Chapter Seven: Stumble and Pain
A/N: This chapter's songs are lesser known and deserve more attention; they are "Crocodile" by Sarah Marzalek-Kelly and "Prime Meridian" by Jimmy Kane. ALSO! My terrible, horrible, no good, very bad block was conquered by your lovely savior Xenon Shield, who produced another amazing fan art to help me get over it! Link's in my profile!
The pain was bone-deep, an ache and slow burn that testified to the venom he'd placed in her blood despite her fire. They refused to heal at more than a snail's pace, these jagged wounds in her shoulder that ran down her arm in angry welted lines. Her brain was hot, her body shaking, her only comfort the partial relief that licking her injuries gave her. She wasn't bleeding as badly, the small stream she'd managed to stumble to just an hour after their… meeting… giving her some measure of comfort. She couldn't drink much despite the desperate cracking thirst, not even able to keep from the violent expunging of the deer she'd devoured earlier. It was nothing but the heat and pain and hurt, lying in the damp sand in the shade of a rock, the songbirds and the water barely audible over her labored panting.
The feverish tigress could only fitfully attempt sleep, muscles twitching and stiff. If he decided to come and finish her off, her situation easily guessed or smelled by a nose such as his, he would likely be able to. For anybody less, though, she was still a demon, and beyond that a wounded and cornered tiger. She needed her strength, conserving what she could even as it was sapped from her exhausted body.
The forest was blanketed in darkness when something roused her. She fought to free her eyes from their thick layer of viscous discharge, growling when the attempt to wipe it away with her paw was met with a ripping sensation, the drying blood cracked open on her shoulder. Her fire was little more than a surly suggestion on her neck, barely a flicker of light on the ground about her, but she focused on a small mound next to her face that she was fairly certain hadn't been there when she collapsed.
She carefully smelled it, a pungent mix of green and astringency suggesting that someone had left… medicine. For her. Suspicion ran its course, a great deal of sniffing and squinting and attempting to listen, but the shapes of the trees twisted around her, the brook's noise far away or maybe next to her and nothing staying where it should be. It was futile. She laid her head back on the ground and ate the bitter leaves slowly, her tongue long enough to sweep them across the dirt into her fangs but the fangs in question entirely the wrong shape for chewing.
The effects weren't immediate, but they were powerful, her skull filled with sand and bees, her skin tickling with a thousand tiny fingers, pulling her again into sleep.
oOxXxOo
Clarity accompanied the moonlight when the tigress woke once more. The fever had left her drained, the effort required to do much more than move her head proving to be very great. The smoke of a small fire tickled her dulled nose, and she blinked at the light. It swayed at her, the flames recognizing kin, and she stared vacantly at it.
I should feel lucky that the medicines didn't kill me. The thought came and went.
"So you're awake, are you?" a tinny, nasally voice scoffed at her from beyond the fire. "About time. I don't have time to fritter away on you while the army goes on without me."
She opened her mouth to speak, but could only croak past the blood and scabs in her throat.
"Oh, aye, I'm sure you'd have some words to speak to me about it but you'd best keep that mouth shut, else you'll attract flies. I already wasted enough time cleaning off your various fluids. You're welcome, by the way." The speaker wound his way around the fire, a demon no bigger than her paw carrying a basket of medicinal herbs. From the waist up, he seemed like he was a bipedal goat of some sort, but his bottom half was a long wooly snake tail. He looked absolutely absurd; if she had the ability to, she probably would have laughed and offended her serendipitous caretaker.
She watched him as best she could, until he started wiping at her eyes with a smelly cloth, grumbling at her all the while. "Gods know what he's thinking, sending me to look after you after the scene you caused. I know I would have let you rot, and lost no sleep over it besides, but I'm not Lord Sesshomaru, now am I?"
Her ears twitched and her body tensed in surprise, and the demon nipped at her impatiently. "Pay attention to what I'm doing and maybe you won't inconvenience someone the next time you decide to play chicken with the Dog General's Son – of course, next time you probably won't survive… so there's that." The thought seemed to cheer him, and he began to rub salves of various hues into her shoulder while he hummed.
Sesshomaru sent him…? That couldn't be right. Didn't he make it quite clear that he wanted nothing to do with her? But… the little demon said so. Twice. It wasn't likely that she misheard him. Why would he send someone to care for me? How long have I been here?
The slight weight of the demon clambering on her ribs pressed air out through her throat, an involuntary groan pushing its way past her lips as she thought. He didn't comment on it, but continued liberally slathering the viscous fluid on her shoulder, whatever was in it bubbling as it touched her raw flesh, stinging and numbing. I can't believe he poisoned me. Poisoned me, then sent someone to save me from it. What kind of game is he playing? Her sandpapery thoughts rubbed her temper, fraying but never breaking skin. Does he think to make me content, or thankful, that the Great Sesshomaru in All His Mercy would give one such as me aid, despite his venom being the cause for my distress? I will not be suckered into believing that this is anything but a manipulation. He made himself clear; I am nothing to him. I cannot allow myself to be in his debt. I have been repaid for the injury. This is where it should… it should end.
She breathed in, deeply, repeating the final words in her mind as she gathered her feet beneath her chest. The demon squawked at her, lie still you stupid cat, clinging to her coat as she pushed away from the moist dirt, mud squishing between her paw pads as she swayed. First her front half; leaning heavily against the rock, using her weight to pin herself upright, ignoring the protesting in her shoulder that streaked behind her elbow. Now the rear half; gathering her legs again, her claws losing purchase, coated in mud and shooting out beside her hips. Gritting her fangs, lowering her head to help her back to lift her stubborn hips, shaking with effort. Collapsing in a muddy and blooded heap as the rock shifts, the demon angrily chittering at her and smacking her skull with his hands as he scolded.
She shut her eyes, the damp dirt drying on her snout, dancing away from her breath.
Snarling and snapping, teeth finding no enemy, barking in the dark.
oOxXxOo
Several days passed before she could keep food in her stomach, and several more before she held enough strength to walk without needing to stop to rest every few steps. It was at this point that the little demon took his leave, satisfied that she was out of death's door and eager to rejoin the army. She had never bothered to learn his name, as he had never bothered with hers.
She lounged in the water, the clear current tugging away the clods of dirt clinging to her body and revealing her pleasing color to the warm sun once more. She rested her head on a river rock, moss growing where it met the water. Tiny fish swam curiously about her paws, poking at her pads with their soft, round mouths, a dragonfly perched on the outside of her nostril. The wind was gentle, picking stray blossoms from the trees and playing with them, dropping them into the brook to wash up against the tigress' back.
Plop.
"Hm…?" She lifted her head free in a tiny cascade from the water to look at the stream. An early peach, still hard and green, half-bobbed away from her down the current. There aren't any peach trees around here...
Plop.
Another landed just in front of her face, the splash getting into her nose. She sneezed and hauled her body over to look in the direction it came from.
She spied another green object streaking in an arc high above the trees, from what looked like a hill quite a remarkable distance away. It landed between her paws, where her head had been just a few minutes prior.
"What a nuisance," she groused, getting to her feet and shaking herself dry, her fire sparking to life as she stepped out and into a trot. "What kind of dumbass throws unripe fruit at a napping tiger?"
The culprit must have seen her approach, for no more fruit sailed overhead; she slowed to a walk as she came to the hill, surveying what appeared to be a peach orchard as she passed within. Something smells familiar. The trees…?
She stopped and listened carefully. Come out, come out, fruit-chucker.
There. A careless sucking of air between teeth. Nerves?
She opened her eyes but did not look, feigning failure. She carefully meandered between the trees, making a show of sniffing and looking about anywhere but where her prey hid until the last moment.
She paused beside the shrub in which her quarry hid, then pretended to notice something ahead of her, tail twitching as she stared. She stepped away just a moment before whirling and slapping the shrub with her sheathed paw, loudly snarling in a startling fashion.
A girlish screech accompanied her prey thrashing about in a panic, swiping his fists this way and that in the shrubbery he had been hiding in just a moment before. She chortled and backed away from his fists of fury, sitting down to wait until he calmed enough to look around for her.
"Minami." She greeted him, only half-surprised that someone else from her future-past-dream-life-thing had shown themselves. "It's rude to throw fruit."
"Ah," he gasped, leaning over to catch his breath. "I'm, ah, sorry about that. You're just… so big, and I needed to talk to you but didn't know if you'd try and eat me. I warned me about the possibility… you have a bit of a temper, I guess?"
"Um. What?" She lowered her brow at him, more than a little concerned that this time, she wasn't the strange one.
"Right. Well. Nice joke, that. I need to find my heart and put it back in my chest, if you don't mind…" He flopped down beside a peach tree, leaning against it heavily and closing his eyes. "This is much better than being attacked in a bush. If you're going to kill me, I'd prefer it be somewhere nice like this."
"I don't plan on killing you." She shrugged. "No promises, though."
"Right. That'd be too reassuring."
Silence.
"…Well?" Lixue stared at the stag intently.
"Well." He looked over at her, not bothering to hide his head-to-toe visual examination. She flattened her ears. "At least you know me, which makes this easier. How well did we know each other?"
"…you're the one who had something to say. Why are you asking me questions?"
"Oh, I didn't mean…" he cleared his throat. "I wasn't suggesting anything untoward, I assure you. I just wanted to know how much you knew about me so I'd know where to start."
She studied him. "I'll humor you, I suppose. We've met a few times, first at a moon party at Sesshomaru's, and another time when I came to ask you for advice on… matters."
He lifted his eyebrows. "Just 'Sesshomaru', huh? Is that from being close or just to irritate him? He doesn't seem like the sort to throw away honorifics very easily."
She closed her eyes. "You are asking out of curiosity, not necessity."
"Right, sorry." He clapped his hands. "Topic closed! On to another!"
"Another…?"
"Just the one more, I promise. You don't like idle conversation, I'm learning."
"I don't mind it particularly…" She interjected softly, looking away. "I just want to know what you want from me."
"I don't want anything from you." He answered her earnestly, lifting his palms to her. "I'm actually here to help you. I promise."
She didn't answer, staring at his hands.
"Well, the other question was, 'have you been to my shrine'? I swear, it's not supposed to be as creepy as it sounds." He laughed stiffly.
"I have, but I have not been inside. We went down to the village for dumplings."
"Oh, now you're making me hungry. Okay, so just to be absolutely sure, you haven't been below the shrine at all?"
"…I said I didn't go in."
"Okay, okay, just making sure. Well, then I suppose that's our first stop, if you don't mind..." he smiled at her, his teeth hidden behind his lips and his eyes wary as he got up.
"Why would I go there?" She didn't stand. "You said you'd explain after you asked your questions. I answered you. I don't have any reason to trust you, and I have other things that require my attention. Give me a reason to follow you, and I'll consider it."
He shuffled a bit, moving his jaw like he was chewing on the words first. "Think of it this way. You are a thread of the wrong material in a pattern of silk, weaving about where you have no business being and causing snarls and snags the longer you remain. I aim to unravel you from the silk and put the correct fabric in its place before you're too far in to be unraveled. …Does that help? Will you come see what I have to show you now?"
"…I will follow."
Another stiff smile. "Ah. Good."
oOxXxOo
The pair made their way to Minami's village, the stag's awkward chatter the only real interruption to the sound of their footsteps. For convenience, she had shifted so they could speak more easily; it was a decision she had begun to regret almost immediately.
"So!"
Here comes another one. I feel a headache coming on.
"I was under the impression that you were royal, or something. Is there a particular reason you're dressed like… a page? That's a page, right?"
"Yes."
"Yes, you're royal, yes, that's a page outfit, or yes, there's a reason?"
"…Yes."
He nodded sagely, as though she had given him valuable advice.
"Um…" he looked about, as though searching for something else to talk about.
She sighed. "You're not with Sesshomaru's army."
His relief was audible. "I'm not unfaithful to my lord, if that's what you're hinting at. My family is exempt from calls to arms, as it were, out of… utter neutrality? Hm. How to put it…" he lapsed into silence, his fingers over his mouth as he thought.
She enjoyed the quiet for the few moments before he spoke again.
"We need to always be there, no matter what's going on. It's our duty, and so long as it's protected, we heed its needs and… well, we're not involved in a lot of politics. Formally." He shrugged at her confused look. "Sorry, all my answers are pretty useless right now…"
"…it's fine."
She touched her hip for just a moment, before crossing her arms and looking up at the clouds. It won't ever be there. Stop looking for it. Besides, he poisoned you. He doesn't care for you at all.
He also sent someone to care for me. …why? If he cared, why didn't he come himself?
Minami jumped a little at her guttural growl and lengthened the space between them. She didn't bother to correct him.
oOxXxOo
"Well, we're here. Show me what you need to show me." She kept her arms crossed, the deer demon's eyes about to bulge from his face.
"What, that walk didn't wear you out?!" He bent down to remove his sandals, and motioned for her to do the same before noticing her bare feet. "No way, you were even barefoot…? You're beyond tough."
"Only compared to some," she drawled. She leaned against the wooden supports, the sunset's light striking the building's face into the color of flame, its shadow a path toward the peach trees that painted the surrounding hills.
"Minami, is that you?" A lilting voice carried through the sparsely-decorated shrine, followed shortly by its owner, another deer demon heavy with child. She smiled a wide and red-cheeked smile. "Welcome home! And I see you have a guest!"
Lixue inclined her head. "I am Xing Lixue."
"Oh, someone from the mainland! I'm afraid we don't have many foreign visitors," she bubbled at the tigress, "so please excuse us if we offend. It's accidental, I assure you! Would you care for some tea?" The woman shuffled away without waiting for her response.
"My mate, Akiko." He gestured to the table nearby. "I suppose you don't have much of a choice but to stay and have some tea, hmm?"
"I suppose not." She studied the direction in which Akiko had disappeared, the clanging of metal pots and pans suggesting that she was in the kitchen. "I admit, I am surprised that you're a husband."
"Am I not married where you come from?" He cocked his head at her, his eyes unexpectedly hard. "She is in most of my lives. Perhaps I hid her from you, as I hide her from most taiyoukai. It is not a popular idea to have a half-demon for a mate, and she is precious to me."
She made a rude noise. "You were an incorrigible flirt."
Though when we came here to ask about Sesshomaru, he was very quick to redirect us to the village… no, then he said something about having a woman in heat coming to one bachelor for advice about another was bad or something. She shook her head vigorously.
"Are you going to sit?" his expression did not soften until she seated herself across from him. "…I apologize. It was unworthy of me to react so defensively."
"No, don't apologize. You're protecting someone you love. I understand."
His eyebrows disappeared into his brow somewhere. "That's a far gentler response than I expected from you. Could it be that you're a romantic at heart?"
She snorted. "You're asking annoying questions again."
"Hmm, am I now?" He smiled coyly. "I wonder what it is that makes them so annoying. Perhaps it's because you don't like to think about the answers…"
He hadn't asked a question directly, so she remained quiet.
"Here it comes! Sorry for the wait!" Akiko wielded the abused tray before her like it held a wild beast, slightly squatting with her hands gripping the edge with all her strength. Minami looked as though he wanted to stand, but he simply placed his hands in his lap and smiled at her as she carefully set it down, a sliver of pink tongue showing between her lips.
I think I understand why their teapot is made of metal… and the cups are wood.
"Thank you for going to the trouble for tea," she murmured, touching the soft wood, not yet warm from the tea. This was a waste of time, but what else could she do? Go wait for her father? Chase after Sesshomaru?
"Oh! So polite! You're very welcome," Akiko beamed.
Lixue blinked. I suppose manners were deeper ingrained in me than I thought if it's happening while my mind is elsewhere.
She focused to see Minami quietly observing her, his hands steepled in front of his nose. Akiko seated herself between them to drink her own tea, eyes flitting between the two of them expectantly. Lixue closed her eyes and sipped the tea, the taste of peach blossoms tickling her nose.
"Do you like it? I put in some flowers from the orchard to help perk it up a little," Akiko beamed. "The peaches are coming in a little early, too, which means a long summer for us."
The tigress nodded absently.
Minami gulped his tea in two long swigs before standing up, looking at Lixue pointedly. "I'm afraid we don't have much time for chat today, dove. We need to get going if we're to make it down before it's truly dark."
"Oh, how silly of me. Of course, don't pay me any mind."
Lixue swallowed the blistering liquid as well and hastily regained her feet to follow Minami's form through the shrine proper, passing a few villagers as they quietly prayed.
I wonder why I never noticed this, but… this is an enormous shrine for such a small village. I wonder how old it is…?
Deep within the recesses of the shrine, behind several false walls and hidden paths, they at last came to a trap door, hidden beneath a heavy decorative cabinet. Who had the time to set all this up? She half-considered asking Minami, but he was already gone, waiting for her in the dark.
"Please take care to be as quiet as possible," he whispered to her as she joined him, gently shutting the latch with a faint click. "It would also be helpful for you to remain as calm as you can. They're very sensitive."
She nodded. Did she have any choice but to agree? The curiosity alone of what was secreted away here, why he knew that she was not who she should be, the way he spoke of himself, and how it all might tie together luring her into obediently following the sudden mystery of Minami. He lit a lantern, covering it with thick red glass that all but obscured the light it gave and casting the already-dark wood of the tunnel walls into an eerie shade of crimson.
"Here," he nudged her, something draped over his hand. "Put this on."
She took it, the material heavy but smooth as water, colorful and decorated all over with feathers. "What is it?"
"It's a robe," he whispered in reply, slipping something similar over his head. "Tradition, mostly, but it also shows you're supposed to be here. That and the red light should keep us safe enough on the way down, unless we take too long."
"Ah… okay," she wrapped it around her, tucking the ridiculously long sleeve ends into the fabric around her waist. "I don't think it's a very good fit."
"Doesn't matter how it looks, honestly," he sighed. "Just make sure it's on. Let's go… and stay in the light. It's almost nighttime." He lifted the lantern onto a hook and hoisted it before him, casting that strange red light before them to illuminate the staircase. "Take care not to fall. It's a long way down."
oOxXxOo
Minami had been truthful; she stopped counting the number of steps when it reached triple digits, following the stag through several forks and false starts, traps and dead ends in every direction. The farther they roamed, the colder it became, a thin hoarfrost coating the walls and a permanent fog curling below their ankles. Beyond the light of the brave lantern, there was only darkness, save for the faint reflections on the natural clusters of minerals forming along the path.
"The spirit guardians are beginning to wake," he leaned to whisper to her, his face glittering with ice crystals. "We're almost there, but we need to move faster."
A faint rumble punctuated his words, the sound of stones rubbing together somewhere behind them. She matched his brisk pace, thankful for her heat.
Fires and tigers, burning auburn and roaring, not gray and not blue.
oOxXxOo
"We're here," he motioned for her to come closer. "Remember, calm and quiet."
The faint lapping of water against sand and wood greeted her as she followed his gaze, a small wooden boat lying on its side on the black beach. He righted it, taking the lantern off of the pole to affix it to a hook at its fore before pushing it partially into the glassy obsidian water. She tried to watch the ripples as they moved away, but they disappeared into the ether, smooth and silent.
"Sit in front. I'll take care of the boat."
Gathering the feathered monstrosity up about her, she gingerly found a spot to kneel on the floor, Minami stepping in to stand behind her, using the former-lantern rod to propel them into the water.
The sound of water slapping against the boat and the faint trickle of water protesting the metal gliding through it were the only sounds beyond their breathing; the echoes came from every direction but ahead. The walls were coming closer, closing in above and beside them, the width of the lake shortening with every stroke. The lantern dutifully cast its red light along the surface of the water, its bottom just above the ripple of their wake, shining against the roof as it tightened around them.
Before them, a single opening, a crack in the wall just wide enough for the boat to slip through, no taller than a man. Minami gave a final push as they came close, hunkering down to give himself room for his head as they passed through it and standing again as they came out.
They had emerged into an enormous cavern, the opening through which they had come the only break in the rock wall behind them, stretching beyond sight and echoes faint in the distance. The black lake lay before them, its surface utterly unbroken, tiny motes of bright dust hazily flickering in and out of vision around them.
"Look down," he whispered behind her.
She looked into the water to their reflections, finding the images of millions of butterflies, swarms of golden wings and gentle light, fluttering in lazy circles and landing on the water, splashes of color meeting their feet before they took to the air again, riding in invisible breezes in the blackness and disappearing as they flew away.
"What are they?" she looked at Minami to find him coated in the auburn motes of light, his reflection a confusion of tiny wings opening and closing as they rested on him.
"Spirits of possibility," he answered, the motes shuffling away from his mouth as he spoke. "They can only partially exist in any world, and they come the closest to existing in places like this."
"What makes this place so special?" She glanced into the water, half-wanting to dip her hand in to see what would happen. Minami stopped pushing the boat, lying the rod in the floor and sitting down while the water settled around them.
"It wasn't always special here. Spirits like these used to be able to show themselves in any reflection, but as the world grows older, it takes more and more power to be visible. This place is a sanctuary, one of the last, where they are safe – and where others are safe from them."
"They don't seem dangerous." Motes hovered in front of her eyes, touching her robe almost as though they were curious, cautious.
"That's because they're down here, away from strong emotions. I said before that they're spirits of possibility; they're easily corrupted by hatred, or greed, or fear. If you fear the possibility of failure, they become the possibility of that future that your fear created. Greed will only show possibility of what can be gained, but never lost; hatred is the worst of all, and the hardest to protect them from. They will become that hatred, and it destroys them."
"Why are they here, then? There's a village right above them. Wouldn't it be safer to be out in the ocean, or somewhere hard to find?"
He smiled. "Therein lies the problem. They are created and sustained by the dreams of humanity… I imagine it's because they have so little time in which to dream that their hopes and desires are so strong and so important."
She frowned faintly. "Why would they be here and not in bigger towns?"
"There may be more humans there, but when there are too many, the dreams get bigger too. My little village is carefully maintained; for generations, my family has cultivated and protected both humans and spirits. They dream small dreams, things like love or a family or healthy crops. They don't dream of power, or the death of enemies, or for stronger weapons. The peach trees are cared for by the villagers, but their purity helps keep the spirits safe too."
He softly touched a finger to the surface. "The Minami family has what most high-mannered demons would call a "stubborn streak" of human blood. We maintain our bond to the spirits this way, and it helps the villagers trust us, even though we're vegetarian. But even if I didn't have a half-demon mate, it would have happened in the next generation or two."
"Why did you bring me here, Minami?" She reached for the water as well, and when he didn't stop her, she also touched the surface. It clung to her, butterflies swarming to try and touch her with their fragile legs, the dust from their wings producing a faint tingle in her skin.
He sighed as he reached in front of her, dousing the lantern as he explained. "For most people, there is but one life, one chance to get it right before death. I can't explain it entirely, but there are countless other lives you're living right now, and countless more in which you don't exist, making different choices and living with the choices that others made instead. These spirits exist in all of those lives at once, without existing in any of them entirely. You've been taken from one, and put in another. That's what they've shown me, anyway, and from the fact that you're here at all means at least some of that is right."
The glow intensified in the absence of the lantern's light, the motes staying visible for longer and hovering closer. He leaned over the edge of the boat, breathing out slowly, a layer of blackened ice expanding from his breath and crystallizing beyond their reach. The motes slowly fell from the darkness above them to rest on the ice, the butterflies surfacing from below as well, the colorful sparks from their feet magnified into a canvas of color and light around them.
The tigress gripped her fingers. The colors and shapes began to twist into forms, flashes of her life in confused appearance and blurred in strange places.
One image, even blurred and distorted, of Adisa beaming at her in the morning after a victory, stung her eyes before it flashed away. She wanted it back.
"This is the first time I've heard of someone coming to the wrong age, too," Minami murmured next to her, and she felt a pang of irritation. These were her moments, and she bristled at his witness. "Is that Lord Sesshomaru I just saw…?"
"Yes," came her hesitant reply. "He is my mate. Or… was, I guess."
He glanced at her, his surprise quickly hidden. "According to the other me from your side, it was a hyena who came for help."
"That would be Adisa," she smiled mournfully. "A much better Adisa than you have over here. He's my… well, I don't know what you'd call him, really. He is my advisor, my nanny… really, he's my only real friend." She swallowed against the sudden ache in her throat. "It doesn't surprise me that he found the one person who could find me. He was always resourceful."
"How did Lord Sesshomaru feel about this Adisa?" he quietly asked her, half-watching her and half-watching the moving portrait of her life.
"I don't know. He was a little suspicious of him, I think, and they would get catty with each other, but for the most part he didn't seem to mind Adisa." She flexed her hand, drawing it out from the water to warm it in her palm. "They didn't spend a lot of time together."
"How about the two of you? How long have you known your mate?"
"You're getting quite personal, Minami," she chided.
"The key to getting you back is to find the key point that determines the difference between the life you came from and the one you're living. These are necessary."
"Did you say you can get me back…?" She couldn't help but look at him. "How?"
He rubbed his hair with his palm. "Normally, it would be a matter of reversing whatever process put you here, but every time it's been done, every Minami – me or another member of my family – would close the way. Either it's some obscure method or it was a disruption in… something." He shrugged at her. "Our best bet right now is to figure out the exact earliest point of difference between your life and the current life you're in, and find out who did this to you."
"I know who did it," she offered. "It was Honoka, and probably Naraku."
She was met with a blank face.
"I'm afraid I don't know who you're talking about, but I believe you. Find out what you can about them." He closed his eyes and thought for a moment. "It's quite obvious from the spirits that in your life, both this Adisa and Lord Sesshomaru were important to you. See if you can get them to help you; maybe your answer lies with them, maybe it doesn't, but any clues as to the origin of differences will bring you closer to your goal."
"That might be a little difficult. This Adisa's an idiot, and Sesshomaru's the one who put those scars in my shoulder not even two weeks ago. Put me down with a fever."
"…You have a lot of work to do, I suppose."
"I suppose."
Close tight the window; don't let them in to see you. You're safe here with me.