InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Limerance ❯ Prologue ( Chapter 1 )

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Limerance  

Prologue

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The priestess was crying.

Even from the great distance that he stood from her, he could see the trails of tears shining in the fading sun. Her hair whipped around her face, her bangs shielding her eyes from view.

She had come to be a sacrifice - a willing lamb lead to a ritual that would consume her soul. Giving up her life so that the existence of a thousand others could be preserved was a natural decision - she had said. All the mortals involved expressed a great sorrow at the thought of losing her, yet did nothing to convince her to alter her course. Even those that she had traveled with for many years did nothing. They had all simply closed their eyes and deferred to her decision.

Curiously, the one that said the least in protest was his brother. For as long as he had known the priestess, he had heard whispers of her holding the heart of a powerful half-demon. Countless times, he had seen her life be saved only thanks to the strength of her protector, and even though he knew as little of love as he did of sentiment, he had grown to accept the rumors he had heard. Now, however, that acceptance had been shaken. His troublesome brother had not taken any steps towards deterring the woman from her self-destructive course. He'd had nearly a week to do so; the ceremony was a complex one and required preparation. Using the Jewel of Four Souls was not a simple task and required much more substance than a single, accidental, incantation.

The fateful moment had come quickly. Many mortals had gathered; many demons had arrived. The Jewel had been a thorn in the side of fate for longer than they could all remember. Now that the time had come for it to pass into reluctant memory, the lure of witnessing its end had proven to be strong. Commoners, Servants, and Nobility had all gathered here - all present to watch the priestess sacrifice herself for a pure wish.

The humans were mourning the event to come. It was a concept he had trouble understanding. Was one life not worth a thousand others? Was one woman's passing a stirring enough thing to cause such sorrow in so many people? She was just one human - one priestess - one grain of sand in a desert full of dunes. Ordinarily, her death would not even cause a ripple in the fabric of all destiny; with her sacrifice, it could mean so much more. Now, at least, her demise would be honorable; possibly, she would even be remembered for many years to come.

Above the clearing, dark grey clouds suddenly parted to envelop the girl in the center with bright rays of sunlight. With a swift movement, she untied the sash of her heavy, ceremonial robes; they fell to the ground like leaves shed by a dying tree, pooling on the ground in ripples of crimson silk. Beneath, she wore a thin yukata - purest white. Wordlessly, she raised her arms to the sky, and he saw that she held the Shikon in her palms. Her lips parted, but no words came out. All the humans gathered around her dropped to their knees and the sound of prayer reached his ears. An old woman stepped forward and formed a gesture of sealing before her.

“The Priestess will now make the wish! May the Gods grant us fortune in destroying the Shikon no Tama once and for all!” The old woman's voice was filled with conviction, but his sharp ears did not fail to hear the catch in it. Despite her outward determination, she - too - must feel the same as all the others.

A strong wind picked up, rustling the knee-length grass in the field. The trees around groaned and creaked as they swayed side to side. The girl's lips parted farther, as if she was ready to speak; there was an odd thrumming in the air. It almost felt as though the atmosphere was vibrating, and as the tremors brushed against his skin, he suppressed a shudder of discomfort. Without having to be told, he sensed that the source was the girl's holy powers.

“Stop!”

The sudden tear in the curtain of silence nearly made him start. He looked towards the source of the strangled yell and saw his brother charging towards the girl. In that moment, things seemed to be in slow motion. He saw several men jump to stop the hanyou and be thrown back - then a monk who tried to restrain him was knocked down. A woman - the demon slayer - was pushed aside. Finally, a large, feline youkai rammed into him full force; his brother was immobilized.

“Let me go! Kagome! Stop this! Stop!”

Inuyasha struggled beneath the huge demon's claws, desperation written all over his face. It was an expression that he recognized with ease. Those eyes betrayed the same desperation every time their owner rushed to save the one he cared for. Every time the woman's life was in some sort of danger, that unseemly expression crossed his brother's face. Disgusted with such a blatant display of weakness and loss of rationale, Sesshoumaru looked away. Despite the commotion, the priestess did not lose her focus. A light was gathering around her, golden as the sunlight that caressed her skin. Although the wind got stronger and whipped her hair in various directions, he had yet to see her eyes. Gracefully, silently, he moved in a circle until his view allowed him to see her from the front. He could not explain why he did so.

The moment was near; he could feel the peak in energy. The sounds of his brother's struggles continued, soon joined by shouting and cursing of his companions. Annoyed, he tuned them out, focusing all of his attention on the girl who now glowed like her very own sun. At last, she raised her chin and her bangs floated upward, revealing all he wished to see. Pale skin, soft rose-pink lips, cheeks stained by the tracks of tears, and eyes that were the color of the clearest lake. She was the epitome of selflessness - the scent of it seemed to permeate her very soul. Suddenly, she looked down and by some chance, her eyes found his. For a split second, his breath caught in his throat and a chill ran down his spine. He would remember the significance of that for centuries.

“No! Please, no!” Inuyasha yelled.

It was over in a heartbeat. One moment, the girl had stood there - radiant and alive - and the next, she was no more. A great wave blasted through the clearing, knocking down the humans and giving pause to all the youkai. The destruction of the Jewel was complete; its sudden absence from the world felt as though a great flame had been put out. He'd never realized that he could always feel it in the back of his mind; they all could, but it had been such a natural part of existence that none had even known that it was something out of the ordinary. Now, the void it left behind felt almost like a raw wound, the sort that would ache for some time before it finally healed.

In the place where the girl had stood, a great fire erupted. The humans ran - some screaming, some crying. In the commotion, the youkai began to take their leave, one after the other. He was not certain how much time passed - it could have been hours - but eventually, he could only see his brother and his captors. The large youkai finally released him from his bondage and without a second's hesitation the half-demon sprang up to leap towards the fire. He stopped a hair's breadth short of touching it, falling to his knees and digging his claws into the grass. At that moment, another thing happened that Sesshoumaru would not ever forget. Lifting his face to the grey sky, his brother let out a piercing scream. In his entire lifetime, he had never heard such a sound. It was regret - it was sorrow, rage, need, and hatred. The sound moved through the clearing like a storm, dominating everything, even the rustle of the trees. The demon slayer and the monk lowered their heads.

All the while, the fire continued to burn, seeming to be bound to that one place. Nothing around it was touched; nothing else was affected. Only the hanyou sitting before it was tearing up the earth - uprooting plants and running his claws through rock and mud until they bled. Eventually, the monk and demon slayer stood and dragged him from the flames. He was too far gone to put up any resistance.

Again, Sesshoumaru lost sense of time. He thought to stay until the fire burned out, but the crimson flames showed no sign of weakness. At last, he moved forward, curious to see for himself what the fire felt like up close. With every step, the last image of the girl's eyes flashed in his vision. His brows furrowed; his mind retreated into deep thought. He stopped where his brother had stopped - just short of touching the flames with his skin. Looking deep into the fiery depths, he allowed himself to go over the events of the ceremony in his mind.

Everything had started on the eve before the Jewel ceremony, when his curiosity had taken him on an exploration of the forest his brother had once claimed to be his own. It was there, nestled deep between an outcropping of three large rocks, that he had found her. The moonlight filtered through the trees, illuminating her body beneath the rushing currents of a waterfall. Her head was tilted back, water trailing down her neck and flowing down to wrap around her body. A mist gathered from the torrents clashing with the river at her feet, giving the entire picture an ethereal effect. Despite her nakedness - despite the dips and curves that were vulnerable to his hawk-like gaze - the only element that caught his rapt attention was the color of her eyes. She was looking in his general direction, but her mind was obviously elsewhere. It was enough. It was enough just to see the shadows moving in those large, blue, orbs to brand the instant deep into his memory. Perhaps that was the reason he had needed to see those eyes before her end today. He was sure that he would never see such depth again.  

Before his outreached hand, the fire crackled and brought him back into the present. Giving it one, last, expressionless glance, he turned and began to walk away. Fate, it seemed, had other plans. He took no more than three steps when he felt the heat from the flames disappear. There was a hiss and he smelled the scent of ash. Something in him warned him against turning around.

Keep moving - it warned silently.

But, as always, Sesshoumaru was not one to deny himself any desire. The siren's call of sating his growing curiosity proved to be too alluring. He turned, his gaze sliding to the ground where the fire had raged moments prior. His heart seemed to still; his blood seemed to freeze. Before him sat a child with eyes as blue as the moonlight that had whispered against the bathing girl's skin. Its hair was the color of a raven's wing; its lips and cheeks were the soft pink hue of cherry blossoms. The child's eyes bore into his; he was stunned into complete paralysis. With a soft sound, the creature stumbled to its little feet and took several, clumsy steps in his direction. It lifted its tiny hands towards him and took a small breath.

“Sesshoumaru…” it whispered with a voice as sweet as spring.

At that moment, he thought he'd faced a choice.

Later, he would understand that he'd really had none.  

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To be continued...