Betwixt Heaven and Earth

Fifth Divide: Searching for Answers

She watched him from where she stood, her eyes following his every move. She could never be too careful; she had had far too many experiences wherein a "guest" would come asking to see some harmless piece of information, only to have it turn out that said guest was looking for something else far more dangerous than they would normally have allowed him or her to see.

That was why she was there: to make sure that this one did not find more than he was supposed to.

    "So this is where you have been all this time."

She looked over at the speaker: a handsome teenager with dark brown hair and equally dark brown eyes, though both possessed a sheen that was quite unnatural for a human. "I have to make sure that he does not get his hands on material he should not look at. You know that is far too lax in that respect."

The teenager laughed, and gave her a teasing look. "I do not think she is lax. I think that you are the one who is far too uptight, Khaye."

Khayeseadae regarded her companion with a disapproving look. "Am I perhaps the only one who thinks of her safety? Or have you forgotten that she is our charge, not to mention our friend, Sekharion?"

The Brown Dragon tilted his head, indicating his amusement. "Oh, I know full well that she is our charge, and I also know that she is our friend. You know that I would do anything to protect her Khaye." Here, he turned his gaze away and instead chose to focus on the young man who was currently conversing with . "Still, this onmyoji has been nothing but good to her. He is very fond of , as you can probably tell."

The Gold Dragon, Khayeseadae, snorted as she flipped a lock of brilliant golden hair over her shoulder. "Fondness counts for nothing amongst humans, in case you did not notice. They may be fond at one moment, and then the next they are quite willing to stab one of their own kind in the back."

    "This one is different. I think he would be quite happy to take a bullet for – or anything else, for that matter."

    "You meddle too much in her life. She does not need you trying to find her a life-partner."

    "Considering that she spends most of her time locked up in this house, I think that she will need all the help that she can get."

    "Has it ever occurred to you that she may not want a life-partner?"

    "Then you have not been paying close attention, because she does."

    "Oh, so who would you have it be then? That onmyoji? Or perhaps that other one, the—"

Just then, the two of them sensed a presence behind them, one that said: "Silence, Younglings, is a virtue – as is the ability to keep one's claws and snout out of another's business."

Khayeseadae turned around, as did Sekharion, and the two of them bowed to the man who approached them. "Greetings, Lord Abelard."

The Adamantine Dragon nodded in response to their bows, before looking past them and down into the space below. The three of them were standing in one of the upper mezzanines of the immense library that lay buried beneath the house that lived in. This library was a repository for all manner and form of knowledge, ranging from the mundane to the dangerous – a storage area for the accumulated learning not only of humankind, but of other manner of creatures from various planes as well.

At length, Abelard said: "It would be wise for you to leave to her own decisions. It is up to her to choose with whom she will ally herself in the coming days. We will advise her, as we always have, but in the end, her choices are her own to make."

Khayeseadae frowned, not pleased with the thought at all. If they were to leave the decision up to , she already knew what sort of choice she would make – and it was not something that pleased her much at all. "But Lord Abelard," she said softly, "I already know that will choose to make an alliance with him."

    "What does it matter if she does?" Sekharion asked with a shrug.

    "He could kill her," Khayeseadae replied, contempt clear in her voice. "It is in his nature to kill. He is a predator. Although he might be in apparent control of himself for the time being, who knows what he will do to her when the time comes? He could turn on her in the blink of an eye. No," she said with finality, shaking her head firmly, "I will not allow it."

Abelard chuckled. "Never speak in haste of things that are yet to come. That is another important lesson that you must learn. But for now, watch her. Watch them both. Watch, and learn." With that, Abelard turned, and walked away, his feet making nary a sound on the wooden floorboards beneath their feet.

Though Khayeseadae gave no sign of it, she was seething inside. Although she knew that Abelard was right, she still firmly believed that her view was the correct one.

Better the onmyoji than him. At least Tezuka had some measure of decency in him, with none of the dangers of a predator. It was a choice between the lesser of two evils, and the onmyoji was most certainly the lesser.

She would kill that vampire the next time she saw him.

--~*~||Ω||~*~--

    "Hmm... She passes out quite often, doesn't she?"

In the depths of her mind, blinked. That was an unusual thing for a spirit of the afterlife to say... After all, wasn't she already dead?

However, she gradually began to feel heaviness in her limbs, which was followed by a dull, persistent, and painful drum-like throb in her brain. Immediately after that, she wondered if someone had stuffed her mouth full of cotton, because she could barely move her tongue or swallow because her throat felt so dry.

A raspy groan emerged from her lips, and she opened her eyes to the sight of the redhead – wasn't his name Marui? – bending over her, his violet eyes showing nonchalant concern, but concern nevertheless.

Marui offered her a small smile as he continued: "Well, the first time was Niou's fault, but this time around, getting your soul nearly sucked out by a greater ghoul is nowhere near as funny."

felt something cold against her chest, and when she craned her head to look, she saw that Marui's hands were hovering six inches off her chest, while a strange mist-like light emanated from them and over her body. Her still-confused brain wondered idly just what sort of light that was, though whatever it was it made her feel a little better, a little more solid, as if she wasn't going to float off into the clouds anymore.

When Marui spoke again, it was to address the hazy figures around her. "I can only use some of my powers to seal her soul into her body. The greater ghoul was able to sever most of the connections between the body and the soul, so I will have to keep on sealing it in so she doesn't die." He frowned. "Damn it, if only Yagyuu were here! He'd know what to do..."

    "Don't be stupid!" As 's vision cleared a little, she realized that these words came from the mouth of a tall, stern-looking man with dark hair and sharp amber eyes. "You know that Yagyuu can only get rid of her nausea, and even then, it would only be a temporary measure. She would not recover her strength for years."

gazed at the man, not quite sure as to who he was. She hadn't seen him before, though she could tell that he possessed quite a bit of authority over the others. Maybe he was their leader?

The man turned his gaze to her, and for a brief moment thought she was staring into the eyes of a wolf. "I heard about you. Niou stole my card to pay for your fees. I am Sanada Genichirou; you've already met my wife."

A fragment of remembered information finally slid through 's brain: so this was 's husband. That meant he was the vice-president, and not the president himself.

If that was so, who was the president?

    "Ah...so this is the girl."

's gaze was drawn to the speaker: a handsome young man with wavy dark blue hair and equally dark blue eyes. He was so pale and fragile-looking that she wondered if he was sick with something, but then the glint in his eyes and the way he moved showed her that he was the farthest thing from sick.

The young man smiled at her, and swore she saw the slightest hint of overly sharp canines peeking from between his lips. "I am Yukimura Seiichi, president of the Ten of Swords. I would say that it is wonderful to meet you, Miss , but I can think of innumerable other situations wherein the experience would be much more pleasant."

nodded her head, and then remembered something important: she had to tell them about what she had seen. She had to tell them about the boy that she had seen before the faceless ghoul attacked her. She forced herself up onto her elbows, the better to address the group that had gathered around her.

    "I...I saw a boy." She paused to inhale and to swallow, her tongue feeling thick and immobile in her mouth. "He had dark hair and light brown eyes. He...he had the most evil smile I have ever seen. He was so young... How could he have a smile like that?"

Almost immediately, Yukimura pressed her back down into the bed. "Do not think about it just yet," he murmured soothingly. "You must conserve your strength."

looked at him. "Was it... Was the boy that...Echizen fellow you were looking for?"

Yukimura's eyes hardened just so, but he nodded. "Yes, the very same one."

    "What's going...to happen to me? He...saw me."

    "Nothing, I promise," Yukimura replied, and the ice was gone from his eyes, replaced instead by concern and warmth. "We will make sure that you stay safe."

    "But we certainly can't leave her that way, can we?"

craned her head to see who had spoken, and watched as moved closer, her arm looping through Sanada's as if in an automatic gesture. Neither did the way Sanada tangle the fingers of his hand with his wife's escape her notice.

    " is right," Sanada said. "We can't leave like this. If she is to recover, there is only one person who can cure her."

There was a long silence in the room, before heard Marui sputter: "Oh no... Oh no, no, no, no..." As she watched him, she wondered where all the blood that normally circulated in his face drained to, since he turned so pale so quickly. "You don't...you can't possibly mean her!"

Niou smirked. "Oh yeah, Sanada, you forgot about the fact that if Marui comes within a twenty-meter radius of her and her property she'll kill him without a second thought."

Marui nodded his head vigorously.

    "But there's no way you can't go," Kirihara pointed out. "I mean, you're the only one who can keep 's soul in her body for that long. Jackal's magic would do the trick too, but he's not here."

    "Can't we call him back from the field? What the hell is he doing out there anyway?"

Sanada shook his head firmly. "We have no choice. Niou, Kirihara, Marui: the three of you are going to take with you to visit her. Kirihara, tell her about the zombies, and convince her to join us again and help us deal with them. Marui," and here Sanada's voice took on a warning tone, accompanied by the sternest glare had ever seen, "you are to stay out of trouble. I do not want these two coming back with whatever is left of you – if she even leaves so much as a speck of ash."

Marui gulped, though he joined Niou and Kirihara in their chorused "Yes, sir!" when they accepted their orders. figured, though, that he didn't have much say in the matter anyway.

She ignored the sound of wings unfolding, and instead looked at Yukimura. "What about—"

As if he already knew what she was going to say, Yukimura shook his head. "We'll handle Echizen. We've already got Yanagi doing a search for him, and I'll be going to visit an old friend of mine soon to find more answers."

nodded in response and gratitude, before squeaking in surprise as Niou lifted her up into his arms. When she glanced up at him, he grinned, and winked. "Hope you're not afraid of heights."

And with that, they were off and out the window, the trio coasting the skies on leather wings, while merely hung onto Niou, and closed her eyes in weariness and apprehension.

--~*~||Ω||~*~--

He watched them until they became near-invisible specks against the night sky, and then he turned around to face his best friend, a frown on his face. "Tell Yanagi to do that search as fast as he can," he ordered quietly. "I want to find out what the deal is with this girl as soon as possible. Also tell him to dig up as much information as he can on Echizen's movements."

Sanada nodded in acquiescence, and seemed to count three heartbeats of silence before he spoke again. "Are you really planning to visit her?"

Yukimura nodded as he walked over to one of the shelves that lined the room, his fingers lightly tracing the spines of books both new and old. "She's the only one I can trust in situations like this." He smiled slightly, and glanced over his shoulder at Sanada. "And besides, her library has material that even I, after hundreds of years of living, haven't been able to acquire."

raised an eyebrow at him. "Is this really going to be a business visit? Somehow I can't imagine that being the case."

Yukimura chuckled, and bowed to . "You see right through me, High Priestess⁽¹⁾. While it is true that I plan to visit her on business, that doesn't mean I cannot mix my business with pleasure."

    "You do know how her guardians feel about you," Sanada reminded him. "There are some among them who would much rather see you dead."

    "And there are those who see nothing wrong with me being around her," Yukimura replied. He sighed. "It is...not an easy courtship, I will admit, but I have plenty of time."

    "She doesn't," Sanada pointed out bluntly. "She's only mortal, Seiichi. Her life is a candle waiting to either be snuffed out or burned down."

    "But the same can be said of any of us," murmured, lightly placing a hand on his forearm as she spoke. "We're all going to die one day, Genichirou. It just takes longer for some of us to get there."

    "And for some of us, perhaps we will never get there." Yukimura smiled sadly at the couple. "You will have each other for a long time. You, , have a lifespan that is far longer than a normal human's, and the same can be said of Genichirou. I will live forever, all things being equal, and she shall have seven decades for her life, nine at the most."

It was a knowledge that was bittersweet on his tongue, because although he knew that he could make her immortal, just like he, he did not think he could ever do that to her. He could never punish her with the curse of immortality.

He was selfish, true, but he was selfish enough to believe that it was better to lose her knowing that she had, in some way, loved him, instead of turning her and hear her curse his name for the rest of eternity.

Putting the thought out of his mind for the meantime, he gave Sanada a look. "By the way, I just want to tell you that sending the three of them off to pay her a visit was a little cruel."

Sanada's face was set in that expression that said he didn't particularly care about the situation. "They stole my credit card."

    "So you send them to near-certain death."

    "It's only right."

Yukimura chuckled, and shoko his head as he made for the window. "I will be back soon." And with that, he changed his form into that of a bat, and flew out into the night, seeking the house of one whom he knew would have the answers he needed: the only person whom he could trust with his whole heart and soul.

--~*~||Ω||~*~--

    "Never, in all my years, have I ever been so humiliated!"

Oshitari Yuushi sighed as he listened to his companion complain for the nth time that day. "Yes, we are all aware of that, Atobe."

Atobe Keigo, one of the many sons of King Finvarra of the Daoine Sidhe⁽²⁾ and a prince of his people, fumed quietly where he sat, his fingers drumming on the tabletop. "This is the first time anything of this sort has happened, and it will be the last time."

Oshitari nodded again, deciding to amuse himself by playing with the little ball of foxfire he had made in his hand, flipping the ball over, around, and between his fingers. He knew that Atobe was acting the way he was because his pride – and his vanity – had been dealt a grievous blow, and by only one person, at that. Oshitari knew that once Atobe had gotten over the fact that his formerly long-and-flowing hair was gone, he would be back to normal and plotting his revenge on Echizen Ryoma.

Nearby, Shishido Ryou gazed out the window, his eyes dark and serious. "Don't you think we have bigger problems to deal with, Atobe?"

At Shishido's words, Oshitari let the foxfire ball slide into his palm, which he then closed into a fist, effectively snuffing out the eerie light. Shishido was right: there were more serious matters at hand.

    "The Tuatha princeling has a point," Oshitari remarked as he looked over at Atobe. "I've received word that something is happening to the Veil."

Atobe raised an eyebrow in inquiry. "Really? And from whom does this information come from?"

    "Fuji Syusuke."

    "Wow: you're on speaking terms with the myobu⁽³⁾ now?" This was from Mukahi Gakuto, a red-haired sprite in the service of the Daoine Sidhe – or to Atobe, if one wanted specifics. "And here I thought that myobu and nogitsune⁽⁴⁾ didn't get along."

    "We rarely ever do," Oshitari replied, his smile tight as he looked at Gakuto. "But the current situation is quite...unstable. We kitsune watch out for our own, at any rate, regardless of whether we are myobu or nogitsune."

Atobe snorted. "Did you honestly think I did not know about that?" He waved a careless hand. "The Veil is trembling, and is in danger of being torn. That was not supposed to happen, of course, but someone is trying to do just that."

    "Well, shouldn't we do something about it?" This was from Ohtori Choutarou, Shishido's younger half-brother. Unlike Shishido, who was half-human, Ohtori was full-blooded Tuatha, which showed in his silver hair and dark blue eyes – not to mention his height. "I mean, if the Veil is destroyed then humans will find out all about us, which was never supposed to happen to begin with."

Another voice spoke up from the other end of the room: this one belonging to Hiyoshi Wakashi. "And why should we care if the Veil is torn or not?" The Daoine knight shrugged his shoulders. "It concerns us little. It's not as if we cannot survive without it."

    "But it would certainly make life difficult for us, as well as making the world completely inhospitable to far more others than we who belong to the Courts of the Fae."

Oshitari looked up, and a small smile crept onto his face at what he saw: a young, doll-like girl with beautiful raven curls and dark eyes framed by a thick fringe of lashes. Although she was not very tall, she carried herself with a queenly grace and dignity that added inches to her height.

    "This is an unexpected visit, ," Oshitari said as he stood up, walking over to greet the girl with a kiss on her hand. "Unexpected, yet it is always a pleasure."

The smile on 's face was tight. "I like you well enough, Oshitari, but stop your games. I came here on business." Here she trained her gaze on Atobe, who seemed surprised to see her as well. "Your hair looks much better on you now, Atobe. You look less the fop and more the prince you say you are."

    "Why thank you, ," Atobe replied with a smile, running his hands through his much-shorter locks. "I am pleased that you like the change."

    "It is good that you have learned to make the best of a bad situation," replied, before smoothly segueing into another topic and addressing the group as a whole: "I hope that you can provide me with the answers I need."

    "And what sort of questions might you have?" Shishido asked.

looked him in the eye as she responded: "I am certain that it has not escaped the notice of the Daoine Sidhe or the Tuatha de Dannan that the Veil is trembling. If things continue in this manner the Veil will rip, and our whole world shall be laid bare to the eyes of ordinary humans who have neither the understanding nor the wisdom to truly comprehend us. Everything that we have built over the past centuries would be destroyed in a fortnight."

    "That is only if you are not human in some way, shape or form," Atobe said, before smirking. "And you, my dear, are certainly human, regardless of your connection to the Seelie Court⁽⁵⁾. Of all of us, you are the one who is safest from any repercussions that may result from the destruction of the Veil."

    "None of us will be excluded from the disaster when it happens," retorted icily. "They will find out I am connected to the Seelie Court, and they will kill me or worse after they have driven all the Faerie Courts underground again. There will be massacre upon massacre as all manner of supernatural beings are slaughtered and burned."

    "You can't say that for certain."

    "You do not know humans then, Atobe, for all that you live like one." met his gaze head-on, obsidian clashing with steel gray. "I know what it is to be amongst these humans. I know their nature, what they can be like. It would be a miracle if they merely dismissed us, but if the Veil were destroyed, too much would be made known too soon, and they would not do that. If there is anything that they fear the most, it is what they do not know. It would have been easy if it were just one human, but this involves more than just one, and when the fear of one infects those nearby, the results are..." She shook her head. "You cannot begin to imagine what it would be like."

Atobe frowned at her, and Oshitari could see the genuine concern and worry in his eyes. For all that they sniped at each other, there was a bond between the son of Finvarra and this adopted daughter of the Seelie Court. It was simply that was very good at keeping her distance – though truth be told, Oshitari couldn't even begin to see why.

He caught slight movement out of the corner of his eye, and when he angled his gaze in that direction he noticed that Shishido was shifting slightly in his seat, the Tuatha's gaze fixed firmly on . Almost immediately, Oshitari's mischievous side kicked into high gear. Perhaps there was more to this than met the eye? Was it possible that the half-human princeling of the Tuatha de Dannan was in a competition with the son of Finvarra for the hand of the Seelie Court's favorite mortal princess?

There was really only one way to find out, and that was to wait.

Fortunately, Oshitari was skilled – very skilled – at waiting.

At that moment, Atobe leaned back, and Oshitari could tell that there was something on his mind. "It would seem that our discussion will take a fair amount of time. Very well, then: we shall have our council here and now. You are not opposed to it, are you, My Lady?"

shook her head. "No, not in the least – so long as I get my answers."

    "You will have them, I promise."

Proceed to [ The Sixth Divide ]

Return to [ The Fourth Divide ]
 

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Kage
2.June.2006

NOTES:

(1)= Although is a witch, I've decided that, for the purposes of this story, her real title is "High Priestess." This implies that she is the head or joint-head of a coven: a large group of witches and/or sorcerers who usually practice magic together.

(2)= The Daoine Sidhe are the so-called Irish Elves. Sometimes they are linked to the Tuatha de Dannan, but in this story that is not the case. The Tuatha de Dannan are considered a semi-historical group of people: the original inhabitants of Ireland before they were conquered by another group called the Milesians. For the purposes of this story, I have kept the Daoine Sidhe and the Tuatha de Dannan as separate groups.

For those who are curious, King Finvarra was the High King of the Daoine Sidhe, and was infamous for being a womanizer, since although he was already married to the most beautiful woman of his people (and the Daoine Sidhe, like the Tuatha, are famed for their unearthly beauty which is incomparable to that of humans), he constantly went out and stole/slept with beautiful human women, occasionally trying to steal them for his court.

(3)= As it turns out, there are different types of kitsune, and one of them is the myobu, or celestial fox, which are generally colored white, silver, or gold, and are considered benevolent, though they are also possessed of the cunning and mischief that is common to all foxes. It just so happens that they prefer not to cause as much trouble as their more "earthly" counterparts.

(4)= Nogitsune are the other type of kitsune, and are considered "wild foxes." Their colors are earthier, and they are far less apt to be kind to humans when compared to their myobu brethren.

(5)= The Seelie, or Blessed Court, is a name that is given to the "good" fairies of myth. While technically, this title includes the Tuatha de Dannan and the Daoine Sidhe, for the purposes of this story the Seelie Court refers to the Faerie Court that is ruled by Titania and Oberon.

THEME MUSIC: "Igrayne's Dance" – Medieaval Baebes