Chapter 3

The queen strolled though the palace gardens under the lamp of silver moon, her fingers gracing the soft velvet petals that bled red, a lone sigh danced from her lips and the air above was flooded with harbingers, weighing the civilians down. The distressed music from her wafted through the light blow and reached her mate's ears.

"What causes you such heaviness?" Inutaisho questioned, his claws already reaching across to pick the small bright flower blooming like a befitted crown above the thorns that his queen's fingers had sought for.

"There is something that's aberrant above the miko" She confessed, taking the single flower that now blossomed in the wide palm of her King.

"I noticed and she strongly resembles Inuyasha's dead woman" The King took her hand in his and walked forward, all the while thinking about the plausible scenarios that this would lead in to and none of the alternatives proved to be a summer shine. The resonance was still loud enough, the pain that his youngest went through was still fresh, all the screams and roars weren't lost in the wind as he had thought it would, and he could only relate it with his own loss.

The edges of his lips turned in to a visible frown and Inukimi felt the claws of lump strangling her throat. She knew the look that drenched his face; it was the same look that he gets during the silent nights when he stares at the dark sky that brings him back memories of one's raven hair. He was mourning for his lover and it killed Inukimi to realise with a bitter taste lingering on her head that she would never be able to fill out that one hole in his heart, the one gaping abyss in his drumming organ that he had dug as a grave for his lost love, that one hollow that was too deep to be filled by any warmth as a panacea from her.

His pace slowed, the sky growled with a start, drips of clear drops freckled down the earth in an attempt to wash out the thoughts that weighed him down, as an accolade to the talisman that he had failed to cherish. His lashes smudged in the rain, his eyes that were too gold were staring at the lamenting ether.

The Moon Queen sighed again, this time with a sharp cringe churning in the depth of her chest; the flower in her palm fell, unlike the silent tears that refused to make an appearance, refused to spill in this continuum. Her face was in a beat, dressed in an indifferent facade, holding her chin high, she left the garden that was drafted for the human woman who had surpassed her yet again even beyond the cold grave.

~.~.~.~.~

He left the confines of his draped bed when the female demon whose name he had long forgotten had drifted off to sleep. The red silk of his robes clung to his body like a second skin and his clawed feet took him to the large French windows that were facing the ocean. The drips of the rain were harsh on the glass and each destined beat matched with the rhythm of his heart.

Inuyasha stared at the trailing drops that were descending south, and the smell of fresh sand brought him waves of memories that refused to leave him alone even after these many years, the tides refused to back down, eroding the shore grains. His heart stirred with specks of suppressed emotions surfacing, bringing along the cold that he despised. The miko was nothing like his demure Kikiyo, no one could ever be compared with her flawless beauty, he decided, lauding even her voice as a euphony that he had fell for.

The self pity took him in its lap, lulling him in to the dark corner, feeding him the fruits of sadness and the hanyou looked above the cracks of sky, all the while yelling profanities to the heaven and the gods for the crafted play by the fate, to give him something and to grab the same back, just to watch him break down and cave, to fade away as nothing but ghoul.

The coolness of the thick glass seemed strangely divine for his burning forehead and he sighed, sliding his head on the chill surface, hoping all the way that he could just sleep for few hours without the memories of Kikiyo succumbing him from within. The thunder howled as a needed vehemence among the haze of electric blue, grieving for his grief.

With a determination that would make his father proud, he roused above the sickening shackles of loss and went to the kitchen in an attempt to fix himself a decent dessert that would hopefully melt away all the sorrow that was edging like a rusted knife in the flesh of his chest. The steps to the dining were short and he reached in an instant, only to find the large table occupied by the woman who had raised the dead pain from its grave.

"Hm, midnight snack hunt?" Kagome asked, her eyes still fixed on the bowl of cherries.

"Well, aren't you a little ashamed to sneak in to our castle and stuff your face with our food?" Inuyasha asked, his eyes had a narrow slit and the glint lurking in the corners of his eyes didn't go unnoticed by the young woman in white robes.

"Oh my dear prince, are you that illiterate to know what exactly is 'sneaking in'? Just so you know, the Queen invited us to stay and so I'm your guest with a right to sit and have a bowl of cherry when I feel like having it." She said, her eyes rising from the sweetened fruit to that of a golden iris.

"At least you have learned to address me with a proper title" He said, not in the mood to spar with words, and definitely not in the mood to sit and chat with the woman who was ultimately a catalyst for ruining his evening.

"Sarcasm is not your strong subject I guess" She whispered, and Inuyasha smirked.

'Yeah she is nothing like my Kikiyo' His thoughts that were blurred a moment ago rippled once more and settled in to a firm conclusion. He had hoped the head chef Sango would be there to fix him up with something that would effectively thwart all the twinges. He sighed again, cursing the formidable night.

"Do you want my cherries?" She asked. Inuyasha's eyes widened a bit on her offer, he blinked once, twice and thrice, processing her words.

"Wh-what?"

"They are fresh and ripe" She said and pointed to the bowl. The young prince visibly shuddered and trailed his vision to the half empty bowl. His cheeks tinted and there was an audible chuckle from the miko in front of him.

"Surely you didn't think-?" She started, her lips in a curved smirk.

"As if I would have accepted it" He said and his voice came out all wrong with a squeaky pitch and she laughed at his endeavours to look dignified and sophisticated.

"Oh, brother, I don't think she is that desperate". The eldest made an appearance, his voice all the more stoic and calm, but there was a definite glee dancing in the topaz shine of his.

"Prince Sesshomaru" the miko stood up and bowed to the heir of the throne. Inuyasha rolled his eyes, controlling the urge to whine that he wasn't offered the same respectful bow when he entered the hall of dining.

"What? Is this the night of a snack reunion?" Inuyasha grumbled and took the red fruits from the miko that promised momentary bliss.

"Ah brother, so you didn't get the invitation of the reunion?" Sesshomaru asked, his head tilted in a mock and Inuyasha smirked.

"Didn't you know that I was the host?" Inuyasha's lips twitched, his fangs dipped the lower lip, his brow arched in the same mock matching the stance of his brother's teasing glint.

"Yeah, he is officially nominated as the worst host ever" Kagome leered towards Inuyasha and a small chuckle floated across the room.

"Oh, shut up" the younger prince snapped at miko and left the room with the bowl clutched in his palm, grumbling something about idiotic woman and their incessant rude behaviour that should cease. The miko giggled and looked at Sesshomaru with a tiny hope that he would give a candid chuckle again. Instead she was faced with a deep stare from him, a stare that almost pinned her down, devouring her.

"Who are you?" He asked, his voice was strangely ominous and cajoling, as if pulling out words right from her tongue.

"I'm Kagome" She said, her brow lifted in a questionable stare which was duly ignored by the royal person in front of her.

"I didn't ask for your name" He stated. His eyes were quick enough to note the tiny quirk in the corners of her lips, as if she knew him well enough that her answer wouldn't suffice. And he hated it.

"I'm a miko" Her mahogany eyes shining with a deriding glint. Her lashes lowered to trace her vision to the south of his being, noticing a scar on the top of his left breast that was left open by the lose tie up of his pristine silver robes. A deep cut on his heart was more than tangible and she flinched a little, her teeth digging her lips, her eyes met his again.

"And I'm a demon. Who are you?" He asked again, his brow arching up to match hers, as if challenging to evade his true intent in the question. She had an overt smirk in her lips, a sardonic gaze met his and he gave a fallacious growl as a warning.

"That is for you to find out, my Prince" She said, her grin scaled up and she bowed before leaving him to stare at the shadows of fire dancing against the brazen wall.

~.~.~.~

"Buy my lady,-" the monk swallowed the questionable lump in his throat, his confusion far too evident and his loss of words to frame a proper question was causing him to sweat.

"Don't fret my child, your confusion is very clear. You are confused on why there is a temple in the middle of lands ruled by the demon King. A place of holiness among a land of beings that detest the very presence of priests and priestess, the roots run deep my child. History is something that chisels the very present."

"Lady Kaede, I'm sorry, but I still don't understand" Miroku confessed. The night was deep and it had started raining all of a sudden with no warning what so ever. The monk who had decided to spend the late evening in the lands of the demon lord was at lost when the sky had opened up its glands of tears. He had found a building that had semblance of spirituality and barged in with half drenched robes and beads.

"Aren't you here to find out what exactly went wrong with the history? Or is it the 'present' that you want to inspect. Tell me my holy monk, you don't belong to this realm, do you? Maybe in these lands, but not in this time zone, maybe in this era, but not in this continuum!" The age lady clad in white and red asked the dark haired man before her.

It wasn't as if every day was born with intriguing happenings around her. She had felt the shift, the rip in the time, the change in the dimension. The alteration would change everything, maybe for the good or it may lead in to annihilation. She had not left the abode of shrine, praying all day that she would be gifted with an answer to the questions that had haunted her since the shift in the air.

"It rather strange that you could find out the changes so easily, Lady Kaede but I'm not in the position to answer the questions that had been directed towards me. Perhaps you are at the end to answer mine" Miroku asked, his lump in the throat strangling him with hopes, worry and desperation.

"Maybe I can"

"Good. Perhaps you can start with the past of the Princes. They seem to have a love hate relationship but there was only hate between them from where I come from. And with this I had answered that I am from a different timeline as you detected me to be from; I strongly hope that the conversation we have would never leave the confines of this walls." Miroku whispered, his syllables carried the weight of their mission, their possible future.

"They weren't in what can be defined as a sibling relationship. What brought them to indemnify each other's situation, what brought them to reconcile and save the remains of their feelings were because of heart breaks."

"Heart breaks?"

"Aye, the strong mighty brothers were brought down to their knees and tears once. They emerged as hard as a crafted metal from the breakdown" The priestess's words were short, sharp and rich.

"And these heart breaks were from the women they were intend to mate with?"

"You could say that and what worries me is that the woman you were with earlier in the court room, the woman whose energy sings a strong power of spiritualism, that woman, she is an incarnation of my deceased sister Kikiyo" The elder miko's eyes met the midnight blue of monk's, pinning him down with questions that were unvoiced.

There was another loud crack in the heavens above and the torrent from the dark clouds ceased. The monk relaxed visibly and bowed.

"It seems the weather is friendlier now. I can continue my journey, thank you for having me in the temple Lady Kaede. I hope we could meet up again"

"I know we would meet up soon monk. There are more rains to come" Kaede whispered, the words were a promise of future meet, a promise for a clear sky after the storm and cold.

He hoped too, he was never the one who was fond of cold.

~.~.~

A/N: I know! I know! This is a late update and I do apologize for the same. My classes started and the previous week wasn't exactly breezy..

But, thanks for the lovely reviews!

The story would unfold more in the next chapter. So don't give up if there are doubts and confusion.

Next update will be soon. I promise!