THE MIRROR OF SOULS by Silver Moon Inuyoukai
Disclaimer: Thank you Rumiko Takahashi for your genius. I am not getting any money for making this story. But if Takahashi-san would will me something I wouldn't mind if it's Sesshoumaru.
AN: 1. I wrote this episode way before Chapter 38 and before the Covid-19 virus. And when I began reading this I gasped in surprise. You'll know when you read….
2. Stay at home! Wash your hands for 20 seconds like you're seriously washing our Sesshy. Oh, the thought! Oh-lala!
MIRROR OF SOULS
CHAPTER 39
ZYRIANNA
Lake Baikal
The ancient doors of the great library burst open at Rylanion's violent entrance. It disturbed a thick mass of gray dust from on top of the door frame and it went tumbling down like a clumpy cloud.
"Where!" Rylanion went straight to the heavy table laden with piles of books that Kagome uses for her study or what she calls 'research', knocking them down.
Ancient scrolls scattered on the faded blue carpet, their page open and the others rolled somewhere under places where they might or might not be found again. But he couldn't find what he was hunting for and his anger surged and boiled in his futile attempt.
A few days ago, on his way out to hunt the troublemakers he heard Kagome talking to someone. At first, he thought that it was one of the servants but the voice who answered her was dimly familiar. The realization hit him like a jolt of lighting when he heard the name.
"Nothing!" he snarled like rabid animal, spitting. "Where is it? Where is it?!" there was a moment of confusion from a sensation that was foreign to him; it came from deep inside his chest.
The cough was sharp and ragged. The painful torment went on; the force of his cough threw spit and spittle out and spattered the wood and scrolls.
Rylanion would have fallen had he not grasped the sides of the table. He could dimly see his pained face on the smooth oak surface as he leans on it, breathless, his knees weak.
There was an odd sound; and it sounded so close. As close as a drop of liquid that fell on the wood. Confused, he looked up. "The roof leaks again?' he asked from no one until he realized from the scent it was from him as another fell. It's a drop of sweat from his forehead.
"What the…? This can't be happening…" he gulped as he stared with a kind of horrified fascination at his trembling hands. There's a hitch in his breathing like a faint flapping of tiny wings.
"You!" he gasped at a sweeper he spotted outside the room, the state of his health set aside. "Come here!"
"Y…yes…yes, milord?" He stuttered meekly, his insides roiling. Despite his fear he forced his skinny legs to shuffle forward as fast as his maimed foot allows.
"Who cleans Kagome's room?"
"Ka—who, milord?" the man quaked in fear when he was grabbed by the back of the neck and was slapped until his face felt swollen and hot.
"Idiot! She's my guest here! You don't know?!"
"I don't know…ah! No! Please, no!" with his ears still ringing all the man could do was to cringe at the raised hand.
"Lady Zyrianna!" Rylanion yelled. 'Speak up! Who cleans her room?!"
"Uh…it's Vlada, milord. Vlada!"
"Where is this Vlada now?"
"She-she's…' he pointed, "there…wah!," then he was down on the floor and it was moving fast. "M'lord…! M'lord..!" he whimpered in pain.
Just as he thought he'd leave all the skin of his face on the faded carpet he was off the floor and then he was tossed inside like a ragdoll where he almost hit someone. The butler was about to cuss him down but when they saw who did the tossing, terror shadowed the servants faces.
"May I help you, m'lord?" the oldest of the servant came forward nervously.
"Where is THIS Vlada?" Rylanion leaned on the door frame, seemingly relaxed. The assembled crew slid eyes at each other fearfully which irritated the pale-haired lord. "Tell me who she is or I'll…" and he grabbed the old man and shook him by the neck as the servants gasped in horror.
"It's me! I'm Vlada, m'lord!" a woman hurriedly went forward to Rylanion. As soon as he let go of the old man he turned to Vlada's neck.
"Where is the mirror?!" Rylanion purred at her face and the group of people huddled in the kitchen held each other tighter.
"No…ahhh..!" the chambermaid whimpered at the pain on her scalp. "I…I don't know what you mean, m'lord."
"My guest has a mirror with her!" the staff gasped as he lifted the chambermaid off of the floor. "Where…did you…put…it!"
"I don't know!" she pleaded. "I never touched anything of hers, my lord! Aaah….ukh!" her scream stopped when she hit the wall with a very sickening sound. A red slash of crimson stained the kitchen wall. The kitchen staff were wide-eyed in terror when Vlada stayed disturbingly still when her body crumpled on the floor.
"You're all useless," he said as if tired, smoothing out the wrinkle from his clothes. "You! Get me some wine! Move!" a servant scrambled outside to the wine cabinet almost falling back on his face in his haste. "And some of you clean this up." He pointed at the dead chambermaid and looked on in amusement as the help, most of them elderly humans, struggled to move the body of the heavy-set woman.
"Useless." He fought the desire to hack another wrenching cough. "I'm getting quite tired of you all." His sneer looked more evil when the house help stiffened at his words.
*{O}*
IN THE MIRROR
"Take me there or die!" One look at Sesshoumaru's feral eyes shook Kagami down to her glassine toes. Not only is he getting feral, the cardinal's form has been changing at an alarming way.
"Please my lord, calm down. I will try to open a portal." she gestured again at the void, "Why isn't it working? No!" she gasped in shock. "What is happening?" she looked down at her hands and wailed in panic.
"Your life will end quickly if you fail to open that portal!" Kagami quailed in fear as Sesshoumaru reached for her.
"Please, my lord." The youkai and entity froze. "Cease your threat."
"Who is..?" wide-eyed, Kagami whirled around to find the voice. "What…is that….."
"State who you are!" The Cardinal demanded of the voice. "Show yourself!" he snarled when Kagami suddenly ran past behind him to a shimmering and bigger portal. "Come back here, entity!" he lashed out at the portal but the end of his whip didn't inflict any damage.
"It is an honor to finally meet you, First Cardinal." Out of the mist the voice formed a figure…
"Hn." He almost called out the miko's name. "You are Zyrianna." He gave her an icy glare.
"It is I, my lord." The woman bowed lightly. "Welcome to my home."
"Command your entity to let me out of this dimension." A few seconds passed. "Obey my order." He growled.
"You are concerned…" the pale woman frowned with slightly tilted head. '…for her!"
"I have no time to banter with you."
"But the miko is human. Why do you concern yourself?"
"Do not test my patience."
"Or what?" The woman smiled sadly, unaffected by the reddened eyes. Then without warning she was sprayed with the green sizzling liquid of the dokkaso. 'There is nothing you can do to me here, my lord," the woman's voice got husky, as she watched the acid disappear to the floor. "I am already dead."
"I could still obliterate you despite it."
"Oh? With what? That?' wryly she nodded towards his left side where the two swords used to nestle. "You've lost your soul sword." Zyrianna pointed at her head. "Yes, I know about your Tenseiga. The miko has my body and I have her thoughts." then she slid a mischievous sideways glance at him. "Or it could be the other way around. Tsk. This miko has some interesting thoughts about…" she purred.
"How did you die?"
The woman visibly jolted at the question; her pout forgotten when he didn't rise to her bait.
"You were killed by Rylanion."
"Yes, I was." She delicately wiped off the tear that fell from her eye. "I didn't see it coming."
"You loved him." The pain in her eyes told him everything.
"Yeah…uh," She 'tsk'-ed and sighed. "Yes. Oh!" the woman threw her hands up. "That miko's language is so very different. She is not from around here, right?"
"She is not from this time."
"Yes, she is not. She is quite a fascinating creature." Zyrianna sighed. "I know of your history with ningen and the miko is an enemy of youkai…our kind." She noted as she tapped a finger on her lower lip in consternation.
"Yet you chose choose to inhabit her body."
The woman smirked and shrugged, "And yet you chose to…what is that word from the miko?" Zyrianna mused. "Ah, 'adopted.' Yes, you adopted one of them. Interesting. As for the body…well, I had no choice in the matter, I'm afraid. Thank the kami I was not forced out nor obliterated"
"Release me from this place." His eyes sharpened and elongated…"I will not ask again."
"Yes, I can see that." The woman glanced at the opposite mirror. "Are you willing to do anything to help her, my lord?"
*{O}*