InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Facets of the Living Jewel ❯ Non est ad astra mollis e terris via ( Chapter 75 )

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha or the other characters, Ms. Takahashi does.

 

This chapter is dedicated to three people and a group: Lady Neko-sama, for the wonderful birthday present (a plush InuYoukai complete with the taijitu on his forehead!), einehexe for all the encouraging reviews, and Leo-mae because I've never been struck with an electric cattle prod that was quite so soft, warm, and encouraging (snicker). The group is those of you who will still read this after the long wait. Thanks! You let me know that you're still interested in the story and that, at least for some people, it's worth finishing!

 

Non est ad astra mollis e terris via

By Licentia poetica

 

Unaware that the weakness that he had felt previously was Sesshoumaru drawing on the power of his Wind Tunnel, Miroku stared at the round indentation on Sango's chest. He took in a breath to yell at Inuyasha again and abruptly snapped his mouth shut as he watched his wife's free hand strike at whatever was pressing on her. Her startled expression as her arm phased out of sight, passed through the area above her chest, and reappeared to strike her own shoulder shocked him out of his chaotic thoughts. `What? Wait…what she sees, what I see, is not real.'

 

He forced himself to take deep, cleansing breaths as he watched her tentatively swipe her arm through the area again. `She can see it and it can touch her, but she cannot touch it. Just as she is not truly in my reality, she is not truly in that reality.' He couldn't help grinning slightly as her face contorted in anger and she appeared to yell; though her voice was silent in his reality he was able to lip read a few choice curse words. `Ah, there's my delicate, demure flower.'

 

The round indentation disappeared and Sango followed something with her eyes, but he was only peripherally aware of her face because his attention was caught by her free hand as it rubbed over the area which had been indented. `Gods…that's…it must have hurt. How could it press down with enough force to hurt and yet…' he swallowed hard as her hand massaged her breast, puckering the leather of her uniform slightly. `Blessed Buddha, I must control my thoughts!' He tore his eyes from her breasts to look up at her face and frowned as her head turned to track something that moved from one side of her body to the other, arcing over her head so that she had to crane her neck to see it. Her eyes narrowed as she took a deep breath and yelled again; this time he could lip read Naraku's name and a rude remark on the evil hanyou's parentage.

 

“Gods, Sango, don't attract his atten—” he whispered harshly before stopping himself abruptly. `Wait. Think! I must be calm and think. If it is Naraku, he didn't respond when she hit him and he must not be able to hear her…he didn't pay attention when she cursed before. Why are my thoughts so undisciplined?' He took another deep breath and forced himself to focus on the Eightfold Path and the principle of Right Understanding. `All is transitory. All objects, all concepts, all reality is ever-changing and impermanent. Her reality, Naraku's reality, and my reality are all different, yet in this situation each is equally valid.' He glanced up at the Goshinboku as the tree's leaves made a rustling sound. `I have forgotten all my training. I must control my fear and anger!' He forced himself to take a deep, cleansing breath, pausing at the apex of his inhale to stare calmly at the bark of the Goshinboku straight in front of him. He breathed out, focusing on controlling his tense body, and as his heartbeat slowed to an acceptable level he looked down at the twisted root next to Sango. `I have to see what is happening in that void.'

 

Reaching out tentatively, he hesitated for one moment. `One deep breath. I can't remember whether I could breathe or not in there.' Steeling himself against the now-familiar disorientation of finding himself suspended in the void, he placed his hand on the bark just above Sango's trapped arm and then looked down for his wife's form. `I can still feel her in my lap.'

 

He fought for calm as he found that he was not sitting, but instead was standing in a blaze of light with nothing below him in the dark abyss except the thin white strands of power that bound him to the other members of the Living Jewel.

 

`This is…odd. I can still feel her and my body feels as though I am sitting, but I can see this and I cannot hear the sounds of the forest. Here I am standing with nothing in my lap. At least I can…am I breathing?' He took a deep breath but his chest did not move in his vision even though he felt his ribs expanding. `Which senses do I trust?' He raised his head slightly and muttered into the void, “Mushin would say that both of my realities are reality, for whatever good that does me. Newtonian physics would say otherwise, but relativity? Who knows. I suppose I should be grateful for the lesson…and that my first training was in Buddhist philosophy and not physics.”

 

Light from the center blazar waned and in the inky blackness his attention was drawn to his left where Kagome hung suspended in deep forest green and electric blue radiance. He watched for a long moment until the blazar began to glow again, musing, `As impermanent as realities may be, she is still there. Wait…what is that?' He stared as the light waxed and began to wane again, focusing on a faint sheen of gold and silver which glowed from her forehead. `That glow is the taijitu that marks her…but what is that shadow?'

 

Almost lost against the swirling green and blue, a wraith-like shadow surrounded Kagome, anchored to the taijitu and visible only in the phases of half-light as the blazar waxed and waned. It's not visible in the full dark or the full light, but it's definitely there. Did she create a protective barrier? It can't be…I would sense it…wouldn't I?' He called on his houriki, opening his mystical senses, but his eyes widened as his awareness of youki and houriki in front of him was obliterated by an overwhelming blast of spiritual forces from behind. `Gods! It's massive!'

 

As he abruptly turned around from the glowing time forces around Kagome, the absolute darkness descended again and it took a moment for his eyes to adjust. Then his eyes widened in astonishment. `Holy Buddha!'

 

To his right, a field of star-like objects, rapidly increasing in number and density, curved on all sides from behind the impossibly black blazar, each connected to others and glowing with power that resonated against his houriki. `It's…beautiful! Is that the web that was around Aiko? It's…youki…and more. A web of youki and houriki and jyaki and…it's getting closer.'

 

The blazar began to glow again and he was able to make out the forms of his daughter and wife, but another shape, advancing toward him, filled more of his field of view. `It's not the only thing that's getting closer!' He tried to take a step back but was trapped in position.

 

Nearer and much larger than the first time Miroku had seen him in the void, Naraku's bloated spider form walked deftly on strands of power that seemed to appear under his pincered feet. He was unerringly following the connection between Miroku and Sango.

 

`Holy gods, he's coming straight for me!'

 

As the light became more intense he could see that Sango was trapped by spider webbing exactly in the same position as their other reality, but here she was connected to strands that ran above and below her position instead of being tied to the roots of the Goshinboku. `Yet I still feel her in my lap. Aiko must be trapped in the same way.' He squinted at his daughter, but she was too far away to see clearly. `I can barely see Sango's face. Damn, I need the binoculars!' He reached within his sleeve, but though he could feel their weight in the same way that he could feel Sango on his lap, he could not touch them. `Damn!' His attention was drawn back to his wife when she waved at him wildly with her free hand and he felt the vibrations of her movement along the strand of their connection.

 

Naraku hesitated, his bulky body stilling into a predator's tense crouch.

 

`Gods, no! He's sensed our presence!' Miroku held up both hands to signal Sango to stop waving and suddenly found himself sitting under the Goshinboku with Sango in his lap. “Damnit!” He reached down again but a hesitant, frightened voice stopped him.

 

“Miroku?”

 

Miroku looked up, arching one eyebrow at Shippo, who was peeping at him from behind a tree a few feet away.

 

Shippo glanced fearfully at something behind the Goshinboku and ducked behind the tree. He whispered hesitantly from his hiding place, “You…you were so still. For a minute I thought they—”

 

“Shippo,” Miroku interrupted, the hair on the back of his neck rising as he thought of the other reality and the looming presence of Naraku, “wait.” He touched the root of the Goshinboku and found himself within the void again.

 

Naraku was in the same position, but Sango had stopped waving. When he reappeared she raised her hand in an exasperated gesture and he almost grinned. `It's lucky I'm not too close. She's probably wishing she could hit me right now.' Carefully using the hand that wasn't touching the Goshinboku, he made a placating gesture back toward her, hoping to mollify her anger. She tried to cross her arms and he felt the tremors vibrate through their connection again. `Damnit Sango!' He grabbed the connection and tried to still its vibration, desperately hoping that his own movements might divert Naraku's attention away from his wife, but as he glanced over at the hanyou he seemed oblivious to both of them. `What? How can he be unaware of that?' Frowning, Miroku gave a sharp tug on the connection, watching in the fading light of the blazar for Naraku's reaction as the tremor passed underneath two feet that were planted directly on it.

 

Ignoring the vibration completely, Naraku began to wind silk around a point just above and inside of their connection, trapping a form that began to glow against the inky darkness of the void. `We're not in his reality. He doesn't even know we're here, but he can sense that source of youki…what is it? A demon possessing a sheep's body? No…its youki is too powerful. A sheep taiyoukai?'

 

The void went dark again except for the glow of the starfield. The dark bulk of Naraku eclipsed part of the field and Miroku cursed as the sheep taiyoukai suddenly condensed into a star point and a new network of stars began to form in the gap between it and Sango's position. Miroku experienced a bout of nausea as the entire starfield warped, closing in on itself and deforming the connections to Sango and Aiko for a moment until they snapped back into place. Naraku's section of the web moved rapidly within space, placing the hanyou at a position high above Miroku's head, but he seemed to be completely unaware of his movement. `What in all the hells? It looks like a…a cave? A cave of stars surrounding the blazar?'

 

His eyes widened as the shape of the star-cave evoked the memory of the first time he had entered Midoriko's cave near Sango's destroyed village. `The cave where the Shikon no Tama was created. No!'

 

The blazar began to wax again and he felt a strong tug on the connection from Sango. Startled, he looked back at her, frowning as she gestured in frustration at him and then began pointing to the former-taiyoukai-now-star. `Something about the taiyoukai?' When he nodded to show he understood, she moved her hand in an arc above their position, pointing out another star and glaring at him meaningfully. `Gods, it resonates with powerful youki, too. Another taiyoukai?' He looked back at her with a mystified shrug and she pointed at both stars and then moved her arm in an arc back to a third and then a fourth star. The fourth star was immediately behind Aiko's position, and all four pulsed with massive youki in his senses. He closed his eyes and concentrated on their auras with his houriki.

 

`Taiyoukai. The one closest to me is a sheep. A ram? No…that's definitely a female aura.' He accepted the gentle trustworthiness that resonated from the taiyoukai and moved on to the next star. `This is a horse? A mare.' Pulling back slightly from the accepting but powerfully burning youki, he turned to the third and breathed deeply as a cool reptilian aura slid against his senses. `A snake.' As he moved his senses on toward the next star the snake taiyoukai tapped his houriki with a brief but powerful pulse of youki, shocking him slightly. `Ow! An easily provoked snake! And…female. Perhaps she feels slighted that I moved on so quickly?' Approaching the final taiyoukai a bit more warily, he sensed another reptilian aura. `Female again…and a dragon.' As he began to pull back the dragon's youki sizzled in his senses like contained lightning. `A very angry dragon!'

 

He opened his eyes and gave a start as he realized how much closer Naraku was to his position. `Perhaps he will bypass me.' Looking back at Sango, he watched her point at the four stars again, and then at herself and Aiko. `What is she trying to say to me? I wish she could use both hands.' He shook his head at her and couldn't suppress a wry grin as she rubbed her forehead in annoyance for a moment and then pointed at the stars again, starting with the one behind Aiko and continuing on past him and down in a large circle. She stopped pointing individually and then swept her arm around in a circle, following the captured stars and the circle in a smooth motion. She stopped and pointed at Naraku, then swept her arm around again.

 

`He's trapping us. Trapping Aiko and Sango and I'm next…love, family, wisdom. Gods, I must warn Inuyasha! Courage will be the only aspect not trapped…unless…will Sesshoumaru be the one who is trapped? He is a taiyoukai and Naraku seems to be trapping them as well, but…why? Dragon, snake, horse, sheep…there is some meaning behind this.' He stared at Sango as she began circling her arm again, trying without much success to focus on her and the starfield in his peripheral vision rather than the looming, bloated form of Naraku. `Gods, he's getting close. I need more time!'

 

His last thought evoked a sudden memory of Kensei stumbling back from Sango, crying, “No one but a Time Lord can trap someone in time!” and his mouth dropped open. `The dragon, the snake, the horse, the sheep…and they're taiyoukai! The Heavenly Generals! Naraku is trapping time! There must be a way to stop him, but…he's trapping us as well and Sango couldn't touch him…and Kagome's trapped between the times already. Damn, the Nexus! Are we just repeating the trip through it when Naraku trapped all youkai magic? Kagome's houriki and mine…have we given him the chance to trap that as well?'

 

A vibration tugged his gaze away from Sango and he looked up to find that Naraku was nearly on top of him. “Damn! I've got to talk to Inuyasha and Kensei!”

 

He pulled his hands upward to come out of the void and looked toward the place where Shippo had been. The kitsune was creeping along the ground toward him, glancing warily at something behind and to the side.

 

“Shippo!”

 

Startled, the kit jumped straight up in the air. He scrambled forward and ducked under Miroku's trailing sleeve, hissing, “Quiet! They're all around us!”

 

Miroku looked up and around but saw nothing other than the forest surrounding the Goshinboku. “I can't see anything, Shippo.”

 

The kit shuddered. “I'm not crazy. There's a bunch of youkai and humans and they're fading in and out and some of `em are big and I'm scared.”

 

`Fading in and out. The blazar.' Adrenaline jolted through him as he felt a vibration thrum against his body. `Sango represents family and so does Shippo. He can see her reality…he can see the taiyoukai!' A sudden pressure against his side, pressure from something he could not see, warned him that his time was up. “Shippo! They won't hurt you! It's too late for me but Inuyasha will be next. Warn him! Warn Kensei! Tell them that Naraku is trapping us with the Heavenly Generals that protect time! You have to find a way to free us or—”

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“So, he has chosen to mate the Nekomata,” Lady Mizuki scoffed quietly. `Although it is not as I had planned, my son has just ensured that I will remain in power. I will make sure of it.' She took a deep breath of satisfaction and glanced between Lord Ryouta and Lady Aki, the yin Saru no Taisho, smiling placidly at the tiger's ire and the monkey's excited, flushed face. “So be it,” she continued in a hushed voice, aware of the listening ears of the other taiyoukai around them.

 

Ignoring her attempt to keep their discussion private, Ryouta hissed angrily, “You could have warned me about their new powers!”

 

“Powers that I knew nothing about and that could possibly be the result of the time focus,” she snapped. Firmly ignoring the momentary disquiet of that thought, she put a calming hand on Aki's arm to silence the female's nervous chittering and lowered her voice. “My son is an Earth Master like me, Lord Ryouta. Poison is such an effective tool that, like me, my son has neither had the time nor the inclination to master the other elements.” She turned away from the entire group for a moment and allowed her smile to become a silent snarl of anger. `Because he was following my counsel, of course. He was not supposed to challenge for yang Inu no Taisho before my plans were ready! Damn him for acting against my wishes and threatening all I have worked for, forcing me to adjust to his whims!' Her snarl changed to one of derision as she heard and felt the unmistakable sounds of her son's powerful Mate Call. `And yet he has chosen a weak female who will not challenge me and there will be no offspring to challenge me later.'

 

A long, drawn-out hiss reminded her of the current situation and she schooled her features, turning back to the Hebi no Taisho whose time was ascendant. A grievance party of five youkai had arrived in her allies' absence, and now stood before the Generals to present their petition.

 

`Four males and one female, but the only one with any true power right now is the mother bear. At least the cub has a reason to be weak.' Staring at them, she raised one supercilious eyebrow at the two nervous but healthy male wolf youkai who immediately avoided her gaze and hid behind the bear, jostling her cub for a better hiding place. Fighting the urge to laugh derisively, she forced her face to remain calm and placid as the female bear growled a warning and adjusted the weight of the third male wolf youkai who leaned against her side, barely able to walk. `Well, in spite of his current weaknesses, it is obvious that I named my son correctly. His scent is days old yet this Kouga's youki is pathetically weak and his body has still not recovered. If this is the `Prince of the Wolf Tribe' I'd hate to meet the king.'

 

Far away in both time and space, Miroku became ensnared by Naraku and the yang Generals whose yin counterparts were trapped by spider web suddenly froze in position.

 

“Sesshoumaru!” Lady Mizuki snarled, ignoring the outraged cries of the remaining free Generals.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“Sesshoumaru?” Kirara echoed unconsciously, curling herself into a smaller target underneath his body. “Why are there humans and youkai within your chambers?”

 

Growling, he tucked her head farther underneath his chest and wrapped his arms protectively around her. She struggled to breathe for a moment and then bit him lightly in the swell of his pectoral muscles.

 

“Damnit!” he growled, pushing back from her to glare down in her face. “There is no one in the room.”

 

She peeped out from under his chest and narrowed her eyes at the beings fluctuating in and out of existence all around them. “Are you blind, Pfffffft Hhhsssss? Right there.” She gestured with her chin at one group, ignoring his soft growl at her insulting tone.

 

He pulled back from her farther and scowled in the direction that she was looking. “There…is nothing there.” He scented the air and frowned down at her, asking brusquely, “Are you still maddened by your heat?”

 

Outside in the tono a hiss followed by a yelp of pain that sounded remarkably like the voice of the yang Inu no Taisho reverberated against the hei, raising the hackles of the Kai-wolf and Borzoi Packs.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Shippo waited for Miroku to finish his sentence but the only sound was a sudden susurration from the leaves of the Goshinboku. After a moment, he crept out from under the monk's sleeve and peered up into his face.

 

Miroku sat with an expression of extreme disgust on his face. Strands of spider web wrapped around the side of his neck and upper shoulder and, further down, more webbing appeared, trapping his hip against a jutting root of the Goshinboku.

 

“Miroku?” Shippo whispered, drawing away from the encroaching web. He glanced up at the monk's face and frowned as Miroku's mouth moved. “I can't hear you,” he whispered, glancing nervously around at the surrounding group of youkai and humans.

 

As the group began to fade away, he gave a startled yip as something within Miroku's sleeve began glowing next to his face. He leaped away in a moment of absolute panic, but as the glow increased in intensity he realized the color reminded him of something he had seen before. `It's like Kagome's healing bandages when Kaguya froze time! Maybe it'll protect me!' He scrambled back to Miroku and pawed at the monk's sleeve, flinching back when an object fell out and landed next to the Goshinboku's massive root with a muffled thud.

 

The binoculars.

 

Ignoring the agitation on Miroku's face, he leaned over the root and reached for the glowing object from the future. The moment his tiny claws came into contact with it he found himself suspended in absolute blackness.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Shippo's position in the void was immediately to the left of Kagome. The binoculars forced time, already twisted between the Sengoku Jidai and what remained of Tokyo, to warp the fabric of space until it ripped against the strain.

 

Slowly at first but soon reaching velocities faster than the speed of light, the space-time continuum fractured.

 

The only substances preventing the disparate pieces of space-time from completely breaking apart were the anchors of two Time Lords, the network of power linking the members of the Living Jewel, and the thin, diaphanous strands of Naraku's web.

 

Speeding subatomic particles blasted from the blazar, hammering against the connections and distorting them like spider webs twisting in a strong breeze.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Without sound or tremor, the world in the Sengoku Jidai tore apart along the edges of the fractures.

 

Lady Mizuki, in the act of whirling in anger toward the entrance of the tono, was startled out of her fury as fractures of black void appeared in the earth around the trapped Generals. The massive snake form of the Hebi no Taisho faded as he uncoiled, his body eclipsing that of his mate as empty space enveloped and replaced them with the stars of their constellation.

 

“What in the name of all the hells?” Ryouta snarled. The tone of his voice suddenly changed from irritation to worried appeal as he cried out, “Midori!”

 

Startled by the love and concern she heard in his voice, Mizuki stepped backwards toward the tono as the Tora no Taisho ran toward his mate. The yin tiger was hanging by the tips of her claws from a thin sliver of earth strung between two black chasms, but as Ryouta reached for her the strip collapsed; they were both swallowed by the darkness and star fire replaced their bodies.

 

“Damn!” Mizuki cursed, stepping backwards again as she realized that every one of the Generals except for her had been replaced by a zodiac constellation.

 

The fractures expanded and the five petitioning youkai blended into the void as well: the bear and her cub became stars that a Tokyo resident would have recognized as Ursa Major and Ursa Minor; the two standing wolf youkai became the Canes Venatici, and Kouga's limp body merged with the constellation Lupus.

 

Mizuki stepped backwards once more and her foot landed on a soft body. She had only a moment to react before Jaken, who had propped himself against the walls of the tono and fallen asleep, struck her across the back with the Staff of Two Heads. Off balance and unable to stop herself, she fell forward into the void and had time for one short, angry snarl of “Jaken!” before her form began to transform into the stars of Canis Minor.

 

As Mizuki's body dissipated, the small figure of Myouga jumped from her hair and tried to leap toward the tattered remnants of the Sengoku Jidai. He struck the black void twice in a row, leaving a star imprint each time, before landing a third time and merging into the constellation known to most as Orion's belt, but recognized by the Yokut Native American tribe as the footprints of the Flea God.

 

Wide eyed with fear, the toad-imp scrambled to his feet. “Oh gods! Lady Mizuki! Oh gods! Sesshoumaru-sama will kill me!” His hands shook uncontrollably and he dropped the Staff of Two Heads. It fell, rolling along a thin strip of land with Jaken in clumsy pursuit, until it fell into the void and merged with the stars of the caduceus of Ophiuchus.

 

“Oh…gods.” Jaken stood in paralyzed horror as the earth in front of his feet vanished inexorably but slowly into the black void. “Sesshoumaru-sama will kill me! Or the black void will kill me! Which is worse?”

 

“Jaken-sama?” Rin stood at the gate of the tono, rubbing her eyes sleepily with the backs of her hands.

 

Her soft query broke the toad-imp's fragile control. With an inarticulate scream, he stumbled from the edge of the void toward the gate, scrambling over Rin and knocking her off her feet. Screaming “Sesshoumaru-sama! Save me!” he disappeared within the hei.

 

There was no one left at the gate to notice as Rin tumbled toward the void. She had just managed to stop herself at the edge before the Moonstone rocketed out of the void and struck her in the stomach.

 

Soundlessly, she curled her body around the pain and fell into the black abyss.

 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Translation:

Non est ad astra mollis e terris via: Latin; There is no easy way from the earth to the stars. (Seneca)

 

Aki: Japanese female name. From “sparkle, bright", or "autumn". Remember that the zodiac monkey (intellectual and quick-witted) is also a Lord of the West whose seasonal responsibility is autumn.

 

A bit of science: the Canes Venatici are located about a third of the way from the end of the Big Dipper's handle and below it. The Big Dipper is part of Ursa Major (the big bear). These dogs were placed in the sky to assist Boötes, the Bear Driver, in his daily task of pursuing the Big Bear around the pole of the heavens. A bit of poetic license turns them into wolves. Ursa minor translates to Little Bear (the Little Dipper is a part of it) and Lupus translates to…you guessed it! The Wolf. Finally, Orion's belt really is known as the footprints of the Flea God by a California Native American tribe.

 

R&R thanks:

 

PM: Ranuel, Neko-sama (LUFF that plushie!), TaiYoukai-Lover, Forest Sentry Koneji, einehexe

 

FF: Folle, lorryka, KyriaHitomi, TaiYoukai-Lover, Forest Sentry Koneji, Shoomy2003, ThisIsMeSmiling26, TennisChik12, Animefreak242, eine.hexe and thanks to all the new people who put me or `Facets' on their favorites/alert list!

 

MM: theknightcallsmyname, Leo-mae (thanks for the cattle prod again!), sheastarr334, Murasaki-chan, angel-up-above-heaven, JMaxwell (that's one *smirk*), Sovereignty, Mouse#9, KawaiiGirl, TriannaKumira, Ivellios, einehexe (thank you for all the reviews!)

 

Thank you, anyone who is still reading and/or reviewing. Life's been tough lately and I appreciate it more than you know!

 

iPoe