Sango knew things were getting worse, but according to Lady Kaede, the darkness was spreading quicker than she could imagine. Spreading, she had presumed, from the lands surrounding her village. "Every day, you say, Priestess?"

The elder priestess sighed and nodded. "Aye, Sango. And then some. There is no end to them, it seems."

They walked together through the village of the priestess; one Sango was quite familiar with having spent most of her adolescence training with the elder woman. She nodded her head to the villagers who watched them pass and exchanged friendly glances. She kept her shoulders tall and square. These men and women looked to her for protection; for leadership alongside Lady Kaede. They all knew her, respected her, for the aid she lent them. She would not let them down.

"Is it true? The rumors?" Sango kept her eyes on the path as they took an unexpected left at the fork, heading toward the forest where she had refused to tread, since learning the demonic murderer of the Shikon Miko still resided there, frozen in time.

Kaede's face hardened. She knew what the demon slayer was asking. She had felt it. Days ago, right before the increase in demonic activity. "I cannot say for certain. I attest only to the increase in the presence of these malicious demons, and there is an awful aura that has pervaded our lands. Have you felt it, child?"

Sango watched the villagers prepare their homes for nightfall. "I have." Unsettled, Sango reached for her dagger and felt a sense of ease as her fingers wrapped the hilt. She spun it in her palm, as if to diffuse the nervous energy skittering through her muscles. The steel flashed as it moved, glinting against the fiery setting sun.

"But how? And...who?"

Kaede paled and seemed to consider her words carefully before responding. "I don't know what could have triggered these events, but if it is true, and the jewel is in fact present in our world once again, then I fear the worst is yet to come."

"Hm." Sango was surprised to see the old woman shaken so. Her whole life, she had known Lady Kaede as a rock, unmoving and unshakeable...maybe even a little jaded. It was no secret, those things she had endured during her life. The responsibility, the failures, the loss. Sango supposed they were alike in that way, and so she had always looked up to the elder Miko. She had seen her as something of a role model, especially surrounded by men as she trained.

But something had set Kaede on an edge that Sango had never seen. She knew all about the Shikon Miko. Long before she was born, her village elders had entrusted the protection of the sacred jewel to Lady Kikyo. The Shikon no Tama – the jewel of four souls, said to bestow great power on those who would seek to use it. It could be wielded by both good and wicked alike, granting its bearer not only its power, but also their wishes - if the stories were to be believed.

Whether or not the tales had any truth to them, the effect was the same, and the piles of bodies and wake of destruction surrounding the jewel was proof enough of its dangers. Even Kaede's own sister had fallen to the dark maelstrom that seemed to follow the jewel. Whether the power of the thing was real or perceived, she knew that if it was back in the world, then there was reason indeed for alarm.

Sango could sense where Kaede was leading her, but she was unsure why. They had never traveled into the forest of Inuyasha together. Sango supposed that it would pain Lady Kaede to gaze at her sister's murderer, perfectly preserved. Even she had only been there once as a young child, and the memory of that white haired boy burned as red and fiery as the robe that adorned him. It made her terribly uncomfortable to be near him again. She shot a sideways glance to the elder, but her face was as stony as ever.

As they walked; Sango shifted hiraikotsu on her back and Kaede spoke, breaking the silence. "I've felt so uneasy of late. I'm glad you're here, Sango. I fear something is going to happen, and soon."

The glow of the fireflies died suddenly around them, as if warning them to turn back. An uncomfortable feeling crept through her; tentacles of dread that clutched at her heart and willed her muscles to tense.

The priestess could sense her unease. "What is it, child?"

"Lady Kaede, is there a..." Sango fought to find the right words.

"Well? Speak plainly child."

"Is there a reason we are going into this forest? Is there something we need to do?" Sango stopped spinning the dagger, letting it rest on her palm, thick with callouses from her daily practice with hiraikotsu.

"Aye, but what it is I do not know. Something has been calling me here, drawing me to this place. More and more, I find myself wandering here to gaze upon the boy, to see his face calm and still and ensnared in the shackles of the forest. Something feels wrong, Sango."

So, she wasn't the only one that felt it.

Kaede dug into the ground with her bow as she walked, and Sango wondered if she, the mighty Kaede, was using it for balance. It was not so far-fetched. The priestess had grown old, much older than that woman that had trained her to properly nock an arrow; how to fell a crow from the top of the highest tree in the village. Whom had put her through her paces as a young warrior just as sternly as any of the elders in her clan.

"Any idea what it is? Do you think he will-" Sango's words died as the world flared into a bright white oblivion, fading to a soft pink glow that backlit the forest around her. It was as if a soundless lightning bolt had struck the ground only feet from them. Sango blinked her eyes, trying to refocus them as they readjusted as she grasped for Kaede.

"Lady Kaede – what was that?" Her vision was blurry, but she could make out Kaede's face only inches from hers.

Kaede didn't respond.

"Lady-"

"No." Kaede barked out, in a shaky, panicked voice that Sango had never heard her use.

"What?"

She grasped the woman's arm, but she didn't turn to her, didn't move. Instead, she just repeated, "No. It cannot be."

Sango could feel it now, like an awful, foreign, pulsing deep in her gut. Whatever Kaede could see, Sango knew, was the source. The choked-out words sliced down through her, consumed by that dark, malevolent pit of warning inside her. It cannot be.

A lithe young woman was before them in robes of black, there on the branch by the half demon. Her hand was on the arrow that held him fast to the great trunk.

Kaede's arm shot across Sango's chest to stop her from running towards them.

"Who is that?" Sango's fingers bit into the hilt of her dagger, weighing the odds of each weapon strapped to her body by how close she would need to be to deal a blow.

"Tsubaki." Kaede's voice was low and pained.

The woman who perched on the branch next to the white-haired half-demon whipped her gaze to them. She wore a look of annoyance and disgust, but not fear. "Leave." Her words were clipped as she turned back to the boy.

Kaede rigid arm held strong as iron against Sango's chest, preventing her from running to the tree. Why was she so cautious of this stranger? She studied the woman clad in long black robes with the adornments of a priestess. Her raven hair framed a white, pretty face with eyes the color of vibrant wisteria she could make out even from the distance. Sango noted her neck, her arms; not toned with muscle yet there was a powerful aura that surrounded her. She would not underestimate this woman, she trusted the intuition of the elder priestess.

Kaede removed her arm and pushed them into her deep pocket. "Aye, all these years have passed...yet ye look exactly as ye did the day she died. How is this so?"

"Wouldn't you like to know, you old hag? With wrinkles deeper than the Edo River, you can't be blamed for looking upon me with envy."

Kaede addressed Sango now, still not turning to face her. "She was training with my sister. A gifted priestess, she let her petty, selfish, greedy desires take root in her heart, turning it black as a viper. She be a dark priestess; dangerous and evil. Kikyo warned me of her before she passed – she was jealous of my sister, who was the most powerful priestess in this land."

Tsubaki's mocking laughter rang out. "Could it be? Younger sister to the second most powerful priestess in this land? What a pleasant treat! I could not have better planned having you as a witness to the beginning of a new era!"

"Get the hell away from him." Sango let her violent intent seep into her words.

The woman didn't look at Sango, instead keeping her eyes on Kaede. "I suggest you take that stray rat of yours," she gestured towards Sango "-and leave before I'm forced to deal with you."

"What are ye planning, Tsubaki?" Kaede was unfaltering, a tone of warning in her voice that relieved Sango, making her stand just a little straighter and glare just a little harder at the woman so close to the boy of the forest.

"Why would I spoil the surprise? Oh, do you think me a fool to reveal all so soon?" The woman's hand slipped off the shaft of the arrow, a look of resignation on her face. Sango could read it and sheathed her dagger in preparation. "Though, it may be of no consequence. Corpses can't whisper my secrets...unless I revive and enslave them that is!" The woman cackled and lifted a hand towards them. Sango wasted no time, springing from her tensed stance into motion, grabbing Kaede and heaving her backward as the pink bolt blackened the ground where they had stood. She braced the elder woman as she wavered, stopping her from hitting the ground.

"Very good, little rat. So, you see, that was just a warning. Leave me to my work. The work of the Shikon Miko."

Kaede shook her head in disbelief. "Ye know as well as I do that my sister is long dead."

Tsubaki's lips drew back in a sneer. "Who said anything about that dead woman, you half-wit?"

Sango was putting the pieces together. "It's back then."

Tsubaki chuckled low and examined her hands as if inspecting them for an errant wrinkle. "Thanks to Mistress Centipede, the wheels of fate have yet again begun turning in my favor."

The color drained from Kaede's face. Mistress Centipede had been dead and gone for ages, her bones condemned to the depths of the Bone-Eaters well. She had to be bluffing.

"You speak lies!" Kaede's declaration echoed around her, but Sango could hear that she didn't sound so convinced of her own words.

"I'm not here to persuade you, but it's no matter, you damned fools! Leave me to my work or I will show you just how convincing the most powerful priestess of our time can be!" Violent, bright light crackled between the woman's fingers, illuminating her near-violet eyes.

Kaede breathed the words low to her, a warning. "Sango, we mustn't let her near Inuyasha."

Sango reached back to free hiraikotsu. "I'll end her then."

The words cut Kaede as she stared towards the dark priestess clutching her sister's arrow. Two sides of a coin, those two had been. "Nay, ye do not want to bear the stain of that dark blood."

"She's going to bring him back, Kaede! I need to stop her!" Sango braced herself and pulled back on hiraikotsu. But they both knew, by the screams of Tsubaki and the pulse of energy that burst through them, shaking the very trees – that it was too late.

Kaede clutched those beads in her pocket and braced herself for the impact.