Do you have any dancers here that came to this place around two hundred years ago? She is most probably a demon or a half demon, wearing a dancers dress and had a faint smell of poison over her." Kobaru said, almost anxiously.

"Well… my Lord, there is someone here that might fit your description. She goes by the name Riyo, no one really knows her real name, and apparently she lost her memory before she appeared at our premises. One of our coaches for dancing took pity in her and took her in, she has been here since, and we gave her the name Riyo. In fact she's quite famous for her dancing, and some know her for her healing skills that she acquired a few years back. Could you wait here for a while, while I go and ask for her?" The Kazemura asked helpfully and politely.

"Riyo, there's some lord looking for you, would you rather come out and see him or would you rather I ask him to come in?" A familiar voice came from behind the door screens of Riyo's room.

"Kazemura, who's that person? Why does he want to see me?" Riyo asked curiously.

"He's not specifically asking for you, he just described someone whose description was very similar to yours, and had the same plight as you. I have no idea why he wants to talk to you, he did not mention anything in particular, however I can recognise him, he is the Southern Lord, or rather caretaker, Lord Kobaru." Kazemura replied.

"Well… Thank you Kazemura, could you ask him to come up alone please without any of his subordinates or other extra people, I had rather they did not disturb the peace here for the other dancers." Riyo replied.

"Sure, no problem, I will be right back." Kazemura replied.

Riyo's pov

I sighed to myself after Kazemura left. Trouble was really here. I did not know what those people out there wanted with me, but it certainly would not be anything good to me or the people whom I care for. The Overlord… I heard of him somewhere, wasn't he the one…

"Knock…! Knock…!" Someone knocked at the door, interrupting me from my thoughts.

Kobaru's pov

The wolf demon finally came back. "My lord, follow me…" He said.

Mission accomplished, she was willing to see me, and all would most probably go smoothly. Walking up the stairways and through the different corridors, I wondered to myself. Was she the one that I was supposed to look for? Could she heal Rin? Would she know anything about the lady? All this thoughts were running through the back of my head and I was this close to getting an answer!

I came to the room of this dancer Riyo. I still could not smell any smell of poison yet. Could she be the wrong person? If she was, then what was going to happen to Rin? I knocked on the door.

"Come in," a female voice came through. The voice was gentle and soft yet one could sense a mysterious air around it.

I opened the door and stepped in. In front of me was a… woman that looked the age of a seventeen years old girl kneeling down. That wasn't what I expected, I expected a more mature lady.

She had the markings of the same lady of many years ago, only more faded, she was rather tanned, and she had black hair with one strip of silver in the front. She tied her hair into a half pony tail, with a silver string to tie it up, there were two tiny bells at the end of the strings that made twinkling sounds, and a small fan pin was pinned just above her pony tail. She was rather thin with a good figure, not to full, not to flat. She was rather petite, looking rather fragile, yet not really there. Her body was quite well toned with no excess. She was taller than the average girls, about 1.7 metre.

She wore a black colour dress that was rather tight, but not to tight, flaring a little at the bottom of the dress, it was about knee length, and was cross backed. The dress was those that seemed to stick to you, a not so common dance dress. She had a necklace around her neck that looked rather ancient and important.

She had a piece of black colour cloth that was rather translucent around her eyes, those that you could still see through it, and she was wearing black leather army boots, with black net stockings, and black leather gloves on her hand, and on the table beside her were two metal fans that had intricate designs on them. The most important thing of all, she had a very slight smell of poison around her.

Riyo's pov

A fox demon was what stepped out from behind the doors. He had orange brownish hair colour, as well as hazel coloured eyes. He looked like he was into his twenties, not very handsome, but not under the category of ugly. He also wore a yellow and blue colour haori. He seemed quite strong in his demonic aura and stance. He had a long sword around his waist and a few daggers tugged into his haori, and he looked rather serious.

There was silence in the room, until Kazemura broke the silence by announcing his departure. After Kazemura left, I asked the demon that just came in, "May I ask why my lord is looking for me?"

"Ah, madam, I am Kobaru, caretaker of the Southern lands. I have been sent by the Lord of the Western Lands to invite you to his castle to help in the healing of his ward that has most unfortunately been poisoned by demons unknown to us for now." Kobaru said smoothly.

I smiled slightly at his comment, trying to hide most of the detail from me, he still manage to state what he wanted. This demon was very skilled in political talk. "What could a small little dancer like me know about the healing of any poison, the healers at the castle should be more competent then me," I asked, if he wanted to play with words, I would follow through.

"Madam, our lord summoned you, this is an order from your lord, won't you at least go and have a look as to what he wants? Besides your excellent healing skills have not gone past the notice of our lord." Kobaru said, I almost snorted out loud, what excellent healing skills? I hardly ever heal anybody, and how would some far off lord know of my so called skills?

"My lord, I believe there is no law that says that a commoner must agree to go and heal someone of a higher status? Besides, isn't there a law that forbids commoners to interfere in the lives of a lord or lady of a higher status?" I retorted politely, declining Kobaru's offer at the same time. After all, technically he couldn't do anything to me if I refused.

"Madam, Lord Sesshoumaru's words are the law will always be the law in this land." Kobaru said stiffly to me. Now, now, might be some fox demon was getting irritated, I bet he did not expect some small time dancer to reject him so outright, bet he expected me to nod my head and say yes..

"Well my lord, shouldn't the lord of all, himself keep to his own law? If he doesn't, how is he to gain the respect of his followers?" I asked, questioning this lord again. After all, what law is that if even the one who made the law did not keep to his own law?

"That is beside the point madam, anyway, isn't it the responsibility of a healer to heal whoever how comes for help? Aren't you breaking that code?" Kobaru asked politely. He was a smart one, politically, I was right, but he was using the responsibilities of a healer, smart move.

"My lord, there is no point in bringing me to the castle, could you be certain that I won't poison Lady Rin further? Besides, what makes you think I have the ability to heal Lady Rin?" I questioned. If he wanted to jump about different topics like that, so could I, tit for tat.

"Madam, even if you poisoned Rin further, it won't change her current fate by much, and you have the bloodline of the healers from the Western undergrounds, you have a higher chance of healing Lady Rin then any other healers in the castle." Kobaru said. Now he caught me, how did he know about my bloodline? Even I was not sure what my bloodline was. Was that ladies condition really that bad that he had to tell me in such straight terms?

"My lord, if you were counting on my bloodline to help in the healing of Lady Rin, I would have to refuse your kind offer." I said, trying to keep the shock and irritation off my face. After all, I did not even know who my ancestors were, and now some lord just came by, and attempted to make use of my possible ancestral ties for his own good means.

"Madam, my lord would not be happy that you refused his offer, who knows what he would do when he becomes unhappy." Kobaru warned. He was finally giving up on this discussion.

"My Lord, is that a threat? Even if you burnt down this whole place, I still won't be able to help you. My bloodline is too diluted to do anything, not to even say something close to what my ancestors did, if they were my ancestors, besides, even if my bloodline was strong enough, I won't have any idea as to how to I am going to use my abilities, not at all." I said feeling a little helpless as I could not help at all, yet a little irritated that this demon just came in and threatened me.

"Couldn't you at least come to the palace and see what Lord Sesshoumaru wants." Kobaru suggested. At least he was gentlemanly enough to compromise even if only just a tiny winy little bit.

"My Lord, why don't you report to your lord then come back here and tell me what he wants. It would be inappropriate for a commoner like me to come and go from the castle like she owned the place." I said. If he was willing to compromise, so could I, after all, there was no harm to that.

"So it shall be, I will come back tomorrow madam," Kobaru said, ending this discussion abruptly.

Before he closed the door, he said silently and stiffly, "Madam, although this might seem all about politics to you, all this talk about saving some ladies live, however, I would like you to know that we all care about Lady Rin and none of us wants anything to happen to her. I hope you could feel the same way too, and would do your best to help her." Then he closed the door behind him.

I froze at his words, they sounded sincere and serious, unlike the previous tone, he was taking. I sighed… why not…

Kobaru's pov

My, my, what a conversation… that was not a simple woman, she appeared respectful and polite all the time, however, at every point, she was refusing my request in a very subtle way. It might just take the lord himself to personally get that woman to even step into the castle, I thought to myself as I walked the corridors to get out of this dancing hall.

As I was walking, I heard a familiar female voice shouting behind me, "Wait, wait a moment."

I turned around and saw the woman I had been talking to just a few minutes ago. She had a luggage bag slung around her shoulders, with a few books in one hand and her fans in the other.

"Madam?" I asked slightly confused.

"I'm going back with you." She said.

"Why the sudden change of mind?" I asked puzzled. Just now she seemed so reluctant to leave this place and now, without any persuasion she was suddenly so enthusiastic to go.

"Well… you spent quite a bit of your time here arguing with me, I should at least show my gratitude in your entertainment by helping you with your task, I couldn't just let you go back and get reprimanded by your lord, could I?" She asked, smiling a sweet smile.

I stared at her with an even more puzzled expression.

"Nah… well, it's just that Lady Rin is kind of innocent… Just because I dislike politics and royalty and all the scheming doesn't mean I shouldn't try and help her." She said more seriously.

"Well, no matter what, thank you," I said, putting out my hand to her. She smiled and shook it.

Might be she wasn't such a bad person after all…

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