InuYasha Fan Fiction ❯ Silver Fur and Azure Feathers ❯ The Library ( Chapter 5 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

By: Senkura

The Library

“Over there are the epics and histories. Up in the eyrie are my father's rare scrolls, he won't mind if you want to see them.” She gestured up at the higher levels of the library. “Up there are some of the folklore books, books of old magic and some fiction. I recall that the poetry is over there” She gestured behind her. “My sister's melodramatic romances are over there as well. I had a look once. I almost broke a rib laughing so I avoid them for my health.”

She suddenly stopped in front a partially obscured cabinet and sniggered. She opened the door and Sesshomaru could see red and gold scrolls and books. “In here, my brother keeps his…personal scrolls.” The taiyoukai couldn't help a smirk coming onto his face.

“Is he aware that you know of them?”

“Oh, yes. When I was thirteen I found one and took it to my father to ask what it was. Tataru-Seda happened to be in the room. The look on his face is engraved into my memory.” She laughed helplessly.

“What was Lord Takemaru's opinion?”

“My father couldn't even speak. When he saw the scroll I was holding in my hands I thought he would choke. You must understand, I had picked up a particularly…potent scroll. I never got a chance to see the contents before he threw it out of the window.”

“Were you disappointed?” Sesshomaru asked cunningly.

“Not particularly. The rest of the collection is still there, after all.” Ayame-Naru grinned. “Besides that, I was only thirteen. I'm not sure how it works for males, but females aren't overly curious at that age.”

“The aging process of tenshi seems odd to me.” Sesshomaru looked at her. “You grow to adulthood as quickly as a human, yet you do not age in the slightest after that. Lord Takemaru is nearly six times older than my father, yet he does not look a day older.”

“Yes…it must seem rather strange to you. You are…two hundred and thirty? Yet you have the appearance of an eighteen year old. I am merely twenty, and I appear close to you in age.” She laughed, “I must seem like a toddler to you.”

***

Ayame-Naru glanced at the demon out of the corner of her eye, before turning her back and climbing up one of the ladders to a high shelf. She avoided looking down at him, not wanting to see his face. She didn't want to be seen as a child. Amongst the tenshi she was considered a fully grown adult.

“No. I do not judge your maturity by youkai standards. Your father explained the ageing process to me many years ago.”

She turned on the ladder and smiled down at the impassive taiyoukai, “Good. As I told that envoy, I'm not a child.” She stepped down from the ladder and moved across the library to the window, slowly followed by Sesshomaru.

“Indeed. What will your father make of that exchange?”

The tenshi paused and turned to look at the taiyoukai, “He won't make anything of it. He will not find out.”

“You are certain? Those comments on Ryukotsusei's failure to protect his mate and his weakness will not go unnoticed.” Sesshomaru placed a hand on the window frame.

Ayame-Naru gazed out of the window, an unreadable expression on her face. “I am not worried. That envoy would not dare to repeat those insults to his master's face. Or even to one of Ryukotsusei's vassals. Cowardice is quite reliable.”

That last statement made the taiyoukai turn his head towards her. “Hn.”

She smiled. “Hn.”

Sesshomaru arched an eyebrow but said nothing. His gaze shifted to outside the window again. The view was quite remarkable. The tenshi lord's castle sat stately atop a large rise in the lands, almost something of a small mountain, but not high enough for chill air of fir forests. Lush gardens ringed the castle on all sides, separated into orchards, temple gardens, and small pond gardens, some gardens with fountains and stone benches in the middle and round the back of the castle was a large lake, with a red pagoda in the middle. There were also hot spring baths towards the west of the castle, separated by screens, stands of trees, and between the male and female baths a huge screen of woven branches and creeping jasmine vines.

He sometimes liked to walk the gardens when he was here with his father, there were secret, secluded little gardens of exquisite beauty were he could sit, close his eyes and meditate in peace. The youkai servants, sensing his presence would not disturb the place he inhabited.

“You like the gardens?” the tenshi at his side asked.

“…Hn.”

“I'll take that as an affirmative.” She turned her back on the view, leaning against the windowsill and staring back into the library. “I have one garden that is mine alone. It is the one over there by the edge of the temple.” She glanced out of the window again and moved away from it, heading towards the eyrie in the library.

He glanced over his shoulder at her. “Will the servants not think it improper that this Sesshomaru is alone with you?”

She paused for a moment, not turning away from the bookshelf she was currently examining. He saw her hair ripple like a waterfall as she shook her head. “I should think not. Tenshi custom does not forbid young males and females from being alone together, especially in the library.” She glanced over her shoulder at him. “Besides, their noses will tell them the truth of things. Not to mention the fact that we both have good reputations; we are not hedonistic or dishonourable.”

“Hn.”

“Do you like the library?”

“It is extensive.”

She nodded. “I know. I spend the majority of my time here, when I'm not sparring down in the training grounds.”

“Are all tenshi females taught to fight?” He was curious.

“Yes. We are considered completely equal to our men, thus we are expected to be able to defend ourselves if the men are injured or dead; though it is a male's duty to protect his mate and his young.” She shrugged. “Or so I'm told. I must learn to protect myself in the least, as I have no intention of taking a mate.”

“Why not?” Sesshomaru asked, rather disinterestedly, but inwardly intrigued.

“It is not required of me.” She pulled a book off of the shelf at random and opened it. “There are no tenshi males who I could mate. I do not understand the obsession the other females have with make-up and flirting; it bores me. If there were more males, it is unlikely I would wish to mate any of them. I am not suitable to be anyone's mate; I enjoy solitude. There are many reasons.” She closed the book with a snap and put it back onto the shelf.

She looked at him. “I get the impression that you do not wish to take a mate either.”

He blinked at that, and then frowned a touch. “That may be so, but I shall. I am required to have an heir, whereas you are not. I will mate whomever my father chooses for me.”

“You have no choice in the matter?” She seemed taken aback.

“I do, but I am not interested enough to decide on a particular female.”

“That is fair enough I suppose.”

Sesshomaru ventured a further question. “What do you make of Ryukotsusei's demands?” He immediately regretted the question when the tenshi's wings snapped in close to her body; a sign of anxiety as his father had informed him. He opened his mouth to retract the question when she replied.

“They disgust me.” She turned towards him. “He disgusts me. I have no wish to be dragged away from my home to be debased and turned into some dragon-demon's whore.” She hissed in revulsion. “I do not wish to be touched or looked at by any male, let alone him.”

Sesshomaru's eye's widened a fraction. “Your vehemence on the subject is unusual. You wish to remain untouched for the rest of your life?”

“I do.” She met his gaze head-on with an iron-hard resolve.

“Hn. You consider it disgusting to be admired by males?”

“No. Merely a nuisance. Suitors and admirers…” She scoffed. “Who needs them? They merely get in the way. I'm sure you know of what I speak.”

“Do I?” He arched a pale eyebrow.

She shrugged elegantly, “You are the son of the Lord of the West. You are powerful and you are not unattractive; it would be foolish for demon females not to throw themselves at you. I offer my condolences to you on that respect. I am as yet unbothered, except for Ryukotsusei.”

“'Not unattractive'?” A hint of amusement crept into the taiyoukai's voice.

She raised an eyebrow. “What? You are handsome; it would be stupid of me to say otherwise.” She gave the compliment as a stated fact, without a trace of embarrassment. She merely blinked when the taiyoukai smirked at her. “Do not misconstrue my words, Sesshomaru-sama; I am not expressing a desire to be anything more than your friend; or something approximating that.” She smiled lightly.

“This Sesshomaru did not misinterpret your words, my lady.”

She glanced at him. “You needn't call me that. You can call me `Ayame-Naru', or simply `Ayame' or `Naru'. I have been called both.” She laughed suddenly, a bright silver peal. “All I ask is that you don't call me `-Menaru' as my brother does when he wishes to annoy me.”

“Ayame-Naru.”

“Very well, Sesshomaru-sama.”

“You may drop the honorific. My given name will suffice.” Sesshomaru was becoming increasingly intrigued by this young woman. She was quite unusual in her lack of a flirtatious manner, her easy politeness and quick acceptance of his unresponsiveness. Though in fact she seemed to draw responses out of him with great ease.

“Sesshomaru, then.” She sat down smoothly at the low table designed for reading, settling comfortably in a cross-legged position on a pillow. She glanced at up where he stood, watching her with impassive golden eyes.

“I am sorry.”

He arched an eyebrow. “For?”

She sighed. “For having dragged you into this abhorrent mess with the engagement and Ryukotsusei. It wasn't my suggestion to pretend an engagement.”

“No. It was my suggestion.”

She glanced up at him. “I beg your pardon?”

“It was this Sesshomaru who proposed the idea to falsely engage you to a youkai, to protect you from Ryukotsusei. It did not occur to me that my father would volunteer myself though.”

“Then I apologise again.” She chuckled, “Though a minute portion of the blame is yours.” She pushed her hair behind her ear, unconscious that she was currently exposing a pale, slender neck to the dog demon. (If there is one thing inuyoukai are conscious of, it is the neck of a female.) He examined it momentarily, and briefly considered leaning down, pressing his nose to her neck and trying to catch her scent, but dismissed the idea immediately.

“I have noticed something odd about you.” He said, raising his eyes to hers, before she noticed where he had been looking.

“Yes?”

“You mask your scent, even though you are at home and among your family. It is unusual, and seems almost senseless; you need not conceal yourself.”

“…” To his surprise the young tenshi's cheeks coloured slightly, even as she rolled her eyes. Pale pink was quite attractive on her white cheeks, he decided.

“It is not a matter of concealing my presence or my whereabouts…I have my own reasons to conceal my scent…” She flushed with mortification and looked down at the table. “There have been comments in the past…”

The taiyoukai spoke in a tone of disbelief, “You are not saying people have disparaged your scent.” It was not a question.

To his surprise, the tenshi laughed. “No! A few males have made comments in the past, and concealing my scent prevents drawing too much unwanted attention onto me…” She sighed.

“I see.”

“Tch. No, you don't. But, no matter.”