Chapter Four
He felt his control slipping. His mouth slid open as his eyes roamed over her form. There were no scars, no pockmarks—nothing! There was no evidence of any trauma that could have possibly caused this.
"Infertile?" he breathed, astonished.
"Yes," she repeated.
He shook his head. "That is impossible. You are not ill, you are not scarred, and I smell no curse upon you. This is ludicrous; you must be lying to me."
She lifted a heavy gaze at him. "I wouldn't lie to you about something that has caused my suffering since I heard of it. There is nothing I want more than to have children!" Her hooded eyes filled with tears. "I have wished for that ability for as long as I can remember, Sesshomaru." She collapsed onto the ground, sobbing.
His heart ached as he watched the tears slide down her cheeks. "Kagome…"
Yoshii put up a hand. "The marriage will proceed as planned, Prince Sesshomaru, if that is what you wish. But, right now, Kagome needs her peace. She is deeply troubled by this conversation and it is highly improper for a prospective husband to see her in this way."
He shook his head. "My father will never allow the marriage if he discovers this horrible ailment of hers."
Yoshii nodded. "I understand, Prince—"
"Madame Higurashi, I need to speak with you in private."
The older woman bit her lip. "Of course—Nadia," she called to a servant nearby. "Please take Kagome to her chambers."
The teen protested only mildly, too focused on her tears to really ponder what her beloathed beloved and her mother were talking about. She was dragged out, sniffling, muttering angry words under her breath.
Once Kagome was away, along with the others that had followed the fuming girl and Prince, Yoshii Higurashi turned and sized up her daughter's potential husband. He was tall, broad-shouldered, and pale-skinned, with high cheekbones, golden eyes and a soft smile. He was eloquent and the haughtiness that was expected laid only the surface. As it was now, all she saw was worry and tension from a man who truly cared for a woman—her daughter.
"What is it, Prince Sesshomaru?" She alighted herself on a bench and watched as the normally-stoic Demon Prince began to pace the garden. "What is troubling you? I realize that we should have told you sooner, but your father was adamant that the proceedings continue as if Kikyou had not died at all. He gave me little time to prepare both myself and him."
Sesshomaru shook his head. "I do not blame you."
Yoshii smiled. "Somehow, I didn't think you did."
A smile tried to claim his face. It was wiped away quickly by a trace of panic. "I think…I think I love your daughter."
She gasped. "Sessho—"
"No. Listen. I know it's crazy. I know that no man should know his love this early. I know that love is learned and earned from experience and speech and observation. I know that demons rarely love. I know that humans rarely love demons. I know all of this and yet…yet I cannot shake the feeling that Kagome is the one that was meant to stand by my side." He ran a hand through his long hair. "But none of this, I fear, changes the fact that Kagome is infertile."
Yoshii saw the glistening of tears in his eyes. It drew her breath away. A demon crying? She had to tell him. Despite her decision she still sat silent, pondering her next words. It was a pregnant pause that left no choice for Sesshomaru but to pace. Finally, she replied, "It changes everything."
Her simple words nearly knocked him to the ground.
"What are you saying, Madame?"
Yoshii stood from the bench, coming to lay her weathered hands on the taut muscles of Sesshomaru's right arm. "What I am saying, dear Prince, is that Kagome is not what she appears to be."
Sesshomaru gave her a dark look. "This is no time for matchmaking games."
She laughed. "No games, Sesshomaru. This is very serious, in fact."
He nodded, slowly. "Continue."
She pulled away from him. "First of all, you should know that I did not birth my darling Kagome, and neither did my husband contribute in any way to her existence." She closed her eyes.
Sesshomaru scoffed. "Such pretty language to call you daughter a bastard."
Her fiery gaze struck him. "Insufferable. Absolutely insufferable." She grabbed his arm in her hands. Her hard grip stunned him and he let out a yelp of protest. How was this human woman hurting him?
"Kagome is as much our daughter as Kikyou was."
Sesshomaru pulled away and rubbed his arm. "That's impossible."
She sighed. "Kagome is a gift from the Gods."
He laughed. "More motherly prattle!"
She punched him. Hard. "She is the Demi-Goddess of fertility, protection and purity, you insufferable Prince!" She put a hand to her face and Sesshomaru was amazed to watch a strange glow envelop her. "Do you not wonder how I am able to hurt you? How Kagome's stare can nearly paralyze you?"
Sesshomaru backed away, stunned as Yoshii's skin changed to a shimmering white and her eyes bled to an unnatural pink. Then, her once-ebony hair bled cherry red. "We are Goddesses."
His scream sounded almost like a roar.
"What is this nonsense?!"
"I am Cienna, the Demi-Goddess of both Pleasure and Poison." Her pink stare pinned him to the ground and pinned his mouth shut. "And Kagome is my sister. My youngest sister, in fact."
Kagome's mood did not improve.
It was always like this. Every time someone mentioned her frailty, her weakness, she started to cry. It made her feel even more weak. It was ridiculous. She rubbed at her eyes. And this time she didn't even know why she was crying. It wasn't as if she actually wanted to have kids or puppies or whatever the hell they called them with Sesshomaru, the Prince of Assholes ... and liars.
She sniffled. Okay so maybe that was a bit of a lie.
He was damn sexy. And she had loved him. A lot. Even though she had only known him for a short time. And that's what sucked the most about it. It had been the miraculous love at first sight. She had truly believed that what he offered was exactly what she needed to be complete.
But then he turned around and became an asshole.
And a liar. And a heart-breaker.
Go figure. Just like his half-brother.
"Nadia, leave me alone."
"The Missus told me to watch you, Lady."
"And I'm telling you to get the hell out."
Her proper handmaiden flinched at the inappropriate language. "Must the Lady always act so angrily?" She fretted forward, trying to tame the tangle of Kagome's coif back into some sort of order. "I am only here to assure you are safe and cared for, should you need anything."
Kagome scowled but reluctantly let her continue grooming.
Finally, after a few moments, Nadia said, "Besides, you're going to have to eventually return to the ball. Your father and father-in-law will be very worried. As will the Master Sesshomaru's siblings." She sighed. "Such love."
That broke her. Kagome started sobbing once again.
Nadia, always oblivious, simply said, "Did I say something to upset you?"
Sesshomaru's tongue was stuck to the roof of his mouth. Silence permeated the entire garden, broken only by the wind rustling the various petals and leaves and the indigenous birds twittering excitedly. It was nerve-racking.
Finally, he mustered : "Does she know?"
Cienna scoffed. "Of course not."
"Your husband?"
She looked towards the ground. "There's no need. My body is a mortal one. My powers limited. I am no more powerful that you are. And he didn't need the added worry from my real side of the family." At his startled look, she added, "I chose this life, Sesshomaru. I chose love and mortality over power and forever. All Demi-Gods and Goddesses get this choice."
"What of Kagome?"
Cienna cringed. "Kagome is the only exception."
His eyebrows raised. "Why?"
Cienna's eyes filled with crimson tears. "Because Kagome is an immortal child of purity born from the sin of a mortal."
Her vagueness frustrated him. "Explain."
She nodded. "Gods and Goddesses have only one weakness, Prince Sesshomaru. It is a strange one—one you would not expect—but it is a weakness all the same." She cleared her throat. "We cannot consume earthly food."
"Why?"
She smiled. "Always the 'whys'. So curious." She gestured to the garden. "Because earthly food is forged of the life energy of the planet—it is the mortal energy that fuels every being on the planet. It is was made you, and the humans, the animals and the plants. Thus, when a Goddess or God consumes food from earth, they are instantly weakened to mortality—for a short time. And if a Demi-God or Goddess consume food from earth, they are instantly weakened to mortality...permanently. It is how I became what I am."
"And what does this have to do with Kagome?"
She nodded, solemnly. "When my mother conceived Kagome, she was not in her right mind. A human prophet by the name of Naraku—corrupted by this time, but not to my mother's knowledge—had come the day before to visit the Council. He wished to have a bit more power in the religious community for sacrilegious reasons. The Council debated this overnight and allowed Naraku to stay in one of our many rooms as a guest. My mother even saw to his care." She sniffed. "And that was her undoing."
Cienna moved to sit on the bench, her head and eyelids heavy with the weight of the pain her family bore. "Naraku offered my mother a gift. It was supposed to be a soothing therapy supplement to soothe her period of Heat—much like the demons experience—that she suffered from at that time. In fact, though, it was a human chocolate, laced with a heavy sedative." She bit her lip. "Instantly, Mama was mortal and, equally as instant, she was sedated."
Sesshomaru swore. "The bastard."
Cienna nodded. "It is not hard to guess what happened afterward."
"He took advantage of her."
"Yes; and he hoped that my mother would not remember their joining so, when their child was born, she would think them the daughter of her and my father's joining—and then my parents would allow him access to the child."
"Whatever for?"
Cienna looked into Sesshomaru's eyes. "Because a child born of mortal and immortal, if it survives, is the most powerful of all deities. It has the power of choice, Sesshomaru. They can choose their life length, their appearance, they can acquire powers from anyone and anything—they are sacred, worshiped amongst the Gods." Her voice cracked. "But it's their ultimate choice that is the greatest."
Sesshomaru moved closer. "Please, continue."
She sobbed. "They have the power to choose Destruction or Protection."
"What do you mean?"
"When a child like Kagome is born, we have what is known as an Apocalypse or a Peaceful Period, depending on their choice. Thus, there has not been one born for millions of years. The last one born chose Destruction and my mother could not bear to watch her beautiful Earth suffer for her child's choices."
"When must Kagome make the choice?"
At this, Cienna gave him a fierce look. "Her choice lies in her two loves—one of the Darkness, one of the Light." She took a deep breath.
"Whoever can claim my sister, will decide the fate of the world; because it is the child bore of their union that will take the name of Apocalypse or Peace."
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R&R