A/N: Thank you all for the love shown this story! I am so excited and happy you like it!
5.
At morning a quick peek inside the other room revealed that the fae was still there, fast asleep and quite serene in his slumber. She quickly moved out of the room, locked the door and leaned her back against the wall, breathing deeply to soothe her sudden anxiety.
This wondrous, unreal being was out of place in the house of the family of priests. She wondered why he was there, sealed in a room that was closed off. Was he a malevolent one, that had been sealed to keep the townsfolk safe? Or was he merely a mischievous one, that got on a priest's nerves too much?
The girl went down to help the maid with the breakfast, pondering how she could find out more about the fae without giving away her secret. She was in the luck, since her friend was very talkative this morning, happily answering all her questions. Sadly, she knew only the recent history of the house and the fae legends she told her didn't include a fae similar to the one slumbering upstairs.
She didn't lose hope yet. As soon as she was done with her morning chores, Kagome went to the study, to check out if there was anything in the shrine annals and the books on fae her grandfather had. She spent there all her free time until she heard that the priest and her brother were returning.
With a heavy sigh she put all the books and papers on their places, making sure to leave the room tidy. She knew her grandfather wouldn't probably mind her doing some reading of the history books, but she knew he despised discord in his collection. Besides, if he'd find her here, she worried, he'd think she was trying to study in secret - which she kinda did, but not in such an obvious way.
Her hours of research gave her almost no fruits - there was no mention of a white-haired, dog-eared fae in the annals. The books on fae only gave her some idea what the man sleeping in the hidden room could be.
First of all, the book stated that most dog spirits were malevolent, stalking and chasing, and killing travelers, especially near graveyards and crossroads in the woods. Very rarely they would actually save a person - usually a female - fleeing from a pursuer, killing the chasing man of ill intent. They were said to target people with tarnished soul, dragging them to hell. But they were all black in color, with red or purple eyes.
There was only one little paragraph on dog fae that were white. Kagome closed the door to the study, thinking about it as she went outside to greet the returning men.
The white dogs, called cwn, they served the high king of all the fae, guarding his palace, fighting and hunting for him and defending something called in the book as Yasha no Mori. That was all the books had to tell her and Kagome was left with more questions than before. She didn't even know if the fae was actually one of the above, since so many of them could alter their appearances.
She had to learn more about the ways of dealing with fae if she was going to approach that one sealed in the other room. She smiled and greeted Souta as he jumped out of the carriage and went to help their grandfather to step down the stairs to the ground. So far, Souta's training were mostly history lessons and meditation, with some elements of purification techniques. All that was important, but rather useless to Kagome. Yet, the young woman knew that she could make her brother ask the wise priest questions she couldn't ask herself.
When the time came for their walk, Kagome allowed her brother to first tell her the wonders of the trip. He was really excited as they walked down a path that led towards a small lake near the shrine grounds. Kagome was happy to see her brother practically bounce as he walked beside her. The road meandered between fields and pastures, so late in the day there was no one working on the fields and even cows were already gone from their pastures. The sun was low in the sky, but it was rarely seen through the gaps in the clouds that promised rain at any time. Kagome guessed it would be best to keep the walk short today.
"You clearly enjoyed yourself while I had to stay at home," she said, pretending to pout. "I wouldn't have guessed visiting a shrine would be so exciting to you."
"You don't know the best part yet! They had artifacts there," Souta explained. "It was nothing like our boring shrine, where people just pray and purify. The priest there has to purify and remake seals on the objects each day!"
"So, they have fae-given things? What do they have?" Kagome asked, forgetting about teasing her excited brother. Such things were rare and often shrines kept them secret to keep them out of wrong hands.
"A sword that can kill you and then make you into an undead obedient to the wielder. The priest has to keep it in a basin with water from the sacred spring," Souta waved his hands, as if trying to draw the shape of the things he was talking about in the air in front of himself.
"That sounds dangerous," Kagome winced at a thought of a warlord stealing such a blade and staring a civil war.
"And they have a real fae!" Kagome stumbled at Souta's next words, the boy didn't noticed Kagome practically tripping over her own feet and catching her balance just before falling on her face in one of many muddy puddles. "She's sealed away in a mirror, not bigger than a plate."
"A fae... A real one?" Kagome uttered. "Are you sure it's not a magic mirror or something?"
"I saw her," Souta looked at his sister with bright, excited eyes of someone who found appreciation of the priesthood. It was no longer boring to the boy, of that she was sure. "She was really pretty and she was sleeping in there, wearing the most unusual robes that seemed to flow around her. And she had hair that had to reach at least to her knees! And her wings were made of glimmering feathers!"
"Oh, my..." Kagome thought about the fae that was sealed in their own shrine, his hair long and silver, his eyes blazing golden, his ears twitching. Souta had never mentioned him before, could it be that he was not aware of their own shrine's secret? Was it something he was going to learn about later? Or maybe he knew? "Pity we don't have a fae sealed in the shrine too," she said, looking at him to see how he'd react.
"Yeah," the boy nodded with a pout. "Grandpa said we once had a bow that could shoot arrows straight at whatever the bowman wanted, as long as the bowman was pure of heart. But then it got transferred to the shrine on Mt. Azusa, because they were being attacked by some bird fae that set everything they touched on fire."
He looked genuinely unhappy that they didn't have any special artifacts to take care of. Which was probably a good thing, Kagome suspected that learning to deal with such objects would take months and the responsibility would weight on the shoulders of the priest in charge of the item for all his life. Anyway, it seemed that her brother had no idea that they indeed had a fae in the shrine, one sealed by one of their ancestors. It was also very likely that their grandpa didn't know either, since she doubted that he'd hold such an information from his successor. He'd rather tell him right away and teach him to ensure that Souta could do his duty flawlessly.
The lake came into view as they neared the top of a small swell of the land. Kagome glanced at it, resting peacefully in between pastures, a few small groups of trees littering the area. Her favorite spot was a row of three old willow trees growing along one of the shores, their branches almost entwining as if the trees wanted to hold hands. It was a lovely spot to escape the heat of the sun.
A man was standing near the nearest willow. He was watering a horse that stood beside him. The steed was a tall beast, black of coat and obviously of good bloodline. The man was dressed in fine clothing, his long black hair falling down his back in waves barely held back with a tie. He looked at the Higurashi siblings and waved a hand in a friendly greeting. Despite being so far, Kagome knew who it was.
The young lord Kagewaki, only son and heir of the old lord that had his manor built a few kilometers away from the town. Souta and herself had met this kind and handsome man before, when he'd visited the shrine. He also seemed to often enjoy an afternoon ride in the area near to the lake, so they often saw him riding his horse in a distance.
He was a bachelor and had flawless manners, his generosity and kindness were well known in the town. From what Kagome gathered from her new friends, many girls from respectable families longed to be his bride. Yet, he was of age for a few years now, but seemed not to notice the girls swooning at his sight.
Kagome waved back, so did Souta. They hadn't exchanged many words with him, but from what she had seen, he was a silent scholarly type. He never tried to approach them on their walks, but he didn't try to avoid them either. She supposed he could be shy and had problems making new friends, so she tried not to act like most of the girls and run to pester him whenever she saw him.
"We better go home," Souta said when a rumble of a distant thunder rolled over the land. "I don't want to get caught in the rain."
"Mhm," Kagome nodded and they turned back to walk home. She was silent for a while. "Hey, did grandpa tell you anything about how to... Uh... Is there a way to stop a fae from mischief and make sure they speak the truth? I mean for a not reiki user?"
"I'm not sure..." Souta looked at her, obviously surprised. "I can ask grandpa tomorrow for you."
"Thanks." Kagome smiled. "I was just wondering how I'd..."
She knew she could tell him, but a part of her wanted to keep her secret for a while longer. He had a chance to see a sealed fae and she wanted to see her own fae awake again before she let Souta meet him.
Right as she was about to try and come up with an excuse the rain finally came down, and in a downpour from the start. It was warm, but still, the siblings shrieked in unison and ran towards home, laughing and forgetting about the supernatural for a while.
Kagome was reminded about it when she went to her room to change out of her drenched dress. As soon as she closed the door behind her, she heard a soft melody from the hidden room.
With a gasp - and without a thought - she went to open the secret door and... There he was, sitting sealed to his bed, wide awake, ears perked. The forest painting looked like a shadowy forest due to the clouds outside. His golden eyes looked at her as he played the most otherworldly, playful tune. A spark of amusement twinkled in those strange eyes. The flute he played was like nothing she'd ever seen before.
The fae stopped playing after a few seconds.
"Hey, you look like you took a swim in a pond. Listen, before sunset ends and puts m back to sleep, could you, remove the arrow?" he asked and pointed to the stick in his chest. "It's hard to play with one lung pierced. Uh..." he frowned, as if trying to remember something. "...please?"
A/N; What will Kagome answer be?
Update, if all goes well, will be on the next weekend.
