AN: The court scene and trial in this chapter was fashioned after a modern day judicial system. Sesshomaru organized the entire affair after Kagome's explanation of what a court represent in the future...One more chapter to go and Bent will be finished!
Please read and review!
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Maemi lay awake restless and uncertain in the dawn, her trial would begin in an hour. She heard talking and got up, it was the voices of the youkai maids that were assigned to watch and care for her while she was in prison.
She stared reproachfully at the females as they neared her bed. "What do you want?" she asked unpleasantly.
However, they did not respond, only their unrepentant glares told her that they were not in the mood for her games this morning. They fished her out of bed and carried her struggling form to the bath and dropped her into the cold water.
She rose from its depths frightened and choking, she didn't even have time to recover before she was stripped and scrubbed clean in silence. When the ordeal was over she was dressed, fed and led into the sitting area where she observed a gentleman sitting on a bench with his back to her.
The man got up and turned around on hearing light footsteps, she stopped moving instantly and stared at him. They gazed at each other uneasily in silence for many moments until the scholarly man smiled at her and then bowed.
"Good morning I am Nobura from the emperor's court; I am here to be your aide throughout the trial," he smiled again, "nice to meet you princess."
Stunned, Maemi continued to stare at the well dressed and well spoken man. He looked at her briefly and then lowered his eyes.
All this time she had thought that she was at the mercy of her husband when all the requests that she had made for him to contact her brother had seemingly fallen on deaf ears. She couldn't believe that he had relented and her brother had sent a representative to challenge the fraudulent charges that her husband had brought against her.
Her arrest and the subsequent allegations against her were questionable. To think that her husband would blame her for challenging his mistress and wanting her dead, and to make matters worse he had accused her and relatives of treason which was absurd. None of the things that she had done was an act of treason. She was his first wife and any mistresses that he had after that fact was something that had to be agreed upon by the both of them.
She knew it was likely that his councilors would argue that he was with the priestess first and that they had children. But the fact that she had left him, severing their ties made that notion null and void. In all intense purposes she was the wife at the helm.
She trembled even as she speculated about her husband's position against her. In the days following her arrest he had come to visit her only once, and the perverse smile that played about his lips showed how much he gloated. Her hatred of him had intensified, and she'd prayed to every kami that would listen to hurl him into the darkest parts of hell. She hated him so much that she trembled with it. She longed to best him and to throttle the life out of his whore as she longed for little else in life.
Darkness had started to give way to light, and as she stared at the man hope rekindled the dying flames and she smiled. "Nice to meet you as well Nobura," she replied sweetly.
He nodded and ushered her to the bench. "Princess," he said, "we have only a short time so please be as detailed as you can about what has transpired and the charges lay against you."
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At the foot of the stairs he stopped for a moment as he saw his soon to be demoted wife being escorted by three palace guards to her trial. She came to a halt as she saw him and frowned deeply. There was no love lost between them, and all he felt for her now was pity.
The woman had been a thorn in his side for three years, and as she stood there and glared at him, he knew that he would have to lock her away in isolation if he and Kagome hoped to live in peace. He could not kill her yet; until he held the reigns of Japan in its entirety she would live.
They continued to stare at each other long in utter silence, caught up in a tidal wave of conflict. He wanted her out of his life and away from his family, and she wanted justice, believing that her husband had wronged her and her actions thereafter stemming from the injustice had been fitting.
She smiled bitterly at the male that had ensnared her mind, body and soul, and as she took one last look in his eyes before he began to walk away and saw indifference, disgust and pity, a sickening contrast of emotions, she also saw relief in them. It infuriated her, made her almost nauseous with conceit. How dare he mock her with his arrogance?
With a heavy shuddering sigh princess Maemi reached for his hand. He halted, gritted his teeth as she spat in his face. He leaned forward, watching her defiant eyes and harsh breaths, then caught her wrist in a not so subtle grasp and wrenched her back to him.
"Wipe it off," he said calmly, though the sharpness of his tone was like a knife digging into her heart as he began to crush her slender wrist as he covered it with his hand.
Her head fell back and she stared at his face and saw spittle sliding down his nose, her own eyes still gleamed rebelliously. Then suddenly the intensity of her glare began to wilt, as she felt that her hand would certainly shatter at any moment under the excruciating pressure.
She grimaced and hissed as it was clear that he would snap her wrist in two if she did not do as he had asked. She wiped his face clean with an unsteady hand clutching a handkerchief, but still he would not let her go. She gasped with a mixture of both pain and fright as an intense throbbing lanced up her arm.
The pain that he inflicted on her spoke for itself as its relevance wasn't lost on her. He had always held her in contempt, and just as much as his eyes burned with derision for her; burning bright was her anger and growing hatred towards him.
With a surprising and desperate rush of vigor she lunged at him. He felt cruel as he gripped her hand stronger, bending the appendage backwards with clenched teeth and bulging muscles. She was weak and no match for him, and yet she was always so quick to lash out at him considering her feeble strength.
He wondered at her stupidity, because she must know by now that he could've easily damaged or killed her if he had wanted to. She paused at last in her struggles when she couldn't use her hands to maim him, and the kicks that she aimed at his legs were misplaced and fell short of their mark. Something of a growl sounded from her throat in her defeat.
Smiling grimly Sesshomaru gave her a rearward push, she fell unto her bottom but he didn't stick around to find out what she would do next. He turned and left, striding quickly and chuckling as he heard the woman cursing under her breath.
She was dragged to her feet by a guard to stand, this time however before she was led away the captain tied her hands together behind her back and tugged her inside the assembly hall. She wouldn't get the chance to inflict any more blows on anyone else.
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Kagome arrived with Shippo but decided to stay outside in the garden for awhile until she was good and ready. So until then she would stay beyond the trial and try to relax, which would be hard under the circumstances, while she prepared herself for her day in the sun.
Sesshomaru entered a small room adjoining the assembly hall to speak with his legal defender, he did not want a lengthy deliberation because he had enough evidence to singularly lock his wife away, until he saw it fit to punish her himself in the way that he would have wanted in the first place. He wouldn't kill her yet, it was not yet time and for diplomacy's sake.
He handed a document to the lawyer that he had personally written and had revisited a number of times to make sure that it was acceptable. The lawyer opened the scroll and ran his eyes over the paper for several minutes and then lifted his head.
"How do you want me to proceed?" He asked quietly.
Sesshomaru walked to the table and lean against it, pleased that soon all this nonsense would be over, then poured a glass of water and downed it in a couple of swallows. There was a hesitant tap on the door, it opened a crack. He smiled slightly; Shippo stood there and looked rather lighthearted.
Lord Sesshomaru Kagome waits in the garden," Shippo announced quickly and then looked away, his mind caught up with interest by the document in the lawyer's hand.
Sesshomaru closed the distance between them with two long strides. His only thought was that of the trial; the sooner it was over the quicker it would be for him to continue with his life.
After a few minutes his mind returned to the question that the lawyer had asked him and he replied. "Say only what is pertinent to my family's cause," he advised the lawyer, "let's go," he said, directing his attentions to the fox now.
The both of them left the room and the lawyer, who was more than capable of divulging the facts, and thus placing the lady in a very compromising position. The additional information that he'd received a short while ago from the lord, the mistress would be lucky if she was not flogged and then hanged. The lawyer perused the document in his hand one final time and then left the room.
As Sesshomaru entered, he made a short cursory survey of the trial room. He observed the emperor along with his two advisors sitting in the right hand corner of the hall. The nobles of the west sat to the left of the humans. To the back of the room sat a dozen privileged individuals who were invited to witness the event, and among them was Hotaru.
These twelve individuals would serve as jurors of sorts, and would have a say in how the verdict was handed down. The arrangement of the judiciary was organized based on his mate's accounts of what a future court and trial system would entail. He was pleased by the results.
The magistrate sat up front behind a huge desk, and beside him sat a hawk youkai who was the clerk of the proceedings.
A sudden push of the door and he glanced around and saw his wife and a man who he knew to be her trial lawyer entered the room. They proceeded towards a table with two chairs adjacent to the one that he occupied. Shortly afterwards he was joined by his lawyer and Shippo, disguised as one of his wife's captain.
Maemi's mother and cousins were under guard in one of the rooms outside of the main hall to be summoned if needed.
It was time to begin as all players were set like pieces on a chess board. The magistrate cleared his throat as he stood.
"Welcome all to the trial of lord Sesshomaru against his wife princess Maemi in the year 1634 on the twentieth day of August. Will the accused stand and face me?"
He paused at this point and waited on the lady to do as he'd commanded so that the process could continue.
She heard the plea and it grated on her nerves, the position that she was in as a high born princess was a farce and without any form of merit. Yet she couldn't get up, and instead entered into a strange mood as she felt numerous eyes on her, watching and judging.
A great swell of darkness engulfed her, she took deep gulps of air to force the ill wind away, and when it was gone she felt alone, naked and trembling. The lawyer at her side gave her hand a gentle nudge and she sighed, let go of the numbness and finally stood.
The magistrate blinked. "The charges against you are treason and ordering the death of an innocent. How do you plead?"
She bit into her lip and closed her eyes tight in an effort to drive away the rage, because she was an inch away from losing all sense of reason from the mockery that she was being forced to endure, and instead she took a deep breath and said.
"I plead not guilty to all charges."
"Very well then," the magistrate responded, "I hope that you are prepared to defend yourself, because if found guilty the penalty will be death."
He looked upon her a long moment, then signaled to the notary beside her with a nod and then sat down. Maemi followed suit and sat as well.
A shadow fell upon her. She looked up to see her lawyer standing and facing the room.
"At this time I will invite princess Maemi, lady of the west to tell her own story, because it is my belief that she will be able to convey her actions and the emotional turmoil that she underwent better than I ever could."
She listened to him and smiled against the tears that rose in her eyes, and offered up a silent prayer, thanking her brother for his assistance.
She walked away from the table, then paused and turned around just as Kagome made her entrance.
The occurrence caught her attentions and she stared across the hall, their eyes met in a vicious clash. She watched for a moment until Kagome looked away and walked slowly towards Sesshomaru, he smiled pleased as she took the empty seat beside him.
A flash of anger penetrated her schooled visage of calmness; she hissed and stamped her foot rattling the wooden flooring of the room. No one said a word or even reacted to her out of placed tantrums.
She and her lawyer exchanged a long look, and he shook his head unhappily and sighed before he looked away. The princess was making her cause that much worse, she need to remain calm.
Princess Maemi glanced around the room and felt strange, she didn't know many of their faces, only a few that she could count on one hand. It frightened her. Where was her mother and cousins, did her husband have them killed, or did they abandoned her? She wondered in anxiousness.
"You may begin," she heard the magistrate saying, and it broke through the curtain of fear and hopelessness. Her spirit returned as she took a long look at the woman that sat beside her husband as if she owned him. She was going to make them both pay for what they did to her.
The first words left her lips slowly, hesitantly, but as she delved deeper into the past her confidence soared as she engaged the occupants of the room with her journey to west, and becoming the wife of the lord. It was a long speech, and all listened to its telling as the woman cried, became mute, cried again until she stopped for good.
Kagome and Sesshomaru listened aptly, the woman told no lies, each of them had their own story to tell, and the next person who would speak would be his mate. She had to clear the air, make them see that she was not a whore or his mistress, and that he had never casted her aside.
As Kagome made her way to the front of the room she took a deep breath. Maemi's lawyer stood. Sesshomaru watched, and deep down he wished that all would be over soon. He was tired of seeing the same things happening over and over; his mate had been through too much.
"Who are you?" The lawyer questioned.
Kagome hesitated a moment as the feeling of déjà vu consumed her. She had lived this nightmare too many times already. She pushed the bad feelings away knowing that soon all this misery and conflict would come to an end, and hopefully never to happen again.
Maemi stared at her with hatred, and she gazed at her with indifference. Now that she was clean the priestess stood out with her clear blue eyes lined with black eyeliner, flawless tanned skin and pink pouty lips. She was exceptionally beautiful and envy cut the princess to the core of her being. She hissed unconsciously as her envious thoughts rose to the fore and choked her up with spite.
She shifted her gaze away and focused it instead on the audience. "I am priestess Kagome, former keeper of the Shikon no Tama, mate to lord Sesshomaru and mother to his children," she replied softly.
A dead calm fell over the room, as the face of greatness stood before them; they felt the woman's power brushing warmly over their skins, dancing and tingling as it swept throughout the room. No one was immune to its effects; both human and demon felt the energies.
Maemi stared at her for one long, startling moment as her conscience confirmed the truth of who she wanted to kill, but her pride would not let the incident die.
With a furious howl she charged from her seat and lunged for Kagome, Sesshomaru did not even bother to react; his mate was quite capable of defending herself. She stepped to the side in an instant and the woman fell flat on her face. Laughter filled the room.
The emperor was stunned by the black haired woman's revelation, and disgusted by his sister's lack of decorum, but still, she was family and he stood to challenge the woman's claim of being the vessel of the Shikon no Tama.
Emperor Masayoshi arched a brow, and then he laughed. "That's a fine speech young lady, but the battle against Naraku never happened in my lifetime or even in my father's. Records show that the priestess and her friends who defeated the spider did so over eighty years ago."
He paused and took a sip of water, placed the glass down again as Kagome watched; confident that he had her cornered in an outright lie so as to save herself from being executed, for being with the lord without prior consent from his queen.
"Are you finished speaking emperor?" Kagome asked the man who remained smug.
He nodded.
"Alright, I understand that the circumstances are a bit strange and you may find it difficult to believe that what I say is the truth, but over thirty years ago I stood in this same spot with lord Sesshomaru and his council members, if you want confirmation of the truth and my longevity I would suggest that you converse with them."
Before he could question her any further, lords Aburame, Shun, Hitoshi, Kouga, Inuyasha and her mate stood up in her defense. The emperor looked at their stern faces and then sat back down quietly.
However, another of his advisors stood up and requested permission to speak. His appeal was granted by the magistrate, he was not as biased as the rest of them, and he had felt her influence from earlier. There was just something about her that exudes not only power but purity.
"If what you say is true then you must possess great spiritual energies, I am fascinated, show us your power."
Kagome smiled at the man as he sat back down and then she expelled a breath.
"Okay," she replied, but hesitated a bit as she glanced at Sesshomaru and saw a frown upon his brow, she knew what he felt and it bothered her. He was scared for her, and guilt still jabbed at his heart. She smiled at him and hoped that it would lessen his worry.
Shortly, she focused her eyes back upfront. Her index finger rested on her cheek in thought, what should she do? She asked herself and then she smiled broadly.
"Does anyone here have a seed from a fruit," her lips twisting nervously, "any seed will do."
A small voice answered her call. "I have an apple seed in my pocket."
She turned and saw a young human woman who was a concubine of one of the lord's; she had met her over three years ago at a social.
Kagome approached the woman and took the apple seed; she looked around and saw an empty water pitcher. There were potted plants in the room also, and so she transferred some of the dirt from one to the pitcher and planted the seed, poured water on it and closed her eyes.
Little by little her powers grew; swelling and bouncing around the room like a warm gentle caress as she moved her hand back and forth over the container.
To everyone's amazement something green pushed pass the dirt, it was a small plant, but it didn't stop there as she concentrated harder, the plant grew, and grew some more. When it stopped it was about two feet high with four of the reddest fruit imaginable.
Kagome laughed among the stunned expressions, plucked an apple and bit into it. Cheers went up around the room, Kagome picked the other three apples and tossed one to the emperor's advisor and the young lady that had given her the seed, and the last one she handed to Maemi in friendship, who was having none of it and swatted the apple away.
"I don't need or want you friendship," Maemi cursed, "you may have fooled everyone into thinking that you are an innocent, but it is within my right to have you executed for sleeping with the lord who is my husband without my consent."
Kagome cringed from the venom in the woman's tone, but responded regardless.
"The lord is free to love and to be with whomever he wants without your approval, your argument has no foundation to stand on."
Kagome brushed her bangs aside revealing the mark of her mate, a lavender crescent moon on her forehead. The woman gasped in shock but still refused to see the truth and yelled.
"That is just a cheap trick with ink; I want the mark examined."
Sesshomaru stood up; he had insight that this would happen and so he had summoned a human doctor who was one of the emperor's advisors to the trial.
The man stepped forward, Kagome sighed, feeling worn. He took a vial with a clear substance from his pocket and opened it, the fumes from it noxious, and she tried not to breathe until it was over.
He poured some of the solution on a piece of cotton and wiped it many times on her skin, however, the swab remained spotless. He ran his fingers over the mark thinking that it may have been a tattoo but the skin was smooth and unblemished. The only conclusion that he could make was that the mark appeared on her forehead magically.
He turned to the audience with his findings. "The mark that she wears is indeed a mark from the lord, it is real and I have no reason to doubt its authenticity."
"No, no! How can this be," Maemi sobbed, the devil was at her heels and she still refused to give up.
"You left him and that make whatever you did with him afterward suspect."
Kagome shook her head. "Then you should be grateful that I did because you would have never known him, accept what life has given you and maybe you will walk away from here a free woman."
"I am a princess, I married the lord in front of everyone, our union is legally binding and yours is not," she shouted in retaliation. "I will never accept you, he is my husband first."
Tears had started to glaze her eyes and she shook her head furiously to clear them. Sesshomaru got up to dismiss her claims but Kagome shook her head telling him no, she would have her say.
"My joining to Sesshomaru is one of love and the desire we shared to be to together, yours was a political consideration and for that I am truly sorry, but I will never again stand aside and watch him be with anyone else. I love him and I will fight to keep him by my side."
Kagome walked away as there wasn't anything more to say, she had proven her point, she was the rightful mate of Sesshomaru. She felt pity for the woman for the unrequited love that she had to deal with, but she knew that Sesshomaru would never have pretended to love the woman. She knew him to be brutally honest, and the princess was truly pathetic.
The court session took a fifteen minutes break, and the magistrate took the time to decide if princess Maemi had substantial cause to order the death of Kagome.
The couple did not converse in idle chatter at the break, to do so would've upset the woman further and Kagome did not want to hurt her. Regardless of what anyone thought, delusional or not, hurt was hurt, and she could see beyond the bitterness that the princess actually loved Sesshomaru, but because he did not return her feelings, she had grown cold and became bitter and had attacked them.
Court convened again, the judge wasted no time; he made his announcements refuting the princess's claim. Stating that by demon law Kagome was the first mate and wife, and so Maemi had no right or the authority to order such a punishment.
But because the issues were sensitive and of a domestic nature, he couldn't in good conscience reprimand the princess for her actions.
Nevertheless, so much more was at stake than many of them knew, and Sesshomaru was determined to get the outcome that he desired. His wife had to be charged and sentenced for treason, placing her life in his hands whereby he could act accordingly.
He approached the judge and asked for a few minutes to confer with his lawyer, the request was granted. Sesshomaru and the lawyer left the room and walked a few feet away from the door.
They stopped, Sesshomaru turned and faced his advisor. "I think it is best if we do not enlist the aid of the fox."
"We are of the same mind," the lawyer answered, "your mate handled herself quite resourcefully so much so that the judge dismissed the charges, hence making the fox's account of the events unnecessary."
Sesshomaru nodded and stared outside through one of the many windows in thought, the sun would soon set in the evening sky and hopefully on this period in his life.
"We should get back," the notary advised, he turned away from the view and made his way down the passage and back inside.
For the first time that day his lawyer took the podium, it was time to wrap things up. He stood in front of the fiery woman and asked her to state her name and title for the courts.
She complied. "I am princess Maemi, wife to lord Sesshomaru and lady of the west."
Sesshomaru scowled by the use of his name and the titles that she extolled on herself but kept quiet. He may not like what she had said but they were simple truths, and until he can make it all go away there was nothing he could do to refute her claims.
"My lady do you know the difference between a wife and a mate," was the lawyer's first question to her.
She shrugged. "I suppose one is the demon form of marriage and the other a human one."
He watched the woman with a clinical eye before he continued. "Was demon courtship ever explained to you and or the consequences of some forms of mating?
She sighed wearily. "I cannot recall clearly but at some point I must have come across the information."
His eyes met hers and he watched her for a moment. Then he walked away from her, paused and turned back around again. She felt his dark eyes on her and lowered her head.
Then his voice rang out harshly. "Did you order the death of lord Sesshomaru?"
Gasps filled the room from the unexpected question.
She shuddered and lifted her head. "What…Are you insane, how dare you ask me such a thing?" As she had spoken, her voice had lifted in anger and surprise.
But he would not relent and barked out the question again. "Did you or did you not order the death of your husband, and madam I would prefer if you answer the question plainly?"
She moistened her lips nervously and then stood up. "In spite of what all of you may think I love my husband and would never order his death."
The sounds behind her seemed to fade into nothingness, the room felt vacant like her heart. She was alone and afraid, something knocked on her mind telling her that the worst was yet to come.
"You may sit down at this time my lady; I have nothing further to ask of you now."
The lawyer called one of the guards and whispered something to him; he left the room, only to return a short time later with her two cousins Jade and Heaven.
She smiled thinly at them, pleased to see them after almost a month, however, they did not smile back and the previous fear that she had tightened her chest.
The lawyer offered them a dry smile as they approached him. "Welcome, the testament that you are about to give do you do so of your own free will?"
They both sighed deeply before responding; hurting their cousin brought them no joy, but to throw away their lives for something that they did not agree with was foolish.
By no means would they be free in the true sense. The lord had promised to spare their lives if they told the truth, but beyond that he could not promise them anything else.
"Yes, "they finally answered.
He turned to the eldest one and asked his question. "Did princess Maemi ever divulge a conversation that she had with a female named Hotaru?"
Jade swallowed thickly. "Yes," she answered lowly.
The lawyer nodded. "Could you please tell the court the contents of the conversation?"
"It was about a year ago," Jade began uncomfortably.
When she was done the lawyer asked Heaven the same question and her response was similar. Maemi looked upon her cousins in amazement, and wondered where the lawyer intended to take all this.
No sooner had she the thought and her cousins excused, Hotaru was called as a witness.
"State your name and title for the courts," the lawyer instructed."
"I am called Hotaru and I am in the employ of lord Sesshomaru, first as a nurse for his wife, and now as the nanny for his pups."
The lawyer smoothed back his shiny dark hair, glanced at the princess then addressed Hotaru again.
"Tell the many who sits here today what you told lord Sesshomaru's wife about demon mating at a time when she was in your care."
She took a long silent breath, and then started. "The lady was ill and fretful at the time; she was of the notion that her husband despised her and had willingly refused to love her. I tried to comfort her and in time reasoned with her to put her mind at ease."
She paused as she saw how sad the woman looked, but it would do nothing to change her mind from telling the truth. She had gone out of her way to befriend her at a time when she'd actually needed a friend, and all it did was to nearly get her in trouble with the lord.
She looked away and continued. "I told her that the lord had not consciously decided not to love her, but that he couldn't, he was guided by his instincts and the pull on his soul, and that most demons mated for life. I went further to explain that sometimes the bond was so strong that if one mated pair died so did the other."
He cut her off with a dismissive wave of the hand. Hotaru got up and left the witness box.
Maemi sat in silence, as reality slowly crept up on her. The sound of her name caused her to nearly jump out of her skin, and she pressed a hand over her heart, got up and faced the lawyer and the court once more.
The lawyer straightened his clothing, while the grim taunting smile never disappeared from his face.
"Princess," he said, "I will pose the question to you again. Did you order the death of your husband, the lord of the west?"
Her temper came alive and soared. "And I will tell you again I have never ordered such a thing, I am not a common criminal for you to stand here and judge."
He chuckled. "But my lady you are indeed a criminal," he assured her. "You have attempted and would have accomplished double murder if the lord hadn't thwarted your plans. You see, you had information on the lives of demons, you were informed that to take the life of the lord's mate would mean certain death for him, and yet you've acted carelessly in spite of that knowledge."
He started to smile and she swore, cursing him with every dirty name that she could recall. Her lawyer rushed to her side but had nothing to say to dispel the allegations. Her cousins had sworn that the testimonies they gave were given freely on their own accord, and the demoness had driven the nail into her coffin even further when she'd testified.
The lawyer did not want to leave anything to chance and gestured to Sesshomaru that he would indeed call Shippo to the stand, who was still masquerading as one of the princess's private guards.
Maemi looked at the captain and saw the evidence of her loss and failures, and hot tears well up in her eyes.
Shippo gave evidence of the times that they have met and her brutal treatment of the priestess, and lastly ordering her death that would have taken not one but two lives.
The judge hammered the gavel onto the wooden desk as the assembly hall came alive with outrage and the shout of death for the lady. He turned his attentions on the woman.
"What do you have to say for yourself at this time?" He asked as was customary.
She panted heavily, nervous sweat formed on her brows; so many things swept through her mind as the world came crashing down on her shoulders. In the end all she had to say was nothing. She shrugged stiffly and looked away.
"Very well then," he advised, the charges against you stand, for ordering the death of lord Sesshomaru and his mate the sentence is death by hanging or the guillotines, however, the lord have the right to deal with you in a manner that is acceptable to him."
He turned his gaze away from the accused and hit the desk with the gavel once again, signaling the end of the trial and a long trying day.
Sesshomaru used the opportunity to approach his wife. "When you dig graves remember to dig two or in this case three."
She glared at him and kept silent, and when he called the guards to escort her to the prison she did not struggle.
He scanned the room for his mate, however, she wasn't there, but he felt her soothing presence outside in the garden. He left the room, and when he saw her he couldn't help himself, he smiled though her back was turned to him. Most of their troubles were over, only one was left.
He crept silently behind her, she knew that he was there and could sense his playful mood, so she decided to play along. A warm wet tongue licked her ear and she giggled because it tickled and then she turned around.
The urge to jump on him and kiss him like there was no tomorrow was so strong that she gave into the girlish impulse. He was startled at first when she wrapped her legs around his waist and suckled on his lips, however, her sweet taste drew him in and he kissed her back with just as much fervor.
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