Title: The Dawn on Funeral Day
Author: landofthekwt
Rating: PG-13
Prompt: Dawn (The Wilted Rose #29)
Genre: Angst
Word Count:998
Warning: none
Summary: Dawn brings an end to Kikyou's wake and new uncertainties for Kaede
The air was so thick with smoke that it blotted out the rising sun. She had been dozing off during the night. One of the villagers who was standing guard over the shrine shook her. She looked startled and confused. Finally, she realized where she was.
Her sister lay atop the pyre hastily assembled for her cremation. Kaede herself had bathed the body and stuffed the cotton in the orifices. The wounds had been horrible. It had taken several hours to wash off the blood and clean the wounds. .
The villagers were amazed that she had been able to reach Goshinboku and kill Inuyasha before he escaped with the jewel. The villagers were angry both at Inuyasha for destroying the village and at Kikyou for allowing the hanyou access to the Jewel. The words " youkai whore" were being bandied about by the villagers within Kaede's hearing.
As Kikyou's only living relative Kaede had been expected to do much. She had to purify Kikyou by bathing her body. Clothes had to be found. The altar had to be assembled and food, incense and flowers placed upon it. Although Kaede had never performed funerary rites, she had seen Kikyou do them.
Everything had to be done just right. It did not help that their hut had been burned with rest of the village when Inuyasha had stolen the Jewel from the temple. Kaede had found a spare set of priestess robes which fit Kikyou.
She was amazed that the rosary that Kikyou had intended to use as a kotodama to subdue Inuyasha had not burned. It would prove helpful to her during the night to concentrate on the prayers for the dead.
Some villagers contributed the all black garments which she wore while concentrated on the rosary during the wake. Kaede had been too young when her parents died to need such clothing. Since she had no other relatives to mourn for she would never need to use them again.
The wake had been long and arduous. She had no other family to stand by her in her hour of need. The villagers distanced themselves from her. Her sister had been planning to live with the youkai. It was whispered that she had planned to let him use the Jewel.
They had all seen what the Jewel did. It drove youkai crazy. It was the justice of the kami that they had both died trying to be together. She was a miko. The servant of the kami. She should not have been consorting with the youkai.
All of them had suffered casualties because of the Jewel. Their miko had died because of it. The village had been burned to the ground by the youkai when he took the Jewel. Even the girl bore the marks of the sin by losing an eye.
They were well rid of the miko, the hanyou and the Jewel. The sooner they cremated the miko and Jewel the better off they would be. The youkai attacks would stop. They would not need to guard the Jewel anymore.
Some argued that the girl should be driven from the village since she was related to the fallen miko and was thus tainted by her blood. The headman stood against them and argued that she should be sent to the temple for training just like her sister had been. .
Kaede had scared out of her mind. The pyre had been illuminated by the fires burning in the village below and the campfires of the villagers guarding the shrine. This was first time that she had been without her sister. Alone in the dark she realized just much she was going to miss. her.
The Jewel itself hung from Kikyou's neck. The Jewel seemed to glow with pink, pure light. Kaede thought once or twice that she had felt an evil aura shadowing the pyre, but it seemed that the Jewel was so pure at this point that it would purify any evildoer who tried to possess it.
The headman had sent someone to the temple. They needed a shinken priest to perform the funerary rites over the fallen priestess. All believed that they were in danger until the priestess and the Jewel were properly put to rest.
They did not have time to wait for the normal mourning period. She needed to be cremated and properly buried now. They feared that Jewel would bring youkai. Unless the miko's spirit was pacified, it could become a vengeful ghost or be transformed into a youkai.
Kaede looked at her sister. Just yesterday morning she had seemed so happy when she left their hut. She had no relatives . Orphans were often left to starve by the roadside.
She knew that the villagers thought Kikyou was responsible for all that had happened. They fixed blame on her as the only living relative. The villagers had suffered so much. Who knew what they would do to her once the funeral was over and Kikyou's soul was pacified.
Kaede wondered if Kikyou's soul would ever be saved. She had been so distraught in her last moments. Blaming the Jewel for everything that had happened. The hanyou had killed her and yet she had tried to hug him before she crumpled to the ground and died in Kaede's arms.
It was an experience that Kaede would remember for the rest of her life. Kikyou's soul would not be pacified until Kagome saved her soul. Kikyou was finally able to give her guardianship of the Jewel and become an ordinary woman before she ascended.
In her heart Kaede would suffer for Kikyou's transgression for the next fifty years. At least Kikyou was able to find peace in death. Kaede's suffering began when Kikyou died and did not end until her spirit broke free of Urusuae's clay vessel. Only then did the little girl who sat in dark all night by her sister's pyre saying prayers on her sister's rosary find peace.